HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



151 



the Hentys sail nearly half-way round the globe to 

 harpoon the whale, or did the whale travel into the 

 other hemisphere to avoid further communications 

 with the Hentys ? 



What is the range of migration of whales ? Do 

 they cross the equator ? I have seen several in 

 latitudes of considerable variation ; those in lower 

 latitudes going straight ahead as bona fide travellers, 

 and at a speed that would soon cover a few thousand 

 miles. 



If scientific mariners and ocean passengers would 

 record the sighting of whales, with date, latitude, 

 longitude, and direction of the monster's course and 

 probable speed, I think we might obtain some 

 interesting information. I have little doubt that on 

 the largely frequented ocean tracks, certain whales 

 might thus be identified, as seen in different parts of 

 their journey from different ships. As there is always 

 a lower ice-cold current in all the North and South 

 ocean highways, the cetacean tourist may at any time 

 take a refreshing dive when the surface is oppressively 

 warm. 



Among the papers published in the " Bulletin of 

 the Philosophical Society of Washington, for 1884," is 

 one by Mr. Washington Matthews on " Natural Natu- 

 ralists." The author finds that the aboriginal Indians 

 are students of Natural History, quite outside of the 

 animals and plants they require for use. He says : 

 "I never failed to get from an Indian a good and 

 satisfactory name for any species of mammal, bird, or 

 reptile inhabiting his country ; and I have found their 

 knowledge of plants equally comprehensive. The 

 Indians are, in this respect, as a class, incomparably 

 superior to the average white man." The editor of 

 "The Journal of Science" quotes the above, and 

 adds : " This evidence shows how much our powers of 

 observation have been stunted by the exclusive, or, at 

 least mainly, literary character of our educational 

 systems. From childhood our attention is fixed 

 upon words, written or spoken, and except, among 

 specialists, inobservance has followed." 



It appears that my own remarks in the May 

 number of Science-Gossip, on the still surviving 

 exaltation of the Latin classics in modern education, 

 have brought forth a remonstrance from Dr. P. Q. 

 Keegan (see page 138 of June number). He 

 misunderstands me. I by no means advocate the 

 exclusion of literature, but the contrary ; and would 

 give precedence far above all to English literature, 

 which is practically excluded from the present 

 curriculum of grammar schools, and miserably 

 neglected in our universities. If there really is any 

 basis for the popular scholastic notion that ancient 

 literature is especially elevating, why not be con- 

 sistent, and commence with Greek ? There is origin- 

 ality, subtlety, ideality and philosophy in the Greek 

 classics, those of the Romans are at best but clumsy 

 imitations ; their poetry and philosophy standing as 

 much below those of the Greeks as their sculpture and 



architecture, and similarly second-hand. The-fact is 

 that our persistent cramming of Latin is a monkish 

 inheritance ; the reasons alleged for its continuance 

 are mere afterthought apologies that were never 

 imagined by its founders, who were clerics, and igno- 

 rant of everything but the language of the church. 



One of the most puzzling manifestations of 

 " instinct " is that presented by the overland 

 migration of fishes. That they should leave ponds 

 which are gradually drying up is easily understood, as 

 the water necessarily becomes more saline or harder 

 as the evaporation proceeds, but that they should steer 

 directly towards larger ponds, or towards rivers, as we 

 are told they do, is very astonishing. My own sus- 

 picion is that they do not ; that they simply wriggle 

 blindly through the wet grass and either perish or 

 survive as it happens ; that the wonderful sense of 

 direction exists only in the imagination of those who 

 describe the migration. In a country that slopes 

 towards a river it is of course probable that the 

 majority will proceed in the direction of least 

 resistance i.e. downwards, and thus eventually reach 

 the river. 



I have observed that pond fishes, such as eels, tench, 

 and carp, have remarkable powers of remaining alive 

 out of water ; eels for several days ; carp and tench 

 remain alive in damp grass above twenty-four hours ; 

 in cool weather double this time. " Nature," June 

 4th, page in, says : "The eels of the ponds in the 

 woods of Vincennes leave them every spring in large 

 numbers, making their way to the Seine or the 

 Marne, several kilometres distant. They take 

 advantage of rainy weather, when the herbage is 

 wet, and their instinct guides them directly to their 

 destination." 



Careful observation of the proceedings of these 

 eels would be very interesting. Do they ever travel 

 up a slope, or transversely to it ? If they only 

 descend from higher ground downward to the river, 

 there is no more occasion to invoke any mystery of 

 instinct to explain such a course than to attribute the 

 seaward flows of the river itself to the directive 

 instinct of the water. 



The origin of the iron pyrites which exists in all 

 our coal, and in some seams so abundantly as to 

 render them nearly worthless (the "brassy" coal 

 of Flintshire for example) has long remained an 

 unsolved enigma. M. Dieulefait, in a communication 

 to the Academy of Sciences, has shown that the ash 

 of plants constituting the nearest surviving represen- 

 tatives of those of the carboniferous epoch, contain 

 much more sulphur than ordinary recent plants. This 

 is especially the case with the Equisetaceoe. I should 

 add that besides the gold-like crystals of iron pyrites 

 there are varying proportions of sulphate of calcium 

 in coal. If this large proportion of sulphur was 

 common to all the plants from which the coal was 

 formed, M. Dieulefait's solution of the problem is 

 satisfactory. 



