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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



downsvard with frightful velocity. He tried 

 to arouse Sivel and Croce, but they were 

 immovable ; Slvel's face was black, his eyes 

 dull, mouth wide open and full of blood. 

 Croce's eyes were closed, and his mouth 

 blood-stained also. Having come down to 

 the earth, Tissandier dropped the grapnel, 

 but it failed to hold firmly, and the car was 

 dragged across the fields by a violent wind. 

 He succeeded, however, in grasping the 

 cord of the valve, and the balloon was soon 

 emptied. Croce-Spinelli and Sivel were 

 dead. Tissandier was in a high fever, but 

 he was kindly cared for by the inhabitants 

 of the village of Ceron, in the vicinity of 

 which he landed, after having been in the 

 air over three hours. 



The disaster attending this memorable 

 ascent has delayed the publication of the 

 scientific results of the voyage. These, how- 

 ever, are understood to be of high impor- 

 tance, and we will present them to our read- 

 ers at an early day. The greatest altitude 

 observed by M. Tissandier was not very re- 

 markable, when compared with Glaisher and 

 Coxwell's highest in 1862. These aeronauts 

 reached the enormous altitude of 3*7,000 

 feet, which is more than 10,000 feet in ex- 

 cess of Tissandier's 8,000 metres. But, 

 while Tissandier lay insensible, the Zenith 

 may have attained still greater elevations ; 

 this question will be decided by the records 

 of the self-registering barometers, which 

 were sent to the French Academy imder seal. 



Cave Explorations. A number of caves 

 containing the remains of animals were re- 

 cently discovered in Worcestershire, Eng- 

 land, on the banks of the river Wye. At a 

 meeting of the county Scientific Society the 

 president described a visit made by him to 

 these caves, in company with Dr. Carpenter. 

 Three of the caves only were visited. In 

 one were found three human skulls, with 

 coins and ornaments belonging to the Eo- 

 man period. The soil in which these ob- 

 jects were buried having been removed, the 

 explorers found a layer of solid stone, so 

 thick and hard that it had to be blasted 

 with gunpowder. Under this layer were 

 found bones belonging to a single animal 

 JJrsus spdceus. Another layer of stone was 

 then Ukewise removed by blasting, and the 

 explorers found fossil bones of sundry ex- 



tinct species, viz., the remains of a mam- 

 moth, in a state of wonderful preservation ; 

 all the bones of a rhinoceros ; the debris of 

 cave-lions, cave-bears, and also of several 

 hyenas. The Worcestershire Scientific So- 

 ciety intends to acquire possession of one 

 of the caves. 



Grigin and Distribution of Amnioula in 



the AITi In a communication to the French 

 Academy of Sciences, Schlijsing states as 

 follows the results of his researches on the 

 origin of the ammonia di Bused on the sur- 

 face of the soil, its circulation, its varia- 

 tions in the atmosphere, and its distribution 

 between the sea, the continents, and the 

 air. It is a well-known fact that, in the 

 course of the transformations of organic 

 matter, a certain amount of nitrogen is set 

 free ; also that this gaseous nitrogen is not 

 assimilable by organisms. Hence the ne- 

 cessity of some agency which shall take this 

 free nitrogen and cause it to reenter into 

 combination. The author, after criticising 

 the various opinions put forth on this sub- 

 ject, assents to the theory of Boussingault, 

 who holds that, under the influence of at- 

 mospheric electricity, nitric acid is produced 

 in the air. Further, he says that the sur- 

 face of the continents is essentially an oxi- 

 dizing medium ; that nitrification is there 

 abundantly developed ; and that a portion 

 of the nitrates thus formed enters again into 

 the cycle of life, while the rest is carried 

 into the sea. Experience also shows that 

 if the decomposition of organisms produces 

 nitre on the continents, it produces ammo- 

 nia in a medium so little oxidized as is the 

 sea. Hence the author recognizes on the 

 surface of the globe a regular circulation 

 of nitric acid and of ammonia, taking place 

 in this way, viz., nitrous production in the 

 air, nitrous gains from the air to the con- 

 tinents, transfer of nitrates to the sea, for- 

 mation of ammonia in the sahne medium ; 

 finally, disengagement and passage of the 

 alkali into the air, to be given back again 

 to the continents. 



Mortnary Statistics of Virginian Cities. 



The following mortuary statistics, taken 

 from the official reports of three Virginian 

 cities, would seem to show that the African 

 race is declining in the Southern States: 



