H 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



ordinary "waterman "beetle ; any amount of Cyclops 

 quadriconiis, female, male, and larvae ; Daphnia pulcx 

 of course ; the larva of Ephemera marginata, and 

 also of the phryganidre. While alluding to the 

 caddis-worm, I should like to correct the erroneous 

 notion which Mr. Ollard, of Enfield, gave expression 

 to in the May number of Science-Gossip. He asked 

 if any one could tell how it was that the bits of weeds, 

 grass, &c, out of which caddis-worms make their 

 cases kept their natural state so long as the insects 

 required their use. But it is not true that the 

 materials used do retain their " natural state " so 

 long as the caddis-worm inhabits them. Many of the 

 addis I have taken this year have been enclosed in 

 cases which have lost all their greenness. On Jan. 1 1, 

 I made another excursion to the pond mentioned 

 above, and with much more satisfactory results. 

 While I obtained duplicates of all the things above 

 named, I also was fortunate enough to take others 

 of much greater worth. Upon examination of the 

 various bottles in which I had placed my spoil, I 

 found the following : Noteus quadriconiis (of which 

 a very good drawing is given on page 541 of the sixth 

 edition of Carpenter's " Microscope ") ; Eosphora 

 aurita, Trachelitis anas, and an abundance of Volvox 

 globalor. I was much pleased with the last "find," 

 as even so great an authority as M. C. Cooke asks, 

 "what becomes of the Volvox globator during winter ?" 

 I have not yet finished my examination of my bottles, 

 and it is possible that the " half hath not been told " 

 of what they really contain. But surely enough has 

 been said to overturn the notion that our ponds in 

 midwinter are wholly destitute of life. 



Rev. H. Carrington Lake. 



Southampton. 



COLLIERS' FOLKLORE.* 



A CURIOUS bit of folklore exists amongst the 

 Lanarkshire and other colliers, to wit, that 

 " the smell of the blooms of peas and beans makes 

 the fire," — referring to explosions. It i3 astonishing 

 how wide-spread the notion is. Were such ex- 

 plosions most frequent during the hot months, when 

 these "blossoms scent the gale," there might be 

 reason for supposing the miner's dread of these 

 months to result from a wish to connect cause with 

 effect. 



Statistics however show that the hot months are 

 the least liable to explosions ; and, although at that 

 time, if ventilation be bad, foul gases and " damps" 

 do arise from diminished barometrical pressure, it is 

 in the [cold season with a high or rising barometer 

 that explosions most frequently occur. 



Mr. Robert Hunt, of the Mining Record Office, to 



* Communicated by Mr. J. Young, a former collier, and 

 ■now weigher at Quarter Iron Works, Hamilton, N.B. 



whom I wrote on the subject, writes as follows : " The 

 'peas blossom damp' and the 'trefoyle damp' is 

 not unknown. 



" As Plott in his ' Natural History of Staffordshire ' 

 (1686) says : ' 1 never heard that this was mortal to 

 the workmen, the scent thereof freeing them from the 

 dangers of a surprise.' He says that in the Peak 

 country of Derbyshire, they appear to think that the 

 odour of the flowers is a cause of the ' damp.' 



" But here they are wiser than to think it proceeds 

 either from peas or trefoil ; it being rather appre- 

 hended to arise from the workmen's breath and 

 sweat, mixt with the streams of the golden marcasite 

 (Arabic fire giving stone iron pyrites) or brass lumps, 

 than anything else. 



"It is not generally supposed in any district that 

 any ' damp ' can arise from peas, beans, or trefoil, but 

 that damps do arise in the collieries having the smell 

 of these blossoms." 



Mr. Hunt adds : " I give you on the other side a 

 table of 234 explosions of fire damp which occurred 

 from year 17 10 to 1878. You will see that the 

 months of June and July are the most exempt from 

 explosions. 



January, 21 explosions, 

 February, 15 ,, 

 March, 26 , , 

 April, 22 ,, 

 May, 19 



June, 13 ,, 



July, 13 explosions. 



August, 19 ,, 

 September, 18 ,, 

 October, 20 ,, 

 November, 25 ,, 

 December, 33 „ 



I have just noticed that the author of the " Colliery 

 Warnings" says that in 1882 there were 23 explo- 

 sions with a rising barometer, and only six with a 

 low, and that but 10 out of 30 were accompanied by 

 southerly winds — supporting the belief that the most 

 dangerous time is when the barometer is high or rising, 

 although fire damp appears in greater quantities 

 when there is a decrease of atmospheric pressure. 



A. G. Cameron. 

 H.M. Geological Survey, Lincoln. 



Eels in Vinegar. — The other day, a friend 

 called my attention to a small phial of vinegar, 

 which, on being closely examined, was seen to be 

 swarming with living creatures of minute size. 

 When examined by the aid of a microscope, they had 

 the appearance of eels, the microscope making them 

 appear about an inch long, and about as thick as a 

 pin. They appeared to be enjoying themselves im- 

 mensely, wriggling about at a great rate. They 

 were quite transparent, except in parts, where there 

 was a dark matter in their interior which I took to 

 be food. As a great many microscopists read this 

 paper, I thought some of them would kindly explain 

 what these were, and how they came. — W. Finch, 

 jun. 



