136 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



freezing mercury, that the idea of oppressively hot 

 weather within the Arctic Circle appears a ridiculous 

 paradox. Nevertheless such weather is experienced 

 in these latitudes whenever the sky is free from 

 clouds, and nowhere within the tropics are mos- 

 quitoes so intolerably abundant and active as on 

 the island of Magero, whose culminating cliff forms 

 the North Cape. One of my travelling companions 

 in this region, a sturdy German Uhlan officer, who 

 had ridden safely through the thickest dangers of the 

 Franco-German war, was vanquished and unhorsed 

 in the course of his struggles with the clouds of 

 mosquitoes that blinded and choked him as he rode 

 from the landing-place of Kjelvig to the top of the 

 Cape. Describing his battle with them, he said : " I 

 •did breeve mosquitoes, I did spit zem out of my 

 mous." I never suffered more from oppressive heat 

 than in the course of a walk up the Tromsdal, to visit 

 •the Laplanders that are there encamped. 



It should, however, be understood that special 

 conditions are necessary in order to experience fully 

 the torrid effect of Arctic sunshine. On a second 

 visit to the Lapps in the Tromsdal at about the same 

 time of year I found the weather quite chilly, but this 

 time it was during a cloudy, drizzling summer. On 

 the first occasion the sun had been shining con- 

 tinually all day and all night long for several weeks 

 through a bright blue sky, free from even a fleck 

 of cloud. Besides this, one must be clear of glaciers 

 to experience such summer weather. Smith's Sound, 

 the usual track of our Arctic explorers, is a great 

 fjord, the outlet of a multitude of glaciers which the 

 utmost energies of the continuous summer sunshine 

 fail to melt. 



I have described this subject more fully in a paper 

 on "Aerial Exploration of the Arctic Regions," 

 {see "Science in Short Chapters") and have no 

 doubt that if the conditions of surface are favourable 

 — that is if there is an absence of glacier-forming 

 mountains and valleys — the North Pole and its 

 immediate surroundings is a region of very hot 

 summer-time, and possibly of rich summer vegetation, 

 similar to that of the plains of Arctic Siberia, which 

 are so luxuriant in summer and so horrible in winter. 



Low Ceilings. — To advocate these as advan- 

 tageous from a sanitary point of view, and more 

 especially in reference to ventilation, appears very 

 bold indeed. Nevertheless this is done in " The 

 Popular Science Monthly " of April. In such rooms, 

 it is argued, the window tops being nearer the 

 ceiling, there is a better sweeping-out and changing 

 of the general atmosphere of the room, whereas, if 

 the ceiling is higher, only the lower part of the air is 

 moved, and an inverted lake of foul and hot air is left 

 floating in the space above the window-tops. It is 

 further argued that the stagnant atmospheric lake 

 under the ceiling, although motionless, keeps actively 

 at work, under the law of the diffusion of gases, 



fouling the fresh currents circulating beneath it. 

 With low ceilings and high windows such accumula- 

 tion of foul air is not possible, the whole height of 

 the room being swept by the currents as the dust of 

 the floor is swept by a broom. Low ceilings enable 

 a room to be warmed with less expenditure of heat 

 and less cost of fuel. 



I may add to this that such a room, with a window 

 reaching to within a few inches of the ceiling, may 

 be safely warmed by a gas or paraffin stove without 

 any chimney, especially if the window is opeied 

 above to the extent of about one-eighth or one-quaiter 

 of an inch. In this case the room is warmed chiefly 

 by a mild and well-diffused radiation from the ceilhg, 

 which under such conditions will be the warmest pirt 

 of the room. 



FERTILISATION OF ANTIRRHINUM 

 MA JUS. 



W r H I LE walking round the garden on June 30tl, 

 my attention was drawn towards a humbli- 

 bee, which had alighted on the flowers oiAntirrhinun 

 majus. Being interested in the subject of tie 

 fertilisation of flowers, I watched the action of tie 

 bee for some time. Instead of trying to force its wiy 

 into the throat of the flower, it applied itself in ea<k 

 case to the saccate base of the corolla, and made a 

 small puncture, as bees have been observed to do in 

 the case of Erica cinerea, and E. tetralix. Tie 

 honey was obtained by this means, without any pirt 

 of the insect coming in contact with the essenial 

 organs of the flower. All the plants in the garcen 

 have been visited in this way, and in many cases, .he 

 large buds have been pierced before they hive 

 expanded into flowers. 



This appears worthy of notice, and if any realers 

 of Science-Gossip should make similar observatbns, 

 I should be glad to receive their confirmation. 



Muller, in his work on "The Fertilisatioi of 

 Flowers," makes no mention of this methed of 

 approaching the antirrhinum, but, after dnwing 

 particular attention to the closed entrance .vhich 

 excludes the smaller bees, he goes on to say, ' This 

 shows clearly how far the fast closure of the mouth is 

 useful to the plant ; if the small bees could ento: from 

 the first, they would use up much of the honey, and 

 the flowers would be less diligently visited by the 

 humble bees." 



I have marked some of the buds whLh have 

 already been pierced, and intend to keep a record of 

 the number of capsules which ripen in these marked 

 cases, taking care that no bees visit the marked buds 

 in the legitimate way, after they have exp.tnded. It 

 does not appear likely that many will make the 

 attempt after finding that the honey has leen already 

 taken. 



