HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



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there is much still remaining to be learned concerning 

 the relative merits of ensilage and hay-making as 

 methods of storing fodder. The results of such 

 German and French experiments are by no means 

 conclusive as guides to British farmers. Supposing 

 that the ensilage and the hay from a given quantity 

 of grass were of equal value as food, the question 

 then to be decided is which method of storage is the 

 most economical on an average of our seasons. In 

 countries where harvest weather is reliable, hay- 

 making must have an advantage as compared with 

 humid and uncertain climates, and any experiments 

 to be fully useful should be made with average 

 hay ; that is with hay made slowly in bad weather 

 as well as with that made rapidly in good harvest 

 weather. 



Ensilage, skilfully conducted, always yields the 

 same results, or very nearly so. 



" The Spectre of the Brocken." — In the 

 " Gentleman's Magazine " of May 1884, I described 

 my own experience of seeing a fine display of this on 

 Arthur's Seat on two occasions. The first was un- 

 expected, when I happened to be accidentally on the 

 summit at sunset while a mist enveloped Edinburgh 

 and the country around, barely extending upwards 

 to the place where I stood. Every time a rag 

 of the lower mist rose sufficiently high to envelope 

 me I saw a lanky gigantic image of myself pro- 

 jected upon, or rather through it, the magnifying 

 effect being an illusion due to the forward projection 

 through a long depth of the thin mist. The shadow 

 was no taller than myself, but its horizontal length 

 was from 50 to 100 feet or thereabouts. On the 

 second occasion, I ascended the hill with the purpose 

 and expectation of witnessing a repetition, and was 

 not disappointed. The city was enveloped in a mist 

 or ground fog, evidently of no great upward exten- 

 sion, which, as before, clung to the sides of the hill 

 and was blown away from the summit. 



In my description above referred to, I expressed 

 an opinion that it is a much more common phe- 

 nomenon than is usually supposed ; the conditions 

 of its appearance being simply a mist just reaching, 

 and occasionally overtopping, any mountain summit 

 or elevation when the sun is near the horizon. This 

 opinion is confirmed by two accounts recently 

 published in "Nature," one, April 8th (p. 553), 

 by Hon. Ralph Abercromby, who saw from Adam's 

 Park, in Ceylon, nearly the same as I saw on Arthur's 

 Seat under corresponding conditions, plus a rainbow 

 and curious shadow of the mountain itself. The other 

 account (July 8th), is from apart of the world far distant 

 from this, viz., Hawaii. Mr. J. M. Alexander, who 

 ascended one of the craters of Hualalai with Mr. 

 J. S. Emerson, tells us that "just before sunset we 

 saw the splendid phenomenon of the Spectre of the 

 Brocken, our shadows on the mist, encircled with 

 rainbows over the black inferas." 



Bugs. — "Adversity makes us acquainted with 

 strange bedfellows,'' says the old adage. Science 

 does the like, as may be seen by reference to the 

 " Comptes Rendus " of July 5th, which contains a 

 contribution from M. J. Kiinckel on the seat of the 

 fetid secretion of the house bug, which he finds to be 

 in the dorsal and abdominal glands of the larva and 

 nymph, and the sternal thoracic glands of the adult. 

 I am not an entomologist, but in my boyhood made 

 some experiments with these interesting animals. 

 I was told that they only took food at long intervals, 

 and this stimulated my curiosity. To test it, I obtained 

 some specimens, kept them in pill-boxes until they 

 became very flat indeed, then fed them on my arm, 

 watching with a magnifier the insertion of the long- 

 tubular proboscis, and the gradual swelling out of the 

 abdomen of the creature as it obtained its accustomed 

 nutriment. I found that in warm weather they 

 flattened again in the course of a few weeks and 

 were ready for another meal, but that in the winter, 

 they remained very little altered during periods of 

 three months or more, and continued alive from the 

 autumn until the spring in the solitary starving con- 

 finement of the pill-box. 



On opening one of the pill-boxes after a much 

 shorter period than this, I found a brood of young, 

 all, as I supposed, perfect, neither larva nor nymphs 

 were there. The juveniles were full of blood and 

 shaped like the parent, but longer, and rather pointed 

 at the posterior extremity. They were very active, and 

 I supposed that they were hatched out in that form 

 directly. Perhaps I was mistaken ; these may have 

 been, in spite of their familiar appearance, but larva. 

 Some of our entomological readers may be able to set 

 me right. They were little bigger than pins' heads. 



Another casual item of experience shows that we 

 have yet much to learn in this region of zoology. In 

 the course of a tedious voyage from Constantinople to 

 London in a small schooner, the monotony was broken 

 by awakening with a disgusting savour. I presently 

 learned that a specimen of the above had fallen from, 

 the ceiling of my berth into my mouth, and that I 

 had crushed the innocent creature between my teeth. 

 This turned me out of bed altogether. On getting 

 a light I found that the opportunities of zoological 

 research were unlimited. Specimens were swarming 

 on the aforesaid ceiling, and throughout the cabin. I 

 dressed hastily and took refuge on deck. Presently 

 I was followed by all the crew, who arose in like 

 manner long before eight bells. Cabin and forecastle 

 alike were similarly invaded, and measurable but 

 uncountable quantities were swept together into dust- 

 pans and thrown overboard. This occurred in July 

 somewhere in the neighbourhood of Algiers ; weather 

 very hot. We had not been troubled with these 

 fellow-passengers previously. Is this a common 

 nautical experience ? 



A Cheap Antidote to Snake Poison. — In the 



