170 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



To those unacquainted with the substance in 

 question, these statements may appear rather wild, 

 but I am quite prepared to accept them with very 

 little allowance, being well acquainted with it, and 

 the uses to which it is applied by the Laplanders. 

 The winter dress of these little people is of reindeer 

 skin with the fur inside. A sort of tunic with sleeves 

 that fit at the wrist ; trousers of the same, terminating 

 to soft top boots which are tied over the bottoms 

 of the trousers to prevent inward leakage. Thus 

 enveloped they sleep peacefully on wet ground or 

 snow, and, as far as I could learn, coughs and 

 colds are unknown among them. The patriarch of 

 the encampment in the Tromsdal, a middle-aged 

 man when I visited him in 1856, was hearty and 

 vigorous ; very little changed, when I paid him a 

 second visit in 1874. 



The hair of the deer upon which the buoyancy must 

 entirely depend is white, grey or slate colour and very 

 coarse, but soft. It is shed in the autumn and then 

 hangs on the hide in loose patches. My attention to 

 this was drawn by the diligence of the women in 

 tearing off handfuls at the milking-time (3 A.M.) and 

 carefully bagging it. 



I sincerely hope that Herr M oiler's expectations 

 will be extensively realised, as a brisk demand at 

 good prices, supplies a source of prosperity to these 

 most amiable little people. I have just turned up a 

 small quantity that I brought home with me in 

 1874, and have made a few experiments. I will 

 report results when I have carried the experiments 

 further. 



School Ventilation. — At the last meeting of 

 the British Association Dr. Carnelly read a paper in 

 the Chemical section, on the Air of Dwellings and 

 Schools. His general conclusion concerning the 

 schools is that they are insufficiently ventilated, and 

 that in many cases this is the true origin of some of 

 the evils commonly attributed to over-pressure. This 

 confirms the wisdom of my "guide, philosopher, 

 and friend " the late George Combe, who so urgently 

 advocated the practice of frequently turning the 

 children out into the playground between their 

 lessons, and opening all the doors and windows of 

 the school in the meantime. I have tried it and 

 found that only five minutes of such interval had a 

 most refreshing effect both on the atmosphere of the 

 school and the brains of the children. With modern 

 school drill the five minutes may easily be turned to 

 best account by occupying it in orderly and continuous 

 marching or trotting, so that all shall exercise their 

 muscles and respiratory organs, and none waste the 

 precious interval in idle lolling. 



The Sea-Serpent.— American papers tell us that 

 two members of the United States Fish Commission 

 have seen a sea-serpent in the Hudson, near Albany, 

 N.Y. The names of the commissioners are nor 



given in the report that I have seen. Possibly they 

 refuse to give their names, knowing what will be the 

 result if they do. They will be insulted as a matter 

 of course, told indirectly that they are either fools 

 or liars. Naval officers now refuse to make any 

 statement concerning anything of the kind which 

 they may see, and well they may, after the childish 

 explanations which are commonly given by landsmen 

 who pretend to have reached the limits of knowledge 

 concerning marine animals. Professor Goode, on the 

 other hand, thinks it possible that a large fish of 

 reptilian shape, and yet unknown to science, may 

 exist, and may sometimes lift its head to a con- 

 siderable height above water. Others learnedly 

 affirm that snakes are air-breathers, and therefore 

 cannot live under water. This is a very profound 

 remark. The creature that has been so frequently 

 described, and with so little variation, must be a 

 very long fish. When naturalists have discovered a 

 physical or biological law which limits the possible 

 length of fishes, they will be justified in contradicting 

 the evidence of other men's senses, but not before. 

 They should read the history of meteorites ; how 

 every account of the fall of such bodies, however 

 well attested, was contradicted by all the learned 

 until the beginning of the present century ; then they 

 should visit the mineral room of the British Museum 

 and see the collection of these impossible things 

 there displayed. Our children may possibly, in the 

 course of next century, see in the adjoining room a 

 complete articulated skeleton of the Kraken. 



Acclimatisation of Plants. — Mr. Crozier, of 

 Michigan University, states, as established fact, " that 

 as plants move from the locality of their largest de- 

 velopment towards their northern limit of growth, 

 they become dwarfed in habit, are rendered more 

 fruitful, and all parts become more highly coloured ; 

 their comparative leaf-surface is often increased, 

 their form modified and their composition changed ; 

 their period of growth is also shortened, and they 

 are enabled to develop at a lower temperature." 



I may quote an example confirming this, which I 

 observed with some surprise, viz. the successful culti- 

 vation of hops in Norway, where the summer is so 

 very short, that, according to Kentish experience, the 

 plants would have no time to anive at useful 

 maturity. Those that I saw growing were not so 

 tall as in Kent, but apparently much more hardy, 

 being less liable to the blighting troubles that so 

 often destroy the hopes of our hop-growers. 



The China grass plant [Boehmeria nivea) cultivated 

 successfully in the neighbourhood of Lausanne, at 

 an altitude of 1706 feet, by Professor Schnetzler, 

 although it is a native of China and Sumatra, 

 in latitudes between 15 and 35 supplies another 

 example. The latitude of Lausanne is 46'3i . The 

 mean temperature of Lausanne is 49 Fahr., and the 

 winters very cold. 



