308 NE WS [OCTOBER 1899 



which is carefully kept. When the pickling process is over, the workpeople, 

 who are mostly women, take one end of the stomach in their teeth and draw 

 the other end with their hands. This part of the work requires great dexterity, 

 for the threads are drawn out to the length of 30 to 50 centims., and the whole 

 value of the product depends upon its length in relation to its thickness, and 

 the strain it will carry. There are two seasons for the production — spring, 

 when the best gut is produced, and autumn, when the quality is inferior. 

 There is an important market for this speciality, and the whole production is 

 exported to Northern Italy and abroad at the average price of 150 lire per kilo. 

 The gut is very light, so that a great deal of it goes to a kilo. The cost of 

 production is also considerable, as the worms must be bought just at the 

 moment when they are becoming profitable for making silk, that is when they 

 are at their dearest. Again, the results are frequently disappointing, many 

 worms being found, on dissection, not to be suitable, and having to be dis- 

 carded. 



The Scientific American refers to some statistics recently published by the 

 French Meteorological Bureau at Paris. Spain has 3000 hours of sunshine a 

 year; Italy 2700; France 2600; Germany has 1700, while England has but 

 1400. The average fall of rain in the latter country is greater than that in 

 any other European country. In the northern part and on the high plateaus 

 of Scotland about 351 inches of rain fall a year, and London is said to have an 

 average of 178 rainy days in the year, and fully ten times the quantity of rain 

 that falls on Paris. 



In reference to a note which was recently published in our columns on the 

 difficulty of inoculating locusts with fungus owing to the frequent moults, it is 

 interesting to see that the recent experiments at the Cape have proved very 

 effective. 



According to Spring's experiments, reported in the Scientific American of 

 September 2, a pure blue is the natural colour of water. Finely divided white or 

 colourless particles reflect a yellow light, which unites with the natural blue to 

 form a bright green. The fact that the water of ordinarily green lakes turns 

 perfectly colourless at times, is not due to a clarification, but, on the contrary, 

 to an influx of a reddish mud, coloured by ferric oxide, which completely 

 neutralises the green. 



An interesting experiment is being made by the Government of Bosnia and 

 Herzegovina in connection with the subject of the migration of birds. A number 

 of observatories are being established all over these two countries, on the coasts, 

 plains, mountains, rivers, and lakes — in fact, in every spot which seems likely 

 to yield results of interest to those engaged in researches on bird migration. 

 Under the auspices of the Government of the two countries named, a meeting 

 of ornithologists was convened at Sarajevo from the 25th to 29th of September 

 with a view to similar observations conducted on uniform methods being 

 instituted elsewhere. A report was presented on the bird life of the Balkan 

 States, illustrated by a fine collection from those districts. 



