NOTES. 



7 6 7 



showers that the air was darkened with 

 them ; and through the whizzing, whirling 

 veil they flung about us we could look with 

 the naked eye at the sun, which, although 

 high in the heavens, had the blood-red, 

 rayless appearance usually peculiar to the 

 time of setting." He adds that the natives, 

 with their horses and cattle, as well as ele- 

 phants and other wild ruminants, feed on 

 them greedily ; the author found them per- 

 fectly tasteless. 



Natural History in New Guinea. The 



Italian naturalist, D'Albertis, continues his 

 explorations and studies of natural history 

 in the island of New Guinea. He recently 

 made the ascent of a mountain 1,200 feet 

 high, on Yule Island, obtaining a good view 

 of the plains watered by the Amama River. 

 This river D'Albertis has partly ascended 

 on several occasions ; he states that it 

 traverses an extensive and fertile district 

 well suited for grazing. The Nicura River, 

 into which the Amama debouches, is bor- 

 dered by mangroves, eucalyptus, grass- 

 trees, etc. He remarks that the natives 

 appear everywhere ignorant of the uses of 

 metals ; and he is of opinion that Wallace 

 and others are right in recognizing the 

 existence of two races in the island. The 

 aborigines he considers are confined to the 

 western and interior portions, while the in- 

 habitants in the other parts represent a 

 taller, lighter-colored, and more intelligent 

 race, which displaced the older tenants. 



Sulphide of Carbon as an Insecticide. 



The use of carbon sulphide is recommended 

 by J. B. Schnetzler, of the Lausanne Acad- 

 emy, as a means of destroying the insects 

 which infest herbaria and entomological 

 collections. The Academy collection of 

 Swiss flowering-plants having been attacked 

 by Anobium paniceum, M. Schnetzler had a 

 wooden box made large enough to contain 

 five fasciculi of the herbarium, each com- 

 posed of about 200 plants. Four ounces 

 of carbon sulphide were poured into the five 

 fasciculi ; the box was tightly closed, and 

 the whole left for a month. All the insects 

 were destroyed, and no injury was done to 

 the specimens, or to the papers to which 

 they were fastened. The expense of the 

 operation is very small. M. Schnetzler rec- 

 ommends that the boxes should be placed 



under a shed, as in case of the escape of 

 vapor there might be danger of explosion. 

 The same process may be employed for col- 

 lections of insects. 



NOTES. 



During the present year the United 

 States Fish Commission have placed in the 

 Hudson River 4,580,000 young sliad. The 

 commissioners observe a steady increase in 

 the supply of this fish. They ask, how- 

 ever, for legislation compelling a cessation 

 of fishing on Sunday. 



At the distauce of 20 miles from Car- 

 ter Station, on the Union Pacific Railway, 

 is situated a remarkable coal-mine. It is 

 about 4 miles in length, and consists of 16 

 veins, lying one above another, with a thin 

 layer of sandstone intervening. The bot- 

 tom vein is the thinnest (5 feet), while the 

 one next above is over 75 feet in thickness. 

 A few feet above this is a vein of 60 feet, 

 another of 40 succeeding, and so on, mak- 

 ing in all about 400 feet of coal. The veins 

 slope at an angle of about 22, and are 

 very easy of access. 



Prof. Riley, at a meeting of the St. 

 Louis Academy of Science, exhibited a Col- 

 orado potato-beetle, which was so complete- 

 ly covered with a mite parasite that the 

 point of a needle could not be placed on 

 any part of the beetle's body without 

 touching one of the parasites. He esti- 

 mated the number of mites at 800, and 

 they had killed the beetle. Aside from the 

 toad and other reptiles, the crow, the rose- 

 breasted grossbeak, and domestic fowls, 

 among birds which prey on the Doryplura 

 decenlineata, Prof. Riley had in his report 

 figured or described no less than 23 insect- 

 enemies that attack and kill it. Only one 

 of these is a true parasite, and this mite 

 makes the second. It belongs to the family 

 Gamasidce. 



At a meeting held in London, in aid of 

 the fund for a memorial to the late Dr. 

 Parkes, a resolution was adopted which de- 

 clared it desirable that the memorial should 

 take the form of a museum of hygiene. A 

 list of subscriptions was read amounting to 

 675. 



Everywhere in Germany carrier-pigeons 

 are being trained for service in time of war, 

 to keep up communication between the gar- 

 risons of besieged fortresses and the mili- 

 tary authorities. Another use of these 

 pigeons is suggested, viz., as a means of 

 conveying intelligence from light-ships to 

 the nearest port, in case the former are in 

 need of succor. 



