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HARBWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Freshwater Deposits. — The recent flooding of 

 the Thames in the neighbourhood of Maidenhead 

 has brought down an immense quantity of land and 

 freshwater shells and deposited them along the banks 

 among the sticks, leaves and other rubbish, which 

 form a sort of high-V\'ater mark, now left dry by the 

 abatement of the flood. In some places where the 

 flood has washed into a corner of the bank, an 

 immense heap, composed entirely of shells, may be 

 found. On the side of a wooden shed there is a band 

 of shells marking the greatest height of the waters. 

 The greater part of this jetsam and flotsam consists 

 of dead and worthless shells, but among them are 

 fresh and even live specimens of desirable species. I 

 have noted down as many as 23 different species 

 of freshwater and 24 land, among which are the 

 following good ones : B. Lcachii, Z.fulvits and van 

 Morto)ii, H. pulcliella and var. costata, P. viargiiiata, 

 var. pygmcca, var. edciitula, Achatina ackiila, C. 

 clcgans, and Acme Uiicata. — L. E. Adams, ISIaidcn- 

 hcad. 



Preserving Fluid. — In last month's Science- 

 Gossip, Mr. Atkins has published a formula for a 

 "Preserving Fluid," and gives an "alkaline nitrate 

 of chlorine " as one of the ingredients ; I should 

 esteem it a great favour if Mr. Atkins would kindly 

 inform me what this may be and how it can be pre- 

 pared ? After reading in one of our leading 

 "dailies" that the dying Emperor of Russia was 

 subjected to the influence of " sulphate of oxygen,'' 

 one begins to think that wonderful as the advance- 

 ment made in chemistry has been during the last few 

 years, the new compounds produced in 1881 bid fair 

 to outnumber those isolated in previous years. — 



y. o. B. 



Tenacity of Life. — May I express regret which 

 I am convinced is shared by the great majority of 

 your readers, at the insertion (in a recent number) 

 of F. L.'s query and notes on " Tenacity of Life ? " 

 However unintentional, it can hardly escape the 

 appearance of inculcating cruelty, and raising an 

 unjust prejudice against the fair name of naturalists 

 and of this popular journal. The infliction or pro- 

 longation of agony requires at least some useful or 

 important scientific aim to justify it. — 7. Eardley 

 Hall. 



Hair Bell or Hare Bell.— I find Campanula 

 rotiiitdifolia is written by some as hairbell and by 

 others as harebell. I should have presumed that the 

 former was correct — the name being apparently 

 derived from the wiry and hair-like stems which 

 characterise the plant, and have imagined that the 

 latter had no raison d'etre except a poetic one, or 

 have placed it amongst the numerous fanciful corrup- 

 tions which exercise our wits in plant nomenclature : 

 but happening to refer to Britten and Holland's 

 " Dictionary of English Plant Names," I find it stated 

 that "the spellings hairbell or airbell are quite 

 modern, and seem to have been adopted in accordance 

 with a fancy derivation of the name which, however, 

 is quite without authority. The name itself is un- 

 explained." If the plant has really no lupine affini- 

 ties and the name harebell is unexplained, is it 

 quite certain that hairbell is the more modern, and 

 that it was not at some early date supplanted by 

 harebell, and that in modern times it is not seeking 

 to regain its place ? — /•'. //. JTabben, B.A. 



The Weather and the Birds.— In addition 

 to blackbirds and thrushes, the late severe weather 

 brought wrens, tomtits, robins, and coletits into the 

 garden. — IV. T. Greene, Peckham Rye. 



White Geranium. — I have found this plant 

 several times at Maidstone. — Henry Lamb, Alaidstone. 



Strange Flight of Owls. — A flight of owls, 

 upwards of twenty, was lately seen daily in a field of 

 ]\Ir. Dighton's (at Kirklington, near Ripon). The 

 field contains a large quantity of thick grass, and 

 here they take up their abode in the daytime. — W. 

 Gre^son. 



" Blue Rocks." — Is your Andover correspondent 

 confident as to the "blue rocks" he speaks about 

 being found so far inland ? Large flocks of wood- 

 pigeons [Paliimbiis] are now busy in the turnip fields- 

 and young clovers mixed with stock doves [yEnas) 

 called here generally "blue rockers," but of course 

 erroneously, and although I have killed numbers of 

 them it has never been my lot to get a rock dove 

 amongst them. A few years ago, before game pre- 

 serving was carried to such a pitch, I could have 

 shown your correspondent a "magpie roost" of 

 perhaps 200 or 300 birds, and fine fun I have had 

 with them on a bright moonlight night, as when dis- 

 turbed they would fly straight up and settle down 

 almost in the same spot. Carrion crows roost much 

 together during autumn and winter on the borders 

 of Exmoor. I knew one "roost" of over five 

 hundred birds, which shows either that they are very 

 plentiful or else fly a long way to it, as they only 

 remain in pairs during the day. — G. Tiirvill. 



Query as to Larv.e. — Can any readers of 

 Science-Gossip tell me what are some larvce that 

 I have ? They are of a dirty-white colour, getting 

 blackish towards the end ; their heads are light 

 brown ; they have very long thoracic legs, but no 

 claspers that I can see, whatever. They feed on 

 rotten wood. — C. H, 



Strange Freaks of an Eel. — While standing 

 with a friend one day on the banks of the Ythan, we 

 saw an eel catch a small trout, but, instead of des- 

 patching its victim at once, we were surprised to see 

 it "grapple and bite and turn it about," evidently to 

 have it in a more suitable position ; then, seizing the 

 fish by the tail, it swallowed that end, "then dashed 

 the other several times against a stone," after which 

 it reversed the fish and swallowed it. Whether 

 that strange proceeding was to kill the fish, or to 

 crush its head and prepare it the better for digestion, 

 we could not tell. Perhaps some of your readers 

 may have witnessed similar occurrences! — JV. Sim, 

 Fyvie. 



Sheet Lightning. — In reply to Mr. Stodder's 

 explanation of this phenomenon, I must say that I 

 entirely agree with him that " there is no such thing 

 as sheet lightning different from spark (forked) light- 

 ning," also that it is merely a lighting up of clouds 

 by a spark, and I also uphold his prediction that at 

 the moment of discharge a spark occurred. But his 

 explanation that it is produced by discharges at long 

 distances, beyond the reach of sound, I cannot agree 

 with, as in this form of lightning (sheet) a clajD is 

 often heard coming from clouds not far off If ^Ir. 

 Stodder be mistaking for sheet lightning "summer 

 lightning " (which is by some supposed to be silent 

 discharges between clouds, &c., in the upper and 

 more rarefied, and hence less resisting strata of the 

 atmosphere) I may state that it has been observed 

 when no thunderstorm was anywhere near the ob- 

 server's station. I may also add that I consider that 

 forked lightning occurs when the barometer is high, 

 that is when the atmosphere is dense and resisting, 

 and sheet lightning when the reverse is the case. 



