MISCELLANY. 



379 



MISCELLANY. 



The Frailty of Modern Art. The old 

 masters made their own colors. The mate- 

 rial which entered into their pigments came 

 to them unadulterated, and the excellence 

 of the paint depended on the brain mixed 

 in it. Hence, their paintings to-day, though 

 lacking somewhat freshness of color, have 

 a mellowness which age can only give to 

 pigments of the highest excellence. Mod- 

 ern pictures will not ripen, their colors 

 fade, and the mellowness of the old mas- 

 ters is unattainable. Holman Hunt, of 

 England, has called the attention of lovers 

 of the fine arts to this deplorable fiict. And 

 the reasons are given. The artist's colors 

 are no longer made by himself. Their 

 manufacture is a business from whose se- 

 crets he is shut out. Artist's colors are 

 subject to fearful adulteration. Even the 

 oils cannot be genuine, as things go. The 

 materials of which they are made go to the 

 maker in a sophisticated state. Linseed and 

 poppy-seed are adulterated before they 

 reach the oil-maker's hands. So too, is it 

 generally with the crude material for the 

 pigments. A high-priced vermilion from 

 an eminent dealer, upon analysis, yielded 

 twelve per cent, of red lead. So the artist, 

 who puts his whole life and soul into a 

 painting that should be " a joy forever," has 

 this immortality of art quenched by the 

 use of dishonest paint. 



Oscillations of Lakes. The " seiches" of 

 the lake of Geneva have for several years, 

 as we learn from Nature^ been under inves- 

 tigation by Forel, of Lausanne. The term 

 " seiche " is applied locally to certain oscil- 

 latory movements occasionally seen on the 

 surface of the lake. The phenomenon had 

 been investigated by previous observers, 

 among them Saussure and Yaucher, who 

 attributed it to variations in atmospheric 

 pressure ; in this, Forel agrees with them. 

 The same phenomenon occurs in other 

 Swiss lakes, and Forel believes it will be 

 found in all large bodies of water. He 

 recognizes in the " seiche " probably the 

 most considerable and the grandest oscil- 

 latory movement which can be studied on 

 the surface of the globe. His investiga- 

 tions have led him to the conclusion that 



the " seiche " on the Swiss lakes is an os- 

 cillatory undulation, having a true rhythm, 

 and that the phenomenon is not occasional, 

 but constant, though varying in degree. 

 The duration of a " seiche " is a function 

 of the length and depth of the section of 

 the lake, along which it oscillates ; this 

 duration increases directly with the length, 

 and inversely with the depth of the lake. 

 The instrument he has devised for the in- 

 vestigation of the phenomenon he calls a 

 plemyrametre (" tide-measurer "). 



Contents of a Riteben-HIidden. Prof. 

 Cope lately exhibited to the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia a collec- 

 tion of animal remains, fragments of pot- 

 tery, flint arrow-heads, etc., taken from an In- 

 dian kitchen-midden in Charles County, Md. 

 The animal remains included the bones of 

 seventeen species of vertebrata and two of 

 shells. Of the vertebrates four were mam- 

 mals, two birds, four reptiles, and seven 

 fishes. The mammals were the Virginia 

 deer, raccoon, gray squirrel, and opossum. 

 Most of the deer-bones had been split into 

 pieces lengthwise for the purpose of extract- 

 ing the marrow. The birds were repre- 

 sented by a number of parts of the turkey, 

 and the tarsometa-tarsus of some natatorial 

 bird of the size of a widgeon. The reptiles 

 were all turtles, and included the snapper, 

 the box-tortoise, and two emydes. The 

 fishes represented were the sturgeon and 

 the gar, there were also numerous bones of 

 Siluroid fishes of at least two species. The 

 mollusks were Unio pwpurem and Mesodon 

 alholabris. 



Habits of Blind Crawfish from Mammoth 

 Cave. In November, 18*74, Prof F. W. Put- 

 nam collected a number of blind crawfish 

 (Cambarus pellucidus) in the Mammoth 

 Cave, which he kept alive for several months 

 afterward in Massachusetts. The habits of 

 these animals and the reproduction in them 

 of lost parts are the subject of a communi- 

 cation by Prof. Putnam, published in the 

 " Proceedings of the Boston Society of Nat- 

 ural History." The animals eat but very 

 little in captivity. When food is dropped 

 into the jar in which they are kept, they 

 dart backward, then extend the antennas, 

 and stand as if on the alert. The animal 

 continues in this attitude for several min- 



