NOTES. 



575 



dred feet high, flows the Rio Frio from an- 

 other glacier, into the Nahuelhuapi Lalie, 

 the largest lake in Patagonia, from which 

 the Limai, the principal river of the country, 

 flows to the Atlantic Ocean. The chain of 

 the Andes is again broken at this point by 

 a deep gorge ; and the passes continue to 

 diminish in height as we go south. The idea 

 that the Patagonian Andes form a continu- 

 ous marked boundary to the table-land of 

 the country is a mistaken one. The line is 

 frequently broken by ravines that reach far 

 back into the interior ; and Captain Simp- 

 son, of the Chilian marine, has found the 

 sources of two of the principal western 

 rivers not far from the center of the 

 country. At other points the sea makes 

 extensive cuts into the land, forming deep 

 bays and fiords, between which the land 

 pushes out its sharply serrated peninsulas. 

 Archipelagoes, in which Simpson has count- 

 ed more than a thousand islands, lie before 

 and within the bays. The largest of the 

 islands is Chiloe ; a few of them are level, 

 but most of them are mountainous and 

 steep, -while all are thickly wooded. The 

 coast-lines are sharply indented, and the 

 slopes in the neighborhood of the Straits 

 of Magellan, those of Cape Froward, Tierra 

 del Fuego, and Cape Horn, with whose cinct- 

 ure of evergreen beeches the verdant man- 

 tle of the Patagonian wilderness descends 

 to the sea, are very rugged. 



Effect of Sewage on River-Water. — 



Franz Hulna has examined the water of 

 the river Oder above Breslau, in its course 

 through the city, and for fourteen kilo- 

 metres, or about ten miles, below the town, 

 to determine the effect of sewage upon 

 its purity. From the point where the 

 water-supply of Breslau is pumped up to a 

 little above the town, the water undergoes 

 a slight but appreciable deterioration, but 

 after filtration is quite suitable for domestic 

 uses. In passing through the city a con- 

 tinuous change for the worse takes place, 

 which is manifested by the increase of oxi- 

 dizable matter and of chlorine, and by a 

 hundred-fold augmentation of ammonia and 

 albuminoid ammonia. Microscopic exami- 

 nation disclosed the abundant presence of 

 organisms of putrefaction. Farther down 

 was observed a gradual process of self -puri- 



fication by contact with oxygen, along with 

 the co-operation of vegetable and animal 

 life in the stream. At fourteen kilometres 

 below the city the influence of sewage could 

 not be detected, cither by the chemical or 

 the microscopic examination ; but the water 

 was of the same composition as at the sup- 

 ply-station above. 



NOTES. 



At the June meeting of the Iowa Acade- 

 my of Science, the president, A. R. Fulton, 

 exhibited specimens of native copper, found 

 in the drift of Iowa, which were in all re- 

 spects similar to the native copper of the 

 Lake Superior region. In his accompanying 

 paper, Mr. Fulton accounted for their occur- 

 rence in this situation by saying that the 

 Lake Superior region was undoubtedly their 

 original home, and that they had been trans- 

 ported by the ice - stream of the Glacial 

 epoch, wliich apparently at some time had 

 flowed in a southwesterly directitm. The 

 occasional finding of fragments of the com- 

 mon sulphate of lead in the drift, southwest 

 from the lead-region about Dubuque, would 

 indicate the same movement. 



Professor Moerta, formerly director of 

 the observatory at Santiago, Chili, died at 

 Dresden, Saxony, April 2d, in the fifty-ninth 

 year of his age. lie was born near Cassel, 

 and educated at Marburg. He went to Chili, 

 where our Gilliss was making observations 

 on the solar parallax, in 1850, and eventu- 

 ally participated in the observations. When 

 Gilliss returned home in 1852, the Chilian 

 Government put him in charge of the ob- 

 servatory, lie also held a professorship in 

 the university. He returned to Europe in 

 1865, charged with a commission by the Gov- 

 ernment to purchase a telescope, but did not 

 go back to Chili on account of his health. 

 His observations are embodied partly in the 

 " Annales de la Universidad de Chile " and 

 partly in the " Astronomische Nachrichten." 



M. J. P. L. GiRARDiN, a French chemist of 

 considerable distinction, died early in June, 

 ! in the eighty-third year of his age. He was 

 for thirty years Professor of Chemistry ap- 

 plied to the Arts in Rouen, where he made 

 special researches in fertilizers, and intro- 

 duced improvements into the processes of the 

 manufactures carried on there that proved 

 to be of great importance. He was after- 

 ward a dean of the Faculty of Lille, and rec- 

 tor of the Academy at Clermont. He pub- 

 lished some considerable works, the most 

 important of whicli was his " Lessons in Ele- 

 mentary Chemistry " in five volumes. 



