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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the lake without taking any water. 

 The raft was then brought up and the 

 ship was easily placed upon it and 

 brought back to the balloon house. The 

 weight is 200 centners (22,000 pounds). 



A joint meeting of the Royal So- 

 ciety and the Royal Astronomical So- 

 ciety has been held in London to hear 

 preliminary reports from several British 

 expeditions that went out to observe 

 the recent eclipse of the sun. Mr. 

 Christie, the astronomer royal, first pre- 

 sented an account of the observations 

 made by himself and Mr. Dyson at Ovar, 

 in Portugal. There totality lasted 84* 

 seconds, and though the sky was rather 

 hazy he secured some good photographs. 

 The corona seemed distinctly inferior in 

 brightness, structure and rays to that 

 seen two years ago in India. Sir Nor- 

 man Lockyer next described the obser- 

 vations made by the Solar Physics Ob- 

 servatory Expedition and the officers 

 and men of H. M. S. Theseus at Santa 

 Pola. Professor Turner spoke of the 

 observations he had made with Mr. H. 

 F. Newall in the grounds of the obser- 

 vatory near Algiers. From observations 

 on the brightness of the corona he con- 

 cluded that it was many times brighter 

 than the moon — perhaps ten times as 

 bright. Prof. Ralph Copeland described 

 the observations he made on behalf of 

 the joint committee at Santa Pola, en- 

 dorsing Sir N. Lockyer's remarks as to 

 the advantage of having the aid of a 

 man-of-war. Mr. Evershed presented a 

 preliminary report on his expedition to 

 the south limit of totality. His reason 

 for choosing a site at the limit of total- 

 ity was that the flash spectrum was 

 there visible very much longer. Unfor- 

 tunately, he accepted the guidance of 

 the Nautical Almanac Office, and found 

 himself outside the line of totality — 

 about two hundred meters according to 



his informants, who said a small speck 

 of sunlight was visible all the time. He 

 was successful in obtaining some fine 

 photographs of the flash spectrum. 



During the last session of Congress 

 a law was enacted, commonly known as 

 the Lacey Act, which places the preser- 

 vation, distribution, introduction and 

 restoration of game and other birds un- 

 der the Department of Agriculture; 

 regulates the importation of foreign 

 birds and animals, prohibiting abso- 

 lutely the introduction of certain in- 

 jurious species and prohibits interstate 

 traffic in birds or game killed in viola- 

 tion of State laws. Persons contem- 

 plating the importation of live animals 

 or birds from abroad must obtain a 

 special permit from the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, and importers are advised 

 to make application for permits in ad- 

 vance, in order to avoid annoyance and 

 delay when shipments reach the custom- 

 house. The law applies to single mam- 

 mals, birds or reptiles, kept in cages as 

 pets, as well as to large consignments 

 intended for propagation in captivity or 

 otherwise. Permits are not required 

 for domesticated birds, such as chick- 

 ens, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, pea fowl, 

 pigeons or canaries; for parrots or for 

 natural history specimens for museums 

 or scientific collections. Permits must 

 be obtained for all wild species of 

 pigeons and ducks. In the case of 

 ruminants (including deer, elk, moose, 

 antelopes and also camels and llamas), 

 permits will be issued, as heretofore, in 

 the form prescribed for importation of 

 domesticated animals. The introduc- 

 tion of the English or European house 

 sparrow, the starling, the fruit bat or 

 flying fox and the mongoose, is abso- 

 lutely prohibited, and permits for their 

 importation will not be issued under 

 any circumstances. 



