NOTES. 



431 



eity of an incompressible medium. The ex- 

 periments of Michelson and Morley show 

 apparently that the ether at the surface of 

 the earth moves with it. It is dragged 

 along as if it were a viscid liquid. The 

 field of a steel magnet is, however, a rota- 

 tional phenomenon. It is a spin which is 

 maintained permanently without the expend- 

 iture of energy. It seems, therefore, that 

 the resistance to shear which shows itself in 

 the adhesion of the ether to the moving 

 earth must be a rigidity due in some way to 

 motion. Other experiments of Michelson 

 and Morley on the motion of light in mov- 

 ing columns of water have been taken as 

 proof that the ether in water is condensed 

 to nine sixteenths of its volume in air. The 

 ether in water certainly behaves as if it 

 were more dense, but it is another matter to 

 say that it is so. It seems improbable. The 

 speaker, after describing what might be a 

 more satisfactory way of making the experi- 

 ment, said that the question to be settled is 

 whether the ether or any part of it is at rest 

 in space, or does it sweep through the in- 

 terior of bodies that move through it as 

 wind sweeps through the leaves and branches 

 of a tree. 



NOTES. 



We mention, on behalf of Mr. Frederick 

 Starr, that the originals of most of the ob- 

 jects illustrated in his articles on Dress and 

 Adornment are in the American Museum of 

 Natural History. The omission of this ac- 

 knowledgment from the articles was not 

 noticed till it was too late to correct it. 



The Programme of Lectures of the 

 Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, provides 

 for thirty lectures, beginning November 2d 

 with a lecture on Japan by Mr. Henry Pet- 

 tit. Several of the lectures will be upon sub- 

 jects of travel. For the others, subjects are 

 announced relating to the electrical trans- 

 mission of power, physical exercise, com- 

 pressed air power, transmission of explosive 

 phenomena, building -stones, refrigerating 

 machines, and other topics relating to hy- 

 giene, metallurgy, applied chemistry, etc. 

 The lecturers are men specially acquainted 

 with the subjects which they will treat. 



We have received from F. Gutekunst, 

 712 Arch Street, Philadelphia, a remarkably 

 fine half-size photograph of the late Joseph 

 Leidy. In distinctness of outline, clearness 

 of expression, delicacy of shading, and gen- 

 eral tone, it leaves nothing to be desired. 



Certain prehistoric remains near Bel- 

 lary, in southern India, described by Mr. 

 F. Fawcett in the International Congress of 

 Orientalists, are particularly remarkable by 

 reason of the pictures which are engraved 

 on the rocks in their neighborhood, and 

 which the author adduces many reasons for 

 believing to be prehistoric. A commission 

 was appointed by the Congress to make 

 further investigation of the matter. 



A TREE-CLIMBING kangaroo from North- 

 ern Queensland [Dendrolagus Ifuellcri), new 

 to science, is described by Messrs. Luehman 

 and French. It has a body about two feet 

 long, with a tail exceeding two feet. The 

 disproportion between the fore legs and the 

 hind legs is not nearly so great as in the 

 ordinary kangaroo and the wallaby. The 

 toes are strong and curved, so that it is able 

 to climb tall and straight trees, where it 

 lives on their leaves. The specimen from 

 which the species is described was got from 

 a straight tree, about ninety feet from the 

 ground. 



A MARSUPIAL mole — Noioryctes typJilops 

 — a species absolutely new to science, has 

 been discovered living in the sands and 

 among the porcupine grass of South Aus- 

 tralia. It is very rare and has been seen 

 by only a few persons, either white men or 

 natives. Perpetual burrowing seems to be 

 the characteristic feature of its life. It 

 burrows very rapidly, but is not known to 

 occupy permanent burrows. The first speci- 

 men was captured by Mr. William Cone- 

 thard, of the Willowie Pastoral Company, and 

 the description is by Prof. Stirling, of the 

 University of Adelaide. 



The Bowlder Committee of the British 

 Association reports that in some districts 

 bowlders are being destroyed so rapidly that 

 many described in former reports have dis- 

 appeared. 



Among the features of the Columbian 

 Exhibition to be opened at Madrid in Sep- 

 tember, 1892, will be an American historical 

 exposition, which is intended to reproduce 

 the condition of the different countries of 

 the new continent before the arrival of Eu- 

 ropeans, at the time of the conquest, and 

 down to the first half of the seventeenth 

 century. It will include all kinds of ob- 

 jects, models, reproductions, plans, etc., re- 

 lating to the peoples who inhabited America 

 then and to all those who had to do with the 

 navigators. 



Mr. Ivan Petroff, special census agent 

 in Alaska, has found six hundred natives on 

 Nunivak Island, where there were supposed 

 to be three hundred. They live, in the ab- 

 sence of white men, in the most primitive 

 style, eating walrus flesh and possessing 

 walrus ivory as their only wealth. Besides a 

 few land otter they do not catch any fur- 

 bearing animals. 



