1S70.] MISCELLANEOUS. 239 



costly. The poles alone are estimated to cost $1,152, or £200. 

 If the plugs were withdrawn — and, according to Dr. Stevens, 

 there is nothing but the expense to prevent — the whole well 

 would be available for observation. The committee will make 

 every effort to prevent so rare an ojDportunity from being lost. — 

 From third rejjort of the Underground Temperature Committee 

 submitted to the British Association in 1870. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



SCRAPS FROM "NATURE."' 



— We are glad to be able to state that Dr. "Wyville Thompson 

 has entirely recovered from the attack of gastric fever which pre- 

 vented his taking part in the Porcupine expedition this summer. 

 He is at present going over the zoological collection brought home 

 in that vessel, at the University of London, with Dr. Carpenter, 

 and he reports some very remarkable additions to his new group 

 of vitreous sponges, mainly from the coast of Spain and Portugal. 

 These, with some others procured by Mr. Saville Kent, in Dr. 

 Marshall HalFs yacht, will nearly double the number of known 

 forms referred to the order. They are no pigmies. One of them 

 forms a lovely lace-like vase upwards of three feet in diameter at 

 the lip ! 



— Owens College, Manchester, has lately received a very valu- 

 able donation to its large geological collection, in the shape of a 

 collection of fossil Marsupials from Australia. This collection 

 was to have been presented to the British Museum, but the donor 

 ultimately decided to bestow it on Manchester instead. 



— In the aquarium of the Dublin Zoological Gardens there are 

 several specimens of the blind fish (Amh/i/opsis speloeus) lately 

 brought from the Kentucky caves by Prof. Mapother. The small 

 specimens, being very transparent, show the vertebral column, the 

 heart, and the optic bulbs very distinctly. In the largest there 

 are dark red spots over the optic bulbs, probably due to their 

 having been kept in an iron vessel, which may have given colour 

 for a rudimentary pigment membrane. 



— The American Journal of Science and Arts, which has from 

 its commencement been the leading vehicle for the original papers 

 of the scientific men of America, will be continued after the close 

 of the present year as a monthly journal This increased fre- 

 quency of lub'icalion will, it is beUeved, meet a wish often ex- 



