8o 



NA TURE 



{May 25, 1876 



brightly iridescent. A pale light stretched through the sun from 

 one parhelion to the other, and somewhat beyond these. The 

 tangent arc of this inner circle was also very bright and well 

 defined. The larger circle was complete except where the hills 

 on the horizon hid a small portion. The tangent arc was not 

 observed above it, the sky being clear where it would be pro- 

 jected. The day had been very wirm, but towards evening a 

 cold north-easterly wind blew, and the part of the sky where the 

 sun was had become somewhat misty before the appearance of 

 the halo. Lately the north-easter has plentifully furnished the 

 conditions for the "icy cloud" which makes these appearances 

 possible. 



The J^andora is expected to leave Portsmouth to-day for her 

 Arctic cruise. 



Prof. O. C. Marsh, in a short paper on some characters of 

 the genus Coryphodon, Owen, figures the skull of the American 

 Bathmodon of Cope, which he shows to be undistinguishable from 

 Coryphodon. This oldest known representative of the ungulate 

 animals, found in the London clay of England, the Argile plas- 

 iique of France, and the lower Eocene of Utah, Wyoming, and 

 New Mexico, possessed, besides the full complement of teeth 

 (44), five digits on each limb, and a third trochanter to the 

 femur. The oerebellum was peculiarly small, and the cere- 

 brum very large in proportion. 



The Prefect of the Seine has appointed a Commission com- 

 posed of M. Alphaud, the chief engineer of the city, two other 

 engineers, and the head of the Public Gardens to study some of 

 the public works of London, such as the Metropolitan Railway, 

 the gardening of the public parks, the sewage and water system, 

 &c. The French Minister of Public Works will be represented 

 in that Commission by M. de Villiers, chief engineer of Ponts-et- 

 Cbausees. 



A Commission has been appointed by the Prefect of the Stine to 

 construct a number of primary clocks in Paris for the purpose 

 of distributing the time by means of electricity. Up to the 

 present time clockmakers have been obliged to make personal 

 application at the Observatory to compare their chronometer 

 with the standard chronometer, which is regulated by the obser- 

 vation of the celestial bodies once a week. 



The numbers of the American Naturalist for P^ebruary and 

 March contain, among other papers, one by Mr. A. Agassiz on 

 Haeckel's Gastrseal theory, one by Mr. H. D. Minot on the 

 Summer Birds of the White Mountain Region, one by Dr. H. 

 A. Hagan on the Development of Museums, one by Dr. J. G. 

 Cooper on Californian Garden-Birds. There is alsO a reply by 

 Dr. E. Coues to Mr. J. A. Allen's "Availability of certain Bar- 

 tranian names in Ornithology." Dr. H. A. Hagan describes the 

 Goshawk from among the Game Falcons of New England. 

 Mr. Scudder describes the nature of the chirp of the Mole 

 Cricket. Mr. Abbot writes on the indications of the antiquity 

 of the Indians of Notth America, derived from a study of their 

 relics. 



We observe from the recent numbers of the Bulletin Inter' 

 national of the Paris Observatory that the annual reports for 

 1875 are being received, and in considerable numbers, from 

 the presidents of the departmental meteorological commissions, 

 as was earnestly requested some time ago by M. Leverrier, in 

 order that the Atlas Meteorologique for 1875, may appear with as 

 little delay as possible. In proof of the activity and earnest- 

 ness manifested by many of the departments, it may be stated 

 that from the department of Bouches du Rhone tables of 

 observations from thirty-one stations have been received — a 

 number far from being too large if the meteorology of this part 

 of France is to be prosecuted at all successfully with a view to 

 its practical applications. 



In the same journal, of May 5, appears an interesting account 

 by M. Piche, Secretary of the Meteorological Commission of the 

 Basses-Pyrenees, of a sirocco which occurred in that department 

 on September i, 1874. On that occasion the shade-tempe- 

 rature near St, Jean-de-Luz rose from 78° '8 at 8 a.m. succes- 

 sively to Sg'-e, 93°-2, 96°-8, and 101° -3. At Biarritz the tem- 

 perature also roje to 101° "3, and the difference between the dry 

 and wet bulbs at 4 P.M. amounted to 20° 7. The observations 

 made at the nine meteorological stations of the department at 

 the time, are given, but the number of stations is evidently too 

 few to furnish the materials required for the investigation of this 

 remarkable sirocco. An interesting point, however, is this — 

 the almost unprecedented heat and drought at Biarritz occurred 

 during a rapid and short-continued fall of the barometer, the 

 heat and drought bdng at the maximum a little before the baro- 

 meter fell to the lowest point. 



We have received Osservazioni Aleteorologiche, anno v.. No. 14, 

 published under the direction of the well-known meteorologists, 

 P. F. Denza and P. Maggi, by the Alpine Club of Italy. This 

 number gives a full and detailed statement of the meteorological 

 means and extremes during the second decade of April, 1876, 

 at fifty-one stations situated on or in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the Alps and Apennines, the stations bein^ at heights 

 varying from 87 to 8,360 feet above the sea. The pub- 

 lication worthily, occupies a well-marked sphere of operation, 

 and its appearance thrice a month offers great facilities for tiie 

 study of the meteorological changes in the course of the year 

 along the slopes of these mountain ranges. It woull mu:h 

 enhance the usefulness of the results if the barometric and ther- 

 mometric means for 9 A.M. and 3 p.m. were given separately. 



In the Fcnland and Eastern Counties Meteorological Circular 

 and Weather Report for May there appear, in addition to the 

 usual matter, the first of a series of papers by the R-iv. VV. 

 Clement Ley, on wind laws, and a second notice of Mr. Buchan 

 and Dr. Mitchell's paper on the weather and mortality of L n- 

 don, in which the author, Dr. J. M. Wilson, makes some inter- 

 esting comparisons as regards a few of the most important 

 diseases between the results obtained for London and those for 

 Wisbeach. 



At a recent meeting of the Manchester Field Naturalists' and 

 Archoeologists' Society, Mr. Faraday gave an account of a plan- 

 tation of the Eucalyptus globulus, at Myeres, in the department 

 of Var, in the south of France. Three years ago M. Cortambert 

 planted 2,000 seedlings a few inches high over one hectare of 

 land. The trees are now about thirty feet high, the stems 

 having a circumference of about fourteen inches at three feet 

 from the ground. It has of course been necessary to thin 

 the plantation. A branch in flower was recently laid en the 

 table at a meeting of the French Central Society of Horticulture. 

 The wood of the Eucalyptus is extensively used in Algeria for 

 carriage building. Plantations of this tree are becoming nume- 

 rous in the south of France. 



The full complement of sea-water required for the filling and 

 successful maintenance of the marine tanks at the Westminster 

 Aquarium — over 500,000 gallons — has been delivered, and the 

 importation of marine specimens will be rapidly proceeded with. 

 Many interesting examples of ocean life are already on y\Q.ft in 

 the smaller tanks stationed m the Eastern Annexe. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 last week include a White-thighed Colobus {Colobus bicolor), 

 from W. Africa, presented by Mr. A. J. Keason ; a White- 

 backed Trumpeter {Psophia leucoptera), from S. America, pre- 

 sented by Mr. H. S. Marks, A.R.A. ; two Javan P'iih Owls 

 {Ketupa Javanica), received in exchange ; a Thar Goat ( Capra 

 jemlaica) born in the Gardens, the mother belonging to the col- 

 lection of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales ; a Falkland Island 

 Thrush ( Turdus falklandicus) from Chili, deposited. 



