342 



NATURE 



[February lo, 1S98 



not affect the British fauna as a whole very much. The bulk of 

 the English and Irish animals must have travelled to these 

 islands on a land-surface which was not covered by ice, and 

 how they did so and when, is the problem at issue. To attack 

 thi^ problem from a purely zoological point of view will, I think, 

 be of great service to geological science, and will help to clear 

 up many doubtful points as to the nature and cause of the Glacial 

 Period. R. F. Scharff. 



Science and Art Museuni, Dublin, January 31. 



I CAN assure Dr. Scharff that I took pains to read his full 

 memoir before venturing to discuss it, as I think he should have 

 recognised from the fact that the passage which I quoted from 

 it did not occur in the abstract printed in Nature. 



I readily acknowledge my inability to discuss the purely 

 zoological questions which he has raised, and purpe^sely avoided 

 any attempt to do so. But as his methods have led him to con- 

 clusions as to the past geological conditions of the Irish Sea 

 basin which are demonstrably at variance with the geological 

 field-evidence in a crucial area, it seems desirable that a geological 

 protest should be recorded against them. 



If Dr. Scharff could be persuaded to reconsider his subject, 

 irom a standpoint which should include both the zoological and 



THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN. 

 ViziADURG, Monday, January 17. 

 T^ HE work is so incessant here from sunrise to mid- 

 -*■ night that I have not time to give anything like 

 an adequate idea of our doings. I may say, however, 

 that we have been here since last Saturday week, and 

 everything is ready for the eclipse. We have now over 

 120 volunteers. Captain Chisholm-Batten has taken 

 charge of the whole arrangement, and to me, an old 

 eclipser, it is a beautiful thing to see the splendid drill 

 which we have commenced in eclipse form, along all 

 lines, to-day, going on to the sound of the bugle. The 

 observers have been arranged into twenty-one parties as 

 follows : — 



Observitig Parties. 

 Instruments, &c. 

 I. 6-inch prismatic camera ... 

 II. 9-inch prismatic camera ... 



III. Integrating spectroscope ... 



IV. Discs 



V. Sketches of corona, without discs 



VI. Colours of landscape 



Staff, 

 7 



8 



18 



12 



6 



Fig. I. — Camp, Saturday, January 8. Putting in corxcrete pillars. 



the geological evidence, he might yet find some solution which 

 would be satisfactory to the students of both sciences. 



G. W. Lamplugh. 



On Augury from Combat of Shell-fish. 



In a foot-note to my letter on this subject (Nature, vol. Ivi. 

 p. 30, May 13, 1897), I remarked that the Khchau (a shell- 

 fish), applied by the Cambodians to the divination of a war, is 

 likely to belong to the family of Paludinidse, taking into con- 

 sideration the fact that the Japanese and the Chinese of former 

 days used some species of viviparus (= Paludina) for the same 

 purpose. Lately, while examining M. A. Parvie's article 

 "Excursions dans le Cambodge, &c." in Cochin-Chini 

 Frattfaise ; Excursions et Reconnaissances, No. 9, p. 479, 1882, 

 I have come across a passage giving confirmation to my view. 

 The author, giving nomenclatures of the Cambodian molluscs, 

 identifies the native Kechau (which is doubtless another French 

 form of the spelling Khchan) with the Latin "Paludina"; 

 whereas the allied genus Ampullaria has its Cambodian name 

 "Tal." KuMAGUSU Minakata. 



January 31. 



NO. 1476, VOL. 57] 



VII. 



VIII. 



IX. 



X. 



XL 



XII. 



XIIL 



XIV. 



XV. 



XVI. 



XVII. 



XVIII. 



XIX. 



XX. 



XXI. 



Shadow phenomena 



6-inch equatorial, with grating spectroscope 



3 J -inch equatorial ... 



Hand spectroscopes, with slits ... 



Prisms for observations of ring spectra 



Timekeepers 



Contact observations 



Polariscope ... 



Observations of temperature 



Observations of stars during totality 



Landscape cameras for shadow, &c. 



Observations of shadow bands ... 



Kinematograph for eclipse 



Kinematograph for shadow 



Coronograph 



5 

 3 

 6 



7 

 3 

 2 

 2 

 13 

 7 

 7 

 3 

 4 



2 



3 



Total 129 



Incessant instruction has been going on since the eclipse 

 party joined the Melpomene at Colombo ; but in this I 

 have had quite a subordinate part to play, for the ofificers 

 are past masters in many of the subjects which concerrfc 



