Feb, 3, 1876] 



NATURE 



277 



attention was turned to the cultivation of the soil. Round the 

 huts, accordingly, were patches of land in potatoes, turnips, and 

 cabbage, which at least this year yielded abundant crops, though 

 the colony is situated in the latitude of Avasaxa, that is to say, 

 under the Arctic circle. 



Later in the day we came to the Monastery of Troit, in former 

 times renowned and rich, now inhabited only by a single monk, 

 viz., the prior himself. He was a worthy old man, who gave us 

 a hospitable and friendly reception. The apartment for the 

 reception of guests was adorned with a number of portraits of 

 Siberian bishops. There was besides a portrait of a Russian 

 Czar in powdered hair and military uniform, with blue great 

 cross riband. It was a portrait of Czar Paul, but through some 

 exchange the Skoptists had taken it into their heads that the 

 portrait represented their holy prophet, Czar Peter III., whose 

 history they had completely altered in accordance with their 

 idealised conception of the world. An educated man, who 

 belonged to this sect, and on this account had been banished to 

 North Jenisei, informed me accordingly in all seriousness that 

 Czar Peter III. was not murdered, but was knouted and sent to 

 Siberia, &c., all on account of his holiness — as so it happens 

 now that in consequence of all this the portrait of Czar Paul in 

 the Troit Monastery is a sacred picture to which worship is 

 offered. A. E. Nordenskjold 



{To be continued.) 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The yournal of the Chemical Society for December 1875 con- 

 tains the following papers communicated to the Society : — On 

 the agricultural chemistry of the tea-plantations of India, by J. 

 Campbell-Brown, D. Sc. This lengthy paper contains analyses of 

 the young and old leaves of good plants and of stunted and 

 blighted plants of different varieties, analyses of the wood of 

 good and stunted tea-plants of different varieties, analyses of tea- 

 seed, of the soils of tea-plantations, and of tea from manured 

 and unmanured plants. The author discusses also the analytical 

 results. — On certain new reactions of tungsten, by Prof. J. W. 

 Mallett, of the University of Virginia. The author has lound, 

 contrary to the statements in text-books, that the precipitate pro- 

 duced by hydrochloric acid in a solution of an alkaline tungstate 

 is soluble in an excess of the concentrated acid. By adding frag- 

 ments of metallic zinc to the above-named acid solution, various 

 colours are produced, the most noteworthy being a brilliant 

 magenta. Potassium sulphocyanate and metallic zinc added to 

 the acid solution produce a rich green colour, but when the sul- 

 phocyanate is added first to the alkaline tungstate solution, then a 

 considerable quantity of water, then hydrochloric acid, and finally 

 zinc, a fine amethyst colour is produced. The blue colour well 

 known as characteristic of one of the lower oxides of tungsten 

 may be best brought out by the use of hyposulphurous acid 

 (H0SO2) as the reducing agent. — The remainder of the journal 

 contains the usual collection of abstracts. 



American Journal of Science and Arts, Dec. 1875.— This 

 number commences with a paper of careful obsei-vations by Prof. 

 Dana on five of the river valleys of Southern New England, 

 with a view to ascertaining the depression of that region during 

 the melting of the glacier. This he estimates at about 15 feet. 

 He considers that the terraces in the Housatonic, Connecticut, 

 and Thames, which are now so high above the river's surface, 

 were not wholly, or mostly formed when the land was at a much 

 lower level then now, but they were formed when the rivers 

 were at a greatly higher level than now, owing chiefly to the 

 glacial flood. Thus we may have high and numerous terraces 

 along valleys, and yet none be due to an elevation of the land. 

 The height of the streams during the flood above high tide level 

 is estimated in one case at as much as 237 feet (from which the 

 15 feet depression would be deducted). The amount of depres- 

 sion increased from the sound northwards at about one foot and 

 a half per mile, since Dawson has shown that the height of the 

 beaches at Montreal indicate a depression there of 500 feet. The 

 waters from the melting glacier must have brought down the 

 streams in vast volume to have piled to so great heights before 

 outlets so wide and deep.— Prof. Storer, of Harvard, gives some 

 observations which show (after Schonbein) that ammonia is a 

 constant contaminant of sulphuric acid, and further, that it is a 

 more frequent impurity in chemical substances (prepared with 

 aid of sulphuric acid) than has been supposed. — An abstract is 

 given of a memoir by Prof. Suess of Vienna on the origin of the 



Alps. — Mr. Andrews describes some new and interesting coal- 

 plants from Perry County, Ohio, and Dr. Becker calls attention 

 to a new feature in the " Comstock Lode " in Nevada. — In a 

 letter from Dr. Gould, of Cordoba Observatory, the writer states 

 that his zone observations, begun in 1872, are now completed ; 

 and the entire region from 23° to 80° of south declination has 

 been carefully scrutinised. The 10° round the pole have been 

 examined by Gillis at Santiago and Stone, at Cape of Good 

 Hope, and Gould's northern limit overlaps Argeliinder's southern 

 zone by eight degrees (as Argeliinder had requested). 



Supplementary December Number. — Mr. Langley here con- 

 tributes a paper on the solar atmosphere, being introductory to 

 an account of researches made at the Alleghany Observatory. 

 The estimates of the absorptive power of this atmosphere, based 

 on photometric comparison of the centre and edge of the sun, 

 have been widely discrepant ; thus Arago thought the light of 

 the centre must be diminished 2 '4 per cent, to equal that of the 

 edge ; Liais's estimate is 10 and Secchi's 78 per cent. Mr. 

 Langley here describes a new method of measurement free from 

 some of the objections to previous ones ; and he thinks the esti- 

 mates of Secchi (who used La Place's formula) are certainly in 

 excess of the truth. Not much more or less than one half (he 

 considers) of the whole so-called "luminous heat rays" are 

 absorbed, turned back, or converted into work, in- the sun's 

 atmosphere. The total thermal absorption is somewhat less. 

 The method is also applicable to sun-spots, <S;c., and Mr. 

 Langley finds the absolute light of the " nuclei " in spots at least 

 five thousand times that of the full moon. — In a supplemental 

 paper on Southern New England during the melting of the great 

 glacier. Prof. Dana discusses the overflows of the flooded Con- 

 necticut, which he concludes was at that time a great stream 

 1 50 feet deep and fifteen miles wide. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Society, Jan 6.— On the length of the Spark from 

 a Battery of 600, 1,200, 1,800, and 2400 rod-Chloride of Silver, 

 and some Phenomena attending the Discharge of 5,640 Cells. 

 By Warren De La Rue, D.C.L., F.R.S., and Hugo W. Muller, 

 F.R.S. 



On the 24th February, 1875,* we had the honour of commu- 

 nicating to the Society, in conjunction \vith our friend Mr. 

 Spottiswoode, an account of some experiments to ascertain the 

 cause of stratification in electrical discharges i)i vacuo. These 

 experiments were made with a battery of i,oSo cells of povvder- 

 chloride of silver, which was described ; we have now in action 

 3,240 such cells, and have recently completed 2,400 rod-chloride 

 of silver cells, t making our total force 5,640 cells in action. To 

 these will be shortly added another unit of 1,080 cells powder- 

 chloride, and two other units of 1,200 rod-chloride, making a 

 total of 9,120 cells. 



We have more recently made a ■verbal communication to the 

 Society of Telegraph Engineers, and also in October last a 

 written one to the Academie des Sciences of Paris J, wherein we 

 have stated that the length of the spark in air appears to be in 

 the direct ratio of the square of the number of cells. 



Having completed the 2,400 cells, and charged them up in a 

 single day, they were exactly in the same condition as to electro- 

 motive force and internal resistance, consequently they afforded 

 the means of testing the truth of the law of the length of spaik 

 in a manner more efficacious than had hitherto obtained, the 

 more especially as by the use of paraffin corks and other pre- 

 cautions we had obtained an excellent insulation. 



Our assistant, Mr. Fram, has constructed a discharger which 

 permits of the accurate measurement of the distance of the 

 terminals to read to xxrVxr of ^^ inch, and by estimation to the 

 tenth of that quantity. The nut, through which the screw (-^^ of 

 an inch), carrying one of the terminals, works, is divided into two 

 parts, which are separated by a spiral pressure-spring, so as to pre- 

 vent shake. In making measurements the terminals are sepa- 

 rated to a greater quantity than the anticipated striking-distance, 

 and gradually approached until the spark passes ; the discharger 

 is then detached from the battery, and after reading the scale, 

 connected up with a separate battery of 10 cells, with a detector, 

 galvanometer in circuit. The terminals are again approached 

 until the motion of the galvanometer indicates contact between 



"^ Proc. Roy. Soc, No. 160, 1875. 



t Proc. Roy. Soc., No. 160, 1875, p. 357. 



% " Comptus Rendus," No. 16, p. 686 ; No. 17, p. 746, 1875. 



