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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to the meteorology of Siberia, has taken 

 regular observations at meteorological sta- 

 tions, and has collected materials for ascer- 

 taining the dates of the freezing and break- 

 ing up of the ice in the rivers of the country. 



NOTES. 



Concerning the statement that Mr. Her- 

 bert Spencer is going around the world by 

 way of Australia and San Francisco, he thus 

 writes to an American friend : " The rumor 

 you indicate respecting my voyage to Aus- 

 tralia and New Zealand is all nonsense, as 

 you suspected. Last summer I had a letter 

 from Sir George Gray (late Governor of New 

 Zealand), pressing me to go and stay with 

 him, and promising great benefit to my 

 health. My reply was that the probable re- 

 sult of yielding to his pressure would be 

 that I should be left in mid-Atlantic with a 

 cannon-shot at my feet." 



Mr. Charles Dimitrt, of New Orleans, 

 some two years ago proposed an hypothesis 

 that the mounds and earthworks in the 

 Western river-bottoms were intended for 

 places of refuge for the people and their 

 stock in time of high water and floods. 

 His theory received some striking illus- 

 trations during the recent expedition of 

 the relief-steamer Tensas to the flooded 

 districts of Red River. The water was 

 found rushing through the crevasses with 

 a loud noise. Trinity was completely sub- 

 merged, and at Troy the situation was but 

 little better. With the exception of a few 

 buildings erected upon mounds (among the 

 largest mounds in the United States), all 

 had succumbed to the water. The grave- 

 yard on one of the mounds had become a 

 rendezvous for stock, pigs, sheep, and hu- 

 man beings. At Lamarque, in Concordia 

 Parish, where the water stood six feet deep, 

 the stock were cared for on mounds or in 

 houses. 



The American Ornithologists' Union has 

 undertaken to ascertain the true character 

 of the European house-sparrow, which has 

 now become so abundant in this country, 

 and of the effect of its presence upon agri- 

 cultural and economical interests. It has 

 prepared a circular of inquiries to be sent 

 out to intelligent persons who will under- 

 take the observations, the tenor of the an- 

 swers to which, it is hoped, will determine 

 whether the bird is eligible or ineligible as 

 a naturalized citizen of our land. The more 

 important of the questions bear chiefly upon 

 the nature of the " sparrow's food, the ef- 

 fect of its presence upon useful birds and 

 beneficial as well as deleterious insects, and 

 its effects on shade, fruit, and ornamental 

 trees, and garden fruits and vegetables. 



Persons interested in the subject may com- 

 municate with the chairman of the associa- 

 tion's committee. Dr. J. B. Holder, Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History, Central 

 Park, New York city. 



Professor John Hdtton Balfour, Emer- 

 itus Professor of Botany in the University 

 of Edinburgh, died February 11th, in the 

 seventy-seventh year of his age. He was 

 chosen to fill the place of Sir William 

 Hooker, at Glasgow, when Hooker was 

 called from that place to Kew, and was 

 elected to the Regius Professorship of 

 Botany at Edinburgh in 1845. He retired 

 from this position, on account of infirmity, 

 in 18'7'7. He published much, but w^as bet- 

 ter known as a teacher than as an original 

 investigator. 



Mr. F. Cope Whitehouse presented to 

 the Academy of Sciences (March 24th) the re- 

 sults of his geological researches and survey 

 of the canon of the Nile, with especial refer- 

 ence to the Pyramids of Gizeh. He denies 

 that the material was brought from any con- 

 siderable distance. Geology and tradition 

 show that the two large piles are recon- 

 structed hills. The whole hill has probably 

 been rebuilt, except the lower 180 feet. It 

 seems to have been done by the excavation 

 of a chamber in the center of the mass of 

 soft, horizontal limestone, and the transfer 

 of blocks from the ceiling to the floor until 

 the top of the hill had been reached. Thus 

 a precarious and dangerous mound of poor, 

 clayey limestone was converted into a per- 

 manent protection and stable structure 

 without great expense and without disturb- 

 ing the beautiful edifices of granite and 

 alabaster tanks and tombs whose remains 

 are still found on the terrace and near the 

 Sphinx at its foot. 



The death, at the age of forty-eight years, 

 is announced of Richard Cortembert, a French 

 geographer, who until 1878 held a position 

 in the geographical department of the Bib- 

 liotheque Nationale. Among his works 

 were " Grands Voyages Conteraporains " 

 (1864), (" Great Contemporary Voyages"), 

 and "Geographic Commerciale" ("Com- 

 mercial Geography") for schools (1868.) 

 At the time of his death he was engaged 

 upon a " New History of Voyages." 



The Rev. Dr. J. G. Macvicar, of Moffat, 

 Scotland, who died February 12th, aged 

 eighty-four years, was a diligent student of 

 natural science in early life, and was from 

 1827 the first lecturer in natural history in 

 the University of St. Andrews. He was 

 editor of the " Quarterly Journal of Agri- 

 culture," and was the author of " The Ele- 

 ments of the Economy of Nature " and 

 other scientific books and papers, and of 

 a treatise on " The Philosophy of the Beau- 

 tiful." His best-known work was "An 



