Nov. 14, 1889] 



NATURE 



For determination of the air-temperature at great heights, 

 the Berlin Society for Ballooning (we learn from Htanboldt) is 

 going to try a method of Herr Siegsfeld, who uses a thermo- 

 meter, which, by closure of an electric circuit when certain tem- 

 peratures are reached, gives a light-signal. Small balloons, 

 each containing such a thermometer, will be sent up by night, 

 and the light will affect photographically a so-called " photo- 

 theodolite," while the height then attained will be indicated in 

 a mechanical way. It is hoped that more exact formulae for the 

 decrease of temperature with height may thus be obtained. 



The rapid decrease in the number of kangaroos is beginning 

 to attract the attention of scientific Societies in Australia. From 

 the collective reports of the various stock inspectors it was 

 estimated that in 1887 there were 1,881,510 kangaroos. In 1888 

 the number fell to 1,170,380, a decrease of 711,130. The chief 

 obstacle to the adoption of measures for the effectual protection 

 of the kangaroo is his vigorous appetite. One full-grown 

 kangaroo eats as much grass as six sheep ; and graziers — who as 

 a class are not, it is to be feared, readily accessible to the in- 

 fluence of sentiment— find that the food eaten by this interest- 

 ing animal might be more profitably utilized otherwise. In a 

 communication on the subject, lately submitted to the Linnean 

 Society of New South Wales, Mr. Trebeck suggested that the 

 National Park might be used for the preservation not only of 

 kangaroos but of very many members of the Australian fauna 

 and flora. 



At the monthly meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania on 

 September 9, the President (His Excellency Sir Robert G. C. 

 Hamilton) said he desired to bring before the Society a matter 

 relating to the young salmon at the Salmon Ponds. These were 

 the undoubted product of the ova brought out by Sir Thomas 

 Brady, which had been stripped from the male and female fish 

 and artificially fertilized, and the utmost care had been taken to 

 keep them apart from any other fish bred in the ponds. He re- 

 cently visited the ponds, accompanied by the Chairman of the 

 Fisheiies Board, the Secretary, and two of the members, when 

 they carefully examined a number of the young salmon, among 

 which they were surprised to find marked differences existing, 

 not only in size, but in their characteristics. It has often been 

 held that the Salmonidic caught in Tasmanian waters cannot 

 be true Salmo salar because so many of them have spots on the 

 dorsal fin, and a tinge of yellow or orange on the adipose fin, but 

 nearly half of the young salmon they examined, which had never 

 left the ponds, had these characteristics. Again, many of them 

 were almost "bull-headed" in appearance — another character- 

 istic which is not supposed to distinguish the true Salmo salar. 

 He would suggest to the Chairman of the Fisheries Board, whom 

 he saw -present, that the Secretary should be asked to make a 

 formal report of the result of this visit, and to obtain some speci- 

 mens of the young fish, which could be preserved in spirits, and 

 perhaps sent to Sir Thomas Brady to be submitted for the 

 consideration and opinion of naturalists at home. 



At the same meeting of the Tasmanian Royal Society, Mr, 

 James Barnard read a remarkably interesting paper on the last 

 living aboriginal of Tasmania. It has hitherto been generally 

 believed that the aboriginal Tasmanians are extinct. Mr. 

 Barnard, however, contends that there is still one survivor — 

 Fanny Cochrane Smith, of Port Cygnet, the mother of six sons 

 and five daughters, all of whom are living. "She is now about 

 fifty-five years of age. Fanny's claims to the honour of being a 

 pure representative of the ancient race have been disputed, but 

 Mr. Barnard makes out a good case in her favour. He himself 

 remembers her as she was forty years ago, when there were still 

 about thirty or forty natives at Oyster Cave ; "and certainly at 

 that time," he says, " I never heard a doubt expressed of her not 

 being a true aboriginal." 



The Caucasus is a region of great interest in the study of pre- 

 historic times, and a fresh impulse was lately given to its ex- 

 ploration, by Beyern's discovery of an extensive burial-ground 

 south of Kura (in the district of the Anticaucasus). At the 

 recent annual meeting of the German Anthropological Society, 

 Dr. Virchow gave some account of this bed (which Beyern has 

 named after General Repkin). The region is rich in ores, but 

 bronze articles are absent ; for, while copper is plentiful, there is 

 no tin. On the other hand, various ornaments of pure antimony 

 have been met with ; also antimony buttons (or knobs), like 

 those of Beni-Hassan in Egypt. The ground is largely of 

 volcanic nature, and many articles of obsidian (chiefly knives 

 and arrow-heads) have been found in the graves. One curious 

 find was that of a skeleton having an arrow-head of obsidian 

 in one of the leg-bones, partly overgrown by a callus. The 

 metallic girdles in this burial-ground have figures of animals 

 engraved on them ; in the Koban ground, such figures are con- 

 fined to the clasp, but this, in the Repkin ground, is wanting. 



Prof. Edwin J. Houston contributes to the November 

 number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute a short paper 

 on a bail-storm at Philadelphia, October i, 1889. After noting 

 various points common to most hailstones, he refers to a charac- 

 teristic which he had never before observed. "On some of the 

 hailstones," he says, " though not in the majority of them, well- 

 marked crystals of clear transparent ice projected from their 

 outer surfaces for distances ranging from an eighth to a quarter 

 of an inch. These crystals, as well as I could observe from the 

 evanescent nature of the material, were hexagonal prisms with 

 clearly-cut terminal facets. They resembled the projecting 

 crystals that form so common a lining in geodic masses, in 

 which they have formed by gradual crystallization from the 

 mother-liquor. They differed, however, of course, in being on 

 the outer surface of the spherules." 



In Das Wetter for October, Dr. \V. J. van Bebber discusses 

 a paper, by the late Prof. Loomis, on the rainfall of the earth. 

 The following are noted as some of the conditions favourable to 

 rain: (i) an unsettled state of the atmosphere, caused by 

 unusually high temperature, with great humidity, a condition 

 which occurs when the pressure is below the average value ; 

 (2) cold northerly or westerly winds on the west side of a 

 depression, by which the winds on the east side receive a stronger 

 impulse ; (3) proximity to mountains, the ocean or large lakes ; 

 (4) deep depressions of small area and steep gradients. With 

 regard to the rainfall which accompanies barometric depressions, 

 it is found that in the United States, south of latitude 36° N., 

 a rainfall of 2 "5 inches occurs oftener on the east side than on 

 the west side of a depression in the ratio of 2'6 : i ; on the 

 eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, a rainfall of 9 inches occuiS 

 more frequently on the east than on the west of a barometric 

 minimum, in the ratio of 6"2 : i. In the North Atlantic Ocean, 

 the ratios of large rain areas on the east and west sides of a 

 depression areas 2'6 : i ; while in Europe a rainfall of 2"5 inches 

 in twenty-four hours on the east and west sides of a depression 

 occurs in the ratio of 2 : i. The rainfall with a falling or rising 

 barometer is also investigated. 



We have received the fifth and last part of vol. i. of M. 

 Fabre's comprehensive " Traite Encyclopedique de Photo- 

 graphie " (Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 1889). The subject of 

 lenses is considered in great detail, and the theory and use of 

 diaphragms are fully gone into. The relation of the time of 

 exposure to the subject and lens employed is also considered, 

 and studios, dark rooms, and their various accessories are fully 

 described and illustrated. From both the theoretical and prac- 

 tical point of view the work still bears out its original promise 

 of becoming the most complete one on the subject. 



