Jan. 30, 1890] 



NATURE 



303 



at Kansas City from February 1 1 to 14, shall be, as Scietue puts 

 it, *' one of the most interesting conventions ever held." Those 

 who propose to go to Kansas from New York may look forward 

 to a pleasant journey. A vestibule train, to be called the I^lectric 

 Limited, is to run through without change to Kansas City vid 

 Chicago and the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. 

 The committee making the necessary arrangements feels 

 confident that this train will be "the finest ever run out of 

 New York." It will be composed of the latest Pullman vesti- 

 bule sleeping-cars, lighted^by electricity, a dining-car, composite 

 car containing barber shop, bath room, card room, library, 

 writing desk, smoking room, &c., and an observation car with a 

 large open room luxuriously furnished, as well as an observation 

 platform. The train will be supplied throughout with fixed 

 and portable electric lamps. 



Herr Trautweiler thinks that a railway should go to the 

 top of the Jungfrau, and in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung gwe?, a 

 brief account of his scheme. The railway would go from the 

 valley below to the summit, and would be almost entirely under- 

 ground. There would be several intermediate stations, from 

 which convenient, well-arranged tunnels would lead to points on 

 the mountain whence the best views are to be had. If stormy 

 weather came on, the passengers could withdraw into the shelter 

 of those tunnels. The railway would be lighted by electricity. 



The following is translated from a notice published by the 

 authorities of the Madrid Observatory : — "D. Ernesto Caballero, 

 Professor of Physics, and director of the electric lighting manu- 

 factory in Pontevedra, writes to this Observatory, giving details 

 of a remarkable meteorological phenomenon which appeared at 

 9.15 p.m. on the 2nd inst. In a sky serene and clear, there 

 appeared suddenly a globe or ball of fire of the apparent size 

 of an orange, which after falling (it is not possible to well indi- 

 cate how or from whence) upon the conducting wires stretched 

 across the city, entered the manufactory (referred to) by a sky- 

 light or window, struck the apparatus for distributing the light, 

 from which (after raising the armature of a magnetic current 

 closer) it struck the dynamo at work. In the presence of the 

 alarmed engineer and workmen present it rebounded twice from 

 the dynamo to the conductor, and from the conductor to the 

 dynamo, then fell and burst with a sharp and clear detonation 

 into a multitude of fragments, without producing any harm or 

 leaving any trace of its mysterious existence. In various parts 

 of the city the lights swiftly oscillated and were extinguished 

 for some seconds, and that the darkness was not general and 

 long continued was owing to the admirable self-possession of 

 the employh, who almost instantly established the order of 

 things so suddenly and strangely interrupted by this mysterious 

 meteor, of whose action and presence there only remained 

 traces on the melted (or soldered) edges of the thick copper 

 plates belonging to the armature of the circuit closer. Outside 

 the building, and at the moment of falling upon the conducting 

 wires, it was seen by (among others) the Professor of Natural 

 History, Seiior Garceran, and from various effects observed on the 

 wires during the following day there were undoubted manifesta- 

 tions {in no other way explicable) of its electrical origin." 



The second part of a voluminous bibliography of meteorology 

 prepared by Brigadier-General Greely, Chief Signal Officer of the 

 United States Army, and edited by Oliver L. Fassig, has been 

 issued, and consists of a classed catalogue of printed literature 

 relating to moisture, from the origin of printing to the close of 

 1 88 1. The whole literature included is divided into 22 sub- 

 divisions, a comprehensive classification which will be highly 

 appreciated. A section is devoted to rainfall in general, others 

 to distribution and variation of rainfall, others to heavy rainfall 

 and drought, and so on throughout the whole work. A division 

 on «' Showers of Miscellaneous Matter," though not properly a 



part of the subject, has been deemed of sufficient interest in con- 

 nection with the general subject of precipitation to be included 

 within this volume. Although supplements to Part I. Tempera- 

 ture, and Part II. Moisture, may appear later, it is to be regretted 

 that it will be impracticable for any other part of this bibliography 

 to be issued from the Signal Office. 



In Petermanii' 5 Mittdlungen for December last. Dr. R. 

 Spitaler has an instructive paper on the temperature "anomalies" 

 of the surface of the earth in January and July, with charts 

 showing those districts which are too warm (in positive anomaly) 

 or too cold (in negative anomaly), compared with the normal 

 values of their geographical positions. Such charts were first 

 drawn by Dove ; but as the materials at the disposal of Dr. 

 I Spitaler are much better than those which Prof. Dove possessed, 

 ' the charts differ in several important particulars. The influence 

 j of the warm and cold ocean-currents upon the temperature 

 j anomaly is very clearly shown. Europe, for instance, being 

 under the influence of the Gulf Stream and south-west winds, is 

 always in positive anomaly, whereas Central Asia is a district 

 which has in winter 24° C. of negative anomaly, while in sum- 

 mer it has 6" of positive anomaly, or of greater heat than the 

 I same latitude in Europe. The July chart shows in the northern 

 hemisphere two decided maxima of positive anomaly, and two 

 minima, while in the southern hemisphere, owing to the less 

 amount of land, the anomaly is much smaller. In July the con- 

 tinents of the northern hemisphere are almost entirely in positive 

 anomaly, while the whole of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans 

 and Central America are in negative anomaly. 



In the current number of the Journal of the Anthropological 

 Institute there is a valuable paper, by Dr. Arthur Thomson, on 

 the Veddahs of Ceylon. Discussing the affinities of the Veddahs, 

 he says there appears to be little doubt that if they be not of 

 the same stock as the so-called aborigines of Southern India 

 they at least present very strong points of resemblance as 

 regards stature, proportions of limbs, cranial capacity, and form 

 of skull. The similarities of hair and colour between these 

 races have often been remarked, so that, on the whole, if 

 physical features alone be taken into account. Dr. Thomson 

 thinks the affinities of the Veddahs with the hill tribes of the 

 Nilgherries and the natives of the Coromandel coast, and the 

 country near Cape Comorin, are fairly well proved. 



Mr. H. B. Bashore sends to Science sketches of an interest- 

 ing Indian pipe. It is made of dark green steatite, carved into 

 an admirable image of a turtle, and represents, no doubt, one 

 of the Delaware totems. The back of the animal is well 

 polished and distinctly marked with lines, and the hole for the 

 stem is well drilled, and of a smooth bore. This relic was 

 found thirty years ago on the site of what is now the village of 

 Fairview, on the Susquehanna, close to an old Indian burying- 

 ground. 



The Punjab Government is obtaining a number of young 

 olive trees from Italy, and proposes to find out by experiment 

 whether the low hills below Murree in the Rawul Pindi district 

 are suitable for olive cultivation. 



The Laccadive Islands have been suffering severely from a 

 plague of rats. According to the Calcutta Correspondent of the 

 Times, these invaders have destroyed the cocoanut plantations 

 and reduced the islanders to a state of destitution. 



Mr. R. M. Johnston lately called the attention of the 

 Royal Society of Tasmania to the extreme variability of the 

 genus Unio, inhabiting the northern rivers of Tasmania. The 

 shell seems to be capable of a remarkable number of modifica- 

 tions with regard both to form and colour. This, Mr. Johnston 

 says, is more particularly the case if specimens marking different 

 stages of growth are compared with each other. In specimens 



