Feb. 20, 1890] 



NATURE 



2>7 



0/3 



similar circumstances, stronger than on land ; but actual com- 

 parisons, such as the author has undertaken, are not frequently 

 made. He has chosen two stations on the coast — viz. Cherbourg 

 and Hurst Castle — having a different position with regard to the 

 sea, but at which the observations are made under nearly similar 

 conditions. The results of careful comparisons under eight 

 points of the compass, for a period of several years, plainly 

 show that in all months the northerly and north-easterly winds 

 at Cherbourg are considerably stronger than at Hurst Castle, 

 ind that the southerly winds at Cherbourg fall considerably 

 short in strength of those at Hurst Castle. The tables show 

 that the strong winds coming from the sea are on an average 

 one degree of Beaufort's scale (1-12) heavier than those coming 

 from the land, while, with lighter or local winds, the difference 

 often amounts to two degrees of the above scale. Information 

 of this kind should be of use to fishermen and others when 

 putting to sea. 



» 

 M. Plantamour gives, in a recent number of the Archives 

 des Sciences, the results of his eleventh year's observations of 

 periodic movements of the ground, as shown by spirit-levels. 

 It appears that, while in general the east side sinks with lower- 

 ing of temperature, and rises with a rise, these movements do 

 not always follow with the same rapidity. A sudden change of 

 temperature produces at once a rise or sinking of the east side ; 

 but the maxima of the ground-positions rarely coincide with the 

 maximum or minimum of temperature. This eleventh year is ex- 

 ceptional in that the extremes of temperature are but one or two 

 days in advance of those of the movements, whereas in previous 

 years the retardation has been a fortnight to four months behind 

 minimum temperature, and a fortnight to three months behind 

 niaximum. In two years (1881 and 1885) the maximum of 

 rise was even four days before the maximum of temperature. 

 Thus, while temperature seems to be the chief cause of the 

 oscillations, some other opposing cause must be at work. M. 

 Plantamour compared the eleven years' mean effects with the 

 variations in solar intensity, but failed to detect any relation. 



Carl Hess, the German naturalist, has proved by minute 

 microscopical investigation that the eye of the mole is perfectly 

 capable of seeing, and that it is not short-sighted, as another 

 naturalist (Kadyi) would have us believe. Hess maintains that, 

 in spite of its minute dimensions, — i millimetre by 0*9 milli- 

 metre — the eye of this little creature possesses all the necessary 

 properties for seeing that the most highly-developed eye does ; 

 that it is, indeed, as well suited for seeing as the eye of any 

 other mammal, and that in the matter of refraction it does not 

 differ from the normal eye. In order to bear out the theory of 

 short-sightedness, the physiological reason was adduced that in 

 its subterranean runs the mole is accustomed to see things at 

 close distances, and that its eye had become gradually suited to 

 near objects. But to this Hess objects that the mole when under 

 ground most probably makes no use of his eyes at all, as it 

 would be impossible to see anything owing to the absence of 

 light, but that when he comes to the surface, and especially 

 v/hen he is swimming, he does use his eyes. In order to 

 accomplish this, he only has to alter the erect position of the 

 hairs which surround and cover his eyes, and which prevent the 

 entry of dirt when he is under ground, and at the same time to 

 protrude his eyes forward. 



It seems rather strange that, while skins and eggs of the Great 

 Auk are so highly valued, the public rarely hear of Pallas's 

 Cormorant, the extinction of which in the North Pacific corre- 

 sponds to that of the Great Auk in the North Atlantic. Only 

 four specimens of Pallas's Cormorant are known to exist in 

 museums ; no one possesses its eggs ; and no bones were found 

 or preserved until Mr. Leonhard Stejneger, of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, was so fortunate some years ago as to rescue a few 



of them. Yet this bird was the largest and handsomest of its 

 tribe. So says Mr. Stejneger in an interesting paper— just issued 

 by the Smithsonian Institution— in which he records how the 

 bones referred to were found by him in 1882 near the north- 

 western extremity of Behring Island. In an appendix to this 

 paper Mr. Stejneger's "find " is fully and exactly described by 

 Mr. Frederic A. Lucas. 



We have received the first two numbers of the Scottish Journal 

 of Natural History. This monthly periodical is intended to be 

 mainly a chronicle of the work done by the different Natural 

 History Societies in Scotland ; but short papers on subjects 

 connected with Natural History will also be given, and we notice 

 that articles have been promised by well known men of science, 

 including Profs. James Geikie, G. J. Romanes, and many others. 

 At present very few of the Scottish Natural History Societies 

 print Transactions ; so there is ample room for the new venture, 

 and we wish it all success. Communications are to be addressed 

 to the Editors, care of the publisher, Mr. W. B. Robinson, 

 194 Sauchiehall Street, and 105 New City Road, Glasgow. 



The first part of the Memoirs and Proceedings of the Man- 

 chester Literary and Philosophical Society for the current session 

 has been issued. It contains a paper by Mr. Charles Bailey, on 

 the discovery near Ribblehead of Arenaria gothica, a plant new 

 to Britain, the typical form of which has so far been recorded only 

 for two Swedish localities. The Ribblehead specimens are stated 

 to be more robust than those from Sweden. The issue also in- 

 cludes a paper by Mr. Charles H. Lees on the law of cooling and 

 its bearing on the theory of heat in bars ; and the first part of 

 Mr. Faraday's " Selections from the (unpublished) Correspon- 

 dence of Colonel John Leigh Philips, of Mayfield, Manchester " 

 (1761-1814). The latter includes letters from Dr. Henry Clarke 

 (the mathematician), James Sowerby, and a number of other 

 persons of local eminence during the latter half of the last 

 century. 



Prof. Weismann requests us to state that in his article on 

 Heredity, printed in Nature on February 6, the sentence 

 beginning on p. 319, line 38, should have read—" Sir William 

 Thomson, in endeavouring to make clear the dispersion of rays 

 of light by conceiving of a molecule as consisting of hollow 

 spheres enclosed one within the other and in contact with one 

 another through springs, never believed," &c. 



Tw^o gaseous fluorides of carbon, the tetrafluoride, CF4, and the 

 difluoride, C.^Fj, have been isolated, and form the subject of 

 two simultaneous papers contributed to the current number of 

 the Comptes rendus. One of these communications is from M. 

 Moissan, whose energy in this domain of chemistry appears un- 

 tiring. Unlike chlorine, fluorine directly attacks carbon with 

 varying degrees of energy, according to the form in which the 

 carbon is presented. When a current of pure fluorine is passed 

 over the purest form of lamp-black, which has previously been 

 freed from hydrocarbons by digestion with petroleum and boiling 

 alcohol, combination occurs with such energy that the whole of 

 the finely divided carbon becomes instantly incandescent. The 

 lighter varieties of wood charcoal also take fire spontaneously in 

 fluorine, the gas appearing to be first condensed for a few 

 moments, and then the mass becomes suddenly incandescent and 

 throws off brilliant scintillations. If the density of the charcoal 

 is greater, and there is no loose dust upon its surface, it is neces- 

 sary to warm it to 50^-100° C. in order to bring about combina- 

 tion and its accompanying incandescence. When once the 

 incandescence is started at any spot it rapidly extends through- 

 out the entire mass. Ferruginous graphite requires to be 

 heated to a temperature just below dull redness, and gas 

 retort carbon to full redness, in order to effect combination, 

 while the diamond may be heated for any length of time over a 



