54 



NATURE 



[Nov. 2 1, 1878 



publicly stated this and added his opinion that no sanitaiy 

 autharity could possibly object to water from streets and roofs 

 of houses, uncontaminated by sewage, being passed directly 

 into any river, Mr. Baldwin Latham might have been expected 

 to have investigated the subject further before adducing the one 

 statement without the other. 



There are many other arguments of a sanitary and economical 

 nature in favour of the collection of sewage without more dilu- 

 tion than necessary with rain water, but I must not trespass 

 further on your valuable space. 



Alfred S. Jones 



Rayons du Crepuscule 



My father tells me that he sees this phenomenon about five 

 times in the year on the average in this climate. But the display 

 at 4.40 this afternoon was unusually brilliant. The morning 

 had been very wet, and when it cleared in W.N.W. at 2.30 we 

 noticed the clear sky to be of an unusually green tint. 



Very distant cirro -stratus on the south horizon ceased to be 

 illumined by the rosy sunlight about twelve minutes before the 

 phenomenon became visible. The latter consisted of very bright 

 rosy rays, in a very clear sky, converging near the E.N.E. 

 horizon, the moon shining very brightly on the left of the place 

 of apparent convergence. The sky in interspaces between these 

 rays was of a deep blue ; these interspaces being, I suppose, the 

 shadows thrown from distant cumuli and shower -clouds, some of 

 which could be seen upon the western horizon. 



Ashby Parva, Lutterworth, November 10 Annie Ley 



The Power of Stupefying Spiders Possessed by Wasps 



With reference to my letter on this subject (Nature, vol. 

 xviii. p. 695), Mr. Arthur Nicols writes me his disbelief that 

 the pretended taking of the poison of snakes internally as a sup- 

 posed antidote or prophylactic against the bite is anything more 

 than a jujfgle of those chartered charlatans, the snake-charmers 

 of India; or that it can be so taken with impunity. Of the wasps 

 he says : "I dare say you know that one of the mason wasps of 

 Australia glues its egg to the inside wall of the mud nest, and 

 always at the top, while the rest of the space is filled with 

 spiders. The sting of this wasp is a terrible affair. I was 

 rendered quite comatose for several hours by being stung in the 

 knee " [which, by the way, is precisely the condition of the 

 spiders], " and the pain was most excruciating, with aching and 

 swelling of the inguinal and axillary glands. I don't know 

 whether the wasp stings the spiders, but they are always in a 

 good state of preservation, even when the egg is on the point of 

 hatching. I never found one in the least decomposed. The 

 nest, however, is hermetically sealed, and decomposition could 

 hardly take place, because so very small a quantity of oxygen 

 is inclosed within." It will be remembered that Mr. Armit 

 remarked "a constant movement in the legs of the spiders," 

 and that observation has been made before. 



If the word " wasps " in the above heading (which is not mine) 

 be understood to refer to any of the true vespse (vulgaris, rufa, 

 britannica, or borcalis), I agree with Mr. Frederick Smith 

 (Nature, vol. xix. p. 32), that it is misleading. But the solitary 

 insects whose habits have been referred to, have been called wasps 

 in all the popular books of natural history with which I am 

 acquainted ; and the correctness, or incorrectness, of the English 

 name does not affect the points brought forward. I may, 

 perhaps, be allowed to recall that the one object for which I 

 referred to the Athenian insect — in connection with a corre- 

 spondence then going on in your columns as to the senses of 

 insects — was the remarkable circumstance that it seems to hunt 

 down its prey by scent, Mr. Armit, of Queensland, referring to 

 that letter, asks the further question, How are the spiders 

 stupefied, and not killed, by a sting, formidable enough in one 

 species to endanger the life of a man ? Mr. Smith's letter throws 

 no li-rht on either of these points, 



Bregner Bournemouth Henry Cecil 



The Ayrshire Crannog 



The remarks made by Dr, Buchanan White in your last 

 issue in regard to the supposed existence of beech and the 

 absence of Scotch- fir in the Ayrshire Crannog will be carefully 

 attended to. Birch and hazel, so easily recognised by the bark, 

 are certainly in greater abundance than any other kind of wood. 



I shall, however, collect as many specimens as I can find and 

 submit them to the examination of competent authorities and 

 publish the result in due course. We have now made a large 

 addition to our list of relics, among which I may mention the fol- 

 lowing : — three daggers (one of which has a gold band round the 

 handle) ; one knife, one gouge — all these are made of metal, of 

 which the gouge alone has been tested and found to be bronze ; 

 a polished stone celt ; a clay spindle whorl partially perforated ; 

 a curious fringe-like object made of vegetable material ; several 

 implements of bone and deers'-horn ; a piece of wood with 

 carving on it ; portions of a flat dish cut out of wood ; a 

 wooden scraper cut out of a trunk of a tree with the handle 

 formed of a branch growing straight out from it — (beside this 

 scrape about a handful of short black hair was found) ; — a double 

 paddle of a canoe together with various other wooden imple- 

 ments. Hitherto not a single fragment of any kind of pottery 

 has been found on the Crannog. Being merely an amateur in 

 this kind of research, I shall be glad to receive any suggestions 

 from experienced gentlemen as to ^important points that should 

 be looked after, " Robert Munro 



Kilmarnock, November 16 



ON THE UTILISATION OF THE AFRICAN 

 ELEPHANT 



THE Colofiies and India, of November 2, contains 

 a short but suggestive article under the heading 

 "Notes,'' "Elephants in Cape Colony," which deserves con- 

 sideration. It states that elephants are numerous in the 

 interior of Cape Colony as well as in Central Africa, yet 

 no one seems to have attempted to catch and tame them. 

 The subject has already been mooted that there is a good 

 field for their use both in Central Africa and in Cape 

 Colony, and that they would prove a new and important 

 method of opening up and utilising the wealth of the 

 Colony and of furthering the explorations in Central 

 Africa, which are now of such general interest. 



It appears that a troop of wild elephants has been 

 observed within fifty miles of Port Elizabeth — on 

 these the attempt might first be made — and it is well 

 known that they abound in Central Africa, where, indis- 

 criminately slaughtered for the sake of their ivory, the 

 destruction of these animals is so great, as at no very 

 distant period to threaten their extinction. It seems 

 worthy of consideration whether it would not be better 

 to attempt to utilise them as beasts of burden, as is done 

 in India, where they are of inestimable service to 

 the Commissariat, the Public Works Department, the 

 planters, and many others. The African differs from 

 the Asiatic elephant in some points, but is equally well 

 adapted for labour, and, there can be no doubt, would 

 be as easily tamed and trained as his Indian congener. 

 That this is the case is amply proved by the docile and 

 submissive state into which the male and female African 

 elephants now in the Regent's Park Gardens have been 

 brought by Mr, Bartlett and their keeper, Scott. They 

 appear to be just as obedient, intelligent, and free from 

 vice as Indian elephants, and there is, I think, little 

 doubt that the one species, under proper training and 

 discipline, would be as useful in Africa as the other is in 

 India. 



There is every reason now to hope that the wealth 

 and resources of our South African possessions will un- 

 dergo development — might it not be well to revive the 

 suggestion that the elephant should be enlisted in the good 

 work ? The importation of one or more of the numerous 

 officers who have been trained to the work of catching 

 and domesticating wild elephants in India with a fitting 

 establishment, and, perhaps, a few Indian elephants to 

 commence the work, would very soon put the value of the 

 undertaking to the test, and probably show that a vast 

 source of working power now unused might be made 

 available. 



It is probable that in ancient times the African elephant 

 was domesticated, and any one who has studied the two 

 magnificent specimens in the Society's collection in 



