446 



NATURE 



\March 13, 1879 



\ 



dwellings are situated in the so-called Pfohrener Ried, near 

 Donaueschingen. Numerous objects have been brought to light, 

 such as remains of textures, and implements dating from the 

 stone, bronze, and iron ages. 



In tlie present year the eifhteen centuries will be complete, 

 which have elapsed since Pompeii, Herculaneum, and some 

 neighbouring cities were destroyed by a rain of ashes and torrents 

 of lava from Mount Vesuvius. The directors of the excavations 

 at Pompeii intend to commemorate the event in a scientific 

 manner in November next, and have issued invitations to the 

 most eminent Italian archaeologists to participate in the cele- 

 bration. 



During the night of January 7-8, an earthquake was felt 

 at Alaghir, Caucasus ; it consisted of five shocks which 

 had a direction from north to south. An earthquake visited 

 Laibach on February 12. Two severe shocks were felt 

 at 2.42 P.M. within about three or four seconds. The phe- 

 nomenon was observed in the whole of Camiola and Lower 

 Styria, also in some part of Carinthia and at Trieste. The 

 direction of the undulations was from south to north, and they 

 were preceded by loud subterranean noise ; their duration was 

 about five seconds. It is remarkable that this earthquake was 

 observed in Southern Austria on the same day, as one of the 

 Teplitz sources ceased to flow. On February 14, at 2.45 p.m., 

 more shocks were observed at Laibach and Krainburg, but they 

 were extremely weak. Subterranean shocks were also felt at 

 Riva on the Lake of Garda on February 14, as well as at Bischof- 

 slaak in Camiola on February 16. 



A REMARKABLE phenomenon is reported from Neufchatel. 

 On February 10 the Lake of Neufchatel suddenly assumed a 

 motion like the sea with its tide.«, only with the difference that 

 the rise and fall of the water succeeded each other in much 

 shorter intervals. The phenomenon began at noon and lasted 

 until 2 P.M. Boys who were playing on the shore were so 

 suddenly surprised by the rising lake that they were up to their 

 knees in water before they had time to escape. In the evening 

 there was a violent thunderstorm, which also visited Berne at 

 the same time. 



Roman antiquities have been recently discovered in the open 

 space in front of the Votive Church at Vienna. The space is in 

 course of transformation into a public garden. Among the 

 objects found are some rare coins, toga clasps, urns, as well as 

 the remains of tombs and of a bath. 



In the basin of the Teplitz Stadtbad, the recent stoppage of 

 which has caused so much alarm in the charming Austrian 

 watering-place, Roman coins and antiquities have been found. 

 On one of the coins a female bust is represented with the circum- 

 scription "Sabina Augusta" (wife of the Emperor Hadrian, 

 a.d. 1 1 7- 138). The source must therefore have been well known 

 to the Romans, and it is quite possible that even before the year 

 762, when it is first mentioned in Bohemian history, it may have 

 temporarily ceased to flow. Besides the Roman coins, Bohemian 

 and German coins (up to the year 1740) were discovered. 



The China Overland Trade Report mentions that a scheme is 

 about to be carried out for establishing a woollen manufactory 

 at Lanchow-fu, in North-Western China. Though Kansuh, the 

 province of which it is the capital, is not populous, the locality 

 has been chosen on account of raw material being plentiful in 

 the neighboiu^hood. Machinery is said to have been already 

 shipped from Europe, and two German gentlemen have been 

 engaged to superintend the preliminary operations and to start 

 the enterprise. 



At the iai>t meeting of the St. Petersburg Society of Russian 

 Naturalists, IvI, Grimm made a very interesting communication 

 on the crustaceans of the Caspian Sea. The crustacean fauna of 



that sea has some likeness with the faunas of Lakes Baikal and 

 Titikaki, especially as to the richness of both in amphipcds, 

 and as to the nearly total want of decapods. But the likeness 

 is closer with the faunas of the European lakes, as well as with 

 the faunas of the Black Sea, and yet more, with- the Arctic 

 Ocean and Lake Aral. Altogether, the study of the Caspian 

 crustaceans proves that at a recent epoch the Caspian Sea was 

 in connection with these lakes and seas, and that the connection 

 of the Caspian with the Arctic Ocean and Lake Aral 

 continued until a more recent period than the connection with 

 the Black Sea. 



At the same meeting Prof. . Bogdanoff proposed to the 

 Society to undertake the publication of a work comprising all 

 trustworthy data about the ornithology of the northern parts of 

 Russia in Europe. The proposal met with great approval, 

 and a commission consisting of MM. Bogdanoff, Polyakoff, 

 Pleske, and Keppen, was appointed for the preparation of the 

 said work. 



At the last meeting of the Paris Geographical Society, a 

 communication was read by M. Sconzac, a French officer, 

 belonging to the Chinese service on the origin and propagation 

 of the Russian plague. The lecturer contended that this epi- 

 demic originated in the province of Yunan, and was carried by 

 travellers via Mesopotamia, The lecture will be published in 

 extenso in the Society's Btdletin. 



A VERY satisfactoiy report was presented at the recent annual 

 meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society, which has now been 

 in existence forty years. The members number 437, and the 

 funds are in a flourishing state. 



Vol. VII., part i, of the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geologi- 

 cal and Polytechnic Society contains a number of important 

 papers on local geology, and one or two of more general 

 interest. 



In the just issued number of the Proceedings of the Geologists' 

 Association is the continuation of Mr. W. H. Huddleston's 

 valuable paper on the Yorkshire oolites, while Prof. Bonney 

 contributes some interesting obsers'ations on the igneous rocks o^ 

 Arthur's^Seat. 



M. Ferry, the new French Minister of Public Instruction, has 

 visited the Sorbonne, the School of Medicine, and other build- 

 ings devoted to science, for the purpose of deciding what repairs 

 must be done immediately. 



The Swiss Paloeontological Society has just published the 

 fifth volume of its Abhandlungen, which contains several valu- 

 able papers. Prof. Rutimeyer gives the conclusion of his most 

 interesting researches into the deer of the tertiary period. Prof. 

 P. de Loriol continues his researches into the Swiss fossil crinoids, 

 and gives the conclusion of a very valuable monograph on the 

 fossils of the Baden formation, a subdivision of the recent Jura 

 formation. Dr. Wiedenheim publishes for the first time a com- 

 plete description of the Labyrinlodon riitimeyeri, discovered in 

 1864 in the sandstone of Rieben, at Basel, and M. J. Bachmann 

 describes the fossil eggs from the neighljourhood of Lucerne. 

 Twenty-five fine coloured plates illustrate the papers. The 

 Society was founded in 1874, with statutes and aims much like 

 tho;e of the British Palseontological Society, especially for the 

 study of Swiss paleontology ; and the five volumes already 

 published by the Society contain a great diversity of very 

 valuable papers by Professors Rutimeyer, in Basel, De Loriol, 

 in Geneva, and Renevier, in Lauranne. 



The Swiss meteorological stations have adopted a system of 

 weather warnings. All the territory of Switzerland will be 

 divided for that purpose into eight regions, each of which wiU 

 have its central station. Theinforniation on the state of weather 



