112 



NA TURE 



\J^Iay 23, 1878 



was the New Zealand godwit, of which the author gave an in- 

 teresting sketch. This bird spends a portion of the year in 

 Siberia, and visits in the course of its annual migration the islands 

 of the Indian Archipelago, Polynesia, Australia, and New Zea- 

 land. In summer it frequents the south coast of the Sea of 

 Ochotsk, and it has likewise been observed in China, Japan, 

 Java, Celebes, Timor, Norfolk Island, and the New Hebrides. 

 They leave New Zealand towards the end of March or beginning 

 of April, and return to us towards the end of November. —On 

 Nephr odium decomposiium and N. glabellum by T. Kirk, F.L.S. 

 — On Hymenophyllum montanum, a new species discovered by 

 Mrs. Mason in the mountains between Lake Wakatipu and the 

 West Coast, by T. K. Kirk, F.L.S.— On the relative ages of the 

 Australian, Tasmanian, and New Zealand coalfields, by Dr. 

 Hector, F.R.S. The speaker's remarks were illustrated by 

 diagrams and maps, and by a large collection of fossils which he 

 had obtained during a recent tour in the Australian colonies. 

 Alter describing the extent and position of the various coalfields 

 at present worked, he stated that from a comparison of the 

 fossils he had arrived at the following results •.—Cretaceous epoch: 

 Chief New Zealand coal ; wanting in Tasmania and Australia, 

 except "perhaps in Queensland. Jurassic epoch : Mataura series 

 of New Zealand ; Cape Paterson coalfields of Victoria ; Clarence 

 River coal of New South Wales ; and the coalbeds at Hobarton. 

 Liassic epoch : Clent Hill beds of New Zealand ; wanting in Tas- 

 mania and Australia, except Queensland. Triassic epoch: 

 Wairoa beds of New Zealand ; tipper coal formation of New 

 South Wales ; and wanting in Tasmania. Periyiio-carboniferous : 

 Maitai series of New Zealand ; lower coal formation of New 

 South Wales ; Mersey coalfields of Tasmania. This view of the 

 relative ages of those formations had just received remarkable 

 confirmation by a late discovery. Mr. McKay, of the Geological 

 Survey, who has recently been at work in the Canterbury Alps, 

 having found plant beds beneath the spirife beds of Mount Potts 

 that are full of the leaves of glossopteris, a fern very characteristic 

 of the upper and middle coal formation of New South Wales, and 

 with them beds of graphite of considerable commercial value, 

 which represents in an altered form the Newcastle coal seams. 

 Along with these occur remains of saurian reptiles of immense 

 size, of which large collections have been made. In conclusion, 

 it was stated that only a very small portion of the area coloured 

 on the map of New South Wales as coal formation contained 

 valuable coal seams, and that they were not without drawbacks. 

 At Newcastle, where the principal collieries are situated, the 

 seams have to be worked to an increasing depth by shafts, and 

 require pumping. In the southern coalfield the coal is worked 

 by adits into the face of the mountain, and lowered by steep 

 inclines in the same manner as our own Buller coal will be 

 worked ; but it has to be shipped from an exposed coast. The 

 western district coal has all to be carried over the Blue Moun- 

 tains by a railway that ascends and descends by zigzags, that 

 answer well enough for passengers and light traffic, but must be 

 rather costly for transporting coal. Dr. Hector stated that all he 

 had seen increased his confidence in the value of our West Coast 

 coalfields, both as regards the quality and^extent of the coal and 

 the facilities for working it. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, May 13. — M. Fizeau in the chair. — 

 The following among other papers were read : — Observation of 

 the transit of Mercury, on May 6, at Montsouris Observatory, 

 by M. Mouchez. The observations were vague, owing to the 

 bad weather, but so far confirmed the theory of Mercury. M. 

 Picard got three photographic images, two of which seemed 

 very good, but there was no trace of the planet. M. Mouchez 

 was struck with the much more rapid succession of the phases 

 in the transit of Mercury than in that of Venus ; the times of 

 contact should thus be obtainable with greater accuracy. — Re- 

 searches on the law of Avogadro and Ampere, by M, Wurtz. 

 Bioxalate of potassium becomes hydrated much in the same 

 way in an atmosphere of hydrated chloral, and in one of moist 

 air or chloroform, containing aqueous vapour with the same 

 tension as the atmosphere of hydrated chloral. M. Wurtz infers 

 that the latter is entirely dissociated.— M. Du Moncel read a paper 

 on the Hughes microphone, from information communicated by 

 Mr. Crookes. — Report on two memoirs of M. Dien, concerning ( i ) 

 defective notes of instruments played with a bow, (2) resonance of 

 the minor seventh in the grave chords of the piano. By placing 

 small movable nuts on the short prolongations of the strings 

 above the bridge, so as to tune those parts to the unison or 

 octave of certain defective notes known in the violin, M. Dien 



gets rid of the disagreeable effect of the latter. In the second 

 memoir he shows the resonance in question to be due to pressvure 

 of the damper on touching one of the nodes which produces the 

 triple harmonic minor seventh. He employs a second damper 

 acting simultaneously with the other. — On the refraction of 

 organic substances in the gaseous state, by M. Mascart. It 

 appears, generally, that no method based on the sole considera- 

 tion of elementary composition enables one to calculate the 

 refraction of a compound from those of its constituents. The 

 notion of equivalents of refraction does not apply to gases any 

 more than to solids or liquids. Each case has its special con- 

 siderations, not easily determined. — On the production of sul- 

 phurised oils having insecticide properties, by MM. De La Loy^re 

 and Muntz. The considerable amount of combined sulphur found 

 in fetid oils got by distillation of the bituminous limestone of 

 Orbagnoux, the authors augment by introducing sulphate of lime 

 or pyrites into the mineral before distillation. — On the telephone, 

 by M. Izam. A curious case of intelligible sounds being pro- 

 duced in one single-wire telephone system, by a derivation of 

 current from other systems through wet ground and a system of 

 pipes. — On a new electric lamp with incandescence, acting in 

 free air, by M. Reznier. If a thin rod of carbon, pressed 

 laterally by an elastic contact, and pushed in the direction of -its 

 axis, against a fixed contact, be traversed by a pretty strong 

 current, it becomes incandescent at this part and burns, growing 

 thinner towards the end. As the end gets used up, the rod, still 

 pushed, slides in the elastic contact, always pressing against the 

 other. The heat developed by passage of the current is greatly 

 increased by the combustion of the carbon. — On a production of 

 heat by chemical action, by M. Phipson. If a piece of chloride 

 of lime be held in a rapid current of sulphuretted hydrogen from 

 a narrow glass tube, the smell of sulphuretted hydrogen at 

 once disappears, and is replaced by that of chlorine; a very 

 light deposit of sulphiur is formed on the piece, which becomes 

 too hot to hold in the fingers. The reactions here are 

 notable. — Action of aqueous vapour on hydrocarbons raided to 

 red temperature, by M. Coquillion. It facilitates their disso- 

 ciation while producing a fall of temperature, which in blast 

 furnaces is added to that caused by transformation of carbonic 

 acid into carbonic oxide. — On investigation of ozone in atmo- 

 spheric air, by M. Daremberg. He finds ozonoscopic researches 

 useless. An ozonograph should be used which should expose 

 the paper only during a few minutes. — Observations of the 

 moon, made with meridian instruments of Paris Observatory 

 during 1876, by M. Villarceau. 



CONTENTS Pagb . 



University Extension 85 



Physical Sciekce for Artists, III. By J. Norman Lockver, 



F.R.S. (With Illmtraiions) 87 



Clifford's Dynamic. By Prof. P. G. Tait 89 



Physics of Volcanoes 9^ 



Our Book Shelf:— . _ _ 



Playf air's "Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce. —Prof. E. P. 



Wright 9^ 



Letters to the Editor : — 



On the Availability of Normal-Temperature Heat-Energy.— S. 



ToLVER Preston 9* 



" Underground Temperature."— William Morris 93 



Helmholtz's Vowel Theory and the Phonograph.— Chas. R. Cross 93 



The Telephone.— Alfred Chiddey 94 



Hereditary Transmission.— Edmund Watt, Resident District 



Magistrate, Dominica, British West Indies 94 



What is a " Water-shed " ?— R. H 94 



Abnormal Coccyx.— Dr. Andrew Dunlop 94 



Lecture Experiment.— Francis E. Nipher 94 



Sound-emitting Crustaceans.— H. Stuart Wortley 95 



Geographical Notes 95 



Technical Education in University College, London .... 95 



The Settle Cavh Exploration 9^ 



Organisation OF French Meteorology . . • • • •,••-• • ^6 

 Composite Portraits. By Francis Galton, F.R.S. (With Illus- 

 trations) 97 



The Seiches of the Lake of Geneva t>V ' ' ^*^ 



Examination of the PnoNOGRArH Record under the Micro- 

 scope By Persifor Frazer, Jun., A.M. (With Illustration^ . . loi 

 The Lifk-History of a Septic Organism. By the Rev. W. H. 



Dallinger,F.R.M.S ^°2 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The University Observatory, Oxford ^°3 



The Cincinnati Observatory ^°3 



The Reappearance of Encke's Comet i°4 



Notes • ^°* 



Recent Researches on the Phenomena of Fluorescence ... 107 

 The Artificial Transformation of the Alpine Salamander. 



By G. T. Bettany '°7 



University and Educational Intelligence 100 



Societies and Academies '°9 



