Sept. 26, 1878] 



NATURE 



569 



diflferent meteors. This year, on August 10, in bright moon- 

 light, I traced five meteors from 6° + 37°, and the epoch and 

 place fall near Comet II. 1780, August 14, 3^° + 38 J°, but the 

 comet was only visible for three days after its discovery by Mon- 

 taigne and others on November 28, 1 780, and hence the orbit is 

 not likely to have been exactly determined. At the nodal pas- 

 sage the comet's orbit lies far within the orbit of the earth, so 

 that an encounter of the earth with the comet-particles is only 

 possible on the thesis of Weiss and Schiaparelli that " some 

 part of the cometary materials repelled from its proper orbit by 

 the sun in the form of the tail or other luminous appendage 

 emitted by the comet near its perihelion passage extends to such 

 a distance in its orbital plane as to intersect the orbit of the 

 -earth " (see B.A. Report, 1873, PP- 401-2). 



Ashleydown, Bristol, September 16 W. F. Denning 



The Zoological Record 



In the third number of vol. iii. of the NiederldttdiscJies Archiv 

 fiir ZoologU (Leiden : E. T. Brill), I published in German a 

 *' Catalogue Raisonne" of zoological works and papers that 

 appeared in the Netherlands during 1875 and 1876. You 

 noticed the appearance of this paper in your " Notes " (Nature, 

 vol. xvi. p. 112). 



The principal reason of my publishing this bibliography was 

 my wish to make known in other countries what is done in the 

 Netherlands in the zoological department. For the same pur- 

 pose, about the end of May, 1877, I sent a copy of my paper to 

 the Zoological Record and addressed it "Solely to the Editor 

 of the Zoological Record, care of Mr. Van Voorst, i, Pater- 

 noster Row, London." 



Afterwards studying vol. xii, and xiii. of the said "Record," 

 I found that about twenty of the papers recorded in my cata- 

 logue were not mentioned in these volumes. Of course this 

 might have been occasioned by the unimportance of these twenty 

 unlucky papers ; but conscientiously comparing their value with 

 that of the other sixty of my bibliography, and as far as possible 

 in general with the papers mentioned in the Record I got the 

 conviction that this could not be the reason. 



I feel a great deal of admiration, and at the same time of 

 gratitude for the immense amount of work done by the contri- 

 butors of the Record, and I quite agree with you (Nature, 

 vol. xviii. p. 485) that it would be to the everlasting disgrace of 

 zoologists (not only of your tongue, but of all tongues) if its 

 existence should be prematurely brought to a close. But only 

 when I find in the Record as much completeness as possible, 

 the use of it will spare me the endless trouble of looking for 

 every detail over the totality of zoological literature. 



Now I don't believe that in the case mentioned here (to secure 

 this completeness) much care has been taken. 



September 19 P. p, C. Hoek 



Earth Pillars 



Should you deem the following of sufficient interest, will 

 you kindly insert it in Nature ? 



A few days since I saw an interesting example of minute 

 earth-pillars on the shore of the Hecht Sea, above Kiefers- 

 feldenj Inn Thai. In a cove to the north the beach for many 

 yards formed a perfect forest of little pillars, whose height 

 ranged from a quarter to three-quarters of an inch. On the top 

 of most lay a small stone, a fragment of wood or shell ; but 

 some, which had lost their coverings, were wearing away. 

 The shell fragments (from a Unio, I fancy) seemed to form 

 the most complete protection, and these often fitted the pillars 

 like helmets ; va fact, it required no great stretch of the imagi- 

 nation to fancy the whole a marching army, and the jutting 

 wood fragments spears. 



South Tyrol is by no means the only place in this country 

 where earth-pillars occur, though the Bozen pillars are pro- 

 bably the finest. Amongst others in North Tyrol there is a 

 very interesting example of large earth-pillars on the Brenner 

 railway, between Innsbruck and Patsch, on the right — goino- 

 south. James H. Midgley ° 



Brixlegg am Inn, Tyrol, September 17, 1878 



Indian Building Timber 

 In Nature, vol. xviii. p. 317, it is stated " much or most of 

 the wood used in Peking in building houses, temples, and 

 palaces is said to come from Corea ; " it is further remarked 

 editorially, "we think, however, our contemporary is in error in 

 stating, without qualification, that 'the great wooden masts which 



support the noble temples and gatehouses of the Imperial City 

 of Peking (all enormous, beautiful, and enduring spars) come from 

 Corea.'" 



Having had some experience in the timber and timber-trees of 

 Burma I am inclined to the opinion that this valuable timber 

 " nan-mu " therein referred to will prove to be identical ^vith 

 the wood used for the same purposes generally over Burma. 

 The wood is called in Lower Burma "Pyenkadoo," it has a 

 wide distribution under a variety of names, according to the dif- 

 ferent provincial dialects of the districts it is found in. Its great 

 length of bole without branches, the different sizes at which it 

 can be obtained renders it from its great durability, readiness 

 to polish, and its variegated and coloured grain (brown mahogany 

 colour) most suitable for the supports or pillars of "kyoings," or 

 temples. It belongs to the natural order Leguminosese, specific 

 name Irtga xylocarpa. 



Besides this there are several other woods highly esteemed by 

 the Burmese for durability, and these chiefly are found amongst 

 the Cassias and Dalbergias. 



Inga xylocarpa has great toughness — a piece of three feet long 

 by one inch square I find stood a breaking weight of 1,153 

 pounds ; its specific gravity is nearly double that of teak and it 

 does not float. 



The objection to the introduction of the different ornamental 

 and useful timbers of Burma is their toughness, hardness to 

 work, and hence increased labour and wear of tools. 



Whitby R. Benson 



[With reference to the question of the identity of the wood of 

 the "nan-muh" tree with that oi Inga xylocarpa. we may point 

 out that from material received at Kew the former has been 

 referred to a Lauraceous tree, probably PAccbe pallida. From 

 comparison of the two woods microscopically they present some- 

 thing in common, the annual rings, however, are much more 

 apparent in the "nan-muh" than in the "Pyenkadoo." This 

 latter is of a dark reddish brown, extremely heavy, as described 

 by Col. Benson, while the nan-muh is of a dull umber colour 

 and much lighter in weight. — Ed.] 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Intra-Mercurial Planet. — The particulars of 

 Mr. Lewis Swift's observations during the totality of the 

 recent eclipse, given in his letter which appeared in 

 Nature last week, are satisfactory so far as they afford 

 independent testimony to the existence of an unknown 

 body in the vicinity of the star 6 Cancri, or in the locality 

 where Prof. Watson, a few minutes previously, had ob- 

 served an object which he considers to have been an 

 intra-Mercurial planet. In other respects Mr. Swift's 

 letter is indefinite and contradictory in itself. He tells 

 us that he observed two red stars " with large, round, 

 and equally bright discs," estimating the distance between 

 them at about 7' or 8' ; and, one of the objects being 

 identified with 6 Cancri, he intimates that the proximity 

 of the other to this star enabled him to estimate its posi- 

 tion with great exactness, especially in declination. But 

 in a subsequent paragraph, where the place of the star is 

 adopted from the Astronomer-Royal, the unknown object 

 is fixed to a position which makes its distance from 

 6 Cancri 30', or four times as great as mentioned pre- 

 viously. The place of the supposed planet, according to 

 Prof. Watson, was, as stated last week, in right ascen- 

 sion 8h. 27m. 24s., and declination 18° 16' N. ; and as 

 the apparent place of the star at the time was in right 

 ascension 8h. 24m. 39'9s., and declination 18° 30' 19", the 

 distance between the two was 42', on an angle at the 

 star, of 110°. With regard to Mr. Swift's concludiiig 

 observation as to the position of the presumed planet in 

 its orbit, it is evident that, to present a round or nearly 

 round disc, it must have been situate, as Prof. Watson 

 infers, in the superior part of the orbit, and being to the 

 west of the sun, would be approaching superior con- 

 junction. 



Prof. Watson states that the magnitude of the object 

 in question was 4 to 4J, and that of the second unknown 

 star, which he alone appears to have observed, was 3^, 

 and adds, " they were probably really brighter, because 



