March 8, 1877] 



NATURE 



417 



and on the origin of the myths on them, was delivered at the last 

 anniversary of the University by Prof. UsofT. 



M. Dumas has been nominated president of the Societe 

 d'Encoura<Tement pour I'lndustrie Nationale. At the last 

 meeting of the Society M. Moutenat exhibited metallic tubes 

 which emit sounds when burning coal is placed in the in- 

 terior. The sound is modified when the place occupied by the 

 coal has been changed. A copper tube into which metallic 

 gauze has been introduced also emits musical sounds. M. 

 Moutenat is preparing to build large tubes for the Inter- 

 national Exhibition of 1878. He hopes the sounds may be heard 

 at a great distance, and if successful he intends to propose this 

 method instead of steam whistles for warning on the sea-coasts, 



TllK Bradford Scientific Association purpose holding a con- 

 versazione and exhibition of scientific instruments and objects on 

 the evenings of April 11 and 12. Exhibits will be arranged 

 under various sections and sub-sections, and contributions will 

 be welcomed. 



From the Annual Report of the Geologists' Association we 

 learn that the number of members on January i was 390. 



Vol. I. Part 6, of the Transactions of Watford Natural 

 History Society contain papers on the Hertfordshire Bourne, by 

 Mr. John Evans, F.R.S. ; on the Hertfordshire Ordnance Bench 

 Marks, by Mr. John Hopkinson, P". L.S. ; and on the Polarisa- 

 tion of Light, by Mr. J. N. Harford. 



Mr. Rudkin has given notice of his intention to move, at the 

 next meeting of the Court of Common Council, that it be referred 

 to the Gresham Committee to confer with the Mercers' Company 

 as to whether and how the Gresham College foundation can be 

 utilised and extended in connection with the scheme which is 

 now being prosecuted by the Livery Companies for establishing 

 a Central Technical University, with affiliated colleges and insti- 

 tutes, not only in the metropolis and its suburbs, but in the chief 

 centres of industrial life throughout the United Kingdom. 



The Russian Government announces the discovery of valuable 

 silver deposits in several islands of the White Sea. 



Graf Walburg, a member of Dr. Brchm's expedition to 

 Siberia, is now studying the botanicil and palreontological col- 

 lections at Dorpat. He proposes to undertake this year an- 

 other journey to Asia and to explore the Caucasus. 



The St. Petersburg papers announce the return of Lieut. 

 Onatsevitch, who has spent two years in the survey of the 

 Northern Pacific shores of Sibeiia. After having observed the 

 Transit of Venus, Lieut. Onatsevitch engaged in a full and 

 thorough survey of Behring's Strait, extending his soundings 

 into the glacial ocean as far as the ice barrier over a surface of 

 about sixteen square degrees. Further, having at his disposal 

 fourteen chronometers, he has determined many longitudes, and 

 has brought into connection the longitudes formerly determined 

 in the north-east with those recently determined with great accu- 

 racy before the Transit of Venus in south-eastern Siberia. The 

 work done by M. Onatsevitch will be the subject of com- 

 munications at the next meeting of the St. Petersburg Geogra- 

 phical Society. 



Thk map of the mouth of the Obi, prepared by M. Dahl (who 

 made last summer a detailed survey and soundings when descend- 

 ing the river on board the schooner Moscow, built in Tinmen), 

 will appear in the course of a month or two. 



The Afrikanische Gescllschaft of Berlin received a few days 

 since news from Dr. von Bary, who at the end of December was 

 on the point of leaving the city of R'hat to penetrate into the 

 mountain region of the Tuareks, in the central part of the 

 Sahara. IJpstiliti^s b;id just geased betw^?r\ tb? tribes jnhabjtt 



ing this territory, and there was every probability of his success- 

 fully accomplishing the aims of the journey, viz., a careful 

 geological study of this scarcely-known region. 



In the last session of the Berlin Geographical Society, the 

 president. Dr. Bastian, announced that the well-known African 

 traveller, Dr. Gustav Nachtigal, intended to undertake a new 

 journey of exploration into the interior from the coast of 

 equatorial Africa, This field, now rendered vacant by the 

 death o f Edward Mohr at Molange, has always been the favourite 

 territory of the German explorers. Dr. Nachtigal's peculiar 

 qualifications for the undertaking, as well as his six years' varied 

 experience in the hardships of African travel, will lend an im- 

 portant character to this new new attempt to penetrate into the 

 unknown interior of the continent. 



At the meeting of the French Geographical Society M. Charles 

 Velain read a paper on the volcanic lakes of the island of Nossi 

 Be, near Madagascar. The formation of the island is generally 

 volcanic, the north and south parts being of ancient formation, 

 while the central part is of much more recent origin. Besides a 

 number of true volcanic craters, not very high, M. Velain found 

 a great number of crater-lakes or circular troughs, level with the 

 ground and filled with water. These troughs, M. Velain thinks, 

 must have been formed by subterranean explosions, which dii 

 not last long enough to enable the lava to reach the surface. 

 These lakes abound in fish, many of which are probably new 

 species ; it is impossible, however, to catch them, on account of 

 the number of crocodiles that swarm on the banks. 



Enganzungsheft No. 50 of Petermann's Geographischce 

 M ittheiltmgen contains the first part of a narrative of M. E. 

 de Pruyssenaere's Travels in the Region of the White and 

 the Blue Nile, M. de Pruyssenaere was a young and ac- 

 comphshed Belgian who spent most of the time between 1859 

 and 1S64 in the exploration of the above region, and after much 

 difficulty the editor of the narrative, K. Zoppritz, obtained pos- 

 session of his journals and notes. Notwithstanding the length 

 of time that has elapsed since M. de Pruyssenaere traversed the 

 region, it will be found that his narrative adds considerably to 

 our knowledge of it. He made many botanical notes, which, 

 we believe, will be published at a future time. Accompany- 

 ing the narrative is a map of the region, showing the travel- 

 ler's routes, prepared from his astronomical and trigonometrical 

 observations. M. de Pruyssenaere died in the midst of his 

 travels in 1864, at the early age of thirty-eight years. 



Prof. C. Jarz, of Vienna, formerly an artillery officer under 

 the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, has recently issued a short 

 work on "Ocean Currents of the North Atlantic," with especial 

 reference to the Gulf Stream, embodying much of individual 

 observation. The rotation of the earth is excluded from among 

 the causes producing these phenomena. His theory is essentially 

 that each current has its own particular causes, and that a 

 number of independent compensating forces occasion the cha- 

 racter, speed, and direction of the currents. 



The last session of the Hungarian Natural History Society 

 was devoted to a detailed account, by M. von Hantken, of the 

 results of his extensive microscopic researches on the Hungarian 

 limestone formations. The old Tertiary deposits near Ofen were 

 found to consist almost entirely of organic remains, princi- 

 pally Alga;, Foraminifera, and Bryozoa. The Alga; form the 

 chief part of seveial strata and belong to the genus Litho- 

 thamnmm. Microscopic investigation showed a regular structure 

 of successive layers of cells. In the interstices between the cells 

 of the plants carbonate of lime was gradually deposited, and they 

 were petrified entire. The presence of the remains of Foraminifera 

 and Bryozoa showed a contemporaneous zoogenous and phylo- 

 genous. growth of the rocks, As the Lithoth^imniuni of thQ 



