4i8 



NATURE 



{March 8, 1877 



present day grows only on the sea-shore, it is probable that these 

 Hungarian limestone deposits are coast formations. 



In the February session of the Hungarian Geological Society, 

 Prof. Krenner displayed a lately-discovered mineral from 

 Nagyag, which consisted of pure telluride of gold. As is well 

 known, gold does not occur in nature in combination with any 

 member of the sulphur-group except tellurium. A mixture of 

 the tellurides of silver and gold was found recently in California, 

 but this is the first instance of the occurrence of the pure auric 

 telluride in a crystalline state. In view of the fact that gold is 

 the noblest metal, and tellurium one of the rarest elements, the 

 new mineral has been called Bunsenite, in order to give a fitting 

 expression of the gratitude of the great chemist's admirers in 

 Hungary for the services rendered to mineralogy by his analytical 

 methods. 



A REMARKABLE piece of coral taken off the submarine cable 

 near Port Darwin, is spoken of in a Melbourne 'paper. It is of 

 the ordinary species, about five inches in height, six inches in 

 diameter at the top, and about two inches at the base. It is 

 perfectly formed, and the base bears the distinct impression of 

 the cable and a few fibres of the coil rope used as a sheath for 

 the telegraphic wire still adhering to it. As the cable has been 

 laid only four years, it is evident that this specimen must have 

 grown to its present height in that time, which seems to prove 

 that the growth of coral is much more rapid than has been 

 supposed. 



It is well known that in many places springs of fresh water 

 arise from the bottom of the sea. M. Toselli proposes to make 

 use of them. Their water, brought through flexible tubes held 

 at the surface by suitable buoys, would furnish ships with supplies 

 of water they are often in need of. M. Toselli appears to have 

 studied the question carefully, and provided for the preservation 

 of his apparatus in the face of storms. 



The rapid melting of snow in the mountain regions causes 

 great inundations in south-eastern France and in Switzerland, 

 and Swiss papers daily record the damages done by the 

 floods. The greatest damage is caused by the Doubs, both in 

 France and Switzerland. The Rhine at Basel rose on February i6 

 by 6 "22 metres, reaching thus a level only 2*46 metres lower than 

 during the great inundation of March I, 1876. Prof. Forel 

 writes to the Gazette of Lausanne, that the level of the Lake of 

 Geneva rose on Febnaary 15 and 16 at the rate of three milli- 

 metres hourly, or 155 millimetres in the course of two days, and 

 he points out that more rapid risings were noticed only three 

 times in the course of the last twenty-nine years (in 1856, and 

 twice in 1876), when the level rose daily 73 to 82 millim. in 

 twenty-four hours. The amount of water accumulated in the 

 lake was thus as large as 42,000,000 cubic metres in the course 

 of a day. The Lake of Zurich rose at the same time 40 centi- 

 metres in twenty-four hours j but its superfices being seven times 

 less than that of the Lake of Geneva, the figure shows a far less 

 accumulation of water, viz. of 26,000,000 cubic metres in the 

 course of a day. 



As one of the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Mr. 

 Whitaker has just published a paper on the Geology of the 

 Eastern End of Essex (Walton Naze and Harwich). Long- 

 mans and Stanford are the publishers. 



We are glad to hear that an ethnographical museum was 

 opened at Helsingfors on January 24. The nucleus of the 

 museum was formed from collections exhibited at the recent 

 Helsingfors Exhibition. It contains a large number of clothed 

 figures representing the varied ethnographical types of Finland 

 and their yet more varied costumes, interiors of peasant's homes, 

 samples of household furniture and tools, of hunting and fishing 

 implements, of objects used by the yet numerous conjurors, col- 



lections of stone implements, &c. The importance of the museum 

 will be well appreciated by all acquainted with the interest 

 afforded by the ethnography of Finland. 



The French Anthropological Society has been authorised by 

 M. Krantz to open an international exhibition in the central 

 palace of the Trocadero. M. Quatrefages has been appointed 

 Chairman of the Commission. Communications relating to the 

 exhibition may be sent either to the Society in Paris or to M. 

 Gabriel de Mortillet, at the Musee des Antiquites Nationales, 

 St. Germain, Seine-et-Oise. The Anthropological Exhibition 

 will be distributed into a number of sections, and several na- 

 tional committees might be established if necessary. Fuither 

 details will soon be published for the (guidance of intending 

 exhibitors or visitors. 



On February 25 the city authorities of Vienna inaugurated a 

 novel and remarkably interesting application of pneumatic tubes 

 for the purpose of maintaining unison and regularity in widely- 

 separated time-pieces. The inventor is the Austrian engineer 

 and electrician, E. A. Mayrhofer, who, after vainly trying to 

 solve the problem by means of electricity, finally hit upon the 

 new system. From a central bureau in the city, connected with 

 the Imperial Observatory, these pneumatic tubes extend in all 

 directions, laid alongside the gas mains, and branching off to the 

 public clocks. By means of a simple apparatus in the latter the 

 authorities in this bureau are able to exhibit the true astronomical 

 time on the clock dials in all -parts of the city, a movement of the 

 hands occurring once a minute. At present only the city clocks 

 have been brought in connection with the new system, but it v/ill 

 rapidly be extended, until it embraces the time-pieces in all the 

 schools, public institutions, hotels, &c., and in those private 

 residences where it may be desired. 



The prospects of coffee-cultivation in Coorg seem to be some- 

 what gloomy, for we learn from a recent report that the plants 

 have not only had to contend with the regular insect and fun- 

 goid diseases, but also with such an extremely dry season, that 

 the drainage of the country became very low, and all the springs 

 and wells nearly exhausted. Many of the coffee nurseries had to 

 rely on hand watering from springs and rivulets, and thousands 

 of seedling plants constantly withered and dried up. The 

 greatest damage, however, seems to have been done by what is 

 described as "the planter's old and implacable enemy, the Xylo- 

 trechus quadriipcs,^' commonly called the borer, the ravages of 

 which are as destructive and extensive as ever ; planters are often 

 deceived as to the presence of this insect, the appearance of the 

 trees even when attacked, failing to convey an idea other than 

 health. The revelation at crop time, however, convinces the 

 sceptic of the insidious approaches and devastations of the enemy, 

 which can be overcome and subdued only by timely and resolute 

 extermination of every bored coffee tree. The periodical in- 

 crease of the insects is attributed by residents on or near the 

 plantation to the prevalence of dry seasons. It spreads most in 

 ' open coffee fields in warm localities, and least in moist and shady 

 places where there is high cultivation. With regard to the 

 Ileniileia vastatrix, or leaf disease, it seems to have considerably 

 lessened, or, as the report says, disappeared. This is almost 

 more than we can expect, and as much as we can hope for ; 

 nevertheless, it may be as the writer of the report says, that the 

 disease is existing under another form, "And may reappear in 

 those well-known orange-coloured spots, for like other fungi it 

 undergoes certain transformations. It is singular that these 

 orange-coloured spores are generally encircling the stomata of 

 the lower epidermis of the leaves, and," the writer proceeds to 

 say, "I have found them even on leaves of coffee-seedlings not 

 one year old. It is difficult to conceive how these spores should 

 have come there, whether from without or within, the whole of 

 the cellular tissue around the spots being affected as by an in- 



