C02 



NATURE 



{Aprils, 1877 



struction of the large Giffard Captive Balloon within the pre- 

 cincts of the Exhibition, The construction will take place at 

 all events either on public ground lent by the Government or on 

 some private vacant space at a small distance from the Champ de 

 Mars. The preliminary technical arrangements have been made 

 by M. Giffard. The length of the rope Avill be about 600 

 metres. It will be conical ; the largest end close to the car will 

 be 8 centimetres diameter, the smallest end only 6. The 

 ascending force, when loaded with ballast, guide ropes, grapnels, 

 and 50 passengers, will be 5 tons. The weight of the cable will 

 be 2.\ tons when fully expended . The ascending force of the 

 hydrogen filling the envelope will be 23 tons. The diameter of 

 the balloon will be 34 metres, the height 50 metres from the 

 lower part of the car to the upper part of the valve, and the 

 engine will be of 200-horse power. 



The supplementary number, 51, oiVt,\.txxQ3XiX!L?,Mittheilungen 

 contains the second half of the late E. De Pruyssenaere's travels 

 in the region of the White and Blue Nile. This part contains 

 the special scientific results of the accomplished traveller — 

 meteorological observations, barometrical altitude observations, 

 river measurements, astronomical observations, triangulation of 

 a part of the Jezira, besides the southern half of the map, con- 

 structed by the editor, Herr Zoeppritz, and a plate of some of 

 the implements, weapons, utensils, ornaments, &c,, used by the 

 inhabitants of the region traversed. 



At the meeting of the delegates of the French learned socie- 

 ties to be held at the Sorbonne, as we noticed last week, M, 

 AUuard, the director of the Puy-de-D6me Observatory, will pre- 

 sent a most interesting paper. A self-registering barometer has 

 been kept in constant operation on the top of the Puy-de-Dome, 

 and another similar instrument was observed at Clermont-Ferrand 

 during the same length of time. The difference of pressure 

 has undergone most remarkable variations, which cannot be 

 accounted for by the Laplace law for determining the altitudes 

 by comparing barometers. The corrections of temperature will 

 be shown to be quite insufficient. 



The Scientific Congress of France, a quite distinct organisa- 

 tion, established by the late M. de Caumont, will hold its forty- 

 third session at Versailles, from May 17 to 27. A number of 

 attractive excursions have been arranged with the help of the 

 municipal authorities, and there will be a floral exhibition. 



At the meeting of the St, Petersburg Society for the Protec- 

 tion of Trade, March 21, the maps prepared last summer by M 

 Orloff during his journey to the Baydaraksky Gulf, were exhi- 

 bited. The survey and levelling were made from the Irtish, up 

 the Shchuchya River, and along the Baydaraka River to the 

 Baydaraksky Gulf. Both rivers are navigable during the three 

 months — ^June, July, and August. 



A Tomsk telegram received by M. Siderof on March 18, from 

 M. Schwanenberg's expedition, announces the find, on the banks 

 of the Obi, near to the Mariinsky gold -washings, of a well- 

 preserved mammoth with flesh and skin. The definitive exca- 

 vation of the carcass was stopped until instructions should arrive 

 from St. Petersburg. 



Dr. J. F, Bransford, surgeon in the United States Navy, 

 has been investigating the antiquities on the island of Omotepe, 

 in Lake Nicaragua, collecting large numbers of vases of various 

 kinds, burial urns, ornaments, and other objects for the National 

 Museum at Washington. Among the more important points 

 substantiated by him was the occurrence on the island of at least 

 three successive and distinct bases of prehistoric civilisation, all 

 of them anterior to the present epoch, these being bounded and 

 defined by successive overflows of lava from the volcano. Very 

 great intervals of time elapsed between the eruption?, as is shown 

 by the accumulations of soil that took place on the fresh surface 



of the lava from the decomposition of vegetable deposits. No 

 estimate can be made of these eras, but they are believed to 

 carry the period of the earliest overflows back to a very remote 

 antiquity. The objects of these successive layers are very defi- 

 nite and easily recognisable by the practised eye, and highly im- 

 portant deductions in regard to the early civilisation of that 

 region are expected from a critical investigation of the subject. 

 Dr. Bransford has prepared an elaborate report on this suljject 

 for presentation to the Navy Department, but, before publishing 

 it, he has obtained permission to revisit the country, and settle 

 some still doubtful points, 



A Malvern correspondent writes that he and many other 

 residents in that part of the country are desirous of having some 

 legislative protection for the eggs of such birds as are mentioned 

 in the Wild Birds' Preservation Act. He wishes to know if 

 there is any society for looking to the interests of wild birds ; if 

 so he and others will be glad to subscribe. The Woolhope 

 Field Club used to give rewards for the best collection of birds' 

 eggs, but the rule was altered when the mischief of this course 

 as regards ornithology became evident. 



Those of our readers who were at the Glasgow meeting of 

 the British Association last autumn will, no doubt, remember 

 the interesting collection which was on view in the City Industrial 

 I Museum. The Report of the Museum for 1876 has just been 

 I issued, and we are pleased to see that under the management of 

 j its Curator, Mr, Paton, it is rapidly increasing in size and im- 

 portance, and we have no doubt that ere long it will become, what 

 so important a city as Glasgow ought to possess, a really 

 valuable industrial collection arranged on a thoroughly scientific 

 plan. 



At a recent meeting of the French Academy M. de Romilly 

 called attention to some remarkable effects obtained by suspen- 

 sion of water sucked up into a bell jar closed below by a tissue 

 with wide meshes ; in one arrangement, the net being metallic 

 the suspended water could even be boiled by heat applied below. 

 M, Plateau has just pointed out that he described this pheno- 

 menon of suspension in 1867, in treating of the construction of 

 aquatic arachnlda. 



A propos of the question (which has been disputed) whether 

 toads eat bees, M. Brunet states, in La N'ature, that going one 

 day into his garden, just before a storm, he found the bees 

 crowding into their hives. About fifty centimetres from the best 

 hive there was a middle-sized toad, which every now and again 

 rose on his fore-legs and made a dart with surprising quickness 

 towards blades of grass. He was found to be devouring bees, 

 which rested on the grass-blades, awaiting their chance to enter 

 the hive, M. Brunet watched till twelve victims had been de- 

 voured ; he expected the toad's voracity would soon be punished 

 with a sting, but in vain. Objecting to further destruction, he 

 seized the toad by one of his legs and carried him to a bed of 

 cabbage thirty metres off, where he might do real service among 

 the caterpillars, &c. Three days after this, on going out to the 

 hives, he found the same toad (which was easily distinguishable) 

 at its old work, M, Brunet let him swallow only three or four 

 bees, then carried him fifty metres in another direction. Two 

 days later the " wretch " was again found at' his post, greedily 

 devouring. 



Our correspondent, "J. H.," in describing the path of the 

 meteor of March 17, as seen by him at Rossall, near Fleetwood, 

 wrote e Hydrse for a Hydrae. The date of Mr. Ainslie HoUis's 

 letter should have been March 19. 



Mr. Ellis asks us to state that in his article on Musical 

 Notation last week, p. 476, col. ii., lines four and five, the 

 readings should be Aj fl, A2 ssh, G2. 



