Dec. 27, 1877] 



NATURE 



171 



Geographical Circumstances on Political Character;" March 15, 

 Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S. ; March 22, Prof. Tyndall, F.R.S, ; 

 March 29, Prof. Dewar, F.R.S. ; April 5, Sir John Lubbock, 

 Bart., M.P., F.R S. ; April 12, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, 

 C.B,, Pres. R.S., "The Distribution of Plants in North 

 America." 



Prof. Barff begins his juvenile lectures at the Society of 

 Arts next Wednesday. His subject is " Coal and its Com- 

 ponents." 



Volcanic eruptions are threatening Iceland again. The last 

 number of the Skuld, published in E^kifjodur, states that on the 

 evening previous an unprecedented heat was suddenly felt, so 

 strong that the inhabitants thought themselves in the vicinity of 

 a vast conflagration. The phenomenon was followed by alter- 

 nate gusts of rain and showers of volcanic ashes accompanied 

 by subterranean rumblings. 



The German Government has lately named a new steamer 

 after the well-known meteorologist, Prof. Dove, of Berlin, in 

 recognition of the advantages accruing to navigation from his 

 many observations and discoveries. 



The Italian Geographical Society has received news from 

 Signori Martini and Cecchi, who have penetrated into Shoa. 

 There is no intelligence of the Marquess Antinori and the 

 engineer Chiarini, whose fate causes grave anxiety. 



The Geographical Society of Paris held a banquet last 

 Saturday to commemorate the fifty-seventh anniversary of its 

 foundation. Among the toasts which were given we must notice 

 that of Mr. Gordon Bennett, the enterprising director of the 

 New York Herald f who originated Stanley's fruitful mission, and 

 the King of the Belgians, by MM. Levasseur and de Lesseps. 



New halls of exhibition for antiquities have been opened in 

 the Louvre. An interesting anthropological exhibition will be 

 opened on January 15 at the Palais de I'lndustrie. It will be 

 confined to the discoveries made in South America by the 

 several scientific missionaries sent to that region by the French 

 government. The exhibition will be open only till March i. 



We have received from Messrs. De la Rue and Co. some 

 specimens of their exquisitely-printed. Indelible Diaries, Pocket 

 Diaries, Memorandum Books, and Calendars for the coming 

 year. Our readers have doubtless already supplied themselves 

 with one or other of these. If not, the following statement will 

 recommend the Pocket Diary to every lover of science : — We 

 not only find everything that one finds generally in such a pocket 

 companion, but, under the careful editorship of Mr. God ward, 

 the amateur astronomer is supplied with information as to astro- 

 nomical phenomena, including the times of rising, southing, and 

 setting of the five principal planets, and the illuminated discs of 

 Venus and Mars, and occultations visible at Greenwich. The 

 physiographer finds meteorological averages of mean tempe- 

 rature, rainfall, and barometer, hints as to weather forecasts, 

 and the magnetic elements. Physical data are not forgotten, and 

 the conversion of metric measures into British inches and centi- 

 grade readings into Fahrenheit are given. The geographer and 

 statistician have also facts stored up for them which will certainly 

 be often referred to in the course of the 8,000 odd hours which 

 make up the year. One thing, and one thing only, we miss — 

 the old three-page article and exquisite)'steel engraving which 

 brought home to everybody the latest thing of mark in the 

 progress of the sciences of observation. 



We learn with pleasure in perusing the last pamphlets sent to 

 us by Capt. Howgate on his intended Polar Colony, that the use 

 of small pilot balloons has been recommended to Mr. Sherman, 

 the meteorologist of the preliminary Florence expedition. The 



method practised. by M. de Fonvielle in the beginning of 1877 

 at Secretan's workshop for ascertaining the altitude of clouds 

 and the direction of the winds by throwing ballonets into the air, 

 has been improved upon in America and will be used regularly 

 in arctic work. This success has led MM. de Fonvielle and 

 Secretan to prepare instructions for the above purposes, in the 

 hope of extending the use of these ballonets to the bringing of 

 news from ships in danger or expeditions severed from the civilised 

 world either by sandy wastes or icy solitudes, A number of 

 examples cited in recent works on ballooning may be regarded as 

 an indication that the old mode of throwing bottles into the sea 

 may be replaced by a new method equally simple and having at 

 least a thousand more chances of success. 



Capt. Howgate's scheme for Polar colonisation has been 

 brought before the Council of the Paris Geographical Society, 

 and it is expected that a resolution favourable to the contemplated 

 expedition will be adopted in time to be sent to America before 

 Congress has come to a final decision on that important object. 



An interesting discussion arose at the last meeting of the 

 Anthropological Institute, on the contents of the small oval pits 

 which have been discovered in the neighbourhood of some of the 

 shafts at Cissbury. The president, Mr. John Evans, pointed 

 out marks on the bone of a small ruminant, probably a roebuck, 

 which indicated that it had been used in the process of weaving. 

 A carding-comb, a terra-cotta bead, large enough to serve as a 

 spindle-whorl, and a loom-weight ot chalk were found in the 

 same pit. Lord Rosehill mentioned that chalk weights were also 

 met with in Mr. Tindale's pit at Cissbury, and some were no^^ 

 in his museum. Mr. Park Harrison was of opinion that the little 

 pits were graves, but they appeared to have been disturbed at a 

 remoter period and used for more than one interment. The 

 potsherds found in them were of various dates, some being of a 

 type more common on the Continent than in this countiy. 



We notice the appearance of the first two of the three divisions 

 of the Jahresbericht fiir Chemieiox 1876, which completes the 

 report of physical, inorganic, organic, vegetable, and physio- 

 logical chemistry, leaving the analytical, technical, mineralugical, 

 and geological portions for the closing number. Prof. Fittica, 

 of Marburg, is still editor-in-chief, and he is assisted by C. 

 Bottinger, C. Hell, H. Klinger, A. Laubenheimer, E. Ludwig, 

 A. Naumann, F. Nies, H. Salkowski, Z. H. Skraup, K, Zdppritz, 

 G. Schultz, and W. Weyl, the latter two replacing K. Birnbaum 

 and A. Michaelis in the editorial corps of the preceding year. 

 The publication of the yahretbericht has been much more prompt 

 since the appearance of Prof. Staedel's yahresbericht fiir die reine 

 Chentie in 1873, which although confined exclusively to pure 

 chemistry, renders a tolerably complete report for each year in 

 the following September. 



The two last numbers of the Isvestia of the Russian Geo- 

 graphical Society contain a very interesting account, by Dr. 

 Wojeikoff, of his travels in Japan, made during the summer of 

 last year. Besides a vivid description of the country visited, and 

 of its inhabitants, the reader will find in these papers many 

 interesting data as to the physical characteristics of the land, 

 with many determinations of heights, the climate, the products, 

 &c. Two separate papers are devoted, one to the exterior trade 

 of Japan, and the other to the population and its dependence 

 upon agriculture, as compared with other countries. 



The Moscow Society of Friends of Natural Science has 

 undertaken various anthropological researches for the exhibition 

 which will take place at Moscow in 1879. One of them was 

 made in the Ryazan government by M. Nefedoff, who has already 

 discovered and excavated ten unknown and very interesting 

 koorganes (mounds) in Kasimov district. He has found there 



