yan. 10, 1878] 



NATURE 



213 



Mr. Dknis D. Redmond writes from Dublin in reference to 

 Dr. Rdntgen's telephone alarum, calling attention to one which 

 he has found very effectual. He simply sends the current of an 

 ordinary magneto-electric machine through the instrument, which 

 produces a loud hum that is distinctly heard many yards away. 



The last number of the Isvestia of the Russian Geographical 

 Society contains three letters from M. Potanin from Khobdo and 

 Ulassutai, which, though written in January, March, and July, 

 reached the society only in October. The winter in Khobdo was 

 very cold ; the thermometer stood in January as low as - 27° Cels. 

 at noon, and even — 37° at seven o'clock in the morning ; but the 

 western gales brought a much warmer temperature, those of 

 October 15, November 24, and December 24, having been the 

 heaviest, and the last causing arise of temperature from — 19" '8 

 to — o°"4 Cels. There was little snow, so that the birds could 

 easily find their food, and M. Potanin has noticed no less than 

 fifty species (the insectivorous Podoces hendersonii was among 

 them), which wintered at Khobdo. la March M. Potanin 

 started for Hami. He crossed the eas'ern pare of the Altai 

 Mountains, the Ahain Nuru, and soon reached the Gobi Steppe, 

 which takes two days to cross, one night having to be passed 

 without food tor the horses and without water. On the southern 

 frontier of the Steppe he was at the Chinese town Santa-u. 

 Thence he crossed the Mechin-ola Chain, which runs parallel to 

 the Tian-Shan, and entered the Bi'kul depression. Hami was 

 reached on May 23, and the travellers, wh > were kindly received 

 by the authorities, stayed for some time. They returned thence 

 to Ulassutai, i.e., after having crossed the chain mentioned 

 above, turned east, following a series of Sart's settlemencs at 

 the northern fo Jt of the eastern part of Tian Shan, or Karlyk- 

 Tagh, covered with perpetual snow. At Nom-Tologoy settle- 

 ment they turned north, crossed for a second lime the Gobi 

 Stepp: , and afterwards the Altai rioge, and reached Ulassutai 

 on July 25. A survey was made throughout the rou'e, and 

 collections of birds and planrs especially alpine, were obtained. 

 From Ulassutai M. Potanin inteo'led to vi.-it the almost un- 

 known tracts at the sources of the Yenissei, L«ke Kosogol, and 

 thence to return by way of Lake Ubsa-nor to Biysk. 



The Alli-emeine schwdzervcke Gesellschaft fiir die Gesatnmtat 

 Naiunjuissmschafen, of Zurich, has just published the second 

 part of its volume lor 1677, which contams imt one, but a veiy 

 elaborate treatise, on the spiders of Switzerland. The paper 

 occupies no less than 320 quarto pages, and is accompanied by 

 six well-drawn plates. The author is Prof. Hermann Lebert, 

 and his work is a most valuable addition to zoological science, 



A NEW ethnographical museum is about to be erected in Paris, 

 and is to contain eveiything that is of any value in relation to 

 the science of ethnography. 



The new volume of the Popular Science Review commences 

 well. The January number has several good articles, that on 

 "The Old and the New Chemistry" being specially interesting. 



In reference to our note laist week on the specimens in the 

 Westminster Aquarium, it is the specimen of Menobranchus 

 l^)t lateralis which is said to be the first shown in England. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Macaque Monkey {Macacus cynomolgus) 

 from India, presented by Mr. F. Wood ; a Striped Hyaena 

 {Hycena striata) from Arabia, presented by Capt, F. Cotton ; a 

 Red and Yellow Maccaw (Ara chloroptera) from Cartagena, 

 presented by Capt. King ; a Naked-eared Deer (Cervus 

 gymnopis) from Venezuela, presented by Mr. Cyril Graham ; a 

 Robben Island Snake {Coromlla phocarum) from South Africa, 

 presented by Messrs. Rice and Jamrach ; a Macaque Monkey 

 {Macaeus eynomolgus) from India, deposited. 



AMERICAN SCIENCE 



TN the December number of the American yournal of Science 

 and Art, Mr. Holden collates various observations, by the 

 Herschels and others, on the tnfid nebula M 20, discovered by 

 Messier, June 5, 1764, who, however, gives no details concera- 

 ing it. The result of the inquiry is to show (i) that from 1784, 

 when Sir William Herschel first described it somewhat in detaU, 

 to 1833, the remarkable triple star observed in the nebula, was 

 centrally situated between the three nebulosities ; (2) from 1839 

 to 1877 the triple star was not centrally situated, but involved in 

 one of the nebulosities (A). The idea that the triple star has a 

 large proper motion being thought improbable, it is concluded 

 that the nebula has undergone marked changes of position, or 

 brilliancy, or both, during the period 178410 1877. The con- 

 jecture was thrown out by Sir John Herschel, that " perhaps 

 this singular object has a proper motion." 



In a recent survey of the Connecticut Valley, one of the most 

 interesting features is the discovery of a massive gravel ridge, often 

 nearly covered by the alluvium of the highest terraces extending 

 from Lyme, N. H., to Windsor, Vt. (twenty -four miles). It occu- 

 pies nearly the middle of the valley, and resembles the gravel 

 ridges that have b^en known under the various name* of kames, in 

 ScotlanrI, eskers in Ireland, and asar in Sweden, The theory of 

 the origin of the kames, commonly accepted, is that they were 

 heaprd up through the ayency of marine current--, during a sub- 

 mergence of the land. It seemed impossible to account thus for 

 the ka<i es in the Connecticut and Merrimack valleys (one is 

 found in the latter also), which, being bordered 01 botn sides by 

 high hills, Would have been long es uaties open to the sea only 

 at iheir mouths, and therefore not affected t)y oceanic currents. 

 The date of their formation is known to be between rhe period 

 when the ice-sheet moved over the land, and that cl «selv follow- 

 ing, in which the more recent and modified drift was deposited 

 in the open valley from the floods that v^ere supplied by the 

 melting ice; and Mr. Wairen Uphani, who describes these 

 k^mes, is thus led to attribute their formation to the action of 

 the glacial rivers, which flowtd in channels on the surface of the 

 ice-slieet ; the kames having been formed at or near their mouths, 

 expending along their valleys, as fast as the ice front retreated. 



Amontj many imporcant di>coveries made last summer by the 

 United States Fish Commi>sion are those of two new species of 

 fi>hes, named respectively Macrurus bairdiiAn<i Lye odes verrilhi. 

 Particulars of these and ot a number of othtr unusual lorms are 

 communicated tiy Messrs. Go(jde and Bean. 



The Museum ol Yale College has recently received the greater 

 portion of the skel ton of a huge reptile which proves to be pne 

 of the most remarkable animals yet discovered. It was found 

 by Prof. Lakes and Engineer Beckwith in upper Jurassic beds in 

 Colorado on the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains. The 

 present species {Ste^osaurus armatus) was probably thirty feet 

 long, and moved mainly by swimming. Some of the teeth pre- 

 served have compressed crowns and are inserted in sockets (one 

 is 112 mrn. long, greatest diameter of crown, 24 mm.), others 

 are cylindrical and are placed in rows, either in thin plates of 

 imperfect bone or in cai tillage (the latter may prove to be dermal 

 spines.). The body wasprotectet by Urge bony dermal plates 

 (one of these was over three feet in length). 



Prof. Marsh also contributes a notice of some new Dino- 

 saurian reptile s from the Jurassic lormation. 



The employment of chromic acid in various volumetric deter- 

 minations is recommended by Mr. Hinman, who gives examples 

 of his mode of procedure. 



We learn from the xVew York Tribune that the last earthquake 

 in the West was supposed to have radiated from a locality 

 in Nebraska that has been popularly regarded as the site of a 

 volcano. Prof. Samuel Aughey, of the Nebraska State Uni- 

 versity, has recently made an examination of the ground. The 

 seat of disturbance is on the banks of the Missouri, in Dixon 

 County, about thirty-six miles from Sioux City. A bluff, about 

 1,100 feet long and 160 feet high, sloping at an angle of 60° to 

 80° toward the river, is at present the place where the phenomena 

 are most exhibited, but other bluffs at a few miles' distance have 

 been similarly affected. On the bluff sounds were heard pro- 

 ceeding from the interior, especially on placing the ear to the 

 ground. Flames sometimes broke forth, occasionally at night. 

 Steam escaped from crevices. On digging into the bluff, intense 

 beat stopped the work alter proceeding a few feet Selenite^ 

 alum, and magnesic sulphate in crystals were abundant. Prof^ 

 Aughey regards these features as not volcanic in the usual sense 



