204 



NA JURE 



{June 28, 1888 



by the formula 3C 6 H S N H 2 . 2SiF 4 , and the other 2C 6 H S NH 2 . SiF 4 , 

 corresponding to the well-known compound with ammonia itself. 

 The first was obtained by passing gaseous tetrafluoride of silicon 

 over aniline, the gas delivery tube not quite touching the surface 

 of the aniline so as to avoid the stoppage of the passage by the 

 solid product. The combination is so rapid that practically all 

 the fluoride is absorbed, considerable heat being evolved during 

 the process ; and, which is very satisfactory, the reaction is one 

 of the few quantitative ones, the whole of the aniline being 

 eventually converted into a loose white crystalline solid, which 

 sublimes about 200 C. without fusion. This new substance is 

 further remarkable by being insoluble in the usual organic 

 solvents, alcohol alone slowly acting upon it with decomposition. 

 Brought in contact with water it is at once decomposed with de- 

 position of silicic acid ; the solution, on evaporation, yielding 

 beautiful pearly tabular crystals of aniline fluosilicate, aniline 

 fluoride remaining dissolved. When aniline vapour was con- 

 ducted into a receiver filled with silicon tetrafluoride the second 

 compound was formed as a white powder, decompo-ing when 

 warmed or when treated with water and even spontaneously on 

 keeping. From the fact that the products of spontaneous de- 

 composition are the first compound and free aniline, it is very 

 probable that the true formula is 4C 6 H 5 NH 2 .2SiF 4 , double the 

 empirical formula ; and it is evidently more than a mere 

 coincidence that the values obtained by Mixter for the vapour 

 density of the ammonia compound also point to the fact that its 

 real composition is 4NH 3 .2SiF 4 . 



A severe shock of earthquake was felt in the Herno, an 

 island in the Baltic, on June 7, at 7.24 a.m. Houses shook, 

 and furniture moved. The shock went in a direction mrth- 

 north-west. At the Lungb Lighthouse the shock was felt at 

 9.50, and was accompanied by a detonation like that of heavy 

 artillery. Here the shock went in a direction north-east to 

 south-west. The shock was also felt in the town of Hernosand. 



A SPEcrAL Committee, under Prof. Mushketoff, appointed 

 to inquire into the causes of the earthquake which nearly 

 destroyed Vyernyi, in Russian Turkistan, on June 9, 1887, has 

 delivered its report to the Russian Geographical Society. The 

 Committee, which consisted of four mining engineers and several 

 topographers, began its work in August with a systematic explora- 

 tion of the crevices in the buildings and the soil, both at Vyernyi 

 and in the surrounding region as far as Lake Balkhash, Kulja, 

 Lake Issyk-kul, and Tashkent. Detailed maps were made, and 

 numerous photographs taken of the destroyed buildings. The 

 chief shock of earthquake took place at 4h. 35m. a.m. on 

 June 9 ; it destroyed nearly all the stone buildings of Vyernyi. 

 It was followed at 4I1. 45m. by another severe shock. Severe 

 shocks continued for nearly half an hour, at intervals of one 

 minute, and they were succeeded by feebler shocks which were 

 felt throughout the day. Nearly 1500 stone houses were 

 destroyed, while scarcely any harm was done to houses made of 

 wood. Of a population of 30, 000, no fewer than 332 persons were 

 killed. The shocks continued almost every day throughout the 

 months of June, July, and August ; since September they have 

 not been so frequent, but they go on still, and on March 4, 1888, 

 there was a rather severe shock. The total number of shocks 

 noticed (without instruments) reaches more than 200. It appears 

 that the wave of earthquake had its origin in the south of 

 Vyernyi, in the Alatau Mountains ; and in the spur of mountains 

 which separates the Kaskelen and the Berezovaya Rivers, the 

 Expedition discovered at a height of from 5000 to 6000 feet 

 a region where a dislocation of the rocks had taken place on an 

 immense scale. The granitic and porphyritic rocks were dislocated 

 and covered the slopes with masses of fresh debris. As to the softer 

 deposits — clays and so on — which were still mote softened by the 

 very severe showers which preceded the earthquake, they were 



flowing and gliding like glaciers on the slopes of the mountains. 

 One of these masses, on the Aksai River, has a volume of no less 

 than 10,000,000 cubic metres. The centre of the earthquake 

 was at a depth of from 5000 to 8000 metres, and its projection 

 on the surface of the earth of the most severely affected regions 

 covers a surface about twenty-three miles long and three miles 

 wide on the northern slope of the Alatau. The earthquake 

 spread with greater force towards the north than to the south ; 

 thus the region of the greatest destruction extends for about 

 twenty-five miles northwards, and for only ten or thirteen miles 

 southwards ; but the whole region where the earthquake was felt 

 has a length of nearly 1000 miles from south-west to north-east, 

 and about 600 miles from south-east to north-west. As to its 

 cause, it obviously must be searched for in the interior movements 

 of the rocks — not in volcanic agencies. Regular seismological 

 stations in Turkistan and the Caucasus will probably be the 

 immediate outcome of the work of the Committee. 



In the American Meteorological Journal for May, Mr. Bocher 

 contributes an article on the labours of Dove, Redfield, and Espy, 

 the greater part of whose work was included between the years 

 1830 and i860. Redfield's first paper on the theory of storms 

 was published in 1831, and was due to the fact of his having 

 previously noticed, during a journey after a storm, that the trees- 

 were lying in opposite directions to those near his home. Espy 

 supposed that the wind always blows inwards from the edge of 

 the storm to a central point or line. He was a persistent 

 opponent of Redfield. Dove's work on the theory of storms 

 was essentially the same as Redfield's, but he also deals with 

 the subject of winds in general. In a second article Mr. Rotch 

 gives the description and history of the Sonnblick Mountain 

 Observatory in Austria, and some of the preliminary results 

 obtained. Mr. W. Upton contributes, on the part of the New 

 England Meteorological Society, a very able paper on the 

 remarkable storm which visited the eastern portion of the United 

 States from the nth to 14th of March last, and which is known 

 as the New York '-blizzard." Its peculiar characteristics were 

 (1) the rapidity with which its energy was developed ; (2) the 

 excessive precipitation which accompanied it, principally as snow. 

 West of the 72nd meridian it was almost wholly snow, piled up 

 in immense drifts, making it absolutely impossible to measure it. 

 East of this meridian it was snow and rain mixed. Jn a table 

 giving the ratio of unmelted and melted snow it is shown that 

 the density varied greatly, and furnishes proof that the method 

 of assuming that I'o inch of snow equals 01 inch of rain is 

 exceedingly erroneous. (3) The relatively small area of its 

 maximum intensity. This storm was one of the most notable 

 in this century over the Atlantic, and its behaviour over the 

 ocean will be the subject of a special investigation by the 

 United States Hydrographic Office. 



The Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for the month 

 of June shows that seven pronounced cyclonic storms passed 

 over portions of the North Atlantic during May, but none 

 appear to have traversed the entire ocean. Ice has been reported 

 in increased quantity west of the 46th meridian, and, although 

 confined for the most part to the coast of Newfoundland, it has 

 been met with as far south as latitude 41 , in longitude 46 W. 

 There has been a marked increase of fog over the Grand Banks 

 and off the American coast north of Hatteras, while the amount 

 encountered east of the 40th meridian has been unusually large. 

 It is attributed almost entirely to the prevalence of southerly 

 winds in that part of the ocean. During the past six months 51 

 vessels are known to have met with disaster in the North 

 Atlantic ocean ; the general drift of the logs of the great raft 

 has been about east by south, and most of them are now about 

 west-south-west from the Azores. Very few, if any, have 

 drifted north of the 40th parallel. On April 10, latitude 41° 59' 



