502 



NATURE 



[Sept. 20, 1888 



female celibates, 23 widowers, and 41 widows. One of the latter 

 was Madame Rostkowski, 103 years of age. She enjoys a pen- 

 sion of 60 francs a month, allowed her by the French Government 

 in consideration of her late husband's military services. More 

 centenarians exist in the south-western departments, than in the 

 rest of the Republic, while the basin of the Garonne— from the 

 Pyrenees to the Puy de Dome— contains as many as all the rest 

 ■of France put together. M. Lavasseur finds that the chances of 

 a person in the nineteenth century reaching 100 years of age are 

 one in 18,800. 



In a recent number of La Nature Colonel Hennebert, of the 

 Belgian army, describes underground forts which have come 

 into use in Belgium, as one of the principal methods of national 

 defence. One of these underground forts is like an enlarged mole- 

 hill, and is built of concrete. Measuring 50 metres in length by 

 from 30 to 40 in width, it is about 12 metres below the surface 

 of the ground, and its greatest height above the earth is no 

 more than 3 or 4 metres. It presents the appearance of an 

 elliptical cap placed on the ground, and is scarcely visible to the 

 ■eye of an observer. At the centre of this artificial rock are 

 three armoured towers, each with two heavy guns. There are 

 also four small .'"oris, which are pulled in and run out at pleasure, 

 each armed with two rapid-firing guns. At three suitable 

 places there are armoured points of observation, from two of 

 which at night the electric light can be flashed to watch the 

 operations of the enemy. Below this surface the earth is 

 hollowed out in the form of a huge well with armoured sides, 

 which is divided up into sections, each part protected with 

 heavy armour, one part for provisions and ammunition, another 

 for machinery, which includes the dynamos and accumulators 

 for the lighting of the whole fort, hydraulic machines for working 

 the movable turrets and sending them ammunition, pumps for 

 ■supplying these machines with water, and a series of ventilators 

 to keep the air pure. Communication with the outer world is 

 made by a subterranean gallery, the length of which varies 

 according to surrounding circumstances. The ceiling of this 

 gallery is from 8 to 10 metres below the surface. To gain 

 access to the fort an hydraulic piston is worked, and this raises a 

 ladder which runs along the whole length of the fort, and 

 lowers the door of the outlet, which is protected by armour 

 20 centimetres in thickness, and is under the fire of two of the 

 movable forts. All movements, such as changes of guard, 

 arrivals of supplies, &c, are reported by telephone or telegraph. 

 The guard does not work the hydraulic piston, except at com- 

 mand, and when the sentries in one of the movable forts have 

 reconnoitred the visitors. Finally, the gallery communicating 

 with the outer world is strongly fortified by an armoured door 

 ■defended by two mitrailleuses. One of the greatest objections 

 by generals to forts, that they absorb numbers of men who are 

 wanted in the field, cannot be urged against these subterranean 

 forts, for the garrison consists of thirty or forty mechanics and 

 specialists only, whose absence would not appreciably weaken 

 the regiment from which they are drawn. The cost of one of 

 these forts is only about ,£100,000. 



A correspondent of the Ti?nes gives an interesting descrip- 

 tion of the Brunig Railway, which has recently been opened 

 between Lucerne and Bernese Oberland. The gradient is in 

 places very steep, being as much as 1 in 8 ; aud on this account 

 special precautions had to be taken both in the up and the 

 down journeys. Generally speaking, the Rigi system has been 

 adopted. The locomotive turns a cog-wheel which runs on a 

 toothed rack placed between the rails, and so the train slowly 

 travels, or rather is dragged, up hill. The cog-wheel is stopped 

 and the engine works in the ordinary way when a moderate 

 gradient or a level piece is met with. To check the too rapid 

 descent of the trxin, the engine is fitted with a pneumatic 



counter-pressure action brake, which of itself is sufficient to stop 

 the train. Besides this, each vehicle in the train is fitted up 

 with a cog-wheel and rack similar to those used in the ascent, 

 with drums on the axle to which clip-brakes are applied. By 

 these appliances the speed can be regulated and the train stopped 

 at any moment. There was another danger, however, incident 

 to all steep railways, to be encountered — namely, the risk to the 

 couplings during an ascent. Though the brakes on each 

 vehicle would probably be sufficient in such a case, yet it wa s 

 thought fit to take further precautions. When the train is at 

 rest, the brake is kept fully applied by heavy weights. These 

 weights are lifted by steam-power, which is conveyed from the 

 engine in flexible tubes. If a coupling breaks, the flexible tube 

 conveying the steam also breaks, and the weights fall down 

 automatically and check the motion of the carriages. It only 

 remains to say that the gauge is a very narrow one, being only 

 1 metre. 



THE American Meteorological Journal for August contains : — 

 (1) An article by C. C. McCaul, on the climatic effects of the 

 Chinook wind in South Alberta, the country of the great cattle 

 ranges in Canada, extending from lat. 49° to the Red Deer 

 River to the northwards, and from the Rocky Mountains, on the 

 west, to about 140 miles east. The Chinook wind blows from 

 west to south-west, in varying degrees of strength ; and the 

 thermometer often rises in a few hours from 20 below to 40 

 above zero, while the snow, which may have been a foot deep 

 in the morning, disappears before night. (2) A sketch of Prof. 

 Abbe's work, with a portrait. He was appointed to the 

 Weather Bureau at Washington in January 187 1, and at once 

 urged the desirability of establishing the State weather services 

 which now form so important a part of the policy of the Signal 

 Service. Among the many recommendations of Prof. Abbe we 

 may mention the establishment of a " Scientific and Study 

 Division," which was formed early in 1SS1, and the compilation 

 of a Meteorological Bibliography which, although still unpub- 

 lished, has grown to considerable dimensions. (3) Mr. A. L. 

 Rotch continues his description of the meteorological service in 

 Switzerland. 



We have received from Dr. G. Hellmann, of the German 

 Meteorological Office, an account of the torrential rainfall of 

 August 2 to 3 last, which caused disastrous inundations of some 

 of the Silesian tributaries of the Oder. The storm lasted from 

 15 to 18 hours, during which time nearly 8 inches of rain fell 

 over a large district, and more or less affected Galicia, Bohemia, 

 and Poland. These heavy rains do not seem to have been 

 caused by the same storm which gave us \\ inch of rain in 

 London, on August 1 to 2, but by a distinct subsidiary 

 depression which gradually formed over Germany on the 2nd, 

 and moved away towards the Baltic. 



Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. have the following 

 works on natural history and science in the press: — "The 

 Nature of Harmony and Metre," by Moritz Hauptmann, trans- 

 lated and edited by W. E. Heathcote, M.A. ; " Atlas of Fossil 

 Conchology," being the original steel plates in Brown's " Fossil 

 Conchology," with descriptive letterpress; "The Naturalist in 

 Siluria," by Captain Mayne Rtid, illustrated; " Land and 

 Fresh-Water Shells," by Dr. J. W. Williams; "An Intro- 

 duction to Zoology," by B. Lindsay; "The Wanderings of 

 Plants and Animals," by Prof. Victor Hehn, edited by J. S. 

 Stallybrass. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Central American Agoutis (Dasrfrocta 

 isthmica), obtained by purchase ; a Large Hill Mynah {Graeula 

 intermedia) from India, presented by Lieut.-Col. R. Thompson ; 

 a White-backed Piping Crow {Cymhorhiua lenconota) from 



