566 



NATURE 



[Oct. ii, 1888 



ance of the family. Now the Durga Pitjah and its equivalent 

 ceremony in Upper India occur in October, i.e. at the beginning 

 of the healthy season with abundant food-supplies. This is one 

 more instance of the perfect adaptation of the Hindu religious 

 calendar to the natural changes of the seasons. 



Allahabad, September 9. S. A. Hill. 



A Shell Collector's Difficulty. 



Can any of your readers help me in the following case ? I 

 am a shell-collector, and my minute and delicate species {Dip- 

 lommatina and such like) are kept in glass tubes. 1 have lately 

 observed that some of the tubes in the cabinets were becoming 

 opaque ; a milky efflorescence seemed clouding the inside 

 surface. I found the same thing in a box containing about 

 100 that I had' placed on one side. I then opened a box of 500 

 which had never been unpacked since they were received, some 

 four years ago. All these are more or less affected ! I then 

 opened a third box, from another maker, and in this 500 I 

 observed many beginning to be affected. What can be the 

 reason ? Each of these tubes is tightly corked, and I see the 

 glass under the cork is not affected. I have tried various means 

 to restore the clearness without avail. I have boiled some, and 

 roasted some in the sun, steeped others in alcohol, oil, &c. ; 

 nothing seems to do any good. Can any of your scientific readers 

 divine the cause, and suggest a remedy ? E. L. La YARD. 



British Consulate, Noumea. 



" Fauna and Flora of the Lesser Antilles." 



In the article on this subject in Nature of August 16 (p. 

 371), it is stated that Guilding discovered a Peripatus in 

 Dominica many years ago. This is, I believe, an error, for 

 Guilding's Peripatus julijorme was found by him in St. Vincent, 

 an island to the south of Dominica, and the first specimen of 

 Peripatus found in this island was, I understand, the one now in 

 the British Museum, taken home by Mr. G. Angas. 



The rediscovery of the Dominica Peripatus is rather curious. 

 In 1883-84, at the special request of Prof. Moseley, I searched 

 for the animal in all likely places, but did not succeed in finding 

 any specimens. At that time Prof. Moseley and I were not 

 aware of Mr. Angas's discovery. I mentioned my non-success to 

 Mr. Ramage, and asked him to look out for the interesting 

 animal, and, strange to say, soon afterwards his boy brought 

 him three specimens, but Mr. Ramage has not been able to ob- 

 tain any more. I employed the same boy after Mr. Ramage had 

 left Laudat, and he brought me two specimens, and said that he 

 could find no more although he had searched for several days. 

 These two I sent to Prof. Moseley at Oxford. A few weeks 

 ago another specimen was brought to me from the windward (or 

 eastern) side of the island by the same boy, who found it about 

 300 feet above the sea, not far from the coast. Laudat is on the 

 leeward side, at an elevation of about 2000 feet above the sea, 

 and on the margin of the virgin forest. The six specimens of the 

 Dominica Peripatus recently found may not belong to a new 

 species, but the rarity of the animal is interesting. Had it been 

 common in any degree, Mr. Ramage and I must have found it, but 

 neither of us has succeeded in doing so. 



Mr. Ramage, who has been labouring with unflagging zeal, 

 leaves to-day for St. Lucia, but he will return here later on in the 

 year, so as to continue his botanical work. His specimens of the 

 forest flora form, I believe, the most complete collection that has 

 yet been made in the island, and his enthusiastic work deserves 

 recognition. H. A. Alford Nicholls. 



Dominica, West Indies, September 15. 



Sun Columns. 



With reference to the simultaneous appearance of five sun 

 columns described by Mr. Brauner (August 30, p. 414), the 

 following descriptions of three different ' manifestations of the 

 phenomenon may perhaps be of interest. 



April 19, 1887, 7.25 to 7.37 p.m., calm, sky clear except 

 a smoky grayish haze low on the western horizon, behind 

 which the sun had set. The solar rays concentrated into one 

 perpendicular continuous beam of uniform diameter with the sun, 

 and reaching to an altitude of about 20°. The beam sharply 

 define 1 , and of a reddish tint strong enough to be detected 



behind the haze. Near the summit a few tinted strips of fine 

 cloud forming an angle, and giving the whole the appearance, 

 as described by the person who called my attention to it, of "a 

 ship's mast and yards." No trace of side rays visible. 



June 10, 1888, 8 to 8.25 p.m., sun set below horizon ; to an 

 altitude of about lo°, sky comparatively clear, only a little cirro- 

 stratus ; above this, to an altitude of 20 , the cirro-stratus much 

 more dense, and in this part only was a sun column distinctly 

 visible, terminating abruptly, and showing no trace in the cirro- 

 cumulus above. In the lower io° there was also no evidence of 

 the column. It was at first of an old gold colour, then gradually 

 changed to a deeper red by 8. 15 p.m., when the clouds on both 

 sides were suffused with the same tint, and by 8.27 it had 

 disappeared. 



These two cases I observed from my own residence ; the third 

 has been communicated to me by Mr. W. Manning, who was 

 chief officer of the ship Balm ore when he witnessed the 

 phenomenon. Not having access to the ship's log, he could not 

 give me the exact date and position, but it was some four or five 

 years ago, " in about 25 or 30° S. lat., and from 120° to 130 W. 

 long., during the first dog watch (4 to 6 p.m.), observed the sun 

 at an altitude of about 25° of a dull red colour, with all its rays 

 apparently drawn together and forming a pillar of light reaching 

 from the sun down to the horizon, and about the sun's diameter 

 in breadth." Mr. Manning told me that of all the curious sights 

 he had seen at sea none had been so impressed on his mind as 

 this sun pillar. 



These are instances of continuous pillars from the sun upwards 

 and downwards, one showing the half furthest from the sun 

 only. Hy. Harries. 



Rosebank, Hounslow, September 28. 



THE REPORT OF THE KRAKATAO 

 COMMITTEE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY} 



II. 



A N appendix to Prof. Judd's section on the geologica 

 ^*- aspects of the eruption embraces a series of data 

 collected by Dr. Meldrum, F.R.S., of Mauritius, regarding 

 the falls of dust and the occurrence of masses of pumice 

 throughout the Indian Ocean in 1883-84, which he hac 

 already communicated to the British Association in 1 

 Mr. Scott's prefatory note thereon shows that while such 

 data are of value in exhibiting the immense magnitude 

 the eruption they cannot help to throw much fresh ligh 

 upon the question of the Indian superficial oceanic circu- 

 lation, since the pumice was evidently affected almost as 

 much by the motion of the air as by that of the water 

 Thus, while a comparison of the two maps reveals a genera 

 westerly drift in the direction of the well-known left 

 handed circulatory system of the Southern Indian Ocean, « 

 detached phalanx of pumice masses offthe north-west coas 

 of Australia in 1884 (in the second map) shows, as Mr 

 Scott observes, a probable drift thither " before the north 

 west monsoon which would prevail in those seas fron 

 November 1883 to March 1884." 



In one other point, however, apart from their genera 

 interest, these data are valuable in confirming the genera 

 westerly trend of all the ejecta at the time of the eruptior 

 — a fact whose significance becomes subsequently st 

 marked when dealing with the spread of the op ' 

 phenomena. 



In the plates of geological sections which are appe 

 to this Part attention should be paid to (3) (4) (5) ( 

 Plate 4, in whch natural and artificial pumice and 

 from Krakatab are compared, since they have an 

 portant bearing on Prof. Judd's conclusions. 



Part II. of the Report, which deals with the air w 

 and sounds caused by the principal eruption of Krakata"; 

 on August 26 and 27, was prepared, under the directioi 

 of Lieut-General Strachey, F.R.S., principally by Mi, 

 R. H. Curtis, of the Meteorological Office. 



The air-waves, as apart from actual sounds, were 

 of the most extraordinary features of this unique 



1 Continued from p. 54;. 



