i6 



NATURE 



\Nov. 3, 1887 



Some of the difficulties with which the curator of a museum 

 in tropical climates has to contend are described in the last 

 report on the Colombo Museum. Mr. Haly states that 

 naphthaline is not so powerful a protection against the effects of 

 climate as was anticipated. It seems to prevent the attacks of 

 mites, but it is powerless against fungus. It is hoped that it 

 will ward off the attacks of the fish insect on the labels. As an 

 instance of the rapidity with which this pest works, it is men- 

 tioned that one case was re-painted, and the objects rearranged 

 and labelled. No naphthaline was procurable at the time, and 

 in a fortnight several labels had been defaced and several 

 numbers lost. Carbolic acid and corrosive sublimate have both 

 been mixed with the gum, but their use is objectionable, as they 

 discolour the labels, and do not afford permanent protection. 

 Every object in a tropical climate, Mr. Haly says, ought to be 

 exhibited on its own stand, and that stand labelled by hand in 

 black or white paint. The Museum has also been attacked 

 lately by a fungus. Not only have the specimens themselves 

 been attacked, but the wood of the ttak cases, and even the 

 glass, has been covered. In one case the insects were absolutely 

 rolled round and connected together by its fine filaments — fila- 

 ments so fine as to be invisible through the glass. Naphthaline, 

 benzine, cyanide of potassium, carbolic acid, and other substances 

 have all been tried in vain : the only check to its growth was 

 citronella oil. 



The " Educational List and Directory of the United Kingdom 

 for 1887-88" (Sampson Low), edited by Mr. William Stephen, 

 has just been published. This is the second issue of the work. 

 The editor's aim is to concentrate within reasonable space the 

 names of the chief educational institutions of the Kingdom. 

 Besides being a guide for the use of parents and guardians, and 

 a directory for all who give attention to educational matters, the 

 volume is interesting, as Mr. Stephen claims, on account of the 

 fact that it is the first methodical effort to unite for practical 

 purposes the designations of our educational institutions, from 

 the Universities downwards, in England, Wales, Scotland, and 

 Ireland. No "descriptive matter" has been introduced. 



The Cardiff Naturalists' Society have issued a valuable de- 

 scriptive list of the indigenous plants found in the neighbourhood 

 of Cardiff, with a list of the other British and exotic species 

 found on Cardiff Ballast Hills. The compiler is Mr. John 

 Storrie, Curator of the Cardiff Museum. 



A STALACTITE cave has been discovered near Steinbach in 

 the Upper Palatinate. It can only be approached by a shaft 

 I square metre in diameter and 40 metres deep. The cave is 

 divided into several compartments, through one of which a 

 stream of water slowly flows. The numerous stalactites are of 

 great beauty. Another stalactite cavern, equalling the cele- 

 brated Dechen cavern, both in extent and peculiarity of form, 

 has been discovered in the so-called Billstein, between Hirsch- 

 berg and Warstein (Westphalia). The interior consists of several 

 chambers. Numerous animal remains (probably prehistoric) 

 have been found in the cave. 



The death is announced of Herr August Kapplc", whose 

 excellent book on Dutch Guiana is well known. He died at 

 Stuttgart, aged seventy-one. 



We regret to announce the death of Dr. E. Luther, Professor 

 of Astronomy at the Konigsberg University, also Director of the 

 Observatory. He was born February 24, 1816. 



The weather in Iceland during the summer has been very 

 unusual. The ice did not leave the north and east coast till the 

 middle of September, or quite a month later than usual. Storms 

 and fogs have been very frequent. The last mail brings news 

 that the weather was then (the middle of October) dry and fine. 

 Frost had, however, set in in several parts. This is the last 

 news we shall have from the island until next spring. 



At a recent meeting of the Wellington (New Zealand) Philo- 

 sophical Society, Sir James Hector exhibited samples of trachyte 

 tuff and breccia, constituting the auriferous deposit lately found 

 in the level ground west of Te Aroha. The material, which 

 appeared to be somewhat of the nature of an infiltrated quartz 

 reef which had been decomposed and then distributed as a sur- 

 face deposit, was found to contain gold at a rate varying from 

 two ounces to fourteen ounces to the ton. The gold occurs in 

 twisted angular flakes and grains, and is associated in a light 

 feldspar sand with heavier grains of quartz mica and titanic iron. 

 Sir James Hector is of opinion that it will probably prove to be 

 the outcrop of an important reef, from which the sulphides have 

 been removed by decomposition, so that gold is left in its free 

 state. The gold is the usual alloy of the 'district — consisting 

 of gold 80 "47 per cent., silver 16 91, loss 2 '62, previous assays 

 having varied from 77 to 84 per cent. 



The last number of the Excursions et Recjtinaissances of 

 Saigon contains an account by M. Navelle of a journey which 

 he made in Annam from the port of Thi-Nai, commonly called 

 Quin-hon, to Bla. The route lay through the great town of 

 Binh-Dinh, and by the ruins of Quin-hon, at one time the 

 capital of the Chams or Ciampois. This leads the traveller 

 to narrate the vicissitudes of the once powerful kingdom of 

 Ciampa, which was overthrown in the fifteenth century, after 

 seven centuries of contest with Annam. The narrative is 

 mainly interesting from the circumstance that the traveller 

 visited a number of important towns hitherto unseen by 

 Europeans. At the town of Dong-pho, he met an official 

 who at one time performed curious functions. The Kinh-li 

 was an Annamite official appointed to reside beyond the frontiers 

 to organize Annamites who fled from their native country, and 

 to direct their raids against neighbouring States. These 

 vagabonds, thus directed, acted as the van-guards of regular 

 Annamite invasion. M. Landes, in the same number, continues 

 his researches into the folk-lore of the races of French Indo- 

 China. In the present instance he gives the tales and legends 

 of the Tjames, Chams, or Ciampoi--, above-mentioned. They 

 have long been subjugated, and are now divided into two groups, 

 one inhabiting the Bin-thuan province, the other Cambodia. 

 Until recently they were amongst the most unknown peoples of 

 the peninsula, but M. Aymonier's accounts of his long explora- 

 tion in Binh-thuan, which were published in recent numbers of 

 Excursions , have thrown much light on the subject. The stories 

 published by M. Landes were collected from the mouth of a 

 Cham, and are mostly fairy tales. 



Dr. Karl Pettersen, Director of the Tromso Arctic 

 Museum, has lately written a pamphlet on the state of the 

 drift-ice in the Arctic seas during the last few years. In this 

 pamphlet he offers some suggestions as to the way in which 

 attempts to reach the North Pole should be made. " It seems 

 to me," he says, "that every year shows more and more clearly 

 that it is a sheer waste of life and money to despatch casual and 

 erratic expeditions to the North Pole. In my opinion the result 

 would be attained most easily, surely, and cheaply by despatch- 

 ing every year, for a period of ten or eleven years, a certain 

 number of well-equipped steamers from certain suitable spots 

 towards the Pole. As the ice-masses in the Polar Basin are, 

 without doubt, in a constant but varying motion, this plan would 

 enable one or another of the expeditions to seize the right 

 moment for a dash northw ard. We could not, of course, be 

 absolutely certain of success, for experience has proved that the 

 state of the ice in a particular locality at a particular time does 

 not enable us to predict what it will be in the same locality in 

 the following year. Still, the opportunity to reach a high latitude 

 would present itself sooner or later. The expeditions of past 

 years having almost conclusively demonstrated that it will be 



