io8 



NA TURE 



\yune lo, 1875 



logue, p. 65 (Fig. 2), the stone ball hanging loosely from the 

 handle in a bag of buckskin. The Moquis of this same region 

 use the boomerang ; two of these (Fig. 3) are in the Smithsonian 



Institution. I am not sure that it returns to the hand of the 

 thrower. 



On page 91 of Col. Fox's Catalogue he says : " In California 



Fig. 1.— Pal-Ute War Club, for thrusting by a 

 backhanded blow into the face of an enemy. 

 Made from the wood of the Mezquite bean. 



Fif. 2 — Pai-Ute War Club. _ Fig. 3.— Moquis Boomerang. Fig. 4. — Numa jReed Arrow, with 

 hardwood foreshaft. Fig. 5.— Klamath Rivtr Pointed Arrpw ; softwood shaft, hard wood 

 foreshaft. Fig. 6.— Klamath Fiver Arrow, without point ; soft wood shaft, hard wood fore- 

 shaft sharpened. 



and the greater part of the North American Continent the 

 arrows are constructed either in a single piece or with a bone 

 foreshaft ; but in no case have I come across a foreshaft of hard 

 wood." Among the Numas of the Great Basin, reed arrows 

 with hard wood foreshaft are very common (Fig. 4). In Northern 



California two kinds of arrows have hard wood foreshaft, those 

 with and those without stone points (Figs. 5 and 6). The stripes 

 on the feather end are rancheria marks, and the foreshaft is 

 moveable. Otis T, Mason 



Washington, D.C., U.S., May 19 



Primroses and Cowslips 



Mr. Fordham (Nature, vol. xii. p. 87) is quite right in 

 conjecturing that it may be without foundation he has thought 

 that primroses are not found in districts in which cowslips are 

 common, and vice vena. In the north-east of Staffordshire, ior 

 miles round Denstone College, early in the spring, nearly all 

 the hedges and many of the fields are covered with primroses. 

 Later on cowslips abound ; I might add that oxlips are also far 

 from being rare. 



I have watched closely, but have never found a trace of any 

 destruction of the flower by birds. This, perhaps, may be 

 accounted for by the /act that this being a pasture country, the 

 sparrow, finding no grain, is a rara avis about here. I have 

 noticed in Lord Bagot's wood, seme twelve miles from here, 

 where sparrows as well as many other birds are found in great 

 numbers, that the primroses nearly always present a very ragged 

 appearance. D. Edwardks 



Denstone College, Uttoxeter 



I COULD name half a dozen spots to the north of London 

 (Mill Hill) where cowslips and primroses have abounded to- 

 gether in the same meadow, to my own knowledge, for the past 

 twenty years. For at least five years I can say that neither the 

 primroses nor cowslips were attacked by birds, though the 

 crocuses were cut up by them more or less every season in the 

 same locality. R. A. N. 



THE VISITATIONS OF GREENWICH AND 

 EDINB URGH OBSER VA TORIES 



■\ 1 7 E have before us the Annual Reports of the Astro- 

 * * nomers Royal for England and Scotland, to their 

 respective Boards of Visitors. The Report of Sir G. B. 

 Airy consists mainly of the usual statements under the 

 various heads of the state of the buildings and instruments, 

 the constitution of the staff, and the amount of work done. 

 In all these respects the Observatory seems to be in a 

 satisfactory condition. One important change in the 

 staff during the past year has been the resignation of 



Mr. Glaisher, who has for so many years been connected 

 with the Observatory, and which has rendered necessary 

 a readjustment of the duties of the various observers. 



Under the head of " Chronometers, Time-signals," &c., 

 the Astronomer Royal refers to the supplemental mecha- 

 nism which he himself has introduced into some chrono- 

 meters in order to correct the perceptible defect of thermal 

 compensation which occurs in nearly every case, even in 

 the best chronometers, " There is," he states, " great 

 difficulty in correcting the residual fault, not only because 

 an inconceivably small movement of the weight on the 

 balance-curve is required, but also because it endangers 

 the equilibrium of the balance. To remedy this I have 

 introduced small supplementary weights carried by means 

 of a supplementary bar (rotating with stiff friction in the 

 balance- staft), at whose ends are very light springs carry- 

 ing the supplementary weights, and constantly pressing 

 them to the interior of the balance- curve. When the 

 supplementary bar is so turned that the supplementary 

 weights are near the end of the balance-curve, the com- 

 pensation is large ; when they are near the root of the 

 balance-curve, it is small. The movement from one state 

 to the other is so simple that probably an assistant of 

 the Observatory will be able to manage it, and it does not 

 interfere with equilibrium. This arrangement has re- 

 ceived the approval of some able chronometer-makers, 

 and may perhaps with advantage be adopted generally." 



The various time-signals and clocks connected with 

 the Observatory have been worked with praiseworthy 

 regularity and accuracy ; the Westminster clock has been 

 so well regulated, under check of automatic report to the 

 Observatory, that in 83 per cent, of the days of the year 

 its error is below one second. Proposals have been made 

 for galvanic determination of the longitude of the Dublin 

 Observatory, and the operation is delayed only for con- 

 venience in the arrangements to be made at Dublin. 

 With the aid of a grant from the Treasury three com- 

 puters are nov/ steadily at work on the Astronomer 

 Royal's New Lunar Theory. 



The most novel and interesting part of Sir George Airy's 

 Report is his concluding " General Remarks," in which 



