July I, 1875J 



NATURE 



173 



Mi-s. M. LOFTUS. — Keeping time for Capt. Loftus. 

 i KANXIS Chit.— Royal Photographer to the King. Pre- 

 paring and developing in dark room No. 3 for Capt. Loftus. 

 W. Bray.— Attending to plates for Capt. Loftus. 

 F. G. Patterson. — Keeping time in large Observatory with 



Mr. Murray. 

 — Hendricke and W. H. Lang. — Attending to the Pris- 

 matic Camera in large Observatory. 

 C. Bethje. — Dr. Schuster's amanuensis during totality. 

 Capt. J. Thompson, R.S.N., and Edward H. Loktus.— 

 Signalling time between the large Observatory and the Side- 

 rostat Observatory. 

 Capt. Chung, R.S.W. — In charge of thirty Siamese, guarding 

 the Observatory ground. 



Six Seamen from H.M.S. Lapwing. 

 Carpenter, Blacksmith, and Two Seamen in large Obser- 

 vatory, taking plates between dark rooms and instruments. 

 Two Seamen in Sidei^ostat Observatory : one to bring plate 

 from dark room and watch the Corona, and the other to 

 open and shut the Camera slide. 

 It was not till the day of the eclipse that we got the instru- 

 ments in anything like position, and even then they were 

 but half tested. We then had a couple of rehearsals, and 

 by mid-day everyone was fully prepared and thoroughly 

 knew the part he would have to perform during totality. 

 This was entirely due to the indefatigable and untiring 

 manner in which Dr. Schuster examined into every detail, 

 and to the readiness with which everyone, without excep- 

 tion, undertook the part allotted him, and did his utmost 

 to understand all the requirements of the position. 



After leaving Siam our party separated at Singapore, 

 Dr. Schuster bound for Simla, Mr. Beazley for Japan and 

 China, Mr. Eschke for Berhn, the writer alore returning 

 to England with the results obtained by the Expedition. 

 Frank Edw. Lott 



NOTES 



Thj: deaths of two eminent astronomers are announced : 

 Prof. d'Arrest, of the University of Copenhagen, who died on 

 June 14, in his fifty-third year ; and Prof. Winlock, the distin- 

 guished Director of Cambridge Observatory, U.S. 



We learn with the greatest pleasure that a thorough and 

 systematic observation of the cirrus clouds is in the course of 

 being established in other countries than Sweden. The great 

 importance of these observations we recently urged on the 

 attention of meteorologists in reviewing Dr. Ilildcbrandsson's 

 "Essay on the Upper Currents of the Atmosphere," vol. xii. 

 p. 123. Dr. Ilildebrandsson has undertaken the discussion of 

 these observations, and already the meteorological institutes and 

 societies of Norway, Denmark, France, Austria, Portugal, and 

 Scotland have promised their assistance and agreed to send to 

 Sweden observations from several stations in their respective 

 countries. 



The following Commission has been appointed to inquire into 

 " the practice of subjecting live animals to experiment for 

 scientific purposes, and to consider and report what measures, if 

 any, it may be desirable to take in respectof any such practice : " 

 — Viscount Cardwell, Baron Winmarleigh, W. E. Forster, Sir 

 J. B. Karslake, Prof. Huxley, Prof. Erichsen, and R. H. 

 Hutton. 



Dr. Gerald F. Yeo has been elected to the professorship of 

 Physiology in King's College, London. 



In vol. xi. p. 475, we announced the discovery of a boiling 

 lake in the island of Dominica. The Trinidad Chronicle of 

 May 21 contains an account of a visit to the spring by Mr. H. 

 Prestoe, superintendent of the Trinidad Botanic Gardens. The 

 lake lies in the mountains behind Roseau, and in the valleys 

 around many sovffriires, or solfataras, are to be met with. 

 The Boiling [Lake is a gigantic solfatara, with an excess of 



water-volume over the ejective power exerted by its gases and 

 heat. It is affected by a very considerable volume of water 

 derived from two converging ravines which meet just on its 

 north-west corner, and owing to the existence of a small hill 

 immediately opposite (which has had the effect of diverting the 

 course of the ravine-water into its present channel), the action of 

 the solfatara has caused the formation of a crater-like cavity, 

 which is now the Boiling Lake with its precipitous and evcr- 

 wasting banks on its north and south sides, of some sixty feet 

 depth. Th« temperature of the lake ranges from 180° to 190° F. 

 The point of ebullition seems to vary its position somewhat ; the 

 water rising two, three, and sometimes four feet above the 

 general surface, the cone dividing occasionally into three, as 

 though ejected frcm so many orifices. During ebullition a 

 violent agitation is communicated over the whole surface of the 

 lake. The sulphurous vapour arises in pretty equal density over 

 the whole lake, there being no sudden ejection ol gas observed 

 from the point of ebullition ; there are no detonations ; the colour 

 of the water is a deep dull grey, and it is highly charged with 

 sulphur and decomposed rock. As the outlet of the water is 

 constantly deepening, the surface of the lake must gradually 

 become lower, and it will, Mr. Prestoe thinks, ultimately be 

 destroyed, and its character be changed to that of a geyser. It 

 will then gradually fill up by the reduction of the adjacent hill- 

 sides, and innumerable solfataras will be formed in the place of 

 the present gigantic one. Mr. Prestoe found no bottom with a 

 line of 195 feet, ten feet from the water's edge. One great result 

 of the action of solfataras is the decomposition of the volcanic 

 rock and the development therefrom of various kmds of gypsum. 

 Some blocks met with have a very strong resemblance to the 

 Tuscany or Volterra marble. Mr. Prestoe thinks that these 

 large solfataras have had much to do in bringing about the pre- 

 sent conformation of the district. 



Dominica, which was formerly one of the chief coffee-pro- 

 ducing countries, has of late years almost entirely ceased to grow 

 the plant. The capabilities of the island, however, are appa- 

 rently so great, not only for the cultivation of coffee, but also for 

 many other food products, that the attention of the authol-itits 

 has been directed to the matter, and the result is that Mr. Prestoe, 

 of the Botanic Gardens, Trinidad, has been 'commissioned to 

 examine and report on the prospects of the island generally, and 

 the best means of developing its resources. We anxiously await 

 the details of Mr. Prestoe's report upon an island so fertile and 

 beautiful as Dominica, but which has, no doubt, through want 

 of European capital and energy, been allowed to drift almost 

 into an unprofitable waste. 



The Times of last Thursday contains a letter, dated Yoko- 

 hama, April II, from its correspondent on board the Challenger, 

 giving an account of the cruise from Mindanao by New Guinea 

 and the Admiralty Islands to Japan. An extremely interesting 

 account is given of the natives of New Guinea at Humboldt Bay 

 and of the Admiralty Islanders. The following are the principal 

 results of the soundings made :— The greatest depth in the section, 

 2,250 miles long, fiom the Admiralty Islands to Japan, was 

 found on the 23rd of March in 4,575 fathoms, between the Caro- 

 lines and Ladrones. This is the deepest trustworthy sounding 

 on record, with the exception of two taken by the Tuscarora off 

 the east coast of Japan, in 4,643 and 4,655 fathoms respectively, 

 but no sample of the bottom was procured on either of these 

 occasions. A second sounding gave 4,475 fathoms. The tube 

 of the sounding machine contained an excellent sample of tke 

 bottom, which was of a very peculiar character, consisting almtkt 

 entirely of the siliceous shells of Reidiolaria. Three out of four 

 Miller-Casella thermometers sent down to these depths were 

 crushed to pieces by the enormous pressure they had to bear : 

 the fourth withstood the pressu|e, and registered, when corrected 

 for the pressure, at 1,500 fathoms, the usual temperature for that 



