94 



NATURE 



\7uly 8, 1875 



numerous references render the volume of still greater 

 value, and make it one that no naturalist who is interested 

 in the Birds of Europe should emit to consult. 



NOTES 

 On July 5 the Sub-Wealden boring had reached the depth of 

 1,400 feet, and it is expected that this week it will have reached 

 1,500 feet. But this will have quite exhausted the funds of the 

 Committee, and Mr. Henry Willett appeals for more sub- 

 scriptions. "It cannot be too widely known," he states, "that 

 unless 2,000 feet be reached, the solution of the problem is as 

 far off as ever. We have met with nothing to show that 

 Palfcozoic rocks, as anticipated, may not lie at the estimated 

 depth." We are inclined to think that Mr. Willett is too 

 desponding in thinking that failure " seems to be imminent " 

 from want of funds. We are sure there are many wealthy men, 

 who, if the importance of the undertaking were properly repre- 

 sented to them, would come to the rescue and advance the 

 trifling sum necessary for the completion of the experiment. 



On Saturday last. Sir George B. Airy, the Astronomer Royal, 

 was entertained at the Mansion House on the occasion of the 

 freedom of the City having been voted to him. A considerable 

 number of well-known scientific and other gentlemen were 

 present. 



The Royal Commission on Vivisection held their first regular 

 meeting on Monday. The offices of the Commission are at 

 13, Delahay Street, Westminster, 



In connection with the recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland, 

 which have caused great loss and much suffering to the inha- 

 bitants, the Times publishes the following abstract of a report by 

 the Very Rev. Dean Sigurd Gunnarsson, dated Hallormsstad, 

 in Mulasysla, April 24, 1875 : — "On Easter Monday, early in 

 the morning, loud rumbling noises were heard to the westward, 

 and apparently travelled towards the north-east, in the direction 

 of the mountain ranges bounding the valley of Fijotsdalsherad 

 to the north. Presently the sounds turned backward along the 

 southern mountains as well. The air was heavy and jet black 

 towards the north and north-east. About nine o'clock whitish- 

 grey scoriaceous sand began to fall from the sky, the particles 

 averaging the size of a grain, but in shape longer. The dark 

 column moved on nearer and nearer, and the darkness rapidly 

 increased, while the scoriaceous hail thickened at the same rate. 

 A full hour before noon candles had to be lighted in the houses, 

 and at noon the darkness was as dense as that of a windowless 

 house ; even abroad the fingers of the hand could not be distin- 

 guished at the distance of a few inches from the eye. This pitch 

 darkness lasted for about an hour. During the dark all glass 

 windows appeared like mirrors to those inside, reflecting the 

 objects on which the light fell as if they had been covered out- 

 side with a coat of quicksilver. For four consecutive hours it 

 was necessary to have lighted candles in the houses. During 

 all that time the ashes and the sand were falling thick and fast. 

 Lightning and claps of thunder were at the same time seen and 

 heard in rapid succession, and the earth and everything seemed 

 to tremble again. The air was charged with electricity to such 

 an extent that pinnacles, and staff-pikes of iron when turned into 

 the air, and even one's hands when held up, seemed all ablaze. 

 But the thunder differed from ordinary claps in this, that it tra- 

 velled in rapidly-repeated echoes across the skies. When the 

 darkness wore off the fall of the ashes abated. The dark column 

 now moved inland towards the upper valleys ; but, being there 

 met by a counter current of air, it remained at first stationary for a 

 while, and afterwards moved slowly down country again along 

 the valleys, so that once more the daylight was changed into 

 dusk, which was accompanied by the fall of fine ashes. After 



the fall the earth was covered with a layer of ashes and scoriae 

 from I ^ inches to 8 inches deep ; coarsest where it lay thickest, 

 in many cases exhibiting pumice boulders twice as large as the 

 fist. In these places the ashes fell hot as embers on the ground. 

 At first the fall of the ashes was accompanied by a foul sulphurous 

 stink, which, however, very soon vanished. When the ashes 

 had any perceptible taste it was that of salt and iron. For three 

 days after the fall still weather prevailed, and the ashes lay 

 undisturbed on the earth. Before the fall of the ashes the land 

 was snowless and pasture plentiful ; but after it not a creature 

 could be let out of doors, and the sheep, if they were let out, 

 would run as if mad in all directioiis. On the fourth day a pretty 

 stiff south-west gale blew the ashes away from the hillocks and 

 mounds, except the finest part, which remained on the sward, 

 presenting the appearance of a compact scurf But what little 

 good this gale might have done was undone the next day by a 

 wind blowing from north-west." 



The New York Tribune publishes additional information 

 respecting the disastrous earthquake in South America. The 

 locality where the earthquake occurred is the great coffee district 

 of South America, The region affected by the shocks covers 

 five degrees of latitude, and is 500 jmiles wide. The shock 

 extended in a north-east direction along the northern range of 

 the Andes, It was felt first very perceptibly at Bogota, the 

 capital of New Granada, thence seemed to travel north, gather- 

 ing intensity as it advanced, until it reached the south-east 

 boundary line of Magdalena, where the work of destruction 

 began, continuing as it advanced along the eastern boundary of 

 Magdalena, following the line of the mountain range, and 

 destroying in part or whole the cities of Cucuta, San Antonio, 

 El Bosario, Salazar, San Cristobal, San Cayetano, and Santiago. 

 The first premonition of the terrible visitation occurred on the 

 night of May 17, when a strange rumbling sound was heard 

 beneath the ground, although no earthquake occurred. It 

 travelled in the direction afterwards taken by the earthquake, 

 and lasted only a few minutes. On the morning of May 18 a 

 terrible shock occurred. It suddenly shook down the walls of 

 houses, tumbled down churches and the principal buildings, 

 burying the citizens of the place in the ruins. Another shock 

 completed the work of desolation. Three more shocks followed 

 of equal intensity, but there appears to be no evidence that there 

 were any openings in the earth, which on similar occasions have 

 engulfed buildings ani inhabitants, at least not in Cucuta. The 

 shocks, with lesser force, however, seem to have been felt 

 throughout the whole region of the earthquake for two days 

 afterwards, extending to Cartagena and the western sea-coast. 

 To add to the horror of the calamity, the Lobotera Volcano 

 suddenly began to shoot out lava in immense quantities, or, as a 

 correspondent writes, ' ' it sent out a mass of molten lava in the 

 form of incandescent balls of fire into the city. " 



Details concerning Mr. Giles's exploration of the country 

 lying about 100 miles from the coast-line of the great Australian 

 Bight have come to hand (see vol. xii. p. 135). The country he 

 examined seems almost useless for pastoral purposes, the greater 

 part of it being dense scrub, "heavy red sand-hills with thick 

 mallee, mulga, acacia, ^Grevilles, casuaxina, hakea, and spinifex." 

 For 200 miles the greatest suffering was endured from the want 

 of water, the horses all dying, and the party only being saved by 

 the camels ; Mr. Giles speaks of the latter as " wonderful, awe- 

 inspiring, and marvellous creatures." He just touched the edge 

 of Lake Torrens, and from what he has seen he judges that 

 there exists a vast desert of scrub of a triangular form, the base 

 of which is at or near the western shores of the lake, and the 

 sides running north-westerly from the southern foot, and most 

 probably west from the northern cone to an apex at no great 

 distance from his starting-point, Youldeh. It consists of two 



