Sept. 30, 1875] 



NATURE 



483 



years, and free admission to tlie course of instruction at the 

 Royal School of Mines, London, and the Royal College of Science 

 in Dublin : — i. School of Mines : John Gray, 21, engineer, 

 Strichcn, N.B. ; Frederick G. Mills, 14, student, London j 

 Thomas E. Holgate, 20, farmer, Blackburn. 2. College of 

 Science: C. C. Hutchinson, 21, engineer, Leeds; Henry Hat- 

 field, 20, student, Stockport; Thomas Whittaker, 18, clerk, 

 Accrington. 



The term of office of the present Lord Rector of Aberdeen 

 University — Professor Huxley — having nearly expired, the stu- 

 dents are already looking out for a successor. Mr. M. E. Grant 

 Duff, M.P., Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Mr. Robert Lowe, and Dr. 

 Alexander Russel, editor of the Scotsman, are proposed for 

 election. A report in the Times states that the feeling of the 

 majority seems to be in favour of Dr. Carpenter. 



The preliminary North-west African Expedition is expected 

 to leave England for the coast of Africa early in November. 

 General Sir Arthur Cotton and several scientific gentlemen are 

 expected to accompany it. The object in view is to make a 

 survey of the coast of Africa opposite the Canary Islands for the 

 purpose of finding a suitable position for a harbour and commer- 

 cial and missionary station ; to enter into commercial arrange- 

 ments with the native tribes, and to inquire into their present 

 means of commerce, and the resources of the countries through 

 which it is proposed to pass. To examine as far as practicable the 

 sand bar across the mouth of the River Bella, wliich it is sup- 

 posed keeps back the waters of the Atlantic Ocean from flowing 

 into the dry bed of the ancient inland sea, to obtain levels and 

 other necessary information. Mr. Mackenzie, the director of 

 the party, expects to get the friendly support of the most power- 

 ful chief of the tribes on the north-west coast of Africa. 



The celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of 

 the first railway between Stockport and Darlington is attracting 

 the notice of ihe French papers. A curious fact connected with 

 French railways is that Baron Charles Dupin, who published 

 his celebrated work on Great Britain in 1826, described railways 

 at full length, but abstained from saying a word about motive- 

 power. Baron Dupin, a great geometer and [mechanician, de- 

 clared to the Institute that locomotives could never move, owing 

 to the weakness of their hold on the rails, and that the use of 

 horses could not be dispensed with. Baron Charles Dupin's repu- 

 tation was so great that the truth of the statement was taken for 

 granted, and in the Ecole des Fonts et Chaussees, the public insti- 

 tution where S;ate engineers are educated at the expense of the 

 Government, in a course of lectures given after 1830, it was said 

 that horses could never be dispensed with. The advantages of 

 locomotion were lectured upon in a free institution which was 

 opened at that time, called the licole Centrale des Arts 

 tt Manufactures. The professor was the celebrated railway 

 engineer, Perdonnet. Arago was opposed to the boring of 

 tunnels as endangering the health of travellers, owing to the 

 great cold which he anticipated would be felt. 



M. Leverrier has addressed a circular to the Presidents of the 

 Meteorological Commissions of the departments with reference 

 to the Meteorological Atlas in course of publication for the" years 

 1S72, 1873, and 1S74. It is intended that this important work shall 

 contain instructions relative to meteorological observations and 

 tables for their reduction : a discussion of thunderstorms which 

 have occurred in the different river-basins as well as over France 

 generally; a. n'suw/oi the observations made during the three 

 yearj at the departmental stations ; hail charts ; the rainfall for the 

 whole of France, by M.Belgrand; and lastly, a series of memoirs 

 on special subjects by French and foreign meteorologists. The 

 price for the large or folio volume will be only eight shillings, 

 representing the price of paper and printing, the printing being 

 undertaken by the Government, and the compilation having 



been done by the Meteorological Service at the Observatory. 

 The number of copies printed being necessarily limited, persons 

 wishing to purchase the work are required to send a money order 

 to the Secretary of the Association Fran9aise, I r, Quai Voltaire, 

 Paris. 



Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs, Director of the Laboratory of the 

 Iowa State University, Iowa city, has issued a circular, dated 

 August 1875, with the view of organising a system of rainfall 

 observation for the whole of the State of Iowa. He is confident 

 of a start with one rain-gauge in each county of the State, and hopes 

 in a few years to secure the erection of four or five gauges in each 

 county. Printed forms on addressed postal cards will be issued to 

 the observers, whoare requested to mail them on the ist, nth, and 

 2 1st of each month. Thrice a month Dr. Hinrichs will prepare 

 a statement of the rainfall of Iowa for the corresponding ten days, 

 comparing it at the same time with past averages, and forward it 

 to the daily press for publication. Other States will doubtless 

 soon follow the example. 



The Upsala Observatory has published a Circular (No. 6) 

 giving an elaborate discussion by Dr. Cronwall, of the observa- 

 tions made over Sweden to determine the annual periods of the 

 duration of ice. The six coloured maps, which illustrate the 

 paper, showing, by lines passing through equal times and periods, 

 the beginning, end, and number of days' continuance of the ice 

 over the different districts of the country during the winters of 

 1871-72 and 1872-73, are valuable contributions to the climato- 

 logy of Sweden. Their great value lies in illustrating in a precise 

 as well as striking manner the influence of its adjoining seas, its 

 lakes, its' mountains and lesser elevations, and latitude, in deter- 

 mining the times of occurrence and termination of this element 

 of the climate of Sweden. These discussions, begun by Dr. 

 Hildebrandsson for the winter of 1870-71, cannot fail to be of 

 great benefit to agricultural and other public interests. 



Since our last issue we have received telegraphic intelligence 

 of frightful floods and'consequent loss of property in Texas. At 

 Indianola the storm began on the 15th. The east wind which 

 prevailed next morning^increased to a gale. The water soon 

 became six feet deep in the streets. On the 17th the wind veered 

 to the norih-west. The waves became chopped. The houses 

 were washed away or tumbled down . Toward the morning of 

 the i8th the wind lulled and the water receded ; wind veered to 

 the north. When daylight broke an awful destruction became 

 visible. The town could not be recognised. The ruin was 

 almost total. Seventy ^bodies were found in a brief period and 

 buried. Men and women were discovered who had floated on 

 doors or anything obtainable. Some were imprisoned beneath 

 roofs. Hundreds had miraculous escapes. The loss of life may 

 reach 200. Every business house but five has been destroyed. 

 Every pilot but one has been drowned. The city of Sabine has 

 been submerged and greatly damaged, but without loss of life. 

 Matagorda, at the entrance of Matagorda Bay, has been swept 

 away ; but two houses are standing. Cedar Lake is also 

 destroyed. All the inhabitants are reported lost at East Bay. 

 In a village containing twenty-eight people, all but five are lost. 

 A CORRESPONDENT of the Daily\News, writing from Chris- 

 tiania, says : " I translate the following from the Finmarkm- 

 post, a newspaper published, in Europe's northernmost city — 

 Ilammerfest : — ' On the 3rd instanfarrived at Hammerfest the 

 schooner Regina, Capt. ^Gundersen, belonging [to thej firm of 

 O. J. Finckenhagen, from a voyage in the Arctic regions and 

 the north coast of Nova Zembla. Capt. Gundersen discovered 

 in Nova Zembla a journal, kept by the Dutch Arctic voyager, 

 Barent, apparently giving an account of his doings from the 1st 

 of June to the 29th August,\i58o, as far as Capt. Gundersen 

 was able to make out, being unacquainted with Dutch and Dutch 

 writing of 300 years ago. Thf paper is in excellent preservation, 



