456 



NATURE 



{Sept. II, 1879 



well be content to linger in the rich and pleasant pasturage in 

 which we encountered it. 



I may add that our obsei-vations were confiued almost entirely 

 to the grassy and flowery borders of the road, and that the 

 swarm which excited our wonder was probably only a single 

 column of a countless host. Thomas Hincks 



Budleigh-Salterton, September 2 



"Rag- Bushes "i 



A REMARKABLE instance of this custom existed (I am referring 

 to twenty-five years ago) in Ceylon. On the West Coast, on the 

 road between Chilaw and Jaffna, at a place — the name of which, 

 after so many years' absence, I forget — was a vast collection of 

 rag-offerings suspended to the bushes through which the road 

 was cut. It went by the name of " Rag Fair," with those of us 

 who had travelled in that direction : there were miles of it. 

 They were said to be offerings to the goddess "Kali" (who, in 

 the raidst of them, had a temple and w^//), to propitiate her and 

 obtain her protection against the dangers of the way, especially 

 those of wild beasts. 



Once travelling -up [that road, my horsekeeper, " Multu," 

 watered my horse at the sacred well. Out rushed the priest, 

 furious with wrath, and cursed Multu with all the vengeance of 

 " Kali," assuring him that he would be eaten by leopards that 

 very night. 



Multu, - who, I fear, was an atheist after his kind, merely 

 laughed at the offended guardian of the shrine, and pointing to 

 my rifle lying in the hollow of his arm, told him that while the 

 master or himself carried that, he did not care a copper "chailly " 

 (a "brass farden," vernacular) for "Kali," the leopards, or 

 himself. 



I soothed the irate old humbug by hanging a strip of rag, 

 which I carried in my pocket for gun-cleaning, on a branch, but 

 especially with a trifling bit of silver — I believe this latter por- 

 tion of an offering is usually, with miracle- and charm makers, 

 the most efficacious — and went my way. 



Multu had his triumph that night. A wretched coolie travel- 

 ling along the road — one of the class that supply the chief 

 abundance of the rags — after hanging up his offering and doing 

 "pooja," was, while sleeping in the "maddam," or porch of 

 the temple, of his protecting goddess, actually seized and carried 

 off by a leopard. He was rescued — how, I forget — and brought 

 to the " Rest-house " where I was, but was so dreadfully lacerated 

 about the hips and lower portion of the body that he died in a 

 few hours. E. Layard 



British Consulate, Noumea, July 5 



Signalling by Sunshine " 



Though I fear by the time this reaches you the subject will 

 have been exhausted, I send you this "note;" you can but 

 throw it into the paper-basket if not wanted. 



While at the Cape of Good Hope, my dear old friend Sir Thomas 

 Maclear, then Astronomer-Royal, told me that while measuring 

 the arc of the meridian to verify Lacaille's work, he signalled with 

 the heliostat enormous distances, the clear atmosphere of the Cape 

 teing eminently adapted for the purpose. If my memory does 

 not play me false, I think he said one station in connection with 

 his cairn on the top of Table Mountain (3,800 feet) was ninety, 

 five miles distant.' 



His means of directing the flash was as follows : — A tiny hole 

 is scratched in the quicksilver in the centre of the heliostat, and 

 a board with a larger hole is planted in front of the station, some 

 few feet from the instrument. 



The corresponding station is brought in view through the two 

 holes, and all three are consequently "in line." The flash is 

 then directed through the hole in the board, and is thus sent 

 straight to the desiral point. Of course telescopes were used for 

 long distances. 



Another old friend. Admiral Trotter, used to converse from 

 Admiralty House, Simon's Bay, with friends staying at "Kalk" 

 Bay, some eight or nine miles distant. E. L. Layard 



British Consulate, Noumea, July 4 



^ Nature, vol. xx. p. ^95. ~ Nature, vol. xx. p. 508. _ 



2 An amusing coincidence may be noted here. I was returning from 

 Graham; Town by a steamer, and when we came in sight of the old moun- 

 tain, I happened to mention Sir Thomas's signalling. My hearers on board 

 jeered at the possibility of making signals with "a piece of looking-glass," 

 when suddenly we were half blinded by a fla^Ii of light from the top of the 

 mountain. " What on earth is that ?" was the general exclamation ! " Only 

 Sir Thomas signalling," was my triumphant reply, " Perhaps you will some 

 of you now believe in a ' bit of looking-glass.' " Sir Thomas* son had, for 

 fun, sent a flasli cr two down to the steamer. 



Bag-like Fabrication exhibited by Sir Sydney Saunders 



As much the " production of a large species of spider in Fiji " 

 as a lady's silk dress is the " production " of a worm in China ! 



A large spider, of a genus common all over Polynesia, and 

 here alsj in New Caledonia (where formerly much eaten by 

 the aborigines) produces a very strong, thick web. On Sundays 

 generally, when no work is going on in] the plantations, the im- 

 ported Pacific Islanders amuse themselves by wandering about 

 the bush, armed with a frame-work of cane in the shape of an 

 elongated cone, affixed to a long stick. This they twist and twist, 

 round and round in the spiders' webs, till it is coated, sometimes 

 half an inch thick, with the viscous fabric. They then untie the 

 fastenings and draw out the strips of cane, when the bag becomes 

 like a long night-cap (old pattern). I have one before me now, 

 over a yard long, a foot across, and pretty thick, which does not 

 weigh one ounce ! It is yellow ; the New Caledonian ones are 

 usually grey. I do not think the Fijian natives had the custom 

 originally. Some of the New Caledonian are stretched tight 

 enough to resemble an Indian suspension "tom-tom," and really 

 emit a slight sound on being "tapped." This will give some idea 

 of the strength of the thread, for which see also The Field ("My 

 Trip to Lifu "), wherein I notice the impromptu butterfly nets 

 made by some boys stretching the web of this spider across the 

 loop of a bent twig. E. L. LAYARD 



British Consulate, Noumea, July 5 



Observations on a Wind-Whirl 



While making magnetic determinations at Schell City, Mo., 

 a wind-whirl of some violence passed near our tent, moving with 

 the characteristic swaying and halting motions of the tornado. 

 Its base was quite pointed, and about two feet in diameter. 



Unlike those seen last year, and described in Nature about 

 a year ago, there were no surface-winds strong enough to bear 

 dust along the suface of the ground, but the dust carried up in 

 the vortex was collected only at the vertex of the whirl. The 

 dust colu-m was about 200 feet high, and perhaps 30 or 40 feet 

 feet in diameter at the top. The direction of rotation was the 

 same as that of storms in the northern hemisphere. Leaving the 

 road, the whirl passed out on the prairie, immediately filling the 

 air with hay, which was carried up in somewhat wider spirals, 

 the diameter of the cone thus filled with hay being about 150 feet 

 at the top. It was then observed, also, that the dust column was 

 hollow. Standing nearly under it, the bottom of the dust column 

 appeared like an annulus of dust surrounding a circular area of 

 perfectly clear air. This area grew larger as the dust was raised 

 higher, being about IJ or 20 feet wide when it was last observed. 

 This whirl could be observed half a mile, finally disappearing 

 over a hill. 



This observation, in connection with the one given by me 

 a year ago, has a very important bearing on the theory of 

 " waterspouts " and tornadoes. Franxis E. Nipher 



St. Louis, Mo. 



Transportation of Seeds 



In a recent number of Nature which has lately reached my 

 hands, I observe a letter from Consul Layard on the above 

 subject, to which let this note be an addendum. 



In my daily expeditions I am exceedingly troubled by the 

 seeds of the Andropogon acicularis (Retz), not only adhering on 

 the slightest touch to my clothes, especially to my trousers and 

 socks, to the daily annoyance and occupation of much of the 

 time of my servant in their obstinate removal, but even pene- 

 trating my limbs and adhering there to my great discomfort, for 

 the itching that they cause is sometimes intolerable; and my 

 limbs consequently present somewhat the appearance of those of 

 a scarlet-fever patient. Henry O. Forbes 



Kesala, Bantam, Java, July 



Shark's Teeth 

 I WOULD draw attention to the operation of the teeth of the 

 shark on the seizure of its prey. I recollect in Nicholson's 

 " Zoology," a statement to the following effect : " The sharks have 

 teeth arranged in several rows, of which only the outermost is 

 employed, the other rows seeming to replace the outermost when 

 worn out." In a recent visit to the Cocos Islands I had many 

 opportunities of observing these animals in the use of their 

 formidable weapons. In the act of seizure the whole jaw is 

 protruded to a distance (varying according to the size of the fish) 

 of ;ever.il inches, the innermo:-t teeth coming into position erect 



