Sept. 25, 1879] 



NATURE 



505 



the President-Elect of the British Association) is after all in 

 error, and that the true agency which has carved out our valleys 

 and given us cur mountain scenery is still to seek. The evidence 

 of the new channel agrees with that to be found elsewhere (on 

 its grandest scale in the caiions of North America), in show ing 

 that the action of streams is to excavate not open valleys, but 

 narrow and vertical clefts. On the other hand, the agencies 

 of " snb-aerial waste " are seen to have worked their will for un- 

 told ages on the Cambrian sandstone of Glen Beansdale, and to 

 have produced — nothing. They have not even removed the blocks 

 of the old berg-fall, which looked as if they might have fallen 

 within the memory of man, instead of at a date which must be 

 reckoned by thousands, if not millions, of years. There remains 

 the power of ice, which 1 am by no means disposed to under- 

 value ; but the traces of the last "glacial period" are in this 

 case clear enough, and amount at most to a slight deepening of 

 the lower part of the glen, while to assume previous and much 

 more intense glacial action, of which no direct evidence remains, 

 would scarcely be justifiable. Walter R. Browne 



A "Nightly Resurrection" 



Yesterday, in the Pall Mall Budget oi ]\i\y 11, 1879, p. 22, 

 in a review of Mr. Stevenson's — " Travels with a Donkey in the 

 Cevennes," I read the following, which is an extract of Mr. 

 .Stevenson's book. It is a very interesting observation. He 

 ^lept a good deal under trees at night, and he «ays : "And there 

 i< one stirring hour unknown to those who dwell in houi-es, when 

 a wakeful influence goes abroad, and all the cut-door world 

 (lueaning animals and men who sleep in the open) are on their 

 feet. It is then that the cock first crows. . . . Cattle awake in 

 the meadows, sheep break their fast on dewy hill-sides, and 

 change to a new lair among the ferns ; and houseless men, who 

 have lain down with the fowls, open their dim eyes and behold 

 tlie beauty of the night. . . . Even shepherds and old country 

 lulk, who are the deepest read in these arcana, have not a guess 

 .' s to the means or purpose of this nightly resurrection. Towards 

 two in the morning they declare the thing takes place, and neither 

 know nor inquire further." 



This is a very curious and interesting fact, but Mr. Stevenson 

 is mistaken when he states that this "stirring hour," " when a 

 wakeful influence goes abroad," between the hours of one and 

 two in the morning, is unknown to those who dwell in houses. I 

 have been aware of it for a long time, and have noticed it year 

 after year on myself, although I dwell in a house. In the winter 

 1 usually go to sleep at 9 P.M., and then feel cold and require a 

 good deal of bed covering to keep me warm ; but between one 

 and two in the morning I feel uncomfortable, wake, and feel 

 liot, and am obliged to throw off some of the bed clothes. 

 Afterwards this discomfort passes away, I pull over me the 

 blankets again, and go to sleep till daylight. This occurs 

 morning after morning as regularly as ] ossible. 



In the summer I awake as regularly as possible about the same 

 hour, and feel uneasy and toss about for some little time, al- 

 though at this sea.son no blankets are used, and then go to sleep 

 again. 



Since 1 have been at Fyzabad I have been able to test more 

 accurately the hour in which this wakeful influence begins to 

 occur. I used to awake at the usual hour, and while awal;e I 

 invariably heard the railway whistle of the train which leaves 

 for Lucknow at 12.50 a.m. Latterly I have not been noticing 

 this whistle, and I am not aware that I wake at that he ur, but 

 there has been and is plenty of rain during this rainy season, 

 .' alurating the soil and atmosphere with moisture. Probably this 

 moisture may prevent that subtle "wakeful influence" from 

 reaching the nervous system. Again, I am rather subject to an 

 occasional neuralgic pain on the left side of my forehead. When 

 this occurs at night, it goes on increasing to its maximum 

 between one and two o'clock in the morning, and afterwards it 

 begins to subside. I often suspected that some change in tlie 

 terrestrial magnetism some time after the passage of the sun 

 across the meridian, on the other side of the earth, may be the 

 cause of this "subtle influence." Perhaps those who take 

 observations on terrestrial magnetism may throw some light on 

 this subject. Whatever may be this "subth influence" which 

 acts on the nervous system of animals between one and hi>o o'clock 

 A.M., there is a similar influence in the day, between one and 

 two P.M., although it may not have been noticed. I have 

 observed it, because when I get the before-named neuralgic pain 

 in the day, it goes on increasing till between one and two o'clock 



P.M., when it begins to subside. This question arises : are the 

 periodical exacerbations in fever and neuralgia^, &c., due to 

 some similar cosmical influence? Statistics on these points are 

 worth collecting. It is natural to suppose that the nervous 

 system of animals — a most sensitive tissue — would be readily 

 influenced by any magnetic change of the earth, or by other 

 subtle cosmical influences. E. BoNAVlA 



Fyzabad, August 19 



A Habit of Catlle 



Mr. H. C. Donovan, in a letter headed as above (Nature, 

 vol. XX. p. 457), describes the bone munching of cattle in Natal, 

 and asks whether they have a similar habit in other places. 

 Such is the case in Norway, especially at the upper pasturages 

 around the " saeters," or mountain chalets, where they are 

 commonly supplied with a daily modicum of fish-bones and salt, 

 which they eat with great avidity. There is but little lime on 

 the Norwegian fjelds, the prevailing rock is mica schist. 



Stonebridge;_Park, Willesden, September 17 



W. Mattieu Williams 



Intellect in Brutes 



Last year we spent our holiday at Llan Bedr, Merionethshire. 

 Our host has a house in the above village and another at Har- 

 lech, a town three miles distant. His favourite dog, Nero, is of 

 Norwegian birth, and a highly intelligent animal. He is at 

 liberty to pass his time at either of the houses owned by his 

 master, and he occasionally walks from one to the other. More 

 frequently, however, he goes to the railway station at Llan Bedr, 

 gets into the train, and jumps out again at Harlech. Being, 

 most probably, unable to get out of the carriage, he was on one 

 occasion taken to Talsarnau, the station beyond Harlech, where 

 he left the carriage, and waited on the platform for the return 

 train- to Harlech. If Nero did not make use of "abstract 

 reasoning" we may as well give up the use of the term. 



Manchester, September 20 William Horsfall 



BERN HARD VON COTTA 



C\^ the 14th inst. at Freiberg, in Saxony, this dis- 

 ^^ tinguished geologist breathed his last. Science has 

 lost in him an ardent and conscientious follower, one in 

 whom great powers of observation and reflection were 

 harmoniously associated. He possessed in especial that 

 "combining understanding" which Alexander von Hum- 

 boldt so highly prized. 



The youngest of four sons of the late Oberforstrath v. 

 Cotta, of Tharand, in Saxony — a man celebrated as forester 

 and founder of the Forstacademie in that picturesque little 

 town not far from Dresden — Bernhard was born, October 

 24, i8o8. His father had taken a great interest in natural 

 sciences, and had much occupied himself with paleon- 

 tology; and Bernhard appears to have inherited this 

 taste. Early in life he was a student at the Freiberg 

 Mining Academy — where he subsequently became Pro- 

 fessor of Geology — and he likewise studied at Heidelberg 

 and received a degree as Doctor of Philosophy. His 

 intellectual activity soon became strongly pronounced and 

 led, from the attainment of manhood till near the close of 

 his life, to the publication of numerous valuable works. 

 Whilst still a student at Freiburg, his first work, " Die 

 Dendrolithen," was written (published 1832). Subse- 

 quently, associated with Prof. Naumann, he worked at 

 the geological map of Saxony, which was published in 

 twelve sections, and he afterwards alone completed a 

 similar work for Thuringia. In 1836 appeared the first 

 part of a work entitled " Geognostische Wanderungen," 

 and in 1838 a second part ; in these the principal geo- 

 logical features of the kingdom of Saxony are described 

 and explained. He likewise wrote other works of great 

 practical value, of which " Gangstudien," '' Lehre von der 

 Erzlagerstiitten," and "Gestcinslehre" deserve most 

 favourable mention. Of more theoretical value is a 

 work which has gone through many and enlarged edi- 

 tions : " Anlcitung zum Studium der Geognosie und Geo- 



