6i6 



NATURE 



\OcL 23, 1879 



Tunis and Tripoli. We believe the cable has at last been 

 successfully laid. 



In the note in Nature, vol. xx. p. 563, on the elevations 

 attained by railways, mention is omitted, Mr. D. Sharp writes 

 us, of the Spanish lines which are so remarkable in this respect. 

 The northern line is at the sea-level at San Sebastian, but 

 attains a height of 614 metres, between Zumairaga and Alsasua ; 

 after descending from this, an elevation of 934 metres is reached, 

 between Briviesca and Burgos; and after a long transit, i,3S9'88 

 metres (4,476 feet) is touched by the railway while traversing 

 the Guadairama about thirty miles from Madrid. The line from 

 Santander to Alar del Rey reaches an elevation of 984 metres in 

 passing the Cantabrican chain near Reinosa, and in the distance 

 of 33 kilometres between Barcena and Reinosa, mounts 560 

 metres. The southern line from Madrid to Cordova does not 

 reach such great elevations as the North Spanish lines; never- 

 theless, in passing the Sierra Moreno, it attains the considerable 

 altitude of 798 metres, or 2,630 English feet above the sea- 

 level. 



It is stated that the heavy rains in Assam have flooded part s 

 of the country and threaten serious damage to tea prospects. 

 Some of the gardens are reported to be looking very unhealthy 

 and yellow. 



Her Majesty's Consul at Panama reports that india-rubber 

 has almost ceased to be an article of export from the isthmus, 

 mainly in consequence of the great difficulty and. expense of 

 getting at the trees in the remote districts of the interior. Those 

 nearer the coast have been destroyed by the wasteful system 

 pursued by the natives in cutting down the trees to procure 

 the sap. 



The German Society for Cultivation and Acclimatisation of 

 Birds will hold its fifth exhibition at Berlin on November 21-25 

 next. Cage-birds in the widest sense of the word, and park- 

 birds generally will form the principal objects of the exhibition, 

 which will also include stuffed specimens, skeletons, skins, nests, 

 and eggs, as well as all apparatus and paraphernalia applying to 

 the object of the Society. Those of our readers interested in 

 ornithology who wish for further particulars should apply to 

 Herr H. Schmidt, 32, Lothringer-Strasse, Berlin, N. 



At Pritschaberg, near Nassenfus in Lower Camiola more 

 than 4,000 Roman copper coins have recently been found. Most 

 of them were contained in an earthen jar and many others sur- 

 rounded this ; the whole was imbedded in the ground close to a 

 road and at a depth of only half a metre. The coins are toler- 

 ably well preserved and date from the reign of the Emperors 

 Severus (a.d. 193 to 211), Gallienus (254 to 268), Claudius (268 

 to 270), Aurelianus (270 to 275), Tacitus (275 to 276), and 

 Probus (276 to 282). The greatest number date from the reigns 

 of Aurelianus and Probus. The jar and coins w ere evidently 

 buried during the reign of the latter, as not one coin dating from 

 the reign of his successor Diocletian is amongst the number. 



In a recent paper to the Berlin Academy, on Progress in 

 Knowledge of the Chemical Nature of Meteorites, Prof. Ram- 

 melsberg states that since he wrote in 1870 a paper on the 

 Chemical Nature of Meteorites, more than twenty meteoric irons 

 and about as many chondrites have been obtained and examined, 

 besides some meteorites belonging to the more rare species ; and 

 he therefore thinks it desirable to make a fresh survey of the 

 subject. He adopts Prof. Rose's classification. Among other 

 points noticed are the discussions relating to the iron masses of 

 Ovifak. The presence of nickel can no longer be regarded as a 

 sure sign of the meteoric nature of iron masses. The small 

 group of pallasites has been increased by one new member, the 

 bronzite-pallasite of Rittersgriin (found in 1S33 and recognised 



as a meteorite since 1861, but its true nature only determined 

 lately by Weisbach and CI. Winkler). Specially interesting is 

 the occurrence of a white mineral (asmanite) consisting entirely 

 of silicic acid, found in the Rittersgriin meteorite, as also in that 

 of Breitenbach. A second representative of the rare meteorites 

 which are free from metallic iron has been found in the Ibben- 

 biihren stone (which contains Fe.3Mg). The first was the stone of 

 Manegaum, purely bronzite. Recent researches on meteoric iron 

 do not elucidate certain chemical differences of physically distin- 

 guishable parts, to which the earlier works of Reichenbach and 

 Meunier referred ; nor is the nature of the crystalline combina- 

 tion schreibersite more exactly known. (For further details wc 

 must refer to the Monatsbericht. ) 



Through a recent landslip at the Salzberg, Hallstadt, a 

 wooden structm^e was laid bare, in excavation of which were 

 found a number of bones and tools, which appear to have be- 

 longed to the period of Celtic interments at the Salzberg. 

 Among these objects was an implement (of unrecognisaVjlc 

 nature) with a thick blue coating, which, on examination by 

 Herr von Hochstetter, was found to be covellin or protosulphide 

 of copper, the interior being copper. The coat was o'5 to 

 I ctm. thick, and showed a composition of 32'8l per cent, sul- 

 phur, and 64*45 P^'' cent, copper. Its specific gravity vvas 

 4'6li. The copper below presented a mnclicorroded surface, 

 and in the hollows were spherules of arragonite about 2 mm. in 

 diameter. The conditions of eating away of the copper and 

 complete transformation of it into protosulphide of copper were 

 furnished (says the author) in the burial-ground containing gyp- 

 sum and greatly permeated with decaying animal and vegetable* 

 remains. From the gypsum and organic remains there would 

 be formed abundant sulphide of calcium, which would cause 

 transformation of the copper according to the formula — 



Cu -i- SCa -I- C0„ -f O = SCu -1- COjCa, 

 or Cu -f SCa -f (€0^)2 CaO -f O = SCu -^ 2C03Ca. 



We receive from America details of the accident which ter- 

 minated for this year the career of the New York captive balloon 

 on August 16, the very day when the Paris captive balloon 

 was torn to pieces by the wind because it had not gas enough 

 to sustain its spherical form. The New York balloon was 

 sent up with two persons only as a trial, and rose to 8co feet 

 when it burst. The two passengers were precipitated to thu 

 ground, but no harm was done to them, the balloon having acte<l 

 the part of a parachute. The bursting was inevitable, the 

 balloon having been started full of gas and the neck having been 

 fastened with a rope. The rent extended from the top to the 

 equator. 



The Times Paris correspondent states that at Gtiisseny, 

 Finistcre, a cave 15 metres long by 4 wide has been discovered 

 under a heap of rocks. One entrance faces the sea at a height 

 of 4 metres, and the other the land, so that it must have been 

 well adapted for watch and defence. Below a layer of ashes 

 were found stones laid together, human bones, remains of funeral 

 urns, evidently Celtic, a considerable quantity of animal bones, 

 some of them apparently of extinct species, and a stone hammer 

 and polished porphyry hatchet. 



We have received a pamphlet of fifteen pages entitled "Notes 

 on the Flora of Hampshire," by F. Townsend, M.A., F.L.S. 

 This consists principally of two carefully drawn-up lists or tables 

 of plants. The first list comprises plants found on the Hants 

 mainland but absent in the Isle of Wight or in one or more of 

 the adjacent counties of Wilts, Dorset, Sussex, Surrey, or Berks. 

 The second list is that of plants absent on the mainland in Hants 

 but found in one or more of the counties referred to above. By 

 the first of these lists Mr. Townsend points out "that of the 

 seven floras enumerated those of Surrey and of Sussex more nearly 



