40 



NA TURE 



{Nov. 8, 1888 



In the current number of the Zoologist Mr, John Cordeaux 

 has some valuable notes on the occurrence of Pallas's sand grouse 

 in Lincolnshire. Exclusive of the flocks seen near the coast late in 

 August and in September and October, which may probably be 

 referred to birds coming from the interior, and approaching the 

 sea before taking their departure, the number actually recorded 

 as visiting Lincolnshire is, as far as Mr. Cordeaux is able to 

 ascertain, about 184. Making a liberal allowance for flocks seen 

 more than once, he thinks the number may certainly be estimated 

 as considerably exceeding a hundred. Taking the dates as they 

 occur, the number in each flock, and the localities in which the 

 birds have been seen, he is inclined to place the actual number 

 at about 140 to 150 between May 18 and July 28. The number 

 killed was twenty-five, of which sixteen were shot, eight died of 

 poisoned grain, and one was killed on the railway. Mr. 

 Cordeaux has no information which indicates that any sand 

 grouse nested, or attempted to nest, anywhere in Lincolnshire. 



The current number (vol. xvi. Part 2) of the Transactions of 

 the Asiatic Society of Japan contains a number of specimens of 

 Aino folk-lore translated literally by Mr. Batchelor, whose 

 name is already known to our readers in connection with Aino 

 studies. Mr. Meik, a civil engineer, employed by the Japanese 

 Government to t ravel round the Island of Yezo to advise as to 

 the most suitable sites for the construction of harbours, describes 

 his journey. He draws attention to the diurnal inequality of the 

 tides on the Yezo coasts. This amounts to 3 feet at spring-tides 

 along the south-east coast, the maximum rise of a spring-tide 

 being 6 feet, while the range of an ordinary spring-tide is about 

 4^ feet. The lowest tide at new and full moon occurs about I 

 10 a.m., and the second daily tide reaches a minimum about 

 three days and a half before new and full moon, or at the change 

 of tides. On the south-east coast this minimum afternoon tide 

 occurs about 6 p.m., and only registers a few inches, while on 

 the west coast there is practically only one tide in the twenty- 

 four hours for four days before and one day after new and full 

 moons, and during this period the tide takes sixteen hours to 

 rise and eight to fall. Mr. Parker discourses in his usual very 

 learned way on the Chinese and Annamese languages. 



At a recent meeting of the Society of Science of Christiania, 

 Prof. G. Storm demonstrated the identity between Ginnunga 

 Gap, referred to in the Sagas, and meaning the " World's 

 End," and the present Davis Straits. 



The first discovery of remains of cave-dwellers in Scandinavia 

 has been made in a cave in the Great Carl's Island, in the 

 Baltic, a couple of miles west of the Island of Gothland. Last 

 year a farmer, while digging for mould for a plantation, dis- 

 covered in a cave or grotto layers of ashes and charcoal mixed 

 with bones. The latter, having been forwarded to the Royal 

 Museum at Stockholm, were found to be the bones of horses, 

 bullocks, pigs, birds, and fishes. In consequence of this dis- 

 covery, Prof. G. Lindstrom commissioned Dr. L. Kolmodin to 

 carry out excavations in this cave in a scientific manner ; and 

 the result is that indubitable remains of cave-dwellers have been 

 found. The cave is situated about 20 metres above the sea-level, 

 and consists of two parts, an outer one, about 12 metres long and 

 7 metres wide at the mouth, and an inner one, about 9 metres 

 long and ijmetrewide; the latter leading into a transverse gallery 

 running south-west and north-east. Dr. Kolmodin began by exca- 

 vating the layers at the mouth of the cave, and here he encoun- 

 tered, almost in the exact spot where the fire-place had been, a 

 grave 5 metres in length, 2 J metres in width, and 3-2 metres in 

 depth. There are alternate layers of ashes and charcoal, inter- 

 spersed with remains of the animals named above. The bones 

 of "domestic " animals decrease in quantity downwards, whilst 

 those of seals increase. The explorer found, at a depth of 24 

 decimetres, fragments of coarse pottery of a primitive kind 



and some chips of flint ; at a depth of 28 decimetres 

 an implement of flint ; and in the lowest layer, at 32 

 decimetres depth, two small drills of bone. Several of the 

 fragments of pottery found below a depth of 24 decimetre 

 bore traces of simple ornamentation. Everywhere in tin 

 layers were found bits of granite and chalk, clearly showing; 

 that they had been split by fire. Most of the bones had been 

 split or crushed, and the marrow extracted. Among the remains 

 was part of a human cranium. It may be added that the island 

 on which the discovery was made is only a couple of hundred 

 acres in extent, and uninhabited. 



The Pekin correspondent of a Shanghai newspaper writes 

 that a special edition of a work on natural philosophy, compiled 

 by Dr. Martin, the head of the Foreign College of Pekin, has 

 been prepared for the use of the Emperor of China, and tha 

 sixteen volumes of Macmillan's Science Primers have been tran- 

 lated into Chinese by Dr. Edkins, the well-known scholar, at tin 

 instance of Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of Chinese 

 Customs. " These elementary books will supply a want felt in 

 the preparatory science schools which are now being inaugurated 

 especially in Tientsin. Excellent prefaces to the series, incui 

 eating the advantages of a scientific training, praising the advane 

 made in science in the West, and the valuable contribution < 

 legacy which Sir Robert Hart, amid all his other work for thi 

 regeneration of China, is leaving, have been written by the t\v 

 foremost statesmen in China — the Viceroy, Li Hung Chang, an 

 the Marquis Tseng." 



The ninth monthly part of "The Cyclopasdia of Education" 

 (Sonnenschein) has been issued. The work will be completed 

 in about twelve parts. 



Dr. a. B. Griffiths has in the press " A Treatise on 

 Manures," which will be published by Messrs. Whittaker and 

 Co. , of Paternoster Square. 



Great pains are taken to secure that the penny science 

 lectures at the Royal Victoria Hall shall be attractive and 

 successful. On November 6, Mr. W. Lant Carpenter delivered 

 a lecture on " Speech- Recording Machines." The following 

 are the announcements for the remainder of the present month : 

 November 13, Mr. Harold Cox, "India"; November 20, Dr. 

 W. D. Halliburton, " The Throat and the Voice"; November 

 27, Prof. H. G. Seeley, "Underground Heat." 



Since September last a system of storm-warnings has been in 

 use on the coasts of the Black Sea ; they are issued from the 

 Odessa Meteorological Station in connection with the Central 

 Physical Observatory at St. Petersburg. Signals announcing 

 the approach of strong north-eastern and south-western winds, 

 as well as of storms, are shown at Odessa, Sebastopol, Kertch, 

 Taganrog, Rostoff", Poti, and Batum. The signals are the 

 usual cones and cylinders. 



In the Jamaica Weather Report for the month of August, Mr. 

 Maxwell Hall gives an interesting account of the more prominent 

 features of some of the West Indian cyclones observed there 

 during the last ten or twelve years. These hurricanes usually 

 originate in the regions of heavy rains which advance as far 

 north as latitude 15" in August and somewhat farther north in 

 September and October. From November to July the rains 

 withdraw nearer the equator, where the divergence of the air- 

 currents is insufficient for their generation. All the cyclones 

 which have passed Jamaica confirm the theory of the influx of 

 the wind towards the centre. Mr. Hall states that there is a 

 feature often observed in Jamaica which is not noticed elsewhere, 

 viz. after a cyclone has passed, and is moving away, it draws 

 the winds and clouds after it for one or two days, and that this 

 fact enables him to draw conclusions as to the direction in which 

 the cyclone is moving. 



