I 



Nov. 29, 1 888] 



NA TURE 



II 



in boiling up an extremely thick syrup. Add to this the 

 crumbling in of the crater-sides, their pulverization and 

 ejection, and we have the picture of a typical paroxys- 

 mal eruption, tending towards an explosive one, of an 

 obsidian volcano. H. J. Johnston-Lavis. 



Naples, November 3. 





Since writing the above, I have received the following 

 letter from Mr. Narlian, which will form a fitting appen- 

 dix to his former one read at the British Association, and 

 published in the Times and elsewhere. 



" Lipari, Italy, November 3, 1888. 



" My de.\r Dr. Johnston-L.wis,— I have your kind 

 note, for which I thank you. Our crater {i.e. Vulcano) is 

 .Still in a verj^ active condition. The eruptions succeed 



ch other nearly every minute or two. Columns of 



ick black ashes are ejected to heights that cannot be 

 ess than 15,000 feet. Tne stones, red hot, are also thrown 

 out in immense quantities and to great heights. Some- 

 times these eruptions are accompanied by loud detona- 

 tions, which are indistinguishable from those of a gun, 

 only they are so overpoweringly loud that at Lipari 

 they are heard as if a piece of 100 tons had gone off near 

 at hand. Till now there is no lava, and we hope there 

 will not be any. 



'■ I observe a difference in the ejected matter : in the 

 beginning of the eruption they were stones, in time they 

 began to show a burned calcined appearance, became 

 quite black and friable by the action of the fire, and now 

 they are nearly pumice of a dark and rough kind. 



" 1 shall be glad to send you some few specimens by 

 the first boat for Naples. 



" I am, dear Sir, 



" Yours faithfully, 



"A. E, Narlian.-" 



This prolonged activity is a most interesting pheno- 



\ menon, and two explanations are open to us — viz. either 



j the supply of igneous magma has increased, and the 



I volcano is passing from the solfataric stage to a strom- 



I bolian or Vesuvian phase, or the supply of dissolved 



i HoO in the magma extends to great depths, or is derived 



from a very large mass of magma. The change in the 



ejectamenta would rather point to the latter ; as if, the first 



boiled paste being ejected, the more aquiferous paste 



from greater depths was undergoing discharge of its 



vapour. This may possibly be followed by the eventual 



outpour of lava, indicating the arrival at the surface of 



till deeper magma, comparatively poor in dissolved HjO, 



Mj that the view of an obsidian stream may be in store 



lor us before long — an event of considerable importance 



to vulcanological science. H. J. Johnston-Lavis. 



NOTES. 



We lately noted that Mr. J. F. Dathie, Director of the 

 liotanical Department, Northern India, had accompanied the 

 recent military expedition to the Hlack Mountain country. The 

 I Hack Mountain forms the northern boundary of the district of 

 i I azara, which forms a long narrow valley, bounded on the west 

 y Cashmir. Extending far into the heart of the outer Himalayan 

 range, it is shut in on either side by mountains, rising to 17,000 

 feet. The flora is almost wholly unknown. But the time of 

 year was unfavourable for botanical collecting, and Mr. Duthie 

 writes to Kew : " I did not manage to find much of botanical 

 interest on the Black Mountain ; excepting the fine bits of fore- 1, 

 composed of A Lies Webbiana and Finns excelsa on the crests of 

 the mountain, the country is birren in the extreme. " 



The Kew Museum has lately received a chjic; collection of 

 interesting objects from Corea, collected and brought home by 

 Mr. T. Watters, who was Acting Consul in that country from 

 January 1887 to June last. The specimens in question, which 

 consist of hand-screens, fans, &c., m\de of paper from the 

 paper mulberry {Brjusson:lia papyrifera, Vent.), together with 

 samples of the paper itself, sun-blinds made of [split bamboo, 

 &c., illustrate in a remarkable degree the extreme neatness and 

 accuracy of the Coreans in their handicrafts. The following are 

 some of the sp2cim:;ns rcc^ivei and now exhibited in the Kew 

 Museum. A series of different qualities of paper, all made from 

 the bark of the paper mulberry. These comprise plain white or 

 cream- coloured papers of various degrees of finish, used for 

 drawing, writing, packing, &c. ; also coloured papers such as are 

 used by the people for writing birthday missives upon. It 

 would seem that the Coreans, like the Japanese, use paper very 

 extensively for a great variety of p.irpoies. Thus, for fan=;, the 

 handles of which are delicately ornamented, as well as for hand- 

 screens, tobacco-pjuches, coverings for hats in wet weacher, 

 paper is equally applicable ; for the latter purposes, however, it 

 is steeped in oil, which makes it thoroughly waterproof The 

 hand-screens are made by first forming a foundation of thin strips 

 of split bamboo radiating from the handle, which is afterwards 

 covered so completely on both sides with a ihin paper film and 

 varnished that a strong and durable article is the result. Some 

 of the hand-screens presented by Mr. Walters to the Kew 

 Museum were given to him by the King, and are of much finer 

 workmanship than those that are purchasable. The oil- 

 steeped paper tobacco-pouches and hat-coverings are a close 

 imitation of oilskin ; the latter, which when opened is cone- or 

 tent-shaped, is used by all classes except the peasantry, even 

 including the soldiers. The Corean boy's kite, which is also 

 made of Broussonetia paper, consists of a piece of paper about 

 a foot square with a circular hole in the middle, kept in 

 form by thin strips of bamboo ; a thin string is attached to each 

 corner and brought together and connected to a single string, 

 which is wound upon a wooden windlass. The perfection of 

 splitting bamboo into thread-like strips .«eems to be divided equally 

 between the Chinese and the Coreans, judging from a remark- 

 ably fine example of a blind which forms one of the exhibits. 

 These very fine blinds are said to be used only by high mandarins, 

 and the coarser kinds by the lower classes. Another illustra- 

 tion of very fine work is in the utilization of split rattans in the 

 manufacture of articles of clothing, an undershirt and cuffs of 

 very open ornamental workmanship being made entirely from 

 this material, which is both soft and pliable. These shirts are 

 said to be used next t he skin in hot weather to prevent the oute 

 shirt adhering to the body. 



Mr. J. S. Jameson, of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, 

 who died of fever at Bangala Station, on August 17 last, had 

 accumulated a number of carefully-selected trophies and objects 

 cf natural history. These objects have been brought together 

 at 166 Piccadilly, and arranged by Mr. Rowland Ward, so 

 that they may be accessible to naturalists, and to his friends, 

 who have been invited to view them to-day. 



The Russian Geographical Society has just published an 

 "Instruction for Observations upon Shifting Sand Re_jions." 

 The paper was carefully prepared by a Committee of persons 

 thoroughly acquainted with the subject, and might with ad- 

 vantage be translated aud communicated to other Geographical 

 Societies. 



An important addition to school laboratories has just been 

 completed at Eastbourne College, where the science teaching is 

 undergoing great development. The laboratory, which has just 

 been built there, affords working accommoda'ion for twenty-four 

 students, and has been thoroughly well fitted. The working 



