448 



NATURE 



[March 7, 1889 



substance readily obtained perfectly pure as a white crystalline 

 solid, melting at I93°-I94°, and vaporizing unchanged at 314°- 

 315°. Two consecutive density determinations by Victor Meyer's 

 method in an atmosphere of nitrogen and at the temperature of 

 boiling mercury, which is only 45° above the boiling-point of 

 the substance, yielded numbers corresponding to the molecular 

 weights 325*5 and 324*2. The molecular weight of Al(C5H-.02)3 

 is 324*5 ; so that, even at this comparatively low temperal ure, 

 just as in the case of chromium chloride, the triad is the only 

 possible formula. There was no trace of decomposition, the 

 pure white crystals being found re-formed and chemically un- 

 changed after the experiment. From this result it appears 

 pretty conclusive that aluminium does behave like chromium, 

 iron, indium, and gallium, and that, although in the case of the 

 chloride, molecules of the composition AlgClg may for a brief 

 space exist, yet the most stable molecules of aluminium com- 

 pounds in general are those in which the metal plays the part of 

 a triad. 



In some notes on a voyage to the Greenland Sea in 1888, 

 published in the Zoologist for March, Mr. Robert Gray gives 

 some curious particulars with regard to the contents of the 

 stomachs of several hooded seals, Cystophora cri statu, shot on 

 July 9. While most were empty, one was packed full with a 

 bluish mud or ooze, in which were embedded the crystalline 

 lenses of two eyes belonging probably to some small species of 

 fish, and the remains of one Crustacean common at the surface 

 ( Themisto). The stomachs of three other seals contained mud 

 alone. " With regard to the presence of mud in these animals' 

 stomachs," says Mr. Gray, " while considering the depth of 

 the water too great (in this instance .2CO fathoms ; in 

 another, iioo) to permit the bottom being reached, the 

 only explanation I am able to offer is that the substance 

 must be swallowed in small quantities by the seals along with 

 their ordinary food (Crustaceans living at the surface), and that, 

 owing to its indigestible nature, it accumulates in course of time in 

 the stomach. These seals are occasionally observed disappearing 

 under the ice, for the purpose, I believe, of feeding on the 

 immense number of Crustaceans which are known to accumulate 

 there. Many of the ice-fields bear on their surface, immediately 

 under a superficial coating of snow, cargoes of mud (apparently 

 of an alluvial origin). During the process of melting, the mud 

 may accumulate on submerged tongues or ledges of the ice, and 

 thus become the retreat of numbers of Crustaceans, which, as 

 they are devoured by the seals, are swallowed along with a small 

 quantity of the mud. Some such explanation must, I think, be 

 conceived." 



A PAPER on the occurrence of Pallas's sand-grouse {Syrrhaptes 

 paradoxus) in Ireland was read some time ago before the Royal 

 Dublin Society, by Dr. Robert Scharff, and has now been printed. 

 The immigrations of the bird began in Ireland at the end of 

 May and lasted to the middle of July, when they ceased until 

 the end of November. It is difficult to say, with any degree of 

 accuracy, how many specimens found their way to Ireland ; but 

 Dr. Scharff thinks that in the various flocks which were seen 

 there may have been about one hundred birds. A far larger num- 

 ber, however, may not have been observed. "Following their 

 ipstinctive desire to explore the extreme west," says Dr. Scharff, 

 "hundreds may have perished in the waves of the Atlantic, thus 

 putting a stop to their enterprising spirit." 



An interesting paper on the Coreans was read lately by Mrs. 

 E. R. Scidmore, an American lady who, in 1887, visited, as a 

 guest. Judge Denny, the foreign adviser to the King of Corea. 

 Wisps of straw and bits of cloth hang at the doorways to keep 

 off evil spirits ; and these, according to Mrs. Scidmore, are the 

 only signs of worship seen about Seoul. The Coreans have the 

 worship of ancestors, as the Chinese ; and a trace of the old 



dragon-worship must order their toleration of snakes, as it is 

 impossible to get a Corean servant to kill the snakes that drop 

 from the mud roof and slip out of, the flues of the kaugs that 

 warm the floors of the houses. Until the arrival of the 

 American physicians, the king and queen had an army of 

 necromancers and wizards in attendance upon them, and a 

 form of Shamanism was practised upon the sick. They were 

 consulted also in matters of State policy. 



A SUPPLEMENT to the first volume of the Internationales 

 Archivfiir Ethnographie has been issued. It consists of a care- ■ 

 ful and interesting monograph, by Dr. Otto Stoll, on the ethno- 

 logy of the Indian tribes of Guatemala. He has much that is 

 valuable and interesting to say about the social organization of 

 these tribes, their religious ideas and customs, and their skill in 

 various industrial arts. Two admirably coloured plates accom- 

 pany the essay, and three illustrations are given in the text. 



The January and February numbers of Mathesis, a Belgian- 

 mathematical journal, have just been issued as a single number 

 of seventy pages, which are wholly taken up with a French 

 translation of the "supplementary chapter'' of Dr. Casey's 

 " Sequel to Euclid " (pp. 165-248, fifth edition). With the double 

 part the editors present a copy of M. Vigarie's useful " Premier 

 Inventaire de la Geometrie du Triangle," to which we lately 

 drew attention^ 



The proprietors of the Castle Mail steamers have issued a 

 guide " to the land of gold and diamonds, and the places touched 

 at by their various steamers." The book is called " South 

 Africa, and how to reach it by the Castle Line." The author is 

 Mr. Edward P. Mathers. 



The additions to the Zoological Society 's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Rhesus Monkey (Macacus rhesus 'i) from 

 India, presented by Miss L. C. Hart ; a Grey Ichneumon (Her- 

 pestes griseiis) from India, presented by Mrs. Margaret Allison ; 

 an American Black Bear (Ursus americanus 6 ) from North 

 America, presented by Messrs. Hugh Williams and Basevi, 

 Lieutenants R.N. ; a Common Fox {Canis vulpes), British, pre- 

 sented by the Lord Tredegar ; a Short-eared Owl {Asio brachy- 

 otus), captured at sea, presented by Mr. R. Phillips ; a Common 

 Blue Bird (Sialia 'wilsoni) from North America, presented by 

 Commander W. M. Latham, R.N. ; an Axolotl (Siredon mexi- 

 canus) from Mexico, presented by Mr. E. Evelyn Barron ; nine 

 Moorish Geckos {Tarentola mauritanica) from the South of 

 France, presented by Masters F. and O. Warburg ; a Manatee 

 {Manatus australis) from Guiana, deposited ; two Tui Parra- 

 keets {Brotogerys tui) from Brazil, four White-breasted Gallinules 

 (Gallinula phcenicura) from India, purchased ; an Unarmed 

 Trionyx (Trionyx muticus) from North America, received in 

 exchange. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMA. 

 Solar Activity in 1888. -The behaviour of the various orders 

 of solar phenomena, spots, faculae, and prominences, during th e 

 past year has shown most conclusively that the minimum must 

 now be very near at hand, and it may with confidence be ex- 

 pected to fall either towards the end of the current year or else 

 early in 1890. The spots especially have shown unmistakable 

 signs that the trough of the eleven-year curve is nearly reached, 

 for they have been few in number, small in size, and low in 

 latitude, and there have frequently been considerable intervals in 

 which no spots have been seen at all. The remarkab le depres- 

 sion of October 31 to December 9, 1886 (see Nature, vol. xxxv.- 

 p. 445) has in some respects indeed not been equalled during 

 1888, but there has been no such long period of unbroken, 

 quiescence since the minimum of 1879 as that recorded in last 

 October, when in the three weeks October 4-24 not a single spot 

 was seen, whilst there were but three days showing spots in the 

 thirty-seven from September 29 to November 5. Other spotless 

 or nearly spotless periods in 1888 were January 23-30, February 

 4-17, March 1-8, March 24-31, April 6-15, April 30 to May 10^ 



