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NATURE 



{March 14, 1889 



as a curious fact that in parts of Abyssinia the fleshy outside 

 husk only was eaten, the part we use being thrown away as 

 worthless. 



In the February number of Himmel und Ercie, Herr O. 

 Jesse, of the Berlin Astronomical Observatory, calls attention to 

 the importance of an accurate study of the luminous night-clouds 

 which, since 1885, have been visible in Europe in the months of 

 June and July. Herr Jesse is of opinion that these phenomena 

 are interesting from an astronomical as well as from a meteoro- 

 logical point of view, because their periodic movement, taken in 

 conjunction with- their extraordinary height, suggests that they 

 manifest the activity of cosmical forces. He holds, therefore, 

 that they may throw some light upon the question whether 

 cosmical space is filled with a resisting medium, and that their 

 action may be a repetition of occurrences which played a great 

 part in the earlier period of the development of the earth and of 

 the planets generally. He urges that the phenomena should be 

 carefully observed, and appeals to all who may take this task in 

 hand to send him the results of their observations. 



Mr. a. T. Drummond, in recent Canadian publications, 

 takes the view that Lake Superior is the most ancient of the St. 

 Lawrence Great Lakes, dating back to Cambrian and, it may be, 

 earlier times, and that whilst its waters at perhaps more than 

 one period found an outlet to the ocean through the Mississippi 

 valley, the lake formed in other ages one of the sources of a 

 great river system which terminated on the Atlantic seaboard. 

 He traces the course of this river from the Michigan basin, and 

 from Lake Superior across Lake Huron to the headlands at the 

 entrance to the Georgian Bay. Here its waters were hurled over 

 the cliffs in a great fall more than rivalling Niagara. At the 

 lower level another considerable stream joined it from the north, 

 and the united rivers then skirted the face of the continuous, shaly, 

 precipitous cliffs which cross Ontario to the Lake Ontario valley. 

 Following the course of the escarpments which they created in this 

 valley, the waters eventually reached the sea through the 

 Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. At a recent period, the elevation 

 of the land between the Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario blocked 

 the course of the river, and, filling the Georgian Bay with water, 

 created a new outlet, not by the present St. Clair River, which 

 was of later birth, but to the south-eastward of Lake Huron, 

 where, through a channel now buried by clays, the Erie basin 

 was reached. The course from this basin to the Ontario valley 

 was through the great fracture in the limestones at Hamilton, 

 and not over the Niagara Falls. The change in the flow of these 

 waters to the Niagara River was one of the opening episodes in 

 the later history of Lake Erie. The Ottawa River was at this 

 time a large stream flowing much in the same course as now, 

 whilst the St. Lawrence was a less important river, taking its 

 rise in the Adirondack Mountains, which, at their then greater 

 elevation, blocked the present outlet of Lake Ontario. 



Mr. Thomas Wilson, of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 Washington, writing in the current number of the American 

 Naturalist, gives a rather gloomy account of the treatment 

 accorded by public authorities in the United States to science in 

 general, and to archaeology in particular. " The States of Ohio," 

 he says, " or Wisconsin, or West Virginia, or Mississippi, not 

 to mention New York or New England, have either of them 

 within their borders as much unstudied, unsearched, and un- 

 classified archseologic riches as has any one of the great countries 

 of Europe : England, France, Germany, Spain, or Italy. Yet 

 these countries, each of them, do more for archaeology than 

 equals the combined efforts of the United States and all the 

 State Governments. I confess to a feeling of depression when, 

 on visiting the Prehistoric Museum at Salisbury, England, I 

 found there stored and displayed, in a beautiful building, erected 

 in the midst of a lovely park, for its sole occupancy, the pre- 



historic collection of Squier and Davis, gathered by them from 

 the mounds of the United States in the Ohio and Mississippi 

 valleys. It went begging through the United States, knocked 

 at the door of Congress, and besought a purchaser at the ludicrous 

 price of $1000, but without finding a response. And in disgust 

 with their countrymen, and in despair of ever being able to 

 interest their Government or fellow-citizens, they sold their 

 collection to England and retired from the field of archseologic 

 investigation. " 



We learn from an article in Science that the pottery industry 

 in the United States gives employment directly to about ten 

 thousand people, to whom wages amounting annually to four 

 million dollars are paid, this amount being nearly 50 per cent, 

 of the total value of the output of the potteries. In addition to 

 these, there are many thousand more employed in the prepara- 

 tion of the materials for the potters' use, such as mining the 

 clays, quartz, and felspar, and grinding and washing the mate- 

 rials. To these people nearly as much more in wages is paid. 

 According to Science, the American potter does not claim to be 

 the peer of his foreign competitor in art productions, but he 

 does claim to equal any foreign manufacturer in the class of 

 china which he produces for the American people— both fine 

 and common "crockery" for domestic uses. "To-day," says 

 Science, "the English potter is copying American shapes, 

 designs, and styles of decorations. How different is this state 

 of affairs from that which existed a few years ago, when the 

 American potter depended upon foreign ideas for his shapes 

 and designs ! With the development of the manufacturing pro- 

 cess, talent for designing shapes and patterns or styles of decora- 

 tion has likewise progressed, until we have made our own 

 American shapes and designs, which foreigners have been com- 

 pelled to copy and adopt in order to find a market for their 

 wares in the United States." 



In his "Butterflies of the Eastern United States," a part of 

 which we lately reviewed, Mr. Scudder has an interesting paper 

 — Excursus xxiii. — on mimicry and protective resemblance 

 among butterflies. He points out that cases of mimicry are far 

 more common in the tropics than in temperate regions, even 

 relatively. The accounts of travellers in the tropics constantly 

 mention the attacks of birds upon butterflies, while instances 

 of butterflies being seen pursued by birds are vastly more 

 rare in the temperate regions. Mr. Scudder himself has 

 never seen one. In the tropics, moreover, there are 

 many other insectivorous animals, such as lizards. "In 

 our own country, therefore," says Mr. Scudder, "we should 

 not look for many instances of mimicry of any decided type. 

 The most striking is unquestionably that of Basilarchia 

 archippus, which mimics Anosia plexipptis, and the closely 

 related case of Basilarchia eras and Tasitia berenice, the 

 last two butterflies largely supplanting the first two on the 

 peninsula of Florida. In both these instances the mimicry is 

 enjoyed by both sexes. A third case is found in the less close 

 but still striking mimicry of Basilarchia astyanax by the female 

 of Sevinopsyche diana, an instance the more remarkable as the 

 mimicked species belongs to the same genus as our two other 

 mimicking forms." 



At a recent meeting of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society, two papers were read by Dr. Trimen and Mr. 

 A. P. Green, describing a visit paid by them to Ritigala. Dr. 

 Trimen's paper was devoted to an account of the flora to be 

 found on the mountain, and the difference between it and that 

 of the surrounding country. Ritigala is the highest ground 

 between the central mountains of Ceylon and the mountains 

 of Southern India. It is only 2506 feet high ; next to it in 

 height in the central plain of Ceylon being Friar's Hood (2147 

 feet), Westminster Abbey (1829 feet), and Gunner's Quoin 



