Ai)7'-il II, 1889] 



NATURE 



569 



surface of the ice to a very choppy sea, on to which has 

 rained innumerable stones and rocivs. The depressions are 

 often 100 feet deep. On this moraine were found shale and 

 slate granite quartz, with sulphates and pyrites and copper. 

 After several ineffectual attempts Mr. Topham and his com- 

 panions decided to ascend St. Ellas on the south-west side, west 

 of the Chaix Hills. The party ultimately, from their camp 1500 

 feet high, reached the brink of the crater, 7600 feet above sea- 

 level and 5000 above the Tyndall glacier ; another six hours 

 found them at a height of 11,461 feet. They were then on the 

 northern and upper rim of the crater, and judged the summit to 

 be another seven or eight thousand feet above. The crater is 

 full of ice, and upon its precipitous cliffs are a number of over- 

 hanging glaciers, splashed, as it were, upon the rocks and un- 

 attached from the snow-fields above. This is characteristic of a 

 number of the glaciers in the neighbourhood. There they are 

 — right on the rocks, with yawning crevices upon them broken 

 up and ready to topple over upon you. Perhaps in a few years 

 they will have melted entirely away. Everything, Mr. Topham 

 states, around St. Elias bears evidence to the conclusion that the 

 long period of ice through which the land has been passing is 

 now coming to an end ; a conclusion which is certainly rash. 

 Mr. Topham gave a detailed description of the panorama to be 

 seen from the highest point reached. There is, he states, 

 vegetation upon the south-east slopes of the hills to a height of 

 1500 feet above the glacier. The greatest height at which he 

 found vegetation, exclusive of lichens, was 4500 feet above the 

 sea, but the place was exposed to the full glare of the sun, and 

 no other vegetation was found for an interval of 1500 feet below. 

 A characteristic of the Alaskan glaciers is the curious way in 

 which small isolated bits of moraine show up here and there 

 above the ice. For example, you may walk down the centre of 

 the Tyndall upon white ice without seeing more than a few 

 stones to suggest the existence of a moraine, and suddenly you 

 will come upon an island oi dibris, disconnected from any regular 

 moraine. It springs from nowhere, is quite isolated, and appears 

 to have no reason for being there. 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES. 



The Rattle of the Rattlesnake.— The habit of slough- 

 ing is common to all serpents : a short time before the removal 

 of the old skin takes place, the newepiderm makes its appearance 

 beneath the old. The mode of growth of the new and the 

 removal of the old is the same in all snakes, with the exception 

 that, in those with a rattle, that portion of the slough that covers 

 the tip of the tail is retained to form one of the rings of the 

 rattle. The attachment is simply mechanical ; the rings are 

 merely the sloughs off the end of the tail. The terminal bone 

 of the tail is formed of vertebra? that have coalesced and changed 

 in great measure their shape ; in the different species the number 

 of vertebrre included in this bone varies considerably, and some- 

 times it varies in individuals of the same species. With the 

 purpose of indicating the manner of growth of the rattle, and 

 as far as possible determining its origin, Mr. S. Garman has 

 followed up its appearance in several species, full details of 

 which, with figures, have been lately published. In the very 

 young rattlesnake, while the vertebms are still separate, there is 

 no rattle, but about a week after birth a well-marked button is 

 seen ; with the first slough the first ring is set free, the button 

 being pushed forward, and a third button is gradually perfected. 

 In time the traces of the vertebrae in the terminal bone are 

 almost obliterated ; the bone becomes thickened, pushed forward 

 at its edges, and otherwise enlarged. In a full-grown rattle- 

 snake the hinder seven of the rings belong to the period of the 

 snake's most rapid growth— they form the "tapering rattle" 

 formerly used in classification of the species ; while four of the 

 rings and the button are formed while the gain in size was less 

 rapid, and form the " parallelogrammic rattle " of the old classi- 

 fiers. Many serpents besides those possessed of a " crepitaculum " 

 are addicted to making a rattling noise by vibrations of the end 

 of their tails. In illustration of the extent to which the tail has 

 been modified in different cases, Mr. Garman figures the tails of 

 several species, among others that of Ancistrodon contortrix, 

 Lin., the copperhead of the United States. The tip of its tail is 

 directed downwards as well as a little backwards ; mo-t often 

 the button has one or two swellings in a degree resembling those 

 on a ring of the rattle. A living specimen of this snake, kept 

 for a year or more, would take to rattling on the floor whenever 

 it was irritated ; the sound was made by the terminal inch of 



the tail, this part being swung from side to side in the segment 

 of a circle, so that the tip might strike downward. The result 

 was a tolerable imitation of the sound made by a small rattle- 

 snake.— (i9«/^/m Museum Comp. Anatomy, vol. xiii. No 10 

 August 1888.) 



A New Species of Laminaria.— The discovery in the 

 Mediterranean Sea, midway between Marseilles and Algiers, of 

 a Laminaria, not only new to the shores of Europe, but an 

 addition to the group— one, too, neither small in size nor obscure 

 in its characteristics— is a very interesting fact for botanists. 

 Laminaria rodriguezii has been described by Dr. Ed. Bornet in 

 a recent number of the Proceedings of the Botanical Society of 

 France. It was taken by M. J. Rodriguez a few miles south of 

 Port Mahon, on a rocky bottom, in a depth of from 125 to 150 

 metres. It was also taken on the east and north coasts of 

 Minorca. It appeared to be abundant in the first-mentioned of 

 these localities. The fronds grow to a height of 2 metres. In 

 general aspect, consistence, and colour this new species some- 

 what resembles Z. saccharina, but it cannot be for a moment 

 confounded with this well-known form. It is attached to the 

 stones upon which it grows by a series of little root-like processes, 

 which emanate from stolons running over the surfaces of the 

 stones. From these stolons the young fronds arise, and in 

 specimens with adult fronds, a whole colony of small fronds 

 will be found springing from the stolons. Lam. bongardiana 

 and Z. longipes of Kamchatka, Z. japonica from Japan, and Z. 

 sinclairi from California, are the only known species, with simple 

 fronds, which possess these rooting stolons, but none of these 

 can be confounded with the present new form. Of the five 

 species of Laminariaceae which have been from time to time 

 recorded as occurring in the Mediterranean, this is the only one 

 that is without any doubt a native. Phyllaria reniformis may 

 possibly be indigenous, but Pk. purptirascens. Lam. saccharina, 

 and Sac. bulbosa are almost certainly waifs that have been only 

 met with in the neighbourhood of ports. The Lam. saccharina, 

 Ardissone, found growing at Syracuse, in Sicily, proves, however, 

 to be Bornet's new species, which is the sole representative on the 

 Atlantic sea-board of the Pacific Ocean forms above referred to. 

 — {.Bull, de la Soc. Bot. de France, tome xxxv, pi. 5.) 



The Envelopes in Nostocace^.. — M. Maurice Gomont 

 has printed a brief abstract of his researches on the investing 

 envelopes of the filamentous Nostocs. The thallus in these 

 consists of the simple row of cells, the trichome, and the 

 protective envelope, more or less marked (the gaine) ; when the 

 hormogones are dispersed, this latter disappears. In a 33 to a 

 50 per cent, solution of chromic acid, the gainc becomes swollen 

 and dissolves, leaving only a tube-like pellicle ; next the proto- 

 plasm of the trichome cells becomes greatly changed, leaving 

 the cell-walls clearly defined. These consist of an external layer, 

 seemingly intermediate between the membrane met with in the 

 hypha; of Fungi and the cuticle of the higher plants ; it has a 

 remarkable power of resisting the action of acids : in a 33 per 

 cent, solution of chromic acid or in concentrated sulphuric acid, 

 it remains unchanged for a space of twenty-four hours ; it is 

 insoluble in hydrochloric or acetic acids, or in caustic potash ; 

 it is dissolved in a 50 per cent, solution of chromic acid, but 

 only after several hours ; with aniline or fuchsine it assumes a 

 brighter hue than ordinary cuticle. The interior layer gives 

 the reactions of cellulose. The chemcal properties of the gaine 

 prove it to be a true cuticle.— (y(;«r«a/ de Botanique for 1888.) 



THE SCOTTISH METEOROLOGICAL 

 SOCIETY. 



AT the half-yearly meeting of the Society, held on Monday, 

 ••'*• April I, it was stated in the Report of the Council that 

 new stations had recently been added in the Newington District 

 of Edinburgh, and in the Botanic Garden, these additions to 

 the observing staff being regarded with much satisfaction, 

 particularly in view of the facilities which a somewhat thickly 

 planted series of stations in Midlothian offer, in the observation 

 of the physical data required in investigating the various meteoro- 

 logical gradients, as proposed by the late Mr. T. Stevenson. 

 Dr. Archibald Geikie, Prof. Crum Brown, and Prof. Bayley 

 Balfour were elected Members of Council. 



The inspection of the fishery barometers of the Meteorological 

 Council at fifty-four of the fishing ports on the Scottish coasts 

 has now been completed by Mr. Dickson, who gave much 



