256 



NATURE 



[July 14, 1898 



was, according to his statement, to be erected in the district of 

 Stavanger, but, up to the present, nothing appears to have been 

 done in this direction. 



The total number of chemical works registered in all parts of 

 Germany, according to the latest trustworthy statistics, is 6144, 

 the total number of persons employed by them being 125,440. 

 Amongst the industries of the Hamburg Consular district which 

 have attained to the greatest importance are those for manu- 

 facturing various chemical products, such as nitrates, sulphuric 

 and nitric acid, sulphates, boracic acid, artificial manures, 

 pharmaceutical products, dyeing and tanning extracts, essences, 

 and more particularly different kinds of explosives. The factories 

 in that district now employ altogether some 4000 workmen as 

 compared with about iTpo ten years ago, a fact demonstrating 

 once more the rapid strides made throughout Germany by most 

 branches of chemical industry during recent years. 



Bog iron ore is worked in the province of Quebec, Canada, 

 and arrangements are being made (says the Engineer) to ex- 

 tract manganese from bog ore deposits in the province of New 

 Brunswick. The ore is a soft, wet stuff, containing 50 per cent, 

 of water, and is covered by a thin coating of vegetable earth. 

 The depth of ore varies from 5 feet to 30 feet. When dried the 

 residuum is a fine black powder, too fine to be treated in the blast- 

 furnace, and this has therefore to be made into briquettes, as is 

 done with the fine dust from blastfurnaces and the finely- 

 divided iron produced from low-grade ores by the Edison 

 electrical process. The cementing material used is kept secret. 

 An analysis of the dried ore at 212° F. is given as follows: 

 metallic manganese, 48 '240 per cent. ; metallic iron, 5700 per 

 cent. ; sulphur, 0'096 per cent. ; phosphorus, trace ; silica, 

 1 -88 per cent. 



The office of the Bureau of Mines at Toronto has issued a 

 notice to the effect that the first discovery of corundum in 

 Ontario was made late in the year 1896, and exploration work 

 carried on under direction of the Government in 1897 shows 

 that the corundum-bearing lands have an aggregate area of 

 about 50,000 acres. The mineral rights over nearly the whole 

 of this tract are held by the Crown, and they have been with- 

 drawn from sale and lease pending a report on the occurrence 

 of the mineral and the methods of treating it, undertaken by 

 the professors of the Kingston School of Mining. Meantime 

 the attention of prospectors, miners, and capitalists is invited to 

 the district, and, with a view to its development and the estab- 

 lishment of industries in the province for treating and utilising 

 the corundum ore, proposals will be received by the Dominion 

 Commissioner of Crown Lands until the first day of September 

 next. 



Prof. Kienitz-Gerloff criticises, in the Biologisches 

 Centralblatt, Prof. Plateau's attack on the hypothesis that the 

 bright colour of flowers is the principal agent in attracting in- 

 sects for the purpose of cross-pollination. He maintains that 

 the facts support the conclusions of Darwin, Miiller, and Lub- 

 bock much more than those of Plateau, the general results of 

 whose observations he sums up as follows : " The new is not 

 true, and the true is not new." 



The U.S. Weather Bureau has published z. Bulletin (No. 22) 

 on the climate of Cuba, with a note on the weather of Manila. 

 The work has been somewhat hastily compiled by Dr. Phillips, 

 in charge of the section of climatology at the Bureau, and is 

 very useful as showing what information exists, and by giving 

 references as to where it is to be found. There appears to be 

 very little precise meteorological data obtainable for Cuba, 

 excepting for Habana. Observations were begun there by the 

 late Prof. A. Poey, about 1850, and since 1859 have been 

 regularly continued at Belen College. During the ten years 



NO. 1498, VOL. 58] 



1 888- 1 897 the highest yearly mean temperature was 77° "2, and 

 the lowest 76°*i. The warmest month is July, with an average 

 temperature of 82° '4, and the coldest month is January, with an 

 average of 7o°"3. The highest temperature recorded was 100° '6, 

 and the lowest 49° '6. The greatest rainfall occurs in October 

 and June ; the yearly average for thirty years was 51*73 inches, 

 but the amount varies considerably in different years. The 

 greatest annual fall was 71*40 inches, and the smallest 40*59 

 inches. Thunderstorms are of almost daily occurrence in the 

 West Indies, but little damage results from them. Meteoro- 

 logical observations have been made for many years at Manila 

 Observatory. From tables compiled by Prof. Hazen it appears 

 that the average annual temperature is 80°. The hottest month 

 is May, with an average of 84°, and December and January are 

 the coolest months, each with an average of 77°. The highest 

 temperature recorded was 100°, and the lowest 74°. The mean 

 annual rainfall is 75*43 inches, of which more than 80 per cent, 

 falls between June and October. Departures from the average 

 are in some instances remarkable, the extremes varying from 

 121 to 35 '6 inches, while the fall of 61 inches in one September, 

 and only 2 inches in another September is still more remarkable. 



Prof. Klein, of Gottingen, contributes to the Nachrichten 

 der K. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften in Gottingen a statement 

 of J:he arrangements that have been made to complete the 

 publication of Gauss's works, consequent on the death of Prof. 

 Ernst Schering, who up till lately has undertaken the work. 

 The remaining unpublished papers on i\stronomy are to be edited 

 by Prof. Brendel ; those dealing with Theory of Numbers and 

 analysis are taken over by Prof. Fricke, of Brunswick ; for 

 Gauss's geometrical investigations Prof. Stackel, of Kiel, has 

 been secured ; Profs. Borsch and Kriiger, of the Geodetic 

 Central Institute in Potsdam, have promised their assistance 

 for papers on geodesy ; and Prof. Wiechert, recently appointed 

 Director of the Gauss Magnetic Observatory, is to deal with 

 Gauss's papers on mathematical physics. It is proposed to 

 issue three further volumes and a supplementary index-volume ; 

 vol. vii. will be devoted exclusively to astronomy ; vol. viii. will 

 consist of matter supplementary to previous volumes, especially 

 theory of numbers, analysis, geometry and geodesy ; and vol. ix. 

 will be reserved for biographical matter, 



A detailed report on the growth of sugar-beet, and the 

 manufacture of sugar in the United Kingdom, is contributed by 

 Sir J. B. Lawes and Sir Henry Gilbert to the Journal of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society. Reviewing the whole of the facts 

 that are adduced in the paper, both as to the climate and other 

 conditions essential for the production of sugar-beet in sufficient 

 quantity, and of sufficient quality, the authors are disposed to 

 think that, so far as the production of the roots is concerned, it 

 could only be a success over comparatively limited areas, and 

 not throughout the agricultural districts of Great Britain 

 generally. As to the profits of the sugar factories, if established, 

 the cost of roots of good quality would probably be so high as 

 to make it doubtful whether, with the present price of sugar in 

 the market, adequate profits from the manufacture could be 

 expected. In conclusion the authors think that if the sugar- 

 beet industry is to be established with any prospect of success, 

 great caution should be exercised in the choice of the locality 

 or localities, and that the undertakings should, in the first in- 

 stance, be limited in number and confined to the most suitable 

 localities. 



The latest issue of the Izvestia of the Russian Geographical 

 Society (1897, iv.) contains a valuable paper, by Prof. Mush- 

 ketoff, on the glaciers of Russia in 1896. The plan of the 

 Russian Geographical Society is to obtain every year, if possible, 

 accurate measurements of the state of a number of glaciers, 

 especially in the Caucasus, so as to know with accuracy whether 



