I 12 



NATURE 



[December i, 1^592 



how a careful observer in the British Islands may form a good 

 judgment of the coming weather. The lecturer showed, with 

 the aid of diagrams, the tracks followed by storm centres, with 

 reference to the conditions of areas of low and high pressure. 

 The reason why storms usually proceed in a north-easterly direc- 

 tion across or skirting these islands was explained as owing to 

 the high barometer generally to be found in the Atlantic in the 

 vicinity of the Azores, while in the neighbourhood of Iceland 

 there is a region where the barometer is generally lower 

 than in the space surrounding it. The storms generally advance 

 so as to leave the low pressure on their left, and the high pressure 

 on their right— moving round the south and east sides of the 

 prevailing low pressure. Considerable stress was laid upon the 

 importance of observing the cirrus clouds, the different motions 

 of which, in conjunction with the indications of the barometer, 

 are useful guides both as to the approach of a storm and the 

 track along which the centre is moving. Several illustrations of 

 these facts were given by the lecturer, who also gave many 

 valuable hints as to what may be learnt from the published 

 daily weather charts. 



The Leeds Naturalists' Club seems to be in no hurry about 

 the publication of its Transactions, those for the year 1890 having 

 only just been issued. The volume, however, has been prepared 

 with great care, and shows that much good work is being done 

 by the Club. Among the contents is a most interesting abstract 

 of a lecture by the Rev. Edward Jones on relics found in York- 

 shire caves. Reference was made to the cave at Kirkdale, near 

 York, and the Victoria Cave of Settle, both of which have been 

 well worked and have given valuable results ; but attention was 

 directed mainly to the cave found at Elbolton or Thorp, which 

 is situated ten miles north of Skipton and two miles from Grass- 

 ington. Through the energy of the president and members of 

 the Skipton Natural History Society, this cave, which has been 

 handed over to them, has been worked with great earnestness, 

 and many bones have been turned up. Human remains, repre" 

 senting some thirteen bodies, have been found in an excellent 

 state of preservation. These human beings must have been 

 buried there, as they were all found in a sitting position, with 

 the knees brought under the chin. The cave, however, was not 

 used only as a burial-place, for the remains of charcoal fires, 

 burnt bones, and pieces of pottery have been found. At the 

 time when the lecture was delivered, the excavations had not 

 revealed anything older than the Neolithic period. Among the 

 finds are several specimens of bones of bears, red deer, foxes, 

 dogs, badgers, grizzle and brown bears, &c. Some time after 

 the delivery of the lecture the members of the Club made an ex- 

 cursion to this interesting cave, which was explored for a distance 

 of a hundred feet, and to a vertical depth of thirty feet. The 

 visitors saw many stalactites and stalagmites in course of forma- 

 tion, and the osseous remains of animals, including some now 

 extinct. Mr. Jones pointed out the former location of several 

 human skeletons. 



Mr. J. W. Tourney contributes to Science (November 11) 

 an excellent paper on cliff and cave dwellings in Central 

 Arizona. He refers especially to dwellings in cliffs rising a 

 hundred feet or more above Beaver Creek, which flows into the 

 Verde river. In the perpendicular walls of one of these cliffs 

 is a well-preserved ruin known as Montezuma's castle. It is 

 midway between the rim of the cliff and the bed of the stream, 

 and is neither house nor cave, but a combination of the two. 

 Not accessible from the summit of the cliff, it can only be 

 reached from below, and even here not without the use of a 

 ladder, which, if short, the climber must pull up from one ledge 

 to another in making the ascent. The entire front is of artifi- 

 cial walls built of large, flat pieces of limestone, with openings 

 here and there for doors and windows. The rooms are small, 

 only about five feet to the ceiling. Generally a small opening 

 NO, 1205. VOL. 47I 



two or three feet in diameter connects one room with another, 

 and a small orifice in the ceiling gives access to the room above' 

 The openings in the ceilings are never directly under one an- 

 other, so that any one who might stumble could only fall the 

 height of one story. The floors are mostly of flat stones sup- 

 ported on timber cut from the surrounding mountains. Many 

 ofthe timbers are still sound. The rooms all show consider- 

 able skill in their construction. Those in the rear are dark, 

 dungeon-like caves hollowed from the solid rock, and are now 

 the abode of thousands of bats, which fly about in great num- 

 bers when disturbed by visitors. A few miles above Monte- 

 zuma's castle, on the opposite bank of the creek, a conspicuous 

 cone-like mountain rises a few hundred feet above the surround- 

 ing country. The summit is a narrow rim enclosing a crater 

 some three hundred feet in diameter and with nearly perpen- 

 dicular walls. Standing on the rim one can look down a 

 hundred feet upon the dark-blue water of a small lake in the 

 bosom of the mountain. The lake, a hundred yards in diameter 

 and of unknown depth, is known as Montezuma's well. In 

 the steep sides of the crater are a number of caves, which at 

 one time were the abode of man, A few are natural, but the 

 greater number are the result of human effort. The rim is 

 crowned with the fallen walls of an ancient ruin more than a 

 hundred feet long. Far down the mountain-side, below the 

 level of the water in the crater, the outlet of the well flows from 

 between an opening in the rocks. This stream is large and 

 constant, and at present is used to irrigate a ranch in the valley 

 below. Ages ago the builders of caves and castles utilized this 

 same stream to irrigate portions of the neighbouring rich 

 valley. 



The fourth volume of "Reports from the Laboratory of 

 the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh," edited by J. B. 

 Tuke and D. Noel Paton, has just been published. The work 

 completed in the Laboratory during the past year was so large 

 that an account of the whole of it could not be included in the 

 present volume. 



A LARGE dirigible balloon is being constructed (Za Nature 

 informs us) at the military balloon works at Chalais-Meudon, 

 under the direction of Commandant Renard. It will be similar 

 in form to the La France of 1884-5, but longer ; measuring 

 about 230 feet in length and 43 feet in its greatest diameter. By 

 a new arrangement of motor it is, expected to be able to make 

 headway against air- currents not exceeding 40 feet per second 

 (or 28 miles an hour). The motor is not fully described, but it 

 will act either with gasoline or the gas of the balloon, giving an 

 effective force of 45 horse-power on the shaft. The total weight 

 of machinery, with supply of gasoline, &c., will be about 30- 

 kilogrammes (or 66 lbs.):per horse power. Previously it has 

 not been possible to make petroleum motors with a less weight 

 than 150 to 200 kilogrammes per horse-power. The screw will 

 be in front, and a large rudder behind ; the former will make 

 about 200 turns per minute. The first experiments with this 

 balloon are to be made in the early spring. 



Dr. Heydweii,er, of Wiirzburg, has constructed a new 

 mirror electrometer for high potentials {Zeitschr. fiir Instr.)' 

 It is a kind of torsion-balance with bifilar suspension, the 

 charged bodies being a sphere and a ring. The attraction 

 between the two, when at different potentials, is zero when the 

 sphere is at the centre of the ring, and also when it is infinitely 

 removed. Hence at some intermediate distance it is a maxi- 

 mum. In the instrument as constructed there are two spheres 

 of 2 cm. diameter attached to the ends of a conducting bar bent 

 in the form of an S. The combination is suspended in a hori- 

 zontal plane by two brass wires o*i mm. thick attached to the 

 middle ofthe bar. Two brass rings 10 cm. across are fisedin a 

 vertical position such that the spheres can be made to coincid 



