350 



NATURE 



[February 9, 1893 



Anchisaurus, the skeleton chosen for the purpose being the 

 tjrpe specimen of Anchisaurus colurus, which the writer has 

 already described. This restoration, as shown on an accom- 

 panying plate, indicates \h.2X Anchisaurus colurus was one of 

 the most slender and delicate dinosaurs yet discovered, being 

 only surpassed in this respect by some of the smaller bird-like 

 forms of the Jurassic. The restoration, Prof. Marsh thinks, 

 will tend to clear up one point long in doubt. The so-called 

 " bird-tracks " of the Connecticut river sandstone have been a 

 fruitful subject of discussion for half a century or more. That 

 some of these were not made by birds has already been clearly 

 demonstrated by the fact that the impressions of fore feet, 

 similar to those made by reptiles, have been found with them. 

 Although no osseous remains were found with them, others 

 have been regarded as footprints of birds, because it was sup- 

 posed that birds alone could make such series of bipedal, three- 

 toed tracks and leave no impression of a tail. It is now evident, 

 however, says Prof. Marsh, that a dinosaurian reptile like 

 Anchisaurus and its near allies must have made footprints very 

 similar to, if not identical with, the "bird-tracks" of this 

 horizon. On a firm but moist beach, only three-toed impres- 

 sions would have been left by the hind feet, and the tail could 

 have been kept free from the ground. On a soft, muddy shore, 

 the claw of the first digit of the hind foot would have left its 

 mark, and perhaps the tail also would have touched the ground. 

 Such additional impressions the writer has observed in various 

 series of typical "bird-tracks" in the Connecticut sandstone, 

 and all of them were probably made by dinosaurian reptiles. 

 No tracks of true birds are known in this horizon. 



The U. S. Secretary of the Interior, in his report, just issued, 

 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, refers to a good many 

 subjects of more than passing interest. Speaking of Indian 

 educational work during the year, he states that it has been 

 greatly extended and improved. The attendance of Indian 

 children in school has increased over 13 per cent., the enrol- 

 ment for 1892 being 19,793 as against 15,784 in 1889. Five 

 new Indian reservation boarding schools have been established 

 during the present administration, and are in successful opera- 

 tion, and six others are in process of establishment, and it is 

 anticipated will be opened soon. Six non-reservation schools 

 have also been established and others are being prepared. The 

 standard, character, and ability of all employh have been 

 greatly improved, as have also the appliances and equipments 

 for the proper training of Indian pupils and the efficient adminis- 

 tration of the Indian school service. A uniform system of 

 text-books and course of study has been adopted, and a com- 

 pilation of the rules for the conduct of the schools has been 

 prescribed. The interest in the welfare of the Indians has been 

 constant and the work in their behalf persistent ; and the Secre- 

 tary thinks that this has resulted in their being raised still nearer 

 to civilisation. 



The U.S. Geological Survey, according to the Secretary for 

 the Interior, has had a very marked effect on the mining 

 industries of the country. The increase in value of mineral 

 products during the past year was 75,000,000 dollars, and the 

 increase during the thirteen years since the institution of the 

 survey is 300,000,000 dollars. While a part of this develop- 

 ment represents the normal growth of the population and in- 

 dustries, the increase is much more rapid than that of popula- 

 tion, and is, moreover, accompanied by a decided relative 

 decrease in importations of mining products ; indeed, the mining 

 products of the country have more than doubled during the past 

 thirteen years, while the population has increased only 30 per 

 cent. The secretary, therefore, thinks it fair to ascribe a 

 material part of the present industrial activity in extracting and 

 utilising mineral resources to the services of the Geological 

 Survey through its correspondence, and especially through its 

 NO. 12 15, VOL. 47] 



widely distributed maps and reports. The cost of mineral pro- 

 duction during the past year has been reduced about 15 per 

 cent., and during the period since the institution of the survey 

 no less than 40 per cent., a saving to the consumers of mineral 

 products amounting to millions of dollars annually being thus 

 effected. A considerable part of this saving must be ascribed 

 to the diffusion of exact information concerning mineral localities 

 by the geological surveys of the Federal Government and 

 several of the States. 



Dealing with the state of the Seal Islands, the Secretary for 

 the Interior says that during the season of 1892 only 7500 seals 

 were killed on the islands, and that the diminished number of 

 seals upon the rookeries shows the terrible waste to seal life in 

 the destructive methods employed in pelagic sealing. Heroic 

 measures, he maintains, are necessary for the preservation of 

 the sealing industry. In 1890 n > less than 50,000 seals were 

 taken in the sea, and more than that number in 1891. Every 

 seal taken in the ocean represents many more destroyed, and 

 the 52,087 taken in the ocean in 1891 indicates the destruction of 

 300,000 more, three-fourths of which were females. 



The accumulation of ice in winter, blocking harbours, 

 estuaries, &c., interferes greatly with the commerce of 

 Northern peoples. The idea arose to make steamers which 

 should break a temporary path through the ice, and in Gothen- 

 burg (Sweden) such a vessel was built in i88r. In the severe 

 winter of 1885 it made a wide passage between that town and 

 Vinga, on the open sea, through an ice-bank about a foot thick, 

 which it charged at a speed of about SJ knots an hour. 

 Christiania has been led to get one of these ice-breaking 

 steamers ; also Oersen in Denmark, and Stockholm. The 

 Murtaja, recently built for Stockholm (and described in Genie 

 Civil), acts both by its weight in charging the ice-bank, and by 

 its spoon-like bow resting on the ice and crushing it. The hull 

 is divided into compartments, those at the bow and stern serving 

 as reservoirs for water, which is transferred from the one to the 

 other by a pump. With the stern-reservoir full, the draught of 

 water at the stern is about 21 inches ; at the bow about 15 

 inches. When the bow rises on the ice the water is quickly 

 brought forward to add to the weight. It need hardly be said 

 the bow, and indeed the whole of the hull, are made very strong, 

 the material used being Swedish scrap iron and Martin steel. 



It is known that sewage water, spread over irrigation-fields, 

 reappears from drains placed at a few feet depth, in a limpid 

 state, like spring water. This water, unlike that of sewers, 

 proves remarkably favourable to fishes, probably because of its 

 dissolved organic matter, which the filtration in the soil has not 

 wholly removed. This fact has been lately observed by Herr 

 Oesten on the irrigation farm at Malchow, near Berlin, where 

 the water is collected in eight ponds ; and in these ponds salmon 

 and carp have flourished greatly. 



In determining the thermal conductivities of liquids, two 

 methods have been employed. In the one, a column of liquid 

 is warmed at the top and the rate of propagation downwards 

 through the column is observed. In the other, the lamellar 

 method, which was first employed by Guthrie, a thin layer of 

 liquid is placed between two conducting surfaces. Mr. R. 

 Wachsmuth has shown, by means of an ingenious piece of 

 apparatus, that in the first method currents in the liquid are 

 unavoidable. The apparatus, as described in Wiedemann's 

 Annalen, consisted of a beaker placed inside another containing 

 water. The inner beaker was filled with water and blue iodide 

 of starch, which has the property of suddenly turning colourless 

 when heated to a temperature somewhere between 30° and 70°C. 

 according to the degree of dilution. A copper cylinder was 

 placed on the rim of both beakers so that its bottom was in 

 contact with the surface of the emulsion. When steam was 



