40 



NATURE 



[November 12, 1: 



from their extent — must have been worked for centuries. Who 

 the workers were, no one can tell. They seem to have known 

 nothing of the smelting of copper, for there are no traces of 

 molten copper. What they sought were pieces that could be 

 fashioned by cold hammering into useful articles and ornaments. 

 They understood the use of fire in softening the rocks to enable 

 them to break away the rock from the masses of copper. They 

 could not drill, but used the stone hammer freely. More than 

 ten cart-loads of stone hammers were found in the neighbourhood 

 of the Minnesota mine. In one place the excavation was about 

 50 feet deep, and at the bottom were found timbers forming a 

 scaflfolding, and a large sheet of copper was discovere 1 there. In 

 another place, in one of the old pits, was found a mass of copper 

 weighing 46 tons. At another point the excavation was 26 feet 

 deep. In another opening, at the depth of 18 feet, a mass of 

 copper weighing over 6 tons was found, raised about 5 feet from 

 its native bed by the ancients, and secured on oaken props. 

 Every projecting point had been taken off, so that the exposed 

 surface was smooth. Whoever the workers may have been, 

 many centuries must have passed since their mines were 

 abandoned. Their trenches and openings have been filled up, 

 or nearly so. Monstrous trees have grown over their work and 

 fallen to decay, other generations of trees springing up. When 

 the mines were rediscovered, decayed trunks of large trees were 

 lying over the works, while a heavy growth of live timber stoo d 

 on the ground. 



Thk last two parts of the Jzvestia of the Russian Geograph- 

 ical Society (vol. xxvii., 3 and 4) contain M. Grum-Grzimailo's 

 report on his journey to Central Asia, and General Tillo's calcu- 

 lations of the heights determined by the Russian traveller during 

 his journey. The report, which adds little to the information 

 given in the explorer's letters, is accompanied by a map em- 

 bodying the results of the extensive surveys made by the two 

 brothers in the Eastern Tian Shan, the Hashun Gobi, the Barkul 

 oasis, and the region in the south-east of it, as far as the 36th 

 degree of latitude and the 72nd degree of longitude. It was 

 already known that during this journey the brothers Grum- 

 Grzimailo had discovered, some fifty miles to the south-east of 

 Turfan, a depression situated between the two chains of the 

 Eastern Tian Shan and the Kuruk-tag Mountains, the level of 

 which proved to be very near to the sea-level, or even below it. 

 At the spot, Lukchin-chir, their barometer rose (on October 

 27) to 7717 mm. On the same day, the pressure of the 

 atmosphere, reduced to the sea-level, attained 784 mm. at Kras- 

 noyarsk, 7877 mm. at Yeniseisk, 774 mm. at Irkutsk and 

 Tomsk, and 767 mm. at Przevalsk and Narynsk ; so that there 

 may be some doubt as to the pressure in the latitude and longi- 

 tude of Lukchin-chir (at the sea-level) really being 767 mm., as 

 adopted by General Tillo, which would give for that spot 50 

 metres below the level of the sea. But the possible error cannot 

 be very great, and we thus have, between the two above-named 

 chains of mountains, an undoubted depression, the surface of 

 which is very near to the level of the ocean. 



Mr. L. Stejneger describes, in the Proceedings of the 

 American National Museum, a • new North American lizard of 

 the genus Sauromalus. It is very large, the total length of four 

 specimens averaging 540 millimetres. This enormous lizard is 

 closely allied to the much smaller species which inhabits the arid 

 regions of the mainland to the north of the Gulf of California, 

 viz. Sauromalus ater, with which it has been confounded. It 

 may be readily distinguished by the characters given in Mr. 

 Stejneger's diagnosis. 



Some time ago the Educational Museum of Tokyo was 



abolished, and the collections were transferred to the Science 



College of the Imperial University. Dr. I. Ijima, Professor of 



Embryoljgy and Comparative Anatomy, who volunteered to 



NO. II 50, VOL. 45] 



take care of the ornithological collection, offered to send it to 

 Mr. L. Stejneger, of the U.S. National Museum, in instalments 

 for identification and study, and the proposal was gladly ac- 

 cepted. Dr. Stejneger has made some progress with the work, 

 and has just issued " Notes " in which he presents the results of 

 his examination of the first instalment. He has had the satis- 

 faction of finding "quite a number of interesting additions to 

 the Japanese avifauna." 



We have received Nos. 7-9 of vol. i. of " Illustrations of the 

 Flora of Japan, to serve as an Atlas of the Nippon-Shokubut- 

 sushi," by Tomitaro Makino, a monthly publication, brought 

 out in Tokyo, apparently somewhat on the plan of the " Icones 

 Plantarum." Each number contains about six plates (un- 

 coloured), with descriptions, of new or remarkable species, 

 natives of Japan. The drawings are exceedingly well done, 

 and the descriptions (in English) would compare favourably, in 

 accuracy and completeness, with those of some works published 

 in this country. The species described appear to be taken at 

 random, those in the same number having no affinity with one 

 another. 



Messrs. BAiLi,ii:RE, Tindall, and Cox have issued the 

 fifth edition of the " Manual for the Physiological Laboratory," 

 by V. D. Harris and D'Arcy Power. The work has been 

 enlarged, the increase being due mainly to the more detailed 

 account which has been given, for junior students, of micro- 

 scopes and their properties ; and to the description, for senior 

 students, of the latest methods of histological research. The 

 parts relating to physiological chemistry have been thoroughly 

 revised, and many additional illustrations have been inserted. 



Mr. James Stirling, Assistant Government Geologist, 

 Victoria, has published at Melbourne some valuable and 

 interesting notes on the hydrology of the Mitta Mitta. The 

 following are the leading conclusions to which he has been led 

 by his observations : — (i) That there is considerable inequality 

 in the amount of rainfall over different portions of the same 

 watershed area in each of the various streams flowing from the 

 Australian Alps, the Mitta Mitta being cited as an instance of 

 this ; and that as the recording stations at present established 

 are all below the normal line of cloud flotation (under 4000 feet), 

 where the rainfall is greater, the actual quantity which falls 

 in the several watershed areas is really greater than that shown 

 in the records. (2) That the low percentage of discharge to 

 rainfall is due in all probability to a complexity of causes, among 

 which may be cited the excessive evaporation in certain areas, 

 largely due to the great range of temperature ; the different 

 heat-radiating powers of different rock-masses ; and percola- 

 tion along fault lines, contacts of the igneous and sedimentary 

 formations, &c. ; and, in some areas, the absorption by cer- 

 tain species of the prevailing eucalyptus vegetation. (3) To 

 determine the actual quantity of rainfall and the causes affect- 

 ing its local distribution, it has become necessary to establish 

 meteorological stations at the higher altitudes in the Australian 

 Alps. (4) And in order to supply further trustworthy data, it 

 is, Mr. Stirling thinks, imperative that a system of complete 

 topographical survey should be instituted. 



The Annual Report, for 1888-89, of the Geological and 

 Natural History Survey of Canada has been issued. It forms 

 the fourth volume of the new series, and includes reports and 

 maps of various investigations and surveys. The volume opens 

 with summary reports, by Mr. Alfred R. C. Selwyn, the Director, 

 on the operations of the Geological Survey for the year 1889. 

 Then come the following reports:— On a portion of the west 

 Kootanie district, British Columbia, by G. M. Dawson ; an 

 exploration in the Yukon and Mackenzie basins, by R. G. 

 McConnell ; exploration of the glacial Lake Agassizin Manitoba, 



