December 31 



1891] 



NA TURE 



209 



Prof. Cope obtained five adult and two half-grown individuals, 

 and had two other adults almost within his grasp, but they 

 escaped him. The specimens agree nearly in size, the chief 

 differences being observed in the amount of dark blotching of 

 the belly and the regularity of the markings on the inferior side 

 of the femur. The specimens were found in a "cut-off" of a 

 tributary of the Great Egg Harbour River, in Atlantic county, 

 New Jersey. The water is stagnant, and is well grown with 

 Nymphaeas, Utricularia, and Sphagnum. The frogs did not 

 display any considerable powers of leaping or swimming, but 

 concealed themselves with much ease within the aquatic vegeta- 

 tion. Prof, Cope did not observe any voice. In the same 

 locality he observed the Rana: virescens and clamata. The 

 "cut-off" is in the woods, ajid he found no individuals in 

 similar situations in the open country, nor any along running 

 water in the woods. The oversight of this conspicuous species, 

 as Prof. Cope says, is a curious circumstance. 



According to a statement in the Toronto Monetaiy Times, 

 grape-culture is becoming an important industry in Ontario. 

 The centre of the vine cultivation is between Grimsby and 

 St. Catharines. In Essex, especially on Pelee Island, experience 

 has shown that grapes can be profitably grown. Some local ex- 

 periments show a probability that in the near future the county 

 of Norfolk will be added to the vine land of the province. 

 The quality of the grapes grown has of late been greatly im- 

 proved, and so prolific are the vines that growers have this 

 season in many instances had to be content to take one and a 

 half cents a pound for good samples. Grape culture is rapidly 

 extending, especially in the county of Welland. This year's 

 price for grapes is perhaps about as low as they can be grown at 

 a profit, but it looks as if the supply might in future outstrip the 

 demand. 



In the report on his work during 1890, lately issued, Mr. R. 

 L. Jack, the Government Geologist of Queensland, refers to a 

 collection of geological specimens forwarded by the Adminis- 

 trator of the Government of British New Guinea. The collec- 

 tion demonstrated (l) the presence of gold, topaz, and beryl in 

 the bed of the Fly River ; (2) the presence, within the drainage 

 area of the river, of (a) stratified rocks in an unaltered condition, 

 including sandstones, clays, limestones, and lignites ; {b) meta- 

 morphosed stratified rocks, including slates and greywackes ; 

 and plutonic and igneous rocks. A number of concretionary 

 ironstone nodules probably indicated the presence of metalliferous 

 lodes. Some fossil corals, in limestone pebbles probably of 

 Mesozoic age, from the first and second rapids of the Fly River, 

 have been sent for identification to Mr. Robert Etheridge, 

 Palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of New South Wales 

 and the Australian Museum. A second collection of rocks from 

 Toulon Isle, Port Hennessy, Red Point, Teste Isle, Rossel 

 Isle, &c., was examined by Mr. Maitland. Among these were 

 grits, sandstones, shales, limestones, basalts, granites, and quartz 

 containing a minute quantity of gold. 



M. Cartailhac contributes to the current number of 

 LAiilhropologie an excellent abstract of an elaborate paper by 

 A, J. Evans on a late Celtic urn-field at Aylesford, Kent. Other 

 contributions are a fre^h instalment of T. Volkov's interesting 

 account of marriage rites and usages in Ukraine ; a paper by E. 

 T. Hamy on the country of the troglodytes ; and an essay, also 

 by E. T. Hamy, on the ethnographical work of Nicolas- Martin 

 Petit. 



For experimental proof of the principle of Archimedes, M. 

 Paquet {Joum. de Phys.) recommends the following general 

 method : Into any vessel, V, is brought the body A (which is the 

 object of experiment), with attached wire by which it can be 

 conveniently hung. The vessel is then filled up with water ; 

 NO. I 157, VOL. 45] 



then A is lifted out, leaving a vacancy equal to its volume. The 

 vessel V is now put into one scale of a hydrostatic balance, and 

 the body A hung under it ; then weights are put into the other 

 scale till equilibrium occurs. If now the balance is lowered 

 till A dips wholly in the water of a lower vessel V, the disturbed 

 equilibrium can be restored by simply filling up the vessel V 

 with water. 



It has been long known that glass is attacked and dissolved 

 in small quantities by ordinary water. This dissolving process 

 Herr Pfeiffer has recently sought to prove and measure by 

 change in the electric conductivity of the water {Ann. der 

 Physik). He measured the increase of conductivity undergone 

 by I cubic centimetre of pure water when it has been in con- 

 tact for one hour with one square centimetre of glass surface, 

 and concluded that the amount of glass dissolved at 20° C. was 

 I to 2 millionths of a milligram. He found, too, that with 

 temperature rising arithmetically, the growth of solubility is 

 considerably more rapid than that of a geometrical series ; that 

 the increase of conductivity of the water for a given kind of glass 

 under like conditions is a characteristic constant ; and that later, 

 when a certain quantity of alkali is dissolved, further action 

 involves a dissolving also of silicic acid, and the salts then 

 formed may cause a decrease of conducting power. 



Baron Nordenskiold communicated to the December 

 meeting of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science the fact that 

 he has discovered notable quantities of uranium in the asphaltic 

 or rather anthracitic minerals, accompanying the magnetic and 

 haematite iron ores -in Sweden. A large block of so-called 

 "anthracite" from Norberg, for instance, leaves, when burned, 

 ashes (13 percent.) which contain about 6 percent, of uranium ; 

 a similar mineral from Dannemora left, when burned, ashes con- 

 taining 4 per cent, of uranium. The Norberg mineral also con- 

 tains cerite and gadolinite oxides, although in small quantities, 

 and it is remarkable that the mixture of gadolinite oxide (yttria, 

 ytterbia, &c. ) from this new provenance has the normal atomic 

 weight of 255*6 (for R2O3). 



Tetra-iodide of carbon, CI4, has been obtained in large 

 ruby-red crystals by M. Moissan by the action of his recently- 

 prepared boron iodide, BI3, upon carbon tetrachloride. Boron 

 iodide is a substance crystallizing from solution in carbon bi- 

 sulphide in colourless tabular crystals which melt at 43" to a 

 liquid boiling at 2io^ It is a substance of great chemical 

 activity, reacting with considerable energy with a large number 

 of substances, as described in Nature, vol. xliii. p. 568. When 

 it is brought in contact with carbon tetrachloride, double de- 

 composition occurs in the cold, with a large evolution of heat 

 boron chloride and carbon tetra-iodide being formed. 



4BI8 -I- 3CCI4 = 4BCI3 -t- 3CI,. 

 The best mode of operating is to heat the two substances, the 

 crystals of boron iodide and excess of dry redistilled carbon 

 tetrachloride, in a sealed tube for one hour at a temperature of 

 8o°-90°. Next morning the tube is found to contain large 

 crystals of carbon tetra-iodide, which appears to be produced in 

 theoretical quantity. After opening the tube, the crystals are 

 drained, washed with a solution of bisulphite of soda in order to 

 remove the last traces of iodine, and finally dried in vacuo. 

 When the red crystals thus obtained are heated to 100° in an 

 exhausted sealed tube, they slowly sublime into the colder por- 

 tion of the tube in magnificent brilliant red crystals very much 

 resembling the artificial rubies prepared by M.M. Friemy and 

 Verneuil. The reactions of carbon tetra-iodide are somewhat 

 interesting. When heated in a current of hydrogen at a tem- 

 perature about 140°, it is reduced to iodoform, CHI3. 

 CI4 -h H2=CHl3-l- HI. 



