342 



NA TURE 



[August lo, 1893 



the lawn, which had been when intact about thirty feet high. The 

 upper portion was shivered, fragments being scattered far and 

 wide both over the lawn and an adjoining field, some fragments 

 sticking in the grass lawn and showing that they must have 

 been hurled with great force. 



At the same time twenty-four panes of glass in front of the 

 house were smashed by the violence of the explosion, at a distance 

 from the tree of twenty-three to forty-three yards. 



It was noticed that windows of plate glass, as well as windows 

 which happened to be open at the time, escaped. The explosion 

 is said to have been quite unlike thunder, and to have resem- 

 bled the report of a heavy piece of ordnance. It is probable 

 that the report was heard here in Rugby, as I find that two 

 persons who happened to be in my house at the time remember 

 hearing a double report at about the same hour, which they 

 remarked upon to each other as being like the distant firing of 

 a cannon. 



As to the evidence of the agent of destruction being a fire- 

 ball, I have, through the kind help of Mr. Harrison, been 

 enabled to examine four witnesses, all of whom agree that dur- 

 ing an interval of two minutes before the explosion a large 

 fiery globe was seen travelling through the air, and emitting 

 light of such dazzling brilliancy that the only one of them who 

 was out of doors at the time was for a moment blinded and 

 dazed, and felt for some short time afterwards a sensation of 

 pain in the back of the head and the neck. 



A fifth witness, whom I did not see, was at the time of the 

 explosion in a room overlooking the lawn on which the tree 

 grew, and states that she saw through the drawn blind the 

 reflection of a fiery round ball at the instant of explosion. 



The ball seems to have been larger than any hitherto observed, 

 all speaking of it as appearing larger than the sun or moon, 

 and one of them said it was as large as an ordinary fire-balloon 

 when seen at a short distance. The colour is said to have been 

 .of an intense fiery red, but a person who did not see the ball 

 was startled almost at the instant of the explosion by the light- 

 ing up of a long passage in Dunchurch Hall by an intense blue 

 light. 



The path taken by the fireball during the tv/o minutes it 

 was observed could hardly have been direct, as the direction 

 taken when first seen makes an obtuse angle with the direction 

 indicated by all who saw it immediately before the explosion. 



14 Bilton Road, Rugby. L. Gumming. 



P. S. — I have submitted a draft of this letter to Mr. Harrison, 

 who agrees with me in the accuracy of the report given above. 



The Suicide of Rattlesnakes. 



I NOTICE in Nature for June i, 1893, page 107, an inquiry by 

 Mr. R. I. Pocock as to the suicidal habits of scorpions. His 

 conclusion is that if scorpions sometimes kill themselves, the 

 verdict must be "accidental suicide, or suicide while of unsound 

 mind." I have no evidence to offer as to the habits of Galifornian 

 scorpions, but I have myself witnessed the deliberate suicide of a 

 rattlesnake, and think that a brief account of it may be worth re- 

 cording. In thesummer of 1888 Prof. Keeler saw a large rattlesnake 

 (with seven rattles) crawl underthe foundation of the dome of the 

 six-inch equatorial. With the nice manipulation for which he is 

 famous, Dr. Keeler fastened a pair of blacksmith's tongs about the 

 animal's neck, and brought him into the large marble vestibule 

 of the observatory. The snake was furious and was practically 

 uninjured. After every one had seen him it became a question 

 what to do next. It was resolved to put him into a gallon jar of 

 water. Dr. Keeler had the task of getting the very lively 

 animal (which was some three feet long) into the jar, and of 

 letting go with the tongs ; while I undertook to put in the 

 stopper of the bottle at an auspicious moment. All this was 

 accomplished very nicely, and the next step was to drown the 

 snake by inverting the jar at intervals. After a little time it 

 became obvious to every one, the snake included, that the animal 

 must soon be drowned. At this moment the snake ceased any 

 attempt to rise to the surface of the water in the jar, and in the 

 moit deliberate manner struck its fangs deep into its body. I 

 have no doubt whatever that the blow was intentional, and with 

 suicidal purpose. It was a single deliberate blow. There was 

 no flurry. As far as one could see the animal was of sound 

 and disposing mind and memory. It had been full of fury at 



NO. I 24 I, VOL. 48] 



first, but latterly had only sought to escape from the water to 

 the air at the top. When this became hopeless the snake ended 

 its own struggles. I had often heard that snakes (and scorpions^ 

 put an end totheir own lives. Here is an instance which occurred 

 before my eyes. The snake is now preserved in alcohol at the 

 observatory, and the marks of the fangs are plainly to be seen. 

 Lick Observatory, July 19. Edward S. Holden. 



New Conclusions. 



In the last volume of the Proceedings of the Royal Society 

 of Victoria, a paper appears by us entitled "Preliminary 

 Account of the Glacial Deposits of Bacchus Marsh." In this 

 paper we claimed to have shown that there were two distinct 

 deposits of till separated by sandstones assigned to the Triassic 

 age, and moreover that the upper till rested on the denuded sur- 

 face of the latter. 



Further examination has shown that we were mistaken as 

 regards the last point. Our conclusion had been drawn mainly 

 from a section which we have described and figured as occurring 

 at a small quarry on the Korkuperrimul Creek. At this place 

 we described till as overlying, and a granite boulder over a yard 

 in diameter, together with smaller boulders, as being jammed 

 into, the broken surface of the sandstone. 



The real state of things is that the clay material containing 

 the boulders is really a bed intercalated with the sandstone, the 

 whole being inclined at about 35°-40'. What was described a» 

 till overlying these sandstones turns out to be a "wash " con- 

 taining striated stones, and derived from an outcrop of a till like 

 deposit a little above. Besides the larger clay bed containing 

 the large boulders, there are several other thin bands of clay 

 intercalated with the sandstone containing pebbles, several of 

 which we found to be striated. 



The real succession in this locality would now appear to be as 

 follows ; — 



(1) Till, undoubtedly morainic, and probably resting on 

 Silurian rocks. 



(2) Shales. 



(3) Massive sandstones with intercalated bands of clay bear- 

 ing transported boulders. 



(4) A till-like deposit containing boulders. 



(5) Shales and well-stratified fine argillaceous sandstones. 



It would be unwise to assume that this succession represents 

 the general order in Victoria, as stratified deposits associated 

 with till may be of local significance only. 



As the fossil evidence so far obtained points to the sandstone 

 being of fresh-water origin, it seems reasonable to suppose that 

 it was deposited in a glacial lake into which sub-glacial streams 

 flowed, and in which floating ice wandered, dropping boulders 

 here and there. At the quarry above-mentioned, the clay bed 

 containing the large boulders, and the sandstone adjacent lo it, 

 are remarkably contorted as if an iceberg had grounded there. 



As to the real nature of the till-like deposit referred to as 

 overlying the sandstone, we do not yet care to speak definitely. 

 It presents some strong points of resemblance to true till, but it 

 may be of aqueous origin aided by floating ice. 



It will be now seen that the sandstones known as theBacchns- 

 Marsh Sandstones must be considered as part of the glacial 

 series. Our friend Mr. Charles Brittlebank has also come to 

 this conclusion quite independently of us. Of course the other 

 sections given with our paper will have to be altered in accord- 

 ance with the foregoing. 



Having recently had .an opportunity of seeing the glacial 

 deposits near Heathcote, described by Mr. Dunn last year, we 

 may say that there, as at Bacchus Marsh, the lowest member, 

 at least, is a true till due to the action of land-ice. We cannot 

 agree with Mr. Dunn in his opinion that these deposits are 

 entirely an iceberg drift. 



A notable point of difference between the till at BacchiB 

 Marsh and that at Heathcote, lies in the immense quantity and 

 variety as well as the great size of the rock -debris in the latter 

 locality. Mr. Dunn well expresses it when he says that it looks 

 as if the ruins of a continent were gathered here. It would 

 almost seem as if Heathcote were in the region of a terminal 

 moraine. The somewhat uns.itisfactory evidence afforded by 

 the " roche moutonnee," known as Dunn's rock, seems to m- 

 dicate that the ice came from the south in this district. 



Graham Officer. 



Melbourne University, July 4. Lewis Balfour. 



