October 12, 1893] 



NATURE 



567 



of sowing, and the season for navigation. He goes at great 

 length into the question in his Deipnosophists ; and I invite the 

 alteniion of those who wish to know something as to the early 

 history and influence of the Pleiades to the worlc in question. 



As Plutarch says that the great feast of Isis was always held 

 at the lime " when the Pleiades are mo^t conspicuous," and I 

 found that the month of Athyr, in which it was held, was de- 

 scribed as "the shining season of the Pleiades," I sent, in 

 1865, a copy of my pamphlet to Prof. C. P. Smyth, before he 

 went to ligypt, and invited his attention to the probability that 

 those stars were in some way indicated by the Great Pyramid. 



The recent discovery by Mr. Penrose that the Hecatompedon 

 sile of the Parthenon, and other archaic Greek temples were 

 oriented by the Pleiades, lends a new interest to this subject. 



This diversity of orientation has had a far wider range than 

 has been supposed, for nearly forty years ago it was noticed in 

 the Mississippi mounds by Squier and Davis ; and was 

 long ago detected in several early churches of the south of 

 England, a very remarkable fact, which I think was referred to 

 at the Anthropological Institute. As it greatly surprised ajid 

 interested me, I made a careful note of it when it was published, 

 which I regret that I cannot now hunt up, as.1 am preparing to 

 leave England for the winter ; but as the point cannot have 

 escaped the atlenlion of others, some one among your readers 

 will perhaps be able to give you further information as to it. 



Nature of August 31 contains an interesting letter on the 

 importance of the study of the date of the birth of Rama by 

 competent astronomers. For several years I have been trying 

 to find out what was the precise time of the year when Kartil<eya 

 was born — " 'J'lie Birthof the War God" does not refer to it. 

 There is a most interesting siiljject which is new to science, the 

 connection of the Pleiades with the^ nativity of divine heroes. 

 1 think I can at last supply a clue to thenar o/AtZ/i/MOTi (which 

 Repler imagined to have been a conjunction of planets !) in 

 " the Christmas Stars," of the negroes, and other African races. 



September 7. K. G. IIaliburton. 



Early Chinese Observations on Colour Adaptations. 



It seems of interest to record that the Chinese, neglectful of 

 the sciences as they are nowadays, nevertheless suggested the 

 Darwinian interpretation of animal colours as early as the ninth 

 ctntury A.D. 



Twang Ching-Shih, in his Yu-yang-lah-tti'i (Maiitsin's edition, 

 b ok xvii. p. 7 Kyoto, 1697), describes a trap-door spider as 

 follows : — " Whenever rain has fallen, the ground facing my 

 book-room has plenty of the ' tien-tang' (that is, the ' tumbling- 

 defender'). Its nest, commonly so-called, is as deep as an 

 earthworm's hole, and the network is finished in it. The earthy 

 lid of the nest is quite even with the ground, and of the size of 

 elm-samara. The animal turning upside down, guards the lid, 

 ami thus watching for the appearance of flies and caterpillars, it 

 readily turns up the lid and catches them. As soon as it retreats 

 the lid is closed again. The lid is coloured like the ground." 



Apparently from this and other facts the observer has attained 

 a revelation of the truth, which he expresses thus : — " In 

 general, birds and mammals necessarily conceal forms and 

 shadows by their assimilation with various objects. Conse- 

 quently, a snake's colour is similar to that of the ground ; the 

 hare in the Imperata grass is unavoidably overlooked, and the 

 hawk's hue agrees with that of the trees." 



Twang Ching-Shih was a man of great erudition, and versed 

 in poetry ; he died in the period of Hwi-Chang (841-846 A.D.), 

 leaving us the work cited above, consisting of thirty books. It 

 is highly commended by Sie T.-ai-Kang, a distinguished en- 

 c)clopsdist of the seventeenth century A.D., as one of the two 

 "Crowns of all Miscellanies." 



KUMAGUSU MiNAKATA. 



15, Blithfieldstreet, Kensington, September 26. 



A Remarkable Meteor. 



A METEOR of surpassing brilliancy and great size was seen 

 hereon the ist inst., just before 10 p.m. The course seemed 

 to he from westwards towards the north-east. The meteor was 

 of a vivid blue colour, and it lighted with its splendour the whole 

 visible horizon. Jn a clear blue sky the harvest moon, on the 

 wane, was at the time shining brightly. 



NO. I 250, VOL. 48] 



On disappearance the blue fiery ball left behind it for some 

 seconds a long luminous trail, like that which follows the flight 

 of a rocket. Travelling apparently at a considerable heigtit, 

 the ball was observed at much about the same time at Llanef) dd, 

 amongst the hills in North Wales. A correspondent writes 

 thence: "Last night (the Ist inst.) I witnessed a remarkable 

 meteor. I always, these moonlight nights, go up the Frcith 

 just before 10 p.m. I went up last night ; it was just like 

 day (the effect of the moon shining in the clear air of the 

 hills). Just when I was on the top, turning to come down, 

 and looking up the valley, the place suddenly became lit 

 up with a blaze of intense blue light. I thought it was a 

 tremendous lightning flash ; but as it lasted too long for tha', I 

 looked, and then saw what it was. There was a meteor falling 

 just behind Tan-y-Gurt Mountain, as bright apparently as the 

 sun. It was a globe of flame as large as an ordinary foot- 

 ball, and of a light blue colour. 1 saw the ball for about 

 as long as a rocket takes when falling. The ball was very much 

 like an enormous rocket, and afterwards there was an appear- 

 ance just like a stick falling from the flame. The meteor came 

 from the west, travelled towards the north-east, and fell perpen- 

 dicularly." My correspondent adds : " The meteor did not 

 shoot from any radiant known to me.". 



Worcester, October 4. J. Lloyd Bozward. 



This meteor was distinctly seen at Driffield, East Yorkshire. 

 It proceeded from a point about 45° altitude in the west, and 

 passed towards southsouth-west at an angle of about 40°, cis- 

 appearing at an altitude of about 20° in the souih-west. 

 Duration two seconds ; slow motion. A trail of yellowish-red 

 sparks appeared on both sides (top and bottom) as it travelled 

 forward. Several letters appear in the Yorkshire Post of the 

 5th inst. from persons who saw it in Yorkshire. 



J. LovEl. 



TERTIARY AND TRIASSIC GASTROPODA OF 

 THE TYROty 



THOUGH much has already been done for continen- 

 tal palceontology, a great deal still remains to be 

 accomplished. The earlier workers in the field laboured 

 under the disadvantage of having to deal with compara- 

 tively scanty material, mostly scattered in private collec- 

 tions over large areas at a time when intercommunication 

 was far from easy. Nowadays these old collections 

 with their type-specimens have for the most part found 

 their way into the museums of the principal cities. 

 Moreover, not only may they freely be examined on the 

 spot, but sometimes, we are glad to know, are allowed, 

 under proper precautions, to be removed for the purpose 

 of comparison with types preserved elsewhere. These 

 altered circumstances and the acquisition of new speci- 

 mens have not m.erely aided, but even provoked the 

 revision, rectification, and completion of the labours of 

 bygone times. 



The two articles before us are examples — the one of 

 supplementary, the other of both supplementary and 

 revisionary work. 



To take them in their order : — 



Dr. Dreger's paper is the first of a projected series in 

 which it is intended to treat of the fauna of the tertiary 

 beds at Hiiring in so far only as it has not already bpen 

 dealt with. Any conclusions Dr. Dreger may have coine 

 to concerning the exact age of these deposits, which 

 Gtimbel considered to be the equivalents of our Bem- 

 bridge and Headon beds, are reserved till the whole Of 

 the material has been disposed of. 



The fossils are in a very bad state of preservation, 

 being much crushed, distorted, and broken : the more 



' "Die Gastropoiien von Hiiring bei Kirchbicbl in Tirol." Von Dr. 

 Julius Dreger. {Annatcn ttfs K.K. Natitrhiiitorischen HofmnseTtms, Bd. 

 vii. 1893, pp. 11-34 i Pis- i'-iv.). " Die Gastropuden der Schichlen yon St. 

 Cassian der siidalpinen Trias." Von E. Kittl. JI. Theil. (/(^/V/. pp. 35-97, 

 P:s. 5. (Wien : A. Hsider.) 



