158 



NATURE 



[June 14, 1900 



is to be explored during the winter of igcxs-igoi. On the break- 

 ing up of the ice, about August 1901, it is proposed to push on 

 to Sannikoff Land, discovered by Baron Toll in 1886 and as yet 

 unexplored, and later farther northward to Bennett and De Long 

 Islands, following the routes of ih& Jeannetie in 1881 and of the 

 From. The winter of 1901-1902 will be devoted to determining 

 whether this group of islands extends to the Pole. When the 

 water route reopens in 1902 they will resume their voyage to 

 Bering Strait and reach Vladivostok in the autumn of the same 

 year. 



The application of science to the great problem of mechanical 

 traction is revealing the fact that at no distant date the motor 

 car, or automobile, will be regarded a decided success in every 

 respect. Electricity, steam and oil are still fighting for the 

 paramount position of best agent for propulsion, and, on this 

 account, trials and experiments always prove of interest. The 

 Ens^neer (May 25) describes a series of trials for touring 

 vehicles at the Paris Exhibition, and out of thirty-seven cars 

 competing we find that three were driven by steam, and all the 

 remainder propelled by petroleum motors. Among the more 

 recent improvements on the heavier classes are smaller driving 

 wheels ; the motor still develops about six horse-power for cars 

 carrying four or six passengers, their lower centre of gravity, 

 owing to their smaller wheels, also proving an advantage when 

 rounding corners at high speed. After exhaustive trials em- 

 bracing distance, manipulation, grades, &c. , medals were awarded 

 to the makers of the following vehicles : the " Peugot " car, the 

 "Delahaye" car, the " De Dietrich" car, and the " Panhard 

 et Levasser" wagonette. All these are driven by petrol 

 motors ; for this kind of work, therefore, petrol stands in 

 good stead, and it will be of interest to see whether this agent 

 or steam is adopted for freight vehicles of a much heavier 

 description. 



Though the articles upon scientific subjects in popular 

 magazines can often only be called scientific by courtesy, yet we 

 like to think that their presence in increasing numbers indicates 

 a growth of public interest in the progress of science. Pearson^ s 

 Magazine usually contains contributions which are instructive 

 as well as interesting ; and the reader who is no longer thrilled 

 by episodes in the lives of freebooters, mysterious knights and 

 similar personages over whom the glamour of the past may be 

 thrown, must find relief by turning to the articles in which 

 imagination is tempered with truth. In the June number of 

 the magazine, we find an account of the destruction of the jack 

 rabbit of the United States, by driving them into a corral, as 

 described and illustrated in Nature several years ago. M. 

 Flammarion's experiments on the growth of plants under 

 different coloured glasses, also described in these columns, form 

 the subject of another interesting article. Mr. George Griffith 

 concludes his story of imaginary visits to other worlds by means 

 of a machine moved by a force with peculiar properties. If we may 

 venture a criticism of this series of contributions, it is that Mr. 

 Griffith's ideas are too anthropomorphic, and too limited by the 

 present state of knowledge of the objects visited by his inter- 

 planetary travellers. Some of the work of the U.S. Fish Commis- 

 sion in pisciculture forms the subject of a short illustrated article ; 

 and an interview with Prof. Milne, illustrated by several seismo- 

 grams, contains much interesting popular information upon 

 earthquake waves. Finally, a number of reproductions of 

 photographs of faces of athletes at the moment of victory are 

 reproduced. The photographs are interesting to students of 

 facial expressions, and a curious point revealed by them is that 

 only in one case of the hundreds of photographs from which the 

 selection was made is a pleasant expression upon the face of 

 the winner. 



NO. 1598, VOL. 62] 



A NOVEL way of making building land is being carried out 

 not far from New York. The rapidly growing population of 

 this city has made ground scarce on which to build villas and 

 houses for the summer resort of the inhabitants ; but the enter- 

 prise of the American builder is equal to the emergency, and 

 land is now being literally pumped up from the sea, on which it 

 is intended to erect houses, and to create a new suburb. The 

 site chosen for this venture is the Nassau Beach, on the shore of 

 Jamaica Bay, in Long Island, not far from Brooklyn. The salt 

 marshes bordering on this coast, which for centuries have been 

 overflowed by the tides, and which, of course, while in this 

 condition were utterly unfit for building purposes, are being 

 raised from four xo six feet above high water by pumping up the 

 sand, shells and gravel which form the floor of the bay, and 

 delivering this on to the land to be reclaimed. The process 

 adopted to attain this end is as follows : — A powerful suction 

 dredger raises the material from the bed of the bay at the rate 

 of 18,000 cubic yards a day, and with this five times the volume 

 of water, which is sufficient to carry the sand and gravel along 

 the twelve-inch pipes which deliver it on the low land. The 

 water flows off by ditches along a more or less circuitous route 

 back to the bay, the dredged material settling and quickly dry- 

 ing, and forming solid land. The thickness of the material 

 when first deposited averages about eight feet, but there is 

 shrinkage as it dries and consolidates. Ten acres have thus 

 been raised since the pumping began a few months ago. A 

 raised road and promenade two miles long and seventy feet wide, 

 and an electric railway, will connect this new suburb with the 

 railway to Brooklyn and New York. 



We have received the first numbers of the Boletim Mensal of 

 the Rio de Janeiro Observatory. The work contains much 

 useful information, chiefly contributed by Sr. L. Cruls, the able 

 director of the Observatory, and it will form a welcome addition 

 to current meteorological literature. As long ago as 1887, Sr, 

 Cruls issued a large number of circulars to all meteorological 

 organisations with the object of collecting data for a climato- 

 logical dictionary. For want of adequate resources, this valu- 

 able compilation has not been published ; but we are glad to 

 see that he intends to utilise the bulletin for the publication of 

 some of the principal results. The number for February con- 

 tains the annual means and extremes for twenty-nine stations in 

 Japan. Another paper worthy of special note is that by Sr. 

 Pereira da Costa on the earliest observations made in Brazil. 



Readers of Mr. Fitzpitrick's "Transvaal from Within" 

 will recollect his reference in an appendix to a discussion which 

 took place in President Kriiger's Volksraad on the wickedness 

 of firing guns in order to bring down rain. We learn from the 

 Corriere della Sera that the practice of firing cannon as a pre- 

 ventive of hail has been adopted lately in Italy with successful 

 results. On May 25, at about 17 o'clock or 5 p.m., three suc- 

 cessive storms collected in the neighbourhood of Rogeno 

 (Como), the clouds of which were evidently charged with haik 

 At a given signal fourteen cannon opened fire on the clouds, with 

 the result that nothing fell except a little sleet, here and there. 

 On the same day a vast amount of damage was done in the 

 vicinity of Alessandria by hailstorms passing over the districts 

 of Rocchetta, Tanaro, Masio, Felizzano and Quattordio about 

 16 o'clock (4 p.m), the hailstones in some places massing to a 

 depth of 50 cm. In the districts where cannon were adopted 

 for dispersing the hail, the results exceeded all expectations ; 

 while in many parts of the district where this precaution was 

 not taken the vineyards were completely destroyed 



Actuarial experience is of distinct value in connection with 

 the application of the statistical method to biological problems ; 

 therefore it is of interest to learn from the annual report of the 

 Institute of Actuaries that the mortality investigation, which is 



