August 4, 1892] 



NA TUR£ 



333 



considerable portion of the sal-soda of the future, especially in 

 the United States. The newer method has the especial advantage 

 that it forms bicarbonate of soda direct and very pure. Two 

 plants for this process have been erected in America, one of which 

 has been in operation at Syracuse, N. Y. , for several years, and the 

 other has recently been erected in Cleveland. As additional 

 illustrations of the possibilities in store for the United 

 States, Prof. Mabery mentioned the manufacture of porcelain, 

 and the production of artificial dyes and colours from Coal-tar. 



An interesting report on the pearl fishery of the Gulf of Cali- 

 fornia is contributed by Mr. C. H. Townsend to the new 

 Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission. The season for 

 pearl fishing begins about the first part of May near Cape St. 

 Lucas, whence operations are gradually carried into the Gulf of 

 California, which is usually entered by May 15. During the 

 summer the entire eastern coast of the peninsula is worked, and 

 in October the base of operations is removed from La Paz, the 

 headquarters of the Pearl Shell Company of Lower California, to 

 Acapulco, where the fishery is continued for two or three months 

 longer. Whatever of romance may hitherto have enshrouded 

 the diver for pearls in the sea, he is now, as described by Mr. 

 Townsend, practically a submarine labourer, who uses all the 

 modern diving paraphernalia available. No longer plunging for 

 sixty seconds into the sun-lit green water that covers a coral 

 lank, he puts on a rubber suit with glass-fronted helmet, and, 

 -uitably weighted with lead, descends for hours to gather pearl- 

 oysters, which are hoisted in a wire basket by his companions in 

 the boat above, who supply him through a rubber tube with the 

 air he breathes. The best year at the fisheries in comparatively 

 recent times was 1881. During that year many pearls of extra- 

 ordinary size and great value were obtained ; among them was a 

 black one weighing twenty-eight carats, which sold in Paris for 

 10,000 dollars. 



A VALUABLE report on the petroleum trade of the Caucasus 

 has been sent to the Turkish Government by Aassib, the 

 Turkish Consul-General at Tiflis, and some interesting extracts 

 from it are quoted in the Board of Trade Journal. The 

 petroleum springs of the peninsula of Apcheron, not far from 

 the place at present occupied by the town of Baku, were known 

 according to the writer, several centuries before the Christian 

 era, and the phenomena produced by them, totally inexplicable 

 in those barbaric ages, gave rise, he says, to the worship of the 

 Guebres, followers of Zoroaster, which lasted into the nineteenth 

 century, for the temple of the worshippers of eternal fire is seen 

 to the present day. The springs of Balakhani are situated 20 

 kilometres from Baku on a bare and arid plateau, swept by the 

 winds, at an elevation of about 60 metres above the level of the 

 Caspian Sea. The petroleum lands occupy an area of about 

 8 kilometres. At the present time Balakhani and Sabountchi 

 possess more than 1000 wells, some of them newly bored, 

 producing in twenty- four hours as much as 400,000 pouds. An 

 era was marked in the history of the naphtha industry by the 

 house of M. Nobel, which started at Baku in 1874, and in the 

 following year purchased a small business and undertook the 

 production of petroleum on a small scale. At that time the con- 

 veyance of petroleum to Baku was effected by means of carts 

 and leather bottles. M. Nobel endeavoured to show the ab- 

 surdity of this primitive method of transport, and recommended 

 that pipes should be constructed, but the majority of the mer. 

 chants rejected the proposal. He then constructed the first pipe 

 at his own cost, and demonstrated the utility of it to his col- 

 leagues, several of whom very soon imitated his example, and 

 Baku has to day a dozen lines of pipes, each of which costs 

 more than 100,000 roubles. The same house, dissatisfied with 

 the system of shipping petroleum in barrels, proposed to the 

 Kavkaz and Mercury Navigation Company of the Caspian and 

 the Volga that they should build tank boats for the exclusive 

 NO. I 188, VOL. 46] 



conveyance of petroleum. This proposal having been rejected, 

 the firm constructed several of these vessels at their own expense. 

 This innovation, of which even the Americans had not yet thought, 

 was accepted by the two petroleum-producing countries, and 

 tank boats, the number of which is constantly increasing, are to 

 be found on all the waters of the civilized world. It is also to 

 M. Nobel that those gigantic reservoirs of iron which contain 

 hundreds of thousands of naphtha products are due. They are 

 to be seen in large numbers at Baku, Batoum, and everywhere 

 else where petroleum is carried in bulk. The series of innova- 

 tions by M. Nobel do not stop there. With a desire to improve 

 land carriage he proposed to the Griazi-Tsaritsine Railway Com- 

 pany the construction of special tank waggons for the transport of 

 the petroleum, guaranteeing a load for them for several years. The 

 railway authorities scoffed at the idea, and it was by the ex- 

 penditure of very large sums that the Swedish merchant con- 

 structed for his own use the first tank waggons. Scorn was im- 

 mediately changed to enthusiasm, and to-day thousands of these 

 waggons circulate on the railways of Caucasia and Griazi 

 Tsaritsine. 



In Part xxi. of the Zoological Reports of the Norwegian 

 North Atlantic Expedition, Christiania, 1892, Dr. D. C. 

 Danielssen gives an account of the Crinoids and Echinoids of 

 the North Atlantic. Chief among the former is the beautiful 

 Bathycrimus carpenteri, first described as Ilycrinus carpenteri 

 by Koren and Danielssen in 1877 from specimens collected by 

 the expedition, and thought to be a new genus, but a careful study 

 and comparison with Herbert Carpenter's description in the 

 report of the Challenger Crinoids proved it to belong to Bathy- 

 crinus. The morphology of this species is very fully described 

 and figured ; very interesting are the statements about the ap- 

 parent formation of " new crown " on specimens which had 

 apparently lost their first crowns; in one of these "the stalk 

 was no mm. in height, the crown was 2'S mm. high, and the 

 root was 20 mm. in length. The radials of the crown were 

 attached to the basals by a pretty broad seam, the basals being 

 concreted and forming a firm ring as upon old individuals ; 

 which distinctly showed that while the radials were a new for- 

 mation, the basals pertained to the old detached crown and 

 formed the true calyx from which the new crown issued." In 

 this specimen the tentacles could not be seen, and it was very 

 difficult to observe the disc, as it was covered by the closed arms 

 which could not without damage be separated from each other, 

 but that a new crown was in course of formation seemed indu- 

 bitable. In addition to this species of Bathycrinus, Rhizocrimis 

 lofotensis, and the following species of Antedon were found : — 

 A, tenella, Retzius ; A. petasus, D. and K.; A. prolixa, Dun. 

 and Sladen ; A. quadrata. Carp.; and A. eschrichti, MuUer. 

 Fourteen species of Echinida are mentioned, of which Echinus 

 alexandri, Dan. and Kor., is redescribed and figured. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Hainan Gibbon [Hylobates hainanus) from 

 Southern China, presented by Mr. Julius Newman ; a Hum- 

 boldt's Lagothrix (Lagothrix humboldti) from the Upper 

 Amazons, presented by Mr. Chas. Clifton Decconson, F.Z.S. ; 

 a Red Howler {Mycetes seniculus) from New Granada, presented 

 by Mr. John F. Chittenden, C.M.Z.S. ; a Garnett's Galago 

 (Galago garnetti) from East Africa, presented by Commander 

 H. J. Keene, R.N. ; a Bennett's Wallaby {Halmaturtts ben- 

 nettii <J ) from Tasmania, presented by Lieutenant E. A. Find- 

 lay, R.N.R. ; a Raccoon \Procyon lotor) from North America, 

 presented by Mr. A. C. Cooke; a Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus 

 gallicus) from Southern Europe, presented by Mr. B. Vincent ; 

 a Leadbeater's Cockatoo (Cacalua leadbeateri), a Slender-billed 

 Cockatoo {Licmetis tenuirostris) from Australia, presented by 

 Mrs. Phillips ; a Rock Thrush (Monticola saxatiiis), two Soli- 

 tary Thrushes {Monticola cyanus), European ; a Common Jay 



