550 



NATURE 



[October 6, 1892 



Dr. Noetling has formed a higher idea of the value of the 

 jade mines of Burma. There are two diflferent groups of jade 

 mines — pit and quarry mines. The former are situated along the 

 bank of the Uru river, beginning at about Sankha village, and 

 extending for a distance of about forty miles farther down. The 

 quarry mines near Tammaw village are situated eight miles west 

 of the Sankha village, on the top of a plateau rising to about 

 1,600 feet above the level of the Uru river. The Tammaw 

 mines afford the best opportunity for the study of the geological 

 conditions under which the jade is found. It there forms a 

 vein of considerable thickness in an igneous rock of blackish- 

 green colour. The jade is a purely white crypto-crystalline 

 mineral, much resembling the finest marble, containing here 

 and there green specks of various sizes, which form the jade 

 proper. The jade vein is separated from the black rock by a 

 band of a soft and highly decomposed argillaceous mineral. 

 The strike of the vein is approximately north to south, and the 

 dip at about an angle of 20°, varying considerably towards east. 

 There are at least 500 men engaged every season in working 

 the quarry mines at Tammaw. The mining operations are 

 carried on in the rudest fashion. No blasting powder being 

 available, the rock is heated by large fires, and, having cooled 

 down, is broken in pieces by means of enormous iron hammers. 

 The operations in the pit mines are less difficult. The miner 

 simply digs a pit and selects boulders of jade from the stuff dug 

 out. Good pieces of jade are sometimes found in the laterite, 

 which forms beds of varying thickness along the Uru. These 

 pieces have superficially undergone a certain discolouring in 

 such a way that the original green or white is changed under 

 the influence of the hydrated oxide of iron into a dark red 

 colour. Specimens of this kind are generally known as "red 

 jade." Dr. Noetling says that the jade mines form a most 

 valuable property. He has no doubt that besides the Tammaw 

 jade vein others will be discovered. We know now that jade 

 is intimately associated with a dark igneous rock (trap), and 

 Burma abounds in rocks of this kind. 



Mr. Otis T. Mason contributes to the latest report of the 

 U. S. National Museum (for 1890) an interesting study of the 

 ulu, or woman's knife, of the Eskimo. The ulu is found 

 throughout the Eskimo region, from Labrador to Kadiak, and 

 consists of a blade and a handle or grip with or without some 

 form of lashing. The blade is either a thin piece of slate ground 

 to an edge, a bit of cherty or flinty rock chipped to an edge, a 

 scrap of steel or iron from wrecks of whaling vessels, or good 

 blades made and sold to the Eskimo by traders who visit their 

 country. The handle varies greatly in material, form, and 

 finish. In form alone the specimens from each typical area are 

 unique. Some of the ulus in the U. S. National Museum are 

 as coarse as savagery could make them ; others are very beauti- 

 ful. The same locality furnishes both and intervening kinds, 

 but some areas supply only coarse work. The problem has to 

 some extent been complicated by white influence. The ulu has 

 survived in civilized countries under two well-known forms-— 

 the saddler's knife and the kitchen knife. The saddler thus 

 perpetuates, for cutting leather, an implement designed to be 

 used with skins from which the hair has not been removed. 

 The kitchen chopper is the woman's knife deprived of nearly all 

 its ancient and primitive offices, consigned to a single one, which 

 it scarcely had at the beginning. The saddler's knife may be 

 seen in the hands of leather-cutters represented on Egyptian 

 monuments. An excellent series of illustrations, grouped in 

 accordance with the regions from which the specimens come, 

 adds greatly to the interest and value of Mr. Mason's paper. 



It is a common experience in daily life that milk has in itself 

 little or no tendency to putrefaction, and that it may even to 

 some extent preserve certain substances that are readily decom- 

 NO. 1 1 97, VOL. 46] 



posed, such as meat. This property has lately been inves- 

 tigated by Herr Winternitz, in Strasburg, Of the three chief 

 constituents of milk, viz., casein, fat, and milk sugar, the first 

 proved as liable to putrefaction as the meat or pancreas extract 

 experimented with ; the fat, too, had no preservative influence. 

 Milk-sugar, on the other hand, in accordance with what is known 

 regarding the power of carbohydrates to retard putrefaction, 

 acted as strongly as cane-sugar. Nothing definite was ascer- 

 tained as to the nature of this action. It was proved, however, 

 to take place in the alimentary canal as well as outside of the 

 system. ' 



Rats at Milnthorpe, Westmoreland, seem to have found a fresh 

 outlet for their predatory impulses. Mr. G. Reade, in a letter 

 quoted in the new number of the Zoologist, says that the ripe 

 gooseberries in his garden there were disappearing very rapidly 

 this year, and he supposed that the mischief was being done by 

 blackbirds. However, his attention was called to a large rat 

 taking the berries off with his mouth and dropping them to other 

 rats below. Presently another climbed the tree and helped to 

 gather the berries. In a little time both came down, each with 

 a berry in its mouth, having a curious appearance. Mr. Reade 

 saw the performance several times repeated. Then he placed a 

 wire cage under the tree, and in three days caught nine of the 

 intruders. 



The electric light seems to have an extraordinary attraction 

 for lepidoptera. On August 19, as he records in the new num- 

 ber of the Entomologist, Mr. D. S. Stewart had an opportunity 

 of noting this fact. At the Eddystone lighthouse exhibited in 

 the Botanic Gardens at Old Trafford (the same lighthouse as 

 was shown at the Naval Exhibition), he saw great numbers of 

 moths. Before ascending, he says, one could see them from 

 below, flashing in and out of the rays in hundreds ; and when 

 the top was reached, the place was found to be full of them — 

 "some, apparently dazzled by the light, frantically flying in all 

 directions, buzzing and banging in your face, up your sleeves, 

 down your neck, everywhere. In every sheltered niche and 

 cranny four or five were to be seen together, and especially was 

 this so on the staircase, which was strewn with their partially 

 cremated remains, the result of their all too successful attempts 

 at self-immolation." 



A VALUABLE paper on the breeding-habits, eggs, and young of 

 certain snakes, by O. P. Hay, is printed in the latest volume (xv.) 

 of the Proceedings of the U. S, National Museum, and has also 

 been issued separately. Mr. Hay notes that, although serpents 

 have made a deep impression on the human mind, very little 

 accurate information has been accumulated concerning some of 

 their habits. His paper embodies the results of a good deal of 

 careful personal observation. 



The Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science has changed 

 its name to the Nova Scotian Institute of Science, and has 

 secured an Act of Incorporation. It has now begun the second 

 series of its " Proceedings and Transactions," the first part of 

 vol. i. having just been issued. Among the papers in this part 

 are "Notes on the surface geology of South- Western Nova 

 Scotia," by Prof, L, W. Bailey ; " Steam boiler tests as a 

 means of determining the calorific value of fuels," by D, W. 

 Robb ;" Analyses of Nova Scotia coals and other minerals," 

 by E. Gilpin, jun. ; " The Magdalene Islands," by the Rev. 

 Dr. G. Paterson ; "Notes for a Flora of Nova Scotia," Part i 

 by Prof. G. Lawson. 



Messrs. Williams and Norgate are about to publish a 

 work entitled the " Cry of the Children, " by " Free Lance, " It 

 deals with education in a wide sense, but more especially it 

 advocates the necessity of a scientific training. 



