5'o 



NA TURE 



[April 2, 1^96 



about a few degrees from the horizon (the horizon at the place 

 of observation was not the true one, for a large but not very 

 distant hill intervenes towards the west), there seemed to be 

 suddenly formed a halo of peculiar shape. Its form may be 

 described as nearly, if not quite, parabolic, the axis of the para- 

 bola being vertical. Curiously enough, this parabolic form was 

 not symmetrical with regard to the position of the sun, but the 

 latter was situated some distance to the north of the axis. The 

 above phenomenon was observed at about 5h. 5om.-5h. 55m. p.m. 

 A few minutes afterwards (6h. 5m ), this parobolic form 

 slowly underwent a change, and after a minute or two a circular 



H.'ilo at sunset, February 17, 1896, Clottingiii. 



halo concentric about the sun was distinctly visible. While the 

 concentric halo was in the act of being formed, that portion of 

 the parabolic halo towards the south seemed to maintain its 

 position, but the northern end moved distinctly more north 

 untU the position of the sun was halfway between the two. 

 The parabolic form viay have been caused by the positions of 

 the hght fleecy clouds, apparently distorting the halo on the 

 northerly side and making the whole appear parabolic ; but the 

 change of shape was so considerable, that this explanation seems 

 hardly satUfaptory. William J. S. Lockyer. 



Remarkable Sounds. 



Mr. Godwin-Austen's letter in Nature of January 16, 

 reminds me of similar sounds heard at Java in the year 1881. I 

 was then building a railway tunnel through the Gunung Ken- 

 dang, a range of hills about 100 metres high, situated between 

 the towns of Sukabumi and Tjiandjor, Preanger Regencies, a 

 district where more seismic disturbances take place than in 

 almost any other district of Java. 



One morning at about six o'clock, when at breakfast, I was 

 startled by a very loud detonation which made me fear that one 

 of our small vertical boilers at the other side of the works had 

 exploded. I at once sent a man over the hill to ask for informa- 

 tion, and received a note from my European assistant stating that 

 no accident had taken place, but that he also heard the detona- 

 "tion and took it for a£ accidental explosion of some cases of 

 dynamite at Tjipercyf a kampong about six miles from the 

 tunnel, the headquarters of one of the European railway con- 

 tractors. He at once went thither to see whether any assistance 

 might be wanted, but found that nothing unusual had happened. 

 The contractor, however, told him that at the very moment that 

 we had heard the detonation he had felt a very severe vertical 

 shock of earthquake, but had heard no sound. 



In this same tunnel I experienced twice a very severe 

 horizontal shock of earthquake which made a creaking sound in 

 the timbering from end to end in the adits, causing some of the 

 horizontal timbers which had hot yet been spiked to fall down. 

 The first time that this happened the coolies bolted, but the 

 second time I managed to keep them in the works to watch the 

 timbering. Th. Dei.i-rat. 



Malang, Java, February 18. 



An Excellent View of the Retinal Circulation. 

 On a cycling tour recently, after riding some forty miles > 

 with much hill-climbing and against a strong wind, I lay down 

 on a grassy bank facing the east, towards sunset. Viewing the 

 clear eastern sky, I obtained a most remarkable view of my own 

 retinal circulation. A companion also got an excellent view of 

 his own blood corpuscles. The apparent circulation occupied a 



NO. 1379, VOL. 53] 



considerable portion of the visual field, and a most vivid con- 

 ception was obtained of the relative slowness of movement in the 

 capillaries. It occurred to me afterwards that the reason of the 

 phenomenon was the hyperesthesia of the retina, caused by the 

 dilatation of the arterioles, which is a characteristic of excessive 

 cycling. It would be interesting' to learn whether others have 

 obtained similar experiences. James W. Barrei'I'. 



Melbourne, Australia. 



Butterflies and Hybernation. 



Some time late in last autumn, a tortoiseshell butterfly took 

 refuge in a small bath room in this house, established itself on 

 the ceiling, and there remained, immovable^ throughout the 

 winter. On the loth of this month it shifted its position, and 

 on the 1 2th flew out of the open window. On the 19th, and again 

 to-day, I have seen a tortoiseshell butterfly fluttering about the 

 garden, and should not be surprised if this early rover were the 

 same individual as that which has undoubtedly wintered here. 

 Haifa dozen gauzy-winged green flies also hybernated in close 

 company with the butterfly, biit they woke up and flew a fortnight 

 or so before the tortoiseshell butterfly stirred. Dan. Pidceon. 



The Long House, Letherhead, March 24. 



Children's Drawings. 



As supplementary to- the interesting note in Natu"RE of 

 February 20,. on children's drawings, I may mention that s<5me 

 children of my acquaintance show what seems a strong native 

 tendency to reverse right and left in drawing such letters as L 

 and J, making them J and L . It is possible this confusion is 

 akin to that confusion of right and left which one first feels on 

 using a mirror for toilet purposes, as shaving, &c. 



Lake Forest, Illinois, March 16. Hiram M. Stanley. 



"Testacella haliotidea." 



On addressing you some time ago on the suV)ject of Worcester- 

 shire being a habitat of what I regard as this mollusc, some of 

 your contributors applied for specimens. I have now six to 

 give away. One of your contributors doubted whether the 

 specimen I then had was Haliotidea, on account of alleged 

 rarity. The same doubt applies now. 



Worcester Museum, March 23. J. Lloyd Bozward. 



An Early Swarm of Bees. 



A SWARM of bees on March 23 is, I think, so unusual, that 

 you may perhaps like to be informed that one was taken here 

 yesterday. A. Pace. 



Tendring, Essex, March 24. 



THE MANAGEMENT AND PROTECTION 

 OF FORESTS} 



PROF. SCHLICH'S important work is approaching 

 completion. The two first volumes were noticed in 

 December 1889 and July 1891.- Of these, it is understood, 

 a new edition will soon be necessary. The third volume, 

 which deals with forest management, is about to appear 

 in a Spanish translation. Vol. iv. is an English adapta- 

 tion of an excellent German book on forest protectioii, 

 by Dr. Richard Hess, Professor of Forestry at the Uni- 

 versity of Giessen. It is the work of Mr. Fisher, formerly 

 Conservator of Forests and Director of the Imperial 

 Forest School at Dehra Dim in North-Western India. 

 The last volume will deal with forest utilisation. In the 

 present article, we propose to deal with the subjects of 

 the third and fourth volumes, viz. the management and 

 the protection of forests. 



1 "A Manual of Forestry," by William Schlich, CLE, Ph.D. Vol. 

 iii. (pp. xix + 397). " Forest Management," by William Schlich. Vol. iv. 

 (pp. .xi.x + 593). " Forest Protection," by \V. R. Fisher, B.A. (London : 

 Bradbury, Agnew, and Co., 1895.) 



^ Nature, vol. xli. p. 121 ; vol. xliv. p. 265. 



