April 9, 1896] 



NATURE 



545 



have been recorded from Tropical Africa previous to those de- 

 scribed by Mr. Seton-Karr, if the identification of some of the 

 specimens as palceolithic is verified, the discovery is a very 

 important one. 



In nearly every county of Central and Northern Indiana there 

 occurs a kind of black soil, often spoken of as " bogus land." 

 It is also sometimes called "alkali," but not correctly, for the 

 land has none of the essential characteristics of alkali soil. The 

 improvement of these hitherto unproductive black soils is the 

 subject of a Bulletin, by Mr. H. A. Huston, published by the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station of Purdue University, Lafayette, 

 Indiana. It is asserted that thousands of acres of such soil are 

 susceptible of amelioration to such an extent as to be made the 

 most productive maize lands in the State, The use of straw or 

 kainit has proved very profitable as a means of temporary im- 

 provement, but for permanent improvement a resort to efficient 

 drainage — and that of a special kind — is essential. It is strongly 

 recommended that, before incurring any other outlay, a prelim- 

 inary survey of each area should be made, and the system of 

 improvement determined according to the results of such survey. 



Prof. H. G. Seeu^ey, F.R.S., will begin the summer course 

 of lecture-excursions with the London Geological Field Class at 

 the end of April. The subject of the series will be the Physical 

 Geography and Geology of the Thames and its Tributaries. 

 This is the eleventh annual course. Mr. R. Herbert Bentley, 

 31 Adolphus Road, South Hornsey, N., is the hon. secretary 

 to this society, which gives a systematic course of teaching in 

 the open country. 



The Proceedings for 1895 of the Agricultural Research 

 Association, the organ of the Research Station, Glasterberry, 

 Milltimber, Aberdeen, contain reports by the Director, Mr. 

 Thomas Jamieson, on the securing of crops, on the permanence 

 of manure, on the "furrow-system" of sowing grain, on the 

 mechanical conditions of soils as affecting the growth of plants, 

 on the mechanical analysis of soils, and on new manures. 



The Danish Meteorological Institute has recently published a 

 valuable series of observations made in the Isle of Denmark, 

 Scoresby Sound, lat. 70° 27' N., long. 26° 12' W. From 

 September 18, 1891, to July 31, 1892, meteorological observa- 

 tions were made every hour, under the direction of Mr. C. 

 Ryder, the chief of the expedition. The mean temperature of 

 the six months from November to April ranged between l°-4 

 and- 1 3° "9 F, From the beginning of May the cold began to 

 diminish, and in July there was only a frost on one day. The 

 absolute minimum occurred on March 7, when the thermometer 

 fell to - 52°, and the absolute maximum amounted to 58° on 

 July 13. The wind was usually very light, while calms were 

 verj' prevalent, amounting to about 80 per cent. Snow, and 

 occasionally rain, fell on 131 days out of 318 ; neither hail nor 

 thunderstorms occurred during the period of observation, but fog 

 and mist were very frequent, especially between December and 

 June. Aurora borealis occurred on 142 nights out of 183 between 

 October and March ; this phenomenon is made the subject of a 

 special discussion. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Moustache Monkey {Cercopithecits cephiis, 

 i ) from West Africa, presented by Mrs. Polini ; two Rhesus 

 Monkeys {Macactis rhesus, 9 9 ) from India, presented 

 respectively by Mr. C. Harmer and Mr. C. T. Trevalyan ; a 



Boa (Boa ) from Dominica, presented by Mr. W. 



Weldon Symington ; a Barnard's Parrakeet {Platycercus bar- 

 nardi) from Australia, deposited; a Raccoon like Dog {Canis 

 procyiiides) from Japan, two Elliot's Pheasants (Phasianus 

 ellioti, (J 9 ), two Bar-tailed V\\^zsAX\K%(,Phasiamis reevesi, <J 9 ) 

 from China, two Rosy-billed Ducks (Metopiana peposaca, i i) 

 from South America, purchased. 



NO. 1380, VOL. 53] 



^iOUR ASTRONOMICAL- COLUMN. , 



The Royal Observatory at Edinbitrch. — The new 

 Royal Observatory, which has been in course of erection on 

 Blackford Hill, to the south of Edinburgh, during the last 

 four years, was formally opened by the Secretary for 

 Scotland, Lord Balfour, on Tuesday. A short article in 

 the Times reminds us that the observatory owes its origin 

 to the presentation to the Scottish nation by the Earl 

 of Crawford of the splendid collection of instruments in his 

 private observatory at Dun Echt, in Aberdeenshire, which was 

 followed by the appointment of Dr. Ralph Copeland, the super- 

 intendent at Dun Echt, as Astronomer Royal for Scotland and 

 Professor of Astronomy in the University of Edinburgh in 1889. 

 As there was not sufficient accommodation for the new instru- 

 ments in the old buildings on the Calton Hill, it was resolved 

 to erect a new observatory worthy of the nation and of Lord 

 Crawford's munificent gift. A Government grant of ;^33,ooo, 

 afterwards increased to £^(0,000, was obtained, and the Town 

 Council of Edinburgh granted on easy terms a site deemed in all 

 respects suitable, on the eastern crest of Blackford Hill, which, 

 possesses exceptional stability, a convenient elevation, and unusual 

 purity of atmosphere, the smoke nuisance intruding itself only 

 in one day out of eighteen. 



The buildings consist of the observatory proper, the official 

 residence of the Astronomer Royal, the residence of the 

 assistant astronomers, and subsidiary buildings. The obser- 

 vatory is a T-shaped building, the head of the T facing 

 the north with a frontage of 180 feet, and having at each end a 

 telescope tower, of which the eastern is 75 feet high and 40 feet 

 in diameter, and the western is 44 feet by 27 feet. The former 

 contains the most important instrument in the observatory — a 

 new refracting telescope of 15-inch aperture. The latter con- 

 tains the reflecting telescope, removed from the Calton Obser- 

 vatory, which has an aperture of 2 feet, and which is to be used 

 in astro-physical researches. 



Among the other instruments in the observatory are a 

 meridian circle, 8^ inches in diameter ; a self-recording anemo- 

 meter ; an ingenious chronograph ; the telescope with which 

 the late Prof. Piazzi Smyth made most of his observations on the 

 Calton Hill ; several good spectroscopes ; a reversing transit 

 instrument ; and the clock, connected by wire with Greenwich, 

 which fires the daily time-gun at Edinburgh Castle and drops 

 the time-ball on the Nelson Monument. Connected with the 

 observatory, there is a well-equipped photographic laboratory, 

 and a library with accommodation for some 30,000 volumes, 

 which is already well furnished with the treasures of the Dun 

 Echt collection. 



Comet Perrine-Lamp. — The Perrine-Lamp comet was 

 observed at the Astro-Physical Observatory, South Kensington, 

 on the 1st inst., and spectroscopic observations were made by 

 Mr. Shackleton. On account of the faintness of the comet the 

 spectrum was weak, but a fair amount of continuous spectrum 

 was seen, with three maxima in the green blue, which in all 

 probability correspond to the carbon bands, as they had the 

 same relative positions ; this, however, could not be verified by 

 direct comparison. 



BOGGIANTS RECENT EXPLORATIONS 



AMONGST NATIVE TRIBES OF THE UPPER 



PARAGUA V RIVER. 



'T'HE country along the upper course of the Paraguay has 

 -*- recently been attracting the attention of men of science. 

 A short time ago naturalists were aroused by the wonderful 

 discovery made by Dr. Bohls of Lepidosiren paradoxa, that 

 rarest and strangest of fish, living in abundance in lagoons in 

 the Lengua territory of the Gran Chaco, not very far from the 

 right bank of the Paraguay. 



I now intend to give a short account of the ethnological 

 results of the explorations of an Italian artist, Cavaliere Guide. 

 Boggiani, who, little more than three years ago, lived amongst 

 two of the less-known native tribes, further north, on both sides 

 of the Paraguay River. They are the Chantacocos and the 

 Caduveos. Boggiani brought home extensive ethnographical 

 collections from both, which he has described in lectures 

 delivered at Rome and Florence, recently published in elegant 



