FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



7i9 



pools. Hence it is inferred that the spawn- 

 ing of eels and the development of the eggs 

 and larvae take place at great depths, and 

 the young are brought to the surface by 

 movements of the water. Professor Grassi 

 believes that the elvers, or eel fare, which 

 ascend rivers are already a year old. 



Dr. George M. Dawson has found evi- 

 dence^ consisting chiefly of belts of trees 

 killed by the rise of the water over their 

 roots that since 1880, or possibly earlier, 

 the water of many small lakes and ponds 

 without outlet throughout the southern part 

 of British Columbia has stood permanently 

 or for prolonged intervals at higher levels 

 than those that prevailed during forty or fifty 

 years previously. This carries back the pe- 

 riod of low water to 1840 or 1830. The 

 water appears to be declining now. The 

 lakes lie within the area between the Rocky 

 Mountains and the Coast Ranges. Similar 

 fluctuations have been observed by Mr. 

 G. K. Gilbert in the Great Salt Lake. The 

 phenomena possibly point to some secular 

 change, the nature and causes of which are 

 not known. 



The topographic and geologic maps of 

 the United States are, in conformity with an 

 act of Congress, offered for sale. They are 

 prepared from actual surveys, and the topo- 

 graphic maps show all necessary physical 

 and cultural details. Each sheet, sixteen 

 and a half by twenty inches, is designated 

 by the name of some principal town or 

 prominent natural feature within the district, 

 and covers one sixteenth, one fourth, or the 

 whole of a geographical degree, according 

 to the scale on which it is made. The sheets 

 will be sold for five cents each, or, if the 

 orders are for one hundred sheets or over, 

 whether the same or different, for two cents 

 each. The folios of the geologic atlas, con- 

 taining the topographic, areal, economic, 

 and structural geologic maps, with textual 

 descriptions, will be sold at prices according 

 to the size usually twenty-five cents. Send 

 postal or express orders, not stamps or 

 checks. 



H. Beauregard is authority for the fol- 

 lowing information in the Comptes liendus : 

 Ambergris is a calculus which is developed 

 in the rectum of the sperm whale. This cal- 

 culus is composed of crystals of ambrine 



mixed with considerable black pigment from 

 the rectal lining and star-coral debris. When 

 it is fresh it is of a soft consistence and its 

 odor is not at all agreeable ; but if preserved 

 for several years away from the air, it loses 

 this disagreeable odor and retains merely a 

 delicate perfume sui generis, which gives it 

 great commercial value. This change is due 

 to a microbe for which the author proposes 

 the name Spirillum recti physeteris. 



Lord Lister and Pasteur many years ago 

 showed that the souring of milk and cream 

 is due to a process of fermentation during 

 which the milk sugar is converted into lactic 

 acid, and that this is due to the activity of 

 minute micro-organisms. It remained for 

 Prof. Wilhelm Storch, of Copenhagen, how- 

 ever, to introduce the use of pure cultures 

 of milk-souring bacteria in butter-making. 

 Storch found that several kinds of acid-pro- 

 ducing bacteria are concerned in the normal 

 souring of cream, and he isolated three spe- 

 cies that imparted especially fine flavors to 

 butter. Other workers in this subject have 

 been Professor Weigmann, of Kiel, in Ger- 

 many, and Prof. H. W. Conn, of Wesleyan 

 University. Now S. C. Keith announces in 

 the Chemical News his discovery of a new 

 flavor- producing bacterium which he calls 

 Micrococcus butyri-aromafaciens. It is a 

 micrococcus growing at 3T to 20 C. It 

 liquefies gelatin slowly, but does not grow 

 well on potato. 



NOTES. 



It is very curious and almost paradoxical, 

 says M. V. Brandicourt, reviewing in La Na- 

 ture the underground temperature observa- 

 tions made in excavating the great Alpine 

 tunnels, to find underneath the eternal snows 

 physical conditions like those of tropical 

 regions. Under its frigid envelope of ice the 

 massif of the Alps is nearly a hot furnace, 

 and nowhere else in Nature can a more strik- 

 ing contrast between the intense cold of the 

 higher peaks and the heat stored up in the 

 depths of the soil be found. It is computed 

 that tunnel borers under Mont Blanc would 

 meet a temperature of 122 F. in the deepest 

 part of the excavation. 



It is suggested in the report of Prof. W. 

 A. Hardman and Mr. Andrew Scott, on dis- 

 ease in the oyster, that the dread of germs 

 may be carried too far. " After all," Profes- 

 sor Hardman says, " we do not want even if 

 we could get it an aseptic oyster. The rest 

 of our food our milk, our bread and cheese, 

 our ham sandwiches, and so on are teeming 



