March 23, 1883.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



185 



IKjints — very trifling, of course, but so mncli the easier for Mr. 

 HampJen to deal vrith — seem to rciiuiro explanation : — 



LLC is much less than half LA, so that the midilay sun in 

 December should have an apparent diameter much less than half 

 that of the midday sun iii June, and a disc much less than a quarter 

 .IS large in appearance. 



2. I cannot get the angles of elevation right. /ALB should be 

 equal to Z li L C ; but so Ion;; as A B is equal to B C, these angles 

 tliffer much from each other. 



3. It looks as though the midiiijht sun in summer should have 

 about the same elevation as the middaij sun in winter ( / C'L N 

 = Z ALD). 



■I. It really looks as though, even in winter, the sun ought never 

 to set — LA' is considerably inclined to LX. 



5. In fact, in my dulness, 1 cannot see how the sun, always some 

 ;KX) miles above the earth, the whole diameter of whose accessible 

 surface is only about G.OOO miles, can ever set anywhere. 



C. Still less can I understand — twenty years ago De Morgan 

 showed similar dulness of apprehension — how the sun can go down, 

 as I have seen it go down, square to the horizon in equatorial 

 regions. 



7. Then here is a ditficulty which puzzles me much. Regarding 

 N D, Fig. 2, for a moment, as the longitude line from the Pole to 

 New Zealand, D would represent about the position of Christchurch, 

 N.Z. A, the place of the midday sun Dec. 21, lies certainly north 

 for the whole of New Zealand, and so does the whole circular path 

 AA', and so forth. Now, while I over and over again saw the sun, 

 at early morning and late evening in November, December, and 

 January, considerably to the south of the east and west points re- 

 spectively, I particularly observed this in a long drive I had to 

 take from Oomaru to Timaru on the eastern coast of New Zealand 

 (southern island), one Sunday in December, 1880. I had to start 

 by sunrise, and after reaching Timaru, and having a late dinner, I 

 walked out to watcli one of the finest sunsets I have ever seen. I 

 fan vouch for it that the sun rose far to the sonth of east, not 

 reaching due east till long after six, and was due west long before 

 si\, setting far to the south of west. Now, it really looks (see 

 Fig. 2) as though, seen from D, the whole course of the sun in 

 December ought to lie on the northern half of the sky. I know it 

 was not; but then it is clear, not only from Fig. 2 but from Fig. 1, 

 !ind from the charts of the whole Hat earth which Jlr. Hampden 

 has been good enough to send me, that it ought to have been. 



IS. Lastly, I noticed that the daily course of the sun was precisely 

 the same on the northern sky, as seen from places in Australasia, as 

 it was on the southern sky seen from places in America at the same 

 distances north of the equator, at the corresponding seasons (I was 

 in Australasia from May, 1880, to January, 1881, and in America 

 from October to May), i.e., from places far out.':ide the circular 

 daily paths assigned to the sun by Mr. Hampden the .thape of the 

 sun's course on the sky was precisely the same as from places far 

 irifide those paths. This is ditficult to understand ; though, doubtless, 

 Mr. Hampden will find it easy to explain. 



If he would devote his next explanations to these points, he would 

 please and interest many. Moreover, there can be no doubt that a 

 satisfactory explanation of these difficulties would secure the Zetetic 

 school a great number of adherents. In fact, though I know of 

 many other difficulties, I will enroll myself as a disciple of the new 

 philosophy so soon as the above slight difficulties are removed — not 

 sooner, however. I may add my belief that the new philosophy 

 will be wn'dely accepted when the Newtonian system is rejected — 

 but I think not before. — li. P.' 



©ur 21236 1'St Column. 



By " Five of Clubs." 



PLAYING TRUMPS. 



WE come now to cases where you have great strength in 

 trumps. This may consist either in length only, as when 

 yon have five or six trumps, no honours ; or in combined length and 

 sirength, as when you have four trumps, two honours; or in both, 

 is when you have five trumps, or more, two honours. 



When you have five trumps, says the book rule, it is always right 

 to lead them ; yet experience at once suggests an exception to this 



I rule — for when you want only the odd trick to save or win the 

 game, you do not lead trumps from five. The rule should rather be 



I that it is almost always well to lead trumps. With the original 

 lead, perhaps the only exception is the one just mentioned. But when 

 the jireceding play showsthatyourpartnerhasBogood suit, while your 

 own hand contains none outside trumps, leading trumps from five 

 would be bad play, and, as such cases are common, the exception is 

 rather an important one to notice. Suppose, for instance, your hand 



I 



is weak outside trumps, of which you hold five, and that your oppo- 

 nent on the right leads King of u plain suit, taking the trick ; and 

 then a small one, which his partner takes with the .\ce ; and that 

 then the Queen of another suit is led out, on which your partner 

 puts the Ace and third player a small one. You know now that 

 your opponent on the right has the King card and probably com- 

 mand of his own suit and the King card of his partner's, who holds 

 second and third best. If now your partner leads a small card of 

 the remaining plain suit and you take the trick with the Queen, it 

 would be nnwise to lead a trump from five aniall ones, for your 

 opponents on cither side have one suit certainly, and another 

 probably, established, while either the King or the Ace of your 

 partner's suit is on yonr right. The best use you can make of your 

 trumps is to keep them to rulT your opponents' suits or your 

 partner's (when player to your right puts in his best card in that 

 suit), according to the way your plain suits are distributed. And so 

 in a number of cases where you learn from the play that the proba- 

 bilities are not — as when you lead originally from five trumps and a 

 weak hand — in favour of your partner having at least one strong 

 suit. 



But when you are original loader holding five trumps, not more 

 than one honour, and all your plain suits weak, you have good 

 reason for expecting that your partner has one good suit which by 

 means of your trumps you can help him to establish and bring in. 

 Further, the chances are two to one that opening any other suit 

 will be playing the adversaries' game, as yon htive no means of 

 guessing which is your partner's suit. So that alike for offensive 

 as for defensive considerations, your proper lead is your penulti- 

 mate trump. (Always excepting the case where you want the odd 

 trick either to save or win the game.) 



With a good hand and five trumps you need never hesitate to lead 

 trumps, unless you want the odd trick only — in which case you 

 should always play the surer game of aiming to obtain the odd 

 trick surely ; for what good will throe or four tricks made from a 

 long suit do you, in such a case, to compensate the risk of failing to 

 get the odd trick ? 



With a good plain suit, the short suits well protected, and four 

 trumps (two honours), the original lead being with you, you may 

 safely lead trumps, except when playing for the odd trick only. At 

 love, with such a lead, you take the best chance of making game, if 

 your partner has an honour. But this forward play should be 

 regarded as tentative only, and to be dropped at once if your 

 partner shows great weakness in trumps ; for then there is reason 

 to fear that one or other of the adversaries may have superior 

 strength to yon in trumps. 



When you have such a hand, but not the original lead, the ques- 

 tion of leading trumps or not will depend on what you infer from 

 the tricks already played. 



Strength in trumps sufficient to justify leading them is not suffi- 

 cient to justify signalling for trumjjs. When you lead trumps, you 

 nearly always suggest to yourpartner that it will be well for him to 

 follow your lead ; but when you signal, you practically direct him to 

 do so. A really commanding hand is required to justify such a 

 course. Clay indicated, as his own rule, never to signal with fewer 

 than four trumps two honours, or five trumps one honour ; but he 

 added that he by no means intended to imjjly that with such 

 trumps you should always signal. As a matter of fact, you should 

 have good cards in ])Iain suits to justify a signal from the minimum 

 trump hands indicated by Clay. 



It is an almo.-it constant rule to return your partner's trumps 

 when he has led from strength ; but it should be a constant rule to 

 obey the signal, when made by a partner who understands whist. 

 Not to retnm trumps is only justified — in most cases — by sudden 

 illness, or by having no trumps — one an invalid reason, the other a 

 valid one. Not to respond to the signal is justified only by one of 

 three reasons — having no trumps, sudden illness, or want of confi- 

 dence in yonr partner. So if a player, having noticed the signal, 

 and not being ill, fails to lead trumps, he tells his partner, in whist 

 language, that he " disables his judgment." 

 (To be continved.) 



It has been urged against the theoretical importance of the 

 agency of insects in fertilising flowers, that the insects relied npon 

 are rare upon mountain-heights, where the flowers that should bo 

 fertilised by them are still abundant. The observations of M. Ch. 

 Musset, of Grenoble, France, which range up to 10,000 feet in 

 height, tend greatly to break the force of this objection. He finds 

 that all the orders of insects are represented to the height of 

 7.400 feet, and that the nnmlwr of nectar-seeking insects is pro- 

 portionate to the number of flowers. The hours of wakefulness and 

 of sleep of the nyctitropic flowers — the number of which is greater 

 than is supposed — and those of the insects are synchronous. The 

 apparent number of nectar-seeking insects, also, is related to the 

 number of their favourite flowers. 



