228 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[October 2, 1899. 



and thus the tree is quite destroyed by the lightning. A 

 very old tree with a hole in its interior, if very dry, can 

 even be set on fire by lightning, and burned down. 



In all these cases it is certainly always water-steam of 

 a very high pressure which is the principal cause of the 

 destruction. 



An interesting proof of the correctness of this explana- 

 tion was afforded by the destruction by lightning of a 

 monumental column in Gatchina, one of our Imperial 

 summer residences, fifty kilometres south of St. Petersburg. 

 From the beginning of this century there stood a column 

 nearly fifteen metres high, named the " Connetable." 

 It was of stone, and contained in its interior a series of 

 iron angles, which held together the stones. After a 

 period of rainy weather, it seems that much water had got 

 among the stones into the interior of the monument. 

 Then lightning struck it, killing the sentry on guard, and 

 in the same moment the whole column disappeared from 

 its place, blown up as by an explosion. Its fragments 

 were thrown around in aU directions, and some of them 

 were found at a distance of more than one hundred and 

 fifty paces. The column was completely destroyed, and 

 only the pedestal, nearly three or four metres high, 

 remained. In this extraordinary case there is no doubt 

 that the lightning spark, retained by the intervals between 

 the iron angles, instantly produced a great quantity of 

 steam of very high pressure in the interior of the damp 

 column, and the latter was actually blown up by its 

 explosion. 



In the year 1H96 I saw a very curious case in Lapland, 

 where the lightning had struck a Piiim sj/Irestris. In this 

 tree the fibres of the wood form a spiral aroimd the trunk. 

 The spark had taken the same direction, and had blown 

 up the bark on the corresponding spiral line. 



Bakon N. Kaulbaks 

 {Lieutenant- General, Member of the Military 

 St. Petersburg, Scientific Committee). 



August '26th, 1899. 



MEMORY "WITHOUT EEASON. 

 To the Editms of Knowlkdge. 



SiEs, — Case 1. — A cart mare, kept for breeding but used 

 for farm work when not maternally employed, was for 

 several years turned into a grass field with her foal for the 

 summer. In this grass field was an elm tree, with a low 

 spreading branch on a level with the mare's back, and, 

 much to the gratification of herself and to the amusement 

 of the lookers on, the mare contracted a habit of standing 

 in a certain spot transversely to the bough, and swaying 

 herself backwards and forwards, thus getting an agreeable 

 scratch-back, apparently in a rational manner. During 

 one winter the bough was cut off in the absence of the 

 mare, but when she was turned into the field again after 

 some six months, I was surprised and amused to see her 

 for some days separately, at intervals, stand in the old 

 spot with the same backward and forward sway, without 

 any apparent reason and without any satisfactory result. 



Case 2. — A cart mare, with a foal loose in a grass field, 

 got out of her depth in mud in a pond, and had to be 

 dragged out in a very mired condition, with the character- 

 istic pond-mud smeU. Another mare that had been lying 

 with the bedraggled mare all the summer, on getting the 

 wind of her, became frantically excited, and was with 

 difliculty kept away by four men and the bedraggled mare's 

 heels, which were very active. Other mares in the same 

 field and within scent took no notice. The explanation 

 is that the frantic mare's foal had died about a month 

 before, and a few days before its death it had been stuck 



in the same pond and had been dragged out, carrying the 

 same smell. I have no doubt that the bereaved dam, 

 deceived by the smeU and perhaps partly by the circum- 

 stances being the same, thought (?) that her foal had again 

 come out of the pond, and the sight of the mare, some 

 sixteen hands high, could not persuade her to the 

 contrary. 



These two cases go to show how little horses depend on 

 sight, or use their eyes, as compared with ourselves. 



Kitchen End, Hampshire. C. Crouch. 



Sept. 3rd, 1899. 



« 



On the first of August there passed away, at Great Cotes, 

 Lincolnshire, in the person of John Cordeaux, one of the 

 best types of the field naturalist. By ornithologists, 

 especially, his loss will be keenly felt. For many years 

 Cordeaux was a regular contributor to the ornithological 

 columns of the FitUi, the Zoologist, the Naturalist, and many 

 other natural history journals, as our own pages will testify. 

 It was chiefly in connection with the migrations of British 

 birds that his name as an ardent worker, as well as an 

 authority on the subject, will be best known. John 

 Cordeaux was the chief instigator of the formation, in 

 1880, of a committee of the British Association which 

 held such an elaborate and exhaustive investigation 

 into the subject of bird migration as observed on 

 the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. For nearly 

 twenty years Cordeaux carried out the arduous duties 

 of secretary to this committee, which did such 

 valuable work. In 1873 he published a volume on " The 

 Birds of the Humber District," while just before his death 

 he issued '' A List of Birds belonging to the Humber 

 District." In this last work the information regarding the 

 birds of his district is brought down to date, and the list 

 contains the extraordinary number of three hundred and 

 twenty-two species. He was a well-known member of the 

 British Ornithological Union, president of the Yorkshire 

 Naturalists' Union, and first president of the Lincolnshire 

 NaturaHsts' Union. But he was not only an ornithologist, 

 he had a considerable knowledge of botany and general 

 zoology. To those who knew him, John Cordeaux will be 

 remembered as a kind and courteous gentleman, a true and 

 warm-hearted friend, always ready to impart information, 

 always keen to seek the truth. 



Sfirncc 0.ottu. 



Persons interested in the forthcoming total solar eclipse 

 of ^lay 28th, 1900, will be glad to learn that great care 

 and forethought are being exercised by some of our leading 

 astronomers in the necessary preliminaries for ensuring 

 success, as far as is practicable, in the manifold problems 

 which present themselves for solution in such expeditions. 

 The path of the moon's shadow in the Eastern Hemisphere 

 reaches from Oporto to Algiers, and the duration of totality 

 ranges from Im. 363. in Portugal to Im. 6s. in Northern 

 Africa. The sphere of activity will be mainly in places 

 between 8° longitude E. and W. of Greenwich, and lati- 

 tudes 35° N. to 42" N., thus affording an exceptional 

 opportunity of easy access at a moderate cost to those who 

 wish to visit the scene of operations. It is urged that 

 Algiers should be occupied on account of its low cloud 

 ratio, its accessibility, and its excellent harbour : in the 

 region south of Madrid several railway lines cut the 

 shadow track, so that the difiicuJty of transporting instru- 

 ments wiU thus be minimised ; some inconvenience, how- 



