NA TURE 



[Septemi;i:r :o, 1S94 



before 7 o'clock on the morning of the 25'.h. Warning tele- 

 granas were despatched along the valley. The wea'.her was 

 very unfavourable for observation, a heavy mist obscuring the 

 landscape. Signs of collapse were visible .it S o'clock in the 

 evening, and shortly before midnight the dam burst. A flood 

 30 feet high, sweeping onward with irresistible force, reached 

 Chamoli, half-way between Gohna and Srinagar, at half-past 

 l2onthe26lh. At l in the morning there was another tre- 

 mendous rush of water, which descended with an awful roar ; 

 but nothing was visible owing to the constantly thickening 

 mist. The flood travelled at an average rate of twenty-four 

 miles an hour all down the valley, rising in places to n height 

 of 2CO feet. .-Vt Chamoli it rose to a height of 160 feel, 

 destroying the bazaars and thft hospital. At .Srinagar the 

 devastation was even more widespread. The f-)od reached 

 llardwar at 9 o'clock on Sunday, and by noon the river had 

 risen 12 feet. It presented a magnificent spectacle, and the 

 view from the surrounding heights was at once grand and 

 terrible. At Hard-*ar all Government buildings, with the 

 exception of the telegraph office, were destroyed. The whole 

 lake was discharged in about two hours." 



At the .-Vugust meeting of the Calcutta Microscopical 

 Sjciety, the retirement of Dr. William King from the Geo- 

 logical .Survey of India was referred to, and a brief notice of 

 his work in India, and especially in connection with the 

 Society, was read. We take the following information from a 

 report in the Eit^lishiuaii : — Dr. King joined the Geological 

 Survey in Calcutta under its first Director, Dr. T. Oldham, in 

 March 1857. In May of that year, a memorable month in 

 Indian history for its connection with the mutiny of the Native 

 ,\imy, he went to Madras with the first survey party for that 

 Presidency, under Mr. II. F. lilanford. Dr. King continued 

 in Southern India for over twenty-five years, with only 

 occasional visits to headquarters in Calcutta ; and during that 

 period he took part in the surveys of, or himself surveyed, the 

 districts of the Coromandel and part of the Northern Sircars, 

 working chiefly at the Crystalline, Transition, Vindhian, Gond- 

 wana, and Cretaceous formilions of Peninsular India. In 1S70 

 he became Sup;rintendent of the Madras Survey Party, and 

 the latter years of his work in Madras were spent in connecting 

 thecoistal Gimlwinis of Nellore and the Godaveri District 

 With the coal-bearing division of the series in the Central 

 Provinces, by the Gjdaveri Valley and WeUern Hyderal)ad. 

 After this Dr. King's labours l.iy in the Central Provinces, [ 

 where in his progress ovtr the Mandia and lihundara districts, 

 nnd eventually over the whole of Chatti-garh, he connected 

 most of the rock formations of Southern India with those of 

 the Central Provinces and Central India, up to the western 

 frontiers of Chota Nagpur. In 1SS7 he became Director of the 

 Geological Survey of India. During the period of his director- 

 ship the geology of the north-west frontier (particularly in 

 Beluchitlan and in the Silt Range) and of Burma, was considei- 

 al*ly .idvanced in respect lo the exteni of area mapped, and its 

 correlation with European and Europo- Asian geology. The 

 mineral development of iho-e regions in the way of coal, oil, 

 and tin was alio greatly advanced during the same period. Dr. 

 King is the author of four memoirs on the geology of ili>trict3 

 in the Madras Presidency, and of more than twenty reviews on 

 the geology, or mineral condition, of oth-r lr.acis. Dr. Simpson 

 \\\\ been appointed President of the Microscopical Society of 

 Calcutta, in the place of Dr. King. 



The Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for September 

 •hows the remarkable drift of the derelict I-\iiinie E. Wolsloii 

 On October 16, 1891, the vessel became a derelict not far distant 

 from Cape Ilattems, and on June 13, 1892, was reported in 39 

 west longitude, from which position, after a number of irregular 



NO. 1299, VOL. 50] 



gyrations, she drifted back to about longitude 75° west by th 

 end of January last, and on August 6 w.as .again sighted i 

 latitude 34° N. and 67° W. This vessel has thus been a derelic 

 for over looo days, during which time she has drifted abou 

 S600 miles. The .Vmerican Hydrographer points out that Ih 

 dangerous character of these derelicts is illustrated by the fat 

 that during a period of seven years there have been forlyfiv 

 collisions with them, which caused the total loss of nine vessels 

 The United States Government has employed the steamshij 

 San Francisco in destroying these obstructions, and durin 

 the above period sixty-nine have been burnt, and one blown U| 

 by torpedoes. The ellicacy of destroying derelicts by fire i 

 thus illustrate.!. 



The Italian Meteorological OlTice has published part I of it 

 .J«//.i;'j fur tile year 1S93, showing the work done in variou 

 departments of the service. Special studies of the behaviour 

 thunderstorms are carried on in the interest of agriculture, will 

 the view of establishing for each province, and for each week c 

 the year, the mean number of storms, distinguishing ihoS' 

 which were accompanied with rain or hail, attention also beinj 

 paid to the size of th; hailstones. A list of all hailstorm 

 which have occurred during a period of fifteen years is bein; 

 prepared. The volume contains several discussions of earth 

 quake shocks, especially those which occurred in Zante, in 1S93 . 

 A new seismograph has been erected at the Collcgio Romano,' 

 provided with a long and heavy pendulum, which registers 

 shocks that occur at great distances. This instrument, which 

 was devised by Dr. Agamennone, has worked so well tha 

 others are to be established in various parts of the kingdom 

 The department of terrestrial magnetism has been occuptedl 

 with the preparation of a series of magnetic' charts, and at I 

 account is given of some modifications and improvements madi 

 in a small portable magnetometer, for the study of loca 

 magnetic disturbances. 



An interesting paper on the temperature variation in lh< 

 electrical resistance of some organic bodies (esters of the fall) 

 acids), by Prof. A. liartoli, is published in the Piwccaingjo \ 

 the Keale Instituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere. The| 

 liquids examined were in most cases obtained from Kuhlbaum, | 

 and the author gives their boiling point. The conclusions lo! 

 which the author has come are as follows: — (i) In a series t 

 esters derived from a given alcoholic radicle with diflereut ucidil 

 of the fatty scries the conductivity, both at ordinary temperatures: 

 and at the boiling point, decreases with increase in the com- 

 plex. ly of the constitution of the body. In aildition, the 

 alcoholic radicle affects the conduc:ivity, which diminishes withi 

 increased complexity; thus, while metliyl valerate conducts to a 

 fair extent, amyl valerate is an insulator. (2) In general the 

 conductivity oi these esters increases with increase of tempera-' 

 ture, the rate of change with temperature being s nailer for | 

 those having a more complex composition than for those with 

 a simpler formula. Thus, while the r.ate of change is consider- 1 

 able for amyl valerate, amyl butyrate, and isobulyl valerate, it i*! 

 small in the case of methyl formate, methyl acetate, and eth)l 

 fjrmate. (3) Of the sixty different liodies experimented upon, | 

 one sampleuf ethyl acetate h.ad a conductivity which decreased 

 with increase of temperature j another sample of the same body, , 

 however, which the author considers to be purer, gave »" ■ 

 increasing conductivity. A sample of isobulyl acetate also gave , 

 a negative rale of variation with temperature. These anomalous 

 results the author considers lo be due to the presence in the 

 samples of a small quantity of one cf the alcohols. (4) The 

 addition of from I to 20 per cent, of any alcohol to any of the 

 esters experimented upon, gives a solution of which the variation 

 of the conductivity with temperature is negative, wliile the 

 addition of a phenol, a ketone, an ar.aline, or a paraldehyde of 



