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A'A TURE 



[December 6, 1S94 



skeleton of a large Carnivore of the size of a tiger, and is said 

 to. be the most perfect specimen of the kind ever found. The 

 total number of volumes in the library now exceeds twenty- 

 eight thousand. We sincerely hope that the citizens of New 

 York will see that the usefulness of the Institution is not 

 limited by the lack of means to acquire new and important 

 material, and to provide proper accommodation for it. They 

 must surely recognise thai, even from a commercial point of 

 view, the museum is of the highest value. 



In connection with our note last week, on the wreck of the 

 Falcon, the steamer of the Peary expedition, and the loss of all 

 on board, it ought to have been stated that the vessel, after 

 landing the returning members of Mr. Peary's party, had sailed 

 from St. John's with a cargo of coal, and that none of the ex- 

 ploring party, whose charter of the vessel terminated on their 

 landing, were on board. 



In the Geo^rafhical yournal for December, Captain Mockler 

 Ferryman describes and illustrates the glacier lake known as the 

 Dxmme Vand, near the Hardanger Fiord, in Norway. The 

 Rembesdal glacier at the head of the Simodal, stretches across 

 and dams up a lateral valley in which the lake in question 

 is formed. When during summer the ice-barrier gives way, as 

 it occasionally does, floods of the most disastrous kind are pro- 

 duced in the Simodal. The Norwegian Government has deter- 

 mined to construct a tunnel through the rocks at the mouth of 

 the lateral valley, through which the surplus water of the 

 Dxmme Vand may be harmlessly drained when the level rises 

 to a dangerous height. 



Chemical laboratories can now dispense with the wasteful 

 and unpleasant installation for generating sulphuretted hydro- 

 gen, for we learn from Indintrics and Iron that liquid sulphur- 

 etted hydrogen is commercially obtainable. Although this gas is 

 easily liquefied, the difficulties of manufacture in large quantities 

 at an economic rate have prevented its introduction as a labora- 

 tory reagent. Messrs. Baird and Tatlock, who are the sole 

 agents for this commodity, supply the liquid compressed into 

 specially-prepared steel cylinders, each containing one pound of 

 liquid, equal to about eleven cubic feet of gas at atmospheric 

 pressure. Larger cylinders can also be had. In this compressed 

 form, the gas has the advant.ige of being cleanly and always 

 ready for use, and in those laboratories in which it is only 

 occasionally required as a reagent, a cylinder ought to be in- 

 cluded in the laboratory stock. Our contemporary announces 

 that the same firm is about to place liquid chlorine and ethylene 

 on the market. 



For collections of Coleopterous, Lepidopterous and other 

 insects, the nature of the pin for fastening the specimens is a 

 question of great importance. Ordinary pins of brass, even 

 though well tinned, frequently oxidise in the body of the 

 insect, and eventually destroy the specimen. Black varnished 

 pins are almost as bad, for the varnish soon cracks, leaving the 

 metal exposed. Even plated pins do not appear to resist the 

 action of the compound) developed in the bjdy of the insect, 

 though solid silver ones will. Ur. II. G. Knaggs introduced a 

 bronze pin which has found favour among many entomologists ; 

 nevertheless, it i« far from being a perfect fastener. In the 

 December number of the Iintoiiiolof^i>l' > Moiilkly Magazine, he 

 direct-- attention to a pin made from a nickel alloy by Mesirs. 

 Deyrolle, of Paris. This pin posjoscs great advantages over 

 those generally used, and of which the metal basis is brass. It 

 will probably be widely used by collectors, for its price need 

 only be a little higher than that of an ordinary pin. 



That the efTiciency of acoustic fog-signals for purposes of 

 navigation is a< yet very doubtful, may be seen from a dis- 

 cusiion appearing in llama. There are many peculiarities in 



NO. 1310, VOL. 51] 



the behaviour of sound, propagated over the surface of the sea 

 from the coast, which require further scientific investigation. 

 Mr. Arnold B. Johnson, author of "The Modern Lighthouse 

 Service," gives it as a general rule, that in proceeding from the 

 neighbourhood of the fog-signal apparatus out into the sea for 

 about two miles a zone is entered in which the signal becomes 

 inaudible. This zone has a width varying from one mile to a 

 mile and a half. That this phenomenon is not confined to 

 coast stations is evident from the fact that it was observed in 

 the case of a station situated on a rock twenty miles from the 

 nearest land. Several such zones are often produced when a 

 steep cliff lies at the back of the signal station. The observa- 

 tions made on the coast of New England are fully borne out by 

 those made at the mouths of the Elbe and Weser. .Vmong the 

 pilots of the German coast it is well known that the sound 

 rockets fired on Heligoland are heard at distances sometimes 

 exceeding twenty miles, become inaudible on approaching the 

 island, and reappear in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 island. An altogether unexplained and apparently undiscussed 

 phenomenon is that noticed in a specially marked manner in 

 the fog-horn of the Weser lightship. When the sound com- 

 mences it appears to proceed from a direction entirely different 

 from that in which it dies away. 



A SERIES of Bulletins of the Madras Government Museum 

 has been commenced by the superintendent, Mr. Edgar 

 Thurston ; and parts i. and ii., which have reached this country, 

 contain much useful information upon the fisheries and marine 

 zoology of the Presidency. Part i. contains a revised account 

 of the superintendent's "Notes on the Pearl and Cliank 

 Fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar," and its subject matter is 

 already known in great part to British students of "applied 

 zoology." Part, ii., entitled " Note on Tours along the Mala- 

 bar Coast," records a number of interesting observations in 

 marine zoology made on the west coast of Madras. It is in- 

 structive to note that even there the natives have their fishery 

 question. It is stated that formerly the sardines of the co.ast 

 always arrived reguKirly, and remained throughout the season ; 

 and the fishermen's belief is that they are at the present d.ay 

 frightened away by the numerous steamers which call at Cochin, 

 and retire in search of a less disturbed spot. In addition to 

 steamboat tralVic ; noises in boats, ringing church bells, artillery 

 practice, the erection of lighthouses, gutting fish at sea, using 

 fish as manure, burning kelp, and the wickedness of the people, 

 have been charged with being responsible for a falling of! of the 

 fish supply ; but, as Mr. C. E. Fryer has naively remarked, 

 "of these alleged causes only the last, it is to be feared, has 

 been, and is likely to be, a permanent f.actor in the case." 



We have received from the Rev. S. Chevalier, the second 

 repoit of the Shanghai Meteorological Society. This number 

 is entirely devoted to a notice of the typhoons of the year 1S93, 

 and a final chapter on the general tracks of the typhoons in the 

 Chinese seas. The discussion of each storm is accompanied by 

 diagrams showing the position of the centre at various dates ; 

 several examples reportetl in the present work .show that the 

 bearing of the centre coincides with the direction of the swell 

 of the sea, but further observations on that special point are 

 required. The tracks of the typhoons have been cl.ossed (I) 

 according to the times of their occurrence, and (2) according to 

 the countries which they visit. The first month of the typhoon 

 season is May, but the storms are of rare occurrence before 

 July ; it is noticeable that they originate in dilTerenl positions, 

 and take somewhat different routes In illflerent months. From 

 the middle of September the typhojns do not reach .Shanghai, 

 but they occur further south for some months later. In dividing 

 them according to localities. Father Chevalier distinguishes 

 three classes, viz. Japan typhoons, China, and Cochiu China 

 t yphoons. 



