32 



jVA TURE 



[November 9, 1893 



stances of erratic blocks. The erratic blocks from the 

 higher Alps, which are found on the flanks of the Jura 

 Mountains, are also shown to point conclusively to the 

 former existence of glaciers stretching down the Rhone 

 Valley as far as the Jura. The distribution of erratics in 

 North America are ne.xt considered, and the crowning 

 example of boulder transportation is said to be afforded 

 by "the blocks of light grey gneiss discovered by Prof. 

 Hitchcock on the summit of Mount Washington, over 

 6'joo feet above sea-level, and identified with Bethlehem 

 gneiss, whose nearest outcrop is at Jefferson, several 

 miles to the north-west, and 3000 or 4000 feet lower than 

 Mount Washington." After giving instances in Great 

 Britain and Scandinavia of boulders carried above their 

 source, Dr. Wallace says : — 



We thus find clear and absolute demonstration of glacier ice 

 moving up-hill and dragging with it locks from lower levels to 

 elevations varying from 200 to 2700 feet above their origin. 

 In Switzerland we have proof of the same general fact in the 

 terminal moraine of the northern branch of the Rhone glacier 

 being about 200 feet higher than the Lake of Geneva, with 

 very much higher intervening ground. As it is universally 

 admitted that the glacier of the Rhone did extend to beyond 

 Soleure, all the a priori objections to the various cases of rocks 

 carried much higher than their origin, in America, the British 

 Isles, and Scandinavia, fall to the ground. We must either 

 deny the existence of the ice-sheet in the great Swiss valley, 

 and find some other means of accounting for the travelled 

 blocks on the Jura between Geneva and Soleure, or admit that 

 the lower strata of a great glacier can travel up-hill and over 

 hill and valley, and that the ice-sheets of the British Isles, of 

 Scandinavia, and of North America merely exhibit the very 

 same characteristics as those of Switzerland, but sometimes on 

 a larger scale. We may not be yet able to explain fully how 

 it thus moves, or what slope of the upper surface is required in 

 order that the bottom of the ice may move up a given ascent, 

 but the fact of such motion cannot any longer be denied. 



Prof. T. E. Thorpe contributes a chatty paper on 

 '^^ Carl Wilhelm. Scheele,'' whose life's work is summed 

 up as follows : — 



We owe to Scheele our first knowledge of chlorine and of 

 the individuality of manganese and baryta. He was an inde- 

 pendent discoverer of oxygen, ammonia, and hydrochloric acid 

 gas. He discovered also hydroduoric, nitrosulplionic, molybdic, 

 tungstiCj and arsenic acids among the inorganic acids ; and 

 lactic, gallic, pyrogallic, oxalic, citric, tartaric, malic, mucic, 

 and uric among the organic acids. He isolated glycerin and 

 milk-sugar ; determined the nature of microcosmic salt, borax, 

 and Prussian blue, and prepared hydrocyanic acid. He demon- 

 strated that plambago is nothing but carbon associated with 

 more or less iron, and that the black powder left on solution 

 of cast iron in mineral acids is essentially the same substance. 

 He ascertained the chemical nature of sulphuretted hydrogen, dis- 

 covered arsenetted hydrogen and the green arsenical pigment 

 which is associated with his name. He invented new pro- 

 cesses for preparing ether, powder of algaroth, phosphorus, 

 calomel, and ina\^iicsia alha. His services to quantitative 

 chemistry included the discovery of ferrous ammonium sulphate, 

 and of the methods still in use for the analytical separation of 

 iron and manganese and for the decomposition of mineral sili- 

 cates by fusion with alkaline carbonates. 



To this long list of successful labours must be added 

 the memoir on "Air and Fire,"' which appeared in 1777, 

 and the experimental material for which was partly 

 collected in Malmo and Stockholm before 1770, and 

 partly during Scheele's stay at Upsala, that is, prior to 

 1776. These dates, Prof. Thorpe reminds us, are impor- 

 tant in view of Scheele's relations as a discoverer to 

 Priestley and Lavoisier. 



"The Geographical Evolution of the North Sea "forms 

 the subject of an article by Mr. A. J. Jukes-Browne in 

 the Coiitemporary. In the course of the paper the follow- 

 ing conclusion is arrived at : — 



The North Sea— that is to say, a sea lying east of Britain 

 and opening northward— had no existence until after the form.a- 

 tion of our Coralline Crag. The great change which submerged 



NO. 1254, VOL. 49] 



the northern land-barrier and permanently lowered the tempera- 

 ture of eastern England by letting in the waters of the Arctic 

 Ocean look place during the formation of the newer " Crags" 

 which overlie the Coralline Crag in Suffolk, and extend north- 

 ward through Norfolk. 



In proof of this statement, two salient facts may be men- 

 tioned : (i) the incoming and gradual increase in the number 

 of northern species among the moUusca of the newer Crags ; 

 (2) the occurrence of Crag shells in the glacial sands of Aber- 

 deen, showing that marine Pliocene deposits once exi^ted at no 

 great distance from the Scottish coast and were destroyed by the 

 ice of the Glacial Period. 



According to Mr. Jukes-Browne, towards the close of 

 the Pliocene period the whole area between East Anglia 

 and the Netherlands appears to have become dry land. 

 The estuary of the Rhine then lay off the coast of Nor- 

 folk, and the Thames was one of its tributaries. During 

 the glacial epoch, the whole bed of the North Sea was dry 

 land. The subsidence that afterwards submerged the 

 North Sea floor and filled the valley of the English 

 Channel with water, led to the silting up of the English 

 river-valleys, and to the formation of the modern delta 

 of the Rhine. Mr. Jukes-Brow-ne believes that by it 

 England was separated from the Continent ; for there is 

 no proof that a continuous sea separated England and 

 France at any earlier Pleistocene epoch. 



The Forum (October) contains a contribution by Prof. 

 E. S. Holden, the object of which is " to detail the his- 

 tory of the remarkable 'new star' of 1892, in the con- 

 stellation Auriga. ' On this side of the Atlantic, a 

 detailed account is understood to mean a more or less 

 minute narration of particulars ; but Prof. Holden's 

 paper shows us that in writing the history of a new star 

 in detail, reference to some of the most important com- 

 munications on the matter maybe omitted. " li\\t.Nova 

 was, no doubt, a star like our sun . . . , ' says Prof. Holden. 

 "... Let us imagine what fate ours would be, if our sun 

 should suddenly increase in light and heat some hun- 

 dreds of times, and then fall off some thousands," and so 

 on. The learned Director of the Lick Observatory will 

 find that there is very little, if any, evidence that Nova 

 Aurigce "resembles our sun" in physical constitution, 

 which is the inference naturally put upon his remarks. 

 We read that, " Nothing can be clearer than the identity 

 of the 1S93 spectrum of the Nova and that of the 

 nebulse " — a pill which some spectroscopists have had 

 great difficulty in swallowing. Prof. Holden describes 

 Prof. Seeliger's hypothesis of the genesis of the Nova, 

 but inclines to Prof. Vogel's modification of it ; for he 

 remarks, " We can at least say that up to the present 

 time the new star has behaved as if it had entered a 

 system of distant planets, rather than a swarm of cosmical 

 meteorites." This, however, is simply an expression of 

 opinion, and the statements that might justify it are not 

 discussed, for the reason that " they relate to the 

 minutiae of observation." 



The Quarterly Revieiv (October) contains an excellent 

 account of Vedic mythology, which should be of interest 

 to astronomers, since it deals chiefly with the relation of 

 the sun and moon to mythological thought and language. 



An article on " Waves," in Good Words, and one on 

 " Electricity and Health," in the Humanitarian, deserve 

 mention, though neither contain much of scientific 

 importance. 



The Medical Mao-azine contains Part L of an article 

 on " Heredity and Disease." 



ON A METEORITE WHICH FELL NEAR 

 JAFFERABAD IN INDIA ON APRIL 28, 1893.1 



"PARTICULARS have recently reached this country 

 -*- concerning the fall of a meteorite near Jafferabad in 

 the south-east of Kathiawar, a native State adjoining the 



1 Note read at the meeting of the Mineralogical Society, October 14, 



1893. 



