October 29, 1903] 



NATURE 



629 



The small, but well-ordered, zoological garden at BSle 

 is well worthy of a visit. It is situated in the new quarter 

 of the city beyond the railway station, and has the advan- 

 tages of a good soil and a clear stream of water running 

 thiough it. The new licn-house, which will shortly be 

 ready for occupation, is planned on an extended scale, but 

 will not be quite so large as those of London and Berlin. 

 There will bf a set of external cages for the animals on the 

 south side, but the interior of the building on the north 

 side will be appropriated to the exhibition of reptiles. 

 There is a fine herd of the American bison, which has 

 frequently bred in this garden, and very good examples of 

 the elk and reindeer, neither of which seem to do well in 

 England. The special pet of the director, Dr. Hagmann. 

 is a young female orang, which has been living at Bale in 

 good health for more than three years, and is remarkably 

 tame and intelligent. She obeys orders given in German, 

 but has not yet learned to reply to them in that language. 



The geology of the country near Chichester is described 

 f in a memoir of the Geological Survey by Mr. Clement Reid, 

 F.R.S., with contributions by Mr. G. W. Lamplugh and 

 Mr. A. J. Jukes-Brown. The memoir, which is accom- 

 panied by a colour-printed map (sheet 317), deals with a 

 portion of the South Downs in Sussex, with the picturesque 

 regions of Midhurst, Petworth and Pulborough on the 

 north, and the low-lying fertile tracts of drift gravel and 

 brick-earth on the south. The formations described range 

 from the Wealden to the London Clay, together with Clay- 

 with-flints, certain marine gravels, and other superficial 

 deposits. The price of the memoir is one shilling, and of 

 the map one shilling and sixpence. Both may be obtained 

 from any agent for the sale of Ordnance Survey maps, or 

 through any bookseller from the Ordnance Survey Office, 

 Southampton. For educational purposes this and other 

 memoirs in the same series are invaluable. 



The second part of the general report and statistics for 

 1902 relating to mines and quarries, edited by Prof. C. Le 

 Neve Foster, F.R.S., and published as a Home Office Blue- 

 book, deals with questions of labour. It gives the facts re- 

 lating to persons employed and accidents at mines and 

 quarries in the United Kingdom, and to the enforcement 

 of the Mines and Quarries Acts. In 1902, 1061 separate 

 fatal accidents occurred in and about the mines and quarries 

 of the United Kingdom, causing the loss of 1172 lives. 

 Compared with the previous year, there is a decrease of 

 fourteen in the number of fatal accidents and of fifty-seven 

 in the number of lives lost. Three-fourths of the fatal 

 accidents by explosions of fire-damp or coal-dust were due 

 to naked lights, the illegal use of matches, or the illegal 

 opening of a safety-lamp. The worst disaster of the year 

 was the explosion at MacLaren Colliery, Abertysswg, Mon- 

 mouthshire, where sixteen persons lost their lives and 

 eighteen were injured. In connection with this explosion. 

 Prof. Le Neve Foster remarks, " fortunately the roads 

 were well watered, or otherwise the loss of life would prob- 

 ably have been very much larger " ; and in this contention 

 he is supported by Mr. Martin, one of H.M. Inspectors of 

 Mines who reported on the disaster, and concluded his 

 report with the following words : — " This is perhaps the 

 first practical proof of artificial watering limiting the effects 

 of what would otherwise have proved a widespread and 

 much more disastrous affair. It is certainly an object lesson 

 for all colliery managers." Owing to the large number of 

 accidents occurring at quarries from the use of explosives 

 containing nitro-glycerin when in a solid or frozen state, it 

 has been thought desirable to circulate special notices to be 

 posted up on the door of the magazine or store from which 

 NO. 1774, VOL. 68] 



the men fetch their explosives. The notice directs that all 

 cartridges made of dynamite, gelignite, blasting gelatin, 

 and other explosives containing nitro-glycerin must always 

 be thawed (in a properly designed warming pan) before use 

 during the months of December, January, February, and 

 March, and also at any other times if the cartridges are 

 not in a soft or pasty condition. 



A PECULIAR form of the basidiomycetous fungus Lentinus 

 lepideus is described by Mr. W. G. Smith in the Journal 

 of Botany (October), in which numerous clavaria-like 

 branches spring from a central club-like portion. Mr. 

 E. G. Baker completes in this number his systematic 

 arrangement of the Indigoferas of tropical Africa. 



The current number (October) of the Reliquary and 

 Illustrated Archaeologist contains some notes by Mr. W. R. 

 Prior on an image of the sun found last autumn at Trund- 

 holm, in northern Zeeland, and two pictures of the object, 

 one of which is here reproduced on a reduced scale, by per- 

 mission of the publishers, Messrs. Bemrose and Sons, Ltd. 

 The image is i foot ij inches broad and 8 inches high, and 

 was found in fragments about six inches under the surface 

 of the ground. It was easily reconstructed by Dr. Sophus 

 Muller, director of the National Museum at Copenhagen, 

 and a full description of the object has appeared in Danish. 



Sua linage lountl at iiuiidboiin, Denmark, 



" It has been clearly proved," says Mr. Prior, " an image 

 of the sun being dragged round on a chariot as an object 

 of worship, an idol of the sun-worship dating from about 

 1000 B.C., and the best of its kind found anywhere, both 

 as regards design and execution. In Egyptian and Oriental 

 mythology, as well as in Grecian, the sun was represented 

 as a round disc, often inlaid with gold. Several pictorial 

 representations of the sun are known from the same period, 

 but none that has any close resemblance to this find. 

 Everything seems to indicate that the find belongs to the 

 older Bronze age, and is of purely Scandinavian origin in 

 its rich ornamental style and artistic workmanship, which 

 appear in northern bronzes of that period." 



In order to obtain flowers out of their natural season, it 

 is possible to retard their growth at an early stage by 

 placing the plants in cold, dry houses, and then to force 

 them later under the influence of heat and moisture, or it 

 is possible to stimulate the young buds into premature de- 

 velopment by subjecting them to the effects of ether. M. 

 A Maumen^, a strong advocate of the etherisation system, 

 discusses its scientific and practical aspects in the Revue 

 scientifiquc. He maintains that not only do plants develop 

 more quickly after being etherised, but that development is 

 more regular and complete. 



