October i6, 1890] 



NA TURE 



599 



Messrs. Cassell and Co. have issued Part 24 of their 

 ' New Popular Educator." It includes a coloured map of 



France. 



I'OUR new parts of the " Encyklopsedie der Naturwissen- 

 iiaften " (Breslau, E. Trewendt) have been issued. In Parts 58 

 and 59 of the second Abtheilung some important contribu- 

 tions are made to the dictionary of chemistry included in this 

 I eat vioxV. Farts 5 and 6 of the third Abtheilung contain 

 I tions of a hand-book of physics, 



I'he preliminary surveys for the projected Onega- White Sea 

 inal have been completed. The British Vice-Consul at Arch- 

 ed in his last Report says that the following facts have been 

 established. The level of the White Sea is about 15 feet higher 

 than that of the Lake Onega ; and the length of the proposed 

 canal would be 219 versts, of which 129 versts are a natural 

 waterway. The proposed measurements of the canal are — 

 breadth, 63 feet; at the locks 112 feet; and along its other 

 portions the proposed depth is 10 feet. The cost is estimated at 

 about 7,5oo,oc)or. (^^800,000), not including the expenses in- 

 <:urred in the construction of a port at a point on the coast of the 

 White Sea. With the construction of the canal it is expected 

 that the cost of transport of goods from St. Petersburg to Arch- 

 angel will be diminished from ir. per poud to 40c. The canal 

 will aflford every facility for the transport offish from the plenti- 

 ful fishing-grounds of the White Sea to St. Petersburg, and also 

 for the transport of the mining products of Olonets. It will also 

 be of great strategical importance in connecting St. Petersburg 

 and Cronstadt with the While Sea. There can be no doubt, 

 the Vice-Consul thinks, that, considering the unlimited supply 

 of timber in the province of Olonets, and the enterprising cha- 

 racter of the population, shipbuilding will be carried on on a 

 large scale when the canal is constructed. 



If we were to judge by statistics alone, we should be forced 

 to conclude that the present system of granting rewards for the 

 destruction of wild animals in India has had little or no effect in 

 diminishing their numbers or in decreasing the mortality caused 

 by them. This conclusion, however, would not be in accord- 

 ance with facts. The methods according to which the statistics 

 are collected have been so much improved that no induction can 

 safely be made from the figures available. This is pointed out 

 in a recent Report of the Revenue Department of the Govern- 

 ment of Madras. The Report continues :— " The experience 

 of almost every District officer who has been some years in the 

 country would be that the number of destructive wild animals 

 had largely decreased with the advance of cultivation and the 

 progress of railways, and the evidence of natives would prob- 

 ably be the same. There are parts of the country still where, 

 owing to the existence of forest and difficulty of access, wild 

 animals of prey continue to exist in large numbers, and it is the 

 case that, owing to various causes, Europeans at all events do 

 less now in the way of killing large game than formerly was the 

 case. They have less time to spare from their official duties, 

 and less money to spend. It can hardly, however, be doubted 

 that, owing to the existence of the system of granting rewards 

 for animals slain, native shikaris are encouraged to maintain a 

 profession which otherwise probably they would give up from 

 want of support, and for this reason, if for no other, the Board 

 would not wish to see at present any change made in the system 

 of granting rewards. It may be hoped that the construction of 

 the East Coast Railway, and the branch from it through the 

 heart of the Vizagapatam district to the Central Provinces, will 

 tend in a great measure to reduce the number of wild animals 

 in the districts where they now do very considerable damage. 

 Cultivation and population in tracts now given up to jungle and 

 grass will increase largely, and the need of wood for the rail- 

 ways will lead probably to the destruction of large areas of 

 NO. 1094, VOL. 42] 



jungles, which now exist in tracts which should be devoted to 

 agriculture." 



Naturalists will read with interest a paper in Humboldt for 

 September, in which Prof. Forel, of Zurich, gives the results 

 of a visit he lately paid to Tunis and Eastern Algeria, chiefly to 

 observe the ants there. Looking from a ship at the dreary grey 

 wastes, and the large date-palm oasis of Gabes, one fancies all 

 animal life must be concentrated under the palms. But really 

 there is very little of it there, and hardly anything singular ; 

 while the sand of the desert contains, round each of the poor, 

 small, sparse plants, a host of beetles and other insects, many 

 of them with striking adaptations and peculiarities. Some live 

 on excrement of camels, asses, &c., some on the plants, and 

 some prey on other animals, big and small. In one ant-hill he 

 found that several ants had a small brown object clinging to the 

 lower part of an antenna ; in some cases, one on either antenna. 

 On examination, this fell off, and was found to be a small beetle, 

 which evidently clings there as guest ; it has tufts of hair, which 

 are probably licked by the ant. The host did not seem to 

 trouble itself about this little creature, which, by its odd post, is 

 enabled to accompany the ant in its wanderings and changes of 

 abode. Prof. Forel remarks on the peaceful character of 

 the ants in that region ; with few exceptions they avoid 

 fighting, and only one ant was found capable of piercing the 

 human skin. 



The phenomenon of globular lightning was imitated by M. 

 Plante, it will be remembered, with his secondary batteries. It 

 has been recently shown by Herr von Lepel {Met. Zeits. ) that 

 this can also be done with so-called statical electricity, obtained 

 from an influence-machine. Two thin brass-wire points from 

 the poles of a powerful machine being held at a certain distance 

 from the opposite sides of an insulated plate of mica, ebonite, 

 glass, or the like, there appear small red luminous balls, which 

 move about, now quickly, now slowly, and are sometimes still. 

 Even better effects were had with a glass or paper disk which 

 had been sprayed with parafifin. Small particles of liquid or 

 dust seem to be the carriers of the light. A slight air-current 

 makes the spherules disappear with hissing nois.\ These 

 spherules, the author remarks, are phenomena of weak tension ; 

 an increase of the tension gives a rose spark-discharge. Various 

 interesting analogies with globular lightning are traced. 



In a long series of articles a native Japanese paper gives some 

 interesting figures about the students of Tokio. There are 

 107,312 students in the whole Empire in the various colleges 

 and other hij^h schools (primary schools and ordinary middle 

 schools excepted). Of this number, 38,114 represent students 

 prosecuting their studies in the capital — that is to say, about 

 40 per cent, of the whole number are congregated in Tokio. 

 Among the 38, 1 14 students, 6,899 are domiciled in Tokio, so 

 that the number of those coming from other localities is 31,215. 

 The amounts which individual students spend vary from seven or 

 eight dollars to about fifteen dollars per month. Taking the 

 average, it may be assumed that each student spends ten dollars 

 a month, or 1 20 dollars a year. Thus the total amount of money 

 annually disbursed by these lads is a little over 3, 700, coo dollars. 

 In other words, money aggregating over three millions and a 

 half is being yearly drawn from the provinces to the capital 

 through this channel. The provinces receive little in return, for 

 few of the students ever go back to their homes, their sole 

 ambition being to remain in the capital, and there rise to 

 eminence in some walk of life. 



The British Consul at St. Jago de Cuba, in his latest Report, 

 refers to the disease in the cocoa-nut plantations there, and the 

 result of the investigations into the pest made by the Academy 

 of Sciences of Havanna. Their Report attributed the disease 

 to a microscopic fungus of the genus Uredo, and stated that the 



