NOTES. 



863 



with two soluble substances which, coming 

 together, will form an insoluble one. If 

 wood is impregnated, too, with a substance 

 capable of volatilization, its taking fire will 

 be delayed till the volatile substance has 

 been driven off. Warning of fires is auto- 

 matically and surely given by means of de- 

 vices by which the expansion of a column of 

 mercury by the developed heat is made to 

 close the circuit of a galvanic battery and 

 sound an electric bell. 



The Sunny Skies of Kamchatka. — M. 



Leonhard Stcjneger has published in the 

 Norwegian journal, " Naturen," a paper on 

 the fauna and flora of Eastern Kamchatka 

 and the Commander Islands, which adjoin 

 our own Aleutian Islands. While the cli- 

 mate of the islands is foggy and their vege- 

 tation scanty, Kamchatka is represented as 

 rejoicing in Italian skies, smooth seas, and 

 a mild temperature. The flora is so exu- 

 berant that some species, which only grow 

 to be three feet high in Norway, there at- 

 tain the height of a man. Among them 

 are the birch, alder, willow, and service-tree, 

 whose berries as well as those of a honey- 

 suckle are finely flavored, and well relished 

 by the inhabitants. The flowers of the wild 

 rose, rhododendron, potentillas, and taraxa- 

 cum, might be mistaken for Norwegian spe- 

 cies. The birds arc also well represented, 

 and one of them, a warbler, is distinguished 

 by a plumage that suggests the tropics, and 

 a voice comparable with that of the nightin- 

 gale. The fauna is generally palae-Arctic, 

 and few American forms are found. 



NOTES. 



Mr. James Stevensov, of the United 

 States Geological Survey, has discovered 

 some new cave and cliff cities in which a 

 few peculiar features have been observed. 

 One of them is a village of sixty-five under- 

 ground dwellings situated near the top of 

 one of the volcanic foot-hills of the San 

 Francisco Mountaiis in Arizona. A com- 

 mon roof was furnished for the whole com- 

 munity by the hardened surface stratum of 

 the hill. 



Mr. IIerbert McLeod has determined, 

 by experiments instituted for the purpose, 

 that India-rubber is altered under the com- 

 bined influence of light and oxygen — ab- 

 sorbing oxygen and becoming cracked — but 

 not by either agent alone. 



Last year included the fiflicth anniver- 

 sary of the lucifer-match, which was first 

 made, in England, by John Walker, of 

 Stockton-on-Tees, and also at Vienna, in 

 183^. In 1847 the red amorphous phos- 

 phorus was substituted for the more dan- 

 gerous, corroding, ordinary phosphorus. 



Professor Cohn has called attention to 

 the fact that bacteria were first seen two 

 hundred years ago, by the Dutch microsco- 

 pist, Lecuwenhock, who, in 1683, gave to the 

 Royal Society a description of " very little 

 animals moving in a very lively fashion," 

 which he had detected, with his instrument, 

 in the white substance adhering to his teeth. 

 His drawings are very correct, and have 

 never been surpassed till within the last tea 

 years. 



Captain T. G. Een, a well-known Swed- 

 ish explorer, died from heart-disease on the 

 Congo, while on his way to join Mr. Stanley. 



M. Fatal, directing engineer of the coal- 

 mines of Commentry, France, has published 

 an account of his discovery of coal at that 

 place, which has preserved to the very cen- 

 ter of the beds the histological structure of 

 the plants from which it is formed. The 

 preservation is said to have been so distinct 

 that M. Renault has been able to make 

 specific determinations of several species of 

 the carbonized plants. 



A GREAT impulse has been given to fruit- 

 growing within the last ten years. The 

 area of land devoted to this purpose in 

 England increased, between 1872 and 1882, 

 26,696 acres ; while the importations of 

 fruit from different countries increased from 

 1,218.668 bushels in 1871 to 4,045,690 

 bushels in 1882. Much of this fruit is used 

 for making jam. The acreage of fruit-land 

 in Canada has been largely extended within 

 the last fifteen years, and great interest in 

 the promotion of the industry is taken by 

 the Government and the land-owners. In 

 the United States, two million acres were 

 under cultivation as apple-orch-ards in 1878, 

 and the value of the products had increased 

 in twenty years from $6,600,000 to over 

 $50,000,000. The drying and the canning of 

 fruits have become very prominent branches 

 of industry. 



The author of the work on "World- 

 Life," recently reviewed in our pages, re- 

 grets that the book contains a number of 

 errata, and desires us to announce that slips 

 of corrections will be mailed to any who will 

 kindly signify their desire to receive them. 

 Address Alexander Winchell, Ann Arbor, 

 Slichigan. 



M. Arthur Roche, Professor in the 

 Lycee of Montpellier, France, who died a 

 few months ago, was well known for his 

 researches on the figures of planets and 



