278 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[December 1. 1898. 



by Dandrieu, and " Le Eappel des Oiseaux," by Ramsau, 

 to mention only a few examples, while many instances 

 might be cited where bird-calls have been introduced in 

 orchestral works. Nevertheless, in these cases, we have a 

 direct artificial imitation of various bird-calls. It is, 

 however, otherwise with a " nuance " lilie the " crescends," 

 which, belonging as it does to musical dynamics, would 

 scarcely require to be imitated. Rather may we surmise 

 that this grace in singing would spring spontaneously 

 from those physiological causes, viz., nervous energy and 

 muscular tension, which lie at the root of all musical 

 utterance, for, as pointed out by Herbert Spencer,* " loud- 

 ness of tone, pitch of tone, quality of tone, and change of 

 tone, are severally marks of feeling, and, combined in 

 different ways and proportions, serve to express different 

 amounts and kinds of feelings." W. Alkreh Parr. 



21, Viadella Scala, Florence. 

 October 22nd, 1898. 



am not aware when it first became visible. Speaking very 

 roughly, I should say that each halo appeared to be about 

 sixteen times the apparent size of the moon. 



M. Cordelia Leioh. 



WEASEL AND YOUNG. 

 To tlie Editors of Knowledge. 



Sirs, — The following is somewhat on a par with Mr. 

 Witchell's interesting account of a weasel and her young 

 in the November number of Knowledge. I was out with 

 the head-keeper of a well-known shooting in Suffolk, when 

 we came to a stream. He pointed to a jutting-out piece 

 of bank, and said he once saw a rat (probably M. am/ihihim) 

 dive from this spot into the water with a young one in its 

 mouth, swim along with it under water, drag it up on to 

 the bank, run round with it to the old spot and dive in 

 again. This was repeated five or six times on exactly the 

 same beat. The keeper, who is a most observant and 

 accurate field-naturalist, thinks the old rat was teaching 

 the young one to dive and swim. 



Perhaps the young weasels mentioned by Mr. Witchell 

 were being taught how to run. Jos. F. Green. 



West Lodge, Blackheath. 



To the Editors of Knowledge. 

 SiBs, — Referring to the letter in your last issue on a 

 weasel leading her young, I happened recently to be in a 

 hayfield where mowing had been going on. Noticing a 

 bent tuft of grass I turned it up, and saw beneath it seven 

 little stoats laid side by side — heads and tails together. 

 Then looking about me I noticed, some half-dozen yards off, 

 a small round hole which seemed to get larger the deeper it 

 went into the ground. I therefore placed myself at a 

 suitable distance to watch, and very shortly, all being 

 quiet, the mother's head cautiously appeared outside the 

 hole. She then came out and at once began to take hold 

 of each little one in turn very carefully, as a dog will take 

 a puppy, and so lead it towards and down the hole. 



William C. Tetley. 



MOON'S HALO. 

 To the Editors of Knowledge. 

 SiKs, — On the 26th October I was in Oxfordshire, near 

 Wallington, and saw a wonderful double halo round the 

 full moon. The halo immediately surrounding the moon 

 was orange coloured, with a pinkish rim ; and surrounding 

 this inner halo was another of about the same size, of a 

 vivid green, with a somewhat deeper reddish-pink rim. 

 There was a " mackerel sky," but I was surprised that no 

 storm followed the phenomena. I first noticed the halo 

 at 11 p.m., and by 11.15 it had quite disappeared ; but I 



* " Principles of Ethic?," Vol. L, p.' 218. 



' ASTRONOMY OF THE ' CAXTERBIRY TALES.' " 

 To the Editors of Knowledge. 

 Sirs, — Kindly allow me to say a few words in the way 

 of comment upon the very interesting article by Mr. 

 E. W. Maunder on the "Astronomy of the ' Canterbury 

 Tales ' " in your September number. In it he shows how 

 frequently Chaucer makes allusion to astronomical matters, 

 and points out how the detail and accuracy displayed by 

 the poet in these allusions demonstrates a practice of 

 stellar observation quite unusual to ordinary writers of 

 the present day, and much less to be expected in an age 

 before clocks and telescopes, when astronomy could hardly 

 be called a science. Mr. Maunder attributes this excep- 

 tional knowledge of the poet to a much more general 

 practice of observing the heavenly bodies, together with 

 the popularity of the Universities at the time, diffusing its 

 knowledge more widely than subsequently ruled. It seems 

 to me that he has overlooked the chief reason for Chaucer's 

 familiarity with the movements and altitude of the sun 

 and other heavenly bodies. He undoubtedly had in 

 continual use an astrolabe, by which he could tell the time 

 either by the sun or stars of the first magnitude. He 

 could carry the instrument about, and by making observa- 

 tions with it for the many purposes it could be applied to, 

 he would be continually familiarising himself with the 

 angular height of sun and stars, and associating the length 

 of shadows with the time calculated. His astrolabe would 

 not only give him this information, but also showed the 

 sun's position on the ecliptic for each day of the year, as 

 well as the degree in the zodiacal sign the sun would be 

 at the time of observation, besides other matters of 

 purely an astrological import for which the astrolabe was 

 essential. The numerous and varied circulations that 

 could be made with this instrument are shown in the 

 treatise Chaucer wrote on the astrolabe for the use of his 

 son " Lowys." He called it " Bread and Milk for 

 Children, " but it would require a very intelligent child 

 to become master of all the problems he sets therein, with 

 the help of the book and instrument alone. Seeing, then, 

 the constant use Chaucer must have made of the astrolabe, 

 his knowledge of the sun's longitude day by day through- 

 out the year does not strike one as so " strange and 

 imusual" as the writer of the article states it to be. 

 Again, regarding the many times and varied circumstances 

 Chaucer makes use of astrologic lore in his works, it seems 

 somewhat doubtful if he had been able to shake off the 

 fascination that study had for so many men of learning 

 of his time (not to mention its almost uniiersal influence 

 among the uneducated), although no doubt he treated with 

 scorn and contempt most of the absurd pretensions of the 

 professors of that art. 



Torquay. H. .J. Lowe. 



[I fear that in Mr. Lowe's desire to show his acquaintance 

 with the astrolabe he has missed the intention of my 

 paper. My point was simply to show that in Chaucer's 

 day, actual observation — in a certain direction — of the 

 heavenly bodies was more general then than now. The 

 question of the instrument then in use did not enter into 

 the case, and does not in the least affect it. Chaucer's 

 Treatise on the Astrolabe is, of course, sufficiently well 

 known, but I was not deahng with it, but with his 

 unequalled gallery of photographs of the general public 

 of his time, which he gives in the " Canterbury Tales." 



