126 



NA TURE 



[December 8, 1904 



for the college museum. I am grateful that my liking for 

 natural history brought me in touch with him. It is in 

 the small actions of life that one can best read character. 

 A gentleman to the core, he was never fearful of giving 

 himself away by showing the utmost courtesy to the 

 humblest. \a unfastened door or gate, a watertap left 

 trickling he would not abide. Everything at the park 

 must be precision and finish to the smallest details. Over 

 his many acts of private charity he ever kept the veil tightly 

 drawn. A few of them have incidentally come to my know- 

 ledge, and they reveal the vastness of his sympathy. His 

 many zoological donations, and his gift to the college of 

 a site on the Menai Straits for a biological station for the 

 study of marine life, bear eloquent testimony to his desire 

 to advance science. May the pile to be raised on this fine 

 site — let us hope at no distant date — be at least one grateful 

 tribute to his memory. Philip J. White. 



University College, Bangor, November 28. 



The Leonid Meteors of 1904. 



From results of observations of this shower as published 

 in Nature of November 24 it seems that Leonids were 

 found to be somewhat numerous on the night of 

 November 14. It is to be regretted that those observers 

 who were able to count so many shooting stars on this 

 night had not the following night equally clear, as at 

 Dublin both November 14 and 15, though not to the same 

 degree, proved favourable for observations, and it was on the 

 latter night that the maximum occurred. Owing to the 

 unsuitable weather that appears to have prevailed in many 

 places on November 15, some details of the observations 

 made on the successive nights of the epoch at the same 

 place may prove interesting. 



The night of November 14 turned out ideally fine here, 

 the temperature also being very mild for the season. 

 During a watch on this date from loh. 15m. to i3h. 45m. 

 {Dublin time) 16 meteors were counted, of which 7 or S 

 were referred to the Leonid radiant. The meteors, especially 

 the Leonids, did not appear very bright, only i of the 

 first and 2 or 3 of the second or third stellar magnitudes 

 having been seen. No particulars of their paths were noted, 

 as doing so might have interfered with the observations 

 of other meteors. Shooting stars were more numerous in 

 the early part of the watch than after midnight, 5 having 

 been counted between loh. 45m. and iih., of which 2 shot 

 from the direction of Leo. Another, though feebler, maxi- 

 mum occurred about I3h. ; but, as it was considered from 

 the declining meteoric rate that the anticipated miniature 

 shower of this night was already over, observations were 

 discontinued shortly before i4h. 



The night of November 15 began very inauspiciously ; 

 clouds in the early evening covered the heavens, totally 

 concealing both moon and stars. Subsequently, however, 

 the sky partially cleared at intervals, and when observations 

 were begun at loh. 15m. passing clouds in the east left 

 ■clear tracts of considerable area. Though the seeing was 

 thus far from good, yet meteors were considered to be rather 

 scarce, only i shooting star, a third magnitude Taurid, 

 having been seen during a watch extending over nearly an 

 hour. About iih. the clouds passed off, leaving the eastern 

 sky clear until nearly I4h. Meteors now began to be more 

 numerous. A fine Taurid at iih. 25m. passed down straight 

 towards Leo, which, however, was partly invisible in a 

 bank of fog along the horizon. When about twenty minutes 

 later the " Sickle " emerged clear in the heavens, a 

 succession of fine Leonids left no doubt as to the superior 

 character of the coming display. 



From iih. to I3h. 30m. 32 meteors were counted; at 

 I4h. 55m. the number had increased to 50 meteors, the total 

 result at ifih. 45m. amounting to 60 meteors. But owing 

 to clouds observations were greatly hindered from i3h. 45m. 

 to I4h. 15m., and a second interruption of nearly equal 

 length, arising from the same cause, occurred about i5h. 

 During the last hour of the watch the sky was fairly clear, 

 and it was noted that the meteor shower was now rapidly 

 declining. The majority of the meteors were observed to 

 emanate from Leo as soon as the latter had become visible 

 near midnight. 



The shower was also observed at the Paris Observatory 

 on the night of November 15 with the following results ' : — 

 1 The results are of course given in Paris mean time. 



NO. 1832, VOL. 71] 



From loh. 30m. to I3h. 1501. ... zi meteors observed 

 ,, I3h. 15m. ,, i6h. 30m. ... 29 ,, ,, 



,, i6h. 30m. ,, I7h. 35m. ... No shooting star seen 



As no mention is made of the state of the weather, it 

 seems the display terminated very abruptly at Paris, slightly 

 more so than in Dublin or elsewhere, as Mr. T. R. Clap- 

 ham, on November 15, from i5h. 45m. to i7h. 45m. counted 

 19 Leonids with 3 three doubtful ones, notwithstanding two 

 brief interruptions from clouds, this result, it may be added, 

 indicating a meteoric rate almost exactly equal to that of 

 the preceding night as given by Mr. Hector Macpherson, 

 who on November 14, from I5h. to i8h., recorded 35 meteors 

 {English Mechanic, November 25, p. 365). The rate on 

 the latter night seems, however, to have been even higher 

 than this to judge from some results, but more observations 

 are, no doubt, desirable. John R. Henry. 



Dublin, November 29. 



Blue-stained Flints. 



Two years ago I found large patches of an intense blue 

 colour, with some black spots, on flints on the quav at 

 Great Yarmouth. I looked for a possible cause, and dis- 

 covered other patches similar in all respects but colour. 

 The latter patches were black, and had been made by tar 

 spilt by fishermen when tarring their fish skips. I kept 

 some pieces, both black and blue, in a box until some 

 months ago, and no appreciable change had taken place, 

 so I came to the conclusion that the blue colour was pro- 

 duced by the action of the tar on the flint when exposed to 

 sunlight. 



This occurrence is interesting in view of the action noticed 

 by Dr. .Allen between gas-lime and flint, and points to the 

 action on the flint of some substance common to the tar and 

 gas-lime. 



-May I suggest to your former correspondent that the 

 blue flints seen at Bournemouth were produced from the 

 black, and not vice versA. Thom.^s L. D. Porter. 



County School, Ilford, Essex. 



" FIND " OF ROYAL STATUES AT THEBES. 



'T'HE " land of surprises and paradoxes," as Egj-pt 

 ■*• has well been called, has once again justified its 

 reputation, and out of the ruins of one of its most 

 ancient cities there has come to light a mass of 

 historical evidence wliich, if we mistake not, will 

 be found to be of more importance the more it is 

 studied. It will be remembered that for many years 

 past M. G. Legrain has been carrying' out a series of 

 repairs of a very far-reaching character on the mass 

 of buildings of various styles and ages which is 

 commonly known as the "Temple of Karnak. " In 

 the course of this work he has collected a number of 

 iinportant facts which, when duly arranged, will be of 

 considerable use to the student of ancient Egyptian 

 architecture, and, side by side with these, he has 

 brought together a considerable amount of information 

 of value historically. It is not our purpose even to 

 outline the broad facts of the works of restoration 

 which he has carried out, and we therefore pass on to 

 state briefly the facts which relate to his last " find " 

 of monuments at Karnak. 



Early in the present year M. Legrain was continuing 

 the excavation of a portion of the temple precincts 

 near one of the great walls when he accidentally came 

 uf>on a large pit or well which, it was evident, had 

 been filled up by the ancient Egyptians. Soon after 

 he began to dig out the well the workmen came upon 

 a layer of statues made of hard stone of various kinds, 

 and when the mud was removed from them many of 

 them were found to be Inscribed. Beneath this layer 

 of statues was a layer of earth, and beneath the earth 

 was another layer of statues, and the clearing out of 

 the pit showed that it was filled with layers of statues 

 and earth, arranged alternately. The statues were 

 usually found face downwards, and it thus became 



