Feb. I, 1872] 



NATURE 



273 



alluded to by our correspondent Mr. A. B. Meyer in Nature 

 for January iS. The Batavia Handelsblad of Sept. 25 states 

 that on the afternoon of Aug. 7 a violent earthquake was 

 felt, of which the exact direction was unknown. The Ternate 

 mountain had from 9 a.m. caused a dull, rumbling sound to be 

 heard, varied at intervals by lofld reports, and began in the course 

 of the day to cast out streams of lava. The sky looked dark, 

 and the whole country round about was darkened by the down- 

 coming clouds of smoke. Luckily a southerly wind sprung up, 

 which gave another direction to the glowing lava-streams flowing 

 landwards, and led the fire in seven currents to the ravines. This 

 frighiful natural phenomenon held on during the night between 

 the 7th and the 8th. The inhabitants, thinking their island to 

 be doomed, could not sleep, and passed the night outside their 

 houses looking up anxiously at the furious volcano which seemed 

 to threaten them all with certain destruction. At day-break the 

 outburst became still worse, and the population began to fly to 

 the islands of Tidore and Halmaheira. The eruption of fire 

 and stones held on for about twelve days, after which it became 

 less. The damage done tn houses and plantations is enormous, 

 but has not as yet been accurately ascertained. This outburst 

 v/as the most violent known at Ternate within the memory of 

 man. The whole island shook from the underground motion. 

 A moment of rest was followed by another explosion, which 

 shook the houses to their foundations. There were, luckily, only 

 some slight earthquake-shocks felt. On Aug. 28 the volcano 

 was again at rest, at least, only a small cloud was seen coming 

 out of the crater. 



We take the following from the Times of India : — " The 

 IVestcrn Star, which is par excellence, the journal for marvels, 

 tells the following story of a murder : — The manner in which the 

 murderers were detected would, our contemporary adds, if true, 

 go far to prove the Darwinian theory. The story briefly told is 

 this : A Madrassee had a monkey which he was very fond of. 

 The man had occasion to go on a journey, and took with him 

 money and jewels, and his chum the monkey. Some rogues 

 determined to rob him of everything he had ; accordingly they 

 lay in wait for him and murdered him. Having secured the 

 money and jewels they threw the murdered man into a diy well, 

 and having covered it up with twigs and dry leaves, they went 

 home. The monkey, who was on the top of a tree, saw the 

 whole of the proceedings, and when the murderers departed he 

 came down and made tracks for the Tahsildar's house, aud by 

 his cries and moans attracted the attention of that functionary. 

 Inviting the Tahsildar by dumb signs to follow him, the monkey 

 went to the well and pointed downwards. The Tahsildar there- 

 upon got men to go down, and of course the body was dis- 

 covered. The monkey then led the men to the place where the 

 jewels and money were buried. He then took them to the 

 bazaars, and as soon as he caught sight of one of the murderers 

 he ran after him, bit him in the leg, and would not let him go 

 till he was secured. In this way all the murderers were caught. 

 The men, it is said, have confessed their crime, and they now 

 stand committed for trial before the Tcllicherry Court at the en- 

 suing session. That monkey, we think, ought to be made an 

 inspector of the police." 



The Panama papers report an increasing demand for the 

 Colombian gaucho, and urge the Government to the enactment 

 of regulations to prevent the entire destruction of the forests of 

 these trees in Darien, where they are most abundant. Instead 

 of simply treating the trees for the juice, as the maples are managed 

 in the United States, the tree is cut down, and, of course, no 

 further benefit can be derived from it. In illustration of the ex- 

 tent to which this vegetable product is now being collected, the 

 Panama Star and Herald informs us that 160 tons had just been 

 brought to that city as the cargo of a single vessel, mostly from 

 the vicinity of Guayaquil. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Scottish Naturalist for January. — This number is mainly 

 occupied by a number of short papers illustrative of various 

 subjects of interest or novelty in the natural history of Scotland, 

 among which we may notice especially the British species of 

 Cramhus, a genus of moths, by the Editor ; on the Cachalot or 

 Sperm-whale (Physcter macroicphatus] of the north-east of Scot- 

 land, by Robt. Walker, with plate ; and the commencement of 

 the Editor's " Insecta Scotica," an essay to catalogue the insects 

 inhabiting Scotland, with a map to show the natural divisions of 

 the country into the 12 districts adopted in the list. The intro- 

 ductory remarks to the Editor's catalogue of Lepidoptera are 

 valuable, and the article, when completed, promises to be an 

 important contribution to British zoological literature. 



The American Jonrnal of Science and Art for November 

 1871 opens with a continuation of Prof. Le Conte's elaborate 

 paper on " Some Phenomena of Binocular Vision. " Prof. Dana, 

 in an article on the position and height of the elevated plateau 

 in which the glacier of New lingland in the glacial era, had its 

 origin, considers that the idea of one central glacier source for 

 the whole continent is without foundation. The icy plateau he 

 locates at the watershed between the St. Lawrei^ce valley and 

 Hudson's Bay at an altitude at least 4,500 feet above the present 

 level. With the exception of a preliminary catalogue of the 

 bright lines in the S[ ectrum of the chromosph-re, by Prof. C. 

 A. Young, which we propose to reprint, the remaining papers in 

 this number are chiefly chemical, and of varied interes-, but of 

 which it would be impossible to give the substance in the form 

 of a brief abstract. 



The first article in the December number treats of the geological 

 history of the Gulf of Mexico, and is accompanied by a map, which 

 is, unfortunately, not coloured, and is hence somewhat obscure. 

 Thearticle is divided into three portions, treating respectively of the 

 cretaceous period, the tertiary period, and the quaternary beds. 

 This is followed by an article by Asaph Hall, on the Astronomi- 

 cal Proof of a Resisting Medium in Space. It will be remembered 

 that one of the main proofs of the e.xistenLC of the interstellar 

 nether is the retardation of Encke's Comet. So long ago as the 

 year 1819 Encke calculated that the periodic times of the comet 

 had diminished to the extent of more than half a day during 

 thirty- three years. Thus the perioric time between 1786 and 

 1795 was i,2oS' 1 12 days, while between 1805 and 1819 it was 

 1,207-424; and in order to account for the diminution, Encke 

 adopted the hypothesis of a resisting medium in space. From 

 later observations of this and other comets, Mr. Hall is led to 

 the conclusion that comets furnish no proof of the existence of 

 the ajther, and that the retardation of Encke's comet is due to 

 some unknown cause, possibly to the fact of its passing through 

 streams of meteoric matter, which may influence its motion. 

 — Mr. Southworth gives an account of a new Micrometric Goni- 

 ometer eye-piece, formed by means of a micrometer capable of 

 measuring to the ^^-Juxr of an inch. — Dr. Dawson coniributes 

 an article on the bearing of Devonian Botany on questions 

 as to the Origin and Extinction of Species, in which he 

 expresses a hope that the further study of fossif plants may 

 enable us thus to approach to a comprehension of the laws 

 of the creation, as distinguished from those of the continual 

 existence of species. The other articles rela'e to the American 

 Spongilla, a Craspelote, Flagellate Infusorian, by Professor 

 H. James Clark ; description of a Printing Chronograph, by the 

 use of which it has been proved that "for three observers, twice 

 as many observations can be reduced in the same time as when a 

 recording chronograph is employed." The next paper was read 

 before the American Association at Indianopolis, and discusses 

 the longitude determination across the Continent. This emb dies 

 resu ts obtained by the Coast Survey, in their endeavours 10 de- 

 termine the longitude of San Francisco and various intermediate 

 points by telegraphic exchange of clock signals with the Harvard 

 Observatory. — The remaining papers treat of the Invertebrata 

 dredged in Lake Superior in 1871 ; .and of Kilauea and Mauna 

 Loa. 



In the number for January 1872, the commencement of Vol. iii. 

 of the new series, we find a valuable article on Alpine geology by 

 Prof. Sterry Hun', in the form of a review of Favre's Reckerches 

 Geologiques. Mr. John Ue Laski notices the evidence of glacial 

 action on Mount Katahdin, the highest land in Maine, and 

 of the Devonian formation, now 5,000 feet above the sea, 

 the top of which he believes to have been overridden 



