April 25, 1872] 



NATURE 



501 



Tn conclusion, I may add that there is nothing improbable to 

 my mind in peoples even so distant from each other as the 

 Polynesian Islanders and the Gauls retaining in their traditions a 

 name which had been applied to their mythical common ancestor, 

 nor unreasonable in supposing that they and other peoples men- 

 tioned in my paper were alike derived from some region in 

 Central Asia. My argument is simply cumulative, as there are 

 many facts of a different kind pointing in the same direction. 



I am sorry my communication has reached such an inordinate 

 length ; but having replied to "M. A. I.'s" objections, which, 

 after his first letter, forcibly remind me of the mountain in labour 

 bringing forth a mouse, I shall not trouble you with further corre- 

 spondence on a subject which I fear is far from interesting to a 

 majority of your readers. C. Staniland Wake 



Meteor 



As I was going along the road towards Greystoke Castle at 

 half-past eight p.m. on Friday last, April 19, I noticed a very 

 fine meteor m a south-east direction. It was about the size ol a 

 common hand-ball, its centre being of an exceedingly brilliant 

 white colour, surrounded by a circle of a bluish tinge, while 

 short flickering radiations were distinctly visible on its circum- 

 ference in all directions, reminding me of the sphero-stellate 

 spiculiie of certain sponges. It was falling in a perpendicular 

 direction, but I was not fortunate enough to see it at the begin- 

 ning of its course. Its downward motion was slow and quite 

 gradual, apparently not swifter than an ordinary india-rubber 

 ball would fall by the gravity of its own body. There was no 

 trail whatever left behind in its course. After two or three 

 seconds it suddenly disappeared, before reaching the ground, 

 without any explosion or expansion of its body. The night was 

 very close and still, a muddiness covering the whole sky, inter- 

 spersed here and there with long stratus clouds, and a beautiful 

 halo surrounding the moon. Thomas Fawcett 



Blencowe School, Cumberland, April 22 



A Waterspout 



On Saturday last, April 16, whilst fishing in the river Elwji 

 at a point about two miles above the well-known Cefn caves, 

 and five from St. Asaph by the river, I witnessed a very singu- 

 lar phenomenon. My attention was suddenly called up-stream 

 by a remarkably strange hissing, bubbling sound, such as might 

 be produced by plunging a mass of heated melal into water. 

 On turning I beheld what I may call a diminutive waterspout in 

 the centre of the stream, some forty paces from where I was 

 standing. Its base, as well as I could observe, was a little more 

 than two feet in diameter. The water curled up from the river 

 in an unbroken cylindrical form to a height of about fif.een 

 inches, rotating rapidly, then diverged as from a number of jets, 

 being thrown off with considerable force to an additional eleva- 

 tion of six or seven feet, the spray falling all round as from an 

 elaborately arranged fountain, covering a large area. It re- 

 mained apparently in the same position for about forty seconds, 

 then moved slowly in the direction of the right bank of the river, 

 and was again drawn towards the centre, where it remained sta- 

 tionary as before for a few seconds. Again it moved in the 

 former direction, gradually diminishing and losing force as it 

 neared the bank, and finally collapsed in the shallow water. 

 Strange to say, its course was perpendicular to the bank and not 

 with the current. 



At the time of the occarrence the river was still high, from 

 the recent heavy rain, though the depth of water at the spot 

 where I first observed it was not more than four feet. The 

 current, of course, was stronger than usual, but presented a com- 

 paratively smooth surface. The day was fine and sunny, with 

 a slight breeze irom the S.E. The event occurred about 12.15, 

 and Tasted seventy or eighty seconds, as well as I could judge. 

 The atmosphere in the immediate vicinity seemed, from the 

 way in which the spray was scattered, to be somewhat agitated ; 

 but my impression was that such agitation was the result of the 

 phenomenon, rather than its cause. I had fished over the spot 

 a few minutes previously, and examined it afterwards with great 

 care, but saw nothing to account for the wonder. 



St. Beuno's College, St. Asaph, April 9. J. GitAY 



Cuckoo's Eggs 

 The discussion raised by Prof. Newton on the coloration of 

 cuckoos' eggs has been very interesting doubtless to ijiany reader? 



of Nature ; a mite of information from New Zealand, concern- 

 ing one species of the Cuculida^, may not be out of place. 



The German theory that " the tgg of the cuckoo is approxi- 

 mately coloured and maiked like ttiose of the biids in whose 

 nest it is deposited, that it may be less easily recognised by the 

 foster parents as a substituted one," does not hold good in respect 

 to our Chrysococcyx liicidus, Gml., pipiwharaupa, the whistler or 

 small cuckoo. 



The dupe is the piripiri, or gray warbler, GnygoncJIavivi'iiins, 

 Gray, its eggs are white, dotted with red spots; the egg of the 

 whistler of much larger size, is of a greenish dun. 



However, I think it should be stated that the nest of the dupe 

 is somewhat of a pear-shaped structure, fiimly and thickly built, 

 with a smsU entrance near the middle, well sheltered with 

 feathers. Here discrimination betwixt eggs may be difficult (or 

 the foster parent, if it possesses the faculty and uses it. In the 

 Trans. N. Z. Institute (vol. ii. pp. 58 and 65) reasons have been 

 advanced by the writer lor the selection of the warbler's nest by 

 our brightly plumed cuckoo; may "thedim obscure "of its interior 

 supply another reason ? Thomas H. Potts 



Ohinitahi, Feb. 5 



Sun-spots and the Vine Crop 

 As the connection of sun-spots with terrestrial phenomena is 

 now largely occupying the attention of scientific men, the follow- 

 ing facts may be of some interest. The years in which the 

 wine crop in Germany was unusually good seem (in this century, 

 at least) to have returned at regular inteivals. The close coin- 

 cidence of these years with the years of minimum sun-spots is 

 shown by the following table : — 



of Sun-spots. 

 1784-8 

 1798-5 

 1810-5 

 1S23-2 



1784 



(?) 

 181I 



1833-8 

 1S44-O 



1S34 



1857 

 1858 



1856-2 

 1867-2 



I may add that the gentleman who first remarked the regular 

 recurrence of wine-years at intervals of about eleven years was 

 not aware of the periodicity of the sun-.spots, and couli not there- 

 fore have been in any way prejudiced. The years given in the 

 above table are the only ones known in Germany as good wine- 

 years. 



These facts agree with the results of Messrs. Piazzi Smyth and 

 Stone, who found that the mean temperature on the surface of 

 the earth was subjected to a period of elev-en years. 



Arthur Schuster 

 Owens College, Manchester,' April 23 



Tide Gauge 



In Nature of the iSth is a letter from Mr. Pearson re- 

 specting Tide Gauges. As very little appears to be known of 

 such instruments, we beg to inform you that we have made them 

 for many years, and have now two finished, one for the Indian 

 Government, and the other for the Australian Government, and 

 we shall be happy to show them to any one wishing to see them. 

 We think they could be made self-acting at a much less cost if 

 the twatt time of high water is not required. 



449, Strand, W.C., April 19 Elliott Brothers 



Colour of the Hydrogen Flame 



In a communication from my zealous science-master, which I 

 find in your issue of Thursday the nth, it is stated that pure 

 hydrogen has no tinge of blue in its flame (that colour being due 

 to the presence of sulphur), and he concludes his note wuh a 

 gushing tribute of his own, and the younger boys' gratitude for 

 the " simply delightful Science Primers of Profs. Huxley, Roscoe, 

 and Balfour Stewart." Let me call his attention to the fact that 

 on page 26 of his Chemistry Primer, Prof Roscoe distinctly states 

 that '■ Hydrogen is inflammable, and burns with a pale blue 

 flame." A Grateful Pupil of Mr. Barrett 



The " Cheironectes pictus " 

 Since I communicated to you an account of a fish which I 

 caught in the Gulf weed during the homeward voyage of H. M.S. 

 Charybdis, I have seen, in the February number of the American 



