June 21, 1883] 



NA TURK 



^3 



Imagine two ones joined together at their small ends like an 

 hourglass, and that a solid of such a shape and size is turned 

 out of walnut or cherry or boxwood or of ebony or ivory : this 

 is the devil. Now take the last half -yard from the taper ends 

 of two billiard-sticks, and let them be connected from these ends 

 by a limp silken cord or string half a yard long • these are the 

 ;ticks. 



To play the game hold the thick ends of the sticks one in 

 each hand, bring the cord under the narrow neck of the solid 

 and try to elevate it in the air : it drops directly on the grass. If 

 a brisk rotary motion is given to it however, it will not only 

 remain on the cord, but several dexterous manoeuvres may be 

 accomplished with it : the variety of which and the skill displayed 

 in performing them constitute the game. To produce the revo- 

 lutions the sticks are moved rapidly up and down alternately, 

 and when the spinning is once established, " Diabolus" may be 

 allowed to run up and down the stick, or he may be projected 

 high up in the air, and, still spinning all the while, be caught on 

 the c 'id again and again in rapid succession. Two may be 

 engage! in the same game. It was fashionable many years since 

 in these t arts, and I recollect seeing a picture in a Tunbridge- 

 ware -ho;) in this place of the lords and ladies engaged in playing 

 this game on the Pantiles at Tunbndge Wells more than half a 

 century ago. John Goriiam 



Bonlyke Lodge, Tunbridge, June 4 



[This is a nearly complete answer to our correspondent's 

 query. The behaviour of the "devil" is an excellent example 

 of that property of the axis of greatest or least moment of inertia 

 of a body whicn is utilised in a well thrown quoit or an elongated 

 rifle-bullet. The mode of producing the rotation is easy to learn 

 by trial, but not very easy to describe. The sticks are kept 

 moving so that one end of the cord is always at a greater tension 

 than the other. — En.] 



Channel Ballooning 



As I have shown in my pamphlet, " Les Grands Ascensions 

 Maritimes," the British Channel is the proper field for trying 

 maritime ascents and determining which are the best means for 

 rendering balloons serviceable on sea as well as on land. I have 

 had several conversations with Lhoste, my aeronautical pupil, 

 on the circumstances of his audacious trip. I will confine 

 myself to the scientific teaching of this expedition. 



The cone anchor w as lowered by Lhoste when he saw that the 

 Noemi was running after the balloon, and diminished so much 

 the velocity of the run that it was possible to catch him with a 

 rowing b iat. Hut although the \sin<l was rather mild, the 

 balloon inclined so much that the car was plunged into the 

 water, and the waves drenched the occupant, it is evident 

 that in stormy weather the lowering of the cone anchor would 

 lead to the destruction of the balloon by pressure of the wind. 

 To avoid this it is necessary to reserve the cone anchor for 

 ordinary wind*, and to u e in other circumstances guide-ropes 

 with wooden nuts pa sed through them in order to increase fric- 

 tion as much as po sible. 



The balloon went to the great altitude of 15,000 feet through 

 the activity of the sun, which can be resisted very easily by taking 

 some litres of water out of the sea, when nearing it, with a 

 very simple apparatus that Lhoste has invented. 



Any balloon attempting to cross the Channel should be bound 

 to take on board half a dozen carrier pigeons to indicate the 

 place where it has anchored, or has been rescued or landed, so 

 that help could be sent to it without any delay. With such easy 

 precautions, and the throwing out of a sufficient number of pilot 

 balloons, the experiments can be conducted on scientific prin 

 ciples, and exert the most u-eful influence on the study of aerial 

 currents on these seas, where several such currents combine, and 

 where the constitution of the air is so peculiar that mirages of 

 every description have been frequently seen even at the present 

 season. 



Lhoste, on the morning of June 9, saw at an altitude of 1200 

 feet a tegular halo, which surrounded the sun. The fog was so 

 heavy that he could not see the sea, except when it was almost 

 ready to send him to a watery grave. The steam whistling from 

 vessels in different seaports, reached him at every altitude ; 

 but he did not know what was the cause of the extraordinary 

 noise. 



If it had not been for the fog, Lhoste would have succeeded 

 in a scientific sport which will become fashionable, and ulti- 



mately lead astronomy to try the air, and to trust to the winds in 

 spite of Shakespeare. 



Lhoste's audacity seems to have given tise to a competition in 

 the Mediterranean from Marseilles, but I believe that the Medi- 

 terranean must only be tried when the British Channel has been 

 traversed without difficulty in every direction, and that this part 

 of the ocean will play an important part in the development of 

 aerial navigation in the second century of its existence. 



Boulogne, June 17 \V. de Fonvielle 



Geology of Cephalonia 



Can any of your readers kindly inform me whether geological 

 investigations were ever made in the island of Cephalonia, one 

 of the Ionian Islands that were under British protection up to 

 the year 1863? 



The following are the names of the fossils that I have been 

 able to determine out of those that were given to me and brought 

 last year from Climatzias, Thermanti, and Leacas, localities in 

 the neighbourhood of Mount Cephalos, in the island c.f 

 Cephalonia : — ■ 



Mitra fusiformis, Brocc. 

 M. Bronni, Mich. 

 M. Michelotii, Homes. 

 Buceinum coslulatum, Brocc. 

 B. prismatiaim, Brocc. 

 Chcnopiis pes pclecani, Phil. 

 Triton Tarbellianum, Grat. 

 T. corrugaUim, Lam. 

 Murex spinicosta, Bronn. 



Murex 



Murex 



Fusus mitrtzformis, Brocc. 

 F. virgineus, Grat. 

 F. longirostris, Brocc. 

 Turbinella subreticulata, d'Orb. 



Cerithium 



Turritclla tutris, Bast. 



Turritt-lla 



Turritella subangulala, Brocc. 

 Vertnetus intortus, Lam. 

 Natica millepunctata, Lam. 



Xatica 



Denlalium 



Venus multilnwella, Lam. 

 V. plicata, Gmel. 

 Chama gryphoules, Linn. 

 Cardita jPouanneii t Bast. 

 Ptctunculus pilosus, Linn. 

 Livwpsis catabra, Seguenza. 



Bucuresti (Roumania), June 2 



J. P. LlCHERDOPOL 



Lightning Phenomenon 

 While watching the incessant play of vivid lightning during 

 the progress of a thunderstorm which was raging close by in the 

 country towards Novara, Arona being just on the northern limit, 

 my wife observed the following curious spectacle, the account of 

 which she wrote down immediately afterwards : — At 9.35 p.m. 

 on Sunday, June 3, a meteor-like object was seen to pass ap- 

 parently from south to north (window facing due east), coming 

 from the side ot the storm and disappearing behind a mass of 

 cloud which capped the high hill of Monte Val Grande above 

 Lago Varese. It was oblately spheroid in form and apparently 

 about the size of a fire-balloon, and with the velocity of a rocket 

 was travelling slowly, for it left no visible track. It was of a 

 bright, clear, whitish yellow, with a bright, pale green colour 

 showing on the northern side when it passed behind the dark 

 cloud. It was about three times as high above the horizon as 

 the low hills opposite Arona, and traversed an angle of 45° 

 horizontally from the point where first seen to its disappearance. 

 The next day (June 4) when visiting friends at the Villa Frauzo- 

 sine, near Tuna, we ascertained that this meteor-like body had 

 also been seen by two or three persons who were sitting on a 

 terrace watching the brilliant lightning to the south ; they ob- 

 served it moving also from south to north, disappearing behind 

 the mountains to the northward. W. H. Godwin-Austen 



Waterspout 

 On April 28 last the Cunard steamship Serz-ia, in making her 

 outward voyage to New York, fell in with several small water- 

 spouts. Being on deck at the time I made a rough sketch and 

 some notes of the occurrence, which I now venture to send you, 

 having learned that many officers of these steamers have sailed 

 the North Atlantic for years without having witnessed any simi- 

 lar phenomenon there. The ship's position may be easdy deduced 

 from the fact that her latitude was 42 24' and longitude 51° 3' 

 at noon on the 27th, while these w ere 41 42' and 59" 53' respec- 

 tively at noon on the 28th, at 8.30 a.m. of which day we met 

 the waterspouts. There was hardly any wind at the time, and 



