August 30, 1883] 



NATURE 



4i. 



temperature at depths hearing considerable ratios to the radius. 

 Indeed the state of our knowledge is be't expresed by the words 

 of the old song, "Oh den'! what can the matter be?" It is 

 even conceivable that, n hatever it be, it may be above its own 

 critical temperature ; in which ca-e the laws affecting incompres- 

 sible liquids become inapplicable. 



An interesting paper upon this latter hypothesis was published 

 by Prof. Zoppniz in the Transactions of the first Geographical 

 Congre-s of Berlin, 1S81. It is entitled " Ueber die Mittel und 

 Wege zu besserer Kenntniss vim inneren Zu'tand der Erde zu 

 gelangen," and published by D. Reimer, Berlin. 



Harlton, Cambridge, August 24 O. Fisher 



I obtain Nature in monthly parts, and am indebted to a 

 friend for calling attention to the article on " Elevation and Sub- 

 sidence ''by Mr. |. Starkie Gardner in vol. xxviii. p. 323, in which 

 he con'iders that, "wherever considerable weight is added to 

 any part of the earth's surface, a corre-ponding subsidence 

 of its crust almost invariably follows." As it is evident from the 

 last paragraph in Mr. Gardner's paper that he esteems this 

 opinion to be novel to the readers of Nature, and beino; the 

 first time it can be considered as having been discussed in your 

 pages, it might have been more satisfactory perhaps had he 

 passed in review the conclusions arrived at by others who have 

 preceded him. 



Sir John Herschel (see "Physical Geography," § 132, 1862, 

 and "Familiar Lectures,'' Lecture I.), assumed in a general 

 manner that "if continents are lightened they will rise; if the 

 bed of the sea receives additional weight it will sink." It is 

 to be regretted that the facts advancd as evidence by so great 

 an authority did not prove sufficiently conclusive to claim general 

 acceptance. Mr. T. F. Jamieson, F.G.S., in 1865 (Quarterly 

 Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xxi. page 178), considered 

 that the enormous weight of snow accumulated during the glacial 

 period "may have had something to do with the depression of 

 the land which then occurred, and that the melting or the ice at 

 its termination would account fir the rising of the land." 



Under the advocacy of Prof. James Hall (" Pakeontology of 

 New York," vol. iii., 1859), the subject has received much 

 consideration in America ; this has been so great that Capt. 

 C. E. Datton, of the United States Geological Survey, was 

 enabled to say that "few geologists now question that great 

 masses of sedimentary matter displace the earth beneath them 

 and subside" (Nature, vol. xix. p. 251). 



The principle that accumulation of material causes subsidence 

 and that denudation results in elevation of the crust of the earth 

 has been advocated by myself on numerous occasions during the 

 last eighteen years, being considered equally applicable to rocks 

 of every age during the whole series ; in England from the 

 Cambrian rocks of Shropshire to those now in process of depo- 

 sition in the seas which surround our coasts. The idea origin- 

 ated to me from observations in the Longmynd and of the Upper 

 Silurians of Shropshire and North Wales during 1S64. Its 

 universal application and the physical effects dependent on the 

 phenomena formed the special subjects of two addresses as 

 president of the Liverpool Geological Society in 1871 and 1872. 

 The conclusions were deemed by Nature (vol. vi. p. 379) of 

 such importance that you considered my " interpretation of the 

 facts deserved further consideration." Abstracts of thee essays 

 also appeared in the Geological Magazine, vol. ix. p. 119, and 

 vol. x. p. 202. The views entertained have been subsequently 

 advocated by me in the Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological 

 Society, the Geological Alagazine, and the Reports oj the British 

 Association, the last time being during the meeting of the British 

 Association at Southampton (Report, 1882, p. 540), which paper 

 has appeared in full in the Geological Magazine for July and 

 August, 1S83. 



The only author who has considered this subject and to whom 

 Mr. Gardner refers, is the Rev. O. Fisher, F.G.S., whom he 

 deservedly praises for his masterly work, "The Physics of the 

 Earth's Crust," 1881. 



In spite of much adverse criticism I have been content to wait 

 all these years, feeling convinced that after commendation similar 

 to that accorded by you (by no means a singular occurrence), the 

 subject of oscillation, as the result of changes in the distribution 

 of sediments, would eventually be taken into consideration ; for 

 a frequent remark has been that "there appears to be something 

 in it " ; and no geological fact is more persistently referred to 

 than that the formation of sedimentary strata of every age " has 

 occurred during a period of subsidence." 



Birkenhead, August 22 Charles Ricketts 



"Decentralisation in Science" 



I fully agree with the remarks on this important subject 

 made in your leading article of last week ; and the necessity for 

 local scientific societies being in some way placed in direct com- 

 munication with each other and with the central metropolitan 

 societies has lo g been present in my mind. It is perhaps as 

 yet premature to broach any definite scheme for effecting this 

 object, which, as the writer of the article points out, would be 

 surrounded by very great practical difficulties. The whole sub- 

 ject might very well be discussed by the Conference of Delegates 

 about to attend the meeting of the British Association at South- 

 port. 



There are numerous scientific societies and field-clubs through- 

 out the country whose work is being frittered away in useless 

 directions solely from the want of proper scientific guidance. As 

 a preliminary step towards this most desirable economising of 

 individual energy it appears to me that centralisation in the 

 various counties is the first essential. This has been well en- 

 forced in the Preliminary Report of the " Local Scientific 

 Societies " Committee of the British Association, published in 

 Nature a short time ago by Mr. Francis Galton, the Chairman 

 of the Committee. 



It is most satisfactory to know that the British Association has 

 taken the matter in hand, as this body is of all others the most 

 competent to deal with the subject, if for no other reason because 

 the Association is the only scientific society that holds its meet- 

 ings in various provincial centres. Among the difficulties that 

 would have to be met in any scheme of county affiliation not the 

 least formidable is the purely local feeling existing in many small 

 societies, which leads their officers and members to reject all over- 

 tures from larger a' d more influential bodies in the mistaken 

 belief that cooperation would entail a less of individuality. A 

 good illustration of this kind of difficulty has quite recently come 

 under my notice in attempting to bring about some kind < f 

 amalgamation between the local societies of the county of 

 Essex. 



Tdl such narrow views of the functions of a local society are 

 successfully combated no great advance towards centralisation - 

 cm be made. R- Meldola 



21, John Street, Bedford Row, W.C., August 27 



The Earthquake in Ischia 



In 1878, when touring in the Himalayas, we spent the last 

 two Sundays in August at Kyelang, in the Lahoul Valley. On 

 each of these days I felt a sharp shock of earthquake about 

 4 p.m. 



On both occasions I was sitting in a room on the upper floor 

 of the German mis-ionaries' house. A broad wooden verandah 

 runs round the front and sides of the lower floor of this building. 



I was abcut to rise and leave the room, when I heard a loud 

 rumbling noise ; my first idea was that the children of the house 

 were amusing themselves with dragging each other in a small 

 wooden waggon up and down this verandah as they were in the 

 habit of doing, but the sound was much louder, as loud as that 

 of a railway train when near the spectator. A second later I 

 felt a violent oscillation, and a padlocked door, opposite the" 

 door of exit, shook violently backwards and forwards several- 

 times. A week later another earthquake occurred almost at the 

 same hour, and under the same conditions. 



Three years later, in 1881, we again passed through the same 

 part of the Himalayas on our return from the Spiti Valley, 

 which we had reached by way of Kumiwar. 



This time no earthquake took place during our stay in Lahoul ; 

 we crossed the Rotang Pass, and went to stay in the Kulu 



Valley with our friend Col. S , Deputy Conservator of 



Forests at Maiiali, about sixteen miles on the southern side of 



that mountain. Col. S 's house is raised high above the 



river on the right bank of the Beas ; it is placed in the midst of 

 a Deodar forest, and built of wooden logs placed horizontally, 

 and alternating wi'h courses of large stones laid one upon the 

 other, but not mortared together. A wooden verandah runs all' 

 round the building, and forms a balcony to the rooms on the 

 upper floor. I imagine it is its mode of construction which 

 enabled this house to resist the severe test to which it was 

 subjected on this occasion. 



On October I, about 1 p.m., we were sitting, a party of three 

 persons, in a temporary verandah resting on the bare earth, and 

 floored with matting, which our host had erected to supplement 

 the permanent one where our native tailor was seated at work. 



