6io 



NA TURE [April 30, 1 885 



soon after it has fallen in most splendid waterfalls, some 

 of which have a clear fall of 1500 feet. 



We had no sooner accomplished the ascent than an 

 impenetrable cloud of mist enveloped the whole of the 

 upper part of the mountain, entirely obscuring the view, 

 and rendering it difficult to see beyond forty or fifty 

 yards in any one direction, and putting a limit to our 

 wanderings. 



After boiling the thermometer, which registered 197 F., 

 the average of five readings, and gave the height (allowing 

 for difference of temperature from sea-level) as S600 feet, 

 we returned to our hut, but not before I had tried with 

 true British instinct to carve my initials as a memento of 

 our visit ; but I found the rock far too hard to permit of 

 this, and had to content myself with leaving an advertise- 

 ment torn from a newspaper of Messrs. Pears' soap and 

 Madame Patt's testimony of its suitability for the hands 

 and complexion. 



In conclusion, I beg to present the Society with a few 

 samples of rock and rounded pebbles, which I obtained 

 in the course of our journey up the mountain. I have 

 been told they lead to no very definite conclusion in a 

 geological sense, as they seem to belong to no particular 

 geological epoch, but are apparently agglomerations of 

 deposits from various causes. 



No fossils have been found, but several of these smooth 

 pebbles which I found imbedded in the living rock on 

 the summit point to its having been submerged at some 

 long-passed time, but whether this huge mass has been 

 obtruded by volcanic action, or the cliff has been bared 

 of its at one time circumjacent soil by glacial or aqueous 

 action, I leave for those skilled in geology to discuss, and 

 shall be happy to give any further information that may 

 lead to a more definite conclusion as regards the forma- 

 tion and age of the mountain. 



One word more and I have finished : it is to again 

 remind you that the whole success of the expedition is 

 due to Mr. Im Thurn's excellent management and inde- 

 fatigable zeal, as well as his intimate knowledge of the 

 Indian character ; and if my short notes have aroused 

 your interest in Mount Roraima, I must ask you to 

 accord a larger portion of the same to his complete 

 and detailed report, which I have no doubt will ere 

 long arrive. 



NO TES 

 It is well known to all acquainted with the British Museum, 

 that the staff of the Zoological Department is very insufficient for 

 the needs of so large a collection. In the vast subject of entomo- 

 logy especially the number of assistants is quite out of proportion 

 to the mass of material necessarily accumulating with the advance 

 of geographical exploration. We are glad to learn that a step 

 t iwards remedying this state of things is about to be taken by 

 fie addition to the staff of an assistant, to be specially engaged 

 upon the collection of Coleoptera. The conditions upon which 

 the appointment will be filled up arc announced in our advert- 

 ising columns. 



There seems to be at last some chance of the great Hume 

 collection being received by the nation, as the British Museum 

 has sent Mr. Bowdler Sharpe to Simla to pack and despatch the 

 collection to England. Mr. Sharpe started by the last mail via 

 Brindisi, and expects to be absent from England about four 

 months. 



Dr. Benjamin Apthorp Gould is to return to the United 

 States very soon from South America, where he has recently 

 completed the great works upon which he has been engaged for 

 so long at the Observatory of Cordoba. His fellow-citizens of 

 Boston, Science states, propose to give him a reception and a 

 dinner on hi- return. 



a statue of Linnaeus will be publicly unveiled 

 The day will be the 178th anniversary of his 



On May 

 at Stockholm 

 birth. 



Reports from Japan state that grave fears were entertained 

 of an outbreak of the long quiescent volcano Fujiyama, and 

 that "officials had been sent to investigate the matter. The 

 people living in the neighbourhood believed an eruption to be 

 imminent, because, while the snow on the mountain had begun 

 to melt two months before the usual time, all the wells at the fort 

 became dry, and difficulty was experienced in procuring water. 

 The phenomenon is considered the more remarkable from the 

 fact that the winter has been unusually cold, and that the surface 

 of the snow remains hard, the part nearest the ground being the 

 first to give way. 



Intelligence has been received in Amsterdam from Java of 

 the eruption of the Semiroo mountain, the largest and most 

 active of the Javanese volcanoes, situated on the confines of the 

 Passoerean and Probolingo residencies. No mention is made 

 of any loss of life having occurred. 



Prof. Forel, of Geneva, has sent us an account of an earth- 

 quake observed in Switzerland on April 13 last. It was com- 

 posed of a preliminary shock at Neufchatel between 9 and 10 

 I o'clock, of a principal or great shock at 11.23 a.m., and of a 

 succeeding shock observed at Lausanne and Geneva at 3.55 p.m. 

 1 The principal shock disturbed a considerable area. It was felt 

 I in the district bounded by Geneva, Saint-Cergues, the Joux 

 1 valley, Neufchatel, Souceboz, Aarau, Schwyz, Interlaken, the 

 I Bernese Alps, Bex, and the Lake of Geneva. The detailed 

 reports from the other cantons, Valais in particular, will extend 

 still more the area of disturbance, which already includes a 

 district 220 kilometres long by loo broad, representing a super- 

 ficial area of more than 20,000 kilometres. The main axis of 

 disturbed surface is parallel to the chain of the Alps ; in seis- 

 mological classification this earthquake would therefore be put 

 i under the classification of longitudinal earthquakes. Over the 

 disturbed area the sir ick was felt unequally. Thus in the 

 cantons of Vaud and Neuchatel, the district which Prof. Forel 

 is appointed to study, numerous and precise observations were 

 I received from Enhaut, Ormonts, the Rhone valley, the shore, 

 of the Lake of Geneva, from Villeneuve to Morges, then from 

 1 Ginguis, Saint-Cergues, 1'Orient de 1'Orbe, Neufchatel, Souce- 

 boz, &c, while none at all came from the valley of the Broil 

 or of the Thiele, nor from Gros du Vaud. It would seem that 

 ] the centre of the district remained quiet, while the borders 

 : were disturbed. The intensity of the shock was greater as 

 one approached the centre, which was probably the valley of 

 the Haut Simmenthal. There some damage was effected in 

 the walls of houses ; it is even said that rocks were detached 

 ' from hills. This would represent a shock No. 8 in the scale 

 which represents the intensity of earthquakes in ten numbers. 

 In Prof. Ford's district the earthquake had very little intensity. 

 The shock had three undulations, with some seconds' interval 

 between each. In general the direction of the oscillations was 

 indicated as parallel to the meridian, from north to south, or, 

 according to the localities, as coming from northeast or n nth- 

 west. A subterranean sound was heard in several places. 



At the conclusion of an article in a recent number of Globus 

 on the Andalusian earthquake, Ilerr Willfcomm refers to pre J 

 vious earthquakes observed in Southern Spain ; for, although 

 that of Christmas day last is the greatest and most frightful of 

 them all in the historical period, it is by no means singular in 

 other respects. The provinces of the kingdom of Granada, those 

 of the kingdom of Murcia to the east of the latter, and the 

 province of Alicante belonging to the old kingdom of Valencia, 

 have frequently been visited by earthquakes. At Cape Roquetas 



