NA TURE 



{May i, 1884 



Hence, if we'calculate the value oi 



('£•) 



first, we may proceed without further change to use the general 

 tables, or to calculate trajectories, using the tabular values of 

 K,,, just as when no change is required in the value of the 

 tabulated coefficients. For the 3-, 5-, 7-, and 9-inch guns, the 

 value of k, in the cases we have considered, would be I 08, 

 C92, 1 '05, and I'oS respectively. There was one case where 

 the studs did not act, when K s50 was found to be 335 "I instead 

 of 75 'O, which gives k = 4 '47. The smaller the value of k 

 the steadier will be the motion of the shot. Mr. Ristori might 

 calculate another range, using k = o 92 given by the 5- 

 inch gun, if he be satisfied that he has got the correct initial 

 velocity and initial direction of the shot. If the calculated and 

 measured ranges did not now quite agree, the remaining correction 

 of k might be found perhaps with sufficient accuracy by propor- 

 tional parts. This seems to be the best way of expressing the 

 degree of steadiness of shot when they are so light as to have 

 their motion disturbed by cutting the threads of screens. But 

 for heavy shot the most direct way is to fire through equidistant 

 screens as already explained. 



When I made experiments with low velocities in 1879, I was 

 furnished with some range tables of the 6"3-inch Howitzer, 

 where, it was said, my coefficients did not give correct results. 

 As the difficulty in obtaining good results increases as the velo- 

 city decreases, I took the trouble to make a thorough comparison 

 between the calculated and experimental results in the above 

 case. I also made use of some German range tables in the same 

 way, where the value of d 2 -r- cci was only a trifle larger. The 

 results of these comparis >ns may be found at pp. 45-49 of my 

 Final Report, 1880, which appear to me quite satisfactory. 



So long as there are guns good, bad, and indifferent, it is clear 

 that no single set of coefficients can give ranges suited to all 

 cases. But ranges, it., calculated by the help of my coefficients, 

 may serve as a standard of comparison applicable to every case, 

 and so give a measure of the steadiness of the shot. 



April 23 Francis Bashfoeth 



The Dry and Wet Bulb Thermometers " Froude " 



A so-called thermometer "froude" has been used in 

 France for many years, and its use, on special occasions, has 

 gradually extended to other countries. It consists of an ordi- 

 nary thermometer fastened to a string two to four feet in length. 

 If such a thermometer be swung through a circle whose radius is 

 the length of the string, it is evident that it will attain the tem- 

 perature of, 1 large mass of air unless the results are vitiated by 

 friction with the air, oxidation, centrifugal action, or other 

 causes. Careful comparisons, at high and low velocities, with 

 a thermometer properly exposed, I ive given entirely reliable 

 results. 



Some time ago the writer attempted to use this instrument as 

 a wet bulb with such results that it was decided to fasten two 

 thermometers together, one with its bulb one and a half inches 

 below the other. The latter may be easily wet by immersion 

 without wetting the dry. This arrangement has worked admir- 

 ably, and has been in constant use the past winter in determining 

 temperature and humidity conditions both in city and country, 

 in courts and rooms. Every one who has undertaken humidity 

 observations with a wet bulb thermometer, especially in cold 



calm weather, has found it very difficult to obtain g 1 results 



even after an hour's waiting after writing. Willi this instrumenl 

 it is an easy matter in every instance to obtain an absolutely 

 correct result in two or three minutes. This is shown by the 

 fact that repeated wetting and swinging will give the same result 

 as often as tried. If ice is on the bulb, it is best, after -winging 

 I ;: ;evi 1 il observations, or until the clear glare of ice I. 

 to wet in water above freezing so as to remove the old ice and 

 form a new coal. Distilled water should also be used if 

 possible. 



With this instrument it has been found that, in order to get 

 even approximate results of humidity above grass ground, in 

 clear calm weather, with temperature below freezing, the obser- 

 vation must be made upon a knoll, never in a valley or upon a 

 plain with rising ground on any side. It has also been found 

 thai under the above conditions in the morning a height of 

 twenty to thirty feet is essential, even upon a knoll, in order to 

 obviate the effect of the gradual accumulation through the night 

 of damp air above sod. H. A. HAZEN 



April 14 



Extraordinary Darkness at Midday 



Tin: extraordinary darkness that occurred here suddenly on 

 the morning of the 26th is deserving of record, as being the most 

 intense that is remembered by any of the inhabitants. 



The early morning was bright, and no change was noticed 

 until close upon 11 a.m.. when the sky became rapidly darker in 

 the west-south-west. The wind was blowing from the north- 

 east at 11 a.m. with a velocity of five miles an hour, and it 

 scarcely changed at 11.40, when it increased to seven miles an 

 hour, and veered at once to south-west, and then moved more 

 slowly round through west and north, back again to east at I p.m., 

 when its velocity was only three miles an hour. 



At 11.30 the darkness was so great that it was found impos- 

 sible to read even bold print (small pica) close by the window, 

 and at this time a dense black cloud with a slightly yellowish 

 tinge hung over the south-west sky; the blackness being most 

 intense at io c above the horizon. At 11.35 '' became somewhat 

 lighter, and at 11.40 the rain began to fall, and in forty minutes 

 0*114 inch of rain-water was collected in our rain-gauges, the 

 whole being almost as black as ink, and full of fine carbon 111 

 suspension. Hail that fell a mile off to the south-west by south, 

 and both hail and snow that fell on the hills two miles to the 

 west, were also black. At Preston, fourteen miles to the south- 

 west, the darkness was very marked, but five and a half miles to 

 the north-east nothing very particular was noted. 



Stonyhurst Observatory, April 28 S. J. Perry 



Intelligence in Animals 



I think it was about the year 1S44 that the Duke of Argyll 

 desired my late father, his factor, to preserve game in the district 

 of Kintyre, Argyllshire. If any steps in this direction had been 

 taken by other proprietors, they were very irregular. My 

 memory goes back to about 1846 and 1848, and at that time 

 the grouse of Kintyre " sat like stones " — they might be shot to 

 dogs from the first to the last day of the season ; in fact it was often 

 difficult to get the birds up. With this preservation, grouse in- 

 creased enormously — and therefore the food supply of the people 

 — to such an extent that the late Sir John Cuningham and my 

 father shot, on one 12th of August, seventy-two brace of grouse. 

 Sir John was a very old man, and insisted on loading his own 

 gun, an old muzzle-loader. My father never shot hard. Now 

 I do not believe any two men with two guns and loaders could 

 do this in the same district with all the improvements in arms 

 and dogs ; whilst I have heard my father say that seven brace 

 was a good bag when he was young, before game-preserving. 



Grouse yet sit pretty well in Kintyre, and I believe this is the 

 case because it was one of the last districts to preserve anil 

 shoot ; but the birds are every year becoming wilder, and now 

 in tin month of September it is useless to take dogs on the hill, 

 and fox two years we, like others, have had to drive them. 



I account for this by an alteration in instinct, and I am as sure as 

 any one can be, from observation and the opinion of competent 

 persons, that it is progressive instinct in successive generation*. 

 Formerly the great enemies of the grouse were ravens, that took 

 their eggs and young birds ; foxes, polecats or martin cats, and 

 wild cats, that took them at night on the ground ; and hawks, that 

 took them on the wing during the day. When man stepped in 

 and altered the balance of Nature, the 



Bird that up and flew away, 

 He lived to breed another day. 



No hawk was there to knock him down. He found from experi- 

 ence that flying away before man and his dog came near gave 

 him safety ; and his children that inherited the wit or instinct 

 or power of turning heather into nerve-force or intelligent 

 thought — or whatever the straw-splitters like to call it — lived ; 

 whilst his brother, that inherited the qualities which kept him 

 hiding in the heather, was shot when forced up. 



I had this summer ample corroboration of this theory. About 

 eight years ago I was shooting in the island of Rum ; the grouse 

 were not preserved and were extremely tame, so tame in Sep- 

 tember and October that I had to run after them to make them 

 take the wing, and it was new to dogs. Last year I again shot 

 in the island, and I observed the same tameness in one part of 

 the island, but in another district I observed the grouse were 

 larger, darker, and much wilder. I was puzzled with this until 

 I found out that the late tenant had three years before turned down 

 some English grouse, and in the district where they were so 

 turned down the grouse were very wild. 



Knockrioch, April 28 Duncan Stewart 



