I02 



NATURE 



\yune 2, 



;i 



can corroborate his observations. It is nearly two years since I 

 noted this fact in a species of Polyrachis, which makes its papery 

 nests on the under side of bamboo leaves. The noise, resem- 

 bling very heavily-falling rain, is caused by the insect striking 

 the leaf by a series of spasmodic taps, both with its head and 

 with the extremity of its abdomen, which it inflexei while so 

 doing. 



I came on a second large brown species in September last in 

 Sumatra. The noise which, as in the case of the Polyrachis, 

 resembled heavy rain, could be heard a long distance off. What 

 struck me mo-t about this species was the singular synchronism 

 of the movements. These ants were spread over a space perhaps 

 a couple of yards in diameter on the stem, leaves, and branches 

 of a great tree which had fallen, and not within sight of each 

 other ; yet the tapping was set up at the same moment, con- 

 tinued exactly the same space of time, ajd stopped at the same 

 instant ; after the lapse of a few seconds all recommenced at the 

 same instant. The interval was always of about the same 

 duration, though I did not time it ; each ant did not, however, 

 beat synchronously with every other in the congeries nearest to 

 me ; there were independent tappings, so that a sort of tune 

 vifas played, each congeries dotting out its own music, yet the 

 beginnings and endings of these musical parties were strictly 

 synchronous. Henry O. Forbes 



Sumatra, April 



The Pitt-Rivers Collection: Bell-Clappers— the Tooth- 

 Ornament 



In the account lately given in your columns of the Pitt-Rivers 

 Anthropological Collection I find it stated, in speaking of bells : 

 " The clapper is a late addition to the bell which does not exist 

 in Japan or China." When in West Java a year ago I saw in 

 the possession of a gentleman there a bronze (?) bell dug up on 

 the site of one of the old Hindoo settlements, of which now only 

 the graves remain. It had lost the clapper, but the hook, to 

 which I have no doubt a clapper originally was attached, existed 

 still. The form of the bell was much like those figured by 

 Raffles in his " History of Java." 



In speaking also of the development of ornamentation reference 

 is made to the VV pattern. In the Lampongs this is the most 

 common and almost the only ornamentation. Its origin may 

 possibly be as Mr. Low suggests ; but farther up the country, 

 where adornment is more frequent and varied, I find a very 

 common pattern to be a circle ornamented all round the circum- 

 ference with this toothed design, evidently, I think, representing 

 the sun, and it is not improbable that on the circle being dropped 

 where it could not well be introduced the "tooth-ornament" 

 alone was retained. 



Once travelling near Lake Djon, in the West of Scotland, I 

 entered a lonely hut amid the mountains, where a woman was 

 washing the floor — at least the stones set in it, for they were let 

 into the mud at considerable distances apart. As she finished 

 each stone she orna rented it with a piece of pipeclay with con- 

 centric circles, combiuin ;, where the stone was larger, two of 

 these concentric ornaments into one by a stalk — as of a stem with 



two flowers on it ©V®' . Did she still unwittingly retain the 



ornamentation of the European Bronze Period ? 

 Sumatra, April Henry O. Forbes 



ON TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSES OCCURRING 

 BEFORE THE END OF THE PRESENT 

 CENTUR Y 



AT various times during the last six years we have 

 «^*- given in our "Astronomical Column " particulars 

 (including elements) of most of the total eclipses of the 

 sun that will happen before the close of the nineteenth 

 century. As the attention of many astronomers may soon 

 be directed to arrangements for observing the eclipse on 

 May 17th, 1882, we present here, in a collective form, the 

 principal characteristics of such phenomena during the 

 interval in question, which are likely to possess special 

 interest under the circumstances. We shall refer to 

 twelve eclipses, commencing with that of the ensuing 

 year. 



(i) 18S2, May 17. — The most accessible positions on 

 the central line will be in Upper Egypt and the extremity 

 of the peninsula of Sinai about Sherm, but the duration 

 of totality will be greater in the vicinity of Teheran. 

 Where the central eclipse crosses the Nile, totality will 

 commence at a.bout 8h. 33m. a.m. local mean time, con- 

 tinuing im. I2S. According to General Stebnitzki's recent 

 determination of the geographical position of the appara- 

 tus-room of the Indo-European Telegraph at Teheran, 

 the central line will pass 8' to the south of it, and here 

 the duration of total eclipse will be im. 44s., which may 

 be considered the longest available on this occasion : the 

 sun's altitude will be 67'. The central eclipse passes off 

 the Asiatic coast near Shanghai, running about 18' north 

 of that place ; a direct calculation for Shanghai shows a 

 partial eclipse only, greatest at 5h. 21m. p.m., magnitude 

 o'996, while at theneighbouring meteorological observatory 

 of Zi-ka-wei, the eclipse is also partial, magnitude o'994. 

 On the central line in the longitude of Shanghai, the total 

 eclipse continues only 35s. with the sun at an altitude 

 of I8^ 



(2) 1883, May 6. — In this case we have an eclipse where 

 the totality will extend to nearly six minutes, but unfortu- 

 nately this lotig duration falls upon the Pacific Ocean, and 

 it does not appear that there is any land where it can be 

 observed. By the Admiralty chart of the Marquesas, a 

 duration of 2m. 53s. might be available on the Island 

 Fetou-houhou, or Chanel Island, the sun at an altitude of 

 63^, and totality commencing about oh. 42m. local mean 

 time. At the head of Anna Maria Bay, Nouka-hiva, 

 there is a partial eclipse only, magnitude o'97. The 

 central line lies wholly upon the Pacific : greatest duration 

 of total phase 5m. 56s. in about 147^ W. and 9" S. 



(3) 1885, September 8.— Observable in New Zealand 

 soon after sunrise. In the longitude of Wellington the 

 duration of totality will be im. 55s., with the sun at an 

 ahitude of 15'', at Wellington itself the duration will be 

 hardly 403.; the central line passes some forty-five miles 

 to the north. The greatest eclipse falls in mid-Pacific in 

 58" S. latitude, 



(4) 1886, August 29. — Totality will continue longer in 

 this eclipse than in any other occurring within the interval 

 which we are considering, but again it will happen that 

 the greatest durations fall on the ocean, in this case upon 

 the Atlantic. At the southern extremity of the Island of 

 Grenada, or in 61° 35' W. and ii" 59' S. there will be a 

 total eclipse with the sun at an altitude of nearly 20°, 

 commencing at 7h. lom. a.m. local mean time and con- 

 tinuing 3m. 15s. In 14" 13' W. and 2^ 58' S. the sun will 

 be upon the meridian at the middle of the eclipse, and 

 totality will last for 6m. 27s. The central line meets the 

 African coast in about 12° 14' S. and here the duration of 

 the total phase will be about 4m. 38s., with the sun at an 

 altitude of 39". [This eclipse is a recurrence of that of 

 1868, August 18, when the central line passed across 

 Hindostan from near Kolapore to Masulipatam, where the 

 duration of totality was 5m. 45s., but attained a maximum 

 of 6m. 46s. on the west coast of the Gulf of Si am. At 

 its next recurrence, 1904, September 9, the total phase 

 continues 6m. 19s. but in mid-Pacific longitudes a little 

 south of the equator. On September 21, 1922, though 

 there is no land where the totality will be longest, a 

 duration of about 34 minutes will be available on the east 

 coast of Australia.] 



(5) 1887, August 19. — It was long supposed that the 

 central line in this eclipse would extend to England, but 

 it appears to commence in 11° 39' E. and 51° 38' N. It 

 will be most favourably observed in Asiatic Russia, but 

 some fifty miles north of Moscow the total eclipse will con- 

 tinue 2m. 30S. with the sun at an altitude of 17', and this 

 is perhaps the most westerly station that observers should 

 be induced to fix upon. In Moscow the duration would 

 seem to be about one minute. At Berlin the sun will be 

 totally eclipsed immediately after rising. On Lake Baikal 



