I^ 



NATURE 



\yune 1 6, 



I 



The shock was felt at Agram also, and at several other Croatian 

 towns. On May 23, at 8.21 p.m., an earthquake was observed 

 at Metkovich (Dalmatia). It lasted eight seconds, its motion 

 was wave-like, and in a south-westerly direction ; at 9.45 p.m. a 

 second one followed. At Janina no less than seven different 

 shocks were noticed on the same day ; they varied considerably 

 in strength, the first one occurred at 10.15 ^.m., the last one at 

 10.57 p.m. All were accompanied by subterranean noise. At 

 Stagno two violent shocks occurred at 8.23 and 9.3 p.m., and at 

 Slano a moderate one at 8.35 p.m. On May 22 at 6.15 p.m. an 

 oscillation of the ground was observed at Zwickau (Saxony) ; 

 the direction was from northeast to south-west. On May 21 a 

 moderate shock was noted about II p.m. at Copenhagen and in 

 the vicinity. It la> ted six seconds. 



Mr. W. Sowerby, writing from the Botanical Gardens to 

 the Times, states that the fresh water jelly-fish described in 

 Nature a year ago by Profestors Ailman and Ray Lankester, 

 has reappeared in the Victoria Regia tank in the Gardens. It 

 is a curious fact that the date of its first discovery (June 9, 18S0) 

 should be so near the day of its reappearance — viz. June 12 ; 

 as during the winter the tai;k is cleaned out and remains for 

 some months empty. 



The numbers of the present year's issue of our norihern 

 namesake. Natural, under the recent editorship of the eminent 

 Norwegian geologist, Hans F. Reusch, continue to provide well 

 written popular expositions of scientific questions. Dr. Leonhord 

 Stejneger returning to a subject which he had treated of in early 

 numbers, considers the causes which influence the migration of 

 birds, which he is disposed to seek princiially in the necessity 

 originally imposed on earlier generations to seek food by change 

 of locality, when the cold in one region, and the heat in another, 

 destroyed the smaller animals, or the plar.ts, from which these 

 birds sought their nourishment, while the sense once developed 

 became in process of time an hereditary instinct. The editor 

 describes the working of the telei-hone system in Christiania, 

 where, since June, i88o, a central station, in which the work is 

 done by women, has been established in connection with Dr. Bell's 

 Company in New York, and under the direction of Herr Hugo 

 UUitz. The apparatus u-ed is the so-called Blake's microphone. 

 Herr Geelmuyden draws attention to the expediency of adopt- 

 ing one mean time, viz., that of Christiania, for all Norway. 

 The difliculty of establishing one normal time for the whole 

 country is es; ecially great in Norway, where, for instance, some 

 districts — as Vardo and Vadso— lie further east than Constan- 

 tinople, while the west coast has nearly the same W.' long, as 

 Marseilles. As one of the curious results that would follow the 

 adoption of the time of Christiania as the normal standard he 

 mentions that the midnight sun at the North Cape would have 

 to be looked for at 11 p.m. A colossal pine which was lately 

 uprooted by an inundation at Pyhajoki in Oulais, Finland, was 

 found to have 1029 annual rings. The Norwegian Arctic 

 Expedition has yielded a new fish bearing affinity with the 

 Ophidiidre, but presenting sufficient differences to justify its 

 recognition as a hitherto unknown northern form, for vhich 

 Dr. R. CoUett has .■ uggcs'ed the name RhoLiichlhys rcgina. The 

 entire yield offish in the trawl-nets at great depths (from 1300 

 to 1400 fathoms) was 234 individuals, belonging to thirty-tw o 

 different genera, of which seven had been previously unknown to 

 science. 



The deaths are announced of Dr. Jakob Bernays, Principal 

 Librarian at the Bonn University, and of Dr. Richard Ladi^laus 

 Heschl, Professor of Pathological Anatomy at the University of 

 Vienna (the successor of Rokitanski). Both were fifty-seven 

 years of .qge, and both died on May 26. 



The Highbury Microscopical and Scientific Society gave a 

 conversazione at Harecourt Hall, Canonbury, on Tl ursday, the 

 9th inst., which was numerously attended. 



There is a regular mania in Paris at present for publishing 

 periodicals connected with electricity. A new electrical weekly 

 paper called the Telephone has issued its first number ; it is the 

 fifth in existence. We are told moreover that the first number 

 of another, the Electrophone, will be issued in a very few days. 



Mr. Henry Walker has is.sued a useful little " Guide to the 

 Popular Natural History Societies of London." In London and 

 suburbs there are twenty such associations. 



The conversazione to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of 

 the Harveian Society of London v\ill be held on Wednesday 

 June 29, at the South Kensington Museum. 



E.XPERIMENTS have been made during the past few days in 

 lighting the House of Commons by means of the electric light. 



Seven solar lamps were lighted by electricity about a week 

 ago in Paris by a Siemens machine, situated in the mairie of 

 rue Drouat. These lamps, which are perfectly regular, and 

 placed in the most crowded part of the Paris Boulevards, near 

 Pa' sage Jauffi-oy, have created a sensation. 



The concerts of the Palais Royal will be re.Himed in a few 

 days. The gardens will be lighted by no less than eighteen 

 Jablockhoflf lamps. It is intended to place a miniature electric 

 boat on the basin manned by a little girl. 



The annual Congress in connection with the French Society 

 of Archfeology will be opened on June 28 at Vannes (Morbihan). 

 A long and interesting programme has been prepared for the 

 meeting. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Chacma Baboon (Cynocephalus porcarius) 

 from South Africa, presented by Miss Agnes Robertson ; a 

 Rhesus Monkey {Macncus cry'threens) from India, presented by 

 Mr. Haniilton Kerr; a Malbrouck Monkey (Cercopithecus cyno- 

 stints) from West Africa, presented by Mr. H. Aylesbury, steam 

 yacht Albion ; a Coujmon Ocelot {Fd is partialis) from America, 

 presented by Mr. P. Leckie ; two Common Peafowls {Pavo 

 cristalus) from India, presented by Mr. George Stevenson ; a 

 Lesser Sulphur-cres'ed Cockatoo {Cacatua sulpJmrea) from the 

 Moluccas, presented by Miss Rose Hubbard ; three Waxwings 

 (Ampelis gai-ritlus), European, purchased ; a Cape Buffalo 

 [Bubalus caffer), a Japanese Deer {Cervus siia), born in the 

 Gardens; nine Summer Ducks (Aix sponsa), a Jameson's GuU 

 [Lartis jamesoni), bred in the Gardens. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 At its last meeting the Russian Geographical Society an- 

 nounced the nomination of M. Yurgers as Director of the Polar 

 Meteorological .Station on the Lena, and of M. Eichner and Dr. 

 Bunge ns his assistants. The Society also voted sums of money 

 for sending M. Kouznefsoff for the anthropological exploration 

 of Tartarian tribes and for M. Malal.hoff, who goes to the 

 provinces of Vyatra and Oufa for the exploration of caverns and 

 of remains of former settlements. 



We find in the Izvestia of the Russian Geographical Society 

 the following information as to the geodetical work which was 

 done by the Russian ofl'icers on the Balkan peninsula during the 

 last war. The whole of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia was 

 covered with a net of trigonometrical triangles, as well as the 

 portion of Turkey between Adrianople, Dede-agatch, and 

 Rodosfo, and from ^'ambol, through Adrianople, to Con- 

 stantinople and Bourgas. The net goes also into Servia and 

 along the Danube, the total nunber of geodetically-determined 

 spots being 1289 ; for all these spots there were ako made 

 determinations of heights. The highest determined summits on 

 the Balkan mountains are Youmroutchlal (7791 feet), and 

 Vajan (6217 feet); and in the Rhodope Mountains: Karlyk 

 (0846 feet), Karlyk-mo.'lah and Suika (both 7189 feet high). 

 The longitudes of eleven principal towns (Rouschouk, Sistova, 

 Tirnova, &c.) were determined with great accuracy, and those of 

 fifty-seven others either by telegraph or by chronometers, and 



