June 23, 1881] 



NATURE 



177 



their number to ten. At present the number of persons renting 

 wires is a little more than 1000, and the average number of 

 messa^'es a little more than five a day for each. 



M. Marey has asked the Paris Municipal Council for the grant 

 of a space of 1200 metres in the Park of the Champ de Mars for 

 establishing a zoological station ; but such a large space could 

 not be afforded without inconvenience to foot-passengers, so he 

 has accepted the grant of a space which was tendered to him at 

 Passy, in the Park of Princes. 



The Congres archeologique of France holds its forty-eighth 

 session at Vannes (Morbihan) on June 2S. Among other sub- 

 jects to be discussed are the megalithic monuments of the Gulf 

 of Morbihan, the clironology of sepultures, influence of soil on 

 the distribution of megalithic monuments, bronze objects and 

 other remains found in tombs of Brittany, Gallic and Roman 

 coins, ante-Roman remains in Brittany. 



Twenty shocks of earthquake were reported from Szt. Ivan 

 Zelina and Blazedotoc (Hungary) between May 20 and June 7. 

 Some rather severe shocks also occurred on June 11 and 12, 

 direction north-east to south-west. 



The Caucasian Museum at Tiflis is fast approaching com- 

 pletion under the active and energetic direction of Dr. Radde. 

 The visitors from Western Europe, who are expected at the 

 Archaeological Congress, will already find a tolerably numerous 

 collection of natural history objects and archaeological specimens. 



The discoveries of remains of palaeolithic man in Russia con- 

 tinue to be most interesting. Recently M. Shaposhnikoff dis- 

 covered a great quantity of stone implements in the district of 

 Valdai, where a forest has been cut down and the wind has 

 denudated the sand of the subsoil. The implements belong to 

 four categories : ( I ) knives and saws similar to those of Moustier, 

 St. Acheul, and Solutre, more perfect than any found previously; 

 (2) the same in miniature, most accurate, and made of the finest 

 kind of flint ; they might have been used as ornaments, or for 

 tattooing ; (3) figures of animals and men made in flint, and 

 relief pictures of the same, also in flint ; (4) ornamental designs 

 on stone. The collec'.ion is very rich, especially in miniature 

 implements. 



A little book just published by the Kossling'sche Buchhand- 

 lung (Gustav Wolf) of Leipzig is named "Naturwis-euschaftlich- 

 mathematisches Vademecum," being an alphabetical and syste- 

 matic compilation of all modern publications in the domains 

 of natural sciences and mathematics. 



Ax the meeting of the South-Eastern Railway Company the 

 otlier day Sir Edward Watkin announced the complete success 

 of the preliminary borings of the Channel Tunnel, and the reso- 

 lution of his own Company on this side and the French Company 

 on the other to make a furtlier important step. A gallery seven 

 feet in diameter has already been driven from the shaft near 

 Abbots' Cliff' for half a mile towards France, and an agreement 

 has been made to push forward a similar headway under the sea 

 for a mile on each side of the Channel. At the present rate of 

 progress this will probably be done within the next six months, 

 and then it is expected that the further nine miles oil each side 

 will be undertaken at once. All the con litions seem favourable 

 to the project. The soil is found to be exactly similar at both 

 ends. It is, as was expected, grey chalk impervious to water; 

 and there is evei7 reason to anticipate that it will be found to 

 stretch in an unbroken bed across the Channel. Last week the 

 machinery excavated sixty-seven yards of lineal distance, equal 

 to about two miles a year. At this rate the two headways might 

 meet under the middle of the Channel in about five years ; and 

 probably a nearly equal period might be occupied in enlarging 

 this mere seven-feet burrow to a capacious railway tunnel. 



It is proposed in Edinburgh to make a three months' trial of 

 lighting Princes Street and the North Bridge as far as the Tron 

 Church with the electric light, on the Brush system. 



Birmingham has resolved to invite the British Association to 

 hold their annual meeting for 1S83 in that town. 



The last number of the yournal de Physique describes a set of 

 registering electrometers and magnetometers which are being 

 tried at the College de P'rance. The magnetic bars and the 

 apparatus generally are very small. The instruments have been 

 invented by M. Ma;Cart, who believes they will give trust- 

 worthy results, and will cojipare favourably with the large 

 magnetometers used in Kew ani other places. 



The past winter cold in Norway, between October, 1S80, and 

 March, 18S1, has exceeded the normal mean by 7° C. The 

 greatest cold yet registered at any of the Norwegian meteorolo- 

 gical stations occurred between January 13 and 15. At Karasjok, 

 the lowest temperature was observed on February 4, when the 

 thermometer fell to - 5o°*6 C, the lowest ever noted in Norway 

 with tru?tworthy instruments. 



A WORK on the Butterflies of Europe, illustrated and de- 

 scribed by Dr. Henry Charles Lang, F.L.S., will shortly be 

 published in about twenty monthly parts. It will give accurate 

 coloured figures of all the species of Rhopalocera found in 

 Europe, shoning both the ujjper and underside where necessary, 

 as well as the differences of sex, if requiring a separate figure ; 

 and the most important of the named varieties will, when pos- 

 sible, be also represented. Typical illustrations of larvae and 

 pupae will from time to time appear. The figures will be drawn 

 from speci nens in the author's collection. The description of a 

 species w ill, whenever possible, inclu le a notice of its transfor 

 mation, habitat, and times of appearance, along with the prin- 

 cipal synonyms and necessary references. The arrangement and 

 nomenclature will be mainly th jse of Dr. Standinger's well-known 

 catalogue. Each part will contain four coloured plates and six- 

 teen pages of letterpress. The cost is very moderate. The 

 publishers are Messrs. Reeve and Co., of Henrietta Street, 

 Covent Garden. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Chacma Baboon {Cynoccphalus porcarius) 

 from South Africa, presented by Mr. Thornbiu-gh-Cropper ; 

 four Harvest Mice {Mtis minultis), British, presented by Mr. 

 Henry Laver ; a Banded Grass Finch (Poephila cinda) from 

 Queensland ; two Yellow-bellied Liothrix (Liotlirix Itileus) from. 

 India, presented by Mrs. Hylton Joliffe ; a Red-legged Partridge 

 (Caccabis lufa), European, presented by Mr. Arthur Morrell, 

 School Ship Cornwall ; a Horrid Rattlesnake ( C?-D/u/Ki horridus) 

 from Bahia, presented by Dr. A. StradUng, C.M.Z. S. ; a Patas 

 Monkey (Cercopithecui ruber) from West Africa, a Blue Jay 

 ( Cyanoiitta cristata) from North America, purchased ; a Rhesus 

 Monkey [Macacus erythraus), a Cape Buffalo {Bubalus coffer), 

 born in the Gardens ; seven Australian Wild Ducks (Anas super- 

 ciliosa), five Chiloe Widgeons (Mareca ehiloensis), a Mandarin 

 Duck [Ai.x galerteulala), two Geoffroy's Doves (Peristera 

 geoffroii), two Turquoisine Parrakeets (Euphetna pjikheUa), bred 

 in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Solar Parallax. — At the sitting of the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences on the 6th inst. M. Tisserand communicated a note 

 received from Mr. Todd of the office of \kvft American Ephemeris 

 at Washington, giving the value of the solar parallax deduced 

 from the photographic operations of the American expeditions, 

 as detailed in the "General Discussion of Results," a volume 

 which has just been issued. The number of photographs is 213, 

 distributed over v.irious stations thus : — 



