June 30, 1 881] 



NATURE 



■2Q\ 



The comet was examined spectroscopically here last 

 night at 11 'So. The nucleus gave a bright continuous 

 spectrum, while the coma and brighter portions of the tail 

 gave the three least refrangible hydrocarbon bands super- 

 posed on a faint continuous spectrum. On moving the 

 slit of the spectroscope towards the fainter part of the 

 tail the bands died out, leaving a faint continuous 

 spectrum, which again gradually faded away as the end 

 of the tail was approached. I have not measured the 

 position of the bands, but they are sensibly the same as 

 those from an alcohol flame. GEORGE M. Seabrooke 



Temple Observatory, Rugby, June 28 



NOTES 

 The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, in 

 reply to an application for aid to science teachers attending the 

 classes of the Mason Science College two days a week, agree to 

 pay three-fourths of the fees for the chemical and phy-ical 

 laboratories and for biologfy and histology, for a limited number 

 of teachers, on condition that satisfactory terminal reports of 

 their progress (ascertained by examination) and of their conduct be 

 received at the end of the Michaelmas, Lent, and Easter terms. 

 Applications for the privilege must be made to the Secretary, 

 Science and Art Department, not later than August 31. The 

 selection will rest with that Department. One-fourth of the fee 

 for the whole session must be paid by the student on entrance ; 

 and the remaining three-fourths will be paid by the Department 

 in equal instalments at the commencement of each term, if the 

 reports are satisfactory. 



The fine library of the late M. Chasles is to be sold by public 

 auction between June 28 and July 18. It contains no fewer than 

 3936 works, or about 15,000 volumes, and is one of the most 

 complete libraries of mathematical works in existence. The 

 precious manuscripts and various works of history and philology 

 will doubtless be eagerly sought by amateurs. There is, among 

 other works, a Geography of Ptolemy of Alexandria, printed at 

 Rome in 1490, containing geographical maps which are the first 

 engraved with copper plate (147S). The collection includes 

 eighteen different editions of Archimedes, and the works on 

 Euclid number sixty-six. The astronomical works of the 

 sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries are fully repre- 

 sented, as also those on astrology, alchemy, &c. 



The programme of an excursion by the Geologists' Association 

 to the Lake District, from Monday, July 18, to Saturday, July 

 23, has been issued. Keswick will be the centre of operations 

 till Friday, when the Grasmere and Ambleside district will be 

 visited. Saturday will be given to Windermere. 



We have also before us an attractive programme of a marine 

 excursion to Oban and the West Highlands of Scotland by the 

 Birmingham Natural Histoiy and Microscopical Society. The 

 party leave Birmingham on the evening of July I, and go direct 

 by Greenock and the Kyles of Bute to Oban, which is made the 

 centre for various excursions by sea or land, till July 12. Facili- 

 ties for dredging will be afforded. The party will include some 

 able naturalists. 



In a recent issue we gave some account of the Ben Nevis 

 Observatory (so-called). The system has been in operation since 

 June I, and the daily observations by Mr. Wragge are published 

 in the Tuna. This gentleman begins his magnanimous toil up 

 the hill every morning at 5 o'clock. After spending about an 

 hour on the top (9 to 10) in taking observations with the scanty 

 stock of instruments fixed on stands protected by a stone screen, 

 he gets home again by about 2 in the afternoon. In the early 

 part of June the path up the mountain was often deep in snow 

 and enveloped in mist, but Mr. Wragge has marked out the 



track with a succession of cairns. Anything more disgraceful to 

 British science than this state of things, as representing our present 

 achievement in the way of regular mountain-observations, it is 

 difficult to conceive ! A comparison with what has been accom- 

 plished in other countries, notably America, where well-equipped 

 observatories are now to be found at vastly greater heights than 

 the top of Ben Nevis, is sufficiently humiliating for us. 



The May number of Natiirm gives the first of a series of 

 papers, by Prof. A.xel Blytt, onr^the " Theory of the Immigra- 

 tion of the Norwegian Flora at Different Earlier Geological 

 Periods." In this paper the author, who is well known as the 

 highest authority among Scandinavian botanists, describes the 

 character of the flora, which, considered generally, is represented 

 by only a small number of genera. At an elevation of 4000-4500 

 feet above the level of the sea the interior and southern districts 

 exhibit dwarf forms of the \\'illow and birch, with juniper ; 

 between 3000-3500 feet the first birch woods appear in the same 

 districts, while firs and pines begin a few hundred feet lower. 

 Here and there the high and barren fjalds of the interior near 

 the glaciers are broken by the occurrence of blooming oases of 

 plants of Arctic continental forms;, which, after having lain 

 buried for months under the snow, awaken to new life with the 

 return of the summer sun. To the interior also belongs a boreal 

 flora of small deciduou; trees, including the oak, ash, alder, lime, 

 &c., which penetrate as far as 2000 feet, and in the Inner Sogu 

 district occur the only woods of elm and wild cherry to be found 

 in Norway. The subboreal belt, including several Spirseas, 

 Fragaria colli/ia, Artemidia campestris. Thymus chamadrys, 

 &c., is limited to the Lower Silurian formations in the eastern 

 districts. The western coast-lands between Stavanger and 

 Christiansund are the habitats of an Atlantic flora, including 

 Erica Ic-lralix, and several of the rarest Norwegian plants, but 

 here Calluna, Sphagna, and Carices, with turf beds, constitute 

 the principal forms. The most southern littoral belt near 

 Christiansund presents a sub-Atlantic flora, while a number of 

 sub-Arctic forms appear scattered over the whole of Norway. 

 Prof. Blytt considers that the sporadic occurrence of the various 

 continental and insular forms of the flora of Norway points to 

 the conclusion that the climate has undergone various secular 

 changes since the Glacial period, the continental forms having 

 immigrated duri ig the continuance of draught, when the penin- 

 sula was connected with neighbouring continents, while the 

 appearance of the insular forms was contemporaneous vifith 

 rainy periods. 



The decree appointing sixty-five French members of the 

 Congres d'Electricite has been signed by the President of the 

 Republic, and will soon be published. Foreign Governments will 

 appoint all their own members. Reporters and tlie public will 

 not be admitted to the Congress ; an ofiicial report will be 

 published by the general Committee. Some French papers have 

 already condemned such practice in strong terms. No jury- 

 men will be appointed by the exhibitors, and the latter will have 

 no direct influence on the verdicts. It is proposed to consult 

 the Congress on certain measures of general interest, e.g. the 

 adoption of electrical units. The electric railway station will 

 be placed inside the building. For want of time, no viaduct 

 will be constructed, and the rails will be laid on the com- 

 mon roads. The space allotted to English exhibitors on the 

 ground-floor has been largely occupied. In addition to this 

 space each of the British light exhibitors wUl have on the upper 

 floor a special saloon to illuminate with his own system. The 

 right of publishing and selling the French Catalogue has been 

 purchased by the printers and publishers of La Nature, rue de 

 Fleurus. The sale of scientific papers will be authorised, but 

 will take place exclusively through their agency. 



In an old book — " Thomre Bartolini Acta Media et Philo- 

 sophica Hafniensa Anno 1674, 1675, et 1676," Herr Budde has 



