36 
NATURE 
[May 11, 1899 
phenomena produced by ether waves, and the action of the 
waves on a microphonic coherer across intervening space. 
Electric waves as such were then unknown to science, so that 
Prof. Hughes apparently anticipated Hertz’s brilliant dis- 
coveries. He also conducted experiments on wireless signalling 
on a considerable scale. In 1879, 1880, and 1888, he demon- 
strated to several eminent men of science his experiments 
upon aerial transmission of signals by means of the extra 
current produced from a small coil, and received upon a semi- 
metallic microphone, the results being heard upon a telephone 
in connection with the receiving microphone. The trans- 
mitter and receiver were in different rooms, about 60 feet 
apart, but signals were also received up to a distance of 500 
yards, and an attempt was made to signal between houses a mile 
apart. Prof. Hughes considered that the results were produced 
‘by aérial electric waves ; and it was because he was unable to 
demonstrate the actual existence of these waves that his 
investigations were never published. 
A Goon instance of the manner in which ‘‘ sea-serpent ” 
myths originate is afforded by certain paragraphs which have 
recently appeared in the Australian papers. In its issue of 
February 23 the Melbourne 4ygus announced the discovery at 
Suwanaw Island, by the officer of a local steamer, of the remains 
of a sea-monster that had been stranded there some two months 
previously. The creature was said to be in sucha bad condition 
that collecting its remains was a most trying task; but ‘‘ two 
heads, the two backbones, and part of the ribs” were secured. 
It was stated that there was ‘‘ but one body, which had a double 
spine, and two distinct heads”; while the approximate weight 
of the animal was estimated at not less than 70 tons, and 
its length fully 60 feet! In the issue of the following day the 
skulls were said to be about 3 feet long, and to carry a pair of 
tusks at the tip of the lower jaw. On March 2 the same paper 
published an announcement that Mr. E. Waite, of the Australian 
Museum, had identified the remains as those of a ‘‘ Zithoid ’’ — 
obviously a misprint for ‘* Ziphioid.” It would thus appear that 
the alleged double-headed monster of 70 tons weight and 
60 feet length was based on two carcases of one of the species 
of Beaked Whales which are of such comparatively common 
occurrence on the Australian coasts, and the largest of which is 
not known to exceed 30 feet in length ! 
AT the last meeting of the Anatomical Society of Great 
Britain and Ireland, Dr. Elliot Smith settled a point in the 
comparative morphology of the brain, which at one time was the 
subject of a heated controversy between Huxleyand Owen. In 
1861, it may be remembered, Owen maintained that the calcar 
avis and the calcarine fissure which causes it, were characters 
peculiar to the brain of man ; a statement which Huxley showed 
to be untrue, the formations being well-marked in all Primate 
brains. Dr. Elliot Smith has reached the further generalisation 
that the calcar avis is a character shown by all mammalian 
brains, with the possible exception of the Prototherian. He 
identifies, and the reasons for this identification do not seem 
capable of refutation, the calcarine fissure of the Primate 
brain with the splenial fissure of the brain of other mammals. 
This generalisation will materially assist in homologising the 
Primate and Unguiculate pa//um. 
In a paper on “‘ The Western Interior Coal-field of America,” 
by Mr. H. Foster Bain, read at a recent meeting of the North 
of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, the 
author refers to the estimated area of the coal-fields of the United 
States as being from 200,000 to 300,000 square miles. In this 
estimate tracts of Mesozoic as well as Carboniferous coal-bearing 
strata are included. The Western Interior coal-field occupies a 
portion of the western half of the Mississippi valley, and is the 
NO. 1541, VOL. 60] 
third in point of production in the United States. Its yield in 
1897 was over thirteen million tons. The strata are all grouped 
as Carboniferous, although some of the higher portions have been 
regarded as Permo-Carboniferous. Correlations based on fossil 
evidence are said to be of doubtful value, as the common fossil 
of the upper strata occur well down in the lower beds, With 
regard to the coal-seams, all grades from semi-anthracite to free- 
burning non-coking coal occur, including gas-coal, cannel, and 
coking-coals. 
THE detailed petrographical description of some rock-speci- 
mens from Ceylon forms the subject of an interesting paper, by 
Herr Max Diersche, in the Jahrbiich der k. k. geol. Reichsan- 
stalt, Bd, xlviii. Hft. 2 (Wien, 1898). The work is based on 
material collected by Prof. F. Zirkel during the winter of 1894, 
and the rock-types described include normal granulite, pyroxene- 
granulite, gneiss, granite, limestone, and quartzite. An interest- 
ing section is devoted to a description of the plumbago of 
Ragedara and its inclusions, The author remarks on the pecu- 
liar occurrence of the graphite at this locality in the form of 
ramifying veins of varying thickness, sharply marked off at the 
margins from the surrounding matrix of granulite and pyroxene- 
granulite. The peculiar mineral and rock inclusions which 
occur in the graphite veins are dealt with at length, and the 
paper concludes with a brief discussion of some of the theories 
that have been brought forward to account for the origin of 
the graphite. This number of the /ahrdzich contains also a 
geological description of the southern part of the Karwendel 
Alps, by Herrn Ampferer and Hammer. The region comprised 
is situated immediately to the north of the Inn valley in the 
neighbourhood of Innsbruck, and is one which, from its com- 
plex relations of structure and facies, offers many difficult 
problems for geological elucidation. But the authors, with 
limited time at their disposal, have dealt in a comprehensive 
manner with the stratigraphy and tectonic relations of this com- 
plicated area ; and their paper, illustrated by numerous diagrams 
and accompanied by a coloured geological map, should prove 
of value to students of Alpine geology. 
ANOTHER important contribution to our knowledge of the 
geology of the Alps appears in the Verhandlungen of the above 
institution (December 1898), where Dr. E. Shellwien records 
the discovery of a typical marine Permo-Carboniferous fauna 
in the neighbourhood of Neumarktl, in the Eastern Alps. This 
occurs at the horizon of the light /zsz/za-limestone of the 
Carnic Alps, and there is evidence that in this region there has 
been uninterrupted deposition from the middle of the Upper 
Carboniferous into the Lower Permian. The author is led to 
regard this Permo-Carboniferous limestone as the equivalent of 
the Cusel beds of Germany. The fauna includes new and in- 
teresting forms, and among the Brachiopoda some remarkable 
types are found to occur. Besides representatives of the genera 
Scacchinella and Meekella, a new genus, 7eeulifera, is present 
in abundance. It is characterised by a peculiar mode of 
growth of the larger valve, the lateral margins of which over- 
lap the smaller valve, and, by their continued growth, ultimately 
envelop the latter completely. The discovery of this compara- 
tively rich fauna corroborates in the fullest manner the views ~ 
for some time held by Stache regarding the true age of the 
upper /%sz/¢7a-limestone stage in the Carnic and Julian Alps. 
WE have received a copy of the Second Annual Report of the 
Geological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope for 1897, 
and published in 1898. This contains a first instalment of the 
geological map, neatly printed in colours, and including great 
part of the Colony eastwards to Cape Infanta and Ladismith, 
and northwards to Cape Columbine and Laingsburg. The map, 
which is on a scale of about an inch to 12 miles, is the work of 
Messrs. A. W. Rogers and E. H. L. Schwarz ; and it is accom- 
