Nov. 17, 1881 | 
NATURE 
5g 
Dee eee ee — 
“T am sorry to say that the ‘ fish booming and 
drumming,’ described by Charles Kingsley, was not to be 
heard. Either we were there at the wrong season, or the 
fish had been driven away by the use of dynamite. From 
all I heard, the sound was identical with that produced 
by the drum-fish so common in the Indian river of 
Hinda.” 
ROBERT MALLET, F.R.S. 
HIS eminent engineer, whose researches on earth- 
quakes are so well known to scientific men, died on 
the 5th inst. at the age of seventy-one. During his very 
active career he accomplished a vast amount of work, of 
which his “ Earthquake Catalogue” and other published 
books and memoirs form the best monument. 
Robert Mallet was born in Dublin on June 3, 1810. 
He was descended from the representative of a Devon- 
shire family who had settled in Ireland, his father being 
the owner and manager of an engineer’s factory. During 
childhood Robert Mallet appeared to be of weakly 
constitution, but he grew up to be a man with great 
powers of endurance. His taste for science was exhibited 
at a very early period, and before he had reached the age 
of twelve years he had established a laboratory in his 
father’s house, where he delighted in performing chemi- 
cal experiments. After being taught in a private school 
in Dublin, and making a tour on the Continent, he 
entered as a student at Trinity College, Dublin, and 
in 1830 completed his studies there by taking his M.A. 
degree. In 1831 he made an extended tour on the 
Continent, and, upon his return, married, and entered 
into partnership with his father. From this time 
forth he was busily engaged in various engineering pro- 
jects both in the capital and in various parts of Ireland. 
Private study and research were, however, by no means 
neglected during these busy times, and in the very year 
of his commencing business we find him publishing his 
first paper on the motion of glaciers. He had before 
this time been elected a member of the Royal Irish 
Academy. In 1839 Mallet was elected a member of 
the Institute of Civil Engineers, and in the same year 
made his important invention of “buckled plates,” an 
invention which was not patented till 1852, the patent 
being prolonged in 1866. It was in 1846 that Mallet 
published his first paper on Earthquake Phenomena; this 
memoir, which appeared in the Philosophical Magazine, 
gave a simple explanation of the supposed ‘‘vorticose 
movements ’’ during earthquakes, and two years later a 
paper in the Zvramsactions of the Royal Irish Academy 
contained a full exposition of his views on the wave- 
movement in earthquakes, with which every one is now 
familiar. During subsequent years Mallet published in 
the British Association Reports bis papers, which aimed 
at drawing up a complete catalogue of earthquakes, with 
various contributions to seismology and seismometry. In 
1857 occurred the great earthquake in the Neapolitan 
territory, and in the following year Mr. Mallet was com- 
missioned by the Royal Society to proceed to the district 
and to study its effects. 
The results of his observations were published in two 
volumes in 1862. In 1858 the Earthquake Catalogue 
was completed by Robert Mallet with the aid of his son, 
now Prof. J. W. Mallet of Virginia. About this time we 
find Mallet engaged in experiments upon artillery, and in 
calling attention to a new gun which he had invented, 
but which never seems to have been of much practical 
utility. In 1872 Mallet laid before the Royal Society a 
memoir, to which he had evidently, during many years, 
devoted much time and labour ; it was entitled “On 
Volcanic Energy,an Attempt to Develop its True Nature 
and Cosmical Relations.” 
Whatever differences of opinion may be entertained as. 
to the truth of the theory which is there sought to be 
established, there can be none whatever as to the value of 
the experiments which constitute its basis, or of the im- 
portant influence which it has exercised upon geological 
thought and speculation. This important memoir, which 
was published in the Phdlosophical Transactions, has 
been translated into German by Prof. von Lasaulx, who 
has added a valuable commentary to it. 
During the later years of his life, Mallet, who had 
removed from Dublin to London, was afflicted with 
almost total blindness, but he nevertheless continued to 
make occasional contributions to bis favourite branches 
of science. Altogether he was the author of more than 
seventy memoirs, besides separately published works. 
Mr. Mallet was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 
1854 and of the Geological Society in 1859 ; in 1877 he 
was awarded the Wollaston medal of the latter society. 
THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN‘ 
NDER the above striking title we have an account 
of the Peninsula of Scandinavia and of the life of 
its people, based on a series of journeys made at different 
times from 1871 to 1878, by Mr. Paul Du Chaillu. It is 
pleasant to meet with an author, already so well known 
for his travels in Equatorial Africa on new ground, and 
to find that his journeyings on virgin soil and among wild 
and savage races have not unfitted him for the study of 
the physical characteristics of an old country, and of the 
manners and customs of its inhabitants. The reader of 
these two handsome and well-illustrated volumes may 
form some notion of the extent of ground traversed 
during a five-years’ sojourn, from the tracings of the 
author’s routes on the map appended to the first volume. 
Not only was the country travelled over from north to 
south and from east to west, but the coast-line from 
Haparanda to the extreme north-eastern point of Nor- 
way, a distance of 3200 miles, was observed, the greater 
part of it both in winter and in summer, and over 3000 
miles of fjords were sailed along. The illustrations are 
most frequently from photographs, but those representing 
Lapland winter scenes are the work of a Swedish artist. 
A great many pages of this work, while pleasant read- 
ing, will not afford much new information to the reader 
who may have already travelled in Sweden or Norway. 
The route from London to Goteborg, Stockholm with 
its beautiful suburbs, Upsala, Christiania, Bergen, the 
Dovrefeld, the splendid scenes of the Romsdal; these 
and a few more well-known routes and places are all 
within the compass of an ordinary summer's tour; but 
Du Chaillu has told of these all in an attractive and 
appreciative manner, and he treats of many such only by 
the way as he journeys on to places seldom visited even 
by the sportsman in pursuit of game. He gives a good 
deal of interesting information about the Laplanders. 
The Lapps are described as kind-hearted, dirty people. 
Their life during summer is a very hard one. They have 
to follow their reindeer day and night, lest the herds 
should wander. Coffee was their principal drink, mixed 
with the thick reindeer’s milk. They were a fair-haired 
and fair-skinned people, with blue eyes, prominent cheek- 
bones, and the nose ve¢voussé. The men were from four 
feet five to five feet and one-quarter inch in height, and 
three women measured four feet and one-quarter, four 
feet and three-quarters, and four feet six and three- 
quarters of an inch in height respectively. It was at the 
Lapp village of Jockmock that Prof. Baron von Diiben, 
so well known and appreciated in this country for his 
writings, was met with. He was engaged in the study of 
the Lapps when Du Chaillu, fatigued and hungry, found 
himself entering the station. Longing to see a human 
I “The Land of the Midnight Sun: Summer and Winter Journeys 
through Sweden, Norway, Lapland, and Northern Finland. With Descrip- 
tions of the Inner Life of the People, their Manners and Customs, the 
Primitive Antiquities, &c.’’ By Paul B. Du Chaillu. In two volumes, 
with map and 235 illustrations. (London: John Murray, 1881.) 
