Meteorologie, 1881, xvi. 369; Naturforscher, 1882, No. 5.) 
During Baron Nordenskjold’s wintering nerr Puitlekaj, on the 
Cape Serze Kamen (near Behring Strait) in 1878-79, an ice-fog 
was formed by the north wind predominating there during the 
cold season, by which the aqueous vapour from Polynja was 
blown over the cold mainland. ‘This ice-fog rendered the ar 
opaque to such an extent that it was found necessary, in order to 
find the way, to spana rope from the ship to the observatory 
which was erected not far off on the sh_re. 
Heidelberg, February 11 HERMANN Korr 
Earthquake ia the Andaman Islards 
I sEE among the Notes in your last issue (p. 325) that there 
has been widespread seismic disturbance in Asia, including 
Ceylon, but unfortunately in no instance is the date given, 
which would have added very greatly to the value of the record. 
It may be interesting to give an extract from a letter I have just 
received from my brother, Mr. Harold Godwin-Au.ten, from 
Port Blair, Andaman Islands, which very } robably was con- 
nected with the disturbance in Ceylon, and if so, it covered a 
very considerable area of the earth’s surface, the distance being 
about 750 miles between the two places :—‘* Port Blair, January 
2.—We had a very bad earthquake here on December 31, 1881, 
at 7°52a.m. I thought the pl:ce was going to pieces. There 
has been a good deal of damage doue to work and pucca (brick) 
buildings, and we had five high and low tides in three hours 
after the shock, and the sea d.d not quiet down all day. Since 
then we have had two or three slight shocks.” 
Deepiale, Reigae, February9 H. I. Gopwin AusTEN 
The ‘‘Overflow Bugs” in California 
THE following experience from one of my correspondeuts, 
Mrs. A. E. Bush, of San José, Califorria, is, I think, well 
worth publishiaz, as showing how Ground-beetl.s may be so 
numerous as to become a nuisance to min, the Caribide gene- 
rally being indirectly beneficial to him by devouring plant-feeding 
species. The insect popularly denominated ‘* Overflow Buz” 
in California is the Platynus maculicollis, Ve} 
Washington, D.C. CONeERInEY 
“We lived in Fresno Co. two years, in the north-eastern 
part, and in the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada. Itis hot and 
dry there; no trees and many rocks where we were ; thermome- 
ter ranging from 96° to 108° for about three months. In Jane 
and July, when hottest and driest, the ‘* overflow bugs”’ filled 
the air between sunset and dark. You could not with safety 
open your mouth. They would light all over your clothes ; they 
filled the house ; they swarmed on the table, in the milk, sugar, 
flour, bread, and everywhere there was a crevice to get through. 
Take a garment from the wall, and you could shake out a cupfull. 
3t was a veritable plague. In a shed where the boards had 
shrunk and the cracks been battened, the spaces between the 
shruaken boards were packed full. ‘They were flyiug for about 
two weeks, and then they disappeared mo tly or they did not fly 
much, but were hidden uader papers, c'othing, and every avail- 
able place. In November, before the rains, they spread around, 
but not to fly ; make a light in the nizht, and you would see the 
floor covered ; lift up a rug, and the floor under would be black, 
and they would go scattering away for some other hidinz-place. 
J had occasion to take up a floor board after they had apparently 
disappeared, except stragglers. The hou,e was upon under- 
pinning two feet or more from the ground. When the boird 
was raised, there were the ‘overflow bugs’ piled up against a 
piece of uaderpinninz, making such a pile as a half bu hel of 
grain would make, They were all through the foot-hills the 
same, and much the same in Los Angelus, about Norfolk, but 
they did not fly much in the latter place. In Los Angelos they 
seemed to be wor.e before the ‘Santa Annas,’ a hot wind from 
the desert filling the air with sand; and though the chickens 
were ever so hungry for insevts, they would not eat the ‘ over- 
flow buzs.’ In the night you put up your hand to brush one 
from your face, and then you get up fur soap and water to cleanse 
your hand. In the morning, if you put on garments without 
shaking, you get them quickly off and shake them.” 
Solar Halo 
WE were favoured here on the 16th inst. with a view of a 
rather unusual phenomenon. Short'y after 8 a.m., the sky being 
NATURE 
PASS het 
a ae 
for the most part clear with detached masses of fleecy clouds 
towards the south, two mock suns appeared, one to the west 
very brilliant, the other rather fainter, and of a crimson shade at 
times. The halo was visible for a little distance near the 
western one, which, with the bar of light from the sun extending 
along the bank of cloud beyond, formed a perfect cross. They 
gradually waned, the eastern one, however, becoming once or 
twice more brilliant, till a little after 10, when the sky grew 
overcast and they disappeared. W. F. Evans 
Felsted, Essex 
Auroral Display 
AN auroral display was observed here last evening between 
7h. and 8h. ‘The sky was partially overcast during a portion of 
the time, but it cleared about 7h. 10om., when the northern 
quarter was lighted up by a bright glow of an aqua-marine line. 
Only three faint streamers were remarked. They were of a 
creamy-white c.lcur, and extended from the horizon in the 
direction of the magnetic north nearly to the zenith. Examining 
the auroral light with a direct-vision spectroscope by Hilger, I 
saw one remarkably distinct line, which was estimated to occupy 
the position of the characteristic line observed by Angstrom and 
others, between D and E. No other lines were visible. 
Bedford, February 21 Tuos. Gwyn ELGER 
A Plea for Jumbo 
WILL you open your columns to a short but earnest plea for 
poor Jumbo, of the Zoolugical Gardens? No one can read the 
description of the attempts made to remove him without feeling 
that it would be a disgrace to English lovers of animals to let 
him be transported. To outsiders it is a mystery that Mr. 
Barnum should have succeeded in purchasing him, and if some 
means are not discovered of sajisfying Mr. Barnum’s claims 
without doing violence to the public sentiment of humanity, it 
will be a cause of indignation to many of us. You should hear 
my wife talk ahout the matter, hut of course she i; only a 
woman, she is certainly not a ‘* Fellow.” In this case, however, 
it is possible that her womanly instinct is worth more respect 
than the motives which have led to the sale and purchase of our 
favourite quadrupedal fellow-citizen. 
» 
THE CHEMISTRY OF THE ATLANTIC* 
Ie 
N this work are collected and discussed the results of 
the chemical investigations on the nature of the water 
of the North Atlantic, made during the Norwegian expe- 
ditions of the summers 1876, 1877, and 1878. The con- 
tents of the volume are divided into three chapters—I. 
On the Air in Sea Water; IJ. On the Carbonic Acid in 
Sea Water; and III. On the Amount of Salt in the 
Water of the Norwegian Sea. It is therefore wholly con- 
cerned with the chemistry of the water; chemical re- 
searches in other directions are promised for a future 
volume. Although the subject is thus restricted, there is 
abundant matter of the greatest interest both from a 
chemical and from a geographical point of view. 
Apart from isolated experimeats, the first occasion on 
which the gaseous contents of sea-water were the object 
of systematic and successful study was during the German 
expeditions to the Baltic and the North Sea in 1871 and 
1872 in the Pomerania. In the Lightning and the Porcu- 
pine attempts had been made to examine the water in 
this direction, but the results were not satisfactory. In 
order to determine the gaseous contents of a sample of 
water it is necessary first to eliminate and separate the 
gas from the water, and then to analyse it; and these 
form two distinct operations—one, the former, of which 
can be carried out perfectly on board ship; the other 
requires the steadiness of a shore laboratory. On board 
the Lightning and the Porcupine the mistake was made 
of attempting the analysis as well as the extraction of the 
air on board. 
t The Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition, 1876-73. Chemistry. By 
Hercules Torn e, (Chris iania: Groendal and Son, 1880.) 
