92 



NATURE 



{May 31, 1877 



"Summer Schools" are becoming a regular institution in 

 America, and no more pleasant way could be devised of com- 

 bining the didct and the utile than that of a proposed aquatic 

 summer school of natural history, whicli, underthe directionof Prof. 

 Theodore B. Comstock, of Cornell University, expects to charter 

 a large steamer, and spend the summer around the shores of Lake 

 Superior in the study of the geology and natural history of that 

 region. The sttamer will accommodate from seventy-five to one 

 hundred passengers, to be made up of students and professors. 

 Regular instruction will be given in the form of lectures during 

 the voyage, and every facility afforded by the examination of 

 mining localities and the like. The vessel will probably start 

 from Cleveland or Detroit on July 7, and proceed thence to 

 Lake Superior, making its full circumnavigation. The coast of 

 Georgian Bay, on Lake Huron, will be investigated on the return 

 voyage. The expense will probably amount to about 125 dollars 

 for each person. In addition to the aquatic summer school men- 

 tioned above. Harvard University announces two special summer 

 courses of instruction, one in zoology and the other in geology. 



The progress of industry in France (denoting by industry the 

 working of raw material) has l:>een very rapid, much more 

 rapid, proportionally, than that of agriculture. We learn from 

 La Nature, that in half a century, the employment of cast iron, 

 so necessary to industry, has been multiplied tenfold, and 

 that of coal twenty-fold. The total power of steam-engines 

 has increased in still greater proportion ; it is at least thirty 

 times greater than it was in 1S40. Going further back, the 

 proportion would be less interesting, as steam was used in 

 but few establishments. In 1S20 there were only sixty-five 

 steam-engines in the whole of France. As an acquisition 

 of material force these engines represent in value at least 

 25 million workmen, added to the 10 million who labour in 

 workshops, and to the motor forces furnished by nature gra- 

 tuitously, air and water. There are in France nearly 40,000 

 weirs, the falls from which work more than So,ooo mills of 

 every kind, and this number might be doubled. In some parts, 

 lastly, they are beginning to utilise the force of the tide. 



At a recent meeting of the French Physical Society M. Gouy 

 gave an account of experiments he had made on flames produced 

 by a mixture of air and coal-gas, holding in suspension pul- 

 verised metallic salts. The salts, dissolved in water, uere intro- 

 duced by a pulveriser, acting with air compressed to half an 

 atmosphere. In these flames the blue surface of the interior 

 cone, which gives the spectrum of carbon, gives also the lines 

 proper to the salt which the flame contains. These lines are 

 not visible beyond this part, and they coincide with the prin- 

 cipal lines of the metal in the electric spark. The metals 

 sodium, strontium, magnesium, lithium, manganese, iron, co- 

 balt, bismuth, cadmium, zinc, and osmium give this phenomenon 

 distinctly. Platinum gives a special spectrum farmed of regular 

 bands. These experiments seem to prove that there is at the 

 base of the flame a very fine layer which has a temperature much 

 higher than the flame properly so-called. 



The exploration of the Angara, proposed by tlie Russian 

 Geographical Society, has taken a yet larger extension. M. 

 Sibiryakoff, who has presented a gift of 2,000 roubles, proposes 

 to undertake also the exploration of the water-parting between 

 the Obi and Jenissei, to solve the question of the practicability 

 of a canal between the two rivers. Owing to the great com- 

 mercial importance of such a canal, the Geographical Society 

 has agreed to the proposal of M. Sibiryakoff, and will send an 

 expedition for that purpose. 



Near Lake Ourmia (N.W. Persia), a hill near Digaia is irre- 

 gularly excavated by a number of galleries for its nitrous earth, 

 strongly impregnated with saltpetre. This loose, friable soil. 



of brownish colour, in irregular horizontal beds, includes 

 layers of a mostly amber-brown earth, with layers of bone- 

 ash, intermixed with large and small fragments of human 

 bones, charred remains of straw, and thin seams of carbonised 

 seeds of cereals. Fragments of burnt earthenware are scattered 

 through this bed, and through the whole of the hill. Nearly in 

 the middle of the hill is a conical hollow, cylindrical above, and 

 becoming narrower upwards, like the inside of a high furnace. 

 The inner wall shows four or five ranges of repositories, several 

 feet distant from each other, and made of slabs of eocene sand- 

 stone, about \\ ft. broad. These slabs of a rust-brown colour, 

 bear evident traces of having been exposed to a fierce fire ; and 

 the whole chamber may thus be inferred to have served for a 

 furnace to burn dead bodies. This view is confirmed by the 

 traditions still extant among the surrounding people. Fragments 

 of large pot -like vases, and of coffins made of slabs of sandstone, 

 both inclosing an earthy residuum, mixed with fragments of 

 skulls and bones show that in tlie same place, burials have been 

 effected without cremation. The abundance of saltpetre in the 

 soil of the hill has probably been derived from the nitrogen set 

 free by the decomposition of organic remains. 



The Phoimium tenax or New Zealand Flax, is, it is said, 

 being largely planted in St. Helena, on behalf of a fibre company, 

 who propose so to plant all the Government waste lands in the 

 island. 



We have received from Dr. Petermann a very useful map 

 issued in connection with the Russo-Turkish war. Its purpose 

 is to show at a glance the relative position of the boundaries of 

 Russia, Turkey, Persia, and British India. It extends from 

 Bosnia to Central Asia, and from the north of the Black and 

 Caspian Seas to the Indian Ocean, and includes enlarged special 

 maps of the Nile Delta and of Crete. 



The first field-day of the Liverpool Geological Society was 

 held on Saturday last. The members and their friends pro- 

 ceeded to Crosby by rail and from thence by 'bus through 

 Little Crosby, Hightown, Altcar, DownhoUand, Has Rayne, 

 to Hallsall, and back again through Lydiate and MaghuU 

 to Sefton, wheie they had tea and examined the church. 

 The object of the visit was to examine the great post-glacial 

 deposits of the West Coast of Lancashire. The party was 

 guided by Mr. T. Mellard Reade, C.E., F.G.S., who described 

 the succession of the beds and their superficial extension. He 

 explained that what they had seen was only a part of a very 

 extensive series of deposits surrounding our coasts and found at 

 most estuaries. The society last May examined a portion of the 

 same series disclosed by the North Dock excavations, and the 

 present excursion would enable them to better understand this 

 most interesting part of the geology of Lancashire. At the Alt 

 Mouth was found a peat and forest bed between high and low 

 water-mark washed daily by the tide. The moss land between 

 the inland edge of the 25-leet plain was only an extension of 

 this sub,narine forest whicli passes under the sand hills and joins 

 the moss. Under the moss lies the main silts with here and 

 there some freshwater deposits on the surface. 



Some interesting disclosures were made last week at the 

 Marlborough Street Police Court as to the method on which 

 certain war^maps are constructed. A certain publisher, ^whose 

 name is probably unfamiliar to most of our readers, has 

 published one of those exaggerated pictorial maps of the seat 

 of war so attractive to the indlscriminating public. We 

 have seen the map, and a very misleading and rude specimen 

 of cartography it is. Its natural defects are bad enough, 

 but it came out during the proceedings that intentional 

 errors— names of non-existing places and wrong positions 

 of existing places, were introduced for the purpose of detecting 



