August 9, 1877] 



NATURE 



297 



news, now one of the most important features in this valuable 

 journal. 



News has been received in Europe of an eruption of the 

 volcano Cotopaxi, near Quito. An immense quantity of ashes 

 was ejected, principally in the directon of Guayaquil, falling on 

 board ships sailing from Guayaquil to Panama. The distance 

 was, in some instances, reckoned at 1,000 miles. 



During the month of July an important series of longi- 

 tudinal measurements have been carried out between the Bureau 

 des Longitudes in Paris and the konigliches geodotisches Institut 

 in Berlin. The difference of longitude is now based on the 

 mean of twelve carefully carried out observations. A series of 

 observations between Paris and Bonn, and between Bonn and 

 Berlin, which are to be undertaken during the present month, 

 will act as a check on the work. 



We have received a " Sketch Guide to the Industrial Museum 

 of Glasgow," by Mr. James Paton, Superintendent of the Mu- 

 seum. As the museum is at present incomplete but rapidly 

 filling up, the Guide is only a temporary one. It is compiled on 

 a somewhat novel but instructive and intelligent plan. 



Seydel and Co.'s hammocks, to which we referred in a 

 recent number, have been awarded the gold medal forexellence 

 at the International Horticultural Exhibition, Oporto. 



We have received from the enterprising firm of Mawson and 

 Swan, of Newcastle, specimens of magic pens which not only 

 ■write without ink but in different colours. It is not necessary 

 that we should state the maty arguments advanced to prove their 

 vast superiority over those used at present, but it is very clear 

 that they will be very useful to travellers whether the arguments 

 in question are sound or otherwise. 



At a recent meeting of the Paris Geographical Society a letter 

 from M. C. Wiener, who is travelling in South America at the 

 expense of the French Government, was read, describing his 

 ascent, on May 19, of Mount lUimani, whose height he makes 

 out to be 20,112 feet. M. Wiener reached the summit, which 

 he named Pic de Paris. Mr. Minchin, however, a railway 

 engineer, who has been taking careful measurements of some of 

 the South American peaks, gives the height of lUimani as 

 21,224, Wiener's figure being obtained by aneroid and boiling 

 water. 



A MOVEMENT is on foot for a union of the natural history 

 societies in the Midland District on a similar basis to that which 

 has worked so well in the case of the West Riding Consolidated 

 Naturalists' Society. A number of societies, representing nearly 

 a thousand members, have given their adhesion to the move- 

 ment, and a meeting is to be held at the Birmingham Midland 

 Institute on August 28 to discuss the programme of the union, 

 the journal, and other matters. 



The pupils of the Parisian schools, wiio have obtained prizes 

 in their respective classes, are to be sent on a pleasure trip to the 

 seaside, under the direction of several masters, who are instructed 

 to give them lectures on the places they may be visiting. This 

 idea has been formerly acted on, but is now being tried on an 

 enlarged scale. 



The Japanese Government have built, at their own expense, 

 and through Japanese operatives, a war balloon. It has been 

 tried successfully at Tokio, and will be sent to the southern 

 army, which is directed against rebels. It is of thick silk, 

 magnificently made, and will be inflated with pure hydrogen. 



Parts 50 and 60, completing the fifth volume of Mr. H. E. 

 Dresser's great work on " The Birds of Europe," have been 

 issued ; and as there is but one more volume to come we may 

 look forward with confidence to the completion of the entire 



undertaking in the course of next year. The present issue con- 

 tains sixteen plates which are fully equal in accuracy and colour- 

 ing to any that have preceded them, the gulls and terns, of which 

 eight species are here figured, being especially beiutiful. A 

 provisional index to the five volumes now finished shows that 

 471 species of birds have now been figured and described. 



In the last number of the Zoologische Garten it is announced 

 that a second specimen of Arcliaopteryx lithographica had been 

 discovered. Twenty years have passed since the original and 

 hitherto unique example of this wonderful bird of bygone 

 days was obtained by Ernst Haeberlein in the quarries of 

 I'appenheim, near Solenhofen. The second specimen, dis- 

 covered in the same place and by the same observer, is said to 

 be much more perfect than the first, and to possess the entire 

 head — a knowledge of which is much wanted for the better 

 understanding of the affinities of this extraordinary organism. 



The electrical illumination of the Lyons railway station is 

 being completed. They are now using twelve electric lamps. This 

 number will be enlarged successively to twenty-four lamps, fed 

 with one light-producing and one light-distributing machine. It 

 is believed that twenty-two horse-power will give a power of 

 2,400 gas-lamps, using 100 litres each per hour. 



In a little official guide-book to the Rothesay Royal Aqua- 

 rium, Mr. Barker, the curator, has brought together, in a 

 popular and attractive form (for non-visitors as well as visitors), 

 a good deal of useful information about the various fishes. The 

 example is worthy of imitation. 



The news of the discovery of a perfect mammoth in Tomsk 

 is false. M. Polyakoff sent immediately by the St. Petersburg 

 Academy, writes that he found only a large piece of mammoth 

 flesh with skin and hair. 



We notice in the Memoirs of the St. Petersburg Academy, vol. 

 xix., an interesting Russian paper byM. S. Lopatin, "Some Notes 

 on the Ice-sheets in the Rocks of Eastern Siberia." The paper 

 is the result of widely-extended observations made by the author 

 during his numerous travels in Eastern Siberia (basin of Vitim, 

 luwer Yenissei, government Krasnoyarsk, &c. ), and on the 

 Sakhalin Island. 



The report of Dr. Schomburgk on the " Progress and 

 Condition of the Botanic Garden and Government Plantations " 

 at Adelaide, for 1876, has this year a similar feature to that of the 

 recently-noticed report of Kew, inasmuch as it is illustrated ; 

 but in the case of that of Adelaide, with eight photographic 

 views of different parts of the garden, external and internal 

 views of the new palm-house, &c. ; and a full description of this 

 building is given. With regard to the prosperity of the garden, 

 the greatest enemy. Dr. Schomburgk tells us, that it has had to 

 contend with has been a very severe frost. The lowest 

 temperature during the month of July was 28° Fahr., the lowest, 

 indeed, ever experienced in Australia by Dr. Schomburgk. As 

 might be imagined these severe frosts had a most disastrous effect 

 upon most of the tropical plants, more especially on species of 

 Fuus, many of which suffered so much that they were compelled 

 to be cut down to two-thirds of their size, so that it will be years 

 before they assume their former beauty, if ever they do. The 

 frost made itself felt even in the glass-houses, and blackened the 

 leaves of the plants standing near the glass, and the fountain 

 basins were all covered with ice. Amongst useful plants which 

 have occupied the attention of Dr. Schomburgk, the madder 

 (Kubia tinctorum) seems to be amongst the most successful, so 

 far as .its rate of growth is concerned. It is stated to grow so 

 vigorously about Adelaide that, " if not checked, it will become 

 a nuisance, spreading everywhere." Its value is stated to be 

 very great as a dye, and worth while cultivating, but we are under 

 the impression that the anihne dyes have, to a great extent, and 



