Sept. 20, 1877] 



NA TURE 



447 



man will not rest until he has at least attempted to reach the 

 loftiest summits on the earth, though we will venture to assert 

 that it will be long before anyone crushes down the snow on the 

 summit of Mount Everest. 



Since we last noticed the progress of the great Government 

 Map of Switzerland several further instalments of it have been 

 issued. In all 108 sheets have been published out of the 540 

 which will compose the map. Amongst the more recently- 

 published sheets the following will especially be found useful by 

 English travellers in Switzerland: — La Chaux de Fonds, Thun, 

 Engelberg, Wassen (embracing the Titlis cistrict), Guttanen 

 (with the basin of the Gauli glacier), and St. Mauritz (giving 

 the country round Pontresina) . The whole of the sheets as yet 

 published are most admirably drawn, and reflect the highest 

 credit on those who have been concerned in their production ; 

 and the celerity with which they are issued makes us desire that 

 a little more life could be infused into our own topographical 

 departments. 



Pbtermann's MiHheilun«en for October will contain a long 

 paper, embodying the results of considerable research, on the 

 German and Latin Elements among the Population of the South 

 Tyrol and Venetia. A new map of a large portion of Costa 

 Rica will show the results of the surveys of Gabb, Collins, and 

 Martinez. A letter from Dr. Schweinturth describes his journey 

 through the Arabian Desert of Egypt, from Heluan to Keneh, 

 between March 28 and May iS ol this year. He has obtained, 

 besides important topographical data, much valuable information 

 as to the geological and botanical conditions of the region. 



There is on view at present at the Alexandra Palace an 

 interesting collection of fourteen Nubians with a number of 

 animals, comprising six ostriches, six giraffes, five elephants, 

 twenty-one racing dromedaries, three rhinoceroses, two hunting 

 dogs, two Abyssinian spotted donkeys, four buffaloes, two zebus, 

 monkeys, &c. Some specimens of Cynocephalus gdada, which 

 are said to live from 7,000 feet to 11,000 feet high in the 

 Abyssinian hills are expected to follow. The European who 

 organised and accompanied the caravan for Messrs. Rice and 

 Plagenbeck, says that the men from the different tribes speak 

 different patois, so that he very often cannot understand them, 

 and they cannot unlerstand one another. The different districts 

 in which the various animals were captured does not, therefore, 

 seem to be known to the present owners. As to the men, they 

 have been interrogated as to their ages and the tribes to which 

 they belong. There are four Hadendoes aged fifteen, twenty- 

 three, twenty-three, and twenty-five. The characteristic manne'' 

 of dressing the hair is well seen in the three men, but the lad 

 does not seem to have adopted yet the artificial arrange- 

 ment. They are all tall, fine men. There are two Hallengas 

 from Cassala, aged twenty-two and twenty-four. The general 

 style of trimming the hair is much the same as of the Hadendoes, 

 but the "fringe" is much longer and stands away from the 

 head more. There are three of the Beni-Amer tribe, one of 

 whom, aged twenty-four, having fallen ill in Paris, had his hair 

 cut off; the "old man," aged thirty-two, wears a close white 

 cap, and he alone of the party can read and write ; while the 

 third retains his hair in its original state. Of the remaining six 

 men of the fourteen each represents a different tribe, and they 

 all differ in appearance and style of hair arrangement from those 

 tribes already mentioned. There is a Djaalein, aged twenty- 

 six ; a Homran, aged nineteen, who has the three rhinoceroses 

 under his special care, and which follow him and lick his 

 hand like pet lambs ; a man, aged twenty-seven, from Amara, 

 near Suakim ; and a Takrouri, twenty- five, who has twice been 

 to Mecca, the only one of the party who has ; and the Bara 

 "boy," who claims to be twenty-one. He has the negro hair 

 and lips, and a very contented look. All the men seem happy, 



and sing, laugh, smoke, and go through the mimic war, dromedary 

 racing, and their representation of crossing the desert with great 



delight. 



In a letter to yesterday's Times Mr. Henry Jeula, of Lloyd's, 

 gives some interesting data to show thit there is probably some 

 connection between sunspots and the number of wrecks posted 

 each year on Lloyd's Loss Book. His data are for two complete 

 cycles of eleven years, 1855-1S76, and the results Mr. Jeula has 

 worked out along with Dr. Hunter. Dividing the eleven years 

 as nearly as the number will allow, into three parts, and taking 

 the percentages of losses posted, Mr. Jeula finds a coincident 

 minimum period of four years at the extremities of the cycle, a 

 maximum period of three years in the centre of the cycle, and 

 an intermediate period of the four years lying between the maxi- 

 mum and minimum periods. Mr. Jeula expresses the hope that 

 the great practical importance of the theory of the connection 

 between sunspots and weather will lead to a full and exhaustive 

 examination of all the evidence bearing upon it. 



The exhibition of the Photographic Society of Great Britain 

 will be opened by a conversazione on Tuesday evening, October 

 9, at 5, Pall Mall, East 



In a paper presented recently to the philosophical faculty at 

 Heidelberg University, Herr Richard Boernstein has puMished 

 his investigations on the influence of light upon the electric resist- 

 ance of metals. Mr. Willoughby Smith had found that the 

 electric resistance of selenium, and in a much smaller degree that 

 of tellurium also, decreases under the influence of light. Herr 

 Boernstein has now made the interesting discovery that this pro- 

 perty also belongs to platinum, gold, and silver, most probably 

 to all metals, in fact. The electric current, according to Herr 

 Boernstein, diminishes the electric conducting power, as well 

 as the sensitiveness towards light, of its conductor, but after 

 cessation of the current, both gradually return to their former 

 values. 



Rock crystal seems to be growing more and more in favour 

 amongst technical men on account of the stability of its physical 

 properties. At the August meeting of the Bonn Society of 

 Naturalists it was reported that the directors of the Imperial 

 Mint of Germany have recently ordered of Herr Stern, at 

 Oberstein, several absolutely correct normal weights made of rock 

 crystal, which are to be used for the control of gold coins. These 

 weights have the great advantage that it is unnecessary to 

 aetermine the specific gravity of every weight, and in the case of 

 measures to find the thermal co-efficient of expansion of every 

 measure, as both are as near constant as possible. They have 

 been found the same in all the specimens of rock crystal yet 

 examined, viz., specific gravity at 0° C. = 2,6506 (reduced to 

 water at 4°C.); coefficient of expansion for 1° C, parallel to 

 the axis, 0'000OO75O inch, i.e., seventy-five ten-millionths of 

 an inch. 



At the same meeting Prof, vom Rath read a report from Dr. 

 Th. Wolf, the state geologist to the South American republic 

 of Ecuador, on the province of Esmeraldas (the norttiernmost 

 province of the republic), and on the rain of ashes which, 

 coming from the north-east, i.e., hoxa. the volcanic interior, 

 fell along the whole littorale of Guayaquil between June 26 

 and June 30. Dr. Wolf, after giving a general geological 

 description of Esmeraldas (in the auriferous sands of which 

 he discovered platinum), adds the following general remarks : — 

 Of all provinces of Ecuador Esmeraldas is the most uniform in 

 its relief and geological structure. It reaches from the coast of 

 the Pacific to the foot of the Andes. A great part of the pro- 

 vince is quite flat, particularly in the north ; another part is 

 traversed by low mountains, the highest points of which scarcely 

 reach 500 or 600 meters ; the average height of the UHs, how- 

 ever, is only 50-70 meters. The province is a magnificent 



