132 
A VIGOROUS attempt is being made to establish a Museum, 
principally ia connection with Geology, Mineralogy, and 
Natural History, at the Giggleswick Grammar School, under the 
management of Mr. Style. The Settle Cave Exploration Com- 
mittee have sent for the Museum the collection of fossils and 
ovher remains obtained from the Victoria Cave. The collection 
is of great and increasing scientific value, for the exploration of 
the cave is still going on under the auspices of the Local Com- 
mittee and of the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science. 
IN inserting in last week’s Les Mondes along and deservedly 
laudatory article from Ze Francais, on himself and his recently- 
started ‘‘ Salledes Progrés,” I’Abbé Moigno expresses a fear that 
he may be compelled to give up the project on which he has so 
enthusiastically entered, from want of means. We sincerely 
hope this may not be the sad end of the noble effort made by 
the Abbé to benefit his fellow-citizens. 
THE following is from the Ztmes:—‘*A despatch from De- 
troit, Michigan, states that on the night of November 25, Prof. 
Watson, of the Ann Arbor Observatory, discovered a new planet 
in the constellation Taurus. Its R.A.is 65° 25’; D. 19° 34’ 
N. It shines like a star of the tenth magnitude. Its motion is 
nearly parallel with tae equator.” 
Pro, Perers has named the two planets lately discovered by 
him (Nos, 122 and 123) Gerda and Brunhilda, and communi- 
cates to the American Fournal of Science the elements of their 
orbits. The orbit of Gerda is remarkable for having both the 
inclination and eccentricity very small—a coincidence not found 
in any other known asteroids except in the case of Clytia. The 
planet No. 124 is now known as Aleste, and at the time of Prof, 
Peters’s communication had the appearance of a star of a little 
less than the eleventh magnitude, 
THE Naples correspondent of the Zimes states that for some 
time previous to her death Mrs. Somerville was engaged in 
writing her own life. 
WE learn from the School Board Chronicle that the Nether- 
lands Association for the promotion of labour and industry has 
awarded a gold medal to Madame Elise van Calcar, a well- 
known Dutch authoress, for her solution of the following prize 
question .—‘‘ How should girls be taught and educated so as to 
enable unmarried women to earn an independent livelihood, and 
the married to bring prosperity and happiness to their respective 
families ?” 
THE Garden says that the Royal Botanical Society of Belgium 
and the Botanical Society of France have just decided to make 
in common a scientific excursion next spring in the valleys of the 
Meuse and Scheldt. 
THE British Medical Fournal says a project is on foot to 
resume the publication of an Hospital gizette in Dublin, con- 
taining only original scientific matter. It would be published 
twice amonth, would consist of sixteen pages only, and would 
be issued at an annual subscription of half-a-guinea. 
THE existence of such a Society as the New Zealand Insti- 
tute reflects the highest credit on our antipodal fellow-subjects, 
who, in their hard fight to make a home for themselves on the 
other side of the world, do not neglect the means of furthering 
their highest interests. The institution is a Government one, 
and was established under the provisions of the New Zealand 
Institute Act, 1867, of the General Assembly of that colony. 
It is the a/ma mater of all the societies in the colony that are 
NATURE 
[Dec. 19, 1872 | 
devoted to the promotion of ‘‘science, literature, or art.” 
These societies are incorporated or affiliated with it, and include 
the Otago Institute, the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 
the Auckland Institute, the Wellington Philosophical Society, — 
and the Nelson Association for the Promotion of Science and 
Industry, representing all the leading provinces of New Zealand. 
The ordinary membership amounts to.600, and includes all the 
leading colonists residing in different parts of the several pro- 
vinees. The Institute possesses a museum, laboratory, and 
library, which, with the work therein, are so organised and 4 
utilised for the benefit of the general public that they constitute 
in combination an important ‘‘ Technical College,” located at 
Wellington—a formidable, but, we hope, friendly rival to the 
recently established “ University of Otago,” which aims at 
becoming, among other things, an eminent school of applied 
science. The college is also the head-quarters of the Govern- 
meat Geological Survey, the chief members of the staff of which 
are professors to the Technical College, the lectures being of 
two kinds, general and practical. Tae former include natural 
history (zoology and botany, with their relations to physical geo- 
graphy and geology) and the elements of experimental science — j 
(physics, chemistry, and mineralogy). The practical is, in the 
meantime, ‘confined to mineralogy and chemistry. Since the ‘ 
New Zealand Institute was established, in 1867, it has published 
no less than four bulky annual volumes, containing papers 
mostly of a scientific kind, many of which contain substantial 
contributions to science. All this promises well for the future 
welfare of the colony. 
WE have received part 1 of vol. ii. of the ‘‘ Transactions of 
the Edinburgh Geological Society,” embracing the period be- 
tween November 1869 and April 1872. It contains a number 
of very interesting and valuable papers on the geology of various _ 
districts of Scotland, including one by Sir Rode:ick I. Murchi- 
son, on the structure of the North-West Highlands, said to be. 
the last geological paper written by Sir Roderick, 
“et 
™ 
M. Cotas, of Paris, comments in Zes A/ondes of December 
12, on M. A. Lallemande’s paper on the blue colour of the at- — 
mosphere, in which it was attributed to a change of refrangibility _ 
due to a partial absorption of the chemical or ultra-violet rays. 
In 1870 M. Collas, ia an article in Les Aondes, attributed the 
blue colour of the Lake of Geneva and other waters to the 
quantity of silex held in solution, which is brought down by 
the tributary streams from the strata through which they pass, 
Numerous observations since have induced him to believe that 
the blue colour of all the water of the globe is due to the same 
cause. The air everywhere always contains more or less of © 
moisture due to evaporation from the water of the earth, the 
water thus evaporated always contains a greater or less quantity © 
of extremely fine insoluble particles. Silex, says M. Collas, is 
one of the most common insoluble substances in nature, and 
through evaporation, performs the same function in the blue sky 
that he believes it does in the blue waters of the earth, Hebe- — 
lieves his theory is confirmed by the intense blue of southern 
skies, where evaporation is so much greater than in the colder — 
north. 
THE question has often been debated whether flies eat the 
pollen of plants, or merely carry it away accidentally on their 
legs and backs. The question would appear to be set at rest by 
a paper read at the last meeting of the Scientific Committee of 
the Royal Horticultural Society by Mr. A. W. Bennett, in which 
it is stated, as the result both of his own observations and of 
those of Erm. Miiller, that the microscopic examination of the 
stomachs of Diptera belonging to the order Syrphids, sho 
them to contain large quantities of pollen-grains, especially of 
plants belonging to the order,Composite, Entomologists had 
