540 
ENTOMOLOGISTS generally, as well as those more particularly 
interested from their geographical position, will be pleased to 
learn that the long-expected Yorkshire List of Lepidoptera—on 
which Mr. Geo. T. Porritt, F.L.S., of Huddersfield, has for 
some time past been engaged—is now completed, and that the 
MS. is now being set up for the Zyansactions of the Vorkshire 
Naturalists Union. Mr. Porritt, who has been assisted by the 
leading entomologists of the county, and who has also paid 
attention to the literature of the subject, has written what will 
probably be regarded as one of the best county catalogues of 
Lepidoptera extant. The diversity of soil and climate, geological 
and physical conformation, for which Yorkshire is famous, is once 
more illustrated by the richne-s in species which the lepidopterous 
fauna shows, 1344 out of the 2031 species recognised as British 
finding places in Mr. Porritt’s catalogue 
THE following occurrence is worth notice :—The Weymouth 
and Channel Islands Steam Packet Company’s mail steamer 
Aguila \eft Weymouth at midnight on Friday for Guernsey and 
Jersey on her pas-age across Channe]. The weather was calm 
and clear, and the sea was smooth. When about one hour out 
the steamer was struck violently by mountainous seas, which 
sent her on her beam ends and swept her decks from stem to 
stern. ‘The water immediately flooded the cabivs and engine- 
room, entering through the skylights, the thick glass of which 
was smashed. As the decks became clear of water, the bulwarks 
were found to be broken in several places, one of the paddle- | 
boxes was considerably damaged, the iron rail on the bridge was 
completely twisted, the pump was broken and rendered useless, 
the skylight of the ladies’ cabin was completely gone, and the 
saloon skylight was smashed to atoms. The cabins were baled 
out with buckets, while tarpaulins were placed over the skylights | 
for protection. Fives minutes after the waves had struck the 
steamer the sea became perfectly calm. Several of the crew 
were knocked about, but none were seriously injured. 
AT 10 p.m. on March 27 an earthquake occurred inand around 
the town of Miskolcz, Hungary. 
shocks, and so distinctly were they felt that in the theatre, where 
the performance was going on, a panic ensued, the entire 
audience rising and rushing in terror towards the outlets. Many 
persons were injured, but, happily, no lives were lost. An 
earthquake was observed on March 12 in various parts of | 
Italy. Reports now state that it was principally noticed in the 
Pellice valley, in the Po district, at Gessi, Varcita, Stura, and 
Coni. The direction of the shocks was from N.E. to S.W. 
In the plains the shocks were far less severe than in the moun- 
tains, where the foundations of the houses were shaken. Nobody, 
however, was hurt. 
AN interesting discovery has been made at St. Pierre Quiberon 
(department of Morbihan), It consists of a new dolmen, one of 
those stone monuments of grey antiquity. It contained several 
entire human skeletons, besides a number of skulls, stone axes, 
a bronze pin, and some fragments of vessels. 
THE large gold Cothenius medal, which the Imperial 
“ Leopoldinisch-Carolinische ” German Academy of Naturalists 
at Halle awards every year, has this time been given to Prof. F. 
Eilhard Schulze of Graz. 
THE Berlin Mining Academy has purchased for the Mineralo- 
gical Museum of this Institution a so-called lightning tube or 
fulgurite, which was recently found near Warmbruon. It 
measures nearly 2 metres in length. It is specially interesting, 
inasmuch as it shows a branch formation, about 30 centimetres 
from its end, measuring half a metre in length, The fulgurite 
was found after a seveve thunderstorm in a sandhill and in a 
vertical position. 
There were two separate | 
NATURE 
* [April 5, 1883 
A BRILLIANT meteor was observed at Carlsruhe on March 5 
at 8.9 p.m. It was about twice as bright as Venus at her 
greatest brilliancy. Its direction was S.S.W. to N.N.E. ; it 
left a trail of yellowish red colour and of several degrees in 
length. The phenomenon finally disappeared in the constellation 
of Cassiopeia, developing little cloudlets at its disappearance. 
AT Salez (canton of St. Gallen) some sixty bronze hatchets 
have been found imbedded in the ground only one metre deep. 
Their age is stated to be at least 2500 years. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include an Arabian Baboon (Cynocephalus hama- 
dryas 2) from Arabia, presented by Mr. F. E. Goodner; a 
Sharp-tailed Grouse (Zetrao phasianellus) from North America, 
presented by Mr. Henry Na-h; two Sea Mice (Aphrodite 
aculata) from British Seas, pre-ented by Mrs. A. Browning; 
an Olive Weaver Bird (Hyfhantornis capensis) from South 
Africa, presented by Mr. Edward Ling ; two Bonnet Monkeys 
(Macacus radiatus § 2) from India, deposited; a Red-vented 
Parrot (Pionus menstruus) from South America, a Sordid Parrot 
(Pionus sordidus) from Venezuela, purchased; a Long-eared 
Fox (Otocyon lalandii) from South Africa, received on approval ; 
a Sambuc Deer (Cervus aristotels?), an Axis Deer (Cervus 
axis? ), born in the Gardens, 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 
‘THE GREAT COMET OF 1882.—Herr Stechert has continued 
his ephemeris of this comet from the elliptical elements by Dr. 
Kreutz, which still agree pretty nearly with observations. We 
extract as follows :— j 
At Berlin, Midnight 
R.A. Decl. Log. distance from 
: hm? “s: PD, Earth. un. 
April 9 ... § 59 32 ... —8 43°1 ... 0°5973 ... 075787 
Lise-.) 0) 10130 8 295 
TSis L130 8 16°5 ... 0°6084 ... 075843 
15... — 2 33 8 39 
1 ae aati he rf 7 519 ... O6191 ... 075898 
19 .. 4 43 7 40°4 
QT... = 1th) SO! ree 7 29°3 ... 076294 ... 0°5952 
23) 75 On sOR 7 188 
25). — 6 10 7 8°7 ... 010399 ....0 0005 
2 ie COE22 oer OOO T 
29... =10 35°... °6 50'0 ... 1016487 <2 O:60h7 
May. 1, .l6 ar 50); 6041-3 
Assuming the intensity of light = 1, on February 8, when Prof. 
Schmidt last saw the comet with the naked eye at Athens, the 
intensity on April 9 wild be 0°234, and on April 29, 07163. 
From September 8, the date of the first accurate observation 
at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, to the middle 
of last month, the comet had described a heliocentric or orbital 
arc of 339°; no other comet since the celebrated one of 1680 
has passed over so large an arc of its orbit while under observa- 
tion, Between Kirch’s first observation on the morning of 
November 14, 1680, and the last observation by Sir Isaac 
Newton on March 19, 1681, that body traversed a helicentric 
arc of 345°. 
VARIABLE STARs.—Mr. G. Knott has observed three more 
minima of Ceraski’s variable U Cephei. The resulting times of 
minima are— 
h. m. 
1883, March 12, 11 49 G.M.T. 
3). 22) 1 TO 9°45 
April 1, 10 29 9°45 
Mr. Knott remarks that the star is not a very easy one to observe, 
and it is not therefore an easy matter to disentangle errors of 
observation from real irregularities in the light curve. 
Oa March 31 and April 1 he found the variable star R Coronz 
Borealis very visible to the naked eye, and nearly equal to 
x Corone. ‘‘It has presumably brightened up further since 
Schmidt's observations towards the end of last year” (Ast, Nach. 
No. 2491). m Coronz is a sixth magnitude according to Arge- 
lander ani Heis. The variability of this star was established by 
Pigott in 1795, but its fluctuations are exceedingly irregular. 
Magnitude 9*4 
” ” 
” ” 
