
Suly 20, 1871] 
NATURE 
2335 

in the Indian eclipse. It is Mr. Brothers’s opinion, I believe, 
that all you see on the screen round the dark moon, all that 
enormous mass of light, nearly uniform in texture, and these 
beautiful broad rays between the rifts are really and absolutely 
parts of the solar corona. I confess I do not wish to commit 
myself to such an opinion. We want more facts, and the onus 
proband: lies with those who insist upon that view, and I have 
yet to hear an explanation of them on that basis. 
h.—The Corona sometimes seems to be Flickering or Rotating. 
We now come to the next point. Time out of mind, that is, 
for the last two centuries, the corona has been observed to be 
flickering, waving, or rotating, moving in every conceivable way 
and direction. In 1652 it was described as ‘‘a pleasant spectacle 
of rotatory motion.” Don Antonio Ulloa remarked of the 
corona observed in the eclipse of 1788, ‘‘ It seemed to be endued 
with a rapid rotatory motion, which caused it to resemble a fire- 
work turning round its centre.” The terms whirling and 
flickering were applied in the eclipse of 1860. This ex- 
traordinary condition of things was also thoroughly endorsed 
by the late observations. It certainly exists, and is among the 
observations we have to take into account. When I saw an 
officer of one of the ships at Catania, I asked him if he had taken 
a drawing of thecorona. ‘‘ No,” he said. I asked him, ‘‘ Did 
you see any rays?” “Yes.” ‘Then why did you not make 
any drawing of them?” His answer was, ‘‘ How on earth could 
you draw a thing that was going round and round like a fire- 
work?” This was not the only observation of the kind, and the 
tendency of such observations I need hardly say is to strengthen 
a belief in the unstable, and therefore uncosmical, nature of their 
rays. 
Is this variation of light due to the brilliancy of the corona, 
and the rapid change of the rays, which is one of the results 
which comes out clearest? In 1842 the brilliancy of the corona 
was stated to be insupportable to the naked eye. A similar 
remark was made to me by several of those officers who saw the 
last eclipse in Sicily. J. NormMAN LOCKYER 
(Zo be continued.) 


SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE FROM 
AMERICA* 
PROF. LEIDY has lately announced to the Philadelphia 
Academy of Natural Sciences the existence of some new 
fossil mammals from the Tertiary formations of Wyoming 
Territory. One was a lower jaw, discovered by Dr. J. Van 
A. Carter in the vicinity of Fort Bridger. The animal to 
which it belonged was as large as a hog, but was more nearly 
allied to the rhinoceros or tapirs. It was especially remarkable 
for the possession of a large pair of front teeth, resembling, 
both in form and construction, the incisors of the beaver. 
The name proposed for it was TZrogurus castoroideus, or 
the beaver-toothed gnawing-hog. Another of the fossils in- 
dicates a carnivorous animal, a contemporary of the former, 
and about the size of the gray fox. Tne animal was re- 
lated to the weasel and canine families, and was called S7xofa 
vapax, the former name being that applied by the Blackfeet 
Indians to a small fox. Prof. Leidy also exhibited photographs 
of the lower jaw of the American mastodon, recently received 
from Prof. W. C. Kerr, State Geologist of North Carolina. The 
jaw was found in Lenoir County of that State. It belonged to a 
mature male, and was of special interest from its retaining both 
tusks, as well as the molar teeth.—Among objects of great 
ethnological import are the aboriginal inscriptions or carvings 
upon rocks, which are met with in North America and elsewhere, 
and are sometimes of a very remarkable character. Ordinary 
copies of such inscriptions, unless they be photographs, are rarely 
of sufficient accuracy to be of much value; and those of our 
readers who are likely to come across such inscriptions may like 
to know a method by which an absolutely perfect fac-simile can 
be made. This process has been applied with much success in 
copying carvings in Egypt and other places, and it will 
be equally serviceable in our own country. For this purpose 
the inscription is to be first well cleaned from dust or mud 
by means of a hard, stiff brush ; stout, unsized paper is then to 
be wetted rapidly, but uniformly, ina tub of water, and applied 
to the inscription, and forced into the irregularities by repeated 
and forcible strokes with a hard brush, an ordinary clothes-brush 
being as good as any for the purpose. If the stone be clear of 
* Communicated by the Scientific Editor of Harfer’s Weekly, 


dust, the paper adheres, and, when dry, falls off, forming a perfect 
mould of the inscription. If the carving be deep or broad, it is 
sometimes advisable to apply several sheets of paper, one after 
the other, brushing over the surface of one with glue or gum 
before applying the next, so as to obtain, when dry, a firm body. 
By making a plaster cast of the paper relief thus prepared a fac- 
simile of the inscription will be obtained.—The present year 
seems to be marked with a great deal of activity and enterprise 
in researches connected with the natural history and physics of 
the deep seas, especially on the coast of America. We have 
already referred to the enterprise proposed by the Coast Survey, 
of sending a steamer, especially adapted to this purpose, around 
Cape Horn to the California coast, on a ten-months’ journey, to 
be accompanied by Professor Agassiz and Count Pourtales, and 
a corps of assistants, all prepared to make observations and col- 
lections on the most perfect scale. The expense of the scientific 
work will, it is understood, to the amount of 15,000 dollars, be 
defrayed by Mr. Thayer (the same gentleman who supplied the 
funds for Professor Agassiz’s expedition to Brazil), a sum which 
will probably enable Professor Agassiz to accomplish his object 
in the most perfect manner.—Professor Verrill and party, 
from Yale College, will also, it is expected, prosecute an 
exhaustive research into the deep sea and littoral fauna 
of the Vineyard Sound and the adjacent waters, in connec- 
tion with the inquiries of the United States Commission of 
Fish and Fisheries relative to the decrease of the food fishes of 
our coast. Corresponding researches will also be carried on in 
the deeper waters of Lake Michigan, where, it may be remem- 
bered, the interesting discovery was made last year of crustaceans 
and fish of marine types at a depth of 300ft. and over. The in- 
quiries this year will be under the immediate direction of Dr. 
Stmpson and Mr. Milner in a still deeper part of the lake, and 
it is not at all improbable that discoveries of the highest interest 
will be made.—The Arctic expedition of Captain Hall will also 
undoubtedly do its part in the general work, as the naturalist of 
the party, Dr. Emil Bessels, has had large experience in such 
labours, and is practically conversant with the fauna of the arctic 
seas from his connection with the Spitzbergen expedition of 1869. 
—At the June meeting of the California Academy of Sciences 
the subject of inviting the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science to meet in San Francisco in 1872 was dis- 
cussed, and the treasurer was instructed to call upon the trustees, 
and to solicit the co-operation of the Chamber of Commerce in 
taking measures toward this object. The meeting for the present 
year will be held in August next in Indianapolis, and a large 
attendance is expected, especially of Western members, to whom 
the places of meeting in the East have generally proved too 
remote to suit their convenience. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
THE American Natura/ist for June contains no article of very 
striking value, though several of interest in special subjects. Dr. 
Elliott Coues contributes an account of the yellow-headed 
blackbird, Yanthocephalus icterocephalus, first described by Prince 
Buonaparte in his continuation of Wilson’s Omithology.—An 
article on Cuban Seaweeds, by Dr. W. G. Farlow, includes out- 
line drawings of a number of distinct types.—Dr. Lebaron de- 
scribes a new species of moth, the larva of which is extremely de- 
structive to young apple trees, which he calls Zortrix malizorana, 
or the Lesser Apple Leaf-folder.—Mr, E. L. Greene contributes 
June Rambles inthe Rocky Mountains, with special reference to 
their flora.— From Dr. Henry Shimer we have “Additional Notes 
on the Striped Squash Beetle,” and from Prof. W. H. Brewer, 
“Animal Life in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.”—A larger 
space than usual is occupied by Reviews, among which is one of 
Mivart’s ‘‘Genesis of Species,” comparing the views of the 
author with those of the American writers, Cope and Hyatt. 
THE first article in the Howrmal of Botany for June is an im- 
portant one, by Prof. A. H. Church, on Sugar in Beet-root, 
with a record of investigations on the effect of the amount of 
rainfall in the development of the sugar.—Dr. Henry Trimen dis- 
cusses the question, ‘‘Is the Sweet Flag, Acorus calamus, a 
Native ?” showing thatit was unknown inthis country before 1596, 
and that it was not till about 1660 that it was reported as a wild 
plant from Norfolk. The plant appears to be originally a native 
of south-east Europe.—Prof. Dickson has an article on the 
Phyllotaxis of Lepidodendron, and the allied, if not identical, 
