



‘International Fishery Exhibitions of Boulogne, Arcachon, and 
Havre. 
AT the recent annual meeing of the Royal Cornwall Institu- 
tion, a discussion arose on a paper read by Mr. Robert Blee 
“On the Comparative Health and Longevity of Cornish 
Miners,” in the course of which the startling statement was 
made, thata death occurred every other day among the Cornish 
miners from the mode in which the men were raised from the 
pits. 
Pror, DANIEL WILSON, of Toronto, publishes in the 
| Canadian Fournal an essay on ‘‘ The Huron Race and its Head- 
form,” illustrated with a lithograph and many outline drawings. 
Prof. Wilson’s investigations lead him to believe that the com- 
prehensive generalisations of earlier American ethnologists, un- 
_ der the guidance of Dr. Morton, which led to the doctrine of a 
homogeneous cranial type for the American aborigines, have 
everywhere failed when subjected to the crucial tests of detailed 
observation, and that we everywhere find transitions from one to 
another and essentially distinct ethnical group. There is, he 
concludes, no longer an assumed American man, as distinct from 
every type in the Eastern Hemisphere as the Catarhine Simiadze 
of the Old World from the Platyrhine group of New World 
monkeys. 
| 
k On Monday, August 21, between three and four o’clock in 
_ the morning, a large waterspout burst over the village of Ollon 
and the adjacent mountains in Switzerland. Great damage was 
_ done to the roads and vineyards, but no loss of life is reported. 
} 
A VIOLENT hurricane and some earthquake shocks are re- 
ported from the Island of St. Thomas, in the West Indies, on 
the 21st of August. Hundreds of houses were destroyed, and 
over 150 persons killed or wounded. 
From Indian sources we learn that the rainfall in Bombay 
this season is generally less than half the average of former years. 
A VIOLENT typhoon raged at Kobe in Japan, on the 4th 
of July. Many vessels were wrecked, and about 400 lives were 
lost. Great damage was done to property on sea and on Jand. 
Tur news of most terrible earthquake shocks and volcanic dis- 
turbances comes to us from the Philippine Islands. In the small 
island named Camiguin, near to Misamis, for some months past 
a succession of most violent earthquakes has been experienced, 
causing crevices, &c., inthe open country. Cn the Ist of May, 
about five o'clock in the evening, the earth burst asunder, and an 
opening was formed 1,500 feet long. Smoke and ashes, earth 
and stones, were thrown up and covered the ground far and near. 
At about seven o’clock, as darkness was coming on, this crater 
burst into activity with a loud explosion, followed by a shower of 
lava and ashes. About 150 persons were destroyed. The 
eruption of the new volcano has since been so tremendous that 
the inhabitants have forsaken the island, and of the 26,000 pre- 
viously there, not 300 are left. Camiguin is only about thirty- 
six miles in circumference, and was very productive in abaca (the 
Manilla hemp) yielding annually from 30,000 to 40,000 piculs, or 
more than a tenth of the produce of the world. There is little 
hope of the island ever being again reoccupied or cultivated. 
THE American Fournal of Microscopy recommends, as the 
best plan of collecting diatoms in large quantities, to tie a thin, 
fine piece of linen over the faucet of the hydrant in the evening, 
and allow a small stream of water to pass through it all night. 
In the morning take off the cloth and rinse it in a little water in 
a goblet. When ready to examine, take a drop of water from 
the bottom of the goblet with a small pipette, or glass rod, and 
place it on a flat slide, or a slide with a concave depression, 
holding afew drops. Then, with a power of 100 or 350, sweep 
the field, and you will be rewarded with the sight of a wondrous 
collection of beautiful and unique forms, 




NATURE 375 

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT 
EDINBURGH 
SECTION A. 
Report of the Tidal Committee, by Sir W. Thomson. 
He stated that the work performed for the Tidal Committee 
since the last meeting of the British Association had consisted 
chiefly in the evaluation of tide components in a similar manner 
to that described in the previous reports. Mr. Parkes having 
again placed the tracings of the curves of the Kurrachee (Manora) 
self-regulating tide gauge at the disposal of the committee, a 
second year’s observations had been read off and completely re- 
duced. In addition to the tide components evaluated for Liver- 
pool and Ramsgate, others had been introduced to correct the 
lunar cliurnal (declinational) tides for parallax. Those components 
had been found to have sensible values for Kurrachee, where the 
diurnal tides are comparatively large. The solar elliptic semi- 
diurnal components had also been included, now that two com- 
plete years’ observations were available. The comparison between 
the calculated and recorded heights from Liverpool not being 
considered as good as might have been expected from the labour 
bestowed on them, it was determined to continue the analysis of 
the Liverpool tides, with the view, if possible, of detecting the 
cause of the largeness of some of the differences. It would be 
seen on comparing the results contained in the previous report 
with the results arrived at, that the chief tides (the lunar and 
solar semi-diurnal) are now more retarded by about 4° than dur« 
ing the year previously analysed. The calculated heights in the 
comparison should therefore more nearly represent the heights 
about eight minutes after the hours assigned to them. An ex- 
amination of the differences would show this to be the case. A 
fresh calculation and due allowance made for atmospheric pressure 
would doubtless very considerably reduce the discrepancies. The 
gradual increase in the height of the mean level of the water, 
probably arising from the filling in of the bed of the river, and 
consequent increase of friction, would account for some portion 
of this increased retardation. There was a very violent rise in 
the mean level for the year 1868-69, amounting to four-tenths of 
a foot. It, however, in the following year, had again subsided 
to almost its anticipated height. The uncertainty in the mean 
level of the water is an element which must at times seriously 
affect the differences between calculated and recorded heights, in 
any method of computation of heights from a fixed datum. It 
was very much to be regretted that the authorities at Liverpool 
had chosen the George’s Landing-Stage for a tide float, affected 
as it must be (sometimes to a considerable extent) by the ever- 
varying weight it has to bear. This would affect the whole of 
the tide components evaluated, but more especially the solar 
components, and will account for the different values of the solar 
semi-diurnal tide, which, judging from the corresponding lunar 
component, should agree within much narrower limits. It was 
therefore thought that, should it be determined to again discuss 
the Liverpool tides, it would be better to take the tide curves as 
self-registered at Helbie Island, at the mouth of the Dee, in pre- 
ference to those of the George’s Pier. The Helbie Island tide 
curves, it was considered, would give much superior results, 
Through the kindness of the United States Coast Survey Office, 
two years’ tide observations, taken at Port Point, San Francisco 
Bay, California, had been received. Here again there was an 
abrupt diminution in the height of mean level for the first two 
years. It having come to the knowledge of the Tide Committee 
that the United States Coast Survey Office were in possession of 
a series of hourly tidal observations, taken at Cat Island, in the 
Gulf of Mexico, and which were of a very remarkable and in- 
teresting character, it was thought a favourable opportunity of 
testing the value of the harmonic analysis for the evaluation of 
the components of the tides of this place, which appeared very 
complicated and peculiar. Application having been made, a 
series of about thirteen months had been received, and were now 
in course of reduction. It was extremely interesting to find that, 
although the lunar and solar semi-diurnal tides were very small 
in value, the series of means from which they were obtained were 
extremely regular and good, and the consequent determination of 
the phase of spring tides from their respective epochs was pro- 
bably correct within a few minutes. The proportion between the 
amplitudes of the lunar and solar semi-diurnal tides was the 
nearest to equality yet obtained, being in the ratio of 11 to 6, 
The proportion between the lunar and solar diurnal (declinational) 
