108 
NATURE 
[ Funeg, 1870 
It is formed by the river falling from a table-land 1,375 feet 
above the sea, perpendicularly, in an unbroken fall of about 900 
feet. The river is 100 yards wide, and from 10 to 15 feet deep 
in its deepest parts. It is with much regret we hear that the 
Combined Court of this colony have determined that this survey 
shall be discontinued, 
In the Artisan for June isan article by Mr. John Scott Russell, 
on ‘International Communication by Railway Steamships,” a 
mode of performing the Channel transit which he has long 
advocated. {The real point of difficulty he states to be this: 
Dover Harbour is the property of the Government ; Calais Har. 
bour is also the property of the French Government. He believes 
that if the two Governments lay their heads together, and simply 
make their harbours accessible, which can be done at a moderate 
expense, a great international communication can be easily 
established. 
Tn his annual address as President of the Canadian Institute, 
the Rev. Wm. Hincks makes use of the following argument in 
opposition to the Darwinian theory of Natural Selection :— 
“* Nothing is to me more evident than that both seemingly per- 
manent specific and higher differences, and varieties which have 
no pretensions to permanence, depend on the comparative 
development of different elements of a common plan ; from which 
it seems to follow both that the non-existence from the commence- 
ment of living nature, of all the distinct plans of structure is in 
the highest degree improbable, and that the tendency of develop- 
ment, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another, among 
the same primitive elements, must produce a harmonious system ; 
whilst the preservation of the forms best adapted to a situation 
amongst a great number of variations arising without order 
must produce a confused mass of objects having no regular 
relations and incapable of being reduced to a common system. 
Which of these prevails in nature I cannot fora moment hesitate 
in deciding, and consequently I must maintain that, if there is 
variation, it must be within definite limits, and according to a 
fixed plan, so as to maintain a uniform order and harmony in 
the whole system.” 
A REMARKABLE mirage was seenat Ostend on May 19. Ships 
riding in the roads in the horizon were reflected in the sky as 
by a gigantic mirror ; a brig, a steamer, and several fishing-boats 
appeared to have other similar vessels attached to the summits 
of their masts in a reversed position.. The phenomenon lasted 
through the whole of the afternoon and evening, the wind being 
light from the N.N.E. From 5 to 6.30 P.M. the French coast 
was visible as far as Dunkirk, the houses being quite distinct, 
and the dues appearing suspended in the air at a height of 
several metres, and somewhat moved in position towards the 
N.W. The port of Niewport seemed so near that the bridge 
was distinctly visible. 
IN the last number of the Rewista das Obras Publicas (Review 
of Public Works), Senhor C. A. Beirao mentions an interesting 
phenomenon of terrestrial refraction, observed by him on the 
evening (or afternoon, vesfera) preceding the storm which caused 
such damages on the Tagus on Easter Day, Here is what 
Senhor Beirao says about the phenomenon :—‘‘ From the house 
in which I live, in the Rua (street) of S. Joao da Praga,* only 
about a third of the upper part of the Bugio Lighthouse is to be 
seen, all the rest is interrupted by the roofs of the buildings in the 
Praga do Commercio (called by the English ‘Black Horse 
Square,’ where all the public departments stand). On that oc- 
casion (half-past four o’clock P.M. on Saturday of Alleluia) as I 
by chance directed my spy-glass towards the tower (¢.e, of the 
Bugio), I remarked that not only the latter was completely in 
view, but also the surface of the water to a distance of many metres 
é * This street is about four-and-a-half miles from the said Bugio light- 
ouse. 
on this side the Tower, which indicated, with respect to the latter, 
an elevation of fifty to sixty metres, at least, over the line of normal 
vision.” 
THE second part of the Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists’ 
Society contains a notice, by Dr. H. E. Fripp, of recent obser- 
vations of Amoebse and Monads by Greef and Cienowski, in 
which he describes the species of Amcebz and Rhizopods re- 
cently discovered living in the earth ; a paper by S. H. Swayne 
on the Scales and other tegumentary organs of Fish ; an analysis 
by Mr. Sanders, of the Report on Theories of Elevation and 
Earthquakes, presented to the British Association by the late 
Professor Hopkins ; a note by a lady associate on a novel appli- 
cation of tea leaves for promoting the growth of plants; and 
a paper on the Descent of Glaciers, by the Rev. Canon Moseley, 
in which he refers the motion of glaciers to a succession of small 
alternations of temperature, causing expansion and contraction 
with a cumulative effect. There is also a paper, by Mr. Stod- 
dart, on Rain-water collected in Bristol, showing the presence 
of considerable amounts of saline material in the water. 
AN icono-photograph album, containing numerous figures of 
the appearances presented by sections of the nervous centres, has 
just been presented by Dr. Ducheune, of Boulogne, to the French 
Academy of Medicine. He states he has obtained excellent 
results from sections of the great sympathetic nerve, the spinal 
ganglia, the spinal cord, and of the medulla oblongata when 
magnified from 8 to 500 times. The plan was suggested some 
years ago by Dr. Ducheune himself; but it was found that the 
photographs obtained in the ordinary method were not persistent. 
He therefore fixed them on stone by a process he terms photo- 
autography, the details of which, however, he does not com- 
municate. It is satisfactory to find him stating that the results 
of his experiment and photographs only confirm the substantial 
accuracy of the beautiful drawings made by Dr, Lockhart 
Clarke on the central parts of the nervous system, and especially 
upon the medulla oblongata. In his later experiments Dr. 
Ducheune has adopted Dr. Clarke’s mode of preparation with 
chromic acid and carmine. He states that certain micrographic 
details come out with wonderful clearness in the photographs, 
and that by this means some important additions may be made 
to our knowledge. Thus he has ascertained that in the white 
substance of the medulla oblongata there are a large number of 
very small nerve tubules(omm , 0033) diameter mingled with others 
of average and of large diameter omm, 0 I to omm, 0 2and ‘073. 
From the proceedings of the Institute of Lombardy, reported 
in the Zmfarziale of the 16th May, we extract the following re- 
sults of the important experimental researches of Prof. Mante- 
gazza on the action of the essences of flowers on the production 
of atmospheric ozone. 1. The essences of mint, turpen- 
tine, cloves, lavender, bergamot, anise, juniper, lemon, fennel, 
nutmegs, cajeput, thyme, cherry laurel, in contact with atmo- 
spheric oxygen in light, develop a very largeZquantity of ozone, 
equal if not superior in amount to that produced by phosphorus, 
by electricity, and by the decomposition of permanganate of 
potash. 2, The oxidation of these essences is one of the most 
convenient means of producing ozone, since even when in yery 
minute quantity they can ozonise a large quantity of oxygen, 
whilst their action is very persistent. 3. In the greater number 
of cases the essences, in order to develop ozone, require the direct 
rays of the sun; in a small number of cases they effect the 
change with diffused light; in few or none, in darkness. 4. In 
some cases, however, the action just commenced in solar light 
was found to persist to some extent when the essence was placed 
in darkness. 5. In some cases a vessel perfumed with an essence 
and afterwards thoroughly washed with alcohol and perfectly 
dried, could still develop a proportionate quantity of ozone, pro- 
