154 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 24, 1874 



obelisk 25 ft. high, and mounted on a base 8 It. square. It is of 

 concrete, and bears the following inscription: — "In memory of 

 the great circumnavlgalor, Captain James Cook, R.N., who dis- 

 covered these islands on the iSth of January, A.D. 1778, and 

 fell near this spot on the 14th of February, a.d. 1779. This 

 monument was erected in November, A.D. 1874, by some of his 

 fellow-countrymen." It is erected on a suitable spot, about 100 

 yards from the rock on which the captain fell. 



M. Leveriuek, having finished with his tables of the 

 Planet Neptune, will resume the duties of an active ob- 

 server. For 1875 he will superintend personally the service 

 of meridian observations at the Observatory of Paris, at the 

 same time fulfilling all the duties of director of the estaljlishment. 

 M. Loewy will have the care of the special determinations of 

 longitudes. These arrangements have been proposed by the 

 Council of the Observatory to the Ministry, and will be no doubt 

 approved of. 



The process of polishing the lens of the miiTor of the great 

 telescope is going on at the French National Observatory by 

 M. Martin. The diameter of the lens is 120 centimetres, and 

 the polisher is a disc of 40 centimetres. The number of men 

 engaged on the polishing is six. They are obliged to stop fre- 

 quently on account of the great weight of the polisher. An ob- 

 server placed on the top of the Observatory, at a distance equal 

 to half the focal distance, superintends the polishing process, 

 watching if the image of a light which is placed in a proper 

 position is reflected with sufficient exactness by the mirror 

 below. 



The weather being very cold in Paris, and heavy falls of snow 

 having taken place, M. Gaston Tissandier has taken advantage 

 of the opportunity to make a series of most interesting observa- 

 tions on the dust which snow appropriates during its passage 

 through the atmosphere. The results will be sent very shortly 

 to the French Institute. 



On Thursday, December 17, at ten p.m., a masnificent 

 falling star was observed in Paris. Its track was to be seen for 

 more than a minute. A correspondent, Mr. J. H. A. Jenner, 

 writing from Lewes, states that "on Thursday evening, the 

 17th inst., at 10.30, a very fine meteor was seen here. It 

 travelled from north to soutli at a seemingly very low eleva- 

 tion, and though the moon was shining brightly, it was a 

 very brilliant object, being several limes the brightness of 

 Sirius. Its colour was yellowish, and it left a long but not very 

 persistent bluish-white train. Had the night been dark, it must 

 have been a very splendid object. The point of disappearance 

 was hidden from my sight by houses, but there was no noise 

 attending it." 



Two students of Girton College have been examined in the 

 Cambridge Natural Science Tripos. Miss Kingsland, daughter 

 of the Rev. N. Kingsland, Congregationalist minister, Bradford, 

 passed equal to second class, and has been appointed assistant 

 lecturer in Natural .Science and Mathematics at Girton College. 

 The other. Miss Dove, daughter of the Rev. J. Dove, vicar of 

 Covvbit, Lincolnshire, would have been entitled to the ordinary 

 degree, and has been appointed to an assistant mistress-ship at 

 Cheltenham Ladies' College, with a special view to teaching 

 physiology. These ladies passed the vivd voce examination, and 

 also in physiology and chemistry. 



Dr. J. G. M'Kendrick recently commenced in Edinburgh a 

 series of lectures to ladies on Physiology, at which we are 

 pleased to hear there is an attendance already of seventy-one 

 ladies. 



The Laurium mines in Greece have given rise to a new difficulty, 

 not of a diplomatic, but of a botanical nature. Seeds which 

 had been buried amidst the remains of old explorations lor 2,000 

 years, on being exposed to the air have undergone the usual 



process of germination, &c. These belong to the genus glaiicinm, 

 but the species seems quite lost. 



The Tclcc;raphic Journal for December 15 contains a figure 

 and description of a most intjenious self-regulating electric lamp, 

 by Siemens and TIalske. This lamp is of very simple construc- 

 tion, and is stated to regulate itself with great accuracy. It is 

 capable of being used cither with a current of single direction or 

 with the alternating current produced by certain magneto-electric 

 machines. 



We have before us a Belgian Governmental publication in 

 the Bulletin de la FAh'ralion ilts SocuVs d' Ilortkiillitre de 

 Bclpqnc, for 1S73. The volume contains biographies and por- 

 traits of eminent Belgian horticulturists recently deceased. A 

 number of papers arc printed in it, chiefly connected with 

 Belgian horticulture ; and it is supplemented by a list of all 

 persons holding official botanical posts throughout the world. 



Lieut. Conder, R.E., the officer in charge of the Palestine 

 Survey Expedition, reports important discoveries of ruins 

 in the hill country of Judah, which he proposes to identify 

 with some of the lost Biblical cities and sites. He has been 

 also engaged in a search for the limits of the Levitical towns, 

 hoping to find some inscription or monument similar to that 

 which rewarded M. Ganneau at the city of Gezer. He 

 has not found any Hebrew inscriptions, but appears to have 

 discovered boundary stones which may prove to be the ancient 

 Levitical landmarks. Lieut. Conder promises to make a survey 

 of Mr. Henry Maudsley's recent discoveries on Mount Zion for 

 the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. 



The report is to hand of Prof. Powell on the Survey 

 of the Colorado of the West, dated Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, Washington, D.C., April 30, 1S74. This survey was 

 placed under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution by 

 Congress. The region embraced in the survey is one of the most 

 interesting, in a geological point of view, in the world. The 

 Colorado of the West and its tributaries traverse a series of 

 remarkable chasms, in some instances of more than a mile in 

 depth below the general surface of [the region, presenting in 

 several phaces, at one view, sections of the greater number of 

 the known geological formations of America. In the report a 

 general summary is given of the entire work. It exhibits a 

 great amount of labour, and a series of results, not only of im- 

 portance to science, but also to a knowledge of the country in 

 its relations to agriculture and mineralogy. The report embraces 

 a statement of what has been accomplished in the way of, first, 

 Topography, as based on triangulation, including a description of 

 the arable v.iUcys, the supply of water, the extent of timber and 

 of pasture land ; second. Geology, including economic mineralo- 

 gical i^roducts, such as coal, salt, and other minerals ; third, 

 Ethnology, comprising tribes, political organisation, languages, 

 manners, customs, mythology, poetry, art"., &c. ; fourth, 

 Natural History, incU'.ding mammils, birds, reptiles, insects, 

 and plants. 



Some time since we intimated in Nature that the enter- 

 prising Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club had resolved to cata- 

 logue all the remarkable trees in the extensive district which it 

 works. The paragraph referred to has, we are glad to see, been 

 the means of originating a similar enterprise in America. The 

 New England Society of Orange, New Jersey, has issued the 

 first of a series of publications, under the name of the " Babbit 

 Portfolio," giving a history and description of the notable trees 

 in its locality, accompanied by beautifully executed photo- 

 engravings. The first number contains the "Valley Oak" 

 (Qucniis alhits), the " Hillyer Elm " {Ulnius anicricana)^ and the 

 "Harrison Buttonwood (Platanus occidentalis). Dr. Babbit, 

 after whom the Portfolio is named, was the first to set out shade- 

 trees in Orange. 



