448 



NATURE 



[March 9, 1899 



experiments wiih unmanned balloons and wiih kites. He very 

 properly attached much importance to the work carried on in 

 1852, under the auspices of the British Association, by Mr. J. 

 Welsh, of the Ivew Observatory, and by Mr. J. (Uaisher ten 

 years later. The primary objects of the exhaustive researches 

 of the latter were to determine the temperature and hygro- 

 metric condition of the air below the clouds, in them and above 

 them. These ascents clearly proved that the decrease of tem- 

 perature with elev.ition is far from constant, and that during 

 the midnight hours there is generally an increase of several 

 degrees. The experiments with unmanned balloons, which 

 have ascended far beyond the limits of human endurance, have 

 brought down readings showing altitudes and temperatures 

 never dreamed of. In those conducted at Berlin an altitude of 

 upwards of 60,000 feet has been reached, and a temperature of 

 - 88^ was recorded ; while a temperature of 6° lower has been 

 recorded in a similar balloon despatched from Paris. The 

 author draws attention to important results obtained with re- 

 gard to the motions of the atmosphere, and the transmission of 

 sound waves. 



At the recently held annual meeting of the Washington 

 Academy of Sciences, Prof. Charles D. Walcott was elected 

 president for the ensuing -year. -V course of popular lectures 

 on scientific subjects has been arr.<inged for delivery during 

 March and April, and a number of demonstrations will also be 

 given on topics of special interest. The Academy has decided 

 to publish its proceedings. The " brochure " plan has been 

 adopted ; each separate publication will have its own p.igination 

 as well as that of the volume, and be dated with the actual 

 date of delivery to members. A welcome donation to the 

 Academy was recently made by Mrs. G. Hubbard, of the 

 value of 1000 dollars, as a token of her desire to aid in the ad- 

 vancement of science and the union of scientific interests in 

 Washington. 



I r is stated in Science that Dr. Charles Mohr, special agent 

 of the Forestry Division of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, has recently presented to the Museum of Pharma- 

 cognosy of the University of Michigan some interesting and 

 valuable specimens. They consist of a section of a pine-tree 

 trunk, showing the American method of boxing and bleeding 

 long-leafed pines for turpentine, and of samples of the twenty 

 different turpentine products manufactured in the South. The 

 various stages of the manufacture of turpentine are, it is said, 

 well illustrated by these specimens. 



The Geographical Journal for March, speaking of the 

 ■German Deep-Sea Expedition, says that a letter from Prof. 

 Chun, the leader of the expedition, dated January 20, has 

 reached Sir John Murray, from which it appears that the voyage 

 of the I'aUiivia down the Atlantic to the edge of the .Vntarctic 

 ice, and thence through the Indian Ocean, has been most suc- 

 cessful, the soundings alone serving to fill an important gap on 

 the charts, and showing that the average depth of the Southern 

 Ocean must be considerably greater than luisbeen supposed. 

 The yoiirnal says that Sir John Murray considers that the 

 success of the German investigiitors in attaining so high a 

 southerly latitude, as is mentioned in the letter, in a vessel not 

 protected for ice-navigation is very remarkable, and that it 

 augurs well for the prospects of a scientific .Vntarctic expedi- 

 tion. Prof. Chun's communication, which is jirinted in full in 

 the yoiirnal, states that Dr. Bachmann, the surgeon to the 

 exjiedition, died in the Indian Ocean, hut that all the other 

 members of the party were well. 



Sir Chares Todd has communicated to the Soiil/i Australian 

 A'i-j,'is/tr, of January 14, a review of the weather of South 

 Australia during the year 1898. He stales thai, although 

 NO. 1532, VOL. 59] 



owing to dry weather at the beginning and end of the year, as 

 well as in September, when the failure of rain was fatal to the 

 harvest in many parts of the Upper North, more rain fell over 

 the settled districts generally than during the two previous years. 

 June was the wettest June in the north on record at all staticns. 

 As regards temperature, it was below the average during 

 the first five months of the year in the northern and central 

 parts, and above the average during the rest of the year ; while 

 in the extreme south it was generally warmer than the average 

 all through the year, .\ltogether the harvest season has turned 

 out a veiy fair one : a great improvement on the past two or 

 three years. 



In the Ah-ltorohgische Zeilscliri/I for January, Dr. J. Hann 

 has contributed a short paper on the climate of the Klondike 

 district, collated from observations at present available. The 

 following are the values for temperature at Dawson City during 

 four months of January : means of the daily extremes (minima 

 and maxima) - 26 'i, - I7°'0 ; means of the numthly extremes 

 -54°'6, I2°7; the absolute extremes are -67 9, 21^9. For 

 July only one month is available : the mean daily extremes are 

 44° "4 and 68°'9, and the mean monthly extremes are 32° 9 and 

 8l'''0. These values are not out of the way for a continental 

 climate in such a high latitude (64" 5' N. ) ; they do not compare 

 with the low winter and high summer temperatures in the same 

 latitude of East Siberia. 



A DESCRii'TioN of the Vertebrate remains from the Port 

 Kennedy Bone Deposit was the last scientific work of the late 

 Prof. E. D. Cope, and it has now been published in the 

 Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 

 (vol. xi. part 2, 1S99). The MS. has been printed just as it left 

 the hands of the author, and such of the fossils as it was 

 necessary to figure have been illustrated in four plates by a 

 photographic process. Curiously enough no other fissure or 

 bone-cave has yielded such a large number of species as this cave 

 or fissure at Port Kennedy, which is situated in Upper Merion 

 Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. So long ago as 

 1871 its ossiferous nature was discovered by workmen engaged 

 in quarrying the Cambrian limestone in which the fissure occurs, 

 and many of the fossil remains were then identified by Prof. 

 Cope, The pala-ntological interest of the locality was, however, 

 for more than twenty years lost sight of, until Mr. H. M. 

 Mercer and others engaged in careful excavations, and obtained 

 materials for the full report which is now issued. The assem- 

 blage is a remarkable one. Tiny Mammalia such as shrews, and 

 voles occur alongside of the mastodon and giant sloth. Re- 

 mains of horse, tapir, peccary, and porcupine occur together 

 with machxrodus, lynx, wolverine, wolf, and bear. Semi- 

 terrestrial forms of tortoise, snake, and beaver are found with 

 the hare, squirrel, and jumping mouse. The m.ijority of the 

 forms are not in any sense cave-dwellers, nor could they well 

 have been dragged there by carnivorous species. The bones 

 are neither gnawed nor water-worn. At the same time, two 

 bones have been rarely found in their normal relations to the 

 skeleton. .\s stated in a previous report ( /V.\ . .-Vcad. Nat. Sc. 

 Philad. for 1S95, p. 450), Prof. Co|>e believed that the larger 

 animals fell into the fissure at intervals during a long period, 

 while m.anyof the smaller ones m.iy have entered it by channels 

 now filled with debris ; and Prof. A. Heilprin (p. 451) thought 

 that the large number of extinct or Neotropical forms, indicated 

 more nearly a Pliocene than a Post-Pliocene (or Pleistocene) 

 fauna — at all events a fauna which preceded the glacial epoch. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 pa.st week include a Smooth-headed Capuchin f^Cebus mon- 

 Oihus, i ) from .South-east Brazil, presented by Mrs. Cecil 

 Popham ; a .Sooty Mangabey (CeriOiebus Juligiiioiiis,'}) from 

 West .\frica, presented by Lieut. B. Horsburgh, A.S.C. ; a 



