Nov. 5, 1885] 



NA TURE 



17 



presents throughout a complete summer temperature. The 

 remaining four months pass through the various stages of tem- 

 perature between winter and summer. In the more northern 

 and more elevated parts of the interior not a single month of the 

 year is free from the risk of night-frost, while in such localities 

 frost occurs on from 225 to 230 days in the year. On the coast- 

 lands, on the other hand, the mean winter temperature is gene- 

 rally from 2° to 3° Cels. above the freezing point, and here the 

 greatest cold occurs in February, while in the interior December 

 and January are the coldest months. 



We learn, from a recent report by Herr Reusch, of the con- 

 dition of the Bommelo gold-mines worked by Messrs. O.scar and 

 Daw, that gold to the value of 8000 kroner has been obtained 

 during the three months in which these works have been in 

 operation. The writer believes the mines may be made remu- 

 nerative, but only moderately so, and provided they are worked 

 with care and economy, and he emphatically warns his country- 

 men not to waste time and money, as has frequently been done 

 in Norway, in seeking for gold in localities where the existence 

 of any appreciable quantity of quartz is not well attested before- 

 liand. He, moreover, points out the fallacy of believing that 

 any large proportion of the auriferous quartz deposits of Norway 

 are capable of yielding more than the mere fragmentary traces 

 which are so constantly met with. Quite recently, indeed, the 

 presence of gold has been shown in new localities, Herr Hansen 

 having obtained in the quartz at Haugesund a number of micro- 

 scopically small granules of the precious metal with titanic iron, 

 while at Msland, in Bommelo, about four miles from the spot 

 where the first finds were made, he extracted gold after crushing 

 and washing the white quartz which occurs in large lumps, accu- 

 mulated on a hillock about 5 feet high, by 36 in length, and 13 

 in breadth. 



PfeRE Dechevrens, the head of the Zi-ka-wei Observatory 

 near Shanghai, has published a pamphlet entitled, "The 

 IVIeteoroIogical Elements of the Climate of Shanghai ; Twelve 

 Years of Observations made at Zi-ka-wei by the Missionaries of 

 the Society of Jesus." It is a series of tables containing "all 

 the information that meteorology can supply concerning the 

 climate of Shanghai." A complete meteorological period in 

 China is said to be about eleven years, and consequently this 

 pamphlet em'-races one such period. The tables show maximum 

 and minimum, mean and normal readings of the barometer and 

 thermometer, intensity of solar radiation, relative and absolute 

 humidity, nebulosity, rainfall, and direction and velocity of the 

 wind for every month throughout the twelve years, conveniently 

 tabulated for comparison. There is also a table of eight years' 

 observations of ozone, and a special section is devoted to terres- 

 trial magnetism. Explanations are given in most cases of the 

 methods of taking the various observations, and the objects 

 which they serve. The readings are all given according to 

 English methods of computation ; but for the convenience of 

 those who are more familiar with the metric barometer scale and 

 the centigrade degrees of temperature, tables for the conversion 

 of the English into the Continental systems are given. 



Amongst the anthropological papers recently issued by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, special intere t attaches to the memoir 

 by Lieut. C. E. Vreeland and Dr. J. F. Brandsford on the 

 antiquities recently discovered on the Pantaleon estate, near 

 Santa Lucia, Guatemala. This place, which lies about 

 thirty miles north-west of Escuintla on the railway from 

 San Jose to the city of Guatemala, \\as visited in 1S84 by 

 the authors for the purpose of photographing the objects, 

 which had here been observed two years previously by Dr. 

 Brandsford, and earlier by Dr. Habel. Several of the finest 

 specimens had been removed to Berlin, where an account 

 of them was published by Dr. Adolph Bastian. Those here 



described and figured from the photographs form a group of 

 remarkable sculptures, all of black basalt or hard lava mounted 

 on a low wall round the fountain of the Pantaleon courtyard, 

 and disposed in front of a grand central piece raised on a pedestal. 

 This figure, which is in an excellent state of preservation, the 

 nose alone being injured, is a new revelation in native American 

 art, characterised by great strength and simplicity of outline. 

 It is well formed, the lines simple and clearly cut, without a 

 trace of the usual conventional style. Majesty is so plainly 

 stamped on the countenance, that it was known to the Indians by 

 the name of El Rey— the king. The brow, the eyes, and the 

 nose, as far as can be judged, are in good shape and well pro- 

 portioned ; the mouth hard, the chin firm and full of character. 

 Near it stands the head of an old person whose venerable 

 appearance is heightened by the deep lines on brow and cheek. 

 In contrast to this is another head of an old person, where calm- 

 ness of expression is replaced by the inexpressible sadness of 

 age with blindness. As in the case of some other figures, the 

 eyes are here represented as hanging from the sockets, the balls 

 resting on the cheeks. The chin and lower lip protrude, while 

 the upper lip has fallen in as from the loss of teeth. To the 

 long ears are appended large pear-shaped ornaments, and the 

 turban-like headdress is surmounted with a little Tam O'Shanter 

 cap. All the figures show real artistic skill, far beyond the 

 elaborate but fantastic style of the conventional sculptures found 

 at Copan and other parts of Central America. 



A BORE-HOLE made about two years ago to a depth of 

 52 metres into the older Devonian strata near Burgbrohl on the 

 Rhine, yields a large and steady supply of carbonic acid gas 

 (with water) which is variously utilised. In a recent paper to 

 the Niederrheinische Gesellschaft in Bonn, Herr Heusler says 

 the normal quantity of gas amounts to about 2160 cubic metres 

 in twenty-four hours. The supply having proved constant, a 

 compressing apparatus was set up last autumn ; the gas being 

 taken directly over the bore hole. The present system produces 

 per minute from 500 litres of gaseous CO;., I litre of liquid, 

 weighing I kilogram. As the liquefaction depends on the 

 external air- temperature, and is impossible at a temperature over 

 30-9 C. (the critical point), it is necessary in high temperatures 

 to cool the apparatus, and the water of the spring (which keeps 

 at 12°) serves for this. The pressure employed ranges from 

 about 50 to 70 atmospheres. The wrought-iron vessels for 

 despatch of the liquid contained about S litres, or 8 kilograms, 

 and are tested to about 250 atmospheres ; they very rarely 

 explode. The enormous expansion of carbonic acid with rise 

 of temperature yields a pressure which is utilised, it is known, 

 for compression of steel and other casts, and Messrs. Krupp at 

 Essen have thus got, e.g. a pressure of 1200 atmospheres for a 

 temperature rise of 200' C. Among other rises are pressure of 

 beer, impregnation of natural water, apparatus for fire extinction, 

 motor force for torpedoes, &c. Solid carbonic acid is to a large 

 extent produced from liquid by opening the cock of the vessel 

 into a canvass bag tied over the mouth. 



Ix his recent investigation of pile-dwellings of the Lake of 

 Bienne, Dr. Studer has met with two extreme types of human 

 skulls— the brachycephalic and the dolichocephalic ; the former 

 (at Schaffis and Luschery) belonging to the pure Stone period, 

 and the latter (found at Vinelz and Sutz) to the Bronze period. 

 The facts point to an invasion by the bronze men, involving a 

 complete transformation of the group of domestic animals ; the 

 horse appears for the first time, and new races of sheep and dogs 

 drive out the old forms of the Stone period. The occurrence of 

 mesocephalic, and even much shortened, skulls in the Bronze 

 period shows that there was no extinction of the brachycephalic 

 race, but that the two races mixed. This mixture of races in 

 prehistoric times increases the difficulty of tracing back the skull- 



