68 



NA TURE 



l^Nov. 19, 1885 



be obtained at Saigon. That it must be tolerably full, however, 

 appears from the list of serpents, of which there are 87 in all, 

 17 being poisonous, the rest harmless. The scientific name, 

 the Annamite and Cambodian names, are given in each case. 



The inscriptions scattered all over Cambodia, which, like 

 the great ruins of Angkor, have come down from an earlier 

 civilisation which has otherwise disappeared, have attracted 

 much attention, and have now apparently reached a stage 

 in which scholars are violently quarrelling about them. 

 Papers on them, generally accompanied by copies of the 

 inscriptions, appear in every number of the periodical. M. 

 Aymonier was specially sent out from France to study them, 

 and in less than three years he succeeded in obtaining a 

 corpus of about 350 inscriptions. These are in many languages, 

 the principal, however, being in Khmer, or ancient Cambodian ; 

 and their examination has thrown much light on the history of 

 Cambodia in ancient times, and possibly on the ethnological 

 problems of the Indo-Chinese peninsula. The general result of 

 the investigation so far, represents the distribution of the in- 

 habitants of the southern part of the peninsula in the first 

 centuries of the Christian era as follows : — The Annamites were 

 still confined to Tonquin, while the Chams occupied the coast of 

 the present Annam ; tribes more or less numerous called Chongs, 

 Kouis, .Samre, &c. , occupied the present Cambodia and Southern 

 Laos. Probably their social state was more advanced than that 

 of the tribes still existing between the valley of the Meikong and 

 the coast of Annam. The Laotian people spread along the 

 valley of the Meikong from Luang Prabang in Siam to Lokhon, 

 while the Siamese were scattered about in principalities in the 

 centre of the country now occupied by them. There existed a 

 primitive religion amongst all these tribes : in April they rendered 

 homage to the spirits of the high places, and in October they 

 offered of the fruits of the earth to the manes of their ancestors. 

 They knew of the use of iron and made arms and tools for 

 themselves, and they cultivated rice. Then came Indian traders, 

 who penetrated by the Meikong River, founded small colonies, 

 and reduced some of the natives to slavery. They established 

 independent states, and from them we get the name Cambodia, 

 originally a title of honour. Thus the present population of 

 Cochin China is the result of two totally distinct races and 

 civilisations — Indian and the aboriginal native. The inscrip- 

 tions give the history of the Khmer dynasty down to the twelfth 

 century. 



M. Landes writes on the folk-lore of the Annamites, while 

 M. Aymonier has another long paper entitled "Notes on the 

 Laos," being a series of observations made during journeys in 

 the Laos country, which he has not been able to work up into 

 a connected paper on this curious people. They embrace every 

 conceivable subject relating to the Laos: the geography of the 

 country, their ethnological features, customs, rites. There are 

 up to the last issue seventy-nine of these notes, referring to as 

 many different points connected with these tribes. 



A lengthy report by Dr. Burck, Director of the Botanical 

 Garden at Buitenzorg, in Java, is printed. It contains an 

 account of his exploration in the highlands behind Padang, on 

 the west coast of Sumatra, in search of the trees which produce 

 guttapercha. The present state of the subject is this : Specimens 

 of guttapercha are found in considerable quantities in trade, but 

 it is impossible with our present knowledge to determine the 

 botanical origin of a single one of these specimens. The Dich- 

 opsis giUta (Benth.), the Isonandra gutta of Hooker, is the only 

 speciesoftreeproducing guttapercha of which botanical specimens 

 have been sent to Europe. But it has never been exactly and 

 completely described, for no man of science has seen the fruit or 

 seeds in their maturity. No one can at present affirm with 

 certainty the origin of such or such a kind of guttapercha in 

 trade. Dr. Burck maintains that the tree has never been found 

 at Singapore and that since the disappearance of the forests 

 there no one can affirm that the Dtchopsis gtit'a can be found in 

 its ^ wild state. The paper is of considerable length and the 

 writer disputes certain statements in the Kew reports with refer- 

 ence to the trees producing guttapercha and the places where 

 they are found. An account of a journey in Siam and a trans- 

 lation of a long Tonquinese poem with copious explanatory notes 

 and an excursus on Annamite literature are the remaining papers 

 of these three numbers, the product of six months' work. At 

 this rate the eastern part of the Indo-Chinese peninsula cannot 

 long remain unknown to Europe. 



Since the above was in type we have received the succeeding 

 number (vol. ix. No. 22) of the periodical here referred to. It 



contains a report from M. Aymonier on a further journey of his 

 in search of inscriptions, and describing in some detail the tribe 

 of Chams in Cambodia. He promises a complete work later 

 on this tribe in the province of Binthuan, which have been almost 

 wholly unknown hitherto. The same writer concludes his valu- 

 able notes on the Laos, the present instalment dealing with the 

 Kouis, the Khmers, and the province of Korat. These notes 

 occupy more than half the whole number, and, in the present 

 slate of our knowledge of the Laos tribes, are simply invaluable, 

 supplying as they do the results of long and close observation on 

 the part of the only Euro]5ean traveller who has yet had an 

 opportunity of living and travelling amongst them. M. Baux 

 has a short encyclopedia sort of article on tea, which is of no 

 especial note. M. Landes continues his folk-lore of Annamites, 

 under the title " Contes et Legendes Annamites. " So far he 

 has given fifty popular tales and fables, in which we find many 

 old friends. Androcles and the lion reappear, for example, as 

 the midwife and the tigress, the reward being a pig caught by 

 the latter and carried as a present to the woman. Dr. Tirant, 

 having concluded his study of the reptiles, commences in this 

 number a paper on the fishes of Lower Cochin-China and Cam- 

 bodia. Fishes play here a preponderating zoological role ; 

 Southern Indo-China forms an ichthyological province closely 

 allied with Malayasia ; Lower Cochin-China in particular has 

 curious affinities in this respect with Borneo. The present 

 number contains only the first instalment of Dr. Tirant's 

 " Notes," as he modestly styles a paper of great research and 

 investigation. 



ON THE MEASUREMENT OF MOVEMENTS 

 OF THE EARTH, WITH REFERENCE TO 

 PROPOSED EARTHOUAKE-OBSERVA TIONS 

 ON BEN NEVIS' 



TV'] EASUREMENTS of earth-movements are of two distinct 

 types. In one type the thing measured is the displace- 

 ment, or one or more components of the displacement, of a 

 point on the earth's surface. For this purpose the mechanical 

 problem is to obtain a steady point, to be used as an origin of 

 reference, and this is effected by making use of the resistance 

 which a mass opposes to any change of motion. This may be 

 called the Inertia method of observing earth-movements. It is 

 applicable to ordinary earthquakes, and also to the more minute 

 earth-tremors which would pass unnoticed if instrumental means of 

 detecting their presence were not employed. Tlie steady point 

 is to be obtained by suspending a heavy mass (with one, two, or 

 three degrees of freedom) in such a manner that its equilibrium 

 is very nearly neutral. Any moderately sudden displacement of 

 the ground in the direction in which the mass has freedom to 

 move leaves the mass almost undisturbed, and the displacement 

 of the ground is therefore easily measured or recorded by a suit- 

 able autographic arrangement, which must be so designed as to 

 introduce exceedingly little friction. 



The second type of measurement is that in which the thing 

 measured is any change in the inclination of the surface of the 

 ground relatively to the vertical. Movements of this class have 

 been examined by d'Abbadie and Plantamoiu', and also by G. 

 H. and H. Darwin, who have given the results of their observa- 

 tions to the British Association in two reports on the lunar dis- 

 turbance of gravity (1S82-3). Perhaps the most convenient 

 name for these movements is " earth-tiltings." They are mea- 

 sured by what may be called the Etjnihbrium method. A 

 pendulum, suspended in a viscous fluid, is employed to show, 

 by its equilibrium position, the true direction of the vertical, 

 and that is compared with the direction of a line which is fixed 

 relatively to the surface of the ground ; or, instead of a pendu- 

 lum, a dish of mercury or a pair of spirit-levels are employed 

 to define a truly horizontal surface, and the tilting of the earth's 

 surface relatively to that is observed. This method is prac- 

 ticable only when the displacements of the surface have so great 

 a vertical amplitude, in comparison with their horizontal wave- 

 length, that the slope of the wave is sensible ; and, further, only 

 when the changes of slope occur slowly enough to put the inertia 

 of the pendulum or fluid out of account. 



On the other hand, the inertia method is applicable only 

 when the displacements have so short a period, in comparison 

 with their amplitude, that the acceleration of the ground, during 



' Paper read before Section A of the British Association at Aberdeen, by 

 Prof. J. A. Ewing, of University College, Dundee, (.\bstract.) 



