Jan. 2 1, 1886] 



NATURE 



269 



to the origin of the strandlinjer near the sea, I shall not follow 

 out here. I shall only remai-k, with respect to the parallel roads 

 of Lochaber, that Prestwich's hypothesis of landslips is untenable 

 as soon as the alternation of rock-shelves and detritus-shelves is 

 recognised. A different origin for the Scottish roads and for 

 our sder can hardly be supposed. Andr. M. Hansen 



University Library, Christiania, December 17, 1885 



The New Star near x' Orionis 



This star, since December 20, 1885, has been very slowly 

 decreasing in brightness. No trace of nebulosity was ob- 

 served around it. Its colour on December 19 was red-orange, 

 now it is yellow-orange. Its spectrum is of the 3rd order of 

 Secchi. On December 19 it was very brilliant from the red to 

 the blue, with six to eight brilliant bands decreasing in light to 

 the violet, or the more refrangible side. Now the red of the 

 spectrum is very dark, the yellow less luminous, and the blue 

 more faint than before. The maximum of light is always in the 

 green. 



The apparent position of the new star, which I determined on 

 December 20, 18S5, loh. om. 17s., Palermo M.T., was 

 a = 5h. 49m. 4-54S., S - 20° 9' 4"-3. 



Palermo Observatory, January 5 A. RlCCo 



Anchor FroMs 



Mr. J. Hands, in Nature of January 14 (p. 246), gives an 

 interesting account of an anchor fros*", "the most marked effects 

 of which are," he says, "seen in comparatively still water." He 

 adds, " it is said, that water coming upon it (anchor frost) from 

 above will rise in level and flow over it, as over a solid obstruc- 

 tion. This I have not seen myself." 



I have seen (and/t//) this occur on at least one occasion, 

 rather to my discomfort. 



When in the Arctic, early one morning in late autumn, I went 

 out to shoot deer for our winter stock of food, and forded a 

 stream at a shallow rapid, dry-shod, in Eskimo boots coming 

 up to the knee. Tlie day, for the season, became very cold, and 

 on my return homewards in the evening I found that the water 

 in the rapid had risen so much that it came fully a foot above 

 the tops of my boots, filling them with water. This increase of 

 depth was wholly caused by the obstruction of a collection of 

 ice-crystals in the form of wet snow, or pulp (through which my 

 feet readily sank>, adhering to the stony bottom of the stream. 

 I had to hurry over the mile or two to my tireless tent, rip oft" 

 my frozen boots and trousers, then jump into my blankets. 



The position of this anchor-ice w.as the very opposite to that 

 described by Mr. Hands, being in a swift but shallow rapid 

 flowing out of a comparatively still deep pool frozen over with 

 a thin coat of ice, but, where open, close above the rapid, 

 having many small ice-crystals floating on and near the surface. 

 The cause of these crystals coming into contact with, and ad- 

 hering to, the stones at the bottom of the rapid I have given 

 elsewhere, possibly in a previous number of Nature. 



The tenacity of cohesion of this soft mass of wet snow is 

 more clearly indica'ed by its re^i^ting the great force of a strong 

 rapid, than where it occurs in comparatively still water. 



John Rae 



4, Addison G.rrdens, Kensington, W., January 16 



The Dover Boring 



As the deep boring at Dover is alluded to in the last number of 

 Nature (p. 255), it may be well to state that a short notice thereof 

 was appended to my paper on the Chatham borings, which 

 was read in abstract at the meeting of the British Association 

 last year, and that a fuller account was included in my paper 

 "On Deep Borings in Kent," re.ad to the Geological Society a 

 few weeks ago (December 2, 1885), and noticed in Nature of 

 Dec. 24, p. 190. .Since then I have got some further informa- 

 tion, and specimens of the deeper beds found are now under 

 examination by Mr. J. Sharman, Pala:ontologist to the Geo- 

 logical Survey. My paper being now in type, though not yet 

 published, there is no need to enter into details, either of this 

 or of a still deeper boring now going on in the same county. 

 Any additional evidence as to the deep-seated rocks of Kent I 

 hope to give in a supplementary paper, if needful, and I hope 

 also shortly to visit the sites of the two borings referred to. 



William Whitaker 



33, East Park Terrace, .Sou'.hampton 



The Viper and its Young 



I WAS very much interested in an account of a viper swallow- 

 ing its young, given in Nature a short time ago, and would 

 like to corroborate the statement of Mr. Middleton's correspon- 

 dent, anent this extraordinary performance, by relating as briefly 

 as possible a little incident of which I was a witness. About the 

 end of August 1885, I was watching a coolie underbushing in the 

 bush on the Demerara River, Demerara, when suddenly a large 

 labaria snake rai:ed his head with open mouth just in front of 

 the coolie. The man struck at it with his cutlass (a knife about 

 twenty inrhes long), and afterwards assured me that he hit the 

 snake, but I saw the reptile glide off towards the river. I pur- 

 sued, but without success, the snake having doubtless taken 

 advantage of the river as a means of escape. The coolie, who 

 was a thorough bushman, having been born and brought up in 

 the bush, told me that in all probability there would be another 

 labaria not far off, as they always went in pairs. Next after- 

 noon I heard that William, the coolie, had encountered another 

 labaria, which he had killed. On my going to the place 

 where he was at work, he told me he had buried the snake 

 after cutting off the head. I may here state that a bushman 

 almost invariably buries a snake after killing it, interring the 

 head in a separate grave from the body. This the bushman 

 does because, he says, if any one puts his foot on a snake's 

 skeleton and a bone pierces the skin, the result will be nearly 

 akin to the bite of the snake. This common belief among the 

 sons of the forest has no doubt a good deal of truth in it, espe- 

 cially if a bone be broken in the wound. The interment of the 

 head in a separate grave is merely done as a graphic assur- 

 ance that the snake can never come to life again. Being 

 curious to know if this labaria was the one I had 

 seen on the previous day, I made William dig the rep- 

 tile up, and was pleased to find it altogether a much thicker 

 and shorter snake. On recounting his narrow escape from a 

 bite, William vented his spleen by giving the snake's body a 

 hack with his cutlass, when, to my astonishment, out through 

 the wound came seven young ones, varying from five to ten 

 inches in length, as nearly as I could guess. They were all 

 quite lively, although covered with a sort of thin film or saliva. 

 The largest of the brood seemed quite determined on business 

 straight oft", so I rapped him over the neck with the back of my 

 knife. We killed the whole lot of them, and William carefully 

 buried them, remarking that the bite of the young was quite as 

 bad as the bite of the old snake. Now these snakes had been 

 buried at a depth of eight or ten inches for from sixteen to 

 eighteen hours, and on liberation did not seem a whit the worse 

 for their entombment. Wilham told me that when he saw the 

 snake first it w.as lying coiled up fast asleep, and that he had 

 nearly put his foot right on top of it ; he, however, cut a stick 

 and killed it before it awoke. We both agreed that from 

 the appearance of the snake she had shed her skin only a few 

 days before. This in all probability was the case, as i found a 

 shed skin about three yards from where she had been killed. 

 The little snakes seemed to me to be inside the stomach, and 

 not in the gullet as Mr. Middleton suggests. The mother also 

 was in a pl.ace where there was scarcely any likelihood of her 

 ever having been disturbed to cause her to swallow her brood, 

 and it will be evident that the young did not quickly perish even 

 after the mother was dead. From what has just been stated, 

 would it not be reasonable to advance the theory that the 

 mother snake swallows the young ones alter they are hatched, 

 and retains them in her stomach until they attain a development 

 that fits them to take care of themselves, when she either vomits 

 them up, or they wriggle out of her mouth of their own free 

 will ? 



Not being a n.aturali--t, I am sorry that I cannot give any but 

 the Indian name of this snake, but I will endeavour to find it 

 out if you wish. The labaria must be well enough known to 

 natuiulists. A Creole 



White Blackbirds 



A WHITE blackbird lived in our garden a year or so ago for 

 about twelve months. Our gardener had seen it there, or at 

 least one like it, before. I often saw it within a few yards' 

 distance, and it was certainly three parts white, though present- 

 ing a mottled appearance. Some neighbours who heard us 

 speak of it said it must be Mtv;- white bkackbiid, meaning that 

 they had seen it in their gardens. It was shy, but not more so 

 than other blackbirds, and once, during sharp winter weather, 



