Fune 3, 1886] 
NATURE 
109 
a considerable number of measurements, Mr. Penhallow swn- 
matises the physical characteristics of the Ainos as follows :— 
The forehead is usually high, though narrow ; eyebrows heavy 
and overhanging ; nose somewhat inclined to flatness, though 
but little more so than in Europeans ; mouth wide, but well 
formed ; chin well formed and medium size; eyes straight, 
brown, and dull ; cheek-bones inclined to be prominent ; facial 
angle high, the mean of the measurements giving an angle of 
72°; the body is compact, well built, and muscular ; much more 
than ordinarily hairy, skin of light colour, comparable to that of 
Europeans, and the average height is about 5 feet 2 inches. 
TuAr frogs have a formidable enemy in the common mouse 
is evidenced by the following incident. A correspondent, Mr. 
W. August Carter, of South Norwood, states that he observed, 
a short time since, several mice pursuing some frogs in a shed 
which was overrun with these reptiles. The alacrity of the 
latter, however, rendered the attacks of the mice futile for a 
considerable period. Again and again the frogs escaped from 
the clutches of their foes, but only to be recaptured, severely 
shaken, and bitten. The energy put forth by these reptiles was 
so great that they actually swayed their captors to and fro in 
their efforts to wrest themselves from their grasp. At length 
the wounds inflicted upon them rendered the frogs incapable of 
further resistance, and they were easily overpowered by the 
mice, which devoured a certain part of them. 
In a lecture recently delivered before the Scientific Society of 
Bamberg, Dr. Hartwig, the Director of the new Astronomical 
Observatory there sketched out the future work of that insti- 
tution. It was well, he said, that an observatory should 
devote itself to some specialty, with which its name would be 
associated, as that of Paris was with the determination and 
mapping of the fixed stars, Greenwich with the movements of 
the moon, Vienna with comets, and so on. In a similar way 
Bamberg would occupy a certain limited field, and labour there- 
in. In the first place it would undertake the systematic investi- 
gation of the parallaxes of the fixed stars, a work which had 
already been partially performed at the Cape Observatory for the 
southern, and at Newhaven in the United States for the northern 
hemisphere. Bamberg will be provided with a new 7-inch 
heliometcr, the largest of its kind at present in the world, 
although the Cape Observatory will shortly be provided with one 
of the same size. The present Cape heliometer is a 4-inch, and 
that at Newhaven a 6-inch one. Dr. Hartwig said that this 
7-inch heliometer is at present the finest instrament known to 
astronomy. He pointed out that at present the parallaxes 
of only eight or ten fixed stars were calculated, while about 
three thousand remain to be done, and this, he said, would take 
a single qualified observer more than thirty years to accomplish. 
He hoped that as Leipzig and Gottingen were about to be pro- 
vided with heliometers, they would participate in the work, so 
that in a comparatively short time we may obtain a more 
accurate notion of the distance of many fixed stars and of their 
grouping in space. Another work which Bamberg would under- 
take is the investigation of the physical libration of the moon— 
a problem that has been studied at Konigsberg since 1845, and 
in Strasburg since 1870. After describing at some length the 
instruments with which the new Observatory is provided, Dr. 
Hartwig concluded by assuring his hearers that with these an 
observatory would be established which would take a high place 
amongst existing astronomical institutions, and which would be 
excelled in Germany by the Observatories of Strasburg and 
Potsdam alone. The Bamberg Observatory, it should be stated, 
owes its existence to the munificence of a private individual, the 
late Dr. Remeis, a member of the Scientific Society of 
_ Bamberg. 
THE Darling Downs Gazette of March 20 describes some 
recently discovered caves fifteen miles from Rockhampton, 
Queensland, A party, headed by Mr. W. M‘Ilwraith, of the 
Rockhampton Natural History Society, recently visited the 
caves. From some wells on the route they saw the peaks of an 
uncommon range of hills. ‘‘ They stand up in a fine sharp profile 
like the pinnacles and turrets of a stately Gothic pile. The 
vestibule of the wonderful structure is formed by an immense 
chasm in the rocks. Two walls of limestone or marble rock set 
in an acute angle rise on either side to a height of about 60 feet, 
and converge in front at a higher elevation. At 9 o'clock at night 
the party began exploring, and after clambering over a mass of 
detached, sharp-edged, pock-pitted rocks, got into a rocky 
chamber. Its walls were beautifully white in parts, and show 
the rock to be of limestone formation. They visited im succes- 
sion caves of different dimensions, and named one the ‘ Chinese 
Joss-house.’ It is a little recess off the passage ; the walls are 
beautifully white, and stalactites and stalagmites unite to form 
beautiful pillars, the whole being wonderfully beautiful, remind- 
ing the visitors of Chinese ivory caryed work. In the morning 
they continued their exploration, wandering through numerous 
passages, and crawling and slipping till they came to a large 
cavern. In one of the passages the bats extinguished their 
candles, and they returned to the upper regions. They then 
saw daylight streaming from the opposite side of the mountain, 
and estimated the distance from light to light at five chains or 
more. ‘They returned to the starting-point, climbed a ladder, 
and traversed other passages, and crossed a gulf on a bridge 
formed of saplings. Eventually they reached a wide opening, 
and the light poured in from an opening in the caves. This 
latter is a large chamber, and in it are the roots of a tree, which 
have taken hold in the bottom of the cave, and hang like ropes. 
The most striking stalagmites in it resemble the head of an 
elephant and the bust of a man. Various caves were discovered, 
and also openings leading from one main suite of caves to 
another one. The cave particularly alluded to is called ‘The 
Cathedral.’ It is 50 feet long from the porch to the pulpit 
stairs, 30 feet across, and the ceiling is so lofty that the gleams 
of the candle did not reach it. There are stalactitic formations 
on the ceilings and floor, but the walls are plain, and haye 
niches in some parts. Some of the party descended 60 feet 
here, and in another Jailed to reach the opening. The writer 
says, ‘ Wherever we went almost underground our footsteps had 
a hollow sound, and the conclusion we come to at present is 
that the region has been a hot-spring area, and the cayes were 
formed by the action of hot water.’ ” 
THE various species of Salmonidze hatched out and reared by 
the Buckland Museum authorities have been turned into the 
Thames at Penton Hook, with a view of replenishing the stock of 
fish in that river. The Thames Angling Preservation Society are 
making arrangements to receive a consignment of land-locked 
salmon fry at their nursery again this year, in order to rear them 
for the Thames. The exertions now being made to re-stock the 
unpolluted portions of this river are sure to terminate in good 
results, indeed many of the trout taken lately are said to be the 
result of previous efforts made by pisciculturists in this direc- 
tion. 
ORNITHOLOGISTS, antiquarians, and librarians will in a few 
days have the opportunity of possessing a book which is said to 
be the only work published on the subject of duck decoys. It 
will be in quarto, with many illustrations, coloured and woodcut. 
Its author, Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, is already known to 
naturalists by his book on wild-fowl, issued some few years since 
by the publisher of the present volume, Mr. Van Voorst. 
Dr. Von Haast writes that the large geological relief model 
of New Zealand, referred to in our recent article on the Colonial 
