Fuly 22, 1886 | 
NATURE 
277 
fish from one place to another. The best carrier for removing 
them in is an ordinary carboy filled to the top with water. Not 
more than fifty specimens of yearling fish should be placed in 
one carrier. Tlie autumn is the best time for transmitting them. 
WE are informed by Mr. W. August Carter, of the Colonial 
and Indian Exhibition Fisheries Section, that a large speci- 
men of asmooth hound, recently imported into the aquarium 
of the Exhibition from Brighton, gave birth last week 
I to ten young ones, this species being viviparous. She 
did not deliver them simultaneously, but two at a time, 
ys 
at intervals of about twenty hours, occupying six days in 
_ yielding the entire number. All the young on appearing were 
perfectly formed, and resembled in every respect their matured 
_ congeners with the exception of the colour of the upper portion 
of the body and fins, which was white throughout instead of 
grey. Unfortunately nine expired shortly after birth, lacking 
_ the conditions necessary to their existence, such as deep water, 
‘] where in their natural state they always repair for six months 
ui during their alevin stage. The remaining fish was devoured by 
its parent, which is in excellent condition and moves actively 
_ around the tank. 
From the report of the Stockholm Observatory for the last 
_ year, we learn that during the year Prof. Gyldeén continued the 
calculations for the development of certain theories respecting the 
chief planets, and that they are so far advanced as to already 
embrace the terms of the first and second orders in relation to 
_ the masses pertaining to the theory for the system Jupiter-Saturn- 
; Uranus. The Astronomer-Royal also continued his lectures on 
theoretical astronomy, chiefly supported by King Oscar, which 
_were attended by several eminent foreign astronomers. Several 
well-known astronomers from Russia and Germany have also 
4 pursued their studies at the observatory during the year, two of 
whom, Drs. Shdanow and Harzer, of Pulkowa, having, as the 
result of the same, published important papers on the astro- 
nomical theory of perturbation. Three more parts of the work, 
“* Astronomical Observations and Researches at the Stockholm 
Observatory,” were issued during the year. 
BEFORE adjourning this summer the Swedish Parliament 
granted a sum of 325/. towards the continuation of the Acta 
Mathematica during the ensuing financial year 1886-87. 
WE have received Nos. 45-47 of the first part, 34-36 of the 
second part, of the well-known and valuable ‘‘ Encyclopedia of 
Natural Sciences,” now in course of publication by the house of 
Eduard Trewendt, of Breslau. The three numbers of the first 
part include the seventeenth number of the ‘‘ Manual of Botany,” 
containing the beginning of an important note by Prof. Oscar 
Drude, of Dresden, on ‘‘ The Systematic and Geographical Ar- 
rangement of the Phanerogams,” illustrated with finely executed 
drawings by the author, and a map. The two other numbers 
belong to the ‘‘ Alphabetical Manual of Zoology, Anthropology, 
and Ethnology,” advancing that work from ‘‘Kalunda” to 
**Landrace.” Nos. 34 and 36 of the second part carry on 
the ‘‘ Alphabetica! Manual of Chemistry ” from ‘‘ Essigsaure ” 
to ‘‘Furfurangruppe.” Of special interest is the excellent 
_work by Dr. R. Nietzki, of Basel, on ‘‘ Organic Colouring Mate- 
rials.” The 35th number, again, brings us nearer to the conclusion 
of the ‘‘ Alphabetical Manual of Mineralogy, Geology, and Palz- 
ontology,” containing, as it does, palseontological contributions 
by Dr. Fr. Rolles—Trias System, Birds, Wanderings of Plants 
and Animals in the Course of Geological Epochs, Mollusks, and 
Worms, as also mineralogical contributions by the Editor. 
The few articles that still remain to be written on geology, inter- 
rupted by the sudden death of Prof. von Lasaulx, will be taken 
up by Prof. Hoernes, of Graz, so that this ‘‘ Handworterbuch ” 
will be completed in the course of this summer. 
THE Prince of Monaco has left Lorinet with his yacht 
Hirondelle to prosecute the series of marine observations begun 
last year. The cruise will be made between Cape Finisterre 
and the English southern coast. Five hundred tubes have been 
prepared, and will be thrown on the sea. They will carry 
printed forms of the same kind described on a former occasion. 
Dredgings and thermometric readings will be made on the bottom 
of the sea. 
THE administration of the Jardin des Plantes of Paris has 
organised an exhibition of the objects collected on the Congo by 
M. Savorgnan de Brazza. 
THE Franco-Algerian telegraph system is being completed to 
Biskra, but the communication between Biskra and Tugurth 
and Dabila oasis, situated at a great distance to the south, is 
kept up by means of the optical telegraph, the sun being utilised 
in daytime, and at night electricity. The optical system will be 
always kept in operation, as it is apprehended that nomads 
might cut the wires. 
THE Kazan Society of Naturalists has issued the fourteenth 
volume of their Memotrs (Trudy), which contains a very inter- 
esting paper, by MM. Stuckenberg and Vysotski, on the Stone 
Age at Kazan. The commencement of a museum of Stone 
Age implements at Kazan was made in 1877, and now it already 
has a first-rate collection, both in the number and variety o 
implements, and M. Zausailo ff is publishing a beautiful atlas of 
drawings representing them. The paper of MM. Stuckenberg 
and Vysotski contains most interesting details as to the places 
where remains of man were found, illustrated by three maps. 
Three different terraces are seen in the valley of the Volga. The 
upper terrace, rising 50 to 150 feet above the second, consists of 
yellow-brownish sandy clay, covering layers of sand. It con- 
tains remains of mammoths and other extinct mammals. The 
second terrace is much more recent ; and it is on its surface, as 
well as on the slopes of the former, and sometimes on the sur- 
face of the third terrace, that the stone implements are found. 
The third terrace, which is still inundated by the Volga, was 
probably almost covered by its waters during the Stone Age. 
All implements found are Neolithic ; that is, they belong to 
what we should ‘call the lacustrine period. As to the imple- 
ments themselves, many of which are figured on the sixteen 
plates which accompany the paper, they have mostly been made 
of the local flint originating from the Permian deposits, A 
few are made of the Eocene sandstone which extends to the 
south of the Kazan Government; and, finally, boulders of 
granite, diorite, gneiss, quartzite, and so on, have also been used 
for the fabrication of some of the hammers. Broken pottery, 
together with bones of horses, oxen, and pigs, accompany the 
stone implements. 
M. PALMIERI, the director of the Vesuvian Observatory, has 
succeeded in exhibiting the negative electricity developed when 
steam is condensed by cold, and positive electricity liberated 
when evaporation takes place. A platinum shell is placed in 
communication with one of the plates of a condenser. The 
golden leaf is separated when a piece of ice is placed in the shell, 
and also when it is full of water if exposed to the rays of the 
sun. The electricity has been proved positive in the first instance, 
and negative in the second. 
Durinc the last few weeks great tracts of the fertile island of 
Seeland, in Denmark, have been devastated by maybugs, whole 
fields and meadows having been laid quite bare. Last year the 
damage done was very great, but this year it is far worse, being 
estimated at some 25,000/. The distress among farmers is in 
consequence very great. 
A MIRAGE was observed at Algiers prior to the outbreak of the 
destructive thunderstorm which broke over the city on the 7th 
