U2 
the microscope the samples of the dust which fell in 1812 ard 
1902 differed greatly, the 1812 dust being much finer and con- 
taining very few mineral crystals, being chiefly composed of 
fragments of dark brown volcanic glass. During the recent fall 
it was noticed that the ash at first was rather coarse and of a 
‘brownish colour, then it became slightly redder, while the final 
deposits consisted of a whitish-grey impalpable powder. 
From a meteorological standpoint the conveyance of the dust 
from St. Vincent to Barbados is a subject of great interest, as 
bearing upon the question of the upper currents. At sea level 
the trade wind blows almost directly, and freshly, from 
Barbados to St. Vincent, east to west. The Soufriére became 
active early in the afternoon of Wednesday, May 7; the dust 
cloud must have been shot up to an elevation of some miles, 
where it was caught by a west to east counter current of great 
velocity, for within two hours, 3.15 p.m., dust was observed to 
be descending in Barbados, gradually increasing in volume and 
becoming heavy soon after sundown, the consequent darkness 
being intense. There was brilliant lightning and violent crashing 
thunder. It would appear that on this day the upper current 
had an east-going velocity of more than fifty miles an hour. 
It is worthy of mention that at 1.30 p.m. on May 7 there 
occurred a sudden outburst from one of the oil borings, 900 feet 
deep, at Turner’s Hall, Barbados, dust being thrown up to the 
height of more than 100 feet into the air. At 3.45 p.m. there 
was an unusually high tide at Bridgetown, the highest within 
memory. 
Setsmographtc Records in France.} 
I received, on May 6, a telegram from M. Kilian, professor 
of geology at the University of Grenoble, announcing that the 
Kilian-Paulin seismograph had registered in the morning at 
3h. 4m. 49s. Paris time a seismic shock from a north-east 
direction. The evening papers and those of the next day an- 
nounced that this shock had been felt again in the north-west 
of France and along the south Mediterranean coast of Spain. 
It is in the district of Murthia that the most violent effects 
were notified. 
Another more precise observation as regards time and direction | 
of the shocks has been recorded at Floirac near Bordeaux, 
north-west direction, time 3h. 5m. 30s.; the passage of the 
vibrations therefore made themselves felt at Floirac forty-one 
seconds after those of Grenoble. In supposing them to have a 
speed of 3km. a second, the epicentrum must be 123 km. 
further from Floirac than from Grenoble and also to the south- 
east of Floirac, to the south-west of Grenoble. These theoretical 
} 
and hypothetical considerations would place it in the Mediter- | 
ranean, to the east of Murthia, to the south of Minorca. Wherever 
it is, it seems to me that the earthquake of May 6 affected the 
subsidence in a Mediterranean oval, which has cut the south 
coast of Spain, by marking it with volcanic eruptions (Olot, 
Columbret, Cartagena, Cap de Gate). 
remark that it is equally the result of a subsidence in a Mediter- 
ranean oval, that of the Lesser Antilles, that two days after, 
May 8, there was the terrible catastrophe of Saint-Pierre. 
NOTES. 
NATURE 
| gentlemen prominent in literary and scientific circles. 
It is interesting to | 
Ar the next meeting of the British Association, to be held at | 
Belfast, commencing on September 8, it has been decided to 
include in Section A a subsection for seismology. The organ- 
ising committee of this subsection invite cooperation of 
seismologists, who, it is hoped, if they are not able to attend 
will be able to send communications for discussion, 
A REvTER telegram from Upsala says that a Swedish expedi- 
tion for taking meridian measurements will leave Tromso for 
Spitsbergen on July 26. It will be under the leadership of Dr. 
P. Rubin and will include, as astronomer, Dr. von Zeipel, and, 
as cartographer, Lieutenant Duner. The expedition will have 
as a centre the seven islands to the north of Spitsbergen, and 
will return to Troms6 on September Io. 
Mr. J. S. BupGerr, Balfour student of the University of 
Cambridge, left England last week for Uganda, vz7@ Mombasa, on 
1 Translation of a note by M. Michel Lévy in the Comftes rendus of the 
Paris Academy of Sciences, May 12. 
NO. 1700, VOL. 66{ 
[May 29, 1902 
a mission from the Zoological Society of London, He will 
proceed to the south-east corner of the protectorate, and take 
up a station on the Semliki River, where he will collect mam- 
mals and birds, study the fishes, and endeavour to investigate 
the habits of the okapi in the forest of Mboga. Mr. Budgett, 
who has already paid two visits to the Gambia, is a practised 
collector of fishes and an experienced African traveller. 
AT the anniversary meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
held last week, the Prince of Wales was elected president of 
the Society for the year following the Carlisle meeting this 
summer. 
THE British Medical Journal announces that a scientific 
commission, consisting of Dr. G. C. Low, Dr. C. Christy and 
Dr. Castelani has been sent to Uganda by the Royal Society for 
the purpose of investigating sleeping sickness. To Dr. Low 
and Dr. Christy is entrusted the parasitological part of the 
investigation, while Dr. Castelani is the bacteriologist of the 
expedition. 
WE learn from the V2ctortan Naturalist that after an 
absence of rather more than twelve months, the greater part of 
which was spent among the aboriginals of the northern interior 
of Australia, Prof. Baldwin Spencer, F.R.S., and Mr. F. J. 
Gillen returned to Melbourne on March 17. They were in 
excellent health, and were welcomed home by a number of 
The ex- 
plorers have brought back a considerable amount of material, 
including phonograph and kinematograph records, on which to 
base an extensive work on the myths, customs, &c., of the 
various tribes studied. 
THE Zimes states that Mr. W. Bruce, who is to lead the 
Scottish Antarctic expedition, has received intimation, dated 
January 4, from Prof. von Drygalski, leader of the German 
South Polar expedition, announcing the arrival of the Gauss at 
Kerguelen. The expedition will, therefore, have made the ice 
at about the same time as the Swedish and British ships. Von 
Drygalski has penetrated the Antarctic region at the point of the 
still hypothetical termination island in order to discover the 
western side of Victoria land and clear up its possible con- 
nection with Kemp and Enderby lands. By taking this route 
he believes he may be ultimately able to sweep westwards by a 
high southern latitude into the South Atlantic and emerge by 
way of South Georgia. 
A CORRESPONDENT directs our attention to the announce- 
ment that a very fine example of the blue Puya is in flower in 
the Mexican portion of the temperate house at Kew Gardens, 
where it is now bearing two stout spikes, three feet high, of 
beautiful peacock-blue flowers. The plant is a very remarkable 
one and has rarely flowered in this country, though Messrs. 
J. Veitch had one in flower in 1868 (Bofanical Magazine, 
t. 5732). 
THE International Commission for Scientific Ballooning met 
in Berlin last week in the Sitzungssaal of the Reichstag. We 
learn from the Daily Graphic that Prince Frederick Henry pre- 
sided in the nameof the Kaiser. The War Offices of all the 
| great European Powers except France were represented at the 
| conference. 
The object of the commission is to combine the 
| study of meteorology with aéronautics, and to induce the various 
Powers to agree upon some common course of action with 
regard to the study of aéronautic questions. A paper 
was read by Mr. Patrick Alexander on the steering by 
Hertzian waves of flying machines carrying instruments for 
| registering the temperature and moisture of the atmosphere at 
| 
different altitudes. Mr. Alexander claims that his machines 
can be sent a distance of fifty miles and steered back to the 
