May 25, 1882] 



NATURE 



>i 



become loosened from the upper part of the mountains, and 

 fall in extensive landslips down the sides. These landslips or 

 r.- ck slips are so numerous, that in fine weather they arc most 

 conspicuous objects on the sides of the hills, and look like dry 

 watercourses. One of these rockslips I witnessed at Cape 

 Grafton, from a distance of three miles. The noise was terrific, 

 and the ground trembled as though from an earthquake. On 

 examining the blocks of granite which had slipped to the bottom 

 of the ravine, I found many of them with their sides grooved 

 and scratched, and one fragment was as beautifully polished on 

 one side as if it came from the hands of a lapidary, excepting, 

 of course, the scratches and grooves. In the course of a few 

 centuries, much of the range will be worn away, and its sides 

 represented by an alluvial deposit mainly consisting of angular 

 Iwulders of every size and shape, many of which will be 

 polished, scratched, and grooved. There are very few geolo- 

 logists who would not call it a glacial drift, even now, were not 

 the cause so evidently before them. Will this help to explain 

 called drifts, which, like this instance, are found far 

 within the tropics ? T. E. Tenison-Woods 



Union Club, Sydney, N.S.W., March 25 



Variability of Number of Sepals, Petals, and Anthers in 

 the Flowers of Myosurus minimus 



In my article on "Different Modes of Self-fertilisation where 

 Visits of Insects are wanting" (Nature, vol. x. p. 129), I gave 

 a short account of the number of sepals, petals, and anthers in 

 a hundred flowers of Myosurus minimus examined by mysjlf. 

 Some error must, however, have slipped into this account, the 

 sum of the quoted flowers differing from a hundred. I have, 

 therefore, lately repeated my examination and give here the 

 re-ults. In 200 flowers I no>v found 35 different proportions 

 in the number of sepals, petals, and anthers. These were 

 contained in — 



In general, the number of sepals, petals, ami anthers increases 

 and decreases with the size of the llowei, the 12 first qiuted 

 flowers being exceedingly dwarfish ones. 



It should further be considered that in combination with a 

 cer am number of sepals and petals a certain number of anthers 

 seems to be the normal one, and from this norma] (maximum) 

 number of anthers, as to be seen under a, . . c, the nu nbers of 

 flowers on the two opposite sides are constantly decreasing, 



Lippstadt, May 16 Hermann Muller 



"A Dead Heat" 

 Telegrams from Paris on Monday sta'e that the " Prix du 

 Jockey Club" had resulted in what is usually called a 

 "dead heat." It is unnecessary for me to inform you, that 

 there can be no such thing as a "dead heat." It i- called so, I 

 suppose, in consequence of a disagreement among the judges as 

 to which horse first thrusts his nose beyond the winning-post. 

 Are living judges any longer necessary to determine the results 

 of a race? Five years ago I proposed to prove by indisputable 

 evidence the winner of a trotting match which, in consequence 

 of a dispute among the judges, had to be trotted over 

 again. By means of a single thread stretched across the 

 track, and invisible to either horses or their riders, twenty 



photographic cameras have been made to synchronously re- 

 c rd positions impossible for the eye to recognise. With the 

 aid of photography, the astronomer, the pathologist, the che- 

 mi-t, and the anatomist are enabled to pursue the most complex 

 investigations with absolute confidence in the truth it reveals ; 

 why should those interested in trills of speed not avail theai- 

 selves ofjthe same resources of science? I venture to predict, in 

 the near future that no race of any importance will be undertaken 

 without the assistance of photography to determine the winner 

 of what might otherwise be a so-called "dead heat." 



449, Strand, W.C., May 23 Edward Muybridge 



Aurora Borealis 



The auroral display mentioned by your two correspondents 

 was particularly brilliant at Oldham on the evening of the 14th 

 inst., at 11. 10. I observed at II. 15 one very fine streamer 

 reaching quite to the Pole Star ; it was of a ruddy hue, dull, 

 and changing to purple. The horizon was cloudy, the cloud 

 being fringed with white light, changing to rose colour. The 

 constellation Cassiopea was at times covered with a mass of 

 light, from whence the streamer arose, lighting up the whole of 

 the northern sky. \V. P 11 LUNGER 



Oldham 



Bright Meteors 



1882, May 16. iih. 0111. G.M.T. Meter many times brighter 

 than Venus ; green, then white ; began of second magnitude, 5° 

 above main cluster of Coma; passed |J° above Iota Urs. Maj., 

 where it changed colour suddenly ; ended, of second magnitude, 

 5" left of luia Auriga;. Duration S seconds, may have been 10. 

 No streak. Observed from the University Observatory. A few 

 minutes later another was seen describing very nearly the same 

 path. G. L. Tupman 



Oxford 



Curious Formation of Ice 



In your i- ue of November 24, 1SS1 (vol. xxv. p. 78) Mr. J. 

 F. Duthie described small wafer-like, rather funnel-shaped 

 pieces of ice which he noticed in October, on the slopes of the 

 Himalayas, and a-ked whether such forms of ice had been 

 observe'! elsewhere. 



On November 30, 1SS1, I observed, at a height of about 7000 

 feet, near the hill station of Chakrata, on the outer Himalayas, 

 ice crystals which were grouped in bundles about one inch long 

 and one inch in diameter. The bundles consisted of prisms up 

 to a quarter of an inch d ameter, and looked at from the side the 

 teng parallel prismatic faces, and the short rectangular outlines 

 of the ends of the prisms suggested rather the orthorhombic 

 system of crystallisation. On looking straight at the end of the 

 crystals, it \va-, however, seen that all the prisms were hexagonal, 

 and that they ended in hollow hexagonal pyramids, thus 

 bringing out clearly the hexagonal system of crystallisation to 

 which ice belongs. 



The hollow hexagonal pyramids showed further development 

 in o'her portions of the hoar frost, and there seems very little 

 doubt that what Mr. Duthie describes were accumulations of 

 small crystals originally grouped in the shape of hexagonal hollow 

 pyramids, but more or less expanded and rounded off. 



I may here mention another interesting occurrence of crystals 

 which I had the opportunity of noticing at the salt works in 

 Che-hire. During slow evaporation of brine in a steam-heated 

 reservoir, crystals of salt formed at the surface in the shape of 

 hollow hexagon-! pyramids, This is easily explained. Whilst 

 the ordinary we. .-known hollow salt pyramids with square base 

 form, bv the gradual sinking and growth of a cubical nucleus 

 which lltiats with one pair of faces horizontally placed, these 

 exceptional hexagonal pyramides form from an original cube 

 Which floats on the water' with a solid angle as its lowest point. 

 The six lateral edges are the beginning of the hexagonal 

 pyramids. H. Warth 



Dehra Dun, N.W. Provinces, East India, April 



The Existence of a Voice in Lizards 



The following may perhaps be of some interest in connection 

 with the letter of Prof. Th. Eimer (vol. xxvi. p. 29). One 

 evening a- I sat in the verandah of my house in Madras, 

 my attention was called by a peculiar cry, and on looking 



