542 



NATURE 



[Sept. 28, 1882 



panion in 1878, also measured two small neighbouring stars 

 which he e-timated of "about the 13th mag." with these results — 



[a) 1878-842 ... Position 49'59 ... Distance 87-209 



(b) 1878-842 197'^S ••■ .1 7 ! '3S4 



Secchi, in Mtmoric dell' Osservatorio del Collegio Romano, 



1S59, p. 119, publishes measures of "70 p Ofiuco preso colla 

 piii vicina," thus : — 



1856-627 ... 215-08 ... S7 : 574 (4) ... 11m. 



1856-627 ... 67-2 (4) ... 12m. 



The proper motion of 70 Ophiuchi by comparison of Bradley 

 with the Greenwich catalogue of 1872, appears to be + o" - 20l4 

 in right ascension, and - i" - n7oin declination, and transferring 

 with the aid of these values Hall's angles and distances to 

 Secchi's epoch, we find : — 



(a) ... 1856-627 ... i9o°63 ... 94'3S 

 [/,) ... 1856-627 ... 65-89 ... 77-65 



It can hardly be doubted that Secchi's stars are identical with 

 Hall's, but the difference in both position and distance of the 

 star [a) stems to merit further examination ; if there lie no 

 error in Secchi's measures proper motion of the thirteenth 

 magnitude, as Hall estimated it, is probable. 



Smyth refers somewhat vaguely to two small compani >ns ol 

 70 Ophiuchi ; at his first date the Washington measures carried 

 back as above would give : — 



(a) ... 1830-76 ... 87° 9 ... 76-1 



(*) .. 183076 ... 1857 ... 122-3 



The Great Comet of 1874. — Mr. T, W. Backhouse writes 

 fro n Sunderland, pointing out that the tail of this comet attained 

 a much greater length than was assigned in this column, p. 483. 

 The length there mentioned 23°, was that given by observation 

 in the suburb; of London on July 13, when the head of the 

 comet was about to descend below the horizon. On the same 

 evening Mr. Backhouse found the tail 26° long, and 35° on the 

 14th, and he refers to greater lengths subse mently noted. These, 

 however, refer to dates when the head was no longer visible in 

 these latitudes, Prof. Julius Schmidt gave the following estima- 

 tions made at Athens : — 



July 16 ... 47-2 I July I S ... 55-9 I July 21 ... 65-8 

 17 ... 54-0 I 20 ... 63-3 I 22 ... 64-6 



These, with other observations, will be found in his descrip- 

 tion of the appearance of the comet, in No. 2067 of the Astro- 

 nomische Nach 1 i, 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES 

 Colossal Cuttle-fish. — Mr. T. W. Kirk adds to our 

 rapidly-increa ing 1 nowledge of large cuttle-fish in an imp irtant 

 paper latelj publi lied [Trans. New Zealand Inslitut. vol. xiv). 

 him to Stee istrup's genus Arcbiteuthis, 

 and called./. ■vetrUli, was found stranded at Island Lay, Cook's 

 Strait, New Zealand, in June, 1SS0 When first found on the 

 beach, it was not quite dead ; the longer arm; measured twent_\ 

 five feet ; the blades had a row of fifteen suckers along each side 

 and a middle row of nineteen. The smaller arms were about 

 eleven feet nine inches, with a width of seven and a half inches. 

 They were furnished with suckers and fleshy tubercles, but these 

 shorter arms wen: of unequal length. The fleshy membrane 

 connecting these was about eleven inches deep. The head was 

 four feet three i iches in circumference, the eyes five inches by 

 f jur ; the body was seven feet six inches in length, and nine 

 feet two inches in its greatest circumference. While this large 

 cuttle differs in some respects from the type of Steenstrup's 

 genus, Mr. Kirk prefers to wait for fresh material ere creating a 

 new genus. Another large cuttle is referred to a new genus, 

 Stcenstrupia, but its long pair of arms had been torn off at a 

 length of six feet two inches, when it was found in Cook's 

 Strait. ; its body was long (nine feet two inches), almost cylin- 

 drical, but very slightly swollen in the middle, head long (one 

 foot eleven inches), narrow sides, nearly ! traight, eyes larger, 

 and with lids, sessile arms, all same length and size (four feet 

 three inches), suckers, thirty-six on each arm, in two equal rows, 

 each with a bony ring armed with from forty to sixty sharp in- 

 curved teeth. The fin was rhomboidal, posterior lateral. The 



internal shell was six feet three inches long. The new species is 

 called 5. stock ii. 



Japanese Cotton. — The Japanese Government have lately 

 presetted to the National Museu it of the United States an 

 interesting collection of cotton grow 11 in Japan, accompanying 

 the dona'ion with notes <m the specimens, from which we extract 

 the following : — Cotton is produced along the coasts of the dis- 

 tricts Kinai, Kanto, Chiugoku, and Kinshiu, where the soil is 

 sandy and the climate warm. In some of the north-eastern 

 parts, where there are early fro its, the attempt to cultivate 

 cotton is rarely made. It is uncertain when the eultivatien of 

 cotton in the Japanese empire first commenced, but it would 

 appear that the method of culture adopted in the western 

 provinces came from Kinai, though the seeds grown in the 

 easten provinces c une from Mikawa. In the province of Sett u 

 the crop is the largest, indeed is not surpassed by that of all the 

 other provinces, but the cos' of cultivation is high. The staple. 

 moreover, is rather short and hard, so as not to be suitable 

 very fine yarns. In recent years, however, cotton yarn 

 imported on a large scale, and fine yams are easily procured 

 the home-produced cotton is profitable in proportion toils yield. 

 Tins will account for the fact that the cultivation of the long 

 and soft staple is quickly passing away, and that it is becoi 

 the almost universal custom to grow only that seed which 

 produce a maximum yield. While cotton pla 

 names in the different provinces, it is believed that tl 

 three sorts — the Kanto, which pr duces a long, soft, and St! 

 staple of glossy appearance, from half to two-thirds of an inch 

 in length, the Kinai, with a hard and short staple, from a 

 quarter to half an inch in length, and rather destitu' 

 ne^s, and the Ainoko, w hich is a hybrid between the two former. 

 The cultivation of the cotton-plant in Japan is not unifo) 

 varying immensely according to not only the climates and 

 but also according to the customs of each district, 1 1 

 expected that with the a Ivance of time the mede of culture may 

 become more uniform, and that excellence in quality may e.e: 

 take the place of a maximum in quantity. 



American Woodcock carrying its Yo it is 



still somewhat uncertain whether the woodcock [Scolopax rnsti 

 aila, Linn.) of Europe carries its young in its ween 



its legs, we believe this habit has, though ref rred to by 

 Audubon, not been recently observed in the American wood- 

 cock [Phiiohdia minor). It is, therefore, interesting to note the 

 following observations of Mr. F. L. Harvey, of Arkansas. In 

 April last (1SS2) a woodcock was flushed from a clump of 

 persimmion trees on the border of a slash. Knowing the bird's 

 habit of rising above a clump of bushes and then suddenly- 

 dropping behind it out of range, Mr, Harvey fired as soon as it 

 rose. When the smoke cleared away the bird was seen rising 

 w ith a laboured flight, and concluding it wa fall 



was expected, but instead it turned and came nearer. It was 

 seen to be holding something between its feet, which on closer 

 observation proved to be a yi ung chicken recently hatched, 

 which was located bet :r's legs, and supported by 



her feet placed on its sides. So slow was the flight that by a 

 brisk trot the observer was able to gain on the bird, which he 

 tried to tire out so as to compel it to drop its burden, but in this 

 he was not successful. It would appear that this bird and 

 Wilson's snipe often remain in Arkansas to breed [American 

 Naturalist, September). 



Blind Subterranean Crustacea in New Zealand. — 

 The existence of blind Edriophthalmatous Crustacea in wells 

 and subterranean cave rivers in Europe has been 1 

 and now Mr. C. Chilton describes some qui'e new firms found 

 in New Zealand [Trans. New Zealand Institute, vol xiv.). They 

 were obtained from a well at Eyreton, about six miles from 

 i, North Canterbury ; the well had been excavated about 

 seventeen years previously, was not more than twenty-five feet 

 deep, and was fitted with a common suction-pump through the 

 medium of which these new forms were obtained. These 

 proved to be three species of Ampbipoda and one of Isopoda. 

 In none were there to be found in either the living or recent speci- 

 mens the least trace of eyes. The Isopod is referred to a new- 

 genus Cruregens, and is most remarkable from the fact that it 

 has only six pairs of appendages to the seven thoracic segments, 

 whilst the normal number should be seven. In many Isopods 

 the young have at first only six pairs of legs, the last thoracic 

 segment being but slightly developed and destitute of appen- 

 dages (Fritz Miiller, "Facts and Arguments for Darwin"), and 



