556 



NA TURE 



[Oct. 5, 1,882 



of this little craft there can be no question. Of its 

 economy it is premature to speak. It is, however, greatly 

 in favour of electric navigation, that such machinery may 

 be both lighter and more compact than that of steam- 

 engines of corresponding power ; that the noise and 

 vibration is very greatly reduced ; and that, lastly, there 

 is a complete absence of the nuisance of smoke, which 

 appears to be inseparable from steam navigation. 



Silvanus P. Thompson 



NOTES 



At the sitting of October 2 of the Academy of Sciences, M. 

 Dumas delivered an address on his friend, Prof. Wcehler, of 

 Gottingen, one of the eight Foreign Associates of the French 

 Academy, whose death had been announced by telegram. He 

 also gave the list of the eight missions sent by the French 

 Government to observe the transit of Venus. The total expense 

 ciiarged against the national exchequer is estimated at 1,200,000 

 francs. 



Prof. Moseley, who is conducting the researches which the 

 Cardiff Naturalists' Society is making with regard to the fisheries 

 in the sea beyond Lundy Island and the mouth of the Bristol 

 Channel, has been successful in obtaining a specimen of 

 "Arnoglossus Lophotes," a Pleuronectid with the anterior rays 

 of the dorsal fin curiously elongated, hitherto known only from 

 two dried skins in the Couch collection, the locality of which 

 was uncertain. This specimen, which is now in the British 

 Museum, establishes the validity of Dr. Giinther's classification 

 of this fish as a distinct British species. 



An excavation for geological purposes was made in the New 

 Forest during the last fortnight of September by Mr. J. W. 

 Elwes of Otterbourn, and Mr. T. \V. Shore of Southampton, 

 who obtained special permission for this purpose. A consider- 

 able area of the Brockenhurst bed was exposed by the removal 

 of about twelve feet of overlying strata near the railway cutting 

 w hich yielded such interesting specimens forty years ago. More 

 than a thousand good specimens were obtained on the present 

 occasion, comprising seventy species of molluscs and some corals. 

 The work was directed by Mr. Keeping, of the Woodwardian 

 Museum, Cambridge. 



Among the special features of the Munich Electrical Exhibi- 

 tion is a telephone transmitting thither pieces of music per- 

 formed at Oberammergau, which is about 63 miles distant ; also 

 a giant telephone, which transmits concert pieces performed in 

 the English Cafe, so as to be audible to the whole of an 

 audience in a large hall at the Palace. A special interest also 

 attaches to the transmission of power by a single wire from the 

 coal-mines of Miesbach, about 37 miles distant, as the possi- 

 bility of utilising the heat of coal at a distance without transport 

 of the coal is concerned. 



It has been ascertained that the first experiment with air 

 balloons was made by Montgolfier the elder, at Avignon, when 

 he was a resident in this city in the month of November, 17S2. 

 He sent up in his room a parallelopiped of canvas, of which the 

 measurement was 40 cubic feet, and which had been heated by 

 burning paper inside. The room is still in existence, in a house in 

 front of which the Municipality have placed a commemorative in- 

 scription. The window fronting the street is adorned with an 

 iron balcony, at both ends of which a small gilt balloon has 

 been placed. The anniversary will be celebrated in Paris by a 

 banquet given by the Academy of Aerostation, and very 

 probably a local celebration will take place in Avignon. 



Active preparations are being made for an electrical and gas 

 exhibition, to be opened at the Crystal Palace on October 24. 



A work on South African Butterflies—" A Monograph of the 

 Extra- Tropical Species," by Mr. Roland Trimen— is announced 



by Messrs. Triibner. It will be much more than a new edition 

 of the author's former work ; the plates will be entirely new. 



We are asked to state that an article by Dr. James Croll, 

 F.R.S., entitled " Evolution by Force Impossible ; a New Argu- 

 ment for Theism," written before his recent illness, will shortly 

 appear in one of the quarterlies. 



Under the title of " Boats of all Nations, drawn from 

 Nature," Mr. G. H. Andrews proposes to publish a work in 

 large folio, illustrative and descriptive of the origin, history, and 

 peculiar characteristics of the smaller craft of Great Britain, 

 Norway, Denmark, Hanover, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, 

 Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, and North America. The work 

 will be illustrated by thirty facsimile copies of the original 

 drawings and many sketches of details. The interest and utility 

 of such a work are evident, and to judge from the specimen 

 before us Mr. Andrews is likely to do the subject justice. 



In the Revista da Sociedade de Instruccao do Porto, Prof. 

 Oliveira regularly continues his Catalogue of Portuguese Insects; 

 in the current number it is carried to the end of Bembidium in 

 the Coleoptera. In this same number is what appears to be a 

 valuable contribution to botanical bibliography, viz. a " Review 

 of the Hepaticological Works of the European Flora published 

 since the appearance of the Synopsis Hepaticarum," printed in 

 English. The author is P. Stephani, who dates from Leipzig. 



In Natural History Notes, a series of articles on "Plant 

 Symbolism, as connected with the Early History of Mankind," 

 by S. Marshall, F.R.Hist.S., is being published. 



We have received from the Bristol Museum and Library the 

 Syllabus of the usual course of lectures on scientific and literary 

 subjects, to be delivered in the Lecture Theatre, on Tuesday 

 evenings during the winter. It is as well arranged as in previous 

 years. 



In reference to our correspondence on the aurora we may say 

 that Mr. E. J. Stone, director of the Radcliffe Observatory at 

 Oxford, telegraphed to the Times on Monday night: — "An 

 aurora has been visible this evening, extending over a large 

 portion of the sky. It appeared in bright patches towards the 

 south, which were continually changing. The spectrum was 

 linear." 



At her country house in Sussex, Lady Dorothy Nevill, so well 

 known for her active interest in natural history, has two pairs of 

 choughs which are allowed full liberty. They fly about the 

 grounds, but are quite tame, and come to a window or into a 

 room to be fed. One pair has taken to a small tower on the 

 roof of the house as a roosting place, and prevents the other pair, 

 which has to roost in a shed, from approaching it. This year 

 the pair built a nest on the top of the wall of the tower in a 

 corner under the roof and laid egijs, but unfortunately failed to 

 hatch them. Although the chough is familiarly known as a bird 

 readily tamed, it has apparently not been observed to nest in the 

 domestic condition before. It is hoped the birds may rear a 

 brood next year in the tower. The nest they made is an ex- 

 tremely neat one, deep and secure, and lined with hair and wool. 

 It is curious that the one pair should drive the other away from 

 the tower, where there is plenty of room for several nests. The 

 pairs keep apart all day, and seem to lose, when thus domesti- 

 cated, their natural gregarious instincts. 



Shocks of earthquake occurred at St. Louis and parts of 

 Illinois and Indiana on September 27. 



Advices from Montevideo announce the arrival there of the 

 French Venus Transit expedition. Part will observe the transit at 

 Carmen de Patagones, and another party will go to Santa Cruz. 

 The Brazilian astronomers will observe the transit of Venus from 

 four stations, viz. one at Rio Janeiro, one at Pernambuco, one 

 in the West Indies, and one about Cape Horn. 



