NATURE 



[February 20. 1902 



and the preparation of monthly pilot charts of the north Atlantic 

 and Mediterranean, which have been frequently noticed in our 

 columns. Arrangements have also been made, at the requesi 

 of the United States Weather Bureau, for sending daily weather 

 telegrams to Washington. The percentage of complete and 

 partial success of the weather forecasts reached eighty-four, 

 •which is higher than that for any year durin<;,the last decadei 

 except 1893, when the same high figure was attained. The 

 success of storm- warning telegrams was 92 percent. 



A PAPER on wireless telegraphy is given by Prof. V. Hraun, 

 of Strassburg, in the Physikalisclu ZtUschrifl, iii. No. 7. 

 Without going into elaborate details as to the transmitter and 

 receiver, it may be mentioned that the problem of resonance 

 received careful attention in the construction of these apparatus, 

 the desirable conditions being thai waves of a certain frequency 

 alone should be transmilled and received and that the receiver 

 should be as sensitive as possible to these particular waves. The 

 experiments were commenced by I'rof. Braun at Strassburg in 

 189S ; in 1899 they were continued at the mouth of the Elbe. 

 •Communication was set up between Cuxhaven and a lightship 

 distant thirty-four kilometres. Later, messages were transmitted 

 between Cuxhaven and Heligoland at a distance of sixty-five 

 kilometres. It was thought possible that by means of an 

 acoustical instead of a writing receiver, the distance from which 

 messages could be received could be increased two and a half 

 to three times. 



In connection with the campaign against hailstorms, Prof. V. 

 Monti publishes in the BulUttn of the Italian Meteorological 

 Office some statistics of the number of storms accompanied by 

 snow at diflerent .station', as recorded for the period 1881-1887 

 inclusive. The phenomenon of snow during thunderstorms is 

 shown to be very rare in Italy, and in about one-fourth of the 

 stoims in which snow fell it was also accompanied by hail. 

 When account is taken of the time of year as well as of the 

 altitude of the station, it is found that in the majority of cases 

 snowy thunderstorms occurred when snowy weather was the 

 normal condition of affairs. There are but few records of snow 

 falling out of season as a result of the sudden cold produced by 

 thunderstorms. These statistics, so far as they go, are interest- 

 ing as affecting the theory that by bombarding a thunderstorm 

 the hail is transformed into snow. If snow frequently falls 

 after a storm-cloud has been bombarded, and rarely under other 

 ■circumstances, the theory in question obtains support. But, as 

 Prof. Monti points out, we have not at present sufficiently 

 •complete statistics to enable any very definite conclusions to be 

 drawn. 



Judgi.m; from the capital figures which illustrate an article by 

 "8" in Globus (I3d Ixxxi. p. 58) on the perforated landscapes 

 of Kappadocia, that country must present a most remarkable 

 appearance. In the district of the ancient Ci«sarea-Mazaca, a 

 plateau composed of a bed of tuff is topped by a layer of lava ; 

 denudation has resulted in broad canon-like valleys, from the flat 

 floors of which arise innumerable pointed sugarloaf shaped pin- 

 nacles. Many of these have been pierced and tunnelled for dwellings 

 for ages past, and the caves are still being made. Some of the 

 caves were used for religious purposes, and we have ruins of 

 temples and of Byzantine churches carved out of the solid rock. 



The current number of Man contains several interesting 

 pa|iers. Prof. Flinders Petrie gives a plate illustrating two dozen 

 hitherto unpublished prehistoric Egyptian figures of men and 

 animals. The Rev. R. A. Gatty describes his finds of pigmy 

 flints from Lincolnshire ; perfectly similar flints have been found 

 in various other localities in England, as well as in Belgium, 

 in I'rance, and in India. These problematical implements are 

 of very delicate workmanship, but more information is required 

 NO. 1686, VOL. 6;" 



before any definite statements can be made as to their use or 

 their users. Mr. Gatty believes that they were actually made 

 at Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire from ttint river pebbles. 



Dr. Walter E. Roth, the Northern Protector of 

 Aboriginals, (Queensland, has recently published his third 

 Bulletin on North 1 Queensland ethnography. The subject is 

 " Eood : its Search, Capture and Preparation, ' and there is no 

 need to say more than that the facts are presented with that 

 fulness of knowledge and concise detail that characterise all 

 Dr. Roth's writings. As an example of this thoroughness it 

 may be mentioned that Dr. Roth refers to some 240 plants 

 which are used as food in some form or another, the scientific 

 name of each plant being given. In addition to these, the 

 natives know of twenty-two plants which they use to stupefy or 

 poison fish. The plates illustrate the various kinds of baskets, 

 nets, snares, lic. used by the North (Queensland blacks. The 

 only fault we have to find with this very valuable paper is its 

 shape, but being a Government Report it is probably unavoid- 

 able that it is printed of Blue-book shape ; this must be put 

 down to the official mind and not to Dr. Roth. The BitlUlin 

 is marked C..\. 81 — 1901, Home Secretary's Department, 

 Brisbane. 



The principal article in Nature Notes for February is one on 

 the enemies of trout, by Mr. E. T. Daubeny. 



In the February number of the Irish Naturalist, Messrs. 

 Mellard Reade and J. Wright describe the occurrence of marine 

 boulder-clay in county Cork, with a list of the contained 

 Foraminifera. 



Ovvi.NG to the roughness of the passage, which has to be 

 made in an open boat, visitors to the little island of Bardsey, 

 lying off the extremity of Caernarvon, are few and far between, 

 and it is therefore a favourite resort for birds of many species. 

 A list of the species met with during a visit to the island in 

 May of last year is given by .Mr. O. V. Aplin in this month's 

 Zoologist. 



The history of the gradual diminution of the habitat in 

 Britain of the swallow-tailed butterfly appears in the February 

 number of the EnloinologisC s Monthlj/ Magazine. At the 

 present day this fine species is met with only in Wicken Fen 

 and Ranworth and certain other Broads in Norfolk. Formerly, 

 however, according to the author, Mr. C. W. Dale, it occurred 

 in no less than fifteen other English and Welsh counties. 



To the February issue of the Entomologist, Mr. W. J. Lucas 

 contributes an account of the dragon- flies taken in Britain 

 during the past year. Very interesting is the occurrence in 

 Hampshire of the form known as Oxygasira curtisi, which has 

 not been observed in Britain since 1882, when four specimens 

 were taken at the same place. The author hazards some 

 suggestions as to the breeding place of this rare insect in 

 Hampshire. 



In a recent issue of the British Bee Journal, Mr. F. W. L. 

 Sladen raises the question whether bees can hear. The author 

 claims to have discovered that the so-called Nass.inoflTs organ — 

 the membrane between the filth and sixth dorsal segments of 

 the workers — is really a scent-producing organ, and that this 

 scent forms a means of communication between bees. He 

 further suggests that bees have cognisance only of the well- 

 known " hum," and do not recognise ordinary sounds. 



The second number of The Emu fully bear.^ out the promise 

 of its predecessor, and is illustrated by some excellent reproduc- 

 tions of photographs of .•Australian birds' ntsis. Perhaps ihe 

 most generally interesting and important article is one by Mr. 

 D. le Soui-f, on protective coloration in .•\ustralian birds and 



