170 
would have required /ess excavation than the actual scheme ? In 
the second place, as Mr. Login says, there would be locks at 
either end of the canal, which would be not only costly, but most 
inconvenient for ships in their passage. In the third place I 
doubt very much whether the whole stream of the eastern branch 
of the Nile would suffice to keep the canal and the great Bitter 
Lakes full. Some time ago, indeed, it was disputed whether the 
Mediterranean and the Red Sea ¢ogether, pouring into the Bitter 
Lakes, would raise them to the level of the sea, owing to the 
influences of absorption and evaporation. The facts, however, 
proved to the contrary. 
Still, Mr. Login is much more ambitious. With a single 
stream (that is to say, taking the eastern branch of the Nile at 
Damietta), less in volume than the present maritime canal, he 
proposes not only filling the Bitter Lakes to the level of the sea, 
but raising them to a level of at least twelve feet beyond it 
(thereby nearly doubling their present volume). Lastly, if the 
canal and Bitter Lakes could be filled sufficiently by the Nile 
spring the dry season, it would be overfowing during the floods, 
and if it could be filled only in the season of the floods, in the 
dry season it would be nearly empty. 
As to the question of breakwaters at the Mediterranean end, 
Mr. Login rightly says that the annual deposit along the coast is 
hardly perceptible. I cannot see, therefore, what improvement 
the breakwaters he suggests would be upon the present ones, 
seeing that the easterly current 707 passes the extremity of the 
west pier with a speed of two or three miles an hour. He there- 
fore not only proposes sending a current of at least five miles an 
hour for a considerable distance up the canal (as his plan infallibly 
must)—rendering it in strong prevailing winds almost impossible 
to get out from between his breakwaters—but also sacrificing a 
splendid harbour of 550 acres in extent. 
I quite agree with Mr. Login in thinking that the Suez Canal 
will not only outlive all abuse, but become one of the greatest 
blessings to the civilised world, 
Birkenhead, Noy. 11 
The Poles of Mars 
PERMIT me through your columns to inquire whether any 
experiments have been made, by polarisation, to test the state- 
ment that the light from the brilliant spots round the poles of 
Mars is reflected ? 
If nothing has yet been done, will some correspondent decide 
the point ? GW; 
Nov. 25 
Epw. Rar 
Lectures to Ladies 
In the fourth number of NATURE there is a letter signed “ M.” 
on this subject, in which it is asserted that nearly all the women 
who most wish to attend these lectures, and who would most 
benefit by doing so, ‘“‘are practically shut out from those at 
South Kensington and at University College, because none of the 
lectures are given in the evening.” Your correspondent gives 
South Kensington credit for saying something about “ persons 
engaged in tuition,” but she adds that it is a mere mockery, as 
this very fact prevents their getting out in the daytime. 
I can confidently say that the Committee for the Higher Edu- 
cation of Women most earnestly desires to interest and benefit 
those who are teaching others, and who feel the necessity of a 
better education for themselves ; but I believe that the wider and 
more general object of the whole movement (of which this small 
committee for South Kensington and Chelsea forms a struggling 
and isolated element) is, not so #zwch to improve those who are 
already engaged in teaching, as to elevate the tone of educa- 
tion amongst girls who will eventually be teachers, whether as 
governesses or as mothers. 
This I think is enough reason for giving the lectures in the 
daytime, for it would be difficult for girls to come out alone to 
classes in the evening. Of course it is hoped that in time a 
regular system may be established for the training of teachers and 
students at once, but meanwhile we can but trust that even these 
weak forces, if they are rightly directed, may have some good 
effect, if it is only in awakening an interest in these subjects 
amongst those who can help. 
It is very difficult, in London especially, to get at the class of 
students which we most wish to benefit. I think the fact is that, in 
London at least, schoolmistresses and governesses are, with a few 
exceptions, inclined to be narrow and conservative on the subject 
of educational improvements. If they would only come forward 
and interest themselves in the scheme their co-operation would 
be most valuable. 
NATURE 
[Dec. 9, 1869 
I hope that your correspondent ‘‘M.” and others who feel as 
she does, may see this letter and will understand how difficult it 
is at the outset to satisfy so many conflicting requirements at 
once. 
The course of lectures on Greek History and Literature 
which Mr. W. R. Kennedy is now giving on Saturdays at the 
South Kensington Museum is very thinly attended, which is 
exceedingly discouraging, especially as particular pains have 
been taken to make these lectures strictly educational, by means 
of questions set to be worked at by the students at home. 
Brompton, Noy. 30 M. A. B. 
The American Eclipse 
Dr. Morton, Professor of Chemistry in the University of 
Pennsylvania, has kindly forwarded me photographs of the 
phenomena of totality. By combining in the stereoscope pairs 
of these, separated by intervals of about half-a-minute of time, 
the black globe of the moon appears projected far in front of the 
luminous prominences and the corona, which are, therefore, 
clearly seen to belong to the sun. Glass transparencies from 
negatives specially selected for this purpose, and appropriately 
mounted, would show these phenomena in a very striking manner. 
WILLIAM CROOKES 
NOTES 
To-NIGHT the physicists take their turn at the Royal Society, 
and the physical constitution of the sun will form one of the 
subjects dealt with. 
WE believe that the communication to be read at the Royal 
Geographical Society on Monday will be one of great interest. 
A PERIODICAL, after the model of the popular Annales des 
Sciences Naturelles, will be commenced in Paris at the beginning 
of the year, It is to be named the Annales des Sciences Geolo- 
gigues, We are promised an important and fully illustrated 
memoir on the Geology of Palestine, by M. Lartet. The 
editors of the new journal will be M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards 
for the Palseontological, and M. Hebert for the Geological 
departments. 
THE Swedish Academy of Sciences has just issued, under the 
title ‘‘ Lefnadsteckningar 6fver Kongl. Svenska Vetenshaps 
Akademicus efter Ar 1854 aflidna Ledamoter,” the first number 
of a series of biographical notices of those of its members who 
have died since the year 1854. In the absence of the preface, 
which is deferred until the publication of the second number, we 
are unable to say whether all the members of the Academy are 
thought worthy a special biography, or only its most distinguished 
members. However this may be, we fear that very few of the 
twenty men, whose lives are recorded in this first number, are 
known to fame beyond the limits of their native land, notwith- 
standing that most of them have left behind them honourable 
records of scientific labour. We do not say all of them, because 
we notice an archbishop and a bishop, whose claims to admission 
to the Academy must, judging from their published works, have 
rested upon their social position or general attainments. rather 
than upon their scientific labours. 
WE have been favoured by Professor Newton, of Yale College, 
with the following notes as to the November star-shower :— We 
were unfortunate here this year in observations upon the November 
meteors. Both nights, the 13th-14th, and 14th-15th, having 
been overcast. Through breaks in the clouds we saw a few 
stragglers, some of which were true November meteors, radiating 
from Leo, and leaving for an instant the soft trail peculiar to 
those bodies. But the number of meteors during the hour 
between three and four a.m. of Monday morning was probably 
not more than double or treble the usual number for any morn- 
ing. The small part of the sky visible prevented any reliable 
estimate of numbers. Similar weather has rendered observation 
impossible at every station from which I have heard.” 
FROM a preliminary report made to the Association Scientifique 
de France, by M. C. Wolf, of the Imperial Observatory of Paris, 
