Dee. 16, 1869] 
IA TOTES 
193 
The water is dammed up, and a sloping channel left ; 
at the bottom a cloth is spread, kept down by stones so as 
to make the bottom uneven; one man sprinkles the 
auriferous earth over the channel, and another flushes 
the channel by means of a leather bag, the pieces of gold 
fall into the inequalities and are easily collected in the 
cloth by lifting up the stones. The yield is large, nuggets 
of two pounds weight are found; the gold sells on the 
spot at rather less than thirty rupees per ounce. A gold 
commissioner or “sarpon” superintends all the goldfields, 
a string of which extends along the northern watershed of 
the Brahmaputra, from Lhasa to Rudok. Each field has 
a chief or master, but anyone may dig who pays the 
annual licence-fee of one sarapoo or two-fifths of an 
ounce. 
The curious posture for sleeping, universal among the 
Thibetans, was observed here. They invariably draw 
their knees close up to their heads, and rest on their knees 
and elbows, huddling every scrap of clothing they can 
muster on their backs ; the richer rest thus on a mattress 
rising towards the head. The poorer avail themselves of 
a suitable slope on the hill side, or pile stones and earth 
to a convenient height. This position is most probably 
adopted in order to secure as much warmth as possible 
for the abdomen, the thighs pressing against it and 
excluding the air. 
The gold-diggers recreate themselves with tobacco 
smoked in iron pipes, and, notwithstanding the hardships 
of their laborious toil, seem very merry, singing songs in 
chorus, in which the women and children join. 
LEGER SRO LEE EDITOR: 
(The Editor does not hold himself responsible far opinions expressed 
by his Correspondents. | 
Lectures to Ladies 
YOUR correspondent ‘*‘M.” in her letter, which appeared in 
Nature No. IV., on the subject of the exclusion of teachers 
from the lectures to ladies at South Kensington and University 
College, is scarcely just in her remark that ‘‘at University Col- 
lege they don’t pretend to care for such an audience.” The 
committee of the Educational Association certainly do not prevend 
to care for governesses, but give a more substantial proof of their 
care by admitting them on reduced terms. 
All honour to ‘* M.” for advocating the claims of governesses ; 
but has she not, in her desire for improving their mental faculties, 
omitted to take an account of their physical powers? To the 
question, therefore, which she has propounded—‘t How can 
any one who is hard at work all day go to a lecture in the fore- 
noon?”’—TI am tempted to reply, in the American fashion, by 
asking another: ‘‘ How can any one who is Aad at work all 
day go to a lecture in the evening?” There is also the minor 
consideration that the hire of a lecture-room (the majority of our 
classes being held in a hired room) for the evening is nearly 
twice that of a room for the morning, so that it would be a some- 
what hazardous experiment to institute evening classes on the 
chance of ladies who are engaged in teaching all day attending 
in sufficient numbers to pay the rent. 
In conclusion, I hope that if ‘‘M.” can spare a few minutes 
of her valuable time some forenoon, she will look in at one of 
our lectures ; and if she sees, or rather hears, anyone answering 
the description of ‘* Lady Barbara, who sneers aloud,” I will 
use my utmost endeavours to get up an evening class for ‘* M.” 
eyen though she should be the only pupil. 
THE Hon. SEc. oF THE LADIES’ EDUCATIONAL 
ASSOCIATION, LONDON 
Chrysophanus Dispar 
You ask for information about Chrysophanus Dispar. The 
statement that it has been met with in Kerry is not in itself 
improbable, and entomologists will be interested in having it 
confirmed ; but when we find it said in the same paragraph 
that the insect is not uncommon in England, it will be received 
with doubt. C. Dzsfar has. hitherto been found in only 
one locality in these islands, the neighbourhood of the fens 
formerly surrounding Whittlesea Mere. Other localities appear 
in works on entomology, but haye neyer been authenticated. 
Owing partly to the drainage of the fens, and partly to the 
indefatigable efforts of dealers and other collectors, the insect 
has been quite extinct, I believe, for nearly twenty years. 
Of late years the subdivision of species in entomology as well 
as in other departments of Natural History has been somewhat 
checked. What formerly appeared as those distinct species of 
Folyommatus, in our books of British Butterflies, under the 
names of Agestis, Artaxerxes, and Salmacis, are now all re- 
ferred to the first-named species. Agestis is absent where 
Salmacis is found, and both where Artaxerxes is found, and 
the variety is referred to the difference of latitude. In the 
same way entomologists no longer recognise any specific 
distinction between C. Disfar_and C. Hippothoe, widely- 
spread continental species. I possess a fine series of 
C. Dispar yveared from larve taken in the year 1846. The 
spot in which they were found is close to the Holme station, 
69 miles from London on the Great Northern Railway. They 
fed exclusively on the common water dock (Rumex Palustris). 
It is a curious illustration of the obscure causes which regulate 
the geographical range of species, that though the plant is 
abundant in the whole range of fen country, and generally 
throughout England, the butterfly was always confined to that 
immediaté neighbourhood. 
C. Virgauree was introduced into catalogues of British 
Lepidoptera on the authority of dealers, but its claims to be 
a British species were never authenticated. 
Eton, Windsor, 
Ce Wins 
The Brighton Aquarium 
WOULD it be unduly troubling you were I to ask you to inform 
me, throug the medium of the columns of NATuRE, if the 
much-talked-of Brighton Aquarium is really to be ‘‘ started ” ? 
H. H. Morr 
The Cloaca Maxima 
WILL you pardon me for asking a question which probably I 
ought to be able to answer myself? Mr. Corfield, in his interest- 
ing comparison of the hygienic performances of the ancients and 
ourselves, mentions the well-known Cloaca Maxima as one of 
the great glories of the Romans. Can he tell us how they got 
the sewage into it? I presume the invention of Bramah was 
not known in those times, and I was a little disappointed in not 
finding in his able paper a solution of a mystery which has 
puzzled me since my childhood. What did the Romans want 
with a Cloaca Maxima, and how did they use it ? 
Dec. rith. IGNORAMUS 
Lightning in a Clear Sky 
THE following extract from the ‘‘ Life of Charlemagne,” by 
Eginhard, a contemporary, may be interesting to C. W. D. 
“*Cum Carolus imperator ultimam in Saxoniam expeditionem 
contra Godefridum, regem Danorum, ageret, quadam die, cum, 
ante exortum solis, castris egressus, iter agere ccepisset, vidit 
repente delapsam ccelitus cum ingenti lumine facem a dextra in 
sinistram per serenum aera transcurrere ; cunctisque hoc signum, 
quid portenderet, admirantibus, subito equus quem  sedebat, 
capite deorsum merso, decidit, eumque tam graviter ad terram 
elisit, ut fibula sagi rupta balteoque gladii dissipato, a festinan- 
tibus qui aderant ministris exarmatus non sine adminiculo leva- 
retur. Jaculum etiam quod tune forte manu tenebat, ita 
elapsum est ut viginti vel eo amplius pedum spatio longe 
jaceret.”” Vo Wile Vil 
NOTES 
Ir is slated that the Council of the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science have determined to ask the per- 
mission of the Lord President of the Council to appear before 
him as a Deputation, to urge upon the Government the need 
of a Royal Commission to inquire into the Present State of 
Science in England. We may congratulate ourselves that in 
Lord De Grey we have a Minister whose well-known large and 
scientific sympathies ensure a careful consideration of the impor- 
tant proposition to be laid before him. 
Mosr of our readers know ere this that the Government has 
determined not to fill up the appointment of the Mastership of 
the Mint vacant iby the death of the lamented Graham, The 
duties are to be performed by Mr, Freemantle, who deserves all 
