220 
NATURE 
[ Dee. 23, 1869 
opened out by the order of the Chief Commissioner of Mysore, on 
the Moory Betta Hill, in North Coorg. ‘The relics consist of 
small earthenware vessels, as well as several beads and tubes 
bored through, and evidently portions of necklaces. These last 
-are of the colour of agate, and have circles in white around them, 
with zigzag pattern in white in the centre. 
IN the early part of last year Dr. Francis Day, F.L.S., F.Z.S., 
was commissioned to examine the important subject of the Indian 
River Fisheries. The result is the publication of an interesting 
and comprehensive report. Dr. Day’s observations were at first 
directed to the fresh-water fisheries south of Madras. He 
personally inspected the Coleroon anicuts, and then extended his 
researches to the places lying between these anicuts and the sea. 
Dr. Day commenced his examinations with the Cauvery river, 
which runs a course of a hundred miles in the Tanjore district, 
where it gives off fourlarge branches. At the island of Serungum, 
the Coleroon becomes the mainchannel. At this point ananicut 
was erected in order to raise the water to a height of six feet by 
means of a wall or barrier, to which the native name of anicutta 
or anicut was applied. It was subsequently found necessary 
to erect a regulating dam upon the head of the Cauvery. This 
dam consisted of a flooring across the stream, witha slip at each 
extremity 76 feet long, 2°4 feet above the low or middle portion. 
On the northern waterway of this anicut there are sluices with 
vents 8 feet in width. It is stated that when, during the freshets, 
the fish cannot surmount the dam, they make their way up the 
river through these vents. During the last few years the decrease 
of fish in the Coleroon is said to be considerable, though Dr. 
Day does not entirely endorse this assertion. The most valuable 
fish in the Coleroon was formerly the oolum, or sable fish, 
culpea (alausa), palasah, C. and V.; but since the erection of the 
anicut they have seldom been found. It is asserted that in 1836 
the value of the sable fish captured in the river near Trindi- 
nopoly was equal annually to about two lacs (£200,000). They 
were principally taken for their roe ; but when in condition they 
are described as splendid eating. Unless something is done, 
this fine fish, and others of value, will become extinct in the 
Coleroon. Dr. Day points out how necessary it is that some 
means may be tried to enable the fish to ascend the river above 
the anicut, that the ova may be deposited in sufficiently deep water. 
ACCORDING to the Boston Advertiser, an upheaval is taking 
place in the harbour at Machias port, Maine. Vast quantities of 
water, mud, and stones are being thrown up to the distance of 
many feet with a loud rushing noise. During last summer this 
occurrence was frequently noticed. 
A GERMAN translation of Mr. Wallace’s work on the Malay 
Archipelago, by Dr. Adolf Bernard Meyer, has just been 
published by Westermann of Brunswick. 
Mr. M. J. Barrington Ward, B.A., F.L.S., Scholar of 
Magdalen Hall, Oxford, has been appointed Natural History 
Master at Clifton College. 
WE have to record the appearance of the sixth, seventh, and 
eighth supplementary volumes of the Annals of the Munich 
Observatory. The first contains the meteorological observations 
from 1857 to 1866; the second a similar series taken on the 
Hohenfreissenberg from 1851 to 1864; and the last, a cata- 
logue of 6,323 telescopic stars between + 3° and + 9° decli- 
nation which occur in the Munich zone observations, reduced to 
the commencement of the year 1850, together with comparison 
of the observations of Lalande, Bessel, Riinker, and Schiellerur. 
THE second part of the results of the Geological Survey of the 
West Indies has just been issued under the title ‘‘ Reports on 
the Geology of Jamaica.” Pending a complete notice of this 
important volume, we may mention that it contains in its first 
thirty-seven pages a general description of the physical geography 
body of the book consists of the details of the lithological 
structure of the various districts. Appended to the volume is a 
report by Mr. Etheridge, Palzologist of the British Survey, on 
the organic remains. He has not only examined and classified 
these remains, but has also referred them to their equivalents in 
the cretaceous and tertiary deposits of Europe. Sir Roderick 
Murchison, in his preface, calls special attention to the interest- 
ing results of Mr. Etheridge’s work. 
THE Royal Irish Academy have voted the following sums of 
money out of their special parliamentary grant for scientific pur- 
poses :—30/. to the Rev. Eugene O’Meara, A.M., to enable 
him to continue his researches on the Irish Diatomacez ; 30/. 
to H. Hennessy, F.R.S., to determine the molecular condition 
of fluids and their motion, when in rotation and in contact with 
solids ; 20/. to J. Bailey, to carry out experiments on ‘‘Flitch 
Beams ;” 20/. to B. B. Stoney, to try experiments on riveted 
joints. All the reports on these subjects will appear from time 
to time in the ‘‘ Transactions and Proceedings of the Academy.” 
A SERIES of very beautiful photographic negatives has been 
taken of all the more important antiquities in the Museum of the 
Royal Irish Academy. The Council of the Academy intend to 
have these printed from, and the prints to be sold both sepa- 
rately and in series. 
WE hope shortly to give an article on a new artificial light 
suitable for the production of photographic enlargements, by Dr. 
Van Monckhoven. 
THE following is the result of the National Sciences Tripos, 
at Cambridge, in which the examiners were—J. Hooker, LI..D., 
W. H. Miller, M.A., O. Fisher, M.A., C. Trotter, M.A., and 
J. B. Bradbury, M.D. Class I. Ds. Watson, Queen’s.—Class 
II. Ds. Kilner, St. John’s ; Maxwell, King’s ; Lupton, Trinity ; 
Lees, Trinity ; Stirling, Trinity ; Simpson, Caius ; Calliphronas, 
Caius.—Class Il]. Ds. Alliot, Pembroke; Johnson, Jesus ; 
Banham, St. John’s; and Colvin, Trinity—equal; Young, 
Caius. A prize offered by the Professor of Botany has been 
adjudged to M. J. Barrington-Ward, B.A., Scholar of Mag- 
dalen Hall. 
We have received the following note with regard to the 
Holborn Viaduct :—‘‘The Report of the Engineers, published in 
the daily papers, entirely endorses the opinion expressed in the 
note I previously sent you. The only difference between it and 
my explanation arises from the fact of the insertion in the joints 
of lead-packing near the outer edge of the stone, which of course 
exaggerates the evil of a ‘concave face.’ The variation of 
temperature which has been dwelt upon as the chief cause of 
failure is evidently in the opinion of the engineers quite inade- 
quate to account for it.” 
Mr. Merprum has kindly forwarded us the following note:— 
‘*A strict watch was kept at the Mauritius for meteors during the 
nights of the 12th, 13th, and 14th November, and the expected 
shower was seen on the morning of the 14th. Between midnight 
of the 13th, and 4°40 a.m. of the 14th, 439 meteors were counted 
at the Observatory, Port Louis, by three observers. Of that 
number, 427 were seen between 3°20 and 4°40 a.m. Sir Henry 
Barkly, at his country residence, 7 miles from Port Louis, 
counted 192 between 3°15 and 415 a.m. At my residence, 5 
miles from Port Louis, 434 were counted between midnight and 
4°40 a.m., by two observers up to 4a.m., and then by four 
observers. Between 314 and 4°24 we counted 370, and between 
3°55 and 4°13, 215. The greatest number seen by Sir Henry 
Barkly in an interval of five minutes was 33 between 3°55 and 
4/0, but he saw only a small portion of the heavens. I have not 
had time to analyse the observations carefully, but the time of 
maximum intensity was about 4°09 a.m. The only source of 
doubt in this subject arises from the circumstance that after 
of the island, with outlines of the different formations. The [415 daylight was setting in, I have no doubt that the radiant 
