388 : 
IAD OTR. 
[ Zeb. 10, 1870 
THE third part of the nineteenth volume of the Yahréuch 
der kats.-kon. geologischen Reichsanstalt, including the more 
important papers communicated to the Austrian Geological 
Institute during the months of July, August, and September, 
1869, has just reached us. It contains some valuable memoirs 
for the students of general geology. M. D. Stur describes the 
characters and mode of occurrence of the brown-coal in the 
district of Budafa, in Hungary. He has ascertained the existence 
of two layers of useful coal, the upper one varying from two to 
three feet in thickness, the second being usually from four to six 
feet and sometimes as much as eleven feet thick. Borings 
indicate a third horizon having coal from eight-and-a-half to ten 
feet thick ; but the quality of this coal has not been ascertained. 
Dr. M. Neumayr’s contributions to the knowledge of the fossil 
fauna of the Austrian dominions consist of lists and numerous 
descriptions of fossil shells, from the late Tertiary freshwater 
marl of Dalmatia and from the Congerian beds of Croatia and 
West Sclavonia. This paper is illustrated with four plates. 
M. D. Stur reports upon the geological survey of the environs of 
Schmollnitz and Géllnitz, in Hungary, including especially the 
mountain-mosses of the Volovee and Branisko. It includes an 
“ozoonal” rock and deposits belonging to the Carboniferous, 
Permian, Triassic and Liassic formations. The other papers are: 
A description of the Amphibole-Trachyte of the Matra in Central 
Hungary, by Dr. Joseph Szabé; an account of mineralogical 
investigations in the chemical laboratory of the Institute, 
communicated by Karl Ritter yon Hauer and a translation, by 
Dr. E. Bunzel, of the account given by Drs. Carpenter and 
Wyville Thomson of their dredging operations on board the 
Lightning, in 1868. 
THE Canadian Entomologist for January announces that the 
Council of the Agricultural and Arts Association of Ontario has 
appropriated the sum of four hundred dollars to aid the Ento- 
mological Society during the present year in forming a cabinet of 
insects useful or prejudicial to agriculture and horticulture, for 
continuing the journal and making an annual report. It con- 
tains also notes on some of the common species of Carabide 
found in temperate North America, by P. S. Sprague; on the 
currant worm, by W. Saunders; remarks on the history and 
architecture of wood paper-making wasps, by W. Cowper ; a list 
of Coleoptera taken at Grimsby, Ont., by J. Pettit and miscel- 
laneous notes. 
THE Nederlandsche Maatschappij ter bevordering van Nijver- 
heid—that is, The Netherlands Society for the Promotion of 
Industry—offer, for the year 1871, a prize of a gold medal worth 
150 florins and three hundred florins in money, for the best 
method of illuminating floating buoys so that they can be seen 
at night. The contrivance, whatever its form, is to be self- 
lighting, for obvious reasons. Here, then, is another task for 
those who are skilful in sending sparks through long wires. We 
remember that Mr. Siemens had some project of the sort a year 
or two ago. Is this a fitting opportunity for trying to work it 
out? If Dutch mariners feel it desirable that their buoys should 
be lighted at night, so do those of all other nations. Compe- 
titors for the prize are to send their documents and models to 
the general secretary of the society, M. F. W. Van Eeden, at 
Haarlem, before September 30, 1871. 
WE learn from the Atheneum that Dr. Andrews, Vice Prin- 
cipal of Queen’s College, Belfast, has been elected an Honorary 
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in the room of the 
late Master of the Mint. 
A CONTROVERSY is going on in the Medical Times and 
Gazette as to the sufficiency of a test for Morphia, involving 
Serious considerations as regards toxicological inquiries. The 
point is, whether the production of a blueish purple tint on 
mixing a substance with a molybdate and sulphuric acid, is 
sufficient proof of the presence of morphia, or whether the 
same colours may not be produced by other substances which 
are quite innocuous. 
News has this week been received from Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt 
Drake of Trinity College, to whom, last autumn, the University 
of Cambridge granted ajsum of money out of the Worts 
Travelling Bachelors’ Fund, to enable him to collect zoological 
specimens while accompanying Mr. E. W. Palmer of St. John’s 
College, the distinguished orientalist, in exploring the Tih country 
—the “ Wilderness of the Wanderings.” The Arabs were by 
no means prepared to find Englishmen travelling without the 
luxuries to which they are accustomed and, in consequence, were 
suspicious of their object in visiting the country. It is to be 
hoped, however, that nothing will hinder our adventurous 
explorers from accomplishing their wish of reaching the Jordan 
by the route traditionally followed by the Israelites. Mr. Drake’s 
journal and collections can scarcely fail to be of much interest. 
WE understand that one of the two zenith sectors, constructed 
by Messrs. Troughton and Simms from the designs of Lieut.- 
Col. Strange, for the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, has 
reached its destination—Bangalore, in the Madras Presidency. 
This instrument differs entirely from all of its class. Ramsden’s and 
Graham’s cumbrous though most ingenious structures of timber 
were superseded by the far more efficient sector designed some 
years ago for the Ordnance Survey by the Astronomer Royal. But 
even Airy’s zenith sector was too heavy for transit over the rugged 
and pathless mountain chains of Hindustan. It weighed, with- 
out its packing-cases, upwards of 1,100 lbs, The instrument 
of which we now speak has been reduced to 600 lbs., without 
loss of power. The telescope has an aperture of 4 inches, with 
a focal length of 4 feet and the sectors are portions of a circle 3 feet 
in diameter, read by means of 4 micrometer microscopes. This 
class of instrument is intended solely for the determination 
of latitude. Hitherto it has been used for this purpose, in 
measuring the zenith distances of known stars, as its name 
implies, which we may call the absolute method. But of late 
years another mode of determining latitude has come much into 
favour, —this we will call the differential method. It consists in 
measuring, with a micrometer attached to the eye-end of the 
telescope, the difference of zenith distance of two stars nearly 
equidistant from the zenith, one north, the othér south. Its 
merit consists chiefly in the simplicity of the means necessary for 
the purpose, namely, a telescope firmly mounted with a good 
micrometer and a good level, no circle or sector being required. 
Colonel Strange has, we hear, adapted his instrument to both 
methods, which may therefore be thus submitted to a comparative 
trial under circumstances equally fair to each. The instrument is in 
the hands of Capt. J. Herschel, R.E., who is about to employ it for 
the twofold purpose of furnishing data for improving our know- 
ledge of the figure of the Earth and of throwing light on the 
interesting physical problem of local attraction. It will be 
remembered that some years ago the operations of the Russian 
Survey indicated the presence, in a particular locality, of a 
huge subterranean cavity, the existence of which would never 
have been suspected, had not anomalies in observed latitudes 
established the fact. We may expect to hear of similar 
phenomena being discovered by the same means in India when 
observations are multiplied by a more portable instrument 
than any hitherto used of equal power. The facts that cavi- 
ties may exist where least suspected and that hidden masses 
of higher specific gravity than the surrounding rocks are known 
to occur, render it imperative that in geodetic operations the 
latitude, which is affected by such irregularities, should be 
more frequently observed than was formerly thought necessary. 
It is satisfactory to find that such scientific desiderata are 
appreciated and so liberally provided for, by the Indian 
Administration, 
