432 
NATURE 
| Feb. 24, 1870 
Mr. Scott, the Director of the Meteorological Office, has 
requested us to state that the French minister of the marine 
department has made arrangements for hoisting the ‘* drum” 
signal at all semaphore stations on the French coast, between 
Dunkerque and Nantes, on receipt of telegraphic intelligence 
from the Meteorological Office. This signal will, therefore, 
have the same significance at those ports as on the Elbe and at 
our own stations. Herr von Freeden in the report of the 
Norddeutsche Seewarte states, that out of thirty telegrams which 
might be considered real storm-warnings, there were thirteen 
instances when the storm followed the same evening or next 
day; four when it was the previous day (in three of these 
instances a Sunday intervened and no telegram could be sent), 
six instances when the weather proved squally, and seven when 
it remained fine. On two occasions no telegram was received ; 
in one of them on account of an interruption of the wires. As 
the result of observation, Herr yon Freeden considers that the 
N.W. gales take a southerly direction from Ireland towards the 
Bay of Biscay, and therefore, do not affect the mouth of the 
Elbe. He also thinks further investigation would show a con- 
nection between them and S.W. winds, further westward, which 
have been blowing hard before reaching the Channel and have 
veered to N. W., though not enough to exclude the British Isles 
from their effect, while in North Germany the compensating 
current comes from S.E. These facts are of value in showing 
the utility of the system of ‘‘ Weather telegraphy” instituted by 
the Meteorological Committee of the Royal Society. 
We have just received from Herr F. yon Hauer the three first 
sheets of his geological map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 
compiled from the Survey of the Geological Institute ; also a 
map by Mr. Foetterle, showing the occurrence, production, and 
distribution of coal in Austria. The subsequent sheets of the 
geological map are in the press and will appear in a few weeks, 
ArT the dinner of the Foremen Engineers on Saturday, Sir J. 
Whitworth referring to the depressed state of trade and the signs 
of improvement that are visible, observed that the progress made 
during the last forty years in the construction of  self-acting 
machinery has been very remarkable. ‘Twelve shillings a foot 
was formerly paid for the labour of chipping and filing iron 
surfaces and it was now done by the planing-machine for a penny. 
Mr. Bessemer’s method of making steel has reduced the cost of 
some kinds of steel to one-half or one-third what it was, The 
consumption of coal for manufactures has been reduced more 
than one-half. The saving on English railways last year by using 
coal instead of coke was 1,200,000/. Mechanical and civil 
engineers, chemists, and other scientific men, are continually 
finding out new modes of producing wealth, and the owners of 
self-acting machinery generally go on improving and increasing 
their productions, from which those who have fixed incomes 
derive great advantage. The full employment of such machinery 
required a free exchange of the produce of all countries. 
Engineers haye so reduced the cost and time of transit that 
when we have that free exchange, England will probably be the 
cheapest country in the world to live in, Sir Joseph went on 
to say, that looking to the immediate future, we may con- 
gratulate ourselyes on the great opportunity arising for the 
deyelopment of engineering enterprise. The cultivation of 
land by steam power is greatly on the increase. In regard 
to the use of horse tramways now being urgently pressed 
forward, Sir Joseph protested that they were not suited 
to the present time. He considered that if toll gates were 
abolished, and roads kept in good order, engineers would soon 
produce a small, light locomotive that would do its work quietly 
and efficiently. ‘The consumption of fuel per horse-power is now 
so small that road locomotives could be employed at far less cost 
than horses. 
WE learn from Z’/nstitut that M. Tchibatcheff has published 
the eighth and last volume of his work on the physical geo- 
graphy, climatology, botany, geology, and paleontology of 
Asia Minor. The fossils described in this volume belong chiefly 
to the Devonian tertiary and quaternaryseries. The Jurassic rocks 
are represented by only four ammonites found near Angora ; the 
cretaceous rocks by twenty-seven different species, the Devonian 
by seventy-nine, and the carboniferous by fourteen. The re- 
mainder of the 604 species in Asia Minor belong to the tertiary 
or quaternary rocks. An appendix contains descriptions of fossils 
found in Deyonian strata near Constantinople by Colonel Ab- 
dullah Bey. The knowledge of the fossils of Asia Minor, 
furnished by this work, does not introduce any change in the 
views previously entertained. The succession of organisms at 
different epochs has been the same in Asia Minor as in other 
countries already studied in this respect. 
THE Atheneum states that the Rey. A. E. Eaton, of Trinity 
College, Cambridge, is preparing a monograph on the Epheme- 
ridee, or May-flies, in two parts. Part I. (which will treat of 
their generic and special nomenclature) is to contain a chrono- 
logical catalogue of authorities and a synonymic alphabetical 
index to their works, descriptions of the known genera and 
species, figures of some organs characteristic of the genera 
and drawings of many of the species. Part II. will be occupied 
with an account of the anatomy and development of one or more 
characteristic British species. 
Tue Melbourne correspondent of the Zimes remarks, that as a 
partial set-off against the rabbit and sparrow scourges resulting 
from ill-considered introductions of European animals to Aus- 
tralia, we now and then light on what seems a new fact in 
natural history. Among other importations is the ostrich, and 
being a strong, long-legged bird of uncertain temper, it was 
deemed unsafe company for children and nurses in the Park. 
The Acclimatisation Society, therefore, fixed an inquisitive and 
zoological squatter with the flock of ostriches up country, where 
he was to look after the birds. Mr. S. Wilson, writing from his 
station at Longeranong, informs the Society that twelve young 
birds have been hatched in one nest, and ‘“‘are getting on 
nicely.” Referring to a common notion, derived from such 
books as ‘‘Goldsmith’s Natural History,” that the ostrich lays 
her eggs in the sand, leaving them to be hatched by the heat of 
the sun, Mr. Wilson says that during the period of incubation 
—about six weeks—the male and female sit on the nest by turns, 
both being seldom absent at the same time. As it is not to be 
assumed that the ostrich departs from its natural domestic 
arrangements in a new country, we must believe that the female 
has been hitherto commonly maligned, and the peculiar virtues 
of her husband altogether overlooked. Another nest of eleven 
eggs came to no good, as they were laid too early in the winter. 
The nest is ‘‘in a sandy hollow, without grass or rubbish, and 
the eggs are entirely without any cover.” 
AT the meeting of the Linnean Society, held Feb. 17, a paper 
was read by Mr. C, B, Clark on the Commylenacee of Bengal, 
of which order he proposes a new system of classification, based 
on characters of the capsules and the seeds ; a paper on the 
Tree-Ferns of British Sikkim by Mr. Scott, which comprise 
eight indigenous species belonging to the genera Cyathea, Hemi- 
éelia, and Alsophila, an intoxicating drink being obtained by the 
natives from three different species; and an interesting letter 
addressed to Dr. Hooker by Dr. Hunce, from Whampoa near 
Canton, on the Flora of some little investigated districts in that 
neighbourhood. 
WE have to record the decease of Mr. J. E. Sowerby, so well- 
known in connection with the illustration of botanical works, 
especially the new edition of the English Flora, edited by 
Mr, J. Boswell-Syme, now nearly completed. 
