I30 



NA TURE 



\_Dcc. 6, li 



Porto Rico; I believe even Barbados comes to Porto 

 Rico for cattle. 



The island is very richly endowed by nature, but miser- 

 ably governed, and the people themselves not worth a 

 much better government, being given to gambling in the 

 extreme throughout, thus squandering away every dollar, 

 from the rich planter and priest down to the lowest 

 labourer and beggar. Yet they are hospitable and very 

 polite to strangers, with that remarkable, unchanging, 

 inbred .Spanish politeness. 



It may finally interest you to hear, from the fact that 

 you take a prominent part in the advancement of the 

 material progress of the English West India Islands, how 

 we are working in that respect here in St. Thomas. 



I have on my estate now about 4000 Divi-Divi trees 

 growing and doing well, except for the deer, which do 

 much damage. On the coasts I have over 2000 cocoa- 

 nut trees planted; cultivation of the Sansntie7-a guinecnsis 

 is going on for making fibres ; a large tract of land stocked 

 with HcTniatoxylon I have now preserved, and try to 

 make it a regular forest, to be cut down gradually. 



In company with an engineer here I have now ordered 

 a machine from England, Smith's fibre machine, which 

 is being used in the Mauritius, in order to work up our 

 immense quantity of Agai'e and Foiircroya, the raw 

 material being close at hand in unlimited quantity near 

 the sea. 



I have published a couple of articles on the material 

 resources of these islands in one of the largest Danish 

 newspapers, of which I beg to send you a copy, in order 

 to make private persons and Government move. Among 

 the former a good many have started on, but, as you may 

 perhaps have heard, governments are sometimes slow in 

 moving, representing, as they do eminently, that great law 

 of nature, vis inertia. 



However, so far, and considering the short space of 

 time, I am very well satisfied. I think there is a fair 

 chance now of the West Indies in general entering upon 

 a new prosperous career. 



I am also going to try experiments with the manu- 

 facture of tannin extracts from bark of Coccoloba, Rhiso- 

 phora, and the pods of the various Acacias, which are a 

 great nuisance here on account of their rapid growth. 



The Aloe sempcrvircns will also be made useful in a 

 similar manner as in Barbados and Curagoa, it growing 

 here spontaneously on barren rocks. H. Eggers 



THE REMARKABLE SUNSETS 



T T NDER the headings of " Cloud-Glow'' and "Optical 

 ^ Phenomena '' we have published several letters 

 already on the recent remarkable sunsets ; we have 

 received many others, the most important of which we 

 bring together here : — 



Perhaps it will interest you and your readers to hear 

 that the phenomenon called "cloud-glow '' in your last 

 numbers, was seen also at Berlin on the three evenings 

 of November 28, 29, and 30. As far as I could overlook 

 the sky, the details were almost the same as your corre- 

 spondents describe them : A greenish sunset at 3.50, 

 an unusually bright red sky with flashes of light starting 

 from south-west. An interesting physiological phenomenon 

 which we call '' Contrast-Farben," was there beautifully 

 illustrated by some clouds, no longer reached by direct 

 sunlight ; they looked intensely green on the red sky. 

 At 4.30 the streets were lighted by a peculiarly pale 

 glare, as if seen through a yellow glass. Then darkness 

 followed, and the stars became visible. But half an hour 

 afterwards, at 5 o'clock, the western sky was again 

 coloured by a pink or crimson glow. Persons who were 

 not quite sure about its direction mistook it for a Polar 

 aurora ; others spoke of a great fire in the neighbourhood. 

 f atmospheric refraction could be neglected, the matter 



(whatever it may be) thus illuminated by the sun one 

 hour after sunset and 45° above the horizon, would 

 be found to be at a height of about forty miles ! At 

 6 o'clock all was over. The first day (November 28) 

 this glow was still stranger, because the lower western 

 sky was covered by a large, dark cumulus-cloud ; but 

 besides this the three remarkable evening skies were quite 

 like each other. Robert von Hei.mhoi.tz 



N.W. Berlin, Neue Wilhelmstrasse 16, December i 

 P.S. — To-day it rains ; nevertheless an unusual bright- 

 ness was to be seen in the west till 7 o'clock, which 

 perhaps may be attributed to the same '' glow.'' — R. v. H. 



The red glow described by your correspondents con- 

 tinued to be visible here every evening until yesterday 

 (2nd inst.), and there was another fine display oi rayons du 

 cr^pusciile. Is not "cloud-glow" a misnomer as applied 

 to what is seen in perfection only when there are no 

 clouds, and is invisible when the clouds are thick ? 

 "After-glow" is too comprehensive an expression, as it 

 embraces the usual effects of a brilliant sunset, and too 

 limited, as it could not be applied to the phenomenon as 

 recently seen before sunrise. In the absence of a scientific 

 title for something which has been but little investigated, 

 might not the name " upper-glow '' be adopted, in contrast 

 to the under-glow which is the predominant feature of 

 ordinary effective sunsets. The red colour of the reflected 

 light is in both cases I suppose equally due to diftraction, 

 particles suspended in the air obstructing the raj s of least 

 wave-length. But in the "upper-glow" the reflecting 

 matter is at a great height above the cloud-level, in the 

 " under-glow " it consists of the lower surface of the 

 clouds themselves. Annie Lev 



December 3 



Erratum. — In the first paragraph of my letter of the 

 27th ult. (p. 103) 2600 should be 26,000. 



The following extracts from my observations at York 

 may assist in determining the cause of the extraordinary 

 series of sunrise and sunset effects during the past 

 month : — November 24: Unusual cloud tinge in morning. 

 November 25 : Similar effect in morning. From 2.45 to 

 3 p.m., blue sky from 10° to 25° or 30" from the sun, of a 

 delicate rose pink. This noticed by several, when asked 

 to say if they saw an) thing peculiar. It gave a greenish- 

 gray cast to cirro-cumuli through which it was seen. 

 Round the sun the sky looked yellowish. 5.30 p.m., " the 

 west ruddy as from glare of fire ; " not entirely gone till 

 6. Time of local sunset 3.38, calculated from almanac 

 and observed sunrise on 28tb. 



A letter from my father. Street, Somerset, 26th, evening, 

 speaks of "a wide arc above the sunset lit up with the 

 most glorious pink shade. The clouds low in the horizon 

 a stone-gray ; but the most remarkable of all was a 

 longish cloud to the north of sunset and above and beyond 

 the circle of pink ; that was a bright sage green. 1 never 

 before saw such a colour in any cloud. . . . Later, rays 

 shot up from the sun like the rays of aurora." 



28th : Same pink halo at noon. Cloud-glare on morn- 

 ing of 26th and 27th ; to-day, about 6 a.m. (sun rose at 

 York 8.0, set 3.35). Sunset most striking ; pink above, 

 orange lower at 4.20 ; grass appeared of brownish sage 

 green. At 5 p.m. lit up all over like red aurora. 2gth : 

 Same red glare, like that of a fire, at 6.20 a.m. Glare 

 gone by 6.35 ; cirri in east-south-east lit up by 6.45. True 

 sunrise glow 7.10; orange at base turned to yellow-green 

 at 7.25, and cirri again black; relit at 7.35, with rosy 

 tinge. Sun seen to rise clear of horizon at 8.2 ; Jupiter 

 visible among faint haze until 8.13. 9.45 a.m., rosy glow 

 round sun; 430 p.m., a fading ordinary sunset; 4.45, 

 glare reappearing; 5 p.m , " finer than ever," as observed 

 by Mrs. Clark. December 3 : Remarkable lurid effects, 

 4.30 to 5.0 p.m. Letters from Street and Birmingham 

 mention similar effects on the 28th and 29th.' A para- 



