200 



NATURE 



[Dec. 27, 1883 



That which passed beyond us must have been finer still. 

 It travelled far t(i our south, and also fell heavily upon 

 ships on the Pacific. I find that the finer particles do not 

 weigh the 1/25,000 part of a grain, and the finest atoms 

 are lighter still. By the time we returned to our en- 

 campment the grosser particles had fallen below our level, 

 and were settling down into the valley of the Chimbo, 

 the bottom of which was 7,000 feet beneath us, causing it 

 to appear as if filled with thick smoke. The finer ones 

 were still floating in the air, like a light fog, and so 

 continued until night closed in. 



In conclusion, I would say that the terms which I have 

 employed to designate the colours which were seen are 

 both inadequate and inexact. The most striking features 

 of the colours which were displayed were their extra- 

 ordinary strength, their extreme coarseness, and their 

 dissimilarity from any tints or tones ever seen in the sky, 

 even during sunrises and sunsets of exceptional brilliancy, 

 They were unlike colours for which there are recognised 

 terms. They commenced to be seen when the ash began 

 to pass between the sun and ourselves, and were not seen 

 previously. The changes from one hue to another, to 

 which I have alluded, had obvious connection with the 

 varying densities of the clouds of ash that passed ; which, 

 when they approached us, spread irregularly, and were 

 sometimes thick and sometimes light. No colours were 

 seen after the clouds of ash passed overhead and sur- 

 rounded us on all sides. 



I photographed my party on the summit of Chimborazo 

 ■whilst the ash was commencing to fall, blackening the 

 snow furrows ; and, although the negative is as bad as 

 might be expected, it forms an interesting souvenir of a 

 remarkable occasion. Edw.-^rd Whymper 



December 21 



A'OTES 



The announcement that Prof. Flower has accepted the 

 appointment of .superintendent at the Natural History Museum, 

 vacated by the resignation of Prof. Owen, is premature, though 

 we believe that steps are being taken to secure Prof. Flower's 

 services for that important appointment. 



We regret to have to record the death of M. Yvon Vil- 

 larceau, one of the astronomers of the Paris Observatory and 

 a member of the Academy of Sciences for more than twenty 

 years. M. Yvon Villarceau had been a pupil of the Ecole 

 Central des Arts et Manufactures, and was regarded as one 

 of the most eminent of French mathemaiicians. 



It has been arranged by H.M. TrawUng Commissioners that 

 Prof. Mcintosh, of the University of St. Andrews, will proceed 

 systematically at intervals (probably once a fortnight) to the 

 trawling grounds on the ea.-t coast of Scotland for the next six 

 monihs, and unJerlake certain investigations concerning the 

 grounds and their inhabitants. Each trip will probaV '.y occupy 

 about two days. The Granton General Steam-Fishing Lorji. 

 pany's steam-trawler Wallace, which is fitted with all the recent 

 appliances for such work, and is a swift and powerful steamer, will 

 be used for the mvestigations, which will be at once commenced. 

 An experienced long-line fisherman and trawler from St. Andrews 

 (Alex. W. Brown) will accompany the professor as assistant. 



The friends of the late Mr. W. A. Forbes, the Prosector 

 of the Zoological Society of London, have decided to collect 

 his most important papers in a memorial volume, and the 

 following gentlemen have been appointed to act as a committee 

 for this purpose : — Prof Flower-, Prof. Bell, Mr. H. H. Johnston, 

 Mr. Mivart, and Mr. Sclater. The committee find that Mr. 

 Forbes's papers can be most suitably republished in a form similar 

 to that adopted in the memorial volume of the memoirs and 

 pai:ers of Mr. Forbes'.s predecessor in the Prosectorial office (the 

 late Prof. Garrod). Following the precedent of the"Garrod 



Memorial Committee," they propose to ask for subscriptions of 

 one or more guineas, and to give to subscribers a copy of the 

 work for every guinea subsci-ibed. Mr. Sclater will edit the 

 Forbes Memwal Volume, Mr. Johnston will prepare a bio- 

 graphical notice and portrait, and Mr. F. Jeffrey Bell, 5, Radnor 

 Place, Gloucester ■ Square, W., will act as Secretary and 

 Treasurer. 



The appointment of a Japanese student as assistant to the 

 Professor of Anatomy at Berlin has been approved by the 

 Minister of Public Worship. 



Mr. Francis Elgar, Consulting Naval Architect and 

 Engineer in London, has been unanimously elected by the 

 Glasgow University Court to the John Elder Chiir of Naval 

 Architecture. 



An expedition is at last beinj organised under the auspices of 

 the Bri'ish Association to proceed to Mount Kilimanjaro, the 

 snow clad peak of Eastern Equatorial Africa. The party will 

 be under the charge of Mr. H. H. Johnston, who has recently 

 re;urned from the Congo. The prrty will leave England at the 

 beginning of March. 



Heavy indeed is the burden of educating laid upon the 

 Southern States ! With only one half at school of a population 

 the illiterate proportion of which, among bith whites and 

 negroe--, is increasing, and in some States this increase of illiter.acy 

 greater among the whites than among the negroes ; with the 

 negro, the non-taxpaying element, increasing fastest, notwith- 

 standing white immigration ; with trades destroyed, and properly 

 in consequence reduced in value 40 per cent., and in some States 

 still fallrng in value; with the franchi-e, nevertheless, given to 

 this increasing body of ignorance ; evil indeed may be the result 

 to a republic if the whole Union does not assist to correct it. 

 Emancipation was a national act, and the nation ought to meet 

 the inevitable consequence. So urges Dr. Haygood, in the 

 United States educational circulars referred to last week, with 

 the warning that no white men will agree for long to be voted 

 down by a majority of illiterate blacks and whites. 



Oh Thursday, at 9.21 p.m., a shock of earthquake was felt 

 in Fiinfkirchen, a town in the south of Hung.ary, not far from 

 the confluence of the Danube and Drave. The shock lasted 

 two seconds, and was accompanied by a loud underground 

 rolling noi.se. At the same time a similar earthquake and noise 

 occurred at Bares, a place to the south-east of the former, on the 

 banks of the River Drave. Both shocks moved northwards. 

 An earthquake shock was also felt at Lisbon at 1.30 a.m. on 

 the 22nd inst., but did not excite much notice. A second 

 shock, which lasted twelve seconds, occurred two hours later ; 

 being accompanied by subterranean rumblings, it awoke the 

 entire population, and caused a panic among the inhabitants 

 in the narrow streets. The seismic wave passed from north- 

 west to south-east. 



The fourteenth Animal Report of the Botanic Garden Board 

 of New Zealand (1883) contains valuable information as to the 

 ravages of certain scale insects [Coccidir) in the colony. They ap- 

 pear to be principally of two kinds : one is an herya, nearly related 

 to the sugar-cane pest of Mauritius, &c., the other a Mytilaspis 

 allied to the common "apple scale" {M. pomorum). The 

 /«/-_j/a is called the "wattle blight," but appears by no means 

 to confine its ravages to the wattle trees. According to Mr. 

 Maskell, it is the Mytilasfis that is the more serious, for it over- 

 runs in countless millions all kinds of fruit and other trees (fortu- 

 nately it appears to be enormously infested and detroyed by a 

 parasite). With regard to remedies, there is a li'.tle vagueness 

 in the Report, owing apparently to the confusion of the tw.) 

 insects. The first portion speaks only of the Atrja, and stales 

 that Mr. F.ngle of Nelson had completely destroyed it by the 



