414 



NATURE 



\Feb. 28, 1884 



of Takashima itself, but also beneath the sea, and have a total 

 length of about seventy miles. About 2500 people are employed 

 there, and the output of coal is about 1200 tons a day. Owing 

 to chemical decomposition going on in the workings, which are 

 on the "post and stall" system, the temperature is so high that 

 spontaneous combustion is constantly occurring. Prof. Milne 

 visited places having a temperature of 110° F. This, together 

 vrith the escape of firedamp, make the mine very dangerous. 

 The experiments which have been commenced, and which are 

 to be continued systematically, are ; (i) the observation of earth- 

 currents, which so far appear to be but feeble ; (2) listening in a 

 telephone to the sound produced by the movement of a micro- 

 phone placed in the solid rock ; (3) the observation by means of 

 a tromometer, or tremor measure, of earth-tremors ; (4) the 

 observation of two delicate levels to see if the seasonal move- 

 ments of the soil on the surface exist also underground ; (5) 

 attempts to measure the influence of the tide, which rises there 

 about eight feet every twelve hours, in producing a bend, or 

 crushing in the roof of the mine. Observations on atmospheric 

 electricity may subsequently be added. All these will be carried 

 on in conjunction with tidal, barometrical, and thermometrical 

 observations, as well as \\ ith those on the escape of fire-damp 

 and the entrance of water to the mine. One practical object of 

 these series of observations is to ascertain whether any of these 

 phenomena are connected with each other, and especially with 

 the escape of fire-damp in the mine. At present it appears that 

 the gas shows itself about eight hours before a fall in the baro- 

 meter, and therefore the indications of the latter are useless as 

 danger warnings. On the surface of the earth tremors increase 

 with a barometrical fall, and perhaps before it. Earth-tremors 

 and the escape of fire-damp may, therefoi-e. Prof. Milne thinks, 

 be connected ; but, whether practical results be obtained or not, 

 the experiments will enable a comparison to be made between 

 surface phenomena and those which are subterranean. The 

 native company which now owns the mine, as well as the resi- 

 dent engineer there, have afforded every assistance to Prof. 

 Milne in his investigations, and that gentleman, we are informed, 

 will be glad to receive suggestions for improved or additional 

 observations, from any scientific men in this country interested 

 in the subject. Any communications intended for him should 

 be addressed to the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokio. 



The Russian hvestia publishes the results of the researches 

 of M. Brounoff into the variations of temperature in consequence 

 of the cyclones in Europe. He has taken seventy-six cases in 

 which the meteorological bulletins showed the presence of a 

 cyclone in Europe, and prepared a meteorological map for each 

 of these days, showing the deviation of temperature from the 

 normal, and the route of the cyclone. The average deviations 

 of temperature in the regions of the cyclones appear as follows 

 for different months : January, 3*7°Cels. ; February, 2 •2"; March, 

 I'Z"; April, 0-2°; May, 0'0°; June, -07°; July, -0-2°; 

 August, -o'4°; Seplember, -o'l"; October, o'2°; November, 

 0"9°; December, i-4'. It results from these figures that, as 

 might have been foreseen, during the winter the cyclones bring 

 warmer air, and colder air during the summer. If the region of 

 the cyclone be di\-ided into four parts by two perpendicular 

 lines traced through its centre, the two right parts widely differ 

 from the two left, the deviations being for the former : winter, 

 4'6° ; spring, I'g"; summer, o"7° ; and autumn, 1 7', all 

 positive; while for the two left parts the deviations are all 

 negative as well during the summer as during the winter, 

 namely : -0'9° for the winter, - l'i° for the spring, - 17" for 

 the summer, and - 0-9° for the autumn. 



It appears from a notice published in the last issue of the 

 Izvestia that stone-age implements were used by Russians in 

 Siberia at a time very near to our own. Thus, owing to the 



difficulty of having iron implements, and even iron, the Cossacks 

 who occupied the valley of the Irkut at Tunka availed them- 

 selves of the numberless stone implements they found scattered 

 on the hills around Tunka, where large manufactures of stone 

 implements have been discovered. There are still people who 

 remember also that their grandfathers were compelled to follow 

 the advice of the Mongols, and to make use of nephrite 

 hatchets ; the tradition says also that there were Cossacks who 

 understood themselves the art of making jade implements. Any 

 one who knows the difliculties of obtaining iron in Siberia some 

 thirty years ago, and even now, will not doubt the trustworthi- 

 ness of the tradition. We may add also that the late Prof. 

 Schapoff has found the settlers at Turukhansk largely using 

 stone pestles and hammers, some of which were exhibited at the 

 Irkutsk Museum, before it was destroyed by fire. 



In the last number of Natiiren Herr Geelmuyden of Christiania 

 describes the so-called "Jaittegryder" giant-bowls of Orholm, on 

 the east side of Chris'iania fjord. These curious geologicil forma - 

 tions, of which good drawings are given, are not only the largest 

 of their kind in Scandinavia, but are of greater size than those of 

 the wel'-known glacier garden of Lucerne, which have hitherto 

 been considered as the most extensive of such natural depressions. 

 In two of the upper cavities at Orholm, all of which lie on the 

 edge of a steep fjeld, a few pine and birch trees have talcen root 

 and grown in a tolerably normal manner till they reached the 

 level of the surrounding rock, when the branches have invariably 

 been bent and distorted by the force of the winds, and their 

 growth has been arrested. The depth of the depressions has not 

 been determined, but the perpendicular inclination of the inner 

 walls would lead to the inference that it is considerable. 



Messrs. Crossley Brothers, of Manchester, have recently 

 added an important improvement to their " Otto " g,isengine. 

 This consists of a self-starting apparatus by means of which 

 the engine can be put in motion by simply opening a valve. 

 The apparatus consists of a small receiver into which the 

 engine exhausts for a very short portion of its strokes the 

 burnt gases which result from the ignition of the charge in the 

 cylinder. These gases fill the receiver, and in the course of 

 half a minute raise a pressure in it nearly corresponding to the 

 pressure in the cylinder during the moment of ignition. These 

 stored burnt gases are admitted again to the cylinder at the 

 moment of starting by a very simple piece of mechanism, and 

 thus put the engine in motion in much the same \\ay as steam 

 moves a steam-engine, thus saving the trouble of pulling the 

 wheel round to get in the first charges. 



On January 22, at 8.47 p.m., a meteor was observed in the 

 province of Kalmar, Sweden. It appeared in the north as a fire- 

 ball, without trail, gradually descending to the earth, so slowly 

 that some observers, in order that it should not become 

 hidden from view by intervening houses, ran about 300 m., 

 and still beheld the object. The speed decreased by de- 

 grees, and finally the ball seemed to remain stationary and 

 then went out. No whizzing noise or report was heard. The 

 object was observed for a minute and a half. Its path was not 

 regular but marked by great deviations. When first seen its size 

 and lustre was like that of Jupiter, and its point of issue 50° above 

 the horizon, while when disappearing it was 10° above the horizon. 

 It seemed to increase in size as it descended. Its slow speed 

 was particularly remarkable, as it differed so greatly from that of 

 ordinary meteors. 



The Anthropological Society of Paris is constituted as follows 

 for 1S84: — President: Dr. Hamy ; Vice-Presidents: Drs. 

 Dureau and Letourneau; Secretary: Dr. P. Topinard; Assistant 

 Secretaries : M. Girard de Rialle, Dr. Prat, and M. Issaurat ; 

 Committee of Publication : Drs. de Quatrefages, Matthias Duval, 

 and Thulie. 



