March 27, 18 84 J 



NA rURE 



50- 



ginning, is increasing, and shall increase so long as vegetable 

 and animal life covers the .surface of the earth. This is iiut the 

 case where vegetation cea.ses to cover the siurface, and the sun 

 and « ind get direct access to the surface ; any ;oil that may have 

 been formed there soon disappears. In such .-ituations-, until 

 vegetation has again spread itself, all the earthworms that ciukl 

 congregate there would only add to the decaying animal matter, 

 as live they could not, there bei^ig no food for them in the 

 absence of vegetation and other animal matter. 



Bonnington, Midlothian James Melvin 



I INCLOSE an excerpt from Nature of January 3 (p. 313), 

 which I saw in one of our daily newspapers. The observation 

 there made is correct as to the absence of earthworms in the 

 region mentioned, but the reason as-igned is, I think, incorrect. 

 It is H ell known to settlers on virgin soils in this country that 

 in the first tillage of tl.e ground they will see no earthwoims. 

 This is equally the case whether they settle upon prairie land 

 which has been swept annually by fires, or upon wood land which 

 has been cleared for cultivation and which has never been burned 

 over. Even in the natural meadows called "beaver meadows," 

 which one will chance upon in an otherwise completely forest- 

 covered region, one will at first find no sign of the earthworm. 

 Some sluggish stream is dammed by a colony of beavers, and 

 the land flooded is cleared of trees by them. Alluvial deposits 

 accumulate, and when the beavers have been killed or driven 

 away the dam is destroyed by freshets, and the little stream 

 regains its former dimensions, while the flooded ground, drained 

 naturally, becomes a meadow covered with wild gras-es nourished 

 by rich depths of soil. But, until settlement and tillage by man, 

 there is no trace of earthworms even in these most favourable 

 localities. At first they are found about the stableyard, then 

 in portions of ground enriched by stable manure, garden or 

 meadow, till at length they may be found in all soils, either those 

 cultivated or those pastured by ilomesticated animals. 



For years I have been accustomed to go to Mukoka, in the 

 Canadian Dominion, for shooting and fishing. This section is 

 a wooded wilderness with numerous lakes and streams. It is 

 still Governmental wild land, and in part nnsurveyed for settle- 

 ment. The frontier settlers there tell me that until a place has 

 been inhabited for five years it is useless to search for the earth- 

 worm. Hy. F. WalIvER 

 8, East Thirlieth Street, New York City, U.S.A., 

 March 5 



The Remarkable Sunsets 



The following extract from a letter written at Aus[.aki, pro- 

 vince of Vitebsk, Russia, may be of interest : — 



''February 26 (Old Style), March 9 



" February has been the coldest and the pleasantest month 

 this winter, particularly the latter part of it ; frost from 5" to 

 12° Reaumur ; bright sunshine. Now we have been able to see 

 the roseate sunsets, which for at least three months have been 

 hidden by clouds. We are, however, so accustc med to brilliant 

 sunsets here, that we might not have remarked them if our 

 attention bad not been directed to them. Here, generally, when 

 the sky is clear and the frost severe, the eastern horizon is a 

 misty blue, above which is a rosy streak melting away into the 

 clear blue above. But these latter sunsets have differed from 

 that in a great measure. The we.st has often been blood-red. 

 and the ea-tern horizon has been I'osy, not so much in a 

 streak but in patches, which have sometimes been visible over 

 head. At the beginning of the month I was in Riga, and 

 found the river open below bridge ; indeed, the navigation has 

 nwt been closed the whole winter. Snow there was none in 

 Riga, and I saw them carting the most miserab'e ice f jr the ice- 

 cellars ; J think it was little more than six inches thick. We 

 have been favoured here ; we have retained our snow, and have 

 had, and still have, good sledge roads. We filled the ice-cellar 

 the day btforo yesterday, and the ice was more than a foot in 

 thickness. . . ." J. M. Hayward 



Sidmoutb, March 24 



Though we are no longer favoured w ith the gorgeous sunsets 

 which marked the autumn and early winter, yet two phenomena 

 are still frequently visii>!e which seem refeiableto the same cause 

 as those splendiil displays. 



The first is the unu;ual white glow in the western sky before 



sunset which was an almost constant precursor of the brilliant 

 and long-continued colouring of the past months. It v as very 

 marked on November 8, the occasion of the first remarkable 

 sunset, and it is still to be seen on almost any fine evening 

 before the sun sets, ihout;h it is no longer followed by the more 

 striking phenomena. 



The second is a decidedly unusual pink tinge occasionally 

 visible for some ten to twenty degrees round the sun when 

 shining in a somewhat hazy sky, the colour being brought out 

 viih great distinctness if light cumulus cloud happens to le 

 pa: sing across it. I first observed it about I p.m. on Sunday, 

 March 2, and it was very marked last Thursday (20th) between 

 io and II a.m., and again on Friday (21st) between i and 2 

 p.m., as well as on one or two other days which I have not 

 specially noted. 



Way not both be due to the gradual subsidence to a lower 

 level in our atmosphere of the panicles which at a higher eleva- 

 tion caused the wonderful colouring of the past months ? 



Hampstead, March 24 B. W. S. 



P.S. — Since first w^riting the above, I see in Nature that it 

 was from March i to 3 that the fall of dust was noticed at Kil- 

 creggan. Writing from the neighbourhood of London, it may 

 be as well to say that the appearance is wholly different from 

 any effect of London smoke (witli which I have been familiar 

 for nearly fifty years) both in colour and in being produced at a 

 higher level than that of ordinary clouds. 



"Curious Habit of a Brazilian Moth" 

 In Nature for May 17, 1SS3 (p. 55), appeared a letter 

 entitled as above, by Mr. E. Dukmfield Jone.^, in which the 

 author stated that he had observed a kind of moth in Brazil 

 engaged in sucking up water in large quantity through its 

 proboscis. I may say that this strange habit is not confined to 

 Pantlura apardaluria, as I have observed the same thing in two 

 species of butterfly [Papilio orizabns, B., and Appias saba, F.), 

 and imagine that the phenomenon is by no means rare. These 

 two butterflies are very common by the sides of streams and 

 damp places on the Ankay jJain in Madagascar. 



One morning while sitting by the side of one of these streams 

 I noticed the Papilio, which is an insect measurirg about four 

 inches from tip to lip of its wings, resting on the wet bank ; and 

 wishing to procure it as a specimen, I approrched it as gently a-; 

 possible, the creature being apparently so absorbed in what it 

 was about as to be totally unconscious of my proximity to it. 

 Noticing strange and unaccountable movements — sundry jerks 

 and 1 robings wdh its proboscis — I quietly sat down near it to 

 watch it more closely. I observed that every second or two a 

 drop of pure liquid was squirted (not exuded merely) from the 

 tip of its abdomen. I picked up a leaf that was lying near, and 

 inserted the edge of it between the insect's body and the ground 

 so as to caich the liquid. Unfortunately I had no watch with 

 me at the lime, nor means of measuring liquids; but X reckoned 

 that about thirty drops were emitted per minute, I held the leaf 

 for about five minutes — as nearly so as I could reckon — and at 

 the end of that time there was caught in it about a saltspoon full 

 of what seemed to be pure water, w ithout either taste or colour. 

 After watching the butterfly for a time, I seized it by the wings 

 between my thumb and fingers with the greatest ease, so utterly 

 lost did it appear to be to w hat w as going on near it. 



In another spot I saw as many as si.xleeu of these large butter- 

 flies within the space of a square foot, all engaged in the same 

 strange action. Some of them emitted the liquid more frequently 

 and in gi'eater quantity than others ; and one of them squirted 

 the liquid so as to drop fully a quarter or a third of an inch 

 beyond the point on the ground perpendicular with the end of 

 its i ody. It was at this spot that I saw the second of the butter- 

 flies alluded to also engaged in the same curious proceeding. 

 Antananarivo, Madagascar, January 3 K. Baron 



Representation of Students 



The students in residence at Girton College are indirecly 

 represented by the members elected by the "certificated stu- 

 dents," but cannot themselves, whilst they are in the condition cf 

 undergraduates, elect a representative on the governing body. 



The College Hall of Re.-idence has advanced one step further 

 in the same direction by offering direct representation to students 

 in raiJencc, and it is this new departure which was mentioned 

 in Nature (vol. x.xix, p, 388). 



