i6o 



NATURE 



\yune 27, 1872 



been assigned by the last-named zoologist to a species of 

 CcrcopilJu-cus. Lastly, some Simian teeth from Mugello, 

 now in the museum of Pisa, arc supposed by Dr. Major 

 to belong to a species of Macacus. 



After discussmg the characters of the soil in which the 

 first of these fossils was found, and the other mammalian 

 remains of the same formation — Rlnnoccnis Etruscns, 

 R. Icptoriltiniis, R. ketiiilocchu^ {YsXconer), EU-p/ias mcn- 

 dioiialis. Hippopotamus uiajorl^.), Bos Etrusciis, Mastodon 

 Arvcriii-itsis, the last being probably somewhat earlier — 

 the author concludes that the maxilla above mentioned 

 belongs to the later Pliocene period. 



The following is a list of fossil quadrumana as yet dis- 

 covered : — 



EOCENK 



1839 Lyell and Owen, £'i?////;(;<r//j-(?), Woodbridge, Suffolk. 



1862 Rubimeyer, Cicnopithccus kiimroidcs, Swiss Jura. 



Miocene 

 1836 Cantley and Falconer, Scinnopithcciis sp., Sewalik, 

 N.W. India. 



1836 Baker and Durand, Scntnopitlu-ciis sp., Sewalik, 

 N.W. India. 



1837 Cantley and YviXcorv'ir, Sonnopitlu-ais sp., Sewalik, 

 N.W. India. 



1837 Cantley and Falconer, Macacus erythraus v. rhesus, 



Sewalik, N.W. India. 

 1S37 Cantley and Falconer, Pithccia sp., Sewalik, N.W. 



India. 

 J 837 Lartet, Pliopit/u-cus, S. of France. 

 1856 Lartet, Dryopilhccus I'ontaiii, S. of France. 



1863 Biedermann and Hcer,/-'//r)/////tr«.r/'/(;/)V.'7'(7//, Zurich. 

 1 8 70 Fraas, Cololuts grandcrvns, Wurtemberg. 



1862 QdiCtAvy, Mfsopithccus Pcntclici, Greece. 



PliocEiNE and Quaternary 

 1S36 \.wx\ii.,PropithciusJacchus, Callithrix, Q'3«j,Brazil.* 

 1845 V. Claussen, MycctesQ) Brazil. 

 1845 Owen, Macacus plioc<Tinis, Gray's Thurrock, Essex. 

 1859 Gervais, Scmnopithccus Monspcssulaniis, Mont- 



pellier. 

 1859 Q&:vs.\s, Macacus priscus, Montpellier. 



1 87 1 Gervais, Ccrcopithecus, Monte Bamboli. 



1872 F. Major, Macacus inuus'^i) Valley of the Arno. 

 From the restricted geographical distribution of tUe 



LcmuridiT, it is not surprising that no remains of this 

 suborder have yet been discovered. The fossil monkeys 

 as yet found in S. America belong to the Hapalidce or 

 Platyryhini, still peculiar to the Neotropical region. All 

 the rest belong to the CatarrJiini, and some to the anthro- 

 pomorphous genera. They all belong to the old world, 

 but while some have been found in India, others in- 

 habited Greece, France, Germany, and England. 



P. S. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ 77/ 1' Editor does not liold hiinself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 

 communications. ] 



The Total Eclipse in Java 



[Extracted from a letter from Prof. Oudemans by Mr. J. N. 

 Lockyer.] 



I WAS not fortunate on the occasion of this eclipse. I had a 

 spectroscope of Merz, sent by the Minister of the Colonies on 

 the advice of the Academy of .Sciences at Amsterdam ; but the 

 telescope to which it was 10 be adapted had no clock-motion. I 

 took it with me to the Island Lawoengan in the Pepperbay, 

 whither a Government steamer brought me and three other gen- 

 tlemen. On the day of the eclipse we had three showers before 

 I* Ann. Nat. H"s*., vol. iii. p. 436. 



totality, sky wholly overcast ; but now and then the sun broke 

 through between the clouds. Happily the clouds opened just 

 before tot.ality. My observations were tlierefore confined, like 

 that of the other gentlemen of my party, to the general observa- 

 tions, following therein principally the suggestions and indica- 

 tions published in Nature. I have already sent the results to 

 the Academy at Amsterdam ; and take the liherty of offering you 

 herewith a copy of the general report, which 1 made up from 

 the several partial ones for the Government. 



My observations and those of my party have given me the 

 conviction of the existence of an optical phenomenon, besides the 

 purely solar phenomenon ; not of an atmospheric origin (there is 

 no question whatever of this), but of rays, variable during the 

 totality, too variable to attribute them to luminous solar matter 

 emerging from the Ijody of the sun itself I could follow the 

 rays and some rifts as far as the moon's limb. 



At Bintensory, the residence of the Governor-General, they 

 were more successful, the weather being beautiful ; there, as well 

 as at Batavia, Mr. IJergsma caused observations of the declina- 

 tion of the magnet to be made during the whole morning, several 

 days before, the d.ay of, and several days after, the eclipse, at inter- 

 vals of five minutes. The observations are now reduced for the 

 influence of the moon, and he will propose to the Government to 

 publish these observations and their reduction apart. The result 

 of the observations is, that the movements of the magnet-needle 

 during the eclipse have not deviated considerably from the 

 common diurnal movement of the declination at this time of the 

 year. 



The " flying shadows " were very remarkable at Buitensorg, 

 they were observed by persons wholly unacquainted with the 

 phenomenon. 



They were seen by Mr. Bergsma on a white wall directed 

 E. 13° 30' N. to W. 12° 30' .S., and on a sheet of white paper 

 lying on a table. On the wall the shadows were inclined to 

 the west, making with the horizontal line an angleaccording toone 

 observer's measurement of 40'^, and according to another's of 45°. 

 They moved from E. to W. On the white paper they made an 

 angle of 45° with the edges, which were perpendicular to the 

 wall ; they moved on the paper from S.E. to N.W. The phe- 

 nomenon did not show itself as it is represented in " Secchi's Le 

 Soleil," p. 1 58. 



The shadows had a breadth of 5 to 6 centimetres ; they were 

 limited by lines with small irregular undulations ; they were 

 separated by regularly illuminated bands ; the distance of the 

 shadows was, according to Dr. Scheffer (the botanist), \\ deci- 

 metres, antl, according to Mr. Lang, about 3 decimetres or a 

 foot. They moved parallel to themselves slowly ; their velocity 

 over the wall was about that of a horse in a moderate trotting 

 pace. Mr. Bergsma saw the shadows from about three minutes 

 before totality. 



During totality they were not visible according to Mr. Lang, 

 whom Mr. Bergsma had requested to pay particular attention to 

 this point, only Mr. Lang saw now and then a slight change in 

 the intensity of the light on the paper. 



Immediately after totality the shadows appeared again, in- 

 creasing and diminishing alternatively in strength, but growing 

 gradually less and less distinct, although Mr. Bergsma continued 

 to see them till about 5 minutes after totality. 



Mr. Bergsma now describes the means proper to obtain more 

 reliable observations on future occasions. 



By construction and calculation I have deduced from Mr. 

 Bergsma's data as to the direction of the shadows on the wall 

 and the paper the following : — 



I assumed the inclination of the lines on the wall to be 42!° 

 with respect to a horizontal line, taking the mean between the 

 computations of Messrs. Lang and .Scheffe. That the shadow- 

 lines made an angle of 45° with the edges of the paper, 

 could be understood on two different theories — viz. , that their 

 a/.imuth was 121?/ and 2111" (N.E.) Mr. Bergsma declared 

 that 211^ was meant. 



Now, if we pass a plane through a shadow-line on the wall 

 and its prolongation on the paper, this plane intersects the 

 horizon along a line directed in an azimuth of 31?.° (N.E.), 

 whereas the same plane has an inclination of 52,',' to the west. 



The normal on this plane meets the sky in a point having an 

 azimuth of ii\\°, and an altitude of 37y^ At the middle of 

 tiKality the sun had an azimuth of I3i""4, and an altitude of 54". 

 Accordingly there is a difference of 10' in azimuth, and 16" in 

 altitude. As regards the rough computation of the direction 01 

 the shadow-lines, this error may easily have been made, the more 



