Nov. 3, 1870] 
15 

AN earthquake was felt generally in the Natal colony and the 
Orange River Free State, about 3.45 P.M. on the 3rd August. 
It did no material damage. It was recorded at Bloem Fontein, 
in the Free State, and at Pietermaritzburg, Durban, New Guel- 
derland, Ladismith, Noodsberg. The course appears to have 
been from N. W. to S.E. 
Tue three most recent parts of the Bulletin of the Imperial 
Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg contain the following 
articles :—Quelques propriétés du fer déposé parla voie galva- 
nique, R. Lenz ; Rapport sur un voyage entrepris dans |’intérét 
de la linguistique, F. J. Wiedemann ; Remarques sur les Echi- 
noderes, El. Metschnikoff; Sur le poil du Rzznoceros tichorinus, 
J. F. Brandt; Sur less congruences bindmes exponentielles a 
base 3 et sur plusieurs nouveaux théorémes relatifs aux résidus et 
aux racines primitives, V. Bouniakowsky ; Note relative 4 une 
demonstration, donnée par Cauchy, des équations générales de 
Péquilibre, J. Somoff ; Sur les sentences de Publilius Syrus, A. 
Nauck; La Métrique palie Vuttodaya, J. Minayeff; Sur Vhis- 
toire composée en arménien par Thoma Ardzrouni, X* s., M. 
Brosset ; Sur un théoréme relatif 4 la théorie des résidus et de 
son application a la démonstration de la loi de reciprocité de 
deux nombres premiers, V. Bouniakowsky ; Remarques et recti- 
fications concernant l'histoire naturelle des Alcides, J. F. Brandt ; 
Sur le symbole de Legendre (5), V. Bouniakowsky ; Embryo- 
logie du Phthirius pubis. (avec une Planche.), Os. Grimm ; 
De Vinfluence de la chaleur sur l’élasticité du caoutchouk, J. 
Schmulewitsch ; Notice sur Ak-tau et Kara-tau, montagnes dans 
la presqu’ile de Mangysclilak, cdte orientale de la mer Caspienne, 
G. V. Helmersen ; Sur les dérivés de la série isocaprine, A. 
Borodin ; Détermination du coefficient constant de la précession 
au moyen d’étoiles de faible éclat, M. M. Nyrén. 
A RIVAL to the far-famed Mont Cenis tunnel is announced 
from America. The tunnel through the Hoosac Mountain, on 
the Troy and Greenfield Railway, is steadily progressing, and 
has now overcome the great difficulties with which it started. 
It is 4 miles in length (more than half that of Mont Cenis), and 
of this distance about one-third is already penetrated. The work 
is actively proceeding night and day from both ends, and it is ex- 
pected it will be finished before the expiration of the contract in 
1874. 
FurRTHER favourable reports of ipecacuanha cultivation in 
vy India have been received. The Conservator of Forests states 
a 
that the plants in the gardens at Nelamboor are doing well, 
and that some of the fleshy leaves were four inches long. 


A UNIVERSITY FOR TEXAS 
HE Rev. W. H. Sent has been for some time past 
in Europe, with letters from the late President of 
the United States, the Governor of Texas, and other dis- 
tinguished Americans, as the agent of the Soule Univer- 
sity and the Chappell Hill Female College, two literary 
institutions located at Chappell Hill, Washington county, 
in the State of Texas. His aim is so to enlarge and 
furnish them, especially the University, which has a 
medical department in Galveston, as to develop a great 
and permanent centre of learning and science. Consider- 
ing the vastness and the resources of Texas, its position 
as bordering on semi-civilised regions beyond, the rapid 
increase of its population, which includes a large Euro- 
pean element, and its growing commercial relations with 
Europe, especially with this ccuntry, such an enterprise 
as this must commend itself as one of great importance, 
and of general interest. 
_ The degree of success that has attended the agency is, 
indeed, extraordinary. Mr. Sent received contributions 

of books, specimens, &c., from various departments of 
the United States Government, from Prof. Agassiz, Yale 
College, the Smithsonian Institution, and other eminent 
sources in America ; and in Europe from the Emperor, 
the French Government, the Jardin des Plantes, the great 
French authors, &c., and the same line of success was 
continued in Belgium, Holland, Denmark, the various 
German States, and elsewhere. We are glad to know 
that he is meeting with encouragement in London from 
the Admiralty, the Geological Survey, the University 
of London, from many of our publishing houses and other 
sources. The agent is applying to many of our Learned 
and Scientific Societies for their transactions, which will, 
we doubt not, be cheerfully contributed. The agency 
involves a patient, persevering effort to accomplish a very 
important work. We most heartily commend the enter- 
prise to the friends of education in this country. 
Any contributions of books, or of botanical, geological, 
or mineralogical specimens may be sent (with a state- 
ment of the sources whence they come) to care of Messrs. 
Triibner and Co., 60, Paternoster Row, London, or to 
Messrs. Caleb Grimshaw and Co., Liverpool. 

EARTH CURRENTS 
[3 has been my pleasure at different times to call atten- 
tion to the connection that exists between the Aurore 
Boreales and that great apparent rush of electricity through 
the crust of the earth which eagerly scizes upon the easy 
paths, offered to its passage by the wires of the telegraph, 
and by filling them with electricity, produces what are 
called “earth currents,” or “deflections.” The aurora is 
always accompanied by such displays, but it is rarely in 
England that they are of such strength as absolutely to 
break down telegraph communication. The earth currents 
of Oct. 24 and 25 have only been equalled by those which ~ 
occurred in 1859. 
The following extracts from the diary of one of the large 
telegraph stations in the South of England will be found 
interesting :— 
Oct. 24, 5.0 P.M. Slight deflections on all long circuits. . 
eF 5-30 ,, Gradually increasing. 
* 6.0 ,, Very strong ; circuits suspended for 
ten minutes. 
a 7.0 ,, Gradually decreasing. 
_ 8.15 ,, All circuits right. 
Oct. 25, 3.0 ,, Deflections, which have been inter- 
mittent all day, or very strong. 
a 3-30 , Circuits nearly all stopped. 
fp 4.0 , Working through on some circuits, 
but slow. 
5 5.0 ,, Deflections decreasing. 
= 5-45 ,, On again; all circuits suspended. 
6.15 ,, Deflections decreasing again. 
3 7.0 4, Circuits clear. 
This is only a sample of what occurred simultaneously all 
over England, and probably the globe. The currents 
were very irregular in their direction and very variable in 
their strength. Circuits running S.W. to N.E. are usually 
most powerfully affected, but on this occasion all direc- 
tions seemed equally affected. 
Where two or more wires run between two stations, the 
effect of these currents upon the working is easily re- 
medied by substituting the second wire for the earth to 
complete the circuit. This practice was largely adopted 
on Monday and Tuesday last. 
The most striking fact obseryed was that on each oc- 
casion the currents ceased when the auroral display com- 
menced. 1 have not noticed this before, probably because 
the cessation of the one phenomenon and the first appear- 
ance of the other have scarcely ever before been so strongly 
indicated. 
W. H. PREECE 
