54 
a coyer, which should be put on with a little bees’-wax ; or, 
better still, bees’-wax and tallow. This prism, with cover com- 
plete, can be removed, and replaced without deranging the 
adjustment of the instrument, to allow of a bottle prism being 
substituted for the purpose of taking the refractive index or dis- 
persive power of any liquid. The stand of the instrument is of 
wood, and the whole is enclosed in a circular cover which fits 
tightly round the base of the instrument, and has no other 
joint or opening. 
THE 
lowing 

Leeds Naturalists’ Field Club will hold the fol. 
conversational open meetings, at the Rooms, South 
Parade, every alternate Monday evening, at eight o’clock :— 
(1870), November 7, ‘‘A November Day at Boston Spa,” 
Mr. J. W. Taylor ; November 21, ‘Geology as a Study,” 
Mr. L. Acomb; December 5, ‘‘ Life History of the Painted 
Lady Butterfly (Vanessa Cardui),” Mr. W. Tumer ; December 
19, ‘* Animalcula,” Mr. W. Coates ; (1871), January 2, ‘ The 
History of a Mushroom,” Mr. J. Abbot ; January 16, ‘* Wasps,” 
Mr. W. D. Roebuck ; January 30, ‘‘ Our Trees and their Uses,” 
Mr. Jas. Brodie ; February 13, ‘‘ Protozoa,” Mr. T. Hick, B.A. 
Tue Annual Exhibition of the Photographic Society of London 
was opened at the Architects’ Gallery, No. 9, Conduit Street, bya 
private reception of their friends by the members of the Society, and 
the exhibition will remain open to the public until the last day 
of the current month of November. The exhibition is quite as 
large as was the eminently successful exhibition of last year, and 
certainly leaves the impression that there is manifest and unmis- 
takeable evidence of progress in the art during the year. The 
work of many of the leading and best known exhibitors is in 
adyance of their exhibited specimens of the last year, and 
there are some individual photographs now to be seen upon the 
walls of the gallery which it can hardly be too much to say are 
of higher excellence, both as pictures and as photographs, than 
any that have before been produced. We may mention in par- 
ticular ten large portraits by Col. Stuart Wortley, taken direct from 
life, and marvellous specimens of tasteful and exquisite portrai- 
ture; two large portraits, also from life, by Mr. Warwick Brookes, 
of scarcely inferior power and excellence; Vandyke and Brown’s 
solar camera enlargements of the poet Longfellow; and Mr. 
Blanchard’s large Rembrandtesque life portraits. Of large 
landscape work, Mr. Care, of Worcester, deserves special 
notice ; and Mr. Robinson’s sea pieces, ‘Turn of the Tide” and 
“ Outward Bound,” are admirable bits of true nature. Mr. Robert 
Faulkner has some very pretty applications of the instantaneous 
branch of the art in catching the fitful aspects and characteristics 
of children ; and Mr. Vernon Heath has two exquisite bits of true 
scenery and foliage; nor ought we to pass by ‘‘ Hop-picking,” 
by Mr. Stephen Thompson, and Captain Lyons’ Indian pictures ; 
and we may add to this list Mr. Manners Gordon’s small pic- 
tures from dry plates. 
Herr A, PETERMANN has published a brief paper, in which 
he recapitulates the main results of the various North Pole Expe- 
ditions of the present year. Herr von Heuglin and Count Zeil, of 
the German Expedition, remained from July 15, till Sept. 15 in 
and near East Spitzbergen, which they explored, mostly in 
boats, from 77° to 79° N. lat. They claim to haye discoyered 
extensive land to the east of Spitzbergen. This land, Herr 
Petermann maintains, it is a mistake to identify with the land 
discovered by Gillis in 1707, which lay S0° N. lat. The land 
which was seen from the White Mountain of Spitzbergen by the 
Swedish Expedition in 1864, 80 nautical miles to the east, was 
put down on the map as a neck of land lying 79° N. lat. ‘Herr 
von Heuglin and Count Zeil,” says Herr Petermann, ‘‘ have now 
discoyered, 36 nautical miles to the east of Spitzbergen, a con- 
tinent, extending from 79°to 78° N, lat.—therefore, from north 
NATURE 


to south, at least 60 (German) miles—which contains numerous 
sharply-pointed peaks, and which, in case it is really connected 
with Gillis Land, might at least equal Spitzbergen in size.” This 
isclaimed as the mostimportant polar discovery that has beenmade 
for some years. Herr Heuglin has brought home with him from 
East Spitzbergen fourteen chests of geological, zoological, and 
botanical specimens. The news of the war reached the explorers 
in September. Count Zeil, a lieutenant in the Second Royal 
Wiirtemberg Jager Battalion, at once hastened home to Stutt- 
gart, and, having had an audience of the King on October 20, 
proceeded forthwith to his regiment in France. Herr Petermann 
announces that the Russian Expedition, which has been accom- 
panied by the famous academician, Von Middendorff, has prose- 
cuted interesting scientific researches between Noyaia Zemlia and 
Iceland. Among other things, it is said, he has identified the 
Gulf-Stream as far as Novaia Zemlia at the very considerable 
temperature of + 10° Réaumur, With reference to an article by 
Herr Petermann on the subject of the Gulf-Stream, Herr von 
Middendorff writes to him :—‘‘I am extremely glad that your 
theory respecting the extension of the Gulf-Stream is not only 
confirmed, but has eyen been greatly surpassed ; you were bold, 
but Mother Nature is still bolder,” 
AT a time when so much is being said about the value of 
fungi in general as profitable and wholesome articles of food, and 
also when France is being so largely overrun by foreign troops, 
the following notes on the Truffle cultivation in the Department of 
the Dordogne, written a short time before the outbreak of the pre- ~ 
sent war, may be of some interest. It shows the money value of 
these delicacies, and how profitable a business is their cultivation. 
The method adopted for propagating them is to sow acorns, and 
the best truffles are found under the resulting oak-trees ; but 
the evergreen oak, and juniper trees are also grown for the same 
purpose. An instance is cited of a person who inherited a piece 
of land worth 8/, and who thus sowed it with acorns ; the 
truffles thereby obtained realise now as much as 160/. a year. 
There are many varieties easily distinguishable to those accus- 
tomed to thetrade. The truffle is dearer in Périgord than in 
Paris, where it is mixed with an inferior quality, and therefore 
can be sold at a lower price. It comes to perfection about the 
middle of November, but large quantities are collected and sent 
to market in September and October. These are called 
‘‘fleurs,” and are without smell. It is pretended that they have 
not come to maturity, and that a large portion of the produce is 
thus spoilt. The total revenue derived from the truffle commerce 
amounts to 20,000/. a year in the Arrondissement of Tarlat, and 
to about the same amount in Périgueux. 
Ir is interesting to note the progress the Japanese are making 
in the art of printing, &c. Hitherto they have only been 
acquainted with the Chinese mode of printing, from engraved 
wooden blocks. Lately, however, they have engaged the ser- 
vices of an English gentleman, to set up for them an establish- 
ment for type-founding, electrotyping, and printing on the Weste: 
method, and to give them such instructions in these arts as will 
enable them afterwards to carry on the business. Type-founding 
and electrotyping have now for the first time been introduced 
into Japan. 
Ar the last ordinary meeting of the Hackney Scientific Associa- 
tion, held on Noy. 8th, Mr. Henry T. Vivian announced that he 
had discovered the variability of « Herculis, a small star to the 
N.E. of 7 From observations extending back to the autumn of 
last year, he had deduced a period of about 21 days, with 
probably a second longer period. The amount of variability in 
the star’s lustre is from a large 5th mag. toa small 6th. Thestar 
is numbered 60 in Map 10 of Mr. Proctor's New Star Atlas, 
although in Map 8 it is numbered 69; evidently an error on the ~ 
part of the engraver, 


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