Feb. lo, 1887] 



NA TURE 



343 



or age ; after that, he wears as special badge a collar made of a 

 polished section of the eocoanut palm stem with ends of brass. 



The women go about with a curious staff ornamented with 

 brass ; the usual ornaments are avmlets of brass wire, bracelets 

 cut out of Tridacna-shell, and ear-rings of the same material or of 

 metal, and beads. The clothes used to be, and in the southern 

 districts are still, entirely made of beaten bark. 



Their idols are roughly carved wooden figures, and both they 

 ind the still more primitive carvings representing dead relations 

 vividly recall the idols and the k'aiwars of the Western Papuans, 

 liach village has its chief, and usually war to the knife is waging 

 between one village and the other. This renders a thorough 

 exploration of Nias far from easy. 



Dr. Modigliani certainly lost no time, and did his very best ; 

 and although quite new to such explorations, in a very short time, 

 with rare energy and perseverance, surmounting many difficulties 

 and not slight dangers, he h.as succeeded in bringing home most 

 interesting and ample information on the people, extensive 

 ethnological and anthropological collecti>ns, important zoologi- 

 cal series, and a most interesting sample of the local flora, 

 amongst which are some new species of the singular ant-plants 

 (MyrmecoJia) now being illustrated by Dr. Beccari. 



I must say in conclusion that I do not know of any traveller 

 so young and inexperienced who in so short a time (Dr. 

 Modigliani was absent from Florence altogether just eleven 

 months) has succeeded m doing so much and so well. 



He.nry H. Giglioli 



Royal Museum, Florence, January 22 



" Lepidosiren paradoxa" 

 Zoologists will be interested to hear of the capture of a fine 

 specimen of this the rarest of the Dipnoi. Only a few weeks 

 ago I received from my friend Dr. J. Barbosa Rodriguez, the 

 learned and energetic Director of the Museu Botanico do 

 .\mazonas, at Manacjs, a very fine specimen of the Le/>Hosircn, 

 captured .some tmie last August in that neighbourhood. This 

 specimen is well preserved in alcohol ; it measures 85 centi- 

 metres in length, with a girth behind the pectorals of 28 

 centimetres. On opening it I found that it is a female, the 

 ovaries heing well laden with well-developed ova ; unfortunately 

 the alcohol had not been let into the visceral cavity, and none of 

 the internal organs were in a condition to be successfully inves- 

 tiga'ed. I found the pericardium singularly large and thick. The 

 body is cylindrical, but quite flat along the abdominal surface, 

 where the scales are also bigger, thicker, and of a lighter colour. 

 Ihe short caudal region is much compressed. There are no 

 tnie median fins except the irregularly rounded caudal, which 

 extends merely as a slightly marked keel to about the middle of 

 the back. The fin-rays on the caudal portion are close together, 

 cartilaginous, and quite hidden by the skin ; pectorals and 

 ventrals without traces of membranous edging and rays ; the 

 former are slender and compressed, the latter conical and con- 

 siderably stouter. The entire body, except the head in front of 

 the eyes and the paired fins, is covered with moderate cycloid 

 scales — thicker, as I observed, on the abdominal citirassi;, ex- 

 tending from the chin to the anus and composed of about ten 

 longitudinal rows of scales. Except along this ventral stripe, 

 which is of a whitish colour, the anim.al is generally of a dark 

 brownish purple, with darker indistinct blotches. The double 

 lateral line is dark ; it reticulates on the cheeks and around 

 the eyes. These are quite rudimentary, and show under 

 the skin as a whitish spot ; they remind me of the eyes 

 of the two Gymnolus which I saw alive in the Insect House 

 at the London Zoological Gardens last October. The 

 branchial openings are very narrow, protected by a thick fleshy 

 flap : there are no traces of external branchial appendages, 

 indeed, even the internal branchia; cannot be seen through 

 the deep, narrow, branchial slit. The mouth is terminal, 

 with well-developed fleshy lips ; there are two small conical 

 vomerine teeth ; the maxillary and mandibular dental plates are 

 very similar in size and shape ; fleshy pads fit into the spaces 

 between the dental ridges. The tongue is thick, smooth, and 

 fleshy, with a rounded point. Four branchial clefts can be made 

 out on each side in the pharynx, the f jurth is much reduced ; the 

 three free branchial arches are fringed with conical papillae. The 

 palate and mucous membrane of the mouth is white and quite 

 smooth; the pads alingtlie dental plates are papillous. The 

 anus is exactly lo millimetres on the left of the mesial line ; it 



is 8 millimetres in diameter, and surrounded with a border in deep 

 folds. I had forgotten to mention the nostrils : both pairs are 

 insitli- the mouth ; the anterior ones, just within the upper lip, ai^e 

 ovoid, transverse, without flap or valve ; the posterior pair 

 are situated just outside the hinder ridge of the maxillary dental 

 plate, they are ovoid and longitudinal. 



I need hardly insist on the importance of the capture of this 

 new specimen of Lepidosiren. As far as I am aware, this is the 

 fourth known ; there are, besides, Natterer's two preserved at 

 Vienna, and Castelnau's one in the Paris Museum. More recent 

 explorers have utterly failed to find any, although an active 

 search was made by several. Only recently I heard from a high 

 authority the expression of a doubt as to the existence of such a 

 creature as the South American LcpiJosircii ! 



I may finally state that, evidently prompted by his friendship 

 for me, Dr. Barbosa Rodriguez, seeing, as he believed, distinc- 

 tions in his specimen, sent a brief description to a Rio scientific 

 periodical, naming it Lepido ircn gig ioliita ; this before for- 

 warding the specimen to me. I have not yet seen his description, 

 nor am I in a position to decide as to any distinction existing 

 between this and the other three existing specimens. I can only 

 say that I consider such a difterence very unlikely. I suppose 

 that, like Ccratodus, Lepidosiren is liable to considerable iiidi-' 

 vidual variation. Lastly, I believe it not unlikely that Lepido- 

 siren may be on the verge of extinction ; that would account for 

 its rarity. I' '' '^'"~ 



Royal Museum, Florence, January 22 



Henry H. Giglioh 



The Coal-Dust Theory 



Some of the facts elicited at the adjourned inquest on the bodies 

 of the twenty-eight persons who lost their lives in an explosion 

 at Elemore pit on December 2 last, appear to have a direct 

 bearing upon the coal-dust theory, and are therefore worthy of 

 being recorded. It will be remembered that the inquest was 

 adjourned until January 18, when it was re-opened; it was 

 concluded on the following day. The verdict of the jury was as 

 follows : — 



"That Ralph Fishburn and others met their deaths by an 

 explosion in the George Low Main seam, Elemore Colliery, on 

 the morning of December 2, 1886 ; that the said explosion 

 occurred between the Daleway end and the gl■ea^er ; but what 

 caused the ignition there is not sufficient evidence to show." 



One of the victims, named Luke, who afterwards died from 

 his injuries, made a statement to the effe,;t that a shot was fired 

 in one of the main intake airways not far from the bottom of the 

 down-cast shaft, at the instant the explosion took place. The 

 person who, according to Luke's statement, ignited the shot, 

 still survives, and denies having done so, although he admits 

 having fired a shot near the same place a short time previously. 

 Some of the experts, including the two inspectors of mines, 

 came to the conclu-ion that Luke's statement was the more 

 probable ; others were unable to concur with them in this. 

 The evidences of violence point to the place indicated by Luke 

 as having been the origin of the explosion. A good deal of 

 discussion took place between some of the examining counsel 

 and .solicitors and some of the witnesses, as to whether coal- 

 dust alone in the absence of fire-damp could originate and carry 

 on an explosion, but nothing new was elicited in this respect. 

 Al! agreed that there could not have been any gas present at the 

 point where the shot was said to have been fired. Mr. G. 

 Baker Foster was " quite of opinion that there had been no gas ; 

 ... he could not imagine that in such an intake, with such 

 ventilation, and such a position, gas could accumulate for a 

 minute." Mr. Bell, the Inspector of Mines for the district, 

 said : — "The ventilation throughout the pit was good. It was a 

 well-managed pit, and the last in which he would have expected 

 an explosion to take place." Mr. W. M. Atkinson, the 

 Assistant-Inspector, said: — "The explosion was confined to 

 those parts of the pit least likely to contain gas, and where there 

 was the most coal-dus'. It was highly improbable that there 

 was any fire damp where the explosion originated. He once 

 examined the place " hen the barometer was as low as 27 -5 inches, 

 andnotraceof fire-dampcould be detected." (The barometerstood 

 at 29'55 inches at I a.m., two hours before the explosion.) " He 

 believed the explosion was entirely due to the combustion of 

 coal-dust in pure air, and that its ignition was caused by a shot 

 fired by Johnson. A blown-out shot would not be necessary. 

 Wherever there had been coal-dust in the mine the explosion 

 had gone ; but wherever there was an absence of coal-dust. 



