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NATURE 



[June 12, 1913 



In reply to the letter in Nature of May 29 (p. 319) 

 under the heading "Artificial Hiss," the following 

 is a suggestion which may be an answer to the 

 question, though not a practical solution to the 

 problem. 



A loud hissing noise accompanies the passing of 

 an electric arc across the gap in such a lamp as 

 is used for optical lanterns, &c. Though this hissing 

 noise does as a rule last for only a short time, yet 

 it appears to me quite a simple matter to regulate 

 the carbons so as to prolong the sound. The actual 

 "hiss" sounds much more of a sibilant than an /, 

 such as is produced by a current of air or steam 

 being forced under pressure through a small opening. 



Charterhouse, June 2. H. L. Kiek. 



Red Water. 



In Nature of April 4, 1912, Messrs. Mackenzie and 

 Finlay wrote relative to the cause of the occurrence 

 of colouring matter in a sample of water from a 

 crater lake in Uganda, and subsequently in the issues 

 of April 11 and June 6 Messrs. H. Warth and C. 

 Crossland respectively wrote describing the occur- 

 rence of similar characteristics in the great salt lake 

 of Sambhar, in Rajputana, also pools at Suez, 'and 

 near the Rawaya salt lake. 



Dr. Gavin McCallum, in a paper read at a meeting 

 of the Geelong Field Naturalists' Club, in March, 

 1911, entitled " Forms of Life at the Salt-pans," 

 directed attention to this coloration of the water and 

 its blood-red appearance, and described it as being 

 not due to the "colour of the liquid itself, but to the 

 presence in enormous numbers of uniform small round 

 cells. Dr. McCallum also mentions another form as 

 being oval in shape with two cilia or lashes at the 

 narrower end," the cilia and a small portion at the 

 narrower end being colourless. At various times 

 samples of the " red water " have been collected, and 

 kept constantly under microscopical examination both 

 by Dr. McCallum and myself, with the result that we 

 can say the colouring is wholly due to a flagellate 

 organism not unlike Polytoma uvella, Mull, as figured 

 in the last edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," 

 but as this is given as being a species of Chlamydo- 

 monadidae in the article on Flagellata, and as a similar 

 genus appears in the article on algae by a different 

 writer, some confusion evidently exists as to both 

 these orders. 



The oval form, as mentioned by Dr. McCallum, has 

 two flagella, about one-third longer than the body, 

 which appear to arise from a sort of collar or circular 

 opening at the anterior end ; there are two contractile 

 vacuoles near the base of the flagella, and an eye- 

 spot ; except the flagella and a small portion at the 

 anterior end, the whole organism is so deeply pig- 

 mented with red matter that it is difficult to determine 

 its constituent parts. There are other features, but 

 these it is at present premature to mention. The 

 globular form appears as the brine reaches saturation 

 point, and is a sort of resting stage conditioned by 

 the salinity of the medium in which it lives ; this form 

 gives rise to zoospores. 



Associated with the flagellate organism is an in- 

 teresting crustacean, the brine shrimp, very similar to 

 Artcmia salina, but in all the articles dealing with 

 this crustacean the female is said to carry the eggs 

 underneath the tail, whereas in this shrimp they are 

 carried in sacs on either side, like the egtj sacs of the 

 Cyclops. The male, which is much larger than the 

 female, has the usual claspers for holding the 

 female. Dr. McCallum mentions in his article that at 

 7 to 8° Baume the shrimp sickens and dies ; at this 

 stage it becomes the host of the flagellate organism, 

 which absorbs the decaying organic matter in the 



NO. 2276, VOL. 91] 



interior of the shrimp's body, leaving an absolutely 

 hyaline cast skin. 



1 may mention that during this period of the organ- 

 ism 's existence it is nearly always green, the red 

 matter only making its appearance at a later stage. 

 As the brine reaches crystallisation the ensuing salt 

 is of a reddish hue, due, of course, to the pigmented 

 organism, and it is a matter of conjecture as to 

 whether or no each spherical monad does not form 

 the nucleus of each crystal of salt. The salt, upon 

 exposure to the sun, bleaches, but the zoospores con- 

 tained within the spherical or globular membrane 

 retain their vitality and issue forth in countless num- 

 bers of infinitely small green, actively moving flagel- 

 late organisms, upon redissolving the salt. 



Fred Whitteron. 



Geelong, Victoria, March 31. 



Phreatoicus in South Africa. 



At the beginning of this month I found some 

 isopods in one of the swift-running streams on the 

 top of Table Mountain ; they were quite common in 

 and under the moss covering the stones in the bed 

 of the stream, and were very sluggish. On examina- 

 tion they prove to belong to the family Phreatoicidae. 

 The occurrence in South Africa of a member of this 

 peculiar family, which hitherto has been recorded 

 only from New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania, is 

 of great interest as bearing on the question of the 

 ancient land connection between the southern con- 

 tinents. 



It is a new species, and will shortly be described 

 in the Annals of the South African Museum. 



Keppel H. Barnard. 



South African Museum, Cape Town, 



Cape of Good Hope, May 20. 



GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. 1 

 (1) 'T'HIS work has originated in the desire of 

 its author to make some public state- 

 ment of indebtedness. It is, as it were, a 

 memorial laid upon an. altar. Dr. Cornish, in his 

 researches, has dealt with phenomena that are 

 cosmic rather than humane ; yet we now perceive 

 them set against a background, old as that of 

 the cave-dwellers, where accomplishment is due to 

 the fact that man does not live his life alone. 

 Whether their vessel is rolling fifty-six degrees 

 in the Bay of Biscay, or nearing Ceylon in incense- 

 laden air, whether they are walking in the symbolic 

 garden of the Shogun, or in the shattered streets 

 nl Kingston, the essential feature is that the 

 travellers are together. The form adopted as a 

 title merely adds emphasis to this impression. 



Except for the stirring adventure of the 

 Jamaican earthquake of 1907, these travellers saw 

 little that others have not seen and liberally 

 described. But what they saw they realised as 

 trained observers. "The greatest astronomical 



1 It) " The Travels of Ellen Cornish." Being the Memoir of a Pilgrim 

 of Science. By Dr. Vaughan Cornish. Pp xvi + 293-t-plates-r'inaps. 

 (London: W. J. Ham-Smith, 19. 3. 1 Price iti, 6rf. net. 



(2) "The Continent*- and their People: Asia." A Supplementary Geo- 

 graphy. By J. F. Chamberlsin and A. H. Chamberlain. Pp. ix + 198+3 

 maps. (New York: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and 

 Co., I td., 1913.) Price 3... 



(3) " Modern Geography for High Schools." By R. D. Salisbury, H. H. 

 Barrows, and W. S. Tower. Pp. ix + 418+vii plates. (New York: Henry 

 Holt and Co., 1913.) Pric- 1.25 dollars. 



(,) " Three Years in the Lib 5 an Desert : Travels, Discoveries, and Exca- 

 vations of the Menas Expedition." By J. C. Ewalri Falls. Translated bv 

 Elizabeth Lee. Pp. xii + 356+plates. (London : T. Fisher Unwin, n.d.) 



