4o8 



NATURE 



[Sept. 



2, i< 



passing under the Cambrian conglomerates, such evidence would 

 go a great way. I have examined some spots where the 

 Cambrian conglomerate has left cakes sitting on the gneiss, and 

 at these spots I should say decidedly that there was no proof of 

 the glaciation of the subjacent rock. 



That there may be such evidence at other points is very 

 possible ; and if Mr. Geikie can establish it he will have made a 

 discovery of high interest in geology. Argyll 



August 27 



New Red Star 



Mr. Ormond Stone, writing from Mount Lookout, U.S., 

 lately informed me that ou August 6 he found a very red star, 

 6'S mag. in 19I1. lom. ±, and - 16° 7' ±. I observed it last 

 night, when it appeared, according to my estimation, of no more 

 than 7'5~S magnitude. In colour it ranks among the most 

 remarkable red stars, and as it is also, very probably, a variable, 

 I would recommend it to the close attention of observers. It 

 agrees approximately in R.A. with the well-known variable 

 T Sagittarii, but difl'ers in more than a degi'ee of declination 

 from that star, of which I find the place i;i my Eed Star Catalogue 

 to be a, igh. 9m. 19s. ; and 5, - 17° io'7 for iSSo. In about 

 that position last night I found a small colourless star not more 

 than 10 or 11 magnitude. John Birmingham 



Millbrook, Tuam, August 29 



Locusts and Coffee Trees 



Mr. S. B. O'Learv of thU city has favoured me with 

 extracts from a letter written by a relation of his residing on a 

 plantation near Antigua-Guatemala, and containing information 

 about the locust-plague, by which lately the crops of Indian 

 corn and a great many coffeeplantatious in that country have 

 been destroyed. The insect is called Chapulin {Gryllus miles, 

 Driiry?), and appeared first in the department of Chiquimula. 

 in the eastern part of Guatemala, close to Honduras. Thence 

 it spread over all the warmer parts of the Republic, avoiding 

 the higher and cooler regions. The loss must be very con- 

 siderable ; one gentleman, Don Gregorio Revuelto, in the 

 department of .Suchitepeque, lost in one night 70,000 trees, 

 without there being left one single leaf. In April a swarm, 

 supposed to be four leagues broad and about 300 metres long, 

 approached the estate belonging to the writer of the letter, but 

 fortunately could be partly driven away with noise and smoke. 



Theie facts are interesting, as it has not been observed 

 hitherto that locusts, in such a degree, attack the coflee-tree. 



Caracas, August 2 A. Ernst 



Intellect in Brutes 



A VERY interesting instance of animal intelligence has been 

 recently reported in one of our newspapers, and may appear 

 sufSciently remarkable to merit more extended notice. A large 

 and destructive fire lately took place upon the shores of the 

 East River opposite to New York, between which city and Long 

 Island this channel passes. The occasion was the spread of 

 naphtha from a burning oil-ship, which instantly became a trail 

 of fire from which the flames swept into well-filled lumber-yards 

 covered with pine boards, and thence to the loaded barges which 

 lined the docks along the river front, and extended up the banks 

 of a small neighbouring creek. 



By the rapid and uncontrolled advance of the conflagration 

 over this wide area the families and occupants of the barges aud 

 in the lumber-yards were driven away and forced to seek safety 

 in flight. A Newfoundland dog belonging to the grounds, and 

 at that time roaming amongst the lanes of lumber, found him- 

 self imprisoned by a swiftly-contracting arc of flame, with the 

 river on one side as the single avenue of escape. Unlike the 

 beasts in the notable dilemma of Baron Munchausen, these 

 opposed elements refused to leap over the back of their prey, 

 and, extinguishing each other, peniiit him to escape. 



The dog jumped into the water and headed for the opposite 

 (the New York) shore. Although pursued by men in boats and 

 Im'ed by cries and calls from the shores, he steadily kept on his 

 course, and after a long and difficult trip landed on the New 

 York side of the water. From the shore he reached one of the 

 avenues which run lengthwise through New York, and finally 

 found his way to the 34th Street ferry, which lay at a consider. 



able distance below the point of his landing. The dog, follow- 

 ing the lumber-waggons, had often crossed from one shore to 

 the other by means of this ferry, and now recognised in his 

 present extremity, he easily secured a single passage. 



Once returned to the Long Island side, he regained his old 

 quarters, having by this circuitous route baftled the fire and 

 regained his home. L. P. Gratacap 



Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., N.Y., August 14 



Chatel, Jersey, must send a more precise address. 



THUNDERSTORMS^ 

 III. 

 'T^HE name tlmnderbolt, which is still in use, even by 

 -'- good writers, seems to have been introduced in 

 consequence of the singular effects produced when 

 lightning strikes a sandhill or sandy soil. It bores a hole 

 often many feet in length, which is found lined throughout 

 with vitrified sand. The old notion was that an intensely 

 hot, solid mass, whose path was the flash of lightning, 

 had buried itself out of sight, melting the sand as it went 

 down. It is quite possible that this notion may have 

 been strengthened by the occasional observation of the 

 fall of aerolites, which are sometimes found, in the holes 

 they have made, still exceedingly hot. And at least 

 many of the cases in which lightning is said to have been 

 seen in a perfectly clear sky are to be explained in the 

 same way. Every one knows Horace's lines— 



" Diespiter 

 Igni corusco nubila dividens 

 Plerumque, per purum tonantes) 

 Egit equos volucremque currum." 



But Virgil's remark is not so commonly known. He is 

 speaking of prodigies of various kinds, and goes on ; — 



" Non alias coelo ceciderunt plura sereno 

 Fulgura ; nee diri toties arsere cometae." 



It is very singular that he should thus have associated 

 comets and meteorites, which quite recent astronomical 

 discovery has shown to have a common origin. 



Another remarkable peculiarity, long ago obseri'ed, is 

 the characteristic smell produced when hghtning strikes a 

 building or a ship. In old times it was supposed to be 

 sulphurous ; nowadays we know it to be mainly due to 

 ozone. In fact, all the ready modes of forming ozone 

 which are as yet at the disposal of the chemist depend 

 upon applications of electricity. But besides ozone, which 

 is formed from the oxygen of the air, there are often pro- 

 duced nitric acid, ammonia, and other compounds derived 

 from the constituents of air and of aqueous vapour. All 

 these results can be produced on a small scale in the 

 laboratory. 



Hitherto I have been speaking of lightning discharges 

 similar in kind to the ordinary electric spark, what is 

 commonly csX^&di forked ox zig-za^ lightning. Our nomen- 

 clature is very defective in this matter, and the same may 

 be said of the chief modern European languages. For, 

 as Arago remarks, by far the most common form of 

 lightning flash observed in thunderstorms is what we have 

 to particularise, for want of a better term, as sheet- 

 l!glit}iing. He asserts that it occurs thousand-fold as 

 often as forked lightning ; and that many people have 

 never observed the latter form at all ! It is not at all 

 easy to conceive what can be the nature of sheet-lightning, 

 if it be not merely the lighting up of the clouds by a flash of 

 forked lightning not directly visible to the spectator. That 

 this is, at least in many cases, its origin is evident from 

 the fact that its place of maximum brightness often takes 

 the form of the cds,c of a cloud, and that the same cloud- 

 edge is occasionally lit up several times in quick succes- 



' Abstract of a lecture, delivere J in the City Hall, Glasgow, by Prof. Tail. 

 Continued from p. 366. 



