Sept. 23, 1 800] 



NATURE 



495 



conclusion drawn from this find is that Swiss pile buildings 

 served as actual dwellings for the primeval inhabitants of the 

 land, and were not, as has been supposed, used merely as 

 storehouses. 



Mr. David Bogue will publish in November a new book by 

 Mr. S. Butler, author of " Erewhon," " Life and Habit," &c., 

 entitled "Unconscious Memory." The work will contain 

 translations from the German of Prosper Ewald Hering of 

 Prague, and of von Hartmann, with a comparison between the 

 views of instinctive and unconscious actions taken by these two 

 writers respectively. 



The British Museum is about to be enriched by a collection 

 of natural history specimens made by the officers of Her Majesty's 

 surveying ship Alert, w hich has been for some months engaged 

 in making a complete survey of the Straits of Magellan. 



With the view of promoting agricultural improvement in 

 Bengal and encouraging the study of scientific agriculture, the 

 Bengal Government has created two annual special scholarships 

 of 200/. each, to be held by science graduates of the Calcutta 

 University at Curencester College. 



A TERRIFIC hurricane passed over the Bermudas on August 

 29 and 30, stated to have exceeded in violence the historical 

 hurricane of 1839. 



Two years ago (Nature, vol. xviii. pp. 104, 344) we directed 

 attention to the discoveries made in Russia in regard to Fermat's 

 asserted prime-form 2-'" + I. We have now to chronicle the 

 fact that to the number of composite integers of this form 

 another addition has just been made. M. Landry has found that 

 2^"* + I is divisible by 274177. As at present ascertained there- 

 fore the composite members of the form are — 



111 = 5 ; divisor, 5-2" -I- i (Euler), 

 ;« = 6; ,, I071'2* -1- I (Landry), 

 m = 12; ,, 7'2'"' -h I (Pervouchine), 



m = 23 ; ,, 5'2-* + I (Pervouchine). 



MM. Martinet and Lesson have brought out vol. i. of 

 their work on the origin and migrations of the Polynesians. 

 The next volume is nearly ready, and the remainder will be 

 publi^hed in iSSi. The aim of this exhaustive work is to de- 

 monstrate that the Polynesians are neither Asiatics nor Americans, 

 but Maoris, from the Middle Island. 



M. C. DE UF.4LVY is engaged in editing the narrative of the 

 voyage of M. Panagiotis Potagos in Central Asia ; while to M. 

 Henri Duveyrier has been confided, by the Paris Geographical 

 Society, the task of preparing for publication in French that 

 traveller's expedition in Equatorial Africa. 



Three French expeditions are being organised. One, by M. 

 Revoil, to Aden, in the country of the Somalis ; another, by M. 

 Moincron, to the northern coasts of New Guinea, which, if 

 practicable, is to advance beyond the points reached by Raffray, 

 Meyer, and Albertis ; and the third, by M. Flahant, to the Polar 

 Seas, in conjunction, probably, with Nordenskjold. 



A French explorer, M. Lecart, who is at present on the banks 

 of the Niger, writes home from " Koundian (Gangaran), 

 July 25, ' that he has discovered a new vine, which promises to 

 be of great economical value. He says the fruit of the vine 

 is excellent and abundant, its cultivation very easy, its roots 

 tuberose and perennial, while its branches are annual. It can 

 be cultivated as easily as the dahlia. He himself had been 

 eating the large grapes of the vine for eight days, and found 

 them excellent, and he suggests that its culture ought to be 

 attempted in all vine-growing countries as a possible remedy 

 against the phylloxera. He is sending home seeds for experi- 

 ment, both in France and Algeria, and will bring home speci- 

 mens of the plant at all stages. 



Mr. F. J. Campbell of the College for the Blind, Upper 

 Norwood, he himself being blind, gives an interesting account 

 of his successful ascent of Mont Blanc, the first time such a feat 

 was accomplished by a blind man. 



The Report of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society for 1879 

 has to complain of a considerable falling off in the membership, 

 attributable mainly to bad times. Otherwise the work of the 

 Society has been fairly satisfactory . 



At a recent meeting of the Balloon Society of Great Britain, 

 it was announced that a challenge had been received from M. de 

 Fonvielle, president of the French Academic d'Aerostation, to a 

 balloon contest during the present autumn on English soil. 

 After a discussion it was decided to accept the challenge, the 

 contest to take place between one member of each nationality, 

 and the ascent to be made from the Crystal Palace. 



According to a table published by the Siatistkhe Monats- 

 schrift of Vienna, the number of volumes in the National 

 Library of Paris is 2,078,000, and in the British Museum only 

 ijCoo.ooo. But it should be noted that the number of volumes does 

 not give an exact idea of the real importance of a library. The 

 Vatican, which is stated to have only 30,000 volumes and 25,000 

 manuscripts, must be considered as ranking far above its numerical 

 position. According to the provisions of the French law, the 

 deposit is required of each re-impression, even where there is no 

 alteration, and the National Library has not the right of dis- 

 posing by sale of useless volumes, so that there is an accumula- 

 tion of popular works of no value at all. There is a room f u I 

 of Noel and Chapsal's Elements of Grammar, and endless numbers 

 of Pdits Parisicns. Popular novels are in the same case, and 

 there are more than eighty copies of "Nana." 



An interesting prehistoric sketch of the Spreewald and the 

 Schlossberg of Burg, with special map and illustrations, by 

 Professors Virchow and Schulenburg, has been published by 

 Wiegandt of Berlin. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 pa'^t week include a Brown-necked Parrot [Pccoccphalus fiisicollis) 

 from West Africa, presented by Mr. H. Wood; a Jaciraca 



[Craspedocephalus brasiliensis), a Tree Snake {Dryiophis 



acuminata), a ■ Amphisboena (Ainphisiana alba) from 



Brazil, presented by Dr. A. Stradling, C. M.Z.S. ; a 



Amphisbcena {Broiiia brasiliensis) from Pernambuco, presented 

 by Mr. W. A. Forbes, F.Z.S. ; a Weeper Capuchin I^Ccbus 

 capncinus) from Brazil, a Ring-tailed Coati {.Vasiia rufa), a 

 Spotted Cavy {Ccelogenys paca) from South America, a Crab- 

 eatin'' Raccoon (Procyon cancriiorits) from West Indies, a 

 Saturnine Mocking-Bird (liliinus saturtiinus), two Silky Hang- 

 nests {Amblyrhamphus holoscricciis), a Sulphury Tyrant Bird 

 {Pitangus snlfhuratiis) from Monte Video, a Maximilian's 

 Aracari (Ptei-oglossus wiedi) from Pernambuco, deposited ; five 

 Ruffs {Machetes pugnax), British, purchased ; a Reeves's Muntjac 

 (Cei-vitlus reevesi), bom in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Colours OF Southern Stars.— In the Uranometria Argen- 

 tina, Dr. Gould has diawn attention to a number of stars pre 

 senting marked colour, and to several in which there appears to 

 be change of colour : the foUow^ing are amongst the more 

 noticeable cases : — 



/3 Ilydri is remarkable for its clear yellow light (27m.) ; the 

 Cordoba observations do not support Sir John Herschel's sus- 

 picion of variability of brightness, o Indi is also of a bright clear 

 yellow ; mag. 3-1. The blue colour of 7Tucana; is very marked; 

 Gould's magnitude is 4-0. <^ Eridani (3-5) is remarkable for its 

 blue colour, and v Puppis (3-5) is decidedly blue ; e Pavonis, the 

 estimates of magnitude of which star vary from 3'6 to 4'2, is of 

 a remarkably blue colour. Gould's No. 9 in Dorado, Lacaille 



