3iS 



NA TURE 



[January 13, 1910 



problem is discussed in the Journal of Agriculture of South 

 Australia. The production of raisins has exceeded 

 the local consumption, and as there is no prospect of a 

 successful export trade, some new outlet has to be found. 

 Experiments have therefore been made to ascertain whether 

 raisins could be utilised in satisfying the local demand for 

 strong spirit. Prof. Perkins's results led him to conclude 

 that 150 to 154 gallons of proof spirit might be 

 obtained from a ton of first-grade raisins, and 130 to 134 

 gallons from a ton of second-grade raisins, and he adds 

 that on this basis raisins should be worth to the grower 

 not much less than 20I. a ton. 



Bulletin No. 399 issued by the United States Geological 

 Survey contains results of spirit-levelling carried out by 

 the Survey in western Virginia during the years 1896 to 

 1908, with the cooperation of the West Virginia Geological 

 Survey lifter 1901. The results have been compiled by 

 iMessrs, S. S. Gannett and D. H. Baldwin, and include 

 all previously published data along with the newer observa- 

 tions, re-adjusted and re-arranged by quadrangles. 

 Descriptions and elevations of bench-marks are given for 

 forty-eight counties, furnishing vertical control for nearly 

 half the State. 



In a paper published by the Department of Agriculture 

 and Technical Instruction for Ireland (Fisheries, No. 7) 

 Mr. C. M. Cunningham discusses the results of investi- 

 gations on the drift of the Irish Sea made with floats of 

 various kinds. The floats were distributed by making use 

 of the many steamship lines radiating from Belfast and 

 crossing different parts of the area under examination, 

 and the experiments extend from June, 1903, to May, 

 1906 ; the total number of floats distributed was about 

 1200, and almost exactly half these have been found 

 and the cards returned. The general result suggested is 

 that there is a northward drift throughout the year, 

 modified by a southward tendency during certain states 

 of the weather, especially during the months of March, 

 .April, May, and June, when northerly winds are most apt 

 to assert themselves. No instrument distributed north of 

 a line joining Cork Harbour and the Land's End has been 

 found to the south of it. 



Mr. D. W. Johnson contributes an interesting study of 

 hanging valleys to the Bulletin of the American Geo- 

 graphical Society. Excluding the types of hanging valleys 

 which are not definitely related to a main stream and its 

 tributaries, as, for example, the valleys left hanging by 

 the encroachment of the sea on south-east England and 

 north-western France, and valleys raised above the level 

 of adjacent plains by up-faulting, the autlior discusses the 

 questions : — (i) are hanging valleys a trustworthy indica- 

 tion of glacial erosion of the main valley? and (2) may 

 not hanging tributary valleys result from glacial widening 

 of the main valley, instead of from glacial deepening? 

 The investigation goes to show that hanging tributary 

 valleys may be produced independently of glacial erosion, 

 but valleys of this type are of rare occurrence, and that 

 wherever the mouth of a hanging valley has been 

 materially altered to the typical glacial trough form we 

 must infer a greater or less amount of glacial deepening. 



From the Survey Department of Egypt we have received 

 a copy of " An Almanac for 1910," compiled at the Offices 

 of that department, and published by the National Print- 

 ing Department, Cairo, at the price of 25 miUifemes (6<i.). 

 For anyone at all interested in Egyptian affairs this 

 almanac is full of interesting information concerning the 

 various Government departments and services, the rail- 

 ways, telegraphs and population, the meteorological 

 elements and the rise of the Nile at various places, the 

 NO. 2098, VOL, 82] 



geographical coordinates of the principal towns, &c. 

 General and scientific matters are also well represented 

 by conversion tables, ephemerides, &c. The ephemeris for 

 Halley's comet is accompanied by figures showing its 

 brightness on different dates and its times of rising and 

 setting. A comprehensive index concludes this cheap and 

 useful work. 



An interesting article, by Mr. R. H. Curtis, on the 

 development and standardisation of sunshine recorders 

 appears in Symons's Meteorological Magazine for 

 November and December, 1909. The instrument first in 

 use consisted of a hemispherical wooden bowl with hollow 

 glass ball filled with water, invented by Mr. J. F. Camp- 

 bell about fifty-si.x years ago, in which the charred wood 

 gave a six-months' record, from solstice to solstice. A 

 regular daily record was first obtained at Greenwich 

 Observatory in 1876 by using a metal bowl, presented by 

 Sir W. Armstrong, and a narrow strip of blackened card. 

 So far as ordinary observers were concerned, there was 

 some difficulty in the adjustment of the card, but this 

 was overcome by Sir G. G. Stokes in 1879, who developed 

 the Campbell-Stokes recorder and cards now in general 

 use; only some trivial additions for adjustment have been 

 made since, one of which is due to Mr. Curtis. Owing 

 to the cost of this instrument, Mr. J. B. Jordan introduced 

 a very ingenious photographic recorder in 1885, but the 

 two forms of instrument do not register precisely the same 

 thing, and after careful comparisons had been made of 

 the results, the Meteorological Office decided to publish 

 only the records of the burning instrument. A report 

 upon the instruments is contained in the Quarterly Journal 

 of the Royal Meteorological Society (vol. xxiv., p. 1), and 

 the specification for the standard instrument has, with 

 slight variation, been printed in the " Observer's Hand- 

 book," published by the Meteorological Committee. For 

 obtaining uniformity of results, Mr. Curtis lays great stress 

 upon the necessity of using cards of colour and texture 

 similar to patterns preserved in the Meteorological Office. 

 Other recorders, not in such general use, are not referred 

 to in this article. 



Bulletin No. 395 of the U.S. Geological Survey con- 

 tains an elaborate investigation, by Profs. Schlundt and 

 Moore, of the radio-activity of the thermal waters of 

 Yellowstone National Park. One of the most interesting 

 points brought out is that the travertine of the old terraces 

 contains very little radium as compared with that of more 

 recent formation. The authors interpret this to mean that 

 the hot water has effected a chemical separation between 

 radium and its parent uranium, carrying off and deposit- 

 ing the former only. In course of time the radium in 

 the travertine decays, and is not replaced by a fresh 

 growth, as in normal radio-active minerals. Since some 

 of the travertine is overlain by glacial boulders, this 

 obviously gives a method of dating the Ice age in this 

 district if the accepted rate of decay of radium be assumed 

 and if we suppose that the material discharged by the 

 spring has been of uniform quality throughout the interval. 

 The figure at which the authors arrive is 20,000 years. 



The Physikalische Zeitschrift for December 15, 1909, 

 contains a paper by Dr. J. J. Kossonogow, of the Uni- 

 versity of Kiev, on the application of the ultramicroscope 

 to the study of the phenomena of electrolysis. He finds 

 that when an electrolyte is examined under the ultra- 

 microscope, at tlie moment the current is switched on there 

 appear in the field of view a number of bright points of 

 light which travel towards the electrodes with velocities 

 of the same order of magnitude as have been found for 



