Jan. 6, 1 88 1 J 



NATURE 



233 



To the Octoter number of Syiiion>s Monthly Mdeorc'ogical . over the valley below. 1 htre « ere several feals of thunder, but 

 Magazine Col. Fo.-ter Ward \i rites describing fome reu;aikable there was no visible lightning, owing, he conclude^, to the sun's 

 haiUtones that fell durii ga &\\Jai thunderstorm at Prr'enl irchen, I brightne: s. " On arriving near home, I met a friend who told 

 Bavaria, at 6 p.m. on August 21. He was on a mcuntain about | me it had been hailing 'tadpoles' and 'acidulated drops.' 

 3000 feet above tie village, and saw the cl.ud (a small one) pass | There had been little or no rain and no visible lightning, and 



the hailstones fell at intervals and about si.K feet apart. There 

 were very few of them, my family only picldng up twenty in a 

 space occupied by a full-sized lawn tennis court. My son made 

 a sketch of their shape and size, w hich I inclose. The greater 

 part were of the ' tadpole ' shape and were clear as glas=, perfectly 

 round, the five knobs being at equal distance from one another. 

 The flat stones had more or less a slight nucleus of snow in the 

 convex portion of the stone. My wife and three daughters, and 

 two ladies staying with us, say that the stones looked just like a 

 lady's hand lookingt^lass, with a knob at the top and on either 



side for ornament. More than twenty, perhaps thirty, were 

 picked up of this shape. Of these about two-thirds were 

 studded, the rest plain, with only the tail or handle, the thinnest 

 part of it being near the body of the stone, as in sketch. The 

 studs were all syn-.metrically phccd. There were from three to 

 five in^each stone besides the handle. When there were less than 

 fivejhey occupied the same positions as if the five had been 

 coni| lete. In some cases the hardle appeared to have been 

 knocked off. The drops were more numerous, were all of same 

 shape, convex at the top, the I ottom being concave (like a small 

 china painting palette)." 



The total completion of the St. Gothard tunnel will very 

 likely take place in July of this year; the railway is to I e 

 opened on July I, 1S82. The mail-bags are even now caiTied 

 through the tunnel by messengers when ro gh weather prevails 

 upcn the mountain. On December 21 the first mail-bag was 

 so carried through the tunnel, and it took four hours to convey 

 it from CErschenen to Airolo. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 At the Second International Polar Conference at Berne all 

 the leading nations of Europe were represented except England. 

 The leading stations have been definitely decided on. Austria 

 undertakes to establish a station in northern Novaya Zemlya, 

 at the expense of Count Wilczek ; Denmark has selected 

 Upernivik ; Germany New Georgia for the Antarctic, and Jan 

 Mayen or East Greenland for the Arctic regions ; Norway, 

 Bossekop in Finmark ; Holland the south-east coast of Novaya 

 Zemlya, or the coast of Siberia, between the mouth of the 

 Yenissei and Cape Tainiyr ; Russia has selected two stations, 

 the mouth of the Lena and the New Siberian IsL.nds. Even 

 Switzerland, which has not even a sea-board, hopes to take part 

 in the international movement, by establi>hing a station at 

 Mossel Bay, in Spitzbergen. The expedition o be sent out by 

 Italy to the Antarctic region under Lieut. Bove is to some extent 

 connected with this scheme, and no doubt France will ultimately 

 be compelled to take her part. As to England, there has hitherto 

 been no sign that as a nation she is even iuteroted in a scheme 

 so full of important issues for science and navigation. 



In a recent paper to the R Accadeniia del Lincei, Signor Guido 

 Cora, a member of the International Polar Commi tee, urges 

 the importance of the enterprise under consideration, and of 

 Italy sharing in it. He considers the Antarctic zone as the 

 more suitable one for Italy, as being nearer regions w here Ita- 

 lians form a large portion of the population and corduct an 

 extensive commerce ; moreover the south has a brilliant record 

 of geographical exploration by Italians in the sixteenth century, 

 and the recent project of an Antarctic exploring expedition has 

 drawn enthusiastic attention. For the temporary scientific 

 observatory v hich the Italian Government is recommended to 

 plant in 1SS2 (in harmony with the large scheme), S. Cora 

 suggests one or other of three places : — i. Port Spence, on the 

 east coa^t of Coronation Is'and in the Southern Orkneys, at 

 about 60° 50' S. lat., and 45' 45' W. long. 2. Cape Look- 

 out, on the south coast of Elephant Island, in the north-east 

 part of the Southern Shetland group, at about 61° 17' S. laf 

 and 55° 15' W. long, (a station at either place would -erve well 

 as a base of operatii ns for the Italian Exploring Expedition). 

 3. In the case of me.ans being inadequate for a station at either 

 of the two places named, S. Guido recommends some one of 

 the islands close to Cape Horn. Supposing that the transport 

 would be by a Government vessel destined to the naval station 



