Jan. 13, 1 881] 



NA TURE 



253 



Leipzig is at last to have a zoological garden. A number of 

 citizens intend to form a company for the purpo e of establishing 

 a zoological garden on an area of twenty acres, with conserva- 

 tories, &c. The civic authorities of Leipzig have given their 

 consent, and pointed out a suitable place in the immediate 

 environs of the city. 



The base of the Mont Cenis tunnel at the French entrance 

 slioMS such ominous signs of sinking that the Paris-Lyons 

 Mediterranean Rail« ay Company intend to have another entrance 

 to the tunnel bored, which is to be siluated at about 1 kil imetre's 

 distance from the present entrance, and is to reach the old 

 tunnel at a spot about 600 metres from its mouth. The work 

 has already been commenced. 



Visitors to the Brighton Aquarium will regret to hear of the 

 death of the fine male sea-lion ( 0/a«V; sUlhri?), so long an inmate 

 of the Institution. Mr. A. Crane sends us some details about 

 the animal. Poor "Jack's" very sudden death is attributed to 

 disease of the heart. The left lube of that organ was found 

 ruptured and in a state of complete collapse. His female com- 

 panion is still in good health. The first offspring of tlie pair, a 

 male cub, wa-i born in the spring of 1877 ; the second, a dead 

 female, in the following year. Jack was probably about twelve 

 years of age at his death. His length was 8 feet 5 inches, 

 maximum girth 5 feet 3 inches ; fore-feet 4 feet 2 inches, and 

 hind flippers 17 inches; greatest circumference of the head 

 2 feet 10 inches, frontal 2 feet 2 inches, round the jaws, under 

 the eyes, 17 inches; weight of skin i cwt., of lungs 22 lbs. 

 As the skeleton will be preserved in the Institution zoologists 

 will be able to fir.ally determine by means of the skull the exact 

 species to which this male belonged. The cub born of this pair 

 is now four years old, a fine animal 6 feet long and much 

 larger than his somewhat diminutive and flat-headed mother, to 

 whom at present he bears most resemblance, the extraordinary 

 prominence of the frontal bones of the skull characterising his 

 male parent being as yet undeveloped. The tanks, Mr. Crane 

 states, are in excellent condition, and the growth of sponges, 

 tunicates, and development of invertebrate life generally is very 

 remarkable. In fact to a qualified histologist and embryological 

 student they would furnish anple material for a vacation, and 

 doubtless yield interesting results. Facilities for study, we are 

 informed, would be willingly accorded by the Management. 



Prof. E. Morren's Correspondance botanicjne grows in size 

 and in completeness. We have now before us the eighth is ue 

 (October, 18S0) of this most useful botanical directory. In 

 Europe and the United States the list of botanists, oflicial and 

 others, is now very full and complete ; and scarcely any quarter 

 of the globe can be named which is not represented by one or 

 two names. Every working botanist should have it on his 

 library table. 



At a quarter to 5 p.m. on January 5 a somewhat viole-it shock 

 of earthquake was felt at Agram. It lasted abjut three seconds. 

 The ground rose in wave-like curves as the shock passed over. 

 On the previous night two slight shocks were experienced. 



The Times Bucharest correspondent, under date January 4, 

 describes a curious result following the recent earthquake which 

 passed under that city. The soil of Bucharest is a rich, black, 

 porous vegetable mould, very springy under pressure, and 

 carriages passing in a street cause a strong vibration in the 

 adjacent houses. The Grand Hotel Boulevard, however, was 

 an exception to this general rule, and in the correspondent's 

 room, facing the principal street, on which there is a heavy 

 traffic, he never could feel any sensible effect from passing 

 vehicles. During the recent earthquake the windows and 

 crockery in less massively constructed buildings rattled very 

 sensibly, whereas there was no audible sound produced in the 



hotel mentioned. Since the earthquake shock, however, this 

 state of things has changed entirely, and every vehicle passing 

 the hotel causes vibration in the whole building. The singular 

 part of this change consists in the fact that the effect produced 

 by the vehicle is precisely the same .is that accompanying the 

 earthquake. It is not a jar as previously produced in other 

 buildings, but a sawing motion similar to that described in the 

 correspondent's telegram relating to the late shock of earthquake. 

 This movement is so great as to cause pictures to sway back- 

 wards and forwards on the walls, and it is equally perceptible in 

 the rear corner rooms farthest from the street. The hotel is of 

 brick, covered outside with mastic, which would show at once 

 any crack in the walls. He has carefully examined the exterior 

 of the building and there is not a crack in it. Hence, he thinks, 

 this change in the solidity of the structure appears to be due to 

 some effect produced in the earth underneath the building by the 

 shock of earthquake. 



The Daily Nexus Rangoon correspondent, writing on December 

 10, states that they had another shock of an earthquake in Bu mah 

 three days before the same day on which Agram was revisited. 

 In Rangoon it was not severe, but the tremulous mot'on lasted 

 for fully a minute and a half, and was sufficiently strong to set 

 pictures swinging and rattling against the walls. Like those 

 which preceded it, the shock travelled from south to north, and 

 was felt more violently elsewhere, though in no case so intensely 

 as to cause serious damage. 



On the 6th inst., at 430 a.m. Berlin tine, a pretty strong 

 shock of earthquake was felt at Rousdorf . 



Dr. Krishaber of 41, rue de la Bienfaisance, Paris, writes to 

 ask if any of our readers can give him information as to the 

 causes of death in monkeys in a wild state. 



The appearance of the phylloxera in the Crimea has been 

 the subject of a communication, by M. Porchinsky, to the St. 

 Petersburg Entomological Society. It has appeared probably in 

 consequence of vines having been imported froja France, and 

 has extended hitherto very slowly in small concentric circles. 

 As the vineyards are situated on the southern coast of the Crimea 

 in the shape of a narrow strip at the foot of the mountains, M. 

 Porchinsky thinks that the devastating insect will not cause 

 much destruction. But if it appeared on the Caucasus, especially 

 among the numberless wild vineyards of that country, it might 

 completely destroy the whole of the vines in the valleys of the 

 Rion and Kura rivers. 



Mr. F. W. Putnam has made a communication to the Essex 

 (U.S.) Institute of peculiar interest on " The Former Indians of 

 Southern California, as bearing on the origin of the Red Man in 

 America." He CiUed attention to the facts relating to the 

 antiquity of man on the Pacific coast, and to the importance of 

 the discovery in California of human remains and of the works 

 of man in the gravel, under beds of volcanic material, where 

 they were associated with the remains of extinct animals, and to 

 the necessity of looking to this early race for much that it seems 

 otherwise impossible to account. He thought that what is 

 called the "Eskimo element," in the physical characters and 

 arts of the southern Californians, was very likely due to the 

 impress from a primitive American stock, which is probably to 

 be found now in its purest continuation in the Innuit. In this 

 connection he dwelt upon the probability of more than one type 

 of man. In following out this argument he called attention to 

 the distinctive characters in different tribes of Indians on the 

 Pacific coast, and stated his belief that they had resulted from 

 an admixture of the descendants of diflferent stocks. The 

 Californians of 300 years ago, he thought, were the result of 

 development by contact of tribe with tribe through an imjjense 

 period of time, and that the primitive race of America, which 



