370 



NATURE 



{Feb. 17, 1 88 1 



the evening, and the other at three o'clock on the morning of the 

 following day. 



Shocks of earthquake were noticed at Baraccone, Italy, on 

 January 31, at S.30 p.m. ; at Kiume, Hungary, on the night of 

 January 3-4, at 2.26, direction, north-east to ?outh-west, 

 duration, two to tliree seconds ; in Upper Italy, e.g. at Ancona, 

 on the night of January 3-4. 



The incredulity with which the news about an earthquake at 

 St. Petersburg was met in some quarters, when M. Wagner 

 described it some years ago in consequence of quite unusual 

 oscillations of the level of his transit-instrument at Pulkova, 

 seems to be unfounded. We learn from Russian papers that on 

 January 26, at 2.15 p.m., an earthquake was felt at Narva and 

 at the KorfT railway station, as well as on the estates of Lagen 

 and Repnik, seven and eight miles distant from Narva. At all 

 these places it was accompanied with a subterranean noise. 



At the Observatory of Pawlowsk, Russia, extraordinary mag- 

 netic perturbations (variations 2°) were noticed on the evening 

 of January 31. On the same evening an auroral display was 

 visible indifferent parts of the Russian Empire, e.g. in Western 

 Siberia, at Ekaterineburg and Irbit (Ural), at Baltishport, and 

 at Hasenpoth. 



On Saturday evening last the President of the French Republic, 

 accompanied by all the members of the Government, visited the 

 Paris Bourse in order to witness 'some experiments with Mr. 

 Graham Bell's photophone. M. Antoine Breguet began by ex- 

 plaining the principles of the wonderful invention, after which 

 experiments were made over a distance of fifty metres, by means 

 of an electric light produced by a Gramme machine and a Serrin 

 lamp. 



M. BoGDANOFF, who took part in the Russian North Sea 

 Expedition sent out_ during last summer, communicated, at the 

 general meeting of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, 

 his observations on the influence of whaling on the fishing on the 

 Normannic coast, which illustrates very well the complicated 

 chain which exists in the animal world. The whale used to 

 be very important to the fisheries, as during the spring it 

 drove to the coast immense shoals of small fishes. Now, 

 whaling being pursued by means of steamers which use a bullet 

 instead of the old harpoon, and the annual number of whales 

 killed being, during the last seventeen years, from 50 to 143, 

 the amount of small fishes coming to the coast has much 

 diminished. Besides, the great quantities of fat which are 

 thrown into the sea at Varanger attract sharks, and these last 

 destroy cod-fish, so that now the cod-fishing is nearly extinct in 

 the western parts of the Varanger fjord region. 



Mr. Wallace in his "Island Life," pp. 495, 496, has dis- 

 cussed the apparent inability of Australian plants to become 

 naturalised in the northern hemisphere. The gist of his ex- 

 planation is the want of elasticity in their constitution, owing to 

 their long-continued insular and uniform conditions of existence. 

 The accompanying extract from the Report of the Government 

 Gardens at Rangoon for 1880 points to the incapacity of even 

 the vegetation of Tropical Australia to stand really humid 

 climatic conditions: — "The Australian Eucalypti grew well 

 during the dry weather, and some of them were four feet in 

 height when the monsoon commenced ; they then damped off" 

 one after another, as did also the Australian ."Acacias and the 

 Queensland Ficus. The Moreton Bay Chestnut is not flourish- 

 ing. From the above it will, I think, be evident that plants of 

 Tropical Australia will not readily accommodate themselves to 

 this very moist climate." It may be added that the result of 

 attempting to grow species of Eucalyptus from all parts of 



Australia in the West African Settlements has uniformly failed, 

 and apparently from the same cause. 



Some experiments have been made at the Ca vnpore Experi- 

 mental Farm during 1879-80 on the cultivation of imported 

 English and American wheats and barleys. The result seems 

 to point to the conclusion that the time available for the growth 

 of cereals in India is too short to allow of English and American 

 varieties being grown with success unless possibly the seed is sown 

 in September and runs a risk of being damaged by excessive heat. 

 Experimental sowings w ere made of three kinds of English and 

 three kindsof American wheat, as well as of three kinds of barley. 

 All nine sowings were complete failures. The seeds in most 

 cases germinated freely, and the plants spread out into stools in 

 a manner very different to the habit of country wheal. But all 

 crops grew extremely slowly, and were still green when native 

 w'heat had finished ripening. In consequence the hot winds of 

 March completely shrivelled up whatever grain had been formed, 

 and no crop worth the name was gathered. 



The Manchester Field Naturalists' Society has recently 

 attained its majority, and the event has been marked by a social 

 meeting of past and present members in honour of the founder, 

 Mr. Leo Grindon, author of " Manchester Walks and Wild 

 Flowers," &c. In 1S60 Mr. Grindon gathered around him a 

 company of friends wi-hful to make some acquaintance with 

 nature, and fortnightly summer excursions were established 

 under his pleasant guidance. A prominent feature of the 

 Society's proceedings has been the winter soirees. Now that 

 the possibility of establishing a successful society, whose aspira- 

 tions may be thought by some incompatible with commercial 

 pursuits, has been demonstrated, the executive will do wisely to 

 thoughtfully extend their operations in the direction of the 

 Society's aims. Some attention has been paid to such practical 

 matters as tree-planting in towns and window-gardening, and the 

 discussion of such questions will tend to give a firmer hold upon 

 public favour. Lancashire contains an unusual number of field, 

 clubs, some of which have been inspired by this Society, whilst 

 others were earlier in existence. In one of his letters the late Mr 

 Carlyle laments that "for many years it has been one of my 

 constant regrets that no schoolmaster of mine had a knowledge 

 of natural history, so far at least as to have taught me the 

 grasses that grow by the wayside, and the little winged and 

 wingless neighbours that are continually meeting me with a 

 salutation which I cannot answer." Had he been a native of 

 Lancashire he %vould have found many instructors willing to read 

 him the lessons of the wayside. 



On the 9th inst. the Dundee Naturalists' Society held their 

 sixth annual conz'ersnziom, which seems to have been quite suc- 

 cessful. AH sorts of scientific materiel were exhibited, and 

 among other lectures given was one by Dr. Mcintosh of Murthly 

 on .Sponges. This society is evidently in a flourishing condition, 

 and is no doubt doing something to create an interest in science 

 in the important seaport in w-hich it is located. 



Mr. Quaritch has just issued the second part of his new 

 Catalogue of Works on Natural History. It seems to contain a 

 large number of very scarce and valuable works. 



A few months ago three large blocks of petrified wood were 

 found in the Devonian bed at Dbppersberg, Germany. They 

 were recognised by Prof. Gbppert of Breslau as belonging to 

 a fossil Araucaria, named by him Araucarites Elherfeldensis 

 (Doppers). 



The Baltic Centralverein fiir Thierzucht und Thierschutz 

 will hold its third exhibition of domestic birds on March 11-13 

 at Greifswald. In addition the exhibition will include living 

 and dead freshwater and marine fish, fish embryos, &c., and all 

 apparatus pertaining to pisciculture and fishing. 



