September 24, 1908] 



NA TURE 



509 



How happy should I be if the news were conveyed to 

 me, that the' man who is the ringleader of this diabolical 

 scheme had himself fallen beneath the vengeance of a lion 

 or a crocodile. 



Even if there were sufficient proof that the sleeping 

 sickness is propagated by the large mammals and reptiles, 

 there are many other means of checking it besides the 

 extermination of these animals. The increase of various 

 birds should be encouraged which devour the flies which 

 propagate the disease,, and every other means should bi- 

 taken of a reasonable character. 



Although I recognise the undisputed fact that the wild 

 species of .Africa must be kept in due bounds in the more 

 thickly populated districts, I am convinced that every State 

 of that vast continent, should never cease to preserve a 

 sufficient number of all the indigenous local species, and 

 that in the near vicinity of all the principal towns national 

 parks should be established for the preservation of these 

 wonderful forms of life ; so that future generations may not 

 be deprived of the pleasure of beholding them. 



R.ALPH DE TUNST.4LL SnEVD. 



Fairvicw, Leek, Staffs, September 8. 



Instincts that are not Inherited Memories. 



If, as is not improbable, the presidential address to the 

 British Association has the effect of reviving the dying 

 embers of the use-inheritance discussion, it may not be 

 out of place at this juncture to direct attention again to 

 the fact that it is impossible to regard some of the 

 instincts of insects as inherited memories. 



Not only do the instincts of the neuters among the 

 social Hymenoptera stand like a " lion in the path," but 

 there are the less prominent but equally important section 

 of instincts connected with oviposition, where, as in the 

 case of some spiders, the female protects her eggs after 

 deposition, with no possibility of the action being trans- 

 mitted to the offspring so protected. 



A bug, Tectocoris liiicola, var. bnnksi (Don.), is re- 

 corded by Mr. Frederick F. Dodd (Transactions of the 

 Entomological Society, 1904, pp. 483-5) as protecting its 

 egg patch, laid on twigs of its food plant, by standing over 

 them for a period of three weeks. 



Females of some species of Psychid moths block the 

 entrance of the larval case, which serves both as a 

 puparium and place to deposit the eggs, with their bodies 

 after depositing their ova.' Various species of Hymeno- 

 ptera carefully block the entrance to the burrows where 

 their eggs are laid, &c. A. Bacot. 



154 Lower Clapton Road, N.E., September 8. 



Meteors and the Comet. 



September 13, Sh. 32m., mag. i, rapid, streak, 

 343° + 26° to 332i°-l-i2°. Radiant, 7i°-|-S2°. 



September 14, gh. iqm., mag. i, slowish, yellow, 

 336° + 38° to 33oi-l-48''- Radiant, 343°+24° or 347°+ 15°- 



On September 14, at q p.m., the comet was seen at 

 Bristol in a 2-inch field-glass just north of 50 Cassiopeite 

 as a misty patch, perhaps about equivalent to an eighth- 

 magnitude star. W. F. Denning. 



Bristol. 



Meteors. 



The observation of meteors forms one of the most 

 attractive branches of astronomy. No instruments are 

 needed. The observer only requires patience, a pretty 

 good eye. and experience, which, of course, must be 

 learned. 



Meteors fall on every night of the year. The skv may 

 be lit with the moon, it may be murky, it may be cloudy, 

 but still there are the meteors going on unceasingly. For 

 every one seen bv human eyes there are no doubt 

 thousands, probably tens of thousands, unseen. Yet this 

 branch, involving as it does star-gazing pure and simple, 

 is a most attractive one, and in the bright years of the 

 future it will no doubt occupy a very prominent place. 



Bristol. ■ W. F. Denning. 



I "Brit. Lepidortera," Tutr, vol ii., p. 367. 

 NO. 2030, VOL. 78] 



SURVEYING FOR ARCH.^OLOGISTS.' 



III. 



Insininicnts for the Measurement of Magnetic 

 Azimuth alone. 



THE most inefficient instrument to employ in 

 measuring magnetic bearings is tlie ordinary 

 mariner's compass, sliowing the compass points only. 



Fig. 7. — The " points " of the iT.ariner's compass. 



But there are now mariner's compasses available in 

 which the bearings are stated in degrees, and in 

 manv ways, the degrees running from N. and S. to E. 

 and W., and so on. The best form of card, however, 

 is represented in Fig. 8, in which the degrees run 

 from N. througli E., S., W. to N. again. 



lUikilili 



Fig. S.— Compass with the circle of the horizon divided into 360 degrees, 

 the N. point being o'. 



The magnetic bearings thus obtained should at once 

 be changed into true bearings ; this can be done ap- 

 pioximatelv by reference to the appended maps, which 

 bring together the recent results obtained by the .Ad- 



I Continued from p. 445. 



