Jan. I, 1 8 74 J 



NATURE 



171 



Africa, including the Ashantecs, with whom this country is at 

 war, all objects relating to the Ashantees, Fantees, Dahomeys, 

 Hcussas, and the neighbouring tribes are especially desired. 

 The Indian Empire, the Eastern Archipelago, and the islands of 

 the southern hemisphere, are also able to afibrd abundant and 

 valuable materials for the proposed museum, of which it is be- 

 lieved that the nucleus can be forir.ed at once from materials in 

 private collections. Her Majesty's Commissioners coniidently 

 appeal to the civil, military, and naval officers of the British ser- 

 vice throughout the Queen's dominions to assist them in these 

 collections. Her Majesty's Commissioners have secured the 

 crvices of emintnt gentlemen to advise them from time to time 

 in giving effect to these intentions. It is requested that offers of 

 gifts and loans of objects should be made known at once to the 

 Secretary of Her Majesty's Commissioners, Upper Kensington 

 Gore, London, S. W. 



In reference to recent communications on the rate of stalag- 

 mitic deposit, Mr. Thomas K. Callard writes to say that 

 he thinks the probability is that the rate of deposit in 

 Kent's Cavern was not uniform, "for, when the thick 

 forest (the habitat of the animals whose bones are found 

 ill the cave) left an accumulation of decayed vegetation on the 

 fi>il, we had the natural laboratory where the rain would find 

 the carbonic acid, to act as a solvent upon the calcareous earth, 

 and as this acidulous liquid percolated through the soil and 

 dripped into the cave, we have the origin of the stalagmite ; but 

 as, by the axe of man, the forest decreased, in that proportion 

 the chemicals lessened, and as a consequence the deposit dimi- 

 nished. Besides the diminution of the solvent, every year that 

 the operation was going on the material that composed the 

 stalagmite must have been decreasing in the superjacent soil, so 

 that the bicarbonate of lime which now takes two centuries to 

 cover one-eighth of an inch, might have been, in days gone by, 

 the work of much shorter time." Mr. W. Bruce Clarke 

 writes that he visited, about ten years ago, a cavern near 

 Buxton, commonly known as " Poole's Hole," and observed some 

 stalagmite, probably ° in. iii^ the back, had become depo- 

 sited upon the gas-pipes, which were used to light the cave, 

 and had been laid down six months before. At this rate 

 granting that the deposit had been six months in acquiring 

 a thickness of ^-in., 1 in. would be deposited in four years, a 

 rate of deposit evtn more rapid than that (viz. 4 in. in fifteen 

 years) mentioned by Mr. Curry in the number of N.\ture for 

 December 18. It must be remembered, however, that though 

 at one particular spot in "Poole's Hole," I in. of stalagmite 

 might be deposited in four years, the same rate would probably 

 not be maintained all over the cave. 



The Sub-Wealden Exploration has proved farmore expensive 

 than was at first anticipated, and additional funds will be required 

 to complete the desired depth of 1,000 ft. -\ third sum of 1,000/. 

 has now been promised, and this will form the basis for future 

 operations. This amount includes 200 /. from the Duke of Devon- 

 shire, 100/. from Lord Leconfield, y>L from the Earl of Ash- 

 burnham, 50/. from the Royal Society, and 25/. from the Duke 

 of Norfolk. These sums will be collected as the work proceeds, 

 and additional contributions are solicited. The importance 

 attributed to the enierprise by Professor Phillips in the Geolo- 

 gical Section, during the last meeting of the British Association 

 at Bradford, is an additional proof, if any were needed, of the 

 expediency of completing the ir.vcstigatioi;. 



Pkof. Owen, who is sufi'ering from a troublesome bronchial 

 affection, is spendir.g the winter in Egypt. 



Mr. J. Alles', of Clifton College, has been elected to the 

 Natural Science Exhibiiion at St. John's College, Cambridge 

 (50/ per ainurm tenable for three years). The examiners reported 

 that the merits of Mr. Lodge were veiy nearly equal to those of 

 the successful candidate. There were ten candidates. 



The Caspian Sea is extremely rich in various species of fish, 

 many of these occurring in prodigious numbers. Indeed, ac- 

 cording to Alexander SchuUz, the yield is very much greater 

 than that of the Great Bank of Newfoundland. Thus in one 

 single district 15,000 sturgeon arc frequently taken in a day, and 

 when the fishing is interrupted for twenty-four hours the waters 

 become almost choked by the abundance of fish, which are so 

 numerous as to press each other cut upon the shore. The total 

 yield of the Caspian Sea for one year in fish and fish products 

 has been estimated at 13,000,000 ^oudi (about 469,430,000 

 pounds avoirdupois), worth about 12,000,000 dols. There are 

 several varieties of sturgeon among the fish taken, including the 

 sterlet, as well as the carp and other cyprinoids, the salmon, 

 the Coregonus (similar to the white-fish of the American lakes), 

 several kinds of herring, &c. A peculiar phenomenon observed 

 especially among the sturgeon is that of a kind of winter sleep. 

 At the approach of cold weather they seek the deep portion of 

 the rivers, and remain there in a state of torpor, during which 

 they secrete a viscid matter which forms a coating over the 

 entire body, called by the fishermen a felisse. During this 

 period they appear to eat nothing, their stomachs always being 

 found entirely empty. 



Mr. Dall, of whose movements as a surveyor and explorer 

 in the Aleutian Islands in behalf of the Coast Surv'ey we have 

 advised our readers from time to time, returned on the Slh Nov. 

 to San Francisco, where he will spend the winter in preparing 

 his report to Prof. Peirce. Part of his labours had special 

 reference to the selection of a suitable locality for an inter- 

 mediate land station for the proposed Pacific cable between 

 the United States and Japan, Mr. Dall expects to return in the 

 spring to finish his explorations on the islands. 



Among recent discoveries of valuable minerals in Australia 

 is that of iron in the form of magnetic iron, and brown hema- 

 tite at Wallerawang, Victoria, in close proximity to limestone, 

 fire- clay, coal, and a railway station. 



xThe Italian Scientific Commission, appointed to exa- 

 min^Vsfrom-Nan anthropological point of view, the remains 

 of the Itajlan poet Petrarch, and to publish the result 

 of its observations at the centenai'y cf the great poet, fro- 

 ceeded, we learn from La Nature, in the beginning of December 

 to open the urn of red granite, amid a large gathering of people. 

 Tlie bones, instead of being contained in 3 coflin of wood or 

 metal, were spread upon a simple plank, and were of an amber 

 colour, moist, and partly mouldered. The cranium, of medium 

 size, was intact, the frontal bone much developed. The jaws 

 still contained many teeth, among which were a number of molars 

 and incisors very well preserved. The orbits were very large. 

 Nearly all the vertebrce and ribs were found. The bones of the 

 pelvis were in good condition, as also the scapula, the humerus, 

 and the other bones of the arms ; the apophyses of the femurs 

 were very prominent. There was discovered also a quantity of 

 small bones which probably composed the hands and the fee^ 

 The vestments were reduced to a dark powder. From the size 

 and length of the bones, we may conclude that Petrarch was a 

 man of nriddle height and robust constitution. 



At one of the last siiiings of the French Academy of Medi- 

 cine, says La Naiitre, M. Devergie read a remarkable report on 

 the prize of the Marquis d'Ourcl es, a prize of 25,000 francs, to 

 be given to the man who should discover an infallible method of 

 recognising certain death. Tlie method must be so simple as to 

 be at the command of the most illiterate and rude. Besides this 

 p:ize, the testator instituted another of 5,coo francs for the dis- 

 covery of a scientific method of arriving at the same result. The 

 value of the prize of 25,000 francs has tempted people of all 

 classes and all conditions ; thus the Academy has received 102 

 memoirs, not counting those which arrived after the expiration 



