242 



NA TURE 



[Jan. 29, 1874 



Hawksboume, lemur, and tibia with metatarsals and a distal 

 phalanx, and various other vertebra^ teeth and phalanges. The 

 jaw of a very young Megalosaurus which evidently perished 

 very shortly after its escape from the egg. The tibia, supposed 

 scapula, and various other bones and teeth of Megalosaurus, the 

 libs, veriebr^, and teeth of Hylaeosaurus. The j nv and other 

 remains of a young Su.hosaurus cultiidcns not long escaped 

 from the shell, and teeth of ^ucAffsaurus, a fine vertebrie of 

 Streptospondylian type found with the " Great Horsham 

 Iguanodon," and a femur of a young crocodile. The muzzle 

 and portions of jaws, teeth, vertebrae, scutes, and various other 

 bones of CoKioZ-hoIis crassiJais . This specimen shows the 

 succession of three teeth. This specimen was borrowed in I S42 

 by a well-known paleontologist for the purpose ol illustration 

 and description. Three artists were employed, who executed five 

 quarto plates of the various portions, but they have never ye: been 

 published. Seventeen specimens have not been returned. A 

 younger and very beautiful specimen of Gunu-'fhclij crassitiens in its 

 matrix of stone is missing from this collection. It was borrowed 

 shortly after the above specimen and lithographed at once. It has 

 tmfortunately made its escape from custody. It is clear from the 

 specimens shown that the armour of Goniopholis was far more 

 perfect than that of any other living or extinct crocodilian. The 

 toothed and imbricated scutes were in connection with others of 

 a hexagonal or pentagonal shape, which were suturally united. 

 The abdottiaal scutes oveilapped each other on one side. Be- 

 sides these there are several bones of Pterodactyl, the vertebr.\;, 

 ribs and teeth of Plesiosaurus, a fine jaw of a beaver, vario js pubic 

 and tympanic bones, and the pubic bone of a saurian described 

 by Dr. Mantell, bones of turtles and many other bones, toD 

 numerous to m.ention, and some of most gigantic size, and in a 

 wonderful state of preservation. This collection is the pro- 

 perty of Mr. Holaies, who is also the discoverer of them. 



Many of the bones are aliogether unknown, and tkeir 

 inspection may throw some lijht on the kind of animals to 

 which they belong. TiioM.vs \Vm. Cow.vx 



Horsham, Jan. 5 



Earthquake in Argyllshire 



I BEG to forward to you a letter from the principal light- 

 keeper at Dhu Hearlach Lighthouse, addressed to Mr. Cuning- 

 ham, Secretar)' to the Board of Northern Lighthouses. 



The Dhu Heartach is a trap rock about fifteen m.les to the 

 W.S.W. of lona, in Argyllshire, which is the nearest Imd. It 

 is 220 feet long and about 30 feet high, the tower, which is of 

 granite, being raised to the height of 130 feet above the sex 

 The rock is everywhere surrounded by deep water, and is of an 

 elliptical form. During the erection of the tower fourteen stones, 

 each of two tons, which had been fixed in the tower by joggles 

 and forlland cement at the level of 37 feet above high water, 

 were torn out and swept off the rock into deep water. 



Although the tower is much subject to impact from the waves, 

 in spite of its height above the sea, yet neither my brother 

 nor I have any doubt that the light-keepers are right in tracing 

 the shock to an earthquake. Perhaps some of your readers may 

 have experienced the shock in other places. 



Edmburgh, Jan. 16 Thomas 3t£V£nsos 



"Dhu Heartach Lighthouse, Jan. 7, 1S74 

 " Sir, — I beg leave to inform you of the following rare occur- 

 rence : — On the evening of the 6th icst. at 8.13 p.m. (local 

 time), Mr. Leiih and 1 were sitting in the kitchen, when we 

 heard a rambling noise, followed by a tremulous motion, which 

 lasted about two seconds. Oa going to the light-room, Mr. 

 McAllister (who was on watch at the time) states that the noise 

 resembled the booming of a cannon, and the tremulous motion 

 was very apparent. A fresh gale from W.S.W. was blowing at 

 the time, but there was no sea striking the rock to cause the 

 concussion ; in fact there was less sea than had been for some 

 days previous. \\Titn a heavy sea strikes the tower, it has quite 

 a different effect, and cannot be mUtaken for anything ebe. 

 There was neither thunder nor lightning at the time ; barometer 

 steady at icf'ijii ; thermometer 46' ; weather hazy. 



" I can offer no suggestion as to the cause, unless it proceeded 

 from a slight shock of earthquake : the rumbling noise and 

 tremulous motion indicated such. One thing we are all con- 

 fident of, it was not from a sea striking the rock. I have no 

 wish to be at all sensational, but I have thought it right to send 

 you the above details, as ihe same may have been felt in other 

 parts of the country, and this may tend to corroborate it 



(Signed) "James EwisG 



"To the Secretary, Northern Lighthouse Office, Edinburgh." 



Telegraphing Extraordinary 



There appears to have been a misprint in your article " Tele- 

 graphing Extraordinarj' (Jan. 15). 



It is there stated that the speed of the automatic instrument is 

 but 200 letters a minute. This speed can be reached by /land- 

 signalling, a ver}' usual speed being 1 70 letters ; and perhaps the 

 writer intended to say that 200 letters, or 40 words, was the ut- 

 most Umit of ««-.iutomatic service, which would be correc:. 



Post Office, Jan. 10 R. S. CuLLF.Y 



[In contrasting the work obtained cut of the Vi'heatstone 

 " high speed " automatic service in use by the General Post 

 Office in this country with that of the new American instrument, 

 by a slip of the pen the word "letters" was substituted for 

 " words ; " but in giving 200 words as the speed over a circuit of 

 similar length to that between Washington and New York, a 

 maximum under most favourable circumstaaces of insulation of 

 the wires was recordel. 



Pr.ictically the average working speed obtained on a circuit of 

 from 300 to 400 miles in length, by the Wheatstone, does not 

 exceed 90 words or about 450 letters per minute, and with the 

 Morse about ::5 words, or 130 letters. On circuits between 203 

 and 300 miles jhe Whea'.stone Automatic Service may be con- 

 sidered praciicaliy to average 120 words, or about 600 letters per 

 minute. The American instrument transmits from 1,200 to 

 2,500 words a minute over a 300 mile circuit. — Ed.] 



Echo at Maidenhead 



There is a railway-bridge over the Thames at Maidenhead 

 which is said to be of a wider span than any other in England. 

 While standing beneath this arch, we hear the echo of a sound re- 

 peated fourteen or fifteen times with tolerable distinctness. From 

 the first to the fourteenth echo occupies about five seconds. The 

 sounds become, of course, less and less loud, but, at the same 

 time, tiiefi.'ch of the note is raised, and has at list risen three 

 quarters of a tone as indicated by a delicate instrument which 

 gives quarter-tones. As I have not seea a similar fact noticed 

 in any work on Sound, I shall be glad if any of yoar readers 

 can give an explanation. 



I may add, that this echo repeats distinctly the souad of the 

 letters, which is not usually the case. J. P. 



Eelmoat, Dartmouth 



Flight of Birds 



DCJRING the hurricane of October 6, 1S73, I was residing on 

 the west shore of Biscayne Bay, South Florida. In the early 

 part of the gale, and while it was approaching its height, I 

 noticed overhead innumerable "man-of-war hawks." They 

 seemed to be "laying-to" (to use a nautical phrase), with but 

 little motion of their wings ; their heads were towards the wind, 

 but instead of moving bickwards they seemed to drift off in a 

 line calculated to take them directly away from the storm- 

 centre. 



A short time ago I communicated these facts to the secretary 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, who immediately informed me 

 that what I had observed was new to him, and probably to the 

 scientific world, and he advised me to send a copy of my letter 

 to you. The learned secretary also wrote a flattering approval 

 of my suggestion that the behaviour of the birds under conside- 

 ration might be explained on the theory of "natural selection." 

 I have forgotten the exact wording of my letter, but the idea em- 

 bodied in it was that during a cjclone the " man-of-war hawk " 

 piofit5 by the experience of its ancestors, an experieace which 

 has become organised in the race, and which enables them to 

 make the best possible adjustment to the circumstances which 

 surround them. 



Kasson, Minn., Dec. 2S, 1S73 IIoR.\CE B. Porter 



Vivisection 



Assuredly " the worthy and humane Huxley" stands in no 

 pressing need of the testimonial of Mr. G. W. Cooke (Nature, 

 vol. ix. p. 202) to his worth and humanity. (By the way, I 

 thought at first that the gratuity came from the generosity of 

 Mr. E. W. Cooke, whose amusing vivisections, in his "Gro- 

 tesque Animals,"' could offend nobody.) Still less does the 

 practice of vivisection stand in need of such encouragement as 

 is given to it in the leading article in NATltRE, vol ix. p. 177. 

 With such a champion as Mr. Ray Lankester, there is n 



