August 6, 1885 | 
NATURE 329 
mile in a minute, crossing twice over the Delaware River, which 
is crescent-shaped. Five lives haye been lost, six persons are 
missing, and about roo injured. The damage done is estimated 
at half a million of dollars. Six hundred buildings were 
unroofed and the walls partly destroyed, railway cars blown from 
their tracks, trees uprooted, and several vessels wrecked. Two 
steamboats on the river had their upper works lifted off and 
destroyed, the pilot of one being drowned, while from the deck 
of another horses and a waggon were lifted by the wind and 
dropped into the river. 
THE Government Astronomer of Hong Kong has published a 
notice with regard to typhoons, from which it appears that the 
earliest signs of these phenomena in the China seas are clouds 
of the cirrus type looking like fine hair, feathers, or small white 
tufts of wool travelling from east to north, a slight rise in the 
barometer, clear and dry but hot weather, and light winds. 
These are followed by a falling barometer, while the tempera- 
ture rises still further. The air becomes oppressive from in- 
creasing dampness, and the sky presents a vaporous and threat- 
ening appearance. A swell in the sea, and also phosphorescence 
of the water, as well as glorious sunsets, are other signs useful 
to the mariner who is acquainted with the usual conditions in 
the locality. When the typhoon is approaching the sky becomes 
overcast, the temperature in consequence decreases, the damp- 
hess increases, and the barometer falls more rapidly, while the 
wind increases in force. Nearer the centre the wind blows so 
that no canvas can withstand it, and the rain pours down in 
torrents, but there is no thunder and lightning. Still nearer the 
centre there is less wind and rain, and the sky is partly clear, 
but the sea is tremendous. This is therefore the most dangerous 
position. Typhoons may be encountered in any season of the 
year, but are most frequent in August and September. They 
appear to originate south-east of the Philippine Islands. In 
August and September they frequently pass east of Formosa, or 
travel towards north-west up through the Formosa Channel, or 
strike the coast of China. Afterwards they usually recurve towards 
north-east and pass over Japan or across the sea north of Japan, 
but not with the violence that is characteristic of tropical storms. 
During the remainder of the year they most frequently cross the 
China Sea from east to west. 
A TELEGRAM from St. Petersburg, dated August 3, states that 
despatches from Tashkend and Verny announce that there has 
been a severe earthquake at Pishpek (? Bish-uzek), damaging all 
the houses at that place. The shock extended to the settlements 
of Sukuluk and Belovodsk, which were laid in ruins. At Belo- 
vodsk a church fell in, many of the congregation assembled in it 
at the time being killed. Numerous fissures appeared in the 
ground. A later telegram from Verny reports that altogether 
fifty-four people were killed and sixty-four injured by the earth- 
quake at Belovodsk and Karabolty. The shocks continue and 
the people are terror-stricken. 
A TELEGRAM from Malaga states that a shock of earthquake 
occurred at Motril on the afternoon of July 30. 
THE Zimes states that much uneasiness is being caused by the 
continued absence of tidings asto Mr. F. A. Gower, who lately 
carried on a series of experiments with a view to testing the 
adaptability of balloons to war purposes. Mr. Gower, who is 
well known to the scientific world as a joint patentee of the 
famous Gower-Bell telephone, had made Hythe the centre of 
his operations, and thence made several ascents. His final un- 
dertaking in this country was a successful aérial voyage across 
the Channel early in June. He continued his trial trips in 
France, and met with a misadventure while awaiting an oppor- 
tunity of returning in a balloon to England. Undeterred 
by this, he made an ascent on July 18 from Cherbourg, 
and since that date nothing definite is known of his 
whereabouts. A pilot balloon which he had previously 
despatched has been found and sent on to Hythe ; 
and a balloon has been picked up without a car some 
thirty miles off Dieppe. Sixteen days haying now elapsed 
since the ascent and no message having ‘been received from Mr. 
Gower, whose invariable practice it was at once to notify by 
wire his safety at either Cherbourg or Hythe, at both of which 
places he has left property, the gravest fears are entertained that 
he has been drowned. It may be mentioned that the experi- 
ments being carried on by Mr. Gower were.within the cognisance 
of the Government, and have so far, it is believed, proved of a 
very satisfactory character. 
ACCORDING to Science the daily papers announce that the U.S- 
commissioner of agriculture has established as a part of Riley’s 
division a branch of investigation relating 10 economic ornitho- 
logy, and has appointed Dr. C. Hart Merriam, a well-known 
ornithologist and secretary of the American Ornithologists’ 
Union, a special agent to take charge of this part of the work. 
Dr. Merriam will make his headquarters at Sing Sing, N.Y., 
until Oct. 1, and after that at Washington. The scope of the 
investigation will cover the entire field of inter-relation of birds 
and agriculture, particularly from the entomologist’s standpoint. 
The inquiry will relate primarily to the food and habits of birds, 
but will include also the collection of data bearing on the 
migration and geographical distribution of North American 
species. In this last inquiry the department hopes to have the 
co-operation of the Ornithologists’ Union, Dr. Merriam being at 
the head of the Union’s committee on migration. 
Dr. ELKIN, in charge of the heliometer of the Yale College 
observatory, has, Sczezce says, been engaged for nearly a year and 
a half past in measuring the group of the Pleiades, his original 
plan being to measure with this instrument the same stars which 
Bessel measured with the Konigsberg heliometer about fifty 
years ago. Dr. Elkin has taken advantage of all the improve- 
ments in the instrument and the methods of using it which have 
been developed in the last half-century ; and, in addition to the 
successful carrying-out of his carefully elaborated plan of trian- 
gulation, he has also been able to extend his work to a large 
number of stars which Bessel did not measure. The position- 
angle and distance of the Bessel stars from the large star Aleyone 
are included in the work. The results of this very valuable 
work cannot be fully discussed and prepared for publication 
until the positions of certain stars of reference have been obtained 
from the work of other observatories where they are now being 
determined. Dr. Elkin has also obtained measures of the dis- 
tances of a number of craters on the moon from neighbouring 
stars on thirty-six nights, near the times of first and last quarter. 
The positions of these craters on the moon itself had been deter- 
mined ; also series of measures made of the diameters of Venus, 
of the outer ring of Saturn, and of the satellite Titan referred to 
its primary. A registering micrometer has been devised, and, in 
the form constructed by the Repsolds, has proved a complete 
success, greatly increasing the amount of work which the observer 
can accomplish. Dr. Elkin proposes to devote the heliometer 
for a year and a half to come to investigations in stellar parallax. 
The plan of research mapped out and already commenced will, 
it is hoped, if carried to completion, furnish a reliable value of 
the relative parallax of stars of the first and eighth magnitude. 
Pror. A. LANDMARK, chief director of the Norwegian 
Fisheries, has published some interesting particulars of his 
studies of the capability of salmon to jump waterfalls. He is of 
opinion that the jump depends as much on the height of the fall 
as on the currents below it. If there be a deep pool right 
under the fall, where the water is comparatively quiet, a salmon 
