August 20, 1885] 
uncoloured. This map will be-issued in two editions within a few 
months. The first edition will be coloured in accordance with 
the scheme previously adopted and published by the Survey. It 
will form one of the plates of the Fifth Annual Report of the 
Survey, and a brief explanatory statement will accompanyit. A 
second edition, with complete explanatory text, will be issued as 
a bulletin. In this edition the map will be printed in duplicate, 
one copy coloured in accordance with the published scheme, the 
other with a scheme now under consideration. 
Ir is reported from America that Cotopaxi in Ecuador began 
a serious eruption before daylight on July 23. Streams of lava, 
with ashes and stones, overwhelmed part of Chimbo, situated 
near Cotopaxi, and one hundred houses were destroyed. Reports 
from Guayaquil state that the eruption began at 1 a.m., sounding 
like incessant discharges of heavy artillery, shaking the earth 
and rattling windows and doors. At times there was a con- 
tinuous roar. Guayaquil is 130 miles from Cotopaxi. 
ACCORDING to atelegram from St. Petersburg to Scandinavian 
at Tashkend and Wernoje in Russia. In Pishek every house 
suffered, and the new settlements Sukuluk and Belowodsk were 
destroyed. In the latter place the church fell in. It is stated 
that fifty-four persons were killed and sixty injured. The 
shocks continued to be felt several days, and there are great 
fissures in the earth. 
ACCORDING to a telegram from Simla, shocks of earthquake 
are again being felt in Cashmere. 
THE Anthropological Congress which is shortly to be held at 
Rome will have a curious feature in a collection of seven | 
hundred skulls of criminals, numbered and classified. To these 
will be added the photographs of 3000 and the brains of more 
than 150 convicts, thousands of autographs, poems, sketches, 
and special instruments, the work of criminals, an album con- 
taining a record of 700 observations, physical and moral, on 500 
criminals and on 300 ordinary men. There will also be 
graphic maps of crime in Europe with reference to meteorology, 
food, institutions, suicide, &c.; tables of the stature of criminals in 
relation to the length of the arms, and of crime in towns com- 
pared to that in the country. M. Bertillon will exhibit the 
graphic curves of 23,000 vec#d/vistes examined in twelve parts of 
the body and the practical results obtained. Photographs of 
NATURE 375 
EE EE SS ee 
state that the catfish is an unmolesting animal and does not 
exclusively prefer live food to other kinds. The professor con- 
siders much advantage would accrue from their acclimatisation 
in our waters. The Association referred to has carefully noted 
their proclivities in the ponds where they are now located and 
experimented upon their food and at present cannot disprove 
Prof. Baird’s assertion. 
Pror. S. NEwcoms, of Washington, is at present visiting 
Stockholm, as the guest of Prof. Hugo Gylden, Astronomer 
Royal of Sweden. Prof. Newcomb proceeds to Pulkowa in 
order to visit the Imperial Observatory. 
Ar about midnight on July 29 a remarkable phenomenon was 
seen at Jénképing (Sweden), over lake Wettern. A strong 
luminosity was suddenly seen in the north, where some very 
peculiar clouds—looking like icebergs—were seen almost to 
touch the water. From these clouds electrical discharges con- 
tinually proceeded, imparting to them a bluish, phosphorescent 
A _ light, somewhat ruddy near the; water and intensely yellow at 
journals, dated August 4, severe earthquakes have taken place | 
their sides. It seemed like a constant discharge of fireworks 
from the lake. It was remarkable that the light—as is generally 
the case with an electrical discharge in the atmosphere—did not 
assume the form of bunches of streamers, but at one time flared 
up intensely and at others formed narrow bands across the 
clouds. Above the latter there was a faint bluish reflection. 
The lake lay as calm as a mirror, and though an optical illusion 
was uncommon in these parts, the western shore seemed close to 
the town, while the eastern disappeared in the clouds. Except 
the electricity-laden clouds in the north the sky was clear, stars 
shone, and the full moon was bright. Below the latter the sky 
seemed faintly red, compared with the intense electric light. 
At Katrineholm the same phenomenon was seen in the north- 
| east. Here an intense glare was seen above a cloud, assuming 
the appearance of two gigantic lustrous trees, which remained 
thus for half an hour, when it changed into a variety of forms. 
| There was no noise accompanying the phenomenon, which 
‘lasted in both places for about one hour. 
Russian political and other criminals, especially of those from | 
Moscow, and wax masks of a large number of celebrated 
criminals, will also be exhibited. All the notabilities in the 
science of criminal anthropology will take part in the Congress. 
Tue death is announced from Copenhagen of the eminent 
Danish archeologist, Prof. Worsaae. 
A SUPPLEMENT to the London Gazette of August 12 gives a 
list of Jury Awards to the exhibitors at the International Inven- 
tions Exhibition. 
THERE are now to be seen at the Inventions Exhi- 
bition Aquarium some specimens of the black bass, in- 
digenous to the principal rivers and lakes of Canada and 
the United States of America, where they are found in 
abundance. 
of our country, and the manner in which they have become 
naturalised to their sphere of existence at the aquarium referred 
to is certainly remarkable. Their introduction to the waters 
of this country is extremely undesirable on account of their 
voracity, but they provide excellent sport to the angler. 
In regard to the introduction of the catfish to English waters 
by the National Fish Culture Association, which is discouraged 
on account of the voracity of this. species, Prof. Baird, the 
United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, writes to 
Tt is not probable 
that the phenomenon could have been of auroral nature on 
account of the brightness under a full moon. 
M. CAMBRELENT, Inspector of Public Works, has made a 
report to the Agricultural Society of France on the subject of 
the dunes in the /avdes of Gascony. These sand-hills cover a 
surface of more than 85,000 hectares ; they are more than So 
metres high and 5 to 6 kilometres wide. Before a method of 
arresting these was discovered they were being constantly pushed 
inland by the winds, invading and covering fields, villages, and 
even burying churches up to their towers. In 1780 Brémontier 
_ sought to render them immoyable by planting them, after many 
This species is very difficult to rear in the waters | 
experiments designed to develop a primary vegetation. His 
work has been continued with perseverance, and it is only re- 
cently that it has been completed, and these 85,000 hectares, 
which menaced all the country adjoining, have become covered 
with a rich forest vegetation which has fixed the dunes in one 
place. A great public danger has been converted into a large 
forest. But this work, which renders permanent, dunes already 
existing, has not prevented the sea from throwing up on the coast 
new sand day by day, which forms dunes, which in their turn 
invade the permanent dunes. After having fixed the old sand- 
hills, the problem was to prevent the formation of new ones. 
To solve this it was decided to construct a dune above high 
water, in which all the conditions of the movable dunes would 
be reversed. The form given to the latter by the wind is such 
that on the side of the sea they present a gentle slope, which 
the sand can mount easily as on an inclined plane, in order 
to fall down a steep decline. It is by the gentle slopes 
forming a series of inclined planes that the sand moves forward. 
The formation of the new dune was encouraged, but it was 
