SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 342 



ous, apparently the. inverted shadows of cumuli upon a very remote 

 horizon. In this, on the contrary, the serrations are large, as if 

 caused by the intervention of cloud-masses upon a near horizon. 



It seems evident that the reflecting stratum of haze in these late 

 glows was very low down as compared with the Krakatoa haze. 

 The shadow of the horizon was projected upon a haze-canopy 

 quite close at hand. Hence also the early production of the pri- 

 mary glow, and the rapid following of the secondary. For the 

 same reason, the extent of lower atmosphere traversed by the sun's 

 rays during the repeated reflections was greatly reduced ; less of 

 red was consequently shown, the other colors being only partially 

 intercepted. Again, the twice reflected rays still retained force for 

 a slight but definite third reflection, in which a pure though faint 

 red appears. 



We have as yet no cable, though in strong hope of one soon. 

 No foreign mafl has reached us since the 6th instant. One is due 

 to-morrow, and we hope to hear of some adequate cause to which 

 this remarkable, phenomenon may be owing. 



Sereno E. Bishop. 



Honolulu, July 25. 



" Suggestion." 



A FEW evenings ago I went to a friend's house to hear the 

 phonograph. It was reproducing with fidelity the music of a band. 

 To promote the illusion, I closed my eyes. Presently an air was 

 played that sounded familiar, though I failed to recognize it. 

 Neither did I strive to, for my attention was concentrated on the 

 quality of the sound. As I listened, however, I became conscious 

 of a set of surroundings : a pair of eucalyptus trees opposite, a 

 large domed building to my left, a street of white flat-roofed 

 houses on which I looked down, even a familiar sign-board caught 

 my eye (the inscription ought to have been " Biblioteca Publica "), 

 the strains of the military band in the plaza coming through the 

 ■star-lit night. Involuntarily my eyes opened, and I caught my 

 breath at sight of the lamps and assembled company of a drawing- 

 room ; for I had been listening, from the azotea, or roof, of my 

 former residence in the little Mexican city, to a favorite danza air 

 played by the regimental band in the neighboring plaza. The 

 yhange was so very startling that it made my heart pump. I closed 

 my eyes, and though I did not again lose consciousness of where I 

 was, the Tepic picture materialized again as vividly, and with all 

 the detail that could have been present to the eye of sense. I re- 

 quested that the air (the danza) might be again put through the 

 instrument, and while it played, I still held the picture, and had 

 "wandered off into a brown study, a thousand Mexican images and 

 incidents rising of their own accord and passing before the imag- 

 ination. While this was going on, and without my becoming con- 

 scious of any change in the source of suggestion, the picture be- 

 -came blurred, faded, and indistinct, and the train or procession of 

 incidents broken and desultory. This led to my consciousness 

 that a different air — a German one — that I had never heard from 

 •a Mexican band, was now proceeding from the apparatus. W. 



San Francisco, Cal-, Aug. 10. 



gether so as to resemble small pledgets of cotton, others were long 

 streamers. After having made several inquiries as to their cause 

 but gaining no satisfaction, I sat about an investigation. I started 

 up a high hill from which all these webs seemed to have their 

 origin. During my ascent I noticed that my hat and clothing be- 

 gan to be covered with webs, and finally I discovered a small 

 spider spinning a web from my hat brim to the ground. When it 

 reached terra Jirma I sat down to watch it and to study its move- 

 ments. It immediately searched out a slender stalk of a weed and 

 made its way to the top. It remained there for a few moments 

 perfectly siill, as if it was taking observations. Then it began 

 spinning web, and by a peculiar motion of its legs it would roll or 

 gather the web in a mass, and when enough had been accumulated 

 in this manner to carry the little creature, it would let the flaky 

 mass flow out to the winds. When it had thus formed a little 

 parachute, or balloon, it would swing itself out in the air and sajl 

 in obedience to the winds. Continuing my journey up the hill I 

 noticed scores of these spiders rigging their aerial ships prepara- 

 tory to visiting some distant place. When near the top of the hill 

 I was surprised to see webs sailing hundreds of feet above the 

 summit. I turned my field glass in a direction toward the sun, 

 where I could best discern them, and as far as my aided eye could 

 reach I could still see them. They probably came from a great 

 distance, as they were five or six hundred feet above the crest of 

 the hill. When these little aeronauts came near the ground in 

 their travels, they would descend on a web and abandon their 

 balloon. I watched these spiders for hours, and none of them ever 

 made a mistake as to the quantity of the web that would carry 

 them. They could in this way travel hundreds of miles in a day. 



R. I. Bromley, M.D. 



Queries. 



47. What Birds are These? — (i) Head and back, black ; 

 breast and belly, rich reddish brown ; length, seven inches ; from 

 tip to tip of extended wings, ten inches ; sides of bill, slate ; legs, 

 black ; Insessorial ; bird seen in orchard. (2) Breast, yellow ; 

 back, yellowish olive-green ; throat of male, black ; male larger 

 than female ; bill, conical ; length, medium or rather long ; size of 

 bird described above or smaller ; song similar to bird described 

 above. Nests in orchard, top of tree ; nest composed of grass, not 

 placed in fork of branches, but suspended, — in which it deposits 

 three cream-colored eggs, black-blotched at the larger end ; food, 

 worms. (3) Breast of male, yellowish with black spot ; back, dark 

 brown and white ; striped or mottled ; bill rather large, short, 

 conical. Of two nests seen, one was in a meadow, about eight 

 inches from the ground, supported by the grass, and the other three 

 feet high, in a roadside hedge : both contained four blue green 

 eggs. Size of wood-pewee ; song, short ; seen in fields ; female 

 rather smaller and duller colored, and lacking the black spot on 

 breast. There is a yellowish stripe above the eye. L. W. N. 



Minute Aeronauts. 



During the year 1875, while engaged in some scientific investi- 

 gations in Contra Costa County, Cal., my attention was attracted 

 to the numerous webs floating in the air. Some were wound to- 



• Answers. 

 47. The first and second birds described are orchard orioles 

 {Icterus spurius), the brown and black one being an old male ; the 

 yellow olive one with black throat the male in its first year. The 

 last bird is the black-throated bunting or dichcissel {Spzza amerz- 

 cana. 



INDUSTRIAL NOTES. 



The Union Electric Car Company. 



Cars operated on the system controlled by the Union Electric 

 Car Company of Boston, Mass., will soon be running between the 

 towns of Beverly and Danvers, Mass. One of this company's cars 

 was run on the West End Railroad in Boston for eighteen months, 

 never failing to do what was expected of it. This company uses 

 dynamos and motors of the United States Electric Light Com- 

 pany's make, and intend to use either the storage, overhead, or 

 conduit system, or a combination of all three, as may be found ex- 

 pedient. One of the peculiar features of the Union company's 



system, for which they hold a patent, is the charging back, while 

 using a series motor, into the battery or line, while stopping the 

 car or holding it back in going down grade, the motor being con- 

 verted into a dynamo for the time, deriving its power from the mo- 

 mentum of the car. 



Another feature of ihis system, also patented, is the use of a pe- 

 culiarly formed cut gearing for transmitting motion from the motor 

 to the wheel-axle. The gearing is inclosed in a dust-proof case, 

 partly filled with oil, so that the gearing runs in an oil-bath, insur- 

 ing thorough lubrication and decreasing the friction and wear, of 

 the gear-teeth. The company claims that this one feature saves a 

 large percentage of power besides greatly increasing the life of the 

 gearing. 



