October ii, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



251 



These tales explained that the canal dug by the ancient Israelite 

 served to carry the surplus water of the Nile into an extensive lake 

 lying south of the Fayoum, and so large that it not only modified 

 the climate, tempering the arid winds of the desert, and converting 

 them into the balmy airs which nourished the vines and the olives 

 into a fulness and fragrance unknown in any part of the country, 

 but also added to the food-supply of the land such immense quan- 

 tities of fish that the royal prerogative of the right of piscary at the 

 great weir was valued at $250,000 annually. This lake was said to be 

 four hundred and fifty miles round, and to be navigated by a fleet 

 of vessels, while the whole circumference was the scene of industry 

 and prosperity. 



— A company is now putting down a shaft into Grand Avenue 

 Cave, four miles from Mammoth Cave, for the purpose of bring- 

 ing up the air and putting it into the rooms of a large hotel which 

 they propose to build, both as a pleasure-resort and sanitarium. 

 They have been able to get no information on the subject, and ask 

 for such in the " Want " column in this number. 



— The Shore Line Railway bridge at New London, the largest 

 swing-span drawbridge in the world, is now in position. It was 

 built parallel to the shore along the fender pier, so as not to ob- 

 struct navigation, and was swung into place half an hour before 

 sunset Saturday, Sept. 28. It is of solid steel, weighs nearly 

 2,500,000 pounds, and its connecting parts, when the bridge was 

 swung into position, shot into the mortises of the bridge proper 

 with absolute precision. This was a great relief for the anxious 

 engineers. Some of the highest engineering skill ever employed 

 in bridge-building has been used in the construction of this bridge, 

 the situation involving peculiar difficulties. In some places, says 

 The Iron Age, 56 feet of water and 80 feet of mud were found 

 where the piers must be set. There great timber curbs were con- 

 structed, and sunk to the total depth of 137 feet. After scooping 

 out the interior mud, the curbs were driven full of piles. These, 

 cut off at a level midway in the curbs, were bound solidly together 

 by filling the spaces with concrete. On this rock-like basis the 

 masonry of the pier was built up. The centre pier is an immense 

 structure 71 feet square. It is flanked on either side by spans of 

 310 feet, and there are two other spans at either side of the river 

 of 150 feet each. The unusual length of draw was required by the 

 United States Government, that there should be no obstruction to 

 the passage of the naval fleet to the Thames naval station farther 

 up the river. This great bridge, 1,422 feet long, crosses the Pe- 

 quot River (imitatively named by the first settlers the Thames, 

 while they quite as foolishly named Pequot New London) from a 

 point at the terminus of the Yale-Harvard regatta course at Win- 

 throp's Point, at the upper part of the town. 



— According to Nature, the International Oriental Congress, 

 which was held this year during the first and second weeks of last 

 month in Stockholm and Christiania, was well attended, and was 

 especially noticeable for the enlightened and warm interest taken 

 in the proceedings by the King. Representatives of Oriental 

 learning from the chief countries were his Majesty's personal 

 guests, the members of the congress present were on several oc- 

 casions specially entertained by him, and in other marked ways 

 the King showed his desire to honor science and learning in the 

 persons of the assembled Oriental scholars. The Times is the 

 only one of the English daily papers in which the proceedings have 

 been followed regularly ; and in the last letter on the subject, its 

 correspondent, who has been far from a prophet of smooth things 

 in reference to all the proceedings, says that " this eighth Interna- 

 tional Oriental Congress was favored above all its predecessors by 

 the right royal splendor with which the ruler of the two countries 

 entertained his guests, by the warm interest which the citizens 

 took in the foreign savants, by the care and kindly forethought 

 with which all the arrangements for our comfort had been planned 

 and were carried out, and last (not least) by the grand and lovely 

 natural features of the places which the members visited. Per- 

 haps at future congresses care will be taken that there be less of 

 empty Oriental parade, by which no palpable literary object can be 

 gained, and that greater facilities be given for placing without 

 delay within the reach of members an abstract of the proceedings 



in each section. However, in the face of such boundless hospi- 

 tality and such personal sacrifices on the part of our hosts, it would 

 be ungracious were we to take exception to what are, after all, but 

 small matters of detail." A large number of papers of great philo- 

 logical and general interest were read, as will be readily gathered 

 from the following list of the sections, with their respective presi- 

 dents and vice-presidents : — Section I. Modern Semitic : presi- 

 dents. Baron Kremer of Vienna, M. Schefer of Paris, M. de Goeje 

 of Leyden. Section II. Ancient Semitic : president, M. Fehr of 

 Stockholm ; vice-presidents, M. Chivolson of St. Petersburg, M. 

 Oppert of Paris. Section III.: presidents, M. Max Muller of Ox- 

 ford, M. Weber of Berlin, M. Spiegel of Eriangen. Section IV. : 

 president, Brugsch Pacha ; vice presidents, M. Lieblein, M. Rei- 

 nisch. Section V. : president, M. Schlegel of Leyden ; vice-presi- 

 dent, M. Cordier of Paris. Section VI. : president, M. Kern of 

 Leyden ; vice-president, Mr. R. N. Cust of London. 



— The carrier-pigeon has just been turned to a curious use in 

 Russia, according to the Novoe Vremya. It is to convey negatives 

 of photographs taken in a balloon. The first experiment was made 

 from the cupola of the Cathedral of Isaac, and the subject photo- 

 graphed was the Winter Palace. The plates were packed in en- 

 velopes impenetrable to the light, and then tied to the feet of the 

 pigeons, who safely and quickly carried them to the station at Vol- 

 kovo. 



— From the general results of the Swiss census of Dec. i, 1888, 

 which have already been worked out, it seems that the total popu- 

 lation is 2,934055, against 2,846,102 in 1880. The German-speak- 

 ing element increased from 2,030,792 in 1880 to 2,092,562, which, 

 taking into account the normal growth of the population, was no 

 relative increase, the proportion in both cases being precisely 71.3 

 per cent of the whole. The French, on the other hand, increased 

 from 608,007 to 637,940, which was also a relative increase of 21.4 

 to 21.7 percent; while the Italian declined actually as well as rela- 

 tively, the numbers being 161,923 in 1880, and 156.602 in 1888, or 

 5.7 and 5.3 per cent respectively. The decline of the Italians in 

 the cantons of Uri and Schwyz is explained by the return home of 

 a large number of Italian workmen engaged in the St. Gothard 

 Railway ; but it is not so easy to explain why there is a large de- 

 crease in the Germans in the cantons of Berne and Neuchatel, 

 while the French have increased. In general the French increase 

 in Switzerland seems_ to be at the expense of the Germans, while 

 the German element recovers its place at the expense of the Italian. 



— Among recent appointments of Johns Hopkins men, we note 

 the following : Edward A. Bechtel (A.B., 1888), professor of Greek 

 in Mount Morris College, Illinois ; Edward W. Bemis (Ph.D.. 1885), 

 adjunct professor of history and economics in Vanderbilt Univer- 

 sity ; B. Meade Bolton (assistant, 1887-S8), director of the Depart- 

 ment of Bacteriology in the Hoagland Laboratory, Brooklyn, N.Y. ; 

 David T. Day (Ph.D., 1884), expert and special agent in charge of 

 the subject of mines and mining for the eleventh census; John C. 

 Fields (Ph.D., 18S7), professor of mathematics, Allegheny College, 

 Pennsylvania; Andrew Fossum (Ph.D., 1S87), classical instructor. 

 Hill School, Pottstown, Penn. ; J. Edward Harry (Ph.D., 1889), 

 professor of Greek and German in Georgetown College, Kentucky ; 

 George L. Hendrickson (A.B., 1887), professor of Latin in Colorado 

 College; George N. C. Henschen (A.B., 1889), instructor in natu- 

 ral sciences in the Reading (Penn.) High School ; William H. How- 

 ell (Ph.D., 1884, and associate professor), lecturer on physiology in 

 the University of Michigan; Frank G. Hubbard (Ph.D., 1S87), in- 

 structor in English in the University of California ; Cary T. Hutch- 

 inson (Ph.D., 1889), decent in physics in Clark University; James 

 T. Lees (Ph.D., 1889), principal of the Latin School, and instructor 

 in Latin and Greek in the University of Nebraska; Henry Sewall 

 (Ph.D., 1879, and recently professor in the University of Michigan), 

 professor of physiology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 

 Baltimore; Moses S. Slaughter (fellow, 1885-86), professor of 

 Latin in Iowa College; Professor Albion W. Small (Ph.D., 1889), 

 president of Colby University, Maine ; William E. Storj- (associate 

 and associate professor, 1876-89), professor of mathematics in 

 Clark University ; James S. Trueman (fellow, 188S-89), professor 

 of Greek and Latin in Allegheny College, Pennsylvania. 



