358 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVIII. No 464 



Meiaco shima, Lu-Chu, and Linschoten, while the sea to the east, 

 although showing at times displacements to the north-east, is 

 otherwise quite motionless. The supposed constant current of 

 considerable velocity just east of the Lu-Chu Islands does not 

 exist. The Kuro-Shiwo, in the northern part of its course, shows 

 more tendency to break through the island barrier to the east. 

 Its principal outlets in this direction are the Colnet Straits (30° 

 north latitude) and the Van Diemen Straits (31° north latitude). 

 From this point to the meridian of the Kii Channel the current 

 reaches its greatest extent, and flows pretty close to the land in a 

 north-east direction, with a striking bend, under 135" east longi- 

 tude, to the south-east, resuming as it flows at some distance from 

 the coast up to Yokohama its old north-east direction. 



Under the 38th parallel east of Cape Kinkuasan, the Kuro- 

 Shiwo strikes the Oga-Shiwo, i.e., the cold Kurile current from 

 the north. The observations of ships in this region show that 

 often in a few hours the temperature of the water falls 30° and 

 30°, and the temperature of the an- also; the weather becomes cold, 

 muggy, aod rainy, and the color of the water changes from the 

 blue or blue-black of the tropics to the well-known bottle green. 

 The boundary line between the Kuro-Shiwo and the Oga-Shiwo, 

 from February to April-inclusive, is under 38° latitude and 143° 

 to 145° longitude; in May, under 42° and 147°; in July, under 

 45° and 150° ; and in August, lies north of 50° latitude. The 

 polar current here does not extend at any time below 88°. The 

 analogy between the Pacific and Atlantic in this respect is almost 

 complete. The Oga-Shiwo is the Pacific Labrador cun-ent, andCape 

 Kinkuasan plays the part of Cape Race, except that the latter lies 

 10° further north than Cape Kinkuasan. After meeting the polar 

 stream, the Kuro-Shiwo turns east, but Dr. Schott does not follow 

 it in its further course. Running parallel and to the east of the 

 Kui'o-Shiwo is a second though less important warm stream, 

 called the Bonin current, which comes from the south and flows 

 in a north, north-east, and then east-north-east direction. At 

 ISO*^ east longitude it flows east in a course which former maps 

 showed as the course of the Kuro-Shiwo. The Bonin current does 

 not always flow to the west of the Bonin Islands; its mean axis 

 of movement varies with the season of the year, and at the end of 

 summer lies to the east of the Bonin Islands. In this case also 

 there is an analogy with the phenomena of the North Atlantic, 

 as Kriimmel's investigations have showed that east of the Antilles 

 and of the Florida current there flows a broad though not inten- 

 sive stream in a similar directiou. Dr. Schott discusses the influ- 

 ence of the winds upon these currents, and gives some important 

 information with regard to currents in the Straits of Formosa and 

 the Yellow and Japan seas. The second part of his article is de- 

 voted to water temperatures in these regions. 



THE BOURBONS AND AKCH^OLOGICAL REMAINS. 



It would nuturally have been thought that the Restoration 

 would have made it a special care to restore and preserve the 

 monuments of the past, but it is a remarkable fact that this epoch 

 was the commencement of a system of almost limitless destruction 

 of tlie edifices which the Revolution had spared, and that the 

 change of dynasty in 1880 has certainly been productive of benefit 

 in this respect at least. In the time of Napoleon the Minister of 

 the Interior, by his circular of June 4, 1810, proposed a long series 

 of interrogatories to all the prefects relative to the actual condi- 

 tion of the old castles and abbeys in their respective departments. 

 These documents are replete with curious and interesting facts. 

 Under the Restoration, M. Simeon, when Minister of the Interior, 

 adopted a similar measure, but it does not appear that any practi- 

 cal results were obtained. The lamentable system of indifference 

 which prevailed on this subject up to 1880, says a writer in The 

 Architect, may be inferred from the terms of that ordinance which 

 can never be sufficiently regretted, by which the splendid dep6t 

 of historical monuments formed at the Petits Augustins was de- 

 stroyed and dispersed under the pretext of making restitution to 

 owners who no longer survived, or who did not know what u'e 

 to make of the objects so restored to them. It is believed that 

 not one of the monuments given back to individual owners has 

 been preserved; and, notwithstanding the notorious difSculty of 



disposing of these splendid relics, a steady refusal was constantly 

 returned to the reiterated requests of M. Lenoir, the founder of 

 this unique museum, to re-establish his collection with what re- 

 mained after restitution had been made to every known proprie- 

 tor. This contempt for and unpai'donable neglect of antiquity in 

 a Government whose chief claim to respect was derived from the 

 principle of antiquity, extended even to the Conservatoire de Mu- 

 sique; the curious collection of ancient instruments of music 

 which had been formed there was ordered to be dispersed or sold 

 at a low price. This ruinous system, which prevailed in Paris, 

 was practised on a still more extensive scale in the provinces. It 

 would scarcely he believed that, under a moral and religious gov- 

 ernment, the Corporation of Angers, which had for its chief a 

 deputy of the extremest ultra-loyal opinions, should have been 

 allowed to convert the Gothic Church of St. Peter into a theatre. 

 It is still more incredible, but not the less true, that the Church of 

 of St. Cesaire at Aries, which the- most erudite antiquaries looked 

 upon as one of the oldest in France, was transformed en mauvais 

 lieu, without any public functionary protesting against such 

 profanation. Who would think that no effort was made, when 

 the Most Christian King returned to the throne of his fathers, to 

 rescue the magnificent papal palace at Avignon from its military 

 desecration ? And who could credit the fact that at Clairvaux, 

 in that celebrated sanctuary which was directly connected with 

 the authority of the State, the exquisite chui-ch, so beautiful in its 

 propoi-tions and so complete in its grandeur, which dated from the 

 twelfth century, and svas said to equal Notre Dame, at Pai-is, in 

 size, which was begun by St. Bernard, where so many queens, 

 jarinces, and pious generations of monks were entombed, and 

 where the heart of Isabella, the daughter of St, Louis, was depos- 

 ited, that this edifice, which had survived the havoc of the Rev- 

 olution, and the indifference of the Empire, should liave been 

 demolished in the very first year of the Bourbon restoration ? It 

 was then razed to the ground, with all its projecting chapels, 

 without leaving one stone upon another, or even sparing St. Ber- 

 nard's tomb, to make room for a square surrounded by trees in 

 the centre of the prison which occupied the site of the venerable 

 monastery. Before leaving Clairvaux, we may as well mention 

 that a prefect of the department of Aube, under the Restoration, 

 actually sold seven hundred pounds weight of the archives of this 

 famous religious house, and which were removed to Troyes; and 

 the Count de Montalembert stated that, when he was at that; 

 place, he walked over a heap of parchments strewed thickly on 

 the floor, from which he picked up a bull of Pope Urban 

 IV., the son of a shoemaker of that very city of Troyes, and 

 probably one of its most illustrious children. The same prefect 

 demolished the relics of the palace of the ancient counts of Cham- 

 pagne, of the noble and poetic dynasty of the Thiebauds and 

 Henri-ie-Large, because they were in the line of a crescent which 

 his architectural genius had unfortunately devised. The beauti- 

 ful gate of St. Jacques (constructed in the time of Francis I.) and 

 that of Beffroy suffered the same fate. Another prefect of the 

 Restoration, in tbe department of Eure and Loire, had no scruple 

 in appropriating to his own use several painted windows of the 

 Cathedral of Chartres to decorate the private chapel of his country 

 mansion. It has been incontrovertibly proved that during the 

 fifteen years of the Restoration more irremediable devastations 

 were committed in France than in the period from 1789 to 1818. 

 This destruction was certainly not enjoined by the Government, 

 but it was done under its eyes, with its tolerance, and without ex- 

 citing the slightest marks of its solicitude. 



ANTIQUARIAN DISCOVERIES NEAR ALEXANDRIA. 



In the London Times of Oct. 13 appeared a telegraphic announce- 

 ment of the late interesting antiquarian discoveries at Abukir, 

 distant thirteen and a half miles by rail eastward from Alexan- 

 dria. 



Excavations are being continued under the direction of Daninos 

 Pasha, a savant well qualified for the work, to whom is due the. 

 merit of the discoveries; and if Government will supply the funds 

 necessary to enable him to continue his researches, there are abun- 

 dant indications that valuable "finds" will be made in a locality 



