SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No. 495 



the twisting, rotary, or cyclonic form. One of the tongues was 

 brighter than the solar surface, and seemed to be the most brilliant 

 at from 9 30 to 10 30 A.-M., at which time the electric wave dis- 

 turbed the telegrai)hs. Whether the solar turbulence causes ter- 

 restrial magnetic upheavals is a question that future physicists 

 must decide. 



A sun-spot maximum is drawing near, and already there are 

 lively electro-magnetic times. Edgar L. Laekin. 



Knox College Observatory, July 19. 



The Crinoid Heterocrinus Subcrassus. 



Two or three years since, I concluded to find out, if I could, 

 the character of the termination of the column of the crinoid 

 Heterocrinus subcrassus. Having a lower Silurian slab with about 

 one hundred specimens of the calyx, with a great profusion of the 

 columns diverging in every direction, I selected a culumn attached 

 to its calyx, and followed it by uncovering, until I was rewarded by 

 discovering the column diverging into well-defined roots; length 

 of column from calyx 121 inches, about IJ inches under the sur- 

 face. 



At that time I believed that the genus Glyjitpcrinus were float- 

 ers, and devoid of bases, or roots. 



About eighteen months ago something caused me to doubt that 

 idea, and I commenced the investigation of the terminations of 

 their columns, and now, after a great deal of work, and after many 

 discouragements, I have been able to so far develop roots on the 

 terminations of the columns of Glyptocrinus neali, Glypt. dyeri, 

 and GlypJ;. baeri, that I have a specimen of each species, show- 

 ing the calyx, column, and roots intact, on the slab, one slab 

 of Glypt. baeri having on its surface several specimens of that 

 character. 



One character of the specimens surprised me, — the diversity of 

 the length of the columns between calyx and roots in the speci- 

 mens just mentioned, the column of Glypt. neali, from two to 

 four or five inches ; Glypt baeri, from one-half an inch to six or 

 eight ; Glypt dyeri, from one to four or five inches between calyx 

 and roots. 



I have also found a specimen of Heterocrinus simplex, showing 

 calyx, column, and inverted saucer like base, attached to another 

 column. Dr. D. T. D. Dyche. 



Lebanon, O. 



Professor Parker's Further Studies on the Apteryx 

 In No. 435 of Science the writer invited attention to the very 

 valuable contributions to our knowledge of the morphology of 

 Apteryx that had been made by Professor T. J. Parker, F.R.S., 

 of the Otago Museum (New Zealand). Those inrestigations have 

 been continued on more extensive material, and the London Royal 

 Society have just published in their Transactions (1892) the results, 

 in a paper entitled "Additional Observation on the Development 

 of Apteryx" (11 pages; two col. lith. plates, of 19 figs.). Professor 

 Parker has kindly sent me a copy of this work, and I desire to say, 

 in the present connection, in continuation of what already has 

 been noted by me in my former review, that more advanced em- 

 bryos of the bird under investigation (stage F') show " the pollex 

 is unusually large, and the fore-limb has the characters of the 

 wing of a typical bird." Better figures are given than in the first 

 paper, showing structures of the brain and skull, and also that one 

 "specimen exhibits an unusual mode of termination of the noto- 

 chord." In other figures (stage G') the final form of the chondro- 

 cranium, before the appearance of cartilage bones, is shown, and, 

 what is a very interesting fact, ''that iti A. oweni there is always 

 a solid ooraooid region to the shoulder-girdle, while in A. cmstralis, 

 as far back as stage F', there is a coraooid fenestra and a liga- 

 mentous procoracoid." Finally, it is worthy of note that " in 

 addition to the elements described in the corpus an intermedium 

 may be present " As I have already said, the working out of 

 these anatomical characters, in such an important form as Apteryx, 

 will most certainly prove to be of the highest importance and use 

 to the general comparative anatomist the world over. There could 

 be no safer hand to accomplish it for us than that of the distin- 

 guished biologist of the Otago Museum. R. W. Shufeldt. 

 Takoma, D.C., July 24. 



A Satellite of the Moon 



I HAVE seen accounts of an attempt to discover whether the 

 moon has a satellite, and the accounts that have reached me seem 

 to show one serious fault in the procedure. While I am not thor- 

 oughly conversant with all the points involved, it does seem to me, 

 that, in taking a photograph of the region in which such a satellite 

 would be found if it exists, the apparatus should be arranged 

 with reference to stellar motion, and leave the moon out of ques- 

 tion. Of course, the moon would be blurred, but we are not con- 

 cerned about that. The fixed stars would appear plainly on the 

 plate, while any one that had a motion different from theirs, es- 

 pecially a rapid motion such as a satellite of the moon must have, 

 would appear blurred on the plate ; in which case only the blurred 

 stars, if such occurred, need be examined with any hope of finding 

 a satellite of the moon. C. P. Maxwell. 



Dublin, Tex,, July 20. 



Auroral Display. 



On Saturday night, July 16, 1893, I was returning to my home- 

 in Rockville, Indiana, from Clinton, Indiana, sixteen miles south- 

 west. Mr. Harry Mcintosh, a young man of this place who had 

 been helping me make a survey near Clinton, was riding with me 

 in my buggy. We amused ourselves looking at a most beautiful 

 sunset as we rode over the Lafayette and Teire Haute road, along 

 the foot of the high hills east of the Wabash River. 



When we turned eastward, over the hills toward Rockville, it 

 began to grow dark, and most of the clouds that showed up so 

 beautiful at sunset began to vanish, till only a few streaks of 

 stratus clouds remained. As we were descending the west hill at 

 Iron Creek, five miles south-west of Rockville, we saw in front of 

 us what we supposed was the new electric light at Rockville, 

 thrown upward and reflected from a cloud or mist. As we were 

 ascending the hill on the east side of the creek and near its sum- 

 mit, we saw in our front the reflection of a great light from 

 behind us. It was so noticeable as to cause us both to turn about 

 on our buggy seat and look backward. There, at a bearing S. 

 60° W. (that is the bearing of the road, with which the light was 

 in alinement), we saw a great white light radiating from a point 

 at the horizon where it was brightest, right, left, and upward to a 

 height of 10" to 15°, weakening in brilliancy as it radiated and 

 terminated in a dark band or segment of rainbow shape, some IC* 

 wide. The light seemed to radiate from a point a half-radius 

 above the centre of the circle which the black segment would 

 indicate. Above the dark segment another segment or band of 

 light, not so bright as the one at the horizon, formed a rainbow, 

 or arch, some 10° to 15° wide. Above that second band of light 

 was a light haze, or mist, through which the stars could be easily 

 distinguished. Some 10° up in that mist, and directly over the 

 centre of the light at the horizon, was a light about as large as a 

 man would appear to be if suspended from a balloon a thousand 

 feet distant. It was about four times as long vertically as wide 

 horizontally. Young Mcintosh saw it first and called my atten- 

 tion to it, as I was watching the bright light at the horizon. 

 When I first caught sight of it, it had the appearance of the head 

 of a comet, only it was long vertically. When young Mcintosh 

 first saw it, it seemed to be a blaze such as a large meteor appears 

 to carry at its front. We halted and watched it about ten min- 

 utes, during which time it (the small light) slowly faded till only 

 its locality could barely be noticed, then suddenly loomed bright 

 almost to a white blaze, then slowly faded as before. It would 

 loom up in five seconds, and consume five minutes in fading 

 away. It kept the same position all the time, for we watched its 

 position with relation to the stars to see if it moved. At this 

 second appearance 1 decided to commit the general appearance to 

 memory so I could sketch it afterward This little light loomed 

 up and faded four times when the big light under it faded also 

 and made it dark there. 



I am not sure we saw this light the first time it appeared, but 

 think we did. The small light above looked as the moon does 

 when shining through a thin cloud, except as to the oblong shape 

 vertically. 



When the fir-^t or south-western light faded nearly out, a light 



