September 26, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



175 



some steps being taken by the society; the committee is likewise 

 ■of opinion tliat we must seek in the classical languages for the 

 material to construct an appropriate word, which will command 

 the acceptance of every nationality. The committee conceives, 

 that, whatever may be the individual opinions of members of this 

 society, it is not at present expedient to do more Ihan draw atten- 

 tion to tlie requirement. Your committee therefore recommends, 

 tliat, in the name of the Royal Society of Cana,da, correspondence 

 be opened with sister societies in other parts of the world with the 

 view of bringing the subject to their notice, asking the favor of 

 an espre^sion of opinion regarding it. Tlie committee i-ecom- 

 mends that the council be requested to take such steps as may be 

 deemed expedient to bring the subject to the attention of sister 

 societies." 



— At a special meeting of the Geographical Society of Paris 

 held on the 38th of June, M. Fernand Foureau gave an account of 

 liis journey to In-Salah, undertaken in pursuance of a mission in- 

 trusted to him by the ministers of public instruction and commerce. 

 As related in the "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Soci- 

 ety," London, the traveller started from Biskra. At Ain-Taiba he 

 crossed the route of M. Leon Say in 1878, and of the first expedi- 

 tion of Col. Flatters. Continuing to the south-west, he traversed 

 the region of the Erg. The chains of sand-dunes here attain an 

 elevation of 1.300 feet, and are separated by " gassis " 30 to 30 

 miles in length, and f to li miles in breadth, which broaden far- 

 ther in the interior. Vegetation at the foot of the dunes is green 

 and abundant. A species of tamarisk is found on the summits. 

 At the Ued Auleggui, M. Foureau struck the route of the second 

 Flatters mission. Ascending an affluent of this Ued, he reached 

 the watershed (about 1,200 feet high) between the basins of the 

 Igharghar and the Ued Massin. The next range of importance, 

 that of the Baten, running in a north-east and south-west direc- 

 tion, forms the edge of a deeply eroded plateau. The traveller 

 :here turned to the north east, and skirted the region of the Erg, 

 ■exploring the estuaries of the numerous streams which descend 

 from the Tademayt. These estuaries are covered with small 

 shrubs and plants ; but the expedition found then- beds completely 

 dried up, owing to the absence of rain for the last two years. The 

 principal geographical results of this expedition are as follows: 

 M. Foureau has determined the latitudes and longitudes of thirty- 

 ifl^je points, and taken barometrical observations along the entire 

 Toute. The length of his itinerary was over 1,500 miles, 600 

 of which were beyond the frontier of South Algeria. M. Foureau 

 lias shown that between Uargia and In-Salah there is a practicable 

 joute for a railway, on a firm soil, without a dune along it. 



— Professor Klossovsky of Odessa has been investigating the 

 physical characteristics of the Black Sea, as we learn from 21ie 

 SooMish Geqgrapliical Magazine. He finds its area, including the 

 ■Sea of -Azov, to be i47, 1.00 square miles. Its greatest depth lies 

 ■between Sevastopol and Constantinople, and is considerable for an 

 inland sea, being :l,il<)(j fathoms. The salinity on the north-west 

 coast is 1.43 per cent, in the open sea 1.76, and at great depths 

 ;1.9, whereas in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic, in the re- 

 :gion of the trade-winds, it is 3.7 per cent. The temperature of 

 the airover the surface of the sea is in summer about 72*. In 

 the winter months it rises towards the southern shore, varying in 

 January from 35|° on the northern shore, to 43" on the coast of 

 Asia Minor. In summer the prevailing winds blow from the land 

 itowardstbe sea; in winter, in the opposite direction. The Black 

 Sea isiEestless and stormy, for strong winds and gales blow over 

 iits Shores on ninety days in the year. Professor Klossovsky gives 

 If till details concerning the variationsiof the level of the sea, having 

 obtained records of observaticits made at nineteen stations during 

 seventeen years. In the si&t^mer months the water near the sjhores 

 stands above, in the winder months below, the mean level. The 

 monthly mean of theag. variations is only one foot, but the abso- 

 lute differences of ^evel are very great, — in Tagwog neai-ly 14 

 feet 4 inches. !E^jie mean level for the year is nearly constant. 

 Professor iEl^ssovsky considers that these variations are independ- 

 >ent ,of ithe rainfall, and are due to variations of atmospheric 

 -piiessure, winds blowing from the land depressing the surface of 

 it'he sea. It might, then, be expected that a rise of the water pn 



one side of the sea would be accompanied by a sinking on the 

 other side, and observations prove that such is the case. In sum- 

 mer the water is subject to sudden changes of temperature, some- 

 times amounting to fourteen or fifteen degrees in a day. This 

 may be caused, partly by the action of the waves in mingling 

 together the upper and losver strata, and partly by the winds, 

 which, blowing off shore, sweep away the warmer surface water. 



— The Rev. Dr. Norman has just returned from a dredging ex- 

 pedition in the Varanger Fiord and Sydvaranger, says Nature of 

 Sept. 11. He has been absent nine weeks, and has brought home 

 extensive collections in all branches of marine Invertebrata. The 

 fiords of Sydvaranger were found to possess a rich fauna, with 

 depths descending to 120 fathoms. These fiords had never before 

 been scientifically investigated, though Baron de Guerne took a 

 few hauls of the dredge there in 1881, when on board the French 

 vessel " Coligny " as a member of the Mission Scientifique en 

 Laponie, and published a list of the Mollusca obtained. 



— A new method of measuring the inductive power and con- 

 ductivity of dielectrics has been described by M. Curie in the 

 Annates de Chimie et clc Physique. It is based on the use of an 

 apparatus he calls the piezo-electric quartz. He has studied with 

 it, as we learn from Nature of Sept. 11, those qualities in various 

 crystalline dielectrics ; and he enunciates a law of superposition, 

 which shows the independence of the effects produced by diffei'ent 

 variations of electro-motive force. Quartz shows a difference of 

 conductivity in the direction of the optic axis (where it is strong), 

 and at right angles (where it is ir^j^sible); and this gives rise to 

 striking phenomena. Plates parallel to the axis, and with the 

 extremities of the axis communicating with the earth, behave, 

 beyond 120°, as dielectrics of zero inductive power. With pro- 

 longed heating, the conductivity along the axis quite disappears. 

 \yater plays a capital rule in the conductivity of a great many 

 dielectrics, possibly in all. With plates of baked porcelain kept 

 moist, the various types of conductivity could be reproduced. 

 The electro-motive forces of polarization of moist porous bodies 

 may attain several hundred volts. 



— The United States consul at Mannheim, Germany, says that 

 in Mannheim and the neighborhood there are several large facto- 

 ries worked by steam, with enormous machines employing hun- 

 dreds of hands, engaged in preparing feathers for market. The 

 feathers, says the London Journal of the tociety of Arts, come in 

 great quantities from Russia, Austria, and other parts of Europe, 

 and also Asia, China especially sending vast quantities in a very 

 dirty condition. The feathers come into the factory in large bales. 

 These are opened near a kind of gin or breaker, which separates 

 the feathers from a lumpy or bunchy form, and flings them 

 around in an air-filled chamber, through which a constant current 

 is blowing. From this machine they go to another, in which, by 

 means of ventilators, a separation of the short and light feathers 

 from the long and heavy is made. Stage after stage, through 

 machines arranged and shaped much like cotton-gins, the feathers 

 fly, each machine sepai'ating the lighter from the heavier, until the 

 most delicate, flaky snow-down is flung out into a large chamber. 

 In one stage of the process the feathers are cleansed. This is done 

 by placing them in a large steam-heated boiler, into which steam 

 is projected, and made to cleanse every particle of dirt from the 

 feathers. Long before the feathers get time to be wet through 

 by the steam, dry air is injected from one side, while suction cur- 

 rents draw off every particle of dust or dirt loosened by thesteam. 

 The largest feathers, those which on account of the long quills are 

 unfitted for use, are sent to the State prisons, where for very 

 small sums the "wings" are carefully torn from the quills and re- 

 turned to the factory, where they are cleansed and prepared for 

 market. Most of the factories endeavor to get out of the feathers 

 as much as possible of the down. A very fine quality of this ar- 

 ticle, that of the eider duck, fetches about $3.50 a pound. The 

 machines are very simple in character and construction, and re- 

 quire in their working no special skill. They consist of breakers 

 and ventilators. Contrivances for catching dust have been in- 

 vented, but never any so skilfully contrived as to keep the fine 

 particles from finding their way into the open rooms, and thence 

 into the lungs of the work-people. 



