230 



SCIUJ^C^. 



[Vol. IX., No. 214 



northern Mexico, crosses the Gulf of California, 

 follows the coast of southern California, and 

 passes out to sea off San Francisco. South of this 

 belt the dip is increasing ; north of it, it is decreas- 

 ing. The curve of the secular change of the mag- 

 netic dip, though generally decreasing, had a sec- 

 ondary maximum about 1860. This subordinate 

 extreme has been passed north of the belt, but has 

 not yet been reached south of it. The magnetic 

 intensity is also decreasing, and reached a subor- 

 dinate maximum in 1870. Since then it is again 

 decreasing. On the map showing the lines of 

 equal horizontal force, Schott has marked the ap- 

 proximate situation of the region of stationary 

 horizontal intensity. It runs from north-west 

 Florida through Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, 

 NebrasJia, Wyoming, and western Montana. 

 South of this belt the horizontal force is decreas- 

 ing ; north it is increasing. 



G. Hellmann has discussed the statistical data 

 on damage done bylightningin Sleswick-Holstein, 

 Baden, and Hesse, which are contained in the 

 reports of the insurance companies. He finds the 

 danger from lightning, though generally increas- 

 ing, to be decreasing in certain districts. The 

 danger becomes less the more closely the houses 

 are clustered. The petrographical character of 

 the ground is of great influence. If the danger 

 from lightning upon calcareous soil be represented 

 by 1, 2 will represent the danger upon marly, 

 9 upon sandy, and 22 upon clayey soil. No ex- 

 planation can be offered for the fact that, among 

 trees, oaks are struck most frequently. If the 

 danger for beeches be 1, that for pine is 15, for 

 oaks 54. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



In a report by Passed- Assistant Surgeon T. 

 H. Streets, U.S.N., of the U. S. coast survey 

 steamer C. P. Patterson, surveying in the waters 

 of Alaska, after referring to the vast forests of 

 spruce, cedar, and hemlock which clothe the 

 shores and mountains and islands of south-eastern 

 Alaska with everlasting verdure, and alluding to 

 the herring, cod, and halibut which inhabit the 

 deep waters, the immensity of the schools of sal- 

 mon is illustrated by the following account of 

 what he saw at Naha : "To illustrate how im- 

 mense are the schools of salmon, I will relate 

 what I saw at Naha, where they crowded into 

 a stream of fresh water in such numbers as to 

 materially impede the progress of our canoe. 

 Bruised, lacerated, and killed in attempting to 

 surmount the falls that obstructed their course, 

 suffocated in the jam below, where the water was 

 awork with them, with backs and dorsal fins pro- 



truding, their dead bodies lay two and three deep 

 along the shores of the stream, and for fifteen 

 to twenty yards from the water's edge, where 

 they had been left by the receding water. The 

 mouth of the stream was obstructed by a wire 

 trap held to the banks by a wire fence. The trap, 

 at the time of our visit, was raised to allow the 

 fish to enter the stream. The wire fence was 

 broken down by the weight of the mass of dead 

 fish drifting against it, and many must have been 

 carried to sea by the tides and currents. The air 

 was offensive with the odor of the decaying car- 

 casses. Flocks of ravens and gulls fed upon the 

 dead, and the bears fattened upon the living ; yet 

 suflicient numbers overcome the high falls yearly 

 to provide for the annual return of the swarms. 

 A large fishery is located there, which also does 

 its part to reduce their numbers. It is a blind in- 

 stinct which leads migratory fishes to return to the 

 streams where they were hatched ; and Nature is 

 prodigal with her forces in carrying out her 

 plans." 



— The signal service will be seriously crippled 

 by the failure of the deficiency appropriation bill. 

 The chief signal officer says, "It is now impossible 

 to remove a man, even to discharge or recruit 

 him, or to replace those who are dead or danger- 

 ously ill." The term of service of a number of 

 men has expired, but they must remain in the 

 corps from lack of money to send them to their 

 homes. The telegraphic reports of cold waves, 

 storms, warnings, etc., must be discontinued at a 

 number of important points, as the funds on hand 

 for that purpose are nearly exhausted. 



— The new German Centralblatt, devoted to 

 bacteriology and parasitology, continues to furnish 

 its readers weekly with records of recent re- 

 searcl'ies on these subjects. We understand that 

 Dr. G. Sternberg will confine himself to re- 

 porting American original work on micro-organ- 

 isms, and that Prof. R. Ramsay Wright, Toronto, 

 has undertaken to furnish a similar account of 

 papers published in America on animal parasites 

 and on epidemics occasioned by them. Professor 

 Wright will be obliged to authors for extras of 

 such papers, which will be promptly noticed in 

 the Centralblatt. 



— The annual consumption of cocoa is 80,000,- 

 000 pounds, produced principally in the West 

 Indies and South America. France consumes 26,- 

 000,000 pounds; Spain, 16,000,000; England, 14,- 

 000,000 ; and the United States, 8,500,000. Since 

 1860 the consumption of cocoa in the United 

 States has increased sixfold ; during the same 

 period, that of coffee and tea has not quite doubled. 



