592 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 228 



vrould seem always possible to ascertain the direc- 

 tion under these circumstances. The clouds i)re- 

 sented a magnificent spectacle, and seemed like 

 gigantic billows iipon a boundless ocean. The sun 

 was very hot indeed, and every effort was made to 

 observe a rising motion in the cloud, biit entirely 

 without success. Observations of humidity were 

 made with a sling wet bulb, and the air temperature^ 

 by a thermometer with a bulb about two millimetres^ 

 in diameter. All the experiences indicated, that, 

 with modern appliances of drag-rojje and anchor, 

 ballooning is entirely safe, and is especially adapted 

 for researches in the free air, which are so very im- 

 portant at the present stage of the science of meteor- 

 ology. H. k. H.\ZEN. 

 Washmgtou, Aug. 13, 1886. 



The freezing-point of sea-water. 



I submit the following as the result of several very 

 careful determinations of the freezing-jjoint of sea- 

 water, made at North Bluff, Hudson Strait (lati- 

 tude 62° 33 -io" north, longitude 70'' 41' 15 ' west). 



The situation of the place of observation was 

 within an inlet, at about a mile from its mouth, into 

 which the waters of the strait had unlimited access. 

 A stream twenty feet wide discharged into the inlet 

 at its head, two miles away. 



The determinations were made on March 4, 1885, 

 when the temperature of the air was — 12". 6 F., in 

 the following manner : — 



A hole about four feet square having been cut 

 through the ice (2.85 feet thick), the water within it 

 was thoroughly agitated by stirring from below, and 

 during the actual operation slightlj' agitated. The 

 thermometer was held nearly horizontally, the bulb 

 slightly lower than the rest of the instrument, just 

 below the surface of the water. When the ice film 

 began to form at the surface of the w-ater, the cor- 

 rected reading of the thermometer (Negretti and 

 Zambra, No. C. 3456) was 26°.7 F., at which point it 

 remained stationary : so that, under the conditions I 

 have mentioned, the freezing-jjoint of sea-water is 

 20°. 7 F., — a point very much lower than that usual- 

 ly accepted as its freezing-point, and differing from 

 it in a direction contrary to what we should have ex- 

 pected from the generally accepted assumption that 

 northern waters are of less specific gravity than more 

 equatorial ly situated waters. 



It would have added to the value of the result had 



I obtained the specific gravity of the water at the 

 time. Later, when I thought to have done so, un- 

 avoidable circumstances prevented my doing so. 



I might add that a similar determination was made 

 on the ojjposite shore of the strait with a very 

 closely agreeing result. W. A. Ashe. 



The Quebec observatory, June 7. 



The scientific swindler again. 



The following from one of the local papers here 

 will show that the peculiar jjerson who has repeat- 

 edly been shown up in Science is still at large and 

 at work : at least, I presume he is the same person, 

 since it is unlikely that there is more than one such 

 perverse genius abroad. This time he turns up as a 

 deaf-mute, attached to the Smithsonian, and named 

 ' E. M. Vasile.' 



"The Syracvise (N. Y.) Herald says, 'A highly 

 educated man, who appeared to be deaf and dumb, 'T 

 and who represented himself to be an attache of the y 

 Smithsonian \ institution at Washington, came here ^ 

 eight or ten days ago, and siicceeded in ingratiating """ 

 himself into the confidence of Prof. W. A. Brown- 

 ell of the high school, aud of other scientific gentle- 

 men. He gave his name as E. M. Vasile. It took 

 him but a short time to prove himself a master of 

 geology, mineralogy, and chemistry, and his jjro- 

 ficieucy in those sciences lent color to his representa- 

 tion that he had come here to investigate the rocks 

 and minerals of Onondaga county, aud also to get 

 together material for a report on its fishes. Profes- 

 sor Brownell obtained from him for a mere trifle a 

 rare and valuable scientific work, aud for one dollar 

 aud twenty-five cents got a promise from him, that, 

 upon his return to Washington, he would send on a 

 set of trilobites. Having thus won the confidence 

 of the professor, he began to talk of exchanging 

 specimens with his new-made friend : but his offers 

 excited suspicion; aud an incpiiry sent by telegraph to 

 Washington brought back the information that Vasile 

 was not in the government's employ. Soon afterward 

 the man disappeared, and he has not been heard 

 from since. He left a board-bill at the Kingsley 

 House, and the impression prevails there that he 

 only pretended to be deaf and dumV). His scheme is 

 apparently to borrow books aud scientific specimens 

 in one town, and dispose of them in another.' " 



Elliott Ooueb. 

 Sraltbsouiau iu8t., Juue 8. 



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