Jan. 13, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



i1 



man would have for the same work. This is notably the 

 case in the woodyards of Rangoon and Maulmein, where 

 the entire operation of moving and piling the heavy timber 

 is performed by male elephants without any special super- 

 vision by the keepers. The logs to be moved are teak- 

 wood, which is very heavy. They are cut into lengths 

 of twenty feet, with a diameter, or perhaps a square, of 

 about a foot. An elephant will go to a log, kneel down, 

 thrust his tusks under the middle of it, curl his trunk 

 over it, test it to see that it is evenly balanced, and then 

 rise with it and easily carry it to the pile which is being 

 made. Placing the log carefully on the pile in its proper 

 place, the sagacious animal will step back a few paces 

 and measure with his eye to determine whether or not 

 the log needs pushing one way or another. It will make 

 any necessary alteration of position. In this way, with- 

 out a word of command from its mahout, or driver, it 

 will go on with its work. 



Oyster Culture. — Some remarkable statistics show- 

 ing the progress of the oyster trade in France have just 

 been published. It appears from them that during the 

 past twelvemonth the beds have produced no fewer than 

 600 millions of oysters, or ten times more than in 1876. 

 The progress does not concern quantity alone ; the 

 quality also shows an equally noteworthy improvement, 

 in 1883 France exported 31 millions, this year the ex- 

 portation will not be less than 50 millions. The culture 

 of what is known as the Portuguese "naissain " has been 

 eminently successful in France. Formerly France im- 

 ported great quantities of them : for example, in 1883 

 she imported 154,647 kilogrammes, representing a value 

 of nearly 2,ooo,ooof. Instead of importing, she now ex- 

 ports them ; thus for the present year the exports of Portu- 

 guese oysters amount to over 500,000 kilogrammes. 



Monkeys and Oysters. — According to a contemporary, 

 Mr. A. Carpenter, of Bombay, has observed Macacus 

 monkeys, on an island off South Burmah, opening oysters 

 with a stone. They bring the stones from high-water 

 mark down to low- water, selecting such as they can easily 

 grasp. They effect the opening by striking a piece of the 

 upper valve until it dislodges and is broken up. Then 

 they extract the oyster with finger and thumb, occasion- 

 ally putting their mouth straight to the broken shell. 

 The way they have selected is the easiest method of 

 opening the shell. 



New Scientific Expedition. — A scientific expedition 

 'has been despatched to the South Pacific by the United 

 States Government. The cruise of the Fish Commission 

 steamer Albatross is to last three years, and we may be 

 certain that the dredging will add many species of fish to 

 our collections and clear up some mysteries in biological 

 science. This (says a contemporary) is by no means the 

 first expedition of the kind undertaken by America. 

 Professor Agassiz about fourteen years ago made a 

 voyage in a specially equipped Government vessel of war 

 all round the Gulf of Mexico and the east and west coasts 

 of South America, and up the North American coast as 

 far as Puget Sound. The dredge yielded prizes in the 

 shape of specimens almost at every haul. 



Capture of Great Northern Divers. — H. M. E., 

 writing in Landand Water, records the capture of two 

 great northern divers off Penzance, during the last three 

 weeks. 



WILL-O'-THE-WISP.— II. 



( Contimied from p. 14) 



AVERY full account of the appearance of an ignis 

 fatims is to be met with in " Cameos from the Silver 

 Land," by E. W. White, F.Z.S. Some passages of his 

 narrative I quote. The inhabitants of Stapua, a small 

 town in the La Plata States, situate on the Parana, were, 

 during the author's stay, alarmed by " a mysterious light 

 that appeared almost every night in the second plaza, 

 situate on the high river banks, but where — although 

 the ground was in some parts a temporary swamp, from 

 the rains settling in the hollows — were posted the line 

 soldier's barracks ; and to the guard bivouacking round 

 their fire at night it first manifested itself. My friend, 

 Lieut. Morcillo, the officer in command, soon got to hear 

 of it, and scenting trickery, issued notice that he had 

 given his soldiers orders to fire upon it whenever and 

 wherever it became visible. Singular to relate, no sooner 

 did the light burst forth than it was heralded throughout 

 the town by a universal chorus of howls from all the mangy 

 curs in Stapua. In order to elucidate the mystery, Lieut. 

 Morcillo and myself visited the plaza for several nights 

 in succession, accompanied by three or four soldiers with 

 loaded rifles and ourselves armed with revolvers. The 

 military were posted round the square, and we waited 

 from ten o'clock till twelve or one in an atmosphere 

 bathed with the brilliancy of a full moon. Only twice it 

 was seen by me, but then very distinctly ; the first time 

 some little distance oft", but the second quite close. On the 

 first occasion the light started up from the ground with 

 the brilliancy and speed of a rocket, and then again de- 

 scended to the earth with equal velocity but less 

 splendour ; on the second we caught sight of it as 

 it directly but gently approached along the road, upon 

 which, running to intercept it, and stumbling at every 

 step over rough and swampy ground we managed to 

 arrive within three yards of the glowing vision, as it 

 slowly glided on at a level of about five feet from the 

 earth. It presented a globular form of bluish light, so 

 intense that we could scarcely look at it, but emitted no 

 rays and cast no shadows ; and when about actually to 

 grasp the incandescent nothingness, suddenly elongating 

 into a pear-shape tapering to the ground, it vanished, but 

 on locking round up it rose again within fifty yards, but 

 this time we could not overtake it, as it bounded over a 

 hedge, then over trees, and finally disappeared in an im- 

 penetrable swamp. According to the testimony of the 

 soldiers, on another occasion they beheld it rise from 

 the swamp and perch for some minutes on the top of the 

 roof of a neighbouring ranch without walls, after which 

 it pierced the roof and subsided in the ground beneath; 

 in our case there was no deception, and moreover we 

 noticed that it never appeared on a windy night nor after 

 rain." Mr. White adds, in comment : " Although the 

 marsh-gas theory presented itself to my unwilling mind, 

 it would have to be strained considerably to account for 

 all the circumstances." 



We will now attempt an examination of the hypo- 

 theses proposed for the explanation of the wisp. 



Trickery may be at once set aside as out of the 

 question. The movement of the light is totally unlike 

 that of a man, carrying a lamp. It is at times much 

 swifter, overleaping objects which a man could not sur- 

 mount, and playing over water, and at heights of from 

 twenty to fifty feet in the air, and where there are no 

 solid objects from which a light could be thrown back if 

 projected, e.g., by means of a dark lantern ; neither can 



