584 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[June 22, 1888. 



Canterbury, Portsmouth, Nottingham, Stamford, and 

 Northampton. The hatching season of this year has 

 been attended with most satisfactory results. The ova 

 laid down were taken by Mr. W. Oldham Chambers, the 

 Secretary, from stock-fish in the ponds of the Association 

 at Delaford Park, and these were supplemented by con- 

 signments of valuable ova forwarded by the United 

 States Fish Commissioners, being those of the rainbow 

 trout, lake trout, and brook char indigenous to Transat- 

 lantic waters. These were incubated with a very low 

 mortality, and the result is a plentiful yield of fry which, 

 owing to the prevailing lowness of the temperature 

 during the winter, are strong and healthy examples of 

 trout. There is a large quantity of yearling and three- 

 year-old rainbow trout in the ponds, the latter being 

 spawned this year for the first time. 



A Narrow Escape. — An accident occasioned by a 

 cause perfectly unforeseen, but which fortunately has not 

 led to disastrous results, has just taken place, says La 

 Nature, at the powder mills of St. Mcdard, near Bordeaux. 

 The works, which cover a large surface, are lighted at 

 night by six lamps vnth a Piper regulator. These lamps, 

 which are supplied by a dynamo, yielding 50 to 60 

 amperes are mounted in tension, two by two. At one 

 of these lamps there was intercalated a resistance of 

 about 28 ohms, inclosed in a square wooden box, placed 

 at the height of four yards trom the ground, upon the post 

 supporting one of the lamps. In two of the sides of the 

 box there had been left holes of the form of a trefoil. It 

 seems that a tom-tit, in quest of a secure and comfortable 

 place for its nest, fastened straws and twigs to the 

 German silver wires forming the resistance. At the 

 moment of the passage of the current, the wires were 

 heated to such a degree that they ignited the dry 

 materials of the nest. Thence the fire spread to the box, 

 which fell blazing upon the damp soil, and was soon ex- 

 tinct. But what might have happened if the ground had 

 been dry, and if the fire had spread among withered 

 grass to the buildings containing explosible matters ? 

 One of those strange catastrophes which all manner of 

 scientific men vainly strive to account for. 



Scientific Exploration off the Irish Coasts. — An 

 expedition sailed from Queenstown on May 26th on 

 board the tug Flying Falcon, in order to examine on the 

 south and south-west coasts of Ireland the fishes and 

 other marine animals down to 1,000 fathoms, and 

 returned to Queenstown on June 2nd. In one spot the 

 deep trawl, shot with 1,270 fathoms of steel wire rope, 

 brought up, among other interesting creatures, a black 

 fish with white eyes. After dredging had terminated 

 the various specimens secured were examined, which 

 showed, besides some very strange deep-sea fish, several 

 specimens of that strange genus of echinoderms Calveria, 

 a few silicious sponges, and the rare and beautiful 

 Cassidcria tyrhena, and some large and exquisitely 

 coloured sea anemones ; also a quantity of Carinaria 

 and Pleropoda, which were captured in surface nets. 

 Mr. Day photographed the animals, and Mr. Kane \i\1\\ 

 his brush secured the bright colours which vanish quickly 

 from the specimens. Mr. Sladen, of London, will 

 examine the echinoderms. Professor Solas, Trinity 

 College, will examine the sponges, and Mr. Wright, of 

 Belfast, will examine the foraminifera, after which the 

 specimens will be forwarded to the Royal Irish Academy 

 and the Science and Art Museum. 



Waterspouts. — We learn from the " Pilot Chart of the 

 North Atlantic," issued by the American Hydrographic 

 Office, that on April loth, in latitude 40° 59' N., longtitude 

 47° 30' W., a large waterspout, accompanied by several 

 smaller ones, formed to the southward of the British 

 steamship Pavonia, Captain McKay, and travelled to the 

 N.-E. at a rate of about thirty miles an hour. The vessel's 

 course was changed to avoid it. As it passed, the whirl- 

 ing rush of air was felt on board. The great column of 

 water reached up to a dense, black, low-lying cloud, and 

 was in shape like a huge hour-glass. It was accom- 

 panied by a terrific roaring, and the water at its base was 

 churned into a mass of foam, causing such a commotion 

 that it made the great ocean steamship tremble. When 

 off the starboard bow, the spout broke, with vivid 

 lightning, heavy thunder, and a deluge of rain and hail. 

 Many pieces of ice fell on deck ; they were irregular in 

 shape, some of them from 4 to 6 ins. in diameter, looking, 

 as the captain expressed it, as if chopped off a large 

 block. On the afternoon of the following day, and in a 

 position about 250 miles N.-E. from that of the Pavonia, 

 Captain Wills, of the British Ouccn, reports seeing three 

 distinct spouts at the same time — one to the N., one to 

 the S.-W., and one about S.S.-E. The one observed 

 most carefully commenced with the formation of three 

 small inverted cones, projecting downwards from the 

 clouds. These gradually merged into one, which in- 

 creased rapidly in size, with a white centre visible 

 throughout its length, and seemed to grow downwards 

 until it reached the surface, where it caused a great com- 

 motion. At first its axis was nearly up and down, but 

 soon became very strongly curved to the westward at 

 about the middle of its length, owing, probably, to the 

 varying currents of air. Its diameter gradually decreased 

 until it died away in the distance, a fine sinuous line 

 reaching from the clouds to the surface of the water. It 

 also appears that seven pronounced cyclonic slorms 

 passed over portions of the North Atlantic during the 

 past month, but none traversed the entire ocean. 



A Thunderstorm on the Top of Ben Nevis. — Mr. R. 

 F. Omond, Superintendent of Ben Nevis Observatory, 

 in his report on the weather for May, sa^s: — On the 

 evening of the i8th temperature began to rise rapidly, 

 and it continued high — over 40'' — all the 19th, on the 

 afternoon of which day a severe thunderstorm passed 

 over the hill top. A south-west gale of about sixty miles 

 an hour was blowing at the time, and the thunder clouds 

 coming rapidly up over the hills to the south-east at about 

 the level of Ben Nevis struck the top, enveloping it in 

 mist, and pouring down heavy rain. As each cloud 

 came on, the lightning, though vivid, was not very 

 frequent ; but as the cloud left the hill top a slight shock 

 was always felt in the observatory, a sharp report being 

 heard in the lightning conductor, and occasionally sparks 

 springing out from the stoves and other large pieces of 

 iron in the building. A slight fall of temperature the 

 day after this storm was quickly followed by a rise, and 

 from the 21st to the 26th was the period of finest 

 weather in the month — the barometer and temperature 

 were both high, the air dry, the sky nearly cloudless, 

 and the winds light. During these six days over two- 

 thirds of the whole sunshine of the month was recorded. 

 The last five days of the month, however, have been 

 colder and rather stormy, heavy showers of snow falling, 

 with strong, squally winds. 



