June 8, 1888.] 



SCIENCE 



277- 



States Coast Survey. The report contains, besides the results of 

 geological surveys, valuable statistics of the production and ship- 

 ment of anthracite coal for 1885 and 1886. At the same time have 

 been issued the atlas-sheets embracing Bucks and Montgomery 

 Counties. 



— Ch. Montigny was led by an occasional observation to the 

 study of the scintillations of stars and their relations to atmospheric 

 disturbances. On Dec. 7, 1 886, he noticed, during his observations 

 at Brussels, that the scintillations of the stars suddenly increased, 

 although the meteorological instruments showed no change what- 

 ever. A few hours later, however, the barometer began to sink, 

 and a gale arose which lasted for two days. This led the observer 

 to the conclusion that the high strata of tlie atmosphere were dis- 

 turbed hours before the instruments were in any way affected. A 

 thorough investigation of observations showed that this was of fre- 

 quent occurrence, and that the scintillations also continued after the 

 storm had passed. Besides this, they were the stronger the fiercer 

 the storms raged, and the nearer the minimum passed the place of 

 observation. 



— The 'Second Annual Report of the Meteorological Institute of 

 Roumania for ihe Year 18S6' is a valuable contribution to our 

 knowledge of the climate of south-eastern Europe. It contains 

 only the results of observations made at Bucharest, although a consid- 

 erable number of stations of the second order have collected meteor- 

 ological data, the appropriations being insufficient for their publica- 

 tion. The director of the institute, Prof. Stefan C. Hepitos, well de- 

 serves the thanks of meteorologists for the valuable work he has done, 

 the amount of which is astonishing, considering that all has been done 

 with an annual appropriation of less than $2,400. He sets forth an 

 interesting plan of increasir^ the number of stations and of a thor- 

 ough study of the climatic elements of Roumania. which, if carried 

 out, would give us the much-desired data on the meteorology of 

 that region. 



— The Prince of Monaco has published several preliminary 

 papers on the results of the cruises of his sailing yacht ' L'Hiron- 

 delle.' In 1885 her course was from Lorient to Cape Finisterre and 

 the Azores, whence an e.xcursion was made north-westward as far 

 as 44° north latitude. Having returned to the Azores, she sailed 

 north-north-west as far as 50° north latitude, and then returned to 

 Lorient. In 1886 the prince sailed westward from Cape Finisterre 

 until he reached the twentieth degree west from Paris, which he 

 followed to 50° north latitude. The special object of this cruise 

 being to ascertain the connection of the currents of the Bay of 

 Biscay with those of the Atlantic, a great number of floats were 

 immersed on this route, part of which were found again, thus fur- 

 nishing valuable material regarding the currents of the North 

 Atlantic. The last cruise was even more extended than the first 

 ones. Starting from the Azores, the prince followed a straight line 

 to Newfoundland, thus crossing the Gulf Stream drift. On this line 

 931 floats were set adrift. At the same time, soundings, bathy- 

 thermometrical readings, and dredgings were made. Attention 

 vifas paid to the subject of fisheries, particularly to that of the sar- 

 dine, which was formerly so abundant on the French coasts, while 

 it has now almost disappeared. 



— Prof. F. W. Clark of the National Museum will make a unique 

 collection of mineral species for exhibition at the Cincinnati Expo- 

 sition. A portion of the twenty-five thousand dollars appropriated 

 by Congress to enable the Government of the United States to 

 participate in that exposition has been placed at Professor Clark's 

 disposition, and he will supplement the specimens he will select 

 from the museum collection with others obtained especially for this 

 occasion. The collection will be of great scientific value. 



— Petermann's Mitteilungen for May publishes a full account of 

 Captain van Gele's exploration of the Obangi, accompanied by a 

 map which has been constructed by B. Hassenstein, who reduced 

 Junker's observations in the country adjoining the upper Welle. 

 He calls attention to the important fact that Junker learned of the 

 existence of a chief called Bangusso four days' journey west from 

 Singio. Van Gele discovered a northern tributary of the Welle, 

 which was called by the natives Bangasso as coming from Bangas- 



so : therefore it is probable that Van Gele's Bangasso is the lower 

 course of Junker's Mbomo, on the banks of which Bangusso's vil- 

 lage is situated. In this case the Kutu would prove to be a tribu- 

 tary of the Mbomo. Since the great discoveries in the basin of the 

 Kassai no expedition has helped more to make clear the hydrog- 

 raphy of Central Africa than Van Gele's, the limits of the Kongo- 

 watershed being now pretty well known. 



— The Linna;an Society held its centenary celebration May 24, 

 according to Nature of that date. The following eulogia were 

 pronounced : on Linnaeus, by Prof. Thore Fries, the present occu- 

 pant of the chair of botany at Upsala ; on Robert Brown, by Sir 

 Joseph Hooker ; on Charles Darwin, by Professor Flower ; on 

 George Bentham, by Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer. The Linnasan' 

 gold medal, instituted by the society on the occasion of its cente- 

 nary, was presented to Sir Joseph Hooker (botanist) and Sir Rich- 

 ard Owen (zoologist). In subsequent years the presentation will 

 be alternately to a botanist and zoologist. 



— ' Popular Physics,' by J. Dorman Steele, Ph.D. (A. S. Barnes. 

 & Co.. publishers, New York), forms the third of a new series- 

 upon the sciences. Many of the features of its parent book, 'Four- 

 teen Weeks in Physics,' will serve to identify this new work. 



T. Fisher Unwin, 26 Paternoster Square, London, announces a 

 second edition, revised and rewritten on the basis of the first 

 edition by Edward Newman, of ' Birdsnesting and Bird-skinning,' — 

 a description of the nests and eggs of birds which breed in Britain ;, 

 with directions for their collection and preservation, a chapter on 

 bird-skinning, and description and woodcuts of the instruments. 



necessary to the collector, — by Miller Christy. Messrs. James 



W. Queen & Co., Philadelphia, have just issued a new and very 

 complete edition of their catalogue of electrical testing apparatus. 

 This covers nearly every form of apparatus called for in a well- 

 equipped electrical laboratory. 



— In the June Andover Review Dr. Bemis continues his papers on 

 immigration, pointing out in the present number the distribution of 

 our immigrants. The experiment at Harvard in solving the problem- 

 of the relation of religion in its outward form to university life, is. 

 clearly stated by Rev. D. N. Beach. Professor James of the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania gives an account of the requirements for 



the degree of Ph.D. in German universities. The Americaiv 



Garden for June is a special rose number. The approaching 



' heated term ' renders an article on ' Summer Indigestion and 

 Diarrhoea' in the current number of i?rt^'/ioo^/ seasonable. 



— It is not often that a part of Edwards's superb ' Butterflies of 

 North AiTierica ' appears with so much interesting matter in it as 

 is found in the fifth number, just issued. A rare form of Califor- 

 nian MelitcEa is figured, — of which all efforts to obtain the early 

 stages have so far been unsuccessful, — two species of Erebia from 

 the Rocky Mountains, and our eastern Portlandia. The plate of: 

 the latter is crowded with figures of early stages in most exquisite: 

 delineation. Although figured long ago by Abbot, his drawings, 

 published by Boisduval & LeConte, were among the worst he ever 

 made, so as to be quite misleading; while Mr. Edwards figures - 

 also the ^'g^ and every stage of the caterpillar, — a thing the more 

 difficult to do. as it hibernates in the middle of its larval life. The 

 text gives a complete history of this interesting and excessively 

 local species, the habits of which are described in very different 

 terms by different observers. But the most interesting of all is the 

 plate of Erebia, which figures, as we have said, two species, giving 

 for one of them the egg and earliest stage of the caterpillar ; the 

 latter never before figured or described for this genus, although 

 thirty or forty species are known in Europe. That it should finally 

 be made known by a naturalist in Eastern Ainerica, where it is un- 

 known, is a curious commentary on the zeal of our transatlantic 

 brethren. The species has been taken only by one collector, and 

 only at a height of from twelve thousand to fourteen thousand feet 

 on the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, where the 

 ground is covered by broken black rocks, above which the butter- 

 fly, which is of a deep black color, rarely rises far, and upon which 

 when alighted it can scarcely be detected. When we learn from 

 the cover that the expense of the preceding number was only 



