Notes and News. 6^ 



higher note than the left. The lowest continuous sounds have 

 about sixteen vibrations per second. 



Tillable Lakes. — Prof. Schwalbe has drawn the attention of the 

 Berlin Physical Society to two interesting phenomena observed in 

 the gypsum of the Southern Hartz, viz., the sinking of rivers, 

 often accompanied by loud uproar, and the occurrence of inter- 

 mittent lakes. The so-called "peasants' ditch," near Rosslau, 

 was, in the last century, as the old contracts between the two 

 neighboring villages prove, sometimes a lake serving one village 

 for fishing purposes, and sometimes dry land, which was then 

 tilled by the other village. Several channels at the bottom of the 

 lake lead to the interior of the gypsum rock, yet the water, when 

 it gathered here, stood for several years at a depth of thirty to 

 fifty feet, when it suddenly disappeared again. In the years of 

 1876, 1877 and 1878, this lake was filled with water, and since the 

 last date has been dry land. 



Geographical Progress — The advancement of geographical 

 knowledge is now encouraged by 94 geographical societies, with 

 nearly 50,000 members, and a total income of more than a quar- 

 ter of a million dollars annually. Of these societies P>ance has 

 26, with a membership of 18,000; Germany 24, with 9,000 mem- 

 bers; Italy and Switzerland, 6 each, with 3,000 members ; Great 

 Britain and her colonies, 5, with 5,000 members ; the United 

 States, 2, with 1,500 members. There are 126 periodicals de- 

 voted to geography, of which 42 are published in French ; 38 in 

 German; 8 in Russian; 7 in Italian, 6 each in English, Spanish 

 and Portuguese ; and i each in Danish, Hungarian, Swedish, 

 Roumanian and Japanese. 



In a report to the French Academy of Sciences, on the 172 

 tornadoes recorded in the United States in 1884, Mons. Faye 

 considers it established that there is a definite portion of an area 

 of low barometer most favorable to tornadoes. The Signal Ser- 

 vice reporters are now endeavoring to determine this " dangerous 

 octant " still more accurately, A memorable day in the history 

 of tornadoes was February 19, 1884, when no less than forty-five 

 were recorded in the South-Eastern States, attended with a loss 

 of 800 lives, 25,000 injured, 10,000 houses and buildings de- 

 stroyed, and 15,000 people left homeless. 



Japanese Seismology — Regular earthquake observations are 

 now made in Japan according to Prof. Seikei Sediya, of the 

 University of Tokio, at over 600 stations throughout the empire. 

 From the reports sent in by different observers, maps have been 

 made showing the disturbed area in every shock, and a summary 

 of observations during the last year has been compiled. The 

 total number of earthquakes in Japan in 1885 was 482, or 1.03 per 

 day. In Tokio alone 68 shocks were registered. They are most 

 prevalent in the northern and central portions of the main island 



