Sept. 14, 



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SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



279 



General ilotes. 



Natural Gas. — The Chinese obtain and utilise natural 

 gas, especially near the town of Tsulin-Tsing, in Su- 

 Tchuan. The gas, when reached, which is at depths of 

 500 to 600 yards, is conveyed away in pipes of bamboo, 

 and is to a great extent used for boiling down the lime 

 from the neighbouring salt-mines. Below the salt lie 

 deposits of petroleum. 



The Greenland Expedition, — The Jason, which con- 

 veyed Dr. Mansen and his fellow-explorers from Iceland 

 to the east coast of Greenland, has recently returned to 

 Norway. It landed the daring adventurers on July 17th 

 in 65 2' N. lat. upon the ice, at about ten miles from 

 the coast. There was every reason to suppose that they 

 would reach the land in safety, the ice being apparently 

 solid and continuous. 



The Satellites of Mars. — M. E. Dubois [Comptes 

 JRendns) suggests that Phobos and Deimos may have 

 been two members of the large group of small planets 

 circulating in the region between Mars and Jupiter, 

 which having passed excessively near to Mars have 

 recently become his satellites. This conjecture would 

 account for the fact that they had never been observed 

 prior to the month of August, 1877. 



The Vapour Tensions of Alcoholic Solutions. — 

 M. F. M. Raoalt (Academy of Sciences) had some time 

 ago concluded that one molecule of a solid, non-saline 

 substance on dissolving in 100 molecules of any volatile 

 liquid whatever, diminishes the vapour-tension of the 

 liquid by a constant fraction of its value close upon 

 o'oro4. He now finds that this law extends to metallic 

 salts as well as to o rt *anic bodies. 



Causes of Bald? is. — The alleged causes of baldness 

 are undue nervoi strain, excessive heat from head- 

 covers, constriction jf the blood-vessels of the head by 

 tight hats. In opposition to the two latter theories, Mr. 

 G. O. Rogers [Popular Science Monthly) cites the fact that 

 the Parsees of Bombay never have their heads uncovered, 

 and when out of doors wear a very stiff, tall hat, fitting 

 tightly to the head. Yet among them baldness is said 

 to be unknown. 



The Subsidences of the Earth's Surface. — This 

 subject, with especial reference to France, has recently 

 been carefully studied by M. C. M. Goulier. He 

 concludes that the movements of the ground, the 

 existence of which along the coasts has long been 

 established, especially along the north of France and 

 Holland, ta^e place also in the interior of continents, and 

 that with an intensity and a complexity little suspected. 



Arch.-eological Discoveries. — Reports have lately 

 appeared in Austrian and German papers of discoveries 

 of Roman antiquities made within the last few weeks. 

 At Doboj, in Bosnia, the remains of a fortress, erected 

 probably to hold the Dacians in check, were 

 traced by Dr. Tuhelka, who is the cus/os of ancient 

 monuments in Bosnia. They lay on the summit of a 

 cliff, which is at the junction of the Bosnia and Usura, 

 and were covered with a shallow layer of mould. The 

 ruins formed a series of terraces, at the highest point of 

 which was a sort of citadel. An inscription was found, 



which showed that at some time the first Belgic cohort 

 was in garrison at the spot. The utterly shattered con- 

 dition of the remains of masonry, which are simply 

 rubbish, indicates that they have been the scene of some 

 great catastrophe. It has been suggested that an earth- 

 quake may have been the destructive agent, for a quantity 

 of broken skeletons have been found buried in the 

 greatest confusion all over the place in crumbled masonry 

 and mortar. The place is an admirable situation for 

 defence, being practically impregnable on two sides ; and 

 it dominates the surrounding country. Various articles, 

 such as would be likely to be found in a Roman military 

 colony, have been collected from the ruins. At Deutsch 

 Altenburg, supposed to be the site of the ancient Car- 

 numtum, not far from Pressburg, the outline of a circus 

 has been traced, and much of the interior has been laid 

 bare. The place has been for centuries tilled, all the 

 remains being covered over with a rich loam, in some 

 places only a few inches deep. This has, no doubt, 

 chiefly contributed to the very perfect preservation oi 

 the ground plan. The Oderzeitung reports the finding 

 in the Lossow district, near Frankfort on the Oder, ot 

 about 30 clay vessels of various sizes and patterns, some 

 urns, some pots, deep saucers, flasks, etc. They were 

 filled with the ashes of burnt corpses mixed with sand. 

 The colour was a brownish yellow ; some were broken, 

 and the fractures showed that coal ashes had been mixed 

 with the clay of which they were made. Some bronze 

 needles were found with them, finished at the top in a 

 semicircular shape. The vessels seem to have been formed 

 on a lathe, and are tolerably smooth, regular in shape, 

 and only slightly baked. The largest were about 30 

 centimetres in diameter at the widest part, and 26 centi- 

 metres high. The ornaments were either triangles or 

 semicircles scratched on the surface with points impressed 

 on the surface. Possibly the site where they were found 

 was a refuge and a place of sacrifice in old German times. 



Coral. — The Journal de la Chambr" de Commerce de 

 Constantinople, writing of coral, says that it is found in 

 every sea from the equator to the polar regions, but it 

 develops best in the tropical parts of the Pacific, where 

 the temperature of the water never falls below 20 degs. C 

 The coral of commerce, which is that used for jewellery, 

 is known as corallnm rubrum, or red coral, and is found 

 in abundance in the Mediterranean, principally off the 

 coast of Italy, in the neighbourhood of Sicily and 

 Messina, off Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands, 

 Provence, Catalonia, Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis. It is 

 dark-red on the Barbary coast, yellow on that of 

 Sardinia, and rose on the Italian and Tunisian coasts. 

 The most beautiful /ose coral is found especially on th e 

 rocks off Galita and Fratelli islands, off the north coas 

 of Tunis. White coral is also met with off Barbary ; it 

 is only a variety of the red. Black coral is found in the 

 same place, but this is believed to be merely broken 

 branches under the influence of chemical action. Most 

 of the coral boats are Italian. Fishing is carried on in 

 water of varying depths ; but the deeper it is the greater 

 the probability of obtaining valuable coral. Hence it is 

 usual not to fish within a distance of three leagues from 

 the coast. That obtained from a depth of 50 metres is 

 not comparable to that got from 600 metres by means of 

 the dredge. In shallow water there is very little chance 

 of finding the beautiful rose coral, which is said to be 

 worth fifty times its weight in gold. The Italian fisher- 

 men take their coral to Leghorn usually, where it is 



