Sept. 21, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



309 



15 lb. per 1,000 c. ft. passed into the holder under 

 ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. On 

 this basis the yield of gas is a little over 149,000 c. ft., 

 or, allowing for the presence of 50 per cent, of nitrogen 

 and carbonic acid, say 74,500 c. ft, of combustible gas 

 per ton of fuel consumed. 



(To be continued.) 



THE ARCHjEOPTERYX. 



HE oldest known bird was found in the Mesozoic 

 (Jurassic) strata, at Solenhofen, in Bavaria. The 



T 



the varied distinguished museums as to which should 

 have the honour of possessing the ancient specimen, and 

 at length our British Museum carried off the prize, pay- 

 ing ^700 for the privilege. A still more perfect speci- 

 men (of which we give an illustration) was found 

 in 1877, at the Pappenheim Quarries; this was offered 

 to the British Government, who were very desirous of 

 having it, but in recollection of the previous specimen, 

 for which they had paid ^700, they refused to purchase 

 it, and it was then sold to the German Museum, at 

 Berlin, for about £ 1,000 ; and unscientific observers 

 were much struck with the enormous price paid for so 



The Arch/eoptervx. (After Dames.) 



history of its remains is curious. A single feather 

 was first found in i860, and caused much talk. Then, 

 in 1861, a whole specimen came to light, and 

 this, after much cogitation of learned geologists and 

 naturalists, was christened Archaopteryx macrura, from 

 its long tail (archaics, ancient; ptervx, wing; inakros, 

 long ; onra, tail). There was much competition among 



insignificant-looking a creature. Scientific men then 

 concerned themselves with the position of the animal in 

 the zoological world ; and Huxley created an order all 

 for itself, the Sanrurce (saura, a lizard; cura, tail), for 

 no other bird was found which could be classed with ir. 

 From the remains of the specimen, now in the Natural 

 History Museum, South Kensington, it seemed evident 



