364 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 88. 



tains, tbe day of its arrival over the upper lakes could 

 be foretold, there might be thirty to sixty hours tele- 

 graphic notice given of the appointment of such a 

 day for special observation over the whole region east 

 of the Mississippi. The notice should properly take 

 a somewhat striking form, so as to excite an interest 

 in the attempt among persons who would ordinarily 

 let the weather-changes pass by unnoticed; the news- 



papers and railroads could be in nearly all cases 

 counted upon to aid in spreading the news of the 

 appointment; and even if the general records gave 

 only the direction and estimated force of the winds, 

 and beginning and ending of rainfall, two or three 

 special days of observation in June or July might 

 produce a wonderful fund of material for study." 



— Among the recently discovered petroleum-wells 

 at Bakou, Russia, was one which for four or five days 

 after opening threw a stream of oil into the air to a 

 height of forty feet. The natives were so impressed 



that they built a temple especially for the veneration 

 of the well. The wiser speculator has expended his 

 energies in building a railroad from Bakou to Batoum 

 on the Black Sea, and contemplates the construction 

 of a canal fifty miles long, by which a river of oil 

 may flow from the Caspian to the Black Sea. We re- 

 produce from Science et nature an illustration show- 

 ing the fountain of oil, copied from a photograph. 



— Lieut. Stoney, U.S.N. , commanding the U.S. 

 exploring schooner Ounalaska, has been heard from 

 under date of July 6, when he had reached latitude 

 66° 4' north, and longitude 168° 15' west. Upon 

 leaving St. Michaels, Lieut. Stoney stood north along 

 the American coast until June 27, when ice was 

 encountered fifteen miles to the northward of Sledge 

 Island, in latitude G4° 22' north, longitude 166° 25' 

 west. After several unsuccessful attempts to pene- 

 trate the ice, which proved to be very heavy at this 

 point, the Ounalaska was headed to the southward 

 until clear water was reached, when the ice to the 

 westward was skirted just to the north of St. Law- 

 rence Islands, and St. Lawrence Bay was reached 

 June 30. Learning that Kotzebue Sound was closed, 

 Lieut. Stoney anchored, and waited for the ice to 

 commence moving, and, after a four-days' gale from 

 the south, he ran over and anchored under East 

 Cape, where he remained, to take advantage of the 

 first opening of Hoi him Inlet, when the exploration 

 of Putnam River would be continued. 



— The Italian papers announce what appears to be 

 an important discovery just made in Sicily. Petro- 

 leum has been 'struck' in the province of Palermo. 

 A grotto in the flank of a mountain was pierced, and 

 in twenty-four hours seventy pints were collected. 

 The crude oil is said to be of very high quality, and 

 is so limpid that it may be used with little or no 

 refinement. The borings are being pushed forward 

 very rapidly, and their results are looked forward to 

 with no little interest. Hitherto, we believe, Italy 

 has produced no mineral oil; and if, as seems likely, 

 the new springs should prove productive on a large 

 scale, the kingdom will possess an entirely new and 

 important source of wealth. It should be added, that 

 the present discovery is the result of a number of 

 repeated but hitherto unsuccessful searches after 

 petroleum. 



— It has been announced at the hygienic congress 

 held in August at the Hague, that the prize of two 

 thousand francs, offered by the London society for 

 the prevention of blindness, is awarded to Professor 

 Ernest Fochs of Liege. The next hygienic congress 

 will be held in Vienna. 



— An interesting collection of antiquities from 

 Cyprus is now on view in London. It includes 

 beautiful specimens of ancient glass, some remains 

 of pottery, a bronze mirror with a piece of the origi- 

 nal cloth it was wrapped in, and some ancient armor. 

 There are also some silk and cotton fabrics, such as 

 are still made at Cyprus, some of which are both 

 cheap and pretty. They are made on the simple 

 hand-looms which are still used by the Cypriotes as 

 in days of old. 



