224 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 110 



— A Mr. Lorenz of Baden has invented a new com- 

 pound projectile for infantry rifles, which consists of 

 a steel case with a core of lead. In the experiments 

 made the projectile penetrated three millimetres of 

 iron, twenty-seven centimetres of beech-wood, and 

 forty centimetres of fir-wood; in all, 67.3 centimetres, 

 placed at a distance of thirty paces from the muzzle 

 of the rifle. The projectile was unchanged in shape, 

 and the lead core remained firm. 



— Dr. Everest, who crossed the Yukon Portage last 

 summer, reports from Fort Eeliance, Yukon River, 

 his safe arrival there July 22, 1884. He found mi- 

 ners on the river seventy-five miles above Fort Sel- 

 kirk, who reported very rich washings on a bar in 

 the river, the gold-dust being very fine and scaly. 

 He intended to ascend the White River last autumn, 

 and, if possible, to cross to the Copper River this 

 spring, and descend to its mouth. The country 

 seemed to him to resemble northern Idaho, with roll- 

 ing hills densely wooded with larch and poplar and 

 willows along the river-banks, and luxuriant herbage. 



— A course of public lectures has been commenced 

 at San Diego, Cal., under the auspices of the Society 

 of natural history, the proceeds to go toward a build- 

 ing-fund. The first was delivered by Mrs. Elizabeth 

 Surr, lately of London; and the second by Dr. Frank 

 Cowan, during the stay of the surveying steamer 

 Carlile P. Patterson, on which Dr. Cowan was a 

 guest during its voyage from the east, on the way to 

 Alaska, where it is to be stationed. 



— In a recent bulletin of the Geological society of 

 France, Oehlert gives the result of an important 

 study of certain imperfectly known types of Devonian 

 brachiopods long since described by D'Orbigny, and 

 which are fully illustrated. The memoir places on 

 a sound basis the section of Rhynchonella named 

 Uncinulus by Bayle, while Uncinulina of the same 

 author is shown to be untenable. The paper is par- 

 ticularly important as a contribution to our knowl- 

 edge of the Phynchonellidae. 



— Dr. Theodore Stein has succeeded in obtaining 

 photographs of the larynx. The throat and larynx 

 are illuminated by an incandescent electrical lamp, 

 cooled by Nitze's system of cooling by water. A 

 small mirror reflects the image on a gelatine-bromide 

 plate in a camera-obscura, and a photograph is ob- 

 tained showing the organs in health or disease, thus 

 removing all risks of laryngeal diseases by inhaling 

 the breath. 



— C. F. im Thurm, the German explorer of British 

 Guiana, has undertaken a new expedition into the 

 interior of this colony, in order to climb Mount 

 Roraima. At a height of 5,600 feet above the sea- 

 level he found a veritable garden of orchids; and, 

 still more wonderful, on his way thither he found a 

 tribe of Indians conducting a Christian service with- 

 out a missionary among them. 



— A cable despatch was received March 7, at the 

 Harvard college observatory, from Dr. Krueger of 

 Kiel, announcing the discovery of a new planet of 

 the eleventh magnitude by Borelly on March 6^.3650 



Greenwich mean time; right ascension, 11 h. 6m. 

 13.5 s. ; declination, + 7° 9' 17"; daily motion, — 48 s. 

 in right ascension, — 9' in declination. 



— The fourth course of free scientific lectures 

 given by the Cincinnati society of natural history 

 was concluded on March 6. The attendance, in 

 spite of the weather, has been excellent. Among 

 the lectures were ' Water-crystallization,' by Prof. 

 William L. Dudley; 'Ancient vegetation of the 

 earth,' by Prof. Jos. F. James; and 'Diatoms,' by 

 Ex-Gov. Jacob D. Cox. 



— The council of the Royal meteorological society 

 was announced to hold at the Institution of civil 

 engineers, on the evenings of March 18 and 19, an 

 exhibition of sunshine-recorders and solar and ter- 

 restrial radiation instruments. The society will also 

 exhibit any new meteorological apparatus invented 

 or first constructed during the past year, as well as 

 photographs and drawings possessing meteorological 

 interest. 



— Mr. Eugen Himly, in the Photographic nevis, 

 Jan. 2, 1885, describes an apparatus to avoid the bril- 

 liant glare of an artificial light in photography. He 

 conceals the light in a case from which the rays are 

 thrown out by reflectors. This diffuser is mounted 

 upon a rail on the ceiling, and can be slowly moved 

 along this during the exposure, thus giving to all 

 sides of the picture an equal brightness. 



— At the meeting of the Gesellschaft fur erdkunde 

 in Berlin, Jan. 3, Dr. Steinmann read a paper on his 

 journeys in southern Patagonia. In 1882 he went as 

 geological assistant to the fourth German expedition 

 to Punta Arenas, mainly with the object of studying 

 the southern Cordilleras. What struck him particu- 

 larly here was the extraordinary difference in the plant 

 forms to those of the southern Cordilleras. While on 

 the western slopes vegetation is rich in forms, the 

 climate of the steppes reigns on the eastern side. 

 From a geological point of view, the southern point 

 of America is extremely simple in its build, but it is 

 of a different character on the east and west. On the 

 east, chalk formations occur almost entirely; while 

 on the west, where there are innumerable islands, 

 there is nothing but granite and crystalline rocks. 

 Although the configuration of the coast has been 

 studied thoroughly by the English, Dr. Steinmann 

 thinks that many important questions have still to be 

 settled; for instance, whether Laguna Blanca, lying 

 to the north-east of the settlement Kyrsing Water, 

 has an outlet to the west. Ultimately, the lecturer 

 reached the laguna of the third settlement of Santa 

 Cruz, of which it may with certainty be said that it 

 was connected, until recently, with the Pacific Ocean. 

 It may also be concluded that at that time the main- 

 land was much more cut up by channels and water- 

 ways than it is now. In May, 1883, Dr. Steinmann 

 visited, in the company of Fuegian seal-hunters, the 

 islands south of the Straits of Magellan, including 

 Tierra del Fuego. Ultimately, he made his way from 

 the southern point of America to Bolivia, and here 

 continued his investigations. 



