July 24, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



63 



from the railroad commissioners, the manufac- 

 turers of clocks and watches, the maj'ors or 

 other authorities in the cities of the state, the 

 telephone and telegraph companies, or the 

 observator3\ He states that no reason for 

 this action was given except economy ; and 

 he claims that the observatorj^ should be at 

 least reimbursed for the considerable expense 

 which it had incurred in preparation for this 

 service. Unless there is some reason for the 

 action of the general assembly not apparent 

 to us, its conduct is certainly most discredit- 

 able to a state so intelligent and so wealthy 

 as Connecticut. Nobody can believe that 

 the moderate charge upon the treasury, in 

 return for a service of such universal advan- 

 tage, can have been burdensome. It is more 

 likeh^ that the action was due to a lack of 

 acquaintance with the points involved, or to 

 the prejudice of some individual. It is re- 

 markable that a state which may almost be 

 called ' the land of the clock-maker ' should 

 by its official action throw contempt upon ac- 

 curate time-keeping. Such ' jerky ' legislation 

 is what the state universities of the west are 

 wonted to, but nobody expected it in a matter 

 like this from the land of steady habits. The 

 fii'st of steady habits is fidelity to an engage- 

 ment, real or implied ; and the second is like 

 unto it, — punctuality in all matters where time 

 is an element in the obligation. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*i^* Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Untimely death of a chipping-sparro-w. 



The following tragic event occurred in the village 

 of Wake Forest on the 15th of June. The nest was 

 near completion : the lining of hair was being put in. 

 Somehow, in the midst of this process, the sparrow's 

 head became entangled in one end of a long horse- 

 hair, the other end o^ which had been securely woven 

 into the bottom of the nest. When he rose to go, 

 the half-knot tightened round his neck, and poor 

 chippy was found dangling some twelve inches below 

 the nest, hung by the neck, and quite dead. I am 

 told that a similar event occurred here a day or two 

 after that stated above. In this case, however, the 

 sparrow was hung by a cotton string, and was found 

 80 soon after the mishap, that he was released, having 

 suffered little harm. 



W. L. POTEAT. 



Wake Forest college, North Carolina. 



The Washington monument, and the lightning 

 stroke of June 5. 



By one who was near its base, the stroke of lightning 

 which injured the Washington monument is remem- 

 bered as a ball of fire coming towards him. Does 

 not this observation explain the ball of fire so often 

 reported ? An electric spark passing between two 

 points, will, to a circle of observers, present various 

 appearances. If two inches long, it will be seen as 

 a line of fire two inches long by some, while to those 

 in the line of its motion it will be a single spark. 

 So when a flash of lightning (a line of fire) is direct- 

 ed toward the observer, it must appear as a ball of 

 fire, motionless if the movement is directly toward 

 the observer, moving with comparative slowness if 

 slightly off that direction, and with electric rapidity 

 if across the field of view at right angles with the 

 line to the observer's place. 



M. C. Meigs. 



Washiogton, D.C. 



Volcanic dust east of the Rocky Mountains. 



My attention has recently been called to the in- 

 teresting letter of Mr. George P. Merrill in Science 

 for April 24, on ' Volcanic dust from south-western 

 Nebraska,' and his subsequent paper on the same in 

 the Proceedings of the U. S. national museum, 1885, 

 pp. 99, 100. Since Mr. Merrill seems not to be aware 

 of any earlier published notice of similar volcanic 

 dust found east of the Eocky-Mountain region, a 

 short note may not be amiss here. 



In October, 1882, my friend and colleague, Mr. 

 Samuel Garman, placed in my hands for examination 

 a fine gray sand found in Dakota. This, on exami- 

 nation, was seen to be composed of volcanic glass 

 in shards, tubes, etc., mostly water-clear; but a few 

 forms contained glass inclusions and vapor cavities. 

 A few grains were brown, like many of the rhyolitic 

 glasses; many were ribbed, or thicker on one side, 

 thinning down to an edge on the other; others were 

 apparently of uniform thickness; and none gave evi- 

 dence of being wind or water worn. A very little 

 earthy material was found mixed with the volcanic 

 ash. Mr. Garman gave an account of this deposit 

 of glass before the Boston scientific society, Nov. 8, 

 1882, and a notice of it was published in the Boston 

 transcript for Nov. 10. Attention was further called 

 to this glass in my * Lithological studies,' published 

 early in November last, on p. 17. Mr. Garman has 

 given me the following information regarding the 

 deposit : — 



" It was found about fifty miles south by east from 

 the Black Hills, between the Niobrara and the White 

 rivers, just north of the watershed, not far from the 

 head of Antelope Creek. The bed is horizontal, and, 

 as I remember it, nearly two feet in thickness at its 

 thickest portion, and several rods in extent. The 

 deposits in the immediate neighborhood are late ter- 

 tiary. A small stream had cut away the bank in 

 which the glass lay, exposing a considerable portion 

 of it. From the exposed edge the powdery material 

 is carried away by the wind as a fine, smoke-like dust. 

 The glass in the bed is as clean as in the sample, 

 ^xcept near the upper and lower surfaces, where it is 

 mixed with other matter. To be so clean, it must 

 have been deposited by water almost free from other 

 impurities, for the winds would have mingled other 

 dust with it." 



M. E. Wadsworth. 



Museum of comparative zoology, 

 Cambridge, Mass., July 9. 



