520 



SCIUJVCU, 



[Vol. YI., No. 149. 



stellation Perseus. My observations were unavoidably 

 interrupted. At 10 o'clock I again scanned the 

 heavens, but the shower had then subsided. 



Egbert D. Schimppf. 

 Scranton, Penn., Nov. 28. 



Natural gas in Illinois. 



In an editorial note in Science for Nov. 20, there is 

 a reference to the failure of the natural gas- wells in 

 Champaign county. 111. In all, there are only about 

 a dozen gas- wells in this county. In two, which are 

 near together, the pressure is about twenty-five pounds 

 per square inch : in the others it is only a few pounds. 

 After personally investigating a number of wells, the 

 writer concludes that there has been no marked 

 decrease in the supply, the failure of any particular 

 well being due to an accumulation of mud and water 

 rather than to an exhaustion of the supply. With 

 one exception, all the wells require pumping out 

 every two or three months. The gas is nearly pure 

 marsh-gas, and is found at a depth of 70 to 90 feet, in 

 a layer of loam from 8 to 12 feet thick. Inferences 

 drawn from the Champaign county wells are inappli- 

 cable to the Pittsburg wells. 



Near Litchfield, this state, natural gas has been 

 found which in quantity, quality, and source, is 

 similar to that of Pittsburg. I. O. Baker. 



University of Illinois. 



International geological congress at Berlin. 



I have just read in Science for Oct. 30 your inter- 

 esting article on the international geological congress 

 at Berlin. Will you permit me to point out one error 

 which has escaped your attention ? It is in regard 

 to the bracketed clause which comes at the end of 

 the first column on p. 378 : ' the lower . . . beds.' 

 This phrase is inaccurate. Professor Geikie asked for 

 the suppression of the words * lower carboniferous ' 

 and * calciferous sandstone.' I accepted this without 

 opposition because it was expressly understood that 

 the typical localities referred to in my report (Kil- 

 borkan, Marwood, Pilton, Dura Den) ought to be 

 included in the upper Devonian, as the report of the 

 commission defines it. 



As to the following sentence, ' The whole para- 

 graph (c) was afterward suppressed,' I do not know 

 upon what it could have been founded. I have not 

 the least recollection that there was any suggestion 

 of the suppression of that paragraph, and you can be 

 sure that such a proposition would have given rise 

 to an animated discussion. G. Dewalque. 



Li6ge, Nov. 13. 



The English sparrow. 



The American ornithologists' union has collected 

 evidence from all parts of the country where the 

 English sparrow occurs, and has published a report 

 based upon their investigations. As I stated in Sci- 

 ence (No. 144), they have urged that laws be passed 

 against it, looking to its entire extermination. Act- 

 ing upon this advice and upon experience with the 

 pest, several states have repealed their protective 

 laws, and the bird is now under the ban. Every one 

 who has seen the bird in the east knows that it 

 drives away native birds, destroys fruit, and is disa- 

 greeable in every way. 



In regard to a means of destruction, let every 



state offer a small bounty for birds and eggs, and the 

 small boys will do the work, A bird is not at all com- 

 parable with locusts or mosquitoes. Intelligence, or 

 instinct as we may call it, makes the vast difference. 

 We might persecute insects tiU the end of time, and 

 they would still come upon us each year ; but birds 

 are very quick at seeing whether or not they are 

 wanted. If they are persecuted, they instinctively 

 draw away from man, as in the case of the crow. 

 We may not be able to entirely rid ourselves of the 

 pest, but we can at least succeed in driving them 

 away from the cities ; and once get them into the 

 country, where they caa be taught to fear the shot- 

 gun, and we shall have them at least under our 

 control. They can be driven away from the cities 

 if their nests are demolished as soon as made, and if 

 all the bird -houses are removed. A careful use of 

 poison might also work with advantage, and in the 

 large parks the shotgun in the hands of competent 

 men could be brought into use. 



I will add that if any of the readers of Science 

 are troubled with the sparrow in ivy or other vines, 

 by sprinkling red pepper among the leaves they will 

 soon be rid of the pests. This has been tried with 

 success. Ealph S. Tarr. 



Washington, D.C., Dec. 4. 



The results of shad propagation on the Atlantic 

 coast. 



In your issue of Nov. 13, p. 434, I see it stated by 

 Colonel McDonald that the rivers draining into the 

 Atlantic, from Cape Cod to the capes of the Chesa- 

 peake, together with the submerged continental 

 border lying between the coast-line and the Gulf 

 Stream, constitute an area " within the limits of 

 which the migrations of the shad are confined." 



Is this true ? It certainly was not true sixteen 

 years ago ; for at that time, I am quite sure, shad 

 were abundant in all the southern rivers. I well re- 

 member that they were especially abundant and fine 

 in the Ogeechee, ten miles south of Savannah. I 

 have not been in the southern states in shad season 

 since 1869, and therefore cannot speak from personal 

 observation since that time, but I have no doubt that 

 the same is still true. Joseph LeConte. 



Berkeley, Cal., Nov. 21. 



Crystals in maple sirup. 



I send you a photograph, kindly furnished be by Mr. 

 Arthur W. West, of some large crystals which formed 

 on the inside of a glass jar of maple sirup. The 

 sirup was made from the rock maple, Acer sacchari- 

 num, during March, 1885, by Elias Fogg, Esq., of 

 Maple Ridge, Sandwich, N.H. As this is the first 

 time that crystals have been noticed to form in the 

 sirup by Mr. Fogg, or any one in Sandwich, I thought 

 it worthy of notice. I would suggest as a theory to 

 account for this crystallization that for the past two 

 or three seasons there has been a considerable drought 

 in that part of New England, and the maple trees 

 have therefore been less gorged with water than 

 formerly, so that the sap is composed of a larger pro- 

 portion of sugar as it comes direct from the trees. 

 Mr. Fogg says that there has been no difference in 

 the process of making the sirup, but that it keeps 

 better, and is less liable to mould. J. H. Sears. 



Salem, Mass. 



