JANUARY 11, 1884.] 
Switzerland. The difference of levels at Trieste and 
Amsterdam, measured vid Silesia and Bavaria, ap- 
pears to be 0.59 metre. Each of these four results 
(0.72, 0.66, 0.80, and 0.59) having a probable error of 
0.1 metre, their accordance is quite satisfactory; and 
we may admit thus that the average level of the 
Mediterranean is in fact lower by 0.7 metre than that 
of the Atlantic. 
—Many years ago the late Mr. Leonard Horner 
communicated to the Royal society the results of a 
“series of borings which he had caused to be made in 
the upper part of the delta of the Nile, with a view 
of ascertaining the antiquity of the civilization of 
Egypt. Since that time, Figari Bey, an Italian geolo- 
gist in the service of the Egyptian government, has 
made and published the results of a large series of 
borings effected in different parts of the delta; but 
his work is hardly on a level with the requirements 
of modern science. It has been thought advisable, 
therefore, by the British government, to take ad- 
vantage of the presence of its troops in Egypt in 
order to carry out a series of borings across the mid- 
dle of the delta, in the full expectation that such 
borings, if made with proper care, and carried down 
to the solid rock, will afford information of the most 
important character, and will throw a new light upon 
the natural and civil history of this unique country. 
Instructions have been sent to the officer command- 
ing the engineers to undertake the operations; and it 
is hoped, that, before long, information will reach us 
which will be of no less interest to the archeologist 
than to the geologist. 
— The committee of the British association for the 
advancement of science, consisting of Profs. G. H. 
Darwin and J. C. Adams, for the harmonic analysis 
of tidal observations, made its report at the South- 
port meeting of the association last year (1883). Pro- 
fessor Darwin, who is the author of the report, states, 
that, although it is drawn up in a form probably dif- 
fering widely from that which it would have had if 
Professor Adams had been the author, the latter 
agrees with the correctness of the methods pursued. 
The general scope of the paper is to form a manual 
for the reduction of tidal observations by the har- 
monic analysis inaugurated by Sir William Thomson, 
4nd carried out by the previous committee of the 
association; and it is intended to systematize the 
exposition of the theory of the harmonic analysis, to 
complete the methods of reduction, and to explain 
the whole process. The method of mathematical 
treatment differs considerably from that of Professor 
Thomson; he having followed in particular, and ex- 
tended to the diurnal tides, Laplace’s method of 
referring each tide to the motion of an astre fictif in 
the heavens, considering that these fictitious satellites 
are helpful in forming a clear conception of the equi- 
librium theory of tides. Professor Darwin, however, 
having found the fiction rather a hinderance than 
otherwise, has departed from this method, and con- 
nected each tide with an ‘argument,’ or an angle 
increasing uniformly with the time, and giving by its 
hourly increase the ‘speed’ of the tide. In the 
SCIENCE. 55 
method of the astres fictifs, the ‘speed’ is the differ- 
ence between the earth’s angular velocity of rotation 
and the motion of the fictitious satellite amongst the 
stars. ‘The committee practically found itself engaged 
in the question of the reduction of Indian tidal ob- 
servations; since it is only in that country that any 
extensive system of observation, with systematic 
publication of results, exists. Professor Darwin has 
discussed the entire subject with Major A. W. Baird, 
R.E., the officer in charge, at Poona, of the tidal de- 
partment of the survey of India; and their general 
agreement as‘to the modifications to be made in the 
notation of the old reports appears to insure a har- 
monious course of future procedure. Major Baird 
returned to India in the spring of 1883, and lately 
began revising all the published results, so as to bring 
them into the uniform system here recommended. 
— The southern part of the peninsula of California 
has recently been explored by Dr. H. Ten Kate, who 
reports (Rev. d’ethnogr., ii. 8321-326) that there are no 
longer Indians of pure race dwelling in that region. 
The blood of the ancient Pericuis and Coras flows, it 
is true, in a great number of métis; but they resemble 
the Spaniard far more than they do the Indian. In 
the graves of the dead few relics are found. Here 
and there on the cliffs are rock-paintings, a few of 
which Dr. Ten Kate reproduces. The paper closes 
with the account of a discovery in Sonora. M. 
Emeric has found upon the shore of the sea, about 
ten metres above the water-mark, under innumerable 
blocks of lava, objects resembling fishes and turtles 
cut out of marble and a hard green rock. He also 
found several stone knives smoothly polished. 
— The Society of naturalists of Moscow has sent 
Kudriaotzeff to examine in detail the geology of the 
region drained by the upper waters of the Oka. Do- 
kuchaeff undertakes similar studies for the region 
traversed by the Volga. Both these investigations 
are made at the special request of the authorities of 
the provinces named; and their results, combined with 
those already derived from the studies of Russian 
geologists for other districts, will go far toward a basis 
for a satisfactory geological map of this part of 
Europe. 
— The calculation by Gladisheff, of Stebnitzki’s 
astronomical data for the position of Ka-uchit Kala, 
the capital of the Merv oasis, has been concluded, and 
places it in 37° 35’ 19” north latitude, and 59° 27’ 20’- 
east longitude, from Paris, — a position tolerably near 
that derived from older and less perfect observations. 
— Some interesting facts regarding the public col- 
lections of American archeology in the United States 
are given by Henry Phillips, jun., in a paper to the 
American philosophical society. Judging by this 
report, there are six museums of the first class in this 
country, containing upwards of five thousand speci- 
mens, — the Academy of natural sciences in Philadel- 
phia, the Davenport academy of natural sciences, 
the National museum at Washington, the Peabody 
museum of American archeology and ethnology at 
Cambridge, the Peabody academy of science at Salem, 
