w 
168 
photography may offer the most delicate test we yet 
have of the color of a star, — differences too small to 
be perceptible by the eye, becoming distinctly visible 
in the photographic images. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
PROFESSOR MILNE-EDWARDS writes to the Société 
de géographie in regard to the scientific work of the 
expedition on the Talisman. After having studied 
the profiles from the African coast into deep water, 
the vessel recruited at San Jago, Cape Verde Islands, 
and later at San Vincente; soundings being carried 
on during the various movements of the vessel, and 
proving of great interest, as in some cases they did 
not accord with those on the charts. Branco Island, 
which has never been visited by naturalists, was care- 
fully explored. The shores are very rocky, and it 
became necessary to swim ashore, which the tem- 
perature rendered rather agreeable. The island is 
entirely volcanic, and the rocks of a singular nature. 
Those near the shore were blocks of lava cemented 
by a sort of calcareous coquina, containing many 
shells, into a kind of pudding-stone. Others con- 
sisted of sea-sand, drifted by the winds to an altitude 
sometimes of a thousand feet, and changed into solid 
layers by calcareous infiltration. Vegetation is very 
sparse, yet the great lizards peculiar to this island 
were found to be herbivorous. The Sargasso Sea was 
then examined, and proved to be of great depth, 
reaching nearly thirty-three hundred fathoms, and the 
bottom entirely volcanic, with a rather poor fauna. 
A collection of lava and scoriae was obtained, some of 
which appeared to be of quite recent origin. ‘There 
is probably in the Atlantic an immense band of 
voleanoes extending parallel with the Andean sys- 
tem, perhaps to Iceland, and of which the culminat- 
ing peaks form the Cape Verde, Canary, and Azores 
islands. 
More than two hundred deep-sea soundings were 
made before the return of the expedition vid San 
Miguel, Azores. Wonderfully rich collections were 
made, and specimens of the bottom throughout 
the whole region traversed. The topography of the 
ocean-bottom hitherto accepted will be considerably 
modified by these researches. It was expected that 
Professor Milne-Edwards would address the society 
on the general results of the work before a general 
session about Jan. 21, and exhibit at the same time 
some of the treasures obtained. 
— At the meeting of the Paris academy of sciences, 
Dec. 10, Dr. Hyades gave a summary report on the 
geological, botanical, zoological, and anthropological 
work “accomplished by the French mission to Cape 
Horn. In thesouthern islands of the Fuegian Archi- 
pelago the prevailing rocks were found to be schists 
and granites, greatly weathered wherever unprotected 
by vegetation. The dwarf Antarctic beech is limited 
to an “altitude of four hundred metres, the Fagus be- 
tuloides to three hundred, forming with the Drimys 
and Berberis a forest zone with a humid soil poor in ~ 
vegetable humus, and covered with mosses, heaths, 
SCIENCE. 
ieee i aes 
! 
[Von. IIL, No. 53. 
and a considerable variety of small plants. The ma- 
rine flora abounds in all kinds of algae (the most 
common being the Macrocystis pyrifera), affording a — 
shelter to numerous zoophytes, annelids, mollusks, , 
crustaceans, and migratory fishes of eight or ten spe- — 
cies. Of fie cheligh, which abound on most of the 
seaboard, all the large species are edible. Although 
poorer than the marine, the land fauna includes 
several species of Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Arach- 
nida, some forty species of birds, but no reptiles or 
frogs. The mammals are represented by only one 
species of fox, two rodents, and an otter, besides the 
domestic dog. The natives all belong to the Tekee- 
nika stock of Fitzroy, called Yahgans by the present 
English missionaries. They speak an agglutinating 
language, current from the middle of Beagle passage 
to the southernmost islands about Cape Bien About 
one thousand words of this language were collected, 
including some abstract terms, such as tree, flower, 
fish, shell. 
although the natives count also on the fingers. Over 
a hundred anthropometric observations were taken 
on individuals of all ages and both sexes. Good pho- 
tographs were also obtained of a large number of — 
Fuegians, besides numerous castings of all parts of 
the body, some skeletons, and a great variety of eth- 
nological materials. 
— Besides the analyses of snow made at Madrid 
and in Holland (in which was observed voleanic sedi- 
ment similar to that of the ashes found in Java after 
the eruption of the volcano), mentioned by Mr. Upton 
in his article on the ‘ Red skies,’ in Science of Jan. 11, 
Nature of Dec. 20-—Jan. 3 contains a number of letters 
in which mention is made of a grayish volcanic (?) sedi- 
ment having been found at several points in England 
after rain-storms in December. 
— The International congress of geologists will 
meet at Berlin on the 25th of September next, and 
last five days; then a grand geological excursion 
will be made through the Hartz Mountains, Saxon 
Switzerland, from the 1st of October to the 5th, end- 
ing at Dresden by a visit to the Royal museum, 
under the guidance of its celebrated director, Prof. 
Dr HB. Geimitz 
—In Oregon City there is a large apple-tree in the 
_ Methodist-church lot, planted in 1842 by W. S. Moss, 
Esq., for Rev. G. Hines, who was then living there. 
The tree bears two kinds of fruit, but only one kind 
each year, and the different kinds appear on alter- 
nate years. It is still a vigorous, healthy tree. 
— It is understood that the outer satellite of Mars, 
Deinos, has been observed by Professor Hall during 
the present opposition. As the planet Mars is now 
near its aphelion, its visibility would seem to show 
that the satellite can be observed at every opposition 
of Mars with the great telescopes which have re- : 
cently been constructed. 
— The Pi eta scientific society of Troy, N.Y. » has 
changed its name to Rensselaer society of engi- 
neers. 
The numerals get no farther than three, | 
—— a 
Bf 
a a. oe 
