CHAR T 
TRACK 
NORTH ATUAN TI OC 
Tries 
mu 
ie 
ie 
i 
( 
nat 
1 
: 
pei 
Hh 
a 
cu 
ne 
N| 
a 
a 
Te 
i 
i 
SCIENCE. 
_| | 
ae 
Ba 
|| 
(J 
: 
SY Fes 
4)? 
SHEE 
c 
r 
H 
J 
A 
Wubiished by the, U.S,Coust a 
1 
Scale Ad5a5n0 
nic Prejection 
Nuutiedl Miles 
[Vou. IIL., No. 70. 
throughout his ocean-voyage: but this advan- 
tage is largely fictitious ; for, with better knowl- 
edge of winds and currents, it is now seldom 
found advisable for sailing-vessels to follow 
such a route; and steamers, that can afford to 
pay little attention to the weather, prefer the 
great circle, or shortest-line course, to the 
longer cne, so easily determined on the Mer- 
cator chart. The difficulty that stands in the 
way of the general adoption of great-circle sail- 
ing is the complexity of the calculation required 
in laying out the track to be followed. If this 
difficulty can be overcome by the use of the 
conic projection, then the owners of vessels 
desirous of quick passages can hardly fail to 
demand its introduction. 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
x*, Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. 
The writer’s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 
A colt and its mother’s blanket. 
My attention was called recently to the peculiar 
actions of an orphan colt, which perhaps are worth 
recording. When the colt was two weeks old, its 
mother died. Previous to her death, she was covered 
with ablanket. When it was apparent she could not 
live, the blanket was thrown over the fence, and the 
mare removed, and the colt left in the enclosure. ‘The 
colt was very much exercised at first, ran up and down 
the yard neighing; but, when it came near the blan- 
ket on the fence, it stopped, smelled of it, and seemed 
pacified. It evidently considered the blanket its 
mother, and has continued to do so. 
If the blanket is removed from the fence, the colt 
becomes restless, runs about neighing, but is recon- 
ciled by the sight of the blanket again. 
If one throw the blanket over his back, the colt 
will follow the bearer all about. | 
It will graze about in the vicinity of the blanket, 
but will not go far away, and, when it wishes to rest, 
will go and lie down by it. F. L. HARVEY. 
Fayetteville, Ark., May 20. 
The invention of the vertical camera in pho- 
tography. 
In a footnote accompanying an article by Mr. 
Simon H. Gage, printed in this journal under date 
of April 11, 1884, on the application of photogra- 
phy to the production of natural-history figures, it 
was stated, that the only other persons employing a 
vertical camera in photography, known to the writer, 
were Dr. Theo. Deecke of the State lunatic-asylum at 
Utica, N.Y., and Dr. Dannadieu of Lyons, France. 
As a matter of fact, the vertical camera, now used ~ 
for photographing natural-history specimens, etc., is — 
the outcome of a suggestion made in December, 1869, 
by Professor Baird to Mr. T. W. Smillie, the photog- — 
rapher in the U.S. national museum, Washington, 
D.C., that the instrument be placed on an incline; — 
the former having observed the difficulty experier 7 
in photographing with the horizontal camera suc 
objects as stone implements, fish, etc. This sug; 
