8 



NATTJBAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



appeared altogether. This theory 

 is supported by the fact that bar- 

 rier reefs are found extending !, 700 

 feet down, while the coral insect 

 cannot live at a depth greater than 

 120 feet. These facts were illus- 

 trated by fine pictures of the island 

 of Bolabola and others, in different 

 stages of the process of subsidence. 



The vegetation on the islands is 

 due partly to seeds floating in the 

 sea, and partly to seeds dropped 

 by birds. Hence there are very 

 few species of trees and plants; 

 but being in the tropics they flour- 

 ish luxuriantly. 



At present, the coral formations 

 are confined to the tropics, because 

 the coral animal cannot exist 

 where the temperature falls below 

 60 degrees. Dana states that the 

 central axis of the Pacific Ocean is 

 subsiding altogether; it is already 

 gone down more than any part of 

 the ocean. There are now no is- 

 lands at all above the water along 

 its line. 



In old geological times, the tem- 

 perature of the earth must have 

 been much more uniform for we 

 find coral formations very abund- 

 antly in nearly all parts of the 

 world. Other limestone forma- 

 tions are formed by a yet lower 

 form of animal, a protozoon, which 

 works at the bottom of the sea and 

 thus covers nearly three quarters 

 of the whole surface of the globe. 

 A diagram was exhibited, showing 

 what the microscope revealed to 

 Ehrenberg in a piece of chalk. 



Surely then, concluded the lec- 

 turer, if so great a portion of the 

 earth's crust is the product of ani- 

 mal life, we must correct our no- 

 tions of matter and force, and ad- 

 mire the beauty and simplicity of 

 the economy of God, who makes 

 the most insignificant of creatures 

 subservient to his great works. — 

 From lecture delivered by Professor 

 Guyot in 1876. 



Ice Caves of Japan. 



A correspondent to the London 

 Field gives the following account 

 of a wonderful cave in Japan: 



Some eight or nine miles from 

 Shoji in the woods, is the entrance 

 to the great ice cave we had come 

 so far to see, a natural circular de- 

 pression or basin in the ground in 

 the middle of the forest,, some 

 thirty yards across and about forty 

 feet deep. At the foot of one of 

 the sides is a dark opening in the 

 lava, a few feet down which may 

 be seen the top of a wooden ladder. 

 This is about twenty feet long, and 



at the foot of it are a heap of 

 blocks of lava, down which we 

 scrambled for some thirty or forty 

 feet more, till a floor of solid ice, 

 more or less flat, was reached. 

 Very careful progress along this 

 had to be made to avoid slipping 

 down and extinguishing the 

 torches. For the first fifty yards 

 frequent blocks of lava rise through 

 the ice of the floor, while further 

 on there is nothing but ice. The 

 lava roof is sometimes thirty or 

 forty feet above one's head, some- 

 times only four or five feet from 

 the floor. The light of the torches 

 glanced continually on icicles 

 many feet long pendant from the 

 roof. Presently we have passed 

 some large blocks of ice, which 

 had been cut by the country peo- 

 ple for sale at Kofu some miles off. 

 At nearly four hundred yards from 

 the entrance about twenty wonder- 

 ful ice stalagmites, from two to 

 five feet in height, rose from the 

 floor close to a lava wall forming 

 apparently the end of the cave, to 

 meet icicles hanging from the roof 

 from which water at this time of 

 the year continually drops on to 

 them. The tops of these stalag- 

 mites form hollow bell-shaped cyl- 

 inders, giving out a faint note like 

 a gong when struck; they are part- 

 ly filled with the water which drips 

 on to them from the icicles above. 

 Soon by the side of them, on the 

 left, a low arch in the lava on the 

 level of the floor, about three feet 

 high, may be seen. Down this is 

 a strong current of air; there is a 

 rapid descent for some thirty-five 

 feet, and thence the course of the 

 cave has been followed for another 

 two hundred yards or so, but ow- 

 ing to the strong current of air 

 which constantly extinguishes the 

 torches, and the smallness of the 

 passage, which slopes down rapid- 

 ly from the entrance, no detailed 

 description of it can be given; but 

 undoubtedly the cave runs on for 

 some distance, perhaps to anoth- 

 er outlet, for the current of air is 

 very strong at the extreme point to 

 which any one has yet penetrated. 



The ice has probably remained 

 frozen in the cave from the winter 

 months, the action of the higher 

 summer temperature being insuffi- 

 cient to do more than affect the 

 surface of the ice floor, form a few 

 pools of water, and melt part of 

 the ice stalactites and stalagmites. 

 The temperature of the cave in 

 summer seldom exceeds 35 degrees 

 Fah., and that in the declivity or 

 basin in the ground at the entrance 

 some 10 or 12 degrees higher; on 

 going up from the latter to the 



level of the ground in the wood, a 

 rise of some 20 degrees on a warm 

 day is at once experienced. 



New Subscribers. 



New subscribers to Natural Science 

 News are always in demand and dur- 

 ing the months of February and March 

 its publisher will give 50 cents worth of 

 premium's for each new subscriber a 

 present subscriber may send him. This 

 50 cents worth of premiums must be se- 

 lected from the list of premiums given 

 in this issue, and ten cents must be ad- 

 ded to cover the mailing expenses of the 

 dresent. Remember the new subscriber 

 can accept the $1 premium offer made 

 on another page, and will secure all the 

 perquisites connected with the same 

 and this 50 cents worth of presents is 

 an additional offer on our part made 

 to present subscribers who will 'assist 

 in enlarging the subscription list of our 

 little weekly. 



Albert H. Verrill, sou of Prof. Addi- 

 son E. Verrill, curator of the zoological 

 collection of Yale University, has con- 

 fessed to the theft of articles valued at 

 $f0,000 from the Peabody Museum at 

 Yale. The thefts have extended over a 

 period of two years, and the exact 

 amount of the loss will probably never 

 be known, as the young man has for- 

 gotten the number of pieces he has tak- 

 en. Verrill is about 25 years old and a 

 graduate of the class of '93. 



Verrill has been an extensive patron 

 of the ad vertisiEg columns of both the 

 Oologist and Natural Science News 

 during the past year and although we 

 knew that he was selling specimens at 

 ridiculously low prices, we considered 

 that he had ample opportunity for ob- 

 taining the same legitimately owing to 

 his position and more so to the station 

 of his illustrious father. Verrill ob- 

 tained an unsavory reputation as an 

 oologist in 'S3 and we were one of the 

 first to detect him in his crooked work 

 — later, however, he successfully hood- 

 winked ye editor with a plausible ex- 

 planation in which he, Verrill, posed as 

 the injured party and although we re- 

 fused him space for some months we 

 finally, under protest, and with certain 

 very stringent conditions and stipula- 

 tions, allowed him the use of the same. 

 As yet we have no reason to think oth- 

 erwise than that our readers have been 

 treated fairiy by him and received big 

 value for the money they saw fit to in- 

 vest, the question now most naturally 

 arises as to what proportion of these 

 goods were filched from the Peabody 

 Museum and what proportion of those 

 that were will ever be returned. 



