that of the vanquished towards the victors; a fitting response to the note of reconciliation given forth by the venerable Baron Liebig, to which we referred some weeks since.

NORFOLK has always been noted for its devotion to ornithology. The "Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society for 1870-71" contains several interesting and useful papers, among which we may especially mention "On the Ornithological Archæology of Norfolk," by T. Southwell, "On a Method of Registering Natural History Observations," by Prof. Newton, “A Natural History Tour in Spain and Algeria,’ by J. H. Gurney, and "On Certain Coast Insects found existing inland at Brandon, Suffolk." The author of this last paper believes that these species must have survived for several thousand years, since the great valley of the fens was submerged. The insects found are peculiar to coast sand-hills, the nearest of which are at a distance of forty miles; and yet, "in spite of their isolation and alteration of condition, the species are as true and as clearly defined as those of our present coast."

MR. W. G. M'IVOR, Superintendent of the Cinchona Plantations of the Bengal Government in British Sikkim, has published a lengthy report, of which the following is an abstract :-"The plantations are situated in the Valley of Rungbee in the Himalayas, about thirteen miles frem Darjeeling, which seems admirably adapted for the growth of cinchona. The climate is Nevertheless the state very moist, being rarely free from rain.

of the plantations is reported as very unsatisfactory; the plants have nothing like the luxuriant foliage which characterises those grown in Southern India on the Nilgheries. They seem to thrive for three or four years at the most, and then become diseased." Mr. M'Ivor says that trees of equal height do not produce so much bark as in the South of India, being of more slender growth, and the bark being thinner.

A GREAT demand for the English sparrow in various parts of the United States has induced their importation from England and Germany in large numbers; but in many instances where this has been done in large cages, most of the birds have died on the passage. In one instance, where four hundred were placed in two cages, only seven were safely landed in New York. Persons who have given this subject their attention, advise that the importations be made in long low cages, known as store cages, which are two or three feet long, about nine inches high, and twelve from back to front, with perches within two inches of the bottom. In a cage of this kind three or four dozen can, it is said, be readily transported, provided they be supplied with proper food, as well as with sand and fine gravel and plenty of water.

M. WURTZ has announced to the French Academy of Sciences that a young chemist in his laboratory has succeeded in transforming lactose, or the uncrystallisable sugar of milk, into dulcose or dulcine, the sugar of mannite, which may easily be obtained in very beautiful crystals, by the successive reaction of hydrochloric acid and sodium-amalgam.

M. FELIX PLATEAU has recently undertaken a number of experiments to determine the question whether the cause of the death of fresh-water animals when removed to sea water, and of marine animals when removed to fresh water, is the dif ference in the density or in the chemical constitution of the water.

His observations were made mostly on various species of Articulata; he found that those fresh-water species which possess an aërial respiration can survive the change to salt water, while those which possess only a branchial and cutaneous respiration die quickly. By experimenting on water made denser by the solution of sugar, M. Plateau came to the conclusion that the density of the water is not the destructive agent, but a portion of the salts held in solution. The chlorides of sodium, potassium, and magnesium, he found to be very quickly fatal to fresh-water species, while the sulphates of magnesium and calcium had no

prejudicial effect. In the same manner the death of marine animals in fresh water appeared due to the giving off of seasalt from their bodies to the surrounding fluid. All these facts he believes explicable from the laws of endosmose and diffusion.

"A KEY to the Natural Orders of British Wild Flowering Plants," by Thomas Baxter, is designed to provide an "easier, although perhaps less scientific, method of identifying the orders of British Wild Flowering Plants than is generally found in analytical keys." There is no royal road to botany, and we doubt whether it is any real advantage to the student to sacrifice scientific in favour of superficial characters.

A CORRESPONDING member of the Glasgow Natural History Society, having been lately in Panama, has contributed to a local journal in the latter city an interesting account of the ants of the country. He describes a curious covered way or tubular bridge. In tracing one of these covered ways he found it led over a pretty wide fracture in the rocks, and was carried across in the air in the form of a tubular bridge of half an inch in diameter. It was the scene of busy traffic. There was nearly a foot of unsupported tube from one edge of the cliff to the other.

MR. THWAITES, in his "Enumeration of Ceylon Plants," says that from the large extent of forest land which has been and is now being appropriated to coffee cultivation, there is little doubt that some of the indigenous plants will in time become exceedingly rare, if not altogether extirpated, or exist only in the Botanic Garden, into which as many as possible are being introduced. The obtrusive character, too, of a plant brought to the island less than fifty years since is helping to alter the character of the vegetation up to an elevation of 3,000 feet. This is the Lantana mixta, a verbenaceous species introduced from the West Indies, which appears to have found in Ceylon a soil and climate exactly suited to its growth. It now covers thousands of acres with its dense masses of foliage, taking complete possession of land where cultivation has been neglected or abandoned, preventing the growth of any other plants, and even destroying small trees, the tops of which its subscandent stems are able to reach. The fruit of this plant is so acceptable to frugivorous birds of all kinds that, through their instrumentality, it is spreading rapidly, to the complete exclusion of the indigenous vegetation from spots where it becomes established.

METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORIES

N the part of the Quarterly Weather Report of the Meteorological Office just issued, for January-March, 1870, the following information is given with regard to the observatories from which the observations are recorded, accompanied by the illustrations which the courtesy of the committee enables us to reproduce. As correct an idea as possible is thus given of the value of the thermometrical and anemometrical observations published by them, and the local influences which may exert an effect in each case.

VALENCIA. The observatory is situated close to the shore on the south side of the island, about three miles from the open sea.

The anemograph is on the roof of the house, which Its exposure is fairly good, for is two stories high. although it is situated in a valley, with hills of the height of about 1,000 feet to the south and south-east of it at a distance of three miles, and with a slight hill about 700 feet high distant three-quarters of a mile on the north-west of it, the country towards the other points of the compass is quite open, and the situation for wind is as favourable as can be obtained on that very rugged coast. The only point from which the wind is materially deflected or checked by local influence is the north-west. The house is an ordinary dwelling house of small size.

The thermograph is on its north side, facing due N.W. N., and on the first story. The bulbs of the instruments are at a height of twelve feet above the ground, and about twenty feet above the sea level. The exposure is very good, as there are no buildings or trees in the vicinity to affect the readings.

ARMAGH.-The observatory is on a rising ground close to the town; it is situated in the centre of an ordinary garden and pleasureground, containing trees and shrubs. of moderate size.

The anemograph is erected on the roof of the house, and raised seventeen feet above it, and is thoroughly well exposed to all points, excepting that the country about is undulating and fairly well wooded, which has the effect of retarding the motion of the air.

The thermograph screen is erected on the north side of the meteorological observatory; the bulbs are at the distance of four feet from the ground, and about 206 feet above the sea level. The exposure of the screen is good, though there are trees and shrubs about it. However,

VALENCIA

Dr. Robinson has satisfied himself by an independent series of observations that the record taken in the screen gives the true temperature of the place.

GLASGOW.-The instruments are at the astronomical observatory, which is placed on a slight rising ground at the west side of the town, and commands a clear view of the horizon in all directions. It occupies a central position in the valley of the Clyde, which is about 16 miles in breadth at that place. The bounding hills to the north are about 800 feet in height, those towards the south are about 400 ft. high.

The prevailing south-westerly winds sweep along the estuary of the Clyde and reach the observatory without much interruption.

The exposure both of the anemograph and of the thermograph screen is very satisfactory. The former is on the roof of the building, the latter is attached to the north wall of the tower in which the equatoreal is placed. The bulbs are 7 ft. above the ground, and about 190 ft. above sea level.

GLASGOW

the sea, from which it is distant about a mile. There are no irregularities of surface in the vicinity, excepting the two river valleys of the Dee and Don, which are not

fortunately there are trees growing at a short distance from it, which would entirely check the free circulation of air about the instruments were the screen set up at the usual elevation of about 6 feet above the ground.

Accordingly the window on the second story of the building was selected. It affords a free exposure to the north, but is at a level of 41 ft. above the ground, and about 87 feet above the sea level.

This elevation will of course exert a considerable influence on the thermometrical observations recorded.

FALMOUTH.-The establishment of an observatory at this station was beset with considerable difficulties; the building in which the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society holds its meetings was unsuited to the purposes of a meteorological station. Accordingly a tower was erected at the south-east corner of the bowling green, on the top of one of the hills on which the town is built.

The anemograph is on the summit of the tower, well exposed on all sides; but from the fact that the ground in the neighbourhood is uneven, the hill sloping rapidly down to the harbour, it seems probable that the force of the wind is not quite true, especially when it is easterly.

The position of the thermograph screen is far from being quite satisfactory; however, a better exposure could not be obtained. The screen is attached to the north wall of the tower, at an elevation of 11 feet above the ground, and about 200 feet above sea level.

It will be seen that there is the wall of a dwelling house at no great distance to the westward, which may possibly affect the instrument by radiation, and also interfere with the free circulation of the air.

STONYHURST.-The observatory stands in the centre of the college garden, which is on a gentle slope facing S.S.E., 381 feet above sea level. The anemograph stands on a cylindrical roof 12 feet in diameter and 4 feet 5 inches in height. The total height of the cups above the ground is 30 feet.

The country around, including the college grounds, is wooded, but not very thickly so, and the trees are in general small.

The nearest trees whose height could materially influence the anemograph are at a distance of about 200 yards, bearing from N. by W. to N. by E.

The main building of the college is placed at the N.W. of the observatory, at a distance of 193 yards, its angular height above the roof of the observatory being 1° 37′, and bearings from N. by W. to W.N.W.

The nearest hill is the Longridge Fell, whose nearest point is about two miles from the college. It extends from N. by W. to W. by N., and its highest point is 4° 1'. Pendle Hill is at five and a half miles distance E.N.E.; height 2° 5'. Between these hills the country is very open. To the eastward there are hills at about four miles distance, height about 1°. To the S. and S. W. the land is low.

It will be seen from this that the anemograph is fairly well exposed to the different points of the compass.

The thermograph screen is attached to the north wall of the observatory, the bulbs are at an elevation of 7 ft. above the ground. The exposure is good.

KEW.-The observatory is situated in the old Deer Park at Richmond. It is a small building, which is well exposed to the wind, excepting on the west side, where there is a row of trees distant about 150 yards, which must materially affect the velocity of the wind. country about is also well wooded.

The

The anemograph is placed on the dome. The thermograph screen is attached to the north wall of the observatory within ten feet of the west end of that wall, at a height of ten feet above the ground, and about fifty above sea level. Its exposure is good.

We hope to take another opportunity of reviewing the volume itself.

ON THE RECENT SOLAR ECLIPSE*
(Continued from page 233)

II. POLARISCOPIC OBSERVATIONS

VITH regard to the polarisation experiments, by the kindness of Mr. Spottiswoode I am enabled to show you, in a very clear way, the raison d'être of the polariscopic observations made during this and former eclipses; but the polariscopic ground is a wide one, and it is not my intention to cover it to-night.

I have had this arrangement of lamp, reflector and prisms made so that you may see how the polariscope can determine the percentage of reflected light at different angles, and the direction of reflection. Assume this lamp to represent the sun, let this reflector close to the lamp represent a particle near the sun, reflecting light to us, we shall naturally have the light reflected at a much larger angle than if the reflector were close to the screen representing a particle in our own air. Having this idea of the angle of reflection in your minds, and the fact that the larger the angle under these conditions the more the polarisation, if you take this lamp, as I have said, to represent the sun, and this mirror to represent any particle, of whatever kind you choose to imagine, it is clear that in order to get the maximum polariscopic effect from that particle, you must have it so situated that it will reflect light at a considerable angle to the beam coming from this lamp. Now it is clear that in order to polarise the beam most strongly, I must place the reflector close to our imaginary sun. place it as to represent a particle in our own atmosphere, the angle will be so small that the polarisation of the light will hardly be perceptible.

If I so

Here is our sunlight, which we will polarise at as great an angle as we can, by placing the reflector close to the imaginary sun, and send it through this magnificent prism which Mr. Spottiswoode has been good enough to place at our disposal; and in the path of the beam I will place an object so that you determine whether there is polarised light. [Experiment.] You see there is considerable brilliancy in those colours; their brilliancy depending upon the amount of polarisation.

Now if, instead of having our reflector close to our imaginary sun to represent a particle in the sun's atmosphere, we place it near the screen to represent a particle in our own, in which case the angle is extremely small, the brilliancy of the colours will entirely disappear. You see it has disappeared. The colours, as colours, are distinguishable, but their brilliancy has gone.

That is the rationale of the polariscopic observations, which have been made on the occasion of the last eclipse with more elaboration than they ever were before. If we found the corona to be strongly polarised, this was held to be a great argument in favour of the corona being a real solar appendage, an argument strengthened if the polarisation was also found to be radial. At been made have not been received, and those that have been represent, however, a great many of the observations that have ceived are as discordant as those obtained in former eclipses, and therefore my account is an imperfect one, because I have not had an opportunity of discussing all these observations. Indeed, if I had, I should hesitate to give an opinion on the subject. When Mr. Carrington saw that small corona in 1851, and Mr. Gillis saw that small corona in 1858, neither of them traced any polarisation whatever; but when M. Liais saw that large corona in 1868, which was invisible to Mr. Gillis, he in his turn saw an immense amount of polarisation, which led him to believe included, and that we had an indication of a solar atmosphere that the corona was solar, the whole of it, rays and everything two or three times higher than the diameter of the sun; that is, an atmosphere two or three millions of miles in height. This observation is not in accordance with the general conclusions from the drawings I have shown you; and let me add that the assumption of reflection at the sun is not without its difficulties, and that we have not yet traced reflected sunlight, even when the strongest polariscopic effects have been observed. III.-AIRY'S AND MÄDLER'S CONCLUSIONS AS THE RESULTS OF THE PRE-SPECTROSCOPIC OBSERVATIONS Before passing to the spectroscopic observations, I will state the conclusions at which the Astronomer Royal and M. Mädler arrived after the observations of 1860 had been gathered together.

The Astronomer Royal, in a lecture delivered before the British Association at Manchester in 1861, stated that the assump tion of an atmosphere extending to the moon explained the observation of Plantamour, which could, he thought, be explained * Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, Friday, March 17, 1871.

in no other way, and he held also that the polarisation experiments seemed to show the same thing. The Astronomer Royal was content to find the reflection, which so many now insist must be at the sun, taking place somewhere between the earth and

moon.

M. Mädler's verdict is in the same direction, and though he does not perhaps express so decided an opinion, he maintains that the atmosphere plays a principal part in the phenomenon ; and after detailing experiments to show this, he remarks of the solar and atmospheric portions, "Both cover each other and unite in one phenomenon, so that the corona is a mixed phenomenon."

.

again faded away. Five of these lines were visible, but two decidedly superior to the rest. The readings of the two brightest were secured. It struck me as strange that these brightest lines should appear at a part of the spectrum not corresponding to any very conspicuous dark lines in the solar spectrum. [These lines are a little less refrangible than E.] The third line seen in order of brilliancy must have been either coincident with, or very near the place of the sodium line D, but it was much fainter than the two measured, while the fourth and fifth lines were extremely faint.' [They were very faint and DOUBLED, and near F. I have seen F give way to a double line in our hydrogen experiments, though I am not prepared to say this is an explanation of Mr. Pogson's observations.]

distant."

The fact that we have here the first observations of the spectrum of the sun's corona is one beyond all doubt; and why M. Rayet and Mr. Pogson thought they were observing prominences when they were observing above them, is explained by a remark made by Captain Tupman, of the Royal Marine Artillery, who acted as jackal to Prof. Harkness, and picked out the brighter spots of the corona for his observation. Prof. Harkness observ.

have turned the telescope on to a prominence; I want the corona." "No," said Captain Tupman, "I am giving you the corona as well as I can." It was certainly the corona in both cases. Here you see, dimly and darkly, the first outcome of the spectroscope on the nature of the corona; a record as fairly written as anything at the sun can write it; and I am more anxious to lay stress on these observations, since they have lain fallow for two years, and show the importance of observations, not only in extending our knowledge, but in explaining prior observations; and it is an additional reason for never re

Now, most of you are under the impression, and it was mine until the day before yesterday, that the only thing we learnt about the corona in the eclipse of 1868, was that its spectrum was a continuous one; and I need not tell anyone in this theatre that the assertion that it was continuous was one that was extremely embarrassing, and implied that we had something non-gaseous outside the red flames, which seemed very improbable to those who know anything about the subject. But some of you will no doubt remember that, besides Major Tennant, who made this observation, we had a French observer, M. Rayet, who gave us a diagram of the spectrum of one of the prominences, and Mr. Pogson, who has now been for some time in India, and is a well known observer, who gave us, nominally as the spectrum of a prominence, a spectrum with some curious variations from M. Rayet's diagram.

I exhibit a copy of M. Rayet's diagram of the spectrum of a prominence, as he called it. At the bottom is what he considered as the spectrum of the lower portion of the prominence; while in the higher portion, where we get fewer lines, as he considered, is the spectrum of the higher portion of the prominence. The spectrum of the lower portion contains the lines B, D, E, and F, and some other lines, in all nine, while the spectrum of the upper part of the prominence, as he thought it, only contains three lines. It was at first difficult to account for these observations. In the first place, one could not understand the line B being given, because I soon found that the line B was not seen as a bright line in the chromosphere spectrum ; it was clearly the line C that was intended. Hence doubt was thrown on the other lines; it seemed as if M. Rayet was wrong about his elongated lines D, E, and F, and probably meant Č near D and F. And so it was explained—I am ashamed to say by myself that there was no particular meaning in these elongated lines, except that the spectrum of the prominence some distance away from the sun was simpler than it was nearer the sun, as happens in all prominences, as we may now determine any day we choose to look at the sun by means of the spectro

1868, shone out brightly in 1869, thanks to the skill of the American observers of the eclipse of that year.

b.-Laboratory Experiments bearing on these Observations But before I proceed to refer to the admirable observations made in America during this eclipse, I wish to introduce you to some work which was commenced in 1868, and has been done quite independently of eclipses. In a lecture which I delivered here about two years ago, I described to you some of the facts observed by the spectroscope in the bright-line region which had been spectroscopically determined to exist all round the sun, and which, as in it all the various coloured effects are seen in total eclipses, I had named the Chromosphere. It was clear that by the new method of observing this without any eclipse, by partially killing, so to speak, the atmospheric light, we got a percentage only of the phenomenon, as the atmospheric light could only be killed by an amount of dispersion which enfeebled and shortened the chromospheric lines; so that although we could say that an envelope of some 5,000 or 6,000 miles in height existed round the sun, we could not fix this as a maximum limit. Further, when we examined the spectrum of this envelope we got long lines and short lines; and I told how the short lines indicated a low stratum, and how a long line indicated a higher one. To explain this, I will show you an observation made long before the new method was thought of. Even before that time we had abundant evidence of such strata, if we could not determine their nature: we had distinct evidence either of one thing thinning out, and then another, or that various substances were situated at different levels, under different conditions; on the first hypothesis, at the extreme outside of the chromosphere the last thing would thin out, and then there would be an end of all things as respects the sun.

I will show you a drawing made by Prof. Schmidt of the eclipse of 1851. I do not wish to call your attention to the strange shape of the large prominence, but to the fact, that as the moon passed over this region we get a thin red band, first along the edge of the dark moon, and after the moon had passed over still further, we see this red layer, suspended as it were in the chromosphere, with a white layer below it. This is the explanation of the long and short lines visible in the spectrum of the chromosphere; in the red layer we have hydrogen almost alone ; below, its red light was conquered by other light with bright lines in all parts of the spectrum, and we get white light.

Lord Lindsay tells me he has a distinct indication, written by the sun himself, that in one particular part of the chromosphere, as recorded photographically in Spain, there were three such layers. And over and over again we find recorded white light close to the sun, then red alone, or red mixed with yellow, then violet,