Skating, Statics and Dynamics of, Charles Alexander Stevenson, Skeleton of a Mammoth discovered at Bendery, 371 Smith (Worthington G.), Paleolithic Man, 604 Smoke, New Cure for, Dr. C. William Siemens, F.R.S., 25, Smoke in the Metropolis, Deputation to the Lord Mayor on, 131 Smoke, Dust, Fogs, &c., M. Chatel, 436 Smokeless London, W. D. Scott-Moncrieff, 151, 198; W. Mattieu Society of Arts, 20; Papers to be read at the, before Easter, Society of Telegraph Engineers' Soirée, 563 Solar Cycles, Barometric and, S. A. Hill, 409 Stenographic Machine, 468 Stenographic Piano, 440 Stephenson (George), Centenary of the Birth of, 515 Stereoscope and Photography, on Estimating the Height of Stevenson (Charles Alexander), Statics and Dynamics of Skating, Stevenson (D. A.), Dr. Siemens' New Cure for Smoke, 91 Stewart (James), his Return from Livingstonia, Lake Nyassa, 22 Stone Implements, Ancient, Modern Use of, D. Budde, 218 Storm Centres in Tropical Regions, Prof. Loomis, 322 Subsidence of Land caused by Natural Brine-Springs, Thomas Solar Cycles, Barometric and, Prof. Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., Sugar, Cane, Inversion of, 85 Solar Eclipse of December 31, 65 Solar Eclipse of 1878, 591 Solar Parallax, 441, 493, 591 Solar Physics, Course of Lectures on, 491 Solar Spots, on the Iron Lines widened in, J. Norman Lockyer, Solar Systems, Tidal Friction in Connection with the History of Solids and Liquids at High Temperatures, John Aitken, 34 Sonorous Vibrations, on the Conversion of Radiant Energy into, Sound of the Aurora, E. Alloway Paukhurst, J. Shaw, 484; Spallanzani, Proposed Erection of a Monument to, 41 Spectra of Vapours and Gases, Influence of Pressure and Tem- Spectroscopic Notes, 1879-80, Prof. C. A. Young, 281 Spectrum of the Star Ll. 13412, Prof. Edward C. Pickering, Speed-Governor for Continuous Motion, Prof. J. Ewing, 473 Sphygmography, 438 Spider, Garden, the Influence of a Tuning-Fork on a, C. V. Spinoza, Publication of the Complete Works of, 156 Spratling (W. J.), Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, Squirrel Crossing Water, H. H. Godwin Austen, 340; F. A. Standard Thermometers, 400 Stars: Ceraski's Circumpolar Variable, 21, 43, 322; Variable Sulphuric Acid and Alkali," Prof. Lunge, Prof. H. E. Roscoe, Sunday Society, 156 Sunday Lecture Society, 419 Sunlight, the Chemical Intensity of, 86 Sun-Spots, Rainfall, and Famines, Abnormal Variations of Sun-Spot Cycle, Abnormal Barometric Gradient between London Sun, Study of the Physical Nature of the, Prof. Piazzi Smyth, Swan (J. W.), Incandescent Lights, 104 Switzerland: Earthquake in, January 27, 320; Earthquakes in, Swift's Comet, 115, 158, 182, 255, 322, 441 Sydney Botanical Gardens, Native Cucumbers and New Seeds Tacitus on the Aurora, M. L. Rouse, 459, 484 530 Tait (Prof. P. G.), on the Formula of Evolution, 78; Mr. Tait (Mr. Lawson), Bedroom Ventilation, 157 "Tasmanian Friends and Foes; Feathered, Furred, and Finned," Tavernier, on the Identity of some Ancient Diamond Mines in Tea Plantation established near Messina, 254 Telegraph Wires, Vibration of, during Frost, T. Mellard Reade, Telegraphy, Berthoud Borel and Co.'s New Discovery in, 85 Telephone in Paris, 63, and the Magnetic Receiver, 371; Dr. Tempel (Dr. Wilhelm), King Humbert's Prize Awarded to, 252 Temperature, Critical, of Ethylene, Robert E. Baynes, 186 Temperature, on a Method of Determining the Critical, for any Temperature, Low, Rev. S. J. Perry, F.R.S., 268 Temperatures, Electrical Thermometer for Determining, at a Tennant (Prof. James), Death of, 418 Theorem, General, in Kinematics, J. J. Walker, 125; Geo. M. "Thermal Bar," M. Forel on, 86 Thermic and Optic Behaviour of Gases under the Influence of Thermo-magnetic Thermoscope, a New, 372 Thermometer, Electrical, for Determining Temperatures at a Thompson (Prof. Silvanus P.), Bottomley's Experiments with Thomson and Keith Johnston's African Expedition, 38 Thomson (Sir Wyville, F.R.S.), Natural Selection, Charles Thulium, Separation of, 86 Tidal Friction in Connection with the History of the Solar Tide Predicter, Sir William Thomson, F.R.S., 482, 578; Ed- Tiddeman (R. H.), Prehistoric Europe, 433, 528 Time, Universal, and the Russian Geographical Society, 255 Time of Day in Paris, 367 Times, the, on Dr. Spottiswoode's Address at the Royal Society, Tomlinson (Herbert), the Photophone, 457 Töpler Air-Pump, Improved Form of, 616 Torsion, Wire, Prof. John Perry and Prof. W. E. Ayrton, 35 Towson (John Thomas), Death of, 231 Tracks, Ice Casts of, J. T. Brownel), 484 Traill (D.), Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, 348 Transactions of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Unior, 161 Transylvania, Earthquake Shock at, 232 Trichopterenlarven, Ueber die von den, der Provinz Santa Tripier (M.), appointed Director of the Algiers Observatory, Tucker (R.), Obituary Notice of Michael Chasles, 234 Tuning Fork, the Influence of, on a Garden Spider, C. V. Tunnel, the Arlberg, 321 Tylor (Edward B., F.R.S.), the Aryan Village, 525 Tyndall (Prof., F.R.S.), Action of an Intermittent Beam of Types and Affinities, Indo Chinese and Oceanic Races, A. H. Umbrette, the Tufted, 37 "Unconscious Memory," Samuel Butler, George J. Romanes, Union Géographique du Nord de la France, 398 United States, Meteorology in, 183 U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, United States, Fish-Culture in the, 532 University College, Prof. Max Müller at, 381 University Intelligence, 23, 47, 71, 87, 115, 139, 160, 186, 211, Vacuum Tubes, Experiments with, J. T. Bottomley, 218, 243; Vanadium, the Sulphides of, 208 Vancouver Island, Climate of, Capt. Edmund H. Verney, 147; Vapours and Gases: their Dissolving Power on one another, 86; Variable Stars, 21, 115, 206, 362, 493, 517, 542, 555 Vega Fund, the, 160 Ventilation, Bedroom, Mr. Lawson Tait on, 157 Venus: Transit of, Commission, 231, 388; Shadows Cast by, Verglas in Italy, 517 Verney (Capt. Edmund H.), Climate of Vancouver Island, 147 Vesuvius: Flow of Lava from the Crater of, 20; the Eruption Vibration of Telegraph Wires during Frost, T. Mellard Reade, Vicars (George Rayleigh), Vox Angelica, 34, 77; Future Deve- Victoria (Philosophical) Institute, 236, 307, 356, 404, 500, 548 Victoria University, 593 Victoria Station, Jablochkoff Light at, 64 Vienna Geographical Society, 22; Imperial Academy of Vines (Sydney H.), the Works of Carl von Nägeli, 78; Chloro- Viscosity of Gases at High Exhaustions, W. Crookes, F.R.S. Vivisection, Charles Darwin, F.R.S., on, 583 Voldifjord, appearance of a Colony of Beavers on the, 84 Wagner (Prof. Johannes Rudolf von), Obituary Notice of, II Walker (J. J.), a General Theorem in Kinematics, 125 Wallace (Samuel J.), Heat of Stellar Masses, 579 Ward (Thomas), Landslips, 144; Subsidence of Land Caused Ward (Col. Foster), on some Remarkable Hailstones, 233 Washington Society of Anthropology, 84 Wasps, Bees, Ants, and, Observations on, Sir J. Lubbock, Bart., Water, Expansion of, in Freezing, 321 Water, Squirrels Crossing, F. A. Jentink, 388; Frederick Hub- Watson (Prof. J. C.), Obituary Notice of, 155 Watts (Dr. W. M.), Spectrum of Carbon, 197, 265, 361 Weather, Recent severe, 329, 363, 411 Wetterhan (D.), Cave Animals and Multiple Centres of Species, Weyprecht (Lieut. Karl), Death of, 544 Wheat and Barley, English, in Cawnpore, 370 Whipple (G. M.), Aurora and Electric Storm of January 31, "Whitaker's Almanack," Scientific Summary, 232; the Geo- White (William), Death of, 320 Whitmell (Charles T.) "Natural" Experiment in Polarised Whymper (Edward), on the Practicability of Living at Great Wiener Neustadt, Fall of a Meteoric Stone at, 297 Williams (W. Mattieu), Smokeless London, 169; Experiment Williamson (B., F.R.S.), "Elementary Treatise on the Integral Willmore (J. H.), Birds Laying in January, 314 Winter Rains, Indian, S. A. Hill, 604 Wire Torsion, Professors John Perry and W. E. Ayrton, 35 Woeikof (Dr. A.), the Yang-tse, the Yellow River, and the Wolf, the Japanese, 36 Women: Natural Science for, Alfred W. Bennett, 195; Degrees Wood (Searles Valentine), Obituary Notice of, 40; Order Wood (E.), his Collection of Fossils, 275 Wortley (Col. H. Stuart), Crabs and Actinia, 529 Xanthium strumarium, its Poisonous Effects on Cattle, 182 Yang-tse, the Yellow River, and the Pei-ho, Dr. A. Woeikof, Yorkshire Vertebrata, Handbook of, 467 Young Men's Society for Home Study, U.S., 254, 297 Zarafshan, the Glacier of the, M. Mushketoff's Exploration of, Zittel (Dr. Karl), on the Geology of the Libyan Desert, 19 Zoological Gardens, Additions to, 21, 420, 441, 469, 493, 516, Zoological Garden, Proposed, at Leipzig, 253 Zoological Society's Living Collection, Illustrations of New or Zoological Society, 95, 161, 187, 259, 306, 355, 427, 499, 571 Zoological Stations at Watson's Bay, 589 Zoology, Songs of the Sciences, I., 148 13 NATURE A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE "To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye."-WORDSWORTH THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1880 THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE "CHALLENGER" ready for distribution, and that three more volumes of no less magnitude are to be issued before the end of the year; so that the fifteen or sixteen volumes of which the whole work is to consist may reasonably be expected to be in the hands of the public by 1884. The "Zoological Reports," as these separate treatises FOUR years have elapsed since the Challenger re- upon each group of specimens are termed, are printed as turned from her famous cruise, and the scientific world has been looking, of late perhaps somewhat impatiently, for the first instalment of the long series of volumes which is to embody the results of the investigations of the best-equipped voyagers who ever left the shores of England for the purpose of enlarging the bounds of natural knowledge. But this is one of the many cases in which impatience is more natural than justifiable. In the "General Introduction" with which Sir Wyville Thomson prefaces the "Reports" which are to appear in the first volume of the great work for which he is responsible, he mentions that the zoological specimens collected and preserved in alcohol during the voyage filled 2270 large glass jars, 1749 smaller bottles, 1860 glass tubes, and 176 tin cases; while 22 casks and 180 tin cases held objects preserved in other ways. In dealing with this vast mass of material, Sir Wyville Thomson justly considered it to be his duty to obtain, as far as it was practicable so to do, the co-operation of the best specialists in every department, irrespective of nationality; and it is gratifying to find that, in reply to his invitations, many foreign men of science of great distinction have willingly associated themselves with a strong corps of English workers. This matter being arranged, the specimens had to be distributed to their destinations; and the several workers, rarely men of much leisure, found themselves embarked in months or years of critical and laborious investigation. Along with this went the slow process of writing out the results, and the still slower of executing the illustrations with due care, all of which had to be finished before the printer could begin his operations. To those who are familiar with the amount of expenditure of trouble and time which all these processes mean, it will seem no small matter that seven treatises, illustrated by a large number of admirably executed plates, are now VOL. XXIII.-No. 575 they are completed, and are to be issued, without reference to the order which they will eventually occupy, as soon as sufficient matter to form a volume is ready. Each memoir will be separately paged, and will have its own legend for reference. This arrangement has been adopted in order that working naturalists may have access to the "Reports" as early as practicable, and that the multiplication of synonyms by the simultaneous publication of species by different observers may be avoided. With this object in view, it would perhaps have been even better to have issued every "Report" as it was ready; but it may be that there are practical difficulties in the way of the adoption of this course. The present writer, though a fairly swift reader, does not profess to have perused the seven elaborate memoirs now presented on behalf of the Challenger; nor if he had does he lay claim to that zoological omniscience which would justify him in criticising them in detail. But as Mr. Brady deals with the Ostracoda, Mr. Davidson with the Brachiopoda, Dr. Günther with the Shore Fishes, Prof. Kölliker with the Pennatulidæ, Mr. Moseley with those groups of Corals which he has made his special study, Mr. Parker with the Development of the Chelonian Skull, and Prof. Turner with the Cetacea, it is questionable if any extant finite knowledge is likely to enable its possessor to say anything more or better than they have said on these respective topics. And, as has been already remarked, there can be no sort of doubt as to the artistic excellence of the 122 quarto plates which illustrate and adorn the text. Sir Wyville Thomson's "General Introduction," however, is extremely readable both in size and in substance, and may be commended to that patient omnivore, the General Reader, who will find in its earlier pages a readily intelligible account of the fittings and appliances of the Challenger, and of the means by which the greatest depths of the sea have been made to yield some, at any B rate, of the secrets of the busy life which, contrary to all the beliefs of the naturalists of a past generation, blindly toils and moils in the darkness and cold of the marine abysses. The latter half of the "Introduction" will be no less interesting to the biologist, since it embodies the general con clusions at which the scientific director of the Expedition has arrived, in a dissertation on the nature and distribution of the fauna of the deep sea. Sir W. Thomson considers that the most "prominent and remarkable biological result" of the four years' work of the Challenger is the final establishment of the fact "that the distribution of living beings has no depth-limit, but that animals of all the marine invertebrate classes, and probably fishes also, exist over the whole of the floor of the ocean." As to the exact nature of this deep-sea fauna at the greatest depths, he speaks with some hesitation; but, at about 2000 fathoms, the list given on pages 36 and 37 proves that there is a large and a varied assemblage of forms of life. Upwards, this characteristic deep-sea fauna extends to about 600 fathoms, and is richest between this depth and 1000 or 1200 fathoms. Around all coasts, in temperate regions, the local shore forms, which occupy successive zones of depth as, on land, they characterise zones of height, gradually die out towards the 200-fathom line. Nor is there any close relation between the abyssal and the shore fauna of any given latitude or longitude-on the contrary, the abyssal fauna is singularly uniform and appears "to have been derived from a genetic source different from that of the shore fauna." In fact, Sir Wyville Thomson appositely compares the abyssal ocean-that is the sea everywhere below 200 fathoms or thereabouts-to a world-wide lake of comparatively still water, which, in its deeper parts, is very cold, its temperature neither rising nor falling appreciably beyond the average of 35° F. Thus there is a certain parallel between land and sea distribution, inasmuch as all Alpine floræ present marked analogies with circumpolar flora. The cold land is discontinuous, whence it presents, as it were, islands of analogous population all over the world; while the cold water being continuous, the continuity in its population is correspondingly unbroken. But the uniformity and invariability of conditions is far more complete in the abyssal lake than on the mountain-tops; and the homogeneity of the population harmonises with that of the medium in which it lives. those causes-such as minor and local oscillations of the crust of the earth producing barriers and affecting climateon which we are most inclined to depend for the modification of fauna. The discovery of the abyssal fauna, studying a fauna of extreme antiquity, which has arrived accordingly, seems to have given us an opportunity of at its present condition by a slow process of evolution from which all causes of rapid change have been eliminated" (p. 50). That the deep-sea fauna presents us with many forms which are the dried and but little modified descendants of Tertiary and Mesozoic species is a proposition which few who attend to the evidence will be disposed to deny. But I may venture to express some doubt, whether it may not be well to keep a conclusion of such gravity and so well founded, apart from views respecting the absence of "minor local oscillations of the crust of the earth" in the area of the present great ocean basins, which Sir Wyville Thomson expresses more fully elsewhere. "There seems to be sufficient evidence that all changes of level since the close of the Paleozoic period are in direct relation to the present coast lines. "There does not seem to be a shadow of reason for supposing that the gently undulating plains, extending for over a hundred million of square miles, at a depth of 2500 fathoms beneath the surface of the sea, and presenting, like the land, their local areas of secular elevation and depression, and their centres of more active volcanic disturbance were ever raised, at all events in mass, above the level of the sea; such an arrangement, indeed, is inconceivable” (p. 46). I must plead ignorance of the "sufficient evidence" to which Sir Wyville Thomson refers; in fact, I should have thought that the sufficient evidence lay in the other direction. Surely there is evidence enough and to spare that the Cretaceous sea, inhabited by various forms, some of whose descendants Sir W. Thomson, as I believe justly, recognises in the present deep-sea fauna, once extended from Britain over the greater part of Central and Southern Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia to the Himalayas. In what possible sense can the change of level which has made dry land and sometimes mountain masses of nine-tenths of this vast area be said to be "in direct relation to the present existing coast lines"? That the abyssal plains were ever all elevated, at once, is certainly so improbable that it may justly be termed inconceivable; but there is nothing, so far as I am aware, in the biological or geological evidence at present ac Sir Wyville Thomson draws attention to the fact that cessible, to render untenable the hypothesis that an this widespread abyssal fauna ". . . . has a relation to the deep-water fauna of the Oolite, the Chalk, and the Tertiary formations, so close that it is difficult to suppose it in the main other than the same fauna which has been subjected to a slow and continuous change under slightly varying circumstances according to some law, of the nature of which we have not as yet the remotest knowledge" (p. 49). "There is every reason to believe that the existing physical conditions of this area date from a very remote period, and that the present fauna of the deep sea may be regarded as directly descended from fauna which have necessarily occupied the same deep sea. . . . That the present abyssal fauna is the result of progressive change there can be no room for doubt; but it would seem that in this case, the progress has been extremely slow, and that it has been brought about almost in the absence of area of the mid-Atlantic or of the Pacific sea-bed as big as Europe should have been upheaved as high as Mont Blanc and have subsided again any time since the Paleozoic epoch, if there were any grounds for entertaining it. In concluding the "Introduction" Sir Wyville Thomson expresses "a strong personal impression" on two points. The one is that the study of the abyssal fauna lends a powerful support to the doctrine of evolution. The other is, that "the character of the abyssal fauna refuses to give the least support to the theory which refers the evolution of species to extreme variation guided only by natural selection." But the grounds assigned for the latter opinion are hardly so cogent as might be desirable. "Species are just as distinctly marked in the abyssal |