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as with a little known part of Northern Stain, and treats of the whole of the tabrian range from San Sebastian to on. The work will be illustrated by me twenty-five engravings from original ketches taken by Mr. Mars Ross. MESSRS. PUTNAM'S SONS will shortly issue, simultaneously in London and New York, an tion de luxe of Edmondo de Amicis's work Spain and the Spaniards.' It will contain eleven full-page etchings and a number of full-page photogravures.

A VOLUME detailing the whole of the ampaign in the Soudan is being prepared by Mr. H. H. Pearse, special correspondent the Daily News.

Ma. C. Lowe's biography of Prince BisFemarck, which we mentioned some months go, will be published in two volumes this autumn by Messrs. Cassell & Co.

Ox Saturday next the Positivists will commemorate the death of Comte by making a pilgrimage to Westminster Abbey. An -address will be afterwards given at Newton Hall by Prof. Beesly. On Sunday, September 6th, the Positivists propose to make Ca pilgrimage to the Tower.

THE first fasciculus of the Himyaritic inscriptions by Profs. J. and H. Derenbourg (being a part of the 'Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum,' edited by the Académie des nscriptions et Belles - Lettres) is in the printer's hands.

Ax important resolution on the subject Mohammedan education has recently een issued by the Government of India. tis pointed out that since the time of Varren Hastings the backwardness of fohammedans in educational matters has lways been a subject of regret to Governlent, and a review is given of the various emedies which have been adopted. It is not proposed, however, to institute at preent any special inquiries on the subject, Le labours of the recent education comLission leaving little to be done in this respect. The Government cannot promise y special assistance to Mohammedans ith regard to appointments in the public ervice usually awarded by competition, but hey will direct that in the case of appoint ets made by selection Mohammedans tall have their fair share. The best dvice, however, which Lord Dufferin can ive to the Mohammedans is that they hould frankly place themselves in line ith Hindus and take full advantage of he Government system of high, and especially of English, education.

A WELL-KNOWN Sanskrit scholar, Pandit Tara Nath Tarkavachaspati, has recently died at Benares. He was upwards of thirty Fears a professor in the Calcutta Sanskrit Colege and was well known to most of the Sanskrit scholars of Europe. He was the thor of many Sanskrit works, including the Vachospatya Encyclopædia,' which he piled single-handed.

SCIENCE

METEOROLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS.

Distribution of Rain over the British Isles ng the Year 1884. By G. J. Symons, RS. (Stanford.)-A quarter of a century Vees with the issue of this volume since

the results.

Mr. Symons commenced his investigations into the rainfall of the British Isles and published He gives in his returns for 1884 a reprint of his first return in 1860, which enables us to compare the rainfall of that year with that of later years. This is in teresting, as showing the small amount of variation which appears to have taken place in this interval. It must be remembered that in 1860 Mr. Symons could only give the results obtained by 168 contributors, and several of those were of doubtful accuracy, whereas in 1884 he had the advantage of 2,600 organized observers, nearly every return being strictly trustworthy. As examples of excess in rainfall we may quote the one result obtained in 1860 from the How, Windermere, which gave 102 58 inches, while in 1884 we find ten returns from Cumberland of above 114:00 inches, two of these from the Stye being respectively 173 74 inches and 184.75 inches. The great difference between the return made in 1860 and the returns recorded in 1884 cannot but be re

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garded as due to imperfection of the rain gauges employed or to the error of the observer. distribution of rain as given in these annual records enables any one employing a little thought and care to mark with tolerable accuracy the conditions of a district as to its humidity or its dryness, and hence the book has considerable value. It appears, however, to us that we have not yet derived sive series of fairly trustworthy returns. all the advantages possible from such an extenIt will be remembered that Howard, from the observations made by him about the middle of the last century on the heights in the neighbourhood of London, was enabled to deduce with considerable probability the existence of wellthe extensive returns obtained by the unwearying defined cycles of wet and dry weather. industry of Mr. Symons, extending over a period of twenty five years and embracing the British Isles, it is surely possible to determine if any law regulating the rainfall can be established with any approximation to certainty. We learn from this report that Mr. Symons furnished "splendid data for a discussion of this subject, for the Meteorological Council.' afforded by the tables prepared a few years since not been utilized, which is to be regretted, but These have 'possibly, now that so much time has elapsed, it may be wiser to await the close of the lustrum 1881-5, and then work from the twenty years 1866-85." The registration of the rainfall and meteorology, as established by Mr. Symcns, is in the highest degree useful, and we must give him great credit for his industry and perseverance. The task of collating the accumulated results of the observations of a quarter of a century will be a vast labour, but a rich reward probably awaits the individual who undertakes it in the establishment of a system of truths which could not fail to be of the utmost importance in every division of rural industry.

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Report of the Meteorology of India in 1882. By Henry F. Blanford, F.R.S. (Calcutta, Government Printing Office.) This quarto diagrams, furnishes the return of the Meteorovolume of 300 pages, accompanied by map and logical Reporter to the Government of India for the eighth year since the establishment of a general systematic statement of the meteorology of that country. Mr. Blanford in his introduction points out that in Europe and America the physics of the vortical movements of the atmosphere of cyclones and anti-cyclones receive the largest amount of attention. He admits that in India storm-warnings have an importance, but states that they are chiefly local and restricted to certain seasons of the year. Other and more comprehensive problems force themselves on the attention of the meteorologists of India, foremost among them being all questions bearing on the vicissitudes of the rainfall. Seasons of

drought are due to the unusual and unseasonable persistence of land winds and the exclusion of

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those from the sea. Thus the most important subjects that can engage the attention of the Indian meteorologist are the physical history of the land winds and the conditions which give them birth. These matters, therefore, form the most prominent subjects of record of the numerous observatories established in twenty provinces. The following are the heads under which the meteorology of the year 1882 are described :Temperature of Solar and of Nocturnal Radiation, the Radiation of the Air and of the Ground, Atmospheric Pressure, Anemometry, Hygrometry, Cloud Proportion, and Rainfall. It is not possible to give anything approaching to a satisfactory abstract of the observations made during the year (daily) in all the establishments, numbering as they do upwards of a hundred stations. Neither can there be any real advantage in discussing the results of the various systems of registration without the readings, which are given so fully and with so much care in this volume. Mr. Blanford informs us that the distribution of the rainfall in 1882 in

point of time bore much resemblance to that of ficiency of rain in the earlier and closing months 1881. Especially was this the case in the deof the year, and its copiousness during certain months of the summer monsoon. In Western and Central India the land winds, the antagonists of all rain precipitation, prevailed with uncommon steadiness. The monsoon rains set

in earlier than usual on the coast of Bombay, and over the Bengal branch they were later and feebler than usual. It resulted that while the most northern and eastern provinces received less than the ordinary amount of rain, in the western and central provinces the fall exceeded the average. On the west coast and the Deccan

plateau the rains poured in most abnormal

abundance-an abundance more or less shared

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by the whole of the peninsula. A table given, A Geographical Summary of Rainfall Anomalies," shows this in a very satisfactory manner. A tabular summary which, in a condensed form, gives the differentia of the chief meteorological elements in each month of the year 1882, will be found especially useful. The year is shown to have been cooler than the average. The atmospheric pressure was also below it, but subject to many vicissitudes. The absolute humidity of the air and the quantity of cloud were less than usual, but the rainfall over the whole area was higher than in any year since 1878. The charts showing for each month the temperature and pressure and the resultant wind direction, which are very clearly printed, will prove a great assistance to all who consult this volume. Mr. Henry Blanford may be complimented on the completeness of this important report. It would be greatly increased in value if the volume could be issued earlier; but when we look at the enormous amount of labour required to produce with correctness such a series of tables, we feel compelled to admit that it would not be possible to compile the returns, and print them more speedily, unless a greatly increased staff of trained observers were supplied.

SCIENCE SCHOOL-BOOKS.

Elementary Algebra. By H. S. Hall, B. A., (Macmillan & Co.)-and S. R. Knight, B. A. Elementary algebras of all kinds and sizes are now so abundant that one naturally asks why Messrs. Hall and Knight have inflicted one more upon the world of weary students and worried masters. The opening sentence of the preface tells us-what we have so often read before in similar positions-that "the present work is an attempt to supply a want which we have long felt ourselves, and which we believe to be shared by many experienced teachers." We are, however, not told what this want is, an omission that seems strange at the commencement of a treatise on a science so accurate as algebra. We discover, however, that the main charac

teristics of the book are the "succession of the various parts of the subject " and the introduction after quadratics of "two recapitulatory chapters" containing more difficult applications of early rules. These features of the manual are decidedly commendable, and the work altogether is carefully compiled and made as serviceable as may be to candidates for examinations of all sorts, to whom the examination itself rather than the real mastering of the subject of examination is the too exclusive object. Examples are numerous and well chosen, typical ones are neatly worked, and terse rules-often of the kind known as "tips"-for working problems are given; but definitions and expositions of principles, the educational value of which is very great, are unsatisfactory and insufficient. For instance, in the opening sentences of the chapter on division the object of the process is accurately stated, although the statement is somewhat specious, unhelpful, and barren, while the definition which follows is, "Division is thus the inverse of multiplication"; but on turning back to the chapter on multiplication we find no definition of that process, unless it be hidden in the bald statement" Where there is no sign between symbols or expressions it is understood that the symbols or expressions are to be multiplied together," so that the dependent definition depends on nothing very substantial. Such unreality in definition and in expression of principles is frequent throughout the volume, and, in our opinion, seriously vitiates mathematical teaching, especially in the more elementary parts of a subject, where undoubtedly right thinking and clear conceptions are educationally as important as skill in working examples. Messrs. Hall and Knight's standpoint for regarding algebra is rather too decidedly the outcome of their experience in preparing boys for army and university examinations during the last twelve years"; and they would teach algebra better if these examinations had not for so long loomed so large before them, and did not do so still.

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An Atlas of Elementary Biology. By G. B. Howes, Demonstrator of Biology, Normal School of Science. (Macmillan & Co.)- The influence of the teaching of elementary biology as carried on at South Kensington during the past twelve or fourteen years has undoubtedly made itself felt far and wide in England, and few scientific handbooks have become so well known as the little treatise on 'Practical Elementary Biology' designed and written some years ago by Profs. Huxley and Martin; nevertheless, many must have felt that the text of that excellent little work would have been even more intelligible had good drawings of the objects described been accessible. Its triumph as a preventive of "" cram" was ensured by the necessity laid upon the student to dissect for himself, it is true; but the best dissector is aided by good drawings more than by verbal descriptions, however minute. It is for this reason that we hail with pleasure the publication of Mr. Howes's atlas, and congratulate author and publishers on the issue of a series of trustworthy drawings of biological objects at a low price. It cannot fail to be in the hands of a large number of students before long, and it will materially aid them in their initial steps into that region of pitfalls elementary biology. Of course there is always the danger of drawings being made to take the place of honest dissection in the laboratory, but fortunately it is not difficult to check this tendency. At the worst a student is better equipped by the careful study of good drawings than by any amount of verbal cramming. Mr. Howes's book is not only good in the execution of the drawings, but the latter are exceedingly well selected, embracing all the important points in the anatomy of the frog, the crayfish, the earthworm, the snail, the mussel, chara, the fern, and a flowering plant, and several unicellular organisms and lower animals and plants. We wish it every success, for it bears the stamp of conscientious and good work.

THE REIAN BASIN OF LAKE MERIS.

THE May number of the Zeitschrift of the Berlin Geographical Society contains an article by Dr. Paul Ascherson, with a map by Dr. Kiepert, which deserves the attention of the historian and archæologist as well as the cartographer and student of physical geography. It is entitled Bemerkungen zur Karte meiner Reise nach der Kleinen Oase.' Nearly one-half of the text is devoted to an exhaustive résumé of the observations relating to that part of the desert which lies south of Qasr Qerun, and which will henceforth be known as the Wadi Reian.

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It was traversed for the first time by Belzoni in May, 1819. Calliaud in November of the same year stated that he, too, had found considerable vegetation near long. 30° 15', lat. 29°. In 1823 Pacho, in company with Müller, visited it. They were followed in 1825 by Sir Gardner Wilkinson. Then for half a century it remained untrodden by European foot. The notes of the rapid reconnaissance of Mason Bey in 1870 were never published. In 1876 Dr. Ascherson undertook his well-known expedition. I camped beneath the Hagar Musqiqeh in 1882, about a month after my "20 hours' desert ride" (p. 129) to the Haram Medhūret el-Berhl, and again in 1883 crossed the desert to the north, returning from my second visit to the Qasr Qerun. Although it was a well-known fact that there was an oasis with the ruins of a monastery, no one but myself

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southern branch of the Bahr Jusuf into Gharaq basin, 35 kilomètres west of the 1 to the foot of a high ridge. On the side he camped, March 27-28, at "Ain R Sandige Niederung mit Calligonum-Tam Nitrarla+und Palmen-büschen und Halfa-( Stellenweise Dünen, -29 m." This depres therefore, was nearly two hundred feet t high Nile at Beni-Suef, and about one hun feet below the level of the Mediterra With a legitimate reserve he hesitated to upon a fact so exceptional until it had corroborated by independent observations, finds this support in that depth of -150 tofeet which he gives on my responsil (p. 128). But I can in turn assure Dr. As son that it was with the greatest satisfac that I too gave, in 1882, his observations I had obtained them from Dr. Schweinfurth

Relying upon this map of Dr. Kiepert, earnestly to be trusted that the scientific will take note of this extraordinary depress It is true that until some other traveller ca persuaded to explore this region the ge outline of the basin must depend upor sketches. But Dr. Ascherson corroborate well as adopts them: "Dieser Plateaurand auf der von Cope Whitehouse entworfenen seinen englischen Publikationen von 1882 b gebenen Kartenskizze mit dem von mir geseh Nordwest-Rande des Uadi Rajan in unmi Zusammenhang gebracht. Da Zeichnung des letzteren gut mit me Wahrnehmungen stimmt, so wurde Darstellung adoptirt, obwohl in den erw ten, in London, Paris und New York ve fentlichten Berichten der archäologische litterarische Teil der Moeris-Frage ung ausführlicher behandelt ist, als die uns hi erster Linie interessirenden Terrainstudien

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amerikanischen Reisenden." It was su for my purpose to show that the Bahr J might be carried into the desert to the s and west of the Fayoum, and justify by t graphical facts the Arabic description of depressed region and the works undertaker Joseph, son of Jacob, to fertilize the coun (see, inter alios, Masudi, A. D. 958, Les Pr d'Or, vol. i. p. 209, and chap. xxi.). Dr. P added it to the map by which he explain 1884 the great geographical papyrus of and reversed, on the faith of these observa the decision of the eminent Egyptologist had endorsed the ill-founded conjecture

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had ever connected it with Lake Moris. The lowest point in the Little Oasis is the 'Ain me állaqa, +94 mètres. High Nile at ElLahun, the entrance to Moeris el-Fayoum, is less than 30 mètres (p. 132). The patches of light green on this map, therefore, do not by any means necessarily indicate that these districts are lower than the valley of the Nile in the corresponding latitude. Reian or Deir Reian was put upon the majority of maps. No inference whatever was drawn from its existence. No cartographer since the fifteenth century had ventured to indicate it as near a depression until the Athenæum published, July 22nd, 1882, the little map which illustrated its review of my researches. But Dr. Ascherson now shows that his aneroid observations to the south-west of Medinet el-Fayoum followed the course of the

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Linant de Bellefonds. Dr. Ascherson als "Diese Andeutungen genügen wohl erklären mit welcher Spannung man ausserhalb speziell archäologischer Kreis fürlicheren Veröffentlichungen über erlangten Ergebnisse und namentlich gen kartographischer Verzeichnung derselbe gegenzusehen hat." In June, 1884, I re a letter from Dr. Schweinfurth describi expedition on the desert side of the el-Qerun. Although accompanied by armed Bedouins, he incurred continual an attack, and was unable to visit the dep to the south of the Qasr Qerun, "Hoff gehen wir einmal zusammen hin." He exp in very strong and kind terms a desire for of my maps. I immediately sent them t placing them unreservedly at his disp

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it be necessary for any cartographer to ate their publication, I would advise him to the map of Dr. Kiepert, and then to continue aley south-eastward towards OxyrhincusHe will find himself uncontradicted y modern explorer. He will be supported hieroglyphic wall-map of the Egyptian th and the description of the canal Temi, ed that "mu âmenti n't mar "of which Tell at Reian is the only trace. He will a Lake Moeris which in its several basins d reach from Tamieh (cf. Temi and Etham) nesa, "the town of the Phoenix," includthat Fayoum of which the R. Benjamin of dela said, A.D. 1168, "This is Pithom," and athern "Lac Mareotis," of which Dr. sch, misled by the imperfect cartography ant, had written, "La tradition classique as conservé les moindres traces de souvenir." thinly this depression below the level of the Lterranean is of the utmost importance for solution of the questions I have raised 124-5) and for the future prosperity of pt. When, however, Dr. Ascherson exsses the desire that my observations should speedily published, I would remind him that blonski, member of the Berlin Academy of tences, did not venture to print in his lifetime e following sentence, written about 1720: "If have now rightly cited and collated the reective authorities, it will be readily understood at in Egypt, from all time, men have been of e opinion that the Israelites dwelt in the disict of Heracleopolis, including especially the sinoite Nome, the modern Fayoum, while ing the same period their sovereigns lived in phis, added to its strength and beauty, and it the seat of government" ('De Terra sen, Diss. vi. p. 184, § viii.).

But this map by Dr. Kiepert, with the article Dr. Ascherson, furnishes the student with pography of the Moeris basin, which is the to Egyptian history. In the mirror of the in Moeris one may read the future as well as COPE WHITEHOUSE.

ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. THE third volume of the 'Dun Echt Observay Publications' has been issued. It conthe detailed account of the determinations atitude and longitude made during the expedition of Lord Lindsay (now Earl Crawford) to Mauritius to observe the transit Venus in 1874. The long delay in its appeare is explained in the preface, and the amount Fork described in the volume is of itself sufnt to show not only that its preparation was Various matter, but that the printing, which not commenced until about the end of 1881, st have occupied a considerable time. The chapter, "On the Deviations of the Plumbevinced in the Island of Mauritius," points some very remarkable discrepancies between observed astronomical co-ordinates and those ved from the survey of the island, which st proceed in some way from local attraction, call for the closest attention. "No admis

le ma Lord Crawford remarks,“ can be ribed to the mountains capable of producing Ich considerable effects; and it is only when e lock to the profound depths of the surroundocean that the exceptionally high degree of tion of Mauritius becomes fully apparent." probability of local disturbance of the ab-line at places near the sea coast where very high ground is near, owing to great pth of the ocean bed at no great distance, is excideration not sufficiently regarded. And

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suggestion of importance is here made, "that the determination of a few latitudes Mauritius, combined with a fair number of dings extending to some thirty miles from de land, together with data for the land that doubtless be readily supplied by existing veys of the colony, would afford a very acceptcontribution to our knowledge of the density

the earth."

M. Perrotin has communicated (Comptes Rendus for the 17th inst.) some additional observations of Tuttle's periodical comet, as seen by himself and by M. Charlois at the Nice Observatory. These extend to the night of the 13th inst. (i. e., about 3 o'clock on the morning of the 14th), the earliest having been made on that of the 8th. The observations were very difficult, on account of the feebleness of the comet's light and its small elevation above the horizon during the ten or fifteen minutes in the early morning during which only it could be seen. It had the aspect of a white spot about 2' in diameter, without very apparent central condensation. On the 10th (morning of the 11th) M. Perrotin remarks that, the atmospheric conditions being exceptionally good, he thought he saw the nebulosity lengthened in the direction of the meridian. M. Trépied has obtained a series of observations of Barnard's comet (II. 1885) at the Algiers Observatory, extending from the 4th to the 11th inst. The brightness of the nucleus did not exceed that of a star of the thirteenth magnitude, and the surrounding nebulosity was exceedingly faint throughout the interval during which the observations were made.

We have received the number of the Memorie della Società degli Spettroscopisti Italiani for June. There are two original papers in it, both by the editor, Prof. Tacchini, the first on the solar spots and faculæ observed, and the second on the solar spectroscopic observations made, at the Collegio Romano during the second quarter of the present year. Although a diminution is shown in the number of faculæ, there is a decided increase in the number and relative magnitude of spots, as compared with those observed in the first quarter of the year. The protuberances have been also more numerous, and the general result seems to be that, as has been noticed in previous years, the number of groups in a given period is a safe test of the amount of solar activity, which would therefore seem to have been greater in the second than in the first quarter of 1885.

'EUROPEAN BUTTERFLIES.'

La Belle Savage Yard, E.C., Aug. 27, 1885. WE shall be much obliged if you would permit us through the medium of your columns to call attention to one or two facts relating to a work on European Butterflies,' by Mr. W. F. de Vismes Kane, recently published by Messrs. Macmillan & Co.

As we are ourselves the publishers of an important work upon the same subject, having a precisely similar title, we feel that on the ground of the apparent plagiarism alone we should be justified in drawing attention to what appears to us a most unfortunate departure from the ordinary course with regard to such matters.

It is true that the title chosen, or some modification of it, is necessary to describe the nature of the work; but an obvious and adequate modification suggests itself in the name which appears on the back of the cover, but not on the front page, of Mr. Kane's book, viz., 'A Handbook of European Butterflies.' But while we are not desirous at present of pressing this point, or of dwelling upon the practical inconvenience which the similarity of title is likely to occasion, we feel bound to notice a statement made by Mr. Kane in his introduction, which is not only calculated to do us serious damage, but also to mislead the public on an important point. Mr. Kane writes as follows:

"Kirby's manual is the only English handbook of the kind (i. e. 'A Manual of European Butterflies'), but it is very incomplete, almost devoid of illustrations, and in many ways falls short of the requirements of entomologists at the present date."

It is true that so long ago as 1865 a small manual of European butterflies was published by Mr. W. F. Kirby. Mr. Kane, however, can hardly be unaware that there is a later and much more important work upon the subject by the same author. We refer to European Butter

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flies and Moths' (Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., 1882). The book named is not only a complete treatise upon the subject dealt with by Mr. Kane, but is also profusely and elaborately illustrated in colours.

The statement made, therefore, by Mr. Kane is wholly incorrect and misleading. We are consequently compelled to adopt one of two alternatives. Either Mr. Kane was so strangely unacquainted with the literature of his subject as to be ignorant of the existence of a book with which every collector is familiar, or else, with Mr. Kirby's recent volume before him, he must have taken the responsibility of informing the public that no work upon European butterflies other than the manual of 1865 was in existence.

It is easy in either case to see how highly advantageous the unqualified acceptance of this statement must be to Mr. Kane. The gain to the public is not so obvious, and the injustice done to Mr. Kirby and to ourselves is so serious as to warrant us in asking you to give publicity to this letter, which we trust you will not think uncalled for in view of the difficult position in which we are placed.

CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited.

Science Gossip.

MESSRS. COCKBURN & Co., of Newcastle, have introduced the Maxim-Weston electric light into the Backworth and Ashington and the Page Bank collieries with complete success. This promises to lessen the severe casualties to which the colliers are subject.

M. LEDEBUR, in the Moniteur Scientifique Quesneville, publishes an important paper On the Presence of Oxygen in Metals.' The author has examined with great care the state in which oxygen penetrates into melted metals. The affinity for oxygen, he shows, varies in different metals, and profoundly modifies their properties. Many of the effects are very marked, but we must refer those interested to the above journal for July, 1885.

M. L. FORQUIGNON, in the Comptes Rendus, states that from experiments on heating cast iron in vacuum to a temperature of from 900 c. to 1000 c. for several days without melting, he finds that the metal becomes malleable and its surface uniformly black, and dotted with black grains of amorphous graphite, the formation of carburet of iron, or plumbago, being a function of the temperature.

M. PAUL CHARPENTIER communicated to the

Academy of Sciences of Paris an account of a specimen of pine found embedded in a glacier at an altitude of 2,475 mètres. This is considerably above the present zone of the pine in this region.

MR. C. W. LANGTREE, Secretary for Mines in Victoria, sends us the reports of the mining registrars in the gold-fields of that colony for the quarter ending March, 1885. The yield of gold for the quarter was from alluvial deposits from quartz mines 75,095 oz. 15 dwt. 2 gr., 117,342 oz. 16 dwt. 13 gr.

FINE ARTS

"THE VALE OF TEARS.'-DORE'S LAST GREAT PICTURE, completed a few days before he died, NOW ON VIEW at the Doré Gallery, 35, New Bond Street, with Christ leaving the Prætorium,' 'Christ's Entry into Jerusalem,' 'The Dream of Pilate's Wife,' and his other great Pictures. From Ten to Six Daily.-Admission, 18.

Notizie dei Rostri del Foro Romano e dei Monumenti Contigui. Da F. M. Nichols. (Rome, Spithöver.)

To students of Roman history and archæologists, no facts which can be ascertained about the topography of the Roman rostra and their exact position in relation to the Forum and the Senate House can be without interest. The position also of the Grecostasis,

a platform upon which the foreign ambassadors and envoys were placed to hear the decisions of the Senate or to plead their own cases, is also an assistance to those who wish to realize most completely and to understand the political system of the Roman empire. In various aspects also the buildings called the Umbilicus and the Miliarium Aureum deserve notice. The Umbilicus is mentioned by the 'Notizia,' one of the early topographical descriptions of Rome, as between the temples of Saturn and of Concord, and is also a place the name of which is contained in the 'Itinerary' written by the pilgrim from Einsiedeln in the twelfth century, who places it near the church of St. Sergio, which we know to have stood on parts of the Arch of Severus. A place called the Omphalos seems to have existed in many of the Greek cities, and this shows the influence of Greece upon Rome in such matters, since the Umbilicus is probably an imitation of the Greek upados. The Miliarium Aureum, which is mentioned by Tacitus, Pliny, and Suetonius as standing at the head of the Roman Forum, has its chief interest in showing clearly the vast knowledge the Roman governors had, enabling them to govern their enormous possessions. Our knowledge of both these, namely, the Umbilicus and the Miliarium, does not go beyond a very few statements, which excite rather a poetical than a definitely historical idea in the mind. Thus the upalos at Byzantium was a hill in the middle of the city; at Antioch it was a statue, or the pedestal of a statue, of Tiberius; and at Athens an altar from which the roads were measured. Mr. Nichols seems to think that it stood at the corner of the Grecostasis, towards the Arch of Severus, and that the Miliarium Aureum, from which all Roman roads were measured, was at the corner towards the Basilica Julia. Mr. Nichols formerly published a most useful topographical study on the Roman Forum in an illustrated octavo volume of 330 pages, which was published by Messrs. Longman in 1877 (Athen., No. 2591). He has now issued a paper at Spithöver's, in Rome, containing remarks on the ruins of the rostra and other buildings adjoining the Arch of Severus at the northern corner of the Roman Forum.

The above-mentioned remarks occupy seventy-one pages of quarto, and are given to the public as having been read before the Institute of Archæology at Rome. Their chief interest lies in the endeavour to deter

mine the exact relations of the various sites and ruins which have usually been called by the names Grecostasis, Miliarium Aureum, and Rostra to the well-known Arch of Severus. The following extracts, translated into English from the Italian, will show the drift and bearing of the whole. At p. 21, speaking of the rostra and the walls built to support their platform, he says, in allusion to the more ancient part, which is constructed of tufa :

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"This shows that the brick wall of which we are speaking came up to the tufa wall from its first construction, and being so not less ancient than the tufa wall, which is attributed probably to the last consulship of Caesar, we may perhaps find in this fragment the most ancient Roman specimen of brickwork the date of which can be determined.

Another important discovery which Mr. Nichols has made is the remains of a gate leading out from the lower part of the rostra towards the ancient site of the Curia. At p. 24, after some remarks upon the chambers underneath the rostra, he says:

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"A close examination of this part puts us in condition to fix with great probability the site of a gate or door, which, in conformity with our idea of the whole building, would give entrance to the corridor existing underneath the platform. This door stands in the centre of the north side, that is, towards the side of the Forum where the Curia stood." Upon such observations, made personally, Mr. Nichols confirms or criticizes the previous remarks made by Jordan, Richter, and others in the Roman Annali dell' In

stituto.

The following will also be found interesting to those archæologists who have made a special study of the topography of the Roman Forum :

"To sum up what we have said, it appears that neither the details nor the architecture of the semicircle (by this term we mean the ruin commonly called the Grecostasis) will sustain the

idea that it belongs to an age of bad building, and that it is not impossible to believe that it is more ancient than the upper part of the rostra, that is, to receive the conclusion so clearly indicated by its position, relatively to the rostra, and indicated also by the peculiarity of the construction by which it is united with the rostra."

Lessons in the Art of Illuminating, b W. J. Loftie (Blackie & Son), belongs to Foster's Water-Colour Series," and is en with a number of surprisingly meritorious of ancient examples of the illuminators' ar the fifth century onwards, English, Celti French. They lack little else than that gilding which was characteristic of and es to medieval illuminating. Reproduction gilding could not be expected in a che popular sketch of a manual for tyros. Th defective instances are the naturalistic and fruit on a gold ground, members of We are impressed, however, with an ide we have seen some, if not all, of the plates Mr. Loftie's text is clear and succinct, far as it goes, according to its own stan good. It fails in respect to the use of liquid; instead of silver, aluminium is mended; we prefer tin. We find no refe to the use of very long-haired brushes. of steel pens we have employed gold pen advantage.

·

WE have received from Messrs. B Valadon & Co. the fourth and fifth fak completing the publication, of Figaro Sal M. A. Wolff, to the former parts of whic have already given warm praise. The only of the work is that there is not more of it

far as it goes, the text as well as the illustr are marked by taste and skill. Among the engravings (which have been produced i quasi-mezzotint mode of MM. Goupil & Co La Cascade,' by M. Mazerolle, a beautiful nymph seated on a stage of rock in a wood landscape; 'Sognefiord,' by M. Norma Sauvés! by M. Morlon; the sculpture Souvenir,' by M. Mercié; and 'Une Stign au Moyen Age,' by M. Moreau de Tours "It then seems probable that there was an trust the success of this issue will justif interval between the end of the Grecostasis and the Miliarium. And we ought to add that the promoters in extending their venture next and making it a complete record of the ma character of the work discovered in the frag-pieces of the Salon.-From the same publ ments is not good enough to be assigned to the time of the original construction of the Miliarium Aureum.

Upon the position of the Miliarium Aureum he has:

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The conclusions at which, upon the whole, Mr. Nichols seems to have arrived from his careful study of the remnants are: First, that the platform of which the outer rim, in the form of an arc of a circle, remains, extending across the northern end of the Forum between the Arch of Severus and the Basilica Julia, dates from the time of Julius Cæsar, when great alterations were made at that end of the of the rostra to the south of this, nearer to Forum; secondly, that the square foundations the centre of the Forum, were afterwards finished in the time of the early emperors, with the exception of some of the old foundations, which belonged to the previous that the round building to which the name rostra of the Republican times; thirdly, of the Umbilicus has been given is of a later date than the above arc of a circle, and was built in imitation of the Miliarium at the opposite end, which belongs to the early Empire or late Republic. Upon the whole, removed some of the difficulties which render we can congratulate Mr. Nichols on having the study of the rostra so hard for the archæologist. When we read the chief writers on the subject we find ourselves perplexed by various interpretations of the relief on the Arch of Constantine, and by the supposition that it points to the existence of rostra on the south side of the Forum. Mr. Nichols, however, at once shows us that the Grecostasis makes a great difference in this can follow him as question, and we original explorer with certainty.

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we have received Nos. 1 and 2 of En Comp a comprehensive reproduction, in the named above, of pictures and drawing M. A. de Neuville, with a descriptive an planatory text by M. J. Richard. It is completed in four parts, and include versi most of the noteworthy works of the artis these the following are valuable as, with limits of the means employed, very exa spirited reproductions of the famous Ferrée,' 'Voltigeur de la Garde," Prisonnie mands dans une Église,' and Le Mot d In both these publications the larger and in the darker shadows and colours as pi crowded prints lack some clearness and in black from colours.

The Christian Archeologist and Chur torian (The Office, 137, Strand) is a ne copiously illustrated weekly publication, i

to treat of Christian art and pious hist the seven numbers sent for review

accepted as fairly representing the inter the promoters, there is no doubt that th will be acceptable to many persons not read in the matters, and anxious to have We shall truest description of this work by comp with publications having quite differe Hone's Every-Day Book' and Cha 'Book of Days.' No. 7 contains a co and well-illustrated compilation about ( tian ring-lore, with special reference to e rings; (2) an essay on the forms of the remains of St. Eanswith at Folkeston (3) an account of the recent discovery note on the recovery of the monument of Lady Mary Percy; and (5) a vocal sacred archaeology. A calendar and Christian things in general conclude the It is hardly necessary to say that the the work is a popular and sentimental archæology, and that the editor is not at all shocked by the practices of the "r

congenial to their tastes.

arches, but innocent enough to suppose cient buildings and minor works of art actually can be restored.

THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY.

may remind our readers that Monday the 31st of the month, will be the last day h the National Portrait Gallery can be collectively at South Kensington. On ay the doors will be closed, and the reof the pictures to Bethnal Green on loan period of two years (at least) will at once This banishment, as some may think it, far East has the advantage of at once reing the collection from the increasing perils which threaten it in the present locality. is every reason to believe that the structure Le Bethnal Green Museum is in itself firef, and, moreover, comparatively free from inding dangers.

be steady growth of the collection has been sed by the changes in the locality provided 12. At the time of the foundation of the Zery, in 1856, preparations were being made the great exhibition of art treasures at Manster which was opened on the 5th of May in following year. One of the leading features the Manchester exhibition was the "British rtrait Gallery," which contained some 450 traits (including miniatures), and was the test collection of historical characters at that e ever made It was formed and arranged eat knowledge by Mr Peter Cunningham, the result has no doubt exercised considerindence on the management of the National rait Gallery, and was also of service in preig for the gigantic loan collections which e opened at South Kensington in 1866 and al three successive years.

he National Portrait Gallery now contains prtraits, many of which are due to the sity of private individuals and to public having the power of disposing of their rty, like the Society of Judges and Ser-at-Law constituting Serjeants' Inn. the Gallery was first established a private was more than sufficient to contain it, and Cality was provided in Great George Street, inster. There, as soon as pictures enough Leen collected, amounting to a little over and arranged in two or three small rows, the were admitted January, 1859. In the rse of twelve years the number of portraits grelled to 288, and the walls of rooms, stairand passages on the ground floor were xed with pictures and busts. Government signed a small portion of the large long g at South Kensington, which had been strated for the great 1862 Exhibition. This anderstood to be only a provisional accomata, pending the construction of a building ly adapted for the purpose. At that the windows of the Gallery looked over a tful and well-planted garden. Not even the ert Hall broke the line of trees and sky, and de structures, built later as the East and st Picture Galleries, were unthought of. the years, during the annual exhibitions in the rest of this long building, the Bal portraits were closely packed in a single room on the upper floor, the only access to was by a circuitous route outside the g, the main entrance being reserved for on of visitors to the popular exhibition. gh under these circumstances the existof a National Portrait Gallery could be 7ttle known to the public in general, the in steadily increased, and when the ccal exhibitions were discontinued more ice was obtained. This at first was merely sion of the upper portion of the great Kern staircase, the walls of which only suffor display of the newly acquired pictures Serjeants' Inn. Soon after this possession Che portion of the lofty central room was ceded, and when in 1879 the collection was

enriched by the numerous historical portraits from the British Museum, more extensive changes became necessary. Then the Gallery was closed for months to the public, and the entire ground floor beneath the rooms already in occupation was put at the disposal of the Trustees. On this occasion the pictures were entirely rearranged and set in chronological order. But great improvements were afterwards made in the construction of the Gallery, which led also to the economization of space.

The long row of windows, which in an unbroken line occupied the whole of the northern wall, and consequently prevented by the glare of light pictures facing them from being properly seen, were all stopped up. An additional wall was thereby gained, and skylights were opened in the roof, which by the sloping construction of the beams lent itself admirably to this arrangement. These changes were effected in the course of 1882. The result has been highly satisfactory, and it is hardly possible to imagine a more perfectly lighted gallery for the display of pictures on all four sides. Sculpture | was also well provided for in a vestibule at the entrance with skylights inserted above, which had hitherto had only a flat dark roof. The dignified white marble monument by Campbell to Mrs. Siddons, presented in late years by Mr. James Gibson Craig, placed in this room, attests the fitness of the arrangement. From this period the Gallery has been open every day to the public excepting Fridays, which, as at Hampton Court Palace, are reserved for the necessary cleaning. The accession of the great picture, in the course of this summer, of the House of Commons in 1793, largely contributed to stimulate the interest of the public in the Gallery. It is reported that this picture, and also the very important historical scene of the Interior of Old Somerset House during the Conference of 1604,' purchased from the Hamilton Palace Collection, will not accompany the rest to Bethnal Green. By permission of the Trustees and Director of the National Gallery, these pictures will find a temporary habitation in Trafalgar Square.

On looking through the catalogue of portraits now forming the national collection, it is remarkable that the first picture received was a gift, and the portrait of Shakspeare, and the first purchase was Sir Walter Raleigh,' an authentic picture, which came from Downton, Sir Walter's own residence.

The last picture now on the list is also very significant. It is the gift of an emperor and the work of a foreign artist, comprising nearly one hundred portraits, and represents the House of Commons under the ministry of Mr. Pitt, during one of the most eventful periods in the history of the British nation.

THE BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.

Two exhibitions have been arranged at Brighton, à propos of the Congress of the British Archaeological Association; one at the Free Library and Museum, where the local committee displayed in the Picture Gallery a large number of views of architectural and antiquarian subjects, principally by Mr. R. H. Nibbs, Mr. G. de Paris, and Mr. J. H. Scott. Mr. Scott lent a large number of works in this exhibition, which was so comprehensive that it is difficult to say what building of any repute as an architectural relic was not represented. The views of old Brighton attracted much attention, and included the old Town Hall and Market Street (E. Fox); St. Nicholas's Church previous to restoration (Nibbs); south view of Brighton, 1743 (Lambert); St. Nicholas's Church, exterior and interior (Penley); Coast-guard Station, Rottingdean; Old Vicarage, Brighton; and several early prints of the Steyne.

The second exhibition consisted of an extensive series of rubbings of brasses set out on the walls of the "Masonic Room" at the Royal Pavilion. Among them may be referred to, for special

importance, the Cowfold brass, with figures of St. Pancras, St. Thomas of Canterbury, and the Virgin and Child; those of Arundel, Firle, Buxted, Henfield, West Grinstead, Wiston, Amberley, and Hurstmonceaux. The brasses themselves are in most cases well known, but the excellent way in which the rubbings were prepared and arranged for display made this exhibition peculiarly acceptable.

The programme on Wednesday, the 19th inst., was long and varied. At Sompting the tower was the principal object of interest, and Mr. E. P. L. Brock pointed out that it still possesses (in a way) its original roof, renewed, no doubt, from time to time; but the four pointed gables which support the spire are original, and the spire itself must have been of the same form as it now is. This type of spire is seen in churches along the Rhine. Broadwater Church, of large dimensions, did not present any very unusual features. Under the tower is part of a Norman window much older than the arch beneath it. Cissbury encampment, the history and condition of which, with its recent yields of prehistorica, had formed the subject of a paper on Tuesday evening. proved attractive, and after listening to Mr. W. Myers, F. S. A., and Mr. E. Willett, F.S. A., who gave short descriptions of the work of exploration already carried out, some of the party managed with little pains to obtain, as mementoes of their visit, some pretty good specimens of the interesting objects usually found on the hill. At Findon Church the almost universal renovation and renewal which has been carried out rendered it difficult in some cases to distinguish the new from the old. Clapham Church is another instance of restoration, in this case by the late Sir G. Scott; but the party had little time to inspect the church, which, like Findon, might have been left out of the programme with small loss to the archaeologist; but it is difficult to fit in with Cissbury any very exceptional churches or other buildings. At West Tarring, the last place of stoppage, only a few minutes could be devoted to the inspection of the remarkable clearstory, unlike that of other Sussex churches.

The evening meeting amply made up by two good papers for any deficiency in the attractions of the day. The first paper, by the Ven. Archdeacon Hannah, On the Church of St. Nicholas and its Ancient Font, with Illustrations from other Fonts of Similar Antiquity,' was an exhaustive study of the sculptures on the font in that church, which present some unusual difficulties on account of the obscurity of one of the subjects, which Dr. Hannah, with considerable reservation, considered illustrative of the ordinance of marriage. If this be so it is treated in a most unconventional manner, for it is difficult to attribute to this ceremony a group consisting only of a man holding an indistinct object, and kneeling before a seated woman, who is extending her hand to receive the offering. The other fonts alluded to in the paper are those of Lincoln-a black marble or basalt font of square form, carved in low relief with nondescript animals having arborescent tails, and with a rude imitation of the Greek honeysuckle; St. Mary Bourne, near Andover, two sides of which are arcaded, and having the baptismal symbol of drinking doves; St. Michael's, Southampton, with an archangelic figure and grotesque monsters of the gryphon or dragon form; East Meon, Hants, with sculptures of the Creation, Temptation, and Fall of Man; and Winchester, where two of the four faces are filled with symbolical figures, such as the two doves drinking from one phial and the like. The other two sides are devoted to the legend of St. Nicholas.

The second paper was 'On the Coinage of the Ancient Britons, and especially on those relating to Sussex,' by Dr. S. Birch, F.S.A., of the British Museum, in which he viewed the work of elucidation carried out by the late Beale Poste, Dr. J. Evans, President of

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