Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/286

 [Vol. V.

�� ��from the shore, now forms part of FormotEi, and under its ruina the water is bo shallow tbal passeo- gers land with inaeh dlfflculljr where was formerly deep water. The old harbor Is now dry land, con- verteil for milea iiilo a plain, where was formerly the fine port of Taiwanfu. The island is very unhealthy for Europeans, and subject to earthquakes, but con- tains no active volcanoes.

— The veteran zoologists of Cuba — Professor Felipe Poey, who Is now nearly eighty-six years old, and Dr. Juan Gundlach, who has completed his sevcniy-fourthyear — are still engaged Industriously In aiudying the faiina of that tropical Island. Dr. Gundlach has been publishing his contributions to the fauna or Porto Rico In the AnnaU of the Spanish Borlety of natural history. The vertebrates (includ- ing Ushes by Poey) have all appeared, and recently the fresh-water marine mollusca have been l!'Bued. Gundlach has been publishing every month eight octavo pages in the Annais of the Havana academy of sciences, —a contribution lo the mammals, birds, and reptiles of Cuba, — and la now at work upon the insects, of which the Lepldoptera are almost com- pleted, and occupy already nearly four hundred pages. Poey has published the llshes of the island in the AnnalK of the Spanish society of natural history, and Arango has discussed the moltusks. It is to be hoped that these still vigorous naturalists will live lo see the coniptetion of the work Ihey have undertaken with so much xeal.

— The report of the librarian of Harvard univer- sity gives this year a fuller account than we have had before of Ebeling's collection of maps, which It known to be one of the most valuable collections In this country, especially for early maps of America. These maps have now been arranged Willi the others belonging to the university; and the whole series will occupy at leait nine hundred portfolios, of which about three hundred and sixty pertain to America, conntlng In this seventy-two which hold the coast- survey maps. AlKiut one hundred volumes will ba collected of maps which may be classed together for binding; and, when these are eliminated, there will still remain about fifteen thousand maps. The Ebel- Ing maps belong principally to the seventeenth and eighleentb centuries, and were collected previous to 1817. The re-arranging will be completed early in the coming year. Meanwhile considerable progress has been mode In a descriptive catalogue, written on slips which are kept in drawers near the cases of port- folios. These entries have been completed for the maps of Great Britain, France, Spain, llaiy, and Scandinavia. When Ibis catalogue is finished, an historical and topographical index is proposed. The maps in atlases will be eventually Included, and per- haps important maps in geographical serials and other books. With this extent of catalogue and index service, it Is not probable that questions of historical geography can be settled so well anywhere In this country as In the Harvard library.

— The death of Col. Itoudoire of the French army, known so widely In connection with the project of an

���inland sea, to be artificially formed by flooding the depressed area of the 'chotts' in Algeria and Tunis, win not affect the continuation of the investigations relating to that enterprise. Col. Landas, professor of topography In the military school of St. Cyr. hu volunteered to lake the place of Roudaire. The latter, who had devoted himself with great enei^ lo the scheme for twelve years, received no pecuniary reward for his labors, and leaves a mother, for whoso support those Interested have subscribed a little au-

— ' Melanic variation in Lepldoptera ' was the sub- ject of Lord Walsinghnra's presidential addre.'s before the Yorkshire naturalists' union on the 3d of this month. He calls attention to the prevalence of dark varieties of bulterflies and moths at great eleva- tions and high altitudes, and attempts to explain it on the theory of natural selection. Ue points out, that, while vertebrates living throDgh the winter require to retain in their bodies a sufficient amount of heat to enable them to maintain their existence in the severest climates, insects require rapidly to take ad- vantage of transient gleams of sunslilne. "Those males," he says, "whose color enabled them to absorb the heal most rapidly would naturally be the flrel to harden their vrlngs, and to acquire a degree of vitality sotBcient to enable them to commence their flight. If we imagine the emergence of a pale and a dark variety side by side at the same moment, it it more than probable that the paler specimen would remain Inactive among the herbage, when his darker com- panion had already commenced his flight. In un- favorable weather the degree of warmth suRlcieQt lO arouse even the darkest varieties might be of very short duration; and. If this were so, the less favored males might be wholly deprived of the degree of en- ergy necessary to enable them lo find their femalet. The shorter the continuance of passing gleams of sun- shine, the greater would be the influences brought to bear against them; and each separate Instance, how- ever infrequent such Instances might l>e, In whitA they were thus placed at a disadvantage, would have its effect in diminishing their numbers, promoting the survival of only the fltleet forms. If tills Is so, it is sufficiently obvious that the first males on the wing have the best chance of transmitting their color by an hereditary process to the succeedlnggeneratlon; and, if these males were always or usually the darkest of the brood, their progeny would also be for the most part dark." In order lo lest certain i]ueBtloni which would arise In conneclton with this, he placed several dark and light colored Insects on the snow, and found a marked difference in the amount of ab> Borption of beat from the sun, and in the rapidity wltii which tlicy would make impressions upon tfa«

— The opening of the Antwerp exhibition, fixed for I May 3. will have to be deferred, as the applications for apace have been so numerous and extensive that the proposed area Is insufficient.

— The following Is a translation of the text of the regulations respecting vivisection issued by the Oop- J

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