Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/50

 fVoi- v., No. UH.

��NOTES AND NEWS.

A. XOTEL event transplreil at Bijsi/in \nn Wednet- day. In the celebrallon, by Dr. B. Joy Jeffrie'* and his friends, of the L-enleiininl of the flnt balloon voy- age ever made across the English Cbaniiet, which wa» undertaken by bis grandfather, Dr. John Jef- fries, on Jan. 7, nSi. In this connection. Dr. Jeffries hai happily printed, in the current number of the Hagaxine of American hlHtiiri/, the original diary of Dr. Joliii Jeffrie', illustrated by tliree escelleiit por- traits, oDe representing him as taking his voyage. The account of the trip is exceedingly Interesting, and told in very I'lmple laiigiinge. But many per- sons would doubtless be ni ire attracted by the naive account of his niceptlon in pHris. and lbs honors which ho receired during his six weeks' rei>idence there. It gives a vivid picture of society, at the time, in that gay capital.

— A party of German explorers, conslsllug nf Dr. Earl von den Slelnen, Wilhelm Ton den Stelnen, and Otto Klaus, has just reached Rio (te Janeiro, after a journey of five months through the lenst-knuwn part of llrazll. Starling from Cuyaba, capital of the prov- ince of Hatto Grosso, in May, these gentlemen went by land to one of the bead waters o( the Xingil. — to whii-h they gave the name of Datovy, in honor of the president of Hatto Grosso, who furnished an escort, and In other ways aided llie expedition, — and. em- barking upon thla stream in bark canoes mwle tor the purpose, reached the month of llie Xingii in Octo- ber. The jiiurney was rendered dangerous by the innumeraiile rapids nf ilic river, and by numerous tribes of Indians who had never before seen a white man, hut wns safely accomplished without a single serious accident. The results promise to be of great geographical and ethnological Interest. The Xlogd, which is thuii added to the small number of Brazilian rivers that have been accurately explored and mapped, has been the least known of all the great rivers of the empire; and its valley has become the centre of the unknown Indian country from the drivliig-ln of the more Intractable tribes by the atlvance of civil- ization along the Tocantina, Tapajos, and Upper Paraguay. Its lower course was explored in 1S42 hy Prince Adelbert of Prussia, to a point above the great bend; but the upper course has only been known from Die romewhac vague accounts of mlssionnries and traders of colonial limes, which have, until recently, been ovsriooked by Brazilian geographers. Repre- sented with tolerable accuracy on the earlier maps, it has, during the last thirty or forty years, been a sort of geographical shulllecoek, eacli succeeding map In- troducing some erroneous correction. An lmi>ortant stream, the Paranatinga, an affluent of the Sao Manoel. branch of the Tapajos, nr perhaps the upper course (if that river, was first transferred to the Xingii. When this mistake was discovered, through a consultation of ancient documents, another was committed by taking three or four degrees from the lenglh of the Xingii on the supposition that Uiere was not room for its source near the parallel of 1.%° south, between llie Paraiiutinga nnd the Araguaya. The present ex-

��plorers report that the river flows through a fine country very abiinilaut In rubber, but Ihat It is too much obstructed by rapids to become a commercial highway.

— Agricultural experiments continue at Houghton (arm (Monntainville, Orange county, N.T.), on the general plan adopted In ISTli, but with some ex- tension and modifications. In the line of agricul- ture proper, the chief work is the comprehensive study of the Indian-corn plant, and experiments In rotation of crops, as inaugurated by Dr. M. Miles. Ten acres are devoted to ihls branch. One report has been published, and another Is in preparation. The experiment-orcliard planted by Professor Penhallow, and covering three acres, Is doing finely, and promises results of value to horticultural interests. Meteoro- logical observations are carried on, — atmospheric. surface, and subterranean temperatures receiving es- pecial attention, —and an annual report is printed. In this depsrtmenl, instruments have been lately In- stalled to secure continuous records. It is fo difficult to thoroughly provide for animal 'experiments, that these have been undertaken only In a somewhat desultory way. Miscellaneous investigations, all re- lated U) practical farming, are carried on as time and circumstances permit. It is understood Ihat .Mr. Valentine is in search of the right man, with scientific training, facility for original research, and lasts [or farm-life, to take the immediate charge of the experi- ment department at Houghton (arm. The time of Major Alk'onl, geiierni manager, is so occupied, that he can only give the work of this department a gen- eral supervision.

— W. Erippen, editor of the MeteorologlKhe trft- »ekr^, has published, according to i*e(ermaiin's nHt- tliMiingen, a chart of the xtines of temperature from a new point of view, having taken as a divUlonat mark the length of the hot seasons according to their real relations, without reducing them to an Ideal average. The tropical Eone embraces those regions in which all the montlis are hot, that Is, have a temperature of 31)° C; the subtropical, those In which, during from fourtoeleven months, the mercury reaches lliat point. The temperate zone, with from four to twelve months in which the ruling temperature Is from 10° C. to 20°C., he divided Into regions which are marked by a uniformly temperate climate, those in which the sum- mers are hot, and those with a moderate summer and cold winter. The frigid zone contains only regions with but from one to (our months of moderate tem- perature; the polar circles, those where in no month does the mercury reach 10° C, In addition, there is shown on the chart the boundary of the noribem ice-field, the Isothermal line of 10° C, and the bound- ary of the four months' cold (under 20° C.) In the accompanying explanation, Mr. Koppeii poinis out the influence of temperature upon the organic world, — shows that the boundaries taken by him very often agree with those of distribution of animal and plant life.

— Dr. Laeerda of Rio Janeiro, who has tor fome years been investigating the subject of snake-bites, now states that the poison of otbi>r snakes does not

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