Chapter II: Part 2

Another far more valuable relic of the past is, as we recently indicated, exciting attention on account of its decaying condition. Westminster Abbey, which may justly be regarded as the most important ecclesiastical building in the kingdom, is wasting away piecemeal under the effects of London smoke and atmospheric agencies generally. The sum required for its restoration is estimated at eighty thousand pounds, and this is probably short of the real amount which will be required to do the work effectually. For such a national purpose, the purse of the nation ought undoubtedly to be responsible.

The complete Report of Professor Hull’s labours, as chief of the little band of scientific explorers who have just returned from a geological survey of Palestine, will be looked forward to with unusual interest, for he brings back with him materials for constructing a far more complete map than has ever before been possible. The ancient sea-margins of the Gulfs of Suez and Akabah have been traced at a height of two hundred feet above their present surfaces—indicating that the Mediterranean and Red Seas have been at one time in natural connection with one another. Professor Hull believes that this was the case at the time of the Exodus. The terraces of the Jordan have also been examined, the most important of these ancient margins being six hundred feet above the present level of the Dead Sea. Besides his scientific Report, the learned Professor is preparing a popular account of his pilgrimage, which will duly appear in the Transactions of the Geological Society. His journeyings will cover much of the same ground traversed nearly fifty years ago by David Roberts, whose drawings of the places visited aroused so much interest at the time, and which have never since been surpassed.

Not very many years ago, a map of Africa presented in its centre a blank space, which was explained to inquiring children as indicating a country so hot that nobody had been there or could live there. This benighted region has now an atlas all to itself. Under the auspices of the Geographical Society, Mr Ravenstein has just completed their map of Eastern Equatorial Africa; it is of large size, and contains altogether twenty-five sheets. He will now commence a similar work for Western Africa, and has proceeded to Portugal in order to take advantage of the materials in the possession of that government bearing upon the subject. This work is also undertaken for and at the expense of the Geographical Society.

The official Report of the late census in British Burmah is not without interest to dwellers in Britain. Only two languages had to be used in the process of enumeration—namely, Burmese and English. The people at first thought that the strange proceedings heralded the advent of a new tax, and one tribe fled across the frontier so as to be out of the way. Another idea that occurred to the people was that the English made use of human heads for inquiring into the future. But these difficulties having been smoothed over, the census was taken satisfactorily. British Burmah is, roughly speaking, of the same area as Great Britain and Ireland, with a population less than that of London. This population, under British rule, has doubled in twenty years, and there is every sign of its continued increase. The males are far in excess of the females, and what seems a very important key to the wonderful prosperity of the country is the fact that there are ten acres of cultivated land for every eight persons living in it.

It is reported that Baron Nordenskïold, whose recent explorations in and around Greenland aroused so much interest in scientific circles, is contemplating a voyage next year to the south polar regions. The cost of the projected expedition is nearly two hundred thousand pounds, but this seemingly large sum will include the expense of building a ship of special construction, to meet the requirements of the explorers.

International courtesies are so very few and far between, that when one occurs it is worthy of the most honourable mention. Many years ago, a band of English Arctic explorers abandoned their ship, the _Resolute_, for it was hopelessly frozen into the ice-pack. The ship, however, at last floated free, and was taken by an American whaler to New York. The gallant Americans thereupon put the vessel into splendid order, and presented her to Queen Victoria. It was but the other day that the old ship was broken up, when a desk was made from her timbers and presented to the American President. The British government have now presented the _Alert_, which has also seen Arctic service, to the United States government for the use of the Greeley relief expedition. The ship has long ago been strengthened with teak for protection against the ice, and is thus well fitted for the purpose in view.

The recent experiments at Folkestone once more proved the value of throwing oil on troubled waters, the efficacy of which operation in stormy weather we described last month. In addition to the oil-shell there mentioned, another invention falls to be noticed, by which the same gun from which the oil-shell is discharged may be also employed for projecting a heavy solid cylindrical shot, to which is attached a flexible tubing. Upon firing the gun, the shot is carried a long distance out to sea, pulling the tube after it. The shot sinks to the bottom, and the tube thus anchored can be used with a pump for forcing the oil to any spot in the neighbourhood. This contrivance, like that of the oil-shell, is the invention of Mr Gordon.

The preparations for the International Health Exhibition to be opened in London in May next, proceed very rapidly. The eight water-companies which supply London, and which just now are being so roundly abused on the score of overcharges, will exhibit the various apparatus employed by them for the supply, filtration, &c., of water. They will also combine in erecting an immense fountain in the grounds, the jets of which will be brilliantly illuminated at night by electricity.

An American paper gives an interesting account of the manufacture of ‘Yankee sardines,’ which may be explained to the uninitiated to mean small herrings preserved in oil and flavoured with spices, to imitate the sardines of French preparation. To begin with, the fish are laid in heaps on long tables, where they are rapidly cleaned and decapitated by children. The herrings are then pickled for one hour, to remove a certain tell-tale flavour which they possess, after which they are dried. The next operation is to thoroughly cook them in boiling oil; and finally, they are packed in the familiar square tins, and duly furnished with a French label, such as, ‘Sardines à la Francaise,’ or, ‘A l’huile d’olive.’ The free, or rather the true translation of this latter inscription would be, ‘cotton-seed oil,’ and, sad to say, not always of the first quality.

A paper dealing with an outbreak in a German town of that terrible disease known as trichinosis was recently read before the French Academy of Medicine. It is worthy of attention as going far to prove that this disease, usually contracted by the consumption of unwholesome pork, is avoidable, if the ordinary precaution of thoroughly cooking the food be resorted to. In the case in question, more than three hundred persons were attacked with the disease, and of these nearly one-sixth died. It was proved beyond question that all the victims ate the meat absolutely raw, it being the custom to chop it fine and to spread it like butter on slices of bread. One single family, which consumed some of the same meat in the form of cooked sausages, exhibited no trace of the disease. It may be mentioned that a certain dose of alcohol exercised a most favourable effect in diminishing the virulence of the complaint.

A new system of railway signals which is worked by electricity, instead of by mechanical leverage, has lately been experimented upon with great success, but like most other things of an electrical kind, its ready adoption must depend upon its expense as compared with that of the older-fashioned plant. Hitherto, the ordinary electric magnet has been found unequal to this class of work, principally because its power of attraction is only great when very near the object to be attracted, and also because its impact on its armature is so violent as to lead to risk of deranging the apparatus employed. By use of what is known as the long-pull electro-magnet, recently invented by Mr Stanley Currie, these difficulties have been obviated, and signals of every kind can be worked most perfectly through the medium of conducting wires. The system has been at work for the past two months at Gloucester, and is being adopted experimentally in other directions.

The volcano at Krakatoa will long be remembered, if only on account of the wide area over which its products have been distributed. To say nothing of the dust particles which are supposed to have found their origin there, and which are credited with having been the active cause of our late gorgeous sunsets, undoubted volcanic particles have lately been found at Philadelphia. By melting and evaporating the snow upon which these tiny fragments were found, a residue of solid particles was apparent, which the microscope at once pronounced to be of a volcanic nature. It seems difficult to believe that solid matter could thus be carried in the air for four months, during which it must, if it came from Krakatoa, have covered the enormous distance of ten thousand miles. Another supposition is that the volcanic particles found at Philadelphia may have been wafted thither from Alaska, in the north-west corner of North America, where a great eruption has occurred. According to our authority, a submarine volcano shot up there last summer, and has already formed an island in the Behring Sea, from eight hundred to twelve hundred feet high. It is therefore possible that volcanic dust may have found its way, from this source, to the southern states of America, and even to Great Britain. The enormous distances traversed by these glassy particles may be thus accounted for: when steam is forced through a mass of glassy lava, the molten material is shot up with it in the form of thin filaments, just like spun glass. These, like so many pieces of spider web, would be borne aloft by the air for a very long period.

It seems only yesterday that iron furnace slag was looked upon as a waste product, for which no possible use could be found. It is now made into bricks, into cement, into wool-packing for steam-boilers, and more recently it has been found a most effective material for making all kinds of vases and other things of an ornamental nature. For this purpose, the slag is freed of its coarser particles, mixed with a certain quantity of glass and colouring matter, and when in a molten condition, is stirred about so as to present a veined appearance. It is then moulded into various forms, and is ready for sale.

We lately had an opportunity of visiting the Fine Art Loan Exhibition at Cardiff, which has been opened for three months, for the purpose of collecting funds in aid of the projected Cambrian Academy. The Exhibition includes works by some of our most eminent artists, both living and deceased, as well as a collection of such articles as can be grouped under the head of Art. But a novel feature of the Exhibition is its complete array of telephonic and telegraphic apparatus. By the co-operation of the telegraphic authorities, communication has been opened up by telephone between the Exhibition and Swansea, a distance of fifty-two miles. Not only is speech quite easy over this distance, but the voices of those acquainted with one another are readily recognised. At the time of our visit, the apparatus was connected with the theatre at Swansea, and we had the curious experience of listening to chorus, band, and solo voices, which were rendering a popular opera more than half a hundred miles away.

Mr J. C. Robinson, in the course of an interesting article contributed to the _Times_ on the conservation of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s pictures, concludes with a recommendation which all owners of valuable oil-paintings should take note of. He strongly advocates the use of glass as a covering for such pictures, and is glad to see that the practice of thus framing them is on the increase. ‘This plan,’ he says, ‘almost entirely obviates the necessity for the periodical rubbing up and cleaning the surface of pictures with the silk handkerchief or cotton-wool, inasmuch as the protecting glass, and not the painted surface of the picture, receives the rapidly accumulating deposit of dust and dirt.’ But even this he considers to be only a half-measure. The back of the picture should be stretched over with a damp-resisting sheet of india-rubber or American cloth, for it requires protection only second to the painted face of the canvas.

In presenting the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society to Mr A. Common for his wonderful photographs of celestial objects, the President of that honourable body gave a most interesting history of the medallist’s gradual progress in the difficult work in which he so much excels. Mr Common commenced work with a modest reflecting telescope of five and a half inches; but he was not satisfied until he had obtained one measuring no less than three feet across its mirror. He has also turned his earnest attention to the clockwork for driving the instrument, so that as the busy world turns on its axis, the objects focused remain stationary. This is highly necessary, when it is remembered that sometimes a star photograph occupies as much as an hour and a half in the taking, even with the most sensitive plates. This long duration of the action of the feeble light from stars so remote that they cannot be seen by the naked eye, has the effect of impressing the chemical surface so that the invisible is pictured! It is evident that a new field of research is thus opened out; and the President did well in pointing out what great services can be rendered to knowledge by the amateur worker who, like Mr Common, has the means and the ability to employ his time so well.

In these days of oleomargarine, bosch butter, and other mixtures which are supposed to furnish excellent substitutes for the genuine article, it becomes highly necessary to have some means of distinguishing the true from the false. A contribution to microscopical science towards this end is a test discovered by Dr Belfield of Chicago, which will at once identify a fat if it consist either of lard or tallow. Pure lard crystals exhibit thin rhomboidal plates, while those of tallow are quite different, and are of a curved form somewhat resembling the italic letter _f_.

A paper on the Ventilation of Theatres was lately read by Mr Seddon at the Parkes Museum of Hygiene, London. In some crowded theatres, the air has been said by a competent authority to be more foul than that of the street sewers. The intensely heated air would seem to act as a kind of pump, and to extract the vitiated atmosphere from the drains below the building. The successful introduction of the electric incandescent system of lighting to more than one metropolitan theatre has done much to mitigate the evil complained of; but it is quite certain that the ventilation of public buildings generally does not receive the attention which it so imperatively demands.

Another important consideration that is too often neglected is the acoustic properties of public buildings. Even in the last great work which has, after years of labour, been finished in London—we refer to the new law-courts—complaints are constant from those who have to work in them, of the great difficulty both in making their voices heard and in appreciating what is said by others. Public speakers whose duties carry them to various towns and cities throughout the kingdom, know very well that it is the exception, and not the rule, to find a room which is comfortable to speak in. Either the voice falls dead and flat, as if absorbed by a screen of wool; or it reverberates from every wall with such confusing echoes, that the syllables must be uttered with painful deliberation. A Committee appointed by one of our learned Societies to inquire into the reason why some rooms should be acoustically perfect, while others are quite the reverse, would do a vast amount of good. Until such an inquiry is set on foot, architects will continue to design buildings in which this necessary property is quite neglected.

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

INTERESTING NOTES ON TROUT-LIFE.

At a recent meeting of the Scotch Fisheries Improvement Association, held at Edinburgh, Mr Harvie-Brown communicated some notes on trout-life, which the Association considered of so much scientific interest, that it was resolved to engross them in the minutes. The notes are as follow:

‘The subject of coloration of flesh of trout is a much more intricate one than at first appears. I know of trout holding largely developed spawn in June and July in a loch in Sutherland, whose flesh is not pink only, but bright red like a salmon’s, and yet are not fit to be eaten. I know, also, in a limestone burn the very finest trout, which on the table are perfectly white in the flesh, whatever size they grow to; but in another limestone burn from the same sources, or nearly so, the trout are quite different in appearance externally, but equally white in flesh and equally delicious for eating.

‘I put a quarter-pound trout, along with others, into a previously barren loch. In two years some of these trout attained to four and a quarter pound-weight, developed huge fins and square or rounded tails, lost all spots, took on a coat of dark slime, grew huge teeth, and became _feroces_ in that short time. The common burn trout, taken from a very high rocky burn up in the hills, in two years became indistinguishable from _Salmo ferox_. The first year they grew to about a pound, or a pound and a half, took on a bright silvery sheen of scales, were deep and high shouldered, lusty and powerful, more resembling Loch Leven trout than any others. This was when their feeding and condition were at their best; but as food decreased, and the trout rapidly increased in number, spawning in innumerable quantities, and with no enemies, the larger fish began to prey on the smaller, grew big teeth, swam deep, and lost colour, grew large fins and a big head, and became _Salmo ferox_ so called. In two years more the food-supply became exhausted; and now the chain of lochs holds nothing but huge, lanky, kelty-looking fish and swarms of diminutive “black nebs,” neither of the sorts deserving of the angler’s notice. The first year they were splendid fish—rich and fat. Now they are dry and tasteless.’

LABOUR AND WAGES IN AUSTRALIA.

It would appear from the latest statistics that during the past few years wages have risen in some trades, and in a few only, have fallen. In the skilled branches of labour especially the tendency has been upwards, and the same thing is also noticeable in agricultural labour. For example, the rates for married couples on stations have risen from fifty-five to sixty-five pounds in 1876 to sixty or eighty pounds in 1883. The wages of farm-labourers have risen to fifty pounds or thereabouts, while only in the case of country blacksmiths have wages declined, the rates for such being now seventy-five to eighty pounds per annum. The colony is stated to be capable of readily absorbing any amount of skilled agricultural labour, especially that of the handy kind, without affecting the current rates of wages. Agricultural labour is in more demand than artisan labour, and good industrious hands would do excellently, as compared with the same class in England, both in regard to food and pay. With regard to other occupations, the following rates are paid on the New South Wales railways: clerks, two hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds per annum; foremen, five pounds ten shillings to three pounds seven shillings per week; draftsmen, four pounds fifteen shillings per week; timekeepers, three to two pounds per week; fitters, 12s. 4d. to 8s. per day; blacksmiths, 12s. 8d. to 10s. 4d. per day; turners, 12s. 2d. to 10s. 2d. per day; pattern makers, 11s. 10d. per day; brass-moulders, 11s. 4d. per day; plumbers, 11s. to 10s. per day; tinsmiths, 11s. to 10s. per day; brass-finishers, 9s. 6d. to 9s. per day; carpenters, 11s. 6d. to 8s. per day; painters, 11s. to 9s. 8d. per day; strikers, 7s. 4d. to 7s. per day; and cleaners, 7s. per day. The working day in the case of many trades does not exceed eight hours.

THE RUSSIAN CROWN ESTATES.

While so much is written of the internal economy of Russia, many will be surprised to hear of the extraordinary extent of the lands which form the estates of the Crown. The extent of the possessions of the Russian emperor may be gathered from the fact that the Altai estates alone cover an area of over one hundred and seventy thousand square miles, being about three times the size of England and Wales. The Nertchinsk estates, in Eastern Siberia, are estimated at about seventy-six thousand six hundred square miles, or more than twice the size of Scotland and Wales put together. In the Altai estates are situated the gold and silver mines of Barnaul, Paulov, Smijov, and Loktjepp, the copper foundry at Sasoum, and the great iron-works of Gavrilov, in the Salagirov district. The receipts from these enormous estates are in a ridiculously pitiful ratio to their extent. In the year 1882 they amounted to nine hundred and fifty thousand roubles, or a little more than ninety-five thousand pounds; while for 1883 the revenue was estimated at less than half this sum, or about four hundred thousand roubles. The rents, &c., gave a surplus over expense of administration of about a million and a half of roubles, or about one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. On the other hand, the working of the mines showed a deficit of over a million; hence the result just indicated. A partial explanation of this very unsatisfactory state of things is to be found in the situation of the mines, which are generally in places quite destitute of wood, while the smelting-works were naturally located in districts where wood abounds, sometimes as much as three hundred and four hundred miles distant from the mines. The cost of transport of raw materials became considerable in this way. By degrees, all the wood available in the neighbourhood of the smelting-works became used up, and it was necessary to fetch wood from distances of even over one hundred kilometres. Formerly, the mines were really penal settlements, worked by convicts, who were partly helped by immigrants, whose sons were exempted from military service on the condition of working in the mines. But since the abolition of serfdom this system has been quite altered, and there is now a great deal of free labour on the ordinary conditions.

HYDROPHOBIA—IMPORTANT EXPERIMENTS.

M. Pasteur, who has already made so many valuable discoveries in connection with diseases that are propagated by germs, has, in his own name and that of his assistants, MM. Chamberlan and Roux, communicated to the French Academies of Sciences and Medicine the results of his experimental inoculations with the virus of rabies. He finds that the virus may remain in the nervous tissues without manifestation for three weeks, even during the summer months. Virulence is manifested not merely in the nervous tissues, but in the parotid and sub-lingual glands. The granulations observed in the fourth ventricle, when in a state of virulence, are finer than the granulations in the fourth ventricle when in a healthy state, and they can be coloured by means of aniline derivatives. The virus of rabies injected into the veins or beneath the skin produces paralytic rabies, while inoculations into the spinal cord or the brain produce the paroxysmal form. Inoculations with quantities of the virus too small to be effective, have no preservative influence against subsequent inoculations. Whether the virus is propagated by means of the nervous tissues or by absorption through the surfaces of the wound, has not been ascertained. Finally, the experiments have shown that the protective ‘attenuation’ of the virus is possible. The energy or the nature of the virus varies in each species of animals. By passing the virus through different animals, ‘cultures,’ or varying qualities of virus, are obtained, whose precise effects can be predicted. Thus a ‘culture’ has been obtained which certainly kills a rabbit in five or six days, and another which certainly kills a guinea-pig in the same time. Other things being equal, the virulence varies inversely with the duration of the incubation. M. Pasteur and his assistants have good reason to believe that by means of a special culture they have succeeded in making twenty dogs absolutely proof against rabid inoculations. M. Pasteur, with his usual caution, asks for a little longer time before finally pronouncing on the condition of the dogs in question. To devise a means of making the dog proof against rabies is, of course, to devise a means of almost certainly preserving man (including children) from this frightful disorder; for hydrophobia is almost invariably communicated to man and other animals by the bites of rabid dogs.

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT IN RAILWAY CARRIAGES.

An interesting experiment was commenced just after Christmas last by the District Railway Company, on the short branch line which connects Kensington and Fulham, passing through Earl’s Court and Walham Green. On the 2d of January last, the carriages running on this short line were lighted for the first time, each with a small Swan burner, inclosed in a little glass globe; and although only a very small coil of fine wire, thin as a hair, shaped something like a letter U, was employed, the light was so brilliant and steady that the smallest print could be read by it easily. The experiment lasted about a fortnight or three weeks, and was worked from a luggage van attached to the rear of the train, and fitted up for the purpose. This experiment is interesting, and the result has been most successful, not a slip, nor a hitch of any kind, having occurred; while the reports as to cost are, it is understood, perfectly satisfactory.

Let us hope that this beautiful system of lighting may speedily be introduced on the different railways throughout the country; and especially on the District line of the Metropolitan Railway, where the bad blinking gas is so terribly trying to those who have to make two journeys a day by it, and who desire to employ the time of transit with their book or their paper, which becomes a work of difficulty under the present gas arrangements, but which may possibly be explained by one word, ‘economy;’ for it is a well-established fact, patent to all, that gas is light and brilliant enough for most purposes, provided a proper and sufficient _quantity_ is used.

DISSECTION AFTER DEATH.

Amongst the strange institutions which have been started within the last few years is that of ‘The Society for Mutual Autopsy,’ which commenced its existence in Paris in the year 1876. No balloting or any elaborate system is necessary to become a member. A proper introduction with a fee of five francs suffices, and an engagement to will your body to the Society for the purpose of dissection after death. In order to prevent the friends and relatives of the dead from frustrating the intentions of the testator, by disposing of the corpse in the usual manner, a proper legal form has been drawn up and inscribed in the Rules. This Society, which consists of about two hundred members, a dozen of whom are ladies, contains amongst its members many men eminent in the medical world in Paris, as well as distinguished in science and art. The theory of the founders is, that in consequence of the difficulty of obtaining for post-mortem examinations any other subjects but those of the lowest classes, whose faculties are naturally warped or otherwise undeveloped, much benefit must accrue to science by an opportunity being given for the dissection of persons of cultivated understanding, and particularly by making observations on the brain. Between twenty and thirty of the members of this Society generally dine together once a month at a restaurant near the Halles, where they pass a congenial evening, although there is a touch of ghastliness in the gathering. When one of their community is missing at the banquet, instead of lamenting over his departure, every one listens with rapt interest to the surgeon’s explanation of the post-mortem examination he has made.

PREVENTION OF BLINDNESS IN INFANCY.

The Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association recently issued a paper, based upon the directions of the Society for the Prevention of Blindness. From it we learn that one of the most frequent causes of blindness is the inflammation of the eyes of new-born babies. Yet this is a disease which can be entirely prevented by cleanliness, and always cured if taken in time. The essential precautions against the disease are: (1) Immediately after the birth of the baby, and before anything else is done, wipe the eyelids and all parts surrounding the eyes with a soft dry linen rag; soon afterwards wash these parts with tepid water before any other part is touched. (2) Avoid exposing the baby to cold air; do not take it into the open air in cold weather; dress the infant warmly, and cover its head, because cold is also one of the causes of this eye-disease. When the disease appears, it is easily and at once recognised by the redness, swelling, and heat of the eyelids, and by the discharge of yellowish white matter from the eye. Immediately on the appearance of these signs, seek the advice of a medical man; but in the meantime, proceed at once to keep the eyes as clean as possible by very frequently cleansing away the discharge. It is the discharge which does the mischief. The cleansing of the eye is best done in this way: (1) Separate the eyelids with the finger and thumb, and wash out the matter by allowing a gentle stream of lukewarm water to run between them from a piece of rag or cotton-wool held two or three inches above the eyes. (2) Then move the eyelids up and down and from side to side in a gentle rubbing way, to bring out the matter from below them; then wipe it or wash it off in the same manner. This cleansing will take three or four minutes, and it is to be repeated regularly every half-hour at first, and later, if there is less discharge, every hour. (3) The saving of the sight depends entirely on the greatest care and attention to cleanliness. Small pieces of clean rag are better than a sponge, as each rag is to be used once only, and then burnt immediately; sponges should never be used, except they are burnt after each washing. (4) A little washed lard should be smeared along the edges of the eyelids occasionally, to prevent them from sticking. Of all the mistaken practices which ignorance is apt to resort to, none is more ruinous than the use of poultices. Let them be dreaded and shunned as the destroyers of a new-born baby’s sight. Tea-leaves and sugar-of-lead lotion are equally conducive to terrible mischief, stopping the way, as they do, to the only right and proper course to be taken.

CARD-TELEGRAMS.

Great as have been recent improvements in our postal service, we have yet to learn something from the Parisians, whose system of Card-telegrams is worthy of notice. The cards are of two kinds—namely, yellow similar to our own, and blue, which, when secrecy is desired, may be closed. By dropping the card into the Card Telegram Box at the nearest telegraph office, it is shot through one of the pneumatic tubes which are now being extended all over Paris, and is delivered at its destination within half an hour. Fifty to seventy words can be written on the card, the cost of which is threepence. It is further intended to permit of cards being dropped into the boxes up to fifteen minutes of the departure of the mail-trains, a boon which merchants in Great Britain may well envy.

HOW AND WHERE THE HERRING SPAWNS.

According to a contemporary, we learn that Professor Cossar Ewart, Edinburgh University, convener of the Scientific Investigation Committee of the Board of Fisheries, was at the beginning of March at the well-known fishing-ground off the coast of Ayrshire known as the banks of Ballantrae, when some interesting investigations were made into the nature of the sea-bottom and spawn deposited on that famous herring-bed. The banks were dredged from a depth of eight to twenty-two fathoms. At a depth of eight to eleven fathoms the bottom was composed of clean gravel, with very little seaweed; beyond the eleven fathoms, clay, mud, and shell. On the stones lifted by the dredge, portions of herring spawn were found firmly attached to the surface of the stones in different stages of development, the more advanced manifesting, in lively action, the embryo herring. Spawn was also taken from the living herring and placed on glasses in hatching-boxes, and these also showed the eggs in progress of development. From a small stone of a few inches of surface as many eggs were found as, if allowed to arrive at maturity, would have yielded crans of herrings. The information obtained by Professor Cossar Ewart, during his recent dredgings, will be of the greatest importance in throwing light upon a hitherto but imperfectly understood question in natural history.

The banks in the evening presented a scene of lively interest, for as the sun began to set, a school of at least forty whales and porpoises began to play, and, circling around the margin of the fishing-banks, rose and fell in graceful plunges, their black fins and backs rising in curves for a moment, and then disappearing, while the porpoises made wild leaps many feet clear out of the water. Their presence was accounted for next morning, when a good many of the seine trawlers entered Loch Ryan and Girvan with from one to three hundred baskets of herrings each.

Professor Cossar Ewart has since had some more successful dredgings. He has also made some important discoveries regarding natural and artificial spawning, and deposited live herring and a quantity of spawn in the aquarium at Rothesay.

A FLOURISHING FRUIT-FARM.

At Toddington, in Gloucestershire, there has been going on for a few years the cultivation of fruit on a very large scale; a fruit-farm of five hundred acres having been planted by Lord Sudeley, and which, we are glad to know, has proved so successful, that its area is about to be enlarged to the extent of other two hundred acres. An enormous number of fruit-trees of many kinds has been planted, along with thousands of currant-bushes, whilst upwards of a hundred acres of the land are devoted to the growth of strawberries. A noteworthy feature of the scheme consists of a market being found for the smaller fruits on the ground on which they have been grown. In other words, Lord Sudeley has, with great foresight, erected a suite of boiling-houses and packing-rooms, which have been let to an enterprising person, who manufactures genuine jams and jellies from the fruit grown at Toddington. In fruit-preserving, the English and Scotch boilers—and the latter class have largely increased during the last few years—have a great advantage over their brethren of the continent and the United States, because of the greater cheapness of the sugar, which is required in large quantities. It is to be hoped that the example set by Lord Sudeley will be speedily followed by some of his territorial brethren. As a nation, we could manage to consume much more fruit than we do at present, if we could obtain it at a moderate price. In the orchards at Toddington have been planted as many as thirty-two thousand plum-trees, nine thousand damson trees, and three thousand nine hundred pear and apple trees, while there are no fewer than two hundred and twenty-eight thousand black-currant bushes.

THE GRAPE AND PEACH IN AMERICA.

The old saying about the inutility of carrying coals to Newcastle receives a new rendering in the fact that vine plants are being brought from America to replenish the vineyards of France, which have been in some instances devastated by the phylloxera. Grapes are now extensively grown in the United States both for dessert and wine-making. A lady who has recently been travelling in California, where the grape family is wonderfully numerous, and many of the vines exceptionally prolific, sometimes obtaining a ‘luxuriance which sounds almost incredible’—this lady—C. F. Gordon-Cumming—tells us, among other facts, of bunches of grapes which have been found to weigh as high as fifty pounds! The vineyards of Colonel Wilson, in the neighbourhood of the garden-city of Los Angeles, cover two hundred and fifty acres of ground, and the grapes yield one thousand gallons of wine to the acre. In another vineyard, there grow upwards of two hundred varieties of grapes; and in the cellars of its proprietor are stored two hundred thousand gallons of grape-juice, ripening into wine, of which many kinds are made in the state of California. Need it be said that grapes in these regions are cheap—a hatful can be purchased for a few cents! Only think of the above-named Colonel Wilson having ‘two and a half million pounds of grapes, hung up by their stalks, to keep them fresh for the market’! That fine fruit, the peach, is equally cheap in the peach-growing districts of the United States. The annual value of the American peach-crop is estimated at eleven and a half million pounds sterling. In some seasons, peaches are so abundant, that, to prevent their being lost, they are used in immense quantities for the feeding of pigs. Cannot this fruit be utilised for consumption in Europe? Supplies of the fresh fruit might be sent to us in the refrigerated chambers of the steamboats.

BOOK GOSSIP.

One of the most interesting books of travel issued of late years is that entitled, _Arminius Vambery: His Life and Adventures_ (London: T. Fisher Unwin), which is now in the third edition. This Hungarian traveller is a man of rare courage and will, and possessed of high literary accomplishments; and the narrative of his wanderings in various capacities in Asia and Europe is told with a graphic and picturesque power which is extremely captivating.

Vambery, who was born in 1832, had a singularly hard up-bringing, and the story of his early years is quite as interesting as his later adventures in foreign lands. His father died a few months after the birth of the boy, leaving the family in extremely poor circumstances. When he was twelve years of age—up to which time, from lameness, he could only walk with the help of a crutch—his mother thought him old enough to shift for himself. He had previously been three years at school, where he had drawn attention upon himself by his precocity. But the inexorable poverty of his parent stood in the way of further education, and at twelve he was apprenticed to a ladies’ dressmaker, but only stayed long enough in this employment to learn to stitch two pieces of muslin together. He left the shop of the ‘dress-artist,’ and did a little teaching in the family of an innkeeper, ‘occasionally waiting on thirsty guests.’ When he had saved up eight florins, he hastened from the Island of Schütt, where he had spent his years, to a gymnasium in the vicinity of Pressburg, and here began a strange struggle for existence and education. His money was just sufficient to buy the necessary books, and he had to depend on the kindness and charity of others for his food. Seven different families each gave him one day in the week a free meal, adding to it something for breakfast and luncheon; and he got the cast-off clothes of the wealthier school-boys. Notwithstanding all drawbacks, he made great progress in his studies, and took a high place in the Latin class—he was indeed able at fourteen years of age to speak Latin with considerable fluency. We cannot follow his career further, but can with confidence commend the singular story of his life and adventures to all readers, both young and old.

⁂

Literature and angling would seem to have something in common. The number of books that have been written on the ‘gentle art,’ and that by men of striking ability, is too well known to require enumeration. To this list we must now add _Sprigs of Heather, or the Rambles of ‘Mayfly’ with old Friends_, by the Rev. John Anderson, D.D., Minister of Kinnoull. Mr Anderson is a veteran angler, and is able to look back to days spent by the river-side with the great Christopher North, and with others who, though of less note in the angling and literary world, were still such as to afford to the author the opportunity of telling many amusing and characteristic stories regarding them. He is, as many, perhaps most, anglers are, delighted with the scenes of rural beauty into which his pursuits have led him, and he describes them with the pen of a ready and accomplished writer, and with somewhat of poetic fervour. Mr Anderson is a strong advocate of fly-fishing, and almost scornfully speaks of those who use bait, as ‘ground-fishers,’ and the like. We are not sure but his indignation on this point is misplaced, as all bait-fishing is not done in muddy or discoloured water, and perhaps as much skill is required to fish successfully a small clear stream with worm as with fly. Stewart and other well-known anglers have long since acknowledged this. In other respects, however, Mr Anderson’s little volume is such that lovers of the rod and line will find it entertaining reading.

⁂

Those who love Scottish music and Scottish dances will hail with pleasure the appearance of two handsome volumes entitled, _The Athole Collection of Dance Music of Scotland_ (Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart). These volumes have been compiled and arranged by Mr James Stewart Robertson (Edradynate), who has done his work in a most efficient manner. He, as an unprofessional musician, apologises for having undertaken such a work, which, he says, was only done by him because he did not expect, from the disfavour into which, for the present, Scottish music and dances have unfortunately fallen, that any professional musician, competent for the task, ‘could be induced to devote the time, and to run the chances attending the production of such a work.’ So far as Mr Robertson’s execution of the work is concerned, no such apology was required; while his devotion to the task which he has so satisfactorily accomplished renders his services to his country almost patriotic. He has selected his airs with admirable taste and skill, and the two volumes contain within them specimens of almost every characteristic of Scottish dance music. No better or more acceptable present could be sent from Scotch folks at home to Scotch folks abroad than this _Athole Collection_.

AMONG THE DAISIES.

Lay her down among the daisies,
With the fringes of her eyes,
Softer than their silver petals,
Closed for blissful reveries.
Fold her little hands in whiteness
As in prayer on her breast;
Fear not for their folded lightness
On the heart unmoving pressed,
For that heart of angel brightness,
Tired so early, lies at rest.

Tired so early!—when the dawning
Glimmered white-winged through the room,
And the skies were half awaking,
Half in fading starlit gloom,
From the heaven of the starlight
Came the angels of the dawn;
And the morning winds were sighing,
And the curtains eastward drawn,
And her sleeping face looked brighter,
And a whispering sob said—‘Gone!’

All the daisies were unfolding
In the fields, where never more
Shall the rapture of her child-life
Run in shout and laughter o’er.
Tired so early!—she has gathered
All her gladness in swift space,
She has sung her song and ended,
Childlike turning pleading face
Back to home when joys are weary—
Toward the one familiar place.

Lay her low among the daisies:
Angels knew her more than we;
They have led her home from wandering,
Tired with earthly revelry.
And above her daisied pillow
Let her simple tale be told:
Here the Lover of the lilies
Bade a little blossom fold;
He that wakes the flowers shall wake her,
White as snow, with heart of gold.

HELEN ATTERIDGE.

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Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH.

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[Transcriber’s note—the following changes have been made to this text:

Page 207: Angelos to Angeles—“Los Angeles”.]