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bergen; a matter which may be important to a company wishing to establish a line of packets between the two points, but which has no bearing on the question of exploration. His second reason was that the Spitzbergen seas form the widest openings into the unknown region. This is one of the strongest objections to the route, for the navigation must be conducted in a drifting pack, which is fatal to a successful advance. The third reason is still more remarkable, namely, that the "Spitzbergen seas are more free of ice than any other part of the arctic regions." This assertion is diametrically opposed to the experience of all who have visited those seas. The fourth reason is that "the drift ice north of Spitzbergen offers just as much or as little impediment to navigation as the ice of Baffin's Bay." | This statement is made in the face of the fact that a fleet of whalers has annually passed through the ice of Baffin's Bay for the last fifty-six years, while the pack north of Spitzbergen has never once been penetrated. The fifth assertion is that "the sea north of Spitzbergen will never be entirely frozen over, not even in winter, nor covered with solid ice fit for sledge travelling." This is possibly true, and it forms another strong objection to the Spitzbergen route, for these streams and pools of water, while making exploration by sledges impossible, would add to the danger of wintering in the pack. The sixth assertion is that from Sir Edward Parry's furthest point a navigable sea was extending far to the north, and that in 82° 45′ there was a perfectly navigable sca. The assertion is the very reverse of the real fact. Parry, at his extreme point, found the ice thicker and the floes more extensive than any he had previously met with, and there was a strong yellow ice blink always overspreading the northern horizon, denoting field-ice. The seventh assertion is that "the polar region north of Spitzgergen consists of sea and not land." This is the very reason that the Spitzbergen route is the worst that can be selected, land and land-ice being essential to a real advance. The eighth and last reason is that Parry's voyage only took six months. Here is another reason against the example being followed, for a hasty voyage of that kind must fail to secure the scientific results to be obtained from arctic research.

So much for Dr. Petermann's first letter to Sir Roderick Murchison. The only point in the second letter is the argument that there will be no difficulty in boring through the polar icefields north of 80°, because Sir James Ross got through the extensive pack in the antarctic regions in lat. 62 S., after it had drifted and become loose for many hundreds of miles over a boundless ocean. The fallacy of this comparison was fully exposed by Admiral Collinson.* That arctic explorer pointed out that the antarctic pack was drifting away from a solid line of immovable grounded ice-cliffs, and of course left open water in its rear, because there was no moving ice further south to take its place. The exact analogy of the voyage of Sir James Ross in the south is that of Scoresby in the north. The antarctic pack, in lat. 75° S., is analogous to the ice met by the whalers in the early spring in 75° to 76° N., through which they can usually pass. The open water north of Spitzbergen is analogous to the open sea found by Ross in the south; and the polar pack which Scoresby found bounding that open water to the north, from whence the ice he had passed through had drifted, is analogous to Ross's line of impenetrable ice barrier.

Dr. Petermann finally asked for any reason, however slight, why it would not be as easy to sail from Spitzbergen to the pole and back as to go up Baffin's Bay to the entrance of Smith Sound. This is a curious instance of the way a preconceived theory destroys the power of seeing the simplest facts. The reason is clear enough, and is well known to all arctic navigators. North of Spitzbergen the sea is encumbered by a drifting pack, through which no ship has ever penetrated. In Baffin's Bay there is land-ice, along which vessels can creep while the pack drifts past. The consequence is, that whereas a fleet of whalers passes up Baffin's Bay every year, no vessel has ever gone far into the pack north of Spitzbergen.

Although these fallacies were completely exposed at the time, the letters containing them caused a barren discussion which gave the appearance of dissension among geographers, and destroyed the previously hopeful prospect of the English Government being induced to consider Capt. Osborn's proposal favourably. Unanimity was essential to success; and thus Dr. Petermann's inopportune letters had the effect of throwing back arctic discovery for ten years.

At the same time the efforts of Capt. Osborn and his fellow

* Royal Geographical Society's Proceedings, ix, p. 118.

arctic voyagers in 1865 bore some good fruit. His own paper is an important document, which clearly states the true principles of arctic exploration, and has been invaluable for reference. Dr. Hooker prepared a statement of some of the scientific results of an arctic expedition; and Commodore Jansen, of the Dutch Navy, contributed an admirable memoir on the discoveries and proceedings of his countrymen in the Spitzbergen seas.

Having thus seriously injured and retarded the progress of discovery, so far as England was concerned, Dr. Petermann called upon his own countrymen, with some success, to undertake arctic voyages in pursuit of his theory. Two or three such voyages were undertaken. In 1868 the Germania made a voyage to Spitzbergen with exactly the same result as had attended the hundreds of voyages which preceded it; and in 1869 another Germania followed the track of Capt. Clavering in 1823 to the Pendulum Island, on the east coast of Greenland, adding nothing whatever, so far as navigation is concerned, to our previous knowledge. Capt. Koldewey commanded both these expeditions, and he returned after being fully convinced of the fallacy of Dr. Petermann's theory, and that Smith Sound is the route for effective north polar exploration. It is much to be deplored that these gallant German explorers, who certainly might have done really good work if they had been guided by the practical experience of their predecessors in arctic navigation, should have been made to waste their energies in accordance with a fanciful and baseless theory.

The other arctic work that has been achieved since 1865 was not undertaken under Dr. Petermann's auspices, or to prove his theories; and the results have been much more important. The Swedes have done admirable scientific work in Spitzbergen. The Norwegians. under the auspices of Prof. Mohn, of Christiania, have circumnavigated Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, and revisited Wyche's Island in 79° N., which was discovered by an English ship in 1617. Capt. Hall sailed far up Smith Sound, proving the accuracy of Admiral Osborn's views; and lastly, Lieut. Payer and Capt. Weyprecht discovered the extensive region between Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, and proved the utter fallacy of Dr. Petermann's theory, which he propounded in 1852, and has since so persistently adhered to. The ice drifted with the wind, and there was no sign either of a warm current or of a navigable polar basin.

In 1872 Admiral Sherard Osborn read his second paper, again urging the renewal by England of arctic exploration by the route of Smith Sound, with the west coast of Greenland as a base. Fortunately, complete unanimity was secured, and, thanks to the tact, judgment, and perseverance of two successive Presi dents of the Geographical Society-Sir Bartle Frere and Sir Henry Rawlinson-the Government has resolved to fit out a naval arctic expedition of discovery to proceed by way of Smith Sound. Success has thus at length crowned the efforts of the Society, and baseless theories have had to give place to the experience of practical men.

Yet we have been again visited by a long letter from Dr. Petermann, which, however, did not arrive until the question was settled. Its precise object is, therefore, not very apparent; but, remembering the injury done by the two previous letters in 1865, it is certainly incumbent on those who have, after much labour and watchfulness, reached the goal, to defend the ground which has been gained, even when the old opponent has become apparently harmless.

In his third letter Dr. Petermann begins by the assertion that actual exploration since 1865 has proved that there is "greater navigability in all parts of the arctic seas than was formerly sup posed to exist." There is really no ground for this assertion. Our knowledge of the arctic seas previous to 1865 has not been increased to any material extent, and the amount of navigability in those seas was as well known before that date as it has become since. The voyage of Capt. Hall, satisfactory as it is, merely proved that practical arctic men were right, and that the theorists were wrong; and although it is very generous of Dr. Petermann to withdraw his opposition to the Smith Sound route, he must surely be aware that the time has now passed when that opposi tion would have any effect. If the voyages since 1865 have not added much to previous knowledge, they have at least had the effect of disproving a theory which has done more than anything else to retard discovery.

Most of Dr. Petermann's letter consists of a recapitulation of the work accomplished by the Norwegians on the coast of Novaya Zemlya, and by other recent voyagers, the point of which is not apparent; and of an attempt to make out that Payer and Weyprecht were not the discoverers of Franz-Joseph

Land, but that it was visited previously by Baffin and by Cornelis Roule. His arguments are not at all borne out by the authorities o which he refers. Nor will the British Government be guided y any proposals not originating from those experienced arctic fficers upon whose advice they rely, so that Dr. Petermann's uggestions about sending one steamer to the west coast and nother to the east coast of Greenland might have been spared. English geographers have always fully recognised the valuable ervices of Dr. Petermann as a cartographer, and the important nd useful work he has long done in collecting and disseminating eographical information. But at the same time it cannot be orgotten that his persistent adherence to an indefensible theory as retarded discovery, and that in 1865 his inopportune intererence had a most injurious effect upon the prospects of arctic xploration from this country. That danger is at last overcome, ut those who have borne the heat and burden of the day, cannot -ut protest against Dr. Petermann's present assumption of the osition of an arctic authority and adviser. Nov. 22 CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM

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The Present State of the Arctic Ice Barriers IN a letter from Capt. David Gray, quoted by Dr. Petermann NATURE, vol. xi. p. 39), some very interesting observations on e arctic drift ice of this year's summer are recorded, which apt. Gray regards as justifying the conclusion that "nearly the hole of the ice was driven out of the arctic basin last summer.' Capt. Gray's observations appear to be limited to the coast of reenland. If corresponding phenomena were presented in her and distant parts of the Arctic Ocean, they must afford rong confirmation of his conclusion. I have lately returned om a summer visit to Arctic Norway, having sailed round the orth Cape and into the Varanger Fjord, stopping a few days Tromso and halting at Hammerfest, Vardo, Vadsö, and other ctic stations, and I was much surprised at the curious difference etween the climate I found there this summer and that which previously experienced at the same season.

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The following extract describes the temperature between romsö and Hammerfest during my first visit in July 1856 :The weather was excessively hot. During the hottest part of e day the thermometer stood at 77° in the cabin, at 92° in the noking saloon-a little cabin built on deck-and 108° in the in: on shore, in the valleys, it must doubtless have been much otter. The contrast of this glaring Italian, or I might almost y Brazilian sky, with the snow-clad rocks and glaciers dipping most to the sea-edge, is very striking. It was a continual urce of wonderment; one of the few scenes which one does >t become accustomed to, but retains its novelty day after day."* ich was the prevailing weather during the summer of 1856, id such is the usual summer weather of Arctic Norway from e beginning of July until a week or two after the disappearance the midnight sun. This year it was miserably different, to the eat disappointment of the ladies I ventured to pilot thus far, id vexation to myself. The contrast was strikingly shown in e course of a walk up the Tromsödal. This summer I made o excursions up this valley with a fortnight's interval. On both ccasions the lower part of the valley was a mud swamp from cent snow-thaw. In 1856, three weeks earlier in the season an my second visit this year, the snow water had evaporated, aving the path hard and dry. In 1856, the poor little Lapps ere outside their huts, gasping with heat and varnished with ly perspiration; their huts were so insufferably hot that only ne or two out of a party of seven or eight male travellers dared venture inside. This year, the ladies, as well as myself, were lad to warm ourselves by sitting round the hut fire upon the oulders that serve as chairs. Drizzling rain and cold mists placed the oppressive heat, the brilliant sky, and rainless immer-time of 1856.

The Duke of Roxburgh, who has spent sixteen summers in Arctic Norway (he has the Alten salmon river opening in lat. o), told me that the low temperature and drizzling mistiness of his summer was quite exceptional to his experience; that the immer of 1868, which was memorably cold, was not so bad as bis. The usual crops of rye and potatoes were expected to il completely this summer.

This unusual summer is the more remarkable when compared ith that of England, which, judging by the abundance of the -heat crop, must at least have reached, if not exceeded, the verage of mean warmth. The exceptional arctic summer must "Through Norway with a Knapsack," p. 139.

have been due to some exceptional arctic influence. The southward drifting of large quantities of polar ice, and consequent removal of some of the barriers that stand between us and the north pole, will account for what I have described, provided the loosened ice was sufficient in quantity and eastward extension.

The North Cape, though in lat. 71°, is not visited by icebergs; the sea there, and for some distance further north, is sufficiently warmed by the Gulf Stream to remain quite open all the year through. The free northward exposure must, however, render this part of the Arctic Ocean very susceptible to the cooling influence of an unusual southward drift of polar ice, and the peculiarities of this year's summer were exactly those which such an abnormal cooling of the sea would produce. These were evidently exaggerated over the open sea a little further north. During the few fine days we had while going round the island of Magerö, the sun was visible until about 11 or 11.30 P.M., but on approaching the north horizon it dipped into a mist-bank which hung with apparent permanency over the northernmost and most distant part of the sea. As we were desirous of seeing the actual orb of the sun quite at midnight, this repeated disappearance just at the critical time was of course especially noted. I afterwards learned that on these same nights, when the midnight sun thus played at hide-and-seek with us over the Arctic Ocean, it was clearly seen by spectators further south, who had a land or near coast horizon.

These facts, in conjunction with "the important information" given by Capt. Gray, justify us, I think, in looking forward very hopefully for important results from the proposed Arctic Expe dition, and afford strong reasons for avoiding any possible source of delay that might stand in the way of an early start to make full use of next summer. W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS

Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park

I MUST trouble you with a few words in reply to your corre spondents "Viator" and Mr. C. Traill (vol. xi. p. 67.)

It is quite true that our gardens in the Regent's Park are "too small in area." We have for many years endeavoured to get them enlarged; but all we have succeeded in obtaining is the

slip of land on the north side of the Regent's Canal, where the new North Entrance has been made. If Viator" has any influence with the First Commissioner of Works, and can persuade him to grant us a further extension on the south side, we shall be truly grateful.

I admit also that the larger carnivora are at present badly housed, and that their dens are much too confined. This, however, will, I trust, be remedied by the erection of the new Lions' House, which will be commenced early next year.

The plan of establishing a second Garden for breeding purposes out of London was adopted by the Council some years ago, but was not found to answer. and may be again tried when our funds shall permit of it. It has, however, many advantages,

"Viator" finds great fault with our drainage. He cannot be aware that the Sanitary Authorities of the district, who have been much exercised in this matter, have pronounced us free from all blame.

Finally, I may say, without any wish to disparage the conti nental gardens (with all of which I am well acquainted), that none of them can vie with those of this Society in the extent, variety, and completeness of its living collection, or in the rarity of many of the objects exhibited. That this collection is appreciated by the public is fully evident from the yearly increasing number of visitors and the continual augmentation of the list

of members.

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Discovery of Remains of Plants and Insects I THINK I informed you about two years ago of the discovery of a bed of plants, with leaves, and a great variety of seeds, in this locality; also the wings of a Libellula, and the beak of a bird. As little interest was attracted, I have not hitherto informed you of the subsequent finding of a bed of insects-flies, gnats, and the larva and pupa of the latter, the larva in countless thousands-also the wings, in great numbers, of a variety of flies, butterflies, and one or two grasshoppers; also a wing resembling that of the Mole Cricket. There are, likewise, two or three beetles. The insects and wings are frequently associated with a very pretty Lymnea, in considerable numbers, and an occasional Planorbis, both retairing a high polish. I have also noticed a solitary small white Cyclostoma in the same bed. There are, I think, two feathers among the specimens obtained. Perhaps, as some interest has been shown in a similar discovery in Scotland, some of your readers may like to be informed of this. I am much indebted to the Rev. T. G. Bonney, of St. John's College, Cambridge, to whom you referred me, for advice and encouragement in examining these beds. Gurnet Bay, Nov. 23 E. J. A'COURT SMITH

Sounding and Sensitive Flames

IN a letter which I have just received from Dr. A. K. Irvine, of Glasgow, my attention is drawn to a short abstract of some of his experiments with Barry's sensitive flame, which appeared in the English Mechanic of Dec. 15, 1871, a few months previously to the appearance in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, and in the American Journal of Science, of the description, referred to briefly in my last letter (NATURE, vol. xi. pp. 6 to 8), of Mr.

introduced or apprehended from the sounding action of the flame. In this and in other cases of their employment which have suggested themselves to experimenters on the acoustic properties of gas-flames, there seem to be hopeful promises of advantageous application of the sensitive and sounding properties that certain gas-flames possess in a very high degree. But it is to the explanation of the cause of the prostration, and to the account of the case of musical sensitiveness in Barry's wire-gauze flame when disturbed by external sounds, that it is particularly desired to direct attention in the foregoing extract from Dr. Irvine's brief description. The reason that the author assigns to them, and thence to the monitory action of his singing safety. lamp, that increased inflammability of the burning gas-mixture is at once the source of the sensitiveness, silent or sounding, of the wire-gauze flame, and the .necessary condition of the atmosphere for the alarm note sounded by the newly invented safety. lamp, is so clearly expressed and illustrated by the order of his experiments, that as regards the probable mode of action of the disturbed gas-current adopted to explain the sensitive effects observed, there can be no doubt of the correctness of Dr. Irvine's view.

The gas-current, before reaching the wire-gauze, will naturally entangle and mix with a larger quantity of air when it is disturbed, by presenting a greater surface to the air in that state than when it issues smoothly. In the latter case it is not inflected into the tortuous wave-line of many folds and curves into which it must be bent on leaving the burner and passing from a fixed jet into an atmosphere oscillating rapidly to and fro under the action of external sounds. The sound-wave of the air into which it flows thus serves to incorporate more air with the upward stream and to render the combustion of the mixture more condensed and prompt, and the appearance of the flame in jet burns in a surrounding atmosphere of quiescent air. consequence more contracted and boisterous than when the gasNewcastle-on-Tyne, Nov. 14

A. S. HERSCHEL

SCIENCE IN MUSIC

evening, the 19th ult., a paper was read by Mr. A. J. Ellis, F.R.S., on "Musical Duodenes." This formed the conclusion of a series of papers (the preceding ones having been published in the Minutes of Proceedings) on Just Intonation and Temperament in Music.

Geyer's researches on the acoustic properties of the same flame, AT the first meeting of the Royal Society on Thursday some particulars of which Dr. Irvine appears also to have noticed independently. The few lines in which his observations are recorded corroborate so fully the character and mode of action of the flame as now pretty perfectly established, that a short extract from them will scarcely be without interest, from the satisfactory support which it offers to the accounts and explanations that other investigators of this flame have elsewhere given in graphic terms of its appearance.

After noticing that it can be produced with an ordinary streetlamp burner (perhaps the straight quill-form, still to be met with in some streets of Glasgow, is here meant), as well as with pinhole jets of steatite; and that whatever kind of gauze may, with slight differences of the effect, be used, the further the wire-gauze can be removed from the burner without the flame breaking or flattening (? fluttering) on the gauze, the more sensitive is the flame,-Dr. Irvine continues to describe the further characters of the flame as follows:

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4. The roaring which takes place when any sound disturbs the flame is evidently in consequence of the greater proportion of air which mixes with the gas before passing through the wiregauze; in short, when it roars and flattens on the gauze, it is an explosive mixture that burns.

“5. If a suitable tube (for instance, a paraffin lamp chimney of proper dimensions) is placed on the wire-gauze, it will be found that a musical note is produced every time the flame is disturbed by a sound with which it sympathises.

"6. A mixture of any inflammable gas and air passing through wire-gauze, over which a suitable chimney is placed, will give a note varying in pitch with the dimensions of the chimney and size of the flame."

Proceeding on this principle, Dr. Irvine adds that he had recently constructed and patented a form of miner's safety-lamp, which, when an explosive mixture of gas and air enters it, gives an audible signal of the dangerous condition of the mine.

It may be questioned if it is quite safe to excite rapid vibrations of a gas-flame burning on the wire-gauze inside a safetylamp placed in an explosive atmosphere; but if any vibrations of the flame that are thus produced are limited (as it appears possible to ensure, by a proper construction of the lamp) to the extremely small oscillations of a high-pitched note, then no elements of danger in this new contrivance need necessarily be

The author explained the defects of the ordinary keyed instruments, such as the pianoforte and organ, which were limited to twelve sounds in the octave, and were now tuned by a system which he characterised as the ". worst possible," every element of harmony in them being put out of tune in all keys. To produce just intonation, it was necessary to have many more than twelve sounds in the octave; and he exhibited a chart giving a classified list of seventy-eight such notes, distinguished by the ordinary musical signs, with the addition of certain other marks which defined exactly the pitch of the notes, while their respective positions in the chart gave, by simple inspection, a correct idea of their relations to each other. Mr. Ellis then stated that as the large number of notes required by correct theory became troublesome in practice, the plan had been adopted of sacrificing absolute truth in some instances, and introducing a trifling error, by which means the requisite number of notes was much reduced, while the error was so small as not to offend the ear in any sensible degree.

Having determined thus on the number of notes to be used, the practical problem arose how best to introduce them in an instrument. Many contrivances had been suggested, involving new key-boards and modes of fingering; but considering the difficulty of introducing changes of this kind, preference was given to other plans, which retained the twelve notes of the ordinary key-board. To enable such a system to be carried out, it was necessary to make choice of certain sets of twelve notes, to be used when playing in certain keys; and to furnish information to guide these selections was the chief object of the paper. Such a set of twelve notes was called by Mr. Ellis a musical duodene, and the chart exhibited many of these

The

especially what the Germans called Fingerfertigkeit, had increased in popular favour, organists had made up their minds to play in all sorts of remote keys, and had demanded that the organ builders should favour this by applying the equal temperament. For show organs this course might be defended, but for church organs, where nothing was required but the use of the simplest keys, it was perfectly indefensible, as it was spoiling the tone of the organ for its ordinary use, for the sake of a purely imaginary want. The organ was half a century ago a sweet-sounding instrument; now it was a harsh, offensive one, which made attendance at church a penance to persons with musically sensitive ears. A curious proof occurred a few years ago as to the mischief the equal temperament did to the tone of an organ. Dr. Pole had to superintend the construction of two organs of tolerable size: in one he was obliged to give way to popular prejudice by having it tuned equally; in the other he pleased himself by adopting the old tuning; and although the instruments were precisely alike in other respects, and made by the same builder, the latter acquired the reputation of a peculiarly sweet-toned organ, while the former was considered a harsh tone.

mbinations, the properties of which and their approiateness for particular cases were easily ascertainable. Mr. Ellis, while deprecating the introduction generally musical performances under the guise of lectures, illusated his propositions by showing the effect of several struments of fixed tones, concertinas and harmoniums, ned in different ways. Some short harmonical pasges were played, first on a harmonium of the ordinary nd, secondly on another with absolutely just intonation, id thirdly on a newly-constructed harmonium tuned on andel's plan of the old organ temperament, but with the dition of several other notes enabling music to be ayed in all keys, equally well in tune. These additional tes were brought into use by draw-stops, each of which ide an enharmonic change in one note, as from sharp to D flat, G sharp to A flat, and so on. ops were arranged before commencing the piece acrding to the key it was in, and they could be instantly ered at any time during its progress, if required by odulation. In this instrument the major thirds (the ervals to which the ear is most sensitive) were all justly tune, but the fifths and minor thirds were a little flat; e ear, however, tolerated these slight errors much better in the extremely discordant error of the major third in It was time something was done to correct the evil, but ual temperament, and the effect of the harmony as there had been difficulties both theoretical and pracayed upon it was a great improvement on that plan. tical. Theoretically it had been difficult to determine Mr. Ellis, in the course of the paper, made frequent what should be the exact pitch and number of the notes ention of the views of Helmholtz on harmony and tem- to be used, but he conceived Mr. Ellis had now exhausted rament, and illustrated them by examples. that subject, and that for the future no person who wished After the reading of the paper, Dr. Pole, F.R.S., re- to carry out plans of just intonation would find difficulty arked that Mr. Ellis's method of treating the elements in selecting from Mr. Ellis's data, exactly such ducdenes, the musical scale had much originality, and had an or series of notes, as would answer his purpose. There teresting bearing on the structure of harmony generally; were still difficulties in practice, for as it was certain that principal object appeared, however, to be, in continu- more notes than twelve must be used, the problem how ion of the author's former labours, to facilitate the pro- to enable the player to arrange them easily was not an iction of correct intonation in music, an object of much easy one. In this particular, however, progress was portance. He would remind the meeting what was the being made; Mr. Ellis had pointed out several important esent state of matters in regard to this. The fact was, simplifications, and Dr. Pole especially looked on the at at present it was but seldom possible to hear what harmonium with shifting tones now exhibited as a prohe harmony was like, as the great majority of music-mising invention. It was pleasant to hope there was oducing instruments, namely, all those with fixed tones, some practical possibility of getting music in tune. ere deliberately and systematically tuned false, with an nount of error painful to a sensitive ear. When he, day or two ago, put his fingers on Mr. Ellis's just rmonium, he uttered an involuntary exclamation of rprise, for he had not heard the true harmony of a mmon chord for some time before. The public had ly two opportunities of hearing true harmony: one when stringed quartett was played by fine players; the other en a vocal unaccompanied piece was sung by first-rate ngers. In each of these, the performers, being untram elled by the odious temperament, gave way to the ctates of their correct ears, and produced true harmony, very person of musical taste knew well the delightful pression produced by this kind of music. In modern atorios it was very customary to insert, as in "Elijah," r example, an unaccompanied vocal piece, which was ways rapturously applauded. Yet few people thought f the cause; it was not the composition, for the same usic, when played on tempered instruments, was quite nother thing; it was not even the skill of the performers, hich could be manifested in other ways; it was purely nd simply the fact of the harmonies being in tune, which as an agreeable novelty to the ear.

- On the pianoforte, where the sounds were not long ustained, the errors of the temperament were not so fensive, but on instruments with sustained tones, such s the organ and harmonium, the defects were much more prominent. In olden times musicians had more -ensitive ears, and organs were tuned (as Mr. Ellis had tated in regard to Handel's organ) on a temperament hich put the principal keys in good tune, and threw the efects into keys seldom or never used on an organ in hose days. But since that time, as modern music, and

The continued discussion of the subject of just intonation was very desirable, for the reason that practical musicians, probably from a feeling of hopelessness as to getting anything better, were beginning to consider equal temperament as a necessary evil, and to look upon its harshness with indifference. Indeed, it was to be feared that the ears of musicians were becoming actually deteriorated in sensitiveness to errors of intonation. In our best orchestras, for example, although the strings might play in tune (for our orchestral violinists had no superiors in the world), yet the wind instruments were often false; and our conductors, even the best of them, seemed callous to the cacophony. He might remark here that the efforts at producing just intonation had been hitherto confined to instruments with the pianoforte keyboard, but there was a wide field open for the improvement in this respect of orchestral wind instruments, in regard to the just intonation of which absolutely nothing had yet been done. The utmost wind instrument makers had aimed at was to make them play correctly on equal temperament; he was not aware that anybody had thought it worth while to make enharmonic distinctions in their scale.

On all these accounts Mr. Ellis's labours to improve the general knowledge of the subject were most valuable, and earned for him the gratitude of all true lovers of music.

THE TREE-ALOES OF SOUTH AFRICA

THE flora of Southern Africa is extremely remarkable,

not merely for the number of its species and their generally very restricted range, but also for the frequent singularity of their aspect and manner of growth. In

each of these particulars the genus Aloe is no exception to the general rule. Many of the species are well known in cultivation, but all agree in having fleshy elongated evergreen leaves, and thick erect spikes of yellow or red flowers. Medicinally, many species (and possibly all might be) are of importance as yielding a well-known bitter drug, which is simply the juice exuded from the leaves when cut, and boiled down to a solid consistence. The species of Aloe are probably only really indigenous in Southern and Eastern Africa. A. vulgaris is now, however, found widely distributed along the Mediterranean and in the East and West Indies, where it is cultivated as the source of the Barbados and Curaçoa aloes.* A. indica, Royle, is doubtless a slight variety. Dr. Stewart mentions it as being occasionally cultivated throughout the Punjâb, and says that the pulp of the leaves is eaten by poor people and in famines. According to the same writer, the Aloe mentioned by Masson in the Punjab is a palm (Chamarops Ritchiana). A. litto

ralis, König, found at Cape Comorin, is believed to be a form of A. vulgaris, altered by the circumstances of its situation. The habit of growth in the genus varies considerably. Mrs. Barber, a well-known South African naturalist, gives the following account of the part they play in the physiognomy of the native vegetation:

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"The genus Aloe, Linn., has a wide range in this country, its numerous species occurring in all rocky localities throughout the land; wherever rocks are found there are the Aloes also, cropping out (if I may be allowed the expression) with the geological formations of the country, as if they formed a part of them, decorating each knoll and cliff with their gay blossoms in great profusion and variety, from the gigantic Aloe of the Transkeian territory, which attains the height of sixty feet, and the tall, graceful, wood Aloes, to the sturdy, stout-built Aloe of the cliff, and the minute lizard-tail-like species that are scattered among the grass, each filling its peculiar locale

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to complete the character of the landscape, and to render | an inferior one. But Aloe, as we have seen, has passed it truly South African in appearance."§

It may be well to mention that the true Aloes of the Old World have nothing whatever to do with the so-called "American Aloe." This is a species of Agave, a genus indigenous to Mexico and South America. The habit of the two genera is in many respects curiously similar, and they afford a striking instance of "homoplasy" of the assumption by organisms essentially differing in them selves, of externally similar forms, when exposed to similar external conditions. Aloe commonly flowers laterally, and the growth of its main axis is therefore not arrested; Agave, as is generally known, flowers from its central bud, and consequently dies afterwards. Aloe is Liliaceous, with a superior ovary; Agave is Amaryllidaceous, with

Flückiger and Hanbury's "Pharmacographia," p. 616. +"Punjab Plants," p. 237. Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. New Series, vol. ii. p. 80.

Loc. cit., p. 242.

to the New World, and Agave is quite as much at home
now in the Old World as its representatives are.
One is at first sight hardly prepared to hear of Aloes
assuming the dimensions of trees. That they do so is,
however, quite certain, though our
kaowledge of the
arborescent species was, till quite lately, extremely imper
fect, and is, indeed, still far from complete. I collected
together all the material I could get access to in a paper
published in the Gardener's Chronicle for May 2 of this
year. My present object, besides that of calling the
attention of the readers of NATURE to these very remark
able plants, is to correct a rather important error into
which I find that I have fallen respecting them.

In point of fact, it is now pretty clear that the west and
east coasts of South Africa each possess one endem ic
Tree-Aloe. That of the west, where it is distributed from
Walvisch Bay to Clanwilliam, is Aloe dichotom 1, Linn.

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