ft necond Joomay to Ohina. The Ruulan papers an- nuuDce tbat he recently (howed the drawings sad palntlngt, made during his earlier tour, t« the em- peror and empress, who expressed themselTes much iuterested la the prospects of his tecond journey at exploration. Piassetaky owed his escape from sev- eral unpleasant predicaments, during his former travel* through the Middle Kingdom, to his skill as a draughtsman; and It is hoped by his compatriots that he will be able to turn this advantage to better account, now that he can follow hia own course with- out the Interference of a superior officer like Col. Snsnotfskj, with whom, on the last occasion, lie continually disagreed.
— At the annual meeting of the Iron and steel insti- tute in Londou, Mr. Andrew Carnegie of Pittsburgh contributed a paper on natural gos-tuel and its appli- cation to manufacturing purposes, the Information being much the same as that contained in his recent article In ifaemUlan. In the discussion which fol- lowed, Hr. .1. H. Bell said there was a possibility of Cleveland, Eng., competing with Pennsylvania In the matter of natural gas, as in other matters, as the salt- beds evolved a certain quantity of gas, and, if the borings were continued several hundred feet farther, would probably give more. At the last day's meet- ing, Dr. Herman Wedding of Berlin contributed a paper on the properties of malleable iron, in which he said that microscopical Investigation had led him to modify the explanation of welding he had given some years ago. Be had now come to the conclusion that the strength of a finished piece of iron depends on the sectional area of Ilie mass of iron It contains. From the total sectional area of a piece of weld Iron, the slag inclusions, and in the case of Ingot iron the blow-holes, must be deducted. This calculation Is decidedly in favor of the ingot iron, though he pointed out It can only be superllcinlly effected, even with our present knowledge of microscopy.
— A valuable Illustrated note on the Huron (Da- kota) tornado of Aug. 28, 1884, has just been Issued by the signal -service: it is the work of Sergeant S. W. Glenn of the signal-corps. Imagine, the author says, a vast treeless plain, void of hill or dale, and a sultry atmosphere beneath a sky unobicured save by small drifting cumulus clouds and a narrow band of stratus cloui) In the north-east. Snditenly a commotion is observed in the cumulus clouds which have piled up in a woolly mass in the north, as though checked by some Invisible barrier separating them from the barium by a strip of clear sky. Then there is a rapid and confused whirling: the centre of the mass drops down bowl-shaped, and appears as if making fulUe efforts to touch the earth. At the same time. a conical cloud of dust is seen to accumulate on the ground, and acquire a rotary motion. With the swiftness of thought, the upper cloud drops a con- slderable distance downward, and spins out a nhile. ribbon-like line towards the ground. The connection between the earth and cloud being established. It re- mains stationary for a moment, apparently gathering strength before starling on Its career of destruction. Then It moves rapidly over the plain, destroying
���every thing in its path. A number of cattle t
horses were taken from a herd, lifted bodlty high H
the air. and churned together in a living mass ; Uiirty steers and four horses were killed, and more were wounded; most of the beasts appeared to have their lower jaws dislocated. The tornado crossed the Dakota River, taking up the water so suddenly as to leave the bottom exposed for an instant: the water was carried to a great height, and was not Be«n to fall; but heavy rain, with some hall, occurred Cvelve or more miles to one side of the track. Ur. Gtenn is of the opinion tbat the centre of the tamBdo was a nearly complete vacuum, and that the governing tncLor of the storm was electricity; but he does not state how electricity could produce or maintein the vacuum, and he gives too brief consideration to the dynamic effects of the whirling air at the centre of the tornado funnel.
— A party of five persons — consisting of Drs. E. G. Gardiner and H. M. Buck of Boston ; Mr. G. B. Barton, assistant at the Massachusetts iQStitnle of technolcigy; and Messrs. Bartlett and Burlingham of the junior class of the institute — has just started on a summer's expedition, under Prof. A. Hyatt, to the west coast of Newfoundland for zoological and geo- logical e:Ep] orations. The party sailed in the At«- tlmsa, a small schooner belonging to Professor Hyali. which be has used in connection with the summer school at Anulsquam. Professor Hyatt left aomc weeks ago for St. John, N.F., where he has been visiting the museum, and securing charts and a pilot. He will join the party at Cape Breton.
— During the years 1870 to ISTfi, the meridian cinrh of the Harvard college observatory was largely em- ployed in the revision of the Durchmusterung for tlic zone between the parallels of declination ai -l-5C°B0d -1-55°. The star-places employed as points at refer- ence In the work were taken from the llat given fi publication xiv, of the AHronotaiache geieli and various stars were also observed tor purpose* u connected with the revision proper, r pamphlet of nearly one hundred pages, k from the forthcoming volume xv. of the annala t the observatory, Prof. W. A. Rogers, who faai self made nearly all of the observations, and bu b charge of their reduction and publication, makes || results of the entire work immediately available i the form of a catalogue of the right aseensioDi ■ declinations of I,2t3stara. The catalogue properl preceded by the annual results for the fundKineii stars, while the data of the calAlogue itself arc derived from a discussion of the results obtained during the whole period covered by the observatioui.
— M. E. Olzewskl communicated to the Fi«iich Acad^mle des sciences, on the 6th of April, a paper on the liquefaction and solidification of formine and of nitric acid. Callletet staled that he had first a known the procedure tor the liquefaction of t gases and their use in a condensed form for obtai the liquefaction of oxygen. Olzewski, by pr« products free from acetone and hydr^en. h«s a ceeded in obtaining a while, snow-like n
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