areas between low tide and the base of adjoining dunes, and emits sounds only when subjected to friction by the feet and hands or in a bag as described.

"At Jebel Nagous, in Arabia, on the other hand, the sand rests in a ravine and produces sound only when it rolls down the incline (which it often does spontaneously) and fails to respond to kicks and cuffs. The sand at Mana, as shown, unites in itself both these acoustic properties. The angle at which the sand lies at Jebel Nagous is the same as at Mana, thirty-one degrees being the 'angle of rest' for fine dry sand. The musical notes obtained at these far-separated localities are also the same, but in Arabia the incline is three hundred feet high, and consequently the sounds are far louder, especially as they are further magnified by being echoed from adjoining cliffs.

"The sand at Kauai and Nilhau is made up of fragments of shell and coral, while that of all other localities known to us (over one hundred in number) is siliceous. This shows that the sonorousness is independent of material. Examination under the microscope further shows that the sonorous quality is not connected with the shape of the grains. Sonorous sand is distinguished by being remarkably free from fine dust or silt; the individual grains are very uniform in size. It is very easy to deprive sand of its acoustic power, by mixing a little earth with it, or by wetting it. It is difficult, if not impossible, to restore to sand its sonorous quality when once 'killed.'

"A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the cause of this curious property of certain sands. The prevalent idea in these islands that the sound is due to the cellular structure of the sand must be abandoned, since most sonorous sand is not so constituted, that of Kauai forming an exception. Some have attributed the sonorous quality to saline crusts, others to electricity, effervescence of air between the particles, reverberations within subterranean cavities, and to solarization; and one author attempts to explain the phenomenon by writing of 'a reduplication of impulses setting air in vibration in a focus of echo.'

"These theories Dr. Julien and I reject for reasons I cannot here detail, and we believe

the true cause of sonorousness to be connected with thin pellicles or films of air or of gases thence derived, deposited and condensed upon the surface of the sand grains during gradual evaporation after wetting by seas, lakes, or rains. By virtue of these films the sand grains become separated by elastic cushions of condensed gases, capable of considerable vibration, and whose thickness we have approximately determined. The extent of the vibration and the volume and pitch of the sound thereby produced we also find to be largely dependent upon the forms, structures, and surfaces of the sand grains, and especially upon their purity or freedom from fine silt or dust."

Buddhism in Lapland (Vol. v, pp. 115, etc.).-As affording a curious (but probably not important) comment on this subject, I would refer to the alleged recent discovery of Buddhistic teaching in the writings of Swedenborg (see the Buddhist Ray for July, 1890). Also, reference may be made to the claims set up by Hargrave Jennings and others, that Buddhistic symbols have been discovered throughout Europe, and especially in Ireland and the Hebrides. For my own part, while I do not for a moment accept these claims, I think they should receive due attention. We may respect the industry, and wonder at the ingenuity of those writers who make these marvelous finds; but the finds themselves we should study carefully and independently. There may be important suggestions concealed in the rubbish collected by the labors of some of these overzealous enthusiasts, although many of their assertions seem palpably absurd. R. J. ERIE, PA.

Avalon (Vol. iii, pp. 256, etc.).-Ynys yr Avallon is the Welsh for Island of Apples. In the old Welsh mythology, it is the abode of blessed souls. The old Irish myths, pagan and Christian, state that the Islands of the Dead abound in every luxury—a plenty of apples being the leading feature. This points us back to a time when, in Ireland and Britain alike, the apple was a rare and costly fruit. D. R. S.

BOSTON, MASS.

Pets of Distinguished People (Vol. v, p. 117).-Robert Southey's Dogs, Cupid, Dapper, and Miss.-Cupid belonged to one of Southey's best friends, Mr. Danvers, of Bristol; nevertheless he bestowed a large share of his affection on the poet, who was not indifferent to it, as appears from the following remembrance in a letter to Lieut. Southey:

"Poor Cupid has been hung for robbing a hen-roost. Your three half-crown sticks, you see, were bestowed on him in vain. He is the first of all my friends who ever came to the gallows, and I am very sorry for him. Poor fellow, I was his godfather.

Cupid's place in Southey's heart must have been fairly filled by Dapper-of whom he says in another letter: "My dog Dapper is as fond of me as ever Cupid was; this is a well-bred hound of my landlord's, who never fails to leap on my back when I put my nose out of doors, and who never having ventured beyond his own field until I tempted him, is the most prodigious coward you ever beheld. He almost knocked Edith down in running away from a pig the other day; but I like him, for he is a worthy dog, and frightens the sauntering Lakers as much as they frighten him."

In a letter to Hartley Coleridge, whose goddog he was, Southey speaks of Dapper's good health and of his increasing gravity, and encloses "three wags of his tail."

A letter from Lisbon, Feb. 19, 1796, has the following account of Miss' good appetite this dog was an especial favorite with Southey:

"Miss remains in Lord Bute's stables, in Madrid. She amused me on the road by

The Dragon-fly in "The Two Voices" (Vol. v, pp. 131, etc.).—That I read the dragon-fly argument in Tennyson's "The Two Voices" differently from both of your correspondents who have given interpretations of it, is my only excuse for offering still another paraphrase of the poem's first few triplets:

"Voice: Because of your misery, were it not better to end your life?'

"Answer: Nay; I may not blight the development of what is so wonderfully

made.'

"Voice: To-day I saw the dragon-fly attain his wonderful consummation, yet what was he? A mere insect still!'

"Answer: "But man is the crown of crea tion, and will advance to the highest attainment.'

"Voice: "You cannot be sure; there is boundless worse as well as better, and he may lapse to that. There may be a higher order of beings for whom the honors are destined; or, granting what you believe, the promise can be realized by others of your kind, though you pass into nothing. ness.'"' M. C. L.

GREEN MOUNTAINS, VT.

Clarenceux (Vol. iv, p. 137; Vol. v, p. 94).-Any one who will consult Finlay's "History of Greece," will find that he does not, in that work, expressly deny that the title of Duke of Clarence was derived from Klarenza, in Greece. He only quotes, in a foot-note, the denial made by Col. Leake. It seems to me that neither Mr. Finlay nor Dr. Stubbs ever tried to sift this matter

thoroughly. Leake was, for his time, an excellent antiquarian topographer; but on a question of genealogy I would not deem him an authority of first rank.

GERMANTOWN.

QUI TAM.

66

Flying Spiders (Vol. v, p. 112).-There are really no "flying spiders,' "flying fishes," nor flying squirrels," in the sense we mean when we apply these terms to bats, to birds, or to the feathered tribes in general.

So far as the matter relates to the former three, it is rather a leap than anything approximating a fly, assisted by an impetus they have gained from a starting point aloft, beneath the water, or a parachute of some kind. Without this impetus, neither of these animals can rise up from a plain surface, whether of land or water, and fly-indeed many of the feathered tribes cannot do so, even when their organs of flight are highly organized. There are, however, some spiders that are extraordinarily endowed with leaping powers from a plain surface, and that, too, so quickly, as to get entirely beyond the focus of vision in a moment.

There are also species of Autumnal Spiders, that select an elevated position, from whence they spin and throw off a quantity of webbing which they leap upon, cut loose from, and sail away in seeming joyfulness. These sometimes sail to a considerable distance, even crossing streams of half a mile wide or more. Of course their progress is never contre courant, because, after their bark is launched, they have no control over it, but must let it go wherever it lists. These arachnids are occasionally very numerous, covering many acres, and seem to be providentially designed as a favored repast for other animals, and probably for some of their own species. S. S. R.

LANCASTER, PA.

Chebacco-boat (Vol. iv, p. 106).After all, may not Dr. Murray be right? May not the Chebacco river have been named for the boats? Curiously, there is a Mystic river in Massachusetts and another in Connecticut, both, I think, formerly noted for boat-building. Now, Mystick (Span. mistico) is an old name for a kind of coasting vessel. Can there be any connection between these river names and the handsome mysticks which are still, I believe, to be seen in the Levantine seas?

VERGENNES, VT.

L. M. N.

Landfall of Columbus (Vol. v, p. 142, under "Cat Island").-Among the various islands asserted to have been the landfall of the first voyage of Columbus, are Watling's island, Cat, Mariguana, Grand Turk, and Samana, or Atwood's Cay. The late Capt. G. V. Fox (following the log-book of Columbus as published by Navarrete in 1790, after an alleged MS. copy made by Las Casas) fixed upon Samana or Atwood's Cay as the true landfall. But the authenticity of the published log has been called in question. Commander F. M. Green, U. S. N., the able author of "The Navigation of the Caribbean Sea" (1877), calls Watling's island the established landfall of Columbus.' The present is an excellent and most appropriate time for the careful review of all the reasons pro and contra. G. H. G.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.

Adam de St. Victor (Vol. v, p. 102). -The "Euvres Poetiques" (Paris, 1858) of this writer, edited by Gautier, contain 106 hymns. Admired greatly by the English theologians and hymnologists, they are put aside with scant praise by March and by Duffield-though the latter once calls him "brilliant, epigrammatic, and altogether admirable." Adam was probably a Breton by birth. Duffield gives us his "Salve, Crux, Arbor," with a translation of the same.

Among his pieces are the "Heri Mundus Exultavit," the "Veni, Creator Spiritus,"

Spiritus Recreator," the "Verbum Dei," "Deo Natum," the "Simplex in Essentia," the "Zyma Vetus Expurgetur," and the "Plausu Chorus Lætebundæ." Digby S. Wrangham published (1881) his poems entire, with an English version. The appendix to Duffield's "Latin Hymns" gives the names of many more of Adam's pieces, with notes on some translations.

One of this old worthy's hymns is the "Come, Pure Hearts, in Sweetest Measures," translated into English by R. Campbell. This can be found in the "Hymnal" of the American Episcopal Church. P. R. E.

OHIO.

Ff in Proper Names (Vol. v, pp. 90, etc.).—The manuscript capital F of the seventeenth century was usually made by doubling the lower-case f, as in the following

extract from the records of the Church of Cambridge of 1658:

"Thomas ffoxe & Ellen his wife, both in full Comm."

I do not think that there is any aristocratic idea connected with the custom at all. This form of the letter gave away before the demand for a letter more rapidly made. I have no doubt but that the "ff" was an attempt to imitate the Old English characS. M. F.

ter.

MANHATTAN, KANS.

Translation Wanted (Vol. v, p. 126). -I should have remarked that the lines I quoted as above seem to form part of a cento. At all events, "Sabbata nostra colo, de stercore surgere nolo" ("I am keeping our Sabbath; I am not willing to be taken out of the mire"), was the reply of Solomon of Tewkesbury to the Earl of Salisbury when he offered to extract the Jew from the pit on Saturday; to whom the Earl replied: "Sabbata nostra quidem, Salomon, celebrebis ibidem" ("Very well, Solomon; then you shall keep our Sabbath in the same place"). And so, before Monday came, the Jew died. The story is told in quite a number of medieval books. The four lines quoted are no proper part of the De Mundi Vanitate. They were doubtless added by some scribbler to the MS. in which they

occur.

The following is what I would propose as the probably correct meaning of the last two lines:

"These are they who wickedly corrupt our holy psalms: The mumbler, the forwardskipper, the stumbler, the scatterer, the overleaper;" that is, those priests who read the Psalter in a slovenly way are guilty of iniquitously corrupting the holy text. G.

NEW JERSEY.

Anagrams in Science (Vol. iv, pp. 118, etc.).-Mho, a unit of electrical conductivity, is an anagram of ohm, the name of another electrical unit. T. L. S.

BAYONNE, N. J.

Cacoethes Scribendi (Vol. v, pp. 113, etc.).-Would not the meaning be conveyed with equal accuracy in plain language by scribbling itch or scribbling fever?

NEW YORK CITY.

G. S.

BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.

The Chautauquan for August presents the following attractive table of contents: "A Lucky Accident," a novelette, by J. Ranken Towse; "St. Martin," by Annie Bronson King; " The Condition of American Agriculture," by Manly Miles, M.D., F.R.M.S.; "Sunday Readings," selected by Bishop Vincent; "Virginia Sports," by Ripley Hitchcock; "On Shore," by Virna Woods; "Two Years in New Zealand," J. N. Ingram; "A Sixteenth Century Garden," by Ferdinand Cohn; Country Life in Ireland," by J. P. Mahaffy, M.A.; Keeping Well in Summer," by Felix L. Oswald, M.D.; "Going to the Assembly," by Chancellor Vincent; "To Alfred Tennyson, Poet-Laureate," by Hugh T. Sudduth; The Salons of Paris," by George Lafenstre; A Summer Outing in New York," by Charles Barnard; "The Minor Lakes of the Northwest," by Horace B. Hudson; "The Central Office of the C. L. S. C.," by Kate F. Kimball. The Woman's Council Table has the following articles: Summer Furnishing," by Susan Hayes Ward; Gloves, Neck Wear, Perfumes, and Handkerchiefs," by Mary S. Torrey; 'Why Some Women Cannot Obtain Employment," by Kate Tannatt Woods; "A Vacation on Horseback," by Anna C. Brackett; Some Women I Have Met," by Frances E. Willard; "Women Physicians in Germany," by A. Von Strande; "The Fine Art of Economical Helping Others," by Felecia Hillel; Grocery Buying," by Christine Terhune Herrick: "Brain Workers' Recreation in Flowers," by Sarah K. Bolton; "Out-door Life at Wellesley," by Louise Palmer Vincent; Children's Wit," by Margaret J. Preston. The editorials discuss matters of current interest.

44

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NOTES:-Leuca, 157-Curious Coptic Customs-Myatt, 158. QUERIES: Wind-propulsion of Wheelbarrows - Bishop Liberated from Prison-Claude's Wife, 158-Lazarillo de Tormes-River Turned Back, 159-Lobster Changing Color -Mephistopheles-Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon, 160.

REPLIES:-The Liwash, or Putrid Sea, 160-St. MichaelTom Green-I Shall be Satisfied-Sambo-Seal of the Confederacy-Rush Carpets, 161.

REFERRED TO CORRESPONDENTS :-Leper KingsBusy as a Nailer, 161-Barkstone-Brazen Fly of VirgilInquisition, 162.

COMMUNICATIONS:-Crowned A-I Acknowledge the Corn-Lord Timothy Dexter-Colen-Greek Cities in France and Spain, 162-Curious Burial Customs-Curiosities of Animal Punishment, 163-Raymond Lully-The Guinea-Underground Rivers-Sunken Cities, 164-Bottomless PondsThe Captain of My Dreams-Arthur Kill-PalæologusMaroons Oddities of Noted People, 165-Trivium and Quadrivium-Famous Spinsters-Duke of York, 166-The Landfall of Columbus-" Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep; " "Four Corners to My Bed," 167.

or, BOOKS AND PERIODICALS:-168.

ПОЛЕЅ. LEUCA.

(LOWEY OF TUNBRIDGE, VOL. V, P. 113.)

The word leuca, mentioned in the interesting note at the above reference, supplies an instance of early topographical trope, the word being made to denote a certain linear distance, whereas it really meant the boundary of that distance, just as though along our railroads miles were called posts.

As a matter of fact, leuca means a flat stone; stones were ever convenient distancemarkers by the roadside, and thereby hangs the tale.

The Roman soldiers heard the word leac on the lips of the Celto-Gauls; they gave it (as they did in so many other cases) a Latin termination, and from leuca came not only Lowey and league, but also the word which