are tolerably high and steady. In such instances attention to the telegrams would in all probability mislead. In conclusion, Mr, Ley says: "The connection between the weather periods on the two sides of the Atlantic is one of the problems which the progress of research is steadily, though slowly, attacking. But such research can be carried on without embarking on a system of weather telegraphy, which is unlikely to be practically beneficial, and the failure of which might rather tend to bring this branch of the science into disrepute."
Where do the Grasshoppers belong?—Prof. Riley's Seventh Report contains most valuable facts relative to the natural history and geographical distribution of the grasshopper (Caloptemis spretus) which has caused so much human suffering by its destruction of crops in the Western part of this country. It appears, from the Report, that the late Mr. Walsh, State Entomologist of Illinois, had previously predicted that the insect would not reach the Mississippi River, and, so far as known, subsequent facts bear out the statement, although the reasons stated for the limitation of the species to its present territory are not entirely satisfactory. Prof. Riley exclaims (pp. 165, 166): "Well is it for the people of Missouri, well is it for the people of the Mississippi Talley generally, that this insect cannot go on multiplying indefinitely in their fertile fields. Else, did it go on multiplying and thriving as the Colorado potato-beetle has done, this whole valley would soon become a desert waste. A wise Providence has decreed thus far it shall go and no farther." To the "wisdom" of this "Providence" the poor people of Kansas, Nebraska, etc., may well object, and very naturally withhold their approval from Prof. Riley's biblical rhetoric. It would rather seem, also, from Prof. Riley's map of the portion of Missouri overrun already by the grasshopper, that all the citizens of that State cannot agree that it is "well with them;" but some must be even content to share in the suffering of the farmers of Kansas and Nebraska. As to the "valley of the Mississippi," an inquiry as to the probability of cotton-fields and sugar-plantations affording the proper kind of food for the grasshopper will be in order before Southerners may consider themselves as the chosen people of Prof. Riley's geographically discriminating "Providence." The fact that the cotton-worm (Aletia argillacea) migrates as far north as Canada, though not breeding beyond the limits of the growth of the cotton-plant, would show the possibility of the grasshopper exceeding its present range in favorable seasons, and in localities where the food and soil are congenial.—A. R. Grote.
Social Feeling in Dogs.—A correspondent furnishes the following statement, for the truth of which he vouches: "A gentleman residing a few miles from Brooklyn, on Long Island, had recently two dogs which for several years had shown marked attachment for each other. One day he noticed that one of the dogs was ill, and the following morning found him dead in the barn, where he was accustomed to sleep. The other dog, which slept in the house, left in the morning when the gentleman went out, lively and playful as usual, and on the barn-door being opened bounded in, and saw his companion dead on the floor. Having smelt of him, he looked at him intently for more than a minute, and started for the house, with drooped ears and tail, evidently in distress—certainly he knew that a great change had taken place in his companion. At breakfast the dog refused food, nor did he eat thereafter; his usual cheerfulness gave place to melancholy, and in a few days he died."
A Curions Fog.—Dr. R. Angus Smith describes, in a recent pamphlet, a peculiar sort of fog observed by him in Iceland. On a bright July afternoon Dr. Smith happened to be in Reikjavik, and saw a cloud coming down the street from the southward. Finding that it moved very slowly along the ground, he concluded that it was smoke from a chimney, but smoke mixed with larger particles than are usually seen. When the fog reached the spot where the observer stood, it was found to be devoid of smell, but its influence was decidedly frigorific. Perceiving that it was a fog, Dr. Smith ascended a rising ground, and saw the fog coming from a small lake be-
