ccelerators ammonia, potash, soda, carbonate of
potash, of soda, or of lithia. I do not give this process with sucrate
of lime as perfect, but I give it as perfectable and susceptible of
application. If I have undertaken to write these few lines it is
because it has never been brought to my knowledge that up to the
present time the oxides and the alkaline salts of the earthy alkaline
metals have been studied from a photographic point of view.--_Leon
Degoix in Photo. Gazette._

* * * * *

DUCK HUNTING IN SCOTLAND.

The wild duck is a shy bird, apt to spread his wings and change his
quarters when a noble sportsman is seen approaching his habitation
with a fowling piece. You have heard of the ass who put on a lion's
skin, and wandered out into the wilderness and brayed. I have
elaborated a device of equal ingenuity and more convincing realism. It
is my habit during the duck-shooting season to put on the skin of a
Blondin donkey and so roam among the sedges bordering on the lakes
where wild ducks most do congregate. I have cut a hole in the face to
see through, and other holes in the legs to put my hands
through.--_London Graphic_

[Illustration: WILDFOWL SHOOTING IN SCOTLAND.]

* * * * *

A PLEA FOR THE COMMON TELESCOPE.[1]

By G.E. LUMSDEN.

[Footnote 1: Paper read before the Astronomical and Physical
Society of Toronto, Canada, April 18, 1891.]

These are the palmiest days in the eventful history of physical and
observational astronomy. Along the whole line of professional and
amateur observation substantial progress is being made, but in certain
new directions, and in some old ones, too, the advance is very rapid.
As never before, public interest is alive to the attractions and value
of the work of astronomers. The science itself now appeals to a
constituency of students and readers daily increasing in numbers and
importance. Evidence of this gratifying fact is easily obtained. There
is at the libraries an ever-growing demand for standard astronomical
works, some of them by no means intended to be of a purely popular
character. Some of the most influential and conservative magazines on
both sides of the Atlantic now find it to be in their interest to
devote pages of space to the careful discussion of new theories, or to
the results of the latest work of professional observers. Even the
daily press in some cities has caught the