e upon
our minds the idea that the cluster may be undergoing some slow
process of disintegration. M. Wolf's impression of incipient
centrifugal tendencies among its components certainly derives some
confirmation from Dr. Elkin's chart. Divergent movements are the most
strongly marked; and the region round Alcyone suggests, at the first
glance, rather a very confused area of radiation for a flight of
meteors than the central seat of attraction of a revolving throng of
suns.

There are many signs, however, that adjacent stars in the cluster do
not pursue independent courses. "Community of drift" is visible in
many distinct sets; while there is as yet no perceptible evidence,
from orbital motion, of association into subordinate systems. The
three eighth-magnitude stars, for instance, arranged in a small
isosceles triangle near Alcyone, do not, as might have been expected
_a priori_, constitute a real ternary group. They are all apparently
traveling directly away from the large star close by them, in straight
lines which may, of course, be the projections of closed curves; but
their rates of travel are so different as to involve certain
progressive separation. Obviously, the order and method of such
movements as are just beginning to develop to our apprehension among
the Pleiades will not prove easy to divine.--_A.M. Clerke, in Nature._

* * * * *

DEEP SEA DREDGINGS: EXAMINATION OF SEA BOTTOMS.

By THOMAS T.P. BRUCE WARREN.

I believe Prof. Ehrenberg was one of the first to examine,
microscopically, deep sea dredgings, some of which were undertaken for
the Atlantic cable expedition, 1857.

I propose to deal with the bottoms brought up from tropical waters of
the Atlantic, a few years ago, during certain telegraph cable
operations. These soundings were made for survey purposes, and not for
any biological or chemical investigations. Still I think that this
imperfect record may be a useful contribution to chemical science,
bearing especially on marine operations.

Although there is little to be added to the chemistry of this subject,
still I think there are few chemists who could successfully make an
analysis of a deep sea "bottom" without some sacrifice of time and
patience, to say nothing of the risk of wasting a valuable specimen.

The muds, clays, oozes, etc., from deep water are so very fine that
they pass readily through the best kinds of filters, and it is
necessary to