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January 2, 1891.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 9 adapted to bottles of different sizes for the use of pho tographers and chemists generally, but at present it seems to be relegated to a far more lowly employment. It is as a receptacle for pickles, standing on a dinner table at a restaurant, that we saw it. The stopper con sists of two discs, connected at their edges by a band of red rubber. When a lever on the top is depressed, the two discs are brought nearer together, and the india-rubber band is bulged out, thus pressing against the neck of the bottle. The oxygen of air exceedingly slowly passes through india-rubber, but more quickly than the nitrogen. Photographers who are interested in geology, and who wish to find in a small compass ready to their hand different examples of rock formation, and geological phenomena, cannot do better than pay a visit to the Isle of Man. The journey is not a very tempting one at this time of year, for only one boat crosses daily from Liverpool, and it starts at such an hour that he who would bea passenger byit must leave Euston bythe news paper train at 5.15 a.m. There is, too, an uncertainty about the duration of the voyage. Nominally it is five hours, but when a fog comes over the estuary of the Mersey that period can be drawn out indefinitely, as it was one day lately, when the voyage from coast to coast occupied twenty-eight hours. But in the summertime things are different. Swift boats are employed, which cover the distance in less than four hours, and the journey is worth a little inconvenience, for the island is full of beauties. But what we particularly wish to call attention to are the wondrous rock formations which girt its coasts. In one spot in the south, covering a distance of only two or three hundred yards, we lately came upon several typical forms of rock, and one which we believe to be unique. Here, for instance, was a splendid example of a “fault.” Close by was a trap-dyke jutting out like a wall from the stratified limestone on either side. Within a stone’s-throw was a stack of black basalt, with the typical hexagonal plates crowning the mass, while masses of lava also pointed to violent volcanic disturbance in the long-forgotten past. The unique appearance is found in a bay in which the rocks have been violently upheaved, so that their natural “bedding” stands vertically instead of hori zontally, as they were originally deposited. To-day they stand up like so many fingers pointing to the sky, and in their midst is a clearly defined crater, the edges of which are formed of this same limestone, more or less crystallised and metamorphosed by the intense heat to which it has been subjected. A weird spot is this, which might inspire painter or poet if bent on depicting the infernal regions. One painter, at least, was so inspired by the rocks which girdle the Isle of Man ; this was Martin, who studied here, and produced those three vast pictures, one of which is called “ The Great Day of His Wrath.” In the present dull weather—for in London we have been something like thirty-six days without a gleam of sunshine—the illustrated papers, especially those which depend upon reproduction of pictures in foreign and American journals, would have been seriously inconveni enced but for the electric light. All photo-mechanical engravers in a large way of business find the electric light indispensable. How to get out the blocks with only the murky grey light of the past six weeks to work by would have been almost an impossible task. For this reason, if for no other, the reading public should be grateful to electricity. It is a curious thing that the hairless-faced man is the one whom artists find most difficult to portray. The subtle play of the features which the beard and moustache conceal is here shown to an extent which drives the artist to exasperation, because of the rapid changes of expression. There are certain faces which are perfectly inert and expressionless when in repose, but, when animated, the countenance lights up, and quite another man is presented to the spectator. Mr. John Morley has one of these tantalising faces, and is not only the despair of cartoonists, but is considered by artists who have to draw him for illustrated papers as a most difficult subject. Most photographers are familiar with faces of this type; whether taken full face, three-quarter view, or profile, they are equally unsatisfactory, and the worst of it is, so far as the artist is concerned, when he draws from a photograph, that this is the kind of face upon which the retoucher exhausts himself, and, in so doing, succeeds in destroying all individuality. The difference which the beard makes is well seen in the altered appearance of Mr. Herkomer, R.A. Mr. Herkomer’s bearded face was not a difficult one to draw, but as he was seen at the Graphic dinner, with every vestige of hair removed, we should fancy that most artists would like to have time to study the new lines thus presented, before attempting his portrait. Photography is continually adding to our knowledge of astral phenomena. Admiral Mouchez has recently had the pleasure of minutely examin ing the magnificent photograph of the annular nebula in Lyra, which has been made for him at the Observatory of Algiers, by Messrs. Trepied and Rabourdin. Hitherto observations of this nebula have appeared to indicate that the bright central nucleus and the brilliant nebulous ring surrounding it are distinct and separate. Admiral Mouchez has found, in examining the new photograph, that this is not so. The two bodies are not entirely separated, but the intervening space is faintly illuminated with nebulous matter. To the unscientific mind this dis covery may not be of any importance, but in astro nomical study it is impossible to say to what a new dis covery may lead.