We are glad to learn, from the _New Zealand Herald_, that the layer of ashes which covers so many miles of the country, will not, as was at first feared, choke and kill every blade of grass, but will probably in time act as a valuable fertilising agent. Already the grass is in many places growing up through the dust; but the ash has been submitted to experiment, and is found to be really nourishing to plants grown in it. Mr Pond, a resident analytical chemist, obtained several samples of the volcanic dust, and sowed in it grass and clover seeds, and kept them moistened with distilled water. In each case, we are told, the seedling plants have come up well and are growing vigorously; it is therefore hoped that those districts which have received only a light covering of this dreaded dust will find that the visitation will in the end prove beneficial to their crops. As we stated last month, the armour-plated ship _Resistance_ has lately formed a target for various experiments with different types of guns. The unfortunate old ship is now being subjected to attacks by torpedoes, the object being to determine the nearness at which one of those submarine mines can be exploded without injury to a vessel when protected by wire-netting. It is proved that if the defensive netting is supported on booms thirty feet from the ship, it forms a good protection from torpedoes, and that though a torpedo should explode on touching the netting, as it will do if fitted with the new form of pistol trigger, which is very sensitive, the explosion will do no great harm. The distance of the netting from the ship will be gradually reduced until the _Resistance_ can resist no longer, and must be destroyed. A strange sight was lately witnessed at Salzburg, in the shape of a vast procession of butterflies, which passed over the city in a south-westerly direction. They seemed to fly in groups, and while preserving one line of direction in flight, the groups revolved round that line. This aërial insect army must have numbered millions of individual butterflies. From those which fell to the ground, it was seen that they were of the kind known as willow-spinners.