In December, while the snow was blocking the roads of this country, Australia enjoyed a temperature of 110 to 116 in the shade. Search has again been made for the planet Vulcan, the existence of which is indicated by Leverrier's calculations, but without success. Among the results of Nordensjold's last trip to the Jenisei river in Siberia was a piece of mammoth hide found with some bones of that animal. Hygeia, "the city of health," is to be built on the Courtland's estate, about a mile and a half west of Worthing, Sussex, England. Work will be commenced this spring. The "Big Bonanza" yielded $20,108,958 gold and $25,700,682 silver from its discovery to September 30, 1876. In this deposit the usual preponderance of gold over silver is reversed. The Mammoth Cave is but one among many caverns in the subcarboniferous limestones of Kentucky, the total length of which Prof. Shaler thinks is at least 100,000 miles. During the continuance of the Centennial, the Pennsylvania railroad carried nearly five millions of passengers to Philadelphia, and out of their 760,486 trunks, valises, bags, boxes, and bundles only 26 were mislaid. The opening of the safes, more than twenty in number, which were exposed in the great fire at the American Watch Company's New York building proved that safes, as now made by good firms, are really fire-proof under ordinary circumstances. Watch movements, bank bills, diamonds and jewelry, all came out in good order from most of them, though in some cases the outside plates were red hot. In one safe was a delicate lace shawl, worth $1,500, which was quite uninjured. Two French astronomers, MM. André and Angot, have asked to be sent to San Francisco to observe the transit of Mercury on May 5, 1878. They hope to obtain data which will make the next transit of Venus more fruitful. During the last year the Signal Service extended its telegraph lines across the Staked Plain to San Diego, California. Two continuous lines of telegraph now extend across the country, one in the northern and one in the southern region. Additions of interesting animals are frequently made to the New York Aquarium. The blind Proteus from Austria, Axolotl from Mexico, Salamanders from Germany, and some curious fish from China are among the latest additions to the tanks. The combined Signal and Life-Saving Service at Cape Henry is reported to have saved $500,000 worth of property in the storms which marked the end of March. Telegraphic connection is found indispensable to efficient work in watching the coast. The bullion product of the United States from July 1, 1875, to June 30, 1876, was about $85,250,000, of which $46,750,000 was gold and $38,500,000 silver. The annual gold product of the world is supposed to be about $25,000,000 greater than that of silver.