1899] NEWS 419 



I will now ask the meeting to pass a cordial vote of thanks to Mr. L. W. 

 Longstaff, which I shall have great pleasure in conveying to him." The vote of 

 thanks was seconded by Lord Lister, who said, inter alia: — "The British Antarctic 

 Expedition is now assured, and the disgrace which would have been attached 

 to this country for not rising to this great occasion is prevented. I need hardly 

 say how deeply grateful we all feel to the donor of this great gift. It is a 

 matter of peculiar satisfaction to myself that he is the son of a distinguished 

 member of the medical profession. I do not know whether Lord Iveagh's 

 magnificent gift to the General Institute for Preventive Medicine may have had 

 anything to do with suggesting the idea to Mr. Longstaff. We can only hope 

 that donations of this splendid kind will be plentiful in the future." Sir 

 Clements Markham, interviewed by the Central News, said the fund for the 

 Antarctic Expedition now amounted to £40,000. That would be sufficient to 

 fit out one ship, if the strictest economy were exercised. It was under con- 

 sideration, he said, to have the vessel built in Norway, as a wooden one could 

 be got cheaper there than in England. It must be a wooden one, because the 

 principal object of the expedition was to study magnetic influences in Antarctic 

 regions, and an iron vessel would upset the calculations as to the magnetism. 

 No one had as yet been selected to take command. 



The first part of the Fauna Hawaiiensis, or the Zoology of the Sandwich 

 Isles, being results of the explorations instituted by the joint committee 

 appointed by the Royal Society and the British Association, and carried on with 

 the assistance of those bodies and of the trustees of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop 

 Museum at Honolulu, is about to be issued by C. J. Clay and Sons, Cambridge 

 University Press Warehouse. 



This work is published by the committee and edited by their secretary, 

 David Sharp, M.A., F.R.S., Curator in Zoology of the Museum of the University 

 of Cambridge ; when complete it will probably consist of two volumes, as it is 

 intended to give an account, more or less full, of the whole of the land-fauna of 

 the islands. This fauna is of very great interest, not only from its geographical 

 isolation, but also on account of its being rapidly extirpated by the progress of 

 cultivation, and the introduction of foreign species which prey upon, or consume 

 the food of, the original natives — many of the latter being already extinct. 



The first part, containing 122 pages Royal 4to, two plates and a map, 

 includes the Hymenoptera Aculeata (bees, wasps, and ants), of which about 200 

 species, mostly undescribed, have been obtained, and is by R. C. L. Perkins, B.A., 

 who has carried out the explorations under the direction of the committee and 

 Prof. Auguste Forel. 



Prof. Boyd Dawkins announces that the Kent Coal Exploration Company 

 have struck the coal-measures at Ropersole Farm, Barham, midway between 

 Canterbury and Dover. This is about 9 miles from the shaft at Dover. The 

 coal was met with at about the same depth, and the boring will be continued so 

 as to allow of a section being made which will give a comparison of the thickness 

 of the seams with those of Dover. 



Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner, recently elected Balfour student of the University 

 of Cambridge, left Marseilles on April 5 for the Island of Minikoi, situated 

 about half-way between the Maldive and Laccadive Islands. He is accompanied 

 by Mr. L. Borradaile, of Selwyn College, and Mr. C. F. Cooper, of Trinity 

 College, will join the expedition during the summer. 



After spending about three months at Minikoi, it is proposed to start for 

 the Maldive Islands about September, and employ the next six or seven months 

 in surveying these islands. The expedition will enter at Male, the Sultan's 

 capital, and subsequently sail all round the group. 



The main object of Mr. Gardiner's expedition is to study the formation of 

 the coral reefs and everything pertaining to them. Especial attention will be 

 directed to the following points: — (1) The depth at which reef-building 



