1898] NEWS 71 



lagoon is successful, it will much enhance the value of the main bore pu1 down 

 with the diamond drill. 



The reason why it is proposed that, the hurt' iu the lagoon shall he situated 

 only a mile and a half from the shore, instead of near the centre, is that one of 

 the chief difficulties will be the danger of the ship dragging at her moorings. 

 This would lie intensified near the centre of the lagoon, where the full force of 

 the squalls, trade winds, and strong currents would he experienced. At, the spol 

 contemplated, however, the warship should he not only out of the main current, 

 hut also somewhat sheltered on the coast by the thick belt of cocoanut palms and 

 other trees with which the main island is densely wooded. After finishing the 

 boring experiment in the lagoon, the 'Porpoise' will proceed to the Gilbert 

 Islands, and on her return, early in September, she will be ready to pick up the 

 diamond drill party, and convey them to Suva. Should, however, the main 

 diamond drill bore not have been bottomed up to the date of the return of the 

 warship to Funafuti, arrangements have been made by the London Missionary 

 Society which will admit of their steamer the 'John Williams,' due at Funafuti 

 in November, carrying the party either to Suva or New Guinea, whence they 

 would return to Sydney. Our information is gained from an article in the Daily 

 Telegraph (Sydney) for April 27. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society it was 

 announced that the Government had replied in a sympathetic manner to the 

 appeal for an Antarctic expedition. Meanwhile, as Mr Borchgrevink's ship, the 

 'Southern Cross,' which leaves London in July, will fly the British flag, 

 England will not be left wholly in the lurch by the numerous expeditions now 

 being made to Antarctic regions. 



To the numerous expeditions in the Arctic regions this year must be added 

 a German one under the leadership of Mr Theodor Lerner, who is accompanied 

 by Dra Bruhl, Romer, and Schaudien. They started for the North Pole at the 

 end of May on the ss. 'Helgoland.' Mr Walter Wellman, who is attacking the 

 Pole from Franz Josef Land, is accompanied by Prof. J. H. Gore of Columbia 

 University, who will make gravity determinations in Franz Josef Land ; Lieut. 

 E. B. Baldwin, of the U.S. Weather Bureau ; Dr E. Hofma, of the University of 

 Michigan as naturalists and medical officer ; and Mr Q. Harlan, of the LLS. 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



The French Ministry of Public Instruction has sent Surgeon-Major Huguet 

 to M'zab in Algeria, to continue his researches on the history of the country, and 

 on the characters, commerce, industry, and medical customs of its inhabitants. 



Prof. Robert Koch returned to Berlin on Thursday after an absence of 

 a year and a half, spent in foreign travel for purposes of scientific research. 



The Committee for the Huxley Memorial has issued a third donation 

 list amounting to £1,058, 14s. 5d., the total amount now received being 

 £3,34G, 4s. 2d. Mr Onslow Ford is now engaged upon the statue, which is 

 to be a seated one in marble, 8 feet high, and is to be placed in the central 

 hall of the Natural History Museum. Dies for the Royal College of Science 

 medal have been completed after the excellent design of Mr F. Bowcher. 

 Copies in silver or bronze of the obverse of this medal bearing a profile portrait 

 of Huxley, as well as replicas of the original model, can be purchased by sub- 

 scribers to the memorial fund. Specimens of these are on exhibition in the 

 architectural court of the South Kensington Museum till the end of September. 

 After paying for the statue, the medal, and other expenses, about £1,300 

 1 1 mains, and, to quote the elegant phrasing of the Committee, "The nature of 

 the contemplated third form of Memorial must largely depend upon the amount 

 which may yet be subscribed." 



