358 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 



A SYNDICATE has been formed to mine coal near Dover, where, it will be 

 remembered, Coal Measures have been proved to lie at about 12,000 feet below the 

 surface. The syndicate has been buying up land in the neighbourhood for some 

 time, and has acquired mining rights over some 5,000 acres. It is intended to begin 

 work next June in Alkham Valley, three miles west of Dover. 



The State of Maryland has established a Geological and Economic Survey 

 which will prepare and publish reports and maps. An annual appropriation of 

 $10,000 has been made, and Professor W. B. Clark has been appointed State 

 Geologist. Professor Clark's well-known energy and the amount of good work that 

 he has already done in Maryland lead us to hope for great things from this new 

 survey. 



According to the Scottish Geographical Magazine, Mr. Ad. de Gerlache, of the 

 Belgian Navy, intends to start at the end of next summer for the Antarctic Regions 

 in a steamship of 400 tons. He will pass two seasons in the Southern Ocean ; in the 

 first he will steer for the lands situated to the south of Cape Horn, and in the second 

 will make for Victoria Land, principally to ascertain more exactly the position of the 

 southern Magnetic Pole. The expedition will include specialists in meteorology, 

 magnetism, oceanography, zoology, and botany, and will be provided with a 

 complete set of instruments. Subscriptions to the sum of /lo.ooo are invited by the 

 Royal Belgian Society of Geography. 



Meanwhile, Mr. Borchgrevink, of whom we have heard so much of late, is, as 

 we hinted in our February number, to join a whaling expedition to Victoria Land, 

 which starts on September i. For ;^5,ooo he and eleven other naturalists will be 

 taken out and landed at or near Cape Adare. They will work towards the South 

 Magnetic Pole, taking magnetic, meteorological, and pendulum observations, 

 surveying, and making collections. At present Mr. Borchgrevink has transferred 

 his propagandism to the United States, and whether it be as the result of his 

 endeavours or no, the American Society of Naturalists has appointed a committee 

 of three to take measures for the fitting out of an Antarctic expedition in the near 

 future. Its natural object would be the exploration of Graham's Land, which lies 

 due south of Patagonia. 



In connection with Andree's balloon-expedition to the North Pole, it is hoped 

 to send a zoological expedition, under the direction of G. Gronberg, lecturer at 

 Stockholm University, to the Norsk-oar, near Spitzbergen, from which islands the 

 ascent is to be made. These islands have long been known as one of the richest 

 zoological localities in this region. A Polish contingent to the expedition is being 

 planned by Dr. Roszkowski and Prince O. Hajdukievicz, who are both studying at 

 Stockholm. If thirty volunteers come forward, it is proposed to hire a steamer to 

 accompany the "Virgo," which leaves Gothenburg with Andree on May i. After 

 visiting Spitzbergen and the Norsk-oar, this steamer will return to the north of 

 Norway to observe the solar eclipse. The Russian Government has distributed 

 among the northern tribes under its rule several thousand copies of a pamphlet, in 

 many languages, containing a picture of the balloon and the Czar's orders to all and 

 sundry to assist the aeronauts. Mr. Andree's balloon is being fitted with a com- 

 plete instantaneous photographic apparatus which improves upon the Kodak, since 

 by pressing the button, not merely is the view taken, but the day, hour, minute, and 

 second are recorded. It is also intended to take several carrier pigeons, which will 

 be dispatched from time to time. 



Another expedition to Spitzbergen is that projected by Sir William Martin 

 Conway, whose intention is to penetrate inland and explore many parts as yet 

 unvisited. The expedition was to have started in May, but we understand that the 

 time of its departure has been postponed till June, in the hope that Dr. J. W. Gregory, 

 of the British Museum, may be able to accompany it. There are fossils of almost all 

 geological periods, from the Devonian to the Pleistocene, to be obtained at Spitz- 



