1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 3 



The Contributors to the ' Challenger ' Beport.s 



The fifty volumes of the ' Challenger ' reports having been recently- 

 completed, a complimentary album was presented to the editor, 

 Dr John Murray, by his colleagues. The album was itself a 

 work of art, but its chief interest lay in the circumstance that 

 it contained the photographs of all who had contributed to the 

 literature of the Eeports. As some of these authors are no longer 

 among us, and others are dispersed over the four quarters of the 

 globe, it was an arduous undertaking to fill up this portrait-gallery 

 of scientific worthies. But Mr W. E. Hoyle, as Hon. Secretary to 

 the presentation committee, met with the friendliest response to 

 every application, and, with the assistance of Mr Walter Crane in the 

 artistic department, successfully coped with all the difficulties that 

 arose, whether expected or unexpected. After so much trouble had 

 been expended, the happy thought occurred to Mr Hoyle that many 

 who might never have a chance of seeing the original album, gleam- 

 ing in purple and gold, would welcome an opportunity of possessing 

 a copy of its contents. The Committee warmly approved of this 

 suggestion, and the result is seen in a thin quarto volume (price, 

 12 s. 6cl), uniform in size and binding with the reports. It con- 

 tains reduced copies of the 88 portraits on 19 plates, together with 

 reproductions in black and white of Mr Walter Crane's designs for 

 the cover and dedication. As a specimen of the portraiture we are 

 enabled to show our readers a likeness of the late Sir C. Wyville 

 Thomson, the original director of the civilian staff. Whether the 

 small edition of 200 copies will suffice for all who will wish to 

 possess this interesting volume may be doubted. The publishers 

 are Messrs Dulau & Co. 



Phenacomys 



The genus Phenacomys has no doubt existed at least as long as the 

 genus Homo, and specimens of this small vole may even have been 

 known to man, and have been hoarded by that acquisitive animal in 

 his museums for a considerable period. We know, in fact, that a 

 specimen obtained and presented by Mr J. K. Lord of the North 

 American Boundary Commission, has been in the British Museum 

 since 1863. None the less so short a time as eight years ago, 

 zoologists were unaware of the existence of this genus, although the 

 suspicions of a few may have been aroused by Nehring's descrip- 

 tion, in 1883, of some bones and teeth found in a cave in Southern 

 Hungary. Within the last eight years, however, no less than nine 

 living species of the genus have been described, all from Boreal 

 North America. Ninety-five specimens have been at the disposal of 



