68 NATURAL SCIENCE [July 



originated from a journalist of St Petersburg. Lieut. Olofsen explains that the refer- 

 ence must simply have been to the Wakhanis, who are of true Aryan type and by no 

 means dwarfs, although, owing to their mixture with Mongolians, they are not tall. 

 Their domestic animals are half-starved but not dwarfed. Neither do the Wakhanis 

 worship fire, as has been reported. 



Lieut. Peary, having obtained five years' leave of absence, will start about July 10 

 for Whale Sound on the N.-W. coast of Greenland, leaving scientific parties on the 

 coast of Labrador, Baffin Land, and Greenland. In July of next year, Lieut. Peary, 

 accompanied by a surgeon and six families of Esquimaux, will push up the coast from 

 Whale Sound to Osborne Fjord (81°N. ), where he will establish a base of supplies in charge 

 of some of the Esquimaux. About March of 1899 he will start for the north limit of 

 Greenland, wherever that may be, and for the Pole. 



The Botanical Society of America will meet in Toronto, on August 17 and 18, 

 immediately before the meeting of the British Association, under the presidency of 

 Prof. J. M. Coulter. Dr C. E. Bessey, retiring president, will deliver his address on 

 Tuesday at 8 p.m. All foreign botanists, of whom many are likely to be in Toronto, 

 are invited to be associates of the society and to read papers. 



The following bequests of the late E. D. Cope are mentioned by Science : His scien- 

 tific books, osteological collection, and collection of fresh-water molluscs, to the School 

 of Biology of the University of Pennsylvania ; his collection of minerals to the univer- 

 sity ; duplicates of fresh-water mollusca to the Cincinnati Society of Natural History 

 and the American Museum of Natural History ; spirit-specimens and skins to the Phila- 

 delphia Academy of Natural Sciences. The palaeontological collections are to be sold 

 in three lots, viz. (1) the North American, (2) the South American, from the Pampean 

 formation and West Indies and Mexico, (3) European collections, chiefly from the 

 Neogene of Allier, France. After the payment of private bequests, the money arising 

 from this is to found a professorship or curatorship in vertebrate palaeontology at the 

 Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. 



Ax important and urgent work is the collection of anthropological data from races 

 that are disappearing or losing their old customs. For this purpose Mr Morris K. 

 Jessup, president of the American Museum of Natural History, is fitting out an expedi- 

 tion under the leadership of Prof. F. W. Putnam, assisted by Dr Franz Boas. They 

 will proceed up the north-west coast of North America, cross Behring Strait, and so pass 

 down through eastern Siberia into China, and thence along the Indian Ocean to Egypt. 

 The expedition will be away six years, and is expected to cost over 60,000 dollars. The 

 pecial problem to be studied is the relation of the American races to those of Asia and 

 Africa. 



Henry G. Bryant, of Philadelphia, accompanied by S. J. Entrikin and E. B. 

 Latham, has started for Alaska for the purpose of climbing Mount St Elias and making 

 explorations in the adjacent region. Mr Bryant, says Science, has had experience of 

 exploration in Labrador, and has made summer trips to Greenland. Mr Entrikin was 

 with Peary in Greenland and made an expedition over the inland ice. Mr Latham is a 

 member of the U.S. Coast Survey, and goes equipped for geographical work. The 

 party, having established a base camp on the west shore of Yakatat Bay early in June, 

 will cross the Malaspina glacier to the Samovar Hills ; from there ascend the Agassiz 

 glacier, and thence up the Newton glacier to the divide between Mount Newton and Mount 

 St Elias. A camp will be established on the divide, elevation about 13,000 feet, from 

 which the ascent to the summit of Mount St Elias will be made. Oh returning to the 

 Samovar Hills the explorations will be continued westward through an entirely un- 

 known region until a pass is discovered which will enable the explorers to cross the 

 St Elias Mountains and gain one of the branches of Copper River. The return to the 

 coast will be by way of Copper River. The party is well equipped, and has every 

 prospect of success. 



A photograph of the new South African Museum at Cape Town, which, as we have 

 stated, was recently opened, is given in Nature for May 13. The building is at the 

 upper end of the Municipal Gardens, and consists of two floors, the upper of which con- 

 tains the principal exhibition rooms. A room 63 by 41 i feet contains the birds, reptiles, 

 and fishes of S. Africa, recent and fossil, while a room of equal size holds the general 

 collection of vertebrates. The S. African mammals are in a smaller room, and another 

 contains the anthropological collections both S. African and general. On the ground 

 floor are four exhibition rooms, the two larger containing the invertebrates and the 

 general geological collection ; the two smaller, the collection illustrating S. African 

 geology and mining and the local antiquities. Other rooms on this floor contain the 

 library, study collections, and offices. The taxidermist's shop and store-room aro in a 

 separate building. All the cases are made of glass and iron (see Dr Meyer's letter in 

 Natural Science, vol. ix., p. 142, Aug. 1896). 



