1897] NEWS 139 



The tenth congress of Russian naturalists and physicians, which was to have 

 been held this August in Kiev, has, in consequence of the International Con- 

 gresses of Geology and Medicine both meeting in Russia, been postponed till 

 August 1898. 



The University of Pennsylvania is to have a new Museum of Archaeology and 

 Palaeontology. The architecture, says the American Naturalist, will be in 

 Italian renaissance style. A botanical garden, covering ten acres, will surround 

 the museum. 



The International Postal Congress has decided that henceforth objects of 

 natural history, animals, dried plants, or preserved zoological specimens may be 

 sent as samples of merchandise, at |d. for every two ounces, the maximum weight 

 being 350 grammes. 



Another expedition to Alaska is that of Dr W. H. Evans of Washington, 

 who has gone to examine the agricultural resources of the district south of the 

 Aleutian peninsula. Dr Sheldon Jackson goes on a similar errand to the Yukon 

 basin. 



The Societe helvetique des Sciences Naturelles holds its eightieth animal 

 meeting at Engelberg, near Mt. Titlis, Sept. 12 to 15. The president of the 

 annual committee is Dr E. Etlin, Sarnen, Obwalden, to whom those who wish to 

 attend should apply. 



Mr R. H. Kitson, of Trinity College, has been awarded the Harkness Scholar- 

 ship in Geology and Palaeontology at Cambridge University. Mr V. H. Black- 

 man of St John's College and the British Museum, has been awarded the 

 Hutchinson Studentship, for his researches on Algae. 



The Zoological Society of London has awarded its silver medal to Mr 

 Alexander Whyte, recently naturalist to the Administration of British Central 

 Africa, who has sent home large collections illustrating the fauna and flora of 

 Xyassaland. 



With reference to our note on the extinction of the bison (which some call 

 buffalo), it is interesting to learn from Nature that a variety known as the ' wood- 

 bison ' is still to be met with near Fort Chipewyan, south of the Great Slave 

 Lake, where it was seen in 1894 by Mr Caspar Whitney. There is no specimen 

 in the British Museum. Nature says there ought to be, and so do we. 



At Danesdale, near Driffield, Yorkshire, are some 200 mounds, locally known 

 as Danes' Graves. These have recently been excavated by Canon Greenwell, 

 Mr J. R. Mortimer, and Mr T. Boynton, who have found remains of a chariot and 

 various articles of iron and bronze, tending to show that the graves are of pre- 

 Roman age, though more exact determination is at present not attempted. 



General Russell Sturgis has offered New York University a site on his 

 estate at Hamilton, Bermuda, for the establishment of a marine biological station. 

 Prof. C. L. Bristol, Prof. W. H. Everett, Dr Tarleton H. Bean, Dr W. M. 

 Rankin of Princeton, and three students of the University have gone to prospect 

 and to collect. 



The seventh session of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of 

 Science is to be held at Sydney in the second week of January next, under 

 the presidency of Prof. Liversidge. Capt. F. W. Hutton is to be president of 

 the Geological section, Prof. T. J. Parker of the Biological, and Mr A. W. Howitt 

 of the Ethnological. „ 



A living specimen of Pleurotomaria beyrichi was obtained last March by Mr 

 Alan Owston of Yokohama, and was examined by Prof. Mitsukuri. It appears 

 that two lobes, one on either side of the foot, envelop the shell to some extent, and 



