i6o NATURAL SCIENCE. March, 1897. 



The Eggs of the Nautilus. 



Our readers, who doubtless remember Dr. Arthur Willey's 

 fascinating article *' In the Home of the Nautilus" (Natural Science, 

 vol. vi., p. 405, June, 1895) will join with us in congratulating him 

 warmly on the success that he has at last gained. Professor Ray 

 Lankester wrote thus to the Times (Feb. 8th) : — " .... Dr. Willey 

 proceeded iirst to Ralum, in New Britain, where he spent a year 

 trapping the nautilus in seventy fathoms of water and dredging in 

 vain for its eggs. He then tried a station on the coast of New 

 Guinea, where he was nearly drowned by the capsize of his small 

 craft. After passing through New Caledonia he arrived last summer 

 in Lifu, one of the Loyalty Islands, where nautilus can be captured 

 in three fathoms depth only. Here he constructed a large submarine 

 cage in which he kept specimens of nautilus, feeding them daily. 

 On December 5th last his patient endeavours were rewarded. Some 

 of the nautili had spawned in the cage, and thenceforward he was 

 able to obtain abundant samples of the eggs. Each eg^ is as large as 

 a grape, and is deposited separately by the mother nautilus. At 

 present we have received but few furthur details from Dr. Willey, 

 but he has doubtless by this time obtained the young in all stages 

 of growth." 



Evidence for the South African Committee. 



We strongly commend to the gentlemen now appointed to 

 enquire into South African affairs, a paper entitled "The Witwaters- 

 rand and the Revolt of the Uitlanders," written by Dr. George F. 

 Becker, and reprinted from the National Geographic Magazine 

 (Washington) for November, 1896. Dr. Becker, who is a well-known 

 member of the United States Geological Survey, was in Johannesburg 

 shortly after the Jameson Raid. He gives here a lucid and fair- 

 minded account of the causes that led to that disaster, and of some 

 of the occurrences at the time. He happened to be in a position 

 favourable for obtaining information, and this he has sifted with 

 scientific caution. We have rarely read an account of any 

 impassioned dramatic struggle, even of one in a far-off antiquity, so 

 sympathetic and yet so free from prejudice. 



