I7 2 NEWS [ FEBRUARY 



ditions to the Moa skin and feathers of New Zealand. Prof. Seeley compared 

 it with the skin of Rhinoceros and Elephas found in the tundras of Liberia, skin 

 which he emphatically stated had never been found in frozen soil or in masses 

 of ice. AVith this statement the meeting distinctly disagreed. The general 

 opinion of those zoologists present, on the main question, however, was that the 

 skin exhibited was not that of a fossil, but of a recent, or comparatively recent, 

 animal. The fragments in Aineghino's possession Dr. Moreno believes to be 

 from this identical portion of skin, and if that be so, then English zoologists 

 will have little doubt in deciding that Ameghino is correct in assigning the dis- 

 covery to a new form, named by him Neomylodon. 



Although the Apothecaries' Society has decided to abandon the management 

 of the Chelsea Physic Garden, it will not disappear under bricks and mortar. 

 The control is to be vested in the Trustees of the London Parochial Charities, 

 but it will be managed by a committee of fifteen, including representatives of 

 the lloyal Society, the Technical Education Board, the Society of Apothecaries 

 and the lloyal College of Physicians in turn, the Pharmaceutical Society, and 

 the Senate of the University of London. The existing garden will be main- 

 tained, rooms provided for lectures and experimental teaching, and a physiological 

 laboratory may be erected. An income of £800 is to be provided by the 

 Trustees, and other sums will be provided to carry out all the details of the 

 scheme. Instruction will be provided, material supplied for teaching, and the 

 Royal College of Science teachers and students will be allowed the use of the 

 garden and rooms. 



We alluded in our last number to Mr. Erederick W. Christian's explorations 

 in the Caroline Islands. The Times states that Mr. Christian stayed nearly 

 three years in Samoa, studying the language and customs of the people, 

 especially those farthest removed from the settlements of the white man. In 

 Tahiti and the Marquesas he spent two years, minutely noting down the 

 language, the genealogies, folklore, and traditions of the inhabitants. He 

 visited single-handed Spanish Micronesia, in order to obtain some further and 

 minuter information upon certain mysterious ruins reported to exist upon 

 Bonate, or Ponape, and Lele, two islands lying further to the eastward of the 

 extensive Caroline chain. Here he obtained some 150 photographs in the 

 districts of Kiti, U, Metalanim, Not, and Chokach (wrongly styled Jekoits and 

 Jokoits in the present charts). The walled islets of Nan-Matal were explored 

 and mapped out fairly accurately. The phonesis of very many native names 

 and their spelling were changed from a meaningless jargon to their correct 

 native renderings and accompanying significations. He also made excavations 

 in the central vault of the sanctuary of Nan-Tanach, bringing to light a con- 

 siderable number of curious tools, implements, and shell ornaments of an ancient 

 date. Many of the old native legends and fairy tales were rescued from oblivion. 

 Some new information was obtained about the flora and marine life of the 

 archipelago. The former presence of an early Negrito race, conquered and 

 absorbed or overlapped by later waves of Polynesian, Malayan, and Melanesian 

 immigrants was fairly established. Also evidence was collected as to the 

 obtrusion of many Japanese words upon the Micronesian area. Mr. Christian 

 spent three months on Yap, in the Western Carolines, where he found ancient 

 platforms and burial-places of Japanese design. He proposes to revisit the 

 Caroline and Marianne Islands, especially Ruk, Tinian, Saipan, Pulawat, and 

 Nuku-Oro, also the Pelew Islands. 



C. F. Baker, of the Alabama Experiment Station, left on January 1 for a 

 collecting trip of a year and a half's duration in South America. 



Prof. Alexander Agassiz is said to have gone to Rhodesia to investigate 

 its mineral resources. It is safe to fcay that he will not confine his attention 

 to these. 



