140 NATURAL SCIENCE. August. 



under the presidency of Admiral Duperre and Professor Perrier. Subscriptions 

 and communications may be addressed to Mr. A. Odin, 67 Rue du Port, Sables- 

 d'Olonne. 



The Herpetological Society, whose foundation we announced in our February 

 issue, published the first number of a journal under the name of The Vivarium, 

 which is now quite out of print. Both society and publication, however, received 

 so little financial support that they are in abeyance for the present. 



Prizes for essays on the following subjects are offered by the Royal Danish 

 Academy of Sciences: — Morphological and physiological researches on the asci of 

 the Ascomycetes ; the Danish species of Nematoids and Anguillulinas ; and the life- 

 history of those Sphaeriacese which are destructive to cereal crops. 



Professors H. T. Peck, Daniel Brinton, and H. C. Adams have been 

 appointed a committee to adjudge the two prizes of 5,000 and 2,000 francs founded 

 by Joseph Loubat, of Paris, to be given every five years to the authors of the best 

 works on the history, geography, archaeology, ethnology, philology, or numismatics 

 of N. America. The next competition is in 1898. 



At a recent meeting of the Biological Society of Washington, Mr. Charles D- 

 Walcott, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, stated that he had completed an 

 extensive memoir on the fossil Medusas of the Lower and Middle Cambrian of 

 North America and the Jurassic of Europe. It will be illustrated by numerous 

 plates showing details of structure of many of the forms, which were preserved under 

 very favourable conditions, and presenting also the results of experiments with 

 living species. 



A NEW zoological garden has been opened at Konigsberg, in Prussia, under the 

 directorship of Dr. J. Miiller, formerly of the garden in Berlin. 



A site of 261 acres in Bronx Park, south of Pelham Avenue, has been suggested 

 for the new zoological park. New York, but action is postponed for the present, 

 since Mayor Strong is opposed to granting the land. Mr. W. T. Hornaday is now 

 in Europe inspecting the various zoological gardens. 



Professor Darcy Thompson, who, as we announced, has gone to the Behring 

 Sea to study the seal fishery question, is accompanied by Mr. Andrew Hackett and 

 Professor Macoun, of the Geological Survey of Canada. The party has gone to the 

 Prybilov Islands in the U.S. Fish Commission steamer " Albatross." 



The largest meteorite in the world, weighing forty tons, which was found by 

 Lieut. Peary in Greenland, is to be brought back by him for the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Sciences on his present trip. Large scientific parties are going with him. 

 One party will make a geological study of the region near the Devil's Thumb at the 

 south end of Melville Bay, and will collect the fauna and flora. Another will land 

 at the Great Umanak Fiord, where it will make pendulum observations, natural 

 history collections, and study the glacial phenomena. Peary himself will proceed 

 north as far as Cape Sabino, and will also try to explore Jones' Sound. An artist 

 accompanies him to take casts of the Cape York natives, who, it is to be hoped, will 

 prove amenable. The ss. " Hope," conveying the expedition, left Cape Breton 

 Island on July 16. 



A party of four, under the direction of Mr. T. H. Mobley, will start from 

 Lacomb, Alberta, to explore Northern Canada from Edmonton to the Arctic Sea. 

 The trip is to occupy two years. 



The Conway Expedition to Spitzbergen has already conducted some successful, 

 though difficult, explorations, and Dr. Gregory has obtained some valuable 



