1898] NEWS ia 
lagoon is successful, it will much enhance the value of the main bore put down 
with the diamond drill. 
The reason why it is proposed that the bore in the lagoon shall be situated 
only a mile and a half from the shore, instead of near the centre, is that one of 
the chief difficulties will be the danger of the ship dragging at her moorings. 
This would be intensified near the centre of the lagoon, where the full force of 
the squalls, trade winds, and strong currents would be experienced. At the spot 
contemplated, however, the warship should be not only out of the main current, 
but also somewhat sheltered on the coast by the thick belt of cocoanut palms and 
other trees with which the main island is densely wooded. After finishing the 
boring experiment in the lagoon, the ‘ Porpoise’ will proceed to the Gilbert 
Islands, and on her return, early in September, she will be ready to pick up the 
diamond drill party, and convey them to Suva. Should, however, the main 
diamond drill bore not have been bottomed up to the date of the return of the 
warship to Funafuti, arrangements have been made by the London Missionary 
Society which will admit of their steamer the ‘John Williams,’ due at Funafuti 
in November, carrying the party either to Suva or New Guinea, whence they 
would return to Sydney. Our information is gained from an article in the Daily 
Telegraph (Sydney) for April 27. 
Av the anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society it was 
announced that the Government had replied in a sympathetic manner to the 
appeal for an Antarctic expedition. Meanwhile, as Mr Borchgrevink’s ship, the 
‘Southern Cross,’ which leaves London in July, will fly the British flag, 
England will not be left wholly in the lurch by the numerous expeditions now 
being made to Antarctic regions. 
To the numerous expeditions in the Arctic regions this year must be added 
a German one under the leadership of Mr Theodor Lerner, who is accompanied 
by Drs Briihl, Romer, and Schaudien. They started for the North Pole at the 
end of May on the ss. ‘Helgoland.’ Mr Walter Wellman, who is attacking the 
Pole from Franz Josef Land, is accompanied by Prof. J. H. Gore of Columbia 
University, who will make gravity determinations in Franz Josef Land ; Lieut. 
E. B. Baldwin, of the U.S. Weather Bureau ; Dr E. Hofma, of the University of 
Michigan as naturalists and medical officer; and Mr Q. Harlan, of the U.S, 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
TueE French Ministry of Public Instruction has sent Surgeon-Major Huguet 
to M’zab in Algeria, to continue his researches on the history of the country, and 
on the characters, commerce, industry, and medical customs of its inhabitants. 
Pror. Ropert Kocw returned to Berlin on Thursday after an absence of 
a year and a half, spent in foreign travel for purposes of scientific research, 
THe Committee for the Huxley Memorial has issued a third donation 
list amounting to £1,058, 14s. 5d., the total amount now received being 
£3,346, 4s. 2d. Mr Onslow Ford is now engaged upon the statue, which is 
to be a seated one in marble, 8 feet high, and is to be placed in the central 
hall of the Natural History Museum. Dies for the Royal College of Science 
medal have been completed after the excellent design of Mr F. Bowcher. 
Copies in silver or bronze of the obverse of this medal bearing a profile portrait 
of Huxley, as well as replicas of the original model, can be purchased by sub- 
seribers to the memorial fund. Specimens of these are on exhibition in the 
architectural court of the South Kensington Museum till the end of September. 
After paying for the statue, the medal, and other expenses, about £1,300 
remains, and, to quote the elegant phrasing of the Committee, “The nature of 
the contemplated third form of Memorial must largely depend upon the amount 
which may yet be subscribed.” 
