144 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 1898 
that the Museum was too costly would not be borne out by the facts. It was 
an exceedingly popular institution, and was undergoing changes which would, 
he trusted, make it even more popular. They were building up a magnificent 
reference library, of which the city would be proud in years to come. 
Tue Association of Naturalists of Levallois-Perret has, during the past fourteen 
years, gathered together the material for a museum, which is open free every 
Sunday except when the Association is out on an excursion. The collections, 
says La Feuille des jeunes Naturalistes, comprise 5264 species of animals, 4626 of 
plants, and 4929 geological specimens. 
Pror. O. C. Marsa has recently transmitted from New Haven to the Director 
of the U.S. Geological Survey the fourth large instalment of Vertebrate Fossils 
secured in the West, in 1882-92, under his direction, as Palaeontologist of the U.S. 
Geological Survey in charge of Vertebrate Palaeontology. The collection is 
packed in one hundred boxes, and weighs over thirteen tons. It includes twelve 
skulls and other remains of the gigantic Ceratopsia from the Cretaceous ; various 
Dinocerata fossils from the Eocene ; a series of rare specimens of brontotheriwn, 
Elotherium, Miohippus, and other genera, from the Miocene ; a very extensive 
collection of Rhinoceros and other mammals from the Pliocene ; as well as various 
interesting fossils from more recent deposits. These will all be deposited in the 
National Museum of Washington. 
THE Government has finally stated that it is unable under existing circum- 
stances to embark upon an undertaking of such magnitude as an Antarctic Ex- 
pedition. What the Government is unable to do the Royal Geographical Society 
will attempt. Its Council has authorised the president to take steps to obtain 
subscriptions to the amount of not less than £50,000, while the Society itself 
will contribute £5000. 
Laptns attending the International Congress of Zoologists at Cambridge in 
the company of a member may become Associates on payment of 10s. 
THE Zoological Society of London has obtained, through Hagenbeck of 
Hamburg, a male giraffe, aged one year, from French Senegambia. Though at 
present only eight feet high he is in good condition, and will, it is hoped, ulti- ° 
mately prove a fitting mate for the female giraffe that has been in the Gardens 
for some years. 
THE metric system of weights and measures is to be introduced officially into 
Russia. The Russians are also considering how they may best abandon their Old 
Style calendar for that now prevailing in the rest of the civilised world. 
Ar Rueschlikon, on the Lake of Zurich, the shore for a distance of two 
hundred metres has sunk into the lake, together with some uninhabited buildings 
standing upon it. The damage done is considerable. 
THE company established at Lubec, Maine, to extract gold from sea-water, and 
alluded to in our May number, is said by the Hngineering and Mining Journal 
of New York to be “simply another attempt to impose on the credulous.” 
WE notice that a paragraph is going the round of the scientific press, quoting 
an explanation given in the Zoologist by Mr F. R. Godfrey of Melbourne, con- 
cerning the sheep-attacking habits of the Kea, Nestor notabilis of New Zealand. 
We do not intend to copy this paragraph into our own pages, because, precisely 
the same explanation will be found in Natural Science, vol. vill., p. 157, 
March 1896. 
THE Government of New South Wales has fitted out a deep-sea trawling ex- 
pedition for experimental fishing off the coasts of the colony. Mr E. R. Waite 
of the Australian Museum is attached as naturalist, and much valuable material, 
including many new species, is finding its way to the museum. 
Sir E. Brappon, Premier of Tasmania, has issued a proclamation protecting 
the White-capped Albatross for five years from April last. 
