1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 3 
THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THE ‘ CHALLENGER’ REPORTS 
THE fifty volumes of the ‘ Challenger’ reports having been recently 
completed, a complimentary album was presented to the editor, 
Dr John Murray, by his colleagues. The album was itself a 
work of art, but its chief interest lay in the circumstance that 
it contained the photographs of all who had contributed to the 
literature of the Reports. As some of these authors are no longer 
among us, and others are dispersed over the four quarters of the 
globe, it was an arduous undertaking to fill up this portrait-gallery 
of scientific worthies. But Mr W. E. Hoyle, as Hon. Secretary to 
the presentation committee, met with the friendliest response to 
every application, and, with the assistance of Mr Walter Crane in the 
artistic department, successfully coped with all the difficulties that 
arose, whether expected or unexpected. After so much trouble had 
been expended, the happy thought occurred to Mr Hoyle that many 
who might never have a chance of seeing the original album, gleam- 
ing in purple and gold, would welcome an opportunity of possessing 
a copy of its contents. The Committee warmly approved of this 
suggestion, and the result is seen in a thin quarto volume (price, 
12s. 6d.), uniform in size and binding with the reports. It con- 
tains reduced copies of the 88 portraits on 19 plates, together with 
reproductions in black and white of Mr Walter Crane’s designs for 
the cover and dedication. As a specimen of the portraiture we are 
enabled to show our readers a likeness of the late Sir C. Wyville 
Thomson, the original director of the civilian staff. Whether the 
small edition of 200 copies will suffice for all who will wish to 
possess this interesting volume may be doubted. The publishers 
are Messrs Dulau & Co. 
PHENACOMYS 
THE genus Phenacomys has no doubt existed at least as long as the 
genus Homo, and specimens of this small vole may even have been 
known to man, and have been hoarded by that acquisitive animal in 
his museums for a considerable period. We know, in fact, that a 
specimen obtained and presented by Mr J. K. Lord of the North 
American Boundary Commission, has been in the British Museum 
since 1865. None the less so short a time as eight years ago, 
zoologists were unaware of the existence of this genus, although the 
suspicions of a few may have been aroused by Nehring’s descrip- 
tion, in 1883, of some bones and teeth found in a cave in Southern 
Hungary. Within the last eight years, however, no less than nine 
living species of the genus have been described, all from Boreal 
North America. Ninety-five specimens have been at the disposal of 
