1897] NEWS 139 
Tur tenth congress of Russian naturalists and physicians, which was to have 
been held this August in Kiev, has, in consequence of the International Con- 
gresses of Geology and Medicine both meeting in Russia, been postponed till 
August 1898. 
Tue University of Pennsylvania is to have a new Museum of Archaeology and 
Palaeontology. The architecture, says the American Naturalist, will be in 
Italian renaissance style. A botanical garden, covering ten acres, will surround 
the museum. 
Tue International Postal Congress has decided that henceforth objects of 
natural history, animals, dried plants, or preserved zoological specimens may be 
sent as samples of merchandise, at $d. for every two ounces, the maximum weight 
being 350 grammes. ; 
ANOTHER expedition to Alaska is that of Dr W. H. Evans of Washington, 
who has gone to examine the agricultural resources of the district south of the 
Aleutian peninsula. Dr Sheldon Jackson goes on a similar errand to the Yukon 
basin. 
THE Société helvétique des Sciences Naturelles holds its eightieth annual 
meeting at Engelberg, near Mt. Titlis, Sept. 12 to 15. The president of the 
annual committee is Dr E. Etlin, Sarnen, Obwalden, to whom those who wish to 
attend should apply. 
Mr R. H. Kitson, of Trinity College, has been awarded the Harkness Scholar- 
ship in Geology and Palaeontology at Cambridge University. Mr V. H. Black- 
man of St John’s College and the British Museum, has been awarded the 
Hutchinson Studentship, for his ‘researches on Algae. 
Tuer Zoological Society of London has awarded its silver medal to Mr 
Alexander Whyte, recently naturalist to the Administration of British Central 
Africa, who has sent home large collections illustrating the fauna and flora of 
Nyassaland. 
Wiru reference to our note on the extinction of the bison (which some call 
buffalo), it is interesting to learn from Nature that a variety known as the ‘ wood- 
bison’ is still to be met with near Fort Chipewyan, south of the Great Slave 
Lake, where it was seen in 1894 by Mr Caspar Whitney. There is no specimen 
in the British Museum. Nature says there ought to be, and so do we. 
Ar Danesdale, near Driffield, Yorkshire, are some 200 mounds, locally known 
as Danes’ Graves. These have recently been excavated by Canon Greenwell, 
Mr J. R. Mortimer, and Mr T. Boynton, who have found remains of a chariot and 
various articles of iron and bronze, tending to show that the graves are of pre- 
Roman age, though more exact determination is at present not attempted. 
GENERAL RussELt Sturets has offered New York University a site on his 
estate at Hamilton, Bermuda, for the establishment of a marine biological station. 
Prof. C. L. Bristol, Prof. W. H. Everett, Dr Tarleton H. Bean, Dr W. M. 
Rankin of Princeton, and three students of the University have gone to prospect 
and to collect. , 
THE seventh session of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of 
Science is to be held at Sydney in the second week of January next, under 
the presidency of Prof. Liversidge. Capt. F. W. Hutton is to be president of 
the Geological section, Prof. T. J. Parker of the Biological, and Mr A. W. Howitt 
of the Ethnological. 
A LIVING specimen of Plewrotomaria beyrichi was obtained last March by Mr 
Alan Owston of Yokohama, and was examined by Prof. Mitsukuri. It appears 
that two lobes, one on either side of the foot, envelop the shell to some extent, and 
