430 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 
Dr FRANZ STEINDACHNER superintends the zoological work on board the 
Austrian ship Pola, which this year continues the scientific exploration of the 
Red Sea, covering the ground between Jedda and Aden. Researches in physical 
oceanography will also be carried on. 
Pror, SCHAUINSFELD, Director of the Bremen Museum, has returned with a 
large collection from a voyage of fourteen months in the Pacific. He spent some 
time on the small island of Laysan, and visited among other places the Sandwich 
Islands, Samoa, New Zealand, and Chatham Island. 
THE sum of £500 has recently been granted to the Manchester Museum at the 
Owens College for the purpose of installing the electric light. We understand 
that Mr Edward Holt’s donation of £2500, lately announced, is to be devoted 
entirely to the rebuilding of the gymnasium of the College. 
THE Geological Circle of the Upper Holloway Centre of the London Society 
for the Extension of University Teaching will issue a strong programme for 1898. 
We expect great things from a Society with a name of such dimensions, and shall 
look for the programme with interest. Mr Rudler is the President. 
THE Imperial Russian Geographical Society is sending an expedition to 
Abyssinia, chiefly for the anthropological investigation of the country. The 
leader of the party is Mr Nicolas Dmitrieff, of Astrakhan, who has had some 
experience of the country as medical volunteer with the Italian army. 
Messrs ScHucHERT and White, of the U.S. National Museum, have returned 
from Lieut. Peary’s las Greenland expedition with a collection of Cretaceous 
and Miocene plants, as well as many Cretaceous invertebrates from the Noursoak 
peninsula. They seem to think the last word on these plants was said by Heer, 
which is hardly the view of European palaeobotanists. 
THE Jersey Natural Science Association is wisely including in its programme 
economic questions of general interest. At the October meeting Mr J. Hornell 
read an important paper on “ The Possibilities of Fishery Improvement in Jersey, 
with Notes on the present state of Marine Pisciculture and Fishery Regulation.” 
It appears in full in the Jersey Weekly Press of October 16. 
OnE of the results of the terrible famine in India last year shows itself in the 
increase of deaths from wild animals. The greatest increase was in the North- 
West Provinces from wolves, and in the Sunderbunds from tigers, and was, no 
doubt, the result of a more vigorous search for food by the natives in the jungles. 
Snake-bites, however, decreased considerably, there being only 21,000 deaths in 
the year. 
An Act was passed at the last meeting of the West Virginia Legislature, 
establishing a State Geological and Economic Survey in connection with the 
W. Virginia University, Morgantown. For its expenses a sum of 3000 dollars 
per annum has been appropriated. Dr Israel C. White is Superintendent, Prof. 
S. B. Brown is First Assistant Geologist and Curator of the Collections, and 
Professor J. L. Johnson is Assistant Geologist. — 
THE Hull Scientific and Field Naturalists’ Club opened its winter session by 
an Exhibition and Conversazione which ran for two nights—namely, November 
10th and 11th, from 7.30 to 10 p.m. The whole of the exhibits were from the 
collections of members of the club, and testified to commendable activity in many 
right directions. The President of the club is Dr J. Hollingworth, and the 
Secretary is T. Sheppard, 78 Sherburn Street, Hull. The annual subscription is 
four shillings, 
