140 NATUBAL SCIENCE [February 



The Bill for tlie establishment of the University of the United States, first 

 introduced by Senator Edmonds in 1890, has again been introduced into both 

 Houses of Congress. It is expected that the bill will be passed during the 

 present session. 



■\Ve learn from the Shooting Times that an aitesian well has been constructed 

 in the Zoological Gardens supplying 240,000 gallons per diem from the Chalk, at 

 a depth of 450 feet. Hitherto there has been no independent water supply for 

 the London Gardens. 



The Walsingham Medals for biological research, at Cambridge University, 

 have been awarded to V. H. Blackman, Hutchison Research student of St 

 John's and of the Botanical Department of the British Museum, and W. Morley 

 Fletcher, Fellow of Trinity. 



We have already chronicled one Eussian expedition that is starting for 

 Abyssinia, we have read in the papers of a jjolitical mission, and now we learn of 

 two geographical parties, under the command of Lieut. Baron Pellenberg and 

 Mr Vlasof, which have just left Odessa for Abyssinia. 



The Shooting Times says that the protection of the sea-otter is occupying the 

 attention of the American Government as much as that of the fur-seal. New 

 regulations have been made for 1898, and it is proposed, if these do not succeed, 

 to forbid hunting from schooners and to institute a shore-limit of fifteen 

 miles. 



At a meeting of the Lincolnshire Science Society on December 10th, Mr 

 J. H. Cooke, one of the vice-presidents, gave a lecture on " Prehistoric Man in 

 Lincolnshire," in the course of which he gave a compendious account of all of 

 the relics of the Neolithic Age that have beeir found to the present time in 

 Lincolnshire. 



Mr Walter Wellman, the journalist, will lead an expedition to Franz 

 Josef Land next June, for which he has purchased the sealer ' Laura.' He will 

 travel northward over the islands, encamping for the winter at the most northerly 

 point attained in the season of 1898. In the following year he will make an 

 attempt to reach the North Pole. 



The Association frangaise de Botanicpie has acquired as its organ Le Monde des 

 Plantes, for many years edited by Mr Leveille, of Mans (56 Rue de Flore). The 

 Association is intended to take the place of the Societe frangaise de Botanique, 

 which ceased to exist in 1895. It is intended, says La Feuille des Jeunes 

 Naturalistes, to form a central herbarium and library, free to members, and to 

 undertake the exchange and determination of specimens. 



The entomological collections, books, and instruments of the late Dr Geo. 

 H. Horn [are bequeathed to the American Entomological Society, as also a 

 present endowment of $200 per annum, and a subsequent endowment of $5000 

 at the death of his sister. Dr Horn left also to the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences $1000, and $500 to the American Philosophical Society ; 

 neither bequest to be received until his sister's death. 



The Colonial Museum at Marseilles, opened in 1893, is remarkable for its 

 valuable collection of tropical vegetable products. These are studied and analysed 

 under the direction of Mr Heckel in the museum laboratory. Among recent 

 acquisitions may be mentioned Dr Buisson's collection of the mollusca of Tahiti, 

 botanical collections from New Caledonia, presented by Messrs Heckel, Jean- 

 neney, and Col. Pelletier, and from the Antilles by R. P. Diiss. 



