Ixxxii. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



"A machine for uprooting trees" sounds rather like the 

 revival of some gigantic animal of past ages, but such an 

 appliance is in use in Belgium to pull up pines, instead of the 

 ordinary method of felling them. The process costs 4d. each, 

 but the poles are a foot longer, the roots are of some value, 

 and replanting can be done immediately, instead of in three 

 years, owing to there being no stumps for the pine-weevil to 

 breed in. 



Steps are being taken to bring about an international standard- 

 isation of screws. A steel ingot of 120 tons, cast at Manchester 

 last February, was the largest ever made ; whilst very interesting 

 experiments have been carried out with iron and its alloys, show- 

 ing that at liquid air temperatures, the hardness and resistance 

 to tensile stress are immensely increased. 



GEOGRAPHY. 



The great work accomplished by the National Antarctic 

 Expedition has been described in an interesting manner in a 

 book lately published, written by Captain Scott. Inside the 

 great ice-barrier lies a plateau of wide extent, nearly level, and 

 about 9,000 feet high. Over this he journeyed for 200 miles 

 without finding any change of feature. On one of his two long 

 sledge journeys he reached the latitude of 82 16' 33" through 

 the greatest difficulties, and made many valuable observations. 

 The inland ice between Cape Adare and Mount Longstaff, 

 a distance of over 700 miles, is discharged by four immense 

 glaciers, some of which are the largest in the world. An active 

 volcano, Mount Erebus, in the midst of this scene of desolation, 

 must indeed have been a wonderful sight to its first discoverers. 

 A coal seam was found in very early rocks, but it was unfor- 

 tunately only in. in thickness, and the plant remains were not 

 in a state to be identified. Birds were much observed, and a 

 great deal of work done in collecting the lower forms of life 

 below the ice. The existence of certain earthworms and 



