388 



NATURE 



[May i8, lyi i 



to bring home to the i)ub!ic the ease and saf< ty of 

 aeroplane travel. 



One important item of the prograrnmr 

 carried out. It was announced that if ilie liicum- 

 stances were favourable the Army dirij^iblc " Beta " 

 would coine up from Aldcrshot and take part in the 

 proceedings. The weather proved perfect, it being 

 almost a dead calm with brif^ht sunshine, 'llie 

 " Beta " was ready and actually made one ascent, 

 but for some reason which has not been given out 

 she did not attempt the journey. .Advocates of the 

 aeroplane as beinp .'» more practical apparatus than 

 the diripible claim this as a triumph for their cause. 



\\. Baokn-Pow Kl I . 



SrORT AND TRAVEL IS CESTKAL ASIA/ 



THIS book, as its writer says, is merely "a plain 

 record of a year's wanderings in the lesser 

 known parts of Central .Asia for the purpose of sport 

 and travel." Its author had eyes for little else than 



to sportsmen who contemplate an excursion in tl > 



roj^ions. 



Starting from Kashmir, the author .i.--..! 

 Pamirs by the usual route, shooting on the w.. 

 Ovis poll, the horns of which measured (doul 

 aionji; their inner curve, as usual) "under 50 inchc*'"; 

 but he saw a pair on a tomb at Kashgar which were 

 72 inches. Beyond Turkestan, in the Thian SIj.mi 

 he shot two specimens of the great stag gen« 1 

 termed the "Asiatic Wapiti" {Cervus cattad 

 songdricus), locally known as " Boga " by the 

 gols, with horns measuring resp>ectivelv 4S anu ^', 

 inches, the latter pair carrying 14 pomts or tines. 

 .'\ specimen of the Ovis karelini, with horns " just 

 over 40 inches," was shot there, also the Turk* vi;iii 

 ibex, with a horn length of^^L inches — the ren.rd 

 being 57 J inches — and s<4HHp Siberian ro< dc< r 

 (Capreolus pygargus). It is rlBwr surprising to r< .id 

 that the skins were merely rubbed with crude \\<K>d 

 ashes as a preservative and nothing else. Continuing,' 

 northwards through Dsungaria, Lieut. Eth»ri<.ii 

 sighted, on the plain of I^ike K\>\, 

 what he believed were wild horses 

 (Equiis prejevalski). The .Altai was 

 crossed in mid-winter, too late to 

 attempt following the Ovis ammoti, 

 for which that range is famous, so 

 our traveller turned down the 

 steppes of the Irtish and Obi v.fi" 

 to the Trans-Siberian Railway 

 Tomsk, where civilisation w.ts 

 reached once more. 



Ovis Karelini. From " Across the Roof of the World. 



the quest of large game for the sake of their heads ' 

 as trophies. Of the country through which he passed 

 or of its people, he tells us little, and nothing at all 

 of its other fauna or its flora, and of many of the 

 topics of human and scientific interest which the 

 general reader expects to find in travel-books of little- 

 known regions. Even in reeard to the large game 

 themselves the bald narrative provides no new facts 

 nor anv intimate study of the animals or their 

 haunts. The photographs of the heads, however, are 

 of some interest, as the specimens hitherto figured 

 are not numerous and the limits of several of the 

 species are not yet clearly defined. The account of 

 the camp outfit also mav supply some useful hints 



t>,L','j^"i?"j''? ^°^'.°K}^'^ World.'-A Record of Sport and Travel 

 i„^ l-v • ^'"'A- ^l'?"' Hunza. the Pamirs, Chinese Turkistan, Moojrolia 

 riUL^"''-j r?*' /-■;"'• P- T. Etherton. Pp. .xvi+437. (London: 

 Constable and Co., Ltd., 191 1). Pricei6j.net. 



NO. 2168, VOL. 86] 



NOTES 



In consequence of li '. 



holidays, the annual visitation of thf 

 Board of Visitors to the Royal Obser\"3- 

 tory, Greenwich, will take place on 

 Friday, Jun«» 2, inst'^ad ^f '^" <'...,r,i-,, 

 June 3. 



The newly erected Cint • r k' - ;in 1 

 In-titute at the Cancer Hospital is to 

 be opened by H.R.H. the Duke of Con- 

 naught on Tuesday next. May 23, at 

 3 o'clock. 



An earthquake shock w. 

 8.50 a.m. on Tuesday last in iht v - 

 water Valley. 



We regret to learn from a Reuter 



telegram that Prof. Ernst Haeckel met 



with a serious accident on Tuesday. 



In endeavouring to reach a book from 



a high shelf he fell, breaking his hip 



bone. 



We regret to notice the death, at the age of eighty-two 



years, of Sir Nathan Bodington, Vice-Chance!k>r of -h- 



University of Leeds. 



The death is announced, at the age of sixty-live years, 

 of Mr. Emerson M. Bainbridge, well known for his work 

 in connection with coal-mining. In 1867 he was selected 

 to report to the North of England Institute of Mining 

 Engineers on the haulage of coal, and received for his 

 services a valuable premium. Two years afterwards the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers awarded him the Manby 

 premium for a paper upon the probability of working coal 

 at a depth of 4000 feet. .Another paper, on the prevention 

 of colliery explosions, was rewarded by the conferment of 

 one of the Herman prizes. Mr. Bainbridge was a member 

 of the Royal Commission on Coal Dust in Mine< =n isni, 

 and a juror of the Inventions Exhibition of iS."^ • 



