i6 



NA TURE 



\May 4, 1876 



larger of which measure 20 ft. by 12 ft., the smaller being 

 12 ft. square. The out-door cages are to be completed by the 

 end of July next ; they will measure 44 ft. by 29 ft. Mr. Sclater 

 desired it to be known that of the larger Felidse, the Ounce 

 {Felis tmcia) was a desideratum. The adoption of the report 

 was moved by Prof. Huxley, seconded by Prof. Tennant, and 

 carried unanimously. 



Our readers will regret the very sudden death of Lieut. J. E. 

 Cornelissen, which occurred at Brussels in the month of March. 

 Those who enjoyed the pleasure of his acquaintance will re- 

 member the hearty sailor-like demeanour of the man, while all 

 who have paid attention to maritime meteorology will be ready 

 to recognise his high scientific merits and the practical turn of 

 mind which made the marine publications of the Utrecht Insti- 

 tute so eminently useful to seamen. He had been for sixteen 

 years at the head of the marine branch of that establishment, 

 having succeeded Andrau. He leaves a wife and four children 

 utterly unprovided for. 



The following are the names of the Commissioners appointed 

 to inquire into various matters connected with the Scottish Uni- 

 versity : — Lord Justice-General Inglis, the Duke of Buccleuch, 

 Lord Moncreiff, the Right Hon. Lyon Playfair, C.B., Sir 

 William Stirling Maxwell, James Craufurd, one of the Senators 

 of the College of Justice in Scotland, William Watson, her 

 Majesty's Solicitor-General for Scotland, John Muir, D.C.L., 

 James Anthony Froude, Archibald Campbell Swinton, LL.D , 

 Prof. Huxley, Dr. James Alexander Campbell, LL.D. 



We learn from the Illustrated Australian News, of Feb. 23, 

 that a party consisting of Mr. Lawes, M. O. C. Stone, F.R.G.S., 

 Mr. Hargreave, of Sidney, and Mr. K. Broadbent, bird collector, 

 together with several Southsea Islanders, have made a successful 

 excursion into the interior of New Guinea from Port Moresby. 

 They attained a village called Munikaihila, situated i,cxx3 feet 

 above the sea-level, and were well received by the natives. The 

 view from this point was very fine. " All around were moun- 

 tains and hills of every shape and size, covered with trees to the 

 very summits," and Mount Owen Stanley rose as a grand back- 

 ground to the panorama apparently about twenty miles distant. 

 We shall no doubt shortly receive a notice of Mr. Broadbent's 

 discoveries. 



We have much pleasure in noting that in the monthly publi- 

 cation of tri-daily meteorological observations issued from Vienna, 

 Dr. Jelinek has this year included two stations the obser- 

 vations at which, in addition to their climatological importance, 

 cannot fail to be of the greatest value in constructing weather- 

 maps, viz., Sulina, near the mouth of the Danube, and Alex- 

 andria, in Egypt. 



In a further discussion of the temperature observations made 

 at the Museum of Natural History, at Paris, the MM. Bec- 

 querel point out that the mean temperature of the soil under 

 grass is a little in excess of that under bare soil, and that under 

 grass the temperature has not fallen below 32°, a fact of some 

 importance in horticulture. 



Prof. Nordenskjold is to leave Gothenburg, on July 10, in 

 a steamer of 163 tons for another cruise to the mouth of the 

 Jenesei. He will sail up the river as far as Dudinko, when the 

 steamer will take merchandise on board and return to Norway, 

 the object of this expedition being to prove that there is a mari- 

 time route between Norway and the Siberian coast. We learn 

 from L' Explorateur, moreover, that a Russian steamer is to 

 leave the Jenesei and proceed to St. Petersburg by the Kara 

 Sea, the North Sea, and the Baltic. 



M. MARif: Davy, the Director of the Montsouris Observatory, 

 is to tiry whether Crookes's rotating radiometer can be utilised for 



actinometric purposes. No establishment is in a better position 

 to try the experiment, Montsouris being supplied with regular 

 actinometers, and special tables having been calculated for 

 regulating as far as possible, their daily use. 



It is announced that Sir Bartle Frere is to be made a 

 baronet. 



The Queen has conferred upon Lieut. Cameron — who was 

 presented to her Majesty last Friday — the honour of Companion 

 of the Bath, in recognition of his distinguished services in 

 Africa. 



At the Annual Meeting of the Royal Institution on Monday, 

 a piece of plate and a purse containing 300 guineas, were pre- 

 sented to Prof. Tyndall as a testimonial of congratulation on his 

 recent marriage. 



During the siege of Paris experiments were tried to make 

 use of the conductibility of the Seine in order to establish com- 

 munications with the outer world in spite of the Prussian 

 blockade. Paris, however, surrendered before the apparatus 

 had been arranged on the Upper Seine. This scheme has not 

 been totally abandoned, and M. Bourbouge a preparateur of the 

 Sorbonne has tried to establish the telegraph without wire. 

 According to M. Parville, the plan has succeeded at a small dis- 

 tance by expending a large quantity of electricity, not less than 

 forty elements being required to work a magnetic needle at a 

 distance of a quarter of a mile. The same experimenter is said 

 to collect spontaneous currents from the earth with large elec- 

 trodes. The interest of these experiments is unquestionable. 



From the * ' Annual Report upon the Survey of Northern and 

 North-western Lakes, in charge of C. B. Comstock, Brigadier- 

 General, U.S.A.," we learn that the triangulation has been 

 carried around the south end of Lake Michigan, and stations 

 have been located for its extension south and east toward Lake 

 Erie. On Lake Ontario the topc^raphy has been essentially 

 completed from the head of the Saint Lawrence along the south 

 shore. to within twenty miles of the Niagara River, and the off- 

 shore hydrography has made about the same progress. Trian- 

 gulation-stations have been located as far west as Erie, Pa,, and 

 have been built as far as the Niagara River. Charts of Lake 

 Saint Clair, and No. 2 of the Saint Lawrence River are com- 

 pleted. It is proposed during the present fiscal year to complete 

 the field-work of the survey of Lake Ontario and commence that 

 of Lake Erie. In the estimate of $184,000 for the survey of the 

 lakes for the next fiscal f.year, an item of $25,000 has been 

 included for the survey of the Mississippi River, No complete 

 and accurate survey of the river has ever been made. 



Part I., No. IV., for 1875, of the Journal of the Asiatic 

 Sociity tf Bengal, contains papers on the Angami Nagas and 

 their language, by Capt. J. Butler, on the Maiwar Bhils, by 

 Mr. T. H. Hendley, and specimens of popular songs of the 

 Hamirpur District, Bundelkund, by Mr. F. A. Smith. 



The fifth part of the Bulletin of the Bussey Institution of 

 Harvard University for 1876, completing vol. i., has just been 

 published, and contains a number of valuable papers, principally 

 by Pi of. Storer, Dr. Farlow, and Mr. Sargent. Dr. Farlow's 

 papers treat of the fungi found in the vicinity of Boston, of the 

 olive and orange trees of California, of the American grape-vine 

 mildew, and of the black knot. Mr, Sargent reports the addi- 

 tion of 165 species of trees and shrubs to the arboretum during 

 the past year, and that over 100,000 plants have been raised. 

 The papers of Prof. Storer, as usual, are of much scientific 

 value. 



On the loth of January last, Mr. Lancelot Studdert, LL.D., 

 read a paper before the Royal Irish Academy (since published 

 in the Froceedings of that learned body) on "The free and 



