442 



NATURE 



\Sept. J 4, 1876 



weather when the depth does not exceed 600 or 700 fathoms. 

 Ui)happily, in bad weather, the zoologists cannot study the 

 specimens found in a living state, the motion of the ship killing 

 the animals very soon. The Expedition arrived at Namsos 

 August 14, the scientific staff and the crew being much exhausted 

 by the perpetual bad weather. At Namsos we stayed till the 

 20th to rest. Meanwhile magnetical observations were made 

 on shore. On board, the bad weather entirely prohibited our 

 making any. 



After leaving Namsos, series of soundings every four miles 

 (nautical) were taken from the Folden-fjord, and due west. 

 First we found a hollow 200 fathoms deep, with a constant 

 temperature of 7° C, then a slightly inclined ridge, whose 

 highest point shoaled up to 56 fathoms, then came an incline 

 down to 120 to 150 fathoms, and after that a flat bottom at the 

 last-named depth. Over this flat the temperature was constantly 

 70 C. At last, about il o'clock on Monday the 21st, the depth 

 increased, the temperature decreased, and we found ice-cold 

 water in somewhat more than 300 fathoms depth. This was 

 100 nautical miles off the nearest coast and not very far from our 

 last deep-sea station, where the depth was 580 fathoms, tempe- 

 rature — l°'3. Such an extent of the Norwegian banks at this 

 place was not expected, but is very interesting. It now seems 

 probable that the boundary line of the ice-cold water runs from 

 a point 100 miles off the coast at Namsos up to Spitzbergen, 

 outside the Lofoden Islands, and this breadth of the bank ex- 

 plains the mild winter climate which Northern Norway enjoys. 

 As a series of soundings and temperatures showed the next day 

 in a line direct from west to east in the latitude of the mouth of 

 the Trondhjem-fjord, the boundary of the bank and of the ice- 

 cold water goes here and off Romsdal much nearer to the coast. 

 The water was at o" C. in 345 fathoms, and at the bottom 

 - i°i C. in 480 fathoms depth. On the bank inside there was 

 a temperature of 7°'3 on the bottom at 170 fathoms depth. On 

 the morning of the 23rd the Voringtu was outside the coast of 

 Romsdal, and in foggy weather got very near the dangerous 

 coast. Happily the fog lifted and a pilot came on board, who 

 took the ship into Molde. The next day the expedition was 

 sounding, trawling — with no result — and taking serial tempera- 

 tures in the Romsdal-fjord. The result was the same temperature 

 in the depth of the fjord as in the other deep fjords on the west 

 coast of Norway, viz., 6° '2. In the evening the expedition 

 arrived at Aalesund, where the ship in a very strong gale was 

 nearly driven ashore in the harbour. Happily the wind abated 

 and the chains held, so that the voyage could be continued the 

 next morning. 



On Saturday, August 26, the expedition returned to Bergen, 

 where the ship will be paid off. The members of the expedition 

 are all very well and look with much interest to the time when 

 they can commence to discuss their observations which, in spite 

 of the bad weather generally experienced this summer during the 

 cruise, are numerous and interesting. 



NOTES 



The Prussian Government has sent the following gentlemen 

 to examine thoroughly the special Loan Collection of Scientific 

 Apparatus, and to report on the objects exhibited : — From the 

 Ministiy of Commerce — Professors-Doctors Landolc, Aix-la- 

 Chafe.le; Krant, Hanover; Liebermani-, Berlin; 'Wiillner, 

 Aix-la Chapelle ; von Quintus-Icilius, Hanover ; Gerland, 

 Cdisel ; Paalzovv, Beilin ; Helmert, Aix-la-Chapelle ; Stahl, 

 Aix-la-Chapelle ; Dorgens, Berlin. From the Ministry of Edu- 

 cation — Professors-Doctors Cronecker, Leipzig ; Abbe, Jena ; 

 Hensen, Kiel ; Karsten, Kiel ; Ilerr Appuun, Hanau ; Pro. 

 essors Doctors Kundt, Sirasburg ; Listing, Cottingen ; Cohn, 

 Breslau ; Lassaulx, Breslau ; Bruns, Berlin ; Lowenhorz, Berlin. 

 From the Ministry of Agriculture — Dr. Scheibler, Berlin. 



The annual meeting of the Ray Society was held in Glasgow 

 on Friday under the prciidency of Prof. Young. The secretary, 

 Rev. T. Wiltshire, submitted the report of the council, in which 

 they congratulate the members upon the progress of the Society. 

 With regard to the issue of the volumes, some unexpected delays, 

 chietly due to the lengthened period requisite for the careful 

 colouring of the plates, have hindered ihc appearance of the work 



for the year 1875. As, however, all the plates are at the present 

 moment coloured, and most of the text in type, it is certain that 

 the book will be published within a brief period. Originally it 

 was proposed that the volume for 1875 should comprise a de- 

 scription by Mr. G. B. Buckton of the whole of the British 

 Aphides. The plan suggested at the commencement has, from 

 the exigencies of the case, been somewhat defeated ; the re- 

 searches of Mr. Buckton have brought to light so many new 

 species that it seems probable that the Monograph will require 

 at least two, if not three, volumes of text and plates. The first 

 of these, containing forty coloured plates and the necessary intro- 

 duction, will form the publication for the year 1875. The suc- 

 ceeding parts are now being proceeded with, and will be ready 

 as soon as an opportunity offers for their issue. Since last 

 annual meeting Prof. Huxley had offered to prepare an introduc- 

 tion to the MS. of the Tunicata left by the late Mr. Hancock, 

 and Mr. Cameron had proposed a monograph on the British 

 Tenthredinidje. These have been accepted, and will be com- 

 menced with all possible speed. On account of the changing 

 location of the British Association, the Council propose that for 

 the future the annual meetings be held in London within 

 three months of Lady-day. It was recommended that the fol- 

 lowing names be added to the Council : — Prof. Bentley, Sir A. 

 Brady, Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys, and Mr. Hudson. The statement of 

 accounts showed that there was a balance in favour of the Society 

 of £,^S^ i8j. lut. On the motion of Prof. Balfour, the report 

 was adopted. Votes of thanks were subsequently passed to the 

 retiring members of Council and to Prof. Young for presiding, 

 and the meeting separated. 



A GENERAL meeting of the Mineralogical Society of Great 

 Britain and Ireland was held in the Natural History Class Room 

 of the Glasgow University on Wednesday, Sept. 6. The chair 

 was taken by Prof. M, Forster Heddle, M.D., in the absence of 

 the president, Mr. H. C. Sorby, and there was a large attend- 

 ance. The chairman delivered an address on " Scotch Minerals, 

 how and where to find them." This was followed by the read- 

 ing of a paper by the president " On the Critical Point in the 

 Consolidation of Granite." Prof. Haughton, of Trinity College, 

 Dublin, then followed with an address on a new principle in the 

 consolidation of porphjritic rocks, which he proposed to call 

 " the principle of least paste." Some discussion of this principle 

 and of Mr. Sorby's paper then took place, in which Prof. Ilark- 

 ness and Dr. Bryce joined. The following papers were after- 

 wards read : — "On a Mineral from New South Wales, presumed 

 to be Laumontite," by Prof. A. Liveroidge ; " Notes on an Old 

 Catalogue of Minerals," by Prof. A. H. Church; "On the 

 Occurrence of Achroite at Rock Hill, in the Parish of St. 

 Austell, Cornwall, and on the Black Tourmaline of the same 

 Locality," by J. H. Collins. 



The Oriental Congress, which met at St. Petersburg during 

 the first ten days of the present month has been doing much 

 good work in its own department. Many papers have been 

 read, most of them connected with Russian, or at least Asiatic 

 Russian, ethnology and archaeology. The members of the 

 Congress have been heartily welcomed and well treated at the 

 Russian capital, and among those who have enrolled themselves 

 members is the ubiquitous Emperor of Brazil. Among the 

 papers read was an important one on the " Caucasian Race," by 

 Prof Gregorief, in which he pointed out the accidental origin 

 and the unsuitability of the term, and endeavoured to trace 

 the origin and migrations of the race indicated. He showed 

 that even at the present day many Aryans are to be found 

 in Central Asia. Mr. Berger made a communication on 

 many of the ethnographical objects belonging to the Cau- 

 casian Department of the Congress's Exhibition. Another 

 paper on the Aryan Race was by the Rev. Mr, Long, of 

 Calcutta, and Prof. Oppert remarked on the Asia'.ic tongues 



