December 9, 1897] 



NATURE 



^ZZ 



results of the Nansen and the Jackson- Harmsworth ex- 

 peditions were available as a guide to further work, but 

 he had no intention of abandoning his endeavour to 

 attain a high latitude on the American side. This summer 

 he visited Cape York in a whaler, and succeeded in 

 taking on board and transporting safely to New York 

 a vast mass of nickel-iron weighing about loo tons. 

 This block is reputed by the Eskimo to have fallen from 

 heaven, and it bears all the external appearance of a 

 meteorite, while it shows the characteristic Widmann- 

 statten figures when the surface of the polished metal is 

 etched with nitric acid. The transport of the block was 

 a brilliant engineering feat, as the only means available 

 for getting it brought on board and lowered into the hold 

 were hydraulic jacks and timber stagings. We under- 

 stand that the great meteorite is still the property of Mr. 

 Peary, and has not yet been acquired by any museum. 

 It is not to be confounded with the masses of telluric 

 iron described by Baron Nordenskiold. 



Mr. Peary's description of the inland ice was extremely 

 graphic, and illustrated by a superb series of coloured 

 slides, prepared from photographs selected from his 

 collection of over 4000. The movement of the surface 

 he believes to be due as much to the drift of snow by the 

 wind as to the discharge of glaciers, summer melt- 

 ing and evaporation taken together. The snow-dunes in 

 parts convert the inland ice into a veritable Arctic Sahara. 

 In addition to collections of the restricted but brilliant 

 flora of the ribbon of land freed from snow in summer 

 along the coast of Greenland, much valuable scientific 

 work was done. Ethnology is the branch of science 

 which has perhaps been most advanced. The Northern 

 Eskimo, the Arctic Highlanders of Sir John Ross, have 

 been most thoroughly studied and photographed. The 

 entire tribe numbers some 250 individuals, every one of 

 whom is personally known to Mr. Peary. They have 

 lived quite untouched by civilisation, and free even from 

 communication with the Southern Eskimo. They are of 

 good physique and, while far from attractive in appear- 

 ance or customs, they possess many good qualities. 



Mr. Peary, as the result of his experience of these 

 people and of the conditions of Arctic travel, has formu- 

 lated a scheme of progressive exploration which he will 

 put into practice next year. Equipped by funds that 

 are already provided, he proposes to take a ship up to 

 Sherard Osborn Fjord in latitude 82°, taking two other 

 white men and a picked group of eight or ten Eskimo 

 with all their belongings. They will send the ship 

 back and form a camp, advance by the autumn moon- 

 light along the coast, and winter as far north as possible. 

 In the following year the northward march would be 

 resumed until the furthest point of land was reached. 

 This he hopes to find in 85°, if not even further north. 

 From the camp at that point as a base a rapid journey 

 must be attempted over the sea ice to the pole and back, 

 leaving most of the Eskimo behind. If the first year 

 did not afford an opportunity the next year might, or at 

 least the third. Mr. Peary's principle is to wait for favour- 

 able conditions, and he is prepared to remain at his most 

 northerly camp five years if necessary. In the course 

 of that time he believes that a door to the pole will open, 

 or can be pushed open. This principle has always been 

 approved by the leading Arctic men, and recent ex- 

 perience has amply confirmed the importance of not 

 struggling against obstacles when it is possible, by skill 

 or patience, to take advantage of natural aids. 



Mr. Peary's project has in it nothing sensational ; he 

 holds no prospect of startling discovery before the 

 public ; and the fact that his expedition is already pro- 

 vided for, obviates any necessity for making an appeal 

 for financial support. The enthusiastic character of his 

 reception by a large and deeply interested audience can 

 only be paralleled in recent years by the greeting 

 accorded to Dr. Nansen. 



NO. 1467, VOL. 57] 



NOTES. 

 It has been decided that the statue of Lavoisier, for which in- 

 ternational contributions have been subscribed, shall be erected 

 on the Place de la Madeleine, Paris. The Municipal Council 

 of Paris have sanctioned this site. 



M. DiTTE, professor of chemistry at the Sorbonne, has 

 been elected a member of the Section of Chemistry of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences, in succession to the late M. 

 Schiitzenberger. 



Prof. F. R. Japp, F.R.S., will deliver the Kekule Memorial 

 Lecture at the Chemical Society next Wednesday evening, 

 December 15. 



At the next meeting of the Royal Photographic Society on 

 Tuesday, December 14, Prof. Gabriel Lippmann will read a 

 paper on " Colour Photography." The meeting will not be held 

 in the usual rooms at Hanover Square, arrangements having 

 been made for it to take place in the theatre of the Society 

 of Arts ; a large gathering is anticipated. Non-members of 

 the Royal Photographic Society will require admission tickets, 

 which can be obtained on application to the Secretary at 

 12 Hanover Square. 



We regret to see the announcement that Prof. Winnecke, the 

 distinguished astronomer, died on Friday last at Bonn. 



Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, High Commissioner 

 for Canada, will preside at Prof. Roberts- Austen's lecture on 

 "Canada's Metals" at the Imperial Institute next Monday 

 evening (December 13). The lecture, which will be fully 

 illustrated by experiments, is open to the public, without tickets. 



It has been resolved to hold an international fisheries 

 exhibition in Aberdeen in the summer of 1899. 



A SKELETON of the moa was sold at Mr. J. C. Stevens' 

 auction rooms. on Tuesday, the price reached being forty-eight 

 guineas. The bird was set up by Captain F. W. Hutton, F. R.S. , 

 from bones obtained at Enfield, New Zealand. The deposits in 

 which these Diornis remains were found was described by Dr. 

 H. O. Forbes in Nature of March 3, 1892 (vol. xlv. p. 416). 



A general meeting of the Aeronautical Society of Great 

 Britain will be held on Thursday, December 16, at 8 p.m., at 

 the Society of Arts, John Street, Adelphi, W.C. Major-General 

 Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., K.C.B,, will occupy the chair. 

 The following gentlemen and others have kindly arranged to 

 exhibit apparatus : — Mr. Pilcher, a soaring machine and an oil 

 engine ; Major Moore, a model flying machine ; Mr. E. S. Bruce, 

 balloon signalling apparatus ; Captain Baden- Powell, kites and 

 a gliding machine ; the Society, cinematograph of flying birds. 



When a large number of crickets are chirping at night in a 

 field, they do so synchronously, keeping time as if led by the 

 wand of a conductor. Prof. A. E. Dolbear says, in the American 

 Naturalist, that the rate of chirp seems to be entirely determined 

 by the temperature, and this to such a degree that the tempera- 

 ture can be estimated when the number of chirps per minute is 

 known. At a temperature of 60° F. the rate was found to be 

 80 per minute, and at 70° F. it was 120 a minute ; this gives a 

 change of four chirps per minute for each change of one degree. 



The following are among the lecture arrangements at the Royal 

 Institution before Easter : — Prof. Oliver Lodge, six Christmas 

 lectures (specially adapted for young people) on the principles of 

 the electric telegraph ; Prof. E. Ray Lankester, eleven lectures 

 on the simplest living things ; Prof. Dewar, three lectures on the 

 halogen group of elements ; Prof. J. A. Fleming, five lectures 

 on recent researches in magnetism and diamagnetism ; Prof. 



