February 24, 1898] 



NATURE 



;97 



B. A. Fedchenko, for a communication on the Talas Alatau ; 

 Timonoff, for a paper on the water-communications on the 

 tributaries of the Amur ; Sapozhnikoff, for work on the glaciers 

 of the Altai ; Kovanko and Semkovskiy, for the organisation 

 of international balloon ascensions in which the Society took a 

 part ; and to Prince Obolensky, Tomilovskiy and Utyesheff, for 

 their daily observations upon the motion of the clouds. 



Mr. Leonhard Stejneger, of the U.S. National Museum, 

 paid another visit to the Russian Fur-seal Islands (Commander 

 Islands) in the Northern Pacific, last year, by order of the U. S. 

 Government, and has just issued his report (Treasury De- 

 partment, Document No. 1997). The examination of the 

 "Rookeries" was made mostly in company with one of the 

 British Commissioners, Mr. Barrett- Hamilton, and appears to 

 have been a work of some difficulty and danger, owing to the 

 wild weather generally prevalent, and the utter absence of 

 means of communication. Mr. Stejneger's general conclusions 

 demonstrate "a very great decrease in the breeding females " of 

 the Fur-seals since 1895, when he made his last official report 

 (U.S. Fish-Commission, Bulletin for 1896, Article i). He also 

 alleges " great mortality in the pups, due to starvation." He 

 comes finally to the conclusion that a zapuska, or total pro- 

 hibition of killing seals on land for a period of years (which he 

 formerly advocated), would be rather an injury than a help to the 

 seal-herds, as it would ' ' increase the number of superfluous bulls. " 



Since he succeeded Sir Harry Johnston as Commissioner 

 and Consul-General of Nyasaland, Mr. Alfred Sharpe has not 

 ceased in the good work carried on so long by his former chief, 

 of collecting and sending home examples of the fauna and flora 

 of that Protectorate. Mr. Sharpe is now on his way home on 

 leave, much impaired in health, we regret to say, from his long 

 stay in the tropics, but brings more collections with him. A 

 memoir, by Mr. Thomas, on the mammals procured by Mr. 

 Sharpe, will appear in the next part of the Zoological Society's 

 Proceedings, and Captain Shelley is at work on the birds 

 obtained by this energetic administrator. 



The colonial report on " Cocos-keeling and Christmas 

 Islands," 1897 (c. -8650-14) contains a few useful natural history 

 and other notes. A small brilliant red crab is frequently seen 

 up the hills, running in and out of holes or from under stones. 

 Once a year, in the month of December or January, the male 

 and female travel down to the sea margin, where the female 

 deposits her eggs, and the parents again return. They take 

 fifteen days going and fifteen days returning, and travel in bodies 

 like ants. After the eggs are hatched, the young, when big 

 enough, move up the hill. Darwin doubted whether the crab 

 climbed trees ; but it is now a well-ascertained fact, though the 

 purpose is still unknown. Both Mr. Forbes and the reports 

 of H.M.S. Challenger AG%CT\\i^ the white tern or noddy as a 

 beautiful bird with black eyes ; but no mention is made of the 

 beautiful purple-blue of the beak up to the nostril, the feet and 

 the tarsus. This is probably due to the fact that two or three 

 hours after the birds are shot the colour of the beak and feet die 

 away. A short description of three native dances is also given. 



Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S., contributes to the Zoologist 2in 

 illustrated article upon zebra-horse hybrids. His experiments 

 prove that it is a comparatively simple matter to cross various 

 breeds of mares with a Burchell Zebra, and, if experts are to 

 be trusted, the hybrids promise to be as useful and hardy as 

 they are shapely and attractive. The preliminary difficulties 

 having been overcome, Prof. Ewart points out that it remains 

 for those in authority to take such steps as may be necessary 

 to ascertain of what special use, if any, zebra hybrids may be 

 in the various parts of the Empire, but more especially in 

 Africa and India. 



NO. 1478, VOL. 57] 



A SNOWSTORM of considerable severity occurred over the 

 south-western districts of England during Monday night, the 

 snow gathering to a considerable depth in places, and causing 

 much inconvenience and delay to ordinary traffic. In parts of 

 Devon, Somerset and Dorset, the drifts were several feet deep. 

 At Hurst Castle, Hants, a reporting station of the Meteorological 

 Office, the melted snow and sleet measured I "6 inches of water. 

 Thunder and lightning were also experienced during the storm. 

 This disturbed weather was occasioned by the arrival of a shallow 

 cyclonic area over the south-western portion of our islands, 

 which lingered in those parts during Monday and Tuesday. 



The U.S. Monthly Weather Review for November last con- 

 tains an account of the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary 

 of the establishment of the Royal Meteorological Institute in 

 Berlin, on October 16, 1897. The jubilee festivities were 

 divided into three parts : an address in the Memorial Hall of 

 the Royal Geodetic Institute, an inspection of the magnetic and 

 meteorological observatories of the Institute, and a banquet. 

 The high recognition given in Germany to meteorological 

 science was evidenced by the presence of the Emperor and 

 Empress, who were accompanied by a brilliant retinue, and 

 listened to the address of Dr. v. Bezold, the Director, who 

 sketched the activity of the institution during the whole period 

 of its existence. At the present time the organisation consists 

 of 188 stations for regular observations, 1336 thunderstorm 

 stations, and 1844 rainfall stations. Various experimental in- 

 vestigations are conducted at the Potsdam Observatory, and, 

 owing to the generosity of the Emperor, scientific balloon 

 ascents on a large scale are occasionally made for the study of 

 the physics of the upper air. At the close of the address, the 

 Minister of Education announced certain decorations to be 

 given in connection with the celebration. The great gold 

 medal in science was presented to Dr. v. Bezold, and Orders 

 of the Crown or of the Red Eagle were presented to Dr. Hell- 

 mann. Dr. Sprung, Dr. Vogel, and to Herr Treitschke, pro- 

 prietor of the observatory on the Inselsberg, near Erfurt, and to 

 various other scientific men. Numerous addresses and telegrams 

 of congratulation were received from all parts, including one 

 from the Grand Duke Constantine, on the part of the Imperial 

 Russian Academy of Sciences. 



In his "Twelfth and Concluding Memoir on the Theory of 

 Screws," published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish 

 Academy, Sir Robert Ball completes the solution of a problem 

 which has for the past five-and -twenty years been associated with 

 his name. A feature of his paper is the series of summaries of 

 this and the eleven preceding memoirs, and we feel that we can 

 do no better than quote in his own words Sir Robert Ball's 

 summary of his latest investigation : "At last I succeeded in 

 accomplishing what I had attempted from the first. I could not 

 develop the complete theory, which I felt certain must exist, 

 until I had obtained a geometrical method for finding the 

 instantaneous screw from the impulsive screw. When this was 

 accomplished in the midsummer of 1897, the geometrical theory 

 in Dynamics, which I had striven for a quarter of a century to 

 obtain, was at last manifest. How my difficulties were overcome 

 has been set forth in this Memoir. There are, no doubt, many 

 other questions that would repay investigation at almost every 

 stage of the subject. But the problem which I had proposed to 

 myself so many years ago, and which I have steadily kept in view 

 ever since, having been at last resolved, I have felt that this 

 series of papers should cease. " 



Mr. E. Charles Horrell, writing in iht Journal of Botany 

 for February, invites the co-operation of bryologists in working 

 out the comital distribution of British mosses in the way that the 

 distribution of flowering plants was done by Watson. With the 

 object of seeing how far the lists of mosses already published 



