Nov, 18, 1875 



NATURE 



53 



Jition, have shifted their ground to thejsouth, with the inten- 



llion of starting from the Loanda base, and making their way znd 



Cassange to the mysterious capital of Matiamno. The President 



[hen referred to Capt. Trotter's work on the Panjah River, and to 



the Russian scientific expedition to Ilissar, by which we are now 



able to construct a reliable map of the country between the 



"rper Oxus and Jaxartes. Sir Henry then spoke of New 



uinea, and of the failure of Macleay's expedition. D' Albertis 



as during the late spring and summer been occupied in natural 



r.istory researches on Yule Island, while the Rev. S. Macfarlane 



d Mr. Stone have discovered and ascended for a distance of 



ly miles a large river on the south coast of New Guinea. The 



er is from one to a quarter mile broad, and from three to 



elve fathoms deep, and might easily be made navigable for 



more than 100 miles. It is proposed to call it the Baxter 



l\iver. At the close of his address, the President observed that 



the next meeting the subject of the Victoria Nyanza will be 



.y gone into, and that the discussion on that subject had better 



refore be reserved until that occasion. Mr. W. L. Watts 



rerwards read a paper on his journey last summer across the 



\atnaJokull, Iceland. 



The Daily Telegraph of Monday contains Mr. Stanley's letter 

 ich was sent home by the unfortunate Col. Linant de Belle- 

 ijiids. It is dated " Mtesa's Capital, Uganda, April 12," and is 

 principally occupied with an account of Mr. Stanley's voyage 

 ^ round the southern, eastern, and north-eastern shores of the 

 ' Victorid Nyanza. His exploration has evidently been made with 

 I great care, and he has ascertained with considerable certainty that 

 ; Speke was right in regarding the Nyanza as only one lake. It is, 

 however, evidently thickly studded with islands,[and its coast 

 much broken up into bays and creeks by long promontories from 

 the land. Stanley was most hospitably received and magnificently 

 entertained by Mtesa, who, since Speke saw him, has, with his 

 people, turned Mahommedan. Stanley speaks of him with the 

 greatest respect, and believes that he might be made a most effec- 

 tive instrument for the civilisation of .the region surrounding his 

 capital. The Telegraph of Tuesday contains Mr. Stanley's map 

 of the Nyanza, neatly reproduced. 



Mr. James Stuart, Fellow 'of Trinity College, has been 

 elected Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics at Cam- 

 bridge University. 



We understand that the Council of the Scottish Meteorological 

 Society have resolved to commence an investigation into the 

 habits of the salmon. The point which is first to be investigated 

 is the question of the earliness or lateness of the difierent rivers, 

 and for this purpose they have entered into communication with 

 Mr. Archibald Young, Fisherj' Commissioner, at whose sugges- 

 tion various early and late rivers have been selected, and 

 arrangements have already now been made for carrying on the 

 necessary observations on the river Ugie, Aberdeenshire. 



We have received six large temperature and rain charts of the 

 United States, constructed by Mr. Charles A. Schott from 

 observations collected by the Smithsonian Institution, which 

 show by lines the distribution of temperature for every 4° from 

 56° to 76°, and of rainfall for every two or four inches during 

 summer, winter, and the year. The principle on which the 

 temperature charts have been constructed, and which was fully 

 described in Nature in reviewing the annual chart in the small 

 form in which it was first published, consists in representing 

 actual mean temperatures, uncorrected for elevation. The whole 

 form a set of six charts illustratire of the most prominent features 

 of the climatology of the United States, and are calculated to 

 prove of great utility in many practical matters. 



The Report of the Commission appointed by the Prussian 

 GovernmcDt for the scientific investigation of the Baltic and 

 North Sea, for 1873 and 1873, has just been published. The 



I Report (pp. 380), which is a very valuable one and well illus- 

 trated, contains discussions on the fisheries of the German coasts, 

 by Dr. V. Hensen ; and on the physical observations made at the 

 various stations of the Commission, by Dr. G. Karsten ; together 

 with interesting papers by Dr. H. A. Meyer, Dr. P. Magnus, 

 Dr. K. Mobius, and others, on the currents, temperature, and 

 specific gravicy of the sea, and on the botanical and geological 

 lesults of the expedition which was undertaken during the 

 summer of 1872 with the view of collecting data bearing on the 

 physics, chemistry, and biology of the North Sea. We hope to 

 examine this at length in an early number. 



Dr. Burmeister, Director of the National Museum of 

 Buenos Ayres, has in course of preparation a complete scientific 

 description of the Argentine Republic. The first volume, con- 

 taining the history and geography, is already in the press. The 

 second, containing the meteorology, physical geography, and 

 biology, is in preparation. The work is in German, but the 

 Argentine Government has undertaken a French translation 

 of it. 



Er. Burmeister has also nearly ready a description of a com- 

 plete skeleton of the Fossil Horse of Buenos Ayres {Hippidium 

 neo^aettm, Owen), of which but fragmentary portions have beea 

 previously known. 



An important work on the Zoology of Eastern Asia will 

 appear in Russia before the close of the current year. It will 

 comprise the results of the journey undertaken by Colonel 

 Przevalski in Western China, and it will include descriptions 

 of many new and interesting species. It is not improbable that 

 a translation will be published in English. 



We would draw the attention of our biological readers to Mr. 

 G. E. Dobson's valuable Conspectus of the sub-order, families, 

 and genera of Cheiroptera, arranged according to their natural 

 affinities, in the *' Annals and Magazine of Natural History" for 

 this month. 



We have received Prof. Cope's systematic catalogue of Verte- 

 brata of the Eocene of New Mexico collected in 1874, containing 

 the account of forty-seven species, of which twenty-four are 

 described for the first time. The genera Bathmodon and 

 Uiiitatherium are placed in a new order — Amblipoda — by them- 

 selves, and the foot of the former is figured, with three phalanges 

 to the hallux, which is evidently inaccurate. 



We have also received a paper by Prof. O. C. Marsh, on the 

 Odoniornit/us, or birds with teeth, containing illustrations of 

 parts of Ichthyornis dispar and Hesperornis regalts. 



Mr. W. H. Dale, of the U. S. Coast Survey, hasjpublished 

 the results of his examination of Mount Saint EUas, Mount 

 Fairweather, and other peaks of the range which skirts the coast 

 of the narrow strip in the south of Alaska ; Mount St. Eiias, 

 however, really seems to be in British territory. Very various 

 heights have been given to the latter from La Perouse down- 

 wards, varying from I2,6(X) to 17,800 feet, the British Admi- 

 ralty Chart making it 14,970 feet. Mr. Dall, from many careful 

 observations, gives the height as 19,500 feet, with a possible error 

 either way of 400 feet. Mount Fairweather he gives as i5»SOO 

 feet ; Mount Crillon, 15,900 feet, with possible error of 500 feet; 

 Mount Cook, 16,000 feet ; Mount Vancouver, 13,100 feet ; and 

 Mount La Perouse, 11,300 feet, the last three being approxi- 

 mate. The names of Cook and Vancouver have been given by 

 Mr. Dall to two high peaks of the St Elias range to the south- 

 ward and eastward of St. Elias ; to a high peak near the sea, 

 at Icy Cape, he has given the name of La Perouse ; Mount 

 Crillon is to the south of Moimt Fairweather. The following 

 are the geological conclusions at which Mr. Dall arrives witti 

 regard to this^range : — That these Alps are, like the high Sierra 

 of California, mainly composed of crystalline rocks, and in their 



