July ^, 1889] 



NATURE 



229 



Walsingham, Prof. Flower, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, Admiral 

 Sir Erasmus Ommanney, Mr. GassioU, and Mr. Crisp. The 

 report of the Council shows that a most satisfactory amount of 

 work has been done at Plymouth since the Laboratory was 

 opened at the end of June last year. Studies on various matters 

 connected with the fishing industry are being carried on under 

 the instructions of the Council, the most important being the 

 study of the life-history of the common sole, by Mr. Cunningham, 

 and an investigation on the sense-organs of fishes, by Mr. 

 Bateson, which it is expected will throw new light on the bait 

 question. Other naturalists, among whom Mr. Weldon may be 

 specially mentioned, have utilized the Laboratory for carrying on 

 independent biological researches, and much valuable work is 

 being done. The Director of the Laboratory (Mr. Bourne) 

 reports that the arrangements at the Laboratory are very 

 satisfactory, and that the arrangements for the circulation of sea- 

 water in the aquarium have worked well during the year. A 

 substantial increase has been made in the library, a complete 

 set of the Challenger publications, presented by the Lords 

 Commissioners of the Treasury, being the most noticeable 

 addition to its shelves. With one exception, the officers, Vice- 

 Presidents, and Council, are the same as last year. Mr. Crisp 

 has been compelled by increasing pressure of work to resign the 

 post of Hon. Treasurer, which he has held with so much profit 

 to the Association since its foundation. His place is taken by 

 Mr, E. L, Beckwith, formerly a Prime Warden of the Fish 

 mongers' Company, and Mr. Crisp retires to the Council z^zV^ 

 Mr. W. Caine, M.P, 



The Council of the Library Association has decided to hold 

 the twelfth annual meeting of the Society in London during the 

 second week in September. The Masters of the Bench of 

 Gray's Inn have placed their Hall, for the third time, at the 

 disposal of the Association. 



On the night of June 15, about 10 p.m., there was a shock of 

 earthquake, accompanied by a heavy subterranean rumbling, 

 in the villages around Lake Arreso, in Denmark. Windows 

 rattled and furniture oscillated, and in one place people ran out, 

 believing that a powder-mill had exploded. The sound seemed 

 to come from the east. 



On June 12, at n.i6 p.m., a brilliant orange-coloured meteor 

 was seen at Copenhagen. It radiated at t Leonis, moving 

 slowly towards /8 Virginis, where it burst into many frag- 

 ments. It was accompanied by a tail, pointed at the end, about 

 2° in length. 



In 1886 the Prince of Monaco, wishing to study the course 

 of the Gulf Stream, threw into it some copper flasks from the 

 Hirondelle. Three of these flasks have come ashore on the 

 south coast of Iceland, two near the O Mountains, in the Ran- 

 garvall district, and the third at Floj, in the Arnaes district. 



It appears that the meteoric stone found in Scania, and ac- 

 quired by Baron Nordenskiold for the National Museum at 

 Stockholm (p. 179), fell on April 6, and that its fall was accom- 

 panied by a red flash like lightning and a thunder-like detona- 

 tion. It weighs II kilogrammes, and had made a hole 30 

 centimetres in depth ; but, having recoiled, it lay on the level 

 ground at the edge of the hole. The colour is greyish-black, 

 and the fracture greyish-white. From a hasty analysis made by 

 Herr A. Wingdrdh, of Helsingborg, the chief mass appears 

 to consist of manganese, in which are yellow and grey 

 particles of metal. The meteorite seems to have been in a 

 red-hot state, being covered with a glazed coating of fused metal 

 half a millimetre in thickness. 



Through the efforts of Dr. Filip Trybom, the Swedish 

 Oyster-culture Society is attempting to acclimatize the American 



oyster, imported from Connecticut, in several places along the 

 coast of the province of Bohus. The young oysters seem to 

 thrive well. 



The Norwegian cod-fishery in Finmarken this spring has 

 been above the average, viz, 16,000,000 fish, against 9,000,000 

 last year. In Lofoten the fishery was a good average one, 

 yielding 20,000,000 fish. Here the shoals congregated off the 

 fishing-bank, in deep water, some five to ten miles from the 

 shore. 



On both sides of the Josen Fjord, on the west coast of Nor- 

 way, mountains rise perpendicularly to a height of several 

 thousand feet. One morning, some days ago, stones and rocks, 

 some of which are said to have been as large as a house, began 

 to fall on the western side of the fjord. The avalanche con- 

 tinued for over two hours, accompanied by a noise heard 10 

 miles distant. A black cloud settled over the fjord, the water 

 of which was in terrible commotion for many hours. 



At a recent meeting of the Scientific Society of Copenhagen, 

 Prof. Steenstrup gave an account of the results 'of his examina- 

 tion, last year, of the great mammoth deposit at Predmost, in 

 Moravia. Dr. Wankel and Prof. Maschka, who have devoted 

 much attention to the subject, are of opinion that the mammoths 

 whose remains are found in this district were killed by man, and 

 that their bodies were dragged thither to be eaten. Prof. Steen- 

 strup, on the contrary, holds that the mammoths themselves 

 sought the locality, and that they must have died from want of 

 water, or from some other cause with which man had nothing to 

 do. The splits in the remains are due, he thinks, to the action of 

 water and sand, and afford no support to the notion that the 

 knuckles were cleft for the sake of the marrow. It is certain 

 that some of the bones have been exposed to the action of fire ; 

 but Prof. Steenstrup maintains that the traces of fire may be 

 due to the fact that fires were at one time lighted upon them. 

 On some of them, decorative lines have been scratched, but 

 these may have been made long after the mammoth was extinct 

 in Moravia. The lines, according to Prof. Steenstrup, are 

 identical with the ornamentation of pottery of the Neolithic 

 Age. 



Mr, Bosworth-Smith, in a report on the Kolar Gold Field, 

 in Southern India, issued by the Madras Government, records 

 some "finds" of old mining implements, old timbering, frag- 

 ments of bones, an old oil lamp, and broken pieces of earthen- 

 ware, including a crucible, the remains of ancient mining 

 operations. He expresses astonishment at the fact that the old 

 miners were able to reach depths of 200 or 300 feet through 

 hard rock, with the simple appliances at their command ; and 

 he describes the method which he thinks they pursued, sinking 

 pits at short distances from each other, and leaving a "bar" 

 between to prevent falling in, 



Herr Richard Andree has issued a new series of 

 his ethnographical parallels and comparisons. Ten years 

 ago the first series appeared, and now, as then, the system 

 pursued is to select a particular topic and then range over the 

 whole literature of ethnology in search of references to the par- 

 ticular subject and collate them, until, finally, an ethnological 

 monograph on the topic in question is produced. This method 

 of work is of course exceedingly laborious, but it has the merit 

 of being exhaustive and effective. Single subjects are thus worked 

 out, and the results published in some scientific periodical ; as 

 soon as one is concluded another is taken up, and so on. By 

 and by material for a volume is accumulated, the various sub- 

 jects are brought up to date, and the public gets a work on 

 ethnology, conceived on a novel plan, and full of interest. Each 

 topic is pursued all over the earth, from country to country, with 

 marvellous industry. The present volume deals with such topics as 



