178 



NATURE 



[December 8, 19 lo 



Among the plants observed by Mr. Audas about an altitude 

 of 5000 feet were the shrubs Eriostemon niyoporoidcs, 

 Helichrysum rosmarinifolium, and Kunzea Muelleri ; near 

 the summit of Mt. Hotham he found the grass-like 

 umbellifer, Aciphylla glacialis, and a tufted carophvll, 

 Scleranthus biflorus. 



Mr. E. p. Stebbing presents in Forest Pamphlet No. 15, 

 published by the Government of India, a note on the 

 preservation of bamboos from the attacks of the bamboo 

 beetle or " shot-borer." The destructiveness of this insect, 

 Dinoderus minuhis, may be gauged from the fact that 

 bamboos generally last in India only for a year or eighteen 

 months. Cooperation between the author and the Indian 

 Telegraph Department has resulted in the evolution of an 

 •'ffectual method of treatment, which consists in soaking 

 the bamboos for five days in water, when they exude a 

 gelatinous substance, and then immersing in Rangoon 

 oil for forty-eight hours. The object of the bulletin is to 

 record the e.xperiments undertaken and the results, show- 

 ing that the oil has effectually preserved bamboos treated 

 in 1904 up to the time of writing in 1909. 



The Agricultural Journal of British East Africa, recently 

 to hand (vol. iii., part i.), contains a short article by Dr. 

 Bodeker on native methods of fishing in relation to the 

 incidence and dissemination of sleeping sickness. Fish- 

 ing is attended with grave danger to all natives in the 

 vicinity wherever Glossina palpalis is found. Several dis- 

 tricts where formerly a large population of fishermen dwelt 

 are now uninhabited as a result of the disease. Among 

 remedial measures, the destruction of the thin strip of 

 bamboo canes along the whole coast-line is recommended. 

 In another article Mr. MacDonald urges the advantages 

 of maize as a crop for export. It can be grown readily 

 and at comparatively low cost over a large area of the 

 country, and, so far, it has not been infested by any 

 seriously destructive pest. Railway rates to the coast 

 being now much reduced, it becomes possible to send the 

 maize to Great Britain or to the Continent, where the 

 demand is practically unlimited. 



A TABLE is given in a recent issue of the Journal of 

 Agriculture of South Australia (vol. xiv., No. i) showing 

 how the use of fertilisers for cereals has increased during 

 the past thirteen years. From 1898, the first year given 

 in the table, to the current year the increase has been 

 continuous ; some of the figures are as follows : — 



Quantity of Area of cereal 



•ear manure used crop manured 



Tons Acres 



1898 12,500 250,000 



i8q9 16.500 350-000 



I0O7 61,000 I 366,400 



1908 6s,ooo 1,456,000 



1909 76,500 2,100000 



1910 87,000 2,320,000 



A few soil analyses are recorded in another article, from 

 which it appears that the soils are very different from our 

 own. The nitrogen varied from 0-026 to 0-091 per cent., 

 the phosphoric acid from o-oio to 0-045 P^r cent., and the 

 potash from 0-044 to 0-82 per cent. All these values are 

 much lower than in ordinary English arable soils. 



The Natal Museum has issued a catalogue of a collec- 

 tion of rocks and minerals from Natal and Zululand 

 arranged stratigraphically by Dr. F. H. Hatch. The 

 specimens were collected by Dr. Hatch during the winter 

 months of 1909. Beginning with the oldest rocks, the 

 order of arrangement is : — (i) metamorphic rocks, Swazi- 

 land system ; (2) granites intrusive in the metamorphic 

 rocks of the Swaziland system; (3) Waterberg or Table 

 NO. 2145, VOL. 85] 



Mountain sandstone; (4) rocks of the Karroo system; 

 (5) surface deposits. The collection of specimens is -i 

 duplicate of one which Dr. Hatch proposes to present to a 

 London museum. 



In a paragraph upon the recently discovered ice-cav< 

 near Obertraun, Upper Austria, which appeared in 

 Nature of October 13 (p. 469), Prof. E. Fugger was 

 described as one of the explorers of the cave. Prof. Fuggi 1 

 asks us to state that he has not yet personally exaniind 

 the cave, and that the information he kindly sent at our 

 request was provided by Herr Alexander von Mork, who 

 took part in the exploration of it. The discoverers and 

 first explorers of the cave were, according to reports in the 

 Linz newspapers, Herren J. Lahner and Kling (Linz), 

 J. Pollak (Wels), I. Bock (Graz), A. v. Mork (Salzburg), 

 and L. Kranl (Budapest). 



Messrs. Outes and Bucking have added notably to the 

 discussion of the tierras cocidas of the Pampas beds of 

 Argentina by publishing photographs of thin sections of 

 the debatable materials (" Sur la structure des scories et 

 ' terres cuites,' " Revista del Museo de la Plata, vol. 

 xvii., p. 78, September). Scoriae are figured from Mont*' 

 Hermoso which are undoubtedly of volcanic origin. 

 These are contrasted with the fragmental earths, which 

 contain, however, volcanic particles. When these earths 

 are subjected to the action of fire, they show fluidal struc- 

 tures and a glassy ground between the surviving fr;i^ 

 ments, and certainly do not resemble the alle^ 

 "terres cuites" selected for comparison. True burni 

 earths are formed during agricultural operations near L:i 

 Plata when the settlers wish to clear their ground by 

 burning the surface-vegetation, and these are of the glas>y 

 type. It is urged, therefore, that the andesitic scori.i? 

 which occur in the earths of the Pampas beds cannot be 

 regarded as products of superficial burning. The petro- 

 graphic argument is immensely strengthened by the 

 illustrations, and their production, if we may judge from 

 a quotation made by the authors, seems due to certain 

 remarks published in Nature in 1909 (vol. Ixxxi., p. 535). 



In the September Bulletin of the American Geographical 

 Society, under the title of " Notes on the Description of 

 Land Forms.— I.," Prof. W. M. Davis returns to his 

 attack on the " empirical " method of description in a 

 criticism of three recent geographical papers (German, j 

 Italian, and English). He urges that it is " ultra-con- 

 servative " to adhere to the empirical method wlien " the 

 whole trend of modern physical geography is toward the 

 use of explanatory description." It may be replied, how- ' 

 ever, that while the new " terms of origin " can be some- 

 times used with good effect by a physiographer of Prof. 

 Davis's experience and confidence, they might be more 

 misleading than any empirical description if employed 

 wrongly or applied without sufficient warrant. It is not 

 every traveller who could be trusted with the use of 

 "mature insequent ravines," &c., as desired by Prof. ( 

 Davis in his " Notes." 



The November issue of the National Geograpl 

 Magazine contains thirty-nine photographs in colour, \yh; 

 is the largest number of coloured pictures ever publisii 

 in a single number of the magazine. These illustratu ; 

 all deal with life and scenes in Korea and China, :i 

 together provide an excellent means of picturing the hab 

 and customs of these Eastern peoples. The article whi 

 is illustrated by these pictures is by Mr. William ^' 

 Chaplin, who shows an intimate acquaintance with \- 

 countries he descri;)es, and he also took the photograph- 



