JAXU.\RY 5, 191 l] 



NATURE 



15 



ipear to have been most inefficiently conducted, and 

 ;ach valuable material has been destroyed. It may be 

 iped that the Spanish Government will now arrange for 



scientific examination of a site which is likely to 

 .-upply much information on a little known chapter of the 



I history of Moorish art. 



\ Mr. D. C.\RRt.THERS, in conjunction with Mr. J. H. 

 il Miller and Mr. M. P. Price, left England in March last 

 ith the object of exploring zoologically, botanically, and, 

 . far as possible, geographically, the upper part of the 

 ,sin of the Yenesei and the western frontier of Mongolia. 

 he expedition started in May from Minusinsk, on the 

 nesei, up to which point that river is navigable, and 

 ally reached Kuldja on November 14, in the Hi valley 

 the Tian-shan range, having successfully accomplished 

 •^ journey along western Mongolia. A preliminan,- 

 count was given in the Times of December 30, 1910, 

 om which it appears that the expedition had first to 

 averse a belt of virgin forest, which extends in this 

 ^ion from the Yenesei to the Baikal lake, and then 

 :?sed over a range 5000 to 7000 feet high into an upper 

 sin of the Yenisei. This basin was inhabited thinly by 

 ibes of Finno-Tartar stock, who reside partly in the 

 •rest and partly on the more open country of larch groves 

 :d pasture land. The forest people are occupied in hunt- 

 g and herding their domesticated reindeer, of which tw-o 

 eeds were met with. Wild reindeer were also found to 

 cur on the higher parts of the hill ranges above the 

 rests. The western part of the basin was found to be 

 ore arid than the forest-clad eastern portion, and in it 

 e inhabitants lived in felt tents. Everywhere signs 

 : ounded of former settlements and of an earlier and more 

 Ivanced civilisation, and evidence seemed to point to an 

 creasing desiccation of the region having been the prin- 

 pal cause of its desiccation here as in other parts of 

 ntral Asia. In passing south to Kuldja on the approach 

 : the winter season across the basin of the Upper Irtish, 

 ist deposits of fine mud now being eroded by the hill- 

 reams were met with, and it is suggested that these 

 ere deposited in comparatively recent times, when there 

 xisted a vast inland sea covering all the river basins of 

 this region, and of which the lakes Balkash, Ala-Kul, 

 1 Ebi-Nor, &-c., are the vestiges. The route for next season 

 nay be eastwards along the Tian-shan range to the 

 estern margin of the Gobi desert. 



It has been long known that there is a considerable 



-d of low-grade iron ore in the Jurassic rocks of some 



f the western isles of Scotland, and especially in Raasay. 



he "deposit there has been described by Mr. H. B. Wood- 



ard in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, and 



alyses published by him showed that the ore agrees in 



. neral character, as well as in geological horizon, with 



le Cleveland ores of Yorkshire. The deposit in Raasay, 



n island off the north-eastern coast of Skye, covers an 



rea of some 28 square miles. Prospecting work on the 



-posit has been conducted for some time past by Messrs. 



Am. Baird and Co., of Glasgow, and it is now announced 



.at they have secured an option for the purchase of the 



land, and that they propose to erect blast furnaces there 



r the smelting of the ore. The extension of the ore bed 



1 Skye has also been examined, but with less promising 

 esults. The Raasay ore is of low grade, but its position 

 Hows of inexpensive mining. The ore will be used for 

 le production of foundry pig iron. 



Some particulars of the proposed work of the German 



Antarctic Expedition are given by the Berlin correspondent 



r the limes in the issue for January 4. We learn from 



NO. 2149, VOL. 85] 



this source that the Antarctic expedition, under the com- 

 mand of Lieut. Filchner, will leave Germany early this 

 year for Buenos Aires, and will proceed from there at the 

 beginning of October via South Georgia and the Sand- 

 wich Islands to the Weddell Sea. On arrival in the 

 Weddell Sea it is proposed to establish a base station on 

 the eastern coast so far south as possible, with the neces- 

 sary equipment for a year's research. A party of ten 

 men will be landed, of whom six — a geologist, a meteor- 

 ologist, an astronomer, a doctor who is also a bioI<^ist, 

 a co(^, and a sailor — will stay in the station, while the 

 remaining four will undertake a long sledge expedition 

 into the interior of the South Polar continent. Meanwhile 

 the ship will return to the Atlantic Ocean to carry out 

 coastal observations and oceanographical work. At a 

 meeting held on January- 3 in the building of the General 

 Staff, with Prince Henn>- of Prussia in the chair, the 

 treasurer of the committee which is arranging for the 

 expedition announced that a sum of about 41,250^. is in 

 hand. The cost of the vessel and equipment have 

 amounted to 14,500/., and the total cost of the expedition 

 is estimated at 70,060/. A lottery has been authorised by 

 the Federal Council, and is expected to produce not less 

 than 27,000/. 



The expedition of the British Ornithologists' Union to 

 Netherlands New Guinea, continues to labour under 

 extreme difficulties, and the experiences of its members 

 confirms the opinion that New Guinea is one of the most 

 difficult places in which to travel. The jungle which the 

 expedition has encountered is almost impenetrable, and is 

 described as " dismal, dark, dripping," abounding with 

 noxious insects and leeches. The strain and illness have 

 so told on Mr. Goodfellow, the leader, that he has had 

 to return home. Earlier accounts stated that ver\- short 

 people had been met with ; the last account describes a 

 true pygmy race inhabiting " the foot-hills of the moun- 

 tains. These shy and treacherous pygmies, who average 

 4 feet 6 inches to 4 feet 8 inches in height, wander ov^ 

 the heavy jungle-clad hills and mountains, subsisting on 

 roots and jungle produce, hunting the wallaby, pig, and 

 cassowary, and fishing in the mountain torrents. They 

 dwell in the rudest kind of lean-to huts made of branches 

 and fan palms, with no regular villages, but moving from 

 district to district in search of food. The only metal toot 

 they possessed was a small wedge-shaped piece of iron, 

 I inch by 2 inches, inserted into a wooden handle, and 

 answering the purpose of an axe, and with this a whole 

 2o-acre clearing had been made. None but those who 

 have worked and toiled in this dense jungle can really 

 appreciate the perseverance and patience necessary to 

 accomplish this, for many of the trees are from 12 to 15 

 feet in circumference. This piece of iron was traded up 

 from the coast natives." 



On Tuesday, December 20, 1910, in a paper read before 

 the Royal Colonial Institute on the birds of our colonies 

 and their protection, Mr. James Buckland brought a 

 further heavy indictment against the plume-hunter and his 

 trade in our colonies and dependencies, and a powerful 

 appeal in favour of the prohibition of the import of 

 trade feathers. In Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, 

 India, and the West Indies, the most beautiful members 

 of their avifauna are apparently being so ruthlessly 

 destroyed as to make it no difficult matter to predict their 

 comparatively early extinction. As an example of the 

 havoc wrought by these hunters, Mr. Buckland instances, 

 among many other battues, the slaughter on the island 

 of Losiansky, near Lysan, one of the bird-reservations 



