Feb. 13, 1879] 



NATURE 13 



349 



Australia, Dr. Krummel obtains the mean of 420 metres, 

 or o'0566 miles. The surface-ratio of land to water being 

 considered i : 2.75, the volume of all dry land above the sea- 

 level is inferred to be 140,086 cubic miles, and the volume 

 of the sea 3,138,000 cubic miles. Thus the ratio of the 

 volumes of land and water is i : 22*4 That is, the con- 

 tinents, so far as they are above the sea-level, might be 

 contained 22*4 times over in the sea-basin. Reckoning, 

 however, the mass of solid land from the level of the sea- 

 bottom, the former would be contained only 2*443 times 

 in the sea-space. Dr. Kriimmel also compares the 

 masses (taking recent data) ; he finds that of the sea 

 3,229,700 cubic miles, and that of the solid land 3,211,310 

 (a small diflference). If the specific gravity of the land 

 were raised merely from 2 "5 to 2-51432, we should thus 

 have perfect equilibrium. Such equilibrium is probably 

 the fact. 



News has been received from Moscow that Colonel 

 Grodekoff, of the Russian general staff, has returned to 

 that place from a somewhat venturesome expedition in 

 Central Asia, during which he travelled in European 

 clothes, and without any attempt at disguise. He was 

 accompanied by a Kirghiz and two Persians, and tra- 

 versed the northern part of Afghanistan, reaching Persia 

 by way of Herat. 



In connection with the Russian scheme for a railway 

 from Orenburg to Tashkent, it is stated that the Grand 

 Duke Nicholas is preparing a third expedition for 1879, 

 which is to set out in the end of March. After having 

 passed Tashkent and Samarkand, it will cross the Amu 

 and pursue its researches to the defile of Bamian, in 

 Afghanistan, in the direction of Kabul. The explorers will 

 then descend the Amu in a native boat, from the meridian 

 of Balkh to Khiva, for the purpose of investigating the 

 navigation of that river. From Khiva they will follow the 

 ancient bed of the river to its old mouth in the Caspian. 



Capt. Howgate has presented to the United States 

 Congress a supplementar)"- note on the advantages arising 

 from the creation of a polar colony on the border of the 

 great palaeocrystic ocean. The whaling interest is fast on 

 the decrease in the States ; the total value of imports being 

 only two million dollars instead of ten millions twenty 

 years ago. This deficit has been attributed by Agassiz 

 and other competent authorities to the whales taking 

 refuge in that almost inaccessible polar basin, to which, 

 by the creation of a civilised station at Lady Franklin 

 T5ay, access might be gained. 



The Conference on the civilisation of Africa held a 

 iaeeting recently at Brussels under the presidency of the 

 King of the Belgians. It is stated that Mr. Stanley, who 

 was present, "will be placed at the head of the approach- 

 ing Belgian Exploring Expedition to Africa." 



Petermaxx's Mittheilungen for Februarj- contains a 

 detailed account, with map, of Dr. Woeikofl's travels 

 through central and southern Japan in 1878. In connec- 

 tion with a narrative of the discovery of the island 

 Einsamkeit to the north-east of Novaya Zemlya is a map 

 of the island showing its configuration and relative posi- 

 tion. Prof. Hann contributes a short paper on the climate 

 at the Victoria Nyanza on the basis of data collected by 

 Dr. Emin Bey and the Rev. Mr. Wilson. 



The January number of the Bolletiiio of the Italian 

 Geographical Society contains a long letter from Lieut. 

 Bove, who accompanies Nordenskjold's expedition ; it 

 was written from the mouth of the Lena, and gives many 

 important details of observations made up to that point. 



The December Bulletin of the Paris Geographical 

 Society contains a valuable sketch of the work done in 

 Sumatra by the Dutch expedition, which started in the 

 beginning of 1877 under the late M. Santwoort, and of 

 which we have from time to time given news. The 

 sketch is by Col. Venteggio. The number contains also 

 the addresses by M. Huber in presenting the medals for 



1878 to Mr. Stanley, M. Vivien de St. Martin, and Dr. 

 Harmand. 



A YOUNG Austrian painter, Herr Joseph Ladein, of 

 Modling near Vienna, has recently started for a tour 

 through Central Africa. In a letter dated from Oran he 

 states that his intention is to proceed through Marocco, 

 to cross the Great Desert to the Senegal River, then to 

 turn eastward to Haussa and the Nile Lakes, and to 

 return to Europe along the course of the Nile. 



A BRANCH of the new Berlin '• Society for Commercial 

 Geography and the furtherance of German Interests 

 Abroad" has been established at Leipzig. 



M. L. Bab^ has announced to the Paris Geographical 

 Society that he proposes to explore the globe by means of 

 an improved Montgolfier balloon, capable of storing heat 

 in all regions and of maintaining a sufficient height for 

 several w^eeks. 



Bad news has been received from Zanzibar by the 

 French Geographical Society. It appears that two of 

 the French missionaries who were exploring this part of 

 Africa have died, one of them by illness, and the other 

 having been killed by a lion. 



NOTES 



At a full meeting of the Council of the Zoological Society, 

 held on the 5th inst. at the Society's office, in Hanover Square, 

 Prof. William Henry Flower, F.R.S., Conservator of the 

 Museum of the Royal Collie of Surgeons, was imanimously 

 elected president of the Society, in suc^cession to the late 

 Marquis of Tweeddale. The new president, who, we need 

 hardly inform the readers of Nature, is one of the most 

 learned zoologists and anatomists of the present day, has 

 been for some years on the Council of the Society and one 

 of its vice-presidents, and has communicated many valuable 

 memoirs to its Transactions and Proceedings. Prof. Flower is 

 the seventh president elected since the foundation of the Society 

 in 1826. Sir Stamford Raffles, the first president, who died a 

 few months after the foundation of the Society, was succeeded 

 by the Marquis of Lansdowne, who resigned in Februar)-, 1S31, 

 in favour of the thirteenth Earl of Derby, then Lord Stanley. 

 He held the presidentship for upwards of twenty years, and on 

 his death, in 1851, was succeeded by the late Prince Consort. 

 On the death of the Prince Consort, in 1861, Sir George Clerk, 

 of Penicuik, was chosen as his successor, and retained the presi- 

 dentship until his death, in 1867. He was succeeded in January, 

 1 868, by the late Lord Tweeddale, then Viscount Walden, 

 whose death has caused the vacancy to which Prof. Flower has 

 succeeded. 



The Chemical Society have received from the executors of 

 the late Mr. Sydney Ellis a legacy of 1,000/. free of duty. 



kTHE friends of Prof. Clifford, who has been compelled by ill 

 ealth to relinquish active work and reside in Madeira, are 

 anxious to present him with a substantial testimonial in public 

 recognition of his great scientific and literary attainments. At a 

 meeting held at the Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, on 

 Friday, January 31, Dr. William Spottiswoode, President of the 

 Royal Society, in the chair, it was resolved that a fund should 

 be raised for the above-mentioned purpose, and that the sums 

 received should be placed in the hands of trustees, for the benefit 

 of Prof. Clifford and his family. Contributions may be paid to 

 the account of the " Clifford Testimonial Fund," with Messrs. 

 Robarts, Lubbock, and Co., or to either of the Honorary Secre- 

 taries. Among the gentlemen who have kindly consented to act 

 on the General Committee are the following: — Dr. William 

 Spottiiwoode, Dr. Andrew Clark, Prof. R. B. Clifton, F.R.S., 

 Prof. T. H, Huxley, Prof. Henry Morley, Prof. A, Newton, 

 F.R.S., Sir Fred. PoUock, Bart., Prof. Rojcoe, F.R.S., Prof. 

 H. J. S. Smith, F.R.S., Hon. Mr. Justice Stephen, Sir Henry 



