246 



NATURE 



\yan. II, 1877 



European museums outside of the Scandinavian countries them- 

 selves. The principal geographical result of the journey was the 

 establishment of the fact that a continuous water communication 

 exists between the Polar Sea avid the Gulf of Bothnia. On the 

 summit of the watershed between these bodies of water, the lake 

 Wawolo LampL lies at a height of 800-900 f^et above the level 

 of the sea. Two rivers flow from this, one to the north, empty- 

 ing into the Ivallo, and the other to the south, emptying into 

 the Kititui. Frequent cascades and rapids render this water- 

 way useless for purposes of navigation. 



Prof. Palmieri — the Times correspondent at Rome tele- 

 graphs on Januuy 7 — writing from the Observatory on Mount 

 Vesuvius, says that for the last two days the instruments have 

 shown evident signs of agitation. The smoke from the moun- 

 tain is issuing with greater force and increased volume. In the 

 interior of the last mouth, opened on December 18, 1865, the 

 fire is no longer visible, in consequence of an immense amount 

 of material having fallen into it, through the giving way of a 

 portion of the crater of 1872. An extraordmary eruptive force 

 will, therefore, be necessary either to make a way through the 

 enormous accumulation of sand and scoriae or to open some new 

 mouth, whether on the summit or the side of the volcano. In 

 the meantime, the cone is manifest, but it cannnot be stated 

 when it will reach a point sufficient to overcome the resistance. 



M. Fayi has been appointed president of the Bureau des 

 Longitudes for 1877, and Dr. Janssen vice-president. 



A SUBSCRIPTION has been opened at Rouen fcr the erection 

 of a statue to M. Pouchet, the naturalist, who was the director of 

 the Botanic Gardens of that city, and who died ten years ago. 

 M. Pouchet, as a correspondent of the Academy of Sciences, pub- 

 lished many papers in defence of spontaneous generation against 

 M. Pasteur. His works are referred to by Haeckel and 

 Bastian, 



An Admiralty Committee of Inquiry has been appointed 

 jn connection with the outbieak of scurvy in the Arctic expe- 

 dition. 



At the meeting of the Geographical Society on Monday, Mr. 

 Robert Michell read a paper on "The Russian Expedition to 

 the Alai and Pamir." The expedition resulted in much interest- 

 ing information, which was mentioned in detail, as to the physical 

 features of the country. The president, in winding up the discussion, 

 observed that the regions visited by the expedition and described 

 in the paper were, perhaps, the least known in Central Asia. 

 They contained vast and confused ranges of mountains, some of 

 the peaks of which were among the highest in the world. He 

 trusted that when further expeditions of the kind were organised, 

 steps would be taken by our government to secure that at least 

 two Englishmen of requisite scientific attainment should be 

 allowed to accompany them. 



A RECENT thorough survey of the Kasbek -glacier of the Cau- 

 casus, has proved that since 1863 it has increased, i.e., its lower 

 extremity has advanced down the valley, by 826 feet. 



The Medicinisch-atiologische Verein of Berlin decided, in the 

 session of January 4, to call together during the present year an 

 astiological congress. The following four subjects are announced 

 as the principal topics for the coming confe t erica : — 1. Methods 

 of astiological investigation. 2. Causes of epidemic disease de- 

 pendent upon mankind. 3. The natural conditions of epidemic 

 diseases. 4. On the Contagium vivum. 



At the January session of the Vienna Zooloqisch-botanische 

 Gesellschaft papers were read by Herr J. Mann " On the Lepi- 

 dopterous Fauna of the Dolomite Region," and by Prof. Jeitteles 

 " On Treissena Polymorpha." 



Dr. Rrehm, the enterprising Siberian explorer, is at present 



delivering in the principal German cities, a course of six lectures 

 on the results of his last tour through Northern Asia. 



Prof. Klein, one of the most promising among the younger 

 German mineralogists, has accepted a call to the professorship 

 of crystallography at the University of Halle. 



Austria follows Germany and other countries in accepting 

 the invitation of the King of Belgium, and an Afrikanische 

 Gesellschaft has been organised at Vienna. 



The German Imperial Sanitary Department commences, 

 with the beginning of the present year, the publication of a 

 weekly periodical devoted to sanitary statistics and all subjects 

 connected with the preservation of the public health. Prompt 

 official reports of the mortality in all cities numbering over 

 150,000 inhabitants, will form a leading feature. 



The Municipal Council of Paris, determined to spare no efforts 

 in order to prevent fresh inundations, have voted the funds for 

 boring a new sewer, or rather a tunnel, which will be utilised 

 for discharging a portion of the Seine, below Paris. 



The plan for the rebuilding of the lilcole de Medicine is now 

 ready to be presented to the Municipal Council of Paris. When 

 all the works are completed the total surface covered will be 

 8,000 square yards ; it does not now exceed 3,000. The expense 

 will be 4,300,000 francs. 



An interesting article, by Mr. E. A. Barber, with some 

 curious illustrations, on ' ' The Rock Inscriptions of the Ancient 

 Pueblos of the Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona," will 

 be found in the American Naturalist for December. 



In an article in the Revue Scientifique of January 6, M. H. 

 Le Chatelier shows that there is no geological evidence for the 

 existence of a great inland sea in North Africa, though there 

 was probably in the district of the Tunisian Chotts, at one time, 

 a small isolated salt lake. All the phenomena of the region of 

 the Chotts and of the Sahara may be explained by the action of 

 existing forces, which might at some future time cause a thin 

 layer of salt water to reaccumulate over a small extent of surface. 



With reference to our note (Nature, vol. xv. p. 167) |on 

 Mr. Allen's work on the North American Bisons, which we 

 stated was issued by the University Press, Cambridge, U.S., 

 we are informed that this •' University Press" has no relation 

 with the University. It is simply a name denoting its position 

 near the University grounds to distinguish it from another large 

 printing establishment known as the "Riverside Press," also at 

 Cambridge. The memoir noticed formed a part of the " Memoirs" 

 issued by the " Museum of Comparative Zoology," which have 

 taken the place of the former " Illustrated Catalogues," the title 

 having been changed so as to enlarge the scope of the 4to. 

 publications of the old numbers of the Catalogue collected into 

 volumes to form the fir^t volumes of the Memoirs. 



On December 20, the Bremen Verein fiir die deutsche 

 Nordpoljahrt, changed its name to that of Bremer geogra- 

 phische Gesellschaft. The question of Polar exploration has 

 assumed such dimensions that a private society cannot hope to 

 accomplish much unaided in this direction. The society will 

 henceforth devote its energies to the solution of geographical 

 problems in other parts of the world. Its occasional communi- 

 cations are also to be replaced by a regular periodical appearing 

 quarterly, under the editorial supervision of Dr. Moriz Lindeman. 

 A special leature of the new society will consist in frequent 

 courses of lectures from the most famous of recent explorers ; 

 Brehm, Giissfeldt, and Baron von Schleinitz, are announced as 

 first on the list. 



Late letters from Sydney report the arrival of the Rev. G. 

 Brown, who has been spending the last year in Polynesia, pass- 

 ing from one island to another in the mission brig John Wesley. 

 Many interesting discoveries were made in the islands of New 

 Britain and New Ireland. The inhabitants of both islands are 



