Feb, 15, 1877] 



NATURE 



345 



ance of museums worthily so named, and admirably adapted by 

 judicious selection and arrangement to forward the education of 

 our youth, and the direction of all classes of the people in the 

 study of natural science. But, so far from promoting this worthy 

 end, the managers of many provincial museums seem to under- 

 stand nothing more than the establishment of unmeaning curio- 

 sity shops, better fitted to amaze the eyes and puzzle the brains 

 of the groundlings, than to convey rational amusement and in- 

 struction to the people. Thus the study of the sciences of 

 natural history is rather retarded than advanced, and the pre- 

 vailing ignorance maintained and confirmed. Local museums 

 should be adapted to the best mental culture. They ought to 

 have a few good preparations, whether exotic or native, to 

 exhibit plainly the general principles of nature, and systematic 

 sets of many specimens to display particularly the natural history 

 of the district ; while the needless and grievous expense of room 

 and money, caused by the acquisition and preservation of a 

 gallimaufry of unsuitable objects, should be most strictly avoided. 

 The rapid spread of knowledge, the report states, will soon con- 

 vince the rate-paying public that their rates should be expended 

 with at least some regard to the instruction of the rising genera- 

 tion. We sincerely hope so. 



Under the heading, "Can Birds Count?" Mr. C. W. Wade, 

 of Magdalen College, Oxford, writes as follows : — " I have often 

 noticed that crows crowded on Sundays to a certain place, where, 

 on the seventh day a friend of mine was in the habit of amusing 

 himself by placing a quantity of broken biscuit on his window- 

 sill ; he had time for this only on the Sunday morning, and 

 during the week no food was so presented. We noticed that on 

 the Sundays a crowd of the birds came about the window, 

 whereas on other days no special sign of excitement was visible 

 among them. The opinion I formed of their power to count 

 the days as they passed has been strengthened by hearing the 

 following story." Mr. Wade then states that a gentleman much 

 troubled by the depredation of crows built a shed at a distance 

 from his house, where he took up position with gun and ammuni- 

 tion. After the first shot the crows would not return, so the 

 gentleman took a friend with him to the shed and then sent him 

 away, he himself remaining ; but the crows kept out of range. 

 Taking others with him up to the number of twelve, and sending 

 them off separately, the result was the same. At thirteen, how- 

 ever, the crows seem to have lost count, and returned. To be 

 fully credible the account ought to be first-hand, as it is not, and 

 based on a regular series of experiments. 



Any information on the prospects of the future supplies to this 

 country of Russian boxwood is a matter of some importance, 

 therefore it is interesting, if not entirely satisfactory, to read in 

 a recent report from Poti, the port from whence the bulk of the 

 boxwood is shipped, that, though considerable quantities are 

 still exported, it becomes annually worse in quality, and the 

 supply for shipment at Poti must soon be exhausted. The ex- 

 port from the Abkassian forests is siill prohibited by the Russian 

 Government, but it is said that this restriction will shortly be 

 removed. The writer of the report referred to describes a journey 

 he made in 1873, through splendid forests of Normandy pine, 

 birch, beech, oak, chestnut, walnut, and boxwood. With the 

 opening of these forests it is estimated there will be a plentiful 

 supply of prime boxwood for about fifteen years, after which 

 that of inferior quality must be resorted to, as in Mingrelia. 

 Boxwood, it seems, has also become quite recently an article of 

 commerce from Taganrog to France and England ; about 4,000 

 tons were shipped to these two countries during the year 1875 

 at a cost of from 8/. to 10/. per ton, free on board. This box- 

 wood is drawn from Persian territory, on the southern coast of 

 the Caspian Sea, across which it is conveyed to Astrachan, 

 thence up the Volga to Tzaritzin, whence it passed over to 

 Kalatch, on the Don, for Rostoff and Taganrog. 



No. 7, concluding vol. ii. series ii. (Science) of the Proceedings 

 of the Royal Irish Academy, has just been published. It contains 

 a report on Irish Hepaticce, by Dr. David Moore; a revision of 

 the species of Abies of Endlicher and Parlatore, and Pseudotsuga 

 of Cani^re and Bertrand, by Prof. M'Nab ; contribution to the 

 history of Dolomite, by Mr. E. Ilardman ; on Glucinum, by 

 Prof. E. Reynolds ; on the chemical changes in potato disease, 

 by Rev. Prof. Jellett ; on remains of Cervus me^aceros, by G. 

 Porte ; on the detection and precipitation of phosphoric acid by 

 ammonic molybdate, by A. N. M 'Alpine ; on the product of 

 the squares of the differences of the roots of a cubic equation, 

 by Prof. Young ; and on a new genus and species of sponge, by 

 Prof. E. P. Wright. 



The February session of the Berlin Geographical Society was 

 devoted to detailed reports from the lately- returned African ex- 

 plorers. Dr. Pogge and Dr. Lenz. The former described his 

 journey from Angola to Mossumbu, the chief town of the 

 Watajombas, whose existence has hitherto been regarded as 

 mythical. The difficulties of the route were few, and the cli- 

 mate in the interior healthful. Dr. Pogge's experience would 

 s^em to point out his route as one of the most desirable for 

 future expeditions to use in attempting to reach the interior of 

 the continent. Dr. Pogge stated his belief that the Casai or 

 Casabi is the Upper Congo, and that the Lualaba flows into the 

 Ogovai. A letter in Tuesday's Times, from an Angola paper, 

 written by a Portuguese merchant, is of the same tenor. It 

 states that a Portuguese, whose name is not given, has found the 

 source of the Zaire, twenty days' march east from Malange, and 

 one day's march from the capital of Dambo Tembo. The river 

 is known as Casai or Casabi till it crosses the country of Lunda, 

 when it gets the name of Nzare. Livingstone, in a letter dated 

 Cassange, February 13, 1855, mentions the common behef there 

 that the Casai and Quango join to the north of Cassange, and 

 form the Zaire or Congo. We seem to be getting near the solu- 

 tion of the problem. Dr. Lenz, at the same meeting, sketched 

 rapidly the results of his three years' wanderings among the 

 Oskebas of the Ogowai district, by whose assistance he was 

 also able, although with the greatest difficulty, to penetrate to 

 the Adoocia land, and touch his farthest point to the east, 

 Banjska. The interesting results of his anthropological and 

 ethnological studies among the Oskebas, we hope to give more 

 fully. 



On Monday evening. Gen. R. Strachey gave the first of a 

 series of lectures on Scientific Geography at the Geographical 

 Society. He traced the progress of Geographical Science, 

 pointed out the wide field embraced by it at the present day, and 

 showed its aims and its importance. 



The annual meeting of the American Geographical Society 

 was held on January 16, Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D., in the 

 chair. The annual election of officers and members of the 

 Council wa". held. Chief-Justice Daly was re-elected president, 

 and delivered his annual address on the Geographical Work of the 

 World for 1876. The address, of which an early copy has been 

 forwarded to us, is one of great interest, and contains a compre- 

 hensive view of geographical work during 1876 in all depart- 

 ments and in all parts of the world. Mr. Daly criticises with 

 some severity various statements as to previous explorers in the. 

 Report of Sir George Nares. He commends the plan proposed 

 by Dr. Hayes some yeai-s ago, of carrying on polar explora- 

 tion by establishing a station at Port Ffoulke, a plan substantially 

 the same as that proposed by Capt. Ilowgate of the U.S. Signal 

 Service, to which we referred in a recent number. Mr. Daly 

 mentions the interesting fact that the first Geographical Society 

 was probably that founded in Venice in 1688, under the name of 

 " Society of Argonauts," followed a few years later by an asso- 

 ciation of the same kind established at Nuremberg. For English 



