382 



NATL RE 



\March i, 1877 



From the absence of a publisher's name on the title-page, it is 

 to be inferred that it has been Lord Lindsay's intention to circu- 

 late his volume privately amongst astronomers ; and we know 

 that this has been done to a most liberal extent : still there must 

 be many persons, unknown to the author, who would gladly 

 provide themselves with so unexpected and useful an addition to 

 astronomical literature, and we would suggest whether it might 

 not be desirable to place this volume, which appears to be in- 

 tended as the precursor of a series, on sale to the astronomical 

 public. 



NOTES 



The Italian Scientific Association, or Society of the Forty, has 



conferred on Sir William Thomson the prize instituted by Carlo 



Matteucci, for the Italian or foreigner, who, by his writings or 



discoveries, has contributed most to the advancement of science. 



At the annual meeting of the Geological Society, the Wol- 

 laston Gold Medal was presented to Mr. Robert Mallet, F.R.S., 

 and the proceeds of the Wollaston Donation Fund, to Mr. R. 

 Etheridge, jun., F.G.S. ; the Murchison Medal to Rev, W. B. 

 Clarke, F.R.S., Sydney, and the proceeds of the Murchison 

 Geological Fund to the Rev. J. F. Blake, F.G.S. ; the Lyell 

 Medal and part of the Lyell Fund, to Dr. James Hector, F.R.S., 

 New Zealand, and the balance of the Lyell Fund to Mr, W. 

 Pengelly, F.R.S. ; the Bigsby Medal to Prof. O. C. Marsh, 

 F.G.S,, Yale College, U.S, 



The total expenditure on the new building at South Kensington 

 for the reception of the Natural History Collections now in the 

 British Museum is stated in the new Civil Service Estimates to 

 have been 206,472/, up to September 30 last, A further sum of 

 36,650/, is required to carry on the works up to the end of the 

 present financial year. This amount has been already voted. 

 The proposed vote for the present financial year 1877-78 is 

 70,000/., leaving the amount of 81,878/, necessary to complete 

 the building, the total estimate having been 395,000/, We may 

 remark that it is not only in this country that a new Museum of 

 Natural History is in progress. Both at Paris and at Berlin the 

 present buildings for the National Museum are found to be 

 too small, and large sums are to be appropriated to their recon- 

 struction. 



The new Civil Service Estimates also contain an account of 

 the proposed expenditure on the working out of the collections 

 brought home by H.M.S. Challenger, which amounts altogether 

 to 4,000/. Of this 1,560/. is to be devoted to "salaries," 800/. 

 to "piece-work," 1,200/. to "plates," 240/. to "travelling 

 sxpenses," and 200/. to "stores." The salary of the director is 

 to be 500/. per annum, that of his chief assistant 400/. 



In the Civil Service Estimates for the present year under the 

 head of " British Museum," it will be found that 800/. are asked 

 for for acquisitions in the Department of Mineralogy, 800/. for 

 Fossils, 1,200/. for Zoological, and 400/. for Botanical specimens. 

 At the same time it may be noted that the sum of 10,000/. is to 

 be devoted to the purchase of printed books, although copies of 

 all books published in the United Kingdom are furnished gratis 

 to the Museum. 



Prof. Alfred Newton, F.R.S. , has been elected to a 

 Fellowship at Magdalene College, Cambridge. 



The death is announced, at the age of seventy-six year*, of 

 Admiral Wilkes, of the U. S. Navy. Probably our readers will 

 better recognise him under the name of Commodore Wilkes, 

 the commander of the well-known U. S. exploring exjiedition of 

 1838-42, the results of which were of great scientific importance. 

 Wilkes was the author of a work on the Theory of Winds. He 

 was the same Wilkes who, by his conduct in the Mason and 



Slidell Incident of the American civil war, nearly caused war 

 between this country and the United States. 



Poggendorff's Annalen will be continued under the editor- 

 ship of Prof. G. Wiedemcm, ia Leipsic, who is already the 

 editor of the supplement {Beibldtttr), and Prof. Helmholtz will 

 join him in his new task. The old staff of contributors have 

 declared their willingness to continue the publication of their 

 researches in the Annalen. 



At the Royal Geographical Society on Monday, papers were 

 read "On his recent journey to Lake Nyassa," by Mr. E. D. 

 Young, R.N., and an "Examination of a route for wheeled 

 vehicles between the east coast of _Africa and Ugogo," by the 

 Rev. Roger Price. 



Mr. L. Heiligbrodt, of Bastrop, Texas, has been engaged 

 since 1867 in making collections of the reptiles and insects of 

 that district. 



Prof. Kundt has been chosen Rector of Strassburg Uni- 

 versity for this year. 



Prof. Schwendener, of Basel, has been called to the chair 

 of the late Prof. Hofmeister, of Tiibingen. 



We learn from Helsingfors that M. Henez has returned from 

 his travels in Russian Lapland. He has been studying the little- 

 known language of the Lapps on the Murmansk peninsula. 

 Besides a collection of interesting ethnological data, he has 

 brought with him a complete translation of the Gospel of St. 

 Matthew, which, we believe, will be published by the English 

 Bible Society in Russian type. 



We notice an interesting Russian monograph by M. Malieff — 

 " Anthropological Sketch of the Bashkirs,"— which has appeared 

 in Kazan. The author, who was sent to the Orenburg Govern- 

 ment by the Kazan University, to collect skulls of Bashkirs, and 

 spent some time among this people, gives a number of anthropo- 

 logical measurements of men, statistics as to births, and various 

 interesting information on the present state of the Bashkirs, 

 their rapid increase, their customs, religion, &c., and discusses 

 their future prospects. 



The Golos announces that the Moscow Society for Promoting 

 the Development of Russian Marine Trade will continue next 

 year the exploration to the Gulf of the Obi, and also build some 

 vessels for exporting, in 1878, various merchandises from the 

 Obi into Europe, especially of ship-building wood to England. 

 M. Dahl, a teacher at the Gainag Marine School in Livonia, 

 with some of his pupils, will be intrusted with this task. 



Some difficulties have been met with in the advance of 

 Potanin's expedition in Western Mongolia. When passing by 

 the convent of Shara Sumson the members of the expedition 

 were assailed by the monks, and student PosdneefF and the inter- 

 preter received severe injuries. Nevertheless, Potanin continues 

 to advance into the interior of the country. 



The occurrence of gold disseminated in small quantities through 

 the older geological formations of Australia has been known for 

 many years. But Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, of the Geological Survey 

 of New South Wales, has observed what seems to be a new fact, 

 that gold in sufficient quantity to be worth mining, occurs in a 

 conglomerate belonging to the Coal-measures, and that the 

 alluvial gold of the Old Tallawang diggings has been derived 

 from the waste of these conglomerates. He justly points out 

 that, apart from the scientific interest belonging to so venerable 

 an auriferous alluvium, considerable commercial importance 

 attaches to its discovery, seeing that the conglomerates may now 

 become a new source of, supply for the precious metal. At 

 Clough's Gully the actual conglomerate is now being worked, 

 and yields from i dwt. to 15 dwts. of gold per ton, and nuggets 

 sometimes weighing 5 ounces. 



