UO 



NA TURE 



{March \% 1877 



In the Journal of the Society of Arts for March 9 will be 

 found an important and interesting lecture by Prof. A. B. W. 

 Kennedy, C.E., on "The Growth and Present Position of the 

 Science of Machines." 



The unification of the meridian has been advocated at Rome 

 before the Italian Society of Geography, by M. Boutillier de 

 Beaumont, the president of the Geneva Geographical Society. 

 He proposes to adopt the Behring meridian which has been 

 chosen by the American meteorological service for the universal 

 daily observations. M. Boutillier de Beaumont proposes also to 

 adopt the division into hours of fifteen degrees for angular divi- 

 sions as well as for temporal minutes. 



Many of us will have read with interest Capt. Wiggins' 

 account of his endeavours to establish sea-communication with 

 the great rivers of North Siberia, as given in the last number of the 

 Geographical Magazine. Capt. Wiggins has now just started on 

 his return to the Yenisei, overland, to bring back his ship which 

 he stowed away in October last at Kureika, on that river. He 

 is accompanied by Mr. Seebohm, F.Z.S., a distinguished 

 member of the British Ornithologists' Union, who' has embraced 

 this opportunity of visiting the nesting-haunts of some of our 

 rarest and least-known European birds, and otherwise exploring 

 an almost unknovra country. 



A " Soeifexfi des Voyages d'Etudes aulour du Monde" has been 

 constituted at Paris by the liberality of M. Bischofsheim and 

 others. Its object is to organise a regular service of voyages round 

 the world for the instruction of those who are able to afford the 

 expense. The first departure is to take place from Marseilles in 

 the end of May next. The voyage will occupy less than a full year. 

 Opportunities will be given to cross South America from Monte 

 Video to Valparaiso, and to visit the United States and India. 

 The commander of the steamer will be M. Biard, a lieutenant in 

 the National Navy and the promoter of the Society. Passengers 

 may be registered up to April 10 next. A library, instruments 

 for experiments, and a staff of competent teachers will be on 

 board. 



Among the papers in the January number of the Bulletin of 

 the French Geographical Society are the following : — On a 

 journey into the Sahara and to Rhadames, by M. Largeau ; 

 Across the Pampas, by M. Desire Charnay ; oa the French 

 Expedition to the Ogove, by M. Savorgnan de Brazza ; a letter 

 from Dr. Halub on his travels in South Africa. 



We regret to notice that the Marquis de Compiegne, the 

 French West African explorer, has died of a wound received in 

 a duel at Cairo. 



A Geographical Society was established at Marseilles in 

 the beginning of March. The president of the new Society is 

 M. Rambaud, a merchant who is acting as representative of 

 the Sultan of Zanzibar. Not less than 200 members subscribing 

 i/. were registered, and donations have been collected to the 

 amount of 800/. A public library has been opened, a course of 

 public lectures on geography established, and the Society is 

 arranging a Museum of Raw Materials from every country. 



The Daily Telegraph announces the receipt of important 

 letters from Mr. Stanley, under date Ujiji, August 7 and 13. 

 Mr. Stanley has made a complete survey of Lake Tanganyika,appa- 

 rently settled the questions of outlet and level, and made important 

 discoveiies at the north end of the lake. He also describes his 

 discoveries at and about the Nyanzas, though it does not appear 

 that he has succeeded in circumnavigatmg Albert Nyanza. Mr. 

 Stanley intended to cross the country to Nyangwe, where he 

 would determine his final course. 



At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Mon- 

 day the business consisted of the reading of papers " On the 

 Distribution of Salt in the Ocean," by Mr. J. Y. Buchanan ; 

 "A Journey through Formosa," by Mr. H. J. Allen ; and "A 

 Trip into the Interior of Formosa," by Mr. T. L. Bullock. The 

 first paper summarised experiments which had been made during 

 the cruise of the Challenger on the specific gravity and saline 

 strength of the ocean water at various depths. 1,800 samples 

 had been obtained, and by the testing of them Mr. Buchanan 

 had ascertained, first, that the specific gravity of sea-water was 

 greater than that of fresh ; and, second, that the variations 

 in its specific gravity pretty exactly indicated the amount of salt 

 held in solution. It had been found that the water was freshest 

 at the equator and at the poles, and most impregnated with salt 

 in the intermediate regions. The papers on Formosa were 

 descriptive of the journeys through the island taken by the 

 respective readers, and entered into details of the character 

 of the inhabitants — Chinese, semi-barbarians, and aborigines. 



On March 26 Sir George Nares will read a paper on the 

 "Geographical Results of the Arctic Expedition," at the_Royal 

 Geographical Society. 



We have received from a correspondent a very detailed ac- 

 count (illustrated by drawings) of the Kimberley diamond mine 

 in South Africa. The conclusion as to the mode of origin of 

 the diamonds to which his study of the district appears to have 

 led our correspondent is as follows : — That they were formed in 

 volcanic vents which have been opened in the midst of sedi- 

 mentary rocks (sandstone and shale, with thin coaly seams), 

 which vents probably existed at a considerable depth under the 

 sea. As to the material which by its decomposition may have 

 yielded the pure carbon in a condition ready for crystallisation, 

 our correspondent suggests that it was probably some hydro- 

 carbon derived from the coal by distillation. 



We notice the following details on the Jurassic flora of 

 Eastern Siberia in a memoir by Dr. Oswald Heer, pub- 

 lished in the Memoirs of the St, Petersburg Academy of 

 Sciences. This formation occupies about 200 miles along 

 the shores of the Amoor, between the villages Oldoy and 

 Vaganova, and border?, probably, the south-western foot of 

 the Stanovoy ridge. In the Irkutsk government it occupies a 

 large space in the south-eastern corner of this province, where 

 the district around the village Ust-Baley (on the Angara, forty 

 miles to the north of Irkutsk) will be now, after the appearance 

 of Oswald Heer's description, one of the most typical representa- 

 tives of the Jurassic flora, by its beautifully preserved plants, 

 insects, and fishes. All Siberian Jurassic plants belong to the 

 period of the Brown Jura, and their nearest relations are the 

 Jurassic deposits of Scarborough and of Cape Bogeman, in 

 Spitzbergen. They mostly belong to new species ; the most 

 common of previously-known species being only the Asplenium 

 {Pecopteris) Whithiense, and the Gi)tgko Huttoni. Three still 

 existing kinds, Asplenium, Thyrsopteris, and Dicksonia, have 

 their representatives among the East Siberian Jura. The 

 most interesting group, by the variety of its forms, is the group 

 of the Coniferse (more than thirty species), and especially the 

 group of the Salisburise. Altogether, the Siberian Jurassic flora 

 occupies the first rank by the variety of species it affords 

 (eighty-three species), the richest yet known flora, that ol 

 Yorkshire, numbering only seventy-three species. 



A CORRESPONDENT writing from Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S., 

 states that on two occasions he has witnessed true towering in 

 wild ducks, one a call duck the other a summer duck. He adds 

 to the list of towering birds already named the Virginia quail 

 (jOrtyx virginianns), and wild pigeon {Eclopistes niigratoria). 



