Nov. 24, 1887] 



NATURE 



87 



IJ have finally to express my great obligations to Messrs- 

 Fowler, Taylor, and Richards, whD have helped me in 

 various ways in the researches embodied in this paper. 

 Mr. Fowler, the assistant to the Solar Physics Committee, 

 has made most of the observations on meteorites, and low-tem- 

 perature spectra generally, which have been recorded on the 

 maps, and he has carried out this work with a care, skill, and 

 patience beyond all praise. The observations have in nearly 

 every case been checked also by myself. Mr. Taylor, the Demon- 

 strator of Astronomy, has been chiefly responsible for looking 

 up the literature and mapping the results, in which he has been 

 aided by Mr. Richards. 



J. Norman Lockyer. 



SIR JULIUS VON HA AST, F.R.S. 



SCIENCE in Australasia, and especially in New 

 Zealand, has recently sustained a great loss by the 

 death, on August 16 last, of Sir Julius von Haast. He was 

 born on May i, i824,at Bonn,where his fatherwas a wealthy 

 merchant. After passing through the grammar-schools 

 of Bonn and Cologne, he entered the University of Bonn, 

 and devoted a considerable portion of his time to geo- 

 logical and mineralogical studies. He then spent some 

 years in France, and made journeys for the purpose of 

 scientific exploration in Russia, Austria, and Italy. Being 

 invited by an English firm of ship-owners to visit New 

 Zealand on their behalf in order to report upon its fitness 

 as a field for German emigration, he went to London, 

 and accepted their offer after some negotiation ; and on 

 December 21, 1858, he arrived at Auckland. The next 

 day, by a lucky chance, the Austrian ship Novara — then 

 on its voyage of scientific research — put into Auckland ; 

 and when Dr. von Hochstetter was left behind, at the 

 request of the New Zealand Government, he took Mr. 

 Haast as his lieutenant and companion in all his journeys 

 in these islands. After the departure of Hochstetter, Mr. 

 Haast was engaged by the Provincial Government of 

 Nelson to explore the west coast of the province, and in 

 the journey undertaken in the pursuit of these duties he 

 commenced his examination of the physical geography 

 and geology of the Southern Alps. The results of the 

 exploration were published in a report printed by the 

 Nelson Government and dated January i, 1861. 



Immediately after the conclusionof the Nelson journey — 

 namely, in December i860— he undertook to report to the 

 Government of the Province of Canterbury as to the 

 possibility of constructing a tunnel through the hills which 

 separate Christchurch from its port of Lyttelton ; and in 

 the following year he was appointed to the command of 

 the Geological Survey of Canterbury, being thus the first 

 Government geologist in New Zealand. It was in this 

 capacity that he accomplished the most valuable part of 

 his scientific work. The most striking of his achievements 

 were the examination of the Mount Cook district ; the 

 sketching and mapping out of the great glaciers of the 

 Southern Alps, named by him the Tasman, Franz Joseph, 

 Hochstetter, Hooker, and Miiller glaciers, and many 

 others ; and the forecast and subsequent examination made 

 of the auriferous districts of Westland. All this, with the 

 geographical, zoological, botanical, and meteorological re- 

 searches carried on side by side with the more exclusively 

 geological work, was in continuation of what had been 

 done in the Nelson or northern portion of the same 

 mountain system. The results of his investigations were 

 set forth in the chief book published by him— namely, 

 "The Geology of Canterbury and Westland." He was 

 also the author of many papers in scientific periodicals. 



Last year he acted as New Zealand Commissioner at 

 the Indian and Colonial Exhibition. Afterwards he 

 visited Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Halle, 

 Venice, Florence, and other centres, obtaining a vast 

 number of things for the Canterbury Museum, the flourish- 

 ing condition of which is mainly due to his energy and 



zeal. His labour in connection with the Exhibition, and the 

 subsequent wear and tear of travelling while in weak 

 health, appear to have overtaxed his strength, and he 

 died of heart-disease a month after his return to New 

 Zealand. 



NOTES. 



The fourth session of the International Geological Congress 

 will be held next year in London. The Congress was founded 

 at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science at Buffalo in 1876, the first session being held at 

 Paris in 1878, the second at Bologna in 1881, the third at Berlin in 

 1885. The following is a list of the Organizing Committee 

 appointed to carry out the arrangements : — H. Bauerman, W. T. 

 Blanford, F.R.S., Rev. Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., Prof. W. 

 Boyd Dawkins, F. R. S. , John Evans, F. R. S. , Prof. W. H. Flower, 

 F.R.S., Arch. Geikie, F.R.S., Prof. James Geikie, F.R.S., 

 Sir Douglas Galton, F.R.S., Prof. A. H. Green, F.R.S. , Rev. 

 Prof. S. Haughton, F.R.S., Prof. T. H. Huxley, F.R.S., W. 

 H. Hudleston, F.R.S., Prof. T. McK. Hughes, J. W. Hulke, 

 F.R.S., Prof. E. Hull, F.R.S., Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., 

 Prof. J. Prestwich, F.R.S., F. W. Rudler, H. C. Sorby, F.R.S., 

 Sir W. W. Smyth, F.R.S., W. Topley, Rev. Prof. Wilt- 

 shire, Henry Woodward, F.R.S. The duty of this Committee 

 will be to nominate the officers, to appoint Executive Com- 

 mittees, and to fix the exact date of meeting. The Congress at 

 Berlin requested that the meeting should be held in London 

 between August 15 and September 15. 



Dr. Dawson, Assistant-Director of the Canadian Geological 

 Survey, who headed the party sent by the Dominion Govern- 

 ment to explore the country adjacent to the Alaska 

 boundary, has returned to Victoria. Two of his party, 

 Messrs. Ogilvie and McConnell, will winter in the dis- 

 trict, preparing the way for the establishment of the in- 

 ternational boundary. The Expedition so far has secured a 

 great deal of geological, geographical, and general information 

 about the country, which is far from being the Arctic region it is 

 sometimes rep.-esented to be. The point from which Dr. 

 Dawson turned back was at the junction of the Lewis and Pelly 

 Rivers. It is looo miles north of Victoria. There the flora 

 was found to differ but little from that on the banks of the 

 Eraser. A great deal of open grassy country exists along the 

 stream's tributary to the Yukon. No areas of tundra or frozen 

 swamps, such as are to be met with in the interior of Alaska, were 

 discovered by the Expedition. Dr. Dawson's conclusion is that 

 the whole country, from Cassiar to the vicinity of Forty-mile Creek 

 on the Yukon River (which must be near the easte rn boundary 

 of Alaska), yields more or less gold in placer deposits. This 

 would constitute a gold-bearing region fully 500 miles in length, 

 and of indefinite width. 



At a meeting of the Council of University College, 

 Bristol, held on Wednesday, November i6, it was decided, at 

 the suggestion of the ftaff of the College, to suspend for a year 

 the office of Principal. Prof. Lloyd Morgan was in the mean- 

 time appointed academical head of the College, and Chairman 

 of the Educational Board, with the tide of Dean. 



At the Royal Institution, Sir Robert Stawell Ball, the 

 Astronomer- Royal of Ireland, will give a course of six lectures 

 (adapted to a juvenile auditory) on Astronomy : the Sun. Moon, 

 Planets, Comets, ami Stars. The course will begin on Decem- 

 ber 27. Courses of lectures will also probably be given by Lord 

 Rayleigh (Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Insti- 

 tution), Dr. G. J. Romanes, Mr. Hubert Ilerkomer, Prof. C. 

 Hubert H. Parry, the Rev. W. H. Dallinger, and Mr. William 

 Archer. 



