i6 



NATURE 



{May I, 1879 



will be found. The chief productions are indigo, lacquer, 

 saffron, rice, cotton, &c., but the industry of the country 

 is in a very undeveloped state. 



A NEW project for the creation of an inland sea has 

 been advanced and advocated by General Fremont, at 

 present Governor of Arizona. The removal of a barrier 

 ridge, he affirms, would admit the waters of the Gulf of 

 California into an ancient basin, and would create a 

 navigable inland sea 200 miles long, 50 miles broad, and 

 300 feet deep. This piece of engineering, which is very 

 like Roudaire's Algerian inland sea project, he claims, 

 would convert what is now a desert region into a com- 

 mercial highway, and would greatly improve the climate 

 of Southern Arizona and California. 



At last week's meeting of the Paris Academy M. de 

 Lesseps announced that in a letter of April 15, Capt. 

 Roudaire states that the sounding operations were being 

 pursued with vigour and success, and that so far they 

 justified the expectation of being able to create an interior 

 Algerian Sea. 



An exploring expedition to New Guinea is being 

 organised at Wellington, New Zealand, on a large scale. 



L' Exploration states that a new African expedition is 

 being organised at Lisbon, under the direction of Capt. 

 Paiva d'Andrada. Its object is the exploration of the 

 Zambezi and the foundation of commercial and agricul- 

 tural colonies in the territories of Fete and Zoumbo. 



In the Verhandlungen of the Berlin Geographical 

 Society, Nos. 2 and 3, is a suggestive paper by Dr. Giiss- 

 feldt on the Ice-Conditions of High Mountains. No. 80 

 of the Zeitschrift contains a paper of much originality, on 

 the causes which have conduced to the formation of the 

 surface of Norway, by Prof. Kjerulf. 



Globus is publishing a valuable series of articles on the 

 Red River of the North, from the French of M. de 

 Lamothe, and the Hundu Kush Alps by Herr Emil 

 Schlagentweit. 



NOTES 

 The Annual London Meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 will be held on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, May 7, 8, 

 and 9, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 25, Great George 

 Street, Westminster. The following programme of proceedings 

 has been arranged :— On Wednesday the retiring President (Dr. 

 C. W. Siemens, F.R.S.), will take the chair at 10.30 A.M., 

 and the PresidentEIect (Mr. Edward Williams) will deliver his 

 inaugural address. The Bessemer Medal for 1879 will be pre- 

 sented to Mr. Peter Cooper, of New York, " the father of the 

 American iron trade." The adjourned discussion on the paper 

 read at Paris by Mr. Daniel Adamson, C.E., of Manchester, on 

 "The Mechanical Properties of Iron and Mild Steel," will be 

 resumed, and Mr. Adamson will present a supplementary paper. 

 On the following days the following papers will be read and 

 discussed : — " On the Use of Steel in Naval Construction," by 

 Mr. Nathaniel Barnaby, C.B., H.M.'s Chief Constructor. " On 

 the Use of Steel in the Construction of Bridges," by Mr. H. 

 N. Maynard. "On the Elimination of Phosphorus in the Besse- 

 mer Converter," by Mr. Sydney G. Thomas, F.C.S., and Mr. 

 Percy C. Gilchrist, A.R.S.M., F.C.S. "On the Removal of 

 Phosphorus and Sulphur during the Bessemer and Siemens-Martin 

 Processes of Steel Manufacture," by Mr. G. J. Snelus, F.C.S. , 

 &c. "On a New Volumetric Method of Determining Man- 

 ganese in Manganiferous Iron Ores, Spiegeleisen, Steel, &c.," 

 by Mr, John Pattinson, F.I.C., Newcastle-on-Tyne. "On a 

 Ready Means of Moulding Lime, and making Lime or Basic 

 Bricks and Linings for Furnace Converters, &c.," by Mr. 

 Edward Riley, F.C.S., F.I.C., &c. " On a Practical Combina- 

 tion of the Bessemer and Puddling Processes," by Mr. Edwin 



Pettitt, Cheltenham. " On the Results of Working the Godfrey- 

 Howson Furnaces at the Works of Tamaris, Gard, France," by 

 M. Escalle. "On the Chemistry of Puddling," by Mr. H. 

 Louis, A.R.S.M., Londonderry, Nova Scotia. "On a New 

 Process for Protecting Iron and Steel against Rust," by Prof. 

 Barff. 



The Rev. W. H. Dallinger, F.R.S., has been appointed 

 Rede Lecturer at Cambridge this year. 



Among those on whom the degree of LL.D. has been con- 

 ferred by the Glasgow University is Dr. C. W. Siemens, Prof. 

 Hull, director of the Irish Geological Survey, and Prof. Dickson, 

 newly elected to the Edinburgh Chair of Botany. 



The death is announced of Dr. Charles Murchison, F.R.S. 



Mademoiselle Adelaide Montgolfier, a daughter of 

 the inventor of balloons, is still alive, aged eighty-nine years. 

 She is possessed of a large fortune, and presented the Museum of 

 the Aeronautical Academy with a copy of the large medal executed 

 by lioudon, and representing her father and uncle, who was 

 associated with him in the invention of balloons. This medal was 

 executed to commemorate that event. A movement wiU be got 

 up in France for celebrating the centenary of that memorable 

 event, which took place in June, 1 783, in the vicinity of Lyons. 



The annual conference on National Water Supply, Sewage, 

 and Health, will be held in the rooms of the Society of Arts, 

 on Thursday and Friday, May 15 and 16, 1879. There will 

 be an Exhibition of Mechanical and Chemical Apparatus in con- 

 nection with Water Supply, Treatment of Sewage, and Health. 

 Papers on any of above heads are requested. The object of the 

 conference is to discuss existing information in connection with 

 the results of any systems already adopted in various localities, 

 referring to the subjects of National Water Supply, Sewage, 

 and Health ; to elicit further information thereon ; and gather 

 and publish, for the benefit of the pulilic generally, the experi- 

 ence gained. The introduction and discussion of untried schemes 

 will, therefore, not be permitted. The papers accepted for the 

 conference will be printed and circulated at the meetings. 



Prof. Tvndall has been instracting the Select Committee 

 appointed to inquire into the subject of electric lighting, He 

 gave a brief sketch of the history of electricity and of its appli- 

 cation to lightiiig purposes, illusti'ating his evidence by several 

 interesting experiments. Seeing what had been done by Mr. 

 Edison, he believed that many of the existing difficulties would 

 be removed ; for public illumination he was afraid platinum 

 would be too expensive. Dr. Siemens has also been giving 

 important evidence on the subject. 



We are glad to see that Dr. Brehm, the well-known naturalist, 

 accompanies the Crown Prince of Austria in his tour through 

 .Spain. 



We learn from Science News that the Brazilian Government 

 has appointed Mr. Orville A. Derby as geologist to the National 

 Museum at Rio de Janeiro, to succeed the late Prof. Hartt, whose 

 assistant Mr. Derby had been for a number of years. Next lo 

 Prof. Hartt, Mr. Derby was probably best acquainted with the 

 geological structure of Brazil, and he is, therefore, the one most 

 fitted to carry on the work. He accompanied Prof. Hartt, as an 

 assistant, on both of his Amazonian trips, in 1870 and 1871, and 

 largely shared in the honours arising from the discoveries made 

 during those years, by which a firm foundation was laid for the 

 complete geological exploration of the great valley. 



The following arrangements have been made for the meetings 

 of the Society of Arts after Easter : — At the ordinary meetings 

 on Wednesday evenings, at eight o'clock: May 14 — "The 

 Automatic Hydraulic Brake," by E. D. Barker ; May 21 — 

 " Edison's New Telephone," by Conrad W. Cooke. In the 

 African Section, on Tuesday evenings at eight o'clock : May 

 27 — " The Contact of Civilisation and Barbarism in Africa, Past 



