64 



NATURE 



[May 15, 1879 



bones are few and expanded ; the nasals, pre-frontals, 

 and lacrymals are represented by a single bone, and 

 there are no superorbitals. There is no second temporal 

 bone, as in lizards, but an additional cheek-bone, the 

 quadrato-jugal, unites the jugal to the pier of the lower 

 jaw, a very exceptional thing in lizards {e.g., Hatteria.) 



The large investing bones have to a great extent aborted 

 the proper internal skull ; this is especially the case be- 

 tween the capsules of the ears and the labyrinths of the 

 nose. 



In the logger-head and green turtles the cranial com- 

 partment has a "shed" or "lean-to" on each side, 

 formed by the parietals, post-orbitals, and squamosals. 

 The pterygoids form the greater part of the bony floor of 

 the skull, between which and the descending wall there is 

 a little bony "prop" corresponding to the columella {epi- 

 pterygoici) of the lizard. 



The mandible has no splenial element, as in bony 

 fishes and frogs. There are two arches developed behind 

 the mandible — the hyoid, or tongue arch, and a second, 

 corresponding to the first gill arch in fishes and Amphibia. 

 The pier of the arch of the lower jaw (quadrate) is hollowed 

 into a drum, over which is stretched its " opercular fold," 

 as the parchment, in which there is an annular cartilage. 

 The pier of the tongue-arch is a long slender rod, the 

 columella, the proximal part of which answers to the 

 stapes, and the rest to the incus ; it stretches between the 

 fenestra avails and the drum membrane. 



This peculiar hollowing out of the quadrate is a promise 

 of the air-cells seen in many of the bones of birds. 



The development of the embryo of the Chelonia takes 

 place in essentially the same manner as in birds ; yet, in 

 the young of the green turtle, half an inch long, the 

 rudiments of the carapace can be seen. 



The parental form of all the modern Chelonia was 

 probably intermediate between the e.'iLimct R/iynchosauria 

 and the Plesiosaurla, and the existence in the Cape toad 

 (Dactylethra) of characters that correspond very closely 

 with those of the Chelonia, suggests a relationship 

 between certain ancient forms of the Batrachia and the 

 generalised types from which the Chelonia have sprung. 



(To be continued.) 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



It would appear as if the War Office authorities ex- 

 pected the special service officers who are on the point of 

 starting for Zululand to find opportunities for doing useful 

 geographical work in that country, as we understand that 

 the Intelligence Department are supplying them with the 

 most recent edition of "Hints to Travellers," published 

 under the authority of the Council of the Royal Geographi- 

 cal Society, and edited by Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S. 



The news of the death of the Marquis Antinori, the 

 leader of the Italian Expedition to Central Africa, is, we 

 are glad to say, contradicted. 



The Congress of Commercial Geography, to be held at 

 Brussels in September, will be presided over, not by M. 

 Bamps, but by Lieut.-General Liagre, president of the 

 Belgian Geographical Society and perpetual secretary of 

 the Belgian Academy of Sciences. M. du Fief will act as 

 secretary. 



News from Leipzig states that the president of the 

 Meteorological Office of that city. Baron A. von Danckel- 

 mann has been invited by M. Sibiriakofif to take part in 

 the expedition to the Siberian Arctic Sea, and that he has 

 accepted the invitation, the necessary permission having 

 been readily granted to him by the Saxon Government. 

 The expedition was to sail on May 14. 



Les Missions Catholiques publishes an interesting com- 

 munication from P^re Gourdin, a missionary in the 

 Chinese province of Szechuen, in which he gives an 



account of the little-known tract of country in the south 

 of the province, called Kienchang. 



The last report of Her Majesty's Consul at Newchwang 

 contains much information in regard to Manchuria which 

 is of interest from the standpoint of commercial geo- 

 graphy. There are reasons for believing, in his opinion, 

 that in spite of the watershed between the valleys of the 

 Liao and the Sungari, Newchwang will successfully com- 

 pete with Nicholayesk for the most valuable part of the 

 trade with the latter valley, and those of the two great 

 affluents of the Sungari, the Nonni and the Hurka. A 

 great point in its favour is that the Liao River is remark- 

 ably easy of access, while the navigation of the Amur at 

 its entrance is extremely intricate, and is closed by ice 

 for seven months in the year. Colonisation, we are told, 

 is proceeding in the valley of the Yalu-Kiang, the boun- 

 dary between China and Corea. With regard to the 

 production of opium in regions at a distance from New- 

 chwang, Mr. Consul Adkins says that it is growing in 

 most parts of the province of Fengtien (South Manchu- 

 ria), in many parts of the Kirin province, and in a daily 

 increasing area in the southern portion of Eastern Mon- 

 golia, notably in the tract of country which lies on the 

 right bank of the Sungari in the angle formed by the 

 reaches of that river above and below its junction with 

 the Nonni, east and south-east of Petuna. 



A further instalment of the Transactions of the 

 Asiatic Society of Japan, which has just come to hand, 

 contains some interesting notes of a visit paid last year to 

 the little-known island of Hachijo by Mr. F. V. Dickens 

 and Mr. Ernest Satow, the Japanese Secretary of H.M.'s 

 Legation at Yedo. The island in question, it may be 

 useful to note, is erroneously called Fatsizio on our 

 Admiralty chart ; it is the last but one of the chain which 

 extends south of the promontory of lazu in almost a 

 straight line. 



In a brief account of the work of the China Inland 

 Mission in Burmah we find some notes of interest re- 

 specting a visit to the Kah-chen hills near the Chinese 

 frontier. The village visited is situated among the 

 mountains at an elevation of 4,000 feet above the Burmese 

 town of Tsee-kaw. The Kah-chen houses are described 

 as being built of bamboo, and more substantially tha 

 those of the Burmese. The roof of each is about 100 

 150 feet in length; at the entrance for some ij feet the 

 sides are open or merely formed of open bamboo work. 

 The poles which support the roof of this part of the 

 building are ornamented with the heads and horns of 

 buffaloes sacrificed to the nats or spirits. On either side 

 of a long passage are small rooms, the first of which is 

 the guest chamber ; the kitchen and general sitting-rooni^| 

 is at the end of the passage, whence a door, always openjWI 

 leads into a small raised veranda and which is entirely 

 appropriated to the use of the iiats, of whom the people 

 are in great dread. The dress of the women is superio 

 to that of their Burmese sisters, than whom they are sau 

 to be more modest. All who can afford it, wear a larg 

 silver hoop round the neck, and as many strings of red, 

 green, blue, and white beads as they can muster. Their 

 ear ornaments are peculiar; large flaps of ornamented 

 cotton hang from the back of the ear, and tassels or 

 silver tubes are passed through the lobes. All wear large 

 coils of rattan round their bodies, and the younger ones 

 wear belis and cowrie shells. 'There is, however, one 

 objection to both men and women, viz., their great want 

 of cleanliness. 



NOTES 



The University of Edinburgh has sustained a great loss in 

 the unexpected death of its veteran and genial professor of 

 mathematics. Only three weeks ago, in giving the annual 

 address at the graduation ceremonial, he in touching terms 



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