136 



NATURE 



\_yune 9, 18S7 



Botanic Garden is in course of being established under the 

 charge of Mr. W. R. Elliott ; and, with the sanction of the 

 Legislature, ;^ioo has been granted for the formation of a 

 botanical station at Dodd's Reformatory, Barbados. A botanical 

 station, for which ^^300 has been voted, is being made near 

 Castries, St. Lucia. Mr. Morris is of opinion that the prospects 

 of the scheme for botanical federation in the West Indies are, 

 upon the whole, very good. The recent appointment of Mr. 

 William Fawcett to the post of Director of the Botanical Depart- 

 ment at Jamaica appears, he thinks, to offer every hope of 

 success to the scheme. "It is also anticipated," Mr. Morris 

 says, "that, while gi-anting valuable aid to the smaller islands, 

 Jamaica, as a centre, will herself derive, both directly and 

 indirectly, considerable benefit from such vigorous and systematic 

 working as would naturally arise in her own area as well as 

 from a larger interchange of plants and seeds with the neigh- 

 bouring islands." 



In connexion with the sixtieth meeting of German Naturalists 

 and Physicians, which is to be held at Wiesbaden from Sep- 

 tember 15 to 24, there will bean important scientific exhibition. 

 It is intended that the exhibition shall include the latest and 

 best instruments and apparatus used in the study anJ in the 

 teaching of science and medicine. The following are among the 

 groups to be represented : — Surgery, physical diagnosis and 

 therapeutics ; ophthalmology, gynaecology ; laryngology, rhino- 

 logy, and otiatry ; orthopaedia, dentistry, chemistry, instruments 

 of precision, with subdivision for microscopy ; instruments and 

 apparatus aiding instruction in natural history, geography, 

 equipment for scientific travel, photography, anthropology, 

 biology and physiology, hygiene, electro-therapeutics and 

 neurology, and pharmacology. Applications are to be addressed 

 to the Exhibition Committee, 44 Frankfurterstrasse, Wies- 

 baden. 



On Friday, the 3rd inst., the work of constructing the canal 

 which is to connect the German Ocean with the Baltic Sea was 

 formally begun by the German Emperor. The ceremony, 

 which took place at Holtenau, on the Bay of Kiel, consisted of 

 the laying of the foundation-stone of a lock near the Baltic end 

 of the canal. It is estimated that the total cost of the under- 

 taking will be 156,000,000 marks (about ;^7,8oo,oo3). This 

 sum has already been voted by the Reichstag and the Pru ssian 

 Parliament. The canal is being constructed mainly for naval 

 and military purposes, but in times of peace it will be open to 

 the merchant ships of all nations. The German authorities 

 calculate that it will be used annually by about 18,000 vessels, 

 with a collective tonnage of 5,500,000, and yielding a revenue 

 of 4, 125,000 marks (about ;,^2o6,25o). 



On Wednesday, the 15th inst., at 3 p.m., Sir H. W. Acland 

 will distribute prizes to students at the Medical School of St. 

 Thomas's Hospital. The ceremony will take place in the 

 Governors' Hall. 



Lord Cadogan has offered to present a site for the Free 

 Public Library which is to be erected in Chelsea. He also 

 promises to give ;^3oo worth of books, to which Lady Cadogan 

 adds a gift of ;^50. 



On Tuesday evening a meeting, held in the lecture-hall of 

 the Polytechnic Institution, Regent Street, decided that an 

 effort should be made to secure the establishment of a Free 

 Public Library in Marylebone. Prof. Huxley, who presided, 

 said it was proposed that ;^20,ooo should be raised to cover the 

 cost of the site and building, and he was able to announce that 

 ;^ 10,500 had already been promised. If they succeeded in their 

 object, as he was sure they would, they could go to the authorities 

 and the ratepayers and say, " We have done our part of a public 

 duty, now perform yours." 



The Corporation of London have voted a donation of one 

 hundred guineas towards the thousand pounds required by the 

 Bethnal Green Free Library Committee for the further develop- 

 ment of the Institution. 



On the 3rd inst. several shocks of earthquake occurred in 

 Northern California and Western Nevada. They were distinctly 

 felt in the Yosemite Valley. 



During the earthquakes in the Sierra Madre, five persons 

 were killed and nineteen injured at Bapipe (Sonora province), 

 and five persons were killed at Oputa. Both towns were com- 

 pletely destroyed. The inhabitants, as well as those of the 

 towns of Barceraca and Quasa, are living in the open fields, 

 shocks being still felt continually. Some places which were 

 quite dry formerly are now submerged. 



The Oficina Central Meteorolojica de Chile is endeavouring 

 to keep up and improve the meteorological service of the 

 Republic. Vol. xviii. of its Anuario, containing the observations 

 for the year 1886, has been recently published. The first obser- 

 vations published by the Office were for 1869, but for several 

 years past the publication has fallen into arrears for want of 

 sufficient funds. Since the re-organization of the Office in 1885, 

 the Anuario has appeared in two-monthly parts, and the 

 management of the service is now intrusted to a Committee 

 composed of members of the Faculty of Sciences at the Univer- 

 sity of Santiago. There are now twenty-eight stations at which 

 observations are being taken or in course of establishment ; the 

 most northerly station is Iquique (lat. 20° 12' S.), and the most 

 southerly Punto Arenas (lat. 53° 10' S.), but there are none 

 between this and Ancud (lat. 41° 52' S.). Many of the stations 

 are provided with the best instruments, ordered from Europe, 

 and the Central Office has a complete outfit of self-recording 

 instruments. The Astronomical Observatory at Santiago has 

 also published meteorological observations, indef)endently, from 

 1873-84, together with curves of the automatic records. 



The Annalen der Hydrographie und maritimen Meteorologie 

 for May contains a notice of a fall of volcanic ashes, at Finsch 

 Harbour, on the eastern coast of New Guinea, which lasted 

 from 7 a.m. till about il a.m. on February 5 last, and 

 covered the country round with a thin layer of light-gray ashes. 

 On February 2 the whole sky appeared gray, and at noon the 

 sun was of a blood-red colour, while lunar halos and rings 

 occurred for several nights. Captain von Schleinitz states that 

 the north-west monsoon, which prevails at this season, had 

 ceased for f(Xir days, and was replaced by fresh southerly winds, 

 but made its appearance again at noon on the 4th. From this 

 he concludes that the volcanic eruption which caused the fall of 

 ashes might have occurred either to the north or south, as the fall 

 did not take place with either the northerly or southerly wind, but 

 during a calm, the ashes having remained suspended for some 

 time. He thinks that a northerly origin is most probable, 

 although they might have been carried thither from an easterly 

 or westerly direction by an upper air- current, or that the vol- 

 canoes in Vulcan Island and Lesson Island may have shown 

 unusual activity during the period in question. 



The Monthly Weather Review, published by the Chief 

 Signal Officer of the United States, and referred to in our issue 

 of last week (p. 1 10), has now been received for the six months 

 ending December 1886, making the series complete up to 

 February 1887. 



The recent cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, to which we referred 

 last week (p. no), did much injury both on sea and land. Com- 

 menting on the fact that the Viceroy has telegraphed to the Sheriff 

 of Calcutta expressing the regret and sympathy felt by himself and 

 the members of the Government, the Calcutta Correspondent of 



