14 



NATURE 



[September 2, 1915 



tion as is humanly possible. These illustrations 

 accompany an article on American game birds, by 

 Mr. Henry Henshaw, which should be seriously 

 studied by every field naturalist and sportsman in the 

 British Islands ; for the author draws a by no means 

 exaggerated picture of the ravages inflicted by modern 

 firearms on birds of real economic importance, and 

 the need for drastic legislation to prevent their speedy 

 extermination. And there can be no question but that 

 •his contentions have their roots deep down in solid 

 fact. In a second article, describing the impressive 

 transformation in the physiography of the country 

 affected by the formation of the huge lake in the 

 Gatun region, during the construction of the Panama 

 Canal, Mr. George Shiras draws a vivid picture of 

 the destruction of animal and plant life which has 

 been inevitable but none the less regrettable. Thickly 

 forested valleys teeming with animal life have now 

 been converted into one vast lake. But the author 

 holds that this area should be converted by the Federal 

 Government into a reservation for the absolute pro- 

 tection of the survivors from this deluge. In course 

 of time, he points out, if this is done, water-fowl of 

 all kinds will find sanctuary here, and serve as a 

 "feeder" for the areas depleted by the sportsman. 



In his presidental address, read at the American 

 Association of Museums, San Francisco, Dr. O. C. 

 Farrlngton gave an able summary of the origin and 

 evolution of natural history museums, which should 

 be widely read in this country. More especially Is 

 this to be urged in view of the danger which threatens 

 such institutions in the Immediate future in regard 

 to the policy of national retrenchment which Is now 

 in process of formation. There is a danger that the 

 prunlng-hook may be used too ruthlessly, thereby in- 

 flicting material harm. For reformers are generally 

 enthusiasts, and therefore are to be carefully watched, 

 experience having shown that a sense of proportion 

 is not usually among their attributes. Museums, as 

 he remarks, are even now commonly regarded as a 

 luxury, but he leaves no uncertainty as to the vitally 

 Important part which the modern museum plays, and 

 must continue to play, in ever-Increasing force, in our 

 national life : widening our outlook and conceptions 

 .of existence, and affording to the uninitiated sources 

 of Information as to the nature of disease and pesti- 

 lence, and other aspects of economic zoology which are 

 indispensable to the speeding up of progress and well- 

 being. 



In La Nature for August 21, 1915, L. De Launay 

 shows the extent of the recent discoveries of coal- 

 bearing strata in Germany, Belgium, and the Nether- 

 lands. Though the ultimate ownership of some of 

 these stores may seem uncertain, there is no doubt 

 as to their importance in the economy of Europe. 

 The explorations have proceeded at depths from 1000 

 to 1500 metres (nearly 5000 ft.). The Westphallan 

 coalfield has thus been connected with that of south- 

 east Belgium, through the tracing of intermediate 

 fields between Wesel and Aachen. On the east side 

 of the Rhine, moreover, from Essen to Wesel and 

 Haltern, the Westphallan basin has been proved to 

 NO. 2392, VOL. 96] 



have a vast extension. West of the Meuse, and south 

 of the innocent lands of Nijmegen, Holland partici- 

 pates in the new discoveries. At the Dutch frontier 

 the coal is within 300 metres of the surface. Since 

 1901, the Belgian field has been traced far north- 

 wards beneath the Calnozoic strata of Limbourg 

 between Brussels and Maastricht, and away west into 

 the province of Antwerp. The results in northern 

 France have been less important, but the total coal 

 resources of the areas dealt with in M. De Launay 's 

 article are double those that were known a few years 

 ago. The author cannot resist a suggestion that, 

 "after the war," France should annex the basin of 

 the Saar. 



Dr. a. Wade's researches on "The Supposed OIl- 

 bearlng areas of South Australia" have been pub- 

 lished as Bulletin No. 4 of the Geological Survey of 

 the State. Its wise conclusions and scientific 

 thoroughness recommend this report as a model to be 

 followed by explorers. The remarks about those super- 

 ficial observers who stimulate unprofitable enterprises 

 by saying that "the country is exactly like such-and- 

 such an oilfield " should be read by financial magnates 

 as well as by would-be prospectors. 



In the fifth volume of the Journal of the Natural 

 History and Science Society of Western Australia 

 (Perth, 1914, price 2s. 6d.), C. G. Thorp (p. 20) 

 reviews the interesting glassy bodies known as 

 Australites, and gives a useful map of their distribu- 

 tion. He regards them as ejected from a volcano or 

 volcanoes in the East Indies, some of them In Ter- 

 tiary and some In modern times. The blebs of glass 

 now found were attached to bubbles, and were thus 

 carried into the currents of the cirrus-cloud level of 

 the atmosphere. The author has succeeded in obtain- 

 ing artificial glass bubbles with blebs attached; but 

 some accident seems to have prevented their appear- 

 ance among his Illustrations. He believes that some 

 of the surface-glaze in australites results from fusion 

 while falling through our atmosphere. F. Berwerth, 

 It may be remembered (Nature, vol. Ixxxix., p. 513), 

 used the absence of such signs of fusion In moldavltes 

 as an argument against the meteoric theory of their 

 origin, and in this he received support from G. P. 

 Merrill's work on australites. E. W. Skeats describes 

 I' three unusual forms of australites" from gravels 

 in Western Victoria (Proc. R. Soc. Victoria, vol. 

 xxvil., 1915,- p. 362). 



In a review of "The Origin and Formation of the 

 Diamond" (S. African Journ. Scl., vol. xi., 1915, 

 p. 275), W. Johnson combats the theory that the 

 South African diamonds were formed from carbon 

 dissolved In molten kimberlite, and urges that pres- 

 sure was the primary factor in their production, at a 

 time when the igneous ground was buried in the crust 

 far more deeply than it is at the present day. 



The Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 

 for August, 1915 (vol. xlvli.), illustrates, in a paper 

 by H. E. Gregory, of Yale, the. huge buttes left in 

 the Navajo country by erosion of red Permian sand- 

 stones. Wind is still the great enemy in this plateau 



