632 



NATURE 



[February 3, 19 16 



ing from about lo to 4 inches. The general rainfall 

 for England and Wales was 198 per cent, of the 

 average, for Scotland 135 per cent., for Ireland 158 

 •per cent., and for the British Isles as a whole 169 per 

 cent, of the average, A tentative result for the whole 

 of 1915 is also given. 



The Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 

 for November (vol. xlvii.. No. 11) contains two papers 

 of considerable geographical value referring to people 

 in relation to their environment. The first, by Mr. L. 

 Dominian, deals with the peoples of northern and 

 central Asiatic Turkey. The complexity of races in 

 that region is analysed, and the results are shown on 

 B coloured map. Another coloured map gives the dis- 

 tribution of Armenians in Turkish Armenia. The 

 second paper is by Dr. J. Russell Smith, and discusses 

 the adjustment of the Bedouin to his surroundings. 

 Though it contains few new facts, it is of value for its 

 fresh interpretation of the relations of place and people. 

 Both papers are well illustrated. 



Some years ago Mr. G. H. Girty began to make a 

 ■systematic study of the Carboniferous faunas of North 

 America, and he has now completed a description of 

 the fossils of the Wewoka formation in Oklahoma 

 i(Bulletin of the United States Geological Survev. 

 No. 544). This formation is especially interesting be- 

 •cause it is far distant from the well-known Carbon- 

 iferous areas further north and east, and both its sedi 

 ments and its faunas show marked differences from 

 those already studied. Most of the fossils are in .-i 

 fine state of preservation, and are found weathered out 

 of the shales. The Mollusca are especially abundint, 

 and the Brachiopoda do not predominate so much rs 

 usual. The beautiful figures which illustrate the de- 

 scriptions will be welcomed by students of Carbon- 

 iferous fossils. 



Dr. J. W. Evans has drawn up for H.M. Stationery 

 Office a very useful pamphlet (price 2d.), entitled 

 " Directions for the Collection of Geological Speci- 

 mens." The concluding paragraph suggests that it 

 Is Intended for travellers in our colonies ; but it will 

 also be found of service by those who have any leisure 

 In our war-zones, and by students and surveyors In 

 the British Isles. The author's experience In various 

 continents enables him to give admirable advice on 

 larger questions than mere collecting, such as In- 

 quiries on water supply and physiographic changes 

 in recent times. As an example of his thoroughness, 

 we may note his suggestion of marking strike and 

 dip on a bedded specimen where these are of Interest. 

 The lines and figures on the specimen will then per- 

 manently record Its position in the mass from which 

 it came. 



The railway development of Africa Is the subject 

 of a useful article and map by Sir Charles Metcalfe 

 in the Geographical Journal for January (vol. 

 xlvii., No. i). The article contains a great deal of 

 matter in small compass. The present railways are 

 largely feeders of rivers, or independent lines to sea- 

 ports, but many projects are on foot to make the 

 railways continuous, when the navigable reaches of 

 the rivers will become their feeders. There will be 

 NO. 2414, VOL. 96J 



through communication between Port Said and Cape 

 Town by rail and steamer when the line in the Congo 

 is finished from Kambove to Bukama, and from 

 Stanleyville to Lake Albert, and the short section of 

 100 miles from Dufile to Rejaf. From Stanleyville 

 it is probable that a line will be built to Lake Chad 

 and continued to link up with the French Trans- 

 Sahara railway. An alternative Cape to Cairo route 

 will be from Broken Hill In Rhodesia, on the existing 

 line, to the south end of Tanganyika, through what 

 is now German East Africa to the existing Uganda 

 railway and thence to Senaar in the Sudan. The 

 rapidly constructed link between the Cape railways 

 and those of the protectorate of South-west Africa are 

 shown on the map. 



The Educational Times has long been the medium 

 adopted by a certain class of mathematicians when 

 they wish to derive what pleasure there is to be 

 derived from puzzling over riddle-me-rees in the form 

 of mathematical problems. From the commencement 

 of the present year these things are transferred to a 

 separate publication, which is to be Issued monthly 

 under the title of Mathematical Questions and Solu- 

 tions. It is edited by Miss Constance Marks and 

 published by Mr. Francis Hodgson, 89 Farringdon 

 Street, London, the subscription price being 55. for six 

 months, including postage and binding cover. It 

 contains the usual series of out-of-the-way properties 

 of conies, triangles, and collections of algebraic 

 symbols, and the usual neglect of aeroplanes. The 

 latter would with very little difficulty provide enough 

 problems to keep a journal of this kind going almost 

 indefinitely, but aeroplanes have always been tabooed 

 by the British mathematical world. The possibility, 

 however, suggests itself of using the journal as a 

 medium for getting some of the analytical details of 

 these investigations solved by reducing them to 

 problems in pure mathematics. 



The Mathematical Gazette for January contains a 

 •'bordered antilogarlthm table" drawn up by Prof. 

 G. H. Bryan and Mr. T. G. Creak. In the descrip- 

 tion the authors claim that the object of the table 

 iS to enable logarithms, logarithms of reciprocals, 

 and antilogarithms of numbers and their reciprocals 

 all to be taken from the same table. To do this they 

 use a table of antilogarithms or powers of ten, with 

 the complementary logarithms entered in the right- 

 hand column and the bottom of the page in the same 

 way that the ordinary trigonometric tables avoid 

 duplication in tabulating logarithmic sines and cosines. 

 Another feature on which the authors lay great 

 stress is that the antilogarithms are tabulated to five 

 significant figures In the lower parts of the scale and 

 to four in the higher parts. This degree of approxi- 

 mation is both necessary and sufficient to secure the 

 maximum degree of accuracy in working with four- 

 figure logarithms, as the tabular differences are 

 neither too small nor unnecessarily large. 



The Revue gdndrale des Sciences for December 30, 

 1915, contains a well-illustrated article by M. Jacques 

 Boyer on the manufacture of X-ray tubes In France 

 during the war. The bulbs of the modern tubes are 



