712 



NATURE 



[February 24, 19 16 



for recovering the soda ash used in the boiling, which 

 gives a very different figure for mill costs per ton 

 of output. As to a possible supply of indigenous 

 fibrous material in substitution of the material to be 

 excluded under this order, the only one practically 

 available at the moment is straw. Straw was at one 

 time quite a staple raw material, and was very largely 

 worked at mills favourably situated in agricultural 

 districts. The chemical treatment of straw for pro- 

 ducing a bleached half-stuff (cellulose) is closely simi- 

 lar to that of esparto, but it requires a more severe 

 boiling treatment, and the yield of cellulose is much 

 less. Further, from its structural features, it cannot 

 be economically or conveniently handled in the pre- 

 paring and boiling plant of esparto mills. There is, 

 however, a possibility of adapting this plant to the 

 exigency. 



A MEMORIAL has been presented to the Prime Minis- 

 ter and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, signed by 

 many persons of influence, and among them by a 

 considerable number of scientific and professional men 

 and educationists. Its purport is to give emphasis to 

 the demand for national economy, and to urge the 

 necessity of retrenchment in official and municipal ex- 

 penditure. It recognises that the national finances and 

 the enormous demands made day by day in the prose- 

 cution of the war will render necessary heavy addi- 

 tional taxation and much larger savings, both by 

 public bodies and private individuals, than have hitherto 

 been effected. For the latter purpose authoritative 

 guidance from his Majesty's Government is much to 

 be desired. It is suggested, therefore, that a strong 

 official War Savings Board should be constituted, 

 which should lay down regulations for enforcing 

 economy on Government Departments and on public 

 authorities during the period of the war, and should 

 also consider and report on the best means of advising 

 and encouraging domestic thrift. It urges that these 

 measures should be adopted without delay. The 

 memorialists are no doubt addressing persons who will 

 be in full sympathy with their objects. For ourselves 

 we should have been disposed to add to the weighty 

 considerations they have brought forward the import- 

 ance of that other branch of thrift, which consists in 

 judicious expenditure, and in applying to the best pur- 

 pose the money which is being lavishly expended 

 directly on the operations of the war, and indirectly 

 on a great variety of objects more or less concerned 

 with the war. 



The danger of relying on popular tradition in ques- 

 tions of archaeology is illustrated by a recent case 

 reported by the American Bureau of Ethnology. For 

 many years the people of Georgia have believed that 

 the Nacoochee Mound in White County dated back 

 to the Spanish conquest, and was closely connected 

 with a beautiful local legend. Mr. F. W. Hodge, 

 who has recently excavated the site, finds that the 

 word Nacoochee cannot be traced in the Cherokee 

 language, and that it does not, as has been claimed, 

 mean " Evening Star," a theory on which the legend 

 was based. The mound is really of comparatively 

 recent origin, was constructed by the local Cherokee 

 NO. 2417, VOL. 96] • 



Indians, and was in use by them until the nineteen; 

 century. 



Students of clan organisation based on the totcm- 

 istic crest system will be interested in a careful study 

 published as Bulletin No. 19 of the Department of 

 Mines, Canada, which contains an account of the 

 social organisation of the Nass River Indians, by 

 Mr. E. Sapir. This tribe is divided into four exo- 

 gamous phratries with maternal descent — that is to 

 say, the crests and other privileges descend from a 

 man to his sister's son, and a man's predecessor as 

 the holder of any title or right is not his father, but 

 his maternal uncle. These phratries are again divided 

 into clans, each with a definite order of rank marked 

 by the ownership of special crests, legends, songs, 

 individual names, houses, hunting, and fishing terri- 

 tories, and numerous other inheritable privileges. 



At the monthly general meeting of the Zoological 

 Society of London, held on February 16, it was an- 

 nounced that fifty-seven additions had been made to 

 the society's menagerie during the month of January. 

 The most notable of these were a specimen of Pere 

 David's deer {Elaphurus davidianus), now extinct as a 

 wild animal, and an Anoa {Anoa depressicornis), pre- 

 sented by the president, and two Argentine frogs 

 {Leptodactylus rnystacinus) and six South American 

 sand toads (Bufo arenarum), new to the collection, 

 presented by Mr. Wilfred Smithers. As compared with 

 the month of January, 1915, there was an increase in 

 the number of visitors of no fewer than 14,407, while 

 the receipts showed an increase of 269Z. » 



Miss L. H. Huie makes an important addition to j 

 our knowledge of the parasitic Anthomyiid fly, ■ 

 Hylemyia grisea, in the Scottish Naturalist for 

 Januar}^ Of the life-historj' of this insect little was ^ 

 previously known. Miss Huie now describes its , 

 method of oviposition in the burrows of the wild bee, ' j 

 Andrena analis. The larva, on hatching, makes its 

 way to the brood chamber to feed upon the pollen 

 stored for the larval bee, the fate of which in these 

 circumstances has yet to be traced. The author in 

 this communication not only adds materially to our 

 knovi'ledge of this insect, but she also, for the first 

 time, records its presence in Scotland, where hitherto 

 it has not been supposed to occur. In the same 

 number Miss L. J. Rentoul and Miss E. W. Baxter 

 record some useful notes on the moulting of birds in 

 their winter quarters. While adopting the latest 

 eccentricities of nomenclature in regard to the species 

 described, the authors have neglected to acquaint 

 themselves with the morphological terms which have 

 been in use for the last twenty years or so in regard 

 to the plumage. 



The January number of the Zoologist contains a 

 valuable summary of the fishing industry at Great 

 Yarmouth, by Mr. A. H. Patterson. The influence 

 of the war is manifest on nearly every page of this 

 report. Among other matters, it is mentioned that 

 in consequence of the diminished fish supply dogfish 

 are now esteemed as food-fishes, large quantities being 

 now eaten locally with relish. The record catch of 

 herring for a single boat was landed on November i. 



