68 



NATURE 



[September 17, 1914 



investigations does not apply to his series. According 

 to this formula, the weight of a fish at different ages 

 is a function of the cube of the length. A mathe- 

 matical investigation of Mr. Russell's average weights 

 by Pearson's "method of moments" shows, however, 

 that the weight of a fish at different ages is to be 

 represented only by a series of the form, 



\ being the length of the fishes. It is possible that 

 these terms have each a physical meaning; the fish 

 grows irregularly as its age advances, so that its 

 weight is a function of length, surface, volume, and 

 density, all of which dimensions vary in relation to 

 each other in different phases of the individual life- 

 history. J. J. 



WATER SUPPLY.' 



ONE of the difficulties besetting the agriculturist 

 in the vast area known as the Great Plains and 

 constituting the central region of the United States is 

 the irregular rainfall. The land is fertile enough, but 

 a recurring series of dry years militates greatly 

 against its effective development. Attempts have 

 been made to remedy the evil by means of artificial 

 irrigation, but so far these efforts have been sporadic 

 and local, and, consequently, they have not produced 

 the completely beneficial results which might be 

 obtained if all the ground water were systematically 

 conserved and utilised. 



The United States Government hydrological service, 

 as the result of their investigations, are publishing 

 from time to time a series of vi^ater supply papers 

 specially devoted to a consideration of this problem as 

 affecting various localities, and four reports before us 

 (Nos. 345 A, B, C, and D), issued this year, deal with 

 districts in Oklahoma, Kansas, and New Mexico. 

 They are useful little pamphlets, affording much de- 

 tailed information on the geological formation and 

 available water resources of the respective areas. Not 

 the least useful feature, perhaps, is a discussion on 

 the depth and cost of wells, and on the power required 

 for pumping. There is a much-needed caution to 

 prospective irrigators to consider carefully the whole 

 of the outlay likely to be involved in any system of 

 artificial irrigation before embarking upon it, lest it 

 should prove to be financially unremunerative and un- 

 sound. 



Water Supply Paper, No. 340 A (Washington : 

 Government Printing Office, 1914), of the United 

 States Geological Survey, contains a list of the stream- 

 gauging stations situated in the North Atlantic coast 

 drainage basins, and a summary of the reports and 

 publications relating to water resources within this 

 area (1885-1913). It forms a convenient bibliograph- 

 ical index, and should prove most useful for reference 

 purposes to anyone desirous of consulting the litera- 

 ture on the subject. 



Three annual reports on the discharge of rivers in 

 the United States are comprised in Water Supply 

 Papers, Nos. 309, 322, and 324 (Washington : Govern- 

 ment Printing Office). The first deals with the 

 Colorado River Basin for the year 191 1 ; the other two 

 are for the year 1912, and cover the St. Lawrence 

 River Basin and the basins of the South Atlantic 

 coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico respectively. The 

 numerous observations made have been carefully com- 

 piled and tabulated, and, in conjunction with those 



1 Paper ^5 a : Preliminary Report on Ground Water for Irrigation in 

 in the vicinity of Wichita, Kansas. Paper 345 /' : Ground Water for 

 Irrigation in the vicinity of Enid, Oklahoma. Paper 345 c : Underground 

 Water of Luna County, New Mexico. Paper 345 rf: Ground Water for 

 Irrigation in the valley of North Fork of Canadian River, near Oklahoma 

 City, Oklahoma, Washington, 1914. Government Printing Office. 



NO. 2342, VOL. 94] 



previously published, form a very useful scientific 

 record of stream flow and discharge in the areas 

 specified. Each pamphlet has an introductory note 

 j on the methods employed in gauging, and, in the 

 . 1912 reports, there are some interesting photographs 

 and diagrams. 



THE AUSTRALIAN MEETING OF THE 

 BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



SECTION H. 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Opening Address by Sir Everard im Thurn, C.B., 

 K.C.M.G., President of the Section. 



.4 Study of Primitive Character. 



CiviLis.'XTiON and "savagery" — for unfortunately it 

 seems now too late to substitute any term of less 

 misleading suggestion for that word' "savagery" — 

 are the labels which we civilised folk apply respect- 

 ively to two forms of human' culture apparently so 

 unlike that it is hard to conceive that they had a 

 common origin — our own culture and that other, the 

 most primitive form of human culture, from which, 

 at some unknown and distant period, our own 

 diverged. But, assuming one common origin for the 

 whole human race, we anthropologists can but assume 

 that at an early stage in the history of that race some 

 new idea was implanted in a part of these folk, that 

 is, in the ancestors of civilised folk, which caused 

 these thenceforth to advance continuously, doubtless 

 by many again subsequently diverging and often 

 intercrossing roads, some doubtless more rapidly than 

 others, but all mainly towards that which is called 

 civilisation, while those others, those whom we call 

 "savages," were left behind at that first parting of 

 the ways, to stumble blindly, advancing indeed after 

 a fashion of their own, but comparatively slowly and 

 in a quite different direction. 



It is easy enough for civilised folk, when after 

 age-long separation they again come across the 

 "savages," to discern the existence of wide differences 

 between the two, in physical and mental character- 

 istics, and in arts and crafts ; it is not so easy, it may 

 even be that it is impossible, to detect the exact nature 

 of these differences, especially in the matter of mental 

 characters. 



As a rule the occupant of this presidential chair is 

 one who, whether he has seen much of "savages" 

 at close quarters or not, has had much ampler oppor- 

 tunity than has fallen to my lot of comparative study 

 of that great mass of anthropological observations 

 which, gathered from almost every part of the world, 

 has now been recorded at headquarters. I, on the 

 other hand, happen to have spent the better part of 

 my active life in two different parts of the world, 

 remote from books and men of science, but in both 

 of which folk of civilised and of savage culture have 

 been more or less intermixed, but as yet very imper- 

 fectly combined, and in both of which I have been 

 brought into rather unusually close and sympathetic 

 contact with folk who, whatever veneer of civilisation 

 may have been put upon them, are in the thoughts 

 which lie at the back of their minds and in character 

 still almost as when their ancestors were at the stage 

 of savage culture. 



While trying to adjust the mutual relations of wild 

 folk and of folk of civilised stock, I have seen from 

 close at hand the clash which is inevitable when the 

 two meet — a clash which is naturally all the greater 

 when the meeting is sudden. Moreover, having 

 started with a strong taste for natural history, and 



