December 17, 1914] 



NATURE 



423 



"FIELD-WORK" WITH THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION IN AUSTRALIA. 



IN connection with the recent visit of the British 

 Association to Australia, in addition to pre- 

 sidential addresses and evening- discourses and the 

 more formal sectional proceedings, all of which 

 have now been fully recorded in Nature, much 

 good scientific work, especially in connection 

 with the natural history sciences, was carried 

 out by means of sp>ecial meetings, expeditions, and 

 discussions of a more or less informal character, 

 kindly and wisely arranged by the local men of 

 science for particular groups of the over-seas 

 party. Moreover, on the visits paid to university 

 laboratories, museums, and other institutions by 

 many of the party, problems for investigation were 

 pointed out, and plans for future research and co- 

 operation were suggested, of value to hosts and 

 guests alike ; and it is not improbable that some of 

 these informal conferences may have as great an 

 effect upon the advancement of science in Aus- 

 tralia as any of the more public meetings of the 

 Association. 



It is impossible to enumerate all the opportuni- 

 ties for useful work thus given to the visiting men 

 of science, but a few of the leading occasions that 

 were made by the Australian naturalists for bring- 

 ing- biologists and geologists into direct contact 

 with the problems of wild nature may be here 

 briefly indicated. Some of these informal expedi- 

 tions and discussions, it may be added, led to the 

 appointment of Australian research committees, 

 to which grants were given by the British Asso- 

 ciation Committee of Recommendations meeting 

 at Sydney on August 25. 



The week or more spent by members' of the 

 " Advance Party " in Western Australia was 

 almost wholly devoted to work in the field, both 

 on land and water, and Prof. Dakin, one of the 

 local secretaries and leader of the zoological ex- 

 cursions to the Yallingup Caves and Mundaring 

 Weir and a dredging expedition on the Swan 

 River, has already given some account of this 

 field-work in Nature for September 24. But in 

 addition to these larger parties, groups of zoolo- 

 gists and others were taken on occasions to visit 

 points of interest on the Darling Range and else- 

 where, where Peripatus {Peripatoides gilesii, 

 Spencer) and other rare and interesting organisms 

 were to be found. Of scarcely less interest to 

 zoologists and anthropologists were the discus- 

 sions which resulted from visits to the collections 

 at the Perth Museum under the direction of Mr. 

 B. H. Woodward and Mr. Alexander, and to those 

 at the University made by Prof. Dakin on his 

 recent visit to the Abrolhos Archipelago (the sub- 

 ject of a communication to Section D at Sydney). 

 Throughout the visit to Western Australia, al- 

 though no formal sectional meetings were held, 

 the conferences with local men of science at the 

 University, the Museum, and in the field, dealt 

 largely with questions of local research, and may 

 confidently be expected to result in further investi- 

 gations. 



During the time of the Adelaide meeting a party 



NO. 2355, VOL. 94] 



of geologists and chemists visited the celebrated 

 Broken Hill mines and the smelting works at 

 Port Pirie for the purpose of studying the occur- 

 rence of the ores and the methods employed in 

 working and smelting. Another party of geolo- 

 gists, led by Mr. W. Howchin, the discoverer of 

 the local evidences of glaciation, at the same time 

 visited the Sturt River to examine the Cambrian 

 glacial beds, and also explored the Permo-Car- 

 boniferous glacial beds and the Archaeocyathine 

 lime-stones of Hallett's Cove, and finally the 

 granitic rocks of the southern sea-coast in the 

 neighbourhood of Victor Harbour. Several small 

 bands of zoologists made observing and collecting 

 trips from Adelaide to Lake Alexandrina, Victor 

 Harbour on the coast, the Mount Lofty Range, 

 and elsewhere, at all of which localities objects of 

 interest were seen and material collected which 

 may lead to research in the future. 



One of the most interesting excursions from 



Fig. I. — Black swan on nest in a river of S. Australia. 



Adelaide was that arranged for the anthropolo- 

 gists, by Prof. Stirling, to Milang, on Lake Alex- 

 andrina, for the purpose of inspecting a number 

 of men, women, and children from the Mission 

 Station, including some full-blooded aborigines. 

 These gave displays of dancing, boomerang- 

 throwing, hut-building, and basket-making, and 

 some of the British Association party collected 

 information in regard to cat's-cradle games and 

 native genealogies. 



Interesting botanical excursions were arranged 

 from Adelaide by Prof. T. G. B. Osborn, one to 

 study the Salicornia scrub and the mangrove 

 swamps of the coastal region, one to various 

 localities on the Mount Lofty Range to see the 

 fern gullies and the scrub of the higher regions, 

 and a third to Mannum, on the Murray River — all 

 of ecological interest. 



At Melbourne the time and attention of over- 

 seas members were naturally more fully taken up 



