596 



NATURE 



[January 28, 19 15 



accomplished by a Russian expedition), carrving^ out 

 geographical and ethnological research. Another ex- 

 pedition, under Rusanov, started for these seas in the 

 same year, and anxiety has been felt about both, in 

 the absence of any news save rumours of a wreck at 

 the mouth of the River Pechora. Captain Sverdrup 

 was therefore dispatched in command of a relief ex- 

 pedition on the Eclipse, and it was reported last 

 September that he himself was in difficulties, the ship 

 being ashore near the mouth of the Ob. He was 

 fortunately encountered by another vessel, and the 

 Eclipse was towed off and proceeded. It is now 

 announced, in messages from Petrograd, that she is 

 in winter quarters in . lat. 74° 45' N., long. 92° E. 

 On existing maps this p'osition falls well inland in 

 the Taimyr Peninsula, so that it may perhaps be 

 assumed that she has found a berth in a bay on this 

 coast. It does not appear that the search has yet 

 succeeded. 



Some interesting particulars of the life of Dr. J. 

 Muir, the wadely known naturalist, whose death was 

 announced in Nature of December 31, are given in 

 the Scientific American. John Muir was born in 

 Dunbar, Scotland, April 21, 1838, and went to the 

 United States when 1 1 3ears old with his parents, 

 who settled in the wilderness of Wisconsin, where 

 later he studied in the University of Wisconsin. His 

 love of nature induced him to take up a wandering 

 life, during which he covered much of the territory of 

 the South-west and West, constantly increasing his 

 knowledge of natural history, as well as allied 

 sciences. About 1876 he joined the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey to enable him to extend 

 the field of observations, and covered great sections 

 of Alaska. The great Muir Glacier bears his name. 

 He was one of the party that went in search of 

 De Long and the lost Jeanette expedition, and also 

 of the Corwin expedition, during which he had an 

 opportunity to study the Glacier formation of the 

 Bering Sea, and the coast of Siberia, and later went 

 to Switzerland and Norway for purposes of com- 

 parison. Besides being a naturalist he was an able 

 geologist, explorer, artist, and philosopher, and in 

 his younger years showed that he was a clever in- 

 ventor. He was widely known as the "Guardian of 

 the Yosemite " and the " Naturalist of the Sierras " 

 from his intense interest in those regions, and he did 

 much for the preservation of the national forests and 

 parks. 



Mr. T. F. Burton has succeeded Mr. Watson 

 Smith as editor of the Journal of the Society of 

 Chemical Industry, and the first issue of the journal 

 under his editorship is before us. No other journal 

 can have so great an influence upon the chemical 

 industry of the United Kingdom as that issued fort- 

 nightly by the Society of Chemical Industry ; and at 

 the present time, when a new editor is commencing' 

 his responsibilities, it is appropriate to point out that 

 chemists will never again have so favourable an 

 opportunity of asserting their influence on industry 

 and gaining a greater hold in this country than during 

 the next twelve months. The technical abstracts in 

 the journal are very valuable, but perhaps the more 

 NO. 2361, VOL. 94] 



purely scientific notes might be left to the Chemical 

 Society. The space saved could be devoted to more 

 general and commercial chemical topics, and so justify 

 the journal as the organ of an industrial organisation. 

 Though the papers communicated by members are not 

 usually of a high standard, owing to some extent to 

 the enforced secrecy about chemical processes, the 

 current issue contains a contribution of striking merit 

 by Mr. E. V. Evans, describing the solution of the 

 all-important problem of the removal of carbon 

 bisulphide from coal gas. More might be done, as 

 indeed was attempted a few years ago, to publish 

 summaries on the development or present position of 

 certain selected branches of chemical industry. The 

 opportunity to-day is a great one ; it rests largely with 

 the society whether the industrial chemists of the 

 kingdom are to organise collectively to seize it, or 

 whether action is to be left to the more progressive 

 individual firms. 



At the end of last year Mrs. James Buckland sent 

 us a letter which apparently had been issued to other 

 periodicals at the same time, referring- to the feather 

 trade. In the course of this appeal to women to begin 

 the new year with a resolve to abstain from the use 

 of feathers in their millinery, the remark was made : — 

 "The bulk of the plumage which comes into the 

 London market — smuggled out of India and our 

 Colonies for the most part — goes in a raw state to 

 Germany, whence it is returned to this country made 

 into hat decorations." As similar assertions relating 

 to the importation of birds' plumage from India to 

 Germany are often made, we have gone to the trouble 

 of instituting- inquiries with the view of obtaining 

 accurate information upon this subject. We have 

 been unable to find any particulars either in the official 

 trade returns of Germany or of India as to the trade 

 between these countries in birds' feathers. An exam- 

 ination of the German returns also shows that the 

 imports of feathers into that country from the other 

 British possessions are quite insignificant. The bulk 

 of plumage of all descriptions, including- ostrich 

 feathers, comes into the London market, and the 

 dyeing and mounting of these are done chiefly here 

 and in France. This is the case with all high-class 

 goods, but cheap articles of fancy feathers, wings, and 

 mounts, have been bought here in the rough, sent to 

 Germany, and then returned to us. There seems to 

 be little justification for the statement that the bulk 

 of the plumage in its raw state goes to Germany and 

 is returned made into hat decorations, although some 

 of it, exported from here, does find its way back again. 

 Perhaps Mrs. Buckland, or someone else interested in 

 the preservation of beautiful birds will furnish us with 

 the definite information upon which the charge is 

 based that the plumage trade is largely dependent 

 upon the supply of birds' feathers to Germany from 

 India and our Colonies Unless such evidence is 

 forthcoming we are of the opinion that by the publica- 

 tion of statements which do not admit of complete 

 justification by fact, advocates of better protection of 

 birds let their zeal outrun their discretion. 



Mr. a. .Smith, curator of the City and County 

 Museum at Lincoln, has issued at the price of one 



