March 28, 1901J 



NATURE 



519 



which form the northern cape of Graham Land (XX. on 

 map, Fig. i. and view Fig. 2). In places the beach was 

 quite free from snow, elsewhere there were small glaciers 

 clinging to the slopes of the mountain and terminating 

 seawards in cliffs of ice. The steep rocky slopes above 

 were absolutely bare up to a height of 700 or 1000 feet, 

 and beyond that rose fields of nevd. Two of the party 

 climbed a little ridge running at right-angles to the 

 range of the Needles. An inclined plane of snow, 

 interrupted here and there in the upper part by trans- 

 verse crevasses easy to cross, led them to the rocky wall, 

 which there was no difficulty in climbing, thanks to 

 the numerous joints widened by weathering so as to cut 

 up the face of the rock into superimposed blocks, and 

 tlianks also to the narrow chimneys down which the 

 debris of the rock slipped. It is remarkable that these 

 rocks remained quite bare at an elevation far above the 

 snow-line. It is not sufficiently accounted for by the 

 steepness of the slope, though that would make it pos- 

 sible for only a small quantity of snow to accumulate ; 

 but the dark walls were so strongly heated by the sun 

 that the snow was actually melted. In making the ascent 

 it was found that the low cloud, characteristic of these 

 regions, was very thin and level on 

 both the lower and upper surfaces, 

 the belt of mist having been passed 

 through between the altitudes of 1 50 

 and 300 feet, and above that there 

 was an absolutely clear sky and 

 dazzling sunshine, while the cloud 

 extended as a smooth grey sea 

 underneath. If such a condition 

 often occurs, it is easy to see how 

 the higher rocks become free of 

 snow in summer, while those near 

 sea-level remain covered. 



After this landing the Belgica 

 entered the Pacific, turned south- 

 wards into the ice-pack, and for a 

 year drifted hither and thither, fast 

 in the ice out of sight of land. 



Wiesbaden conference decided to found an Interna- 

 tional Union of the principal scientific bodies of the 

 whole world under the name of the "International 

 Association of Academies " ; the members of this Associa- 

 tion being as follows : — 



(i) The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, at 

 Berlin. 



(2) The Royal Society of Sciences, at Gottingen. 



(3) The Royal Saxon Society of Sciences, at Leipzig. 



(4) The Royal Society, at London. 



(5) The Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences, at 

 Munich. 



(6) The Academy of Sciences, at Paris. 



(7) The Imperial Academy of Sciences, at St. Peters- 

 burg. 



(8) The Royal Academy, at Rome. 



(9) The Imperial Academy of Sciences, at Vienna. 

 (10) The National Academy of Sciences, at Washington. 



I The following academies were also invited to take 

 ! part : — 



j (i) The Royal Academy of Sciences, at Amsterdam. 

 I (2) The Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences, Litera- 

 1 ture and the Fine Arts, at Brussels. 



THE INTERNA TJONAL ASSO- 

 CI AT JON OF ACADEMIES. 



A N account by M. Gaston Dar- 

 ■^*- boux, permanent secretary of 

 the Paris Academy of Sciences, of 

 the inception and first meeting at Wiesbaden of this 

 International Association, was given in Nature for July 

 12, 1900. To the January number of \.\\& Journal des 

 Savants M. Darboux contributes a further article on the 

 same subject, in which, after again sketching the events 

 which led to the rise of the Association, he gives an 

 account of the Paris meeting and the arrangements for 

 future work. 



In this interesting article it is explained that the Royal 

 Society and the Paris Academy took the initiative in the 

 formation of this important Association, the advantages 

 of which were pointed out by Lord Lister, as president 

 of the Royal Society, in a letter dated November 17, 

 1898, addressed to the president of the Academy of 

 Sciences of Paris. Among the questions of the first im- 

 portance is that of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers, 

 already commenced single-handed by the Royal Society. 

 To carry this out completely it has been estimated that 

 in the domain of the positive sciences alone the annual 

 catalogue should comprise seventeen volumes and about 

 two hundred thousand entries, a task evidently capable 

 of being successfully accomplished only by combined 

 international effort. 

 The academies and societies represented at the 



Fig. 2. — The Needles seen from the Pacific. From the Geographical Journal, 



(3) The Hungarian Academy of Sciences, at Budapest. 

 (4') The Society of Sciences, at Christiania. 



(5) The Royal Society of Sciences, at Copenhagen. 



(6) The Royal Academy of History, at Madrid. 



(7) The Academy of Inscriptions and Literature, at 

 Paris. 



(8) The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, at 

 Stockholm. 



Rules were also formulated regulating the admission. 

 of new academies, the constitution of the council and 

 committee, the holding of general meetings every three 

 years, and the mode of government during the intervals- 

 between the general meetings. 



It was decided that the first reunion of the Internationa) 

 Association should be held in Paris in July 1900. At 

 this conference, besides formal business dealing with 

 questions of constitution, three propositions brought for- 

 ward by constituent academies were considered. The 

 Royal Society drew attention to the desirability of con- 

 necting the measurements of Struve upon the arc of 

 meridian 30" E. with those of Gill on the same meridiar^ 

 in South Africa ; the Academy of Berlin raised the 

 question of the best means of facilitating access t» 

 manuscripts and other documents ; and on the proposi- 



NO. 1639, VOL. 63] 



