October 4, 191;] 



NATURE 



95 



ordinary coal. According to calculations which were 

 made at one time by M. Loucher, each horse-power- 

 hour produced on a locomotive is equivalent to a con- 

 sumption of 25 kilos, of coal. Consequently, the 

 water-power yet to be utilised represents 20,000 tons 

 of coal per hour, or, say, 180,000,000 tons per annum. 



The author admits, of course, that certain industries 

 cannot dispense with coal, but suggests the use of 



> hydro-electric power wherever applicable. Railways 

 such as the Midi, the Paris-Lyons-Mediterranean, arid 

 the greater part of the Orleans should be electrified. 

 Large cities, like Paris, should follow the example of 

 Lyons. He pictures the advantages to Parisians in 

 respect of suburban transit, their industries, and light- 

 ing, had the Rhone barrage at Genissiat been com- 

 pleted before the war. 



Certain trades, as has been said, can dispense with 

 coal if electric power is available, such as the textile, 

 chemical, and paper trades. Metallurgv, j:*lass- 

 making, pottery, and zinc refining use up enormous 

 quantities of coal. But this state of things will not 

 always persist; synthetic pig-iron will one day replace 

 the present commodity ; the electrometallurgy of zinc is 

 now a practical proposition ; the ceramic art is capablo 

 of modernisation ; and electric bakeries are not merely 

 Utopian. 



In addition to being a source of heat, " white coal " 

 is also a source of cold ; low temperatures are neces- 

 sary for obtaining svnthetic nitrogenous products, 

 cyanamide, electrolytic potassium and permanganate — 

 substances which could, under the new r^^hne, be 

 produced chcaplv in France. Further, "white coal" 

 would help agriculture, not only bv providing manures, 

 nitrates, and cyanamides, but for driving tractors, 

 lighting farms, irrigating pasture land, working 

 pumps, ventilators, drving plants, separators — and in 

 a host of other wavs. E. S. Hodosox. 



coast of Queensland, more or less by chance. This 

 in some measure corroborates the views of Prof. 

 Elliot Smith, who suggests the Cape York Peninsula, 

 vi& Torres Straits, as the hypothetical route in the 

 migrations of the culture bearers who were responsible 

 for the diffusion of the " heliolithic culture complex." 

 Dr. Hamlyn Harris suggests that in geological times 

 .-Xustralia was in land connection with .Asia, not onlv 

 with New Guinea, but probably also with Timor, and 

 certain Queensland birds and animals are more closely 

 allied to Asiatic than to Papuan species. He fullv 

 accepts the conclusion of Dr. Rivers and Prof. Elliot 

 Smith that the oceanic cultures have been mainlv 

 derived from contact with other races. Mornington 

 Island, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, preserves an almost 

 unique example of .-Xustralian aboriginal culture which 

 has not been affected by foreign influences. 



THE SOILS OF HAWAII. 

 'T'HE island of Hawaii is the largest of the group 

 ■*■ of Sandwich Inlands, which were formallv 

 annexed to the United States in 1898. It is moun- 

 tainous and volcanic, and the soil is highlv productive ; 

 sugar and pineapples are the staple industries, but 

 coHee, honey, hides, sisal, bananas, rice, wool, cotton, 

 and rubber are also exported. As usual with .American 

 possessions, a strong agricultural experiment station 

 has been developed; in this particular case the work 

 was done under the auspices of the Sugar Planters' 

 Association. The director. Dr. H. P. Agee, and the 

 staff have carried out some excellent investigations on 

 the problems connected with the local agriculture. The 

 latest publication is by the chemist, Mr. P. S. Burgess, 

 and deals with the soils of the island. These are of 

 special interest because they are of volcanic origin, and 

 are situated in a different climatic zone from our own, 

 so that they differ in many respects from the ordinarv 

 soils of Great Britain or .America, especially in their 

 large content of oxides of iron and aluminium, and 

 their small content of silica. Thus the average of a 

 number of analvses is : — 

 „ .. ., ■ f^jO, AljOj SiOa 



Hawanan soils ... 280 207 32-5 per cent. 



•American soils ... 3-8 5-1 855 



The soils to which we are accustomed have been 

 formed in such a way that their chief constituent is 

 insoluble silica or silicates ; the Hawaiian soils, on the 

 other hand, contain large quantities of iron and alu- 

 minium oxides; they are known as laterites; other in- 

 stances occur in Java. This difference in corriposition 

 especially affects the finest grade of material, the clay, 

 which in the Hawaiian soils consists mainlv of iron 

 and aluminium oxides, while in the soils of temperate 

 zones it consists chiefly of silicates. In consequence 

 the behaviour to water is profoundly modified, and the 

 hygroscopic coefficients and other constants are quite 

 different from those obtained on normal soils. 



Bacteriological investigations have been put in hand, 

 but, as usual with American stations, the work is 

 mainly concerned with the amount of decomposition 

 effected by the organisms, and not with the organism- 

 themselves. The results suggest that a detailed com- 

 parison of typical organisms would be of considerable 

 interest. 

 "So far as we know, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters'^ 

 Experiment Station is the only station issuing English 

 bulletins which has the opportunity of fullv investigat- 

 ing laterite soils. It has, therefore, an uniisuallv good 

 range of problems. There can be little doubt that .1 

 detailed comparison of these soils with tvpical soils 

 of the eastern seaboard of the United States would 

 throw much light on the problems of soil chemistrv 

 and soil physics. E. J. R. ' 



