July 8, 1920] 



NATURE 



593 



Mr. Francis Harper, the assistant biologist of the 

 L'nited States Biological Survey, contributes to 

 Xatural History, the journal of the American Museum 

 of Natural History, vol. xx., No. i, an article of 

 remarkable interest on the Okefinokee Swamp, 

 which covers nearly seven hundred square miles of 

 the south-eastern part of the State of Georgia. "It 

 has no counterpart anywhere in the world." Drain- 

 ;ig^e und the '"lumber-man" threaten its existence, 

 and unless the hand of the destroyer can be stayed 

 It is certain that a considerable number of vanishing 

 r)irds and beasts will be swept out of existence, this 

 swamp being their last stronghold. In 1918 a society 

 was formed for the purpose of securing the swamp 

 as an educational and scientific reservation, and it 

 is devoutly to be hoped that this aim will be secured ; 

 for such areas are of immense value, not only to the 

 l)eople of America, but also to the world of science at 

 large. 



\Vk have received from the American Museum of 

 Natural History a brief preliminary report on the 

 zoological collections made under its direction in the 

 Belgian Congo territory during the years 1909-15. 

 Of mammals, birds, and fishes respectively there are 

 about 6000 specimens, of reptiles and batrachians 

 nearly 5000, and of invertebrates more than 100,000. 

 Material has been obtained for mounted groups of the 

 Uapi and* square-lipped rhinoceros in their natural 

 -urroundings. There are also 3800 specimens illus- 

 trating anthropology. It is anticipated that the 

 scientific papers on the collection will occupy twelve 

 volumes of the Museum Bulletin, and a monograph 

 of the okapi is being prepared for the Memoirs. There 

 will also be a Narrative in two volumes and an Ethno- 

 logical Album in three volumes. In consideration of 

 the generous co-operation of the Belgian Government, 

 a selection of duplicate specimens will be sent to the 

 Congo Museum at Tervueren. 



The Crocker Land Expedition to North-West Green- 

 land and Grinnell Land covered a district but little visited 

 previously by naturalists. The mollusca obtained on 

 the exjjedition by Dr. M. C. Tanquary and Mr. VV. E. 

 Ekblaw have now been described by Mr. F. C. Baker 

 (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xli., 1919, pp. 479- 

 517, pis. 25-27). No new species are claimed, but the 

 number determined exceeds by four those obtained on 

 the Nares Expedition of 1875-76, when thirty-four 

 were enumerated by the late Mr. E. \. Smith. The 

 more important species of Astarte and Buccinum have 

 been figured, with the detailed sculpturing of the 

 shells of the latter, but the chief interest in the col- 

 lection is the number of sjjecies found in high latitudes 

 and the extension of the northward range of several 

 of the species. The same author (totn. cit., pp. 527- 

 39, figs.) also describes a number of fresh-water 

 mollusca obtained by Prof. Frank Smith from various 

 lakes in Colorado and .\lberta. Fifteen species in all 

 are dealt with, of which three are believed to be new. 



A PRELIMINARY account of the Tasmanian skeleton 



of Nototherium, to which we referred in last week's 



issue (p. 559), was read before the Royal Society of 



Tasmania on \Lay 10 by Messrs. H. H. Scott and 



NO. 2645, VOL. 105] 



C. Lord. The authors assign the specimen to N. 

 Mitchelli. and consider that it was originally provided 

 with a horn on the nose. They regard the Noto- 

 theria as the marsupial analogues of the rhinoceroses, 

 some of them horned, others hornless. 



The atmosphere that surrounds the Revue des 

 questions scientifiques, which is published at Louvain 

 for the Soci6t^ scientifique de Bruxelles, permits of 

 the most liberal agnosticism in regard to scientific 

 dogmas. Prof. Pierre Termier, in his address on 

 "Les grands ^nigmes de la G6ologie," delivered in 

 the welcome epoch of recovery at Louvain in 1919 

 (Revue, vol. xxvii., p. 53, 1920), responds v^-ith his 

 accustomed vigour to the invitation of his northern 

 colleagues. His splendid oratory rings through these 

 pages, in which he brings us face to face with the 

 sphinxes that rise in the domain of geological inquiry 

 and raise in the soul of the traveller "des pensees 

 vertigineuses et des rSves sans fin." In his desire 

 to show how much remains truly enigmatic, he makes 

 no mention of tentative or even probable explanations, 

 and his hesitating spirit before the evidences of 

 organic evolution seems the pose of the courteous 

 guest rather than the free expression of the 

 prophet. For Prof. Termier, in his mere use of 

 language, is a prophet and a power, and he hopes 

 yet to see some secrets wrested from the earth as 

 part of the general movement of humanity towards 

 light and truth. On p. 149 of the same number of the 

 Revue M. P. Teilhard de Chardin, who was present 

 with the late Mr. Dawson at Piltdown, gives an excel- 

 lent account of the human remains that have excited 

 so much controversy, and he assures his readers that 

 when palseontologists come to an agreement it is 

 because they believe loyally and invincibly that their 

 judgment has been based on truth. It is evident that 

 these things still need saying, even in socidtes scien- 

 tifiques, though we may have advanced some way 

 from the scene so bitterly depicted by Barabino in 

 his "'Colombo dcriso " at the Council of Salamanca. 



The New York Academy of Sciences has published 

 two more parts of the results of its scientific survey 

 of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands (vol. i., part 2, 

 and vol. iii., part i). Porto Rico is largely and 

 essi^ntiallv a heap of volcanic ddbris, and Mr. Edwin T. 

 Hodge attempts to unravel its geological history after 

 making a detailed study and map of the Coamo- 

 Guayama district. He also adds some useful notes on 

 its mineral resources and hot springs. The lime- 

 stones inter-stratified with the volcanic tuffs contain 

 numerous fossil shells, which are, unfortunately, pre- 

 served only as impressions, but clearly represent 

 several horizons between the Eocene and Miocene 

 Tertiary. The shells are described in detail, with 

 beautiful illustrations, by Miss Carlotta J. Maury, 

 who makes some interesting remarks on their relation 

 to the molluscs of existing seas. She points out that 

 most of them are represented by living species which 

 are evidently their descendants in the Antillean seas, 

 but that several of the Tertiary genera have now com- 

 pletely disappeared from the Caribbean region, and 

 exist only in the Pacific Ocean. The latter must have 

 spread before the Isthmus of Panama arose, and it is 



