September i, 1898J 



NATURE 



413 



•compound cylinders, variable expansion, surface and jet 

 condensers, and bucket and plunger pumps. The aggre- 

 gate horse-power is 660. Another party will visit Wells 

 and Glastonbury (11). Apart from the architectural and 

 historic interest of these places there is the special 

 attraction of the marsh-village, which will be visited 

 under the guidance of Mr. Arthur BuUeid, whose name 

 is so intimately associated with its discovery. On the 

 edge of the ancient (but now reclaimed) meres stood a 

 village consisting of about seventy dwelling.-mounds 

 covering some 3^ acres. The foundation of the village 

 is composed of layers of timber and brushwood resting 

 on the peat, and is surrounded by a palisade. On the 

 wood circular areas of clay are spread, and on these 

 wattle huts were erected, the clay forming the floor of 

 the dwelling. A number of interesting relics of the old 

 British community who dwelt there are preserved in the 

 little museum at Glastonbury. The excursion to Stroud 

 and Nailsworth (12) combines a visit to an industrial 

 district of considerable importance, and a drive through 

 some of the finest scenery of the Cotteswold district. 

 At the Stanley and the Dudbridge Mills all the processes 

 of making raw wool into the finest plain and fancy 

 coloured materials can be seen, and the best and most 

 improved textile machinery can be inspected. Sir W. 

 H. Marling, Bart., gives in the guide-book a concise 

 history of the industry in the district. Minchinhampton 

 Common, with its so-called "pit-dwellings" and ancient 

 encampments, Nailsworth, Woodchester Park, Uleybury 

 and Frocester Court are included in this excursion. The 

 excursion to Swindon Works, Marlborough and Savernake 

 (13), again combines industrial processes and scenery, 

 while the inspection of Marlborough College, and its 

 mound, will no doubt prove an additional attraction ; while 

 that to Frome, Longleat, and Shearwater (14), combines a 

 visit to the .\rt Metal Works of Messrs. Singer and Sons ; 

 an inspection of the residence of the Marquis of Bath, 

 built in the middle of the sixteenth century, on the site of 

 an Augustinian Priory, and containing a fine collection 

 of pictures ; and a charming bit of Wiltshire scenery. 

 The excursion to Bowood and Avebury (15) affords, 

 besides a visit to the residence of the Marquis of 

 Lansdowne, with its pictures and mementoes of the 

 owner's sojourn in India and Canada, an opportunity of 

 seeing the megalithic remains and enclosing earth-bank 

 and ditch the latter on the inner side) at Avebury, and 

 the huge mound, 126 feet high, of Silbury. The moat 

 or fosse surrounding this hill has been silted up by fine 

 detrital matter from the Kennet. Avebury Church, 

 with its Saxon work, Norman work, twelfth century font, 

 and later fifteenth century rood-loft, is of considerable 

 interest and most picturesquely situated. Salisbury, 

 Stonehenge, and Old Sarum (16), including the Blackmore 

 Museum in Salisbury, open up, in one long day, a perhaps 

 unparalleled range of historic and prehistoric retrospect ; 

 while for those who seek the yet earlier records of geo- 

 logical times the excursion to Tortworth (17), by special 

 invitation of Earl Ducie, is of special interest. Strata of 

 Silurian age, with remarkable beds of trap-rock in the 

 Upper Llandovery series, quarries in Old Red Sandstone 

 and Carboniferous Limestone, and pits for the winning of 

 Celestine (sulphate of strontium) in the Keuper beds, 

 provide a sufficiently varied geological bill of fare. The 

 approach to Tortworth Court, through a picturesque, 

 well-wooded valley in the Carboniferous Limestone, occu- 

 pied by an artificial lake, is remarkably beautiful. Some 

 of the Silurian quarries have been specially opened up by 

 Earl Ducie. Prof. Lloyd Morgan has written the guide 

 to the excursion, and Mr. Edward Wethered will 

 describe the micro-organisms which occur in the lime- 

 stones. 



At the close of the meeting a long excursion (18), 

 specially arranged for our colonial and foreign visitors, 

 will comprise Exeter, Torquay (including Kenls Cavern), 



NO. 1505. VOL. 58] 



Dartmouth, Plymouth, Mount Edgcumbe, Devonport, 

 and a trip across Dartmoor. 



For all these excursions guide-books have been pre- 

 pared by the leaders and those specially acquainted 

 with the localities. And it need hardly be added that, 

 largely through the courteous hospitality of many hosts, 

 corporate and private, there will be no lack of refreshment 

 by the way. 



THE BERLIN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY'S 

 GREENLAND-EXPEDITION.^ 



IN 1 89 1 Dr. Drygalski and Herr Baschin visited 

 Greenland under the auspices of the Geographical 

 Society of Berlin, and the results they obtained were so 

 interesting and suggestive that the Society was en- 

 couraged to despatch another expedition in the following 

 year. On this second and longer visit Dr. Drygalski 

 was accompanied by Dr. E. Vanhoffen as zoologist, and 

 Dr. Hermann Stade as meteorologist. They left Copen- 

 hagen on May i, 1892, and returned on October 14, 1893, 

 The principal object of the expedition being the study 

 of the ice of Greenland, it was desirable that selection 

 should be made of some region in which both the 

 " inland ice " and the independent glaciers of the west 

 coast mountain-tracts could be conveniently examined. 

 On the advice of those experts. Dr. K. J. V. Steenstrup 

 and the late Dr. Rink, Dr. Drygalski proceeded to the 

 region of the Umanak Fiord, which he found admirably 

 suited for his purpose. There the land lying between 

 the margin of the " inland ice " and the coast attains its 

 greatest width, and the mountains nourish a number of 

 independent glaciers. Broad areas over which the " in- 

 land ice " had formerly passed could be traversed with 

 ease, and the terminal edge of the ice was readily 

 examined. Again the numerous branches of the fiord, 

 penetrating the territory occupied by the ice-sheet, are 

 invaded by great tongues protruded from the latter, so 

 that the calvmg of icebergs and other phenomena could 

 be closely studied. That Dr. Drygalski would make 

 good use of his opportunities was only to be expected, 

 and the elaborate monograph he has produced is un- 

 questionably a most important contribution to our 

 knowledge of the physics of ice and glacial action. 



The author, we need hardly say, finds himself unable 

 to agree with -•Dr. Rink, who believed that the " inland 

 ice " is essentially a product of the low grounds — that it 

 originated in the valleys by the freezing of the streams 

 and rivers, and thus gradually increased from below 

 upwards, until eventually it overtopped the water-sheds 

 and covered the whole land. Dr. Drygalski takes the 

 generally accepted view that the " inland ice " had its 

 origin in the mountains, descending from these at first in 

 the form of separate glaciers which gradually coalesced, 

 and so filled up the valleys and smothered height after 

 height until the whole land disappeared. Rink's notion 

 appears to have been suggested to him by the structure 

 of the ice, which he thought was rather like that of lake- 

 or river-ice than snow-ice. But Dr. Drygalski shows 

 that this is not the case. According to his observations 

 river-ice and snow-ice have the same structure. He is 

 inclined also to dissent from Dr. Nansen who, as is well 

 known, holds that the general form of the great ice-sheet 

 is independent of that of the underlying land-surface — 

 and that the ice-shed need not coincide at all with the 

 buried water-shed. Dr. Drygalski, on the contrary, is of 

 opinion that the ice-shed is determined by the presence 

 of a mountain-range, supposed by him to be connected 

 with the mountains of the east coast, and to extend in a 

 parallel direction between them and the centre of the 



1 " GrSnland-Expedilion der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1S91- 

 93," unter Leitung von Erich von Drygalski. 2 vols, royal 8vo ; with 

 53 plates, 10 maps, and 85 illustrations in the text. Pp. 556 and 571. 

 (Berlin: W. H. Kiihl, 1897.) 



