June io, 1697] 



NATURE 



31 



required for the maintenance of the laboratory, and it would be 

 impossible to start the laboratory unless this amount was secured 

 for, say, ten years. Looking at the immense importance such a 

 central laboratory is likely to acquire for the whole of the iron 

 industry, and the very large pecuniary benefit ultimately follow- 

 ing therefrom, there should not be much difficulty in obtaining 

 promises of subscriptions to the amount required. Mr. Bennett 

 H. Brough, the Secretary of the Iron and Steel Institute, has 

 undertaken to receive subscriptions, and to forward them to the 

 International Society. 



For a period of about eight years a portion of the staff of the 

 Meteorological Office has been busily engaged in the discussion 

 >f observations for the preparation of Monthly Current Charts of 

 he Atlantic Ocean. The observations are contained in about 

 5500 logs, principally of merchant vessels, collected by the 

 Meteorological Office since the year 1854, and about 13,000 logs 

 kept on board H.M. ships since 1830. The charts for six repre- 

 sentative months, referring both to the North and South 

 Atlantic, have been prepared for publication under the super- 

 intendence of the Hydrographer of the Admiralty, and are issued 

 in the form of Admiralty charts. They bring to light various 

 interesting points which are masked by charts referring to longer 

 periods ; for instance, the Gulf Stream, from which this country 

 is supposed to derive much of its warmth in winter, is shown to 

 flow with varying velocity according to the season, the rate being 

 about 100 miles a day in June, in the Straits of Florida, while 

 in October and November it does not exceed 70 miles a day, 

 and at times only amounts to about 20 miles ; and the Guinea 

 and equatorial currents are shown to undergo considerable varia- 

 tions according to the time of the year. Generally speaking, the 

 oceanic circulation can now be studied in a manner that was not 

 possible before the publication of monthly charts, and the results 

 cannot but prove to be of the greatest utility both to seamen and 

 men of science. 



Mr. H. C. Russell, Government Astronomer of New South 

 Wales, has published, in a recent number of the Proceedings 

 of the Royal Society of that colony, a chart showing the tracts 

 of 154 current papers collected during the past two years. The 

 lines plotted on the chart are the shortest tracks between the 

 points where the bottles were thrown into the sea and where 

 they were found. The routes taken by the bottles are interest- 

 ing : most of them were found on the coast between Melbourne 

 and Adelaide ; fifteen were picked up on the east coast of 

 Australia— three of these went to the south, eight went to the 

 north, and four came in from the east. Mr. Russell remarks 

 that, in view of the well-known southerly current on this coast, 

 it is remarkable that so few of the papers seem to go with it, 

 and that the majority of the papers found go against it. The 

 prevailing wind seems to have a decided action in the direction 

 of the drift of the bottles. Three papers, thrown overboard off 

 Cape Horn, followed nearly the same tracks ; one was picked 

 up on the west coast of Australia, and the others on the coast 

 of Victoria : their daily rates, over a distance of about 9000 

 miles, being 9 o miles, 7-9 miles, and 10-3 miles respectively. 



A.\ interesting collection of prehistoric flint instruments which 

 Mr. H. W. Seton-Karr discovered in Egypt last November, and 

 which he believes to come from the lost flint mines of Egypt, 

 was recently exhibited by him at the Royal Archsological 

 Institute. The collection also included a number of specimens 

 of what Mr. Seton-Karr considers to be the most perfectly pre- 

 served palx-oliths hitherto discovered. The flint mines are situated 

 in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, some at a distance of about 30 

 miles from the Nile, some nearer, in the Wady-el-Sheik dis- 

 trict. Of palaeolithic implements of the earliest date he found 

 but two at the mines. The remainder came from Abydos, 

 NO. 1441, VOL. 56] 



Nagada, Nagh Hamadi, Thebes, and other places in the Western 

 Desert. At some of the mines were shafts about 2 feet in 

 diameter, filled up with drifted sand, and surrounded by masses 

 of excavated rock neatly arranged. There was usually a central 

 work-place where most of the objects were discovered. But in 

 some mines a number of clubs or truncheons lay distributed 

 uniformly, as though hurriedly left when the mines were last 

 abandoned, at a period probably long anterior to historic 

 record. The results of Mr. Seton-Karr's sixth and latest expedi- 

 tion were shown in the implemems of flint and quartzite from 

 Somaliland. With respect to these discoveries. Sir John Evans 

 remarked in a communication made to the Royal Society, 

 that they "have an important bearing on the question of the 

 original home of the human race. Of their identity in form with 

 some from the valley of the Somme and other places there can 

 be no doubt, and we need not hesitate in claiming them as 

 palaeolithic. The cradle of the human race must have been 

 situated in some part of the world where the climate was genial 

 and means of subsistence readily obtained." 



It is depressing to think that there exist not only private 

 persons, but public bodies who pot more trust in the wild asser- 

 tions of charlatans than in the matured conclusions of science. 

 The latest instance of gullibility of this character comes from 

 Bedfordshire. The Urban District Council of Ampthill were 

 ordered by the Local Government Board to procure a water 

 supply within a limited time, the Council being given a free 

 hand how to go to work, and they thereupon unanimously 

 resolved to employ a water diviner. Accepting the recommenda- 

 tions of this gifted gentleman, the District Council applied for a 

 loan to carry them out. But, fortunately for common-sense, 

 when the Government auditor recently sat to audit the accounts 

 of the Urban District Council of Ampthill, several ratepayers 

 raised objections to an expenditure incurred in the employment 

 of the water diviner. They produced geological plans and 

 sections to show that, if the diviner's recommendations were 

 acted on, the Council would be boring into a stratum of Oxford 

 clay, the depth of which had not been fathomed as yet, although 

 a boring had been made to 700 feet, and no water obtained. 

 The auditor, in announcing his decision to disallow the payment, 

 stated that in seeking for water the District Council had dis- 

 regarded the reports of experts, and had gone for guidance to a 

 man who had a reputation for discovering water by some un- 

 usual and peculiar method not possible to ordinary persons, and 

 the question he had to settle was whether this was legal or not. 

 Money might properly be spent on experimental borings under 

 proper advice, but it had not been proved that the diviner em- 

 ployed had any greater power than any one else. It had been 

 held that " the pretence of power, whether moral, physical, or 

 supernatural, with intent to obtain money, was sufficient to con- 

 stitute an offence within the meaning of the law," and he, 

 therefore, thought that, as the diviner claimed to exercise some 

 such power, his employment was clearly illegal, and the amount 

 of his fee would, therefore, be disallowed, and the gentlemen 

 who authorised the payment surcharged with it. The decision 

 will assist, perhaps, in reducing the number of believers in the 

 water diviner's art. 



For those men of science who may be induced to travel over 

 Siberia, now that they can do it by rail, we notice that a new 

 interesting museum is being opened at Chita, the chief town of 

 Transbaikalia, in connection with the Transbaikalian Section of 

 the Russian Geographical Society. Rich collections relative ta 

 Buryate buddhism, and good collections of objects belonging to- 

 natural sciences, archaeology, and occurrence of gold in mines, 

 rapidly accumulate in that new little museum, to which a 

 botanical garden is to be annexed. 



