1 84 



NATURE 



[June 24, 1S97 



under the protection of some stone blocks. While the Russian 

 alpinist continued climbing, with one man only, a snowstorm 

 overtook them ; and though M. Pastukhoff reached the summit, 

 he could only catch an occasional glimpse of the opposite border 

 of the crater-like funnel, and leave there a tin box, with ther- 

 mometers, under a big stone. The downward journey was 

 terrible. M. Pastukhoff and his help lost their way, and when 

 the night came they were on a glacier, which they could not 

 identify, surrounded by a labyrinth of fissures. They had again 

 to spend the night in a hole burrowed with their sticks in the 

 snow, covered by one overcoat only, after having had no food 

 all the day. Happily, next morning they fell in with the other 

 guide, who had hastened to go down to a safer place as soon 

 as the snowstorm began, and had carried with him a few biscuits. 

 They soon found their way to the end of the Azau-glacier, 

 where the other members of the party were anxiously waiting 

 for their return. 



The Wellington Caves, situated in the vicinity of the town 

 of Wellington, New South Wales, are remarkable for the large 

 number of fossil remains of extinct animals found in them. 

 The caves were discovered in 1830 by Sir Thomas L. Mitchell. 

 The valley in which they are situated is bounded on each side 

 by hills of limestone rock, rising to a height of about 100 feet 

 on the eastern side, and considerably higher on the other. The 

 floors of the caves are in places thickly covered with loose, dry, 

 red earth which rises in 'fine dust at every step. At first it was 

 anticipated that numerous fossils would be found in the earth, but 

 after repeated digging only a few fragments of bone, apparently 

 of the kangaroo, were obtained. About 80 feet to the west of 

 the Great Cave is the Breccia Cave, one of the most important 

 and interesting, from a scientific point of view, yet discovered 

 in Australia. The floor is of red earth of considerable depth, 

 the upper portion containing large numbers of bones. In this 

 cave was found a skull, which proved to be the head of an 

 enormous kangaroo. This led Owen to pronounce the opinion 

 that there would be found the remains of a large carnivorous 

 animal, which had been contemporary with the gigantic 

 kangaroo, his view based upon the fact that the herb-eating 

 marsupial must have had a natural enemy. This prediction 

 was subsequently verified, for in 1887 a skull and several 

 jawbones were found, the teeth being in an excellent state 

 of preservation. These remains were ascertained to be those 

 of a lion of a savage and carnivorous nature. It was also 

 a marsupial, carrying its young in a kind of pouch. Other 

 skulls of the animal have been found, but a complete skeleton 

 has yet to be obtained. Mr. Gerard Krefft, who for several 

 years was curator of the Sydney Museum, took much interest 

 in the work of exploring the Breccia Cave, and under his super- 

 intendence many hundreds of fossil remains were recovered, not 

 a few of which are now in the British Museum. 



The Superintendent of the National Zoological Park states, 

 in the Smithsonian Report (1895) which has just been dis- 

 tributed, that a spontaneous outbreak of rabies occurred in one 

 of the enclosures for foxes. This is interesting from a scientific 

 point of view ; especially as the animals were in perfect health, 

 and, so far as is known, the disease could not have been in- 

 troduced from without. A single case at first appeared, and 

 this inoculated the entire cage of foxes, seven animals in all 

 being lost. This curious phenomenon is of great interest as 

 bearing upon the sporadic appearance of rabies in the dog. 



Mr. Laurence Lambe, in a paper on the sponges of the 

 Atlantic coast of Canada, which has just appeared in the 

 Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, gives a complete 

 catalogue with descriptions of the marine sponges hitherto 

 obtained from this coast and from the river and Gulf of St. 

 Laurence. The list embraces thirty- one species, of which seven 

 are new to science. 



The first of a series of contributions to Canadian botany, by 

 Jas. M. Macoun, Assistant Botanist to the Geological Survey of 

 Canada, appeared in vol. vi.. No. i, of the Canadian Record of 

 Science, published January 1894. Ten of these papers have 

 been published, the last in the number of the Record of Science 

 which has just been issued. These contributions from the 

 herbarium of the Geological Survey, form an addendum to 

 Prof. Macoun's "Catalogue of Canadian Plants," the first part 

 of which was published by the Survey in 1882, the last (Part vi. ) 

 in 1892. The first five parts, composing 1050 pages, include all 

 the species of Phanerogams and Vascular Cryptogams known to 

 occur in Canada, with their distribution. Part vi. deals with 

 the Musci. The notes, which have from time to time appeared 

 in the Record of Science, are records of species new to science 

 or to Canada, and notable extensions of the known limits of 

 species already recorded. As revisions of American orders and 

 genera have been published, the necessary changes have been 

 made in Canadian nomenclature, so that by means of the papers 

 printed in the Record of Science, our knowledge of Canadian 

 botany has been kept strictly up to date. Each of the ten 

 papers already published averages about ten printed pages, with 

 the exception of the last, which is about twice that size. Seventy- 

 eight additions to the Canadian flora have been recorded in 

 these notes, and the range of several hundred species has been 

 greatly extended. They have been reprinted by the Geological 

 Survey of Canada, and may be procured from the Librarian of 

 that department at five cents per copy. 



Mr. T. H, Holland, of the Indian Geological Survey, 

 whose investigations of the Gohna landslip in 1894 had such 

 successful results in the prevention of subsequent disasters, has 

 now produced a detailed report on a similar subject. The hill- 

 slopes about Naini Tal appear to be in some danger of slips, as in 

 places the divisional planes of the slates dip in the same direction 

 as the surface of the ground and at an angle which, though actually 

 high enough to make slipping possible, is sometimes less than 

 that of the hill- slope: such a condition is obviously extremely 

 dangerous. The investigations include a full contour-survey and 

 a geological mapping of the district, as well as a determination 

 of the angle of repose for the various constituent rocks. The 

 most dangerous sites are indicated, and suggestions for protective 

 operations made where they are worth undertaking. A large 

 number of plates illustrate the report, which is of importance, 

 not only to the residents at Naini Tal, but to all interested in the 

 general phenomena of landslips. 



Among the articles and other publications which have come 

 under our notice during the past few days, are the following : — 

 Bog-bursts, with special reference to the recent disaster in Co. 

 Kerry, by Mr. R. Lloyd Praeger, in the Irish Naturalist for 

 June. Mr. Lloyd Praeger was a member of the Committee 

 appointed by the Royal Dublin Society to investigate the burst- 

 ing of the Knocknageeha bog in December last (see vol. Iv. 

 p. 254), and his paper is a summary, with illustrations of the 

 observations made. — The presidential address, on "The Evidence 

 for the Existence of Man in the Tertiary Period," delivered be- 

 fore the Geologists' Association at the last annual general meet- 

 ing, by Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., is printed in the May 

 number of the Association's Proceedings. — " De verhouding van 

 het gewicht der hersenen tot de grootte van het lichaam bij de 

 zoogdieren," by Dr. Eugene Dubois. This paper, published by 

 the Amsterdam Academy of Sciences ( Verhand. Kon. Akad. v. 

 Wetensch. Dl. V. No. 10, April), brings together and discusses 

 a large number of observations of the relations between the 

 weight of the brain and total weight of many animals. — The 

 eighth contribution of " Materials for Flora of the Malayan 

 Peninsula " is made to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal (vol. Ixv., Part ii., No. 3, 1896), by Dr. George King, 

 F.R.S., Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta. 



NO. 1443. VOL. 56] 



