6i6 



NA rURE 



[October 28, 189; 



lodes with the sources of the placer gold. Moreover, 

 many nuggets have been found adhering to quartz, so 

 that the weight of evidence appears to be in favour of 

 the view that the gold in these placers, at any rate, has 

 been laid down there by mechanical rather than chemical 

 processes. 



The method of working the placers resembles that 

 followed in the frozen placers in the Trans- Baikal in 

 Eastern Siberia. Prospecting is done chiefly in the short 

 summer when the snows are gone and water is plentiful, 

 but the excavation of the gravel is best carried on 

 in winter when nothing else can be done. The shafts 

 are sunk to the pay dirt, and tunnels are then run 

 through the gravel, following the rich material wherever 

 it may be. To soften the ground a pile of wood is placed 

 against the end of the drift and set on fire, the gravel, to 

 the depth of about a foot, being brought down by pick 

 and shovel after the fire has gone out. As M. Levat 

 points out in speaking of the Siberian placers {Eng. and 

 Mng. Jour., June 12, 1897), the method is not an ideal 

 one, but the circumstances are difficult. The frozen soil 

 cannot be easily worked with the pick, as it does not 

 break but simply mats together under a blow. For the 

 same reason powder and dynamite have little effect ; 

 moreover, the drilling of the alluvium through which 

 quartz boulders are scattered is a slow and costly work. 

 The gravel is piled up to await the arrival of spring, when 

 it is washed in the cradle or in short sluices, which are 

 expensive owing to the high costof timber. 



The future of the country can hardly be foreseen as I 

 yet. It is certain that next year hundreds of miles of : 

 unworked creek beds will be vigorously prospected by i 

 the thousands who will enter and find that all the i 

 ground on the tributaries of the Klondike is already i 

 occupied. If, as seems likely, other fairly rich placers are I 

 found, many of the men will remain in the country, and i 

 with the development of the auriferous quartz lodes and I 

 the beds of lignite, some of which have already been dis- ! 

 covered, the Yukon district of Canada will probably 

 become one of the steady producers of gold like California 

 or Colorado. The output this year will probably not 

 greatly exceed 800,000/., partly owing to the scarcity 

 of water in the creeks this summer, which has interfered | 

 with the washing in the creeks. Nevertheless, the 

 Canadian production of gold for 1897 will with "this 

 addition be raised to over 1,000,000/., or considerably 

 above that of 1863, which amounted to 860,000/., and is 

 still the highest on record. There is little doubt that 

 this will be largely augniented in the next few years, and 

 that the Yukon district will be the richest Canadian 

 gold-field yet discovered. T. K. Rose. 



NOTES. 

 The International Congress of Zoology is to meet in Cam- 

 bridge on August 23, 1898, and a general committee has been 

 formed to make arrangements for its reception. The President- 

 elect (Sir William Flower) has summoned a meeting of the 

 committee, to be held at the rooms of the Zoological Society, 

 3 Hanover Square, W., at 2.30 p.m. on Thursday, November 4 ; 

 and special notices have been addressed to those who have 

 expressed their willingness to act as members of the committee. 

 Zoologists who have not been asked to join the committee are 

 requested to communicate with the Local Secretaries (Inter- 

 national Congress of Zoology), The Museums, Cambridge. 



H.M. THE King of Belgium has conferred upon Prof. D. E. 

 Hughes, F.R.S., the decoration of Officier de I'Ordre Leopold. 

 This mark of appreciation is due to Prof. Hughes' work in 

 connection with his printing telegraph instrument, which the 

 Belgian Government have largely used during the last twenty- 

 seven years. The Belgian Minister of Railways, Posts and 

 NO. 146 1, VOL. 56] 



Telegraphs has telegraphed to Prof. Hughes the congratulations 

 of the telegraphic service upon the distinction conferred upon 

 him. 



At a meeting of the Royal College of Physicians of London 

 last week, the Moxon medal was awarded to the President, Sir 

 Samuel Wilks, Bart. ; and the Weber- Parkes prize of 150 

 guineas and a silver medal to Dr. Arthur Ransome for the best 

 essay on consumption and its treatment. A similar medal, called 

 the second medal, was awarded to Dr. Peter Paterson, of 

 Cilasgow. The Baly medal was awarded to Prof. Schafer, of 

 University College. This medal is given every third year to 

 the person who has distinguished himself the most in physiology 

 during that interval. 



The Reale Accademia dei Lincei has recently elected the 

 following associates and correspondents :— National associate, in 

 the section of zoology and morphology, Prof. G B. Grassi ; 

 correspondent, in the same section, Prof. G. Fano ; foreign 

 associates in mathematics. Profs. H, Weber and T. Reye ; in 

 mechanics, Prof. G. H. Darwin ; in mathematical and physical 

 geography, Prof. F. R. Helmert ; in geology and palaeontology, 

 Prof. A. Gaudry ; in physiology, Profs. H. Kronecker and O. 

 Schmiedeberg. 



We print in another part of this number an abridgment of a 

 report drawn up by a deputation appointed by the Manchester 

 Technical Instruction Com mittee to visit technical schools, insti- 

 tutions, and museums in Germany and Austria last July and 

 August. This is the second time Manchester has delegated 

 some of its educational advisers to see what foreign countries 

 have done and are doing to establish an efficient system of 

 scientific and technical education. The recent visit showed the 

 deputation that since 1 89 1 there has been a considerable develop- 

 ment throughout Germany of educational means and resources. 

 The technical education movement in England during the past 

 five or six years has not gone unnoticed in Germany, and the effect 

 has been the extension and improvement of facilities for im- 

 parting instruction of a scientific and technical character, the 

 evident determination of Germany being to maintain the lead in 

 higher scientific education. It is satisfactory to know that the 

 educational authorities of some of our cities are also alive to the 

 importance of scientific instruction as an aid to the development 

 of our commerce and industries. When a deputation from 

 an industrial city like Manchester speaks of continental schools 

 and methods in the glowing terms of the report abridged this 

 week, and urges the extension of higher scientific instruction as 

 the force which will enable us to keep our place among the 

 nations, it is time to give thanks that the eyes of leaders of 

 industry have been opened, so that the intimate connection 

 between science and commerce can be clearly seen. The dis- 

 cussion which took place at the Manchester City Council upon 

 the report of the deputation, fully bears out the views expressed 

 by Dr. Armstrong in his recent articles in Nature on the need 

 of organising scientific opinion (vol. Iv. pp. 409, 433). More- 

 over, it shows that a large number of manufacturers are well able 

 to understand that the reason for the prominence of some of the 

 continental Powers lies in the educational system. It is evident 

 that the report has given Manchester people a clear view of the 

 direction in which advance should be made, and doubtless they 

 will profit by it. Other municipal authorities would do well to 

 send their wise men into the Fatherland for the lessons to be 

 learned if they wish to make industrial progress. 



Prof. G. H. Darwin has gone to the United States to give 

 a course often lectures on "Tides" at the Lowell Institute. 



A sea-fisheries exhibition, arranged to illustrate the fishing 

 industries and the application of science to agriculture, will be 

 opened in the Museum of Zoology, University College, Liver- 



