May 



1900J 



NATURE 



17 



Gardens in 1899 was 696,707. The number of animals now 

 living in the Gardens is 2753, of which 821 are mammals, 

 1471 birds, and 461 reptiles and batrachians. Amongst the 

 additions made during the past year, thirteen were specially 

 commented upon as being of remarkable interest, and in most 

 cases new to the Society's collection. Of these, by far the most 

 noticeable objects exhibited for the first time were the pair of 

 Grevy's zebras placed under the care of the Society by Her 

 Majesty the Queen. These animals, which had been presented 

 to Her Majesty by the Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia, were 

 brought down to Zeila, on the coast of Somaliland, under the 

 care of Captain J. L. Harrington, the British Political Agent. 

 At Zeila they were handed over to the Society's assistant super- 

 intendant, Mr. Arthur Thomson, who had been sent there by 

 the Council at the request of the Foreign Office on purpose to 

 receive them, and by him they were landed safely in London on 

 August 14 last year. The Council also called special attention 

 to the young male giraffe, acquired in April 1899, by purchase, 

 for the sum of 800/. It is believed that this animal, together 

 with the female purchased in 1895, form the only pair of young 

 giraffes now to be found in any of the zoological gardens in 

 Europe. The works in connection with the new bore at the 

 well and the new machinery for pumping were completed last 

 year. The new water supply has been further improved by the 

 construction of a second and larger reservoir, so that an excellent 

 supply of water will henceforth always be available in every part 

 of the Gardens. 



Mr. F. W. Haselgrove sends us a photograph of a robin's 

 nest in a water-can, with the bird sitting upon its eggs, now to 

 be seen at Finchley Cemetery. Robins are well known to build 



their nests frequently in curious places, one of the most remark- 

 able instances on record being that of a nest in a battered beer- 

 can between the rails over which trucks were continually 

 passing at Worthing railway station. Flower-pots and water- 

 cans appear to be favourite nesting-places of the birds. 



There are reasons for believing that the Scandinavians dis- 

 covered America and settled in Massachusetts in pre-Columbian 

 days. The evidence consists in the occurrence of certain ruins 

 which correspond closely with ruins of the Saga-time in Ice- 

 land, but which differ from native dwellings and early European 

 NO. 1592, VOL. 62I 



ruins on the coast ; and also in the correspondence in the 

 physical features of the Massachusetts coast with the description 

 of the country called Vinland in Icelandic literature. This 

 evidence has recently been brought together in an illustrated 

 article by Miss Cornelia Ilorsford in Appleton's Popular Science 

 Monthly. 



The recent Norwegian earthquakes are studied by Mr. J. 

 Rekstad in a paper published in the Bergens Museums Aarhog 

 (1899, No. iv.). During the four years 1895-1898, the number 

 of recorded earthquakes is 77, the corresponding number for 

 Great Britain being 24, and for Greece, 1652. 



A SLIGHT earth-shake occurred near Manchester at about 

 1.17 a.m. on April 7. It was felt at Pendleton, Pendlebury, 

 Seedley, Salford and other places in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the Irwell Valley fault. The small disturbed area and 

 the rather marked intensity of the shock point to a local origin, 

 probably connected either directly or indirectly with the extensive 

 coal-workings of the district. On February 27, 1899, a similar 

 earth-shake was felt at the same places (see Nature, vol. Ixi, 

 P- 546). 



We have received a reprint 01 a paper, published in the 

 Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia, " On the 

 Nicaragua Canal in its Geographical and Geological Relations," 

 by Prof. Hugelo Heilprin. The paper, which is illustrated by 

 maps and photographs, discusses (i) the volcanic phenomena of 

 the region of the proposed canal ; (2) an assumed inconstancy in 

 the level of Lake Nicaragua ; and (3) the deformation of the 

 Nicaragua coast-line. After pointing out the marked deficiency 

 of trustworthy information concerning the region, especially 

 with regard to lake and river topography and hydrography 

 and dynamical geology, the author concludes that "the facts 

 that are known render doubtful, or at least open to question, 

 the advisability of constructing, or even the practicability, of a 

 canal such as is contemplated." . . . " It may, perhaps, be pro- 

 perly questioned whether, if the canal had been constructed a 

 hundred years ago, along the site that is now being contem- 

 plated, it would be in existence to-day." 



The current number of La Geographie contains a sugges- 

 tive paper on the variation of the limits of the Mediterranean 

 region, by M. Gaston Bonnier. It is pointed out that at- 

 tempts to define the boundary from geological considerations 

 have proved unsatisfactory, and that the region is more clearly 

 distinguished by its climate. This may be traced in the flora, 

 the Mediterranean region being roughly taken in France as the 

 region of the olive. M. Bonnier contends that it can be more 

 closely followed, especially in certain regions, by reference to 

 other plants, and discusses a number of interesting observations 

 with regard to exposure and elevation. 



At the close of an address recently delivered as president or 

 the Anthropological Society of Washington, Mr. W. J. McGee 

 enunciated the cardinal principles of science as follows : — " The 

 indestructibility of matter, the contribution chiefly of chemistry ; 

 the persistence of motion, the gift mainly of physics ; the de- 

 velopment of species, the offering of the biotic sciences ; the 

 uniformity of nature, the guerdon of geology and the older 

 sciences ; and the responsivity of mind, the joint gift of several 

 sciences, though put in final form by anthropology." These 

 principles are comprehensive enough, but they will not satisfy all 

 students of epistemology, so much depends upon the point of 

 view occupied. 



The manufacture of silk cord from spiders' web seems likely 

 to attain commercial importance, for we learn through the 

 Board of Trade Journal that one of the most novel exhibits in 

 the Paris Exposition will be a complete set of bed-hangings 



