36 



NA TURE 



[May 



lo, 1900 



of the birds, which have been worked out by Dr. Biittikofer. 

 Although expectations were entertained that many new forms 

 would be obtained, out of 269 species collected all were pre- 

 viously known, and only two were new to Borneo. 



The April number oiXht Journal of (he Quekett .Microscopical 

 'Club contains the description, by Mr. J. G. Waller, of a new 

 marine British sponge, obtained soms twenty years ago at 

 Torbay, for which the name Raphiodesma affinis is suggested. 

 Another addition to the British fauna is a new species of 

 Hymenoptera {Prosopis palustris), from Wicken Fen, Cim- 

 bridgeshire, described by Mr. R. C. L. Perkins, in the Ento- 

 mologist' s Monthly Magazine for March. This discovery should 

 strengthen naturalists in their opposition to the proposed drain- 

 ing of the fen in question. 



Many strange objects are worn by savage peoples, and for 

 various reasons, also, as with us, rarity usually enhances value. 

 In the Pelew Islands the rubbed-down first ver'ebra (atlas) of 

 the dugong is worn as a bracelet by the more important men, 

 for it is not often that the vertebra in question is large enough 

 to be so worn. The "klilt," as it iscalled, has recently been 

 fully described and figured by Dr.O. Finsch {Globus, Ixxvii. 1900, 

 p. 153). In the Timor Group a wooden imitation is employed ; 

 but in Timorlaut the second vertebra (axis) of the dugong is 

 employed ; but, although the dugong is greatly hunted in Torres 

 Straits and in South-eastern New Guinea, no ornaments are 

 taade from its bones or tusks. 



'" Dr. Hermann Meyer gives an account of a second journey 

 to explore the head waters of the Xingu, in the Verhandlungen 

 of the Berlin Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde. The route taken was 

 from Cuyaba, reached by ascending the Parana- Paraguay from 

 Buenos Ayres, over the watershed and down the Ronuro to its 

 junction with the main stream, and back to Cuyaba up the 

 course of the Kulischu ; practically the same as the former 

 journey of 1896-97, except that the Ronuro was followed 

 throughout its length instead of the Jatoba, a tributary joining 

 it in its lower course. Dr. Meyer concludes that later expedi- 

 tions will avoid the Ronuro ; the Ku lischu gives the best access 

 to the region, an exploration of which as far as the Paranayuba 

 ■would give valuable scientific results. 



The new number of the Aliliheilun^en von Forschungsreis- 

 enden tend Gelehrten aus den deutschen Schiltzgebieten contains 

 some interesting papers from the German East African region. 

 Captain Kannenberg gives the first part of an account of a 

 journey through the Marenga Makali region, with a map. The 

 pendulum expedition under Dr. Fulleborn and Lieut. Glanning 

 reports progress. A summary of the results of the geological 

 expedition in the region north of Lake Nyassa under Dr. Danz 

 is given, and Lieut. Baumstark contributes a paper on the 

 Warangi. 



Dr. H. Nagaoka has contributed a valuable paper on the 

 elastic constants of rocks and the velocity of seismic waves to 

 the Publications of the Japanese Earthquake Investigation Com- 

 mittee (No. 4 in Foreign Languages). His experiments were 

 made on about eighty specimens of different rocks, cut into 

 prisms 15 cm. long and nearly i cm. square in section. They 

 showed at once that Hooke's law does not hold even for very 

 small flexure and torsion, the deviation being prominent in 

 certain specimens of sandstone, and more marked in torsion 

 than in flexure experiments. On releasing the rocks from stress, 

 the return to the original state is extremely small. The elastic 

 constants of archsean and palaeozoic rocks (whether of igneous 

 origin or otherwise) are far higher than those of cainozoic rocks. 

 though the velocity of elastic waves in them is not higher in the 

 same proportion. So far as the experiments go, the elastic con- 

 stants increase more rapidly than the density, so that the velocity 

 ^'O- 1593. VOL. 62] 



must be greater in the interior than at the surface of the earth's 

 crust. 



We have received the Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the 

 Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota for the 

 years 1895-98 ; a report which is stated by Mr. N. II. Winchell, 

 the State Geologist, to be his final one. As he remarks : " It 

 ought not to be supposed that by the closing of active work by 

 the present survey, and the publication of its final report, the 

 geology of the State is a finished thing. Geology is a progres- 

 sive science, and requires continual work." Other States have 

 had surveys which have been hurried to ' " completion," and 

 have naturally had to enter upon re-surveys, more careful and 

 elaborate. Our own Geological Survey has experienced this as 

 much as any of those abroad ; where impatience to see the work 

 "completed" and smallness of revenue have hampered and 

 retarded real progress. The report bciore us contains a synop- 

 sis of the field-work done in Minnesota since 1894, and a useful 

 alphabetical index to the entire series of annual reports of the 

 Survey. Mr. Winchell also notes some of the more important 

 ec )nomic and scientific researches which should be carried on in 

 a future survey of the State. 



In the " Palccontologia Indica " for 1899, there is a descrip- 

 tion of the Cambrian fauna of the Eastern Salt -range, by Dr. K. 

 Redlich, who has supplemented the work of Waagen with more 

 detailed information. A new genus, Hoejeria, is now estab- 

 lished for the specimens previously referred to Olenelhis. 

 Among other fossils described are Hyolithes, Lingitlella and 

 Pseudotheca. The name Cylindrites is applied to " long 

 cylinders, which are often arranged in a fan-shaped aggregate," 

 and appear to be worm-tracks ; but it may be pointed out that 

 the name was long ago applied to a genus of Gasleropods. 

 None of the Cambrian fossils from the Salt-range can, in the 

 author's opinion, be referred to a later horizon than the Para- 

 doxides-zone. Dr. F. Noetling contributes notes on the 

 morphology of the Pelecypoda, dealing with the hinge of some 

 Miocene and recent bivalves. He endeavours to show that the 

 shape and the delicate and minute variations in the shells can to 

 some degree be expressed better by figures than by words. Dr. 

 C. Diener describes the Anthracolithic fossils of Kashmir and 

 Spiti. In studying the collections made by the Geological 

 Survey of India, he came to the conclusion that fossils both of 

 Permian and Carboniferous ages were included in the series ; 

 and he uses the term Anthracolithic as a convenient one for a 

 Permo-Carboniferous group, which appears to be intimately 

 connected stratigraphically and palseontologically. Among the 

 specimens described, the presence of many European types of 

 Carboniferous Brachiopoda is noted, and there are also affinities 

 with the Australian Carl)oniferous fauna. 



In the form of "Appendix No. 2" for 1900 to the Kew 

 Bulletin, we have the usual list of new species of plants brought 

 into cultivation for the first time during last year, or re-introduced 

 after having been lost from cultivation. 



Three of the photographs in natural colours, taken by Mr. 

 H. J. Mackinder in his journey to the summit of Mount Kenya, 

 are reproduced by a three-colour process in the May number of 

 the Geographical Journal. Colour photography has thus been 

 brought into the service of geographical exploration, and we may 

 expect to see further developments of its use. 



The May number of the Journal of the Chemical Society, 

 which now appears with a regularity worthy of emulation by 

 the publications of other scientific societies, contains Sir Henry 

 Roscoe's memorial lecture on Bunsen, accompanied by a photo- 

 gravure of the lamented chemist, and Prof. Thorpe's presi- 

 dential address on some characteristics of the study and progress 

 of chemistry in Great Britain during' the present century. 



