io6 



NATURE 



[May 31, 1900 



and later the same origin was attributed to the great 

 Vindhyan system. 



In the next place we have the recognition of the 

 Permian glacial epoch. The first description of these 

 beds was published in the Memoirs of the Geological 

 Survey in 1856, and their glacial origin proclaimed in 

 1875 by the late Mr. H. F. Blanford. Though the idea of 

 glaciation in Permian times and in what are now low 

 latitudes has met with great opposition, it has gradually 

 made progress, and it is now generally recognised that 

 the Permian boulder-beds of India, though extending 

 into regions that are now within the tropics, are relics of 

 a bygone glacial epoch. In Africa, the glacial origin of 

 similar beds has been accepted by more than one observer ; 

 and in Australia — where the traces of glacial action 

 in the marine Permian or Permo-Carboniferous beds, 

 below the principal coal-measures, was first recognised 

 by a member of the Indian Geological Survey who had 

 been deputed by the Indian Government to study the 

 Australian coal-measures — the existence of glacial action 

 on a large scale has been fully confirmed by workers in 

 that country. In South America, too, it seems that there 

 are similar beds, of apparently the same age, and the 

 evidence of this widespread glacial epoch, more remark- 

 able in many ways even than the post-Tertiary extension 

 of glaciation, must be reckoned with in any speculations 

 attempting to account for the great climatic changes of 

 which the past sediments bear witness. 



The labours of the Indian Geological Survey have had 

 important results in geological science in other minor 

 points, too numerous to detail in the limited space of 

 an article, but a mention of the great earthquake of 

 1897 cannot be omitted. This earthquake was the 

 greatest of which there is historic record, exceeding the 

 great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 ! t)ut even before this 

 was known the Indian Government had ordered the 

 Survey to make a complete scientific investigation of it. 

 Being the greatest earthquake of which there is historic 

 record, the visible effects were on an unprecedented 

 scale, and its investigation has consequently yielded re- 

 sults which must be taken into account in all future 

 seismological research. Nor must mention be omitted 

 of one of the most recent suggestions, which appears 

 likely to be fruitful of results, made in 1898 by Mr. T. H. 

 Holland, that much of the decomposition, and more 

 especially hydration, of the minerals composing igneous 

 rocks was submarine, and that the undecomposed state 

 of similar rocks, even of perishable minerals like olivine 

 and nepheline, in certain regions, is due to these being 

 ancient land-areas which have not been submerged 

 beneath the sea since a remote geological period. 



Such, briefly stated, is the record of the Geological 

 Survey of India, a record which reflects credit on all' who 

 have been concerned in the making of it. Yet it must 

 not be forgotten that credit is due also to the Civil 

 Administration of India, which has not only maintained 

 the staff by whom the record has been made, but has 

 given the further pecuniary assistance, modest in amount 

 but steadily continued, which has enabled the Survey to 

 form a museum fully illustrating the geology of India in 

 all its branches, to establish a well-equipped laboratory, 

 and to collect a library which, as a geological working 

 library, is probably unsurpassed by any and equalled 

 by few. 



NOTES. 



M. Darboux, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of Paris, has 

 been elected permanent secretary of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, in succession to the late M. Joseph Bertrand. Prof. 

 J. Willard Gibbs, professor of mathematical physics in Yule 

 University, has been elected a correspondant of the Academy in 

 the section of mechanics. Prof. J. Cfiatin, assistant professor 

 NO. 1596, VOL. 62] 



of histology at the Sorbonne, has been elected a member of the' 

 section of anatomy of the Academy, in succession to the late 

 M. Blanchard. 



The recommendations of the international conference which 

 recently met in London to determine the steps which might use- 

 fully be taken for the preservation of wild animals, birds and 

 fish in South Africa, have now been published as a Parliamentary 

 Paper. The zone within which it is proposed to apply the 

 provisions of the Convention is bounded on the north by the 

 20th parallel of nprth latitude, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, 

 on the east by the Red Sea and by the Indian Ocean, on the 

 south by a line following the northern boundary of the German 

 possessions in South-Western Africa, from its western extremity 

 to its junction with the River Zambesi, and thence running along 

 the right bank of that river as far as the Indian Ocean. To 

 preserve the various forms of animal life existing in a wild state 

 within this zone, it is proposed to prohibit the hunting and 

 destruction of certain animals, especially females when accom- 

 panied by their young or capable of being otherwise recognised, 

 of which the protection, whether owing to their usefulness or to 

 their rarity and threatened extermination, may be considered 

 necessary by each local government. The establishment, as 

 far as it is possible, of reserves within which it shall be un- 

 lawful to hunt, capture or kill any bird or other w,ild animal 

 except those specially exempted from protection by the local 

 authorities, is recommended, and also of close seasons with a 

 view to facilitate the rearing of young. It is proposed to put 

 export duties on the hides and skins of giraffes, antelopes, zebras, 

 rhinoceroses and hippopotami, on rhinoceroses and antelope 

 horns, and on hippopotamus tusks, and to prohibit the hunting 

 or killing of young elephants. Measures are to be taken for 

 ensuring the protection of the eggs of ostriches, and for the 

 destruction of the eggs of crocodiles, of those of poisonous snakes, 

 and of those of pythons. It is, however, understood that some 

 of the principles laid down may be relaxed, either in order to 

 permit the collection of specimens for museums or zoological 

 gardens, or for any other scientific purpose. 



Prof. J. Perry, F.R.S., has been elected president of the 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers for the session 1900-1901. 



Mr. Borchgrevink, who recently returned from his ex- 

 plorations in the Antarctic, will, it is expected, give a lecture 

 before the Royal Geographical Society on June 18. 



The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has decided to 

 award the Rumford medal to Prof. Carl Barus, of Brown 

 University, for his researches in heat. 



We learn from Science that the Committee of Coinage, 

 Weights and Measures of the U.S. House of Representatives 

 has unanimously agreed to report as an amendment to the 

 Sundry Civil Bill the measure establishing a United States 

 Standardising Bureau, referred to in Nature of May 17 (p. 61). 



We regret that a part of the edidon of last week's Nature 

 appeared without the announcement that the names of Dr. 

 D. Gill, F.R.S., and Dr. T. E. Thorpe, F.R.S., were included 

 in the list of Birthday Honours. The former has been promoted 

 to the rank of K.C.B., and the latter has been created a C.B. 



The third Liverpool expedition for the study of tropical 

 diseases, referred to last week, will start in the first week in 

 July. The members of the expedition are Drs. Durham andi 

 Walter Myers. The object of the expedition is to study yellow 

 fever, malaria and dysentery. 



An excursion to Malvern and district has been arranged by 

 the Geologists' Association for Whitsuntide. The director 

 will be Prof. T. T. Groom, and during the stay at Malvern, 

 from Saturday, June 2, to Tuesday, June 5, a number of inter- 

 esting geological sections and structures will be examined. 



