214 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[September 1, 1897. 



three thousand in 1895, and last year probably more than 

 double that number were engaged in washing gold from the 

 gravels of the Yukon and its tributaries, while the total 

 output of the year reached a value of nearly five million 

 dollars. It is interesting to note that Dr. George Dawson, 

 now the Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 prophesied the recent gold discoveries in a report of an 

 exploration in the Yukon district and adjacent northern 

 portion of British Columbia, made ten years ago. Dr. 

 Dawson's report, which appears in the "Eeport of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada " (1887-88), should be seen by 

 everyone who wishes to obtain a clear, unvarnished state- 

 ment of the resources of the region. 



The South Pole has for long been left undisturbed by 

 the explorer, and has never attracted as much attention 

 as the opposite Pole. The new Belgian expedition, how- 

 ever, is by no means the first to visit the Antarctic Sea. 

 The scientific staff of the present expedition consists of a 

 geologist, a heutenant of artillery, who has charge of the 

 magnetic and meteorological apparatus, an expert dredger, 

 and a physician. The lleli/ica ia a whaling vessel of 

 two hundred and sixty-three tons, barque rigged, and with 

 a speed of seven knots. She has been furnished with every 

 sort of apparatus likely to facilitate the objects of the 

 expedition. Soundings to any depth will be taken with the 

 sounding-line invented by the Prince of Monaco, fishing 

 will be possible at a depth of four thousand feet, and the 

 animal life of the upper sea-beds will be made the subject 

 of study. It is expected that the Behjica will be absent 

 about two years. Captain de Gerlache, in a recent inter- 

 view, described his objects as being little dissimilar from 

 those of the ChaUengii- and other like expeditions. At 

 the same time it is believed that, in view of the type of 

 vessel chosen, it will be possible to carry on scientific 

 research in waters which have so far been impenetrable. 



Two experienced naturalists, Miss Ormerod and Mr. 

 Tegetmeier, have rendered agriculturists a timely service 

 by preparing a brochure on one of the worst pests of the 

 farm, the common sparrow. The losses caused to farmers 

 by this feathered thief are far greater than is popularly 

 supposed. 



— »-♦-. — 



Mr. Joseph Lunt, B.Sc, Director of the Photographic 

 Section of the British Astronomical Association, has been 

 appointed Assistant at the Cape Observatory, to take charge 

 of the telescope and spectroscopes recently presented to 

 the Observatory by Mr. McClean for the purposes of re- 

 searches in stellar spectroscopy. 



> ^ > 



The Treasury have appointed a small committee " to 

 consider and report upon the desirability of establishing a 

 National Physical Laboratory for the testing and verifica- 

 tion of instruments for physical investigation, for the con- 

 struction and preservation of standards of measurement, 

 and for the systematic determination of physical constants 

 and numerical data useful for scientific and industrial pur- 

 poses ; and to report whether the work of such an institu- 

 tion, if established, could be associated with any testing 

 or standardizing work already performed wholly or par- 

 tially at the public cost. " The following will be the 

 members of the committee :— The Lord Eayleigh, D.C.L., 

 F.R.S. (chairman) ; Sir Courtenay Boyle, K.C.B. ; Sir 

 Andrew Noble, K.C.B., F.K.S. ; Sir John Wolfe Barry, 

 K.C.B., F.E.S. ; W. C. Roberts-Austen, Esq., C.B., F.R.S. ; 

 Robert Chalmers, Esq., of the Treasury; A. W. Rucker, 

 Esq., D.Sc, F.E.S. ; Alexander Siemens, Esq. ; Dr. T. 

 E. Thorpe, F.R.S. 



Not(«s Of Uoolts. 



The Birds of Our Country. By H. E. Stewart, B.A. 

 (Digby, Long, & Co.) Illustrated. Mr. Stewart's book ia 

 perhaps as good as most of the sort, viz., a book for 

 beginners written by a beginner. That we need such 

 books is quite another question. The text is by no means 

 free from errors. Amongst others, we may notice that the 

 author says that the reed warbler is the last of all our 

 summer visitors to arrive. This is by no means the case. 

 A number of birds arrive about the same time, while the 

 garden warbler, the spotted flycatcher, the nightjar, and 

 others arrive here after the reed warbler. The author 

 makes no distinction between the plumage of the male and 

 female bullfinch. We are told that the long-eared owl is 

 commoner than the tawny owl in the New Forest. This 

 may be so in one particular district, but we very much 

 doubt if it is true of the New Forest as a whole. The 

 curious statement is made that the roseate tern " in all 

 probability does not now breed anywhere in the British 

 Islands." The author is in error here. The illustrations 

 are all " second hand," and, as in Miss Fulcher's book, 

 reviewed in our columns last month, several are wrongly 

 named. This practice, whether it arises from ignorance 

 or carelessness, cannot be too strongly condemned. The 

 illustration on page 134, called a swaUow, is a martin; that 

 on page 289, of a golden plover, is, no doubt, a dotterel ; 

 while that on page 323 is certainly not a lesser tern, since 

 the tail is longer than the wings. Altogether we cannot 

 recommend this book. 



British Rainfall, 1895. Compiled by G. J. Symons, 

 F.R.S., and H. Sowerby Walter. (Edward Stanford.) 

 Illustrated. 103. The services rendered by Mr. Symons to 

 the United Kingdom by establishing and carrying on during 

 nearly forty years systematic observations (now at over 

 three thousand stations) of the rainfall of the British Isles, 

 and by recording, tabulating, and graphically indicating 

 the results of these observations in the annual volumes 

 published by himself, were recently recognized by the 

 award of the Albert Medal of the Society of Arts to him. 

 One of the annual volumes is before us, and in addition 

 to being replete with facts and figures on the rainfall and 

 meteorology of 1895, it contains an article on meteor- 

 ological stations at Seathwaite— the wettest place in the 

 British Isles. It will interest our readers to know that 

 Mr. Symons comes to the following conclusions with 

 refei'euce to the observations made ; — (1) The rainfall in 

 the garden at Seathwaite is on the average one hundred 

 and thirty-five inches a year. (2) In the wettest year it 

 has exceeded one hundred and eighty-two inches, and may 

 possibly reach one hundred and ninety inches. (3) In the 

 driest year it has fallen to eighty-eight inches, and will 

 probably never be less. 



The Aurora Borealis. By Alfred Angot. Illustrated. 

 (Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, & Co., Limited.) Ss. This 

 is the eighty-first volume in the well-known International 

 Scientific Series, and in our opinion it is a worthy 

 addition to the series. No general work exists in which 

 auroral phenomena are more accurately described, or 

 which can be better understood by the general reader, than 

 this translation of M. Angot's volume on the subject. 

 Incidentally we may remark, however, that the fact that 

 the book is a translation from the French does not appear 

 to be stated either on the title-page or elsewhere in the 

 book. The forms of the aurora, the physical characters, 

 frequency and periodicity, the relations of the aurora to 

 meteorological phenomena, terrestrial magnetism and 

 earth currents, and theories to account for auroral 



