42 



KNOWLEDGE 



[February 1, 1899. 



Great Shearwater {Puifimis major). — Mr. Bunn, of 

 Lowestoft, sent me for inspection the fresh skin of a Great 

 Shearwater, which had been brought in by one of the 

 Lowestoft fishing boats about the 15th November, 1898. — 

 Thos. Southwell, Norwich. 



The Flamingu in Merionethshire (Zoologist, January, 1899. p. 29). 

 — Mr. Q-. H. Caton Haigh shot a specimen of this bird on October 

 21 st, 1898, on the estuary Vnown as " Traeth-bach," in Merioneth- 

 shire, North Wales. The bird liad been observed in the estuary by 

 Mr. Haigh's brother on September 28ih. It was exce.'siTcly wild, 

 and proved to be in good condition, and showed no signs of having 

 been in captivity. Only three or four examples of this southern 

 species have previously been recorded as having visited our islands. 

 Mr. Haigh remarks that there was a heavy gale from the south on the 

 two days previous to the arrival of tliis specimen. 



The'Oreaf Ank once an Irish Bird. By B. J. Cssher (Irish 

 Naturalist, January, 1899, pp. 1-3). — Mr. I'ssher here gives particu- 

 lars of further bones discovered in County Waterford. Mr. Ussher 

 remarks : " That my superficial searches among the sandhills, where 

 but little of the old surface is now exposed, should have resulted in 

 finding the remains of at least six Great Auks strewn about, suggests 

 that these birds must have been used for food in some numbers." 



Remains of the Oreat Auk from Whitepark Bay, Coiinti/ Antrim. 

 By W. J. ivnowles (Irish Katicralist, January, 1899, pp. 4-6). — 

 This forms a complete list of the liones of Great Auks which have 

 been discovered in Whitepark Bay. 



The Black Grouse and the Ptarmigan formerly Irish Birds (Irish 

 Naturalist, January 1899, pp. 17 and 18). — Under the title "Notes 

 on Birds' Bones from Irish Caves," Mr. B. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton 

 gives particulars of some bones from County Waterford which have 

 been identified as those of the Ptarmigan and Black Grouse, neither 

 of which species is known to have occurred in Ireland in recent times. 



ffatcjinch in North County Dublin (Irish Naturalist, .January, 

 1899, p. 27). — Mr. J. Trumbull records the capture, on February 

 ]3th, 1898, at the Grange, Portmarnock, of a mature male Hawfinch, 

 a rare visitor to Ireland. 



Great Spotted Woodpecker in Scotland (Annals of Scottish 

 Natural History, January, 1899, pp. 47-49). — A number of records 

 appear in these pages of the immigration of Great Spotted Wood- 

 peckers in October and November, 1898. 



European Hawk-Oud, in Aberdeenshire (Annals of Scottish Natural 

 History, January, 1899, p. 49). — Mr. G. Sim reports that : " On 

 21st November an excellent female specimen of the European Hawk- 

 Owl (Siirina uhila) was shot by William Smith, factor on the Haddo 

 House Estates." But one example, obtained near Amesbury, Wilts., 

 of the European form of this bird obtained in Great Britain, has been 

 satisfactorily identified. A bird obtained in the Shetlands, in the 

 winter of 1860-1, was believed to be of this species. 



Little Bustard in Aberdeenshire (Annals of Scottish Natural 

 History, January, 1899, p. 51). — Mr. J. G. Walker, shot a Little 

 Bustard, which is a rare visitor to Scotland, on October 24th, 1898, 

 at St. Fergus. 



Solitary Snipe near Elgin (Annals of Scottish Natural History, 

 January, 1899, p. 51). — Mr. T. E. Buckley reports that a specimen 

 of Gallinago major — rare in the north of Scotland — was shot on 

 October 15th, 1898, by Mr. J.Brander-Dunbar, atPitgaveny, ucarElgin. 



Fulmar Petrel breeding on Noss, Shetland (Annals of Scottish 

 Natural History, January, 1899, p. 53). — Last summer Mr. Eobert 

 Godfrey foimd the Fulmar breeding on the Noup of Noss. This is 

 the first breeding station observed on the eastern seaboard of Britain. 



All contributions to tJie column, either in the way of notes 

 or photographs, should be forwarded to Harry F. Witherby, 

 at 1, Eliot Flace, Blackheath, Kent, 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM OF OUR EMPIRE. 



By John Mills. 



SINCE the first cable was laid between Dover and 

 Calais in 1850, nearly two hundred thousand miles 

 of cable have been placed beneath the sea ; their 

 united length would stretch almost to the moon, or 

 circumscribe the globe eight times ; they represent 

 an invested capital of about fifty million pounds, ninety per 

 cent, of which has been provided by private enterprise. Sir 

 Sandford Fleming has evolved a practical scheme in which 

 he advocates the adoption of a system of State-owned cables 

 for the British Empire — all parts of the Empire to be con- 

 nected together by a network of submarine cables crossing 

 the three great oceans of the world, and nowhere coming 



to the surface except on British territory. The Pacific cable, 

 the construction of which is, in Sir Sandford Fleming's 

 opinion, the first step to be taken, would start from Van- 

 couver and find mid-ocean stations at Fanning Island, Fiji, 

 and Norfolk Island; at the latter island the line would 

 bifurcate, one branch extending to New Zealand and the 

 other to the eastern coast of Australia ; telegraphic com- 

 munication across the continent would put the cable in 

 touch with King George's Sound ; thence, traversing the 

 Indian Ocean, cables would find mid-ocean stations at Cocos 

 Island and Mauritius, extending thence to Natal or Cape 

 Town ; from Cocos Island connection would be made with 

 Ceylon, Singapore, and Hong-kong ; and from Mauritius 

 would be in touch with Seychelles, Aden, and Bombay ; 

 the cables in the Atlantic should extend from Cape Town 

 to Bermuda, with mid-ocean stations at St. Helena, Ascen- 

 sion, and Barbados ; from Bermuda the telegraphic circuit 

 of the globe would be completed by connecting Bermuda 

 with Halifax and the existing Canadian and Trans-Atlantic 

 lines. 



One great advantage of this scheme is that each point 

 touched would be in connection with every other point 

 by two routes, extending in opposite directions. The total 

 distance for which new cables would be required to carry 

 out this grand project is estimated by Sir Sandford at 

 twenty-three thousand knots, and the approximate cost of 

 construction at from five million pounds to six million 

 pounds. An incident connected with the first Atlantic 

 cable, laid in 1K58, affords a clear notion as to the utility of 

 ocean cables in cases of emergency ; the line only worked 

 for three weeks, during which time seven hundred and 

 thirty-two messages were sent, and the British Govern- 

 ment countermanded by telegraph the sailing of two regi- 

 ments from Canada, and by so doing etfected a saving 

 of about fifty thousand pounds. But the advantages 

 to be derived are manifold, and extend to every department 

 of our national life — the promotion of commerce, scientific 

 research, and self-defence as the first maritime power of 

 the world ; indeed, the investment of our Empire with an 

 independent nervous system, such as is proposed by Sir 

 Sandford Fleming, would modify the existing relations of 

 England with her colonies, and the other nations of the 

 earth, to a degree which cannot be foreseen in its entirety 

 in tranquil times. The existing cables are in the hands of 

 private companies striving chiefly to earn large dividends, 

 and who adopt the policy of charging high rates, in con- 

 sequence of which trade and commerce is unduly taxed, 

 and its free development retarded. In the early pioneer 

 days of ocean telegraphy, the Atlantic Telegraph Company 

 started with a minimum tariff of twenty pounds for twenty 

 words, and one pound for each additional word, and it was 

 not until 1872 that a regular word-rate system of four 

 shillings per word was instituted. At the present day the 

 rate stands at one shilling a word with all the Atlantic 

 companies. About six million messages pass over the 

 entire network of the world's cables in a year, or about 

 fifteen thousand for each day of twenty-four hours. 



Arguing from the data afforded by the change from a 

 telegraph service managed by private companies to a 

 telegraph service owned by the State and administered 

 under the Post Office Department, Sir Sandford believes 

 that similar public advantages will follow in the wake of 

 cheap sea cables ; thus, in 1869, the year before the 

 Government assumed control of the inland telegraphs of 

 the United Kingdom, less than seven million messages 

 were carried, the cost of sending a message from London 

 to Scotland or Ireland at that time being about six 

 shillings. At the transfer, in 1870, the rate was reduced 

 to one shilling per message, and the traific immediately 



