36 



NA rURE 



[November 8, 1894 



plateau and mountain region?. As to the'origin of these basin?, 

 M. Delebecque believts that [many of the smaller are due to 

 glacial action, either erosion or the iireguLir accumulation of 

 moraine stuff. He dots not confirm Forel's theory of the origin 

 of the lake of Bourget by the barring of a lateral valley by the 

 alluvium of the Rhone, but is inclined lather to look upon it ts 

 a result of movements in the crust. The origin of the other 

 lakes is more obscure, but some appear to be probably due to 

 movements of the strata, while others arose from the barring o' 

 lateral valleys by delriius. Particulars of temperature observa- 

 tions and analyses of the water of various lakes are given, ar.d 

 M. Delebecque concludes with an appeal to the local scientif c 

 societies of Dauphire to initiate systematic observations on the 

 lakes of the districi. 



MONSIEUR KAVr, the celebrated French astronomer, who 

 lives in Paris, has lecent'y received a handsome token of 

 the admiration of his collejgues. All the members of the 

 Bureau des Longitudes, together with their president, 



Mon.>i<.,ii ^e la Grye, assembled in his huu^c, and pre- 

 sented him with a silver enamelled tablet, on which Astro- 

 nomy and History are represented otTeiing a medallion to the 

 mo:t U5eful of caret rs. It bears ihe following inscription : "To 

 Hervc Faye, President of ihe IJureau lies Longitudes, 1874- 

 1893. The homage of his colleagues." The two allegorical 

 figures arc sitting in the clouds, and Astronomy is pointing 

 to the comet which wa< discovered by the illustrious astronomer. 

 This interview greatly affected Monsieur Faye, who had only 

 retired on account of the ne* law, opposing the perpetuity of 

 the presidency. 



Mk. J. Theodore Bent and Mrs. Bent leave London 

 to-morrow, November 9, for an exploring journey in .\rahia. 

 They go fir»t to Karachi, and thence by steamer to Muskat on 

 the Gulf of < 'man, where the land journey commences. It is 



NO. r -?o5. VOL. 5 I ] 



Mr. Bent's intention to cross -■Vrabii from east to west, and, in 

 doing so, to revisit the Hadramut Valley, and continue his 

 archaeological researches there. 



Mr. Trevor-Battye, to whose arrival at .\rchangel we 

 referred last week, has telegraphed to the Times a detailed 

 account of his experiences on his visit to Kolguef Island. He 

 landed on the north-west coast of the island on June 21, at the 

 mouth of the liver Gosina, accompanied by Thomas Hyland 

 ^a bird-skinner) and a spaniel. .\ few days later they started 

 to cross the isl.ind, and found the journey very difficult on 

 account of the bogs and snow-tilled ravines, and the severity of 

 the weather, which was either cold and foggy or intensely hot, 

 calling out swarms of mosquitoes. Birds were abundant, but 

 the only mammal seen was a fox. At length, after a week's 

 travelling, a party of Samoyedes and many reindeer were found 

 near Chum. Mr. Trevor-Battye made this his headquarters 

 until August 20, gaining much information as to the language 

 and customs of his hosts, and assisting ihem in their hunting. 

 He records the capture of 300 Brant geese in one net, and 

 on another occasion the slaughtering of 300 reindeer. A 

 Russian trader arrived who had visited the island for thirty- 

 five successive years, and he remained a month transacting 

 business with the Samoyedes. On September 18 Mr. Trevor- 

 Battye sailed with the Russians for the mainland, and ex- 

 perienced bad weather on the way, and much difficulty in 

 navigating the shallow water near shore. His orthodox com- 

 panions attributed this difficulty to the presence of a Samoyede 

 idol which was very displeasing to St. Nicholas ; but Mr. 

 Batlye clung to his trophy, though at some personal risk. 

 After landing, there was a four days' journey in sledges to 

 Oksina, and a three days' boat trip up the Pechora to Ust 

 Tsilma. It was the worst time of the year for travelling, as 

 the land was marshy, and the rivers, unnavigable on account of 

 floating ice, were not yet frozen over. However, Mr. Trevor- 

 Battye and his companion struggled on in sledges or carts, and, 

 after adventures with wolves and all manner of delays, ulti- 

 inalely reached Archangel in excellent health. Kolguef 

 I.-land appeared to be of alluvial formation with no trace of 

 massive rock, being possibly a remnant of thi.- delta of a great 

 river. The coast-line is quite different from that shown on the 

 chart. Ext ensive zoological and botanical collections were 

 secured. 



At the annual meeting of the Royal Cornwall Geological 

 Society, held at Penzance, on November 2, Mr. Howard Fox, 

 the President, reviewed the progress made during the pa-t 

 twelve months towards the elucidation of the many unsolved 

 problems of Cornish rocks. Mr. F. J. Stephens had found 

 radiolarian cherts in the Meneage conglomerate, and on the 

 mainland near .MuUion. Mr. Ussher, of the Geological Survey, 

 had traced Upper Devonian straia in the St. Germans district, 

 west of the Tamar. The President himself had found similar 

 strata west of Padstow, and a peculiar rock at Dinas Head in the 

 same districi, which contained nearly ten per cent, of soda. In 

 Its compact form it might easily be mistaken for a chert, but it 

 passed into a nodular variety showing spherulitic structure. 

 Whether it were a soda felsite (keratophyre) or a sedimentary 

 rock altered by contact metamorphosis, such as the Adinole of 

 Ihe Hartz, was a question on which pclrologists weie nut as yet 

 in absolute agreement. The evidence from sedimentary rocks 

 in contact with greenstone on Cataclens and Round-hole Points 

 indicated a sedimentary origin, as did General McMahon's 

 notes on the sections he had e^amined. Crinuidal remains bad 

 been found in black shales of the Ordovician district of Veryan, 

 interbeddcd with radiolarian cherLs, but these shales had as 

 yet yielded no typical zonal fauna. He (Mr. Fox) had sent 

 some sections of the carboniferous cherts of East Cornwall 



