JANUARY 17, 1895] 



NATURE 



279 



accomplished, the results of which have been partially published 

 in the Forschtiit'^sbcrUhte of the station, while others are already 

 «n the press. 



The death of Mr. Thomas Andrews at Guildford (says the 

 Times) removes one of the best-known and most successful pisci- 

 ■culturisls of the day. His breeding ponds at Maslemere, on the 

 borders of Surrey and Hants, are perhaps, next to Sir James Mait- 

 land's famous establishment at Howietown, near Stirling, the 

 most important trout-rearing fishery in the kingdom. The series 

 of ponds are picturesquely situated on the side of a hill, and were 

 ^11 planned under the immediate direction of the late owner, 

 who was a keen observer and an enthusiastic naturalist. They 

 aftbrded every facility for studying the various points in con- 

 nection with the artificial cultivation of trout. Mr. Andrews 

 h.id brought this particular branch of pisciculture (to which he 

 had devoted many years of his life) to a very high state of per- 

 fection. The distribution of ova and fiih from the Surrey ponds 

 was not merely confined to our home waters. At various times 

 consignments were despatched to foreign countries, Ceylon, 

 Buenos Ayres, Mauritius, and elsewhere. Mr. Andrews con- 

 tributed many important papers on fishery matters to various 

 peiiodicals. 



The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences has recently made 

 some changes in the system of publishing papers communicated 

 to it. In September 1894, it commenced the publication of 

 a monthly number, under the title Bulletin de V Acadenie Im- 

 fJriaU lies Sciencei, which serves as the organ of the three 

 classes of the Academy. This Bulletin i> intended to include 

 the proca-verbaux of the meetings, annual reports on scientific 

 researches, reports on prizes conferred by the Academy, notes 

 on the work of the museums, cStc. In addition to notices of this 

 kind, the Bulletin will contain short scientific papers. The 

 Af^ moires de V Acadhnie Imperiale des ScientLS will form in 

 future the second means of publication. It will be divided into 

 two independent series, dealing respectively with the physico- 

 malhematical section of the Academy's papers, and the his- 

 torical and philological section. The publication of the Melanges, 

 (iris du Bulletin, has been discontinued. 



Some very low temperatures were reported to the Meteoro- 

 logical OlTice during the recent frost. At Braemar, in the east 

 of Scotland, the sheltered thermometer fell below zero on four 

 consecutive days, the lowest value being - 5° on the 9th 

 instant. At Hillington, in the east of England, the lowest 

 reading was z' on the 1 2th instant; in other districts the 

 cninima varied considerably, being 8° or 9' in the north of Scot- 

 land and the northeast and midland parts of England. This 

 severe weather came to a sudden termination on the night of 

 the izth-ljth instant, owing to the approach of a serious dis- 

 turbance from the Atlantic, which arrived off the Irish coast on 

 Saturday, and remained comparatively stationary during Sun- 

 day and Monday. Strong easterly gales were experienced on 

 the Scotch coasts, and very strong winds in other places. The 

 gale was accompanied by a very high sea on our north and east 

 coasts, and, as usual with easterly gales, many shipping 

 casualties occurred. 



We learn from an article in Das Weller, that a permanent 

 meteorological station has been established by the Danish 

 authorities at Angmagsalik, on the east coast of Greenland 

 {Lat. 65' 37' N., Long. 37" i6' \V.), and has been provided with 

 self-recording instruments, in addition to the usual ones. This 

 station will be of much importance, as it forms a link between 

 those on the west coast of Greenland and the stations in Ice- 

 land, and as it is between Iceland and Greenland that the 

 centre of the Icelandic barometric low-pressure lies, the varying 

 position of which exercises a great influence on the weather 



NO. I316, VOL. 51] 



conditions of Europe. It is known, from a year's observations 

 made thereby Holm ten years ago, that the climate is very rough 

 and stormy ; during the year in question the mean temperature 

 was 5° below the freezing point, while the minimum reached 

 - 13° of Fahrenheit's scale. Meteorologists may well be 

 grateful to men who have undertaken to make observations in a 

 place where, in all probability, they will be cut ofT from all 

 other human intercourse for some years. Dr Nansen only 

 succeeded, after considerable difficulty, in reaching Lat. 63.^° 

 along this coast in the year iSSS. 



It will be news to most people that dealers in drugs, both 

 wholesale and retail, cannot legally use kilogramme weights, 

 or any of the metric system of weights and measures, for the 

 export trade, though orders received from continental countries 

 are given in that system. A short draft Bill has been prepared 

 to amend the law, and will be presented to Parliament in the 

 coming session. The chief clause reads as follows : — " That, 

 on and alter the passing of this Act, wherever the word ' trade ' 

 occurs in the Weights and Measures Acts of 187S and 1889, it 

 shall be so construed as not to prohibit or penalise the use of 

 metric weights and measures, verified by the Biard of Trade or 

 local authorities, by export traders." The Acts of 1876 and 

 1889 have been disregarded by many traders, but the London 

 County Council having recently intimated that they must 

 enforce the law, the passing of an amendment such as that pro- 

 posed has become necessary. 



On Tuesday, January S, a paper was read before the Anthro- 

 pological Institute, on the Samoyad race, by Mr. Arthur 

 Montefiore. After dealing in some detail with the geographical 

 distribution of the various branches of the Samoyads, Mr, 

 Montefiore proceeded to give evidence of their affiiity with the 

 Finns, and, following Castre.T, placed them in the group which 

 that authority called Ural-.\ltaic. The evidence consisted 

 partly of physical measurements and cha.racteristics, partly of 

 similarity in ideas, habits and customs, and partly of identity 

 in language. It was shown in the course of the paper that the 

 language of the Samoyads is highly agglutinative and so inflec- 

 tional as to form a link, as it were, between the .Mongol and 

 Indo-Germanic groups. After dealing with the myths and con- 

 ceptions of deity held by this curious race, Mr. Montefiore read 

 a number of notes made by Mr. Frederick G. Jackson (the 

 leader of the Jackson- Harmsworth Polar expedition) during 

 his sojourn among the Samoyads in the autumn and winter of 

 ■893-94, and his subsequent journey across the Great Tundra 

 between the Kara Sea and the Pechora River. Mr. Jackson's 

 notes were very full, and contained some remarkable evidence 

 of the completeness with which the Samoyad has adapted him- 

 self to the rigorous requirements of his environment. A number 

 of Samoyad implements and other articles (Including a highly 

 curious Samoyad doll and some calculating sticks) were exhibited, 

 together with a series of lantern slides from photographs, which 

 are necessarily new to English students of anthropology. 



Does atmospheric dust exercise any perceptible influence on 

 the intensity of the sun's rays transmitted through it ? is the 

 question which Prof. A. Bartoli answers in the Nuovo Cimento. 

 He studied the effect of different thicknesses of air upon the 

 sun's heat by measuring the heating power of the sun at various 

 altitudes with the pyrheliometer, after the great eruption of Etna 

 in July 1892. On July 25, the air was filled with an impalpable 

 dust, which fell very gently, and gave to the sun a slight reddish 

 tinge. There were no clouds, and there was a dead calm. liy 

 comparing the absorptive influence of the air under these 

 conditions with that in a clear atmosphere. Prof. Uartoli found 

 that 28 per cent, of the heat transmitted by the pure air was 

 intercepted by the volcanic dust. 



