124 



NA TURE 



[December 7, 189; 



Trusting that these proposals will meet with the approval of 

 your council, I am, dear sir, 



Yours faithfully and obediently, 



(Signed) P. L. Sclater, 

 January 21, 189 Secretary. 



(Copy.) 



Fio?n the Geological Society, Biirlingtofi House, W. 



L'i:AR Sir. — Your communication, dated January 21, 1893, 

 was this day submitted to the council of the Geological Society, 

 and I was asked by the council to inform you that they regretted 

 that they were unable, in the present state of the Society's income, 

 to recommend to the Fellows of the Geological Society an in- 

 crease of ex|jenditure such as would be necessitated by acceding 

 to your request that a grant of one hundred pounds should be 

 made to aid the publication of the Zoological Record. 



Whilst regretting their inability to comply with your request, 

 the council thank you for the conditional offer which accom- 

 panied it. I am, dear sir. 



Yours faithfully and obediently, 



(Signed) John E. Marr, 



February 22, 1893. Secretary. 



The Proposed Continuous Polar Exploration. 



Your excellent summary of the proposed continuous Polar 

 exploration (November 2, p. 18) conveys a wrong impression in 

 its closing sentence. The system may in the future assume large 

 proportions ; but the beginning, to be made next year, will be 

 very small. It will consist merely in the establishment of the 

 principal station at the south-east angle of Ellesmere Land, and 

 80 days' exploration along the west coast of that land. At most, 

 an advanced depot, erected some 100 miles farther west, may be 

 so fitted out as to serve at once as a secondary station. It is 

 not easy to see why this work should be postponed till Peary 

 and Nansen have returned. Their fields are far from ours, and 

 their results can shed no light on the area west of Ellesmere 

 Land. As well might you say that the exploration of the Medi- 

 terranean should not be begun until that of the Baltic was 

 completed. 



As you say, the possibility of continuous Polar exploration is 

 not demonstrated. There can be no doubt, however, of the value 

 of a permanent station at the entrance of Jones Sound, nor of 

 the practicability of its maintenance, so long as the whalers con- 

 tinue to visit that region. How far exploration may be carried 

 with that station as a base, it is impossible to foretell, but at any 

 rate the existence of a secure base will be an advantage possessed 

 by no previous expedition in that direction, and, in the words 

 of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," will "make disaster on a 

 large scale, humanly speaking, impossible." 



U.S. Geological Survey. Robert Stein. 



On the Classification of the Tracheate Arthropoda. — 

 A Correction. 



In No. 423 of the Zoologische Anzeit^er (1893) I ventured to 

 propose a new classification of the Tracheata, including under 

 this heading those Arthropoda that are usually known as 

 myriopods and insects. The principal changes suggested were 

 the abolition of the name Myriopoda as indicating an unnatural 

 assemblage of beings and the union of the Chilopoda, Symphyla, 

 and Hexapoda in a division (Opisthogoneata), which was based 

 upon the situation of the generative apertures at the hinder end 

 of the body. But in referring the Symphyla to this category by 

 adopting the assertions of Menge and Latzel respecting the 

 position of the orifices in question, it appears that I fell into 

 error ; for Dr. Erich Haase has kindly written to me from 

 Bangkok, with the information that by means of a series of 

 transverse sections he was able, although with considerable diffi- 

 culty, to confirm Grassi's statement to the effect that the gene- 

 rative apertures in Scolopendrella are situated upon the fourth I 

 body-segment. This genus is therefore progoneate, like the 

 Diplopoda and Pauropoda ; but whether it should be ranged 

 with these two classes, or occupy an independent position 

 between the Progoneata and Opisthogoneata, is a question for 

 future discussion. 



R. I. POCOCK. 



NO I 258, VOL. 49] 



THE LOSS OF H.M.S. ''VICTORIA:'^ 



n. 



Al /"E dealt last week with the circumstances relating to 



* * the loss of H.M.S. Victoria., and the causes of her 

 sinking with such startling rapidity after she was rammed. 

 The facts, so far as they are known, are fully and, in our 

 opinion, fairly summarised by Mr. W. H. White, in No. 3 

 of the Admiralty Minutes, just issued ; and Mr. White 

 demonstrates clearly, from the results of calculations 

 made in the Construction Department of the Admiralty, 

 that the movements and behaviour of the ship after the 

 accident, and the observed effects upon her line of flota- 

 tion and her stability, are precisely what would be caused 

 by the entry of water into the compartments at the fore 

 end of the ship, which are known, or believed, to have 

 been filled before she foundered. These calculations 

 serve, therefore, the useful purpose of showing that the 

 water known to have entered those forward compart- 

 ments that were proved, by evidence given before the 

 Court Martial, to be filled, was quite suflicient to account 

 for the subsequent capsizing and sinking of the ship ; 

 and for the capsizing and sinking to happen exactly in the 

 manner that was observed. This is so, as already stated, 

 whether Mr. White be absolutely right or not with regard 

 to the precise state of each separate compartment 

 after the damage ; as the evidence is sufficiently con- 

 clusive, upon the whole, respecting the various compart- 

 ments, to reduce the probability of error to a very small 

 amount, such as would not materially affect the practical 

 results of the demonstration. 



The Admiralty calculations thus remove all reasonable 

 doubt as to whether the compartments known to have- 

 been filled were sufficient in themselves to account for the 

 final disaster ; and they make it unnecessary, in order to 

 explain what happened, to speculate as to the probability 

 of the collision having been more far-reaching in its 

 effects upon the structure, or internal arrangements, of 

 the ship than the evidence indicates. The evidence, as 

 it stands, is shown to completely account for the facts ; 

 and to furnish a solid basis for investigation, or argument, 

 as to the lessons that may now be learned from the loss 

 of the Victoria. 



The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, in the 

 first of the three Minutes lately issued, dated October 

 28 last, on the finding of the Court Martial, stated 

 that the question of closing the water-tight doors 

 of the Victoria, and the construction and stability of the 

 ship, would be dealt with separately. Their lordships 

 accordingly issued the second Minute, dated October 

 30. This Minute states that, in consequence of the Court 

 Martial finding " that it does not feel itself called upon, 

 nor does it feel itself competent, to express an opinion as to 

 the causes of the capsizing of the Victoria," their lord- 

 ships instructed the Director of Naval Construction to 

 make a thorough examination and analysis of those parts 

 of the evidence which throw light on these points. The 

 report prepared by Mr. White, in accordance with these 

 instructions — No. 3 of the present Minutes — was dealt 

 with in our article of last week ; but we then left over for 

 subsequent consideration the references made in the 

 Minutes to the lessons taught by the various circum- 

 stances of the case. 



These points being dealt with authoritatively in the 

 second Admiralty Minute, dated October 30, we shall deal 

 principally with that Mmute in the following remarks. 

 It commences by adopting the figures and the conclu- 

 sions stated in Mr. W^hite's report with regard to the 

 nature of the blow received by the Victoria, the after 

 movements and behaviour of the ship, the extent to 

 which water found access into her, and the effect of such 

 water upon her flotation and stability. We have nothing 



1 Continued from p. 104. 



