;46 



NA TURE 



[February 8, 1894 



4.30 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. At present the Royal Society is the 

 only one that meets at 4.30 at Burlington House. 



The fourteenth general meeting of the Federated Institution 

 of Mining Engineers will be held at Leeds on February 14, and 

 a number of important papers will then be read. Arrange- 

 ments have been made for visits to works, &c. on the follow- 

 ing day. 



As an introduction to the summer excursions of the London 

 Geological Field Class, Prof. H. G. Seeley, F. R.S., will 

 deliver a course of four lectures on " The Shaping of the 

 Earth;" at Wortley Hall, Seven Sisters Road, beginning on 

 February 22. 



We learn from the Kew Bulletin that Mr, W. Lunt has been 

 appointed botanical collector for Kew to Mr. Theodore Bent's 

 expedition to the Hadramant Valley, in South Arabia. The 

 flora is only conjecturally known, and no botanical collections 

 appear ever to have been made in it. The expedition left London 

 on November 24, and is expected to return about April. 



The number of the Keiv Bulletin for December, 1893, con- 

 tains an important correspondence between the Colonial Office 

 and the Directors of the Royal Gardens, Kew, on the root- 

 disease of the sugar-cane ; and an interesting account, by two of 

 the gardening staff at Kew, of the subtropical horticulture in 

 various gardens in Cornwall. 



The Botanical Gazette says that Mr. O. F. Cook 

 sailed on October 25 for Western Africa, to make further 

 observations and collections of the plants of that region, 

 especially of cryptogams. He will be gone a year or more. 

 His former voyage resulted in securing a large amount of 

 botanical material, and the present visit is expected to yield 

 even greater results. 



At the monthly meeting of the Malacological Society of 

 London on January 12, Mr. G. B. Sowerby described a new 

 species of the genus Vcrticordia, to which he gave the name of 

 V. optima. The shell, which far exceeds in size and beauty any 

 hitherto known, was taken off Port Blair, at a depth of 188 

 fathoms. The description and figure will appear in the forth- 

 coming number of the Proceedings of the Malacological Society 

 of London. 



The vertical distribution of the British Lepidoptera forms 

 the subject of an article by Mr. W. H. Bath in the January and 

 February numbers of the Entomologist. Too little attention is 

 usually given to this interesting branch of entomology, though 

 as a matter of fact vertical distribution is as important as hori- 

 zontal or geographical distribution, for, as Mr. Bath points out, 

 it not only estimates the affinities existing between the lowland 

 species occurring in this country, and their relations in more 

 elevated areas in the South of Europe, but shows the relation- 

 ships between our mountain forms and their representatives 

 found at higher altitudes in Alpine regions, and lower in Arctic 

 and sub-Arctic latitudes. And further, vertical distribution 

 gives a better index as to the range of temperature and other 

 climatic phenomena which each species can endure than mere 

 geographical distribution is capable of doing in anything like the 

 same area. Mr. Bath has prepared a list of vertical zones in 

 the British Isles, taking as its basis the divisions defined by the 

 Brothers Speyer in their work on the distribution of Swiss and 

 German Lepidoptera. His proposed list contains five zones, 

 viz. the South Coast zone, the Lower Hill zone, the Upper 

 Hill zone, the Lower Alpine zone, and the Upper Alpine zone. 

 The limitations of these zones are fully described, besides being 

 presented in a tabular form, so that any entomologist who desires 

 to take up this mountaineering branch of his science will find that 

 Mr. Bath has considerably smoothed the way of observation. 

 NO. 1267, VOL. 49] 



The Geographical Journal for February contains a note of a 

 journey up the Cross River, made by Sir Claude Macdonald, 

 the Commissioner for the Niger Coast Protectorate. Since 

 1842 no vessel larger than a canoe had gone up the river as fa? 

 as the rapids, but the stern-wheeler Beecroft, navigated b/ 

 Captain Dundas, met with no difficulty, and in her Sir Claure 

 passed the rapids, and would have gone on to some high fals 

 spoken of by natives, but the rainy reason was almost over, ind 

 the river beginning to fall so rapidly that he had to return. The 

 natives met with were friendly and anxious to have regular 

 communication on the river. 



We have received a pamphlet from Mr. Robert Stein, setting 

 forth his plan for the exploration of EUesmere Land in a concise 

 and practical form. His expedition is undertaken vith the 

 cordial approval of the National Geographic Society of Wash- 

 ington and of many of the leading British and American 

 Arctic explorers. Mr. Stein retains full liberty for Ms conduct 

 of the expedition, but is aided in organising it by an advisory 

 committee consisting of Commodore G. W. Mel'ille, Dr. T. 

 C. Mendenhall, General Greely, and Mr. John Jo/ Edson, who 

 acts as treasurer. The expedition is estimated to cost only 

 10,000 dollars, a large part of it being subscribed by the mem- 

 bers already appointed, while the remainder was nearly made by 

 private subscriptions. The proposed method jf working bears 

 every mark of having been carefully thought Jut. Twenty-two 

 men at most will take part in it, and they w-ll leave St. John's, 

 Newfoundland, about May i, 1894, in a whaler, which will 

 land them at Cape Tennyson, in EUesmere Land, or as near 

 that point as possible. A house will be erected, provisioned 

 for two years, and left in charge of four men. Eight men will 

 follow the coast of EUesmere Land westward, and establish an 

 advanced depot about 100 miles from fhe base, and then make 

 an attempt to reach Hayes Sound. A thorough search will be 

 made eastward along the coast by a party of six for the missing 

 Swedish naturalists Bjorling and Kaistennius. The whole party 

 intended to spend the winter of 1894 at the base, where con- 

 tinuous meteorological observations will be carried on, and in 

 the spring of 1895 they will endeavour to extend the explora- 

 tion as far as Greely fjord, but will make their way by the end of 

 September to Cape Warrender, on Lancaster Sound, where four 

 men will be lefc at a depot in 1894 to await them. A whaler will 

 meet them there by appointment, and bring the expedition back 

 to Scotland or Newfoundland. Careful scientific observations 

 will be made throughout, and collections in all departments of 

 natural history are arranged for. Over sixty men had volun- 

 teered for the expedition up to January 9 ; of these, thirty were 

 found to be suitable, but only three had been definitely en- 

 gaged. The estimate of 10,000 dollars provides only for a party 

 of ten ; in order to establish the reserve station at Cape War- 

 render, and to search properly for the lost Swedes, a further sum 

 must be raised. Should the first ex pedition prove successful, Mr. 

 Stein's larger scheme of Arctic exploration will probably be 

 proceeded with on his return. 



In the Geological Alagazine for February, Miss M. M. 

 Ogilvie continues her paper on "Coral in the 'Dolomites' of 

 South Tyrol." The article is illustrated by a fine map and 

 sections of the district discussed. Miss Ogilvies conclusioa 

 with regard to coral foimations in the dolomites strengthens 

 " the position of those authorities who have contended that the 

 immense thicknesses of ' Schlern Dolomite ' rock were an 

 ordinary marine deposit and not ' coral-reefs. 



The discovery of petroleum on the Mendip Hills has re- 

 cently been announced. A well at Ashwick Court, two miles 

 north of Shepton Mallet, has long been known to yield water 

 slightly flavoured at times with petroleum. A considerable flow 



