3^8 



NATURE 



[August 6, 1903 



the baron should havfi succeeded in making his. :Way-bfack 

 to the New Siberian Islands in the spriHg, he and: his com- 

 panions will have an ample supply of provisions, lin the 

 stores which he himself left there for Nansen in . 1893. 

 According to notes left by Seeberg on New Siberia, which 

 is the last news received of the expedition, Baron Toll's 

 party must have left there about \he beginning of July of 

 last year to explore Bennett Island. 



It is announced that a wireless telegraphy station is to 

 ba erected at Port Arthur at a place known as Golden 

 Mountain. The object is to establish regular communica- 

 tion with Russian warships in the Gulf of Pechili. The 

 system to be used is not stated. 



The Cable Makers' Association, which represents the chief 

 makers of insulated wire in this country, haS decided to 

 put on the market a special quality of flexible cord which 

 shall be quite safe and trustworthy under all conditions of 

 ordinary use. The importance of installing good quality 

 flexible cord cannot be overestimated, as the loose wire is 

 subjected often to rough treatment, and is very liable to 

 be in the neighbourhood of inflammatory material. The 

 cord which the Association proposes to make is to be in- 

 sulated with pure and vulcanised indiarubber, and will have 

 a minimum insulation resistance of 600 megohms per mile 

 after twenty-four hours' immersion in water; the insulation 

 will also be tested with 1000 volts alternating current for 

 fifteen minutes. The cord will bear a special label and 

 trade mark for the purpose of distinguishing it. 



The twenty-fifth annual report of the Deutsche Seewarte 

 for 1902 will be noteworthy in the history of that useful 

 institution by the retirement of Dr. von Neumayer, who had 

 been director since January, 1876, and of Captain Dinklage, 

 marine superintendent, after twenty-two years of very 

 active work. The long list of meteorological logs received 

 from the navy and mercantile marine shows that this 

 branch of the service has been carried on with great activity ; 

 556 steamships and 198 sailing vessels contributed observ- 

 ations during the year. The results appear in various 

 useful publications, including daily synoptic charts and 

 monthly pilot charts of the North Atlantic Ocean. The 

 department of storm warnings and weather telegraphy has 

 also been conducted with unabated vigour, to the success 

 of which the recent establishment of a telegraphic service 

 at yh. a.m. has greatly contributed. The daily weather 

 report issued by this department is one of the most valuable 

 publications of the Seewarte, and includes observations from 

 all parts of Europe. 



We have received the report of the Government 

 astronomer of Western Australia, containing meteorological 

 observations made at the Perth Observatory and other 

 places in the colony during the year igoi. Very complete 

 observations are published for the observatory, including 

 temperature of the soil and evaporation, together with 

 monthly means from the year 1876. General summaries 

 are also given for more than forty climatdlogical stations 

 an J rainfall statistics for a large number of places.' Morn- 

 ing and evening weather forecasts form part of the routine 

 work, and the results show that they have been remarkably 

 successful ; the general forecasts issued at noon, for the 

 whole State, attained a complete success ,of 93 per cent. 

 During the latter portion of the year astronomy also formed 

 a prominent feature of the work of the observatory. . 



In the Zoologist for July Mr. T. E. Lones discusses the 

 identification of some of the birds mentioned by Aristotle, 

 and shows that certain of the names have a generic rather 

 than a specific sense. It appears that the name hoscas, 



NO. 1762, VOL. 68] 



now used for the mallard, really indicates the widgeon, 

 while netta, now employed as the generic title of the red- 

 headed pochard, properly denotes the first-named bird. Jn 

 a second article Mr. R. C. J. Swinhoe publishes a fuller 

 account of the gisement of the now celebrated chipped 

 flints from Yenangyoung, Burma, and concludes that, in 

 place of Pliocene or Miocene, they are really of late Neo- 

 lithic, if not of the Iron, age. Mr. Lydekker has a note 

 on the gaur of Burma, which is regarded as subspecifically 

 distinct from the wild ox of India, and named Bos gaurus 

 readei. 



A COLLECTION of molluscs from the Vicksburg marls has 

 enabled Mr. T. L. Casey to describe a considerable number 

 of new species and genera in a recent issue of the Proceed- 

 ings of the Philadelphia Academy. In the same journal 

 Mr. A. E. Brown attempts to bring into something like 

 order the various forms of garter-snakes (Eutaenia) from 

 the Pacific Coast of North America which have received 

 distinct specific and subspecific names. Much interest 

 attaches to a note by Miss S. P. Monks in the serial under 

 consideration in regard to regeneration in starfishes. It 

 has been stated that a fragment of a ray, without any 

 portion of the central disc, cannot give rise to a new animal. 

 This is disproved by the new experiments, in which the 

 amputated free rays developed new bodies, while the muti- 

 lated starfishes produced new rays. 



From among a series of papers published in the Proceed- 

 ings of the U.S. Nat. Museum, special mention may be 

 made of the following. In No. 1345 Mr. B. A. Bean records 

 from Barbados an example of the small eel, Ahlia egmontis, 

 hitherto known only by the type specimen from Florida, 

 Reference is also made to a third example of the species 

 from Florida. In No. 1341 the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing 

 describes two new species of amphipod crustaceans from 

 Costa Rica. The walking-stick insects (Phasmidae) of the 

 United States form the subject of a paper (No. 1335) by 

 Mr. A. N. Caudell, while Mr. W. H. Dall (No. 1342) con- 

 tributes a synopsis of the bivalves of the family Astartidse, 

 with special reference to the American species. Finally, 

 Mr. S. F. Clarke (No. 1343) shows that the Alaskan hydroid 

 polyp, described by himself as the representative of a new 

 family and genus (Rhizonema), belongs to one or other of 

 the well-known genera Corymorpha and Lampra, the im- 

 perfect condition of the Alaskan specimens preventing closer 

 identification. 



In Animal World Illustrated (the official organ for the 

 R.S.P.C.A.) for July, Mr. E. V. Windsor, in an article 

 entitled " Reflections by a Lover of Nature," passes an 

 unqualified condemnation on insect collecting, as practised 

 by the school-boy and the amateur entomologist. Stuffed 

 birds as objects of decoration are likewise condemned, and 

 we presume, although this is not stated in so many words, 

 that collections of birds' skins, except in museums, would 

 likewise come under the writer's ban. While we have 

 much sympathy with Mr. Windsor's views, more especially 

 as regards the stuffed birds, we believe that he carries 

 these views somewhat too far. For instance, when he says, 

 that " there is little or nothing to be learnt from a creature 

 when dead," we beg to join issue with him. Again, we 

 have the following passage : — " In every branch of natural 

 history this wanton slaughtering is, I fear, practised. In 

 branches other than those I have just referred to it is 

 practised almost exclusively by men who have a real claim 

 to the title of naturalist, because these branches of natural 

 science not being so popular, there are fewer amateufs.',' 

 If by this the author means to condemn museum collecting, 

 he cannot have our sympathy. As regards the contention 



