4 i6 



NATURE 



[Si:PTEMDEK 3, 190; 



Morce's Gap, whose tropical conditions I have described 

 above; close to Morce's Gap you make the ascent to John 

 Crow Peak (6000 feet), through a forest of tropical luxuri- 

 ance. Below is Mabess River (3000 feet), with similar but 

 lower-level vegetation. -At about the same distance from 

 Cinchona (three miles) is New Haven Gap (5500 feet), with 

 a similar but higher-altitude flora. Still higher altitudes 

 are accessible at Portland Gap and Blue Mountain Peak at 

 a distance of eight to ten miles. 



" There are no human habitations above Cinchona, so 

 that the Clyde River, which supplies, it with water, is pure 

 and without sources of contamination ; a more healthful 

 location could not be found in all the American tropics." 



Briefly e.xpressed, the above scheme off^ers the investigator 

 residence accommodations and laboratory facilities at 

 Cinchona under the most pleasant and advantageous con- 

 ditions, from which place he may quickly transfer his work 

 to more pronounced tropical conditions at Hope in a dry 

 climate, or to Castleton in an extremely humid locality. 

 The marine flora is equally accessible. 



The locality furnishes easy access to an immense number 

 of species of plants different from those available at any 

 other similar institution ; travelling and living expenses are 

 very reasonable, and Jamaica may be reached at intervals 

 of only a few days by numerous steamers from England, 

 Germany (Hamburg), and nearly all ports of eastern 

 America. 



Yours sincerely, 



N. L. Britton. 



New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Park, 

 New York City, .August 13. 



Training of Forest Officers. 



In a sympathetic notice in the Indian Forester of the late 

 distinguished Inspector-General of Forests in India, Mr. 

 H. C. Hill, Sir Dietrich Brandis stigmatises as " absurd " 

 " the idea which, until a short time ago, was current in 

 England, and which to this day is held by many English 

 botanists, that a good botanist must necessarily be a good 

 forester." I quite agree that the idea is absurd; but as I 

 am probably better acquainted with the English botanical 

 world than Sir Dietrich Brandis, *I doubt very much whether 

 th? idea was ever current in this country, or is held at the 

 moment by many English botanists. For my part I entirely 

 dissociate myself from it, as I know many accomplished 

 botanists who would probably make very indifferent forest 

 officers. 



I am more able to agree with Sir Dietrich Brandis when 

 he says, " A forester, more than almost anybody else, 

 must use his eyes and must be able on the spot to draw 

 conclusions from what he has observed." But the power 

 of observation is by no means possessed by everyone. A 

 further requisite, in which I think Sir Dietrich Brandis also 

 agrees, is sympathy with and pleasure in forest nature for 

 its own sake. It appears to me that neither point is kept 

 in view in the present mode of recruiting the Indian Forest 

 .Service. 



Sir Dietrich Brandis lays great stress on sport, and unless 

 it becomes too absorbing a pursuit, it undoubtedly fulfils 

 the conditions I have stated. It would, howeverj be as 

 undesirable to insist that every forest officer should be a 

 sportsman as that he should be a botanist. 



But I entertain a very strong opinion that a forest officer 

 will never rise to the highest level of efficiency in his work 

 unless he has a scientific grasp of the principles which 

 underlie it. He should be able to identify the trees which 

 compose the forest vegetation under his charge, and for this 

 purpose he should have such an elementary acquaintance 

 with botany as will enable him to use intelligently the book 

 which Sir Dietrich Brandis has been for several years 

 occupied at Kew in preparing for the purpose. He should 

 further have some knowledge of the nature and conditions 

 of vegetable life ; he should grasp the idea that a tree is a 

 living organism the growth and development of which are 

 subject to adverse or favourable conditions. He should 

 further have some idea of the enemies and diseases by which 

 trees are liable to be attacked, and of how these attacks can 

 be met. All this a man of ordinary intelligence can acquire 

 if he possesses a real taste for nature without rising to the 



NO. 1766, VOL. 68] 



level of the professional botanist, which it would be absurd 

 to demand of him. 



There is the same fallacy underlying the view that mere 

 administrative efficiency is sufficient for a good forest officer 

 as in thinking that mere mechanical drill, without resource 

 or initiative, will make a good soldier. 



As I have felt it my duty to urge these views officially, I 

 should be glad to state them more publicly. 



I should like to take the opportunity of expressing my 

 regret at the untimely death of Mr. H. C. Hill, the late 

 Inspector-General. Largely as the result of my personal 

 persuasion he accepted a mission in 1900 to initiate a 

 scientific forest administration in the Straits Settlements. 

 His reports were of the highest value, and will be a per- 

 manent basis for the future forest policy of that part of the 

 Empire. W. T. Thiselton-Dyer. 



Kew, August 28. 



Peculiar Clouds, 



Can any of your correspondents explain the following 

 phenomenon? At 5.20 p.m. to-day, the sky to the VV. and 

 S. being covered with a dense and unbroken mass of cloud, 

 and the sun, therefore, entirely obscured, I saw a broad 

 patch of iridescent colours like a piece of a rainbow on 

 the clouds to N.N.E., many points more to N. than a rain- 

 bow would have been had the sun been shining. No part 

 of the sky was clear, but the clouds were lighter in the, 

 N.W. 



I saw a similar phenomenon at Colwyn Bay on December 

 17, 1898, the iridescent cloud being due E. at 2.45 p.m., 

 the sun shining intermittently. I know true " iridescent 

 clouds " well, but they are generally near the sun. 



Alfred O. Walker. 



Ulcombe, Maidstone, August 30. 



THE EARTHQUAKE OBSERVATORY IN 

 STRASSBURG. 



NOW that the earthquake observatory in Strass- 

 burg has been offered as a centre for the pro- 

 posed international association for seismological 

 research, at which the work of the world so far as 

 it bears upon earthquakes and kindred phenomena rnay 

 be concentrated, a short description ot this institution 

 and its present output may not be devoid of interest. 



The building stands in the back part of the Uni- 

 versity gardens, and lies between two streets, along 

 which heavy traffic is forbidden. Externally it 

 measures 19 x15m., and essentially consists of four 

 rooms, round the walls of which there is a passage 

 or air space im. in width, walls, a second air space, 

 and the outer walls. In short, it is a building with 

 its floor 1.50m. below the surface, within two other 

 buildings. 



The object of the construction is to obtain roorns 

 which are light tight, free from currents of air, and in 

 which changes of temperature and moisture should be 

 small. For certain classes of observations these con- 

 ditions mav be imperative, but when recording earth- 

 quakes, which is the chief work at Strassburg, gloom 

 and a still atmosphere are distinctly undesirable. In 

 the early days of seismometry the proper place for an 

 earthquake recorder was considered to be a cellar, and 

 when we find instruments with complicated parts 

 which frequently require inspection, and which write 

 their records on smoked paper, together with photo- 

 graphic apparatus designed to be used in broad day- 

 light, relegated to darkness, we realise that traditions 

 still survive. 



Although it is well known that different results are 

 obtained from similar instruments installed on different 

 formations, the choice of site at Strassburg was 

 apparently governed by the advantages offered by 

 proximity to its University. In consequence of this, 

 town traffic, which includes that of an electric service. 



