442 



NATURE 



[July 27, 1916 



de I'h^roique capitaine s'y croisera, au travers d'une 

 large couronne de lauriers, avec le glaive de la grande 

 dpoque gauloise que I'arch^ologue, a si bien fait re- 

 vivre." Nor can one abstain from quoting from the 

 circular, which has been sent out by our colleagues in 

 France, the following sentence: — "C'est I'unite d'une 

 carriere riche d'ceuvres, plus pleine encore de pro- 

 messes, que rappellera la l^gende : galliae • reliquias 



ILLUSTRAVIT • PRO • GALLIA • MILES • CECIDIT." 



There is not a British archaeologist or anthropologist 

 who is not indebted to M. D^chelette, and I am certain 

 they will be only too glad to participate in a movement 

 which has been rightly initiated by their French col- 

 leagues. Subscriptions should be sent to M. le Comte 

 O. Costa de Beauregard, Sainte-Foy, par Longueville 

 (Seine-Inf^rieure). Those sending a subscription of 

 10 francs are entitled to a replica of the plaque in 

 bronze, those giving 50 francs to one in silver, and 

 those giving 80 francs to one in enamel, should they 

 so wish. 



Arthur Keith, 

 President of the Royal Anthropological Insti- 

 tute of Great Britain and Ireland. 



50 Great Russell Street, W.C. 



A Sunset Phenomenon on July 22. 



An interesting sunset phenomenon was visible here 

 at 8.10 p.m. G.M.T. on Saturday last, July 22. Two 

 verv well-marked dark bands were seen rising from 

 the south-eastern horizon across the pale pink counter- 

 glow. On the north-western horizon the tops of two 

 verv distant cumulo-nimbus clouds were visible, the 

 tops being about half a degree above the horizon ; the 

 clouds were dark against the sunset, but their upper 

 edges were bright. The dark bands were the shadows 

 of these clouds projected right across the sky. The 

 shadows could be followed for some distance from 

 the clouds, but were not visible in the plane at right 

 angles to the direction of sunset. They were visible 

 for quite ten minutes after I first noticed them, by 

 which time the twilight arch was some way above 

 the horizon and the dark bands rose from it. The 

 two cumulo-nimbus clouds and a small patch of cirrus 

 were the only clouds visible ; their bearings were 302° 

 and 305° respectively. An inquiry by telephone elicited 

 the fact that no clouds were visible at Benson Observa- 

 torv, and the cumulo-nimbus must have been at a 

 great distance. It would be of some interest to know 

 this distance, and I should be very grateful to any 

 readers of Nature in Herefordshire, Wales (especially 

 Anglesey and the west coasts), and any part of Ireland 

 roughly' between Co. Dublin and Sligo and Donegal 

 Bays, if they could let me know the character of the 

 weather at the time mentioned, whether any cumulo- 

 nimbus clouds were noticed, and especially if rain or 

 thunderstorms were experienced, or even merely 

 whether the sky was clear or cloudy. I fear the 

 weather of a week ago is not often remembered, but 

 it is possible that some of your readers may recollect 

 it or have recorded it. 



Had the clouds been more numerous the shadows 

 would have encroached more on the sunset glow and 

 on the counter-glow, and the appearance would have 

 resolved itself into crepuscular rays, the explanation 

 of which has been a matter of some discussion. 



C. J. P. Cave. 



Meteorological Oflfice, South Farnborough, July 24. 



may therefore be interesting to put on record what 

 our friend, George Flemwell, the well-known painter, 

 naturalist, and writer, living in Switzerland, says in a 

 letter from Zermatt : — 



"To my mind enough has not been said of his 

 power for rendering ice in water-colour. I knew 

 nobody to touch him in the painting of glacier ice 

 at close quarters." (I believe Mr. Flemwell, himself 

 a distinguished painter of Alpine scenery, has seen 

 little of Edw. Compton's work.) "And his method 

 was, considering the excellence of the result, the 

 simplest and most direct I have ever seen. With the 

 utmost care he worked with great quickness and 

 facility. A few simple washes, and there was the 

 ice : its form, its structure, and its quality. His 

 values were right and his colour clean ; he gjDt the 

 body and substance of the glacier. I am happy to 

 think I have two or three pencil sketches I made of 

 him when he was working on the Glacier d'Argen- 

 ti^re and at the Mer de Glace ; and I was with him 

 when he painted the original of the Christmas-card 

 of which you speak. . . ." H. S. T. 



Bristol, July 17. 



Silvanus P. Thompson as a Painter. 



The late Prof. S. P. Thompson was a man of such 

 extraordinary versatility and power that his artistic 

 side was scarcely done justice to in the Press. It 



NO. 2439, VOL. 97] 



The Utilisation of Waste Heat for Agriculture. 



Mr. C. Turxbull's scheme (Nature, July 20^ 

 p. 422) for artificially heating the soil, if feasible, 

 would tend to encourage the insect pest. As all 

 farmers and fruit-growers are aware, this has of 

 recent years increased to an alarming extent. But 

 for the seasonal lowering of the soil temperature it 

 would become more serious still. 



C. Carus-\\''ilsox. 



Casterton, Kirkby Lonsdale, July 22. 



THE INDIAN BOARD OF SCIENTIFIC 

 ADVICE. 



THE Report for the year 1914-15 of the Board 

 of Scientific Advice for India consists almost 

 entirely of isolated summaries of the work done 

 during the year by the several scientific depart- 

 ments and scientific institutions of the Indian 

 Government. As most, if not all, of these depart- 

 ments and institutions issue independent annual 

 reports of their own, it is, to say the least, dis- 

 appointing- to find these technical summaries filling 

 the report of a scientific body styled advisory ; 

 unless, indeed, the term " advice " be understood 

 in the commercial or notificatory sense as merely 

 indicating the existence in working order of these 

 various departmental instruments of research. 



The advisory proceedings of the Board occupy 

 only thirty-seven lines of the 180 pages of the 

 report, and all the information they afford is that 

 the Board accepted the programmes of the several 

 scientific departments, but would rather not have 

 them in so much detail in future; and that it re- 

 commended (a) that officers attending the next 

 Indian Science Congress should be regarded as 

 on duty, (b) that a catalogue of scientific serials 

 prepared by the Asiatic Society of Bengal should 

 be published at the expense of Government, and 

 (c) that experiments should be undertaken, as 

 requested by the Punjab Veterinary Department, 

 to determine the vitality of rinderpest virus under 

 Indian conditions — all three mere departmental 



