November i6, 1899] 



NATURE 



59 



trip to the Galapagos Islands. The collections are large ; birds, 



fish, and insects and spiders being represented by especially 



large numbers of specimens. The collections belong to Stan- 



)rd University, under whose auspices the expedition was made. 



As the gravels in the neighbourhood of Chelsea are very rich 



rude flint-flakes and the like, many students of archaeology and 



jlogy may be glad to know that a large vacant space at the 



jrner of Cheyne Walk and Beaufort Street, Chelsea, is shortly 



be built upon, and the excavations will probably go down 



ito hitherto undisturbed soil. Mr. W. F. Sinclair calls our 



ittention to the opportunity which the excavations will afford 



lor collecting flint specimens. 



By the death of Mr. William Pamplin, in the ninety-third 

 year of his age, on August 9, English botanists have lost their 

 doyen. Mr. Pamplin was an authority on British plants, and 

 especially on their geographical distribution, in the first half of 

 the present century. The "London Catalogue of British 

 Plants" owed much to him. In the year 1827 he published a 

 list of the rarer plants of Battersea and Clapham ; and he was 

 elected an Associate of the Linnean Society in 1830. Mr. 

 Pamplin at one time carried on the business of a second-hand 

 bookseller in London, but ha4. lived for many years in great 

 retirement near Bala in North Wales. 



The annual course of Christmas lectures, specially adapted 

 for young people, at the Royal Institution, will this year be de- 

 livered by Mr. C. V. Boys, F.R.S. The subject will be 

 *' Fluids in Motion and at Rest." The lectures (which will be 

 six in number) will commence on Thursday, December 28, at 

 three o'clock. The remaining lectures will be delivered on 

 December 30, and on January 2, 4, 6, and 9, 1900. 



Science announces that Mr. O. F. Cook, of the Division of 

 Botany, U. S. Department of Agriculture, left New York a few 

 days ago for Puerto Rico to make a preliminary examination of 

 the plant products of that island with reference to the introduction 

 of new and useful tropical plants. Mr. Cook is accompanied by 

 Mr. G. N. Collins, of the Department of Agriculture, as 

 photographer, and by Mr. George P. Gall, who is sent by the 

 Smithsonian Institution to collect material for the National 

 Herbarium. 



We learn from the Cape Times that Mr. P. L. Sclater, 

 F. R.S., who has lately returned from a visit to South Africa, 

 attended a meeting of the South African Philosophical Society 

 on September 17, and gave an address on the desirability of 

 establishing a Zoological Garden in Capetown. Mr. Sclater 

 showed that the important centres all over the world were 

 taking measures to establish such institutions for instruction and 

 recreation, and urged that Capetown, being the port and capital 

 of what would shortly be an enormous empire, should not be 

 behindhand in the matter. Mr. Sclater's proposals were dis- 

 cussed and well received, and a committee of the Society was 

 appointed to consider the subject and report to a future 

 meeting. 



Referring to the death of Dr. Edward Orton, professor of 

 geology in the Ohio State University, in the seventieth year of 

 his age, the Ameticati Journal of Scietice remarks that while his 

 labours have extended to all branches of geological science, his 

 close watch of the exploitation of petroleum and natural gas, in 

 Ohio and the neighbouring States of Pennsylvania and Indiana, 

 has given hira a place of pre-eminence as interpreter of these im- 

 portant geological products. In 1897 Dr. Orton was elected 

 president of the Geological Society of America, and, as presi- 

 dent of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, presided at the recent meeting of the Association, in 

 Columbus, in August last. Prof. Orton was a man of broad 

 NO. 1568, VOL. 61] 



culture and of influence outside his chosen science. He was 

 for a time president of Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, 

 and them became president of the Ohio Agricultural and 

 Mechanical College, whicl>bas now become the State University. 

 He resigned the presidency and became State geologist in 1882, 

 which position he held up to the present year. Dr. Orton re- 

 ceived the degree of Ph.D. from Hamilton College in 1848, and 

 LL.D. from Ohio State University in 1881. 



At the opening meeting of the new session of the Roya) 

 Geographical Society on Monday, the president announced that, 

 including the Government grant, the funds at the disposal of the 

 joint committee on Antarctic exploration amounted to 90,000/., 

 but he recalled the fact that the grant which had been promised 

 was made dependent upon another 5000/. being raised fronv 

 other sources. A valuable paper, illustrated by many striking 

 photographs, was read by Mr. W. Rickmer Rickmers, on a 

 journey in the Eastern provinces of Bokhara, with his wife and 

 Dr. von Krafft, now of the Geological Survey of India. Mr. 

 Rickmers established a permanent camp on a tributary of the 

 Yakh-su river, with the object of studying the wonderful 

 mountain sj-stem of the " conglomerates " of East Bokhara. 

 The" conglomerates" cover an area of 800 square miles, dis- 

 posed in a long strip between the rivers Vaksh and Panj, with 

 a strike from north-east to south-west. They show distinct 

 stratification, and Dr. von Krafft ascribes them to the Tertiary 

 period. The stones composing them are chiefly crystalline. The 

 greatest thickness of the formation may be said to be at least 

 4000 feet. The population of the region is mainly dependent 

 for its livelihood on the gold- washing industry. The yearly- 

 gold output of East Bokhara is variously estimated from 20,000/. 

 to 30,000/., but this is a mere trifle considering the potentialities 

 of the alluvial deposits. The quantities extracted by the natives- 

 in the course of centuries have hardly encroached upon the store, 

 and are as nothing compared with what Europeans could produce 

 in a few years. 



As appears from the Report of the Select Committee on the 

 Destruction of Vermin, lately presented to the House of 

 Assembly of the Cape, no less a sum than 27,084/. was spent 

 in the various districts of the Colony in the year ending June 

 30, 1899, in rewards paid for the "destruction of vermin." 

 This large expenditure not unnaturally excited the attention of 

 the Legislative Assembly, who appointed a Select Committee 

 to consider it. The Committee, after taking the evidence 

 of many farmers, land-owners and other persons interested 

 in the subject, have come to the conclusion that it is 

 expedient for the agricultural interest (a predominant 

 factor, it may be remarked, in Cape politics) that the 

 system of giving rewards for the "destruction of vermin" 

 should be continued, but that more care should be exercised in- 

 ascertaining that those who claim the rewards are properly 

 entitled to them. The " vermin " in question appear from the 

 evidence to be the Black-backed Jackal (Canis mesonie/as), the 

 Aard Wolf {Proteles cristatns), the Cape Baboon (Papio por- 

 carius), and the so called " Lynx " or Roode Cat {Felis caracal)^ 

 all of which are accused of ravaging the farmers' flocks, 

 especially during the lambing season. The Aard Wolf, it is 

 admitted, is not usually carnivorous, but is said to have developed 

 of late years a noxious habit of tearing open the breeding ewes 

 in order to get at the milk in their breasts. 



A POSSIBLE substitute for india-rubber and gutta-percha was- 

 exhibited and described by Mr. W. F. Reid at the last meeting 

 of the Society of Chemical Industry, under the name of 

 "Velvril." The material appears to be suitable for machine- 

 belting— made by coating cotton canvas with it— waterproofing, 

 cloth or canvas, and as a varnish for paint, wood or metal ; 

 and so far as its mechanical and protective properties are- 



