348 



NATURh 



[FEijRUAkY 8, 1900 



Sciences Tripos Examination as established in 1893. 

 Refii^ular courses of lectures are given in niatliematics, 

 mechanics, principles of mechanism and machine dyna- 

 mics, strength of materials and theory of structures, heat 

 and heat engines, and applied electricity. Instruction is 

 also given in geometrical and mechanical drawing, and in 

 graphic statics. In the laboratory there are regular 

 courses in mechanics, elasticity, heat, the testing of 

 steam, gas and other heat engines, applied electricity, and 

 hydraulics. In the summer term there are lectures and 

 field-work in surveying. Practice in the use of tools for 

 wood-work and metal-work forms a regular part of the 

 course, and at the same time the workshops, in which a 

 considerable staff is employed, constitute a very useful 

 adjunct to the laboratory. 



During the past few years research has been taking a 

 tnore and more prominent place in the work of the 

 <lepartment, and with the larger space and special rooms 

 now available further development in this direction may 

 be looked for. At present a number of research students 

 are at work in the elasticity, the electrical, and the steam 

 laboratories. Evidence of the value of this work may be 

 found in the current volume of the Royal Society's 

 Transactions^ where two papers, one, by Prof. Ewing and 

 Mr. Rosenhain, on "The Microscopic Structure of 

 Metals" (the Bakerian Lecture), the other, by Mr. J. 

 Muir, on "The Recovery of Metals from Overstrain," 

 deal with work which has been entirely carried on in the 

 department. 



The University grants an annual sum of between 

 1200/. and 1300/., from which are paid the salaries of the 

 Professor and the two University Demonstrators (1000/. 

 in all), part of the wages of the workshop staff, and some 

 other expenses. From the students' fees, which form the 

 main source of revenue, are paid the salaries of four or 

 five assistant demonstrators and lecturers, as well as the 

 greater part of the wages of the workmen and laboratory 

 attendants. 



Many valuable gifts of apparatus have been made to 

 the department during the past six years, and many 

 pieces of heavy machinery have been supplied by 

 engineering firms on specially favourable terms. A high 

 speed conipound combined engine and dynamo set, on 

 which regular tests are made, was presented by Messrs. 

 Mather and Piatt in 1894. Recently a coupled set of two 

 dynamos arranged for the Hopkinson test has been 

 given by Messrs. Siemens Brothers and Company, and a 

 gas engine of- about ten horse-power by the Forward 

 Engineering Company of Birmingham. A very valuable 

 microscope, specially designed for the microscopic study 

 of metals, was lately presented by Mr. Thomas Andrews, 

 F.R.S. Among other recent additions are a five-ton 

 testing machine by Messrs. Buckton and Co., presented 

 by past aiid present pupils; and a set, comprising tur- 

 bine, motor and pump, supplied by Messrs. Mather and 

 Piatt. Towards the further equipment of the laboratory 

 a sum of 1200/. has recently been subscribed, and there 

 is now on order from Messrs. Robey and Co. a compound 

 horizontal engine of about fifty horse-power, specially 

 arranged for testing purposes. This will form a very 

 useful addition to the steam laboratory. 



There can be no doubt that the Engineering Depart- 

 ment has established for itself, under Prof. Ewing, a firm 

 foothold among the scientific schools of the University. 

 At the same time, if it is to take, as it may reasonably 

 aspire to do, a foremost place among British Schools of 

 Engineering, it must look to provide a wider curriculum. 

 The laboratories necessary for the proper teaching of 

 such subjects as mining, metallurgy and naval archi- 

 tecture, as well as for keeping abreast of the latest de- 

 velopments of the subjects already represented, cannot 

 be founded or maintained without an endowment of an 

 amount far exceeding the sums already so generously 

 contributed. 



NO. 1580, VOL. 61] 



While it is admitted that the establishment of the 

 department was looked upon by some with misgiving, as 

 an encroachment on the more purely academic studies 

 of tlie University, it is certainly true now, as the Vice- 

 Chancellor said on Friday last, that the great majority 

 of resident members welcome the establishment of the 

 department; and rejoice in its flourishing and successful 

 state ; and it is also true that the growth of this cordial 

 recognition is due in no small degree to the support 

 which has been so freely given by the engineering world 

 outside the University. This view of the matter is sup* 

 ported by the Times when it says, in reviewing the 

 inauguration we have just described, that "it is pleasant 

 to see one of our old Universities, while remaining faith- 

 ful to all the traditions of its venerable past, at the same 

 time displaying an intelligent appreciation of the wants 

 of the future, and affording to tlie most modern forms of 

 learning the nurture and support which for many cen- 

 turies it has afforded to those forms with which alone 

 our forefathers were familiar." 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SHORES 



OF BARENTS SEA} 

 T N the summer of 1895 Mr. H. J. Pearson and a party 

 -*• of fellow naturalists visited the Barents Sea to study 

 the birds that nest upon its shores. The party landed 

 on Kolguev and Novaya Zemlya, and at one of the 

 promontories on the Murman Coast. Many interesting 

 observations were niade on the natural history of the 

 region, but work was hampered by the small size and 

 limited coal capacity of their yacht, the Saxon. Two 

 years later Mr. Pearson returned in a larger and more 

 powerful vessel. The main object of the second journey 

 was the investigation of the avifauna of the coastlands of 

 north-eastern Russia, between the Pechora and the 

 Urals, an area which the author describes as " ornitho- 

 logically unknown." In the summer this country is 

 accessible only from the sea, owing to the vast extent of 

 flood and swamp. Mr. Pearson accordingly chartered 

 the Laura, and, accompanied by Colonel Feilden and 

 Mr. F. Curtis, left Tromso for the Pechora coastlands in 

 June, 1897. The scheme was to land near the mouth of 

 the Karataikha River. But the Laura could not approach 

 nearer than twenty miles from the mouth of the river, 

 and it was not considered safe to leave the steamer in 

 the open bay for eight hours while the entrance was 

 reconnoitred in the launch. Mr. Pearson was therefore 

 reluctantly compelled "to abandon the chief object of 

 the expedition as impracticable from the sea." The 

 steamer was turned northward, and the rest of the season 

 was spent in visits, to Dolgoi Island, "Waigatch" and 

 Novaya Zemlya. 



"Beyond Pechora Northward" would therefore have 

 been a more accurate title for the book, as except at the 

 port of Habarova, the expedition did not alight on the 

 mainland east of the Pechora. But in the islands of the 

 Barents Sea, Mr. Pearson and his colleagues did excel- 

 lent work, some of the results of which have been 

 published in the Idis and the Journal of the Geological 

 Society. Mr. Pearson's book gives a detailed narrative 

 of the two cruises, with appendices on the botanical and 

 geological results by Colonel Feilden, Prof. Bonney and 

 Messrs. E. T. Newton and A. C. Seward. It is no dis- 

 paragement of Mr. Pearson's work to say that the 

 appendices contain the greater amount of new inform- 

 ation, as this is one of the indications of the more 

 advanced state of ornithological knowledge. Owing to 

 the wide range of the Pakearctic fauna, the discovery of 

 new birds was not to be expected. There was even 



^ " Beyond Pet^Jora Eastward : Two Summer Voyages to Novaya Zemlya 

 and ihe Islands of B.arents Sea." By H. J. Pearson. With Appendices on 

 the Botany and Geology by Colonel ft. W. Feilden. Pp. .xiv -|- 335. 

 (London : R. H. Porter, 1899.) 



