346 



NA TURE 



[February 12. 1903 



Royal College of Science— Prof. W. A. Tilden. 



Meteoroloeical Council — Admiral Sir W. Wharton. 



Christian Evidence Society— The Rev. C. Lloyd Engstrome. 



Corporation of Cambridge — The Mayor (Councillor P. H. 

 Young), the Ex-Mayor (Aid. G. Rett). 



After the service, the procession left the church in the 

 following order : — The officiating clergy, the body, the 

 fellows of the college, the relatives, honorary 

 fellows and former fellows of the College, the 

 Vice-Chancellor and other representatives of 

 the University, together with representatives 

 of learned societies, members of the Senaie, 

 bachelors of arts, scholars, other members of 

 the College, and all those desiring to atlend 

 the service at the Mill Road Cemetery, where 

 the interment took place. 



more, and generally study very little ; the traveller passes 

 over half the world without any serious preparation 

 beforehand, and, when he returns home, he considers it 

 to be his duty to enlighten the reading public with a 

 thick book containing observations and discoveries about 

 matters which hundreds of other travellers have described 

 much better before him. Fortunately, however, there 



EXPLORATIONS IN ICELAND} 



DURING the nineteenth century, andfup to 

 the present time, a considerable number 

 of books and magazine articles were published 

 in England and America giving an account of 

 travels in Iceland. The greater part of these 

 writings contain merely personal details, 

 interesting only to the narrator himself and 

 his nearest relations ; some remind us 

 pleasantly of Mark Twain's " Innocents 

 Abroad"; others are well written and possess 

 some literary value, though these also are 

 very liable to contain errors. 



Some of these travels have a quasi-scientific tendency, 

 but do not contain anything new, and very few 

 contain anything of real scientific importance. We 

 may, perhaps, say that the oldest books describing 



Fig. 2.— Immense Erratics. (From Bisiker's "Across Iceland.") 



are some honourable exceptions, and we are always 

 delighted to welcome a book that really contains any- 

 thing new. Mr. W. Bisiker's book belongs to this class. 

 The author made it his object to explore and map 

 out the district of Kjalvegur in Central Ice- 

 land, one of the most beautiful parts of the 

 inferior, which had never been surveyed in 

 detail, and Mr. Bisiker's admirable map of 

 the district is, therefore, of permanent geo- 

 graphical importance. The book also contains 

 numerous photographs, which give a very good 

 idea of the various geological and physico- 

 geographical characteristics, and there are 

 some good illustrations of the mode of tra- 

 velling in Iceland. In addition, Mr. Hill has 

 given some interesting notices of the distri- 

 bution of plants in Kjalvegur, with a list of the 

 plants which were found, among which is 

 Opliioglossum vulgatum, which had not pre- 

 viously been found in Iceland. 



Th. Thoroddsen. 



. — The Funnel or Crater of Geysir. (From Bisiker's " Across Iceland.") 



travels in Iceland are also the best, and that the books 



of Hooker (1809), Mackenzie (1810) and Henderson 



(1814-15) are far superior to nearly all later works. At 



that period, the traveller had time to study the literature 



and the people, and to investigate for himself the 



language of the country and the history and customs of 



the inhabitants. At the present day, people travel much 



1 " Across Iceland." By W. P.isiker, F.RG.S With an Appendix by 

 A W . Hill, M.A., on the Plants Collected. Pp. xii + 236. (London: 

 Edward Arnold, 1902.) Price 12s 6d. 



ROYAL COMMISSION ON LONDON 

 LOCOMOTION. 



IT was announced on Saturday last that the 

 King had been pleased to appoint a Royal 

 Commission to inquire into the means of loco- 

 motion and transport in London. The Com- 

 mission is also asked to report upon the following 

 points : — 



(a) As to the measures which they deem most effectual for 

 the improvement of the same by the development and inter- 

 connection of railways and tramways on or below the surface, 

 by increasing the facilities for other forms of mechanical loco- 

 motion, by better provision for the organisation and regulation 

 of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, or otherwise ; 



(b) As to the desirability of establishing some authority or 

 tribunal to which all schemes of railway or tramway construction 

 of a local character should be referred, and the powers which it 

 would be advisable to confer upon such a body. 



NO. I737, VOL. 67] 



