re) 
29 NATURE 
[Marcu 12, 1914 
In the Annals of the South African Museum, vol. 
xiii., part i., Mr. L. Péringuey, the director, gives an 
interesting list of inscriptions left by early European 
navigators to the East in South Africa. The earliest 
inscribed stone is that of Diego Cao, a.p. 1484. This 
was found in German territory in 1893. By orders 
of the German Emperor, the original has been re- 
moved to Germany; one replica has been erected on 
the spot where the original stood, and a second has 
been promised by the German authorities to the South 
African Museum. The first English record is that of 
Antony Hippon, mate or master of the Hector, dated 
in 1605. The next is that of the Thomas in 1618. 
The paper throws new and interesting light on the 
early history of European discoveries in the East, and 
the evidence now provided will be useful for com- 
parison with the early records in the India Office. 
Tue University Museum of Philadelphia has started 
an interesting experiment for the study of some Indian 
tribes. Mr. L. Shotridge, a full-blood Tlinget, from 
the Chilkat river in south-eastern Alaska, has been 
appointed an assistant on the museum staff. He has 
made for the museum a model of a section of his 
native village, and in this article, in the issue of the 
journal of the museum for September, 1913, he gives 
a detailed account, with plans, of the methods of 
house-construction. Those of chiefs are sometimes 
elaborately decorated, and are looked on with respect, 
because in them are kept the old relics—ceremonial 
costumes, helmets, batons, carved and painted screens 
and posts—which have come down from the family 
ancestor. The house drawings are interesting as 
showing the methods of native architecture and car- 
pentry. 
No. 6 of the fourth volume of the Journal of the 
College of Agriculture of Tokyo is devoted to an 
account by Mr. Tsunekata Miyaké of the Japanese 
insects of the neuropterous group Mecoptera, a group 
of which Japan is already known to possess more 
than forty species, while Europe and America collec- 
tively do not own more than twenty. It was at one 
time supposed that these insects, as _ typified by 
Panorpa, were of value to agriculturists on account of 
their destroying other insects, but their importance 
in this respect appears to have been overrated. 
THE receipt of a copy of the February issue affords 
a welcome opportunity of bearing testimony to the 
high standard of excellence attained, both from the 
zoological and the artistic point of view, of Mr. 
Douglas English’s illustrated monthly journal, Wild 
Life, which has now entered its third volume. Among 
the contents of the present issue an article by Mr. 
C. J. King on the grey seal in the Scilly Isles, illus- 
trated by photographs showing the wonderful differ- 
ence between the coat of the new-born young and 
half-grown individuals, is one of the most interesting. 
Attention may also be directed to the photograph by 
Mr. Seth Smith of the male pigmy hippopotamus 
recently presented to the Zoological Society by the 
Duke of Bedford, which, although taken when the 
animal was too much in the shade, serves to show 
the small head, slender limbs, and widely separated 
NO 2315; .VOE, 93) 
toes distinctive of the species. The ‘society now» 
possesses a pair of these rare animals. 
Tue Transactions of the Royal Scottish Arboricul- 
tural Society, vol. xxviii., part ‘1 (January, 1914), 
contain the concluding part of Mr. A. D. Hopkinson’s 
account of the State forests of Saxony, which are 
perhaps the best managed in Europe, being worked 
upon a strictly commercial basis. These forests, with’ 
an area of 426,105 acres, yielded in 1910 a gross 
return of 790,753!., from which, if the working ex- 
penses, 327,869/., are deducted, there remains a net’ 
annual revenue of 462,8851., or 11. 1s. 9d. an acre. 
The expenses comprise cost of administration, main-’ 
tenance of roads and buildings, cost of felling and: 
planting, etc., and include also such items as 1o44l. 
for research work, and 8035/. for insurance of work- 
men. The main species in cultivation is spruce, 
which is felled at an age of eighty years. Of special 
interest to plant ecologists is Mr. G. P. Gordon’s 
article on the different associations constituting the 
beautiful natural forest of the Zernez district in the 
Engadine, which has lately been made a nature reserve 
by the Swiss Government. Continental forestry is 
further dealt with in the official account of the visit 
of the society to Switzerland in July, 1913, and by 
numerous notes on the forests of I*rance and southern 
Germany. The main article on home forestry deals 
in a practical way with the successful planting of a 
considerable tract of high-lying peat at Corrour, in 
Inverness-shire. The method adopted is a Belgian 
one, which was introduced by Sir John Stirling- 
Maxwell in 1908. 
THERE seems to be some probability of more un- 
favourable ice conditions in the North Atlantic this 
year than existed during 1913. Although bergs were 
sighted throughout the whole of that year, they were 
comparatively few in number, and of small dimen- 
sions on the Transatlantic routes. The meteorological 
charts of that ocean for the present month published 
by the Meteorological Office and by the Deutsche See- 
warte contain useful notes upon the subject. Bergs 
were seen at Belleisle early in January last, and also 
several about 46° N., between 46° and 49° W. On 
January 30, in 482° N. and 48-7° W., the steamer 
Czar had to alter her course considerably to get clear 
of field ice, and some ships bound for Canada have 
had, owing to unfavourable ice conditions, to tale to 
the more southerly route before the usual time agreed 
upon. ‘There was much ice on the west coast of Ice- 
land in the early part of January, and several trawlers 
are reported to have received damage. 
A BIBLIOGRAPHY of the Antarctic, from the earliest 
works to 1913, by J. Denucé, forms a bulky appendix 
to the thin report of the International Polar Commis- 
sion held at Rome in April, 1913 (Bruxelles: Hayez, 
1913). ‘The first outcome of the ambitious projects of 
this scheme was the ‘“‘ Liste des Expéditions Polaires 
depuis 1800,’ compiled in 1908 by the same author, 
and republished in a revised form in 1911. The pre- 
sent bibliography is excellently arranged under various 
subjects, and in cases where the entries are numerous, 
a regional subdivision has been adcpted. The entries 
under each heading are in chronological order, and 
