170 
In the newly issued vol, xxxiv. of ‘“Botanisk Tids- 
skrift,” Copenhagen, 8. Winge gives an account of 
some new Sagasso Sea investigations. During 
1911-13, the Danish Commission for the Study of the 
Sea organised a collection of plankton samples by 
Danish Transatlantic vessels. This material is now 
to be worked up, and Winge, who is studying the 
distribution and frequency of the Sargasso, finds the 
Gulf-weed consists chiefly of two species (S. bacci- 
ferum and S. vulgare), besides other less common 
forms (Sargassum species and Ascophyllum nodosum). 
The great quantity of Sargasso was met with between 
lat. 37° and 23° N., and long. 35° to 60° W., within 
an oval area about 600 miles broad. As was the case 
with the earlier ‘‘ Sargasso-frequencies”’ of Kriimmel 
and Antze, all the samples show an autumnal simul- 
taneous increase of the quantity of the Sargasso. 
This suggests that the floating Gulf-weed has a long- 
lasting drift and a yearly growth-period in the late 
summer. Sexual reproduction of the drifting Sar- 
gasso is still unknown. 
P. D. QuenseL adds very greatly to our knowledge 
of the geology of western Patagonia in his “ Geo- 
logisch-petrographische Studien in der patagonischen 
Cordillera’? (Bull. Geol. Inst. Univ. of Upsala, vol. xi., 
p. 1). The great group of laccolitic intrusions, vary- 
ing from granite to gabbro, is younger than the 
Cretaceous period, and even cuts the folded structure 
of the chain. As the photographs of scenery show, 
frost-action produces superb crags and pinnacles in 
these young and well-jointed granitoid rocks. 
geologists may be both surprised 
find an elaborate paper in 
English on the geological structure and_ history 
of the Falkland Islands, by Thore G. Halle, 
in the Bulletin of the Geological Institution of 
the University of Upsala (vol. xi., pp. 115-226), accom- 
panied by numerous illustrations and a coloured map. 
The feature of cardinal importance is the discovery 
of Permo-Carboniferous strata, with Glossopteris, and 
a glacial boulder-bed (‘‘til'ite’’) at the base. For this 
series the author proposes the local name Lafonian. 
The Permo-Carboniferous glaciation is thus seen to 
have a very wide extension, and it is interestingly 
pointed out that a laminated clay, and the occurrence 
of annual rings in the Dadoxyla of the local Gond- 
wana flora, indicate a solar control of the climate 
during cold conditions. The laminated clay is figured, 
and bears a remarkable resemblance to those asso- 
ciated with the pre-Cambrian glacial beds in Ontario 
and with post-Pliocene glacial beds in Sweden. 
BRITISH 
and gratified to 
A FULL report of the recent Sakura-jima eruption 
has been issued in Japanese by the Kagoshima 
Meteorological Station; it is especially interesting as 
giving accurate records of the events which preceded 
and followed the great eruption. The actual eruption 
commenced on the morning of January 12, but earth- 
quakes, gradually increasing in intensity and_ fre- 
quency, were felt from early morning on January It. 
The general features of the eruption have been 
already described, but we have now further particulars 
concerning the lava-flow. On January 14, at 7 a.m., 
a lava-stream was seen issuing from the mountain, 
NO. -2320,, VOU,03 | 
NATURE 
{APRIL 16, I914 
but, encountering high ground, it spread out to a 
width of a mile and a half, with a thickness of ‘‘ some 
scores of feet’’; the flow of lava was resumed on the 
following day, several small craters being opened 
along its course, and on January 16 the lava-current 
reached the sea, pushing its way out to one of the 
small islands in the bay. The activity of the volcano 
gradually diminished from this time, but did not 
entirely cease until January 27. The earthquake 
shocks, which became less violent during the eruption, 
increased in number and intensity as the volcanic 
action declined, and then gradually died away. The 
| seismometer recorded no fewer than 418 shocks on 
the day before the eruption, but during the eruption 
the seismometer having been broken, it was difficult 
to distinguish between earth-vibrations and the vol- 
canic rumblings. 
THE Royal Meteorological Institute of the Nether- 
lands has published the third quarter (December- 
February) of a new edition of its very laborious work, 
‘““Oceanographic and Meteorological Observations in 
the Indian Ocean.’’ It consists of two parts: (1) 
tabuiar results for the years 1856-1910, and (2) charts 
constructed therefrom. This issue is much more com- 
plete than that for the previous quarter, owing to the 
inclusion (1) of observations for a longer period, and 
(2) of a large amount of data received from other 
meteorological services. In this latter respect special 
thanks are accorded to our own Meteorological Office. 
These additions, referring partly to routes not usually 
taken by Dutch vessels, have allowed certain areas to 
be more fully represented. The charts, twenty-five in 
number, show the frequency of direction and mean 
velocity of currents and winds, together with the 
general circulation of air and water for each of the 
months in question, isobars, isotherms, etc. On the 
backs of some of the charts details likely to be of use 
to seamen, and based upon all available data, have 
been carefully prepared. Taking into account the pos- 
sible establishment of a direct service between the 
Netherlands’ East Indies and South Africa routes are 
laid down for vessels between those parts, in addition 
to the tracks recommended for other places on either 
side of the Indian Ocean. 
THE shape of a nearly spherical drop falling in a 
viscous liquid of different density forms the subject 
of a paper by Shizumi Saito in the Science Reports 
of the Tokyo Imperial University, vol. ii., No. 5. The 
solution is obtained by harmonic analysis, though the 
method could be shortened by employing the ordinary 
polar equations of motion or Stokes’s stream function. 
The paper leads to the conclusion that the drop may 
be deformed into a prolate or oblate spheroid, the 
distinguishing criterion being in the form of a relation 
connecting the densities and viscosities of the inner 
and outer liquids. 
A VALUABLE report on the effect of ice on the flow 
of streams in the United States has been drawn up 
by Mr. W. G. Hoyt, and forms Water Supply 
Paper 337 of the U.S. Geological Survey. The first 
report on the subject was issued in 1907, and dealt 
mainly with the field operations necessary for the 
estimation of the rate of flow. The present paper 
