May 21, 1914] 
NATURE 
299 
the Maori had then to smooth the surface by 
rubbing it on a piece of sandstone, usually in a 
longitudinal manner, as he had no knowledge of 
a rotatory stone for this purpose. 
The methods of hafting the implements are de- 
scribed and evidence is adduced to show that, 
contrary to what was formerly believed, the Maori 
did use tools helved as axes, but they were not 
nearly so numerous or commonly used as were 
tools hafted and used as adzes. 
All the available information about nephrite 
and the tools made from it is summarised by 
Mr. Best. Many legends have grown up in con- 
nection with this precious stone, for this there 
has been ample time, since ‘Polynesians, or a 
mixed people, must have been settled in New 
Zealand for at least one thousand years, and 
possibly for a longer period. It is also highly 
probable that the old-time people of these isles, 
who here flourished long before the immigration 
of ciyca 1350, were acquainted with nephrite of 
the South Island, and also that they worked it 
to some extent.” The memoir is illustrated by 
fifty-one plates which leave nothing to be desired. 
A. C. Happon. 
NOTES. 
THE annual visitation of the Royal Observatory, 
Greenwich, will be held on Saturday, June 6. 
Tue Faraday lecture of the Chemical Society will 
be delivered by Prof. Svante Arrhenius in the theatre 
of the Royal Institution on Monday, May 25, upon the 
subject of ‘‘ Electrolytic Dissociation.” 
Dr. Rospert CHopat and Dr. Richard Wettstein, 
Ritter von Westersheim, have been elected foreign 
members of the Linnean Society. The council of the 
society has decided to award the Linnean medal at the 
forth coming anniversary meeting on May 25 to Prof. 
Otto Bitschli, of Heidelberg. 
A RevuTER message from Ottawa states that an 
Order in Council has been passed setting aside as a 
national park an area of ninety-five square miles 
situated within the railway belt of British Columbia, 
in the vicinity of Mount Revelstoke, on the line of the 
Canadian Pacific Railway. It will be known as the 
Revelstoke National Park. 
Tue death is announced, on May 15, of Miss Ida 
Freund, late staff lecturer at Newnham College, and 
author of several papers on chemical subjects, as well 
as of a valuable work published in 1904, entitled ‘‘ The 
Study of Chemical Composition: an Account of its 
Method and Historical Development.”’ 
Dr. J. C. KONINGSBERGER, director of the Botanic 
Gardens—’s Lands Plantentuin—Buitenzorg, Java, 
informs us that the new laboratory for foreign scien- 
tific visitors is now open. The laboratory is conse- 
crated to the memory of his predecessor, the late Prof. 
Melchior Treub, and consequently bears the name 
““Treub Laboratorium.” We are asked to announce 
that, as hitherto, the director and staff of the gardens 
welcome visitors, and will do all that is in their power 
to make a scientific voyage to Java and a stay in 
Buitenzorg as profitable as possible. 
NOWSS25;- VOL. 93] 
THE annual meeting of the British Science Guild 
will be held at the Mansion House to-morrow, May 
22, at 4 p.m., the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor presid- 
ing. Sir Ronald Ross, K.C.B., will deliver an address, 
and other speakers will be the president of the guild 
(the Right Hon. Sir William Mather), Sir Boverton 
Redwood, Bart., the Right Hon. Lord Blyth, Sir 
William Beale, Bart., Mr. C. Bathurst, M.P., Major 
O’Meara, C.M.G., Mr. Alexander Siemens, and Mr. 
Carmichael Thomas. The dinner of the guild will be 
held on the same date, at 7 p.m., at the Trocadero 
Restaurant, under the chairmanship of Sir William 
Mather. 
Tue President of the Board of Agriculture and 
Fisheries has appointed a Departmental Committee to 
consider and report upon the effect of the 
present arrangements for the sale of the small- 
scale maps of the Ordnance Survey. The Com- 
mittee consists of Sir Sydney Olivier, K.C.M.G., 
Permanent Secretary of the Board of Agricul- 
ture, chairman; Mr. F. Atterbury, C.B., Controller 
of his Majesty’s Stationery Office; and Colonel C. F. 
Close, C.M.G., Director-General of the Ordnance Sur- 
vey. Mr. J. L. Bryan, of the Board of Agriculture, 
will act as secretary to the Corvmittee. 
THE young of the grey seai (Halichoerus grvpus) 
are stated to differ from those of all other European 
seals by their inability to swim until several weeks 
after birth; and as they are born above high-water 
mark on rocks and skerries in the open sea, they are 
peculiarly liable to destruction by those acquainted 
with the haunts and habits of the species. Despite 
the small value of the pelt of the pup and of the oil 
of the parent, expeditions have of late years been 
made to the breeding-places of these seals on the 
British coasts, with the result that the species is in 
jeopardy of imminent local extermination. To put 
| matters on a better footing a Bill has been introduced 
in the House of Lords to enact an annual close time 
for these seals from October 1 to December 15; it 
recently passed the third reading in the Upper 
| House. 
At the beginning of this year the Biologische Ver- 
suchsanstalt at Vienna passed into the possession of 
the Imperial Academy of Sciences. The institution is 
for the experimental investigation of organisms, 
especially experimental morphology and developmental 
physiology; also of comparative physiology and the 
borderlands of biophysics and biochemistry. The 
Academy of Sciences has appointed a committee of 
trustees for the institution. A limited number of tables 
is exempt from fees, and may be awarded by the direc- 
tor of the Anstalt or directors of its departments. The 
Austrian Ministry of Education has reserved four 
tables of which as a rule one is to be awarded in 
every department. Applications for research tables 
may be addressed to the director of the Anstalt, or to 
one of the following directors of departments :— 
Botany, W. Figdor ance L. v. Portheim; Physical 
Chemistry, W. Pauli (until December 31, 1914); 
Physiology, E. Steinaich; Zoology, H. Przibram. 
THE annual meeting of the Société Helvétique des 
Sciences naturelles is to be held at Berne on August 
