JuLy 23, 1914] 
hurst, Mr. J. Wordie, geologist; Mr. R. W. James, 
physicist and magnetician; Mr. L. H. Hussey, 
assistant magnetician and meteorologist; Mr. F. 
Hurley, photographer and kinematographer; Mr. V. 
Studd, geologist; Lieut. F. A. Worsley, in navigating 
command of the Endurance on the voyage from Lon- 
don to Buenos Aires and the Weddell Sea, and after- 
wards to take part in the surveying and exploring of 
the coast; Mr. Jeffreys, Mr. Hudson, and Mr. A. 
Cheetham. Ross Sea Party: Lieut. Aeneas Mackin- 
tosh, leader and meteorologist; Mr. E. Joyce, 
zoologist; Mr. H. Ninnis; Mr. H. Wild; and Dr. Mack- 
lin, surgeon. There only remain two vacancies, and 
these are to be filled by another doctor and a biologist. 
The arrangements for the Ross Sea ship Aurora are 
not yet quite complete, but the Endurance, with the 
Weddell Sea party, will sail in a few days. 
One half of the present summer has gone, and the 
weather so far has been generally fine. The weekly 
weather reports issued by the Meteorological Office 
for the first six weeks of summer, ending July 11, 
show that the mean temperature for the period is in 
excess of the average over the whole of the United 
Kingdom, except in the north of Ireland, where it is 
normal. The greatest excess is 2° in the east and 
north-east of England. The rainfall differs very mate- 
rially in the various districts. In the north-east of 
England the aggregate rainfall is 166 per cent. of the 
average, in the midland counties 144 per cent., in the 
south-west of England 138 per cent., in the Channel 
Islands 110 per cent., and in the north-west of Eng- 
land 103 per cent. of the average; in all other districts 
of the United Kingdom there is a deficiency. The 
least rainfall for the six weeks in any district is 2 in. 
in the west of Scotland, which is 49 per cent. of the 
average. In the north of Ireland the rainfall is 60 per 
cent. of the average, in the north of Scotland 62 per 
cent., in the south of Ireland 67 per cent., in the east 
of Scotland 82 per cent., in the south-east of England 
84 per cent., and in the east of England 96 per cent. 
of the average. The duration of bright sunshine is 
in excess of the average over the eastern section of 
the kingdom, but it varies somewhat in the western 
section. At Greenwich there have already been twelve 
days since the commencement of June with a shade 
temperature of 80° or above, whilst the average for the 
three summer months in the last seventy years is only 
thirteen. The rainfall is decidedly deficient of the 
average, whilst the sunshine is largely in excess of 
the average. 
Tue University of Pennsylvania Anthropological 
Publications (vol. iii., No. 3) is devoted to an account 
of excavations at Urokastro, in eastern Crete, by Miss 
E H. Hall. The importance of this investigation lies 
in the fact that while the work of Sir A. Evans and 
others has hitherto been mainly devoted to the culture 
of the Bronze age, little has been systematically done 
to work out the Iron-age culture. This raises impor- 
tant ethnological problems; and the writer ventures 
the theory that in the remains discovered it is possible 
to recognise, in order, three great invasions of Crete 
from the north: those of the Mycenzans, Achzeans, 
and the Dorians. 
NO. 2334, VOL. 93] 
NATURE 
537 
In the Perthshire Society of Natural Science Trans- 
actions, vol. v., the Rev. G. A. Frank Knight directs 
attention to a little-known series of ancient fortifica- 
tions on the western side of Ben Scallaidh at a height 
of about 2000 ft. above the sea, and fully two-thirds 
of the way up the Kirkton Glen. He counted in all 
eight lines of fortifications which reveal enormous 
labour and no small skill in construction. In some 
respects they present features resembling the well- 
known prehistoric forts of Peeblesshire which have 
been described by Dr. D. Christison (Proc. Soc. Antig. 
Scot., xxi., 1886-7, p. 13f.). The writer justly re- 
marks that this remarkable series of ancient fortifica- 
tions should be investigated by a skilled archzologist, 
who, preferably, is also a trained military strategist. 
Dr. J. E. Pour, mineralogist in the U.S. National 
Museum of Washington, has been engaged in collect- 
ing material for a monograph on the turquoise, from 
the mineralogical, historical, and ethnological points 
of view. Mr. B. Lanfer, associate curator of Asiatic 
ethnology, was invited to cooperate in the work. As 
the publication of Dr. Pogue’s monograph has been 
delayed, Mr. Lanfer has now published ‘‘ Notes on 
Turquoise in the East,”” as Publication No. 169 of the 
Field Museum of Natural History. He discusses in 
detail all available information regarding the stone in 
India, Tibet, and China. He has collected much 
interesting information which he publishes, with full 
references, in this well-illustrated and scholarly mono- 
graph. The turquoise, from its power of repelling 
evil spirits, has always been valued in the East, and 
we have here a full account of the stone from the 
economical as well as the religious point of view. 
By the liberality of Mr. P. G. Gates the United 
States Museum was enabled in 1905 to resume the 
investigations conducted by Dr. J. W. Fewkes into 
the culture of the ancient Pueblos of the Upper Gila 
river region in New Mexico. Immense numbers of 
specimens, particularly of perishable objects found in 
caves, render it possible to throw much light on an 
archeological area hitherto not scientifically explored. 
A remarkable series of specimens illustrates the cult 
of fire, fire-sticks, invested with a sacred character, 
being apparently offered, when worn out, in shrines. 
Numerous ceremonial cigarettes, consisting of sec- 
tions of arrow-reed, tightly filled with artemisia and 
other aromatic herbs, were found in the ceremonial 
caves, and in the inhabited houses a number of “ cloud- 
blowers,”’ stone tubes of various sizes, used for blow- 
ing clouds of incense smoke during the tribal 
rites. These people were ignorant of metal-working, 
in one case only a lump of raw copper, rubbed and 
smoothed like a stone, having been found. The 
results of his expedition are well described by Mr. 
Walter Hough, ethnological curator of the museum, 
in Bulletin 87 of the Smithsonian Institution. 
‘““Man and the Microbe” is the title of an article 
by Prof. Winslow in the Popular Science Monthly for 
July, in which he describes the various ways by which 
infective diseases are spread, and discusses some of 
the means of prevention. To show how much has 
been done in the last-named direction, he points out 
