422 



NA rURE 



[March 2, 1905 



years ago was in advance of its present position, in places 

 as much as 20 or 30 miles, and therefore the soundings lie 

 directly beneath Sir James Ross's barrier, and a considerable 

 distance from its edge. The ice-sheet, and the curious and 

 often vast ice-formations met with in the Ross sea, are there- 

 fore regarded, not as the result of present-day conditions, 

 but the rapidly wasting remnants of a former age. 



Senor a. Arcimis informs us that Mr. Valderrama, 

 director of the Municipal Meteorological Observatory at 

 Santa Cruz (Canaries), observed a fall of dust on January 



29 and January 30. During all the former day a very fine 

 dust fell continuously, but not in great amount. On January 



30 a rain of a yellow and very fine dust began at ish. The 

 wind-vane pointed to the S.S.W., and the atmosphere was 

 charged with the very fine dust, the horizon being invisible 

 through a kind of dry fog that introduced itself into the 

 mouth and throat, producing the same effect as when march- 

 ing on a dusty highway in a hot summer day. All the in- 

 struments exposed freely out of doors were covered with 

 the nearly impalpable dust. 



At the recent annual meeting of the Glastonburv .Anti- 

 quarian Society, Prebendary Grant gave an account of the 

 exploration at the ancient British Lalie Village at Glaston- 

 bury during the sunmier of iqiq. Three new mounds were 

 examined, and the exploration of four others was 

 completed. The "finds" included amber and glass beads, 

 spiral finger-rings of bronze wire, a massive bronze buckle 

 (taken to have been connected with horse-harness), a bronze 

 object which is supposed to have been some part of horse- 

 trapping, a variety of bone objects, wool combs, hammers, 

 portion of horses' bits, and a roedeer antler, pointed and 

 used as a modelling tool for decorating pottery. Several 

 pieces of pottery were dug up. Flint flakes and knives were 

 found, proving that flint implements were made at the 

 village. With respect to wooden articles, two wheel-spokes, 

 finely turned and finished, were found, and a fragment of 

 an axle-box belonging to the same wheel. Iron bars were 

 found also at the Lake Village, and after minute investiga- 

 tion the conclusion has been arrived at that these bars are 

 iron currency bars used by the ancient Britons at the time 

 of Caesar's invasion. 



A LARGE number of new types of Japanese land-shells of 

 the Clausilia group are described by Mr. Pilsbry in the 

 December issue of the Proceedings of the Philadelphia 

 Academy. 



The shore fishes of the Galapagos and other P.icifii- 

 islands are described by Messrs. Snodgrass and Heller in 

 part xvii. of the publications of the Hopkins-Stanford 

 Expedition (Proc. Ac. Washington, vi., pp. 333-427). Two 

 species are described as new. 



The Emu for January contains Captain Hutton's presi- 

 dential address to the Australasian Ornithologists' Union, 

 which deals with the geographical origin and subsequent 

 development of the land birds of New Zealand. An in- 

 teresting feature of the issue is the reproduction of a photo- 

 graph of a red gum-tree containing the nests of seven 

 species of birds. 



Naturen for January and February contains two illus- 

 trated articles on whales and whaling. In the former issue 

 Prof. G. Guldberg describes the method of hunting the Green- 

 land right whale, illustrating his article with reproductions 

 from two old prints. In the February number Mr. E. 

 Kopfoed records the capture of a Biscay right whale, or 

 " nordkaper," at Mjofjord, on the west coast of Iceland, 

 and also of a cachalot in northern waters. Two photo- 

 graphs of the former cetacean are reproduced. 

 NO. 1844, VOL 71] 



Stepney has published a handbook to the vivaria and 

 aquaria in the Borough Museum, the text of which is 

 reproduced, with certain alterations and additions, from the 

 handbook to the Horniman Museum. It is to be hoped 

 that the descriptive portion, when read in the museum, 

 may aid visitors to a right appreciation of the exhibits, 

 but as it stands the guide is admirably calculated to 

 puzzle beginners in systematic zoology. For instance, 

 froin the headings on pp. 24 and 25, the reader would be 

 led to infer that while Argyronela is the scientific desig- 

 nation of the water-spider, and Podura aquatica that of the 

 water-springtails, Blattidae is the name for the cockroach, 

 and from p. 50 that Laccrtilia is the generic title for the 

 typical lizards. .Again, from p. 17 he would be led to 

 suppose that Gastropoda is the generic term for snails, and 

 that these rank in classificatory value with the viviparous 

 pond-snail {Pahidina vivipara). Careful study of the te.xt 

 may in some cases put matters right, but the muddle is 

 as bad as bad can be for beginners. 



The address on morphology generally, its modern ten- 

 dencies and progress, and its relation to other sciences, 

 delivered by Prof. A. Giard before the Congress of 

 Sciences and Art at the St. Louis Exhibition in September 

 last, is published in the Revue Scicntifiqtie of February 4 

 and II. After referring to the revolution in biology 

 effected, fir.st by Lamarck and subsequently by Darwin, 

 the author proceeds to sketch the gradual evolution of 

 modern biological conceptions and theories, dwelling espe- 

 cially on Wolff's hypothesis of epigenesis. Reference is 

 then made to the importance of the study of variation, 

 both among living and extinct types, after which the 

 author passes on to review the influence that palseontology 

 has exerted on biology and the doctrine of evolution. 

 .^biogenesis next claims attention, while the author con- 

 cludes his discourse by reference to some of the evils 

 attendant on the extreme specialisation of scientific work at 

 the presenc day. It is time, he urges, that a general 

 organisation to direct scientific work should replace the 

 present state of anarchy, whereby much energy that is now 

 practically wasted would be diverted towards the attain- 

 ment of a common end and object. 



The fifth part of Mr. J. H. Maiden's " Critical Review 

 of the Genus Eucalyptus " includes three species. Euca- 

 lyptus stellulata receivfs its name from the disposition of 

 the buds, and is known as black Sally, or muzzlewood ; the 

 leaves show longitudinal lateral veins similar to those of the 

 next species. Eucalyptus coriacea, which is distinguished by 

 its clean white stem. The third species, Eucalyptus 

 coccifera, confined to Tasmania, is sufficiently hardy to 

 have been planted in parts of the United Kingdom. 



The ;Uien problem is not unknown to botanists, and the 

 genus Sisymbrium has added two foreign species to the 

 flora of Lancashire. Sisymbrium pannonicum is definitely 

 naturalised along the coast from St. Anne's to Crosby, and 

 according to a recent account by Mr. C. Bailey in vol. xlix. 

 part i. of the Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, Sisymbrium strictissi- 

 mum, a native of continental Europe, has obtained a foot- 

 hold near Heaton Mersey, where it has been observed for 

 fifteen years. 



In a paper only recently published in vol. ii.. No. 3, of the 

 Contributions from the botanical laboratory of the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, but which represents work done two 

 years earlier. Dr. O. P. Phillips maintains that the central 

 body in the cells of the Cyanophycea; represents a true 

 nucleus, but he failed to obtain complete stages in its 



