March 30, 1905] 



NA TURE 



5<5 



to hold a conversazione, and for Saturday afternoon, 

 June 3, a visit to the National Physical Laboratory is pro- 

 posed. Further particulars will be announced later, when 

 the programme is more definitely settled. The hon. 

 secretary, Mr. F. J. Selby, Elm Lodge, Teddington, 

 Middlesex, will be glad to hear from those wishing to join 

 the convention. 



In an account of a journey to Lake San Martin, Pata- 

 gonia, published in the Geographical Journal for March, 

 Captain H. L. Crosthwait directs attention to the mag- 

 netic and meteorological observatory established by the 

 Argentine Government on New Year Island — a small island 

 situated in lat. 54° 59' S., and about five miles off the 

 north coast of Staten Island. The observatory, which is 

 complete in every respect, is superintended by four Argen- 

 tine naval officers, and is here illustrated from Captain 

 Crosthwait 's paper. The observatory was opened in 

 February, 1902, and during the time which has since 

 elapsed, the temperature conditions recorded there by the 

 officers are : — hiijhest temperature recorded, 55°'4 F. ; 



lowest temperature, i6°-4 F. ; annual mean temperature, 

 41° F. The magnetic observatory is kept at an almost 

 constant temperature of 64° F. Many interesting facts 

 about Tierra del Fuego are given by Captain Crosthwait 

 in his paper. He directs attention to the astonishing 

 number and variety of the glaciers, and to the fact that 

 most of the larger ones show signs of shrinkage. Of San 

 Martin Lake he says it undoubtedly occupies what was 

 once a strait joining the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The 

 level of the water of the lake rises and falls in a peculiar 

 manner. Exact measurements of these " seiches " show 

 that the movements are irregular, but on an average they 

 amount to about five inches, having a period of about four 

 minutes between two successive high waters. The surface 

 of the water to the eye is perfectly smooth. 



The " Fauna of New England," in course of publication 

 by the Boston Society of Natural History, has reached its 

 fourth part, which is devoted to the echinoderms, the 

 author being Mr. H. I-. Clark. 



NO. 1848, VOL. 71 J 



Be.^ver-d.ams on the Slate River, Colorado, form the 

 subject of a paper by Mr. E. R. Warren in the Proceedings 

 of the Washington Academy (vol. vi. p. 429), in the course 

 of which the author shows how largely these rodents have 

 altered the features of the valley. 



In the Biologisches Centralhlatt of March i. Mr. S. J. 

 Wasmann continues the account of his theory of the origin 

 of slavery among ants, Mr. H. Prandt discusses reduction 

 processes and " karyogamy " among infusorians, while 

 Prof, von Hansemann reviews the so-called heterotype cell- 

 formation in malignant tumours, more especially in con- 

 nection with the recent cancer investigations of Messrs. 

 Farmer, Moore, and Walker. 



To the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural 

 History (vol. xxxii.. No. 3) Miss Emerson contributes an 

 account of the anatomy of Typhlomolge rathbuni, the blind 

 salamander first made known by specimens thrown up by 

 an artesian well in Texas in 1894. Despite its external 

 resemblance to the olm (Proteus) of the Carniola caves, 

 the author is of opinion that the crea- 

 ture is a member of the family Sala- 

 mandrida;, and most nearly related to 

 the .\merican Spelerpes. 



Three American publications on 

 fishes have reached us this week. In 

 the first Messrs. Jordan and Starks 

 {Proceedings U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 

 1391) describe a collection from Corea, 

 containing several new generic and 

 specific types, while in the second {loc. 

 cit., No. 1394) Mr. T. Gill discusses 

 the generic characters of Synanccia 

 and its allies. Of more general in- 

 terest is the much larger memoir by 

 Dr. S. E. Meek on the fresh-water 

 fishes of Mexico north of the Isthmus 

 of Tehuantepec, issued in the zoo- 

 logical series of the publications of the 

 Field Columbian Museum (vol. v.). In 

 this memoir, which is very fully illus- 

 trated, the author discusses the physio- 

 graphy of Mexico in connection with 

 its fish fauna in considerable detail. 

 In July, 1902, Dr. Merkel, of Wies- 

 Island. loch, was fortunate enough to dis- 



cover in an overflow of the Leimbach a 

 large number of the generally rare phyllopod crustacean 

 Limnadia lentictdaris. The specimens then collected form 

 the basis of a paper on the anatomy of this species by 

 Mr. M. Nowikoff, which appears, with numerous illus- 

 trations, in vol. Ixxviii., part iv., of the Zeitschrift fur 

 wissenschaftliche Zoologie. In the same issue Mr. L. 

 Cohn describes the subocular tentacle of the remarkable 

 frog Dactylethra calcarata, the function of which, in the 

 absence of living specimens, cannot yet be definitely deter- 

 mined. The third article in this part forms the completion 

 of the account by Mr. F. Voss of the anatomy of the 

 thorax of the house-cricket, with special reference to the 

 comparative anatomy and mechanism of the organs of 

 flight in insects generally. 



In the second part of an essay on the structure and 

 relationships of the opisthoccelian, or sauropod, dinosaurs, 

 issued in the geological series of the Field Columbian 

 Museum publications (vol. ii.. No. 6), Mr. E. S. Riggs dis- 

 sents from the view that these gigantic creatures were 



