NovEMBER I, 1906| 
therefore, Agathocles owed his escape on August 14 
to the fact that he could sail instead of row. If so, 
his minimum pace would be seven knots, or otherwise 
he would have rowed, and the Carthaginians would 
perhaps have caught him. Again, we are our- 
selves convinced that Agathocles was expecting the 
appearance of the provision ships. It may be that he 
was merely prepared for any favourable opportunity, 
but there is much to prove that he laid his plans very 
carefully. He had, for instance, put saddles and 
bridles on board. He could not take horses with 
him, but he was prepared to use any he might capture 
on landing. On a subsequent occasion, thinking that 
the appearance of owls (as birds of good omen) would 
encourage his soldiers, he set some free, which he 
had evidently provided beforehand (Grote). 
We have therefore established that by 8 a.m. on 
August 15 Agathocles had been at sea upwards of 
twenty-four hours, and that he started with a fair 
wind. He clearly did not stand out to sea more than 
was necessary, for to do so would be to abandon part 
of his start. The last and most important question 
is, therefore, did Agathocles go north or south? 
Our third point is that Agathocles went north. 
Airy has already noted that the provision ships prob- 
ably came from Gela, on the south coast of Sicily, 
since that was the only place still, after the battle 
of Himera two months previously, friendly to 
Agathocles (Grote). Airy also notes that even 330 
miles is a short voyage for six days, and therefore 
that the longer course is more probable. Airy also 
makes a third point. ‘It is stated by Diodorus that 
the troops before sailing supposed that they were to 
make an attack either on Italy or on the Cartha- 
ginian part of Sicily; and by Justin, that, while on 
the voyage, they supposed that they were going on a 
marauding expedition either to Italy or to Sardinia.’’ 
The passage in Justin is really stronger than as 
quoted by Airy; the troops did not realise at the time 
that it was Africa where they had landed (tunc 
primum exposito in Africae litore exercitu consilium 
suum omnibus aperit); they appear to have thought 
that they were in Italy or Sardinia, and consequently 
they must have passed through the Straits of Messina, 
and subsequently kept out of sight of land until Africa 
was reached. 
If, as we believe, Agathocles had really planned 
events exactly as they turned out, he would have 
ordered his partisans at Gela to send provision ships 
directly there was a strong south wind, and he prob- 
ably gave them to understand that he would come 
to their assistance, and that there would be a naval 
battle, in which the provision ships might turn the 
scale. Agathocles must have had bitter enemies in 
Gela, as he had just perpetrated an atrocious massacre 
there, and we may assume that his partisans there 
were bound to him by self-interest only, and had no 
idea of being sacrificed to the Carthaginians merely 
that Agathocles might escape. ; : 
Enough of his false plans had been allowed to 
leak out to the Carthaginians for them to suppose 
that he was coming out of Syracuse to give battle; 
it was only at the last moment that the Carthaginians, 
and perhaps also the men of Gela, realised that he 
was merely bent on escape from Syracuse. Mean- 
while he had allowed his men to think that they were 
bound for Sardinia. Had they steered south his men 
would have thought that Agathocles was not acting 
according to a prearranged plan, but from hand to 
mouth as best he could. If they steered north his 
men would have felt the confidence engendered by 
seeing everything going according to the programme. 
If Agathocles had laid his plans beforehand, he 
would probably have collected information as to 
NO. 1931, VOL. 75] 
IN AL TAT RTE, 1 
currents in the Straits of Messina, and would have 
known that, in the early afternoon of the day pre- 
ceding new moon, there is a five-knot current running 
northwards (Mediterranean Pilot). This current may 
possibly have contributed materially to his escape, 
for he seems to have been hard pressed (aveAricrov 
owtnpias éervxe). If he went northward, it certainly 
adds ten miles to the distance he would otherwise 
have traversed by the time that he saw the eclipse. 
P, H. CoweELt. 
SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION IN INDIA.’ 
HE Board of Scientific Advice was constituted 
in the year 1902 by the Government of India 
as a central authority for the coordination of official 
scientific inquiry, its object being to ensure that the 
work of research was distributed to the best 
advantage, that each investigator employed by 
Government should confine his researches to the sub- 
ject with which he was most capable of dealing, and 
that energy should not be wasted by the useless 
duplication of work or misdirected by a lack of inter- 
departmental cooperation. It was, more especially, 
hoped by the Government that the Board would 
materially assist it in prosecuting research in those 
questions of economic or applied science which are 
of direct practical importance, and thus contribute 
towards the solution of those problems and matters 
on which the progressive prosperity of the country, 
more especially as regards its agricultural and in- 
dustrial development, so largely depends. 
The Board includes the Secretary to the Govern- 
ment in the Department of Revenue and Agriculture, 
which controls and administers the various scientific 
and semi-scientific departments, and the heads of 
those departments, including the Surveyor-General of 
India, the Director-General of Indian Observatories, 
the Directors of the Geological and Botanical Surveys 
of India, the Inspectors-General of Forests, of Agri- 
culture, and of the Civil Veterinary Department. 
It advises generally upon the operations of the 
departments, discusses the programmes of work and 
investigation of each departmental head, submits 
annually to Government a general programme of 
research embodying the proposals of departmental 
heads in so far as their subjects are to be exclusively 
dealt with in one department, and its own propose's 
when two or more departments are to cooperate, and 
also at the end of the year prepares a review stating 
briefly the actual results of the work of investigation 
carried out during the previous year in the scientific 
departments. The programmes and reviews are com- 
municated through the Secretary of State to the 
Royal Society, which has selected suitable com- 
mittees to consider the reports and advise Govern- 
ment chiefly on the scientific problems presented or 
indicated by the reports. 
The necessity for some such arrangement has forced 
itself upon the Government of India with the rapid 
extension of scientific investigation during recent 
years. Private enterprise in such work: is. practically 
nil in India, and hence Government has to initiate 
all scientific investigation that is necessary for the 
well-being and progress of the Empire. India is at 
the present stage a country with limited resources, 
the development of which depends upon the appli- 
cation of modern scientific methods and knowledge 
to pressing economic problems. The heads of 
Government can gauge the requirements and initiate 
departments of inquiry and research, and state for 
1 Report of the Board of Scientific Advice for India for the Year 1904-5 
