JANUARY 24. 1907 | NATURE 307 
features (Fig. 2), and cut to a depth of 600 feet across, | Thus in many cases they were deposited in gulfs running 
and not down, the slope of a hillside for a length of eighty | along the hollows of an ancient crystalline series. The 
miles (pp. 12 and 43). This is explained by the action of | author strips away these sediments, and seeks to trace 
an overflow-stream from a lake held in between the ice- | the surface of a central Alpine land-mass denuded in pre- 
front and the hills. Parts of several pre-Glacial stream- | Palaeozoic times. repAce E.G. 
euts were utilised in its course. 
The work of the Geologische Reichsanstalt of Vienna 
may conveniently be touched on in this article. In vol. 
Ivi. of the Jahrbuch of this institute (May, 1906, p. 298) 
Dr. Stuchlik attributes a lateritic origin to the ‘* bunte 
Mollasse ’’ of the Oligocene of southern Bavaria, and urges 
that the red ferruginous material was washed down from 
tropical deltas into a shallow sea. B. Granigg’s paper 
(p. 367) on the Ober-Mélltal in Carinthia contains some 
observations on the origin of serpentine; and it is instruc- 
tive to note that the intrusive masses from which this 
rock has been produced have metamorphosed the adjacent 
mica-schist and quartzite in very various degrees. Contact- 
alteration is at times hardly perceptible, a fact that may 
be taken into account in the discussion on the origin of 
the South African diamantiferous material. In the 
Verhandlungen of the Reichsanstalt, 1906, pp. 146-164, 
Dr. F. E. Suess gives a general account of the geology 
of the complicated district in the environs of Briinn. The 
Fic. 2—The wall of the Shonkin Sag, a valley of glacial drainage in Montana. 
sheet of the geological map described includes part of 
OCEANOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH. 
THE Prince of Monaco presided at the ,formal opening 
of the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory at Edin- 
burgh on the afternoon of Wednesday, January 16. A 
distinguished gathering of representative naturalists from 
the leading cities of Scotland took part in the ceremony. 
On the motion of the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, the 
Prince of Monaco was called upon to take the chair. 
A brief explanatory statement of the genesis and develop- 
ment of the laboratory and of the end aimed at was given 
by Mr. W. S. Bruce, the leader of the Scottish Antarctic 
Expedition and the founder and director of the laboratory. 
He showed how Scotland might be regarded as the cradle 
of oceanography, Edinburgh having been associated with 
the study of the oceans for a longer period than any 
other place in the world. The gathering together and 
arrangement of the material had been going on for years, 
and represented the work of eight 
scientific expeditions. In many re- 
spects it was an absolutely unique 
collection. The place it was now in 
was essentially a workshop for 
oceanography, and Mr. _ Bruce 
appealed to the people of Scotland 
to support this movement to place 
oceanographical research on a_per- 
manent footing. There were men 
able and willing to do the work if 
once the laboratory were properly 
established and affiliated to the 
great teaching institutions of the 
country. 
In a short address the Prince of 
Monaco paid a high tribute to the 
admirable work which had _ been 
accomplished by Mr. Bruce and his 
companions in the Antarctic seas. 
Their expedition had been probably 
the most fruitful of all the expedi- 
tions carried out about the same 
time, and yet by far the most 
economical. Seven other speakers, 
representing various interests, spoke 
as to the claims Mr. Bruce’s new 
venture had on the people of Scot- 
Turner referred to the close connec- 
land. Sir William 
the ancient Bohemian plateau on the north-west, and part | tion which the University of Edinburgh had had with 
of the Cainozoic foothills of the Carpathians on the south- 
east. The picturesque and varied scenery on the old high- 
way from Hungary to Prague is recalled to us in this 
lucid memoir. Briinn, little visited as it is, should clearly 
be an exceptional centre for the study of geology. The 
_Ortler group furnishes W. Hammer (p. 174) with 
material for a discussion of Termier’s views on Alpine 
structure. Dr. Kossmat (Jahrbuch der k.k. Reichsanstalt, 
1906, p. 274) similarly finds himself involved with Termier 
and Lugeon in the ‘‘ Gebiet zwischen dem Karst und dem 
Zuge der Julischen Alpen.’’ A specialised congress on 
Alpine structure, with months of field-excursions, would 
be needed for the answering of all these questions; but 
even then the new views daily propounded would effectually 
overwhelm the answers. M. Vacek (Verhandlungen, 1906, 
p- 203) is allowed free scope for a highly controversial 
paper on the basin of Graz, in which he compares the 
““ green beginner ’’ in geology, who rushes into tectonics, 
to a stutterer delivering a public speech. The name of the 
specially ‘‘ green’’ one is presently shouted across the 
barriers of this scarcely edifying tourney. The geological 
sections given are, of course, of considerable interest, and 
show a country rich in transgressions and unconformities. 
Vacek points out the need for considering the isolated 
masses of Palzozoic and Mesozoic sediments in relation to 
the geography of the times when they were laid down. 
NO. 1943, VOL. 75] 
the Challenger expedition and with later expeditions of a 
like character. Dr. Dobbie said that the seals and birds 
which the Scottish Antarctic Expedition had presented to 
the Royal Scottish Museum were probably unsurpassed by 
any like collection in any museum of the kingdom, and 
that other museums had greatly benefited through the 
generosity of Mr. Bruce. Dr. Horne, as representing 
various scientific societies, made special reference to the 
geographical knowledge which had been gained by the 
staff of the Scotia, to the practical sympathy which the 
Seottish Geographical Society had taken in the expedition, 
and to the generous manner in which the Royal Society 
of Edinburgh, in spite of its straitened means, had under- 
taken the publication of the memoirs describing the results. 
Prof. Arthur Thomson, as representing other Scottish 
universities, directed particular attention to the character 
of the Oceanographical Laboratory as a place where a 
man could train himself for oceanographical work. Mr. 
Henry Coates, of the Perthshire Society of Natural Science, 
commented on the value of the collections in the labor- 
atory being arranged as a regional museum. Dr. Rotten- 
burg, of Glasgow, and Mr. Robert M’Vitie, of Edinburgh, 
expressed their sympathy with a project which seemed to 
be a natural consequence of the Antarctic Expedition, the 
suecess of which had rejoiced the hearts of the many who 
had been interested in it. 
