348 



NATURE 



[Feb. 29, 1872 



generous. Similar interest had been awakened in Chicago, 

 whence too/, had come in to be placed at the disposal of the 

 Livingstone Expedition ; and on the whole it might be said the 

 announcement of the undertaking had been hailed with general 

 satisfaction throughout the civilised world. Exclusive of two 

 sums of 400/. and 600/. odd, the latter the balance of the former 

 Government grant, there was now standing to the credit of the 

 expedition a sum of 4,200/. 



The following gentlemen were on Saturday last elected to 

 Junior Studentships in Natural Science at Clrristchurch, Ox- 

 ford .— M-.D. A. Greswell, Commoner of Balliol College, Mr. 

 B. Hainsworth, of Manchester Grammar School, Mr. W. A. 

 Smith, of Clifton College. These scholarships are of the amiual 

 value of 75/., together with the rooms rent free. 



At the examination recently concluded at the Melbourne 

 University, there were no less than 225 competitors, of whom 

 86 passed the matriculation examination, and 108 the civil service 

 examination. Many of the names in the former were included 

 in the latter, but on the other hand, there were some who passed 

 the larger, the matriculation examination, who did not pass the 

 smaller examination, that for the civil service. The reason is, 

 that for the matriculation any six subjects serve to qualify, while 

 for the civil service, of the four subjects, two given ones are es- 

 sential. The examinations this time had a novel feature, from 

 there being three lady candidates, all of whom passed. Tlie 

 Council of the University, however, has passed a resolution to 

 the effect that the successful ladies should not be allowed to 

 matriculate. No reasons have been given for this decision, but 

 it is presumed that the obstacle is a legal one. 



The Academy states that the President of the Geographical 

 Society of Italy has written to the papers to say that the Con- 

 servator of the Bibliotheque Royale of Belgium has discovered 

 a MS., in twelve chapters, containing the original autograph 

 account of the discovery of Australia by Manuel Godinho, a 

 Portuguese navigator, who touched there in 1601, and whose 

 priority to the Dutch sailors, who arrived three or four years 

 later, has been unduly neglected. Mr. Ruelens vouches for the 

 authenticity of the MS., which was brought to light at the Ant- 

 werp Exhibition, though it passed imnoticed in the crowd. 



Prof. Cleveland Abbe, in an article entitled " Historical 

 Note on the Method of Least Squares," in the American Journal 

 of Science and Arts, shows that this method, though first pub- 

 lished in a printed form by Le Gendre in 1806, and invented by 

 Gauss in 1795, was published in 180S by Prof. Robert Adrain, 

 at that time in New Brunswick, N. J., in the " Analyst," he 

 having been independently led to this invention by the study 

 of a prize problem offered some months previously in that 

 periodical. 



An important addition has been made to the list of works 

 devoted to inquiries and instructions in regard to the great fisheries 

 in the form of a paper, by M. Achille Costa, upon the fisheries 

 of the Gulf of Naples published by the Royal Institute 

 for the Encouragement of Natural Science, &c., of Naples. 

 The subject is treated under four heads : first, a description of 

 the various modes by which fishing is prosecuted in the Gulf of 

 Naples, whether commendable or olherwise, with engravings of 

 the nets and other apparatus used ; second, the consideration of 

 the various modes of fishing, and their relationship to the present 

 and prospective supply ; third, memoranda in regard to the 

 localities in which the different kinds of fish and other marine 

 animals are to be found, and the favourite places for depositing 

 their spawn ; and fourth, a systematic catalogue of the different 

 species of marine animals found in the Gulf of Naples, and 

 gathered for the purpose of serving as food. 



Prof, Maksh reports to the 4w«Wrt/<7f«/vw/^&-<t'«a' the 



discovery, during his explorations in 1871, of a remarkable fossil 

 bird. It was found in the Upper Cretaceous of Western Kansas, 

 and the remains consist of the greater portion of the skeleton, 

 at least five feet in height, and which, although a true bird, as is 

 shown by the vertebrae and other parts of the skeleton, differs 

 widely from any known recent or extinct forms of that class, 

 and affords a fine example of a comprehensive type. The bones 

 are all well preserved. The femur is very short, but the other 

 portions of the legs are quite elongated. The metatarsal bones 

 appear to have been separated. On his return the professor 

 proposes to describe this unique fossil under the name of fft's- 

 pirornis regalis. 



In the expedition against the Losshais, who have attacked 

 our tea plantations in Cachar, the interests of science have been 

 cared for. Lieutenant Browne, 44th Foot, known in India as 

 an able naturalist, has charge, with a trained native from the 

 Indian Museum at Calcutta, to act as collector. Something is 

 expected from the imexplored regions of the Losshai country, 



Herr Pausch, a member of the late German polra ex- 

 pedition, recently made a communication to the German An- 

 thropological Society in regard to certain abandoned habitations 

 of the Esquimaux in East Greenland. He remarked that at 

 each of seven different points they found three stone houses, some 

 of them certainly over one hundred years old. These were 

 winter huts, the remnants of their summer abodes being indi- 

 cated by stone rings. In many places there were indications of 

 stone graves, and from the skeletons found in them tolerably well- 

 preserved crania were obtained, agreeing with the Eastern 

 Esquimaux type as described by Virchow, and exhibiting the car- 

 nivorous habit in the highest degree. Remains of wood carving, 

 tolerably well executed, occurred with the dead bodies, and in the 

 heap were found bone knife-handles, harpoons of bone, arrow- 

 tips, and even knife-shaped pieces of iron, probably obtained 

 from the English expedition of 1823. 



In referring to the explorations of Dr. liayden about the 

 Yellow Stone Lake during the past summer, mention was made 

 of the fact that the trout all seemed very much infested with a 

 peculiar kind of worm, which interfered considerably with the 

 enjoyment of eating them. Specimens of this animal have been 

 submitted to Prof. Leidy, of Philadelphia, who reports that they 

 represent a new species or type of worm, of the genus Dibothriiim. 

 Two species of the genus have long been known as infesting 

 salmon and other members of the trout family in Europe, but 

 both are decidedly different from the new form just mentioned. 



The Trustees of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 

 Harvard College, Cambridge, U.S.A., have issued their Annual 

 Register for 1870, together with the Report of the Director, 

 Prof. Agassiz. It is stated that the accessions to the Museum 

 during the past year had been very great and of surpassing im- 

 portance. Foremost stands Deyrolle's collection of Curculio- 

 nidaa, presented by Mrs. A. Hemenway ; next the collection of 

 Galls of Baron d'Osten-Sacken, presented by him ; then the 

 magnificent collection of Fossil Plants of M. Lesquereux, espe- 

 cially remarkable for the exquisite selection of the specimens it 

 contains, and that of Insects of Texas, made by Mr. J. Boll, 

 both of which have been bought by the Museum ; and not least 

 the unparalleled collection of Neuroptera, brought to America by 

 Dr. Hagen, and now deposited in the Museum. There are 

 special reports on the Mammalia and Birds by Mr. J. A. Allen ; 

 on the Fishes by Dr. Franz Steindachner ; on Conchology by 

 J. G. Anthony ; on the Articulata by Dr. Hagen ; and on the 

 Palceontological collections by Prof. Shaler, Mr. J. B. Perry, and 

 Dr. G. A. Macak. 



We have received the Register of the Trustees, Officers, and 

 Stwlents pf th? Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, Penn., 



