May 2, 1 901] 



NA TURE 



19 



We are reminded by the British Medical Journal that on 

 October 13 Prof. Rudolf Virchow will complete his 80th year, 

 and preparations are already being made by his numerous friends 

 and pupils to celebrate that interesting anniversary with appro- 

 priate pomp and circumstance. A committee has been formed 

 for the purpose of collecting subscriptions, to be applied to the 

 development of the Rudolf Virchow Stiftung, which was estab- 

 lished for the furtherance of science in 1881. The president of 

 the committee is Prof. Waldeyer, the distinguished anatomist of 

 Berlin ; the secretary is Prof. Posner. 



The committee appointed by the International Congress of 

 Geologists in August last has, says Science, announced as the 

 subject proposed for the Spendiaroff prize for 1903 " A Critical 

 Review of the Methods of Classification of Rocks" (Revue 

 critique des methodes de classification des roches). The value 

 of the prize is 456 roubles, or about 64/. Manuscripts should 

 be addressed to M. Charles Barrois, secretaire general du Con- 

 gres Geologique » International, 62, Boulevard Saint Michel, 

 Paris. At least two copies of papers submitted in competition 

 are required, and they should be sent, at the latest, a year | 

 before the next session of the Congress in 1903. 



The erection of a memorial to the late Prof. Huxley in Ealing, 

 where he was born and received his early education, is contem- 

 plated. On Ihe initiative of the council of the Ealing Natural 

 Science Society, a committee of those persons connected with 

 the district who are interested in the project has been formed. 

 The first meeting of this committee was held on March 29, 

 when an executive committee was appointed with the Rev. 

 Prof. G. Henslow as chairman. A bronze medallion portrait 

 has been advocated lor the central feature of the design, which 

 may take the form of a simple mural tablet or of a more worthy 

 monument, as funds are obtainable, while should that support be 

 forthcoming for which its projectors hope, an annual grant or 

 medal might also be founded. Subscription to the fund is not 

 confined to residents in Ealing, and persons who may be desirous 

 of assisting in the endeavour to show honour to the memory of 

 Huxley in the place of his birth should communicate with the 

 treasurer of the fund (Mr. T. Simpson, Fennymere, Castle Bar, 

 Ealing), or with the secretary (Mr. B. B. Woodward, 120 The 

 Grove, Ealing). 



The investigation of the Louisiana Gulf Coast, made by Prof. 

 Beyer for the American Ornithological Association for the 

 purpose of stationing wardens to protect the sea birds, shows 

 that action was not taken a moment too soon. Prof Beyer 

 found that nearly all the breeding places of the birds had been 

 destroyed by killing the birds themselves and taking their eggs. 

 Not a trace of birds was found on either Brush or Caillou 

 Islands, at one time the home of millions of sea fowl. The 

 same was true of Calumet and Castelle Islands, on which every 

 living thing had been killed. A few gulls and hens were found 

 left on Timbalier Island, and there are said to be a few on Last 

 Island, which, however, could not be visited on account of the 

 severe weather. Wardens were appointed wherever birds were 

 found, and the fishermen of the neighbourhood promised to 

 co-operate with the wardens in preventing the killing of the 

 birds in the breeding season and the stealing of eggs. 



The annual general meeting of the Zoological Society was 

 held on Monday. In the report of the council, reference was 

 made to the publication of the fifteenth volume of the Society's 

 Transactions, consisting of a monograph of the genus Casuarius, 

 by the Hon. Walter Rothschild. A new pheasantry was built 

 during the past year, and is now tenanted by a full series of 

 members of the pheasant family. The number of visitors to 

 the Gardens in 1900 was 697,178, showing a slight increase over 

 the corresponding number in the previous year. The number 

 XO. 1644, VOL. 64] 



of animals living in the Society's Gardens at the end of December 

 last was 2865, of which 75S were mammals, 1495 l^'^s, and 

 612 reptiles and batrachians. Amongst the additions made 

 during the past year thirty-one were specially commented upon 

 as being of remarkable interest, and in most cases new to the 

 Society's collection. The Duke of Bedford was re-elected 

 president of the Society. 



We learn from the Electrician that, in response to the com- 

 plaints of a number of leading shipping companies, includmg 

 the White Star, Cunard and American Lines, the Board of 

 Trade has instructed the Marconi Company to erect a signalling 

 station on the mainland close to the Fastnet Rock, at the 

 western extremity of Ireland. All vessels fitted with wireless 

 transmitting apparatus will henceforth be able to report to the 

 shore when many miles outside the Fastnet, and this will, of 

 course, abolish the waste of time and labour caused by the 

 necessity for incoming steamers to pass inside the Fastnet in 

 order to report to Lloyd's station on the mainland. 



The deposits of salt at Salton, California, U.S.A., forms one 

 of the sights of America. They occur in a depressed portion 

 of the Colorado Desert, parts of which are as much as three 

 hundred feet below sea-level. The deposits cover as much as 

 a thousand acres, and the company in possession of the area 

 has shipped from it annually about two thousand tons of salt. 

 The salt is cut by means of a plough and is piled into heaps 

 such as those shown in the accompanying illustration, repro- 



&fc«,. 



duced from the Scientific American. Each plough harvests 

 about seven hundred tons of salt per day. A singular charac- 

 teristic of the bed is that the salt is being deposited daily by 

 springs which run into the basin, and as the water evaporates 

 it leaves behind a crust of almost pure sodium chloride, which 

 ranges from ten to twenty inches in thickness over the area. 

 Geographers will remember that the deposits occupy part of the 

 area of the desert of California flooded to the extent of hundreds 

 of square miles in 1892, when the Colorado River broke it 

 barriers. 



The origin Oi coal and the extent to which the coalfields of 

 Great Britain have been worked were the scientific questions 

 dealt with by Mr. E. B. Wethered in his presidential address 

 to the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club on April 23. It was 

 pointed out that the extent of our present exportation of coal 

 was not contemplated by the Royal Coal Commission in 1871. 

 In 1867 the amount of coal exported was 10,233,135 tons, and 

 it was thought that no considerable increase would take place, 

 whereas nearly fifty-six million tons were exported in the year 

 1S9Q, including about twelve million tons consumed by steamers 

 engaged in foreign trade. In the matter of home consumption 

 the Commissioners were remarkably correct, their estimate for 

 1899 being 162,400,000 tons, the actual figures being 164,284,757 



