NA TURE 



[July 25, 1901 



and Albert Edward, has been mounted for the Natural History 

 branch of the British Museum by Mr. Rowland Ward, of Picca- 

 dilly. For a time it will be exhibited in the North Hall, among 

 the domesticated animals, but will eventually be placed along- 

 side its nearest living relatives, the giraffes, in the lower mammal 

 gallery. The skin and two skulls were recently exhibited by 

 the Director of the Museum at an evening meeting of the 

 Zoological Society, on which occasion the name Okapia was 

 proposed for this very remarkable mammal, the specific title 

 ^ohmtoni, previously suggested by Mr. Sclater on the evidence 

 of two fragments of skin, being adopted. As now mounted, the 

 okapi presents a considerable resemblance in form to a small, 

 short-limbed and short-necked giraffe, although furnished with 

 the large ears characteristic of all forest-dwelling animals, and 

 with an absolutely peculiar type of coloration. No such im- 

 portant discovery has occurred since the giant panda (.Eluro- 

 pus) was made known to the scientific world in the 'sixties 

 of last century. Prof. Kay Lankester's description of this 

 most interesting animal will be anxiously awaited by all 

 naturalists. 



With no less than seven reports and other technical docu- 

 ments before him, the writer of the article on the " Decay of 

 our Sea Fisheries " in the July issue of the Quarterly Review 

 takes a very serious, not to say pessimistic, view of the situa- 

 tion, and deplores the lack of interest in the fishing industry 

 exhibited by Parliament. It is urged that, with far larger 

 interests at stake, we spend much less money on inquiries con- 

 nected with our fish-supply than other nations, and that the case 

 for interference, based on the falling-ofi in the yield of inshore- 

 grounds, is fully established. In this respect, indeed, we are 

 suffering from an improvidence which would have been ab- 

 solutely fatal in other industries ; and the one excuse that can be 

 made for legislative inactivity is that our knowledge of the life- 

 history of our food-fishes is at present far too incomplete to 

 permit of the drawing-up of really effectual regulations and 

 amendments. Trawling as now practised is unhesitatingly 

 condemned ; while the importance of returning to the sea 

 the spawn of newly-caught fish is strongly urged. There is, 

 however, another aspect ;of the subject which has received 

 too little attention. This is the great increase which, owing to 

 protection, has of late years taken place in the numbers of our 

 sea-birds. "No one," writes the author, " who has any sense 

 of fairness blames the trout-hatcher for dealing summarily with 

 the herons, otters, chub, pike and eels that invade his stews ; 

 and, if it becomes clear that there are no longer fish enough for 

 both ourselves and the cormorants, it may be in like manner 

 necessary to decide that charity shall begin, and end, at home." 

 It may be added that attention is drawn to the value and im- 

 portance of the researches carried on by the Liverpool Marine 

 Biological Association and kindred bodies. 



Ln their Report for the year 1900 the executive committee 

 announce that the New York Zoological Society is in a much 

 more satisfactory financial position than it has ever been before, 

 mainly owing to the liberality of the city. It is felt, however, 

 that the Society does not receive adequate support from private 

 citizens, and strenuous efforts are being made to raise the number 

 of members to 3000, the total at the commencement of the 

 present year being jusl short of 1000. The most important 

 feature in the Report is an illustrated article by Mr. W. T. 

 Hornaday on the wild sheep of America, the main object 

 of this communication being the description of a hitherto un- 

 recognised type inhabiting part of the Yukon valley. For this 

 animal the name Ovis faitnini is proposed. According to the 

 illustration, it appears nearly allied to the white Alaskan big- 

 horn, but has a large grey saddle on the back. 



We have received from the director of the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden an elaborate paper on garden beans, by Mr. H. C. 

 NO. 1656, VOL. 64] 



Irish. It deals with the species cultivated in America of the 

 genera Phaseolus, Dolichos, Vigna, Glycine, and Vicia, and 

 with their very numerous cultivated varieties, which are de- 

 scribed in detail. Like so many of our cultivated fruits and 

 vegetables, the scarlet runner and the kidney bean are unknown 

 in the wild state. The broad bean is stated to be a native of 

 Africa, and to be one of the oldest vegetables in cultivation. 

 De Candolle says that it was cultivated in Europe in prehistoric 

 times. The ten plates illustrate the very great variety in the 

 seeds of the same species produced under cultivation. 



In the Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences of 

 Amsterdam, Dr. W. Burck has an interesting note respecting a 

 possible provision of nature for preventing hybridisation in plants. 

 He finds from experiment that the pollen-grains of different 

 species vary very greatly in their sensitiveness to the action of 

 the same chemical substance. Thus with some plants a very 

 small quantity of Irevulose greatly promotes the emission of 

 the pollen-tubes, while with others it causes the pollen-grains- 

 to burst. Saccharose and dextrose have not the same effect 

 as Icevulose. He suggests that there may be present in the 

 stigmatic secretion, not only substances which promote the 

 emission of the pollen-tubes in that particular species, but also 

 substances which act injuriously on the pollen of foreign 

 species. 



The. interesting discovery by Baron Toll of buried glaciers 

 from the Glacial period, covered with more recent Post-Glacial 

 deposits containing branches and roots of Alntisfnt/icosa, under 

 the 74th degree of latitude, on the Great Lyakhoff Island of 

 New Siberia, has already been mentioned several times in these 

 columns. We have now received the thirty-second volume of 

 the " Memoirs ' (Zapiski) of the Russian Geographical Society, 

 the first fascicule of which contains Baron Toll's memoir in 

 full, with several interesting photographs. Three of these 

 represent cliff's of glaciers (" fossil glaciers," as Baron Toll de- 

 scribes them), which are masses of ice, not of river ice, or of 

 ice formed in clefts, but undoubtedly of a glacial ice, dating 

 from the Glacial period, and covered with more recent layers of 

 soil ; while two other photographs represent layers of soil con- 

 taining remains of Alniis friiiicosa and a species of Salix de- 

 posited above the ice. The branches and the toots of the 

 former are well seen on the photograph, while the catkins which 

 were found by Baron Toll show that these trees, which now do 

 not spread beyond 70° N. lat., grew on the New Siberian 

 islands during the post-Glacial period. As to the mammoth, 

 the rhinoceros and other extinct mammals, it seems impossible, 

 since the researches of Fr. Schmidt, Tcherskiy, Bunge and 

 Toll, not to accept the last author's conclusion, namely : " The 

 mammoths and the other contemporary mammals lived on the 

 spots where we now find their relics ; they died out owing to a 

 change in the physico-geographical conditions of the region. 

 The bodies of these mammals, which have not died in con- 

 sequence of some sudden catastrophe, were deposited in a cold 

 region, partly on river terraces, and partly on the shores of 

 lakes and on the surfaces of the glaciers, and there they were 

 gradually buried in loam. They have been preserved in the 

 same way as have been preserved the masses of ice underneath, 

 owing to a permanent and perhaps increasing cold." 



Those who are interested in the local antiquities, church and 

 domestic architecture, folklore and antiquarian odds and ends of 

 the counties of London, Middlesex, Essex, Herts, Bucks, Berks, 

 Surrey and Kent, cannot do better than read The Home 

 Cottulies Magazine, in which a number of brightly-written 

 and well-illustrated articles on these various topics will be found. 



The Scottish archseologists should be happy, as they have a 

 very useful bone of contention in the age of the crannog recently 

 discovered at Dumbuck in the estuary of the Clyde. The Rev. 



