August 22, 1901 



NA TURE 



407 



prize shall be allotted at the discretion of the scientific class of 

 the Academy. The sum of 41,000 francs, which will constitute 

 the nucleus of the projected prize, has been obtained by the sale 

 of the Belgica, the ship of the Belgian South Polar Expedition, 

 to tlie Norwegian Government. Lieut. Gerlache, who was the 

 leader of the expedition, suggests, on the other hand, that the 

 capital of 41,000 francs should be put out to interest until the 

 fund amounts to 100,000 francs, and that the interest should 

 then be expended upon grants to Belgian oceanic explorers, and 

 also upon a Belgica medal, to be bestowed upon polar explorers 

 of all nations. It is reported that tKe Minister is now inclined 

 to support Lieut. Gerlache's two suggestions. 



A STRIKING example of the improvements which have been 

 made in the mechanical arrangements for the loading of coal 

 from railway trucks into vessels has recently been afforded by a 

 new hydraulic coal hoist which has been erected at the Penarth 

 dock. A steamer arrived in the dock at 8.10 in the morning. 

 After taking in sufficient coal for her boilers she proceeded to 

 load her cargo at 9.15, which was completed at 11.50, the 

 steamer entering and leaving the dock on the same tide. The 

 quantity of coal placed in the vessel was 2333 tons, in two and 

 a half hours, or at the rate of about fifteen tons a minute. 



The next meeting of the International Navigation Congress 

 is to take place at Dusseldorf from June 29 to July 6, 1 902. 

 The subjects that will be specially considered are (i) as regards 

 inland navigation ; lifts ; lifts on inland waterways ; the transport 

 of coal. Communications are invited on the construction of 

 reservoir dams ; improvements in the mechanical propulsion of 

 vessels ; utilisation of water-power at weirs for electric propul- 

 sion. (2) Ocean navigation ; construction of iron and wooden 

 gates for locks ; the use of sea-going lighters ; construction and 

 management of graving docks and repairing slips ; construction 

 and cost of dredging machinery. 



A PROJECT is now under consideration by the municipality of 

 Vienna for disposing of the sewage of the city, which at present 

 is discharged into the Danube. The scheme consists in the 

 application of a method developed by Herr Noebel, of Posen, 

 for the utilisation of the liquid part of the sewage for the double 

 purpose of irrigation and manure. It is intended to convey the 

 sewage in pipes to an extensive plain of poor land which suffers 

 from a lack of water, due to inadequate rainfall, over which it 

 is not to be carried in trenches, as is done in this country, but 

 the surface of the land is to be irrigated by sprinkling the sewage 

 water over it. It is contended that by this system the land will 

 not be over-saturated, as it frequently is on the sesvage farms at 

 Berlin and Paris. The system is stated to have been already in 

 use at Posen, with satisfactory results. 



Prof. Frederick Starr, who for several years has closely 

 studied the physical types of the tribes of southern Mexico, has, 

 says Science, just brought his work to a close. Three kinds of 

 work were done — measurement, photography and modelling. 

 In each tribe one hundred men and twenty-five women were 

 measured, fourteen measurements being taken of each individual. 

 Photographic portraits were taken of typical subjects, a front 

 viert" and a straight profile being made of each. Busts in plaster 

 were made of those who appeared most perfectly to present 

 the r-acial type, the moulds being made directly upon the subject. 

 During the four seasons over which his work has extended. 

 Prof. Starr has visited twenty-three tribes. While the physical 

 types of the natives formed the chief subject of study, many 

 views were also taken of the scenery, villages, houses, groups of 

 Indians, native industries, ..Sic. The material results of the in- 

 vestigation include measurements from 2S50 persons, 1200 or 

 more negatives, varying in size from 8 x 10 inches to 4 x 5, 

 100 busts in plaster and a large collection of objects — dress, 

 NO. 1660, VOL. 64] 



weapons, implements and products— illustrating the ethnography 

 of the region. Several months will be necessary for putting all 

 this material into shape for exhibition and publication. 



The Deutsche Seewarte has published, as an appendix to 

 the August number of the Annalen der Hydrographie, a useful 

 collection of storm tables for the Atlantic Ocean. For some 

 years the Seewarte has been collecting and publishing notices 

 of storms, giving, in a very concise form, the time, position 

 and duratibn, the reading and motion of the barometer (rising 

 or falling) and the various changes of the wind (backing or 

 veering). The results have been arranged in tabular form, in 

 twenty-two districts, according to months and seasons, and 

 grouped under four principal points of the compass. The chief 

 object of the tables is to show at a glance if, on the occurrence 

 of bad weather (when the wind force has reached a fresh gale), 

 there is a prospect of it becoming worse, what the probable 

 further behaviour of the storm will be. The explanatory text 

 contains useful remarks respecting the general distribution and 

 characteristics of storms in different seasons and in various 

 localities of the .Atlantic. 



An important publication, just issued by the Department of 

 Revenue and Agriculture of the Government of India, brings 

 together the agricultural statistics of British India and of the 

 Native States, so far as they can be procured, for the five years 

 1S95-6 to 1 899- 1 900. The first thirty pages are explanator)-. 

 The bulk of the volume consists of tables of figures, giving the 

 areas of cultivated and uncultivated land ; the areas under each 

 crop (the irrigated and not irrigated separately mentioned) ; the 

 average yield of the principal crops ; the number of farm 

 animals, ploughs and carts ; the statistics of land revenue 

 assessment, and of transfers of land, for each separate district 

 in the empire. The information will be of the greatest value to 

 those who have the task of developing the resources of the 

 country. The general summary of the acreage described for the 

 year 1899-1900 is as follows: — 



British India, Six Native States, 

 Acres. Acres. 



Total area surveyed 544,858,070 45,952,429 



Under forest 65,843,924 3,087,209 



Unculturable 135,506,014 11,374,311 



Culturable waste 106,404,704 9,765,998 



Fallow land 57,163,761 5,452,596 



Sown with crops 180,151,093 10,385,927 



Irrigated 31,544,056 1,357.463 



The Report on the Observatory Department of the National 

 Physical Laboratory for the year 1900 has been published in the 

 Proceedings of the Royal Society. The magnetographs have 

 been in constant operation throughout the year, but the curves 

 have been quite free from any large fluctuations. The mean 

 westerly declination for the entire year was 16° 52'7. The 

 automatic and tabulated records of the various meteorological 

 instruments have been transmitted, as usual, to the Meteorological 

 Office, to be dealt with in its publications, and special cloud 

 observations have been made each month in connection with the 

 international scheme of balloon ascents. Seismological obser- 

 vations have been regularly made ; two noticeable disturbances 

 occurred during the year, on January 20 and October 29. 

 A detailed list of the movements of the seismograph will be 

 published in the Report of the British Association for the present 

 year. As regards experimental work, the observation of distant 

 objects during mist and fog and researches upon atmospheric 

 electricity, referred to in previous reports, have been regularly 

 continued. The list of the various instruments tested is a very 

 long one ; we therefore select only a few of the principal cases 

 in which a considerable increase has occurred : — Aneroids and 

 marine barometers (number tested in year 1900), 336 (increase 

 69) ; compasses, 963 (increase 559) ; rain gauges, 1345 (increase 



