August 22, 1901J 



NA TURE 



409 



the auks and loons in a single order (Pygopodes), flanked on 

 the one side by the petrels and on the other by the penguins. 



The July issue of the American Naticralist opens with a 

 continuation of Mr. W. H. Wheeler's account of the compound 

 and mixed nests of American ants, the present section dealing 

 with the instances of "social symbiosis." No less than eight 

 different types of this association are recorded, for each of 

 which a special term is adopted. Plesiobiosis, for instance, 

 indicates the cases where ants of two (rarely more) species, 

 which are generally inimical to each other, excavate their 

 galleries in close contact. Xenobiosis, on the other hand, refers 

 to the so-called guest-ants, which maintain independent house- 

 holds among their hosts, with whom they may be on terms of 

 toleration, or even friendship ; while Dulosis is applied to cases 

 where one species of ant is kept in slavery by another. The 

 paper teems with interest to students of ant -life. 



The important series of descriptive catalogues recording the 

 collections made by the Royal Indian Jlarine Survey ship 

 Investigator has been enriched by the appearance of " A 

 Descriptive Catalogue of the Indian Deep Sea Crustacea 

 Decapoda Macrura and Anomala. " In his preface the author. 

 Major A. Alcock, slates that although most of the new species 

 obtained during the dredging cruises of the vessel under his 

 direction have been described in earlier publications, the 

 present volume must not be regarded as a mere reprint of such 

 reports. It contains definitions of the larger groups under which 

 the species are arranged and also valuable tables of distribution, 

 as well as a considerable amount of material prepared by the 

 author as the basis of a larger work on Indian crustaceans. 

 Out of a total of 117 species of Macrura (lobsters, crayfish, 

 shrimps, &c.) obtained during the various cruises, sixty-nine are 

 believed to be peculiar to Indian waters. Most were obtained in 

 less depths — mostly much less — than looo fathoms; and out of 

 eleven dredged from deeper water, only five appear to be truly 

 abyssal, several of the others being taken in the net during its 

 ascent. The Anomala present a greater percentage of deep-sea 

 forms, eight out of fifty-two being abyssal types. 



Despite an unfortunate falling-off in the income, the Report 

 of the Manchester Museum for 1900-1 tells of continued pro- 

 gress of that institution. Owing to the generous presentation 

 of his collection by Mr. P. Schill, which is especially rich in 

 Eastern Holarctic forms, the Manchester series of Lepidoptera 

 now occupies a foremost position among provincial cabinets. 

 The director has also to report the presentation by Mr. R. D. 

 Darbishire of a shell of Pleurotoinaria adansoniana from 

 Barbados ; and the purchase of duplicate shells from the 

 Layard collection has been a most satisfactory investment, the 

 sale of superfluous specimens having repaid the entire cost, while 

 more than 2000 examples have been added to the Museum series. 

 The herbarium has also been largely increased. Neither has the 

 exhibition series been neglected, the director calling especial 

 attention to the display of the various groups of worms, as well 

 as to the dissections and drawings illustrating the anatomy of 

 molluscs. 



We have much pleasure in congratulating the Field 

 Naturalists' Club of Victoria on its " coming of age," an event 

 which was duly celebrated in Melbourne on June 25. In calling 

 attention to the present condition of the Club, the committee 

 were able to report, in spite of increased expenditure, a slight 

 improvement in the finances and also an increase in the roll of 

 members. During the year the Club has called attention to the 

 destruction of various species of " wattle" {Acacia), and also to 

 the spread of the water-hyacinth and iris— it is hoped with good 

 results. Among other papers, the July issue of the Victorian 

 Naturalist contains one describing the curious incrustations 



formed on roots in the littoral sand-dunes of certain districts. 

 The theory that these are formed by the action of vegetable acids 

 on the lime contained in the sand is confirmed. By the decay 

 of the contained root and the percolation of calcareous matter 

 these incrustations may become solid throughout. 



The occurrence of chrysoberyl in the gneiss of Manhattan 

 Island, New York City, is recorded in a pamphlet published by 

 .Mr. W. G. Levison (New York, 1901). 



An article in the Pioneer Mail of July 5, 1901, deals with the 

 important question of artesian wells for India, and it is urged 

 that the Imperial Government should undertake a .series of 

 borings. Mr. Griesbach, the Director of the Geological Survey 

 of India, has suggested that a search for artesian water might be 

 made in the flat country encloseri by Mahi Kantha on one side 

 and Kathiawar on the other in Gujerat proper. If successful 

 the wells would be useful in the northern division of Bombay. 



A PRELIMINARY report on the Cape Nome gold region on the 

 south-western coast of Alaska has been prepared for the United 

 States Geological Survey (1900) by Mr. F. C. Schrader and 

 Mr. A. H. Brooks. In this region the bed-rock consists of 

 altered limestones, mica schists and gneisses, and above it are 

 various gravels forming beaches and terraces, which occur in the 

 gulches (creeks) and valleys and also over the tundra. It is 

 remarked that the gulch and beach placers are extraordinarily 

 rich in gold, and the metal is also known to occur in the bars of 

 the larger rivers and in the tundra. No bed-rock mining has 

 been done, but as the gravels and gold are largely of local 

 origin, workable veins may eventually be found. The authors 

 observe that the staking of new claims "is probably nearly a 

 thing of the past, yet those having capital to invest will un- 

 doubtedly find plenty of claims for sale. " They add, "it would 

 be very wise for all inexperienced newcomers to save money 

 for the return passage." 



A NEW scientific journal, the Allgemcine Nattirforscher- 

 Zeitttng, will be published in Berlin early in October. The 

 prospectus states that the journal will be "die erste natur- 

 wissenschaftiiche Zeitung der Welt." 



A SECOND edition of the second report of the United States 

 Board on Geographic Names has been received, and with the 

 exception of a few minor corrections it is the same as the 

 original edition of May, 1900. The general policy of the Board 

 has been to adopt the name which is in common local use at 

 present, but local usage has been neglected in some cases in 

 order to effect reforms in nomenclature. Among these de- 

 partures approved by the Board are the following : — the 

 avoidance, so far as practicable, of the possessive form of names; 

 the omission of the final " h " in the termination " burgh " ; the 

 abbreviation of "borough" to " boro " ; the spelling of the 

 word "centre" as "center"; discontinuance of the use of 

 hyphens in connecting parts of names ; the simplification of 

 names consisting of more than one word by their combination 

 into one word ; the avoidance of the use of diacritic characters ; 

 the omission of the words "city" and "town" as parts of 

 names. Evidently these principles have their limitations, and 

 the Board recognises the practical impossibility of inducing 

 English people to speak of Germany as Deutschland, Turin as 

 Torino, or The Hague as 's Gravenhage. It is suggested, how- 

 ever, that the adoption of the home name " is a reform to which 

 we may look forward and work toward, and which may be 

 attained in the future." Each name must evidently be con- 

 sidered separately, and the Board exists to do this and to decide 

 what name shall be adopted. The present report contains all 

 decisions rendered by the Baard from its creation to April, 

 1900. 



NO. 1660, VOL. 64] 



