654 



NA TURE 



[October 31, 1901 



inconceivable to anyone who has not witnessed the ex- 

 periment, that such passes should be negotiable at all, 

 €ven if the gymnastic capacity possessed by the yak or 

 by the coarse-bred and clumsy Yarkandi pony be duly 

 appreciated. 



Captain Deasy's narrative is a plain and simple record 

 ■of a very remarkable series of explorations. It cannot 

 fail to be interesting to all who love adventure, or who 

 •discern a future of political difficulty looming on the 

 borders of Tibet. It is interesting to the geographer 

 for many reasons, not only because it illustrates certain 

 methods which should be adopted by every modern 

 ■scientific traveller in Asia, but because it solves many 

 an old geographical problem and suggests one or two 

 new ones. Amongst other important determinations, 

 that of the altitude of the Muztagh-Ata of Sven Hedin 



strength by which the Government could hope to surmount the 

 difficulties would be the conviction of public opinion of the im 

 portance of education itself and the necessity for its extension 

 and organisation." He anticipated the criticism that must be 

 passed upon such a statement by saying " He would probably be 

 told he was whistling for a wind ; that he was asking for an ex- 

 pression of public opinion which would guide the Government 

 in forming either large or small proposals on the subject of 

 education. He did not altogether resent the imputation." It is 

 clear from this that our Ministers acknowledge that they are not 

 leaders so far as education is concerned. The Lord President's 

 reference to whistling for a wind is unhappy when other nations 

 are going full speed ahead under steam. Dr. Macnamara puts 

 the case very forcibly in a letter to Tuesday's Times, where he 



in the Takla Maka 



{which is now definitely ascertained to be 24,000 feet 

 above sea-level) fixes the height of the highest peak north 

 of the Himalaya. T. H. H. 



NOTES. 



The president of the Board of Education has appointed Prof. 

 Hugh L. Callendar, F.R. S., to the professorship of physics in 

 the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, in succession 

 to Prof. Riicker, who, as already announced, has become 

 principal of the University of London. 



The Duke of Devonshire has suggested a reason for the ten- 

 tative way in which the problem of our educational organisa- 

 tion has been attacked. In opening the new Central Technical 

 School at Liverpool on Saturday he placed the responsibility for 

 the present state of affairs upon education.al authorities, religious 

 and political bodies, employers, workmen, parents and other 

 representatives of the community, because " the only source of 

 NO. 1670, VOL. 64] 



remarks that what the British people ought to give the Govern- 

 ment is, not a breeze, but a tornado. Something should be 

 done to bring about this storm and so waken our rulers into 

 activity. The education question is too important to be permitted 

 to drift along as it has done ; and even now it will be a hard 

 task to make up the leeway. Our educational deficiencies are 

 obvious to everyone who has given consideration to the subject. 

 Report after report has been published showing that we only 

 occupy a fifth-rate position when considered from the point of 

 view of provision made to equip people for the industrial 

 struggles of the future. The Government knows this, but it can 

 scarcely appreciate the fact that national progress depends upon 

 intellectual equipment, or it would hasten to do something to 

 organise and extend our educational system. 



The following is the text of the address of congratulation 

 presented to Prof. Virchow, on the occasion of his eightieth 

 birthday, by those members of the Anthropological Section of 

 the British Association who were present at the recent Glasgow 



