23 



NATURE 



[September \i. t-grS 



i j ,i- to survive, /. arn i la must 



thi phosphate it nerds. So I. n as the 



u is concerned the future dep< nds 



upon the indigo grower. Unless he is prepared to 



supph i i l. mi with the Food requisite for its 



hrift, and to do this without further 



i delay, the end ,,i the war must mean 



the end of natural indigo, nol in Bihar alone, bu1 



■ nil India. 



NOTES. 

 VVj regret in learn dial the Natural Histor) Museum 

 - josing tin services of .Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, 

 assistant keeper of the department of zoology ami 

 head of the Bird Room, who has been compelled to 

 relinquish his appointment owing to continued ill- 

 health. Mr. Grant has served in the museum for 

 thirty-six years, having entered the department as 

 an assistant in the year 1882. He is the authoi of 

 the ciiiiii.il catalogue of the game-birds, and joint 

 author with the late Dr. R. Rowdier Sharpe of two 

 other volumes of the great British Museum Catalogue 

 ol Birds. Mr. Grant was for many years editor of 

 iln Bulletin of the British Ornithologists - Club, and 

 In carries with him in his retirement from official 

 harness the good wishes and esteem of his man) 

 friends and brother ornithologists. 



\\ 1 learn from the Journal of the Washington 

 Vcademy of Sciences that Or. Cleveland Abbe, 

 meteorologist of the U.S. Weather Bureau, and 

 editor of the Monthly Weather Revie/w, has been 

 removed from his positions, the reason given being 

 bis "long-standing and generally well-known friendly 

 sympathies for the Imperial German Government." 

 I i- stated that Dr. Abbe has denied disloyalty, ami 

 asked in In- given an opportunity to reply to an\ 

 charges presented. 



Proi C. A. Pekelharinc. lias retired from the chair 



of physiological chemistry in the University of 



1 trecht, .md has been succeeded by Dr. W. E. 



Ringer, one of his former assistants, and originally 



organic chemist. 



VccORDlNG to tin- Nieuwe Courant of August 24, 

 Prof. Haeckel's house at Jena, Villa Medusa, will be 

 instformed into a Haeckel museum and presented 

 University. It will contain Haeckel's extensive 

 as, and be combined with an instituti In, 

 velopmental theory. The Carl Zeiss founda- 

 tion is giving financial aid. 



innounces that Mi. \. Stefansson, the 

 Canadian Arctic Expedition, has arrived 



Dawson no bis way to Ottawa. Mr. Stefansson's 

 ' spedition li ! squimault in the summer of 1013 to 

 explore the Beaufort Sea and adjacent islands of the 



Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It will be rememl I 



that_ his chief vessel, the Karluk, was crushed in the 

 ice in January, 1914. Three members of the expedi- 

 tion lost their lives mi that occasion. Dr. Forbes 

 Mackav, Mr. James Murray, and M . Henri Beuchat. 

 Mr. Siriaiiss,„i, w jth vi ral nn mbers of bis 

 stall, was ashore at the timi !l Karluk broke adrift, 

 and he continued the work ol 1 spedition. The 



southern party, under the leadership ol Mr. R, M. 

 Vnderson, returned in the autumn o1 1916 after doing 



insiderable amount of work in th< M icki nzie delta 



the coast Of the mainland In ,i. east. Mi 

 mi himself discovered new I m i north of 

 itl ink Island in June, [91 ^, .111,1 hei land 



oi Banks Land in roi6 v , of his 



S,0. VOL. I02] 



discovi , ,, date has yel been announced, 



1,111 Mr. Stefa 1 has probabl) been engagi 



extending bis explorations, in surveying his 



-.ami in studying the Eskimo. He announces 

 that he intends in return to the Vrctii in , 

 time. Then has been no news ,,1 \],. Storkersi 

 membei oi the expedition, who, with three Eskimo, 

 I'll I I, is, b,]] Island lasi winter in an attempt to 

 reach Melville Island across thi sea-ice, since April 

 last, w hen hi seni bai k word thai he had 



point 175 miles 11, ,ilb oi lb,' Alaskan coast. 



We re| I, thi death of Lord Forrest, which 



occurred ai s, ., last week nn his voyage from Aus- 

 n-alia in England. Lord Forrest, better known as Sir 



John Forrest, was born in Australia of Scottish pai, 111- 



in 1.S47. Me entered dm Sin ve\ Department pi 

 Western Australia in [865. In r86o, he undertook to 

 search for traces Oi dm German explorer Leichhardt. 

 Though he failed in the main object of his expedi- 

 tion, Forresl made man} discoveries. In 1870 he ex- 

 plored die south coast of Australia from Perth to 

 Adelaide, and in 1874 he accomplished a journtq 

 through the heart of Western Australia. Starting from 

 Champion Bay, he struck north-east to the Mure bis, ,11 

 River, which be followed to die Robinson Ranges, 

 and ib, 11 v.,111 along the z6th parallel to Pi 

 Station on the overland telegraph, where he turned 

 south and reached Adelaide. This remarkabli journey 

 of about 2000 miles was accomplished in five 111,,, 

 and proved dial the interior of dm minnv was useless 

 foi settlement. In succeeding years Forresl surveyed 

 dm countn between Ashburton and Ladj Grey Rivers, 

 and the Fitzroy district. From iNN; to 1890 he was 

 Surveyor-General of Western Australia, and in iS,„, 

 became Premier. In 1901 he joined the Common- 

 wealth Government, and served successiveh, in several 

 capacities. II, bad been a ceaseless advocate of a 

 transcontinental railway, and regarded the compli 

 of the line from Perth to Adelaide as the triumph of 

 his political career. Lord Forrest was a gold medallist 

 of the Royal Geographical Society and an LL.D. of 

 Cambridge, \,1, [aide, and Perth. 



By the death of Sir Ratan lata, which occurred nn 



September 5, at the age of forty-seven, a notabli 

 figure in the industrial and philanthropic life of India 

 and England has disappeared. The son of Mr. 

 Jamsetjee N. lata, the well-known Tarsi capitalist 

 of Bombay, he married the daughter of Aid, sir Mer- 

 wanji Seth, the luad of the priestl) community of 

 the Bombay Parsis. Mr. Jamsetjee N. Tata, who 

 died in 1x504, had planned various industrial enter- 

 prises, which hi 1, li to his s,,ns, sir Dorab Tata and 

 sir Ratan rata, to bring to completion. One of i 

 schemes was tin establishment at Mysore of the 

 Indian Institute of Research for the promotion of 

 scientific, medical, and philosophical studies. His 

 sons carried out his intentions, and provided a liberal 

 endowment for the institute. Sir Ratan Tata's fame 

 rests on his development of die Indian steel and iron 

 works, for which the preliminary investigations were 

 made at bis expense b\ a stall of European and 

 \merican II and his brother, Sir Dorab 



Tata, carried out this enterprise, and founded the 

 great metal works at Sakcbi, the capital of which 

 amounts to some millions sterling. Vnother scheme 

 due to the brothers was to store and utilise the hi 

 rainfall of tb, Western Ghats foi the supph- of cheap 

 and abundant electrical energj at Bombay, a work 

 which has few p. a. ill. Is in nth, 1 parts of the world. 

 Sir Ratan rata had long resided at York House, 

 Twickenham, and ai Versailles. In London he was 

 deeply interesti ,1 in scientific and philanthropic pro- 

 jects He founded the Ratan lam Department of 



