.[.:ll-' 28, I'liS 



SATURE 



251 



a month. When the clog was killed three months 

 later it was found thai the dead grafi had becon* so 

 ectly united with the original tendon thai its posi- 

 tion could be detected only bj the marks of the 

 stitches. It is unnecessary to emphasise the import- 

 ance of these obsi I . . , , ons. 



I in Eskimo ol Greenland li;i\ • a nun, "savssat," 

 |< note tin- crowding of animals in large numbers 

 into a small spai . ["his phenomenon Ikis been referred 

 i" bj several writers on ' ireenland. Mr. M. P. Porsild, 

 thi Danish Wti, Station al Disko, has 

 notes on the subject from personal observations 

 in Disko Bay in the Geographical Review for 

 Si pti mbei , [918 (vol. vi., No. j)- ln ,l " « intei of 

 0114 in the ice-covering began to form al the outer 

 end "i Disko Bay, and the inner pari- were closed 

 later. This resulted in mam narwhals being caughl 

 head of the baj and in Waygal Sound. The 

 Eskimo discovered belts of thin ice in which the nar- 

 whals had broken breathing-holes. Around these holes 

 the Eskimo collected and slaughtered th< animals as 

 they appeared. Vllowing foi carcasses lost, Mr. Porsild 

 calculates the total number of narwhals killed at two 

 .11 more than a thousand. Ii is interesting 

 to note that Mr. Porsild, who has had good opportuni- 



judge, d< nirs thai the male narwhal uses his 



tusk to make breathing-holi s in the ice. These, he 

 insisis. an made by the top of the head. Eskimo 

 ii this view. 



I in Octobei issue ol the Journal oj the Board 0) 



>si ntialK .1 women's work number, 

 and i;ivr- an interesting survey of the great contribu- 

 tion made by women to the national food production 

 effort of the past two years. Separate articles descriptive 

 of various phases of the work of the Women's Branch 

 of the Food Production Department are contributed In 

 Miss Meriel M. Talbot, the Hon Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, 

 and Miss M. M. McQueen, the principal officers of 

 the branch. The work of the women of Wales is 



t>ed In Mrs. M. s. Roberts; the work of 

 women's institutes b\ Miss <;. Hadow, vice-chairman 

 of the National Federation of Women's Institutes; 

 whilst Miss S C. Ilamlvn contributes an interesting 



nt of a successful Devon experiment in the 

 running of .1 farm entirely by women. The series 

 is prefaced bj a very suggestive article In Sir Daniel 

 Hall on the position of women in agriculture. The 

 problem of providing suitable openings for the many 

 trained women who are now determined lo remain 



upon the land ami take up farming as a cared he 

 belii -> lie solved by large farms worked 



entirely by women upon co-partnership lines. The 

 small holding he regards as too speculative for the 

 woman with little capital, and demands, moreover, 

 an expenditure of physical energ; which is beyond 

 the powers of the average woman. The return to the 

 small-holder is probably no greater than can be 

 secured for the individual woman worker on the large 

 «co-partnership farm, provided it is carefully selected 

 and well managed, lie suggests thai a trial should 

 be made with a farm of about live hundred acres, 

 devoted mainly to fruit-growing and market-gardening. 

 Estimati s an given which indicate that with reason 

 able success, after making due provision for interest 

 on capital, management, wages, and reserve, a surplus 

 should be available for distribution which would raise 

 the weekly wage from 25s. to 40s. The provision of 

 living accommodation and social amenities for the 

 women workers is considered, ami suggestions are 

 given for the establishment and organisation of a 

 community system, including communal buildings and 



256I, VOL. IO2] 



We have received a copj of the firsl issue of the 

 South African Geographical Journal, which is the 

 publication of the South African Geographical Society 

 funned la-t year tit Johannesburg. The journal is 

 ed ted bj Mr. J- I Inn neon, oi the S< hool of Mines 

 and Technology, who contributes an introductory 

 article on the aims of the society; h is hoped "to 

 the standard .and to safeguard the interests of 

 tin subject and those teaching ii, in encourage geo- 

 graphical research," .and to arouse interest in geo- 

 graphy in South Africa, ["he societj las in view the 

 institution of travelling scholarships and the organisa- 

 tion of long-vacation excursions to India, Australia, 

 Europe, etc. The journal is mainly occupied with 

 reports of lectures delivered before the society, but 

 ins .111 important article in Prof: J. W. Bews 

 mi " South African Phytogeography." 'The author 

 t_;i\es the characteristics and distribution of fifteen 

 types of vegetation, which he suggests as the basis 

 of a botanical map of South Africa. 



Is the Scientific American for October u Mr. E. C. 

 I I. -isl describes a new industry which has sprung up 

 in California with the support of the American 

 Government. This is the drying of vegetables for 

 export. It is done by placing slices of cleaned fresh 

 vegetables, grown in the vicinity, on perforated travs 

 packed in a room through which a current of 

 warm, dry air is driven by fans. This slowly 

 extracts the 6$ to S5 per cent, of moisture the 

 vegetables contain without, it appears, destroying 

 their flavour when water is afterwards added 

 to them. The dried vegetables are packed in 

 canons and tins of about 10 lb. weight. Millions of 

 these tins have been sent to France, and one of the 

 establishments on the Pacific coast now emplovs 

 several thousand persons. 



I'm; Board of Science and Art, New Zealand, has 

 decided on the bi-monthly publication of a New Zea- 

 land Journal of Science and Technology, together with 

 additional bulletins in which papers too long for the 

 ordinary journal will appear. This is tin extension 

 of the scheme authorised by the Government for the 

 co-ordination of all papers and reports of a scientific 

 nature. Already the official issues include the Journal 

 ol Ygriculture, and bulletins and palaeontological bul- 

 letins of the Geological Survey Department, and the 

 bulletins of the Dominion Museum. The first of the 

 new series of bulletins records the investigations of 

 H. Rands and W. O. R. billing, national research 

 scholars of the Canterbury University College, Christ- 

 church, on the use of New Zealand brown coals, of 

 which Prof. Park estimated the reserves at 521,000,000 

 tons, and of which only about 13,000,000 tons had been 

 mined to the end of 1 <> 1 s - The two sections of Bul- 

 letin I. deal with the use of these brown coals in gas 

 producers oil the products yielded by low-temperature 

 distillation. 



\ pamphlet describing the Fahy permeameter has 

 been received from Mr. E. H. Alexander, of Coleshill 

 Street, Birmingham, who is the agent for their sale 

 in this country. The great commercial importance 

 ol a knowledge of the magnetic qualities of samples 

 of iron and the time and labour involved in testing 

 them by the standard ring method has led to the 

 invention of numerous permeameters. Searle's mag- 

 netic square was one of the earliest types, ami modi- 

 fications of Ewing's yoke method have been exten- 

 ded The Burrows permeameti r has been 

 IK adopted In the American Socii • for Testing 

 Materials. In the Fahy permeameter _ we have an 

 H-shaped piece of iron', the magnetising coil sur- 

 rounding the horizontal bar, .ami the magnetic flux 



