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custom of several tribes to abandon huts in which death has 

 taken place and to leave them standing. The hunting-grounds 

 too would change from time to time according to the severity of 

 the winter. A hard and fast boundary line cannot be laid down 

 for inhabitants of the Arctic regions any more than for the flora. 

 In favourable years plants are carried north and grow until a 

 succession of severe winters again destroys them, and their 

 remains might also lead, in the same way, to the incorrect con- 

 clusion that there had been a change in the climate of the region. 

 Similarly with human settlements. The presence of traces of 

 these latter in a given place show, not that the climate has 

 become more severe, but that the place lies in that debatable 

 land between districts favourable and unfavourable to the exist- 

 ence of man. Before any really satisfactory conclusion can be 

 reached, however, he thinks we must have a thorough examina- 

 tion of the migration of the Eskimo ; before it is possible to 

 account for the presence of traces of the people in the far north 

 on coasts where they do not now live, we umst \ ecollect how 

 their wanderings depend on the physical conditions of life, on 

 the nature of the ground, of the hunting, and the influence of the 

 neighbouring tribes. But on all these points we lack material 

 for a complete explanation of the facts. With respect to the 

 comparatively great age claimed for some of these remains which 

 have been brought by Arctic travellers to Europe, Dr. Boas 

 suggests that all estimates as to the age of objects such as these 

 coming from the Arctic regions must be taken with great care, 

 owing to the different effects of the climate. He instances the 

 remains of Parry's camp at Point Nias in Hecla Bay, which 

 were found looking quite fresh in 1854, more than thirty years 

 after Parry's expedition ; while the cairn erected at the same 

 time (1S20) on Cape Providence was covered with lichen and 

 moss, and looked quite ancient in 1S54. 



We have received the Administration Report of the Meteoro- 

 logical Reporter to the Government of the North- West Provinces 

 and Ondh for the years 1882-83. At the beginning of the 

 present year the observatories reporting to the Allahabad Office 

 were twenty in number, and great activity seems to have been 

 displayed in all of them. The question of the construction of a 

 first class observatory for these provinces has advanced during 

 the present year, but only very slightly. It will in all probability 

 be built at Allahabad. In addition to the ordinary observations, 

 special observations of soil temperatures hive been carried on at 

 Allahabad and Jeypore. At Jeypore, where the observatory has 

 practically become one of the first class, all records being made 

 automatically, a sixth soil thermometer has been added to the 

 five which the observatory already possesses to record the tem- 

 perature at a depth of twenty feet. It is evident from the 

 report that Mr. S. A. Hill, the meteorological reporter, is doing 

 his level best with the means at his command. Unfortunately, 

 however, the native observers still make mistakes, and some of 

 the monthly means require a considerable amjunt of over, 

 hauling. 



Dr. Henry Macaulay, M.D., of Belfast, has recently 

 made a suggestion which, if followed in tropical countries, will 

 turn the tables on the sun with a vengeance. He suggests that 

 Mouchot's sun-engine should be used to pump cold air into 

 dwellings, factories, &c, pointing out that the temperature can 

 in this way be reduced from 100° or more to 60°. He points out 

 that not only will this reduce the temperature especially at night, 

 thus rendering sleep possible, but fresh air will be guaranteed 

 during the day, and the plague of flies and insects would be 

 excluded. The weak point about this arrangement is that it 

 requires ice. We think, however, that sooner or later in Ame- 

 rica, where the heat in summer is mire distressing than in any- 

 other part of the world, and ice is everywhere, this arrangement, 

 or one like it, is certain to be adopted. 



The last number of the Proceedings of the Royal Society 0/ 

 Tasmania contains several papers on the botany and zoology of 

 Tasmania. In a presidential address the Governor, Sir J. 

 Lefroy, remarks on the omission of any reference to the Botanic 

 Gardens of Hobart Town by Prof. Thiselton Dyer, in a review of 

 the botanical enterprise of the Empire, and demands more 

 public support for these gardens. He notices also a fact which 

 will be of some interest in England just now, viz. that of over 

 ten thousand visitors to the Museum in six months more than 

 half were Sunday visitors. Among the chief papers are : — 

 Notes on a species of Eucalyptus (E. lucmastomd), by Mr. 

 Stephens ; type species of Tasmanian shells, by Prof. Tate ; 

 the magnetic variation of Hobait, by Sir J. Lefroy; notes on 

 Leontopodium catipes, by Baron von Midler, &c. With respect 

 to the Sunday opening of the Museum, the Council of the 

 Society report that it is open only between the hours of half-past 

 two and five, "and this arrangement, as will be seen by the 

 number availing themselves of the opportunity, may be pro- 

 nou ced to be no longer an experiment, and to be fully justified 

 by the quiet and orderly demeanour of the visitors." 



The voyage round the world of the Swedish frigate VanaJis, 

 which we recently announced, will be shared by the Duke of 

 Gotland, King Oscar's youngest son. The journey, which will 

 be of about eighteen months' duration, will chiefly be a scientific 

 one, several eminent Swedish savants participating in the same. 

 From the Straits of Magellan the ship will proceed to the Sand- 

 wich Islands, Japan, China, India, and thence home. 



The steamers Obe and Nordenskjo!d\th Tromso for Novaya 

 Zemlya on the 3rd inst. Norwegian fishermen report that the 

 state of the ice in the Arctic Sea east of the North Cape is very 

 favourable this spring. 



M. Pasteur has been appointed head of the Sanitary Com- 

 mission formed in Paris in view of the dreaded visitation of 

 cholera. 



A French scientific periodical puts forward the idea of a 

 joint occupation of Mecca by the several European pov. ers for 

 the purpose of stopping pilgrimages thither and thereby prevent- 

 ing the further dissemination of cholera through the crowding of 

 people in so pestilential a city, especially when the Ramadan 

 falls in summer. 



We are asked to say that possessors of the eighth edition of 

 Prof. Babington's "Manual of British Botany" may, by appli- 

 cation to Mr. Van Voorst, I, Paternoster Row, obtain gratis 

 two pages of additions and corrections which have been prepared 

 by the author. 



Locusts are reported from the south of Russia, but the very 

 energetic measures taken by the Governors for the destruction of 

 the eggs and larva: will, it is believed, arrest their ravages. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Tennam's Squirrel (Sciurits tennanti) from 

 Ceylon, presented by Mr. A. Ross ; two Rufous Tinamous 

 (R/iynehotus rufescens), three Spotted Tinamous (Nothura macu- 

 losa) from the Argentine Republic, presented by Mr. E. M. 

 Longworthy ; two Common Buzzards (Buteo vulgaris), British, 

 presented by Mr. James S. Cookson ; a Land Rail (Crex pra- 

 tensis), British, presented by Mr. J. W. Merison ; a Jackdaw 

 (Corvns monedula), British, presented by Mr. J. Baldwin ; two 

 Cockateels (Calopsi/ta nova-hollafuiia){tom Australia, presented 

 by Mrs. Day; three Angulated Tortoises (Testudo augulata), a 

 Geometric Tortoise (Testudo geomelrica), an Areolated Tortoise 

 ( Testudo areolatus), a Robben Inland Snake (Coronella phocarum), 

 a Laland's Ground Snake (Typhlops lalaudii) from South Africa, 

 presented by the Rev. G. H. R. Fisk, C.M.Z.S. ; a Margined 



