Oct. n, 1883] 



NATURE 



5 6 9 



through weighing have been attempted by Dr. Krafft with 

 a chemical weight (Bunge), however without result, caused 

 chiefly by the circumstance that he was unable to give 

 the instrument the proper rest. The observations of the 

 directions of the wind have been made by a weather-cock 

 fixed on the top of a stripped fir tree, the force being 

 registered by Beaufort's scale, and the velocity partly by 

 Mohn's hand thermometer, which are used during the 

 hourly observations, and partly by means of a Robinson 

 anemometer placed on the roof of the dwelling-house, 

 which is read once in twenty-four hours. Further, one of 

 Hageman's anemometers is erected in the office, from 

 which the conductor, made of indiarubber and lead pipes, 

 is carried outside the house and along the flagstaff in such 

 a manner that the absorbing point or tube is situated a 

 couple of centimetres above the knob of the same. The 

 observations with this anemometer have, however, not 

 given so satisfactory results as might have been expected 

 from my experiences in other places. The cause of this 

 is no doubt the circumstance that the instrument used 

 was not a new one, and consequently, perhaps, not very 

 sensitive, while the position was, we found, not the most 

 advantageous. On the bare ground we have placed 

 two rain-gauges— the one square and the other round — 

 with a receiving surface of 225 square cm. each. The 

 rainfall here is very small, averaging only 267 mm. per 

 year, but during the past twelve months it has been 

 rather less. 



The measurement of the snowfall we have found almost 

 an impossibility, on account of the frequent gales during 

 the winter, which sweep the snow away as quicksand from 

 one place and deposit large drifts in others. 



Every month measurements of the temperature of the 

 sea have been effected, in the Alten Fjord, with one of 

 Negretti and Zambra's deep-sea thermometers. The 

 depth is 100 English fathoms, and the temperature read 

 at every tenth fathom. We have during these researches 

 discovered that from the bottom and 10 to 20 fathoms 

 upwards the temperature keeps constant throughout the 

 year, whereas in the layers above this depth some very 

 interesting variations occur with the seasons. 



Last winter here has been milder than we anticipated, 

 the lowest temperature registered being -2i°7 C, which 

 was read by the minimum thermometer at 8 a.m. on 

 December 31, 1882. Under high wind such a tempera- 

 ture is unpleasant enough, and with gales we have several 

 times been favoured. Thus, on October 5 the velocity of 

 the wind under a storm from the north-west was 26 metres 

 per second, and on later occasions the anemometer has 

 not seldom shown a velocity of from 10 to 20 metres per 

 second. 



Our labours at this station are now approaching their 

 completion, and it is satisfactory to me to be able to state 

 that no accident has occurred to our instruments, the 

 accuracy of which has been controlled throughout in 

 various manners, and that the scientific researches have 

 been continued during the entire year without a single 

 interruption. 



What the ultimate results of our researches during our 

 sojourn here will be it is of course at the present moment 

 an impossibility for me to state, but I feel confident that, 

 when all the materials of research have been collected from 

 the various circumpolar stations and compared, it will be 

 found that the Norwegian station at Bossekop has formed 

 an important link in the chain of international meteoro- 

 logical research around the Pole. Aksel S. Steex 



Bossekop, Finmarken, Norway, August 



A NATIONAL LABORATORY OF MARINE 

 ZOOLOGY 



T T is pretty well understood that the Executive Com- 

 ■*■ mittee of the London International Fisheries Exhi- 

 bition of 18S3 will have a sum of money in hand when 



all expenses connected with the Exhibition are paid, 

 amounting to some thousands of pounds. The gentlemen 

 who have organised and carried through this very suc- 

 cessful enterprise are to be congratulated on the popu- 

 larity which has attended the Exhibition and on the 

 amount of interest which they have excited in all classes 

 of the community in matters relating to our national 

 fisheries. Not only this, but the Committee deserves 

 hearty thanks for the valuable series of pamphlets on 

 subjects connected with fisheries which it has printed and 

 circulated far and wide. These pamphlets are for the 

 most part reports of lectures delivered by highly com- 

 petent specialists at the " Conferences " inaugurated by 

 Prof. Huxley under the presidency of the Prince of Wales, 

 and amongst them are such important essays as that of 

 Prof. Hubrecht on oyster culture, of Dr. Day on the food 

 of fishes, of Prof. Brown Goode on the fishery indus- 

 tries of the United States, and of Mr. Duff on the herring 

 fisheries of Scotland. 



It is not surprising that at the present moment sugges- 

 tions should be offered from various sides to the Exhibi- 

 tion Committee with reference to the best use of the surplus 

 funds in its hands. No one will pretend for a moment 

 that the Committee has not the full right to make what 

 use of those funds it may deem most fitting ; and the 

 public has every reason to feel confidence that the ulti- 

 mate decision of the Committee will be made with the 

 intention of doing what is best for the national interests 

 bound up with our fishery industries. At the same time 

 it is a legitimate thing for men of public position and 

 responsibility to place before the Committee suggestions 

 as to useful modes of employing the surplus funds in its 

 hands. Accordingly we note with satisfaction that a 

 number of our leading biologists, whose opinion upon 

 this matter is certainly entitled to very great weight, have 

 placed before the Committee a suggestion for the founda- 

 tion of a laboratory upon the British coast, which shall be 

 devoted to the study of marine animals and plants in 

 relation to fisheries. A similar proposal has also been 

 independently placed before the Exhibition Committee 

 by the executive of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. 



It is a very striking fact that the one point in which all 

 speakers at the Conferences held during the past summer 

 at the Exhibition were agreed was this : that our know- 

 ledge of the habits, time, and place of spawning, food, 

 peculiarities of the young, migrations, &c, of the fish which 

 form the basis of British fisheries, is lamentably defi- 

 cient, and that without further knowledge any legislation or 

 attempts to improve our fisheries by better modes of fish- 

 ing, or by protection or culture, must be dangerous, and 

 indeed unreasonable. Prof. Brown Goode, the United 

 States Commissioner, declared at the Conference on July 

 20 that "the spread of actual scientific knowledge con- 

 cerning fish and fisheries was one of the things which, 

 above all others, would be the most profitable and satis- 

 factory outcome of this Exhibition." At the same Con- 

 ference Prof. Hubrecht, the Netherlands Commissioner, 

 said that " he endorsed from the bottom of his heart the 

 principle that there must be inquiry, and still further in- 

 quiry, before legislation based on scientific and accurate 

 principles could be carried out. They must take as a 

 motto, more knowledge, more science, more zoology." 

 On the same occasion the Dyke of Argyll referred to the 

 suggestion which had been submitted to the Conference 

 to the effect that the foundation of a laboratory of marine 

 zoology might well be undertaken by those who had 

 organised and carried out the International Fisheries 

 Exhibition. Speaking with the authority of one well 

 acquainted with the Scotch herring fisheries, as well as 

 with the knowledge of an accomplished naturalist, he 

 stated that in his judgment this suggestion was a most 

 important one, which he hoped would be brought forward 

 in the proper quarter, and that he should give all the 

 help he could in the matter. 



