Ne 
DECEMBER 24, 1903] 
NATURE 
183 
Bruce.’’ This is the first official information which has 
reached this country from the expedition. Mr. Allan 
Ramsay was the chief engineer. 
Ir is reported by Reuter’s Agency that a scientific ex- 
pedition, organised by the anthropological section of the St. 
Louis Exhibition, is about to leave England for Central 
Africa under the direction of Mr. S. P. Verner. With 
reference to his journey, Mr. Verner is stated to have said 
that in order to get at the aboriginal life as little changed 
as possible by civilisation, it is desired to go out of the 
track of previous explorers and of all settlers. The base of 
operations will therefore be from the capital of Chief 
Ndombe, paramount chieftain of the Lunda tribes, at the 
head of navigation of the Kasai River, the largest southern 
tributary of the Congo, from which place an effort will 
be’ made to penetrate the interior. 
A pvespatcH from Taganrog on December 15 states that 
the Sea of Azov has receded to such an extent during the 
past five days that the bed of the sea is visible for a distance 
of several versts. Taganrog is at the head of a bay of the 
extensive lagoon known as the Sea of Azov, and the depth 
of water in the roadstead is greatly modified by west and 
east winds. High winds are reported to have raised clouds 
of sand which have covered the town, and these are prob- 
ably responsible for the exceptionally shallow water de- 
scribed in the despatch. 
Mr. R. I. Pocock has been elected to the post of super- 
intendent of the Zoological Society’s Gardens in succession 
to Mr. W. E. de Winton. 
Captain STANLEY FLOWER, who was in England for a 
short time during the summer, has returned to his post at 
the Zoological Gardens, Giza, Egypt. He writes that the 
three specimens of the curious ‘‘ shoe-bill’’ or ‘‘ whale- 
headed stork ’’ (Balaeniceps rex) received from the White 
Nile in 1902 are still in good health and condition in the 
Giza gardens. No living example of this rare bird has 
reached England since the arrival of Mr. Petherick’s 
original specimens in 1860. 
Mr. W. Eacte Crarke, of the Museum of Science and 
Art at Edinburgh, a well-known authority on the migration 
of birds, passed a month during the migratory season in 
September and October last on board the lightship on the 
** Kentish Knock,’’ which is situated in mid-sea off the 
mouth of the Thames, about twenty miles from land. Mr. 
Clarke has made a series of valuable observations on the 
various birds which passed by the lightship during this 
period, and has obtained many specimens which were killed 
by flying against the lantern. A full account of Mr. 
‘Clarke’s experiences will be published in the next number 
of the Ibis. 
It is understood that the authorities of the British 
Museum (Natural History) and the director of the Geo- 
logical Survey of Egypt have agreed to the preparation of 
a joint report on the wonderful discoveries of fossil animals 
recently made in the Fayam. Dr. Andrews will proceed 
to Egypt early next year to examine and catalogue the 
‘specimens in the Geological Museum at Cairo, but will not 
-attempt to make further collections. A fine example of the 
‘skull of the horned Arsinoitherium (perhaps the most re- 
markable of all these discoveries) is now exhibited in the 
‘central hall of the Museum at South Kensington. 
Amonc the contents of the second part of the Bergen 
- Museum Aarbog for 1903 is a paper by Mr. H. Broch on 
NO.. 1782, VOL. 69] 
the hydroid polyps collected* during the cruises of the ex- 
ploring vessel Michael Sars in the North Sea from 1900 to 
1902. Several new forms are named and described. 
Mr. Ratpw S. Litiie has found (Amer. Journ. of 
Physiology, viii., No. 4) that isolated cells and cell-nuclei 
suspended in cane-sugar solution through which an electric 
current is passed migrate in some cases with the negative, 
in others with the positive, stream. The majority of such 
structures migrate with the negative stream, and this 
tendency is especially strong in free nuclei and structures 
consisting chiefly of nuclear matter. Cells with voluminous 
cytoplasm, on the other hand, tend to move with the positive 
stream. 
Tue violets of Philadelphia afford to Mr. W. Stone the 
text for an article on racial variation in animals and plants, 
which appears in the October issue of the Proceedings of the 
Philadelphia Academy. In the course of this article the 
author directs attention to the growing practice among 
American zoologists of discarding the use of trinomials, and 
classing as a species every distinct animal form, no matter 
how slightly differentiated. This usage, it is urged, receives 
support from the methods of botanical classification. Where 
is all this splitting going to end? is the question which 
naturally arises in the minds of old-fashioned zoologists. 
Tue December number of the Popular Science Monthly 
contains two articles on biological subjects, the one, by 
Prof. T. H. Morgan, dealing with recent theories in regard 
to the determination of sex, and the other, by Dr. D. S. 
Jordan, on the salmon and salmon-streams of Alaska. Dr. 
Jordan recognises five species of Pacific salmon of the genus 
Oncorhynchus from these rivers, as well as three kinds of 
trout (inclusive of the now well-known rainbow-trout), and 
two other species belonging to other genera. As regards 
the salmon-tinning industry, the rivers of Alaska may be 
divided into three groups, king-salmon, red salmon, and 
humpbacked salmon streams. Those of the first class are 
the most important, but even these are less valuable than 
the corresponding rivers of British Columbia, owing to the 
fact that, from the shorter run, the fishes are nearer the 
spawning season when they enter, a larger proportion of 
them having white flesh in June than is the case with 
their Columbian brethren in August. 
“Tue GEOoLoGy OF WORCESTER, MassAcHusETTs,’’ by 
Messrs. J. H. Perry and B. K. Emerson, has been issued 
by the Worcester Natural History Society (Worcester, 
Mass., 1903). It is a well illustrated work descriptive of 
the rocks and fossils of the county, and is written for those 
who have no technical knowledge of the subject. The 
interest is mainly petrological and mineralogical. 
WE have received the general report on the operations 
of the Survey of India during 1901-2, prepared under the 
direction of Colonel Gore, Surveyor-General. Work has 
been carried on in the United Provinces, and also in the 
Shan States and Burma. The question of the condition of 
the existing topographic maps of the country has engaged 
serious attention, and it is admitted that more systematic 
arrangements must be made for their revision. 
Tue State of Indiana has issued in one volume (1903) the 
twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh annual reports for 1got 
and 1902 of the Department of Geology and Natural Re- 
sources. Among the papers included is an important essay 
on the mineral waters of Indiana, by Mr. W. S. Blatchley, 
State geologist. He gives the location and describes the 
character of the waters of more than eighty wells and 
springs. Mr. Robert Hessler follows with an account of 
