300 
NATURE 
[JANUARY 28, 1904 
In the former 
though fairly 
between the Maurienne and Dauphiné. 
region the glaciers are not large, 
continuous along the western side of the watershed | 
between France and Italy; the highest peaks just 
exceeding 12,000 feet, and the passes between them | 
being about 10,000 feet. M. Girardin in his remarks 
directs attention to a point not always sufficiently 
remembered, that the size of a glacier depends even 
more upon the form of its birthplace than the altitude. 
Of this, Dauphiné, rather to the south of the region 
noticed by him, affords an excellent example. The 
western end of the horseshoe of its higher peaks is 
formed by the Mont de Lans, a tabular mountain 
mass, which, though mostly well under 11,000 feet 
high, is clothed with a sheet of névé, terminating in 
glaciers, more extensive than those of the adjoining 
Rateau and Meije, which rise some 2000 feet higher. 
It is incidentally mentioned, and this fact 1s important, 
that the climate of Lanslebourg is much wetter than 
that of Modane, the dominant wind at the latter being 
W. or N.W., at the former E. or S.E., bringing 
vapour from the plain of the Po. As the district is 
so little known, we content ourselves with giving M. 
Girardin’s general conclusions. They are :—(1) the 
glaciers of this region, after a rapid retreat (since 1860 
approximately), have during the last few years either 
moved back very slowly or even halted; (2) this retreat 
has changed many of them from valley glaciers to 
plateau glaciers; (3) sometimes the glacier has gone 
back as a whole, sometimes it has melted away from 
the sunny side of a valley, thus changing the form of 
its terminal boundary, a matter to be remembered in | 
speaking of the ‘‘ retreat’ of a glacier. 
_This report is followed by the Revue de Glaciologie, 
No. 2, giving a summary of observations about the 
increase or decrease of glaciers in many parts of the 
world, made or published in 1902, with occasional 
mention of earlier changes, and some interesting 
notes on the level of the snow-line. Evidently, though 
locally the retreat has been arrested or even changed 
into an advance, a period of growth has not yet really 
begun. ; 
_The second pamphlet largely consists of tables 
giving the snowfall and avalanches in parts of the 
French Alps during the winter of 1899-1900 and the 
two following years. These will ultimately be very 
valuable, but at present hardly suffice for drawing 
inferences. We may, however, mention that in the 
first period the snowfall in Savoy ranged from 85 mm. 
at Thonon to 1600 mm. at Sixt. The largest amount 
recorded is on the Col de Fréjus, in the Maurienne 
(almost above the great tunnel), the differences prob- 
ably depending mostly on altitude but to some extent 
on geographical position. In that year the largest 
downfall in an hour was 68.6 mm., on this pass and 
its neighbourhood. The statistics of avalanches are 
for 1900-1, and for the following season. March is the 
worst month, then February and April. The falls 
were much more numerous and mischievous in the 
second year, during which fifty-six persons were over- 
whelmed by them, of whom eight perished, as against 
three in the former year. 
JOHN SAMUEL BUDGETT. 
BRUSH zoology in general, and the Cambridge 
School of Zoology in particular, has received a 
heavy blow in the tragic and untimely death of Mr. 
J. S. Budgett. It is only a few weeks since the readers 
of NATURE were informed of the brilliant success 
attending Mr. Budgett’s researches during his last ex- 
pedition, and zoologists—not of this country alone— 
were looking forward with the greatest interest to the 
publication of his full results. It was not to be. On 
NO. 1787, VOL. 69] 
Saturday, January 9, after his usual day’s work in the 
laboratory at Cambridge, he fell ill with blackwater 
fever, and after a few days’ illness he passed away 
on the morning of January 19, the very day on which 
he was to have read to the Zoological Society his 
account of the general results of his last expedition. 
Mr. Budgett was born near Bristol thirty-one years 
ago, and here, at his home, Stoke Bishop, the earlier 
years of his life were passed. In his father’s house 
Budgett had the great advantage of meeting as friends 
such men as Dr. W. H. Dallinger and the late Prof. 
W. K. Parker, and from them he received much in- 
spiration and encouragement. He was particularly in- 
fluenced by Parker. He possessed copies of Parker’s 
monographs, and he set himself a task which few 
indeed would have attempted without an elaborate 
university training, the task of working over the de- 
velopment of the skull in a series of vertebrate types. 
By the exercise of limitless patience and admirable 
technical skill—he even designed a perfectly original 
and remarkably successful mechanical microtome for 
the cutting of serial sections—he produced a series of 
beautiful models of developing crania. 
Mr. Budgett commenced his academic studies at 
University College, Bristol, under Lloyd Morgan and 
Reynolds, and thence passed on to Cambridge and 
entered Trinity College in 1894. There he went 
through the routine course of study for the natural 
sciences tripos—interfered with to some extent, from 
the point of view of mere academic success, by his 
| accompanying Prof. Graham Kerr on an expedition to 
| South America during 1896-7. On this expedition 
Budgett devoted himself to gaining a general acquaint- 
ance with the neotropical fauna, and also to broaden- 
ing his knowledge of general morphology by carrying 
out dissections and making microscopic preparations 
of many of the more important animals. In addition 
to this he applied himself especially to the study of the 
Amphibia, amassing a large amount of information 
as well as valuable collections of developmental and 
other material. This material received preliminary 
treatment in a paper in the Quarterly Journal of Micro- 
scopical Science, but Budgett intended to work it up 
later in a comparative paper along with the material 
collected under similar physical conditions in West 
Africa. 
On this first expedition Budgett’s splendid qualities 
shone out conspicuously—his personal courage, his 
fortitude and cheerfulness under physical discomfort 
and suffering, and his absolute loyalty. 
Already during his stay in South America Budgett 
had practically decided to take up the problem of the 
development of Polypterus, and immediately after 
graduating at Cambridge he set out with this object 
in view to the Gambia. Here he spent the greater part 
of a year in the first instance, returning again for a 
few months during 1900. During these expeditions 
Mr. Budgett did not manage to obtain the main object 
of his quest, but he did succeed in obtaining and pre- 
serving with the faultless technique so characteristic 
of him a mass of most valuable material. The hand 
of Death has intervened before time had been given 
for more than preliminary work on this material, but 
even this preliminary work contains results of much 
importance to vertebrate zoology—in particular a com- 
plete and accurate account of the genito-urinary 
organs of Polypterus, the demonstration that the 
crossopterygian fin is really a uniserial archipterygium, 
and finally a most valuable series of observations on 
the breeding habits and developmental features of 
Protopterus and of several interesting teleostean 
fishes. 
Budgett still stuck pertinaciously to the main 
| problem. Having been elected Balfour student, he 
