DECEMBER 17, 1896] 
other ways in the progress of anthropological research. ‘* In 
most continental countries,” rightly remarks the President, Mr. 
E. W. Brabrook, ‘*the means of doing this would be found in 
a subsidy from the State, and few appropriations of public 
money would be more worthy or more likely to prove repro- 
ductive, in benefit to the community at large, than a payment in 
aid of anthropological work. In this country, however, it is the 
practice to leave work of this kind to those who show a volun- 
tary interest in it by joining the Institute as Fellows.” It is 
hoped, therefore, that the number of Fellows will be largely 
increased, so as to increase the usefulness of the Institute, and 
assist still more actively the progress of anthropological science. 
WE have been glancing through a new list of the staffs 
of the Royal Gardens, Kew, and of botanical departments 
and establishments at home, and in India and the Colonies, 
in correspondence with Kew. If evidence of the influence of 
Kew upon the advancement of botanical science is ever needed 
it will be found in this list, published as Appendix III. to the 
Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information. Nearly seventy mem- 
bers of the staffs of botanic gardens in diverse regions of the 
world are marked as having been trained at Kew. No establish- 
ment that we know of can present a better record of work 
accomplished, and none could desire a worthier testimonial of 
efficiency than that shown by the wide distribution of Kew men. 
For the information of directors, superintendents, and curators 
in botanic gardens across the seas, we announce that a list has 
just been published of seeds of hardy herbaceous annual and 
perennial plants and of hardy trees and shrubs which, for the 
most part, have ripened at Kew during the year 1896. These 
seeds are not sold to the general public, but are available for 
exchange with colonial, Indian, and foreign botanic gardens, as 
well as with regular correspondents of Kew. No application, 
except from remote colonial possessions, can be entertained after 
the end of March. The list is published in the Azé//etin for 
1897, Appendix I., an advance copy of which has been sent us. 
DuRinG the last fifty years much work has been done by 
marine naturalists all round the British coasts, with a view to 
determining the distribution of those animals which live on the 
floor of the sea. It has been fully recognised that the localities 
frequented by many marine species are very definite and 
extremely limited in extent, and that both the nature of the sea- 
bottom and the creatures which live there exhibit as much variety 
as we are accustomed to find on land. The Marine Biological 
Association, with the assistance of a grant made for the purpose 
by the Royal Society, has recently been engaged in an attempt 
to place our knowledge of this subject upon a sounder basis by 
investigating in detail some of the grounds in the neighbourhood 
of Plymouth, including important fishing grounds, with reference 
to the nature of the sea-bottom at each locality, and the whole 
assemblage of animals found there. Detailed charts are being 
prepared to exhibit the variations which take place from point 
to point. No attempt has previously been made to study fishing 
grounds with such thoroughness, having regard not only to the 
fishes, but to the whole collection of animal life which forms the 
basis of the food upon which the fishes exist. The investigation, 
which has involved a large amount of dredging and trawling, as 
well as the identification of the numerous species captured, has 
been carried out by Mr. E. J. Allen, the Director of the 
Plymouth Laboratory. 
_ THE principles upon which long-period weather forecasts are 
made in India were described in a recent number of NATURE 
(November 26, p. 87). In connection with this subject it is 
interesting to note that the official forecast of the cold-weather 
‘rains in Northern and Upper India has just been published. 
According to the Calcutta correspondent of the Z?es, the con- 
‘clusions drawn are that the winter rains in Upper India (from 
' NO. 1416, VOL. 55 | 
J: 
4 
NATURE 
161 
December to February) will very probably be at least normal, 
and that they may be in moderate excess. It is probable that 
the winter precipitation in the Gangetic plain will be about 
normal, and very probable that it will not be above normal. It 
is very probable that the rainfall of the next four months will be 
slightly defective in Assam and perhaps in Bengal. It is, on 
the whole, very probable that the rainfall in Central India and 
the Central Provinces will not be above the small normal of 
the period, and may be below it. The general inference is 
that the indications are to some extent conflicting, but that, on 
the whole, they are favourable in North-western India. The 
rainfall will hence be normal, or above it, in Upper India, 
and probably normal, or in slight to moderate deficiency, in 
North-eastern and Central India. 
THE jubilee of the foundation of the Hakluyt Society was 
celebrated by a special meeting on Tuesday. During the fifty 
years the Society has been in existence it has issued numerous 
volumes containing the texts of travellers and voyagers in all 
parts of the world, which were previously unedited, untranslated, 
orunknown. By this action, remarked Sir Clements Markham, 
in his address to Tuesday’s meeting, the Society has continued 
the work and strove to fulfil the aspirations of Richard Hakluyt. 
This great man, like the Society which bears his honoured name, 
is not so well known to the present generation, which owes so 
much to his labours, as he ought to be. Hakluyt saw the two 
great needs of his country. The first was caused by the 
ignorance of our seamen as regards the scientific branch of their 
profession. The second was the absence. of records, and the 
way in which important voyages and travels were allowed to fall 
into obllvion. He strove, during a long life, with great ability 
and untiring perseverance, to remedy these evils ; and the measure 
of success he attained justly placed his name among those of 
worthies who deserve well of their country. The great work of 
Hakluyt was the ‘‘ Principal Navigations,” in three folio volumes, 
a monument of useful labour. Shakespeare owed much to this 
work: Milton owed much more. Hakluyt died on November 
23, 1616, in his sixty-fourth year. 
THE U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries has just 
distributed a report, by Mr. B. W. Evermann, upon salmon 
investigations in the headwaters of the Columbia River, in 
the State of Idaho, in 1895, together with notes upon the fishes 
observed in that State in 1894 and 1895. The observations 
refer chiefly to the spawning habits of the redfish ( Ozcorhynchus 
nerka) and the Chinook salmon (0. ¢schawytscha). The proof 
that the large form of redfish is anadromous—that is, passes from 
the sea into fresh waters at certain seasons—appears to be con- 
clusive, but the evidence that the small redfish comes up from 
the sea is not complete. It seems probable that both forms are 
anadromous ; but, so far as the Idaho lakes are concerned, the 
small form has not been proved to be so. The redfish all die 
soon after spawning, while the young remain in the lakes and 
connecting waters for at least one year from the time when the 
eggs were spawned. The Chinook salmon also die soon after 
spawning ; and the young appear to remain, for one year after the 
eggs are laid, near where they were hatched. 
THE current number of the Journal de Physique contains a 
paper, by M. C. Duperray, on the optical properties of a glass 
cylinder in rapid rotation in a magnetic field. The experiments 
were undertaken to test the accuracy of Villari’s result, that it 
requires quite an appreciable time (1/500 second) for a piece o 
flint glass to acquire the property of rotating the plane of polar- 
ised light when subjected to a magnetic field. Villari came to 
this conclusion, which is in direct contradiction to the results 
obtained by Bichat and Blondlot, and Curie by rotating a glass 
