SEPTEMBER 4, 1913] 
aid of the object. The expedition is to be under the 
leadership of Dr. F. Kénig, of Graz, and the proposal 
is that it shall leave Trieste in May next. A large 
donation to the funds has been given by the Austrian 
Academy of Science, and the Austrian Geographical 
Society has promised an annual subsidy towards the 
cost of the undertaking. 
Mr. D. A. BaNNERMAN has returned from a zoo- 
logical mission to the eastern islands of the Canary 
group, undertaken with the object of procuring 
examples of the birds of these islands for the Natural 
History Museum. The islands visited were Fuerte- 
ventura, Lanzarote, Graciosa, Montana Clara, Roque 
de I’Oueste, and Alegranza, several of which had not 
previously been visited by a collector. Mr. Banner- 
man succeeded in obtaining a number of rare and 
interesting species peculiar to the islands, while the 
fact that the birds were collected in their breeding 
plumage renders them of special value to the museum 
bird room. On Alegranza a new species of chat was 
discovered. 
REFERENCE was made in our last issue to the three 
educational museums which were founded and 
equipped by the late Sir Jonathan Hutchinson. We 
* regret to learn from The Times that the future of these 
institutions is in an uncertain state and causing 
anxiety to those who have been privileged to make 
use of them. So far as the museum of Haslemere is 
concerned, there is a strong feeling in the town that 
everything should be done to retain the institution, 
and it is understood that the family are willing to 
hand it over to a responsible committee or body of 
trustees so that the museum may be placed on a per. 
manent and public basis. The*annual cost of main- 
tenance on the present lines is about 4ool:, and an 
appeal will shortly be issued with the hove of securing 
this sum for five years at least, it being thought that 
by that time those who are interested in the matter 
will have had an opportunity of deciding what are the 
best steps to be taken for the permanent control and 
maintenance of the museum. 
As was stated in our issue of July 3 last, plans are 
being prepared for the new buildings to be erected 
at the Rothamsted experiment station in commemora- 
tion of the centenary of the birth of Sir John Lawes 
and Sir Henry Gilbert. We now learn from the 
Journal of the Royal Society of Arts that strong com- 
mittees are being formed to raise the necessary funds 
‘or the memorial. It is stated that the sum of 12,000. 
is required, and of this amount half will have to be 
raised by public subscription, the remaining half being 
obtainable from the development fund. 
A TABLET was unveiled on Sunday last at Primiero, 
Southern Tyrol, on the house in which Alois Negrelli 
was born, to commemorate Negrelli’s work as sur- 
veyor of the Suez Canal. He began his investigations 
in 1847, completed his plans in 1855-6, and in 1858 
was appointed inspector-general of the Suez Canal 
works. He died on October 1 ef the latter year. 
WE note, with regret, the death, at the age of 
sixty-six, from typhoid fever, while on his 
voyage home from the Philippines, of Dr. Tem- 
NO. 2288, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 13 
o 
pest Anderson, who for a time lectured on volcanoes 
at the Royal Institution. He was joint author 
of the report to the Royal Society on the seismic dis- 
turbances in the West Indies in 1902 and 1907, and 
had filled, among other positions, those of president 
of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society and the 
Museums Association. 
Tue death is announced, at the age of sixty-six, 
of Col. Andrew Clark, a gold medallist of the British 
Medical Association, lecturer on surgery at the Middle- 
sex Hospital Medical School, and author of the 
“Middlesex Hospital Surgical Reports, 1872-4,’’ and 
of ‘‘Ambulance Lectures.’’ He also edited the fourth 
edition of ‘‘ Fairlie Clark’s Manual of Surgery.” 
Ir is stated in The Allahabad Pioneer Mail that the 
Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior is giving special atten- 
tion to the valuable archeological relics and treasures 
in his State, and is taking steps to create an archzo- 
logical department in Gwalior. In furtherance of this 
object he has sought the advice and cooperation of 
the Director-General of Archaeology in India. 
AccoRDING to The Scientific American, a large naval 
radio station is shortly to be constructed by the United 
States at Caimeto, Panama, to be known as the Darien 
Radio Station. It will consist of three towers, each 
600 ft. in height. The bases of the towers will be 
180 ft. above sea-level, and they will be arranged in a 
triangle measuring goo ft. on each side. The sending 
and receiving radius will be about 3000 miles direct 
reach to the Arlington Station, to San Francisco, and 
to Valdivia, 420 miles south of Valparaiso, on the 
Pacific, and Buenos Aires on the Atlantic. It will 
cover a vessel anywhere on the east coast of the 
United States, and communicate with St. Vincent. 
The system to be used is the Poulsen. 
New lightning conductors have been installed on St. 
Paul’s Cathedral. In the course of the operations 
part of one of the original iron bar conductors erected 
more than 140 years ago under the supervision of Ben- 
jamin Franklin was discovered. This bar, having been 
inside one of the towers and so not exposed to the 
weather, was still in a good state of preservation. 
The Times recalls that the fixing of these ‘ Franklin 
rods,” as they were called, led to a heated controversy 
as to whether lightning conductors should have points 
or balls as terminals. The president of the Royal 
Society, who advocated points, had to resign. King 
George III. was a strong adherent to ball terminals. 
Ir is announced in The Times that a discovery of 
oil shale has been made in the island of Skye by Dr. 
G. W. Lee, a member of the scientific staff of the 
Scottish Geological Survey and Museum, Edinburgh, 
who was examining the geological structure of the east 
coast of Skye. The extent and value of the deposits 
are not yet fully known, but it is stated that the seam 
discovered is about 11 ft. in thickness, that it extends 
over a considerable area, and that, although not of 
first-class quality or so good as the seams worked in 
the Lothians, it is likely to prove sufficiently good to 
be worked successfully, in view of the improved 
methods of operation now followed by the leading 
shale oil firms. 
