666 
dying in 1869 on the birth of her son, Robert, 
now the zoologist, geographer, and antiquarian 
lof Magdalen College, Oxford; his second wife 
was Theodora Drake, of Fowey, a lineal descend- 
ant of a brother of Admiral Drake, who, with a 
son, survives him. Dr. Giinther was one of the 
kindest parents, jand spared neither time nor 
pains for the comfort, education, and happiness 
of his family, to whom, and to all who knew 
him intimately, he was endeared. 
As a great systematic zoologist, as a naturalist 
who had early and independently worked out 
many of the problems of the distribution of 
animals, as a man of untiring energy and great 
powers of administration—these, and his solid 
work in the museum he loved so well, will ever 
be his best monument. 
NOTES. 
Tue Krinc, accompanied by the Queen, opened the 
new session of Parliament on Tuesday, February to. 
In his speech to the assembled Houses, he stated 
that among other measures to be presented would be 
one to give effect to the proposals, which were 
announced last session, for the development of a 
national system of education. 
Pror. J. G. Frazer has been elected a member of 
the Atheneum Club under the provisions of the rule 
which empowers the annual election by the committee 
of three persons ‘‘ of distinguished eminence in science, 
literature, the arts, or for public service.” 
WE announce with much regret the death on Febru- 
ary 6, at sixty-five years of age, of Mr. H. B. Wood- 
ward, F.R.S., formerly assistant-director of H.M. 
Geological Survey. 
AccorpInG to the Revue Scientifique the Russian 
Minister of Public Instruction has made a grant of 
100,000 roubles (10,570l.) to the St. Petersburg 
Academy of Sciences to assist a search for radio-active 
minerals throughout the Russian Empire. 
Tue death, on January 12, is announced, at seventy- 
seven years of age, of Dr. C. M. Woodward, emeritus 
professor of mathematics and applied mechanics in 
Washington University, and past-president of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
Ar. the annual general meeting of the Royal Astro- 
nomical Society, to be held to-morrow, February 13, 
the gold medal of the society will be presented to Prof. 
Max Wolf, director of the Heidelberg Observatory, 
for his work in celestial photography and spectro- 
scopy. Prof. Wolf is expected to be present at the 
meeting. 
Dr. W. E. Farasee, who is leading an expedition 
in Brazil on behalf of the University of Pennsylvania, 
has sent home word of the success of the first part 
of his journey. He had passed through the territory 
inhabited -by the Macusi Indians, and had encountered 
several of the Carib tribes that were supposed to have 
disappeared, including the Wai Wai tribe. The ethno- 
logical study of these early inhabitants of the Carib- 
NO. 2311, VOL. 92| 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 12, 1914 
bean region is one of the main objects of the expedi- 
tion. 
Sir ERNEST SHACKLETON stated at the Royal Geo- 
graphical Society on Monday that on his forthcoming 
Antarctic expedition he proposes to take four geo- 
logists, two meteorologists, and two biologists. His 
scientific staff will be distributed as follows :—Trans- 
Continental party, one geologist; western party to- 
wards Graham Land, one geologist and another man 
of science; eastern party to Enderby Land, one geo- — 
logist; Weddell Sea base, one meteorologist and one 
biologist ; on board the ship one biologist, and Captain 
Davis, hydrographer ; supporting party from the Ross 
Sea side, one geologist. The various parties will be 
sure to bring back sufficient results to justify the 
purely scientific side of the expedition. The main 
object of the expedition is the crossing of the south 
polar continent from sea to sea; and the very nature 
of the journey will solve the question of a divided or 
a single continental mass. 
CoRRESPONDENTS of The Times report that four 
slight, though distinct, earthquake shocks were re- 
corded on February 10 by the seismographs at Albany 
and Washington. The tremors extended from Brook- 
lyn to Buffalo, through Connecticut and Pennsylvania, 
and north to the district along the St. Lawrence 
River. The seismograph at the Museum of Natural 
History in New York shows that the shocks began 
at th. 35m. p.m., and ended at th. 37m. 30s. Two 
pronounced earthquake shocks were registered by the 
seismograph at Toronto Observatory—one at 11.30 
a.m. and the other at 1.29 p.m. The shocks were 
felt generally throughout the province. The entire 
St. Lawrence valley around Montreal was also 
affected. 
As announced in The Times of January 30, Lord 
Tankerville has presented to the Zoological Society 
a young pair of the white cattle from his park at 
Chillingham, Northumberland. According to an 
article in the same journal of February 2, the animals 
were caught as yearlings by enticing them with food 
into a trap. Although the Chillingham and other 
white park cattle are often termed “wild,” they are 
really descendants of domesticated breeds which have 
reverted to a semi-wild state. 
InrorMaTION has been received that through the 
generosity of Mrs. Rotch, the observatory at Blue 
Hill, near Boston, founded by the late Prof. Lawrence 
Rotch, for the study of the upper air, and partially 
endowed by his bequest of fifty thousand dollars, has — 
been established for five years in connection with Har- 
vard College. Mr. McAdie, formerly in charge of the 
Californian section of the United States Weather 
Bureau, has been appointed director of the observa- 
tory, and at the same time professor of dynamical 
meteorology in Harvard University. We also under- 
stand that provision is to be made in connection with 
the French department of war for continuing the 
aérological work carried on by the late M. Léon 
Teisserenc de Bort, at his observatory at Trappes. 
WE learn from The Times that the Austrian Geo- 
graphical Society has decided to honour the memory 
