44 



NA TURE 



[November 9, 1905 



Between Mauritius and Cargados there was a depth oi 



,,,,,_■ ni,., there being no marked connecting ridge, though 



the bottom tails off verj graduall) from each bank. At 



we remained for six days, examining the reefs 



.,,,,1 dredging. It is a crescentic-shaped surface 



reef, p miles long, on the south part ..I the Nazareth Bank, 



which is roughly 220 miles long bj 60 broad, with an 



, depth of 33 fms. The land is of coral rock with no 



;. ., , , nd is a greal breeding resi rl for tern, 



[t is covered with guano, owing to which the land flora is 



verj scanty, onl) 18 different plants being found. Naturally 



land animals were s but 42 insects were secured, 



four-fifths from the guano. 



Cooper lor the most part took the dredgings, and he 

 reporte me thai he found near Cargados "a wonder- 

 full -lam depth of 30-35 fms. over the body ol the 



bank, while towards its western edge there is a slight but 

 uniform rise to 27 fms., thus suggesting an incipient atoll 

 with 11- eastern side slightly tilted up above its western. 

 Ovei Me plateau, where 30 hauls were made in different 

 directions, the bottom was either coral-rubble, white- sand, 

 shell-rubble, 01 weed. The three latter occurred only in 

 the central parts "I the bank, while the coral-rubble, 

 though also found there, alone formed the raise, I edge ol 

 the western side, being mi stl) in the form of large lumps. 

 From this rubble, which is of a bright red colour due to 

 an encrusting nullipore, we obtained a rich variety "I 

 animal life, nearly all forms tinted with red. The absence 

 ol living corals from the rim as well as from the plateau 

 in all depths oyer 20 fms. was a noticeable feature." 

 About 25 different species ol alga? (not lithophytes) were 

 dredged, several from 40-50 fms. on the outer slope, 

 though none have so fai been secured from more than 

 60 fms. 



In the channel midway between Nazareth and Saya de 

 Malha banks we found a" depth of 222 fms., the connection 

 being a ridge rapidly tailing off on its western side to more 

 than Son fms. Saya de Malha its. 'If really consists of 

 three banks, .1 northern, a very large central, and a small 

 south-eastern. the north bank we found to be separated 

 by a channel of 030 fms. from the central, while the depth 

 between the latter and (be southern bank is only 130 fills. 

 All are of more or less atoll form, but the south side of 

 the central bank differs from all other parts of the same 

 banks and from the Nazareth Hank in tailing off very 

 gradually from 65 fms., the general depth in its 

 centre, to 200 fms. The area in this part beyond 

 120 fms., which is to some degree protected from the 

 prevailing south-east winds and currents, formed a rich 

 collecting ground, the bottom being composed of a white 

 rubble of bivalve ami sea-urchin shells, evidently all swept 

 ,,ff the shallowet bottom above. From 80 to 100 fms., 

 where it is more exposed, the bottom is hard, being swept 

 bare by the currents, but still further north at (10 fms., 

 where the .astern edge of the bank has only 10-20 fms. of 

 water, is soft mud with .asts of pelagic foraminifera. A 

 considerable number of dredgings were taken at depths 

 above 20 fms., and fair collections have been obtained. 

 Onl) the regular deep-living corals were secured, but two 

 hauls at 20 and 20 fms. gave between them more than 

 20 species "I corals, typical of shallow reefs. To the 

 north of the banks we dredged between 300 ami 

 500 fms., the bottom being of the usual character at 

 such depths off coral reefs, though with rather more 

 rubble. 



Leaving the Saya de Malha banks we ran a line of 

 soundings to the shallow bank, which surrounds the 

 Seychelles, the greatest depth found being 961 fms. Thus 

 our soundings prove the existence of a crescentic-shaped 



ridge, miles long, with less than 1000 fms. of 



water, arising on either side from a general depth of 



2200 fills. 



Now we are al Coetivy, the most southerlv island of 

 the Seychelles (.roup. It is an atoll bank with a large 

 island to 1 he east, where we shall camp for ten days, while 

 the ship goes to die Seychelles for coal. On her return 

 we propose to examine the line connecting the Seychelles 

 to Madagascar. J. Staxlei GARDINER. 



September 12. 



NO. 1880, VOL. 73 J 



SOME CHARACTERISTICS Of AMERICAN 

 I MIVERSITIES. 1 



"Till': total amount of private benefactions to university 

 - 1 education in the States during the last thirty years 

 reaches the amazing figure of forty millions sterling; and 

 this is quite apart from the large annual appropriations 

 made by the Federal Government and by the State 

 Governments for technical colleges and State universities. 

 The total amount contributed by private benefactions in 

 the same period in these islands was about five millions. 



The number "I pmlessors, lecturers, and other teachers 

 in the American universities and institutions of university 

 tanding 1- ver) little short of the total number of 

 university students in the British Isles; the figures are 



respei tivel) 1 7, ami 20,500. 



\ large and increasing number of the greatest industrial 

 and commercial firms in America restrict their highest 



posts liege graduates. In Montreal two great rail- 



wa) companies the Canadian Pacific and the Grand 

 Trunk— have just clubbed together to establish and endow 

 in Mct.il! I niversiiv a department of railway engineering 

 I,,, training the first-rate staff of officials, which they feel 

 11 l,e indispensable to the rapid extension of their lines 

 in the great north-western territories now awaiting de- 

 velopment. <>f our own industrial leaders, it would be 

 safe i" saj that at least nine out of ten would regard a 

 college training as an absolute disqualification. 



Ih,. vigour ol the professional schools is to be explained 

 by two features which differentiate them from our own ; — 

 (1) The presence of a culture element; (2) the .lose and 

 almost organic connection between academic and industrial 



hie. 



(1) Where a professional or higher technical school is 

 established in England, the tendency is to make it purely 

 technical, to banish all literary studies, and confine the 

 student's attention strictly to scientific study directly bear- 

 ing on his future profession. In America a broader view 

 is taken, 



The great Morrell Act for agricultural and mechanical 

 colleges' was thus expounded by its author :— " These 

 colleges were mil established for the sole purpose of teach- 

 ing agriculture. It was never intended to force the boys 

 of farmers going into these institutions so to study, that 

 they should all come oul farmers, but to give them an 

 opportuniu to do so if they saw fit. Secondly it was a 

 liberal education that was proposed. Classical studies 

 were not to Be excluded, and must therefore be included." 

 Hut further, the technical course itself in the great 

 majority of cases includes a culture element, supplied 

 not by Latin and Greek, but by French or German, 

 history, civics, and economics. The Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute .'I Technology in Boston, the greatest school of the 

 kind on the Continent, the Pratt Institute (Brooklyn), 

 the Armour Institute (Chicago), all make literary studies 

 of this kind an indispensable part of the curriculum for 

 their diplomas. The same is true of the great Guelph 

 College .-I Agriculture in Ontario: French, German, and 

 English literature have 10 I"' studied before the student 

 ..in graduate as B.S.A. of the University of Toronto; 

 ami th. reason was well put by the principal: — "It is 

 not sufficient that our graduates should know their pro- 

 fessional work, they must have some knowledge of their 

 fellow-men and power of holding their own and of pre- 

 senting their subject to the educated public, which a 

 purely technical training cannot give." These are the 

 words of a remarkable man who found Guelph in 1884 

 on the verge of extinction, and in twenty years has raised 

 it to a position of almost undisputed primacy among the 

 agricultural colleges of the continent, and transformed 

 thereby 'be agricultural industry of central Canada. 



(2) Roth professors and students are in the closest touch 

 with the industry which the school is intended to feed. 

 The former are not merely permitted, but encouraged to 

 take private outside work. The latter are required to 

 spend some part al least of their vacations in working 

 in mines, engineering works, on farms, &c, as the case 

 may be, and their reports on the work thus done contribute 

 1 Al li.'ged firm sn address deliverer) before the Guild of Gradualfs of 

 the TJi.iveisi'y of Walts at Abeiystviylb, by Principal H. R. Reichel. 



