NA TURE 



{ January 4. 1 906 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 



expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 



to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 



manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 



No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 

 The British Association and our Colonies. 



Pkof. Milne's letter in Nature of November 23 (p. 77) 

 will be read with pleasure by all scientific people in the 

 colonies. The benefits to be derived from a colonial meet- 

 ing such a? he suggests are many and various, and I have 

 no doubt will receive full consideration should the idea be 

 given effect to. 



Here in Africa, one piece of work which the British 

 Association is the natural body to take up is that of the 

 magnetic survey of the whole continent. The great lack 

 of trustworthy data for immense tracts of this continent 

 has been often commented on. When we remember how 

 much of the continent is in British hands, and how the 

 British Association since its inception has steadily helped 

 and encouraged the studv of earth magnetism, the fitness 

 of bringing such a proposal before the association is 

 apparent. At such a conference the possibility of a simul- 

 taneous magnetic survey of Australia would naturally lie 

 considered. Could these two surveys be carried out — even 

 if very incompletely — they, with the surveys at present in 

 progress and with the proposed ocean surveys of the 

 Carnegie Institution, would form an invaluable contribu- 

 tion to our poesent knowledge of earth magnetism. 



Africa has many other problems — educational, explor- 

 ational, meteorological — the solution of which would I"' 

 helped were they taken up at such a conference. 



J. C. Beattie. 



South African College, Cape Town, December 1.2, 1905. 



Monotremes and Birds. 



In Semon's Zooln^isehe Forschungsreisen, Lieferung xxii. 

 {1904), Disselhorst treats of " Die maennlichen Geschlechts- 

 organe der monotremen und einiger Marsupialen. " On 

 p 123 are two text figures, both copied from Sir Everard 

 Home, Phil. Trans., 1S02, plate xii. One represents the 

 male genital apparatus of Echidna hystrix, the other, 

 Fig. ib of the German work, the stretched male organ 

 of tin- same animal. Now this Fig. B is, in Home's 

 paper, correctly named "penis of the Drake." Needless 

 to say, this Drake's organ does not in the least agree with 

 that of Echidna, as which it is described in the German 

 work, and our author is sorely puzzled about some of the 

 details, ef. p. 131. This may well be the case. Errors 

 and blunders have been made ere now, but the serin- 

 comic point is that this Drake figure has, in the process 

 of reproduction, assumed mammalian characters. In the 

 original figure the base is surrounded by well-drawn 

 feathers, and such are mentioned in the explanation of 

 the plate. The thing is also correctly copied by Owen in 

 his article Aves in Todd's " Cyclopaedia," further in the 

 "Anatomy of Vertebrates," vol. ii.. Fig. 119, and Owen 

 directs attention to an important error committed by 

 Home in his interpretation of the urethra. But in the 

 recent figure, wrongly attributed to Echidna, the feathers 

 have lost their character as such, and have turned into hairv 

 structures ! Who has done this? The author or the artist, 

 or have both combined to correct the faulty original? It 

 is such a strikingly pretty figure that it is almost sure to 

 be propagated, perhaps to be used as a proof of the affinity 

 "f the oviparous mammals. But a drake is a drake, for 

 all that. II. Gadow. 



University Museum of Zoology. Cambridge, Decembei 20. 



Sounding Stones at Ch'iifu, Shantung. 

 I. am July I happened to pass through Ch'iifu, the birth- 

 and burial-place of Confucius. In "seeing the sights" o| 

 iln town I found three very fine examples of "sounding 

 stones," or "stone gongs" as they air sometimes called', 

 rhese particular examples do not seem to be very well 

 known except by Chinese; none of my foreign acquaint- 



inces who have been in Ch'iifu had noticed them. Ph 



No. 1 shows the tomb of the grandson of Confucius. The 

 cover of the incense dish (on which my servant is resting 

 his hand) is made from slone. but when struck with a sti, k. 



01 even with the knuckles, it rings as though it were bronze. 

 In fact, my man in the photograph refused to believe thai 

 ii was anything but painted bronze until I myseli assured 



him to the contrary. Photo. No. 2 shows two pillars 

 (marked with crosses) of the balustrade in front of the 

 principal hall of 



lucian temple at 

 Ch'iifu. Struck 

 at anv point 

 with a piece of 

 wood, they give 

 a distinct 



musical note. 



Inside the 

 temple is a large 

 tablet, about 

 5x3X5 feet, of 

 the same stone. 

 In this case the 

 note produced 

 varies according 

 to the point at 

 which the stone 

 is struck. The 

 stone from 

 which all these 

 bodies is made 

 is a g r e v i s Ii 



oolitic limestone. 



I was informed 

 that it c a m e 

 from a quarry al 

 Kwan Ko Shan, 

 aboul seventeen 

 miles south-east 

 ol Ch'iifu. Mosi 



of the slope- 



From this plai e 

 has no musical 



quality, but from time to time veins of it are found, and 

 when found it is usually abundant. " Stone gongs " of 

 this kind are found in ail pails of the country, and some 

 are in the possession of foreigners. So far as I can find 

 out, they all come from this one locality. They have been 

 known for many centuries, and it is recorded that the 

 district from which they come paid its share of a certain 

 special Imperial lax in "sounding stones." 1 should be 

 pleased if any reader could give the cause of this very 

 remarkable property, and if ii is not understood I would 

 gladly give what help 1 can towards elucidating it. 

 During this journey I was pressed for time, and as my 

 route lav directly east from Ch'iifu I was not able to visit 



Fig. 2.— Detail of Confucian Temple, Ch'iifu. Shantung. 



the quarry. Should there I" anv object in doing so. how- 

 ever, I will take the first opportunity of returning and 

 making any observations that I may be asked to make. 

 Such an opportunity may occur at any time, and, in fact, 

 could be easily made to occur, as ih.> iourney would onlv 



NO. 1888, VOL. 73I 



