May 22, 1884 



NA TURE 



93 



various furnaces and factories, it is evident that observations for 

 meteoric and volcanic dust should be made at elevated stations 

 far removed from large cities. If a station were established 

 upon Mount Shasta, California, as suggested by Mr. Gilbert 

 Thompson, it would afford excellent opportunity for such obser- 

 vations. The station on Mount Washington is also favourably 

 situated, and if regular observations were made at these stations 

 and in Alaska for small as well as large quantities of such dust, 

 and the sediments collected subjected to microscopical examina- 

 tion, the result would doubtless be of great interest. 

 Washington, D.C., March 25 



THE POLAR CONFERENCE^ 



THE Fellows need hardly be reminded that it was at the 

 suggestion of an Austrian, the late Carl Weyprecht, that 

 this great international undertaking was set on foot, and accord- 

 ingly' Vienna was the most fitting city in which to welcome the 

 several expeditions on their return to civilisation, and to discuss 

 the best mode of utilising their labours. 



The chiefs of nine expeditions were present at the meeting. 

 The unrepresented stations were the two Russian ones, at Nova 

 Zemlya and at the mouth of the Lena (at which latter station the 

 observations will be continued until August 18S4) ; that esta- 

 blished by the Society of Science of Finland at Sodankyla, the 

 German station in South Georgia, and the second American 

 station at Lady Franklin Bay. As to the fate of the observers 

 at the last-named locality there are unfortunately grave reasons 

 for anxiety. 



Most of the expeditions had brought home a collection of 

 photographs, giving a vivid representation of their respective 

 surroundings during their sojourn. Many of these possess ethno- 

 logical interest, and one was humorous, as it showed the Dutch 

 Arctic tin band, with instruments made out of preserved meat 

 canisters. 



I suppose my audience is aware that the Dutch Expedition was 

 ice-bound and drifted about in the Kara Sea, ultimately saving 

 itself in its boats. The ship was crushed in the autumn of 1SS2, 

 but did not actually sink for six months, so that all the property 

 was saved. Under such circumstances, however, it is no wonder 

 that no magnetical observations were made. 



As regards the publications, these are to be carried out inde- 

 pendently in each country, but on a uniform plan. The meteoro- 

 logical observations are to be given in metric and centigrade 

 measures ; the magnetical according to the C.G.S. system of units. 



The hourly observations are to be published in detail. The 

 barometer observations are not to be corrected for gravity, but 

 the value of this correction is to be given in the tables. 



As regards terrestrial magnetism, besides the publication of 

 the term day observations a detailed reproduction of all the 

 observations for certain days of disturbance is to be given. A 

 list of these days will be prepared by Prof. Wild. 



All the members of the Conference are requested to collect 

 data for earth currents for their respective countries during the 

 period of the circumpolar observations. The auroral observa- 

 tions are to be published on the scheme proposed by Weyprecht. 



As to the magnetic disturbances and their elimination there 

 was, as might be expected, a long debate, but no definite resolu- 

 tions were adopted. 



The publication of a number of observations was left optional, 

 such as evaporation, solar radiation, the resolution of the wind 

 to four components, the calculation of wind-roses according as 

 the pressure was above or below 760 mm., &c. 



It is hoped that the whole of the results will have appeared by 

 the end of 1885. 



The Conference was most graciously received by the Emperor 

 at an audience. The members were also entertained at a mag- 

 nificent banquet on April 23 by Count Wilczek, at whose sole 

 expense the Austrian Expedition to Jan Mayen had been fitted 

 out and maintained during its stay. 



The detailed report of the proceedings of the Conference will 

 be published in French and German, and will appear before long. 



GEOLOGY IN RUSSIA 



A LTHOUGH a large amount of geological work has been 

 ■"- done in Russia, especially during the last tw enty years, the 

 geological exploration of this wide region has not been carried 



1 Notes on the Proceedings of the International Polar Conference, held at 

 Vienna, April 17-24, 1884. 'Read at the Roval Meteorological Society by 

 Robert H. Scott, F.R.S., President. 



on in the detailed and accurate manner required by modern 

 geology. An important step towards the attainment of more 

 precise knowledge on this subject was taken in 1882 by the 

 formation of a special Geological Commission intrusted with 

 the geological survey of Russia. A yearly subsidy of 30,000 

 roubles was granted for that purpose by the State, to which 

 must be added various occasional subsidies for special aims, 

 supplied either by Government or by provincial assemblies and 

 private bodies. This Commission has now published two volumes 

 of its Bulletin and one fasciculus of Memoir s. x From these we 

 learn that the chief work undertaken has been the preparation 

 of a geological map of Russia on the scale of 10 versts (67 

 miles) to an inch. Russia has been divided into ten regions : 

 Baltic, Central, Dnieper, Western Frontier, Volga and Don, 

 Caspian, Ural, Crimea and Caucasus, Northern, and Finland. 

 The survey has been started in several regions at once, each 

 region being subdivided into three parts : (1) those which are 

 well explored, and the maps of which already exist and could 

 be employed for geological purposes ; (2)^those in which various 

 isolated explorations have been made ; and (3) unexplored parts. 

 The explorations will be prosecuted first of all in the second of 

 these three areas. The system of colours for the map will be 

 adopted which was recommended by the Congress of Bologna. 

 The explanations, as also the chief names, will be printed in 

 French, side by side with the Russian text. 



The first volume of the Memoirs contains [a. work by M. 

 Lahusen, on the Jurassic fauna of the Government of Ryazan, 

 written in Russian, with a summary in German. It is a com- 

 plete enumeration of the Jurassic fossils of the region, the 

 deposits of which belong — the black clay, with Cardioceras cor- 

 datum, to the Lower Oxfordian : the oolitic gray clay, with iron 

 and Cardioceras lamberti, to the Upper Callovian ; the gray and 

 brown clays, with Perisphinctes mosquensis and mutatus, to the 

 Middle ; and the brown iron sandstone, with sheets of black 

 clay and characterised by Cosmoceras goiverianum, Cardioceras 

 chamitsseti, and Stephanoceras elatince, to the Lower Callovian. 

 The new fossils of the Aucella sandstone will be described by 

 M, Nikitin. Eleven quarto plates illustrating a great number of 

 species, many of which are new, accompany the paper. 



The Bulletin (Izvestia) contains, besides the minutes of 

 meetings, a number of preliminary reports of the geologists of 

 the Survey, and the description, by M. Nikitin, of the sheet 58 

 ( Yaroslavl) of the geological map of Russia. These notices are 

 full of valuable information regarding the details of the geologi- 

 cal structure of Russia. Among papers of more general interest 

 we may mention Prof. Fr. Schmidt's report upon his explora- 

 tions on the Baltic Railway, which embodies the results of his 

 prolonged researches in the same region (vol. ii. fasc. 5). It 

 has long been known that Esthonia is built up of Silurian forma- 

 tions, from beneath which rises the Cambrian Ungulite sand- 

 stone characterised by Obolus apollinis. After the emergence of 

 the Silurian deposits, the country remained for a vast period a 

 barren land undergoing atmospheric denudation. During this 

 long lapse of time the terrace of the Glint, which runs from 

 Lake Ladoga to Baltisch Port, was formed. During the Glacial 

 period the country was covered with an immense ice-sheet, 

 which moved south-west in its western parts, due south in the 

 middle, and south-east in its eastern parts. The bottom moraine 

 of this ice-sheet spreads over the country, and consists of a mix- 

 ture of far-transported boulders with debris of the local rocks. 

 It is the equivalent of the British Till and of the Swedish 

 Krossstcnsgrus. It sometimes gets the local name of Richk. It 

 rises into elongated hills or "drums," which extend also 

 throughout the Government of Novgorod, and must be distin- 

 guished from the Ascar. These last, in the opinion of Prof. 

 Schmidt, who indorses the explanation of A. Tornebohm, are 

 shore-walls of those mighty sub-glacial rivers, so well described 

 by Nordenskjold, which circulate on the surface of the ice- 

 sheets, and, after having found an exit through the ice, run 

 beneath it. 



During the first part of the Post-Glacial period the Gulf of 

 Finland, and probably all the northern part of the Baltic Sea, 

 formed an immense lake which subsequently was connected 

 with the ocean, and received its brackish-water fauna. The 

 level of this lake was about 60 feet higher than the present level 

 of the Baltic. The presence of Baltic shells at greater heights in 

 the north (the author of this notice found them at 124 feet, on 



1 Izvestia geotezicheskago Komiteta, vols. i. and ii. (fasc. 1 to 6), 1882 

 and 1883.— Trudy gcologkhtikago Komitcta, vol. i. (asc. 1 : 4to. (St 

 Petersburg, 1883.) 



