June 19, 1884 



NATURE 



179 



precipitous sides. Several perched blocks stand on the 

 mountain-sides about, but as I did not visit these, I cannot 

 say whether they may not have simply come from the 

 heights above, though their precarious positions would 

 indicate not. 



Outside Rock Island is another area of even, sandy, 

 and muddy bottom, in from 10 to 6 fathoms water, with 

 a steep edge to the deep water of the Strait, similar to 

 that at the head of Havergal Bay. This, I take it, must 

 have been formed by the glacier stream, and was once 

 its delta when the land was higher. 



A sandy flat, mixed with rounded stones, now surrounds 

 the glacier stream where it falls into Glacier Bay, and 

 only wants a subsidence of the land to convert it into a 

 counterpart of Havergal Bay. I do not know how else to 

 account for this flat outside Glacier Bay, which was as 

 unexpected as it was welcome, since it forms one of the 

 best anchorages in the Straits, where even bottoms for the 

 anchors are at a premium. 



Northbrook Glacier 



A snow-field in King William's Land between North- 

 brook Sound and Beaufort Bay is the largest in these 

 parts, but I do not know much of it. It lay unfortunately 

 just outside my work, and was so uniformly covered with 

 clouds that I only saw the summit once. 



It has probably an area of from fifty to seventy square 

 miles. It is a flattish mountain about 4500 feet high. 

 The ice descends on all sides in a succession of ice-falls, 

 exhibiting lines of blue ice, most beautiful to see, about 

 two or three miles long. Only when within 800 or 1000 

 feet of the sea is a true glacier formed. 



These glaciers at the head of Northbrook Sound reach 

 to within 100 feet or so of the shore level. In Beaufort 

 Bay I rather think they reach the water. In Northbrook 

 Sound the glacier at a mile from the coast, is about a 

 mile and a half wide, but it is shortly after broken by a 

 protruding hill, and divides into two legs, each half a 

 mile wide. This glacier was also much shrunken. It 

 brings down no moraine, and flows over solid rock. 



W. J. L. Wharton 



NOTES 

 The Council of the Mathematical Society have awarded the 

 first De Morgan Gold Medal to Prof. Cayley, F.R.S. 



M. Pasteur has been awarded a gold medal by the Societe 

 Centrale pour ['Amelioration des Races des Chiens for his work 

 on rabies. 



The jury of the International Horticultural Exhibition at St. 

 Petersburg have awarded a gold medal to Dr. Regel, Director of 

 the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden. The other awards for 

 scientific work were to Dr. Gobi, the Russian algologist, for his 

 remarkable herbarium ; to Mr. Hartnack, for his microscope ; 

 and to Countess Zichi for her picture representing the Serapias. 

 A gold medal was awarded to the Japanese University of Tokio 

 for its collection of fruits. 



M. Jamin has been elected Perpetual Secretary in the Section 

 of Physical Sciences of the Paris Academy in succession to the 

 late M. Dumas. 



Dr. Adam Paulsen has been appointed Director of the 

 Danish Meteorological Institute in succession to the late Dr. 

 Hoffmeyer. Dr. Paulsen was the Chief of the Danish Polar 

 Expedition to Godthaab. 



Prof. W. Grylls Adams, as President of the Society of 

 Telegraph Engineers and Electricians, will hold a conversazione 

 in the Museum, Physical Laboratory, and Art Galleries of King's 

 College on Thursday evening, July 3, from nine to twelve 

 o'clock. 



By invitation of the Executive Council of the International 

 Health Exhibition, a conference of the Society of Telegraph 

 Engineers and Electricians will be held in the Conference Room 

 of the Exhibition, South Kensington, on Friday, July 4. The 

 chair will be taken by Prof. W. Grylls Adams, F.R.S., Pre- 

 sident of the Society, at II o'clock a.m., when the following 

 paper will be read and discussed : " On Electric Lighting in 

 Relation to Health," by R. E. Crompton, member. An ad- 

 journment for luncheon will take place at 1.30, and at 2.30 the 

 following paper will be read and discussed, viz. : " The Physio- 

 logical Bearing of Electricity on Health," by W. H. Stone, 

 M.A., M.B. Oxon, F.R.C.P., member. 



A LARGE number of guests, including ladies, assembled by 

 invitation of the President of the Royal Society at a conversazione 

 held at Burlington House on Wednesday last week. 



Arrangements have been made by the Council of the 

 Scottish Meteorological Society for the completion this season 

 of the Observatory of Ben Nevis. The first portion of the 

 Observatory was, it may be remembered, opened in October 

 last, and since the observers went into residence continuous 

 hourly observations have been made of the conditions of the 

 atmosphere at the top of the Ben, with special reference to tem- 

 perature, pressure, humidity, and motion. From the discussion 

 of these, and what were daily made by Mr. Clement L. Wragge 

 in the summers of 1881 and 18S2, by the Secretary, Mr. Buchan, 

 the Council have been fully confirmed in the high expectations 

 they had formed concerning the value of a high-level station, 

 both in its bearing upon general meteorological problems, and 

 also with reference to possible forecasts for the British Islands. 

 The problem, however, is great and many-sided, and is one 

 which can only be solved after much patient investigation and 

 labour. The additions to be made to the Observatory will just 

 double its size, and enable the three observers — who during the 

 winter have been considerably cramped in their one apartment 

 — to work under more comfortable conditions. On the south of 

 the present doorway there is to be erected a shelter for tourists. 

 On the north side of the existing building there is to be erected a 

 new sitting room or office, 15 feet by 13 feet, while off this 

 apartment there will be two bed-rooms, each 9 feet by 

 7 feet. The office will be lighted by two windows ; and in each 

 bed-room there will be one window. Opening from the east 

 side of the office is a short passage leading to an octagonal 

 tower, the walls of which will be 6 feet in thickness, and its 

 internal diameter 8 feet. The tower, which will be 25 feet high, 

 will be divided into three apartments, the lower being a dark 

 chamber for photographic purposes, the centre one a spare room, 

 and the upper a depository for observing instruments. The 

 stonework of the tower is carried up to the height of the ceiling 

 of the second chamber. The upper room is a superimposed 

 wooden cabinet, the exposed parts of which are covered with 

 lead. The floor of this apartment is carried out over the stone 

 walls and firmly fixed to the tower below by iron rods, and to 

 the roof above by strong wooden braces, so that it cannot pos- 

 sibly be upset. In the upper chamber are four windows, one 

 facing each of the cardinal points of the compass, and at one of 

 these is a ladder leading down to the roof, so that, should the 

 doorway be blocked by snow, this would form a means of exit 

 for the observers ; the ventilating and smoke pipes, which are 

 contained in one casing, are carried up through the roof of the 

 tower, while, rising 6 feet above the ventilator, will be two ane- 

 mometers, specially constructed by Profs. Chrystal and Crum 

 Brown, for continuously recording the direction and velocity of 

 the wind. These instruments will be self-registering, the 

 apparatus for this purpose being in the chamber below, where it 

 will be accessible at all times. On the eastern face of the tower 

 a door has been left, so as to provide for future extension for 

 magnetic and seismic observations. The estimated cost of the 



