276 



NATURE 



[July 17, 1884 



but the west side of the summit has fallen in, forming a new 

 crater, while the whole island has risen to such an extent as to 

 fill up the only bay or boat harbour, and to extend the reefs, or 

 sea-otter rocks, running out from the island in various directions. " 

 The hunting-party feared to be lost has arrived safely in Kadiak. 

 No tidal waves were observed on the west shore of Cook's Inlet 

 or on Kadiak Island. The winter had been very mild, the 

 mercury not having fallen below io° F. ; and spring began in 

 March, wild flowers being in bloom in the latter part of April. 



The educational statistics of Japan for the past year show that 

 the number of common schools throughout the country is 29,081, 

 being an increase of 339 as compared with the preceding year, 

 while the number of scholars is 3,004, 137, an increase of 396,960, 

 and the number of teachers is 84,765, being an increase of 8147. 



The Swedish Government have granted a sum of 850/. for the 

 establishment of five additional so-called " chemical" stations, 

 in order to benefit the agriculturist with scientific advice as to 

 the crops, their diseases, &c. 



The sixth Davis Lecture of the Zoological Society of London 

 was given in the Lecture-Room in their Gardens in Regent's 

 Park, on Thursday, the loth inst., by Mr. Henry Seebohm. 

 The subject was that of " Birds' Nests," and consisted of an 

 account of the breeding of birds on the Fern Islands off the 

 coast of Northumberland, on the Derbyshire Moors, and in the 

 valley of the Lower Danube. The lecturer pointed out that, so 

 far as regards the means which birds take for the protection of 

 their eggs, they may be classified in five groups — (1) those which 

 rely upon the concealed position of the nest, such as the king- 

 fishers, bee-eaters, pigeons, &c. ; (2) those which rely upon the 

 inaccessible position of the nest, such as guillemots, herons, 

 &c. ; (3) those which rely upon the protective colour of the eggs, 

 such as sandpipers, terns, &c. ; (4) those which rely upon the 

 protective colour of the sitting hen, such as the blackbird, game 

 birds, &c. ; (5) those which rely upon their own ability, either 

 singly, in pairs, or in colonies, to defend their eggs, such as 

 cormorants, birds of prey, &c. Mr. Seebohm laid great stress 

 upon the much greater interest to be found in the study of the 

 life and habits of birds than in the investigation of the form 

 and colour of their feathers or the peculiarities of their 

 anatomy. 



Under the auspices of the East India Association, a meeting 

 of naturalists, planters, sportsmen, and others interested in the 

 affairs of India, was held on Friday, July II, at the rooms of the 

 Zoological Society, under the presidency of Prof. Flower, LL.D., 

 F.R.S. (Director of the British Museum Natural History De- 

 partment, and President of the Zoological Society), for the 

 purpose of urging the necessity of Government measures for the 

 preservation of wild birds in India. The principal address was 

 delivered by Mr. Robt. H. Elliot, sometime planter of Mysore, 

 and a well-known writer upon Indian topics. He pointed out 

 that every civilised Government with the exception of that of 

 India has recognised the value of birds as insect-eaters, and has 

 adopted measures for their preservation ; and that the absence of 

 legislation forebodes, where it has not yet presented, serious 

 results to planters and agriculturists. As the most convenient 

 season for the destruction of birds is during the fine weather that 

 succeeds the heavy rains of the monsoons, and as this season is 

 also the breeding time, the destruction of insect-eating birds 

 proceeds at such a rate as must soon lead to almost absolute 

 extermination unless preservative measures are speedily adopted. 

 There was a general agreement at the meeting that legislation on 

 the subject is imperatively required ; and it was resolved that a 

 representation to that effect should be addressed to the Govern- 

 ment of India. 



Mr. J. II. ANGAS, who has already founded an engineering 

 scholarship of the annual value of 200/. in the Adelaide Uni- 



versity, has signified his intention of endowing a Chair 'of 

 Chemistry. For this purpose Mr. Angas is prepared to give the 

 sum of 6000/., and to pay an annual sum of 350/. until he pays 

 over the capital sum. A letter to this effect from Mr. J.JH. 

 Angas was recently read by the Chancellor at a special meeting 

 of the Council. The Council resolved to accept the gift, and 

 authorised the Chancellor to write and thank Mr. Angas for his 

 continued munificence to the University. 



Prof. Milne of Tokio, Japan, writes to us : — " A short time 

 ago I described a pair of conical pendulum seismographs. Each 

 seismograph consisted of a heavy mass suspended by a string, 

 &c. A local paper describing this innocently gave to the world 

 an account of a pair of 'comical pendulums.' Each 'comical' 

 pendulum consisted of a heavy ' man ' suspended at the end of a 

 string, &c. These errors, which were repeated throughout the 

 article, did so much to popularise the instrument that their 

 correction was neglected." 



A recent number of L' Exploration contains an article by the 

 Chancelier of the French Consulate at Hanoi, M. Aumoitte, 

 which possesses special interest at the present time. It is the 

 record of a journey from Hanoi through Bacninh to Langson on 

 the Chinese frontier, thus following the same route as the French 

 troops have done in their recent operations in Tonquin. From 

 Hanoi to the meeting of the provinces of Bacninh and Langson, 

 the country is described as populous and fertile, but on entering 

 the latter district it becomes mountainous, with bad roads, and 

 almost depopulated by the brigand hordes which have infested 

 this borderland. Almost everywhere the water is bad, and fever 

 rife even amongst the natives. Nowhere is this the case more 

 than at Bade, where the French forces are now hurrying up to 

 retrieve the recent reverse at Langson. The country around 

 Langson is described as healthy, it is rich in rice and cotton, but 

 the trade here, as all along the valley of the Red River, is in the 

 hands of the Chinese. When the French occupy this region, 

 and when the recent treaty is carried out, we may expect a vast 

 addition to our scanty knowledge of the geography of this little 

 visited region. 



From a paper contributed by the veteran scholar, Dr. Edkins, 

 to a recent number of the Chinese Recorder, it appears that about 

 B.C. 2200 the Chinese possessed a knowledge of the art of 

 writing, a year of 366 days with an intercalary month, the 

 astrolabe, the zodiac, the cycle of sixty, of twelve musical 

 reeds forming a gamut, which also constituted the basis of a 

 denary metrology for measures of length, weight, and capacity, 

 divination, and a feudal system. In is.c. 1130 they were ac- 

 quainted with the clepsydra and with the gamut of five musical 

 notes. " Human knowledge was systematised in a scheme of 

 numerical categories in which the five elements played a special 

 part." About B.C. 550 the silk trade sprang into existence, the 

 stars were classified, foreign names of unknown origin were 

 introduced for the purpose of applying the cycle of sixty-two 

 years. About B.C. 140 Chinese travellers visited Afghanistan, 

 India, Bactria, &c. The cycle of Calippus was introduced into 

 Chinese astronomy, and geographical knowledge concerning 

 western nations was acquired. In the first two centuries of our 

 era trade became more extended by sea ; paper-making and the 

 manufacture of ink were introduced from Europe, the Baby- 

 lonian cosmogony became the main element of the Taoist 

 cosmogony, and the gamut of five was increased to seven notes. 



The last volume (ii.) of the Revue a" Ethnographic contains, 

 among others, articles by M. Bertrand on the Troglodytes, the 

 introduction of metals into the West, and the great routes of 

 migration and commerce in the earliest historical period ; by M. 

 Charnay, on the ruins in Yucatan ; by M. Deniker, on the 

 Giliaks ; by Dr. Martin, on the cranial malformation of the 



