May 12, 1881] 



NATURE 



31 



that it may be either turned to account or shown to be erroneous. 

 If there is even a remote possibility of its truth it would seem 

 worth while for one or more of the Colonial Governments to 

 have borin^^s made in order to tett it. F. T. MOTT 



Birstal Hill, Leicester, May 5 



The Glacial Blocks of Zinal 



May I through your columns express a hope that other qualified 

 observers will volunteer to take charge of work such as I propose 

 to do this summer as my share ? 



This is to mark the position of large blocks of stone on the 

 glacier of Zinal. You will, I hope, receive the report of my friend, 

 Prof. F. A. Fore), upon periodical variations of glaciers. Therein 

 are sketched some of the existing data. I have for years much 

 wished to organise a simultaneous action. With a Gallon's 

 pocket altazimuth, a pot of paint, and the superb map on the 

 scale of TTswu- of the S\vi>s Alpine Club (Sheet III. of the 

 Valais du Sud), it will be a pleasant and not a difficult task to 

 lay down a few good triangles, and to paint a letter and indi- 

 cation of bearings of stones along and athwart the great gbcier, 

 with which I am well acquainted. The Swiss Alpine Club has 

 erected a hut at I.es Mounlets, which, at about 9500 feet above 

 sea-level, will form a capital liase of operations. The pre- 

 eminently grand scenery would itself reward the short sojourn 

 necessary for our purpose. To secure imiformity of action and 

 registration I propose that we should place ourselves in commu- 

 nication with M. F. A. Forel. I shall be very glad to hear 

 from gentlemen — at this address up to the end of June, and then 

 at the Hotel d'Anniviers, Vissoie sur Sierra, Canton Valais, the 

 most comfortable quarters in the Val d'Anniviers, about 4000 

 feet above sea-leve), three hours' and a half drive from Sierre 

 railway station. 



I would suggest, as good head-quarters and interesting fields 

 of obsei"vation : (i) the hotel at the Riffelbtrg, with the Gcrner 

 and Findelen glaciers ; (2) the hotel at Saas in Grund, with the 

 Fee and other large glaciers in the Saas-Thal ; (3) the hotel at 

 the Maltmark See, with the AUalin and Schwanzberg glaciers; 

 and (4) Macagnaga as a southern station. I mysel', aho, ask 

 for personal assistance. Marshall Hall 



Villa Chessex, Veytaux-Chillon, Canton Vaud, 

 Swiizerland, May 3 



THE FREh'CH ASSOCIATION FOR THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AT ALGIERS'" 



III. 



'T'HE main result of the Algiers Congress has un- 

 ■*• doubtedly been the acquisition of a considerable 

 amount of matter tending to the development of the great 

 French colony, while at the same time it has been the 

 means of making hundreds of Frenchmen well acquainted 

 with the principal features — physical, geographical, and 

 political — of a country which they knew previously only 

 by name. The general results, as far as universal science 

 is concerned, have been slight, but we cannot regard the 

 Congress as less than a success. It is as if the French 

 had said to the world of science, " Come and see this 

 undeveloped country, and help us to apply each and all 

 of the sciences to its special requirements, to aid us 

 in a more perfect colonisation." The wotk has been 

 nobly initiated by the French. It is probable that not 

 less than a hundred millions sterling have been expended 

 in the countr)'. The roads and bridges, and telegraph 

 and postal systems are perfect. Everywhere you find 

 evidences of complete organisation. Every small village 

 has its mayor and council ; its post-office and diligence 

 service ; its water supply and sanitary arrangements ; its 

 groves of eucalyptus-trees and trimly-planted streets. 

 Let us take one example— that of Bordj-Menaiel, a village 

 to the east of Algiers, which we visited in the course of 

 an excursion. Twenty-three years ago Bordj-.Menaiel was 

 made a centre of colonisation, and 1718 hectares of land 

 were distributed among the first colonists. The total 

 superficies of the commune is 4200 hectares, and it con- 

 tains a population of 837, of whom 659 are Europeans 

 * Continued from vol. xxiii. p. 607. 



and 178 indigenous races. Situated at a distance of 70 

 kilometres from Algiers and 38 from Dellys, it is traversed 

 by the main departmental road passing to Eastern Algeria. 

 It stands in the midst of a highly fertile alluvial plain, 28 

 metres above the sea, and is watered by the Isser. This 

 commune possesses the following municipal officers : 

 mayor, deputy-mayor, justice of the peace, sheriffs officer, 

 receiver of "contributions diverses," a recorder of the 

 census, a manager of ponts et chaussees, a departmental 

 business agent, a bureau of posts and telegraphs, a 

 "mddecin de colonisation,'' a midwife, and a pharmacien. 

 Its spiritual and intellectual wants are provided for by a 

 t-wrt'and two schools. Since 1873 a brigade of gendar- 

 merie has been stationed in the vdlage. The organisation 

 appears excessively elaborated for so small a population ; 

 but we must remember how doubly necessary such 

 arrangements become in a new colony, which without 

 sufficient proofs of the strong arm of the law w-ould 

 speedily become lawless, and without the benefit of well- 

 directed and properly enforced municipal arrangements 

 would form an ill-regulated and degenerating community. 

 The bureaucracy evidently enters largely into the French 

 system of colonisation. 



At the present moment a project is before the Cham- 

 ber for the completion of the colonisation of Algeria 

 by the creation of 300 new villages, which, like Bordj- 

 Menaiel and the existing villages, are to be built and 

 thoroughly organised before colonists are invited to 

 accept the grant of land in the commune and take up 

 their abode in the village. Such of the existing villages 

 as we saw were of one and the same type : the church 

 and water-supply in a central square, from which two or 

 more streets proceeded ; the mairie, a few shops, one or 

 more inns, and a post-office. In some villages— Palestro, 

 for example, many of the inhabitants of which were 

 massacred by the Kabyles so recently as 1 871— there was 

 a large space, surrounded by a high wall furnished with 

 loopholes, in which the inhabitants could take refuge 'n 

 the event of a sudden descent of the natives. Many of 

 the colonists are Alsatians or Lorrainers who einigrated 

 at the close of the Franco- Prussian war. They all 

 appeared happy and contented, and their farms and 

 gardens were flourishing. Their worst enemies are 

 drought and fever; the former is being provided against 

 by new svstems of irrigation, and the latter by the plant- 

 ing of thousands of eucalyptus-trees. At Blidah we found 

 a perfect example of the most developed system of irri- 

 gation. A ready supply of water is obtained during many 

 months of the year from the mountains, and this is led by 

 small brick-lined watercourses through the gardens. A 

 main watercourse passes a line of houses, the garden walls 

 of which are furnished with small trap-doors by which at 

 any time a portion of the stream can be diverted into the 

 garden. Of course rain is always looked for with great 

 anxiety, specially between the months of May and Sep- 

 tember, when the grain crops arc wholly dependent upon 

 it. In the south of Algeria there e.\ist at this moment 

 places w^here no rain has fallen for six years, and of course 

 any attempt at cultivation is here impossible. 



Towards the end of the Congress several of the sections 

 showed greater vitality than at the commencement. In 

 the section of Mathematics there was for the first time a 

 fair show of papers, for the most part devoted to pure 

 geometry. The foreign mathematicians— Leguine of 

 Odessa. Oltramare of Geneva, and Fiedler of Zurich- 

 contributed their quota. M. Trepied brought forward a 

 project for the construction of an observatory at Algiers. 

 M. Picquet has been elected president of this section for 

 ne.xt year. In the section devoted to Civil Engineering 

 the most important papers were by Col. Fourchault on 

 defensive villages, and by M. Tit<maux on irrigation. }\. 

 Gobin is president for next year. In the Physical secticn 

 papers were read by i\I. Gaussen on photometric photo- 

 graphy and by Prof. Tacchini on the solar protuberances. 



