Sept. 15, 1 881] 



NATURE 



479 



galvanic currents in the telegraphic wires when aurora borealis 

 or magnetic perturbations appear. Finally the assembly unani- 

 mously approved three proposals by Count Wilczek : — i. To 

 found, if pos'i!)le, a special publication to convey more quickly 

 to the knowledge of the scientific world, as well as to the 

 leaders of the expeditions, the proposals and reports concerning 

 the expeditions, as also their first results. 2. To leave, if pos- 

 sible, on the spot the buildings and other arrangements likely to 

 be useful to future expeditions of the same kind, and to recom- 

 mend them ill each c 'Untry to the care of navigators or of the 

 inhabitants. 3. To ask railway and .'■teamboat companies to 

 grant a reduction in the fares for the staff and effects of the 

 various international Polar expeditions. The stations proposed, 

 we may state, are two on the north coast of Siberia, one i 1 

 Novaya Zeujlya, one in Spitzliergen, one on Jan Mayen Island, 

 one on the wet coast of Greenland, one at Lady Franklin Bay, 

 one in the Behring's Strait region, and the participating coun- 

 tries are Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, and the 

 United States. 



On the 3rd of next month the members of the Italian scien- 

 tific expedition for the exploration of the Arctic Seas will 

 embark at Genoa in one of Lovarello's steamers. The zoologj' 

 will be under the care of Dr. Vinciguerra ; the liotany will be 

 CO ifided to Dr. Lorenzo, at pre-ent residing at Bueno. Ayres ; 

 mineralo^' and geology to Prof. Lovisato, of the University of 

 Sassari ; and to Lieut. Roneagli the artistic department is given, 

 for which purpose he will take photograpliic apparatus, &c. 

 At Bueno- Ayres the Commission will embark on a vessel be- 

 longing to the Argentine Republic. Lieut. Eove, who will 

 take the conmand of the expedition, has already left for Buenos 

 Ayres. 



The U.S. Government have been officially advis-.d of the 

 an-ival of Lieut. Greeley's Polar Expedition at Lady Franklin 

 Bay, -ix days after leaving Upernivik. The expedition entered 

 I'iscovery Harbour on August 11, where a station was formed. 

 The party were all well and plentifully provided. 



Advices from Copenhagen state that the news received from 

 the Dutch Polar Expeditirm on board the schooner WiUem 

 Barents is very unfavourable. Owing to the continuous ice 

 barrier, wliich extends nearly to Norway, .Spitzbergen could not 

 be reached, nor yet even the Bear Islands ; and after one m ire 

 attempt to force through northward, the expedition will return 

 home, as the captain i convinced that this year Novaya Zemlya 

 is completely inclosed in a barrier of ice. 



The Russian Geographical Society has prepared short notices 

 on the progress of different branches of geographical science 

 from 1S75 to 1881, z.if. from the second to the third Geographical 

 Congress. Three of them are printed: (i) " Aper9u des 

 Travaux Hydrographiques " ; (2) M. Bogdanow : " Aperjn des 

 Recherches Zoo-geographiques en Rusie"; (3) P. Matveiew 

 and A. Stichin ky : " Apercju des Etudes sur le Droit coutumier 

 en Russie." Besides there are in preparation notice- on botanical 

 geography lay M. Bataline, on geology liy M. Alenitzin, and on 

 Count LWarow's work on the Stone Age in Russia, by L. 

 Maikof . A. W. Grigorief and Dr. A. Woeiliof will be the Russian 

 official dele^jates to the third Geographical Congress. The 

 absence of the celebrated Russian cartographers is much to be 

 regretted ; one of them, General Stubendorff, hoped to attend 

 the Congress, but now it is known he will not be present. 



The new num' er of the Geographical Society's FtoceeJings is 

 remarkable for the excellent map of Khorasan and the neigh- 

 bouring countries, in illustration of Col. Stewart's ace mnt of his 

 journey and investigations in the Tekke Turkoman country and 

 the region of the Tejend and Murghab Rivers. The map goes 

 beyond Merv and Herat on the east and takes in the south-east 

 part of the Caspian on the west. There is also an article on the 

 recent journey of two Baptist missionaries from Vivi, by the 

 north bank of the Congo, to Stanley Pod. Dr. Matteucci's 

 great geographical achievement in North Central .\frica and 

 subsequent death in London are sympathetically referred to in 

 the Geographical Notes. The Society's telegram of condolence 

 to the Geographical Society at Rome appears to have been much 

 appreciated there, as it has been reproduced in the Italian 

 papers. One of the most interesting items in the pre-ent number 

 is a letter from Mr. W. H. Dall, of the United States Coast 

 Survey, on " The Chukches and their Neighbcur- in the North- 

 Eastern Extremity of Siberia." The letter is written in reply to 

 some strictures which Lieut. Nordgvist, of the Vega, addre>sed 



to the St. Petersburg Geographical Society, and which were 

 noticed in the Proceedings for Tune. 



The Berlin African Society has received further news from 

 several German explorers in Western Africa. Dr. Pogge and 

 Lieut. Wissmann were at Malange at the end of May, hoping to 

 start early in June, .and to reach Kimbundo at tlie end of that month. 

 From Robert Flegel news are to hand up to Tune 4. The 

 members of the station at Kokoma are occupied with scientific 

 collections and the exploration of the environs Dr. Stecker is 

 trying to reach the Central African lakes from Abyssinia. 



A NEW volume of travels by Mr. E. A. Floyer, F.R.G.S., 

 &c., entitled "Unexplored Baluchistan, a Survey of a Route 

 through We tern Baluchistan, Mekran, Bashakird, Persia, 

 Kurdi-t.Tn, and Turkey," will be published during the autumn 

 by Messrs. Griffith and Farran. Mr. Floyer was the first lo 

 explore the wild district of Bashakird ; he contributeil a paper 

 on that little-known country to the Plymouth meeting of the 

 British Association. Besides the narrative, ^hich is full of 

 interesting personal incident and adventure, the work will con- 

 tain original illustration=, a map, vocabularies of dialects, lists 

 of plants collected and tabulated, and observations, astronomical 

 and meteorol igical. 



Prof. Simony has published a list of the greatest t'epths of 

 various Alpine lakes, which may interest our readers : Gmunden 

 Lake, 191, Hallstadt Lake 125, Attersee 171, MMndsee 67, Wolf- 

 gang Lake 114, Acheu'ee 132, Konigs^ee 1S8, 1.akeof Const.ince 

 276, Chiemsee 89, Slarnberg Lake 131, La' e I en an 309, Neuf- 

 cbatel Lake 144 metres. The last-named four mea-ures 92, 57, 

 589, and 240 square kilometres surface. The greatest depth of 

 the northern part of the Adriatic is only 243 metres. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Journal of the Royal Microscof>ical Society, August, 1881, 

 contains : — On some remarkable enlargements of the axial canals 

 of sponge spicules atid their causes, by Prof. P. Mnrtin Duncan 

 (plates 7 and 8).— ^On a blue and scarlet double stain, suilab'e 

 for nerve and other animal tis ues, by Dr. B. Well- Richardson. 

 With the summary of recent researches, zo' louy, snd botany, 

 pp. 575 to 651 ; Microscopy, pp. 651-711. — Proceedings of the 

 Society for June. 



The American Naturalist {ox Kw^^i, l88r, contains : Thegreat 

 crested fly-catcher, by Mrs. Mary Treat. — On the reasoning 

 faculty of animals, by Joseph F. James. — On the i^rogress of 

 anthropology in America during 18S0, by O. T. Mason. — On 

 the manuscript Troana, by Cyrus Thomas — The Editor's 

 Table. — Some recent literature, — General notes and scientific 

 news. 



Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Fhiladelphia, 

 Part I, January to May, 1881, contains: Dr. Jos. Lcidy, Rhizo- 

 pods as food for young fishes. — Thomas Meehan, note on free- 

 less prairies ; motility in plants ; sexual characters in Fritillaria 

 atropupurea, Nutt. — R. Arango, de-crirtions of new species of 

 terre-trial moUusca of Cuba. — Rev. H. C. McCnok, on the 

 hnneyants of the Garden of the Gods. (This detailed memoir 

 on the structure and habits of Myrmecocystes melliger is illus- 

 trated with ten plates.) — John A. Ryder, on the structure, 

 affinities, ar.d species of Scolopendrella. .S. gratie^ is figured and 

 described. An American specimen of what is presumed to be 

 5'. notacaniha is also fi^'ured. The author |ilaces the=e strange 

 insects in an order Symphyla, indicating that it has affinities to 

 Thysanura ; trachea are present. Henry Hemphell, on the 

 variations of Acmita pelta. — R. E. C. Steams, observations en 

 Planorbis («ith many woodcuts). 



American fcurnal of Science, August. — Method of obtaining 

 and measuring very high vacua with a modified form of Sprengel 

 pump, by O. N. Rood. — Geological relaticns of the hmestone 

 belts of Westchester county. New York ; origin of the rocks of 

 the Cortlandt series, by J. D. Dana. — New meteoric iron of 

 unknown locality, in the Smithsonian Mus-um, by C. U. 

 Shep.ard. — The relative motion of the earth and the lumini- 

 ferous ether, by A. A. Michelson. — Observations on he light of 

 telescopes used as night-glasses, by E. S. llolden. — Nature of 

 dictyophyton, by C. P. Whitfield. — Observations on the comet, 

 by H. Draper, C. A. Yonn?, W. Harkness, L. Boss, and A. W. 

 Wrisiht. 



