536 
NATURE 
[SEPTEMBER 28, 1899 
technical skill of continental mining engineers is of a higher 
nature than that of our own people, and we are not keeping pace 
with the times. It therefore behoves us as a nation to get out of 
the groove of the slovenly old-fashioned methods of working ore 
mines, which linger so long in this country, and to give our 
mining superintendents and mining foremen such technical train- 
ing as will render them at least the equals of their continental 
competitors.” It is to be hoped that this note of warning will 
lead British mining companies to make use of the resources 
which modern science has placed at their disposal. 
THE Journal of the Society of Arts announces that among 
the prizes offered by the French Société d’Encouragement pour 
Industrie Nationale, open to all the world except members of 
the administrative council, and to be awarded next year, are the 
following :—Two thousand francs (8o/.) for a publication useful 
to the chemical or metallurgical industry, a treatise on metal- 
lurgical chemistry summarising the works that have appeared 
on the subject during the last twenty years being invited; two 
prizes of 500 francs (20/.) each for scientific chemical researches 
the results of which are useful to industry, the authors not being 
required to have realised the practical applications which they 
may foresee as resulting from their observations ; 2009 francs 
(80/.) for the scientific study of an industrial process the theory 
of which is still imperfectly known, the methods that permit of 
obtaining a given result being often known long before the 
nature of the phenomena is suspected, and yet the knowledge 
of which has great interest as regards reducing the number of 
empirical trials necessary for realising fresh improvements ; and 
3000 francs (120/.) for the production of permanent magnets, 
the qualities expected from which are power and stability. The 
models, papers, descriptions, &c., must be sent in before 
December 31 to the Secretary of the Société d’Encouragement, 
44 Rue de Rennes, Paris. 
THE death is announced of Mr. Edward Case, the author of 
a paper on ** The Dymchurch Wall and Reclamation of Romney 
Marsh,” read at the recent meeting of the British Association. 
For many years Mr. Case was a superintending engineer in the 
Public Works Department in Ceylon. Of late he gained dis- 
tinction in the engineering world by his investigations of the 
problem of sea defence, and by the results which he had 
obtained on a variety of shores. 
THE Funafuti Boring Expedition has very recently led to the 
rectification of a common ethnographical error, and the discovery 
of an interesting fact in zoo-geography. In the Monograph 
on the Atoll of Funafuti published by the Australian Museum, 
Sydney (part iii. 1897, p. 199) Mr. E. R. Waite referred to 
a large undetermined fish known to the natives as ‘ Palu,” 
and to traders as ‘* Oil-fish.” According to Mr. Louis Becke, a 
full-grown Palu would weigh up to 150 lbs. and be 6 feet long ; 
the average size is about 3 or 4 feet, and weight 4o to 60 lbs. 
The natives have many superstitions in regard to Palu; every 
portion of it is edible, even the head and bones when cooked 
turning into a rich mass of jelly. The flesh of the Patu, if left 
uncooked, never putrefies ; it simply dissolves into a colourless 
and odourless oil. Perhaps the great regard the natives have 
for it is due to the fact of its being a rapid and powerful purga- 
tive. It is a deep-water fish, and is usually caught at a depth of 
from 120 fathoms down to 200 fathoms ; the fishing is only done 
at night. The Palu fishing-hook has been described by Mr. C. 
Hedley (¢.c. part iv., 1897, p. 272), who points out that this large 
hook, which is widely distributed in the Central Pacific, and may 
be seen in most ethnographical collections, has been described by 
all authors as a ‘* shark-hook.” The last expedition to Funafuti 
has been fortunate enough to obtain a specimen of this fish, and 
in an appendix (part ix., 1899, p- 539) Mr. Waite has solved 
NO. 1561, VOL. 60] 
the riddle, and found that this mysterious fish is the well-known 
Ruvetlus pretiosus, which hitherto was known only from the 
North Atlantic, and whose recorded range is now enormously 
increased. The Escolar (Atlantic name) has been taken at depths 
as great as 300 and 400 fathoms, but can be taken only at night 
in September and the early part of October. 
WE learn from the September number of Aznalen der Hydro- 
graphie that the Deutsche Seewarte, in conjunction with the 
Berlin Meteorological Office, proposes to issue a ten-day report, 
containing values of barometric pressure, air-temperature and 
rainfall for, say, one hundred stations between the west coast of 
North America and the east coast of Asia, accompanied by a map 
showing observations taken on board German ships traversing the 
NorthAtlantic. The report would be issued as a supplement to the 
Daily Weather Bulletin, about twenty days after date. The 
success of the proposal will toa great extent depend upon the 
willingness of other countries to furnish ten-day means for some 
selected stations in their respective systems. 
WE have received from Dr. W. Doberck, Government 
Astronomer, Hong Kong Observatory, his annual report for 
1898. The ‘‘ Observations and Researches ” contain synopses 
of fifteen years’ meteorological and magnetic observations and 
a number of very useful tables relating to the climatology of the 
Colony. 
THE papers read at the ninth annual general meeting of the 
Museums Association, held in Sheffield in July of last year, are 
contained in the ‘‘ Report of Proceedings,” just published by 
Messrs. Dulau and Co. All the subjects dealt with are of 
interest to every one concerned in museum work, among them 
being: the relation of museums to elementary education ; the 
arrangement of museum herbaria, the electric light installation 
at the Manchester Museum, the exhibition of museum speci- 
mens, the mounting of marine animals as transparencies for 
museum purposes, the ethnological arrangement of archzeo- 
logical material, and some Russian museums. Mr. Herbert 
Bolton, the editor of the volume, calls attention to the need for 
a complete report or directory of museums in the United King- 
dom, and rightly remarks that ‘‘ the publication of such a re- 
port, and its annual revision, would tend to bring museums into 
clese union and to a common knowledge of each other.” It is 
pointed out that the preparation of an annual report of this 
character might be undertaken by a committee of the British 
Association ; and this suggests that it would be worth considering 
whether the Museums Association itself might not with advan- 
tage become part of the British Association, in much the same 
way as the Corresponding Societies are at present. The multi- 
plication of annual meetings would thus be avoided, and ex- 
cellent opportunity would be afforded for the discussion of the 
various aspects of museum work. 
In No. 4 of vol. i. of the ‘*‘ Geological Series”’ of the Field 
Columbian Museum Mr. Elmer S. Riggs treats of the Mylagau- 
lidee, an extinct family of rodents of which two new genera are 
described. It is remarked that the one prominent feature in 
these animals is the unusual development of the premolar to the 
exclusion of the posterior-lying teeth, evincing unusual capacity 
for crushing or grinding. A fossil egg from South Dakota is 
described in No. 5, by Dr. Oliver C. Farrington. The specimen 
is about 2 inches long by 14 inches. Covering most o: the 
exterior is a thin black layer ‘017 of an inch in thickness, and 
resembling an eggshell. The mass of the specimen is chal- 
cedony, and this contains a white opalescent ovoid mass which 
appears to correspond with the yolk, and to yield evidence of 
organic matter. In shape this petrified egg resembles that of 
the Florida duck. 
