Dec. 1, 1881 | 
the New South Wales Government have agreed to the somewhat 
exorbitant demands of the bushman, Mr. J. R. Skuthorpe, and 
will give him 6000/, for the relics, &c., provided their genuine- 
ness be established by certain tests. Mr. Skuthorpe has now no 
excuse for keeping his alleged ‘‘ find” buried in the far interior, 
and it cannot be long before the matter will be settled one way 
or the other. Mr, Skuthorpe is stated to have given an outline 
of the contents of the journals, among which are accounts by 
Classen of Dr. Leichhardt’s death and his own life among the 
natives. 
Pro. HAECKEL is at present in Ceylon, where he is to 
stay for three months for a scientific exploration of the island. 
THE German Government is considering the participation 
of German men of science in the plan of International Polar 
Research. The Reichstag has been asked to grant the necessary 
funis, which are fixed at 300,000 marks (15,000/.). Besides this 
sum 180,000 marks (g000/.) are asked for the Transit of Venus 
Expedition in 1882, and 75,000 marks (3750/.) for expeditions 
to Central Africa. 
THE forthcoming lecture arrangements at the Royal Institu- 
tion will include the usual Christmas course of six lectures, to 
be given this year by Prof. R, S. Ball, the Astronomer-Royal 
of Ireland, on the Sun, Moon, and Planets (with illustrations by 
the electric light, &c.). Eleven lectures by the new Fullerian 
Professor of Physiology ; four lectures by Prof, H. N. Moseley 
on Corals ; four lectures by Dr. P. L. Sclater on the Geogra- 
phical Distribution of Animals; three lecture; by Prof. Tyndall; 
four lectures by Prof. Pauer on Louis van Beethoven (with illus- 
trations on the pianoforte) ; four lectures by Mr. W. Watkin 
Lloyd on the Iliad and Odyssey, The Friday evening meetings 
will begin on January 20 at 8 p.m. Dr. W. Huggins will give 
a discourse on Comets, Succeeding discourses will probably be 
given by Mr. R.S. Poole, Professors Odling, Frankland, J. G. 
M‘Kendrick, and W. E. Ayrton, Capt. Abney, Mr. A. Tylor, 
Mr. J. W. Swan, Mr. W. Spottiswoode, and other gentlemen, 
Mr. H. H. Statham’s four lectures on Ornameat, delivered at 
the Royal Institution, are to appear in the Portfoli> for January 
and following months. 
PREPARATIONS are being made in Edinburgh for the celebra- 
tion of the centenary of Sic David Brewster’s birth next month, 
Mr. EpIson has entered the field of competitors in the con- 
struction of storage batteries for electric currents. His particular 
method of storing currents has however not yet been made 
public. 
THE Daily News Naples correspondent writes that a small 
"patty of travellers is proceeding t» India, one of whom is Paolo 
Mantegazza, the organiser of the expedition, the object of 
which is, on his part, to make anthropological studies of the 
Indian races, and to collect skulls and bones for the Museum at 
Florence. One of his companions, Signor Fabricotti, a natura- 
list, will collect animals and plants, and the other, Signor 
Michela, an artict, will reproduce or copy the antique Indian 
ornamentation of the monuments, china and bronzes, that a’orn 
Indian temples and houses, Signor Mantezazza is particularly 
interested in the races of the Himalaya, and, after a general 
survey of India, it is to this region that the attention of himself 
and of his companions will be especially devoted. 
Herr J. N. AROSENIUS gives in the last number of the 
Zeitschrift fiir die wissnschaftliche Geographie (vol. ii. fascicule 
5), an account of the ethnographical frontier between Finns and 
Swedes in Northern Sweden. ‘This frontier does not coincide 
either with the old one, which ran along the range of hill; 
between the Torneo and Kemi rivers, or with the present one | 
It begins on the shore of the | jn the same room. 
which runs along the Torneo, 
NATURE 
113 
Gulf of Bothnia, between the post stations Sangits and Siivits, 
and runs straight north to the Kengis iron-works. But some 
three or four hundred miles south-west of this frontier there are 
in Sweden numerous small patches inhabited by Finns, which 
patches make a broken chain going from the Wermland to the 
Medelpad province. The flat land and the valleys altogether 
are inhabited by Swedes, but nearly everywhere in the most 
remote parts of the forest are to be found one or several Finnish 
houses, built in the old Finnish fashion, Isolated in the wilds, 
Finnish people in Sweden gradually forget their former lan- 
guage, and mostly speak Swedish, especially after having reached 
acertainage. In the province of Dalarne the Finnish language 
is quite forgotten by the Finns, and their origin can be discovered 
only by their customs, dwellings, and by very few remains of 
their former language; thus M. Arosenius has seen a woman who 
knew only a single Finnish sentence, one of the most frequently 
used, however, ‘‘Light me the pipe.” As to the remains of 
Finnish population in the province of Smaland, the question 
still remains open ; butit is proved that there are remains of two 
different peoples, one of which must have been of Lapp origin, 
whilst the other, which knew the use of bronze implements and 
agriculture, must have been, M. Arosenius thinks, Finnish. 
Don Justo ZARAGOZA contributes to the Boletin of the Geo- 
graphical Society of Madrid a series of interesting papers on 
ancient canal schemes between the Atlantic and the Pacific in 
Central America. There were three places which the Spanish 
of the sixteenth century thought of for these schemes: the 
isthmus of Tehuantepec in New Spain, now Mexico; the river 
of San Juan, of th: Lake of Nicaragua, in the republic of the 
same name; and the Chagre River, and other parts of the 
Isthmus of Panama, The investigation of Tehuantepec was 
abandoned at that time, to be renewed in our century; those of 
Nicaragua were actively pursued in the seventeenth century, and 
were nearly being executed about the middle of the eighteenth 
century, during the reign of Charles III., and the scheme of a 
canal through the Isthmus of Panama, also abandoned, has now 
been renewed by M. Lesseps. In the paper published in the 
October number of the Aoletin D. Zaragoza gives interesting 
information on the little-known scheme of a canal wi@ the 
Lake of Nicaragua, which scheme appeared in the year 1548, 
with a map of the land prepared by Arias Gonzalo. In 1606 
Captain Ochoa de Leguizamo expl yred, on the same account, the 
Puertos de Caballos and Fonseca Bay; and during the years 
1780 to 1783 a map of the projected canal, still existing, was 
prepared, and a survey was made between the Pacific and the 
Lake of Nicaragua, which last proved to be 133 Castilian feet 
above the sea-level, the height of the wa‘er-shed being 604 feet. 
This scheme met with great opposition, the chief reason for 
which was foun1 in the statement of Juan Bautista Antonelli, 
aiengineer sent by Philip II., who declared the scheme quite 
impracticable ; and D, Zaragoza publishes an interesting memoir, 
by J. Antonio de Escartin, to prove the possibility of the canal. 
The paper will be continued. 
Pror. A. H. CHURCH gives a course of lectures on Chemistry 
at the Royal Academy of Arts on December 2, 7, 9, 12, 14, and 
16; of course the lectures will have special reference to the 
bearing of Chemistry on Art. 
ADMIRAL MoucHEz is continuing with vigour the completion 
of his astronomical museum. Eight oil paintings have been 
placed in the foreign astronomers’ room, representing respec - 
tively Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo, Kepler, Huyghens, 
Newton, Bradley, and J. Herschel. A large nu nber of engravings 
and photographs, representing either celebrated astronomers, 
large instruments, or foreign observatories, have been collected 
