350 
consider one of the two principal sources of the Amu-daria, the 
other being the Pianj. According to their statements the Ak- 
su, which waters the Pamir, is an affluent of the Wanj, and does 
not fall into the Pianj near Kala Wamar, the affluent of the 
Pianj being called the Chun‘uk-daria, which flows out of the 
Yashil-kul. In order to assure himself of the truth .of these 
statements Dr. Regel followed the Wanj as far as Tesh-i-Senghi, 
and he found that the river contained abundance of water, He 
intended to spend the winter at Darwaz, in order to resume his 
explorations in the spring, and it may be hoped that he will suc- 
ceed in solving the last remaining mysteries of the Pamir, 
Mr. S. E, PEAL’s account of his expedition in 1879 to the 
Nongyang Lake aud to the pass over the Patkoi Range will be 
found, with map and fanoramic sketches, in Part 2, No. 1, of 
the Bengal Asiatic Society’s ¥ournal for 1881. 
THE following despatch has been received at the London 
office of the New York Herald :—‘‘ Irkutsk, February 1, 1882, 
2.45 p.m, Our three boats left Semenofsky Island on the 
morning of September 12, bound for Barkin, ninety five miles 
distant. We got clear of ice at noon. Heavy gale from north- 
east, and boats dispersed during night; captain’s boat, loaded 
deep, lost mast and sails. We made land on the evening of the 
17th, shoal water. Boat abandoned two miles from beach; 
party waded and reached deserted village, Saga-tor; ‘ cachéd’ 
log books ; proceeded south on the 19th. Delong’s last record 
found reads as follows :—‘ Saturday, October 1st.—Fourteen of 
the officers and men of the Yeanmette reached this hut on Wed- 
nesday, September 28, and having been forced to wait for the 
river to freeze over, are proceeding to cross to the west side this 
Morning on their journey to reach some settlement on the Lena 
River. We have only two days’ provisions, but having been 
fortunate enough thus far to get game in our pressing needs we 
have no fears for the future. Our party all well, except Ericksen, 
whose toes have been amputated in consequence of frostbites. 
Other records will be found in several buts on the east side of 
the river, along which we have come from the north.—(Signed) 
GrorGE W. DeELonc.’ Three subsequent records had been 
found. Ericksen died October 7; party in great distress for 
food. Noros and Nindemann sent ahead for relief, October 9. 
They marched south fifteen days, and were found in a starving 
condition, October 24, by three natives, who took them to a 
settlement. They could not make themselves understood. News 
of them reached us October 29. Immediate search commenced, 
and party traced to a wilderness on left bank of Lena. Natives 
refused further work, and return to Bulong ; was necessary to 
get Russian assistance. —November 28.—A large party is now 
searching, having to dig out everything deeply covered with 
snow. The wilderness devoid of game. Very prompt and 
efficient action by Russians. Every effort is being made. Jack 
Cole’s tranquil to-day ; violent only at times ; softening of brain, 
My left eye ruined, and right one badly impaired. Other men 
well- Jackson has telegraphed me from Orenburg.—JOHN 
DANENHAUER.” Semenofsky Island is probably a small island 
marked Semenov in the map in the ‘‘ Voyage cf the Vega,” on 
the north-west of Stobovoi Island in the New Siberia group, 
Barkin is on the north-east point of the Lena delta, where there 
is a winter tent. Sagastyr, where they landed, is at the mouth 
of the most northern branch of the Lena delta. The engineer 
Melville has made arrangements for a thorough search for the 
missing party, at once. 
THE PRIZES OF THE PARIS ACADEMY OF 
SCIENCES 
‘THE annual distribution of prizes at the Academy of Sciences 
took place on Monday February 6. M. Wurtz, president 
for the year 1881, wes in the chair, The list of laureates was 
read by M. Dumas, 
The prize of 240/. for any improvement in the French naval 
forces was awarded to M, Sébert for his apparatus for measuring 
the velocity of projectiles, and to M. Brault for bis study of 
naval meteorology. 
The Lalande Prize was awarded to Prof. Swift of Rochester, 
(U.S.) for the discovery of seven comets in the brief interval of 
four years. Another astronomical prize was awarded to Mr. 
D. Gill, director of the Cape Observatory, for his determination 
of the solar parallax by observations of Mars. 
The prize in Physics was awarded to M. Planté for his 
accumulators, and the Commission records the wonderful experi- 
ment which was executed by this physieist when he obtained 
NATURE 
[ Feb, 9 1882 
. 
a tension of 1200 elements with two Bunsens. Among:t 
the other prizes which may present some special interest 
are the following :—M. Briot, for his work, ‘‘Sur les Fonctions 
Abeliennes” ; M. Etienne Gilbert, “ Etude sur les Philtres, 
Charmes, ¢ Poisons.” No prize was awarded for the ques- 
tion ‘to ascertain by direct observations and experiments 
the influence of exterior objects on the structure of vegetative - 
organs,” but a sum of 60/. was delivered to M. Mer to encou- 
rage him to work again at the same question which remains 
open for competition in 1882, One of the Monthyon Prizes 
was awarded to Dr. Favre for his work on Daltonism, and 
another to Dr. Paul Richer for a treatise on hystero-epilepsy. 
M. Collin took the interest of the Breant Prize for his work 
on “‘Epidemical Affections.” This prize, originally destined 
for a remedy against cholera, amounts to 4000/., and the in- 
terest is distributed every year, to avoid indefinite accumulation. 
A area prize was awarded to M. Henri St. Claire De- 
ville for his discovery of the law of dissociation. The rales 
forbid the Academy to give such an honour to any of its living 
members, and it is the first time on record that it has been given 
to a departed one. 
When the long series of laureates was recited, M. Bertrand, 
perpetual secretary for the section of Mathematical Sciences, 
read the ¢/oge of Leon Foucault, the inventor of the gyro- 
scope, electric light regulator, siderostat, silvered glass telescopes, 
determination of velocity of lizht, &. M. Leon Foucault was 
born in Paris in 1819, he died in the same city in 1868, and 
never travelled abroad. He was self-educated, having passed 
his honours only when already illustrious. M. Bertrand has 
written the preface to the collection of his scientific works, pub- 
lished in 1878 by his mother—a large 4to volume of 600 pages. 
M. Leon Foucault was besides a very active and successful 
writer, having been the scientific editor of the Feuilleton of the 
Debats for years. His succes:or is now M. de Parville. 
INSTITUTION OF MECIIA NICAL ENGINEERS 
THE Annual General Meeting of this Institution was held at 
the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, 
on January 26 and 27. 
The Annual Keport of the Council drew attention to the sub- 
jects of experimental research, of which some account has already 
been given in Nature. With regard to riveted joints, it 
appears that a long and elaborate series of experiments have 
been carried on for the Committee by Prof. Kennedy, at the 
Engineering I.aboratcry, University College. These experiments 
dealt exclu-ively with steel plates and rivets, and were directed 
first to ascertain the constants of resistance to tension, shearing, 
&c., in mild steel, the knowledge of which is necessary in order 
to design the strongest form of joint, and secondly to test joints 
designed on the basis of the values thus discovered, as against 
other joints, made purposely to have an excess or defect in one 
or other of the areas through which fracture might take place. 
The work has heen completely successful ; the correctly-designed 
joints giving décidedly the best results, and thus affording a 
satisfactory verification of the value determined for the constants, 
The experiments have further brought out strongly the fact that 
joints in iron and steel must be designed in a very different 
manner to give the best results in each, the reason being that 
the shearing resistance of the rivets is about the same in iron and 
steel, while the tensile resistance is much higher in the latter than 
the former. Hence the deduction that manufacturers, who have 
been content simply to transfer to steel the rules they have been 
in the habit of using for iron, have thereby involved themselves 
in serious error. : 
With regard to the other subject, the hardening and tempering 
of steel, the Institution have just published some very interesting 
researches made for them by Prof. Abel, C.B., F.R.S., and also 
by Prof. Chandler Roberts, F.R.S, The former has shown, by 
the analysis of thin disks of hardened and unhardened steel, the 
high probability that in unhardened steel the carbon is present as 
a definite carbide of iron (prob:ble composition . FegC;), 
eliminated from the iron in a more or less crystalline form ; that 
on heating, this compound is dissolved in, or assimilated by, the 
metal ; and that sudden cooling does not allow time for the 
elimination to take place, the carbide thus remaining dissolved, 
more or less completely, and giving a corresponding degree of 
bardness to the mass. Prof. Chandler Roberts’ researches bear 
on a suggestion which had been made, that the hardening of 
steel was connected with the ccclusion and exclusion of gases by 
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