’ College. 
430 
Antelopes and Deer coexisted in the Miocene era, but 
most of the former are Pleistocene in date. The crowns 
of the molars are prolonged in all the cavicornia. The 
Camels are not directly allied to the other forms; they 
retain an upper incisor; their molars are in double 
lunules, and of considerable length. Their geographical 
distribution is very peculiar, they being confined to North 
Africa, Arabia, and South America. Dr. Falconer has 
found their remains in the Sevalik Hills, and Leidy has 
done the same in North America, naming one of his 
genera Procamelus, and another earlier one Poébro- 
therium. 
This ends the description of the Artiodactylata, and ter- 
minates the course of lectures, 
AN ENGINEERING COLLEGE IN FAPAN 
i We gate Japanese Government, as represented by the 
ambassadors who visited this country last summer 
and autumn, have resolved upon taking example by our 
western civilisation, and establishing a college in the city 
of Yeddo for affording instruction in civil and mechanical 
engineering to the youth of Japan, as a strong desire has 
arisen in that country to make an effort to develop the 
great natural resources which it is known to possess. Our 
advice and practical assistance in the establishment of the 
college have been called into requisition, owing to the 
ambassadors having observed during their sojourn amongst 
us, how intimately our eminent industrial status as a nation 
is dependent upon the attention which we devote to the 
cultivation of those sciences which are involved in the 
mining, metallurgical, engineering, and many manu- 
facturing industries, and in bringing the forces of nature 
under the influence of man. 
The general scheme of the instruction has been de- 
vised by one of our eminent engineers, a gentleman 
whose experience of Continental and British systems 
of instruction is very extensive and varied, and judging 
from the appointment already made, it is evident 
te . ts 
hae é 
NATURE 
that the professorial equipment of the college will 
devolve upon this country. The principal of the college, 
who is also to be the professor of engineering and mecha- 
nics, is Mr. Henry Dyer, M.A, B.Sc., who studied at the 
University of Glasgow, under the late Prof. J. M. Rankine, 
Sir William Thomson, and their colleagues. Mr, Dyer 
was a Whitworth Scholar, and his career hitherto has 
been one of great and well deserved success. He is well 
qualified to act as principal of the Yeddo Engineering 
Prof. Dyer is to be assisted in his duties in the 
Japanese College of Engineers by professors of mathe- 
Matics, natural philosophy, chemistry, geology, and 
mineralogy, and by teachers of English, &c. At least 
two important appointments have been made, namely, to 
the professorship of mathematics and to the professorship 
of natural philosophy. The former has been conferred 
on Mr, D. H. Marshall, at present assistant to Prof. 
P. G. Tait in Edinburgh University ; and the latter is to 
be filled by Mr, W. E. Ayrton, formerly of University 
College, London, and the University of Glasgow. The 
last-named gentleman has already been employed in the 
East Indian telegraphic service, and he is at present 
assistant-engineer in connection with the manufacture 
of the Great Western Telegraph Cable under Sir William 
Thomson and Prof. Fleeming Jenkin. 
In connection with this Engineering College there are 
several other points of importance that may be stated. 
It is intended to institute a geological survey of Japan, 
and not improbably the active superintendence of that 
work will devolve upon the gentleman who may ultimately 
be appointed to the professorship of geology and mine- 
ralogy. As an important adjunct to the College, there 
will be erected a technical workshop, fitted with steam- 
engine, machine tools, and all the necessary appliances | 
[April 3, 
ah 
mm, i “a ; 
sip ; : 
er OEa 
1873 
rE 8S Se mE % 
for familiarising the young Japanese engineers with the 
principles of construction, &c. There will also be a 
technological museum for the illustration of the progres- 
sive stages of various industrial processes from the raw 
materials to the finished products. 
NOTES 
LETTERS, dated St. Thomas, appear in the 7¥mes and Daily 
News from correspondents on board the Challenger, where the 
vessel arrived on March 16. The voyage from Teneriffe had 
occupied 30 days. The usual programme was to furl sails early 
in the morning of every alternate day, put the ship under steam, 
obtain a sounding-haul of the dredge and serial temperatures at 
every 100 fathoms from the surface down to 1,500 fathoms, then 
at dusk sail was again made. The sounding line and dredge — 
have been kept constantly going. The former showed that a 
pretty level bottom runs off from the African coast, deepening 
gradually to a depth of 3,125 fathoms at about one-third of the 
way across to the West Indies. If the Alps, Mont Blane and 
all, were submerged at this spot, there would still be half a mile 
of water above them. Five hundred miles farther west there 
is a comparatively shallow part, a little less than two miles in 
depth. The water then deepens again to three miles, which 
continues close over to the West Indies. At the deepest spots 
both on the east and west side of the Atlantic, the dredge brought 
up a quantity of darkred clay, which contained justsufficient animal 
life to prove that life exists at all depths. No difficulty was expe- 
rienced in obtaining these deep-sea dredgings, and it was merely a 
question of patience, each haul occupying twelve hours. In 
depths over two miles little has been found, but that little was 
totally new. One of the lions of the cruise is a new species of 
lobster perfectly transparent. Not content with obtaining animals 
with eyes so fully developed that the body may said to be an 
appendage, a new crustacean has now dredged up, in which the 
body has cut itself clear of the eyes altogether, and the animal 
is totally blind. It has no eyes, or even the trace of an eye. To 
make up for its deficiency nature has supplied it with the most 
beautifully developed, delicate lady-like claws, if one may use 
the term, it is possible to conceive. Nearer the West Indies, 
in a depth of only half a mile, some similar creatures were 
brought up, and here the claws, longer than the body, are 
armed throughout with a multitude of spike-like teeth, looking 
more like a crocodile’s jaw than anything else. At a short dis- 
tance from Teneriffe, in a depth of a mile and a half, a rich and 
extremely interesting haul of sponges and coral was obtained, 
but the latter was unfortuately dead. It is a white species, as 
large and heavy as the pink coral of the Mediterranean. There 
are great hopes of obtaining a specimen alive. The nature of 
the bottom brought up and the way the trawl and dredge fre- 
quently catch in being dragged along prove, undoubtedly, that the 
bottom of the sea, even at great depths, is not so smooth and 
free from rocks as has hitherto been supposed. A conclusion 
drawn from this fact is that a considerable movement of the 
water at the bottom must be going on. The Chad/enger will 
remain at New York until the 25th jof April, and at Bermuda 
until the mail arriving on the 8th of May, after which she will 
sail for Madeira, carrying another section line across the 
Atlantic. 
WE have learnt with pleasure that it is contemplated to 
| present a testimonial to Dr. Murie, in recognition of his numer_ 
ous additions to our knowledge in the field of Biology. From a list 
before us we learn that Dr. Maurie is the author of seventy-five 
separate works, large and small, mostly connected with zoology. 
An opinion having been expressed that it might not be in- 
appropriate to present Dr. Murie with a substantial recognition — 
of the services which he has rendered to science by his numerous 
