NATURE 



[January 26, 1899 



a general elevation of 750 feet, formed of rounded granitic hills, 

 with numerous intervening lakes. North of Clearwater Lake is 

 Seal Lake, which derives its name from the seals living in its 

 waters. Mr. Low thinks that the presence of these animals in 

 the lake, which is nearly a hundred miles from salt-water, and 

 at an elevation of nearly Soo feet above the sea, can hardly be 

 due to migration, although the harbour seal is known to travel 

 overland for considerable distances, lie considers that the seal 

 must have reached the lake during the subsidence of the land at 

 the close of the (ilacial period. It evidently breeds freely under 

 the fresh-water conditions. Explorations were made by Mr. 

 Low as far as Fort Chimo, the most northerly post of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company in Labrador. The rocks met with 

 along the greater part of the route have been classed as Lauren- 

 tian ; they consist chiefly of foliated granite. Other eruptive 

 rocks, also cherty dolomite and shales, grouped as Cambrian, 

 were met with. The observations of stria' and other Glacial 

 phenomena showed that the region had been completely covered 

 with ice during the Clacial period, and that the ice moved out- 

 wards and downwards from a narrow neve near the present water- 

 shed. Old marine terraces were also noted. 



JUDciXG from the twelfth annual report of the Liverpool 

 Marine Biology Committee, the biological station at Port Erin, 

 Isle of Man, was used by a number of naturalists last year, and 

 several investigations of interest and importance have been made 

 with material collected from the neighbouring coasts. An 

 interesting illustration in the report is a reproduction of a 

 photograph, taken in June 1S97, ofa marked area of rock covered 

 w ith adhering animals. By the side is another picture of the 

 same area photographed after a year's interval, and it shows 

 that the original population had disappeared almost entirely. 

 All the original limpets had gone, leaving their scars on the 

 rock ; but a few barnacles seem to have remained. Many 

 thousands of new animals appear on the second picture. 



The second instalment of the "Additional Series" of the 

 Kew Bulletin forms the first of a series of " Selected Papers,' 

 and is devoted entirely to vegetable fibres. It comprises eighty- 

 nine papers, amounting to 280 pages, already published in the 

 Bulkliii, and forms a valuable work of reference for all interested 

 in the subject, whether scientifically or commercially. 



KiviURN'iNC. to the subject of the injury inflicted on agri- 

 culture in New South Wales by the introduction of the prickly 

 pear, Mr. Maiden, the Government botanist for the Colony, now 

 publishes (Alisieltaneous Publication, No. 253, Department of 

 Agriculture) a description of the six species of Opuntia at pre- 

 sent naturalised in the colony, each illustrated by a good full- 

 sited plate. 



The first number of Cohn's Beilriige ziir Biologic dcr 

 Pflaiizcn published under the editorship of Prof. Brefeld, con- 

 sists of three papers : on the witch-broom of the barberry, by 

 Dr. J. Eriksson ; on the development of the Helvellincx, by 

 Herr G. Dittrich ; and on inulin, by Dr. II. Fischer. Dr. 

 Fischer believes inulin to be a substance of much wider distri- 

 bution in the vegetable kingdom than has generally been 

 supposed. It is never a final, but always an intermediate, 

 product in the process of assimilation. It may be formed by 

 condensation out of fructose, which, after transport to the 

 reserve receptacles, is again transformed into inulin, then into 

 glucose, and finally into starch. 



\Vk have received a reprint of a lecture on the South Wales 

 Coal-field, by Mr. W. Galloway, being Subject I. of a course of 

 lectures on mining, published by the South Wales Institute of 

 Engineers. The lecture is illustrated by a capital colour 

 printed geological map showing the areas occupied by the steam- 

 NO. 1526, VOL. 59] 



coal and anthr.icite collieries. The .structure of the coal-field is 

 well explained, and there is a general account of the mode of 

 formation of coal, and of the organic remains of the Carboniferous 

 period. 



Prof, .\kihiir Thomson will contribute a series of papers 

 to Kiiow/eiige, dealing with the treatment and uses of anthro- 

 pological data. The first article is to appear in the February 

 number. 



In aid of the funds of the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Asso- 

 ciation, Mr. C. Carus- Wilson will lecture upon "The Marvels 

 of Ice and Glaciers," at the Kensington Town Hall, or. Wednes- 

 day, February i, at 8.30 p.m. 



" The Resources of the Sea ; or, an Inquiry into the Ex- 

 periments on Trawling and the Closure of Areas," is the title of 

 a work, by Prof. Mcintosh, to be issued shortly by the Cam- 

 bridge University Press. The work is accompanied by thirty-two 

 tables, and various photographs and figures. 



A COPY of an important paper on cell structure and nuclear 

 division, entitled " Uber Zellen- und Syncytienbildung. Studien 

 am Salmonidenkeim," by Prof. Wilhelm His, has been received. 

 The paper is an excerpt from the Ahliandluiigen dcr mathc- 

 matisch-physisch')) Classc dcr Koni^l Siii/isis,heii Ccsclhchaft 

 dcr Wisscnschaflen (vol. xxiv. No. 5), and is illustrated by 

 forty-one figures in the text. 



Two volumes (vols. i. and v.) of the "Traiti de Zoologie 

 Concrete," by Prof, ^'ves Delage and M. Herouard, have 

 already been noticed in these columns (vol. Iviii. p. 25, May 

 1898). Another volume (vol. viii. pp. 379), dealing with the 

 Chordata, and containing 54 plates and 275 figures in the text, 

 has just been published. There will be nine volumes in all, 

 only three of which have yet been published. 



Under the title "The Last Link; our Present Knowledge 

 of the Descent of Man," the paper read by Prof. Ernst Haeckel 

 at the International Congress of Zoologists last August (see 

 vol. Iviii. p. 427), has been published by Messrs. A. and C. 

 Black, with notes and biographical sketches by Dr. Hans 

 Gadow, F.R.S. Prof. Haeckel states his case in eighty pages, 

 and Dr. Gadow's biographical sketches, and instructive notes 

 on the theory of cells, factors of evolution, and geological time 

 occupy seventy-six pages. 



The Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia, has 

 published the fourth part of Prof. W. H. Dall's memoir on the 

 "Tertiary Fauna of Florida," with special reference to the 

 silex beds of Tampa, and the Pliocene beds of the Caloosa- 

 hatchie river, and including in many cases a complete revision of 

 the generic groups described, and their .American Tertiary 

 species. The present part of the work includes the Priomo- 

 desmacea and Teleodesmacea. Prof. Dall expresses the hope 

 that another part will conclude this series of papers, and com- 

 prise, besides the remaining descriptions, a summary of the 

 iaunal population of each of the principal Neocene horizons. 



The Vatican Observatory has recently issued volume v. 01 

 Pubblicazioni (xxiii. -h 808 pages). The work is divided 

 into four sections — astronomy (including observations of shooting 

 stars), terrestrial magnetism, earthquake phenomena, and 

 meteorology. The meteorological observations for the years 

 1893 and 1894, and ten-day and monthly means, are tabulated 

 under each hour, in addition to the usual daily means and 

 extremes. The whole work is beautifully executed, and con- 

 tains some good xstronomical and other plates. .Vbout 220 

 pages are devoted to a summary of the proceedings at the 

 weekly meetings held .it the observatory during the )c.^r^ 1S94 

 and 189s. 



