500 
NATURE 
[ Sept. 23, 1886 
“« Academies, &c., Great Britain and Ireland,—London, Royal 
Society.” The towns are now arranged alphabetically, regardless 
of countries. Only completed series are fully entered ; works in 
progress are, according to the rule of the Museum, catalogued 
with the date of the first volume, and the words ‘‘in progress.” 
The work covers the greater part of the scientific literature of 
the world ; when the Catalogue of ‘‘ periodical publications” is 
finished, there will be little relating to science which cannot be 
found under appropriate heads in one or the other. It seems 
like looking the gift-horse in the mouth, but we cannot refrain 
from observing that the value of these five volumes would 
be enormously increased if some approximation to a subject 
index could be added to them. It would be a simple task to 
have headings Chemistry, Microscopy, Geology, &c., under which 
were given the names of the towns where societies on these 
subjects are to be found. The student would then have before 
him at a glance the names of all the societies on the globe work- 
ing at any particular subject. Instances will present themselves 
to every student in which the first name of a society, and that 
by which it has to be sought in the Catalogue, does not always 
indicate the sphere of work of the society. The price of the 
Catalogue unbound is, it should be added, a sovereign. 
THE small launch Vo/fa, which is propelled by the electric 
current, in a method invented by Messrs. Stephens and Co., of 
Millwall, left Dover on Monday morning last week on her 
voyage across the Channel. The hull of the Volta is 37 feet 
long and nearly 7 feet beam, built: of galvanised steel plates. 
She has a very light appearance in the water. Her bow is about 
2 feet above the water-line, and from this point down towards 
the stern she gradually reduces the depth of her gunwale. 
deck is nearly or quite on a level with the water. Below the 
deck, which is securely fastened down, are placed the electric 
accumulators, all coupled together with the coils. They are 
little square boxes about 6 by 12 inches, and are wedgel in 
closely together so as to prevent shifting, and to fill the whole 
of the space below the deck. The propelling power consists of 
sixty-one accumulators, and a pair of Reckenzaun electromotors, 
also placed beneath the floor, so that the whole of the boat is 
available for passenger accommodation. The motive-power is 
under complete control, and the speed can be regulated to what- 
ever rate is required. The speed of the launch is regulated by 
a main switch, and there are special switches for going astern, 
the whole of the apparatus being easily managed by one man. 
The power of the motors may be varied at will fron 4 horse- 
power to 12 horse-power, whilst the screw-propeller, which is 
coupled direct to the motor-shaft, makes from 600 to 1009 revo- 
lutions per minute, according to the position of the switch 
handle. The Vota returned to Dover shortly before 8 o’clock, 
having completed a voyage which is regarded as a great scientific 
success. When the boat arrived at Calais it was found that the 
amount of electricity remaining in the accumulators warranted 
the return journey being attempted. When the voyage was 
completed, the current from the accumulators was still powerful, 
notwithstanding that during the last half-hour of the journey the 
launch had been driven at the rate of 14 miles an hour, and 
rushed through the water at such a rate as nearly to throw it 
over her bow. The total distance traversed was about 50 miles. 
During the voyage the speed was varied at will by means of the 
switch. The experiment is regarded by all those on board as a 
success far in advance of anything they expected. An incident 
occurred on the passage which illustrates the noiselessness of 
the little vessel. . About mid-Channel the pilot observed a sea- 
gull floating asleep on the water. The boat was steered close to 
the bird, which was caught by the neck by one of those on 
board, and brought alive to Dover. 
INTELLIGENCE has been received from Lieut. Schwatka, who 
was sent to Alaska in command of an exploring Expedition by 
Her | 
the proprietors of the Mew York Times. On the way to Mount 
St. Elias, which dominates the range to which the same name 
has been given, the party crossed a river, the existence of which 
had been hitherto unknown. At a distance of eight miles from 
the mouth it is a mile in width, and its current flows at the 
rate of ten miles an hour. This is thought to be the largest 
river that enters the Pacific Ocean, and the glacial mud it brings 
down with it discolours the waters of Icy Bay for some miles 
out to sea, The river has been named Jones River, after Mr. 
George Jones, of New York, one of the promoters of the Ex- 
pedition. To the east the explores saw a glacier twenty miles 
wide, which extended for fifty miles along the base of the St. 
Elias Alps. Assuming the land beneath it to be flat, the 
thickness of this glacier is about 1090 feet. It was named 
after Prof. Agassiz. Another glacier, to the westward, was 
named after Prof. Guyot. After three days’ marching, Lieut. 
Schwatka and his party came upon a third glacier, which they 
named in honour of Prof. Tyndall. From this point they 
resolved to make a final dash as far as they could go into the 
heart of this grand but desolate icy region. At the end of twenty 
hours’ labour they came in sight of the south side of the great moun- 
tain to which belongs the icy girdle along which they had been 
travelling. They saw before them glaciers rising, sometimes 
perpendicularly, to heights varying from 300 to 3000 feet. The 
Tyndall glacier, comparatively safe so far, was safe no longer. 
Enormous crevasses, some as much as 30 feet across, now be- 
came frequent; and the bands of ice between them were so 
narrow, that, in places, the explorers appeared to themselves to 
be walking on a bridge like that of a house roof, with a chasm 
hundreds of feet deep on each side. These and other diffi- 
culties, such as are familiar to Alpine climbers, had been sur- 
mounted until a height of 7200 feet above the level of the sea 
had been attained. As nearly the entire journey was above the 
snow-level, this ranks among the best climbs on record. The 
Lieutenant telegraphs that he hopes, by renewing his attempts 
upon the mountain on its northern and eastern sides, to make 
further contributions to geographical science, and perhaps to 
ascend the mountain to a greater height ; but the probability is 
that Mount St. Elias will long remain an unscaled peak. Mr. 
Seton Karr states that the whole region is vastly superior to any 
other mountainous district with which he is acquainted. One 
incident of the journey was the disc very of three peaks, ranging 
from 8000 feet to 12,000 feet in height, which were severally 
named after President Cleveland, Mr. Secretary Whitney, and 
Capt. Nicholls. 
Last autumn a few science classes were started as a pre- 
liminary experiment in rooms belonging to the Royal Victoria 
Hall, at the nominal fee of Is. on first entrance and Is. 6d. 
per class for the session. The success achieved has encouraged 
the promoters to extend the scheme, and this year it is intended 
to hold classes in mathematics, chemistry, animal physiology, 
drawing, arithmetic, geometry, electricity, political economy, 
and English literature. Some of these classes will be in con- 
nection with South Kensington. Last year they were welcomed 
in the most enthusiastic way by the comparatively small 
number who knew of their existence; no pains were taken to 
advertise them, as it seemed likely the numbers would exceed 
the available accommodation. This has now been improved, 
and it is hoped that a very useful branch has been added to the 
work at the Hall. The entertainments, concerts, and lectures 
which go on in the large hall are in no way interfered with 
thereby ; in fact the lectures gain by the existence of systematic 
instruction to which they lead up. Those at present announced 
are: October 5, Mr. W. L. Carpenter, on ‘‘ What may be done 
with a New Lantern” ; October 12, Dr. W- D. Halliburton, 
on ‘‘ The Germs of Disease” ; October 19, Prof. Judd, on “A 
Piece of Pumice-Stone.” 
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