602 
NATURE 
[Oct. 21, 1886 
Mr. JoHN WHITEHEAD, well known to ornithologists for his 
discovery of a new species of Nuthatch in Corsica, has been 
travelling in Borneo during the last two years, and has sent 
home a large collection of birds. Unfortunately the disturbed 
state of the country in the Brunei district has prevented Mr. 
Whitehead from accomplishing the chief object of his expedition, 
the ascent of Kina Balu, and he has therefore been obliged to 
restrict his labours to *the neighbourhood of Labuan and the 
country round Sandakan. These districts have been well worked 
for years by Mr. Alfred Everett, Mr. Treacher, Mr. Pryer, and | 
other naturalists, and Mr. Whitehead’s collection, although very 
complete, did not contain anything new to science. He is now 
travelling in Java, and purposes to explore some of the mountain- 
ranges in the interior. 
Mr, GEORGE REID, a well-known contributor to the pages 
of Mr. Allan Hume’s journal, Stray Feathers, has just fin- 
ished a ‘‘Catalogue of the Birds in the Provincial Museum, 
N.W.P. and Oudh, Lucknow.” Mr, Reid is the member of 
the Committee of Management in charge of the Natural His- 
tory Department of the Lucknow Museum, and the value of the 
bird-collection depends upon the series which Mr. Reid has | 
himself given to the Museum, his donation amounting to 1287 
specimens out of a total of 2646. The Museum appears to 
possess a very complete collection of birds from the neighbour- 
hood of Lucknow, and it is encouraging to see that Mr. Reid, 
in re-organising the natural history portion of the Museum under 
his charge, has recognised the first duties of a local institution, 
and has commenced by making a good collection of the birds 
of the province, of which Lucknow is the capital. Mr. Reid 
will be glad to entertain the idea of exchanges with other 
Museums. 
THE concluding part of the late John Gould’s ‘‘ Supplement ” 
to his “‘ Monograph of the Trochilidze” will shortly be issued 
by Messrs. Sotheran. This work, which was left unfinished at 
Mr. Gould's death, has been completed by Mr, Bowdler Sharpe, 
who has also nearly finished the great work on the ‘‘ Birds of 
New Guinea,” which had not long been commenced by the 
author before he died. 
Messrs. TAYLOR AND FRANCIS will shortly publish a work 
by Mr. T. Mellard Reade, F.G.S., entitled “The Origin of 
Mountain-Ranges.” In addition to containing a systematic 
theory of mountain-building, with detailed experimental illustra- 
tions, the structure and geological history of the great mountain- 
masses of the globe will be discussed. The work will also 
contain many maps and sections of mountain-ranges, and a con- 
toured map of the North Atlantic Ocean, together with numerous 
sketches of mountain-structure and scenery, from Nature, by 
the author. 
Pror. R. H. RicHarps, of Springfield, Massachusetts, has 
invented an ingenious and effective application of the zoétrope 
for the illustration of the relation between certain isomeric forms. 
The apparatus exhibits the gradual passing of a cube into 
an octahedron, a dodecahedron, &c. It can be used also for 
exhibiting the growth of hemihedral forms of crystals. 
A pRoyecr is on foot for tunnelling the ‘‘Great Divide.” 
The Divide is the Rocky Mountains, and the point proposed to 
be tunnelled is under Gray’s Peak, which rises no less than 
14,441 feet above the level of the sea. At 4441 feet below the 
peak, by tunnelling from east to west for 25,000 feet direct, 
communication would be opened between the valleys on the 
Atlantic slope and those of the Pacific side. This would shorten 
the distance between Denver, in Colorado, and Salt Lake City, 
in Utah, and consequently the distance between the Missouri 
River, say at St. Louis, and San Francisco, nearly 300 miles ; 
and there would be little more required in the way of ascending 
or descending or tunnelling mountains. Part of the work ms 
already been accomplished. ‘The country from the Missouri 19 
the foot of the Rockies rises gradually in rolling prairie till an 
elevation is reached of 5200 feet above the sea-level. The 
Rockies themselves rise at various places to a height exceeding 
11,000 feet. Of the twenty most famous passes, only seven are 
below 10,000 feet, while five are upwards of 12,000 feet, and 
one, the Argentine, is 13,000 feet. Of the seventy-three im- 
portant towns in Colorado, only twelve are below 5000 feet, ten 
are over 10,000 feet, and one is 14,000. The point from which 
it is proposed to tunnel is 60 miles due west from Denver, and 
although one of the highest peaks, it is by far the narrowest in 
the great backbone of the American continent. 
AT a meeting on Tuesday of the Committee of the subscribers 
to the British School of Archeology at Athens, Prof. Jebb said 
the School had been erected and paid for, Mr. F, C, Penrose 
had been appointed Director, and a provisional income of 400/. 
a year for three years had been raised; but additional funds 
were required. Prof. C. T. Newton, in urging the importance 
of having a great School of Archeology, suggested that there 
should ultimately be raised a special fund for the payment of the 
travelling expenses of the students at Athens. On the motion 
of Prof. Jebb, a Managing Committee was appointed. 
On Saturday last, after six in the evening, several shocks of 
earthquake were felt in Alsace and many other parts in the 
nearest Alpine valleys, in the Vosges, and in the Black Forest. 
At Strasburg there had not been any earthquake for almost 200 
years. The direction of the movement was from north to south. 
Several of the shocks were rather severe. 
A TELEGRAM from Halifax, October 14, states that a shock 
of earthquake lasting ten seconds had been felt at Sydney, Cape 
Breton Island, Canada. 
Tue Rey. J. H. Abrahall writes from Combe Vicarage, 
Woodstock, that on September 30, while near Blenheim Park, 
walking westwards about 7 p.m., he was aware of a sudden 
splendour above him on his left. Turning towards it, he 
saw a meteor moving eastward. It pursued a level path 
beneath the Milky Way about a sixth of the distance from 
the zenith to the horizon. It was bigger than Jupiter, and of a 
yellow hue. A reddish flame curled, crest-like, backward from 
its top. Its course was slow, and it quenched the light of the 
stars it passed over. It soon vanished, leaving no luminous 
train. 
We have already referred to two successive instalments of 
Mr. Taylor’s papers on the aborigines of Formosa, which have 
appeared in the China Review of Hong Kong. The third and 
last is now before us. It first describes the Pepo-huans, who 
are really not aborigines at all, but who stand between the 
savages and the Chinese settlers, speaking the language of both. 
They are believed by themselves and the other tribes to be the 
result of mixed marriages between whites and Chinese, who 
have traded to the country or been wrecked on the coasts, and 
aboriginal women. They are a simple, harmless, peaceful 
people. The Diaramocks, who inhabit the mountain-ranges 
which form the north-western boundary of the Tipuns (already 
described), are a fierce and intractable race, addicted to canni- 
balism. Little is known about them, as they hold aloof from 
other tribes. They are supposed to be the true aboriginal 
inhabitants of Formosa. ‘There is also said to be a tribe of red- 
haired savages, living amongst the central mountains, but no 
authentic information has been gained respecting them. The 
inhabitants of Formosa generally are described as inquisitive 
and intelligent. The Chinese have a proverb to the effect that 
when the savages take to wearing trousers there is no opening 
