May 15, 1902] 
interest, antiquities, scenery, geology, natural history, anthro- 
pology, and of portraits of notable persons, representations 
of passing events of local or historical importance, and of 
old records, rare books, prints, maps, so as to give a com- 
prehensive survey of what is valuable and representative in the 
county of Surrey. 
In the death of Mr. John Clavell Mansel-Pleydell, of What- 
combe, near Blandford, Dorsetshire loses a man of wide influ- 
ence and learning, a naturalist of the old school, distinguished 
for his labours on the botany, zoology and geology of his native 
great local services. He was born in 1817, educated at St. 
John’s College, Cambridge, and succeeded to the family 
estates on the death of his father in 1863. He was a fellow of 
the Linnean and Geological societies, and one of the founders 
of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, to the 
Proceedings of which he contributed many articles. He was 
author also of separate works on the flora, the mollusca and 
the birds of Dorsetshire. He died on May 3, 1902, aged eighty- | 
four. 
Mr. J. MAcrARLANE, honorary secretary of the Asiatic 
Society of Bengal, informs us that Sir Frank Athelstane | 
Swettenham, K.C. M.G., the Governor of the Straits Settlements, 
has made the Society a grant of 2800 dollars, or Rs. 8750, for the 
purpose of completing the publication of the ‘‘ Materials for a 
Flora of the Malayan Peninsula,” by Sir George King, K.C.LE., 
formerly superintendent of the Botanic Garden near Calcutta. 
The series of papers bearing this title is really a monograph, 
of the flowering plants of the Malay Peninsula and the adjacent 
smaller islands, and it is as useful to the student as it is to the 
systematic botanist. The series was commenced in the Journal 
of the Asiatic Society for 1899, and up to last year nearly 1400 
pages, including fifty-two natural orders, or rather more than 
half the work, had been published. One order, Leguminose, 
has been contributed by Major Prain, and Dr. O. Stapf, of Kew, 
has collaborated in the preparation of the suborder Melastomez. 
The Society’s financial position would, however, scarcely permit 
the publication of the Malayan flora without support. At this 
juncture the Government of the Straits Settlements, which was 
naturally interested in the completion of the work, held out the 
prospects of financial aid being afforded, and has now sanctioned 
the liberal donation of Rs. 8750. This assistance places the 
Society in a position to complete without delay the publication 
of Sir George King’s important contribution to the advance- 
ment of botanical research. 
DuRING a trial of M. Severo’s air-ship at Vaugirard on Mon- 
day, an explosion occurred, causing the total destruction of the 
balloon and the death of M. Severoand his assistant, who were 
thrown to the ground from a height of more than one thousand 
feet. It is not known whether the accident was caused by an 
escape from the motors setting fire to the hydrogen in the balloon, 
or whether part of the machinery became heated and ignited the 
envelope, but the former appears to be the more probable cause 
of the calamity. The balloon shot up suddenly when it was 
released, and the expansion which must have occurred on 
account of the diminished pressure seems to have caused an 
escape of gas,{which becoming ignited, resulted in the explosion. 
As the petroleum motor was little more than a metre from the 
envelope of the balloon, there was great danger that an accident 
of this kind would occur. In M. Santos Dumont’s airship the 
motor was sixteen or eighteen metres from the balloon and far to 
the rear, so that the possible chance of gas ignition was much 
less. M. Severo designed his balloon with the object of 
NATURE 
| heavier than those in 1898. 
_ marked fish, with an aggregate minimum weight of 10,000 lb., 
modelled on the lines of Hooker’s well-known “‘ Flora of India,” | 
| their release. 
65 
machine was liable. This feature must necessarily exist in the 
greatest degree in a machine in which the screw propellers are 
so placed that their resultant thrust has a considerable moment 
about the centre of the balloon. If the thrust acts nearly along 
the axis of the balloon and the car of the balloon is as close 
up to the balloon as possible, the pitching may be expected to 
besmall. This was the essential feature of the Severo airship. 
The propulsion was effected by two screws attached to the 
balloon itself, and placed at either end of an axis that bisected 
the balloon longitudinally from end to end, while the car was 
3 | drawn up close to the balloon. Another feature was the method 
county, and one who as magistrate and councillor had rendered | 
of securing rigidity by means of a light rod running through 
the balloon from end to end and preventing it from crumpling 
in even if it should become somewhat deflated. 
In a letter to the Zzes, Earl Grey has directed attention to 
the important influence which the United States Fish Commis- 
sion claim to have exerted upon the fish supply of their 
western coasts by means of the fish-hatching operations carried 
out by the Commission. The new illustration cited by the 
acting commissioner in his letter to Earl Grey has reference to 
salmon. It is stated that, of one lot of 5000 fingerlings released 
at the Clackamas (Oregon) hatchery in 1896, after having the 
adipose dorsal fin removed with a razor, 375 fish, averaging 
| 27°7 lb., were captured in 1898 in the Columbia River basin and 
five in the Sacramento River (California) ; in the following year 
between forty and fifty others were taken, and in 1900 a number 
of others were reported, the fish caught in 1899 averaging 10 lb. 
It appears that not less than 450 
were secured in the second, third and fourth years following 
“The foregoing figures mean that for every 1000 
fingerling salmon liberated by this Commission on the Columbia 
River, 2000 lb. of adult fish were caught for market two to four 
years later. Reducing this to a financial basis, it appears that 
the cost of producing and planting young salmon is under I 
dollar per 1000 (including compensation of permanent employés), 
while the minimum value of the fish caught for market is 5 c. 
per pound, or 100 dollars for the 2000 Ib. actually taken.’ 
The acting commissioner adds that it is the intention ‘‘ to verify 
these results by additional and more conclusive marking experi- 
ments, which are already under way,” and concludes his letter 
with a reference to the Commission’s well-known success in 
introducing the Atlantic shad and striped bass into the waters 
of their west coast, where these fish now yield profitable 
fisheries. Everyone recognises the zeal and enterprise which 
the Americans have shown in the matter of fish-culture, as well 
as the success of their acclimatisation experiments cited above ; 
> 
| and there will be general satisfaction, even among the Com- 
| mission’s critics, if they should ultimately be in a position to 
prove the commercial utility of their extensive salmon-hatching 
operations. The moral, however, which Earl Grey deduces for 
the behoof of our Fisheries Department, ¢.c. to go and do like- 
wise, is more questionable. There is scarcely any need to 
introduce good fish into any ofour British waters, and there are 
many who think that the salmon has already monopolised too 
much of the attention of our administrative authorities. On 
the other hand, a Fish Commission for Great Britain, on which 
science and practice were fitly represented, and which was pro- 
vided with adequate means both for investigations and practical 
experiments, would fulfil a serious deficiency in our industrial 
organisation. 
IN asmall pamphlet of 21 pages which we have received, 
Father J. Fényi, S.J., describes a most ingenious apparatus for 
registering thunderstorms. The instrument seems to be due chiefly 
to the ingenuity of Father Johann Schreiber, S.J., an assistant a 
avoiding the danger of pitching to which M. Santos Dumont’s | the Haynald Observatory in Kalocsa, who constructed it. The 
NO. 1698, VOL. 66] 
