654 
NATURE 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
[Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 
pressed by hts correspondents. Neither can he undertake 
to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 
manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. 
No notice ts taken of anonymous communications. | 
The Hydrography of the Faeroe-Shetland Channel, 
IN that portion of the programme of international investiga- 
tion of the North Sea (as finally drawn up by the conference at 
Copenhagen last July) which provides for a coordinated series 
of hydrographic cruises at intervals of three months, it falls 
to Scotland to investigate the Faeroe-Shetland Channel and 
adjacent waters. It was important that the work should be 
begun as soon as possible, and especially so in order that the 
sea-temperatures, &c., should not go unrecorded in this ab- 
normal season ; but it would have been impossible to begin at 
so short notice had not Dr. Hjort, the director of the Norwegian 
investigation, helped by the loan of apparatus and by permitting 
his hydrographic assistant, Mr. Helland-Hansen, to.come over 
and inaugurate the work. The Admiralty gave the use of 
H.M.S. /acka/ ; Lieutenant and Commander Sharpe and Mr. 
Helland-Hansen were conjointly responsible for the observa- 
tions, and the report will be drawn up by Mr. Helland-Hansen, 
who has sent me the preliminary account which follows. The 
Jackals course lay from the Moray Firth to Lerwick, thence in 
a north-easterly direction nearly to the Norwegian coast, then 
west to the Faeroes, thence to Fair Isle and out into the North 
Sea again ; and it was so planned as to give, over each of the 
more important areas, double and approximately parallel lines 
of observations. Between August 25 and September 1, hydro- 
graphic observations were taken at twenty-six stations, and in 
addition surface-temperatures were taken every hour. A small 
number of plankton samples was collected also, but not to the 
extent that will be done on future cruises. 
D'Arcy W. THompson. 
The Cruzse of H.M.S. “‘ Jackal,” August, 1902. 
The following short account is only a preliminary one and is 
given with some reservation, as the time has not yet permitted 
to draw the final results. In some weeks, however, we shall 
know the results of the investigations of the Norwegian fishery 
steamer Michael Sars from the neighbouring seas during the 
same period, and then we shall be able to work out the material 
from the Jackal very completely. 
The best result from the /acka/ expedition is, perhaps, that 
for the time in question we shall be able partially to solve 
the problem, equally important to hydrographers and _bio- 
logists, of the quantity of Atlantic water entering the North 
Sea and the Norwegian Sea. 
investigators, it was demonstrated that a large quantity of 
Atlantic water moved to the north between the Faeroes and 
Shetland (the Gulf Stream), and also that Atlantic water to the 
north and north-east of Scotland flowed in a south-westerly 
direction into the North Sea. Now we have undoubtedly found 
some unknown details of great importance. 
(1) Zhe Gulf Stream zs in the Faeroe-Shetland Channel 
divided from beneath by a deep wedge of cold and less salt water 
coming from the north, The influence of this cold water is 
traced even to the surface. Thus we have really two parallel 
branches of the Gulf Stream from the Faeroe-Shetland 
Channel to the north. This fact may be shown by the following 
table. Station xii. (61° 2’ N., 1° 10’ W.) is situated near Shet- 
land, and station xvi. (61° 47’ N., 6° 4’ W.) near the Faeroes, 
The temperatures and salinities at, for instance, 300 metres’ 
depths—stations xiii, (61°° 12’ N., 2° 5/ W.), xiv. (61° 25/, 
3° 24’ W.) and xv. (61° 35’ N., 4° 39’ W.)—are very typical. 
Stations. 
&. xii. | xiii. xiv XV. Xvi. 
a 
ie ee = 
ge Tem. | Salin.| Vem. | Salin. Tem. | Salin. Tem. | Sa'in. 1 
Jiao ° 5 os" | E 
| oat . | 
© | 1173 | 35°33 | 112 | 35°3t = g‘5_|'34°96  8'9 | 34°98 | g'2 35.19 
4o | 10°8 35°32 YO'7 | 35°31 ro'o |,.35°07,. 84 | 35°11 | 8°7 | 35717 
roo |'9"4 | 35°32 | 9°4 | 35°32 | “Gr. | 22°, 8:2 | 35°20] B'5- j 35°19 
o°5 | 35 14 
200 Bottom 8°9 | 35°3 653) || 'g5rarh 757" \g5720 Bottom 
300 85 | 35°3 3°6 | 34°07 69 3514 
400 | 674 | 35°09 
500 66 | 35°17 | 12 | 34°95 
NO. 1722, VOL. 
Many years ago, and by different | 
| to the School of Human Anatomy. 
[OcToBER 30, 1902 
As the cold water from the north and the warm water from 
the south have very different influences upon organic life, the 
discovery of such a division of the Gulf Stream will probably 
be of importance in understanding the distribution of the 
organisms. 
(2) Zn August comparatively little Atlantic water enters the 
North Sea in the surface between Scotland and Shetland. The 
influx of Atlantic water chiefly takes place céose to the coast of 
Scotland, at a distance of about twenty to forty nautical miles 
away from the coast. [Further away, at about eighty miles’ 
distance, the surface- water seems to move in a northerly direction. 
This cannot be certainly decided, however, until a minute 
examination of the hydrodynamic conditions has taken place. ] 
(3) Another branch of Gulf Stream-water enters the North 
Sea between Shetland and Norway. 
(4) In the north-western part of the North Sea we find af the 
bottom (below thirty to forty fathoms from the surface) a /ayer 
of remarkably cold and salt water; it is much salter than the 
surface-water. It is too salt to be Arctic water and too cold to. 
be summer water from the Atlantic Ocean. I think it probable 
that this bottom layer consists of Atlantic water that has been 
at the surface in winter time. Our hydrographical observations, 
then, seem to indicate that the zujflux of Atlantic water into 
the North Sea in winter time takes place to a much greater extent 
than in summer time. To find the laws of the variations of this 
influx, however, we must have autumn and winter observations. 
The regions where the /acka/ collected her material this year 
were previously incompletely explored. -I have only now had an 
opportunity to compare our observations with those found in 
Mr. H. N. Dickson’s excellent paper on ‘*The Circulation of 
the Surface-Waters of the North Atlantic Ocean” (published 
1901). Unfortunately, Mr. Dickson’s observations are limited 
to the surface. It seems as if the influx of the cold water 
from the north and the east Icelandic Polar current this year 
were much stronger than in, e.g., 1896. In the western part of 
the channel, the surface-temperatures this year were about 
114° C. lower than in 1896, and the Gulf Stream seems to 
have been narrower. This may probably be connected with 
the unusually cold weather of this year. 
B. HELLAND-HANSEN. 
Matriculation Requirements in Scottish 
Universities. 
In reference to a remark made in my address published in 
NATURE last week, Prof. A. Gray tells me that matriculation in 
the Scottish universities is no longer the simple matter it was in 
my time. Before entering on his qualifying course of study, 
every candidate for a degree in arts or science must now pass a 
preliminary examination. Joun PERRY. 
Royal College of Science, London, October 27. 
The Neglect of Anthropology in British Universities. 
THE recent publication in NATURE (August 28, p. 430) of 
an abstract of Prof. Haddon’s presidential address to the 
Anthropological Institute, affords an opportunity of bringing 
before the scientific public, by way of contrast, a concise state- 
ment of what is being at present done in Britain to forward 
anthropological science. 
Of all the universities in Britain, two only attempt systematic 
teaching in this subject, viz. Oxford and Cambridge, while in a 
third, viz. Aberdeen, there has existed since 1899 a society 
having for its object the promotion of anatomical and anthro- 
pological research. In Oxford there is a poorly paid professor- 
ship of anthropology, but in Cambridge even this scanty . 
recognition is not vouchsafed to the subject, for in that University 
there are two lectureships of but 50/. a year each, established in 
1899 and 1900 respectively for five years. One of these 
lectureships is devoted to physical anthropology and is attached 
The other, held by Prof. 
Haddon himself, is for ethnology, and covers the wide field of 
all relating to the industries, customs -and beliefs of primitive 
| peoples, now in many cases approaching extinction, and the loss 
by disinterestedness of their primitive customs and unwritten 
records. 1t cannot be expected that any real advance in these 
branches of science can be made in Bnitain while, they are so 
pitifully starved, and while the men holding mere precarious 
appointments are not deemed worthy of their hire. 
