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_ January cy 1 | 













_ pictures at the Alpine Club Hall, Mill Street, Conduit 
Street, W.1. These pictures, which will be on view 
until February 6, include some 152 photographs and 
52 paintings in oil and water colour, The photo- 
graphs are chiefly by Capt. Noel, showing the per- 
sonnel of the expedition, the camps and ground 
_ traversed, and the Tibetan people. Among the last- 
_ named group are several of the Rongbuk monastery 
and its inmates, including two telephotographs of the 
_ Chief Lama, who, as the supposed incarnation of the 
god Chongraysay, could not be approached sufficiently 
for an ordinary photograph. There are several fine 
_ photographs of the East Rongbuk glacier by Capt- 
Finch, some of them showing the tremendous ice- 
_ pyramids which had to be traversed, varying in 
height from 30 to some 300 feet. At nearly 23,000 
feet the Chang La camp was pitched in very curious 
_ surroundings; the peculiar snow formation shown 
- behind the camp in the picture was only met with at 
this place. The photographs follow the climbing to 
_ a height of some 26,000 feet, and one shows the party 
_a few minutes before the disastrous avalanche. The 
view of Changtse and Gyachung Kang from Mount 
Everest, taken at an altitude of 26,985 feet by Mr. 
Somervell, creates a record in photography. Among 
the more striking scenic effects are the wind-blown 
snows on the east slopes of Everest, and the sunset on 
the north face. Copies of the latter photograph and 
several others of the collection may be purchased. 
The impressive scenes in water colour and oil by Mr. 
T. Howard Somervell are also for sale. The proceeds 
_ will be spent on a third expedition. 
THE weather over England in 1922 had no outstand- 
ing feature like the drought in 1921, and it will go 
down to posterity as a fairly normal year meteoro- 
logically. Heavy gales were somewhat more frequent 
than in late years, especially over the southern portion 
of the Kingdom. Observations at the Royal Obser- 
vatory, Greenwich, show that the mean temperature 
for the year was 49-4° F., which is 0-7° less than the 
_ normal, using the period of 35 years, in agreement 
with the system adopted by the Meteorological 
_ Office. The warmest month was June with a mean 
temperature of 60-3°; this was the only month with 
_ the mean temperature above 60° and the only month 
with the mean of the maximum readings above 70°. 
January, February, May, June, and December were 
the only months with an excess of temperature. The 
_ coldest month was January, with the mean tempera- 
_ ture 40-3°, which is 1-7° above the normal. There 
were two days in May with the shade temperature 
above 90°, and there was one day in January, April, 
October, and December with the shade temperature 
less than 25°. Rainfall for the year, using the results 
for the civil day, measured 23-24 inches, which is 0-26 
in. less than the normal. July was the wettest month 
_ with 3-20 in., which is 0-96 in. above the normal ; the 
next wettest month was December with 2-92 in., which 
is 0-66 in. more than the normal. October was the driest 
_ month, with the total rainfall 0-93 in,, which is 1-60 
in. less than the normal. Rain fell in all on 178 days, 
which is 15 days more than the normal, and in both 
January and July rain fell on more than 20 days. 
NO. 2778, VOL. 111] 
NATURE 
ee ae! 
127 
November had only 8 days with rain. Sunshine was 
registered at Greenwich for 1469 hours, which is 9 less 
than the normal: the sunniest month was May with 
284 hours, the least sunny, November with 26 
hours. 
Tue January number of the Museums Journal 
prints the report of a committee appointed by the 
National Society of Art Masters, the Incorporated 
Association of Headmasters of Secondary Schools, 
the Association of Headmistresses of Girls’ Secondary 
Schools, and the Museums Association, to inquire 
how far the system of circulating objects from the 
Victoria and Albert Museum meets the needs of the 
provinces. Besides recommending that the circula- 
tion collections should be systematically completed 
and brought up-to-date, the committee suggests that 
the local museum might become a local sub-circula- 
tion department of the Victoria and Albert Museum. 
It ends by pointing out that, ‘‘ whilst the total vote 
for Education has grown enormously, the sum allo- 
cated for the museum side of Art Education in the 
Provinces has been practically stationary for genera- 
tions, and bears no proper relation to the sum 
available for education as a whole." And yet on its 
museum side Art Education is treated generously as 
compared with other branches of education. 
Autuors and readers will be interested in the 
authoritative statistics of the cost of book production 
published in the excellent new Catalogue of the publi- 
cations issued by Mr. Milford for the Oxford Univer- 
sity Press. In the year ending March 31, 1914 the 
Press issued 157 new books at the average price of 
7s. 11d., or 0-37d. per page. The corresponding 
figures for the year ending March 31, 1922 were 115 
books at the average price of 11s. 10d., or o-64d. per 
page. These figures concern only those books, in 
their nature unremunerative, which the Press pro- 
duces as a service to education and learning. “ It 
will be readily understood that the cost of the present 
output is higher than that of the pre-war output 
(though the rise in the price to the public does not 
show an equivalent increase) ; and the moral is easily 
drawn, that the output can be restored to the old level 
only by the activity of the Press in the production of 
remunerative books and by increased support from 
the public.” It may be also noted that the conclud- 
ing volume of the Oxford Dictionary will, when 
completed, have cost not less than 50,0001, 
IN the article on the last report of the Development 
Commissioners, which appeared in NaTuRE of Decem- 
ber 30 (vol. 110, p. 865), the statement was made 
“that the report does not contain, as in the past, an 
account of the present finances of the Fund.’’ The 
Secretary to the Commissioners writes to point out 
that this statement, which we regret, is incorrect ; 
for such an account does, in fact, appear in the body of 
the report, and it shows that the balance at the credit 
of the Fund on March 31 last was 1,337,336/., includ- 
ing 850,000/. received under the provisions of the Corn 
Production Acts (Repeal) Act 1921. The advances 
made during the year 1921-22 were, in the aggre- 
gate, 385,185/. The net balance available for annual 
