
























-_ a 7 = © Fe. _ 
tae _ 
3, 1923] 
al for February gives some account of the 
hydrographical work of the Quest expedition. Thirty- 
two soundings were taken in the Southern Ocean. 
‘The first series was from a point 500 miles east of the 
South Sandwich Group to about lat. 60° 45’ S., long. 
°E., and then to lat. 69° 18’S., long. 17° 11’ E. 
The position and details of the soundings are not 
ven, but it would appear that water of practically 
000 fathoms was crossed in the supposed ‘ deep ” 
the Biscoe Sea. Shoaling water towards the south, 
ically where Bellingshausen made his southern 
mpt in 1820, confirmed that navigator’s belief in 
occurrence of land not far off. A depth of 1089 
thoms might occur within 50 miles of the Antarctic 
‘continent. From this point an irregular line of 
soundings was carried westward across the mouth of 
the Weddell Sea towards Elephant Island. These 
confirmed the discoveries of the Scotia and Deutsch- 
and, which showed the Weddell Sea to be approxi- 
nately 2500 fathoms in depth. No soundings were 
aken between Elephant Island and South Georgia, 
md only three were taken between South Georgia 
nd Tristan da Cunha. None appears to have been 
en in the uncharted waters to the east of the 
South Sandwich group. It is most unfortunate that 
heavy weather prevented oceanographical work ex- 
tly in those areas where the gaps in knowledge 
e widest. A search for a reported reef 350 miles 
. by N. of Tristan da Cunha showed that it does 
t exist. The paper also contains a new map of 
Gough Island and some additional surveys in South 
eorgia. 
_ Om Exproration in New Sours WaLeEs.—The 
Federal Government of Australia recently offered a 
ard of 50,000/. for the discovery of commercial 
leposits of petroleum within the continent, in order 
9 encourage private enterprise in prospecting. Not 
content with this, the New South Wales Government 
las made a further offer of 10,000/. for the discovery 
roduction of 100,000 gallons of natural mineral 
il within the State, and so that such enterprise, if 
indertaken, should be carried out with at least a 
hnical chance of success, a blue-book has been pre- 
ed by the Geological Survey of that State, which 
scusses petroleum and natural gas and the possi- 
ilities of their location within its confines. The 
ublication is a credit to all concerned, but more 
articularly to its author, Mr. Leo J. Jones, who, 
riting primarily for the non-technical public, has 
set forth the principles of oil production in a com- 
vendably lucid manner. By following the text of 
e first five chapters of the pamphlet carefully, no 
Itimate failure can be set down to ignorance, and 
e ‘“‘ wild-catter,’’ if unsuccessful, can reasonably 
na 
lead ill-luck. The two concluding chapters review 
ast operations for locating oil-pools in New South 
Wales and discuss the possible areas awaiting ex- 
ploration. A complete stratigraphical succession for 
he State is quoted, and forms the basis of a brief 
urvey of the oil potentialities of each formation. 
in the summary, however, we are acquainted with the 
ficial opinion regarding future oil possibilities, two 
extracts from which read as follows: ‘‘ The prospects 
of obtaining commercial supplies of oil in New South 
Wales are by no means bright .. .,” and again 
. . . New South Wales will have to depend for its 
supplies, not upon deposits of crude petroleum, 
but upon the mining and distillation of oil shales . . .”’ 
already known to occur extensively in the state; 
with which observations we are in entire agreement. 
It would thus seem that the New South Wales 
Government is reasonably safe in offering the reward 
quoted, and, for that matter, the Federal Govern- 
ment is probably in a similar position. 
No. 2783, VOL. 111] 
NATURE 
METEOROLOGY IN MysorE.—The twenty-ninth 
annual report for 1921 and a separate report on 
rainfall registration in Mysore for 1921, prepared 
under the direction of Mr. N. Venkatesa Iyengar, 
meteorological reporter, have recently been published 
by the Mysore Government. The annual report 
contains data for the four observatories, Bangalore, 
Mysore, Hassan, and Chitaldrug. Monthly means 
for the several elements are compared systematically 
with the respective normals for 29 years. Annual 
means of temperature at the four observatories 
differed by rather more than 4° F., Bangalore being 
the coldest with 69°-2 F. and Chitaldrug the warmest 
with 73°-6 F. Rainfall for the year was greatest, 
36°62 in., at Bangalore, which is 1-43 in. more than 
the normal, the least, 24-37 in., at Chitaldrug, which 
is 0-50 in. less than the normal. According to the 
report on rainfall registration, rain is measured at 
226 stations, the mean for the State being 36-19 in. 
against an average of 36:10 in. The greatest rainfall 
in 24 hours was 14:60 in. at Agumbi in the Shamoga 
District on July 30. The two heaviest falls of rain 
in 24 hours during 192t are given for each of the 
rainfall stations. Percentage of the rainfall is given 
for each season in each district and for the State 
asawhole. For the State in the cold weather period, 
January and February, the percentage of the normal 
was 238; in the hot weather period, March to May, 
it was 3 per cent. deficient ; in the south-west monsoon 
period, June to September, it was 5 per cent. deficient ; 
and in the north-east monsoon, October to December, 
it was Ir per cent. in excess. The rainfall is given 
for the several river basins, and the departure from 
the normal. The detailed results are of considerable 
value to the world’s meteorology. 
CONCENTRATION OF MINERALS BY MULTIPHASE 
MaGnets.—The problem of the utilisation of multi- 
phase currents for the separation of minerals from 
ore continues to be developed by Mr. W. M. Mordey. 
An important paper on the subject, which he read 
in December 1921 before the South African Institu- 
tion of Electrical Engineers, was dealt with in an 
article by Prof. Truscott, of the Royal School of 
Mines, in Nature of April 29 last year. Experi- 
ments illustrating the physics of the method were 
shown last summer at the conversaziones of the Royal 
Society, and were repeated with some extensions 
on the occasion of the Silvanus Thompson Memorial 
Lecture at Finsbury Technical College on February 1. 
Meanwhile, in the Bessemer Laboratory of the Royal 
School of Mines the process is assuming a character 
approaching practical requirements. A stream of 
‘“pulp,”’ consisting of crushed mineral in water, is 
passed down a launder, under which is placed a 
multiphase magnet. The magnetic field causes the 
mineral constituents to move gradually to one side 
of the stream, leaving the gangue on the other side. 
In this test the material principally made use of 
is an ore of Norwegian specular hematite, a crystal- 
line oxide of iron, which, being almost non-magnetic, 
is not amenable to treatment by ordinary magnetic 
separators. Under the influence of the multiphase 
magnet, the particles of this material can be seen 
moving steadily across the stream, from one side of 
the launder to the other, in a way that will be under- 
stood by those who have witnessed these experiments 
with dry materials. The test has aiso been carried 
out with an ore of magnetite. This powerfully 
magnetic material is, for the most part, held stationary 
over the poles of the multiphase magnet ; but when 
the field is reduced in strength, its action resembles 
that of specular hematite, i.e. the concentrate forms 
on one side of the stream, and the gangue is washed 
down on the other, 
