NATURE 



[November 26, 1908 



Ltd., 1908.) 



known of Linacre's career, and then sets out the 

 subject of his remarks as medical humanist and 

 grammarian, and closes with the Linacre foundations 

 themselves. On a theme so well worn no very 

 striking facts can be expected, but we have a very 

 readable presentation of the man himself, as shown 

 in his works and benefactions to his own university 

 and to Cambridge. The plates in half-tone are of 

 the Hoibein-like portrait attributed' to Quentin Matsys, 

 a copy of a drawing in the British Museum, and 

 facsimiles of title-pages of nine of his printed works. 



B. D. J. 



Lands Beyond the Channel. An Elementary Study 

 in Geography. By H. J. Mackinder. Pp. xii-l-276. 

 (London : George Philip and Son 

 Price IS. grf. 

 If geography could be learnt satis- 

 factorily by reading alone it would 

 be difficult to find a more suitable 

 and attractive reading book than 

 this. The Mediterranean Sea and 

 Europe are described bv the aid 

 of interesting text and numerous 

 maps and pictures. Historical 

 paragraphs emphasising the inter- 

 relation of history and geographv 

 are frequent, and the pupil who 

 reads the volume intelligently will 

 have accumulated a great deal of 

 curious and useful information. 

 But for the right understanding of 

 geography as a science this de- 

 scriptive matter must be supple- 

 mented by carefully graduated prac- 

 tical exercises, judiciously designed 

 to lead the learner to a knowledge 

 of the foundations upon which 

 geographical science rests. -, _ J!^ 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself 

 responsible for opinions expressed 



by his 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 is taken of anonymous 



conununications.] 



Earthquakes and John Wesley. 



The year 1755, the year of the great Lisbon earth- 

 quake, is so remarkable for its seismic activity that any 

 facts relative to earthquakus in that year have their value, 

 and I have recently stumbkd on some information from a 

 rather improbable source, viz. the journal of John Wesley. 



On Monday, June 8, 1755, he was at Osmothcrley, in 

 ■^'orkshire, and made inquiries of eye- and ear-witnesses 

 of the occurrences of March 25 preceding, and he describes 

 what he heard of noises, motions of the earth, falling: and 

 splitting of rocks, and other seismic phenomena which 

 occurred in that neighbourhood, and especially at 

 Whiston Cliffs, about five miles from Thirsk. These 

 phenomena, which commenced on March 25, seem to have 

 i;one on, if I read Wesley's statement aright, with 

 intervals to the end of May. Wesley was so much 

 interested in what he heard that on June i he made a 

 personal visit to the chief scene of the desolation, and he 

 gives a long and interesting account of what he saw in 

 the vicinity of the Whiston Cliffs. He then proceeds to 

 discuss the cause of what he had seen ; if the cause were 

 natural, it must, he says, have been fire, water, or air. 

 He discusses and dismisses each of these as the possible 

 cause, and concludes that it was the direct intervention 

 of God at a spot near where the Hamilton races were 

 held, " wrought in such a manner that manv might see 

 It and fear." In Mallet's catalogue of 'earthquakes 

 (British Association reports for 1S52) disturbances are 

 mentioned at York on March 25 and 27 on the authority 

 NO. 2039, VOL. 79] 



of Kant. Giol. Phys., t. iv., p. 314, but no further men- 

 lion is made of the facts stated by Wesley. 



I may further add that Wesley also mentions and 

 describes earthquakes in London on February 8, 1750, 

 and March 8, 1750, neither of which is mentioned in 

 Mallet's catalogue. 



The passages in which Wesley describes these several 

 seismic facts are too long for citation in your columns, 

 but appear to me well worth reading alike by the seismo- 

 logist and by the student of Wesley's character. They 

 show an inquisitive mind interested in natural facts, but 

 with a strong tendency to find immediate and direct moral 

 teaching as their final cause. Edward Fry. 



Failand House, Failand, near Bristol, November 17. 



Large Blue Whales. 



I HAVE just acquired for the Canterbury Museum the 

 skeleton of a huge blue whale (Balaeiinflcrii sihhaldii). 



The whale was cast on to the beach at Okarito, on the 

 west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, early 

 this year, and measured 87 feet in length. 



My statement that the Okarito whale is among the 

 largest known has been freely challenged in the local 

 Press. The " Ostend whale," the length of which is 

 rendered as 102 feet, has been instanced, but Beddard 

 ("A Book of 'Whales," p. 155) evidently discredits the 

 record as to size. 



A Danish correspondent refers to the skeleton of a whale 

 150 feet in length, killed off the Orkneys and preserved 

 in the Museum of Northern Antiquities, Copenhagen. 

 Others state that specimens larger than ours may be seen 

 in the British, Paris, and American museums. 



I have naturally sought information as to the length 

 of skeletons of great whales preserved in museums, but 

 have been unable to obtain satisfactory data. 



I shall be pleased, therefore, if directors of museums 

 possessing the skeletons of large whales will kindly com- 

 municate with me direct, or, as the matter is one of 

 general interest, through the medium of Nature. 



Edgar R. Waitk. 



Christchurch, New Zealand, October 8. 



Potato Black Scab. 



Referring to Prof. Johnson's letter in Nature of 

 November iq (p. 67) -on the black scab or wart disease 

 of the potato, I should like to emphasise the importance 

 of investigating in the open as well as in the laboratory 

 the conditions determining the germination of the resting 

 spores. 



