140 



NA TURE 



[December 3, 1908 



Government might do much to protect such remains by 

 insisting that its own officials should treat them w-th 

 consideration. One of the remarkable megalithic ruins 

 of Malta appears to have just had a narrow escape, as 

 in order to avoid the extra cost of a slight diversion of 

 a new wall on the Corradino outside Valetta, one of the 

 two most accessible of the archxological treasures of 

 Malta was to have been ruthlessly swept away. Money 

 Xor the wall was not available during the current year, 

 so its erection was postponed, and we understand that in 

 consequence of the protests by the Maltese archa:oIogists 

 and the intervention of the civil authorities the .'\dmiralty 

 officials have agreed that the wall shall be so diverted 

 as to leave the megalithic remains uninjured. During the 

 j-ecent correspondence in the Times on the danger to the 

 stone circles of Dartmoor, attention was directed to the 

 destruction of a prehistoric stone group on land which 

 had been sold to the War Office on the understanding that 

 the antiquities should be preserved. 



The Royal Geographical Society has received from Dr. 

 M. A. Stein an account of the final stage of his expedition 

 into Central Asia. From an article in the Times, it appears 

 that Dr. Stein started on August i last on his expedition to 

 the sources of the Yurung-kash, or Khotan river. After 

 making his way through the gorges of Polu to the northern- 

 most high plateau, he turned to the west and succeeded 

 in reaching the deep-cut valley of Zailik, which drains into 

 the Yurung-kash. Terribly rugged as the valley of Zailik 

 is. Dr. Stein ascended from it the high spurs coming down 

 from the main Kwen-lun range northward, and by estab- 

 lishing survey stations was able to map the greater portion 

 ■of the region containing the Yurung-kash headwaters. On 

 the south the party proved to be flanked by a range of 

 snowy peaks, rising to 23,000 feet, and clad with glaciers. 

 By crossing side spurs over passes about iS.ooo feet high, 

 and ascending the gorge of the main river, they reached 

 after eight marches from Zailik the glacier-bound basin in 

 which the easternmost and largest branch of the river takes 

 its rise. Having traced the river to its head, the party 

 turned east to high ground on the Aksai-chin plateau. The 

 object next accomplished was to reach the valley of the 

 Kara-kash river. For this purpose the route which leads 

 from Polu towards the Lanak-Ia pass and Ladak was 

 followed. This took them to the uppermost valley of the 

 Keriya river, and past the line of groat glaciers which form 

 its true sources. At last the watershed of the Keriya river 

 was left behind, and the exploration of the hitherto un- 

 surveyed ground westwards was commenced. The area 

 before them, which in maps had figured as a high plain 

 called Aksai-chin desert, proved soon of a different charac- 

 ter. High snow-covered spurs with valleys between them 

 were found to descend here from the range flanking the 

 Yurung-kash. After a week they reached a large salt lake 

 which an Indian survey party appears to have sighted more 

 than forty years ago, but which has now become dry salt 

 marsh. Continuing the journey to the north-west of it, 

 they struck the traces of the old route by which Haji 

 Habibullah, ruler of Khotan, had endeavoured to establish 

 direct communication between Ladakh and his kingdom. 

 Crossing several side spurs of the main range to the north, 

 they emerged at last, on September 18, in the valley of 

 the easternmost feeder of the Kara-kash. 



The weather summaries issued by the Meteorological 

 Office show that for the autumn season, comprised by the 

 thirteen weeks ended November 28, the mean tempera- 

 ture was largely in excess of the average over the entire 

 area of the United Kingdom. The range of temperature 

 NO. 2040, VOL. 79] 



was excessive, amounting to 60° and upwards in the 

 east of Scotland, the east and south-west of England, and 

 in the Midland counties. The aggregate rainfall was 

 largely in defect, e.xcept in the e^st of Scotland and the 

 south of Ireland, in both of which districts the excess 

 was only a few hundredths of an inch. The deficiency 

 was upwards of 3 inches in the south-east and south- 

 west of England and in the Channel Islands. The dura- 

 tion of bright sunshine was in excess of the average in 

 most of the English districts, the excess for the season 

 amounting to seventy-five hours in the south-east of 

 England, or S per cent, of the possible duration. The 

 aggregate rainfall since the commencement of the year 

 is in defect of the average over the entire kingdom, except 

 in the north-west of England and the north of Ireland. 

 In the Channel Islands the deficiency is 8-50 inches, in 

 the south-west of England 6' 14 inches, and upwards of 

 3 inches in the north-east and south-east of England. The 

 excess of sunshine since the commencement of the year 

 amounts to 151 hours, or 4 per cent, of the average dura- 

 tion in the south-east of England. 



To Miss Gcorgina Sweet we are indebted for a copy of 

 a paper, published in vol. .xxi. of the Proceedings of the 

 Royal Society of \"ictoria, on anatomical variation in the 

 Australian tree-frog, Hyla aiirca. 



We are indebted to Mr. A. E. Shipley for a separate 

 copy of his account of the parasites infesting grouse, re- 

 printed from the interim report of the Grouse Disease Com- 

 mission, and likewise for one of a second paper, reproduced 

 from the second number of Parasitology, on a thread- 

 worm infesting the swim-bladder of a trout. 



Ln their November issue, _ the editors of British Birds 

 announce that they propose to institute further inquiries 

 and investigations in regard to " wood-pigeon diphtheria," 

 and for this purpose request the assistance of observers 

 from all parts of the country, to whom schedules of queries 

 will be supplied on application. Mr. C. B. Ticehurst will, 

 as before, undertake the investigation. It is stated in the 

 course of the notice that the supposed probability of this 

 disease being communicable to man is not countenanced by 

 Mr. Ticehurst. 



A MUSEUM at Norwich, organised and maintained by 

 Daniel Boulter, a dealer in curiosities in that city, during 

 a part of the last quarter of the eighteenth century, forms 

 the subject of an interesting paper (read at the Ipswich 

 conference) by Mr. T. Southwell, published in the October 

 number of the Museums Journal. To the same issue Dr. 

 F. A. Bather contributes an account of the Lund Museum 

 for the History of Culture, to the opening of which refer- 

 ence has been previously made in our columns. 



Important developments in regard to the administration 

 of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, are foreshadowed in the 

 report of the conference in regard to museums in India, 

 held at Calcutta in December, 1907. There was a very 

 representative attendance of Indian museum directors and 

 curators (from Kashmir to Madras), and specialisation 

 in the matter of administration was the order of the day. 

 As regards the Indian Museum, it was decided that while 

 the geological and paL-eontological section will remain, as 

 heretofore, under the control of the director of the Geo- 

 logical Survey, the remaining collections will be placed 

 under four distinct authorities. Archaeology will be handed 

 over to the director-general of archaeology ; the principal 

 of the School of .-Vrt will assume control of the objects 

 of industrial and fine art ; the industrial collections will 

 be transferred to the reporter on economic products; whilf 



