8o 



NATURE 



[JULV 21, I9IO 



explorers in the Andes have been recognised by the 

 authors also in the Himalayan region, though their 

 conclusions have not been completely accepted by other 

 travellers. They, however, bring together in this 

 worii observations made in the Nun Kun area during 

 1906, as well as others made before and since in other 

 parts of the north-west Himalaya, and have a right, 

 consequentlv, to generalise on the phenomena. The 

 prominences grouped under the name nievc penitente 

 are often roughly pyramidal in shape, and generally 

 disposed in rows on snow and ice at altitudes 

 at which the night temperature falls below 

 the freezing point; they are due to the un- 

 equal melting of the superficial layers of snow and 

 ice. The authors describe in detail eight varieties of 

 nieves peniientes, which, judging by the descriptions 

 given, might have been divided into the following 

 two groups : — (i.) Those that are the outward and 

 visible e.xpression of an internal heterogeneity of 

 physical structure induced in the snow and ice by (i) 

 the scoring action of avalanches with a trend parallel 

 to the dip-slope ; (2) the shearing effects of slower 

 subsidence along the slopes ; (3) the development of 

 pressure waves by the wind ; and (4) the more or less 

 regular fracturing on seracs. (ii.) Those that are due 

 to the disposition of various adventitious covers, such 

 as (5) thin patches of earthy material arranged by the 

 wind, and of a kind facilitating the absorption of the 

 sun's heat with consequent melting of the subjacent 

 ice ; (6) heavy rock-masses, which compress and pro- 

 tect the ice, giving rise, by melting of the clean ice 

 around, to the well-known glacial tables ; (7) thick 

 layers of earthy material, having a protective effect 

 similar to that of the large rock fragments, but giving 

 rise to differently shaped prominences on account of 

 , the disintegration and fall of the marginal parts of 

 the covers; fS) water-covers in depressed areas, where 

 silt is deposited unequally on a previously sculptured 

 surface. These phenomena have been discussed in 

 greater detail bv Dr. Workman in special papers pub- 

 lished in the Zeitschrift jur Cletscherkunde and in 

 the Alpine Journal. 



A notice of this book would not be complete without 

 reference to the remarkably fine photographic plates 

 with which it is illustrated, although the illustrations, 

 specially selected to demonstrate the phenomena of 

 nieve penitente, and perhaps the best In the book, are 

 taken from other areas, mainly from the Hispar and 

 associated glaciers, further north-west, in the chief- 

 ship of Nagar. One of these is here reproduced. 



T. H. HOLL.-VND. 



THE EAST AFRICAN NATURAL HISTORY 

 SOCIETY.' 

 'T^ HERE has been founded in British East .'\frica 

 -•■ a society for the study of natural history, and 

 the activities of this society naturally extend to the 

 adjoining Uganda Protectorate. This societv re- 

 cently produced the first number of a Journal, which, 

 it is to be hoped, may run to many volumes if con- 

 ducted on the lines of its first nuniber. Mr. C. W. 

 Hobley, C.M.G., a prominent official of British East 

 Africa, whose service there dates from the earliest 

 days of the British East Africa Chartered Company, 

 has taken a considerable part in the founding of this 

 local natural history society, and is one of the con- 

 tributors to the first number of the Journal. Mr. 

 Hobley's work in anthropology, in East African 

 languages, in geology, in the exploration of the 

 aquatic fauna of Lake Victoria Nyanza (it will be 

 remembered that he was the first, or one of the first, 



1 The Journal of the East Africa and Ugnada Natural History Society, 

 vol. 1., No. I, J.inuary, 1910. (London : Longmans, Green and Co., 1910,) 

 Price 5^, net. 



to discover in that lake organisms akin to the. sup- 

 posed marine fauna of Lake Tanganyika, thereby 

 lessening the acuteness of that problem), has been s 1 

 remarkable that his association with the Natural 

 History Society should be productive of irrteresting 

 results. 



This first number contains a very well-executed 

 coloured illustration of a new species of francolin 

 (Francolinus hiibbardi). This accompanies an article 

 on the francolins of Hast Africa and Uganda, which 

 to ornithologists is of real value. The scope of this 

 article also includes the allied genus Pternistes. Mr. 

 Battiscombe gives some new and interesting informa- 

 tion regarding the flora of British East Africa. There 

 are several small errors in the nomenclature of this 

 article; Lobelia johmtoni is given as Lobelia john- 

 sonii; Kniphofia thomsoni appears as K. thompsonii, 

 and Musa livingstonii is given as iM. livingstonia. The 

 generic name banseviera is misspelt — a very common 

 fault in books dealing with .Africa. But these are 

 trifling defects in an account of East African botany 

 which is of considerable interest. 



The Rev. K. St. A. Rogers writes on East African 

 butterflies. There are notes on the haunts and habits 

 of the elephant on the Guas' N^shu plateau by Mr. 

 Hoey, and Mr. C. W. Hobley contributes two articles, 

 the more important of which, from the point of view 

 of new information, is that dealing with the Karian- 

 duss deposits of the Rift Valley — deposits which form 

 beds of a mealy, friable rock, amounting perhaps to 

 millions of tons of diatomite. This is a siliceous de- 

 posit, principally of organic origin, mainly composed 

 of the skeletons of minute, lowly plants— diatoms or 

 bacillariae — mere cells of green or brown protoplasm 

 originally, which enclose themselves in a flinty casing 

 fitting together like a box and a lid. Diatoms are, of 

 course, found in fresh-water ponds and salt seas all 

 over the world. Mr. Hobley considers the Rift Valley 

 to have been the scene of tremendous volcanic activity 

 from Tertiary times onwards, and that at one period 

 in its history this enormously long depression in the 

 surface of East Africa was covered by much larger 

 lakes than at the present day. These beds of diatomite 

 are the result both of the existence of these sheets 

 of w-ater and of the neighbouring eruptive volcanoes. 



" Picture Suswa, Longenot, and Eburu all periodica'ly in 

 active eruption, and in addition to lava flows ejecting 

 great clouds of volcanic dust and streams of mud mainly 

 composed of siliceous fragments. This is almost certain 

 to have been thus, as is the case in all volcanoes of this 

 kind : the steam tearing its way through the magma which 

 formed the flows of obsidian and trachytic tuffs would 

 naturally blow 'arge quantities into a state of very fine 

 division, and this would be spread far and wide by the 

 wind and also carried into the lakes by the torrential 

 downpours which always accompany volcanic activity. 

 The soda-laden water would dissolve the silica and place 

 it ready for the diatoms to worlc upon, and with such rich 

 material to build with one can quite see that this form of 

 life could flourish with great luxuriance." 



INIr. Hobley considers this diatomite or kieselguhr 

 may be of some economic value. H. H. Johnston. 



NOTES. 



The Astley Cooper prize for 19 10 has been awarded to 

 Piof. E. H. Starling, F.R.S., for an essay upon the 

 physiology of digestion, gastric and intestinal. 



The Mackinnon studentship in physical sciences has been 

 awarded by the Royal Society for a second year to Dr. 

 R. D. Kleeman for the continuation of his researches on 

 radio-activity ; and the studentship in biological sciences 

 has been awarded to Mr. T. Goodey for an investigation 

 of the protozoa of the soil. 



