OcTf)HKK 13, I910] 



\ATURE 



469 



and climbing the Porcupine range of mountains. The 



three explorers are well satisfied with the results of their 



expedition, having brought back many valuable geo- 

 graphical and geological data. 



Prof. E. Fugger, of Salzburg, one of the explorers of 

 the newly discovered ice-cave near Obertraun, in the 

 Hallstadt region of Upper .'\ustria, has favoured us with 

 the following particulars relating to it. The opening is 

 visible from Obertraun, and lies 1600 metres above the 

 sea in the back wall of a cirque between the Mittagkogel 

 and the Hirschberg. A low, narrow passage leads into 

 a hall 10 metres high, the floor of which is covered with 

 ice, bright and clean as a mirror. A cone of ice rises 

 nearly to the roof. .After a steep descent of 25 metres an 

 ice-lined cathedral is entered, measuring 40 metres from 

 floor to roof. The floor is strewn with blocks of ice 4 to 

 7 m. high, the walls are thickly coated with ice, and an 

 ice-pyramid rises here also almost to the roof. .\ ridge 

 of ice, running in the direction of the length of this 

 cave, leads upwards from it into a gigantic ice-grotto, 

 containing superb needle-like groups of ice-crystals. From 

 a conspicuous group, styled " Monte Cristallo," a stream 

 of clear ice stretches eastward for more than too m., 

 leading up to a cross-passage. The right-hand passage is 

 free from ice, and a tooth of Vrsus spelaeus was found 

 in it. It can be followed into another large hall 100 m. 

 long, 50 m. wide, and 25 m. high, with a castle-like mass 

 of ice rising from its floor. ."Vn ice-chasm has now to 

 be scrambled down to an imposing doorw.iy of ice, from 

 which a very narrow passage, 20 m. long, leads into a 

 hall 200 m. long and at least 30 m. high. This hall is 

 free from ice, and breaks up into a series of tunnels, in 

 some of which water-worn pebbles indicate the course of 

 an ancient stream. The total length of the series of caves 

 is 2000 metres. Where ice prevails, the temperature is 

 from 0° to 1° C, while it rises to 5° C. in the portions 

 free from ice. 



L'nder thi' title of " Byways in the Caucasus," in 

 Travel iind Exploration for September, Colonel C. E. 

 de la Poer Beresford gives a graphic account of a tour 

 through a region which was the scene of some of the 

 hardest fighting in the great struggle between the Russians 

 and the tribesmen. He describes Gergebil, which was 

 attacked by Vorontzoff in June, 1S47, when held by the 

 Murids under Shamil : Gunib, the famous fortress into 

 which Shamil retired in 1857 after waging war against 

 the Russians for twenty-five years ; Akhoulgo, like 

 " Edinburgh Castle with another higher rock covering 

 Scott's and Wallace's monuments, rivers rushing round 

 their bases, and a connecting ridge between the rock and 

 Arthur's Seat." He commends the system by which the 

 Russians have reduced these stubborn mountaineers to 

 subjection to the notice of British officers now engaged 

 in the task of subduing the frontier tribes like the Afridis 

 and Waziris. 



In the twentieth Bulletin of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau 

 the records of fifty cases of sleeping sickness in Europeans 

 are tabulated and discussed. Of these cases, forty-five 

 were men, five women ; nineteen came from the Belgian 

 Congo, fourteen from the French Congo, and four from 

 Uganda. " Of the fifty patients, thirty are known to be 

 dead, eleven survive, and the fate of the remaining nine 

 is uncertain. Of the thirty, fourteen lived a year or more 

 after trypanosomes were discovered, and four two years 

 or more. Of these, one lived three and a quarter years 

 and one six years." One of the survivors, infected prob- 

 ably in 1900, but possibly earlier, is considered to have 

 made a real recovery, and there are grounds for hope that 

 NO. 2137, VOL. 84] 



at least four other cases have done the like. Full clinical 

 details of the cases and their treatment are given. The 

 case that is regarded as cured was treated with Fowler's 

 solution. 



The Journal of Hygiene (vol. x., No. 2) contains a 

 memoir by Miss Harriette Chick on " The Process of Dis- 

 infection by Chemical Agencies and Hot Water," giving 

 the results of experiments with phenol on Bacillus 

 typhosus, B. coli communis, and Staphylococcus pyogenes 

 aureus, and with hot water on the same three species and 

 on Bacillus pestis and B. paratyphosus. It is concluded 

 that " disinfection is an orderly time-process, which may 

 be considered analogous with a chemical reaction." " The 

 fact that the individuals [in a culture of bacteria] do not 

 die all at once, but at a rate proportional to the concen- 

 tration of the survivors at a given moment, is to be- 

 attributed to temporary and rhythmical changes in resist- 

 ance which, by analogy with chemical processes, may be 

 supposed to be due to temporary energy changes of the- 

 constituent proteins." 



In the Launceston Examiner of .August 23 Mr. H. H^ 

 Scott records the discovery of a skeleton of Diprotodon 

 in the Smithton district, this being the first record of the 

 occurrence of the genus in Tasmania. The species is 

 presumed to be identical with the .Australian D. australis. 



.According to their reports for 1909, all the five museums 

 of the Cape of Good Hope have suffered from shortness 

 of funds, largely owing to the policy of economy rendered' 

 necessary by the present state of the colonial finances. 

 In the case of the South .African Museum, lack of space 

 for exhibition purposes and the numerical inadequacy of 

 the staff have likewise hindered progress. The director 

 of this institution states that, in his opinion, the time 

 has come for prohibiting the export from South Africa 

 of ethnological and anthropological relics. The plea for 

 the prohibition is based on the systematic manner in which 

 such objects have of late years been exploited, and the- 

 high prices paid for them. 



The .August number of the Journal of the South African 

 Ornithologists' Union contains the report of the migra- 

 tion committee for 1908-9. Eight records of the arrivaf 

 of rtorks, either singly or in partiss, are chronicled, from' 

 w'lich it appears that December is the month when most 

 of these birds reach Cape Colony, although the period" 

 of immigration lasts from September to January. In a 

 separate communication Mr. Haagner states that four 

 storks marked by the Vogelwarte Rositten and five by 

 the Royal Hungarian Central Ornithological Bureau have 

 been taken in South Africa, but adds that many more 

 records must be secured before full knowledge of the 

 migration of these can be obtained. Mr. Seebohm, for 

 instance, was of opinion that the birds which travelled 

 farthest north of the equator likewise flew farthest south, 

 but another observer has suggested the reverse of this. 

 Only one record of the movements of the cuckoo is men- 

 tioned, this being a departure in the middle of March. 

 No reference is made to a query which recently appeared 

 in the Field as to whether cuckoos ever utter their 

 characteristic note in South .Africa. 



.A NOTEWORTHY paper by Dr. M. Nowikoff appears in 

 the .August number of the Zeitschrift fiir ifissenschaftliche 

 Zoologie (Bd. 96, Heft i) on the structure, development, 

 and significance of the parietal eye of saurians. The 

 author's investigations were conducted chiefly upon species 

 of Lacerta and Anguis. The parietal or pineal eye in 

 these genera agrees closely in histological structure with 



