610 
NATURE. 
[April 14, 1870 
August; lower down still the rains apparently begin in 
September, but, as before noticed, towards the coast 
they are later, and so do not begin at the mouth of the 
river till well on in September, after the river has begun 
to rise. The dry season in the country west of Ulenge 
also agrees well with the movements of the Congo river, 
for Dr. Livingstone remarks that the floods in the country 
between Moero and Ulenge last till May or June, and 
the lowest state of the Congo was observed to occur in 
July and August. 
With the Kassabi and Chambeze for its head streams, 
the Congo has a sufficient, though not too great area of 
drainage to collect the vast quantity of water which it 
returns to the ocean. On this supposition the area of its 
basin measures about 800,000 square miles, and that of 
the Nile nearly 1,300,000 square miles ; so that the great 
African rivers stand in order thus :—Nile, Congo, Niger, 
and Zambezi. KEITH JOHNSTON, JUN. 
NOTES 
WE are informed that the Duke of Devonshire will probably 
be the President of the Royal Commission to inquire into the 
Present State of Science in this country. 
THERE is so little evidence of scientific training or thought in 
most things which are done in high places, that it is almost 
pleasant to be taxed even by a Chancellor of the Exchequer 
who attempts to do it on scientific principles, or at all events 
quotes scientific authority as Mr. Lowe does, who, referring 
to the results of the recent Deep-Sea Dredging Expedition 
in his Budget speech, compared the British taxpayer to the 
frail animals which enjoy life at the bottom of the Atlantic 
at a pressure of three tons to the square inch. We strongly 
advise Mr. Lowe to sanction another dredging expedition during 
the present autumn, not that it may be shown how much 
more vitality there is at a reduced pressure—a vitality more ap- 
proaching that of ‘‘ My Lords”’—but that even greater pressures 
may be found and quoted as precedents should the next Budget 
prove a less satisfactory one. There is a point in the Budget, 
moreover, of the greatest importance to men of science. The 
postage on printed matter not exceeding 2 oz., and on newspapers 
not exceeding 6 0z., is to be reduced to one halfpenny. We 
have waited a long time for this change: not too long, how- 
ever, to welcome it warmly now it has come, for the tax on 
all authors of the postage of scientific papers, copies of which 
they wish to distribute, has been very great. 
THE following are the lecture arrangements at the Royal In- 
stitution after Easter :—Four lectures by Prof. Blackie on the 
Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, on Tuesdays, April 
26th to May 17th. Seven lectures by Prof. Tyndall (subject not 
announced), on Thursdays, April 28th to June gth. Seven lec- 
tures by Prof. Robert Grant, on Comets, on Saturdays, April 
goth to June rith. Three lectures by Prof. Seeley on History, 
on Tuesdays, May 24th to June 7th. The fvodad/e arrangements 
for the Friday evening meetings are as follows, viz.: April 29th, 
Prof. Blackie—The Interpretation of Popular Myths. May 6th, 
Mr. R. A. Proctor—Star Grouping, Star Drifts, Star Mist. 
May 13th, Rev. Canon Moseley—The cause of the Descent of 
Glaciers. May 20th, Prof. Williamson—On Atoms. May 27th, 
Principal Dawson—The Primitive Vegetation of the Earth. 
June 3rd, Prof. Max Miiller—The Migration of Fables. June 
1oth, Prof Odling (subject not fixed). 
THE Pall Mall Gazette, which gives so much space to all matters 
of scientific or general interest, quoting from the St. John’s (New 
Brunswick) Zé/egvaph of the 18th of March, describes an extra- 
ordinary phenomenon which took place in the harbour of that 
city on the previous day. Early in the morning, just before the 
commencement of a snowstorm, while the wind was rising so as 
to be heard within doors, a strange noise, similar to that accom- 
panying the earthquake on the 22nd of October last, was heard 
by the residents near the harbour. It was then seen that the 
old ferry, which should be several feet above water, had vanished. 
A piece about twenty feet by seventy broke off and settled squarely 
down into the water. A frontage several hundred feet in extent, 
running fromthe line of the demolished wharf towards the break- 
water, had also gone down, leaving a steep embankment. The 
soundings since made show that where the old ballast or reefer was 
the day before, rising above the water eight feet, were found six 
fathoms of water, the bottom had settled just thirty-two feet. Near 
where the portion of the wharf settled away, or where a moderately 
sized vessel used to ground at low water, there is now between 
six and seven fathoms at low tide. One of Messrs. Adams’s 
buoys, moored about four or five hundred feet from the shore, 
had disappeared; and last evening, when the tide was at its 
lowest level, the current was just showing a ripple over the 
top of it. As the tides rise and fall about thirty feet in St. 
John’s harbour, and the chain of this buoy had several fathoms 
of scope, it may be inferred that the bottom sank as much as 
nine or ten fathoms at this point. So far as could be ascertained, 
the Zvlegraph states this subsidence took place over an area of 
about three acres in extent. 
Mr. ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, F.R.S., the director of the 
Geological Survey of Scotland, is now at the Lipari Islands, 
his object being to study the volcanic phenomena of those 
Islands, and of some adjacent parts of Italy. He anticipates that 
the numerous coast sections of these islands will furnish evidence 
from which light may be thrown on the history of the volcanic 
rocks of the British Islands; the manner in which different vol- 
canic rocks yield to the forces of denudation, subaerial and marine, 
is also a matter of importance that will be carefully studied. 
On Monday evening a distribution of prizes (certificates of 
merit) took place at the South London Working Men’s College, 
Professor Huxley being in the chair. Previous to the distri- 
bution a lecture on the ‘‘ Biography of a Plant” was given by 
Mr. Harland Coultas. Professor Huxley, in the course of his 
remarks, said that they had presented to them an analogy 
between vegetable and human life, and that analogy he would 
carry a little further, by reminding them that there was nothing 
more poisonous or dangerous than an uncultivated mind. He 
hoped that these educational establishments would do for 
society what the plant does for the air; namely, absorb all 
the poison of ignorance, and, by a similar change to that 
exercised in the chemical action of the plant, give off those 
benefits which education alone could diffuse. 
Ir is not often that the daily newspaper press invades a college 
in search of fan editor, and still less often is a learned scien- 
tific professor the elect one. We have a case in point, however, 
of such a condition of things. Professor Jack, M.A., who has 
for several years held the chair of Natural Philosophy in Owens 
College, Manchester, has been requested, and has consented, to 
take the editorial management of one of the oldest and most 
successful papers north of the Tweed, the Glasgow Daily Herald, 
a paper which frequently discusses scientific subjects with a ful- 
ness of knowledge. Mr. Jack has not hitherto been in the toils 
of daily newspaper life, but he ought to have no mean qualifica- 
tions for his new vocation, considering the literary and scientific 
culture and worldly experience which he has acquired as an 
alumnus .of Glasgow College and_of St. Peter’s College, Oxford; 
as one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools in the West of 
Scotland, and as a scientific professor in Cottonopolis. 
THE wave of low temperature which passed over the South 
of England during the latter half of March, was a very re- 
markable one. From the 22nd of March till the 6th of April 
the thermometer fell below the freezing point every night, with 
