Dec. 13. 18S3] 



NA TURE 



161 



in the valleys. The hills covering most of the country, of 

 hard and compact red clay, through which blocks of granite 

 crop largely up, are not fertile. To the west of the capital, 

 in the very centre of the province, is a large plain, about 30 

 km. long by as many broad, formerly a Like or marsh, now 

 an immense field of rice, where emerge hamlets and houses like 

 so many islets. There is also an interesting account of the 

 Fuegians. The fluctuations of the Indian population in the 

 United States are discu-sed by M. de Sem.iUe in an article to 

 which M. Simonin shortly repl'es. The kingdom of Perak, 

 the Peninsula of Malacca, is described by M. De La Croix. 

 Commandant Gallieni, of the French Naval Infantry, furnishes 

 a'mass of information on the races and populations of the Upper 

 Niger, while Dr. Audray relates at considerable lenjtli his per- 

 sonal impressions and reminiscences of Hue during the eighteen 

 months he passed there at the T'rench Legation. M. Fernandez 

 also communicates a paper on the Argentine Republic. 



The Bulletin of the American Geographical Society has a 

 paper on the Philippme Islands by Dr. Kneeland, and another 

 on the currents of the Pacific Ocean, by Dr. Anti^ell. 



In an article in the last nuniber of the Bremen Geographical 

 yoitrnal on the inhabitants of the Chukche Peninsula, in the 

 north-east extremity of Asia, Dr. Aurel Krause, after a brief 

 sketch of voyages of discovery and scientific expeditions to that 

 region, sums u|) the viesvs of the different authorities with refer- 

 ence to the population of the penin-ula, and endeavours to re- 

 concile and supplement them with immediate observations of his 

 own. As the result of bis studies he distinguishes two different 

 races on the peninsula — the Chukches and the Eskimo. 

 The Chukches, ag.ain, are either nomadic or settled. The 

 nomadic Chukches, who are also distinguished by the possession 

 of reindeer, are scattered over the country to the west of Behring 

 Strait, as far as Chaun Bay and the sources of the Great and 

 Little Anjui, and south to the Anadyr River, some 50CO (Ger- 

 man) square miles of land, with a population hardly numbering 

 over 2000. The settled Chukches dwell ou the shores of 

 the Arctic Ocean from Chaun Bay to Behring Straits, and in 

 some spots on the east coast in villages counting up to forty 

 huts. There is also a third class of Chukches, intermediary 

 Ijetween the aristocratic reindeer proprietors and the fi-hers, a 

 class of merchants. A different race, looked down upon by the 

 Chukches, occupy the south coast from Point Chaplin (or 

 Indian Point) to Anadyr, as also parts of the ea--t coast. That 

 ihese are of the sime race as the Eskimo of the opposite 

 American coast their mode of living, their language, and bodily 

 structure testify beyond all doubt, according to Herr Krause, 

 his opinion on this point differing from that of the Vega staff. 

 According to Dall the-e Eskimo are slowly drifting south- 

 wards towards Kamtschatka. The Eskimo on the Asiatic 

 side of Behring Straits, including those of St. Lawrence 

 Island and of the Diomedes Islands, .should hardly exceed 

 2000. An ethnographical map and a list of Chukche and 

 Eskimo words in connection with the Chukche Peninsula are 

 appended to this valuable paper. 



Dr. Emii, Riebeck of Halle, the well-known traveller, is 

 preparing for a second African journey, wh ch will be directed 

 to the Niger. He will be accompaniea by the naturalist Herr 

 G. A. Krause, well known as an excellent linguist and 

 mathematician. 



THE NOVEMBER MEETING OF THE 

 NA TIONAL A CAD EM V OF SCIENCES "■ 

 T7OR the first time in nineteen years, and the second time in 

 its history, the National Academy held its mid-year meeting 

 in New Haven, November 13-16. Thirty-three of the ninety- 

 three members were in attendance, and during its four days' 

 session twenty papers were presented. 



The meeting was conspicuous for the discussion which most of 

 the papers called forth, and for the general participation of the 

 members in these discussions. It was interesting also, for the 

 report of the committee on the solar eclipse of last May, which 

 included the detailed reports of the expedition to Caroline 

 Island, undertaken under the auspices of the Academy, by the 

 principal participants. Profs. Holden and Hastings. It will 

 turther be remembered by the members from other cities for the 

 marked hospitalities they received at the hands of their eonfrires 

 * Science. From advance sheets ; favoured by the Editor. 



of New Haven, and for its many social pleasures, culminating 

 in the brilliant public reception given them by the president. 

 Prof. Marsh, at his residence. The new buildings recently 

 finished, or in process of erection, for the furtherance of scientific 

 research and instruction in Yale College, were also examined 

 with interest, together « ith the treasures of the Peabody Museum, 

 where the finely-mounted collections of Profs. Verrill and E. S. 

 Dana, and the fossil vertebrates of Prof. Marsh, called forth 

 much admiration. 



The generous discussion to which the papers gave rise was 

 provoked at the very start by the paper of Dr. Graham Bell 

 upon the formation of a deaf variety of the hitman race, which 

 had a broad, practical interest, and vxhich consumed the entire 

 morning session of the first day. Mr. Bell claimed that, from 

 purely philanthropic motives, we were pursuing a method in the 

 education of "deaf-mutes " distinctly tending to such a result, 

 supporting his assertions by statistics drawn from the published 

 reports of the different institutions in this country devoted to the 

 care of these unfortunates. They are separated in childhood 

 from association with hearing-children, and taught what is prac- 

 tically a foreign language— a practice which isolates them from 

 the rest of the community throughout their lives, and encourages 

 their intermarriage. Such marriages were increasing at an 

 alarming ratio, and with calamitous results. As a remedy for 

 this danger. Dr. Bell would have the children educated in the 

 public schools, thus bringing them into contact with hearing- 

 children in their play, and in instruction wherever they would not 

 be placed at a disadvantage, as in drawing and blackboard ex- 

 ercises. He would also entirely discard the sign-language, and 

 cultivate the use of the vocal organs, and the reading of the li; s. 



The report on the f olar eclipse covered a variety of topics, and 

 will fill some hundred and fifty printed pages. In presenting it. 

 Prof E. S. Holden merely touched upon the principal points, 

 and gave the leading results, in much the same form as they have 

 already been given in this journal. The objects of the expeditijn 

 w ere successfully carried out ; and Prof. Holden regarded his 

 special work — the search for a pos-ible planet interior to Mer- 

 cury — as proving the non-existence of the siuall planets reported 

 by Profs. Watson and .Swift. 



Dr. C. S. Hastings read in full the greater portion of his re- 

 port upon the spectroscopic work, which concluded with a critical 

 review of the generally-received theories of the solar atmosphere, 

 and suggested, instead, that the corona was a subjective pheno- 

 menon, largely due to the diffraction of light. 



The presentation of these reports occupied the entire morning 

 session of Wednesday, and their discussion the greater part of 

 the afternoon se-sion. 



In criticising the current use of the word " light " in physics, 

 Prof. NewC'imb opened a long and interesting discussion. He 

 urged that photometric measurements wcie comparatively value- 

 less, because they estimate a part only of the radiant energy of 

 the sun ; whereas the quantity uhich should be determined was 

 the number of ergs received per square centimetre. Prof. 

 Langley, however, asserted that it would be impossible to esti- 

 mate the radiant energy received from the stars with our present 

 appliances ; iiot all the stars combined would produce deflection, 

 even in so sensitive an apparatus as the bolometer. 



Another feature of marked interest "as Prof. Rowland's ex- 

 hibition of photographs of the solar spectrum, obtained by his 

 new concave gratings, by which he had prepared a map of the 

 spectrum much more detailed than heretofore secured, and free 

 from the defects of scale found in previous photographs. 



Prof. Asa) h Hall communicated the results of his researches 

 upon the mass of Saturn, based upon new measurements of the 

 distances of the outer satellites. He determines the mass of 

 the sun to that of Saturn to be as i to 1/3482. 



Prof. Bre«er took the occasion of the Academy's meeting in 

 the city of his residence to exhibit samples of his experiments 

 of many years' duration upon the subsidence of particles in 

 liquids. They showed the action of saline and organic matter, 

 of acids and of freezing, upon the precipitation of sediments. 

 Most of the samples had been undisturbed for five or six years, 

 and showed varying degrees of opalescence, resulting from the 

 suspension of matter in the fluid. 



We have mentioned only the more important papers, or those 

 which provoked a fuller discussion than usual. The following 

 complete list will show how largely the physical side of science 

 predominated at the meeting. In astronomy, besides the reports 

 on the eclipse of May 6, papers were read by A. Hall, on the 

 mass of Saturn ; by S. P. Langley, on atmospheric absorption ; 



