
Dec. 15, 1870] 
NATURE 
133 

the following gentlemen to form a Central Committee to assist 
the efforts of private individuals and others who may be wiiling 
to forward the objects of the Annual International Exhibition 
of Select Works of Fine and Industrial Art and Scientific In- 
ventions, to be held at South Kensington on the Ist of May, 
1871 : President, the Hon, Sir Richard Temple, C.S., K.C.S.1.; 
Members, his Highness the Maharajah of Jeypore. G.C.S.I., 
the Hon. B. H. Ellis, C.S.; Major-General the Hon H. W. 
Norman, C.B.; the Hon. J. Bullen Smith ; the Maharajah of 
Vizianagram, K.C.S.1.; Mr. W. G. Romaine, C.B.; Mr. E. C, 
Bayley, C.S., C.S.1.; Colonel the Hon. F. Thesiger, C.B.; Mr. 
Allan Hume, C.S., C.B.; Mr. H. Rivett-Carnac, C.S.; Lieut.- 
Colonel Baigrie, B.S.C.; Major O. T. Burne, Private Secretary 
to his Excellency the Viceroy. Honorary Secretary, Mr. H. 
Rivett-Carnac, C.S. 
AT the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, held on 
Nov. 29, a paper was read ‘‘ On the Geography of the Sea Bed,” 
by Capt. Sherard Osborn, R.N. The author gave an account 
of our present knowledge of the configuration of the bed of the 
ocean, as derived from Admiralty surveys and submarine tele- 
graph expeditions during the last fifteen years. His explanations 
were illustrated by a number of diagrams showing sec ions of the 
North Atlantic and other oceans. It has been definitely ascer- 
tained that the greatest depth of the ocean does not reach 3,000 
fathoms in any part where telegraphic lines have been laid. The 
bed of the North Atlantic consists of two valleys, the eastern 
extending from 10° to 30°, the Western from 30° to 50° West 
longitude. The extreme depth of the eastern valley is under 
13,000 feet, which is less than the altitude of Monte Rosa, This 
valley has been traced southward to the equator. It is separated 
from the western valley by a ridge in 30° West long., in which 
the average depth is only 1,600 fathoms. This ridge terminates 
to the north in Iceland, and southward at the Azores, so that it 
is volcanic in its character at both extremities. Its extreme 
breadth appears to be under 500 miles, and the Atlantic deepens 
from it on both sides. Explorations carried on in the Mediter- 
ranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean, showed similar uni- 
formity in the level of the sea-bottom ; and the general conclusions 
arrived at by Capt. Osborn were that in the deep sea there is 
an absence of bare rock, and that there are no rough ridges, 
canons, or abrupt chasms. Moreover, that the bed of the deep 
sea is not affected by currents or streams, even by those of 
such magnitude as the Gulf Stream; but that it rather re- 
sembles the prairies or pampas of the American continent, and is 
everywhere covered with a sort of ooze or mud, the aébris of the 
lower forms of organic life. In the course of the discussion, 
Professor Huxley said that, viewed on a great scale, there would 
be but slight difference between the large general features of the 
ocean bed and the dry iand ; but that the smaller features would 
be different, as the effects of denudation would not appear in the 
deep ocean bed. To the naturalist, the observations of the tele- 
graphists were of great importance, as showing the existence of 
low forms of animal life in the deepest seas ; and recent dis- 
coveries had shown that the most characteristic organisms of the 
deep-sea beds, named coccoliths and coccospheres, existed at all 
depths, even in shallow shore waters, and were also found fossil 
in sedimentary rocks of all epochs—a discovery of great interest, 
as confirming the view of the uniform conditions of submarine 
deposits in all ages of the earth’s history. He was opposed to 
the view that the animals found living in the dark regions of the 
lowest sea depths depended for light upon the phosphorescence 
of some of the species, and saw no reason for concluding 
that they could not, like fungi, exist witheut light. He also 
doubted the accuracy of the very low temperatures said to have 
been found at great depths, and thought that those taken in the 
Indian Ocean might be explained by the fact that they were 
taken with thermometers not rectified for pressure. 


AT a meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Horticultural 
Society, held on the 7th inst., a remarkable paper was read by 
Mr. Andrew Murray, on the subject of Mimetism, especially as 
exhibited in the instances of the South American butterflies, 
which have already been discussed in our columns. Mr. Murray 
adduced a number of arguments which he considered told against 
the theory that the Mimicry had been produced by Natural 
Selection, and attributed it to Hybridisation. We hope to be 
able to publish the paper in a future number. 
A CONFERENCE of gentlemen interested in Scientific Education 
was held in the Royal Institution, Liverpool, on Tuesday night, 
the 6th inst., and unanimously passed a resolution declaring the 
advisability of establishing a Science College in that town, the 
cost of which was estimated at about 50,000/., and a committee 
was appointed to take steps with the view of carrying out the 
object. Possibly the recent meeting of the British Association 
in Liverpool may have given an impetus to so laudable a design, 
which we hope may be successfully carried out. 
A NEw quarterly journal is about to be published by Messrs. 
Groombridge and Sons, under the title of 7he Landowner and 
Farmers Note Book. Yt will aim at presenting a well-arranged 
series of notes and suggestions in connection with estate and 
farm management. 
Messrs. LONGMAN intend to issue early in 1871 a Supplement 
to ‘‘Watts’s Dictionary of Chemistry,” bringing the record ot 
chemical discovery down to the end of the year 1869. It will 
form a volume of about 900 pages, and many of the former con- 
tributors have consented to furnish additions to their articles, 
THE new general Government of Elsass proclaimed by the 
King of Prussia, embraces, in addition to the departments of the 
Rhine which constituted the former Alsace, the arrondissements 
of Saarbourg, Chateau Salins, Saarguemines, Metz, and Thion- 
ville, taken from the departments of Moselle and Meurthe, in 
Lorraine. With the addition of these districts, the boundary of 
the new province marks out very nearly the German-speaking 
part of France. The fortresses of Thionville and Metz in the 
north, the natural barrier of the Vosges Mountains, and again 
the fortress of Belfort, in the south, will then protect the fiontier 
of Germany towards France. From an article in the December 
number of Petermann’s Mittheilungen, we learn that the new 
government has an area of 5,825 English square miles. This 
space is represented in English soil very nearly by the counties 
of Hants, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent, and it cuts off a thirty-sixth 
part from the whole of France. The fertility and industries of 
Elsass, however, support a population of 1,638, 500, or a twenty- 
third part of the inhabitants of France, and the density of its 
population is comparable to that of the plains of China. In the 
new government the purely German-speaking area measures 
4,425 square miles; the purely French parts, which lie chiefly 
round the fortresses in the north and south, are together 985 
square miles in extent, and the territory of a mixed language, 
which lies in patches betweer, makes up an area of 415 square 
miles. 
THE series of botanical diagrams by Professor Balfour, of which 
we noticed the first some time since, is now issued in a complete 
form by Messrs. W. and A. K. Johnston, and comprises four 
large sheets 4ft. 2in. by 3ft. Gin. on rollersand varnished. They 
supply a maiked desideratum for botanical teachers and lecturers, 
supplementing, but not replacing, Prof. Henslow’s diagrams pub- 
lished by authority of the Science and Art Department. In the 
latter we have delineations of a plant belonging to each of the 
most important natural orders, with details of their structure. In 
Prof. Balfour’s diagrams, each separate organ is taken, and the 
differert variations of its form and structure illustrated. The first 
sheet showed the organs of plants generally, the tissues, root, and 
