November 7, 19 12] 



NATURE 



28; 



address, he showed how the institute had origin- 

 ated, and he sketched its career; he then dealt 

 with tlie position of the man of science in regard 

 to humanity and the world's progress. He said 

 that it is true that man does not hve and move 

 and have his being at the dictates of science, but 

 it is to science that civilisation owes its present 

 position, and in the thickly populated centres 

 man's very existence depends upon the progress 

 of science. The works of science are so wrapped 

 up in the ordinary man's daily life that he not 

 only does not feel grateful to the scientific man, 

 but frequently ignores his very existence. The 

 man in the street, in fact, although he may be 

 well informed in other directions, forgets, or never 

 knows, that applied science must be based upon 

 discoveries in pure science, which at first may 

 appear to have no importance whatever for the 

 human race. The progress of the world depends 

 upon the number, the quality, and the zeal of the 

 men of science. They are the ultimate makers of 

 the people's wealth and the rulers of the people's 

 destinies ; and they must always be highly trained 

 and enthusiastic in their work. 



The Mayor of Christchurch, in a short address, 

 congratulated the institute, and also congratulated 

 Dr. Cockayne on being elected a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society. Mr. G. M. Thomson, as the 

 representative of the Parliament of New Zealand, 

 read congratulatory messages from the Prime 

 Minister of the Dominion and from the Hon. R. H. 

 Rhodes to the institute and to Dr. Cockayne 

 as the winner of the Hector medal for his 

 researches in botany. Mr. Thomson added that 

 he had been asked to present to Dr. Cockayne this 

 first Hector medal, struck in honour of the late 

 Sir James Hector. The medal had not arrived 

 in the Dominion, and could not be handed to the 

 recipient just then, but it carried with it a grant 

 to help in the recipient's future work. Dr. Cock- 

 ayne's researches had cost him large sums of 

 money, and he had great pleasure in asking that 

 gentleman to accept a sum which would help him 

 in the great work he still had in hand. 



Dr. Cockayne returned thanks, and after other 

 addresses had been given, the gathering was 

 Ijrought to an end. 



PLAICE FISHERIES OF THE NORTH SEA. 

 HTHE tenth meeting of the International Council 

 ■•- for the Study of the Sea was held at Copen- 

 hagen in April last, and the Proces-Verbaux have 

 recently been published. The most important 

 subject considered was the general report on the 

 plaice fisheries of the North Sea, which is being 

 prepared by Prof. Heincke, of Heligoland. Only 

 the first section of this report was, however, ready 

 at the time of the meeting, and it was decided that 

 another meeting should take place at the end of 

 September for the further consideration of the 

 ■matter. The section of the report laid before the 

 meeting by Prof. Heincke in April was based 

 chiefly on the special market statistics of plaice 

 Sanded, the greater part of the material being 

 NO. 2245, VOL. 90] 



derived from English ports. The results of the 

 work of the special steamers remain to be con- 

 sidered. 



From an economic point of view the study of 

 the plaice question is undoubtedly the most impor- 

 tant work which the council has undertaken, and 

 it is to be regretted that such great delay has 

 occurred in the preparation of the report. Prof. 

 Heincke cannot be blamed for this delay, which 

 seems to have been due to faulty organisation on 

 the part of the council, and to a want of apprecia- 

 tion of the magnitude of the task. The work 

 might well have occupied the entire time and 

 energy of one man with a staff of trained assistants 

 under him, and it was clearly impossible that it 

 could be carried out within a reasonable time, in 

 addition to his other duties, by the director of the 

 Heligoland Biological Station. If some of the 

 money which has been spent on the organisation 

 and formal administration of the Council and on 

 the less important parts of the programme had 

 been employed to enable Prof. Heincke to devote 

 his whole time and energy to the task and to 

 obtain adequate assistance in doing the detailed 

 work, the position at the present time would have 

 been much more satisfactory. 



THE PLASTIC ART OF PAL/EOLITHIC MAN. 

 "\A/'E learn from The Times of October 31 that 



* » Count Begouen, the well-known investi- 

 gator of prehistoric archeeology, has made a re- 

 markable discovery in the cave known as Tus 

 Ditboubert, in the district of Montesquieu- 

 •Vvent^s (Ari^ge), where three months ago he 

 found mural paintings of animals, presumably of 

 Aurignacian age. On October 10 the Count and 

 his son broke through a mass of stalactites, and in 

 the new gallery thus exposed found two c'ay 

 figures, respectively 26 in. and 30 in. long, repre- 

 senting a bull and cow bison. They appear to 

 have been attached originally to a rock, as one 

 side is rough while the other is complete!}- 

 modelled. They are nearly perfect; the only 

 damage that they had received was that one of the 

 horns of the female bison and its tail had been 

 broken off; the tail was, however, found on the 

 floor of the cave. A third small clay figure was 

 also found, but it was so roughly modelled as to 

 make it impossible to say what it represents. 



In passing through the galleries the explorers 

 found many footprints of bears and human beings. 

 In one of the galleries, where there was a number 

 of otherwise indistinguishable marks on the 

 floor, some fifty imprints of human heels were dis- 

 covered, and Count Begouen, in his communication 

 to the Academy of Inscriptions of Paris on October 

 30, suggested that these may represent traces of 

 ritual obser\'ances or dances similar to those which 

 have been oberved among the savage tribes of the 

 present day in Australia and Africa. 



This is the first time clay figures of Palaeolithic 

 date have been discovered, and it affords one more 

 example of the wonderful finds that have been 

 yielded by the French caves. A very large number 



