2,7(> 



NA TURE 



[August 19, 1880 



porous cell prevents this from mixing with the fresher strong 

 solution outside, and thus enables the operator to remove the 

 exhausted portion. 



An adaptation of the telephone to the needs of deaf persons 

 has been brought out by one H. G. Fiske of Springfield (Massa- 

 chusetts). To the centre of the disk of the receiving telephone 

 is attached a short rod of wood, ebonite, or other elastic hard 

 material which can be held between the teeth. The sonorous 

 vibrations imparled to the disk by the magnet are thus transmitted 

 mechanically to the auditory nerves through the teeth and the 

 bones of the skull. Tlie advantages are probably limited, since, 

 as experiments with the audiphone have shown, only a small 

 percentage of truly deaf persons retain the power of hearing 

 through the teeth. In the greater majority of cases it is the 

 auditory nerve itself, not the mechanical adjustments and auditory 

 apparatus of the ear, that is the cause of deafness. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 Some modifications have been made in the composition of the 

 fifth International Expedition to Central Africa. Lieut. Ilarou, 

 who was to have formed part of the expedition, will only join 

 his companions at a later period on the Upper Congo. He is 

 charged, meantime, with a secret mission to Africa, for the 

 accomplishment of which about ten months are necessary. After 

 the termination of this mission he will join the expedition. M. 

 Ilarou will embark about the 23rd for his new destination. We 

 learn that Dr. Dutrieux, who had to return from Africa to Bel- 

 gium to recruit his health, is about to return to Africa to take 

 part in the service for the abolition of slavery, at the head of 

 which is Col. Sala. He had begim w-hen in Africa a dictionary 

 of the Suaheli language, so common all over Central Africa. 

 Although incomplete, the Executive Committee of the Associa- 

 tion have decided to print the dictionary as it is, and put it in the 

 hands of travellers for correction and completion. 



The .fftwo- states that next autumn Baron Nordenskjold will 

 visit St. Petersburg to make preparations for his proposed ex- 

 pedition to the New Siberian Islands in 1SS2, the expenses of 

 which will lie borne by the Russian merchant, M. Sibiriakoff. 

 Nordenskjold will go to the mouth of the Lena overland, and 

 thence embark for his destination. 



The Congress of French Societies of Geography was held 

 this year at Nancy during the first week of August. M. 

 Levasseur, honorary president, gave an address, in which he 

 reviewed the progress realised by the creation of so many geo- 

 graphical societies. In the evening the members were invited 

 to the Town Hall, where they were entertained by M. Volland, 

 the mayor. A number of toasts were delivered by his Worship, 

 as well as by M. Levasseur and others. 



A LETTER from Dr. Matteucci, written in May [last, -Jintimates 

 the arrival of the expedition under Prince Borghese at El I< asher, 

 the capital of Darfur, and the approaching departure forWadai. 

 Dr. Matteucci remarks on the almost absolute m ant of water in 

 Darfur, and the consequent recent cultivation of water-melons by 

 the natives as far as the arid soil will permit. They also utilise the 

 Baobab tree in a curious manner. Hollowing out the huge 

 trunk of the older trees by fire, they by some prehistoric primi- 

 tive method get the hollow trunk filled with -water during the 

 rainy season, the water keeping sweet for eight months. The 

 people of Darfur, Dr. Matteucci says, are still in a primitive 

 uncorrupted condition, a contrast to the EgyDtianised natives of 

 Kordofan. 



M. BiscHOFFSHEiM pays the expenses of M. G. Capu, a 

 young geologist and botanist, who will accompany M. de Ujfalvy 

 on his new mission to Central Asia, referred to last week ; M. 

 Gabriel Bovalt, as topographer and naturalist, « ill also accom- 

 pany the mission. 



THE ALG.t: OF THE SIBERIAN POLAR SEA ' 

 gEFORE the voyage of the l"e«a our knowledge of the algn: 

 of the Siberian Polar Sea outside the Kara Sea was limited 

 to the fact of their existence in Tschaun Bay and along the coast 

 between that bay and the mouth of the Kolyma. This in- 

 formation was obtained by Baron Maydell, the leader of a 

 scientific expedition sent out in 1S69, under the auspices of 

 ' Abstract of preliminary communication by Dr. F. R. Kjellman in 

 " Ofvers. af Kongl. Vet. Akad. Forhandl.," 1S79. 



the Russian Geographical Society, to explore the Tchuktchi 

 Peninsula. A statement previously made by Matiuschin, one of 

 Wrangel's companions during his Siberian journey, that algae 

 exist at Tschaun Bay, was thereby confirmed. Maydell brought 

 home with him only three incomplete specimsns of alga>, which 

 he obtained from a native living at Cape Schelagskoj. From the 

 description given by him they appear to belong to the genera 

 Alaria and Laminaria. 



From observations made during the voyage of the Vega it 

 appears that alg.-e exist at several places along the whole 

 coast of the Siberian Polar Sea. They occur almost exclusively 

 within the sublittoral region. In the elittoral area, which was 

 the best and most completely examined during the expedition, 

 Dr. Kjellman found only at two places, viz., between Port 

 Dickson and Tajmur Island, an exceedingly scanty flora 

 consisting of three species, two Floridece — Lithothainnion poly- 

 morphum and Phyllophora interrupta — and a Phxozoosporacea 

 — Lithoderma fatiscens. The littoral region along the north 

 coast of Siberia is, like that of the coasts of Novaya Zemlya and 

 clearly for the same reasons, nearly everywhere devoid of algoe. 

 Only at two places did Dr. Kjellman find traces of a strand 

 vegetation, 'i'hey consisted of two small green algae, Entero- 

 viorpha coinpressa and Urospora penicilliformis, both known 

 from the same region in other parts of the North Polar Sea. 

 FucaceK occur nowhere within the littoral region, not a single 

 individual of this group having been found at any of the places 

 vi-ited between Port Dickson and Koljuschin Fjord near 

 Eehring's Straits. To the east of this fjord there was found in 

 the snblittoral region in limited quantity Fuctis evancscens, 

 which is extensively distributed in the North Polar Sea. In the 

 sublittoral belt of the bottom, too, the vegetation in the Siberian 

 Polar Sea is very scanty. Dr. Kjellman had not an oppor- 

 tunity of examining any region where the fiora was not 

 considerably poorer in individuals than in those places on the 

 coasts of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya where alga: are pretty 

 abundant. The eastern portion of the sea appears to be some- 

 what less poor in algre than the western. The places where 

 they most abounded were Cape Irkajpij — Cook's North Cape 

 (N. L. OS" 55' W. L. 179° 25'), and the mouth of Koljuschin 

 Fjord. From the natives settled between this fjord and Cape 

 Serdze, situated about fifty miles to the east of it. Dr. Kjellman 

 repeatedly obtained during the first half of 1S79 very large masses 

 of algcE, which appears to show that a pretty abundant vegetation 

 of alg:e is to be found at certain places along this part of the 

 coast. There are not wanting, however, in the western part of 

 the .Siberian Sea some comparati\ely very good places for algre. 

 One such at least was found, viz., the region round Tajmur 

 Island, between Port lUckson and Cape Chelyuskin. 



The s; ecies that occurred most frequently were Polysiphonia 

 arctica, Rhodoincla tetmissima, s. variety of Rhodomela subfusca, 

 Sarcophyllis arctica, Phyllophora intcrritpla, species belonging 

 to the family Laminarieae, Sphacelaria arctica, and Phloeospora 

 fortius. The Laminariete give in general their stamp to the 

 vegetation ; at one place however Phyllophora interntpta, at 

 another the above-mentioned variety of Rhcdomela subfusca 

 occurred in quantity surpassing that of the Laminaricpe. 



Of this family six species were found, viz., four species of 

 Laminaria : L. Agardhii, L. ciineifolia, L. soliduiigula, and one 

 belonging to the digitata group, in which Dr. Kjellman believed 

 that he recognised the L. atro-fulva of J. G. Agardh, and tw-o 

 species of Alaria, one standing near to A. esciilenta, the other 

 corresponding in much to .-/. musivfolia, but probably belonging 

 each to species allied to these, and yet incompletely known, 

 which occur in the north part of the Pacific. The distribution 

 of the Laminaria along the north Siberian coast is different. 

 Laniiuaria sclidinigula occurs both east and west of Cape 

 Chelyuskin. Laminaria Agardhii was found only at that 

 promontory and at a couple of places west, but nowhere east 

 of it. Eastward it is replaced by L. ciineifoHa, found first at 

 Irkajpij and afterwards east of it in comparatively large quantities. 

 Both the two species of Alaria and Laminaria atro-fidva appear 

 also to be confined to the eastern portion of the Siberian Polar 

 Sea. None of them were seen west of Irknjpij. Some of the 

 species already mentioned as occurring most frequently enter 

 into the composition of the vegetation in different proportions 

 east and west of Cape Chelyuskin. Polysiphonia arctica and 

 Phyllophora interrtipta were more common west ; lihodomela 

 teniiissima again more numerous east of the northernmost point of 

 Asia. Phloeospora tortilis was nowhere seen east of Tajmur Island, 

 nor Sarcophyllis arctica and the variety of Rhodomela subfusca west 



