57- 



NA TURE 



[October 4, 1906 



the University in the same year. During the last quarter 

 of a century Dr. Molloy took an important part in the 

 administration of Irish education. He acted on the Com- 

 mission on Manual Training in Primary Schools, and filled 

 the post of assistant commissioner under the Education 

 Endowments Act. He was at the time of his death a 

 member of the Intermediate Education Board. As a 

 popular lecturer on scientific subjects Dr. Molloy had few 

 equals in Ireland, and he was a frequent speaker at the 

 lectures of the Royal Dublin Society, of the council of 

 which he was a member. He was the author of several 

 scientific and literary works, including " Geology and 

 Revelation," published in 1870, and " Gleanings in 

 Science," in 1888. 



A DEVASTATING West India hurricane has quickly 

 followed the China Sea typhoons noted in last week's 

 issue. The permanent Atlantic anticyclone has recently 

 occupied a position more over the south-western quarter 

 of the ocean, while it has been flanked on its north-eastern 

 side by the extensive and stationary high-pressure system 

 which has remained centred over the British Isles for 

 several days past. In these circumstances a disturbance 

 developing anywhere in the neighbourhood of the West 

 Indies would be unable to take the usual sweep round 

 by the great American bight and Bermuda for the Banks 

 of Newfoundland. Instead, an almost direct westerly course 

 would have to be followed into the Gulf of Mexico. This 

 is what appears to have been the case on September 26 

 and 27, when a violent hurricane, centred on the eastern 

 side of the Gulf, ravaged the Southern States, the coastal 

 regions in particular suffering severely. The tempest raised 

 the waters of the Gulf so high that not only were the low- 

 lying lands inundated, but the streets of Mobile, Pensacola, 

 \ew Orleans, and other large towns were several feet 

 under water. Numbers of lives were lost, and thousands 

 of families rendered homeless. It is stated that at 

 Pensacola every house along the water front for a distance 

 of ten miles was wrecked, and Fort McCrae, a military 

 station, was completely destroyed, nearly every soul 

 perishing. In the various towns factories and ware- 

 houses were demolished, and their contents carried out 

 to sea. There were hundreds of maritime casualties, 

 many of them total losses. One navy vessel was carried 

 200 yards inland, and a large iron steamer forced through 

 buildings to a distance of a block from the wharf. Inland 

 there was great destruction amongst the cotton, sugar-cane, 

 and other crops, while very considerable structural damage 

 was occasioned by the violence of the wind. The storm 

 is said to be the worst since the one which destroyed 

 Galveston. 



Mr. J. A. Reid, Bedford, has just published a reprint, 

 price twopence, of Huxley's essay " Time and Life : 

 Darwin's 'Origin of Species,'" which originally appeared 

 in Macinillan's Magazine for 1859. 



It is announced in the September number that the 

 Museum Gazette will for some time to come take more 

 notice of the "humanities," while attention will also be 

 directed to some of the aspects of botanical studies. 

 Articles on fish as food, a seaside museum, mushroom- 

 eating, the potato-disease, and pea-pods, are included in 

 the contents of the number before us. 



With praiseworthy assiduity. Dr. W. L. Abbott, the 

 well-known amateur collector, continues his zoological ex- 

 ploration of the Malay islands. One of the latest areas 

 e.xplored is the cluster of small islands lying between the 

 NO. 1927, VOL. 74] 



Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, and collectively known as 

 the Rhino-Linga Archipelago. The large series of mammal 

 skins collected there is described by Mr. G. S. Miller in 

 No. 1485 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, 

 with the usual liberal allowance of nominal new species, 

 based, in most cases at any rate, on what are nothing 

 more than local phases. No. 1483 of the same serial is 

 devoted to a review, by Mr. P. Bartsch, of the long- 

 spired " urocoptid " land-shells from the -American main- 

 land in the collection of the museum, with the description 

 of a number of new forms. 



Although Japanese waters, according to Messrs. Jordan 

 and Starks, in a paper published in the Proceedings of the 

 U.S. National Museum (No. 1484), abound in flat-fishes, 

 the most esteemed British representatives of that group, 

 namely, the turbot and the sole, are unfortunately wantmg 

 in the far eastern islands, where, indeed, the genera 

 Rhombus and Solea, as restricted by the authors, are 

 absent. The authors make no mention of the respective 

 values as food-fishes of any of the numerous species re- 

 corded. They regard the theory that the flounders are 

 related to the Zeids, and that both groups trace their 

 ancestry to the extinct Amphistiida;, as an ingenious guess 

 for which there is no positive warranty. In No. i486 of 

 the same publication Messrs. Jordan and Snyder discuss 

 the Japanese killifishes (Pceciliid^), of which only two 

 species are at present known. 



According to a writer in the September number of the 

 Zoologist, hybrids between blackcock (or grey-hen) and the 

 pheasant are by no means uncommon in England ; in Scot- 

 land they are more rare, and on the Continent appear to 

 be very unusual. In addition to a portion of Messrs. 

 Clark and Rodd's notes on the birds of the Scilly Islands, 

 the same issue contains a notice of a specimen of the 

 pelagic fish Scomber thunniiia taken off Yarmouth, being 

 apparently the first of its kind recorded from British 

 waters. There is also a notice of a " sea-monster " seen 

 ofif the Irish coast. Judging from the sketch sent by one 

 observer, it seems probable that the creature was a bask- 

 ing-shark (Sclache maxima), unless, indeed, it could have 

 been a straggler of the Indian basking-shark (Rhinodon 

 typicus), which attains dimensions more nearly in accord 

 with those estimated by one of the observers for the Irish 

 monster. 



We have received a copy of No. 45 of the Journal of 

 the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (June), 

 which contains a number of articles on subjects connected 

 with zoology, botany, folk-lore, native manufactures, and 

 such like. Mr. C. B. Kloss communicates notes on the 

 Sumatran pig recently described as Sus oi, in the course 

 of which he points out that the species does not occur on 

 the mainland of the Malay Peninsula, but only on the 

 adjacent island of Pulo Battam, the fauna of which is 

 essentially of a Sumatran type. The longest article in the 

 issue is one by Dr. H. N. Ridley, giving an account of a 

 recent expedition undertaken by himself to Christmas 

 Island (Indian Ocean). The author was enabled to make 

 considerable additions to the list of indigenous plants, and 

 communicates some interesting observations on the changes 

 which are taking place in the coast fauna and flora as 

 the result of colonisation. Mr. R. Sheliord continues his 

 list of Bornean butterflies, while Mr. Kloss records a 30-feet 

 python from Johore. 



We have received the report on the Scientific Investi- 

 gations of the Northumberland Sea-fisheries Committee 

 for the year 1905. The delay in publication is due to an 



