578 



NA TURE 



[October 4, 1906 



and M. Hue. The views on the alignments were varied ; 

 they were ex-xotos, and they were connected with the 

 Trojan war ; but the majority hesitated to express an 

 opinion. M. le Rouzic, Dr. Baudouin and others, subject 

 to more extensive researches in Brittany and elsewhere, 

 were disposed to connect them with a solar cult. Among 

 other papers. Dr. Atgier discussed the Megalithic enclosures, 

 and M. de Cl^rambant galgals, or cairns, in Indre-et-Loire. 



M. de Villemereuil proposed a motion on the State pro- 

 tection of megaliths. Speaking generally, it may be said 

 that both the discussions and the numerous papers were of 

 much interest, and the meetings were attended by more 

 than a hundred members. 



The following three days were taken up with excellently 

 organised excursions ; weather, vehicles, meals, and 

 speeches, all were of the best, and more than a hundred 

 took part in each excursion. The first day was consecrated 

 to the Gulf of Morbihan, and among the objects visited 

 were the cromlechs of Kergonan, the tumulus of Gavr'inis, 

 and the magnificent dolmens of Locmariaquer, including 

 the largest known menhir. On the second day visits were 

 paid to the little-known alignments of St. Pierre, in 

 Quiberon, and of Erdeven, and to the dolmens of Roch-en- 

 Aud, Crocuno, Rondossec, &c. 



The third day was reserved for Carnac and its marvellous 

 alignments Menec, Kermario, and Kerlescant. 



Worthy of special mention were the visits to the tumulus 

 of Moustoir-Carnac, and to the Miln Museum, where the 

 secretary of the congress paid a well-deserved tribute to 

 the brilliant efforts of the regretted founder and his 

 enthusiastic and devoted pupil, M. le Rouzic. Finally, a 

 visit was rendered to the splendid tumulus of St. Michel- 

 Carnac, so well cared for by M. d'Ault du Mesnil, president 

 of the Megalithic Monuments Commission, who himself 

 acted as guide. 



In the course of the three days numerous speeches were 

 made by foreign members, who were roused to enthusiasm 

 alike by the monuments and by the organisation of the 

 gathering. Mention must be made of the utterances of 

 M. Rutot, on the Gulf of Morbihan ; of Dr. Baudouin, on 

 submerged megaliths in Brittany and Vendue, and on the 

 technique of restorations ; and of the erudition of M. 

 de Mortillet, as well as of the demonstrations of MM. 

 d'Ault du Mesnil and le Rouzic; the latter also spoke in 

 the Miln Museum on the alignments of Carnac, and on 

 his researches on the spot. 



As the scene of the next congress in 1907 .'\bbeville was 

 suggested by more than one speaker. Before the congress 

 separated, the healths of M. de Mortillet, Dr. Baudouin, 

 and M. Giraux were proposed in eulogistic terms. As 

 M. Rutot said, a society that has been able to accomplish 

 so much in its infancy will do much more in its maturer 

 years, and this was equally the opinion of the foreign 

 savants who attended the meeting. 



A NEW SPECIMEN OF THE OK API. 

 T N a letter from the Congo Free State, published in the 

 ■'• Tiynes of September 26, Major P. H. G. Powell-Cotton 

 states that he has succeeded in obtaining the skeleton and 

 skin of a fine male okapi. This animal was killed at 

 Makala, in the Ituri forest, by the native hunter Agukki, 

 who shot the two specimens taken to Europe by Dr. 

 David. After careful inquiry. Major Powell-Cotton is un- 

 able to satisfy himself that any European has hitherto 

 killed an okapi. A Swiss official named Jeannet, in the 

 employ of the Congo Government, was, however, in 1905 

 shown one of these animals by a native as it stood in 

 thick covert, where it was shot by the latter. This the 

 writer believes to be the first living okapi (or " kangi," 

 as it is called by the Makala natives) seen by a European. 



According to information furnished by the Mambutti 

 (pigmies), the okapi is generally a solitary animal, the 

 two members of a pair invariably feeding apart, although, 

 together with their single calf, they may frequent the same 

 section of the forest. The calf, which is born in May, is 

 left hidden in covert by the female, who returns to it at 

 intervals for feeding purposes. Hearing and smell are very 

 acute in the okapi, so that the sound of an axe or the 

 faintest scent of man drives it from its feeding grounds 



into the depths of the forest. Even when feeding it is 

 restless, and it seldom reposes long in the same lair. In 

 the Ituri forest these animals avoid swampy ground, and 

 always drink from clear running streams. During rain 

 they seek shelter in the densest thickets or even under an 

 abandoned roof, and it is at such times that they are 

 most usually seen by the natives. 



In the Ituri forest the okapi does not eat the giant 

 leaves of Sarcophrynium arnoldiamim, which Major 

 Powell-Cotton believes to be the plant alluded to by 

 Captain Boyd-Alexander in his account of the animal in 

 the Welle district. Specimens of four different kinds of 

 leaves which form the food of the Ituri forest okapi are 

 being brought home for identification. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



The honorary degree of LL.D. has been conferred upon 

 Sir Thomas Barlow and Prof. C. S. Sherrington, F.R.S., 

 by Harvard University. 



At a Convocation of the University of Durham, held on 

 September 29, the honorary degree of D.Sc. was conferred 

 upon Sir William White, K.C.B., and Prof. Lebour. 



Prof. Wien, who occupies the chair of physics at Wiirz- 

 burg, informs us that he has declined the invitation to 

 succeed the late Prof. Drude as professor of physics in the 

 University of Berlin, because the Prussian Government is 

 unable to undertake the erection of a modern physical 

 laboratory there. 



Prof. E. A. Minchin, F.R.S., the recently appointed 

 professor of protozoology in the University of London, will 

 deliver his inaugural lecture on " The Scope and Problems 

 of Protozoology " on November 15. The University 

 library, in which is included the Goldsmiths' Company's 

 library of economic literature, will be opened by the Chan- 

 cellor on the afternoon of Friday, October 26. 



The new calendar of University College, London, con- 

 tains an interesting outline of t>he history of the college 

 by Dr. G. Carey Foster, F.R.S. The contribution deals 

 with the growth and development of the University of 

 London as a teaching university, and the part played by 

 University College in that development. Particular's are 

 given of the post-graduate courses offered this session in 

 all faculties, and of the original work produced in the 

 college during last session. The number of research and 

 post-graduate students last year was 134, as against 119 

 in the previous session. 



The first volume of the report for 1904 of the Com- 

 missioner of the United States Bureau of Education has 

 at last been issued. A gratifying feature noted in the re- 

 ports of the agricultural and mechanical colleges is the 

 largely increased aid granted them by the several States 

 and Territories. This aid amounted for the year to about 

 i,i3i,oooL, an increase of more than 200,oooi. over the 

 amount for the preceding year. A chapter of more than 

 a hundred pages is devoted to the regulations relating to 

 pensions and insurance in all German universities. The 

 data were collected by Prof. Julius Hatscheck, of Heidel- 

 berg, for Dr. Theodore Marburg, trustee of Johns Hopkins 

 University, and by the latter presented to the U.S. Com- 

 missioner of Education. It appears that in Germany 

 membership in any teaching body means, nolens volens, 

 the payment of regular contributions to the pension fund 

 of that body, except in elementary schools, where the 

 State assumes the entire burden of pension payment. Dr. 

 John W. Hoyt contributes a detailed account of the Uni- 

 versity of Paris during the Middle Ages. Among other 

 chapters of interest in the report, which runs to 1176 pages, 

 may be mentioned two on education at the St. Louis 

 Exposition and one on higher education in England as 

 affected by the Act of 1902, in which prominence is given 

 to Prof. Sadler's reports to various county councils. 



At the University of Leeds on Monday, the inaugural 

 address of the new session was delivered by Sir James 

 Crichton-Browne upon the subject of " Universities and 

 Medical Education." In the course of his remarks, he 



NO. 1927, VOL. 74] 



