590 



NATURE 



[October 12, 1905 



two halves divergent, and the flat surface pressed against 

 the fish and the two halves brought together, thereby tear- 

 ing off a piece of flesh, which is withdrawn into the 

 mouth. 



In part i. of the fifth volume of the Proceedings of the 

 Rhodesia Scientific Association are contained three papers 

 by the president, Mr. Franlilin White. Two of these are 

 descriptions of ruins ; the more important paper deals with 

 Zimbabwe on the same lines as the more detailed account 

 in the next issue of the Journal of the Anthropological 

 Institute; the illustrations are different. Mr. White's very 

 careful survey shows that many of the data on which have 

 been based theories as to the age and u.se of the ruins 

 are untrustworthy, and it is unfortunate for him that the 

 negative results of his really sound work have now been 

 overshadowed by the more positive contributions of Mr. 

 Maclver's excavations. The third paper deals with bush- 

 man cave paintings near Matopos, and is of interest as 

 showing their occurrence in an area outside that allotted 

 to the " painters " in Stow's recent work ; the paintings 

 are reproduced in four coloured plates. Other illustrations 

 in this part show the Lumene and Umnukwane ruins. 

 Few local societies do more useful work than does the 

 Rhodesian Scientific Association, and its Proceedings do 

 it great credit. 



In the Naturxvissenschaftliche Wochenschrift for August 

 13 will be found a i-t^iimc of our knowledge of carpospore 

 formation in the red seaweeds, which formed the subject 

 of an address by Dr. F. Tobler to the Gesellschaft natur- 

 forschender Freunde of Berlin. The article, which deals 

 with the work of Oltmanns and his predecessors, is illus- 

 trated with a selection of their figures. 



In 1879 Prof. F. C. Schubeler, of Christiania, published 

 some conclusions which he had formed regarding the 

 greater productiveness and quicker ripening qualities of 

 grain sown in northerly districts or on highlands as com- 

 pared with that sown further south or on lowlands. These 

 conclusions were not without value, as thev directed atten- 

 tion to the matter, but Prof. N. Wille' questions their 

 accuracy in the Biologisches Centralblatt (September i). 

 Data compiled by Mr. L. P. Nilssen for different 

 Norwegian districts tend rather to show that crops take 

 longer to ripen near the sea than further inland. 



The pages of the Indian Forester contain a number of 

 useful short notes and letters contributed by oflicers of 

 the Indian Forest Department, in which they record their 

 experiences and exchange opinions. In the' July number 

 Mr. W. Mayes describes a disastrous outbreak oi Trametes 

 pini in the forests of Pinus excelsa in the Simla division ; 

 he proposes to replace the diseased poles with deodar' 

 which is believed to be immune to this fungus. A simple 

 but effective method of holding shifting sands by planting 

 thorn hedges is described by Mr. L. Das. The subject of 

 fire protection in teak forests has elicited various ex- 

 pressions of opinion. 



The report of the industrial section of the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta, for the year 1904-5 has been received 

 from the acting superintendent, Mr. Hooper. Among the 

 recent additions to the economic section, the fragrant resin 

 or balsam furnished by Altingia excelsa, the dammar-resin 

 secreted by the Melipona or mosquito bee— both products 

 of Burma— and a white resin from Assam, yielded by 

 Dipterocarpus pilosus, are of special interest, ' and hav'c 

 been examined in the laboratory. From Burma specimens 

 NO. 1876, VOL. 72! 



have also been sent to the art ware and ethnological 

 sections, but the latter has been augmented principally by 

 collections from Nepal and Tibet of musical instruments, 

 articles of warfare, and personal ornaments. 



Although at first glance the disposition of the Lower 

 Palaeozoic strata of the Island of Montreal, dipping at a 

 very gentle an^e away from the Laurentian plateau, 

 might appear to promise a constant source of artesian 

 water, the mineral character of the rocks forbids this. 

 They are chiefly massive limestones, and the underground 

 water travels along fissures and not in any special water- 

 bearing beds, so that the success or failure of a boring 

 cannot be foretold. Such is the conclusion reached by 

 Prof. Adams and Mr. Leroy from a study of eighty-nine 

 wells (Geological Survey of Canada, annual report, 1904, 

 part O). Their report includes a general account of the 

 geology of the Montreal district, illustrated by an excellent 

 map on the scale of four miles to the inch, so that the 

 pamphlet will be of interest to many who have no concern 

 with well-sinking. 



We have received from Dr. P. Bergholz a copy of the 

 observations taken at the Bremen Meteorological Observ- 

 atory during 1904. The work forms one portion of the 

 excellent series of the " German Meteorological Year- 

 books," and contains hourly values and means of the 

 principal elements, together with the daily ranges and other 

 useful tables. It may be remembered that Dr. Bergholz 

 translated into German Father Vines's very valuable work 

 on the circulation and translation of the cyclones of the 

 West Indies, published in 1895, some two years after the 

 lamented death of the author. 



Mr. a. Linton. Director of Agriculture for British East 

 Africa, has published the meteorological records of that 

 protectorate for the year 1904. It is admitted that the 

 observations are not so satisfactory as might be, owing 

 to want of sufficient instruments and of uniformity 

 of exposure, but steps are being taken to remedy both 

 these defects in the near future. The report, how- 

 ever, contains valuable records (mostly of rainfall) at 

 twenty-eight stations, taken at gh. a.m., during the year 

 1904, together with monthly and yearly means for as long 

 a period as available, in some cases exceeding ten years. 

 The amount of rainfall varies considerably, according to 

 geographical position ; in some provinces the crops suffer 

 from lack of sufficient quantity and in others from excess. 

 The yearly average seems to vary from about 14-7 inches 

 at Kismayu to 73.4 inches at Mumias ; both stations are 

 practically in the latitude of the equator, the former station 

 being at 43° E. long., near the sea-level, and the latter 

 3' 34° E- long., at an altitude of about 4000 feet. 



The large part which her system of secondary and 

 higher education has taken in Germany's extraordinary 

 industrial success forms the subject of an article by Mr. 

 J. L. Bashford in the current number of the Fortnightly 

 Review. The essay summarises arguments which have 

 been urged on many occasions in these columns, and 

 advocates forcibly the need for the provision of a generous 

 supply of higher education of the right kind, if Britain is 

 to regain her position in the world of commerce. It is 

 satisfactory to find a growing disposition on the part of 

 the general Press to explain the shortcomings of our 

 national education and to demand the provision of more 

 funds for higher education. The same number of the 

 review contains two other articles of interest to men of 

 science. Dr. C. W. Saleeby, under the title of ■' The 



