Jan. 27, 1 881] 



NATURE 



291 



In dealing with tlie interior region of Briti.-h Columbia lying 

 between the Rocky and Coast Mountains no mention is made 

 of the actual evidence obtained cf a movement of ice from 

 north to south in this plateau district, though it is after- 

 wards incidentally aKuded to in a quotation crnnected with a 

 proposed explana'ion of the facts ob-erved. The drift-covered 

 and erratic-strewn character of the country is aI;o ignored ; and 

 while the lower terraces bordering the rivers are mentioned, and 

 attributed to fluviatile action — a view doubtless substantially 

 correct — the fact th.t terraces are found beyond the river- 

 valleys attaching themselves to the higher parts of the plateau 

 and to the mountain-;-ides to an elevation of 5270 feet is 

 passed over in silence. The conclusion is then easily arrived 

 at that the "statement " of 1866 is "entirely borne out by an 

 overwhelming weight of evidence." 



Turning now to the coast of the province. Prof. Whitney of 

 course admits the marked glaciation of the south-eastern extre- 

 mity of Vancouver Island, which has been noticed by a numi er 

 of observers, and which he has himself seen during a hurried 

 visit. He states however that the markings he saw were every- 

 where parallel to the coast, and appeared to him more like ice- 

 berg than glacier work. Now as the coast is very sinuous in 

 outline, while the main glaciation pursues within a fav degrees a 

 uniform direction (S. 11° W.), the two must in some places 

 coincide, but an intimate acquaintance with the south-eastern 

 part of Vancouver Island enables me to state that the glaciating 

 agent has swept completely and steadily over it entirely, without 

 reference to the pre ent coast outlines. With regard to the 

 second statement, I believe that a reference to the description of 

 the character of the glaciation given in one of my papers already 

 referred to {Quart. Jour it. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxiv. p. 92) will be suffi- 

 cient to convince any one who is familiar w ith ice action that a 

 glacier has do. e the work. It is of course e-.sier to be personally 

 assured, where so much depends on judgment of local details, 

 than to demonstrate the actual conditions to others ; but the 

 parallel grooving and furrowing out of hard rocks in the manner 

 illustrated on pp. 93, 94, and 96, one has been accustomed to 

 consider as characteristic of glaciers. 



Further on Prof. Whitney .assumes that the "manifestations" 

 of the supposed Strait of Georgia glacier are ' ' almost or quite ex- 

 clusively limited to its termination." Some evidence to the con- 

 trary is however given in the publication to which special reference 

 has just been made, whde subsequent exploration — the j-ublished 

 account of which Prof. Whitney appears to have overlooked — 

 has brought to light similar and concordant glacier-work at 

 Nanaimo, ninety miles to the north-west of Victoria, and has 

 also demonstrated that a second branch of the great ice mass 

 which choked the space between Vancouver Island and the 

 mainland, comparaHe in size with that of the Strait of Georgia, 

 discharged north-westward by Queen Charlotte's .Sound ( Canadian 

 Naturalist, vul. ix. No. i). In the lately-i.-sued volume of the 

 Geological Survey (187S 79) additional facts tending to show the 

 importance of ice-action in the Queen Charlotte Islands and 

 extreme north of the coast of Britih Columbia are given. 



Not being in the position of having any favourite theory 

 of glaciatioEi to maintain, 1 wish merely to indicate by a 

 few examples the inadequacy of the portion of Prof. Whitney's 

 monograjih which is intended to summarise the glacial con- 

 ditions of liritish Columbia. Prof. Whitney appe.irs to have 

 been beset by observers "entirely inexperienced in the study of 

 glacial phenomena" to such an extent as to render him uniluly 

 suspicious of the evidence obtained by other workers. He 

 states, for example, that in passing to the region north of the 

 boundary of the United Stales " we have to depend largely tn 

 the observations of others," and that " an attempt will be made 

 to sift the evidei ce offered." Now while it is a little dis- 

 couraging to find that one must belong to the class of "others," 

 I feel confident that to any unprejudiced inquirer the facts 

 already accumulated and published are sufficient to prove the 

 general and [jronounced character of the glaciation of British 

 Columbia. It is perhaps not too much to ask that in this matter 

 purely negative shall not be put on an equality with positive 

 eviderce. Prof. Whitney's profound distrust of the "others" 

 again appears v\ here he qualifies a reference to my statements by 

 the clause "even if his observations be .accepted as entirely 

 trustvi'orthy." It is, however, so far satisfactory to find oneself 

 in good company, for Dr. Hector, who has also had the mis- 

 fortune to have had something to say about this region which 

 does not conform to Prof. Whitney's hypotheses, is referred to 

 as "evidently quite inexperienced," and one whose "statements 

 must be received with some caution," while Dr. R. Brown for a 



similar sin is characterised as "an entirely unpractised ob- 

 server." George M. Dawson 

 Geological Survey of Canada, Montreal, December 22, 1880 



Lophiomys Imhausi 



In Nature of January i, 1880, I published a note on the 

 " habitat " of that strange and excessively rare rodent Lophiomys 

 Imhausi ; it may interest many of your readers to know that I 

 have recently received from Count Lodovico Marazzani a splendid 

 specimen of that species from a new locality, viz. Erkauid, on 

 the mountains between Suakin and .Singat, where it was captured 

 quite accidentally on April 12 last by a shot from a small 

 revolver. It was also secured and preserved by mere chance, for 

 it was found by a small terrier and kdled at the bottom of a 

 deep fissure in the granitic rocks, and its value was quite ignored 

 by those who first handled it ; thus the skeleton and viscera 

 were lost, but hapjily the skin was in excellent condition, and 

 the skull had been left attached. It is an adult female and has 

 four teats, two pectoral or rather axillary, and two inguinal; it 

 is rather larger than the fine specimen at Genoa, but does not 

 differ in cilour or richness of fur. The luxuriant dorsal mane to 

 which this creatare owes its name is separated from the long 

 hairs of the body by a narrow stripe of short stiff greyish green 

 bri-tles. The iris was dark brown, and the animal emanated no 

 special odour. 



This is the fourth specimen of Lophiomys Imhausi that has 

 been secured to science ; the first was the type specimen acci- 

 dentally brought alive by M. Imhaus at Aden and described by 

 Prof. A. Milne-Edwards : it is in the Paris Museum, skin, 

 skeleton, and viscera pre-erved. The second is the skull 

 accidentally picked up by Dr. Schweinfurth at Maman, north of 

 Kassala, and described in 1867 by Prof. Peters as Phiactomys 

 athiopicus ; it is I believe at Berlin. The third was accidentally 

 killed by a blow on the head with a stick in the Seriba of 

 Beccari and Antinori at Keren in the Bogos country in 1870"; 

 the mounted skin and skeleton are in the Civic Museum at 

 Genoa. The fourth is the subject of this note ; its skin has been 

 splendioly mounted by my able taxidermist Signor R. Magnelli, 

 and it and the cranium form an important item of the Florence 

 Zoological Museum. The natives told Count Marazzani that 

 Loph'omys is rare, that it lives in deep holes in the strangely 

 fissured rocks of that country, and that it is a vegetable feeder ; 

 the stomach of the specimen I have was much distended with 

 leaves and young shoots when Count Marazzani skinned it. 



The " habitat" of this species is now pretty well defined by 

 lines drawn from Suakin to Maman and Kassala, and thence 

 southward towards the Somali coast. 



Henry Hillyer Giglioli 



Reale Istituto, Florence 



Parhelion 



Yesterday' a parhelion or mock sun was seen here. At 

 3h. 20in. I w as at the Ob-ervatory, and the true sun was sinking in 

 the south-west upon a somewhat dense cloud-bank with light and 

 long cirro strati about and above it. The air was comparatively 

 calm, the anemometer cups moving only occasii>n.ally and slowly. 

 The horizon was foggy and misty. The spectral sun appeared 

 as a bright diffused circular spot of light tinged with prismatic 

 colours about 30° to the left (E.) of the true sun, and in a 

 horizontal line with it. 



I could trace a segment of a circle having the sun for its 

 centre, for a few degrees above and below the mock image. 



To the west I could not trace any false image or continuation 

 of the circle. The phantom im.age slowly faded away in about 

 ten minutes from its being first observed. The weather has 

 been severe here {something over 200 feet above sea), but hardly 

 so sharp as in some other (probably lower-lying) places. V.'ith 

 Negretti and Zambra's standard minimum in cage four feet from 

 the ground, n° is the lowest I have registered. 



During, however, the past seven days the maximum has only 

 twice risen al ove freezing-point, and then but i". 



Guildown, Guildford, January 21 J. Rand Capron 



Girton and Newnham Colleges 

 So.ME of your readers may perhaps be glad to help the natural 

 science students of Girton and Newnham Colleges to raise about 

 800/., needed for a physical and biological laboratory. The 



