14 
NATURE 
[Marcu 7, 1912 
CONSIDERABLE interest attaches to the description 
by Miss D. M. A. Bate in the January number of 
The Geological Magazine of the dentition and other 
remains of a large mouse (rat, we should have pre- 
ferred to call it) discovered by herself in a cave on the 
west coast of Crete. The new species (Mus catreus) 
considerably exceeds the brown rat in size, and may 
be compared in this respect to the great Gambian rat 
(Cricetomys gambianus); it consequently forms a 
second instance of a relatively gigantic rodent in the 
Pleistocene of the Mediterranean islands. 
Tue fourth number of ‘‘ Behaviour Monographs,”’ 
published by Messrs. Holt and Co. at Cambridge, 
Boston, Mass., is devoted to an account of the ecology 
of the pond-snails of the genus Physa, by Miss Jean 
Dawson. From their omnivorous habits, these snails 
are valuable as purifiers of the ponds in which they 
dwell. Their own mucus serves to assist in procuring 
food, since it entraps microscopic organisms of all 
Ikinds, which are then devoured by the snails, together 
with the mucus itself. The rudimentary eyes appar- 
ently afford no assistance in procuring food, but the 
head and fore part of the foot are sensitive to food- 
stimulus. 
A new Polypodium from the Panama regions, de- 
scribed by Mr. R. Mason in an extract from the 
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections (vol. lvi., No. 
24), is remarkable, because the pinnz of the sterile 
fronds are entire, while those of the fertile fronds are 
toothed or lobed and bear the sori apparently at the 
tips of the teeth. Another striking feature is the 
variation in the fronds, due to differences in the 
pinne, which in some cases are entire or once forked, 
in others much branched; it is suggested that the 
branching is correlated with injury to the apex of the 
fronds, which are normally of indeterminate growth. 
In connection with afforestation on the Thirlmere 
estate in the Lake district, Mr. A. B. Edwards con- 
tributes to the Transactions of the Royal Scottish 
Arboricultural Society (vol. xxvi., part i.) an article 
containing some useful hints on planting at high 
altitudes. Three-year-old seedlings were generally 
selected, and planted in prepared pits. Larch 
formed the main bulk of the plants, but where shelter 
was required a belt or intermixture of Scots, 
Austrian, and Corsican pines has been adopted. For 
higher elevations fir or spruce is recommended, 
notably the Menzies spruce. In support of a favour- 
able anticipation of the financial success of operations, 
the author quotes figures from a plantation in the 
same district. 
Tue Upper Rhine, from Basle to Mainz, is one of 
the chief seismic districts of Central Europe, about 
400 earthquakes being recorded there between 1800 
and 1895. Of the latest earthquake, that of 
November 16, 1911, a popular account by W. Salo- 
mon is given in Naturwissenschaftliche Wochen- 
schrift for February 11. Judging from the area of 
greatest intensity, there would appear to be two | 
epicentres, one near Lake Constance, the other, from 
forty to fifty miles farther north, in the neighbour- 
hood of Balingen, Ebingen, and Hechingen. From 
NO. 2210, VOL. 89] 
the frequency of after-shocks in the latter district, 
and from their absence from the former, however, 
there appears to be some doubt whether the shocls 
belongs to the class of twin-earthquakes. 
In Heft 5 of the Mitteilungen aus den Deutschen 
Schutzgebieten, the region of the upper basin of the 
Mungo River, in the Cameroon protectorate, is fully 
described from the geographical viewpoint by Dr. F. 
Thorbecke. He deals specially with the higher 
country round the voleano of Manenguba, which rises 
to an altitude of more than 2000 metres, and considers 
it to consist essentially of a crystalline block overlaid 
by basaltic or trachytic sheets of lava. This seems 
to have been slowly raised, subsequent faulting and 
volcanic action having also played an important part 
in producing the present surface forms. Meteor- 
ological observations for 1g10 from stations in the 
Cameroons, Togo, and New Guinea are also con- 
tained in this volume. 
Tue Canadian Naval Service Act having been 
passed in May, 1910, the Department of Naval Service 
was forthwith organised with branches dealing with 
naval matters, fishery protection, tidal and current 
surveys, hydrographic survey, and wireless  tele- 
graphy. Reports on all these for the fiscal year end- 
ing March 31, 1911, have been published, and contain 
many points of interest. The tidal work has been 
previously mentioned in noticing the tidal tables 
which have recently been published. Hydrographic 
surveys were carried out on the Great Lakes, on the 
Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and in Hudson Bay and 
elsewhere. Not many details are given of methods 
and results, but it is stated that the local attraction 
of compasses reputed to exist in Hudson Bay was not 
substantiated. Thirty-two radio-telegraphic stations 
exist, and a scheme has been prepared for the estab- 
lishment of a system of such stations on the Great 
Lakes. 
In the November (1911) number of the Geo- 
graphische Zeitschrift Prof. Penck gives a most 
instructive critical comparison of the three principal 
German atlases—these three, the hand-atlases of 
Stieler, Debes, and Andree, are generally considered 
to stand in the foremost rank of modern topography— 
and the discussion of the differences between them. 
He notes the increasing use of the most suitable pro- 
jections in place of the very limited selection formerly 
employed, the careful choice of scale, and greatly 
improved character of the representation of relief. 
Contour lines or layers of colour might in some cases 
be utilised, and the great scarcity of physical maps 
in most atlases, which devote their pages primarily 
to the distribution of man and his works on the 
earth’s surface, is a matter which calls for considera- 
tion. In spite of much recent progress, there is 
| always room for improvement, and there is ample 
scope for the scientific study of cartography; the 
same may be said of cartography in this country, 
where, however, there is much more to be done before 
an ideal standard is reached. 
A nHeavy gale was experienced in all parts of 
England on March 4 and the following night, when at 
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