302 
NATURE 
[May 23, ome 
its metallurgical department. But the greatest 
monument of his munificence will be the new South 
African University, if its benefactors’ wishes are 
realised. Inspired by Rhodes’s example, Beit had 
bequeathed property which has realised nearly a 
quarter of a million for the foundation of a university 
in the Transvaal; and when after the establishment 
of the South African Union it was decided to divert 
this money to the creation of a new teaching uni- 
versity for the whole of South Africa on the Groote 
Schuur estate at Cape Town, Wernher added a sum 
to his partner’s bequest sufficient to bring up the 
endowment to 500,000l. 
A PROVINCIAL meeting of the Royal Meteorological 
Society was held, on the invitation of the Mayor and 
Corporation, at Southport on Monday, May 13. 
After assembling at the Town Hall in the morning, 
the Fellows were driven to the anemograph station 
at Marshside, where they saw the pressure-tube 
anemometers and the anemoscope at 
work. After luncheon a visit was 
paid to the Fernley Observatory in 
Hesketh Park to see the large collec- 
tion of self-recording and _ other 
instruments which are in use at this 
unique observatory. At the same time 
a demonstration was given of the 
method of filling and sending up a 
ballon-sonde with meteorograph 
attached for ascertaining the tem- 
perature in the upper atmosphere. 
Observations of the track of the 
balloon were made by means of a 
theodolite. Later, a meeting of the 
society was held in the Science and 
Art. School, Dr. H. N. Dickson, 
president, in the chair. Mr. W. 
Marriott read a paper on the results 
of hourly wind and rainfall records 
at Southport, 1902-11, based upon 
data supplied by Mr. J. Baxendell, 
the borough meteorologist. When 
the hourly results are grouped p,,,,, 
according to summer and _ winter 
seasons, a great contrast in the 
figures is at once apparent. A most marked 
diurnal variation in the direction of the wind is 
shown in the summer, which is due to an extreme 
local development of land and sea breezes. Mr. J. S. 
Dines also read a paper on the south-east trade wind 
at St. Helena, in which he showed that observations 
tend to confirm the hypothesis of a long-period oscilla- 
tion in the wind direction at St. Helena. 
As it covers two years (1910, 1911), the recently 
issued report of the Felsted School Scientific Society 
is more bulky than usual; it is, at the same time, 
rendered much more attractive by containing repro- 
ductions of some of the prize competition photographs 
taken by members of the society last year. These 
represent ornithological subjects, including sedge- 
warblers’ nests with eggs of cuckoos. Attention is 
directed to the interest attaching to a brickfield in 
NO. 2221, VOL. 89| 
the neighbourhood of the school, the clay of which is 
a plateau deposit containing Paleolithic implements. 
TuE Aarsberetning of the Bergen Museum for 1911 
opens with a portrait and memoir of the late Prof. 
G. H. A. Hansen. Extensive additions are in pro- 
| gress or contemplation to the buildings, among which 
an illustration is given of one connected with the 
laboratory. Among the additions to the zoological 
department special interest attaches to a model of a 
cave with three newly born bears, of which an illus- 
tration is given in the report. Bear cubs, it may be 
mentioned, are remarkable for their extraordinarily 
small size at the time of birth. 
| ment for salmon and trout, towards th= 
In its report for the past year the council of the 
Royal Zoological Society o1 Ireland announces the gift 
of sool. by Lord Iveagh and the receipt of a legacy 
of tool. from the late Mr. L. O. Hutton. The former 
sum has been devoted to building a hospital for the 
animals. Mr. Hutton’s legacy, on the other hand, is 
(J. A. Scott. 
Lion cubs four days old at the Dublin gardens. 
allocated to the construction of a brecding establish- 
cost of which 
contributions have also been promised from the Irish 
Fisheries Office and other bodies interested in the 
subjects. Experiments have been made in keeping 
apes and monkeys in the open air with satisfactory 
results. The collection of lions included twenty-two 
animals at the close of the year, two of these being 
presented by H.M. the King. One litter of five lion 
cubs was produced in the gardens during the year. 
By the courtesy of the society we are able to give 
an illustration of this litter from the report. 
Str ARCHIBALD GEIKIE has sent to The Times a 
letter just received by him from Dr. E. A. Wilson, 
the chief of the scientific staff of the British Antarctic 
Expedition. The letter is dated October 31, 1911, at 
MeMurdo Sound, extract a few points of 
and we 
