428 
NATURE 
[JUNE 27, 1912 
THE DRIFT [CE (Ok DHE GREAT NEW- 
FOUNDLAND BANK AND ITS DANGER 
TO NAVIGATION, 
Ape principal article in Naturwissenschaftliche 
Wochenschrift of June 9 is devoted to a 
very interesting contribution by Herr Otto 
Baschin (Geographical Institute, Berlin) to our 
present knowledge of this subject and of iceberg's 
generally, to which the Titanic disaster of 
April 14 has directed attention. It is pointed out 
that nowhere do the masses of ice from polar 
regions advance so far in the equatorial direction 
as those which frequent the vicinity of Newfound- 
land. The drift of this ice southwards and east- 
wards is most active between January and July. 
About the middle of June the ice-limit begins to 
recede north-westwards, and after August ice is 
usually only met with (if at all) on the northern 
edge of the banks and on the east coast of New- 
foundland. Icebergs generally appear later than 
field ice, but the probability of meeting with both 
differs considerably from month to month and 
from year to year, and it may be seen from this 
article and from the valuable monthly charts 
issued by our own and other meteorological offices 
that great bergs may be met with in any 
month. The chart of the North Atlantic for July 
issued by the Meteorological Committee states : 
“The first berg. of .1912 was passed on 
January 7... but ice has been present in the 
North Atlantic since January 28, 1911.” 
The region in which ships must probably 
expect to meet ice lies between long. 40° and 
60° W., and the district in which it is most 
frequent is between 45° and.55° W., and extends 
southwards to latitude 41° N.; but, as shown in 
the charts above referred to, icebergs have occa- 
sionally been seen. in nearly all parts of the 
Atlantic north of latitude 30° N. Most of these 
bergs have their origin in western Greenland, 
being the seaward projecting ends of huge 
glaciers broken off by the upward pressure of 
the water. Some of them are of enormous dimen- 
sions, of which only about one-seventh part is 
visible above the surface of the water. The part 
below water, the so-called “foot” of the iceberg, 
mostly projects sideways for a considerable dis- 
tance. To add to the difficulties of navigation 
between northwest Europe and Canada and the 
United States, the prevalence of fog is very great, 
owing to the meeting of cold and warm ocean 
currents in the vicinity of Newfoundland. 
Since the Titanic catastrophe, with the view of 
minimising the risk to shipping, a more southerly 
route has been agreed upon, in which the meridian 
of 45° W. is crossed in latitude 38° N. It has 
been shown by Dr. G. Schott, of the Deutsche 
Seewarte, to whose work on the subject the 
author of the article is much indebted, that there 
is an intimate connection between the east Green- 
land and Newfoundland ice conditions, and Herr 
Baschin suggests that useful forecasts might pos- 
sibly now be issued, based on ice reports received 
by Iceland cable and by wireless telegraphy, in 
addition to the notices in the charts above referred 
NO. 2226, vot. 89] 
to. With respect to the loss of the Titanic, he 
expresses the opinion that the hull of that vessel 
was ripped by the far-reaching invisible “foot”? 
of an iceberg, resembling to all intents and 
purposes a sunken reef, and rejects the idea that 
she collided directly with the visible portion of 
the berg. 
NOTES. 
Ar the seventy-eighth annual general meeting of the 
Royal Statistical Society, held on June 18, Prof. 
F. Y. Edgeworth was elected president for the year 
1912-13. 
Tue Livingstone gold medal of the Royal Scottish 
Geographical Society has been awarded to Captain 
Roald Amundsen for his geographical discoveries on 
his recent expedition to the south pole. 
Tue Secretary of State for India in Council notifies 
that no vacancies in the Geological Survey Depart- 
ment are expected to occur during the current year. 
It is anticipated that one appointment will be made 
in the year 1913. 
Mr. James Murray has been awarded the Neill 
prize by the Royal Society of Edinburgh for his paper 
on Scottish Rotifers collected by the Lake Survey, 
and other papers on the Rotifera and Tardigrada ; 
and Prof. Alexander Smith the Keith prize for his 
researches on sulphur and vapour pressure. 
WE regret to see the announcement of the death, 
on June 18, at sixty-three years of age, of Mr. Alex- 
ander Knox, map curator of the War Office, and 
author of a valuable work on ‘‘The Climate of the 
Continent of Africa,’’ published last year by the Cam- 
bridge University Press. 
A RevuTrerR message from Berlin states that a Ger- 
man expedition to the Arctic, which will endeavour 
to make the North-East passage, and is expected to 
last three or four years, will start, under the leader- 
ship of Lieutenant Schréder-Stranz, in June, 1913. 
The Berlin Museum will supply the scientific equip- 
ment; and a staff of prominent men of science will 
accompany the expedition. 
WE regret to record the death on June 22, at thirty- 
nine years of age, of Mr. R. W. C. Shelford, known 
by his work in entomology, particularly on the Blatti- 
dze, on which he was the leading authority. Mr. Shel- 
ford was a graduate of the University of Cambridge, 
and for a time was curator of the museum at Sarawak. 
Upon his return to England he became an assistant 
in the Hope Department of the museum at Oxford, 
where he did valuable work. He suffered from tuber- 
culosis of the thigh, and had been in a nursing home 
at Margate since last January. 
THE annual exhibition of antiquities discovered 
during the third season of excavations at Meroé, 
Sudan, carried on in connection with the Institute of 
Archeology, University of Liverpool, will be held in 
the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington 
House, London, W., from July 9 to July 23 inclusive. 
| The exhibition will be inaugurated by the Bishop of 
