AUGUST 29, 1912] 
NATURE 
661 
2oh. 50m. ; secondary maxima, September 24, oh. 45m., 
and September 25, gh. 50m. 
Epoch September 27, 8h., seventeenth order of 
magnitude. Principal maximum, September 26, 
7h. 30m. ; secondary maxima, September 25, 20h. 4om., 
and September 26, 18h. 25m. 
Epoch September 28, 15h. 20m., sixth order of 
magnitude. Principal maximum, September 27, 
5h. 45m.; secondary maxima, September 28, 3h. 3om., 
and roh. 30m. 
There is a considerable amount of meteoric activity 
in September, the first maximum of importance 
occurring on September 4, 6h. 1om. The principal 
maxima that become due on September 6, especially 
the first of them, and the principal maximum that falls 
on September 7, 2th. 5m., are of very high intensity. 
The principal maxima also are interesting that occur 
on September 13, toh. 30m., and on the three days 
September 21-23. Joun R. Henry. 
August 26. 
A Flower Sanctuary. 
Some of the correspondence in your columns on the 
subject of the flora of the Cheddar Cliffs seems to 
assume that the Somerset County Council has a 
power to “proclaim” the flowers in question, that is, 
to protect them from being gathered, and that it 
has not exercised this power. I should be much 
indebted to any of your correspondents who can show 
me what power the council possesses to  pro- 
tect particular flowers, or how a bye-law can 
be framed for this purpose with any chance of its 
being valid. I think it will be found that, without 
further legislation, County Councils are powerless to 
afford the protection desired. Epw. Fry. 
Failand House, Failand, nr. Bristol. 
A Point in Geological Nomenclature. 
Wir reference to Mr. A. Irving’s communication 
under this heading in Nature of August 15 (p. 608), 
the term Quartdér, as German equivalent of our 
** Quaternary’ or ‘‘ Post-tertiary,” is by no means a 
speciality of Prof. Credner, but the designation 
generally accepted by all German geologists since 
Naumann. 
F. von Hochstetter (Vienna) used Quartér long 
before Credner, and it appears in the “ Flétzforma- 
tionslehre,”’ written in 1856 by B. von Cotta, who suc- 
ceeded Naumann in 1842 at the Mining Academy of 
Freiberg. F. Gir7man. 
16 Glebe Road, West Bridgford, 
Nottingham, August 17. 
BOATS AND LIFE-SAVING APPLIANCES 
ON SHIPS. 
A T the time when the Titanic was lost the stand- 
ing Advisory Committee appointed by the 
Board of Trade under the provisions of Merchant 
Shipping Acts was engaged in the reconsideration 
of the regulations for boats and_ life-saving 
appliances. A report had been presented by the 
committee recommending an extension of the pre- 
viously existing scale for boats, so as to include 
the largest passenger steamers; and in the course 
of the inquiry by Lord Mersey and his colleagues 
an investigation was made of the causes of an 
apparently long delay on the part of the Marin 
Department of the Board of Trade in dealing with 
that report. Satisfactory explanations were forth- 
coming; but, in view of the great calamity that 
NO. 2235, VOL. 89| 
' 
j had occurred, it was obvious that the committee 
must reconsider the whole subject. That action 
was ordered by Mr. Buxton, and the committee 
received special instructions, its opinion being re- 
quested in regard to existing statutory regulations 
for boats and life-saving appliances on ships 
generally, and suggestions being invited in regard 
to ‘““means calculated to diminish the risk or to 
mitigate the effects of accidents to vessels at 
Sanu 
Obviously a wide field of inquiry was laid open 
by these instructions; and in order to deal with 
this task efficiently the committee decided to co- 
opt additional members. A number of eminent 
men—shipowners, shipbuilders and_ professional 
officers of the great registration societies—were 
invited to join. Captain Watt, formerly com- 
modore of the Cunard Line, was also co-opted, as 
his experience in command of trans-Atlantic 
passenger steamers had been altogether exceptional 
and had only recently been terminated as captain 
of the great steamship Lusitania. The original 
committee had been both strong and representative, 
so that the final report—now published as a Blue- 
book (Cd. 6353, 1912)—represents the views of 
men of great experience in the construction, com- 
mand, navigation and ownership of shipping. 
Since the report appeared, criticisms have been 
bestowed upon the constitution of the committee, 
which has been thought to have been biassed in 
favour of the shipowners of the United Kingdom. 
A certain confusion of thought underlies such 
criticism. The committee was intended to be 
representative of all classes interested in, and 
having special experience of, shipping. Its 
functions are purely advisory; the Board of Trade 
reserves the right of dealing with all recommend- 
ations made by the committee, and the framing of 
all regulations; and in this manner, as experience 
has shown, the public interests have been well 
safeguarded. Moreover, a perusal of the report 
and of the Minority Reports and Reservations— 
of which there are five—furnishes no real ground 
for the criticisms to which allusion has been made. 
Apart from its expressions of opinion and its 
recommendations for future practice, the report 
is of great value as a summary of facts. Five 
sub-committees were appointed, and their reports 
form parts of the main report. The first of these 
sub-committees dealt with types of boats; the 
second with wireless telegraphy; the third with 
steamship routes; the fourth with vessels em- 
ployed to carry passengers in the home trade; the 
fifth with statistical information. This last sub- 
committee consisted solely of the chairman (Sir 
Norman Hill) and the secretary (Mr. Matthew); 
and the report really embodies returns (relating to 
the subjects treated) for which the Board of Trade 
is primarily responsible, although the comments 
thereon are probably the work of the chairman— 
a gentleman whose opinions on shipping questions 
are entitled to respect. It is impossible in this 
brief notice even to enumerate the contents of the 
fifth report; all that can be said here is that the 
' extraordinary degree of safety for life and property 
