October 14, 1922] 



NA TURE 



5: 



half of the nineteenth century. The division of maps 

 has received many rarities. An increase of receipts 

 from the Central Powers is noted. " A large number 

 of these were theses of German universities and 

 institutes of technology, which goes to show that the 

 work of these institutions was carried on during the 

 war without interruption." 



According to letters received by the last mail, 

 the International Congress of Americanists at Rio 

 de Janeiro has been a very great success. An 

 enormous mass of papers was presented, all of 

 which the Government proposes to print in full. At 

 the close of the meeting the majority of the members 

 took advantage of the delightful excursions which 

 had been arranged for their benefit. After some 

 discussion it was decided to hold the twenty-first 

 session of the congress in 1924 111 Holland by invitation 

 of the Dutch Government, and in 1925 at Gothenburg, 

 Sweden, by invitation of that town, where the museum 

 is in charge of Mr. Erland Nordenskidld, the well- 

 known authority on South America. In 1926 the 

 congress will meet in Philadelphia. 



There are welcome indications that the work of 

 investigating our national antiquities, interrupted 

 by the outbreak of the war, is now being revived. 

 The Congress of Archaeological Societies, in union 

 with the Society of Antiquaries, London, has just 

 issued the first number, for 1921, of " The Year's 

 Work in Archaeology." This useful publication 

 gives lists, arranged in the three kingdoms and their 

 counties, of the progress of exploration. In a 

 valuable supplement we have a list of the more 

 important papers on the subject published by the 

 local societies, and though a large number of these 

 societies are affiliated to the Congress, there is still 

 room for the association of local workers in this 

 important enterprise. The Congress makes an 

 appeal for contributions in order to effect the purchase 

 of Cissbury Ring, near Worthing. As this pamphlet 

 shows, there are still considerable vandalism and 

 destruction of important monuments ; the Congress 

 protests specially against the destruction of a portion 

 of the Middlesex Grim's Dyke at Pinner Green, and 

 other examples are quoted in the Report. Much 

 important work is being done in connexion with the 

 Archaeological Survey, and the president, Sir Hercules 

 Read, remarks that there are many signs that we 

 are at last becoming a civilised nation, as is shown 

 by the Ancient Monuments Act and the appoint- 

 ment of the Congress Secretary, Mr. Crawford, to 

 the newly created post of Archaeology Officer at the 

 Ordnance Survey. 



The Toronto Star of July 6 last has a note on 

 a method of marking trails leading to springs of 

 water which is practised by Indians of Western 

 Texas. Two heaps of rock roughly heaped to- 

 gether, one about three feet high, the second a little 

 lower, are placed beside the track, usually on an 

 elevation commanding a view of the country for 

 some five miles or more. A sight is taken from 

 behind the larger heap, over the smaller, to some 

 object on the horizon, such as a tree or clump of 

 NO. 2763, VOL. I ioj 



bushes. Near this object will be found a second 

 pair of heaps of rock sighting on a second objective. 

 This process is continued until the spring is reached. 

 This primitive method of sighting a trail is of interest 

 in connexion with the suggestions put forward by 

 Mr. Alfred Watkins in his " Ancient British Track- 

 ways," recently noticed in these columns. He 

 argued that many of the older roads in this country 

 could be assigned to pre-Roman times on the evidence 

 of what it was presumed were sighting marks, which 

 must have been used in much the same way as the 

 Indians are said to make use of these heaps of rocks. 

 Mr. Watkin's theory, as was pointed out when it 

 was under notice, undoubtedly holds good in many 

 cases, especially in connexion with natural objects ; 

 in others, particularly in the case of mounds, moats, 

 churches, etc., it appears more open to criticism. 



The Fifth Annual Report of the Imperial War 

 Museum has recently been issued by H.M. Stationery 

 Office, price gd. (post free io|rf.). It is typewritten 

 on 8 folio pages and reproduced by a multicopier. 

 This at any rate shows a desire for economy, calculated 

 to appease the public. The work of the museum 

 during the year 1921-22 consisted in a complete 

 survey of the whole collection, elimination of items of 

 no technical value or historical interest, and the 

 compression and concentration of the more valuable 

 exhibits under definite headings and groupings. This 

 was particularly the case with the Munitions and Air 

 Force exhibits. Stress is laid in this report on the 

 technical value of the collections and on the fact that 

 many objects of our everyday life during the War 

 have been preserved in this museum while they have 

 disappeared elsewhere. Allusion is made to the pro- 

 posal to utilise two galleries at present occupied by 

 the Science Museum and certain galleries now occupied 

 by the Imperial Institute. These proposals have, it 

 will be remembered, evoked a great deal of opposition. 

 The committee appointed to investigate on them has 

 reported to the Cabinet, but no decision has yet been 

 reached. 



Dr. David Starr Jordan proposes that the Inter- 

 national Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 

 should reject the following works from consideration 

 under the Law of Priority : — Gronow, 1763, " Museum 

 Ichthyologicum " ; Commerson (as footnotes in 

 Lacepede, " Hist. nat. des poissons," mostly 1803) ; 

 " Gesellschaft Schauplatz," 1775-17S1, an anonymous 

 dictionary accepting the pre-Linnaean genera of 

 Klein ; Catesby, 1771, " Natural History of Carolina, 

 Florida, and the Bahamas" (1731-1750), revised 

 reprint by Edwards ; Browne, 1 780, revised reprint 

 of " Civil and Natural History of Jamaica " ; Valmont 

 de Bomare, 1768-1775, " Diet, raisonnee universelle 

 d'hist. nat." (several names accidentally binomial). 

 By this all systematic names published as new in 

 those works will be rejected as of the dates in question, 

 but will remain available as of the dates when they 

 were adopted by later authors of unquestioned status. 

 It is hoped that the proposed action will extricate 

 zoologists from an impasse into which they have been 

 led by a divergence of views respecting the terms 



