September 12, 1907 J 



NATURE 



509 



sinking of two shafts through lOO feet of quicksand at 

 Bentley Colliery. In the second Mr. H. T. Foster dealt 

 with the subject of roof weights in mines, his views being 

 deduced from observations in long-wall workings. Lastly, 

 Mr. H. St. John Durnford described a deep boring put 

 down on the Earl of Londesborough's estate, near Selby, 

 in the hope of finding a workable seam. Although some 

 1060 feet of Middle Coal-measures strata were proved, 

 boring was continued to a depth of 2371 feet without any 

 good seam being encountered. It is probable that the 

 bore-hole passed down through the limb of a fold where 

 the seams had either thinned or pinched out altogether. 

 In the afternoon of September 4 the members visited the 

 Tinsley steel, iron, and rope works, and the East Hecia 

 works of Hadfield's Steel Foundry Company, Ltd. .\t. 

 the dinner in the evening Sir William Clegg, in proposing 

 the toast of the Institution of Mining Engineers, in- 

 cidentally referred to the new Imperial College of Science 

 and Technology, and stated that a deputation from 

 Sheffield had waited upon Lord Crewe to urge that mining 

 and metallurgy should be taught at Sheffield in the centre 

 of mining and metallurgy, rather than centralised in 

 London. 



On September 5 the members visited the Clyde Steel 

 Milling Works, Bentley Colliery, and Silverwood Colliery ; 

 and the meeting concluded with a drive, on September 6, 

 to the Derwent Vallev waterworks. 



METEOROLOGICA L OBSER I 'A T/O.VS. 

 CEVERAL reports of meteorological observatories have 

 recently been received, and four of them are of note- 

 worthy interest. The report of the observatory depart- 

 ment of the National Physical Laboratory for 1906 shows 

 that the value of the instrumental ccrtiHcates is verv 

 generally appreciated ,■ the increase in the number of instru- 

 ments verified during the year amounted to more than 2900, 

 the total being 29,567. There was a marked increase in the 

 number of marine chronometers submitted to trial, more 

 than 20 per cent, of which failed to pass the test. In the 

 magnetic department the curves were free from any large 

 disturbances. The largest movements of the seismographs 

 occurred on January 31, .April 18, and August 17, the dates 

 of the Colombian, Californian, and Chilian earthquakes. 

 The meteorological observations show that shade tem- 

 peratures exceeding 80° were recorded in each of the four 

 months June-September, the extreme reading being qi'-S 

 on September i. Rainfall amounted to 23-68 inches (nearlv 

 half an inch below the average for Greenwich for the 

 si.\ty-five years 1S41-1Q05) ; the greatest dailv fall was 

 2.36 inches on June 28, and was within half an inch of the 

 total amount for that month. 



The report of the director of the Bombay Government 

 Observatory for 1906 gives room for little comment, except- 

 ing that the operations, which deal especially w-ith terrestrial 

 magnetism, meteorology, and seismology, were carried out 

 with the usual care and punctuality. The maximum tem- 

 perature was 94° on October 23, being only about 2° higher 

 than the extreme reading recorded at the Kew Observatory. 

 Owing to concussion from exceptionally heavv gun-firing 

 at Coldba the dry-bulb thermograph was broken in June. 

 The yearly rainfall amounted only to 563 inches, being 

 nearly 19 inches below the normal of twentv-four vears 

 (■873-96). Milne's seismograph registered fifty-nine earth- 

 quakes during the year ; of these three were very great 

 disturbances, viz. January 31, August 17, and October 24; 

 the two first mentioned correspond to the dates of the 

 Colombian and Chilian earthquakes. 



The fiftieth year-book of the Austrian Central Meteor- 

 ological Office, for 1Q05, contains hourly and daily observ- 

 ations at some selected stations, as before ; the results at 

 other stations are arranged either according to the inter- 

 national scheme or in tables showing monthlv and yearlv 

 means and extremes. The stations number 412, of which 

 fifty are more than 1000 metres (3280 feet) above sea 

 level; this number in no way represents the whole of 

 the valuable Austrian meteorological work, as there are 

 several independent organisations dealing more par- 

 ticularly with rainfall and temperature, the principal of 

 which is the hydrographic department, with more than 



NO. 1976, VOL. 751 



1000 stations, for eighty of which the observations are 

 printed in extenso. The Hungarian and other meteor- 

 ological services also issue separate year-books. The 

 N'ienna Meteorological Office deals specially with earth- 

 quake phenomena and with the collection and discussion 

 of thunderstorm observations, the results of which are 

 printed separately; it also publishes a daily weather report, 

 and talies an active part in the investigation of the upper 

 air by means of balloons. 



In the annual report of the meteorological department 

 of the Transvaal for the year ended June 30, 1906, the 

 results of observations are well arranged in appendices, as 

 before ; the hourly readings at Johannesburg are not now 

 printed in extenso, but MS. copies are available, on loan, 

 for special inquiries. The stations have increased in 

 number to 376, most of which record rainfall only ; all 

 the observers are volunteers, or are attached to other 

 departments. The rainfall was considerably below the 

 average in all parts except in the S.W., where the defect 

 was only slight ; no snowfall was reported during the 

 year. A forecast of the weather for the ensuing twenty- 

 four hours is now exhibited at every postal telegraph 

 station in the Transvaal. The director (Mr. R. T. A. 

 Innes) seems dissatisfied with the Campbell-Stokes sun- 

 shine recorder, which only shows the time during which 

 the sun is sufficiently powerful to burn the cards ; in future 

 reports both the duration and burning times will be given. 



RUSSIAN SCIENTIFIC KORKS. 

 'T'HE Imperial University of Kazan, with its society of 

 naturalists, is noted for excellent work in many de- 

 partments, and we are greatly impressed with the magni- 

 tude of Mr. M. Ruszky's volume " The .Ants of Russia " 

 (Formicariae Imperii Rossici), of which the first part 

 lies before us. It consists of 800 pages, with 176 sketches, 

 comprising an introduction, bibliography, systematic ex- 

 amination of Russian ants, list of collectors to whom the 

 author is indebted, and indexes. Mr. Ruszky began the 

 study of Russian myrmecological fauna in 1892, when he 

 undertook a zoological excursion in the Kazan and 

 .Simbirsk governments on behalf of the Society of 

 Naturalists. He was induced to take up this investigation 

 partly because Russian ants had been very little studied, 

 and partly for the collection of materials for the solution 

 of biological and zoo-geographical questions. This work is 

 to be understood as a preliminary array of results, being 

 an attempt at a description of Russian ants in systematic 

 geographical and biological respects. The author antici- 

 pates criticism for omission of questions of internal 

 morphology and embryology, and observes that such ex- 

 haustive treatment of the Formicidne by a single investi- 

 gator would occupy, not one, but many decades. In the 

 important bibliography of writings on ants, occupying with 

 addenda about seventy pages, very few works are devoted 

 to Russia, chief among the number being twelve by the 

 author. Mr. Ruszky estimates the approximate total of 

 species and subspecies known at the time of writing at 

 3500, and groups Russian ants under the s ibfamilies 

 Camponotina\ Dolichoderina;, Myrmecinse, and 1^'onerinse. 

 Representatives of Dorylina), principally found in the 

 tropics, have not been seen in Russia, though one species 

 (Dorylus jiivcnculus) is European, being found in southern 

 Italy, Sicily, &c. After some useful preliminary notes and 

 tables of species of Russian ants, the author proceeds to 

 detailed descriptions of smaller groups. In all, 258 forms 

 are described (155 species and races, 103 varieties), of 

 which sixtv are new and treated for the first time (sub- 

 families, CamponotinjE, loq ; DolichoderinjE, 7 ; Myrme- 

 cinse, 138 ; and Ponerinjc, 4). The regions richest in 

 myrmecological fauna are the Caucasus, with 130 forms ; 

 Russian Central Asia, about 112 ; European Russia, 92 ; 

 Siberia, 71 ; Crimea, 43 ; and Finland, 32. All these 

 figures are approximate, and it is probable that since this 

 work appeared more results have been recorded. This 

 first part gives geographical distribution, locality, and 

 biological information, and in the second Mr. Ruszky pro- 

 poses to deal with this fauna from the bio-geographical 

 point of view. 



\'ol. xxxiv. of the Transactions of the St. Petersburg 



