June 17, 1909] 



NATURE 



461 



lithographs by Messrs. West, Newman and Co. The 

 two key-maps were prepared by Dr. Wilson and Lieut. 

 SkeltOHi 



The illustrations deal with most branches of the 

 work of the expedition, and they are naturally of most 

 importance in connection with the topography, and 

 Dr. Wilson's outline sketches are an invaluable 

 supplement to the maps previously issued by the 

 expedition, and his pictures of the aurora, clouds, and 

 earth shadows represent features for which photo- 

 graphy is useless. The characters of the scenery are 

 especially well shovin in the long panoramas by 

 Lieut. Skelton, some of which are reproduced as 

 folding plates three feet long. Some of the most 

 interesting photographs were taken by Lieut. Skelton 

 with a telephotographic lens, and he thus brings out 

 the general outlines of Mount Sabine (Fig. i) from a 

 distance at which the ordinary photograph is com- 



The album is a more useful addition to the litera- 

 ture which has already appeared in connection with 

 the expedition, and is to be regarded as a supplement 

 to the works by Captain Scott and to the volumes of 

 the scientific reports noticed already in Nature, vol. 

 Ixxiii.,. 1905-6, pp. 297-300, two figures, and vol. 

 Ixxvii., .April i6, 1908, pp. s6i-2. 



J. W. G. 



MI ERIC AN AND CANADIAN WATERWAYS. 



\17HILE in this country the interest that at one 

 ^^ time was evinced in the improvement of our 

 canals, since the evidence that was brought before 

 the Royal Commission, appears to have evaporated, 

 in the United States and Canada this subject has 

 come very much to the front. It is generalh' recog- 



FlG. 2.— The Pressure Ridges at i_ape erozier. From a photograph taker 

 the eastern extremity of Cape Crozier, Ross Island. From • 



:tit. R. W. Skelton, October i8, 1902 ; looking S.E. from the knd-ice of 

 nal Antarctic Expedition, 1901-4. Album of Photographs." 



paratively useless. The album includes many 

 zoological photographs illustrating the whales, seals, 

 and especially those most attractive of photographic 

 subjects, the penguins. 



The illustrations of the geological details are less 

 numerous. Photographs of the glaciers are of 

 especial value owing to the changes which take place 

 in the distribution of the ice. There are many excel- 

 lent illustrations of glacier tables, sastrugi, and-, 

 icebergs ; but the album would have been more useful 

 had it contained more photographs showing the 

 detailed intimate structure of the ice. There are 

 several photographs of the Great Ice Barrier, but they 

 add little to the evidence of that bv Bernacchi, which 

 was reproduced in the review in Nature of Captain 

 .Scott's book. The photographs of the chasm between 

 the Barrier and the land ice help to indicate the great 

 difference between the rapidly moving barrier ice and 

 the more stagnant ice along the shore. 



NO. 2068, VOL. 80] 



nised that the question of transport by water is one 

 of the most pressing needs of the country. During 

 the last few years the home commerce has grown 

 at such a rapid rate that the railways appear to be 

 utterly unable to cope with it efficiently. During the 

 past seven years, while trade has doubled in quantity, 

 the railway facilities for transporting this have only 

 increased one-fourth. It is generally acknowledged 

 that it will be a wise policy on the part of the 

 Government to spend as much money as will be 

 available in improving the internal waterways and in 

 constructing links with existing canals and rivers and 

 the sea-ports, so as to render an efficient system of 

 national transport. 



During the last Presidential campaign, both 

 political parties pledged themselves to make the trans- 

 port bv water a question of first prominence. Those 

 engaged in mercantile traffic, and the large industrial 

 companies are strongly in favour of an improvement 



