August 13, 1908] 



NA TURE 



547 



may be mentioned " Notes pour Servir a I'Histoire 

 da Terrain de Craie dans le S.E. du Bassin Anglo- 

 Piirisien." To liis sojourn in northern Africa we owe 

 the numerous works on the geology of that region, 

 and one of them, the " Essai d'une Description 

 geologique de I'Algcrie," was awarded the Grand 

 Prix des Sciences physiques. A most important work 

 on " Les Amn-ioni'tes du CrcHaci^ sups^rieur de 

 I'Algerie," was published in the Memoirs of the Geo- 

 logical Society of France in 1896-7. He also made a 

 special study' of the stratigraphy of the Cretaceous 

 rocks of France and Belgium. 



P^ron was a correspondant of the Academy of 

 Sciences. In him geology loses one of its most con- 

 scientious and disinterested students, one who, while 

 honours were showered upon him, found his greatest 

 delight in assisting his younger confreres in the 

 elucidation of some' difficult problem in stratigraphy. 



NOTES. 



.\ Royal Commission has been appointed by the King- 

 to make an inventory of the ancient and historical monu- 

 ments and constructions connected with or illustrative of 

 the contemporary culture, civilisation, and conditions of 

 life of the people in Wales from the earliest times, and to 

 specify those which seem most worthy of preservation. 

 The commissioners are : — Sir John Rhys, University of 

 Oxford ; Prof. E. Anwyl, University College of Wales, 

 Aberystwyth ; Prof. R. C. Bosanquet, University of Liver- 

 pool ; Mr. E. Vincent Evans ; Alderman Robert Hughes, 

 J. P.; Rev. Griffith Hartwell Jones; and Lieut. -Colonel 

 W. Llewelyn Morgan, R.E. The secretary is Mr. Edward 

 Owen, of the India Office, S.W., and the assistant secre- 

 tary Mr. P. E. Thomas. We warmly congratulate Wales. 

 We presume there are no ancient monuments in the other 

 parts of Britain. 



We regret to learn that Prof. Kamerlingh Onnes's 

 account of his researches on the liquefaction of helium is 

 delayed by illness brought on by overwork. We hope, 

 however, to be able to print an authoritative description 

 of the investigations shortly. 



We learn from Science that by a recent decree of the 

 Government of Peru, issued by President Pardo, the time 

 of the seventy-fifth meridian west of Greenwich was on 

 July 28 adopted as the national standard time for the whole 

 of Peru. The meridian is only a few minutes from that of 

 Lima, and runs almost exactly through the middle of the 

 country. All timepieces throughout Peru will now coincide 

 with those in the United States where eastern time is kept. 

 Peru is the first South .American republic to adopt the 

 world standard. 



It is proposed to publish reproductions of the collection 

 of 338 portraits of living physicists presented recently in 

 an album to Prof, von Lang, Vienna, in celebration of 

 his jubilee, if a sufficient number of subscribers can be 

 found. Intending subscribers should communicate with 

 Prof! Anton Lampa, Vienna, IX. Tiirkenstrasse 3. Appli- 

 cations after the publication of the reproductions cannot be 

 considered, as only so many copies will be made as are 

 subscribed for. 



We notice with regret that the committee of the Den- 

 mark Greenland Expedition has received a telegram 

 announcing that Dr. Mylius Erichsen, the leader of the 

 expedition, and two companions, a Dane and an Eskimo, 

 have perished in a snowstorm while travelling inland. 

 The general work of the expedition has, however, been 



NO. 2024, VOL. 78] 



successfully accomplished, and the whole north-eastern 

 coast of Greenland has been charted. A Reuter message 

 states also that Dr. Erichsen and his two companions who 

 perished with him were driven on to an ice-floe during a 

 snowstorm, and that they drifted away from land. Their 

 provisions being exhausted, the explorers became so weak 

 that they were unable to return to the station. The 

 Eskimo who brought the news arrived in a dying con- 

 dition, and died immediately after making his report. The 

 expedition left Copenhagen on June 24, igo6, and its main 

 object was to map the little-known parts of north-east 

 Greenland and collect material for the study of ethno- 

 logical, biological, and seismological questions in those 

 regions. 



The next meeting of the Australasian Association for the 

 .\dvancement of Science, which will be held at Brisbane 

 in January, 1909, provides an opportunity for the younger 

 generation of scientific workers to bring the results of 

 original work before an influential and interested audience 

 in the Antipodes. At the meeting there will be gathered 

 together most of the leading representatives of scientific 

 and engineering societies of Australasia, and also men hold- 

 ing high administrative or consultative positions under the 

 various governments. Papers from British contributors 

 will be sure to receive marked attention, and the authors' 

 names will be introduced to important people in a portion 

 of the globe where competition for vacant posts is less 

 keen than it is in Europe or the United States. Mr. K. 

 Swanwick, honorary secretary of Section A (Astronomy, 

 Mathematics, and Physics) of the association, asks us to 

 say that original papers from the British Isles will be 

 heartily welcomed in his section ; for, in the absence of the 

 large and well-equipped laboratories of the older countries, 

 it is unlikely that such papers by local workers will be 

 numerous. Communications should be sent to Mr. Swan- 

 wick at Celtic Chambers, George Street, Brisbane, as early 

 as possible, and the final date for receiving papers is 

 December 26, igo8. 



On Saturdav, .'\ugust 8, Mr. W. Wright made a remark- 

 able flight with his aeroplane at the Hunandiferes race- 

 course, Le Mans, in the presence of leading members of 

 the Aero Club of France. The aeroplane rose easily to a 

 height of 30 feet or 40 feet, and travelled over a course 

 of about 2500 feet in one minute forty-five seconds, return- 

 ing within 50 feet from the point of departure under the 

 complete control of the aeronaut. On Monday, August :o, 

 Mr. Wright made his machine describe a figure of eight 

 twice in the air, and then returned to the starting point 

 without any difficulty. In another flight, on Tuesday, he 

 described three wide circles at various altitudes. The flight 

 lasted three minutes forty-three seconds, and the aeroplane 

 travelled at a speed of 65 kilometres an hour. 



Further particulars of the voyage of Count Zeppelin's 

 airship on August 4, and its subsequent unfortunate 

 destruction, can now be added to the information avail- 

 able when we went to press last week. It appears that 

 the voyage from Friedrichshafen, which was left at 

 6.4s a.m., to Mannheim — a distance of about 360 kilo- 

 metres — was accomplished in eight hours. When Count 

 Zeppelin landed near Oppenheim about 6 p.m., the air- 

 ship had been eleven hours continuously in the air, but 

 the average speed for the whole voyage was reduced,, owing 

 to a defective motor, to 36 kilometres an hour. The return 

 voyage from Mainz to Echterdingen, where Count 

 Zeppelin landed on the morning of August 5 — to await 

 fresh supplies of hydrogen rendered necessary by leakages 

 in the balloon — took eight hours, though the distance was 



