514 



NATURE 



[September 24, 1908 



correspond in appearance and character with the records 

 brought to light by Dr. Stein last year from the ruined 

 fort of Miran, south of Lop-nor. By the beginning of 

 May the expedition reached Aksu, where Dr. Stein was 

 able to arrange for the local help which Rai Lai Singh 

 needed for the continuous survey he was to carry along the 

 outer Tian-shan range westwards as far as the passes 

 above Kashgar. Dr. Stein himself travelled up the Uch- 

 Turfan valley, and thence marched by a route not shown 

 by published maps across a barren but remarkably 

 picturesque mountain range to the oasis of Kelpin. A 

 rapid journey vici. Yarkand brought Dr. Stein by the middle 

 of June back to Khotan, where he expected to remain until 

 the end of July engaged in packing and arranging the 

 archjeological collections gathered in his two years' wander- 

 ings. After completing his task at Khotan, Dr. Stein 

 hoped to carry out, with Rai Lai Singh, explorations in 

 those parts of the high Kwenlun range about the Yurung- 

 kash and Kara-kash sources which still remain to be 

 surveyed, and late in September to be able to start on 

 the return journey to India over the passes of the Kara- 

 korum, and to arrive in England in December. 



The nomination for the directorship of the new 

 Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine has been dele- 

 gated to the Royal Society and the Schools of Tropical 

 Medicine of Liverpool and London, which institutions, 

 according to the Times, have formally accepted the 

 delegation, .-\fter nomination, however, the actual appoint- 

 ment of the director will be made by Prof. Martin, 

 F.R.S., of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, 

 acting in conjunction with the Bishop of North 

 Queensland, on behalf of the Australian universities 

 having medical schools and of the Governments concerned. 

 The institute, assisted by a grant of 400/. from the Colonial 

 Office, is being subsidised by annual grants from the 

 Commonwealth and the Queensland Governments. It will 

 be established at Townsville, North Queensland. 



Mr. Robert Nelson has been appointed by the Home 

 Secretary to the newly created post of his Majesty's 

 Electrical Inspector of Mines ; he has also been directed 

 to act as an inspector for the purposes of the Metalliferous 

 Mines Regulation Acts, 1872 and 1875, and of the Quarries 

 Act, 1894. Mr. Nelson has further been appointed an 

 inspector of factories and workshops for the purposes of 

 the Factory and Workshop Act, igoi. 



Dr. Lewis Gough, of the Transvaal Museum, has been 

 appointed zoologist to the Government veterinary bacterio- 

 logist, Pretoria. 



The first general meeting of the recently formed Insti- 

 tute of Metals is to take place at Birmingham on 

 November 11. The gathering will probably occupy two 

 days. Mr. G. Shaw Scott has just been appointed secre- 

 tary of the institute. 



An all Russian Oto-Laryngological Congress (the first of 

 its kind) is to be held at the Pirogoff Museum on 

 January S-ii next, and in connection with it there will 

 be an exhibition of instruments, apparatus, &:c. 



The trustees of the Samuel D. Gross prize of the Phila- 

 delphia Academy of Surgery give notice that they are 

 prepared to receive essays in competition for the prize until 

 January i, 1910. The prize, value 1500 dollars, is awarded 

 every five years to the writer (such being an American 

 citizen) of the best original essay, not exceeding 150 printed 

 octavo pages, illustrative of some subject in surgical 

 pathology or surgical practice, founded upon original 

 investigations. 



NO. 2030, VOL. 78] 



Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, of Toronto, offers a prize of 100 

 dollars for the best collection of minerals collected during 

 the year 1908 in the province of Ontario by anyone not 

 a professional collector. The collection must contain not 

 less than thirty specimens, each bearing a label giving 

 particulars as to the exact locality from which it was 

 obtained and the date on which it was collected. Com- 

 peting collections must be addressed " Tyrrell Prize, 

 Government .^ssay Office, Belleville, Ont.," and reach the 

 address in question by December i next. 



An appliance for working the keyboard of a typewriter 

 on a type-setting machine from a distance by means of 

 wireless telegraphy has been devised by Mr. Hans 

 Knudsen, and a demonstration of the experimental 

 apparatus was given at the Hotel Cecil on Thursday last. 



The skeleton of the mammoth which was found in 

 January last in the sandy bed of the river Sangar-Yurach 

 has now been conveyed under the auspices of the Imperial 

 Academy of Science to St. Petersburg. The specimen is 

 to be mounted in the zoological museum at St. Peters- 

 burg. 



Although the capture of giant "devil-fish," or eagle- 

 rays, in tropical waters is by no means an uncommon 

 event, it is but seldom that accurate measurements and 

 photographs of specimens of this nature are obtained. 

 We have therefore reproduced the photograph of one of 



•^^5^? 



mbL 



il-fish " taken at High Island. Te,\ap 



these fishes (for which we are indebted to the Rev. 

 T. R. R. Stebbing) recently landed at High Island, off 

 the coast of Texas, together with certain particulars re- 

 garding its size as recorded in the Daily Picayune, New 

 Orleans, of August 2. The fish, as shown by the form 

 of its "horns," is a species of Ceratoptera ; it measured 

 12I feet in transverse diameter, and 9 feet from the mouth 

 to the root of the tail. The interval between the eyes 

 was 44 inches, and the diameter of the mouth 36 inches. 

 No means of ascertaining the weight of the monster were 

 available, although, at a low estimate, this was sur- 

 mised to be at least 1300 lb. When first seen, the fish 

 was thought to be a couple of porpoises swimming side by 

 side ; it was killed by repeated rifle-shots, by the first 

 of which it was struck in the head near one of the eyes. 

 According to local observers, the pair of processes which 

 project like horns from the sides of the head are used to 

 make a disturbance in the water and drive small fishes 

 into the creature's capacious mouth. 



To the July number of the Emu Mr. H. C. Oberholser 

 contributes a useful synopsis of the known species ot 



