6o8 



NA TURE 



[October 15, 1908 



breeding in salt water, namely, Miicidus altcnians, 

 Westwood, Cidex vigilax, Skuse, and Nyssorhynchus 

 annulipcs, Walker. In Malta we get Acartomyia 

 cammitii, Theobald, in Italy Cidex sahiuts, Ficalbi, 

 living in salt water, and others could be mentioned. 

 It would be as inaccurate to say that mosquitoes 

 cannot breed in water on marshy land with peat as it 

 is to sav they cannot breed in salt water. 



Fred. V. Theobald. 



NOTES. 



It is announced that Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G., 

 Imperial Commissioner, West Indian Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, has resigned his post, which he has occupied with 

 conspicuous success during the past ten years. 



It is estimated by an officer of the American Department 

 of Agriculture that the recent forest fires in the United 

 States have caused losses at the rate of a million dollars 

 a day. In New York State alone 44,935 acres were 

 destroyed by the flames by the end of September. The 

 Forestry Bureau at Washington has issued a statement 

 declaring that probably in every instance the fires might 

 have been prevented if the States had provided an adequate 

 number of men to patrol the woods and stop the fires at 

 their beginning, and if lumbermen and others who use 

 the forests had been careful to dispose of brushwood after 

 logging. 



The first International Road Congress was opened at 

 Paris on Monday at the Sorbonne, Paris, under the presi- 

 dency of M. Ldthier, Inspector-General of Bridges and 

 Roads. More than two thousand delegates, representing 

 twenty-nine countries, are attending the congress. Among 

 the groups of subjects to be discussed are : — construction 

 and maintenance of roads ; general methods of mainten- 

 ance ; wear and dust ; traffic and its working ; effect of 

 new methods of locomotion upon the roads ; the effect of 

 the roads upon vehicles ; signals upon the road ; roads and 

 services of mechanical transport. 



The winter lectures at the London Institution, Finsbury 

 Circus, London, E.C., will begin on October 26, and 

 continue until the end of February, 1909, two lectures 

 being delivered each week. The programme arranged is 

 of a varied character. Among the lectures we notice the 

 following : — excavations in Memphis, by Prof. W. M. 

 Flinders Petrie, F.R.S. ; underground water supply, by 

 Mr. C. Carus-Wilson ; sea-urchins and the relation between 

 the individual and its environment, by Dr. J. W. Jenkin- 

 son ; Mendelian heredity, by Mr. William Bateson, F.R.S. ; 

 and the use of oxygen : demonstration of life-saving 

 apparatus for use in mines and submarines, by Mr. 

 Leonard E. Hill, F.R.S. 



The bison range in the Flathead Indian Reservation in 

 Montana, to establish which the L'nited States Congress 

 at its last session appropriated Sooo!., has been selected. 

 We learn from Science that the range is the one recom- 

 mended by Prof. Morton J. Elrod, of the University of 

 Montana, after he had examined carefully several parts 

 of the country. It lies directly north of the Jocko River 

 near the towns of Ravalli and Jocko. Approximately 

 12,800 acres are embraced in the tract, which will be 

 fenced in a substantial manner. Of the amount appro- 

 priated, only 20ooi. will be available for fencing the range 

 and constructing the shelter sheds and other buildings 

 necessary for the proper maintenance and care of the 

 bison. The remaining 6000!. will be paid to the owners 

 of the land, many of whom are Indians. Funds for the 



NO. 2033, VOL. 7SI 



purchase of bison are being raised under the auspices of 

 the American Bison Society, which was largely instru- 

 mental in securing the grant. 



On October 10, in the presence of the leading aero- 

 nautical experts of France, Mr. Wilbur Wright, with M. 

 Painlev^ as a passenger, accomplished a flight of 

 lb. 9m. 45-6s. in duration, the distance covered being 

 estimated at nearly seventy kilometres. This successful 

 flight is the last demanded of Mr. Wright by the French 

 syndicate which has acquired the local rights in his aero- 

 plane by the payment of 10,000/. at once and 10,000/. in 

 a month's time, after three men have been trained to 

 work the machine. The Daily Mail states that on 

 November i the Soci^t^ navale des Chantiers de France 

 will begin at Dunkirk the construction of fifty Wright 

 aeroplanes, which are to be sold at the price of 1000/. 

 each. The A^ro Club of France has decided to award to 

 the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright its grand gold 

 medal for the year 1908. 



The Committee on Ancient Earthworks and Fortified 

 Enclosures, under the chairmanship of Lord Belcarres, has 

 during the past year lost the services of two men who 

 contributed largely to the conservation of these important 

 remains — Mr. I. Chalkley Gould and Sir John Evans. It 

 is satisfactory to learn that Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, 

 has been transferred to the care of the Commissioners of 

 Works; and that mounds at Thetford Castle, in Norfolk, 

 and Waytemore, near Bishop's Stortford, have been taken 

 over by the local authorities. So far only the county 

 councils of Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, London, Stafford- 

 shire, the West Riding of York, Galway, and Louth have 

 exercised the powers conferred by the Ancient Monuments 

 Act of 1900. Meanwhile Scotland and Wales have suc- 

 ceeded in procuring the appointment of Royal Commissions 

 to compile an inventory of their local antiquities. It is 

 high time that antiquaries in England pressed for a similar 

 measure, and for the appointment of an Inspector of 

 .\ncient Monuments, particularly as much recent damage 

 is reported from various parts of the country. The report 

 of the committee gives interesting details of excavations in 

 progress, and notes some cases in which measures have been 

 taken to check that spirit of vandalism which is now 

 happily decreasing under the watchful care of the local 

 archaeological societies. 



The first meeting of the council of the International 

 Electrotechnical Commission is to be opened by Mr. 

 Balfour on October 19 at the new rooms of the Institution 

 of Electrical Engineers, Victoria Embankment. The com- 

 mission originated through resolutions of the Government 

 delegates to the St. Louis Electrical Congress in 1904, 

 when it was decided that steps should be taken to secure 

 the cooperation of the technical societies of the world by 

 the appointment of a representative commission to con- 

 sider the question of the standardisation of the nomen- 

 clature and ratings of electrical apparatus and machinery. 

 A preliminary meeting of the International Electrotechnical 

 Commission was held in London in June, 1906, fourteen 

 countries being represented. The chief question which 

 will be discussed next week is that of nomenclature. The 

 subcommittee on nomenclature, under Mr. A. P. Trotter, 

 appointed by the British committee, has been at worlc 

 during the past year trying to settle the best explanations 

 for the terms in general use in the electrical industry, and 

 has drawn up a preliminary list. The suggestions put 

 forward by the French committee for a provisional standard 

 of light are to be considered, and the subject of the metric 

 system as affecting the work of the commission is also 

 to be discussed. 



