May 21, 1885 | 
NATURE 
61 
In the summer they ascend to the hilly tracts, reaching 
about 14,000 feet, in order to save their cattle from the 
mosquitoes. Though living chiefly on milk produce, they 
still are dependent upon the inhabited countries of the 
west, for they are accustomed to the use of bread. The 
other race inhabiting, if not the Pamir itself, then its 
outskirts, are the Tadjiks. In the high valleys of the 
Shugnan, the Roshan, the Darwaz, and the Karategin, 
they occupy the narrowest gorges of the mountains, try- 
ing to escape there from the persecutions of their khans, 
who are themselves vassals to the neighbouring larger 
states like Bokhara, Kokan, or China. Being Shiites, 
they are still more persecuted by their Sunnite rulers. 
Their dwellings are miserable hovels built of rough 
stones. Broad wooden platforms, under which fowls and 
young goats are kept, are divided into numerous compart- 
ments, which might be called rooms, each of them having 
its special destination as a kitchen or as a room for 
weaving, and so on. Notwithstanding the surrounding 
poverty, one feels comfortable in their poor hovels, the 
walls of which are decorated with numerous clay pil- 
lars, niches, and a variety of paintings very artistically 
made by the women, who have found the means of 
fabricating even boxes from clay mixed with husk. 
The pottery, all made by women without instrumental 
aid, is striking in the artistic feeling infused into its 
fabrication. Their fields are not less striking by the in- 
credible labour which has been spent in clearing them 
from millions of stones. There are “fields” not larger 
than a common-sized table, cleared with effort, or arti- 
ficially made by the side of a mountain stream. They 
keep some cattle, and, during the summer, mount with it 
to higher tracts. The Pamir is visited by many savda- 
gars, or traders, from Kashgar, Badakshan, or Ferghana, 
who supply the Kirghizes and Tadjiks, at very high 
prices, with manufactured produce, receiving in exchange 
their own produce. 
M. Ivanoff remarks that the small preliminary map 
published in the /zves¢éa, to illustrate the explorations 
of his expedition, is still incomplete, and does not quite 
correctly represent the results of his investigations. The 
larger completed map will therefore be welcomed when it 
appears. Beaks 
NOTES 
A MEETING of the General Committee of the Darwin 
Memorial Fund was held last week at the rooms of the Royal 
Society, Prof. Huxley, President, in the chair, when it was 
stated by the treasurer, Dr. Evans, that, after payment for the 
statue and other expenses, a balance of about 2200/. would 
remain. The following resolutions were then passed :—‘‘ That 
the statue of Darwin be made over to the Trustees of the British 
Museum in trust for the nation.” ‘‘ That the balance of the 
fund, after payment for the statue and medallion and incidental 
expenses, be transferred, under the name of the ‘ Darwin Fund,’ 
to the President, Council, and Fellows of the Royal Society in 
trust to invest the same in or upon any stocks, funds, or securities 
authorised by law as investments for trust moneys.” ‘‘ That the 
President and Council of the Royal Society apply from time to 
time the dividends and interest of such investments in such a 
manner as shall to them appear best calculated to promote bio- 
logical studies and research.” ‘‘ That a list of subscribers and a 
statement of the accounts be printed and circulated, tozether 
with the resolutions now passed, and that a woodcut or some 
other representation of the statue accompany the statement.” 
The statue, by Mr. Boehm, R.A., has been placed in the great 
hall of the British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, 
and arrangements for its unveiling will be made shortly. 
THE vacancy created by Prof. Bayley Balfour’s retirement 
from the Regius Chair of Botany in the University of Glasgow, 
which we announced some time back (NATURE, March 12, 
Pp. 441), has been filled by the appointment of Mr. F. O. Bower, 
F.L.S., Lecturer on Botany in the Normal School of Science, 
South Kensington. Both as a teacher and by his important 
researches in the morphology of Gymnosperms and the Vascular 
Cryptogams, Mr. Bower has rapidly assumed a leading position 
amongst the younger generation of botanists, and the loss of his 
services to the Normal School is much to be regretted. Mr. 
Bower is an M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
THE Goldsmiths’ Company has contributed one hundred 
pounds towards the fund which is being raised for the family of 
the late Henry Watts, to which we have already drawa attention 
in these columns. 
THE Court of Assistants of the Fishmongers’ Company has 
unanimously resolved that a grant of 2000/7. be made to the 
Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom—roool. 
to be paid this year, and the remainder in annual sums of 200/. 
during the next five years. 
rll 
THE subject of Mr. Romanes’s Rede Lecture on June 2 wil 
be ‘‘ Mind and Motion.” 
THE subject of Prof. W. G. Adams’s British Association 
address will be ‘“‘ The Electric Light and Atmospheric Ab- 
sorption.” 
AT a meeting of the directors of the Ben Nevis Observatory 
held on Thursday last week, it was agreed to add a printing 
press to the establishment, for printing each day the hourly 
observations, with a view to their distribution among the more 
distinguished meteorologists and prominent meteorological insti- 
tutions in different parts of the world. 
THE verdict of the jury who considered the case of the Usworth 
Colliery explosion, whereby forty men and boys were killed 
early in the present year, is important as marking what appears 
to be the commencement of a new era in the history of these 
phenomena. It is probably the first expression of opinion from 
a public body of this class to the effect that coal-dust and a 
small percentage of fire-damp can play the part that has hitherto 
been usually ascribed to fire-damp alone. They found that the 
explosion was caused by a shot, the fire of which acted upon 
“ the coal-dust and a small percentage of gas.” The convenient 
and time-worn ‘‘ outburst of gas” theory, which consigned the 
helpless miner to the vicissitudes of chance, and exonerated 
colliery owners and their agents from all responsibility, seems on 
the point of giving way before its rival the coal-dust theory, 
which points out an easy means of preventing great explosions 
of this kind. The latter theory has doubtless a hard battle still 
to fight against prejudice and ignorance, but it has all the 
advantages of youth and vigour on its side, and is supported by 
a number of facts which appear to be incontrovertible. 
Tue Russian Geographical Society has just issued a pro- 
gramme of climatological and phenological observations, which, 
it is to be hoped, will be adopted by numerous observers. The 
number of plants and animals enumerated is smaller than in 
most similar programmes, it being the aim of the Society to 
make the task of the obse-vers as easy as possible. A new 
feature of this programme are observations on the condition of 
the snow covering the ground, the time of its appearance and 
thawing, the rise of water in the rivers at the melting of the 
snow, c. 
M. Fave has been continued on the roll of teachers of the 
Paris Polytechnic School, in spite of his having passed the time of 
incapacitation by old age. The exception has been grounded by 
the Minister of War on the plea of continued services rendered 
to science. A banquet has been given to the worthy astronomer 
by his admirers on this occasion. 
