564 
NA TORE 
[Oct. 8, 1885 
faba, Phaseolus, Dicentra, and the vine, and some interesting 
remarks on methods, &c., were made in the discussion which 
followed. 
On the Coloration of the Anterior Segments of the Maldanide, 
by Allen Harker, F.L.S., Professor of Natural History, Royal 
Agricultural College, Cirencester.—The author, while studying 
the circulation and respiration of annelids at the zoological 
station at Naples, had been specially interested in the Maldanide, 
from their partially tubiculous habit and the brilliant coloration 
of their anterior segments. The bands of colour usually orna- 
ment the anterior segments, beginning with the second or third, 
and continuing to the ninth; but the distribution of the coloured 
bands differs widely in the different species. The colour in 
living or freshly-killed specimens is of a rich rose madder colour, 
shading off in each segment to a brighter rose-pink hue. 
Quatrefages attributed a physiological value to these coloured 
bands, describing them as being connected with the respiratory 
function. In connection with the whole subject of cutaneous 
respiration in annelids, it appeared important to settle this 
question, and the author made sections of the anterior segments 
in the Maldanidz, and finds the colour to be due to a special 
pigment, whose behaviour under various reagents he described. 
On the other hand the author has studied the blood-vessels and 
their distribution in the living chzetopod, and is satisfied that it 
extends equally in those portions of the cuticle which are un- 
coloured as in those which are. The coloured bands do not 
appear, therefore, to be in any way connected with the function 
of respiration. 
SECTION E—GEoGRAPHY 
The Indian Forest School, by Major F. Bailey, F.R.G.S., 
Royal Engineers, Director of the School.—It is only within the 
last twenty-five years that a special State department has ad- 
ministered the Indian forests. The staff was at first composed 
of men who had received no professional education, but they 
were able to do all that was then needed, and they accomplished 
work of great value. But as a result of their work the State 
became possessed of large forest areas, from which a permanent 
supply of produce had to be secured, and which had therefore 
to be managed systematically. At this time nothing was known 
of systematic forestry in England or in India, and an arrange- 
ment was made in 1866 under which candidates for the Indian 
Forest Service were trained on the Continent. The arrange- 
ment with the French Government is still in force, but it has | 
now been decided to undertake the instruction in England. 
Great progress has been made in Indian forestry, which is 
mainly due to the professionally-trained men with whom the 
Forest Department has been recruited, but up to 1869 nothing 
bad been done towards the education of the subordinate ranks. 
As work requiring professional skill became necessary over 
large areas, it was found that the ‘‘ divisions” must be broken 
up into a number of smaller executive charges under natives of 
the country, and that they must receive a professional education. 
In 1869 Mr. Brandis made proposals to organise the subordinate 
grades and to train men at the Civil Engineering Colleges, and 
several other attempts were made in the same direction, but 
without marked success. In 1878 Mr. Brandis proposed to 
establish a Central Forest School, and his proposals were 
accepted by Government. The chief object of the School was 
then to prepare natives of India for the executive charge of 
forest ranges, and to qualify them for promotion to the superior 
staff, but it was hoped that the school might ultimately be used 
to train candidates for the controlling branch. The chief forest 
officers of provinces fwere to select candidates and send them to 
be trained at the School. None but natives of India were to be 
admitted. A number of forests near Dehre Dun were grouped 
together as atraining ground and placed under a separate con- 
servator, who was also appointed director of the school. A 
board of inspection was appointed. The first theoretical course 
was held in 1881, and they have been held every year since 
then. The present system is that the candidates, who must be 
in robust health, are selected by conservators of the forest or by 
the director of the school. They must serve in the forests for 
at least twelve months before entering the School. Candidates 
for the ranger’s certificate must have passed the entrance exami- 
nation of an Indian University on the English side ; candidates 
for the forester’s certificate pass a lower examination. The 
course of training for these two classes extends over eighteen 
and twelve months respectively. Men who gain the certificates 
return to their provinces, and are employed there. The course 
of instruction for the ranger’s class embraces vegetable physio- 
logy, the elements of physics and chemistry, mathematics, road 
making and building, surveying, sylviculture, working plans, 
forest utilisation, forest botany, the elements of mineralogy and 
geology, forest law, and the elements of forest etiology. The 
course for foresters is much more simple. The preparation of 
manuals is in progress, and a library, museum, chemical labora- 
tory, observatory, and forest garden have been established. The 
period of probation in the forest before entry into the School 
has a twofold object : firstly, to enable the theoretical course to 
be understood ; secondly, to eliminate men who are unsuited to 
a forest life before time and money have been spent on their 
training. As a rule, the students are employés of the Forest 
Department, and they draw their salaries and maintain them- 
selves while at the School. No instruction fees are charged. It 
would not at present be possible to get condidates whose main- 
tenance and education are entirely paid for by their friends. 
Nine men who have left the School have appointments of from 
125/. to 200/. a year, and this ought to draw eligible candidates. 
Conservators of forests say that the men trained at the School 
are markedly superior to their untrained comrades. The area 
of reserved forests has largely increased of late, and the prospects 
of the students are very good. During the session of 1884 
there were forty-six students of all classes at the School, of whom 
eight were from Madras, and seven from native States, the chiefs 
of which have been induced by the establishment of the school 
to take measures for the protection of their forests. The School 
has now been made an imperial institution, and this is a great 
advantage in every way. The expenses of the School in 1884 
are said to have been rgrt/, 
On Fourneyings in South-Western China, by A. Hosie.—In 
the autumn of 1881 Mr. Hosie was appointed Her Majesty’s 
Agent in Western China, and reached Ch‘ung-ch‘ing, in the 
province of Ssit-ch‘uan, in January, 1882. From this point he 
made three journeys in South-Western China. In the spring of 
1882 he proceeded through Southern Ssii-ch‘uan and Northern 
Kuei-chou, the Chinese ‘‘ Switzerland,” to Kuei-yang Fu, the 
capital of the latter province, whence he journeyed westward in 
the footsteps of Margary to the capital of Yiinnan. From 
Yiinnan Fu he struck north-east through Northern Yiinnan, 
following for days here and there the routes of Garnier and the 
Grosvenor Mission. At last he descended the Nan-kuang:River 
and reached the right bank of the Great River, the local name 
of the Upper Zangtsze, at a point below Hsii-chou Fu, an im- 
portant city at the junction of the Min River and the Chin-sha 
Chiang, or River of Golden Sand. Here he took boat and 
descended the Great River to Ch‘ung-ch‘ing, his starting-point. 
In February, 1883, Mr. Hosie again left Ch‘ung-ch‘ing, and 
proceeded north-west to Ch‘éng-tu, the capital of the province 
of Ssit-ch‘uan, by way of the brine and petroleum wells of 
Tzit-liu-ching. From Ch‘éng-tu he journeyed west and south- 
west through the country of the Lolos, skirting the western 
boundary of Independent Lolodom. From Ning-yiian, locally 
called Chien-ch‘ang, and lying in a valley famous, among other 
things, as the habitat of the white-wax insect, he passed south- 
west through the mountainous Cain-du of Marco Polo, in- 
habited in great part by Mantzii tribes, and struck the left bank 
of the Chin-sha Chiang two months after leaving Ch‘ung-ch‘ing. 
From this point Ta-li Fu, in Western Yiinnan, was easily 
reached. From Ta-li Fu Mr. Hosie jurneyed eastward to 
Yiinnan Fu, which he had visited the year before, and then 
struck north-east through Western Kuei-chou to the Yung-ning 
River, which he descended to the Great River. Lu Chou, an 
important city at the junction of this river with the T‘o River, 
was soon reached, and the Great River was again descended to 
Ch‘ung-ch‘ing. This journey occupied four months. In June, 
1884, Mr. Hosie again left Ch‘ung-ch‘ing, and from Ho Chou, 
a three days’ journey to the north of that city, he struck west- 
ward through a beautifully cultivated and fertile country to Chia- 
ting Fu, on the right bank of the Min at its junction with the 
T‘ung River. Chia-ting is famous as the great centre of seri- 
culture in Ssii-ch‘uan, and as the chief insect wax-producing 
country in the Empire. A day’s journey west of Chia-ting is 
the famous Mount O-mei, rising 11,100 feet above the level of 
the sea. This mountain, which is sacred to the worship of 
Buddha, Mr. Hosie ascended in company with crowds of pil- 
grims. He then proceeded south, skirting the eastern boundary 
of Independent Lolodom, to the River of Golden Sand, the 
left bank of which was struck at the town of Man-i-ssu, between 
