Editorial Notes. 435 



large volumes of high-pressure steam, which is being utilized to 

 generate about 10,000 horse-power by turbines. At Solfatara, 

 near Naples, a similar project is on foot to supply power to the 

 great works in the district. It seems, indeed, probable that in 

 volcanic regions a very large amount of power may be, in the 

 future, obtained directly or indirectly by boring into the earth, and 

 that the whole subject merits the most careful consideration. 



•* a* # * * 



From motives of strict economy in printing and paper on the part of 

 the Treasury, the Annual Keports of the Keepers of the various 

 Departments in the British Museum which accompany the Return 

 of Receipts and Expenditure presented to the House of Commons 

 have been reserved to a future and more prosperous time. The 

 statement relating to the British Museum, Bloomsbury, shows the 

 precautions taken to protect the collections from air-raids, etc., in 

 1916-18, and the parts, still closed to the public, lent to the Registry 

 of Friendly Societies. Precautions were also taken to protect the 

 most choice specimens in Bloomsbury and in the Galleries of the 

 Natural History Departments at Cromwell Road, but with the excep- 

 tion of the Northern Galleries of Geology all the exhibits in the latter 

 building were open, and the public have been admitted on week-days 

 from 10 till 4 o'clock. An exhibition of the boring Mollusca and 

 Crustacea destroying wood and stone, and those attached to piers 

 and ships below the water-line, has been arranged by Dr. W. T. 

 Caiman for Government and public information. Reports have also 

 been prepared on Fishes valuable as food, and on the utilization of 

 whale-flesh. The preservation of elephant seals and the reintro- 

 duction of fur-seals, also the acclimatization of the reindeer in South 

 Georgia, are instances in which scientific advice has been afforded to 

 Government by the Museum staff. 



Mrs. Hinde has presented to the Geological Department the 

 valuable collection of fossils, chiefly from the Silurian and Ordovician 

 rocks of Canada, the United States, and Sweden, made by the late 

 Dr. George J. Hinde, F.R.S., together with his unique series of 

 microscopic preparations of rocks and fossils. 



* * * # * 



The Royal Microscopical Society have given 1,000 slides of samples 

 of "oozes", spread over the ocean-floor at great depths, collected by 

 the late Dr. G. C. "Wallich, and an additional series from Mr. E. Heron- 

 Allen, F.R.S., with maps and charts. 



A large collection of fossil shells and vertebrate remains from the 

 Ameki cuttings on the Port Harcourt Railway, Southern Nigeria, 

 have been presented by Mr. A. E. Kitson, Director of the Geological 

 Survey of the Gold Coast. 



