Decemdeb 24, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



915 



One of the sounding balloons, with good 

 records of pressure and temperature, has al- 

 ready been recovered. 



We learn from the London Times that the 

 British Natural History Museum will shortly 

 be enriched by Lord Walsingham's gift of his 

 unrivaled collection of Micro-Lepidoptera. 

 which will be transferred from Merton Hall 

 to Cromwell-road in the spring of the coming 

 year. The collection which thus passes into 

 the possession of the nation is by far the 

 richest of the kind in the world. ^Vhen ex- 

 amined by the museum specialist in 1901 it 

 was officially reported to the trustees to con- 

 tain over 200,000 specimens, in a condition of 

 preservation which left nothing to be desired, 

 and to include about nine tenths of the re- 

 corded species, besides a large quantity of 

 unworked material. Since that date it has con- 

 tinually been added to, until now the number 

 of specimens is about 260,000. It will add about 

 45,000 species of Micro-Lepidoptera to the na- 

 tional collection, which at present possesses 

 only about 4,000 species of these small insects. 

 In addition. Lord Walsingham is presenting 

 to the nation an important library of the lit- 

 erature dealing with the subject. His previ- 

 ous gifts have comprised at least 15,000 speci- 

 mens. Among these may be specially 

 mentioned a collection of insects from Cali- 

 fornia and a series of more than 1,000 moths 

 of the family Pyralidaa. Another donation 

 which forms a specially attractive feature of 

 the museum is the collection of British butter- 

 flies and moths, in which the caterpillars, at 

 various stages of their growth, are exhibited 

 on their food-plants with the perfect insects. 

 The preparation of the caterpillars for exhibi- 

 tion, an operation requiring a considerable 

 amount of technical skill, was in great part 

 the work of Lord ^Valsingham himself. The 

 illustrations of the nesting habits of British 

 birds include no fewer than 49 groups ob- 

 tained and given by Lord Walsingham. 



At the University of Montana one of the 

 features of the newly organized work in for- 

 estry is a short course for rangers employed 

 in the United States Forest Service. By 

 arrangement with the officers of District No. 



1, with headquarters at Missoula, a number of 

 men from each of the national forests in the 

 district will be detailed for attendance on the 

 courses, which will occupy the time of the 

 rangers for the months of January, February 

 and March, while the field work is suspended. 

 About sLxty men are expected to register for 

 the courses this winter. 



The U. S. Geological Survey's summary of 

 the mineral production of the United States 

 in 1908, prepared by W. T. Thom, issued as 

 an advance chapter of " Mineral Resources of 

 the United States, Calendar Year 1908," shows 

 a decline in the value of the country's mineral 

 output amounting to about $476,000,000, or 

 23 per cent. The figures for 1907 and 1908 

 are $2,071,607,964 and $1,595,670,186, respect- 

 ively. The loss is due to a decrease in the 

 output of both metallic and non-metallic prod- 

 ucts. The most notable decreases among the 

 metallic products were in the production of 

 iron ores (30 per cent, in quantity and 38 per 

 cent, in value) and of pig iron (38 per cent, 

 in quantity and 52 per cent, in value). The 

 production of bituminous coal decreased about 

 16 per cent. Gains are shown in the produc- 

 tion of gold and in the quantity of copper 

 produced, but this gain in quantity was ac- 

 companied by a loss in total value, due to the 

 lower prices of copper. Petroleum showed a 

 gain of about 8 per cent, in quantity and 

 value, 179,000,000 barrels having been produced 

 in 1908 and 166,000,000 barrels in 1907. Con- 

 siderable gains in mineral production were 

 made by several states. California gained 15 

 per cent., Florida 24 per cent., Louisiana 11 

 per cent.. New Hampshire 16 per cent, and 

 South Dakota 72 per cent. The losses, how- 

 ever, were out of proportion to the gains. 

 Alabama lost nearly 33 per cent., Colorado 17 

 per cent., Illinois 15 per cent., Michigan 34 

 per cent., Montana 22 per cent.. New Jersey 

 35 per cent., New York 33 per cent., Ohio 35 

 per cent., Pennsylvania 28 per cent., Virginia 

 32 per cent, and West Virginia 16 per cent. 



The annual report of the Liverpool Marine 

 Biology Committee and the Port Erin Bio- 

 logical Station was submitted by Professor 

 Herdman at a meeting of the Liverpool Bio- 



