September 



1922] 



SCIENCE 



333 



plorer, with his party, is leaving shortly for 

 Hudson Bay, whence he will journey to the 

 Arctic Seas and continue his investigations in 

 Baffin Land and at the Magnetic Pole. Mr. 

 Tremblay was a member of Captain Bernier's 

 Arctic expeditions of 1910-11, 1912-13. He 

 was only nineteen years of age when he made 

 his first trip into the north. On his last ex- 

 pedition he succeeded where several well- 

 equipped expeditions had failed in reaching 

 Igloolik and Fury and Heela Strait for the 

 first time since the visit in 1822-23 of Sir 

 E. W. Parry. Mr. Tremblay covered over four 

 thousand miles on foot in the depth of winter 

 and afterwards, with the assistance of Mr. 

 A. B. Reader, a native of New Zealand, mapped 

 and re-mapped some three thousand miles of 

 eoast-line. He was the first white man to cross 

 land from the head of Admiralty Sound to 

 Fury and Hecla Strait and to make the long 

 and dangerous crossing from Murray Maxwell 

 Bay, across Coekiburn Land to Milne Inlet. 

 Mr. Tremblay is accompanied on this expedi- 

 tion by Messrs. Arthur Barbeau and C. Talbot, 

 all being natives of Quebec. Hudson Bay will 

 be followed to Fox Channel, whence the party 

 will proceed along the northwest side of Baffin 

 Land. After carrying out surveys and general 

 exploration of the areas of Baffin Land which 

 he did not examine on his last trip, he will pro- 

 ceed to the Magnetic Pole to take observations. 

 Mr. Tremblay's party will be the first to at- 

 tempt the journey which it is undertaking by 

 canoe and on foot. His trip will occupy ap- 

 proximately two years. 



The Paris correspondent of the London 

 Times writes that in its annual report, re- 

 cently published, the Compagnie Nationale des 

 Matieres Colorantes, which was founded five 

 years ago with government encouragement to 

 guarantee the supply of dyestuifs to French 

 industries, confesses its dependence upon the 

 experience and assistance of its foreign com- 

 petitors. The report says : "The work of even 

 the best technicians must be sterile unless they 

 are in possession of all the knowledge accu- 

 mulated in the past — knowledge which is essen- 

 tial to success. All who understand the com- 

 plexity of the manufacture of organic coloring 

 jnatters will realize why we have been com- 



pelled to acquire the patents, the processes and 

 the technical aid of our principal foreign com- 

 petitors for exclusive use in France. Thus we 

 have had at our disposal the results of fifty 

 years of investigation, and processes minutely 

 studied and methodically put into practice, and 

 so we are immediately placed in a position 

 equal to that of the most modern and most 

 specialized firms in our industry." Certain 

 sections of the French press affect to perceive 

 in this statement confirmation of a rumor long 

 in circulation that the Compagnie Nationale 

 has entered into an alliance with its German 

 rivals. It is recalled that not long ago the 

 Chemiker Zeitung announced that an agree- 

 ment had been entered into between the Ger- 

 man and French dye industries, in which seven 

 great German firms and the Compagnie Na- 

 tionale des Matieres Colorantes were associated, 

 by which the German firms were to give the. 

 French company detailed technical assistance 

 and full information concerning the processes 

 of manufacture and to supply German chemists 

 to supervise the application of the processes in 

 French dye works. In return, it was stated, 

 the Compagnie Nationale undertook to limit 

 supplies of certain synthetic dye-stuffs to 

 France and her colonies, and to allow the Ger- 

 man firms a share of the profits. 



Nature announces that proposals for closer 

 cooperation amongst the leading British engi- 

 neering institutions, which have recently been 

 under consideration, have now received the ap- 

 proval of the institutions, the representatives 

 of which met in conference, namely. The Insti- 

 tution of Civil Engineers, The Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Naval 

 Architects, and The Institution of Electrical 

 Engineers, and that an engineering joint coun- 

 cil composed of representatives of these bodies 

 has been formed. Among the objects of the 

 joint council will be, to improve the status of 

 engineers, to secure the better utilization of 

 their services in the country's interests and the 

 appointment of properly qualified individuals 

 to responsible engineering positions, and to 

 l^revent the unnecessary duplication of activi- 

 ties. It is anticipated that, at a later stage, 

 the number of bodies represented on the joint 

 council may be increased, but this at present 



