May 12, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



69& 



will amount to £2,000, have been defrayed by- 

 King Oscar, Mr. Emanuel Nobel and others. 



The Brussels Geographical Society has re- 

 ceived the first report of Lieutenant Gerlache, 

 commander of the Belgian Antarctic expedi- 

 tion. According to the London Times the report 

 says that the expedition left St. John's Bay on 

 January 14, 189S, and on the 21st explored the 

 South Shetland Islands. On January 15tb, in 

 55° 5' south latitude and 65° 19' west longitude, 

 soundings to the the depth of 4,040 metres were 

 taken. The Belgica left on the 2od for Hughes 

 Bay, discovering a strait separating the lands 

 of the east from an unknown archipelago. The 

 land to the east was named Banco Land. Mag- 

 netic observations were made and interesting 

 botanical, geological and photographic results 

 were obtained. On February 13th the Belgica 

 went in the direction of Alexander I. Land, 

 exploring the belt of bank ice towards the west. 

 On March 10th the ship became fast in the ice 

 in latitude 71° 34', longitude 89° 10'. The sun 

 disappeared on May 17th, and there was con- 

 tinual night until July 21st. M. Banco died on 

 June 5th, and his remains were deposited in a 

 tomb of ice. The Belgica, after leaving her 

 winter quartet's, again became fast in the ice in 

 103° west longitude. She reached open water on 

 March 14th. The expedition made successful 

 magnetic and meteorological observations and 

 obtained collections of pelagic and deep-sea 

 fauna and samples of submarine sediments. 

 On February 26th Black Island was explored, 

 and on the following day the Belgica entered 

 the Cockburn Channel, arriving at Punta 

 Arenas, in Patagonia, on the 28th of last month. 



The ranchmen of Seward County, Kansas, 

 says the Electrical World, have connected their 

 ranches by telephone facilities, using the barb- 

 wire fences instead of setting poles and string- 

 ing wires. It had been demonstrated that a 

 fence wire worked perfectly for a telephone 

 connection. The scheme was favored by the 

 stockmen, and a local company was formed, 

 with headquarters at Liberal, that being the 

 nearest telegraph point. Lines have been con- 

 constructed and are in operation, extending 

 from Liberal over the whole of Seward, Stevens 

 and Morton Counties, Kansas, and have reached 



out into Beaver County, Oklahoma, and Hans- 

 ford County, Texas. Many of the ranches in 

 in this grazing country are situated miles from 

 railroad and telegraph facilities. 



The first stone of the oceanographic museum 

 at Monaco was laid on April 26th by the Bishop 

 in the presence of Prince Albert, Princess Alice 

 and the Crown Prince. Count Miinster, on be- 

 half of the Emperor William, spoke of the 

 museum as a pledge of peace and amity among 

 peoples, while Admiral Brown de Colstoun, on 

 behalf of France, congratulated the Prince on 

 his maritime researches. The Prince expressed 

 his thanks to the German Emperor and Presi- 

 dent Loubet for sending representatives to the 

 ceremony. As we stated recently, the museum 

 has been founded by the Prince of Monaco for 

 the exhibition and study of the collections made 

 under his auspices. 



A TELEGRAM has been received at the Har- 

 vard College Observatory from Professor J. E. 

 Keeler at Lick Observatory, stating that comet 

 Tempel was observed by Perrine, May 6, 9077 

 Greenwich mean time in R. A., 18'' 52" 57'.8 

 and Becomber 4° 32' 19", Faint. This is an 

 observation of comet Tempel, 1873 II., and 

 not 1866 1. , which is connected with the meteoric 

 swarm of November 13th. An ephemeris was- 

 published by Schulhof in Astron. Nach., Vol. 

 149, p. 23, which agrees within a few seconds, 

 of the position given above. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The great State Universities of the Central 

 and Western States are continually growing in 

 wealth and infiuence. Buring the present year 

 the following additional endowments are re- 

 ported : An appropriation bill recently passed by 

 the Illinois Legislature gives to the University 

 of Illinois about $600,000. The Wisconsin 

 Legislature has appropriated for the University 

 of Wisconsin $151,000, of which $100,000 is for 

 an engineering building. The Colorado Legis- 

 lature, besides passing a bill giving its State 

 University an income of one-fifth of a mill on 

 each dollar of assessed valuation, has made 

 appropriations amounting to about $110,000. 

 In Nebraska the State University has been 



