OCTOBEB 23, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



557 



November 2 — " Unexplored Western Asia," by D. 



G. Hogarth. 

 November 16 — " Some Aspects of the River Pa- 

 rana, and its Watershed: an Economic Survey," 



by W. S. Barclay. 

 November 30 — " The Panama Canal in 1908," by 



Dr. Vaughan Cornish. 

 December 7 — ^Possibly Dr. Sven Hedin on his latest 



expedition in Tibet. 

 December 14 — " Fifty Years of Nile Exploration 



and some of its Results," by Sir William E. 



Garstin, G.C.M.G. (The jubilee of Speke's dis- 

 covery of the Victoria Nyanza. ) 



Other papers ■wliicli may be expected after 

 Christmas are the following: 

 " My Recent Expedition in Central Asia," by Dr. 



M. A. Stein. 

 " Survey and Exploration in the Ruwenzori and 



Lake Region, Central Africa," by Colonel R. G. 



T. Bright, C.M.G. 

 " The Danish Northeast Greenland Expedition," 



by Lieutenant A. Trolls. 

 " Bhutan : the Resiilts of Two Expeditions," by 



John Claude White, CLE. 

 " The Western Pacific," by Sir Everard F. im 



Thurn, K.C.M.G., C.B. 

 " Across the Sahara from Tripoli to Timbuktu," 



by Hanns Vischer. 

 "The Colorado Canon; Some of its Lessons," by 



Professor W. M. Davis. 

 " A Recent Journey in North Central Arabia," 



by Captain S. S. Butler. 

 " South America and its Antarctic Relations," by 



G. F. Scott Elliot. 

 " Earthquakes and Geography," by R. D. Oldham. 

 " The Geographical Conditions affecting the De- 

 velopment of the British Empire. II. Australia," 



by Professor J. W. Gregory, F.R.S. 



The New Zealand Shipping Company's 

 steamer Rua-pehu, which left Plymouth on 

 October 3 for New Zealand, carried a large 

 consignment of stores for the use of Lieu- 

 tenant Shackleton's Antarctic expedition. The 

 liner will reach Wellington in the middle of 

 November. Other articles will be sent to the 

 relief ship Nimrod at Lyttelton, and these, it 

 is expected, will reach the explorer by New 

 Tear's Day. 



Professor D. W. Johnson, of Harvarci 

 University, spent the summer in physiographic 

 studies in Europe. While in France he di- 

 rected the researches of four students in the 

 volcanic region of the Auvergne. The fol- 



lowing topics were treated: the physiographic 

 features of the great fault scarp west of the 

 Limagne basin, by Mr. S. W. Cushing, in- 

 structor in physical geography at the State 

 Normal School, Salem, Mass.; drainage modi- 

 fications due to lava dams, by Mr. W. G. Reed, 

 Jr., assistant in physiography, Harvard Uni- 

 versity; physiographic features due to glacial 

 erosion, by Mr. J. E. Buchanon, instructor in 

 physical science and geography, State Normal 

 School, Cheney, Washington; and variations 

 in the forms of volcanoes, by Mr. E. W. 

 Schmitgen. After completing the work in 

 Auvergne, Messrs. Buchanon and Cushing 

 continued studies of glacial erosion in Switzer- 

 land, northern Italy and Scotland; while Mr. 

 Reed visited portions of Switzerland, spending 

 a week in an investigation of the physiographic 

 features of the Maloja Pass region. Professor 

 Johnson attended the ninth International Con- 

 gress of Geography held at Geneva July 27- 

 August 6; and August 25-27 he gave three 

 lectures on the physical and economic geog- 

 raphy of the western United States before the 

 Vacation School of Geography at Oxford Uni- 

 versity, England. 



The Board of Sanitary Commissioners of 

 Savannah, Ga., announces the opening of a 

 Board of Health Laboratory, to be known as 

 the City Bacteriological Laboratory, under the 

 direction of Dr. V. H. Bassett, recently as- 

 sistant superintendent and pathologist of the 

 Milwaukee Co. Hospital. J. Van de Vrede 

 has been appointed assistant. The department 

 is established by ordinance and will be sup- 

 ported by the board as an adjunct to the 

 Health Office, as an aid to the control of com- 

 municable diseases, and for the study of prob- 

 lems in public health. The rooms include 

 office, laboratory room, preparation room, 

 photographic dark room, animal room, stor- 

 age room, etc. 



The London Times states that the question 

 of improving the navigability of the Rhone 

 and thus restoring the city of Lyons to the 

 position it once held as an important inland 

 port is discussed in a recent consular report. 

 At present, although the river is navigable in 

 a direction from Lyons to the sea, it is only 

 navigable upstream as far as Seyssel, so that 



