444 
countries and to many islands. The most 
extended of these are that carried out by 
Mr. Stewart in traversing the length of the 
Amazon River and that by Mr. Sligh in 
Asia Minor, Turkey, Arabia, Greece, Tri- 
poli, Tunis and Algeria. The director of 
the department, on his way to meet the 
Carnegie at Colombo, made observations at 
Tau Island, of the Samoan Group, on the 
day of the total solar eclipse, April 28, 
1911; and also at six other island stations 
in the course of his voyage. 
The office work of computation and com- 
pilation of results and of the construction 
and testing of instruments has proceeded 
simultaneously with the operations on land 
and sea. A complete collection of the data 
obtained since the establishment of the de- 
partment, including those of the cruises of 
the Galilee and Carnegie, will be ready for 
publication by the end of the present cal- 
endar year. Three portable magnetom- 
eters have been completed and four others 
are under construction, while various im- 
provements to instruments and apparatus 
in use have been made, along with all cur- 
rent repairs, in the construction and repair 
shop of the department. 
INVESTIGATIONS OF RESEARCH ASSOCIATES 
Between fifty and sixty research asso- 
ciates have carried on investigations under 
the auspices of the institution during the 
year, either by aid of grants made directly 
to them or for the purpose of publishing 
results of their investigations. Several of 
these associates have been connected with 
the departments of investigation. Many 
collaborators have also participated in the 
researches carried on under this head, and 
the fields of investigation are numerous 
and of very diverse kinds. An idea of the 
extent and variety of this work can be best 
gained by consulting the reports, in the 
eurrent Year Book, of the individual in- 
vestigators, by reference to the annual list 
SCIENCE 
[N. 8. Von. XXXV. No. 899 
of publications of the institution and the 
general bibliography of the year. As indi- 
cating the diversity of these investigations, 
attention may be called to two remarkable 
publications in widely different fields. 
One of these is a treatise on dynamic 
meteorology and hydrography, by Pro- 
fessor V. Bjerknes, of the University of 
Christiania, and marks a noteworthy ad- 
vance in this difficult branch of mathemat- 
ical physics. Part I. of this work has been 
issued and Part II. is now in press. It is 
interesting to note, also, that permission has 
been given to a foreign publishing house to 
bring out an edition of this work in the 
German language. The other work re- 
ferred to is entitled ‘‘The Polynesian Wan- 
derings,’’ by Mr. William Churchill. It 
attempts to trace the migrations of the 
Polynesians in the Pacific Ocean by means 
of a critical examination of the philological 
contents of their language. Mention may 
also be made in this connection of progress 
in the publication of the Classics of Inter- 
national Law, one work of which—namely, 
that of Richard Zouche—haying been com- 
pleted. 
CHARLES X. DALTON 
THE passing of Charles X. Dalton removes 
a personality familiar not only to a large cir- 
ele of scientists throughout the country but to 
many of Boston’s leading business men, with 
whom he had a large acquaintance owing to 
his association with that eminent optician, the 
late Robert B. Tolles. 
Born in Philadelphia in 1840, Mr. Dalton 
learned his trade as an expert mechanician 
from a German instrument-maker of that city. 
In his early days he worked in the factory of 
Joseph Zentmeyer, the well-known microscope 
manufacturer, and during the Civil War, 
served as an army nurse. At the close of the 
war, he entered the employ of Tolles, and later 
(1867) was associated with him in the Boston 
Optical Works. 
