612 



SCIENCE 



[TOL. LV, No. 1432 



kimo country only a few months after Stefans- 

 son in 1910 (see My Life with the Eskimo, by 

 Y. Stefansson, p. 258) lias reported finding tlie 

 ruins of houses made of eai-th and wood on 

 southwestern Victoria Island. Jenness concludes 

 that this is a sporadic occurrence and attributes 

 it to a visit from the western Eskimos. Thus 

 Jenness evidently assumes that the people from 

 whom the present Copper Eskimos are de- 

 scended never had wooden houses. 



In 1919 A. H. Anderson found earth and 

 wood houses on Cape Krusenstern and at vari- 

 ous places in Coronation Gulf. Lastly, I have 

 (during the years of 1917-1921) found ruins of 

 the type of earth and wood houses used in 

 Alaska and the Mackenzie Kiver at intervals 

 along the shores of Coronation Gulf to the 

 above-mentioned Point Agiak. I also have ac- 

 curate Eskimo information about the location 

 of a village of the same type on the coast of 

 Melville Sound due south of Kent Peninsula. 

 Thus we find houses of wood and earth as far 

 east as AVest Longitude 107°. For reasons 

 which I cannot go into here, I consider it likely 

 that future investigations will show a continua- 

 tion of this chain of ancient earth and wood 

 dwelling's most if not all the way to Atlantic 

 and Hudson Bay waters. 



As it seems to differ from that of some other 

 investigators, I want to record here the opinion 

 (based on my studies in Coronation Gulf) that 

 the present Copper Eskimos, who have no pot- 

 tery and use no wooden houses, are in the main 

 at least descendants of the earlier inhabitants 

 who used pottery and wooden houses. My view 

 is that the present culture (characterized in 

 part by stone pots instead of pottery, and 

 snow houses instead of wooden houses) has been 

 gradually evolved partly because the previous 

 culture was never as well suited to the local 

 conditions as the present, and partly because 

 the local conditions have changed somewhat. 

 One important feature of the change has been 

 the lessening importance and eventual abandon- 

 ment of whaling. My work shows that whaling 

 was formerly practiced in certain parts at 

 least of the Copper Eskimo country. 



Harold Noice 

 The Exploreks Clue, 

 New York City 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 

 THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS 



At the annual general meeting of the British 

 Institute of Physics, held on May 23 in the 

 rooms of The Royal Society, the following 

 officers and board were elected to serve for the 

 year beginning October 1, 1922 : President, 

 Sir J. J. Thomson; past president, Sir R. T. 

 Glazebrook; vice-presidents. Sir Charles Par- 

 sons, Professor W. Eccles, Professor C. H. 

 Lees, Mr. C. C. Paterson; non-official members 

 of the board, Dr. R. S. Clay, Professor C. L. 

 Fortescue, Professor A. Gray, Major E. 0. 

 Henrici, Sir J. E. Petavel, Dr. E. H. Rayner, 

 Sir Napier Shaw, Mr. R. S. Whipple; repre- 

 sentatives of participating societies — Physical 

 Society, Mr. C. E. Phillips, Mr. F. E. Smith; 

 Faraday Society, Mr. W. R. Cooper; Optical 

 Society, Mr. John Guild; Rontgen Society, Dr. 

 G. W. C. Kaye ; Royal Microscopical Society, 

 Mr. J. E. Barnard. 



The annual report stated that there were 408 

 members of the institute at the end of the year, 

 of whom 258 were fellows. 



The institute is watching the possibilitj' of 

 establishing a central library for physics, 

 although the financial difficulties in the way of 

 its realization are stated to be considerable. 



In the course of his presidential address Sir 

 J. J. Thomson, after dealing with the project 

 to establish a Journal of Scientific Instruments, 

 spoke of the present depression in industry, 

 but he made the reassuring statement that out 

 of 67 students who graduated with distinction 

 in physics and chemistry in 1921, 46 had ob- 

 tained suitable positions, while 14 were doing 

 research work. He hoped that the series of 

 lectures on physics in industry which had been 

 established would act to some extent as "re- 

 fresher courses." 



Speaking of the difficulties which the safe- 

 guarding of industries act had, in many 

 instances, placed in the way of research, he 

 characterized research itself as a "key indus- 

 try" and he hoped that the government would 

 put every facility in the way of research 

 workers being able to obtain without delay the 

 apiaaratus they required. 



