28 



6CIBNCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 22. 



eastern Russia in the autumn of 1856." He also 

 studied languages, both oriental and European, and 

 gave evidence of the thoroughness of these studies 

 in his contributions to our knowledge. 



— The Dickson expedition, in charge of Professor 

 Nordenskiiild, which left Thurso May 29, is report- 

 ed as having called at Eeikiavik, Iceland, June 6, 

 and was to sail for Greenland on the lOtli. When 

 the expedition started, it was the intention that 

 Count Stromfeldt (botanist). Dr. Arpi (philologist and 

 archeologist), and Mr. Flink (mineralogist) should 

 disembark at Eeikiavik, and remain in Iceland for 

 study and exploration. It is reported by recently 

 arrived whalers that the condition of the seas west 

 from Iceland, as regards ice, is at present not un- 

 favorable to the success of the expedition. The Sofia, 

 upon which the party is embarked, is a little iron 

 propeller of less than two hundred tons, capable of 

 a speed of eleven knots, and draws ten feet of water, 

 — a vessel much better suited to her purpose than 

 the unwieldy craft which have been used in many of 

 the English expeditions. It was originally intended 

 that Palander should command the Sofia, but cir- 

 cumstances intervened to prevent this ; and the ves- 

 sel has been intrusted to Capt. Emil Nilsson, who is 

 well qualified by experience, and who will be ably 

 seconded by the well-known Norwegian ice-master, 

 Johannesen. The scientific staff does not compre- 

 hend any of the members of the Vega expedition, 

 who are mostly engaged in working up the inves- 

 tigations made on that voyage, but, after Baron 

 Nordenskiold, is composed of Dr. Kolthoff, ento- 

 mologist and ornithologist ; Dr. Nathorst, geologist 

 and paleontologist; Dr. Berlin, surgeon, botanist, and 

 general biologist ; Mr. ForsStrand, taxidermist and 

 preparator ; Dr. Hamberg, hydrographer ; Mr. Kjell- 

 strom, photographer. Beside these, there are a har- 

 pooneer, two mountain Lapps (in accordance with 

 the suggestion of Professor Fries, to which we have 

 already alluded), and eight or nine picked men, to 

 accompany the party over the inland ice. This 

 party will be provided with fourteen months' provis- 

 ions in the most compact shape possible. The crew 

 of the Sofia comprises twenty-four men. The party 

 is thoroughly equipped with scientific apparatus, and 

 even includes a flying-machine contributed for trial 

 by its inventor, according to the Swedish papers. 



— Among the most Interesting of the living animals 

 in the gardens of the London fisheries exhibition are 

 two British-born beavers from the Isle of Bute in 

 Scotland. They were members of a colony estab- 

 lished by the Earl of Bute upon his estate of Rothe- 

 say several years since. A considerable tract of land 

 was walled in, and beavers were imported from 

 Canada, w'hich soon established themselves, gnawing 

 down the trees, building a dam, and forming a lake 

 of considerable size. The ' beaver wood ' is consid- 

 ered one of the most interesting features of the 

 island. Mr. R. B. Matthews writes to the Field, 

 complaining, that, in capturing the two beavers to 

 send to the exhibition, the colony has been broken 

 up, the dams destroyed, the houses pulled down, 

 and all the other beavers killed. It is to be hoped 



that the damage is not so serious as is repiesented, 

 for the acclimation of the American beaver in Scot- 

 land is a task which is not likely to be often at- 

 tempted. 



— The next issue of the Proceedings of the naval 

 institute (vol. ix. no. 3; whole no. 25) will be entire- 

 ly devoted to an article by Lieut. Edward W. Very, 

 on the development of armor for naval use. The 

 number will thus be a comjilete work of itself, fully 

 illustrated, and will possess more than ordinary 

 interest in being the only work extant devoted 

 exclusively to the details of armor development. 

 Orders for this number should be sent to the secre- 

 tary U. S. naval institute, Annapolis, Md., as early 

 as possible. Price §1. 



— The extraordinary meeting of the geological 

 society of France for this year is to take place at 

 Charleville (Ardennes) on Sunday, Sept. 2, and the 

 excursions will end Tuesday, Sept. 11. 



— The yearly meeting of the Schweizerischen 

 naturforschenden gesellschaft will take place from 

 the 6th to the 9th of August in Zurich, where the 

 national exposition is attracting many people this 

 year. 



— G. Valentin, for forty-five years professor of 

 physiology at the university of Berne, died on the 

 24th of May at the age of seventy-three. He was a 

 native of Breslau. He was formerly one of Louis 

 Agassiz's collaborators; and the fourth livraison of 

 Agassiz's ' Monographies d'echlnodermes vivants et 

 fossiles', containing the anatomy of the genus Echi- 

 nus, is by Valentin. 



— Past assistant-engineer N. B. Clarke, U. S. N., 

 read a paper on water-line defence and gun-shields 

 for cruisers, at the meeting of the U. S. naval insti- 

 tute (Washington branch) on June 7. 



— The bureau of education has issued, as one of 

 the 'circulars of information,' a pamphlet containing 

 the legal provisions respecting the examination and 

 licensing of teachers. 



— A contributor's note in the Atlantic monthly for 

 June calls attention to the question of the spelling 

 and pronunciation of geographic names, on which 

 several articles have lately appeared in foreign jour- 

 nals. The question is not always settled by adopting 

 local spelling and sound, for in many cases foreign 

 names are well Anglicized, and will so remain ; the 

 difficulty is rather in knowing where to begin using 

 the original pronunciation. As we do not say Paree 

 and Bairleen, why may we not say Prague and 

 Hague, even though we do drop a visible s from 

 Calais, and attempt the difliculties of Rouen, Amiens, 

 Chartres, and Blois ? As to St. Petersburg, the 

 error of sanctifioation is not ours, but the Russians', 

 from whom we have taken it. Our mistake, if it he- 

 one, is in putting an- s after Peter, for this seldom 

 occurs in the original. A similar but incorrect ad- 

 dition is often made in Prince Edward Island. The 

 back-and-forth method of naming seen In the Ger- 

 man Vogesen, which the contributor explains as 

 coming from the original German Wassigen (watery), 

 through the French Vosges, is found again in the 

 same polyglot borderland in the Laucher See. 



