158 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 32. 



stroke, adopted by British oarsmen, and 

 imported into the United States by Yale, to 

 be proof of its efficiency as against the 

 stroke adopted by Cornell for short races. 



The friends of the latter deny this, and 

 state that their crew left America in iine 

 condition, having beaten Henley time on 

 their own Cayuga Lake course ; that they 

 continued in excellent condition, on this 

 side the Atlantic, making in trial races the 

 best records of the season. Their best figure 

 for 1 mile 550 yards was 7 ni. 4i sec, as 

 against Leander 's 7 m. 14 sec. Trinity finally 

 beat them in 7 m. 15 sec, 'easily,' al- 

 though the 'Yankees' held the lead for 

 half the course. In the last two weeks of 

 their stay the Cornell crew had suffered 

 fi-om the enervating effect of the unaccus- 

 tomed climate, and suddenly lost their stay- 

 ing power. The event was anticipated by 

 those who watched them most closelj^ days 

 before the races. The men themselves say 

 they have lost no faith in boats, stroke or 

 coaching system, and when in condition 

 are ready to meet anj^ crew which appeared 

 at Henley. They had made better time 

 and held their speed on much longer 

 courses. 



The matter has some scientific interest 

 and even importance. Improved oarsman- 

 ship means much oiitside athletic circles. 

 There is certainly a sti'oke of maximum ef- 

 ficiency which will, with a stated expendi- 

 ture of muscular power, give the greatest 

 possible work in the line of the boat's keel. 

 It is this really important problem that is 

 likely now to be solved on our home 

 waters ; for no change is likelj'' to occur on 

 British waters. Yale and Cornell will per- 

 haps finally settle the question by fighting 

 to a conclusion at home. 



The London Times has been recently pub- 

 lishing letters from its correspondent at 

 Kiel, in which are criticised, by a naval ex- 

 pert, the warships of various nationalities 

 there represented. He considers the ' Col- 



umbia ' defective in offensive and defen- 

 sive power, although a marvel of speed, and 

 likely to prove a success in our special 

 province, that of ' commerce-destroyer.' 

 He thinks the French iron-clad ' Dupuy 

 de Lome ' their best approximation to 

 British standards, and speaks verj' lightly 

 of the ships built by the Russians for their 

 Baltic fleet. The IJ. S. S. ' New York ' 

 is classed with the best. 



I HAD the pleasure of meeting Lord Kelvin 

 last week for the first time since the meet- 

 ing of the British Association of 1884 at 

 Montreal. He bears the added years re- 

 markably well and appears quite as much 

 interested as ever in America, Americans 

 and scientific work on the other side of the 

 Atlantic. He is engaged, with Sir John 

 Lubbock, Lord Rayleigh and other dis- 

 tinguished men of science, in a movement 

 having for its object the erection of a me- 

 morial to the late Professor Huxley, whose 

 death, on the 29th iiltimo, was a source of 

 grief to all scientific men, and many divines 

 as well, on both sides of the Atlantic. 



R. H. T. 



LoxDON, July 16, 1895. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 FOSSIL MAMMALS OF PATAGONIA. 



Dr. Florentino Ameghino, of La Plata, 

 has recently published an important pamph- 

 let, ' Sur les ongules fossiles de V Argentine,' 

 whicli includes an exhaustive criticism of 

 the recent memoirs of Mr. Lydekker en- 

 titled ' A Study of the Extinct Ungulates 

 of Argentina,' recently noticed in Science. 

 Dr. Ameghino goes over Mr. Lydekker's 

 work page by page and points out a num- 

 ber of grave errors arising from the fact 

 that the author confined his studies entirely 

 to the collections in the National Museum 

 and did not examine the very rich private 

 collection of Dr. Ameghino. We noted as 

 a special feature of Mr. Lydekker's hand- 

 some memoirs that the English and Span- 



