976 
zinc out of brass. A more important question 
is raised by Professor Allen, as to whether, 
under ordinary working conditions in the labora- 
tory, gold plated weights are preferable to 
brass weights. dp 1p la 
BEEREN EILAND.* 
THE Swedish Arctic Expedition of 1898, 
under the leadership of Professor A. G. Nat- 
horst, spent a week on Beeren Hiland, mapped 
it on a scale of 1: 50,000, and made numerous 
observations onits natural history. Chiefamong 
these were the geological researches which 
proved a prehistoric local glaciation, and by 
means of fossils showed the presence of rocks 
of three systems: Silurian, Middle Carbo- 
niferous, and Trias, previously unknown on the 
island. These discoveries led to another expe- 
dition to Beeren Hiland during the past sum- 
mer. The expenses were borne by the Vega 
Stipend of the Swedish Geographical Society, 
the Lars Hierta Memorial Fund, and various 
private individuals. The leader was the geolo- 
gist, J. Gunnar Andersson of Upsala, who had 
accompanied Professor Nathorst ; the other sci- 
entific members were C. A. Forsberg, cartog- 
rapher and meteorologist, and G. Swenander, 
zoologist and botanist. The expedition stayed 
on Beeren Hiland from June 22d to August 
19th, and accomplished the following work : 
The whole island was mapped in greater 
detail, and a special map, on a scale of 1:5000, 
was made of Rysshamn, where the expedition 
had its headquarters. 
From June 25th to August 16th complete 
meteorological observations were taken twice a 
day, as well as continuous observations by a 
self-registering barometer and thermometer. 
Eight series of observations were made on the 
tides, each series extending over from 8 to 51 
hours, during which time the height of the 
water at intervals of half an hour was marked 
off on a section. 
The botanist collected all the phanerogams 
previously found on the island, as well as 
Koenigia islandica, hitherto unrecorded. Ex- 
haustive collections were also made of the lower 
plants, including the algw of red and green 
snow. To investigate the influence on plant- 
* From Natural Science. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. 8. Von. X. No. 261. 
growth of the continuous light of an Arctic 
summer, three series of cultivation experiments 
were carried out, as follows: First, in five 
places of nearly the same longitude, but at a 
distance of about 3 or 4 degrees of latitude from 
one another—namely, Svalof, in Scania, Ultuna, 
near Upsila, Luled, Tromso, and Beeren Hiland 
—hbarley taken from the same sample was 
grown in soil from the same place. Only the 
climatic conditions, and especially those of 
light, were different in the different stations ; 
thus there were completely dark nights in 
Scania, complete light the whole 24 hours on 
Beeren Hiland, with intermediate conditions at. 
the intervening places. The material from the 
Scandinavian stations has not yet been brought 
in, so that the results of this interesting experi- 
ment are still awaited. Secondly, on open land 
at the Beeren Hiland station there were culti- 
vated two precisely similar series of Arctic 
plants, of which one series stood in continual 
light, while the other was kept in complete 
darkness each night (8 p. m. to8a.m.). Dur- 
ing the period of the experiment the develop- 
ment of these plants did not proceed very far, 
but the series kept in the light was obviously 
the more sturdy. The third experiment con- 
sisted in the cultivation, on a hot-bed, of ascore 
of common Scandinavian plants. These also 
were in two similar series, one kept in the 
light, the other darkened by night. The ex- 
periment succeeded with 18, and of these 16 
were clearly more sturdy in the light series, 
some of them yielding examples half as large 
again as those in the darkened series. 
To the list of the island’s fauna were added 
two birds: the Skua (Lestris pomatorhina) and 
the Spitzbergen form of Mormon articus. Salmo 
alpinus was found ina lake. Special attention 
was paid to the insects, which on isolated 
oceanic islands are of much interest to the 
student of distribution. Holmgren, the only 
entomologist who had previously visited Beeren 
Eiland, found there in 1868 only 9 species of 
Diptera and 1 Hymenopteron. The Swedish 
expedition has brought back a large collection 
of Diptera, not yet worked through, 4 Hymen- 
optera, 1 Neuropteron and 2 Coleoptera. Holm- 
gren found only 2 Acarids; the present explor- 
ers have at least 10. 
