December 21, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



831 



Delaware Canal as the Keystone of the Coast- 

 wise System,' before the Franklin Institute, 

 December. ' The Eelation of the Govern- 

 ment to its Waterways,' at the Carnegie Insti- 

 tute, Pittsburg, January 10, to be followed by 

 an address to the Pittsburg Board of Trade 

 on the ' Railroad Crisis ' on the next evening, 

 January 11, The Connecticut Society of 

 Civil Engineers will entertain Professor 

 Haupt at its annual banquet on February 12 

 (Lincoln's birthday), when it will hear his 

 address on * Transportation Economics.' On 

 Washington's birthday he will address the 

 students of the Sheffield Scientific School at 

 New Haven on ' Commercial Waterways and 

 their Economics.' The College of Engineer- 

 ing of Cornell University has in view a lec- 

 ture on the ' Isthmian Canals ' at a date to 

 be determined. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Royal 

 Society it was announced that in May last the 

 council learned that the funds (£36,000) pro- 

 vided by the British South Africa Company 

 for the South African meridian arc had been 

 exhausted. The arc had been extended be- 

 yond the Zambezi towards Lake Tanganyika, 

 but a gap of 120 miles existed in the middle 

 of it. It was estimated that £1,600 was re- 

 quired to fiQ.1 this gap, and the matter was 

 most urgent in view of the pending disband- 

 ment of the surveying parties. The officers 

 had intimated by authority from the president 

 that the Royal Society would probably be able 

 to subscribe £300 from its private funds on 

 condition that the remainder of the money 

 required were provided; and, on the strength 

 of this information. Sir G. Darwin obtained 

 a promise of £800 from the British South 

 Africa Company, £100 from the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, £100 from Wernher, Beit 

 and Co., and cabled to Sir David Gill that 

 the surveying party was to proceed, thus as- 

 suming responsibility for the remaining £800. 

 This £300 has since been subscribed by the 

 British Association from its special South 

 African fund. 



We learn from the London Times that what 

 is probably the largest male mandrill (Papio 

 moTTnon) ever received at the London Zoolog- 



ical Gardens has just been deposited, and will 

 be exhibited in the open-air cage at the west 

 end of the monkey-house. At present it is in 

 temporary quarters in a stout traveling cage 

 on the green at the back of the anthropoid 

 house. Lest unwary visitors should be tempt- 

 ed to overstep the low railing and feed the 

 mandrill, the cage bears a label, ' This animal 

 is dangerous.' This baboon, native in West 

 Africa, from Senegambia to the Congo, pre- 

 sents a remarkable appearance from its un- 

 gainly form and strange coloration. Its body 

 is stoutly built, with short powerful limbs and 

 massive head sloping from the occiput to the 

 muzzle; the ears are small and triangular, and 

 the large circular nostrils pig-like in having a 

 raised border. No other baboon shows such 

 striking color contrasts; the fur is blackish 

 olive, the nose red, and on each side of the 

 face are large transverse sausage-shaped swell- 

 ings of a light blue tint with the grooves be- 

 tween them deep purple; the beard is citron 

 yellow, and the seat pads are scarlet. No 

 large mandrill has been exhibited in the gar- 

 dens for nearly thirty years ; in 1878 a female 

 in the collection produced a hybrid young one 

 to a male macaque (Macacus cynomolgiis). 

 A young Kashmir stag (Cervus cashmirianus) 

 has been presented by the Duke of Bedford, 

 from the herd at Woburn, and placed in the 

 deer sheds. Only once before has the species 

 been representd in the collection, and from 

 the official catalogue that appears to have 

 been so long ago as 1865. This deer is some- 

 what larger than the red deer; dark reddish 

 brown above, lighter beneath and the rump 

 patch dirty white. There is no cup in the 

 antlers, and the tines on each side are nor- 

 mally five, though eight have been noted in 

 Mr. Rowland Ward's ' Records of Big Game.' 

 In the pairing season old stags squeal like 

 wapiti instead of roaring like red deer, and 

 the spotting in the fawns persists much longer 

 than it does in fawns of the last-named spe- 

 cies. Captain Pam has once more presented 

 a fine collection of South American birds, 

 principally tanagers and finches, most of 

 which are now on view in the insect-house. 

 The only species determined as new to the 



