382 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 297. 



gations. The vessel herself, the Michael Bars, 

 has been constructed in Norway on the lines of 

 an English steam trawler — that type of boat 

 being regarded as the most seaworthy and suit- 

 able for such an expedition — but considerably 

 larger, being 132 feet in length, 23 feet beam, 

 and fitted with triple expansion engines of 

 300 horse-power. The fishing gear includes, 

 inter alia, trawlSj nets, and lines of all kinds, 

 with massive steel hawsers and powerful steam 

 winches to work the heavy apparatus, while 

 the numerous scientific instruments are of the 

 very best and latest description. The expedi- 

 tion left Christiana in the middle of July, on 

 what may be termed its trial trip along the 

 Norwegian coast (accompanied for part of the 

 time by Dr. Nansen, who was desirous of test- 

 ing various instruments in which he had made 

 improvements), and has just sailed from Tromso 

 on a lengthy cruise to the North Atlantic and 

 Arctic Oceans. Dr. Hjort has already 'added 

 so much to the knowledge of pelagic fishes, 

 their life, habits, and the causes affecting their 

 migrations, that, with the means now at his 

 disposal, a considerable amount of valuable in- 

 formation will probably be gained which will 

 prove of service to the fishing industry of all 

 nations. 



The Queen Regent of Spain has signed a de- 

 cree establishing the method of accounting time 

 in the kingdom as follows : 



(1) In all railway, mail (including telegraph), 

 telephone, and steamship service in the Peninsula 

 and the Ballearic Islands, and in all the ministerial 

 oifices, the courts, and all public works, time shall be 

 regulated by the time of the Greenwich Observatory, 

 commonly known as western European time. 



(2) The computation of the hours in the above-men- 

 tioned services will be made from the hour of mid- 

 night to the following midnight in hours from 1 to 

 24, omitting the words tarde (afternoon) and noohe 

 (night), heretofore in customary use. 



(3) The hour of midnight will be designated as 24. 



(4) The interval, for instance, between midnight 

 (24) and 1 o'clock will be designated as 0.05, 0.10, 

 0.59. 



The report of the Zoological Gardens of 

 Ghizeh, near Cairo, for the year 1899 is sum- 

 marized in Nature. Under its present director, 

 Captain Stanley Flower, it has become a popu- 

 lar place of resort for the European visitors to 



Egypt, as well as for the Cairenes. The re- 

 ceipts for 1899 were 3033?., of which 968?. were 

 for gate-entrances, and the expenditure was 

 3019Z. The list of donors includes many well- 

 known names, amongst them those of Sir 

 William Garstin, Prince Omar Tousson, Sir F. 

 Wingate and Lord Kitchener. The govern- 

 ment of India presented an elephant. Various 

 new buildings were erected, and others were 

 reconstructed in 1899. The number of animals 

 in the collection on October 1st of that year was 

 473, against 270 at the corresponding date in 

 1898. A list of wild birds that inhabit the 

 Ghizeh Gardens, and in many cases breed there, 

 enumerates nineteen species, amongst which is 

 the European song-thrush (Turdus irmsicus). 

 Two proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatiis), pre- 

 sented by the government of the Netherlands, 

 East Indies, unfortunately did not live long. 

 Since the report was issued Captain Flower has 

 succeeded in bringing to the Ghizeh Gardens 

 from the Sudan a fine young giraffe, presented 

 by the Sirdar. 



A COEKESPONDENT Writes to the London 

 Times: At this week's meeting of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society a fruit was exhibited for 

 the first time which bids fair to become very 

 useful. From a botanical point of view also it 

 is of considerable interest, the plant bearing it 

 being a hybrid between the raspberry and the 

 common blackberry. As the ' Mahdi, ' as it has 

 been called, was raised by Messrs. Veitch, its 

 origin is well authenticated, the seed parent 

 being a variety of the raspberry known as 

 'Belle de Fontenay.' The same cannot be 

 said for the Logan berry trailing from the 

 other side of the Atlantic, for which a some- 

 what similar parentage has been claimed. A 

 high authority, however, is of opinion that 

 the raspberry plays no part in its composition, 

 and that both its parents were an American 

 species of Ruhus instead of only one. The 

 ' Mahdi ' has very much the habit of the black- 

 berry, and in cultivation it is trained in the 

 same way. Its fruit recalls to some extent the 

 dewberry of our hedges. There is the same 

 bloom, but the number of fruitlets is greater. 

 Careful scrutiny will reveal many intermediate 

 characters ; the taste of the ' berry ' combines 

 a preponderant flavor of the dewberry with a 



