OCTOBEE 12, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



573 



pany grew in ten years from a system of 739 

 exchanges and 411,861 instruments to one of 

 1,239 exchanges and 1,847,000 instruments with 

 over a million miles of wire in service. Mr. 

 Hudson was a man of wide scientific and liter- 

 ary culture, having been tutor in Greek at 

 Harvard University. 



The death is announced of Miss Margaret 

 Stokes a distinguished Irish archeologist and 

 the author of numerous antiquarian works. 



Professor George Frederick Wright and 

 his son, Fred. B. Wright, were in the midst of 

 the troubles in China, and scientific men will 

 be glad to learn that they have so far escaped 

 unharmed. On May 5th they started on a three 

 weeks' trip from Peking to Kalgan. That 

 brought them back to Peking just as the Boxer 

 movement culminated ; but they left the city, 

 in pursuance of regular plans one day before 

 the gates were closed, and were in Tien-Tsin 

 from the 26th to the 30th. On June 5th they 

 had reached Port Arthur, and on the 6th took 

 one of the construction trains of the Chinese 

 Eastern Railroad. By train and Chinese cart 

 they made their way to Harbin, Manchuria ; 

 and then down the Sungaree and Amoor rivers 

 to Vladivostok. On July 10th they left Vladi- 

 vostok, expecting to make good time to Chita 

 if the boat did not stick on some sand bar 

 in the river. At Poyakova, East Siberia, 

 however, they had to exchange boat for tar- 

 antass and horses. After an exciting ride 

 through deserted and burning villages they 

 reached Blagovyeschensk at the middle of July 

 to find it in a state of siege. On the 25th of 

 July they were able to take passage on the re- 

 turn trip of a steamer that had come down 

 to within twenty miles of Blagovyeschensk. 

 With many delays on account of shallow 

 water, they made their way up the Amoor 

 and Shilka rivers to Stretinsk. At that 

 point the Siberian railroad was taken to 

 Chita and on to Lake Baikal. There a 

 small steamer transferred them to the western 

 side of the lake, where they again took train to 

 Irkoutsk. The next stop was at Krasnoyarsk, 

 on the Yenisei River. An interesting trip was 

 taken up the river to Minusinsk, where there 

 is a large museum of historical and arche- 



ological interest. Returning to Krasnoyarsk 

 they continued their railroad journey to Omsk, 

 at which point they were heard from Septem- 

 ber 6th. Their plans for the future were to go 

 by boat up the Irtish river to Semipalatinsk, 

 where they will have a chance to visit the foot 

 of the Alti Mountains. Then they will go by 

 tarantass and horses to Tashkend, where they 

 will strike the Trans-Caspian railroad, which 

 runs through Samarkand and Merv to the 

 Caspian Sea. Baku and Trebizond will be the 

 next stopping places. After a visit to Moscow 

 and St. Petersburg, they expect to return to 

 Constantinople and continue their trip through 

 Palestine and Egypt, reaching home by way 

 of Italy, in March. 



The steamship WindioarA has not returned 

 as had been expected, and it is suggested that 

 Lieutenant Peary may have used the boat to 

 Ijush farther north as the season is supposed to 

 have been an open one. 



Lieutenant Amdrup's Greenland expedi- 

 tion has returned on board the Antarctic. 

 The members of the expedition explored and 

 mapped a hitherto unknown stretch of land ex- 

 tending from Cape Town, latitude 69 degrees 

 28 minutes north, to Agasis Land, 67 degrees 

 22 minutes north. 



Messrs. C. H. Tyler Townsend and Charles 

 Melvin Barbar made between the last of May 

 and the first of November, 1899, extensive col- 

 lections of plants on the Sierra Madres, in the 

 State of Chihuahua, just east of the little Mor- 

 mon town of Colonia Garciti, at altitudes vary- 

 ing from 7,000 to about 8,500 feet above the sea 

 level. About 40 numbers were collected in the 

 ' hot country ' some distance down the Pacific 

 slope of the range, and a few on the plains east 

 of the mountains. An attempt was made to 

 collect thirty sets, but the material will not run 

 evenly through that many. 452 numbers in all 

 were taken. The material is well dried and 

 altogether very fair, and is supplied with printed 

 labels. Something over 250 numbers have been 

 identified at the present time, of which Professor 

 E. L. Greene has named the Composiise, Mimvli 

 and Loti ; Dr. J. N. Rose, the Umbelliferse and 

 Commelinacess ; Dr. B. L. Robinson, the Crnci- 

 ferse and Caryophyllaceie ; Mr. E. P. Bicknell, 



