930 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 311. 



the South American continent about where 

 there is now the Amazonas valley, we should 

 still have a communication between both oceans 

 within the tropics. Just this kind of connection 

 is demanded by the facts that have led to the 

 assumption of an interruption of the isthmus of 

 Panama. 



The former connection of v. Ihering's Archi- 

 plata with a supposed Antarctic continent is no 

 new theory, but goes back, in this form, as far 

 as Riitimeyer (1867), and I have no doubt 

 that we should accept it.* But we hardly can 

 accept it in the shape of Forbes' ' Antarctica ' 

 (1893). This huge continental mass is simply 

 impossible, and Professor Osborn (Science, 

 April 13, 1900) has very properly tried to re- 

 strict it to a reasonable size ; but I think we 

 should still more contract its boundaries. In 

 this respect I should follow Hedley'sf views, 

 who practically, but without giving a map, 

 accepts the limits of the present Antarctic 

 continent (as defined by Enderby, Wilke's, 

 Victoria and Graham Land), with only such 

 extensions as are absolutely necessary to con- 

 nect it with the present southern continents. 

 A. E. Ortmann. 



Peinceton TJniveesity, 

 Deo. 7, 1900. 



THE LONGEST AERIAL VOYAGE. 



To THE Editor of Science : The oflBcial re- 

 port just received of the long-distance balloon 

 race from Paris on October 9th, changes some- 

 what the figures on page 799 of Science, 

 which were those furnished to the press. It 

 appears now that Count de La Vaulx and a 

 companion traveled 1,200 miles in 35 hours 

 and 45 minutes in the basket of a balloon con- 

 taining only 57,000 cubic feet of illuminating 

 gas. They reached a maximum height of 

 three and a half miles, crossed Germany and 

 landed in Russia, as did another of the con- 

 testants. This is probably the longest con- 

 tinuous voyage in the air ever made, although 

 it was nearly equaled forty years ago by our 



* An historical account of the different theories ad- 

 vanced for the explanation of the relations of the 

 southern fannas, and a classification of them, will 

 shortly be published in the A7nerican Naturalist. 



tProc. Roy. Soc. N. s. Wales, 1895, August 7th. 



countryman, John Wise, who, with two com- 

 panions, went by balloon in 19 hours from St. 

 Louis to Jefferson County, New York, a dis- 

 tance of 1,150 miles. 



It is evident that, under the management of 

 an aeronaut, a balloon can be kept longer in 

 the air than an unmanned balloon, but, never- 

 theless, a balloon of 8,700 cubic feet capacity, 

 carrying only self-recording instruments, which 

 was liberated from Berlin in 1894, after attain- 

 ing a height of ten miles was carried 700 

 miles to the borders of Bosnia, at a speed of 

 62 miles an hour. Still more remarkable, in 

 its way, was the flight of a pair of kites last 

 summer from the Royal Aeronautical Observa- 

 tory near Berlin. Five kites, which had lifted 

 self-recording meteorological instruments to a 

 height of two and a half miles, broke the wire 

 that confined them to the ground and the two 

 upper kites dragged it across the country for 

 nearly a hundred miles before they were finally 

 checked, the trailing wire, two miles in length, 

 furnishing sufiicient resistance to keep the kites 

 flying throughout the night. 



A. Lawhencb Rotch. 



Blub Hill MEXEOEOLoaicAL Obskevatoet, 

 November 30, 1900. 



' THE criminal, HIS PERSONNEL AND ENVIRON- 

 MENT. ' 



To The Editor of Science : Disclaiming in 

 any sense to answer the attack upon my re- 

 cently published book, ' The Criminal, his Per- 

 sonnel and Environment,' emanating from the 

 pen of Mr. Havelock Ellis and published in 

 your valued journal of the 19th inst. , I never- 

 theless deem it but justice to myself to ask 

 of my critic a verification of the assertion 

 therein made, that : ' ' When he (the author) 

 mentions authorities he is unable in o large 

 proportion of cases even to spell their names " (the 

 italics and parentheses are my own). Now, 

 as I happen to cite a very large number of 

 names, and while fully conscious of my liability 

 to err, the charge is an exceedingly broad, if 

 not hazardous one, which, if failing to sub- 

 stantiate, will lay my critic open to a grave 

 counter-charge. I respectfully challenge Mr. 

 Ellis to make good his proofs, which, if true, 

 may readily be done. In the event of his ina- 



