974 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 312. 



ranged, the Duke of the Abruzzi would be 

 pleased to give the Society an account of his 

 expedition in the course of the session. The 

 Danish expedition to East Greenland had also 

 returned, after successfully continuing the work 

 of Dr. Nathorst last year, while a Norwegian 

 whaler was able to follow the coast of 75° 80' N. 

 Thus the dotted line which had so long indi- 

 cated the supposed position of the East Green- 

 land coast on our maps would now give place 

 to a definite surveyed line, thanks chieflj' to 

 the persevering efforts of Danish geographers 

 and explorers since the days of Graah. News 

 of the expeditions of Sverdrup and Peary up 

 Smith Sound was still anxiously awaited. The 

 Windward went out to bring them succor, but 

 she had not yet returned. The two recent ex- 

 peditions to the Antarctic regions had both 

 supplied us with valuable information. The 

 British Antarctic expedition was now, at last, 

 making progress as regards equipment and 

 other arrangements. The ship was in an ad- 

 vanced state. Captain Scott, R.N., the com- 

 mander of expedition, was only able to take 

 charge last August, but he had already shown 

 that he possessed many of those qualities which 

 were essential for so difficult and responsible 

 a post. The German expedition was far more 

 advanced than the British in every department 

 of its work, under the direction of its able and 

 accomplished commander, von Drygalski ; but 

 this was because his committees had seen the 

 wisdom of giving him a perfectly free hand. 

 The commanders of the two expeditions had 

 had an opportunity of becoming friends and of 

 exchanging views during the autumn, and 

 Captain Scott, if not too much trammelled 

 by committees, would soon make up for lost 

 time. Dr. Sven Hedin had during the past 

 year been actively at work in the Lob-nor 

 country and the basin of the Tarim, and his 

 archeological dif^overies would throw a flood 

 of light on the past history of that region. 

 In Africa the greatest amount of geographical 

 work had been done this year. But a review 

 of it must, alas ! commence with a reference to 

 the loss of a valued explorer. It was only last 

 session that Captain Wellby's father read the 

 account of his gallant son's splendid geograph- 

 ical achievement in marching from Abyssinia to 



the Nile. All would remember how thgy looked 

 forward to welcoming him on his return from 

 the front. Now that could never be. Captain 

 Wellby had fallen fighting for his country. It 

 was a glorious death, fitting close of an adven- 

 turous and active life. We were left to mourn 

 the death of a young officer who was a great 

 explorer and an ornament to the army. His 

 noble example had been followed by others ; 

 for there had been remarkable activity in the 

 exploration of Africa this year. Major Gibbons 

 had followed Mr. Grogan from the Cape to 

 Cairo. Mr. Moore had returned after his im- 

 portant investigation of the Central African 

 lakes. Mr. Harrison had brought home an ad- 

 mirable map of the region between Lake Ru- 

 dolf and Adis Abeba. The Society's gold med- 

 alist, M. Foreau, had safely returned after his 

 wonderful journey across the Sahara, of which 

 he had promised to send some account. Last, 

 but certainly not least. Dr. Donaldson Smith, 

 who was an old friend and known to all from 

 his previous work, had made very remarkable 

 journeys, involving new discoveries between 

 Lake Rudolf and the Nile. He was glad to 

 learn that serious steps had been taken under 

 the Intelligence Department to carry out ad- 

 ministrative surveys of all those territories in 

 Africa which were directly dependent on the 

 home Government, and that in conjunction 

 with the other European powers which had 

 African possessions. 



Artists and art critics often claim that mod- 

 ern industrial conditions are unfavorable to the 

 fine arts. In order to show that a more correct 

 view is held in some quarters we quote the fol- 

 lowing note from the New York Evening Post: 

 M. Arsene Alexandre, the well-known critic 

 of art, discovered the much-talked-of art 

 moderne, at the Paris Exposition, where one 

 would least expect it to be — in the exhibit of 

 locomotives. What appeared in a novel and 

 striking light was not merely that these great 

 machines had a beauty of line and proportion all 

 their own, but that they showed a distinct 

 beauty of racial type. The national character 

 was clearly marked, in an American locomotive 

 as distinguished from a French, a German or an 

 English locomotive, and so of each as I'egarded 

 the others. The critic found in the American 



