October 24, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



679 



dition in tlie ship Valdivia to the Scottish 

 National Antarctic Expedition. The expedi- 

 tion has also been presented by the Belgian 

 government with the official reports of the 

 Belgian Antarctic Expedition. 



The Twentieth Congress of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union will convene in Wash- 

 ington, D. C, on Monday, November 17, at 8 

 o'clock P.M. The evening session will be de- 

 voted to the election of officers and members 

 and the transaction of other routine business. 

 The meetings, open to the public and devoted 

 to the reading and discussion of scientific 

 papers, will be held in the United States Na- 

 tional Museum, beginning on Tuesday, No- 

 vember 18, at 11 A.M., and continuing for 

 three days. 



We learn from the London Times that the 

 government of India is about to form a 

 board of scientific advice, comprising the 

 heads of the meteorological, geological, botan- 

 ical, forest, survey, agricultural, and veterin- 

 ary departments, and other scientific officers 

 of special attainments. This board is to pre- 

 pare every year a general program of research, 

 and a report describing what has been done. 

 The main object of the scheme is to promote 

 the economic development of the country. 

 The resolution mentions the various scientific 

 officers appointed in recent years, and says that 

 the development of machinery in the differ- 

 ent departments has rendered more essential 

 than ever the coordination of scientific inquiry. 

 Experiments and investigations of a similar 

 or cognate character are being independently 

 carried on — chemistry, economic entomology, 

 and economic botany are given as examples — 

 and this should be prevented. Further, it is 

 expected that the board will check a natural 

 tendency on the part of the government scien- 

 tific officers to give the claims of abstract 

 science precedence over the demands of eco- 

 nomic or applied science, which are of more 

 practical importance. The Indian govern- 

 ment, it is pointed out, owns the largest landed 

 estate in the world, and the prosperity of the 

 country is mainly dependent upon agriculture; 

 hence practical research is the predominant 

 consideration. The board will also act as 

 advisers to the government. 



An account of the operations carried out 

 during the first season by the French expedi- 

 tion for the re-measurement of an arc of the 

 meridian in Ecuador was lately communicated 

 to the Paris Geographical Society by M. Bour- 

 geois, head of the survey party, whose paper 

 is printed in La Geographie. According to an 

 abstract in the Geographical Journal the mis- 

 sion reached Guayaquil in June of last year, 

 and the difficult task then conunenced of 

 transporting the whole impedimenta of the 

 expedition, weighing in all some ten tons, by 

 the primitive mule-paths which still form, for 

 the greater part of the distance, the only 

 means of communication between the coast 

 and the elevated ' Inter- Andine ' region, in 

 which the operations were to be carried on. 

 Here the first place visited was Eiobamba, 

 where, during a stay of three months, the pri- 

 mary work of measuring a base-line and carry- 

 ing out determinations of latitude, longitude 

 and azimuth was satisfactorily accomplished. 

 The base-line chosen measured some 6 miles, 

 and such was the precision with which the 

 measurement was effected that the two sepa- 

 rate results differed only by 7 mm., or a quar- 

 ter of an inch. When this had been done, the 

 expedition divided, one part continuing the 

 triangulation in the neighborhood of Eiobam- 

 ba, while the other measured a subsidiary base 

 north of Quito, and determined the latitude 

 of the northern extremity of the arc ; the same 

 being done for the southern extremity by an 

 officer despatched for that purpose to Peru. 

 During the stay at Tulcan, the northern sta- 

 tion on the Columbian frontier, violent earth- 

 quake shocks were experienced, the whole 

 region having been the scene of more than ordi- 

 nary manifestations of volcanic activity dur- 

 ing the last year. Eruptions both of Coto- 

 cachi, which had been regarded as extinct, 

 and of Cumbal, in the Colombian territory, 

 were observed. Although nominally Catho- 

 lics, the Indians of the Inter-Andine region 

 are very superstitious, and viewed the opera- 

 tions of the mission with great distrust, which 

 they even inanifested by acts of vandalism. 

 During M. Bourgeois's absence the operations 

 have been actively prosecuted under the direc- 

 tion of Captain Maurain. 



