Apbil 22, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



679 



botany for the summer of 1904. As in pre- 

 vious years, provision is made for the accom- 

 modation of investigators, no fee being 

 charged to those who do independent v^ork, 

 but each investigator being expected to fur- 

 nish his own microscope or any special ap- 

 paratus required unless otherwise arranged. 

 The laboratory building completed last sum- 

 mer is beautifully located on Cedar Point 

 across the bay from Sandusky and furnishes 

 very advantageous opportunities for study and 

 research. Persons enrolled at the laboratory 

 are given free transportation on the steamers 

 of the Cedar Point Resort Company. This 

 makes it very convenient to visit neighboring 

 localities and permits a wide choice in living. 

 The enrolment for last summer included 

 teachers and students from a number of col- 

 leges and universities, chiefly in the central 

 states. Announcements and full information 

 may be secured from the director, Professor 

 Herbert Osborn, Ohio State University, Co- 

 lumbus, Ohio. 



The magnetograph records of the Magnetic 

 Observatory of the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey, situated at Cheltenham, Maryland, showed 

 effects apparently to be attributed to two 

 recent earthquakes, one of which occurred in 

 the state of Washington and in British Colum- 

 bia on the night of March 16, and the other in 

 New England, in the early morning of March 

 21. The curve showing the variations of the 

 magnetic declination revealed three faint but 

 distinct seismic disturbances on March 16 at 

 101153™, 101159m, 231103m P.M., eastern time, 

 the first being the most pronounced. On 

 March 21, the same curve showed a very plain 

 seismic disturbance at 11^08™, eastern time. 

 The times m both instances are in fair agree- 

 ment with the reported times in the news- 

 papers. In neither instance were the hori- 

 zontal and vertical intensity curves affected. 



The Canadian Government has purchased 

 for $75,000 the steamer Gauss, which was built 

 three years ago for the German Antarctic ex- 

 pedition at a cost of $125,000. She is to be 

 commanded by Captain Bernier, and will be 

 employed at once in conveying relief stores 

 and coal to the government steamer Neptune, 

 at present wintering in Hudson Bay. Sub- 



sequently she will be engaged in survey work 

 on the coast of Labrador. It is said that Cap- 

 tain Bernier hopes to be able to utilize the 

 Gauss in 1905 in an attempt to reach the 

 North Pole from Canada. 



The directors of the Manchester Chamber of 

 Commerce have resolved to urge upon the city 

 corporation that in the interest of the general 

 wellbeing of the district a municipal indus- 

 trial and commercial museum should be estab- 

 lished and constantly replenished for the pur- 

 pose of exhibiting permanently the raw ma- 

 terials and manufactures of British Colonies, 

 India, and foreign countries. Such an insti- 

 tution they regard as an invaluable means of 

 instruction as to the requirements and eco- 

 nomic situation of other countries, and as an 

 authoritative source of information as to the 

 customs and habits of their peoples. 



A CORRESPONDENT Writes to the London 

 Times that it is officially announced that the 

 secretary of state for India has sanctioned the 

 decision of the government of India to estab- 

 lish an agricultural research station, with an 

 experimental farm and an agricultural college, 

 at Pusa, in the Darbhangali district of Bengal, 

 and to devote to the purpose the donation re- 

 cently entrusted to the Viceroy by Mr. Henry 

 Phipps for some object of public utility, pref- 

 erably for scientific research. The farm is 

 to serve as a model for similar institutions 

 under provincial governments, some of the ex- 

 isting institutions being in need of improve- 

 ment. Lines of experiment are to be initiated 

 and tested before being recommended for trial 

 under local conditions on the provincial farms ; 

 seed of improved varieties will be grown for 

 distribution in the different provinces ; results 

 reported from other farms will be tested; sci- 

 entific research work will be carried on; and 

 practical training will be given to students 

 at the college, which is to be known as the 

 Imperial Agricultural College. The students' 

 course will be one of five years, and it will 

 be open to young men from all parts of India. 

 The government will look to the institution to 

 provide them with teachers of agricultural 

 subjects, with managers of experimental or 

 demonstration farms, and with officers of the 

 Court of Wards. At the same time the trained 



