July 15, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



79 



The London Times states that Captain 

 Scott's Antarctic ship Terra Nova left Ma- 

 deira on June 26 for Simonstown, where she 

 is due to arrive on August 1. Captain Scott, 

 accompanied by Mrs. Scott and Mr. Drake, 

 will sail from Southampton in the Saxon on 

 July 16, arriving at Cape Town the day after 

 the arrival in South Africa of the Terra Nova. 

 The vessel will sail from Cape Town on 

 August 9 for Melbourne, which port, after a 

 stay of a week, she will leave on September 

 20 for Sydney. There she will remain for ten 

 days, being due to reach Lyttelton on October 

 14. On November 15 she will set sail for the 

 Antarctic, and it is expected that she will 

 reach the base on King Edward VII. Land on 

 December 15. Captain Scott will make a stay 

 of about ten days in South Africa, having 

 arranged to sail from Cape Town in the 

 steamship Athenic on August 13. Of other 

 members of the expedition who are still in 

 this country Lieutenant Bruce leaves next 

 week for Vladivostok, where he will join Mr. 

 Meares, who has been collecting dogs and 

 ponies. Both will reach Kobe on August 6 

 en route for New Zealand. Mr. H. G. Pou- 

 ting, the photographer, will sail from London 

 in the India on August 12, reaching Sydney 

 on September 22. Mr. Day, with the motor 

 sledges, will leave England on August 4. Mr. 

 Borup, who was with Commander Peary, has 

 given Captain Scott three Eskimo dogs; and 

 Mr. G. F. Wyatt, of the expedition, will leave 

 on July 27 for New York, where he wiU pick 

 up the dogs and go to New Zealand via Van- 

 couver. 



The expedition sent by the committee of 

 the British Ornithologists' Union to explore 

 the snow mountains in Dutch New Guinea 

 has reached the field of its inquiries, and a 

 correspondent of the London Times says that 

 news has been received that it has made a dis- 

 covery which should prove of interest to an- 

 thropologists. At an elevation of about 2,000 

 feet they have come across a tribe of pygmy 

 people, the average height of whom is about 

 4 feet, 3 inches, and though at present no 

 definite details have been received, there can 

 be little doubt that they belong to that di- 



vision of the human race known as the Negri- 

 tos. The present discovery will account, it is 

 said, for the presence of various anomalous 

 races in the remoter parts of the Lesser 

 Sunda Islands. 



At Butte, Mont., and the Coeur d'Alenes 

 this summer groups of students from the min- 

 ing engineering class of the University of 

 Wisconsin who will enter the senior year next 

 fall are learning by personal experience what 

 constitutes a day's work in the mines, and 

 what are the habits and viewpoints of the 

 men with whom, as mining engineers, they 

 will have to deal in the future. The work of 

 the summer school in mining for students of 

 engineering covers six weeks, and is required 

 previous to their senior studies. A new ar- 

 rangement whereby separate squads go out to 

 the mining camps in various districts of the 

 country for field work, is providing a much 

 more effective method of preparing students 

 for the advanced work of the senior year than 

 the system previously in vogue, which in- 

 cluded much class work at the university. 

 Professor E. C. Holden, in charge of the min- 

 ing engineering work at Wisconsin, is spend- 

 ing the summer going from one mining camp 

 to another supervising the work of the stu- 

 dents, who wiU have four weeks of regular 

 underground work, and two weeks of inspec- 

 tion, sketching and taking field work. 



The Auh gives some details in regard to 

 the New York plumage bill, passed by the 

 legislature of that state at its last session and 

 signed by Governor Hughes. Some of the 

 special provisions enacted are : " No part of 

 the plumage, skin or body of any bird pro- 

 tected by this section [Sec. 98], or of any 

 birds coming from without the state, whether 

 belonging to the same or a different species 

 from that native to the state of New York, 

 provided such birds belong to the same family 

 as those protected by this chapter, shall be 

 sold or had in possession for sale. . . . Plumage 

 includes any part of the feathers, head, wings 

 or tail of any bird, and wherever the word oc- 

 curs in this chapter reference is had equally 

 to plumage of birds coming from without the 

 state, but it shall not be construed to apply 



