592 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 826 



and mammals of ISTortli America. The Audu- 

 boniana of the Wade collection consist of five 

 original drawings of John J. Audubon and 

 seventy-three of his autograph letters, written 

 chiefly to Dr. John Bachman. There are a 

 few letters of Mrs. Audubon, one of her son, 

 John W. Audubon and sixty letters of another 

 son, Victor G. Audubon. Some of the letters 

 of Audubon and of Wilson are without doubt 

 unpublished. 



The annual report of the Board of Scien- 

 tific Advice for India for 1908-09 is abstracted 

 in the Geographical Journal. Mr. Gilbert T. 

 Walker, director-general of observations, con- 

 tributes three reports on researches in solar 

 physics, meteorology and terrestrial magnet- 

 ism. The geological chapter by Sir Thomas 

 H. Holland, director of the Geological Survey, 

 covers fifty pages. Under the head of miner- 

 alogy is noticed the discovery of several new 

 varieties and species of minerals character- 

 ized by the presence of manganese in small or 

 large quantities. Among economic inquiries 

 importance attaches to Mr. Murray Stuart's 

 discovery of kaolin in the Eajmahal hills, 

 suitable for the manufacture of china and 

 porcelain. In one locality the quality of the 

 clay is good, strongly resembling the Cornish 

 china clays, and the quantity, speaking from 

 a manufacturer's point of view, is unlimited. 

 In three of the coalfields in these hills Mr. 

 Murray Stuart lighted on some deposits of 

 excellent fire-clay. These are, however, diffi- 

 cult of access at present and not very large. 

 Under the head of Geological Surveys there 

 is a variety of work achieved by Dr. Pilgrim 

 in Baluchistan and Mr. Middlemiss and Mr. 

 Datta in Kashmir and the Central Provinces. 

 The report on geography and geodesy contains 

 a brief review of Dr. Stein's and surveyors 

 Ram Singh and Lai Singh's surveys in Chin- 

 ese Turkistan and Kansu. The invar wire 

 measiiring apparatus ordered from Paris has 

 been received, and an alley 97 feet in length 

 is now being constructed in the grounds of the 

 Trigonometrical Survey Office, in which a base 

 24 meters long will be laid down. The base 

 will be laid out by means of the new 4-meter 

 invar standard bar, now being manufactured 



at Geneva. In each of the end walls a fric- 

 tionless pulley will be fixed, over which the 

 wire to be tested will be strained. During 

 1908-09 four detachments were employed on 

 principal triangulation, and in consequence 

 the additions made to the Geodetic Survey 

 have again been large. In all a length of 270 

 miles of triangulation covering an area of 

 9,600 square miles has been added. The dis- 

 tricts in which the detachments were at work 

 were northern Baluchistan, Shan States 

 (Burma) and Kashmir. In May, 1908, Lieut. 

 Oakes- commenced the northern Baluchistan 

 series, starting from the Kalat longitudinal 

 series, and, working along the meridian 66° 

 31' E., carried the new series northwards to 31° 

 N. Hence onward the series will take an 

 easterly direction, following as closely as pos- 

 sible the Afghan-Baluchistan frontier, and 

 eventually closing on the great Indus Series. 

 Mr. Tresham and Lieutenant Cardew con- 

 tinued this work, the latter executing 50 miles 

 of triangulation enclosing an area of 1,900 

 square miles. In Burma, Captain Browne 

 continued the Great Salwen Series, carrying 

 the new triangulation forward for a distance 

 of 120 miles, a small outturn due to the mon- 

 soon rains, heavy mists and, later on in 

 March, dust haze, which compelled a stoppage 

 of the work. In Kashmir Mr. de Graaf 

 Hunter has started a new series which 

 emanates from the northwest Himalaya 

 Series. 



The U. S. Department of Agriculture esti- 

 mates that the farmers of the single state of 

 Iowa use every year $1,400,000 worth of new 

 fence posts, which cost the equivalent of $600,- 

 000 for setting them in the ground. Purther, 

 the department officials believe that a part of 

 this expenditure might be saved. The oppor- 

 tunity for economy is found, first, in using 

 the kinds of posts which, taking into account 

 both cost and durability, are cheapest in the 

 long run, and, secondly, by treating the posts 

 to prevent decay, particularly those which 

 decay most quickly. When a farmer sets a 

 post which will have a comparatively short 

 life, he loses not only through having to buy 

 a new post but also because of the additional 



