October 15, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



525 



has rather steadily advanced from below 13 

 cents to about 20 cents a pound, the highest 

 price reached since 1907. With the increase 

 in demand, and the advance in price, there has 

 been a corresponding steady increase in the 

 production of the metal and at the present 

 time most of the larger producers have brought 

 their output to normal, while many of the 

 smaller producers have resumed operations. 

 The output of copper has also probably nearly 

 or quite reached the normal. Wages have been 

 raised in the camps where reduction had taken 

 place and the industry in general is in a 

 highly prosperous condition. 



In his last report to the Union government 

 of South Africa, as we learn from Nature^ the 

 secretary for agriculture points out that the 

 difficulty of procuring good men to fill the 

 scientific and administrative posts in the de- 

 partment, which has been commented on be- 

 fore, continues. Men of moderate attainments 

 are plentiful and easy to obtain, but good men 

 are more in request than ever. It also appears 

 as if men who are really worth having, and 

 therefore usually in a position to choose, pre- 

 fer to work in universities and other learned 

 institutions which are independent or semi- 

 independent of government control, or engage 

 in business on their own account, rather than 

 in government departments, as in the former 

 they have more scope and freedom of action 

 and have not to waste time by furnishing 

 multitudes of returns and continually ex- 

 plaining and demonstrating the necessity for 

 their existence. Seeing that the value of the 

 department to the country depends in the first 

 instance entirely upon the quality of its pro- 

 fessional and administrative officers, this is a 

 very serious matter. Efforts are being made 

 to overcome the difficulty of obtaining profes- 

 sional and technical officers by giving scholar- 

 ships to likely young men to .study at institu- 

 tions abroad, at which they can get the best 

 training obtainable in their particular sub- 

 jects. The course of study is usually a four 

 years' one, and a number of scholars have al- 

 ready returned and been drafted into the de- 

 partment. It is considered that this is one of 

 the best methods of obtaining ofiicers for the 



department, but it may not entirely suffice, 

 and from time to time officers will have to be 

 appointed from wherever they are obtainable, 

 as at present. 



A REPORT of the chief commonwealth rail- 

 way engineer, gives some details of the prog- 

 ress of construction of the east-to-west trans- 

 continental railway of Australia, according to 

 an abstract in the Geographical Journal. It 

 states that the western Australian division 

 survey is complete, and the route has been 

 permanently located to 280 miles. Thence to 

 the border the permanent survey will proceed 

 in advance of plate-laying. The South Aus- 

 tralian survey is complete. It is estimated 

 that the rails will be laid throughout before 

 the end of next year, although the rate of 

 progress will be reduced by the very heavy 

 earthworks soon to be taken in hand in the 

 South Australian section. During the three 

 months preceding the date of the report 240 

 miles had been laid. The line is to be ballasted 

 throughout, and arrangements had been made 

 to select quarry sites and erect the necessary 

 plant for rock-crushing. In view of the scanty 

 water-supply on the route, reservoirs have to 

 be provided at various points, and several are 

 in course of construction. They include one 

 at Karonia, W.A. (late Cardonia), with an 

 approximate capacity of 7,000,000 gallons; one 

 at Bookloo, S.A. (6,000,000 gallons) ; and one 

 each at Windabout and Eucla (5,000,000 gal- 

 lons). Boring operations have been carried on 

 in both divisions. 



Radium deposits, the wearing away of the 

 land by the sea, the make-up of the upper 

 part of the earth's crust at various places, the 

 development of mountain ranges, and the 

 origin of dolomitic limestone are some of the 

 subjects discussed in a volume recently pub- 

 lished by the Geological Survey entitled 

 " Shorter Contributions to General Geology, 

 1914." In former years the announcement of 

 incidental discoveries made by geologists in 

 connection with the study of their main prob- 

 lems has awaited the preparation of extended 

 reports on those problems, but by a plan which 

 has recently been put into operation by the 

 United States Geological Survey such minor 



