290 
and surveys in Alaska were made for this pur- 
pose. Mr. R. A. Fessenden contributes an 
article to the Electrical World raising the ques- 
tion of reviving the plan for such a telegraph 
line. He maintains that commerce with the 
East would justify the cost and that high speed 
systems of telegraphy would give it a great 
advantage over sub-marine cables even in com- 
munication between America and EKurope. 
THE Appalachian Mountain Club of Boston, 
has arranged an excursion to the Isle of Shoals, 
N. H., leaving Boston by special car at 9:40 a. m. 
on September 4th, returning on September 7th. 
Iv is reported that the biological expedition 
of Columbia University returning from Alaska 
lost its specimens and instruments in the wreck 
of the steamship Mexico. It was also reported 
that the anthropological expedition of the Field 
Columbia Museum had lost the extensive col- 
lections secured in Alaska, but this appears to 
be incorrect. 
Ir is stated in the Scientific American that Mr. 
H. P. Flower, Mayor of New Orleans, has just 
returned from Paris, where he went in order to 
study the Bertillon system for the identification 
of criminals. The system will be adopted in 
New Orleans, and will be taught to the police 
captains by Mr. Flower. 
WE recorded last spring the sale of a great 
auk’s egg for £294. Though the subiect has, 
perhaps, no greater scientific interest than that 
of the sale of a rare postage stamp, it may 
be noticed that another of the eggs, slightly 
cracked, has been sold in London for £168. 
The purchaser, Mr. Middlebrook, has now three 
specimens in his collection. 
THE recent French motor-car race from Paris 
to Dieppe showed an advance, in that the car- 
riages were not entered by the makers, but by 
the owners. Fifty-nine carriages started, the 
winner traversing the distance of ninety-three 
and three-fourths miles in scarcely more than 
four hours. There was only one steam-carriage 
and none with electrical motor, oil being used 
in fifty-eight of the fifty-nine carriages. 
THE issue of the Scientific American for Au- 
gust 7th very properly criticises another jour- 
nal for publishing a story about an English 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. VI. No. 138. 
lady who lost her diamond ring in the dough 
of a cake and found it by means of X-rays, re- 
marking that ‘‘this very improbable story 
doubtless originated in the brain of some re- 
porter.’’ It happens, however, that a few pages 
further on in the same issue the Scientific 
American publishes a long article translated 
from a French illustrated journal on the X-rays 
in the custom house. The article contains 
elaborate illustrations of the radioscopic exami- 
nation of a valise, of the detection of a smug- 
gler, etc. The facts of the matter are that M. 
Pallin, the Director of Customs, has considered 
the possibility of using X-rays in certain special 
cases, but the detailed accounts and the alleged 
photographs of the article evidently ‘ originated 
in the brain of some reporter.’ 
JAcosp NortH & Company, Lincoln, Neb., 
announce that they have in press the Phyto- 
geography of Nebraska, by Dr. Roscoe Pound, 
Director of the Biological Survey of Nebraska, 
and Mr. F. E. Clements, assistant instructor 
in botany in the University of Nebraska. Itis 
the first volume of a series intended to present 
in a number of volumes the results of the in- 
vestigation of the floral covering of Nebraska, 
which has been in progress for the past five 
years in the Botanical Survey of that State. 
The volume deals primarily with phytogeo- 
graphical problems in Nebraska, but gives a 
general treatment of the phytogeographical 
principles relating to distributional statistics, 
regional limitation, vegetation forms, habitat 
groups, plant formations, ete. 
A CIRCULAR has been issued announcing a 
journal entitled Intermédiare des biologistes, in 
tended to be an international organ for zoology, 
botany, physiology and psychology. The 
journal will be edited by M. Alfred Binet, the 
well-known French psychologist, with the help 
of two of his psychological assistants, MM. Vic- 
tor Henri and N. Vaschide, and will be pub- 
lished on the 5th and 20th of each month by 
Schleicher Fréres, Paris. The date when the 
publication will begin and the price are not 
given. The journal proposes to cover six de- 
partments: A bulletin of notes and news, ques- 
tions and answers, abstracts, preliminary no- 
tices, one short original article and new ap- 
paratus. 
