326 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 454. 



tions, many of the contributions deal with 

 highly technical subjects, Avhich the special- 

 ist alone can f uUy appreciate ; but mention 

 may be made of a paper on 'Comparison 

 of Terrestrial and Marine Fauna, ' by Pro- 

 fessor W. C. Mcintosh, and of another on 

 'Corals,' by Professor J. E. Duerdon, of 

 the University of North Carolina. 



The subject of the address which Cap- 

 tain Ettrick W. Creak, C.B., R.N., pro- 

 poses to deliver to Section E (geography), 

 in his capacity of president of the section, 

 is the connection between geography and 

 terrestrial magnetism. He will point out 

 that terrestrial magnetism is a subject of 

 vital importance to navigation, and of 

 growing interest to science, and after refer- 

 ring to the magnetic surveys of the globe 

 which have in the past been carried out by 

 land and sea, will direct attention to the 

 vast secular changes which are occurring 

 in the earth's magnetism, and insist on the 

 necessity for keeping our magnetic charts 

 up to date. He will then indicate the vast 

 land areas still unvisited by the magnetic 

 observer, in which travelers might find a 

 field for useful work, and will have some- 

 thing to §ay about the instruments which 

 should be employed. He will also refer to 

 the far more extensive areas of the globe 

 covered by water, in which practically no 

 magnetic observations have been made for 

 many years past, mainly owing to the lack 

 of suitable vessels. The scientific nature 

 of the presidential address is fully reflected 

 in the program of the general work of 

 the section. In the list of papers, records 

 of journeys of exploration are conspicuous 

 by their absence. Colonel Manifold, in- 

 deed, will discuss ' The Routes to the Yang- 

 tsze Valley,' and Mr. J. P. Thomson, 

 founder and secretary of the Queensland 

 branch of the Royal Geographical Society 

 of Australia, has promised to give an ac- 

 count of the geography of Queensland, 



where he has traveled widely. It is also 

 hoped that Lieutenant Shackleton will be 

 able to contribute a paper on 'The Na- 

 tional Antarctic Expedition,' in the first 

 year's work of which he took so prominent 

 a part. But the great majority of papers 

 deal with the more purely scientific 

 branches of geography. An important 

 subject down for discussion by Colonel P. 

 Bailey is the 'Denudation of Mountains 

 and its Remedy.' More or less akin to 

 this is 'The AfEorestation of Water- works 

 Catchment Areas,' a subject which will be 

 dealt with by Mr. J. J. Parry, special at- 

 tention being paid to the case of Liverpool. 

 A paper of much practical interest to ex- 

 plorers should be that on 'Improved 

 Methods of Survey for Travelers,' by Mr. 

 E. A. Reeves, the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety's map curator and instructor, while 

 equally interesting and instructive in an- 

 other direction will be Mr. E. D. IMorel's 

 account of the 'Economic Development of 

 "West Africa,' a topical subject of special 

 importance. Other papers to be read be- 

 fore the section are the 'Geographical Dis- 

 tribution of Disease and Disease Carriers,' 

 by Dr. L. Sambon; 'The Melting of lee 

 in Relation to Ocean Currents, ' by ProJ 

 fessors Pettersson and Sandstrom; 'The* 

 Importance of Echology to Geography,' 

 illustrated by slides, by Mr. 0. Darbishire; 

 'The Physical Geography of the Pennine 

 Chain,' by Mr. B. P. Kendall; 'A Botan- 

 ical Survey of Westmoreland and Cumber- 

 land,' by Mr. P. J. Lewis; 'Glareanus, a 

 Sixteenth Century Geographer, and His 

 Manuscript Maps,' by Mr. E. Heawood; 

 and 'The Nomenclature of British Moun- 

 tain Systems,' by Dr. H. R. Mill. A fea- 

 ture of much interest in the proceedings 

 of the section should be the joint meeting 

 which has been arranged with Section L 

 (educational science), for the purpose of 

 discussing the teaching of geography. Mr. 



