638 



SCIENCE. 



[\. S. Vol.. XVIll. No. 4i::!. 



academy on November 3, the collection was 

 formally presented by Dr. H. C. Chapman 

 and Mr. A. E. Brown, before the largest 

 audience ever gathered in its lecture hall. 



English papers state that Mr. F. du Cane 

 Godman has recently presented to the British 

 Museum (of which he is a trustee) a collection 

 of nearly 30,000 specimens of beetles, following 

 on a previous donation of 50,000. The present 

 collection consists mainly of representatives of 

 the family Elateridae, the bulk being from 

 Central America. 



The fourteenth International Congress of 

 Americanists will be held at Stuttgart from 

 August 18 to 23, 1904, under the presidency 

 of Professor Karl von den Steinen. The gen- 

 eral secretary is Professor K. Lampert, Stutt- 

 gart, Archivstrasse 3. 



A CABLEGRAM to the daily papers states that 

 the Terra Nova arrived at Hobart, Tasmania, 

 on October 1. The Morning, the relief ship 

 of the Royal Geographical Society, is expected 

 daily. The two vessels will start to the relief 

 of the Discovery during the first week in 

 December. 



The Linnean Society of New South Wales 

 has acquired the compass and sun dial used 

 by Charles Darwin on the voyage in the 

 Beagle. 



The daily papers say that a meteorite, 

 weighing from ten to twenty tons, has been 

 discovered near Oregon City, Ore. 



At recent sales in London a complete set 

 of Curtis's Botanical Magazine from 1787 

 sold for £120 ; a copy of ' The Herball, or 

 Generall Historie of Plantes,' 1597, for £15 

 15s., and ' De Arte Supputandi,' printed by 

 R. Pynson, 1522, the first treatise in arith- 

 metic published in England, for £20. 



Nature states that the zebra stallion Matopo, 

 which has been described and figured by Pro- 

 fessor Cossar Ewart in his book ' The Peny- 

 cuik Experiments,' and was the sire of some 

 interesting zebra-horse hybrids, is dead. This 

 zebra was purchased some time ago by Mr. 

 Assheton- Smith, Vaynol Park, Bangor, who 

 was hopeful that he might find it possible to 

 repeat some of Professor Ewart's experiments, 

 but unfortunately his expectations have not 



been realized. Whilst retaining the .skin, lie 

 has presented the skeleton of the zebra to the 

 University College of North Wales, where 

 it will form a handsome addition to the zoo- 

 logical collection. It may also be noted that 

 to this college Professor W. A. Herdman, 

 F.R.S., of Livei-pool, recently made a donation 

 of some fishes from Ceylon and Indo-Malaya 

 which he collected when in the east investi- 

 gating the pearl fisheries of Ceylon. Professor 

 D'Arcy Thompson, C.B., Dundee, has also pre- 

 sented a skeleton of the somevrhat rare sea 

 otter (Enhydra) from Alaska. 



Word has come to the ofiice of the United 

 States Geological Survey that Mr. L. M. 

 Prindle has completed the reconnaissance sur- 

 vey of the Forty-mile gold placers and also 

 of the Seventy-mile placer fields in Alaska. 

 He is now investigating the auriferous placers 

 of the Birch Creek district, where he was 

 joined by Mr. Alfred H. Brooks. Together 

 they will make a hasty examination of the 

 newly discovered gold fields on the lower 

 Tanana River. Mr. Brooks spent a few days 

 in the Juneau district with Dr. Arthur C. 

 Spencer and Mr. Charles W. Wright. The 

 areal mapping of the Juneau Special quad- 

 rangle has been completed, and the study of 

 the ore bodies has been begun. Dr. Spencer 

 will make a hasty examination of the impor- 

 tant gold mines at Seward and Berner's Bay, 

 on the east coast of the Lynn Canal, in the 

 latter part of the season. Mr. Wright, before 

 joining Dr. Spencer, spent about three weeks 

 in the Porcupine placer district, which lies 

 above the head of the Lynn Canal, near the 

 International Boundary. His results, which 

 included a study of the economic conditions, 

 will be prepared for publication in the early 

 part of the winter. Dr. George C. Martin 

 spent the month of June in the Controller 

 Bay oil fields, and in August visited the Cook 

 Inlet oil fields. Mr. Brooks, who has charge 

 of the Alaskan work, will return to Washing- 

 ton about the end of October, after visiting 

 the two parties engaged in mapping the 

 placers of the Nome region. 



Major Powell-Cotton, of the British Army, 

 has, according to Renter's Agency, just com- 

 pleted a journey in Eastern Equatorial Africa 



