July 9, 1886.1 



SCIENCE, 



27 



about two-thirds that distance. Careful astronomi- 

 cal observations were made, and the final reduc- 

 tion of the many results obtained will greatly 

 ameliorate the charts of the Kongo basin. The 

 Rev. Mr. Grenfell insists upon the riclmess of the 

 upper Kongo basin, and especially of the Kassai 

 valley, and reiterates the opinion expi-essed by 

 others, that a railway across the arid region of the 

 lower Kongo is the only means by which com- 

 merce can be assured an entrance into this vast 

 and fertile region. 



Trade-route to Bolivia. — Information from 

 Buenos Ayres indicates that Thouar departed 

 thence for the upj)er river last February, and 

 expected to reach Tarija^ early in April. He was 

 to ascend the Pilcomayo with a Bolivian escort on 

 a steamer of two hundred tons detailed for the 

 pui'pose. It is hoped that the exi^lorations now in 

 progress will result in a permanent route for the 

 commerce of eastern Bolivia toward the Atlantic. 

 M. Thenar's health continued good, though fever 

 was very prevalent : he attributes his exemption, 

 at least in part, to the use of fumigations of 

 sulphur. 



Lake Moeris. — Mr. Cope Whitehouse, who has 

 been investigating the supposed site of Lake 

 Moeris in the Raian basin, writes, that, assisted by 

 Herr Stadler, a government engineer, and his 

 party, a line of levels has been run between the 

 canal of Gharak, connecting with the Nile, and 

 the margin of the depression. At a point twelve 

 metres from the level of the Mediterranean a 

 bench-mark was established, and a sketch of the 

 whole basin made. The ruins of the Wadi 

 Moelleh are supposed by Mr. Whitehouse to be 

 those of Dionisian placed by Ptolemy on a long 

 and narrow arm of Lake Moeris. Col. Scott Mon- 

 crieff, director of public works, will have made a 

 general plan and estimates for a canal, to fill the 

 basin from the Nile, as soon as the hot season is 

 over. The Mussulmans regard the project favora- 

 bly, as they have a tradition that Lake Moeris was 

 established by the patriarch Joseph, the Bahr 

 Jussuf still retaining his name. It would result 

 from these works that at high Nile an area of six 

 hundred square kilometres could be covered to a 

 depth of eighty or ninety metres, capable of 

 doubling the volume of the low Nile, and of ren- 

 dering an immense extent of now desert ground 

 susceptible of cultivation. 



The spring in Alaska. — The spring in Alaska 

 has been unusually late and cold, with exceptional 

 precipitation. A large number of prospectors 

 have crossed over the divide to the British head 

 waters of the Yukon, in search of the riah dig- 

 gings found by a lucky few last year. Many of 

 them are doubtless doomed to severe disappoint- 



ment. The fishing-tleet has already sailed from 

 San Francisco, consisting of eleven vessels, of 

 2,331 tons, manned by 273 men. Four of the 

 vessels fish in the Okhotsk Sea ; the remainder, in 

 Alaskan waters. 



PARIS LETTER. 



Professor de Lacaze-Duthiers, whose name 

 is familiar to all zoologists, owing to many very 

 good contributions to the biological sciences, has, 

 after a rather severe illness which kept him con- 

 fined to his room for more than three months, 

 resumed his yearly task, and begun his lectures. 

 As iisual, his opening address was devoted to a 

 general summmg-up of what work has been done 

 in his laboratory during the past year ; but this 

 time, instead of a short summary, he delivered a 

 lengthy address concerning his seventeen-years' 

 task as a professor of zoology in the Sorbonne. 



M. de Lacaze-Duthiers was appointed in 1869. 

 Professor Milne-Edwards being then professor of 

 comparative anatomy, M. de Lacaze-Duthiers had 

 to undertake the teaching of zoology proper ; 

 which he did, it must be said, with a great deal 

 of talent and energy. He understood very well 

 that zoology can be taught only in paj't, and that 

 the greater part of that science the student must 

 learn by himself alone, without tuition, by prac- 

 tice and experience under the direction of his 

 teacher. In order to give students all possible aid, 

 he undertook to fovmd a marine biological station 

 on the Brittany coast. With the aid of govern- 

 ment, he began the laboratory of Roscoff in 1872, 

 and thus accomplished a very useful work. I 

 visited this laboratory some two or three years 

 ago, and spent there a month or so in scientific 

 pursuits. It is very well organized and directed, 



Roscoff is a little town, or rather a big village, 

 near Morlaix, where a few people come to spend 

 the summer season, for sea-bathing, and where 

 there is nothing to j)revent a good time of hard 

 work, since the only diversion to be had is work 

 itself. The inmates of the laboratory, who are 

 allowed to spend their time as they please, with 

 Professor de Lacaze-Duthiers's consent, live in the 

 laboratory itself. Each has his sleeping-room. 

 Some work in their sleeping-rooms ; others, in 

 two or three big rooms fi.xed up for working pur- 

 poses, and representing real zoological laboratories. 

 A. library and a parlor are for general use ; an 

 aquarium, with a number of tanks, contains the 

 rare or curious species of the coast ; there is also 

 a collection of preserved specimens, which wiU be 

 used some day to build up a fauna of the RoscofiE 

 coast. 



Roscoff receives a good number of students who 



