916 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. V. No. 128. 



Vice-Presidents, Prof. F. 0. Bower, D.Sc, F.E.S., 



Prof. D. P. Penhallow. 

 Secretaries, Prof. J. B. Farmer, M.A., F.L.S.; E. C. 

 Jeffrey, M.A.; A. C. Seward, M.A., F.G.S.; Prof. F. 

 F. E. Weiss, B.Sc, F.L.S. (Becorder). 



THE BRITISH REPORT ON THE BEHRING SEA 

 SEAL FISHERIES. 



A Parliamentary paper was issued on May 22d 

 containing Professor D' Arcy Thompson's report 

 on his mission to Behring Sea. The report con- 

 cludes as follows : 



In the foregoing account I have merely set forth my 

 observations of the herd and its past history in so far 

 as both together show that the alarming statements to 

 which utterance has been given in recent years, the 

 accounts of the herd's immense decrease and the 

 prophecies of its approaching extinction, are over- 

 drawn and untenable. But it is my duty to state to 

 your lordship that there is still abundant need for 

 care and for prudent measuras of conservation in the 

 interests of all. A birth-rate which we estimate at 

 143,000 per annum is not great in comparison with the 

 drain upon the stock. From one cause or another a 

 loss of over 20,000 is experienced among the pups ere 

 they emigrate to sea ; and though the dangers they 

 there encounter are unknown to us, we may take it 

 for certain that the risks they run are great and the 

 loss they endure considerable. "When to the meas- 

 ured loss in infancy and to the unmeasured loss in 

 youth and age we add the toll taken on the islands 

 and the toll taken in the sea, it is not difficult to be- 

 lieve that the margin of safety is a narrow one, if it be 

 not already in some measure overstepped. We may 

 hope for a perpetuation of the present numbers ; we 

 cannot count upon an increase. And it is my earnest 

 hope that a recognition of mutual interests and a re- 

 gard for the common advantage may suggest measures 

 of prudence which shall keep the pursuit and slaughter 

 of the animal within due and definite bounds. 



The London Tunes, which is supposed to reflect 

 official opinion, publishes a column and a-half of 

 editorial comment, ending as follows : 



Our own commissioner is entirely of the same 

 opinion [referring to Dr. Jordan's recommendation of 

 further scientific investigation], and is much more 

 cautious in the conclusions to which he has come. 

 In these circumstances it seems only common sense 

 to collect further evidence before we proceed to revise 

 the present regulations. We are ready to admit that 

 they may not be the best which it is possible to de- 

 vise in the interests both of pelagic and of shore seal- 

 ers. But we say that this has not yet been proved, 

 and that until it is proved we are under no obligation 

 to vary the present rules. The suggestion that we 



should surrender the exercise of a lucrative industry 

 which is admittedly lawful, without receiving an 

 equivalent, merely in order to increase the actual and 

 prospective profits of our rivals, is not admissible in 

 any event. What woiild the United States answer to 

 a similar proposal in regard to the fishery rights they 

 possess on the 'American Shore ' in New Foundland ? 

 They would answer, ' It is not business. ' 



GENERAL. . 



Professor W. Crookes will be nominated as 

 President of the British Association for the 

 Bristol meeting of 1898. 



Professor Felix Klein has been elected a 

 corresponding member of the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences in the room of the late Professor 

 Sylvester. 



Mr. Robert Douglas, known for his work in 

 arboriculture and forestry, died on June 1st at 

 Waukegan, 111. He was born in England in 

 1813. Mr. Charles Benjamin Brush, formerly 

 professor of civil engineering in New York 

 University and a well known civil engineer, 

 died in New York on June 3d, aged forty-nine 

 years. The death is also announced of Sir 

 Augustus Wollaston Franks, F.R.S., the archte- 

 ologist, at the age of seventy-one years ; of Dr. 

 G. Ossowski, the geologist, at Tomsk, on April 

 16th ; of Dr. Edwin Freiherr v. Sommaruga, 

 assistant professor of chemistry at the Univer- 

 sity of Vienna, on May 10th, at the age of fifty- 

 three years ; and of A. L. O. Descloizemitt, the 

 mineralogist member of the Paris Academy, on 

 May 8th, at the age of seventy-nine years. 



The Rede lecturer of Cambridge University, 

 Professor A. W. Riicker, was announced to de- 

 liver his lecture on June 9th, the subject being 

 'Recent Researches in Terrestrial Magnetism.' 



We learn from Nature that at the anniversary 

 meeting of the Linneean Society of London, 

 held on May 24th, the gold medal of the So- 

 ciety was awarded to Dr. Jacob Georg Agardh, 

 emeritus professor of botany in the Univer- 

 sity of Lund, known for his researches on 



An expedition from the biological department 

 of the University of New York, under the direc- 

 tion of Professor Charles L. Bristol, sailed from 

 New York for Bermuda, on June 3d. General 

 Russell Hastings has ofiered the University land 



