June 24, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



355 



possible; 53 percent is tlie value for May and 55 for August. 

 Geldeston, in Norfolk, follows with -18 per cent, and the eastern 

 coast as far north as Aberdeen is decidedly sunny. Ireland and the 

 west of Scotland have persistently cloudy skies in summer and 

 early autumn but in late autumn Ireland is particularly favored 

 by the sun. On the other hand, from some unexplained cause, 

 there is a deficiency of sunshine in Jersey dui-ing November. The 

 sunniest month in the ten years was May, 1883, when thirly-three 

 stations registered at least 50 per cent. June, July, and August, 

 1887, were also very bright. The highest monthly amount en- 

 tered, 68 per cent, was recorded at Falmouth in June, and in 

 Jersey in August of that year. 



— Bulletin No. 30 of the Kansas Experiment Station reports a 

 well-planned experiment, designed to show whether the old prac- 

 tice of shelling off the butts and tips of ears of seed-coru was a 

 rational one. In this experiment five duplicate plants were planted 

 with seed from different parts of the ear. This question has also 

 been under investigation for several years at the Ohio Experiment 

 Station. There is a i-emarkably close agreement between the 

 average yields from butts and middles in Kansas and Ohio, but 

 this agreement does not hold out when it comes to the tips. The 

 experiment is being continued at the Ohio station, as they are still 

 in doubt whether the irregularities in yield observed are due to 

 the seed or to the inevitable variations in the soil of different plats, 

 a factor of error which can only be overcome by many repetitions 

 of the test. In view of the results thus far indicated it may be 

 well to call attention to the possibility of the middle of the ear 

 failing to dry out in some seasons as well as t'"' ends, in which 

 case it would be less valuable instead of more valuable for seed. 



— The next meeting of the International Congress of Oriental- 

 ists will be held at Lisbon, from Sept. 33 to Oct. 1 of the present 

 year, under the patronage and chairmanship of the King of 

 Portugal. All societies and individuals will be considered mem- 

 bers of the congress upon the payment of 35 francs. All applica- 

 tions should be sent to the Secretary of the Geographical Society, 

 Hotel de la Societe, Lisbon, Portugal. The scientific programme 

 will embrace the following sections : Summary of Oriental Re- 

 searches since 1891; Semitic Languages, except Arabic; Arabia 

 and Islam; Assyriology ; Palestinology ; The Aryan Languages, in- 

 cluding, 1, Sanscrit and Hindustanee, 3, Pahli (language of Ceylon) 

 and Buddhist, 3, Iranian and Zoroastrian; Africa, with the excep- 

 tion of Egypt; Egyptology; Central Asia and Dardistan; Religions 

 Compared (Mythology, Mythography, Philosophy, Laws, Oriental 

 Sciences, History, etc); Languages Compared; Encouragement of 

 Oriental Studies; Indo-Chinese Studies; Chinese Studies; Japanese 

 Studies; Dravidian Studies: Malay Archipelago and Polynesia; 

 Questions for Explorers ; Ethnographic Philology and Migration of 

 Races; Art, Archseology, Numismatics, and the Industrial Art of 

 the East; The Scholars and the People of the East; Oriental Philol- 

 ogy in Commerce, etc. (with subdivisions for the different modern 

 Oriental languages); Anthropology, The Science and the Natural 

 and Artificial Products of the East; The Orient and America; The 

 Orient and Portugal; Special Section for the Phillipine Islands; 

 Exhibition of Books and Objects to Illustrate the above Sections. 



— In the course of a journey through British New Guinea, in 

 January last, says the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, the indefatigable Administrator, Sir William Macgregor. 

 examined and described several remarkable islands, which he 

 shows to be almost certainly ancient atolls that have been ele- 

 vated by steady horizontal uplift. The island generally known 

 as Kitava (but called Nowau by the natives) has an area of about 

 five or six square miles. It appears to be surrounded bv a fring- 

 ing reef. Nearly all round the island there is a low and slightly 

 sloping margin covered with trees, and about a quarter of a mile 

 wide. This terminates inland in a steep coral wall, which rises 

 abruptly to the height of 300 or 400 feet, and is covered with 

 forest. Shells in the coral point to a comparatively recent up- 

 heaval. From the crest of this wall the land dips gently to a 

 plateau from 30 to 100 feet lower, which occupies the centre of 

 the island. The plateau is undulating, has a rich chocolate soil, 

 and being protected from wind by the raised rim, whilst subject 

 to a copious rainfall, it is very fertile. All the people live in the 



hollow, so that from the sea the island seems to be uninhabited. 

 The central hollow is drained by filtration through the cracked 

 and porous coral rock. Kwaiawata Island, which is from one 

 and a half to two miles in diameter, showed precisely the same 

 form and structure,and in Gawa Island there is a still more perfect 

 instance of a raised atoll. The coral wall in the last instance 

 rises so abruptly to the height of about 400 feet that part of it has 

 to be climbed by ladders, and the plateau representing the old 

 lagoon is nearly 100 feet below the level of the edge. Iwa, 

 another adjacent island about a mile in diameter, is of the same 

 kind, only the gently sloping border has been worn away, and the 

 coral cliff meets the sea nearly all round. These remarkable 

 islands merit more detailed study by a geologist on account of 

 their obvious bearing on the theory of coral formations, and their 

 resemblance to the upraised reefs of the Solomon Islands. It 

 would appear that the area of post-tertiary elevation which Dr. 

 Guppy demonstrated in the Solomon Islands must be extended to 

 include the border islands of New Guinea as well. 



— Brick tea has usually but little to commend it, as it is known 

 to be composed of the sweepings and dust of the Chinese tea fac- 

 tories Its chief market is Russia, which took from China la>t 

 year 2,005,548 pounds, one-half the usual export, due, it is said, 

 to the scarcity of tea dust, A new article in tea has, however, 

 according to the Journal of the Society of Arts, recently sprung 

 up in China, in the form of tablet tea, which appeared in the 

 trade returns of Kiukiang for the first time last year, machinery 

 having been erected there for its manufacture, and the quantity 

 shipped from that port was 493,398 pounds. Tablet tea is made 

 from the very best quality of tea dust. It is formed, by pressure 

 alone, into small cakes, which are perfectly hai'd and solid, and 

 somewhat resemble chocolate in appearance. The material is 

 not, like brick tea, moistened with steam, before being compressed, 

 and the flavor is not in any way impaired by the procesi of manu- 

 facture. 



— An experimental voyage, which, though its main object is 

 commercial, is not without interest of a more general kind, is 

 about to be undertaken by Captain Gray of Peterhead, the well- 

 known Arctic whaler. Captain Gray is of opinion that the value 

 of the Antarctic Seas as a whaling-ground has never been properly 

 tested, and he has, according to the Proceedings of the Ro3'al 

 Geographical Society, succeeded in raising the capital necessary 

 for prosecuting an experimental voyage with a couple of ve.=^fels 

 of some 400 or 500 tons register, propelled by auxiliary engines of 

 70 or 80 horse-power nominal. A statement issued by Captain 

 Gray and his bi'other contains numerous extracts from the litera- 

 ture on the Antarctic regions, as evidence that there is a reasona- 

 ble prospect of developing a new and important industry in the 

 Southern Seas. " We have," say the authors of the statement, 

 "been induced to select that region in the Antarctic area lying 

 between the meridian of Greenwich and 90° west longitude as the 

 locality in which, in our opinion, the fishery we have projected 

 might be prosecuted with the greatest advantage. It was ex- 

 plored by Captain Ross in his last voyage, and has been reported 

 by him to be frequented by the right whale in great numbers. It 

 is besides accessible from Britain by a direct route lying between 

 the continents of America and Africa, not exceeding 7,300 miles 

 in length, or a two months' passage, at an average speed of five 

 knots per hour. We think that the month of December, corres- 

 ponding to that of June in the northern hemisphere, which has 

 generally been chosen for the commencement of the work of ex- 

 ploration in the Antarctic Seas, is too late, and that it might be 

 prosecuted with advantage at least a month earlier. We should 

 therefore recommend that, on the event of vessels being fitted out 

 to prosecute the fishery in the South Polar Seas, they should leave 

 the country in August, and reach the whaling-ground by the end 

 of October, which would give at least four months, viz , Novem- 

 ber, December, January, and February — ample time for com- 

 pleting their cargoes, and enable them to reach Britain again in 

 May, thus leaving from three to four months for discharging and 

 refitting before sailing on a new voyage in August." As B-jron 

 Nordenskjold's son is to accompany the expedition as naturalist, 

 it is to be hoped that some gain to geography may lesult. 



