NOVEBIBEK 22, 1901] 



SCIENCE. 



823 



excavatious which were necessary to raise one 

 of the monoliths in the famous prehistoric 

 group at Stonehenge in Wiltshire into an up- 

 right position. The men engaged in the work 

 have found numerous neolithic implements, 

 which had evidently been used in cutting and 

 squaring the stones, and, when blunted, had 

 been turned into the bedding on which the 

 stones ai-e supported. The discovery is held to 

 prove that the unique spectacle of Stonehenge 

 is anterior to the Bronze Age and that the struc- 

 ture still visible was certainly built before 1500 



B. C. 



Foreign journals give particulars respecting 

 a new meteorological station which has been 

 established at Achariach, in Glen Nevis, Scot- 

 land. The situation is such that a spur of Ben 

 Nevis shuts in the valley to the west, and the 

 height above sea-level is only 165 feet. The 

 intention of the founder of the station — Mr. E. 



C. Mossman of Edinburgh — is ' to study the 

 thermal conditions in the valley and on the ad- 

 jacent hillsides during anticyclones in winter.' 

 It seems that in calm, cold weather and with 

 a high barometer it not seldom happens that 

 the mountain summits are much warmer than 

 the valleys which are filled with cold air 

 chilled by radiation from the surrounding hills. 

 The height to which this lake of cold air ex- 

 tends is to be the principal subject of investiga- 

 tion. The station is well equipped with a com- 

 plete set of the best instruments. 



The London Times calls attention to the fact 

 that the late M. I. C. Jacobsen presented to the 

 State or spent for scientific or philanthropic 

 purposes nearly 20,000,000 kroner. He created 

 the ' Carlsberg Fund,' which now amounts to 

 12,500,000 kroner and recently celebrated the 

 25th anniversary of its foundation. On this 

 occasion his son, M. Carl Jacobsen, has added 

 as a donation his own brewery, only reserving 

 for himself and his family one third of the in- 

 come for fifty years. The value of this gift is 

 calculated at 10,000,000 kroner. M. Carl Ja- 

 cobsen two years ago presented Copenhagen 

 with what was certainly the largest private col- 

 lection of sculptures in the world — i'ts value 

 being 12,000,000 kroner — and with many other 

 large donations. 



We learn from the Auk that the large collec- 

 tion of birds' eggs, nests and skins brought to- 

 gether by Miss Jean Bell, of Ridley Park, Pa., 

 has been purchased by Mr. John Lewis Childs, 

 of Floral Park, New York. It is said to con- 

 tain about 30,000 eggs and 1,000 nests, and is 

 reported to be one of the finest and most com- 

 plete private collections of North American 

 birds' eggs extant. It includes many rarities, 

 and is rich in large sets of comparatively rare 

 species, the collection having been formed 

 through the combination of several noteworthy 

 private collections. 



T^E program for the forthcoming session 

 of the Royal Geographical Society of London 

 is announced as follows : At the opening 

 meeting, bn November 11, Sir Harry John- 

 ston proposed to give a paper on Uganda and the 

 bordering countries, through which he made 

 several journeys in his capacity as special 

 commissioner. Not only will the paper be 

 illustrated by a large number of slides, includ- 

 ing a colored one of the Okapi, but Sir Harry 

 will give phonographic reproductions of the 

 songs of the natives. At the second meeting, 

 on November 25, the president, Sir Clements 

 Markham, will give a short opening address, 

 and he will follow that with a paper on King 

 Alfred and the geography of his time. During 

 the evening Dr. Vaughan Cornish will give an 

 extremely interesting cinematographic repre- 

 sentation of the Bore of the Sevei-n. The paper 

 at the meeting on December 9 will be by Mr. 

 Douglas Freshfield, on the ' Glaciers of Kauchin- 

 junga,' the results of his recent expedition to 

 that vastly interesting region ; it will be illus- 

 trated by many lantern slides, mainly from 

 photographs taken by Signor Sella, who ac- 

 companied the expedition. Among the papers 

 to be expected after Christmas are the follow- 

 ing : ' An Expedition across Abyssinia, through 

 KaffaandtheRegionto the West and North,' by 

 Dr. Oscar Neumann; the 'Maldives,' by Mr. 

 J. Stanley Gardiner ; ' Journeys in Western 

 China,' by Dr. R. L. Jack; 'The Influence of 

 Geographical Conditions on History and Re- 

 ligion, with Special Reference to Asia Minor,' 

 by Professor W. M. Ramsay ; ' Four Years' 

 Travel and Survey in Persia,' by Major Moles- 

 worth Sykes ; ' An Expedition from Omdur- 



