358 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 270. 



gation of the sea, but also the navigation of 

 rivers and canals. 



The House Committee of Mines and Mining 

 has acted favorably on a bill creating a depart- 

 ment of mines and mining, with a cabinet min- 

 ister. The Geological Survey would be trans- 

 ferred to this department. There is also, as 

 we have also reported, a bill before Congress 

 establishing a department of Commerce and 

 Manufactures, to which it is proposed to trans- 

 fer the U. S. Geological Survey, as well as 

 the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, the 

 Patent Ofiice, the Commission of Fish and 

 Fisheries, and the Bureau of Navigation. 

 The Treasury Bureau of Statistics and the Bu- 

 reau of Foreign Commerce of the State Depart- 

 ment are to be consolidated into a single bureau 

 of the department. The principal new offices 

 created are the secretary and assistant secretary 

 of commerce and industries, the secretary re- 

 ceiving a salary of $8000 and the assistant 

 secretary $4000. 



The Ontario government has completed ar- 

 rangements for the formation of a forest of 

 almost 3000 square miles, embracing the dis- 

 trict in which Lakes Temagami and Lady 

 Evelyn are situated. The bulk of the reserve 

 is virgin forest, with the iinest white pine in 

 Canada upon it. 



There were 533 deaths from the plague in 

 Bombay during the week ending February 16th. 

 Up to February 17th there have been 42 cases 

 of the plague and 32 deaths at Manila. The 

 influenza is seriously epidemic throughout 

 Europe and has been increasing during the 

 past two weeks in New York and other cities. 



For the accommodations of those who wish 

 to view the eclipse of the sun, which takes 

 place on May 28th, Messrs. Cook have ar- 

 ranged a conducted tour, leaving London, May 

 21st, visiting Paris, Bordeaux, Biarritz, Madrid 

 and Talavera, where the total phase of the 

 eclipse will be visible. 



A TELEGRAM has been received at the Harvard 

 College Observatory from Professor Kreutz, at 

 Kiel Observatory, stating that "Comet a was 

 observed by Javelle at Nice, Feb. 17.''3148 

 Greenwich Mean Time, in E. A. 2" 22" 2^8 and 

 Dec. — 1° 19' 27"." The check word shows 



that there is an error in this telegram, although 

 it has been correctly repeated from Kiel. A 

 cablegram, asking information, was sent to Pro- 

 fessor Kreutz, but no reply has yet been re- 

 ceived. If we assume an error of 10° in the 

 addition, the message will check. The observa- 

 tion can not have been made on February 18th. 



The thirty-fifth volume of the Zoological 

 Record has come to hand. Although chiefly 

 relating to the year 1898, it includes the litera- 

 ture of the Coelenterata for 1897 and 1898. 

 Copies may be obtained of the Secretary of the 

 Zoological Society of London. Price, 30 shil- 

 lings. 



A NEW edition — the second — of ' Recent 

 and Coming Eclipses ' by Sir Norman Lockyer 

 is now ready. It contains an account of the 

 observations made at Viziadarog, in India, in 

 1898, and of the conditions of the eclipses vis- 

 ible in 1900, 1901 and 1905. 



The Duke of Devonshire and the President 

 of the Board of Trade received, on February 

 5th, a deputation which presented a memorial 

 asking for the continued maintenance of the 

 Buckland Museum of Economic Fish Culture. 

 The memorial stated, as we learn from the 

 London Times, that the late Frank Buckland, 

 who was appointed one of her Majesty's In- 

 spectors of Fisheries in 1866, formed the 

 museum at his own expense to aid the practical 

 study of fish and fisheries and to teach people, 

 through the eye, their practical value. He cast 

 for it, mostly with his own hands, 400 speci- 

 mens of fish, and collected a large number of 

 objects illustrating fish and oyster cultivation 

 and preservation and the modes of taking fish. 

 This museum he bequeathed to the nation on 

 trust to form part of the national collection at 

 South Kensington Museum, and he also be- 

 queathed £5,000, after his widow's death, to 

 found a professorship of economic fish culture 

 in connection with the museum. The gift and 

 its conditions were formally accepted by the 

 Department of Science and Art in 1881 ; but in 

 1898 the Select Committee appointed to inquire 

 into and report upon the administration and 

 cost of the museums of the Science and Art De- 

 partment recommended that the Museum of 

 Fish Culture should be abolished. The me- 



