Miscellaneous Intelligence. 257 



13. Handbuch der Miner cdo g ie ; von Dr. Carl Hintze. Ers- 

 ter Band. Elemente, Sulphide, Oxyde, Haloide, Carbonate, Sul- 

 fate, Borate, Phosphate. Neunte Lieferung. Pp. 1281-1440, 

 with 30 figures. Leipzig, 1905 (Von Veit & Comp.). — The suc- 

 cessive issues of Hintze's monumental work are always welcome 

 even if they appear only at long intervals. The present part is 

 entirely devoted to the species of quartz. 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Reports on the Scientific Residts of the Expedition to the 

 Eastern Tropical Pacific in charge of Alexander Agassiz, by the 

 XT. 8. Fish Commission "Albatross" from October, 1901/., to 

 March, 1905, Lieut. Commander L. M. Garrett, TL 8. N., com- 

 manding. 



General Report of the Expedition by Alexander Agassiz. Pub- 

 lished as vol. 33, Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 at Harvard College. Cambridge, 1906, 75 pp., 96 plates and eight 

 figures in the text. — The area selected for this cruise of the 

 " Albatross " included the vast tract of the Eastern Pacific, some 

 3000 miles in latitude by 3500 in longitude, between Acapulco, the 

 Galapagos Islands, Callao, Easter Island and Manga Reva, the 

 easternmost of the Paumotu or Low Archipelago. The survey 

 consisted in running lines between these points. There is no 

 other oceanic area situated at so great a distance from a conti- 

 nental area and interrupted by so few islands. 



But little was previously known of the hydrography of this 

 area, only a few casual deep-sea soundings having been previously 

 taken far from land. The biological material is now in the 

 hands of specialists, but among the results already evident may 

 be mentioned the localized extension of the abyssal oceanic fauna 

 far from shore and its dependence upon the pelagic food 

 derived by settling from the photobathic zone or brought to it by 

 the great oceanic currents. Over an immense tract south of the 

 Humboldt current running from near the Low Archipelago to 

 within about ten degrees of the South American coast, the whole 

 of the bottom area is barren of animal life and forms a great 

 desert upon which drop the carcasses of a poor pelagic area. 



Turning to the soundings, it is noted that 160 were taken, the 

 Lucas sounding-machine being used, or about one per day, dis- 

 tributed over a distance of about 13,000 miles. The area is com- 

 paratively shallow, varying generally from 1800 to 2300 fathoms. 

 The survey served to delimit the Albatross Plateau, named by 

 the Challenger expedition, and to separate a new basin, named 

 the Bowei*s Basin, lying off Callao, from the indefinitely known 

 Buchan Basin located by the Challenger expedition. 



This expedition has added a great deal of definite knowledge 

 to the oceanography of this area : an inconsistency in the bathy- 

 metrical chart, Plate I, must however be noted, the Moser Deep 

 and the Grey Deep being separated by a single 2500 fathom 

 contour line. This inconsistency further results in the Moser Basin 



