362 Scientific Intelligence. 



pography of the islands and have taken only a secondary part in 

 filling here and there a bight or a cove with more modern reef rock, 

 thrown up against the shores so as to form a coral reef beach such 

 as we find in the Florida Reef. I have steamed now nearly 3,300 

 miles among the Bahamas, visiting all the more important points 

 and have made an extensive collection of the rocks of the group. 

 I hoped to have made also a larger number of deep soundings 

 than I have been able to take; unfortunately the trades were 

 unusually heavy during the greater part of my visit to the Baha- 

 mas, greatly interfering with such work on a vessel no larger than 

 the "Wild Duck" — 127 feet on the water line. For the same 

 reason the number of deep-water pelagic hauls was also much 

 smaller than 1 hoped to make, as in a heavy sea the apparatus 

 would have been greatly endangered. It is a very different thing 

 to work at sea in a small yacht like the " Wild Duck," or in 

 such vessels as the "Blake" and the "Albatross" of large size 

 and fitted up with every possible requirement for deep sea work. 

 The " Wild Duck," on the other hand, was admirably adapted for 

 cruising on the Bahama Banks, her light draught enabling her to 

 go to every point of interest and to cross and recross the Banks 

 where a larger vessel could not follow. I am under the greatest 

 obligations to my friend Mr. John M. Forbes for having so 

 kindly placed his yacht at my disposal for this exploration, and I 

 hope soon after my return to Cambridge to publish more in de- 

 tail the results of this examination of the structure of the Bahamas. 



2. The Barrier Reef of Australia : Its Products and Poten- 

 tialities ; by W. Saville-Kent. (W. H. Allen & Co., 13 Wa- 

 terloo Place, London.) — The publishers announce that this im- 

 portant work is now about ready. The specimen copies of the 

 plates furnished give a high idea of the unusual beauty of the 

 illustrations. 



3. Logarithmic Tables^ by Prof. George William Jones 

 of Cornell University. Fourth edition, 160 pp. 8vo. London 

 (Macmillan & Co.) and Ithaca (George W. Jones). — There are 

 many books of logarithmic tables, but this one is especially nota- 

 ble for its convenience and compactness of arrangement, clearness 

 of typographical work and breadth of scope. Eighteen tables in 

 all are given and the judicious selection and arrangement of 

 these by the editor gives the student a much wider and more 

 generous equipment for his work than can often be found within 

 the limits of a small volume and one sold at the low price of 

 seventy-five cents. 



Obituary. 



Nicolas Koksharov, the veteran and long honored Russian 

 mineralogist, died on January 2, 1893, at an advanced age. His 

 Materialien zur Miner alogie Husslands, of which the first vol- 

 ume was issued in 1853-54 and the tenth volume completed in 

 1891, is a monumental contribution to science and will always be 

 a model of careful and accurate research. 



