124 Setentifie News. [ February, 
perity, the progress of nearly all our industries, and even the very ex- ` 
istence of many of them, are dependent on the discoveries of the scien- 
tific investigator who pursues his research on purely scientific principles, 
and with no practical end whatever in view. Our country has got at 
least as much glory, and we venture to think more practical benefit, 
from achievements in the region of pure science, as from all that has 
been accomplished in the domain of art; and yet no helping hand is held 
out to those who are able and willing to do their country the highest 
service, but cannot, because they must drudge for a living. The domain 
of science is every day becoming more and more extended, her methods 
are becoming more and more complicated, and her instruments more and 
more expensive ; in almost every department paths are being opened 
up which, if pursued to their end,‘would certainly lead. to discoveries of 
vital importance to the best welfare and prosperity of the nation. Our 
public men are continually telling us that we are being outstripped by 
continental nations in fields which, used to be peculiarly our own, and 
that simply because abroad every encouragement is given to scientific 
research, while here its existence is either ignored or it is regarded as. a 
mere pastime.” 
‘Dr. Oscar Grimm has. published in Siebold and Killiker’s Zeit- 
schrift a summary of the results of his investigation of the fauna of the 
Caspian Sea. The character of this assemblage of life has interest, 
says Nature, for the evolutionist as well as the geologist. It will afford 
evidence not only of modification of animal life, but also of successive 
changes in the physical geography of that region. Dredgings were car- 
ried on, by means of a steamer, down to one hundred and fifty fathoms, 
and an enormous quantity of specimens were obtained, including six new 
fishes, twenty species of mollusca, thirty-five species of crustacea, prin- 
cipally colossal forms of Gammaride, and twenty species of worms. 
The western part of the sea gives depths of five hundred and seventeen 
fathoms, and has a very abundant fauna; at one haul of the dredge in one 
hundred and eight fathoms, there were taken three hundred and fifty 
specimens of Gammaride, one hundred and fifty Idothea entomon, fifty 
colossal Mysis, etc. Eighty species in all are new to science. 
— Professor Ernst Haeckel’s work on The History of Creation, as 
translated by Mr. Van Rhyn, of New York, will be published early in: 
the year by D. Appleton & Co. An English translation of Haeckel’s 
Anthropogenie is soon to appear in London. Macmillan & Co. ad- 
vertise a new edition of that choice work, White’s Natural History of 
Selborne, They have also published A Course of Practical Instruc- 
tion in Elementary Biology, by Professor Huxley and H. N. Martin 
(crown 8vo; 6s.) ; and Historia Filicum, by J. Smith, with thirty litho- 
ic plates... 
graphic plates 
— A second meeting of those proposing to form a mountain explora- 
tion club, similar in many respects to the Alpine clubs of England and 
