504 Scientific News. [ August, 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
— Nature for June 1st contains a brief biography, with a steel portrait, 
of Professor Wyville Thompson, the leader of the Challenger Expedi- 
tion, which returned to England May 27th, after a voyage around the 
world of about three years and a half. The expedition, says Nature, al- 
though by no means sensational, has been thoroughly successful. The 
Challenger has steadily traversed a track of sixty-nine thousand miles 
and during her absence of three years and a half from England has 
established three hundred and sixty-two observing stations, at all of 
which the depth has been ascertained with the greatest possible accuracy, 
and at nearly all the bottom temperature has been taken, a sample of the 
bottom water has been brought up for physical’ examination and chem- 
ical analysis, a sufficient specimen of the bottom has been procured, and 
the trawl or dredge has been lowered to ascertain the nature of the 
fauna. At most of these stations serial soundings have been taken with 
specially devised instruments, to ascertain, by the determinations of inter- 
mediate temperatures and by the analysis and physical examination of 
samples of water from intermediate depths, the directions and rate of 
movement of deep-sea currents. The only untoward event was the death 
of Dr. Willemées-Suhm, one of the naturalists of the expedition. An 
illustrated account of the voyage in two volumes is nearly ready for pub- 
lication, and promises to be of unusual interest. 
— Dr. Elliott Coues, U. S. A., lately attached to the Northern Bound- 
ary Survey, has lately been ordered on duty with Professor Hayden’s 
Geological Survey of the Territories, his address being the office of the 
U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories, 509 Seventh Street, Washing- 
ton, D. C. It is a matter of congratulation that Dr. Coues’s time will as 
heretofore be devoted to zoölogical pursuits. s 
— E. Billings, for many years the able palæòntologist of the Canadian 
Geological Survey, has recently died. 
— Rambles of a Naturalist in Egypt and other Countries, by J. H. 
Gurney, Jr., is announced by Jarrold and Sons, London. 
— A botanical section of the Boston Society of Natural History has 
been formed, which meets during the summer every Monday at four P. M. 
— The first wing of the Peabody Museum of Natural History of Yale 
College is now completed, and part of the collections have been placed 
within it. This wing is situated on the southwest corner of Elm 
High streets, It is built of brick, with ornaments of light Nova 
Scotia sandstone. The cost of the building was about $140,000, an 
the cases will increase the expense to $175,000. The museum is - of 
the largest structure yet erected for the college. The exterior is ee 
m 
Philadelphia pressed brick and Nova Scotia stone, with a pes “at 
base of East Haven brown stone. The architecture of the 10 
stories is especially massive, the structure increasing in lightn 
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