574 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 537. 



where we could scarcely have gone along- 

 side for this purpose. 



Considerable shore collecting was done 

 at Easter Island. We must have brought 

 together at least thirty species of plants. 

 The flora of Easter Island is very poor. 

 There are no trees nor native bushes— not 

 even the bushes which characterize the 

 shore tracts of the most isolated coral reefs 

 of the Pacific are found there; and yet 

 some of the equatorial counter-currents 

 must occasionally bring some flotsam to its 

 shores. We collected a number of shore 

 fishes and made a small collection of the 

 littoral fauna. The fishes have a decided 

 Pacific look, and the few species of sea- 

 urchins we came across are species having 

 a wide distribution in the Pacific. 



While coaling, we spent some time ex- 

 amining the prehistoric monuments which 

 line the shores of Easter Island. During 

 our stay at La Perouse Bay we visited the 

 platforms studding the coast of the bay, 

 and made an excursion to the crater of 

 Rana Roraka, where are situated the great 

 quarries from which were cut the colossal 

 images now scattered all over the island, 

 many of which have fallen near the plat- 

 forms upon which they were erected. Near 

 Rana Roraka, at Tongariki, is the largest 

 platform on the island, about 450 feet in 

 length, to the rear of which are fifteen huge 

 images which have fallen from the pedes- 

 tals upon which they once stood. The 

 plain in the rear of the platform is crowded 

 with stone houses, most of which are in 

 ruins. 



On our return to our anchorage at Cook 

 Bay, we examined the platforms within 

 easy reach of the settlement, and also the 

 crater of Rana Kao, on the north rim of 

 which, at Orongo, are a number of the 

 stone houses built by the people who quar- 

 ried the great stone images. At Orongo 

 are also found sculptured rocks, but neither 

 the sculptures nor the images show any 



artistic qualities, though the fitting of some 

 of the Cyclopean stones used in building 

 the faces of the platforms indicate excel- 

 lent and careful workmanship. To ]\Ir. C. 

 Cooper, manager of the Easter Island Com- 

 pany, we are indebted for assistance while 

 visiting the points of interest of the island. 

 He was indefatigable in his exertions in 

 our behalf. 



We took a number of photographs dur- 

 ing our stay; illustrating not only the pre- 

 historic remains, but giving also an idea of 

 the desolate aspect of Easter Island during 

 the dry season. 



We arrived at Wreck Bay, Chatham 

 Island, Galapagos, on the third of January, 

 where we found a schooner with a supply 

 of coal. As soon as the ship has been over- 

 hauled and coaled we shall start for Manga 

 Reva, where we ought to arrive the last 

 days of January. We reached Chatham 

 Island towards the end of the dry season. 

 Everything is dried up, the vegetation 

 seems dead with the exception of a few 

 small wild cotton plants, weeds, cactus and 

 an occasional mimosa ; and the great barren 

 slopes present fully as uninviting an aspect 

 as when Darwin described them. When 

 the Albatross visited the Galapagos in 

 March, 1891, everything was green, pre- 

 senting a very marked contrast to its pres- 

 ent desolate appearance. 



Alexander Agassiz. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Prohlems in Astrophysics. By Agnes M. 

 Clerke. London, Adam and Charles Black; 

 Agents in America, The Macmillan Co. 

 1903. Pp. xvi + 567, with 81 illustrations. 

 $6.00 net. 



Qualified by her authorship of those excel- 

 lent works ' The History of Astronomy in the 

 Nineteenth Century ' and ' The System of the 

 Stars,' and by her obviously minute and crit- 

 ical study of current research in this field, 

 Miss Clerke presents in her latest work a lucid 

 account of pending problems in astrophysics. 



