April 28, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



679 



An optical convention will be held in Lon- 

 don from May 31 to June 3. In addition to 

 papers that will be published in a volume, 

 there will be an exhibition of optical and scien- 

 tific instnlments of British manufacture. Dr. 

 E. T. Glazebrook, director of the National 

 Physical Laboratory is president, and the 

 vice-presidents include Lord Kelvin, Lord 

 Kayleigh, The Earl of Eoss, Sir Howard 

 Grubb, Sir W. H. M. Christie and Sir Wm. de 

 W. Abney. 



Reuter's Agency is informed that the Due 

 d'Orleans has organized a North Polar expedi- 

 tion which will leave for the Arctic under 

 the duke's personal leadership next month. 

 For the purpose of the expedition the Belgica, 

 the vessel of the recent Belgian Antarctic ex- 

 pedition, has been secured, together with the 

 services of Lieutenant Gorlache, who will again 

 command the sliip on the present occasion. 

 The object of the expedition is not to reach 

 the North Pole, and, according to present ar- 

 rangements, the duke will not winter in the 

 Arctic, although the Belgica will be provis- 

 ioned for the event of her being closed in by 

 the ice. The expedition will leave Norway 

 probably on May 1 and proceed direct to 

 Pranz Josef Land, where it is believed that an 

 attempt will be made to push northwards by 

 way of a new channel. The duke's staff will 

 include some French scientists and a number 

 of Norwegian sailors. The duke will sail un- 

 der the French flag. It is pointed out that as 

 the season is early this year it is probable that 

 the Belgica will find little difficulty in gaining 

 the shores of Franz Josef Land. The scheme 

 of pushing up a new channel is not unattended 

 with danger, owing to the force with which the 

 ice pack is driven down by the strong currents. 

 It was owing to this cause that the Eira, of 

 Leigh Smith's expedition, was sunk off Cape 

 Flora and that the Duca degli Abruzzi's vessel 

 was also pierced by the ice pack. No doubt 

 a lookout will be kept for the members of the 

 American Ziegler exijedition, who are still in 

 the Arctic. 



The sundry civil bill for 1906, passed by 

 the last congress, contains an item of $200,000 

 appropriated to the United States Geological 



Survey for the purpose of gaging streams and 

 determining water supply. With this sum it 

 is proposed to continue the work of measuring 

 streams in all parts of the United States and 

 of collecting data that will be helpful in pro- 

 moting water powers and irrigation projects, 

 and valuable in determining the quality of 

 water best suited for domestic and municipal 

 purposes and for manufacturing enterprises. 

 Estimates of the daily flow of important rivers 

 are needed by engineers and investors, as is 

 shown by the many requests for such informa- 

 tion received from all parts of the country. 

 It is believed that more than $5,000,000 is an- 

 nually expended in new projects that are 

 stimulated largely by facts that have been 

 ascertained officially during years of careful 

 observation. 



The New York Evening Post states that 

 Dr. Otto Klotz, government astronomer of the 

 Dominion of Canada, has been in Cambridge 

 recently, arranging with the Harvard Observa- 

 tory for a station to perfect his series of longi- 

 tude observations made in the interest of the 

 Dominion Government. This work was insti- 

 tuted upon the completion of the British 

 transpacific cable a few years ago. Dr. Klotz 

 and his party made longitude connections be- 

 ginning at Ottawa, at Vancouver, Fanning' 

 Island, the Fiji Islands, Norfolk Island, 

 Queensland, Australia and Sidney, N. S. W., 

 where his series met a like series from Green- 

 wich eastward to Sidney. This completed the 

 circuit of the world for the first time in work 

 of this character, an event that culminated 

 actually on the night of September 27, 1903. 

 The work involves the setting up of a firm 

 pier of cement or brick at each of the stations, 

 on the top of which is a point, the longitude 

 of which is determined with the utmost pos- 

 sible accuracy. The observers' clocks at two 

 stations are telegraphically connected during 

 observation, and the error determined with 

 extreme refinement. It is to set up such a 

 pier at Harvard that Dr. Klotz has come, and 

 he has been promised the hearty cooperation 

 of Professor E. C. Pickering and his staff in 

 carrying out his project. This step connects 

 the Canadian transcontinental longitude se- 



