THE Königsberg and Memel district of East Prussia is known to be a district in which ophthalmia is prevalent. According to the British Medical Journal a careful examination of the eyes of all children in schools at Königsberg has just been carried out by twenty-seven doctors, the result showing that 32 per cent. of the children are suffering from ophthalmia, and of these more than a third from granular lids.

Under

FROM the U.S. Monthly Weather Review for August we learn that the Postal Telegraph Cable Company is co-operating with the United States Time and Weather Service Company of New York in establishing throughout the city a number of handsome clocks which shall exhibit standard time, not only by the face of the clock, but by the dropping of a time-ball at noon. the dials are panels, which are filled up partly by special advertisements, and partly by the latest Weather Bureau reports and forecasts, which are thus made known two or three hours before they appear in the afternoon papers. The stands contain, in addition, a barometer and thermometer. The clocks have also been erected in many western cities, and the arrangement is somewhat similar to the so-called Urania Columns in Berlin, where they are said to be very popular.

THE Indian Daily News for October 23 contains a preliminary note on the Calcutta earthquake of June 12, by Prof. F. Omori, who has been making investigations on behalf of the Japanese Government. One peculiarity of the earthquake is that, notwithstanding its vast area of disturbance, the motion on the surface was not extremely violent. The variation of the intensity of the shock along lines across the seismic area was very gradual, and from this Prof. Omori infers that the depth of the seismic focus was not less than twenty miles. The shock appears to have been strongest at Shillong, Cheerapoonjee, and the neighbouring district. At Shillong the acceleration was calculated from overturned bodies to be about 8 feet per sec. per sec.;

and this, if the period of vibration were one second, would imply a range of motion (or double amplitude) of about 5 inches. Prof. Omori believes that the origin of the earthquake was a sudden splitting asunder of the strata at a great depth, caused by an injection of steam or gas into cracks in the earth's crust. The seismic focus was situated in an east and west direction under the Garo and Khasi Hills, and to the west or north-west of the centre of the great Cachar earthquake of 1869.

A NEW form of electric seismoscope is described by Dr. G. Agamennone in the last Bollettino of the Italian Seismological Society, the chief merits claimed for it by its inventor being its comparatively slight cost (about thirty francs) and its great sensitiveness. In most seismoscopes the movement of a pendulum is magnified by a long pointer, whose tip just passes through a hole in a metal plate, contact with which completes an electric circuit and starts a clock previously set at twelve. In the new instrument the metal plate is not, as usual, fixed, but is connected with a second inverted pendulum, the bob of which is near the top of its supporting rod, while that of the first is near the base.

WE have received from the Imperial Observatory of Constantinople the monthly bulletins for January and February of the present year. They contain a brief meteorological summary, and continue, though apparently in less detail, the valuable lists of earthquakes issued for the years 1895 and 1896 by Dr. Agamennone. Both parts are the work of the Director, M. Salik Zéky.

AN automatic controller, intended for checking the issue of tickets in a railway booking-office, has been recently exhibited in London. The machine, which is of Belgian origin, is so arranged that each ticket is printed as issued. By two movements the clerk prints on the ticket the name of the

issuing office, the destination of the passenger, the class, number, month, day, and hour of issue, and the serial number of the ticket. At the same time a record of the issue is printed on a slip of paper, which is inaccessible to the issuing clerk, and serves for making up the books at the end of the day, or other convenient opportunity. The names of the stations are arranged round the edge of a disc forming part of the machine, and in issuing a ticket, the clerk sets the name of the station required opposite a fixed mark. A downward movement of a small handle, of which there are a number corresponding to the different classes, causes an electric motor to do the necessary

printing and eject the printed ticket from the machine. It is

stated that each machine can be made to suit any number of stations with, extra machines would be employed. A practical trial of up to 100. Where a larger number have to be dealt

the instrument, is, we understand, to be made on the Northern Railway of France in connection with the suburban service. Where large numbers of stations have to be dealt with, the inventor proposes to modify the arrangement of his machine by fitting it with keys like a typewriter, the depression of any one of which will cause the printing of a ticket for the corresponding station. In this way a possible loss of time in selecting the proper station from the rim of the disc previously referred to will be avoided. The machine, as made for twenty stations, is about 5 feet 8 inches high, and has a base 18 inches square.

THE U.S. Pilot Chart of the North Pacific Ocean for the present month contains, among other useful information, a description of the storm-warning signals employed by the various maritime nations. In looking over this list one is struck by the great success of the system of drum and cone signals introduced in this country in the year 1861 by Admiral FitzRoy, the first chief of the Meteorological Office, as these have been adopted, in either their original or somewhat modified form, in every Portugal, which uses flags only; while in France, Germany European country in which storm signals are used except and the Netherlands the cones or drums are supplemented by the use of flags or balls. They are also used in India and Japin in conjunction with balls, while flags or balls (only) are used in China and in North and South America. Prior to their introduction by Admiral FitzRoy, no signals to give notice of possible atmospherical disturbances were employed except in Holland, where there was a kind of semaphore, showing the difference of | barometric readings between two places, from which one's own conclusions could be drawn as to the probability of approaching bad weather.

WITH the notable exception of M. Pénaud, most experimenters on mechanical flight have worked with fixed aeroplanes driven by a screw-propeller. A somewhat new departure has been made by Major R. F. Moore, who has selected the Indian flying-fox (Pteropus edulis) as his pattern on which to construct models. From his experiments, which are described in the Aeronautical Journal, Major Moore concludes that artificial wings can be constructed in imitation of those of the flying-fox, and that the action of the pectoral muscles can be reproduced by spiral springs of suitable strength to hold the wings expanded, the up and down motion being accomplished by means of a light electric or other motor. Two or more pairs of wings, arranged tandem fashion, are found to be better than a single pair-a result fully in accordance with the conclusions formed by other observers. Major Moore considers it quite possible to construct a machine of this type capable of raising a man.

ONE of the most remarkable papers read at the recent annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America in Toronto was on the discovery of antherozoids in Zamia, by Mr. H. J. Webber. The paper has been printed at length in the Botanical Gazette, and, after the discovery of a similar mode of fertilisation in Cycas

OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. THE NOVEMBER METEORS (LEONIDS).-Although it was known that the presence of the moon would hinder materially the brilliancy of the display of the members of this particular meteor swarm, many hoped that the weather at least would compensate us for that of last year. We were, however, doomed to disappointment, and clouds were the order of the night, both in London and in many other counties where observers were on the watch. Mr. Denning, writing from Bristol on the 15th, observes lamentably, up to the present time my results are negative. November 12 was cloudy all night, November 13 cloudy, except for an interval of partly clear sky between 11h 30m. and 14h., and November 14 overcast all night."

66

Saturday night (November 13) in London proved really a first-class night for such observations, excepting, of course, the presence of the moon. It is true that white fleecy clouds occasionally came rolling up from the southward, but they afforded a magnificent spectacle, and soon disappeared in the north, leaving the sky brilliantly clear. Three facts were impressed on one when watching the heavens: first, the dearth of meteors; second, the great number of stars visible considering the brightness of the moon; and third, the extreme mildness and absence of dew.

In a watch lasting more or less continuously from 9h. to 17h. o'clock, only twenty meteors were seen, fourteen of these being estimated as Leonids, three Andromedes, and two Lyrids.

The five most brilliant Leonids were plotted directly on a star chart (Mean Equinox 1870). Three of these, when their trails were prolonged backwards, converged nearly to a point giving the coordinates of the radiant point as 152°, +25°, while the other two apparently emanated from 171°, + 19o. details of each are as follows:

Thus,

of form which these satellites undergo when in transit. as regards the third satellite the transit "was very remarkable. The satellite appeared as a black or very dark spot on its disc, and close to the south limb of the satellite was a small, round, very white spot, fully as conspicuous as I have shown it. No other details were seen on it." The drawing referred to above shows the satellite's disc very nearly black, the spot measuring about one-sixth of the diameter of the satellite being represented nearly white. The observations of Prof. Barnard show fairly conclusively that the changes in form of the discs as they pass across the primary are only apparent, and not due to any peculiarity of shape of the satellites themselves. In fact, he himself is perfectly convinced that they are caused by the relative intensities of the satellite's markings in their transit over those of the primary. The peculiar feature of a double dark spot, or an elongated white spot shown by the first satellite in transit, is due to the fact that this body has a bright equatorial region and dark poles. When transiting across a bright portion of Jupiter's disc, the satellite appears like a double dark spot, and when over a dark portion like an elongated white one.

The discrepancy between the forms of the surface markings on these satellites, as seen by two such observers as Mr. Douglass and Prof. Barnard, is indeed remarkable, and it would be of interest to know what would be the result of an interchange of instruments at the time of the next oppositions.

COMET PERRINE (OCTOBER 16).-The following is a continuation of the ephemeris of Comet Perrine for the ensuing week as computed by Herr. J. Möller (Astr. Nachr., No. 3456):—

12h. Berlin M.T.

Decl.

+64 43'0 63530 63 46

The

1897. Nov. 18 19. 20 ...

R.A.

h. m. S. 18 28 14

24 3

62 17'7 61 323

60 48.3

24

17 59

60 5'7

25

16 49

59 24.6

Number 5 was somewhat unusual, falling towards the south-eastern horizon very slowly, that part of the trail close to the head being distinctly wavy. It may be mentioned that two cameras pointed first towards the Pleiades in the earlier portion of the evening, and towards Leo when sufficiently high in the sky, recorded not a single trail, although fourteen plates were exposed for forty minutes each during the time of observation.

JUPITER'S THIRD AND FOURTH SATELLITES.-Prof. Barnard has communicated to the Astr. Nach. (No. 3453) some most interesting observations of the third and fourth satellites of Jupiter, together with a set of drawings of these bodies made both out of and at the time of transit. These observations are valuable, as they can be compared with those made by Mr. Douglass. and described in the Asir. Nach. (No. 3432). That they differ from these latter is only natural considering the difficulty of the observations themselves, but that this difference is so great and fundamental is very surprising. Mr. Douglass, it will be remembered, found that the surfaces of these two satellites were covered with series of fine dark lines, measuring less than o"I, or about 200 miles, and similar somewhat to those surface markings as observed at his observatory upon Mars, Venus, and Mercury. Prof. Barnard, on the other hand, has failed altogether to see these details, although he has employed the 36-inch Lick refractor in the attempt; the markings he observed always ap peared to be large and more or less diffused, with the exception of the white polar caps which, as he says, are exactly like those of Mars. In the case of the third satellite the cap is generally situated at the north limb, although on one or two occasions a white southern cap has been observed. Both caps of the fourth satellite have been clearly distinguished, that at the north being sometimes exceptionally large, covering a surface equal to one-quarter to one-third of the diameter of the satellite.

Most interesting are the appearances and apparent changes

26 18 15 45 +58 44'8 01376... 00278... 07

...

THE VARIABLE STAR B LYRE.-If Argelander's formula be used for the determination of the times of minima and maxima of this variable star, it will be found that these times do not exactly correspond with those now observed. Herr Panne. koek has recently undertaken to investigate the cause of this discrepancy, and has published his results in the Koninklyke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam (vol. v. No. 7). A brief account of the main results are, however, contributed to the Astronomische Nachrichten (No. 3546). The improved formula for determining the times of the principal minima is given by Herr Pannekoek as

1855 Jan. 6, 604 Greenwich M.T. + 12 908009 E +0000003855 E2 - 0000000000047 E3, and he adds a table, which facilitates greatly this computation, containing every twentieth minimum from É = 500 (1837) to E = + 1500 (1908).

To determine the amount, if any, of a variation in the light curve, Herr Pannekoek divided the period of observation into two parts, before and after 1870, and obtained two sets of mean values for the mantissæ of the principal points reckoned from a principal minimum:

This showed that the difference between the intervals from the principal minimum in the case of the maxima was quite apparent, while in the case of the secondary minimum it was comparatively small. It is pointed out, however, that a possible cause may be due to different methods of curve-drawing, some observers drawing the curves symmetrically, and others not. The curves, he finds, further show small irregularities in intensity somewhat of the same kind as those observed in 7 Aquila, which render uncertain the times of first maximum and principal minimum. Herr Pannekoek finds that only the variation in the time of the maxima can be put down to causes other than those of errors of observation and drawing.

GEOLOGISTS IN CANADA.

IN recording in our columns the proceedings of the British Association at Toronto last August, passing reference was made to the excursion to the Pacific coast which was to take place at the close of the meeting. This excursion was in every way such an unqualified success, and especially from the point of view of the geologist, that we think some further account will be ac ceptable to British geologists who were unable to attend the meeting.

It was indeed a tour which could not but make a lasting im pression upon all of us who took part in it. The vast extent and diversity of the country traversed; the richness of the material resources of the Dominion of Canada; the energy and enterprise of its inhabitants; the orderly conditions of the new civilisation even in the remotest settlements, were features which could only be properly appreciated after an experience of this kind. And beyond these general impressions it was scarcely possible for the student of any branch of science to traverse the great continent without accumulating fresh material and fresh ideas in his own particular subject. Amid a panorama of scenery always interesting and sometimes magnificent, we were carried from ocean to ocean in the greatest comfort, in many parts of the course through stretches of mountain and forest which but for the railway would have been absolutely impenetrable for the traveller however well equipped.

The arrangements for the excursion were made by the Local Committee in Toronto, who invited a limited number of the visiting members of the British Association to take part in it. To these members the Canadian Pacific Railway Company munificently presented tickets for the whole length of their main line, with the privilege also to travel without cost over any of their branch lines. A special car was attached to each of the west-bound trains leaving Toronto on three consecutive days, and remained at the service of the members until they reached the Pacific coast. The excursion party thus resolved itself into three groups, which were so arranged by the Local Committee that those of like interests should as far as possible travel together.

46

The geologists and their friends the geographers formed the third of these groups, leaving Toronto in the sleeping car Chaudière" on the noon of Friday, August 27. They were especially fortunate in having for their leaders Dr. G. M. Dawson, the Director of the Canadian Survey, and Prof. A. P. Coleman, of the Toronto University and the Bureau of Mines of Ontario, men whose knowledge of the country to be traversed was so intimate that no point of interest could escape unnoticed. Among the members of our party were Dr. W. T. Blanford, Prof. W. C. Roberts-Austen, Dr. C. Le Neve Foster, Prof. Albrecht Penck (of Vienna), Prof. W. M. Davis (of Harvard), Prof. K. Huerthle (of Breslau), Sir George Robertson, Prince Kropotkin, Prof. H. E. Armstrong, Colonel F. Bailey, Prof. T. Hudson Beare, Dr. H. O. Forbes, Mr. W. E. Hoyle, Dr. A. Harden, Dr. J. Scott Keltie, Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, Dr. H. R. Mill, and Prof. H. A. Miers.

From the very outset the geological interest of the journey was continuous. Scarcely had we left Toronto when Prof. Coleman pointed out to us the long stretches of the Iroquois beach, an ancient tilted shore-line of Lake Ontario. Next we passed for three or four hours over an irregular plain of drift, beneath which lay hidden the almost undisturbed Paleozoic rocks of this region. After skirting the shores of Lake Simcoe, we crossed the great unconformity, and found ourselves upon that vast Archæan protaxis which was thenceforward to be traversed for a distance of over 1100 miles almost without interruption. Night closed on the characteristic scenery of this Archæan country-a timbered wilderness with hummocky rocks, every. where smoothed and polished by glaciation, rising into low hills and enclosing lakes and lakelets innumerable with swamps or sluggish drainage channels between. Lake Nipissing, with its ancient terraces, through which it is believed that the outflow of the Upper Great Lakes once found its way into the Ottawa River, was passed in the night. In the morning we found ourselves "side-tracked" at Sudbury, in the centre of a mining region, which already produces fully one-half of the world's consumption of nickel, and could supply more.

With that energetic hospitality which met us at every halt, the Mayor of Sudbury, with a local committee of reception, was early astir with a carefully arranged plan for the day. After a public breakfast a special engine was at hand to take the “Chaudière" and its occupants to the renowned Copper Cliff Mines.

Through the admirable forethought of Dr. Dawson, who struck something akin to awe into us by his power of conjuring up in the most unlikely places whoever or whatever we might most desire, Mr. A. E. Barlow, of the Canadian Survey, had made his appearance on the train during the night from his camp in the woods, and was ready to give us the benefit of his intimate knowledge of the district. With him and Prof. Coleman as our guides, we studied to the best advantage. at the outcrop, the mode of occurrence of these great deposits of nickeliferous pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite which apparently are segregated in an area of gabbro near its contact with granite. We were then shown through the surface works of the mine, the managers pointing out to us each stage in the reduction of the ore, from its initial crushing and roasting to its smelting into "matte," in which form it is sent east for further refinement. Some of these processes were especially interesting to the metallurgists and chemists of our party.

On leaving this mine we divided into two companies, those who were anxious to see more of the nickel-mines visiting Denison, about twenty miles west of Sudbury, where the prospectors were developing an ore-deposit similar in character to that of Sudbury, but remarkable as containing also some platinum in the form of the rare arsenide, sperrylite, and a little gold. Here some of the earth overlying the ore-deposit was panned out, and a fair show of grains of sperrylite obtained.

The other members were conveyed by their special engine to Fairbank, a few miles distant, whence they went in wagons over a terribly rough corduroy" road to a place in the woods where a curious vein of carbonaceous material had been struck, which its discoverers hoped might prove a valuable source of fuel. This material, known as anthraxolite, though not a true coal in the ordinary sense, is composed of almost pure carbon. It occurs in this place as an irregular upright vein, in some parts several feet in width, somewhat interpenetrated by quartz. This vein cuts across the bedding of the surrounding dark carbonaceous slaty rocks, which are either of Lower Cambrian or of Huronian age.

At this place, as we wound our way along the forest trail towards the luncheon place, there was a sudden and for the moment inexplicable stampede of the foremost members of the file, who had unwittingly plunged into a hornet's nest, and suffered inconvenience in consequence. And this little accident was the only mishap of the whole journey!

After luncheon a further expedition was made in birch-bark canoes up the Vermilion River, for three or four miles, to a spot on Vermilion Lake where a shaft had been sunk to develop another vein of the anthraxolite, but where its mode of occurrence was not so clearly seen. On regaining our vehicles, we were conscious op starting of a sense of loss, and then perceived that our two most prominent foreign members were missing. We discovered them, however, placidly eating pie in the logcabin of a settler. They eagerly explained that they were "studying the customs of the country ""-a phrase which thenceforward acquired a special significance.

In returning to Sudbury our train was stopped to allow Mr. Barlow to point out an intrusive contact of the Laurentian granite upon the brecciated edge of the diorite (Huronian ?), which appears to be the normal relation of the two rocks in this region. This makes it somewhat difficult to under-tand how the metalliferous ore has been concentrated at the original margin of the basic mass.

In the evening we were banqueted by the citizens, and after many mutually complimentary speeches retired to the "Chaudière" with the consciousness of a well-spent day.

The morning of the 29th found us traversing a sparsely inhabited region of lakes and forests to the north-east of Lake Superior. The rocks were for the greater part of Laurentian type, a matted complex of igneous intrusions mostly of granitic character, but presenting now and again a more basic "Huronian" aspect. The marks of glaciation were everywhere visible, on a scale quite inconceivable to the British glacialistin fact, one might say that this whole day's journey was across a huge glaciated surface.

And here it may be remarked, as illustrating the immense scale of the glacial phenomena of North America, that throughout the whole of our journey of 3000 miles we were never at any one point outside the limits of the glacial deposits, and that in one shape or another the evidences of former glaciation were always visible from our car windows. Moreover, we might have gone eastward from Montreal for an additional 750 miles,

to the shores of the open Atlantic, with still the same glacial surroundings!

In the early afternoon at Heron Bay, Lake Superior lay below us, and until nightfall our course ran through the bold and picturesque scenery of its cliffy margin. Old beach-terraces lying high above the present lake were pointed out to us in many places, these being the margins of different stages of the ancient glacier-dammed lake of vast extent to which the names Warren, Nipissing, &c., have been applied.

Towards evening there came a change in the profile of the land, striking alike to the geologists and the geographers, the familiar low hummocky outlines of the Archæan giving place to the bolder features of broad tabular rock-masses rising high above the lake with cliff-like sides, the bright red tints of which were strongly accentuated by the setting sun. These masses are composed of Lower Cambrian rocks (Animikie and Keweenawan), chiefly red sandstones and shales with some thin limestones, preserved under a capping of columnar diabase, which rest with the most pronounced unconformability, cakelike, upon the irregular Archæan floor, like the Torridon Sandstone on the gneiss in the North-west Highlands.

As if the elements themselves were imbued with the spirit of Canadian hospitality, not only was the weather almost throughout our tour everything one could desire, but also on this particular evening there came a fine display of aurora borealis to charm us when darkness had hidden the land.

The following day, August 30, we arrived early at Rat Portage, the chief mining centre of Western Ontario, where we found Mr. McInnes, of the Canadian Survey, just in from his camp to meet us. Here again we were received by the principal citizens, and led at once to the wharf on the beautiful Lake of the Woods, where a special steamboat had been chartered for us. The extremely interesting Archæan geology of this region has been made known to European geologists by the classic Canadian Survey Memoir of Prof. A. C. Lawson, and we rejoiced in the opportunity to examine some of the sections described by him. Our first object was to visit the highly successful Sultana gold mine on an eastern arm of the lake. On the way thither we stopped to land at one of the Indian Reservations, where a curious native burial-ground had attracted our attention; and the pathetic mementos which decorated a child's grave excited our somewhat too obtrusive interest. Later in the day we were enabled to visit a second camp, and see something of its living inhabitants.

At the Sultana Mine, where a mill of ten stamps is already at work and a number of additional stamps are being erected, we were shown the process of treating the ore, which is largely free-milling, only 20 per cent. of the gold being left in the concentrates for recovery by the chlorination process. The metal occurs in a quartz vein, at one place admirably exposed at the surface, which traverses the country-rock near the contact of granite, said to be Laurentian, with Huronian diabase. Throughout the Dominion it appears to be in similar positions around the contact of intrusive masses that the chief metalliferous deposits are found.

Led by Prof. Coleman, to whom this whole region is familiar, and by Mr. McInnes, we next ascended the hill to the east of the mine, and further examined the junction of the so-called Laurentian granite with the Huronian rocks, and noted the intrusive character of the former. Then rejoining our steamer we went westward to some islands in the lake, on which the agglomeratic and apparently volcanic character of the Huronian rocks was well displayed.

The waters of the lake were thick with a minute green floating organism, probably an alga. It is said that there are 13,000 islands in this lake alone; which may be an over-estimate, but they are certainly very numerous. We were told that they were to be bought at all prices, from five dollars upwards, so that the possession of a private island in this part of the world need not be an expensive luxury. And it might, perchance, hold a gold

mine!

Spending the night at Rat Portage the geologists were early astir next morning, and found time for further investigation of this interesting locality. Under Prof Coleman's guidance we studied the contact of Laurentian and Huronian at several points to the westward of the town, near where the waters of the lake pour through three distinct outlets to form the Winnipeg River. It can scarcely be said that our investigations enabled us to grasp the complex relationship of these great rock-groups, though in some of the sections the gneissic Laurentian seemed

But the general

clearly to be intrusive upon the Huronian. impression to be gathered from all we saw of these rocks was that the term Huronian might include very different rocks in different places, and that still more was this the case with the term Laurentian. Until the Post-Archæan rocks are reached no strict divisional lines seem possible. Upon such difficult problems as these of the oldest rocks, however, the casual observer of a few isolated sections has really no right to own an opinion.

The enormous water-power which the Lake of the Woods contains, has to a slight extent already been utilised at one or the other outlet, in the production of an electric supply for the city, and for driving extensive flour-mills at Keewatin. But a fine dam is now nearly finished by which the whole outflow will be made available for industrial purposes, and it has even been proposed to convey the power to Winnipeg over 100 miles distant. The navigation of the lake between Rat Portage and Keewatin had lately been much impeded by a floating island of vegetation, but this, as we saw, had been surrounded with a boom of logs, and fixed to the shore.

Boarding the train again at Keewatin, our course lay for a few hours longer through typical Archæan country; but gradually the old rocks sank beneath the drift-plain, and before reaching Winnipeg in the afternoon we had passed once more on to a hidden platform of the Older Paleozoics, and had reached the edge of the great prairies. We were now within the basin of the glacial Lake Agassiz. This extinct lake is believed by its explorer, Mr. Warren Upham, to have extended eastward well beyond the Lake of the Woods, and westward to the "second prairie steppe" of Dr. Dawson, a breadth of about 250 miles, while the length from its termination southward in Minnesota to its northern shore against the ice-sheet north of the present Lake Winnipeg may have been nearly 700 miles; its area has been given as about 110,000 square miles, or greater than the total of the six existing great lakes, Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario and Winnipeg! It is to its finer sediments that the wonderfully productive character of the soil of the Manitoba prairies is largely due.

At Winnipeg, the "half-way house" of the continent, the west-bound trains stop for an hour and a half to refit. With special tram-cars at our service, we were thus able to see something of this substantial city with its many handsome buildings. The old Hudson Bay post, Fort Garry, standing in their midst, reminded us how marvellously rapid has been the growth of this western capital.

On the evening of August 31, with Winnipeg behind us, the crossing of the plains had fairly commenced. Some writer-it must surely be Lawrence Sterne--has pointed out the great value of a plain to the discursive recorder of travels. One could not do better than follow this preceptor by setting down here some general reflections which might otherwise find no place for

themselves.

First, we have to regret how few in number were the British geologists to avail themselves of this magnificent opportunity for study. It is often urged against us, and not without reason, that we are too insular in our ideas and too apt to ignore the work done beyond our borders. Certainly the geologist who confines his attention solely to the neat details of British stratigraphy can scarcely hope to realise the true proportions of the problems with which the earth-student must deal. Explanations of phenomena which seem quite applicable on the small scale, often reveal their essential inadequacy under wider conditions of application. And for a corrective study of broad conditions this transcontinental journey must assuredly be unrivalled.

The railway goes more or less at right angles to the strike of the continent, and traverses therefore all the main rockmasses of which the land is built, and all the great structural features by which it is diversified. Hence the final impression which the geologist receives is that of some vast diagrammatic section of a continent. Even the scant time spent in making the traverse was, on this occasion, compensated for by the presence of the men who knew all that is yet known of the route, and who were always ready to impart what they knew.

Next, although in the abstract patriotism is out of place in science, let us record the sense of gratification felt by the British members of the party, that across the breadth of this wide and prosperous Dominion we were among brothers. One could scarcely make a journey of this kind without becoming a little more Imperialist than before.

Then let us set down our admiration for the work of the