tive gas burner, and regenerative gas and coke stove; the hypothesis of the conservation of solar energy; all of which have appeared from time to time in these columns. The last time Sir William Siemens lectured in public in this country was at the Institution of Civil Engineers on March 13 last, on "The Electrical Transmission and Storage of Power," the evening the attempt was made to blow up the offices of the Local Government Board by dynamite, when, although a portion of the glass was shattered in the theatre of the Institution, the lecturer resumed the thread of the discourse after a moment's pause as though nothing had occurred.

Sir William was a member of nearly all the scientific societies of Great Britain; he was the senior member of council of the Institution of Civil Engineers; he was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1862, and had twice served on the council of that body. He has been President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, twice of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, of the Iron and Steel Institute, and last year, at Southampton, of the British Association; whilst at the time of his death he was Chairman of the Council of the Society of Arts. He was made a D. C.L. of Oxford honoris causâ in 1870, an LL.D. of Glasgow in 1880, of Dublin in 1882, in which year the University of Würtzburg also bestowed on him its honorary Ph.D. He was elected with Sir Henry Bessemer, the first honorary members of the GewerbeVerein of Berlin, besides being a corresponding or ordinary member of several learned societies in Europe and America.

He received prize medals at the Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, and a Grand Prix at the French Exhibition of 1867 for his regenerative gas furnace and steel processes. In 1874 he was presented with the "Royal Albert Medal," and in 1875 with the "Bessemer Medal" on account of his scientific researches and his inventions relating to heat and metallurgy, whilst only last week the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers awarded him the Howard Quinquennial Prize for the advances he had made in the manufacture of iron and steel. He has received recognition of his services to pure and applied science from the Emperor of Brazil, the Shah of Persia, and from France both under the Empire and the Republic, whilst in March last Her Majesty was graciously pleased to confer upon him the honour of knighthood.

It was whilst returning from the monthly meeting of the Managers of the Royal Institution on November 5 that he met with the accident that accelerated his death, which took place on Monday, the 19th inst.

In accordance with the desire of the whole community, the public ceremonial performance of the last sad rites took place in Westminster Abbey on Monday last before the remains were conveyed to their resting-place in the cemetery at Kensal Green. The Prince of Wales placed his name at the head of the requisition submitted to the Dean of Westminster, asking that a public funeral might mark the recognition of Sir William Siemens's claims to be held in remembrance as a public benefactor, while few were more deeply affected at the graveside than the men who came to show their respect to a kindly

master.

At the Abbey, according to the Times report, the

distinguished public personages and representatives of scientific bodies assembled in the Jerusalem Chamber or in the Abbey, members of societies not attending in official capacities having places assigned them in the sacrarium or transepts, the choir and seats under the tower being reserved for presidents, vice-presidents, members of council, and officers of the societies invited to be present. The ancient tapestried chamber which has of late years been the scene of several such sad gatherings was filled-indeed, crowded—with the many warm friends and admirers of the deceased. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales was represented by one of his grooms-in-waiting, Mr. Andrew Cockerell. The German Ambassador, Count Münster; the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Childers; the First Commissioner of Works, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre; Lord Bramwell, and Lord Claud Hamilton were also present; together with Mr. F. R. Pickersgill, Keeper of the Royal Academy, representing the President, Sir F. Leighton; Sir Douglas Forsyth, Sir Theodore Martin, Sir J. M'Garel Hogg, M.P., Sir Henry Tyler, M.P., Major-General Sir Andrew Clarke, General Crofton, Major-General Pasley; Mr. Fung Yee, secretary to the Chinese Legation, and others.

Taking the scientific Societies and their representatives in the order in which they were marshalled to join the procession, there were as pall-bearers-Prof. Huxley, President of the Royal Society; Sir Frederick Bramwell, predecessor of Sir William Siemens in the office of Chairman of Council of the Society of Arts; Mr. Brunlees, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers; Mr. Percy Westmacott, President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers; Prof. Sir W. Thomson, for the British Association; Prof. Tyndall (Royal Institution); Mr. Willoughby Smith, President of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians (a society of which Sir William was the first president); and Sir James Ramsden (in the unavoidable absence of Mr. B. Samuelson, M. P.), representing the Iron and Steel Institute. The Royal Society was further represented by the treasurer, Dr. John Evans, and the secretaries, Prof. G. G. Stokes and Prof. Michael Foster; and among other well known members of this, the oldest of the learned and scientific societies, were Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir Frederick John Evans, K.C.B., Mr. Norman Lockyer, Mr. Warrington Smyth, Dr. Hopkinson, Prof. W. G. Adams, Prof. Bartholonew Price, Prof. Chandler Roberts, Prof. R. B. Clifton. Prof. Carey Foster, and Mr. R. W. Mylne. The Society of Arts was represented by the following Members of Council:--Sir Frederick Abel, C. B., F.R.S., Mr. A. Carpmael, Mr. Andrew Cassels, Lord Alfred S. Churchill, Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen, Mr. B. F. Cobb, Mr. H. Doulton, Capt. Douglas Galton, C. B., F.R.S., Admiral Sir Edward Inglefield, C.B., F.R.S., Mr. T. V. Lister, Mr. Owen Roberts, Lord Sudeley, and by Mr. H. Trueman Wood, secretary, Mr. H. B. Wheatley, assistant secretary, Mr. Howard Room, and other officers. Of the Institution of Civil Engineers there were past presidents-Sir John Hawkshaw, F.R.S., Sir Charles Hutton Gregory, K. C.M.G., Mr. Hawksley, Mr. Bateman, Mr. Barlow, Mr. Abernethy; vice-presidents-Mr. Edward Woods, Mr. G. B. Bruce ; Mr. Charles Manby, honorary secretary; Sir John Coode, Mr. Berkley, Dr. Pole, Mr. Hayter, Sir Robert

Rawlinson, C.B., Mr. E. A. Cowper, Mr. Rendel, Mr. B Baker, Sir James N. Douglass, and Mr. J. W. Barry, members of Council; and Mr. James Forrest, secretary, and Mr. H. E. Eaton, assistant secretary. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers sent- Mr. Ramsbottom, a past president, for long mechanical engineer to the London and North-Western Railway Company: Mr. Rennie and Mr. T. R. Crampton, vice-presidents; Mr. W. Anderson, Mr. Kitson, Mr. Peacock, Mr. Richardson, Mr. J. Tomlinson, jun., Mr. Tweddell, and Mr. Price Williams, members of Council; Mr. W. R. Browne, secretary, and Mr. A. Bache, assistant secretary. Prof. Bonney's name may be given as one of many connected with the British Association; and as members of the London Institution those of Mr. Warren De La Rue, F.R.S., Mr. W. Bowman, F.R.S., its honorary secretary; and Dr. Gladstone, F.R.S. From the Society of Telegraph Engineers there were-Mr. Latimer Clark,

Lieut.-Col. Webber, R.E., C.B., past presidents; Mr. Spagnoletti, Prof. D. E. Hughes, F.R.S., and Sir Charles Bright, vice-presidents; Mr. Stroh and Mr.

H. C. Forde, of the Council; and Mr. F. H. Webb,

secretary. The Iron and Steel Institute, of which Sir W. Siemens was a past president, was also represented by Mr. W. Whitwell, Mr. G. J. Snelus, Mr. Edward Williams, Mr. T. E. Horton, Mr. Daniel Adamson, Mr. E. Windsor Richards, and Mr. J. S. Jeans (secretary). The Royal Astronomical Society had a fitting representative in the Astronomer Royal, Mr. W. H. M. Christie, a vice-president. Mr. Horace Jones, president, and Mr. Mac Vicar Anderson, honorary secretary, of the Royal Institution of British Architects, and Dr. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S., President of the Chemical Society, represented those bodies. For the Royal Meteorological Society, there were the President, Prof. J. K. Laughton; Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S., the honorary secretary; the Hon. Rollo Russell, Mr. R. J. Lecky, and Dr. J. H. Gilbert. From the Institute of Naval Architects there were two vice-presidents-Mr. N. Barnaby, C.B., Director of Naval Construction; Mr. James Wright, C.B., Engineer-in-Chief at the Admiralty; and Mr. George Holmes, secretary to the Institute. The Society of Engineers was represented by the President, Mr. Jabez Church, Mr. Nursey, of the Council, and Mr. Bartholomew Reed, secretary. There were also present representatives of the Geological Society, the Chemical Society, the Physical Society, and the Society of Chemical Industry. The German Athenæum in London was represented by a deputation, headed by Count Victor Gleichen, its honorary president, and including Mr. Alma Tadema, R.A., Mr. Carl Haag, Dr. Hess, Mr. F. Rosing, Mr. E. Meyerstein, honorary secretary, and Mr. C. Sevin.

Sir Henry Bessemer wrote to the secretary of the Iron and Steel Institute expressing his deep regret that an attack of bronchitis prevented him from being present.

Forming a long procession, the occupants of the Jerusalem Chamber filed past the Westminster Schoolroom, and, meeting the family mourners at the entrance from Dean's Yard, took their appointed places, and followed the coffin through the cloister to the Canons' door, in the south aisle of the Abbey. The coffin was

covered with wreaths sent from nearly every country in Europe.

A great part of the large assemblage joined the procession formed after the Abbey service and accompanied the remains to Kensal Green. At the cemetery there were also present very many of the workmen from the telegraph works at Woolwich. A bank of grass and flowers breast high encircled the head of the grave, and the sides of the interior were hidden by fern-fronds and flowers.

The inscription on the coffin was simply-
C. William Siemens,
Died 19th Nov., 1883.
Aged 60 years.

THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND

Finland: its Forests and Forest Management. Compiled

by J. C. Brown, LL.D. (London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., and William Rider and Son, 1883.)

AT a time when renewed effort is being made in our own country to stir up interest in the subject of forestry, it is instructive to notice what progress is being made in woodcraft in other lands. Sir Richard Temple brought before the Social Science Congress at its recent meeting the condition of our home and colonial forestry; next year an international forestry exhibition is to be held in Edinburgh; and Sir John Lubbock has given notice of a motion affecting forestry for next session in the House of Commons.

Dr. Brown divides his book into three parts, dealing respectively with the lakes and rivers of Finland, its forest economy, and its physical geography, including geology. The first part, though decidedly interesting, savours rather too much of the guide-book style, and is interspersed with adventures and scriptural quotations. Water occupies two-fifths of the area of Finland, which is called by its inhabitants "The Land of a Thousand Lakes," and most of the internal communications of the country are effected along its lakes and streams. Another poetical designation, "The Last-born Daughter of the Sea," refers to the recent upheaval of the Finnish area, a rising which is still in progress, as is proved by the continuous shallowing of the waters on the Baltic coast line. The country abounds in interesting glacial phenomena, but we must confess to a feeling of disappointment with the geological as well as with the first portion of the work. Moreover, ordinary care has scarcely been exercised, otherwise we should not read of "palatal mansions," of boulders "marled or variagated" by lichens, of "moluscs," "mamifers," and "carnivori," nor yet of "the old Taurentian formation," to say nothing of the excessively vague notion conveyed by such an expression as "pre

Adamic times."

The second part, dealing with forest economy, occupies rather more than half the book, and constitutes presumably the raison d'être of the whole. Forest products form more than half the total value of exports from Finland, and it is estimated that 64 per cent. of the entire surface of the land is covered with forests, which up to quite recent times were subjected to the most reckless waste. Finland is the only country in Europe in which sart age

that is, the practice of setting fire to the trees in order to clear the ground, is still carried on extensively. The clearing away of the woods is to prepare the ground for agriculture, but as much or more by the preparation of the soil as by obtaining space for the cultivation contemplated, and this is the peculiarity of the usage. The trees growing on the spot selected are burned, and the seed is sown on the soil thus manured with the ashes of the trees. The effects of sartage in other European countries, in India, and in North America, are brought under notice and discussed at some length. In France it is a practice recognised both in forest science and in forest management, but whereas it was formerly resorted to largely it is now adopted only in special circumstances. It is there found that the oak, particularly a hardy variety known as the rouvre, of all forest trees sustains best the treatment of sartage. In the Ardennes the coppice woods of rouvre, which are so treated, yield excellent firewood and charcoal. The burning is carried out in August and September, and, at the proper time for sowing cereals, rye or buckwheat is scattered over the ground and covered with a light hoe. After the crop is reaped the young treeshoots begin to grow rapidly, but it is often necessary in order to insure perpetuity of good growths to plant out seedlings, and this is especially the case with the oak.

At the present time there are in Finland districts in which sartage is now prohibited, others in which it is carried on under restrictions, and others in which it is tolerated and apparently freely practised. Should the cleared ground not be retained permanently under agriculture, it is likely to become covered again with a crop of self-sown trees, of the same kind as those destroyed, or of a kind of higher pecuniary value. On the banks of the Saima See, for example, fir trees have been replaced either by firs or by birch. The fir or pine may be of more value for building purposes, but the birch supplies a better firewood, and for this there is and probably will long continue an ever-increasing demand in St. Petersburg, to which it can be sent from most places in Finland by water.

When a crop of trees after destruction is not replaced by another crop, the proximate effect upon the climate is generally considered to be beneficial to agriculture. But in Sweden in many districts in which the forests have been cleared away it is remarked that spring now begins a fortnight later than it did in the last century, and this is attributed to protracted frost due to diminished humidity of the atmosphere.

The improved forest economy of France dates from the issue of the celebrated Forest Ordinance of 1669, if not from a much earlier period. But in Finland all improvements in forest economy have been effected since 1809, and particularly during the last twenty-five years. Though formerly an independent country, Finland was for a long time a province of Sweden, and in 1809 it was annexed to the dominions of Russia as a Grand Duchy, with the enjoyment of pre-existing privileges and of government under its own laws issued in accordance with its Constitution. In 1848 were sent out Imperial Instructions relative to the management of the Crown forests, along with regulations respecting projected surveys, and in 1858 new arrangements for the management of these forests were made.

The forest administration of Finland is now in thi hands of well-trained officers, and much of the lavish waste of former days has ceased. By giving more attention to considerate thinning, by more skilful conservation · and more scientific exploitation, it was felt that the "produce and the products of the forests might be equalised approximately, if not perfectly," and one object aimed at in the inspection of forests is to prevent the removal of trees being effected more rapidly than the re-growth. As has been remarked, Finland has a constant market for firewood and timber in St. Petersburg, where firewood is now more expensive than coal brought from Britain.

It is to its School of Forestry at Evois that Finland looks for its supply of trained forest conservators. This school was opened in 1859, and intending students were. required to produce before admission a university diploma, or a first class certificate of the completion of the course. of study at a gymnasium. Closed after a time from lack of students, it was reorganised and reopened in 1874. The course of study occupies two years, and the subjects are forest science, surveying, engineering, rural economy. legal economy, and drawing. In July and August the pupils are required, for the sake of practice, to measure fields and woods, and to estimate the quantities of standing timber. We observe that under forest science is included "the science of hunting," whereat many an English youth would no doubt be inclined to say “Happy Finlanders!" Officered by men trained in this school, the Finnish forest administration is now in a position to attain objects identical with those of the advanced forest economy of Europe: first, to secure a sustained production from the forests; secondly, to secure along with this an amelioration of their condition; and thirdly, a repro. duction of them by self-sown seed when felled.

the work consisted in which were successfully veloped. At first experiobtained at Helmsdale on had been several hours out being unsatisfactory, it was ssible, the roe and milt from e, frequently remained during ground, and boarded the herring re being hauled. The fishermen, e us, rendered every assistance in ting ripe fish, we expressed the roe s of glass, which were then placed in pecially designed for the purpose. The eyed by the Jackal to a small laboratory which had been kindly placed at the disCommittee. Once at the laboratory, the with the developing eggs firmly adhering to e transferred to hatching boxes, through which nt current of water flowed from a large tank. In hree to five days well formed active embryos were .e through the thin transparent egg membrane, and en days we successfully hatched fry from the artially impregnated ova. We soon discovered that sucss depended on having an abundant supply of pure ea-water at an equable temperature. Unfortunately, just as our arrangements for experimenting on a large scale were completed, the herring fishing in the Moray Firth came suddenly to an end, and it was impossible to obtain further supplies of eggs.

We next directed our attention to the nature of the surface forms, which are believed to supply the principal food for the herring fry, and when this, on account of the weather, was no longer possible, we proceeded to examine the mussel scalps in the Dornoch, Cromarty, and Inverness Firths.

As a full account of the autumn's work will be presented to the Board in time for the Annual Report, only a short statement is now given, indicating rath

be