All visitors to the New Forest are familiar with the very ugly monument which marks the place where the Red King met his death. The inscription on that monument tells how Sir Walter Tyrrell’s arrow glanced from a tree and slew Rufus, whose body was conveyed by one Purkess, a charcoal-burner, to Winchester Cathedral, where it was buried. Until fifteen years ago the body of the king rested in a tomb in front of the altar; but it was removed on the score of convenience. It is satisfactory to note that the marble sarcophagus is now to be replaced in its old position of honour, hard by the memorials which cover the dust of Saxon and Danish monarchs. The Silvertown Submarine Cable Company are at present engaged in surveying a route for the prolongation of one of their cables in the South Atlantic, and their sounding ship the _Buccaneer_ is employed in the work. With an enlightened regard for science which cannot be too highly extolled, Mr Buchanan of the _Challenger_ expedition, who has charge of the soundings, has permission from the Company to make soundings and observations for scientific purposes. He is to make use of the ship on its return voyage in any way that may seem good to him for purely scientific work. If other Cable Companies will imitate this public-spirited conduct, we shall gain a knowledge of the depths of the sea which would be perhaps unattainable in any other way. OCCASIONAL NOTES. SHOT-FIRING IN COAL-MINES. With regard to the invention attributed to Mr Miles Settle, in our article last month on ‘Shot-firing in Coal-mines,’ we are informed that Mr James Macnab, 39 Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, London, claims to have had the priority with a patent for the same or a similar object. We cannot enter into the technicalities of the question, but think it right at the same time to make this announcement. THE HUDSON BAY ROUTE FROM CANADA TO ENGLAND. The commencement of a railway which will run northwards, from the heart of the Canadian Dominion to Hudson Bay, again raises the question of a shipping route by way of Hudson Bay and Strait to England. Dr Bell of the Canadian Geological Survey, when the matter was being discussed some years ago, said that the proposed route by rail from Winnipeg to Fort Churchill, on Hudson Bay, thence by steamer to England, would be twelve hundred and ninety-one miles shorter than the Montreal route, and about seventeen hundred miles as compared with the New York route. Port Nelson, at the mouth of the Nelson River, has been finally chosen as the terminus of the proposed railway from Winnipeg. The mouth of the Nelson is reported to be open all winter for twenty or twenty-five miles up, owing to the tide. Its average width for that distance up is about three miles. At Seal Island, twenty-five miles up, there is a capital harbour, and water enough for any ocean steamer.