A VISITING SCIENTIST.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14971, 19 May 1914, Page 10

A VISITING SCIENTIST.

DR. W. MORRIS DAVIS.

A scientist who has a world-wide reputation its a googiiipuer aau m. W. Morns .Davis, Proieasor of Physical Geogiapny and of Geology at Harvard limveibity, paid a bnex visit to Christchurch on Sunday, and left tor Dunedin by tne iiist express yesterday morning. Tne Philosophical Institute of Canterbury has arranged wiui Proie&sor Davis to deliver an address next Monday night in the School of Uingineering lecture hall to members and tbeir friends on the "Origin of the Coial Reefs of the Pacific" Proiessor Davis has spent a considerable time in making an extensive tour of the Pacific, on a grant from the Shaler Memorial Fund of Harvard University, studying the coral reefs. He Las obtained soiie very burprusuig confirmation of Professor Darwin's theory of the origin of- coral reefs, which has been tne-subject of much criticism during the past thirty years. Professor Davis has also spent some timo studying the coast t features w various parts of the North Island, which have some bearing on this question. His address to the Philosophical Institute will therefore be a veiy interesting one. While in the South, Professor Davis will visit Central Otago, for the purpose of studying the physical features of that district, notably the flat-topped mountains, broad, open valleys, and old lake basins, which are characteristic of that region. Professor Davis will return to Christchurch by the first express on Monday next, and will stay somo days. He will probably visit Rakaia Gorge, and, if time permits, will go-to Kaikoura to examine the coastline, which presents many interesting features' to a physiogrnphical geologist. I From New Zenlnnd, Professor Davis will go to New Caledonia and the New Hebrides to continue his studies of the coral reefs and similar problems, He •will attend the British _ Association meeting at Sydney, and will return to New Zealand to attend the meetings in the Dominion in Seotember.