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Vol I, No. 1, N.Z. JOURNAL OF SCIENCE (New Issue) JANUARY, 1891.

Judicio perpende. et st tibi vera videntur
Dede manus: aut si falsum est, adcingere contra.

—LUCRETIUS.

The New ZEALAND JOURNAL OF SCIENCE was first published just nine
years ago and alter an existence of four years, its publication was
suspended until better times should dawn on the Colony. The causes
which led to the discontinuance of the periodical were stated in the
last number, that of November, 1885. ‘These causes may again lead
to the suspension of the present issue, but we trust ‘that by the
exercise of a more severe economy in management, all expenses but
the most necessary will be eliminated, and thus the Journal will be
kept gomeg as long as a minimum number of subscribers can be got.
As was stated in the circular sent out on Ist November, 1890, there is
_ ho margin of profit in the publication of such a periodical, unless the

subscribers are far more numerous than past experience leads us to
expect. Should, however, the number of subscribers exceed our
anticipations, then the size of the publication will be increased, and
we may even hope to resume illustrations. As we have no machinery
for the collection of subscriptions, it must be understood that all
subscribers are expected to pay in advance, as on no other plan can
the venture be carried out.

As regards the lines on which the publication will be conducted,
past experience may supply a few hints. It is intended, as far as
possible, to exclude all purely technical matter such as descriptions of
species, &c., except where brief details may be introduced descriptive
of authors’ papers. Where it is desirable to give information on
purely technical papers relating to New Z ealand, the attempt will be
made to obtain simple and concise abstracts. It is hoped that all
scientific papers relating to this colony, or containine matter of
special interest in this part of the world, will be brought under the
notice of the Editor. Notes on Natural History, Acclimatisation and
kindred subjects ought to bulk largely in such a periodical. We
should also like to see our columns made use of for the discussion of
scientific methods in mining and other applied arts, which are of
immense use in a colony like this.

lt may be asked: What is there in the signs of the times which
should lead to greater anticipations of success than in 1882? We
reply that in view of the recent formation of the Australasian
Association for the advancement of Science, and the fact that its
meeting this season is to be held in New Zealand, the time seems
opportune for reviving the Journal. Such a gathering of scientific
men in these islands, can hardly fail to excite a spirit of renewed
activity among some whose interest may be flagging.

Eyery year there will probably be a more and more determined
attempt to cut out of the annual Parliamentary estimates of this
colony the small vote which secures the publication of the Transac-
tions of the New Zealand Institute. The class of men who are being

2 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

returned by many of the constituencies can hardly be expected to do
anything to foster an institution regarding whose aims and benefits
they can only have the haziest ideas, beyond that itis mainly sup-
ported by men who are not of their class. Unfortunately there is
but little cohesion among the different branches of the Institute,
beyond what is secured by their belonging to a central governing
body in Wellington. Nowa periodical like the Journal of Science
should furnish just such a means of communication between the
societies afliliated to the Institute as would serve to bind them
together and bring them more into touch with one another. It is
hoped, therefore, that these Societies will do what lies in their power
to foster the Journal.

During the former period of its existence the publication was
conducted at the sole risk of one individual. On the present occasion
the attempt has been made to interest a larger number of persons in
the venture, and it is gratifying to record that the following gentlemen
have undertaken to act as sponsors for the new issue :—

A. S. Atkinson, Nelson; F. R. Chapman, Dunedin; Chas.
Chilton, Port Chalmers; J. D. Enys, Castle Hill, Canterbury ;
Dr. PT. M. Hocken, Dunedin; Professor Hutton, Christchurch; R. M.
Laing, Christchurch ; Jas. McKerrow, Wellington; S$. Percy Smith,
Wellington; and G. M. Thomson, Dunedin.

It now rests with those who take an interest in matters scientific,
to see that they do their part to back the efforts of these gentlemen,
and make the New ZEALAND JOURNAL OF SCIENCE a success.

ON THE HISTORY OF THE KIWI.*

BY PROF. T. JEFFERY PARKER, F.R.S.

=

The precise history of any existing animal or plant is extremely
difficult to get at and can only be known with certainty by the
discovery of a complete series of fossils linking it to the extinct
ancestral form from which it sprang. Naturally such complete
histories are among the rarest of biological triumphs, and even
partial histories such as we have of many of the Mammalia are only
obtainable in very favourable cases. As a rule we have to depend
upon the evidence afforded by anatomy and embryology.

Anatomy is an exact and most valuable guide to affinity,
especially between closely allied forms, but no truth has been more
abundantly proved by recent research than that results obtained by

“This article is a semi-popular abstract of my paper ‘Observations on the Anatomy
and Development of Apteryx,” shortly to be published in the Philosophical
Transactions.

HISTORY OF THE KIWI. 3

this method must be tested and corrected at every point by the study
of development: it is impossible to understand thoroughly the
structure of any species or of any organ until we know something of
its becoming. As the organism develops from the simple egg-cell
to the complete adult, it passes rapidly through stages corresponding
in a general way to those which its ancestors passed through in the
course of their evolution, during long ages, from some simple
unicellular form, and it is the recognition of this principle—that
individual is a recapitulation of ancestral development—that has
given to embryology so important a place in modern biological work.

The Kiwi—including under that name the four species of the
genus Apteryx—is the most anomalous and aberrant of existing
birds, and, living as it does only in the three islands of the New
Zealand group, may be considered as one of the proudest possessions
of our-colony.

Apteryx is sharply distinguished from all other birds by the
position of the nostrils which are at the tip of the Jong beak instead
of near the base. It is also remarkable for its small eyes and its
wonderfully perfect olfactory organs, all other existing birds having
large eyes and a comparatively poorly developed organ of smell.
The eye, moreover, differs from that of all known birds in being
devoid of the pecten, a plaited process of the choroid coat which
extends from near the entrance of the optic nerve to the back of the
crystalline lens.

The Kiwi is placed, along with the Ostrich, Rhea, Emu, Casso-
wary and Moa, in the sub-class Ratirx, all other existing birds
being included under a second sub-class Carinatz. The distinctive
characters of these two groups may be very briefly summarized
and are, for the most part, connected with the power of flight
possessed by the great majority of the Carimatz and the absence of
that power in the Ratite, which are without exception terrestrial
birds with extremely small and insignificant wings—quite incapable
of raising their usually bulky bodies from the ground.

1. In Ratite the feathers are evenly distributed over the body :
in Carinate they usually spring from well defined feather tracts
separated from one another by featherless spaces.

2. In Carinate there are large tail-feathers or rectrices arranged
in a semicircle around the blunt tail proper or uropygium (‘“ parson’s
nose”): in Ratitz there are no well defined rectrices.

3. In Carinate the barbules of the feathers are bound together
by means of microscopic hooklets so that the whole vane of the
feather forms a coherent membrane: in Ratitx there are no hooklets,
the barbules are therefore disconnected and the feathers have a
downy or more or less hair-like appearance.

4, In Carinatz the breast-bone is a large transversely curved
bone provided with a keel for the attachment of the pectoral
muscles: in Ratite the sternum is usually flat and never has a
keel.

4 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

5. In Carinate the scapula and coracoid—the two chief bones of
the shoulder-girdle—-are large and set to one another at an angle
which is usually acute though it may rise to 106°. There is nearly
always a fureula or merry thought attached to a process of the
scapula called the acromion and to two processes of the coracoid, the
acrocoracoid or clavicular process and the procoracoid process. In
the Ratite the coracoid and scapular are small, fused together into a
single bone, and their long axes make an obtuse augle: the furcula
is either absent or greatly reduced and the acromion, acrocoracoid,
and procoracoid processes are reduced to mere insignificant tubercles.

6. The quadrate, or bone by which the lower jaw articulates
with the skull, has a double head in Carinate, a single head in Ratite.
As it is single-headed also in embryo Carinate this character is
usually held to mdicate the more primitive position of the Ratite.

In Ratita: the hinder ends of the pterygoid bones of the skull
articulate with a pair of large basi-pterygoid processes which spring
from the body of the basi-sphenoid bone: in Carinate the basi-
pterygoid processes are small, spring as arule from the base of the
rostrum of the basi- sphenoid, not from the body of the bone, and
articulate with the pterygoids some distance from their posterior
ends.

8. The vomer of Ratite is a large broad bone: in Carimate it is
usually small.

Zoologists are agreed as to the origin of birds from some kind ot
reptilian ancestor, but there are many differences of opinion as to the
relations of the two sub-classes. The older ornithologists considered
the whole of the Ratitze as an order (Cursores) equivalent not to the
whole of the Carinatxz but to one of its subdivisions, such as Passeres,
Galline, &e. The view now generally adopted is that the Ratite
include several orders, each of which, although containing only one
or two genera, is the zoological equivalent of an entire order of
Carinate. This view is taken by, inter alia, Prof. A. Newton (Encye.
Brit., Art. Ornithology) and Prof. Fiirbringer whose learned and
colossal work on the Morphology and Classification of Birds has
brought the results of all former workers to a focus and has provided
the student of the eroup with a critical summary of the entire
subject such as has never been attempted before.

Taking, then, the Ratite and Carimate as fairly equivalent
groups the question arises what is their relation to one another?
There are three views taken by modern writers on this matter.

1. The Ratite represent an ancient type of birds derived from
flightless reptilian ancestors. According to this view the progenitors
of the group have never possessed the power of flight, and their
relations to the Carinate may be expressed diagrammatically as
follows :—

HISTORY OF THE KIWI. 5

Carinatse

Ratitze

\
\

N]

The power of flight may be supposed’ to have been acquired at the
point «.

The earliest birds were able to fly: from them were descended
(a) the Carinate in which the power of flight was retained, and (b)
the Ratite in which it was lost in the course of evolution, the
assumption of a purely cursorial mode of life being accompanied by
degeneration of the wings and other parts connected with the
function of flight. This view is illustrated by the following diagram,
x again representing the point at which serial progression ‘began —

Carinatie

Ratitze

3. The third hypothesis is a modification of the second. It also
supposes that the earliest birds could fly and that the Ratite arose
from these, their organs of flight becoming degenerate; but instead
of supposing a single group “to arise in this way and afterwards, by
divergence of characters, to split up into the various forms of Ratite
now existing, it assumes that each of these groups arose separately
from primitive flying birds. Thus while hypotheses (1) and (2)
ascribe a single or monophyletic origin to the Ratite, hypothesis (3)
imagines them to have hada multiple or polyphyletic origin. The
following diagram—taken from Fiirbringez’s elaborate “Stammbaum,”
—expresses this theory, x having the same significance as before :—

Carinatz
Apteryx

Dinornis

Rhea

Casuarius
=
eee

=

Struthio | ———__ Dromeus
|
|
|
|
|

Pee

6 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

I propose to give a brief account of the salient points in the
development of the Kiwi, pointing out their bearing upon the three
theories just enuntiated.

In the earliest stages, as might have been expected, there is
little of importance to record, the resemblance to ordinary birds being
very close. One interesting point must, however, be mentioned,
although it has no bearing upon the origin of birds. In a stage
corresponding with a chick of about the sixth day of incubation there
is a distinct operculum or gill-cover extending back from the hyoid
arch over the 2nd and 3rd visceral clefts. As far as I am aware no
such structure has been found in any vertebrate animal above the
Amphibia.

The feathers first make their appearance when the embryo is about
60 mm. long and corresponds in its general characters with a chick of
the 8th-9th day. They do not appear evenly all over the body, but as
a comparatively narrow tract along the middle of the back and after-
wards spreading on to the thighs. Later a tract appears on each
side of the belly and smaller tracts on the wings, all being separated
by well marked featherless spaces. Even in the adult the most
important of these spaces can be traced.

In the adult there is a loose fold of skin on the anterior border
of the wing between the upper arm and the fore-arm, and a similar
fold on its posterior aspect between the upper arm and the body.
These obviously correspond to the alar membrane so characteristic of
ordinary birds. Moreover the adult has a well-marked series of
wing-quills covered by regularly arranged upper coverts.

These facts certainly seem to indicate that the ancestors of
the Kiwi had the interrupted pterylosis or feather-arrangement
characteristic of Carinate, and that their fore-limbs were true wines.

A minor circumstance which appears to poimt to the same
conclusion is the fact that a sleepmg Kiwi assumes precisely the
same attitude as an ordinary carinate bird, the head being thrust
under the side feathers between the body and the upwardly-directed
elbow.

The development of the wing and of the parts in connection
with it is also interesting. At an early stage the fore-limb ends in a
three-toed paw, the digits represented being the Ist, 2nd and 3rd:
later on the Ist and 3rd digits cease to grow and the forelimb
assumes the form of an ordinary bird’s wing with a greatly elongated
second digit and small first and third digits. Still later the Ist and
3rd digits disappear as distinct structures and the wing becomes the
small one-fingered organ characteristic of the adult.

The skeleton of the wing shows similar changes: at first there
are five distinct carpals and three metacarpals. As growth goes on
the carpals of the lower or distal row unite with the 2nd and 3rd
metacarpals, exactly as in existing birds. The upper or proximal
carpals may either unite with the carpo-metacarpus thus formed or

HISTORY OF THE KIWI. if

may remain distinct. All these facts seem to indicate that the fore-
limb of Apteryx has passed through a stage in which it was a true
wing.

The sternum or breast-bone of ordinary birds isa large keeled
bone, placed almost horizontally : that of the Kiwiis flat and has a
vertical position. In a young embryo, however, the cartilage from
which the breast-bone arises is almost horizontal, and in three adult
specimens I have found a low median ridge, obviously the vestige of
a keel.

In Carinate the coracoid takes an oblique position while in
Apteryx it is vertical: in an embryo shortly before the appearance
of the feathers the coracoid is obliquely placed, the vertical position
being gradually assumed at the same time as that of the sternum.

Moreover there are distinct vestiges even in the adult of the
acromion, acrocoracoid, and procoracoid processes, and the coraco-
scapular angle sometimes sinks as low as 122°, although it may rise
to 150°. Asin some of the Carinate this angle is as much as 106”,
the gap between the two groups becomes comparatively slight.

Further evidence in the same direction is furnished by the
muscles of flight. The elevator of the wing (subclavius) arises from
the coracoid and passes over the acrocoracoid process to reach the
dorsal aspect of the humerus exactly as in Carinate.

The most characteristic feature in the brain of birds is the
position of the optic lobes which lie, not on the dorsal surface as in
other Vertebrata, but one on each side. In Apteryx, in accordance
with the small size of the eyes, the optic lobes are greatly reduced
jn size and are situated on the base of the brain. It is interesting to
find that in young embryos these lobes are situated on the upper
surface and in close contact with one another, exactly as in a reptile:
at about the time when the feathers appear they separate from one
another and pass one to each side of the brain, precisely as in
ordinary birds: finally as the end of incubation is approached they
diminish immensely in proportional size and come to lie on the under
surface.

It has been mentioned that the ISiwiis the only bird in which
the eye is devoid of a pecten. This peculiarity only applies in
strictness to the adult: in advanced embryos a small but distinct
pecten is present.

The vertebral column and the hind limb of Apteryx are those of
a perfectly typical bird—more typical indeed than those of many
Carinate, for instance the Penguins. The pelvis is also strictly avian
although simpler than that of most birds.

So far, then, the structure and development of Apteryx seem to
indicate that the ancestors of this extraordinary member of the class
were typical flying birds, having interrupted plumage, a keeled
sternum placed horizontally, a shoulder girdle of the usual avian

8 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

character, and true wings, ¢@.e. fore limbs in which the hand has
only three digits, the distal carpals are fused with the metacarpals,
and the air-resistine surface is furnished by regularly arranged
feathers.

lt still remains to say something about the structure of the skull,
which in certain respects is quite unique, presenting characters met
with in no other bird.

In the skull of any bird except the Kiwi we notice three chief
regions; the rounded brain case behind, the narrow pointed beak in
front, and between these the orbital region consisting of the two
immense eye-sockets separated from one another by a vertical plate
of bone called the inter-orbital septum. ‘This corresponds to the
bone of the mammalian skull known as the pre-sphenoid, and its
peculiar character in the bird is due to the enormously developed
eyes encroaching upon surrounding parts and squeezing the inter-
vening portion of the skull into a flat plate. In the hinder portion of
the beak are contained thin scroll-like bones, the turbinals, very much
smaller than the corresponding bones in the skull of a mammal and
lying altogether in front of the eyes. In the entire head they are
covered by delicate mucous membrane to which the olfactory nerve is
distributed and therefore constitute the organ of smell. Lastly the
external nostrils are situated at a considerable distance from the
pointed end of the beak.

In the Kiwi two striking changes have taken place simulta-
neously. The eyes, undergoing a gradual diminution in size, have
retreated from the median plane, a considerable space being left
between them and the presphenoid. At the same time the turbinals
have enlarged immensely, and, extending backwards, have filled
up the space between the presphenoid and the eyes, actually
reaching as far back as the posterior boundary of the latter.
Thus the skull of Apteryx differs from that of all other birds, firstly
in the small size of the orbits, and secondly in having those cavities
separated from one another not by a thin inter-orbital septum, but
by a spongy mass of bone formed by the posterior portion of the
turbinals.

The turbinals are as complete as those of a dog, and are divisible
into two regions, a hinder olfactory region covered by a delicate single
layer of epithelium and supplied by the olfactory nerve, and an
anterior respiratory region covered by a many-layered horny
epithelium and supplied by the fifth nerve. Up to the middle of
incubation the whole of the respiratory region of the nasal chamber
is filled up by a solid mass of epithelial cells so that there is no
passage to the exterior by the nostrils.

Tn early embryos the form of the head and the position of the
nostrils is normal, but soon after an undoubted bird-form is assumed
the nostrils are found to have their final position at the end of the
beak. By this time the turbinals are already large but do not extend
so far back as in the adult.

HABITS OF EUROPEAN SPARROW. ; 9

As in Carinate the quadrate in its earliest stages articulates
with the skull by a single head, but in the advanced embryo the
articulation becomes distinctly double, one facet coming in contact
with a cartilaginous socket furnished by the prootic, another by a
perfectly distinct socket furnished jointly by the alisphenoid and the
squamosal. The single-headed character of the quadrate is thus
shown to be a secondary and not a primitive character. Even in the
adult the head shows an indistinct separation into two surfaces.

(To be continwed. )

ON THE BREEDING HABITS OF THE EUROPEAN
SPARROW (Passer domesticus) IN NEW ZEALAND,*

BY T. W KIRK, F.R.M, & L.SS., (Lond.)

=

The author stated that he had been for some years collecting
evidence on the sparrow question in New Zealand. He divided the
subject into various sections, but remarked that, as there was not yet
sufficient reliable evidence to hand, on which to form an unbiassed judg-
ment, as to the question of whether the sparrow did more good than
harm, he would confine himself to the breeding habits of Passer domes-
ticus in New Zealand; leaving for a future occasion the complete history
of the sparrow in this country, which he hoped ere long to submit. He
then went on to say that the statements on the breeding habits, though
brief, are the result of numerous enquiries, and of lengthened personal
observations. It is hoped that their publication may induce other
persons who have made reliable notes, to help, by recording their obser-
vations and experience. ‘I shall assume, for the purposes of the
calculation I am about to make, that no extensive action is taken by
man for the destruction of his small opponent, if such he is to be called,
and as the natural enemies in this country are hardly worth mentioning,
we will allow only for accidental and natural deaths. Speaking of the
natural enemies, reminds me of an incident I once noted between
Featherston and Martinborough, showing to what lengths the daring
and cool impudence of the sparrow will sometimes go. Hearing a most
unusual noise, as though all the small birds in the country had joined
in one grand quarrel, | looked up and saw a large hawk (Z. gouldi, a
carrion feeder) being buffeted by a flock of sparrows, I should say
several hundreds ; they kept dashing at him in scores, and from all
points at once. The unfortunate hawk was quite powerless, indeed he
seemed to have no heart left, for he did not attempt to retaliate, and his
defence was of the feeblest ; at last, approaching some scrub, he made a
rush, indicative of a forlorn hope, gained the shelter, and there remained.
I watched for fully half an hour, but he did not re-appear. The spar-
rows congregated in groups about the bushes, keeping up a constant

*Abstract of a paper read at the meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, on
2nd July last.

|e) JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

chattering and noise, evidently on the lookout for the enemy, and con-
gratulating themselves upon having secured a victory. I have heard of
sparrows attacking and driving away pigeons and other birds, but do not
remember any record of their daring to attack a hawk. In this part of
the Colony the breeding season of the sparrow begins in spring, and
ends late in the autumn. The first broods appear in September, and
the last in April. I have examined a great many nests, but never
found less than five eggs under a sitting bird, more often six, and
frequently seven. These are usually all laid in one week. Incubation
occupies thirteen days. The young are fed in the nest for eight or nine
days. They then return to the nest for two or three nights, after which
they have to feed and lodge themselves, sometimes assisted by the male
bird. In five instances fresh eggs were found in the nest, along with
partly-fledged young. Both parent birds work in feeding the young till
they leave the nest, and at first | was much puzzled to account for the
fact that the second laying of eggs was not spoiled during the absence
of the mother. From my observation I am convinced that the chief
portion of the work of incubation, that is, after the first brood is
hatched, is thrown on the young birds; for it must be apparent that the
heat arising from the crowding of five or six young birds into a nest
would be sufficient to cause incubation. So that by the time the young
birds are finally turned out, the earlier laid of the next batch are within
a few days of issuing from the shells. Therefore the mother is confined
to the nest for little more than half the time to hatch the first brood of
the season. Then after a very few days the process is again repeated.
This does not occur in every nest, but it is a very important item to be
noted when considering the ‘rate of increase.’ Moreover, in one
instance, at least, the young birds belonging to the first brood, raised in
September, were themselves breeding at the end of March. I can speak
positively, asin the hope of proving whether the birds of one brood
mated among themselves, I fastened a bit of red stuff round the leg of
each. The only one I saw after they were turned out by their parents
was a hen, which had mated with a male from another brood, built a
nest close to her old home, and actually reared a brood of her own at
the same time as her mother was closing her arduous duties for the
season. From two nests I was able to prove that seven broods issued
the year before last, but for the purposes of the calculation I am about
to make, we will take it that the average is five broods of six each.
This is below the mark. We then allow one-third of the annual
increase for deaths. _ Here are the results ”:—

Mr. Kirk then read his calculations, of which the following isa
summary. Starting with one pair, we shall have

At end of First Year (allowing for deaths one-third) 11 pairs.
>, 99 second ,, » ” ” WAL 5
Pine 2) Third ” ” ” 9 1,331 ”
Fe) Fourth ” ” ” ” 14,641 ”
Sh eee ane gee, s . . 146,051 _,,

He concluded as follows :—

‘This does not take into account those early broods which are them-

selves breeding ; nor does it allow more than five broods a year, while

HABITS OF EUROPEAN SPARROW. II

six and even seven are of common occurrence. Further, the clutches of
eggs often number more than six: so that we started on a low basis,
and the allowance of one-third is, I think, more than ample.” The
following discussion ensued :—

Mr. Travers said that Mr. Kirk’s views regarding the food of the
sparrow did not agree with naturalists in other countries. His expe-
rience led him to believe that their principal food was insects. The
Cicade especially are caught in hundreds by them. It would be
difficult to ascertain, as suggested, by dissection, whether they contained
insect food or grain. If the increase is anything like what Mr. Kirk
contends, the air would be full of these birds. The increase really
depends on the amount of food they can get. That these birds are
useful to the agriculturist is beyond question. The increase in crops
is in proportion to the spread ot the sparrow. The insects which used
to swarm in the plains in the south have now almost disappeared, owing
to the sparrow, and the grain has increased. The caterpillars, once so
numerous, are disappearing from the same cause. In Hungary they
made war against the sparrows; but after a time they had to get them
back again, so that they might protect the wheat from the insects. The
sparrow was also a good scavenger. It was said that the sparrow
destroyed the grape, but it turned out to be the Zosterops, or the Minah.
The hawk mentioned as being attacked by sparrows is the kind that
never touches sparrows. He was an ardent admirer of the sparrow,
and he did not think we should grudge the small amount of grain they
consumed, when they were in other ways so useful.

Sir WALTER BuLuer said he was prepared to accept his full share
of the responsibility for the introduction of the sparrow, by the Wan-
ganui Acclimatisation Society in 1866. While fully admitting and
deploring the depredations committed by this bird on the settlers’ crops
at certain seasons of the year, he considered that the sparrow was an
insectivorous bird in the strictest sense ; and believing, as he did, that
the balance of evidence was strongly in its favour, he never lost an
opportunity, in public or in private, of putting in a plea for poor perse-
euted Passer domesticus. He declared that during the breeding season
the sparrow was the farmer’s best friend, for the young broods were
supplied entirely on insect food. Mr. Kirk’s observations on the
fecundity of this bird in New Zealand, would give some idea of the
great service he performed. ‘The sparrow had also proved instrumental
in exterminating the variegated Scotch thistle, which at one time
threatened to overrun this country, by feeding on the seeds, and
preventing their dissemination.

Mr. Denton said that it was almost impossible to |keep sparrows
entirely alive on grain ; they must have insects.

Mr. Hupson remarked that of course the great disappearance in
insect-life here would in some measure be accounted for by the clearing
of the bush, and draining of the swampy land; no doubt the sparrow
had done his share. He did not think it much advantage to have the
Cicade destroyed, for they did no harm,

12 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Mr. Travers differed from Mr. Hudson ; the Ciexd@ damaged the
introduced trees considerably, and often so much as to cause them to
die altogether.

Mr. Ricnarpson pointed out that numbers of sparrows were often
destroyed by strong gales of wind and rain.

Mr. Kirx, in reply, said that most of the discussion was on points
which had not been raised in his paper; indeed, he had specially
mentioned that there was not yet to hand sufficient reliable evidence
on which to found an impartial judgment as to whether the sparrow
was more beneficial than hurtful to agriculture and horticulture. As,
however, the question had been introduced, he would state that when
he entered upon this investigation he was as staunch a supporter of the
sparrow as Mr. Travers or Sir Walter Buller. He was afraid, however,
that he should now have to modify his views very much. There could
be no doubt that the sparrow ate many thousands of insects, and did a
vast amount of good. The point to be settled was, Did he exact more
grain, fruit, &e., in payment for those services than those services were
worth? He was intimately acquainted with M. Michelet’s book, “The
Bird,” referred to by Mr. Travers, but he must draw attention to the
fact that the author’s remarks did not apply to New Zealand, where the
rate of increase of the sparrow was phenomenal. He was of course
aware that the large hawk mentioned did not feed on living birds, and
was therefore the more surprised that the sparrows should venture to
attack such a powerful opponent. Exception had been taken to his
caleulalions, and Mr. Travers stated that at the rate mentioned the air
would be “ full of sparrows.” He had already said that the calculation
wis based upon the assumption that no active agencies were employed
by man for the destruction of the sparrow; but we all knew that
poisoning on a large scale was indulged in. He was convinced that the
one-third of the annual increase was ample to allow for accidental and
natural deaths He might mention that the balance of evidence so far
was against the sparrow. Miss Ormerod, Consulting Entomologist to
the Royal Agricultural Society, a most ardent champion of the sparrow,
had investigated the question in England, and had been obliged to
abandon his cause. Professor Riley, Entomologist, and Messrs.
Hartman and Barrons, Ornithologists of the U. 8. Department of
Agriculture, had been compelled to cast their votes against the ‘“ cussed
little Britisher.” If the sparrow had been condemned in England,
where, according to Sir Walter Buller, it usually reared but two broods
a year, what would be the result in this country, where the output
from a single nest was five, six, and even seven broods a season? The
sparrow did good work by eating the seeds of the large thistle, but the
goldfinch and green linnet indulged even more in that habit. In
conclusion, he would say that he for one would be very sorry to see the
sparrow exterminated ; but he was convinced some systematic steps
would have to be taken to restrict the increase. The sparrow was like
alcoholic liquor: good in moderation, but decidedly harmful in excess.

ORNITHOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND. 13

THE ORNITHOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND.

WX“ _~_————<_—_—_—_——_

Some important additions have been made to the Avifauna of New
Zealand during the last year. Ata meeting of the Wellington Philo-
sophical Society, held on the 2nd July last, Sir Warrer Burier exhibited
a huge Kiwi from Stewart’s Island, which he referred to Apleryx
maxima of M. Jules Verreaux (Bonap. Comp. Rend. Acad. Se., xhin.,
p. 841). Two of the largest specimens of Apteryx australis (male and
female) were on the table for comparison; and he pointed out that
this new bird had a bill fully an inch and a half longer, with propor-
tionately robust feet ; and that the claws, instead of being long and
sharp pointed as in Apteryx australis, were short, broad, and blunt at
the tip. He also pointed out other distinguishing peculiarities in the
plumage. Referring to the history of this species, he said that the
well-known French naturalist named had, as far back as 1856, distin-
guished it from the others on what appeared at the time to be very
insufficient data; and a year or two later the government of New
Zealand published in the G'uzette a report by Drs. Sclater and Hoch-
stetter, ““On our present knowledge of the species of Apteryx,” in
which special attention was called to Jules Verreaux’s new form, and
the colonists invited to look for it. When, in 1871, Professor Hutton
published his “Catalogue of New Zealand Birds,” he referred the
large Grey Kiwi of the South Island (Apterya haasti) to Apteryx maxima.
But Sir Walter Buller himself, in his first edition of “The Birds of
New Zealand,” dissented from this view, expressing himself as
follows :—“ The evidence, as far as it goes, would seem to indicate the
existence of a much larger species of Kiwi than any of the foregoing
—in fact, a bird equalling in size a full-grown turkey. For this
reason I have considered it safer to retain Apteryx haasti as a recog-
nised species, and to leave the further elucidation of the question to
the zeal and enterprise of future explorers in the land of the Apteryx.”
Seventeen years had elapsed since this was written, and at length the
veritable Apteryx maxima had turned up in Stewart’s Island, the
specimen now before the meeting being undoubtedly the only example
known in any public or private collection. Sir Walter Buller then
proceeded to give an interesting account of the geographical distribu-
tion of the various species of Apteryx, and the circumstances of their
development. Apteryx bulleri is confined to the North Island, Apteryx
australis to the South Island, and Apterya maxima to Stewart’s Island;
whilst Apteryx owent, inhabiting the colder regions of the South, has
also been found on the snow-line to the north of Cook’s Strait. All
these species have doubtless sprung from a common parent, and the
insular separation has existed for a sufficiently long period of time to
admit of the development of distinct species under the ordinary laws
of evolution. Whilst on this subject, Sir Walter Buller said he would
take occasion to refer to some remarks made by a former President
when Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s paper was read, changing the name of the
North Island bird from Apteryx mantelli to Apteryx bulleri. In the
discussion which the President's remarks evoked, Mr. Maskell and
others appeared to reproach him (Sir Walter) with having, as it were,
filched the name from Mr. Mantell, who had so long enjoyed it. As

I4 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

a matter of fact, he (the speaker) had nothing to do with the change
of name, beyond submitting his series of specimens to Mr. Sharpe’s
critical judement; and he was afterwards merely the “ passive
bucket’ in communicating Mr. Sharpe’s paper to the Society. In
selecting the speaker’s name to distinguish the species, Mr. Sharpe
only gave effect to a suggestion made by Dr. Otto Finsch, of Bremen,

many years before. Agr eeing, as he did, in the technical accuracy of
Mr. Sharpe’s conclusions, he (Sir W alter Buller) had no alternative
but to adopt the proposed new name. As a rule, however, his own
tendencies were conservative, and throughout his work ne had, in
regard to nomenclature, observed as far as ; possible the rule of “‘quwieta
non movere.” For example, he had declined to follow Dr. Meyer, of
Dresden, in substituting the name of Notornis hochstetteri for Notornis
mantelli, because he did not consider that the differences shown to
exist between the fossil and the recent birds were suficient to warrant
the change. On the other hand, he had not hesitated to expunge
from the list of species Stringops greyi (so named by Mr. G. R. Grey
in compliment to Sir George Grey) as soon as he had satisfied himself
that it was a mere variety of the common Séringops habroptilus. He
was very glad however, of the opportunity afterwards of re-connecting
Sir George Grey’s name with the New Z ealand Avifauna by dedicating
to him a new form of Ocydromis. Sir Walter Buller concluded his
remarks by saying that in such matters as this, people should not be
thin-skinned, for a scientist should have nothing before him but the
elucidation of truth, and in the fixing or altering of names there can
no escape from the accepted rules of zoological nomenclature.

An active diseussion, led off by Mr. Maske 1, then followed as to
the value of characters now generally accepted by naturalists in the
establishment of species.

Sir Watrer Buuver, in reply, said that the only importance he
attached to systematic classification was as an aid to memory in the
study of the natural objects themselves. Birds, like other animals,
resolved themselves into natural groups, and could be most con-
veniently studied in that manner. The discrimination of genera and
species was, after all, empiric, and often very arbitary. Nothing was
easier than to raise the guestio vexata, What constitutes the difference
between a species and a permanent variety? On no point probably
were naturalists so much divided—some carrying their discrimination
of forms to an extreme, others erring in an opposite direction. In
fact most systematists might be divided into two classes—‘ lumpers
and “splitters.” The thing was to hit the happy mean. There was
much truth in what Mr. Maskell had said, and no doubt modifications
of structure were of the first importance in the discrimination of
species; but, as to nomenclature, it seemed to him that simplicity
was the thing of all others to be desired. To adopt the system more
or less in use among ornithologists of making sub-species or varieties
was to his mind very objectionable, becatise it had the effect of
encumbering the literature with names. For example, Apteryx
bullert, as it is now called, appeared in Dr. Finsch’s list as Apterya
australis variety mantelli. According to the generally-accepted view
among English systematists, the amount of variation necessary to
constitute a species is not of much importance, and may be left to

ORNITHOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND. 15

individual opinion, so long as it is persistent or constant. For his
own part, he was quite indifferent whether the petrel now exhibited,
and which he had named Wstrelata ajffinis, was regarded as a distinct
species or a permanent race, so long as the difference of character
was recognised. Admitting the distinction, it was merely a question
of convenience with systematists whether to call it by a distinctive
name, or to designate it “Species A, variety B.”. 9 Dr. Finsch
considered that this, and Wstrelata mollis, of which specimens were
on the table for comparison, were varieties of one and the same
species. But Mr. Osbert Salvin, our great authority on Petrels, had
unhesitatingly pronounced them distinct species. They, belonged,
however, to the same natural group, and were closely allied.
Although easily discriminated now, no naturalist of the present
day would deny that they had originally sprung from a common
parent. This followed of necessity from an acceptance of the theory
of evolution. As to the alleged worthlessness of colour as a criterion
for discriminating species, he could not agree with Mr. Maskell,
because our whole experience was opposed to such an argument.
The cases put forward by that gentleman were not in pomt. For
example, the condition of the albino Tui exhibited that evening was
due to an accidental absence of the colourmg pigment in the feathers.
it was merely a Jusus nature, or a freak of nature. However many
examples of this kind might be met with, no naturalist of any
experience would think of creating a new species out of such material.
Soin the case of individual peculiarities of plumage mentioned by
him. No one would pretend that these were of specific value. Some
birds, for example the red grouse (or brown ptarmigan), one of the
commonest birds of Great Britain, is so variable in color that scarcely
two males can be found with precisely the same markings, and this is
likewise the case with the common albatross and some other sea
birds. This variability of plumage becomes, then, a character of the
species. But if you meet with, say, two forms of sca-gull, one having
a black head and the other a white head, breeding true, and
presenting this constant character, an ornithologist would, as a matter
of course, treat them as distinct species, although he might not be
able to discover any other points of difference. On the other hand
there is a phase of colouring known as dimorphism, which obtains
among some species{of sea-birds—some individuals being dark and
others white in one and the same species. Other birds, again, pass
through several distinct phases of plumage in their progress from
youth to maturity, These adolescent states, and the known instances
of dimorphic colouration, do not by any means affect the argument
that colour is an important external character in the determination of
species. On the main question, however, of manifest structural or
organic difference as the surest guide in the differentiation, Sir
Walter Buller said that he quite agreed with Mr. Maskell. He
would remind the meeting that the study of birds had often to be
prosecuted with nothing before the investigator but skin and feathers,
and that the systematist could only make the most of the materials
before him. He did not believe that it would be possible to attain
perfection in classification till the internal characters and anatomy of
every known bird had been as completely examined and illustrated as
that of the common rock dove (Colwmba livia) had been by the late
Professor Macgillivray.

16 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

THE HUMBLE-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND.
BY GEO. M. THOMSON, F.L.S.

i

Among the numerous interesting and remarkable cases of
naturalisation, or, as it is somewhat improperly called, acclimatisation
in this colony, none surpasses in its interest and far-reaching results
that of the humble-bee. For many years the agriculturists, espe-
cially of the South island, had been under the necessity of annually
importing all the supplies of Red Clover seed which they required, so
to obviate the continually recurring expense and to ensure the pro-
duction of a valuable seed within the colony, the Canterbury Acclima-
tisation Society was induced to import humble-bees. With the steps
taken to accomplish this object, 1 have not to do at present, though a
brief history of this part of the undertaking would, no doubt, be
interesting.

At the very outset, however, a mistake seems to have been made,
which shows how much in the dark many of those are who guide the
community in acclimatisation matters, and how lar gely chance often
bulks in the final-results of such experiments. Red Clover (Trifolium
pratense) differs from White Clover (7. repens) and many other papi-
lionaceous flowers in having its nectar secreted at the base of a tube
9 to 10 mm. (about 2ths. of an inch) long, formed by the cohesion of
the nine inferior stamens with each other and with the claws of the
petals. Instead, therefore, of an insect being able to thrust its trunk
down to the nectary by the two small openings which lie, one on each
side of the superior stamens, as in White Clover, it must insert it
directly down the staminal tube. Only in this way can the insect
receive a dusting of pollen, and so ensure cross-fertilization of the
flowers, without which this.species is practically sterile. ‘Jn order
to reach the honey in this way, an insect must possess a proboscis at
least 9 to 10 mm. long.”* This fact was probably not known to any
one in New Zealand when the importation of humble-bees was
decided upon. Only the fact was known that humble-bees were the
principal agents in fertilizing red’ clover, and in sending for these
insects, the species which is probably the most abundant in England,
viz., Bombus terrestris, was selected. According to Miiller, who is the
best authoyity on the subject, B. terrestris does not enter the flowers of
red clover in a legitimate way and so bring about cross-fertilization,
but always makes a hole near the base of the flower and sucks the
nectar through this. Its trunk is not more than from 7 to 9 mm.
long, so that only the largest females could reach the base of the
flower. On the other hand, it is the case in Germany at least, that
no less than twelve other species of Bombus or humble-bees having
trunks varying from 10 to 15 mm. in length, legitimately visit and
fertilize the red clover. Of course the pollen and stigma of this
flower are accessible to all insects which are heavy enough to press
down the keel, and if bees visit the flowers for pollen only they will
no doubt bring about cross-fertilisation. This may account for an

*«The Fertilisation of Flowers,” by Prof. Hermann Miiller.

THE HUMBLE-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND. yy

interesting example given me by Mr. Wm. Martin, of Fairfield, near
Dunedin, who informs me that as far back as 1858 he obtained a
large quantity of very fine seed off a small patch of red clover which
he had under cultivation.

I have never myself observed our introduced humble-bee biting
the tubes of red clover, nor have enquiries to observers throughout
Canterbury and Otago elicited any information, beyond the fact that
the flowers always seem to be visited in a legitimate manner. And it
is a further interesting fact, that though at first sight the wrong
species of insect appears to have been introduced, yet the result
sought to be attained by its introduction has been secured. Yet it
would not have been at all remarkable, if the experiment had resulted
in failure as far at least as red clover is concerned, were it not that
under altered conditions, insects, like all other organisms, appear to
have marvellous powers of adaptation.

In March, 1885, the Otago Acclimatisation Society liberated 93
females (queens) of Bombus terrestris in the neighbourhood of Christ-
church. They appear to have established themselves at once and
increased rapidly. In January, 1886, two were seen by Mr. J. D.
Enys at Castle Hill on the West Coast road, and early in 1887 they
were reported from Kaikoura in the North, and Timaru in the South,
while by the autumn of the same year they had become established
in the Oamaru district. Towards the very end of the same year they
had spread up the Waitaki basin, through the Lindis pass and were

30bserved on the Hawea flats. In Dunedin they appeared quite
suddenly in the second week of February, 1888, and were almost
simultaneously reported from Waihola, 30 miles south-west. In
November, 1889, they were first recorded from the head of Lake
Wakatipu, and in the beginning of 1890 were observed in the neigh-
bourhood of Invercargill. I have no accurate record of their spread
in the North Island. It may be considered certain that Cook’s Strait
‘vould have proved an insurmountable natural barrier, but specimens
have been repeatedly liberated within the last two or three years in
the North Island. It seems doubtful, according to Mr. G. V. Hudson,
whether they have yet become established. I have, however, records
of their occurrence, both from Auckland and Wellington, and would
be glad to haye further information on this point.

Professor Hutton informs me that occasionally he has seen
queen bees which were quite black, that is without the white and
orange bands so characteristic of Dombus terrestris. It will be
interesting to learn whether this variety has been observed elsewhere
than in Christchurch.

One of the most interesting results of the introduction of foreion
species of plants or animals into a new country, is that it becomes
possible to watch and place upon record every change which the
organism undergoes. As soon as humble-bees appeared in this
neighbourhood, | resolved to devote .a good deal of attention to them,
and have already observed several details concerning their life-history,
which show, it seems to me, that they may be expected to undergo
considerable change in their habits, and may prove in time to be a
not un-mixed blessing.

18 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

The first point to be noticed about them is that here the bees
have few or no enemies except small boys, and perhaps bee-keepers.
In their native habitats they have to contend against very numerous
enemies, and most readers will remember Darwin’s famous remarks*
about humble-bees and field-mice :—‘“The number of humble-bees
in any district depends in a great measure on the number of field-
mice, which destroy their combs and nests; and Col. Newman, who
has long attended to the habits of humble-bees, believes that ‘more
than two-thirds of them are thus destroyed over all England.’ Now
the number of mice is largely dependent, as every one knows, on the
number of cats; and Col. Newman says, ‘Near villages and small
towns I have found the nests of humble-bees more numerous than
elsewhere, which I attribute to the number of cats that destroy the
mice. Hence it is quite credible that the presence of a feline
animal in large numbers in a district might determine, through the
intervention first of mice and then of bees, the frequency of certain
flowers in that district.” Mice are by no means abundant in the
open country in New Zealand, at least in those parts where rabbits
and introduced small birds have become a pest, and where,
consequently, cats are encouraged. Nor can I find that there are
any other enemies of the bees here that are at all conspicuous. Some
of the insects are, however, extraordinarily infested by mites, which
cover parts of the body—especially the bare posterior portion of the
thorax—to such an extent as to completely hide the integument.
These mites were no doubt introduced originally with the first bees,
but I cannot say whether they are a greater pest here than in the
Old Country.

A second remarkable point in connection with the life of the
humble-bees is, that in many parts of the Colony they do not appear
to hibernate at all. In England those insects which survive the
winter appear about April, and immediately proceed to seek out
suitable quarters for the establishment of their homes. Mr. Hudson
tells me that the neuters do not appear until June.

In this part of the colony the past winter was extremely mild, and
the hibernation of the bees was very short. I saw them nearly daily
on various flowers right through the summer and autumn up till 5th
June. On the following day the weather became suddenly cold with
frost at night, and the humble-bees disappeared until August 13th,
when they were again seen. For nearly a month afterwards the
weather remained fine, and night frosts were frequent, yet for a few
hours in the hottest part of the day the bees were seen regularly.
Mr. James Gilmore of Goodwood, about 30 miles North of Dunedin,
states that he saw them right through the winter, except in rainy
weather. In the middle of July, when the nights and mornings
were very frosty, the bees came out in the middle of the day if the
sun was shining. If this is so in this comparatively cold part of the
colony, we may expect that in those parts where frost is unknown no
hibernation will take place at all. It is worthy of note, however, that
only large females survive the winter. ‘This season the first small
bees of the new brood were seen by me on 22nd November.

* “Origin of Species,” 6th Edit., p. 57.

THE HUMBLE-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND. 19

The rate of increase of the humble-bee has been so great in this
colony, that the question has arisen in my mind as to whether they
will not become as serious a nuisance as far as honey is concerned, as
the rabbit has proved to the farmer and squatter. This may seem to
be an improbability to many persons who have never seriously con-
sidered the matter, especially as humble-bees do not visit many of the
flowers which supply nectar to the hive-bee. But the fact remains
that in those districts where the former have been very abundant the
supply of honey has enormously diminished during the last two
seasons, and many skilled bee-keepers are beginning to attribute a
considerable share at least of this falling off to the humble-bees. To
see how far these insects are adapting themselves to new flowers, I
have for a considerable time past kept a record of the flowers which
they visit, and those which they leave alone. I have noticed them on
many species of introduced plants which they never appear to visit in
Europe, and it will be interesting to note whether with increased
numbers they are extending their search for nectar to flowers at
present neglected by them. Two facts have particularly struck me
in this connection. One is that they seldom visit white flowers; I
know only about half-a-dozen altogether, though on some of these,
like Plums, Cherries and Pears they are to be found very abundantly.
The other is that with two exceptions I have never heard of them
visiting the flowers of indigenous plants. The exceptions are Muchsia
excorticata which they appear frequently to visit, and the Ngaio
(Myoporum letwm) on which they have been seen by Mr. A. 8S.
Fleming, of Palmerston S.*

Another curious fact about them is that in one district they will
absolutely neglect flowers which they frequent in another part.
Many observers credit certain flowers with intoxicating the bees, but
as the flowers recorded by one are not so credited by others, the
question of so-called intoxication must be looked upon as quite
unsettled, and is worthy of investigation, Again, in one part the
bees pierce the tubes of certain flowers which, in another neighbour-
hood, sometimes only three or four miles away, they visit legitimately.
I have thought it worth while here to give a complete list of the
flowers—all introduced but the above two—on which I have observed
humble-bees, or have trustworthy records of their visits. Under the
various flowers I have made remarks which occur to me as bearing on
the question. Such a minute attention to details may appear to
some unnecessary, but it must be remembered that what may prove
to be a biological problem of great ultimate interest is here being
worked out before our eyes, and as we have the commencement of it
within our observation now, it would be a mistake to allow any detail
however apparently insignificant to escape attention. To facilitate
reference I have arranged the flowers noted here according to their
natural orders.

RANUNCULACES.

Anemone—single red, blue and parti-coloured hybrids; occa-
sionally visited.
Delphiniwm—blue hybrids, and also on Annual Larkspurs.
Aquilegia—hybrids. I have seen them on Columbines of

pa EEE EE Eee
* Within the last day or two (Dec. 26th) I have seen small bees on Veronica elliptica.

20 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

various colours, except white. Frequently the tubes of
these flowers are punctured by the bees.

BERBERIDE.
Berberis (Mahonia) Darwinti. Often visited.

PAPAVERACE.
Papaver. All sorts of single poppies are greatly visited by
humble-bees; one correspondent considers that they become

intoxicated by the nectar “of these flowers. I have never
myself observed this effect.

FUMARIACER.

Dielytra spectabilis. These flowers are great favourites, but
as the nectar cannot be reached legitimately, the bees light
on the outside of the keeled sepals and puncture them near
the base. In the neighbourhood of Dunedin this spring it
was almost impossible to get a spray of Dielytra which had
not been more or less disfigured by humble-bees.

CRUCIFER 2.
Cabbage flowers (Brassica oleracea) are frequented by
numbers of bees.
Wallflower (Chetranthus cheiri) is also a great favourite.
Virginian Stock (Cheiranthus? sp.) occasionally visited.

ReSEDACER.
Reseda odorata. Mignonette is totally neglected in many
gardens, while in others it is constantly visited. No doubt
bees acquire tastes, and have their individual preferences.

VIOLARIEA,

Viola odorata. Violets are constantly visited in some
gardens and are quite neglected in others. The same
remark applies to the Pansy (V. tricolor and its hybrids), of
which I have seen both white and yellow varieties visited,
but not frequently.

I have no record of a single Caryophyllaceous flower being
visited by humble-bees

HYPERICINER.
Hypericum sp. A large kind of St. John’s Wort in my
garden is occasionally visited.

MALVACE.

Abutilon sp. Reported from Christchurch; I have not
observed them in Dunedin, where Abutilon is mainly a
greenhouse plant.

TILIACE.

The Lime-tree (Zilia europea) when in flower attracts the
humble-bees (as well as other insects) in great numbers.

THE HUMBLE-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND. 21

GERANIACEE

Scarlet Geranium (Pelargonium sp.) is occasionally visited.
Indian Cress or Garden Nasturtium (7ropawolum majus) is
frequently visited.

LEGUMINOS&.

Ulex Europeus. I have only once seen the humble-bee on
this plant. As a correspondent remarks, “it is rather
singular that this most plentiful of spring flowers appears to
be neglected by humble-bees.” I am even more struck with
the fact that it is almost totally neglected by hive-bees also.
In many parts near Dunedin there are miles of gorse hedges
which in the months of September, October and November
are blazing with flowers, and the air is heavy with their
perfume, yet hardly an insect is to be seen on them. I am
also struck with the fact that I have no record of humble-
bees on the flowers either of Broom (Cytisws scoparius) or
Laburnum (C. laburnum). Yet it is probable that these
flowers are occasionally visited, asin Europe they are fre-
quented by Bombus terrestris in great numbers. None of
the three flowers named contain nectar, hence they would
only be visited by bees for pollen.

Trifolium pratense. As has been already said the humble-
bee was originally introduced to fertilise the Red Clover.
In Europe the tube of the flower is almost invariably pierced
by Bombus terrestris, but I have not a single record of this
mode of getting the nectar from any of my New Zealand
correspondents.

Trifolium repens. White clover is not mentioned by H.
Miiller among the flowers visited, but I have seen small
neuters among our humble-bees, at: work upon it.

Sweet Pea (Lathyrus odoratus) is frequently visited.

Faba vulgaris. Bees are yery fond of the flowers of the
Bean ; they appear always to bite a hole into the tube.
Wistaria sinensis is a great favourite. According to Mr.
A. D. Bell, the bees get intoxicated with the honey (?) and
afterwards crawl helplessly on the ground below the plant.

I have no record of humble-bees visiting the flowers of Lupins,
which in Europe, according to Darwin, depend on these insects for
their fertilisation. In his “Fertilisation of Flowers” (p. 188) H.
Miiller states that “Mz. Swale observed that in New Zealand culti-
vated varieties of Lupinus were unfertile unless he released the stamens
with a pin.” On reading this, it at once occurred to me that I had
frequently seen Lupins seeding in gardens here, and this was verified
by my wife, who had frequently gathered seeds of Lupins both here
and in Christchurch. On applying to Mr. Martin, of Fairfield, for a
verification of this fact, he informs me that he has had about a dozen
varieties in cultivation for the last twenty or thirty years, and never
had any difficulty im obtaining seed from them, many sowing
themselves.

One observer records having seen a humble-bee on flowers of
Wattle. I have never seen bees of any kind on the flowers of Acacia,
and am inclined to think that a mistake has been made.

2D. JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

In Europe humble-bees visit Bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus),
Vetch (Vicia sepium) and Scarlet Runner Beans (Phaseolus coccineus) ;
J have no record of them in the colony.

Rosacez.

The Plum (Prunus communis) and Cherry (P. cerasus) are
visited by the bees in great numbers.
On the Cherry-Laurel (P. lawro-cerasus), I have also seen
them in abundance.
The Peach (Persica vulgaris) is less frequently visited.
On Apple-blossom (Pyrus malus) I have seldom seen them,
though in Europe they visit the trees in great numbers.
On the Pear (P. communis), on the other hand, Miiller
states that the bees seldom visit the flowers, and fly away
after trying a few only. Here, I have seen the trees
swarming with humble-bees.
Cydonia japonica is another favourite with these insects.
In Europe, humble-bees visit various species of Spirea or
Meadow-sweet, and Rubus (Blackberry, Raspberry, &ec.); I have no
record of them in New Zealand.

SAXIFRAGER.
Escallonia macrantha occasionally visited.
Ribes. All the species, including 2. /ruticosus (Flowering
Currant), R. nigrum and RL. rubrum (Black, Red, and White
Currants) and &. grossularia (Gooseberry), are visited by
numbers of humble-bees.
Deutzia sp. I have observed the bees abundantly on a
double pink Devtzia in my garden, although the ordinary
single white species is never visited by them.

CRASSULACEE.
Sedum sp. I have occasionally seen a yellow-flowered
species visited.
Crassula sp. The same remark applies to a pink Crassula
in my garden.

MYRTACES.
Eucalyptus globulus. According to observations made by .
My. Laing and others in Christchurch, the bees become
intoxicated by the nectar from the flowers of the Blue Gum,
and are frequently to be found on the ground under these
trees in a state of complete helplessness, apparently scarcely
able to crawl.

ONAGRARIED.
Fuchsia excorticata. This species, which is a great favourite
with the hive-bee, is occasionally visited by humble-bees.
The latter species, however, swarm on the hybrid (South
American) fuchsias which occur in gardens. ax
Godetia. The brightly-coloured varieties are much visited,
but the white flowers appear to be ignored.
@nothera. A correspondent from Waitepeka reports bees
as common on the flowers of the Yellow Evening-primrose.

il at i

THE HUMBLE-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND. 23

FIcOIDE®.

Mesembryanthemum sp. <A brilliant crimson-flowered species
appears to be very attractive.

UMBELLIFER.

Parsley (Petroselinum sativum) is the only umbelliferous
plant said to be visited by humble-bees. I have not seen
them on it myself, but am informed by a correspondent at
Waitepeka, that they abound on it in his garden.

CAPRIFOLIACE

Laurustinus (Viburnum tinus) and Honeysuckle (Lonicera
sp.) are very much frequented. The common honeysuckle
(L. periclymenum) has avery long tube, and in Europe is
only fertilised by hawk-moths. It will be remarkable if
Bombus terrestris is able to get the nectar from it without
puncturing the corolla.

DIPSACACE.

Scabious (Scabiosa atropurpurea), especially the dark-
coloured varieties are especial favourites of the humble-
bees.

CoMPOSIT®.

In all this enormous order, which is so abundantly represented
both in the garden and the field, I have only observed the bees on
nine species of flowers, none of which, however, were white.

Sunflower (//elianthus), frequently visited.

Dahlia, single yellow and red flowers of this genus are
great favourites. A correspondent in Christchurch says :—
“On these I have often noticed that the bees appear to be
more or less stupefied, remaining on the flower in the same
position for an hour or so, and then falling to the ground
and buzzing about in a helpless manner when disturbed.”
I have never observed this in my own garden where the
dahlias are abundant, and are much visited by the bees.
Gallardia and hybrid Marigolds (Calendula) are often
visited.

Thistle (Cardwus lanceolatus). This flower, especially in
North Otago, affords food to myriads of bees. An observer,
long resident near Otepopo, informs me that the difliculty
of getting through a piece of country infested with thistles,
has of late years been enormously increased, for timid per-
sons, by the swarms of humble-bees which are to be found
amone the flowers.

A Christchurch observer considers that they become intoxicated
by the nectar of the thistle-flowers; this has not been verified.

Globe Artichoke (Cynara). These plants when in flower in
my garden are frequently visited. Another great favourite
is the Blue Corn-flower or Cornbottle (Centaurea eyanus).

24 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

The only ligulifloral composites on which I have seen humble-
bees are Dandelion (Taraxacum dens-leonis), and—more sparingly—
Cape Weed (Hypocheris radicata.)

CAMPANULACES.

Canterbury Bell (Campanula media) is frequently visited.
Lobelia erinus (hybrid). Beds of this plant proved very
attractive to the bees last summer.

ERICE2.

Various cultivated Heaths (Zrica) both purple and white
are visited by the bees. [ have never found or heard of
them on long-tubed species however.

?hododendron. Occasionally bees visit the _ brilliantly-
coloured species.

Arbutus unedo. The flowers are often visited by humble-
bees which, however, always appear to puncture the corolla.

PRIMULACES.

The different forms of the genus Primula cultivated in
gardens under the names of Polyanthuses and Primroses
are hybrids probably between P. vulgaris, P. veris, and P.
elatior. I have found bees on both varieties, and also on
Auriculas (P. auricula.) Miller says of Lombus terrestris
that it “makes a hole in the corolla-tube, a little above the
calyx, sometimes biting it with its mandible, sometimes
piercing it with its maxille, and so reaching the honey with
its tongue, (I have sometimes seen this bee, before boring
the flower, make several attempts to reach the honey in the
legitimate way,—this observation is of interest, as proving
that the bee is not guided by instinct to the plant adapted
for it, but that it makes experiments, and gets its honey
where and how it can.”) I have watched bees on the
flowers of Polyanthus and could only detect them brushing
up the pollen, but never piercing the corolla so as to reach
the nectar. Miiller further states that “ pollen-collecting
bees are only able to secure their pollen in short-styled
flowers; they learn to recognise the long-styled plants at a
distance and to avoid them, and then never perform cross-
fertilisation but very often self-fertilisation.” However this
may be, one interesting result I have noted in my own
garden is, that this last spring, for the first time in my
experience in New Zealand, my Polyanthuses have sown
themselves in the flower-borders. Attempts have often
been made both here and in other parts to naturalise the
Primrose and Cowslip in the woods and waste places, but
hitherto without success. Now it would seem as if by the
agency of the humble-bees this might be possible.

BorAGINE#.

Anchusa sp. <A large species in my garden is greatly
frequented by the bees.

THE HUMBLE-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND. 25

SOLANES.
Solanum jasminoides. According to an Oamaru correspon-
dent this plant is a great favourite.
Petunia. One correspondent has observed them on these
flowers.

SCROPHULARINE®.
Linaria. Two cultivated species, one with white and purple
flowers, the other (LZ. tristis) with yellow and crimson
flowers, are frequently visited by the bees in the normal
manner.
Antirrhinum (Frogsmouth or Snapdragon.) These flowers,
like those of Linaria, are only fertilised by humble-bees, and
are much visited by them. According to Mr. Page of
Christchurch, the bees puncture the corollas, and this is
particularly the case as the season advances. Presumably
therefore it is the small bees which learn this habit only,
the larger ones being both strong enough to open the
corolla and having probosces long enough to reach the
nectar.
Pentstemon. These flowers are regularly visited.
Digitalis purpurea. The Foxglove is a great favourite with
humble-bees. I find however the flowers are perfectly self-
fertile, as it blooms all the year round with us and sets seed
in all weathers; this too, happened long before humble-bees
were introduced.
Veronica. I have never seen the bees on any of the native
species of this genus (except V. elliptica, noted on p. 19),
but on the purple, and especially the crimson hybrids found
in many gardens they are to be seen in abundance. While
neglecting white flowers, the bees seem to be particularly
attracted to red and blue flowers.

BIGNONIACE.
Eccremocarpus scaber. According to a Christchurch corres-
pondent, these flowers are always punctured by the bees for
their nectar.

VERBENACEE.
Ngaio (Myoporum letum) is visited by the bees, according to
Mr. Fleming of Palmerston 8.

LABIATA.
Rosemary (osmarinus) is eagerly sought after by the bees.
Salvia Grahami. According to the Editor of the “New
Zealand Country Journal,” the bees bite the flowers of this
plant a little above the calyx. I find them common ona
a species of Stachys.
Many flowers of this order are regularly visited in Europe
by humble-bees, e.g. Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) and Mar-
joram. I have no record of their being so visited here.

PROTEACEX.
Hakea sp. J have observed the bees in great numbers on
the flowers of a pink species.

26 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

SALICINE.

The Goat-willow (Salix caprea) is visited both for pollen and
nectar. I have also seen the bees on the pistillate flowers
of one of the Poplars (Populus nigra), presumably for the
sweet (?) secretion which is found on the whole inflorescence.

TRIDE®.

The bees occasionally visit the flowers of a dark-blue species
of Jrisin my garden; I have not seen them on flowers of
any other colour.

Crocus. Several observers have recorded them from white
flowers, but on no other colour.

AMARYLLIDE.

The Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) is one of the few white
flowers visited by humble-bees.

Narcissus. I have notes of the bees visiting single and
double Daffodils, single Jonquils, and both white and yellow
hybrid Polyanthus Narcissus. In all those flowers having a
tube-like corona, the becs alight on the perianth and pierce
the tube to reach the nectar.

LILiaces.

Tulips are frequently visited by humble-bees, so also are
Hyacinths. In many gardens I have noticed that the
latter flowers are visited legitimately, while in others in a
different district, three or four miles away, the perianths
are invariably pierced by the bees. There is no doubt that
when once a humble-bee has learned the art of getting
nectar in an easy manner, it teaches others the art, so-that
all in a district acquire it. Growers of hyacinths in districts
where the bees pierce the flowers, were this last spring in
despair over the wholesale destruction of their favourite
flower.

There can be no doubt that the list of flowers given above is still
very incomplete, and others who will take the trouble to record their
observations will be able to supplement it largely. It will be of
interest also to watch whether as the bees increase, they extend their
visits to flowers which at present are passed over.

Another point worth noting is as to the “swarming” of humble-
bees. The life-history and social economy of these insects are quite
different from those of hive-bees, and the habit of swarming in the
former is not at first sight a probable one, yet both in Britain and in
this colony, it has been affirmed that swarms of humble-bees have
been secn. There is evidently ample room for observational work in
connection with the development of Lombus terrestris in New Zealand.

THE TUATARA. 2G,

PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
TUATARA (Sphenodon punctatum).*

BY PROF. A. P. W. THOMAS, M.A., F.G.S., F.L.S., University College,
Auckland, N.Z.

—

A grant was made by the Royal Society in the year 1884 to Pro-
fessor T. J. Parker, of Dunedin, for the study of the development of
Apteryx, Sphenodon, and Callorhynchus. As Sphenodon does not occur
near Dunedin, but is found chiefly on outlying islands belonging to the
province of Auckland, at the opposite end of the colony, Professor
Parker invited me to join him in the investigation of this form.

We gathered from what had been written on the natural history of
the tuatara, as well as from oral information obtained from those who
were best acquainted with the New Zealand fauna, that the month of
February was probably the time at which the tuatara bred.

We therefore started from Auckland at the beginning of February,
1885, for what appeared the most promising hunting-ground—the
island of Karewa, some ten miles from ‘Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty.
Mr. A. Reischek, a naturalist well known by his researches on the
natural history of New Zealand, who had already had opportunities of
observing the tuatara, was good enough to accompany us.

The island of Karewa is situated some four miles from the main-
land; it is little more than a rock which rises with precipitous sides
high above the sea. At one spot only can a landing be effected, as the
island is exposed to the ocean swell rolling in from the open Pacific,
whilst the shores are for the greater part formed by unscaleable cliffs of
rhyolitic rock. Our first attempt at landing was frustrated by the
swell, but a day later a second attempt was successful.

The vegetation on the island is largely composed of small karaka
trees and thickets of coprosma. The light, loose soil between the roots
of trees and the rocks is mined by countless burrows, in which live
mutton-birds (Puffinus tenuirostris) and tuataras.

On the “Chicken Islands” the tuataras have been described by
Mr. Reischek as living with certain other sea-birds, namely, another
species of Puffinus (P. gavius) and two species of Procellaria. This
has been cited in ‘ Nature’f as an interesting case of commensalism, and
and it is there stated that the birds “live in holes dug out by the
tuataras aud keep apparently on the best terms with them.” It is
stated that the tuatara generally lives on the right and the sea-bird on
the left of the inner chamber.

I believe it is quite a mistake to suppose that any friendly relation
whatever exists between the tuataras and the birds, and that here, as
in the somewhat similar case of the prairie dog and rattlesnake, the idea
of friendliness is quite out of place. Itis true that the tuatara some-
times makes use of the burrows of the mutton-bird (though I have

*From the ‘‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society,” Vol. 48.
+ October 19th, 1882. See also ‘‘ Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,”
Vol. XIV., p. 274.

28 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

never found a tuatara living in the same burrow as a mutton-bird), but
it cannot be said that the two species ever live on more favourable
terms than those of mutual toleration. At one time I kept two kiwis
in a large house with a number of tuataras, and a tuatara would at
times shelter itself in the same box or corner as a kiwi—the two never
attempting to fight, the tuatara hiding itself under the kiwi as it would
do under a stone, whilst the kiwi seemed not to notice its presence.
The tuatara seems to enter the burrow of the mutton-bird just as it
would shelter itself in any other hole in the ground.

In any case, the tuatara must be an untrustworthy associate, for
on four occasions I have seen or captured tuataras with young mutton-
birds in their mouths. It is probably a truer view of the situation to
suppose that the chance of getting a nestling renders the burrows of the
mutton-bird more attractive to the tuatara.

Dr. Giinther, in the absence of personal observation, supposed that
the tuatara was incapable of burrowing. It is, however, certain that it
can burrow well in such light soil as is found on Karewa, and even in
the clay soil on which my lizard-houses are situated the animals have
made burrows fully two feet in length, in which they are completely
hidden. Not all the lizards, however, are so industrious ; most of them
have contented themselves with the artificial burrows, in the shape of
long wooden boxes and drain pipes, with which they have been provided.

We spent some days camping on the island and captured a number
of tuataras, but searched in vain for eggs, though we opened up many
burrows in the hope of finding them. “The smallest tuatara found was
4-9 inches in Jength. Not finding eggs, we dissected several tuataras,
thinking that the condition of the ovaries might tell us whether we
were too early or too late in the breeding season, but the dissection
revealed no eggs at all approaching maturity.

We took away from the island a number of tuataras, hoping that
they would breed in captivity. Some of these were taken by Professor
Parker to Dunedin, a rather larger number being kept by me in
Auckland, as it was thought that the warmer climate of the northern
part of the colony would be more favourable.

Up to the beginning of January, 1886, no eggs had been obtained
from my tuataras, and, as regards the lizards I then possessed, any
such hope was futile, for I shortly afterwards discovered that all my
tuataras (twenty-nine in number) were males. Thinking that our
visit the previous summer had been too late in the season, I determined
to make another expedition to Karewa, this time at my own expense.
Professor Parker was unable to join me, owing to the great distance of
Dunedin from the spot ; he was, moreover, engaged in working at the
development of the kiwi. From this date, therefore, the whole of the
work fell into my hands. J spent three or four days at the beginning
of January in camp alone on Karewa; but, although a month earlier
in the season than on the occasion of the previous visit, I was again
unsuccessful in procuring a single egg of the tuatara.

I made, however, a step in advance by discovering the external
differences between the sexes. We had been assured by those familiar
with the tuatara that there was no difference in the external characters

THE TUATARA,. 29

of the sexes, and this statement seemed to be borne out by what we
could learn from the literature of the subject. Thus, Dr. Newman, the
latest writer on the subject, said“: ‘‘The males are so like the females
that they have not yet been distinguisued with certainty.”

“The male tuatara has no special strong marked tints, no special
personal attraction ; and, unlike the males of several other species of
lizards, are not much, if at all, bigger than the females. The absence
of special sexual attributes is perhaps due, &e.”

On dissecting and carefully comparing a number of tuataras, [
found that the current statements were not correct. There need
seldom be any difficulty in distinguishing the sexes; the male is much
larger, and has the crests on neck and back far more strongly developed.
Tn the fully adult male, the crests with their white spines are very
conspicuous ; in the female, the crests are low, and the spines are
reduced to a row of white points along the back. The male, too, is of
more robust build, its coloration is somewhat brighter, and it is more
pugnacious. During the breeding season the crests in the male become
at times turgid and swollen, the spines standing stiffly up, and giving
the animal a much more antique and grotesque appearance. It must
be noted, however, that a good deal of variation occurs in both the
tints and brightness of colour in both sexes, and the spines are larger
in some females than in others.

The discovery of the external characters of the sexes showed me
that all the tuataras I had kept for the past year (twenty-nine in
number) were males. This arose chiefly from the fact that males are’
more easily obtained than females; but it is possible that our desire to
obtain the largest, most vigorous, and fully adult animals for breeding
accounts in part for ouv having retained only males for breeding
purposes.

On the occasion of this second visit I secured as many females as [
could, but found move difficulty in obtaining females than males, so
that I set a number of males at. liberty as being superfluous. The
apparently greater abundance of the males is perhaps due to the
females seeking concealment more than the other sex; at any rate, I
am led to suggest this from the observation of my tuataras kept in
confinement. The instinct of concealment would, of course, be of
special value to a female laden with eggs.

Notwithstanding that I now possessed a dozen paws of tuataras, no
eggs were obtained till the following summer. The lizards had been
kept in large houses and were well cared for, and appeared in good
health, but would not breed. Captivity would seem to interfere with
their reproductive powers, an effect which would hardly be anticipated
with animals of so sluggish a nature.

I could only refer their sterility in confinement to a change in
some of the conditions of life consequent on captivity, aad endeavouring
therefore, to make their surroundings approximate more closely to the
natural ones, I had still larger houses constructed, and extensive runs
on the open ground enclosed.

It was not, however, till January, 1889, that eggs were obtained,
and even then some of them were infertile. Weary of the constant
watching of the lizards in previous summers, I took a short holiday al
the New Year, and during an absence of five or six days a female

* “Transactions New Zealand Institute,” vol. i0, p. 225.

30 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

lizard died, but was not noticed by the attendant in charge. On my
return I found that it had contained twelve fully formed eggs; they
had, however, began to putrefy. A second female laid ten eggs, which
proved infertile. A third, which promised well, died from inability to
lay its eggs. It was closely watched, and dissected within an hour of
its death. The oviducts contained four and five eggs respectively, fully
formed and ready for laying. From these eggs were obtained a number
of embryos at various stages of development, from a stage equal toa
two days’ chick up to a stage shortly before hatching. This year I
hoped to obtain a further supply of embryos, but only one female has
laid, and her eggs were infertile.

The eggs of the tuatara are oval in form, both ends being of equal
diameter, and vary in length from 2°5 to 3°35 em. The egg-shell is
probably much like that of other oviparous lizards, being tough, flexible,
and very elastic; it contains a varying amount of carbonate of lime.
The eggs dry and shrivel with great readiness when exposed to the
air, and must, therefore, be kept in damp surroundings. On the other
hand, excess of moisture encourages the growth cf micro-organisms in
the mucus with which the eggs are frequently covered when laid, and
such foreign growths tend to the destruction of the contents.

On the whole, the general features of the development are closely
similar to those in other lizards; I propose, therefore, to reserve the
details until a complete account can be given. I may, however, mention
that the pineal eye becomes a promint feature at an early stage. When
pigment is deposited in the skin, an oval spot is left free from it over
the eye, and through this the dark pigment of the retina shows clearly.
Spencer has stated that there is in Sphenodon very little external trace
of the pineal eye. This is true of the adult, but in the recently hatched
tuatara the pineal eye still shows as a dark spot through the translucent
skin over the parietal foramen. This I have been able to observe even
in a tuatara 8 inches in length. Butas the tuatara grows older the
skin over the pineal eye becomes more opaque, and though in some
individuals the scantier development of the pigment over the parietal
foramen affords a feeble indication of the position of the eye, yet in
others the pigment is deposited there as elsewhere, so that all external
trace of the eye is finally lost.

GENERAL NOTES.

“THE Brrps oF New Zeatanp.”’—Lovers of books will regret to
learn that two shipments of Sir Walter Buller’s “Birds of New
Zealand” have been lost at sea. In the early part of last year over a
hundred copies of this work destined for Auckland subscribers went
down in the ill-fated steamer “‘ Maitai,” when she struck on a rock off
Mercury Island; and now, by the mysterious loss of the barque
“‘ Assaye,” on her voyage from London, one hundred and forty more
subscribers’ copies have disappeared. The edition having been strictly
limited to one thousand, and the colour stones having been destroyed
(so as to keep faith with the subscribers), the commercial value of the
copies that remain ought to be considerably enhanced ; indeed, we are
informed that Messrs. E. A. Petherick & Co., the well known Sydney
booksellers, sold their last copy for £16, being five pounds in excess of

GENERAL NOTES. 31

the original price paid by original subscribers in this colony. Sub-
scribers who possess this work will, however, do well to retain it ; for
there is no reason why it should not, like the former edition, rise to a
phenomenal value in the course of a few years. The cost of producing
the highly finished illustrations in colours is so enormous that it is
hardly likely ever to reach a third edition; whilst on the other hand,
the birds themselves are becoming so rapidly extinct that ere long
many of the species will be a mere memory of the past. We have
lately seen a letter from Sir George Grey, in which he refers to it as
“a valuable and beautiful work,” which he has added to his
munificent gifts of books to the Auckland Free Library. Professor
McCoy, F.R.S., the accomplished Director-General of the National
Museum at Melbourne, who is himself engaged on the Fauna of
Victoria, says, in a letter to Sir Walter Buller :—‘‘T congratulate you
“heartily on the magnificent work which you have completed—taking
“letterpress and figures together, far and away the finest local Fauna
“the Colonies have seen. You have shewn the way, but it will be
“very hard indeed to follow.”

THE SPREAD OF FERRETS, WEASELS AND STOATS IN THE SouTH
Istanp.—The action of the Government of this colony in introducing
these noxious vermin, at the instigation of a few runholders, proves to
be a most disastrous experiment as far as the indigenous avifauna is
concerned. The following extract is instructive. It is taken from the
report furnished to the Surveyor-General by Mr. G. Mueller, Chief
Surveyor of Westland, of a “‘ Reconnaissance Survey of the head-waters
of the Okuru, Acton, and Burke Rivers, Westland,” and appears in the
last report (1890) of the Survey Department. Mr. Mueller says :—
“‘ During the past summer several weasels and ferrets were caught and
killed at the Okuru and Waiatoto settlements. These creatures were
taken close to, and some within a mile from, the sea coast. ‘To the
question as to where they come from there could be only one answer :
nobody introduced them into Westland, and hence they must have
been the progeuy of those imported by the Government, and must have
found their way across the Dividing Range, from either Otago or Can-
terbury, or both. But in the absence of any signs of rabbits about the
coast settlements, it is difficult to understand what brought these crea-
tures over. This mystery was effectually cleared up on my exploration
trip. We were prepared to meet with rabbits on the first day’s travel
inland, but we were disappointed. It was not until we got near the
Actor, about nineteen miles from the sea-coast, that we noticed the first
traces of rabbits, and it was not until we got to the very head-waters of
the Okuru that we saw the rabbits in numbers. The ferrets and
weasels, no doubt came up the Dividing Range with the rabbits, but as
soon as they discovered our ground-birds—our kakapos, kiwis, wood-
hens, blue-ducks, aud such like—they followed up the more palatable
game. This is what brought the ferrets and weasels down to the coast
settlements, and the rabbits on our side of the dividing range will
henceforth be left undisturbed and be allowed to spread as they please.
Past experiences have satisfied me that rabbits never will do much
mischief on the West Coast. Years ago they were turned out in
several parts of Westland—parts most favourable to them, open lands
and sandhills—but they all died out. The climate is evidently too
damp for them, and they certainly will never thrive in our dense bush-

32 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

country. But, as regards the ferrets, weasels, &c., they will thrive, and
will continue to thrive until the extermination of our ground-birds,
which has now begun, is fully accomplished. That I am not prophecy-
ing evil without good ground I may prove by the following :—In all
my explorations on the “coast, the certainty of getting a good supply of
birds made it possible to keep the provision swags, which men had to
carry, within reasonable weights and dimensions. On this last trip of
mine rather more than the usual amount of provisions was taken, but
in spite of this precaution, the party had to be put on short rations for
the last three days—namely, one scone per man per day. The further
inland the more plentiful the birds, used to be the rule; but that is
reversed now. At the head of the Okuru and the Burke some nights
passed during which we never heard the screech of the kakapo or the
shrill whistle of the kiwi; and, as for the blue-ducks, we saw only three
during the whole time we were out. In former times while camping
near the head-waters of any of the rivers, the fighting of the kakapos
amongst themselves, and the constant call of the other birds around the
tent and camp-fire during the night, often kept people from sleeping.
This has all changed now ; at least in the southern part of the West
Coast absolute stillness reigns at night, and there is nothing to keep a
traveller from sleeping, except owing to the absence of birds—an- empty
stomach.” :

“SeLect Extra-Tropican Piants,” by Baron Ferd. Von Miieller.
—This valuable work has now reached its seventh edition, and is greatly
enlarged in bulk and usefulness. Every species of useful plant suitable
for cultivation within the temperate and warm temperate zones is
treated of, its general character, uses, and native habitat being given.
At the end are given tables, indicating all the genera of these plants
according to their uses, thus greatly facilitating reference. Other
useful tables give (a) the names of the plants according to their
geographical distribution, (6) important cultural plants arranged
according to the length of time they require to yield a return,
(c) those adapted for a frostless climate, (7) those adapted even for
very cold regions, and (e) those fitted even for the driest climate. A
very full index to vernacular names concludes this useful volume.
Editions of this useful work have already appeared in India and the
United States. It has also passed through a German edition by Dr.
Goeze, and a French recast by Professor Naudin. It is also appearing
now in a Spanish translation” by Professor Kurtz. These facts show
how much the work is in demand among all the colonising peoples of
the world.

FortHcomine Botanica WorxKs.—All botanists will be rejoiced
to hear that ‘‘ The Student’s Handbook of the New Zealand Flora,” by
Mr. Thos. Kirk, F.L.8., of Wellington, is now in the printer’s hands,
though it will probably not be completed for some time yet. Judging
by the specimen pages received, the work will be of a very handy size
and excellently printed, while the author’s name is a guarantee of its
botanical value.

Another work, which will very shortly be published, is an “ Intro-
duction to Structural Botany, for use in New Zealand Schools,” by Mr.
Geo. M. Thomson, F.L.S. It will be a small volume of about 150 pages
illustrated by over 200 figures, drawn on wood by the author,

Both works are being printed at the Government Printing Office.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 33

ARE THERE ANY FRESHWATER CRAYFISH IN Fis1.—A_ freshwater
crayfish belonging to the same genus as those from New Zealand
—Paranephrops—is said to be found in Fiji, and is mentioned by
Professor Huxley in his paper on Freshwater Crayfish in the
“« Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1878,” p. 770. The statement
appears to rest on specimens in the British Museum, and Professor
Walter Faxon in his “Revision of the Astacidx,” suggests that the
locality-labels are perhaps erroneous. For some years past I have been
watching for an opportunity to get specimens from Fiji if possible, so
as to settle the question, but it was not till this year that I could hear
of anyone to collect for me. Through Professor Hutton I then became
acquainted by correspondence with Mr. H. H. Thiele of Nansori, Fiji,
and this gentleman very kindly set to work at once to collect for me,
and I received a bottle of specimens from him in August last.
Unfortunately, however, these specimens turned out to be Freshwater
Prawns or Shrimps (Pa/aemon), not Crayfish (Paranephrops), so that

they were of no use in settling the particular question at issue.
However it seems that Freshwater Crayfish must undoubtedly exist in
Fiji, for in October, 1889, Major W. G. Mair kindly wrote to me to
say that his late brother, H. A. Mair, who is well known as a keen
observer and collector in Natural History, had lived for some years in
Fiji, principally in Ovalau and Viti-Levu, and bad caught Crayfish in
the mountain streams of these places, which appeared to bim to be
identical with those found in Rotorua, Rotoiti, and other lakes of the
North Island. If any of the readers of the “‘ New Zealand Journal of
Science” can give me any further information on the matter, or can get
specimens for me I shall be much indebted to them.—Cuas. CuiILTon,
Port Chalmers, 6th December, 1890.

New ZEALAND EntTomoLocy.—Our readers will be glad to learn
that Mr. G. V. Hudson of Wellington is about to publish a popular
handbook of the insects of New Zealand, with-coloured illustrations
from drawings by himself. The book will be issued at Ten Shillings,
and will form an acceptable addition to our local literature. A
reference to this publication will be found at p. 48, in the report of the
meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, held on 29th October.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES.

OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Dunedin, 14th October, 1890.—Rev. H. Belcher, M.A., LL.D.,
President, in the chair.

Papers.—(1) ‘‘ On a new parasitic Copepod,” by Geo. M. Thomson,
F.L.S. The author described and figured a new species of Lepeoph-
theirus which was forwarded to him by Mr. J. F. Erecson, of Waipapapa
Point Lighthouse, and which he has named after that excellent observer
and collector Z. Hvecsoni. It is a small species, and was taken in con-
siderable numbers on the bodies of the Moki (Latris ciliaris). Mr.
Thomson then gave a popular account, aided by numerous diagrams, of
the form, development and mode of life of the ecto parasites belonging
to the Copepoda.

34 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

(2) “On two new species of Cumacea,” by Geo. M. Thomson, F.L.S.
The author pointed out that no Crustaceans of this group had previously
been found in New Zealand. ‘The two species described and figured
belong respectively to the genera Cyclaspis and Diastylis and were taken
with the dredge in the Bay of Islands. Small specimens of the Cyclaspis
were also taken with the surface-net in Otago Harbour.

The genus Cyclaspis was originally founded on a deep-sea form C.
longicaudata, found by Professor Sars off the Coast of Norway and
again at great depths in the Atlantic. A second species was subse-
quently found in the Mediterranean, and the “ Challenger ” Expedition
brought back three more, all belonging to the Australian seas, The
New Zealand species though very distinct from all the others appears
to be most nearly allied to the Australian C. pusillt.

The genus Diastylis is largely represented, especially in the
Northern Ocean. The local species appears to be quite distinct from
any of the 31 species previously described.

(3) “Notes on the New Zealand Squwillide,” by Chas Chilton,
M.A., B.Sc. In this paper it was shown that the two species of
Squillide given in Miers’ “Catalogue of the N.Z. Crustacea,” viz :—
Squilla nepa and Gonodactylus trispinosus—are not represented from
New Zealand in any colonial collection, and that it is very doubtful
whether they really belong to the New Zealand fauna. The only
species actually known from New Zealand are Squilla armata recorded
from Wellington by Mr. T. W. Kirk, and Lysiosquilla spinosa, the
latter being taken to include Coronis spinosa Wood-Mason, Squwilla
indefensa Kirk, Squilla levis Hutton, and Squilla tridentata Thomson.
This species is widely distributed over New Zealand and the adjoining
islands. Both sexes are fully described and measurements for
comparison with the species described by Brooks in the “‘ Report on the
‘Challenger’ Stomatopoda,” are also given. The peculiar structure
found on the endopodite of the first abdominal appendage of the male is
also described and figured.

(4) “On the changes in form of a parasitic Isopod (Nerocila),” by
Chas. Chilton, M.A., B.Sc. This paper contained a few notes on a
pavasitic isopod—WNerocila macleayti, Leach, of which J. nove-xealandiw,
Schiddte and Meinert, is considered a synonym. The younger forms
which differ from the adult females in the breadth of the body, eyes,
prominence of epimera, & , are described and compared with the adult,
and figures of each are given.

(5) “On the origin of the Sternum,” by Professor T. Jeffery
Parker, F.R.S. The author contrasts the two forms of Sternum found
in Vertebrata, the costal sternum of Amniota and the omo-sternum (pre-
and post-omo-sternum) of Amphibia, and attempts to show how, in spite
of their different ontogeny, they may be genetically connected. He also
describes the shoulder-girdle of NVatidanus indicus and draws attention
to the fact that its mid-ventral portion is formed by two distinct cartila-
ginous elements, apparently the pre- and post-omo sternum. This
appears to be the first instance hitherto recorded of the occurrence of
a sternum in fishes.

eS

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 35

ANNUAL MEETING.

Dunedin, 18th November, 1890.—Rev. H. Belcher, M.A., LL.D.,
President, in the chair.

Paper.—The President read a paper on Ibsen’s Works.
ANNUAL REPORT.

The Secretary (Professor Gibbons) read the annual report as
follows :---

In presenting their report for the past session the council has to
again express its regret that the meetings of the society have not been
more largely attended by the members and the public. The system of
sending out post cards to members on the eve of each meeting has been
abandoned in favour of putting an advertisement in the newspapers,
without producing any appreciable change in the numbers attending
the meetings. A conversazione was held on March 1, during the visit
of the Senate of the New Zealand University to Dunedin. During the
session six general meetings were held. At the first an interesting
account was given by Mr. Chapman of his visit to the outlying
islands south of New Zealand when he exhibited maps and speci-
mens of the birds and plants obtained on them. At the July
meeting a paper “On the extinction of the Moa” was read by Rev.
Mr. Christie, of Waikouaiti; and at the September meeting a paper
*‘On the food of the Moa and its extinction,” by Mr. Vincent Pyke,
was also read. At the August meeting a paper “On the philosophy of
David Hume” was read by Professor Salmond. At the other meetings
papers were read as follows: —‘‘A new species of Megeis,” by Mr.
Goyen ; “ Description of Native plants,” by Mr. Petrie; ‘‘ The etymo-
logy of the Penguin,” by Dr. Belcher; “ On the Cat in Ancient Italy,”
by Dr. Belcher ; “ On the anatomy of the Red Cod (Lotella Bacchus)”
by Mr. Beattie ; “The New Zealand Squillide,” and “The change in
the form of an Isopod,” by Mr. Chilton; “On a new parasitic Copepod,”
and “Two species of Cumacea,” by Mr. Thomson; “On the origin of the
Sternum,” by Professor Parker. In the course of the session a new
bookease*has been obtained for the library, to which numerous additions
of books have been made, including Day’s “ Fishes of India’; and a
large number of back volumes of periodicals have been bound. A
microscope-attachment to the magic lantern has been obtained, which
the council hope will prove an additional attraction to the meetings.
During the session four new members were elected. The number on
the roll is now 123, of whom 10 are life members. The balance-sheet
shows a balance from last year of £76 2s. ld., subscriptions to date
£129 2s, 6d., making total receipts £205 4s. 7d. Cash expenditure,
£96 5s. 7d.; leaving a credit balance of £108 19s. The liabilities
amount to £50. There is also a sum of £277 14s. standing in the
bank on fixed deposit.

On the motion of Mr. A. Wilson, M.A., the report was adopted.

The following gentlemen were elected office-bearers for 189] :—
President: Professor F. B. de M. Gibbons, M.A. Vice-Presidents :
Rev. H. Belcher, M.A., LEL.D., and Mr. C. W. Adams. Hon.

36 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Secretary: Mr. A. Hamilton. Hon. Treasurer: Mr. E. Melland.
Council: Professors Parker, F R.S., and Scott, M.D., Drs. Hocken,
F.L.S., and de Zouche, Messrs. F. R. Chapman, D. Petrie, M.A., and
Geo. M. Thomson, F.L.S. Auditor: Mr. D. Brent, M.A.

Mr. D. Brent mentioned that the Otago Institute had now come
of age—thas was to say, it was just 21 years old. On July 3,
1869, Mr. J. 8. Webb, who took a very active part in the foundation
of the institute, convened a meeting in the long room of the Atheneum
Hall, at which Dr. Hocken was also present. About three weeks after-
wards a meeting was held in the Provincial Council library, at which
the Otago Institute was formally constituted. <A list of the original
members showed 80 names, and on looking over it he was surprised to
find that 20 of them still belonged to the institute. They were :—
Messrs. C. W. Adams, G. M. Barr, A. Bathgate, L. O. Beal, A.
Beverly, D. Brent, Robert Chapman, W. Fraser (Karnscleugh), Dr.
Hocken, James M‘Kerrow, W. Martin (Green Island) A. C. Purdie,
KE. C. Quick, James Rattray, Hon. W. H. Reynolds, G. G. Russell,
H. Skey, and Sir R. Stout. Others had left the colony, but the
following original members had since passed away :—Messrs. W.
Arthur, Dr. Borrows, R. Gillies, 8. Hawthorne, W. Langlands, J.
Macandrew, W, D. Murison, A. C. Strode, and J. T. Thomson. Judge
Ward presided at the meeting to which he had just made reference,
and Messrs. J. S. Webb and Dr. Hocken were the first joint secretaries.

WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,
Wellington, 23rd July, 1890.—Charles Hulke, F.C.8., President,

in the chair.
New Member.—Mr. J. W. Poynton.

Papers.—(1) “ Curiosities of Polynesian Speech,” by E. Tregear,
F.R.G.S. Mr. Tregear said that having been for some years employed
in the comparative study of the Polynesian dialects, he had devoted
himself to the task of collating different vocabularies and putting them
into a position wherein they could be easily examined. The Maori
language was a branch of a great family of human speech, and any
effort made to understand it in its original purity would fail if it was
studied without the light thrown upon it by the sister dialects. In
many of the islands inhabited by the fair Polynesians letters had been
lost from their alphabets, and the work of an investigator was cramped
if he had not the time or energy to accumulate the material at present
lying in a chaotic state. His Comparative Dictionary was an
endeavour to produce a work tending to simplify this labour, and to
allow a student to perceive at a glance what words or probable words
were equivalent to those in use in New Zealand. Any attempt to
compare the Polynesian language with the speech of peoples dwelling on
the great continents would also be simplified by the existence of such a
handbook. During the course of his investigations he had searched
through hundreds of old poems, legends, &c., and had compared the
mythologies, genealogies, &c., of celebrated deities, and heroes, as given
in New Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, Raratonga, the Marquesas,

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 37

Hawaii, &c., in order that the book might serve as a classical dictionary
for Polynesia. The work had proved so interesting to him that he
believed some of the results might aiso be of interest to the members of
the Society, and he proposed to adduce some examples of words, showing
the curious letter-changes and remarkable distortions of meaning in
many cases. Mr. Tregear then gave at length comparatives and mean-
ings of the Maori words koi, kao, ehu, ike, huru, hono, whenua, raumati,
kerokero, taurekareka, erangt, ua, whakairo, mua, hoa, mahara, kokiri,
tareparepa, mangere, romi, &c, &e.

In the second part of his paper Mr. Tregear said, that the habit of
substituting a lost consonant between two vowels, or before a word
dsommencing with a vowel, became so confirmed with one accustomed to
study the Eastern Polynesian dialects that it was almest impossible not
to read Maori in the same way. Some of the words used by the Maori
people had a double form, with or without the /; and other words, if
compared with similar forms in the different dialects, appeared to have
lost a consonant. It was possible, he believed, by comparative study,
to restore the lost consonants in the Maori language, although it would
need much study and great care. The result of his research was that,
although the New Zealand Maori had lost less than any of the other
Oceanic dialects, it was by io means the primitive and virgin speech
commonly supposed.

The President congratulated the members upon the fact of this
paper being the first one that had been offered in competition for the
Society’s medals, although he was afraid that the author would have the
field to himself. As regards this paper it was a most interesting one, not
only on account of the subjects but on account of the manner in which
the subject had been treated. Those who took an interest in these
matters should be thankful for any addition made to our knowledge of
these dialects ; the more so when such work was done asa labour of
love. The way in which the author had made a comparative analysis
of the different Polynesian dialects threw a new light entirely upon
them. Some persons might consider such a paper dry, but the author,
from the novel manner in which he had treated his subject, had made
it very interesting, and the suggestions were extremely valuable. The
great value of this paper lay in the author’s views on the reconstruction
of the originals of the numerous dialects in use in Polynesia.

(2) “On the New Zealand Cicada,” hy G. V. Hudson, F.E.S.
The author began by drawing attention to the erroneous name of
“locust ” whith was frequently applied to the Cicade, and pointed out
that they had no manner of affinity with that family of insects. Allu-
sion was also made to the fact that they were essentially charac‘eristic
of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world. The
apparatus which enables the males to make the well-known chirping
was then briefly described, as well as the ovipositors of the females.
Six species of Cicade were noticed, and their habits, &c., described, two
of which, Cicada singulata and mata, were already known, and four,
C. tristis, C. aprilina, C. cassiope, C'. volanthe, weve new species. The
author then recounted a few observations he had made on the life-
histories of the Cicade, and pointed out what a large amount of

investigation was still needed in that direction.

28 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Mr. T. W. Kirk was surprised that this interesting genus had
hitherto been almost passed over by New Zealand entomologists. The
paper just read would be extremely ‘welcome to naturalists. As far
back as 1872. the late Dr. Powell described, in the ‘Transactions of
the New Zealand Institute,” the stridulating organs of the New Zealand
species, and about two years ago Mr. Lucas did the same for Australia.
Mr. Hudson made no mention in his paper of the destructive habits of
the Cicade. A few days after the female emerged she commenced to
lay. Making a longitudinal slit in the bark of the tree, she proceeds to
saw a number of V-shaped cuts in the wood so as to raise the fibres and
prevent the bark from healing. She then deposits her eggs in pairs in
each wound. The total laying sometimes amounts to hundreds. The
female then dies, the eggs hatch, and the young grub drops to the
ground, and then undergoes the transformation mentioned by Mr.
Hudson. The Cicada prefers the Manuka, but nothing comes amiss,
and the young shoots of orchard trees sometimes suffer considerably ;
the damaged shoots, if not killed, generally break off when the fruit
begins to swell. As regards the pupa being mistaken for mole-crickets,
he might say that there certainly were veritable English mole-crickets
in New Zealand. He had exhibited specimens which were alive when
received.

Mr. Maskell had seen twigs of fruit- and other trees damaged by
these insects, but he did not think the urgency was so great as supposed ;
still it was sufficient to make those concerned take steps to prevent it.

Mr. Hudson, in reply, said that he had not in this paper gone into
the subject of the eggs of the Cicade ; indeed he had great difficulty in
procuring eggs, and would be glad to get them from any member.

Wellington, 13th August, 1890—Charles Hulke, F.C.S., President,
in the chair.

Paper.—‘‘On some Means for increasing the scale of Photographic
Lenses, and the use of telescopic powers in connection with an ordinary
Camera,” by Alex. McKay, F.G.8. This is a discovery in the art of
photography, by which, through the use of telescopic powers in
conneetion with an ordinary camera, photographs of remarkable
correctness in all matters of detail may be taken several miles distant.
(The author described in detail the series of experiments he had made
in perfecting his process.) In the first place, by the use of a telescopic
eyepiece, consisting of one or more dispersion-lenses of different powers,
photographs on an increased scale, and greater size can be produced
from the same standpoint without it being necessary to use a camera
other than that which is fitting to the photographic object in the first
instance. The instrument may also be used in connection with
microscopic photography. Secondly, a travelling screw, connecting the
two parts of the telescopic tube, which, with a thread of, or approaching,
40 to the inch, affords the required degree of nicety in adjusting the
objective and the eyepiece. Thirdly, a focusing-glass or eyepiece, to
be used in the position of the focusing-screen, enables the use of a
focusing-cloth to be dispensed with, and also the screen in giving the

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES 39

final and highest degree of sharpness to the picture, and by means of a
sliding part or travelling screw it may be made to adjust differences in
the length of the foci resulting from the use of imperfect lenses in the
other optical parts of the instrument. Mr. McKay concluded by
stating that he was taking steps to procure protection of his invention,
and in due time he hoped to secure patent rights for the same, and
such other improvements as may yet be effected. Several hundreds of
views of the North and South Island taken by the new process were
afterwards shown with a lantern, and comparisons made with those
taken by the ordinary process.

Mr. W. T. L. Travers expressed the opinion that the discovery
would completely revolutionise photography, and would prove most
valuable for astronomical research and for the purposes cf warfare.

Sir James Hector considered that the thanks of the Society was
due to Mr. McKay for having brought his important discovery before
the members. He had perfected his invention after years of work and
at great expense.

Mr. Field said he suspected the so-called invention was no new
thing, as he had seen photographs of Auckland which, taken from the
North Shore, showed the minutest details of the buildings and shore
line on the opposite side of Waitemata Harbour.

Mr. R. C. Harding said that the possibilities of Mr. McKay’s
discovery seemed only to have been faintly indicated in what had been
said that evening, and, for his own part, he was most impressed by its
value in connection with the graphic arts. The comparative views of
the same landscape as taken by the ordinary lens and by the telescopic
combination were specially interesting and instructive; and the
question had been raised as to which of the two processes was the
more artistic, or more closely resembled the effect to the eye. The
difference between two such photographs was obvious, and the question
raised was one in dispute among artists themselves. It was the
accepted practice in painting to give well-defined detail both to near
and distant objects, though it was impossible for the eye, without a
change of focus, to recognise both in nature. Hence the contention of
the impressionists that the conventional style was false, and the
practice on their part of representing some portion of the picture in
detail and slurring over the rest. He considered that the conventional
art and the pictures taken by Mr. McKay’s process, representing both
the nearest and most distant objects with perfect clearness, were truer,
both to art and nature, as the necessary change of focus in the human
eye was so rapidly and unconsciously effected. Mr. McKay’s discovery,
therefore, was quite as important on artistic as on scientific grounds.

The President (Mv Hulke) said that members had overlooked the
fact that Mr. McKay’s discovery would materially lessen the load
photographers have to carry at the present time, and that the number
of lenses required would by the same means be lessened. The pictures
referred to by Mr. Field were taken by a good but ordinary instrument.
Mr. McKay’s invention would be invaluable to geologists.

40 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Wellington, 8th October, 1890.—C. Hulke, F.C.S., President, in
the chair.
New Member.—Mr. W. Barton.

Papers.-—(1) ‘Further Coccid Notes, with descriptions of new
species from New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji,” by Mr. W. M. Maskell.
The author said that as this was a technical paper he would not read
it in full) He might explain that it was in continuation of similar
papers read last year and in former years an work he had been engaged
in for the last fourteen years. It described about twenty new species—
five from Australia, one from Fiji, and the rest from New Zealand.
Plates figuring these accompanied the paper. The paper also contained
remarks on formerly described species in this and other parts of the
world. He also exhibited about 150 different species of insects, inclu-
ding those he had already described, together with others from various
localities. He regretted much that entomologists generally did not
think it worth their while to study this particular family, the coccide.
He believed that he himself was the only person in New Zealand who
had published anything about it. Outside New Zealand there were not
more than eight or ten who gave attention to scale insects. This was a
bad thing, and he felt it much, as he had here no one to discuss the
subject with, or to correct him if he fell into any errors. Two
gentlemen at Reefton collected for and assisted him greatly, but they
did not write on the subject and relied entirely on him for determi-
nations—there was no one to keep him straight, so to say. But
chiefly he regretted that entomologists would not depart from the
general groove of butterflies, moths, and beetles. We knew pretty
-well all that can be known of these ; at least their study had been so
close that the varieties seemed now-a-days only trivial. In the coccide
there was infinite variety and work of the greatest interest—a
variety of life-history, habits, and customs that seemed greater than
that afforded by any other branch of entomology. He gave instances
of peculiarities in these insects—wonderful vitality in some cases, and
about the boring habits of one particular insect after it had thrown off
legs, mouth, d&c.—all tending to prove that these little despised
creatures were more interesting for study than all the butterflies.

Mr. Hudson said that he wished to say a few words on the
subject of general entomology. While fully appreciating the great
value and interest attaching to the study of the coccide he felt
confident that any other family of insects closely investigated would
yield equally interesting results. After showing the limited extent of
the coecidee, compared with the remainder of the great class insecta, he
pointed out the vast variety existing in the habits of various other
families and orders, commencing with the lepidoptera. He said that
some fed on the leaves of plants, some on roots, some burrowed in the
stems of trees, making a trap-door to protect themselves from enemies.
Others again constructed cases which they dragged about with them,
while others, among the minute species, tunnelled between the layers
of leaves, lived in the kernels of fruits, nuts, seeds, &c., &c. Their
mode of passing the winter was equally varied. Some hibernated,
laying their eggs on the sprouting plants in the spring, others spent
the same period in the ground or in cocoons as pup, others hibernated
as larve, while others again passed the inclement months in the egg

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 4I

state. Turning to the coleoptera or beetles, equal variety in habits
was found to exist. Many species burrowea through trees in the larva
state, others were carnivorous, forming pitfalls in the earth to capture
their prey. As a striking instance of diversity of habit the genus
Sitaris was mentioned. This beetle laid an enormous number of eggs
near the entrance to the nests of various species of solitary bees.
These eggs hatched out as minute active insects with six legs. Numbers
of them perished, but a few managed to jump on to the bees as they
visited their nests. Here the larva remained until the bee was in her
own cell, where she deposited an egg which floated on the top of the
honey that the bee had industriously stored up for her offspring. As
soon as the Sttaris larva got a chance it left the bee and jumped on to
the egg, which it then devoured. Casting its skin it now appeared as
an ordinary beetle-grub, feeding on the honey until it was all consumed,
when it was transformed into a pupa, from which the beetle finally
issued. The remarkable habits of social insects were also alluded to,
and the number of the other orders of insects compared with the
hemiptera, of which the coccidw were but a small family. He did not
wish to detain the Society further, but hoped that he had said enough
to show that the whole insect world was teeming with interest and
variety.

Mr. Travers: The great value of Mr. Maskell’s work has been the
determining of insects that have been so injurious to our fruit and
other trees, and the pointing out of remedies to be applied to prevent
damage. The fruit-growers of New Zealand are under great obligations
to Mr. Maskell; so that although Mr. Maskell’s labours are principally
of value from a scientific point of view, yet for economic purposes they
have been of the greatest benefit. Had it not been for his great
labours many of these pests would have escaped observation and have
gone on doing the greatest mischief. Beetles and other insects are also
very injurious to trees, and are easily introduced from other countries,
so that anyone who devotes his attention to the observation of the
life-history of such objects is deserving of credit.

Mr. Maskell, in reply, said he did not wish it to be understood
that he thought the study of other forms of insect life had no interest.
He considered, however, that there was very little new to be gathered
in other branches of entomology—the subject of butterflies and beetles
had been pretty well worked out, while there was still so much to learn
from the study of the coccidee. What he was doing now was purely tor
science—he was rather sick of the economic side of the question. His
reasons were partly personal, no doubt, as he found great numbers of
persons ready to ask advice as to the means of treating their trees and
improving their property, but nobody seemed to recollect that their
adviser might have economic necessities of his own, or to thinlk it
necessary to offer the least remuneration for the advice. But,
principally, he found that whatever counsels might be given, the chief
object of many persons seemed to be to introduce at once confusion and
uncertainty. Hor example, in the case of phylloxera, which is now
well-established in New Zealand, in view of the wretched obstructiveness
of the colonists, he had considered it his duty to strongly recommend to
the Government and to Parliament the total destruction of all vines in
the infected districts. At once the newspapers threw, as it were, a wet

42 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

’

blanket over the proposal by terming it ‘ drastic,” a word which
frightened everybody ; members of Parliament with a general election
in view declined to study the real interests of their constituents in
comparison with their votes, and so nothing was done, and phylloxera
is now spreading at its own sweet will through the North Island. In
fact the ‘economic ” side of the matter was enough to sicken anybody,
and he had in the present paper left it entirely aside.

Mr. Hulke: Mr. Maskell’s remarks on this subject were most
interesting, given as they had been tonight in a popular manner, and
quite within the capacity of all to understand and apply. He
considered that Myr. Maskell’s work had not only a great scientific
value, but had been most beneficial to agriculture generally.

(2) “On the Life History of the New Zealand Glow-Worm,” by
G. V. Hudson, F.E.8. The author gave a most interesting account of
these curious insects, and illustrated his remarks by drawings of the
stages of development of the worm. He dwelt particularly on the
peculiarity of the light given by these creatures in all their forms of
orowth.

Mr. Travers said that these worms were first mentioned by Hoch-
stetter, but he did not think they had been described.

Mr. Maskell: Has the light been microscopically examined?
Could it possibly be phosphorent infusoria? It might not be at the
will of the insect that the light went out, as described by Mr. Hudson.
He was sorry that Mr. Hudson did not describe the insect himself,
instead of sending it to some one else to do. He thought Mr. Hudson
was quite able to describe his own insects.

Mr. Poynton was of opinion that the extinction of the light was
quite a voluntary act on the part of the worm. He had seen numbers
on the West Coast, and was quite satisfied of this.

Mr. Hudson, in reply, said that he was confident that the
extinction of the light of the glow-worm was a voluntary act on the
part of the larva, and, as such, could not possibly be due to parasitic
infusoria. It was also almost incredible than an aggregation of animal-
cule could give such a brilliant light. He felt sure that the organ he
had deseribed produced the light at the will of the insect, but its use
he was entirely unable to explain.

Wellington, 29th October, 1890.—Charles Hulke, F.C.S,, President,
in the chair.

Tt was announced that in conformity with the Act, Mr. Charles
Hulke had been nominated to vote in the election of Governors of the
New Zealand Institute for the ensuing year.

Papers.—(1) ‘An exhibition of new and interesting forms of New
Zealand Birds with remarks thereon,” by Sir Walter Buller, K.C.M.G.,
P.R.S. The author said that probably no section of New Zealand
Zoology had received such careful attention or been so thoroughly worked
outas the Birds. Their beauty of form and colour and the peculiar

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 43

interest attaching to their life history—their natural habits, their song,
their wonderful modes of nidification—and their general ministration
to the wants and caprices of man, all tended to make the study of our
birds more attractive than that of any other branch of natural history.
So much had already been written on the subject that it might
reasonably have been looked upon as an exhausted field, but so far from
this being the case, new forms and characters of bird-life, and new facts
in the history of even our commonest species were being continually
brought to light, and it seemed to the author that, after the manner of
the Zoological Society of London, which had proved so eminently
successful, the best mode of bringing observations of the kind before
such a Society as this was to exhibit specimens wherever practicable,
and to make brief remarks upon them by way of explanation or sugges-
tion. By this means facts and observations of a valuable kind might
often be elicited during the customary discussion that follows the
reading of a paper. The author then exhibited and remarked upon the
following species :—

Miro traversi, Buller. Obtained at the Snares, where itNs compa-
ratively numerous. It inhabits the Chatham Islands, but has never
been met with in any part of New Zealand, or on the Auckland, Camp-
bell, Antipodes, or Bounty Islands. The author offered no explanation
of this very remarkable distribution.

Spheneacus fulvus, Gray. Also from the Snares, where this species
inhabits the trees, instead of fern-beds and swamp yegetation like its
near ally (“. punctatus) in New Zealand. The author pointed out
modifications in structure, apparently the result of this different habit
of life.

Prosthemadera nove-zealandie, Gmelin. A very remarkable speci-
men of the Tui, almost a pure albino, was exhibited, and mention made
of several other departures from the normal character.

Plutycercus nove-zealandie, Sparrm. A pair from Antipodes Is-
lands was exhibited, showing a larger mixture of yellow in the plumage
than ordinary New Zealand examples, and some interesting particulars
given respecting the local varieties of this highly variable species.

Gallinago auchlandica, Gray. Of this rare Snipe two specimens
were shewn from the Snares and two from the Auckland Islands. The
sexes are alike, but the birds from the former locality are some shades
darker in plumage than those from the Auckland Islands, and ought
perhaps to be referred to Gallinago pusilla.

Tringa canutus, Linn. A specimen of this cosmopolitan species
(the Common Knot) from Pelorus Sound, just passing into the summer
plumage, was next commented on.

Larus nove-hollandie, Stephens. <A fine specimen of this bird
from Otago was shewn to the meeting, and also an apparently new and
undescribed Gull, which was critically compared with Larus scopulinus
and Larus bulleri, to bring out the points of difference.

Ocydromus earli,-Gray. An example of the true O. early from
Marlborough was exhibited, and an interesting account given by the

42 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

blanket over the proposal by terming it ‘ drastic,” a word which
frightened everybody ; members of Parliament with «a general election
in view declined to study the real interests of their constituents in
comparison with their votes, and so nothing was done, and phylloxera
is now spreading at its own sweet will through the North Island. In
fact the ‘economic ” side of the matter was enough to sicken anybody,
and he had in the present paper left it entirely aside.

Mr. Hulke: Mr. Maskell’s remarks on this subject were most
interesting, given as they had been to-night in a popular manner, and
quite within the capacity of all to understand and apply. He
considered that Myr. Maskell’s work had not only a great scientific
value, but had been most beneficial to agriculture generally.

(2) “On the Life History of the New Zealand Glow-Worm,” by
G. V. Hudson, F.E.8. The author gave a most interesting account of
these curious insects, and illustrated his remarks by drawings of the
stages of development of the worm. He dwelt particularly on the
peculiarity of the light given by these creatures in all their forms of
growth.

Mr. Travers said that these worms were first mentioned by Hoch-
stetter, but he did not think they had been described.

Mr. Maskell: Has the light been microscopically examined ?
Could it possibly be phosphorent infusovia? It might not be at the
will of the insect that the light went out, as described by Mr. Hudson,
He was sorry that Mr. Hudson did not describe the insect himself,
instead of sending it to some one else to do. He thought Mr. Hudson
was quite able to describe his own insects.

Mr. Poynton was of opinion that the extinction of the light was
quite a voluntary act on the part of the worm. He had seen numbers
on the West Coast, and was quite satisfied of this.

Mr. Hudson, in reply, said that he was confident that the
extinction of the light of the glow-worm was a voluntary act on the
part of the larva, and, as such, could not possibly be due to parasitic
infusoria. It was also almost incredible than an aggregation of animal-
cule could give such a brilliant light. He felt sure that the organ he
had described produced the lght at the will of the insect, but its use
he was entirely unable to explain.

Wellington, 29th October, 1890.—Charles Hulke, F.C.S,, President,
in the chair.

Tt was announced that in conformity with the Act, Mr. Charles
Hulke had been nominated to vote in the election of Governors of the
New Zealand Institute for the ensuing year.

Papers.—(1) “An exhibition of new and interesting forms of New
Zealand Birds with remarks thereon,” by Sir Walter Buller, K.C.M.G.,
F.R.S. The author said that probably no section of New Zealand
Zoology had received such careful attention or been so thoroughly worked
out as the Birds. Their beauty of form and colour and the peculiar

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 43

interest attaching to their life history—their natural habits, their song,
their wonderful modes of nidification—and their general ministration
to the wants and caprices of man, all tended to make the study of our
birds more attractive than that of any other branch of natural history.
So much had already been written on the subject that it might
reasonably have been looked upon as an exhausted field, but so far from
this being the case, new forms and characters of bird-life, and new facts
in the history of even our commonest species were being continually
brought to light, and it seemed to the author that, after the manner of
the Zoological Society of London, which had proved so eminently
successful, the best mode of bringing observations of the kind before
such a Society as this was to exhibit specimens whevever practicable,
and to make brief remarks upon them by way of explanation or sugges-
tion. By this means facts and observations of a valuable kind might
often be elicited during the customary discussion that follows the
reading of a paper. The author then exhibited and remarked apon the
following species :—

Miro traversi, Buller. Obtained at the Snares, where itNs compa-
ratively numerous. It inhabits the Chatham Islands, but has never
been met with in any part of New Zealand, or on the Auckland, Camp-
bell, Antipodes, or Bounty Islands. The author offered no explanation
of this very remarkable distribution.

Spheneacus fulvus, Gray. Also from the Snares, where this species
inhabits the trees, instead of fern-beds and swamp vegetation like its
near ally (“. punctatus) in New Zealand. The author pointed out
modifications in structure, apparently the result of this different habit
of life.

Prosthemadera nove-xealandie, Gmelin. A very remarkable speci-
men of the Tui, almost a pure albino, was exhibited, and mention made
of several other departures from the normal character.

Platycercus nove-xealandie, Sparrm. A pair from Antipodes Is-
lands was exhibited, showing a larger mixture of yellow in the plumage
than ordinary New Zealand examples, and some interesting particulars
given respecting the local varieties of this highly variable species.

Gallinago aucklandica, Gray. Of this rare Snipe two specimens
were shewn from the Snares and two from the Auckland Islands. The
sexes are alike, but the birds from the former locality are some shades
darker in plumage than those from the Auckland Islands, and ought
perhaps to be referred to Gallinago pusilla.

Tringa canutus, Linn. A specimen of this cosmopolitan species
(the Common Knot) from Pelorus Sound, just passing into the summer
plumage, was next commented on.

Larus nove-hollandie, Stephens. <A. fine specimen of this bird
from Otago was shewn to the meeting, and also an apparently new and
undescribed Gull, which was critically compared with Larus scopulinus
and Larus bulleri, to bring out the points of difference.

Ocydromus earli,-Gray. An example of the true 0, earl from
Marlborough was exhibited, and an interesting account given by the

44 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

author of his discovery, that the common Woodhen of the North
Island, till then supposed to be Ocydromus earli, was really without
name. Finding, when he looked over the old type-collection of birds
in the British Museum, that Sir George Grey had been one of the
earliest and most liberal contributors of specimens from New Zealand,
he decided to dedicate the species to him, and named it accordingly
Ocydromus greyt.

Nycticorax caledonicus, Gmelin. A very beautiful specimen of the
Naakeen Night Heron, with white occipital plumes, rolled in the form
of a queue and fully seven inches in length, was then handed round,
and gave the author further subject-matter. This bird, presumably a
visitant from Australia, was shot at the mouth of Catlins River, in
Otago.

Diomedea fuliginosa, Latham. The next subject was a nestling
Sooty Albatross, remarkable for its thick covering of warm woolly
down, enveloping the body like a great blanket.

Qstrelatu mollis, Gmel.; Wstrelata affinis, Buller; and Puffinus
gavia, Forster. The exhibition of a series of specimens of_ these
somewhat rare species was accompanied by a dissertation on Petrels, in
the course of which some very curious facts were given.

Puffinus bulleri (so named by Mr. Salvin, the great authority on
Petrels) and a species of Hadyptes (Crested Penguin), which the author
had not yet been able to determine, were the last birds noticed. Of
Puffinus bulleri, only three specimens are known, one of which is in
the Colony, and another in the British Museum collection. Of the
Penguin supposed to be new, the author has lately received two
specimens from the West Coast Sounds. He concluded his paper with
an expression of regret that the unique example of Hutton’s Black
Penguin (Ludyptes atratus) had been lost, with many other treasures,
by the wreck of the “ Assaye.”

Mr. Maskell: The remarks made by Sir Walter Buller, who was
an acknowledged authority on the subject of Ornithology, were most
interesting, and the specimens exhibited very beautiful. Without
wishing to make any reflections on the work done by Sir Walter
Buller, he would like to say a few words regarding the establishment of
species. It was a rule in almost all branches of science to establish
what they called species on grounds that seemed to him very unsatis-
factory, and from his own experience and reading for over twenty years
he was led to the conviction that scientific works generally were
overloaded with species determined in a very vague manner. This
applied to all branches of natural science. Mere differences in colour
seemed sufficient to account for thousands of so-called species when in
his opinion the birds or insects were really the same, but slightly varied.
He thought it would be quite as correct to say that all bay horses were
of one species and ail black horses another, as to say that birds in other
respects alike were of different species because they were different in
colour. Why should science be so loaded up with differences merely on
account of colour, especially as so few agree as to colour, which depends
so much on the formation of the human eye? If there is any organic
difference that would be quite another matter.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. AS5

Mr. Hudson would like to remind Mr, Maskell that domestic
productions vary more than those in a wild state, because in selecting
animals and plants for his use man has always taken those that vary in
the direction he requires, hence domestic animals and plants have a
tendency to vary in all directions.

Mr. Robert Pharazyn said that the question was largely one of
experience—there were some branches of science where colour would
not apply, such as chemistry. In natural history colour would have
greater weight, but it was really for naturalists themselves to judge
from experience. If difference of colour proved to be followed by
difference in structure or habit, then it would certainly be reliable.
Animals were much alike in habit, and it would hardly apply to them.
We must associate colour with other characters before it can be generally
used in selecting species.

Mr. McKay said that colour was often the result of a structural
peculiarity, and in many instances must be regarded as specific ;
nacreous and iridescent shells might be mentioned as illustrating this.
While believing that colour was never purely accidental, as contended
by Mr. Maskell, he did not think that colour-spots in all cases could be
used to determine specific differences. With respect to the occurrence
of a species of Robin on the Snares and Chatham Islands, but not
found elsewhere within the New Zealand area, he thought this might
be accounted for on the supposition that the species had established
itself on these now separate and distant islands’at a time when the
Snares and Chatham Islands were connected with each other, and
formed part of a large island which also included New Zealand.

Mr. Henley thought the establishment of true species was a matter
that was determined by the instincts of the animals themselves. In the
cases of tamed quadrupeds, referred to by Mr. Maskell, the animals
recognised no distinction—to a horse every other horse was also a horse ;
every dog recognised his species in any other dog. If this were not so—
if gray horses refused to associate with bay horses, and if, except in
cases of close confinement, horses of the two colours did not cross, they
might fairly be considered to be two species. If they did not cross the
colours would be persistent, as a rule, in the offspring. In cases of wild
animals and birds if individuals different in colour, but seemingiy alike
in other respects, never coupled, the colour alone noted a difference of
species. Whether this instinct for separate breeding was likely to be
present in special instances of birds with peculiar-coloured plumage,
only one or two specimens of which birds had been collected, only a
specialist was competent to decide, and he would probably base his
opinion upon points, the cumulative force of which, sufficiently plain to
himself, he might find it difficult to explain to others. If albinos were
sporadically produced in sufficient numbers to find albinos for partners,
and never obtained partners of the normal colour of the species, they
would probably have a large proportion of albinos in their offspring,
and would soon form a species that he thought all naturalists would
recognise as such.

Mr. T. W. Kirk mentioned having seen a specimen of the Nankeen
night-heron near the mouth of the Pahau river in March last. The

46 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

bird had been slightly wounded. but managed to escape capture. Sir
Walter had exhibited an albino tui. Now it was well known that
birds in New Zealand showed a decided tendency to assume abnormal
plumage. Nor was the peculiarity confined to native species. There
was in the Museum a black skylark; he had seen several specimens of
goldfinch exhibiting unusual colours; and early this year he had noted
a sparrow having white wing-feathers, black head, and normal-coloured
tail, while the whole of the remaining portions were a decided red.
This specimen lived with a large flock of ordinary sparrows about a
wool-shed on the East Coast. Could Sir Walter suggest any theory to
account for these frequent freaks? Also could he “explain the reason
why dimorphic phases of plumage were present in some species ?

Mr. Richardson pointed out that on the Kermadec Islands the
mutton birds were so numerous as to form an article of food for those
who were unfortunate enough to live there.

(2) ‘Notes on the Entomology of the Inland Kaikouras,” by G. V.
Hudson, F.E.S8. Perhaps one of the most beautiful of the many objects
that can be seen, on a clear day, from the hills in the neighbourhood of
Wellington, is Mount Tapueawaeonuku, standing prominent on the
north-eastern end of the South Island, and having from Wellington a
south-westerly direction. It had often been my ambition, while col-
lecting on these hills, to cross the Straits and explore this fine looking
mountain which appeared so likely to be teeming with new and inte-
resting insects. How far my expectations were fulfilled will appear
from the following account of a visit I made to the district, in company
with a friend, last February.

Leaving Wellington at three o’clock on the morning of February
9th, we arrived in Blenheim about midday, remaining there until the
following morning, when we left by coach for Kekerangu, where we
arrived at five o'clock on the evening of the llth. The ride is some-
what uninteresting after leaving Blenheim, the country, which is very
hilly, consisting almost entirely of tussock-grass. It is absolutely teem-
ing with rabbits, as many as six or eight individuals being often noticed
at the same time. The only really striking features on this journey are
the gigantic escarpments cut out by the Awatere River.

On the morning of February 12th we left the Kekerangu sheep-
station and proceeded straight up the valley for about a mile, where we
found the stream divided. Here considerable time was lost in taking
the right-hand branch of the stream instead of the left one, along which
the track to Mount Tapueawaeonuku goes. In these ravines, which are
densely wooded on each side, large quantities of Mecyna deprivalis
occurred, both as larve and perfect insects. We also observed some
lovely specimens of Vanessa cardui, an insect that has been unusually
abundant this year in the Wellington district. About one o’clock we
left the bed of the stream, near a small galvanised iron hut, and
ascended the hills to an elevation of 1900 feet. The weather was now
very gloomy, and we could only obtain occasional glimpses of the moun-
tains between the clouds, which however appeared very imposing.
Absolutely no insects were to be seen, and at five o’clock we were very
glad to reach Coverham.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES, 47

Leaving here first thing the following morning, we arrived at the
Dee Hutt, situated immediately at the foot of Tapueawaeonuku, about
two o’clock in the afternoon. The weather was wet and miserable, so
of course no work could be done that day. On Thursday, 13th, we
made our way for some distance up the bed of the Dee stream, but
found the travelling very bad. Here we only took a few specimens of
Chrysophanus boldenarum, which slightly differ from those from Nelson
and the Wairarapa ; also, two Cicada muta and a few Aclenonyx bembi-
dioides under stones near the stream. We then attempted to make our
way on to the hills, but were prevented by the precipitous sides of the
creek, At 11 o'clock a thick mist came up, which effectually stopped
all further work for the day. On Friday, 14th, we started at six
o’clock with the intention of collecting on some of the higher spurs of
the mountain. After much difficulty we succeeded in attaining an
elevation of 4600 feet, but the outlook from this point was so extremely
uninyiting that I decided to return. Above 3000 feet Argyrophenga
antipodum occurred, as well as Cicada cassiope and Notoreas crephos,
besides a few Cicada muta, var. sub-alpina. When J say that this was
by far the best day’s collecting we had, and that all the above species
and many others way be taken in great numbers on the Dun Mountain,
near Nelson, the extremely unproductive nature of the locality may
perhaps be understood.

During the two following days I collected in the Dee and Clarence
Valleys, with the result of one grasshopper, resembling very closely the
grey stones in the stream, A. bembidioides, Cicindela feredayi, Lyrcea
dlectoraria, a small black Larentia sp. (?) all common and widely distvi-
buted insects. I should also mention that the little grasshopper Calop-
tenus marginalis occurs in this district, in countless numbers, amongst
the tussock grass.

On Monday, 17th, we returned to Coverham. Tuesday, 18th, was
wet, and on Wednesday we ascended the Chalk Range at the back of
Coverham. At 2500 feet Argyrophenga antipodum again occurred, also
Asophodes abrogia, besides a small species of Syrphus, the three last
being the only insects of any consequence taken during the whole
expedition.

On Thursday we left Coverham, and on Friday Kekerangu, arriving
in Wellington at an early hour on Saturday morning.

In conclusion I must certainly recommend future entomologists in
New Zealand not to visit the Inland Kaikoura mountains if they wish
to have a successful holiday.

Mr. Maskell was well acquainted with this part of the country,
and he was not surprised to hear that it was such poor ground for the
collection of insects. Large fires had frequently swept the surface cf all
growth, and this no doubt would be unfavourable to insect life.

Mr. Mackay thought that probably the reason why so few species
of insects were found in this locality was that as high and mountainous
country this corner of the South Island was of very recent date, and it
might be that many species had not yet found their way into the region
in question, or had been there for so short a time that by evolution
fresh species had not as yet made their appearance.

48 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Mr. Hulke took this opportunity of stating that, as agreed upon at
a former meeting, he had in company with Sir W. Buller waited on the
Minister of Education to urge the Government to assist Mr. Hudson in
the publication of his new work on New Zealand Entomology, with the
result that the Government had agreed to take a thousand copies for
distribution among the State schools of the colony. He was sure that
the members would be glad to hear that they had been so successful.

Mr. Hudson thanked the President, Sir W. Buller, and the
members generally for the interest they were taking in the production
of his work.

PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY.
Christchurch, November 6th, 1890.—Annual Meeting.

Papers.—(1) ‘‘ New Land and Fresh Water Shells,” by H. Suter.
(Communicated by the Secretary).

(2) “ Miscellaneous notes on Land and Fresh Water Shells,” by
H. Suter. (Communicated by the Secretary).

3) “Appendix to Paper on Drift Formation,” by J. Hardcastle.
PI } Ny

(4) “On the occurrence of Struthious remains in a sub-dolerite bed
of laterite, near Timaru,” by H. O. Forbes, F.R.G.S. (Communicated
by the Secretary).

(5) ‘On the Earthquake of the 27th December, 1888,” by G.
Hogben, M.A,

(6) “New Species of Lepidoptera,” by E. Meyrick, F.Z.S., &c.

The annual report and balance-sheet were read and adopted. The
following is an abstract :—‘‘ During the year seven ordinary meetings
have been held at which sixteen papers have been read ; which may be
classified as follows :—Geology and Paleontology (5), Zoology (4), Seis-
mology (3), Meteorology (2), Miscellaneous (2). This shows an advance
of five in comparison with the number read last year. There is also a
slight increase in membership compared with last year; the number
now on the books being 98, as compared with 86 in 1889. At the
meeting in May, Mr. J. T. Meeson was elected President in the place of
Mr. 8S. H. Seager resigned. Mr. R. W. Fereday was elected Vice-Presi-
dent in place of Mr. Meeson. There is a credit balance of £24 10s. ld.

The following were elected officers for the ensuing year :—President:
Prof, F. W. Hutton, F.G.S. Vice-Presidents: J. T. Meeson, B.A. ;
T. W. Naylor-Beckett, F.L.S. Treasurer: J. T. Meeson, B.A. Secre-
tary: R. M. Laing, M.A., B.Sc. Council: R. W. Fereday, F.G.S.,
W. H. Symes, M.D., R. H. Webb, F.R.M.S., —. Jennings, M.D., G. A.
Mannering, F. Barkas.

The retiring President read an address, and the newly-elected
President dismissed the meeting.

ONG OL:

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WISE, f AF W

ARE PUBLISHERS OF

Petrie’s First Geography. gee oe Is. “es
Petrie’s Geography of New Zealand a

, | Goyen’ S Complete Arithmetic
Answers to same ee a

Groyen’s Exercises in. the Compound Rules:
Answers
Curnow’s Primer of Unglish History — . Is.

Thomson's: New Zealand Ferns . O55

The Story of the Otago Church and : Cloth 3s. 6d.
Settlement. By Rev. G Stuart Ross Paper 28. ye

Education and Educationists in Otago. Z a
By Rev. C. Stuart Ross. ss, GL

108 PRINCES STREET,
DUNEDIN.

SS EER TREE DAES TR ERI TP TE EE VaR EPR EL mm = eve :
Matthews, Baxter & Co., General: Printers, Dowling Street, Dunedin.-

EW ‘ZEALAND. oo:

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- DEVOTED TO THE FURTHERANCE OF -
D APPLIED SCIENCE THROUGHOUT THE COLONY.

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San i a ae ee a Ne EE

Judicio perpende: et si tibi vera videntur
Dede manus: aut si falsum est, adcingere contra.
2) : : } ‘

foes cette

CONTENTS:

as on hie: Gieimienies be ie Trap- door Spider a Taetoron: Rost.
‘Tanc, B.Sc. : Bs a Ba Rips 52

THOMAS MOOKE ee aS a 58
— of the ee Alloy Awaruite, Prof. G. H, i’. Unricu, Spree
oy vit a te Bult: 60
story “of the Kiwi. Prof. mies J. PARKER, I". R.S. ae ieips 66
‘D. Perrie, M.A., PLS. ... os wt eR
ovo re ; 71 -

-‘Bifects of 'Thander on Milk —Escallonia macrantha and ae Fertilisation of Native:
Flowers by Honey-bees—On the Preservation of Solution of Sulphuretted
* Hydrogen—The Anatomy of a New Zealand Darth-worm—Recent Papers on the
_ Natural History of New Zcaland—Oczcurrence of Glow-worms in 2» Deep Cave—
~ Humble-bees. °

Au rala; ian Association for the Advancement of Science ies ah 7

' the Meeting eet ; ay pas ge 93 =

On the Preservation of the Native vail and Flora of New Zealand—The “ Bull-roarer”
of some Australian Tribes.

i PR
: “Poste uatraia, America, and Britain, 12s. “6a.

Dunedin, a.z.:

TH WS, BAXTER & CO., PUBLISHERS, DOWLING STREEL. ; =

Agee :

ee
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Vol. I, No. 2, N.Z. JOURNAL OF SCIENCE (New Issue) MARCH, 1891.

THE FORTHCOMING “FLORA” OF NEW ZEALAND.

Our last issue contained the announcement that there is every
prospect of the early appearance of a new Students’ Flora of the
colony, from the pen of Mr. Thos. Kirk, F.L.S., of Wellington. For
the formidable task which he has set himself Mr. Kirk possesses
many high qualifications, and all interested in the study of the native
Fowering Plants and Ferns will regard the completion of his work
with satisfaction.

Many years ago the Government of the Colony spent a con-
siderable sum in helping to bring out Sir Joseph Hooker’s well known
Handbook, and we feel confident that the Government of the day
will equally recognise the duty of providing the very modest subsidy
which Mr. Kirk considers a sufficient reward for many years of loving
and laborious preparation for this work.

The need of a new Flora will be disputed by no one who knows
anything about the subject. Not only is sir Joseph Hooker’s
Handbook out of print, and procurable only at a high premium on
the original price, but since its publication the number of flowering
plants has been augmented by nearly a third. The description of all
these new species are scattered through the twenty-two volumes of
the “Transactions of the N.Z. Institute,’ and a few other publications,
and are practically imaccessible to young workers, as well as to all
- who do not live in or near the few populous centres where literary
and scientific interests are actively cultivated. Nor is this all. We
greatly need an authoritative revision of the new matter published in
this sporadic fashion, such as Mr. Kirk, from his wide experience in
the field and his ripe and extensive knowledge, is well qualified to
give us. The extraordinarily numerous discoveries that have been
made in the Hawke’s Bay district in recent years evidently demand
careful reconsideration, an ordeal that may very well result in a
considerable reduction in the number of new species that will be
permanently recognised from that district. The same process will
be applied, doubtless on a much smaller scale, to the recent additions
from other parts of the colony as well. In discharging this dis-
agreeable but highly salutary duty to the goddess of Science, Mr.
Kirk may certainly count on the sympathy and support of most of
the botanical workers and students in the colony. Judicial revision
of established species usually falls to the lot of a succeeding generation
of workers, and this avoids the heartburning and disappomtment by
which the process is likely enough to be attended in the present case.
We trust that no personal considerations will be allowed to interfere
with a rigid performance of this scientific duty.

In compiling a new Flora of a region now fairly well explored,
many improvements can be made on the arrangement and _ infor-
mation in Hooker’s Handbock. In the first place the naming of not
a few genera and species will have to be corrected in consequence of
the more accurate knowledge we now possess of their history and
affinities. ‘The genera will be brought into harmony with Bentham

50 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

and Hooker’s great work on the “Genera Plantarum,” and the errors
in the naming of species, chiefly caused by the admission of names
that must give way to prior ones, which have been brought to light
by the researches of Bentham and F. von Mueller, will be corrected.
It is important that the synonymy should be fully worked out, but
in the absence of a large botanical library of reference it may be
doubted if this departmont of the work can at present be adequately
carried out. Difficulties of the same kind will beset another point of
great importance—the systematic working out of the geographical
distribution beyond the colony of the genera and species of plants
native to it. Thisis a task demanding for its adequate performance
years of patient and laborious research as well as access to large
libraries, and it cannot, we fear, be satisfactorily done by any botanist
resident in our islands. But on the principle that half a loaf is
better than no bread we shall weleome the incorporation of such an
account of the facts of floral distribution as can be made out from the
data available, and trust that in particular all endemic species will be
noted as such.

It is usual in the Floras of Great Britain to indicate the
pronunciation of the names of the genera and species, and Mr.
Kirk will do well to follow this useful custom. ‘the question of ©
giving native or vernacular names by which the commoner species
are known is beset by peculiar difficulties. In the North Island the
Maori names are very generally used by those who take an interest
in native plants, but in the South, chiefly because of the original
sparseness of the native population these names are little known or
used. Nor is this the only difliculty, for different popular names are
attached to the same plant in different districts of the colony and
even in different parts of the same district. The perversity with
which the true ‘beeches’ have become popularly known as ‘ birches,’
and different kinds of ‘mapau’ as ‘maples’—a popular name which
includes small trees of widely distinct Natural Orders, is enough to
fill with despair any botanist who desires to foster a system of
popular names that will be free from misleading and inaccurate
suggestions. The Maori names are for the most part free from this
taint, but the settlers’ names often-show it in its worst form. Even
in naming trees of such economic importance as the native pines,
usage varies not only between North and South, but even within the
limits of so restricted an area as Otago and Southland. Many of the
native names are certain to pass into permanent popular use, such for
example as tutu, rimu, hinau, raupo, ngaio, &c.; and the same may
be said of a small number of settlers’ names, such as spear-grass,
tronwood, broadleaf, pepper tree, &c. But the vast majority of con-
spicuous native plants are still practically destitute of vernacular
names, and in fixing names for these, the influence of good judgment
in selecting suitable names, where such exist, for such a work as a
new popular Flora can hardly fail to be considerable. In a good
many cases it should be possible to bring into popular use the
ordinary generic names of botanists, such as Veronica, Olearia,
Coprosma, &c., though there are obvious limits to this. Into this
maze of difficulty and confusion we hope Mr. Kirk’s labours will
introduce some measure of order and light, and pave the way for
greater improvement in years to come.

’

THE “ FLORA’ OF NEW ZEALAND. 51

The list of foreign. plants now widely naturalised in the colony
is already very extensive, and to be in any way complete a new Flora
must contain descriptions of these. We do not know whether it is
the author’s intention to include these, but it is plain that their
omission will detract from the value and utility of his work. Such
plants as chickweeds, docks, thistles, cat’s-ear, horehound, and numerous
grasses are now very plentiful in all the settled parts of the country,
while not a few have invaded purely pastoral country and are as well
established there, and to all appearance as permanent denizens of the
country as most of the truly indigenous species. No doubt the
inclusion of the chief introduced species will considerably swell the
size of the volume and even add to its cost, but their omission would
be a blunder of capital importance.

The geographic range of the species within the colony will cer-
tainly receive due notice from Mr. Kirk. On this subject his personal
knowledge is unrivalled, and he will be a churlish worker who will
not gladly help him with materials for working out the details of
local distribution with the greatest possible accuracy and minuteness.
The Handbook contains a great mass of valuable facts relating to
local distribution; but the range there assigned to species is not
unfrequently far wider than subsequent exploration will permit us
to accept. Poa anceps, Forst., for example, seems to be unknown in
the southern half of the South Island, though the Handbook says it
is the common Poa of the islands; and many more facts of the same
kind could be adduced. Mr. Kirk will correct for us errors of this
kind, and he will also be able to establish a more extended range for
many species recorded in the Handbook from a single locality or from
restricted areas. A full and accurate knowledge of range and
distribution of species will be one of the chief benefits which the new
Flora will confer on botanical students. Such a knowledge will be of
the utmost service for clearmg up the characters and limits of the
species in the large and variable genera, such as Veronica, Celmisia,
Epilobium, and Pittosporum; it should throw some light on the
existence or otherwise of hybrids in such variable genera ; it should
help us to see some little way into the history of the genesis of many
of the species that now inhabit the colony; and it should aid us in
indicating the channels by which particular species have migrated
from their centres of greatest density. In fact no information which
the new Flora may contain will have more importance for the
elucidation of floral biological questions than a full account of the
facts of local distribution. In this field much still remains for future
generations to work out, but the few local workers have already
garnered a harvest of minute information that is as creditable to
their industry as it is likely to be fruitful in important conclusions.

There is but one more topic to which we need refer. In the
preface to the third edition of Sir Joseph Hooker’s “ Students’ Flora
of the British Islands,” he says—‘‘I have ventured to introduce into
“this edition, under the description of the flowers of various genera,
“characters concerned in the process of fertilisation,—as, whether
“wind-fertilised (anemophilous), insect fertilised (entomophilous), or
“self-fertilised; also whether honey is secreted in the flower; and
““whether the stamens and stigmas ripen together (homogamous), or

52 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

“the anthers first (protrandrous), or the stigma first (proterogynous).”
We shall be pleased to find that Mr. Kirk has not overlooked this
very interesting group of characters, which offer special attraction to
observers, and might lead many to take an interest in elucidating
questions of this kind without having to acquire any profound
knowledge of Botany. Mr. G. M. Thomson, F.L.S., has published
an important paper on the subject, and additional observations have
been made since it appeared, both by him and by other botanical
workers. The results of these observations should, if possible, be
incorporated in the forthcoming work.

We wish Mr. Kirk a continuance of good health to carry through
this important work, and substantial support from students of science
and the Government of the colony.

SOME NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE TRA P-DOOR
SPIDER (Nemesia gilliesiv*) AT LYTTELTON.

BY ROBT. M. LAING, B.Se.

SS

This spider seems to be very much more widely distributed, than
was at first presumed. It has-been found in Auckland and Nelson;
but T am not aware that it has been hitherto described from Canter-
bury. Probably a closer search will show that it is common on hills
and downs throughout the colony.

At Lyttelton it first came under my notice on a bank in a
garden beneath some overhanging fruit trees. The ground in that
situation must have been overturned at least several times during
the last twenty years; but the locality seemed to suit the spider for
I have counted there as many as seventeen trap doors in a square foot
of ground under a gooseberry tree. However it is also common on
the hills everywhere about the town from sea level up to a height of
at least six or seven hundred feet. I have also obtained specimens
from the neighbourhood of Sumner, Dyer’s Pass, and the Bridle-path;
and it will undoubtedly be met with elsewhere on the hills. The
only place on the plains where I have found it is in the Heathcote
Valley; but even there it was within a hundred yards of the hills, on
the side of a dry ditch.

Unfortunately I have not been able to study the habits of the
animal so closely as I should have liked to have done; but there are
a few points, that I have noted, which may be of interest ; and a few
others in which I differ from the late Mr. Gillies, in his very full and
able papert upon the subject.

Mr. Gillies states that he only once found them on the southern
or shady side of a slope. ‘‘ In all other situations,” he says, “where I
have observed them, the nests are always on northern or sunny slopes
of greater or less steepness, never in stony or rocky ground, and never

* T have to thank Mr. P. Goyen, Inspector of Schools, for the identification of my
specimens.
+ “Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,” Vol. VIII., p. 222.

THE TRAP-DOOR SPIDER. 53

actually in the face of a bank so as to be the cause of the trap-door
shutting to by its own weight; but always each nest ona little bit of
flat, or almost flat ground.”

My observations differ from those recorded here in several
points. Near Lyttelton the nests are to be found on banks facing
all points of the compass, and in shady as well as sunny spots. Some
of the largest I have seen were in a small, moist, open-air fernery,
overhung by trees, and facing eastward. Again all the ground
around Lyttelton is more or less stony or rocky, and nests are
frequently found in places where there are only a few inches of soil
above the solid bed rock. ‘They are frequently also to be found in
the face of a bank; and more often than not their position is such
that the force of gravity must assist the door in shutting. In fact it
seems to me doubtful, whether the spider does ever instinctively
choose or make a flat surface for the commencement of its nest.

The trap-door is almost invariably concealed, so that it can only
be detected by a close observer. With practice however the majority
can be recognised by their external appearance. In many cases the
mud on the door forms a protuberance slightly higher than the
surrounding surface. In one case I noticed as much as half an inch
of soil upon the lid. This is generally of considerable assistance in
enabling one to discover the nest in the naked soil; but it often
occurs that one may suspect the presence of a nest from external
indications, but cannot be certain of it until the door has been raised
with a stick or straw. In ground covered with vegetation their
discovery is rendered more difficult by plant growths which com-
pletely conceal the trap-door; but I cannot think with Mr. Gillies
that the spider actually plants and cultivates these for the purposes
of deception. One of the best concealed doors that I have seen was
covered with moss, and so indistinguishable was it, that it could only
have been discovered by accident; but of course there was a bed of
moss covering the ground for a foot or two all round it.

With one exception all the doors, that I have found, have fitted
over the mouth of the nest, and not into it like a cork or plug.
In the exceptional case the hole was also peculiar, as it was the only
one that I have seen, which sloped upward from its entrance. The
majority, (particularly those on the sides of barks), make an acute
angle with the surface on their lower sides, and after continuing in
the same direction for two or three inches, bend nearly vertically
downwards. None of any length appear to be straight.. In the
exceptional case already referred to, the hole was aftewards found to
be only three inches long, and proportionately narrow. I removed
the lid and found that on the following day it had been replaced by
a similar one (¢.e. one of the cork type). Unfortunately I did not
obtain the spider itself. With regard to the renewal of the lid, I
may say that I have observed it, im several cases. The work is
generally done in a single night, occasionally in two. Once [ observed
the replacement in the course of a night of more than half a square
inch of surface, that had been sheared from the side of a nest with a
spade.

My observations with regard to the holes themselves agree very
largely with those of Mr. Gilhes. I found them to be from ten

54 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

inches to a foot in length. The deepest one measured was fifteen
inches. In order to trace their direction in dry, friable soil, I
sometimes poured plaster of Paris in at the door; and I found this
was of considerable assistance. In this way I obtained two spiders
embedded in one hole.

1 have observed plugging up of the holes on various occasions ;
but not to such a puzzling extent as Mr. Gillies has. I am not at all
sure that it was the work of the spider. In some cases it seemed
possible that it might have been caused by the washing down of the
soil from above on to the lid. However I was not able to determine
definitely that this had taken place in any particular instance. In
one case on raising a trap-door, the mouth of the nest beneath it was
found to be completely closed by a layer of cobweb. This was on
March 28th, 1890. On the 13th April, on examining the same hole,
I found a small opening in the web, but not large enough to admit of
the exit of the spider. This small aperture had probably resulted
from stress of weather, or some other natural causes. Being afraid
that it might increase, and thus definite proof of the continued
confinement of the spider might be lost, I dug out the nest, and
found its owner at the bottom, at the depth of a little more than a
foot, in a comatose condition. I kept this spider in an empty bottle
for some hours, but it remained motionless, and it was not till it had
been in spirits for a minute or two that it commenced to moyve*. It
can scarcely have been a case of hibernation as the season was not
far enough advanced for that; and the spiders certainly remain
active until the end of June. Whatever may be the explanation of
these closed nests, they are not unfrequently to be met with, and
certainly require further investigation.

On the other hand, inhabited nests without doors of any kind,
are sometimes to be tound. A number of such occur on a hill slope
on the east side of Mt. Pleasant, at an elevation of six or seven
hundred feet, In the locality referred to the surface of the ground
is covered to the depth of an inch or two with loose sticks and dried
leaves, that have fallen from coprosmas and other shrubby plants
growing near. Here several lidless nests were discovered coming up
through the dead twigs. The spider had probably found it impossible
to attach its door to the loose sticks; but in some cases, as a slight
protection, the web was turned over at the edge and carried along
the twigs for the distance of half an inch all round. <A spider was
taken from one of these holes; and where the ground was free from
leaves close at hand, trap-door nests of the ordinary type were found.

I have only a few remarks to offer as to the habits of the animal.
I have not seen them outside of their nests during the day.
Apparently they seck their food only by night. After dark one
evening in March, 1890, I took a light into the garden, and on
approaching a particular trap-door that I had frequently noted before,
I saw it quickly shut down through the space of about one-sixth of

* (I am informed by a friend in the Oamaru district, that he has frequently seen
trap-door spiders running along the ground, pursued by a small, black wasp—probably
a species of Pompilus. ‘These wasps sting the spiders, and by this means render them
comatose. In this condition they are stored up in the wasp’s nest, and serve as food
for the larva. This may be the explanation of the fact mentioned by Mr. Laing. —
Edit.)

THE TRAP-DOOR SPIDER. 55

an inch. On coming back to the same spot a minute or two after-
wards, I found the door open to the same extent as before, and the
body of the spider could be seen indistinctly beneath it. I caught a
moth and killed it, and put it up towards the hole on the end of a
stick. It was instantly seized and drawn in by the spider, and the
door was completely closed. On raising it, the spider was seen with
its prey an inch or two down the hole; but it speedily retreated still
further. I repeatedly made similar experiments with this spider and
one or two others. On one occasion I fastened the body of a
specimen of the same species firmly to a stick and put it up towards
the door of a nest. The owner of the nest came out and tugged at
the stick, in a way that could be distinctly felt; but finally getting
alarmed it retreated.

I watched several spiders until the middle of June, when change
of residence put an end to my opportunities. They could always be
seen peering out from beneath their doors after dark; and apparently
were not at all alarmed by the light, nor at my presence, for they
have frequently come out of their nests to seize an offered fly, and
have remained out for several minutes. Apparently it is their habit

_to watch for insects from the inside of their doors, and dart out and
seize them as they approach. They do not appear to come outside,
except to seize their prey.

In addition to Nemesia, Migas distinctus and a probably un-
described species of Ariadne, both ground spiders, are to be found on
the Lyttelton hills. The latter occurs at an altitude of 1,000 feet, in
holes of an inch or two in length, one-quarter of an inch in diameter,
without lids, and lined with a dense layer of white web. This spider
takes advantage of cracks in the face of a bank for the commencement
of its nest, enlarges them a little, and weaves a cylindrical web
inside. They do not appear to be very common.

There are many problems of interest awaiting solution with
regard to the distribution and habits of these spiders; and any one
who lives in a neighbourhood where they occur will find in them a
very interesting study.

AN EDIBLE FUNGUS OF NEW ZEALAND.

(Hirneola polytricha, Montagne).*

>

For some years an edible fungus, a product of the New Zealand
forests, has become an important article of commerce between that
colony and China. The fungus belongs to the same genus as the
European Jews-Ear (Hirneola Auriculajude), a tough but gelatinous
fungus formerly in reputation as an ingredient of gargles. The
New Zealand fungus now under notice (Hirneola polytricha), is well
described by W. Colenso., F.R.S., in the “Transactions of the
Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 1884-85 ” :—

* “Kew Bulletin,’ October, 1890.

56 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

“ Hirneola polytricha was first made known to science by Mon-
tagne as belonging to this genus, and as being an inhabitant of the
East Indies and Java, though, like our two other species, it was first
published as belonging to the closely allied genus Lardia, there being
but a very small natural difference between these two gencra. This
species is thus briefly described by Berkeley (translated and abridged
from Montagne): ‘sub-hemispherical, cup-shaped, expanded, lobed,
densely villous externally with grey hairs, disk purplish-brown.’

“Tt is of various sizes and, | might also add, of shapes; some
measuring a few inches, and when wet filling a large teacup or small
basin; a large dry specimen weighing only 2} drams. It is found
growing on the trunks of many trees, both on living and on rotten
ones (especially on the latter while standing), particularly on
Corynocarpus levigata and on Melicytus ramiflorus, both of these
trees being endemic as to genus as well as to species. The former
tree is mostly confined to the sea-shore, where it often forms dense
and continuous thickets. In such situations it is generally of small
size, but when standing apart it is of much larger dimensions, and
not unfrequently in suitable spots it wears an imposing appearance
from its large, green, and glossy persistent laurel-like leaves. The
latter tree is scattered plentifully throughout the country, and the
foliage of both being evergreen, they are eagerly browsed on by
cattle.

“The only market for this fungus is China. From official
information obtained from Hongkong, we find that it is largely used
by the Chinese in soups with farinaceous seeds, and also as a
medicine, being highly esteemed. ‘The Chinese have long been in
the habit of using another species of this same genus that is
indigenous in North China, and also of importing another species
from other isles in the Pacific; so that the use of this kind of fungus
as an article of food is not new with them. Who can say in this
article of food, that Western pride may not again have to learn
something more from this ancient, highly-civilised, and much-injured
people?

“ At first, and for some time, our New Zealand fungus was only
exported in small quantities. The demand, however, rapidly in-
creasing, and the article being plentiful and obtained at little cost,
save the easy and untaught labour of gathering and drying it, its
export rapidly increased. ‘The drying of it, if collected damp, was an
easy matter—merely spreading it in the air and sun till dry, which
soon takes place, when it is roughly packed in sacks, and if kept dry
keeps good and sound for a very long time. The price paid tv the
collectors for it was originally small, only 1d. a pound; at this figure
it remained for some time. It is now nominally 23d. in some places,
which sum, however, is often paid in barter*. 1t is said to be sold in
the China shops at about 10d. or more retail. I am not aware of the
actual price obtained by the exporter, but we find that its declared
value at the Customs has ranged from £33 to nearly £53 per ton,
which no doubt is much under the real value.

* T should, however, mention that in the spring of 1883, a large party of Maoris
residing on the West Coast, near Mount Egmont, who had for some years been
collecting and storing fungus there, sold the lot to an Auckland agent and dealer, but
took the total sum, upwards of £425, in hard cash.

AN EDIBLE FUNGUS. 57

“During the last twelve years no less that 1,858 tons of this
fungus have been exported, valued at £79,752, as is more particularly
shown in the followimg return, which I have compiled from sources
published in the Government statistical papers :—

YEARS. QUANTITY. DECLARED VALUE.
ons. Cwt. £
1872 58 0 1927
1873 95 0 1195
1874 118 0 6226
1875 112 0 5744
1876 132 0 6224
1877 220 0 11318
1878 103 0 5178
1879 59 5 2744
1880 183 12 6123
1881 187 11 8192
1882 339 17 15581
1883 250 6 9300
1,858 11 79,752

“JT should observe that the official entries show that those
exports are confined to the Northern island, and only from two
ports there—viz.,Auckland and Wellington—except some small lots
amounting to7 tons, exported from Poverty Bay and Napier in the
last two years, 1882 and 1883. The fungus, however, may have been
extensively collected in the districts contaiming those two larger
ports.”

In order to test the value of the New Zealand fungus as an
article of food, a supply of it was recently obtained for Kew, by Mr.
Thomas Kirk, Chief Conservator of State Forests, Wellington, N.Z.

A portion of this supply was submitted for analysis to Professor
Church, F.R.S., who has been good enough to furnish the following
interesting note :—

Hirneola polytricha.

“A sample of this fungus, in the air-dried condition as received,
was prepared for analysis by careful brushing and the removal of a
few fragments of obviously foreign substances. It gave the following

percentages :—

Water es 06
Albuminoids (calculated from total Nitrogen)

Carbohydrates, digestible
Carbohydrates, indigestible
Fat (Ether extract)

Ash

A few remarks as to these figures will prove useful in appreciating
the food-value of this fungus. First of all the nitrogen present does
not all exist in the form of albuminoids. The coagulable albuminoids,
as estimated by the phenol method, amount to 5-4 per cent.; the
remainder of the nitrogen occurring chiefly as amides, is not nutritive.
If this result be accepted, the proportion of albuminoids to digestible
carbohydrates plus the starch—equivalent of the fat, becomes 1: 13-7
instead of 1:109, as shown by the per-centages recorded above.
Anyhow, this fungus is singularly poor in albuminoid or muscle-
forming substances, and differs remarkably in this respect from the
numerous edible fungi of which analyses have been previously made.
In these analyses we find at least twice or thrice as much albuminoid

matters, often more.

Noe
WHROAN
WOT O1M ©

58 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

“The substance or group of substances which I have called
* digestible carbohydrates” contains neither starch, nor inulin, nor
cellulose. Its chief constituent is a gum-like body apparently allied
to bassorin and well worthy of further examination. It swells up
greatly in water and is soluble in dilute warm solutions of caustic
alkalies. Its solutions gelatinize on cooling. I have observed what
seems to be the same compound in other species of fungi, and it is
probable that it has been described under several different names.
The fungus now being discussed contains so large a proportion of
this body that it presents a very convenient material for its isolation
and the study of its composition and properties.

“The ash of this fungus is rich in potash and phosphoric acid.
Of the former constituent the ash contains no less than 42-02 per
cent. ; of the latter 20:02. These proportions are exceeded in the
ash of other species ; moreover, the amount of ash in one hundred
parts of this Hirneola is much lower than that recorded for other
fungi.

“(Signed ) A. H. Cuurcu.”

NEW CALEDONIA NICKEL ORKES.*

BY THOMAS MOORE,

Amongst the many ore deposits and formations of this island
few are probably of greater interest, either from a chemical or
commercial point of view, than those of nickel. The nickeliferous
ore commonly known as garnierite, is almost invariably found either
in, or at least in close proximity to, those huge masses and mountains
of serpentine which form a characteristic feature of the place, and
are as diversified in their extent as in their richness, With but one
or two exceptions it is found only on elevated positions, often at the
very summits of these mountains, not unusually accompanied by
chrome iron ore, and surrounded by a peculiar red earth rich in iron,
which by being alternately deluged by the rains and baked by the
sun has become hardened together into a compact mass. The
nickeliferous mountains present a very bare, sombre and uninviting
appearance ; vegetation is extremely sparse and scanty, and the few
stunted shrubs growing there seem only to intensify the barrenness
of the dull and monotonous region, contrasting strangely with the -
profuse tropical growth on the lower levels. ‘he colour of the ore
varies from the blue green in the poorer specimens to a warm dark
green in the richer, and passing by almost imperceptible shades to a
light brown, and, finally, to a fine chocolate colour. The rich ore is
generally a mechanical mixture of apparently homogeneous green or
brown substance, with rounded pebbles of serpentine, forming a kind
of aggiomerate, or it is interstitially deposited between thin layers of
quartz, steatite, and various hydrated silicates of magnesium.

Miners recognise three varieties of the ore, @.e. quartz rich green,
magnesia rich green, and the brown ore. The first is characterised

* “ Chemical News,” October 10th, 1840.

NEW CALEDONIA NICKEL ORES. 59

by the large amount of silica it contains, generally as minute
glistening crystals of quartz, or in the amorphous condition. The’
magnesia ore contains only a small quantity of quartz, but a very
considerable amount of magnesium silicates, and has a paler green
colour than the former. ‘the brown ore is the least common variety,
is very soft, and as a rule contains only small quantities of quartz
and magnesia, but much ferric oxide. Generally speaking, however,
they are classified into the green and the brown minerals.

From time to time analyses of the ore have been published,
leading to a variety of formule with this feature only in common, that
it is a hydrated silicate of nickel, in which the nickel is replaced toa
greater or lesser extent by magnesia or oxide of iron. Perhaps the
various complicated and somewhat contradictory formule devised
may be accounted for by the difficulty in obtaining pure pieces, and
that the finely intermixed quartz may have escaped observation, thus
giving a percentage which does not truly represent the combined
silica, but rather that of silica + quartz, for pieces of the ore which to
the eye appear thoroughly homogeneous in the great majority of
cases give an amount of insoluble silica varying from 2 to 10 per cent.
Nevertheless, I have frequently observed that those ores containing
much magnesia give differences in analysis which do not agree
relatively to any distinct formule, but seem rather to indicate a
mixture of silicates; as, however, the magnesia diminishes, these
differences are gradually reduced, and the composition then becomes
more constant, and more closely complies with the calculated
numbers, except for the combined water, for which } have been
unable to find a constant factor. Having excellent opportunities
for procuring pure specimens, and from the many hundreds of
analyses made of the same, there seems to be no doubt that both
kinds of ore approach very nearly to hydrated sesqui-silicates of
nickel giving a formula of 7 NiO, 6 SiO,, « H,O, part of the nickel
in the green ore being replaced by magnesia, oxide of iron, or
alumina, the magnesia predominating, whilst in the brown the oxide
of iron is in excess. ‘Lhe following carefully executed analyses of
both ores give only the amount of soluble silica, as in those cases
when quartz was present it has been calculated out :—

If JUL III. SVE Vv. VI.
SiO, 35°55 36°24 35°25 34°78 35°80 20°57
NiO 48°38 44°94 46°30 43°79 43°54 15°56
MeO 5:02 8°75 _ 2975 2°65 0°81
FeO, 141 O21 9:00 6°30 10°73 49°03
Al,O, 1-09 1:03 = = =
Cr,0, 015 — O14 — — 3.82
MnO — = — — 019 trace
H,O 8°85 8:98 9:20 12°40 8:00 10°32
100°45 10015 99°89 100°02 100°91 100°11
Nos. | and 2 represent the composition of the ereen ore. The colour
is a fine brilliant grass-green. Hardness, 2-3. Specific gravity, 3:00.

Streak ight green, waxy lustre, and Siishitly, translucent at the thin
edges. Before the blowpipe the colour darkens, becoming dark olive
green; in presence of much ferric oxide, red.

Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 give the composition of different brown ores.
The colour varies from light brown to a deep sometimes slightly
translucent chocolate ; streak yellow or brownish yellow; the fracture

60 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

is conchoidal, with a very strong resinous lustre. Hardness and
specific gravity about the same as the green ore, and rather more
brittle. The very light brown species (No. 6), bear a great resem-
blance to limonite, and are so soft as to be easily marked by the nail.
They, however, do not appear to belong to the same class of eres
as mentioned above, as the silica fluctuates with the nickel and
magnesium oxides, and is sometimes very low, as little as 5 per cent.
being not unusual. A fact worth noting in connection with oxide of
iron deposits is, that although containing oxide of chromium up
to 8 per cent., they are easily and entirely soluble in warm dilute
hydrochloric acid. y

Exposed to the action of the weather all these ores gradually
crumble to a powder, the brown exhibiting this to a more marked
extent than the green. They are easily dissolved by hot hydrochloric
acid, and the silica which separates out does not take the gelatinous
condition. Up to the present no trace of crystalline character has
been found, although some magnesia-rich specimens occasionally
present an appearance similar to asbestos.

Thio, New Caledonia, July 20th, 1890.

ON THE DISCOVERY, MODE OF OCCURRENCE, AND
DISTRIBUTION OF THE NICKELIRON ALLOY
AWARUITE, ON THE WEST COAST OF
THE SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW
ZEALAND.*

BY PROFESSOR G. H. F. ULRICH, F.G.S.

_——

In October 1885, Mr. W. Skev, Government Analyst, read a paper
before the New Zealand Philosophical Society, Wellington, announcing
the discovery of a Nickel-lron Alloy, which he recognised as a new
mineral species and named ‘‘ Awaruite.” The discovery was made in a
collection of minerals sent to the Government Laboratory by Mr.
Macfarlane, the Warden of the Jackson’s Bay District, which includes
Big Bay (Maori name, ‘ Awarua”), Barn Bay, and other Bays in that
part of the West Coast of the South Island. Mr. Skey found the new
mineral as small grains or scales in a sample of heavy black sand,
reported as saved by alluvial miners in Barn Bay; and he gave in his
paper, besides descriptions of the physical character of the alloy and
its mineral associates, interesting particulars concerning its behaviour
towards a solution of cuprous sulphate acidulated with hydrochloric
acid, and its quantitative chemical composition as :—Ni= 67:63, Co=
0-70, Fe=31:02, S=0:22, Si0, =0:43; Formula=2Ni+ Fe; Sp. Gr.
=8-1; Hardness about 5. He considered the alloy as the second of its
kind, of terrestrial origin, so far discovered, under the impression that
the known Nickel-Iron “ Oktibbehite” (Ni+ Fe), which is a meteorite
found in Oktibbeha City, North Americat, was the first alloy of this

* From the ‘‘ Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,” for November 1890,
Vol. xlvi.
+ Wadsworth’s ‘ Lithological Studies,” Table II., page xiv.

ON THE DISCOVERY OF AWARUITE. 61

kind of terrestrial origin ; and he also suggested that the mineral would
be found in some basic rock in the vicinity of Barn Bay. Mr. Skey’s
paper appeared in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute for
1885, and was reprinted with some additions in the Annual Report, for
1885-86, of the Colonial Museum and Laboratory, Wellington. The
additions concerned the results of Mr. Skey’s examination of other three
samples of heavy black sand: namely, No. 1, from Barn Bay, contained
no Awaruite ; No. 2, from Callery’s Creek, contained 4 % , and No. 3,
from the Gorge River, 45°36 / Amongst other minerals sent with
the samples of black sand Mr, Skey mentions a hydrous ferruginous
serpentine ; and in a footnote he states “this serpentine proves to be
the matrix of the nickel-mineral Awaruite, in which it is dispersed in
minute grains, in the same manner as metallic copper occurs in
serpentine in Aniseed Valley near Nelson.”

On seeing the notices about Mr. Skey’s first paper (October 1885),
giving full particulars regarding discovery, composition, &ec., of the new
mineral, in the daily newspapers, and being cognisant of the fact of
Oktibbehite being a meteorite, and therefore Awaruite not being the
second (as Mr. Skey supposed), but really the first nickel-iron alloy of
teliuric origin, a fact that greatly heightened the scientific interest
attaching to it, I at once communicated with some friends at Hokitika
and Ross on the West Coast, and was successful in procuring, through
their agency, a small parcel of the nickeliferous sand. In order to gain
information regarding the special locality of occurrence of the alloy, and
what was of most importance, about the nature of the rocks in the
vicinity from which it was likely to be derived, I also wrote to Mr.
Gerhard Mueller, Chief Surveyor, Hokitika, and Mr. D. Macfarlane,
Warden of Jackson’s Bay, two men to whom before all others belongs
the credit of having by dangerous explorations procured nearly all the
reliable information we have of the topographical and geological features
of that wild part of the West Coast in which the new mineral was
found.

Mr. Mueller kindly responded by furnishing me with a copy of the
topographical plan of the country under notice, which he had prepared
from his surveys and explorations, and also with his Report thereon ;
while Mr. Macfarlane was good enough to inform me that the Red-hill
mountain-complex and the Olivine Range, depicted on Mr. Mueller’s
plan, largely consisted of olivine-rock, which he was the first to
recognise as such, and on account of which Mr. Mueller adopted the
name Olivine Range. Regarding my request for specimens of the rocks
from the locality where Awaruite occurs, he intimated his intention of
shortly making a journey through the district, when he would specially
collect for me the specimens asked for. This journey did not, however,
take place, and no further information was received until the beginning
of May 1886, wher two of my students, Messrs. Henderson and
Butement, submitted to me a small collection of rocks and mineral
specimens which during the early part of the year they had brought
from an exploring-trip extending from the head of Lake Wakatipu
across the Dividing Range and through the Red Hill district down to
the west coast of the Island. They had spent several weeks in
exploring the wild, inhospitable region of the Red Hill, an enterprise
only rendered possible through the fortunate circumstance that just

62 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

at that time a well-equipped party of gold-prospectors were camping on
the Red Hill, at a height of nearly 3,000 feet. To one of them, Capt.
Malcolm, I am indevted for several rock-specimens mentioned further
on. The collection mentioned, owing to dithculty of carriage, consisted
mostly of chips and small pieces, amongst which varieties of peridotite
and serpentine claimed most attention. The several specimens are
more fully described in the sequel. They were obtained in various
places on the Red Hill Range, along the red-weathered outcrop (hence
the name “ Red Hill”) of the peridotite ; but those of the serpentine
varieties come principally from the slope of the range, falling towards
the Jerry River, a tributary of the Gorge River. One of these latter
specimens, of thin lamellar (antigorite-like) structure, was found to be
impregnated with fine specks, of silvery-white colour and metallic
lustre, which on examination proved to be the new mineral A waruite.
In most of the other serpentine specimens whitish metallic-looking
specks were also discovered, but they all turned out to be pyrite,
except in one piece of common dark green serpentine, which yielded
after crushing and washing, from amongst a small amount of pyrite
powder, a small hackly grain of the alloy.

Up to the time of this discovery of the matrix-rock of the A waruite
nothing was known or had been published about -a similar discovery
by anyone elsewhere* ; but in answer to a letter I wrote to Mr.
Macfarlane, pointing out the discovery and asking for any specimens of
peridotite and serpentine he might have preserved from his previous
explorations, he informed me that he had also noticed the metallic
specks and would send a number of specimens containing them. These
I received some months later, but found only two specimens (dark-
green serpentine) with unmistakeable Awaruite in them, the metallic
specks in the remainder proving to be pyrite. Considering the great
scientific interest attaching to the discovery of the mineral and _ its
matrix combined, because of the apparent close relationship of the
occurrence to certain of the stony meteorites, and apprehending the find
in danger of being quite overlooked, from the fact that, although made
public in New Zealand nearly a year previous, no notice of it had up
to that time appeared in ‘“ Nature” and other English and_ foreign
scientific journals of eminence, I wrote letters to a number of dis-
tinguished authors, specially interested in the study of the peridotite
rocks in England, America, and Germany, giving the main particulars
of the occurrence of the wineral and the results of Mr. Skey’s work.
The President of the Geological Society at that time, Professor Judd,
being one amongst the number, considered my communication of
sufficient interest to be brought before the Society, and announced at
the same time my intention of submitting a paper regarding the
discovery, providing I was successful in procuring more detailed
information about the geology of the country in which it was made,
and more material to work upont. In pursuance of this project [ have

* Mr. Skey’s footnote to his second paper in the ‘‘ Annual Report of the Colonial
Museum and Laboratory,” quoted in the foregoing, appeared several months after my
find became known.

+ In the ‘‘ Abstract of the Proceedings” of the Society at that Meeting, Quart.
Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. xlin. 1887, Proceed. p. 3, the credit of having discovered the
Awaruite is given to me, no doubt through some misunderstanding, whilst Mr. Skey,
as the analyst and namer of it, is not ~ mentioned ; and it is further stated that I
consider Awaruite and the meteorite Oktibbehite.as identical in chemical composition.

ON THE DISCOVERY OF AWARUITE. 63

since written to and interviewed a number of persons who, I thought,
could aid me in the matter. The results of these endeavours have not,
however, I am sorry to say, come up to my expectations, owing to loss
and damage of specimens sent to me, and various other mishaps. Thus
my hope that some, from amongst quite a little army of prospectors
(about 150 men) who, aided by the Government, landed towards the
end of 1886 in Big Bay, would collect and send specimens was quite
disappointed, as not one of the party penetrated as far inland as the
Red Hill. In fact they soon became so dissatisfied with the hard work
of exploring the rough country that they hurriedly left the district in
troops, and very soon after not one of them remained In 1887, I was,
however, gratified in receiving from Mr. Mactarlane a larger sample of
the Awaruite-bearing sand from the Gorge River, together with portions
of aserpentine pebble of nephritic aspect, containing smal] specks of
Awaruite. During the same year, and again in 188e, an intrepid,
enterprising prospector, Mr. Robert Paulin, with several hired men,
traversed the Red Hill district in various directions, prospecting the
rivers and creeks; and from him [ received last year, besides a few
more specimens of serpentine and other rocks, some valuable notes,
accompanied by a sketch-plan of the district, indicating the distribution
of the Awaruite and the extent of the peridotite and serpentine rocks.
The several small rock-samples so far enumerated, of which the collection
brought by Messrs. Henderson and Butement was the most diversified
and important, have thus been all the available material to work upon ;
whilst regarding the general geological structure of the country, and
more especially the mode of occurrence and extent of the peridotite
and derived serpentine rocks, I can only give an imperfect outline,
gathered from the reports and notes received from Mr. Gerhard
Mueiler, Messrs. Henderson and Butement, Mr. Macfailane, Capt.
Malcolm, Mr. Paulin, and several other persons [ met since who have
traversed the district.

Regarding the general geological structure of the country it is
reported that the ranges from near the sea-coast inland to the ice-clad
Dividing Range, except where broken through by the peridotite and
derived serpentine rocks, consist of metamorphic schists (gneiss, mica-
schist, and chlorite-schist) with occasional massive protrusions and
probably large dykes of granite and quartz porphyry. Judging from a
few small specimens obtained from Mr. Paulin, the granite is medium-
grained and rather felspathic (felspar flesh-coloured), with principally
dark mica; whilst the gneiss and mica-schist are of ordinary character,
showing also mainly dark mica. Where the spurs from the high
ranges do not directly dip steep into the ocean, massive deposits of
sandstone and shale and in some cases limestone, of probably older
Tertiary age, overlie the old rocks along the coast to pretty high up the
easy slopes of the spurs; whilst down the main river-valleys, mostly
on both sides, descend extensive high terraces of boulder-drift and hard

In consequence of these mistakes Sir James Hector, the Director of the Geological
Survey of New Zealand, in a letter in the March number of ‘ Nature’ 1887, casts a
suspicion of piracy upon me regarding the discovery of the mineral, and accuses me of
ignorance as to the second point, although perfectly innocent on both these charges, as
my letters to Professors Judd, Bonney, and others can prove. I have nevertheless
considered it necessary to lay before the Society the foregoing succinct statements of
facts relating to the matter, which will afford the explanation which Sir James Hector
says the case requires.

64 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

conglomerates, of morainic character in the higher parts of the valleys.
Jn the embouchures of the rivers there are generally bars or delta-like
accumulations of more recent drift. The prospecting of the terrace-
drifts for gold and tracing the gold to its original deposits (quartz-reefs)
was the main object of the large prospecting party previously referred
to.

Coming now to the peridotite and serpentine rocks, the following
extracts are of importance. The Chief Surveyor, Mr. Gerhard Mueller,
in his report of his explorations*, states on this head as follows :—‘“ The
most remarkable feature about the district appears to me to be that of
the Olivine Range on the East of Cascade River. It is a red and
violet looking mass, and, from about 1,000 feet above the river, devoid
of almost every vestige of vegetation. It is of the same formation
of which the Cascade Plateau and a great part of the country of the
Gorge and Jerry valleys consist. The Red Hill (5,000—6,000 feet)
itself is olivine-rock, whilst the spurs running therefrom are a sort of
greyish slate with grey granite belts here and there through them. An
extraordinary red granite belt is seen in the Jerry River a little above
the proposed road-crossing. ‘The olivine formation is traceable as far as
tha Humboldt Mountains; the last indication of it I saw on the low
saddle, from which the Barrier and Olivine Branches (Creeks) and the
Hidden Falls Creek rise; the extent of it there does not exceed a couple
of acres, but is very marked and distinct.” In a letter to me, August
Ist, 1889, My. R. Paulin, in explanation of his sketch-plan, states :—
“The Red Hill formation (olivine and serpentine) occurs all over the
parts I have marked with red les. The Red Hill and Olivine Ranges
are for the most part bare of timber, and the formation is very
conspicuons, owing to the burnt-brick colour which the rock assumes
where exposed to the atmosphere. Both the Olivine and Hope Ranges
are very much broken and shattered, containing no mass of rock that

has not cracks in all directions. This is not so much the case in the
Red Hill Ranges.”

From these extracts it will be seen that the rocks under notice
compose, in the region of the Awaruite discovery, a complex of high
massive ranges, the most prominent of which are the Red Hill and
Olivine Ranges, and which comprise an area of about 25 miles in length
north and south, and 16 miles in width east and west. The rocks,
however, doubtless extend (probably with interruptions and for certain
much contracted in width) much further southward, even beyond the
pomt Mr. Mueller mentions near the Humboldt Mountains (about 64
miles 8. by W. from the junction of the Barrier Creek with the Pyke
River). What leads to this conclusion is, that Messrs. Henderson and
Butement saw conspicuously bare and red-coloured mountains and
ridges (like those of the Red Hill Range) further southward, near
Lake Harris Saddle, the wateished between the Route Burn (a tributary
of the Dart River falling into Lake Wakatipu) and the Hollyford
River ; and that they found boulders of olivine rock and serpentine in
one of the creeks rising near that saddle and falling into the Hollyford
River. Still anotber important proof is that at the head of the Caples

* Report on West Coast between Cascade Plateau and Jackson’s River on the
North, and Lake M‘Kerrow and Holiyford Valley on the South ; in the ‘ Report of
the Survey Department of N.Z. for the year 1883-84,” p. 73.

ON THE DISCOVERY OF AWARUITE. 65

River (about 22 miles S. of the junction of Barrier Creek and Pyke
River) there occurs in massive outcrops a dark-green serpentine, closely
resembling that of the Red Hill and enclosing veins and bunches of
compact tale (steatite).

With regard to the geological relations of the peridotite and
serpentine rocks to the enclosing crystalline schists, there can be no
doubt, according to Messrs. Henderson’s and Butement’s observations
that the former : are intrusive through the latter; several places having
been observed by them where the strike of the schists was right against
the peridotite and serpentine outcrops.

Among the specimens. from the Cascade River at the foot of the
Olivine Range are pieces of a hard nephrite-like serpentine (bowenite %),
containing small specks of Awaruite embedded in it. The specimens
are evidently portions of rolled pebbles.

The first sample of the Awaruite-bearing black sand examined by
Mr. Skey was supposed to have come from Barn Bay; but it was
subsequently proved to have been washed from the drift of the Gorge
River. The valley of this river has since generally been considered to
be the only place of occurrence of the mineral, and is, indeed, the one
in which it has so far been proved to exist in largest quantity. Mr. G.
Mueller, the Chief Surveyor, in answer to my enquiries on this point,
states :—“ The mineral is found in the bed and the banks of the Gorge
River, and the ground covered by the mineral-leases applied for with
the view of working the nickel is marked in red on the lithograph-plan
enclosed. These deposits have evidently been brought across the
saddle into the Gorge River from the Olivine Range at the back
of it.”

As, in consideration of the large extent of the peridotite or serpen-
tine rocks, it seemed to me very unlikely that the occurrence of the
mineral should be confined to the Gorge River only, I specially
requested Mr. R. Paulin, before he set out on his exploring and _pros-
pecting trip, to look out for the alloy in the olivine and serpentine
rocks and the drift of the rivers and creeks he prospected. In his
explanatory letter to me he states as follows :—“I have found small
specks of nickel in the rocks of various localities, most conspicuous at
Silver Creek (a tributary of the Jerry River rising in the Red Hill
Range), and [ think that it occurs throughout the whole formation,
The free nickel found in different river-beds is much coarser any any
[ have seen in the stone. On the Red Hill itself I found nickel 2,400
feet above the sea-level.” The area of distribution of the Awaruite is
thus by Mr. Paulin’s observations proved to be far more extensive than
first imagined, ana it may be larger still, for I see nothing unreasonable
in his belief that the mineral occurs impregnated in the matrix through-
“out the whole extent of the peridotite and serpentine rocks; and,
inferentially, in the liberated state in the drifts derived therefrom.
The gradual gathering of practical proof of this, however, will, I fear,
take a long time, owing to the great hardships and dangers connected
with prospecting in that wild, inhospitable district. The supposed
recognition of Awaruite distributed through the rock will also, in many

66 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

cases, not be free from doubt, unless the specks be detached and
specially tested. This is on account of the smallness of the specks, and
their frequent association with, and general resemblance in colour to,
grains of pyrite, which may therefore be easily mistaken for it. The
simplest test in the case of detached specks is by application of the
magnet, which energetically attracts the Awaruite specks, but leaves
those of pyrite unaffected. The mualleability of the specks affords
another proof of their identity.

ON THE HISTORY OF THE KIWIL*
BY PROF. T. JEFFERY PARKER, F.R.S.

—

The development of the brain presents some points of interest:
The brain of birds closely resembles that of reptiles, differing
chiefly in the fact that owing to the increased size of the central
hemispheres and cerebellum the optic lobes which in reptiles lie in
contact with one another on the upper surface of the brain, are pushed
outwards and come to lie, widely separated from each other, one on
each side.

In the embryo of the kiwi, as in that of other birds, the brain is
at one stage precisely like that of a reptile, having a pair of large
optic lobes closely applied to one another, on the upper surface. As
development goes on the optic lobes gradually separate from one
another and take up a position on the sides of the brain, the
cerebellum and cerebrum at the same time uniting between them.
At this stage, therefore, the brain is precisely like that of an
ordinary typical bird. Later on, the eye undergoes a relative
dimunition in size, the optic lobes also become smaller in proportion
to the remaining part of the organ, and being overgrown by the
cerebrum come to lie in the adult on the under surface of the brain,
where they form a pair of insignificant elevations. It may also be
mentioned that, apart from the optic lobes, the brain of Apteryx is by
no means of a low type; the cerebral hemispheres are, in fact, as
large in proportion to the brain as in a passerine bird.

So far, it will be seen, the study of the development of the kiwi
certainly tends to show that its relation to ordinary or carinate birds
is closer than would be expected from a study of the adult anatomy.
There is, however, one very striking point of divergence.

The “tail” of a carinate bird consists of a variable number of
tail-quills, covered above and below by smaller feathers or tail-coverts,
and arranged in a half-circle round the true tail of the bird—the
small conical projection known as ihe “ parson’s nose ” or uropygium.
In order to support these feathers the last few vertebre are united
into a strong conical mass or “ ploughshare bone.” In the kiwi
there is never any trace of tail-quills, the uropygium being from its
first formation to adult life a naked stump quite devoid of feathers.

Continued rom page 9.

HISTORY OF THE KIWI. 67

Nevertheless a true though small ploughshare-bone is formed by the
fusion of two or three vertebre. As the only function of this bone is
to support the tail-quills its presence in Apteryx seems to indicate
that the ancestors of the bird had tail-quills to be supported.

On the whole it will be seen that the study of the development
of the kiwi tends to lessen the gulf between it and ordinary birds,
and to show that its ancestors probably possessed many of the more
important and distinctive features which characterise the Carinate of
to-day. The facts clearly indicate that the founder of the Apterygian
house had interrupted plumage, functional wings, an ordinary avian
tail, a keeled sternum, a double-headed quadrate, lateral optic lobes,
and a pecten in the eye, in other words that the ancestors of the
genus were typical flying birds and not bird-lke reptiles. It would
seem, therefore, that the facts tell strongly against hypothesis (1) of
the origin of the Ratitz (diagram p. 5*).

As to the relative probability of hypothesis (2) and (3) we have
unfortunately only detached observations on the development of the
other Ratite, and have therefore to rely mainly upon comparative
anatomy.

Of the eight characters enumerated above (p. 3), as separating
the Ratita: from the Carinate it will be noticed that the first five are
directly connected with the power of flight. We should expect to find
such adaptive characters in purely cursorial birds whether they. arose
from a common stock or sprang separately from early flying birds,
and as a matter of fact they occur to a greater or less extent im such
flightless birds as the Dodo, Weka, Notornis, etc., which we know
have no genetic connection with one another, but have independently
acquired the characteristics of flightlessness. I think, therefore, that
the possession of the characters referred to, by the whole of the
Ratite is no argument for the common origin.

The peculiarity of the quadrate has been shown to be a secondary
matter, and we have left only the characters of the base of the skull.
These certainly form an excellent diagnostic character by which the
whole of the Ratite are separated from the majority of the Carinate,
but even here the distinction is not absolute for the Tinamous
approach in many respects more nearly to the Ratite than to the rest
of the Carinat. Still it seems probable that the various genera of
Ratite must have diverged from the main line of descent at a
comparatively early period, though perhaps not earlier than some of
the existing orders of Carinate. The Penguins, for instance, are far
more reptilian in their vertebral column and less typical in the
structure of their wings than the Ratite. The Ostrich, however,
shows the unique and very reptilian character of two claws on the
wing, and the very general presence of wing-claws in the group is a
distinctly primitive character.

Leaving the skull, in which the whole group shows primitive
characters, and the wing and related parts in which the resemblances
between the genera are largely adaptive, we find the range of
variation in the Ratitz to be very great indeed. Two genera (Apteryx
and Dinornis) have a normal 4-toed foot; in three others (Cassowary,

* Tn this diagram (top of p. 5) the letter 7 should be placed above the origin of the line
leading to Ratite.

68 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Emu, and Rhea) the hind-toe or hallux has disappeared; while in
another (Ostrich) only two toes are left. The pelvis of the kiwi and
moa is of the simplest avian type, both pubis and ischia being free ;
in the cassowary and emu the ischium unites with the ilium; in the
rhea the ischia unite with one another above the intestines—a unique
arrangement; in the ostrich the pubis unite to form a sympophysis
as in most of the higher vertebrates. The feathers have an after-
shaft in the emu, cassowary and moa, none in the ostrich, or rhea, or
kiwi. In no order of carinate birds do we find such a wide range of
variation as this, and when we add to the characters enumerated the
extraordinarily aberrant skull and the structure of the eggshell of
Apteryx, the total atrophy of the wings in Dinornis, and even of
the shoulder-girdle in some species of the genus, and the striking
differences between the sterna, the shoulder-girdle, and the wings of
the various genera, we are forced to the conclusion that the existing
or lately extinct cursorial birds now known to us are divisible into
five well marked orders, each the equivalent of an entire order of
Carinate. Of these one order contains the ostrich alone, another the
rheas, a third the emu and the cassowaries, a fourth the moas, and a
fifth the kiwis.

As to the relation of the kiwi to the other genera it has been
shown to be most nearly allied as far as its skeleton is concerned, to
the moa, differing from it however in many important respects. It
must certainly have been isolated at a very distant period, and as far
as we can see some of its more striking peculiarities are distinctly
correlated to its method of feeding. Most nocturnal animals have
large eyes suited for taking the utmost advantage of the semi-
darkness, but the kiwi, finding its prey by scent alone, has developed
an extraordinarily perfect olfactory sense, while at the same time,
having no need to keep watch against beasts of prey, its eyes have
diminished in size and efficiency to a degree elsewhere unknown in
the bird class.

BOTANICAL NOTES.

BY D. PETRIE, M.A., F.L.S.

Carmichelia compacta, D. Petrie. This is by far the most showy
of the ‘native brooms’ found in the South Island, and is hardly
inferior in appearance to the beautiful C. odorata, Colenso, of the North
Island. [t has a strong and very agreeable scent, and in this respect
has no rival in the genus. This species is well worthy of cultivation as
an ornamental under-shrub, but 1 have had no success in my attempts
to raise it from seed. A light sandy soil suits it very well, and in its
native valleys it nowhere grows so luxuriantly as in such situations.

Tillea purpurata, Hook, f. This species, hitherto known in our
colony only from the North Island, has now been found in Otago. I
gathered numerous young specimens in the neighbourhood of Pembroke
(Lake Wanaka), in the last days of November of last year. It is a
very small species, and from its inconspicuous character easily over-

BOTANICAL NOTES. 69

looked. No doubt it has a wide distribution over the South Island,
and may be looked for in spots where temporary pools form in wet
weather.

Acena Buchanani, Hook, f. In the “ Handbook of the New
Zealand Flora” this species is said to havea single stamen I have
long had doubts as to the accuracy of this statement, and an exami-
nation of a considerable number of specimens, gathered in the original
habitat, shows that the number of stamens is constantly two. It has
also two styles. The yellowish-grecn hue of the leaves, usually so
characteristic of the plant in the valleys of the Upper Clutha, does not
hold in other localities such as Spear Grass Flat and Ida Valley. I
make this statement on the supposition that the species of Acena from
the latter localities is A. Buchanani (Hook, f.), as I have every reason
to believe that it is.

Rhipogonum scandens, Forster. After examining a large series of
the fruits of the ‘supplejack’ I find that the berry is frequently
3-seeded with all the seeds of the ordinary size, and occasionally
4-seeded, in which case one or two of the seeds are smaller than usual.
IT have not had opportunity to examine the ovary, which is doubtless
3-celled, though more than one ovule must now and then occur in some
of the cells. This point is well worth working out, and I hope some
naturalist Jiving near a piece of virgin bush will undertake its
investigation.

Salicornia indica?, Will. In this our common littoral ‘glass-wort,’
some of the flowers are hermaphrodite. The perfect flowers are, I
think, proterogynous. The number of stamens is constantly two.
Many flower spikes are, I believe, purely pistillate without a trace
of stamens, and in these the mature cones are smaller than those found
on the hermaphrodite spikes. It would be well if these observations,
made at Dunedin, were checked in some other part of the colony.

Gratiola nana, Bentham. In this species the stigma is bi-lamellate,
and the lamellae are very sensitive. When touched with the tip of a
blade of grass they close at once. The movement begins very promptly
and is, [ think, confined to the inferior plate, which rises up so as to
press against the immobile superior one. Most likely the lighting of
pollen grains on the stigmatic surface would suffice to initiate the
movement of closing, and its significance would in that case lie in
its rendering the escape of pollen impossible. When mechanically
irritated the closure of the lamellz is not persistent but passes off in a
few minutes.

Proterandry in the Gentians. I have always found the flowers of
Gentiana montana, Forst., G. plewrogynoides, Griesb., and G. saxosa,
Forst., strongly proterandrous. The stigmatic lobes are closely appressed
and too immature for fertilisation when the pollen is shed from the
anthers. bis would prevent a single flower from fertilising itself, but
it would not preclude different flowers in the same plant from fertilising
one another. The extrorse position of the anthers is doubtless another
adaptation for making self-fertilisation difficult.

Plagianthus Lyallii, Hook, f. This species of ‘ ribbon«wood’ was
formerly ranked in the genus Hoheria, A. Cunn., and there seem to be
good reasons for doubting if that is not its proper position. Be this as

7O JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

it may, it is certain that the styles are not ‘‘stigmatiferous towards the
apex along the inner face.” The stigmas are constantly capitate,
without a trace of the decurrence of the stigmatic surface along the
style. The number of styles is twelve or by abortion less. When they
are fewer than twelve, rudiments of the deficient styles are nearly
always to be found. The perfect fruit has twelve compressed carpels,
and I have never found this number exceeded. Three or more of these
are usually barren, but in a perfect capsule the twelve are very plainly
recognisable, ‘These peculiarities do not accord well with the generic
character of Playianthus, and the plant is evidently on the border-land
between Hoheria and that genus. If our plant is still to be ranked as
a Plagianthus there seem to be very scanty reasons for maintaining
Hoheria as a genus distinct from Plagianthus. This small tree is one
of the most beautiful of the native shrubs. It is now pretty freely
cultivated in private gardens in Dunedin, and is greatly admired for
its copious clusters of scented flowers that look quite as gay as cherry-
blossom. The season of flowering is Christmas time It is easily
propagated by cuttings, but seedlings are difficult to get, as the seeds
are very generally eaten by the larva of some small insect. The seeds
of Hoheria populnea, A. Cunn., are attacked in exactly the same way,
probably by the same larva, and this is perhaps an additional reason
for considering the plant a Hoheria rather than a Plagianthus.

Lepilena, sp. Some years ago Mr. Thos. Kirk, F.L.8., noticed
the occurrence of this genus in New Zealand. I have reason to think
that our species is distinct from any of those found in Australia, and I
propose for it the provisional name of Lepilana monandra. It is very
abundant in many fresh and brackish waters of Otago.

Sciropus (Isolepis) basilaris, Hook, f. Vhis rare species, which has
until recently been found only in one locality in Hawke's Bay, is
now found to occur in Otago, near Coal Creek (Roxburgh). I have
repeatedly collected it about a mile and a half to the north of Coal
Creek on the road to Alexandra South, but until last year I was unable
to get the fruit, and was therefo'e uncertain about its identification.
Though previously known only from low levels it will probably prove a
sub-alpine plant, and be found in many localities between Otago and
Hawke’s Bay.

Zannichellia palustris, L. Though this species is given in the
Handbook it has recently been suspected that Sir Joseph Hooker had
mistaken the indigenous species of Lepilena for it. ‘This, however, is
very improbable, as the true Zannichellia palustris L., grows in the
lagoon at Waikouaiti, where I gathered it at the end of January last.
The presence of a male flower at the base of the pistillate one, and the
curious obliquely peltate stigmas at once distinguish it from the
dizcious Lepilena.

GENERAL NOTES. Wak

GENERAL NOTES.

——______+—_____

Errects or THunDER oN Mitx.—A thunder-storm is generally
believed to be a bad thing for a dairy. An Italian savant, Professor
G. Tolomei, has made some experiments on the relation of electricity to
the souring of milk. He found, according to The Boston Mecical and
Surgical Journal, that the passage of an electric current directly
through the milk not only did not hasten, but actually delayed
acidulation ; milk so treated not becoming sour until from the sixth
to the ninth day, whereas milk not so electrified became markedly
acid on the third day. When, however, the surface of a quantity of
milk was brought close under the two balls of a Holtz machine, the
milk soon became sour, and this effect he attributes to the ozone
generated.—(“ Science.”)

EscatitontaA MacrRANTHA AND Bers.—This plant is very extensively
grown about Dunedin both as an ornamenta) shrub and as a hedge-row
plant i in gardens. This season it has flowered profusely and has been
visited by swarms both of humble- and honey-bees. These insects,
however, appear seldom to visit the flowers in a legitimate manner,
and consequently it almost never matures its ovary with us. ‘The five
red petals have long parallel claws standing edge to edge, and im very
close contact except near the base where they are sufficiently separated
to leave a narrow cleft. The bee lights on tlie side of the flower with
its head directed towards the base of the calyx, and thrusting its
proboscis between the petals, sips ont the abundant nectar without
ever touching either stigma or anthers. " Bees appear to be so apt to
learn dodges from one another, that all those in one neighbourhood may
apparently acquire a habit which is not known elsewhere. It would be
interesting, therefore, to learn whether the above mode of extracting
the nectar from Escallonia flowers is universal, or whether it is only

local.—G. M. T.

FERTILISATION OF Native Flowers py Honery-BEES.—Out of the
large number of plants indigenous to these islands, it is surprising how
few of them are visited by hive-bees. I have kept a record for a long
time past of all the flowers on which [ have seen bees, and have also
received from the members of the Otago Beekeepers’ Association a
list—accompanied by specimens—of the plants on which they have
observed bees. The following is a tolerably complete list of those from
which honey is collected in the neighbourhood of Dunedin :—-

Clematis indivisa (probably for pollen only); White Mapau—
Pittosporum eugenioides; Black Mapau—Pittosporum tenurfolium ;
Mako-mako— Aristotelia racemosa ; Hina-hina—WMVelicytus ramiflorus ;
Fuchsia excorticuta ; Lawyer—Rubus australis; Kowhai—Sophora
tetraptera ; Manuka—Leptospermum scoparium ; Celmisia coriacea ;
Myrtles—both Myrtus obcordata and M. pedunculata; Convolvulus
tuguriorum (for pollen only); Veronica travers and Veronica sali-
cornioides. I shall be glad to have records of any others.—G. M. 'T.

ON THE PRESERVATION OF SOLUTION OF SULPHURETTED LLYDROGEN.
—On the 15th November last, I published in the ‘‘Chemical News” a
note on the use of glycerin in preserving sulphuretted hydrogen in

IP JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

solution. The experiments I quoted showed most conclusively that
glycerin is most beneficial in this way, and it occurred to me that
certain other analogous substances would probably act in a similar
manner. I have made rough qualitative trials, which prove this to
be the case. About five months ago I sealed up bottles containing
respectivel y—

(a) sulphuretted hydrogen water
(6) sulphuretted hydrogen water with sugar
(c) sulphuretted hydrogen water with salicylic acid.

I have opened these to-day, and find that solution (a) gives no reaction
with Jead acetate and is entirely free from odour; whilst solutions (6)
and (c) have a strong odour of the gas, and yield copious precipitates
with lead acetate. . . . . . Lhe amount of sugar used was 2
per cent., and of salicylic acid 1 per cent.—A. J. SHILTON, FE.CS.,
“Chemical News” of 10th October, 1890.

THe Anatomy or A NEw ZeaLaAnD EHARTH-worM.—In a notice of a
paper “On the Homology between Genital Ducts and Nephridia in the
Oligocheta,” by Frank KE. Beddard, M.A., Prosector of the Zoological
Society, presented to the Royal Society on November 27th, the
following occurs, (Vatwre of 4th December) : --

“T have lately had the opportunity of studying the development
of the New Zealand species Acanthodrilus multiporus. The sum of
money which the Government Grant Committee of the Royal Society
were good enough to place at my disposal has enabled me to defray the
expenses of this investigation.

“Tn the young embryos of this worm each segment is furnished
with a pair of nephridia, each opening by a ciliated funnel into the
segment in front of that which carries the dorsally placed external pore.
In later stages the funnels degenerate, and that portion of the tube
which immediately follows the funnel becomes solid, losing its lumen ;
at the same time the nephridium branches, and communicates with the
exterior by numerous pores. At a comparatively early stage, four
pairs of gonads are developed in segments X.—XIII.; each of these is
situated on the posterior wall of its segment, as in Acanthodrilus
annectens, and not on the anterior wall, asin the majority of earth-
worms. When the gonads first appear, the nephridial funnels, with
which they are in close contact, are still ciliated, and their lumen is
prolonged into the nephridium for a short distance. Later the cilia
are lost, and the funnels increase greatly in size, while those of the
neighbouring segments—in fact, all the remaining funnels—remain
stationary for a time, and then become more and more degenerate.
The arge funnels of the genital segments become the funnels of the
vasa differentia and oviducts ; it will be observed that the number of
ovaries and oviducal funnels (éwo pairs) at first corresponds to that
of the testes and sperm duct funnels; subsequently the gonads and
commencing oviducts of segment XII. atrophy. Hach of these large
funnels is continued into a solid rod which passes back through the
septum, and then becomes continuous with a coiled tuft of tubules, in
which there is an evident lumen, and which is a part of the nephridium
of its segment. In the segments in front of and behind the genital
segments, the rudimentary funnels communicate in the same way with

GENERAL NOTES. 73

a solid rod of cells which runs straight for a short distance and then
becomes coiled and twisted upon itself and provided with a distinct
lumen. In fact, apart from the relative size of the funnels and the
presence of the gonads, it would be impossible to state from which
segment a given section through the terminal portion of a nephridium
had been taken. In a later stage the large funnels of the genital
segments become ciliated, but this ciliation takes place before there is
any marked change in the tube which is connected with the funnel.

“Tn the young worm which has just escaped from the cocoon the
funnels are ciliated, and they are each of them connected by a short
tube, in which a lumen has been developed, but which ends blindly in
close proximity to a coil of nephridia. No trace of any nephridial tube
other than the sperm duct or oviduct could be observed, whereas in the
preceding and succeeding segments the rudimentary nephridial funnel,
and a straight tube leading from it direct to the body wall, was
perfectly plain. Dr. Bergh has figured, in his account of the develop-
ment of the generative organs of Lumbricus, a nephridial funnel in
close contact with the funnel of the genital duct. It may be suggested
that a corresponding funnel has been overlooked in the embryo
Acanthodrilus ; the continuity of a structure, identical (at first) with
the nephridia of the segments in front and behind, with the genital
funnels, seems to show that a search for a small nephridial funnel
would be fruitless.

“T can only explain these facts by the supposition that in Acantho-
drilus multiporus the genital funnels and a portion at least of the
ducts are formed out of nephridia. This mode of development is a
confirmation, to me unexpected, of Balfour’s suggestion that in the
Oligocheta the nephridium is broken up into a genital and an excretory
portion.

“Jn the comparison of the facts, briefly described here, with the
apparently independent origin of the generative ducts in other Oligo-
cheeta, it must be borne in mind that in Acanthodrilus the segregation
of the nephridium into several almost detached tracts communicating
with the exterior by their own ducts precedes the formation of the
genital ducts.”

Recent Papers oN THE NaTuraL History or New ZeALAND.—

Maske, W. M., “ /cerya Purchasii, and its insect-enemies in New
Zealand.” Entom. Monthly Mag. (2). Vol. L, No. 1, p. 17-19.

Hupson, G. V., “The life-history of Simaethis combinata, Walk.”
Entom. Monthly Mag. (2). Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 22-23.

Hupson, G. V., “On the flight of Atta antarctica.” Entom. Monthly
Mag. (2). Vol. I., No. I, p. 23.

Smitu, W. W., “On Mecyna polygonalis, Treitschke, in New Zealand.”
Entom. Monthly Mag. (2). Vol. I., No. 2, p. 51-52.

Meyrick, E., “ Mecyna polygonalis, Tr. in New Zealand.” Entom.
Monthly Mag. (2). Vol. I., No. 3, p. 87-88.

Hupson, G. V., “ Abundance of Vanessa cardwi in New Zealand.”
Entomologist, Vol. 23, Apr., p. 133.
OccURRENCE OF GLOW-WoRMS IN A Deep Cave,—Mr. A. Philpott

of Mt. Linton station sends the following interesting note on the

occurrence of glow-worms in the limestone caves near Clifilen station,

74 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Waiu river, Southland. He visited the caves in November last, with
two companions. He says:—‘ Having visited the cave, we were
returning and were within a few chains of the mouth when one of us
noticed a light at the end of one of the numerous alleys running off
from the main cave. Thinking it was an outlet from the cave I went
towards it, but as I drew nearer, the light became smaller changing
from a pale yellow to blue, till when I had got right up to it, it
appeared as a small but brilliant blue spot and I saw that it proceeded
from a worm which seemed to be fixed to the wall by a few silken
threads. Near it was a second worm, but I do not remember whether
it emitted a light or not. The worms were about one inch long, flesh-
coloured, and light apparently came from near the head. They seemed
to have the power of putting out the light at will, for after I had
regained my companions no light could be seen. The change in the

colour of the lighted may have been due to my approaching it with a
lighted candle.

Humse-Bres.—Mr. L. Cockayne of Dilcoosha, Styx, near Christ-
church, who is well known as a collector of Alpine plants, and a
cultivator and introducer of European Alpines, sends the following
notes of plants visited by humble-bees, in addition to those mentioned
in Mr. Thomson’s paper, p. 16 :—

RANUNCULACER.

Aquilegia chrysantha.
Nigella damascena.
PAPAVERACE.
Papaver alpinum. On the red-flowered, but never on the
white variety.
Bartonia aurea.
Argemone mexicana.
Bocconia cordata.

GERANIACES.
Erodium manescavi.
Geranium pratense.
RosacE2.
Spirea, two shrubby species.
Rubus ideus fl. pl. One of the few white-flowered plants on
which humble-bees have been observed.
ComposiItrZ.
Centaurea austriaca.
Dahlia Tuarexi, and its varieties.
Helianthus multiflorus. The flowers of this species of Sun-
flower intoxicate the bees.
SoLANEA.
Nicotiana affinis—another of the white flowers visited.
ScROPHULARINES.
Linaria anticaria.
Linaria macedonica.

GENERAL NOTES. 75

LABIATAE.

Dracocephalum Ruprechti. The bees are very fond of the
flowers of this plant, the nectar of which completely intoxicates
or stupefies them. Mr. Cockayne says :—‘‘{f took three bees
off the flowers at the same time, all in a helpless state, and
put them under a tumbler. In an hour's time one had
recovered and was able to fly away, another died during the
day, and the third was, on the next day, as weak as when
captured.”

Mrs. Mason of Paradise, Glenorchy, reports that since the cutting-
down of the broom—which was almost the only plant visited in that
district, humble-bees have not been seen this season until very recently,
when one or two have been observed on the flowers of the honeysuckle.

To the list given in my paper on p. 16, I have to add the
following :—
RANUNCULACES.
Nigella damascena.
CARYOPHYLLE.
Dianthus fimbriatus.
TRIDEA.
Gladiolus, a crimson hybrid.
COMMELYNES.

Tradescantia virginica, on the blue, but not on the white-
flowered variety.

On all these only small bees were seen, and these sparingly.—

GM: T.

AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT
OF SCIENCE.

CHRISTCHURCH MEETING.

The third meeting of the Australasian Association was opened in
Christchurch, on Thursday, 15th January, and was formally brought to
a close on the 22nd. From every point of view the meeting was
a success. ‘The arrangements were excellent throughout, numerous
matters of great interest were brought forward and discussed in the
various sections, the attendance of members and their friends was very
good, while the kindness and hospitality of the people of Christchurch
made the stay of the visitors very pleasant. Not only were there
numerous eminent representatives from all the Australian colonies, but
the meeting was honoured by the presence of Professor Goodale,
Professor of Botany in Harvard University, and President of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, which body had

76 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

commissioned him to convey fraternal greetings to the Australasian
Association. To crown all the weather was favourable, by no means
too warm, and characterised by the absence of the hot winds which had
been so prevalent throughout the earlier part of the summer. The
Canterbury College Board of Governors had placed the College, the
Boys’ High School and the School of Art at the disposal of the local
committee. All the various section rooms were therefore in such close
and convenient proximity, that members could step out of one and into
another, without that waste of time and energy which seemed to harass
visitors so much at the Melbourne meeting. The credit for carrying
the meeting to such a successful issue is mainly due to the local
secretary, Professor Hutton, who appears to have spared no trouble to
bring things into complete order. Everything went like clockwork
from start to finish.

On the opening day the first meeting was that of the General
Committee, under the chairmanship of Baron F. von Mueller, the
retiring President. A very enthusiastic vote of thanks was passed to
Professor Hutton for his services as local secretary, and to Professor
Liversidge as general secretary.

The following were appointed office-bearers for the 1892 meeting :—
President, Sir R. Hamilton (Governor of Tasmania and President of the
Royal Society of Tasmania) ; General Secretary, Mr. Alex Morton ;
General Treasurer, Mr. H. C. Russsell, C.M.G., F.R.S. (Sydney) ;
Local Secretaries, Professor Baldwin Spencer (Victoria), F. Wright
(South Australia), J. Shirley (Queensland), Professor Parker, F.R.S.,
Otago University (New Zealand).

It was resolved to hold the fifth meeting in Adelaide, the date of
it to be fixed at the Hobart meeting. The report of the Committee
appointed to draft a revised code of laws for the Association was
brought up, and the proposals for amendment were distributed amongst
the members of the Committee for consideration.

In the afternoon Sir James and Lady Hector received the members
of the Association and their friends in the grounds of Christ’s College.

In the evening the annual public meeting of the Association was
held in the Provincial Council Chamber, an elegant and suitable room,
which was crowded in every part. The chair was occupied by the
retiring President, Baron von Mueller. tle was supported on his
right by his Excellency the Governor, and on his left by Sir James
Hector, the President-elect.

Baron von Mueller having introduced his successor to the meeting,
vacated the chair, which was then taken by Sir James Hector.

His Excellency the Governor then said :—Sir James Hector,
ladies and gentlemen, before proceeding to any further business this
evening [ am going to ask your permission to say a few words of
welcome to those who are strangers in our midst. Upon the occasion
of their visiting New Zealand I think nothing strikes the English
visitor to the colonies more than the constant recurrence of institutions
similar to those which he has left behind him in England. He finds
that the colonies have grafted on to their social system those institutions
which the experience of nine centuries has enabled England to bring to
their present perfection. At the same time you have carefully striven

AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION. 77

to prevent, and at their first appearance to uproot, those evils from
which the Mother Country has not yet been able to free herself. Thus
you find the same beautiful forms of Divine worship in Christchurch
Cathedral, in your churches and chapels, as we have at Home. The
youth of ali classes have the advantages of elementary education as they
have at Home, with this difference, that here it is without direct cost
to the parents, who are relieved of the charge of their children during
the troublesome years of infancy, and who, by leaving them at school
till riper years, may obtain tor them something more than an education
which is elementary. You have public schools on the lines of those of
Eton and Harrow, to whose agency illustrious statesmen and warriors
have attributed much of England’s pre-eminence among uations ; and
you possess richly endowed institutions for training adults, not only in
intellectual pursuits, but also in those arts which enable men to subdue
the wilderness, and to make the earth bring forth her increase. Let me,
in passing, pay a warm tribute to the valuable work carried on by the
University of New Zealand, whose career and position, both in respect
of curriculum and number of students, compare favourably with the
older institutions of Sydney and Melbourne. The ladies present will
not forget that recognition is due from their sex to the liberal-minded
action of this University in having been the first to open its doors to
women students by conferring on them equality with men in the matter
of degrees. On the other hand, you have not allowed that great social
question which is convulsing Europe, the disposal of the indigent poor,
to become a source of discontent and disturbance. You have avoided
the pauper workhouses where the State grudgingly gives a maintenance
to the aged life-long worker, under conditions the least agreeable in life
lest any should be found to wish to go and do likewise. What wonder,
then, that such an institution as the British Association should have its
counterpart in Australasia, an Association eminently fitted to flourish
in such communities as these, removing science from the pursuit only
of the few and marking the democracy of knowledge, by sympathy
begetting knowledge and adding again to sympathy. You have chosen
as your place of meeting this year the colony over which I have the
honour to preside in the name of her Majesty, and, in my dual capacity
as the Queen’s representative (for does not your very name denote a
bond of Imperial unity in its purpose), and as the mouthpiece of this
important community, I bid you a hearty welcome to our shores. Ifa
layman may express an opinion on such-a point, [ would say that I
think the selection has been eminently a wise one, and that there are
reasons why this meeting should be the most interesting yet held by
the Association, for in New Zealand you may find objects of scientific
interest which will, I believe, amply repay you for your voyage of
1,200 miles, as I have found them repay my less cultured mind for its
voyage of 12,000. Certain I am that no word of regret ever fell from
any member of the British Association that that Association should
have transferred its sphere of operations in 1884 from Great Britain to
one of the younger members of the British Empire ; and, if in Canada,
why, at some future time, with our present improved steam com-
munication, should not the British Association meet in Australia, or
even in New Zealand? On that occasion, Lord Landsowne, Governor-
General of Canada, commented on the difficulty with which Science
would have to contend in competing with material activity in a young

78 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

country. No doubt the leisured class is less numerous, till recently
had no existence in the colonies, and is of slow growth, being constantly
depleted by those who, having earned their leisure, choose to spend it
elsewhere. There is much truth in his remark; but, on the other
hand, the outdoor life of a very large section of the community is
conducive to a knowledge of and interest in Nature and Natural
History. The toil here is not so unremitting or so unremunerative as
in other older communities, and more spare moments can be devoted to
the observation and study of living forms and natural features. It is
in this respect I apprehend that you weleome among you so large an
admixture of the popular, or, if I may so distinguish it, “lay ” element,
and especially may I say of ladies whose time is likely to be more at
their own disposal, and who can take an active and seemly interest in
scientific research. I venture to think that the Association should
urge upon this “lay” class particularly, the value, not only of the
acquisition and diffusion of knowledge, but also of scientific method.
Scientific method is of special value in these days, because information
is so easily acquired from text books, popular lectures, and magazine
articles, that people are tempted to plume themselves on the possession
of scientific knowledge, whereas they are in reality acquiring slipshod
habits of thought and study. Moreover, with more careful direction
their talents might enable them to act as guides and instructors in
science to those who must be trained from its elements. Again, in a
country like New Zealand, where there exist so many new varieties of
life, how desirable is accuracy of observation ; what to observe, when to
observe, and how to take notes of our observations, are habits specially
needful of acquisition. It is better to err on the side of noting some-
thing which may have been already observed, than to risk missing an
opportunity of contributing information conceraing the structure and
habits of those plauts and animals as to which science is still in a state
of infantile ignorance. Although our President isa gentleman of the
first rank in the field of scientific research, and although we have
among us Many eminent men who devote themselves to the study of
various phenomena, there are many problems still unsolved. But we
entertain high expectations that the assembling of so many men of
science from other parts of the world will illumine our efforts to fathom
some of the mysteries with which nature has surrounded this, to us,
new world of life. I think, ladies and gentlemen, that both in respect
of scenery and natural phenomena you will find much that is not only
interesting, but unique, in New Zealand. No matter to which special
branch of science you may have devoted yourself, you will find
something to study in New Zealand, and in New Zealand alone.
Meteorologists will find something remarkable in the diversities of
climate over a country containing from semi-tropical Auckland to
antarctic Southland, but 100,000 square miles. They will note the
action produced on the rainfall by our great central range of Alps, and
the wonderful difference within a few miles in the vegetation and
appearance of the country. On the western side dense green forests,
and on the eastern side vast brown plains; and they will, perhaps, be
able to explain to us why Cook’s Strait has earned the reputation of
being the blast-pipe of the Pacific. The naturalist will have ample
opportunity to study the marvellously successful results of acclimnati-
sation. The Australian members will be specially interested to compare

AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION. 79

whether chose results have been most successful here or on the
Continent in the cases of the rabbit and the sparrow. Interesting and
curious also are our deep sea fish, such as the frost fish, which never
allows man to catch it, but which occasionally offers himself as a
voluntary sacrifice on the gastronomic altar. As regards New Zealand
quadrupeds, the labours of the naturalist will be considerably lightened
by the knowledge that but one existed, and that that one is believed to
be extinct. He may, however, be able to enlighten us as to the
true character of the vegetable caterpillar, which, going into the
ground a grub, ought, according to European ideas, to emerge as a
perfect insect, but in a very antipodean fashion, appears to become a
plant instead. The ornithologist, under the able guidance of Sir
Walter Buller, will be able to study our so-called wingless birds, and to
tell us what prospect they have, now that men and dogs have come to
chase them, of recovering the use of those limbs of which long desuetude
appears to have deprived them; and whether there is any chance of
curing the kea of his acquired taste for sheep fat, which has turned a
comical and interesting parrot into one of the anathematised class of
native pests. The botanist should revel in our wealth of ferns and
alpine plants, and may perhaps decide for us whether that complete
illustration of parasitical growth, the rata, initiates its all-devouring
embrace as a suppliant at the feet of its victim or round the neck of
the devoted object of its affection. Also, may not our farmers look to
the botanist for some help in the pursuit of agriculture, to learn
something new of plant life, of suitability of soils and of insect pests,
so that not only our moral but also our material position may be the
better for this meeting. The geologist will find an opportunity for
studying the effects of voleanic eruption, of which Tarawera offers an
example hardly to be equalled within easy reach of civilisation. The
Australian mineralogists may find an opportunity for comparing their
more continuous auriferous reefs with our rich but sadly broken strata
in New Zealand. The paleontologists will find a curious remnant of
otherwise extinct reptiles in the Tuatara lizard, and, close at hand, in
the admirably arranged Museum at Christchurch, materials for a study
of the extinct moa Possibly they may give us some contribution to
the controversy respecting the co-existence in New Zealand of that
gigantic bird with man. The anthropologist will find in the Maories a
most interesting example of the advanced civilisation of a Native race,
and will be able to witness, not only the effects of their participation in
the advantages enjoyed by Europeans, but also the results of an
admixture of the races in all classes of society. Statisticians and social
economists at Home will look with interest for some fresh light on the
interesting thoughts suggested by Mr. Ravenstein at Leeds concerning
the future of the human race, as to the period of time which may be
estimated to elapse before the world will cease to be able, under present
conditions, to support its increasing population. These are only a few
subjects of interest which strike the least scientific among you, and
without doubt many more will reveal themselves to the searching eye
of science in New Zealand. Your labours should teach us that neither
in the case of nations nor of individuals do the pleasures of life consist
solely in the making of money, and that there are many who,
disregarding selfish considerations of material wealth, prefer to devote
their talents to the pursuit of knowledge and the discussion of its

80 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

results. These philosophers have embraced the principles which Plato,
in his “Republic” counsels us to adopt towards our rulers and
guardians, the people, that they ‘may grow up, not amid images of
deformity which will gradually poison and corrupt their souls, but in a
land of health and beauty, where they will drink in from every object
sweet and harmonious influences.”

A vote of thanks to the retiring President, Baron von Mueller,
moved by Mr. Morton of Hobart, and seconded by Professor W. H.
Warren of Sydney, was carried by acclamation.

The Chairman then invited Professor Goodale, President of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, to address the
meeting.

Professor Goodale, who was received with loud and continued
applause, said—Mr. President, your Excellency, ladies and yentlemen,
—My first duty is to thank you heartily Sir James, and you, my dear
Baron, for the very warm welcome you have extended to me. Be
assured that these cordial expressions are most sincerely appreciated.
My second duty is to bring to you greetings from the American
Association for uhe Advancement of Science. When, a few years ago,
we learned that one of your most energetic professors had taken in
hand the formation of an Australasian Association, somewhat on the
lines of the British Association and our own, we took the deepest
interest in the plans, for we hoped that you would realise what we have
secured. In these days of extreme specialism there is need of a broad
general association, so that specialists might conter toxether; that they
can widen the outlook and that those who are cultivating small portions
of the field can see that the ground near to the fence is not neglected,
Now, under a general association like this, specialists can meet and
confer together, and they can preserve that which they certainly hope
to preserve. Then again we have found, and I have no doubt you will
find, that general meetings of associations like this diminish, if they
don’t fully prevent and remove personal misunderstandings. Some-
times these misunderstandings are allowed to grow until at last they
are intensified. In associations like the British Association and our
own we find the tendency to anything like personal differences to
diminish and disappear, and I hope you will find the same. We have
found that the British Association and our own have always done good,
by their visits, to the community where the meetings were held. A
good many have criticised unfavourably this migratory tendency,
holding that it is better to have the meetings in some central place.
But it seems that in this the old fable comes back, that “ strength
seems to be restored every time we touch new ground.” This migratory
tendency is the survival of the migratory tendency inherited from our
ancestors. I feel very sure if you were to put it to the vote in the
British Association you would not receive a single positive vote in
favour of substituting for these missions, as we may call them, one
resident place. Now, when we beard that an Australasian Association
was to be formed in this manner, our hopes and best wishes went
out to you, and when the opportunity came to present felicitations
on your success it was most eagerly accepted; so that I have now
great pleasure in presenting, on behalf of the Association I represent,
our congratulations upon the pronounced success of the Australasian

AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION. 81

Association. The American Association is not limited to the United
States. As his Excellency the Governor has told you, the British
Association met on Canadian soil. Some of our meetings are also held
in the large centres of the Dominion of Canada, and the meeting of the
British Association was really a joint meeting of the two Associations.
We sometimes think that blocd is thicker than water. Now, my
honoured colleagues, through me, extend to you an invitation to visit
our Association. Do not regard it as one of those general invitations
which means just drop in as you pass by; but if you find you can be
present at any of our meetings just inform our General Secretary, and
when you did meet, then the general invitation, you would find would
be converted into a specific one. I again thank you for your cordial
welcome, and, congratulating the Association upon its past and present
success, | have only now to express on behalf of our Association, and
on my own behalf, our best wishes for Australasia and the Australasian
Association.

Sir James Hector then delivered the following presidential address
—When I rashly replied in the affirmative to the cablegram which [
received from our Secretary in Melbourne, asking me to undertake the
honourable and responsible duties which I have to commence this
evening, I fear I did not fully realise the difficulties of the position,
but since then the sense of my unfitnesss for the task has become very
oppressive. To address an assembly of this kind on general science
must involve unusual difficulties, owing to the audience being largely
composed of those who, only taking a casual interest in scientific
discussions, look chiefly to the results; while, at the same time, there
are present specialists in almost every branch of knowledge. I feel
that on this occasion I must be ruled by the interest of the majority,
and claim the forbearance of my fellow workers in science if I have to
refer in a sketchy way to subjects in which they are deeply interested,
and far more learned than I profess to be. Seeing that I am addressing
a Christchurch audience I hope I may be permitted, in the first place,
to say a word concerning one whose scientific services should, without
doubt, have obtained for him the position of first President in New
Zealand of the Australasian Association. We naturally recall the
name of Sir Julius Von Haast on this occasion, and mourn for the loss
the colony has sustained of one who for thirty years occupied a most
prominent position. His early researches in the North Island in
company with Von Hochstetter, were followed by the exploration of
the remcte districts on the west coast of Nelson, after which Canterbury
secured his distinguished services, and enabled him to leave that
monument of varied scientific knowledge, shrewd capacity and inde-
fatigable industry which is to be found in the Canterbury Museum.
There are others of our fellow-colonists whose wide range of experience
would have peculiarly fitted them to act as your President, and J am
able to say that had our veterau colonist and explorer Sir George Grey
felt more assured in health and strength it would have been your
pleasure this evening to listen to a flood of eloquence on all] scientific
topics that relate to the future development of Australasia. There is
another name I feel must be mentioned as one who should have been
in this position had his health permitted. I refer to the Rev. William
Colenso, who is not only the greatest authority on the folk-lore of the
Maoris, on whom he was among the first to confer a printed literature

82 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

in their own language. His long-continued work as a field naturalist,
and especially as a ‘botanist, is exceedingly interesting, seeing that it
forms a connecting link that hes continued the early spirit of natural
history research in New Zealand, that commenced with Banks and
Solander, and was continued by Menzies, Lesson, the two Cunninghams,
and Sir Joseph Hooker, prior to the arrival of colonists. Thus we still
have in my esteemed friend, Mr. Colenso, an active veteran naturalist
of what we may call the old school of explorers. It is wonderful to
reflect that little more than fifty years ago this European colony was
represented by a few fishing hamlets on the seaboard of a country
occupied by a considerable native population. To the early explorers,
and even down to a much later date, the obstacles that beset their path
were very different from those of the present time; often obstructive
Natives, no roads, no steamers, no railways. Had an Association then
existed and desired to promote science by giving our visitors an
opportunity of visiting the remote parts of the islands, the same
excursions which have on this occasion been planned to occupy a few
days, would have occupied as many months, and then be accomplished
only with great hardship and difficulty. I must ask the young and
rising generation of colonial naturalists te bear this in mind when they
haye to criticise and add to the work of their predecessors. Such
names of early colonists as Bidwill, Sinclair, Monro, Mantell, Travers,
and many others should ever be held in esteem as those who, amidst
all the arduous trials of early colonisation, never lost sight of their
duty towards the advancement of science in New Zealand. I will not
attempt to particularise other names from amongst our existing, and,
though small in number, very active corps of scientific workers. They
are here, or should be, to speak for themselves in the sectional work ;
and I have no doubt some of those who did me the great honour of
placing me in my present position are secretly congratulating themselves
that they have secured for themselves the position of free lances on this
occasion. This is now the third annual gathering of this Association,
and New Zealand should feel honoured that it has at so early a date in
the Association’s history been selected to the turn in rotation as the
place of meeting among so many divisions of the great colony of
Australasia. The two volumes of the Transactions of the Association,
already in the hands of members, are quite sufficient to prove that the
hopes of its founders—or rather, I may almost say, the founder—
Professor Liversidge of Sydney, have been amply fulfilled. The papers
read before the different sections, and the addresses delivered, have in
my opinicn, to a most remarkable extent, embodied information and
discussions which were not likely to be produced as the result of any of
our local scientific organisations. The authors seemed to have felt it
incumbent on them to place their subjects in the environment of
Australasia, and pot in relation to the colony they represent. This, I
take it, is the first truly effective step towards Federation which has
yet been achieved, and | trust that all cur members will continue to be
imbued with this spirit. Politicians should take this well to heart.
Let them continue to aid all efforts that wil] tend to bring scientific
accumulations in these colonies into a common store, so that each may
discover for what purpose it has been best adapted by nature, and of
paying proper political respect in fiscal policy to one another, each may
prosper to the full extent of its natural advantages. But it is not alone

AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION. 83

in the value of the papers communicated that the Association contributes
to advance true civilisation in the colonies. The face to face conference,
the personal contict of the active workers in different lines of scientific
work, must greatly facilitate the more thorough understanding of the
work which has been done and which is still undone. A vague idea,
simmering in the brain of one scientist who thinks light of it because
it has no special application in his particular environment, may, by
personal converse, flash into important results in the mind of another
who has had the difficulties facing him, but without the happy thought
occurring. It would be rather interesting for someone with leisure to
endeavour to recount how many great discoveries have eventuated in
this manner. In casting my thoughts for a particular subject on which
to address the Association I felt perplexed. Presidents of similar
Associations in the Old World, who are in constant contact with the
actual progress in scientific thought, feel that a mere recital of the
achievements during their previous term is sufficient to command
interest ; but in the colonies most of us are cut off from personal
converse with the leading minds by whom the scientific afflatus is
communicated ; and in our suspense for the tardy arrival of the official
publications of the societies, we have to feed our minds with science
from periodical literature. But even in this respect my own current
education is very defective, as I reside in the capital city of New
Zealand, which has no college with a professional staff whose duty,
pleasure and interest it is to maintain themselves on a level with the
different branches of knowledge they represent. I therefore decided
that instead of endeavouring to review what had been done in the way
of scientific progress, even in Australasia, it would be better to confine
my remarks to New Zealand—the more so that this is the first occasion
that there has been a gathering of what must, to some extent, be
considered to be an outside audience for the colony. To endeavour to
describe, even briefly, the progress made in the science of a new country
is, however, aJmost like writing its minute history. Every step in its
reclamation from a wild state of nature has depended on the application
of scientific knowledge, and the reason for the rapid advance in these
colonies is chiefly to be attributed to their having had the advantage of
all modern resources to hand. As in most other matters in New
Zealand there is a sharp line dividing the progress into two distinct
periods, the first before and the second after the formation of the colony
in 1840. With reference to the former perio! it is not requisite that
much should be said on this occasion. From the time of Captain
Cook’s voyages, owing to his attractive narrative, New Zealand acquired
intense interest for naturalists. His descriptions of the country and its
productions, seeing that he only gathered them from a few places
where he landed on the coast, are singularly accurate. But I think
rather too much is sometimes endeavoured to be proved from the
negative evidence of his not having observed certain objects. As an
instance, it has been asserted that 1f any of the many forms of the moa
still survived, Captain Cook must have been informed of the fact. Yet
we find that he lay for weeks in Queen Charlotte Sound and in Dusky
Sound, where all night long the cry of the kiwi must have been heard
just as now, and that he also obtained and took Home niats and other
articles of Native manufacture, trimmed with kiwi’s skins ; and that
most likely the mouse-coloured quadruped which was seen at Dusky

84 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Sound by his men when clearing the bush was only a grey kiwi; and
yet the discovery of this interesting bird was not made till forty years
after Cook’s visit. As a scientific geographer Cook stands unrivalled,
considering the appliances at his disposal His longitudes of New
Zealand are wonderfully accurate, especially those computed from what
he called his “rated watches,” the first type of the modern marine
chronometer, which he was almost the first navigator to use. ‘The
result of a recent measurement of the meridian difference from
Greenwich by magnetic signals is only two geographical miles east
of Captain Cook’s longitude. He also observed the variation and dip
of the magnetic needle, and from his record it would appear that during
the hundred years which elapsed up to the time of the Challenger’s
visit, the south-seeking end of the needle had changed its position 2}
deg. westward, and inclines 1} deg. more towards the South magnetic
pole. Captain Cook also recorded an interesting fact, which, so far as
I am aware, has not been since repeated or verified in New Zealand.
He found that the pendulum of his astroncmical clock, the length of
which had been adjusted to swing true seconds at Greenwich, lost at
the rate of 46 sec. daily at Ship Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound. This
is, I believe, an indication of a greater loss of the attraction of gravity
than would occur in a corresponding North latitude. The additions to
our scientific knowledge of New Zealand, acquired through the visits of
the other exploring ships of early navigators, the settlement of sealers
and whalers on the coast, and of pakeha Maories in the interior were
all useful, but of too slight a character to require special mention. The
greatest additions to science were made by the missionaries, who in the
work of spreading Christianity among the Natives, had the service of
able and zealous men who mastere! the Native dialects, reduced them
to a written language, collected and placed on record the traditional
knowledge of the interesting Maori, and had among their numbers
some industrious naturalists who never lost an opportunity of collecting
natural objects. The history of how the country, under the mixed
influences for good and for evil which prevailed almost without
Government control till 1840, gradually was ripened for the culonist,
is familiar to all. The new era may be said to have begun with
Dieffenbach, a naturalist who was empioyed by the New Zealand
Company. He travelled and obtained much information, but did not
collect to any great extent, and, in fact, appears not to have anticipated
that much remained to be discovered. For his conclusion is that the
smallness of the number of the species of animals and plants then
known—about one-tenth of our present lists—was not due to want of
acquaintance with the country, but to paucity of life forms. ‘The chief
scientific value of his published work is the appendix, giving the first
systematic list of the fauna and flora of the country, the former being
compiled by the late Dr. Gray of the British Museum. The next great
scientific work done for New Zealand was the Admirality survey of the
coast line, which is a perfect marvel of accurate topography, and one of
the greatest boons the colony has 1eceived from the Mother Country.
The enormous labour and expense which was incurred on this survey at
an early date in the history of the colony is a substantial evidence of
the confidence in its future development and commercial requirements
which animated the Home Goverment. On the visit of the Austrian
exploring ship “ Novara” to Anckland in 1859, Von Hochstetter was

AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION. 8 5

left behind, at the request of the Government, to make a prolonged
excursion to the North Island and in Nelson; and he it was who laid
the foundation of our knowledge of the stratigraphical geology of New
Zealand. Since then the work of scientific research has been chiefly
the result of State surveys, aided materially by the zeal of members
of the New Zealand Institute, and of late years by an increasing band
of young students, who are fast coming to the front under the careful
science training that is afforded by our University Colleges. In the
epoch of their development the Australasian colonies have been
singularly fortunate. The period that applies to New Zealand is
contemporaneous with the reign of Her Majesty, which has been
signalised by enormous strides in science. It has been a period of
gathering into working form immense stores of previously-acquired
observation and experiment, and of an escape of the scientific mind
from the trammels of superstition and hazy speculation regarding what
may be termed common things. Laborious work has been done and
many grand generalisations have been arrived at in physical science ;
but still, in the work of bringing things to the actual experiment,
investigators were bound by imperfect and feeble hypotheses and
supposed natural barriers among the sciences. But science is one and
indivisible, and its subdivisions, such as physics, chemistry, biology, are
only matters of convenience for study. The methods are the same in
all, and their common object is the discovery of the great laws of order
under which this universe has been evoked by the great Supreme
Power. The great fundamental advance during the last fifty years
has been the achievement of far reaching generalisations, which have
provided the scientific worker with powerful weapons of research.
Thus the modern “atomic theory,” with its new and clearer conceptions
of the intimate nature of the elements and their compounds that
constitute the earth and all that it supports, has given rise to a new
chemistry, in which the synthetical or building-up method of proof is
already working marvels in its application to manufactures. It is,
moreover, creating a growing belief that all matter is one, and reviving
the old idea that the inorganic elementary units are merely centres of
motion specialised in a homogeneous medium, and that these units have
been continued on through time, but with such individual variations as
give rise to derivative groups, just as we find has been the case in the
field of organic creations. The idea embodied in this speculation likens
the molecule to the vortex rings which Helmholtz found must continue
to exist for ever, if in a perfect fluid free from all friction they are once
generated, as a result of impacting motion. There is something very
attractive in this theory of the constitution of matter which has been
advocated by Sir William Thomson. He illustrates 1t by likening the
form of atoms to smoke rings in the atmosphere, which, were they
only formed under circumstances such as above described. must
continue to move without changing form, distinguished only from
the surrounding medium by their motion. As long as the original
conditions of the liquid exist they must continue to revolve. Nothing
can separate, divide, or destroy them, and no new units can be formed
in the liquid without a fresh application of the creative impact. The
doctrine of the conservation of energy 1s a second powerful instrument
of research that has developed within our own times. How it has
cleared away the cobwebs that formerly encrusted our ideas about the

86 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE

simplest agencies that are at work around us. How it has so simplified
the teaching of the laws that order the conversion of internal motions
of bodies into phases which represent light, heat, electricity, is abundantly
proved by the facility with which the mechanicians are every day
snatching the protean forms of energy for the service of man with
increasing economy. These great strides which have been made in
physical science have not as yet incited much original work in this
colony. But now that physical laboratories are established in some
degree at the various college centres, we will be expected, ere long, to
contribute our mite to the vast store. In practical works of physical
research we miss in New Zealand the stimulus the sister colonies
receive from their first-class observatories, supplied with all the most
modern instruments of research, wielded by such distinguished astro-
nomers as Ellery, Russell, and Todd, whose discoveries secure renown
for their separate colonies. [I am quite prepared to admit that the
reduplication of observatories in about the same latitude, merely for the
study of the heavenly bodies, would be rather a matter of scientific
luxury. The few degrees of additional elevation of the South Polar
region which would be gained by an observatory situated even in the
extreme south of New Zealand could hardly be expected to disclose
phenomena that would escape the vigilance of the Melbourne obser-
vatory. But star gazing is only one branch of the routine work of an
observatory. It is true we have a moderate but efficient observatory
establishment in New Zealand sutticient for distributing correct mean
time, and that our meridian distance from Greenwich has been
satisfactorily determined by telegraph; also, thanks to the energy and
skill of the Survey Department, despite most formidable natural
obstructions, the major triangulation and meridian circuits have
established the basis of our land survey maps on a satisfactory footing,
so that the sub-divisions of the land for settlement and the adoption
and blending of the excellent work done by the Provincial Governments
of the colony is being rapidly overtaken. Further, 1 have already
recalled how much the colony is indebted to the Mother Country for
the completeness and detail of the coastal and harbour charts. But
there is much work that should be controlled by a physical observatory
that is really urgently required. I may give a few illustrations. The
tidal movements round the coast are still imperfectly ascertained, and
the causes of their irregular variation can never be understood until
we have a synchronous system of tide meters, and a more widely
extended series of deep-sea soundings. Excepting the Challenger
soundings on the line of the Sydney cable, and a few casts taken by the
United State ship ‘“Hnterprise,” the depths of the ocean surrounding
New Zealand have not been ascertained with that accuracy which many
interesting problems in physical geography and geology demand. It is
supposed to be the culmination of a great submarine plateau ; but how
far that plateau extends, connecting the southern islands towards the
great Antarctic land, and how far to the eastward, is still an unsolved
question. Then, again, the direction and intensity of the magnetic
currents in and around New Zealand require further close investigation,
which can only be controlled from an observatory. ven in the
matter of secular changes in the variation of the compass we find that
the marine charts instruct that an allowance of increased easterly
variation of 2 min. per annum must be made, and as this has now

AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION. 87

accumulated since 1850 it involves a very sensible correction to be
adopted by a shipmaster in making the land or standing along the
coast, but we find from the recently published work of the ‘‘ Challenger”
that this tendency to change has for some time back ceased to affect
the New Zealand area, and as the deduction appears only to have been
founded on a single triplet observation of the dip taken at Weilington
and one azimuth observation taken at Cape Palliser, it would be well
to have this fact verified. With regard to the local variation in the
magnetic currents on land and close in shore, the requirement for
exact survey is even more imperative. Captain Creak, in his splendid
essay, quotes the observations made by the late Surveyor-General Mr
J. I. Thomson, at the Bluff Hill, which indicate that a compass on the
north side was deflected more than 9 deg. to the west, while on the east
side of the hill the deflection is 46 deg. to the east of the average
deviation in Foveaux Strait. He adds that if a similar island-like hill
happened to occur on the coast, but submerged beneath the sea to a
sutiicient depth for navigation, serious accidents might take place, and
he instances a case near Cossack, on the north coast of Australia, when
H.M. “ Medea,” sailing on a straight course in eight fathoms of water,
experienced a compass deflection of 30 deg. for the distance of a mile.
A glance at the variation entered on the meridian circuit maps of New
Zealand shows that on land we have extraordinary differences between
different trig. stations at short distances apart. For instance, in our
close vicinity, at Mount Pleasant, behind Godley Head lighthouse, at
the entrance to Lyttelton harbour, the variation is only 9 deg. 3 min.
east, or 6 deg. less than the normal ; while at Rolleston it is 15 deg.
33 min., and at Lake Coleridge 14 deg. 2 min. In Otago we have still
greater differences recorded, for we find on Flagstaff Hill, which is an
igneous formation, 14 deg. 34 min., while at Nenthorn, thirty miles to
the North, in a schist formation, we find an entry of 35 deg 41 min.
In view of the fact that attention has been recently directed to the
marked effects on the direction and intensity of the terrestrial magnetic
currents of great lines of fault along which movements have taken
place, such as those which bring widely different geological formations
into discordant contact, with the probable production of mineral veins,
this subject of special magnetic surveys is deserving of being under-
taken in New Zealand. In Japan and in the United States of
America the results have already proved highly suggestive. <A
comparison between this country and Japan by such observations,
especially if combined with systematic and synchronous records by
modern seismographic instruments would be of great service to the
physical geologist. There are many features in common, and many
quite reversed in the orographic and other physical features of these
two countries. Both are formed by the crests of great earth waves
lying north-east and south-west, and parallel to, but distant from
continental areas, and both are traversed by great longitudinal faults
and fissures, and each by one great transverse fault. Dr. Nauman, in
a recent paper, alludes to thisin Japan as the Hossa Magna, and it
corresponds in position in relation to Japan with Cook Strait in relation
to New Zealand. But the Yossa Magna of Japan has been filled up
with volcanic products, and is the seat of the loftiest active volcano in
Japan. In Cook Strait and its vicinity, as you are aware, there are
no volcanic rocks, but there and southward, through the Kaikouras,

88 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

evidence of fault movements on a large scale is apparent, and it would
be most interesting to ascertain if the remarkable deviation from the
normal in direction and force of the magnetic currents, which are
experienced in Japan, are also found in New Zealand. For it is
evident that if they are in any way related to the strain of cross
fractures in the earth’s crust, the observation would tend to eliminate
the local influence of the voleanic rocks which are present in one case
and absent in the other. With reference to earthquakes also, few, if
any, but very local shocks experienced in New Zealand have originated
from any volcanic focus we are acquainted with, while a westerly
propagation of the ordinary vibrations rarely passes the great fault that
marks the line of active volcanic disturbance. In Japan, also, out of
about 480 shocks which are felt each year in that country, each of
which, on average, shakes about one thousand square miles, there are
many that cannot be ascribed to volcanic origin. There are many
other problems of practical importance that can only be studied from
the base line of a properly equipped observatory. These will readily
occur to physical students, who are better acquainted with the subject
than [am. I can only express the hope that the improved circum-
stances of the colony will soon permit some steps to be taken.
Already in this city, I understand some funds have been subscribed.
As an educational institution, to give practical application to our
students in physical science, geodesy, and navigation, it would clearly
have a specific value that would greatly benefit the colony. Another
great branch of physical science, chemistry, should |e of intense
interest to colonists in a new country. Much useful work has been
done, though not by many workers. The chief application of this
science has been naturaily to promote the development of mineral
wealth, to assist agriculture, and for the regulation of mercantile
contracts. I cannot refrain from mentioning the name of William
Skey, analyst to the Geological Survey, as the chemist whose researches
during the last twenty-eight years have far surpassed any other in
New Zealand. Outside his laborious official duties he has found time
to make about sixty original contributions to chemical science, such as
researches into the electrical properties of metallic sulphides—the
discovery of the ferro-nickel alloy awaruite in the ultra-basic rocks of
West Otago, which is highly interesting as it is the first recognition of
this meteoric-like iron as native to our planet—the discovery that the
hydrocarbon in the gas shales is chemically and not merely mechanically
combined with the clay base—of a remarkable colour test for the
presence of magnesia and the isolation of the poisonous principle in
many of our native shrubs. His recent discovery, that the fatty oils
treated with aniline form alkaloids, also hints at an important new
departure in organic chemistry. His suggestion of the hot-air blow
pipe, and of the application of cyanide of potassium to the saving of
gold, and many other practical applications of his chemical knowledge,
are distinguished services to science, of which New Zealand should be
proud, In connection with the subject of chemistry, there is a point of
vast importance to the future of the pastoral and agricultural interests
of New Zealand, to which attention was directed some years ago by Mr.
Pond, of Auckland. That is the rapid detericration which the soil
must be undergoing by the steady export of the constituents on which
plant and animal life must depend for nourishment. He calculated

AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION. 89

that in 1883 the intrinsic value of the fixed nitrogen and phosphoric
acid and potash sent out annually was £592,000, taking into account
the wool and the wheat alone. Now that we have to add to that the
exported carcases of beef and mutton, bones and all, the annual loss
must be immensely greater. The proper cure, would, of course, be to
bring back return cargoes of artificial manure, but even then its
application to most of our pastoral lands would be out of the question.
I sincerely hope that the problem will be taken in hand by the
Agricultural College at Lincoln as a matter deserving of practical study
and investigation. I have already referred to several great generali-
sations which have exercised a powerful influence in advancing science
during the period I marked out for review, but so far as influencing
the general current of thought, and almost entirely revolutionising the
prevalent notions of scientific workers in every department of know-
ledge, the most potent of the period has been the establishment of what
has been termed the doctrine of evolution. ‘The simple conception of
the relation of all created things by the bond of continuous inheritance
has given life to the dead bones of an accumulated mass of observed
facts, each valuable in itself, but, as a whole, breaking down by its own
weight. Before this master-key was provided by the lucid instruction
of Darwin and Wallace, it was beyond the power of the human mind
to grasp and use in biological research the great wealth of minute
anatomical and physiological details. The previous ideas of the
independent creation of each species of animal and plant in a little
Garden of Eden of its own must appear puerile and absurd to the
young naturalist of the present day ; but in my own College days to
- have expressed any doubts on the subject would have involved a sure
and certain pluck from the examiner. [I remember well that I first
obtained a copy of Darwin’s “Origin of Species” in San Francisco
when on my way home from a three years’ sojourn among the Red
Indians in the Rocky Mountains. Having heard nothing of the
controversies, I received the teaching with enthusiasm, and felt very
much surprised on returning to my alma mater to find that I was
treated as a heretic and a backslider. Nowadays it is difficult to
realise what all the fuss and fierce controversy was about, and the
rising school of naturalists have much cause for congratulation that
they can start fair on a well-assured logical basis of thought, and steer
clear of the many complicated and purely ideal systems which were
formerly in vogue for explaining the intentions of the Creator and for
torturing the unfortunate students. The doctrine of evolution was the
simple-minded acceptance of the invariability of cause and effect in the
organic world as in the inorganic ; and to understand his subject in any
branch of natural science, the learner has now only to apply himself to
trace in minutest detail the successive steps in the development of the
phenomena he desires to study. With energetic leaders educated in
such views, and who, after their arrival in the colony, felt less
controversial restraint, it is not wonderful that natural history, and
especially biology, should have attracted so many ardent workers, and
that the results should have been so good. A rough test may be
applied by comparing the number of species of animals and plants
which had been described before the foundation of the colony and those
up to the present time. In 1840, Dr. Gray’s list in Deiffenbach’s work
gives the number of described species of animals as 594. The number

gO JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

now recognised and described is 5,498. The number of mammalia has
been doubled through the more accurate stuly of our seals, whales, and
dolphins. Then the list of birds has been increased from eighty-four to
195, chiefly through the exertions of Sir Walter Buller, whose great
standard work on our avifauna has gained credit and renown for
the whole colony. The number of fishes and mollusca has been more
than trebled, almost wholly by the indefatigable work of our Secretary,
Professor Hutton. But the greatest increase is in the group which Dr.
Gray placed as Annulosa, which, chiefly through the discovery of new
forms of insect life, has risen from 156 in 1840, to 4,295, of which over
2,000 are new beetles described by Captain Broun, of Auckland. When
we turn to botany we find that Deiffenbach, who appears to have
carefully collected all the references to date in 1840, states the flora to
comprise 632 plants of all kinds, and, as I have already mentioned, did
not expect that any more would be found. But by the time of the
publication of Hooker’s “ Flora of New Zealand” (1863), a work which
has been of inestimable value to our colonists, we find the number of
indigenous plants described had been increased to 2450. Armed with
the invaluable guidance afforded by Hooker’s “‘ Handbook,” our colonial
botanists have renewed the search, and have since then discovered 1,469
new species, so that our plant census at the present date gives a total of
3,919 species. It would be impossible to make mention of all who
have contributed to this result as collectors, and hardly even to indicate
more than a few of those to whom science is indebted for the description
of the plants. The history of our post-Hookerian botany is scattered
about in scientific periodical literature, and as Hooker’s Handbook is
now quite out of print, it is obvious that, as the new discoveries
constitute more than one-third of the total flora, it is most important
that our young botanists should be fully equipped with all that has
been ascertained by those who have preceded them. Iam glad to be
able to announce that such a work, in the form of a new edition of the
“ Handbook of the Flora of New Zealand,” approved by Sir Joseph
Hooker, is now in an advanced state of preparation by Professor
Thomas Kirk, who has already distinguished himself as the author of
our “Forest Flora.” Mr. Kirk’s long experience as a systematic
botanist and his personal knowledge of the flora of every part of the
colony, acquired during the exercise of his duties as Conservator of
Forests, point to him as the fitting man to undertake the task. But
quite apart from the work of increasing the local collections which bear
on biological studies, New Zealand stands out prominently in all
discussions on the subject of geographical biology. It stands as a lone
zoological area, minute in area, but on equal terms as far as regards the
antiquity and peculiar features of its fauna, with nearly all the larger
continents in the aggregate. In consequence of this, many philosophical
essays—such, for instance, as Hooker's introductory essay to the early
folio edition of the “ Flora,” the essays by Hutton, Travers, avd others
and also the New Zealand references in Wallace’s works, have all
contributed essentially to the vital question of the causes which have
brought about the distribution and geographical affinities of plants and
animals, and have thus been of use in hastening the adoption of the
doctrine of evolution. But much still remains to be done. Both as
regards its fauna and its flora, New Zealand has always been treated as
too much of a whole quantity, and in consequence percentage schedules

’ AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION. gI

prepared for comparing with the fauna and flora of other areas fail
from this cause. It is absolutely necessary to discriminate not only
localities, but also to study more carefully the relative abundance of
individuals as well as of species before -instituting comparisons. The
facility and rapidity with which change is effected at the present time
should put as against rashly accepting species which may have been
accidental intruders, though wafted by natural causes, as belonging to
the original endemic fauna and flora. Further close and extended
study, especialiy of our marine fauna, is urgently required. We have
little knowledge beyond the littoral zone, except when a great storm
heaves up a gathering of nondescript or rare treasure from the deep.
Of dredging we have had but little done, and only in shallow waters,
with the exception of a few casts of the deep sea trawl from the
“Challenger.” When funds permit, a zoological station for the study of
the habits of our sea fishes and for the propagation of such introductions
as the lobster and the crab would be advantatageous. I observe that
lately such an establishment has been placed on the Island of Mull, in
Scotland, at a cost of £400, and that it is expected to be nearly self-
supporting. With respect to food fishes, and still more with respect to
some terrestrial forms of life, we, in common with all the Australasian
colonies, require a more scientific and a less casual system of acclimati-
sation than we have had in the past. One must talk with bated breath
of the injuries that, have been inflicted ou these colonies by the rash
disturbance of the balance of nature Had our enthusiasm been properly
controlled by foresight, our settlers would probably not have to grieve
over the losses they now suffer through many insect pests, through
small birds and rabbits, and which they will in the future suffer
through the vermin that are now being spread in all directions.

There are many other points that I intended to touch upon, but
all have been forestalled by the remarks of his Excellency the Governor
and Mr. Goodale. [ am the better pleased that these gentlemen have
spoken upon them, as they were remarks relating to the advantages of
the Association. I feel, however, that I would have liked to have given
a description of what had been ascertained relating to the geology of
New Zealand. I might state that the early explorers appeared to
have had only the most vague ideas of the geologies of the countries
they explored. Indeed, the whole science of geology seemed to have
been almost brought into existence during the last fifty or fifty-five
years. It existed only as drawing its knowledge from other branches
of science; it barely existed as a science until these branches had
become established. In New Zealand our geological explorations have
been made since the matters I have referred to have been settled, and
the result has been that we have attained competent and _ tolerably
complete knowledge of the structure of the country. New Zealand is
probably the outcrop of a great earth-wave, the hollow of which formed
the submarine plateau lying to the east. New Zealand appears to have
first originated as dry land in the palzeozoic times, merely as volcanic
islands rising in a sea of moderate depth. After the paleeozoic period
there appears to have been a great blank in the geological formation.
It was a period during which no deposits took place, and it is probable
that ali which had been deposited were removed.”

g2 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Sir James Hector then went on to trace the various formations,
referred to the first traces found of the moa at Timaru, and then
leaving that subject stated that at the sectional meeting on ethnology
there would be presented to the Associations the first proof-sheets of a
great lexicon of the languages spoken in the Pacific Islands, especially
by the natives in the Sandwich Islands, of Tongo, and of New Zealand.
It was being prepared by Mr. Tregear, one of the most profound
workers in New Zealand in Maori mythology.

“There is another subject on which I would like to touch. It is
concerning the great Antarctic continent, but as I understand Baron von
Mueller wishes the discussion of the question to be deferred for Saturday
forenoon, I will say no more upon it. I have to apologise for the very
feeble manner in which I have attempted to perform my duties, though I
have the most perfect confidencei n the success of the Association. I think
it is about twenty-four years since Mr. Travers got the Act passed
which established the New Zealand Institute, In a very small way it
was an association of scientists, and it was founded to absorb and
render permanent the active endeavours in all part of the colony to
advance the interests of science. How well it has succeeded is known
by all. Baron Mueller has kindly attributed its success to me, but I
must really disclaim that and say its success was due to the wise framer
of the special Act. I hope to see the colonies united together as one
whole in this matter ; the whole of the Australasian colonies are not
too large to combine for the purpose, and I hope that the inclusion of
New Zealand in the magic circle will come about in time. In conclusion
I will express the wish that the visitors may have a pleasant sojourn in
New Zealand. I trust that I have succeeded in proving the claims of
this colony asa place for the meeting of the Association, and that I
have shown there is enough scientific work to merit such recognition as
we have received, and I think | have shown that New Zealand has great
capabilities for scientific research, and that there is still a great deal to
be done.”

Mr. F. de C. Malet moved, and the Mayor of Christchurch
seconded the following resolution, which was carried by acclamation—
“That the best thanks of the Australasian Association for the
Advancement of Science be accorded to his Excellency the Governor
for the distinction he has conferred upon the Association by his
presence here this evening.”

NOTES OF THE MEETING. 93

NOTES OF THE MEETING.

(1). THE PRESERVATION OF THE NATIVE FAUNA AND
FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND.

(Read before Section D (Biology).)

BY PROFESSOR A. P. W. THOMAS, M.A., F.L.S.,
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, AUCKLAND.

“The preservation of the native Fauna and Flora of New Zealand
is an object which will command the interest and sympathy of the
Australasian Association, and an expression of opinion on their part
may do much to forward this object.

“The Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf, appears to be a
suitable locality for the formation of one or more Reserves where the
fauna (and also the flora) could be protected from the destruction
which, it is well known, is overtaking so many of the rarer and more
interesting species.

“The island is of little or no value for settlement as it is very
rugged and quite inaccessible except in the finest weather. On the
other hand it would be a very suitable place for the preservation of
the native fauna. It is of sufficient size, being some 5 miles across,
and rising as it does to the height of 3,500 feet it affords a considerable
variety of climatic conditions. Itsisolation and the difficulty of landing
will render it secure from marauders and from the danger of bush-
fires, so great everywhere on the main-land. Moreover it is still well
covered with mixed native forest and a number of the rarer of our
native animals occur there.

“Similar reasons point to the suitability of Resolution Island,
Dusky Sound, for the preservation of characteristic forms from the
South Island.

“The purchase of Little Barrier Island is, I believe, now being
effected by the Crown Lands Department, and I wish to suggest that
on the completion of the purchase the island should be declared a
Forest reserve and regulations framed forbidding the destruction of
the native plants or animals on the island.

“It might, perhaps, be found desirabie to give the Council of the
Auckland Institute some share in the supervision of the island, as
they have already taken much interest in the matter.

“‘T wish therefore to propose the following resolutions :—

“1, That in the interests of Science it is most desirable that some
step should be taken to establish one or more Reserves where
the native flora and fauna of New Zealand may be preserved
from destruction.

“2. That the Little Barrier Island and Resolution Island, Dusky
Sound, appear to be most suitable localities for such Reserves.

“3. That a copy of the above resolutions be forwarded to the
Hon. the Minister of Lands.”

The resolutions were seconded by Mr. Geo. M. Thomson, F.L.S ,
and were carried unanimously.

94 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

(2.) THE “BULL ROARER” OF SOME AUSTRALIAN
TRIBES.

In his presidential address to Section G (Anthropology), Mr.
A. W. Howitt makes the following reference to the use of this
curious instrument :—

“One of the most remarkable facts brought out by the comparison
of initiation ceremonies is the universality of the use in them, or in
connection with them, of a wooden instrument, which is a child’s toy
in England, and which is there known as a “bull roarer.” As I
remember to have made and used one as a child, it was about eight
inches in length by three in width, which when whirled round at the
end of a cord caused a loud humming or roaring sound. Throughout
Australia, so far as my investigations have extended, it is one of the
most sacred and secret objects appertaining to the ceremonies. It is
not permitted to women or children, I may say to the uninitiated
generally, to see it, under pain of death. The novices were told that
if they made it known to women or children their punishment would
be death, either by actual violence or by magic. So secret was this
object kept among the Kumai, that intimately as I was acquainted
with them it was not exhibited to me at their Bora, until the old men
had been fully satisfied that I had been present at that of their
neighbours, the Murring, and that I had then seen it, had become
acquainted with its use, and were convincingly told I had possession
of one which had been used in their ceremonies. The reverential
awe with which one of these sacred objects is viewed by the initiated
when carried round to authenticate the message calling a ceremonial
assemby is most striking. I have not observed it merely once but
many times, and cannot feel any doubt about the depth of feeling of
reverence in the minds of the Aborigines in regard toit. A peculiar
sacredness is attached to it from several reasons, among which the
principal are that it is taught that the first one was made by the
Supernatural Being who first instituted the ceremonies, and the roar
emitted by it when in use is his voice calling upon those assembled to
perform the rites. It is the voice of Baraine, Daramulun, Mungan,
however he may be called in the several languages, but in those tribes
with whose ceremonies I have acquaintance he is also more familiarly
called ‘our father” The universality of its use, and under the same
conditions in world-wide localities, is one of the most puzzling
questions in this branch of anthropology, and can only, as it seems to
me, point to the extreme antiquity of its use. As I have said, it is
used universally in Australia. Its use is recorded at the West Coast
of Africa, where it is called ‘the voice of Oro.’ The Maories, the
Zulus, the Navajoes use it in their ceremonies, and it has been
pointed out by Andrew Lang that its use in the Dionysiac Mysteries
is clearly indicated by a a passage in the scholiast, M. Clemens,
of Alexandria. In his interesting chapter on the bull roarer in
‘Custom and Myth, Mr. Lang well says that in all probability
the presence of this implement in Greek Mysteries was a survival
from the time ‘when the Greeks were in the social condition of
Australians.’ ”

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 95

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES.

LINNEAN SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
ANNUAL MEETING.

Sydney, 2eth January, 1891.—Dr. J. C. Cox, Vice-President, in
the chair. ;

The Chairman delivered the Annual Address, first alluding to
the exceptional and melancholy circumstances in which he was called
upon to preside, for which reason he should confine his remarks
almost entirely to the consideration of matters which directly or
indirectly concerned Science in this colony. He then proceeded to
review the affairs and progress of the Society during the past year,
referring at length to the loss sustained by it in the lamented death
of Professor Stephens. He then passed to the consideration of the
official recognition of the claims of Agriculture and Forestry to be dealt
with in accordance with the teachings of modern science, and of the
good, from an educational point of view, likely to accrue from the
establishment of country museums. Finally, after pointing out that
Australia offered an unrivalled opportunity of working up completely,
and under the most favourable circumstances, the flora and fauna,
specially interesting in itself, of one of the great tracts of the globe, he
proceeded to inquire how it was that with such a splendid harvest still
waiting to be gathered, in spite of all that has yet been accomplished,
the number of workers was relatively so few; this question being too
complex for exhaustive treatment on that occasion, he offered some
remarks on a threefold aspect of it, attributing the slow increase in
the number of enthusiastic amateur naturalists partly to defective
educational methods which leave our children blind to the beauties
and attractions of Nature which surround them on every hand ; and
partly to the want of descriptive catalogues, and well-illustrated
handbooks written from the Australian standpoint; while the very
slender mducement to our young men to qualify themselves for the
serious pursuit of Science sufticiently accounted for the smallness of
the number who did so, the matter resolving itself into a question, as
Huxley puts it, “ of living or starving.”

The Hon. Dr. Norton, Hon. Treasurer, laid before the Meeting
his financial statement, and concluded by saying “I have further to
report that by deed of 5th December, 1890, Sir William Macleay has
transferred to the Society the Linnean Hall, with the land on which
it stands having a frontage of 179 feet to Bay Street by a depth of
120 feet; and that by deed of the same date Sir William has
transterred to the Society by way of endowment a mortgage of
£14,000 bearing interest at the rate of £5 per cent. per annum.
The deeds by which these transfers have been effected are now in my
hands.”

On the motion of Mr. R. Etheridge it was unanimously and most
gratefully resolved that the heartiest vote of thanks possible be
accorded to Sir William Macleay in recognition of the latest of his
many muniticent benetactions to the Society ; and that the Chairman
be requested to give effect to the resolution.

96 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

The following gentlemen were elected Office-bearers and Council
for 1891.—President: Professor W. A. Haswell, M.A., D.Sc. Vice-
Presidents: James C. Cox, M.D., F.L.8., C. 8. Wilkinson, F.L.S.,
F.G.8., Rev. W. Woolls, Ph.D., F.L.S. Honorary Secretaries : The
Hon. Sir. William Macleay, Kt., M.L.C., F.L.S., and P. N. Trebeck,
J.P. Honorary Treasurer: The Hon. James Norton. LL.D., M.L.C.
Director and Librarian: J.J. Fletcher, M.A., B.Sc. Council: Messrs.
John Brazier, F.L.8.,T. W. Edgeworth David, B.A., F.G.S., H. Deane,
M.A., C.E., Thomas Dixson, M.B.,:Ch.M., Robert Etheridge, Junr.,
J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., F.C.S., E. G. W. Palmer, Percival R. Pedley,
and Thomas Whitelegge, F.R.M 8.

OrpDiNARY MEETING.
Dr. J. C. Cox, Vice-President, in the chair.
New Member.—Mr. Walter S. Duncan, Inverell.

Paper.— Notes on the Occurrence of Stilbite in the eruptive
rocks of Jamberoo, N.S.W.” By B. G. Engelhardt.

Mr. David remarked that the occurrence of stilbite at Kiama
was very interesting. He too had noticed the presence of the same
mineral with remarkable persistence in the lavas which are inter-
bedded with the productive coal-measures of Raymond Terrace,
Maitland, and Greta, which lavas are probably of near about the
same age as those of Kiama. Mr. R. L. Jack, F.G.8., the Govt.
Geologist of Queensland, has recorded the occurrence of a similar
mineral in the lavas which there underlie the Bowen River coal-field.
This is the first record however, of the occurrence of stilbite at
Kiama.

Mr. Brazier exhibited a lamp of native pottery from the Pelew
Islands, collected by. Dr. John Kabe. Also on behalf of Mr. R. C.
Rossiter, Corr. Member, of Noumea, New Caledonia, two very fine
examples of Cyprea tigris, Linné, having the dorsal surface of a fine
bright yellow colour with very few spots, the margins having the
spots very small and of a beautiful cream colour.

My. Froggatt exhibited two specimens of a grasshopper (Fam.
Gryllide), taken at Double Bay, which frequents the flowers of
Eucalyptus corymbosa in order to capture the common honey bees
(Apis mellifica) visiting the blossoms.

Also, a few specimens of Hymenoptera received from the Rev. T.
Blackburn, B.A., who captured them on the snow at altitudes of from
5,000 to 6,100 feet, during his trip to the Australian Alps, Victoria,
last November.

Mr. Musson exhibited on behalf of Mr. Moseley of Narrabri, an
example of the freckled duck, dnas navosa, Gould, obtained at
Narran, near Angledool, not far from the Queensland border, early in
December last.

The Rev. R. Collie showed an interesting collection of sponges

from Wollongong, and a fine specimen of Gorgonia from Thursday
Island.

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THE MOA IN AUSTRALIA.

BY C. W. Der VIS, M.A., Queensland Museum.

>

Recent discovery in Lord Howe’s Island has proved that post-
tertiary Australia extended far to the east of its present shores.
Still it remains true that if among the results of enquiry into the past
phases of Australian life there be one suggestive of the possible
inter-relation of faunas apparently as distinct in history as in location,
it is the discovery of a bird identical with the Moas of New Zealand,
and of others so near akin to them as to have been pardonably
mistaken for them by acute observers. Fossils so like Moa bones as
the latter must necessarily have been, clearly show that the evolution
of these grand birds was not initiated in their recent island home, but
that it had already made considerable progress in that portion of a
far-reaching continent which we now name Australia, when a period
was put to the Nototherian age by desolating outflows of lava over
the greater part of the land. Having regard to the improbability of
birds so organized effecting a passage over sea under any ordinary
circumstances, we can hardly escape the further conclusion that New
Zealand’s entire separation from the continental area was brought
about in time not more remote than that era of intense volcanic
activity ; one is even tempted to surmise, and it appears very
possible to do so without absurdity, that it was one among the conse-
quences of that very manifestation of energy. But this is an instance
of speaking without book on a question which should be rigorously,
ag it may be confidently, left for decision in the hands of New
Zealand geologists. Cumulative evidence to the same effect but still
more explicit in kind is yielded by a relicof a true Dinornis. From it
we gather that the process of evolution had in the self-same place
and time accomplished more than we could have justly anticipated
without such warrant—the production of that more complete depar-
ture from the rest of the Struthionidw which we recognize in the Moa
type. And again, as the ‘wolves’ and ‘devils’ of Tasmania, the
‘crowned pigeons’ of New Guinea, and the ‘wallabies’ of those and
other Pacific islands have been cut off from the common ancestral
seat of their genera, so also have the Moas.

It is indeed somewhat strange that the notion of the same genus
of birds existing at one time in Australia and ata later period in
New Zealand should ever have been thought inadmissable—yei it is
difficult to see what other conception of the case could have been in
the mind of Sir Richard Owen when he spoke of the adyent of an
Australian moa as ‘an exceptional extension of a New Zealand genus
to Australia.” At the same time it is by no means to be regretted
that Owen did take this view, and that in consequence he regarded
with suspicion any Australian claim to Moa rank, however well
accredited It is to the stimulation of his critical faculty by incre-
dulity that we owe the full assurance that there has existed a bird
which, though not Dinornis, had much in it pertaining to Dinornis, a

98 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE

degree of affinity which under the circumstances could not have been
overstated, but, as stated, is quite sufficient to shew that Australia
was the nursery of the sept.

But let us quit generalities for the more immediate object in hand,
viz., a brief review of the recorded occurrences of the Moa stock in
Australian deposits. Asif to excite a hope that such occurrences
would be frequent, the first of all the extinct birds of Australia to be
drawn from those deposits and made known to science was a struthious
bird dwarfing in size not only existing Cassowaries and Emus, but the
Emu which was contemporary with it. A thighbone of this bird was
discovered in the year 1836 by Sir Thomas Mitchell in a brecchia cave
in Wellington Valley, New South Wales. It was examined by Sir
Richard Owen and figured by him in an appendix to Mitchell’s
‘Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia,’ 1838.
At that time, as we are subsequently informed, Owen determined the
bone ‘to belong to a large bird probably from its size struthious or
brevipennate, but not presenting in its femur characters which
justified him in suggesting closer affinities.” The study of Moa bones
in after years enabled him, he says, to perceive that in some features
of importance the cave femur ‘resembles that bone in the Emu rather
than in Dinornis.’ We learn further that ‘the length of this fossil
was 13 inches, the breadth of the middle of the shaft not quite 3
inches’—measurements which are noteworthy, as they render it
apparent that in its dilated proportions the bone was much more like
the Dinornis femur than that of the Emu which has a breadth of
only 14 inches to a length of 8} inches.

Thirty-three years elapsed before any further light was. thrown
upon a problem which was sufficiently obscure. It then issued from
the Peak Downs, near the centre of Queensland, where in 1869 a well
was being sunk. The workmen passed through thirty feet of the
residuum of basaltic decomposition, the ‘black soil’ characteristic of
‘Downs’ country, then through 150 feet of drift pebbles and boulders.
Lying on one of the boulders, at 180 feet from the surface, they met
with a short thick femur, which was happily preserved from the
usual fate experienced by such finds, and more happily, passed into
the hands of the well-known geologist, the Rev. W. B. Clarke. In
concert with Mr. G. Krefft, then Curator of the Australian Museum,
Mr. Clarke compared it with moa bones, with the result that he felt
himself justified in announcing the discovery in the Geological
Magazine of that year in a letter entitled ‘Dinornis an Australian
genus.’ At Sir R. Owen’s solicitation a cast of this bone was sent to
him by the Trustees of the Australian Museum, and this, in 1872,
formed the subject of a communication from Owen to the Geogra-
phical Society (Trans., vol. 8, p. 381). After pointing out at leneth
the characters in which this femur resembles Dinornis and Dromeus
(Emu) respectively, the examiner decides ‘‘that in its essential
characters it resembles more that bone in the Emu than in the Moa,
and that the characters in which it more resembles Dinornis are
concomitant with and related to the more general strength and
robustness of the bone, from which we may infer that the species
manifested dinornithic strength and proportions of the hind limbs
combined with characters of closer affinity to the existing more

THE MOA IN AUSTRALIA. 99

slender limbed and swifter wingless bird peculiar to the Australian
continent.” To the bird represented by the fossil Owen gave the
name Dromornis, a name significant of his conception of the para-
mount affinity displayed by its femur. If with that judgment a
succeeding observer finds it impossible to completely harmonize his
own conclusion, and says so, it is because in this case compulsion
rides roughshod over peril. That the Dromornis bone has important
features which relate it to the Emu rather than to the Moais a
position which is unassailable—but that these alone are its ‘essential’
characters is a postulate and one that has no right to command
assent. Essential they are among the Dromean features of the bone;
but of the compound Dromornis bone as a whole they form buta
part of the essentials. The absence of the air-duct communicating
with the interior of the bone, a characteristic dinornithic feature, seems
quite as important as a structural index to habit as the Dromean set
of the head of the bone, and being strictly dinorthie, it is not ‘related
to the general strength and robustness of the bone’ but to its compara-
tive solidity. Again the ‘dinornithic strength and proportions of the
hind-limbs’ is a reminder which should carry more weight than it
was probably intended to bear, but is nevertheless but a partial
statement of the fact—for it leaves out of consideration the great
difference in the relative proportions of the bone under examination.
It is not that the bone is altogether larger or smaller in the same
ratios of length and breadth but in different ratios—the Dromornis
and Dinornis ratio being much the same. The Dromornis femur is
but one-third longer than that of the Emu, yet its shaft is twice as
thick transversely, and its upper end is more than twice as broad.
With such bones the bird would probably have the general appear-
ance, the gait and habits of a Moa rather than those of an Emu. In
short, Dromornis exhibits at the least an intermediate form between
the Moa and Emu, probably a nearer approximation to the former
than to the latter.

After another interval of fifteen years a third dinornithic bone
was picked up in King’s Creek, on the Darling Downs, by Mr.
Daniels, and by him presented with other contemporaneous fossils to
the Queensland Museum. This again presents the upper end of a
thighbone, but minus the upper part of the great trochanter, which
appears to have been shorn off by the abrading action of drift sand
while the bone projected from the bed of a watercourse—in other
respects it is in excellent preservation. Repeated comparison of this
bone with species of Dinornis, with Dromornis, Casuarius, Dromeus,
Struthio and Rhea has removed from the mind of its describer all
doubt of the former existence of the typical Moa in Australia. To
him it appears to resemble as closely any one of the femurs from New
Zealand as any two of these, specifically different, resemble each
other, a view which of course implies the absence from it of features
notably present in the Emu bone. The most important of these is
one to which reference has already been made. The ‘head’ of the
bone or that hemispherical projection which fits into the corres-
ponding cavity of the hip-bone stands out prominently in the Moas in
consequence of the neck behind it being somewhat long and of
considerably diminished diameter, whereas in the Emu the neck is

100 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

short and thick, so that the limits of the head, especially on its upper
surface, are less distinguishable. In this feature, easier to recognize
by inspection than by description, Dromornis agrees with the Emu,
while the Queensland Moa exhibits the comparatively slender neck
and well-defined head of its New Zealand successors. It is not
necessary at this moment to insist upon the value of the several
characters which aid in the generic identification of this bone with
Dinornis—they are to be found by anyone sufficiently interested in
the matter in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland for
1884-—to others a recapitulation of them would be tedious.

Unfortunately the identification has not yet been supported by
further testimony, a circumstance which can hardly be thought sur-
prising when the extreme slowness with which dinornithic remains
have been brought to light is borne in mind—three bones in over
half-a-century has been the rate of discovery hitherto. Adding to
these three, others from which no precise information can be derived,
viz., two ribs provisionally referred to Dromornis and the shaft of a
femur too imperfect for determination, but certainly not Dromornis,
and in all probability, not Dinornis, all the fossils of this kind known
to the writer have been mentioned. In a fairly numerous collection
of bones of contemporary birds the paucity of such fossils is conspi-
cuous, but it would hardly be safe to infer from that circumstance
that the birds themselves were rare. The most we can say is that they
were not among the ordinary frequenters of the lower levels in which
the ossiferous drifts of the period were accumulating. Is is therefore
with sustained eagerness that every fresh tribute of bones is received
and inspected, since the hope is always present that it may contain
some further proof of the reality of the Queensland Moa as convincing
to others as it would be welcome to its assertor.

Be it at the same time observed that there is no reason why a
ereater amount of proof should be demanded in this case than in
others. There is no inherent improbability involved by it so great as
to justify inordinate doubt, since the passage of Dromornis into
Dinornis is not so long and difficult a matter as to require for its
accomplishment a new home and a geological remove. The only
objection to be raised against it is that it confirms and accentuates
the antecedent difficulty created by Dromornis itself, the difficulty of
accounting for the presence of Moas in New Zealand under their
lately existing circumstances. It is not a mystery that they should
have been there at all since it is anything but incredible that a subsi-
dence of ten or twelve thousand feet should during a geological age
which has seen the whole Australian fauna profoundly changed, have
taken place in an area liable to volcanic disturbance such as we see
effects of in Australia and feel the throes of in New Zealand. Before
that subsidence, Mount Cook from a height about equal to the Cordil-
leran peak of elevation, Aconcagua, would have looked down and over
continuous land as far as the snowcapped mountains of Queensland,
the view unhindered by the intervening peak of Lord Howe’s Island,
the refuge of Meiolanian reptiles once in communication with their
kinsfolk in Australia. The true difficulty is not the isolation of New
Zealand from Australia, but the strange isolation of the Moas from
all other forms peculiar to Australian life. Why should their stock

THE MOA IN AUSTRALIA. IOI

alone have escaped to an eminence of the sinking surface, or alone
been introduced into the insulated land, or alone survived some
change in its life conditions fatal to the rest? The Moa in New
Zealand is the question that calls for an explanation, and in proof
that it does call for an explanation and is not to be dismissed as a
voiceless phantasy, we point to Dromornis followed (structurally) by
Dinornis in Australia, and we wait for its solution in the work of
New Zealand’s naturalists.

FURTHER NOTES ON NEMESTI4 GILLIESII.

+>

The interesting notes by Mr. R. M. Laing “On the occurrence
of the Trap-door Spider at Lyttelton,” which appeared in the March
number of this Journal, add considerably to our knowledge of the
habits, economy, and distribution of the species. As it is not
uncommon here about the terraces and river flats, and in neglected
gardens, it certainly coincides with Mr. Laing’s remark that the
spider “seems to be much more widely distributed than was at first
presumed.” A few years ago I examined numbers of their nests in
the Waiareka valley, near Oamaru, the locality, I believe, where the
original specimens were obtained, but all the specimens and their
nests that I have observed here, are much smaller than those occur-
ring near Oamaru. The various habitats and positions of the nests
observed by Mr. Laing at Lyttelton, would apply in most instances
here, but I observe that the lining or web, covermg the walls of the
nests, varies greatly in texture according to the loose or binding
nature of the soil in which they occur. When the nests are con-
structed in fine sandy soil they are frequently lined with a thick
white web, which doubtless prevents the nests from caving in, and
probably affords warmth and makes them more impervious to wet.
In this district they are found commonly in the open among low
herbage growing on the river flats, and on the slopes of the terraces
at various grades, but in the Waiareka valley, Oamaru, I found them
more numerous in a long belt of gum trees than on the open downs,
This was probably due to the ground not being disturbed by the
plough, or by sheep and cattle depasturing on it, as well as its forming
the chief haunt of nocturnal insects in a district where the native
vegetation is very scant.

» Mr. Laing’s remarks on the structure of the trap-doors, and the
difficulty of detecting them in some situations, would appear to
indicate the presence of mimetic resemblances, yet under certain
conditions the nests are at times very easily detected. For instance,
when any nests occurring on bare ground and that are more or less
covered with fine loose earth have the trap-doors moved on damp
nights or after rain, the first sunshine afterwards soon dries the fine
loose soil covering the doors, and leaves conspicuous rings or circular
patches of dry soil over and around them. Such indications of the

102 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

spider’s presence may sometimes possibly enable their enemies, the
highly sensitive and keen-eyed Pompilus to capture them. Where
the nests occur among moss as mentioned by Mr. laing, or among
low, close-growing vegetation their presence is at all times more
difficult to detect. I think Mr. Laing’s description of the form and
structure of the trap-doors is most probably the right one, as I have
invariably iound them to be flat, or very slightly arched, but never
plug-shaped. Of course there may occasionally be exceptions, but
such may sometimes be the result of accident, caused by any weight
resting cr fallmg on the lid. I however, think that the fiat-door
would naturally be more serviceable to the spiders, in enabling them
to insert their claws between the top of the nest and the door when
opening it. In the case of the exceptional nest with a “cork-type”
door, it is to be regretted that Mr. Laing did not capture the spider
within it.

In regard to the editorial footnote to Mr. Laing’s paper (page 54)
on the subject of wasps stinging spiders, and rendering them for a
time comatose, I may here briefly refer to the habits of Pompilus ( Prioc-
nemis ) fugax, one of the handsomest of our native wasps. Unlike many
indigenous Hymenoptera in New Zealand, it appears to increase
slowly in numbers in cultivated districts. This appears to be due to
the presence of a common spider* (Cambridges fasciata), which it
captures and stores in its nest to feed its larva. Like the introduced
humble-bee it generally builds its nest in dry cavities or cracks in
raised sod-banks beneath gorse hedges. The nests are built with
soft clay, which apparently undergoes some process of refinement by
the wasps during their elaboration. The wasps appear here about
the middle of November, and until the middle of January may
occasionally be seen hunting vigorously for their prey about gorse
hedges, and clumps of young Manuka (Leptospermum scoparium)s
The motions of the wasps when in search of spiders are rapid and
wary. When hunting on the ground they run and leap a few paces
alternately—the antenne and wings meanwhile quivering rapidly.
Although I have never observed a wasp seize a spider when running
over the low herbage, I am inclined to think that they are im search
of spiders that inhabit or conceal themselves in such situations.
When the wasps are hunting in gorse hedges, it is remarkable how
swiftly they move through or over the plants, stopping suddenly at
intervals, and remaining motionless for a few seconds, as if listening
cautiously for sounds or movemenis of their prey. I have never seen
a wasp actually seize and kill a spider, but I have on several occasions
seen them dragging the insensible and dead spiders to their nest.
If the spider is a large one, the wasp walks backwards dragging it
along by a succession of jerks. They sometimes mutilate the spiders
before plastermg them up in the egg cells, as | have found the
mutilated limbs of several spiders in different cells According to

* Lately named for me by Mr. Goyen, of the Otago Education Department.

+ In a paper “‘ On New Species of New Zealand Aranex” (Trans. N.Z. Instituie,
vol. XXIT., p. 269) Mr. Goyen mentions the difficulty of capturing swiftrunning,
long-limbed spiders intact. it is possible that the wasps, in seizing these spiders, may
o2casionally detach a limb in the struggle, without succeeding in stinging the spider,
which may sometimes account for the presence of their limbs im certain cells.

FURTHER NOTES ON NEMESIA GILUIESII. 103

my experience with the nests the number of ege-cells or chambers in
each is from five to eight, and they vary considerably in size. I may
add that on December 26th iast, I was stune between the fingers by
one of these wasps, but the sting was neither so gore or painful as the
sting of the humble-bee (Apis mellifica). I may also add that two
other species of spider-hunting wasps, viz., P. monachus and P. carbo-
narias, are both common in the Waiarcka valley, the locality where
the trap-door spider exists in great numbers.

W. W. Smitu.

THE MAORI-POLYNESIAN COMPARATIVE
DICTIONARY.

BY EDWARD TREGEAR.
Lyon & Blair, Wellington, 1891.

Nee eed

Carl Abel in one of his Essays says—‘ If two or more languages
are contrasted, each being previously analysed, this comparison of
thoroughly prepared materials will have paved the way to realise national
peculiarities of thought. As there are hardly any words in any two
languages completely representing each other, the amount of conscious
knowledge to be gained by the comparison of what exists half uncon-
sciously in every land, cannot be overestimated. . . It seems to us,
that linguistic science, psychologically conceived, contains a wealth of
the most interesting and important tasks scarcely dreamt of till now.”

In the book now before us Mr. Tregear has presented to the scientific
world a mine of precious material, much of it new, some till now buried
in little known works, all of it interesting. The words of Carl Abel
quoted above are fully justified by the results now laid before us of a
comparison of Polynesian words and ideas. The Maori student in
particular will welcome the opportunity now afforded to him of com-
paring the forms and equivalent values of cognate words in the great
Polynesian area, and not only does the author extend the facilities for
linguistic comparisons, but he now for the first time presents a Compa-
rative Mythology of Oceania. This has long been needed and will be
warmly welcomed. The thorough way in which the author works may
be well seen under the word Haiwaiki—-there is in this article alone
the material for a volume. See also the hero-god—Wenuku, the story
of his eventful life and of his magical powers w ould furnish the motif
for an epic of Homeric interest. Then again the Hina myth is not only
a celebrated one in Maori lore but v ariants, all telling of the doings of
Hina “lovely blossom, whose home is in the sky,” are found. in Here
Manahiki, Samoa, and Mangaia (possibly the original home of Cockneys,
as there they persistently drop the letter h). Here also we make the
acquaintance of the great Hine-mu-te-},0, the goddess of the realm of
night, in trying to pass through whose domain, to deliver the souls of

TO4 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

men from death, Maiu was slain. At page 558 we find the New
Zealand Deluge Legends, and also the very curious Marquesan version of
Te Tai Toko, or the Flood, with its remarkable parallelism with the
Chaldean accounts.

The materials here indicated are carefully put together and the
needful references duly given. One very useful part of the book is the
list of works consulted by the author, as it gives in a handy form a list
of the chief authorities on the general Ethnology of the South Seas.
The whole of the readers of this Journal will, I am sure, sympathise
with Mr. Tregear’s note on page XITI., concerning Mr. Colenso’s great
Lexicon of the Maori language, and will, with him, continue to hope
that the patient, earnest and scholarly labour of a long and well spent
life will yet be “born into the world of letters.” Although dealing
more strictly with the word forms of the Maori language, Mr. Colenso’s
Maori Lexicon must contain much of that special knowledge of the
Maori race, of which, in New Zealand, he is the sole possessor.

Of the philological value of the kindred words brought together
by Mr. Tregear, it will be for the student of philology to judge in the
light of the ever advancing knowledge of the national psychology of the
races of the Pacific. From the great island of New Guinea we may
expect much valuable material for the philologist, as that area seems to
be a definite point of contact between a conquering and a conquered
race. Weare as yet only in the dawn of the ight which will be thrown
by philological research on the race problems of existing nations.

Turning to another branch of the enquiry we find that at the end
of the book are given “endless genealogies” —extracts from the “Burke
and Debrett”’ of Polynesia. Beside these lines of ancestry, those who
“came over with the Conqueror” are mushrooms indeed. Look at that
of Minirapa Tamahiwaki of the Chatham Islands, who proudly counts
180 generations of forefathers ; of Reha of the Uriwera tribe, with 135
ancestors ; of the Chiefs of Hawaii, and of the Kings of Rarotonga and
Raiatea. Were we have linguistic monuments of past ages equal in
interest to the dynasties of Egypt, and lights though dim, on the
childhood of the world,

Asa contribution to the general history of the Maori people the
book is of special value, and now that the author of the “ History of
the Maori” has passed to his rest, it is to be hoped that the Government
will see their way to place the remainder of the work of the late Mr.
John White in the hands of Mr. Tregear for publication. It is to be
desived however, that at some future time the volumes already issued of
that work will be re-edited, and the plates which at present disgrace
the work be replaced by some more suited to its character.

My. Tregear, and the public generally, are much indebted to the
publishers for the extremely creditable form in which the Maori
Comparative Dictionary is issued; considering the difficulties of the
work the errors and defects are trifling, and its publication marks an
era in the literary history of the colony.

Mr. Tregear’s patient labour of many years is thus launched on the
sea of literature, but before leaving the subject it will be as well to
direct the attention of all interested in Maori matters to a paper on

THE OBLIQUITY OF THE ECLIPTIC, 105

“The Maoris of New Zealand,” by Mr. Tregear, published in volume
XIX. of the “ Anthropological Institute of Great Britain, 1890.” The
paper has been written in reply to the code of “ Questions” published
in the “Journal of the Anthropological Institute,” volume XVIII. ;
and next to the essay by the Rev. W. Colenso, on the Maoris, published
in the first volume of the “Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,”

contains the fullest and best account of the Natives of these Islands.
Av? Hi

WHAT CAUSED THE OBLIQUITY OF THE
ECLIPTIC.

The following letter by T. A. Bereman, of Mt. Pleasant, Io.,
appeared in Science of 13th February. In view of the attention now
being given to the subject of Antarctic Exploration, it is interesting
and suggestive :—

“Tt is difficult to bring the mind to believe that there ever was a
time when there were no seasons,—spring, summer, autumn, and winter,
—as now. In attempting to account for natural phenomena, we have
nearly always assumed that the axis of the earth was originally inclined
to the plane of the ecliptic at an angle of 233°, as we now find it, and
of course we in consequence have formed in our minds the idea of the
annual recurrence of the seasons through all geological time ; but the
elimination of the seasons from the early history of the earth has been
forced upon us by the accumulation of facts from the geological record.
There is abundant evidence to prove the existence of tropical or sub-
tropical animals and plants in Arctic latitudes as late as the tertiary.
In Professor Dana’s “‘ Manual of Geology” (third edition, p. 352) that
author says, ‘If we draw any conclusion from the facts, it must be that
temperature of the Arctic zone differed little from that of Europe and
America. Through the whole hemisphere, and we may say world,
there was a genial atmosphere for one uniform type of vegetables, and
there were genial waters for corals and brachiopods.’ Scarcely any one
now, who is conversant with the facts, will deny that the early histcry
of the earth was marked with a uniform, or nearly uniform, temperature,
in all latitudes, prior to and including most of the tertiary. The main
difference of opinion existing now among scientific men is how to
account for such uniform, world climate.

“So of the glacial period. Every one admits that the great array
of facts justifies the conclusion that the poles of the earth were, since
the tertiary, covered with great ice caps or sheets several thousand feet
thick, and reaching down to the 40th parallel of latitude, constituting
the great glacial period. There is a wide divergence of opinion, how-
ever, as to the origin or cause of this glacial cold. Mr. Croll, in his
‘Climate and Time,’ has formulated a theory, derived from the secular
changes in the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, through which he finds

106 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

>

a place for the glacial period ; but this theory, if true, must provide for
alternation of warm and cold periods at the poles throughout all geo-
logical time. Professor James Geikie of Scotland, in his ‘Great Ice
Age,’ indorses this theory, and attempts to find evidences of former
glacial action, not only in the tertiary, but also in mesozoic and
paleozoic times. But the weight of the evidence seems to be against
this theory, and Mr. Geikie himself admits that that much of his
‘evidence’ is ‘not very convincing.’

“The best and most satisfactory explanation of the warm and cold
periods at the poles has been made by Professor C. B. Warring, in a
paper read by him before the New York Academy of Science, and pub-
lished in the Popular Science Monthly for July, 1886. This paper
merits a much more extended notice than it has apparently received, for
its author has very strongly fortified his several propositions. Briefly,
his argument is this: The existence of tropical vegetables in Arctic
latitudes cannot be supported upon the theory of a warm tempera-
ture only. Light was as necessary as heat; and this ight must also
have been uniform and unbroken by long periods of darkness, for if
there had been a long night of four months in every year, as now, it
would have been fatal to all plants, and even many or most of the
animals. Therefore, down to nearly the close of the tertiary, the axis
of the earth was perpendicular to the ecliptic, and the days and nights
were everywhere and always equal. The temperature was kept up by
means of the carbonic acid and aqueous vapor in the atmosphere, which
formed a sort of ‘double blanket,’ and served to retain the heat radiated
from the sun. After a long period the carbonic acid was most of it
taken up from the atmosphere to form our coal-beds, peat, petroleum,
graphite, ete. This process was followed by a thinning of the retaining
cover. The heat from the sun was not all retained, but was lost again
by escaping into stellar space. ‘Holes in the blanket’ appeared at the
poles, ice and snow began to accumulate there, and eventually the
glacial epoch was inaugurated. Furthermore, he shows, that, according
to the nebular hypothesis, the axes of the earth and moon ought to have
been, in their normal condition, parallel with each other, and both
perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic ; but instead, the earth’s axis
is inclined 231°, while the moon’s axis is practically perpendicular, it
being inclined only 1° 30’... The change, therefore, was with that of the
earth, and was effected since the moon’s separation from the earth. ‘In
view of all these facts,’ he says, ‘it seems most probable that in that
blank interval the glacial epoch, or more largely between the end of the
miocene and the beginning of the Champlain, that movement occurred
which gave the earth seasons, unequal days and nights, and greatly
enlarged its limits of inhabitability. . . . When the axis became
oblique, more solar heat fell within the polar circle, these regions became
warmer, and the glacial epoch departed. If these conditions—a perpen-
dicular axis and high uplifts—could be to-day restored, the atmosphere
remaining as it is, the glacial epoch would return.’

“Tt is the purpose of the present article to emphasise the reasons
for believing the direction of the earth’s axis was changed about the
time stated above, and also to suggest the probable cause of the change.
In order to do this more intelligently, we must take a more comprehen.

THE OBLIQUITY OF THE ECLIPTIC. 107

sive view of the glacial epoch and all its attendant phenomena than is
usually found in any one or many of the text-books, or papers, reports,
and lectures, upon the subject. Of all the geological changes and revo-
lutions in the earth, ont of which has been evolved the present world of
animal and plant life, the glacial epoch is certainly the most unique,
and full of interest to the scientific observer. What caused the glacial
cold has been the constant inquiry, but never answered, ever since it
was first proposed some forty or fifty years ago. Why should corals
live in security in Spitzbergen, and the red-woods of California and the
cypress-trees of the southern United States flourish in the north of
Greenland as late as tertiary times, where now are the almost constant
rigors of an Arctic winter? What caused the recession of the glaciers,
and why may we not have a recurrence of them? What influence, if
any, did the polar ice-caps exert upon the ocean-level and ocean-
currents? Were the ice-caps equal in magnitude; and if not, what
effects, if any, followed such inequality, from the attraction of the sun
and moon upon the mass of the earth, thus abnormally distributed ?
These questions and kindred ones must be considered before we are
prepared to comprehend the full significance and consequence of the
glacial epoch.

“Tt seems incredible that a great ice-cap, several thousand feet
thick, should accumulate, and remain throughout the summer, in the
temperate zones, if the ecliptic were as oblique in those times as now.
The sun on the 2Ist of June would be nearly perpendicular to the
southern limit of the glacier, and would certainly exert a powerful
influence in preventing its formation or accumulation south of the
northern limits of Minnesota. On the other hand, hower, if we place
the sun continuously perpendicular at the equator, the temperate zone
would be characterized by continual spring weather similar to that
occurring in April at the present time. In such case we may readily
conclude that the precipitations of snow might be greater than that
melted by the slanting rays of the vernal sun, and hence might continue
to increase, and form a glacier of ice.

“Tt appears that the polar ice-caps in glacial times extended as far
as the 30th parallel of latitude from either pole; in some places the
north glacier in the United States extended as far south as the 39th
and even to the 38th parallel ; and in South America Professor Agassiz
found evidences of glacial action as far north as the 37th parallel. Mz.
D. Forbes informed Mr. Darwin that he had seen ice-worn rocks and
scratched stones at about 12,000 feet height, between 13° and 30° south
Jatitude. There seems also some evidence of glacial action in the south-
east corner of Australia. In northern Asia, owing to the great extent
of land surface, it may be reasonably inferred that the southern limit of
the glacier was much beyond that in the United States. The mountain
ranges in both hemispheres doubtless were covered with a much greater
accumulation of snow and ice than they are at present, extending at
that time to within the tropics, and perhaps to the equator. But from
the whole record, we may safely assume 40° as the average limit of
each, the southern being the more widely extended of the two. There
are many evidences that these ice-sheets were not confined to the land,
but that they crossed gulfs, seas, and even oceans. Professor H. Carvill

108 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Lewis, in.a lecture published in the Journal of the Franklin Institute
for April, 1883, says, ‘It probably also filled the bed of the Atlantic
with ice far south of Greenland, the edge of the glacier reaching from
Newfoundland to southern Ireland in a concave line; and Professor
Geikie says the German Ocean was entirely filled with ice. Similar
evidence has been found as to the antarctic glacier. We have therefore
two magnificent circular polar ice-caps, each of them nearly 7,000 miles
in diameter, and the two covering about 61,000,000 square miles of the
earth’s surface, leaving a zone of 1on- glaciated surface at the equator of
abont 130,000,000 square miles; so that, at the cuimination of the
glacial epoch, nearly one-third of the earth’s surface was covered with
ice.

“Tf, now, we could ascertain the thickness of these great glaciers,
we could easily estimate the amount of the earth’s mass taken up in
the form of aqueous vapour, transferred to the polar areas, and there
deposited in the form of snow and ice. While admitting the incom-
pleteness of the record, the weight of the evidence at present is to the
effect that the antarctic glacier was much larger than the arctic. Upon
general reasoning, this ought to have been true ; for three-fourths of
the land surface of the earth are in the northern hemisphere, and the
amount of water suface in the southern and northern hemispheres res-
pectively is in the ratio of 85 to 60. In the southern hemisphere,
therefore, there ought to have been a greater amount of evaporation ;
and, in the absence of any known air-currents to carry this evaporation
to the north of the equator, there would necessarily be a greater amount
of precipitation in the southern hemisphere, and consequently a greater
accumulation of ice. That such was the fact in glacial times, seems to
be indicated by what is conceded to be an imperfect record. Professor
Dana, in his ‘Manual of Geology,’ estimates the thickness of the
northern glacier in America to have been 11,500 feet on the watershed
of Canada. Professor te Conte, in his ‘ Bloments of Geology,’ says,
‘The archean region of Canada seems to have been . . . covered
with a general ice mantle 3,000 to 6,000 feet thick? and Professor
James Geikie says the Scandinavian ice-sheet ‘could hardly have been
less than 6,000 or 7,000 feet thick.’ As Norway extends nearly to the
72nd parallel of north latitude, it is not probable that the northern
glacier exceeded two miles in thickness at its greatest height. Professor
Le Conte says, ‘Greenland is apparently entirely covered with an
immense sheet of ice, several thousand feet thick, which moves slowly
seaward, and enters the ocean through immense fiords. Judging from
the immense barrier of icebergs found by Capt. Wilkes on its coast, the
antarctic continent is probably even more thickly covered with ice than
Greenland.’ Sir James Clark Ross reports having sailed for several
hundred miles along a perpendicular wall of ice 180 to 200 feet high in
the antarctic continent, and found only one place where the top of the
ice could be seen from the mast-head of his ship; and Capts. Cook and
Wilkes both confirm the report of a large ice-sheet in that part of the
world. Professor Croll, in ‘Climate and Time,’ estimates from all the
data at hand, that the thickness of the southern ice-cap at its greatest
height is no less than twelve miles. It is not probable that the
antarctic glacier was much, if any, higher than this in glacial times; for
it will be readily understood, that, after the glaciation had proceeded so

THE OBLIQUITY OF THE ECLIPTIC. 109

far as to place the south pole in the midst of a vast ice-plain, the in-
coming clouds from the surrounding oceans would deposit most of their
moisture before reaching the centre, and the glacier would be built up
at or near its circumference. Hence we should expect to find the
glacier, instead of thinning gradually from twelve miles at the centre to
nothing at its outward edges, would present more the appearance of a
great section of a hollow sphere of nearly uniform thickness, laid over
the earth at the pole.

‘‘ Further confirmation of this view is found in the fact that the
southern hemisphere has a cooler mean annual temperature than the
northern. Mr. Croll says this is due to the constant transference of
heat to the north by means of ocean-currents, nearly all the great
currents originating south of the equator; while Sir Charles Lyell
thinks the true cause lies in the fact of the smaller extent of land
surface in the south. It is also true that from March 20 to Sept. 22—
the duration of the sun’s northern declination—there are 186 days,
while from the autumnal to the vernal equinox there are only 179
days: the northern summer is therefore seven days longer than the
southern summer, and the southern winter is that much longer than the
northern. If this inequality in the length of the summer and winter
in the two hemispheres had its origin during the glacial epoch, it would
at least have the effect of melting the ice in the north more rapidly
than in the southern hemisphere ; and if it existed before glacial times,
the effect would have been to accelerate the growth of the southern ice-
cap more rapidly than that of the northern.

“ At the culmination of the glacial epoch, therefore, we may assume
that the northern glacier was of an average thickness of | mile, and in
extent about 25,000,000 square miles, making 25,000,000 cubic miles
of ice: that the area covered by the southern glacier was about
30,000,000 square miles, and 5 miles of average thickness, making
150,000,000 cubic miles of ice ; and the two extending over more than
one-fourth of the earth’s surface, and aggregating 175,000,000 cubic
miles of ice. These two gigantic ‘fossils’ would be equal in siz> to
about one-thirtieth part of the bulk of the moon, and would represent
an amount of evaporation from the water surface of the earth sufficient
to lower the sea-level more than 5,000 feet, or about one inile.

“ Now, I submit that the attraction of the sun and moon upon this
mass of ice would, if continued for a long time, be suflicient to effect
some change in the direction of the earth’s axis. Just how much that
change would be, I have not determined ; but that there would be some
change seems to be evident from the bare statement of the proposition.
When we consider that this matter has been removed to the poles from
the equatorial regions, the inequality of distribution of the earth’s mass
would be greatly augmented. The action and re-action of the sun and
moon and the planets on the protuberant mass of matter about the
equator produce what is called ‘nutation,’ and the precession of the
equinoxes. Now, this mass being equally distributed around the earth
like a ring at the equator, only the nutation, or nodding, of the axis is
produced. But in case of the antarctic ice-cap the result of the attrac-
tion would be somewh it different ; for, this beinz largely at one side o-

I1O JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

at the pole, and the mean attraction of the moon being in the plane of
the ccliptic, its tendency would be to draw the mass towards the ecliptic
—so far, at least, until an equilibrium should be found.

“That the relative magnitudes of tiie two polar ice-sheets should
always remain the same, would hardly be presumed. ‘The sinking of
the ice to the bottom of the Northern Atlantic would necessarily cut off
the Gulf Stream, and prevent its further progress northward, if it
existed in preglacial times. Even if the ice extended only a few
hundred feet below the surface, it would materially interfere with that
current, since it is a broad shallow stream, flowing upon the top of the
ocean. Similar conditions in the southern ocean might have aided the
causes already named in effecting a change or changes in the relative
sizes of the two great glaciers. During such changes, therefore, if any
existed, oscillations of the earth’s axis may have occurred before it
became fixed as at present. We should therefore expect to find pauses
in the recession, and perhaps a re-advance, of the northern glacier ; and
such we do actually find from an examination of the great Kettle
Moraine in the northern United States, and of the reindeer epoch in
Europe.

“As already stated, the ocean-level would be very materially
lowered. Thus we can account, in part at least, for the land elevations
in high latitudes, to which all geologists resort for a partial explanation
of glacial phenomena. True, this lowering of the level would be co-
extensive with the entire ocean surface ; and the old shore-lines would
be founa, if discovered at all, below the present water-level. But, as
Professor Dana says, ‘elevations of land do not leave accessible records
like subsidences.’ One of the strongest evidences of land elevation is
the existence of numerous extensive fiords, which Professor Dana says
are ‘valleys of erosion,’ and which Professor Le Conte calls ‘ half-sub-
merged glacial valleys.’ But, as the ice did not exist at sea-level in low
latitudes, these fiords are not found there as fossil remains to mark the
degree of elevation. But we know that England was united to the
continent of Europe by dry land, that the Mediterranean sea was an
interlocked fresh-water lake, that the delta of the Mississippi was at
least 400 feet higher than it is at present, and that many of the islands
of the Pacific Ocean were at a higher level. Professor Winchell, in his
‘Pre-Adamites,’ says that probably the now sunken continent of
Lemuria, in the Indian Ocean, was dry land during the glacial period,
as were also some of the Malay Islands and others. Professor Le Conte
says, ‘The boldness of the whole Pacific coast, especially in high lati-
tudes, indicates a previous more elevated condition of the land surface
[during the quaternary] than now exists ; and Mr. Darwin thinks that

‘at this period of extreme cold the climate under the equator at the
level of the sea was about the same with that now felt there at the
height of six or seven thousand feet.’

“ Moreover, if this inequality in the amount of the accumulation
at the two poles existed as intimated, it would be sufficient to remove
the centre of gravity of the earth a little to the southward of its former
position. This would be followed by a greater flow of water from the
north polar regions ; and here we would have another cause of land
elevation in high northern latitudes, since lowering the water is equiva-

THE OBLIQUITY OF THE ECLIPTIC. III

lent to an clevation of the land. While there may have been local
elevations and subsidences of the land surface in high latitudes during
the glacial and Champlain periods, there seems to be strong reason for
believing that the growth and decay of the two great ice-barriers added
materially to such changes of level by alternately lowering and elevating
the general ocean surface. This lowering of the sea-level might be
taken into account in considering the question of the geographical
distribution of plants and animals ; but it is not my design to pursue
that branch of the subject here.

“The suggestion here made that the large accumulation of the
earth’s mass at the south pole was one of the contributive causes of the
change in the direction of the earth’s axis, is but a corollary to Dr.
Warring’s statement, that ‘between the end of the miocene and the
beginning of the Champlain, that movement occurred which gave the
earth seasons, unequal days and nights, and greatly enlarged its limits
of inhabitability.’ ”

SCIENTIFIC METALLURGY AND MINING.

The inaugural address of the present session of the Otago Univer-
sity was delivered by Mr. David Wilkinson, Fellow of the Royal School
of Mines, who is the newly appointed lecturer on Metallurgy. We
reproduce the conclusion of Mr. Wilkinson’s address, which dealt with
the importance of scientific metallurgy and mining from a commercial
as well as an educational point of view.

“ We are now arriving at the conclusion that the training of the
workshop and of the mine, however valuable, can each be advantageously
supplemented by the training to be obtained in the laboratory and the
lecture room. It is noticeable here how extremely utilitarian we ave
becoming. We are not now entirely satisfied with the elegance, suavity
and refinement that is undoubtedly imparted by contact with the
classical authors. The slow, easy-going times of the beginning of this
century have passed away in the eternal competition of nations and of
individuals. We can no longer afford to let those chances of advance-
ment slip which have been so readily taken advantage of by other
people. Thus we arrive at the Englishman’s unfailing query, do the
benefits to be derived from the training you speak of more than
counterbalance the expenditure of money and energy required for this
purpose! The advantage to the individual at anyrate is unquestionable.
To confine ourselves again to illustrations from the mining world.
How often has it been pointed out that the tendency of the purely
practical man is to suppose that the methods he has learnt in his
particular district are applicab'e to all conditions. I may say, without
fear of contradiction, that the man who knows his work, by the training
of his hands and the education of his mind, must possess greater
adaptability than the man who works only by rule of thumb. His

Tusa JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

education has been ebtained in a small school, and unless he possesses
rare intelligence his knowledge will be correspondingly narrow. It
would not be difficult to give you many examples of this from that
most conservative of English counties—Cornwall. From the younger
miners there one hears continually the observation: We are 20 years
behind the Americans in mining methods. Yet the Cornish miner, as
an individual, is not surpassed by any other miner in the world. One
could not point to better examples for illustrating this than those which
can be seen or read of in the United States. Disregarding these,
however, for the moment, I should like to give you two examples
which are now historical. For the appreciation of our first example it
is necessary to understand how gold occurs in the lodes from which it
can be economically extracted. Gold may be said to occur in two
conditions-—first, as a native metal; and, second, in intimate com-
bination with other metallic compounds. When found native, gold
readily alloys with mercury, forming an amalgam. Advantage is taken
of this fact in the ordinary separation of gold from its veinstuff. In
this case mercury is used as a collecting agent, as owing to its affinity
for gold it readily absorbs any fine particles which are brought into
contact with it. When sufficiently saturated, the mercury with the
alloyed gold is collected, placed in a retort and heated. By this
treatment the mercury is distilled from the gold and can be used again
for the same. purpose. Thus its extraction is comparatively simple.
The only important question being how much there is of it. But when .
gold occurs in combination with metallic compounds like ordinary
mundic, it will not readily alloy itself with mercury, and the ordinary
treatment fails to extract it. The cause of this failure does not seem to
have been fully recognised until one of those patient and ingenious
men, known as German professors, not only saw the reason of this
difficulty, but completely surmounted it. The substance in which gold
is most generally found in this obstreperous condition is a compound of
iron and sulphur. Now, Plattner reasoned thus: Hither the gold is in
some form of chemical combination with the sulphur of the pyrites, or
it occurs as plates of almost infinitesimal thickness between the
crystalline plates of the mineral. In other words, it is occladed by the
mineral. Whatever the condition may be, the crystalline character of
the mundic will be destroyed by roasting it, and so the gold will be
liberated. Then possibly one may be able to extract the gold with
mercury. But here a new difficulty is found. By roasting this
mundic, an oxide of iron is formed, and it is found that this iron oxide
has a deleterious effect on the mercury. In gold-mining phraseology, it
“sickens” it. Thus it was necessary to tack about for a new method,
and finally he hit upon the plan of treating this refractory gold with —
chlorine and then dissolving the chlorinated gold in water. By these
means Plattner first solved the economical extraction of ore from
pyrites. His plan has been largely adopted in America and Australia,
and is now the source of considerable profit to gold mining companies.
The Mount Morgan ore is, I believe, entirely treated by this process.
May I ask your attention while I give you another example of this
adaptability, one that has exerted a tremendous influence upon a still
more important industry. At the British Association meeting in 1865,
Sir A. Bessemer announced, amid considerable surprise and conster-

SCIENTIFIC METALLURGY AND MINING. 113

nation, the fact that he had discovered a new method of producing steel
direct from pig iron. The general practice to produce steel at this time
was first by converting pig iron into wrought iron, and then by a slow
and expensive process to change wrought iron into steel. This was a
very circuitous way of ultimately making steel, for steel, speaking
roughly, is intermediate in comparison with pig iron on the one hand
and wrought iron on the other. The old process is something analagous
to the action of the man who wishes to travel from Dunedin to Welling-
ton, and who, to faciltate matters, goes first to Auckland. Bessemer saw
this very clearly, and not only this, but the fact that steel could not be
applied to many ordinary purposes unless some other process were
invented. To convert pig into wrought iron a puddling furnace is
used. In this furnace the iron is melted and exposed for a considerable
time to the oxygen of the atmosphere and to the influence of a special
furnace lining composed of oxide of iron, by this means the various
impurities in the iron are burnt out. In this process considerable fuel
is used to keep the iron in a molten state. With characteristic boldness
Bessemer said in effect, why should not the heat given out in burning
these impurities be used for keeping the iron in a molten state. If
instead of passing the air over the surface of the metal, it could be

urged through the metal so that the oxygen could come Gnto contact
with every ‘particle almost simultaneously, then the process that now
requires considerable labour and time could be completed much more
efficaciously in a few minutes and with very little labour. For boldness
of conception such a suggestion has perhaps never been equalled in the
metallurgical art. The - thought of urging air through tons of mo!ten
irom was rash enough to frighten the most courageous of iron smelters.
How will the iron be kept molten, how will you prevent the burning of
the iron and its consequent utter deterioration! Bessemer heeded not
these gloomy forebodings, but for 15 years worked at his great
invention, and ultimately overcame those enormous mechanical diffi-
culties which beset every proposed change in the treatment of large
masses of metal, and particularly so, when that metal has a high
melting point. The effects of this invention upon the steel industry
were simply marvellous. Steel at this time was selling at more than
£50 per ton, and could only be obtained in small qu: antities. The price
has since fallen to £10 per ton, and the increase in its use is most
extraordinary. There is perhaps no article of commerce the use of
which has increased so rapidly. Ii is said that at the time of this
invention, 51,000 tons of steel were produced annually in Sheffield.
Now the production has to be estimated by millions of tons. Steel is
thus rapidly replacing cast and wrought iron for all conditions where
strength and homogeneity are required. It would require a considerable
length of time to enumerate the many ways in which this invention has
benefited the engineering profession. How it has given to them greater
possibilities, and a much wider field for their ingenuity I will merely
mention one that you are all familar with. The Forth bridge may,
perhaps be regarded as one of the finest structures erected during this
century, and one of which Scotland may justly be proud. I am not
overstepping the mark, indeed, I am only repeating the words of a
great authority on this subject, when I say that it could never have
been built if the inventions of Bessemer, and of his equally famous

114 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

contemporary Sir C. W. Siemens, had not been accomplished facts.
Indeed, it would be extremely difficult to exaggerate the influence
that these inventions have had upon the progress of mankind. It was
not many years after Bessemer had perfected his invention that Dr.
Perey pointed out the fact that in the Bessemer process, as then
practised, one objectionable ingredient was not eliminated. This was
phosphorus, and its presence in steel caused the metal to be brittle, and,
for some purposes, totally untrustworthy. Dr. Percy’s warning was for
some time disregarded, until ‘true as steel’ became a phrase of no
meaning, if certain kinds of metal were included in this category. Thus
there appeared to be no possibility of applying this extraordinary process
to the pig iron produced from the cheapest and most abundant ores
—hbecause they contained too much phosphorus. This process that had
so revolutionised the steel industry appeared to be strictly limited in its
application. It was no doubt with considerable pride that the late Dr.
Percy could in his later years point to the fact that this difficulty had
been completely solved by three of his own pupils. The solution of
this problem is without doubt one of the strongest evidences of the
value of scientific education. The cause of the retention of the
phosphorus was carefully traced. Experiments were tried time after
time to discover a method of getting rid of this element without
damaging the metal; and at last, after months of patient toil a process
was discovered and placed upon a working basis. Without the
assistance of the analytical chemist progress in this direction would
have been hopeless. The exact relation between the method of
producing the steel, its composition, and its resulting physical
properties, can only be traced by most accurate analyses. This
statement is also true of all metallurgical industries. Unless the
battery manager can accurately determine the average value of his
ore and also of his tailings, how can he possibly estimate the success of
his work or the direction in which the waste of gold is taking place.
If again, the lead smelter is unable to estimate the silver amd lead in
his slag or by analysis to gauge the fusibility of the extraneous
material he wishes to flux, how will he be sure that he is not allowing
the precious metal to run to waste, or that he is not in great danger of
having his furnace choked. I believe we should not have to travel far
to find instances of this kind. The same statements are also true of the
more speculative and uncertain mining industry. If to an always risky
industry like that of mining there are added the mistakes due to careless
ov inefficient workmanship, or the misleading statements of professional
speculators, 1s it any wonder that this otherwise interesting and lucrative
profession ofttimes shows unmistakable symptoms of decay. By endea-
vouring to raise the standard of intelligence in this special direction, we
are only attempting what we have successfully achieved in medicine, in
literature, and in many other branches of art and science. It is inte-
resting and encouraging to know that we are rot alone in this respect.
Passing through the United States one is astonished at the extraordinary
vigour of this movement. Boston can boast the finest institute of
technology in the world. New York State, Pennsylvania, Michigan,
Colorado, California, and many other States are well equipped, not only
with universities, but also with technical colleges, and mining with its
attendant sciences is, without doubt, the most important branch of

SCIENTIFIC METALLURGY AND MINING. [15

technology taught in these institutions. In crossing the States I had
the privilege of visiting two of these schools. The first was the one
joined to Columbia College, New York city, and the second was the
University of California. It is noticeable that in the formation of our
curriculum, except in one or two particulars, we have consciously or
unconsciously copied these two most prominent of American colleges.
At Columbia College no student, unless he is a graduate, is allowed to
dabble with the separate subjects. He is compelled to pass through a
systematic course of study extending over four years, this rule being
ostensibly framed for the purpose of making the education as trust-
worthy and as complete as possible. Perhaps the most noticeable fact
in the Californian School of Mines is the thorough equipment of the
laboratories. Here one can see a gold extraction plant, second perhaps
to none in the States for efficiency in the working of small parcels of
ore. With this machinery at his command the student can make
himself familiar with the peculiarities of the ores from different
counties, and with the difficulties met with in the winning of the
precious metal from them. Let us here observe that many of these
instiutions are State paid. So much fer America. Turning now to
the old world we find that notwithstanding the proverbial slowness of
our countrymen in the adoption of new methods, there has been for 40
years a Royal School of Mines in London. Some of the most eminent
British geologists, metallurgists, chemists, and mining engineers have
passed through this school. To-day there are nearly 300 individual
students on the books. I say individual advisedly, for, owing to the
great demand for admission, a doubling of the laboratory accomodation
is contemplated. But though there are so many in attendance at this
place, it is worth our while to notice that there is an average of only 26
turned out each year from the mining and metallurgical branches. It
is noteworthy also that in this instance the school is supported by the
State, although every reasonable effort is made to render it self
supporting. In Cornwall, also, a school of mines was established a few
years ago, and bids fair to occupy a high position in this pluckiest of
mining countries. In France there is the Ecole des Mines, and in
Germany there are more of these academies than in any other country
in Europe. To Germany doubtless belongs the credit of having first
recognised the importance of technical training; and both Englishmen
and Americans have largely availed themselves of the superior training
to be obtained at such places as Wiesbaden, Heidelberg, Clausthal, and
Freiberg. It would indeed be strange if in a continent Jike Australia,
possessing such vast stores of mineral wealth and so many vigorous
sons to gather it, it would indeed be strange if a movement of a similar
nature had not been successfully advocated. But it is not so. New
South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia have all established schools
of mines, and to us also, belongs the credit of recognising the
importance of this innovation on our old educational establishments.
Perhaps it would not be out of place if I were to give a_ brief
account of what we have done and what we wish to do in the future.
In accordance with the practice of the most notable institutions, the
mining student is first educated in those fundamental sciences, without
a knowledge of which no man can hope to study any subject in a
scientific manner. These are mathematics, physics, chemistry, and

116 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

mechanics. They must always form the basis of a truly scientific

education, and there is much wisdom in insisting upon the study of
them. Then, as subjects more especially adapted to their work, we
have the courses of geology, mineralogy, applied mechanics, mining
geology, mining and metallurgy; and as practical work there are the
courses of mine surveying, practical mineralogy, including petrography
and blowpipe analysis, and also assaying. Thus you see the training is
intended to be sufficiently broad and comprehensive. In thus making
so many subjects compulsory we are only following the advice of the
most eminent educational authorities, which is: ‘Do not specialise too
soon, for each man has a faculty for some separate branch, and he will
ultimately be attracted strongly, and will probably devote himself
almost entirely to this branch. If he does this too early in life, he will
feel the need of a broad or liberal education before he has advanced
very far; for the sciences are so intertwined that it is impossible to
study one for any length of time without requiring the knowledge of
half a dozen more.’ There is just one more remark to make upon this
subject. The opinion of most men who have been connected for years
with large scientific institutions is, that there is nothing so stimulating
to an advanced student as the struggle for the elucidation of some
problem. In this kind of work his power of applying the principles of
the sciences he has learned, and his manipulative abilities are tested
ofttimes to their utmost, and it is in this kind of work that he discovers,

so to speak, his grit. Hence, though we are at the beginning, really;

only of our work, yet we may hope in the not distant future to
approach and to cyercome those problems of mining and metallurgical
interest which are always to be found in a comparatively young country
like New Zealand. . .. . . . . The thorough investigation
as to the acquisition of its miner al wealth is to the State as a whole of
paramount importance. Excuse me for again referring to the United
States, L do so because I know of no better “example. The rapid growth
of the States in population and wealth isa fact patent to all. Now,
however much we may be opposed to a rapid increase in population,
and particularly of an increase due to the mixture of such heterogeneous
people as those ot the States, yet we are by no means averse to a similar
increase of wealth. It would not be difficult to prove that this
unparalleled development is largely due to the opening up of vast
mineral resources. Thus the production of the valuable fuels and
metals has increased at a rate unprecedented in the history of mankind.

The output of coal for example in the year 1860 was 15,000,000 tons,

but the output in 1889 was 132,500,000 tons. In the year 1852 the
output of copper was only 1,000 tons, in 1890 it was 121,560 tons, or
half that of the total output of the world. The production of gold even
now is almost equal to that of the whole of Australasia. But the
increase in the production of iron is, perhaps, the most marvellous of
all, for while in 1852 only 541,990 tons of pig iron were made, in 1890

the output reached the gigantic total of 10,250,000. For many years

it has beaten all other countries in the production of silver, and last

year the enormous total of 4,167,0001b troy was obtained. We can

form no proper estimate of this stupendous quantity. Just as this

acquisition of wealth from the working of mineral deposits has been the

greatest factor in the growth of the States, so also it was this which

SCIENTIFIC METALLURGY AND MINING. gle 7,

caused the rapid colonisation of New South Wales, of Victoria, and of
New Zealand. Since those early and successful efforts to work the gold
deposits of this country there has been a long lull in this industry, and
we hope that we are now at the nadir of our decrease. It seems to me
that when the improvement does come, it will be in the form, either of
the discovery of lodes other than in our gold reefs, or beds other than
those of coal, or, as is perhaps more likely, of the successful working of
our present low grade ores. It has been stated that the greatest
wealth, mineralogically speaking, of a country is to be found in her
poorest ores, and though at first sight this may seem a paradox, expe-
rience has proved it to be true. In conclusion, let us notice that tie
success of our educational institutions does not rest entirely with the
staff, or even with the students. Unless we have the sympathy of an
enlightened public opinion we shall be hampered in our endeavours.
We expect, we claim this sympathy, and [believe that in this also, we
shall not be disappointed.”

AN EXPERIMENT CONCERNING THE ABSENCE
OF COLOUR FROM THE LOWER SIDES
OF FLAT FISHES.

BY J. T. CUNNINGHAM, M.A., Naturalist to the Marine Biological Association.
“* Zoologischer Anzeiger,” 18th January, 1891, No. 354, p. 27.

>

One of the most interesting questions which biological research has
still to decide is whether adaptations in organisms are due to the natural
selection of indefinite variations or to the definite influence of the
conditions of life. One school of evolutionists, that of which Weismann
is one of the most eminent leaders, maintains that every character in
animals is an adaptation and every adaptation is sutlciently explained
by indefinite variation and natural selection. Another school believes
that many things are not adaptations and that those characters which
are adapted are due to the definite influence of conditions. The former
school would I suppose maintain that the whiteness of the lower sides
of flat-fishes was an adaptation, and was due to selection. What is the
especial advantage of this character to flat fishes I am unable to perceive.
But it seems to me more probable that it is due in some way to the fact
that little or no light can fall on the lower sides of these fishes, because
these sides are generally in contact with the ground.

The following experiment seems to me to support very strongly the
latter views; it was carried out in the Plymouth Laboratory of the
Marine Biological Association.

At the beginning of last May I received from Mevagissey in Corn-
wall a large number of young flounders (Plewronectes flesus) in process
of metamorphosis. They were very transparent and measured 11.5 to
12.7 mm in length. Ina few the metamorphosis was almost complete
the left eye having reached the edge of the head but in the majority the
left eye though it had commenced its “migration” was still on the lower
side. The little fish had already developed the habit of lying on the

118 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

bottom on the left side. Nearly all the pigment, ze. the chromato-
phores had disappeared from the lower side, where only a few scattered
black and yellow cells remained: on the upper side the pigmentation
was considerable, but not so fully developed as in the adult.

On May 8th I took about 15 or 16 of these small flounders and
placed them in a glass vessel without sand. This vessel I placed on a
plate of glass supported at the ends by two supports. Beneath the glass
plate I arranged a mirror about 15 inches by 12, sloping it at an angle
of 45°. The top and sides of the vessel containing the fish were covered
with opaque material, and through the cover were passed a jet deliver-
ing water and an outflow pipe connected with an overflowing bottle a
little distance off, so that a constant circulation of sea water was main-
tained in the vessel while the level of the water in it remained constant.
The whole apparatus was placed in front of a south win low from which
the light fell on the mirror and was reflected vertically upwards on to
the bottom of the vessel containing the fish: as the fish were usually
resting on this bottom their lower sides were illuminated while their
upper sides were kept in the dark.

At the same time I kepta large number of the same young flounders
living under ordinary conditions in table-tanks at the bottom of which
was a layer of fine sand.

I fed these young flounders first with minute crustacea sifted out
from weeds gathered on the shore, and afterwards with minced worm,
and they all throve well and grew rapidly.

On June 21st I took out one of the specimens from the mirror-
apparatus and examined it. It was 2.7 cminlength. Another specimen
taken from an ordinary tank for comparison was 2.6 cm long. The
difference between the lower sides of these two was as follows: In the
mirror-specimen there was an opaque white layer all over the wall of
the abdominal cavity, the rest of the skin being translucent. In the
normal specimen this coating was confined to the edges of the same
area. There were a few scattered black chromatophores on the lower
side of the head in each specimen, but rather more in the mirror specimen
than in the other.

It is evident that these differences are not very important, and I
think it is reasonable to conclude that at this time, one month anda
half after the commencement of the experiment, the lower sides of the
mirror-specimens had become, by inherited tendency, as destitute of
pigment as those of the specimens under the ordinary conditions.

But two months afterwards namely on August 27th all the founders
in the mirror apparatus diel. The cause of death was this. After my
return from Norway on August 13th [ noticed that the fish in the
apparatus very frequently clung to the sides of the vessel instead of
lying on the bottom, and as the sides were darkened, while they were
in this position their upper sides only were exposed to the light from
the mirror. In order to prevent this I introduced a horizontal partition
of network so as to keep the fish on the bottom of the vessel; but the
netting soon got obstructed with remains of the food, and the water
below the partition was thus cut off from the circulation so that the
fish were asphyxiated.

AN EXPERIMENT. T1I9

The following are the notes I made from my examination of the
fish immediately after their death :—

1. 3.2 cm in length: black and yellow chromatophores on the
lower surface of the longitudinal fins and in a broad band on cach side
of the lower surface of the body ; also on the edges of the lower side of
the head.

2. 3.7 cm in length. Normal pigment all over the same band at
the edges of the body on the lower side: also in the angle behind the
operculum and on the lower pectoral.

3. 3.2 cm in length. Pigmentation on the lower sides as in 1 and
2 but not quite so much of it.

4, 6.3 cm in length. A small patch of chromatophores both black
and yellow in the area covered by the lower pectoral, and extending
beyond that area.

5. 4.2 cm in length. Little pigment on the low:r side; a little on
the pectoral, on the edges of the head, and near the ventral edge behind
the operculum.

6. 5.7 cm in length. Pigment on the rays of the lower pectoral,
and on the dorsal edge of the hea (.

7. 5.3 cm in length. Pigment on lower side of head near edges ;
on lower branchiostegal membrane a good deal.

&, 4.3 em in length. Scattered black chromatophores behind body
cavity.

9. 5.8 cm in length. A few black chromatophores near dorsal
edge of lower side of the head.

10. 5.5 cm in length. A few scattered black chromatophores over
the lower side, especially behind the body cavity on the ventral half.

11. 5.3 cm in length. No pigment on lower side except on lower
surtace of the tail.

12. 5.8 cm in length. No pigment on lower side.
13. 3.3 cm in length. No pigment on the under side.

At the same time I examined 4 of the specimens which had been
kept during the same time on a sandy bettom in the aquarium and
found no pigment on the lower sides of either. I have also frequently
had occasion to examine other of these specimens of the young flounders
of the same age kept in the tanks since last May, and have never seen
apy pigment on the lower sides of any.

To show the significance of this experiment it must be mentioned
that the colours of flat-fishes always’ depend on three and only three
kinds of cellular elements, namely the black chromatophores, yellow or
orange-yellow chromatophores, both of which are capable of expansion
and contraction, and thirdly the iridocytes which are strongly reflecting
and white or slightly iridescent, and which are fixed in shape and size.
The iridocytes are alone present on the lower sides of normal flat-fishes,
and give them their opaque white appearance.

Of the above 13 specimens whose lower sides had been exposed to
light for less than 4 months only three had failed to devolope black and

120 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

yellow chromatophores in the skin of those sides. Three showed very
well developed bands of pigment quite similar to that of the upper side
over the area occupied by the muscles of the longitudinal fins. The
other 7 specimens possessed a less quantity of pigment on the lower it
is true, but chromatophores were present in one part or another where
they are not present in the specimens living in the ordinary way on sand.

The question of course arises, how are these pigment cells developed,
by migration from the upper side? from wandering lymphatic cells? or
from unpigmented cells already present in the same position before?
These questions I cannot at present answer, but am now endeavouring
to find replies to them. I think the third suggestion the most probable.
The chromatophores in flat-fishes are situated in the derma between the
surface of the scales and the epidermis.

Of course I am well aware that specimens of flounders and other
flat-fishes are occasionally taken from the sea in which both sides are
coloured, or in which there are coloured spots on the lower side. But I
scarcely think any one will maintain that the condition of the specimens
in my experiment can be supposed to be a case of accidental variation,
On the other hand it is always possible that abnormal pigmentation on
the lower sides of free-living specimens is due to peculiarities of
environment or habit.

I have other experiments in progress which I hope will further
elucidate the relation of the pigmentation of the flat-fishes to the action
of light. For the present I will conclude with a brief summary of what
previous writers have said as to the causes of the absence of chromato-
phores from the lower side. Prof. Alexander Agassiz in his paper on
the “Development of the Flounders” * published in 1878, says that the
attempt which he made of placing the glass dish containing young flat-
fishes at a height over a table, and thus allowing the light to come from
below as well as from all other sides, failed in arresting the transfer of
the eye, and also produced no effect in retaining the pigment spots of
the blind side longer than in specimens struck by the light only
normally from above. Prof. Agassiz in the first place did not use a
mirror, and in the second place he evidently expected that the effect if
any would be to arrest the metamorphosis. The idea on which I found
my experiments is that the inherited tendency will cause the metamor-
phosis to take place even when the conditions are reversed, but that when
the reversed conditions are kept up long enough a new metamorphosis
will be induced in the opposite direction to the first.

Prof. Agassiz refers in the same paper to Pouchet’s researches on
chromatophorest saying that they point most plainly to the partial
atrophy of the great sympathetic nerve, effected during the passage of
the cye from the right to the left or vice versa, as the cause of the
absence of chromatophores from the lower sides of flat-fishes. I have
read Pouchet’s paper referred to below, and can find no mention what-
ever of any suggested cause of the absence of colour ou the lower sides
of flat-fishes. Pouchet found that section of the great sympathetic put
an end to the changes of colour under the influence of light, but he

* Proceedings Amer. Acad. Arts and Sc. Vol. XIV.
+ G. Pouchet, Des Changements de Coloration sous l’Influence des Nerfs. Arch.
de Physiol. et d’Anat. 1876.

MARRIAGE AMONG DEAF-MUTES, T21

distinctly says that it made no difference whether the left or the right
eye was extirpated in the turbot. In either case the changes of colour
went on as before when the fish was changed from one bottom to
another, but when both eyes were extirpated the changes ceased.

Finally I must refer to the remarks of Prof. Semper in his “Animal
Life” * who says that the absence of colour in animals is certainly not
to be ascribed to the absence of light, since we know that animal pigment
like vegetable pigment can be dev eloped i in total darkness, and in fact is
so dey eloped normally in many animals.

MARRIAGE AMONG DEAF-MUTES.

An Address delivered by . ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, on March 6th, 1891.
(‘‘Science,” Vol. XVII., p. 160).

a

It always gives me pleasure to respond to the invitation of the
members of the Literary Society of Kendall Green, and it will always
be my object in addressing you to choose subjects that will be of
interest and importance to you in your future lives. You have come
together here from every part of the United States to receive in the
National College for Deaf-Mutes that higher education which you
cannot obtain in the States from which you came.

Tn a very little while—it may be in one year, or two years, or
more—you will separate from one another, and each go back singly to
the places from which you came, to begin the battle of life. You will
go out into the great world,—the world of hearing and speaking
people, a world of people who cannot spell upon their fingers or make
signs. Are you prepared for that change, and what is to be your
position in that world?

I would have you all remember that you yourselves are a part of
that great world of hearing and speaking people. You are not a
race distinct and apart, and you must fulfil the duties of life, and
make your way to honourable positions among hearing and speaking
people.

Now, I have considered what subject I could bring to your
attention tonight the consideration of which would be of assistance
to you when you go out into the world; and there is no subject, I am
sure, that lies closer to your hearts than the subject of marriage.

It is avery difficult thing for me to speak to you upon that
subject, because ] know that an idea has gone forth, and is very
generally believed in by the deaf of this country, that I want to
prevent you from marrying as you choose, and that I have tried to
pass a law to interfere ‘with your marriages. But, my friends, it is
not true. I have never done such a thing, nor doI intend to; and
before I speak upon this subject I want you distinctly to understand
that I have no intention of interfering with your liberty of marriage.

* Natural conditions of Existence as they affect Animal Life, 2nd ecit., p. 90.

122 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

You can marry whom you choose, and I hope you will be happy. It
is not for me to blame you for marrying to suit yourselves; for you
all know that I myself, the son of a deaf mother, have married a deaf
wife.

I think, however, that it is the duty of every good man and
every good woman to remember that children follow marriage, and I
am sure that there is no one among the deaf who desires to have his
affliction handed down to his children. You all know that I have
devoted considerable study and thought to the subject of the inheri-
tance of deafness, and if you will put away prejudice out of your
minds, and take up my researches relating to the deaf, you will find
something that may be of value to you all.

We all know that some of the deaf have deaf children,—not all,
not even the majority, but some,—a comparatively small number. In
the vast majority of cases there are no deaf offspring, but in the
remaining cases the proportion of offspring born deaf is very large,—
so large as to cause alarm to thoughtful minds. Will it not be of
interest and importance to you to find out why these few have deaf
offspring. It may not be of much importance to you to inquire
whether by and by, ina hundred years or so, we may have a deaf
variety of the human race. That is a matter of great interest to
scientific men, but not of special value to you. What you want to
know, and what you are interested in, is this: are you yourself liable
to have deaf offspring? Now, one value that you will find in my
researches is this: that you can gain information that may assure
you that you may increase your liability to have deaf offspring or
diminish it, according to the way in which you marry.

The Rev. W. W. Turner of Hartford was the first, I think, who
showed that those who are born deaf have a greater liability to have
deaf offspring than those who are not. He showed, that where a
person born deaf marries another person born deaf, in this case about
one-third of the children are deaf. Mr. Job Williams, the present
principal of the Hartford Institution, has still more recently examined
the subject; and, in a letter published in Science a short time ago, he
arrives at the same conclusion,—about one-third are born deaf. In
1888, Mr. Connor, the principal of the Georgia Institution, made an
examination of the results of the marriages of his pupils, and his
statistics are published in “ Facts and Opinions relating to the Deaf.”
He also comes to the same conclusion,—about one-third are born
deaf.

The following table will show you the exact figures :—

Tasie I.—Concerning the Offspring of Couples Both of Whom were
J Mispring of Cou
born Deaf.

|
i]
|
|

|

|

|

|

|

|
|

= Fi rr ws. Go OF o a wt =
j ow Ore. \[MAPO Giae a0. O,- |Om Sx
282 | 32 | SeS | SES8 |sgeas
; De Bical § Boa |pesae
Authority. Sad B20 age gO 7s (8a8 ra
Bea Aes 5 = 2 Soja aeHOD
era aS Bo CH PH |S ODES
Kee ais ZO} A oO | mes? 140° oF
PASS oeaNEN Ac earns) | i \tlee
Turner (1868) ... sa 24 57 7 29'S 70°8 >
Connor (1888) ... rb 16 59 19 32°4 118°7
Williams (1891) na 2 151 48 31°8 92°3

MARRIAGE AMONG DEAF-MUTES. 123

It is obvious that persons born deaf run considerable risk of
having deaf offspring if they marry persons who are also born deaf.

If we take all the marriages of congenitally deaf persons, without
reference to whether they married deaf or hearing persons, we have
five independent sets of statistics from which we may derive infor-
mation regarding the effects upon the offspring. (1) My own
researches indicate that where one or both of the parties were born
deaf there will be fifteen deaf children in every hundred families ;
Dr. Gillett’s statistics give cighteen deaf children to every hundred
families; (3) Dr. Turner’s, thirty-two; (4) Mr. Williams’s, forty-
seven; and (5) Mr. Connovr’s, ninety-five.

Taste Il.—Concerning the Offspring of Couples One or Both of Whom
were born Deaf.

| a elena 20, 2

|e hci eR AED SCN:

pS eae | BOC a] oO o

; hos nciccent BOot |for spa

| I a, i.e) 2 FQ Oy
Turner (1868) ... ie | 190 | 61 32-1
Bell (1883) tes ae ea 360 | 56 15°5
Connor (1888) ... ee || 22 | 21 74
Gillett (1891) ... bs HE 71 13 18°3
Williams (1891) ay 22, 211 101 | 47°8

Persons who are reported deaf from birth, as a class, exhibit
a tendency to transmit the defect; and yet when we come to
individual cases we cannot decide with absolute certainty that any
one was born deat. Some who are reported deaf from birth probably
lost hearing in infancy; others reported deaf in infancy were probably
born deaf. For educational purposes the distinction may be im-
material, but in the study of inheritance it makes all the difference
in the world whether the deafness occurred before or after birth.
Now, in my researches I think I have found a surer and more safe
guide to those cases that are liable to transmit the defect.

The new guide that I would give you is this: look at the family
rather than at the individual. You will find in certain families that
one child is deaf and all the rest hearing, the ancestors and other
relatives also being free from deafness. This is what is known as a
“sporadic” case of deafness,—deafness which afflicts one only ina
family.

Well, the deafness in such cases may be accidental. ‘There is no
proof that such deafness is liable to be inherited, excepting where the
person is reported deaf from birth. In the vast majority of cases
reported deaf from birth there is an undoubted tendency to inheri-
tance; but where the deafness is caused by meningitis, szarlet-fever,
or like causes, and no other case of deafness exists in the family,
there is probably little, if any, tendency to inheritance. But when
you have two members of your family deaf, or three, or four, or five,
there you have the proof that a tendency to deainess exists in the
family. What I term “family deafness” exists there. Something
has been transmitted from the parents to the children that has

124 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

saused deafness, or helped to cause it. I remember a case in which
there were four children in one family deaf, and none of them were
born deaf. One child became deaf, perhaps, from measles, another
from scarlet-fever, etc, I do not now remember exactly what causes
were stated. They became deaf, however, at different times, and from
apparently accidental causes. But can we consider that it was
accidental that there should have been four children in one family
deaf? The fact that a number of children in the same family are
deaf points to an inherited tendency to deafness in the family. One
result of my researches is to show the great importance of studying
the results of marriages of persons who come from families of that
kind. My results, however, until verified by other observers, should
be received as probable only, and not certainly proved.

So far as I can find out, the hereditary character of the defect in
a family is roughly indicated by the proportion of the family who are
deaf. If you make a fraction, and place the number of deaf children
above as the numerator, and the total number of children below as
the denominator, for example, 1, that fraction will give you some idea
of the tendency to deafness in that family: one child in six is deaf.
Again, take a case in which three out of six are deaf (3). Now, the
tendency to transmit the deafness in this family (;) will be greater
thanin that (1). Every member of the first family (3), whether deaf
or hearing, will have a greater tendency to have deaf children than the
members of the other (1). In general, the tendency to transmit
deafness is greatest in those families that have the largest proportion
of deaf members, and smallest in those that have the least. This
conclusion is exceedingly probable, and should therefore be taken as
a guide by those who desire to avoid the production of deaf offspring.
If you marry a hearing person who has three or four deaf brothers
and sisters, the probability of your having deaf children will be
ereater than if you marry a deaf person (not born deaf) who has no
deaf relatives.

The statistics collated by me (‘‘ Memoir,” p. 25) indicate that 816
marriages of deaf-mutes produce 82 deaf children: in other words,
every 100 marriages are productive of 10 deaf children. This is a
result independent of the cause of deafness,—an average of all cases
considered. Eliminating 40 cases where the cause of deafness is not
eiven, I divide the 776 cases into 4 classes :—

Tasxie ITT.

ae ;

o x me a Hom 5

: 5 ooo

3-8 2 Gale g aS Pao

2s gu to a5 a ete

° aq go fs DaH On

mo =} Q‘4 ro) g ou oOo §

ed Z = DOD > Se

7 oO aaQ Of
Not born deaf, no deaf relatives... 363 | 18 47
Not born deaf, deaf relatives fa 53 5 9°4
Born deaf, no deaf relatives us 130 15 11°5
Born deaf, deaf relatives Saal 230 | 41 17°58

The percentage results are shown by themselves in the following
table (Table IV.), in which the figures indicate the number of deaf

MARRIAGE AMONG DEAF-MUTES. I

bo
O1

children produced by every 100 marriages of persons belonging to
Classes 1, 2, 3, and 4.

TABLE LV.

Perrop oF LIFE WHEN DEAFNESS CHARACTER OF THE DEAFNESS.

OCCURRED. Sd, 3
Sporadic Deafness. | Family Deafness.
eee es| te
After birth sts A, 4°7 9-4
Birth 500 aot ils i) } 17°8

My <ioieites are Gee very imperfect, and many persons
have hastily concluded that the results are therefore of no value or
significance. This, however, is not the case; for the imperfection of
the statistics assures us that the figures given are all underestimates,
the true number of deaf children in every case being greater than
that mentioned. As a matter of fact, all the statistics since collected
by others have shown larger percentages.

While it is believed that the true percentages are larger than
those given, it is probable that they are proportionately larger; so
that we may conclude with probable accuracy that persons belonging
to Class 4 are more liable to have deaf children than those belonging
to Class 3, those of Class 3 more liable than those belonging to Class
2, and those belonging to Class | are the least liable of any, to have
deaf offspring. The relative liabilities are probably represented by
the percentage figures.

The results are imperfect from another cause. The institution
reports from which the statistics were compiled did not give details
concerning both the parties to a marriage.

It would be stated that Mr. So-and-so “married a deat-mute ;”
but no information would be given as to whether his wife was born
deaf or not, or whether she had or had not deaf relatives. I have
only been able, therefore, to classify the marriages by one side. For
example: the results noted for Class 1 give the summation of all
marriages of persons not born deaf who have no deaf relatives, quite
regardless of the fact that some of them may have married congenital
deaf-mutes, others semi mutes, and still others hearing persons. We
may deduce, however, from the figures, that, if the husband belongs
to Class 1, his liability to have deaf offspring will be greatest if his
wife belong to Class 4, and least if she belongs to Class 1, etc.

Now that Professor Fay has taken up the subject, I hope that
we may obtain statistics of greater accuracy and importance than any
yet compiled.

When we obtain statistics classified by both parties to the
marriage, I think it will be found, that, where persons belonging to
Class 1 marr 'y persons also belonging to Class 1, there will be no deat
offspring, or, at least, that the percentage of deat offspring will be
insignificant; for surcly accidental deafness is no more lable to be
inherited than the accidental loss of an arm in battle, for instance.
If, however, a person born without an arm should marry a person
also born without an arm, some of the children would probably
exhibit the same defect. In a similar manner, persons belonging to

126 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Classes 2, 3, and 4 exhibit a decided tendency to transmit deafness to
their offspring.

Now, there is a law of heredity that may afford great comfort to
many of the deaf,—the law of reversion. There is a very strong
tendency in offspring to revert to the normal type of the race. It
requires constant selection from generation to generation on both
sides to perpetuate any abnormal peculharity. There will always,
therefore, be a tendency to produce hearing children rather than
deaf, excepting in cases where both parties to a marriage come from
families belonging to Classes 2, 3, and 4.

Probabilities for Your Guidance.

Whatever may be the character of the deafness in your own case,
you will probably diminish your liability to have deaf offspring (1) by
marrying a hearing person in whose family there is no deafness; (2)
marrying a deaf person (not born deaf) who has no deaf relatives
(Class 1), or a hearing brother or sister of such a person.

On the other hand, you will probably increase your liability to
have deaf offspring (1) by marrying a deaf person (not born deaf) who
has deaf relatives (Class 2), or a hearing brother or sister of such a
person; (2) by marrying a deaf person (born deaf) who has no deaf
relatives (Class 3), or a hearing brother or sister of such a person; (3)
by marrying a deaf person (born deaf) who has deaf relatives (Class
4), or a hearing brother or sister of such a person.

Of course, if you yourself were born deaf, or have deaf relatives,
it is perfectly possible that in any event some of your children may
be deaf. Still, I am inclined to think, that, if you marry a member of
a family in which there is no deafness (or only a single case of non-
congenital deafness), you will not only have fewer deaf children than
if you married into a family containing a congenital deaf-mute, or a
number of deaf persons, but the deafness of your children will not
tend so strongly to be handed down to the grandchildren. The ten-
dency to inheritance will be weakened in the one case, and intensified
in the other: that is, in the former case your deaf child will have a
less tendency to transmit his defect to his children than you yourself
possess ; in the latter case a greater tendency.

Take the case of a family in which three or four children are
born deaf.

Now, suppose that all the members of this family and their deaf
descendants are careful to marry only into families which are free
from deafness, or which contain only single cases of non-congenital
deafness. Then the probabilities are that at each generation the
percentage of children born deaf will be less, and the proportion of
hearing children greater, until finally the deaf tendency disappears,
and all the descendants will hear.

On the other hand, suppose that the members of this family and
their deaf descendants marry into families containing a congenital
deaf-mute, or contaiming several deaf persons. Then the probabilities
are that at each generation the percentage of children born deaf will
increase, and the proportion of hearing children will be less, until
finally the tendency to produce hearing offspring disappears, and all

MARRIAGE AMONG DEAF-MUTES. 127

the descendants will be deaf. This family would then constitute a
deaf variety of the race, in which deaf offspring would be the rule,
and hearing offspring the exception.

Now, the point that I would impress upon you all is the siguifi-
cance of family deafness. I would have you remember that all the
members of a family in which there are a number of deaf-mutes have
a liability to produce deaf offspring, the hearing members of the
family as well as the deaf members.

This, I think, is the explanation of the curious fact that the con-
genitally deaf pupils of the Hartford Institution who married hearing
persons had a larger percentage of deaf children than those who
married deaf-mutes. It is probable that many of the hearing persons
they married had brothers or sisters who were born deaf.

Cases will constantly arise in which a proposed marriage will
appear undesirable and desirable both at the same time. For
example: a semi-mute having no deaf relatives may form an attach-
ment for a congenitally deaf person in whose family deafness may be
hereditary. Of course, I have nothing to say as to what the young
people should do: that is a matter for them to decide. I cannot even
undertake to advise. The semi-mute will have no tendency to have
deaf children if he or she will marry a person of similar kind (Class
1), or marry a hearing person belonging to a family in which there is
no deafness: hence this person, by marrying a congenitally deaf
person in whose family deafness is hereditary, will create a liability to
have deaf offsprmg which would not otherwise exist. From this
point of view, the marriage is undesirable.

On the other hand, from the point fof view of the person born
deaf, such a marriage is extremely desirable, for it will diminish the
hereditary tendency in his family. In such a case, the friends of one
party would probably favour the union, and the friends of the other
advise against it; and the mutual friends of both could only say, “ It
is desirable to one, and undesirable to the other: we cannot advise ;
your own hearts must decide the matter.”

Now, I have come before you to-night to show you that there may
be something in my researches of benefit to you; I want also to assure
you that there is nothing of harm. I want to disabuse your minds
entirely of the idea that I intend or desire to interfere with your
perfect liberty of choice. I claim the right to advise you as I would
advise my own children, or any young people in whom I feel an
interest. In this matter my views coincide very closely with those
recently expressed by President Gallaudet through the columns of
Science. You have to live in a world of hearing and speaking people,
and every thing that will help you to mingle with hearing and speak-
ing people will promote your welfare and happiness. A hearing
partner will wed you to the hearing world, and be of inestimable
value to you in all the relations of life. Not only will your own success
in life be thereby increased, but the welfare of your children will be
materially promoted. It is surely to the interests of children, both
deaf and hearing, that at least one of their parents should hear.

128 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

IT would therefore hold before you as the ideal marriage a mar-
riage with a hearing person. Wo not let any one place in your minds
the idea that such a marriage cannot be a happyone. Do not let any
one make you beheve that you cannot find a hearing person who will
treat you as an equal. The chances are infinitely more in your favour
that out of the millions of hearing persons in this country you may be
able to find one with whom you may be happy than that you should
find one among the smaller numbers of the deaf.

I think the sentiment is hurtful that makes you believe you can
only be happy with a deaf companion. That is a mistake, and, I
belicve, a grave one. I would have you believe that the welfare of
yourself and your children will be greatly promoted by marriage with
a hearing partner, if you can find one with whom you can be happy.

And now, my friends, I must thank you very much for the atten-
tive way in which you have listened to me, and I hope you will all
dispel from your minds any idea that I intend to interfere with your
liberty of marriage. I know that very grave misconceptions of my
pesition and views have been circulated during the past few years
among the deaf, and I want you to help me in dispelling these ideas.

These misconceptions have arisen chiefly, I think, from too great
reliance upon newspaper stories and second-hand information, The
newspapers seem to know a good deal more about my opinions and
views than I do myself, and I am constantly seeing items about myself
that have utterly no basis in fact. Only a few weeks ago I read in a
newspaper a long report of an interview with me that never took
place. The substance of that article has since been copied from paper
to paper all over the United States. I happened to be suffering from
a slight headache when the reporter called at my hotel, and I thought
this would afford a good excuse for avoiding an interview. I therefore
sent my compliments to the reporter, and begged to be excused. He
went away, and I thought that that was the end of the matter. Alas,
no! Next morning I found myself in the paper, in large capitals,
giving forth opinions relating to the education of the deat that I had
never expressed.

Now, I would impress upon your minds the fact that if you want
to do a man justice, you should believe what a man says himself
rather than what people say he says. There is no man in America, I
think, who has been more interviewed by newspaper reporters than I
haye, and I can assure you that [ have never yet seen a report of an
interview with me that was free from error.

But now I begin to be afraid of you; for you are the interviewers
in this case, and I wonder how I shall be reported by you in the
newspapers of the deaf. I am talking to you by word of mouth, while
my friend, Professor Fay, is translating what I say into the sign-
laneuage. Then by and by you will translate it all back again into
Enelish for the benefit of your deaf friends in distant parts. You
are the interviewers this time, and I fear you are just as hable to
make errors of statement as the ordinary newspaper reporter. I
have therefore brought with me to-night a gentleman who has taken
a stenographic account of all that [am saying to you. IT will look

GENERAL NOTES. 129

over his notes and correct them, and then it will afford me pleasure
to present every member of the Literary Society with a printed copy
of my remarks. Allow me, therefore, to request the correspondents
of distant papers kindly to reserve their notes of my remarks until
they can get my own words in black and white.

I must thank you very much for the attention with which you
have listened to me, and in conclusion I would simply say, that, if any
one here desires to ask me questions upon the subject of my address,
I shall be happy to do my best to reply.

GENERAL NOTES.

>

In his presidential address to the Linnean Society of New South
Wales, the chairman, Dr. J. C. Cox, made the following reference to
the late President of the Society :—“ William John Stephens was born
on July 16, 1829, at Levens, in Westmoreland, where his father was
the vicar. He was educated first at the Haversham Grammar School,
an ancient foundation which has turned out many distinguished
scholars, and subsequently at Marlborough College, where he was one
of the 200 pupils with which that institution opened. In due course
he became captain of Marlborough, and gained the Latin Verse and
English Verse prizes, the Plater prize, the Drawing prize, and the
College exhibition. Before leaving Marlborough he won a Tabarden-
ship at Queen’s College, Oxford, and matriculated in that University.
He took his B.A. in 1852, with first-class honours in classics, and
third-class honours in mathematics and physics. Soon after he was
elected fellow and appointed tutor of Queen’s. Among his pupils
during this period were Dr. Percival, formerly of Clifton, now head-
master of Rugby; and Dr. Thornton, Bishop of Ballarat. While at
Oxford he read widely and deeply in the ancient classics, the love of
which never afterwards deserted him. Here also he laid the founda-
tion of that varied learning which eminently distinguished him. At
Oxford, too, in his early manhood, he first took up the study of
geology, and threw himself into that science with great zeal. To
geology he soon added botany, in both of which he took keen interest.

“Tn 1856, at the instigation of Sir Charles Nicholson, he applied
for the headmastership of the Sydney Grammar School, which had
just been founded ; and he was elected to that position on the recom-
mendation of Dr. Jowett. After ten years’ work at the Grammar
School he resigned his headmastership, and established a school of
his own in Darlinghurst-road, which was known as the New School,
and afterwards as Eaglesfield. This school he continued to conduct
till his appointment, in 1882, to the Professorship of Natural History
at the Sydney University—the title of which was afterwards changed,
upon a redistribution of work on the foundation of certain additional
chairs, to that of Geology and Palwontology.

“His death took place on Saturday, November 22, after short
but severe illness, a fatal termination being unexpected until the day
before his death. On November 24th his remains were followed to
the graye by a large concourse of friends, colleagues, and official

[30 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

representatives of the various institutions and societies with which he
had been connected, old pupils, and University students.

“ For a period of nearly thirty-five years then Professor Stephens
lived in our midst, labouring uninterruptedly in the cause of higher
education, yet finding time and inclination to give the colony at large
the benefit of his extensive knowledge and experience by his connec-
tion with several of our important public institutions such as the
Pubiic Library of which he was Chairman of Trustees, and the
Australian Mugeum of which he was a member of the Board. For a
time also he was President of the Sydney Branch of the Geographical
Society of Australia. In his favourite pursuit of Natural Science he
was actively identified firstly with our fore-runner, the Entomological
Society of New South Wales, and afterwards with this Society dating
from its inception, having been a member of Council curing the years
1875 and 1876, President in 1877 and 1878, Vice-President in 1879
and 1880, Co-Honorary Secretary in 1881-84, and again President
from 1885 to the close of his life in November 1890.”

List or Fisues or N.Z.—Under date, Christchurch, 15th April,
1891, Professor Hutton writes :—“In my List of the Fishes of New
Zealand published in the ‘Transactions N.Z. Institute,’ vol. xxii, p.
275, [ have omitted the following species.

“1394. Labrichthys roseipunctata, Hutton, ‘Trans. N.Z. Inst.’ vol.
xii, p. 455.”

CRUSTACEA RAISED FROM DRIED NEw ZEALAND mup.—At the
request of Professor G. O Sars, of Christiania, Norway, I sent that
eentleman during last summer, some samples of dried mud taken
from fresh-water ponds or lagoons. One lot was collected by Mr.
Chilton at Eyretown, Canterbury, from a locality which yields
abundance of Loechia triarticulata, as well as other forms of minute
crustacea. Two other lots were taken from dried-up lagoons in the
Taicri Plain. The materials were sent by post in April last, and on
receipt were at once placed in suitable aquaria. From letters
received since it is interesting to learn that the results of the
experiment have proved very satisfactory. In nearly all the aquaria
prepared with mud from Eyretown Daphnia sinvilis, (mihi), has been
successfully hatched, and has increased in a very remarkable manner.
Along with this numerous specimens of a Cypris appeared. This
species Prof. Sars takes to be my Cypris ciliata, and he was at
first inclined to consider it as Menrpetocypris stanleyana, (King),
which he has raised from dried Australian (Queensland: mud.
But another form raised from the Taieri mud agrees much more
closely with King’s species, as subsequently described by Mr.
Brady. The Eyretown mud also yielded specimens of a very distinct
and beautiful species of Diaptomus, which is probably identical with
my Boeckia triarticulata. Prof. Sars goes on to say :-—“ The parcel of
mud from the neighbourhood of Dunedin has, besides the above-
mentioned Cypris, yielded numerous specimens of a Simocephalus,
which I supose to be your Daphnia obtusata, a species of Veriodaphnia,
a small Chydorus (probably your C. minutus), and four additional
species of Ostracoda, viz., two species of Herpetocypris (one of which
has also been raised from Australian mud and described as 1. viridula,
Brady), one species of Cypridopsis, and one of Notodromas (of which

GENERAL NOTES. 131

latter I have, however, as yet only found a single specimen). My
experiments will be continued next summer, and I do not doubt that
some of the species, at least of the Ostracoda, will reappear in the
aquaria, after they have been dried up during the winter.” These
results are very interesting, and it would greatly increase the value of
Prof. Sar’s researches in this direction, if samples of mud from the
North Island were forwarded to him. J shall be glad to receive and
forward any which are forthcoming. The specimens obtained by
myself were nearly cubical blocks about four inches deep.—Gero. M.
THomson, Dunedin, 25th April, 1891.

Iporra LacustRis (G. M. Thomson).—This species was originally
described by Mr. Thomson in 1879. It is chiefly remarkable because
of its occurrence in fresh water as the genus to which it belongs is
distinctly marine, and it is the only fresh water Isopod at present
known in New Zealand, with the exception of some subterranean
forms. It has been taken at different times in the Tomahawk
Lagoon, near Dunedin, but it has been a little uncertain whether it
lived there permanently in- fresh water or only came up when a very
high tide rendered communication with the lagoon possible.* It has
never been taken in the sea on the New Zealand coasts, but in the
British Museum collections there are specimens from Port Henry,
Straits of Magellan (Dr. R. P. Coppinger), which are very nearly if
not quite identi€al with the New Zealand species. The exact locality
of the Magellan species does not appear to be known, but probably
they were marine in habitat. So much was known about the species
when Miers wrote his ‘Revision of the {doteide,” and though I after-
wards described the species in greater detail in my “ Revision of the
N.Z. Idoteide” (Trans. N.Z. Inst. XXI., p. 194), 1 was not then able
to give any further information as to its distribution. In January of
this year, however, Messrs. Wm. Cron and D. Strachan, two enthu-
silastic young collectors who have often helped me, brought me some
specimens of what appeared to be /dotea lacustris from the Mihiwaka
Creek, near the mouth of the Deborah Bay Tunnel, above Port
Chalmers, a place perhaps about 200 feet above. sea level. I
have since collected numerous specimens from the creek; they
are found on the under surface of stones and boulders in the
small mountain stream, and undoubtedly are permanent fresh
water inhabitants. On examination these specimens were found
to differ constantly from the Tomahawk Lagoon specimens in
several small points; thus the eyes are much smaller, the inner
antenne are longer and the outer antenne more slender, there
is a small depression in the front margin of the head which
alters the appearance of the margin, the last segment of the abdomen
bears only one pair of sutures instead of two, &c. These differences
though smallin amount are somewhat numerous, and an examination
of a considerable number of specimens from both localities proves
that they are constant. ‘hey are quite as important as differences
that are often held to distinguish species, but in this case it will
probably be better and less misleading if the two forms are consi-
dered as distinct varieties of the same species: It would be

* T have found it lately in all parts of the lagoou) quite away on tidal influence
and where the water is always quite fresh.—G. M.D

132 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

interesting to know if /dotea lacustris were once widely distributed in
New Zealand as afresh water species or not; at any rate its discovery
in a small mountain stream taken in conjunction with the discovery
by Mr. Thomson of Pherusa cerulea in a small stream at the top of
the Old Man Range at 3000 feet elevation (see “N.Z. Journal of
Science, II., p. 576), shows that we have still much to learn about the
smaller inhabitants of these streams, and that further search in such
localities may lead to interesting results.—Cuas. CHILTON.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES.

———_——_+———

LINNEAN SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
ANNUAL MEETING.
Sydney, 28th January, 1891.—Dr. J. C. Cox, Vice-President, in
the chair.
The chairman delivered the annual address, from which we extract
the following :—

“ Among the events of the year at home there are several worthy
of notice on this occasion.

“ First, I may mention the publication of the researches of Mr. A.
S. Woodward, F.Z.S., F.G.S., of the British Museum, on ‘The Fossil
Fishes of the Hawkesbury Series at Gosford,* a contribution to our
knowledge of the Hawkesbury formation of the greatest interest and
importance. References to the collections will be found in two papers
by Professor Stephens in Vols. I (2nd Sev.), p. 1175, and II, p. 156 of
our Proceedings. In an introductory note to Mr. Woodward’s mono-
graph, Mr. T. W. Edgeworth David, B.A., deals with the stratigraphical
position of the Gosford fish-bed, in reference to which he says that it is
at present ‘doubtful whether the bed belongs to the lower portion of
the Hawkesbury Sandstone or to the upper portion of the Narrabeen
Shales.’ The series of nearly 400 specimens was richer in individuals
than in representatives of many species, Mr. Woodward distributing them
among the various orders represented as follows :—One Selachian of the
family Cestraciontide, one species of a new genus (Gosfordia) of Dipnoi,
the remainder being referable to nine genera (two proposed as new) and
seventeen species (all but two being new) of Ganoidei. In concluding
his paper Mr. Woodward says, ‘perhaps the most important fact, how-
ever, is the absence in the Hawkesbury beds of fishes with well-
developed vertebral centra. . . . So far as can be determined from
the fishes, therefore, the Hawkesbury beds may be regarded as homo-
taxial with the Keuper of Europe, or, at latest, with the Rhaetie.’

“The monograph is well illustrated; and we must congratulate not
only Mr. Woodward on the successful issue of this excellent piece of
work, but the Department of Mines on its publication of the volume
within the colony. . . . Certainly the year 1890 has been prolific
of swarms of animal life, not always beneficial, as well as of the

* Issued as ‘‘ Memoirs of the Geological Survey of N.S.W., Paleontology, No. 4.”
Sydney, Government Printer, 1890.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES 133

attacks of fungoid pests. To some of these your attention has been
drawn from time to time at our meetings by the exhibition of
specimens, and by the remarks which these provoked. Early in
the year many vineyards in certain districts both in this colony
and Victoria were infested by myriads of bugs which I am informed
by Mr. Skuse, who has submitted specimens to Dr. Bergroth of
Finland, are probably an undescribed species of MVysius (family
Lygeide), a genus not hitherto recorded from Australia.

‘‘Last summer and again this year pastoralists in the eastern
colonies and South Australia have been troubled witb plagues of locusts
(sometimes referred to as Pachytylus australis, Brunn., but reported as
Chortologa australis by Mr. Koebele, as determined by Saussure),
which this year especially have so accumulated in places as to impede
railway traffic on some of our country lines by reason of the greasiness
imparted to the rails. Mr. Koebele in his report quotes the opinion of
a South Australian observer ‘that only in such unusually dry seasons
as the present (1888) would the locusts migrate, there being no food
left for them in the interior of South Australia.’ This hypothesis does
not seem to be borne out by the experience of last year which was
anything but a dry one, As yet we have had only preliminary reports
on these matters. There is much room for investigation on the lines
laid dowa in an article in ‘ Nature’ (Feb. 27th, 1890, p. 403) based on
a Report by Mr. Cotes of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, from which we
learn that India has been somewhat similary plagued with locusts of
recent years. Locusts are not altogether a new pest with us, though
records of their depredations in the past appear to be scanty. and their
visitations not to have been of so desperately destructive a character ;
nevertheless a few references to their prevalence in this colony in
former years will be found in Mr. Russell’s ‘Climate of New South
Wales,’ p. 27. Itis also possible too that we are now in some measure
reaping the results of the reckless and wanton destruction of many of
our native birds which has been going on for so long.

“In this connection also phylloxera as well as rabbits might also
claim mention, though I need not go into details.

“The past year has also furnished us with instances of migratory
flights of butterflies of at least one species Delenois (Pieris) teutonia,
Don., as reported at our last meeting. The specimens then exhibited
were from Inverell, but in the ‘ Echo’ of recent date, swarms, probably
of the same species, were reported from Hmmaville. In Vol. VII. of
our Proceedings will be found a record of similar swarms of the same
species observed at Tamworth by one of our members in December,
1882.

“Tn this, as in other cases of animals which periodically attract
notice by their appearance in migratory swarms, our country members
will do well to be on the alert in observing and recording, as we have
much yet to learn in these matters, and the records of the past are
neither so complete nor so systematic as is to be desired.

“Dr. A. Barclay, of the Bengal Medical Service, early in the year
contributed an important paper to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in
which he deals with the subject of the prevalence and character of Rust
and Mildew on wheat in India. The number of the journal containing
this paper has not yet reached us, but the gist of it will be found in

134 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

another paper by the same author in the ‘Journal of Botany,’ XX VIIL,
p- 257 (September, 1890), from which I take the following passage :—
“So far as J. have been able to gather, the most prevalent form of rust
on wheat, barley, and oats in India is Puccinia rubigo-vera, D.C., and
not P. graminis, Pers. And this is true of the outer Himalayan
region, where rust is very prevalent, and where three species of
barberry are common (2. lycitum, Royle; B. aristata, D.C.; B. vulgaris,
L), one of which, Bb. lyctum, bears an Adcidium abundantly. At the
same time, I have never been able to find an Aicidium on any species
of Boraginee in the Himalayan region, and none is known on the
plains. Whilst P. rubigo-vera is apparently by far the commonest
rust in India, P. graminis is not wholly unknown. I have received
specimens of P. graminis from Jeypore, about 200 miles in a direct
line from the nearest known habitat of barberry ; but IT have never seen
a specimen on the crops actually in the neighbourhood of ecidium-
bearing barberry. These facts are sufficient to show the mystery in
which the subject here is involved, and that it needs much more study
before anything useful can be written on it. The fungus on Linum
(‘Ulsee’) is apparently extremely common over large areas of the plains.
It is often so closely concurrent with rust on wheat and barley, that the
uredo stage on Linwm has often been supposed to be the cause of the
rust on wheat. This supposition, however, cannot be entertained, with
our present knowledge, by botanists. The fungus on Linwm is probably
a complete autcecious species.’

“T especially draw your attention to this matter because our
fellow-member, Dr. Cobb, whose recent accession to our little band
of working members we are glad to welcome, and who since his
connection with the Department of Agriculture has had under investi-
gation the question of rust on wheat in this colony, at an early stage
of lis observations also found that in the specimens submitted to him
by far the commonest rust was Puccinia rubigo-vera, D.C., and not P.
graminis. This result was some months ago announced in the daily
papers, and full particulars are given in the ‘Agricultural Gazette,’
Vol... INO: 35,0241 0s

‘To the newly established Forest Department our hopes turn not
only for a check to the wholesale destruction of timber which has been
going on for so long, to the conserving of such areas as are still
available, and to the planting and replanting of suitable tracts of
country, but for the realisation in this colony of a matter touched upon
by Baron von Mueller, in his presidential address at the second meeting
of the Australasian Association, namely the setting apart of areas in
different and suitable parts of the colony in which the vegetation and
its accompanying fauna may be left untouched, and preserved for
educational purposes. Surely our utilitarian necessities are not of so
pressing a character as to require every square foot of our richest and
best timbered areas to be delivered up to the settler’s axe and fire-stick.
Comparatively few of even our native-born population know by
experience, from artistic representations, or even by adequate descrip-
tion, the beauty and luxuriance of our brushes and semi-tropical scrubs,
now alas in danger of altogether disappearing. As means of communi-
cation improve, as they are steadily doing, such districts as I speak of
will be gradually brought within easy reach of the metropolis, and thus

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 135

become more accessible to the naturalist, the artist, the writer, and the
lover of nature, let us hope not when it is altogether too late, and when
the characteristic vegetation has entirely disappeared.

“Of the good likely to accrue from the establishment in some of
our country towns of branches of the Sydney Technological Museum
much may I think be anticipated. The conditions of existence in a
young country like this seem naturally to lead to more or less
centralisation, in scientific as in so many other matters. Now the
dulness attendant upon life in an average country town to the man who
is not fortified against it by the pursuit of some rational hobby is a stern
reality often leading to misapplied evergies aud utter waste of time, not
to speak of the acquisition of undesirable habits. Yet very often it is
in the immediate neighbourhood of just such localities that there are
special opportunities of observing particularly interesting species of
plants or animals in a state of nature, of working out the stratigraphical
or paleontological relations of particular strata, of obtaining important
data relating to the scientific aspect of mining, or of collecting relics and
traditions of the fast disappearing black-fellow ; and too frequently it is
exactly in such localities that such opportunities excite little or no
interest whatever. Not absolutely always, however, I am glad to be
able to state, since we number among our own members a few who
under such circumstances have risen to the occasion ; but our Societies
want more of such men, and the colony at large needs more of them.
Country museums in the hands of judicious curators alive to the value
of their opportunities may become directly educative, and do much
towards supplying the present want of means of fostering a love of
nature in the rising generation, as well as offer a counter attraction to
those very much less rational and undesirable ways of ‘killing’ time,
which too frequently present themselves. In answer to my enquiries
Mr. Maiden has been good enough to furnish me with the following
particulars which I am glad to make use of :—

“¢Tiocal museums in connection with the Sydney Technological
Museum have been established at Goulburn, Bathurst, West Maitland,
and Newcastle, and another will shortly be opened at Broken Hill.’

“<The exhibits are housed in substantial buildings—the large halls
of the Mechanics’ Institutes being rented at Goulburn and Newcastle,
while at West Maitland the large hall of the old Masonic buildings is
utilised.’

“At West Maitland the local Science Association has presented
its valuable natural history collection to the Museum, and at the other
centres scientific societies have been started which will assist in the
working-up of the museums, so that most of these museums will contain
a natural history side as well.’

““¢The local science master, or head of the local Technical School,
is the curator, and he corresponds direct with the Curator of the Sydney
Technological Museum in matters of museum detail. He is quite at
liberty to devote a portion of his time to original research, or to give
lectures, &e.’

“<¢Hach museum contains about 2,000 specimers exhibited in
suitable show-cases. Endeavours are being made to form in each
museum a display of the products of the district in which it is situated,

E36 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

and substantial additions to the collections have been received already.
Numerous applications for the formation of museums in different
centres of population have been received, but at present it is proposed
to confine them to towns in which technical colleges have already been
founded,’ ”

Sydney, February 25th, 1891.—The Hon. James Norton, LL.D.,
M.L.C., in the chair.

Papers. —(1) “ On the Anatomy of some Tasmanian Land Snails,”
by C. Hedley, F.L.8., Corr. Mem. This paper is a contribution to a
knowledge of the soft parts of Bulimus dufresni, Leach, B. tasmanicus,
Pfr., Anoglyptu launcestonensis, Reeve, Khytida lampra, Pfr., Helicarion
verreauxt, Pfr., and Cystopelta petterdi, Tate.

(2) Notes on a small Collection of Hymenoptera from Narrabri,
N.S.W,” by. W. W. Froggatt. The writer gives a list of the species
comprised in the collection exhibited by Mr. Musson at the December
Meeting. The occurrence of Thynnus Brenchleyi, Smith, a species rare
in collections, previously only recorded from Champion Bay, W.A., is
particularly interesting.

(3) ‘ Description of a new Species of Vortricide,” by J. Hartley
Durrant. (Communicated by A. Sidney Olliff’). A new species of
Paleobia from Tumut and Mt. Kosciusko is described under the name
P. longestriata.

(4) “Stray Notes on Lepidoptera,” No. 2, by A. Sidney Olliff, FLE.S.
A short note descriptive of a new species of Libythea from Somerset, N.
Australia, proposed to be called Z. nicevillei, hitherto confounded with
L. myrrha, Godart, and of a singular variety of Huschemon Rafflesic
from the Richmond River, N.S. Wales. A specimen of the butterfly
was exhibited.

(5) “ Notes on Australian Aboriginal Stone Weapons and Imple-
ments.” Nos. x.-xv., by R. Etheridge, jun. A continuation of former
Notes read before this Society. The author now describes additional
stone knives from Northern Australia, and one made of bottle glass ;
small and beautifully formed spear-heads from Kimberley; larger lanceo-
late spear-heads from Nicholson River and Settlement Creek, N.W.
Carpentaria ; talismanic stones from New England and North Queens-
land, the latter a very interesting tael formed of two rock crystals joined
by a gum-cement mixed with human hair; a gouge from North Queens-
land; and an awl, or some form of piercing instrument, made of a nail,
and portion of a human radius. The author is indebted for an oppor-
tunity of describing these interesting specimens to the kindness of Mr.
C. W. de Vis, M.A., Curator of the Queensland Museum, and Messrs.
W. W. Froggatt and E. C. Blomfield.

Mr. Etheridge showed a fine collection of aboriginal stone knives
and implements in illustration of his paper.

Among exhibits, Mr. Hedley showed a colony of the nests of a
trap-door spider, together with specimens of the animal, from Rose Bay.
These spiders are abundant round Sydney, occurring even in the public
parks of the city. A favourite spot for them is a patch of mossy earth

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 137

in the crevice of a sandstone rock. The species exhibited forms a wafev-
like lid, not as in some species a thick door like a gun-wad. The presence
of several egg-bags in the larger burrows would indicate that the present
month (February), is the breeding season.

Mr. Fletcher exhibited tw> specimens of a land planarian (Bipaliuimn
kewense, Moseley,) collected by Mr. J. J. Lister at Upolu, Samoa, under
stones in the bush; and a specimen of the same species from Elthain,
Victoria, collected by Mr. W. W. Smith ; seeing that this planarian has
now undoubtedly been introduced into many widely separated localities,
and that the species of the genus whose habitats are certainly known
belong to the Palearctic and Oriental regions, there seems little ground
for supposing it to be indigenous in Samoa.

Also two instances of floral prolification in the “ Flannel-flower’
(Actinotus helianthi), in which from the ordinary umbels spring, in one
case about seven, in the other eleven small secondary umbels each with
its involucre of woolly bracts ; the specimens were gathered at Oatley a
few days ago.

)

Also living specimens of three species of frogs (Zyla carulea, H.
peront, and Limnodynastes salminii, Str.), brought from Goigra on
the Namoi, near Walgett, by Mr. A. Carson ; these specimens offer
fresh evidence of the very wide distribution of these three species in the
interior of the colony; in the specimens of LZ. saJminti the dors il stripes
which in spirit specimens are pink or rose-red are of quite a different
tint, being a bright ochreous-yellow. Specimens of an interesting frog
(Hyla gracilenta) from the Richmond River were also exhibited; the
species has not previously been recorded from N.S. W.

Sydney, March 25th, 1891.— Professor Haswell, M.A. D.Sc.,
President, in the chair.

New member.—Mr. Oswald B. Lower, Adelaide.

Papers.—(1) “On the Classification of Eucalypts,’ by Rev. W.
Woolls, Ph.D., F.L.S. After critically reviewing the characters of
Eucalypts which have, from time to time, been made use of for
classificatory purposes, more particularly those of the anthers and of the
bark as set forth in the antherial and cortical systems of Bentham and
Mueller, the author suggests the probable value of a classification based
on the characters of the fruit—such as shape, position of the capsules,
the number of cells, and the app2avance of the valves, Xe.

(2) “On the Trail of an extinct Bird,” by C. W. De Vis, M.A.,
Corr. Mem. A new genus aul species (Lithophaps wlnaris) are
provisionally proposed for an extinct pigeon whose ulna was found in
deposits of the Nototherian period at Warwick, Darling Downs,
Queensland.

(3) “Note on an Extinct Eagle,” by C. W. De Vis, M.A., Corr.
Mem. The generic name Zuphaetus is now proposed for a bird whose
femur came to light in the same deposits as the ulna of Lithophups, and
which presents characters irreconcilable with those of any genus known
to the writer. To the same genus in all probability must be referred
the species previously described as Uroaetus brachialis (Proc. Roy. Sce.

138 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Qsld., Vol. VL, p. 161), its correct association with the genus Uroaetus
being now more than doubtful.

Both papers were illustrated by speciments of the fossil bones
referred to.

(4) ‘The Land Molluscan Fauna of British New Guinea,” by
C. Hedley, F.L.S., Corr. Mem ‘The species already described are
enumerated and discussed, sundry errors in classification and habitat
being rectified, and twenty species mostly collected by the author
himself during a recent tour in Papua are described as new. Anatomi-
ical descriptions of a few species are included.

Mr. Fletcher exhibited for Mr. J. H. Rose two living specimens
of an inland species of frog (Chiroleptes platycephalus, Gthr.), obtained
near Walgett, previously only recorded from Bourke and Dandaloo,
N.S.W. It is an expert burrower, Mr. Rose reporting that he has
never met with it above ground.

FIELD NATURALISTS’ CLUB OF VICTORIA.

Melbourne, 9th March, 189].--D. Best, Esq., in the chair.

The report of the Club’s recent excursion to Heidelberg was read
by Mr. F. G. A. Barnard.

Papers.—(1) “Sagacity of Insects,” by J. Lidgett.

(2) “On the Australian Bustard,” by C. French, I°.L.S.

(3) “ An Acid Secretion from the Seeds of Grevillea mimosoides,”
by Nicholas Holtz. The secretion which is powerful and acrid enough
to produce sores, the scars of which remain for many months after, is
thought to be useful in protecting the seeds from the attacks of
cockatoos.

A number of natural history notes were communicated as follows:—.

(1) “On the occurrence of the Comb-crested Parra in Victoria,” by
A. J. Campbell.

(2) “ How Flies die,” by G. H. Hennell.

(3) “On the impaling of Butterflies on Thistles,” by G. Lyell, Jun.
(4) “On the Earthworm,” and

(5) “A new Potato disease,” both by G. Renner.

A large number of articles of interest were exhibited.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF VICTORIA.

Melbourne, 12th March, 1891.—At the annual meeting the follow-
ing gentlemen were elected office-bearers for the year:—President :
Professor W, C. Kernot, M.A., C.E. Vice-Presidents: J. Cosma New-
berry, C.M.G., B.Sc, and E. J. White, F.R.A.S. Hon. Treasurer :
C. R. Blackett, F.C.S.. Hon. Librarian: J. E. Neild, M.D. Hon.
Secretaries: H. K. Rusden, and Professor W. Baldwin Spencer, M.A.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES, 139

Members of Council: A. W. Howitt, F.G.S., J. Jamieson, M.D., Pro-
fessor Laurie, M.A., A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., Professor R. T. Lyle, M.A.,
A. Sutherland, M.A., C. A. Topp, M.A., A. S. Way, M.A. The follow-
ing Members continuing to hold office from 1890--R. L. J. Ellery,
E.R.S., G. 8. Griffiths, F.G.S., Professor Orme Masson, M.A., and Mr.
H. Moors.

An ordinary meeting was held afterwards.

Papers.—(1) “A new species of Dictyonerua,” by T. 8. Hall, M.A.

(2) “A preliminary account of Synute pulchella, a new genus and
species of Calcareous Sponge,” by Arthur Dendy, D.Sc.

(3) “The Geology of the Southern portion of the Moorabool
Valley,” by T. S. Hall, M.A., and G. B. Pritchard.

Melbourne, 9th April.—Papers.—(1) “On the Occurrence of the
Genus Belonostomus in the Rolling Downs Formation (Cretaceous) of .
Central Queensland,” by R. Etheridge, Jun., F.G.S., Paleontologist to
the Geological Survey of New South Wales, and Arthur Smith Woo1-
ward, F.Z.S., of the British Museum.

(2) “Note from the Biological Laboratory of the Melbourne
University,” by Professor W. Baldwin Spencer, M.A.

WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.*
ANNUAL MEETING.

Wellington, 13th February, 1891.—Caas. Hulke, Esq., Presideat,
in the chair.
New Member.—Mr. W. T. Cohen.

The following is an abstract of the annual report:—The Report
stated that during the past year six general mectinegs had been held,
which had on the whole been fairly well attended, and some interesting
discussions had taken place on the various papers read, as will be seen
from the reports of the proceedings published in the usual liberal
manner by Messrs. Lyon and Blair in their Monthly Record and Review.
The titles of the papers, with the names of the authors, were given,
making a total of twenty-five. Four new members had been elected
during the year, the total number of members now on the boos
being one hundred and fifty. Thereceipts during the year amounted
to £150 3s. 6d., and the expenditure was £120 4s. 3d., leaving a
balance of £29 19s. 3d.; there was also a fixed deposit in the bank
of £20, the first payment to the prize fund.

The following office bearers were elected :—President, Mr. E.
Tregear; Vice-Presidents, Mr. A. McKay and the Hon. R. Pharazyn;
Council, Sir J. Hector, Sir W. Buller, Messrs. W. M. Maskell, A. de B.
Brandon, G. V. Hudson, W. T. L. Travers, and C. Hulke ; Secretary
and Treasurer, R. B. Gore; Auditor, T. King.

* Our report is taken from the Monthly Record and Review.

I40 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

Papers.—(1) “Ona Deposit of Diatomaceous Earth at the Bay
of Islands,’ by A. MeKay, F.G.S. The author stated that he had had
an opportunity of examining a deposit of diatomaceous earth about
half a mile to the east of the residence of the Hon. Henry Williams,
and that he brought samples from the upper surface, and from about
one foot below the surface of the deposit, which were submitted to
Mr. Maskell, who found only recent species in the samples from the
upper part, and fossil forms only in the samples taken at about a foot
from the surface of the deposit. Such being the result of the exami-
nations made by Mr. Maskell, on his describing the conditions under
which the deposit had accumulated, by way of explanation of the facts
Mr. Maskell suggested that probably an older diatomaceous deposit
had been denuded for supply of the lower part of the deposit under
description, and in which only fossil forms are found, while the higher
and last deposits were manifestly due to diatoms which (of recent
forms only) had lived and died within the area wherein their remains
had accumulated. But this is not the only explanation that may be
advanced, and he (Mr. McKay) deemed it necessary to describe more
closely the position of the deposit and the conditions under which it
had accumulated. After giving a full account of the locality in ques-
tion, and the position of the specimens collected, Mr. McKay stated
that on the stones and fern fronds which are under water when the
basin is full, the green living diatoms are deposited, forming a coating
of from jin. to Jin. thick, according to circumstances. This deposit
round the margin of the basin soon bleaches white on the surface.
According to Mr. Maskell it is almost wholly composed of living
forms of diatomacee. Very probably the same samples, Mr. McKay
thought, would be found among the grass-roots, and for the first few
inches into the deposit filimg the basin itself. Unfortunately, Mr.
McKay did not bring samples to prove that such is the case; but it
is so self-evident that this must be so that no doubts need be ventured
on the subject. ‘The deposits in the middle of the basin are 6ft. to
Sft. thick, and were exposed by the cutting-down of a cattle-track
crossing the creek at this place. Mr. McKay took a sample from
about lft. below the surface. Some of this also was examined by Mr.
Maskell, whose decision as to the fossil nature of the species forming
this part of the deposit has already been stated. Subsequently Mr.
Maskell forwarded samples to England, which were examined by one
of the chief authorities on diatoms, whose decision was in accordance
with the conclusion Mr. Maskell had already arrived at. Such were
the facts of the case, and such the conclusions arrived at by competent
authorities. And yet he (Mr. McKay) was not satisfied that the true
explanation had been hit upon; and here he ventured a theory of
explanation to which, though there might be objections grave as
appled to Mr. Maskell’s explanation, they were yet not the same, and
he had therefore written the paper so that the Society might have an
opportunity of debating the probabilities of each. Considering the
conditions under which the diatomaceous deposits had accumulated,
it was reasonable to expect that the recent forms of diatoms would be
found in the lowest, as well as the highest, beds of the deposit; and it
was certainly surprising that the upper beds, or latest part of the
deposit, should be wholly composed of recent species, which were
absent from the middle and lower parts. It was quite a possibility

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. I4]

that the fossil-species forming the bulk of the deposit had been derived
from an older deposit, either forming the bed of the lake or now
buried beneath the scoria hills to the east of Paoroa. But it seemed
to him that, in order to account for the facts of the case, it must be
supposed that at first only fossil-species carried along the underground
channels were deposited in the little basins whence the specimens
were obtained. And as the deposit was entirely composed of fossil-
species to within Ift. of the present surface, the introduction or
appearance of living forms was of very recent date. As, however, the
whole deposit was manifestly of quite recent date, and as at first the
conditions were as fit for the existence of recent forms of diatoms as
they now were, it seemed extraordinary that throughout the deposit
there was not a mixture of fossil and living species. Takine these
facts into account, he (Mr. McKay) would prefer to account for the
difference-in the species found in the top and bottom beds of the
deposit, by supposing that the species first livmg in the pond gave
place to other forms, either modified descendants of the original
species or species introduced from different stocks, and in this way
would avoid the necessity of hypothecating an older deposit, the exis-
tence of which had not been proved, and, at the same time account
for the separateness of the living and extinct forms as they were
found in the higher and lower parts of the deposit. He would here
add that as the surface-layers were formed wholly of living forms, and
all were extinct at about Ift. 6in. from the surface, it scemed reason-
able to suppose that at, say, 6ft. from the surface other and quite
distinct species might be found. And as Mr. Williams informed him,
he (Mr. Williams) dug into the deposit to a yet greater depth without
passing through it. Other and quite distinct species, it was probable,
would be found in the firstnamed and lower parts of the deposits.
If samples were taken not more than 6in. apart in the section of the
deepest part of the deposit, an examination of these would be likely to
set at rest any doubts as to the true origin and mode of accumulation,
since it was mainly a derived and secondary deposit; then from about
lft. from the surface to the greatest depth there should be little
variation of the specific forms; while on the other hand, if the species
changed more than once, that would go far to prove the correctness
of his theory on the subject.

Mr. Maskell said that as he had been referred to in Mr. McKay's
paper, it would be necessary for him to ask the writer’s leave to add a
a short note for the Transactions, explaining his view of this rather
puzzling matter. He had no pretensions to a knowledge of geology;
but it was possible that a micoscopist’s observations might sometimes
come in useful as an aid to a geologist, and perhaps this was the case
in the present instance. Put very shortly, the poimt was this: When
Mr. McKay handed over to him some specimens of these diatomaceous
deposits, he was at once struck with three peculiarities in them.
First, the upper deposit evidently owed its greenish tinge to the
presence of endochrome in the diatoms, showing therefore that these
organisms were not only recent, but alive. Secondly, the lower
deposit, on the other hand, was not only pure white, from the absence
of any endochrome, but also remarkably and exceptionally clean and
clear from sand and dirt, having all the appearance of a perfectly

142 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

pure fossil diatomaceous mass. Thirdly (and this was the important
point), in the upper deposit he found only a quantity of two species of
the genera Melosira and Himantidium, with a very few Navicule ;
whilst in the lower deposit, with one species of Melosira, and a fow
Navicule, there were many specimens of a peculiarly-shaped diatom,
which, from the distinct cross visible on it, he took for a Stauroneis.
Having submitted specimens of this to Dr. de Lautour, of Oamaru, a
leading diatomist of the colony, that gentleman considered it as a new
species; and he agreed with Mr. Maskell that it was undoubtedly
‘ fossil.’ Specimens of the deposit were also sent to Mr. Grove, one
of the first authorities in England on diatoms, and to Mr. Hardman,
another very eminent student of the same family at Liverpool; and
these gentlemen, whilst ascribing this particular diatom to the genus
Achnanthes, also agreed that it was clearly fossil. Now, the result of
these investigations showed positively, as he thought, that there is a
radical and important difference between the two deposits. The
upper one is recent, with living diatoms and no Achnanthes; the
lower one is conspicuously full of Achnanthes, quite in a fossil state.
If the geological evidence taken by itself, seemed to point to a simi-
larity of conditions and of time in which both deposits were formed,
the microscopical observations went to show that there must have
been a considerable difference of time, at least. It seemed to him
that the two classes of evidence would have to be taken together ; or,
at least, the indications of the microscope should receive full attention.
The case certainly was a peculiar one, as the two deposits were so
closely adjoined.

Mr. Hulke supposed that Mr. McKay wished to show that he
had evidence of evolution, while Mr. Maskell contended that this had
not been proved. Had these deposits been bones, Mr. McKay would
not, he presumed, say they were the same had the bones been of
distinct forms. It would be interesting to know whether the lower
deposits were much abraded.

Mr. McKay briefly replied, and said he felt sure that his state-
ments would be fully borne out by anyone carefully examining the
district where these deposits had been found.

(2) On the Botany of Antipodes Island,’ by T. Kirk, F.GS.
Antipodes Island is about 460 miles from Port Chalmers in a
southerly direction, and is simply the crater of an extinct volcano.
An overflow of lava on the eastern side has formed an angle where a
landing may be made with some difficulty, but only in the finest
weather. In all other places the cliffs are steep, so that the island is
practically inaccessible. The albatross and other oceanic birds breed
on the island, which, in some places, is dotted over with the nests of
the great albatross, constructed of earth, built up into a truncated
cone about eighteen inches high, slightly concave on the upper
surface, and usually containing one large egg. The highest point
on the island, Mount Galloway, a rounded hill, is about 1,520. feet
above sea level. There is nut a tree on the island; nothing much
larger than a gooseberry bush. The chief vegetation consists of
masses of coarse sedges and grass. The island is about as desolate a
place as can well be imagined. Some bushy scrubs at the base of
Mount Galloway were enlivened by the yellow-headed parroquet,

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 143

which was rather common although not abundant. About fifty-five
species of plants were collected, of which the most striking was
named Pleurophyllum criniferum, with smooth leaves something lke
rhubarb leaves, and erect stems five feet high, carrying large disc-like
heads of reddish-purple flowers; it is found also on the Auckland and
Campbell Islands. ‘Two plants are peculiar to this little island: a
pretty Gentian with yellow or red stems and leaves. The yellow-
stemmed form has white flowers; that with the red stems, white
flowers striped with red, the result in both being that the flowers are
inconspicuous; the other plant is a large herbaceous Groundsel,
resembling in some respects a species found on the Falkland Islands.

(3) “On the Botany of the Snares,” by T. Kirk, F.G.S. The
Snares consist of a group of rocky islands, situate near the 48th
parallel of south latitude, and about sixty-five miles from the South
Cape of Stewart's Island. The principal island is inhabited by
thousands of crested penguins, which perch on the trees in rare
numbers, forming ‘rookeries’ during a greater part of the year, but
during the breeding-season the trees are forsaken. In many places
the ground is honeyeombed by petrels, which occur in large numbers.
Several land-birds were noticed: a smail snipe found also on the
Auckland Islands; a small bird only known elsewhere on the Chat-
ham Islands; and the South Island grass-bird; all species with very
poor powers of flight. Two fur-seals were also noticed. The island is
remarkable for the occurrence of two grand trees, Senecio JMnvelleri,
which is probably the largest species of the genus, and one of the
grandest, the trunk being sometimes two feet in diameter, and the
tree twenty-five feet high. The other is Vlearia Lyall, which is
nearly thirty feet high, with leaves from four to seven inches in
leneth, white on back surfaces, and producing racemes of large
button-like velvety flower-heads on the tips of the branches. Both
these trees are amongst the rare plants of the world, the first being
confined to the Snares and Herekopere Island, the other to the Snares
and the Auckland islands. The punui is a strong growing her),
which resembles in most particulars the punui of Stewarts island.
The leaves are sometimes two feet across, and are carried on leaf-
stalks as thick as a rhubarb-stalk. About twenty-five other kinds
were observed, two or three of which had evidently been introduced
by sealers.

(4) “On the Wandering Albatross, with an exhibition of speci-
mens and the determination of a new species (Diomedea regia), by
Sir Walter Buller, K.C.M.G., P.R.S. The paper reviewed the history
of Diomedea exulauns, and referred to an exhibition of specimens made
by the author at a meeting of tie Wellington Philosophical Society
on February 13th, 1885, when he had expressed his conviction that
two distinct species of wandeiing albatross were being confounded
under the above uame. He had lately had an opportunity of
examining sixteen examples of the supposed new bird (collected at
Campbell Island, on the Auckland Islands, and off the New Zealand
coast), and he had no hesitation whatever in declaring it to be a
distinct species, readily distinguishable from Disinedea exulans by its
larger size, by its perfectly white head and neck from the nest to
maturity, and by its having the bare eyelids jet-black, at all ages,

144 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

instead of being greenish-purple as in the other species. This
albatross being undoubtedly the noblest of the entire group, he
selects for it the distinctive specific name of Diomedea regia. Its
ereat breeding-place is Campbell Island, where it nests some five
weeks earlier than Diomedea exulans does on the Auckland Islands.
Captain Fairchild, who has made the breeding habits of the albatross
his special study for some years past, was till lately of opinion that
this larger species never came farther north to breed; but on the
occasion of his recent visit to the Auckland Islands, he found a colony
of them breeding there, but in a separate locality and quite distant
from Diomedca exulans. Here, too, in the Auckland Islands, the two
species observed their own breeding times, Diomedea regia actually
hatching out its young whilst the other species was only preparing to
lay. Amonest the hundreds of nests of the latter examined by
him only one contained eggs (two instead of one, a very unusual
circumstance). The author’s collection ¢ ntains a fine series of skins
of both species. Diomedea regia has a perfectly white head, neck,
and body, with blackish-brown shoulders and wings, even from the
nest; one of the exhibits having still remnants of the down adhering
to the plumage. Apart from the much larger size of the bill
(exceeding eight inches, measured along the column), it is further
distinguished from the common species by haying a distinct black
line along the cutting edge of the upper mandible. Diomedea exulans,
on the other hand, has a dark-coloured nestling, and the young bird
of the first year has a uniform sooty-gray plumage, with a white face.
The bird passes through many phases in its progress towards
maturity, and no two individuals are exactly alike in the delicate
markings of their plumage. In his ‘Birds of New Zealand’ (vol. u,
pp. 190-192), the author has described no less than ten of these
intermediate or transitional states.

The following papers were then taken as read :—

(5) “On the Fossil Flora of New Zealand,’ by Professor Van
Kttinghausen; communicated by Sir James Hector, F.R.S.

(6) “On Pleurophyllum, with description of New Species,” by
T. Kirk, F.L.S.

(7) “On the New Zealand Species of Centrolepsis,” by T. Kirk.
(8) “On the Macrocephalous Olearias,” by T. Kirk.
(9) ‘‘ Notes on certain Carices,’ by T. Kirk.
(10) “Farther Notes on New Zealand Fishes,’ by Sir James
Hector.

(11) “On Patent Fuel,” by Sir James Hector.

(12) ‘On the Discovery of Leiodon Remains in Middle Waipara,”
by J. McKay, F.G.8.

(13) “On Belemnites australis with Dicotyledonous Leaves,” by A.
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Vol. I., No, 4, N.Z. JOURNAL OF SCIENCE (New Issue) JULY 891

THE PARLIAMENT OF NEW ZEALAND IN ITS
RELATIONS TO SCIENCE.

The columns of a scientific publication do not constitute a suitable
place in which to discuss questions of politics, and it is therefore from
no political stand point that we propose to look at the subject of the
probable views of the present parliament of New Zealand on matters of
scientific interest. Of late years the tendency has been towards a
steady retrogression in the educational status of our House of Repre-
sentatives. The men elected to represent the people at the seat of
government may be as able and as earnest as their predecessors ever
were, but their educational calibre is decidedly lower than it used to be
ten or twenty years ago. In this respect the present House has
probably reached a lower depth than any of those which preceded it.
The mer elected by most of the urban constituencies cannot, and we
believe do not lay claim to belong to the best educated portion of the
community, and hence the bearing of the present House towards
scientific questions will be watched with interest and considerable
anxiety. New Zealand has in the past achieved a very high reputation
cutside of its own narrow borders for the enlightened policy which its
successive governments have pursued in matters scientific. Its survey
department has always been presided over by men of high standing in
their profession, whose efforts to do high-class work have been
repeatedly recognized. The geological survey has since its inception
been under the distinguished management of Sir James Hector, who,
with the aid of able assistants, has year by year added to the know-
ledge of the geological history of the colony, until it may well be
~ questioned whether any part of the world has been so well worked out
within such a short period and with such small means. We may
probably rest assured that the present House will not do anything to
cripple either of these branches of the service, because the practical
value of their work commends itself even to the non-scientific mind.
_ Indeed this is the only aspect in which scientific work is apt to be
regarded by the 62 polloz, and it is as the outcome of this utilitarian way
of looking at things that we anticipate any trouble or difficulty is likely
to occur.

Attention has already been drawn towards such a sweeping reduc-
tion in the staff of the Colonial Museum in Wellington that the best
thing that could now be done would be to shut it up altogether. For
years there has been a growing tendency to starve this institution, and
now we believe that there is actually no one left in charge beyond a
mere caretaker. Sir James Hector’s work covers a large field, Mr.
Skey, who has so long acted as Colonial Analyst, always has his hands
full of work, and My. Gore must have an amount of clerical work to get
through which would satisfy even the Minister of Lands. But there is
no one left to receive and properly preserve perishable specimens which
may be left at the Museum, no taxidermist or articulator to set up the

146 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

materials already accumulated. For years past an immense amount of
material illustrating the natural history of these islands must have come
into the hands of the Museum authorities, but without means, no
Curator can do anything in the way of preserving and suitably exhi-
biting such materia], and so its educational value is entirely lost. The
collections of the geological survey alone are mostly stored in boxes
where no one ever sees them.

Another direction in which the action of the present House and
Government will be critically surveyed both within and outside the
Colony is in its bearing towards the proposed Antarctic Exploration
expedition, The important additions to be made to a knowledge of the
unknown regions surrounding the South Pole will hardly commend
themselves to our present rulers as a raison d@’ étre for the proposed
expedition. But the possibilities of opening up valuable whale and
other fisheries which from their geographical position would probably
be largely controlled from New Zealand ports is an argument which
may carry considerable weight.

We hear sinister rumours about the intention of certain Hon.
members to move in the direction of repealing the New Zealand
Institute Act. The total cost to the Colony under this Act is a sum of
£500 voted annually for the publication of the volume of its Tran-
sactions. We venture to affirm that there are few amounts for which
the Colony gets better value, and which bring equal credit on the
community. The suppression of the annual vote would be stigmatised
and properly so, as the result of ignorance.

There have been already, on the part of the so-called “labour”
representatives in the present House, indications that they will give
careful consideration to questions of the nature hinted at above. ‘lhe
real danger to enlightened administration does not, however, lie so
much with this class as with that very considerable section of “clap-
trap” politicians, who will do anything to catch a little cheap applause,
and who are the most dangerous class when questions of education
and science are concerned.

SOURCE OF THE GOLD AT THE THAMES.

BY CAPTAIN F. W. HUTTON, F.G.S.

The geological structure of the Thames district is as follows:—
A sedimentary formation composed of dark coloured sandstones and
slates, which are not younger than Triassic, is overlain quite uncon-
formably by a younger volcanic formation, in which all the gold
mines are situated. So far nearly all New Zealand geologists are in
agreement; but opinions differ as to whether any Tong ‘interval of
time separates the volcanic rocks into two distinct series, the older of
which is alone auriferous, or whether all should be considered as -
parts of one series.

SOURCE OF THE GOLD AT THE THAMES 147

The gold appears to have come out of the volcanic rocks and not
to have been introduced from below through lodes traversing the old
sedimentary rocks. The reasons for this opinion are (1) that after
nearly forty years’ prospecting auriferous reefs have only been found
in the volcanic series or in the slates immediately in contact with them.
(2) The gold veins are often small, irregular and branching, some-
times only a quarter-of-an-inch thick, and often die out. They very
rarely lead into large reefs, and when they do so, these large reefs are
barren. (3) The amount of gold in the veins varies with the state of
decomposition of the country rock, the ves in decomposed rock
being richer than those in undecomposed rock. This being so it will
be interesting to see what process of decomposition has gone on in
the rocks, which has resulted in concentrating gold in the veins.

The volcanic rocks themselves were originally lava streams of
that variety called andesite. They consisted of a ground-mass, partly
- glassy and partly stony, containing abundance of fine grains of mag-
netite and crystals of titaniferous iron-ore. In this ground-mass were
larger crystals of lime and soda felspars and of some ferro-magnesian
minerals, usually augite alone, but sometimes with hypersthene in
addition, and more rarely hornblende. When fresh the rocks are
dark grey to black in colour, and a close inspection shows the small
white crystals of felspar embedded in the dark ground-mass. Small
patches of these undecomposed rocks are still found here and there,
but the mass of the rocks are now soft and light coloured, grey or
greenish, or occasionally red. The criginal dark colour of the rocks
was due to the iron ores and ferro-magnesian minerals they contained,
and the change of colour is due to the decomposition of these
minerals. In some places the magnetite has been changed into
hematite and the rock has become red, as between the Karaka and
Hape ereeks, but this change is comparatively rare. In nearly all
eases the ferro-magnesian minerals—Augite, Hypersthene, and Horn-
blende,-—have been altered into chlorite, and this newly formed
chlorite was also often deposited as infiltrations in the ground-mass,
giving the rocks a green colour. In some rocks the decomposition
has gone no further, but in others another change took place the
felspars being decomposed into quartz, calcite, and kaclin, while the
chlorite was gradually dissolved out, leavitig the rocks nearly white,
but coloured grey by small specks of iron ore. At the same time the
titaniferous iron ore was changed into an opaque white mineral called
leucoxene, giving the rock a spotted appearance. In some cases a
still further change took place, the iron oxides being hydrated and
gradually removed, and the calcite leached out, leaving nothing but
quartz, kaolin, leucoxene, and pyrites.

‘The first series of changes took place at depths sufficiently great
to be beyond the direct action of surface agents, and was probably
produced by the percolation of warm acidulated water. The second
set of changes were no doubt due to the direct action of cold carbo-
nated surface water in limited quantity; and the third set of changes
to the same agent but in much larger quantity. ‘The second and
third set of changes would be gradually brought about by the
removal of the overlying rocks by denudation. The first series of

148 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

shanges is probably connected with the volcanic action which caused
the eruption of the lava streams.

The pyrites found in the rocks was probably formed while the
first series of changes was going on, but would be quite independent
of them. Pyrites is never found as an original mineral in lava
streams, but is always formed subsequently trom the magnetite by
the passage of sulphuretted hydrogen through the rock.

The gold occurs in the veins in four different ways (1) in auri-
ferous pyrites, (2) scattered in small erains through massive quartz,
(3) in threads or scales between the points of quartz crystals in comby
veins, the quartz at the base of the crystals being often stained red,
and (4) in calcite, but only very rarely. It is never found enclosed
in a quartz crystal. The aurifercus veins usually contain abundance
of pyrites, but other sulphides—-stibnite, blende, arsenical-pyrites, and
copper-pyrites—are in small quantity only, and these have been
introduced subsequently to the gold. The carbonates of lime and iron
have also been introduced into the veins after the quartz.

Now how far do these facts of decomposition of the rocks and of
precipitation in the veins tally with each other? The first change in
the rocks was the conversion of the ferro-magnesian constituents into
chlorite. Now these minerals are anhydrous bisilicates of lime,
magnesia, and iron, with some alumina; while chlorite is a hydrous
magnesian unisilicate with some alumina. Consequently in the
process of transforming augite into chlorite; silica, lime, and some
iron must have been liberated; and we can easily conceive that
the lime, being soluble, was entirely removed, while the silica and the
iron might have been deposited in the fissures and the iron converted
into pyrites by sulphuretted hydrogen. And if the ferromagnesian
minerals originally contained gold it might have been in part
removed and deposited with the pyrites. During the second series
of changes, which I have described, no more iron would be removed,
but the whole of the chlorite with the remaining gold would be
dissolved with the silica of the felspars and auriferous quartz would be
deposited in the veins. If the decomposition of the felspars took
longer than that of the chlorites, which is very probable, pure
crystallised quartz might subsequently be deposited on the auriferous
quartz. In the third series of changes the carbonates, which had
been formed during the second series of changes, would be dissolved
and part may have been deposited occasionally on the quartz.

It will be thus seen that the two sets of facts tally very well, but
there is no apparent reason why the sulphides of antimony, zinc,
arsenic, and copper, should haye been formed subsequently to the
pyrites. Absence of gold in the well crystallised quartz shews that
silica continued to be removed after all the gold had gone; and we
might account for the fine threads and scales of gold between the points
of quartz crystals by supposing that during the second or third series
of changes, the auriferous pyrites in the veirs was, in some places,
dissolved and that the gold was redeposited, while the sulphur and
most of the iron was removed as sulphate of iron, nothing but red
stains being left behind.

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REMARKABLE HAILSTORM. T49

The only assumption that has been made is that the ferro-
magnesian minerals originally contained gold, and this assumption is
warrantable because, both in Europe and in North America, gold and
silver as well as many other metals have actually been found to exist
in small quantity in these ferromagnesian minerals, and Mr. Becker
has shewn, almost conclusively, that the gold of the Comstock lode
has been derived from them. If this hypothesis is the true one for
the Thames, I should expect that, as the whole of the gold in the
veins in the hard dark rocks is due to the first set of changes, it would
exist chiefly as auriferous pyrites, while in the softer and more decom-
posed rocks more gold would be added in auriferous quartz without
pyrites. This however is based on the supposition that the gold has
not travelled far in the fissures, which may be incorrect. Another
deduction from the hypothesis is that the pyrites in the rock, away
from the veins, is non-auriferous, for it is formed directly from the
magnetite, while the auriferous pyrites has been formed from iron
origizally in the ferro-magnesian minerals, part of which may
however have been subsequently deposited as secondary magnetite. —

THE REMARKABLE HAILSTORM AT OWAKA,
IN JANUARY LAST.

BY J. T. BRYANT.

+

An extraordinary hailstorm 4ook place on the 23rd January, 1891,
at Owaka, Clutha County, Otago, N.Z. The storm covered ground
about 16 miles long by from half-a-mile to a mile wide. It commenced
at the head of the valley and travelled down to the sea. At the head
of the valley the hail began to descend first, and fell in large lumps like
potatoes, about 33 inches long by 24 inches; as they fell on the soft
ground they buried themselves. When they fell on grassy land they
rebounded several feet into the air, and when they fell on corrugated
iron roofs they broke through or split the iron open. One place was
seen where the iron overlapped and the two parts were cracked. As
the storm came down the valley, the pieces of ice diminished in size but
increased in number and quantity until it reached the lower part, where
I observed it. Here, after the storm, I picked up several pieces and
found them to be from 4} to 5} inches in circumference, but the
greater number were about the size of a blackbird’s egg, and when split
open showed a core about the size of a pea, with three and sometimes
four distinct coats surrounding it.

At the head of the valley the pieces of ice lay on the ground like
potatoes on a newly dug field, and little or no damage was done to the
crops there ; but where the storm passed over the forest it broke off the
small branches of the trees. The greatest damage was done in the
lower part of the valley where the standing crops of oats were beaten
down and not one stalk left standing. The edge of the storm where it

I50 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

went through a field was quite distinct. In two cases the farmer
afterwards reaped the one-half of the field not so severely affected.

For two or three days previously the weather had been very warm.
At 3.30 p.m. on the 23rd, black clouds began to gather and thunder to
roll, in half-an-hour more the thunder commenced to rattle incessantly
and so continued for an hour. I saw no lightning except a brown
flash or two, as if a bird had flown swiftly by; but the lghtning
showed itself in large sheets in the next valley, five miles north, where
no hail fell.

The thunder advanced until it was nearly over head, but it seemed
a great many miles off. Long banks of clouds came from the east and
then ascended straight up. About 5 p.m. I could see the storm coming
down the valley. Presently it reached the house. The view of all
objects a hundred yards distant was shut out by the downpour of
hailstones ; they battered the roof as if determined to crush it down;
they struck the panes of glass in the windows and hurled the fragments
across the room. The noise was terrific. We placed the children in
the strongest room in the house, for we momentarily expected the roof
to be crushed in. The ground outside was white with hail; streams of
water rushed wildly in all directions, for it was the middle of summer
and the ice melted as it fell. Im about twenty minutes the storm had
passed. Heaps of ice lay in various places from 15 to 20 inches deep.
The largest pieces of ice appeared to be made up of several smaller ones
frozen together for they were of very irregular shape. I send a rough
map of the district with the course of the storm outlined, showing the
place of greatest density. There was no wind. The largest pieces of
ice were not cubical ; they were flattish, long, and broad, but not very
deep. Some were clear, and others milky-white. There had been a
heavy shower of rain early in the morning.

From the evidence, collected from half-a-dozen reliable men and
from the position of the broken oat stalks, as well as from my own
observation, I feel inclined to the following theory :—

The cloudy envelope over the valley became charged with electricity
to an extraordinary degree, until it became an electric storm which
began to circle round ‘and to ascend into very high regions, carrying
with it masses of vapour. The higher masses of vapour were first
converted into ice-drops; these were dashed together and congealed,
forming the largest ice pieces. The lower masses of vapour were then
changed into hail. The largest pieces being the first formed were the
first to fall, increasing their size as they fell through those below. The
smaller hail came from the centre of the storm nearest to the earth.
The whole must have resembled the figure usually given of a water-
spout ; but in this case the water was turned into ice-drops.

[Mr. Bryant’s interesting account is drawn partly from his own
observations, and in part from the evidence of a number of settlers in
the Owaka district who were eye-witnesses of, and in some cases,
sufferers by the storm, viz.:—Rev. W. G. McLaren, Messrs. Morton
(who was at the head of the valley and measured the hailstones just
after they fell), McCalman, junr., Clapperton, Todd, Dalton, Young,
and others. A correspondent of the Clutha Leader says :—“The iron

FRESH-WATER MUSSELS. I51

roof of Mr. Brugh’s wool-shed was riddled. Mr. Garry had also 21
holes made in his iron roof by the hail.” In Mr, Jno. Thomson’s house
a new iron roof measuring 43 feet by 36 feet had 53 holes knocked
through it. Mr. Morton reports having measured a piece of ice which
fell that day, and which was 12 inches long by 5 inches broad—
thickness not given. He also says—“‘I measured a number of hail-
stones which averaged 3} inches in diameter.” Owing to the warning
given by the dense gathering of the clouds and the preliminary thunder
neither people nor cattle were hurt, as all had time to get under shelter.
—Ep1r. |

THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE
FRESH-WATER MUSSELS.

BY DR, H. VON JHERING, OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL.

(From “Das Ausland fiir Erd-und Vélkerkunde,” 1899, Stuttgart).

——————_—-+——-“—

The exchange of mammals between North and South America
took place only towards the end of the tertiary period. The Old
World with North America seems to be the land where the placental
mammals originated ; those families which are characteristic of South
America, especially the Rodentia, oceurred in early tertiary times
only in Kurope not in North America, and South America, therefore
must have obtained its original stock of mammals from the Old
World. The subsidence of the old communicating bridge (the
Atlantis) and the continuance of the central-American sea up to the
end of the tertiary epoch gave, in consequence of the long isolation,
the peculiar character to the South American fauna. The littoral
marine mollusca will in time help to identify the extension of the still
fabulous Atlantis. The number of molluscs already known from
South America and the Antilles on one side, from the Mediterranean
and West coast of Africa on the other side, is already considerable.
Recently some Nudibranchiate, hitherto known only from the Medi-
terranean and the East Atlantic Ocean, have been found: Doris
verrucosa on the coast of Brazil by myself, and Zethys leporina in the
Gulf of Mexico by Bergh.

The geographical distribution, together with the geological
appearance and distribution of the mammals during the tertiary
period gives an excellent opportunity for ascertaining the distribution
of land and water during that period. But for the Secondary epoch,
when there were hardly any placental mammals, these means are of
no avail. Here the fauna of the fresh-water may help us. On study-
ing the fresh-water fishes with regard to their distribution it is
surprising to find that they show quite different geographical regions
to those of the land-fauna. A map of the different regions of fresh-
water fishes has quite another aspect than one on which Wallace’s
regions of the land-fauna are entered.

152 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

This fact has hitherto been much neglected, nor has it been
satisfactorily explained. Is it not surprising in the highest degree to
see on such a map Chile and Patagonia separated from the remaining
part of South America, and united with New Zealand? We shall see
that the fresh-water mollusca show a similar appearance. And yet
the explanation is not difficult to be given. The study of the fresh-
water mollusca shows that the earliest paleontological genera are at
the same time cosmopolitan or most widely distributed in all parts of
the earth and on ey, of the larger islands, the genera Planorbis,
Physa, Linnea, and Ancylus are found.

All these genera appear already in the Jura, partly even in the
the Carboniferous and represent the oldest, paleozic fresh-water fauna.
The genus Unio shows very much the same distribution, appearing
also already in the Jura formation, whilst all the genera of the
Najace, coming into existence much later, have a perfectly different
geographical distribution. Especially Anodonta, which appears only
in the tertiary period, and Ampullaria and its nearest allies show a
much narrower distribution, they are missing both in Chile and West
Peru as well as in New Zealand and Australia. When these genera
originated and began to spread, there was evidently no land-com-
munication between the Asiatic continent and its islands, and
Australasia. The numerous species of those genera could therefore
not reach Australia and New Zealand.

A similar case lies before us in the fresh-water fauna of Chile
and Peru, which shows the old fresh-water genera, but not the
younger genera Ampullaria and Anodonta.

Besides some widely distributed genera, the family of the Vajadu
has a number of smaller genera, some of them inhabiting Africa, but
the greater number South America. Of the latter belong to the
Anodonta group: Aplodon, Spix (Monocondylea), Mycetopus and
Columba (Leila) ; to the Unio group: Hyria, Castalia and Castalina.

All the Najade of South America just mentioned are nearly
related, as shown by the mode of hatching the embryos. The South
American embryos are developed in the internal branchix, whilst the
European Najade hatch their larve in the external branchie.
Nothing is known of the development of the African Najade.
Perhaps they will show some of the peculiarities of the South
American Najade.

The distribution of the genera of the Najade over South America
is very peculiar. West of the Andes, in Peru and Chile, the genus
Unio alone is found, which occurs also everywhere in the eastern
parts. In the latter parts of South America we find in addition the
afore-mentioned genera, peculiar to this country.

Previous to the upheaval of the Andes, in the place of the Chile
of to-day, there must have been land in existence richly provided with
fresh water; which is proved by the genera of fresh-water animals
common to Chile and La Plata. The fauna of the La Plata and Rio
Grande do Sul waters is much richer than that of Chile, but the
genera of the latter are also found east of the Andes. Amongst the
Najade is :—

FRESH-WATER MUSSELS. 153

Unio auratus, from Chile, closely allied to Unio rhuacoicus of Uruguay

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5 atratus hai A e », lepidior “
s) montanus 4, ,, i is , Beskeanus of 8. Paulo.

They are so nearly allied that the question may be raised whether
they belong to one species or not.

Of Crustacea, Parastacus and dglea levis are common to Chile
and Rio Grande do Sul, the latter having in both places the parasite
Temnocephala. Most important is the relation between the La Plata
and Chile fauna. The upheaval of the Andes in the beginning of the
tertiary period divided a formerly united territory into two parts,
between which no more exchange was possible. The genera and
species common to both parts represent the original stock of fresh-
water animals, but what is only found in Eastern South America
represents the tertiary addition, coming from the East.

All we know about fossil fresh-water mollusca confirms this
hypothesis. The only genus of the Najade reaching far in the
Secondary epoch is the genus Unio, and this is the most widely
distributed, the only one really cosmopolitan. As in Chile, no
Anodonta have been found in Australia and New Zealand, nor
Ampullaria either, though this genus is nowhere missing from the
Philippine Islands to Brazil. Dr. Giinther unites the fresh-water
fishes of Chile and New Zealand in one region; the study of the
Najade confirms it. Unio mutabilis, Lea, found in New Zealand and
Australia, has its nearest ally in Unio auratus of Chile.

The absence of alligators and turtles from Western South
America can only be explained by their immigration having taken
place in tertiary times. As in Vajade there is also a very great
difference in the Chelonia of North and South America. A fauna
common to North and South America does not exist, but on the
contrary only the greatest contrasts. This fact can only be
understood by admitting a separation up to the end of the tertiary
epoch.

The iresh-water fishes of North America are those of the
palearctic region; but the Charucinide, Chromide, &c., of South
America have their representatives in Africa, There must have been
land communication between Africa and South America. The
African Testudo sulcata is also found in Patagonia.

Of the Pontaderiv, common in South Amertea, not only several
genera, but also one species, Hichhornia natans, occur in tropical
Africa, besides Pistia stratiotes, Lemna polyrhiza and other Brazilian
water-plants. The world-wide distribution of many species of water-
plants, from East Prussia to Australia, and from South America to
East India could not be understood if we did not suppose that they
are very old forms, existing already in the Secondary period, and
whose distribution occurred at a time when the now separated
continents were continuous.

The marine littoral mollusca of Hast and West America consist,
with the exception of one Siphonaria and Cuspidaria patagonica, of
quite different species and partly of different genera.

154 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

It seems that during the Secondary period there were four more
or less continuous lands; three archi-continents formed, an arctic,
an antarctie and a tropic atlantic. The first is identical with Heil-
prin’s holarctic region. The connexion between Europe and North
America must have been more extended, whilst there was, up to the
tertiary period, no land communication ‘with South America, or at
least only formed by a number of islands.

The connexion between South America and Africa seems to be
confirmed also by the as yet but little studied Majade. The African
Iridina end Spatha have their nearest allies in Mycetopus and Anodonta
of South America. Jridina, or similar forms, are also found in the
eocene fresh-water deposits of Brazil, which very likely are erroneously
considered by White as cretaceous. Even in Australia and Asia we
find a Mycetopus or allied genus. Those fragile, elongated, iridina-like
forms are therefore those which appear next to Unio. Their scanty
distribution in Australia and absence from New Zealand and Chile
show that the land-bridge which once existed between Australia and
the Indo-Malayan territory disappeared during, or shortly after, the
cretaceous epoch, at which time the immigration of Mycetopus had
taken place. Had it been longer in existence, Australia would also
have received a stock of placental mammals! The tertiary genera of
the Najade and the Ampullarie could therefore not reach Australia
nor New Zealand.

Many observations on the structure of the umbo seem to prove a
near connexion between the African and South American Unio, but
only the examination of the animals can soive the question.

Additional to the archiboreal and archiatlantic continents there
would be the archiaustral continent, reaching from Chile over New
Zealand to Australia.

The study of the fresh-water fauna will help us principally or
perhaps exclusively to gain a proper knowledge of the geographical
distribution of the organisms during the Secondary epoch as weli as
for the distribution of land and water during that period.

ON THE GREAT OAR-FISH.*

BY H. O. FORBES.

On the morning of the 28th of May I received a note from Mr.
Warnes, the fishmonger, requesting me to inspect a curious fish
caught in Okain’s Bay, Banks Peninsula, on the 26th, and which he
was bringing up to town that day. On its arrival in Christchurch in
the afternoon I found the fish to be a species of Regalecus, or oar-fish
of unusually large proportions.

Regalecus is a genus of fishes belonging to the family Trachyp-
teride, or rvibbon-fishes. According to Dr. Giinther, of the British

* A paper communicated to the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury.

ON THE GREAT OAR-FISH. 155

Museum, they “are true deep sea fishes, met with in all parts of the
ocean, generally found when floating dead on the surface or thrown
ashore by the waves. Their body is like a band, specimens from 15
to 20 feet long being only from 10 to 12 inches deep, and about an
inch or two broad at their thickest part. The eye is large and
lateral; the mouth small, armed with very feeble teeth, or altogether
wanting them; the head deep and short. A high dorsal fin runs
along the whole length of the back, and is supported by extremely
numerous and fragile rays; its foremost portion on the head is
detached from the rest of the fin, and is composed of very elongate
flexible spines.’ There is no anal fin. The ventral fins are reduced
to a single long filament, terminating in an oar-blade-like expansion.
The coloration of the body is of a beautiful glistening hue, like frosted
silver, admirably set off by the rich rosy red colour of their dorsal
and ventral fins. Black spots and irregular streaks, especially in the
front part of the body, contribute their share toward the effective
adornment of this singular fish. “At what depth Ribbon-fishes live
is not known; probably the depths vary for different species, but
although none have yet been obtained by means of the deep sea
dredge, they must be abundant in all oceans, as dead fishes, or
fragments of them, are frequently obtained. There is no doubt that
fishes with such delicate appendages as their crest and ventral fins,
are bred and live in depths where the water is absolutely quiet, as a
sojourn in the disturbed water of the surface would deprive them at
once of organs which must be of some utility for their preservation.”
The Oar-fishes are the largest of the deep-sea fishes known. They
derive their name from the singular form of their ventral fins, which
reduced to one long slender and fragile filament, terminating in
an oar-bladelike expansion which, projecting from its sides for a
distance, in our specimen, of nearly 3 feet, are functionally useless.

The fegaleci, or Oared-Ribbon fishes, have been taken in the
Mediterranean, in the North and South Atlantic, and in the Indian
oceans; in Australian waters, one has been taken off the coast of
Victoria, and several on the shores of this colony; but they are very
scarce, not more than twenty captures having been recorded from
England in the space of a century and a-half, and not more than
thirteen from the coasts of Norway. ‘The present specimen is the
tenth caught in New Zealand. I take from a paper read before the
Otago Institute by Professor Parker, F.R.S., who has compiled a list
of these captures up to the date of his communication, describing the
eighth species taken on our coast, the following notes :—Of these ore
was captured at Nelson in 1860, a second at Jackson’s Bay in 1874,
another (Regalecus pacificus, Haast) which is now in the Canterbury
Museum, as well as a drawing of it by Dr. Powell, was caught at New
_ Brighton in 1876; a fourth was cast ashore on Little Waimangarao

beach, on the West Coast of the South Island; a fifth (2. banksir) at
Cape Farewell in 1877; the sixth was thrown on the shore near
Moeraki about the year 1881, and near the same place the seventh
also (Regalecus argenteus, Parker) on the 14th June, 1883, whose
skeleton is now in the British Museum, South Kensington; the
eighth—a specimen of the same species—2ame ashore in Otago
Harbour about ten miles north of Dunedin, on June 3rJ. 1837, aud

156 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

is now in the Otago Museum, while the ninth was taken in Nelson
Harbour on the 23rd September, 1890. Of the fewer than twenty
specimens captured in England, eleven are referable, the same author
observes, to a single species (Legalecus banksii), while one is assigned
to Regalecus grilu. The specimen captured in May, 1878, between
Victoria and Tasmania has been identified by Sir Fred. McCoy as
Regalecus banks. Taking as our guide, however, the key to the
species of Regalecus given by Professor Parker in vol. xvi. of the
“Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,’ it ought, it would
appear, to bear the name of A. grillit, on account of the number of
its dorsal fin rays. This specimen has been described and figured by
Sir Frederick in the fifteenth decade of the Prodromus of the Zoology
of Victoria. After a carcful comparison of the descriptions and figures
of the species of Regalecus known to me, I have come to the conclusion
that the species that has been exhibited during the past week in Christ-
church is identical with that taken off the Australian coast, viz., to
the species described by Lindroth, under the name of Regalecus grillit.
In an addendum to his paper in the twentieth volume of the
“Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,” Professor Parker, who
while writing his excellent monograph on &. argenteus, gave the
literature of the subject his careful attention, writes :—“ Everything
seems to lead to the conclusion that most of the supposed species of
Regalecus are identical, and that the more recent specific names
(including argenteus) will have to give way, probably in favour of
Ascanius’s original name glesne.” The synonomy of the species is
rather involved, and the works necessary to its elucidation are not
within my attainment here. Professor Parker’s opinion, however, is
entitled to very great weight, and the observations on the present
specimen tend to support it. This new specimen, therefore, ought
strictly to be denominated &. glesne; but for the present I shall
speak of it under the name &, grilli, to indicate that in my opinion it
belongs to the same species as Lindroth described.

This fish had been exhibited in Lyttelton, I believe, befcre being
brought to Christchurch, and had unfortunately, in its various
transports, and perhaps also in its capture—for it was still alive
when caught—suffered to some extent. It had lost much of its
brilliant colouring, and most of the singular rays of its crest, as well
as received damage to the long rays of the ventral fins. With
these exceptions, however, the specimen was a particularly fine and
complete one. The Regalect beg deep sea denizens are generally
found to have suffered on approaching the surface, from the expansion
of their internal gases, consequent on the diminution of pressure;
but the specimen under description showed no signs of any “loosening
or tearing of its ligaments and tissues,’ by its ascent to the surface of
the sea.

The name Regalecus means King of the Herrings, because one of
the earliest specimens taken on the British coast was first seen on the
“herring ground,” and being of a silvery hue, as is also the herring,
the fishermen imagined they had discovered a mighty herring.

It has been supposed that the Sea Serpents so often observed,
but never caught, may probably be specimens of great oar-fishes

ON THE GREAT OAR-FISH. 157

swimming near the surface, a supposition I do not myself feel
inclined to subscribe to.

The following notes were drawn up under considerable dis-
advantages, owing to the fish being under exhibition at the time,
and that in a very badly-lighted room. I had to write amidst a
talkative crowd, while my observations were confined to the one side
—naturally the best—exposed to the public. Imperfect as they may
be, I lay them before the Institute as a contribution toward our
better knowledge—still very imperfect—of this rare genus of fishes.

It is remarkable that all the New Zealand specimens have been
found on the South Island; and like all the other specimens,
European or New Zealand, (except the Nelson Harbour one, which
was a male), whose sex has been determined, the present is a female,
and it has occurred on our shores at the same period of the year (the
Spring and early winter), as they have invariably done.

Tn order to facilitate comparison with the observations recorded
by Prof. Parker in the Transactions of this Institute for 1887, I shall
arrange my notes under the same heads and in the order adopted by
him.

Size, Proportions and Number of Pin Rays.—It will be seen from
the accompanying measurements that the present is the largest
specimen of Megalecus yet taken on the coast, its length being 18 feet
10 inches, with its protrusile mouth not extended. It is probable,
however, that it does not exceed by much the length attained by
Prof. Parker’s Otago Harbour specimen when complete. This
Specimen was broken across, and he conjectures that it was most
likely about 17 feet in length. Its ribbon-like form is indicated by
the proportion of its height to its length, which was 4, the New
Brighton specimen was 74, the Moeraki specimen, sent to London,
a> while the Victorian specimen was still more band-like, its height
being only 5}, of its total length. The Otago harbour specimen is
given as 7, but if this were corrected for the length that the fish is
conjectured, as stated above, to have reached, the proportion of
height to length would closely approximate to that of the Okain’s Bay
example. In this specimen the neck crest is damaged, and a gap
occurs in the dorsal fin, so that it is difficult, with absolute accuracy,
to determine the number of fin rays. Taking 14, the number given
by Professor Parker in the Otago Harbour specimens, as the probable
number here, these were succeeded by 221 rays anterior to the gap,
_ in which 17 were made out,—but there may have been one more,—and
succeeded by 170 more to the termination of the tail, giving in all
422, which comes very close to the number recorded by Lindroth in
R. Grillii, and by Professor McCoy in the Victorian specimen, which
is 423.

Tail.—tIn the present specimen the tail is almost perfect, a mere
fraction only being possibly absent. It terminates in a point, and is
curved upwards for its terminal few inches. The dorsal fin extended,
Iam convinced, to, but it did not pass, I am certain, the extreme
point. Its fin rays have been broken off for the last few inches, but
with a magnifying glass it was possible to detect their broken
extremities. There is, therefore, no caudal fin. There is no sign

158 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

of any old fracture having at any time taken place, as the body
eraduates gently from head to tail. It would seem, therefore, that
the supposition that the end of the tail “has been lost as a useless
appendage at a much earlier period of the life of the fish,’ which has
arisen from the circumstances that these fishes are so often found in
a truncated condition, is probably groundless, and their mutilation is
merely the result of accident. Moreover as the stomach has an
extraordinary cxcal prolongation which extends for many feet behind
the anus, it is evident that a loss of any considerable length of its tail
would probably be fatal to the fish.

Colour and Markings.—In general appearance the fish presented,
on its arrival in Christchurch, numerous bright silvcry patches, and
indications that this colour had covered the whole general surface of
the fish. These patches were eventually lost, and the fish assumed a
light greyish colour. Its crest, its dorsal, pectoral, and ventral fins
had faded to a dark salmon red colour. In some lights it could be
detected that dark spots and stripes had been dispersed over the
anterior part of the body, but they had almost faded out at the date
of examination. As to their number, form, and situation, I can,
therefore, speak with no certainty. On the sides of the body there
are five (5) well-defined black bars or ridges, running longitudinally.
These bands on examination proved to be composed of raised
tubercles, and they are distinctly separated by interspaces, which
in the fresh fish would be bright silvery stripes, quite free of
tubercles, as a sensitive finger passed along them discovers only the
very finest skin granulations. Above the uppermost of these bars,
and separated by a smooth interspace, a broader tuberculated band
extends up to the base of the dorsal fin. The tubercles in this band
are not so rough as on the lateral bars. Toward the tail and at a
few feet anterior to it these bars become lost, and exchange their
dark colour for a silvery white. The second, which is the most
prominent of all, runs furthest along the body and is finally lost at
two feet from the tail, where the tuberculation entirely ceases and the
rest of the body is soft and glistening. The first true bar and the
sub-dorsal fin-band pass forward, which is not the case with the
others, and terminate the front of the head above the anterior margin
of the eye. The lateral line cuts the second, third, and fourth true
bar (or ridge) a little posterior to the head margin of the operculum,
while the fifth follows the lateral line for a great part of its length.
The ventral surface is very roughly tuberculated, rougher than any
other part of the body, the tubercles presenting a suspicion of points.
Behind the anus the surface is very dark coloured, and was probably
black in the living fish.

in its internal anatomy this oar-fish agreed so closely with that
already described as to require no further remark here. The liver,
however, must arrest the attention of anyone opening the body of
Regalecus by its pink colour, From this organ, when placed in spirit,
escaped a very large quantity of a deep salmon-coloured oil. In the
ovaria there were very minute ova, but, as in all the other specimens
hitherto examined, they were unimpregnated, as the winter is
evidently not their breeding season.

The Regalecus has no teeth; and I found in the esophagus only a

VEGETATION OF LORD HOWE ISLAND. 159

gelatinous glairy fluid, mingled with a quantity of very fine grey
sand, whfle the food in the stomach consisted of finely-comminuted
matter, entirely structureless under the microscope. It is probable,
that Regalecus finds its food in the minute animal forms, or debris,
among the fine sand at the bottom of still, deep waters.

As was found in the gigantic skate recently thrown on the
Sumner coast, this Megalecus was infested to an extraordinary deeree
with intestinal worms, thousands extruding themselves from the
liver as it lay on the table. They were found in the exsophaeus also.
Perhaps these fishes become infested during the winter season with
those parasites, and in their desire to rid themselves, it may be that
they seek shallower water and are thus thrown on eur coasts, by
currents, in a dying state.

I have to record my thanks to Mr. Warnes and the syndicate
exhibiting this fish for their extreme courtesy and good nature in
allowing myself and my assistant to intrude on their show whenever
we desired, in order to make the notes recorded above, and especially
for their kindness in permitting us to remove the fish from its stand
for the purpose of obtaining a photograph of it.

I am indebted also to Mr. Sparks, the taxidermist of the
Museum, for his help and care in taking the measurements.

VEGETATION OF LORD HOWE ISLAND.

BY W. BOTTING HEMSLEY.
(From “ Nature,” April 16th, 1891).

$$ __ > —____

There is nothing absolutely new to announce concerning the
flora of this remote islet but what has been published in the form of
Government reports, which have a comparatively restricted circulation,
and many persons who would be interested in their contents are
unaware of their existence. And even when one knows of the exis-
tence of such reports, it is often difficult to procure them. Through
the intermediary of Sir Saul Samuel, Agent-General for New South
Wales, the library of the Royal Gardens, Kew, has just received a
copy of a report on the state and prospects of Lord Howe Island,
with a number of photographic illustrations of the scenery and vege-
tation of the island; and it is on account of these illustrations that I
have thought it worth while making known to the readers of Nature
the existence of such a report, though it was published as long ago as
1882. Unlike the majority of such documents, this report is too
meagre: “Thompson’s farm” and other matters being mentioned
and illustrated in such a manner as to take for granted an amount of
previous knowledge that very few readers could possibly have
possessed.

Although so remote and so small, Lord Howe island supports an
indigenous flora of a highly interesting character, especially inte-

160 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

resting because it includes some plants whose nearest allies are
natives of New Zealand. The island is about 300 miles from Port
Macquarie, the nearest point of the Australian mainland, in 31° 30’
S. latitude. It is seven miles long, with an average breadth of about
a mile, and the basalt mountains rise to a height of nearly 3000 feet.
The soil is fertile, and is, or rather was, everywhere covered with
vegetation. The scenery is beautiful; the climate is described as
unsurpassable, and a great future is predicted for the island as a
sanatorium, “when the Australian colonies become more densely
inhabited.” Without waiting for the time when Australia will be
crowded with inhabitants, Lord Howe Island might be made a
pleasant holiday resort, involving just enough of a sea voyage to be
exciting and exhilarating, and not long enough to be monotonous.

The most complete account of the flora yet published is by Mr.
Charles Moore, Director of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, N.S.W.,
though many of the new plants then —1869—collected by him have
since been published in various books and periodicals. The domi-
nating feature in the vegetation is composed of palms, of which there
are three or four species peculiar to this island—a condition of things
paralleled in remote insular floras only in the Seychelles. Next in
interest and prominence are the four or five endemic species of tree
ferns, which, however, we are informed, in the illustrated report
referred to, by the Hon. J. Bowie Wilson (botany by Mr. J. Duff),
are fast disappearing from the lowlands, and will soon be extinct if
their removal is not absolutely prohibited. In this connection one is
eratified to find both the chief of the Commission of Exploration, and
the botanist attached thereto, strongly urging the Government to
take active steps to preserve the beautiful vegetation of the island, and
especially to make no concessions, nor grant any leases that might
entail any further destruction of the woods. Commonest among
the other trees are [Zibiscus Patersonit, Myoporum acuminatum, and
Ochrosia elliptica—all three Australian trees ; one or more species of
Ficus, and one or more endemic species of screw-pine. One of the
vegetable wonders of the island is a huge banyan-tree (Micus sp.), said
to cover three acres of ground; but no particulars are given of this
remarkable tree, beyond a photograph of a portion of it. This is
rather disappointing, because of all the famous banyan-trees in India,
some of which are encouraged by artificial means in the development
of the aérial descending roots, which eventually become auxiliary
trunks, few surpass in size this one, on such a speck of an island.
The celebrated banyan between Poona and Kolapore, in the Bombay
Presidency, is, indeed, the only one, of which 1 have found a record,
that covers a greater area than the Lord Howe Island banyan, and
that, according to measurements given of the spread of its branches,
must cover between six and seven acres.

In striking contrast to the flora of Australia, the flora of Lord
Howe Island, like that of New Zealand, contains exceedingly few
species of the large natural order Leguminose. Out of five species
collected, three are common seaside plants that often establish
themselves on a shore from seeds cast up by the waves. Of the
other two, one belongs to the otherwise exclusively New Zealand
genus Carmichaelia, and the other, Sophora chrysophylla, is also a

THE BOTANY OF THE SNARES. 161

native of the mountains of the Sandwich Islands, and has hitherto
been found nowhere between these two distant parts of the immense
Pacific Ocean, and nowhere else in the world. From the foregoing
notes may be gathered what an interesting flora that of Lord Howe
Island is, and it is to be hoped that the recommendations of the
Commissioners for its preservation have been carried out by the
Government-of New South Wales.

THE BOTANY OF THE SNARES.*
BY. T, KIRK, FAL.S.

The Snares comprise several rocky islands situate on the 48th
parallel of south latitude and about 65 miles in a south-westerly
direction from the extreme southern point of Stewart Island. . Owing
to their being outside the direct track of vessels they are but ravely
visited, so that hitherto nothing has been known of their fauna or
flora. My visit was restricted to a few hours in January, 1890, whea
I was able to land on the largest island, which is of irregular outline
and about a mile and a half in its greatest diameter. The cliffs are
steep and lofty, but a good boat harbour exists on the north-east side.
The recks are granitic, and the greatest altitude does not exceed 480
feet. The rocks are everywhere covered with a deep layer of peat.

There is but little fresh water on the island; two small rills issuing
from swampy ground unite before reaching the cliffs, but the water is
undrinkable, being polluted by the penguins; and the few swamp-
plants that occur exist under difficulties, being continually flattened
under the broad feet of these birds, which abound everywhere, their
numbers being but little reduced by the predaceous sea-hawks, which
swoop down upon unguarded eggs or young birds, and are almost ready
to attack man himself,

The crested penguins (Hudyptes pachyrhynchus) exercise an injurious
effect upon large portions of the woody vegetation; they select sheltered
places with an open aspect, where they perch upon the trees in vast
numbers, forming Jarge ‘“‘rookeries” ; the trees thus honoured by their
presence are soon killed by their pungent ordure. Various petrels—the
“mutton-birds” of the Maoris—form their burrows amongst the roots
of the trees, and may be heard mewing and puling in all directions.
Several interesting land birds inhabit the island, the more noticeable
being the Auckland Island Snipe (Gallinago Aucklandica) ; the grass
bird (Spheneacus fulvus), although now rave on the mainland, was
frequent on this little island, and associated with a small robin (J/io
Traversii) ouly known elsewhere on the Chatham Islands. The
occurrence of birds with such weak power of flight on these lonely
islands is very suggestive.

The true fur-seal was formerly plentiful on the Snares, but has
almost become extirpated through the continuous visits of sealers, who
have unintentionally introduced a few plants from the mainland.

* From ‘The Journal of Botany.”

162 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

The greater portion of the island is covered with light and occa-
sionally open bush, which never exceeds thirty feet in height. Ina
few places a dense scrubby growth of Veronica elliptica, five to eight
feet high, requires some exertion to force one’s way through, the
difficulty being aggravated by the penguins, which make vicious snaps
at the legs, while the explorer is held fast by entangled branches above.
Usually a belt of open land covered with tussock occurs between the
bush and the margin of the cliff, and a few small open patches occur also
in the central parts of the island. In places where patches of bush have
been felled by sealers the ground is covered with a dense growth of
Veronica elliptica intermixed with tussock.

Approaching the island on a fine morning in January, the attention
is at once arrested by the peculiar grey or whitish hue of the foliage,
flecked here and there with green on the lower margin of the bush.
On landing this is found to arise from the abundance of Olearia Lyallit,
which is the principal tree on the island, and forms the greater portion
of the arboreal vegetation. When growing in level situations of an
open character it is a noble erect tree, with rather open spreading
branches ; but when growing on sloping hillsides exposed to the wind
it is often inclined, or with a prostrate trunk, the roots, partly from
the burrowing of the petrels, being torn out ; on the soil the branches
rooting at their tips give rise to new trunks, which in their turn are
brought to the ground and repeat the process. The short trunks are
sometimes three feet in diameter, but the majority were from one to
two feet, the extreme height of the tree rarely exceeding twenty-eight
feet.

The mature leaves of this fine tree are excessively rigid and
coriaceous, with a very short, almost sheathing petiole, orbicular-ovate
or broadly ovate, and abruptly acuminate, from three to seven inches in
length, white, with appressed tomentum on both surfaces, although that
on the upper surface usually disappears during the first winter. The
flower-heads are produced in terminal racemes from three to eight
inches in length, and are rayless; the rachis, peduncles, bracts, and
outer involucral leaves are clothed with close snow-white tomentum,
which forms a striking contrast with the almost black discoid heads,
mostly composed of perfect florets. The involucral leaves are arranged
in from five to eight series.

Although this fine plant differs widely in its general appearance
from O. colensot, it is difficult to point out good distinctive characters.
It diverges chiefly in the more open habit, stouter branches, broader
leaves with the pubescence partially persistent above, and especially in
the involucral leaves being arranged in from five to eight series ; the
last character alone being of any importance. The cultivator, however,
will always consider it distinct. It is restricted to the Snares and to
the Auckland Islands.

The patches of green amongst the white masses of the Olearia were
caused by another grand plant, Senecio Muellert T. Kirk,* a noble
species originally described from specimens collected on Herekopere
Island, but the specimens in the original habitat are not nearly so
large as those on the Snares, where it attains the extreme height of

* “Transactions of New Zealand Institute,” vol. xv., p. 359.

BOTANY OF THE SNARES. 163

twenty-six feet, with a short trunk two feet in diameter. The branches
are somewhat naked, so that the tree presents a straggling appearance,
but the handsome foliage and large terminal panicles of yellow flowers,
place it amongst the finest members of a large genus abounding in
grand species.

Veronica elliptica, which has been already mentioned, completes
the short list of ligneous plants ; it is, however, of a more robust form
than the plant found on Stewart Island and at the Bluff, the flowers
being larger, with pure white corollas, which are never pencilled or
streaked.

The open land is covered with tussocks of the fine grass Poa foliosa
Hook, f., a., freely interspersed with masses of Carex trifida, the largest
of the New Zealand specics ; a few small plants of no great importance
are hidden away in the hollows between them.

One of the most interesting plants in the island is Colobanthus
muscoides. Hook. f., which hitherto has been considered endemic on the
Auckland, Campbell, and Macquarrie Islands, where it is plentiful. It
is rare and local on the Snares, and appears to be confined to a small
swamp in the centre of the island, but its discovery extends its northern
range fuliy 150 miles ; subsequently I observed it on Antipodes Island,
which shows a still wider extension of its range in an easterly direction.
It forms rather large dense masses, the inner portion consisting of the
partially decomposed stems and leaves of old plants and the roots ot
young plants. ‘The seeds often germinate in the capsule, and it was no
uncommon thing to find capsuies still attached to the stem, and with
apparently perfect seeds embedded some three or four inches below the
surface of the mass, the old surface having become covered with a
growth of young plants too quickly to allow of the germination of the
buried seeds.

Another interesting plant was a new Ligusticum, which I have
named L. acutifoliwm; it was only observed in one place, at an altitude
of about 350 feet above sea level ; its stems below the leaves were
nearly as thick as a man’s wrist, the eutire plant being four feet high :
a description is appended.

The most striking herbaceous plant is undoubtedly the punui,
Aralia Lyall T. Kirk, var. robusta, the large orbicular leaves of
which are sometimes two feet in diameter. It differs from the typical
form in the absence of the remarkable stolons of that plant; in the
petioles being very stout, flat on the upper surface and convex beneath,
giving a plano-convex section ; and in being solid, or nearly so, instead
of terete, thin-walled, and fistulose. The flowers also, although forming
equally large masses with the type, are individually smaller, and
invariably of a pale dull yellow hue, never lurid; but there is no
structural difference, although it must be admitted that at first sight
the plant appears to differ widely from the type.

Lepidium oleraceum Forst. (‘ Cook’s scurvy-grass”) was found in
one or two places on the cliffs, associated with Myosotis capitate var.
albida, a form not infrequent on the cliffs of Stewart Island.

The only ferns collected were Lomaria dura Moore, Aspleniwm
obtusatum Forster, and Aspidium aculeatum Swartz, var. vestitum. It

164 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

had long been thought possible that tree-ferns might extend to the
Snares, but noone were observed. The extreme southern limit of tree-
ferns therefore is the South Cape of Stewart Island, in S. latitude
47° 20°, instead of 45° 50’, as usually stated in our text-books.

A few naturalised plants have been introduced by the sealers,
and four or five indigenous species from the mainland have become
established in the Snares by the same agency.

The total number of Phanerogams and Ferns observed in the
island was under thirty, but my visit was too brief to allow of an
exhaustive examination being made ; it is not probable that any large
number of species will be added.

Mosses are exceptionally rare; a few Lichens were observed, but
no Fungi or Hepatice. No opportunity of coliecting Marine Alge
was afforded.

I append a description of the more remarkable species :—

Ligusticum acutifolium, sp.n. A. stout herb 3-5 ft. high, root-
stock as thick asa man’s wrist. Leaves 2 ft. long or more, 6’—9”
broad, oblong, or ovate-oblong, tripinnate ; segments large, acute ;
petiole with the upper part of the sheath free, forming a ligule. Stem
stout, much branched; flowers not seen. Fruiting umbels 27-23”
diameter, compound, dense; carpels %;” long, exceeding the pedicels,
3-5 ribbed.

Hab. The Snares.

A handsome species, allied to LZ. intermediwm Hook, f. and L.
Lyallii Hook. f., but distinguished from the former by the ligulate
petiole, acute segments, smaller umbels, and shorter fruits ; from the
latter by the broad segments of the leaves and broad ligulate petiolate
sheath ; and from both alike by the absence of viscid, milky juice.
The sheathing bracts are leafy at the tips and unusually large, some-
times exceeding the flowering branches.

Aralia Lydlliit T. Kirk, var. robusta.—More robust and less hispid
than the type. Stolons absent. Petioles flat above, convex below,
solid or nearly so; teeth more strongly mucronate. Flowers smaller,
petals shorter, dull yellow.

Hab. The Snares.

The typical plant, which is found on Stewart Island and islands in
Foveaux Strait, has softer and more hairy foliage; terete, thin-walled,
fistulose petioles; lurid, purple flowers; stout stolons as thick as a
man’s finger, and which are at first erect. No difference is presented
in the form of the leaves, the curious tubular ligule at the base of the
petiole, nor in the structure of the fruit.

Deschampsia gracillima, sp. n.—An erect, tufted, glabrous species.
Culm very slender, 2’—5” high ; leaves involute, narrow, almost filiform,
sheaths slightly inflated ; ligule entire or lacerate. Panicle #’—2” long,
open ; branches few, capillary ; spikelets few, 2-flowered ; outer glumes
unequal, 5-nerved ; flowering glumes with a pencil of hairs at the base,
ovate, truncate, minutely 3—5-toothed, or else with a short dorsal awn
inserted just below the apex ; paler, minutely ciliated ; rachilla silky ;
lodicules 3; grain free.

BOTANY OF THE SNARES. 165

Hab. Carnley Harbour, Auckland Islands, 1,000 ft., 7. Kirk.

The flowering glumes in some instances are deeply and evenly
toothed, in others the teeth are shallow, or the margin is merely erose.
The lower flower is sessile within the outer glumes; the upper is
carried on a short stipe, which is invariably silky. The grain is very
large for the size of the flower.

Deschampsia Hookeri mihi.—Catabrosa antarctica Hook. f. Fl.
Antare. i. 102, t. 56; FI. N. Z. 1. 308; Handbook N. Z. Fl. 336; J.
Buchanan, Indig. Grasses of N. Z., t. 41. Zriodia, Benth. and Hook.
f. Gen. Pl. iii. 1176.

Mr. N. E. Brown having referred this plant to Deschampsia, Pal.,
in the Kew Herbarium, a new specific name is rendered necessary, the
one which it bears as a Catabrosa having been appropriated to a Chilian
species, Aira antarctica Hook. f., which has been removed to Des-
champsia by M. Desvaux. No name can be more appropriate than
that of its original discoverer.

Culms very slender, erect or decumbent, 3’-18” high. Leaves
involute, narrow or almost filiform, longer or shorter than the culms ;
sheaths slightly inflated, grooved; ligule very long and narrow. Panicle
very slender 2’-8” long, contracted or effuse ; branches capillary, often
trichotomous ; spikelets few, pedicillate, glistening, 2-flowered ; outer
gls. unequal, obscurely 3-nerved; flowering gl. ovate, truncate, minutely
toothed or erose, obscurely 5-nerved, with a short awn inserted im-
mediately beneath the apex or 0, or with the median nerve excurrent ;
palea equalling the flowering gl.; rachilla glabrous or silky, often
reduced to a mere point. Lodicules 3. Anthers very short and broad.
Grain free.

a. The larger outer glume equalling the lowest flower; pedicel of
upper fl. glabrous or with a few short hairs ; awn present or 0; rachilla
glabrous when present.

6. The larger outer glume half the length of the lowest flower,
pedicel of upper flower silky, awn usually present, rachilla silky.

Hab. Central mountain range of the north and south islands.
Antipodes island. Auckland Islands. Campbell Island. Sea level to
5,000 ft. Also in Chili.

This plant affords an instance of the difficulty attending the
limitation of the genera of Grasses, on account of the distinctive
characters being chiefly drawn from organs usually considered to be
of but secondary importance. In’ some states all the spikelets are
perfectly awnless; in others the awn is represented by the short,
excurrent, median nerve of the flowering glume alone, and when
present is never inserted below the middle of the glume ; all characters
in which it diverges from the typical form of Deschampsia. In some
instances the truncate flowering glume is minutely but distinctly
3-toothed, as in TZriodia Br., to which it is referred by the learned
authors of the Genera Plantarum; in others it is rather waved at the
margin than erose, with or without a minute projection of the median
nerve, and in this state may well be referred to Catabrosa Beauy., in
which it was originally placed by its discoverer, who evidently observed
the close general resemblance ot the flowers to those of Deschampsia.

166 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

It varies considerably in habit and stature, but in the fruiting
state the leaves are shorter than the culms, the panicle is usually effuse,
and the capillary branches rigid. Two forms are easily distinguished by
the relative lengths of the lowest flower and the largest outer glume, as
stated above ; the awn is usually situate just below the apex of the
flowering glume, and sometimes does not project beyond it, or but very
slightly, when it is liable to be mistaken for a prolongation of the median
nerve ; in most cases, however, it is well developed and unmistakable,
but it is rarely situate below the upper third of the glume and never
below the middle. In some panicles the upper flower is invariably
awned and the lower awnless ; but the panicles from the same plants
vary greatly in this respect. Another variable character is found in
the rachilla, which, in the form with small outer glume, is always
present and very silky, but is often wanting in the form with a large
outer glume, and when present is usually glabrous. A similar varia-
tion is seen in the pedicel of the upper flower, and in the presence
or absence of a small panicle of silky hairs at the base of either flower.
The grain is very large for the size of the flower.

I have for some years past distributed specimens of an elegant
form of this plant, with an elongated panicle and glumes of a faint
purplish hue, under the name of Zriodia antarctica Benth. and Hook.
f., var. purpurea ; and Mr. Petrie informs me that he has described a
similar plant, under the name of Deschampsia Chapmanii, but I have
not seen his description.

RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE FERN FLORA
OF NEW ZEALAND.

Nearly every volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand
Institute for the past ten or fifteen years has contained descriptions of
new species of plants, and among these new ferns have been frequently
included. When the present writer brought out his ‘ Ferns and Fern
Allies of New Zealand” in 1882, he felt compelled to reduce many of
these new species to the rank of mere varieties of already known forms,
a course which subjected him in certain quarters to considerable
obloquy. The latest number of the “Annals of Botany” contains the
first part of a paper* by Mr. J. G. Baker in which all new ferns which
have been discovered or described since 1874 are summarised. The
following notes are extracted from this paper and will enable collectors
of New Zealand ferns to reduce some of their aberrant forms to their
correct species. —G. M. T.

* “ A summary of the new Ferns which have been discovered or described since
1874,” by J. G. Baker, F.R.S., Keeper of the Herbarium, Royal Gardens, Kew,
‘Annals of Botany,” April, 1891, p. 181.

FERN FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 167

GLEICHENIA, Sm,

G. circinata, Sw. I cannot specifically separate G'. patens, Colenso,
in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1888, p. 212.

G. rupestris, R. Br., must evidently be placed as a mere variety of
G. circinata. (See also “Ferns and Fern Allies of N.Z.” p. 25).

G. littoralis, Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1883, p. 334, I cannot
separate from G. flabellata.

CyYATHEA, Sm.

C. medullaris, Sw. I cannot separate C. polynewron, Colenso, in
Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1878, p, 429.

C. dealbata, Sw. I cannot separate C. tricolor, Colenso, in Trans.
N.Z. Inst. xv., p. 304.
Hemrretia, R. Br.

HT, Smithit, Hook. I cannot separate H. stcl/ulata, Colenso, in
Trans. N.Z. Inst. 1885, p. 222.

HYMENOPHYLLUM, Smith.

HI, Armstrongii, Kirk ; Baker, in Hook, Ic., tab. 1614= H. mela-
nocheilos, Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii., p. 255, is the
same as Trichomanes Armstrongii, Baker, Syn. Fil. edit. 2,
p. 465.

H. polyanthos, Sw. I cannot separate! H. lophocarpum, Colenso, in
Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1884, p. 255.

H, villosum, Colenso ; Kirk, in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x., p. 395. Mid-
way between polyanthos and demissum, more deltoid in outline
than the former, with narrower segments and smaller sori.

H. montanum, Kirk, in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x., p. 394, tab. 21, fig.
IB enasaosos Like dwarf australe, with very jagged indusia.

H. demissum, Sw. I cannot separate H. megalocarpum, Colenso,
in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xv., p. 308.

H. erecto-alatum, Colenso, in Tran. N.Z. Inst., 1878, p. 431.—Not
seen. Said to come in between dilatatum and pulcherrimum.

H, rufescens, Kirk, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1878, p. 457, tab. 19, fig.
/\ 500800000 I am not sure that this is specifically distinct from
A. subtilissimum, Kunze.

H. tunbridgense, Sm. I cannot clearly separate H. pusillum, revo-
lutum or pygmeum, Colenso, New Zealand ferns described in
the Transactions of the N.Z. Inst. for 1879-1880.

TRICHOMANES, Linn.
T. venosum, R. Br. I cannot separate 7. venustulum, Colenso, in
Trans. N.Z. Inst. xii., p. 366.
Dicksonta, L’ Herit.

D, fibroxa, Colenso. I cannot separate specifically D. sparmanniana
Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1879, p. 363, nor D. microcarpa,

168 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1888, p. 214. The Chatham
Island Dicksonia is said to be intermediate between the Aus-
tralian antarctica and the New Zealand fibrosa.

D, squarrosa, Sw. I cannot separate specifically D. gracilis,
Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1882, p. 306.

DAVALLIA.

D. Tasmani, Cheeseman ; Field, Ferns of New Zealand, p. 75, tab.
24, fig. 5. Kermadec Islands, Cheeseman. Near pyxidata
and canariensis. One of the very few endemic plants of this
small group of islands,

CysTopTEeris, Bernh.

C. fragilis, Berh. I can only separate as geographical varieties
C. novae-zealandie, Armstrong, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1880, p.
360, and the Australian Woodsia lactivirens, Prentice.

Linpsaya, Dryand.

L. linearis, Sw. I can only separate as a slight variety L. trilobata,
Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1883, p. 345.

L. viridis, Colenso, Fil. Nov. Zeal. 14. Allied to LZ. microphylla,
Sw., from which it differs by much closer regularly cuneate
final segments, and sub-davallioid sori,

Apiantum, Linn.

A. diaphanum, Blume—A. heteromorphum, Colenso, Field, Ferns
N.Z., p. 80, is a variety, and I cannot separate specifically A.
polymorphum and A. tuberosum, Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst.,
1888, p. 215-217.

A, affine, Willd., var. entermedium, Benth., Fl, Austral. vii, p. 725,
Queensland and New South Wales, differs from the N.Z. type
by its transversely oblong sori; var. chathamicum, Field,
Ferns N.Z., p. 81, Chatham Island, is less compound than the
type, with longer final segments. See also var. heferophyllum,
Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1888, p. 218.

CHEILANTHES, Sw.

C. tenuifolia, Sw. It seems impossible to draw any definite line of
demarcation between tenurfolia and Siebert. I cannot separate
specifically C. Kirkw, Armst., in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1880, p.
36, non Hook., ...... (and) Pteris alpina, Field, Ferns of N.Z.
p- 97, tab. 98, fig. 3.

Preris, Lian,

P. eretica, (at. 3... I cannot specifically separate the N.Z. P. loma-
rioides, Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1880. p. 380; Field,
Ferns of N.Z, p. 91, tab 25, fig. 4.

P, macilenta, A. Cunn, I cannot separate specifically P. pendula,
Colenso, in Trans, N.Z. Inst., 1888, p. 218.

GENERAL NOTES. 169

Lomaria, Willd.

L. vulcanica, Blume. I cannot separate specifically L. paucijuga,
Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1888, p. 222.

L. lanceolata, Spreng. I cannot separate specifically L. aggregata,
Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1888, p. 223; Field, Ferns
N.Z., p. 103, tab. 29, fig. 7.

L. parvifolia, Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst. 1888, p. 224. Exactly
matches our type specimen of LZ. pumila, Raoul, which can

scarcely be regarded as more than a variety of LZ. alpina. See
Field, Ferns N.Z., p. 106.

L. membranacea, Colenso. I cannot separate specifically LZ. oligo-
neuron, Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst., 1883, p. 346.

Doopra, R. Br.

D. caudata, R. Br. I cannot separate specifically D. squarrosa,
Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. Inst,, 1880, p. 332.

(To be continued. )

GENERAL NOTES.

a

Removine Tassets FRoM Cory.—Ilixperiments with strawberries
made at the Ohio Experiment Station indicate that pollen-bearing is
an exhaustive process, and that larger yields of fruit, as a rule, may
be expected from those varieties which produce pollen so sparingly
that a small proportion of other varieties producing pollen abundantly
must be planted with them in order to insure a full crop, than from
those which produce sufficient pollen for self-fertilization.

The following very interesting and valuable experiment on corn,
made by the experiment station of Cornell University, at Ithaca, N.Y.,
gives strong support to this theory.

It has been claimed that if the tassels were removed from corn
before they have produced pollen, the strength thus saved to the
plant would be turned to the ovaries, and a larger amount of grain be
produced. ‘To test the effect of this theory, the following trial was
made during the past season.

In the general cornfield a plot of forty-eight rows, with forty-two
hills in each row, was selected for the experiment. From each alter-
nate row the tassels were removed as soon as they appeared, and
before any pollen had fallen. The remaining rows were left undis-
turbed. The corn was Sibley’s Pride of the North, planted the last
week in May in hills three feet six inches by three feet eight inches,
on dry, gravelly, moderately fertile soil.

On July 21 the earliest tassels began to make their appearance
in the folds of the upper leaves, and were removed as soon as they

170 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

could be seen, and before they were fully developed. A slight pull
was sufficient to break the stalk just below the tassel, and the removal
was easy and rapid.

On July 25 the plot was gone over again for the removal of such
tassels as had appeared since the previous work, and at this time by
far the greatest number of the tassels were removed.

On July 28, when the plot was gone over for the third time, the
effects of the tasselling became apparent in the increased number of
silks that were visible on the rows from which the tassels had been
removed.

On the 1,008 tasselled hills there were visible 591 silks; on the
1,008 untasselled, 393 silks.

On Aug. 4 the plot was gone over for the last time, but only a
few tassels were found on the very latest stalks. The preponderance
of visible silk on the tasselled rows was still manifest, there being at
this time 3,542 silks visible on the tasselled rows, and but 2,044 on
the untasselled rows. The corn was allowed to stand without cutting
until ripe.

Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 the rows were cut and husked, and the stalks
and ears weighed and counted, with the following results :-—

=

Aggregate Comparative
ield., Yield.

Bg eee | a aes

gs oe CH Sys

ad ee alll ctace ge

a2 HS as AS

Number of good ears iF Are | easel o}oy 2338 100 151
Number of poor ears oe ..-|| 628 885 || 100 141
Number of abortive ears Bad ...|| 2566 951 100 37
Total number of ears “e wl] 4745 4174 100 88
Weight of merchantable corn (pounds) sh 710 1078 || 100 152
Weight of poor corn (pounds... at eal oO 187 100 144
Number of stalks wits -./| 4186 4228 100 101
100 stalks weighed (pounds) oe eee 82 79 || 100 96

Tt will thus be scen that the number of good ears and the weight
of merchantable corn were both a little more than fifty per cent.
greater on the rows from which the tassels were removed than upon
those upon which the tassels were left. This is not only true of the
two sets of rows as a whole, but with the individual rows as well. In
no case did a row upon which the tassels were left produce anywhere
near as much as the tasselled rows on either side of it. In fact, the
results given above are really the aggregate results of twenty-four
distinct duplicate experiments, each of which alone showed the same
thing as the aggregate of all.

By abortive ears is meant those sets that made only a bunch of
husks, and sometimes a small cob, but no grain. It will be noticed
that the total of the good, poor, and abortive ears is about fourteen
per cent. greater on the rows on, which the tassels were left, while the
weight of merchantable corn is more than fifty per cent. greater on
those rows from which the tassels were removed.—Science, March
27th, 1891, p. 171.

GENERAL NOTES. 171

THe Sourine of Minx purina THunpDER-sTormMs.*--In Scvence of
Sept. 19, 1890, appeared a short note on some work recently done in
Italy by Professor Tolomei on the souring of milk during thunder-
storms. Professor Tolomei concludes that there is a sufficient amount
of ozone generated at such times to coagulate milk by a process of
direct oxidation, and a consequent production of lactic acid.t

Similar results have been obtained by other experimenters, and
some have even gone so far as to say that free oxygen, when in
contact with milk, will generate enough lactic acid to coagulate its
caseine.

- These results are very different from some obtained in this labora-
tory. While working on the bacteria in milk the idea occurred to us
to find out, if possible, the truth of the somewhat widely accepted
theory that milk will sour with extreme rapidity during thunder-
storms. Although the statement that this is an oxidising action had
been frequently made, a Mr. Iles of Baltimore was the first, so far as I
Inow, to perform any experiments in this direction.; His method
was to subject milk to the action of ozone, generated by an electric
spark passed through oxygen, above the milk. He found a rapid
coagulation produced, which he attributed to the direct oxidising
action of the ozone.

Our method was similar to that of Mr. Iles’s. A Wolff bottle
was filled about one-third full of milk, and the air in the bottle
displaced by pure oxygen. Through the opposite necks wires leading
from a Holtz induction machine were passed into the interior, and the
necks plugged tightly with cotton to prevent any escape of oxygen;
ozone was then generated by passing a spark across through the
oxygen from one pole to the other. In some cases, instead of the
spark, a “silent discharge ” of electricity from the two poles was used
to generate ozone.

In all cases a second bottle was partially filled with milk, and
kept as a “control;” ¢.e., one in which the milk is left in its normal
condition.

For some of our experiments three bottles were used,— one left
as a control; a second filled with milk and oxygen; while a third was
filled, like the second, with milk and oxygen, and then treated with
the electricity. We thus had milk under three conditions: 1. In its
normal state; 2. Under the influence of free oxygen; 3. Under the
influence of free oxygen plus a certain amount of ozone. The clec-
tricity, in all cases, was passed through the oxygen for at least half
an hour. That a considerable quantity of ozone was generated, was
shown by its odor, and strong action on starch-iodine paper. Our
results were very different frum those given by Iles and Tolomei.
The milk treated with ozone, or simply pure oxygen, soured a little,
but only a little, faster than normal milk. If the milk in the control
coagulated in thirty-six hours, the milk experimented on coagulated
only an hour or two earlier.

Science, March, 27th, 1891, p. 178.
++ A more extended account of Professor Tolomei’s experiments is given in Bieder-
mann’s Central-Blatt fiir Agriculturchemie, 1890, p. 538.
+ Chemical News, vol. xxxvi. p. 237.

172 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

This result was very constant. In a considerable number of
experiments, using milk of all degrees of sweetness, from that just
from the cow to that a day or more old, the same result followed,—a
slight hastening of the time of coagulation in milk treated with ozone
or oxygen. Between the time of coagulation of milk treated simply
with oxygen, and that treated with oxygen plus ozone, no perceptible
difference could be noticed.

We had, then, in our experiments, produced a slight hastening
of the time of coagulation. Was this a direct oxidation? From the
fact that it required over a day to act, it seemed likely that it could
not be. If, however, it were an oxidation, it ought to act as well on
sterilized milk—z.e, milk in which all bacteria have been killed by
heat—as on ordinary milk. We thercfore, before introducing the
oxygen, sterilized the milk. In this case no coagulation occurred.
Milk that had been treated at two separate times, a week apart, with
oxygen and ozone, was kept for over two months without the
appearance of the least sign of coagulation.

Briefly summed up, then, our results were as follows :—

1. Milk, under the influence of oxygen, or oxygen and ozone,
coagulates somewhat earlier than when left in its normal condition.

2. This action does not take place if the milk has been sterilized,
and is kept from contact with unfiltered air.

3. It is probably, therefore, not an oxidation. The conclusion
drawn from this is that the souring was simply produced by an
unusually rapid growth of bacteria. The bacteria of milk are mostly
aerobic, and would undoubtedly be stimulated to rapid growth by free
oxygen or ozone.

If in a thunderstorm ozone is set free, as some observers claim,
its action on bacteria would perhaps explain the effects produced at
such times. I am inclined to think, however, that a more probable
reason is to be found in the general conditions of the atmosphere
preceding and during the storm. It has been found in our laboratory
that bacteria growing on gelatine will multiply with unusual rapidity
during warm, sultry weather. Now, these are the atmospheric con-
ditions that usually precede and accompany thunder-storms. It
seems to me most likely, therefore, that whatever rapid souring occurs
is due to an unusually rapid growth of bacteria, caused by especially
favourable conditions of the atmosphere.

The experience of the proprietor of a neighbouring creamery
confirms to a certain extent these conclusions. He finds, that, if milk
is kept at a uniformly low temperature during the thunder-storm
season, no trouble results from rapid souring, indicating that this
souring, when it occurs, is due more to a high temperature and sultry
atmosphere than to the ozone in the air. If this were a process of
direct oxidation, it should take place, partially at least, at the lower
temperature.

Professor Tolomei finds, also, that a slight electric current, if
less than three amperes, will have a preservative effect on milk, the
current being passed directly through the liquid. A current greater
than three ampéres will decompose the milk.

GENERAL NOTES. 173

In our experiments, a current of less than one-fortieth of an
ampére was sufficient to produce decomposition, with a certain amount
of coagulation at each electrode. A stronger current would produce
complete coagulation, with the somewhat curious result that the
coagulum was strongly acid at the ‘positive pole, and more feebly
alkaline at the negative pole.

Aaron L. TREADWELL.
Wesleyan University,
Middletown, Conn., March 20.

In a paper “On some aspects of Acclimatisation in New Zealand,”
read before the Australasian Association at its Christchurch meeting
by Mr. G. M. Thomson, the following remarkable case of hereditary
transmission of an apparently defective characteristic was described
as follows:—“In the district of Strath Taieri, in Otago, some years
ago, certain sheep on one of the runs—probably the progeny of a
single ram, were found to be evidently short-winded. Apparently the
action of the heart was defective, for when these sheep were driven,
they would run with the rest of the flock for a short distance and then
lie down panting. The result of this peculiar affection was that at
nearly every mustering these short-winded sheep used to be left
behind, being unable to be driven with the rest. Sometimes they
were brought on more slowly afterwards, but if it happened to be
shearing time they were simply caught and shorn where they lay.
As a result of this peculiar condition a form of artificial selection was
set up, the vigorous sheep being constantly drafted away for sale, &c.,
while this defective strain increased with great rapidity throughout
the district, for whenever the mobs were mustered for the market,
shearing, or drafting, these ‘cranky’ sheep (as they came to be called)
were left behind. ‘This defective character appeared in every succeed-
ing generation, and seemed to increase in force, reminding cne of the
Ancon sheep referred toby Darwin. At first, of course, the character
was not recognised as ‘hereditary,’ but as the members of this cranky
breed increased to a very serious extent and spread over the district,
it came at last to be recognised as a local variety. When the runs,
on which these sheep were abundant, were cut up and sold or re.
leased in smaller areas a few years ago, the purchasers found it
necessary for the protection of their own interests to exterminate the
variety, of which hundreds were found straggling over the country.
This was easily and effectually done in the following manner :—As
soon as a sheep was observed it was pursued, but after running for a
couple of hundred yards at a great rate of speed, it would drop down
panting behind a big stone or other shelter, and seemed incapable for
a time of rising and renewing its flight. It was immediately des-
troyed, and in this manner a useless—but to the naturalist a very
interesting variety, was eliminated.”

AucKLAND InstituTE.—From the annual report of this Society,
adopted on 16th February, we learn that the following gentlemen
have been elected officers for the present season :—President : Prof.
F. D. Brown, F.C.S.; Vice-Presidents: Messrs. J. Stewart, C.E., and

174 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

J. Martin, F.R.G.S.; Council: Revs. J. Bates and J. Campbell, Prof.
A. P. Thomas, F.L.S., Messrs. W. Berry, C. Cooper, T. Humphries,
E. A. Mackechnie, T. Peacock, J. A. Pond, F.C.S., A. G. Purchas,
M.R.C.S., and E. Withy; Secretary and Treasurer: T. F. Cheeseman,
Esq., F.L.S., F.Z.S. (The membership of the Institute shows a slight
decrease, 205 names being on the roll. The income of the Society for
the past year, exclusive of a balance in hand at the commencement of
the year of £204 14s. 6d., was £861 14s. 3d., and the expenditure
amounted to £987 8s. 9d. This excess of expenditure reduced the
balance in the Bank of New Zealand to £79. The Museum has
received several important additions during the year, including a col-
lection of animals from Borneo and a number of Maori ethnological
specimens. Captain Gilbert Mair has also deposited in the Museum
his Maori collection, which is one of the most complete in the colony.
The attendance of the public on each Sunday has averaged 173, on
week days it is estimated at about 70. Of the 22 papers read before
the Institute during last Session, a number contain valuable additions
to the scientific knowledge of the colony.

THEORY OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE PLACENTA.—lIn the “ Ana-
tomischer Anzeiger” of 11th March, Prof. Minot of Harvard Medical
School has an article under the above heading, in which he sum-
marises the resuits of his own researches and those of others as
follows (p. 130) :—According to the views explained in the preceding
pages, I hold the placenta to be an organ of the chorion; that
primitively the chorion had its own circulation, and formed the
discvidal placenta by developing villi which grew down into the
degenerating uterine mucosa; by the degeneration of the maternal
tissues the maternal blood is. brought closer to the villi, and the
degeneration may go so far that all the tissue of the uterus between
the villi disappears; a layer of the mucosa is preserved between the
ends of the villi and the muscularis uteri to form the so called
decidua ; the placenta receives its foetal blood by the means of large
vessels running in the mesoderm of the allantois. From this discoidal
chorionic placenta the zonary placenta of carnivora, the diffuse
placenta of the lower primates, and the metadiscoidal placenta of
man have been evolved.

“A second type of placenta, perhaps evolved from the first is
found in ungulates, and is characterised by a vascular allantoic vesicle
uniting with a non vascular chorion to form the foetal placenta, and
by the absence of degeneration in the maternal tissue. This type is
the allantoic placenta, which offers many interesting modifications.”

HUMBLE-BEES IN THE Nortu Isuanp.—In his letter of May 25th,
the Waikato correspondent of the Auckland Star says: ‘The humble-
bees that I send you down were caught on Richmond Downs estate,
at Walton, Thames Valley. I could have caught. a good many more,
but thought it best to send three only, as I am not sure that they
will stand the journey well, I having no proper boxes to put them in.
Judging by the numbers I have seen lately, I am convinced that they
are now thoroughly established, and that this district could supply

GENERAL NOTES. 175

others which require them in any number. It was at Richmond that
I heard of them first having been seen two years ago, and at that
time it was very much doubted if it was a fact, but it is now a
certainty. They are to be seen now on flowers, and in numbers on
the Scotch thistle heads, which are yet fresh, and also on the hakea
hedges, which flower at this season of the year. If the introduction
of this bee means, as they say it does, the inoculation of the clover
seeds, they are indeed valuable. What an immense saving it would
be could we grow our own clovers. I should say, roughly speaking,
that not less than £6,000 to £8,000 has been spent in this Thames
Valley alone on clover seeds during the past season or two. And
clover grows so well here, too, that large yields might be looked for.”

T. W. Kirx, F.L.S—We regret very much to hear that in their
zeal for retrenching the Civil Service, Ministers have cut down the
staff of the Colonial Museum, dispensing with Mr. Kirk’s services.
The circumstances connected with his retirement almost justify the
use of the term “brutal,” which is used by one correspondent in
reference to this retrenchment. Mr. Kirk has been for many years
connected with the Colonial Museum, has taken an active part in the
establishment and carrying on of the Wellington Field Naturalists’
Club, and has from time to time published papers on various bio-
logical subjects. We shall be glad to hear that he has been able to
obtain occupation whereby his scientific acquirements will not be lost
to this colony.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES.

———

OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Dunedin, June 9th, 1891.—Professor F. B. de M. Gibbons, M.A.,
President, in the chair.
New Members.—Messrs. T. G. Brickell and D. Wilkinson.

Papers.—(1) “On a disease which has attacked the American
Brook Trout (Salmo fontinalis) in the Acclimatisation Society’s ponds,”
by Professor J. H. Scott, M.D. Dr. Scott stated that he found a
structure which corresponded closely with what in mammals was called
cancer. It was a fatal and malignant spreading tumour in the throat
of the fish, and it seemed to be confined to the American brook trout,
though Mr. Deans, the Acclimatisation Society’s curator, informed him
that a similar disease had attacked the Rhine trout in the ponds at
Masterton, Wairarapa. Dr. Hocken inquired whether Dr. Scott con-
sidered the disease was the same as affected the trout in Lake Wakatipu
some years ago—a disease which compelled the trout to come to the
surface of the water and which was not confined to a spot under the
lower jaw but extended forward and enveloped both jaws in a large
mass. Professor Parker said that if he was not mistaken, the disease

176 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

in the case mentioned by Dr. Hocken was caused by fungus and was
similar to the sand disease, which was well known in Kurope, and Mr.
F. RK. Chapman remarked that about two years ago the native fish, the
inanga, in Lake Wakatipu, were found in the condition referred to by
Dr. Hocken, presenting a fluffy, feathery appearance on the under side.
My. A. Hamilton desired to know if the disease in the American brook
trout was likely to be induced or accelerated by the artificial food
supplied to the fish, and also whether it was likely to detrimentally
affect the eating properties of the fish. In reply to this Dr. Scott said
that the causation of cancer was a thing about which there was still a
great deal to be learned, and while he thought there was no doubt that
the fish were injured from an eating point of view, he did not consider
there was the least danger of cancer being obtained from them, because
he did not think cancer was inoculable at all.

(2) “Note on the Structure of the Mammalian ovum,” by Professor
Parker, F.R.S.. “Sections of the ovary of a kitten recently prepared for
my practical class exhibited the unusual character of a number (6 or 8)
of nuclear bedies in the vitellus. Each is globular, about =3, mm. in
diameter, and consists of a cortical and a medullary substance taking on
slightly different tints with borax-carmine. They are apparently ger-
minal spots which have passed from the germinal vesicle into the
vitellus, a phenomenon which seems to have been described by His in
fishes, and by Baltiani, Fol, Roule aud Sabatier in Myriapods and
Ascidians, but as far as I have been able to ascertain has not previously
been observed in Mammals. (See Leydig, Zool. Anzeiger, vol. x, 1887,
p- 626). The germinal vesicle contains, as usual, a single germinal

(3) “On Volcanic appearances in Dowling Street, Dunedin,” by
L. O. Beal.

(4) “On Dactylanthus taylort,” by A. Hamilton. ‘In the first
volume of this Magazine I recorded the finding of a plant of Dacty-
lanthus at Tarawera, about halfway between Napier and Lake Taupo,
on the Great North Road. Since then I have found more or less perfect
specimens in that immediate neighbourhood, and sent good examples of
male and female flowers to Kew, preserved in spirits, for a more detailed
examination than was possible in the original pressed type specimens
forwarded so long ago by the Rev. Richard Taylor. Through the kind-
ness of a friend of mine, Mr. K. Newton, of Napier, I am enabled to
add another locality for this interesting root parasite. During a survey
of the country at the back of Nuhaka, a native settlement, between
Wairoa and the Napier Peninsula, Hawkes Bay, Mr. Newton collected
two female flowering bracts and brought them to Napier. He has since
forwarded to me the large tuberous portion of the plant, but I regret
that in the packing or during the journey all the shoots have been
rubbed or broken off. The inconspicuous character of the plant, its
apparent scarceness, and its probable extinction in the near future,
must be my excuse for sending you this note.”

Mr. Hamilton added—*“ On this block of country, which has only
just been surveyed, there is a warm mineral spring, and the water
from it has been analysed at the Colonial Laboratory, as follows :—

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. AT

“q, This is a clear, colourless, and highly saline water containing
1723 grains of fixed salt per gallon, only 22 grains of which
is silica, The remaining portion is principally composed of
alkaline chlorides, with a fair proportion of alkaline carbonates.
It is rich in iodine.

“6, This water contains 216 grains of fixed salts per gallon, and
these are almost entirely composed of alkaline chlorides. It
is feebly alkaline and contains distinct traces of lodine.

“From these results it appears that both samples belong to the group
known as the ‘alkaline chlorinated’ waters. The sample @ should,
when tried, prove to be a valuable mineral water, and resembles that of
Wiesbaden, also that of Harrogate and Cheltenham, but is much more
highly charged with salts than they are, the specifie gravity being that
of genuine sea water. ;

“These springs may be of public use and interest in the future.
The Government reserved an area of 1,200 acres around them as a hot
spring area. ‘The springs flow into the Nuhaka river about 10 miles
from the mouth.”

Professor Parker exhibited a series of specimens of J/eodictyon
cibarium—a fungus found in the bush near Dunedin—mounted in
alcohol for demonstration purposes, viz. :—

1. The entire immature fungus. “i

2. The same in section, showing the thick brownish wall or peri-

dium, the white net-like receptaculum, and the blackish gleba
or spore-forming tissue.

3. A similar preparation with the gleba removed to show the

receptaculum.

4, The fungus at the period of dehiscence showing the receptaculum

escaping from the ruptured peridium,

5. The liberated and fully expanded receptaculum.

Professor Parker also drew attention to some Tasmanian Sponges
presented to the Museum.

Mr. F. R. Chapman exhibited two cards of Maori bone implements,
comprising fish-hooks, shawl-pins, neck ornaments, and ear pendants.

PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY.

Christchurch, 4th June, 1891.—

Papers.—(1) ‘On the Foliated rocks of Otago,” by Professor F. W.
Hutton, ¥.G.S. The foliated rocks of Otago are found in two districts
separated from each other by a band of sandstones and slates, about
eight miles broad at its narrowest, which belong to the Maitai or
Carboniferous System.

(1) NorrHerN Oraco.
The rocks of central and north-eastern Otago are mica-schists and

phyllites, which have been thought to be the altered equivalents of the
fossiliferous Silurian and Ordovician rocks of north-western Nelson.

178 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

The reason for this opinion was, that it was supposed that the two sets
of rocks, in the north and in the south, could be traced continuously,
and that one could be proved to pass into the other. But in 1887 the
author found that the two tracts were not continuous, but were sepa-
rated along the line of the Buller River by a band of Maitai slates and
granite,* thus destroying the only evidence for their correlation. In
the present paper the author shows that the schists of Northern Otago
are metamorphic rock, but that the metamorphism has been caused
neither by crushing nor by contact with masses of igneous rocks, but is
due to their having been deposited in the Archean Era, when the earth
was much hotter than now. They are therefore older than the
Silurians and Ordovicians of Nelson.

(2) WESTERN OTAGO.

The foliated rocks of the West Coast Sounds, from Milford to
Dusky, have been generally regarded as consisting principally of typical
gneisses of Archean age, and as passing below the mica-schists of
Northern Otago. The author however finds, from an examination of
rocks collected during the excursion of the Australasian Association to
the Sounds, that these rocks are all Schistose Diorites of eruptive origin
associated with other Diorites and Gabbros. In the paper the rocks are
considered as Hornblende Diorites, but it is probable that they were
originally Augite Diorites. The following rocks are described :—Mica
Diorite, Hornblende Diorite, Enstatite Diorite, and Enstatite Gabbro.

The absence of contortion and the almost universal westerly dip of
the foliation planes are strong evidence that these rocks are not
Archean. On their flanks there is found in places a series of sedi-
mentary rocks altered by contact, which Sir James Hector considers to
be probably Devonian. If this be so the eruptive Diorites must be
younger than Devonian and may be connected with the Greenstone-tuffs
of the Route Burn and Greenstone River west of Lake Wakatipu.

(2) “Ona Specimen of Regalecus from O’Kain’s Bay,” by H. O.
Forbes, A.L.S8., F.G.8., &., (see p. 154.)

AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.

Auckland, June 8th, 1891.—Professor F. D. Brown, President, in
the chair.

New Members.—Messrs. T. Allen, Auckland; E. 8. Brookes, jun.,
Wharehine; Rev. H. 8. Davies, Lake Takapuna; W. G. Rathbone,
Auckland; and Dr. T. O. Williams, Thames.

The Secretary announced an extensive list of donations to the
Museum and Library.

The President delivered the annual address.

After dealing with the subject of reading of scientific papers at
their meetings, which he considered to be a survival from those times
when literary work was chiefly conveyed orally, he then dealt with the
great value of the Museum to the city, laying particular stress on the
importance of extending the popular branch of the collections, and of

TE STN SN SOOT
* “On the Geology of the Country about Lyttelton.”—Trans, N.Z,. Inst., vol. 22, p. 387

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 179

arranging and displaying them in the most interesting, instructive, and
attractive manner possible. All this required space, and space could
only be obtained by subdividing the collections and placing a large por-
tion of them in another building. What was, in his opinion, absolutely
necessary if they were to make any further advance, was the erection of
an additional hall in which they could place their ethnological collections
and, especially, their specimens of Maori workmanship. While speaking
of those Maori collections, he parenthetically mentioned the magnificent
collection deposited by Captain Gilbert Mair, and took the opportunity
‘of tendering to that gentleman the thanks of the Institute and of the
community. The Professor then went on to argue that no grand,
ornamental, permanent edifice was required, but one in which attention
was paid to the necessity for elasticity in the accommodation, for facility
of modification, so that additions and re-arrangements could be effected
without restriction. His experience with the University College had
impressed him with the superiority of temporary buildings for young
and growing institutions, because the expenditure of small sums from
time to time had resulted in the gradual adaptation of means to ends.
Of course, it was absolutely necessary that their collections should be
preserved, that the structure should be strong and fireproof. He found,
on the authority of his friend Mr. Bartley, that a building 103 feet long
and 50 feet wide could be erected on that particular site for £610. The
cost of fitting it up would be about £400, and the re-arrangement of the
exhibits now in the Museum would take about £200 more. This
would be £1200 in all, a sum well within their means. They had
recently received by the sale of a block of land on the Coromandel
peninsula a sum of £1000, with an agreement to pay two other
thousands at intervals of a year. This sum they did not actually need
for the maintenance of the Museum, as lust year they had not only paid
all ordinary fixed expenses, but had spent £50 in providing cases and
otherwise improving the interior of the building. Thus they were well
able to afford the cost of a modest but substantial building, and he
trusted that ere long they would be able to place before the public such
a well-ordered and complete collection of Maori workmanship as befitted
Auckland, as befitted a city the history of which was so intermingled
with that of the natives.

LINNEAN SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

Sydney, April 29th, 1891.—Professor Haswell, M.A., D.Sc.,
President, in the chair.

New Member.—Mr. C. Hedley, F.L.8.

Papers.—(1) “On the Occurrence of Barite (Barytes) in the
Hawkesbury Sandstone near Sydney,” by H. G. Smith, Laboratory
Assistant, Technological Museum, Sydney. (Communicated by J. H.
Maiden). Few localities are recorded in which this mineral occurs in
sandstone ; and no mention of its having been previously recognised in
the Hawkesbury sandstones has been met with. It is usually found
associated with metallic ores, but is not so in this instance. The purity,
transparency, and brilliancy of the smaller crystals, together with their
location, gives special interest to the occurrence of the specimens herein
noted.

180 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

(2) “On the Occurrence of a Gum in Lchinocarpus (Sloanea)
australis, Benth,” by J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., F.C.8. The characters and
composition of a gum which has not been previously recorded from this
species, ave described.

(3) “Notes on Australian Economic Botany. No. ii,” by J. H.
Maiden, F.L.S., F.C.S. In this paper brief descriptions are given of
some indigenous foods and food-adjuncts, stock-poisons, essential oils and
timbers, either imperfectly known or not previously described.

(4) “In Confirmation of the genus Owenia, so-called,” by C. W.
De Vis, M.A. The recent acquisition of the greater part of a fairly
sound mandible enables the author both to characterise a second species
of the genus for which the name Owenia was originally proposed as a
slight but appropriate tribute of appreciation of the labours of the illus-
trious exponent of our extinct marsupials—though the author himself
at the time was aware of its preoccupancy among the invertebrates,—
and to maintain the validity of the genus, a matter which has been
called in question. Accordingly to prevent further complications the
name Owenia is withdrawn in favour of Hwowenia. The paper con-
cludes with a synopsis of the genera of the Vototheriidae, in the sense
in which the author would prefer to use that term (to include Wotothe-
rium, Diprotodon, Euowenia, Zygomaturus, and probably Sthenomerus)
in place of Mr. Lydekker’s two families Vototheriidae and Diprotontide.

(5) “Onyx and Dipeltis: new Nematode genera; with a Note on
Dorylaimus,” by N. A. Cobb.

NOTES AND EXHIBITS.

Mr. Maiden exhibited a number of vegetable products—fruits,
seeds, gums, essential oils, and timbers—in illustration of his papers.
Also specimens of a number of interesting indigenous (N.S. W.) plants
including Palmeria scandens, F. v.M., from Bulli; Callicarpa peduncu-
lata, R.Br., and Alchornea wicifolia, F.v.M., from the Richmond River ;
Telopea oreades, F.v.M., and Persoonia chamcepeuce, Lh., from the
southern portion of the colony.

Mr. T. W. Edgeworth David exhibited, on behalf of Mr. J. E.
Carne, ¥.G.8., Mineralogist to the Department of Mines, Sydney, a
specimen of precious opal from the White Cliffs about fifty miles
northerly from Wileannia. Precious opal and common opal have lately
been discovered in this locality in a formation corresponding to the
Desert Sandstone of Queensland. The opal occurs disseminated as an
infiltrated cement throughout the mass of the sandstone in places, and
also replacing the calcareous material of fossils. It also occurs in cracks
in the sandstone and in fossil wood, which is somewhat plentifully
distributed throughout the sandstone, and occasionally replaces part of
the original woody tissues of the silicified trees.

Mr, A. Sidney Oliff stated that he had recently had an opportunity
of examining a collection of Coccinellide gathered by Mr. A. M. Lea,
among which he had found specimens of the lady-bird, Vedalia cardi-
nalis, obtained at Mossman’s Bay, near Sydney. This capture is inte-
resting from the fact that the species has not previously been observed

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 181

by our local collectors. Mr. Olliff also showed, under the microscope,
specimens of the larve and females of Phylloxera vastatrix, the vine
pest ; and he remarked that, so far, he had not yet been able to find
either specimens of the leaf-form of the pest, or reliable records of its
having been observed in New South Wales,

Mr. Whitelegge exhibited a set of herbarium specimens of British
species of the genus Hqwisetwm. Also, under the microscope, specimens
of the Peridiniwm, to the presence of which the recent discolouration of
the waters of the harbour has been due ; also specimens of several other
species of allied organisms, including a second species of Peridinium,
Prorocentrum micans, Khr., Gymnodinium spirale, Bergh, and Gleno-
dinium sp.

Dr. Cobb exhibited an inexpensive dissecting microscope of simple
construction, made by one of the clerks in the Agricultural Department,
Sydney. Also, under the microscope, exampies of the Nematodes
described in his paper. Also, two examples of fungi, one a species of
Phallus from the adjoining garden, the other the bird’s-nest fungus,
Cyathus, from soil near a pumpkin vine; and coloured drawings of a
number of other Australian fungi which he had recently met with.

Mr. Fletcher exhibited three specimens of terrestrial Nemertines
(Geonemertes sp.)—one from the Richmond River, N.S.W. (collected by
Mr. R. Helms), the other from Tasmania (collected by Mr. C. Hedley).
The Tasmanian form seems to differ in colour and pattern from the
Victorian specimens recorded by Dr. Dendy and Professor Spencer, Mr.
Hedley describing them while alive as “black at the oral extremity for
about a quarter of an inch, the rest of the body dull white.” The New
South Wales specimen may, perhaps, belong to the same species as those
noted by Dendy, the colour being brownish-orange, except for a lateral
band on each side. If G. chalicophora, Graff, like G. palaensis, Semper,
has six eyespots, in two groups of three each, then the specimens exhi-
bited to-night, in which more than six eyespots are present, are not to
be identified with the former, which is supposed to have been brought
with palms from Australia to the palmhouse at Frankfurt Zoological
Gardens.

Also, a male specimen of Peripatus leuckarti, Sang., (the only male
out of a total of five specimens obtained on. the Blue Mountains), which
presents the exceptionally remarkable character of possessing a pair of
papille—the only pair present.—on the ventral surface of the frst pair
of legs.

Also, fruits of Sechiwm edule, Swartz, a West Indian member of
the natural order Cucurbitacew, which has been successfully acclimatised
in Queensland for some years past. From a specimen forwarded from
Queensland to Sir William Macleay a flourishing plant has been raised,
which is now bearing freely in Sir William’s garden, the specimen
exhibited being from the plant in question.

Also, a living specimen of Chiroleptes australis, Gray, forwarded
from Herberton, Queensland, by Mr. F., Christian. This species of frog
inhabits the northern half of the continent, and has not been recorded
on the east coast from further south than the Clarence River.

182 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Sydney, May 27th, 1891.—Professor” Haswell, M.A., D.Se., Presi-
dent, in the chair.

Mr. A. Meston of Queensland was introduced as a visitor.

New members.—Mr. Fred Turner, F.R.H.S., Department of
Agriculture, Sydney, The Right Rev. Dr. Camidge, Bishop of Bathurst,
N.S.W., The Rev. J. G. Buggy, Kempsey, N.S.W., and Mr. C. A.
Chesney, C.E., Randwick.

The Chairman called the attention of the meeting to a circular,
copies of which were laid on the table, recently received from the
Department of Agriculture of N.S.W., offering national prizes among
other things for the best Australian Pathological, Entomological, and
Botanical collections submitted to the Department.

Papers.—(1) “A Contribution to the Geology and Petrography of
Bathurst, N.S.W.,” by Rev. J. Milne Curran, F.G.8. This paper deals
with the geology and lithology of the country immediately around
Bathurst. The formations described are silurian, pliocene, and recent.
The igneous rocks represented are granites and tertiary basalts. No
vestige of the old floor on which the silurian sediments were laid down
remains, A microscopic examination of the granites and basalts
reveals some interesting structures. The granite is a hornblende
granite, with orthoclase and triclinic felspars. The basalt is seen,
under the microscope, to be an olivine basalt, with a microporphyritic
granular structure. The basalts show a streaming of the felspars round
the porphyritic augites and olivines. The following were amongst the
conclusions arrived at.: That the granites of Bathurst are surrounded
by an aureole of metamorphic rocks. There is no gradation from a
clastic to a holo-crystalline rock. The granite is intrusive as regards
the surrounding slates. The slates are the oldest rock in the district,
granites coming next in order of time. The conclusion that the granites
were intrusive was not necessarily opposed to the view that the granites
may have been formed, as a whole, by a partial fusion of pre-existing
sediments.

(2) “Remarks on Post-tertiary Phascolomyide,” hy C. W. De Vis,
M.A., Corr. Mem. In this paper the author adduces weighty evidence,
based on the phascolomine peculiarities of their respective contents, in
favour of the conclusion that the ossiferous deposits of the Darling
Downs and of the Wellington Caves are not upon the same palon-
tological horizon, the cave wombats, Phascolomys latifrons, P. krefftiz,
and P. curvirostris, not having come into existence when the Queensland
breccias and Tertiaries—characterised by the presence of P. parvus and
P. angustidens, n. sp. (herein described),—were laid down ; and secondly
that no living species of wombat has come down to us from the Age
of the Condamine beds.

(3) ‘Description of a new Marine Shell,” by C. Hedley, F.LS.,
and ©. T. Musson, F.L.S. The new species, described as Hulimella
moniliforme, flourishes in the brackish water of the lagoon at Manly,
near Sydney.

NOTES AND EXHIBITS.

Mr. Hedley read a short note descriptive of the ova of a common
Sydney land molluse, Helicarion robustus, Gould, which are somewhat

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES, 183

different from those of other pulmonate molluscs occurring in the
neighbourhood, being spirally ribbed.

Mr. A. Sidney Olliff exhibited (1) two species of a small fly
(Diplosis spp.), recently bred at the Department of Agriculture by
Dr. Cobb and himself from larvee found feeding on rust ( Puccinia) on
peaches and sunflowers ; (2) a drawing of a larva of one of these flies,
illustrating the anatomy of the animal, and exhibiting the embryo and
larva of an internal parasite, apparently belonging to the Hymenoptera ;
and (3) specimens of a dipteron ( Tachina sp.), a parasite of the plague
locust, Pachytylus australis, Br., which is allied to the recently-
discovered Musicera pachytyli, Sk.

Mr. Maiden exhibited ripe fruits of Monstera deliciosa grown at
North Sydney by Mr. J. Malbon Thompson, who believes that this is
the first time that these fruits have fully ripened in Sydney. They
were fifteen months in ripening after the fruit had set.

Also, specimens of the “vegetable sponge,” Lufia aegyptiaca,
grown by Mr. James Hurst at Summer Hill; and an abnormal
growth of maize cobs, from Bathurst.

Mr. P. N. Trebeck showed some insects collected at§North Sydney.

Mr. Henry Deane exhibited a fine specimen of Ophideres salminia,
Cr., from Casino, 4 moth which enlarges, by means of its auger-like
proboscis, the holes made by fruit-flies, &c., in the rind of oranges and
bananas.

Mr. Deane also stated that last month, while travelling by night
through the Big Scrub in the Richmond River District, his interest
was aroused by the remarkable effect produced by luminous insects
which abounded by the roadside. Specimens were secured and sent off
in the hope that they would arrive in time to be exhibited at last
month’s meeting, but they came a day too late, and in the meanwhile
have died. From their general resemblance to the larve of Ceroplatus
masterst, Sk., which are also phosphorescent, Mr. Fletcher, who had
seen the specimens forwarded, was of the cpinion that these were very
probably also dipterous larvee,

Mr. David made some remarks on certain luminous organisms
which he had observed in old coal mine workings in Illawarra, the
identification of which it was hoped would not long be postponed.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
ANNUAL MEETING,

Sydney, 6th May, 1891.—Dr. Leibius, President, in the chair.

Treasurer’s Statement.— The financial statement for the year
ending March 31, 1891, was submitted and adopted. The total receipts
were put down at £1265 11s. 7d., and the total disbursements at £1268
1l1s., the balance in hand on March 31 being £41 12s. The building
and investment fund shewed a fixed deposit in the Union Bank of
£566 17s. 1d., and the Clarke menorial fund a similar deposit of £300
Is. 8d. The total income for the year showed an increase of £45 on
that of the previous 12 months, and the expenditure an increase of £88.

184 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

New Members —Dr. W. H. Coutie, Petersham; Dr. A. Jarvie
Hood, Sydney ; Rev. W. Jordan, Cooma; Mr. D. C. Selman, Sydney ;
and Mr. J. M. Smail, Sydney.

The New Council.—The following members were elected to fill
positions on the new council:—President: Mr. H. C. Russell, B.A.,
C.M.G., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents : Professor Liversidge, M.A., F.R.S.,
Mr. W. A. Dixon, F.C.8., F.LC., Dr. A. Leibius, Ph. D., M.A., F.C.S.,
and Mr. H. G. A. Wright, M.R.C.S.E. Hon. Treasurer : Mr. R. Hunt,
C.M.G., F.G.8. Hon. Secretaries: Messrs. F. B. Kyngdon, and Prof.
Warren, M. Inst. C.E. Members of Council: Messrs. Robt. Etheridge,
junr., C. Moore, F.L.S., F.Z.8., Professor Anderson Stuart, M.D., C. S.
Wilkinson, F.G.S., F.L.8., W. M. Hamlet, F.C.S., F.I.C., T. W. Edge-
worth David, B.A., F.G.S., J. A. McDonald, M. Inst. C.E., &e., J. H.
Maiden, F.US., F.C.S., Alexander McCormick, M.D., and C. W.
Darley, M. Inst. C.E.

Sectional Committees.---The President announced the election of
the sectional committees for the session 1891. They were appointed
for the three following sections: Microscopical, Medical, and Civil
Engineering.

Correspondence.—A_ letter was received from Professor F, W.
Hutton, F.G.S., of Canterbury College, Christchurch, New Zealand,
acknowledging the award of the Clarke Memorial.

Anniversary Address.—The President, Dr. Leibius, then delivered
the annual address, from which we make the following extracts :—

“ Antarctic Hxploration—As you are aware Professor Liversidge
referred somewhat largely to this subject in his Presidential Address
last year, from which it appears that a Committee of the British
Association was formed in 1885, which presented three reports, while
Baron von Miiller of Melbourne, as early as 1886 strongly advocated
an Antarctic Expedition. Nothing however, came of it; the request
of the Agent General of Victoria made in 1887 to the Imperial
Government for a subsidy of £5,000 towards the cost of such an
Antarctic Expedition under the condition of Victoria giving a similar
sum having been declined on two grounds, viz., that as regards the
two objects then put forward in support of such an expedition, i.e.,
promotion of trade and scientific enquiry, the first did not justify
imperial contribution, and as to the second, that the proposed outlay of
£10,000 on such an expedition could do but very little in the way of
scientific investigation. At a meeting of the Australian Antarctic
Exploration Committee held at Melbourne on the 4th of March, 1890,
the munificent offer of Baron Oscar Dickson of Gothenburg, Sweden, to
fit out and start a Swedish-Australian Expedition under the leadership
of the celebrated Baron Nordenskjéld, to explore the Antarctic regions,
provided Australia contributed half the estimated cost, viz., £5,000,
while Baron Dickson offered to pay the other half, was brought before
the members by the Consul for Sweden at Melbourne, Mr. Gundersen.
This offer was enthusiastically received by the meeting, and the
Victorian Branch of the Royal* Geographical Society of Australasia
in conjunction with the Royal Society of Victoria, at once set to work
to enlist the hearty co-operation of the different branches of the Royal

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 185

Geographical Society of Australasia and other scientific societies in the
Australian Colonies, with a view of getting the stipulated £5,000.

“Notwithstanding however, that considerable efforts have been
made to secure this comparatively small sum, the amount subscribed up
to date is less than £1,000, and it is more than probable that the
Swedish-Australian Antarctic Expedition, which it was proposed to
depart from Europe in a steamer specially fitted up for such purpose in
July next, so as to start from Melbourne in the following September,
and from Macquarie Island, the nearest depdt to polar land, in October
—will for this season at least have to be given up, since only the four
months of an Antarctic summer, viz., October—February, could be made
use of for Antarctic Exploration.

“The subject of Antarctic Exploration was ‘also discussed by the
Geographical Section at the Christchurch meeting of the Association for
the Advancement of Science in January last, when a paper by Mr. G.
S. Griffiths, F.R.G.8., President of the Section, on Australian and
Antarctic Exploration was read and discussed. Baron Ferd. von
Miiller, as President of the Antarctic Exploration Committee of
Victoria pointed out the impossibility ot obtaining at the present
- time any large grant from either the Imperial or Colonial Governments
and therefore advocated an expedition on lines of less magnitude and
extending in the first place to only three or four months.

“ Admiral Ommanney in a letter to the Times strongly deprecates
any idea of landing a party to pass the winter in the Antarctic regions
The exploration of these regions is acknowledged tobe of the highest
scientific interest and of considerable commercial value, especially to
Australasia. The principal objects of such an expedition would be :-—
1. Further extension of geological knowledge in South-polar regions.
2. Scientific research including enquiry into the problems of physical
geography, natural history, and meteorology. 3. Investigation of the
fishery industry—chiefly whale and seal.

“With regard to Baron Dickson’s offer £ append here an extract
reprinted from an article in the London Times of Febr uary 13th last:—
“Baron Oscar Dickson, of Gothenburg, Sweden, who is in Lendon at
present, naturally expresses some surprise at the conduct of the Austra-
lasian Geographical Society, which originally approached him with
reference to the undertaking. The only condition which he required
was that Australia should contribute £5,000, and he would do all else
that was necessary. He estimates that for a suitable expedition, even
on a comparatively small scale, something like £15,000 would be
wanted. Two of the powerful Norwegian sealing vessels, specially
constructed for ice navigation could be purchased for £7,000. A com-
plete equipment of scientific instruments would probably cost £1,000 ;
but Baron Dickson believes that such an Gut upment would be w illingly
supplied by the Swedish Government. At least one of the ships would
have to be furnished with provisions and other supphes for two years,
in case of accident: while the equipment of the second ship, the pay-
ment of crews, and other expenses would not leave a large balance out
of the remaining £8,000. Baron janalegem would contribute £5,000,
and would take upon himself the responsibility of obtaining the
remainder. The bulk of it, he believes, he could obtain in Sw eden and

186 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Norway, though he might give the Royal Geographical Society an
opportunity of contributing, if it cared to do so, At all events if the
Australians will find the moderate sum of £5,000, Baron Dickson is
willing to be responsible for the balance. Although Baron Norden-
skjold had made up his mind to go on no more adventurous expeditions,
yet his objections have been overcome, and he is willing to undertake
the leadership of this expedition and take with him his son, who has
proved himself of the right metal in a recent journey to Spitzbergen.
With Baron Nordenskjéld as leader, success might almost be said to be
secured, The plan was to send one ship as far south as possible, say to
the neighbourhood of Mount Erebus. There the expedition would
spend a whole year making regular observations, and carrying out
explorations as far as practicable. The second ship would take up its
station at the island of South Georgia, there to be ready for any
emergency. Baron Dickson has thus made every arrangement possible,
so far as he is concerned, but there is no sign of the promised £5,000
from Australia.’

‘“‘T sincerely hope that the Governments of the different Colonies as
well as private citizens may see fit to liberally contribute towards the
cost of such a desirable undertaking as an Antarctic Exploration.

“ Biological Station.—Ten years ago the late Professor Smith in
his Presidential Address to this Society, made an energetic appeal for
contributions towards the cost of establishing a Biological Laboratory at
Watson’s Bay, where the Government had given an eligible site, and
also had promised to double the private subscriptions up to £300.
The well known Russian naturalist, the late Baron Maclay, had for
two or three years previously been endeavouring to establish a Zoo-
logical Station, and in a paper read by him before the Linnean Society
of N.S.W. in 1878, he warmly advocated such a step.

“The practical interest of the Royal Societies of Victoria and New
South Wales, together with several other Scientific societies and private
individuals, having been secured, a neat cottage was erected and fitted
up for the purpose required. The contribution from this Society
entitled us to nominate a worker, who would be received into the
Laboratory with the right to use all its appliances free of charge, but
no one applied for this privilege, and Baron Maclay remained its only
occupant. In 1886 the Government resumed the site on which the
station was erected for military purposes, giving £500 as compensation.

“Professor Liversidge, who is a warm supporter of a Biological
Station near Sydney and had been largely instrumental in procuring
the late modest building in Watson’s Bay, referred to this matter in his
Presidential Addresses delivered to this Society in 1886 and last year.
Since then the Government have granted the use of an excellent and
convenient site at little Sirius Point, near Mossman’s Bay, and it is
proposed to erect a suitable building thereon as soon as sufficient funds
are in hand. At present about £600 are available, but much more is
required. Professor Haswell, Sc.D., issued in December last a circular
letter, appealing for support and contributions. As this letter and
some of the replies received by him fully explain the work in view, and
also show the great interest taken therein by some of the most eminent

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 187

naturalists of Hurope, I republish the same here, with an earnest appeal
to the members of this Society and all interested in the progress of
scientific research in the department of Natural History, for which this
Colony and Sydney especially, offers such a rich harvest. J may add
that the Royal Society of London has lately granted £50 towards this
object :—
“Biology Department, University of Sydney,
“12th December, 1890.
“ Dear Sir,—It is intended to re-establish the Sydney Biological
Station on new lines and ina more convenient position. The site of
the former Station at Watson’s Bay was resumed for military purposes
in 1886—the Government giving the sum of £500 as compensation for
the loss of the building. This sum, with interest that has accrued, is
all that the Trustees have at present at their disposal ; and, in order to
establish and equip the Station in a suitable manner, five or six times
this amount will be required. The Government have intimated their
willingness to assist by granting the use of a site suitable for the purpose.
It is intended to construct one large Laboratory, with Aquaria and
other necessary appliances, two or three smaller Laboratories, store-
room and workshop, accommodation for a fisherman to act as boatman
and caretaker, and, if possible, accommodation for a naturalist. With
regard to this last, it is thought eminently desirable for the success of
the undertaking that there should be attached to the Institution a resi-
dent naturalist continually engaged in researches on the fauna of the
coast. The rest of the work done at the station would be carried out at
their own expense by biologists from this or the other colonies, or visit-
ing us from Europe. The results would be for the most part published
in the local scientific societies’ publications. The following gentlemen,
the Trustees appointed. by the Government, will be glad to receive
contributions towards this national undertaking :—Hon. EK. 8S. Combes,
Dr. J. C. Cox, Prof. W. A. Hasweil, Prof. Arch. Liversidge, Hon. Jas.
Norton, Dr. E. P. Ramsay.

Trusting to have your support and co-operation in this important
undertaking, I am yours very truly,

“WintiaAM A. HAswELL
< 2
“Professor of Biology, University of Sydney,
“‘Ffon Secretary and Treasurer.

“The Forest Department of N.S.W.—The Department of Forests
which formerly was a branch of the Mining Department, has during
last year been re-formed as a separate Department under the
Colonial Secretary, the services of Mr. J. Ednie Brown, F.L.S., as
Director-General of Forests, (who successfully filled a similar position in
South Australia) having been secured. The importance to the colony
ot a well managed Forest Department will at once be apparent by the
following few facts, with which I have been kindly supplied, and which,
IT am sure, will be highly satisfactory reading to every well-wisher of
this colony :—The number of Forest Reserves is 944, and the area of
reserves already proclaimed amounts to 5,579,000 acres, of which there
are about four million acres covered with more or less good timber

188 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

trees. Some 23,000 red cedar trees have already been planted. Great
efforts are being made to encourage the natural regeneration of the red
cedar forests, and already good results have been attained in this
direction. Over 10,000 natural grown red cedar plants of various ages
and sizes have been properly cleared round and otherwise attended to.

“The red cedar forests are situated principally on the northern
rivers, such as the Clarence, Richmond, Tweed, Bellenger and Maclay.
At the Gosford Nursery there is a stock this year of over 700,000
young plants, of which the principal are red cedars, Pinus insignis,
Pinus halepensis, English oaks, poplars, olives, the most important of
the Eucalypts of all the colonies, and the American Catalpa.

“Some fifty men are now employed by the Department in thin-
ning the natural red gum forests upon the Murray Flats. It is
intended to plant experimental plantations this winter at Broken Hill
and Wilcannia with the tree known as the Sugar Gum (Lucalyptus
corynocalyz ). The growing of timber for the mines is a matter of great
importance. The sugar gum has been successfully established in several
parts of South Australia in similar soil and situations to those mentioned.
Strong efforts are being made to induce not only our cabinet makers,
but those in Europe as well, to try our scrub timbers for the making of
furniture. Amongst the timbers recommended are the following: red
cedar, tulip-wood, rose-wood, bean, onion-wood, beech, ash, she-oak,
black-wood, marble-wood, satin-wood, cork-wood, nut tree, rough fig,
myall, heef-wood, myrtle, and yellow-wood.

“For buildings and general construction work the following
indigenous timbers are also being brought before the market :—
iron-bark, mountain ash, red gum, blood-wood, stringy-bark, black-butt,
tallow-wood, spotted gum, box of various kinds, and mahogany.

‘A Forest Bill is now in course of being drafted, under which the
necessary powers will be given to the Department, whereby increased
and more satisfactory results will accrue. The Department is now
bringing out an illustrated book upon ‘The Forest Flora of New South
Wales.’ The work of lithographing the plates is being done by the
Government Printer, and it is expected that the first part will be
published about the end of June next. é : : 6 j :

“ Mining and Metallurgy.—Shortly we shall be in possession cf
the annual report of the Department of Mines for 1890 which will, like
its predecessors, treat exhaustively of the progress and production of our
mining industry. By the courtesy of the Honourable the Secretary for
Mines and Agriculture I am enabled to give the following comparative
statement of -the chief mineral productions of this colony in 1889 and
1890. They are as under :—

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES, 189

| Fey : rP Quantity produced in { Hstimated Value in
| Description of Mineral. ' = 3 |
| 1889- | _1890. I 1889. 1890. |
Ozs. Ozs. £ £ |
Gold... ES ...| 119,759 | 127,760 | 434,070 | 460,284 |
Silver Bullion a ea | alee | A6,pb2 72,001 95,410 |
ons. | ons. | |
cilver Lead and Silver Lead Ore..., 81,545 | 131,038 | 1,899,197 | 2,667,144 |
ntimony and Antimony Ore 221 | 1,026 3,344 20,240 |
| Copper and Copper Regulus 4,182 | 3,745 | 206,641 | 173,311 |
Tin and Tin Ore... | 4,650 | 3,668 | 415,171 | 329,841 |
Coal oe ...| 3,655,632 | 3,060,876 | 1,632,848 | 1,279,088 |
Coke evi |etoL, 0078) fn ag L147)
Shale | 40,561 56,010 | 77,666 | 104,103 |
Limestone Flux doc] 3 | 41,436 ote 41,989 |

Alum ... ie © sel 22.07 ie gree enter ine = 35000
Manganese = ae age | 100 | Aa . 325 |

| | lbs. |

Opals | 195 | | 15,600 |

“The value of the above enumerated metals and minerals, produced
in New South Wales in 1890, amounts to no less than £5,231,482, an
increase of nearly half a million sterling over 1889. A comparison of
the returns for 1890 with the previous year, shows an increase of 8,000
ounces in Gold; while the produce of Silver Bullion, Silver Lead
Bullion and Silver Lead Ore amounted together to no less than
£2,762,554, being nearly £800,000 more than the output of 1889, and
nearly 24 times as much as that of 1888. The increase has been most
remarkable, and shows the wonderful development of this industry
during the last few years, fully confirming the anticipation of Mr. C. 8S.
Wilkinson, Government Geolologist, as foreshadowed in his report to
the Minister for Mines in 1884. Asis well known, the Broken Hill
Proprietary Company is the chief producer. From May, 1886, to 30th
November, 1890, this Company has produced out of 483,078 tons of
ore treated, 84,127 tons of Silver Lead Bullion, containing 20,594,272
ounces of fine Silver and 83,413 tons of Lead. The production of Anti-
mony and Antimony Ore has also increased during last year by about

£17,000 in value.

“ A special feature in last year’s production is to be noticed in the
last item of the above list, viz.—195lbs. Opals, valued at £15,600; they
are found at Whitecliffs, Momba Station, about 57 miles from Wil-
cannia. The principal reductions in last year’s output are 1,000 tons
less of Tin and Tin Ore to the value of about £85,000, and of Coal a
diminished production of no less than about 600,000 tons of a value
of £353,000. Deducting therefrom £41,147 as the value of Coke
produced in 1890, we have a nett deficiency in the value of Coal
produced in 1890, as compared with 1889, of about £312,000—the
direct result of last year’s lamentable strike.

“The amount of New South Wales Gold received at the Mint in
1890 was 119,564 ounces, against an average of 110,650 ounces during
the previous ten years. The Gold from this colony, however, is only
14-86 per cent. of the total amount received by the Mint in 1890
(804,123 ounces), while Queensland contributed 619,367 ounces, or, a
little over 77 per cent., of which Mount Morgan furnished 227,053
ounces, Charters Towers and other Queensland Goldfields 392,314
ounces.

190 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

“ No Iron was produced during Jast year from Colovial Ores. A
great impetus to the Colonial Iron Industry will, no doubt, be given by
the fact that the Government have invited tenders (to be received up to
24th June next) for the supply of 175,000 tons of steel rails, to be
entirely manufactured in this colony out of colonial ores; fluxes, fuel
and other materials required for their production to be also raised in
this colony. From a report of Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, F.G.S., the
Government Geologist, to the Minister of Mines, dated 30th January
last, it would appear that the quantity of Ivon Ore available in this
colony, so far as can at present be ascertained, amounts to 12,944,000
tons, estimated to contain 5,853,180 tons of metallic Iron. This
quantity, calculated upon the present imports of Iron and Iron manu-
factures, would be sufficient to supply the demands of this colony for a
period of 35 years.”

Sydney, 3rd June, 1891.—Professor W. A. Dixon, F.C.S., Vice-

President, in the chair.

New members.—Messrs. KE. A. Amphlett, E. M. De Burgh, R. D.
Fitzgerald, T. Haughton, R. E. Jones, and T. Poole.

Paper (1) ‘Notes on the large Death-rate among Australian
Sheep in Counties infected with Cumberland Disease,” by Mons. A.
Loir. The author said that the deathrate in New South Wales
through Cumberland disease had been placed at 200,000 sheep a year,
but this number was very much under the reality. The death-rate in
infected animals ranged from 25 to 40 per cent. In France the death-
rate through the same disease was, prior to the introduction of the
anthrax vaccination, only 10 or 12 per cent., and now it was considerably
less. This difference could be accounted for as follows :—By compara-
tive experiments it was easy to prove that the microbe had the same
virulence in Australia as in Europe. It was, therefore, necessary to
look for some other cause for the higher percentage in Australia. Not
only was the dangerous season much longer here than in Europe, but
the conditions under which sheep were kept in Australia were very
favourable to exhaustion, and it was known by experiments recently
made in Paris, as well as in Australia, that exhaustion favoured the
development of the infection by anthrax as it did for many other
diseases. A third eause which could easily be avoided by pastoralists,
if the importance of it were well understood, was the following :—In
Australia, when an animal died, its carcase remained on the same spot,
and was torn to pieces by birds of prey, which spread the disease. This
gross carelessness had been continued for many years past, so that the
soil was literally saturated with microbes of infection. If stockowners
properly understood how dangerous it was to leave undestroyed the
bodies of the dead animals, they would, doubtless, devise some simple
expedient for burning the remains without incurring the risk of bush
fires. It was regarded as certain that as soon as vaccination became
generally adopted the number of cases of ‘‘Cumberland disease” would
diminish year by year, as was the case in those countries in which this
valuable means of prevention was the custom. If the process of burning
the bodies were adopted, the actual causes of contagion for men and

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. IQI

animals would be diminished, and this remark applied not only to
“Cumberland disease,” but generally to all contagious diseases of stock.
In view of the great impetus recently given to the meat export trade, it
was most desirable that every possible precaution should be adopted in
order to prevent European bacteriologists from finding in meat imported
from Australia microbes or remains of microbes in large quantities.
Stockowners would do well to bear in mind the fact that the import of
hogflesh from America had been interdicted by many countries in
Europe for several years past.

Mr. Charles Moore expressed his sense of the value of the paper.
He was quite sure that Mons. Loir was right in his conclusions. It
was no use burying the dead animals; they must be burned to prevent
infection.

Professor Anderson Stuart considered that the thanks of the
pastoralists were due to the author of the paper, and thought that the
suggestion of Mons. Loir, that the pastoralists should take precautions
to prevent the export of any infected carcases, was an excellent one.
If any of the microbes were found in Europe in meat received from
Australia the fact would be sure to be made the most of by interested
parties, and it would prove to be the death-knell to the trade.

Dr. MacLaurin pointed out that the law already provided for the
dealing with persons who sold diseased meat. He fancied that exporters
would see that it would be not only wicked but foolish to send such
meat to market. If they exported it they did so in contravention of
the law.

2. Professor Anderson Stuart exhibited an apparatus for the demon-
stration of sound waves or waves of condensation and reflection. The
instrument, to which he had not yet givena name, showed the movements
of pellets of ivory, which represented particles of air as they oscillated
to and fro. The first idea which led him to construct the apparatus
was obtained from the oscillation of the legs of the centipede, which
moved in a double wave—as seen from above, in waves of condensation
and rarefaction ; as seen from the side, in vertical waves. The instru-
ment was described as accurately representing the to-and-fro movement
of the particles of air. The sound wave, as it were, could therefore be
seen progressing from one end of the instrument to the other.

3. Professor Dixon demonstrated to members the working of Love-
bond’s tintometer, which is specially useful in examining malt, flour,
sugar, beers, and wines. Its purpose is to “ dissect” the colours of the
objects examined, and to determine what their value is.

ROYAL SOCLETY OF VICTORIA.

Melbourne, June 11th, 1891.—E. J. White, Esq, in the chair.

Mr. E. F. J. Love read the report of the Gravity Survey Committee
appointed in November last. The committee had, in accordance with

192 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

instructions, carefully considered the proposal to carry out a gravity
survey of Australasia by means of pendulum observations, and had
decided to recommend that the Society should proceed with the observa-
tions. The Committee had ascertained that the Royal Society of
London would lend for the purposes of the Society the pendulum
apparatus employed for a similar purpose at the great trigonometrical
survey of India, provided that the Royal Society of Victoria undertook
to defray the expenses connected with the packing and despatch of the
apparatus. The Committee looked upon the generous offer of the Royal
Society of London as a matter of extreme importance, as its acceptance
would not only render the construction of fresh apparatus unnecessary,
but would make the observations taken in Australasia directly com~-
parable with those made by the Indian survey, also at Greenwich and
Kew, bases of the various European gravity surveys. The Committee
had further ascertained that Mr. H. W. Russell, Government astro-
nomer for New South Wales, Mr. C. Todd, Government astronomer for
South Australia, and Mr. W. H. Bragg, Professor of Physics at the
Adelaide University, would be willing to co-operate in the work and
serve on the committee appointed to carry it out, and the Committee
was of opinion that the assistance rendered by these gentlemen would
be of great value. Material assistance had also been promised by Sir
John Forrest, Premier of Western Australia. The Committee therefore
respectfully asked for re-appointment, with the addition of Messrs.
Russell and Todd, and Professor Bragg, with power to arrange for the
carrying out of the survey at as many stations as might be found
practicable, and further, that a grant of £25 be placed at the disposal
of the Committee for the defrayal of current expenses, including the
cost of the package and transport of the pendulum apparatus.

On the motion of Professor Baldwin Spencer the report wes
adopted.

Papers.—(1) “On the anatomy of Ceratella fusca, Gray,” by
Professor Baldwin Spencer.

(2) “ Additional observations on the Victorian Land-Planarians,”
by Dr. Arthur Dendy.

(3) ‘On a new species of fresh-water fish, from Lake Mgothoruk,
Mount Wellington, Victoria,” by A. H. 8. Lucas.

(4) “On Land-Planarians from Lord Howe Island, Part I., Des-
cription of New Species,” by Professor Baldwin Spencer.

SE, CAFFIN & CO.

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| By Rev. C. Stuart Ress i ee

WISE, CAFFI

108 PRINCES STREET,
DUNEDIN.

PTEMBER, 1991, No. 5, Vol. I, (New Ismne,)

Anata

NEW ZEALAND

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>

CONTENTS: Zs

Occurrence of Moa and Other Remains at Albury. W. W. Soiria
tes on the’ Kea or Mountain Parrot. F. F, C. Huppiesrone
An Excursion to the Trelissic Basin. F. R. CHarman

The Geysers Action of Rotorua, Camintz Marrroy, C.E. f a
; rospects of finding Workable Coal on the Waitemata. Jas. Park, I'.G.S.
‘Charting: and some Resulting PA SHAIENES: H.C. Ruse F.R.S.

General. Notes— : su

oe An teeaiie Point i in Polynesian indoloey < Notes on Eels—Univ ersity
“4 Extension i in New Zealand— The Polynesian Society.

igs of Societies -

Wellington ‘Philosophical ‘Sccicty = Mel Tasiithte Ot ce. Institute
Philosophical Institute of Canterbury—Linnean Society of New South
Wales—Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria—Royal Society of New
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Vol. L, No. 5, N.Z. JOURNAL OF SCIENCE (New Issue) SEPT., 1891.

ON THE OCCURRENCE OF MOA AND OTHER
REMAINS AT ALBURY.

—_—— +> —__—

In Vol. II., page 293 of this Journal, I recorded the finding of
numerous Moa and other remains in the caves and swallow-holes of the

_ limestone rocks at Albury. Since I left the district in 1883 consi-

derable changes have been wrought, changes which, from a naturalist’s
point of view, are not always welcome. The extensive swamps have
been drained, the magnificent limestone range has been ploughed,
and during the progress of the work many facts which may serve
to enlighten us a little on the theories of the ancient or modern
extinction of the Moas have come to light.. As the opinions of
scientists are still about equally divided on this question, the following
observations made while digging up and collecting the bones of Moas
and other extinct birds in the district, will, I think, show the great
antiquity of the birds, as well as tend to prove that they existed there
even in comparatively recent times.

By direction of Sir Walter Buller, F.R.S., I lately proceeded to
Albury to explore the caves and swallow-holes in the locality, and to
collect all bones, &., as above-mentioned. After engaging a man to
assist in the work, we began on a swallow-hole that I had not previously
examined. The “holes” I may observe are deep circular pits varying
in size from a few feet to eighty or ninety teet in diameter at the top,
and about the same in depth ; most of them have steep, sloping sides
narrowing down to the bottom. In wet weather the rain falling on
their sides, and the small streams entering them from the higher points
of the range, enter subterranean channels having their outlet in the
low gullies, or on the edges of the swamps at the base of the lower
downs. The occurrence of great quantities of mixed bones in the
bottoms of the swallow-holes, and in the channels or fissures leading
from them, suggests that the birds probably fell into them accidentally,
and being unable to extricate themselves died in the holes. ‘The bones,

‘ owing to the subsequent accumulation of broken rock and clay on the

bottoms, are embedded at various depths, while others were carried by
the water down the underground channels beyond recovery. The first
hole we examined had a perpendicular opening of seven feet, and led
into a horizontal cave thirty yards long. In the centre of it, and ex-
tending its whole length is a broad fissure of great depth, with jagged
almost perpendicular walls. After tying knots on the rope about four
feet apart and fixing it to a crowbar driven into the ground on the top
of the hole, we put down the tools and lowered ourselves. Having dug
through about eighteen inches of earthy clay containing pigs’ bones we
had to dig three feet deeper before finding any bones of the moa. In
order to avoid injuring them with the tools we carefully probed the
clay with a fine iron rod to ascertain where they lay. By this means
we were able to proceed more expeditiously and with safety. The
colour of the clay is yellow and intensely adhesive, it is somewhat difficult
to work tools in it, and and although the work is not all rose pink and

194 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

lavender, the hope of good reward in the form of bones keeps the spirits
buoyant. In working down the fissures they become narrower, and
frequently the larger bones are found tightly jammed into their narrow
bottoms. In all the fissures we worked we found a water channel
formed along the bottom through which a considerable stream of water
must occasionally flow, and owing to the long continuance of dry
weather very little water was in any of the channels. One remarkable
feature about them is the occurrence in parts of their bottoms of
thousands of small bones mixed together in wet mud and sand (partially
dissolved limestone). In some places we found them from six inches to
a foot deep, and they appear to me to be composed chiefly of the bones of
chicks of several species of Moa and Aptornis. Amongst them we found
two skulls of Séringops habroptilus (Owl Parrot). Along with these are
some that will in all probability prove to belong to the ancient dog, the
companion of the moa hunters. We also found chips of moa egg shells,
gizzard-stones, and portions of moa skin, with remains of other species
of birds still living in some localities, but extinct in the Albury district.
For obvious reasons, I must, however, avoid dealing with their specific
characters. The first fissure unfortunately becoming too narrow to
admit of working it thoroughly, we had reluctantly to leave it, although
we were fully aware that numerous valuable bones lay buried for ever
beneath our feet.

Our next essay was in the deep hole mentioned in my paper in
Vol. IL, page 293, and from which came the Aptornis skull described
by Sir Richard Owen, and supposed by the accomplished naturalist to
belong to a new species.* From the same hole were taken along with
the Aptornis skull some of the largest and best preserved bones of
Dirnornis elephantopus and crassus yet obtained. The bones buried in
the damp fissures are cleaner and whiter than bones dug out of swamps,
the latter being generally charged with the black or other colouring
matter of the clay or mud in which they occur. In entering the hole I
observed that slight changes had occurred since I last examined it seven
years ago. On each side a broad fissure filled with clay and broken
limestone exists. In these fissures the bones are embedded at various
depths in intensely tenacious clay. Since J last visited it a considerable
quantity of the clay had fallen out of the fissures on to the bottom and
left several bones projecting out of the almost upright section of clay
and small stones. After turning over and collecting all bones contained
in the fallen debris, we built as much of it as possible into one corner,
and then dug down close to the wall of rock in line with the fissure
until we reached the water channel on its bottom. But the extremely
narrow space in which we were placed made it impossible for us to
examine the full depth of clay in the hole; it could only be done
perfectly by constructing a staging across the top of it, and using a
windlass to draw the whole of the clay to the surface. On reaching
the water channel we again met with a vast number of small, mixed
bones lying in the wet, sandy mud. We followed the channel away
from the hole for several yards and obtained some excellent bones, but
were stopped in our progress by the fissure again becoming too narrow
to work in. We threw back the clay into the closed fissures and tried

* Introduction to Sir Walter Buller’s ‘‘ History of the Birds of New Zealand,” p. xxiii.

MOA REMAINS AT ALBURY. 195

in the opposite direction. But we were soon compelled to abandon the
work in this hole owing to the impossibility of disposing of the removed
elay. Having several times previously dug out many valuable bones
from this hole, I am the more convinced that a great wealth of osseous
relics lies buried at various depths in the accumulated mass of clay and
stones partly filling it,—a veritable charnel-house of moa and other
remains, awaiting the enterprise of some future explorer.

While removing our tools to another swallow-hole heavy rain
commenced to fall and continued for two days, which prevented us in
the meantime continuing the work. We however resorted to the dry
caves and painted rock shelters to examine their floors and sketch the
numerous grotesque figures adorning the walls. On the Brothers
Range between the Tengawai and Opihi rivers and in the valley of the
Opihi there are a number of ‘painted rocks and caves which have not
been examined or recorded. As soon as I can spare the time I intend
to visit the district to examine and report on them, which I hope to be
be able to figure and describe in a paper to be read before the New
Zealand Institute. Archzologically they are of great interest and
value, and everywhere that they exist they are rapidly disappearing.
The careful digging of all the floors yielded very poor results, for
excepting numerous ” fragments of burned egg-shells and charred pieces
of moa bones, we obtained nothing of value. A number of Pipi
(Mesodesma Nove-Zealandie) and Pawa shells (Haliotis ris) were dug
out of the layer of ashes that partly covered the floors. Parts of. the
rock shelters have a smoked and blackened appearance with a thick
layer ofashes lying immediately beneath, thus showing that fires were
kindled under the rocks and in the caves, probably on frosty nights or
during wet weather. When the rain ceased we examined a number of
old Maori ovens and the ash heaps around them that had been newly
exposed only a few days before by the first ploughing of the land.
They are situated on the low flat near the gorge of the Tengawai river,
and near the painted rocks. A thorough examination of the ovens and
ash heaps yielded even less than the floors of the caves or rock shelters.
But there were evidences of the ash heaps having been formed at
intervals of several years; at least we judged so by examining them in
section. The greatest depth of the ash (which is composed chiefly of
comminuted bone,) was fourteen inches. The section in one instance
showed two layers of fine earth 24 inches in thickness interlayered with
black ash 3 or 34 inches respectively, due, of course, to the action of
earthworms. We expected to be rewarded for the day’s work by
finding some rude or polished stone implements, but none were obtained.
The weather continuing fine we devoted a day to traversing the whole
of the newly ploughed downs and collecting the upturned bones lying
in the furrows ; wherever we found them we dug the ground carefully
around for several yards and obtained some good bones and in one
instance some gizzard-stones. But at no time did we obtain a perfect
skeleton. Next morning we searched the bed and banks of the creek
draining the eastern side of the limestone range,—where in former
years I occasionally obtained good bones after floods. In passing along
we discovered a native oven brimful of mussels. The plough had lately
skinned off the five inches of soil covering the oven and left the shells
exposed. After being placed in the oven they were apparently never

196 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

cooked, as each valve was closed and the shells full of extremely fine
earth. Before mid-day we resumed work at the swallow-holes and
continued at them for several days with varying success. But I need
not recount our work for the time, as the account given of the first two
holes we worked will suffice to give a good idea of the others we
examined.

The two main theories propounded to account for the extinction of
the Dinornithide, the one holding forth that the moas were exter- |
minated by an autocthonic race anterior to the advent of the Maori,
the other that their extermination was solely the work of the latter race,
may be briefly discussed here. The evidence given while exploring the
swallow-holes, caves, and Maori ovens in the Albury district, seems to
me to be more consistent with the views of scientists who hold that
their extermination was accomplished, or at least accelerated by the
hand of man, within the last three or four generations, certainly in late
years, Several minor and extremely ingenious theories have been
offered to explain the annihilation of the moas; some are purely
fanciful, others appear to me to be nearer to the truth, yet wide of the
true cause. Of course I admit that the examination of a certain district
may favour one theory and in another it may oppose it, yet the facts I
am able to adduce will go to show that the moas—although they were
birds of great antiquity, lived in the Albury district within very recent
times. It is generally maintained that the larger and more clumsy
species of the race were the first to succumb, and in many districts such
probably was the case. At Albury, however, the larger bones are as
commonly ploughed up on the downs, as those belonging to smaller or
intermediate-sized birds. They are buried no deeper, as the ploughs are
set to turn over only a certain depth of furrows. I have seen other
great bones of D. elephantopus that were ploughed up on the tops of the
limestone Downs near the cave village in a perfect state of preservation.
The greater size and maturity of the bones would preserve them from
decaying in the soil for a longer period than the bones of young or
immature birds. When digging up the bones in the newly-ploughed
furrows we observed that in every instance we only obtained parts of
the skeleton ; this would appear to indicate that the birds were slain
where they lay, and that parts of the carcase had been removed. If the
birds had died a natural death where their remains were found, some
allowance may be made for hawks, seagulls, and wekas attacking the
flesh, and scattering the finer bones. But I know of no carnivorous
bird or animal (excepting perhaps the Harpagornis) having strength
to remove the heavy femurs or tarsi of a large bird. Supposing the
extinct eagle to be endowed with the power, I think it is probable that
owing to the great numbers of living prey it would not bea carrion
feeder. But the fact of portions only of the skeletons being found in
the open country, not only at Albury but elsewhere, seems to favour
the idea that they were slain on the spot and cut up, and parts of them
removed by their destroyers. The day we searched the newly-ploughed
land, one of the ploughmen informed me that a few weeks before, while
ploughing a small gully, the plough had suddenly turned over a “ heap
of different kinds of bones,” and that he had collected them in a sack,
and carried them into the homestead. Before leaving the district I had
the pleasure of examining them and found they were composed of leg

MOA REMAINS AT ALBURY. 197

bones only, including several toe bones and claws, belonging to birds of
various sizes. Possibly a thorough search of the spot where they lay
would have resulted in finding all the bones belonging to each leg. The
case, however, seems to afford support to the theory that when the birds
were slain parts of them only were occasionally removed. It certainly
is difficult to conceive how the leg bones of several-sized birds could be
placed there by other than human agency. The great accumulation of
burnt eggshells found in the kitchen middens of the moa hunters points
to another potent cause, in fact, the chief one, operating steadily and
annually as the destroyer of the moas. ‘The fiercest and swiftest species
could be exterminated in a few years by annually robbing their nests,
and certainly the cunning of the Maori would be equal to the occasion
in all cases. The fragments of eggshells we found in the ash heaps
varied considerably in thickness, and in the granular markings on their
surface, and the freshest chips occurred in the top layer of ashes.

Now, in drawing conclusions from the evidence afforded by exami-
ning the ash mounds, their layered condition suggests that towards the
close of the moa age, the tribes by whom they were formed were
nomadic in habits, and wandered from the district for periods of several
years ; other evidence which seems to me to support these remarks is
the fact of many of the rocks having been painted over and over again,
while the fresher figures are truer and were given a higher finish. This
may be considered to have no bearing on the question, yet I think that
the nomadic tribes who were probably compelled to live and subsist on
the sea coast during part of the year would acquire a taste fov sketching
them on the rocks when they returned to gather the eggs or hunt the
moas ; certainly the best executed figures on the rocks at Albury are
those representing several species of fish. The occurrence also of marine
shells in the floors of the rock-shelters and ash heaps near the old ovens,
offers further proof of the moa hunters having occasionally visited, or
lived temporarily, on the seashore.

The great age of the bones occurring in the deep, damp fissures at
Albury, furnishes an important proof of the remote antiquity of the
moas. The peculiar conditions under which they are found have been
exceptionally favourable to their long and perfect preservation, while
the occurrence of their remains in the tertiary and more recent deposits,
and in the surface mould on the downs, illustrates the gradual
extinction of the birds for many ages from some not very clearly known
cause. The extremely hard and solid structure of the matured bones
would naturally resist the solvents of the soil for a longer period than
the bones of other animals, but it is difficult to reconcile the fact of
the more delicate bones being fonnd sound and perfect in superficial
mould with the theory that the birds had perished where they lay four
thousand years ago. The subject, however, has been so exhaustively
dealt with by Sir Walter Buller, and the whole of the evidence and
views of both sides compiled and brought down to date in perfect order,
(loc. cit. page xviii.), that I refrain from discussing it here. When [
have examined the caves, rock shelters, etc., in the Opihi cave districts,
I will be able to deal with the subject more fully and to give details of

the work.
So far I have not touched on the origin of the bones in the deep

198 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

fissures, nor am I aware that the subject has hitherto been dealt with,
yet it is worthy of a passing notice. The fissures or earthquake rents
in the limestone were formed at some remote period when numerous
species of moas flourished in the district. Many of the fissures in
which the bones are found are several yards broad at their tops, and
are now filled up and are not distinguishable except in such parts where
they can be seen in section. For ages after their formation, the stupid,
clumsy birds, browsing or wandering near them, appear to have
accidentally fallen in and perished. This mode of destruction lasted for
a considerable time, or at least until the fissures filled up sufficiently to
enable the birds falling to walk along the bottom and escape at some
sloping outlet. These remarks are based on observations made in the
fissures ten years ago, and in others lately, as the invariable result on
both occasions, was the finding of the bones, etc., in the lowest ten feet
of the clay filling the fissures. The latter extend in all directions on
the range, and doubtless may continue to increase slowly in depth,
caused by the water channels flowing along their bottoms and the rain
water dissolving the rock.

When the future historian of the moa age in New Zealand is
dealing with the oldest- preserved relics, or the remains of that giant
race of birds, he may safely commence his work on the latter with the
remnants found in these ancient fissures. When all other districts
have been carefully explored we may then be able to discover some
cause to account for the extermination of the moas. Until such work is
accomplished we must remain content with data we possess. Certainly
no zoological subject can surpass in interest the history of these
marvellous ornithic relics of bygone ages.

W. W. SmitH.

NOTES ON THE KEA OR MOUNTAIN PARROT
(NESTOR NOTABILIS).

Eee ee

These few notes on the habits and peculiarities of the Kea are
made up from information which I have gathered during a period of
twenty years spent in localities where the birds were in great numbers
-—chiefly at the head of Lake Wanaka, at Lake Wakatipu, and at
Mount Cook. I have shot and trapped thousands of them, watched
them by day and night, and taken advantage of every opportunity of
learning anything new pertaining to them. My chief object in
writing these notes is to refute what I consider tobe a totally
erroneous idea which seems to have gained credence, and which, for
brevity’s sake, I will call the “kidney theory.” Further than this, a
few facts have come under my observation, which I have never seen
mentioned as relating to these birds.

The theory above mentioned was started by Mr. Henry Campbell
of Lake Wanaka station. Not having the leisure to go fully into this
matter, I will refer my readers to what Mr. Potts has written on the
subject (Buller’s History of New Zealand Birds, page 54, first

NOTES ON THE KEA,. 199

edition, and also included in the second edition). I will confine
myself simply to correcting and straightening up false impressions
that have got abroad, notably one in a book which is now lying
before me called “ Darwinism,” by Alfred Russel Wallace, and which
has constantly been referred to in papers here and abroad.

I first went to the Makarora Valley, at the head of Lake Wanaka,
in December, 1869, and there met Mr. Henry Campbell, who had a
station adjoining ours. I was very anxious to get a Kea, as it was
then a new bird to me, and I had never, up to that time, either seen
or heard one. I learnt from an old Maori the art of calling and
trapping them, and to Mr, Campbell I am indebted for a great deal
of information concerning their habits. On visiting Lake Wanaka a
year later, this gentleman informed me that these birds had taken to
killing and eating his sheep, their plan of operation consisting of
picking a hole in the sheep’s back over the kidneys. Acting on this
information, I decided to spend all the time I could spare in endea-
vouring to find out the reason of their taking up these carnivorous
habits.

The following statement by Wallace is generally believed to be a
correct description of the bird, viz. :—“It belongs to the family of
“brush-tongued parrots, and naturally feeds on the honey of flowers and
“ the insects which frequent them, together with such fruits or berries
“as are found in the region. Till quite recently this composed its whole
“ diet, but since the country it inhabits has been occupied by Euro-
*peans, it has developed a taste for a carnivorous diet with alarming
“results. It began by picking the sheepskins hung out to dry, or
“the meat in the process of being cured. About 1868 (? 1870) it was
“first observed to attack living sheep, which had frequently been
“found with raw and bleeding wounds on their backs. Since then it
“is stated that the bird actually burrows into the living sheep, eating
“its way down to the kidneys, which form its special delicacy.”

A correct description of the Kea will be found in “ New Zealand
Birds.” The young bird, the first year, is very yellow at the base of
the mandibles. The beak of the Kea is longer and not so curved as
that of the Kaka (Nestor meridionalis). The Kaka feeds chiefly on the
honey of flowers, and, in winter-time, on the grubs in rotten wood; I
have never seen the Kea take to either of these diets. Its beak is
more suitable for grubbing after the larve of the different insects that
are found in the ground,—such as the grub of the Weta of the Natives
(Deinacrida) and of the Cicada, of which there are large numbers in
the high country of Canterbury and Otago, although they disappear
as the country is burnt by the runholder, who not only kills the
insects by so doing, but also destroys all the berry-bearing scrub.
This process of course improves greatly the sheep-carrying capacity
of the soil, but, at the same time, it deprives the Kea of all its natural
food, thereby causing the bird to take to a carnivorous diet. They do
no harm to the sheep running in the vicinity of Mount Cook, but
further down, where the country is denuded of its scrub, they have
proved very destructive. They seem to learn the pernicious habit
from their neighbours, as I noticed at the Wanaka that, for a time,
they left one run strictly alone, while on the adjoining run in six
months they killed 100 hoggets out of 1,500.

200 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

I have watched the bird at work. To get at the grubs, it will
cock its head on one side, look hard at the ground, and then make a
dab at it, bringing bits of earth away each time with the hook of its _
beak, until it gets a short way in. It does not keep its head under
eround for any length of time, although it will make a burrow eight
or nine inches deep; but, all the time it is at work, it keeps bringing
its heed out sharply to take a look around.

Besides grubs, they feed on the berries of various alpine shrubs
and trees, such as the snow berry ((aultheria), Coprosma, Panax,
the little black seed in a white skin of the Phyllocladus alpinus, the
Pittosporum with its hard seed in a glutinous mass like bird-lime, and
the red berry of the Podocarpus; also, in winter, on roots of the
various herbaceous alpine plants—Aciphylla squarrosa and colensot,
Ranunculus lyallii, Celnisias, ete.

The Kea has the power of moving its upper mandible to a
ereater extent than I have noticed in any other of the Westor family.

The reason, I believe, that the bird has been charged with eating
the kidney of the sheep it attacks, is that the loin or rump of the
sheep is the broadest part whereon it can get an easy grip. As soon
as the sheep feels its assailant, it runs away with the bird holding
on and naturally having its beak just over the kidneys where it
immediately sets to work. It will eat any part of the sheep when
the animal is either dead or alive, but it prefers the pulp which
it strips from the sinews, in the same way that the kakapo strips the
pulp from grass. I have found large numbers of sheep-with only a
very small hole on the back, about the size of a crown, which on
beine examined, showed a cavity beneath as large as a man’s hand,
in which the backbone and ribs were perfectly bare. Others I have
found with holes in the side through which the intestines had been
drawn, the sheep being still alive; and, in some instances, the wound
had healed and apparently formed a false anus.

They become very tame if not disturbed, and their antics are
very amusing to watch. At Mount Cook my old collie dog was
frequently the victim of their pleasantries. In the evenine—their
usual time to congregate—-they would find the dog lying in front of
the house; they would then walk around him, first one would go up
and pull his tail and run away, another would follow suit, and so on
until the victim would get up growling and retire into the verandah.

They would then form a circle, and one would step into the
centre and make a variety of sounds as if he were addressing the
others, who would keep perfectly still until he finished up with a cry
like “ bow-wow,’ when they would all hop round him. They seem to
be a very unselfish lot of fellows, as they will keep this performance
up for a considerable time, allowing each member to address the
assembly.

‘They are very playful and inquisitive, and will wrestle and roll
one another about like kittens. In fact they carry their playfulness
to such an extreme as to become a nuisance to surveyors, whose flags
they pull down as soon as the surveyors put them up. Another
instance of their playfulness came under my notice, during the last

NOTES ON THE KBEA. 201

season, at the hut erected by the Government on the Ball Glacier.
The birds would perch on the top of the roof, and, two or three at a
time, would slide on their tails down the corrugated iron until they
reached the lower edge, when they would fly off and continue the
game for an hour or more.

Iam unable to give a correct estimate of the number killed in
the Mount Cook—Lake Wakatipu districts. The slaughter of them
at times has been very great; at Lake Wanaka, in four years, |
myself killed over three thousand; and I know of several up-country
stations where 100 to 200 were killed yearly. To reduce their
numbers, the County Councils used to give from one to two shillings
per beak, and the Government then gave the Councils a subsidy of £
for £. This has now been discontinued, which has resulted in the
birds not being as much sought after, and so eiven a chance of
increase—a chance of which they will not be loth to take advantage.
About Mount Cook they breed very early in the year, as I have found
their nests in August, when snow was on the ground.

The first time that I saw the nests at that time of the year was
when I was shooting, at an altitude of 3,000 feet. I shot a bird that
was sitting on a rock; after it fell, another appeared on the rock, and
from the same place I shot twenty-two. I went to pick up the dead
birds, and I then found that they had, in the first place, all come
out of a hole under the rock. On looking into the hole I saw
something moving, which eventually turned out to be young birds.

They were out of reach, but after some trouble I managed to
noose one, and I found that it was in its nesting plumage of slate-
coloured down, with very yellow beak and legs. There were others
in different stages of growth, also eggs. I have since found other
nests, and have noticed that, after a time, the old birds leave the half-
grown ones to hatch out the late eggs, all the community doing their
share of feeding the young. The same habit I have noticed in the
case of the native parroquet. The Kea’s egg is white and about the
size of a pigeon’s, but rounder and with a rough shell. The young
do not come out of the nest until fullv fledged and able to fly. The
old birds are very courageous, and in defence of their young I have
seen the parent birds tackle a bawk, and nearly pluck him before he
could get away. The young birds are so tame that if a person comes
across a flock of them and keeps perfectly still, they will walk up to
him and pull at his clothes. They will learn to talk but are rather
noisy.

It is very pleasing to watch these birds as they congregate after
the sun sets, and if a person can “call” them they will answer with
their usual response of “ Kea! Kea! Bow-wow! Bow-wow!”

Like many of our native birds, the Kea will gradually retreat
before the mavch of civilisation, and they will live only in such works
as Buller’s “ History of New Zealand Birds,” and others of the same

nature.
F. F. C. Huppieston.

202 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

AN EXCURSION TO THE TRELISSIC BASIN.

—_——_ + —____

While the wholesome taste for mountain touring which has arisen
in the colony in the last few years impels our town folk to visit Mount
Cook, Lake Wakatipu, and other centres, our travelling public has not
yet learned to value the bye paths which add so much interest to such
travelling. Some time before the Hermitage was built I camped with
a party including Mr. Huddlestone at the foot of a spur in the Ben
Ohou range where now Glentanner station stands. Having a spare
day I ascended to the summit of the mountain at the back of the
station, and probably got better results than could be obtained nearer
Mount Ccok at the altitude which I reached, viz., 8,600 feet. I cannot
too strongly recommend this comparatively easy day’s work—10 hours
suffice—to anyone who wishes to study the whole system of Mount
Cook and the peaks to right and left and the three great glaciers. Yet
this mountain is entirely neglected. I have never yet managed to
induce anybody to go and visit a view equal to that from the Gorner
Grat. Experimenting in a similar way I found another lying much
nearer to hand though perhaps not equal to that. In January last
after the visit of the Australasian Association was over, I accepted
the hospitality of Mr. J. D. Enys, of Castle Hill, for a few days. My
wife accompanied me, and we found there Mr. Kirk on a_ botanising
excursion. Castle hill is on the West Coast road, 20 miles from
Springfield. It is not on the line of the Midland Railway, but it is the
best piece of land in the valley of the Upper Waimakariri. Mr. Enys’
house, now owned by Mr. Stronach, is 2,500 feet above the sea, and is
beautifully situated in a clump of Mountain Beech (Fagus cliffortioides)
which extends over some thousands of acres along the face of the range.
ft commands a full view of Mount Torlesse, a famous collecting ground
for botanists. The district is an enclosed basin with no outlet under
3,000 feet in height, save the gorge of the Wamakariri. The floor of
the basin is composed of limestone, I am not geologist enough to tell
its history, but it looks as if it had been a kind of land-locked bay, with
a narrow entrance from an ancient coast sea. Marvellous collections of
fossil teeth have been made there, and Mr. Enys showed me a
remarxable little bone which we were convinced was the top of a bird’s
bone,—this, too, out of the limestone. Our first excursion was through
the beautiful beech forest in which we noted from time to time the
gorgeous crimson mistletoe, and up the stony creek bed to a height of
4,100 feet to the first of the Edelweiss. This for a lady is a good climb.
Next day I went with Mr. Rogers, a nephew of my host, to the height
of 6,900 feet. The way up this height is simple; it is to follow the
spur opposite the door of the Castle Hill Hotel until the summit is
ceached. It was a broiling day and I shall not easily forget our struggles
over the broken slates to reach a small patch of snow near the top.
But the view from the top is really magnificent. Mount Cook, about
90 miles off, stood out splendidly with its chief neighbours in bold relief.
This is one of the points from which it is seldom seen and it gives a
new view of the extension northward of the range. Two bold moun-
tains much nearer flanked the view ; I suppose Mount Arrowsmith and

AN EXCURSION TO THE TRELISSIC BASIN, 203

Mount Sinclair. The whole line of the great backbone of New Zealand
for 150 miles was visible at once, while by merely turning round one
could see the coast from Cheviot to Timaru say 120 miles in a sweep.
The summit of Torlesse made a patch over Christchurch, but Sumner
was plainly visible. Lake Coleridge lay like an emerald below us and
two or three small lakes were visible. On the distant Canterbury
plains, farms, roads and plantations could be distinguished. Returning,
we descended over the vast slides of shingle by planting one foot in it
and taking giant strides covering 2,000 feet in a few minutes.
Attempting to quench an intolerable thirst we found nearly all the
streams so bitter with alum as to be nauseous. We found a large
number of interesting plants. On the vast stretches of shingle we
noticed the singular genera which seem to enjoy life in that inhospitable
region, while on the lower slopes an immense profusion of Celmisias
and other alpine composites prevailed. Celmisia viscosa predominated,
while C. sinclairit, C. haastii, C. laricifolia, C. bellidioides, C. lyallii, and
a small form of the species or variety now called C. jervoisii were
identified. At 4,500 feet C. bellidioides is a singularly beautiful plant
when in flower, but it degenerates at lower levels. Senecio lyallit,
usually yellow as a buttercup, was found to be cream-coloured above a
certain height. Ascending a stream in a rocky bed I presently found
it white,—a few yards higher I found a very similar plant with pure
white flowers but with rough hairy instead of glabrous leaves. This
was the variety or species called Senecio scorzonerioides.

A very interesting Raoulia or vegetable sheep was very plentiful
on steep rocky places, but I believe a finer species is found on Mount
Torlesse. Iam growing one of these in a pot where it seems to do
well. Several which I planted on a rockery have been torn to pieces
for insects. It is said that the Keas tear them up with their powerful
beaks and that these birds learnt to eat mutton through mistaking dead
sheep for masses of Raoulia.

F. R. CHapman.

THE GEYSERS ACTION OF ROTORUA.

BY CAMILLE MALFROY, C.E., J.P., CHEVALIER DE LA LEGION
D’HONNEDR.

(Paper read before the Auckland Institute, 22nd June, 1891.)

Being appointed engineer in charge of the Government Thermal
Spring District at Rotorua, immediately after the eruption of Tarawera
in 1886, it became part of my duty to observe and report on any
changes which might take place in the hot spriugs, geysers, ke. The
eruption seemed to have had great influence over them. Many which
had been quiescent and some which had been considered as dead (having
in the course of time become filled with rubbish and overgrown with
weeds and brushwood) suddenly burst into renewed activity, and almost
daily during the first six weeks after the eruption I could observe some
changes in thermal action—something new here and there.

204 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

The geysers immediately attracted my attention. Waikite geyser,
at Whakarewarewa, which had been quiescent for abcut ten years, again
burst into full activity, with eruptions about every quarter of an hour.
Pohutu, Wairoa, and the other geysers were also playing occasionally,
but were very irregular in their action. Sometimes weeks would elapse
without one or the other of them showing any signs of activity, whilst
at other times they would be active for several days i in succession.

Not having had a long acquaintance with the district, I made
inquiries of old residents (European and Maori) for any theory to
account for the inequality in the thermal action of these springs and
geysers. The generally received opinion was that these geysers were
influenced by the wind—with southerly winds they were quiescent, and
with northerly they were active. As I could not well understand how
the wind could affect geysers or springs situated in sheltered positions,
I began a system of personal observation, and soon found that southerly
wind meant high barometer and northerly a low one; and if I could
not understand the wind theory, {| could understand the hydrostatic
effect and the influence of atmospheric pressure, which was simply
equivalent to a reduction in the column of water. Every spring and
geyser being naturally hydrostatically balanced, the reduction by any
means of the weight of the column of water should bring a corres-
ponding increase in the activity of the spring. Acting upon this theory,
I determined to experiment privately upon Te Puia,a thermal spring in
a secluded spot near an old pa, on the right hand side, and well down in
the bed of the Puarenga River, therefore less influenced by winds, — It
was at that time boiling, but not very actively. By means of a drain
which I cut in the sand formation by the level of the river, I removed
about two feet of the water of the pool which formed around the spring.
This removal of two feet of dead water had an immediate effect on the
spring ; it began to boil furiously, and a few minutes afterwards burst
into a geyser, throwing water from 30 to 40 feet high, discharging at
the same time the whole of the dead water of the pool. I watched this
eruption of what I thought a new geyser, for there was vegetable
growth of several years’ standing around it, with wonder and witha
certain amount of anxiety, as [ began to fear that I had started some-
thing which I could not control. However, after a few minutes, taking
advantage of a decrease in the eruptive force, I ran to the drain I had
made, and refilled it as quickly as possible, causing part of the water
thrown up by the geyser to be again caught in the pool or basin. It
soon accumulated, and after a while the geyser action ceased, and the
water of the pool ran down the geyser’s tube, together with a consi-
derable quantity of water from the river, which had flowed back
through the partially closed drain. In about ten minutes the tube was
filled with cold water to the surface.

IT watched it for a while, and saw the water getting hotter and
hotter. Eventually it began to boil, but without any geyser action.
After a time I again opened the drain, and almost immediately there
was another splendid eruption similar to the former. I determined to
to allow this to play and see what it would do, as I began to have some
confidence in my ability to control it by the same process as before, if it
was found necessary. It played for about twenty minutes, the geyser

THE GEYSERS AT ROTORUA. 205

action getting weaker and weaker, and the cooled water in the pool
getting stronger all the time. The water eventually got the best of it,
and flowed down the geyser tube to repeat the same action as before.
Having made the geyser play and cease playing several times, I re-closed
the drain thoroughly and went away. I did not see it play again that
day, and the following day about noon, when I went near, I found by
the marks I had left that it had not been in eruption since I left it the
night before. The water of the pool would boil up violently at times,
but there was noeruption. I then again tried what the opening of the
drain would do. The result was the same as on the previous day—a
splendid eruption of the geyser. [I again watched the action for three
successive times, and eventually went away leaving the drain open, and
from the volume of steam which went up periodically from that spot I
could see that intermittent geyser action was taking place.

I repeated and watched these experiments on many occasions
during the months of August and September, 1886. Once, the river
being rather high, I turned the cold water from it on the geyser when
in full eruption. This almost instantly stopped its action, but at the
same time it caused a great noise, probably owing to the sudden
condensation of steam within the geyser tube. After a while, however,
the noise ceased, the pool filled up, and all- was quiet ; and as long as I
allowed the cold water to flow across over the mouth of the geyser tube
there was no eruption or even any perceptible action of the springs.

Having thus acquired some little practical knowledge of the
working of this particular geyser, I began to compare it with that
of others to see if any of them could be made to play at will. I then
watched and studied the action of Pohutu, which is situated on the
principal geyser fissure of Whakarewarewa. This fissure supplies no
less than seven active geysers and blowholes, besides quite a number of
old geyser tubes, which have been inactive for many years, though they
still emit steam and make a rumbling noise, as of boiling water some
considerable depth below the surface. They do not seem to affect or to
be affected by the working or non-working of the active geysers.

Having noticed the great irregularity of action of the different
geysers, I thought that it must to a great extent be attributed to
outside or surface influence. I noticed that when Pohutu was in
eruption Waikoroihi would stop, and vice versa. This showed that they
were hydrostatically connected, and as long as Waikoroihi played, the
water ejected, finding its way into the blue pool of Pohutu at a
considerably reduced temperature (about 160° Fahr.), would so affect
the cool water in the blue pool that it would not boil up whilst this
lasted. As it did not cause the water to rise in that pool, I conciuded
that it might find its way back into Waikoroihi, aud thus be thrown up
again and again. I tested this by discolouring the water in the blue
pool with loam, and found that, though the discolouration disappeared,
the small bits of grass, moss, etc., were re-ejected by Waikoroihi.

Taking the opportunity of a visit of the Hon. Mr. Mitchelson, the
late Minister of Public Works, to our district, I explained my views on
these matters to him, with an imaginary sketch of the geyser tubes ;
Mr. Mitchelson took considerable interest in it, and allowed me to
expend a few pounds experimenting thereupon. At the beginning of

206 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

September, 1888, I built a temporary wall directing the Waikoroihi
water away from the “blue pool.” This soon had the eftect of raising
the temperature of the blue pool from 200° to 210° Fahr. The water
rose a few feet and began to boil furiously, then the pipe, which I
call the “ Indieator,” became active, and as soon as this took place the
water in the “blue pool” would cease boiling and go down again to the.
low water-line. JI watched this same action for several hours, but
unless the water of the blue pool rose to the level of the overflow drain
there was no eruption of Pohutu. Seeing that this small indicator
tube acted as a kind of safety valve I tried to close it up with bags,
stones, etc., but failed, the steam and water finding its way through
small fissures in the rocks. It then occurred to me to build a kind of
dam around the “indicator” so as to collect the water ejected by it,
and also lead some of the water from Waikoroihi into this dam, thus
causing this cooled water to flow back down the indicator tube. This
had the desired effect. The indicator stopped playing altogether as
long as I could keep a small stream of cooled water running down it.

On the following day Waikoroihi stopped playing. The water of
the blue pool rose to the level of the overflow drain, became more and
more active, and on the 9th of September, two days after the works
were finished, Pohutu gave a grand eruption, lasting nearly two hours,
throwing large volumes of water from 60 to 80 feet high. This
eruption was repeated in the evening, and from that date till December,
1889, it played regularly about twice in 24 hours. During this time,
while I was acting as commissioner at the Paris Exhibition, there was
no one on the spot to look after these special works. The consequence
was that Pohutu again stopped playing regularly. On my return, in
February, 1890, I was informed that Pohutu had not played or been
in active eruption for the last nine weeks. I at once went over to see
it, and finding that the works I had made had been tampered with, I
had them put into temporary repair, with the result that Pohutu played
up again a few hours after the work was finished, and its action has
continued ever since, though not so regularly as before, but this is no
doubt only due to the defective repairs of former walls, etc.

As a further illustration of what may be done in regulating the
action of geysers, or even in creating or starting new ones, I may state
that in the sanatorium grounds there are two hot springs with concrete
basins around them, which were never known to have geyser action,
though the formation of the surrounding rocks shows that they had
been geysers at some remote period. ‘These springs supply the hot
swimming bath, but during the year 1889, they had gone so low, and
were so much influenced by the atmospheric pressure, that sometimes
they would remain for several days two or three inches below the level
of the outflow pipe, thus discharging no water. ‘This became a matter
of great importance, as the bath which cost £1,000 threatened to
become useless, owing to not being able to keep it at a proper and
regular temperature.

Tt occurred to me that by contracting the springs proper into pipes,
it would prevent the hot water from becoming cold, by admixture with
the water in the basin, for I had noticed that when the springs were
active, the temperature of the water in the basins would rise from

THE GEYSERS AT ROTORUA. 207

140deg. minimum to 180deg. maximum. I thought that this increased
activity of the springs, when the water was hot, was owing to the
difference in the specific gravity between hot and cold water which the
spring tube or fissure might contain in its column, and that this diffe-
rence might be sufficient to cause the water to rise a foot or two above
present levei according to the depth at which this inftuence (in the
temperature of the water) would take place. I had some temporary
works carried out to prove the correctness of this theory, and to my
delight found that it was quite true, and that instead of a small rise of
two feet, which would have been quite sufficient for our purpose, there
was force enough in the springs under these altered circumstances to
~form geysers. Having further acquired the knowledge that the whole
of the springs in the Oruawhata and Chameleon basins were hydrosta-
tically connected, I arranged a system of pipes over the three principal
springs, connecting each of them by secondary pipes to three valves by
means of which either of the springs can be made to play as a geyser at
will. To keep the springs quiet, low, and cool during the time the
works were being carried out, cold water from the town main was
injected into one of the three spring tubes, pumping it with an ejector
out of another, whilst the work of cementing the geyser tube was going
on in the third ; and by shifting the injector and ejector pipe from one
spring tube to the other I had the three geyser tubes firmly secured.
These works were ‘finished early in May, 1890; and the springs were
thus kept quiescent for three weeks to allow the concrete to set
properly, and eventually four days longer, so as to start them into
action for the first time on the Queen’s Birthday, at two p.m. A con-
siderable number of people gathered to see this novel experiment. The
new fountains were christened the “ Malfroy’s Group of Geysers,” their
distinctive names being the “ Victoria,” the ‘‘ Nelly,” and the “ May.”
[The geyser action in different springs was then described, and it was
shown how it could be induced.] From the experience thus gained I
support the theory that the geyser tubes are connected with subter-
ranean caverns or chambers, and that heat or superheated steam pene-
trating through fissures supplies the natural or motive force, and I
conclude that the difference between the specific gravity of hot and cold
water within the geyser tube will thus produce every phenomenon of
geyser action to be observed at Rotorua, and I am led to believe that,
by studying the action of geysers and springs in this district, they could
in most cases and to a certain extent be regulated and controlled.

Geyser action may be briefly explained according to the foregoing.
Supposing that an even-sized tube full of water become so hot that
steam generated at the bottom, under heavy pressure, rises through it
without being condensed, there comes a time when several globules of
this steam will be in the tube at the same time, and as they rise to the
surface they will expand in proportion to the release of pressure exerted
upon them, and when coming near the surface they, as it were, explode,
throwing the small quantity of water contained in the tube above them
into the air, forming irregular intermittent explosions. Eruptions of
longer duration can be explained thus: The actual weight of water in
the geyser tube, acting as valve on the force, may by means of these
globule explosions, find itself suddenly released by, say, half the pressure
of the column of water. The equilibrium being thus destroyed, the

208 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

pent-up steam rushes up the (geyser) tube with a force proportionate to
the depths at which the reservoir containing this force may be situated,
and acting on the principle of a Giffard ejector, the pent-up steam
rushes up the tube, taking up with it a certain quantity of the water
which may find its way into the tube, and ejecting it into the air in the
form of high, low, or intermittent geysers, in proportion to the different
size, position, force and volume of the spring, and other circumstances
of the case.

I have also observed that the chemical composition of the water is
sensibly altered by the different actions of the geysers. Thus, if the
geyser is made to play very actively the water becomes softer to the
touch, it being more silicious and oily than when the geyser action is
subdued and allowed to boil up quietly.

This will account for the comparative rapidity observed in the
formation of terraces and mounds around the most active geysers, and
the very small amount of silica deposited by springs of less pressure and
activity.

THE PROSPECTS OF FINDING WORKABLE
COAL ON THE BANKS OF THE WAITEMATA.

BY JAMES PARK, F.G.S.
(Read at the Meeting of the Auckland Institute on 22nd June, 1891.)

————-+

The recently reported discovery of a thin, irregular seam of coal in
the cliffs near Northcote has again directed attention to the probable
existence of workable coal in the vicinity of the city of Auckland. The
great economic importance of this question has long engaged the:
attention of the Director of the New Zealand Geological Surveys, and
during the past ten years a number of surveys have been undertaken by
the officers of his department with the view of collecting sufficient data
to definitely determine the relation existing between the Waitemata
beds and the New Zealand coal-bearing series.

In the years 1879, 1880, and 1881 Mr. Cox, late New Zealand
Assistant Geologist, examined the country extending northwards from
the Auckland isthmus to Whangarei on the east coast and the Upper
Kaipara on the west. He arrived at the conclusion that the Wai-
tematas, as typically developed at Orakei Bay and Fort Britomart,
were unconformable to and had no connection with the brown coal
measures of Drury and the Lower Waikato Basin. In 1885 and 1886
I re-examined the same country, and also made a close and detailed
survey of the shores of the Hauraki Gulf from Auckland to the
Maraetai Range. The result of my observations tended to show that
no uncorformity existed from the top of the Waitematas to the base of
the Papakura series; and subsequent surveys by Mr. McKay, F.G.S.,
the present assistant geologist, have shown that the Papakura beds rest
quite conformably on the brown coal measures of the Waikato and

THE FINDING OF WORKABLE COAL. 209

Drury areas. The fact has, therefore, been established by actual survey
and observation that the Waitemata beds are conformable and belong to
the New Zealand coal series—an opinion which has always heen
maintained by Sir James Hector.

It may be as well before pursuing this subject further to shortly
inquire into the physical conditions considered necessary for the for-
mation of coal. By the geologists of the early part of this century
it was believed that workable true coal could only be found among a
certain class of shales and sandstones of the paleeozoic ov primary period,
to which the age and name of carboniferous had been affixed ; and it
may be as well to note here that this conclusion was fully sustained by
their experience of the coal measures of Great Britain, Continental
Europe, and North America, all of which were found to belong to this
period. But the many brilliant discoveries of the past forty years have
led to a remarkable evolution of thought and theory in every branch of
knowledge, and in none is this seen more conspicuously than in the
science of geology. True coals of superior quality have been found in
the jurassic and triassic rocks of India and New South Wales, and in
New Zealand in rocks that belong to the base of the tertiary period,
but which possess in some places a secondary facies, and hence have
been called cretaceo-tertiary in age.

Thus it is seen that there is interposed between the carboniferous
coals of Britain and the cretaceo-tertiary coals of New Zealand the
whole of the secondary and a part of the primary periods, representing
an immensity of time of such infinite duration as to defy the compre-
hension of our finite minds. This wide lapse of time renders it easy to
explain the great geological differences which exist between our own
and the Old World coals. Perhaps the most marked distinction lies in
the character of the vegetation of which each is composed; for, while
the European coals are mainly composed of the remains of a flora
belonging to the cryptogamic kingdom, truly characteristic of the
paleozoic period, the New Zealand coals are composed of the remains
of a varied forest vegetation which everywhere marks the advent of the
tertiary period and the luxuriant flora of the present time. In the
forests of our coal period there flourished two species of the kauri,
which at that time grew all over New Zealand; three species of the
beech, so commonly and erroneously known throughout the colony by
the settler’s name of birch; also the oak, laurel, myrtle, heaths, palms,
ferns, grasses, etc.

It is now recognised by geologists that coal could form at any
period of the earth’s history if the necessary conditions existed, and it is
probable that these conditions have continued the same through all
geological time. They were: (1) a humid, temperate climate, favouring
the growth of a dense vegetation ; (2) flat or gently sloping, low-lying
areas, favourable for the accumulation of thick deposits of vegetable
humus and peaty matter; and (3) a stationary, or nearly stationary
state of the land to permit a long-continued and uninterrupted growth
of vegetation.

In New Zealand our coal areas are mostly littoral, of small extent,
and patchy, characteristics resulting principally from the insular and
mountainous nature of the country in older tertiary times. Where the

210 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

sides of the valleys were steep and the hills met the sea, it was
impossible for the remains of vegetation to accumulate to any extent,
and this explains the somewhat anomaious fact that the coal measures
do not always contain coal. The steepness of the land during the coal
period is also accountable for the noticeable fact that our coals often
thin out towards the dip, and, where lying near the old rocky floor, are
usually found to conform with the contours of its surface.

But whether the forests which formed the coal grew on soils lying
directly on the old basement rock, as we find is the case with those of
the Auckland provincial district, or on the upper surface of the areas
reclaimed from the sea, as is the case of the forests which formed the
Shag Point and West Coast coals of the Middle Island, it happened that
after a long period of rest, permitting the accumulation of thick deposits
of vegetation, the land began to sink slowly, aud in course of time the
vegetation became covered by fluviatile clays and sands, generally con-
taining fragments of leaves and other plant remains derived from the
vegetation which continued to flourish on the higher portions of the dry
lands which had not become submerged.

As the land continued to sink, the fluviatile or estuarine beds
became covered by blue clays and greenish-coloured sands containing
the embedded remains of the numerous mollusca, crustaceans, corals,
whales, sharks, and other life which teemed in the seas of those times.
In a few instances in the north of Auckland coalfields, true marine beds
containing a varied molluscous life appear close to the roof or upper
surface of the coal. It is difficult to look back into these old eocene
times, and judge the conditions which prevailed in every isolated nook
during the formation of the coal; but examining the geological records
(the fossil life preserved in the rocks) we arrive at the conclusion that,
in these exceptional cases, the matter which afterwards formed the coal
accumulated in narrow, sheltered valleys adjacent to the sea, in places
where, after its gradual submersion, it was not subject to the action of
streams or rivers laden with sand or mud or other detritus.

Again pursuing the order of events which followed the deposition
of the coal, we find that the blue clays and green sands were followed
by shelly and coralline sands, which now form the well-known Whanga-
rei, Waipa, Raglan, Mokau, and Oamaru limestones. These are simply
local names for the same limestone, which is, perhaps, one of the most
marked, constant, and characteristic geological horizons in New Zealand,
and seems to form the natural close of the coal formation. Now, this
limestone is followed throughout New Zealand quite conformably by a
great series or succession of sands and clays, which in the classification
of the New Zealand Geological Survey possesses the generic name
‘‘orey marls,” or ‘ Waitemata Series.” These sands and clays are
typically developed on the shores of the Waitemata, which has given its
name to the rocks of this period throughout New Zealand. The Waite-
matas, as seen at Fort Britomart or the Calliope Dock, consist of
rapidly alternating layers of clays and soft sandstones. The presence in
these of numerous broken plant remains, and sometimes thin, irregular
streaks of coaly matter, together with the almost entire absence of true
marine beds, clearly points to the prevalence of fluviatile conditions
during their deposition.

THE FINDING OF WORKABLE COAL. 211

The sequence of events which we have traced in order to show the
relation of the coal measures and the Waitemata beds may be more
graphically shown as follows ;—Cretaceo-tertiary formation: 1. Waite-
mata sands and clays. 2. Whangarei or Oamaru limestone. 3. Marly
clays and green sands of marine origin. 4. Fireclays and coal, with
grits and conglomerates. 5, Basement rock.

The Waitemata beds occur at the top of the cretaceo-tertiary
formation, while the coal occurs at the base, the two being separated
by two great geological horizons. This in itself might be taken as
strong evidence that no coal of a workable nature would be found in
the Waitematas ; but we have seen that the coal could form at any
geological period if the necessary conditions existed. We, however,
receive little encouragement from this source, as the rapidly alternating
character of the Waitemata deposits would tend to show that dynamic
forces were at work during this period, causing frequent oscillations of
the land, thus preventing the accumulation of sufticient vegetable
matter at any period to form workable coal seams.

Workable seams of coal exist on the flanks of the Hunua Range,
and dip in the direction of the Waitemata, but it is doubtful if they
reach as far as Auckland; and, if they do, they wculd certainly be
found at a great depth—probably not much under 800 or 1,000 feet—
judging from the thickness of strata which is known to exist between
' the Waitematas and the coal at other places.

Auckland stands in the centre of a great syncline or trough, and
the depth to be penetrated there would be greater than at any other
point. Towards Howick on the one side and Riverhead on the other
the depth of strata to be passed through gradually decreases, until on
the flanks of the Hunua and Maraetai Ranges the coal crops out on the
surface. In the case of the upper reaches of the Waitemata, wherever
the old floor or basement rock is found at or near the surface, and
whether it is composed of hydraulic limestone or slaty shales, a careful
search should be made for indications of coal, for it was on such old
floors that the coal vegetation grew and flourished in older tertiary
times.

If, therefore, there is a probability of coal on the shores of the
Waitemata, it will be found in the upper: reaches, in the direction of
Riverhead, where the edges of the lower members of cretaceo-tertiary
formation are upturned against the basement rock.

STAR CHARTING AND SOME RESULTING
DISCOVERIES.
BY H. C. RUSSELL, GOVERNMENT ASTRONOMER.
(Read at the Meeting of the Royal Society of New South Wales on July Ist, 1891.)

ae

Last year I exhibited various photographs of stars and nebule
taken with a portrait camera with a focus of 32 in., and 1 am now
able to show you some of the same objects photographed with the
new star camera of 135 in. focus. One could hardly realise the

22 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

extraordinary difference between the two without seeing it; and I
am further able to show you the result of taking a star cluster with
an enlarging lens which makes the equivalent focus 564 in. or 47 ft.
The success of this new departure is very gratifying, because it shows
how much may be added to our knowledge of star clusters by this
method of direct enlargement. When possible it is much better to
enlarge in the camera at once than to enlarge the photograph after
it is taken, because there are always blemishes in the surface used
for the photograph which get enlarged with the picture. The first
photograph of Kappa Crucis did not cover a space of one-tenth of an
inch square, the star camera makes it 18 times larger and the
enlarging lens 324 times larger. Where extreme accuracy for
measurement is required, as in these cases, the gain is even greater
than these numbers indicate, and under the microscope the magnified
image may be again magnified 50 times. The smaller one will
bear no greater power because it is the imperfections in the surface
and image that limit the magnifying power that can be used, the
faults of the photo. surface being relatively so much less important in
the enlarged picture than in the small one, and this photo., with the
enlarging lens, speaks volumes for the stability and accurate motion of
the telescope which on such a large scale gives perfectly sharp star
discs. The clearness of these star discs affords also a good test of the
effect of colour, and there are many coloured stars in it to indicate
what I mean; it will suffice to indicate two stars—a red and a blue;
the red star is fully a magnitude brighter than the blue. Herschel
called it 9th magnitude, and the blue one 10th magnitude; the red
one in the photograph appears of the llth magnitude, or two
magnitudes less, and the blue one appears of 9th, or one magnitude
greater, or, in other words, the difference in colour, as estimated by
the eye and the photograph, makes a difference of 3 magnitudes.
T think the members are aware that the photographs I exhibited here
last year were made with a 6 in. Dalmeyer portrait lens, and my
object now is to bring before you the state of preparedness of the star
camera for the work of charting the heavens, and some examples of
the actual work, at least plates taken of the dimensions and conditions
of the actual plates, and only differing from them in that the réseau
or grating of lines, though ruled and made by the same machine as
those that are to be used, has not been tested in Europe, as all must
be before they are accepted. The one I have was courteously sent to
me by Admiral Mouchez, the Director of the Paris Observatory,
untested, as a sample: the process of testing those to be used being a
tedious one, and it will therefore be still some time before the
approved ones are available, but for our present purpose it answers
admirably. It consists of a piece of plate glass with a thick coating
of silver from solution on one side. On this silver two sets of lines at
right angles have been ruled with a sharp point which has cut the
silver through ; these lines are about ,7, of an inch apart, equal to 5
minutes of an arc. Each line is numbered. This réseau is used in
this way: it is placed face upward in a box the exact counterpart of
the plate-holder in the telescope, upon this is then placed a sensitive
plate and the box is then closed and put in front of the object glass
of the camera. A small electric lamp of 24 candles is then placed in

STAR CHARTING. 213

the focus of the star camera and the rays from it pass out from the
object-glass parallel, and falling on the silvered réscaw are stopped in
all places except where it is cut through by lines and figures and
there it passes on to the sensitive plate and marks it. A number of
plates are so treated one after the other and stored ready for use in
dark boxes. They are all carefully numbered on the glass and taken
out in order and exposed in the star camera on fine nights. The
plates are 64 by 6} inches, and the part actually exposed 6 by 6
inches; of this space 4:7 by 4:7 inches is the part which is finally
used, that is 2: by 2. The margin, rather more than } in., is to be
for overlap on the plates, and the stars on this can be compared for
verification in each adjoining pair of plates. When the plate is
developed after exposure the lines (or grating), as well as the stars,
appear. So far everything is simple and mechanical; but the
resolutions of the conference require that one set of plates shall have
on them all stars to the 11th magnitude, and the other set all stars
to the 14th magnitude, and the difficulty is in an ever-changing
atmosphere, and with plates variable in sensitivenesss to give the
exposure necessary to secure these results. The Astronomer Royal
for England, as chairman of the committee appointed to deal with
these and other kindred questions, has been making experiments on
a fairly good night in London, and has come to the conclusion that
two minutes will be enough in such weather for stars of 11th
magnitude, and 30 minutes enough for stars of 14th magnitude, and
that these times must be modified by the weather—that is, increased
if the weather is bad. I am able to show you three plates exposed
30 seconds, two minutes, and 30 minutes respectively on the well-
known star cluster Kappa Crucis. You will see that 30 seconds is
enough to get images of stars to the ninth magnitude, and that two
minutes gives images of stars to the 11th magnitude, and takes in a
number of 12th and one of 13th magnitudes; but the plate exposed
for 30 minutes is not so satisfactory. Jt should, according to the
rule, show with defined discs stars of the 14th magnitude of
Argelander’s scale; in Herschel’s monograph of this cluster he has
11 stars of the 14th magnitude, and four of the 15th; of these, eight
are invisible, six are visible, but not measureable, and only one is as
it ought to, “measureable”; and there are some stars of 12th and
13th magnitude that are not measureable. The plates were exposed
one after the other on a night that seemed to be uniform, and when
the two-minutes’ plate was a success, the 30 minutes’ ought also to
have been. I give the result of this experiment to show the difficulty.
At first sight this looks like a failure of the method; but I find on
further investigation that these faint stars in Herschel’s list are
either much fainter than he took them for, or they are coloured
stars. The matter was tested by taking a photograph of the same
object and giving three hours exposure; even then most of the stars
referred to above are far too faint to measure, although they can be
be scen plainly enough in nearly every instance, and the photograph,
hurriedly examined to see if the faint stars were on it, is found to
contain at least 20 more faint stars which Herschel did not see.
This example will serve to show you better than any statement the
difficulty to be met, according to the adopted rule, viz., if two

214 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

minutes’ exposure records stars of the 11th magnitude, then 30 to 35
minutes should record those of 14th; but here in the case of a well
known cluster, with every star recorded by a careful observer, it is
found that the rule fails, and the question arises, Did he over-estimate
these stars or did the rule fail? Over nearly the whole surface of the
sky we have no record of stars below the 9th magnitude, and therefore
no means of finding whether the photographs do really record what
is desired, that is, stars of 14th magnitude, and it is obvious that
more experiments will have to be made upon well-known clusters, and
thus determine the time necessary for the purpose of making certain
of 14th magnitude stars; when that is done, however, we shall have
in the photographs a vast number of stars of the 14th magnitude
which the eye cannot see through the telescope, just as I found in
Kappa crucis. The extended exposure in order to secure visible 14th
magnitude stars ended in recording a large number of stars photo-
graphically as bright as them, but wholly invisible through the
telescope. At the recent meeting of the committee it was decided,
on the evidence given by Dr. Scheiner, to extend the time of exposure
to 40 minutes, and it is reasonable to expect that, since all are
interested and working at this point, it will soon be decided, and
times of exposure agreed upon for different states of the atmosphere
which will ensure uniformity. At present there seeme to be no
possibility of dealing with the colour difficulty, which is a serious one,
as I have already pointed out. Great differences are found also in
the sensitive plates. We have tried Swan’s, Wrotton and Wain-
wright’s, Field Dodgson’s star plates, M.A. seed plate (American),
and Ilford plates; and the Ilford plates are certainly the best for our
purpose. The American plates are, perhaps, less liable to fog, and
work very cleanly and regularly ; but they are not so sensitive, and
the gelatine is not so firm. Again, in my photos of the great
Magellan cloud, taken with the portrait camera which I exhibited at
the November meeting, the stars, owing to their countless numbers,
are condensed intoa blurred mass, and the great and remarkable
nebula 30 Doradus is only a white spot. With the star camera the
picture is all enlarged ten times, and the stars are separated and
brought out sharply defined, while the nebula 30 Doradus is revealed
in all its wonderful complexity, and shown to be much more extensive
than Herschel made it with his great reflector, and quite a new light
is brought out regarding the structure of this object. There is one
thing about this nebula that is very suggestive. Some of its loops
are quite round, and all its features seem to be laid out as if ina
plane at right angles to the line of sight. There is no sign of
elliptical forms, which so commonly appear in nebule, owing to their
circular forms being oblique to the line of sight, and therefore pro-
jected into ellipses. If we look at the main features of Nubecula
major the same remark is applicable: the curves are nearly circles,
both those in the main body of it and in the several star clusters and
nebule ; they all, in fact, seem to lie at right angles, or nearly so,
to the line of sight. Now, just as the sun with his attendant planets,
and the planets with their moons, and especially Saturn, with his
rings, show us that there has been a tendency, as theory would also
lead us to expect, to arrange the matter that is revolving about them

STAR CHARTING, 215

in a plane common to all; and, as it is also evidently the case with
spiral nebulx, the matter is arranged in a plane, of which the
diameter is enormously ereater than the thickness, so I think we
may safely assume that the Nubecula major is a great spiral struc-
ture, of which we see the greatest diameter, and that its thickness,
measured through in the line of vision, is comparatively small. Now,
in addition to the main central spiral, there are two nebule, and at
least three clusters of stars arranged as spirals, having the same
characters as the main one, that is nearly circular, and these are all
arranged in space so that they appear to us in the same or parallel
planes and near together; and it may, I think, be safely assumed that
all are parts of the grandest spiral structure that we know, and all in
one plane, because if they are not in the same plane, then, being
optically close together and in parallel planes, they must be arranged
one after the other in a long vista which happens to be in our line of
sight, that is, a series of great spirals one behind the other at
different distances towards infinity, and all revolving as if on a
common or parallel axis, a conclusion which is highly improbable,
and impossible to receive when the simple and more rational alter-
native of their being all in the same plane is available. Now,
acceptirg the condition of their all being in the same plane, imagine
what we should see if transported to some star near the centre. All
round us would be an infinity of stars, which, on closer imspection,
would seem more crowded together in a great plane, and in the same
plane we should see two nebule like straight lines, because looking at
them from the plane in which they revolved, in some directions the
stars would be relatively thinner than in others, because in those the
extensions of them are not so great, and there would also be apparent
rifts owing to the dark spaces in the great spiral, where we would
seem to see into the infinity beyond to other systems, with their
nebule and star clusters at all angles. If you look at the photograph,
and assume, as I have done above, that the whole universe of stars is
spread out in the plane of the photograph, you will see that there
would be no difficulty in finding positions from which the observer
would see through some of the comparatively dark places, as well as
in other directions in which countless multitudes of stars of all magni-
tudes would meet the gaze. In fact, his vision would be much the
same as ourgs—in one plane, that of the whole universe. There would
be an inconceivable wealth of stars, with here and there dark spaces,
coal sacks, due to the dark rifts above referred to; and looking out of
that plane the number of stars would decrease, although they would
still be abundant. Now, although amongst the infinitude of heayen
we cannot find two star clusters or two nebulw alike, we can still find
classes of different kinds which have many points in common, and I
think we have here reasonable ground for supposing that we have
presented to us in the Nubecula Major a universe similar to that in
which we are, and that instead of seeing it from within, where it is
impossible to make out its form, we are here, with the aid of teles-
copes and the still more powerful star camera, able to see just such a
universe, to trace out a rational explanation of the many puzzling
features of the stars and milky way around us, and to see how such a
universe may be arranged. In reference to another well-known

216 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

southern object, “the nebula about Eta Argus,” it will be remem-
bered that last session I exhibited a photograph of it with three
hours’ exposure, stating that it had not been exposed long enough.
On April 9, 1891, I obtained a clear night and an exposure of eight
hours; again, with the short camera, which brings out a host of stars
and shows the milky way with a brilliance it has never been seen to
have before, at the same time the nebula is more distinctly shown and
larger ; and in reference to this object—also after a series of trials —
I have succeeded in getting several fine photos with the star camera,
which make it 18 times larger than the one I used last year. I have
been unable to get a continuous exposure of eight hours with this
camera; still, in plate 77, taken March 18, 1891, with 5 hours 43
minutes exposure on a fine clear night, and in others taken about the
same time, we have a marvellous revelation of the striking details of
light and shade in this object, which have never been seen before in
any photograph or by any telescope. I fear to attempt a description
of what can be seen only in the photograph; the general form is the
same as in drawings and in the photos exhibited last session, but
there are certain main features which may be indicated. In the first
place, there is evidence here that the nebula is much more extended,
and the indications of spiral structure are more decided, and are seen
to extend even to the details of the familiar branches. The nebula
covers a much larger area than that of Orion, and in passing I may
mention that it proves conclusively that a conspicuous part of the
nebula, which Herschel drew and described in 1838, has entirely
disappeared, as I pointed out in 1872; but as I then used a telescope
inferior in power to Herschel’s, its invisibility to me was not proof
that it was gone. Now the star camera is vastly more powerful than
Herschel’s telescope, therefore how much may be judged from the
fact that in one small space, where he could see only one star, the
camera shows 10; and in another place examined by Herschel with
equal care, and said to contain four stars, the camera shows 20.
There can then, | think, be no doubt that in this case a bright nebu-
lous mass has entirely disappeared in 34 years, and it is significant
that the part of the nebula where it was is now replaced by a dark
round spot; the decided folds of the nebula visible here in 1838 have
entirely disappeared. I have photographed the object many times
with both cameras, and the dark spot is always there. Can it be that
in the 34 years, 1838 to 1872, one of the supposed dark clouds of
space has drifted in between us and the nebula? It cannot be a solid
body because the stars are there ; but a slight misty body would hide
the nebula and not affect the stars very much. It would be tedious
to attempt to describe the details which the photograph shows,
especially to the central part of the nebula; but I may say that while
the eye, aided by the best telescopes, sees the nebula of fairly uniform
brightness interrupted by certain well-known darker spaccs, and
especially by that which Herschel calls the Lemniscate, much the
same, in fact, as the great nebula in Orion, and just as the photos of
that nebula reveal a sort of texture in the nebulous mass—as if it
were made up of a scries of curved bands of nebulous light—so this
photo of the nebula about Eta Argus shows a most complex structure
of the same character, and with a greater variety of light and shade ;

STAR CHARTING. 217

and just as in the case of the nebula in Orion, the nebula with its vast
folds is shown to extend farther from the centre with each increase in
the time of exposure, so I find with that about Eta Argus, only the
southern nebula is very much more difficult to photograph; and f
think it must have some tinge of colour in it, probably yellow, while
that in Orion is green, for a photo of Orion with one hour’s exposure
is more dense than one of Eta Argus with six hour’s exposure.
Taken as a whole the nebula about Eta Major covers a much larger
space than that about Orion, even in these photographs, which
indicate that although the southern nebula was longer exposed it is
comparatively under exposed; for the central parts of Orion are much
over exposed. I have also brought to show you two photos of the
moon, taken on 19th and 28th of May last. As you are all aware it is
extremely rare to get a night in which there is absolutely no motion
or what is called twinkle in the stars, or in other words, when the
earth’s atmosphere is not disturbed by currents of unequal tempe-
rature. Now until we get sucha night and a suitable moon it will
be impossible to get a perfect photograph of the moon, for any motion
in the air such as that referred to has the effect of enlarging every
point of light. For instance, a star image may be made two or three
times its normal size, and if the stars are close together they are run
into one blotch. So on the moon, all the little details are enlarged
and mixed up, so that they cannot be seen. But these photos are
very good, and show some features of the moon’s surface which I have
never seen in any other photoeraph—for instance, the undulations on
the surface of the lunar plains—the equivalent to what we should call
hills and yalleys, as opposed to mountains.

REVIEW.

+

The twenty-second volume of the Transactions and Proceedings
of the New Zealand Institute, although bearing the usual imprint
“Tssued May, 1891,” has only recently been distributed to the
members, and consequently an opportunity has not offered of noticing
the contents in this magazine until the present issue.

A considerable proportion of the papers are on zoological
subjects and the matters noted form a considerable addition to our
knowledge of the interesting fauna of New Zealand. Mr. Maskell
not only adds considerably to the already long list of native coccids,
but describes and figures species from Australia and Fiji. I notice
that Mr. Maskell states that the fire at the Government Printing
Office destroyed nearly all the remaining copies of his book on the
Scale Insects of New Zealand, issued in 1887. Those who have the
good fortune to possess a copy, should take care of it.

Another paper on a pest too well known to fruit growers—the
Codlin moth—by Mr. G. V. Hudson, points out the lines on which
observations are required to grapple thoroughly with this serious
nuisance. Mr. Hudson has also worked up the long.neglected New
Zealand glowworm and the Cicade. Mr. Jas. Hudson records two
observations on Coccids in the Nelson district.

218 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

As a country of pre-eminent ornithologic interest, New Zealand
still keeps up its reputation. Although but a short time has passed
since the issue of the magnificent second edition of Sir Walter
Buller’s Birds of New Zealand, we find several new species described
and recognized by Sir Walter, and Mr. Cheeseman has placed on our
list the birds of the Kermadec Group recently included in our
political area. Other observers have contributed just the kind of
short notes from personal observation, which are so frequently
thought “not worth writing about,” but which in the aggregate
ereatly increase the sum of our knowledge. Quite a tempest, not to
say astorm ina teacup, seems raging between two members in re
“Kakapo versus Takahe.” Mr. Suter continues his patient labours on
the interesting, though small, land shells of New Zealand, and, what
is much to the point, adds to his deseriptions excellent drawings of
the species, which however do not receive justice at the hands of the
printer.

In a concise and yet useful form Professor Hutton prints a
revised list of the New Zealand Bryozoa up to date, work which has
been rendered possible by the invaluable Synonymic List of the
described species of Bryozoa, lately published in England by Miss E.
C. Jelly, a lady who has laboured for many years in this branch of
Natural Science, and has greatly simplified the labours of future
students. A large number of the tertiary species from New Zealand
are now described in various publications. When shall we ever get
a systematic description of the thousands of fossil mollusca, &e.,
which have been accumulated by the Geological Survey officials at
Wellington? Only Echo answers, When!

From a biological point of view the short paper on the Origin of
the Sternum, by Professor Parker is of great interest, and Mr.
Beattie’s observations on the extraordinary variation in the fin
formula of the Red Cod furnish much material for speculation.

Spiders, though they be but a feeble folk, take a great deal of
describing. Sixty-one closely printed pages to describe thirty-four
spiders! Some years ago spiders abounded in the district in which I
lived, a hundred kinds at least, probably all undescribed ; here is
work for the industrious !

One of the great sea monsters has paid us a visit during the year
and enabled the Curator of the Auckland Museum to “put him on
the list ;” he was comparatively a small specimen, only 34 feet long,
so “he never will be missed.” Iam afraid to put down in black and
white the reputed measurements of individuals of this species (the
Basking Shark); they are much too great to be swallowed. Within
the past few weeks a strange sea monster has been reported off
the East Coast of the North Island, let us hope that it may fall to
the lot of our zealous Curator to add this, as yet somewhat mythical
monster to the Otago Museum, even if the Council have to erect an
extra length of tin shed to exhibit it in.

Two members of our local Society contribute papers on the
Crustacean fauna of New Zealand; in the one instance clearing some
points in the History of Squilla and Nerocila, and in the other adding
to the list of Fish Parasites.

REVIEW. 219

In the forefront of the Geological section is placed a translation
of the monograph by Baron von Ettingshausen on the Fossil Flora of
New Zealand. This furnishes the student with a full translation of
the original memoir in German—the plates have also been redrawn
and reduced. It seems somewhat startling to find a flora in the Shag
Valley containing a palm and two species of kauri, an oak, an elm
and an alder.

On the local stratigraphical geology of the Tertiary series in
Hawkes Bay, Mr. Hill splinters lances with the Geological Survey.

The question of the Moa seems reviving again, and we have two
short notes on the subject by the Curator of the Canterbury Museum.
The papers in this section number eleven and are all interesting.

In Botany, Messrs. T. Kirk, W. Colenso, Cheeseman, and Petrie
contribute papers and make considerable additions to the flora; the
paper on the endemic group of Olearias with solitary or racemose
flower heads, will, no doubt, appeal strongly to horticulturalists, as
all the species are handsome and easily cultivated.

The fourth and concluding section is very appropriately headed,
Miscellaneous. There are, however, two articles of sterling interest,
one on the Story of John Rutherford, and the other on the Outlying
Islands of New Zealand; most of the others serve ‘to produce a
volume of unusual bulk.

The great disappointment in the volume is the small number of
new names in the list of contributors of papers, the same names
running through the volumes year after year. All honour to those
who keep their shoulder to the wheel and work in their harness,
but where are their imitators? There is still an almost virgin field of
research of every kind, but the rising generation seems in earnest in
nothing but close and willing study of the motions of a particularly
prolate spheroid, in a field containing as essentials, objects called
goals. Certainly the pursuit of this study strengthens the body and
is commendable, in moderation, but there are times and places for all
things.

A. H.

ICE-MARKS AND THEIR COUNTERFEITS.

BY PROF. F. W. HUTTON, F.G.S.

(Read at the Meeting of the Australasian Association for th» Advancement of Science,
in Christchurch.)

a

INTRODUCTION.

Ice as a geological agent may be divided into land-ice and
floating-ice; each of which may be again subdivided—the first into
glacier-ice and ice-sheet, the second into ice-berg and ice-floe, or
shore-ice.

Glaciers occur only in valleys among mountains. They may
exist in any latitude provided the mountains are high enough. At
the present time the glaciers of Antisana and Illinisse, in Ecuador,

220 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

and of Kilimanjaro in Africa, are almost on the equator ; but there is
no well authenticated account of glaciers having existed in the tropics
during the pleistocene period.

Ice-sheets are at present confined to polar regions, extending to
63° N. in Greenland and to 66° 8S. on the Antarctic continent.
During the pleistocene period an ice-sheet extended in North America
as far south as the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi—in
37° 30’ N., and in Europe to 50° N.

Shore-ice is found in high latitudes only. Coast-ice is broken up
into rafts or floes in summer, and these floes are often driven on
shore and piled up in gales of wind.

Ice-bergs penetrate to about 40° N. and 40° S., but they are
isolated. Pack-ice, formed of united ice-bergs, occurs only in high
latitudes. It is often called Floe-berg.

ICE-MARKS.

Roches moutonnées ave characteristic of land-ice, and generally
shew a difference between the strike side and the lee side. They are
counterfeited by the weathering of homogeneous eruptive rocks—
such as granite—especially where a concentric structure has been
developed.

Ice-scratches and grooves on bed rock—formed by land-ice or by
floating-ice. Those formed by floating-ice are rarely straight, and
may be much curved. Those formed by land-ice are straight or
slightly curved; they oceur on surfaces which may be horizontal,
inclined, vertical, or- even overhanging; and also on curved or
mamillated surfaces. The counterfeits are slickensides; rain grooves
in calcareous rocks; and sand drift grooves.

Ice-scratched stones. ‘These are common in boulder clay, which
is supposed to be the ground moraine of an ice-sheet, but are rare in
the remains of glaciers. Often the scratched stones are rounded by
water-wear, and scratched all over, but sometimes they are facetted
on the scratched side. Shore-ice causes irregular shallow scratchings
only. They are counterfeited by stones in fault rock, by stones in
landslips or even those that have undergone soil cap action only.
But these stones are never facetted and the scratchings are usually
irregular and shallow. In some cases of basic eruptive rocks,
irregular decomposition produces apparent scratches and grooves.
Facetting is produced by sand drift, but the facets are generally
curved.

Kettle-holes ave small basin shaped depressions in gravel or in
morainic matter, caused by the melting of detached blocks of ice
which have been covered up by detritus.

Giant Kettles, or Pot-holes, are cylindrical holes worn out in solid
rock by the friction of stones under waterfalls or glaciers.

Moraines are always present in recently glaciated districts; and
are among the most permanent of ice-marks. Nearly all glaciers
leave behind them a terminal moraine across the valley; and in
North America a large moraine marks the front of the old ice-sheet.
Counterfeits are landslips, but these can generally be distinguished’

ICE MARKS. 225

from terminal moraines by their position. Lateral moraines are more
likely to be imitated by landslips.

Till Deposits.—There are three types of till, but they are often
mixed. (1) Sub-glacial till, or Boulder clay. A compact, tough clay
with unassorted sand, gravel, and numerous boulders : the fragments
not much weathered but rounded, often scratched and sometimes
facetted. The fragments are mostly derived {from the immediate
neighbourhood, but partly from a distance, sometimes up to several
hundreds of miles, ‘This is a ground moraine, and the subjacent rock
is always planed, polished, and striated or grooved. (2) Surface till,
or moraine till. This lies on the first and is more sandy and looser
but unassorted. The rock fragments are larger, more angular, rarely
scratched, and more decomposed than those of the Boulder clay.
This till is probably surface moraine of the ice-sheet which has been
left when the ice melted. (3) Floe till, or berg till. This is composed
of more or less assorted sand, and clay indistinctly laminated and
containing erratics often scratched. It is either marine or else has
been formed in lakes round the end of theice. Large boulders are
sometimes rare. Counterfeits of till are not common. Nevertheless
in regions of severe and sudden storms boulders four feet or more in
diameter are known to have been transported by the rush of water
and left in the midst of mud and fine sand. During the flood in the
Waimakariri on the 18th March, 1888, at Kaiapoi, several 30-ton
blocks of concrete were carried for nearly a quarter of a mile and
buried in sand.

Kames. These are narrow ridges, 20 to 50 feet high, formed of
rounded gravel and sand discordantly stratified, the stratification
often conforming to the surface, thus proving that they are not due
to denudation. They commonly contain large boulders. Sometimes
two run together and form a valley without an outlet. Generally
they pass into terraces. They are found at the mouths of valleys and
are more or less transverse to it. They are also always associated
with moraines. They are, no doubt, due to violent currents of water
operating near the front of a glacier and are probably the fans of
glacier rivers.

Otars, or Serpent Kames are longitudinal to the valley, and the
materials composing them have come from greater distances than
those of the neighbouring till. No doubt they have been formed by
glacial, perhaps sub-glacial streams.

Drumlins are elliptical hills with steep sides and rounded tops
formed of morainic matter, the long axis always in the direction of
moyement of the former glacier. Probably due to ice riding over old
moraines.

Perched Blocks, often in precarious positions on the tops or sides
of hills or mounds, are very characteristic of ice action. They may
occasionally, but not often, be counterfeited by blocks brought down
by landslips.

Erratics. May be merely blocks, larger than water could move,
brought down a valley. Or they may be blocks which have been
lifted up above their place of origin. Or they may be blocks which

22D JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

have passed out of one drainage system into another. The first is
characteristic of land-ice, the second of shore-ice, and the third of ice-
bergs. Counterfeits: Small erratics may be borne on floating trees
or seaweed, consequently their value as evidence of ice depends much
on their size. Ships’ ballast may also sometimes counterfeit erratics.
Ships have been unloaded and careened in many a bay, and have
again left with part of their ballast on shore.

Cirques. The origin of cirques by ice-action is doubted by many;
but true cirques appear to be confined to glaciated regions. Very
close imitations may, however, be brought about by stream erosion,
and occasionally they might be imitated by lateral craters.

Rock-basins are generally found on a surface which has been
formerly glaciated. The terminal moraine of a glacier marks a point
in the valley where no erosion is taking place. Below this point the
river gradually deepens its channel, while above it the glacier slowly
decreases the slope of the valley; and, however slow a process glacier
erosion may be, a rock-basin will, in time, be hollowed out behind the
moraine. Rock-basins can also be formed in an arid country by the
atmospheric decomposition of level surfaces of rock, the products of
decomposition being blown away by the wind. If the climate changes
these rock-basins might become lakes; but, evidently lakes with this
origin must be of rare occurrence. Other rock-basins are due to
unequal movements of the land.

EVIDENCE OF FORMER I[CE-ACTION.

Evidence of the former presence of glaciers consists of terminal
and lateral moraines—especially the former. Roches moutonnées and
striations occur in the valleys only. A former ice-sheet is marked by
a ground moraine of boulder clay and till with scratched stones, as
well as by groovings and striations on plains and the tops of hills.
Evidence of ice-berys consists in large erratics, widely scattered and
brought from long distances towards the equator. Former ¢ce-floe is
known by partially stratified till with marine shells.

Evidence of the former presence of glaciers in a country where
they no longer exist is not sufficient evidence to prove a former glacial
epoch; for the glaciers may have been due to greater elevation and
precipitation of snow. There must also be evidence of a former ice-
sheet or floe-ice, widely spread over a large extent of country. <A
reduction of temperature sufficient to cause a glacial epoch, would
necessarily be accompanied by a change in the fauna and flora, and
we must expect to find evidence of this also. On the other hand if
there is evidence that no extinction of a former flora or fauna and the
introduction of newer ones has taken place, then we have a very good
reason for concluding that no glacial epoch has occurred. In tertiary,
and more particularly post-tertiary times, evidence of a glacial epoch
should be abundant and general. In older periods it is more difficult
to get evidence, but under any circumstances it is unsafe to rely on a
few isolated cases of supposed evidence, which may be deceptive.

GENERAL NOTES.

io
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GENERAL NOTES,

———————

An INTERESTING Point In PoL_yNesIAN ErHNnoLtocy.—In Dr. A.
Lesson’s interesting account of the Mangareva or Gambier Archipelago
published at Rochefort in 1843, we find a brief description of the flora
and fauna of those isles, with the native names added. This is
information which is not always supplied by naturalists, though the
interest is much increased thereby, especially to those whose studies
lead them more towards ethnology than biology.

Among the birds described by Dr. Lesson as living in this little
group—which is situated at the south east end of the Dangerous, Low,
or Paumotu Archipelago,—is one which he names a Philédon, the
native name of which is Komako. Now the interest to the ethnologist
in this case consists in this; that we have a Philédon in New Zealand
(Anthornis melanura,) the native name of which is—amongst others—
Komako, better known to the settlers as the Bell Bird, and whose
sweet morning notes were at one time heard in every bush in the
colony, although now, alas! it is never heard in the North Island.
The species may be-~indeed probably is—not the same in both countries,
but the fact remains that the two birds are sufliciently alike to have
given rise to a common native name as applied by peoples separated by
so great a stretch of ocean as New Zealand and the Gambier Islands, a
distance of about 3,500 miles. The question arises, how did these two
peoples come to give the same name to the bird? Both of them are
branches of the great Polynesian race, both speaking a language which
in many respects is nearer, the one to the other, than that of people
who are their nearer neighbours. It has never been suggested that they
ever had direct communication with one another since inhabiting their
present homes ; we must therefore conclude that both people knew the
bird, or a somewhat similar one, in some place where their ancestors
lived together. In Tahiti, we find from R. P. Lesson’s “ Voyage
autour du Monde” in the French exploring vessel “Coquille” that
there is a bird there called Oméomdo, a word at first sight not much like
Komako, but if we remember that the Tahitians have in process of time
lost the power of pronouncing the ‘“k,”-we find that by replacing
it, that Omdomdo becomes Komakomako, identical with one of the
commonest names the Maori has for the Bell Bird. The Tahitian bird
however, is not a Philédon, but the Muscicarpa ponarea, a species of
flycatcher. The same name is given by Finsch and Hautleb to the
Tatare longirostris, a thrush-like bird, also a native of Tahiti. In
Samoa we find the Septorius samoensis bearing nearly the same name,
viz.: Méaomado, which again, if we supply the “k,” missing from the
Samoan dialect, becomes Makomako one of the most common of the
Maori names for the Bell Bird. The Svptorius is a honey eater, like
our Anthornis. “All this tends to confirm what has been deduced from
so many other lines of reasoning, viz. : that the Polynesians spread from
Samoa eastward to Tahiti and the Society Islands, and from thence
again in many directions, including both that of the Gambier Group
and New Zealand. The evidence from the geographical point of view
of the Tahitian, or rather Raiatean origin of the Maori will be found in

224 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

a paper by the writer in the forthcoming volume of * Transactions of
the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science.” A wide
field opens up to anyone who will study the native names of the fauna
ana flora of the Polynesian islands, and it will surprise those who have
not paid any attention to the matter, to find many of our common
Maori names of plants, birds, fish, insects, etc., known all over the
Pacific, and applied to the same, or nearly the same species.—S. Percy
SMITH.

Norres on Eeus.——The following notes of occurrences which I
witnessed myself will perhaps throw some light on the question as to
whether eels go to sea to breed, and as to the possibility of their
overcoming difficulties which might seem at first sight beyond their
powers. There is a fine stream at the Bay of Islands named Waitangi,
the waters of which contain eels in abundance from its source to its
mouth. It joms the sea at Waitangi (near where the celebrated Treaty
was signed), and there it falls about 30 feet over an old lava flow, the
face of which is quite perpendicular and even overhanging. ‘The
channel is about 50 yards wide on the top of the falls, but ordinarily
the water does not occupy the whole bed. Places are therefore left
dry, or over which a very thin coating of water serves to keep the rough
surface of the basaltic rock quite wet with little running streams here
and there. In 1874, I observed the surface of the rock where the
water was trickling over it, to be covered with hundreds of tiny eels
averaging from two inches to six inches in length. wriggling their
way up the perpendicular face of the rock, and making headway
against the the thin rill of falline water from above, The water in
the basin below the fali is salt, or nearly so, as the tide flows up to
the foot of the fall. The rockin this instance is quite rough, as all
basaltic rocks are, and it is no doubt due to this roughness that
the eels are able to ascend. The Maoris told me they were well
acquainted with the fact, and that they often scrape the little eels
into baskets for food. I would not have believed it possible that eels
could have ascended this perpendicular face had I not witnessed it.

A considerable portion of the main Chatham Island is occupied
by a lagoon named ‘le Whanga, the water of which is brackish, but
which has no permanent connection with the sea, except perhaps by
infiltration in two places, where its margins nearly approach the
ocean. At one of these places named Te Awa-patiki, there is a wide,
dry channel connecting the lagoow with the sea beach, and here at
rare intervals and during heavy north-east gales the sea makes a
breach into the lagoon. This channel is about ten chains wide, and
ordinarily is occupied by dry, soft sand. In 1868, when ziding past
there I found that the sea had risen over the ordinary level and had
been running into the lagoon, but as it was low water the channel
was again quite dry. In one part, a small arm of the lagoon extended
towards the sea, but ceased at a hundred yards from high water
mark. This arm was about 20 feet wide and 2 feet deep. To my
ereat surprise I found it to be full of a wriggling, seething mass of
live eels, some of very large size, as much indeed as three or four feet
long, whilst the dry sands on either side and towards the sea were
covered thickly by dead or dying eels. The eels were so thick in the

GENERAL NOTES. 225

arm or creek that our horses refused to enter the water. Evidently
the breaking in of the sea had attracted the eels from the neigh-
bouring parts of the lagoon, and here they had congregated in vast
numbers with the intention of going out to sea. Their number was a
most astonishing thing to behold: there were several acres of dry
sand covered with dead or dying eels, say one to the square yard,
more or less thickly. A rare opportunity was here offered to the
sea-gulls, which—as we rode through them—rose in such clouds that
they cast a perceptible shade over the sands. Along the margins of
the lagoon grows a rank sea grass, which extends out to a depth of
three or four feet of water. In the thicker patches of this grass, the
eels find food and shelter. So numerous are they that the Morioris
beat the grass with clubs, quite in a random manner, and never fail
to secure a plentiful supply in a short time. They are coarse and
tough to the taste however.

The congregation of the eels at this spot shows a remarkable
instinct, by which they must have been drawn from considerable
distances so soon as the sea began to break into the lagoon. As the
height of the water in the lagoon was apparently the same as it had
been a few days before, not “much additional salt water could have
flown in. How then did the fact of the inflow become communicated
to the eels?—S. Percy Surru.

University Extension 1n New Zeatanp.—The population of this
colony is far too sparse to allow of the introduction of the methods
of University extension as carried on throughout England by the
Cambridge University authorities. But a praiseworthy attempt has
been made in two quarters to provide for young teachers and others in
localities at some distance from the colleges already established, such
a measure of university education as will enable them to pass the
examinations prescribed for degrees by the University of New Zealand.
The Southland Collegiate Classes Association owes its existence, we
believe, to the efforts of Mr. Robt. McNab, B.A., of Invercargill. It
was started during last year with the object of promoting ‘sound
learning within the District of Southland by encouraging a systematic
course of lectures during the winter months on such subjects and within
such limits as are laid down in the Synopsis of Classes published
annually under the authority of the Council.” The Association consists
of the teaching staff and eight elected members, four to be elected by
the teachers and four by the enrolled students ; and the management is
entrusted to a Council of seven office bearers elected annually by the
members. The annual fees charged are ten shillings and sixpence for
each class to pupil teachers, but to others an enrolment fee of five
shillings for the first class and two shillings and sixpence for each
subsequent class, together with class fees varying from ten shillings and
sixpence to a guinea anda half. During last session, which extended
from May to October inclusive, ninety-six students enrolled themselves.
Lectures were delivered on the following subjects :—English, Mathe-
matics, Latin, French, Mental Science, Physics, and Chemistry. The
very best men available in Southland appear to have been selected as
teachers. The Association claims already to have aided many persons

226 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

in the prosecution of their scholastic studies, and if well supported there
is little doubt that it will prove a valuable adjunct to the cause of
University work in the colony.

Following the wake of the Invercargill Association, a similar
movement has been started in Oamaru under the title of the North
Otago Collegiate Classes Association. The conditions here are not so
favourable, as the district is much nearer Dunedin and the population is
smaller than that of Invercargill. The promoters have laid themselves
out to cover an extensive field of work including Latin, English,
German, French, Mathematics, Jurisprudence, and Political Economy.
The only question seems to be whether a sufficient number of students
will offer themselves to enable the classes to be continued. At the
start the encouragement has not been great. Towns like Napier and
Nelson offer better facilities for this kind of work than such a town as
Oamaru, and even Wellington might hasten the day when it will have
a properly equipped college of its own, were its educational enthusiasts
to band themselves into an organisation somewhat on the lines already
adopted by the Southern associations. What can be done in the way of
accomplishing good educational work by private (as opposed to State-
aided effort) is shown by the success attending the work of the Technical
Classes Association in Dunedin, which in this third year of its existence
has over three hundred young men and women attending its classes.

Tue PoLyNnesian Society.—An effort is being made in Wellington
to establish a Polynesian Society, the objects of which as set forth
in a preliminary circular are “to afford a means of communication,
co-operation and mutual criticism between those interested in, or
studying Polynesian anthropology, ethnology, philology, history, man-
ners and customs of the Oceanic races, and the preservation of all that
relates to such subjects in a permanent form.” For the present it is
proposed to afford the means of communication by the publication of a
periodical journal, to be called the “ Journal of the Polynesian Society,”
and it is believed that 250 members each subscribing 20s. a year, will
suffice to start the Society and carry on the publication. While
thoroughly sympathising with the feelings of the promoters and ready
to give what support lies in our power to their project, we cannot say
that we are sanguine of success to the venture. Our own experience is
that any enterprise of this kind is certain to be so poorly supported
that it will end in financial failure. We would recommend as a much
more feasible plan, and one mutually beneficial to all concerned, that
the Association be formed with half the proposed annual subscription
and that this Journal be the accredited Journal of the Society, until
the population of these southern seas justifies the specialisation now
proposed. In the case of this Journal we asked for a minimum of 200
subscribers : reference to a slip inserted in this number will show how
far the appeal has been met.—Epir.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES 227

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES.

—<$$$< ___¢_—____

WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

Wellington, 17th June, 1891.— Edward Tregear, Esq., F.R.G.S.,
President, in the chair.

New Member.—H. Farquhavr.

A copy of Voleme XXIII. of the Transactions of the New Zealand
Institute was laid on the table ; also proof sheets and specimen plates of
Mr. Hudson’s work on the Entomology of New Zealand. The plates
were considered very beautiful.

The President then delivered an address, of which the following is
an abstract.—Mr. Tregear commenced by congratulating Sir James
Hector on receiving the founder’s medal of the Royal Geographical
Society. He then referred to the recent discovery of the bones cf the
Dinornis in Queensland and remarked that soundings recently taken
showed solid land once to have existed from New Zealand to Australia
and through the Malay Archipelago to Asia; whether the moa had been
evolved from the emu by gradual transformation or the emu from the
the moa would be for the geologists and naturalists to discuss. The
address then referred to the theories as to man’s origin, whether from
a single pair or from many sources ; described the primitive state of the
human race, with the progress upward from the cave-dwellers to the
pastoral peoples, then to cultivators of the soil, then to dwellers in
cities. Referring to the question of marriage, the paper described the
emergence of the communal form into the slave period and thus to the
belief in the wife being private property of the husband. The speaker
called attention to the agreement between anthropology and the other
sciences as to the great lapse of time necessary for mankind to have
existed, and to have passed through the paleolithic and neolithic periods
to the building of great cities, which we now know to have been in
existence 6,000 years ago. Great portions of Asia and Africa, fertile
and abounding in all descriptions of animal and vegetable life were still
unsettled. Many extracts from the reports of travellers just returned
from the wilds were read, showing the adaptability of those places to
the uses of the emigrant. But the speaker did not believe that the
colonization of Africa and other places in the possession of native races
was as practicable as was generally believed. The enormous fecundity
of the dark races, if relieved of the checks caused by bloodshed and war,
would inevitably squeeze out the incomers and prevent men of high
organisation existing in force sufficient to control the lower and more
persistent racial types. Mr. Tregear concluded by expressing his
opinion that the future of the world was not so entirely in the hands
of intellectual nations as he had once thought, but that if the advance
of mankind was threatened by the overflow of barbaric peoples, he
trusted that the time of submersion would be short, and the world soon
resume its path of progress refreshed and invigorated with new and
stronger life.

228 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Sir James Hector in proposing a vote of thanks to the President
for his most interesting address, reminded members that within the last
few months they had been indebted to Mr. Tregear for a most useful
addition to our local scientific literature in his Comparative Dictionary
of the Polynesian Languages. His address showed that outside mere
Philology Mr. Tregear was able to take a wide grasp of the great
problems of anthropology. With the President’s permission he took this
opportunity of introducing Professor Pond, who had just arrived from
Cambridge to take the Classical Chair in the New Zealand University
at Auckland.

Prof. Pond considered it a high honour that he should, on his first
landing, have the opportunity of attending the meeting of such a
Society. He complimented Mr. Tregear on the admirable arrangement
of his new dictionary,—the method was excellent. He was told at
Cambridge before leaving, that he ought to consider it a high privilege
his being selected for his appointment in the New Zealand University
as the Examiners in England thought most highly of the work done by
the New Zealand students.

Mr. Travers in seconding the vote of thanks spoke in flattering
terms of the address.

2. Sir James Hector exhibited a young salmon which had been
caught in the Aparima River and forwarded to him by the Marine
Department. He said that there could not possibly be any mistake
with regard to the specimen being a true salmon. The fact that salmon,
after years of fruitless experimenting, had now been acclimatised, was
highly satisfactory, though he feared that the formation of our coast
line was such as forbade the return of salmon to their own rivers.
Should however the salmon prove its attachment to the streams in
which they were hatched, the colony would have gained a most valuable
asset and one which it would be well to protect with the greatest
care,

3. Sir James Hector exhibited samples of the difterent coals and
rocks from the coal fields lately visited. With reference to the Black
Bull mine a tunnel of 1,230 feet had been driven to reach the coal and
two seams had been cut of first-class quality coal, making a total of
20 feet thick of coal. Samples of the rocks from the tunnel were also
described. Samples of the coal from the New Cardiff and Mohikinui
Company’s lease were exhibited, and also samples from the Kaitangata
mine, Otago, and a number of fossils foundin the new shaft at Castle
Hill (Kaitangata), were also on the table and described. Samples of
coal from Orepuki were shown, together with a series of fossils from
the Middle Waipara in the northern district of Canterbury. These
latter were described as being geologically of the very greatest impor-
tance on account of the presence of Belemnites australis in association
with Dicotyledonous leaves, and in the same boulders remains of
Leiodon haumuriensis, this being the first time that these secondary
fossils have been found in the Canterbury District.

Wellington, 8th July, 1891.—Edward Tregear, Esq., F.R.G.S.,
President, in the chair.

New Member.—William Percival Evans, M.A., Ph.D.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 229

Papers.—(1) “ Mill on demonstration and Necessary Truth,” by
W. W. Carlile, M.A. (Abstract) In regard to the questions what
constitute necessary truths, English opinion was much divided. Hume
consistently put all the truths of pure mathematics in one class, truths
of matters-of-fact in another, and thus avoided the hair-splitting and
contradiction of the modern Humist school. Mill took all the axioms
out of the class of necessary truths and put them into the class of
truths of experience. Bain called “ things that are equal to the same
thing are equal to one another” a truth of experience, but not, like
Mill “ two straight lines cannot enclose a space.” Mansell, a Kantian
philosopher, precisely reversed this. Bain affirmed that the axiom
“things that are equal to the same thing are equal to one another” was
a generalisation from experience. In support of this he said that
equality was properly defined as ‘‘immediate coincidence.” If so,
“coincidence” could be used conyertibly with “equality,” but it was
plain that it could not. Equal lines are not lines that coincide, but
lines that would, if superimposed, coincide, a very different matter.
Coincidence was learnt by sense, equality only by thought. Probably
incomprehensible to the Damaraman or Bushman. The key to the
possibility of geometrical demonstration lay in this, in the power we
possessed of contemplating a line, for instance, as remaining the same
though in an altered position and environment. The want of a true
theory of identity in the opinion of Bosanquet was the great want of
philosophy of the English school. Spinoza asked what is the efficient
cause of a circle, answered it was the space described by a line
-one point of which was fixed, the other moveable. We need only to
contemplate this line, the radius, as being the same in all its positions
to deduce all the properties of the circle. In the IV. proposition,
Euclid plainly postulated for the mathematical figures with which he
dealt the capacity of being lifted and moved about and put on top of
one another, or of themselves moved as others. This was the great
postulate of Euclid and should be prominently set forth as such,
instead of being merely taken for granted. If it were, it would be
seen, at a glance, that the construction in the V., the famous Pons
Asinorum was were surplusage. If the big triangles formed by the
produced sides could be lifted up and put on top of one another, why
could not the isosceles triangle itself be lifted up, reversed, and put cn
top of itself. If it were, we should have two triangles superimposed on
one another fulfilling all the requirements of the IV. proposition. It
was plain indeed, that a matter so simple as the equality of the angles at
the base did not really rest on anything so far fetched as the conventional
proof in Euclid. Mr. Mill seems always to contemplate the lines and
figures of geometry as if they were specimens picked up in our rambles
instead of being those which we supposed ourselves to have just con-
structed. To sum up, with regard to necessary truths. (1) They were
always concerned with abstractions. (2) The opposite of them was in
the strict sense inconceivable, not merely unbelievable. (3) This was so
because if we put their opposite in words, the last half of the proposition
‘“‘sublated” the first. (4) They were truths which could be seen to be
truths by merely thinking of them. (5) They were truths of sequence
only, not of fact. That brought them face to face with a difficulty that
might seem formidable, as of course geometrical propositions were used

230 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

in the world of fact. The difficulty however, was not peculiar to the
mathematical reasoning. They had seen that even what were called
identical propositions rested on assumptions. Geometry only became of
real interest and value when it was ascertained that propositions which
were literally and necessarily true of the lines and circles that we
supposed ourselves to construct were approximately true of the lines
and circles of nature.

Sir James Hector thanked the author for his most interesting
paper; it was a subject difficult to criticise until the paper had been
carefully read.

Mr. Maskell agreed with Sir J. Hector that the best thanks of the
Society were due to Mr. Carlile for his excellent paper which invested
a dry and difficult subject wilh much more interest than probably any-
body expected. For himself he found several very suggestive points in
the paper, not so much as to the particular question treated as on
general grounds. In the first place it reminded him of what seemed to
be the general fault of all English writers on philosophy and logic, that
they never seemed to refer to any but English, Scotch, or a few German
authors. Now if they would study French, Spanish, or Italian works
also they might enlarge their views and possibly gain insight into quite
new and correctly suggestive trains of thought. Then again Mr.
Carlile, he thought, had attached far too much importance to the
notions of Professor Huxley, a man who to the speaker’s mind, was
as bad a specimen of blatant assumption and of illogical absurdity
(except of course when dealing with actual facts of natural history) as
the modern era has to show. There was one point, only incidentally
referred to in the paper, which would perhaps require correction. Mr.
Carlile parenthetically remarked that the axiom that two things which
are equal to a third are equal to each other would be incomprehensible
to a Bushman or a Damaraman. ‘Taken as referring to any particular
or existing savage, this would be probably true: taken as a general
statement, with the inference that any necessary difference exists
between the brain and intellect of a savage and the brain and intellect
of a cultivated Englishman it would certainly not be correct, in spite of
the prevailing theory of the present day which usually attirms it, if not
in terms, at least by implication.

The President said: Greatly as he admired the work of Professor
Huxley in the domain of natural science, he shared with others the
regret that the learned Professor should ever step outside the limits of
his own domain and enter the fields of politics and theology, where his
logic was by no means unassailable. He (the president) had been struck
with astonishment when reading Huxley many years ago to find that
he had stated that all dream images were vague and undefined. This
is contrary to the facts of experience with most observers. Undefined
images might occupy the mind of one who was discussing a subject like
“ Man” from a racial point of view, but in the case of “triangle” there
was no mental conception possible of a triangle generally ; it was
absolutely necessary to conceive the idea of a triangle as either
equilateral, scalene, isosceles, &c. As to necessary truths, it was almost
certainly held that the axioms of Euclid were necessary truths, but he
had read a clever psychological article in a recent Magazine in which it

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 231

was asked how it was possible to possess one of these “ self-evident ”
truths except by inheritance without breaking the chain of cause and
effect. Such a statement as that “Things which are equal to the same
thing are equal to each other” was not a “self-evident” truth; it
required reasoning from experience before the mind could place faith in
it. The purely mental conception of a line as having “length without
breadth” could not be called useless (although it could not be practically
represented) because arithmetical figures used in trigonometry proved
that boundaries of geometrical figures really had position but not
magnitude (of breadth). So that this is almost a necessary truth, and
although abstract truths were little more than hypotheses, still if they
were ‘working hypotheses” they were of enormous value. He might
instance the value of the 47th problem of the Ist book of Euclid; the
discoverer of the principle in this problem offered up a hetacomb of
oxen to the gods for so great a truth being found, and it had proved of
inestimable value to the world in astronomy, navigation, engineering,
&c. He could understand the schoolboys’ delight if allowed to prove
the truth of the fifth problem of the first book of Euclid by turning the
triangle on its back, but he hardly thought such a simplification would
be allowed, although many of the propositions in Euclid might be swept
away as being evident at sight, and not made clearer by the attempted
proof. As to Mr. Maskell’s assertion that the Bosjeman or any savage
had as much intellectual power as the civilised European, there would
be difficulty in measuring the amount of latent power in any individual,
but it was certain that the expression of that power was immensely
unequal. It would be almost impossible to assert with gravity that the
mind of an African who, with great difficulty, could be taught the use
of numbers beyond 2 or 3, was equal to any one of the minds of Bacon,
Newton, or Herschel, although a potentiality of mind equal to great
intellectual effort might he unrecognised in the brain of the savage.

Mr. Carlile, in reply, expressed his gratification at the appreciative
criticism his paper had received. The President had already explained
some of the matter to which exception had been taken. He had not
meant to suggest that the simplification of the proof of the V.
proposition which he suggested in any way detracted from its validity
and importance. There were several of the propositions at the
beginning of the first book which were rather obscured than illustrated
by the proof furnished of them. The XIII, for instance. If we
regarded a point in a straight line as an angle of 180°, it was certain
that drawing any number of lines through this point could have no
tendency to alter the size of this angle, yet this was what was
elaborately proved. He thought a desideratum among the definitions
was a definition of what was meant by the size of an angle. We
proceeded to speak of the size of angles without furnishing any
criterion for their measurement. If this were furnished, it would
necessarily carry with it the proof of the L[V., V., and VIII., and a
host of other propositions. The size of an angle and the length of the
subtending side in any triangle were, it seemed to him, two names for
the same thing. There was no need of propositions to prove the fact of
their concomitant variations.

(2) “On the shifting of the Sand Dunes,” by H. C. Field. The
paper gave results of forty years’ observations on the coast from Paika,

232 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

kariki to Patea, and pointel out how the country generally in this part
of New Zealand had undergone alterations by the shifting of the sand
through the action of the wind. The author gave data for fixing the
rate of such movements. The paper also contained much interesting
information regarding the relics of the native race.

Sir James Hector, speaking on the paper, said he thought it a most
important one. In a new country they should be very careful as to
how they interfered with the natural changes of the coast line. He
was of opinion that Mr. Field had done good service in bringing this
matter before the Society. They in New Zealand would have to guard
against selling lands situated in dangerous positions on the coasts.
They should also prevent mischievous people from interfering with
mouths of rivers and thus prevent natural changes. Mr. Field’s paper
had opened up a subject of extreme practical importance to the Colony,

Mr. J. Beetham thought this a valuable paper. He would
encourage those who had the opportunity to note carefully such changes
as had been spoken of. There is no doubt great alterations had taken

place on our coasts and in our rivers owing to the reasons given by Mr.
Field.

AUCKLAND INSTITUTE.

Auckland, June 22nd, 1891.—Professor Brown, President, in the
chair.

New members.—Messrs. E. Craig, C. Malfroy, and P. Sylow.

Papers.—(1) ‘On the Prospects of finding Workable Coal on the
Shores of the Waitemata,” by James Park, F.G.8. (See p. 208.)

(2) “On the Geyser Action of Rotorua, by C. Malfroy, C.E. (See
p. 203.)

OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Dunedin, August 11th, 1891.—Professor Gibbons, President, in
the chair.

Papers.—(1) “On the Anatomy of Boltena,” by J. Watt, M.A.,
(communicated by Professor Parker). The paper, which was originally
prepared as a thesis for honours, was illustrated by very numerous
sections prepared by freezing. Among other points brought out was
the remarkable variation existing between different individuals in the
relative lengths of the body and the peduncle, and in the arrangement
of the external ridges of the body.

(2) “On the extinction of Native Birds on the West Coast,” by
Jas. Richardson. The author cited the experience of Mr. Mueller
(chief surveyor of Westland) and of Mr. Wilmot (district surveyor)
regarding the scarcity of the kiwi and kakapo in the region between the
Haast river and the head waters of the Dart river, where these birds
were formerly numerous; and related how he had himself noted their
disappearance from the region of Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri, the
fact being attributed to the depredations of ferrets, weasels, and stoats.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 233

Mr. Richardson also alluded, on the authority of Mr. Wilmot, to the
depredations of the ferrets in the extensive forest lying between Port
Molyneux and Waikawa. He claimed to have placed before the Institute
evidence of the presence of the ferret at different points from the
Haast river in Westland to Catlin’s river, and of the rapid destruction
of the kakapo, kiwi, and other ground birds in the western forests.
Apart from the regret which must be felt by the naturalist, the
wholesale massacre of these interesting fauna, must, he said, seriously
interfere with the progress of exploration and prospecting. In the past
a party could venture into the untrodden wilds lying at the back of the
Sounds, carrying in the way of provisions nothing beyond salt and
oatmeal, tea and sugar, relying upon always securing an ample supply
of animal food, but in future the last-named essential would also have to
be transported. The increased danger to life would also tend to deter
prospectors froin continuing investigation of a portion of the province
which had already furnished indications of rich mineral deposits.
There could be no doubt that very shortly it would be dangerous to
camp out in many parts of Otago, especially in those which offered the
greatest attractions to tourists and prospectors. He quoted the
suggestion of Mr. T. O. Potts that areas of land should “be set
aside and held under tapu as to dog and gun. ‘There was, for instance,
Resolution Island, amongst the Sounds. It might be proclaimed a
public domain, where animals should not be molested under any
pretence whatever. Some of the islets of the north-east coast of the
North Island might be similarly dealt with.” To the localities indicated
by Mr. Potts, the speaker thought there might be added the larger
islands of Te Anau, Manapouri, and Wakatipu. Mr. M‘Kinnon had
already successfully transferred the kakapo to Centre Island, Te Anau.
By promptly adopting the proposal of Mr. Potts, we might hope to
preserve small colonies of those rarer orders of New Zealand bird life
whose regrettable disappearance had formed the subject of the paper.

Mr. F. R. Chapman said he had had an opportunity of observing
similar facts to those noted by Mr. Richardson. When he first knew
the back country one had only to kneel down and tap a gun stock, and
20 or 30 wekas would appear in places where probably not one would
be seen now. He was told when he was at Orepuki three or four years
ago that in the large forest from the Waiau to Jacob’s river the weka
had now disappeared, or almost so. Why it had disappeared there he
did not know. What they had now to see to was whether any
practicable suggestion could be offered for preserving the birds. He was
not quite sure that they would wholly disappear from the ranges, but in
a country like that of Stewart’s Island he thought that it would be
possible to preserve them, for, as there would be no rabbits, there
seemed to be no particular reason for taking ferrets there. What he
would suggest was that, following ont Mr. Richardson’s suggestion,
homes should be made for the native birds where there would be a
chance of saving them. Codfish Island, Stewart’s Island, and other
islands on the east and west coast, Bench Island, even the Snares and
the Auckland Islands occurred to him as experimental places, and
Captain Fairchild, he had no doubt, would, if applied to, be glad to
take the birds from point to point and land them. At the Svlaaders
also the birds would be tolerably safe. If the birds were to be destroyed

234 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

on the main island, he thought that the steps he had suggested would
be the most effectual for their preservation.

Mr. Richardson remarked, with regard to the disappearance of the
weka from the forest between Jacob’s river and the Waiau, that there
were no rabbits there, but the ferrets had evidently gone there in
advance of them.

Mr. G. M. Thomson stated that in 1882 he had crossed the Waiau
at Clifton and walked to Lake Hauroto, on the shores of which he
camped. He skirted all round the lake, and there were rabbits in
wbundance within 20 miles of the head of Preservation Inlet. He
worked into the Princess Mountains, 12 miles from the head of
Preservation, and at that time there were numerous birds to be seen.
The tent was surrounded by kiwis and kakapos, and in the bush there
were any number of crows; but these had now disappeared. In
January last, at the meeting of the Australasian Association at Christ-
church, the biological section passed a resolution asking that Resolution
Island should be declared a reserve for Native birds. A great deal of
blame had been thrown upon the Acclimatisation Societies for their
indiscriminate and, he might say, ignorant work in introducing animals,
and plants also; but, so far as the Otago Acclimatisation Society was
concerned, he wished to say that from the very first it had every year
passed a resolution protesting against the introduction of any animal of
the weasel tribe, but there were men of sufficient interest with the
Government to get them to introduce these animals in spite of the
protest. One natural enemy of the rabbit was the weka, and the
wekas had increased very much; but one effect of the introduction of
the ferret was that for the last few years one could hardly come across a
weka. He was sure that the rabbits had not been put down one bit by
the ferrets, and a few months ago he was on the hills to the seaward of
the Taieri plain when he saw rabbits playing about in numbers, while
he knew that ferrets were also in abundance. He was afraid that the
matter of the preservation of native birds had got beyond bounds on
the mainland of New Zealand.

Mr. Richardson understood that during the Union Steam Ship
Compary’s annual excursions to Milford Sound shooting was considered
to be part of the entertainment, and he was told that last year one
man, a moneyed tourist from Home, shot 160 ducks in one day during
the breeding season. He thought that was a thing which should he
distinctly put a stop to. A party of High School boys also had during
the summer time at Manapouri left absolutely nothing till their supply
of cartridges gave out,

Mr. K. Melland remarked that any islands which were set apart
for preserving birds would have to be a good distance from the shore,
for ferrets smelt a long way off, and also swam very well. He would
suggest the Kermadecs as a place where kiwis might do very well.
The rapidity with which the ferrets cleared away the ‘wekas he regarded
as remarkable. Years ago the wekas on a run at Lake Te ‘Anau were
sufficient to keep down the rabbits, which they killed apparently for
sport ; but two years after the ferrets had been turned out the wekas
had completely disappeared from the run he spoke of, and since then
rabbiting had to be resorted to every year. Speaking from experience,

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 235

he never knew the ferrets to keep down the rabbits in England. He
had himself protested against ferrets being turned out on the far side of
Lake Manapouri, but after one shipment had by a timely accident been
drowned, another shipment was sent.

Sir Walter Buller deplored very much the insane conduct of the
Government in introducing stoats and weasels; but there was, he
thought, a danger of exaggerating the mischief done by these animals.
They were apt to put everything down to the stoats and weasels, but he
thought there were other causes in operation, for many New Zealand
species had commenced to disappear long before the introduction of
stoats and weasels. He instanced the kakapo and other birds in the
North Island, for which a refuge was found on the Great Barrier and
Little Barrier Islands. The introduction of weasels and stoats had
tended to accelerate the destruction of the birds, but the kiwi and
kakapo were very scarce long before. Fifteen years ago these birds
were exported by hundreds, and that tended to considerably thin their
numbers. His argument was that there were other causes in operation
beyond that suggested. He had thought the thing out very carefully,
and the conclusion he had come to was that the introduced rat was the
eause of the mischief. They all knew how prolific the rat was—some
parts of the colony were overrun with it—and it was significant that
birds that deposited their eggs on the ground, and were an easy prey to
rats, were the first to disappear. ‘his cause, he pointed out, had been
in operation ever since the colonisation of these islands. Take the
quail, for example, they could not blame the stoats and weasels for the
destruction of that bird, for it was extinct before the introduction of
those animals, and there was not one to be found now—the last quail
that was sold in Italy brought £75. He referred also to the early
disappearance of the swamphen, woodben, and thrush. The remedy was
the establishment of preserves, and it was necessary to have insulated
areas for these. Experience showed that expiring species always lasted
longest on islands, and we ought to draw a lesson from experience and
place the native birds on islands. He thought the idea to utilise
Stewart’s Island an excellent one, but they must get it proclaimed and
have heavy penalties imposed for trespass and spoliation. Sir George
Grey was the first to take any steps towards the preservation of native
birds, and when he purchased the Island of Kawau he proceeded to
stock it with kiwis, kakapos, and other birds, all of which had lived—
indeed the weka became a positive nuisance. The speaker thought
they ought to insist upon an absolutely close preserve for the use of the
future generation. Lord Onslow was thoroughly alive to the impor-
tance of the matter, and if the societies co-operated he believel they
might confidently appeal to his Excellency, and something might be
done. Unless something was done to arrest the loss of these species
before this generation had passed away not one of the native birds
would be left, and it would be a reproach to them that it should be so.

PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE OF CANTERBURY.

Christchurch, August 6th, 1891. —Prof. F. W. Hutton, F.G.S.,
President, in the chair.

236 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Paper.-—(1\ “(On the ancient relations between New Zealand and
South America,” by Dr. H. von Jhering, (of Rio Grande do Sul), com-
municated by Prof. Hutton. Abstract :—The author points out that
Mr. Wallace in his geographical distribution of animals has not made
sufficient distinction between those groups of animals—such as birds
and mammals—whose living genera appear only in the tertiary era,
and the fishes, reptiles, &c., which are represented in the cretaceous, and
the land and fresh-water molluscs many of which were living during the
secondary or even the paleeozoic era. He thinks that the fresh-water
fauna in general gives us the most reliable guide to the knowledge of
the geography of our globe during paleeozoic and mesozoic times. He
then discusses the relations of the fresh-water fauna of South America,
as well as its geology, and arrives at the following conclusions :—

A Pacific continent existed during the whole of the mesozoic era,
from which first a number of Polynesian Islands, then New Zealand,
and finally Australia and New Guinea became separated.

South America was separated form North America from the creta-
ceous to the end of the pliocene period. A South American continent
has existed only since the oligocene period. At that time it consisted of
two parts united by the narrow isthmus of the Andes, which were
completely separated from one another before the oligocene.

These two parts form Archiplata (the area occupied at present by
Chili, Argentina, Uruguay and South Brazil), and Archiguyana (com-
prising the high plateau of Venezuela and Guyana).

Each of these territories had its own fauna and flora which differed
from each other as much as those of Africa and North America do at
the present day.

Archiguyana was united by land to Africa, a remnant of which
remains in St. Helena, whilst Archiplata extended to the south ina
South-Pacific-Antarctic continent which during the whole of mesozoic
times kept this area in communication with the Pacific continent.

The theory of Wallace is to be rejected not only for South America
but also for Australia and Polynesia, for neither lizards nor land and
fresh-water shells can be transported across the sea. But we must not
forget that it was he who gave to zoogeography its modern solid basis,
its new methods of procedure by which progress may be made, as well
as its aims and its problems.

LINNEAN SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

Sydney, June 24th, 1891.— Professor Haswell, M.A., D.Sc.,
President, in the chair.

Papers.—(1) ‘‘ Angophora Kino,” by J. H. Maiden, F.C.S., F.LS.
Kinos of this genus have not previously been described, although their
occurrence has long been known. The author has described thosejof
A. intermedia and A. lanceolata, and given an account of their
composition. He also gives notes of those of other species.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 237

(2) “On the Incisors of Sceparnodon,” by C. W. De Vis, M.A.,
Corr. Mem. The author describes a large perfect adult upper incisor
with portion of the premaxilla still encasing it: also a smaller not fully
grown tooth with a greater extent of working surface, which is regarded
as a lower incisor. From the characters of these the author accordingly
concludes that Sceparnodon is not a synonym of Phascolonus. The
specimens described are in the collection of the Queensland Museum,

(3) ‘‘ Contributions to a more exact knowledge of the Geographical
Distribution of Australian Batrachia, No. II.; with description of a new
Cystignathoid Frog,” by J. J. Fletcher, M.A., B.Sc. Some additions
are made to the lists previously given, several collections are recorded
from new inland localities, with observations on the habits and colours
of the living animals of several species; and a new species of Crinia
from Victoria, for which the name C. Proggatti is proposed, is described
as new.

(4) “Description of a new Cone from the Mauritius,” by J. Brazier,
F.L.S. The new species described as Conus Worcesteri, has a smooth
shell, white beneath a dirty yellowish epidermis, variegated with four
purple or pinkish-brown bands flowing down here and there in flexuous
streaks.

Sydney, July 29th, 1891.—Professor Haswell, M.A., D.Sc., Presi-
dent, in the chair.

Papers.—(1) ‘Notes on Aboriginal Stone Weapons and Imple-
ments (continued),” by R. Etheridge, Junr. Descriptions are given of
a large number of tomahawks and axes from the Collections of Sir W.
Macleay, Dr. J. C. Cox, the Queensland Museum, and others, including
some modernised axes of the Queensland Aborigines from the last-
named collection, made from old scrap-iron. The author also suggests a
tentative classification for museum exhibition purposes of the stone
weapons described.

(2) “Synonomy of Helix ( Hadra) gulosa, Gld,” by J. Brazier, F.L.S.

(3) “The Silurian Trilobites of New South Wales, with References
to those of other parts of Australia. Parti,” by R. Etheridge, Junr.,
and John Mitchell. The authors give an epitome of our previous
knowledge of the Proetide in Australia ; discuss the general question of
the genus; and describe three species, two of which were previously
known, viz., Proetus bowningensis, Mitchell, P. Rattet, E. & M., and P.
australis, E.& M. ‘The characters of the three species are given at
length, their relations one to the other, and finally with those of other
countries.

(4) “Observations on the Chloraemidae, with special reference to
some Australian forms,” by Professor W. A. Haswell, M.A., D.Sc.
This paper has reference chiefly to a remarkable member of the family
which occurs on the Queensland coast; but the opportunity has also
been taken to give some account of two other undescribed Chloraemids
obtained by the author in Port Jackson.

FIELD NATURALISTS’ CLUB OF VICTORIA.
ANNUAL CONVERSAZIONE.
Melbourne, May 23rd, 1891.—Baron F. von Mueller, K.C.M.G.,
F.R.S., in the chair.

238 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

The annual address was delivered by the retiring president, Mr.
A. C. Topp, M.A., LL.B., F.L.S., who expressed his regret that during
the past year he had been obliged to absent himself from so many meet-
ings of the club, but his public duties had prevented him from taking
the active part in the affairs of the club which he should have liked.
The most important field work accomplished by the club during the
year had been in connection with the excursions to the Kent group of
islands and to the Upper Yarra, and it was a matter for congratulation
that these somewhat prolonged excursions seemed now to be firmly
established as a necessary part of the annual doings of the club. Apart
from the actual results in the shape of new fauna and flora discovered,
and new knowledge acquired of geographical distribution, such trips
promoted one of the objects of the club in giving young naturalists a
training and experience which would be of value to those of them who
in later life might take up on a larger scale the study of natural history
in unexplored or at least unsettled localities. Mention ought also to be
made of the visit of Messrs. Howitt, Dendy, and Lucas, members of the
club, to the Mount Wellington district in Gippsland, a report of which
was read at the February meeting. In addition to the results derived
from these excursions, it was encouraging to notice that during the 12
months the diligent collecting and trained observations of members
had resulted in the addition of several new species of animals
and plants to the Victorian fauna and flora, and many papers of interest
had been read at the periodical meetings. It was a matter for regret,
however, that geology still continued in the background. The annual
wild-flower show in October was, perhaps, a completer exhibition of
spring flowers from all parts of the colony than had previously been
shown, Allusion was made in the report to several other matters and
publications of interest to members as connected with Australian natural
history, and satisfaction was expressed at the fact that arrangements
had been made by the Mining department for a continuance of a syste-
matic geological survey of the colony. ‘The circumstance that so excel-
lent a geologist as Mr. A. W. Howitt was now the head of the depart-
ment was a guarantee that this work would be thoroughly and exactly
carried out. Congratulatory reference was also made to two explora-
tions which, it might be hoped, would before long give results of great
scientific interest, namely the expedition despatched by Sir Thomas
Elder to the interior of Australia, and the Swedish-Australian expedition
to the South Pole now being organised by Baron Nordenskjold, and
promoted by the Victorian Antarctic committee.

Baron von Mueller added a few words respecting the work of the
club and the expedition to the Antarctic regions, which, he now felt
assured, would soon be an atcomplished fact. He moved a hearty vote
of thanks to Mr. Topp for his work as president of the club, and for the
excellent address which he had just delivered.

An exhibition of lantern slides illustrative of the club’s excursions
was given, and a numerous list of exhibits was shown.

Melbourne, July 13th, 1891.—Professor W. B. Spencer, in the chair.

New Members.—Mrs. C. French, and Messrs. E. Bolter, H. C.
Crofts, P. Dattari, C. Draper, 8. Plowman, F.R.C.S., C, A. E. Price,
J. V. Smith, C. Troedel, and T. J. Watts.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 239

Paper.-—(1) ‘‘Introduction to the Study of Sponges,” by Dr,
Dendy, F.L.S. The writer grouped his remarks under the two ee
divisions of calcareous and non-calcareous sponges, and described in
detail the anatomy and canal system of various types. The lecture was
illustrated by diagrams and many beautiful specimens, so that the
subject could be followed quite easily by the uninitiated.

(2) Messrs Luehmann and French read 2 note and exhibited the
skin of a tree-climbing kangaroo from Northern Queensland, to which
they gave the name Dendrolagus Muellerv. This remarkable marsupial
has a body about 2 ft. in length, with a tail somewhat exceeding 2 ft.
The disproportion between the for elegs and the hind legs is not nearly

so great as that of the ordinary kangaroo and wallaby ; the toes are
strong and curved, to enable it to climb tall and straight trees, on the
leaves of which it exists. This species is more nearly allied to ‘the one
which was discovered a few years ago in Queensland than to the two
species from New Guinea. The specimen shown was got trom a straight
tree, about 90 ft. above the ground.

Other natural history notes were communicated by Messrs. J.

Shephard, F. G. A. Barnard, T. Steel, and BE. H. Hennell.

Specimens were exhibited by Dr. A. Dendy, Mr. C. French, Jun.,
Rey. W. Fielder, Messrs. L. O. Grundt, R. Hall, J. G. Luehmann, W.
Macgillivray, Baron von Mueller, and Mr. J. Shephard.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

Sydney, July Ist, 1891.—H. C. Russell, Esq., Vice-President, in
the chair.

New members.—Messrs. A. Bowman, J. H. Campbell, J. K.
Chisholm, G. Clarke, C.E., B. Demstan, J. Gill, F. B. Guthrie, Hon.
W. Halliday, M.L.C., C. Hedley, F.L.S., R. Hickson, M. Inst. C.E.,
C. W. King, T. W. Seaver, A. W. Stillwell, T. Ward, S. C. Watkins,
M.R.C.S., F. Wells, M. Inst. C.E., R. A. Wilson, M.D., P. M. Wood,
M.R.C.S.

ABORIGINAL CAVES.

Mr. W. G. Cox, of Windgidgeon wid Gilgandra, wrote stating that
he knew where there was another aboriginal cave similar to one recently
described ina Sydney paper. It was situated close to the Munghorn
Gap in the Main Dividing Range, on the road from Mudgee to Woollan.
The cave is situated in an isolated freestone rock of mammoth size.
These caves, he said, were generally known as the “ Red-hand Caves,”
as all the figures represented therein were in a red colour, supposed to
have been so coloured with the gum taken from the apple tree. There
were also several other caves in Dunn’s Mountain, in the dividing
range, to the south-east of Rylstone.

ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Baron von Mueller, who is taking a very active interest in the
question of antarctic exploration, wrote pointing out the need for
intending contributors to the exploration fund forwarding their con-
tributions at once. He stated that an endeavour would be made that
the exploration party should start from Sweden in March next year.

240 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

The Chairman stated that the secretary would be glad to receive
any contributions the members had to give.

Papers.—(1) ‘Nos. 13 and 14 Compressed-air Flying Machines,”
by Lawrence Hargrave.

(2) “Some Folk-songs and Myths from Samoa, translated by the
Rev. G. Pratt,” by Dr. J. Fraser. The paper was in continuation of a
series commenced in November last, and dealt with four myths now for
the first time translated. Dy. Fraser said that of the four the most
interesting was one about Mafuie, the Samoan Vulcan, and his sister
Ululepapa. Mafuie had his home down below, but, unlike his classical
compeer, he did not work in metals; he only cultivated taro, yams,
etc., and had a huge ironwood tree, ever burning, with which to lighten
his abode and help him and his men to cook their food. On the earth
above there was no fire and no cooked food ; everything was eaten raw.
But a courageous youth named Tiitii changed all this. Like Ali Baba,
he discovered a password—“ Rock, rock, split open”—by means of
which he descended to the regions below, picked a quarrel with Mafuie,
and, wrestling with him, broke his leg and his arm, compelled him to
submit, and brought away fire, touchwood, and taro. Ever since the
Samoans have had cooked food. Another myth bore a striking
resemblance to the Biblical account of the Fall; and yet an old native
of Upolu certifies it as a genuine Samoan tale.

(8) ‘ Preparations now being made in the Sydney Observatory for
the Photographic Chart of the Heavens,” by H. C. Russell. (See p.
211.)

(4) ‘On Cyclonic Storms,” by H. C. Russell.

Sydney, August 6th, 1891.—H. C. Russell, Esq., in the chair.

New members.—Messrs. C. O. Burge, C.E., T. R. Firth, S.
Jamieson, B.A., M.B., G. W. Sutherland, M.B., C.M.

The Chairman announced that the society’s bronze medal and prize
of £25 had been awarded to the Rev. J. Milne Curran, F.G.8., for his
paper on “ The Microscopic Structure of Australian Rocks.”

The Rev. J. Milne Curran read extracts from his paper. In the
introduction he referred to the work of previous observers in the same
field, and also the particular methods resorted to in petrographic
research. He explained how micro-chemical and microscopical obser-
vation as well as micro-photography were made available in the study of
Australian rocks. The great development of acidic intrusive rocks in
New South Wales was dwelt on, though these rocks were for the most
part in the pre-Tertiary age. The presence of granite and its micro-
scopic structure was recorded for the first time from the Lower
Macquarie. Here in the heart of the great Tertiary plains, granites
were found forming the tops of buried mountains. Many interesting
rocks not hitherto studied were described, such as the gabbros of Carcoar,
the leucite rocks of Harden, the diabases of Blayney and Wellington,
and the basalts of Orange, Mendoran, Bathurst, and other localities in
the New England districts. The Tertiary effusive rocks were treated of
in great detail, revealing some very remarkable structures.

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CONTENTS:

He
has PAGE
hquakes in. New Zealand—What and how to observe. GrorcE HocBen, 95 =
* M.A, Timaru Ps pean ees iri
On the Classification of the Moa. Chenin F, W. Huan E.G. 8. ae eabannanry. Yeoh sath
s on the Geographical Relations of our Land and Fresh- Pater Mollusca. zs 7
4B. Suter, Christchurch ote a a by pa 2500
” Review—“ Introductory Class-book of Botany.” Seg ae Ese BUS OG ahs er
255%
On Moa ones “wiseision™ of mee Ney Otago Plants_-On Timinceaenee 4
of Spear-grass—Note on Leucopogon Fraseri, A. Cunn.—Histor: 'y of ;
2 the Moas. ‘ i
if Mlustrations of British Fungi.” ne Ec ce DOE
ko the ce ‘Australian Mole- like Marsupinl-—Notoryetes Typ hops es AS 265.
eu Meetings of Societies —- ef a 267

eS A Otago nstitute-Wellington Philosophical Society=-Wellington Fiold
y Naturalists’ Club—Linnean Society of New South Wales—Field
Naturalists’ Club of YVictoria—Royal Society of Victoria—Royal
poe of Tasmania.

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Vol. I.. No. 6, N.Z. JOURNAL OF SCIENCE (New Issue) NOV., 1891.

EARTHQUAKES IN NE ‘i ZEALAND—WHAT
AND HOW TO “OBSERVE.
BY GEORGE HOGBEN, M.A., TIMARU.

ee

It may be necessary to answer a preliminary question, ‘ Why
should we observe earthquakes at all?’:; for there are some people
who consider that by calling attention to the subject we shall be in
danger of gaining for New Zealand an unenviable notoriety. Asa
matter of fact, however, a very limited examination of the earthquake-
history of the colony shows that, if indeed the objection be seriously
urged, no fear need be entertained on that eround. Out of nearly
800 earthquakes recorded in New Zealand only two or three can be
called severe,*—namely, those of October, 1848, January, 1855, and
perhaps one other, (about which little definite information can be
obtained, but which scems to have had marked effects in the district
between Mts. Tarawera and Edgcumbe in the year 1836). <A few
more come under the head of sharp, avd all the rest-—the vast
jori i than
slight. No earthquake in New Zealand, at least in historic times, has
been at all comparable with the tevrcmotos or destructive earthquakes
of South America. The minds of the timid may therefore be re-
assured by the thought that the experience of the past does not lead
us to expect greater danger from earthquakes in New Zealand than
in England.

Besides removing this objeciion we may, perhaps, be expected to
give some positive reason why earthquakes should be observed. The
object is mainly a scientific one, though, as in many other inquiries
purely scientific at the outset, practical conclusions and results may
follow. Seismology is merely one branch of a larger subject, the
Physics of the earth’s crust, a complete study of which involves
questions connected with the figure of the earth, the nature of its
interior—whether liquid or solid, or partly liquid and partly solid. or
solid by reason of the pressure though liquid in potentiality; its
temperature, and rate and mode of cooling—by conduction if solid or
viscid, by convection if liquid; the nature of the internal movements,
if any; the consequent nature and causes of the compressions and
movements that take place near the surface. The most important
evidence towards forming probable theories about these matters is
yielded by the phenomena connected with volcanic eruptions, and
with the various earth-movements—earthquakes, eartl-tremors, earth-
tides or pulsations, and those larger and slower movements revealed
in the elevation or depression of the land. Other effects of the forces

* Tt would take too long to attempt a definition of fhe iroynTae severe, dias slight.
Their use is not free from vagueness, but they give a convenient classification of
shocks, based upon such easily observed phenomena as the stopping of clocks, the
falling of bottles from shelves, injury to chimneys and walls of buildings, and so on-
the appropriateness of the particular adjective depending also upon the more or Tess
general occurrence of these events in any given district.

242 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

at work on the earth’s crust are shown in faults, fissures, foldings,
cleavages, and in other ways known to geologists. The vast questions
here suggested are very far from being solved, and if ever they
are solved at all, it can only be by theories based on the widest
possible collection of data. It is, in short, as part of a world-system
of observations that our observations in New Zealand will become
useful.

How is this connection between New Zealand and the rest of the
world to be made? The Australasian Association of Science has, by
by appointing a Seismological Committee decided to do what it can.
What, then, can be done ?

Whatever is done in New Zealand should also be done for each
of the other Australasian Colonies, and, if possible, for the islands of
the Pacific, so that the general collation and comparison already
referred to may be made.

The first step is for some one in each Colony to compile a list of
all recorded earthquakes up to the present time, including in that
list all the important details, as far as they are given in the records.
For this purpose it is necessary to search official tables, scientific
journals, personal narratives and the newspapers. Sir James Hector
has drawn up such a record for New Zealand, which I hope soon to
see published, and in a paper read by myself before Section A of the
Australasian Association, 1891, a similar list was included. In
gathering together the materials for the latter I asked for the
following particulars :—1l. Place, 2. Time, 3. Nature of Shock, 4.
Apparent Direction, 5. Apparent Duration, 6. Effects—other remarks,
7. Time-checks, 8. Authority. I asked for the omission of all
inferences and of unimportant details, and the replies were forwarded
to me, tabulated, on foolscap sheets. Nothing was to be omitted,
were it only the fact that a shock was felt on a certain date at a
certain place.

When made, this list serves many useful purposes ; its principal
one is to indicate the directions in which the subsequent earthquake-
hunting is likely to be successful. It may show roughly the distri-
bution and comparative frequency of earthquake-shocks in different
districts, suggest positions of centres or lines of disturbance, and may
point to shocks in one colony synchronous or identical with shocks in
another more or less distant.

The next step, which of course need not be delayed until the
first is completed, is to establish a uniform system of recording earth-
quakes as they occur. These records should be such as can be used
for determining earthquake origins, and as far as possible also the
velocity of propagation, the depth of the origin and the velocity of the
shock, that is the velocity of the several particles that vibrate. Good
time-observations are sufficient for the first two of these, and in
favourable instances for the third also, but for the fourth elaborate
instruments would be necessary—indeed, even with the best instru-
ments satisfactory results are rarcly attainable, and doubt may still
be thrown upon the best observations. For the observation of the

EARTHQUAKES IN NEW ZEALAND. 243

time of the shock, and therefore for ascertaining the position and
depth of the origin and the velocity of transit or propagation, much
simpler instruments would be sufficient. They should be seismocopes,
all of the same type, capable of showing the time of the earthquake
and the particular phase of the earthquake to which the time recorded
belongs. ‘They should be corrected electrically with a clock regulated
by some standard time. There should be as large a number of these
instruments as possible, and the advantage obtained by their use
would be that almost any earthquake felt at five or six places should
afford sufficient data for the determination of the epicentrum (or
portion of the earth’s surface vertically above the real origin or
centrum), and of the velocity of propagation;—and any earthquake
felt, say at ten places, should give us the depth of centrum as well.
Theoretically, five good times from places favourably situated should
give us all these, but in practice it is better to have ten at least.

Instruments, however, cost money, and at present there seems
small hope of obtaining them either from the Government or private
individuals. Without crying “sour grapes,” we can nevertheless
console ourselves with the fact that, though instruments would yield
the required data with greater certainty, yet much may be done
without instruments. In fact, an observation by a careful observer,
who takes the necessary precautions to check his notes of the time
and the various facts of the movement, is worth at least as much as
the observation of a moderately good instrument, and far more than
an observation recorded by an instrument not kept in scrupulously
good order.

The Charieston earthquake of August 31st, 1886, was probably
one of the best, if not the very best-recorded earthquake hitherto,
and yet Major Dutton tells us: “ At the time of the earthquake there
was not within the United States a single seismocope or other suitable
instrument of precision on guard and so connected with a clock as to
give an accurate record of the time at which the impulses arrived.
Nevertheless there were several circumstances which gave hope that
a fairly satisfactory result might be reached. . . . . . The
fact which gave the highest encouragement was the existence and
successful working of the standard time system, whereby once each
day a signal is telegraphed from an astronomical clock to every
telegraph station in the country at an appointed hour, minute, and
second.” And he goes on to show that the habit formed by large
numbers of intelligent men of daily using these facilities led to the
amazingly large and accurate set of returns on which his calculations
were based. (See Charleston Karthquake Report, U. S. Geological
Survey, 1890.) In short, the history of the Charleston earthquake
has taught us two things—the great value of time-observations, and
the possibility of obtaining fairly good time observations in any
country where comparison can be made with a standard time. ‘This
can be done in New Zealand, as any telegraph office gets, or can get
New Zealand Mean Time from the Head Oftice at W ellington ; ; aa |
suppose it would be equally possible in the other colonies.

244 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

By the courtesy of Dr. Lemon, Superintendent of Posts and
Yeleoraphs, a system has been in working for nearly two years in
New Zealand, by which the telegraph officers at any stations at
which an earthquake is felt forward memoranda of the fact to Dr.
Lemon, who sends them on tome. These memoranda are made on
forms supplied to them. (See below.) A few private persons have
kindly given me assistance by filling up and forwarding memoranda,
and 1 shall be happy to send blank forms to any willing to help by
recording the earthquakes that come within their own observation.

Last year [ received in this way 79 memoranda with notes of 47
shocks, and was able to determine with tolerable exactness the origin
of one earthquake, and approximately’ those of several others. This
year I have received 75 so far, but the results are not yet worked out.
I quote these facts to show that something may be done without the
aid of instruments; but, even if the instruments were obtained and
set up at chosen places, it would be desirable to continue the present
system for the purpose of checking and corroborating the conclusions
arrived at by their means.

I shall conclude by a few brief remarks on one or two of the
headings of the form supplied to the officers of the telegraph
department.

1. Time of beginniny of shock. If possible, N.Z. Mean Trine.
What we really want to get is the time at each place of the same
phase of the earthquake, and it is generally agreed that the best time
to observe is the beginning of the first maximum. Now that is
generally the moment at which most people begin to notice the
motion, and therefore anyone answering the question precisely would
in all probability give whatis wanted. It is important that the time
should be checked by communication with Wellington as soon after
the shock as convenient ;.if any considerable time has elapsed the rate
of the watch or clock by which the time was observed should be
found, and allowed for.

4. Apparent Direction. People are very often deceived, some-
times unavoidably, as to the direction from which a shock proceeds.
The best indicator generally available would be any object hanging
freely and swinging to and fro (eg. a chandelier or lamp). The
direction of the swing may be seen by fixing the eye upon some point
on the ceiling or wall. Other means of noting direction of shock are
by the overflow of milk or other liquids in open vessels, by the
rattling of pictures against or along the wall, or by the falling of
crockery, etc., from shelves. By far the best of all these ways is that
given by the swinging of suspended objects, and the beginning of the
swinging should be noted, if possible. The direction taken by falling
objects depends very much on the nature of the previous support.
Two directions,—one belonging to the normal, the other to the
transverse vibrations, commonly but not always at right angles, are
often observed ,—both should be noted.

The other particulars asked for serve to check and confirm the
conclusions formed from the notes of time and direction, and may now

EARTHQUAKES IN NEW ZEALAND. 245

and then give means of guessing at the intensity of the earthquake
as shown “by the velocity of the earth-particles, 7.c. the velocity of
shock. So far, I believe, no estimate has been formed of what. this
velocity may have been in any New Zealand earthquake. From
calculations made, I believe the velocity of shock of the earthquake of
September Ist, 1888, to have been between 12 and 19 feet per
second. Though we cannot really determine this clement without
good instruments, we may be able to find limits within which it must
lie.

I trust I have succeeded in showing that there is something
worth observing in regard to New Zealand earthquakes, and that to
observe it does not require any special training but only ordinary care
and intelligence; as in everything else a high degree of accuracy
only comes with practice, which as far as earthquakes are concerned,
most of us would willingly dispense with. Perhaps at a future time
the Editor may have space for some account of the results of the work
already done by various individuals in the department of New Zealand
Seismology.

WAGE MET @ WyAdK ECAC Nees caret oc NiPZ- Date___ 189
[Please answer precisely any or all of the following (Questions. |

1. Time of beginning of shock.
Lf possible, N.Z. Mean Time.

2. Whether clock was verified
by N.Z Mean Time.
3. Nature of shock—slight,
sharp, or severe.
4, Apparent direction—[e.g.—
8.E. to N.W.; then N.E.toS.W.|

5, Apparent duration.

6. Effects, [e.g.—clocks stopped ;
bells rung; crockery broken ;
chimneys thrown down. |

7. Remarks. [e.g. previous tre-
mors or rumbling ; spilling of
liquids, with direction of overflow; | —————
landslip in neighbourhood ; special
instruments used in observation. |

Signature of Observer
Address
Date

246 JOURNAL GF SCIENCE.

For the purpose of accurate observation of earthquakes the
immense advantages of a system of standard time and the habit
of referring to that time are sufficiently shown by a comparison of
of the respective reports of the Charleston Earthquake of 1886 and of
the East Anglian Earthquake of 1884. These advantages are still
further emphasisel by a reference to u paper in the “ Geological
Magazine” of the present year (On the British Earthquakes of 1889,
by Charles Davison, M.A.) It is true that the areas over which the
earthquakes investigated were felt were so small that very accurate
time-observations would have been required te determine the epi-
centrum ; but the nature of the time-notes taken shows generally that
the opportunities for good time-observations are fewer in Great Britain
than in New Zealand.

The interesting point for us is the careful way in which the
epicentrum is determined by the intensity of the shock at various
places—namely, by drawing isoseismals (or lines ov the map so as to
pass as nearly as possible through places where the intensity was the
same). As the chief mode of finding the origin of a shock this is more
likely to be successful in thickly-settled countries ; nevertheless, it
might be useful in these colonies to supplement and correct inferences
derived from time-observations.

It is necessary, of course, that the same way of describing degrees
of intensity should be employed by all observers. Nothing better,
probably, can be suggested than the Rossi-Forel scale used by Mr.
Davison. He gives a translation of it (reprinted below), and remarks
thereon : “This scale is very generally adopted by Italian and Swiss
seismologists, and, though rough and undoubtedly variable to a slight
extent, is well suited to the nature of the evidence at our disposal, the
range e of var lability of any degree of the scale being probably less than
the limits of error of ordinary observations.”

Rosst-ForREL ScaLe or INTENSITY.

I Recorded by a single seismograph, or by some seismographs of
the same model, but not by several seismograj,hs of different kinds ; the
shock felt by an experienced observer.

II. Recorded by seismographs of different kinds; felt by a small
nunber of persons at rest.

III. Felt by several persons at rest; strong enough for the
duration or the direction to be appreciable.

IV. Felt by persons in motion ; disturbance of moveable objects,
doors, windows, cracking of ceilings.

Felt generally by everyone ; disturbance of furniture and beds,
ringing of some bells.

VI. Generally awakening of those asleep ; general ringing of bells,
oscillation of chandeliers, stopping of clocks ; visible disturbance of trees
and shrubs. Some startled persons leave their dw ellings.

VII. Overthrow of moveable objects, fall of plaster, ringing of
church bells, general panic, without damage to buildings.

Vil: Fall of chimneys, cracks in the walls of buildings.

IX. Partial or total destruction of some buildings.

X. Great disasters, ruins, disturbance of strata, fissures in the
earth’s crust, rock-falls from mountains.

ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE MOAS. 247

ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE MOAS.
BY CAPTAIN F. W. HUTTON, F.G.S., &c.

(Abstract of a paper read to the Canterbury Philosophical Institute, on
1st October, 1891.)

ee

In all but three of the species of Moa described by Sir R. Owen
the bones of the leg had to be put together conjecturally from
collections sent him at different times between 1843 and 1872. In
consequence, the bones have, in many instances, been misplaced, and
the skulls have also often been attached to the wrong species. These
mistakes were, at the time, unavoidable, but the collections in the
colony are now sufficiently large to enable us to detect most of the
errors; and this paper is an attempt to reduce the confusion to order,
to clear up the characters of the different species, and to provide a
basis for further investigation.

The Moas are all included in one Family—the Dinornithide
but are divided into seven genera and twenty six species. The genera
are founded chiefly on the skulls, but also have characters derived
from the sternum, the pelvis, and the robustness of the leg-bones.
The species are distinguished almost entirely by size, but sometimes
characters derived from the skull can be given. In many cases the
species run one into the other and the lines between them are drawn
so as to give about an equal range in variation to each species. In
Owen’s species the metatarsus is taken as the type, except in D.
ingens, Where the tibia forms the type.

Genus DINorNIs.

Skull depressed, the lambdoidal ridge fattened and the parietals
hardly rising above it; the breadth at the squamosals greater than
the length from the supra-occipital to the nasals. Beak rather longer
than the head, depressed and obtuse at the tip; the lower jaw much
eurved. <A scapulo-coracoid without any glenoid cavity.

Sub-genus Dinornis.
Top of the head flattened. Extinct Birds of N.Z., Plate 64.
D. altus, Owen—South Island. Larger and more slender than
D. maximus.
D. maximus, Owen—South Island.
D. excelsus, sp. nov.—North Island. Same size as D. maximus
but more slender.

D. validus, sp. nov.—“outh Island. Larger and more robust
than D. giganteus.

D. yiganteus, Owen—North Island.

D. robustus, Owen—South Island.

D. firmus, sp. noy.— North Island. Same size as D. rebustus but
more slender.

248 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

D. ingens, Owen—WNorth Island.

DT), potens, sp. noy.—South Island. Same size as 2. ingens but
more robust.

Sub-genus 7'ylopteryx.
Top of the head elevated. Extinct Birds of N.Z, Plate 82.
D. gracilis, Owen—North Island.

D. torosus, sp. nov.—South Island. Intermediate in size between
D. gracilis and D. struthioides.

D. struthioides, Owen— Both Islands.
Genus PALAPTERYX.

Skull depressed; the breadth of the squamosals less than the
length from the supra-occipital to the nasals. Beak about as long as
the head, more compressed than in Dinornis; the lower jaw nearly
straight. Extinct Birds of N.Z., pl. 45. A scapulo-coracoid with a
elenoid cavity and probably a wing.

P. dromioides, Owen—North Island.

P. plenus, sp. Nov.

South Island. Mather lareer and stouter
than 2. dromioides.

Genus ANOMALOPTERYX.

Skull very convex, the maxillo-jugals curved. Beak short, slightly
compressed and rounded at the top; the lower jaw strong and nearly
straight. Trans. Zool. Soc., vol. ii., pl. 52. A small scapulo-coracoid.

A. didiformis, Owen. = D. parvus, Owen-- Both Islands.

A. antiquus, sp. nov.—Timaru, in older pliocene rocks. Simaller
than A. didiformis.

Genus CELA.

Skull convex. Beak short, slightly compressed and rounded at
the tip; the lower jaw nearly straight and rather shehtcr than in
Anomalopteryx. Trans. Zool. Soe., vol. xii, pl. 51. No scapulo-
coracoid.

C. geranoides, Owen—North Island.

C. curtus, Owen. = D. Owenit, Haast—North Island.

Genus Mrsopreryx. ,~

Skull convex, angled behind. Beak shorter than the head,
moderately curved, much compressed and pointed at the tip; the
lower jaw slender. No scapulo-coracoid. Extinct Birds of N.Z.,
pl. 78.

M. didinus, Owen, = D. Huttonii, Owen—Both Islands. A more
robust species than 4. didiformis, with which it has been confused.

Genus SYORNIS.

Skull convex, rounded behind. Beak shorter than the head,
moderately curved, much compressed and pointed at the tip; lower
jaw strong. Extinct Birds of N.Z., pls. 76 and 73. No scapulo-
coracoid.

NOTES ON GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 249

S. rheides, Owen—South Island.

S. crassus, Owen—South Island.

S. casuarinus, Owen—Both Islands.
Genus Euryvarreryx.

Skull moderately convex. Beak very short and stout, slightly
compressed and rounded at the tip ; the lower jaw moderately curved.
No scapulo-coracoid. Extinct Birds of N.Z., pls. 77 and 72.

E. elephantopus, Owen—South Island.

E. ponderosus, sp. noyv.—South Island. Intermedirte in siz>
between ZL. elephantopus and L. gravis.

E. gravis, Owen—South Island.

£. pygmeus, sp. nov.—South Island. Smaller than 2. gravis.

TABLE
Or THE AVERAGE MEASUREMENT OF THE SPECIES.

In the leg bones the girth is taken at the middle of the shaft.
Jn the pelvis the length is that of the pre-acetabular portion only, the
breadth is taken at the anti-trochanters. The breadth of the sternum
is taken across the body, just below the costal region. In the skull
the length is from the supra-occipital to the nasals, the breadth is
taken at the squamosals, and the height is the vertical from the
basi-temporal.

Meta-

Ster) skull

taesug Tibia | Femur | Pelvis ad

eS estes ea S| Ss eS

leo iso leleisaleiglala ls
D. altus ..|21°5) 6°3 |
D. maximus i 20°0) 65 39:0) SSIS) 94
D. excelsus ..|20°0 6°0)37°5)
D. validus ../18°5) 674/350) 7°0/16°5) 80 3°8| 4:7] 2:2
D. giganteus ...18°0) 6°0/35°0, 7°0/16°0) 73 |
D. robustus ...(16°0} 6°0)31°0 6°5|15°0) 7°6)10°0/10°0; 8°38) 3-7) 4:2) 2-4
D. firmus _..{L6°2|} 5°2/32°0 6°0/14°8} 6°7| | 8-2
D. ingens .../15°0) 4°5|28°5| 5°2)13°5) 6:3) j iy
D. potens ..(14°5| 5°3)/28°0) 6°0]13°5) 7:4) 85) 9°5| 75] 3:5) 4:1) 2-1
D. gracilis .../13°5| 4°5|26°0) 5°0}12°4) 6-2! 32) 3°7| 1:8
D. torosus ...12°5| 4:4/24-7) 5:2/12°0| 6-0} 8°0| 8:3) 771] 3:2) 3°7| 1°8
D. struthioides |11°5| 4:0|22°7) 46/11 °0) 5:2) 7°7| 6-7 ZO Seill alter
P. dromioides .../10°0) 3°6)19°7 4:0) 9°6) 3°9) | 2-7) 2-4] 1:3
P. plenus ...{104| 3°8121:0 4:2] 9°5| 3°6) 75) 6:0) 5-2] |
A. didiformis | 65 3:014°0 3:5) 8:0) 36) 57 54] 3°7| 2°8) 2°6) 17
C. geranoides | 5:7| 3:0,12'4' 2-9/°7°3| 3:5) 5°21 52) | | 24) 18
C. curtus .| 4:8] 2°6/10°1) 2°6} 6:0} 3:0] 4:0) 3°5 27 2-4| 1-4
M. didinus | 6°8| 3°6/14°9| 3:8] 9-1] 4:4| 6:4) 7°6] 4:2) 2-7] 2-4) 16
S. rheides 9:3) 5°2)/21°2 5:3)12°0) 6-3} 9:0/11°0
S. crassus 8:5) 5:0/19°0 4°8/11°0) 5°S| S°L|10°1} 6:5) 3°8) 3-4) 2-0
S. casuarinus 76) 4:3/17°1 4:0) 9°81 5:0) 7:0) 9:0) 5:2) 3°7) 3:2) 2:0
KE. elephantopus 9°5) 6°5|22-4 6:2/12°3) 7:3] 7-O}L1L-7| $4) 2°9) 2°83) 1:8
E. ponderosus Sb "5 5°5110°5! 6:0) 6:0/10°0) 7-2) 2°77) 2-7] 1s
K. gravis 74 7 4:2) 9-2) 5:0; 4:5) 7:0) 6:5) 2°4) 2°6) 17
KE. pygmeus 6:0 5:0: 7:5) 4:5! |

|
|

250 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

NOTES ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS
OF OUR LAND AND FRESH-WATER
MOLLUSCA.

BY H. SUTER, CHRISTCHURCH.

+

In No. 4 of this Journal, page 151, an article by Dr. Von Jhering
appeared, dealing with the geographical distribution of the fresh-water
mussels. He says that Dr. Giinther unites the fresh-water fishes of
Chile and New Zealand, and that the study of the Vajade confirms
this fact, as Unio mutabilis, Lea., from New Zealand and Australia
has its nearest ally in Unio auratus of Chile. The mere resemblance
of certain mussels from Australasia and Chile could hardly be taken as
a conclusive proof of the former existence of a large continent extending
between Australasia and South America, but here Dr. von Jhering helps
us out of the difficulty by his most important and interesting discovery
of the mode of hatching the embryos. The South American Najada
hatch their embryos in the internal branchiz, while those of Europe and
North America perform it in the external branchie. The embryos of
both are very different also.

In his last letter to me Dr. von Jhering expressed his opinion that
the Najade of Australasia weuld very likely show the same peculiarity
in the mode of hatching the embryos as those of South America, and
asked me to work together with him in this direction, as well as to
ascertain by a large number of measurements of Unio from many parts
of New Zealand, whether we have only one or very few species of
Unio with many local varieties, or really 6 to 8 distinct species.

IT made a start with the work at the end of July, when Mr.
W. W. Smith, of Ashburton, very kindly sent me several hundred
specimens of Unio from Albwy Creek, and a few from Ashburton
River. It was rather late in the season, as Professor Hutton says that
our Unio breeds in June, but I was fortunate enough to find a good
number containing embryos, all of those mussels being of medium size.
On opening the mussels carefully I found the small, white and globular
embryos lying, without exception, before the internal branchiw, thus
proving that these Unios show the same peculiarity in hatching their
embryos, as those of South America. It may be objected that I did
not find the embryos iz the internal branchi, but only accumulated
before them. To this I may reply that the mussels had been lying
alive in a box several days before they reached me, and according to an
observation made by Prof. A. Forel, of Morges, Switzerland, the
Najade expel their embryos when in want of oxygen. This was
certainly here the case. Moreover the embryos ave widely different
from those of the Majade of the Northern Hemisphere. Anyone who
knows the latter ones would not think it possible, in looking at the
embryos of our Unio under the microscope, that they really were
embryos of Vajade. It is well known that the embryos of the Najade
of the Northern Hemisphere attich themselves to the slimy skin of

NOTES ON GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 25!

fishes for further development, and fresh-waters containing no fish are
also devoid of Najade. Dr. von Jhering never found embryos of
Najade on the skin of South American fishes, and it will be the same
with those of New Zealand. The embryos of the South American and
New Zealand Najade possess neither the sharp and angulated rudi-
mentary shell, nor a byssus to fix themselves on the skin of fishes, and
very probably begin their existence in the sand or mud of the water,
after having been expelled from the mother mussel.

Now this is evidently conclusive proof of a former land communi-
cation between New Zeaiand and South America, as the Majadw
cannot live in brackish or salt water, and I think it very likely that
the Najade of Australia and Tasmania will show no difference in the
mode of hatching the embryos and the structure of the latter.

Besides the Unio we have some more mollusca very nearly allied
to those of South America, especially of Chile. Carthea Kiwi, Gray,
belongs to the family of the Orthalicide, found in South America,
which are mostly living on trees. Our shell has retained this mode of
living, as the leaf-sheaths of the Nikau palm area favourite hiding
place for it. Amphidowa, of which 10 species are known in our colony,
and of the Patulide the group Stephanoda may be common to Chile
and New Zealand, though the dentition of the American species is not
known. Tornatellina and fealia also are found in both countries.
There is another of our land shells which will perhaps prove to be
closely allied to South American forms, namely, our Dandebardiu
neoxelanica, Pf., of the Waikato district. I think Pfeiffer was quite
wrong in placing this mollusc in the genus Dandebardia, which is
known only from some parts of HKurope, Western Asia, and Algeria. I
have but litle doubt of its belonging to a South American genus, but
the question can only be decided on examining the animal. I have not
been able to obtain it either alive or preserved in spirits, but should be
greatly obliged to anybody who could procure it for me.

Very little is yet known of the anatomy of the land and fresh-
water shells of most parts of the Southern Hemisphere, though New
Zealand in this regard no doubt takes first rank. But of the land and
and fresh-water mollusca of Tasmania, of a great part of Australia,
Polynesia, and western South America, we know very little beyond the
descriptions of the shells. Judging from the form of the shells only it
is very hazardous to say which forms are nearly allied, and one might
very often be mistaken. I will only mention here that Mr. Ch. Hedley
of Sydney, on examining the animals of shells from Lord Howe Island,
which he and Mr. Brazier considered to belong to the genus Lhytida,
found them to be Patula. I have had similar experiences here in New
Zealand. Hyalina corneo-fulva, Pf., 1 found to belong to the genus
Amphidoxa, and what I considered to be a Diplomphalus has proved to
form a peculiar group of Patula.

I have satisfied myself that the land and fresh-water fauna of the
Southern Hemisphere, with the exception of a few cosmopolitan genera,
is entirely different from that of the Northern Hemisphere, much more
so than the conchologists of the latter admit.

2:52 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

I quite agree with Dr. von Jhering that the study of the fresh-
water fauna will help us to gain a proper knowledge of the geographical
distribution of the organisms during the Secondary epoch as well as for
the distribution of land and water during that time.

Let us now see what relations our land and fresh-water mollusea
show to those of Tasmania. The only Unio from Tasmania, U.
Legrandi, Pett., seems to be closely allied to our U. auchklandica, Gray,
but nothing is yet known of the mode of hatching the embryos in the
Tasmanian species. The occurrence of Unio in the rivers of the
northern part of Tasmania only, as asserted by Messrs. Petterd and
Beddome, is very interesting, especially from the geological standpoint.
Of the very greatest importance in the occurrence of fresh-water shells
is the genus Potamopyrgus, which is found in New Zealand and
Tasmania only, though Tryon mentions it from Cuba. P. Fischer in
his ‘‘ Manuel de Conchologie,” gives only New Zealand as the habitat of
Potamopyrgus, and it is also not mentioned in the list of shells from
Cuba. If Tryon’s notation is correct it coincides with the genera
Gundlachia from Tasmania and Microphysa from New Zealand, which
both are also found on the Antilles. This would lead to the supposition
of a former Jand communication between Tasmania, New Zealand, and
the Antilles !

Potamopyrgus is not found in Australia, and there are only two
possibilities to account for this fact, viz. : either there was once a direct
land communication between New Zealand and Tasmania, or it was by
way of Southern Australia ; in the latter case we must admit that the
genus Potamopyrgus became extinct in Australia, perhaps by being
existent in those parts only which are now submerged. I am inclined
to stand to the first theory. The present considerable depth of the
Tasman sea is no obstacle to it, and ii is a fact, pointed out by several
conchologists and observed by myself, that our molluscan fauna is most
nearly allied to that of Tasmania. In two papers which appeared in
the “ Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,” vols. 22 and 23, [
referred to the close relation between Patula subantialba and P.
mutabilis of New Zealand, and P. antialba and P. Easthournensis of
Tasmania. The genera Rhytida, Patula, Pupa, Bulimus, Planorbis,
Amphipeplea, Limnea, Amphibola, etc, are common to both in many
similar forms, and Gundlachia of Tasmania has no doubt its nearest ally
in Latia of New Zealand. We know very little at present of the
anatomy of the Tasmanian land and fresh-water shells, except Pota-
mopyrgus, but Tam convinced that when it is known, a much closer
alliance between the molluscan fauna of both countries will be shown
to exist. A further support for my standpoint is shown in the small
number of forms common to southern Australia and New Zealand,
if we ignore the cosmopolitan genera, which no doubt would be much
larger had our former land communication with Tasmania only been by
way of Australia.

The relationship of our molluscan fauna to that of Australia is, as
just mentioned, not very great. Besides the cosmopolitan genera there
ave only Rhytida, Paryphanta, Janella, and Amphibola especially to be
mentioned. Of Paryphanta there is only one species (P. atramentaria )

NOTES ON GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, 253

known inhabiting Victoria, whilst New Zealand has five species. This
genus is limited to New Zealand and Victoria. Helix Varanaki, H.
reinga, and LH. ophelia are North Australian species, said to have been
found alsoin New Zealand, but the first two are not in any of our
collections, and the third one has not been .compared from both
localities. Judging from the hypothesis of a former land communication
between New Zealand and Australia it is quite possible that the three
species are common to both countries. It would be of the highest
interest and importance to explore the high north of New Zealand for
land and fresh-water shells. The fresh-water shells Bulimus, Planorbis,
Amphipeplea, and Limnea are found in nearly allied forms in New
Zealand and Australia, and Unio mutabilis, Lea., is also-said to inhabit
both. I have not seen any description or figure of this Unio.

A good number of our shells point to a former land communication
with the islands of Lord Howe, Norfolk, Kermadec, New Caledonia,
Polynesia, and Phillipine Islands, but there remains much to be done
before we are able to make decisive conclusions. Mr. Charles Hedley,
of the Australian Museum, Sydney, has lately published a very good
and interesting paper on the land and fresh-water shells of Lord Howe
Island, in which he points out that the occurrence of the genus
Placostylus speaks eloquently of a recent land communication extending
on one side to New Caledonia and on the other to New Zealand. Ouvr
genera of Diplommatina and Realia are also mentioned from this island,
and they are also found on Norfolk Island. With the Kermadee
Islands we have one species common, Vitrina (Helicarion ?) ultima,
Houss., which formerly has been found near Auckland. New Caledonia
has the genera Ithytida, Placostylus, Janella, Amphibola, Melanopsis,
Diplommatina, ete., common with New Zealand. Our genera Vitri-
noidea and Leptopoma (probably Lagochilus), show that land formerly
extended so far north as to the Phillipine Islands and very likely up to
Asia.

A large number of the New Zealand genera are also distributed
over Polynesia, of which I would only mention Rhytidu, Pitys, Torna-
tellina, Bulimus, Amphibola, Diplommatina, Cyclophorus, Realia, and
Hydroceng as the most important ones.

Of many of our shells we do not knosv how far they are related to
similar forms of Polynesia, as the anatomy of the latter is unknown at
present. [I am willing to undertake the work as far as time permits, if
only I could get the shells with their animals, either alive or preserved
in diluted methylated spirits, or our “national drinks,’”—whisky, brandy,
gin, could be used for the same purpose. I shouid be very thankful to
anybody who would kindly procure me land and fresh-water shells with
the animals from any part of Polynesia, Chile, Australia, Tasmania, and
New Zealand, and I am always ready to give the necessary instructions
for collecting, ete.

This paper is by no means intended to be exhaustive on the
subject, I merely wish to point out how far the present knowledge of
our land and fresh-water shells may help us in geological speculations
with regard to former extensions of land and water on the Southern
Hemisphere, and to show how much work remains to be done.

254 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

P.S —Since | wrote my short notes on the geographical relations
of our mollusca, I collected a number of Unio in the River Avon, and
amongst them I found six to be in a spawning condition. About one-
third, the central part, of the internal branchize was entirely filled up
with the small white embryos, just in the same way as is the case with
the Najadw of the Northern Hemisphere. The embryos showed the
same aspect as those of the Unio from Albury Creek. The external
branchiz contained a few scattered embryos only.

T said that our Carthea Kiwi belonged to the family of the
Orthalicide. In saying so I followed Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, who placed
our shell in this family (Trans. N.Z. Inst., XTX., p. 170). This is no
doubt a mistake. The other day I studied the dentition of C. Aiwi,
described and figured by Prof. F. W. Hutton in vol. XVI. of the
Transactions, and I have come to the conclusion that it belongs to the
genus Bulimulus, Leach, sub-genus Orthotomium, C. & F., section
Rhabdotus, Albers, of which about five representatives are found in
Chile.—H. Suter.

REVIEW.

Introductory Class-Book of Botany, for use in New Zealand Schools.
By George M. Thomson, F.L.S., Science Master in the Dunedin High
Schools. (Wellington, Didsbury, 1891.)

+>

Mr. Thomson has produced a book which ought to be of great
use to science teachers. The ordinary text books of Botany are
concerned in great measure with the plants of the Northern Hemi-
sphere, and without access to large and costly original works it is
often extremely difficult to get any information about the common
native plants. On the other hand so many Northern forms are now
thoroughly acclimatised that a book dealing only with natives would
be of limited application. Mr. Thomson has wisely selected his types
partly from the native, partly from the introduced flora of the Colony,
and his book is therefore one which should be useful both in districts
like Dunedin, where native plants are still abundant, and in those
like Christchurch, in which only introduced forms are to be had.

The descriptions are clear and accurate, and are illustrated by
three plates and by no fewer than 227 woodcuts interspersed in the
text. The only fault one can find in them is one for which the
author is not responsible—they are often very badly printed; the
drawing, however, is excellent, and the numerous sections of flowers
and of pistils, figures of anthers, floral diagrams, etc , are just such as
are required to aid the student who uses the book as it ought to
be used—with the plants before him and with pocket-knife and
magnifying glass ready to hand.

A great deal of useful and suggestive information is given
incidentally about such branches of the subject as insect-fertilisation,

REVIEW. 255

the “sleep” of plants, modes of climbing, etc., ete. This department
might have been extended with advantage, and one would have been
glad to see something about the general physiology of plants—the
nature of their food and the method by which it is taken in and
distributed. It is always worth taking some trouble to impress upon
students the fact that the plant is a living, feeding, breathing,
organism, and not a mere lifeless ‘“‘ specimen.”

Tf I may venture to criticise the methods of so experienced a
teacher I should like to say that Mr. Thomson appears to me to err
on the side of undue elaborateness of terminology, and especially in
introducing technical terms before the necessity for them is apparent
to the pupil. For instance, a beginner who has only examined the
buttercup cannot be expected to see the necessity for applying the
term aposepalous to the calyx, but by the time he has got to the Sweet
Pea the need for distinctive terms forces itself upon him. Some of
the terms of the systematic botanist are quite unsuitable and even
mischievous to beginners. What, for instance, can be mere absurd
than to say that the cohesion of the sepals of buttercup is aposepalous,
or in plain English that they do not cohere at all.

But it would be manifestly unfair to blame Mr. Thomson for not
having reformed the terminology of botanical science in a school text
book; he has produced a book which will sustain his reputation and
which ought to have the effect of diffusing the study of botany—the
best of science-subjects for the purposes of the average school.

aM dle 122

GENERAL NOTES.

———<————— ~~ —___

“On Moa Bonzs.”—In the number of the “Journal of Science,”
just received, there are two matters mentioned, on which a few words
may be of use to you and others interested in scientific matters.

Mr. W. W. Smith speaks of the ‘ancient dog which was the
companion of the moa-hunters” in the Middle Island. The fact of
dogs’ bones being found in company with those of the moa is, to me,
proof positive that the birds were killed by Maoris, as the Maoris seem
all to agree in stating that the dog was brought here by their ancestors
from Hawaiki, which I feel certain was Central America, and not
Polynesia, though possibly some of the eastermost Polynesian islands
may have formed a stage on the journey, as they are all evidently
peopled from the same source, and all agree in describing it as to the
eastward. The native names of places in America are all Polynesian,
and have meanings in Maori and its kindred dialects, with only such
changes of spelling or sound as actually occur in one or other of those
dialects ; while some of the names actually occur in New Zealand.
Some old neighbours of mine, who had lived many years in Australia,
often spoke of it asa curious fact, that the Negritos there had never
domesticated the dog; for though these animals were found there in a

256 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

wild state, they were the only placental mammals, except the ubiquitous
rat and mouse, and had unquestionably been introduced by the
Papuans, who visited the northern portion of the country. There is
therefore no reason to suppose that the Negritos, whom the Maoris
found in New Zealand, and who have left such strong racial traces
here, knew anything about the dog, far less possessed and tamed them.
As regards the extinction of the moa, I donot feel sure that they are
extinct, even now, in remote localities, as the Maoris believe in their
existence, and it seems perfectly certain that the last of them hereabouts
were killed with firearms, about the time of the introduction of
Christianity, as the natives assert. I have myself found moa-bones
which had unquestionably been cut in two, and had the flesh chopped
off them with keen steel weapons. and during my early residence in the
colony, | met many Maoris who seemed to have perfect knowledge of
the bird, and said they had often eaten its flesh. Probably it held its
ground far longer in this wooded region than in the open country on
the eastern sides of both islands: and this has led to the differing views
respecting it, entertained by enquirers in the two localities. —H. C. Frexp.

Micration oF Hets.— Mr. 8. Perey Smith contributes some
notes as to the migrations of eels, which I can corroborate. These fish
come up from the seain large shoals, about the months of October and
November, when about two inches long and as thick as a straw, and
work their way up the tributary streams to very high levels, large
numbers living in swamps. They surmount the waterfalls by wriggling
upwards among the wet moss beside the falls; and the Maoris assert
that each fish takes hold of the tail of the one in front of him with his
mouth, so that they all help each other to ascend. This much is
certain. If the head of the column is dislodged, the whole fall down ;
and the Maoris take advantage of this to catch large quantities of these
‘“‘tuna-riki” (little eels), by holding flax baskets below a column and
then detaching it. They then dry them for wiuter food, just as they do
the whitebait, and the little eyeless fish of the volcanic springs at
the head of the Roto-aire lake. I know streams, tributaries of the
Mangawhero and Wangaehu rivers, which swarm with eels that have
surmounted falls 200 feet to 300 feet high. Again on the west side of
the Wanganui river, near the heads, there was formerly a large swamp,
the surplus water of which trickled into the river over a flat of sand
several chains in width. In the autumn of 1856 or thereabouts, a
gentleman who had been to the pilot station, and was returning late in
the evening, found a great number of large eels wriggling their way
across the sand from the swamp to the river, and brought a string of
them, as heavy as he could carry, back to town with him. For some
nights afterwards, several of us visited the spot, and secured a large
number. The migration lasted for about a week. The Maoris are
perfectly well aware that the large eels migrate to the sea with the first
autumn rains, and catch great numbers of them with traps at that
season. ‘The rain, no doubt, causes the water of the streams and lakes
to rise, and so increases the pressive as to warn the fish to migrate.
Tt was probably in this way that the eels of the Chatham Island lagoon,

GENERAL NOTES. BEF

mentioned by Mr. Smith, knew that their way to the sea was open,
The doubt as to the migration of eels, raised by Mr. Dingan in 1875,
was founded on an entire mistake. He spoke of the Virginia lake here
as having no communication with the sea, and yet as being one of the
best fishing grounds hereabouts for eels. The actual facts are as
follows. There are several lakes near here in which there are no eels ;
and any Maori would, at once, tell you this was because those lakes do
not communicate with the sea. The Virginia lake was one of these.
Up to 1855 or 1856, there were no eels there. Just then, however,
the main road northward from Wanganui was constructed; and to
enable it to be carried along the southern margin of the lake, a trench
was dug through the lowest adjacent ground, and the water was lowered
3 feet or so. In the following spring eels ascended to the lake in
considerable numbers, though they had to surmount a fall of about
20 feet in height. Several years later this trench was deepened, in
order to enable a supply of water for a flourmill in town to be drawn
from the lake in dry weather. After this, more eels found their way
up to the lake, and this continued till the lake was utilised as a source
of water supply for the town about the year 1873, when the outlet was
closed. Mr. Dingan was a new-comer here at that time; and it was no
doubt through his having no knowledge of the facts which I have just
stated, that he, in October, 1875, arrived at the erroneous conclusion
respecting the eels in the lake. It was soon found that the lake could
not be relied on as a source of water supply, as it drains no appreciable
area of land; and therefore pipes were laid to bring into it water from
another larger lake two miles distant. This last lake is connected with
the sea and contains eels ; and every autumn, some of the large ones,
endeavouring to migrate seawards, come through the pipes into the
Virginia lake. We know this for certain, because some of them stick
fast in the pipes and cause a stoppage. This happened twice last
autumn to my own knowledge. The presence of eels in the Virginia
lake is no mystery ; but they certainly are not bred there, as there are
no small ones. Only a few people residing close by take the trouble to
fish there, and they do not get above two or three in an evening (two 1s
the most I have ever known taken by one person in an evening), but
they ave all of such a size as to be worth catching. I have fished in
the lake repeatedly during the last two seasons, and occasionally before
that, but have never known an eel under 2ib weight to be caught there
since the Westmere water was introduced, and the average size gets
larger year by year. Early in this year I saw Mr. Dingan hook one,
which he judged to be 7ib or 8b in weight, and which broke his tackle.

There is another circumstance connected with this lake which may
be worth mentioning. Fifteen or twenty years ago, English perch were
put into several of our lakes by our Acclimatisation Society. In some
of these lakes they have bred so rapidly that it is not unusual for an
angler to take from fifty to sixty ina few hours, but he seldom gets a
fish of over Ib weight. There is one such lake about two miles from
the Virginia, and similarly situated in every way except that it is far
shallower. ‘The largest perch that I have ever caught there weighed
only 1}%b, and the largest that [have heard of as taken from it was

258 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

only about 231. In other lakes none at all have yet been caught,
though possibly more experienced anglers might succeed in getting
some. In the Virginia lake there seem to be but few, but they are
very large. From two to five are the most that any one catches in an
afternoon ; but out of several dozen which I took there last season, the
smallest weighed Itb 7oz., and the largest more than 32lb. One
gentleman told me that he saw a number of young fry last summer,
which he thought were perch from their being in company with large
ones and from the redness of their fins, but no one else has noticed any.
Several years ago the neighbouring lake which I have mentioned, got
so low during a dry summer, that the fish in it were dying; and the
secretary of our Acclimatisation Society netted all that he could and
took them to Virginia lake ; and latterly several cf us have made a
practice of transferring our smaller fish from the one lake to the other ;
yet still the rule holds good that the perch increase rapidly in the one
lake, and apparently not at all in the other. Possibly the eels in the
Virginia lake may have something to do with it; but they do not stop
the imcrease in other lakes. Some blame the shags, but these are far
more numerous in other lakes where the fish increase notwithstanding.
The only thing in which the Virginia lake differs from the others is
that, many vears ago, two Murray river cod were put into it, and one
of these was certainly still alive last summer, as it was seen, and had
grown to an immense size. It is hard to suppose however, that
one or two fish could keep down the increase in a lake more than
twenty acres in extent. Trout and carp were also put into the lake
about the same time as the perch. Some of the latter are seen
occasionally, and also what appear to be the former rise in considerable
numbers of an evening; but no one has caught any of either, though
we have tried to do so repeatedly. There are numbers of small fish in
the lake which have all the appearance of smelt, but which I believe to
be small trout; as on one occasion I caught a trout in a pond in
Hampshire, which had lost its red spots and become quite silvery.—

H.C. Frexp.

New Ovraco Piants.—In the Reports of the Dunedin Naturalists’
Field Club, for the years 1879 to 1881, there were printed very
complete lists of the native phanerogams and ferns growing in the
neighbourhood of Dunedin. The lists contain some errors, which do
not call for special notice here, my object being simply to record the
names and localities of a number of additional species found near
Dunedin. Several of them have been described for the first time since
these reports were made up. Other plants no doubt remain to be
discovered in the district, but it is unlikely that any future list of
discoveries in the district will reach such length as the present one.

The most interesting novely to the Dunedin district is Zrichomanes
colensot, Hook. f. This delicate fern grows in the valley of Movrrison’s
Creek, one of the western feeders of the Water of Leith. It has been
very plentiful at one time in the spots where it still grows, but the
clearing off of the bush has made the habitat tco dry and open for it to

GENERAL NOTES. 259

On

thrive under the altered conditions. Probably, however, it occurs in
other localities in Dunedin, and some of these may well be more
favourable to its survival in the district.
Ranunculus tenuicaulis, Cheeseman- - Flagstaff Hill.
Coprosma rubra, Petrie—Town Belt.
Coprosma areolata, Cheeseman—Town Belt.
Coprosma rigida, Cheeseman-—Saddle Hill ; Opoho.
Olearia fragrantissima, Petrie—Vauxhall ; Saddle Hill.
Celnusia linearis, Armstrong— Maungatua (2900 ft).
Gnaphalium Troversii, Hook. f -- Town Belt; Flagstaff; Sigal Hil’,
Helichrysum Purdiet, Petrie—Vauxhall and Rothesay.
Forstera tenella, Hook. f.—Flagstaff and Maungatua.
Phyllachne Haast, Berggren—Maungatua. | am indebted to T.
Kirk, Esq., F.LS., for detecting this species.
Dracophyllum prostratum, Kirk— Maungatua
Gratiola nana, Bentham—The Flat ; Strath Taieri road.
Glossostigma submersum, Petrie—Lake Waihola.
Plantago uniflora, Hook. f. var.—Tomahawk Lagoon.
Atriplex Buchanani, Kirk—Gathered near Dunedin by the Rev.
Mr. North, as I hear from 'T. Kirk, Esq., F.L.S.
Corusanthes rotundifolia, Hook. f.—Waitati Valley.
Pterostylis mutica, Br. --Outram and Lee Stream.
Thelymitra pulchella, Hook. f.—Signal Hill (rare).
Potamogeton pectinatus, V4.—Lake Waithola.
Zannichellia palustris, .—Waikouaiti Lagoon.
Lepilena biloculata, Kirk-——Taieri Plain (ditches)
Zostera nana, Roth—Otago Harbour
Astelia grandis, Hook. f.—Town Belt.
Juncus lamprocarpus, Ehr —Sawyer’s Bay.
Gaimardia setacea, Hook. f.—Maungatua.
Centrolepis pallida, Bentham— Maungatua.
Schenus concinnus, Hook f.—Waikouaiti Beach.
Cladium glomeratum, Br.-—Signal Hill.
Oreobolus strictus, Berggren—Flagstaff Hill.
Uneinia cespitosa, Boott—Pine Hill (Bush).
Uneinia rupestris, Raoul—Town Belt.
Uneinia rubra, Petrie—Signal Hill.
Uncinia rigida, Petvie—Waitati Valley.
Uncinia riparia, Br.—Town Belt.
Carex colensoi, Boott—Maungatua.
Carex testacea, Solander—Environs of Dunedin.
Carex Buchanani, Berggren—Lake Waihola.
Deyeuxia Billardierit, Kunth—Lawyer’s Head.
Danthonia pilosa, Br.—Signal Hill.
Deschampsia tenella, Petrie-—Morrison’s Creek.
Poa pusilla, Berggren —Signal Hill.
Poa Kirkii, Buchanan—Maungatua.
Festuca scoparia, Hook. f.—Brighton.
Triodia australis, Petrie—Maungatua.
Trichomanes colensoi, tlook. f.—Morrison’s Creek.
—D. Perrir.

260 JOURNAL OF SCIENCF.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SpEAR-Grass'—It is well known that the
large species of Spear-grass ( Aciphylla) ave rapidly disappearing in all
parts of Otago, and it is very probable that this once common and
characteristic element in the native vegetation of the district will soon
become as rare as it was formerly abundant. The causes of this change
in the prevailing vegetation of large tracts of country seem to merit
some consideration. It might be thought that plants naturally so
admirably defended against the attacks of herbivorous animals would
be practically exempt from their ravages All kinds of stock eat the
foliage readily enough. but the larger animals are for the most part
prevented from indulging any liking for it by the habit of growth of
the plants and the dense array of sharp points that meet their lips and
tongue. Rabbits however are not so easily repelled, for owing to the
small size of their heads they can attack single leaflets while keeping
clear of those standing near them. Accordingly spear-grass plants are
eaten by them more or less at all seasons, but especially during the
winter and in elevated situations where snow lies on the ground for
considerable periods. In such stations the plants suffer very seriously
from their attacks, and in many extensive districts have been already
all but exterminated. Asa rule the leaves are eaten right back to the
ground and the plants die off at once. In lower situations the rabbits
are not so troublesome, but even there the disappearance of the plants,
though less rapid and complete, is going on steadily and surely. 1 do
not know to what age the life of a spear-grass plant may extend, but it
ean hardly exceed fifteen or twenty years. In that time we may
suppose that all the well-established plants will die off from old age.
Seeds are produced asa rule in great abundance, but in spite of this
the number of young plants that may be observed growing up is very
limited, and in ground that is well stocked and closely cropped hardly
any are to be seen. On the other hand if a patch of land is securely
fenced against cattle and sheep great numbers of plants of all ages are
to be found. This may be very well seen in the somewhat extensive
railway enclosures in the valley of Manuka Creek on the Lawrence
branch railway line. Within this enclosure plants of Aciphylla
squarrosa of all ages abound, and easily hold their own against all
competitors in the struggle for existence. Outside the railway fences
on the other hand plants of any age are extremely rare, even on land
that has never been touche | by cultivation, and seedlings are hardly to
be met with anywhere. Rabbits are not very plentiful in this district,
and the disappearance of the spear-grass cannot in any way be attributed
to their interference. Everything goes to shew that as the old plants
die off, the young ones are not suffered to grow up to take their place.
This is most likely due to the fact that Cattle and sheep readily eat. up
the tender and less pungent, rigid, an l compact leaves of the young
plants. There cannot, I think, be any doubt that stock readily eat the
foliage when they can attack it without danger from the prickles, and
this they can easily do when the plants are in the seedling state. The
rapid disappearance of spear-grass therefore, seems due in the lowlands
to eattle and sheep eating up the tender seedlings, and in the higher
and bleaker situations to the attacks of rabbits, more especially in the
winter season. In rabbit infested country of considerable elevation, the

GENERAL NOTES. 261

larger Aciphyllas at any rate are doomed to speedy extermination. In
the closely stocked lowlands their extinction though less rapid seems
equally certain. And it is chiefly in stations intermediate in elevation
between these and where the country is not very closely stocked, that
these interesting and curious plants are likely to survive as a permanent
but scarce element in the native vegetation.—D. PrErriz.

Note on Leucorocon Fraseri, A. Cunn.—In May of the present
year, I gathered in the neighbourhood of Kelso, a number of specimens
of Leucopogon Lrasert, in which the inflorescence presents a peculiarity
which I have not seen noticed in any account of the plant. The flowers
instead of being solitary occur in pairs that are sessile on the ends of
the short peduncles. In these specimens a solitary flower on each
peduncle is quite exceptional. Hach flower of the pair is sometimes of
the same size as the other, but more commonly one is larger and better
developed than the other, which is however by no means rudimentary.

I do not know whether it is generally known that the flowers of
this species are well formed in the autumn, and the buds undergo but
slight further growth before opening in spring. The stamens and pistil
are wrapped up in a very dense coating of long hairs that grow
outwards and downwards from the upper half of the corolla. It is
evident that one of the chief functions of this outgrowth of the corolla
is to shelter the reproductive organs contained in the bud, which are
exposed to all the frosts of the sharp winter of this district. It has
been supposed that the sole use of the hairy coating of the corolla was
to minister to cross fertilisation by the agency of insects, but it is more
likely that its primary use is to serve for the safe nursing of the bud
during the winter. This view is in no way inconsistent with its
further use in promoting cross fertilisation; the double use, indeed,
affords only another illustration of the fact that an organ originally
fitted to serve one purpose, is often turned to account for another of
secondary, but still of important utility to the organism.

In Pentachondra pumila, Br., a similar coating of hairs invests the
interior of the corolla, and it would be interesting to know, if in this
case also, it was primarily designed to form a protection for the bud
during the winter season. I have not as yet had opportunity to
examine the winter state of this plant, but I hope soon to be able to
throw some light on the question.

In the ‘‘ Handbcok of the New Zealand Flora,” the specitic name
of the present species of Leucopogon is printed Prazert, but in
Cunningham’s “ Precursor” the name is printed Mrasert. I do not
know on what grounds the spelling /razeri, was adopted by Sir Joseph

Hooker.—D. Perri.

History or tHE Moas.—From a popular article under the above

title, written by Professor Hutton, for the ‘Weekly Press,” we extract
the following concluding portion :—

262 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Throughout the pliocene period the Moas flourished greatly ; but
in the pleistocene they must, in the South Island, have died in large
numbers, for how else could such immense quantities of bones have got
together in the peat-beds at Glenmark and at Hamilton in Central
Otago. It has often been suggested that flocks of birds, attempting to
escape from fires, rushed into the swamps and perished. But when we
remember that these Moas died thousands of years ago, long before
there were any human inhabitants to light fires, it will be seen that
this surmise is quite out of the question. Only two hypotheses appear
to be possible to account for the facts. Either the birds walked into the
swamp and were drowned or else their dead bodies were washed in.
The first hypothesis is probably the explanation of the deposit at Te
Aute near Napier, because many of the leg bones were found upright in
their natural position. But at Glenmark and at Hamilton the bones
were lying in all directions, as often upside down as in any other
position, and the peat-beds were only a few feet thick, and filled with
bones up to the very top. We cannot, therefore, suppose that these
Moas were swamped, and there is evidence in both of these cases to
shew that the dead bodies of birds were washed in by floods. We find
corroborative evidence of this in the alluvial plains of Central Otago,
for these always contain numerous bones wherever a stream enters
them from the hills.

But how are we to account for the number of dead birds washed
down from the hills? There are two remarkable facts connected with
these bone deposits at Hamilton and Glenmark. One is the very large
proportion of bones of young birds from one-half to three-quarters grown ;
and the other is the absence of moa egg shell. These two facts seem to
show that the birds perished in the autumn or the winter, when the
birds of the year were not full grown, and when the females did not
contain any hardened eggs. Also, it is evident that dead moas could
not be washed into swamps under the present climatic conditions, and
the explanation of the puzzle must lie in the fact that in pleistocene
times, when these bone deposits were formed, the climate was very
different from what it is now. At that time the eccentricity of the
earth’s orbit was very great, and when winter in the Southern Hemi-
sphere happened in aphelion, long cold winters were followed by skort
and very hot summers. It seems probable, therefore, that the early
winter snows killed large numbers of moas and other birds on the hills,
that their bodies were floated down by summer floods and avalanches
caused by the melting snow, and that they were deposited in hollows at
the foot of the hills. As the pleistocene period passed way the climate
got more equable and the surviving moas once more increased and
multiplied, until they were ultimately exterminated by the hand of
Man,

All ave now agreed that the moas were exterminated by the
ancestors of the Maoris, and the only question upon which opinion is
still divided is, How long was this ago? The case seems to me to stand
thus. In the North Island there are several names of places in which
the word moa is incorporated, but in the great number of Maori tales
and }oems which have been collected by Europeans the allusions to the

GENERAL NOTES. 263

bird are very slight and obscure, generally, indeed, fabulous. There is
also one very ancient poem called ‘‘ The Lament of Ikaherengatu,” in
which the phrase “ Ka ngaroi te ngaro a te moa” (Lost as the moa is
lost) occurs, which certainly shows that the bird was not in existence
when the poem was composed. The so called traditions of its habits
appear to be, in large part at least, late deductions from these words
and phrases, and we must conclude that, in the North Island, the moa
was exterminated by the Maoris soon after their arrival in New
Zealand ; that is not less than 400 or 500 years ago.

In the South Island there are no names of places containing the
word moa; but here remains have been found—either skeletons lying
ou the surface or bones with skin and liyaments still attached—- which
give the impression that the birds were living here not more than ten
or twelve years ago. Now the bones which are said to have strewn the
surface so abundantly when the first settlers came, had all disappeared
in fifteen years ; so that it is plain either some change in the surrounding
conditions caused the bones to decay, or that none of the bones which
were so abundant in 1861, were more than fifteen years old. But as
we cannot believe that moas were abundant in Otago in 1846, we must
fall back on the opinion that the fires lighted by the early settlers
to clear the scrub su altered the conditions under which the bones had
been preserved that they soon decayed, in which case we cannot say how
long the bones may have been lying there. It is something the same
with those bones which still have dried skin and ligaments attached.
They are so fresh that, unless the birds lived a few years ago, they must
haye been preserved under specially favourable circumstances ; and
there are reasons for thinking that the small district of Central Otago,
in which alone these remains have been found, is one specially favourable
for preserving animal remains. If this be so we cannot say for how
many years they may have been preserved, perhaps for centuries, and
as we have every reason to believe, upon the authority of the Rey. J.
W. Stack, that the ancestors of the Ngai Tahu, who have inhabited the
South Island for the last 200 or 250 years, never had any personal
knowledge of the birds, we must allow that the moa has been extinct
for at least that time. On the other hand. it is quite certain that the
moa was exterminated by the Maoris, and the Maoris are not supposed
to have inhabited the South Island for more than 500 years, so that the
time of extinction must fall between these dates. It seems improbable
that the Negatimamoe, the last remnant of whom inhabited the West
Coast sounds a few years ago, were moa-hunters. The moa-hunters of
the Soutb Island were not cannibals, and as Te-rapuwai and Waitaha,
the tribes who preceded the Ngatimamoe, are said to have been peaceful
and to have ‘“ covered the land like ants,” it lends support to the Maori
tradition that it was they who exterminated the moa and inade the
shell heaps on the beach. If this be so the moas were exterminated in
the South Island about 300 or 400 years ago ; that is, about a hundred
years later than in the North Island.

264 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

REVIEW.

Illustrations of British Fungi, by M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D., 8
volumes, Williams and Norgate, London. The Handbook of British
Fungi, Second Edition, Parts i., 11, and i, by M. C. Cooke, M.A.,
LL.D., Williams and Norgate.

>

This fine work, “Illustrations of British Fungi,” has occupied
fully ten years in publication, and forms the first part of an Atlas to
Dr. Cooke’s revised edition of the “ Handbook of British Fungi.” It
was originally intended to include representatives of all the Hymen-
omycetous Fungi found in the British Isles, but the issue is for the
present arrested with the completion of the Agaricini, owing to the
death of many subscribers, and the indisposition of others to continue
their support to the end.

The work contains 1,200 coloured plates, representing 1,400
species and numerous varieties, many of which are figured for the
first time; it is unquestionably the finest series of drawings of
Agaricini that has been published in any part of the world. The
plates are beautifully drawn and not over-coloured, the original
drawings having in nearly every instance been made and coloured for
the printer by the author, while the printing, of the later portion of
the work more particularly, is nearly all that could be desired by the
most exacting.

Sowerby’s coloured figures of British Fungis, commenced in
1797, contained only 165 species of Agaricini, while the larger and
more recent work of Krombholz only gives 230: the present work,
which is restricted to the species found in the British Isles, comprises
fully one-fourth of all known species : it is therefore not surprising to
find that the work has received a large measure of support in British
colonies and foreign countries.

When the putrescible nature of most of the Agaricini is con-
sidered, and the paucity of opportunities for close observation of
many species is taken into account, it will appear to be no cause for
wonder that differences of opinion exist as to the specific validity of
many forms, and the right identification of others. The author has,
however, succeeded in reducing errors of this kind to a minimum,
and the wonder is, not that a few errors have crept into the work,
but that they are nct vastly more numerous.

The descriptive portion of the work forms parts 1, 2, and 3, of
second edition of the “ Handbook of British Fungi;” the descriptions
although brief are remarkably lucid and easily understood. In some
instances, however, it is matter for regret that synonyms are not
more freely given.

While the completion of the Agaricini affords good ground for
congratulation, it is certainly cause for regret that the whole of the
gill-bearing fungi of the British Isles are not represented: /eletus,
Polyporus, Hydnum, Auricularia, Clavaria, Tremella, are not nearly as

REVIEW. 265

well known as those included in the “Illustrations,” although in
some respects they are more interesting; it is hoped that the four
additional volumes required to illustrate these genera may be issued
at some future date.

The Agaricini of New Zealand have received but little attention ;
about 30 species are described in the “‘ Handbook of N.Z. Flora,” and
although this number has been trebled of late years, it can scarcely
amount to more than a small fraction of the t tal, even if we admit
that this group is less developed with us than in the British Istands.
The reason for this doubtless lies in their putrescible nature, the
difficulty of preserving them, and the dithiculty attending identification
in the almost total absence of works of reference. For this reason it
is hoped that a copy of this grand work may speedily be found on the
shelves of the libraries of the various societies affiliated with the New
Zealand Institute. No worthier application of their funds could
possibly be made.

T. Is.

THE NEW AUSTRALIAN MARSUPIAL-LIKE
MOLE—NOTORYCTES TYPHLOPS.

— -- —___—_

On February 3rd, Professor E. C. Stirling, of Adelaide University,
read a paper on this remarkable animal before the Royal Society of
South Australia, The following particulars taken from this paper
are extracted from a notice by Mr. P. L. Sclater, which appeared in
Nature of September 10th :—

“Tt appears that the first specimen was captured by Mr. Wim.
Coulthard, manager of the Frew River Station and other northern
runs belonging to the Willowie Pastoral Company. Attracted by
some peculiar tracks, on reaching his camp one evening on the Finke
River, while traversing the Idracoura Station with cattle, he followed
them up, and found the animal lying under a tussock of spinifex or
poreupine erass (7riodia irritans). Though he is an old bush hand,
with all the watchful alertness and powers of observation usually
acquired by those who live lives of difficulty and danger, this was the
first and only specimen of the animal he ever saw, As previously
stated, this found its way to the Museum through the agency of
Messrs. Benham and Molineux. The three received subsequently
shortly afterwards, as well as the last lot recently secured by Mr.
Bishop during our journey through the country, were also found on
the Idracoura Station. This is a large cattlerun comprising several
hundred square miles of country in the southern part of the Northern
Territory of South Australia, which les immediately to the west of
the telegraph line between the Charlotte Waters and Alice Springs
Stations. ‘ihe great dry water-course of the Finke River, which runs
from north-west to south-east, bounds the run for some eighty miles
on the north and north-east. Its distance from Adelaide is, roughly

266 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

speaking, a thousand miles. Flats and sandhills of red sand, more or
less well covered with spinifex and acacias constitute a large portion
of the country, and the rainfall is inconsiderable. Curiously enough,
all the specimens of Notoryctes hitherto received by me have been
found within a circumscribed area, four miles from the Idracoura
Head Station, which is situated on the Finke watercourse itself, and
almost invariably amongst the sandhills. I have it, however, on very
fair authority, that the animal has been scen on the Undoolya Station,
which les immediately south of the McDonnell Ranges, and that one
also was found drowned after heavy rain at Tempe Downs, a station
situated about 120 miles west-south-west of Alice Springs. These
points will sufficiently define its range, so far as is known at present.
They do not appear to be very numerous. Very few of the white
men in the district have seen it, even though constantly travelling ;
and not many of the natives whom I came across recognised the well-
executed drawing [ carried with me. It must be remembered,
however, that I did not pass through the exact spot which so far
appears to be its focus of distribution. Nor did a very considerable
reward, which I offered, cause any specimens to be forthcoming
between the first lot received, over two years ago, and that recently
secured during my trans-continental trip. With a few exceptions,
the animals have been captured by the aboriginals, who, with their
phenomenal powers of tracking, follow up their traces until they are
caught. For this reason they can only be found with certainty after
rain, which sets the surface of the sand, and enables it to retain
tracks that would imimcdiately be obliterated when it is dry and
loose. Nor are they found except during warm weather, so that the
short period of semi-tropical summer rains appears to be the favourable
period for their capture. For this suitable combination of wet and
warmth, Mr. Bishop had to wait three months before he was able to
get them, and in all cases they were found during the day-time.
Perpetual burrowing seems to be the characteristic feature of its life.
Both Myr. Bishop and Mr. Benham, who have seen the animal in its
native state, report that, emerging from the sand, it travels on the
surface for a few feet at a slowish pace, with a peculiar sinuous
motion, the belly much flattened against the ground, while it rests on
the outsides of its fore-paws, which are thus doubled under it. It
leaves behind it a peculiar sinuous triple track, the outer impressions,
more or less interrupted, being caused by the feet, and the central
continuous line by the tail, which seems to be pressed down in the
rear. Constantly on the look-out for its tracks, I was often deceived
by those of numerous lizards, which are somewhat similar in these
respects.

“Tt enters the sand obliquely, and travels under ground either
for a few feet or for many yards, not apparently reaching a depth of
more than two or three inches, for whilst underground its progress
can often be detected by a slight cracking or moving of the surface
over its position. In penetrating the soil, free use as a borer is made
of the conical snout with its horny protecting shield, and the powerful
scoop-like claws (fore) are also early brought into play. As ib
disappears from sight, the hind-limbs, as well, are used to throw the

THE NEW AUSTRALIAN MARSUPIAL-LIKE MOLE. 267

sand backwards, which falls in again behind it as it goes, so that no
permanent tunnel is left to mark its course. Again emerging, at
some distance, it travels for a few fect upon the surface, and then
descends as before. I could hear nothing of its making, or occupying
at any time, permanent burrows. Both my informants laid great
stress on the phenomenal rapidity with which it can burrow, as
observed in both a state of nature and captivity.”

To these notes of Prof. Stirling I may add the remark that this
is certainly one of the most extraordinary discoveries in zoology made
of late years. otoryctes typhlops, as shown by Prof. Stirling’s full
and elaborate description and figures, is unquestionably a new and
perfectly isolated form of Marsupial life, ant must he referred to a
new section of the order Marsupialia. We must all congratulate
Prof. Stirling on his success in bringing before the world such an
important novelty.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES.

OTAGO INSTITUTE.
Dunedin, 13th October, 1891.—Professor Gibbons, President, in
the chair.

New members.— Messrs. R. IT. Walcot and D. Harris Hastings.
CORRESPONDENCE,

A letter was read from the Linds department intimating that the
necessary steps had been taken to set apart Resolution Island as a place
for preserving native fauna and flora ; but that no such steps could now
be taken regarding Little Barrier Island, as it was not Crown land.

Mr. A. Morton, secretary of the Australasian Associition of
Science, wrote stating that it is absolutely necessary that the titles
of all papers to be read at the meeting at Hobart should be sent in by
the beginning of next month, as the programme is to be printed early
in December.

Paper.—(1) “The History of the Greenstone,” by F. R. Chapman.
Tn his introductory remarks, Mr. Chapman said that all present were
no doubt familiar with greenstone, which was the material of many of
the implements and favourite ornaments of the Maori race, and which
was now worked up by lapidaries, and was to be seen in every jeweller’s
shop in the colony. This stone was specially interesting in that it was
found only in two or three places in the world. A similar mineral was
found somewhere in Central Asia; in the great range between China
and Tartary, and it was used in China for ornaments, and to some
extent for implements, and had found its way at very remote times into
Europe. What he had to deseribe was the greenstone of the Maoris.
There had been some correspondence on this subject between Professor
Ulrich and a leading specialist on the subject in Germany, and he (Mr.

268 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Chapman) had been asked by Professor Ulrich to assist, and had
entered into correspondence with Maoris in both islands, and had
collected a considerable amount of information, which had been to some
extent published in Germany. The paper he now presented set forth
the information he had gathered on the subject during the last 18 or 19
years. True greenstone was found at only one place in the colony.
The Teremakau and Arahura rivers on the west coast of this island,
and the beach between them comprised the whole extent of country
where the true greenstone was found in this colony. There was
another place at Milford Sound where there was a kind of greenstone
largely used by the Maoris, but it was said to be a chemically different
stone from the true greenstone. However, supposing this was really
greenstone, the localities where this mineral could be obtained were
very restricted. Recently it was said it had been found somewhere in
America, and that some kind was found in New Caledonia, or on one
of the Pacific islands, but practically, Tartary and New Zealand were
the only spots where it was known. Mr. Chapman then, with the aid
of a map and numerous specimens of greenstone in different stages of
manufacture, gave a very large amount of information respecting this
rare and beautiful stone. The old Maori roads from the east to the
west coast, along the Waitaki and Clutha rivers, and over the Haast
Pass to the greenstone country were indicated, and the methods of
manufacture by cutting the stone with sandstone or other stone, and
sand and water, were explained, and so, also, was the drilling process,
which must have demanded positively marvellous patience. Many of
the specimens were the property of Mr. J. White, of Anderson’s Bay,
others belonged to Mr. Chapman, the Maori drill was lent from Dr.
Hocken’s collection of Maori curios, and a beautiful “‘ mere,” which was
given by Titokowaru to the Native Minister as an emblem of sub-
mission, was lent by Sir R. Stout. As showing the quantity of
greenstone that must have been brought from the West Coast, he
said that it was no exaggeration to say that not less than 1,000
greenstone articles, had, to his knowledge, been found within 20 miles
of Dunedin. Mr. Chapman aiso made reference to the Maori wars,
some of them wars of extermination, such as Te Rauparaha’s, which had
been urged for the possession of the highly-valued greenstone.

Dr. Hocken said it was most satisfactory to know that at last they
had the history of the greenstone written, as he was sure it deserved to
be, because it was not only of interest to people here but to scientists in
Europe. Mr. Chapman had given enormous labour and research to the
subject, and had pretty well exhausted it. He was, however, inclined
to think that the favourite greenstones amongst the Maoris were not the
beautiful specimens, but the very dark ones, because they were the
hardest and the most suitable for drill points and implements.

ANNUAL MEETING.
Dunedin, November 10th, 1891.—Prof. F. B. de M. Gibbons,
President, in the chair.
New member.—Mr. J. Dove Dunn.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 269

Papers.—(1) “ Note on the nest and habits of Arbanitis Huttont,”
by P. Goyen, F.L.S. The tube which this spider inhabits is branched.
The entrance to the main tube is quite uncovered, but the branch
which makes a more or less acute angle with the main tube extends
to the surface of the ground, and is there covered by a rude sort of
hinged lid, which so closely resembles the surrounding surface as to
be indistinguishable from it. The spider is too heavy and siugegish to
escape from its enemies or catch its prey in the open. It therefore
lies in the branch of its tube, whence it can attack its prey in flank or
rear; or, if an enemy too powerful for it should enter its tube, it can
make its escape to the surface. The author exhibited specimens of
the tubes.

(2) “Deseription of a new species of JJarptusa, with notes on its
habits,” by P. Goyen, F.L.S. This spider is found along the coast of
Otago on cliffs and rock, just above, at, or just below high-water
mark. These rocks are frequented by two or three species of flies
which the spider resembles in colour and mode of progression. ‘So
striking is this resemblance that I for some time mistook it for a fly.
The resemblance extends to the habit of running forward quickly,
stopping, and rubbing its pulpi, just asa fly rubs its forelegs, until
it is within striking distance of its prey, when it jumps upon it with
unerring aim.” The author considers the case exceedingly interesting
as affording in a class of animals in which it has not been before
observed a striking example of aggressive mimicry.

(3) “On the genus Aptornis with more especial reference to
Aptornis defossor, Owen,” by A. Hamilton. The author gave a
historical account of the various finds of bones of Aptorniz, from those
sent home by the Rev. W. Williams to Dr. Buckland in 1842, to the
present time. The last and most important find of these bones was
made in 1889, in some limestone caves in Southland by Mr. W. 5.
Mitchell of Lake Manapouri Station. Six or seven individual birds
are represented, and in four cases the skeletons can be reconstructed
without much doubt as to the bones having belonged to individual
birds. Most important of all, the bones are not mixed with those of
any other species. Descriptions of the most important bones are
given in the paper, and the author exhibited an almost complete
skeleton of this species.

(4) “On Moa gizzard-stones,” by A. Hamilton. This paper
describes the occurrence of numbers of heaps of gizzard-stones, in
some cases alone with small quantities of fine sand, on the peat-
mosses of Swampy Hill, near Dunedin, at an elevation of over 2,000
feet. In two cases the heaps were found in a completely isolated
position among the peat, the stones being held more or less together
by interlaced masses of comminuted vegetable matter of a pale
yellow colour, quite distinct from the hue of the enclosing peat.
Along with much matter which could not be distinguished, this
vegetable material was found to contain great numbers of sceds of
Pentachondra axa Coprosma. The weights of stones in the two
masses were respectively 4} and 6lb; the largest separate pebble
being a little over 1ioz. The nearest locality from which quartz

270 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

pebbles of the kind found, can be obtained, is at the outcrop of the
schist formation, a distance of about 4 miles The samples of
peat were found to have a distinctly acid reaction, and to this cause is
attributed the almost complete absence of moa bones, the only portion
found being the decalcified proximal end of a metatarsal bone. A
similar deposit of gizzard-stones, with absence of bones, occurs near
Mt. Excelsior, on the Mararoa station. Mr. F. R. Chapman has
found similar collections of gizzard-stones and sand at Maungatua, a
mountain range about 3,000 feet high, some 20 miles to the south-
west of Dunedin.

(5) “On some Maori bone pendants from Otago,” by A. Hamilton.

(6) “On the cleistogamic flowers of IMfelicope simplex,” by Geo.
M. Thomson, F.1.8. In the ordinary form of this species the flowers
open when ready for fertilisation, the 4 petals spreading laterally,
and exhibiting 8 stamens in two whorls, of which those opposite the
petals are longer, or rather stand at a higher elevation than do the
sepaline stamens. In the 4 carpels which are normally produced, the
styles are united by their whole length. When botanising on Pigeon
Island, Lake Wanaka, two years ago, the author observed that in the
numerous plants of Melicope simplex growing there, the fruit seemed
to be developed directly from the flower buds. On examination and
comparison of spirit-specimens, it was found that these flowers were
truly cleistogamic. The petals did not open in any case; the sepaline
stamens were present but with greatly reduced filaments, while those
of the petaline whorl were represented by rudiments only. The
carpels were all free and their styles greatly shortened so as
to remain inside the unopened flowers. No cause was assigned for
the prevalence of this cleistogamic form.

(7) “Notes on sea-fishes,” by Geo. M. Thomson, F.L.S. A
number of years ago, the late Mr. W. Arthur entered into communi-
cation with various fishermen, harbour masters, and others, with the
object of inducing them to keep records of the fish taken by them.
On his death his papers were handed over to the author, who
extended their range by getting the Marine Department of the
Government to issue forms to the various lighthouse keepers round
the coast. Duplicates of these forms which had now been accumu-
lating for some years were furnished to the author, and the present
paper represents a summary of these observations. While many
returns had been kept in a very perfunctory manner, others had been
carefully filled up. The present paper contained a few points of value
in regard to the range of our common sea fish, their food, time of
spawning, etc., etc.

(8) “Notes on some New Zealand Amphipoda and Isopoda,” by
Charles Chilton, M.A.

(9) “On the metallurgy of silver,” by D. Wilkinson, F.R.S.M.

(10) Professor Parker exhibited and made remarks upon a
species of Branchellion, a leech with external gills belonging to the
family Rhyncobdellide, and occurring as an external parasite on the
common skate (Zaja nasuta). A single specimen had been found

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 271

some years previously; but on the present occasion a skate, dissected
in the biological laboratory, presented a colony of thirty or forty of
the parasites on an area of three or four inches in circumference.
They varied in length from about } in. to 14 in., and were all so
firmly attached by the posterior sucker that on their removal the
fish’s skin presented a number of smooth circular convex areas. ‘The
smaller specimens, treated with Flemming’s chrom osm. acctic
solution, flattened under a compressor, and mounted entire, make
very beautiful microscopic objects. The only species of this in-
teresting genus mentioned in the ordinary works of reference is /.
torpedinis of Europe, a parasite on the torpedo. If the present form
turns out to be newit might be called &. raje. Professor Parker
also mentioned that he had found at Port Chalmers a single specimen
of the polychetous worm (Dujardinia), interesting from the length of
its cirri.

(11) Professor Parker called attention to a very beautiful and
accurate model in plaster of paris of the neighbourhood of Dunedin,
made to scale for the Otago Museum by Mr. A Hamilton, Registrar
of the University, and expressed the opinion that the teaching of
geography in the primary schools of the colony would be vastly
improved if similar models could be obtained and employed, instead
of compelling the children, as was too frequently the case, to learn
lists of names of natural features, regarding which they could form
no accurate opinion.

The annual report was then read and adopted. The following is
a brief extract :—

Six meetings were held during the session. At these 17 papers
were read, and one lecture on the Karly History of New Zealand was
delivered. Six new members have been added to the roll. The
library has received a number of additions. The ordinary revenue
was £204 11s. Od., (including a balance of £97 9s. 0d.), while the
expenditure was £91 17s. 5d., leaving a balance in hand of £112 13s.
7d. There is also on fixed deposit a sum of £286 13s. 5d.

The following were elected office-bearers for the next year :—
President: C. W. Adams, Esq., C.E.; Vice-Presidents: Prof. Gibbons,
M.A., and Dr. Hocken; Hon. Sec.: A. Hamilton, Esq.; Hon. Treas. :
H. Melland, Esq.; Auditor: D. Brent, M.A.; Council: Prof. Parker,
F.R.S., Prof. Scott, M.D., Rev. H. Belcher, M.A., LL.D., Messrs. F.
R. Chapman, Alexr. Purdie, M.A., Geo. M. Thomson, F.L.S., and D.
Wilkinson, F.R.S.M.

The retiring president then delivered an address on “ The rise
and development of the science of Political Economy.”

WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
Wellington, 29th July, 1891.—E. Tregear, Esq, President, in the
chair.

Papers.—(1) ‘On the Necessity for the Establishment of an
Expert Agricultural Department in New Zealand,” by W. M. Maskell,

272 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

F.R.M.S. (Abstract). Mr. Maskell said that, because there was a
gentleman in the Cabinet with the title of Minister of Agriculture, and
under him a Department of Lands and a Department of Stock, most
people in the colony were under the impression that there is in New
Zealand a Department of Agriculture properly established. This
however was not the case, the titles mentioned being practically (except
perhaps for Stock) misnomers. In point of fact there is not at present
in the country any official and responsible machinery for investigating
the various enemies to cultivation and for informing and advising
cultivators thereon. Agriculture, he might say in passing, was not
necessarily farming: there are large numbers of persons engaged in,
or interested in, gardening, tree-growing, fruit-growing, floriculture,
cultivation of all sorts, who are not farmers, and this should be borne
in mind, as will be mentioned presently. Now, on the appearance of a
new enemy to the cultivator, of a new pest amongst crops or trees or
gardens, or even of a new friend or a new method of procedure, what
has to be done by the existing machinery? There is nobody in the
colony placed in an official and responsible position, and the so-called
Minister for Agriculture has to go outside his department and obtain
amateur advice. Take, for instance, the “Tauranga sheep disease” as
it is called : professors of different colleges are sent for to investigate it,
and that is not a college professor’s duty. Take the Hessian fly: an
official in the Post Office who happens to be an excellent entomologist,
is sent up to attend toit. Take the so-called “blights”: recourse is
had to an officer of the university ; and when a friendly beetle comes to
help men to fight these ‘‘blights,” again the university officer is appealed
to. In such eases as the appearance of the horse bot-fly in Canterbury
and Auckland, or the fear of some fungus-pest injurious to apple
growers, there is no official responsible person to whom the colonists
can go for advice or help. It is not a question of ability or of desire to
be useful. All the persons just named have no doubt always been
glad to assist and would always be ready to give the Government and
the country their very best services: and undoubtedly the advice
tendered to them has been thoroughly honest and well-considered. But
it is essentially and necessarily amateur and irresponsible, and what is
wanted is the stamp of an expert official who can command rather than
deserve public confidence. It is no disparagement of the gentlemen
who have been hitherto called in as advisers to say that an expert
department would be far more satisfactory and produce better results.
In other countries people have realised this fact, and have established
expert Agricultural Departments. In the United States there is the
Central Office at Washington, and besides that nearly every state of the
Union has its own. In England there is the Board of Agriculture with
a professional staff. In Australia, the three colonies of New South
Wales, Victoria and South Australia have expert Departments: so
has India. The speaker exhibited to the meeting specimens of the
periodical publications of some of these: the “Insect Life” of the
Washington Office, the “ Agricultural Gazette” of the Sydney Board,
the “Indian Museum Notes” of Calcutta, the Reports of the State
Boards of New York, California, Nebraska, Iowa, and others. One
thing was specially noticeable about all these (which were issued at

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 273

short intervals, some monthly): and that was that they were specially
adapted to the circumstances of the country they appeared in. Now in
New Zealand we have nothing, or almost nothing of the kind. The
Government issued lately a little pamphlet about the Phylloxera and
other vine-diseases : it is good enough as far as it goes, but it is nothing
more than a compilation from facts known in other countries and does
not specially apply to New Zealand.

Two things ought to be very earnestly borne in mind in considering
this question. One (noticed in an earlier part of the speech) is that the
department required must deal not only with farmers but with all sorts
of persons interested in all sorts of cultivation: it results from this that
a mere “practical farmer” would be entirely insufficient to direct it.
Independently of the general disinclination of the “ practical farmer”
to look an inch beyond his nose, a much wider and deeper knowledge is
necessary than he is at all likely to possess. Secondly the Department
must deal with every kind of friend or foe to cultivation : animal foes
such as insects are not always more destructive than vegetable foes such
as the various fungi or noxious weeds: consequently the Department, if
not the officer in charge of it, must be two-sided. In New South
Wales, and in Victoria, and in the United States, the various Boards
include separate staffs of entomologists and botanists. It is of course
difficult for any Minister in New Zealand to pluck up courage enough
to tell Parliament that two salaried officers are wanted. But he might
at least start with one, and the speaker in a letter sent lately to the
Minister of Lands strongly urged that in England an officer could be
obtained competent to at least make a good start with a Department,
and sufficiently expert in economic entomology and in economic botany.
The suggestion made in the letter was that, say, the Royal Agricultura!
College at Cirencester should be applied to, or Professor Wallace of
the Edinburgh University, to recommend such an officer.

Complaints are sometimes made that the subjects treated of at
meetings of this Society are not sufficiently practical. Well, here at
least is a practical question demanding a practical solution. Whether
the solution would be given by the Government and the parliament
might nor might not be likely : at all events it was good to put on
record the opinions just expressed, and the speaker trusted, that if his
views were considered to be correct, the Society would endorse thei by
passing the resolution which he proposed to move presently.

The Hon. Mr. R. Pharazyn said that he quite agreed with Mr.
Maskell that it was of the greatest importance that such an expert
department should be established, and he would be glad to do all in his
power to support such a movement. It had been found that a depart-
ment of this kind had worked well in other countries and had proved
of the greatest benefit to those engaged in agricultural pursuits.

Mr. Geo. Beetham also agreed with the author’s views on this
subject ; he believed that if properly represented, the Government and
the parliament would favourably consider such a proposition. He com-
plimented Mr. Maskell on the valuable work he had done in this
branch of science, and said that the thanks of the Society were due to
him for having brought this important matter forward.

274 JOURNAL CF SCIENCE.

Mr. Carlile thought that the farmers would highly approve of the
establishment of such a useful department, and he thought the various
incorporated societies would assist in urging its formation.

The President agreed with all that had been said. He now called
on Mr. Maskell to read his resolution.

Resolution—‘“That in the opinion of this Society the establishment
of a well equipped expert Agricultural Departinent is of urgent necessity
in New Zealand.”

Mr. Harding, in seconding the resolution, said that if only in the

interests of economy, Mr. Maskell’s proposition deserved all support.

The resolution Was Carl ied and a COpy of it Was ordered to be sent
’
to the Hon. Minister of Lands.

(2) “On Animal Intelligence,” by W. W. Carlile, M.A. (Abstract.)
The importance of the study had come to be recognised only of late
years In the one fact of its having drawn attention to the great
principle of heredity, especially of the heredity of acquired faculty, it
had revolutionised the current mode of thought not only in psychology
but also in ethics, politics and history. Dr. Kuno Fischer in his work
on Francis Bacon of Verulam had contrasted the “ Anglo-Gallic En-
lightenment” with the German, pointing out to what an extent the
prevalent mode of thought in the former from Bacon to Voltaire and
Xousseau, and from these to Mill and Macaulay, was anti-historical.
Of this the incurable breach with history in the French Revolution was
the practical outcome. If he had traced the course of English
empirical philosophy farther down, to the period subsequent to the
discovery of natural selection, then he would have found that it had
learnt to think historically, that it had converged with the stream of
German thought flowing in upon us through the channel of Carlyle’s
writings. If Hegel or Carlyle affirmed that the whole past was with
us still in the depths of our present, the mcdern evclutionist said the
same and gave the scientific grounds of his belief. He cited some
passages in point from Mr. Bagshot’s ‘‘Physics and Politics.” Principle
of heredity might in any case have been recognised, but Animal
Intelligence was for it the ‘“ Preerogativa instans,” in regard to which it
could not be overlooked. Ribot mentioned case of small dog convulsed
with terror at scent of old piece of wolf’s skin. The terrifying associa-
tions were drawn not from the animal’s own consciousness but from
that of dead aud buried ancestors. We were becoming familiar with
the notion of hereditary memory. Science might soon have to grasp
the idea of hereditary identity, and would then recognise that in a sense
Plato was right about the pre-existence of the soul.

So much as to the importance of the study: as to its fascinations
ve had all felt it, but on that very account had reckoned it trivial.
Only of late the attempt had been made from the scientific point of
view to collect authentic information abcut the display of incipient
reason in animals. Such an attempt was embodied in Professor
Romanes’ book on Animal Intelligen:e.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 225

Any of us who lived in the country would vccastonally lave
instances analogous to those cited by Professor Romanes brought under
notice, possibly supplementary or correcting them. A few had come
under his own. He cited instances of hunted kangaroos making for
water as it was then able to drown the dogs; of horses on property at
Wanstead in Hawkes Bay, during the drought felling cabbage trees ; of
wild dogs feeding their pups by gorging themselves with flesh, then
vomiting it out on arrival at home; and of dog slipping his collar, with
his modus operandi described.

He alluded to Bain’s view of the “link of feeling and action,” set
forth in the ‘Emotions and the Will.” It was that a young child or
animal escaped a painful sensation or attained a pleasurable one in the
first instance purely by chance. Its spontaneous activity prompted it
to innumerable movements in all directions. Some such movements
were atteaded with relief from pain or augmented pleasures, and only
after many repetitions perhaps came under the control of selective
volition. It was a case of “firing innumerable shots to hit one bird.”
Had we not in these early manifestations of reason in ourselves an
analogy to the operation of reason in the living universe? Nature tries
innumerable variations before the one useful variation is hit on and
survives. We ourselves had all done the same. Might we not then
catch a glimpse, behind the apparently fortuitous processes of nature, of
the operations of a mind analogous to our own.

Sir James Hector said the author had succeeded in making a very
abstract and difficult point in philosophy quite interesting. He agreed
with the side he took in the much discussed question of whether animal
intelligence differed from our own in kind or only in degree, and
whether the production of the highest intellect was the result of
progressive and accumulated development. The story of the horses
gnawing down the cabbage trees to obtain moisture is parallel with the
well known habit of the mules in Mexico kicking the great cactus trees
for the same purpose.

Mr. Hulke remarked that the reasoning of animals differed from
that of man only in degree; he mentioned several facts relating to
insects and animals to illustrate what he meant.

Mr. Hudson gave an account of experiments made by Sir J.
Lubbock with ants, which appeared to indicate that insects when placed
out of their ordinary sphere of action exhibited very limited reasoning
powers.

Mr. R. C. Harding said that the vulgar discrimination between
instinct and reason might not be so unscientific as some of the speakers
had assumed. It appeared to him to be based ona difference which
was not one of degree. Instinct be regarded as the intuitive perception
of interior qualities as distinguished from the merely exterior properties
made known to us by the five senses. The instincts might therefore be
taken as supplementary senses, on a different plane from the five
ordinarily recognised. Between the perception by means of a sense and
the intellectual result of rational effort there was an evident distinction,
and a parallel distinction could bd traced between instinct and reason.

216 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE,

The terror of a horse at the odor of an unknown wild beast might be
accounted for by inherited memory; but it seemed more reasonable to
attribute it to the immediate perception of a maleficent quality.
Protective instincts like this were found throughout nature, but were
so rudimentary in man, that physically, as compared with beasts and
insects, he was the inferior animal. The nearer man approximated to
the lower animals in his mode of lite and intellectual development, the
more powerful these instincts seemed to be ; but as his rational capacity
increased, they were ignored and seemed gradually to disappear. Yet
they were by no means to be despised, as where they existed, they
enabled him to arrive by a short cut at a point which could otherwise
only be attained by great and laborious mental effort. Sometimes a
child was found to possess almost in infancy faculties which showed how
great the undeveloped possibilities of mankind were in this direction.
There were well-attested cases of children knowing neither letters nor
i »a negro boy—who had a natural perception of qualities
and relations of number s, and a skill in dealing with them, exceeding
that of trained mathematicians. The mental quality that could at once
recognise a prime of almost any number of figures at sight, and the
power of analysis which could resolve any divisible number into its
factors, were not to be attained by the severest training; but this
gift was actually possessed by a calculating child. Young Moaart,
in early infancy, possessed a similar grasp of the qualities of sound—a
practical as well as a theoretical perception, for he was able to play any
instrument at sight. Hereditary memory would scarcely account for
phenomena like these, which were interesting as showing how im-
measurably human instinct, in its higher forms, transcends that of the
animal creation. Regarding Sir John Lubbock’s celebrated experiments
with ants, careful and systematic as they were, and completely as they
failed to show anything like intelligent or concerted action, he did not
think their results warranted us in rejecting the accumulated testimony
of past ages on the subject.

The President said that Mr. Carlile’s illustration of heredity
recalled to his mind that many years before when riding a very quiet
horse the animal suddenly Jeapt aside and began trembling in great fear
on seeing a piece of rata vine coiled up and lying i in the road exactly as
a snake would be coiled. This horse was two generations from an
Australian progenitor. It had been said that instinct is “inherited
memory ”’—and although that might seem to explain such facts as the
orderly movements and almost automatically-regulated actions of ants
and bees, it by no means explained any unusual cleverness or excep-
tional genius. For instance, the musical genius of Mozart could hardly
he expected to be produced out of thin air, and yet it could certainly
not be called “inherited.” Reason had little to explain to us why
Mozart as a child was a finished musician, and analogies drawn from
one order of beings should be used with great caution if applied to
explain difficulties in regard to other kinds of creatures. Experiments
had recently been made which show that when insects are subjected to
the different bands ef light thrown down by the spectroscope they display
different modes of action, lying dormant under one colour, growing
intensely excited under another, and so cn. It is possible that they

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 277

live in quite another world than ours, so far as impression produced by
the senses is concerned ; that phenomena which appear beautiful or
terrifying to us make no impression upon them, and that knowledge
which to us is a sealed book may be to them as an open scroll. The
sense of touch in human beings is absolutely null and void compared
with that sense in the ant which almost certainly communicates iutelli-
gibly with its fellows by means of contacting antenne, while the sense
of smell in civilized man is almost as feeble as it is useless. It is quite
conceivable that other creatures have other senses the effects of which
are no more to be appreciated by us than the tints of a landscape or a
flower would be by a blind man,

Mr. Carlile, in reply, said he found he had not been wrong in his
anticipation that his instances of anunal intelligence would be capped
by others drawn from the recollections of other gentlemen present. He
could not see how Mr. Harding’s view that what appeared to be results
of hereditary memory could square with the facts. The qualities of a
thing were simply the impressions it made on the senses, its colour,
smell, and so on, and to say that the horror which a New Zealand
bred horse felt for what looked like a snake was possibly not owing to
hereditary memory to the horse’s perceptions of some—to us occult
quality—conveyed no meaning to his mind. The theory of an inverse
ratio between instinct and reason, started, he thought, by Sir W.
Hamilton, accorded with some of the facts of natural history, but was
far from being true universally. He cited from Wallace’s ‘“ Malay
Archipelago,” what seemed an instance in point of its truth. A baly
orang-outang which they captured, belonging us it did to the anthro-
pomorphous apes, showed all the characteristics of the human baby as
regarded its utter helplessness, the result being that its captors nursed
and tended it and became greatly attached to it. The young of
monkeys lower down in the intellectual scale were much more capable
of taking cave of themselves at an ewly age.

Wellington, 9th September, 1891—W. L. Travers Esq., F.L.S., (in
absence of the President) in the chair.

New Member.—Mr. R. T. Turnbull.

Papers.—(1) ‘ Instances of Instinct in Insects,” by G. V. Hudson,
F.E.S. (Abstract.) This paper was an account of a few recently
observed instincts in insects, chiefly borrowed from the ‘‘ Entomologists’
Monthly Magazine.” The author attributed the remarkable faculties
exhibited to the action of natural selection and inheritance, and
endeavoured to explain how beneficial variations in structure and
instinct might be eventually perfected by these two forces. In the
concluding portion of the paper the differences between reason and
instinct were thus dealt with.

During the discussion which followed the reading of Mr. Carlile’s
paper, Mr. Harding contrasted instinct and reason, and showed how, in
many respects, the former attribute was superior to the latter. If it is
admitted that instinct is the inherited experience of the race whilst
reason is that of the individual only, then the explanation of the

278 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

superiority of instinct is obvious—instinct is the result of continued
selections from the experiences of countless generations, whilst reason is
only the experience acquired during the brief lifetime of a single
individual. It is not surprising then that instinct so vastly transcends
the intellectual power of the animal that exhibits it. I think that we
may look for the development of human instinct when most of our
individual experience or knowledge has become hereditary. At present
only the capacity for acquiring knowledge is inherited among human
beings, but, judging from the facts above considered, knowledge itself
must in time be inherited also. So far from supposing then that we
have lost our instincts through civilisation, [ do not think that they
have yet been evolved. Now nearly all our results have to be attained
by long training and laborious mental calculations, but in the future
we may hope to arrive at far greater results by almost unconscious
instinctive processes.

Mr. Phillips said he disagreed with the author as regards the
hereditary instinct of animals; he believed that animals and man
derived their intelligence in constructive ability in a similar manner
from a ‘‘Common Vital Force,” a subject on which he had written a
paper before the Society a short time ago. He did not agree to place
everything to evolution. A spider’s web is superior to anything that
man can construct,—there is a force in nature given to man or insects
which is equal and not necessarily hereditary.

Mr. Maskell said he was obliged to dissent from the conclusions of
the paper. Whatever the reality might be of the three or four facts
given by Mr. Hudson, they seemed entirely insufficient to form a basis
for a theory of instinct such as was proposed. For example, in the
case of the falling insect mentioned. Mr. Hudson adduced this as an
instance clearly pointing to acquired faculties, the result of long series
of minute variations and progress. But the case was of extreme
weakness unless Mr. Hudson was prepared to assert, of his own
knowledge, that the remote ancestor of this moth, the very first of the
race, did not do precisely the same thing. Assuming (what did not
seem to be proved) that the moth which fell on this occasion did so
from fright : assuming that a moth could see far enough to detect an
approaching enemy (also not proved), how could anyone say that the
very first created moth of the species did not do the same thing under
similar conditions! And if it did, where would the progressive
inherited variation leading to the instinct of the moth now referred to
come in? The foundation of theories tending to sap and destroy the
first principles of human belief, on such vague and unproved assertions
as those of the paper, is mischicvous in the extreme, and the speaker
regretted that so many young students of the present day were apt to
give way to the temptation of indulging in them.

Sir Walter Buller said he was somewhat disappointed with Mr.
Hudson’s paper, because its ambitious title had led him to expect much
more than it gave in the way of original research. He could not
conceive of a more fruitful subject than the one selected by this author ;
but instead of the large array of facts from his own experience one

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 279

might have expected, Mr. Hudson had recorded only two instances of
remarkable instinct in New Zealand insects, the rest being quoted from
English authors. The paper appeared to him a little crnde, but he felt
sure that Mr. Hudson was on the right track. It seemed to him
impossible to reject this theory of hereditary instinct with such evidences
before us. Take, for example, the hexagonal cell of the common honey
bee. What the first bee may have done it was impossible of course to
know, but within the memory of man this bee had constructed its cell
on exactly the same model, as the result of hereditary instinct.

Sir James Hector said that the paper was evidently an attempt to
meet statements, attacking the theory of evolution, that were made at
previous meetings. He held there was nothing about first causes in
that theory, and that it was a powerful aid to the working naturalist in
unravelling and unfolding the various steps in the scheme of creation.
He recommended members to read some interesting anecdotes bearing
on the question of modification of instincts into individual reasoning
powers, which are related in ““Good Words” by Dr. Gunther. He
referred especially to the nesting habits, in confinement, of the magpie
and house sparrow, which showed that inherited memory or instinct,
though very potent, could be overruled by individual effort.

Mr. Harding called attention to what he had said at the last
meeting, on Mr. Carliie’s paper. He did not think we could have both
reason and instinct. He related how a beaver in captivity showed
instinct but very little reason. There was a communal instinct which
enabled savages to construct bridges and such things without the aid of
architects or surveyors. Mr. Hudson’s paper, as a clue to the mystery
of nature, was worthless; but it was a good working theory for a
naturalist. It wasa mistake to put forward such statements as Mr.
Hudson had done as if they were actual facts.

Mr. Travers described how the gull carried the shell-fish to a
height and then dropped it, when it broke and disclosed the fish inside
which it fed upon. This was probably the result of an accident in the
first instance, followed by reason in repeating the action. The bird
could not acquire this from any created habit. Mr. Wallace seemed
inclined to abandon the idea of instinct. Dr. Gunther’s example of the
magpie is remarkable. He did not think Mr. Hudson intended, as Mr.
Maskell inferred, to dogmatise. The paper is valuable and contains
most interesting facts. We must enquire into all facts of this kind if
we wish to add to our knowledge in natural history.

Sir Walter Buller said he wished to supplement Mr. Travers’s
account of this instinct displayed by Larus dominicanus in breaking
shell-fish. During his travels, he had, thousands of times, watched the
operations described by Mr. Travers, the bird ascending obliquely to a
certain height in the air, then dropping the shell, and coming down to
feast on the contents. But what had specially struck him was this:
the sagacious bird never dropped the shell on soft sand or ooze, but
always selected the hard portion of the beach where the impact of the
falling shell would produce the desired result. That fact alone exhibited

280 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

a certain amount of intelligence on the purt of the bird. But there
was this curious fact also. The young seagull never resorted to this
mode of breaking shells. It took from two to three years for the bird
to attain its full livery of black and white plumage; it was easy,
therefore, to distinguish the young bird in its spotted grey dress, and he
could not remember having once seen it rise in the manner described.
This would seem to tell against the theory of hereditary instinct,
because the habit was evidently an acquired one, and the result of
imitations.

Mr. Hudson sa‘d, in reply, that he was very much gratified at the
interest the Society had taken in his paper. He was sorry however
that the title bad been misleading. He merely oftered it as a supplement
to Mr. Carlile’s paper, and did not pretend that it was in any way
exhaustive. With reference to Mr. Phillips’s remarks on the so-
called “ vital force,” he was not aware that the existence of any such
power had been demonstrated. In connection with Mr. Maskell’s
remarks he wished to direct attention to the extensive modifications
which man had produced in many domestic productions by exercising
selections in certain directions. Natural selection having such a much
wider scope and so much more time to act in must have prodwced far
greater results than man’s selection. With regard to the term “natural
selection,” he was aware that there were certain objcctions to its use,
but it was shorter than the more accurate one “survival of the fittest.”
In stating that the instincts of insects were inherited in the same
manner as their structure and colouring he was only following the
almost universal opinion of entomologists. In fact it appeared to him
impossible to explain the phenomena of the insect world in any other
way. How, for example, would it benefit an insect to inherit a
resemblance to some inanimate object unless it also inherited the
instinct to assume the peculiar position necessary to complete the
deception? He could not understand Mr. Harding’s statement as to
the superiority of the savage over the civilised man in works of
engineering skill. In conclusion he was surprised at objections being
raised to the idea that knowledge would gradually become an inherited
attribute in the human race. How much better, for example, it would
be if we could inherit all our elementary learning and thus have so
much more time for more advanced studies? There were many
instances where insects inherited the faculty of performing most
complex actions without being taught, and he did not see why the
same law should not apply to man when a sufficiently long interval of
time had elapsed to render his activities hereditary.

(2) Mr. Maskell brought to the notice of the meeting a specimen of
the Bot or horse fly, which has appeared in New Zealand during the
last year; it affected horses in a most serious manner, driving them
mad. He thought it right to make known the appearance of this pest.

Mr Travers greatly feared that the direct steamers would be the
means of introducing many such obuoxious insects.

(3) “Notes and Observations on certain Species of New Zealand
Birds—with specimens to illustrate the paper,” by Sir Walter Buller,
K.C.M.G., F.R.S. (Abstract.) Among the species treated of were

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 281

notably the following :—(1) Platycercus unicolor, a green parrakeet from
Antipodes Island, rediscovered by Captain Fairchild half a century
after the type specimen had been placed on the shelves of the British
Museum. Platycercus erythrotis, another parrakeet from Antipodes
Island, intermediate in character between P. wnicolor and the New
Zealand bird (P. nove-zedlandie), which was also referred to. The
author stated his views as to the manner in which the specitic characters
of Platycercus unicolor had, by isolation for countless generations,
become developed, under the natural operation of the laws of evolution.
He accounted for the presence of an intermediate form subsisting sid»
by side with Platycercus unicolor by the theory of an irruption or
colonisation by Platycercus nove-zealandie at a later period of time,
but sufficiently remote to have produced a certain amount of divergence.
He described the differences that presented themselves, remarking that
these were first such changes and modifications as would naturally
mark the gradual transition from P. nove-zealandie to P. unicolor.
(2) Ocydromus earli, a live example of which had been brought by
Captain Fairchild from Macquarie Island, thus supplying a very
interesting fact in geographical distribution, seeing that the range of
this particular species of Woodhen, so far as hitherto known, was
restricted in New Zealand to a portion of the West Coast of the South
Island. (3) Ocydromus greyi, of which species a very singular albino
was described. (4) Diomedea cantu, (the Shy Albatross), of which a
very interesting account was given, the result of personal observation.
(5) Diomedea regia, (the Royal Albatross), which hud been described
and named by the author at a previous meeting of the Society, and in
relation to which some further particulars were given. The author
stated that the distribution of the various species of Albatross on their
breeding grounds is very curious. Although Mollymauks are plentiful
on the Snares and on the Bounty Islands, neither Diomedea regiw nor
D. exulans are to be found there. On Campbell Island where D. regia
reigns supreme, D. exulans is never seen. On the Auckland Islands,
with the exception of the small colony of D. regia mentioned in a
former paper, all the breeding birds belong to D. exulans. At the
Antipodes Island, again, there are no Diomedea regia, whilst the
breeding birds of the other species are for the most part in the dark
plumage of immaturity. (6) Adamastor cinereus, of which rare species
several specimens had lately been captured by Captain Fairchild half
way between Wellington and the Chatham Islands. (7) Yachyptes
aquila, (the Great Frigate Bird), of which an example—only the second
known in New Zealand waters, and exhibited at the meeting—struck
itself against the lantern at the Cape Farewell lighthouse on the 15th
April last, and was picked up in an injured state, and (8) the following
seven species of Penguin, respecting each of which most interesting
information was given as to habits and distribution, namely :—<Apteno-
dytes longirostris, Eudyptes chrysolophus, E. rachorhynchus, F. sclateri,
E. chrysocome, LE. antipodum, and Hudyptula unaina. In treating of
this group the author stated that he had satisfied himself as to Hudyptes
chrysolophus being only the young of LZ. schlegeli; but that the former
name, being of older date, would have to take precedence according
to the accepted rules of zoological nomenclature.

282 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

WELLINGTON FIELD NATURALISTS’ CLUB.

The first excursion took place on Saturday, 10th October, when
the subject selected was geology. Mr. A. McKay, F.G.S., was leader,
and explained the several rocks and formations met with on the way to
Karori. The new gold mine, near the Devil’s Bridge, was also visited,
and an examination made of the more recent formations on the Karori
Flats. An extremely pleasant afternoon was spent, the weather being
very fine. On Thursday, October 15th, the usual meeting was held at
the Museum, the president, Mr. C. Hulke, F.C.S8., in the chair. Mr.
McKay read introductory notes on geology, and also exhibited by means
of the optical lantern, a number of slides illustrating the various terms
used by geologists in describing the different formations of rock, which
were explained to the members by the president. The photographs of
many extinct animals were also shown in the same manner. They
included illustrations of a very perfect specimen of Pterodactyl, or
winged lizard, recently discovered in America; the curious “fish
lizard” or Ichthyosaurus ; a remarkable bird (Archeopteryx ), having a
long tail composed of several vertebree ; as well as photographs of the
Deinotherium, Irish Elk, and several other extinct mammalia. The
most recent forms of life were illustrated by a picture of the members of
the club who took part in the last expedition, and portraits- of the
leader, Mr. McKay, and the president, Mr. Hulke, which created great
iuterest The meeting was in every way a most enjoyable and
successful one.

LINNEAN SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

Sydney, August 26th, 1891.—Professor Haswell, M.A., D.Sc., in
the chair.

The Chairman announced to the meeting with deep regret the
death, only that morning, of the Government Geologist, Mr. Charles
Smith Wilkinson, F.G.8., F.L.S8. Mr. Wilkinson was an original
member of the Society, for several years was a member of the Council,
in the years 1883 and 1884 was President, and since 1885 had been
one of the Vice-Presidents. His enthusiasm in the cause of Geological
Science, his extensive knowledge of the geological features of Eastern
Australia, his many personal qualities, and his decease at the compara-
tively early age of 47, combine to render his Joss one which will be
severely felt.

On the motion of Mr. Henry Deane it was resolved that a letter of
sympathy from the meeting be sent to Mrs. Wilkinson.

The reading of papers and other business was deterred, and the
meeting then adjourned to September 30th.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

Sydney, 3rd September, 1891.—H. C. Russell, Esq., (Government
Astronomer), in the chair. ;

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 283

Papers.— (1) “On a Wave-propelled Vessel,” by Lawrence
Hargrave.

(2) “ Notes on a Disease among Rabbits,” by Adrien Loir. M.
Loir has been for some time conducting experiments with hacteria at
Rodd Island. During April last, the Chief Inspector of Stock (Mr.
Bruce) sent him 30 rabbits to the island. After a few days one died,
and within the six days following seven more. He placed the remaining
animals in separate cages, and two days later the ninth succumbed.
This, however, was the last death, and since then the disease has
completely disappeared. Two months ago, however, M. Loir received
an additional consignment of 30 animals, which were placed in the cages
occupied by the first lot. Up to the present no deaths had occurred,
nor had the disease yet shown itself. Post mortem examinations were
made of the dead animals, from which the lecturer learnt that the
disease was inoculable from one rabbit to another, and to any animal of
another species, though the former seemed the more susceptible. he
blood of a rabbit having died of the disease when inoculated in ordinary
veal broth produced a cultivation of a microbe (streptococcus). A drop
of the cultivation inoculated to another rabbit gave death with the same
disease. Judging from the appearance of the microbe, and from the
physiological reaction which it produced in animals, M. Loir believed
that he had a microbe which was the cause of a spontaneous disease in
rabbits not hitherto described.

(3) “Notes on some recent Celestial Photographs taken at the
Sydney Observatory,” by H. C. Russell, Government Astronomer. The
author stated that in order to complete the photographic apparatus at
the Observatory, it was necessary to obtain such an attachment to the
star camera as would serve to record highly magnified images of double
stars, the moon and other objects. This had recently been added, so
that now he could record double stars photographically on a scale which
gave ample dimensions for accurate measurement. After describing the
principal characteristics of a large number of photographs, which were
laid before the meeting for inspection, he said that photography had
altered their view of what nebule in detail were like. The sensitive
film seemed to grasp details which the eye could not see, and he was
disposed to think that this was not owing to the faintness of the light,
but to some inherent difference which the camera could and the eye
could not see.

(4) “Some Folk-songs and Myths from Samoa,” by Dr. John
Fraser, translated by Rev. G. Pratt.

CIVIL ENGINEERING SECTION.
Sydney, 10th September, 1891.—C. W. Darley, Esq., in the chair.
The discussion upon the paper read by Mr. J. I. Haycroft, on

“Methods of Determining the Stresses in Braced Structures,” was
resumed by Mr. H. W. Parkinson and Mr. Grimshaw.

284 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Professor Warren in the course of an interesting paper on the
subject, dealt in an exhaustive manner with the latter portion of Mr.
Haycroft’s paper, in which the Cowra bridge, now under construction
by the Roads and Bridges Department, was referred to. He said both
the department and Mr. Haycroft had calculated the stresses by graphic
and analytical methods, which agreed with each other ; but the results
arrived at by Mr. Haycroft differed from those arrived at by the
department. Dealing with American bridges, he said he thought every
English bridge engineer freely admitted the skill and ability displayed
by the Americans in the construction of bridges. Although we have
the Forth Bridge, he said, we cannot claim that our ordinary bridges
are superior to those constructed in America. We certainly could not
claim that we disposed our materials in a more scientific manner, for
we have the facts clearly pointed out by Sir B, Baker on this subject.
American engineers had adopted for their ordinary iron and _ steel
bridges a form of truss or girder very similar in appearance to their
timber bridge, and which resembled the form adopted by the Roads and
Bridges Department for timber bridges. It would be found on examining
a variety of the best designs, such as those of the Union Bridge
Company, that in iron and steel bridges where the stresses were
definite, they adopted the form known as the American truss bridge,
and for timber bridges a truss which was almost identical with the
Roads and Bridges truss, with the identical bars which, according to
Mr. Haycroft, were untrussed. Before condemning the Cowra bridge,
he thought 2t desirable to show that a better composite bridge could be
constructed. He submitted that neither Mr. Haycroft’s paper nor the
discussion had shown that the Cowra bridge was unsafe or liable to
become so. He had seen a great many timber bridges in Australia and
New Zealand, but he considered the Cowra bridge, in spite of the
ambiguity in the determination of the stresses developed in it, to be
superior to any other.

FIELD NATURALISTS’ CLUB OF VICTORIA.

Melbourne, August 10th 1891.—Professor W. Baldwin Spencer in
the chair.

New members.—Messrs. J. H. Craig, jun., B. Eugene, F. Gladish
Ore 2 oD F)

H. A. Lamble, F. Marsh, J. Mitchell, and N. T. Wilsmore, B.Sc.

Paper.—(1) ‘* Mode of Reproduction of Peripatus Leuckartii,” by
Dr. A. Dendy, F.L.8. Last May, Dr. Dendy obtained three specimens
from Macedon, and kept them, in company with one from another
district, in a small vivarium, and at the end of July some 12 or 15 eggs
were laid. ‘These eggs were easily seen, being fairly large, oval in
shape, and covered with a tough, thick, elastic membrane. Microscopic
examination of one of them showed that the membrane enclosed a thick,
milky fluid, full of yolk granules, the enclosing case being exquisitely
sculptured in a regular design. This discovery is of importance, as in
all other species whose life history is known, the viviparous habit—

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 285

where the young are born alive—is one of the most remarkable
characters of the genus. Dr. Dendy is carefully watching these eggs,
with a view to their further development.

The usual exhibition of specimens took place afterwards.

Melbourne, September, 14th, 1891.—D. Best, Esq., in the chair.

New members.—Messrs. L. J. Balfour, A. D. Denny, J. P.
Fiddian, B.A.. A. E. Hill, F. A. Officer, and J. J. Porter.

Papers.—(1) ‘The Supposed Human Footprints on AXolian Rocks
at Warrnambool,” by C. G. W. Officer. In introducing the subject,
Mr. Officer described in detail the formation and nature of the sand
dunes and their connection with the underlying strata, as shown by the
similarity of the stone now being quarried there. Overlying the dunes
in many places are sheets and veins of limestone, varying from a few
inches to several feet in thickness. Last December a slab was dis-
covered in one of the quarries bearing impressions which suggested that
they were made by human beings. This slab was secured by Mr.
Archibald, and placed in the Warrnambool Museum. The determination
of the age of the rocks is of importance, and Mr. Officer, following the
lead of Professor Tate, alleged them to be pleistocene, and suggested
that the impressions were made by two individuals sitting close
together, and somewhat obliquely to each other. In the discussion
which followed, Mr. D. M‘Alpine, F.C.S., spoke in complimentary
terms of the paper, and referred to the action of carbonate of lime in
the preservation of such marks, whilst Mr. F. R. Godfrey, who had
seen the slab, bore testimony to the remarkable similarity of the
impressions to human footprints. Mr. J. Dennant, F.G.S., however,
disputed Mr. Officer’s deductions, basing his objections not only on the
fact that these dunes were generally formed in a comparatively short
time, but also on their position relative to the newer basalt and a
fossiliferous bed, both of which are of recent formation. Mr. G. Sweet
supported Mr. Dennant, and Messrs. F. G. A. Barnard, C. M. Bridger,
and F, Wisewould also joined in the discussion.

(2) ‘“‘Maori preserved heads of New Zealand,” by T. Steel, F.C.S,
Reference was made to the custom of the Maoris in the reverence they
pay to their deceased ancestors, and corresponding customs amongst the
natives of Africa, New Guinea, New Hebrides, Egy} t, and Australia.
The writer then. described the method adopted by the Maoris in
preserving the heads of distinguished persons, and exhibited a very
good specimen in illustration, the age of which could be traced back for
et least 50 years. He concluded by stating the fact that before the
head came into his possession it had been neglected, and most of the
hair had been destroyed by moths After having kept it some time, he
noticed that a thin growth of very fine hair in seattered patches had
taken place. In order to gain definite information of future growth the
hair has been closely shaved from a marked patch.

The meeting terminated by the usual exhibition of specimens.

286 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Melbourne, October, 12th, 1891.—C. Frost, Esq., in the chair.

New members.—Mrs. C. E. Andrews, Miss Burkett, Miss G.
Sweet, Miss F. Thompson, and Messrs. KE. T. Carter, J. L. Bowen, D.
E. Martin, G. J. Page, W. Strickland, and J. B, Walker.

Paper.—(1) “Some peculiar changes in the colour of the flower of
Swainsonia procumbens,” by J. P. Eckert. When the flower opens the
corolla is lilac, and the first change is noticed in the longitudinal venules
of the largest petals. which soon after assume a deep crimson. Then, at
two different points of the petals a dark blue is noticed, which gradually
extends over the whole surface, the peripheral portion being a little
paler in colour. In the central portion the colour varies through all
the shades of blue till finally it assumes a rosy tint. Frequently the
petals will assume their original colour for some days, and afterwards
go through all the gradations of colour once more. Mr. Eckert assigns
as the cause a meteorological one, that arch scourge—the north wind—
being very effective towards its accomplishment. Experiments with
the electric current gave almost conclusive testimony in favour of the
hypothesis. In speaking upon the subject, Mr. T. Steel, F.C.S., gave
some interesting etails as to the application of the spectroscope to this
particular branch of study.

ROYAL SOCTETY OF VICTORIA.

Melbourne, August 13th, 1891.—Professor Kernot, President, in
the chair.

Papers.—(1) ‘On the mode of reproduction of Peripatus leuckartii,”
by Arthur Dendy, D.Sc.

(2) “Short Descriptions of New Land Planarians,” by Arthur
Dendy, D.Se.

(3) Professor Spencer exhibited and remarked upon WVotoryctes
typhlops, the new Australian mammal recently described by Dr. E. C.
Stirling of Adelaide.

(4) “Notes on the recent Flood on the Yarra,” by Professor W.
C. Kernot.

Melbourne, September 10th, 1891.— Professor Kernot, President,
in the chair.

Papers.—(1) Adjourned discussion on the paper read by Professor
Kernot, on ‘ Notes on the recent Flood on the Yarrow.”

(2) ‘On anew species of Graptolitidee—Zemnograptus magnificus,”
by J. B. Pritchard; read by Dr. Dendy. This new fossil was discovered
in Silurian strata near Lancefield.

(3) “On the presence of Ciliated Pits in Australian Land Pla-
natlans,” by A. Dendy, D.Se. The author stated that these structures
have the form of little pits on the head; they probably acted as
olfactory organs, and were supplied with special nerves from the brain.

MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. 287

Melbourne, October 8th, 1891.—E. J. White, Esq., in the chair.

Papers.—(1) “Notes on the Distribution of Victorian Frogs,
with Description of two new species,” by A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc.
These species were found at Narree Warren, Gippsland, and at Gisborne
and Macedon respectively.

(2) BE. F. J. Love, M.A., communicated a letter from Sir George
Stokes, President of the Royal Society of London, concerning the
Gravity Survey of Australia, written in reply to one from himself.
The letter contained a number of suggestions, the most important being
anew method, based on the principle of dynamical similarity, for the
determination of the errors introduced into results of observations by
variations of temperature and atmospheric pressure.

(3) “Notes on the Magnetic Shoal near Bezout Island, North-
West Australia,” by R. L. J. Ellery, F.R.S., C.M.G. This paper gave
details of the results of observations made by Captain Moore, the
commander of the “ Penguin,” under instructions from the Admiralty.
According to these there was a magnetic shoal near the islands. It was
about four miles long by two miles broad, and was at a depth of eight or
nine fathoms. Ina wooden ship, or composite vessel like the ‘‘ Penguin,”
the compasses would act as usual after leaving the shoal. Whether or
not induction would take place in an iron vessel was a matter yet to be
ascertained. At present there was no evidence of danger to navigation,
except that a vessel steering by compass across the shoal would be set
out of her course, more or less, according as to whether she cut the
shoal at the narrowest part of it or obliquely. The locus of the shoal
was 20 deg. 32 min. 359 sec. §., 117 deg. 13 min. 2 sec. E. From it
Bedout Island summit was distant 2:17 miles, and bore S. 78 deg. 49
min, W.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF TASMANTA.

Hobart, September 8th, 1891.—His Excellency Sir kh. G. C.
Hamilton, K.C.B., President, in the chair.

His Excellency referred to the paper read on behalf of Mr. A. J.
Ogilvy at last meeting on the best means of collecting scientific
information, and suggested that the matter should be brought under the
notice of the approaching meeting of the Australasian Association for
the Advancement of Science. He considered that valuable information
would be obtained if, as suggested, there was a representative of the
Society in every district to keep his eyes and ears open, and let them
know of anything of scientific interest.

Mr. A. J. Ogilvy said he regarded it as very important that in
every district the Society should have some one to represent it, and
pointed out that if at any time it wanted any special local knowledge
there would be somebody to whom application could be made. He
thought that the Fellows should consider as to the best means of
carrying out the suggestion made, and deal with the subject at a future
meeting.

Paper.— (1) ‘Electric Traction,” by Montague Jones, C.F.

288 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.

Ir is with considerable regret that I have to announce to the
subscribers of the THE New ZEALAND JoURNAL OF Science that
the second attempt to keep a periodical of the kind going in this
colony has proved unsuccessful. With the present number this
issue comes to a close. There can be no doubt of one fact in
regard to such a periodical, namely, that if it were sufticiently
supported by all the scientific societies of Australasia even as a
record of their proceedings, it would prove most valuable. Speaking
for myself,—and my want must be that of numbers of others
interested in, and attempting to carry on scientific work,—I have
often wanted to know what was being done in other colonies and
in other parts of this colony in certain lines of research. A
journal in which all the societies could record their doings would
therefore be most useful, and this the present publication has
attempted to do. Unfortunately secretaries of societies are not
always alive to the importance of keeping their members in touch
with other and similar organisations, and any imperfections in this
direction are attributable to this cause. So convinced am I of the
good which would result from a joint publication of their proceedings
by the various scientific societies in Australasia, that I would urge
upon those members who meet in conference at Hobart next
January, to try to come to some arrangement in this direction.

‘The history of private enterprise in connection with scientific
periodicals in Australia and New Zealand has been one of failure.
Most of the societies in existence receive just so much Government
aid as enables them to publish their papers, and in this way to
kill private effort.

The previous and present issues of this Journal, the Southern
Science Record, and, within the last twelve months, the issue of
the Spectrum in Sydney, all testify to the fact. At the same
time many of the scientific societies, and notably the N.Z. Institute
are so long in the publication of their papers, that an author may
wait twelve months after reading a paper before he sees it in
print. This certainly wants remedying. Meanwhile the publication
of an abstract in a widely-spread periodical would obviate many of
the objections.

In conclusion I would express the hope that the suggestion
thrown out here may be acted upon, and that a mild form of
federation in the department of scientific work may precede that
political federation of Australasia of which we have heard so much
of late years.

GEO. M. THOMSON.

DuNEDIN, November 14th 1891.

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