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This f our was a six weeks excursion to Norway in the present summer, from the 26th of June to the 6th of August ; the route taken was direct to Bergen and the North Cape (nearly 2000 miles distance from Birmingham) followed by a three weeks land journey, as shown in the map in Plate I. The sea passage to Norway was taken from Newcastle to Bergen by the “ Norge ” steamer, a thirty- six hours run ; starting on Tuesday evening and arriving at Bergen on Thursday morning, and then going forward the next day by the fine North Cape tourist steamer “ Olaf Kyrre,” with a party of about sixty fellow passengers. On the way to the North Cape there was a stay on shore at several places. First at Throndhjem, the ancient capital of Norway, where the very interesting old cathedral was visited, which is in process of restoration. Then Torgliatten was visited, an island rock that has a remarkable natural archway through the entire rock, which was reached by a half-hour’s scramble up the side, and gave a striking view through the large archway of the sea and numerous islands beyond. The Lofotens were next visited, islands out in the open sea, a couple of hours steaming from the main land, with magnificent jagged mountains forming a continued panorama of striking and beautiful outlines, with a range extending over 100 miles. We passed round one of the islands, returning by a narrow channel between two of them, the Eaftsund, which is specially fine in scenery. The passage onwards to the North Cape, like much of the previous voyage, was almost ♦Read before the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society, October 9th, 1888. 2 (i f, A V >, A I! TOUli IN NORWAY. Jan., 1889. continuously between rocky islands and tlie main land, presenting a constant variety of fine scenery. Tromsoe was stopped at for a day, and the party took a two miles excursion from there up Tromsoedal to visit a Lapp encampment, where a herd of 200 reindeer was seen, the visitors going about amongst the reindeer and the Lapps. The Midnight Sun was seen the first time on 4th July, the night before getting to Tromsoe ; the steamer anchoring in a position clear of the islands before midnight, for the purpose of giving the party the anxiously expected sight. Hammerfest was visited on Friday morning, 6th July, and the same night we were on the top of the North Cape viewing the Midnight Sun again, a week from the time of leaving Bergen. The ascent is an hour’s walk from the ship ; first a steep zig-zag climb of 800 feet, and then a mile walk to the summit, 950 feet high. The North Cape is on an island named Mageroe, which we sailed round. The Svaerholt Bird-rock, near the North Cape, was visited previously ; it is a great rock rising abruptly out of the sea, 1200 feet high, covered with enormous numbers of birds which suddenly, on the firing of a cannon, fill the air overhead with a white cloud like a heavy snowstorm. Lyngen Fjord was visited on the return, the steamer going up the fjord and back again, a two hours trip, for the sight of the fine jagged mountainous rocks, with picturesque glaciers. The great Svartisen glacier, which is just at the Arctic Circle, was visited ; the party landed in boats, and scrambling over the half-mile of old moraine that lies between the foot of the glacier and the sea, were then able to get a little way on to the glacier. We left the North Cape steamer at Molde, a day’s sail short of Bergen, and then started on a three weeks inland trip to the celebrated Romsdal, with its great Romsdalshorn and Troll- tindern towering up to more than 5000 feet height, one on each side of the valley ; the Geiranger Fjord and Brixdal glacier ; up Sogne Fjord to Laerdalsoren and Borgund, up Jostedal to Nigaards Brae glacier, through Naero Fjord andNaerodal to Vik and Voering Fos, and then on to Odde, BuerBrae glacier, and Gorsvingane Pass, 3400 feet height above the sea. Then by the Hardanger Fjord to Bergen, and back to Newcastle. A special charm in this trip was the sight of the water¬ falls. Norway is truly called the country of fjords and waterfalls (Fos) ; the fjords with their grand and continually varied scenery, and the innumerable waterfalls of most charming variety, including a large number of great size. Jan., 1889. TOUR IN NORWAY. 3 During this inland trip, and at the various stopping places of the North Cape steamer, we had opportunities for collecting plants : we were much struck with the active condition of the vegetation, especially in the leaves of the trees; and the country was quite a wild garden of flowers, many British plants being met with in unusual luxuriance of growth. This is due partly to the mild climate caused by the Gulf Stream, which impinges on the whole coast up to the North Cape. The temperature on the North Cape at midnight was as high as 55°, although it is within 19°, or only 1300 miles, distance from the North Pole ; and at Hammerfest, which is the most northern town in the world, the temperature was actually 70° in the shade at midday. The effect of the Gulf Stream is shown upon the circum¬ polar map in Plate I.,, in which is given the temperature curve of 82° ; or the curve passing through all the localities in which the mean annual temperature is the freezing point, the winter averaging as much below the freezing point as the summer averages above it. This curve reaches nearly as low a latitude as 50° in the two great continents of Asia and America, being there at about the latitude of the South of England ; but the gigantic warming effect of the Gulf Stream indents the curve past England and the coast of Norway, to a point actually 600 miles north of the Arctic Circle, although the curve is 1000 miles south of the Arctic Circle in the continents of Asia and America. This causes the remarkable and exceptional mildness of climate of the whole coast of Norway up to the North Cape, as well as of the west coast of the British Isles. The great exciting cause however of the active condition of the vegetation, is the continuous sunlight that is day and night acting upon the plants : their development is never checked by the darkness of night, and there is the continuous stimulus of sunlight all through the summer. At the North Cape itself, the sun never sets for 2J months, from lltli May to 30th July, and in the other less northerly positions within the Arctic Circle the sun is so little below the horizon for any portion of that time, that there is practically continuous day¬ light throughout the 2J months. In our trip we had the sun continuously above the horizon for six days and five nights, and were so fortunate as to see the Midnight Sun on four successive nights. At the North Cape at midnight the sun was about eight diameters above the horizon, when we were there on July 6th, and it was shining brilliantly, with a light about equal to the light that we have usually on autumn afternoons in this country. Measured actinically, the light at midnight was found to be equal to 4 TOUR IN NORWAY. Jan., 1889. one-fifth of the photographic power ot the average midday sun in England. Of the Plants collected, one of the most interesting is Cotula coronopifolia, a composite plant that is very limited in Europe, and is found in only one locality in Norway, on marshy ground at the head of a sea fjord, 90 miles distant from the open sea. Its home is considered to be the Cape of Good Hope. Another local plant, Aconitum septentrionale, a large Monkshood belonging specially to Norway and Sweden, was found plentifully distributed over the country, and in Piomsdal were found very fine specimens, one measuring 6ft. in height, with leaves 21ins. across, and flowers l^ins. long. On the North Cape itself, several Swiss plants were met with, and specimens of many British plants, including: — Saxifraga oppositifolia , Loiseleurici procumbent, Silene acaulis, Dry as octopetala, Arabis alpina, Saxifraga cccspitosa , &c. Saxifraga cotyledon was found very generally throughout the country, with fine bunches of flowers standing out from ledges in the rocks in many districts. The beautiful heaths, Andromeda polifolia and Menziesia cceruiea, were found in many places, and the delicate fern, Woodsia ilvensis , was particularly luxuriant in growth. Eriophorum latifolium, the large Cottongrass, was very abundant, and attained a remarkably large size in its cotton tufts ; the smaller Cottongrass, Eriophorum alpinum, was also found at Nigaards Brae in Jostedal. Mulgedium alpinum , the blue Sow-thistle, was found at one place near Voering Fos. and Arnica montana was seen in rich orange masses in the meadows in one district. Viola tricolor and Alcliemilla were specially abundant, also Saxifraga Aizoides. A novel position for plants was on the roofs of the houses ; the roofs generally throughout the country, including the majority of the houses in the smaller towns, are covered with turf, on which is an abundant crop of vegetation ; grass, plants, and shrubs, and even small birch trees eight or ten feet in height are frequently seen in the country growing upon the roofs. At Hammerfest we actually saw a couple of kids grazing on the roof of a house. The houses are really roofed with birch bark, which is laid on in many layers, like thatching with straw, up to a total thickness of about four inches, and is then completely waterproof ; and, to prevent the bark getting blown away, it is covered with a thick layer of turf, which grows together and forms a complete protection, the roof appearing to last, without requiring repair, until the house goes Jan., 1889. TOUR IN NORWAY. 0 to decay. The houses are constructed entirely of wood, excepting the chimneys, which are stone. The plant Cotula coronopifolia , that was first referred to, is a rare object about which there is a history of much interest in connection with the migration of plants. We found it at the only site where it is known to exist in Norway, Laerdal- soren (see map, Plate I.) ; and this was shown to us by Professor Lindman of Upsala University, Sweden, who has since kindly sent us further information on the subject, and a reference to the “ Botanische Zeitung” for January 17th and 24th, 1862. which contains a careful detailed account and history of the plant by Dr. Buchenau. This plant was first found in Europe, a century and a half ago, in 1789, by Moeliring of Jever in North Germany (see map), near the coast, between Denmark and Holland, and he at first supposed it to be Matricaria maritima. The plant was next recorded in 1767, as found at Neuen- burg in the same district, on the high road, where rainwater accumulated and the spray from the sea reached ; and also on the coast of Jahde Bay, near Jever, where Moeliring had lived. Then in 1788, Ehrhard of Neuenburg, and subsequently other botanists found the plant in that district, and also along the Weser River, in several places all exposed to the spray from the tide. In the next century, in 1852, Schloeter found the plant again in the same locality, and it also grows now in Nordeney Island, off the coast between Jever and Emden ; but in 100 years it has only been found to have spread itself to a few other places in the province. It has occurred also in Sweden on a small spot in Bolmslan, near Goteburg (see map), but there are now no more traces of the plant to be seen in that place. It is recorded in Spain in 1852, by Willkomm, and in Portugal, in 1855, by De Candolle, and is also named as having been found in Candia. The original home of Cotula coronopifolia is considered to be the Cape of Good Hope, but it has also been found in Egypt, in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand ; and in South America, in Brazil, Monte Video and Chili ; in all the cases it was found growing in low lands near the seashore, as in Germany. The plant requires a site with short grass, and a soil with a certain richness of soluble salt, although it cannot be called a salt water plant. The Norway locality in which we found it, Laerdalsoren, is a low marshy ground at the head of one of the long sea fjords. Jan., 1889. 6 spencer's “first principles.” As regards the migration of this plant, it may be noticed that all the localities where it has been found in Germany, Sweden, and Norway, are on the West coast, exposed to the influence of the Gulf Stream ; and the flower is a composite with winged seeds, which admit of being carried long distances by an ocean current. ( To be continued. ) THE FOUNDATIONS OF OUR BELIEF IN THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER AND THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY.* A CRITICISM OF SPENCER’S “FIRST PRINCIPLES,” Paut II., Chapters IV., V., and VI. BY J. H. POYNTING, D.SC., F.R.S. I confess that when I accepted the invitation to give a paper on the chapters in Spencer's “First Principles” dealing with the Constancy of Matter, Motion, and Force, I had no idea of the difficulty of the task which I was undertaking. I remembered that when, many years ago, I read the chapters I disagreed with their general drift, and I thought it would be tolerably easy to disagree still. And so I have found it. But it is one thing to disagree with an author, and quite another thing to give clear reasons for your disagreement, especially when the subject is so difficult and your author is so great a master of argument as Spencer. And there is to me another difficulty in that I have never studied Spencer’s system as a whole. The chapters I am to deal with form but a part of that whole ; one staircase, as it were, in a grand edifice, which vou have watched building stone bv stone. I am venturing to criticise this particular staircase when I have not studied the plans of the building, and know not whence it springs or whither it leads. I am a mere carpenter venturing to criticise the work of a great architect. I don’t know that I am even a carpenter. I have been, for many years, especially engaged in teaching people how to climb this particular kind of staircase, and perhaps you may think that that is hardly a * Read before the Sociological Section of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society, November 22, 1888. Jan., 1889. spencer’s “first principles.” 7 sufficient warrant for a criticism of the nature of its materials and the strength of its supports. But this is the task I have undertaken. If I may assume that you are acquainted with Spencer’s argument, I need only briefly sum it up as follows : — In Chapter IY. he maintains that the indestructibility of matter is a necessary truth, one of which we cannot imagine the contrary when we once clearly present to our minds the mean¬ ing of the terms “ matter ” and “indestructible.” He argues that the so-called chemical and physical proofs based upon weighings really assume the principle in assuming that the weights used to counterpoise are constant in their value. He concludes that, when analysed, the indestructibility of matter is found to mean the persistence of force. For if we use the chemical proof, the constancy of weight means persistence of gravitative force, and, if we regard the principle as a necessary truth, we again come to persistence of force, for it is by force that we really know matter. In Chapter V. it is argued that the continuity of motion is a truth of the same order, one of which we cannot imagine the contrary. When we contemplate a swinging pendulum, and note the recurring appearance and disappearance of its motion, we cannot suppose that that of which the motion is a sign has been annihilated when the motion ceases at the end of a swing. We must suppose that there is a continuous existence now shown by the motion, and now by the puli down which we feel if we hold the pendulum in its highest position. This existence we think of as the objective correlative of muscular effort ; we think of it in terms of force. Again, if a moving body is gradually brought to rest, it is stopped by force exerted by some other body or bodies upon it, and this retarding force has a reaction on the acting bodies, handing on to them the motion lost by the body as it slackens speed. Again we think of the motion being communicated by force. If we seek to prove the continuity of motion, our so called proofs really assume the persistence of force in some form or another, either in the constancy of the masses concerned, or in the constancy of the measuring instruments used. Hence we again come to the same foundation as that on which the indestructibility of matter is built, viz : — the persistence of force. Having concluded that the indestructibility of matter and the continuity of motion ultimately imply the persistence of force, Spencer proceeds, in Chapter VI., to examine the warrant we have for the truth of this last doctrine. He asserts that all our measures assume it, and that therefore we 8 spencer’s FIRST PRINCIPLES Jan., 1889. t i cannot by experiment prove it. We cannot show that it rests on any other truth. All reasoned out conclusions must rest on some postulate. We go on merging derivative truths on wider and wider truths, until at last we reach a widest truth which can be merged in no other or derived from no other. And whoever contemplates the relation in which it stands to the truths of science in general will (he says) see that this truth transcending demonstration is the persistence of force. It is remarkable that so calmly and closely reasoned an argument should have excited so much heat as this has done in certain physicists : all the more remarkable in that physicists have not, for the most part, closely examined the foundations of their great generalisation for themselves, have not clearly realised what is the result of experience and what is metaphysical assumption. Perhaps it is from this very neglect of the subiect that some of their bitterness towards 8pencer has arisen. It is not pleasant to have a stranger coming in to set one’s house in order. But there is, I think, another reason. The physicists have by toilsome steps been pushing into a hitherto unknown country ; they have been drawing careful maps describing the details of its features as they came to them, and now after putting together the results obtained by generations of explorers, they have found the course, as it were, of the great mountain ranges and rivers. But Mr. Spencer seems to say that after all they need not have toiled so much. From the border of the country the general lie of the strata might have been made out, and it might have been seen that the mountains and rivers could not run otherwise than they do. And indeed all their survey depended on a base line at the border ; all the boasted measures were but in terms of that base line, so that all their maps were but repetitions of it. It is always irritating to be told that if you had only kept your eyes open you might have saved your pains. An implication of unwisdom is always the direst insult. But after all, Mr. Spencer may not be right. For my own part, I share the view of the physicists, that his arguments are to a great extent unsound. I hold that the field of science cannot be mapped with certainty from its borders, and that our knowledge of its main features is due solely to the explorers. Further, in that these explorers are fallible, I hold it possible that their maps may be wrong, at least to some extent, and that future generations may show that we have been too hasty in assuming that we knew even the position of the main features. Jan., 1889. spencer’s FIRST PRINCIPLES.” 9 Were I to criticise Mr. Spencer’s statements point by point, there would be danger that we should be confused by differences about mere details. I propose therefore to state my own beliefs in these matters, and to give as far as I can what I consider the warrant for them. The main work of the physicist is the investigation of the resemblances or similarities which he observes in phenomena. The description of these resemblances he embodies in physical laws. For instance, he observes that bodies resemble each other in falling to the ground when no other body intervenes; that they resemble each other in remaining at rest unless there is some other body to whose presence their motion can be ascribed; that they resemble each other in that they require an effort from him to set them moving, an effort which he feels through his muscular sense ; and so on. These are mere qualitative resemblances which can be discovered by simple observation, and every intelligent being has through his own observation, through his early instruction and possibly through the observation of his ancestors, become aware of & number of such resemblances or physical laws which he regards as mere common sense. In fact, in this respect, we are all like Moliere’s M. Jourdain — we have been speaking physics these forty years and never knew it. But the physicist, of course, goes far beyond this classification of simple observations. He makes experiments as well as observations. He calls in the aid of instruments and makes measurements; he discovers that phenomena resemble eacli other in various ways which can be expressed by numerical relations. Let us take an example. An experimenter puts a piece of rock salt and a vessel of water side by side on the one pan of a balance, and counterpoises them by weights on the other pan. He now powders the salt and finds the weight is still the same ; putting the salt into the water and stirring till it is all dissolved, the balance is unchanged. Finally, distilling the liquid and collecting the water and the salt which remain behind, he has them separate, and placing them on the balance, they are counterpoised by the same weight as before. This experiment may serve as a type of all the various weighing experiments, chemical and physical, which are taken as proving the indestructibilitv of matter. «/ What conclusions does our experimenter draw ? Firstly that the salt was in existence throughout the experiment, and secondly that its weight remained the same. But in drawing this conclusion he makes assumptions. He believes that the salt appearing after distillation is the identical salt 10 spencer’s ‘‘first principles.” Jan., 1889. which disappeared in the water. He could follow it for a time. He saw it change its condition from a lump to a powder. But when it went into the water it ceased to affect his sense of sight. Yet the fact that salt could be obtained from the water again leads him to think that it was in existence all the time. And he ascribes to the salt in its invisible state the change in weight of the water and the change in its taste. His belief in the continuity of existence of the salt, in its identity, rests on a postulate which for shortness we may term the continuity or identity postulate. Let us, for the sake of clearness, consider another example of the use of the same postulate. Suppose that I am with a man whom I know, in a room with a door leading into another empty room, and suppose that shortly before my friend has gone into the other room out of my sight, and has now returned again. I do not suppose that he went out of existence in his absence ; I believe that lie was in the other room, preserving meanwhile his identity. I mav have snoken to him while he was out of sight, and mav have received an answer, and this affection of another sense than sight I ascribe to him. I base my belief in his con¬ tinuity on the same postulate as that on which the experimenter bases his belief in the continuity of the salt. I have not a sufficient knowledge of philosophy to put the postulate in its proper form, but a consideration of cases in which it would not or might not apply may at least give us a working form of statement. If, during the weighing experiment, somebody had been observed introducing fresh salt on to the balance, we could no longer assert identity of the initial and final salt. Or if, in the second example, my friend had a twin brother in the neighbourhood, and if the adjoining room communicated with the street, I might not be sure of the identity of the friend underlying the two appearances. Perhaps, then, we may guard against such cases by the statement that “ if a thing affects us in the same way as a thing has previously affected us, and if we have reason to suppose that no fresh thing has come in from the outside, then the two affections arise from the same thing.” Secondly, with our experimenter, we assume that the weights used in the counterpoise preserve a constant weight. Mr. Spencer seems to think that this assumption is ultimate or fundamental. But let us examine the assumption a little more closely. To begin with, we assume continuity of existence of weight. We have only direct sense- warrant for the existence of the down-pull while putting the weights on the pan with our hands aud while Jan., 1889. spencer’s “ FIRST PRINCIPLES.” 11 taking them off again. But we apply the continuity postulate and assert that the weight existed while the masses were on the pan. But we go further : we assert constancy in quantity, which is something more than mere continuity of existence, and we have various methods of testing our assertion. We may allow the weights to fall, and time their fall through a given distance in supcessive trials. All experience tends to show that the time of fall is constant, and we conclude that the weight is constant. It may be argued that we use a clock for the time, and that the clock pendulum may possibly vary in weight, simultaneously and in like proportion with the balance weights. Very well, then ; let us use a watch, and we get still the same time of fall in our successive trials. Or let us use a different test, and put the weights on a Salter’s Spring balance, and they always stretch the spring equally. If it be argued that possibly the elasticity of the watch spring and of the balance spring varies in like proportion with the weight of the weights, then, I say, let us go to the ultimate court of appeal — my own sensations. If I have practised much with my pressure sense and my muscular sense, I may weigh the weights with my hand and be certain of their approximate constancy. If it be finally argued that my sensations may likewise vary in proportion, then I say that so long as the universe is drawn to a consistent scale, and so long as I am also on that scale, any contraction or expansion of the scale, being beyond my detection, is a matter of perfect indifference to me, and I need not construct my language so as to provide for its possibility. I am content to say that the weight of the salt and the water is constant. But here I think that another postulate has crept in, which in its most general form we may state thus — “ Like sensations imply like objective existences or like physical properties.” We use the particular case that equal sensations imply equal objective existences or equal physical properties. For whatever test of constancy of weight we employ depends ultimately on the equality of two sensations. And indeed this postulate is the basis of all the conclusions as to the outside world which we draw from physical measurements. Again, though we take weight as our test, the fact that the salt at the end resembles the salt with which we started in other respects than weight — in fact, that it gives us equal sensations — leads us to conclude that it is equal in quantity, i.e., that none of it has been destroyed. And on such experiments so interpreted we found the principle of the Indestructibility of Matter. ( To be continued.) 12 MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. Jan., 1889. THE MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. BY BEEBY THOMPSON, F.C.S., F.Gr.S. ( Continued from Vol. XI., page 294.) 3. — Blocking up of Streams. — Perhaps no one cause of floods has been more considered of late years than this, because it so readily suggests the remedy — cleaning out. The growth of weeds and accumulation of silt in the Nen, particularly since the diversion of traffic to the Northampton and Peterborough Railway, has greatly reduced the water¬ carrying power of its bed, and so, to some extent, been a cause of floods. The following remarks are intended to indicate, somewhat, the extent of responsibility this cause must bear. The drainage area of the Nen above Peterborough is estimated at 620 square miles, and the ordinary summer flow of water through Peterborough Bridge at 5,000 cubic feet per minute, or 45,000,000 gallons per day. This is only about 70,000 gallons for each square mile of area drained, or *005 inch of rain over the same area per day. The flood discharge through the same bridge has, however, amounted to 480,000 cubic feet per minute,* a quantity, it will be seen, ninety-six times the ordinary summer flow, and equal to about ‘5 inch of rain over the drainage area in twenty-four hours. This is, no doubt, an exceptional amount, but in the Fen Districts of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire pump¬ ing power is usually provided for lifting half this amount, or •25 inch of rain in twenty-four hours over the drainage area, into the main drains. A little consideration will show that, to prevent floods, a much greater provision would have to be made in the Nen Valley than in the Fens, for the “ Upper Valley,” that is the part above Peterborough particularly subject to floods, has an area of about 16,000 acres, which at times constitutes one vast reservoir, whilst the area draining into it is about 400,000 acres; so the Nen Valley has to receive the drainage of a district twenty-five times its size, whereas the Fen lands are only burdened with the drainage of a district about six times their own size. Now, supposing the river were thoroughly dredged, and other improvements in the river bed effected, so as to reduce friction by one half, and double its capacity, these alone would not enable it to cope with the ordinary winter rains, which would deliver into the valley often from twenty to * “ Hydraulic Tables,” by Nathaniel Beardmore, M.Inst.C.E. Jan., 1889. MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 13 fifty times as much water as is represented by its ordinary summer discharge, much less with some of the larger falls ; for it is evident that so long as restricted channels exist, such as locks, sluices, waste- weirs, bridges, and narrow parts in the river itself, the discharging power of the river above them is only equal to their discharging power, whatever may be its capacity as a reservoir, and the locks and flood¬ gates at the various mills along the Nen would always be used in such a manner as to keep the river as nearly bank- full as now, until just before a flood was expected. For these reasons I have attached less value to the blocking-up of the Nen as a cause, and its cleaning out as a remedy for floods than many people, though it is a factor that should not be lost sight of, particularly in connection with certain other remedial causes. Cleaning out and widening of a river anywhere does bring certain advantages, for it increases its storage capacity, and, therefore, the volume of water available for doing useful work in the dryer parts of the year, though alone it would not materially diminish floods. The expense connected with a really efficient cleaning out of the river, and other works, would be very great at first, and for the cleaning out recurrent. The increased scour and consequent self-cleansing supposed, by some, as likely to result from a freer discharge of water, would not be per¬ ceptible eastward of Northampton because of the many impediments already referred to. The total fall of the Nen between Northampton and Peterborough is about 177 feet, but owing to the sinuous course of the stream, the average inclination is only 38-7 inches per mile ; this, however, would allow of considerable scour but for the impediments. According to a survey made by Messrs. Siddons, in December, 1848, when from 10 to 30 inches of water was running over the sills of the different overshots, the total fall at the eleven staunches and thirty-three mills between Northampton and Peterborough amounted to 163J feet, so that the actual inclination of the water between these various obstacles only amounted to 13J feet, or an average of about three inches per mile, whilst at least 4in. per mile is needed to prevent silting up. As a matter of fact, when the over- shots are not running, the motion of the water is only just perceptible, because held up in successive flats; and when they are running, owing to the perpendicular descent, the main body of water is not much accelerated. Under such a condition of things, weeds and other aquatic plants grow rapidly, and I anticipate it would be necessary to cut them twice a year to keep the stream in really good condition. 14 MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. Jan., 1889. The real scour of flood water only occurs when the water is sufficiently high for the overshots, &c., to offer no serious impediment to its discharge, and then it scarcely affects the bed of the river, although it often does great damage to the banks and adjacent lands. The Nen from Northampton to Kislingbury, and from Northampton to Brampton, was cleaned out a few vears since at a cost of about £1,500 ; also a small portion of the latter branch, near to the Castle Station, was straightened, being a necessary work in connection with the loop line of railway between Northampton and Rugby. These works have not prevented floods in the meadows west and north of the town, but none have occurred in the town itself since they were done. I doubt, however, whether any real trial of the improvements has occurred. 4. — Artificial Obstructions. — Several of these have been briefly referred to already, but one or two require particular consideration. Mills and their necessary weirs do tend to hold back Water, and keep rivers nearly bank-full, with the result that floods are more easily induced. Complaints against millers and mills have been pretty continuous for a great number of years, and deservedly so perhaps, though mills need not be a cause of floods. The complaints are chiefly in respect to the excessive height of the floodgates and weirs, but sometimes on account of negligence in connection with the regulation of sluices and locks. There is always a tendency for mill-dams to get higher, for, supposing any impediment to the free flow of water to exist in the lower parts of the river, this will increase the height of the tail water at the mill next above. The result of this is that the miller here finds it necessary, in order to get the same power, to raise his head of water, but if he does not at the same time raise his wheel, he must raise the head more than the tail is raised, in order to overcome the resistance of the dead water ; and so the banks are heightened, and possibly flash boards put up at the weirs, and it has happened that ancient weirs and back-brooks have been stopped. When this kind of thing is done at one mill, it must be repeated at the mill next above, and so the evil increases. A survey, made by Mr. Aris in 1826, showed that, owing to these operations, the water was raised between Thrapstone and Nun Mills, Northampton, twenty- three feet altogether above the legal height as ordered by the Com¬ missioners of Sewers (9tli Charles I., 1633).* * See “Drainage of the Nene Valley,” by the Rev. Charles Henry Hartsliorne, 1848. Jan.. 1889. MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 15 It lias been suggested that if the whole of the water-mills on the Nen were pulled down, the sacrifice would be slight compared with the injury they inflict on the lands of the Nen Valley. This seems to assume that floods need not occur if mills were absent, an assumption not very justifiable, particularly if the river were maintained in a navigable condition. It seems to me that it would be a very retrograde step to do away with the mills, and cease to use the power of the river, particularly as the evils usually attributed to them can be remedied without such a drastic method. Mills in some respects are an absolute advantage, for they help to keep back and conserve the water of rivers for the dry season of summer, which otherwise would be lost. Bridges are answerable for part of the evil arising from floods. Some of the ancient bridges are inadequate to discharge the water wishing to pass through them, and the water may be at times a foot higher on one side than the other. This mav be the result of faultv construction, or the blocking up of side arches through neglect. One of the most prominent instances of faulty construction was the old bridge at Wisbeacli. This had a sectional area less than half that of Peterborough bridge, being only 796 square feet as compared with 1,856 square feet. The present bridge at Wisbeacli has an area of 2,500 square feet. A number of minor causes tend either to increase the amount of water reaching the valleys, or to bring it down more rapidly ; such as improved systems of village drainage , and diminution of woodlands ; also some of the improvements made by riparian proprietors to protect their own lands add to the flooding of others, both by bringing the water more rapidly to the area below not improved, and by diminishing the Jiood capacity of the valley. The embanking of a river may even add to floods, for embanking the sides will usually lead to a raising of the bed, and so the water in all the streams feeding it will be kept higher, and the more easily be made to overflow. The same embanking, too, tends to prevent the discharge of floods into the river. Remedies for Floods. — Several of the proposed remedies for floods have already been considered, because intimately associated with the causes, but one or two others remain to be considered. Washes of the Nen. — Perhaps the most effective way of dealing with flood water, if the object is simply to diminish injury in a particular district, is that adopted in connection 16 MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. Jan., 1889. with the Nen below Peterborough. For twelve miles below Peterborough a large basin or reservoir has been constructed, by making banks on each side of the river at an average distance of half a mile apart. This “wash” as it is called, has a superficial area of about 3,750 acres, or 1 per cent, of the area draining into it, and is sufficient to hold 1 inch depth of rainfall over the drainage area above it. An extraordinary flood fills this to a depth of 7 feet or more, but the water has never run over. The wash affords good pasturage in summer time. Like several of the other remedies referred to, this is only a partial one, however, for the heaping up of water in this wash both increases the velocity of discharge between it and the sea, and increases the height of the flood in higher parts of the valley. If this system of making flood-banks were carried out along the whole valley subject to floods, with a gradually decreasing sectional area, and the tributary streams were similarly treated to above the flood line, floods would be almost unknown outside this area, and only the superficial accumulation of water in a soil at present admitting of no effectual drainage would remain to be dealt with. With regard to the other remedies, it is easy to see that if the flood-gates and overshots were made progressively larger towards the outfall, the latter being constructed so as to have a sectional area of discharge below the flood line equal to that of the total sectional area of the river above them, and also to give a less vertical fall to the water running over them, by continuing the inclined surface to about the low- water level of the river ; if the river were progressively cleaned out in an opposite direction, and the locks and other artificial obstructions intelligently regulated, the narrow parts made wider, and the winding parts straightened, a very great improvement would be brought about ; to the extent of preventing many floods, and facilitating the discharge of all. Such improvements carried out in the upper part of the stream only would, of course, add to the injury lower down, by bringing the water to these latter more quickly. The legal and pecuniary difficulties connected with the carrying out of these details would be very great, and the former, per¬ haps. under the present condition of legislation, insuperable. It will have been noticed that the general tendency of nearly all the plans so far considered is to get rid of the water more rapidly than the present condition of things permits, so that a great scarcity of water would prevail during an ordinary summer. They all have the drawback that the water got rid of would do no useful work. (To be continued. ) Jan., 1889. “THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.” 17 “THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.”* Every naturalist, and especially every naturalist who is an evolutionist, will give a cordial welcome to this exceptionally interesting volume, which is “a narrative of a residence at the gold mines of Cliontales; journeys in the Savannahs and forests; with observations on animals and plants in reference to the theory of evolution of living forms.” Originally published by Mr. Murray in the year 1878, the popularity of the book soon exhausted the edition, and for many years it has become rare, and even disappeared from second-hand catalogues. If testimony other than that contained therein were wanting to its merits, the following eulogium, written by the illustrious Darwin in 1874, to his friend, Sir Joseph Hooker, is sufficient: — “Belt I have read, and I am delighted that you like it so much ; it appears to me the best of all natural history journals which have ever been published.” Mr. Belt dwelt in Nicaragua for four and a half years — from February, 1868, to September, 1872 — and this is a record of what he saw, and of the theories which subsequently arose thereon: — “Some thought out on the plains of Southern Australia ; some during many a solitary sleigh drive over frozen lakes in North America; some on the wide ocean; and some, again, in the bowels of the earth when seeking for her hidden riches. The thoughts are those of a lifetime, compressed into a little book.” The occupation of the author, who had been previously well schooled as a member of the Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club, and who had written many scientific papers in divers journals besides, was to superintend the mining operations of the Cliontales gold-mining company. His scientific observa¬ tions recorded in this volume were therefore — all honour to him — made in his hard-earned leisure. It is not stated whether he gained his fortune in his venture. Probably he did not. But he had another kind of wealth, surpassing the value of “gold and precious stones,” which kings themselves cannot command. He had the seeing eye and the hearing ear to read the great Book of Nature, and the power to interpret the truths which Nature only reveals to her diligent and trustful students. Alas ! it is truly said in the preface, that “his sun went down while it was yet day,” for lie died at Denver, Colorado, U.S.A., from the effects of mountain fever, at the early age of 45. * “The Naturalist in Nicaragua,” by Thomas Belt, F.G.S., second edition, revised and corrected, with map and illustrations. London : Edward Bumpus. 1888. Grown 8vo, pp. i-lxix., 1-403. 18 “THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. Jan., 1889. 5? It is impossible within the brief limits of these pages to clo justice to this beautiful volume, which abounds in observa¬ tions and generalisations most valuable on inorganic (1), organic (2), and super-organic (8) phenomena. We can only touch on a few of the most interesting matters recorded in the order above indicated. With regard to inorganic phenomena (1), we are, on the first page of the book, made acquainted with a typical instance of the rapidity which characterises some geological changes. The River San Juan receives the greater part of the drainage of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and it is the outlet of the great lake Nicaragua into the Atlantic ocean. “ Twenty years ago the main body of water ran past Greytown (San Juan del Norte); there was then a magnificent port, and large ships sailed up to the town, but for several years past the Colorado branch has been taking away more and more of its waters, and the port of Greytown has in con¬ sequence silted up. All ships now have to lie outside, and a shallow and, in heavy weather, a dangerous bar has to be crossed.” Evidences of glacial action were traceable at San Rafael — boulder clay extended for miles, “ and the angular and sub-angular stones that it contained were an irregular mixture of different varieties of trap, conglomerate, and schistose rocks;” but the author was “unprepared to believe that the glacial period could have left such a memorial of its existence within the tropics at no greater elevation above the sea than 3,000 feet.” And again: “The evidences of glacial action between Depilto and Ocotal were, with one exception (that of striation, not always preserved), as clear as in any Welsh or Highland valley. There were the same rounded and smoothed rock surfaces, the same moraine - like accumulations of unstratified sand and gravel, the same transported boulders that could be traced to their parent rocks several miles distant.” The author evidentlv believed in the t / existence of the fabled continent of Atlantis. Approaching the subject from the side of Natural History, he was driven to look for a refuge for the animals and plants of tropical America during the glacial period, when he found proofs that the land they now occupy was at that time either covered with ice, or too cold for genera that can now only live where frost is unknown. He had arrived at the conclusion that they must have inhabited lowlands now submerged, and, pursuing the subject still further, “ he saw that all over the world curious questions concerning the distribution of races of mankind, of animals, and of plants, were rendered more easy of solution, on the theory that land was more continuous once than now; Jan., 1889. ‘‘THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA 19 that is, lands now separated were then joined together, and to adjacent continents; and that what are now banks and shoals beneath the sea, were then peopled lowlands.” Volcanic energy and its effects are ably discussed in regard to Masaya, which, at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1522, was in full activity. “ The credulous Spaniards believed the fiery molten mass at the bottom of the crater to be liquid gold, and through great danger, amongst the smoke and fumes, were lowered down it until, with an iron chain and bucket, they could reach the fiery mass, when the bucket was melted from the chain, and the intrepid explorers were drawn up half dead from amongst the fumes.” The late Charles Kingsley’s graphic description of the great eruption of St. Vincent, in 1812, is quoted from “ At last;” and there is a very closely- reasoned passage showing that Mr. Belt had convinced himself that Lake Masaya and similar basins in the same area “ have been blasted out,” i.e., formed by volcanic energy. To the biologist, of course by far the most interesting portions of the book are those which deal with organic phenomena (2). The bright fiery-red colouring, on a black velvety ground, of the polygamous male tanager ( Ramphoccelus passerinii), make it conspicuous to birds of prey, while the greenish-brown sober suit of the female is protective. Accordingly, “when a clear space in the brushwood is to be crossed, such as a road, two or three of the females will fly across first, before the male will venture to do so, and he is always more careful to get himself concealed amongst the foliage than his mates.” Illustrations of mimicry abound. A curious longicorn beetle (Desmiphora fascicuiata), covered with long brown and black hairs, closely resembles the short, thick, hairy caterpillars that are common on the bushes. Insectivorous birds will not touch the latter, hence the beetle from its resemblance derives protection. Wasps and stinging ants have hosts of imitators amongst moths, beetles, and bugs. The author points out to those unacquainted with Mr. Bates’s admirable remarks on mimetic forms, that “he has to speak of one species imitating another, as if it were a conscious act, only on account of the poverty of our language. No such idea is entertained, and it would have been well if some new term had been adopted to express what is meant.” These deceptive resemblances are supposed by evolutionists “to have been brought about by varieties of one species resembling another having special means of protection, and preserved from their enemies in consequence of that unconscious imitation.” Kesemblances at first remote have in the course of ages become permanent. 20 Jan., 1880. “THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA." The author’s observations on ants are simply marvellous. Three forms were specially studied : the foraging ants ( Eciton hamata and E. predator), the leaf-cutting ants^ (Ecodoma - ? ), and a curious parasitic form peculiar to the “bull’s horn thorn ” ( Pseudo myrma bicolor). Darwin has already shown, in the “Descent of Man,” that the cerebral ganglia in ants are more developed than in any other insect, and in the Hymen- optera. of which they stand foremost, they are many times larger than in the less intelligent orders, such as beetles. Belt draws an interesting parallel between the Hymenoptera and the Mammalia, and points out that they both make their first appearance early in the Secondary geological period, but that it is not until the commencement of the Tertiary period that ants and monkeys appear. The parallel ends here, as no species of ant has attained great superiority over its fellows, while Man lias advanced far above all other Primates. With this explanation, light is thrown on the proceedings of the ants. Respecting the foraging ants, it is mentioned as a curious analogy that, like the primitive races of mankind, they have to change their hunting grounds when one is exhausted and move on to another. In the capture of their prey they exhibited a well-planned system. Moving in dense masses three or four yards wide, and so numerous as to blacken the ground, “smaller columns would first flush the game — cockroaches, spiders, and other insects” — which, in the confusion, would sometimes bound into the middle of the mass, soon to be overpowered, bitten to pieces, limb from limb, and ultimately carried to the rear. Curious instances are recorded of the efforts of some of the victims to escape. In these the spiders exhibited the greatest intelligence, some¬ times putting a good distance between them and their foes, at other times hanging suspended from a branch by a silken thread. Leaf insects feigned death sometimes. Ultimately the whole ground invaded, up even to the extremities of the twigs of the trees, would be cleared of every living insect, not too large to escape. The ant army is usually followed by a number of birds — ant-thruslies, trogons, creepers, and others — waiting on the trees, or pursuing and catching the insects that flv up. Among the ants, in addition to the dark-coloured workers and light-coloured officers, there are larger individuals “ with enormous jaws.” These are usually concealed, directing the others, and only appearing when danger arises. As to the leaf-cutting ants, their ceaseless pertinacity in the spolia¬ tion of the trees — more particularly of introduced species — their devastation of young plantations of orange, lemon, and mango trees, all this and more is told. The columns of these Jan., 1889. “the naturalist in Nicaragua.” 21 ants are sometimes several hundred yards in length, reaching from the formicarium, or ant city*, to the feeding ground. On closer examination a double stream of these minute pests, one laden with leaves, looking like a mimic “forest of Birnam,” the other empty-handed and returning each for a leaf. The leaves are cut off with the sharp scissor-like jaws of the ant, clinging hold by one leg so that the leaf does not fall off. Mr. Belt actually satisfied himself that these leaves were carried to the formicarium, not to be eaten or used in forming the nest, but for the purpose of growing a minute fungus, upon which the ants feed — in fact, they are regular mushroom growers ! The following, among many others, is adduced as an instance of the reasoning powers of these wonderful little animals: — “A nest was made near one of our tramways, and to get to the trees the ants had to cross the rails, over which the waggons were continually passing and re-passing. Every time they came along a number of ants were crushed to death. They persevered in crossing for several days, but at last set to work and tunnelled underneath each rail. One day when the waggons were not running, I stopped, up the tunnels with stones ; but although great numbers carrying leaves were thus cut off from the nest, tliev would not cross the rails, but set to work making fresh tunnels underneath them. Apparently an order had gone forth, or a general under¬ standing been come to, that the rails were not tc be crossed.” The third form of ant studied by the author was that tenanting the interior of the “ bull’s horn thorn,” a curious plant of the Acacia tribe, belonging to the Gummifera, with bi-pinnate leaves, growing to a height of 20 feet. It is a most remarkable case of commensalism. No harm is apparently done by the ants to the plant, for, notwithstanding that they feed on its honey-like juice, they in return protect it from the ravages of other insects (as these ants sting powerfully), especially those of their leaf-bearing congeners. The tricks recorded by the author of a tame white-faced cebus monkey were most curious and strangely human. It would tempt ducklings within reach by a piece of bread, and then kill them by a bite on the breast; it would pick pockets, pull out letters and take them out of the envelopes. “Once he abstracted a small bottle of turpentine from the pocket of our medical officer. He drew the cork, held it first to one nostril then to the other, made a wry face, re-corked it, and returned it to the doctor ! ” The humming birds noticed were both numerous and beautiful, and there is an instance recorded of their fertilising a rare pitcher plant (Marcgravia nepenthoides j. 22 “THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. Jan., 1889. “The flowers of this lofty climber are disposed in a circle, hanging downwards like an inverted candelabrum and the birds, to get at the pitchers (containing a sweetish liquid), must brush against them, and thus convey the pollen from one plant to another.” The hairless dogs mentioned by Humboldt were seen by Mr. Belt, and it is pointed out by him that they would have an advantage in the “struggle for existence” over hairy ones, which are largely infested with Ectozoa in tropical climes. Among nocturnal animals “the skunks move slowly about, and their large white tails render them very conspicuous. Their formidable means of defence makes for them the obscure coloration of other dusk-roaming mammals unnecessary, as they do not need concealment.” Very little space remains to touch on super-organic phenomena (8). The country of Nicaragua, discovered by Gonzales, was subdued in 1522 by Hernando de Cordova; and in his book Mr. Belt over and over again speaks of the degenerate condition of the natives since the Spanish conquest, especially the half-breeds. He found everywhere proofs of the iniquity of the Spaniards and of the superiority of the old Indians — their ancient sculptures — their good government — their love of flowers. “No eye-servers were these Indians; before and behind they bestowed equal pains and labour on their work.” As a redeeming feature, he speaks of the free hospitality of the present inhabitants. “It is the universal custom of the Mestizo peasantry to entertain travellers, to give them the best they have, and to charge for the bare value of the provisions and nothing for the lodging.” Their absence of patriotism, and their indolence, is much to be deprecated. The only work is done by the females ; the men keep up their dignity by lounging about all day, or lolling in a hammock, all wearied with their slothfulness, and looking discontented and unhappy. Law-suits are frequent, and the corruption of the judges, who are badly paid, is notorious. The absence of newspapers renders trustworthy intelligence impossible. Petty thefts are common enough, but robberies with violence are rarely committed. The remedy for all this is “the gradual moving down southward of the people of the United States. When the destiny of Mexico is fulfilled, with one stride the Anglo-American will bound to the Isthmus of Panama, and Central America will be filled with cattle estates, and with coffee, sugar, indigo, cotton, and cacao plantations. Railways will then keep up a healthful and continuous intercourse with the enterprising North, and the sluggard and the sensual will not be able to stand before the competition of the vigorous and virtuous.” Several pages Jan., 1889. REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 23 towards the end of the volume are devoted to the historv c / of that very remarkable custom, called the “Couvade,” still surviving in Nicaragua, in which the father is put to bed on the birth of a child, and receives the congratulations of his friends, while the mother goes to work as usual ! We close this deeply interesting book with reluctance. It is a worthy companion of such classical works on the doctrine of evolution as Bates’s “ Naturalist on the Amazons,” Wallace’s “Malay Archipelago,” and Ernst Haeckel’s “Visit to Ceylon.” They make a noble quartet. W. R. H. Reports of Societies. BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. — Microscopical Section, December 4th. Mr. W. B. Grove in the chair. Mr. Benjamin Ward was duly elected a member of the Society. Mr. Herbert Stone exhibited a collection of skins from Toowoomba and Warwick, Queensland, including wallaby, koala or native bear, opossum, native cat, kangaroo, ornithorhynckus, and tail of the dingo. Mr. T. E. Bolton, a living specimen of Clathrulina elegant, rare. Mr. W. H. Wilkinson, stellate hairs on deutzia leaves, showing different forms of mounting, and illumination under the microscope. Mr.W. B. Grove, B. A., three specimens of Geaster fimbria tus, from Boldmere, near Sutton, where they were found in a garden. This is the first time that this beautiful and rare fungus has been found so near Birmingham. It has been previously found at Allesley and Alcester, and at Blockley. Also (for Miss Gingell) Ag. carckarias, Paxillus revolutus, a newly described and figured species ; and (for Mr. Pumphrey) Ag. pgrotrichus and Ag. cyathiformi*, from Gloucester¬ shire. — Biological Section, December 11th. Mr. R. W. Chase in the chair. Mr. J. E. Bagnall. A.L.S., exhibited a series of plants from near Great Yarmouth, collected by Mr. R. W. Chase, including Orckit incarnata and Stellaria palustris ; also, from Dursley, collected by Miss Gingell, a number of rare mosses, such as Barbula tortunsa, Hypnum ttcllatnm , and G gmnostomum microstomurn, giving their distri¬ bution throughout the world. Mr. E. H. Wagstaff, an example of Polycistina , in dry state, from Barbadoes. Mr. W. B. Grove, B.A., announced the recent discovery at Sutton of one of the earth stars, Geaster fimbriatus , the first time any of these interesting fungi have been recorded from North Warwickshire since the days of Withering and Bree. Mr. W. B. Grove then gave his paper on “ The Salmon Fungus f Saprolegnia) and its Allies,’' giving a very full and interesting account of the mode of growth, reproduction, and effects of these parasites. They are great enemies not only to salmon, but also to fish and other animals preserved in aquaria, which are frequently infested with them when alive. It is stated that carbonate of soda prevents their growth. A discussion followed, in which Messrs. R. W. Chase, J. Levick, W. R. Hughes, and J. E. Bagnall took part. — Geo¬ logical Section, December 18th. Mr. F. W. Carpenter was e’ected a 24 REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. Jan., 1889. member of the Society ; Mr. T. H. Waller, B.A., B.Sc., and Mr. John Udall, F.G.S., were unanimously elected chairman and secretary respectively of the section. Mr. Pumphrey exhibited (1) potato stones from Madagascar and from Somersetshire ; (2) ironstone nodule from Ivingswood Pit. This contained a number of cylindrical bodies apparently intersecting each other. Mr. Grove, on behalf of Mr. Clarke, showed two old-fashioned plates of great beauty : (1) of fungi ; (2) of mosses. Mr. T. H. Waller read a very interesting and instructive paper on a “ Litbia-bearing Granite,” illustrated by experiment and micro-sections. Mr. C. J. Watson presented twelve micro-slides of sections of plants, &c., which he had mounted. BIRMINGHAM MICROSCOPISTS’ AND NATURALISTS’ UNION. — November 12th. Mr. J. Madison showed specimens of Limncca truncatula var. minor, from King’s Heath. Mr. P. T. Deakin then read a paper on “ The Flying Power of Birds.” The writer described the bony parts necessary for flight, their position, use, and peculiarities, and the various developments and modifications in the different families of birds. The varying depth of the keel of the sternum and other modifications in the woodpeckers, diving birds, waders, and others was described. The paper was illustrated by a series of dissections of birds, comprising specimens of most of the principal families of the British species. — November 19th. Mr. Deakin exhibited specimens of Neritina JUwiatilis var. cerina, from Christ¬ church ; Mr. J. Madison, distorted specimens of Dreissena polyviorpha ; Mr. Corbet, various specimens of hematite, from Newliaven. — Novem¬ ber 26th. Mr. Deakin exhibited specimens of Helix fusca, from Clent. The evening was chiefly taken up by a discussion on the sealing, ringing, and finishing of microscopic slides, specimens being shown by Messrs. J. W. Neville, Collins, and Moore. The difficulty of securely sealing glycerine mounts was spoken of by most members, Mr. H. Hawkes recommending Damar varnish as preferable to all others. — December 3rd. Mr. J. W. Neville showed the tracheal system of Pediculus capitis ; Mr. J. Collins, pollinia of Orchis mono ; Mr. J. Moore, variations in the structure of hair from different breeds of dogs; Mr. Camm, Cephalosporium acrevionium, from Hamstead, and Graterium pedunculatum , from Sutton Park. — December 10th. Mr. J. Collins exhibited a section of Ripogonium parviflorum, a New Zealand cone ; Mr. J. Moore, specimens of Vespa sylvestris, and Volucella plumata ; Mr. J. Madison, specimens of Succinea putris and Helix rotundata, from the Eocene beds of Headon Hill ; Mr. Camm, the following fungi ; — Arcyria incarnata and J .amproderma irideum. Mr. J. A. Grew then read a paper on “ Insect Mimicry.” The writer said the most wonderful instances of mimicry were found in exotic insects. Those resembling leaves and sticks were familiar to all. But in our own country we had many remarkable instances, though the insects were smaller and less known. The writer described mimicry as a tendency on the part of insects to imitate other objects. If we observed them closely, we should find many insects, including the guileless butterfly committing shams and frauds. In doing these, colour was a great factor. A number of instances were given where the insects and larvae resembled the objects they rested on or associated them¬ selves with. The writer said he should leave to a future occasion the purpose of such habits and coloration. The paper was illustrated by a collection of the insects referred to. Voixtr. Plate II . Stigmari^e . FROM THE COAL MEASURES, Hckalo Press Litm Birm . Feb., 1889 STIGMARIA. 25 NOTE ON FURTHER DISCOVERIES OF STIGMARIA ( ? FICOIDES) AND THEIR BEARING UPON THE QUESTION OF THE FORMATION OF COAL-BEDS. BY W. S. GRESLEY, F.G.S., M.E. (a) In the first place it will be well to point out very briefly the present state, as far as I know it, of the controversy regarding this fossil plant, namely : — Was it always part of a plant— a root of a tree ; or, was it only sometimes a root, and also sometimes an individual plant? That it was never a plant sui generis is the opinion very decidedly held by our greatest authority on the subject, namely, Professor Williamson, F.R.S. Mr. Carruthers, F.R.S., also rejects the opinion that an individual plant is sometimes represented in this fossil. From the writings of Sir W. Dawson, F.R.S. , I gather that be believes only in the tree-root idea. On the other band, we have Prof. Leo Lesquereux, in America, whose opinion, after forty years of exploration of the coal measures for fossils, is that Stigmaria lias not the structure of a root, and lived more as a creeping stem — an individual plant — than as a root of a tree. In France, M. H. Fayol and other savants, uphold much the same opinions as Lesquereux. Basing my own conclusions upon certain fossils which I am about to describe, and from other considerations, I am compelled to hold much the same opinions as those held in America, France, &c. [b) The true or complete character of Stigmaria then, being, in my opinion, still open to question, perhaps some additional light may be thrown upon the matter by making References to Plate II. Figure 1, 1a. — Sketches of specimen of a Stigmaria in the British Museum (Natural History Department), South Kensington. No. 10,430, in Case No. 31, in Palaeontological Plant Collection. About £ natural size. Figure 2. — Stigmaria from out of the “Eureka ’’Coal-seam, Newhall Park Colliery, Leicestershire Coal-field. £ natural size. Figure 3. — Stigmaria outof the “ Little Flint ” Coal-seam, Madeley, Salop. (Coalbrookdale Coal-field.) ^ natural size. Figure 4. — End view of Stigmaria from out of the “ Top Hard ” Coal-seam. Glapwell Colliery, Derbyshire. J natural size. Figure 5. — Side view of Stigmaria from out of the “Little Flint” Coal, Coalbrookdale Coal-field. J natural size. Figure 6. — Stigmaria do. do. J natural size. Figure 7. — Stigmaria (in 11 fragments) from the “ Top Hard ” Coal- seam, Glapwell Colliery, Derbyshire. | natural size. 26 STIGMARIA. Feb., 1889. known the following facts, which have recently presented themselves to the writer. Since the appearance of my com¬ munication to the Geological Society of London last June, entitled “ Notes on the Formation of Coal-Seams, as suggested by evidence collected chiefly in the Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfields,” my particular attention has again and again been drawn to the important fact of the underclays of coal-seams whose only fossil contents are those of Stigmaria ; clays, often of great thickness, with this fossil occurring at all horizons in them, hut with no remains of Sigillaria Lepi- dodendron, &c. (the aerial portions of trees) ; also, the fact of like beds of Stigmaria clay being unassociated with a layer of coal or of coally material. Such fossils seem to show clearly, or at any rate are highly suggestive of these beds not representing old soils at all, and that they (the Stigmariae in them) were seldom the roots of trees. If they were, how happens it that we very rarely indeed come across any connections between roots and stumps, as is much more frequently the case in other strata, viz., the arenaceous roofs of coal-seams, in sandstones, &c.? My former paper also contained what practically amounted to a challenge to those who assert that coal-beds are the fossil remains of forests, which grew (in their earlier stages at all events) with their tree-roots in the underclays, to produce evidence that the Stigmariae in the underclays were originally connected with the coal as tree- roots. Now, it seems to me that the fact of only two anything approaching bond fide examples of this phenomenon having been communicated to me since I wrote* as having been observed, but which, when I came to enquire closely into, turned out to be fossil tree stumps, which might or might not have had the roots attached in situ, as they were never actually seen but only supposed to be there, supplies me with additional good cause for so soon again bringing this subject to the fore. (c) It may be well if I relate the order in which my discoveries have been made, namely, how I have been led up to writing these remarks. In my former paper I gave it as my opinion that fossils resembling Stigmaria (organisms with rootlets attached in situ) were occasionallv found bavins all the appearance of being individual plants sui generis. High authorities, however, rejected my idea. I examined the * My paper had a wide circulation amongst coal-mining men, being published in two mining journals at home, in two in America, and in other ways ; so that there has been plenty of time for anyone to make known their discoveries if any have been made. Feb., 1889. STIGMARIA. 27 Stigmarian Collection in the British Museum, which, I may perhaps be allowed to remark in parenthesis, requires con¬ siderable additions to make it what it should be, as worthily representing some of the peculiar characteristics of this fossil, which, in a national collection, one expects to see. Here, m Case No. 81, in the room devoted to fossil plants, is exhibited a specimen of Stigmaria (specimen No. 10,430), and labelled as follows : “ Stigmaria ficoides. Brog : Coal- measures, Coalbrookdale, Salop, a ‘Terminal.'"* This sing¬ ular specimen is roughly the size and shape of a large flattish potato, measuring about 5in. x 2in. x Him, and is composed of clay-ironstone. (Plate II., figs. 1, 1a.) Upon its flattest upper surface, as exhibited, are fairly-well preserved and numerous regularlv distributed rootlet- scars where the rootlets had their attachment. These markings are of large size, say i of an inch in diameter, but they gradually die out round the sides and ends of the specimen, and do not seem to show themselves at all upon the underside. Now, as this fossil is admitted (presumably by the authorities of the Museum) to be a “terminal,” and by “terminal” is understood to represent the outward end of a root or branch, but as both ends of the specimen are practically alike, I suppose it is left to the beholder to call just whichever end he pleases the “ terminal.” If one is a terminal the other must be, and so both ends being terminals the object must, I take it, be regarded as an individual plant, and not as merely a fragment of a root. This specimen having come from Coalbrookdale, I repaired thither in search of other like or unlike fossils. My journey was not taken in vain, for I consider I had the good fortune to very soon come upon fossils presenting in many respects similar facies to the one in London ; fossils, if not distinct from tree-root remains, can scarcelv be shown to have once occupied such positions. In the lowest workable coal-seam in the neighbourhood of Madeley and Hawley, about four miles to the east of Wellington, Salop, occur innumerable specimens of Stigmaria ( ? ficoides), not merely impressions of the exterior of the plant, as so very frequently observed by the writer upon the laminae of coal, including cannel and anthracite, but as casts of what have the appearance of being individual plants chiefly composed of sandstone, but now and then of clay- ironstone or largely of pyrites mixed with siliceous material. From personal observation as well as from minute enquiries * Dr. Ily. Woodward, F.R.S., tells me this fossil is not so labelled. — W. S. G. 28 STIGMARIA Feb., 1889. made on the spot of those who are daily in a position to notice these fossils (I refer to the underground managers and officials at the collieries in the district), it seems that these fossils always lie horizontally, or in the plane of the seam, and have never been seen to cut obliquely across the grain of the coal. In shape and bulk they vary between about 4 inches and 2 feet (seldom less or more) in length, and in diameter or thickness from 2 to 7 inches; they are generally fiattish. In form or shape they vary greatly, some being nearly straight, others bending in angles up to 80° or 90°, or possessing a twisted, crumpled, distorted, and even folded appearance. (Plate II., fig. 5.) Branched or forked specimens are not unfrequently found. (Plate II., fig. 6). Many of the smallest examples are of about the same bulk as a penny bun (Plate II., fig. 4), being nearly circular and from 1 to 2 inches thick. More rarely they assume a kind of double hooked or S shaped form, the twists being vertically nearly under one another, or the upper bend may be a foot or so (Plate II., fig. 5) distant from the lower bend a? , such bends being turned a good deal to one side (horizontally). The various forms noticed are by no means easy to describe ; they could be much more easily understood by the aid of short rolls of some plastic material such as clay or dough, which could be quickly worked up into the forms of these fossils were it necessary. Now, as regards the terminals of these fossil forms, all I can say is, that with many of them the ends are well and neatly rounded off. exhibiting more or less clearly the characteristic stigmarian markings (the rootlet- scars). With others, and probably with the majority of specimens, the case is somewhat different ; their ends are either tapered down to nothing hardly, or the sandstone assumes an uneven or serrated surface, being interstratified with the coal, so that we lose the original form of the fossil, either from its being impossible to separate the coal from the stone, or because the fossil has been forced out of shape. Specimens possessing well-defined terminals, therefore, are difficult to extricate from the coal. As is usual with almost every specimen of Stigmaria we meet with, these Salopian examples show the rootlet-scars more clearly upon one side than upon the other, and in common with most others, possess little, if any, remains of internal organisation. They merely possess the external markings already alluded to. and sometimes indications of the central axis (medullary cavity or a vascular cylinder). Their position in the coal seam varies, being in one place most numerous in the upper portion, in another in the middle, and now and then chiefly in the lower portion, whilst in some Feb., 1889. STIGMARIA. 29 localities they appear to occupy positions in all layers of the seam as well as to extend to the roof. In some places these things are so numerous as to make the coal unworkable. The name of the coal-seam is the “Little Flint,” and below is a section showing its thickness, &c. FT. INS. Sandstone giving place to Shale towards north and east. ----- varies. Little Flint coal-seam with many Stigmaria, about ------- 29 Hard grey Sandstone, without fossils, about 4 0 O J 7 7 Coal, called “Lancashire Ladies” - - a few ins. Blue Shale ------ varies. That the Stigmarias in this (Little Flint) coal-seam are remarkable would seem clear from the fact that, so long since as 1833, Prof. Prestwich called attention to them in his memoir on the Coalbrookdale Coalfield (see “ Trans. Geol. Soc.,” second series, Yol. V., page 441). It would appear that he then regarded these fossils as plants distinct from trees, as he used the term “ stems ” when describing them. From what I could learn in the district, such a thing as any approach to fossils showing the connection of Stigmaria with a tree stump, has never yet been met with in this coal, notwithstanding hundreds of fossils are turned over with and separated from it every day. Surely this fact is of great importance ! In the Leicestershire coal-field is a seam called the “ Eureka ” coal, which, by the way, occupies very nearly, if not, the same horizon in the measures as the Little Flint does in those of Coalbrookdale, Now, in this coal-bed are found Stigmaria fossils in almost the same wav as at Coalbrookdale (Plate II., fig. 3), being identical in shapes and in bulk, but not often met with excepting close to the top of the coal. They are invariably, I am informed, completely imbedded in the seam, and have not been observed turning upwards into the roof and assuming the form of the stool of a tree — forms commonly known in the mines as “ pot-bottoms” or “pot-holes.” All these Leicestershire (Eureka coal) specimens, like their neigh¬ bours in Salop, are sandstone casts, and exhibit next to nothing in the way of internal structure. I have also come upon similar short lengths of Stigmaria with rounded terminals, some of which resemble, in some degree, those of the South Kensington Coalbrookdale individual, m the Derbyshire coal-field at Glapwell Colliery, where, as the manager and the men tell me, they alwavs “run 30 STIGMARIA Feb., 1889. out to nothing at both ends.”* (Plate II.. figs. 4 and 7.) Again, it should be remarked that a flattisli circular clav- ironstone specimen, about 4ins. across, was found by myself, in August last, on a pit-bank near Mangotsfield, in the Bristol coal-field. All this points to the conclusion that these particular forms of Stigmaria are exceedingly common, at any rate in certain areas. Believing, as I firmly do, that almost eveiy Stigmaria specimen we find has lived and died on the spot, though some may have been transported along with the vegetable matter in which they had root to greater or less distances; and that as they occur in sandstone, in coal, in cannel, and black carbonaceous mud (shale), and in clay (underclay), it seems perfectly clear that the plant, whether the tree-root or other type, did not find the material of which underclays were or are composed essential to its growth. An ample supply of moisture would appear to have been the one thing needful for its support. (cl) On the strength, then, of the British Museum “ terminal ” specimen, and on the individual plant-like Stigmariae of the Little Flint coal of Salop, the Eureka of Leicestershire, and of others found in Gloucestershire and Derbyshire, and also of what Lesquereux and the French school firmly believe to be the true reading of the fossil, I beg leave, in conclusion, to put the following questions, which, I maintain, must be fully and satisfactorily answered before it can be positively asserted that in Stigmaria we have a root only. 1. — Does the organic structure of Stigmaria, so far as made out, preclude the possibility of its being an individual plant ; in other words, are we compelled, on botanical grounds, to give an unqualified rejection to a belief in a plant sui generis ? 2. — As the material of these Salopian and other fossils in coal is usually sandstone, it will probably be argued by many that they are remnants of tree roots, which, during the existence of the stump became filled up with sand even to their very extremities. Are we not equally justified in assigning another cause or explanation of the phenomenon — namely, that these things have become sandstone much in the same way as the large nodular masses of pyrite often found in coal, or as those Stigmariae which are composed of clay- * These occur just at the top of the “ Top-hard ” coal-seam (5ft. Gins, thick), and what is remarkable about them is that I am told they always lie with their longer axis more or less N. and S. or parallel with the “cleat” or master-joints of the coal, “end on” as the mining term is. — W. S. G. Feb., 1889. STIGMARIA. 81 ironstone, or occasionally wholly of pyrite, have been formed? In short, are they not just as likely to be of concretionary origin (replacement of organic vegetable matter by iron), as they are to be due to infilling from the roof of the seams ? * 8. — With regard to the shape of the fossils : Do not their rounded- off terminals (resembling in many cases that of a cucumber), as well as the peculiar serpentine or folded aspect of many of them, demand some other explanation of their form than that which supposes them one and all to be the result of chemical alteration combined with pressure brought on during solidification of vegetable matter into coal ? (Plate IL, figs. 2 and 5.) 4. — Had these Stigmarise been tree roots, how is it that all traces of the stems or stools have disappeared ? Why were none of them preserved as sandstone casts if that were the case with the roots ? 5. — Another botanical point : Is it not just as logical to say : — As Stigmaria was the root of at least two different trees (Sigiliaria and Lepidodendron). and that as Lepidodendron branches sometimes terminated in Halonia, what is there to prevent us from allowing that Stigmaria may sometimes have existed without any upright or aerial stem at all ? 6. — In regard to beds of coal : Inasmuch as it does not appear that the roots of Sigiliaria, &c., have been shown to be Stigmaria from the stuav of specimens found in underclavs ; liow can it be said that the Stigmaria-looking fossils in these clays had a similar organisation to the tree-root Stigmaria, or that they were ever really roots at all ? 7. — In what other way are we to account for the fact of the Little Flint coal in Coaibrookdale resting, not upon an underclay, but directly upon a bed of sandstone in which it is stated there are no Stigmariae at all, except we conclude that the coal did not commence to grow as a forest of trees, &c., or that it was an aqueous formation?! * It lias always appeared a difficulty with me in accepting the idea held by many of us, that when we find Stigmarise as tree-roots many yards in length, and in the shape of complete casts of the roots, composed entirely of Sandstone, the sand must of necessity have come in through the stump of the tree and found its way along the roots to their terminals, filling up the roots gradually toieards the stump. That a decayed tree root, whether it grew in what is now coal or in sand, could be so filled, seems to my mind, an impossibility. I look upon these fossils as having been formed by infiltration of siliceous matter through their outer bark or coatings — a gradual replacement of wood tissue by mineral matters. f Not necessarily transported by water, but certainly not grown on dry land. 32 STIGMARIA. Feb., 1889. 8. — Seeing, then, that as Stigmaria does not occur below coal-beds in the shape of roots, and that we have strong grounds for supposing that it was not always a root, am I not perfectly justified in saying that, in my opinion, the fossils from Shropshire and other localities furnish forms the true character of which is impossible to be misunderstood ? At all events I say this, that in absence of proof to the contrary, the Stigmaria question is not yet settled. If the specimens here brought under our notice are not considered good enough to set the matter at rest, it is hoped that better ones will soon be forthcoming. 9. — Do we not seem to have very good ground for con¬ cluding that Stigmaria, (?the tree-root types) were aquatic or water-loving plants, since they so frequently occur — evidently in situ — in cannel, a substance, I suppose, we all firmly believe to have been formed or grown in water (or at all events a kind of black vegetable slime or soft mud) ? For instance, at Glapwell, in Derbyshire, no less than an area of 300 acres of cannel, varying in thickness between 2J and 12 inches, has been proved to exist in the middle of the “Top Hard” coal — a seam averaging 5ft. 6in. thick. Stigmaria is common in this cannel. 10. — As Prof. Williamson savs in his memoir on Stigmaria ficoides, “ no plant should be regarded as Stigmaria unless its internal organisation is typically identical with that of S. ficoides ; ” it follows, does it not, that as the particular specimens I am describing in this paper have parted with their internal structure, and only possess the usual out¬ ward markings or stigma (rootlet scars), we have no proof that they were ever roots of trees at all ? We are hardly justified even in concluding that they ever belonged to S. ficoides. It is surely by inference only that the two things can possibly be said to be one and the same fossil under different conditions ! 11. — I should be the last to quarrel with those who assert that the tree-root type (Williamson’s S. ficoides ) may some¬ times have become broken up under pressure or consolidation into short lengths, resembling, more or less, some of the forms I have here figured, but when we come across specimens so very numerous and so little resembling the form even of tree roots or fragments thereof, I do think we are dealing with a species differing from S. ficoides (Williamson). Feb., 1889. spencer’s “first principles.” 38 THE FOUNDATIONS OF OUR BELIEF IN THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF MATTER AND THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. A CRITICISM OF SPENCER’S “FIRST PRINCIPLES,” Paht II., Chapters IV., V., and VI. BY J. H. POYNTING, D.SC., F.R.S. ( Concluded from page 11.) Passing on from this, let us consider another experiment: that of the swinging pendulum described by Mr. Spencer. And to begin with, let us suppose that I set it swinging with a blow. It starts off in rapid motion, but as it rises up the motion gets less and less and ultimately ceases ; only how¬ ever for a moment. Back it comes on the return journey, and, when once more at the starting point, it is moving as nearly as I can judge at the original rate. Again it rises up, now on the other side, and with speed slackening till it stops ; again it returns and so on, the oscillation continuing though the motion is intermittent. As Spencer points out, the motion of the pendulum is the objective correlate of our sense of muscular effort experienced in starting it, not, however, mere effort like the effort of holding a weight in a given position, but of muscular effort combined with motion, for we pushed the hand along in giving the pendulum the blow. It is unfortunate that we have no single sensation which we naturally correlate with the combination of effort and motion, but we all have the idea fixed firmly enough in our minds as work, and this is shown by the common use of the term. To take a familiar example. If bricks have to be carried up a scaffold, the work done is naturally measured by the weight of bricks multiplied by the height of the scaffold ; or we think of this product, force x distance, as describable by the single term Work. Hence we say the motion of the pendulum is the objective correlate of the work done by us. Now as the motion disappears, does it go out of existence ? and as it begins again, does it start afresh ? Our continuity or identity postulate is ready at our elbows to suggest identity of the motion in succeeding oscillations, and we have a con¬ firmation of the suggestion that it still exists, even when it disappears as motion, in the fact that if at the top of the swing we lay hold of the pendulum it pulls at our hands ; it is ready in fact to give back to us work such as we gave to it. We conclude then that there is a continuity of existence, at one time showing itself as motion, and at another 34 spencer’s ‘‘ FIRST PRINCIPLES.” Feb., 1889. manifested only in the pull exerted by the pendulum on the hand. That to which we assign continuity we term energy — kinetic when it shows itself as motion, potential when it is only inferred to exist from the position of the body and the knowledge of the work it will do. We may use as a symbol, to enable us to think of this potential energy, the energy of a stretched indiarubber cord. If a boy projects a ball attached to such a cord, the ball gradually loses its motion but the cord stretches, and in this state of stretch we suppose it to possess the energy previously in the ball. If we think of some invisible connecting machinery between the earth and the pendulum, we may conceive this machinery as stretched when the pendulum rests at its highest point, and as in that state possessing the energy lost as energy of motion by the pendulum. So far I have closely followed Spencer’s masterly analysis of this example, here and there replacing his terms by those more commonly used by physicists, but in his succeeding statements I can no longer go with him. Let us examine one or two of these statements. He argues that the sense of muscular effort is the subjective symbol both for force aud for energy, though he recognises that in the latter case the feeling of effort is joined with consciousness of motion. It is true that when we exert mere muscular effort without moving our limbs, we do work and so lose energy and even become tired, but that is due to the particular mechanism employed. If we study the separate muscular fibres instead of the whole limb, we find that they are moving even when we are exerting only a dead pull or push without motion. And so our sense of effort probably accompanies a supply of energy to the muscles, and our feeling of fatigue probably accompanies a loss or absense of energy. The combination of effort with motion uses up a great deal more energy and leads more rapidly to fatigue, but the fatigue is of the same kind in both cases. In the objective world, however, force and energy are entirely distinct. We speak of the steam pressure in the boiler without confusing it with the horse power of the engine, one being force per square inch, the other energy per minute. We speak of the weight of a consignment of goods, and we admit the justice of the mileage rate of charge for its carriage by rail, one being force, and the other a charge proportional to energy expended in the carriage. The physicists, through painful experience, aware of the extreme importance of keeping these two ideas of force and energy distinct, or rather of recognising that the one contains something over and above that which the other does, are Feb., 1889. spencer’s “first principles.” 35 repelled by Mr. Spencer’s attempt to reduce both to force. They recognise that our muscular sense is misleading inasmuch as it gives us a consciousness of loss of energy when we exert force alone, and only a consciousness of greater loss joined with an inadequate consciousness of motion when we do external work. They say that if effort be correlated with force it is a mistake to correlate it also with energy, and that if we do naturally so correlate it the correlation can only lead us astray. Another statement which it is difficult to accept, is to the effect that the existence which we have termed energy, must show itself either as motion or as strain — i.e., either as kinetic energy or potential energy. A system in which after any interval the kinetic energy comes back when the bodies are again in their original position is termed a conservative system, and it is of such a system alone that it is strictly accurate to say that the sum of the potential and kinetic energies remains the same. When and only when we have such a system are the forces persistent, i.e., dependent only on the distances of the bodies apart. It is supposed (not, as Spencer says, assumed ) that astronomy furnishes us with a grand example of a conservative system, inasmuch as our proofs of the indestructibility of matter lead us to suppose that the planets have constant masses, and our measures of their distances and motions show that when the distances repeat themselves the velocities recur. The masses being constant the energy must have all returned. But even in this case it is suspected that the forces are not quite persistent, though we have no certain proof of the fact.* Terrestrial motions are all affected by friction, a sworn enemy to conservation, since by opposing the motions it always ends them without putting any potential energy in their place. Careful examination of cases of friction shows, however, that there is still a sign of the continuity of existence of that which for a time appeared as kinetic energy, and then on vanishing, led us to believe that it still existed as potential or strain energy. This hew sign is heat — something affecting a new sense. Further study shows other signs — as light affecting the sense of sight — and chemical energy, sometimes perhaps affecting the sense of taste. Then in some cases the phenomena of magnetism and electricity are developed, pheno¬ mena which lead us to believe that there is latent energy * I may here point out an error into which Spencer appears to have fallen, confounding the equality of action and reaction with persistence of force. One is a relation true at any instant, the other a relation true in successive instants. 36 spencer’s FIRST PRINCIPLES. Feb., 1889. t ( 5 5 ready to turn into heat, or kinetic or chemical energy in the electric circuit, latent since we have no electric or magnetic senses to detect it. All these results lead us to believe in the truth of the principle of the continuity or identity of energy, a principle evidently founded on the identity postulate, since what we observe is that energy passes from one form and that simultaneously energy appears in another form, and that when it passes from this latter form we can obtain energy again in the original form. But this continnitv does not necessarily imply constancy in quantity. That is another principle founded on experiment. Determinations like those of Joule tend to show that when energy changes from one form to another there is a fixed rate of exchange. If then, using the known rates of exchange, we suppose all energy converted into one form, experiment leads us to suppose that the sum total is constant. We can now see in what sense it is true that energy must show itself either as kinetic or as strain. It is only true if we assume that light, heat, and the rest are either kinetic or strain energies or mixtures of the two. This brings me to the consideration of another part of the work of the physicist. His main work, as I have said, is the determination of resemblances or similarities, and he groups phenomena according to these. In the course of scientific work many of these groups are shown to resemble each other — one set of phenomena is shown to be a mere combination of phenomena already known, and the phenomena are then said to be explained. Thus Wells showed that in the deposition of dew there is a cooling of the earth’s surface, cooling there¬ fore of the moisture-laden atmosphere in contact with it, and deposition of some of the moisture. In other words, he showed that the deposition of dew resembled other depositions of water, and so he explained it. Or again, Faraday explained the formation of electricity by the jet of steam in the hydro-electric machine when he showed that there was friction between the drops of water carried by the steam jet, and the sides of the orifice past which they rushed, that the two were oppositely electrified, and that it was therefore similar to other known cases of electrification bv •/ friction. And numberless other instances might be given. But the physicist is not content with explanations which he can prove. He is an inveterate builder up of hypotheses for the most part unverifiable, but that hardly troubles him. His hypotheses are always attempts to imagine such a Feb., 1889. spencer’s FIRST PRINCIPLES. 37 ; 4 J 5 condition of affairs that lie may continue the work of explanation, i.e., of detection of hidden similarities. For instance, a solid body is, to our senses, a continuous something entirely filling up a space. If it is heated it expands ; if it is soluble in water, it disappears when put in water. If we make no hypotheses, we can go no further. The expansion of a continuous solid is unlike anything else, and is therefore inexplicable ; but I hold — and here I think Mr. Spencer would consider me quite hopeless — that there is no difficulty whatever in conceiving of the expansion of continuous matter. Again, the disappearance of the continuous salt in continuous water is inexplicable, but I have no sense warrant that it is not going on, and I may be driven to attempt to conceive it. But now let me introduce the unverifiable, or, at least, unverified, hypothesis that matter is discontinuous, and really consists of separated particles, and I can explain expansion : — it resembles the scattering of a crowd. I can explain solution : — it resembles the mixing of two crowds, and so on. Again, we have recognised various forms of energy — kinetic, affecting the sight in one way, or light affecting it in another way, or heat affecting the temperature sense, but we cannot say that any one of these resembles any other. Without hypothesis they are inexplicable. But, let me suppose that the ultimate particles of matter possess both strain and kinetic energy, and that, when they bump against my skin, they affect my temperature sense, and I explain heat. I show that a hot body resembles known mechanical systems. Or, let me suppose that even where I cannot see or feel matter there is still something which can be acted on by the ultimate particles of matter and receive energy from them, and I can explain light as being waves sent out in this intangible some¬ thing by the vibrating atoms. I show that it resembles other cases of waves sent out from vibrating sources in water or in air. No doubt this longing for explanation which possesses us is in part strengthened by our belief in identity. If energy is continuous in its existence, then we suppose that in itself it must be the same in kind, though now it affects one sense, now another, and now none at all. We go on from this another step and suppose that if we could only train our senses sufficiently we should be able to follow the energy through all its transmigrations, and see it ever the same in kind. The senses used in the investigation of visible motion, the muscular sense, the touch, the eye, are the most thoroughly trained, and work best together. We, therefore, naturally fix on these as the senses which are, in imagination, to follow the energy up, and so our hypotheses are constructed 38 SPENCER’S FIRST PRINCIPLES. Feb., 1889. < * 5 ? to enable us to explain all phenomena as cases of mechanical action and mechanical motion — to explain all the forms of energy as kinetic and potential. As yet, our hypotheses are unverified, and, for the most part, they appear likely to remain so, for it is difficult to con¬ ceive of any test of their truth. And until they are verified we must ever bear in mind that new hypotheses may at any time be devised, which may explain phenomena even better than the old ones. So, it behoves us to be cautious in com¬ mitting ourselves to doctrines as to the indestructibility of matter or the continuity of motion, which are based on hvpotheses as to the structure of matter and the nature of energy. We need have no fear that without these doctrines science would be impossible. If matter is destructible and motion ceases, there is only the more work for the physicist to do in determining the conditions of annihilation. He can still find resemblances, can still explain the complex unknown as made up of the simpler known. And when his senses fail to guide him, he can still invent hypotheses whereby his imagination may come to their aid. His science will only stop when he comes to the ultimate ideas, the mexplicables, in terms of which all phenomena are to be described — inex- plicables, in that they can be no further resolved, in that they are utterly unlike each other but not unknowable, for we know them one from the other, and we know them as the threads with which is woven all that we have yet discovered of the pattern of the universe. But this is not an exposition of Mr. Spencer’s chapters. I seem to have travelled so far on a diverging path, that I have almost lost sight of the goal to which he would lead. Let me attempt, in conclusion, to state in a few words where I think we diverged. While Mr. Spencer holds that common experience of matter and motion, if rightly interpreted, leads to the belief in the indestructibility of the one and the continuity of the other, I hold that common experience only raises a presumption, the belief is only rightly and firmly founded on the results of careful and exact quantitative experiments. While he holds that they are necessary truths, I still think it conceivable that they are false. While he regards them both as leading to the persistence of force as the ultimate postulate, I very much doubt whether any relation between definite ideas is a postulate. The postulates which I have used are both of them conditional propositions. If so and so, then so and so. In fact, I suspect that the mind is provided only with machinery ready to arrange the results put into it by the senses, and that it does not contain any results ready made. Feb., 1889. TOUR IN NORWAY. 39 NOTES ON A TOUR IN NORWAY AND COLLECTION OF PLANTS. BY W. P. MARSHALL AND C. PUMPHREY. (Concluded frontpage 6.) In Hooker’s standard account of the Arctic Flora (Tran¬ sactions, Linnean Society, Yol. XXIII., p. 251), the North of Norway and Lapland, a district of which the North Cape is the the central point, is described as containing by far the richest Arctic flora, amounting to three-fourths of the whole ; moreover, upwards of three-fifths of the species and almost all the genera of Arctic Asia and America are likewise Lapponian, or belonging to this Lapp district. The striking fact was brought out by Hooker that this Lapponian Flora is the most widely distributed flora over the earth ; it not only girdles the earth in the Arctic Circle, but dominates over every other flora in the North Temperate Zone of the Old World, and intrudes conspicuously into every other temperate flora, and has even migrated into southern latitudes. The greatest number of Arctic plants are located in Central Europe, no fewer than 530 out of 762 inhabiting the Alps and Central and Southern Europe. Hooker considers this fact can onlv be accounted for bv •' •/ Darwin’s hypothesis that the existing Lapponian Flora is of great antiquity ; that during the advent of the glacial period it was driven southward, and even across the tropics into the Southern Temperate Zone ; and that on the succeeding warmth of the present epoch, those species that survived ascended the mountains of the warmer zones, and also returned northward, accompanied by aborigines of the countries they had invaded during their southern migration ; their present distribution being accounted for by continuous slow changes of climate during and since the glacial period. The following is a list of the plants collected in this Norway Tour : — NORWAY PLANTS COLLECTED JULY-AUGUST, 1888. Ranunculus acris . . . . M. „ aconitifolius . . V.F. Trollius europaeus .. .. N.C. Aconitum septentrionale . . R. Arabia thaliana . . . . E. ,, hirsu.ta . N.C. ,, alpina . . . . E., N.C. Cardainine amara . . . . Tm. ,, . pratensis .. .. U. Sisymbrium sopbia . . . . Vk. Draba incana Vk., L. Cochlearia officinalis . . .. N.C. Braya alpina L. Capsella bursa-pas toris .. L. Viola Riviniana. . .. R. ,, tricolor .. Drosera rotundifolia . . .. Vk. ,, .. anglica .. So. 40 TOUR IN NORWAY. Feb., 1889. Polygala vulgaris E. Antennaria dioica (male) . # Tm. Diantlius deltoides(?) . . . . R. ,, ,, (female) • • E. Sileue rupestris. . • j Jj • 9 Arnica montana • • Vk. ,, acaulis .. N.C. Pyrethrum inodorum • • Vk. Lychnis dioica . . .. Tm. Cotula coronopifolia . . • • L. ,, dos-ouculi Sagina nodosa . . E. .. L. Chrysanthemum leucan- themum Tm. ,, nivalis .. . . Vk. Centaurea jacea • • J. Stellaria graminea E. Apargia - Tm. Cerastium alpinum N.C., R., Nb. Spergula arvensis .. Vk.. L. Mulgedium alpinum (Sonchus) • • V.F. Hypericum perforatum .. Vs. Crepis virens Vk. Geranium pratense .. . . Tm. - tectorum , , Vk. Lotus corniculatus .. Tm. Lobelia Dortmanui . . # # Vd. Antliyllis vulneraria . . . . Tm. Campanula rotundifolia . . u. Yicia cracca .. R. Andromeda polifolia . . M. Lathyrus pratensis . . Sv. Erica tetralix M. Spiraea ulmaria . . .. M. Menziesia coerulea # # Nb. Alchemilla vulgaris . . .. B. Loiseleuria procumbens N.C. ,, alpina R. Vaccinium uliginosum # # Tm. Potentilla rupestris . . . . Tm. ,, Vitis-idaea . . Sv. ,, tormentilla .. Tm. Pyrola secunda . . L. ,, anserina . . Vk. ,, rotundifolia . . # # Sv. Comarum palustre .. M. ,, uniflora . . Nb. Rubus cliamaemorus . . Vk.. Tt. Gentiana campestris .. # # L. arcticus . . .. Tm. Mertensia maritima . . Sv. ,, saxatilis . . Myosotis arvensis R. Dryas octopetala N.C. Verbascum pulverulentum . # L. Geum urbanum . . .. M. Linaria vulgaris L. ,, rivale .. Tm. Scrophularia nodosa . . Vk. Pvrus padus .. Tm. Pedicularis svlvatica . . # # Vk. Epilobium alpinum . . .. Vk. Euphrasia officinalis . . # 0 Vk. ,, montanum .. Tm. Veronica chamaedrys Tm. ,, angustifolium .. Vk. ,, beccabunga . . Tm. Circaea alpina . . E. ,, officinalis Tm. Sedum annuum . . Vk.. R. ,, saxatilis Vk. ,, Rhodiola .. N.C. Galeopsis versicolor . . Vk. ,, sexangulare . . . . Sv. Pinguicula vulgaris . . Trientalis europaea m m Vk. Saxifraga oppositifolia .. N.C. Tt. ,, aizoides .. Nb. Statice armeria . . Sv. ,, cotyledon . . . . R. ,, danica • • N.C. ,, caespitosa .. .. N.C. Rumex acetosella • • Nb. ,, stellaris .. V.F. Oxyria reniformis Nb. Parnassia palustris . . L. Polygonum viviparum # # Sv. Carum carui .. Tm. Empetrum nigrum U. Cornus suecica .. Sv., L., Tm. Salix retusa Nb. Viburnum opulus . . Tm. Orchis conopsea. . E. Linnaea borealis . . .. M. ,, mascula . . J. Galium saxatile .. Tm. ,, maculata.. Vk. ,, verum . . ., boreale .. L. J., Nb. Gymnadenia conopsea var. densifolia R. Aster tripolium . . .. M. Habenaria bifolia Sv. Erigeron acris . . ,, alpinus .. R. R. Maianthemum bifolium (Smilacina) .. M. Solidago virga-aurea .. .. Vk. Tofieldia palustris Sv. Gnaphalium supiuum J. Narthecium ossifragum • • Vk. ,, sylvaticum E. Juncus acutifolius • • M. Feb., 1889. middle lias of Northamptonshire. 41 Eriophorum alpinum . . Nb. Lycopodium annotinum ,, polystacliyon . . J. ,, clavatum Carex echinata . M. Polytrickum commuue M. ,, umbrosa (prsecox) E. Sphaerophoron coralloides L. ,, atrata . N.C. Lecauora ventosa Ii. Plileum pratense Sv. Cladina raugiferina ,, alpinum Nb. (Reindeer Moss) L. Poa Schlerocliloa L. Cladonia furcata ,, alpina . R. (Reindeer Moss) L. Festuca ovina „ . Tm. ,, gracilis L. ,. rubra . M. ,, cornucopioides L. Equisetum sylvaticum Tm. ,, uncialis ,, palustre .. N.C. var. humilior L. Polypodium calcareum R. ,, digitata „ vulgare, Lecidea contigua var. acutifolium . . Yk. var. meiospora Woodsia ilvensis R. Parmelia pliysodes Polystichum lonchitis R. ,, saxatilis Asolenium trickomaues E. Ricasolia amplissima . . septentrionale .. R. Cetraria Islandica var. crispa Lycopodium selago (Iceland Moss) • • References to the Localities where the above Specimens were TAKEN I — B. Bergen. M. Molde. Tm. Tkrondlijem. Tt. Torghatten. Sv. Svartisen. N. C. North Cape. R. Romsdal. Ys. Vestnaes. So. Soeholt. U. Utvik. Yd. Yadheim. L. Laerdalsoren. J. Jostedal. Nb. Nigaards Brae. Vk. Vik. Y.F. Yoring Fos. E. Eide. THE MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. BY BEEBY THOMPSON, F.C.S., F.G.S. ( Concluded from page 16.) Additional Remedy. The additional remedy 1 have to propose has been already very explicitly described in previous pages, and so the details need not be given here. Briefly it consists in giving facilities for flood-water to get into the river gravel, which almost everywhere underlies the present river bed and stretches to a good distance on each side of it, and in providing dumb-wells or swallow-holes for this river gravel to drain into a good water-bearing bed below, from which Northampton and other towns and villages might be supplied with water. It does not aim so much at preventing floods as providing water ; 42 MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. Feb., 1889. nevertheless, it would prevent the smaller floods, and mitigate the larger, allowing them to do the maximum amount of good, and less harm than they do now. Below is a summary of the advantages likely to result from the application of this method : — 1. — The river gravel of the Nen, with its cap of alluvium, naturally represents the former extent of the river when in flood, and now approximately coincides, in superficial extent and position, with the area subject to floods. The average depth of the gravel is almost certainly greater than the average depth of flood-water, therefore, if the flood-water at any tune present on the ground had free access to it, and found it empty, such water would be wholly or nearly disposed of, and the whole flood greatly reduced in intensity. The dumb-wells, constructed for other purposes, would tend to keep the river gravel empty, and access to the gravel would, be greatly facilitated by the various devices already proposed, and so a great quantity of water completely prevented from doing liaim, particularly if the river were connected with the gravel. Not only would the river gravel act as a reservoir, but it would be continually emptying and making room for more water, to the extent the dumb-wells are able to receive such water. There need be no fear of the gravel being over-taxed as a filter, for within the area dealt with, there would be almost as many square miles of filtering material as acres would be required for the assumed maximum capacity of the dumb- wells, at the rate of square yards for each 1,000 gallons in twenty-four hours, or a descent of about 6 inch per hour. 2. — The water disposed of would not be lost to the district, and if used as this scheme suggests, it would be returned to the river in a pretty regular volume, after having served some useful purpose. I find that the utilisation of the river gravel as a temporary reservoir for flood-water was suggested some years ago by Professor Prestwicli.* The suggestion arose out of a proposal to construct impounding reservoirs along the Thames 'Valley for the same purpose. Professor Prestwich’s remarks were about as follows : — The Thames and Clierwell were liable to floods of such magnitude that, however useful storage reservoirs might be in providing additional water in times of drought, no practicable extent of storage conld prevent floods. Large reservoirs, in fact, already existed, compared with which any artificial reservoirs * “ Kainfall and Evaporation,” by Symons, Greaves, and Evans. Discussion on the Papers. Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers, 1876. Feb., 1889. MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 43 which could be constructed would be insignificant. In the neighbourhood of Oxford the valley spread out to one to one- and-a-lialf miles for a distance of four or five miles, giving an area of some 3,000 acres. Both lower down and higher up the vallev a succession of similar basins existed, in all of which the alluvial clay was underlaid by a bed of gravel, varying from five feet to twenty feet in thickness, and the water in this was held up by impervious beds below. Some drainage works at Oxford, in which the main drains were laid at a depth of about sixteen feet for a distance of two miles, permitted a study of the conditions here. It was noticed that at the bottom of the gravel there was always sufficient water to supply the wells to a village of 700 inhabitants, standing in the middle of the valley, and to supply the adjoining reservoir for the water-works of Oxford ; also, that as rain continued, the water gradually rose in this gravel up to and above the alluvial clay, and then floods ensued. It was thought probable that these natural reservoirs might be utilised for the storage of winter rain by damming back at the narrowest parts the water held in the gravels of the larger basins, and so arranging that the water could be discharged at lower levels down the river in periods of drought. 3. — It would render possible the drainage of districts in which it is now practically impossible, because (except by the expensive expedient of carrying the drains to lower parts of the river) there is nowhere to drain into, the meadows being really below the level of the water in the river when the latter is moderately full. If drainage is necessary for uplands, how much more so is it for lowlands ? And if it brings all the advantages attributed to it, the benefits to be derived from this scheme must be very great. 4. — The lowlands would still have the advantages of flood water in the shape of manure and fine silt from the uplands, which now renders ordinary manuring unnecessary. Also the meadows would be well irrigated without the serious disadvan¬ tages arising from stagnant water. There are some places along the Nen Valley where a comparison between the moving and stagnant water of floods may be made. On the south side of the valley, near to Great Houghton, for instance, the river gravel is not overlaid by alluvium, and the land is about a foot higher than on the north side of the valley ; the consequence is the water runs away into the gravel very rapidly, and every flood seems to enrich these meadows, whereas on the opposite side of the river, in the parish of Abington, exactly the contrary effect is produced.* * “Drainage of the Nene Valley,” by Rev. Chas. Hartshorne. Report of John Beasley, Esq. 44 MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. Feb., 1889. 5. — The land would be rendered much more valuable for grazing purposes , for the herbage would be improved ; the period during which it could be stocked lengthened by perhaps two or three months ; and diseases of cattle, and rot in sheep in particular, would be much less likely to occur. It is not uncommon, under the present condition of things, for fields to be covered with water continuously for 12 or 13 weeks in the year. 6. — The climate would be locally improved. At some periods of the year, when there is little wind, it is very noticeable how a bright warm morning brings a dull or even wet afternoon and evening, followed again by a clear night. This is very harassing to farmers, and from observation of such occurrences I have been led to infer that in these circumstances the clouds are locally formed, by the rapid evaporation from large surfaces of flood water, or wet lands. With dryer lands and less surface water this would be less likely to occur. It is a fairly common belief that the moon has some particular power to disperse clouds, because a fine night will often follow a dull day ; there is very little doubt that just the opposite is the case, the night is fine because of the impotency of the moon to cause evaporation and produce clouds. The effect on the health of human beings and cattle would be decidedly beneficial. A malarious atmosphere is created not by water, but by the action of the sun on decaying vegetable matter, and such there will very frequently be where land cannot be drained. Ague, once so common in the Fen districts, has now nearly disappeared through drainage ; only droughts in autumn now are likely to occasion it. Conclusion. The water scheme that has been described in these pages embraces a small district only, and proposes to deal with a comparatively small quantity of water, but the principle admits of very general application, and there are signs that it is receiving attention from water engineers. Water is not manufactured in the ground, neither is there an inexhaustible supply there, but it all gets in from the surface somewhere; it follows, therefore, that the continuance of underground sources is a matter of rainfall and percolation. The rainfall of this country varies from something like 1G5 inches in the Lake district to 20 inches in the East Midlands, and the average for the whole country is rather over than under 30 inches, an amount quite sufficient for all purposes of human consumption, manufactures, and main¬ tenance of rivers and canals ; yet water is scarce, and all Feb., 1889. MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 45 modern improvements in country and town tend to make it more so, both because more water is used, and special facilities are given for the water not immediately required to find its way into the main streams, sometimes polluting them, and sometimes causing them to overflow. Of course the rapid removal of all stagnant surface water is highly desirable, and in a country like England, the atmosphere of which usually has plenty of moisture in it, a diminution of evaporation from any cause is distinctly beneficial, but the rainfall need not necessarily be such an enemy as most modern drainage schemes seem to imply. Floods always have been, and probably always will recur at times. The truth of the first of these propositions is evident from the great lateral extension of the river gravel, or alluvium, or both in most river valleys ; and of the second from the inability to provide means whereby the drainage of a large area may be made to pass sufficiently fast into the porous beds underlying a much more limited one, when the rainfall is heavy ; or be discharged sufficiently fast by the ordinary bed of the stream. Rainfall does serve many useful purposes ; it washes the atmosphere, feeds rivers and lakes, sinks into the ground and forms springs, flushes drains, and generally cleanses towns, but when it gets into situations where it can and does do damage, it is too often permitted to do it without exacting any equivalent of useful work from it. This arises partly from two sets of persons not acting together ; some people want water, others want to get rid of it, by mutual agreement they might both be more completely satisfied. Mr. De Ranee estimates that there is an area of 26,633 square miles of superficial permeable rock in this country, and 19,308 square miles of impermeable with permeable under¬ neath, and he has suggested that the latter area should be fed by means of dumb-wells , both to prevent devastating floods and yield water. I would suggest that where permeable beds can be supplied in the manner I have proposed, that is by the intermediation of any superficial beds of gravel or sand — the river gravel or drift for instance — that would be the better plan. The supply of deep-seated water, from a given drainage area, would be much greater than if the outcrop of the water-bearing bed had been enlarged to an equal extent, and left as we now usually find it, covered with soil, and perhaps with provision for surface or under-draining. Further, innumerable small sources of water might be made available, and preserved as it can never be in open reservoirs, and this at less cost than by any other system. 46 NEW BOOK ON LEAF-FUNGI. Feb., 1889. The loss from floods all over the country has been greater of recent years than before, because of the higher cultivation of the land. This consideration alone suggests increased necessity for dealing with the question, and although some lands do not readily admit of the chief remedy proposed in these pages, it has been at least shown that some do, and these latter would not only be subject to less injury, but be better than they have ever been, hence the principle ought to receive as much support from owners and occupiers of land subject to floods as from the corporations of towns needing water. A NEW BOOK ON LEAF-FUNGI.* BY W. B. GROVE, B.A. For a long time the British workers on “ Leaf-Fungi ” have laboured under the greatest difficulties. With the exception of those who had access to Winter's “ Kryptogamen- Flora,” and a few isolated magazine articles, they have been left entirely in the dark about the great advances in knowledge obtained in recent years by those who have worked at the biology of this group. Bare descriptions of species are not knowledge, although they are the first and necessary preliminary thereto. But now, thanks to Mr. Plowright’s monograph, for the first time those mycologists who are confined to English books may enter upon the work of the year, with regard to Leaf- fungi, fully equipped for under¬ standing the characters and the relations of the species they meet with. These relations are now shown to be far less simple than had ever previously been suspected. The triumphant establishment of hetercecism , in which (pace Mr. Massee) I still think Mr. Plowright lias taken no mean share, has not only demonstrated that those leaders of mycologic opinion in this country who so long and so obstinately pooh-poohed it, were incapable of appreciating the evidence, but has also made it clear that the intermingling and intercrossing of species and host-plants is so complex that nothing but persistent artificial cultures can ever disentangle them. As an example we may take the species of Puccinia which grow upon Phragmites communis. These were formerly * A Monograph of the British UredineEe and Ustilagineae, with an account of their Biology, &c., by Charles B. Plowright. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co., 1889, pp. 348, and eight plates; price 10/6. Feb., 1889. NEW BOOK ON LEAF-FUNGI. 47 confused together ; there are now known to be three : — Puccinia phragmitis ( = P. arundinacea) , the secidia of which grow upon Rumex conglomeratus, obtusifolius, crispus, Hydro- lapathum , Rheum officinale ; P. trailii, the secidium of which is confined to Rumex acetosa ; and P. magnusiana, which has its secidia on Ranunculus repens and bulbosus. But this is not all. An secidium also occurs on R, bulbosus which is scarcely distinguishable, morphologically, from the one just mentioned, but which belongs to a Uromyces having its teleutospores on Dactylis glomerata, and another Uromyces, having its teleutospores on species of Poa, has its ascidia on R. bulbosus and repens , as well as on R. Ficaria. Still further to complicate matters, another Uromyces occurs upon R,. Ficaria , which has been proved to have no connection with the secidium upon the same plant. Once more, there is still another Uromyces which grows upon all the species of Rumex mentioned above (including R. acetosa ), but which has no connection at all with any of the other parasites. Finally, the secidium on Ranunculus acris , which used to be undistinguished from those on the other Ranunculi , is found to belong to a species ( Pucc . perplexans ), which it was reserved for Mr. Plowright to discover. It must be remembered that all these statements have been proved by experimental cultures, in which not only the positive results must be regarded, but also the negative results obtained in the various methods of “ control ” cultures. The latter, indeed, are far more convincing than the former. If, on sowing the spores of an tecidium on another plant, we obtain a Puccinia, the result may be put down to chance, and was explained in this way by the older school. But if, in a series of similar experiments, we find that the Puccinia invariably appears where we have sowed the secidium, and invariably does not appear (if proper precautions be taken) where the spores of the secidium have not been applied, the conclusion that the one is produced from the other becomes very probable. If again, on sowing the promvcelial spores obtained from the Puccinia on a suitable host, we invariably get the secidium with which we started, and don’t get it (under similar conditions) when the Puccinia has not been applied, the demonstration is complete. When these results are confirmed by hundreds of experiments made by observers of different nationalities, it is mere fatuity to doubt any longer. I have been led into this digression because undoubtedly the chief value of Mr. Plowright’s book lies in its biological aspect, but it is also an enormous advance upon all previous English works in its morphological descriptions, which may be 48 WAYSIDE NOTE. - REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. Feb., 1889. ’ regarded as “Winter” — improved. There are a number of good woodcuts, and eight excellent plates, lithographed by Messrs. West, Newman, and Co., most of which are made from the author’s original drawings. The typographical arrangement is especially neat and convenient. The book is well indexed — that of “ host-plants ” being particularly useful — and will be simply indispensable to all students of Leaf-fungi in this country. ®apik Bote. Fresh Water Life. — While examining some specimens of Carchesiurn polypinum and Vorticella nebulifera, I noticed a peculiar feature in them I had never seen before, although I have had them under the microscope on and off for years. I allude to a number of thin, long, transparent filaments clothing the pedicels of these creatures, notably the Carchesiurn. Some were quite thick with these aforesaid filaments. Whether anyone else has noticed them I do not know ; but certainly I have seen no notice or sketch of them in any of our manuals. I have thought them worth just a passing notice. I may add that I have only at present seen the filaments on specimens from one place. They much reminded me of the transparent thin filamentous rootlets so commonly seen in Nitella flexilis and others of the CharaceaB. — E. H. W., Edgbaston. Imports of Somties. BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. — Sociological Section. The 100th meeting of this section was held on November 27th, Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., in the chair; nineteen members present. Mr. Bagnall exhibited for Mr. Hughes thirty - one species of plants from Cobham Lane, Kent. For Miss Gingell, Echium vulgare , Viola Reicheubachiana, and Polygala vulgaris from Dursley. For himself, Ulex Gallii and Ag. cyathiformis from Corley Rock. Mr. Hughes exhibited a leaf of a Virginian creeper from the back of Dickens’s house ; also a new photograph of Mr. Herbert Spencer. Mr. Stone exhibited the skull of a marmoset, an echinus, Phyllacanthus imperialism a large beetle, Hylotrupes dichotomus, from Japan, and pseudomorphs of Ammonites tuberculatus and A. lautus in iron pyrites, from Lyme Regis. Mr. W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E., read his paper on “ Modern Railways,” illustrated by a number of maps and diagrams. — Supplementary Meeting, December 6th, 1888, Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., in the chair ; eight members present. It was proposed by Mr. A. Browett, seconded by Mr. Stone and carried, that the dates of the supplementary meetings be altered from the 1st and 3rd Thursdays in the month to the 2nd and 4th. Mr. Stone exhibited the wing of the eucalyptus leaf insect which simulated the leaf of the eucalyptus so perfectly as to deceive even an experienced eye; the midrib and minor veins being accurately reproduced. Miss Goyne read the latter portion of the eighth chapter of Mr. Herbert Spencer’s “ First Principles,” entitled “ The Transformation and Equivalence of Forces.” Mar., 1889 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY S REPORT. 49 THIRTIETH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY, Presented by the Council to the Annual Meeting, February 5th, 1889. The Council is pleased to be able to report that the Society has fully maintained its position during the past year 1888 ; the standard of the papers read and the attendance at the meetings having been well kept up. It is encouraging to notice that this year again confirms the expectation that the loss of members owing to the raising of the subscription has now practically ceased. A Conversazione was held on October 80th, similar to the one at the opening of the Session in the previous year, and it proved very satisfactory, and was carried out at very small expense. It was held in the Examination Hall, Mason College, and amongst the exhibits were a fine case of Pallas’s Sand Grouse, prepared by Mr. Chase ; an interesting series of glass photographs, and a collection of objects under microscopes. An Excursion to Dovedale was taken on Whit Monday ; the party driving from Derby through Ashbourne to Dovedale, where they were kindly received by the Rev. W. H. Purchas, Vicar of Alstonefield, who conducted the party about the Dale. The eleventh Annual Meeting and Conversazione of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies was held at Northampton on July 4th and 5th ; Mr. W. R. Hughes and Mr. W. H. Wilkinson attended as the delegates from this Society. The meeting was held in the Town Hall, the chair being taken by the Right Hon. Earl Spencer, K.G., and an address was given by the Rev. H. H. Slater, F.G.S. The Darwin gold medal was awarded to Mr. J. E. Bagnall, A.L.S., for his “Flora of Warwickshire.” On the following day excursions were made to Fawsley Park and other places of interest in the district. The treasurer’s annual financial statement shows the receipts of the Society for the past year to have been £158 Is. 6d., and the payments £152 9s. 5d., including the repayment of one of the six £10 loans, and leaving a balance due to the treasurer of £1 5s. 5d., instead of £1 17s. 6d. at the end of the previous year. The receipts for the year have more than covered the expenditure for the year, leaving a surplus to pay off the above loan ; and the Council now 50 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY’S REPORT. Mar., 1889. appeal earnestly to the members for their assistance in paying off more of the loans during the present year, by increasing the income of the Society through obtaining additional members. By an alteration recently made in the Laws, ladies can now become members of the Society on the same terms and with the same privileges as family members, by the payment of lialf-a-guinea per year ; and it is hoped that this will lead to an increase in the number of lady members. The total number of members for the year 1888 is 201, being 7 less than in the previous year (8 ordinary members and 4 corresponding members) ; of the total, 7 are life mem¬ bers, 145 ordinary (guinea) members, 12 family (half-guinea) members, 5 lady (half-guinea) members, 5 honorary vice- presidents, 23 corresponding members, and 4 associates. On the occasion of the retirement of Mr. Charles Pumphrey from the office of treasurer of the Society an illuminated address was presented to him, which was kindly prepared by the president, Mr. W. B. Grove. The Council have to report that the negotiations which were begun upon the proposed amalgamation of this Society with the Birmingham Philosophical Society have been suspended. Microscopical Section ( Ex-officio : President, W. B. Grove, M.A. ; Secretary, W. H. Wilkinson). — During the year eight meetings of the section have been held, with an average attendance of fifteen ; and the following communica¬ tions have been made : — March 6th. — “The Present and Future of Science Teaching in England, with special reference to Botany,” by Prof. W. Hill- house, M.A., F.L.S., being the retiring president’s address. May 1st.— “ An Account of the Foraminifera dredged by the Society during the Oban Excursion in 1883,” by Mr. E. W. Burgess, communicated by Mr. W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E. A fine slide of 67 specimens (illustrative of the paper), named and mounted by Mr. Burgess, was presented to the Society. May 29th. — “ On Kew Gardens and some of the Botanical Statistics of the British Possessions,” by Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., F.L.S., communicated by Mr. J. E. Bagnall, A.L.S. June 6th. — “ Notes on some Foraminifera collected and mounted by Mr. E. W. Burgess from material obtained near Oban by the Society during their dredging excursion in 1883.” By Mr. J. F. Goode ; illustrated by specimens in microscopes, and by a fine series of micro-photographs in the oxy-liydrogen lantern, by Mr. J. Edmonds. The meetings of May 1st and October 2nd were devoted to Microscopical Soirees, and both were very successful. A large number of microscopes was exhibited by members representing all the sections of the Society. Mar., 1889. NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY’S REPORT. 51 At other meetings, Mr. W. R. Hughes exhibited a collec¬ tion of flowers from the White Mountains, U.S.A. ; Mr. W. 13. Grove exhibited a number of fungi, both of the larger and smaller and minute kinds, some beautifully shown under the microscope, and amongst the many rare ones several were new to Great Britain ; Mr. J. E. Bagnall exhibited many rare plants, both local and from a distance ; Messrs. W. P. Marshall and G. Pumphrey, a collection of plants and mosses, which they brought from their tour in Norway ; Mr. W. H. Wilkinson exhibited some very high Alpine plants from Scotland, a collection of lichens from Mount Stewart on the Island of Bute, also the lichens from the Northampton Excursion, and some very beautiful foreign species ; Mr. B. W. Chase exhibited some birds, and gave an account of an ornithological excursion to the East Coast ; Mr. Herbert Stone exhibited a collection of animal skins from Queensland ; Prof. Harrison presented to the Society a fine sample of the polycystina earth from Barbados, which the members are now working out ; Mr. C. Pumphrey exhibited photographs of flowers, &c., by the oxy-hydrogen lantern. Biological Section (President, R. W. Chase ; Secretary, J. E. Bagnall, A.L.S.). — During the past year the section has held eleven meetings, and owing to the industry and zeal of its members these meetings have been fully sustained in interesting and instructive matter. On eight of the evenings papers have been read, and on every evening there has been a good display of specimens, and the discussion arising there¬ upon has often been of great interest. The principal exhi¬ bitors who are members of the Society were Messrs. W. B. Grove, R. W. Chase, W. R. Hughes, W. H. Wilkinson, J. B. Stone, Herbert Stone, C. Pumphrey, C. Wainwriglit, J. Edmonds, W. P. Marshall, E. H. Wagstaff, and J. E. Bagnall. In addition to these we have been greatly indebted to the following non-members of the Society : Miss J. R. Gingell, Rev. T. Norris, Rev. D. C. 0. Adams, and Father H. P. Reader. To Miss Gingell the section has been especially indebted for the trouble and expense she has been at in forwarding week by week abundant specimens of flowering plants, mosses, and fungi, from the district around Dursley, Gloucestershire. The attendance during the present year has been well sustained, the average being seventeen. The following is the list of papers : — February 14th. — On “ The Successful Use of Oil to Calm Rough Seas,” by Mr. W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E. March 13tli. — “ New or Noteworthy Fungi,” Part IV., by Mr. W. B. Grove, M.A. 52 Mar., 1889. NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY’S REPORT. April 10th. — “Notes upon Birds which have become extinct, and those species which are likely to become so in Great Britain,” by Mr. R. W. Chase. May 8th. — “Notes on the Flora of Settle” (Illustrated), by Rev. W. Hunt Painter. June 12th. — “Notes on some Plants of the Rhine Land,” by Mr. W. B. Grove, M.A. October 9th. — “ Notes on Norway Plants recently collected by Messrs. W. P. Marshall and C. Pumphrey,” Illustrated. November 13th. — “ Notes on the Corvidae (Jackdaw, Raven, 5 Meadow. Scilla nutans „ 13 „ 27 s. Coppice. Galeobdolon luteum May 4 w. Hedgebank. Sisym. Alliaria . . „ 12 „ 4 >1 Bank. Ger. Robertianum „ 21 „ 18 Bank. Plentiful. Orchis Morio „ 19 Open Pasture. Crataegus monogyna . . „ 13 „ 23 N. Hedge. The unusually warm weather of the late autumn of 1888 brought on the plants of Mercunalis perennis, so that many of them had thrown up their vernal shoots early in December, and were in full blossom before the end of the. year. With reference to Tussilago Farfara , observations have been con¬ tinued in the same station since 1880, the date for each year being as follows: — 1880, March 3rd; 1881, January 29th; Aug., 1889. REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 195 1882, January 25th; 1888, January 22nd; 1884, January 12tli ; 1885, February 8th; 1886, March 3rd; 1887, Feb¬ ruary 5th ; 1888, March 3rd ; 1889, January 26th. Jas. Saunders, Luton. Balea perversa in Nottinghamshire. — After seeing Mr. J. W. Williams, in London, and on my return to Nottingham, I referred to Mr. MussGn’s list and found that it contained several localities for Bal'd perversa , which are as follows : — “ Recorded from Colwick, Highfield House (rare) ; Annesley (rare, old church wall). Plentiful under stones of church wall at Staunton. S.E. Notts. Plentiful under bark and in cracks of willow trees at Darleton, Notts, April 23rd, 1886.” — Geo. W. Mellors, Second Avenue, Sherwood Rise, Nottingham. Imports of Satieties. BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. — Geological Section, July 16th. Mr. Clias. Pumphrey in the chair. Exhibition of specimens by Mr. Herbert Stone : — Galeopsis versicolor , Drosera rotundifolia, in flower; Vaccinium oxijcoccos, in fruit; Stratiotes aloides, from Aspley, near Warrington ; also, Pholas crispatus and Tubularia indivisa , from Hilbre Island, near Liverpool. — Sociological Section, July 23rd. Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., in the chair. Mr. Martineau exhibited Merisus intermedius , a hymenopterous insect, parasitic upon the Hessian fly ( Cecidomyia destructor). Mr. Hughes exhibited Lythrum salicaria , Malva moschata, Geranium pratense, Campanula Trachelium , Cercis siliquastrum, the Judas tree, Melilotus officinalis , Reseda luteola , and other plants from Evesham ; also, Verbascum nigrum , from St. Albans. BIRMINGHAM MICROSCOPISTS’ AND NATURALISTS’ UNION. — May 20th. Mr. J. W. Neville exhibited flowers of the Toothwort, Lathrcea squamaria ; Mr. H. Hawkes, Puccinia sessilis and Stemonitis fusca ; Mr. Camm, Physarum cinereum, from a timber yard ; Mr. J. Moore, gizzard of Phyllobius aryentatus ; Mr. Deakin, fish scales and teeth in carboniferous shale ; Mr. Parker, quartz geode containing lead crystals. — May 27tli. Mr. Camm exhibited the following fungi under the microscope : — Lamprodervia irideum, Tilmadoche mutabilis, Pachnocybe subulata, and Stemonitis fusca , the latter from the plasmodium stage to the mature form. Mr. T. H. Waller, B.A., B.Sc., then gave a lecture on “Rowley Rag,” in which he said that this being a local rock would give everyone an opportunity of studying it to the fullest extent. It formed a sheet of considerable extent, reaching from Rowley Regis to Dudley, and through it several shafts were sunk to get at the coal beds below. In Earl Dudley’s pit 170 yards of basalt had to be bored through. There were two kinds of basalt, Roche and Bluestone; light veins were found in some specimens; these contained ten per cent, more silica. The texture of the rock varied immensely, one interesting feature being the sudden change of texture. The uncertainty of its cleavage appeared to depend on the normal jointing of the rock in the quarry. Its microscopic structure was described, 196 REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. Aug., 1889. and the appearance of the crystals of felspar, augite, apatite, and olivine, and their order of crystallisation, and the transition of olivine in some rocks into serpentine. The solidification of a rock was a progressive process, and, though we begin with Rowley Rag, we find it so typical that we can get to almost any rock on the globe. The lecture was illustrated by a series of rock sections under the micro¬ scopes. — June 3rd. Mr. J. W. Neville exhibited slabs of Wenlock Limestone containing trilobites, &c. ; Mr. J. Corbet, a series of the larger corals from the same formation ; Mr. J. Moore, nine species of Zonites, and, under the microscope, palates of the same ; Mr. H. Hawkes, a marine alga, Ptilota plumosa, in fruit. — June 17th. Mr. J. Madison showed specimens of Linmcea truncatula, L. peregra, Neritina concava and Cochlicopa lubrica , from the Eocene beds of Headon Hill ; Mr. C. P. Neville, a specimen of spider crab; Mr. Corbet, lignite from the “fossil forest,” Brook Point, Isle of Wight, and nodules of marcasite from the chalk; Mr. II. Hawkes, Tilmadoche mutabilis ; Mr. Camm, Sphceria ovina and S. hispida. — June 24th. Mr. J. Moore gave a report of the Excursion to Salford Priors, and showed many varieties of Helix nemoralis, collected on the way ; Mr. H. Hawkes showed a collection of plants and fungi from the same locality, among the latter was the CEcidium stage of Puccinia phragmitis. Mr. W. J. Parker then read a paper on “ The Eyes.” The writer said the eyes were most interesting, from the fact that they were the inlet of nearly all knowledge, and described the situation of the eyes, the structure of the crystalline lens, ciliary processes, choroid coat, retina and optic nerve, and showed that the eves of the vertebrata differed but little from each other, except in minor ways. After comparing them with the eyes of insects and crustaceans, the writer referred to certain defects in vision, the most remarkable of which was “Daltonism,” or colour blindness. The paper was illustrated by diagrams and micro¬ scopic slides. — July 1st. Mr. Linton exhibited a collection of fossils from the Portland beds ; Mr. J. Collins Spirogyra porticalis, showing mature zygospores ; Mr. A. Camm, Trichict fallax var. minor, a fungus on holly leaf. — July 8th. Mr. J. Madison exhibited a case of shells, showing varieties of Unio, Anodon , &c. ; Mr. P. T. Deakin, two cases of shells, one of the smaller Helices, and the other of the Plauorbis genus; Mr. J. Betteridge, specimens of Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler, and three nests of the latter, showing a great variation in form ; eggs of both birds were also shown ; Mr. J. W. Neville, a number of specimens of Clausilia, from various foreign localities. — July 15th. Mr. J. Collins exhibited under the microscope, Prasiola crispa ; Mr. J. Moore, gizzard of bee and wasp ; Mr. Corbet, a collection of polished pebbles, agates and fossil corals, from Devon¬ shire ; Mr. J. Linton, a number of fossils from the Oxford clay, Peterborough. Mr. B. Cracroft then read a paper, “ Notes on an Excursion to Cheddar,” describing the journey from Weston-super- Mare, through several picturesque villages. The first appearance of the Cheddar rocks reflected in the sheet of water, collected from nine springs, was very imposing. At every step the scenery changes ; the castellated form of some of the rocks being very striking. But the charm of the district was the caverns, where water oozed through every part, forming stalactites and stalagmites of singular form and beauty ; and when we are told that thirty years had not added appreciably to them, some idea may be formed of the countless ages to which they owe their origin. The geological features of the rocks were referred to, and the rarer plants adorning them enumerated. The paper was illustrated by a series of photographs. Sep., 1889. the fin whale fishery in north lapland. 197 THE FIN WHALE FISHERY IN NORTH LAPLAND.* BY H. BALFOUR, M.A., F.Z.S. At the beginning of August last summer, in company with Mr. A. H. Cocks, I made a trip to the extreme North of Scandinavia. Our object, to a great extent, was to visit some of the whaling stations situated in North Finmarken or Norwegian Lapland. My friend had already visited these stations on several occasions, and has published a very interesting series of papers in the “ Zoologist ” (see list given at the end). Our journey across from Hull to Throndhjem did not produce any thing of special interest, though five whales were passed when about fifteen hours from the English coast. In the Throndhjem Museum one has the opportunity of studying many of the local Cetacea, of which several very well preserved specimens may be seen. We left Throndhjem in one of the coasting mail steamers, which carried us as far as our destination, the little town of Vardo in East Finmarken ; and, as the vessel had some seventy or more stations to call at on the way, in and out of the fjords and islands, we had ample opportunity for feasting our eyes upon the magnificent and varied coast scenery. The journey occupied a week. We saw several of the smaller Cetacea en route , chiefly dolphins of different species, and it was very interesting trying to identify these, though by no means easy, from the rapidity of their movements, and from the fact of more than one species associating together in “ schools.” One smaller species we identified frequently, Delphinus Albirostris, the “Springer” of the Norwegians. This soecies is characterised bv its bold colouring of black and white in patches, its pure white beak, and very marked caudal keel. It springs very high out of the water when fishing, or sometimes apparently for the pure enjoyment of the thing ; or possibly in the endeavour to shake off trouble¬ some parasites. Besides these, D. tursio appeared to be common, and on my return south, I met with the Pilot or Ca’aing Whale (Globiocephalus melcis ), in small “schools.” Porpoises were fairly abundant in twos and threes, easily distinguished by the low and obtuse dorsal fin ; occasionally might be seen a * Read before the Oxfordshire Natural History Society, April 2nd, 1889. 198 THE FIN WHALE FISHERY IN NORTH LAPLAND. S«P., 1889. “ Killer ” ( Orca gladiator ), with its extremely high, scythe-like dorsal fin and gleaming white belly. These could be seen feeding in company with “ schools ” of dolphins, and perhaps a Lesser Rorqual ( Balaenoptera rostrata ), following the shoals of herrings, the whole presenting a very busy scene. Flying over the water would be hundreds of gulls, mid sometimes a pair of ospreys would “ join the glad throng.” It was late in the season, and fewer Cetacea were to be seen than would have been the case a little earlier. During our journey eastof the North Cape we saw no whales. The coast here is a “ howling wilderness,” a very “psiXvy/m tt)s iprgjubcrew s,” and the chief objects of interest, beyond the solemnly impressive coastline, were the various “ Fugelbergs ” or bird- cliffs, covered with close-packed thousands of gulls, kittiwakes chiefly, which present a marvellous sight. We reached the odoriferous little town of Vardo at the week’s end, and found it looking extremely uninviting. Cod fishery is its principal industry, and it advertises this fact to an almost intolerable extent. The streets are paved with codfish heads and tails, with stacks of dried codfish everywhere, and acres of codfish hung on poles, drying to become c< Stockfish,” and emitting an effluvium better left undescribed. We went almost immediately down to the nearest whale “ factory,” to see if anything was going on. One’s first instinctive impulse on reaching a whale factory, especially if there is a whale in process of demolition, is to turn round and retire again as fast as possible. There is an odour connected with these establishments which defies description. As soon, however, as one can subdue this prompting to flee, one rapidly becomes interested in the scene, and puts up with the horribly aromatic surroundings. On this occasion a common Rorqual was the centre of interest. To get close to a whale stranded at one of these factories, it is always necessary to manoeuvre considerably, as the beach for hundreds of yards round a factory is covered along the high water mark with whale remains in various states of decomposition ; bones, blubber, entrails, &c. , about a foot or eighteen inches deep, the barrier being much too wide to jump, and not inviting any attempts in that direction, as a false step would be disastrous in the extreme. One must select a path across, and choose portions which seem more consistent than the rest, and so step over, the whole slippery mass quaking violently as you cross, and per¬ haps letting you in over your ankles in cetacean decomposition. Once across it is not so bad, though still you have to be careful not to slip on the smooth rocks, as you may thus be at any moment deposited in a pool not of salt water, but of Sep., 1889. the fin whale fishery in north lapland. 199 blood, which flows in great streams from the whale’s body. These are the more unpleasant details, and I will not enlarge upon them further. The town of Vardo is situated on a small island, and boasts of two whaling “factories,” while others are built upon the mainland opposite. It is often difficult to cross over to the mainland, as the sound is frequently rough, and impassable to such cranky little tubs as one can borrow ; though the waves break verv little during the whaling season, because of the film of oil, escaped from the factories, which overlies the whole. Besides the stations at Vardo we visited one at Yeretiki, on the Murman coast, to the north of the Kola Peninsula ; but here, unfortunately, owing to the lateness of our arrival, no whales were brought in during our brief stav of two and a U O 1/ half days. It may be well, before describing the methods of capture, &c., to give a brief account of the different species of “Fin Whales ” which are the objects of pursuit in these regions. The “ Whalebone Whales ” are divided into two groups : I. The Balcenulce or “ Right Whales,” including two northern species, the “Greenland Whale,” and the “Atlantic” or “ Biscayan Whale.” These have no dorsal fin, the skin of the belly is smooth, the rostrum of the skull is compressed and rounded, and the rami of the lower jaw are strongly arched outwards, the baleen is very long, the flippers are short. The Greenland Whale averages 50ft. to 60ft. in length, the Biscayan somewhat less. II. The Balamopteridcc, including the “ Humpbacked Whale,” and the Rorquals or “Fin Whales.” It is with these that I have to deal, as the whales regularly hunted off these coasts all belong to this group. The group is divided into two genera : A. — Megapterct , containing the species M. hoops frequenting these coasts. Norwegian, “Knob” B. — Balamoptera, including the following local species : 1. — B. musculus , the Common Rorqual or “Razorback,” the “ Fin lival ” of the Nor¬ wegian whalers. 2. — B. Sibbaldii , Sibbald’s Rorqual or “Blue Whale.” Norwegian, “ Blaa lival.” 3. — B. borealis , Rudolphi’s Rorqual. Norwegian, “ Sej lival.” 4. — B. rostrata , Lesser Rorqual. Norwegian, “ Vaage lival.” 200 THE FIN WHALE FISHERY IN NORTH LAPLAND. SEF., 1B89. Briefly, the characteristics of these species are as follows : Megapterci hoops, the “Humpback.” Average length 45ft. to 50ft. Head large in proportion to body ; tail broad ; the flippers enormously long (often about 15ft.), narrow, serrated along the anterior margin, with large knobs along the edges ; colour jet black above, and white mostly below, flippers usually for the most part gleaming white ; baleen short and entirely black, the bristles forming the fringe short and coarse, and of a dirty brownish white ; body stout and comparatively short ; the pleats on the belly broad. Balcenoptera musculus, Common Rorqual. Average length 60ft. to 70ft, but often considerably more. Long and com¬ paratively slender body ; flippers very short ; colour deep greyish slate above, white below, flippers rather lighter than the upper part ; the pleats on the under surface narrower and more numerous than in the Humpback ; baleen black on the outer edge, becoming slate colour towards the middle, and striped with yellow on the inside ; bristles coarse, and light coloured, the plates short. (The name Rorqual is derived from the Norwegian “ Rorq lival '” = a whale with pleats or folds in the skin). B. Sihbaldii, “Blue Whale,” averages 60fc. to 80ft. in length, being the largest of the whale family. Head broad ; flippers large ; dorsal fin extremely low ; robust build ; colour deep bluish slate above, slightly paler below, no white except on underside of flippers ; baleen jet glossy black, including the bristles ; plates broad. B. borealis, Rudolphi’s Rorqual. Average length 35ft. to 45ft. Head broad ; dorsal fin small, but comparatively higher than in B. musculus ; flippers long and broad, pointed at the ends ; colour black above, light colour below, flippers usuallv black on the outer and white on the inner surfaces ; baleen black, with white bristles, these being of much finer texture than in the other species. B. rostrata. As the Lesser Rorqual is not regularly hunted off these coasts, no particulars need be here given of this small species. In habits these species differ slightly, though they seem for the most part to be governed by the same general instincts, and their movements and modes of living are to a very great extent the same. The range of the different species varies considerably. A difference is seen in their action in the water. In “ sounding,” that is diving straight downwards, the Humpback almost invariably disappears vertically, tossing the flukes of the tail high in the air ; the Blue Whale Sep., 1889. the fin whale fishery in north lapland. 201 sometimes does, the other species rarely or never.* The Humpback, moreover, is the only northern species possessing a well-marked voice. This whale “ screams loudly when lanced. It is said that the Sperm Whale of the south also “gives tongue ’’ when struck, and I have seen the same thing attributed to some species of dolphin. The other Rorquals are all silent, however much they may protest with their enormously powerful tails. By September most of the whales have left these coasts, and the season is coming to a close. The Blue Whales are usually the first to go, but the others follow quickly, and the season ends somewhat abruptly. The breeding habits of these whales are still but imperfectly known. It seems likely that pairing does not occur at any fixed period, while the period of gestation is probably a long one, usually more than a year. The newly born young is, roughly speaking, one-fourth the length of the mother. Thus a new-born Common Rorqual would be from 15ft. to 18ft. long, while the Blue Whale seems to give birth to propor¬ tionally larger offspring, 23ft. being no unusual size (a some¬ what formidable progeny, one must admit !). The young of this species usually accompany the mother for a considerable time ; they are frequently seen in company when the young is 50ft. long, and presumably “ of age.” The chief food of the Fin Whales consists of herring, small cod, and capelan (“ Lodde,” Norwegian ; Mallotus arcticus ); also of large quantities of “ Kril,” i.e., minute Crustacea (Enphansia inermis) ; and Calctnus Finmarchicus. The Euphansia inermis are small thysanspod Crustacea, about ljin. long, and semi-transparent, frequently found in masses inside the jaws of a stranded whale, sticking to the fringe of the baleen. Calanus Finmarchicus is one of the Copepoda, of a bright reddish colour, also found in masses on the baleen. This is apparently the chief food of Rudolphi’s Rorqual, which takes it in vast swarms near the surface. Probably, besides those I have mentioned, many other animals provide food for these whales, such as Nudibranch Mollusca, Medusae, and Pteropods, but traces of these are not easily found, as they are so rapidly digested. There are various common forms of parasites, which infest the Baltenopteridae of Finmarken. Two of the commonest appear to be restricted to one only of the local species of Fin Whale, viz. the Humpback. These two parasites * The Greenland Right Whale tosses its flukes in the air as a general custom, in the same manner as the Humpback. 202 Sep., 1889. COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. are Coronula diademct and Conchoderma auritum, both belong¬ ing to the group Cirripedia, and allied to the barnacles. The Coronula occurs often in large masses on the Humpback, especially round the snout and on the flippers, the individuals being sometimes sunk deep into the dermis, and sometimes projecting like large warts. The Right Whale of Greenland carries none of these Cirripedes, while its near ally the Biscayan Whale is usually infested with them; and the western wlialersused to distinguish between whales without “ calcareous plates” so called, these being the Greenland Whales, and those with “ calcareous plates,” the Biscayan Whales, or “ NordKaper ” as called by the Dutch and German whalers Sarde” of the Basques). The Humpback becomes early infested with these parasites ; in fact, some whalers have affirmed that they are born with them, but such a case of “ transmission of acquired character” is obviously highly improbable. The Conchoderma , which somewhat resembles the common ship’s barnacle ( Lepas anatifera), is usually found attached to the shells of the Coronulae, parasitic upon a parasite; or perhaps “ symbiotic ” more properly expresses this form of association. Almost every Humpback captured is infested with these two animals, sometimes to a marvellous extent. The third common parasite is a Cyamus, or “ Whale Louse ; ” this enjoys a free moving existence on the whales, either upon the surface, or burrowing a short distance below. A small Copepod is commonly found upon the baleen plates of the Blue Whale, and appears to be restricted to this species, unless we except Rudolphi’s Rorqual perhaps. It was described by Herr Aurivilius, of Upsala, and named Balcenophilus unisetus ( nov . gen . et sp.).* Various Entozoa occur, Echinorliynchi being most commonly met with, especially in Rudolplii’s Rorqual. I have given but a brief sketch of the natural history of these whales, as I wish now to turn to the question of their capture and conversion into merchandise. (To be continued.) HISTORY OF THE COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. BY WM. MATHEWS, M.A. ( Contimied from page 186.) Lees, in “ Botany of the Malvern Hills.” * Typha angustifolia, 48. Abundant at New Pool, Malvern Cliace. Ill. V., P. Z. S., 1886. Sep., 1889. COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. 203 * Sparganium natans, 48. (S. minimum in 3rd Edition.) From a muddy pool at Cotheridge. From the late John Walcot, Esq. A true record for Sparganium minimum. Ill. See ante, “Midland Naturalist ,” Vol. XI., p. 206. Lemna minor, 48. * Potainogeton natans, 45. Ill. f P. lanceolatus, 45. An error. Omitted in the 2nd and 3rd Editions. P. perfoliatus, 45. P. crispus, 45. P. gramineus, 45. P. obtusifolius (P. gramineus Sm.) is probably intended here. P. pusillus, recorded from Kempsey Ford in the III. is omitted in the 1st and 2nd Editions, but noted in the 3rd as growing in a pool on Barnard's Green. * P. pectinatus, 45. Ill. * Zannichellia palustris, 47. Pools on Welland Common. * Triglochin palustre, 46. Ill. * Alisma Plantago, 46. Ill. * Butomus umbellatus, 47. Castle Morton, bordering on Longdon Marsh. Ill. * Hydrocharis Morsus-ranae, 48. Pools. E. Ill. * Orchis pyramidalis, 47. Ill. * 0. ustulata, 47. 0. morio, 47. 0. niascula, 47. * 0. latifolia, 47. * 0. maculata, 47. * Gymnadenia conopsea, 47. Ill. * Habenaria viridis, 47. Ill. * H. chlorantha, 47. Woods on the Limestone. III. as 0. bifolia. H. bifolia, 47. Open pastures. E. and W. Ill. * Ophrys apifera, 47. About the vicinity of the Croft and Leigh Sinton Lime Works. Ill. * Neottia spiralis, 47. ( Spiranthes autumnalis.) Ill. * Listera ovata, 47. * L. ( Neottia ) Nidus-avis, 47. Ill. * Epipactis latifolia, 47. In most of the western woods. * Iris foetidissima, 43. Ill. I. Pseudacorus, 43. * Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus, 46. In New's Wood, and several others about Little Malvern. Ill. * N. biflorus, 46. In orchards at the Berrow. Ill. } * Galanthus nivalis, 46. In a little meadow at the northern base of the Herefordshire Beacon. Ill. In the County of Hereford. 204 COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. Sep., 1889. * Tamus communis, 48. * Paris quadrifolia, 46. In most of the shady woods on both sides of the hills. Ill. * Tulipa sylvestris, 46. In an abandoned limestone quarry at Mathon. Ill. * Allium vineale, 46. Borders of the fields about Malvern Wells and Hanley. Ill. * A. oleraceum, 46. Rare. E. Ill. * A. ursinum, 46. Moist woods. 111. * Colchicum autumnale, 46. E. and W. Ill. * Luzula Fosteri, 46. L. pilosa, 46. * L. sylvatica, 46. * L. campestris, 46. * L. congesta ( multiflora ), 46. Ill. * Juncus conglomerate, 46. * J. effusus, 46. J. acutiflorus, 46. * J. lamprocarpus, 46. * J. uliginosus ( supinus ), 46. Ill. J. compressus. * J. bufonius, 46. Juncus (jlaucus is not recorded in the 1st Edition. Blysmus compressus, 44. Abundant on the margin of springy spots on the hills, especially about the Wells. * Eleocharis palustris, 44. E. multicaulis, 44. In the 2nd and 3rd Editions the locality given is : “ Marshy spots on Castle Morton Common .” I have never seen this plant in the Malvern district , and think it possible that the next species may have been mistaken for it. Scirpus pauciflorus, 44. In the 2nd and 3rd Editions, same locality as the last. See Scott, “ Midland Naturalist ,” Vol. XI., p. 40. * f S. caespitosus. 44. Probably an error. Not noticed in the 2nd and 3rd Editions. S. fluitans, 43. Pools. E. * S. setaceus, 43. E. * S. maritimus, 44. In several ditches about Longdon Marsh. * S. sylvaticus, 44. Chalybeate Pool. Ill. + Eriophorum pubescens (lati folium), 44. On the Colwall side of the hills. Hereford. * E. polystachion (angusti folium), 44. Bog on the western base of the Worcestershire Beacon. Ill. f Elyna ( Kobresia ) caricina. Side of New Pool near Wood Farm. Not noted in 3rd Edition, nor in “ Botany of Worcestershire .” Must be an error. Sep., 1889. 205 COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. Carex. Of this genus thirty -three species are noted. Among them are the following : — * C. dioica, 48. (In the 3rd Edition the localities given are : “ Bog near Key send Hill; also in a boggy place on the declivity of the Worcestershire Beacon." “ Specimens are preserved in the Herbarium of the Worcestershire Natural History Society , gathered by Mr. George Reece, the assiduous curator ." f C. teretiuscula, 48. Probably an error. Not in the 2nd or 3rd Editions. See Scott, “ Midland Naturalist ," Vol. XI., p. 40. C. ovalis var. bracteata, 48. On the common below Malvern Wells. t C. stricta, 48. Probably an error. See Scott, “ Midland Naturalist," Vol. XI., p. 41. C. recurva (glauca), 48. f C. liraosa, 48. Not in 2nd or 3rd Editions. An error. See Scott, “ Midland Naturalist," Vol. XI., p. 41. * C. distans, 48. Locality in 3rd Edition, Longdon Marsh. * (?) C. paludosa, 48. See Miss Beilby, “ Midland Naturalist," Vol. XI., p. 307. Alopecurus pratensis, 44. Phleum pratense, 45. Var. nodosum recorded by Scott. Gastridium lendigerum, 45. Sarn Hill, near Longdon. Agrostis canina, 45. * Calamagrostis Epigejos, 45. Filling a wet field at the Berrow. Ill. * Arundo Phragmites, 45. Abundant in Longdon Marsh. Ill. Aira caespitosa, 45. * A. (Koeleria) cristata, 45. In 2nd and 3rd Editions. On Raggedstone Hill, Worcestershire. Ill. * Avena flavescens, 45. * Av. pratensis, 45. * Av. fatua, 45. * Triodia decumbens, 45. Beacon. Malvern Cliace. * Poa ( Sclilerochloa ) rigida, 45. Ill. * P. (Glycerin) aquatica, 45. Ill. * P. ( Glyceria) fluitans, 45. P. annua, 45. P. compressa, 45. * P. nemoralis, 45. f Briza minor 1 45. An error. In the 2nd and 3rd Editions this is called B. media var. abortiva, ivith the locality, “ Bog at the base of the Worcestershire Beacon." See Scott, “ Midland Naturalist," Vol. XL, p. 42. B. media, 45. * Festuca bromoides ( sciuroides , Roth.) 45. * F. Myurus, 45. * F. elatior, 45. * F. pratensis, 45. * F. loliacea, 45. * Bromus giganteus, 45. * Br. erectus, 45. * Br. secalinus, 45. * Br. racemosus, 45. Ill. 206 Sep., 1889. COUNTY BOTANY OF WORCESTER. * Brachypodium sylvaticum, 45. Ill. * Brach. pinnatum, 45. Ill. * Triticum cauinum, 45. * Lolium temulentum, 45. * Elymus europaeus ( Hordeum sylvaticum , Huds.). In several of the western woods. * Hordeum pratense, 45. * Nardus stricta, 45. Ill. * Pteris aquilina, 50. Allosorus crispus, 50. In a fissure of a crumbling rock on one of the eastern buttresses of the Herefordshire Beacon, above the Priory Farm, Little Malvern, Worcestershire. Extinct ? * Blechnum boreale, 50. On boggy ground about the hills. Ill. * Asplenium Ruta-muraria, 50. 111. * Asp. Trichomanes, 50. In crevices among the shady rocks of the hills. * Asp. viride, 50. Ham Bridge. Ill. See ante, “ Midland Naturalist, ” Vol. XI., p. 223. Extinct. * Asp. Adiantum-nigrum, 50. Common on the rocks. 111. * Athyrium Filix-foemina, 51. Ill. * Ath. irriguum, 52. Bog on western base of Worcestershire Beacon. Yar. of preceding. Ill. * Grammitis Ceterach, Ceterach officinaruvi, 52. Ill. On a lofty stone wall, close to the road at Great Malvern, near the entrance of Holly Lodge. Extinct in this locality, see 3rd Edition , which see also for other habitats. * Scolopendrium vulgare, 52. Common. * Aspidium aculeatum, 51. Ill. * and var. lobatum, 51. Ill. * Asp. angulare, 51. Ill. Lastraea Filix-mas, 51. t L. cristata, 51. In Crow’s Nest Wood, between Worcester and Cotheridge, according to the Herbarium of the late Mr. T. Stretch, of Worcester. Ail error, not in 2nd nor in 3rd Editions. See Miss Beilby, “ Midland Naturalist ,” Vol. XI., p. 307. * L. spinulosa, 51. Ill. * L. dilatata, 51. Ill. *L. Oreopteris, 51. Ill. * Polypodium vulgare, 50. Ill. * P. Dryopteris, 50. Ill. j See ante, “ Midland Naturalist," f P. calcareum, 50. Ill. An error, f Vol. XI., p. 224. * Ophioglossum vulgatum, 50. Abundant on the southern side of Longdon Marsh ; also in Grimley Meadows near Worcester, Mr. A. Edmunds. 2nd Edition, 1887 ; on the turf near the entrance of Purlieu Lane, 1850. 3rd Edition ; in a field near the new church, Malvern Link. * Chara flexilis, 49. In great abundance in pools on Castle Morton Common. C. vulgaris. Pools and bog holes. C. hispida. Ditches of Longdon Marsh. N.B. — Cnicus arvensis, 38. First record is omitted from page 162. (To be continued.) ’Sep., 1889. MOLLUSCA OF NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE. 207 THE LAND AND FRESH WATER MOLLUSCA OF NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE. COMPILED BY JOHN R. B. MASEFIELD, M.A. Note. — The initials of the authorities quoted refer as follows : — L. E. A.— Mr. Lionel E. Adams, B.A., Penistone. J. It. B. M. — Mr. John It. B. Masefield, M.A., Itoseliill, Cheadle, Staffordshire. E. D. B. — Mr. Edwin D. Bostock, The Radfords, Stone. T. E. B. — Mr. Thos. F. Burrows, Daisy Bank, Cheadle. F. B. W.— Mr. Fred. B. Webb, Stafford. AQUATIC. CONCHIFERA. SPHERIIDiE. SPH2ERIUM. 1. — Sphserium corneum ,, v. flavescens ,, v. nucleus 2. ,, rivicola 3. ,, ovale 4. ,, lacustre ,, v. Brochoniana PISIDIUM. 5. — Pisidium amnion m 6. — ,, fontinale 7. — „ nitidum UNIONIDiE. UNIO. 8. — Unio tumidus ,, ,, v. radiata „ ,, v. richensis 9. ,, pictorum ,, ,, v. longirostris ANODONTA. Common everywhere. Canals, Stone (J. R. B. M.), Stafford (F. B. W.) Canal, Barlaston (J. R. B. M.) Common, all canals and rivers. Froghall Canal, very fine (J.R.B.M.) Stoke-on-Trent Canal (F. B. W.) Stafford (F. B. W.) Ditto Canals, common. On duckweed in ponds, fairly common. River, Stafford (F. B. W.), Colwich (J. R. B. M.) In all large pools, meres andjcanals. Canal, Colwich (J. R. B. M.) Copmere (J. R. B. M.) Large pools, meres and canals. Copmere (J. R. B. M.), Canal, Colwich (F.B. W.), also var. with rich salmon nacre (J. R. B. M.) 10. — Anodonta cygnea 11. ,, v. radiata ,, v. incrassata ,, v. Zellensis 1 ,, v. pallida 1 ,, v. rostrata J anatina .Same localities as Unios, very large, in pool, Aston, Stone. Stone Canal (J. R. B. M.) Hales Hall Pool, Cheadle (J.R.B.M. ) Copmere (J. R. B. M.) Same localities as last. V. S, f Canal. Colwich (J. R. B. M.) 208 MOLLUSC A OF NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE. Sep., 1889. DREISSENIDiE. DREISSENA. 12. — Dreissena polymorpha GASTEROPODA. NERITIDiE. NERITINA. 13.— Neritina fluviatilis ,, ,, v. cerina Walls of Canal, Colwich, very fine, with a variety, with a white line down the centre of each valve (J. R. B. M.), Stafford (F. B. W.) Canal, Colwich (J. R. B. M.) Ditto Milford (L. E. A.) PALUDINIDiE. PALUDINA. 14. — Palndina vivipara Canals everywhere. J ? 5* 5 J BYTHINIA. 15. — Bythinia tentaculata Common all canals and rivers. v. zonata^ ' River Sow> Stafford (L. E. A.) m. decollation Stone Canal (J. R. B. M.), Stafford (L. E. A.) 16. ,, Leachii Ditto, Canal, Haywood (L. E. A.) VALVATIDiE. YALYATA. 17. — Valvata piscinalis 18. 55 55 cristata Canal, Stone, Froghall and river Colwich (J. R. B. M.) v. acuminata Stafford (L. A. A.) Stafford (F. B. W.) LIMNiEIDiE. PLANORBIS. 19. — Planorbis nitidus 20. ,, nautileus 21. ,, albus 22. ,, spirorbis 23. 24. 25. 26. vortex carinatus complanatus corneus 27. ,, contortus PHYSA. 28. — Pliysa hypnorum 29. ,, fontmalis ,, ,, v. inflata v. curta Stafford (E. D. B.), Canal, Oaka- moor (T. F. B.) Maer Pool (J. R. B. M.), Stafford (L. E. A.) Pools and streams generallv. Stafford, Stone (F. B. W.), Froghall (T. F. B.) Ditto, very common, Fairly common, canals, &c. Very common. Local — Canal, Stone (J. R. B. M.), River Sow, Stafford (L. E. A.) Canal and river.Stafford, Newcastle, Froghall (T. F. B.) Stafford (L. E. A.) Burton-on-Trent (Dr. Mason.) On weed in running streams. Cheadle (J. R. B. M.), river, Stafford (E. D, B.) Stafford (L. E. A. Sep., 1889. MOLLUSC A OF NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE. 209 LIMNEA. 30. — Limnea peregra 5 9 59 v. ovata 31. 32. ,, ,, v. ampulacea ,, ,, v. picta m. decollation ^ nil v»i on! 59 99 auricularia ,, v. albida stagnalis 55 33. 34. 35. 55 55 55 55 55 v. albida v. labiata palustris truncatula glabra ,, v. elongata j~ ,, m. decollation J ANCYLUS. 36. — Ancylus fluviatilis ,, v. capuloides ,, v. albida ,, v. stricta 37. ,, lacustris ,, ,, v. compressa 1 ,, v. Moquiniana ,, v. albida 5 5 55 55 59 9 9 5 9 Common in every ditcli and pool. Cheadle (J. JR. B. M.), river, Stafford (F. B. W.) Clieadle, very fine (J. R. B. M.) Ditto, one specimen. Ditto. Stafford (F. B. W.), Cheadle and Colwicli (J. R. B. M.) Colwich Canal one specimen (J. R. B. M.) Barlaston pools and canals, Stone, verv fine (J. R. B. M.), Stafford (F. B. W.) Pool, Cannock Chase (L. E. A.) Stafford (L. E. A.) Ditches in meadows generally. Ditto. Canal, Stoke (F. B.W.), ponds near Cheadle — fine (T. F. B.) Common on stones in streams. Stafford — very large (F. B. W.) Cannock Chase (J. R. B. M.) Stafford (L. E. A.) Common — ponds and pools. Canal, Colwich — local (L. E. A.) TERRESTRIAL. ARIONIDiE. ARION. 38. — Arion ater .. ,, v. rufa 39. 40. 41. ,, ,, v. albolateralis ,, ,, v. brunea ,, ,, v. nigrescens ,, hortensis ,, Bourginati ,, subfuscus Common. Rosehill, Cheadle (J. R. B. M.) Stafford, one specimen (L. E. A.) Barlaston (J. R. B. M.) Stafford (L. E. A.) Common in gardens. Cheadle (F.B.W.), Stafford (L.E. A.) Ditto. v. aurantiaca Stafford (L. E. A.) LIMACID2E. AMALIA. 42. — Amalia gagates v. plumbea 43. ,, marginata LIMAX. 44. — Limax maximus 45. 5 9 95 59 99 99 flavus v. cinerea v. Johnstoni v. fasciata v. griscea Stafford (L. E. A.) Stone (J. R. B. M.) Common in cellars — one specimen 6£in. in length (J. R. B. M. ) Stafford (L. E. A.) Cheadle (J. R. B. M.) Cheadle (J.R.B.M.). Stone (E.D.B.) Stafford (L. E. A.) 210 MOLLUSCA OF NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE. Sep., 1889. 46. - 47. -Limaxcinereo-niger v. maura) ,, v.luctuosa } ,, agrestris ?? v. nigra ? ? 1 ? v. lilacina M 5? v. sylvatica 9 * v. albida 48. 5) laevis 49. 5* arborum HELICIDiE. SUCCINEA. Very common everywhere. j- Stafford (L. E. A.) Clieadle (J. R. B. M.) Stafford (L. E. A.) Clieadle (J. R. B. M.), Stafford (L. E. A.) 50.- — Succmea putris On flags and reeds by canals. 51. ,, elegans VITRINA. Stafford (L.E.A.), Stone (E.D.B.) — one specimen. 52.- — Vitrina pellucida ZONITES. Common under stones everywhere. 53.- — Zonites cellarius Ditto. ,, ,, v. albinos Clieadle (J. R. B. M.), Stafford (L. E. A.) 54. ,, alliarius Under decayed wood and stones. ,, ,, v. viridula Cauldon (T. F. B.) 55. „ glaber Stafford (L. E. A.), Weaver Hills (T. F. B.) 56. ,, nitidulus Common under leaves, stones, &c. 57. ,, purus Clieadle (J.R.B.M.), Stone (E.D.B.) ,, ,, v. margaritacea Cheadle (J. R. B. M.) 58. ,, radiatulus Clieadle, fairly common (J.R.B.M.) ,, ,, v.viridesceuti-alba High Shut, Cheadle (T. F. B.) 59. ,, excavatus Byrth Hill, Maer ( J. R. B. M.) 60. ,, nitidus Stafford (L. E. A.) 61. ,, crystallinus Common, Cheadle (J.R.B.M.), very fine, Cauldon (T. F. B.) 62. ,, fulvus HELIX. Cheadle, local (J.R.B.M.), Stafford (F. B. W.) 63.- -Helix aculeata Cheadle, Leek, Grindon (J.R.B.M.) 64. ,, aspersa Stafford, rare and Colwicli, local (L. E. A.) — not further north in county. 65. ,, nemoralis Common in hedgerows and especially on the limestone (J. R. B. M.) ,, ,, v. libellula Ditto ,, ,, v. albolabiata Ditto ,, ,, v. roseolabiata Ditto ,, ,, v. rubella Ditto ,, ,, v. castanea Abundant in Dovedale (J. R.B.M.) 66. ,, hortensis Fairly common in gardens. ,, ,, v. lutea Stone. 67. ,, arbustorum Local, Cheadle (J. R. B. M.) ,, ,, v. alpestris Grindon (F. B. W.) ,, ,, v. pallida Ditto and Dovedale (E. D. B.) ,, ,, v. flavescens Cheadle (T. F. B.) ,, ,, v. cincta Grindon (T. F. B.) Skp., 1889. MOLLUSCA OF NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE. 211 68. — Helix rufescens v. rubens v. albida 69. 11 concinna 1 1 ,, y. albida 70. 11 hispida 11 ,, v. albida 71. 11 caperata 72. 1 1 virgata 73. 11 ericetorum 11 ,, v. gricescf 74. 1 1 rotundata 11 ,, v. albida 75. 11 rupestris 76. 11 pygmea 77. 11 pulchella 11 ,, v. costata 78. 11 lapicida BULIMUS. 79. — Bulimus obscurus ,, ,, v. albinos PUPA. 80. — Pupa secale 81. ,, umbilicata 82. ,, marginata VERTIGO. 83. — Vertigo pygmea 84. ,, substriata 85. ,, edentula ,, ,, v. columella BALEA. 86. — Balea perversa CLAUSILIA. 87. — Clausilia rugosa ,, ,, v. dubia 88. „ laminata ,, ,, v. albinos COCHLICOPA. 89. — Cochlicopa lubrica ,, ,, v. lubricoides 90. ,, tridens ACHATINA. 91. — Acliatina acicula CARYCHIUM. 92. — Carychium minimum Stafford (L.E.A.), Grindon (F.B.W.) Froghall (T. F. B.) Grindon (F. B. W.) Common under stones, &c. Grindon (F. B. W.), Weaver Hills (T. F. B.) Common at foot of walls, Ac. Cheadle (J. R. B. M.) Weaver Hills (J. R. B. M.) Grindon (F. B. W.) Grindon(F.B.W.)Dovedale(J.R.B.M) Near Dovedale (T. F. B.) Common under stones and bark. Cheadle — one specimen (J. R. B. M.) Common on limestone. Cheadle (T. F. B.), Stafford (L.E.A.) Common on limestone. Grindon (F. B. W.) Dovedale (J. R. B. M.) Cheadle, Stafford, Ac. Weaver Hills (J. R. B. M.) Grindon (F. B. W.) Stafford, Cheadle, Ac. Grindon (F. B. W.) Grindon (F. B. W.) Leek (J. R. B. M.) Cheadle, Leek (J.R.B.M.), Stafford (L. E. A.) Cheadle (J. R. B. M.) Cauldon (T. F. B.), Ramsor (J. R. B. M.) Common on rocks and walls. Stone (E. D. B.) Stone, Stafford, Cauldon. Grindon (F. B. W.) Common amongst dead leaves (J. R. B. M.) Stafford (F. B. W.) Ilam (T. F. B.) Grindon (F. B. W.), Dovedale (T. F. B.) Cheadle (J. R. B. M.), Stafford (L. E. A.) 212 THE POCKET DREDGE. Sep., 1889. In Mr. Garner's “ History of Staffordshire,” he includes the follow¬ ing species, but these have not been met with in recent years : — “Helix cantiana — not rare in Dovedale and Wetton Valley.” “ Helix fusca — Stoke-on-Trent; dell at Oakamoor.” “ Helix lamellata — among leaves in a valley at Oakamoor ; only three specimens found in October living : Mr. Carter.” “ Succinea oblonga — Staffordshire ; Birmingham Museum.” “ Clausilia biplicata — Alton Castle ; Mr. Carter.” “ Limnea glutinosa — common, Stoke-on-Trent.” “ Planorbis laevis (glaber) — occasional in pools.” “ Planorbis lineatus — canals, Stoke.” “ Paludina contecta — canals.” “ Pisidium obtusale (pusillum) — frequent, Betley Pool.’’ THE POCKET DREDGE. BY E. W. BURGESS. Having many times been much put about when travelling on the seas, and for the purpose of dredging having to make use of zinc-pans, or tinned-meat cans loaded with the log-lead to weight the article used, and the log-line to draw it up to the vessel, I have found much inconvenience in the use of such utensils ; and hearing that Mr. David Robertson, of Millport, Scotland, had made a dredge 7in. wide, I thought I would also try to do the same. Therefore I wrote to Mr. W. P. Marshall to get the particulars of the Birmingham Natural History Society’s dredges ; and he gave me a sketch of the smallest of these to scale, with a few hints about making it. But as I had great trouble in having one made by the black¬ smith I applied to, I gave him up and tried another way, by making a model in wood, and getting it cast in brass. I drilled holes in each side to join the head to the bag with copper- wire, and also curved the bars connecting the scrapers, so that the scraping edge should be wider than the inside, and used sacking-canvas for the bag 12in. long, and connected the head to the dredge-rope by two wire handles. The line attached to the dredge was a strong water-line Jin. in diameter, nearly the thickness of a black-lead pencil, marked in six-feet lengths (fathoms), each five fathoms in similar coloured worsted or a combination of colours twisted through the strands — such as, the first five fathoms red ; the next five yellow, &c. — for the convenience of counting the depth of the water dredged. I found at times a little trouble ; the bottom was very rocky, the dredge getting fast and requiring the boat to return over the dredge to free it. In using the dredge, I had a piece of wire-rope nearly the same size as the other, and 4ft. long, attached to the dredge, and at the end furthest from the Sep., 1889. THE POCKET DREDGE. 213 dredge a lead weight of 31b. fastened at the junction of the wire-rope and the marked cord. Also an ordinary wooden cross-frame for winding the cord upon. I used the dredge, as thus made, and found it work very well, except that the bag required altering. On showing it to a gentleman who has done a great deal of dredging in all parts of the world (Government work, &c.), he advised me to try chains attached to the bars. I tried the chains, and went out dredging. The water was very rough for the small boat I was in, and the dredge would not act, so I altered it back to the wire handles as formerly, and tried a fresh bag made to open at the lower end, and longer, being 24in long. This I found to act splendidly. Being open at the end, it required tying in a bunch about 2in. from the end ; and on bringing it up full, I untied the end, and dropped its contents out into a coarse sieve of -|in. mesh, lying within a finer one to retain sand and foraminifera, and yet allowing the finer mud to be washed out by agitating the sieve in the sea. The sieve should first be tied to the boat, as I had one knocked out of my hand, and lost it, being metal, in the depths below. In the coarsest sieve were found brittle-stars, stones, algae, viz., Melobesia calcarea ; and hydroids, as Sertidarius, Ac. If possible, a vessel, such as a baling can, might be used in the boat to wash and separate many foraminifera, by putting a portion of the sand or mud in it with water, and giving a rapid circular motion to its contents ; then, on pouring the water through the finest sieve immediately the sand begins to settle, we retain the forms that will float ; always keep some of the mud unwashed, to wash at leisure at home. Then look carefully over the residue for such forms as Astrortriza limisola , Ac. This procedure enables one to carry away less waste material. Again, the bag can be made of different materials, accord¬ ing to the character of the objects dredged for ; such as an outside bag of open canvas, and an interior bag of silk gauze, which will allow free egress to the water, but retain the objects desired. A small pocket, drawn together by a cord, at the entrance of the bag, made on the principle of an eel or lobster- trap, will retain the objects in case the dredge is inverted. These few remarks I have made, thinking that some of the members of the Birmingham Natural History and Micro¬ scopical Society might like to have such an object as a pocket dredge. As to cost, weight, &c. : Cord, 50ft., 5s. ; making of dredge, under 5s. ; weight of ditto, 31b. 2oz. ; lead, 31b. ; total weight, cord, dredge, and lead, 91b. 2oz. 214 PETROLOGY OF LOCAL PEBBLES. Sep., 1889. THE PETROLOGY OF OUR LOCAL PEBBLES. BY T. H. WALLER, B.A., B.SC. (Continued from page 178.) (2) A white quartzite (2) from Sutton. The component grains are more rounded than is the case in (1), but still they must be called subangular. They are of about the same average dimensions as those in the last specimen, but a quartz vein cuts across the section, and in it the “ mosaic ” is on a good deal larger scale. This pebble also contains a considerable quantity of what appears to be a decomposed felspar ; the edges of the fragments are only just rounded off, to no greater degree than the quartz grains. One grain was observed showing the cross hatched extinction pattern of microcline. A good many zircons and tourmalines of considerable size lie among the quartz grains, but not in them ; unless one crystal of which the exact form could not be distinguished, but which possessed a high double refraction, may have been a zircon. Some bodies of high refractive index, as shown by the solid appearance they had in the quartz, appeared isotropic, and seemed to have crystal faces, but the shape could not be made out. There is also a number of grains of a colourless, or very faintly yellow, mineral, apparently decomposed, along cracks, which stands out in decidedly greater relief than the quartz grains and does not appear to have the secondary quartz grown to it. (3) A yellowish white quartzite (4), from Sutton. This pebble contained lingula. The quartz grains are small, from *005 to '003 of an inch. They are slightly rounded, and the cementing quartz is in optical continuity with them. A few flakes of white mica and a few grains of felspar are mixed with the quartz, but the most noticeable feature is the verv great richness in zircon and rutile, especially the former. In one field of 2lo inch diameter I counted ten rounded grains of zircon and two or three of rutile. They appear to have been loose in the sand from which the quartzite had been compacted. A small quantity of this quartzite was treated with hydrofluoric acid, and the grains which were left collected by subsidence. They are, as the slide shows, zircons and a few rutiles. In the solution, after evaporation to get rid of the silica, titanic acid and zirconia could be easily detected ; Sep., 1889. PETROLOGY OF LOCAL PEBBLES. 215 but it did not seem worth while to undertake the very awkward quantitative separation of these oxides, especially as such a large quantity of mineral had escaped solution. (4) A light quartzite (18), with dark bands about inch wide, and at distances of from three to five-sixteenths of an inch. This pebble was obtained from a stoneheap by the roadside between Alvecurch and Blackwell, so that the exact place in the beds is uncertain. It is composed of somewhat angular quartz grains, many somewhat rectangular in shape, and in parts of the section these appear to lie with the longer dimension of the rectangle across the direction of the banding, so that, neglecting the banding which, under the microscope, is not very obtrusive, the impression is certainly of the bedding being at right angles or thereabouts to the bands. The dark bands are produced by black cloudy grains of quartz and by a black dust, which in some cases incrusts the quartz grains, and in others is distributed through the cementing quartz. Where it has incrusted the grains it has not by any means always prevented the optical continuity of the old and new material. Flakes of white mica are rare, and a few zircons are present as usual. (5) A dark red quartzite (30) from Sutton. The grains of quartz are subangular, and the rock owes its colour to the pellicle of oxide of iron with which almost every grain is covered. This has prevented the cementing quartz from being deposited on the original, and it fills the interspaces which, from the angular character of the com¬ ponent grains and the consequent close fitting, are, on the whole, small, in masses which show a coloured mosaic in polarised light, (6) A pebble from Sutton (24) which has the appearance of a coarse grit. It shows, however, on microscopical examination, that it has been subjected to very great shearing. The larger pebbles are crushed, and in many cases recemented with new quartz ; and in scarcely any one of them is the polarisation uniform and normal, but shows the irregular shadows due to the deform¬ ing of the crystal. Flowing as it were round them, and prolonged in considerable tails and streams, lie abundant minute flakes of a pale mineral, of high double refraction — probably some form of mica. A few large zircons are present, and there is a very large development of new quartz in the interlocking grains which characterise the schists, but on a small scale. 216 PETROLOGY OF LOCAL PEBBLES. Sep., 1889. The rock is exactly the representative of some of the rocks from Sutherland, with which Dr. Lapwortli made us familiar some years ago ; but the fact of its being made out of a tolerably pure quartz grit produces, of course, a differ¬ ence in its appearance from the absence of felspar and hornblende, which are present in the crushed gneisses of the north . (7) A yellow quartzite (9) from Sutton. This is an example of a rock that has been still further crushed and spread out than the last. The larger pieces forming the “eyes” are in many cases quite broken up, although the pieces are not moved away from each other or only slightly so, and the whole has been cemented into an exceedingly compact mass by abundant quartz, with mica flakes, in just the same way as in the last example. (8) A dark-reddish, laminated pebble (22) from Alvechurch. Exactly similar stones occur at Sutton. In this rock the crushing and rolling has gone still further than in the previous case. With the exception of a few opaque spots which seem to have determined the formation of many cracks, which have afterwards been filled or partially so with oxide of iron, I can distinguish no mineral but quartz, much of it in intricately interlocked grains. The whole rock has a good deal of dusty matter distributed through it, usually without any definite arrangement into lines. At most it is slightly heaped together in a few places. A pebble (38) from Sidnal presents some peculiar features. It has the look of a laminated mass of somewhat opaque grains separated by pale yellow lines, which occasionally show themselves as flakes of golden mica. The crumbly nature of the rock makes a good section difficult to obtain, and what I have got is not in the best direction for examining the speci¬ men. The grains are quartz, but a good deal crushed, and the cementing quartz has the interlocking texture A few frag¬ ments of felspar are suggested more than certainly recognisable. The main points in which the quartzites which I have mentioned differ from those of the Lickey. of the Nuneaton - Hartshill ridge, and of the Wrekin, so far as they are known to me, are (a) The original quartz grains are very much less perfectly rounded. (b) The average size is much less. (c) The quantity of zircons and other heavy minerals is much greater. Sep., 1889. PETROLOGY OF LOCAL PEBBLES. 217 I may also refer to Mr. Teall’s report on the subject in the paper of Mr. Harrison’s previously quoted. The next group of specimens derived from the pebbles to which I will call your attention is a remarkable set of tourmaline-bearing rocks. They vary from pebbles consisting of pure white quartz, pierced by needles of tourmaline of the black variety, of quite considerable dimensions, such as No. 6, to others where the mixture of the minerals is more uniform, such as No. 48, from Sidnal Farm, Blackwell, and No. 25 from Sutton, and further to such a perfect schorl schist as No. 5, which I owe to the kindness of Mr. A.T. Evans, who collected it at the King’s Heath pit. With these we find specimens at Alvechurch, Moseley, and Sutton, of a sort of breccia, Nos. 7 and 8, in which the component fragments are of a sort of schorl schist, and the cementing material contains also a very large quantity of the tourmaline. In addition to these we find at King’s Heath pebbles of a porphyritic granite and of an elvan in which a large amount of tourmaline is contained. In the latter rock it would appear from the forms of the tourmaline aggregates that they replace, in some instances at all events, crystals of felspar. To take a few of these in more detail. (9) Quartz-tourmaline rock from Sidnal’s farm, Blackwell. A coarse grained mixture of the two minerals. The quartz is clear and polarises in large areas. There are a considerable number of fluid cavities, but none containing salt crystals were observed. The tourmaline belongs largely to the variety which, in certain directions, possesses the splendid blue colour, in consequence of which the name indicolite has been given to it. As is usual, patches and blotches are differently coloured in the sections, and, except in basal sections, which in several cases are quite hexagonal, there is presented the striking dichroism peculiar to tourmaline. Clustered on the edges of the larger masses are fringes composed of fine blades of the same mineral, with the same blue and yellow colours. These fringes are at times of considerable length, i.e., of about of an inch. It forms an object of great beauty for a low power. (10) A dark rock (25) from Sutton. This has the appearance of a dark quartzite, but a thin slice shows that it is really a very similar rock to the last, but of finer grain. It is, also, distinctly schistose, the tourmaline forming more or less connected ramifying strings, made up of very minute grains winding among grains of quartz. 218 PETROLOGY OF LOCAL PEBBLES. Sep., 1889 There are, in addition, a number of small blades or needles of tourmaline of more usual appearance. The specimen has been much cracked, faulted, and recemented. The cracks have been filled up with quartz, which is traversed by needles of tourmaline, showing up very beautifully in the transparent quartz. (11) Tourmaline schist (5) from King’s Heath. Beautifully crystallised schist, with a fine set of micro¬ faults. The quartz of the veins is larger grained than that of the body of the rock, and contains, as in the last case, needles of tourmaline radiating from the walls of the crack. (12) Breccia from Alvechurcli (8). Exactly similar pebbles occur at King’s Heath and Sutton. It has the appearance of quartz rock which contained a few fine strings of tourmaline — it scarcelv amounts to a tourmaline schist — broken up and cemented by a mass containing a much larger proportion of tourmaline, in many parts containing very little else. In hand specimens and in sections to the naked eye, the brecciated character is obvious, but from the fact of the original tourmaline and that of the cement being of just the same appearance, the whole has, under the microscope, the aspect of a quartz tourmaline rock in which the latter mineral has aggregated into clots and strings. (18) Appears like a quartz felsite which has been sub¬ jected to strong alteration. The specimen (from King’s Heath, No. 12) has a sparkling, obviously crystalline ground, in which large quartz grains are visible to the naked eye. There are numerous aggregated masses of crystals of black tourmaline, which in many cases have rectangular outline? indicating the replacement of felspar. Under the microscope the tourmaline presents the usual characters, but is more widely disseminated through the section than appears macroscopically. The ground shows a mosaic polarisation in quite considerable sized grains, and there are no certain indications of any mineral but quartz composing it. The larger porphyritic quartz grains are rounded, not very numerous in the section examined, and contain fine acicular crystals of a pale yellowish green, which do not show any definite faces from which to form a judgment as to their nature. There are also numerous fluid cavities, and in one or two of the grains the little crystals are arranged almost concentrically, the section being very nearly at right angles to the principal axis of the quartz. The quartz of the Sep., 1889. REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 219 ground also contains numerous fluid cavities, mostly minute, and some bands traverse the whole which have a dusty appearance, with a low power, but show themselves as due to minute flakes of irregular shape and brownish colour, when a power of about 400 is applied. These bands cut across the grains of the ground, and, indeed, are broader than the average size of them, so that they are probably cracks produced and filled up subsequently to the original meta¬ morphism of the rock. A little apparently rectangular cavity was observed, lined with a number of little orange needles, which, on examination, proved to be quartz crystals stained with iron oxide, and frequently traversed by fine greenish-brown needles apparently of tourmaline. I have compared with this specimen some sections of “ Scliorlaceous Elvan ” from Cornwall, which Mr. Allport gave me some time ago. The similarity is very great, except that the process of alteration has gone further than in those in which the outline of the felspar portions were still visible (the structure was micro-granitic). The porphyritic granite, of which mention was made (No. 14) only differs as a hand specimen from the last previously described in the occurrence of large porphyritic crystals of felspar, some being as much as lin. long. In other respects, such as the grey ground, the porphyritic quartz grains, and the plentiful occurrence of tourmaline aggregates, there is no difference. Shells from Ireland.— Mr. G. W. Mellors, of Nottingham, who has recently visited our sister island, has sent me a small batch of shells which lie collected there, and which may be placed on record, as Ireland is a country comparatively unknown to concliologists interested in the chorology of our land and fresh-water forms. From Roundstone, in Co. Galway: Helix ericetorum (Mull.) with its vars., vionozona (Pasc. ) and alba (Charp.), Helix virgata (Da. Costa) with vars. albicans (Gratel) and lutescen a (Moq.), Helix nemoralis var. libellula (Risso) 00300, var. carnea (Roebuck and Taylor) 00300, and var. Petiveria (Moq.) 12345 ; from Westport, in Co. Mayo : Helix rufescens (Penn) and var. alba (Moq.), Clausilia rugosa (Drp.), Pupa umbilicata (Drp.), and Helix rupestris (Drp.). — J. W. Williams. Reports of Societies. BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. —Microscopical Section, July 2nd. Mr. W. B. Grove, M.A., in the chair. Mr. J. E. Bagnall, A.L.S., exhibited a number of 220 REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. Sep., 1889. plants, collected in the Norfolk Broads by Messrs. R. W. Chase and C. Pumplirey, including Cicuta vilosa , Siam latifolium , and Utricularia vulgaris. The utricles of the last were shown under the microscope. — General Meeting, July 30tli. Mr. W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E., in the chair. Mr. T. E. Bolton exhibited specimens of Utricularia intermedia , from near Bournemouth, Dorsetshire; also, under the microscope, a living spider partly enclosed by one of the utricles of the plant. Mr. W. H. Wilkinson exhibited specimens of plants, from Kent. — Geological Section, August 20th. Mr. W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E., in the chair. Exhibition of specimens by Mrs. Stewart : — Epilobium angusti folium, Senecio squalidus, from Acocks Green ; also, hand specimens of Ben Nevis granite ; Miss Taunton, Burdock (Wild Rhubarb), from Buxton ; Mr. Herbert Stone, Goby, Sea Louse, and lichens, from Portli Gwarra, Land’s End; Mr. Marshall, two nests of Trap-door Spider, from Bordigliera in the Riviera. BIRMINGHAM MICROSCOPISTS’ AND NATURALISTS’ UNION. — July 22nd. Mr. J. Collins gave a report of the excursion to Arley. The botany was highly successful, though the geology only gave meagre results. He laid upon the table a collection of the more interesting plants, Saponaria officinalis, &c. Mr. Deakin exhibited graptolites from the Llandovery Sandstone, Great Barr ; Mr. Hawkes, a specimen of butterfly orchis, Habenaria bifolia; also, Australian seaweeds; Mr. Camm, Arcyria dictyonema , from Smethwick, a fungus new to Britain ; Mr. J. W. Neville, lobes of proboscis of Scatophaga merdaria, calling attention to the special modifications fitting it for carnivorous habits. — July 29th. Mr. H. Hawkes read a paper on “The Botany of the Sea.” The writer said that to those who lived inland a glimpse of the sea was always a source of pleasurable recollection, and gave a description of a visit to the south coast to devote a little time to that much neglected but beautiful order of plants — seaweeds. Although it was a common thing to see albums of marine algae, yet in too many instances they were without names, and failed to impai’t other information. The various modes of reproduction were enumer¬ ated, and the germ- and sperm-cells, carpogonia and antheridia, which were generally found on different plants, described. Marine algae were divided into three sections ; about 370 species were found on our shores. The various seaweeds commonly found on the south coast were described, with the points of interest attaching to each. Attention was called to differences seen in these plants when growing under varying circumstances, influenced by various depths, light, shade, saltness of the water, &c. The paper also dealt with their economic value, habitats, and areas of distribution. The paper was illustrated by herbarium specimens, microscopic slides, diagrams, and a series mounted for the lantern. — August 12th. Mr. J. W. Neville exhibited specimens of Monograptus Sedywichii , from metalliferous slates of Llandovery age, Central Wales ; Mr. Linton, a collection of land shells, from Scarborough ; Mr. Corbet, fossil corals from the Carboni¬ ferous limestone, Shropshire ; Mr. H. Hawkes, algae, from Weymouth, including some specimens not commonly found there, but brought up by the recent rough weather ; Mr. Camm, a fungus new to Britain, provisionally named Alwisia intermedia (Mass, and Camm). Under the microscope, Mr. J. Collins exhibited Hydrodictyon utriculare, from Sutton Park ; also, Chcetophora elegans ; Mr. Hawkes, Ceramium ciliatum and Dudresnia coccinea, Oct., 1889. THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS AND INSECTS. 221 * THE FLJGHT OF BIRDS AND INSECTS.* BY EDMUND CATCHPOOL, B.SC. The question, “ How do animals fly ? ” — a difficult one to answer in any case — has been made much more difficult by two facts connected with it. One of these is that the study of flight lies on the border-land between the sciences of biology and physics, while those who have devoted them¬ selves to it have usually been specialists in one only of these sciences. The other is the fact that there are two methods of flight, as distinct from each other as walking and jumping, and that from want of distinctive names these are often confused together. As an instance, one among many, of the first of these causes, let us take the common idea that birds are at least partly supported in the air by the possession, in the bones and other parts, of cavities filled with warm air. It is, of course, certain that this warm air, acting like that in a hot-air balloon, does to some extent support the bird ; and equally certain that this support never amounts to as much as the weight of a single quill feather on the bird. This result of a simple calculation from physical data disposes at once of the air-sacs as a practicallv important element in flight. I will give another instance, which will help to clear the way to an understanding of the flight of birds. It is quite commonly believed that the feathers of the wings of birds open to let the air pass between them during the upstroke, and I have had it shown to me, by directing a jet of oxygen on the upper side of a wing, that when the pressure on this side exceeds that on the lower side, the feathers do open in this manner. This is quite true, but in flight the pressure never is greater on the upper surface, as a simple physical calculation proves. If the pressure on the upper surface was greater than on the lower, the bird would, of course, be unsupported during the upstroke, and would fall with the same velocity as any other unsupported body. In an upstroke, lasting J sec., like that of the buzzard, the body would fall at least 3in., and, as observation shows that it does not, the pressure must always be greater on the lower surface. I have begun with these two illustrations because in this paper I shall treat the subject of flight purely as a physicist. I do not pretend to be anything else, and I wish to show that * ltead before the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society, January 8tli, 1889. 222 THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS AND INSECTS. Oct., 1889. there are some, at any rate, of the disputed points in the study of flight which can be solved by purely physical methods. The fundamental fact in all flight, from a physical point of view, is the tendency of every flat surface moving in air to move in the direction of its own plane. This arises from the fact that any motion towards either side at once produces a compression of the air on that side, and so a resultant pressure nearly at right angles to the surface and in the direction opposed to the motion. The fact may be loosely but shortly expressed, by saying that every flat surface forced to move in air tries to move edgewise. Our experience of fans, cards, thin books, and the like, makes this tendency quite familiar. One way in which it may be used to support a body in the air is illustrated by a child’s toy, once so popular as to earn the honour of the notice of “ Punch." In this toy four plane surfaces of paper stretched on wire are fastened like the sails of a windmill to a centre, and the whole can be spun like a top with a piece of string. The four wings or sails are so set that, when spun, the higher edge of each is in front, so that each wing, tending to move edgewise, is urged upward, and the toy rises in the air until its velocity is spent. Or similar wings attached to one pan of a pair of scales, and made to rotate by a twisted elastic cord, will raise the pan to which they are attached. To make such a model flv by itself in the air something more is necessary, for if left free the other end of the elastic cord will untwist and the wings remain still; but as in the toy Japanese butterflies, the other end of the elastic cord is fastened to large stretched surfaces of paper arranged at right angles to the direction in which the elastic cord would turn them, so that there is a great resistance to its uncoiling at that end, or if, as in the original arrangement of Sir G. Cayley, that end is attached to another set of wings inclined in the opposite direction, so that these rotating the other way, may also tend to rise, we have an arrangement which will fly by itself, and differs in principle from a small insect in only one important respect. An insect might, no doubt, be created which should fly exactly in this way ; it is, indeed, mechanically a far better arrangement than that of actual insect’s wings. But such an insect would have to be created ; it could not grow. No part of any animal can rotate always in the same direction ; the blood-vessels and nerves, which are necessary for its growth, would be twisted off. So, for locomotion on land, we have the alternate motion of legs, not the continuous rotation of a wheel ; for the water, the oscillations of a tail, not the revolutions of a screw ; for the air, vibrating wings, not the Oct., 1889. THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS AND INSECTS 223 revolving vanes of our model. These backward and forward motions are not the best, but tliev are for the animal the best possible. In the actual insect, then, the wings must move backwards and forwards, not round and round, but the motion is still horizontal, not vertical like that of a bird’s wings ; the white blur seen when a fly balances itself in the air clearly shows this fact. As the wing surfaces must always be so inclined that the upper edge is in front, this inclination must change with the direction of the motion. In the insect this is managed automatically by the simple device of placing the surfaces vertical, and making the upper edge stiff, the lower thin and flexible ; the resistance of the air to their motion then sets them in the required position, since it forces the flexible lower edge further back than the stiff upper one. If we make a pair of wings by stretching thin paper over two thin strips of cane tapered to a point, and bent nearly at right angles near one end, these wings will resemble those of the insect in being stiff all along one edge and flexible along the other ; and if we attach these to a frame, so that the cane edges are uppermost and horizontal, while the planes of the paper are vertical, they will be in a position like the insect’s when it flies. If, by means of twisted elastic cord driving a crank and connecting-rod, we cause the strips of cane to move horizontally backwards and forwards like the oars of a boat, it will be seen that at each stroke the surface of the wing changes from a vertical to an inclined position. If this model is placed on one pan of a balance, and partly balanced by weight in the other pan, the pan containing it will rise as soon as the wings begin to move, showing, as might be expected, that these inclined surfaces tend to rise. It will be seen that the principle of this model, and of the insect which it imitates, is really the same as that of the models with rotating wings, and that the adoption in the insect of an oscillatory instead of a rotary motion is a necessity not for flight but for growth ; but it must not be supposed that it is as good an arrangement considered mechanically. All oscillatory motions are wasteful, and this waste becomes an important quantity whenever, from the nature or lightness of the structure, there is a considerable want of rigidity. In the insect the oscillatory movement is the cause of great waste of power. At the beginning and at the end of each stroke the wing is moving too slowly to bend the surface into the slanting position required ; these parts of the stroke, therefore, exert no supporting power at all, and there are further losses from the want of sufficient rigidity in the nervures, which shortens the stroke without any corre¬ sponding diminution of work. So that while a set of sloping 224 THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS AND INSECTS. Oct., 1889. wings, moving horizontally like those of an insect, but rotating always in the same direction (Sir G. Cayley’s model, in fact), forms, probably, the most economical flying arrangement, fora given wing surface, which is mechanically possible, the recipro¬ cating motion of the insect’s wings, though on the same principle, is the most wasteful of all methods of flight in use, the energy required to support a given weight being, as appears from some not- too- satisfactory experiments of mine, between three and four times the amount that would be necessary if the same wings could rotate always in the same direction. A method so wasteful must be confined to the smaller flying animals, whose wings, enormously large in proportion to their weight, are a source of economy which balances this waste. There is another reason why this method of supporting a weight in the air must be confined to small animals. Though this model with oscillating wings supports part of its weight when in motion, as shown by the rise of the scale-pan, it can¬ not be made to rise by itself, for even if made light enough, which would be difficult, the strokes are so slow that during each stroke the framework, which, of course, is acted on by a force equal and opposite to that which drives the wings, would acquire considerable velocity ; in fact, the framework would move and not the wings. That in the insect the opposite is the case results from the extremely rapid reversals of the motion of the wings, and this sets a limit to the size of the animals which use this method of flight. For since (as may be shown mathematically) the velocity of the tips of the wings cannot be increased without great waste of energy, and the strokes cannot be shortened without a similar waste arising from the springing back of the wing at the end of of each stroke, it follows that the larger the wings the slower must be their vibrations, and hence the greater must be the oscillations of the body of the animal compared with those of the wings. Hence, this method of flight must be confined to creatures of small size. The pressure of the air acts, of course, directly on the wings, which in their turn support the body, and the upward pressure on each wing increases with its increasing velocity from the beginning to the end of each stroke. So that, not being perfectly rigid, each wing rises a little during the stroke, and springs down again when it stops at the end, thus describing a kind of horizontal figure of eight (voo ). This has been illustrated by Dr. Pettigrew, in his “Animal Mechanism,” but it does not seem to have the importance he supposes — in fact, any wing not perfectly rigid must move in this way ; that of the model described above does so, as may Oct., 1889. THE FUNGI OF WARWICKSHIRE. 225 be shown in a darkened room, by attaching a small piece of glowing charcoal to it. A small piece of gold leaf fixed with gum to the ton of a flv’s wing describes a similar curve. In order that an insect may advance through the air, the position of the wing surface, when not bent aside by the air, must be altered from a vertical plane to one sloping upward and forward. This might be accomplished by the whole insect assuming a more horizontal position, or by a change in the position of the wing itself, which might or might not be accompanied by a change in its motion. The observation of the change is very difficult, as the insect moves forward instantly when it takes place, but I incline to the view that the only alteration is a rotation of the wing round its stiff edge, so that it slants downwards and backwards from this edge instead of hanging merely downwards. In any case, it takes this position, and two distinct and independent results immediately follow. First, the pressure against the air being now directed downwards and backwards instead of merely downwards, the insect is urged forwards as well as supported by the motion of the wings. This would be the case just as much even if the insect’s bodv was fastened so that it could «/ not really move forwards. But besides this, the wing surfaces having on the average this upward and forward slant, the forward motion of the whole insect through the air causes them to tend to rise quite independently of their vibrating motion, so that there is a second supporting force which would still exist even if the insect ceased to move its wings, if only they were outstretched and the forward motion of the whole insect continued. I must be excused if I insist rather wearisomely on this point ; it is a very important one, for it is by the development of this second and supplementary means of support that a method of flight is arrived at which is available for larger animals, and we have the possibility of the bird. (To be continued.) THE FUNGI OF WARWICKSHIRE. BY W. B. GROVE, M.A., AND J. E. BAGNALL, A.L.S. Sub genus XXVII. — Crepidotus. ( Continued from page 193.) 247. Ag. mollis, Sckaff. On logs. Aug. -Dec. On the foot of a bridge, in the black lands (Ipsley), Purt., ii. , 659. Hopsford, near Brinklow, Adams. Warwick, Per cecal. Solihull, Hawlces ! Sutton and Sutton Park ; Packing- ton Park. 226 THE FUNGI OF WARWICKSHIRE. Oct., 1889. 248. Ag\ haustellaris, Fr. Ag. resupinatus, With. On rotten wood, Packington Park, With., 298. “ Not observed since the time of Withering,” Berk. Outlines , p. 164. Since recorded from Penzance (Balfs), 1888. 249. Ag. Itubi, Berk. On rotten wood. Oct. Dunn’s Pit Lane, Kenilworth. Bussell, Illnstr. 250. Ag. pezizoides, Fees. Ag. campanulcpformis , Part. On dead branches of trees. Rare. Feb. Near Pophills, Mrs. Buford, Purt., iii., 289. “ Found only in Warwick¬ shire,” Berk. Outlines, p. 165. Sub-genus XXIX. — Psalliota. 251. — Ag. arvensis, Schcef. In meadows. Aug. -Oct. Ag. campestris, var. 4. “ Edgbaston Park, under large lime trees,” With., 226. Kenilworth, Bussell. List. Fields, Ansty, Adams. School Close, Bugbg School Bep. Sutton Park ; Packington ; Sliustoke ; Castle Bromwich, etc. This species has also occurred in cellars within the city of Birmingham on several occasions. “ In the district east of Birmingham, where it is known as the ‘ Cham¬ pignon,’ it is freely eaten by certain country people ; and I know a small village in the West Riding of York¬ shire of which the same is true, as doubtless of many others.”— W. B. G. 252. Ag. campestris, Linn. Rich pastures. Frequent. Aug.- Oct. Warwick, Perceval. Fields about Ansty, Adams. Meadows, The Spring, Kenilworth, Bussell, Blustr. Knowle, Hawkes. Packwood ; Allesley ; Sutton Park ; Middleton ; Coleshill ; Sheldon, etc. Var. silvicola, Vitt. Growing at the base of cottage, Field Gate Lane. Oct., 1874, Bussell, Blustr. Var. with scaly pileus. Rookery, Edgbaston, With., 226. A form in which the pileus is covered with flattened pencils of brown hair, identical with that recorded by Withering, still occurs in Edgbaston Park. The form alba, with beautiful silky white pileus, is common in Packington Park, and at Bradnock’s Marsh. The var. Ag. villaticus , Brond., which is more likely to be a distinct species, was represented by grand speci¬ mens in a spinney at Hampton, on the edge of a meadow. These exactly agreed with Cooke, Illustr., pi. 585 ; the pileus measured over 12ins. in diameter, and the stem 2|ins. in thickness. 253. Ag. silvaticus, Schcef. Kenilworth? Bussell, List. [-‘I found this at the Leasowes, Halesowen, Worcestershire, in July, 1885.” — W. B. G.J Oct.. 1889. THE FUNGI OF WARWICKSHIRE. 227 Sub-genus XXX. — Stropharia. 254. Ag. versicolor, With. “ This is a rare species. I found it only once, and then near the bridge in Edgbaston Park which goes over the stream that feeds the large pool,” With., 163. Not found since the time of Wither¬ ing, either in Britain or, we believe, abroad. 255. Ag seruginosus, Curt. Meadows, etc. Common. Sep.- Nov. Rookerv. Edgbaston ! With., 255. At the foot of the rails between Alcester and Oversley Bridge, Purt., ii.. 643. Crackley Wood ! Russell, Illustr. Combe, Rugby School Rep. Solihull. Hawkes ! Witton ; Sutton ; Middleton; Olton ; Solihull; Coleshill Pool; Maxtoke; Packington Park ; Marston Green, etc. 256. Ag. albo-cyaneus, Desm. Meadows and woods. Oct. Crackley Wood and Red Lane, Kenilworth, Russell. Illustr. Hopsford, Adams. Bilton, Rugby School Rep. 257. Ag. melaspermus, Bull. Rare. Sept.-Oct. Heathcote Farm, Warwickshire, Perceval. Kenilworth, Russell, Illustr. The true Ag. coronillus, Bull = Ag. melaspermus, Fr., occurs in Sutton Park and at Coleshill Pool. 258. Ag. squamosus, Fr. Woods. Sept.-Oct. Rather rare. Kenilworth, Russell, Illustr. Sutton ; Trickley Coppice, abundant. Ag. thraustus, Kalch., var. aurantiacus, Cooke, Illustr., pi. 555 ; Sutton and Packington Park. 259. Ag. luteo-nitens, Fr. On sawdust, etc. Rare. Crack¬ ley Wood, Kenilworth! Cooke, Grev. xiv., 37 ; Illustr., pi. 604. 260. Ag. stercorarius. Fr. On dung* Oct. On dung, pine wood, Coleshill Heath, Oct., 1884; Edgbaston Park. 261. Ag. semiglobatus, Batsch. On dung. Very common. Sept. -Nov. Crackley Lane, Kenilworth, Russell, Illustr. Common in fields, Ansty, Adams. Sutton Park; Middleton ; Kingsbury ; Marston Green ; Coleshill Pool; Edgbaston; Olton, etc. “I have found, in Sutton Park, an albino form, with the gills white owing to the non-development of the spores.” — W. B. G. Sub-genus XXXI. — Hypholoma. 262. Ag. sublateritius, Fr. Ag. f ascicularis , var. 2, Purt. Yars. 3 and 4, With. On old stumps. Frequent. Oct. Edgbaston, With., 264. Ragley Wood, Rufford, Purt., iii., 225. Warwick, Perceval. Crackley Wood! and Kenilworth, Russell, Illustr. Ansty, Adams. Sutton Park ; New Park ; Coleshill Pool ; Kingsbury Wood near Three Pots, Watling Street ; Umberslade, etc. 263. Ag. epixanthus, Fr. On stumps. Oct. Hopsford, near Brinklow, Adams. Sutton ? 228 THE FIN WHALE FISHERY IN NORTH LAPLAND. OcT., 1889. 264. Ag. fascicularis, Hads. Old stumps. Very common. Oct. Edgbaston. With., 268. Warwick, Perceval, Crackley Wood! Russell, Illustr. Ansty, Adams. Sutton Park; Colesliill Pool; Middleton ; Kingsbury Wood, etc. 265. Ag lacrymabundus, Fr. Stumps, and on the ground. Oct. Footposts, Station Road, Kenilworth, Russell, Illustr. On banks, near Cut Throat Wood, Solihull; Alveston Pastures ; near Stratford-on-Avon. 266. Ag. velutinus, Revs. On stumps. Aug. -Oct. Dale House Lane and Crackley Lane, Kenilworth, Russell, Ilustr. Fields, Ansty, Adams. Trickley Coppice; New Park ; Marston Green; Olton ; Packington Park ; Langley. 267. Ag. Candolleanus, Fr. On stumps. Sept. -Oct. Shilton, near Coventry, Adams. Knowie, Hatches! Tricklev Coppice; Shawberry Wood, Shustoke ; Solihull; Alves¬ ton Pastures ; Langley. 268. Ag. appendiculatus, Bull. Stumps, etc. Oct. Cherry Orchard, Edgbaston, With., 282. Oversley ; Wixford, Purt., iii., 280. Red Lane, Kenilworth, Russell, Illustr. The Fields, Combe, Adams. Aston Park ; Sutton Park; New Park, Middleton ; Bretnal Wood, near Atherstone; Packington Park ; Penns ; Shustoke, etc. 269. Ag. egenulus, B. and Br. Amongst grass. Oct. Spin¬ ney, near Newbold-on-Avon, Adams. 270. Ag. hydrophilus, Bull. Ag. piluliformis, Purt. In woods. Sept. -Oct. Ragley Wood, Purt., iii., 234. Hopsford, near Brinklow, Adams. New Park. Middle- ton ; Sutton Park ; Trickley Coppice ; Corley; Shirley.” I agree with those who consider Ag. piluliformis to be the young state of this species.” — W. B. G. (To be continued. THE FIN WHALE FISHERY IN NORTH LAPLAND.* BY H. BALFOUR, M.A., F.Z.S. (Concluded from page 202.) First of all let me say that the methods adopted in the Finmarken fishery differ markedly from those of the Greenland and South Sea whalers. The Greenland Whale is searched for in large wooden sailing vessels, mostly barques of 400 to 500 tons gross, built for heavy ice work, with auxiliary steam power. When a whale is sighted close at hand, boats are launched, and the whale is harpooned from Oct., 1889. the fin whale fishery in north lapland. 229 these ; formerly always with a harpoon thrown by hand, but now usually small swivel harpoon guns are used in addition, the guns being some 7olb. in weight.* The harpoons are necessarily somewhat small and light, and the whale-line measures only 2f inches in circumference. Poison has been tried in the 8outli Sea fisheries with some success, as also small explosive bombs ; but nothing of the nature of the formidable weapons used by the Finmarken whalers has been used elsewhere. It is only comparatively recently, in fact, that the Northern Rorquals have been regularly sought after at all, and this for various reasons.! Firstly they are far less valuable individually than the Greenland or Sperm Whales, and secondly they are extremely active and powerful, frequently of enormous size, far exceeding the dimensions of the Greenland Whale. They are, therefore, very dangerous to approach in small boats, which would stand but a poor chance if pitted against these vigorous animals. These were, however, some years back, extremely abundant along the north coast of Finmarken, and were seen in numbers close in shore, and even far up the larger fjords. Especially con¬ spicuous was the huge Blue Whale ( B . Sibbaldii), the most valuable of the Rorquals, which used to infest the Varanger fjord in large numbers. It is now about twenty-three years since the enterprising Norwegian sailor, Svend Foyn, commenced a systematic pursuit of these animals. He obtained a monopoly of this fishery for some years, and conducted it on an entirely new plan. In 1882 other companies were able to engage in this then lucrative pursuit, and since then many companies have entered upon the business, and the whales are becoming- scarcer and far more shy every year, having to be sought for much further afield than formerly. Svend Foyn’s first factory was established at Vadso, at the entrance of the Varanger Fjord, so much frequented by the Blue Whale, which at first was alone the object of pursuit. Since then this factory has been closed, and Foyn has moved his business westwards, as the fishery has become somewhat played out in these regions. The business is becoming very precarious, and companies frequently break up in consequence of poor seasons, or move their establishments elsewhere. * Harpoon guns were first used in Greenland whale fishery about the year 1730. f Scoresby, as long ago as 1818, made several attempts to capture the Blue Whale (B. Sibbaldii), but he met with no success, as his lines were invariably broken. 230 THE FIN WHALE FISHERY IN NORTH LAPLAND. Oct., 1889. The vessels employed in the chase are small iron steamers of about eighty tons, with horse-power varying up to thirty- five or more. They are mostly about 80ft. long, though there is considerable variety in the dimensions, &c. They are good sea boats, and will stand a heavy sea, though they are washed over and over in even a moderate swell. The engine room is placed amidships, and there are two small masts. The foremost carries the “crow’s nest,” from which the harpooner keeps his look-out ; it also carries the “accumulator” or relieving tackle, of which more anon. Each whaler is furnished with two to three small boats. In the extreme bows is situated a small cannon for firing the harpoon. This cannon is short and very thick, being often as much as 4J- inches thick at the muzzle ; its weight is usually about locwt., and it works upon a pivot, which allows of a horizontal rotary motion, and upon trunnions, which give a vertical play. There is a kind of pistol- stock handle held by the harpooner, who can thus aim in any direction with considerable rapidity, there being only a few pounds resistance to overcome. The charge is about Jib. of powder, and the gun is fired usually by pulling a string, the recoil being minimised by means of indiarubber cushions behind the trunnions. Jutting out ahead of the gun, over the stem of the vessel, is a small platform, on which the harpooner can stand if necessary, and upon which part of the line is coiled, so as to run out easily when the gun is fired. The range is short (roughly speaking, about 12-13 yards). Much interest, of course, centres round the harpoon, which is truly a most deadly weapon. I was fortunate in having presented to me one of the earliest patterns of this weapon, dating back to the commencement of Svend Foyn’s experiments in improving the gun-liarpoon. It is interesting to compare this with the modern form, which is a far more formidable weapon. This old harpoon is made entirely of iron, and is divided into three principal parts : (a) The head, which is comparatively large, and of pyramidal shape, with slightly concave sides. This is hollow inside, so as to con¬ tain a charge of gunpowder ; the point is perforated and communicates with the chamber by means of a duct, which contains the fuse by which the charge was exploded when the head was buried in the whale’s body. The head is screwed on to a worm at the end of ( b ) the lower part of the stock. This is rounded and thick, and carries two pairs of good-sized barbs, which work upon pivots at their bases, so as to lie close to the stock, and only open out when resist¬ ance is offered to a backward strain. This portion is also Oct., 1889. the fin whale fishery in north lapland. ‘231 perforated for the attachment of the line. Behind this is (c) the upper part of the stock, which is made in the form of four flanges at right angles to one another, or + shaped in cross section. This shape lightens this end of the harpoon, and has the same effect as the feather of an arrow, On to the end of this is fitted loosely an iron disc, three inches across, and fitting the bore of the gun. This takes the force of the explosion, and was, of course, lost when the harpoon was discharged. The weight of this harpoon is 121b. It is quite obsolete, having long ago been superseded by improved patterns. My specimen actually belonged to a Dane, named Brandt, but may be taken as a type of Svend Foyn’s early pattern of harpoon, Foyn carefully studied the various designs of harpoons from different parts of the world, and spent large sums of money in constantly improving upon his own designs. The modern harpoon, as in use to-day, is a great improvement upon the old model. The whole weapon, when ready for use, is about 6ft. long, and costs about £5 10s., and the stock alone weighs about 1231b. Beginning, as before, at the “ business ” end, there is first the sharp point, which has either two or three edges, and is three or four inches long. This acts as a “pilot” for the rest of the weapon, and is screwed into a large conical shell, 9in. long, and con¬ taining fib. of gunpowder. This shell is screwed on to the end of the stock, which is perforated longitudinally by a small duct, in which lies a glass tube containing a fulmina¬ ting powder, which communicates with the charge in the shell. Above this are two pairs of enormous barbs or flukes, pivoted at their bases. The lower pair are so arranged that when they open their bases meet inside and crush the glass tube, exploding the fulminating charge, and so also the charge in the shell, which is blown to pieces in the whale’s body. Between the lower and upper parts of the stock is a large shackle, which shakes loose when a strong strain is applied, and prevents the stock breaking. The upper part of the stock is in the form of two stout bars, joined at the ends, and enclosing a space along which the grummet, to which is attached the line, can slide. This grummet is very strongly made of iron wire, of about fifty strands, strongly served round ; to it the end of the line is spliced, The line is enormously strong, about seven inches in circumference, and is made in Norway of the finest Kussian hemp. It is care¬ fully tested to an enormous strain before being sent out. Each line is usually 120 fathoms, but several may be joined together. They are kept coiled up in huge bunkers in the foreliold of the vessel. 232 THE FIN WHALE FISHERY IN NORTH LAPLAND. Oct., 1889 The last important item which I have to mention is the “accumulator” or “relieving tackle.” This apparatus is intended to minimise the bad effect of sudden jerks or strains upon the line. It is suspended from the foremast, and consists essentially of two cross-pieces, connected together with a number (12 or 15) of very strong indiarubber bands, which pass round them. The upper cross-piece is attached to the mast, and to the lower is fixed a wheel or metal block, over which is passed the harpoon line. A sudden jerk upon the line, caused by the whale starting off at suddenly increased pace, is reduced to a gradual strain by the stretching of the indiarubber bands, and a possible source of danger, or the breaking of the line, is thus to a great extent avoided. When cruising about in search of whales the liarpooner is stationed aloft in the “ crow’s nest.” which is a very large tub placed high up on the foremast. From this post of vantage he has an extended view, and, when a whale is sighted, he gives the signal, and the vessel starts off in pursuit. The liarpooner descends and takes up his station at the gun, with the pistol-stock handle in one hand and the firing cord in the other. When the whale is within range, about 12 or 13 yards, the gun is quickly brought to bear, and, usually as the whale rises across the line of sight, the string is pulled and the harpoon discharged. If the harpoon is “ fast,” the line runs out rapidly, and the steamer is soon being towed along ; the engines are then reversed to full speed astern, so as to drag as much as possible, but in spite of this the vessel mav still be towed along at a Dace of eight or nine knots ahead. When a sufficient strain is applied to the line, the “ flukes ” of the harpoon break away from the lashings which secure them, and, as they open, crush the fulminating tube, and explode the shell inside the whale’s body. Even then it is not necessarily “all up” with the beast, as it may still continue running for some time, often some hours, before finally succumbing. Mr. Cocks (“ Zoologist,” 1887) gives an interesting account of one whale which continued running for six hours from the time of its first being harpooned, in the course of which it towed two steamers along, with a harpoon from each in its body, both shells having properly exploded. This is certainly an exceptional example of endurance, but is a good instance of the enormous strength and great vitality of these animals. When the strength of the whale is spent, the steamer comes alongside, the boats are launched, and the men proceed to finish the work with lances, the shafts of which are enormously long. The beast usually gives a last convulsive struggle, known as Oct., 1889. the fin whale fishery in north lapland. 238 the “flurry,” “screaming” loudly if it is a Humpback, and then it is all over. The next thing is to prepare the whale for being towed ashore to the factory, and for this the flukes are cut off, as they would impede progress. A chain or rope is then fixed just in front of the tail, and the whale is then towed tail first. At first the carcase shows but little above the water, but very soon it begins to swell up with gas, and floats higher and higher out of the water, till after the lapse of a few hours it is quite balloon-like and by no means “ very like a whale.” It may even burst with the pressure, and, if pierced in this condition, a loud report is often caused by the liberation of the confined gas. The whale is thus towed to the company’s factory, and it may be well here to give a brief description of this establish¬ ment. There is a large main building divided into two floors ; the ground floor is given up to the huge boilers and tanks, where the oil is extracted by boiling and steaming from the blubber, &c. Into the upper storey is received the blubber as it is cut off, and leading up to this floor is a long slide, up which the pieces of blubber are drawn by means of a chain and windlass. In front of the factory is built a small pier, jutting out some little way into the sea at high tide ; at the end of this is a crane, and on it are windlasses for hauling up the heavy bones, &c. The whale is hauled as high as possible up the shelving beach at high tide, usually head first ; and, as soon as the carcase is sufficiently exposed by the falling tide, the operation of cutting up, or “ flensing,” commences. The men are armed with large knives, fitted with wooden handles about four feet long. A longitudinal incision is made at some part of the body, extending perhaps twenty feet, and another is made parallel to the first some two or three feet away from it ; by means of transverse cuts a long piece of blubber is marked off, and a chain is then brought from a windlass at the base of the wooden slide leading to the upper storey. This chain is fixed to that end of the piece of blubber marked off, which is farthest from the the factory, and a certain amount of strain is applied by means of the windlass. The “ flenser ” then cuts away the connective tissue underlying the blubber, and the huge “ blanket ” piece is thus partly pulled and partly cut away, and hauled up to the base of the slide. Here the chain from the upper storey is fixed on, and the piece is dragged up the slide into the upper room, where it is divided up into smaller pieces for boiling down. The rest of the blubber is similarly removed, and the tongue is cut out and sent up the slide. The carcase is turned over at high tide, and the other side is 234 THE EIN WHALE FISHERY IN NORTH LAPLAND. OCT., 1889. operated upon. The lower jaw bones are cut out, and the baleen plates removed to be divided up into the separate laminae, and dried in the open. When all the blubber and other oil-bearing portions have been removed, the carcase or “ crang ” is towed oft’ and sold to a guano factory, where it is converted into manure. The oii procured is of different qualities, according to the part from which it has been obtained, that from the back of the Common Rorqual being reckoned the best ; next in order comes that from the blubber of the belly and the tongue, and so on (see account in Mr. Cocks’ paper). In 1885 Norwegian “ Finner ” oil sold for £18 a ton ; and in the same vear Greenland whale oil sold for £22 a ton «/ (formerly as much as £40), and Bottlenosed Whale oil £25 a ton (formerly £60). It is used for a variety of purposes ; for burning, lubricating machinery, currying chamois leather, in batching flax, and in the manufacture of jute fibre, &c. The whalebone, or baleen (called commercially “ whale- fin ”), procured from the Rorquals is very inferior to that of the Right Whales. That of the Blue Whale is more valuable than that of the other Balaenopteriaae ; the price last year being £180 a ton, and this was considered a fairly good price. Greenland Whale baleen will fetch £1,500 a ton or more, but the market prices vary enormously every year. The otherwise rejected carcases with the bones are, as I have said, sold to the various guano factories, where tliev are converted into guano and glue. For guano the “crang ” and bones are dried, ground, and mixed ; some comes to England, but the greater part is sent to Hamburg, where the guano is subjected to chemical processes. The bones are for the most part useless for manufacturing bone articles, as they are so porous, but from the outer portions of the lower jaw can be made various small articles, knitting needles, &c. Another useful product of this industry is “wliale- beef.’' Although this no longer ranks as a delicacy, still in former times it was considered as such. In the 12tli to the 15tli centuries, whale flesh was largely con¬ sumed by the Dutch. French, and Spaniards, and was sold in the markets of Bavonne and Biarritz, the tongue being especially favoured. Henry III. was particularly fond of it, and it appeared as a luxury at the municipal banquets. Whale flesh is not altogether scorned now-a-days. The “ Xiania Preserving Company” tin large quantities of the flesh of the Rudolphi Rorqual, that of other species not being considered good. The Lapps frequently come down to Oct., 1889. the fin whale fishery in north lapland. 285 the factories, and are allowed to cut away huge pieces of the meat while the whale is being cut up ; this they deposit in large tubs and add salt to it, to preserve it for winter con¬ sumption. They are not allowed to take the fat of the whales, but, nevertheless, if the foreman turns his back for a moment, they immediately pounce on the nearest lump of oily fat and carry it off in triumph. Various dangers are incurred by the Norwegian whalers ; explosions of gunpowder on board sometimes occur and cause serious damage ; sometimes, too, the shell of the harpoon does not burst till the boats are alongside of the whale for lancing. In this way boats occasionally have been smashed in, and the crews placed in great danger. Whales occasion¬ ally do considerable damage, even to the steamers, by charging viciously, and, when we consider their enormous power and great activity, we can easily see that this is a serious form of danger. Besides these, various other risks are incurred which 1 need not mention. In the course of a single paper I cannot expect to give more than the merest sketch of the whale fishery of these, regions. The subject is one full of interest to the naturalist, as a vast amount with regard to the habits of the whales still remains to be discovered, and a few only of the Northern species of whales have been properly figured. Mr. Cock’s papers in “The Zoologist ” have done much towards draw¬ ing attention to this subject, and he has entered into detail upon many points to which I have been able to refer only in the briefest manner. His account of last year is not as yet published, but we may look forward to it with interest. Other attractions drew us awav from the coast, after somewhat short visits to a few of the whaling stations. A journey into the interior of Lapland, up the Pasvig River to Lake Entire, had irresistible attractions ; and, by the time we had returned to the coast, the whaling was over for the year. The factories were closed and deserted by the men, though one factory, which I visited again in Vardo on my return journey, pre¬ sented nevertheless a verv animated scene, as thousands upon thousands of seagulls, skuas, duck, and other sea birds were congregated there, on the beach and in the water, apparently busy enough over clearing away the rejected remnants of the season’s spoils. I append here for those interested in the subject a list of a few of the more interesting English papers dealing with the Northern Bahenopteridse : — A. II. Cocks: Papers on the “ Finmarken Whale Fishery,” Zoologist, 1884, pp. 366, 417, 455 ; 1885, p. 134; 1886, p. 121 ; 1887, p. 207 ; 1888, p. 201. 236 PETROLOGY OF LOCAL PEBBLES. Oct., 1889. W. H. Flower: “Notes on Four Specimens of the Common Fin Whale,” Proc. Zool. Soc., 1869, p. 604 and plate. Robert Heddle : “ On a Whale of the Genus Physalus,” Proc. Zool. Soc., 1856, p. 187. (Plates of Common Rorqual.) R. Collet : “ On the External Characters of Rudolphi’s Rorqual,” Proc. Zool. Soc., 1886, p. 243 ; (two plates of this species ; also engravings of Balcenophilus, Echinorhynchus, and Calanus). Robert Broivn : “ Notes on the History and Geographical Relations of Cetacea frequenting Davis Strait and Baffin’s Bay,” Proc. Zool. Soc., 1868, p. 533. Robert Gray : “ Notes on a Voyage to the Greenland Seas,” Zoologist, 1887, pp. 49, 94, 121 (plate of B. mysticetus ) ; 1889. pp. 1, 41, 95. E. Harting : “ Distinguishing Characters of British Cetacea,” Zoologist, 1878, p. 1. Escliricht, Reinhart, and Lilljeborg : “ Recent Memoirs on the Cetacea,” Ray Soc., 1866. THE PETROLOGY OF OUR LOCAL PEBBLES. BY T. H. WALLER, B.A., B.SC. (Concluded from page 219.) On examining a thin slice, however, a well-marked micro- granitic structure becomes visible, not of a very minute character, the individual portions of quartz and felspar being some -001 to -002 of an inch in diameter. The porphyritic crystals of felspar are all orthoclase. They are very cloudy, and in one or two places are invaded by the tourmaline, as if we saw the beginning of the process what has ended in the last-named pebble in the formation of a tourmaline aggregate replacing the entire felspar crystal. The tourmaline crystals are distributed along lines in the felspar substance, apparently the traces of what Prof. Judd terms solution planes, along which the alteration of crystals frequently takes place. Where the change is complete the banded arrangement is still visible, in such a way as if along these planes radiating masses of the tourmaline had penetrated into the felspar until the whole was a mass of interlacing crystals. The tourmaline is not in most cases in the large crystal¬ line masses previously mentioned, but much more minutely and confusedly crystallised. In one case long arms of crystals radiate from a centre, the axes of the crystals being parallel to the length of the arms. The porphyritic quartz is crowded with relatively large cavities, frequently arranged in lines, which appear to be Oct., 1889. PETROLOGY OF LOCAL PEBBLES. 237 continuous through two neighbouring grains without any trace of them being visible in the crystals of the ground mass. The arrangement of the quartz and felspar in this ground mass shows in places an approximation to pegmatite arrangement, and in some cases the boundaries of the quartz seem indented, as it were, by the quartz of the ground, as if the crystallisation of the latter had been regulated by the previously existing quartz. The felsites which occur among our pebbles are of two or three principal types. There are reddish-brown quartz felsites, grey rhyolitic specimens, and others of the grey, and esitic type, which are so more plentiful in Wales. (14) At Sutton, King’s Heath, and also at Catspool, near Alvecliurch, there occur pebbles of red quartz felsite, with, in most cases, abundant porphyritic quartz and felspar crystals. Many of the latter are still fairly fresh, and show bright cleavage faces on a fractured surface. The micro-structure is very similar in all cases, the ground mass being a micro-granite of rather fine grain. The quartz has the deep bays and tongues of the ground mass running into the grains which are so common in the felsites. The felspar is partly at any rate triclinic, and in some sections not much is left but the mere outline or ghost of the crystal. (15) A specimen collected at a little digging by the Keeper’s Pool, at Sutton, on account of the large number of felspar crystals, the absence of visible quartz, and the presence of a good many flakes of black mica, presents a very different aspect from that of the felsites already mentioned, and we find that under the microscope the same differences are apparent. The felspars are to a very great extent unaltered, and both orthoclase and a plagioclase are present. The mica occurs in good quantity, and lias sometimes undergone a change into a pale green substance, which also has replaced hornblende, the shape of the original mineral being retained. The ground mass is very finely micro-crystalline. In the next group of felsites we have still different structure. (16) In a pebble, from Catspool, there is very decided flow structure in the ground mass, not straightforward streams, but presenting the crumpled up, damascened appearance, which denotes the attempt at mixture of two slightly different viscid magmas, becoming stiffer as they cool and are pressed on from behind by the flow of the mass. The quartz grains are small and numerous, and the felspar is much altered. 238 PETROLOGY OF LOCAL PEBBLES. Oct.. 1889. (17) A pebble (No. 37) from Sutton has porphyritic crystals of felspar almost perfectly fresh and transparent, and quartz containing in places beautiful glass cavities, with a bubble in each. The ground mass of the rock is splierulitic, passing in places into a micro-pegmatite of a clear mineral, which we may take to be quartz, and a dirty-looking sub¬ stance, which probably represents felspar. (18) In another pebble (21) from Blackroot Pool, Sutton, the appearance is such as we might imagine to be produced by the crushing and rolling out of such a rock as the last. The quartz grains are broken up into lines and strings, which have been recemented into continuous masses again, and the total aspect might almost be described as that of a gneissose felsite. That such has been the mechanical origin of the rock I do not, however, feel sure. The quartz contains many more fluid cavities, but they might be secondary. At the edge of some of the quartz the ground mass runs into it in a very peculiar manner, almost like the teeth of a comb, and a place or two exhibits a very fine cross striation in the arrangement of the components. (19) By far the most curious specimen is from Catspool (No. 39). It has a somewhat gneissic look in the hand specimen, but without any very determinable foliation as to minerals. A thin section with a low power has a most wonderful similarity of aspect to a section of wood ; the general lamination in the one direction being crossed bv groups of browner parts almost at right angles. When examined with crossed nicols, the whole breaks up into areas of considerable size, which however do not polarise uniformly, but are subdivided again. All one of the larger areas may be on the whole dark, but the smaller portions which make obvious the longitudinal grain, so to speak, of the specimen may have various degrees of shading. ' No quartz is visible, the whole has very much the general look of a felspar which has been crushed out of shape. Four specimens are exactly of the Wrekin type. (20) One from Catspool (20) is exactly similar to the pale brown, finely flow- banded rock of the Wrekin itself. (21) Another (13) from King’s Heath is splierulitic, but not in very good condition ; while (22) A third (10) from King’s Heath is precisely of the type of the splendid Lea rock specimens, but bleached to a pale yellow brown. It presents the same spherulites with central quartz masses, often also with similar agate linings, the same microlitlis, and in a striking degree the very beautiful perlitic structure. Oct., 1889. PETROLOGY OF LOCAL PEBBLES. 239 (23) A coarse asli from Catspool, might have come out of the quarry in the Lawrence Hill at the Wrekin. In addition to fragments of the splierulites as in the last specimen of fragments showing perlitic structure, there occur vesicular — or what has been vesicular — basalt apparently, the vesicles being now filled with a green mineral. Another fragment is andesitic in its character. (24) The grey felsites I have principally met with on the southern side of the district, but a very greenish-grey rock, showing fine flow-banding, and occasional beautiful “flow” round included knots or crystals, was obtained at Hamstead. Another extremely similar, except in the absence of so many quartz grains and its rather less perfect flow structure, was collected at a little pit just by the tunnel, between Alvechurch and Tardebigg, at a place called on the Ordnance map Ox Leasows. The flow lines are accentuated by the presence of a greenisli-blue mineral, with dicliroism in many parts, changing to a pale yellow on rotating over the polariser. It certainly does not appear to have the very high double refraction of epidote, yet in its radiating habit of growth in the larger masses it has a good deal the appearance of this mineral. (25) At Catspool was collected a beautiful grey felsite, with white splierulites all through it, plainly visible to the naked eye (No. 45). The structure of the splierulites is not radial, but irregularly disposed brushes of crystals fill up the areas. They often include the minute crystals of felspar, which occur to a large extent in the ground mass of the rock. These are mostly very fresh and transparent, as are also the larger porpliyritic crystals. The felspars are usually only simple twins, and do not show the repeated twinning characteristic of the plagioclases, but the fact that in a few cases symmetrical extinctions on each side of the composition plane were observed, proves the presence of plagioclase, which the angles observed would suggest to be oligoclase. One of the larger felspar crystals shows extreme irregularity of outline ; it has either been deeply eaten into by the still molten magma, or its growth was crippled. (26) Of a somewhat different type is a specimen (44) which I found lying by the roadside on the road between Alvechurch and Blackwell. In the hand specimen the ground mass is very similar in colour. Abundance of felspar crystals of J to jLin. long are visible, and a number of dark-coloured, elongated masses 240 PETROLOGY OF LOCAL PEBBLES. Ocx., 1889. running nearly parallel to each other through the rock give a well-marked flow structure to the specimen. On a surface tangential to the flow they appear as broader plates. Examined by the microscope in thin section they are of a rusty-yellow colour, and are composed of crystalline masses, the formation of which has apparently gone on from the edges. The substance has low double refraction and no visible dicliroism, and seems to be what is generally called, for want of more knowledge as to its real nature, viridite. It has the appearance of filling cavities in the original rock. The larger felspars are mostly striated, and are in fairly good condition. The ground mass is mainly composed of interlacing felspar crystals of minute size, but among them are the appearances of a residual glass, now devitrified and showing a pale indefinite mosaic between crossed nicols. (27) A thoroughly good gneiss (23) occurs among the Sutton pebbles. It is composed of quartz, felspar a good deal decomposed, and a pale mica. In one part of the section lines of inclusions run almost all across the slide at nearly right angles to the foliation, showing their origin to have been subsequent to the formation of the gneiss. (28) Of somewhat similar character is a pebble from Sidnal farm (49). It is coarser in grain, but consists essentially of quartz felspar and white mica. The foliation is not by any means marked. It contains a number of collections of black, quite opaque grains, which show no crystal form, and give no indication of their nature. (29) A dolerite occurs at Catspool, and also in one or two other places in the district near (46). It contains olivine, and differs from the Eowley Eag by being ophitic in structure. At Sidnal farm the little gravel pit furnished, in addition to the rocks already mentioned, a very coarse conglomerate of quartz and felspar fragments set in a finer matrix. The felspar appears to be ortlioclase, and shows wonderfully brilliant cleavage planes. At Catspool a pebble of red granite, and one of a red syenite were found, and one of slate traversed by a quartz vein. At the Ox Leasowes pit a mass of chert, with casts of encrinites, was found very similar to those which are met with at Sutton. Oct., 1889. PETROLOGY OF LOCAL PEBBLES. 241 Some less determinable pebbles occur in all the various pits, but require much more examination. I liad hoped to have found in the nature of the pebbles some criterion by which the drift pebbles might be distin¬ guished from those of the Triassic pebble beds. The data for such a discrimination are, I fear, not vet sufficiently numerous to make an opinion worth very much, but I think that the presence in a bed of the grey felsites, or pebbles of the type of the Wrekin rocks, would afford strong pre¬ sumption of later age. The striking feature of the Triassic pebbles is the abundance of tourmaline in several different forms of rock. Dr. Lapwortli tells me that there is a marked absence of tourmaline in the chain of the Scandinavian Mountains, as well as in its British extension in Northern Scotland, while we know that tourmaline rocks are verv abundant in Cornwall «/ and Devon, and also in the remains of the Great Southern Mountain Chain more to the east, with which the rocks of those counties appear connected. It will be remembered that in the series of Norwegian rocks brought home by Mr. Pumplirey this summer, there were none containing any tourmaline, or, at least, none in which it was an essential constituent. It appears, threefore, as if we might on the whole look to the great southern ancient range of mountains for the origin of the Triassic pebbles, but there is nothing to show from how far south the rivers came which brought them down. The absence, or at least very great rarity of granite, would indicate that at that time the deeper- seated portions were not yet bared by denudation. On the other hand, we have specimens of the felsites which so frequently form off-slioots from granite masses, and from their micro-granitic texture we may infer that we have more than the most superficial parts of the felsites. The quartzites also would naturally occur more on the outer flanks of the range rather than in the interior parts. On the other hand, the crushed and laminated condition of some of the rocks shows that the processes of elevation and crumpling were well advanced ; that we have not, as it were, the washings of the earliest stages of the mountain-making period. The pebbles mixed with this southern type in the upper gravel beds are much more distinctly of the character of the Welsh and lake country rocks. Granite is more frequent, and slate and gritty ashes occur which are quite wanting in the undoubtedly Bunter deposits. In addition, there is the marked difference between the types of felsites which has been noted above. REVIEW. Oct., 1889. 242 The indentations so frequent in the Triassic pebbles may, of course, and in fact do, survive when the disturbance of the beds at a later epoch has not been very great, but if we observe the actual beds, the correspondence of the pits on pebbles which are in contact prevents any mistake as to the age of the deposit. As at the beginning of these notes, so now I again call attention to the very fragmentary character of what I have brought forward. The pebbles from Cannock and Kinver still have to be examined, although Professor Bonney has, of course, worked at the former locality. In such an investi¬ gation, more almost than in any other petrological work, “ adventures are to the adventurous,” or, rather, any worker may, at any time, come across a new piece of information, in the shape of a pebble, by no merit of his own, but simply by the fact of its not having been bared before. At anv rate I have shown that there are a fine series of rocks to be found by anyone even in our apparently unin¬ teresting pebble beds. The British Moss Flora. Part XII. Favi. X., Grimmiacece II. Fam. XI., Schistostegacece. By B. Braithwaite, M.D., 303, Clapliam Hoad. 7s. This part, which concludes the monograph of British Grimmiacese, contains forty-seven pages of letterpress and seven plates, with descriptions and illustrations of twenty-five species and twelve varieties, both descriptions and illustrations being characterised by the exactness and finish that have been peculiar to this work through¬ out. In dealing with the difficult genus Orthotrichum, the author divides the species into two sections, by means of the stomata to be found upon the walls of the capsule. Sect. 1, Gyrnnoporus, includes those species in which the stomata are superficial, the gourd cells being naked and visible. Sect. 2, Calyptoporus , includes those species in which the stomata are immersed in the wall of the capsule, and more or less covered by some of the epidermal cells. These bodies, which are abundant on the capsules of some species, form a ready means for separating nearly-allied forms, and the importance of this new feature in the diagnosis will commend itself to all students of this difficult group. The excellent illustrations which are given of the stomata peculiar to each species will be found very useful as aids to determination. The genus Weissia, Ehrhart, follows this, and contains those species of the Ortliotricheae characterised by having leaves with plain margins, twisted when dry, and placed by the older botanists. Wilson and Scliimper, in the genera Orthotrichum or Ulota, but Ehrhart’s name, Weissia, has priority. The part concludes with a description and full page illustration of the pretty little Cavern Moss, Schistostega Osmundocea. This part, which is one of the most helpful and valuable portions of the author’s great work, completes one-half of the whole work. J. E. Bagnale. Oct., 1889. WAYSIDE NOTES. 243 !3tV., 1889. wings nearly horizontally after the manner of insects. Pigeons often balance for a few seconds in this way, and almost all small birds, and the humming bird for much longer periods ; but it is, as I have shown, a wasteful action, and it would be impossible but for the power, which all animals have, of exerting for a few moments an amount of energy many times greater than that which they can continue to exert for several consecutive hours. It is known that a man can exert, for a minute at least, ten times the average energy per minute of his day’s work, and it is probable that a pigeon balancing in still air is doing much the same. But the larger birds, with even smaller wing-surface in proportion to their weight, are not able to do this even for a few moments ; they can support themselves only by moving forwards through the air, and when they want to remain in the same place they can only do it by flying slowly against the wind, so that the wind carries them back as fast as they fly forwards, or, if there is no wind, by flying round and round in circles. Such birds, when there is no wind, cannot rise from the ground until they have acquired some forward velocity by running, and the albatross, whose wing-surface is only half as great in proportion to its weight as the pigeon’s, cannot even acquire sufficient velocity in this way, and, except m a wind, cannot rise from the ground at all. This subject, the relation of wing-surface to powers of flight, is itself a very extensive one, and it cannot be dealt with, even in the most elementary way, without mathematics, so in this paper I have assumed, without proving, that large animals have a smaller wing surface in proportion to their weight than small animals, and that this smaller wing surface is a disadvantage from the point of view of economy of work in flight. NOTES ON SOME BOCK SPECIMENS COLLECTED IN NOBWAY BY MB. C. PUMPHBEY.* BY MR. T. H. WALLER, B.A., B.SC. The collection of rocks which Mr. Pumplirey has put into my hands for examination and description consists of a considerable number of specimens from various localities visited by Mr. Marshall and himself between Bergen and the North Cape. * Transactions of the Birmingham Natural History and Micro¬ scopical Society, read 16th October, 1888. Nov. 1889. ROCK SPECIMENS COLLECTED IN NORWAY. 265 As might be expected they almost all belong to the highly metamorpbic rocks which go by the names of gneiss and schist. Of these there are several varieties. On the one hand, there are specimens which in the two or three inches square which their surfaces afford are not distinguishable from granites, as they show none of the foliation which characterises the gneisses. From these there is a gradual passage to the most intensely foliated specimens which have plainly been submitted to immense shearing and rolling strains. The schists are mostly of that stage of formation in which the original constituents are not utterly lost, but only crushed, twisted, and utterly deformed, while secondary micas have formed in discontinuous layers among the fragments. These crushed and rolled rocks have exactly the aspect of many of those from the N. W. Highlands, with the elucida¬ tion of which the name of Professor Lap worth is so closely identified. There is a pure hornblendic gneiss which almost absolutely resembles some specimens of the grey Hebridean gneiss of the Scotch district. Of these rocks I have cut one section — from a reddish gneiss rock which yet showed by its generally rather dull aspect and the obvious knots of felspar that it had not arrived at the fully recrystallised stage of metamorphism. Examined microscopically this structure is still more striking, and the use of polarised light shows almost every felspar grain crushed and twisted, and in by far the greater number of cases affected with the peculiar cross twinning which is characteristic of microcline, but which has been of late suspected as being specially developed where felspar crystals have been subjected to great crushing. It will be remembered that Professor Judd has proved that the ordinary twinning so frequent in plagioclase is often confined to those parts of a crystal which have been strained by being bent or crushed, and that even in quartz changes of molecular structure equivalent to twinning have been brought about by the same means. With this specimen I should like you to compare one from the pebble beds which are so largely developed locally. At least it is really from the upper gravel beds at Catspool, near Alvechurch, but I have no doubt it is derived from the washing of the older pebble beds. It has a very similar appearance, is, however, almost altogether felspathic, and shows none of the eyes of larger felspar grains, but a very curious lineation perpendicular to the foliation (which is much more marked in the hand specimen than in the section) is apparent, giving the look of a section of wood. This seems to be due to the 266 ROCK SPECIMENS COLLECTED IN NORWAY. Nov.. 1889. twinning of tlie felspar grains — I imagine probably due to pressure — but there has plainly been a certain amount of cleavage and slip among the grains. The flaggy gneissose or schistose rock from Yic, which Mr. Pumphrey informs me is used as slates in the district, would probably afford very much the same appearances modified by the fact of being made out of a more basic rock. Another specimen from which I have cut a section is that marked labradorite from the Nerodal — I think this should be called saussurite. It contains a few very shadowy grains of some plagioclase felspar, which still retain the twinning, but the greater part is made up of a mass of mostly interlaced crystals, very ragged at the edges, but apparently formed in situ. Some of these seem to extinguish when their length is parallel to one of the axes of the nicols prisms, but in rnanv the extinction angle is about 20° ; there is also an indistinct cleavage in some of the larger grains, but as these seem to give brighter colours with crossed nicols, I imagine it may be another mineral which is present. In “ Teall’s Petrography,’1 under the head of saussurite, it is mentioned that this substance appears to be usually a mixture of some felspar with either zoisite or epidote. Catlirein, who has very thoroughly investigated the subject, considers that no distinction can be drawn between zoisite and epidote saus- surites. Dr. Beuscli has described a saussurite from near Drontlieim, which mainly consists of epidote either quite colourless or pale greenish yellow, and shows twinning. I think that the composition of the specimen on the table must be much like this, but I have not yet been able to refer to the original memoir. The mass has arisen by the decomposition of a highly basic lime felspar, the zoisite or epidote using up the lime. The specimen is quite different from the saussurite of the Lizard, which I show for the purposes of comparison. The latter has a much more granular structure. As Mr. Teall says: — “ Indeed it must be remembered that the term saussurite has no precise signification. It is merely employed to designate the dense light- coloured aggregates which arise in connection with the alteration of a basic felspar.” One or two other of the specimens should be noticed. One huge grained quartzite and one fine glistening one are completely analogous to two from the pebble beds of Sutton. The specimens of dolomite are particularly beautiful, both the snow white one and that which displays on part of it such a lovely rose tint. The soap stone of Drontlieim appears to be a sort of talc-mica schist with no very marked foliation. There are a Nov., 1889. REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 267 good many of the specimens which would well repay careful examination. The schist from Bergen is exactly similar to one of the Highland series from Loch Tarbert, and would be very interesting in section. It is worth notice that tourmaline appears to be, if not absent, very inconspicuous, so that, in spite of the similarity mentioned above between these rocks and some of our pebbles, the very widespread occurrence of tourmaline in the latter seems to separate them as a whole from the Scandinavian series. lepoils of j?0ticfic$. BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. — Microscopical Meeting, October 1st. The President, (Mr. W. B. Grove, M.A.) in the chair; present tweuty-one members. Messrs. G. Lavender, E. F. Spicer, and F. R. Goyne were proposed for membership. Mr. W. B. Grove, M.A., exhibited (for Mr. Caswell) a fungus growth from the surface of a vat of lime-juice. It was formed by the mycelium of Penicillium glaucum , and was coloured a brilliant crimson on the lower surface. Mr. T. E. Bolton exhibited under the microscope living specimens of Plumatella repens and Cephalosiphon limnias. Mr. W. R. Hughes gave an account of the recent meetings at Oxford of the Midland Union of Natural Historv Societies ; supplemented by Messrs. 11. W. Chase, K. Parkes, and W. H. Wilkinson. Mr. Herbert Stone then gave his paper “ On a Disputed Point in the Structure of the Stomata of Plants.” He gave the result of the examination of a large number of different leaves, which tended to prove the presence of the cistoma, of which he gave an enlarged drawing, and exhibited sections of leaves under the microscope, showing the cistoma in situ. — Biological Section, October 8th. Mr. W. B. Grove, M.A., in the chair. Mr. C. Pumphrey exhibited Acanthus mollis, from King’s Norton. Mr. W. B. Grove exhibited Russula fellea, R. adusta, Hydnum niveum, A garicus imbricatus, Ag. galericulatus var. calopus, Cortinarius rigidus (?), C. caninus , G. ochro- leucus, and C. anomalus, from the neighbourhood of Sutton. Mr. J. Edmonds then read his paper “On Photography as an Aid to Natural History Studies,” the many beautiful illustrations of which were exhibited by means of the limelight by Mr. Pumphrey. — Geological Section, October 15th. Mr. Waller, B.A., B.Sc., in the chair. An invitation from the Geological Section of the Philosophical Society was read, and attention called to the notices issued by the Selborne Society on the protection and preservation of plants and animals. Mr. Wilkinson exhibited moths, including Chcerocampa porcellus, Macro- glossa stellatarum , Zeuzera QZsculi, and Rterophorus pentadactylus, from Kent. Mr. Herbert Stone showed a solution of chlorophyll in alcohol, which, on exposure to light, exhibited alternately a beautiful transparent green colour and a port wine colour. Mr. Wallilcer exhibited specimens of quartz covered with pyrites, from Lake Superior. Mr. W. P. Marshall read a paper on “ Singular Water-worn Rocks,” met with in his recent trip to the Orkneys and Slietlands. 268 REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. Nov., 1889. The paper was well illustrated by diagrams. Mr. Waller made some very interesting remarks further elucidating several points touched upon by Mr. Marshall. Professor Lapworth gave a learned exposition of the peculiar symmetrical shapes, with mouldings and ridges, into which the surface of the Old Red Sandstone splits up. — Sociological Section, October 22nd. The first meeting of this section this session. Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S. (President), in the chair. There was a large attendance of more than seventy members and friends, including many ladies. An address was delivered by Miss Constance C. W. Naden, of London, on “ The Principles of Sociology,” of Mr. Herbert Spencer, being the fourth division of the Synthetic Philosophy. The address, which occupied more than an hour in delivery, was listened to with marked attention, and was frequently applauded. At its conclusion a cordial vote of thanks was passed to Miss Naden, accom¬ panied by a request that she would allow it to be printed, on the motion of the President of the Society (Mr. W. B. Grove), seconded by Professor Tilden, F.R.S. Professor Lapworth, F.R.S., J. A. Langford, LL.D., and Mr. F. J. Cullis, F.G.S., also addressed the meeting. Miss Naden’s address will appear in the “ Midland Naturalist.” BIRMINGHAM MICROSCOPISTS’ AND NATURALISTS’ UNION. — August 19th. Mr. Corbet exhibited a series of photo¬ graphic views of the Giant’s Causeway. Mr. J. Madison then read a paper, “ Notes on a Holiday Ramble.” The ramble commenced at Coventry, and was made for the purpose of visiting the field of Naseby, interesting from being the site of a great battle fought between the armies of Charles and Cromwell, and also the spot where the Strat¬ ford Avon rises. The places of interest passed through were Combe Park, Brinklow, Lutterworth, and Welford. Lutterworth was full of interest from its association with John Wycliff. The Avon takes its rise in a well, the stream being so small as to pass through a one- inch pipe. The return journey was made to Coventry through West Haddon, Hill Moreton, and Duuchurch. The paper was illustrated by a series of photographs taken during the ramble and shown as lantern pictures. At the close of the paper a series of photographs of the Aberystwith district, was shown by Mr. C. P. Neville. — August 26th. Mr. H. Hawkes showed an interesting collection of plants from the Chesil Bank, Weymouth ; also cases or tubes of Terebella. Mr. J. W. Neville, a series of microscopical preparations of Dytiscus marginalis. The series comprised a number of larvae, showing differ¬ ent stages of growth. Messrs. Deakin and Lilley, a large collection of Eocene fossils from Barton Clay, Hampshire. — September 2nd. Mr. H. Hawkes exhibited the following fungi : — Fistulina hepatica and Spumaria alba ; Mr. Camm, Trichia intermedia, T. scabra , T. Jaclcii , and Oligonema nitens. Mr. Deakin, shark’s teeth from Barton Cliff ; Mr. Linton, a collection of fossils from Whitby. Under the micro¬ scope, Mr. J. W. Neville, mouth-organs of beetle Ocypus olenus ; Mr. J. Moore, poison bag in jaw of spider. — September 9tli. Mr. J. W. Neville showed twelve mounted slides of lepidopterous larvae ; Mr. H. Hawkes, five volumes of marine algae, a collection made in Devon¬ shire by Dr. William Arnold Bromfield. Under the microscope Mr. Hawkes showed the following fungi : Erysiphe communis and Uncinula bicornis. Pec., 1889. THE MIDLAND UNION. 269 MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING, HELD AT OXFORD, SEPTEMBER 23rd and 24th, 1889. With every augury of a most successful gathering, the delegates and members of the various scientific societies constituting the Union assembled at Oxford on Monday, September 23rd. As far as outside attendance was con¬ cerned, the Twelfth Annual Meeting was one of the very largest the Union has had. No doubt the intrinsic attrac¬ tions of Oxford are great, and of these the Oxfordshire Natural History Society, the host for the occasion, availed itself to the utmost ; no doubt specially strenuous efforts had been put forth, both by the host society and by the officials of the Union ; but after making allowance for both of these agencies, the widespread interest in the successful maintenance of the Union, which was evinced by the attend¬ ance of sixty or more visitors, coming from centres so remote as Chester and Derby, was both satisfactory and gratifying. Amongst the visitors present at the meeting were Mr. R. W. Chase, Rev. Geo. Deane, D.Sc., Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., Mr. Geo. H. Kenrick, Mr. W. P. Ryland, Mr. and Mrs. John Rabone, Mr. and Mrs. Thos. Clarke, Mr. W. K. Parkes (Assistant Secretary of the Union), Mr. 0. R. Robinson, Mr. Tlios. H. Waller, B.A., B.Sc. (President of the Birmingham Naturalists’ and Microscopists’ Union), Mr. W. H. Wilkinson, Mr. W. B. Grove, M.A. (President of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society), Mr. Herbert Stone, Mr. F. Grimley, Mr. J. Kenward, F.S.A. (President of the Bir¬ mingham Philosophical Society), Miss Jermyn, Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus, Mr. T. Y. Gardner, Dr. Lawson Tait, Professor Bridge, Professor and Mrs. Hillhouse, and others, of Bir¬ mingham ; Mr. and Miss Sliepheard, of Chester ; Mr. Horace Pearce, F.L.S., F.G.S. (President of the Dudley and Midland Geological Society and Field Club), and Mrs. Pearce; Mr. S. D. Williams, and Mr. G. M. Stubbs, Sutton Coldfield ; Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S., of Leamington; Dr. Fitch, of Chaddesley, near Kidderminster (President of the Worcester¬ shire Naturalists’ Field Club) ; Rev. T. Auden, M.A. (Presi¬ dent of the Severn Valley Naturalists’ Field Club), Rev. 270 THE MIDLAND UNION. Dec., 1889. W. G. D. Fletcher, M.A., and Mr. Wm. Bedcall, Shrewsbury; Bev. P. M. Feilden, M.A. (President of the Oswestry and Welshpool Naturalists’ Field Club) ; Mr. Beeby Thompson, F.G.S., Mr. W. D. Crick, Mr. A. and Mrs. Kempson, Mr. M. H. Holding, Mr. J. Shuttleworth, and Mr. T. Pressland, Northampton; Mr. B. S. Bartleet, J.P., and Dr. Wm. Smith, Bedditcli ; Mr. E. de Hamel, Middleton Hall, near Tamworth; Mr. W. H. and M. Carl Duignan, Walsall ; Mr. Isaac Knowles, Miss Beilis, Wellington ; Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Cooper, and Dr. Finch, Leicester ; Mr. H. A. Bemrose and Mr. G. Fletcher, Derby ; while the Oxford Society provided a goodly number of attendants at the meetings, amongst whom were Mr. E. B. Poulton, F.B.S. (President, and President of the Union), Mr. H. M. J. Underhill (Secretary), and Mr. G. C. Druce, M.A. (Treasurer). Professors Westwood and Clifton, Drs. Collier, J. A. H. Murray, M.A., Sankey, and E. B. Tylor, F.B.S. ; Sir John Conroy, M.A., Bevs. F. J. Smith, M.A., J. W. B. Bell, M.A., J. G. Burch, B.A., Messrs. D. H. Nagel, M.A., H. Balfour, M.A., Arthur Sidgwick, M.A., W. W. Fisher, M.A., V. H. Yeley, M.A., M. S. Pembrey, B.A., P. C. Mitchell, B.A., 0. H. Latter, B.A., J. Woods, and many others. For the comfort of the visitors the most careful arrangements had been made. Many were most kindly and hospitably enter¬ tained at private houses, and the chief cause for regret on the part of the host society was their inability to provide similar accommodation for the whole of their visitors. The visitors gathered in the Universitv Museum at about vj *J two p. m. , and while the members of the Council held their annual meeting, those who were not officially occupied were formed into small parties and conducted over Oxford. In the Universitv Museum, the Pitt-Bivers Collection (Anthro¬ pology), Mr. H. Balfour, M.A., kindly explained points of special interest, and in the Hope Collection (Insects), Professor Westwood directed attention to the most interesting features, while in the Central Court of the Museum, the Collections illustrating Comparative Anatomy and Osteology, the Secondary Fossils, and the Primary Fossils in the Grindrod Collection, which are especially fine, were open to inspection. The Bodleian Library and Camera, the Ashmolean Museum ( Archaeology j, the Clarendon Press, and the Botanical Gardens, Museum, and Library were also open to visitors. The Annual Meeting of the Council was held at 2 30, the following being present : — Mr. E. B. Poulton, M.A., F.B.S. (President), in the chair, Mr. B. W. Chase, Bev. G. Deane, D.Sc., Bev. P. M. Feilden, M.A., Mr. W. B. Grove, M.A.,Mr. Dec., 1889. THE MIDLAND UNION. 271 E. de Hamel (Treasurer), Prof. Hillhouse, M.A., F.L.S., Mr. W. K. Parkes (Assistant Hon. Secretary), Mr. H. Pearce, E.L.S., F.G.S., Mr. C. E. Eobinson, and Mr. H. M. J. Underhill. The report of the adjudicators for the Darwin Medal, and the Annual Eeport were received, discussed, and adopted for presentation to the Annual Meeting, and a recom¬ mendation to the Union to appoint a committee to consider the affairs of the Union with especial reference to the privileges of the component societies and their relations with the “ Midland Naturalist ” was also passed. From half-past three to half-past four afternoon tea was served in one of the galleries of the Museum, after which the GENEEAL ANNUAL MEETING was held in the large Lecture Theatre of the Museum, under the presidency of Mr. E. B. Poulton, M.A., F.E.S., the attendance being exceptionally large. After a few words of welcome from the President, the minutes of the last meeting were taken as read, and the Secretary read the following REPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. The Societies which are now members of the Union are as follows : — Birmingham Microscopists’ and Naturalists’ Union. Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society. Birmingham Philosophical Society. Birmingham and Midland Institute Scientific Society. Birmingham School Natural History Society. Caradoc Field Club. Dudley and Midland Geological and Scientific Society and Field Club. Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society. Malvern Field Club. Northamptonshire Natural History Society. Oswestry and Welshpool Naturalists’ Field Club. Oxfordshire Natural History Society and Field Club. Rugby School Natural History Society. Severn Valley Naturalists’ Field Club. 272 THE MIDLAND UNION. Dec. , 1889. The Council very much regret to report that the Northamptonshire Natural History Society, under whose auspices the Annual Meeting of last year was held, have decided to withdraw, after this year, from the Union. Negotiations are, however, on foot with the Birmingham Entomologists’ Society for their affiliation with the Union This is a young society which is doing very valuable work in Entomology, and the Union hope that it will raise this study to a higher level in the Midlands than it has hitherto attained. Darwin Medal. The subject for which the Darwin Medal is awarded this year is Geology, and the papers which have appeared in the “ Midland Naturalist,” and were eligible for the competition, were submitted to the following gentlemen, who had kindly consented at the request of the Council to act as adjudicators, viz., H. W. Crosskey. LL.D., F.G. S. ; G. Deane, D.Sc., B.A., F.G.S. ; Professor J. W. Judd, F.R.S., F.G.S. ; Professor Charles Lapwortli, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. ; J. J. H. Teale, M.A., F.G.S. ; and W. W. Watts, M.A., F.G.S. * The papers submitted to these gentlemen were as follows: — “ The Middle Lias of Northamptonshire,” by Beeby Thompson. “ The Geological Structure of Titterstone Glee Hill,” by the Rev. J. D. La Touche. “ Niagara : its Physical and Geological Conditions,” by W. P. Marshall. “ A Deep Boring near Birmingham”; “Faults in the Drift”; “Rocks of Cambrian Age at Dosthill ” ; “Deep Boring in Keuper Marls,” by W. J. Harrison. “Structure of Rowley Rag”; “Rock from New Zealand”; “Gold at Mount Morgan, Queensland”; “Micro-chemical Methods for Separating Minerals ” ; “ Separation of Minerals by Heavy Solutions”; “Petrography of our Local Pebbles ” ; “ Crystallization in Rocks”; “ A Lithia-bearing Granite from South Devon”; “Notes on some Norwegian Rocks,” by T. H. Waller. “Inaccuracies in Leicestershire Geological Survey”; “ Fossi- liferous Haematite Nodules”; “Fossil Tree at Clayton”; “ Stigmaria,” by W. S. Gresley. “Barium Sulphate as Cement in Sandstone,” by F. Clowes. Three of these investigations were picked out by the adjudicators for special mention, viz., those by Mr. Beeby Thompson, Mr. W. S. Gresley, and Mr. Tlios. II. Waller; and of these, four of the adju¬ dicators placed Mr. Waller first, one gave Mr. Beeby Thompson first place, and one bracketted these two gentlemen together. Acting upon these reports, the Council have awarded the Darwin Medal for 1889 to Mr. Thos. H. Waller, B.A., B.Sc., for liis researches upon Local Petrography. Dec., 1889 THE MIDLAND UNION. 273 Concerning these researches, Mr. Teale says, “Of Mr. Waller’s work I am able to speak in the highest terms. All of it is valuable and accurate, and much of it is original.” Professor Lapwortli speaks of Mr. Waller’s papers as “ a remarkable list, . . . each of which embodies the resuit of a large amount of original work.” Mr. Watts says, “ Of the value of Mr. Waller’s papers to petrologists it is impos¬ sible to say too much.” To the investigations of Mr. Beeby Thompson and Mr. W. S. G-resley the adjudicators are likewise almost unanimous in awarding high praise. “ Midland Natukalist.” The publication of the “Midland Naturalist” goes on regularly, and in the standard of the contributions there is no falling off. The principal papers are as follows: — The continuation of “ The Fungi of Warwickshire,” by W. B. Grove, B.A., and J. E. Bagnall, A.L.S. ; the continuation of “ The County Botany of Worcester,” by Wm. Mathews, M.A. ; the completion of “ The Middle Lias of Northamptonshire,” by Beeby Thompson ; “ Passages from Popular Lectures,” by F. T. Mott. F.R.G.S.; “On the Successful Use of Oil to Calm Bough Seas,” by W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E. ; “ On Kew Gardens and some of the Botanical Statistics of the British Possessions,” by J. G. Baker, F.B.S., F.L.S. ; “The Physical Geography of the Past,” by Horace T. Brown, F.G.S., F.I.C., F.C.S. ; “Insularity,” by Bev. H. H. Slater; “ The Life History of a Mvxomycete,” by T. P. Blunt, M.A. ; “ Notes on a Tour in Norway and Collection of Plants,” by W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E., and C. Pumphrey ; “ The Foundations of our Belief in the Indestructibility of Matter and the Conservation of Energy,” by J. H. Poynting, D.Sc., F.R.S. ; “Notes on Stigma via,” by W. S. Gresley ; “ In Sherwood Forest,” by Oliver P. Aplin ; “ Micro¬ chemical Examination of Minerals and the Separation of Bock Constituents by Means of Heavy Solutions,” by T. H. Waller, B.A., B.Sc. ; the Address of the President to the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society; “ Foraminifera of Oban,” by E. W. Burgess; “On the Autumn Migration of Swallows and Martins,” by W. Warde Fowler, M.A. ; “ The Work of Field Clubs,” by Ch. Callaway, D.Sc., F.G.S. ; “ Wild Bees,” by B. C. L. Perkins; “ Professor Poynting on our Physical Beliefs,” by Herbert Stone, F. L.S. ; Book Reviews, by W. B. Grove, B.A., W. R. Hughes, F.L.S. , and others ; and a sympathetic Memoir, by W. R. Hughes, F.L.S., of his friend, the late Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S. The Council are glad to observe that this list includes the names of several members of the more outlying societies of the Union. They cannot but think that “The Midland Naturalist,” as the official organ of the Union, might be much more widely made use of for the purpose of recording the transactions of the various societies in the Union than it has hitherto been. However laudable may be the desire on the part of larger societies in the Union to publish their own proceedings, they feel that this separate publication necessarily deprives the general scientific public of any cognisance of their work. From this point of view it would be far better that the Union should have one strong organ than that the various societies constituting it should each publish a separate journal of the work of its members. There have been a number of papers of importance read before the societies in the Union who publish their own separate proceedings. The 274 THE MIDLAND UNION. Dec., 1889. Birmingham Philosophical Society’s last published volume contains papers on “The Constitution of a Popular University,” by Dr. W. A. Tilden, F.R.S. ; on “ The Extensor Tendons of the Manus of Apes,” and “ Congenital Malformations,” by Dr. Bertram C. A. Windle, M.A. ; on “The Collection and Use of Local Statistics,” by Mr. J. Thackray Bunce, F.S.S. ; “ Suggestions for a Midland University,” by the Rev. H. W. Watson, D.Sc., F.R.S. ; on “ The Distribution of Boulders in South Shropshire and South Staffordshire,’' by Mr. F. W. Martin, F.G.S. ; on “ The Cranial Anatomy of Polypterus,” by Professor T. W. Bridge, M.A. ; and by the same author a paper on “ The Air-bladder in certain Siluroid Fishes ; ” on “ The Suppression and Specialisation of Teeth,” by Mr. J. Humphreys, L.D.S.I., and by Professor Poynting, D.Sc., “On a Form of Solenoid Galvanometer”; by Dr. H. W. Crosskey, F.G.S. , on “ The Glacial Geology of the Midlands.” The Northamptonshire Natural History Society and Field Club continue their interesting quarterly journal. Lord Lilford continues his “ Notes on the Birds of Northamptonshire ; ” Mr. G. C. Druce, F.L.S., is still at work at the “ County Flora ; ” Mr. Beeby Thompson, F.C.S., F.G.S., extends his exhaustive analysis of “ The Upper Lias of Northamptonshire;” the Rev. H. H. Slater’s address on “ Insularity,” is printed in No. 35 of the journal. Mr. Walter D. Crick contributes an article on “ Helix Fomatiq in Northampton¬ shire,” to No. 36, which also contains some meteorological reports and observations. The Transactions of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society are as interesting as they are varied. Mr. F. T. Mott, F.R.G.S., contributes papers on “ The Native Trees of Leicestershire;” “The Ferns of Leicestershire,” and “ On Cultivation.” Mr. W. A. Vice, M.B., has a contribution on “ The Teeth in the Order Rodenta.” An article by Mr. Montagu Browne, F.Z.S., on “ The Antiquity of Man in Leicestershire,” is accompanied by a number of excellent illustrations. Part X. contains contributions by Mr. T. Carter, L. L.B., on “The Parasitic Phanerogams of Leicestershire ”; and by Mr. G. H. Storer on “The Habits and Voices of British Song Birds.” In Part XI. Mr. H. G. Quilter discourses on “ The Rhaetics of Leicestershire,” and the Rev. T. A. Preston, M. A., on “ Fruits.” Mr. J. W. Knowles contributes a paper on “ The Theories as to the Variations of Race in Mankind,” and Mr. F. R. Rowley on “Facts concerning Hypopus.” Literary papers on “ Sartor Resartus,” by Mr. J. D. Paul, F.G.S., and by Mr. A. H. Paget, on “ The Beaumonts of Gracedieu,” help to make the trans¬ actions of great interest. During the year the General Honorary Secretary of the Union, Mr. Thos. H. Waller, B.A., B.Sc., has decided to resign his office, and the Council takes this opportunity of tendering to him their hearty thanks for the time and thought which he has given to the Union during the five years he has held that responsible post. As to the general condition of the Midland Union, the Council cannot but feel that there is much to be desired. The Union has in the past done a large amount of most valuable work, and so far from believing that the days of its chief utility are over, the Council consider that, if its work is rightly directed, it can do much more in the future than it has done in the past. In conclusion, the Council desire once more to draw the attention of the constituent societies to the growing custom of the separate publication of their proceedings. While they do not feel justified in Dec., 1889. THE MIDLAND UNION. 275 laying down any hard and fast rule, they cannot but believe that iu most cases this separate publication is a serious error. They have already referred to this from the point of view of the general scientific public, but from that of the societies themselves they believe that the disadvantage is even greater. The burden upon the finances of the societies which publish is unduly great, much is published which does not justify its cost, and the range of distribution of that which is published is unduly restricted, while the interest of the meetings of the society is to a large degree discounted. These matters the Council would commend to the most serious consideration of the members of the Union, and in the assured conviction that while it is no doubt true that to some extent a society exists for its members alone, it is equally true that for a society to not only preserve its vitality, but also preserve its youth and freshness, the range of its operations must be as broad as it can practically be made. In completion of the Report of the Adjudicators and decisions of the Council and Animal Meeting, the President then presented the Darwin Medal for 1889 to Mr. Tlios. H. Waller, B.A., B.Sc., in recognition of the value of his researches on Local Petrography, &c. After a few words of acknowledgment from Mr. Waller, the meeting approved the TREASURER’S REPORT. S>v. 1888. July 4tli. 1889. Receipts. To Balance in hand Rugby School Natural History Society . Oswestry and Welshpool Naturalist Field Club ... Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society . Caradoc Field Club . Oxfordshire Natural History Society and Field Club Northamptonshire Natural History Society . Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society Birmingham School Natural History Society Birmingham and Midland Institute Scientific Society . Birmingham Microscopists’ and Naturalists’ Society . Dudley and Midland Geological and Scientific Society and Field Club . Malvern Field Club . Birmingham Philosophical Society . £ s. d. 21 1 11 No. of Mbrs. Rate. 258 1 1 1 6 40 3 0 10 0 147 3 1 16 9 60 3 0 15 0 73 3 0 IS 3 150 3 1 17 6 271 3 3 7 9 12 1 0 1 0 184 1 0 15 4 30 3 0 7 6 80 3 1 0 0 50 3 0 12 6 120 3 1 10 0 1,475 £35 15 0 Gv. Payments. 1888. T. H. Waller, Secretary’s Expenses ... J. Moore, Gold Medal . ,, Bronze . Wright, Dain, Peyton and Co. 1889. Wright, Dain, Peyton and Co . Treasurer, Postages, &c . Balance in hand . . £ s. d. 2 7 6 7 16 6 0 2 10 0 17 6 2 8 11 0 3 0 21 18 9 £35 15 0 276 THE MIDLAND UNION. Dec., 1889. The Election of Officers then took place, Mr. E. de Hamel being re-elected Treasurer, and Dr. Lawson Tait and Mr. Kineton Parkes, Secretaries. A vote of thanks to the Officers of the past year was then passed, especial reference being made to the retirement of Mr. Waller from the post of secre¬ tary, which he had held for five years. A Committee, as follows, with power to add to their number, was appointed to enquire into the affairs of the Union, and its relations with the Midland Naturalist : — Mr. R. W. Chase, Dr. 0. Deane, Mr. Gr. C. Druce, M.A., Mr. R. M. Dixon, Rev. P. M. Feil- den. Mr. E. de Hamel, Professor Hillhouse, Mr. H. Pearce, Mr. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., Dr. Lawson Tait, and Mr. Beebv Thompson. The President then delivered the Address on ‘‘Hereditv.” «/ printed at pages 245-58. Mr. Francis Gralton, F.R.S., spoke at considerable length upon the question, and referred to many of his own investi¬ gations, which had led him independently to the same con¬ clusion as that adopted by Professor Weismann. Dr. Collier stated that he should not have ventured to take part in the discussion had he not felt that some of the opinions advanced by Professor Weismann were opposed to the views held by the bulk of the medical profession. Mr. Poulton had told them that if Weismann’s Theory of Heredity were true, it would not allow that acquired characters could be transmitted ; but Dr. Collier asserted that the general opinion of the medical profession was that certain morbid changes in the tissues and organs of the body acquired during adult life might in some subtile manner be transmitted to the offspring, and render the offspring far more likely to develop the disease from which the father and mother suffered than would be the offspring of healthy individuals. He would take, as an example, gout. Let us suppose that a healthy man marries at thirty, leads a healthy life, and has two or three children. Between thirty-five and forty he then begins to indulge himself with the pleasures of the table, eats large quantities of animal food, drinks largely of the heavier wines, and at the same time takes very little exercise. As a result of this he develops a distinct attack of gout. Now experience proved that the children that might be born to such a man after he had developed gout would be far more likely to suffer from gout than were the children he had had previous to the development of the disease. Experience had Dec., 1889. THE MIDLAND UNION. 277 also shown that the children of gouty parents developed the disease generally some years earlier than their parents. For example, the father would have it at forty or fifty, the children at twenty to twenty- five. Further, the younger children were more liable to suffer than the elder. Now what was gout ? It was known that the symptoms were due to an excess of uric acid in the blood. It was believed by many that this excess was due to some injury inflicted on the liver by over feeding and over drinking, which prevented it properly fulfilling one of its functions, that was the conversion of the nitrogenous portions of the food into soluble urea. Now most medical men would hold that this injury inflicted on the liver might in some subtile way be transmitted to the offspring, so that their livers bore as it were the imprint of their father’s disease, and were therefore, when the slightest strain was thrown upon them, more likely to break down than were the healthy livers of other children. Again, take the case of consumption. It was known that something like thirty-five to forty per cent, of the children of one consumptive parent developed consumption, but when both parents suffered from it nearly a hundred per cent, developed and died of this disease. It was now known that consumption was due to the growth and development of a vegetable organism in the lungs. And medical men believed that the growth and development of this organism in the lung produced some change in it, the imprint of which change could be transmitted to the lung of the offspring, rendering the lung much more liable to be attacked by the organism than an ordinary healthy lung. Another example he might give was that of haemophilia, a disease characterised by immoderate bleedings ; so that patients suffering from this disease would bleed spontaneously, or the slightest cut or the removal of a tooth would be followed by bleeding so severe and so difficult to arrest as to endanger life. Now it was held that this tendency was due to some subtile change in the walls of the blood-vessels which rendered them much weaker than the walls of healthy vessels, but the way in which the disease was transmitted was exceedingly interesting. The disease descends to the boys through the mothers, the women remaining quite healthy. Thus, one boy of a family of six acquires the disease, he marries, his sons and daughters are apparently healthy and do not suffer, but the disease again appears among the male children of his daughters, and so on from generation to generation. One other point he would like to mention, and 278 THE MIDLAND UNION. Dkc., 1889. that was liis surprise that Professor Weismann had apparently paid so little attention to the difficulties which the trans¬ mission of hereditary diseases would seem to offer to this theory of heredity, while he had devoted a whole lecture to disprove the supposed transmission of mutilations. For he, Dr. Collier, felt sure that hardly a medical man could be found, and very few of the general public, who ever thought that the effect of mutilations, such as scars, or removal by accident (or otherwise) of portions of the body, were in any way transmitted to the offspring. Professor Hillhouse proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Poulton for his address. After referring to the fact that besides those of Darwin and Weismann, there existed two other important theories of heredity, those of Niigeli and of Strasburger, he pointed out cases existent in the vegetable kingdom which were not readily explicable by the Weismann theory, which theory he looked upon as in large degree unnecessary. The resolution was seconded by Dr. Lawson Tait, who supported the view of Dr. Collier as to the trans¬ mission of acquired characteristics, and further enforced the case of hereditary bleeding as one in point ; and a lively passage of arms arose between Dr. Tait and Mr. Francis Gal ton, owing to the trenchant criticism by the former of the use of the word “ heredity.” The vote having been carried, the proceedings closed with a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. H. M. J. Underhill, Secretary of the Oxfordshire Natural History Society, for the admirable arrangements he had made for the meeting of the Union. CONVERSAZIONE. By the kind permission of the University Delegates the Conversazione in the evening was held in the University (Ashmolean) Museum. About 700 guests were present, and they were received by the President, Mr. Poulton, and Mr. Underhill, the Secretary of the host society. In addition to the remarkable collection of varied and interesting objects with which the great Museum and the Pitt- Rivers Museum are filled, a programme for the amusement and instruction of the visitors was provided, the wealth of which our space only enables us in the briefest way to depict. In the Large Lecture Theatre in the North Gallerv, Dr. E. B. Tvlor, F.R.S., Dec., 1889. THE MIDLAND UNION. 279 gave to an overflowing audience a series of demonstrations illustrating savage methods of procuring fire, and Mr. Henry Balfour, M.A.. discoursed on bows and arrows, and described a series of specimens illustrating the Lapland Whale Fishery. The Radcliffe Library (West Gallery) was open during the evening, by kind permission of the Librarian, Sir Henry Acland, K.C.B., D.M..F.R.S. ; as also was the Court of the Clarendon Laboratory, by kind permission of Professor R. B. Clifton, F.R.S., where he, assisted by Mr. Walter R. Clifton, exhibited acoustical apparatus in the Lecture Room of the Laboratory. The Hope Collection of Insects (South Gallery), unrivalled in certain departments, was, by kind permission of Professor J. 0. Westwood, M.A., exhibited and explained by himself, the Rev. J. W. B. Bell, M.A., and Mr. Arthur Sidgwick, M.A. In the Central Court of the Museum, the Rev. F. J. Smith, M.A., showed some recent forms of apparatus employed in physical research ; by kind permission of Professor W. H. Jackson, M.A., Mr. O. H. Latter, B. A., exhibited microscopical preparations and living specimens of various animals, and Mr. P. C. Mitchell, B.A., showed the working of microtomes and the methods employed in the preparation of microscopical sections. Mr. G. C. Druce, M.A., displayed a collection of the grasses of Oxfordshire, and Mr. J. B. Farmer, B.A., described and illustrated a method by which Algae, &c., may be grown upon a micro¬ scopic slide, and also showed some botanical specimens. The anthropometric apparatus of Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S., was also exhibited ; while in a side room the Rev. J. G. Burch, M.A., showed his interesting perspective microscope. In the South Corridor, Mr. W. W. Fisher, M.A., showed some brilliant fusion experiments with oxygen, and Mr. Y. H. Veley, M.A., also showed chemical experiments. In the Geo¬ logical Lecture Room in the South Corridor, Mr. M. S. Pembrey, B.A., performed some physiological experiments. In the Lecture Rooms in the South Gallery, Sir John Conroy, M.A., showed some experiments on fluorescence, and Mr. D. H. Nagel, M.A., experiments with sensitive flames. In the Large Lecture Theatre (North Gallery), Mr. H. M. J. Underhill exhibited, with the oxy-hydrogen lantern, coloured slides of his own preparation representing the microscopic organisms from the ponds and rivers near Oxford, and others illustrating a Japanese legend of some evolutionary interest, the beauty of the slides being much appreciated. The Conversazione did not close till nearly midnight. 280 THE MIDLAND UNION. Dec., 1889. Tuesday. Arrangements had been made on this day for an excursion to Shotover Hill, where Mr. Poulton had proposed to deliver a discourse upon the geology of the district. From an early hour, however, it was seen that the weather would make any attempt of this kind a disastrous failure, and, much to the regret alike of hosts and guests, it had to be abandoned. With ready courtesy, however, the Ashmolean Museum was opened, and Mr. Balfour, who had undertaken to give up his afternoon to the guests, most courteously sacrificed his morn¬ ing also. To this museum most of the visitors made then- way, and examined, at greater leisure than had been possible on the previous evening, its invaluable contents, while Mr. Balfour explained the most interesting items in the Pitt- Kivers Anthropological Collection, and Professor Westwood talked over his favourite butterflies and moths. At about one o’clock a company, numbering between eighty and ninety guests, sat down to luncheon in the Hall of Christ Church, where an excellent collation was provided. The President (Mr. E. B. Poulton), occupied the chair, while the vice-cliairs were filled by Mr. G. C. Druce, M.A., Mr. H. M. J. Underhill, and Professor Hillliouse (Birmingham). At the close of the luncheon, Professor Hillhouse rose and said he believed that that would be the last occasion upon which they would all meet together, and, therefore, it would be the last opportunity they would have of offering to their hosts the tribute of their thanks — (applause). As to the merits of their hosts, he hardly thought that any words of his could possibly paint them in fitting aspect. They had seen them as business people ; they had had them as their guides in their various pleasant occu¬ pations during the preceding twenty-four hours, and many had appreciated their hospitality in more private capacity. He ven¬ tured to say that in no previous meeting of that Union — cer¬ tainly no meeting for the last eight or ten years — had the duties of hosts been attended to with so much assiduity or with so much success as on the present occasion. He asked those present, as representatives of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies, to accord to the Oxford Society a most hearty vote of thanks for their kindness and courtesy, and Dkc., 1889. THE MIDLAND UNION. 281 the incessant attention which tliev had shown the visitors m «/ during the meeting — (applause) — and to couple with the toast the names of Mr. Poulton and Mr. Underhill. Mr. W. R. Hughes, F.L.S. (Birmingham), seconded the vote, which was most cordiallv received. Mr. Poulton returned hearty thanks on behalf of tiie Oxford Society for the kind way in which the visitors had spoken of them, and said it had been a very great pleasure to the Societv to see those from a distance among them. He felt that the Union had a very great work to do, and thought that Natural History Societies made a great mistake in very often thinking that tliev could do better work themselves than by joining a Union like theirs. He deprecated the use of so many organs in which the doings of Natural History Societies were made known, and said that a few good magazines should contain the work of all the Natural History Societies of the country. He thought it was an advantage for Societies to combine, and that their Union did an admirable piece of work in leading such a combination. In conclusion, he wished to express in the name, he was sure, of all present their most sincere and hearty thanks to the Dean of Christ Church for lending them the use of the Hall on that occasion —(applause). He (the speaker) thought it was most appropriate that their Society should meet and have lunch in the first Hall in Oxford, and when the Dean of Christ Church was approached on the subject he very kindly consented at once to their having the use of the Hall — (applause). Mr. H. M. J. Underhill also returned thanks, and seconded the motion, which was unanimously agreed to, and the pro¬ ceedings closed. In spite of the ceaseless drizzle, parties were now made up under local guidance to visit some of the lions of Oxford. Thus a number, under the guidance of Mr. Poulton, proceeded to the Hall and Chapel of Magdalen College, and thence to the Botanical Gardens on the opposite side of the road, where Mr. Farmer, assistant to Professor Vines, was present throughout the afternoon. Some again visited the Pitt- Rivers Collection, where Mr. Balfour again explained the most interesting features ; others the Hope Collection of Insects, under the guidance of the Rev. J. W. B. Bell. The Bodleian Library was open from two to four p.m., the Bodley 28*2 REVIEW. Dec.. 1889. Librarian, Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, M.A., kindly giving a short history of the Library, and the Camera was also open throughout the afternoon. The Clarendon Press was visited by a party, and the processes of electrotyping were illustrated. The Radcliffe Observer, Mr. E. J. Stone. M.A., F.R.S., kindly consented to show the instruments, &c., at the Radcliffe Observatory, to one party at three p.m., and another at four p.m. The Radcliffe Observer and Mrs. Stone very kindly invited both parties to tea at four p.m. A small party visited Dr. J. A. H. Murray’s Scriptorium, in which the great dictionary is being prepared. To some extent these afternoon parties were interfered with by the weather, but the aggregate attendance at them was larger than might have been expected, and no doubt satisfied the various hosts that the courtesv they were showing to their visitors by no means fell upon thankless soil. We cannot conclude this brief report without congratu¬ lating the Union upon a most brilliant and successful meeting, and giving hearty expression to the indebtedness of the members, in the first instance, to Mr. Poulton, President, and Mr. H. M. J. Underhill, Secretary, of the Oxford Society, to whose constant and thoughtful care so much of the success was due ; and after them to the various members of the Reception Committee, and to those who, in more private way, added by their hospitality to the comfort and pleasure of the visiting members. ILHcfo. A Contribution to the Flora of Derbyshire. By the Rev. W. H. Painter. 8vo, pp. 156. Map. London : G. Bell and Sons. Price 7s. 6d. The preface of this new Flora is short, and gives little explanation of the work itself or the reasons which induced the author to publish it in its present form. The introduction contains only a meagre reference to the geology of the district and a sparse description of the topographical divisions and of the river systems of Derbyshire. In the recent Flora of South-West Yorkshire, by Mr. F. Arnold Lees, these portions have been so completely treated as to render it difficult indeed to follow him, while it raises the standard by which we must judge such books. Surely the geology of Derbyshire and its influence on plant distribution can scarcely be dismissed in thirty-two lines ! The various classes of citizenship of plants are then enumerated, the author using them in the same sense as in Watson’s Cybele. Dec., 1889. REVIEW. 283 They are given as follows in the Flora, and compared with the British list : — British . . Britain. 532 Derbyshire. 532 English . . 409 282 Germanic 127 14 Highland 120 9 Scottish . . 81 30 Atlantic.. 70 3 Intermediate . . 37 16 Local 49 3 1,425 889 Here there must be some error, as it is not probable that Derbyshire contains all the British types. It is likely that 800 would more cor¬ rectly represent the total number of Derbyshire plants apart from aliens. The zones of temperature and altitude are given verbatim from Baker’s Lake District Flora. No notice is taken of the meteorology of the county. The bibliography of Derbyshire is appended, but it is by no means exhaustive. No reference is made of Parkinson, although a Derbyshire station is recorded in the Theatrum, nor of the Phytologia Britannica, notwithstanding Wm. How there includes “ Ononis var. albo neere Derby,” and of “ Jaceasive Herha Trinitatis elegantis jlore luteo amplissimo neere Edenhole in the Peeke, and about Buckstone,” nor of Merrett’s Pinax, in which the two latter records are quoted. The list of recent workers appears more complete, and contains valued names, such as Bloxam, Churchill, Babington, J. G. Baker, W. H. Purchas, W. R. Linton, &c. The list of Derbyshire plants' then] follows, the nomenclature employed being that used by Mr. J. G. Baker in the Lake District Flora, but it would have been preferable to follow, at any rate, the sequence of the London Catalogue, based as that is on Bentliam’s and Hooker’s Genera Plantarum. Our nomenclature, it is true, is at present by no means fixed, and pending the issue of some authoritative work the adoption in its entirety of the names used in the London Catalogue is a matter for consideration. At any rate, important works such as the Floras of South-West Yorkshire, Hereford, and Suffolk have kept on the old lines, which, incorrect as they doubtless are in many cases, have at least the doubtful merit of custom to account for their retention. There can be no use, however, in the perpetuation of such errors as Galium cmciatum, Linn., Trifolium ochroleucum, L., Bryonia (lioica , Linn., Alims glutinosa, L., llumex Hydrolapathum , Huds., &c. These should read Galium Cruciata, Scop., Alnus glutinosa , Gaertn., Bryonia dioica, Jacq., Trifolium ochroleucon, Huds., Rumex Hydro- lapatheum. Huds. 284 REVIEW. Dec., 1889. There are also certain rules for citation which it is desirable to follow. (The writer may take this opportunity of pleading for forgive¬ ness for his own sins of omission and commission.) For instance, a capital must be used for any specific name which pre-Linusean writers had used as an appellative or in a generic sense. For instance, we should write Scabiosa Succisa, L., Anthyllis Vulneyaria , L., Lysimachia Nummularia, L., Andromeda Polifolia, L. The use of varietal names again is by no means correct. Very many plauts described as species have their author’s name attached, as though they had called them varieties, e.g., under Rosa, var. sub- globa, Sm., var. glauca , Vill., &c., were originally described as species, and called Rosa subglobosa, Sm., Rosa glauca . Vill. It is more correct, therefore, to write var. subglobosa (Sm.) or var. R. subglobosa, Sm. The more correct way being to use the first varietal name by which it was called and its author; thus — var. subglobosa, Baker. Here, too, we must express our regret that so little attention has been paid to the critical forms or even well marked varieties, nor is the distribution of the species at all thoroughly worked out. For instance, under Chara vulgaris two localities are given. Is it such an extremely rare plant in Derby ? Many of Mr. Purchas’s notes are extremely interesting. So, too, are the remarks upon Salix undulata, by Dr. Buchanan White. Ehrhart, not Ehrhardt, and Doll, not Dole, are the correct names for the two botanists mentioned in it ; and, later on, Hackel is mispelled Haeckel. It is the botanist, not the philosopher, who described the Festuca variety capillata, which had, however, a previous name, Gaudm having called it var. paludosa in the Flora Helvetica. Under Salix fragilis, L., a variety britannica is given, but no reference is made to Dr. Buchanan White, nor is any synonym of the species itself given, so we are left uncertain as to whether the record refers to S. viridis, Fries, or to S. Russelliana , Sm. U nder Melampyrum pratense L., var. ericetorumfT). Oliver, is given. Has this been seen by Mr. Painter or any competent botanist ? “ Topographical Botany ” is frequently the only authority given for the occurrence of a species in the county. This is not very satis¬ factory. It would have been by no means difficult to have obtained Mr. Watson’s authority for their insertion in that work. Take, for instance, “ CeplialantJiera grandiflora, Bab.” (or, as it should be called, C. pallens, Richard, = G. grandiflora, S. F. Gray), Mr. Painter gives “ Top. Bot. No authority.” In the list of books quoted as used for the purpose of compiling the Flora, Mr. Painter includes the New Botanists’ Guide, by Mr. Watson, and the Botanists’ Guide, by Turner and Dillwyn. The plants in the latter book, Mr. Painter states, were taken from Pilkington’s Account of Derbyshire. On referring to Dec.. 1889. REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 285 Watson’s Guide, we find Epipactis grandi flora [Cephalanthera grandi- flora ] recorded for Newton Wood, on the authority of B. G., which, teste Mr. Painter, was derived from Pilkington. So, too, with Gentiana P neumonanthe , where Egginton Heath is given on the same authority ; and so, too, with Chlora perfoliata , Pleasy Park and Whitewell being given as localities. Under Mentha Pulegiuni, we are told it is queried in Top. Bot., whereas in the Bot. Guide it is recorded from Pinxton, Ockbrooke, Radbourne, and Langley Commons. Even under such a typical Derbyshire plant as Polemoniam, some of the records in the New Botanists’ Guide do not appear to be given. Such are Lover’s Leap, near Buxton ; rocks in the Winnets, near Castleton ; Alfreton Brook, Bakewell Meadow. These are rather serious omissions, as the chance of verifying the doubtful records (if they are such) is to give in what is described as a County Flora all the available information respecting them. These remarks must not prejudice the reader against the book. Such is not by any means the intention of the writer, for, so far as it goes, the Flora is a correct summary of the more recently published records of Derbyshire plants, placed before us in a compact, well- printed form. We only regret that having spent, as Mr. Painter must have done, so much labour (how much only those who have attempted a similar work can rightly appreciate) upon the book, he had not delayed its publication a little longer, so a3 to have made it more thoroughly representative of the interesting county it deals with. This, we hope, he will yet find time to do. Till then British botanists must thank him for temporarily filling up the gap in our list of County Floras. The few following records of Derbyshire plants are taken from MSS. in a copy of the Dillenian Ray, in Library of Oxford Botanical Garden : — Draba muralis , Castleton, Matlock, Mr. Yalden. Cochlearia anglica, Hill, near Castleton, Mr. Yalden. Thlaspi alpestre, Matlock, Mr. [Sir Jos.] Banks. Cardamine impatiens, Matlock, Mr. Banks and Sir. Jno. Cullum ; Middleton Dale, Duchess of Portland. C. bellidifolia, near the edge of Derbyshire, Mr. Bolton. Polemonium coeruleum, near Castleton, Mr. Banks ; Alfreton Brook, Dr. Oaks. G. C. Druce. BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. — Annual Conversazione was held at the Mason College, on Tuesday, October 29th ; 174 members and friends were present. A 286 REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. Dec., 1889. unique and beautiful collection was exhibited of coloured drawings of British shells, “ Gibsone’s Conches,” made by the late George Gibsone, of Newcastle, and shown by his grandson, Rev. B. W. Gibsone, of Hinckley, who kindly came over for the purpose. Mr. E. Catclipool, of Sheffield, showed, in action, a series of very interesting and ingenious models of his own design and construction, illustrating the mode of flight of birds and insects ; also specimens of ants’ nests, showing the ants at work, which he had kindly brought from Sheffield for the Conversazione. Councillor Clayton contributed a fine series of photographs of Ceylon, India, Japan, Algeria, and the Yosemite Valley, which he had brought home in his recent travels ; and a complete model of a Japanese house. Mr. F. Shrive exhibited twenty- four cases of British Lepidoptera, collected in the neighbourhood by himself. Mr. W. H. Wilkinson exhibited a number of cases of butter¬ flies and moths, collected by himself in England and Scotland. Mr. W. R. Hughes exhibited a very unique and beautiful specimen of red coral, Gorallium rubrum , showing the polypes expanded, which had been obtained from 1,000 feet depth in the Mediterranean, near Naples ; also specimens of Amphioxus lanceolatus and an Ascidian. Mr. R. W. Chase exhibited a series of specimens of British Corvidae ; also a new British bird, Ember iza derides (Brandt’s Siberian Bunting), obtained at Flamborougli Head, November, 1886, which is the only known European specimen, the bird being a native of Siberia. Mr. C. Pumphrey exhibited a living specimen of a young gull, and an adult bird that had been lent by Mr. Chase for the purpose. Dr. Sankey, of Oxford, contributed specimens of the curious nest of the Trap-door Spider, from Italy (the Riviera). Professor Bridge exhibited a collection of British shells, recently presented to the College, that were arranged in very complete series from youngest to oldest of each kind. Mr. E. F. Spicer exhibited a fine group of badgers, and speci¬ mens of birds. Mr. J. B. Stone exhibited a portion of an extensive and valuable collection of dried plants that he had obtained in different parts of Europe. Mr. J. H. Jaques exhibited an interesting series of Norway photographs on glass lantern-slides, taken in a recent visit by himself ; and a number of photograph lantern-slides were exhibited by Mr. C. Pumphrey, Mr. C. J. Watson, Mr. J. Edmonds, and Mr. C. Mantell, including many beautiful photographs of flowers. A large collection of microscopes was exhibited by members of the Society, showing various Natural History objects. The President, Mr. W. B. Grove, M.A., exhibited a collection of fungi from the neighbourhood, and contributed to the refreshments a large dish of cooked Oyster Mush¬ room ( Arjaricus ostreatus), served with a gravy from Coprinus comatus and other selected fungi, which was partaken of by the company. The room was decorated with plants kindly lent by Mr. Spinks, of Messrs. Hewitt’s Nursery, Solihull. — Biological Section, November 12th ; Mr. Charles Pumphrey in the chair. Mr. Thos. E. Bolton exhibited and described Amphioxus lanceolatus, the Lancelet, the low¬ est form of vertebrate animals. This curious fish is devoid of skull and bones, the vertebral column being represented by an unjointed rod of cartilage extending the full length of the body. — Microscopical Section, November 5th ; Mr. W. P. Marshall, M.I.C.E., in the chair. Mr. J. E. Bagnall, A.L.S., exhibited a very rare fungus, Cantharellus radicosus, grown on charcoal, from Crowell, Oxon. Mr. W. H. Wilkinson then read a paper on “ Growing Cells for Use with the Microscope.” He exhibited the glass cells and apparatus used for the constant supply of water and air to enable the student to watch the development of minute organisms through all their stages, without Dice., 1889 REPORTS OE SOCIETIES 287 the necessity of ever disturbing or retarding the objects under obser¬ vation during the whole time of their culture. His remarks were further illustrated by diagrams. A discussion was afterwards held in which Messrs. J. E. Bagnall, J. Edmonds. G. M. Iliff, and others took part. — Sociological Section, November 14th. Mr. F. J. Cullis gave an able exposition of the first three chapters of Mr. Herbert Spencer’s “ Principles of Sociology” to a large and appreciative audience, which was followed bv an interesting discussion in which many of those present took part. — Geological Section, November 19th ; Mr. T. H. Waller, B.A. B.Sc., in the chair. There was a very large attendance, 250 being present, to hear a paper by Messrs. R. W. Chase and Pumphrey on “A Trip to the Norfolk Broads.” The paper was largely illustrated by photographs of especial interest, taken by Mr. C. Pumphrey during the excursion. The views included many cathedrals, and other buildings archseologically interesting, various birds’ nests, with their natural surroundings, scenes on the Broads, and two very special views of a decoy for wild duck, taken at Fritton, together with a photograph of Mr. Thomas Page, the keeper. The lecture was given in the Examination Hall, Mason College. At the close a vote of thanks to the two gentlemen above-named was carried with acclamation. BIRMINGHAM MICROSCOPISTS’ AND NATURALISTS’ UNION. — September 16th. Mr. Deakin exhibited a collection of land shells from Cape Finisterre, and pointed out the very small differences between them and English types ; Mr. J. W. Neville, Lady’s-mantle Rust (Uromyces intrusa) : Mr. J. Madison, specimens of Limncea auri- cularia var. rejlexa, from King’s Norton. Under the microscope Mr. J. Moore showed palate of Cochlicopa tridens ; Mr. H. Hawkes, Aphis populi. — September 23rd. Mr. H. Hawkes showed under the microscope preparations of Erica tetralix and E. vulgaris, showing pollen, glan¬ dular hairs, and pouch-like anthers ; Mr. J. Collins Gluetophora endiv ice folia, a freshwater alga, from Sutton Park; Mr. Parker, cyclosis in Nitella translucens. — September 30th. Mr. Deakin exhibited specimens of Typhis pungens and other shells from the Eocene forma¬ tion of Barton Cliff ; Mr. J. Madison, a short spired variety of Limncea stagnalis, from Milford. Under the microscope Mr. H. Hawkes showed a rare seaweed, Naccaria Wigghii, and a section through a flower-bud of horse chestnut. — October 7th. Mr. J. W. Neville exhibited specimens of “ coal balls,” and sections of the same material showing fossil plant structure, notably transverse sections of fern stems; Mr. J. Madison, wing of fossil insect from rhsetic bed, Knowle ; Mr. Lassita, a series of Silurian fossils from Aldridge ; Mr. T. H. Waller, specimen of band of diorite, showing the line of contact with the Stockingford shale, from Nuneaton ; Mr. J. Moore, a section of coral, Cyathophyllum reticulatum ; Mr. H. Hawkes, tail of rattle¬ snake ; also the following fungi : Nectria cinnaharina, Peziza cyathoidea, and a mould on Trichia varia. Mr. Camm, Alwisia intermedia and Hemiarcyria sp. — October 14th. Mr. H. Hawkes showed fasciated stem of asparagus. Mr. J. W. Neville then read a paper, “ Notes on the Ovipositors of Insects.” The writer said it might be thought an ovipositor need only be a very simple contrivance, a tube (perhaps telescopic, to enable it to be withdrawn into the insect’s body when not in use) through which the eggs might pass from the ovary to their destination. This was all we found in some insects, but in others the ovipositor and its contingent orgaus grew very complicate!. The 288 REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. Dec., 1889. various orders of insects were then reviewed at some length, the peculiarities of each being described. Of all orders the Hyinenoptera gave the most numerous instances of specialised forms. The paper was illustrated by a series of drawings. — October 21st. Mr. J. W. Lassetter exhibited a series of specimens of A try pa reticularis, showing various stages of growth. Mr. H. Hawkes, mounted specimens of our rarer plants, including Sibthorpia europcea, Neottia eestivalis, Sileve acaulis, Dianthus ccesius, Lobelia urea*, &c., and, under the microscope, stellate hairs on corolla of Corea preciosa. — October 28th. Mr. Camm exhibited, under the micro¬ scope, the following fungi : Hemiarcyria rubijormis, H. Serpula, and C rater iun aureum, the two last from Carlisle. Mr. Thompson then read a paper, “Notes on the Crayfish.” The writer, in describing the life history of this crustacean, said that though they were little esteemed by us as an article of food, yet on the Continent they were in great request, the demand for them in France exceeding the supply. After speaking of their habits in summer and winter and the different methods employed in taking them, the writer dealt at some length on the normal and abnormal development of their swimmerets, mouth organs, antennae, antennules (containing organs of hearing), gills, bronchial chamber, heart, stomach and gastroliths within it. The paper concluded with an account of their method of reproduction. The subject was illustrated by a series of drawings and dissections.- - November 4th. Annual Meeting for election of officers, &c. The General Secretary, Secretary of Committee, Curator, and Treasurer presented their reports, the latter stating that there was a balance of £8 17s. 5d. in favour of the Society. On the motion of Mr. White, the reports were adopted. Mr. T. H. Waller, B.A , B.Sc., the retiring President, proposed Professor Hillliouse, M.A., F.L.S., as President for the ensuing year. Messrs. C. P. Neville and J. Edmonds seconded and supported the nomination, which was carried unanimously. The President said it gave him great pleasure to accept the post. Although he could not hope to attend all the meetings of the Society, still he trusted to be able to take a useful part in it. The Society was per¬ forming an unassuming work, which it was a pleasure to read of from month to month, and he would do what he could to help forward and further its best interests. The following officers were then elected : Messrs. Deakin and Corbet, Vice-Presidents ; Mr. -J. Collins, General Secretary ; Mr. White, Secretary of Committee ; Mr. Madison, Curator. The other officers were re-elected. The election of Com¬ mittee and vote of thanks to retiring officers brought the meeting to a close. — November 11th. Mr. H. Hawkes exhibited specimens of Osmunda re g alls , Opliioglossum vulgatum, and Botrgchium Lunaria, our only native examples of exannulate ferns. Mr. P. T. Deakin then read a paper on “ The Country around Christchurch, Hants.” The writer described the situation of the town, and referred to its history and antiquities. It was once a seaport, but the harbour has been silted up until no large vessels can enter it. The great charm of this district to the scientist is its geology, for it gives us in the space of a few miles an almost complete section from the lower to the upper Eocene. In the Bournemouth beds we find leaf impressions and the remains of tree trunks, the latter bored through and through by a marine mollusc. Although some organic remains are to be found nearly all along the coast line, yet it is only when we come to Barton Cliff that they really abound. The writer gave lists of the fossils found commonly, and also referred to those less frequently met with, and said great interest Dec., 1889. REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 289 attached to one part where the change from marine to freshwater species was well seen. Collections of fossil and other shells were shown at the close. OXFORD NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. — Tuesday, October 22nd, 1889. First meeting of the session. The President in the chair. Forty-two present. After the formal business, Professor Sydney H. Vines, D.Sc., F.R.S., gave a lecture on “ The Nutrition of Plants.” He spoke chiefly of green plants, and showed how the food of plants was much simpler than the food of animals. G-reen plants derived their food from two sources — from the soil, which furnished their mineral food, and from the air, which gave gaseous food (carbon di-oxide). Animals were solely dependent on plants for their food, either directly or indirectly. He then pointed out how important “ leaf-green ” or chlorophyll is. It is the sole agent for absorbing car¬ bonic acid, the gaseous food of plants. Thus, it both feeds the plant and purifies the air. No other substance in a plant, nor anywhere else, can do it just in that way, and if there were no chlorophyll, there could be no organic life. And the lecturer rather seemed to think that the whole world might be said to depend upon chlorophyll for existence. — Tuesday, November 5th. Rev. J. W. B. Bell in the chair. The treasurer produced the statement of accounts with regard to the recent annual meeting of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies at Oxford, and was able to show the satisfactory result of a balance of £3 13s. 4d. remaining in his hands after the payment of all expenses. After the election of several new members and the proposal of others for election at the next meeting, Sir John Conroy gave a lecture on the “ Causes of Colour.” The lecturer confined his remarks to physical causes, excluding physiological, dealing only with pigment colours. Pointing out that the wave motions of what we agree to call ether produce in us the sensation of colour, the lecturer proceeded to illustrate Newton’s doctrine of the composite colour of white light by throwing on a screen a beam from the oxyliydrogen lantern, and then refracting it through a carbon bisulphide prism on a white background to show the complete spectrum. Afterwards, letting the refracted ray fall upon backgrounds of red and green, he showed how certain rays only were reflected from each, and from a black ground none ; finally, passing along the spectrum a stick of red sealing wax, which, at first invisible at the violet end, and only becoming slowly distinguishable in its progress, finally glowed like molten metal on reaching the red end. Then, passing sheets of coloured glass before the ray, he showed that this reflection was due to the absorption of certain rays, and the free passage of others through the variously coloured glasses, from which the conclusion resulted that the colours of natural bodies must vary with the colour of the light incident upon them. This conclusion was further illustrated by exhibiting under different coloured light, yellow, red, and green, produced by the burning of sodium, lithium, and thallium, a red disc fixed on a grey background, which, under the varied light, appeared in each instance of a widely varied colour. The lecture closed with a striking experiment whereby a piece of gaudily-coloured wall paper in blues, reds, and greens, when illuminated by sodium light, showed its pattern in sober harmonies of greys and browns, an effect traced to the reflection of the sodium rays from the white background on which the pattern was stamped through the gaudy colours of its surface. No discussion followed, but a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the lecturer. The Rev. J. W. B. Bell 290 REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. Dec., 1889. then described the results of further experiments on the accommoda¬ tion of the colour of lepidopterous pupae to their surroundings, showing how the reddish chrysalis of the large Tortoiseshell Butterfly, V. Poly- chloros, equally with the greyish chrysalis of the small Tortoiseshell V. TJrticce, and the usually green one of the Peacock, V. Io, was changed in colour harmoniously with the surroundings it was exposed to at the period of pupation, agreeing with these in sensitiveness to black, but differing from them in retaining something like uniformity when exposed to red surroundings (which are near to its own natural hue), in the presence of which the other two species are apt to vary widely between the extremes of light and dark forms. Mr. Pembrey followed in the same line, stating results chiefly from experiments with the pupas of V. lo, agreeing in the main with Mr. E. B. Poulton’s original experiments, but pointing to something in the direction of the influence of heredity in the preponderance of light or dark forms in individual broods under all surroundings. — Tuesday, November 19th. The Presi¬ dent in the chair. About sixty present. Mr. Gotch gave a most interesting lecture on the “ Functions of the Brain,” of which the following is only a very brief summary. Limiting his subject to the localisation of the motor functions, and to the physiological point only, the lecturer sketched and illustrated by diagrams and lantern slides the main facts of the nervous system, the conduction of sensory impressions and motory impulses (the latter setting muscles in motion) through nerve fibres from nerve cells, the two sets of fibres, though distinct in function being externally indistinguishable. He then illustrated the development in the ascending scale of animal life of the mass of nerve cells (ganglia) connected with eyes, mouth, &c., the chief sensorial organs into the cerebral hemisphere, or brain, and noted the physiological fact of the crossing of the nerve fibres, resulting from the bilateral symmetry of vertebrates in the transmission of impulse from right or left portion of brain to the opposite side of the body. A series of representations of the brain of different animals was shown to demonstrate that convolutions with their corresponding fissures, affording more surface, in which it was afterwards shown that the nerve cells existed, gave a relative increase of possibility of muscular excitation, and in connection with this, the brain of man, as compared with that of his nearest vertebrate kin, the monkeys, showed greater convolution. A vertical section of the human brain was then shown, and the seat of the nerve cells, the originators of muscular impulse, pointed out as being in the grey surface of the convolutions or cortex, as it is termed, differing both in substance and colour from the white nerve fibres (serving as conductors) underlying them. The practical outcome of the physiological theory was then dealt with. The relation of a series of experiments on the brain of monkeys, whose brain was exposed while under the influence of anaesthetics, and subjected to the excitation of currents of electricity, showed that different areas of the cortical portion induce muscular action in different members of the body, leading up to the fact that abnormal muscular action, such as is manifested in various diseases, e.g., epilepsy, is directly caused by abnormal conditions in a definite portion of brain-surface in which the impulse to this particular muscle originates. From this the main conclusion flowed naturally that by thus accurately localising the seat of mischief by experiments in corpore (comparatively) vili, the art of the surgeon, in treating cases of disease arising from brain affection in the human body, has received very great assistance from the physiologist, a fact which Dr. Collier and Dr. Sankey at the conclusion of the lecture bore testimony to, quoting instances in point. ♦ V V * / •• • • • . ' »•; i . ' ' V 1 ' •• • , 1 •- 7 t ‘f , -iiJ f . jj'; - . ■ ' c. ■ ' ; v ' :: :*:m ' >• ■ i * * v t - . ' * , ■ .