HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOS SIP. 



45 



the ore occurs or where the coal is worked. Be- 

 sides coal and iron, there are valuable deposits of 

 kaolin and china clay ; brine-springs that have been 

 used for a century to make salt ; important deposits 

 of corundum used in making emery ; exceedingly 

 good mica in large plates, and a great deal of steatite 

 or soap-stone. The development of these minerals 

 is likely before long to alter veiy materially the 

 relative importance of Virginia and West Virginia 

 among the States.— Z). T. Ansted, F.R.S. 



" Missing Links." — The researches of Professor 

 Marsh in the tertiary strata of the neighbourhood 

 of the Rocky Mountains promise to yield some of 

 the most important results to palaeontology that 

 have yet been laid before the public. Most of the 

 generic forms are intermediate connecting groups 

 that are now widely separated, and therefore are to 

 be regarded as veritable " missing links." Among 

 them is a six-horned rhinoceros, that undoubtedly 

 connected the ruminants and the pachyderms. An- 

 other interesting form is a small horse, no bigger 

 than a fox. Prof. Marsh is engaged in preparing 

 his already great store of material for publication, 

 although the beds have not yet been half investi- 

 gated. The investigations had to be carried on at 

 great risk, an account of the Indians. 



New Species of Eossil Deer. — Mr. Randall 

 Johnson has described a new species of fossil deer 

 in the " Annals of Natural History " for January, 

 under the name of Cennts latifrons. He obtained 

 the specimen from the Norfolk Eorest-bed. This 

 makes the ninth species which has been obtained 

 from that interesting deposit. 



Hornblende Rocks, — Hornblende rock may 

 in some places be schistose, or nodular, or con- 

 cretionary. Some of the schistose portions of this 

 kind of rock, from lar-Counaught, Ireland, have 

 been proved by Forbes to be derivate rocks; con- 

 sequently such portions must be metamorphosed 

 tuff. Where hornblende rock is nodular or con- 

 cretionary, it may have spheroids from the size of a 

 man's head to four or five feet in diameter, irregu- 

 larly heaped up together, with the interstices filled 

 with schistose-looking stuff, that has a foliation 

 rudely curling round the nodules ; or the interstices 

 may be occupied with a felsitic rock, or even with 

 a quartzitic stuff, or perhaps with two or more of 

 these substances mixed together, — Kinahati's Handy 

 Book of Rock Names. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



A Mythical Man-eater.— In Science-Gossip 

 for June, _1SG7 (p. 128), in an article upon an old 

 natural history more than a century old, I described 

 a strange beast called the Lamia. This creature is 

 said to be bred in Libj-a ; to decoy men to it bv ex- 

 posing its bosom ; to have a face and breast like a 



beautiful woman ; and its hinder parts like a goat. 

 This is said to be the creature mentioned as the 

 Lieliath in the 3ith_ chapter of Isaiah and the ith 

 chapter of Lamentations. So runs the old chronicler. 

 Never having heard of the monster I was amused to 

 read of a legend existing in modern Abyssinia re- 

 garding it, which seems to require some explanation, 

 as it is so very circumstantial. Mansfield Parkyns 

 says, in his very interesting work entitled " Life 

 in Abyssinia," published by Murray in ISGS (on 

 p. ■iOi) : " There is an animal, which I know not 

 where to class, as no European has hitherto suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining a specimen of it : it is supposed 

 by the natives to be far more active, powerful, and 

 dangerous than even the lion, and consequently held 

 lay them in the greatest possible dread. Tliey call 

 it 'wobbo' or 'mantillit,' and some hold it in 

 superstitious awe, looking upon it more in the light 

 of an evil spirit with an animal's form than a wild 

 beast. Their descriptions of this animal are vague 

 in the extreme : some say that its skin is partly that 

 of a lion, but intermixed with that of the leopard 

 and hyena ; others, again, assert that its face is 

 human, or very like it. It appears in the valleys, 

 happily only rarely ; for they say that when it takes 

 its abode near a village, it pays nightly visits, enter- 

 ing the very houses, and carrying off the children, 

 and even occasionally growu-uu persons. One had 

 been killed some years ago on the river AVeney, and 

 its skin presented to Oubi (king of Tigre) ; but I 

 could never discover what became of it. I heard of 

 a village which had suffered considerably from its 

 depredations, and for several days watched every 

 night in the neighbourhood, but without success."— 

 F. A. A. 



Solution for Preserving Sea Anemones. — 

 I find in my note-book the fullowiug recipe, extracted 

 from the "Manual of Scientific Euquiry" (p. 361, 

 published by Murray & Co.) : — Take bay salt 4 oz. ; 

 alum 2 oz. ; corr. sublimate 2 grs. ; rain or distilled 

 water 1 quart. Place the actinia in sea-water until 

 fully expanded ; then add the solution slowly and 

 quietly, when the animal will be killed and fixed in 

 the expanded state. It should then be transferred 

 to a bottle containing fresh solution.-/. P. Belmont, 

 Dartmouth. 



Ipswich Science-Gossip Society. — Thisflourish- 

 ing society, founded several years ago by readers of 

 and contributors to our magazine, held its annual 

 conversazione on the lOth December. About 750 

 of the principal inhabitants of the town were pre- 

 sent, who evinced their interest in scientific matters 

 by discussing the various objects exhibited. Among 

 the principal exhibitors were Messrs. W. Ladd, J. 

 Wiggin, B. Edwards, Powles (with a patent sand- 

 blast, in full action), Dr. Drummond, Messrs. W. 

 Vick, Howes, Garratt, Budden, and others. Physical 

 science was especially well represented, and natural 

 history by collections of mosses, shells, fossils, but- 

 terflies, flint implements, &c. A collection of pic- 

 tures, by the late Henry Bright, a local artist, added 

 to the variety ; and the performances on two of 

 Whiglit & ;^lann's magnificent pianos (an Ipswich 

 manufacture) lent a charm fo the evening. Great 

 credit is due to the chairman, Mr. W. Vick, and tiie 

 hon. sec, Mr. Henry Miller, for the successful 

 issue of the meeting. 



SnoRE-LARK. — It may be of interest to note the 

 occurrence of the Shore-lark {Alauda alpesfris). 

 The bird, a fine male, was observed in a bird- 

 seller's window in Bristol. The man had it brought 



