23S 



HARDWICKE'S S C lEN CE- GOS SIP. 



generosity in presenting every visitor from across 

 the sea with a copy gratis. The handsome little 

 volume contains 320 pages, and has a good map 

 showing the position of the tumuli, cromlechs, &c., 

 and the outcrop of the most important geological 

 deposits. Tlie Belfast Field Naturalists won de- 

 served honours during the late meeting of the Asso- 

 ciation, and were well represented by their ubiqui- 

 tous and intelligent secretary, Mr. William Gray. 



Peoceedings of the Liverpool Litebary 

 AND Philosophical Society. — The proceedings, 

 for 1872-73, of this well-known Society have just 

 been published, and form an attractive, well-printed 

 volume, of 333 pages. Several of the papers are 

 printed in full, and others abstractive. Among th e 

 former we have one on the " Strata below the Trias 

 in the country around Liverpool ; and tlie probabi- 

 lity of coal occuring at a moderate depth," by a well- 

 known Liverpool geologist, Mr. George Morton, 

 E.G.S. This we regard as the most valuable con- 

 tribution to the volume. It displays an intimate 

 and accurate acquaintance with the stratigraphy of 

 the district, and the conclusions of the author are 

 a valuable addition to economical geology. Mr. 

 Thomas Ward's paper on " The Cheshire Salt Dis- 

 trict," which gives both the geology and the mining 

 details of the area in question, is also a well-written 

 and important essay on practical geology. In addi- 

 tion to the above we have a very readable and ex- 

 ceedingly intelligent paper, by Mr. Alfred Morgan, 

 on " Gems and Precious Stones " ; and a very 

 elaborate essay, or note, by Dr. Milieu Coughtrey, 

 on "The Heart of the New Holland Cassoway." 

 The rest of the papers are chiefly of a literary or 

 art nature, except that of the Rev. Thomas P. 

 Kirkman, nearly 60 pp. in length, entitled "Phi- 

 losophy without Assumption," in which Herbert 

 Spencer, Huxley, and others, come in for what the 

 writer intends as castigation. The style seems to us 

 a bad imitation of Carlyle, and the tone too flippant 

 and jocular. We confess to little sympathy with 

 this style of argument. Either Spencer is right or 

 wrong, and we want to know — which ? Poking bad 

 fun, and assuming a style of literary mountebaukism, 

 will not give us the answer to this important ques- 

 tion. What a salvation of literary labour there 

 would be if writers would confiue themselves to 

 facts and their proper inferences, and not attempt 

 to obtain a momentary triumph by offensively ap- 

 pealing to the prejudices of the most ill-informed, 

 rather than to the conscientious knowledge of those 

 better able to judge ! 



NOTES AND aUERIES. 



Elax. — The Rev. S. A. Brennan asks for an 

 explanation of the Tyrone farmers' belief that flax 

 must not be steeped " before or after the change of 

 the moon." The answer to this, and all other 



notions of farmers about the influence of the moon, 

 is that they are all moonshine. No class of people 

 are more incapable of forming correct inferences 

 from facts as to natural phenomena. — S. T. P. 



Moles not in Ireland. — An amusing instance 

 of ignorance was given by a famous Scotch seeds- 

 man, who, on opening a new shop in Dublin, issued 

 catalogues specifying, among implements in his 

 stock, " mole-traps '''\—S. T. P. 



Ancient Ash - tree. — In the churchyard 

 of Tullaniskin Church, county Tyrone, is an ash, 

 the dimensions of whose trunk are — at the ground, 

 48 ft. in circumference ; at the height of 3 ft., 31 ft. ; 

 at 8 ft,, 33 ft. It soon divides into several limbs of 

 moderate height and size ; but the trunk, viewed 

 from the door of the church-porch, is really a 

 stupendous object, more like a huge rock than a 

 tree. It must be of immense antiquity. Such trees 

 were profoundly venerated by the ancient Irish, and 

 are so still by the natives in many parts of the 

 island.—^. T. P. 



P.S.— One side of this tree was blown down in 

 the great storm of January 6th, 1839. 



A Rustic Sttperstition. — An amusing instance 



also believe in witchcraft and the bad effect of the 

 " evil eye " on cattle, churning of butter, &c. — 

 S. T. P. 



MuREX PURPURA. — This is a well-known shell of 

 the family Miiriclda, though^ perhaps, the fact that 

 a purple dye was extracted from it by the Tyrians is 

 not so well known. The dye was obtained by com- 

 pressing the larger ones in holes of the rocks, their 

 shells having been previously taken off, and bruising 

 the smaller specimens with their inhabitants in 

 mortars. As each mollusk afforded a minute quantity 

 of colouring matter, the dye became of great value. 

 We learn on trustworthy authority that numbers of 

 broken shells, probably Murcx tninculus, are still 

 found on the coast of Tyre. M. Boblaye states that 

 traces exist of the employment of Murex hrandaris 

 for the same purpose on the coast of the Morea. In 

 Chambers's Encyclopedia we read that Tarentum, 

 the modern Otranto, was one of the great murex- 

 fisherics of the Romans, and that tliey had a number 

 of dyeing establishments there. From Homer we 

 find that the dye was of a dark red colour, and not 

 what is now commonly called purple ; and also that 

 it was only worn by princes, though Xenophon, in 

 his " Cyri Anabasis," states that it was the colour 

 of the dress worn by Persian nobles, whom he calls 

 purple-wearers. In Judges viii. 2G we read that the 

 Midianitish kings, who were defeated by Gideon, 

 were clad in purple. The Babylonians used to 

 clothe their gods with' it. At the Byzantine court 

 the epithet porphiirogennetos, meaning " born in the 

 purple," was used of a child born to the reigning 

 emperor. Lastly, Gosse says, in his "Mollusca," 

 that in the reign of Augustus double-dyed purple 

 wool was sold for about £36 sterling per lb. But as 

 wealth would not hesitate at any price to obtain that 

 which was fashionable, laws were enacted render- 

 ing it penal for any one but the emperor to wear 

 cloth of this sort. — /T. /. S. Simpson. 



Larva from Paris. — The larva which your cor- 

 respodent, in the March number of Science-Gossip, 

 mentions as having found in Paris, is certainly the 

 silkworm of the Ailauthus. Both the tree and the 



