i66 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



distribution of land and water," he " cannot help 

 agreeing with Dr. Croll that the warm climates of the 

 Arctic regions during that era (Pleistocene or Glacial) 

 were to some extent the result of high eccentricity " 

 (p. 20). His geographical condition was brought about 

 by the upheaval of land. Here we close with Dr. 

 Geikie's public papers, and refer to a private note to 

 me, dated 21st November, 18S9, replying to one from 

 me objecting to his upheaval cause for the climate 

 changes under discussion : " You will get no sane 

 geologist to agree with you." In the same note he 

 allows that as the ,land in old times was insular, 

 "warm currents found ready access into polar re- 

 gions." This latter action is quite natural, and these 

 currents gave all the warmth that the frigid zone ever 

 enjoyed, except that direct from the sun in the short 

 summer. The only difference between us is, the 

 Professor stops the currents by " elevation " of land, 

 I stop them by the local sinking of his region, where 

 "depression has exceeded elevation." I have told 

 him that there is no measure of depression, but that 

 the sea has sunk by that action, and left the land as 

 it is. I now come to Professor Croll, only as 

 touching on the point of controversy. Geikie quotes 

 him, and accepts his theory of eccentricity ; therefore 

 Croll is a " sane geologist " in Geikie's opinion, and 

 I may quote him in support of a non-upheaval system. 

 At page 267 he tells us, " valleys have not been pro- 

 duced by violent dislocations, nor the hills by up- 

 heaval." If, as Professor J. Geikie allows, the ocean- 

 bed is a depressed area, then, as he also allows, the 

 water must have been drawn off the lands, the 

 channels by which the warm tropical streams reached 

 the Arctic regions must have become closed, and his 

 insular geographical condition must have been turned 

 into continental conditions ; therefore it became cold 

 where it had once been warm, and life became extinct. 

 Nature has not two laws to effect one action. — IT. P. 

 Ma let. 



Mr. Boverton Redwood recently read a paper 

 on the "Petroleum Fields of India" before the 

 Society of Chemical Industry. These fields occur in 

 Burmah, Assam, the Punjaub, and Beloochistan. 

 Perhaps the most valuable fields are those of Ramri 

 and the Eastern Baranga Island (two of the Arakan 

 group), Khatan, where the annual supply of oil is 

 50,000 barrels, and Yenangyoung, where the oil yields 

 a large percentage of paraffin. 



A Boulder's Tale.— How got the apples in ? 

 was the inquiry of an august personage when con- 

 fronted with some apple dumplings. How got the 

 boulder there ? is the natural question of speculative 

 geologists when first brought to contemplate such 

 mammoth specimens as ornament Borrowdaile and 

 YVythburn Valley. Now without for a moment 

 attempting to controvert the received theory of 

 glacial action, which ostensibly has been a great 

 power in these valleys, we may venture to draw- 



attention to what is actually going on at intervals in> 

 the nineteenth century. A boulder recently descended 

 from the south side of Helvellyn, as seen from the 

 opposite side of Wythburn Valley. Rather more 

 than a year ago four men were playing a game at 

 cards in the cottage at the left-hand corner of the 

 sketch sent, when they heard a roaring noise like 

 thunder, which suddenly ceased. In the morning the 

 stone itself was found tilted on end in the grass 

 above the cottage. Fortunately for the inmates, 

 there is a slight ridge on the mountain side just here, 

 which checked the rolling of the mass of rock. One 

 of the edges must have stuck in the soft ground, and 

 thus the stone was arrested. This block had fallen, 

 after a slight frost, from the cliff shown in the upper 

 part of the sketch. It is situated a few yards south 

 of Wythburn Vicarage, so that tourists between 

 Grasmere and Keswick can verify the above for 

 themselves. It is needless, perhaps, to add that if 

 this stone, which must weigh at least a hundred tons, 

 had gone through the cottage, no one would have 

 been left to tell the tale. However, the boulder 

 tells his own tale, and answers the question given 

 above — " How got the boulder there?" — S. Barber, 

 Wythburn. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Dyticus Marginalts. — I have several specimens 

 of Dyticus marginalis in confinement. I feed them 

 about once a week with raw meat. If I don't change 

 the water after I have fed them, it becomes turbid 

 and milky; but I don't think the water should be 

 changed too often. What should I do, and what 

 mol'iisc could I put in to keep the water pure, as 

 they have devoured up till now three kinds of 

 Lymmeus, four of Planorbis, and one Pisidium. I 

 don't see how it would matter the water being putrid, 

 as the water of the Kentish dykes, where I got them, 

 smells very badly of putrid substance — G. W. 

 Kirkald (Jckay). 



Tenacity of Life in a Cat. — The following 

 singular case of severe mutilation of a cat, which it 

 survived for several days, may interest your readers. 

 A cat in my possession, aged eight months, was in the 

 habit of sleeping in a box of straw placed in a shed 

 at the bottom of the garden ; it was very tame and 

 gentle, and showed much affection for myself, and 

 invariably accompanied me when in the garden. A 

 collie dog also was in the habit of attending my 

 operations — dog and cat occasionally relieved the 

 monotony of watching me by having a little play 

 together, being on the most friendly terms. On 

 Tuesday morning, 6th inst., I was surprised to find 

 only the dog waiting for me, and supposed the cat 

 had slipped indoors. On inquiry I found she had 

 been last seen on Monday evening. On my return 

 home on Tuesday I carefully examined her sleeping- 

 box and other places, hoping to find her, but in vain. 

 Wednesday morning on looking into her box I was 

 much surprised to see her in it. On being touched 

 poor puss gave a faint cry, and I cannot express how 

 shocked I felt when on careful examination I found 

 her right foreleg clean gone, pulled straight away 



