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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



probably everything to learn. When it is considered 

 how poorly represented great oceanic monsters are in 

 museums everywhere, our ignorance is not to be 

 marvelled at ; the arch of heaven has been their home, 

 and we have possessed no house wherevvithalto compose 

 a walhalla for their skin and bones. — A. H. Swinion. 



A CURIOUS tale comes from Wellington, New 

 Zealand. Alexander McGowan, a man engaged in 

 the harbour improvement works, was under the 

 water setting some blocks, into which some piles had 

 been driven. Whilst doing so he was seized by an 

 immense octopus, which at the same time fastened on 

 to one of the piles. The man attempted to free 

 himself, but finding that the more he struggled the 

 tighter the octopus gripped, he desisted. The 

 creature immediately let go of the pile. In response 

 to his signals McGowan was quickly drawn up still in 

 the tight embrace of the monster, which was at once 

 killed. Its limbs were measured and found to be 

 about nine feet long. These monsters are said to be 

 common in the harbour. 



Practical Naturalists' Society. — This 

 society recently held a conversazione in Essex 

 Hall. The musical programme was successfully 

 carried out, and numerous lantern transparencies 

 sent by Mr. Riley Fortune, from Harrogate, were 

 displayed during the evening, but the chief fea- 

 ture was the exhibition of Natural History objects. 

 Fourteen microscopes occupied a large table in the 

 centre of the room. Conspicuous in this department 

 was Mr. Fred Enock, F.E.S., who exhibited beauti- 

 fully-mounted slides, including specimens of the 

 Hessian Fly, the life history was minutely explained 

 by his "sketches." Extensive collections of skins, 

 nests, and eggs of British birds and British land and 

 freshwater shells, sent by Mr. F. R. Fitzgerald, 

 covered the greater part of the tables. Miss Fisher 

 Brown contributed marine shells and seaweeds from 

 the Bahamas, and nest of trap-door spiders from 

 Jamaica. There were also foreign and British 

 coleoptera, shown by Mr. A. J. Field ; Lepidoptera, 

 shown by Mr. R. Oakeshott ; dried plants, diaj^rams, 

 and a further collection of British land and freshwater 

 shells, shown by Mr. J. K. Gude. Mr. R. B. Postans, 

 of Eastbourne, sent a collection of Hint implements 

 from the Sussex Downs ; Mr. W. Allen, flakes from 

 Kent, and Mr. A. Ramsay specimens of Eozoon cana- 

 dense. One of the most conspicuous objects in the room 

 was a Neptune-cup, two feet high, sentiby Mrs. Dyer, of 

 Swansea. Live salamanders and cray-fish were shown 

 by Mr. C. H. Whitlow, who also contributed vipers, 

 grass-snakes and slow-worm in spirits. Water-colour 

 drawings of animalcula, by Mr. Jno. Eyre, were ad- 

 mired. An address was delivered by Mr. A. Ramsay. 



The Ramsgate Well. — There are a few 

 ephemeral wonders at Ramsgate. A strange fish, the 

 Squatina or Angel fish, I believe, is paraded in a 

 barrow, now and again ; a hen lays a large egg some- 

 where on the coast, or a more or less striped donkey 

 puts in an appearance, and Ramsgate milk resem- 

 bling chalk and water is at least singular, a standing 

 marvel. But the excursionists to Ramsgate mostly 

 overlook a curiosity remote but a few yards from the 

 station of the South-Eastern Railway, whose origin 

 clouded in mystery, might afford them something 

 horrid to dream about. I allude to an antique well, 

 over one hundred and thirty feet deep, which has 

 been laid bare in section during the excavation of a 

 huge square chalk pit from whence colliers trading 

 to the port are ballasted. The bore of the well is 

 smooth and ovate-oblong, two feet nine across the 

 greater axis, and notches are cut from its top to its 



bottom at intervals of a foot, by which a sailor or 

 monkey might make the perilous descent ; which has 

 doubtless often terminated fatally, since some baskets 

 full of bones have been gathered at its bottom, where 

 is a step or ledge, doubtless often reached sooner 

 than anticipated. The covering stone to the well 

 mouth may yet be seen, it is a perforated piece of 

 sand-stone from the neighbouring greensand forma- 

 tion, and a similar, shallower well, has been exposed 

 in section in the same quany. If more recent than 

 the golden hours when Cuthbert, Farley, and EJgar 

 Farless hurdled their nibbling sheep among the thorns 

 and maiden hollys, these wells in their singular 

 Roman bore at the least claim a greater antiquity 

 than the elegant Margate shell grotto which displays 

 a damnable pointed arch. — A. H. Swintoti. 



A Hare at Sea.— In "Nature" for January 17, 

 1889, is an account of a hare taking to sea, and the 

 following will show how readily the hare will take to 

 the water when in danger. On a small strip of land 

 running some little distance into the sea on the 

 Island of Cumbrae, I surprised a hare on the extreme 

 point. The animal seeing that it could not pass me 

 safely, plunged into the sea, which was calm at the 

 time, and swam well till it reached the shore. It 

 may be a question whether when hard-pressed it has 

 not a suicidal propensity. A few years ago when at 

 Stromness, I was informed by an old farmer that his 

 dog started a hare which made all speed to a 

 neighbouring loch, the loch was frozen over at the 

 time, with the exception of one of those holes 

 frequently met with to which the hare ran straight 

 and plunged into it. The dog followed, and both 

 were drowned. On another occasion, many years 

 ago, a hare found its way into Glasgow Green, a dog 

 soon got sight of it and was immediately in pursuit. 

 The hare went bounding to the River Clyde, and. 

 sprang into the water and the dog plunged in after it. 

 The hare swam better than the dog, and would have 

 reached the other side safely, only for the people on 

 the opposite bank who were looking at the chase. 

 The hare, seeing its escape in that direction ob- 

 structed, turned down stream, this gave the dog 

 some advantage, still the hare was more than a match 

 for the dog. A young man, a little way down the 

 river, seeing that the hare might have some chance 

 of saving its life, plunged in before it ; the poor 

 animal seeing escape hopeless, dived under the water 

 and was seen no more. — David Robertson, Fernbank^ 

 Millport, Isle of Citvibrae. 



Poisonous Plants. — A friend lately sent me a 

 copy of the "Standard" newspaper, containing a 

 paragraph headed as above, describing several 

 cases of cattle poisoned in the South of England, by 

 their browsing on the foliage of the lesser spearwort 

 {Rammcubis flaninmld). On the margin of Dud- 

 dingston Loch, near Edinburgh, this plant is growing 

 in great abundance along with its relations, the 

 great spearwort {R. lingua), celery-leaved crowfoot 

 {R. sceles-atus), upright crowfoot (R. acris), and 

 creeping crowfoot (R, repciis). In the same locality, 

 we have among the Umbelliferffi, whose herbage is 

 often poisonous, the water parsnip (Siitni angiisti- 

 foliuiii), marshwort {Helosciadium nodifloriim), white- 

 rot {Ilydrocotyle 'Oiilgaris), and on the dry portion, 

 fool's-parsley {yEthiisa cyniapiwii), and the hemlock 

 {Coniiini inaadatiim). Now the margin of the loch 

 has from time immemorial been used as a pasture 

 for cows, and no case, such as noticed in the 

 "Standard," has been observed. I would suggest 

 that Ergot may be at the root of the mischief. It has 

 been found by investigation where ergotised pastures 



