112 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



easterly portion of the area but slightly. If the 

 great east-and-west fault, which has been traced 

 ilong the Thames Valley below London,* can be 

 dated back to Pliocene time, it probably had much 

 to do with the definition of the main line of drainage 

 towards the east. With this great Pliocene move- 

 ment was also connected probably the minor 

 differential movement, which hfted up the Chalk 

 and Eocene strata along the Windsor-Marlow axis, 

 turning the course of the ancient valley still further 

 to the north between Reading and Windsor, and 

 accounting for the elevation of the chalk which 

 forms the site of Windsor Castle. The present 

 angle which the river makes, as it turns northwards 

 to Henley, has perhaps been the result of special 

 and local erosion of the Eocene strata at a somewhat 

 later period, owing to the great increase of the 

 erosive power of the river, after the deepening of the 

 Pangbourne gorge, and the inflow of the waters 

 collected from the present Oxford Basin. 



The case here supposed of the determination of a 

 main line of drainage by a general tilting of the 

 strata is not a solitary instance of the kind. It can 

 be paralleled, on a much grander scale, by the 

 general tilting (also to the north), of the great 

 Tertiary series of strata deposited in the narrow 

 Helvetico-Germanic sea, which skirted the Alpine 

 chain before the period of its last and greatest 

 elevatory movement. Across the gentle declivity 

 thus formed of Tertiary strata the drainage of a great 

 part of the Alpine chain, including the whole of the 

 Eastern Alps, now finds its way to join the Upper 

 Danube, which, as von Dechen's Map of Germany 

 shows, skirts the old Mesozoic coimtry of Bavaria 

 and Wiirtemberg, and the still older Archaean region j 

 of Lpper Austria, all the way from its emergence i 

 from the Black Forest country down to Krems. ' 

 This we must certainly connect with the last Alpine 

 elevation. 



( To be continued.) 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Dr. W. Somerville has been appointed by the 

 Techinal Education Committee of the Northumber- 

 land County Council to the Professorship of Agri- 

 culture and Forestry recently founded in the Durham 

 College of Science, Newcastle. 



We are sorry to announce the death of an old and 

 frequent correspondent of Science-Gossip, Mr. 

 Andrew Brotherston, of Kelso, at the age of fifty- 

 seven. 



Between December 9th lastyear and February 5th, 

 seven great bustards (,Otis tarda) were shot (of 



• Whitaker, " Mem. GeoL Survey," vol. iv., p. 353. 



course !) in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Sussex, Hants, 

 Wilts, and Carmarthenshire. 



Mr. S. W. Burnham, with the great Lick 

 refractor (California), has observed the nearest 

 companion of Aldebaran, while passing through its 

 periastion at a distance of only o' 13" from the large 

 star. And from old measures of position, angle, and 

 distance, he has obtained a satisfactory orbit. 



Mr. Edward Bartlett (son of Mr. Bartlett of 

 the "Zoo") has been appointed Curator of the 

 Government Museum at Sarawak. 



The following are the Lecture Arrangements of the 

 Royal Institute after Easter : — Mr. J. Scott Keltic, 

 Three Lectures on the Geography of Africa, with 

 special ; reference to the Exploration, Commercial 

 Development, and Political Partition of the 

 Continent ; Dr. E. E. Klein, Three Lectures on 

 Bacteria : their Nature and Functions (the Tyndal 

 Lectures) ; Mr. W^illiam Archer, Four Lectures on 

 Four Stages of Stage History (the Betterton, the 

 Gibber, the Garrick, and the Kemble Periods) ; 

 Professor Dewar, Six Lectures on Recent Spectro- 

 scopic Investigations ; Dr. A. C. Mackenzie, Four 

 Lectures on the Orchestra considered in connection 

 with the Development of the Overture ; Professor 

 Slyvanus P. Thompson, Four Lectures on the 

 Dynamo ; Mr. H. Graham Harris, Three- Lectures 

 on the Artificial Production of Cold ; Professor A. 

 H. Church, Three Lectures on the Scientific Study 

 of Decorative Colour. The Friday Evening 

 Meetings were resumed on April loth, when a 

 Discourse was given by Sir William Thomson, on 

 Electric and Magnetic Screening. 



Good news fox potato growers ! Sulphate of 

 copper has been found not only an antidote to 

 potato disease, but also highly conducive to an im- 

 proved and heavier crop, in some instances to the 

 extra value of 5/. an acre. 



Mr. C. Vernon Boys has been making measure- 

 ments of the heat of the moon by means of his very 

 delicate radiomicrometer. His method was to focus 

 the rays of the moon on the face of the radiomi- 

 crometer by a reflecting telescope of 16 inches 

 aperture. In the case of a new moon, he found that 

 the heat coming from its disc diminished as you 

 passed from the convex to the concave edge, and 

 that from the dark surface was so slight as not to 

 affect the apparatus. The maximum radiation of 

 heat came from points of the disc itself, not from its 

 limbs. At full moon the maximum point was at the 

 centre of the disc. The side of the moon which had 

 been exposed to the sun for fourteen days was not 

 warmer than that which had been exposed for seven 

 days. No sensible heat was observed to come from 

 the stars. 



