424 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



per and third ridges in Ohio, the upper ridge 

 being probably connected with the Chemung 

 River outlet, and the third with the Wabash 

 outlet. 



Favoritism at Trinity Honse. Prof. Tyn- 

 dall published a full account, in the " Fort- 

 nightly Review " some months ago, of the 

 transactions that led him, in 1883, to resign 

 his position as scientific adviser to the Trin- 

 ity House. The case, according to his show- 

 ing, was one of the persistent exercise of per- 

 sonal and political favoritism by the Eoard 

 of Trade in the experiments for determining 

 what were the best lights for lighthouse 

 purposes. In the competition between the 

 quadriform gas-light of Mr. Wighain, a Scotch 

 Irishman, who had the misfortune to be in 

 trade, and the eight-wick oil-lamp of Mr. 

 Douglass, whose brother was connected with 

 Trinity House, the conditions were arranged 

 so as to be more favorable to the latter. The 

 electric light was then introduced into the 

 competitions, and the proposition gradually 

 assumed a form indicating a disposition to 

 crowd Mr. Wickham out ; so that Prof. Tyn- 

 dall came to the conclusion that "if the 

 treatment of the gas invention and its opti- 

 cal adjuncts could be regarded as a fair sam- 

 ple of the treatment of Ireland by England, 

 it would be the bounden duty of every Irish- 

 man to become a Home-Ruler." The evi- 

 dences of partiality becoming more and more 

 prominent in the action of the board and 

 its committee, Prof. Tyndall felt constrained 

 to resign. Two months afterward the com- 

 mittee went to pieces. Prof. Tyndall ob- 

 serves that some of the parties throughout 

 the transactions seemed to think that Ire- 

 land, and not the ships of all nations sailing 

 to its coasts, was the chief beneficiary from 

 the lighthouses. 



Interesting Fossils of British North Amer- 

 ica. The Cretaceous fossil plants of Port 

 McNeill, Vancouver Island, as described by 

 Sir William and G. M. Dawson, consist chiefly 

 of dicotyledonous leaves, with a few fruits. 

 Large slabs have been procured, some with 

 perfect specimens of the leaves. There 

 are no ferns or cycads in the collection, and 

 conifers are rare. Among the latter are two 

 species of Salisburia, or gingko, one of which 

 is " a beautiful little form." The exogenous 



leaves are very numerous, and belong to a 

 number of genera, with at least twenty spe- 

 cies, giving evidence of a very rich and varied 

 forest flora of warm temperate aspect. Sir 

 William Dawson has made an interesting 

 study of the Balanus hameri of the Pleisto- 

 cene of Riviere Beaudette, a species which is 

 still living in somewhat deep water on the Ca- 

 nadian coasts. The specimens under consid- 

 eration were found farther west than any point 

 at which the fossil had been previously ob- 

 served, and are interesting from their remark- 

 able perfection and the large masses which 

 they form. The original attachments of the 

 animals, so far as observed, were on pebbles 

 on the surface of the clay, and, as these 

 afforded space for only one or two indi- 

 viduals, the young were obliged to attach 

 themselves to the old in successive genera- 

 tions. Most grotesque groups were thus 

 formed, which still remain entire. Observa- 

 tions of peculiar varieties of the mussels 

 Mya arenaria and Mya truncata in the mod- 

 ern sea and in the Pleistocene have led the 

 same author to remark upon the interesting 

 feature of " the companionship of these al- 

 lied species in the North Atlantic throughout 

 the Pleistocene and modern periods, and their 

 range of varietal forms applicable to each, 

 according to the conditions to which they 

 have been exposed, along with their contin- 

 ued specific distinctness, and the preference 

 of each for certain kinds of environment ; 

 so that in some places one and in others the 

 other predominates, while this relative pre- 

 dominance, as well as the prevalence of cer- 

 tain varietal forms, might no doubt be re- 

 versed by change of climate or depth." 



The Cretaeeons Inland Sea. In the 



course of two years' study of the northern 

 and eastern terminations of the Texas Cre- 

 taceous deposits, Prof. Robert T. Hill has 

 found that the marine sedimentation of both 

 divisions of the formation was limited" on 

 the north by an older continental shore line, 

 the present remnant of which extends from 

 the Ouachita River, near Malvern and Hot 

 Springs, Arkansas, almost due west through 

 Indian Territory into the Fanhandlc of Tex- 

 as. The whole Cretaceous history, includ- 

 ing the upper and lower systems, can be 

 summed up as two profound subsidences, sep- 

 arated by a land epoch, which have left in 



