HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



^35 



The Late Thomas Birch Wolfe, Esq., of 

 Brighton.— It is with feelings of deep regret that 

 we have to record the death of this gentleman, whose 

 initials of " T. B. W." have been familiar to our 

 botanical readers from the very commencement of 

 Science-Gossip. We have met with few men who 

 were better acquainted with European botany, and 

 up to a few days before his death, at the ripe age of 

 79 years, his memory for plant names appeared to 

 have suffered no eclipse. As a friend he will be long 

 missed by many ; for his generosity and sympathy 

 were as wide and unprejudiced as they were instan- 

 taneous and unparaded. It was to him that the 

 cultivation of the Euonymus in and about Brighton 

 was mainly due, and visitors will acknowledge how 

 cheerful the bright green shrubs of this plant render 

 the otherwise monotonous streets of stately houses. 

 The National Gallery owes to Mr. Wolfe the master- 

 piece by Morland of "The Farm Stable," and 

 another by Gainsborough of " Sir Henry Dudley." 

 Is is a painful pleasure for us to thus put on record 

 the memory of a good man and a dear friend. 



GEOLOGY. 



The British Museum. — Mr. R. Bullen Newton, 

 assistant naturalist, under Professor Huxley, in the 

 Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, has 

 received an appointment in the Geological Depart- 

 ment of the British Museum. 



Geological Map of England and Wales. — A 

 good geological map of England and Wales on a 

 scale of twenty-eight miles to the inch, size about 

 1 foot, by 1 foot 4 inches, and price about i\d., is 

 scarcely to be credited. Yet Messrs. Letts, Son, & 

 Co. have issued such a map in part iv. of their 

 " Popular Atlas," price 7</., which includes also a 

 general map of Africa, and a general map of the 

 Austrian and German Empires. The Geological Map 

 is by Mr. Henry W. Bristow, F.R.S., F.G.S., director 

 of the Geological Survey of England and Wales ; it 

 is printed in colours, and contains no less than twenty- 

 two divisions of the strata. Including as it does all 

 the latest published work of the Geological Survey, 

 so far as the scale admits, it will form a very handy 

 map for reference. All the leading railways are 

 distinctly shown. 



American Palaeontology. — We have received 

 from Mr. C. A. White, M.D., two publications, one 

 entitled "Contributions to Palaeontology, " and the 

 other "Cretaceous Fossils of the Western States and 

 Territories." They are republished from the twelfth 

 annual report of the United States Geological Survey 

 for 1878. Both contain numerous and beautiful 

 illustrations ; many of the specimens have never 

 been illustrated before. Dr. White gives abundant 

 evidence of doing good and useful work. 



The Formation of Rock Basins.— We have 

 received a copy of Mr. J. D. Kendall's paper on this 

 subject, read before the Manchester Geological 

 Society on May 25. It is a valuable contribution 

 to the literature of the subject, viewed from an 

 engineering as well as a geological point of view. 



The British Museum. — Collections (Mineralogy, 

 Geology, and Natural History) are being removed to 

 the new building for their reception, on the site of the 

 1862 Exhibition, in Cromwell Road. Dr. Henry 

 Woodward has been appointed keeper of geology in 

 the room of Mr. G. R. Waterhouse, who has resigned. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Water Trap, &c. — During very hot weather in 

 spring when the ponds in the neighbourhood were 

 dried up, I began examining the yet wet beds of former 

 ditches. I came across some paper that had been 

 thrown into the water, and forthwith proceeded to 

 search it in the possibility of its sheltering some water 

 beetles. Among the folds I found a representation of 

 nearly all the inhabitants of the ditch, with which I 

 was tolerably acquainted. There were newts and 

 frogs ; great numbers of the beetle population ; snails 

 of course, innumerable, various aquatic larva; ; one 

 water scorpion ; of species of water boatmen I could 

 not say how many, and a number of miscellaneous 

 creatures. I went to other ponds and examined paper 

 and similar materials with the same success. I then 

 thought of placing in the water sheets of old paper 

 for the purpose of thus serving shelter to various 

 aquatic beings and examining them at pleasure or 

 even taking what I wanted for my cabinet or aquarium. 

 This I did when the pond beds were again filled, and 

 as I have nearly always been successful, I direct the 

 attention of your readers to this simple mode of 

 obtaining living objects for aquaria, &c. The paper 

 pressed into folds, may either be placed under the 

 water, or else laid out flat on its surface. The one 

 plan does when the other fails, according to the nature 

 of the population of the pond or ditch. In any case 

 it should be left alone for one, two, or even three 

 weeks. In the latter way frogs and newts may be found 

 lurking beneath in a few days. In this manner during 

 spring I could obtain as many frogs as I liked for dis- 

 section or for the microscope. I afterwards thought 

 the above resembled, somewhat, the ingenious method 

 of sinking into the ocean bundles of old clothes and 

 periodically examining them for the various marine 

 animals and plants which had appropriated them for 

 housing, employed by the good old Scotch naturalist, 

 Thomas Edward. While on this subject I may as 

 well mention the following incident. Once in walk- 

 ing through a moss by a road I noticed in a ditch 

 close by, not eight inches wide, an old door-mat. I 

 hauled it out, and laying it on the road at once per- 

 ceived that it was covered with snail spawn, and 

 swarming with life in different forms. Beetles, water 

 boatmen, and scorpions, water woodlice, . spiders, 

 snails, worms, scuttled about (except the two latter) 

 and made me wonder how they could all live together 

 in so limited a space. Before leaving, I had secured 

 more than thirteen species of Hydradephaga, some of 

 which were new to me, besides a great number of 

 water bugs, and if I remember rightly several good 

 shells. This will give one a pretty fair idea of what 

 abundance of visible animal life does exist, and sub- 



