HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



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Euomphalus rotundatus. It is remarkable that 

 Productus gigantais should be rare in the Gower 

 Limestone, for it is very abundant in the Carboniferous 

 Limestone in North Wales.— G. H. Morton, F.G.S., 

 Liverpool. 



Death of an " Assisting Naturalist." — Many 

 readers of Science-Gossip will read with regret that 

 death has already made an inroad in the ranks of 

 the "Assisting Naturalists" whose names so recently 

 appeared in your columns. I refer to the decease of 

 Mr. Wm. Gault, of Belfast, an ardent student of 

 geology, and especially of the Cretaceous rocks of 

 his native county, Antrim. Mr. Gault was not by any 

 means a common man. Born of humble but indus- 

 trious parents he had little assistance from external 

 circumstances, and the creditable position to which 

 he attained as an investigator of the geology of his 

 country was due entirely to an innate love of know- 

 ledge and a force of character which caused him to 

 despise the frivolous occupations and baneful liter- 

 ature that so often engross the leisure of persons in 

 his own rank, and indeed all ranks. His education 

 did not extend beyond that given to others in his 

 humble social grade, and though his progress at 

 school was above the average, yet he did not manifest 

 any very exceptional aptitudes. He early developed 

 a taste for reading, and he has stated to the writer 

 that for this taste he owed much to his mother, who 

 in his boyish days encouraged him, as far as means 

 permitted, by obtaining the books that he wanted. 

 He served his apprenticeship to the brushmaking, 

 in which he attained to the rank of foreman. He 

 accompanied his parents to Glasgow, and in October 

 1868, was elected a member of that flourishing and 

 energetic association, the Geological Society of 

 Glasgow, and attended many of their instructive 

 meetings and excursions. In the course of a few 

 years he returned to Ireland, and became one of the 

 working members of the Belfast Naturalists' Field 

 Club, who awarded him, in several years, prizes for 

 collections of geological specimens, and to whose 

 proceedings he contributed several papers. Gault 

 had wisely taken up a special subject, and his 

 investigations were directed to the better elucidation 

 of the Cretaceous rocks near Belfast. He was no 

 "holiday geologist," to use a phrase hurled by a 

 professional against the club to which he belonged. 

 His opportunities, as may be supposed, were not 

 considerable, but were utilised to the utmost extent. 

 During the long summer days of this latitude, it was 

 his common practice on leaving off work to run away 

 to some of the hills which encircle Belfast, and, 

 hammer in hand, continue his survey as long as 

 sufficient light remained, returning in time to obtain 

 the rest necessary to enable him to be at his work at 

 six in the morning. On Saturdays he left off work 

 at noon, and starting usually direct from the shop, 

 without dinner, he was enabled to enjoy a long 



afternoon, and to reach more distant sections. Holi- 

 days and other non-wotking days, were almost 

 invariably devoted in this way, and thus he was 

 enabled to do more than many whose opportunities 

 are much greater. Though Gault had always pretty 

 fair health, yet he was not at all robust, and he has 

 fallen a victim to rapid consumption. Working at 

 the Black Mountain, one very cold Saturday last 

 spring, he caught what seemed only a bad cold. He 

 did not anticipate anything serious, and continued at 

 his work for some time, but ere long it was manifest 

 to his friends that his course was run, and he expired 

 on the 25th September, at the early age of 35, 

 leaving behind a widow and one son to lament his 

 untimely end. — .S. A. Stewart, Belfast. 



Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 

 — No. 7 of vol. vi. of the above, issued July, contains 

 amongst others, the following papers : " Visit to the 

 Museum of Practical Geology — Demonstration on 

 Earthy Minerals." This is in fact a petrographical 

 demonstration on the minerals of the Horse-shoe 

 case (Jermyn Street), by Mr. W. H. Huddleston, 

 M.A., F.G.S. The most important paper is a 

 " Demonstration of the Elephantine Mammals," con- 

 fined chiefly to the fossil remains in the North 

 Gallery, British Museum, No. 1., given by Professor 

 Owen on the occasion of the visit of the Association 

 to the Museum. This is accompanied by a large 

 plate of teeth. 



" Oceans and Continents." — This is the title of 

 a paper by Mr. T. Mellard Reade, C.E., F.G.S., &c, 

 from the " Geological Magazine." It consists of well- 

 arranged arguments in opposition to the theory that the 

 oceans and continents of the globe have always occu- 

 pied their present positions, and that the latter are, in 

 fact, concretions built up around the prominences of the 

 earth's crust which first hardened, whilst the oceans 

 have occupied their present abysses within certain 

 limits during all geological time. Mr. Reade objects 

 to this prevailing theory, and argues " that on 

 attempting to follow out the sequence of events by 

 which oscillations of land and sea in a limited area 

 could account for all those enormous and successive 

 stratified marine deposits almost everywhere to be 

 found on every continent, nay, even on islands such 

 as New Zealand, the mind actually fails to grasp 

 what could have been the formative process." He 

 takes exception to the statement put forward that all 

 known rocks are shallow water deposits, either 

 littoral, or in shallow seas bordering land ; bringing 

 forward in opposition the description given by Pro- 

 fessor Alex. Agassiz of dredging up from over 1000 

 fathoms, and fifteen miles from land, in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, masses of leaves, pieces of bamboo, of sugar- 

 cane, dead land shells, and other land debris which 

 Professor Agassiz says would, if found fossilised in 

 rocks, be taken by geologists to indicate a shallow 



