160 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



or rectangular prism slightly, the true appear- 

 ance as well as Hartnack's false ones, which Dr. 

 Carpenter has figured, are easily obtained. If the 

 lamp is placed in front of the microscope and the 

 light passed through a bull's-eye condenser directly 

 in the condenser or the paraboloid, the definition is 

 still further improved. The use of monochromatic 

 sunlight facilitates the resolution greatly. Owing 

 to the shape of Surirella gemma only a portion of the 

 frustule can be resolved at one time without alter- 

 ing the focus.— Adolf Schidze. 



Markings on Surirella Gemma.— The trans- 

 verse markings on S. gemma (not gemmae) can be 

 easily seen with a i objective and moderately 

 oblique light ; the resolution of these lines into 

 dots requires a higher power and a very oblique ray. 

 I have seen them very distinctly with a Beck im- 

 mersion ^ and the " Bramhall Illuminator," even 

 when the specimens are mounted in balsam. The 

 valve must be at right angles to the illuminating ray, 

 and the objective very carefully adjusted— F. K. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Provincial Natural History Progress.— 

 It is always refreshing and encouraging for us to 

 receive the reports, transactions, proceedings, or by 

 whatsoever name our provincial fellow-naturalists 

 like to dub their work. Among the many signifi- 

 cant "signs of the times" is the establishment of 

 natural history clubs in connection with our public 

 schools. We have received the second annual 

 report of the University School Naturalists' Eield 

 Club for 1875-6, published at Hastings, and giving 

 a well-written account of their doings, both in the 

 library and the field. The digests and abstracted 

 reports of the papers and meetings are well done, 

 and we wish this unpretending but useful club 

 " God speed ! " The sixth annual report of the 

 Wellington College Natural Science Society is also 

 to hand, containing abstracts of the minutes of the 

 meetings and of the papers read, which latter em- 

 brace a very wide and suggestive series of subjects. 

 Some of them, especially that by Mr. J. Niven, on 

 "The Conservation of Energy," and another by the 

 Rev. P. H. Kempthorne, on " The Formation of 

 Volcanic Islands," cannot fail to have made lasting 

 impressions. What we are most pleased to see, 

 however, in connection with this society, is the 

 "Zoological Report" for 1875, in which the prac- 

 tical observation of the members of the society has 

 acquired a scientific value in recording observations 

 as to the fauna and flora of the district. The 

 " Annual Report of the Belfast Field Naturalists' 

 Club for 1874r-5 " is, as usual, welcome, for this 

 club numbers some well-known and enthusiastic 

 naturalists and geologists among its members. We 

 are sorry to see, however, that the President (the 



Rev. Dr. Macilwaine) thought it necessary to 

 refute, in the presidential address, what the 

 reverend gentleman considered the " atheism " of 

 Professor Tyndall during the Belfast meeting of the 

 British Association. Professor Tyndall's theological 

 inferences at that time did much less harm than his 

 opponents are in the habit of supposing ! One of 

 the most interesting papers in the present report is 

 that of Mr. Mann Harbison, on "The Origin of 

 Eskers." Mr. William Gray's paper on " Rudely- 

 worked Flints," contains some suggestive remarks 

 by a most accurate observer. The report of the 

 Manchester Field Naturalists' Society for 1875 

 impresses us with that wonderful appetite for work 

 which many of our North-countrymen exhibit. Here 

 is a most formidable array of excursions, papers, 

 conversazioni, lectures, &c, all taking place in one 

 year, and admirably condensed into a paper-covered 

 "Report" of fifty-four pages. This club has long 

 been the nursery for Manchester naturalists, and 

 we hope it will long live to fulfil both that function 

 and the still higher one of recording such original 

 observations and remarks as are here so tersely 

 summarised. 



Return of the " Challenger."— As 'our 

 readers will have seen in the public papers, this 

 vessel has returned safely to our shores, laden with 

 scientific material, which it will take months if not 

 years to explain, even to Science. No doubt, the 

 utmost expedition will be taken to lay the results 

 before the expectant world. During her voyage 

 the Challenger has traversed nearly seventy thousand 

 miles, and made observations at three hundred and 

 sixty-two places, at all of which soundings have 

 been made and the sea bottom examined. Perhaps 

 the most remarkable "find" in the history of the 

 expedition was that which we noticed at the time, 

 of a gigantic hydrozoan polyp off the Japanese 

 coasts. °This measured nine inches across the non- 

 retractile tentacled cup, and had a stem more than 

 seven feet in length, with a diameter of half an 

 inch ! This wonderful polyp was found again, in 

 dredging off Honolulu. Living encrinites of new 

 but dwarfed species ; " Venus's flower-baskets," 

 or old-world types of siliceous sponges ; strange- 

 looking and unknown crustaceans ; polyzoa sug- 

 gesting affinities to Cambrian fossils ; these, and a 

 host of other interesting materials, were collected, 

 and will before long be described by Professor 

 Wyville-Thomson, who has his notes well m hand, 

 on the history of this famous expedition. The 

 results are promised us in a published volume in 

 October. 



Trophies of the " Challenger."— Among 

 the wealth of zoological specimens the Chal- 

 lenger has brought home are two large living 

 tortoises, -one forty years old and the other a 

 hundred. The large tortoise can walk quite as 



