HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



119 



would have failed in the dry months ; not after the 

 ■wettest part of this year. I have been told that 

 several springs in Ross-shire have disappeared in the 

 same way without apparent cause. Can any of your 

 readers enlighten me on the subject? — JV. C. P. 



Going in for it. — A correspondent of the Field 

 has a duck whose egg-laying propensities are fabulous. 

 The numbers of eggs laid by her are as follows : — In 

 1S78, 211; in 1879, 143; in 18S0, 145; in 1881, 

 156; in 18S2, 84; in 1883, 30; total, 769. She 

 has now ceased laying for the last two years, and has 

 never, since her birth, mixed with any of her own 

 species, male or female. Another peculiarity is that 

 she has, since she finished laying, the "curled 

 feathers " on the tail as prominent as any drake. 



The Great Northern Diver.— A beautiful 

 specimen of this bird has been secured near to 

 Birdforth, about five miles to the south of Thirsk. It is 

 considered a great rarity in this district. The bird is 

 thirty inches in length, and measures four feet five 

 inches from the tip of its beak to that of its tail. It 

 was shot on some ice, where it had some difficulty in 

 rising. It is a beautiful specimen, and is just getting 

 its adult plumage. Mr. Robert Lee, naturalist, of 

 Thirsk, has preserved the bird, and it is thought the 

 ■severity of the weather northward must have driven 

 the bird so far inland. 



Science in Glasgow. — Here is how science is 

 culminating in Glasgow. I beg to give the following 

 extract from one of the weekly papers there ; it is 

 rather startling. " Whatever we cannot think, or 

 whatever is unthinkable, has, then, no existence at 

 all. Being or existence, then, is quite unthinkable 

 otherwise than in the following: — ' 1. Time is 

 endless. 2. Time is beginningless. 3. Space must 

 always have been and must always be. 4. Space has 

 no bounds. 5. Time and space are of necessity. 



6. All being or existence is inside time and space. 



7. Substance can neither come out of nothing nor go 

 into nothing ; therefore, must always have been and 

 must always be. 8. Substance occupies or fills with 

 itself its own space. 9. Substance does not fill all 

 space, or it could not be capable of motion. 10. 

 Substance, though it fill not all space, may have 

 nevertheless an endless extension throughout space. 

 11. Whether substance have or have not an endless 

 extension throughout space, we can never be able to 

 know of ourselves. 12. Yet, even the smallest 

 particle of substance is of an endless extent in its 

 way, for it goes to the endless depth of the in- 

 finitesimal. 13. Substance is spirit, because it moves 

 itself into shapes. 14. Spirit is substance, because 

 it must occupy or fill a space. 15. Spirit is neither 

 time, nor space, nor motion, nor shapes, but must be 

 substance. 16. Time, space, and substance constitute 

 uncreated being or existence. 17. Motion does not 

 occupy or fill a space, though it be in space. 18. 

 Motion can have a beginning to be and a ceasing 

 to be, but not without a cause. 19. Motion has a 

 beginning to be or is created by will-force. 20. 

 Motion has a ceasing to be or is destroyed by coming 

 into direct collision with motion. 21. Shapes into 

 which substance moves itself, and in which it holds 

 itself, are the manifestations of mind. 22. Stars, 

 clouds, hills, trees, bodies, stones, atoms, &c, 

 are actually not substance but shapes. 23. Wood, 

 stone, iron, water, air, the chemical elements, 

 the luminiferous ether, &c, are not different 

 substances, but conglomerate aggregates of different 

 infinitesimal shapes. 24. Shapes can have a 

 beginning to be and a ceasing to be. 25. 



Motion and shapes are entirely dependent on 

 substance, space, and time. 26. Motion and shapes 

 constitute created being or existence. 27. Time, 

 space, substance, motion, and shapes are the entire 

 total of all being or existence.' These, then, I 

 accept upon the basis of thinkability about them ; if 

 you reject them because you think thinkability about 

 them is not umpire, then just by so thinking, and by 

 rejecting them just upon the strength of so thinking, 

 you verily acknowledge that thinkability is umpire. 

 — y. J. Brown, Glasgow. 



The Geological History of the Echinus. — 

 Could one of your obliging correspondents favour us 

 with an article or two on the development of the 

 Echinus as exhibited in successive geological strata ? — 

 J. W. D. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un- 

 dertake to insert in the following number any communications 

 which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of 

 not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names. 



To Dealers and others. — We are always glad to treat 

 dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general 

 ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are fair 

 exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are simply 

 disguised advertisements, for the purpose of evading the cost of 

 advertising, an advantage is taken of o\xx gratuitous insertion of 

 " exchanges " which cannot be tolerated. 



We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or 

 initials) and full address at the end. 



J. L.— The " Journal of the Trenton Nat. Hist. Society " is 

 published by the society at Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.A. 



John Moore (Birmingham). — Many thanks for your slide of 

 wasp paper. The scalariform vessels of ferns appear quite 

 distinctly in it. Your discovery that wasps use living instead 

 of dead vegetable tissue is important. 



Verdad. — We cannot see how you could apply the word 

 "indigenous" to minerals, as well as to native animals and 

 plants. 



J. W. — The fungus you sent us is an immature specimen, and 

 is related to the Zasmidium found on the woodwork of damp 

 cellars. 



J. C. — The "Scientific Enquirer" is, we believe, published 

 monthly, edited by Mr. A. Allen, 1 Cambridge Place, Bath, of 

 whom make enquiries. 



C. Deacon — Your object is the freshwater shrimp. 



S. Manser. — The "Economic Naturalist" is published at 

 the Beaumont Park Museum, Huddersfield. 



A. Davidson. — You will get Rimmer's "Land and Fresh- 

 water Shells," of Messrs. W. H. Allen & Co., Waterloo Place, 

 London. 



E. J. Tatum. — You had best apply to Mr. Edward Bidwell, 

 Fonnereau House, Cambridge Park, Twickenham, concerning 

 his list of British Birds. The following are good and fairly 

 cheap books on British Ornithology: — H. G. and H. B. Adams' 

 " Smaller British Birds, Ne^s, &c," is-f- (Bell) ; " Our Summer 

 Migrants," by Harting, 7s. 6ti. (Bickers) ; " Handbook of British 

 Birds," by Harting, 7s. 6d. (Van Voorst) ; and " British Birds 

 in their Haunts," by Rev. C. A. Johns, 7 s. 6d. (S. P. C. K.) 



EXCHANGES. 



"Zoologist" wanted, the vol. for 1866, for York School 

 Natural History Society. The year was given wrongly in the 

 last issue of Science-Gossip. — B. B. Le Tall, 20 Bootham, 

 York. 



Wanted, foreign postage-stamps in exchange for Science- 

 Gossips and other books on natural history. — A. G. A., 

 15 Roslyn Terrace, Redland, Bristol. 



The new British alga (freshwater), Hildenbrantia rivularis, 

 in exchange for rare British or named foreign shells, land and 

 freshwater preferred, or named foreign insects. — W. A. Gain, 

 Tuxford, Newark. 



Will give good micro slides for whole insects, &c, well- 

 mounted, for lantern micro. Lists. — H. W. Case, Cotham, 

 B listol. 



