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HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



Discovery of the Remains of Extinct Ani- 

 mals in Westmoreland. — During the last two 

 years a considerable number of the bones of extinct 

 animals have been found in Westmoreland and 

 Cumberland. These consist of Bos primigenius, 

 B. longifrons, brown and cave bears ; of human bones 

 — tibia, humerus, femur, ribs, and part of cranium — 

 these are of a child and an adult ; wolf, wild bear, 

 wild cat, badger, horse, several of the weasel kind, 

 fox, a great quantity of the bones of deer — red and 

 fallow — together with the remains of animals at 

 present existing. A large and perfect skull of a 

 beaver has also been discovered at Sedbergh, on the 

 border-line of Yorkshire and Westmoreland. The 

 Lake District abounds in limestone escarpments, and 

 the caverns in which the bones are found are along 

 the faces of them. In some of the limestone recesses 

 are traces of human occupation, such as burnt char- 

 coal, a [bone needle, an awl, and an arrow-head. 

 Some of the bones exhumed contain evident traces 

 of human workmanship. The floors of the caves in 

 which these are found are covered with pieces of 

 limestone varying in weight from a pound to several 

 hundredweights. Beneath this is a band of red 

 loam, and under this again a dense deposit of red 

 clay, in which the bones are imbedded. In many 

 cases the blocks of stone which cover the first floor 

 are covered with stalagmatic matter, and stalactites 

 depend from the roof. The district embraced would 

 originally be comprised by the great Caledonian 

 forest, which was one of the strongholds of the larger 

 forms of a past British fauna. — Dipton Burn. 



The Geologists' Association. — The last num- 

 ber of the Proceedings of this Society contains the 

 following papers : "The History of Fossil Crocodiles," 

 by A. Smith Woodward, F.G.S. ; "Phenomena 

 observed in the Devonian and Carboniferous Beds in 

 Belgium," by Professor E. Dupont ; "Note on the 

 Large Bird from the Eocene of Croydon," by E. T. 

 Newton ; and a paper on " Flightless Birds," by Dr. 

 Henry Woodward. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Bird Sounds. — Will some reader kindly tell me 

 what bird it is that makes a sibilant sound not unlike 

 a soft pea-whistle long continued ? There is also a 

 bird I hear in the evening reminding me in its cry of 

 a hoarse peewit. It makes a grating noise, and I 

 do not hear it till it is getting dark. Both these 

 birds I hear in the spring. — C. C. S. 



Gum Tragacanth for Insect Mounting. — If 

 " V." will put ten drops of acetic acid to every half- 

 ounce of gum tragacanth, I think he will find that it 

 will keep almost an unlimited time, the acid prevent- 

 ing chemical decomposition. — R. A. A'. Bennett. 



Gum Tragacanth. — In reply to " V.'s" query, I 

 beg to say that gum or paste of any kind may be kept 



good for any length of time by mixing well in a 

 small quantity of arsenic or corrosive sublimate 

 (bichloride of mercury). — IV. Finch, junior. 



Mistaken Instinct. — The following experiment 

 was made by the writer directly after reading notes 

 on the subject in Science-Gossip. I had a pet toad 

 with other reptiles in a vivarium. The only food my 

 friend would touch consisted of living insects, such 

 as flies, wasps, butterflies, wood-lice, etc. ; a dead 

 creature he always rejected. I attempted to impose 

 on him after some careful preparation. I gathered 

 the fly-orchid, severed a single flower from the stem, 

 attaching the " fly " to an invisible black thread. 

 This was gently played in front of " Beelzebub " 

 (such was his name, and he was a pet of ten years' 

 standing) ; in a moment his eye was fixed on the 

 moving fly, his tongue darted out, and the bait was 

 swallowed. He "winked his eye slow," and evi- 

 dently thought well of the food, nor did it have any 

 ill-effect. The old fellow was clearly deceived. He 

 saw a moving insect, as he thought, and that was 

 enough. The same toad could eat any number of 

 wasps without injury. A hornet he tried, but 

 quickly spit it out of his mouth. A second one, 

 given a week afterwards, he refused to touch ; he 

 appeared unwell for a day or two after his trial 

 hornet, and I believe he was stung. A butterfly he 

 dearly loved, but could not swallow it easily on 

 account of the dry "down." Mark his instinct — 

 the fore-feet were dipped into his bath, and several 

 times the side of the mouth was moistened. In this 

 manner only could Beelzebub dispose of a whole 

 butterfly.—/: G. S. 



Twin Trees. — In a field near Leominster there is 

 a tree, or rather two trees — oak and ash — growing, as 

 far as can be made out, from one single trunk. They 

 grow together for about four feet, and then divide. 

 How can this be accounted for ? It is considered 

 about here one of the sights of the neighbourhood. — 

 Hffwarth Ashton. 



Palm-trees. — In the garden of our college here, 

 in Santiago, Chili, are eleven palm-trees, of which 

 number three of them have shown a very curious 

 development, viz., every time they flower they throw 

 off a lateral branch from the main trunk ; and if this 

 branch flowers, which it does in two years, it again 

 throws off a new branch, but the head of the old one 

 dies, whereas, when the true head of the palm (trunk- 

 head) flowers, that does not die. At present, as I 

 say, three of these curious palms present the rare 

 appearance of two with two branches each, and the 

 other with no less than five branches midway, and 

 two above. Has this been noticed in other plants of 

 the palm tribe, or are these merely freaks of nature, 

 as I think that all the order of Monocotyledons are 

 known by their being destitute of branches, and 

 merely having the tuft of leaves at the top of trunk.— 

 Win. Bartlett- Calvert, Colegio Ingles, Santiago, Chili. 



Preserving Zoophytes.— Can any reader of 

 Science-Gossip kindly tell me the best means of 

 preserving zoophytes, so as to stiffen them without 

 rendering them brittle? Also, which bleaching fluid 

 would be the safest to use when specimens are required 

 white ? — Glaucus. 



Eggs of Buff Ermine Moth. — On looking 

 through my puparium on the loth of May, I found 

 that a female of Arctia lubricipeda (buff ermine moth) 

 had emerged from the pupa, which to all appearance 

 was dead. To be certain that the moth was dead 

 before mounting it, I put it in the cyanide bottle for 



