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HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G OS SIP. 



attention. The author then, from consideration of 

 the amount of deposition and rate of denudation, 

 attempts to estimate the period which has elapsed 

 since the commencement of the record, and sets it 

 down as 62,000,000 of years. The author then 

 considers the age of the Skiddaw slates. From litho- 

 logical resemblances he is led to correlate the Skiddaw 

 grit with the basement grit in the Welsh Arenig 

 series, and thus to regard the beds below the grit as 

 the equivalent of the Tremadoc, and perhaps of part 

 of the Lingula Flags. The palasontological evidence 

 for the correspondence of the Arenig series with the 

 whole of the Skiddaw slates rests chiefly on Grapto- 

 lites and Trilobites. The author holds that the 

 evidence from the former is inconclusive, and that 

 from the latter to some extent contradictory, so that 

 the physical evidence can in no way be overridden 

 by it. 



StromATOPORA and Loftusia. — Principal 

 Dawson has contributed a statement of his views as 

 to the nature of these problematical fossils from the 

 palreozoic rocks, which are commonly known as 

 Stromatopora. They are massive fossils, often showing 

 concentric structures when weathered, and have been 

 referred by different writers to the corals, to the 

 Hydroida as allied to Hydractinia, and to the 

 Foraminifera. Principal Dawson says that Strotna- 

 topora is " a calcareous, non-spicular body, composed 

 of continuous concentric porous lamina;, thickened 

 with supplemental deposit, and connected by vertical 

 pillars, most of which are solid " ; and he maintains 

 his old opinion, that " Stromatopora is a foraminiferal 

 organism and the paleozoic representative of the 

 Laurentian Eozoon." 



Norwich Geological Society. — We have re- 

 ceived Part I. of the " Proceedings " of this old- 

 established society, containing a list of all the papers 

 read before the society since its foundation in 1864, 

 and abstract of papers read during the recent session. 



Ancient Man.— Mr. Thomas Belt, F.G.S., the 

 well-known naturalist, has made the interesting dis- 

 covery of a human skull in the section of a railway 

 cutting in the neighbourhood of Denver, Colorado. 

 The skull was imbedded in perfectly undisturbed 

 ground, at about three feet and a half from the sur- 

 face. Neither the lower jaw nor any other bones were 

 found with the skull. 



Fossil Saurians from the Cape. — Mr. Thomas 

 Bain, F.G.S., the well-known African traveller and 

 geologist, has just sent home a splendid collection of 

 fossil Saurians, many of which are new to science, 

 tind which have been found in the carboniferous and 

 triassic formations of Cape Colony. They include 

 skulls and other remains of DicynoJon, Galcosaunts, 

 Cynodracon, Oudcnodon, &c. 



The Coralline Crag.— Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys, in a 

 communication to the Linnrean Society, on some 



shells dredged in the Korean straits, said that of 

 fourteen species enumerated, six are now, for the 

 first time, found living in the North Pacific as well 

 as the Atlantic. Micinella ovalis and Kcllia pumila, 

 which had been supposed to be extinct, are shown to 

 be living in the Korean region. No fewer than nine 

 of the above fourteen species are Coralline crag fossils. 

 Dr. Jeffreys holds that these facts support his view, 

 that Mollusca common to the North Atlantic and 

 North Pacific Oceans may have originated in high 

 northern latitudes and have found their way to Japan 

 on the one side and Europe on the other, by means 

 of the bifurcation of the great Arctic current. 



Our Water Supplies.— Mr. De Ranee has re- 

 cently read a paper, " On the Palaeozoic and Secondary 

 Rocks of England as a Source of Water Supply for 

 Towns andDistricts, " before the Manchester Geological 

 Society. The paper contains much useful informa- 

 tion on a subject growing every year more important, 

 inasmuch as the demand for water increases, while 

 springs and rivers do not increase. Instances are 

 given which show how vast are the underground 

 stores of water within the region occupied by the 

 rocks above-named. A spring at Barrow-in-Furness 

 yields, from a depth of two hundred and fifty feet, 

 thirteen thousand five hundred gallons of water daily. 

 Nearly three million gallons a day are pumped from 

 a single well at Liverpool. Three- fourths of the 

 seven million five hundred thousand gallons supplied 

 daily to Birmingham is got from wells in the New 

 Red Sandstone, and the water is described as of a 

 uniformly excellent quality, and the Perry Well as 

 one of the best waters for dietetic and domestic pur- 

 poses ever inspected. Kidderminster has deep wells, 

 one of which gives one hundred thousand gallons a 

 day, and yet the present domestic supply is entirely 

 derived from dangerously polluted shallow wells and 

 streams. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Double Egg. — Last year a friend brought me two 

 hen's-eggs which were joined together in a very 

 curious manner. The shell was continued at the 

 apices in the form of a tube connecting the two eggs, 

 about i in. long and \ in. thick. It formed ap- 

 parently a perfect communication, being filled with 

 albumen. The eggs had the appearance of leaning 

 one against the other, one being quite depressed 

 where the other came in contact with it, which was 

 about a quarter of an inch below the points of junc- 

 tion. I may mention that the shells of the eggs were 

 very imperfect, be ; ng almost soft in some places. — G. 

 M. Doc, Torrington. 



Fungus on Flies. — I have seen a somewhat 

 similar instance to that mentioned by Mr. E. Wheeler, 

 but with this difference, that the flies so affected 

 seemed to be confined to one particular plant. The 

 plant was withered and dried, and the flies (several 

 dozens) were stuck about it in all directions, and in 

 very natural attitudes. I was not at that time botanist 

 or dipterist enough to identify either the plant or the 

 I insects, but the latter were very similar in appearance 



