HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



231 



have been unbearable for one's eye to gaze upon had 

 it not been for the oases of greenery here and there. 

 We think there can be little doubt that these rock- 

 terraces are due to weathering, and that they do not 

 represent successive sea-beaches, as some imagine. 

 The terraces appear to coincide with the outcrop of 

 the limestone beds, and the terraces are most pro- 

 nounced towards the tops of the hills, the debris 

 lying along the bases having greatly protected the 

 lower strata from meteorological erosion. The rain- 

 fall hereabout is 54 inches in a year, and as it mostly 

 descends in a fine drizzle, nearly every drop must tell 

 upon the limestone, and its weathering action must 

 therefore be almost complete. 



We stayed a few clays at Lisdoonvarna, a pleasant 

 green country, richly undulated, where the 

 Yoredale shales abut against the Carboniferous 

 limestones, and the water percolating through the 

 former dissolves away its iron pyrites, so as thus to 

 form "Spas" of notable benefit. Dr. Westropp, the 

 kind and genial physician of the place, has made a 

 remarkable living collection of all the varieties of the 

 Hart's-tongue ferns found growing in the fissures and 

 joints of the Carboniferous limestone near Black- 

 head. These joints are very numerous, and in each of 

 them we saw growing a wonderful luxuriance of 

 Maiden-hair (A. capittus-veneris} and other ferns ; 

 while on the cliffs the surface was matted with Dryas 

 octopetala (still in flower) ; and patches of Statice 

 spathitlata grew here and there, close by denser tufts of 

 Aspleniiini marinum. Near Mohr Cliffs we found 

 Lastrea recurva completely covering a bank for a 

 short distance. These Cliffs are a magnificent 

 spectacle, rising quite perpendicularly for nearly 600 

 feet out of the sea. They are formed of Lower 

 Carboniferous rocks, the thin flagstones of which 

 are completely covered with worm or molluscan 

 tracks. We should be delighted to convey to our 

 readers even a faint idea of the pleasure we enjoyed 

 from the detailed exploration of the limestone rock- 

 gardens, surely unknown the whole world else- 

 where, and of the loveliness of the green western 

 Irish land, and of its balmy atmosphere, which one 

 can almost taste ! 



The Carboniferous limestone underlies the whole 

 country hereabout — a land bare, almost as a wooden 

 table, of grass, and yet richly feeding numbers of 

 sheep. The real reason why sheep are able to feed 

 over the limestone tract of the Burren hills, is that 

 the rocks are so much fissured with the vertical 

 cracks, in which grow the loveliest of wild plants, 

 many of them rare to the botanist, and a profusion 

 of such ferns as the Hart's-tongue, the Maiden-hair 

 {Adiantum capilhis-veneris), the Ceterach, and many 

 others. Various species of grass also grow in these 

 chinks, and it is upon the latter that the sheep 

 browse, and so the spectator is presented with the 

 peculiar appearance of sheep grazing on what appears 

 to be a region of the poorest and the baldest rock. 



MICROSCOPY, 



" New Forms of Animal Life ! ! " [vide Times 

 report of Sir W. C. Thompson's paper on the official 

 report of the Challejiger Expedition, August 21, 

 1878).—" Sir W. Thompson says that Mr. Holdich is 

 illustrating most of the pelagic genera, these plates re- 

 presenting several remarkable forms of 'shizopods/ 

 to which they have given the name of Challengerida, 

 as they seem to have hitherto escaped observation. 

 Professor Hatchel is about to publish a splendid 

 memoir of the Radiolari. Any one acquainted with 

 Hatchel's classical work, ' Die Radiolariem,' would 

 have some idea of what may be expected of that 

 memoir. Mr. Moseby is at work on a most remark- 

 able little series of coralloid forms of the Hydrogor, 

 which he has named Hydrocorotmal, and on their 

 strictures and relations Mr. Moseby's careful work, 

 during the voyage and since their return [query, of 

 the Hydrocorotmal '], had thrown quite an un- 

 expected light. Professor Hatchel would describe 

 the medusce. The Peliatozo would be described by 

 himself (Sir W. Thompson). About twenty plates 

 were cut stone (these will make a heavy book) 

 illustrating the stalked crinoids. Professor Alexan- 

 drac Ligussis was going on rapidly/with the Echiniden. 

 Mr. Lyman was working at the Opherxides, and he 

 expected Mr. Phere, of Upsala, to come over to ex- 

 amine the Holtheridea, which he was going to describe 

 under the general superintendence of Professor 

 Lowe." A friend says I am mistaken, these are not new 

 names, and if the following corrections are made it 

 will be all right. For shizopod read rhizopod, Radio- 

 lariem read Radiolarien, for Hydrogor read Hydrozoa 

 (I still adhere to it that Hydrocorotmal is new), 

 Opherxides is the same as OpIiiitridcF, and HoltJuridce 

 is identical with Holoihuridce, and Professor Hatchel 

 is vulgarly known as Haeckel. — F. K. 



Highbury Microscopical Society. — We are 

 pleased to state that a Highbury Microscopical So- 

 ciety has just been formed under the presidency of 

 Dr. Alabone. Applications for membership should 

 be addressed to the hon. secretary, Mr. R. B. Brind- 

 ley, 37, Highbury Park, N. The opening meeting 

 of the society will take place on Thursday, October 

 10th, at Harecourt Hall, St. Paul's Road, High- 

 bury, with an exhibition of objects of a scientific 

 nature, principally shown by the microscope. 

 Tickets free on application. 



Measuring with the Microscope. — A very 

 simple arrangement for measuring microscopic ob- 

 jects has been invented by Mr. G. J. Burch, and 

 fully described in the "Transactions of the Quekett 

 Club," for July, 1878. It is as follows :— The body 

 of the microscope is placed in a vertical position, 

 and one of the forms of " Beales's " Neutral Tint 

 Camera Lucida, placed as usual over the eyepiece, 

 attached to the tube of the Camera, and at right 



