236 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP. 



proposes to establish in a central locality and within 

 easy access of London, an Experimental Garden, for 

 the purpose of hybridising, cross-breeding, and 

 selecting fruits, vegetables, flowers, ornamental and 

 economic plants (chiefly hardy and half-hardy), for 

 the raising and propagating of useful and choice 

 novelties, scarce and little known plants of beauty 

 and utility, and for the trial of new fruits, vegetables, 

 flowers, &c. It is intended that all experiments shall 

 as far as practicable be thoroughly and crucially 

 conducted, and that each experiment with its results, 

 whether apparently successes or failures shall be 

 carefully and systematically recorded. The ad- 

 vancement of Horticulture will be the chief desider- 

 atum, but scientific and botanical considerations will 

 be kept in view, and should available means and 

 space be obtained, the improvement of cereals, 

 forage, and other agricultural plants will also be 

 sought. Amongst incidental objects will be that of 

 testing the adaptability of introduced plants, &c, to 

 the climate and soil of the district. 



GEOLOGY, 



The Extinction of the Mammoth. — Mr. 

 H. H. Howorth read a paper on this subject, in 

 which he examined the mode in which the Mammoth 

 had become extinct in Siberia. His conclusion was 

 that there had been a sudden and violent change 

 of climate in that country, which had frozen the 

 previously soft ground, and had also preserved the 

 Mammoths as in a huge meat safe. 



The Pikermi and Sewalik Deposits.— Mr. 

 W. T. Blandford, F.R.S., has recently published 

 his reasons for concluding that the above deposits 

 are of Pliocene, and not of Miocene age, as they have 

 hitherto been held to be by most geologists. The 

 nature of the marine shells at the base of the 

 Pikermi bone-beds attests a Pliocene age. One 

 mammal (Bos palieimiiais) found in the Upper 

 Sewalik ^deposits occurs also in the Nerbudda 

 alluvium, where it is associated with paleolithic 

 implements. ♦ 



Carboniferous Amphibia and Fishes. — Mr. 

 W. H. Baily, F.G.S., Paleontologist to the Irish 

 Geological Survey, read a paper before the Geolo- 

 gical Section of the British Association on the 

 above subject, in which he showed that the remains 

 of amphibians and fishes were impressed on the true 

 coal, in a coal-seam, 3 feet thick, at Jarrow colliery, 

 near Castleconner, county Kilkenny. All the 

 remains were turned into carbon, one of the fishes 

 {Megalichthys Hibberti) being over 3 feet in length. 



New Species of Star-fish.— Mr. W. PI. Baily 

 has described a new species of Star-fish from the 

 Lower Silurian Caradoc beds of county Wexford, 

 Ireland, under the name of Palasterina Kinahani. 



A Permian Fauna in North America. — At 

 the British Association meeting Prof. Cope described 

 the remains of a fauna characteristic of the period 

 which in North America succeeded the Carboniferous. 

 It occurs in Illinois, and the remains were referred 

 to Reptilia and Batrachia. In one genus, Clepsydrops, 

 almost the entire skeleton was discovered. This 

 was a clawed Lizard, with large canine teeth, and 

 several incisors. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Toads in Stone. — The stories concerning live 

 toads which have been found inside limestone rocks 

 are so well known and often well authenticated, that 

 the fact can hardly be doubted. The article by Mr. 

 Downes in your last number would seem to offer a 

 good explanation of the phenomena. Any one who 

 has observed the way in which the so-called " petri- 

 " fying wells " at Matlock and other places deposit 

 thick crusts on any articles placed in them, will easily 

 perceive how the working up of a toad in a rock may 

 be a question not of years but of months. We must 

 remember, too, that though the independent testimony 

 of quarrymen from many places remote from each 

 other ought not to be set down as mere invention, yet 

 exaggeration with regard to the thickness or solidity 

 of the rock is very likely to take place. A short while 

 ago, however, a curious story was told me about a 

 toad having been found in the heart of an oak-tree. 

 The toad was an enormously large one, and the 

 impression of its body was plainly to be seen. When 

 I saw the article in your last number, I wrote for 

 further particulars, and have to-day received a reply- 

 to the following effect, — that the time was thirty or 

 forty years ago, that the tree was a large oak in 

 Pignell Wood in the New Forest, that it was cut in 

 the spring of the year. The three men who cut the 

 tree are dead, but my informant, who is getting an 

 old man, well remembered the circumstances, and, I 

 believe, was on the spot a short time after the tree 

 was cut and saw the impression ; at any rate, the 

 circumstance seems to be well remembered by him. 

 I give the fact on its own merits, hoping that it may 

 call forth an answer in explanation or otherwise. — 

 IV. IV. Fowler, Repton, Burton-on-Trent. 



Toads in Rocks. — To those interested in the 

 subject of the frog and toad living without food, 

 the following may be interesting : — In the Spring of 

 1876 I had occasion to go down a well, at Lewisham, 

 to examine some pumps. Looking round for a place 

 to put a few tools, I took out a loose brick from' the 

 side of the well, and, while putting my tools into the 

 hole, felt something soft and cold, which turned out 

 to be a frog : it was very thin and weak. I took it 

 to the surface and carefully put it in a suitable place. 

 The next day it had breathed its last ; it was nothing 

 but skin and bone. On making inquiries, I ascer- 

 tained that during the Spring of 1875, while the 

 pumps were being repaired, the frog had fallen down 

 the well, and had been picked up and imprisoned, 

 thus having been buried forty feet from the surface 

 about twelve months. Its death, no doubt, was 

 accelerated by the exertions it made to procure food. 

 Shortly after this I was at Crayford Water-works, 

 and mentioning the above circumstance to one of the 

 turncocks, he told me that about twenty years 

 previously he had put a toad into the hollow column 

 of a drilling-machine he was helping to put up at a 

 works at New Cross. I obtained permission to look 



