Nov., 1894. NEWS OF UNIVERSITIES, ETC. 393 



We are pleased to learn that the Essex Field Club's petition with respect to the 

 formation of an Epping Forest Museum has been granted by the Conservators, and 

 active work will be commenced as soon as certain legal formalities have been complied 

 with. Meanwhile, contributions of suitable specimens, and offers of loans of same, 

 both for the Forest Museum and for the Central Museum at Chelmsford, will be 

 gratefully received by the hon. secretaries, Messrs. W. and B. G. Cole, Buckhurst 

 Hill, Essex. 



The Norwich Castle Museum was opened by the Duke and Duchess of York on 

 October 23. Much progress had already been made in the arrangement of the 

 collections, and the general public were freely admitted three days afterwards. 

 The Norwich Mercury celebrated the event by issuing an admirably illustrated 

 supplement on October 20, descriptive of the transformation of the old prison into a 

 museum. An earlier description of the new institution, by Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 appeared in Natural Science for November, 1892. 



Mr. Sauvinet, an assistant at the Natural History Museum of Paris, left on 

 October 5 for Mecheria, in the Province of Oran, Algeria, to obtain antelopes and 

 mouflons for the Jardin des Plantes. He will probably also obtain for the Museum 

 some animals of the Sahara. 



The same Museum has recently received from Mr. A. Boucard the valuable 

 collection of birds that formed the basis of that gentleman's " Catalogus Avium," 

 published in London in 1876. The collection consists of 25,000 specimens, repre- 

 senting over 7,000 species. 



The different Alpine Clubs are doing good work in the study of the former 

 extension of the glaciers in their districts. One of the latest of the reports is 

 issued by the Italian Club, and contains a detailed survey by Professor Sacco, of 

 Turin, of the old moraines in the northern Apennines. The lower margin of these 

 moraines seldom descends below 700 metres, though in one valley in the Maritime 

 Alps the glaciation reaches to within 500 metres of the sea level. In a few instances 

 moraines have been recorded at lower levels in northern Italy ; but Professor Sacco 

 points out that moraine material washed down by rain or rivers has sometimes been 

 taken to be true glacier deposit. It is often one of the most difficult questions for a 

 geologist to decide, whether a moraine is truly in the position in which it was left 

 by the ice, or has been washed down and reconstructed, perhaps at a level a thou- 

 sand feet lower. 



The " Return of the Income and Expenditure of the British Museum" for the 

 year ending March 31, 1894, has just been issued. Among the acquisitions calling 

 for special notice are the Pascoe and the Stainton collections of insects. The former 

 of these contains about 49,000 specimens, of which no less than 3,000 are types. 

 The Stainton collection consists of Lepidoptera, and is accompanied by a valuable 

 series of original drawings of the larvae of Micro-lepidoptera. Eighteen thousand 

 specimens of Coleoptera have been received from Messrs. F. D. Godman and 

 Osbert Salvin, being a further instalment of the rich collections acquired by the 

 editors of the Biologia Centrali- Americana, which they are generous enough to 

 place in the public collections. Messrs. Godman and Salvin have also enriched the 

 Bird-room by handing over the remainder of their collections of bird-skins, con- 

 sisting of 11,704 specimens, as well as 8,000 skins of birds from Mexico and 1,267 

 eggs of American species. 



A series of 510 specimens of Cornish minerals have been presented to the 

 Museum by Mr. J. C. Williams, M.P., many of which were obtained from mines 

 now closed, and consequently inaccessible. The original drawings of most of the 

 late Sir Richard Owen's discoveries have, through the kindness of the family, also 

 found a resting place in the Museum. 



