144 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Oct. and Nov. 



Ganong. The zoological report shows considerable activity in 

 the study of birds, fishes and insects of the Province. Other 

 items are a meteorological abstract for 1897, mean sea level at 

 St. John, by E. T. P. Shewen, and reports of committees. 



Moulding Marble Under Pressure. — Experiments 

 have been carried on at McGill University, Montreal, under the 

 direction of Professor Adams, of the Faculty of Arts, and Pro- 

 fessor Nicholson, of the Faculty of Applied Science, which show 

 that marble may, under certain conditions, be moulded like clay. 

 Without going into technical details, the experiments may be 

 said to consist of placing miniature columns of pure Carrara 

 marble, or granite, in sheaths of iron, and submitting them to 

 long-continued but gradual pressure, with the result that the 

 marble shortens and expands laterally, so as to swell the iron 

 sheath. The iron is then cut away ; the marble is altered greatly 

 in shape, but remains as solid and brittle as before. The differ- 

 ence between the deformed marble and the original rock is that 

 the former is said to have a dead white colour, the sparkling 

 cleavage faces of calcite being no longer visible. Although not 

 quite so hard as the original, it is still firm and compact, 

 especially when its deformation has been carried out slowly. No 

 accurate measurements as to its strength have been received, but 

 it was found to withstand a very sharp blow, and fragments of it 

 weighing ten grammes, were allowed to fall from a height of 8ft. 

 on to a wooden platform, from which they rebounded without 

 breaking. Thin seetions of the deformed marble when examined 

 under the microscope showed that the calcite individuals com- 

 posing the rock had in many cases been twisted and flattened. 

 It is stated that the moulded marble when microscopically 

 examined presented many striking resemblances to certain 

 natural rocks whose peculiar cleavage it has hitherto been diffi- 

 cult to explain. But the recent experiments at McGill show 

 that however brittle a rock may seem to be it is in reality a 

 plastic substance capable of flowing into new shapes as surely 

 as putty or dough. 



