x893. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 169 



A correspondent remarks that in our review of Professor 

 Alfred Newton's " Dictionary of Birds" last month (p. 146), we over- 

 looked the fact that the author had descended to a particularly 

 low level in his criticisms on others. "The remarks on p. 133 

 regarding the Timeliidae can only be described as the language 

 of the gutter, and should hardly emanate from a member of one 

 of our old Universities, a person of culture, and, we had hoped, 

 a gentleman. But they impress upon us more than ever the old 

 adage, ' Manners makyth man.' " We are not concerned here with 

 the author's convenient neglect of many well-known publications — 

 that will reflect upon himself in due season. 



Dr. J. W. Gregory arrived safely at Mombasa, East Africa, on 

 August 19, and he may be expected in England before the end of 

 September. 



According to the London Daily Chronicle, two members of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada have left this summer for the explora- 

 tion of Labrador. The exploring party will be absent from civilisa- 

 tion for two years ; they will traverse the interior of Labrador from 

 south to north, as well as from east to west, especially visiting the 

 great Lake Mastassini, and the cataract of the Hamilton River, 

 concerning the size and nature of which such fabulous tales have 

 been told. They will winter with the Eskimos on Ungava Bay, 

 where only four of the twenty-four hours of the winter day are 

 daylight. They expect to return to Canada from Hamilton inlet, 

 via a Hudson's Bay Company's steamer trading with England. 



M. Mathieu Meig contributes to the Feuille des Jeunes Naturalistes, 

 a paper of Excursions in the district of the Lower Carboniferous of 

 Alsace. This is apparently one of a series, and deals with Bourbach- 

 le-Haut, Massevaux, Rothhutel, Rossberg, Stauffen, Steinby and 

 Hundsriicken. M. Meig commences with a useful bibliography of 

 papers on the district, gives notes on the general divisions and com- 

 position of the Carboniferous beds of Alsace, and discusses the details 

 in the form of an itinerary. 



The August number of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological 

 Society contains an important contribution to the Highland question. 

 Mr. George Barrow has now traced a clear succession in Forfarshire, 

 the comparatively thin strata being repeated by sharp folds, till they 

 form a mass of enormous thickness. The various zones are all highly 

 metamorphosed ; but Mr. Barrow shows by analyses and the 

 occurrence of particular minerals, that a certain zone is an altered 

 quartzite, another is an altered limestone, and a third is probably a 

 highly metamorphosed clay. The greater part of this change he 



