1 70 NATURAL SCIENCE. March, 



"be enough for him to observe that every year for the last — we don't know 

 how many, there have been popular lectures on Zoology given at the 

 Gardens. For the last few years they have been delivered by Mr. 

 Beddard ; and it is clear that a course of lectures on Zoology would 

 not come by any means amiss to this paragraphist. 



We are always glad to note the gradual percolation of science 

 through the lower strata of our population, and we have derived 

 much instruction from a recently-issued pamphlet entitled " Leaves 

 from the Book of Nature, or Stepping Stones in Creation," by L. Piers. 

 The author seems to be a great admirer of the Geological Depart- 

 ment of the Natural History Museum, and his acquaintance with the 

 collection, if not extensive, is at least peculiar. He traces the history 

 of our globe from the " Archaen " rocks " composed of schistose or 

 granitic character," through the Cambrian period when the sea was 

 at 90°, the Silurian and Devonian, with their Graptolites, Ammonites, 

 Crinoids, and Nummulites, the Carboniferous, " Treassic " and 

 Jurassic, then " the Cretaceous system composed of white chalk," 

 down to the Tertiary periods and the great ice age. " Wonderful 

 and marvellous truly are the mysteries of Nature " ! thus we read of 

 that " curious crustacean called tnlohite ; they were in three great 

 families, olenellus, pamdoxides, and olenus,'" then the Crinoids, whose 

 *' province was to check the too great increase of certain other 

 creatures, while in their turn they were devoured by the larger fishes" 

 [poor fishes!]. But, oh! the "strange and long reptile, named 

 Deinosaum," " the Plesiosaurus, the earliest crocodile," the " extra- 

 ordinary Pctrodadylus and Tvinocevos.'" 



Two notes on page 16 inform us, first, that " the vertebrate 

 kingdom are in five great divisions : fish, reptiles, birds, mammalia, 

 man ; " secondly, that " The visitors will find at the entrance to the 

 Geological Department some excellent illustrated catalogues." Are 

 these catalogues really so bad ? or did Mr. Piers write his book before 

 he read them ? 



It is well-known that a long-haired variety of the tiger ranges at 

 the present day as far north as the region of the Amur, on the frontier 

 of China and Siberia. The animal is thus capable of living in a cold 

 climate, but the astonishing discovery has just been made of evidence 

 of its former range to a northern latitude even within the Arctic Circle. 

 Among the fossil bones collected in the New Siberian Islands and on 

 the adjoining mainland by a Russian expedition despatched from 

 St. Petersburg in 1885, there are five characteristic limb-bones of 

 the tiger. They are described by Dr. J. D. Tscherski in his report 

 on the collection [Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersbourg, vol. xl., no. i, 

 with 6 plates), and occurred in the same deposits as bones of the musk 

 ox, mammoth, &c. 



