10 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXVI. 



I am indebted to Mr. Chas. Robinson, the overseer in charge 

 of the works, for the specimen. In March, 1906, a workman 

 engaged on the improvements at Red Bluff, St. Kilda, found it 

 while trimming away a mass of rock on the beach Hne at the foot 

 of the cUff. It was situated at the mouth of a cavity cut by the 

 sea into the cliff, which consists of a red ferruginous sandstone 

 of cainozoic age. The sand with which it was covered was 

 cemented by the action of the sea water, which dissolved some of 

 the lime carbonate composing the dead shells on the beach and 

 redeposited it amongst the sand grains. Similar rock is common 

 in the neighbourhood. Its position, together with the fact that 

 the case has been roughly removed, points to a burglar's 

 "plant." 



The two main points of interest about the specimen are the 

 evidence of the quick formation of solid rock and the wonderful 

 way in which metals have survived under conditions which seem 

 the reverse to favourable. About the hardness of the rock it 

 may be remarked that it required very appreciable pressure on a 

 knife-blade to make an impression. 



One of the most remarkable points about the watch is that the 

 hair-spring is still preserved, and, though rusted in places, some 

 parts of it look quite clean when seen with a magnifying glass. 

 Other steel parts, such as the regulator, can be moved, and the 

 balance-wheel is free to turn on its axis, but some parts have 

 rusted a good deal. The brasswork is almost without chemical 

 change, and the teeth of the cogs are as sharply defined as when 

 the works were moving. It seems a marvellous thing that these 

 metals should be preserved while the surrounding rock was 

 solidified by sea water percolating between the sand grains. 



This fossil brings home to one the unbroken processes of 

 nature. In times so remote that the mind can scarcely form any 

 adequate idea of their antiquity the rocks were forming in the 

 same way and preserving traces of the highest forms of the life of 

 the times — forms that have been succeeded by others of a higher 

 type. Here is a record of nature's greatest triumph, man. It 

 speaks of the brain that can conceive a means of measuring time 

 and the art that can execute the necessary work, but, alas ! it also 

 tells of the thief who would destroy all for the paltry value of the 

 silver case. 



Elementary Physiology. — A course of twenty University 

 Extension Lectures in Physiology, by Prof. W. A. Osborne, M.B., 

 D.Sc, was commenced at the University on Tuesday evening, 

 4th May, and will be continued at weekly intervals. The cost of 

 the course is one guinea. Further particulars can be obtained 

 from the secretary, Mrs. W. A Osborne, University, Carlton. 



