go NATURAL SCGHENGE, FEB,, 
tinuous series, with a regular dip to the south, he finds the beds to be 
much folded in several broken troughs, and to be constantly inverted. 
Older beds thus appear to overlie (conformably) newer strata. He 
concludes that the realisation of these facts will necessitate, in future, 
a great reduction in the thickness hitherto given to the Ilfracombe 
series, and the rearrangement of the fossil zones. Jukes, in 1866, 
drew prominent attention to the crumplings of the strata, and he then 
remarked: ‘‘From what I saw elsewhere about Ilfracombe and 
Mortehoe, I believe that, while there is a real general dip to the south 
throughout the district, this dip is by no means so prevalent as it 
appears to be, and that the real thickness is accordingly much less. 
than would be at first supposed.” (Quart. Fourn. Geol. Soc., vol. xxii., 
P- 357+) 
Aw excellent portrait of Sir Archibald Geikie, and a memoir of 
him by M. de Lapparent, appear in Nature for January 5. A brief 
memoir and a portrait of Professor T. Rupert Jones are published in 
the Geological Magazine for January. The biographical notice of Sir 
Archibald Geikie is one of the strangest misrepresentations that has. 
appeared for some time. We are glad to observe that a writer in the 
Daily Chronicle of January 14 has placed the facts of the case before 
the public. 

ATTENTION is sometimes called to the poor attendance at the 
meetings of the learned societies, except on occasions when a warm and 
exciting debate is expected. This is natural enough when the papers. 
to be read are of a detailed character ; they may be important, and they 
will interest a few members, but-to the many they must be dry. At 
the Linnean Society much time is profitably devoted to the explana- 
tion of specimens exhibited. It is, however, questionable whether 
the average attendance at scientific meetings has seriously decreased. 
Writing in 1821, Leonard Horner says: ‘‘I went to the Geological 
Society, which seems to me to have got into very feeble hands, and 
to want a great deal of the energy it had in former days.” He refers 
to times when Warburton, Wollaston, and Greenough were among 
the leading spirits. Horner, who had joined the Society in 1808, and 
was chosen as one of the secretaries in 1810, was (at the time he 
writes) living in Edinburgh, so that he only occasionally attended the 
meetings. Coming to reside again in London in 1827, he must have 
enjoyed many of the gatherings, when Sedgwick, Fitton, Buckland, 
Murchison, De la Beche, and Lyell were there; and also the subse- 
quent proceedings, when, ‘after the meeting, we adjourned to Lord 
Enniskillen’s; Owen, Clift, Buckland, Fitton, Major Clarke, and 
Edward Bunbury and his brother, and we had Crustacea, carbonised 
fragments of Costz of a mammal (probably Bos-broiled-boniensis), 
and much smoke and merriment.” ! 
1 See Memoir of Leonard Horner, by K. M. Lyell, vol. i., p. 192, and vol. ii., p. 44. 
