214 NATURAL SCIENCE. September, 



are grateful for the brief paper on this collection which the club has obtained from 

 Mr. A. S. Woodward, but it is strange that a centre of culture like Bath should 

 produce so little geological and biological work. 



In the Report of the Easter excursion ol the Geologists' Association to 

 Swanage, Corfe, and Kimmeridge, just published, are some excellent process repro- 

 ductions of photographs, showing the strata at Tilly Whim, Durlston, and Stair 

 Hole. In the same part of the Proccedim^s will be found the reports of the excursions 

 to Chippenham, Kellaways, and Corsham, including an account of the method of 

 quarrying the Box stone. 



The Geological Society of South Africa, which was founded last year for 

 the purpose of preserving the records of the earlier geologists who have written on 

 South Africa, as well as of promoting discussion and investigations on the more 

 recently discovered portions of the colony, has lately come into possession of a most 

 valuable collection of manuscripts and papers, written principally by the late Mr. 

 Andrew Geddes Bain and Mr. G. W. Stow. Among these are the original drawings 

 on a large scale, coloured, of all the sections taken across the country by the late Mr. 

 Stow, and also the numerous papers, including lectures, read before various scientific 

 societies by the father of South African geology, Mr. Andrew Geddes Bain. The 

 society is at present discussing the advisability of erecting a permanent building, 

 to be used as a museum and meeting-room ; upon its walls the drawings of 

 Mr. Stow would be exhibited. Mr. David Draper, the secretary of the society, is at 

 present on a short visit to this country. 



A PRESENTATION, probably in the form of a portrait, is to be made to Professor 

 N. Story Maskelyne by scientific men in England and abroad. Contributions will be 

 received by Professor A. H. Green or Professor H. A. Miers, of the Oxford Uni- 

 versity Museum. 



The statue to Mr. Pasteur, to which we referred in a previous number, is now 

 finished, and is said to be an excellent likeness. It will be erected in the market- 

 place of Alais, where he carried on his researches on the diseases of silkworms. 



We are glad to learn that there is every possibility of a permanent museum 

 being founded at the Millport Marine Biological Station, Island of Cumbrae. This 

 is chiefly possible through the generosity of the Marquis of Bute, who has granted 

 a free site of half an acre. As a nucleus of the collections, there will be the valuable 

 material gathered by the veteran naturalist, David Robertson. The station is 

 prepared to supply specimens to laboratories or museums for either dissection or 

 exhibition ; a note upon it appeared in our April number, p. 284. 



The Municipality of Perth having adopted the Free Libraries Act, it is hoped 

 that the museum of the Perthshire Natural History Society may be taken over by 

 them. This would give the valuable museum, which was described in Natural 

 Science for January, 1896 (vol. viii., pp. 41-45), that stability which cannot be 

 ensured by any private body. 



The Minister of Public Works of the Argentine Republic has commissioned 

 Mr. Antonio Gil and Professor Jose Cilley Vernet to undertake an agronomical 

 investigation into the production of cereals in the province of Buenos Ayres. The 

 investigation will be conducted partly in person and partly by a series of questions 

 addressed to agriculturalists throughout the district, and at its conclusion a detailed 

 report is to be prepared, and presented to the Minister. A full list of the questions 

 to be circulated is given in the Revista de la Facultad de Agronomia y Veterinaria La 

 Plata, no. xviii. 



