1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS av 
be no more birds to destroy. Nor can we overlook the terrible 
suffering involved by this enormous slaughter: the young osprey 
bereft of its parents left to die in hundreds, the heron with the 
plumes torn from its back, writhing into death. But Frou-frou 
cares for these things no more than she does for the squalor of East- 
end sweating-dens. Dear delightful doll that she is, she actually 
attends a meeting of the Selborne Society with aigrettes in her 
bonnet. 
What can we do? Frou-frou does not read Natural Science. 
But at all events each of our many thousand readers must enjoy the 
acquaintance of many ladies. He can at least use his influence in a 
quiet way in the home-circle, if not beyond it. If each of us will 
make sure of a few facts, and keep pegging away, perhaps we may 
even make converts, and so widen the small circle of our influence. 
NATIONAL GEOLOGY 
THE annual report of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom 
for 1896 reaches us in its handy separate form, and each year’s issue 
contains a wealth of information about our islands. Sir A. Geikie’s 
far-seeing policy of attaching to the Survey men already qualified 
by original research must tend to increase still further the scientific 
character of its publications. Though the results may never appear 
in so handsome and truly national a form as do those of the United 
States, yet this annual summary shows strikingly the character of 
the work in hand. Teachers can now, for the sum of sixpence, keep 
abreast of the advances made by the Survey in England, Scotland, 
and Ireland; and, as all practical workers know, these advances 
often concern even the broader boundaries on the map. The 
classification of results in this year’s report under the several 
geological systems makes reference easy through its hundred 
closely-printed pages. We would especially direct attention to 
the progress of knowledge with regard to the pre-Cambrian and 
older Palaeozoic groups. The occurrence of widely-spread diabasic 
lavas with ‘ pillow-structure’ (p. 37), and of two abnormal short- 
lived volcanoes in Raasay (p. 74), may be cited as among the 
interesting igneous problems dealt with. One of the most im- 
portant stratigraphical questions is the relation of the ‘ Upper 
Greensand’ to the Upper Gault, referred to on p. 72. 
It is obviously impossible to continually re-edit the engraved 
maps of the Survey so as to embody current progress. If our 
Parliamentary legislators, however, were more frequently trained 
in scientific schools, they would find much to be proud of in 
these annual reports, and would congratulate the State and them- 
