1898] ' NEWS 357 



and the little grebe liave been called the greatest ornithological ornaments of onr 

 inland waters. After this we suppose those waters will miss tlieir ornaments. 

 Andri'e Goddard, writing in the Revue Scientifique, says, " It is high time, if not 

 indeed too late, to add to the precepts of the Bible and the Koran, and to 

 substitute for the poetic legends that have hitherto prohilnted massacre, a scientific 

 and social organisation for the i)reservation of bird species." 



We learn from the Scientific American that a rival to Klondike has arisen in 

 the village of Hadley, Warren County, New York. This is tlie centre of a district 

 in whicli a large amount of gold is believed to occur. It is found in a fine state 

 adherent to grains of sand. At some places the sand is found at a depth of 

 25 feet, and at other points still deeper. The gold is separated by the 

 (piicksilver process after the sand has been pulverised, and it is believed that tlie 

 yield will be actual to $4 for each ton passed through the crusher. It is intended 

 also to try a jjrocess called the combination cyanide-chlorination method. More 

 than one company has been started, and claims have been made hy thousands of 

 prosecutors. It is also stated that there has been formed in the United States 

 an Electrolytic Marine Salts Company for the purpose of extracting gold and 

 silver from sea-water. It has of course been known for some years that those 

 metals occur in minute (|uantities in the sea, but it has been sujiposed that they 

 could not repay the labour necessary for extracting them. It is said that a large 

 number of electrolytic apparatus are already in operation and that each olitains 

 gold to the extent of £24 a day. 



Prof. Seeley's Geological Field Class has arranged this year for a series 

 of excursions, especially to illustrate the physical geography and geology of the 

 Thames Basin. This is the thirteenth year of the Society's existence, and its 

 continued growth testifies greatly to the intei'est aroused in the subject l)v 

 the method of study adopted. The London area is not a particularly good 

 centre for class field work, in spite of the extreme interest of its geological 

 history. The absence of volcanic and plutonic rocks, and of any deposits earlier 

 than the Middle Mesozoic, puts one serious limitation, and the great width of the 

 suliurban belt renders excursions lengthy and costly. It is, therefore, all the 

 more pleasing to find that Prof. Seeley's Field Class continues such vigorous life, 

 for it no doulit means that during successive years a large number of students 

 have i:)rofited bj' the course of studies. This year's subject will be illustrated by 

 excursions along a line from the Upper Jurassic rocks of Aylesbury, across the 

 Chiltern Chalk hills, over the Cainozoic dei^osits of the Thames synclinal to the 

 North Downs, and finally to the Wealden beds around Cuckfield. The honorary 

 secretary of the Society is Mr R. H. Bentley, of 43 Gloucester Road, South 

 Hornsey, N. 



At the Annual Meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society, held 

 on March 29, Mr T, H. Gurney was elected president. The retiring president, 

 Mr Arthur W. Preston, delivered an address, in the course of which he dealt 

 with the weather of the past ten years, and its effect upon the leafing and 

 blossoming of trees and plants. He handed round some carefully prepared tables 

 showing the main features of the temperature and rainfall, the direction of the 

 wind, and the dates of first leafing of trees, and first ilowering of jilants, both 

 garden and indigenous, during the period. These illusti'ated the marked effect 

 that temperature had on the development of vegetable life. In 1888, when 

 the mean temjierature of every month, from January to August inclusive, was 

 below the average, the greatest numljer of latest dates of first flowering were 

 recorded up to the conclusion of harvest, and the same occurred in 1891, though 

 in a less marked degree. On the other hand, in 1893, when every month from 

 February to August was above its average temperature, a large majority of the 

 earliest phenological dates were recorded. In other years, when certain months 



