Proceedirigs. Ivii 



by the aid of their fin-like wings, chased and never failed to 

 catch the minnows which formed their prey ; an American 

 diver in particular, with a long slender needle-like bill, upon the 

 point of which he transfixed the fish before catching him between 

 the mandibles ; the lepidosiren, an African air-breathing fish ; 

 the new chimpanzee ; and the gibbons, who leaped and swung 

 from point to point with more than the agility of an acrobat. 



The second excursion, a whole-day one, took place on Whit 

 Monday, May 14th, to Leith Hill, under the guidance of Mr. 

 Sturge. The party, numbering about a dozen, arrived at Holm- 

 wood Station soon after 11, and walked thence by Coldharbour 

 to Leith Hill. The morning was somewhat threatening at 

 starting, but the day turned out beautifully fine. Leith Hill, 

 which is formed by the escarpment of the Hythe beds of the 

 Lower Greensand, here a ferruginous sand or sandstone, is the 

 highest point in the county of Surrey, and indeed in the south- 

 east of England, having an altitude of 987 ft. above the sea. On 

 the summit is a tower some 50 ft. high, built in 1766 by Eichard 

 Hull, a retired Bristol merchant, who by his own desire was 

 buried underneath it. About thirty years after its building the 

 tower, having become a harbour for vagrants and smugglers, 

 was closed, and the interior filled with concrete ; and so 

 effectually was the work done that when, in 1864, it was desired 

 to reopen the tower, it was found impracticable to clear out the 

 interior, and a staircase tower had to be built at the side to 

 afford access to the summit. From the top twelve counties are 

 said to be visible, and by the party, with the aid of a glass, the 

 following points among others were made out: — The sea near 

 Shoreham, through a gap in the South Downs at Steyniug ; 

 Chanctonbury Ring, the highest point of the South Downs, and 

 the line of downs reaching away thence past the Devil's Dyke 

 eastward nearly to Eastbourne; Holmbush Tower, Turner's 

 Hill, Ashdown Forest, and other parts of the Weald ; the North 

 Downs from the Hog's Back eastward to beyond Sevenoaks, and 

 over them Croham Hurst, Shooter's Hill, the Crystal Palace, 

 the Houses of Parliament, Hampstead, the Chiltern Hills, Wind- 

 sor Forest, and Aldershot, and westward Hindhead. From the 

 tower some of the party returned to Holmwood Station ; others 

 made their way to Dorking; while others went on through 

 Abinger Hatch and Abinger Hammer to Gomshall Station. The 

 day's finds were fewer than might have been anticipated. Among 

 plants were found Montia fontana and Ranunculm hederaceus, on 

 the wet banks of a streamlet on Coldharbour Common ; the ferns 

 Blechnum boreale and Nephrodium dilatatum, and an uncommon 

 moss, Bartramia pomifonnis, on Leith Hill (where also the club- 

 moss, Lycopodium clavatum, formerly grew), and the wild balsam, 

 Impatiens /ulva, on the banks of the Tilliugbourne stream at 



