r 85 J 



had been most active in prepai-ing this intellectual treat for their 

 enjoyment. 



Mr. "WoNFOR then gave a brief epitome of the contents of the 

 rooms, the object being to direct the attention of visitors to 

 particular places for particular features. Referx-ing to the tank of 

 specimens lent by the Aquarium Company, he said that, although 

 some people out of Brighton sneered at the Aquarium, and said it 

 did nothing to aid science, those in Brighton knew the Company 

 did everything in their power to aid the progress of science, and, 

 perhaps, he might, before many months were over, tell them what 

 he thought the Aquarium had done for the cause of science. 



An adjournment was now made to the Music Room, where, 

 before a large audience, 



Mr E. A. Pankhurst lectured on " The Forms of Water," his 

 remarks being illustrated by a magic lantern. He proposed to 

 consider, for a few moments, water under the three forms in which 

 it presented itself to us, viz., as a gas, a liquid, and a solid, and he 

 would commence with the form best known to us — the liquid. Here 

 they had (referring to a slide exhibited on the screen) a view of a 

 clear, pellucid lake lying in its solitary beauty among the Sierras 

 of California: it was the mii-ror lake of the world— renowned 

 Tasemite Yalley. How marvellously clear it was, how truly it 

 deserved its name, for not a feature of those hills was in the mirror 

 slighted. But^it was not of its beauty that he wished to speak to 

 them so much as its power. It was strength in repose; it was 

 power potential, not active. Follow the stream that ran from it 

 down the valley. Here the giant was enclosed, and in this view of 

 the Lower Falls they beheld a picture of the work which it had 

 done and was still doing. For thousands of years it had been 

 eating away the hills, and in the photograph of the Tasemite 

 Valley itself— the stream running 6,000 feet beneath the peaks on 

 either side — they saw what a memorial it had left behind it of the 

 work it had done. Or if that example of the force of water drew 

 too much upon their imagination, let them stand on the brink of 

 Niagara, and gaze at the swirling, surging torrent hurl itself into 

 the abyss below. The world scarcely furnished a more impressive 

 spectacle. Whence did these lakes and rivers have their source ? 

 The answer was, in the rain that falls on the earth. The rain came 



