s PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



forests, is not preserving them as she ought to do. Many 

 woods have doubled in price in the last 22 years, but if this 

 condition of things continues, the next generation will be 

 very short of timber. The discovery of large quantities 

 of stones, enclosed in the wood of trees, chiefly in the root 

 material, near Faversham, has suggested this as a possible 

 means of transportation of stones to distances across the seas, 

 as has been so largely done by ice in past times, but I doubt 

 if this would account for many stones, as trees generally rot 

 where they fall instead of floating out to sea. The fact 

 brings to my mind the practice which is still, I believe, or 

 was recently, carried on by savages in the Pacific and else- 

 where, of placing a stone implement in a cleft or hole made in 

 a living branch of a tree, and leaving it until the wood had 

 grown up considerably around it, so as to fix it firmly in its 

 substance. The branch is then cut off, and forms an excellent 

 handle. I do not know if there is any evidence to show 

 whether this method was used in Neolithic times, or whether 

 the stone axe was always fastened in a cleft stick with gut 

 or thongs of skin. 



GEOLOGY. 



Anything that will throw light on the duration of geological 

 periods is always interesting, and a stratum of clay at Stock- 

 holm, formed during the melting and retreat of the great 

 ice-sheet in Sweden, is marked with a series of dark and 

 light bands, which it is suggested were formed in different 

 parts of the year, the light bands being caused by the melting 

 of snow in spring. These bands have been traced for great 

 distances, and, if the theory is correct, show clearly the 

 length of time occupied in the formation of the stratum. A 

 serious earthquake occurred in Mexico on July 30th last, 

 and an eruption in Teneriffe in November, with streams of 

 lava which did much damage. More recently, there com- 

 menced on March 23rd last, an eruption of Etna, large 

 streams of lava moving onwards at the rate of up to 40 yards 



