Ixviii. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



and a moss and 12 species of algae new to the Arctic flora. 

 Strata shewing the probable existence of a large post-glacial 

 lake, about a square mile in extent, have been found at the 

 mouth of the Tyne, in Northumberland, at an altitude of 

 about 100 feet. These strata contain plant remains. Dis- 

 coveries of petroleum of good quality have been made in 

 Northern Argentina, which is important considering the 

 great development in the use of this substance, which, one 

 would think, was in danger of becoming exhausted whilst 

 vast supplies of coal still remained. To turn to fossils, a 

 portion of a wing of a giant dragon fly has been found 

 in the Radstock coal measures, of such a size that the 

 perfect insect must have had a span of something like 

 16 inches. It may, without an undue stretching of the 

 imagination, be presumed that there were other insects of 

 unusual size on which it preyed, if its habits were as rapacious 

 as those of the dragonflies of the present day. A remarkable 

 find has been made of the teeth of an antelope closely allied 

 to the elands of S. Africa, in a Pleistocene cave-deposit in 

 Maryland, U.S.A. As certain fossil teeth from India were 

 also believed to be of this class of animal, it is suggested that 

 it may have found its way to America in past times by the 

 Behring Sea route. The Address of the President of the 

 Geological Section of the British Association gave a survey 

 of those fossil calcareous algae, which, by abstracting lime 

 from sea water and depositing it, have played such an 

 important part in the formation of calcareous rocks. 



ASTRONOMY. 



The extreme delicacy of much Astronomical work, involving 

 the observation of faint stars, the long exposure of 

 photographic plates, and many other methods, the accuracy 

 of which would be affected by the slightest movement or 

 vibration as well as by a variable density of the neighbouring 

 atmosphere, is causing the removal of some of the great 

 observatories from the precincts of towns to quieter spots. 



