1 66 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



on emerging from it he observed numerous dark clouds. 

 A mile lower down rain fell on the balloon, and below this, 

 it passed through rain, snow, and ice spicules, and the tem- 

 perature had risen to 33 F. Professor Stokes thought that 

 the dry cloud probably consisted of spicules of ice. 



Dec. I7th, I52nd meeting. Professor Frankland stated 

 that recent examination of the lunar surface led him to 

 suppose that the moon also had undergone a glacial epoch, 

 and that several of its valleys, rills, and streaks are due to 

 former ice action. In some cases the moraines would be on 

 a gigantic scale, and he gave two examples, one, in the great 

 streak running from the base of Tycho under the S.E. wall 

 of Bullialdus, lower down in which is a pair of curved ridges 

 with their convex sides towards the north ; the other, in a 

 great valley running past the eastern edge of Rheita. The 

 moon is supposed to be without an atmosphere, but as it 

 must have cooled much more quickly than the earth, its 

 internal structure would be very cavernous, and seamed 

 with communicating fissures. If then it contracted only 

 to the same amount as granite, a fall of 100 C. would produce 

 cellular space amounting to nearly 14 million cubic miles, 

 which would suffice to engulf an ocean, proportionate in 

 volume to that on the earth. 



1864. Jan. 28th, I53rd meeting. Sir R. Murchison 

 referred to reports about the Zambesi mission and the 

 rumoured death of Dr. Livingstone, expressing the hope 

 that the latter was not true, though there was sorrfe reason 

 to believe he had been wounded in the foot. 



He also said M. de Verneuil had informed him that the hook 

 several inches long and rather like an anchor, which had been 

 found in sawing up a block of marble from the Ardennes, 

 was only part of the bony covering of a Cephalaspis. 



Feb. 25th, i54th meeting. Sir H. James said that a 

 deviation of the plumb-line had been observed at Cowhythe 

 near Portsoy, the cause of which was now being investigated. 



May 26th, i57th meeting. Dr. Hooker exhibited photo- 

 graphs of fossil ferns from the coal formation of Otago, sent 

 by Dr. Hector, one being a species of Glossopteris. 



