58 



NATURE 



s^Nov. 18, 1875 



Mey., and M. Pearcei, M'Coy, which the author regards as dis- 

 tinct. He also refers to M. Peytoni a pair of fore-limbs obtained 

 from the Sub-Wealden boring.— On a new Fossil Crab from the 

 Tertiary of New Zealand, by Henry Woodward, F.R.S. In 

 this paper the author described a crab obtained by Dr. Hector, 

 F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey of New Zealand, 

 from the " Passage-beds " of the Ototara series in Woodpecker 

 Bay, Brighton, on the west coast of the south island of New 

 Zealand. The new species belongs to the genus Harpactocarr- 

 cituts, A.^ Milne-Edw., which includes six species from the 

 Eocene of southern Europe. Its nearest ally is U. quadrilo- 

 bahts, Desmar , but its carapace is much more tumid, especially 

 in the branchial and gastric regions ; the surface of the anterior 

 half of the carapace is nearly smooth, and that of the posterior 

 half finely granulated. The rostrum is short and very obtusely 

 tricuspidate, the orbits shallow and rounded, the hepatic margin 

 bluntly toothed, with a stronger tooth at the epibranchial angles; 

 the divisions of the regions of the carapace faintly indicated, and 

 there is a slightly roughened line on the sides of the gastric 

 intumescence. The characters of the jawfeet and of the chelgs 

 are described by the author ; of the latter the right is considerably 

 larger than the left hand. The specimen was a female. For this 

 species the author proposed the name of Harpactocarrcinus 

 tumidus. Dr. Hector explained the sequence of formations in the 

 locality from which the above crab was derived, and stated that the 

 Ototara series is to be regarded as Cretaceo-Tertiary, containing 

 some fossils of decidedly Cretaceous type, such as Saurian bones 

 and fragmentary Inoceravii, and other forms that are associ- 

 ated with decidedly Mesozoic fossils in the underlying strata. 

 On the other hand, the occurrence of Tertiary forms such as 

 Nautilus ziczac (or a nearly aUied form), the gigantic Penguin 

 {Palaeeudyptes antarcticus, Huxl. ), and a Turtle, indicate a fauna 

 not unlike that at present existing in the vicinity. — On a remark- 

 able fossil Orthopterous Insect from the Coal-measures of Britain, 

 by Mr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S. The author commenced by 

 indicating the importance of the examination of tl ; Clay-iron- 

 stone nodules of the Coal-measures, in which so many valuable 

 fossils have been discovered, including the remarkable insect 

 described in the present paper. The specimen displays the 

 characters of the four wings, only two' of which, however, are 

 nearly perfect, and these measure 2^ inches in length and I inch 

 and l^inch in breadth, the hind wing being the broadest. The 

 author described in detail the characters presented by the vena- 

 tion of the wings, which includes three straight veins running 

 parallel to the fore margin, the third bifurcating near the apex, a 

 fourth much curved vein giving origin to six branches, and having 

 at its base a triangular space, from which arise the other veins of 

 the wing. The body appears to have been about five lines broad 

 between the bases of the wings. In front of the wings is the 

 prothorax in the form of two large, rounded, dilated, and veined 

 lobes ; it measures fourteen lines across and six lines in length. 

 In front of these lobes is the head, with its eyes produced in 

 front into a slender process three lines long. This insect is con- 

 sidered by the author to be most nearly related to the Mantida;, 

 the characters of the head and thorax especially being to some 

 extent paralleled in the existing genus Blepharis. The author 

 proposed to name the species Lithomantis carbonarius, and sug- 

 gested that Gryllacris {Corydalis) bj-ongniarti probably belongs 

 to the same genus. —On the discovery of a Fossil Scorpion in 

 the EngUsh Coal-measures, by Mr. H. Woodward, F.R.S. The 

 author commenced by noticing the various European arid 

 American localities in which fossil Arachnida have been found in 

 the Coal-measures. Hitherto no true Scorpions have been 

 recorded from the English Coal-measures; but in 1874 the 

 author received from Dr. D. R. Rankin a specimen from the 

 Coal-measures near Carluke, which he regarded as the fossil 

 abdominal segment of a Scorpion ; in April last he obtained a 

 fossil Scorpion from the Sand well Park Colliery, and in August 

 Mr. E. Wilson forwarded to him several specimens of similar 

 nature in Clay-ironstone nodules from Skegby New Colliery, 

 near Mansfield. The specimens are all very imperfect, but 

 the author states that they most closely resemble an Indian 

 form, which is probably Scorpio afer. He refers the English 

 species provisionally to the genus Euscorpius, Meek and Worthen, 

 and proposes to name it^. anglicus. — The Drift of Devon and 

 Cornwall, its origin. Correlation with that of the South-east of 

 England, and plsce in the Glacial Series, by Mr. Thomas Belt, 

 F.G.S. The author described the general characters of the drift 

 in the district under consideration, and stated that on the uplands 

 the drift consists of undisturbed gravels and travelled boulders, 

 which occur only jn isolated renmants on the lower ranges, and 



that in the lowlands and valleys within 100 feet of the present 

 level of the sea the gravels are widely spread, and show signs of 

 sudden and tumultuous action. Between the upland and lowland 

 gravels he considered that great denudation had taken place. 

 He maintained that the boulders and the materials of the gravels 

 had been distributed by floating ice, and that their presence on 

 the summit of Dartmoor indicated that the water on which the 

 ice floated must have extended up to 1,200 feet above the present 

 sea-level ; but he argued that this water was not that of the sea, 

 because no old sea-beaches or remains of marine organisms are to 

 be found in the region, although freshwater shells are preserved. 

 He described these phenomena to the presence of a great fresh- 

 water lake, produced by the drainage of Europe being dammed 

 back by a great glacier flowing from the north-west (Greenland) 

 down the present bed of the Atlantic, and over the northern 

 parts of the continent. The author discussed the characters of 

 the superficial deposits in the southern and south-eastern counties, 

 and indicated the points in which these seemed to bear out his 

 hypothesis. The sequence of phenomena assumed by the author 

 is as follows : — Accepting Mr. Tylor's notion that the actual sea- 

 level must have been lowered during the Glacial period in con- 

 sequence of the great accumulation of water in the form of ice at 

 the poles, he seeks a point of departure at the Glacial period in 

 the first evidence of such a lowering of the sea-level. The 

 Weybourne sands and the marine beds of Portland Bill were 

 deposited when the sea was at about its present level, and the 

 Bridlington Crag probably belongs to the same period. The 

 fossils found in these deposits show that the waters were cold. 

 The first stage of the Glacial period is that of the older Forest- 

 beds, and the immigration of a number of great Mammalia and 

 of Paleolithic man indicates that the sea had retired from the 

 British Channel and the German Ocean, leaving these islands 

 connected with the Continent. A great river probably ran 

 southwards through the region now submerged. The second 

 stage is marked by the continued advance of the ice from the 

 north, the retreat of the southern fauna and Palaeolithic man, and 

 the arrival of Arctic Mammals. The third stage saw the culmi- 

 nation of the Glacial period and the greatest extent of the 

 Atlantic glacier, which reached to the coast of Europe, blocked 

 up the English Channel, and caused the formation of an immense 

 lake of freshwater by damming back the drainage of the whole of 

 north-western Europe, as already indicated. In the fourth stage 

 the Atlantic glacier began to retreat, and the sudden breaking 

 away of the barrier of ice that blocked up the mouth of the 

 Channel caused the tumultuous discharge of the waters of the 

 great lake, by which the spreading of the lowland gravels was 

 effected. To this cause the author attributes the formation of ! 

 the Middle Glacial sands and gravels of Norfolk and Suffolk. \ 

 During the fifth stage the ice of the German Ocean continued to 

 retreat ; but there was a temporary advance of the Atlantic 

 glacier, which again blocked up the Channel, and produced a 

 second great lake, which, however, did not attain so great a 

 height as the first, and its waters were not discharged in the 

 same tumultuous fashion. At this period the Upper Boulder- 

 clay of Norfolk and Suffolk was formed ; but the author is not 

 convinced that this formation is represented south of the Thames 

 except by the " Trail " of the Rev. O Fisher. In the sixth and 

 last stage the Atlantic ice retreated as far as the north of Scot- 

 land, but the sea had not returned to its former level. The 

 British Isles were connected with the Continent and with each 

 other. To this the author assigns the last great Forest period, 

 and the arrival of NeoHthic man and the associated fauna from 

 the Continent. 



Astronomical Society, Nov. 12.— Prof. Adams, president, 

 in the chair. -A valuable series of solar photographs were pre- 

 sented to the Society by the executors of the late Prof. Selwyn. 

 They represent a period of rather more than eleven years, and so 

 cover a complete cycle of sunspot frequency. Toe negatives are 

 upon glass and have been taken upon a scale of four inches to the 

 sun's diameter. The casket in which the Freedom of the City of 

 London had been presented to the Astronomer Royal was shown 

 to the'meeting, and Sir G. B. Airy gave an account of the work 

 that had bee^i going on at the Observatory during the recess. 

 Attention has been paid to the positions of the satellites of, 

 Saturn in connection with the ephemerides, which have been 

 published by Mr. Marth in the Monthly Notices and Astrono- 

 mische Nachrichten. A new eight-year Greenwich catalogue of 

 stars is being pubUshed. Stella-spectroscopy has also been ener- 

 getically followed up, and though the observations were at first 

 somewhat discordant, latterly they have grown more consistent, 



