Feb. 24, 1876] 



NA TURE 



335 



a depth of 1,760 feet, and that boring was recommenced on the 

 8th inst at a depth of 1,825 feet, when the hard limestone passed 

 into soft shales, and mentions the occurrence of imperfect speci- 

 mens of ammonites, at 1,849 ^c^t. Geologists will probably not 

 be disposed to agree wi'h Mr. Willett, "that the theory of the 

 presence of a ridge of old rocks north of the English Channel 

 and south of the Thames is no longer tenable," for we believe 

 that no one ever denied that the Wealden axis was " a true anti- 

 clinal elevation." In stating that the Cretaceous rocks are the 

 same thickness on both sides of the axis, Mr. Willett appears to 

 forget that the old Palaeozoic rocks were contorted and their 

 upturned edges denuded, before the Secondary rocks, much less 

 the Tertiary, were deposited, and in stating that the 1,800 feet 

 of strata, explored by the boring, as well as the overlying beds, 

 were "deposited during a prolonged and continuous subsidence 

 of this part of the earth's surface," we believe few men of science 

 will coincide with him. In the conclusion of his report, he 

 offers personally to bear the cost of any boring in Kent or 

 Sussex, above the Wealden horizon, which may reach the Palaeo- 

 zoic rocks, within a depth of 2,000 feet 



In answer to Dr. Playfair on Monday, Mr. Cross said the 

 recommendations of the Royal Commission for Scientific Instruc- 

 tion and the Advancement of Science had been for some time 

 under the consideration of the Government. With reference to 

 what steps the Government proposed to take in the matter, he would 

 rather not anticipate, he said, the statement which it would be 

 the duty of his noble friend the Vice-President of Council to make 

 on the subject. We look forward with considerable interest to 

 the statement which Lord Sandon has to make, and hope we 

 shall not have long to wait for it 



Mr. Ward Hunt stated last Thursday in the House of 

 Commons that Capt. Nares will send a sledge party down to the 

 entrance of Smith's Sound in the spring of this year, if possible, 

 with despatches, for the chance of a ship from England calling 

 there. The Admiralty have arranged with Mr. Allen Young, 

 who is contemplating a voyage to the Arctic regions this year 

 in his yacht, to look for cairns in which such despatches might 

 be deposited, arid he has, with great public spirit, consented to 

 make this the primary object of his voyage, undertaking to bring 

 home any such despatches, unless he can find means for sending 

 them to England otherwise. 



A LARGE and influential meeting of the citizens of Glasgow was 

 held on Wednesday, Feb. 16, to make arrangements for the meeting 

 of the British Association on Sept. 6. The Lord Provost pre- 

 sided. Tlie University buildings were granted for the Associa- 

 tion meetings. Most of the guarantee fund of 4,000/. was 

 subscribed, and resolutions were adopted to extend the hospi- 

 tality of the city to strangers attending the Association. 



The death of the weU-known French engineer, M. Thome 

 de Gamond, is just aimounced. M. de Gamond is pjobably 

 best known as the originator of the Channel Tunnel, and he 

 died on the very day on which the Commissioners took the 

 final steps for the completion of that great work. He was 

 born in 1798 at Paris, but was educated in the Nether- 

 lands, where he gave great attention to hydrography. 

 His great scheme was remodelled by him many times be- 

 fore it took its final form. It was brought before several 

 International Exhibitions and Commissions, ard he pub- 

 lished a great number of pamphlets, documents, and books 

 before the scheme gained the favour of thoie who were able 

 to help him in carrying it out. He was not destined to see 

 the boring actually commenced, but he saw all obstructions and 

 objections removed. M. Thome de Gamond had also con- 

 ceived a vast scheme for the improvement of the streams and 

 rivers of Fiance. He proposed to enable the country to utilise 

 the whok of its hydraolic resources, and was anxious to put 



an end to the immense loss of wat?r which might be used 

 for irrigation and as a motive power. He was modest, ener- 

 getic, and benevolent. 



The death of M. Adolph Brogniart, Professor of Botany and 

 Member of the French Academy of Sciences, was announced in 

 Paris on Saturday. 



Prof. Nils Peter Angelin, Intendent of the Palseonto- 

 logical Department of the Riks Museum, Stockholm, and 

 author of " Palaeontologia Scandinavica," died at Stockholm on 

 the 13th inst., aged upwards of seventy years. 



The death is announced of M. d'Orbigny, Assistant Naturalis 

 at the Natural History Museum, Paris. 



Herr von Loeher has recently read a 'paper before the 

 Munich Academy of Sciences in which he argues that the 

 Guanch or Wandsch population of the Canary Isles, who for 

 more than a century repulsed all invaders, are the descendants 

 of the Vandals. Most of the names of places are barbarian, 

 but some Germanic. Many common expressions are a mixture 

 of both, and names of persons are almost Germanic, as also 

 religious phrases and the titles of public functionaries. Herr 

 Loeher believes that the Vandals or Goths settled in the Isles in 

 the eighth century, finding there a weak barbarian population 

 whom they subjugated, that they gradually lost the use of iron 

 and shipbuilding, and mostly relapsed from Christianity into 

 German heathenism, but, though degenerating in their complete 

 isolation, retained the features and customs of their race in all 

 essential points until their discovery by Europeans. Fair-haired 

 mummies have been found in their tombs, and the dimensions of 

 the skulls agree with those of Germaric races. 



In a letter to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, Prof. Max 

 Miiller expresses his great gratification with the decree passed in 

 Convocation on Tuesday week. " It was solely," he says, " in 

 order to secure the leisure necessary for the completion of my 

 labours connected with the ancient literature of India that I 

 came to the decision to resign my professorship. Now that you 

 have in so generous a way granted me that leisure, I look forward 

 with great satisfaction to speading the remaining years of my life 

 at Oxford, and, if my health be spared, I still hope to be able to 

 prove to the members of the University that they have bestowed 

 this privilege on one not quite unworthy of their confidence." 



A MAGNIFICENT new map of France has recently been com- 

 pleted by the French Engineering Department, and is now being 

 published in sheets. It is on the scale of i "500000, and must 

 take the place of all previous maps, most of which are, we 

 believe, inaccurate in many important particulars. By means of 

 various easily understood devices, the new map shows all the 

 main natural and artificial features of the country, and by means 

 of its metrical divisions, the distances of places from each other 

 may be observed at a glance. 



A very interesting museum will be opened in a few weeks at 

 the village of Castleton, in the Peak of Derbyshire, a place 

 much visited by geologists, <S:c. It will contain : [a) a series of 

 articles of the Bronze and Neolithic periods from Switzerland, 

 Denmark, Cissbury, Yorkshire, with a large number of the pre- 

 historic remains from the tumuli, &c., near Castleton, the result 

 of the explorations of Mr. Rooke Pennington, F.G S., and Mr. 

 John Tym during the last few years. (<5) Palaeolithic imple- 

 ments. (<r) A magnificent series of the Pleistocene animals of 

 ■ the Derbyshire district — bison, giizzly bear, reindeer, rhinoceros, 

 hyasna, «S:c (d) A good geological series, of about 1,500 species 

 of fossils numbering about 3, 500 specimens, from Crag to Lau- 

 rentian, and including a good Ichthyosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Crag 

 and Eocene mammals, some good fish, &c. Most of the forma- 

 tions are well represented, but particularly those prevailing 

 near Castleton (moimtain limestone, Yoredale series, and coal 



