IQO 



NATURE 



[Dec. 26, 1889 



9. When Koch's jelly has been previously neutralized with 

 sodium carbonate the minimum quantity of metallic salt required 

 to prevent the development of aerial micro-organisms is scarcely 

 altered in the case of KCl, NaCl, MgCIg, and HgCl2, but is 

 slightly greater in that of CaCI.,, and much less in the case of 

 KBr, KT, NaBr, Nal, ZnCl.j, andCdClg, than when the jelly has 

 not been neutralized. 



10. Mercuric iodide, notwithstanding its comparative insolu- 

 bility, has an exceptioiially high antiseptic poiuer, which is i^ 

 times as great as that of mercuric chloride per weight of salt, 

 or 2\ times a^ great per weight of metal, or 3 times as great 

 per minimum molecular toxic dose. 



Geological Society, November 20. — Mr. W. T. Blanford, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — The Secretary announced that 

 a series of specimens from the line and the neighbourhood of the 

 Main Reef, east and west of Johannesburg, Witwatersrand 

 Gold Fields, had been presented to the Museum by Dr. H. Exton, 

 a. id a letter from that gentleman in explanation of them was 

 read. In this Dr. Exton stated that all but one of the mines 

 represented were on the main reef of the district, which has a 

 general direction east and west, its dip varying generally from 

 45° to 80°. South of the main reef, and parallel to it at a distance 

 of 15-20 feet, is a narrow reef known to the miners as the 

 ^' south leader," and generally much richer than the main reef. 

 The gold-bearing deposits consist of conglomerates, specimens 

 of which, and of a purplish-red rock which forms a jagged ridge 

 at some distance north of and parallel to the so-called reef, were 

 contained in the collection. The President considered the 

 occurrence of the gold in large quantities in such a conglomerate 

 was a remarkable and interesting case. The rock was an ancient- 

 looking one, and the country appeared to have undergone much 

 disturbance. Dr. Hinde remarked that in Nova Scotia beds of 

 ■conglomerate of supposed Carboniferous age were formerly 

 worked for gold, but the yield had not been very great. — The 

 following communications were read : — On the occurrence of the 

 striped hyaena in the Tertiary of the Val d'Arno, by R. 

 Lydekker. — The catastrophe of Kantzorik, Armenia, by Mons. 

 F. M. Corpi ; communicated by W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S. 

 Secretary. The village is 60 km. from Erzeroum, and 1600 

 metres above sea-level. Subterranean noises and the failure of 

 the springs had given warning, and on August 2 last part 

 of the "eastern mountain" burst open, when the village, with 

 136 of its inhabitants, was buried in a muddy mass. The 

 author described the district as formed of Triassic, Jurassic, 

 and Cretaceous strata, subsequently broken up and torn by 

 granitic, trachytic, and basaltic rocks, which overlie the Second- 

 ary rocks, according to the nature of the dislocation. The flow 

 was found to have a length from east to west of 7-8 km,, with 

 a width ranging from 100 to 300 metres, and the contents were 

 estimated at 50,000,000 cubic metres. It appeared as a mass of 

 blue-grey marly mud, which, after the escape of the gases, 

 solidified at the top ; the inequalities projected to the extent of 

 10 metres. The site of the village was marked by an elevation 

 of the muddy mass, some of the debris of the houses having been 

 carried forward. The lower part of the flow was still in a state 

 of motion, and carried forward balls of marly matter. It was 

 •difficult to approach the source of this flow on account of the 

 <;revasses in the side of the mountain. An enormous breach 

 served as the orifice for the issue of the mud, which emitted, it 

 was said, a strong odour. The violent projection of this marly 

 liquid and "incandescent" (?) mass had carried away a con- 

 siderable portion of the flanks of the mountain, whose debris 

 might be recognized on the surface of the flow by the difference 

 of colour. Great falls were still taking place, throwing up a 

 tine powder which rose into the air like bands of smoke. There 

 were also fissures and depressions of the ground at other 

 localities in the neighbourhood. The President, in commenting 

 on the remarkable nature of the phenomenon, said it was not a 

 •volcanc eruption, but more of the nature of a mud-flow 

 produced by a big landslip — possibly connected with the stop- 

 page of the springs. Still it was on a very large scale, though 

 ■clearly the effect of water and not of fire. Dr. Evans agreed 

 with the President. It was difficult to reconcile the alleged 

 incandescence with the other phenomena. Infiltration of water 

 probably had something to do with the outburst. It was not 

 ■even a mud volcano. The falling in of the mountain, he thought, 

 might have been due to soft beds covered by harder material 

 having oozed out. It would be interesting to know if there had 

 been an increased rainfall prior to the occurrence. There was 

 ■nothing of a truly volcanic nature mentioned in the paper. He 



should like to have further information about the incandes- 

 cence. Mr. Dallas (the translator of the paper) said that the 

 " redness " was reported by the people to the author. Rev. 

 Edwin Hill thought that the mud-balls could in no way be 

 explained by igneous agency. The photographs gave no indi- 

 cation of the presence of steam. As a landslip the amount was 

 very great, and possibly the phenomenon might be something 

 similar to the overflow of peat-bogs. Mr. Hudleston recalled 

 the statement of the author regarding the geological constitution 

 of the district, where masses of Secondary rocks are folded 

 within igneous ones, probably of Tertiary age. It was likely, 

 therefore, that some of the softer Secondary marls, pressed in 

 more than one direction by harder rocks and soaked by water, 

 might at last have given way. The immediate cause of the 

 catastrophe could scarcely be indicated without a knowledge of 

 the district. Such events occurred from time to time elsewhere. 

 The Russian topographers, if his memory served him right, had 

 described the bursting of a mountain-side with fatal results, in 

 one of the valleys near Lake Issyk Kul. The smoke-like powder, 

 resulting from the continued falls of rock, had often given rise to 

 the notion of volcanic action. There could be no better instance 

 of this than the case of Mount .St. Elias, the highest mountain in 

 North America. In geography-books this mountain has almost 

 invariably been described as a volcano, and a portion has 

 actually been designated as the crater. This illusion had been 

 occasioned by the dust of rock-falls resembling smoke. We 

 might well pardon the author for speculating on the probability 

 of a return to volcanic activity in a region which bears so many 

 traces of it as this part of Armenia. — On a new genus of Siliceous 

 sponges from the Lower Calcareous Grit of Yorkshire, by Dr. 

 G. J. Hinde. 



December 4.— Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., President, 

 in the chair. — The President stated that a circular letter 

 had been received from the Secretary of the Committee on 

 Geological Photographs, formed at the last meeting of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, to ar- 

 range for the collection, preservation, and systematic regis- 

 tration of photographs of geological interest in the United 

 Kingdom, in which the aid and co-operation of geologists is 

 earnestly requested. Copies of instructions, &c., drawn up in 

 order to secure uniformity, are to be obtained on application t 1 

 Mr. O. W. Jeffs, Secretary to the Committee, 12 Queen's Road, 

 Rock Ferry, Cheshire, and one would be suspended on the 

 Society's notice-board. — The following communications were 

 read : — On remains of small Sauropodous Dinosaurs from the 

 Wealden, by R. Lydekker. — On a peculiar horn-like Dino- 

 saurian bone from the Wealden, by R. Lydekker. Among a 

 series of vertebrate remains sent from the Dorsetshire County 

 Museum to the British Museum, there is an imperfect, stout, 

 short, cone-like bone from the Wealden of Brook, Isle of 

 Wight. It appears to present a close resemblance to the horn- 

 cores of the Dinosaur described by Prof. Marsh as Ceratops. 

 The author did not regard the specimen as affording conclusive 

 evidence of the existence in the Wealden of a large Dinosaur 

 furnished with horn-like projections on the skull like those of 

 the American Ceratops, but suggested that such might really 

 prove to be its true nature. — The igneous constituents of the 

 Triassic breccias and conglomerates of South Devon, by R. N. 

 Worth. The reading of this paper was followed by a discussion, 

 in which the President, Prof. Bonney, Dr. Geikie, Dr. Hicks, 

 Mr. Hudleston, Prof. Hughes, and Prof. Judd, took part. — 

 Notes on the glaciation of parts of the valleys of the Jhelam 

 and Sind Rivers in the Plimalaya Mountains of Kashmir, by 

 Captain A. W. Stiffe. After referring to the previous writings 

 of Messrs. Lydekker, Theobald, and Wynne, and Colonel 

 Godwin- Austen, the author gave an account of his observations 

 made during a visit to Kashmir in 1885, which appeared to him 

 to indicate signs of former glaciation on a most enormous scale. A 

 transverse valley from the south joins the Sind valley at the plain 

 of Sonamurg, and contains glaciers on its west side. These, 

 the author stated, filled the valley at no remote period, and ex- 

 tended across the main Sind valley, where horseshoe shaped 

 moraines, many hundred feet high, occurred, and dammed the 

 river, forming a lake of which the Sonamurg plain was the result. 

 The mountains which originated the above glaciers were described 

 as being cut through by the Sind river, and the rocks of the gorge 

 were observed to be striated, whilst rocks with a vioutonnee ap- 

 pearance extended to a height of about 2000 feet. The whole 

 of the Sind valley was stated to be characterized by a succession 

 of moraines through which the river had cut gorges, whilst the 



