Jan. ir, 1877] 



NATURE 



^11 



In this series of marine beds we have at the bottom 

 lagoon beds, as I call them, which may represent a similar 

 state of things to what we see at Christchurch, or Poole, 

 or Weymouth, or any place where we have mud banks 

 left dry cr even shallow, between each returning tide. 

 We still find here leaves of trees, many of them doubtless 

 overhanging the lagoons, which have so slowly decayed, 

 that they are overgrown with zoophytes ; crowds of 

 oysters are met with ; we find the remains of shore- 

 crabs, which from our knowledge of existmg species, 

 we infer, overran the muddy shore ; the callianassa, a 

 prawn-like creature, which bored through the mud ; 

 limpets, areas, corbulas, and many other shell-bearing 

 molluscs, passing their lives, dying, and becoming buried 

 in the sediments of the sheltered lagoons. This lagoon 

 condition went on until the gradual sinking has permitted 

 the ever-encroaching surf to break over the lagoon barrier, 

 to rush in, and in time overwhelm them with rolled shingle 

 and sea-sand. We still trace the lagoon condition for a 

 mile or so east, where it is represented by cigar-ash 

 coloured sands, impregnated with salt, and coloured with 

 this dark tint of carbonaceous matter. These sands 

 contain very perfect remains of branches of a coniferous 



km 



BRANCH OF CONIFER 



Fig. 3. — Taxodiuvi. 



tree resembling the genus Dacridium and large pieces 

 cf ractus. It should be mentioned that this is the 

 earliest cactus known, and that the spines are found to 

 be still flexible. The sands are in other places crowded 

 with fruits something like those met with at Sheppey. 

 Unfortunately the salt contained in them effloresces and 

 splits all these specimens into fragments. 



I may just tell you that at Hengistbury Head we have 

 deeper sea deposits, with sharks' teeth and bones. At 

 Highcliff, Barton, Ave have relics of a sea swarming with 

 life, myriads of fossil shells may be collected on the cliffs, 

 whilst still further on at Hordwell, we have beds showing 

 that the land arose again, affording suitable conditions 

 for the growth of luxuriant palms, and was the haunt of 

 the alligator, turtle, and other reptiles which are now con- 

 fined to tropical countries. 



Fig. 2 is a view of the Valley of the Bourne at the time 

 referred to above ; a description will be given in the next 

 article. {To be continued.) 



GEOGRAPHICAL CURIOSITIES 



DURING the meeting of the International Geographi- 

 cal Congress at Paris in 1875, the National Library 

 opened an exhibition supplementary to that which was 

 .held in the Tuileries. Although very rich in documents 

 and modern geographical works, the great national insti- 

 tution did not wish to show simply a duplicate of the col- 

 lections exhibited at the Tuileries, and it therefore brought 

 out only ancient and rare objects which the rules of the 

 establishment wisely forbid to leave the building. Thus 

 it showed to the public neither its great topographical 

 maps, such as those of Cassini, van der Maelen, &c., nor 

 its recent atlases, its numerous geological maps, its hydro- 

 graphic charts of the French, English, and other Admi- 

 ralty Departments. But, thanks to M.Leopold Delisle, 



Administrator- General of the National Library, and to 

 M. E. Cortambert, Librarian of the Section of Maps and 

 Plans, there was exhibited in the magnificent Mazarin 

 Gallery a collection unique of its kind, and to which the 

 Departments of Printed Books, Manuscripts, and En- 

 gravings contributed. The objects exhibited belonged 

 generally to Group IV., devoted to Historical Geography 

 and the History of Geography, and comprised, besides 

 ancient and modern works and MSS. treating of geo- 

 graphy and its history, ancient maps and globes, instru- 

 ments used by ancient geographers, astrolabes, sun- 

 dials, &c. 



The success of the exhibition in the Mazarin Gallery 

 inspired the Administration of the Library with the happy 

 idea of transforming this temporary exhibition into a per- 

 manent institution. This has been established in the 

 ground-floor of what is known as the " Salle des Globes," 

 and in the two rooms which look out upon the great court 

 of the Rue Richelieu, has been recently opened to the 

 pubHc who arc admitted on Tuesdays from 10 to 4. 



Although the limited space at disposal in these apart- 

 ments has not permitted the transference of all the objects 

 exhibited in the Mazarin Gallery, and although the De- 

 partments of Manuscripts and Printed Books have kept 

 possession of some of the valuable documents lent on the 

 occasion of the Geographical Congress, the exhibition is 

 nevertheless of the greatest interest on account of the 

 rarity of the objects which it contains. Space forbids us 

 to give a complete list of the many objects exhibited, 

 though we are able, through the courtesy of the editor of 

 La Nature, to give illustrations and descriptions of a few 

 of the curiosities. There are nearly 500 objects alto- 

 gether, and those who desire a complete descriptive cata- 

 logue of them should procure No. 178 of the French journal 

 just referred to. 



On entering the first room of the exhibition the visitor 

 is at once struck with the large dimensions of the two 

 great globes of Coronelli, made, in 1683, by order of the 

 Cardinal D'Estrees, who presented them to King Louis 

 XIV. One of the most curious objects shown m this 

 room is a map of the world, probably of the ninth or 

 tenth century. It is a copy of one which appeared in a 

 Commentary on the Apocalypse written by Beatus, a 

 benedictine of the monastery of Valcovado in Leon, who 

 lived in the eighth century. The original of which the 

 one exhibited (Fig. i) is a copy, belongs to the library 

 of Turin. It shows strikingly the wonderful notions 

 which these old monks had of the universe, and especially 

 of the earth in which they dreamed their uneventful lives 

 away. Four winds, represented by the grotesque figures 

 seated upon the skin or leathern bottles, and holding 

 shells in their mouths, indicate not the four cardinal 

 points, but the collateral points, where the sun rises and 

 sets at the summer and winter solstices. The orientation 

 of the map, as was for long the custom in the middle 

 ages, places the east at the top, the west below, the north 

 on the left, and the south on the right. A circular ocean, 

 the old river Oceanos of Homer, surrounds the world. If 

 we examine the interior of this strange tnappenionde, 

 Europe will be seen on the left, Africa on the right, and 

 Asia at the top. The Mediterranean is represented by a 

 very regular parallelogram, extending from east to west. 

 A not less regular branch of this sea occupies the place of 

 the Archipelago, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and 

 bounds Europe on the east, the north-east point of the 

 continent being indicated by the words Hie Caput 

 Europe (Europee). Islands uniformly square are spread 

 over the Mediterranean ; we may recognise under strange 

 names, Corcyra, Cyprus, Samos, Sicily, Corsica ; the 

 name Tassis, which may also be noticed, designates, no 

 doubt, the City of Tarsus, which the author evidently 

 regards as an island. 



In the surrounding ocean appear other islands not less 

 fantastical. On the east the island of Crisa and Algure 



