yaji. 



25. ^'^ii\ 



NA TUkE 



287 



mals, birds, reptiles, fishes, and insects, which had been made 

 by the Rev. George Brown during his recent residence in Duke 

 of York Island, and during excursions to the neighbouring 

 islands of New Britain and New Ireland. — Prof. A. JI. Garrod 

 read a note on a variety of the domestic swine in the Society's 

 collection, and pointed out that the presence of rudiments of a 

 supplementary digit between the third and fourth digit might be 

 the cause of the consolidation of the hoof, observable in this 

 variety. — A communication was read from Mr. Henry Durnford 

 containing notices of the habits of some small mammals obtained 

 in the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres. — A communication was 

 read from Mr. Gerard Kreffr, containing notes on a youns^ living 

 Cassowary {Casuarius australis), which had been obtained from 

 North Australia, and was destined for the Society's collection. — 

 A communication was read from Mr. G. French Angas, con- 

 taining a description of a new species of Helix, from South 

 Australia, which he proposed to call Helix (Rhagada) kooriti- 

 gensis. — A second paper by Mr. Angas contained the description 

 of two genera and twenty species of marine shells, from different 

 localities on the coast of New South Wales. 



Geological Society, December 20. — Prof. P, Martin Duncan, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Bartholomew Parker Bidder, 

 Robert William Cheadle, David Grieve, Player Isaac, James Love, 

 Kerry NichoUs, William Ridley, William Joseph Spratling, and 

 George Blake Walker were elected Fellows of the Society. — 

 The President announced that the late Dr. Barlow had left to 

 the Society by will the sum of 500/., to be invested and to con- 

 stitute a fund under the title of the Jameson-Barlow Fund," the 

 proceeds to be applied annually, or at intervals of two or more 

 years, at the discretion of the Council, in such manner as shall 

 seem to them best for the advancement of the study of geology. 

 Dr. Barlow also left to the Society, under certain restrictions, 

 his collections of geological specimens, and a selection of books 

 from his library. The President further announced the donation 

 to the Society, by the Earl of Enniskillen, of the drawings 

 made by Mr. Dinkel, from Sir Philip de Malpas Grey-Egerton's 

 collection, for the illustration of Prof. Agassiz's great work on 

 Fossil Fishes, presented in accordance with the promise made 

 by his Lordship at the meeting of May 24. — The following com- 

 munications were read: — On Pharelrospongia strahani, a fossil 

 llolorhaphidote Sponge from the Cambridge Coprolite Bed, by 

 W. J. SoUas, F.G.S — On the remains of a large Crustacean, 

 probably indicative of a new species of Etirypterus, or allied 

 genus {Eiiryptous ? stevensoni) from the Lower Carboniferous 

 series (Cement-stone group) of Berwickshire, by Robert Ethe- 

 ridge-, jun., F.G.S., Palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of 

 Scotland. The fragmentary Crustacean remains desciibed ia 

 this paper are referred by the author to a large species of 

 Eurypierus. They are from a rather lower horizon in the Lower 

 Carboniferous than that from which Eurypierus scouleri, Ilib- 

 bert, was obtained. The animal was probably twice the size of 

 E. scouleri. The remains consist of large scale-like markings and 

 marginal spines which once covered the surface and bordered 

 the head and the hinder edges of the body segments of a gigantic 

 Crustacean, agreeing in general characters with the same parts 

 in E. scouleri, but differing in points of detail. For the species, 

 supposing it to be distinct, the author proposes the name of E. 

 stevensoni. — On the Silurian Grits near Corwen, North Wales, 

 by Prof. T. McKenny Hughes, F.G.S. The author commenced 

 with a description of sections near Corwen, in North Wales, 

 from which he made out that the grits close to Corwen were not 

 the Denbigh grits, but a lower variable series, passing in places 

 into conglomerate and sandstone with subordinate limestone and 

 shale. The series, under the name of " 7'he Corwen Beds," he 

 described in detail, having traced them round the hills south of 

 Corwen, also near Bryngorlan, south of the Vale of Clwyd, on 

 Cyrnybrain, and south of Llangollen. He had noticed in places 

 a kind of double cleavage affecting the lower series, but not the 

 upper, and also fragments of cleaved mudstone included in the 

 upper, from which he inferred a disturbance of the older rocks 

 previous to the deposition of the newer. He exhibited a selec- 

 tion of fossils, and said that immediately below the Corwen 

 beds there were none but Bala fossils. In the Corwen beds all 

 the few fossils found were common to the Llandovery rocks, 

 some of them, as Meristella crasm and Petraia crenulata, being 

 peculiar to that formation. In the flaggy slates above the Pale 

 Slates he had found Graptolites and Orthoceral ites of the same 

 species as those found in the Denbigh Flags. He considered 

 that the Corwen Beds were on the horizon of the May Hill or 

 Llandovery group, and should be taken as the base of the Si- 



lurian, tlius including in the Pale Slates or Tarannoti Shale a 

 thick series which intervened between the Corwen Beds and the 

 flaggy slates of Penyglog. — On riiiheral veins, by W. Morgan, 

 communicated by Warington W. Smyth, i<.k.S< 



Meteorological Society, January 17.— Annual General 

 Meeting. — Mr. H. S. Eaton, president, in the chair. — 

 The Council in their Report to the Fellows expressed their 

 satisfaction at the progress that had been made by the Society 

 during the year. The first point on which they thought there 

 was reason for congratulation was the publication in their 

 journal of the daily observations taken at Hawes and Strathfield 

 Turgiss and of the monthly abstracts of the observations at thir- 

 teen other stations. The increase in the number of Fellows 

 was considered worthy of special reference, as it is an indication 

 not only of the vitality of the Society but also of the advance 

 which meteorology is now making amongst the professional and 

 general public. They also referred with much satisfaction to 

 the enlargement of the Quarterly Journal as well as to the printing 

 of the Catalogue of the Library and of the List of Fellows, which 

 have both been issued during the year. They drew special atten- 

 tion to the report of Mr. Symons on the new stations which have 

 been inspected and brought into relation with the Society. The 

 financial position, notwithstanding the large outlays during the 

 year, was very good. The report also contained the very in- 

 teresting discussion by the Rev. T. A. Preston, of the observa- 

 tions on natural periodical phenomena. — The following gentlemen 

 were elected Officers and Council for the ensuing year : — Presi- 

 dent, Henry Storks Eaton, M.A. Vice-Presidents : James Park 

 Harrison, M.A., John Knox Laughton, F.R. A.S., Robert James 

 Mann, F.R.A.S, Charles Vincent Walkei, F.R.S. Treasurer, 

 Henry Perigal, F.R.A.S. Trustees: Sir Antonio Brady, F.G.S., 

 Stephen William Silver, F.R.G.S. Secretaries : George James 

 Symons, John W. Tripe, M.D. Foreign Secretary. Robert H. 

 Scott, F.R.S. Council : Percy Bicknell, Arthur Brewin, F.R.A.S., 

 Charles Brooke, F.R.S., Edward Ernest Dymond, John Evans, 

 F.R.S., Rogers Field, Assoc. Inst. C.E., Charles Greaves. 

 M. Inst. C.E., William Carpenter Nash, Rev. Thomas Arthur 

 Preston, M. A., William Sowerby, F.L.S., Capt. Henry Toynbee, 

 F.R.A.S., George Mathews Whipple, F.R.A.S. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, January 8. — M. Peligot in the chair. 

 — The following papers were read : — Exploration of the Gulf of 

 the two Syrtes, between Sfax and Benghazi, by M. Mouchez. 

 This was in the early part of last year. The author sketches 

 the character of the coast, and refers to difficulties he had with 

 the natives, who are very hostile to Frenchmen, but receive 

 Englishmen with ovation, for defending the Sultan. They had 

 some curious very old arms. The great recent development 

 of the Alfa trade on the Algerian coast is notable, and the 

 fact that while 75 per cent, comes to England and 18 per cent, 

 to Spain, only 4 per cent, comes to France. M. Mouchez re- 

 grets this small consumption by his country. — Theorems relating 

 to series of triangles of the same perimeter satisfying four other 

 conditions, by M. Chasles. — Does ozone combine with free 

 nitrogen in presence of alkalies to form nitrous compounds and 

 nitrates ? by M. Berthelot. He verifies Schonbein's observations 

 on the formation of nitrous compounds during slow oxidation of 

 phosphorus in contact with air, but he had not observed oxida- 

 tion of free nitrogen by ozone in presence of alkalies. He 

 points out some sources of error in Schonbein's experiments. — 

 Note on the alteration of urine, ctpropos of recent communications 

 of Dr. Bastian, by MM. Pasteur and Joubert. Dr. Bastian had 

 said that M. Pasteur in repeating his experiment had exceeded 

 the point of saturation of the urine (with solid potash). MM. 

 Pasteur and Joubert have re-examined the point, in careful expe- 

 riment, and produced exact neutralisation ; though they consider 

 this not indispensable for fertilisation. Dr. Bastian would have 

 got quite different results from what he described, had he used 

 KO, HO, which alone can properly be called /c?/aj^/i. — Observa- 

 tions on the interior structure ci one of the masses of native iron 

 of Ovifak, by M. Daubree. In its section it presented the 

 aspect of a loop of iron from a refining hearth, the scoria: of 

 which had been very incompletely expelled by compression with 

 the hammer or rolling mill. — Note on the fall of a meteorite 

 which took place on August 16, 1875, at Feid Chair, in the 

 circle of La Calle, province of Constantine, by M. Daubree. It 

 fell about midday ; a noise was heard like a thunderpeal, and 

 there was a train of blackish smoke with brilliant light in the 

 middle of it. The mass, which weighed 380 grammes, rebounded 



