452 



NATURE 



[Sept. 8, 1887 



with his own hands from Sheppey, Ahim Bay, Bournemouth, 

 Reading, Mull, Antrim, and many other localities, but has 

 already favoured us with several memoirs in the PalcEonto- 

 graphical Society's annual volumes and elsewhere on the British 

 Eocene flora, we may hope before long to have a more complete 

 history at this period of our islands than we already possess of 

 the flora of the Carboniferous age. 



Nor has any research, favoured by the aid of this Association, 

 brought so large a return in beautiful and instructive specimens 

 *o our National Museum of Natural History as have the 

 investigations carried out by Mr. J. S. Gardner. 



We must not omit to mention Mr. Clement Reid, who has so 

 diligently traced many of the specimens of our existing flora 

 in the Pleistocene strata of the eastern counties. 



" Large numbers of ferns and gymnosperms," says Mr. 

 Gardner, " have been discovered in Mesozoic rocks, but remains 

 of the interesting monocotyledons which must have accompanied 

 them are provokingly scarce. We know that palms, grasses, 

 &c., appear at certain definite horizons, but we are ignorant re- 

 garding their ancestry. We know that temperate floras, largely 

 composed of dicotyledons, flourished as far north as man has 

 been able to penetrate, in the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, 

 but nothing in the least suggesting a transitional form has been 

 found amongst them. Lastly, we have learnt that floras now 

 indigenous to Japan and the Himalayas, to Australia and South 

 America, once inhabited Europe, groups of wholly different plants 

 succeeding and displacing each other in such rapid succession on 

 the same spot as to suggest that the normal condition of floras is one 

 of slow but perpetual migration, and that the term ' indigenous' 

 has no geological significance." 



In reference to the question of geographical distribution of 

 organized beings in geological time, the conclusion is strongly 

 forced upon us, from a study of fossil remains, that the greats 

 zoological provinces into which the earth's surface and the seas 

 of the globe are now subdivided have been brought about by the 

 limitation of species at no more distant date than the Secondary 

 period, and probably even later than this. 



That in Palseozoic times there must have been a great 

 uniformity of marine conditions, and the fauna of each of the 

 primary formations was consequently not only of vast duration 

 but of world-wide ex'.ent, is evident. 



When, as in Carboniferous times, we are enabled to study the 

 contemporary land conditions of the globe, we find they must 

 also have been very uniform, at least so far as the explored parts 

 of this hemisphere are known, both the fauna and the flora at 

 this epoch being co-extensive with the northern hemisphere, 

 indeed, in all probability far wider, seeing that identical species 

 occur in the Carboniferous series of Australia and North America. 

 Even those well-marked lines which at present follow more or 

 less closely the isotherms of our hemisphere seem not to have 

 exercised the same influence on the fauna and flora as they do at 

 present. Thus in high northern latitudes and within the Arctic 

 Circle we findabundant evidence of life in Palseozoic, Mesozoic, and 

 even down to Tertiary times, unaffected by latitude ; so that we 

 are justified in assuming that a far milder temperature extended 

 to much higher northern regions than that which at present 

 exists on the globe, and consequently that a larger portion of the 

 earth's surface (as well as its seas) was then habitable. 



How great, then, is the field of research still open to our in- 

 vestigation, and how far distant must that day be ere the last 

 problem shall have been solved, and the last chapter written, 

 in the ancient life-history of our earth ! 



" We write in sand, o\ir labour grows, 

 And with the tide the work o'erflows." 



With unskilled hand I have struck here and there only a few 

 chords on the many-toned harmonicon of geology. I fear they 

 may not all have vibrated quite in unison as a perfect composition 

 would ; but, however crude the performance has been, I trust that 

 it will not be provocative of di>cord. If some few ideas suggest 

 themselves as worthy of your acceptance, I shall not have spoken 

 altogether idly, nor you have listened so long and so patiently 

 entirely in vain. 



NOTES. 

 Dr. Emil Holub has arrived in Europe, after three years 

 of adventurous exploration in Africa, and although he brings 

 with him only a part of his scientific collections — the rest having 



been plundered by the Mashukulumbe, a tribe to the north of 

 the Zambesi— yet this fragment is certain to prove of great 

 scientific value. It includes over 2000 specimens of birds, 

 27,000 of insects, and 6500 of plants. Dr. Holub brings with 

 him also many hundred observations in meteorology and mea- 

 surements of all nations. The collection will be exhibited in 

 Europe ; and it is stated that, if circumstances enable them to 

 do so. Dr. and Mrs. Holub will resume their African explora- 

 tions. They are expected to arrive in Vienna on the iSth 

 or 1 6th inst., and will be officially received by the Austro- 

 Hungarian Exploration Society. 



A SLIGHT shock of earthquake was felt at Bonn and in its 

 vicinity at fifty-two minutes past four on Monday afternoon, 

 accompanied by a dull subterranean rumbling. 



The Government of India has sanctioned the purchase for the 

 Lahore Museum of a zoological collection illustrative of Indian 

 silk culture. 



M. Pavie, who undertook an adventurous journey from Siam 

 into Tonquin, starting from Luang Prabang, has been compelled 

 to return to Siam, having been driven back by bands of Chinese, 

 who are described as ravaging the country. 



Mr. J. B. LiLLiE Mackay, of the Royal School of Mines, 

 and at present Lecturer in Chemistry at Trinity College, Mel- 

 bourne University, has been appointed Director of the School 

 of Mines, Sandhurst, Victoria. 



Mr. Omond, the Superintendent of the Ben Nevis Observatory, 

 replying in the Tunes to criticisms in Parliament of the work of 

 the Observatory, to which we referred in a note last week points 

 out that the report of the Meteorological Ofhce, on which these 

 criticisms were based, merely states that Mr. Omond's telegrams 

 were useless for a particular purpose, viz. forecasting storms. 

 He then proceeds to state the position of the Observatory in the 

 matter as follows : — " When the Ben Nevis Observatory was 

 opened at the close of 1883, the directors offered to send the 

 Meteorological Office daily weather telegrams — the only satis- 

 factory way in which observations can be used for forecasting, 

 The Office declined this off"er, mainly on the ground of expense, 

 but asked that occasional messages might be sent when any 

 unusual or interesting events occurred, adding that these 

 messages might be sent more frequently at first. I had some 

 difficulty in understanding why the Office wished a record of 

 sudden changes to be sent by wire instead of waiting till they 

 got them in the ordinary way by post, but considered that the 

 best way was to follow their instructions literally and send 

 telegrams recording sudden changes or unusual occurrences, with 

 a due regard to economy and with gradually diminishing fre- 

 quency. A reiterated request for economy at the time of the 

 introduction of sixpenny messages led to the entries sent being 

 usually restricted to two hours' reading of the various instruments 

 —one before the change in question had set in and one after it 

 was fairly established. Though most sudden changes are con- 

 nected with storms, yet a few of the messages recorded changes 

 from bad to good weather, especially when the occasional gre 

 dryness characteristic of high-level stations began suddenly or j 

 any unusual manner. How a Committee, 'composed of men 

 the very highest scientific standing,' had come to regard the 

 messages, and especially this last sort, as ' storm-warnings ' pas^ 

 my comprehension. The question of the value to meteorologid 

 science of the Ben Nevis observations I may safely leave to abl? 

 hands— it needs no vindication of mine ; but I must protest against 

 the unfairness to me and the other members of the Ben Nevis 

 Observatory staff of first asking for records of changes which have 

 occurred, and then declaring them useless because they are 

 also forecasts of what is to be. It should be noted, howevJ 

 that in two cases the record from Ben Nevis arrived at tl 



