PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 11 



gazelle-like in build and was one of a herd of these animals 

 discovered. A Miocene dolphin has also been described 

 from California, and about 60 new species of insects, chiefly 

 beetles, have been obtained from the Miocene insect beds of 

 Florissant, Colorado. In the Lower Pliocene Snake Creek 

 beds, Nebraska, have been found a large number of fossil 

 animals, including about 12 species of horses, several camels, 

 three rhinoceroses, two mastodons, a new type of antelope, the 

 first of the bisons, and many others. To come nearer home, 

 a fine example of a gigantic fossil elephant (Elephas antiquus) 

 has been excavated at Chatham and will be eventually set 

 up in the Natural History Museum. It is the first specimen 

 of this species which has been found in this country in which 

 the other bones have been associated with the skull, and 

 enough has been recovered to enable a complete restoration 

 to be made of the skeleton, which probably stood about 15 

 feet high, rather less than the height of the Dewlish elephant, 

 Elephas meridionalis, but more than that of the mammoth. 



ASTRONOMY. 



The President's address in the Section of Mathematics and 

 Physics in the British Association gave an outline of the 

 manner in which the present knowledge of " The Construction 

 of the Heavens " had been obtained. It contains a great 

 deal of information and is well worth reading by anyone 

 interested in the subject. I may say the same of the part of 

 the address of the President of the South African Association 

 for the Advancement of Science which is devoted to Astronomy. 

 In regard to certain methods of research, the photographic 

 determination of parallax is increasing in accuracy, the mean 

 probable error of some determinations at the Mount Wilson 

 observatory being less than 'OOGin. A recent method of 

 measuring the motions of stars is to place two photographs 

 of the same portion of the sky, taken some years apart, in a 

 stereoscope, when the stars that have moved in the interval 



