334 



NATURE 



[February 2, 189^ 



observer was lifted off his feet by the electric fluid, while the 

 wristband of his woollen shirt, as soon as it became damp, 

 formed a fiery ring around his arm. The climate of the 

 Parks is, however, Dr. Williams considered, of more 

 practical interest, and in these magnificent basins of park- 

 like country interspersed with ].ines, and backed by gigantic 

 mountains, are resorts replete with interest for the artist, 

 the sportsman, the man of science, and the seeker for health. 

 Most of them lie at heights of from 7000 to 9000 feet, and so 

 good is the shelter that usually snow does not long remain on 

 the ground, while Herefordshire cattle in excellent condition 

 are able to fatten on the good herbage, and to lie out all the 

 winter without shed or stable. Dr. Williams predicted for 

 these parks a great future as high altitude sanitaria for the 

 American continent, especially as several of them have been 

 brought within easy distance of Denver, the queen city of the 

 plains, by various lines of railway. The resorts on the foothills 

 and on the prairie plains, at elevations of 5000 to 7000 feet, 

 include, besides Denver, Colorado Springs, Manitou, Boulder, 

 Golden, and other health stations, which can be inhabited all 

 the year round, and where most of the comforts and luxuries of 

 American civilisation are attainable in a climate where not more 

 than half a day a week in winter is clouded over, where the 

 rainfall is only about 14 inches annually, most of which falls 

 during summer thunderstorms, where the sun shines brightly 

 for 330 days each year, and where the air is so transparent that 

 objects twenty miles off appear close at hand, and high peaks 

 are calculated to be visible at a distance of 120 miles. Dr. 

 Williams summed up thus :— The chief features of the climate 

 of Colorado appear to be (i) Diminished barometric pressure, 

 owing to altitude, which, throughout the greater part of the 

 State, does not fall below 5000 feet. (2) Great atmospheric 

 dryness, especially in winter and autumn, as shown by the 

 small rainfall and low percentage of relative humidity. (3) 

 Clearness of atmosphere and absence of fog or cloud. (4) 

 Abundant sunshine all the year round, but especially in winter 

 and autumn. (5) Marked diathermancy of atmosphere, pro- 

 ducing an increase in the difference of sun and shade temper- 

 atures, varying with the elevation in the proportion of 1° for every 

 rise of 235 feet. (6) Considerable air movement, even in the 

 middle ot summer, which promotes evaporation and tempers 

 the solar heat. (7) The presence of a large amount of atmo- 

 spheric electricity. Thus the climate of this state is dry and 

 sunny, with bracmg and energising qualities, permitting outdoor 

 exercise all the year round, the favourable results of which may 

 be seen in the large number of former consumptives whom it has 

 rescued from the life of invalidism and converted into healthy 

 active workers ; and its stimulating and exhilarating influence 

 may also be traced in the wonderlul enterprise and unceasing 

 labour which the Colorado people have shown in developing 

 the riches, agricultural and mineral, of their country. 



Entomological Society, January 18.— Sixtieth Annual 

 Meeting. — Mr. Frederick DuCane Godman, F.R. S., Presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — An abstract of the treasurer's accounts 

 having bten read by Mr. J. Jenner Weir, one of the auditors, 

 the secretary, Mr. H. Goss, read the report of the Council. 

 Alter the ballot it was announced that the following gentlemen 

 had been elected as officers and Council (or 1893 : — President, 

 Mr. Henry J. Elwes ; Treasurer, Mr. R. McLachlan, F.R.S. ; 

 Secretaries, Mr. Herbert Goss and the Rev. Canon howler; 

 Librarian, Mr. George C. Champion ; and as other mem- 

 bers of the Council, Mr. C. G. Barrett, Mr. Charles J. 

 Gahan, Mr. F. DuCane Godman, F.R.S., Mr. Frederic Merri- 

 field, Mr. Osbert halvin, F.R.S. , Dr. David Sharp, F.R.S., 

 Colonel Charles Swinhoe, and Mr. George H. Verrall. The 

 President then delivered an address which, though containing 

 reference to the Society's internal affairs and an allusion to the 

 successlul resistance made by naturalists and others to the War 

 Office scheme for establishing a ritle-range in the New Forest, 

 consisted fjr the most part 01 full obituary notices of Fellows of 

 the Society who had died during the year, special mention 

 being made of Mr. ilenry W. Bates, K.R.S., Prof. Hermann 

 C. C. Burmeister, Dr. Carl A. Dohrn, Mr. H. Berkeley- 

 James, Mr. J. T. Harris, Sir Richard Owen, K.C.B., F.R.S., 

 Mr. Henry T. Stainton, F.K.S., Mr. Howard Vaughan, and 

 Prof. J. O. West wood, the Hon. Life President. Votes of 

 thanks to the President and other officers of the Society having 

 been proposed by Lord Walsingham, F.R.S., and Dr. D, 

 Sharp, F.R.S., and seconded by Mr. J. H. Leech and Mr. 



NO. 1214, VOL. 47] 



W. H. B. Fletcher, Mr, Godman, Mr. McLachlan, Mr. H. 

 Goss, and Canon Fowler severally replied, and the proceedings 

 terminated. 



Linnean Society, January 19. — General Meeting, Prof. 

 Charles Stewart, President, in the chair. — After the confirma- 

 tion of the minutes the President referred in suitable terms to 

 the losses sustained by biologic science in the deaths of Sir 

 Richard Owen and Prof. J. O. Westwood, who had been Fel- 

 lows of the Society for 56 and 64 years respectively. — Mr. 

 George Brook showed photographs of corals which he had 

 lately taken and had reproduced by permanent process at a cost 

 below lithography, with the added advantage of permitting am- 

 plification by a hand lens. — The President read a paper on the 

 auditory organ of [the angel fish {Rhitia squatina). — Mr. W. 

 Carruthers, F.R.S., V.P.L.S., then laid before the Society the 

 results of a collection made by Mr. Alexander Whyte in the 

 Malanji country, in the Shire highlands, in October, 1891, and 

 the plants were determined by the officers of the Botanical De- 

 partment, British Museum, about sixty, or, roughly speaking, 

 one-fifth, proving new to science. Whilst Sir J. D. Hooker 

 defined the flora of Kilimanjaro as Abyssinian in character, the 

 Malanji flora displays a much closer relationship to the Cape. — 

 The last paper was by Mr. G. F. Scott Elliot, and was his report 

 as botanist to the Anglo-French Sierra Leone Boundary Com- 

 mission, in which he gave an account of the economic aspects of 

 the districts traversed. 



Geological Society, January 11. — W. H. Hudleston, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — The following communications 

 were read : — Variolite of the Lleyn, and associated volcanic 

 rocks, by Catherine A. Raisin, B.Sc. Communicated by Prof. 

 T. G. Bonney, F.R.S. The district in which these rocks occur 

 is the south-western part of the Lleyn peninsula, marked on the 

 Geological Survey map as " metamorphosed Cambrian." Some 

 of the holocrystalline rocks are probably later intrusions. The 

 igneous rocks, which are described in detail in the present paper, 

 belong to the class of rather basic andesites or not very basic 

 basalts ; they show two extreme types, which were probably 

 formed bydifferentiation from an originally homogeneous magma. 

 Corresponding to the two types of rock are two forms of variolite. 

 These are fully described, and their mode of development is 

 discussed. The variolites occur near Aberdaron, and at places 

 along the coast. Their spherulitic structure often is developed 

 towards the exterior of contract ion-spheriods, and in this and in 

 other particulars they correspond with those of the Fichtelge- 

 birge and of the Durance. The volcanic rocks include lava- 

 flows and fraamental masses, both fine ash and coarse ag- 

 glomerate. They are associated with limestones, quartzose, and 

 other rocks, which are possibly sedimentary, but which give no 

 trustworthy evidence of the age of the variolites. Prof. Judd 

 complimented the authoress on the evidently great amount of 

 labour and patient research devoted to this investigation. He 

 thought the occurrence of the spherulitic structure round the 

 surfaces of " pillow like masses," similar to those described by 

 Prof. Dana, was exceedingly interesting, especially when one 

 considered the prohably very great antiquity of these Caernar- 

 vonshire rocks. He thought, also, the suggestion that early 

 crystallised magnetite-grains had formed the nuclei of the 

 spherulites, was a very interesting and probable one. Mr. 

 Alfred Harker, Profs. Bonney, Hull, and J. F. Blake also spoke. 

 — On the petrography of the island of Capraja, by Hamilton 

 Emmons. Communicdted by Sir Archibald Geikie, For.Sec.R.S. 

 The rocks of Capraja consist generally of andesitic outflows 

 resting on andesitic breccias and conglomerates. The southern 

 end seems to have formed a distinct centre of volcanic activity, 

 whose products are younger in age and more basic in character 

 than the rocks of the rest of the island, and may be termed 

 "anauiesites." The lavas appear to have flowed from a vent 

 at some distance from the cone, which probably occurred here, 

 and j^ave out highly scoriaceous fragments. In the other parts 

 of the island andesite is almost eve y where formed, with patches 

 of the underlying breccias here and there in the valley bottoms. 

 The chief centre of activity probably lay wtst of the centre of 

 the island. Petrographical details of the andesites and aname- 

 sites, descriptions of the groundmass and included minerals of 

 each, and chemical analyses are given. As regards the age of 

 the constituents, the author arranges them in the following 

 order, commencing with the oldest : — Magnetite, olivine, augite, 

 mica, felspar, nepheline. After the reading of this paper Dr. Du 

 Riche Preller gave an outline of the leading geological and the 



