December 17, 1891J 



NATURE 



105 



and their movements quick and graceful. Their complexion is 

 very light, and they have small hands and feet. The colour of 

 their hair varies from jet-black to red-brown, and in some cases 

 it is almost curly. They are born horsemen and capital shots. 

 The sharp horns of the mountain goat were formerly fixed on 

 shafts of hard wood and used as spears both in hunting and 

 warfare ; stone knives and hatchets were also used. The summer 

 dwellings of the Similkameen Indians were made of mats of 

 cedar bark, manufactured by the Hope Indians, which were 

 thrown over a circular frame of poles. The winter houses were 

 simply pits dug in the ground and roofed with poles rnd earth. 

 All sickness was supposed lo be the work of an evil spirit, who 

 fastened on a victim and hung on, drawing away his life, until 

 charmed away by the doctor, who worked himself into a state of 

 frenzy, singing and dancing while he was trying to lure the evil 

 spirit from his patient. Many of the medicine-men exercise strong 

 mesmeric power over their patients, and they use several herbs 

 as medicines ; their panacea for all ills, however, is the vapour- 

 bath. When an Indian died he was laid out in state on a couch 

 of skins ; everything put on the body was new ; his bow and 

 arrows were laid at his side, along with his knife. His 

 friends then assembled round him to feast, and when the feast 

 was over his friends advanced, and taking his hand bade him 

 farewell. Immediately after a funeral takes place the encamp- 

 ment is moved, lest the spirit of the deceased should revisit it. 

 A widow or widower is forbidden to eat meat and certain 

 v^etables for a month, and must wear quantities of spruce bush 

 inside their shirts, next their skin. Cannibalism was never 

 known among the Similkameens. In the mountain is a certain 

 stone which is much venerated by the Indians, and it is said 

 that striking it will produce rain. Polygamy was allowed, and 

 if the husband and wife tired of each other, the price of the 

 woman, or its equivalent, was returned by her father or guardian, 

 and the parties were then free to contract another matrimonial 

 alliance ; but adultery, though it was generally compromised, was 

 sometimes punished by cutting off the woman's nose or splitting 

 her ears. Occasionally sick persons were buried before they 

 were quite dead, and a good deal of infanticide was practised. 

 The author has not found these Indians to be thieves, and gives 

 them a general good character in other respects. 



Geological Society, November 25.— Sir Archibald Geikie, 

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

 were read : — On the os pubis of Polacanthus Foxi, by Prof: 

 H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. Hitherto the evidence of the systematic 

 position of Polacanthus has not been very precise. The author 

 has detected the missing pubis as an isolated specimen. This 

 he regards as the anterior portion of the left pubis, and appends 

 a full description of the bone. He furthermore gives a critical 

 account of our knowledge of other pelvic bones of the genus, 

 and is led to associate Agathatimiis, Cratceomus, Omosaurus, 

 and Polacanthus in near alliance, in the Scelidosaurian division 

 of the Order Ornithischia. — A comparison of the red rocks of 

 the South Devon coast with those of the Midland and Western 

 Counties, by Prof. Edward Hull, F.R.S. The author believes, 

 with Dr. Irving, that the red rocks of Devonshire are re- 

 presentatives of the Permian and Trias which occupy so large 

 a portion of the district bordering Wales and Salop, and 

 which extend into the Midland Counties, and comments on the 

 remarkable resemblance between the representative beds on 

 either side of the dividing ridge of Palaeozoic rocks which 

 underlies East Anglia and emerges beneath the Jurassic strata 

 in Somersetshire. He believes that the breccia forming the 

 base of the series in the Torquay district is a representative of 

 the Lower Permian division, but differs from Dr. Irving, in 

 assigning the red sandstones and marls of Exmouth to the Trias, 

 and not to the Permian as that author has done. He compares 

 them with the Lower Red and Mottled Sandstones, and regards 

 the Marls as of local origin, thus causing the beds to diverge 

 from the normal type. The Budleigh Salterton Pebble-beds, 

 with overlying sandstones and pebbly beds, he assigns to the 

 horizon of the Pebble-beds of the Midland area, and points out 

 that fossils of Silurian and Devonian types occur in the pebbles 

 of both areas. The Upper Division of the Hunter is well shown 

 at Sidmouth, and the author takes a calcareous breccia, two feet 

 thick, which is found in the cliffs, as the basement- bed of the 

 Keuper division. — Supplementary note to the paper on the 

 "Red Rocks of the Devon Coast-section," Q.J.G.S., 1888, by 

 the Rev. A. Irving. In this note the author accepts Prof. Hull's 

 determination (see above) of the breccia at Sidmouth as the base 



NO. II 55, VOL. 45] 



of the Keuper, and discusses the age of the sandstones con- 

 taining vertebrate remains discovered by Messrs. Whitaker, 

 Metcalfe, and Johnston-Lavis. He brings forward evidence in 

 support of his view that these are really of Upper Bunter age, 

 notwithstanding the character of the organisms. He adds new 

 material in support of his contention that the sandstones and 

 marls which Prof. Hull assigns to the Lower Bunter are really 

 Permian ; but he is inclined to think that the breccias (in part, 

 at least) pass laterally into the sandstones, and do not underlie 

 them. From this it follows that the break between the Permian 

 and Trias of Devon is marked by the absence of the Lower 

 Bunter of the Midlands, and the author quotes remarks of Mr. 

 Ussher in support of his view that there is an unconformity at 

 the base of the Pebble-bed. In conclusion the author refers to 

 the difficulties of ascertaining the exact age of the breccias, and 

 notes that we cannot prove that the highest Carboniferous beds 

 are present in Devonshire. He observes that there is no valid 

 reason why the great breccia-sandstone series of Devon should 

 not be the true equivalent of the Lower Rothliegendes both in 

 time and position in the sequence, and that some portions of 

 them may be even older than the Rothliegendes of some 

 districts. He discusses the evidence furnished by the igneous 

 rocks, and points out the abnormal position both for the British 

 and German areas which these would occupy, if the breccias 

 were of Triassic age. The reading of this paper was followed 

 by a discussion, in which Mr. H. B, Woodward, Mr. Hudleston, 

 Mr. Topley, Prof. Boyd Dawkins, the President, Prof. Hull, 

 and the author took part. 



December 9. — Sir Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., President, in 

 the chair. — The following communications were read : — On the 

 rocks mapped as Cambrian in Caernarvonshire, by the Rev. 

 J. F. Blake. — High-level Glacial gravels, Gloppa, Cyrn-y-bwch, 

 near Oswestry, by A. C. Nicholson (communicated by W. 

 Shone). These gravels are found at Gloppa, and are situated at 

 a height of from 900 to 1 160 feet above sea-level, on the eastern 

 slope of a ridge of Millstone Grit which forms the western border 

 of the Cheshire and Shropshire plain. The beds present the 

 appearance of having been abruptly cut off on the north-eastern 

 slope. The gravels are in places much contorted, and false- 

 bedding is frequent. They contain numerous striated erratics. 

 Amongst the boulders are Silurian grits and argillites, granites 

 like those of Eskdale, Criffel, &c.. Carboniferous rocks. Lias 

 shale, and Chalk flints. The shells are often broken, rolled, 

 and striated, but the bulk of them are in fairly good condition, 

 A list of the shells is given, including nine Arctic and Scandina- 

 vian forms not now living in British seas, nine northern types, 

 also found in British seas, two southern types, and nearly fifty 

 species of ordinary British forms. Comparative lists of the 

 shells of Moel Tryfan and of those now living in Liverpool Bay 

 are placed side by side with the list of shells from Gloppa. 

 The reading of this paper was followed by a discussion, in 

 which Dr. Hicks, Prof. Hull, Mr. Shone, Prof. Blake, the 

 President, and the author took part. Some remarks sent by 

 Mr. Clement Reid were read by the Secretary. — The subter- 

 ranean denudation of the Glacial Drift, a probable cause of 

 submerged peat and forest-beds, by W. Shone. 



Royal Microscopical Society, November 30. — Conver- 

 sazione. — There was a numerous attendance at this meeting, 

 which passed off very successfully. The following objects and 

 instruments were ^Tf^\\A\.e.6i:—Mcgalot)ocha albojlavicans, by 

 Mr. F. W. Andrew. — Foraminifera from the London Clay, by 

 Rev. G. Bailey. — Amphipleura pellucida, Arachnodiscus Ehren- 

 bctgi, Polycystinas from Barbadoes, a microscope with new 

 substage focussing arrangement, by Messrs. R. and J. Beck. — 

 Foraminifera from the Chalk, by Mr. E. T. Browne. — Hyaline 

 Foraminifera from the Folkestone Gault — viz. Vitrhvehhina 

 SoUasiy n. sp. (Chapman), V. lavis, So\. , Polymorphina Orbignii, 

 n. var. cervicornis (Chapman), by Mr. F. Chapman. — A 

 thickened nodule of Nitella transluccns, by Mr. E. Dadswell. — 

 Volvox and Batrachospernmm in saturated solution of common 

 salt ; diatom structure in medium (Br Antj, Br ArSj, Piperinea), 

 by Mr. J. E. Ingpen. — Filaria sanguinis hominis {ditirna and 

 nocttirna), prepared by Dr. P. Manson ; Bacillus anthrax in 

 lung ; microscopes with new focussing arrangement to substage, 

 by Messrs. Johnson. — Epistylis flavicans, Lophopus crystallinus, 

 Argtilus foliaceus, by Mr. R. Macer.-- Transverse section of 

 fertile head of Equisetum arvense showing spores and elators in 

 situ, section of Pilia . grandijlora showing reticulate and pitted 

 cells, by Mr. G. E. yLzxaXzn^.- -Hoplophora carinata v. /«/- 



