454 



NA TURE 



[March io, 1892 



of the Caves of Gower are shown to be contemporaneous with 

 the raised sand-dunes between the beaches and the "head," 

 and reasons are given for supposing that the elevation of land 

 which preceded their formation need not necessarily have been 

 greater than 1 20 feet. The mammalian fauna of these caves is 

 the last fauna of the Glacial or post-Glacial period, and the 

 "head" or rubble-drift marks the closing chapter of Glacial 

 times Evidence is given for considering that the "rubble- 

 drift " has a wide inland range, and that to it are to be referred 

 the "head" of De la Beche, the subaerial detritus of Godwin- 

 Austen, the angular flint drift of Murchison, and in part the 

 "trail" of Fisher and the "warp" of Trimmer, as well as 

 other deposits described by the author. The accumulation is 

 widespread over the south of England, and occurs in the 

 Thames Valley, on the Cotteswold Hills, and on the flanks of 

 the Malverns. The stream-tin detritus of Cornwall and the 

 ossiferous breccia filling fissures (which must be distinguished 

 from the ossiferous deposits of the true caves) are held to be 

 representatives of the "rubble-drift," which is of a variable 

 character. The author discusses the views of previous writers 

 on the origin of the accumulations which he classes together as • 

 "rubble-drift," and points out objections to the various views. ! 

 He considers that they were formed on upheaval after a period 

 of submergence which took place slowly and tolerably uniformly ; 

 and that the absence of marine remains and sedimentation shows 

 the submergence to have been short. This submergence cannot 

 have been less than locxj feet below present sea-level, and was 

 shortly brought to a termination by a series of intermittent 

 uplifts, of which the "head" affords a measure, sufficiently 

 rapid to produce currents radiating from the higher parts of the 

 country, causing the spread of the surface-detritus from various 

 local centres of higher ground. The remains of the land animals 

 killed during the submergence were swept with this debris into 

 the hollows and fissures on the surface, and finally over the old 

 cliffs to the sea- and valley-levels. Simultaneously with this 

 elevation occurred a marked change of climate, and the tem- 

 perature approached that of the present day. The formation of 

 the "head" was followed in immediate succession by the 

 accumulation of recent alluvial deposits ; so that the Glacial 

 times came, geologically speaking, to within a measurable 

 distance of our own times, the transition being short and almost 

 abrupt. In this paper only the area in which the evidence is most 

 complete is described. The author has, however, corroborative 

 evidence of submergence on the other side of the Channel. — 

 The Pleistocene deposits of the Sussex coast, and their equiva- 

 lents in other districts, by Clement Reid. (Communicated by per- 

 mission of the Director-General of the Geological Survey.) The 

 gales of last autumn and early winter exposed sections such as 

 had not before been visible in the Selsey Peninsula. Numerous 

 large erratic blocks were discovered, sunk in pits in the Brackles- 

 ham Beds. These erratics included characteristic rocks from 

 the Isle of Wight. The gravel with erratics is older, not newer 

 as is commonly stated, than the Selsey " mud-deposit " with 

 southern MoUusca. Numerous re-deposited erratics are found 

 in the mud-deposit, which is divisible into two stages — a lower, 

 purely marine, and an upper, or Scrobicularia-mnA, with acorns 

 and estuarine shells. At West Wittering a fluviatile deposit, 

 with erratics at its base and stony loam above, is apparently 

 closely allied to the mud-deposit of Selsey ; it yields numerous 

 plants, land and fresh-water Mollusca, and mammalian bones, 

 of which lists are given. The strata between the brick-earth 

 (= Coombe Rock) and the gravel with large erratics yield 

 southern plants and animals, and seem to have been laid down 

 during a mild or interglacial episode. A similar succession is 

 found in the Thames Valley and in various parts of our eastern 

 counties. After the reading of these papers there was a dis- 

 cussion, in which the President, Dr. Evans, Mr. Ussher, Mr. J. 

 Allen Brown, Prof. Hughes, Dr. Hicks, and others took part. 



Linnean Society, February 18.— -Prof Stewart, President, 

 in the chair. — The President exhibited 'specimens of Cystoccelia 

 immacuiata, an orthopterous insect from Namaqualand, in 

 which I he female is far more conspicuously coloured than the 

 male (which is unusual), and the stridulating apparatus of the 

 male differs in certain important details from that of other 

 species. A discussion followed on stridulation in insects and 

 the various modes of producing it, in which Messrs. C. Breeze, 

 E. M. Holmes, and B. Daydon Jackson took part. — The Pre- 

 sident also exhibited some specimens of a Crustacean, Ocypoda 

 ^eratophihalma, and communicated some interesting information 

 thereon. — A paper by Prof Groom was then read, on bud- 



NO. II 67, VOL. 45] 



protection in Dicotyledons, and, in his unavoidable absence, the 

 author's views were expounded by Mr. B. Daydon Jackson. — 

 Mr. W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, C.M.G., F.R.S., communicated a 

 paper by Herr F. Stephani, entitled "A Revision of Colenso's 

 New Zealand Hepaticcc." 



Entomological Society, February 24.— Mr. Frederick Du- 

 Cane Godman, F.R.S., President, in the chair. The President 

 referred to the loss the Society had recently sustained by the 

 death of Mr. Henry Walter Bates, F. R.S., who had twice been 

 its President ; and he also read a copy of the resolution of sym- 

 pathy and condolence with Mrs. Bates and her family, in their 

 bereavement, which had been passed by the Council at their 

 meeting that evening. — Mr. Frederick C. Adams exhibited a 

 monstrous specimen of Telephorus rusticus, taken in the New 

 Forest, in which the left mesothoracic leg consisted of three 

 distinct femora, tibiae, and tarsi, appa'-ently originating from a 

 single coxa. He also exhibited specimens o{Ledra aurita. — Mr. 

 G. A. James Rothney sent for exhibition a series of specimens 

 of two species of Indian ants {Myrmicaria subcarinata, Sm., 

 and Aphanogaster [Messor) barbarus, L., var. punctatus, Forel) 

 which had recently been determined for him by Dr. Forel. He 

 also communicated notes on the subject, in which it was stated 

 that Myrmicaria subcarhtata, Sm., was not uncommon in 

 Bengal, and formed its nest by excavating the earth round 

 trees, and throwing it up in mounds of fine grains. The author 

 also stated that both sexes of this species swarmed early in the 

 " rains," from about July 7 to July 10. Of the -econd species — 

 AphcBnogaster barbarus var. punciattis, Forel — Mr. Rothney ob- 

 served that it, like the bee. Apis dorsata, seemed to have a great 

 partiality for the gardens and buildings of the old Mogul Em- 

 perors in the North- West Provinces and in the Punjab, the bee 

 disfiguring the arches and roofs with its huge nests, and the ant 

 frequenting the gardens and steps. — The Hon. Walter Roths- 

 child communicited a paper entitled "On a Little-known 

 Species of Papilio from the Island of Lifu, Loyalty Group." 

 The paper was illustrated by a beautifully coloured drawing of 

 the male, variety of the male, female, and under side of the 

 species. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, February 15.— Sir W. Turner, Vice- 

 President, in the chair. — The Astronomer- Royal for Scotland 

 read a paper on the new star in the constellation Auriga dis- 

 covered recently by the Rev. Dr. T. Anderson, of Edinburgh. 

 Dr. Anderson believes that he first saw the new star on 

 January 24, but he did not recognize it as new until a few days 

 later, when it struck him that its right ascension did not agree 

 with that of 26 Aurigas, for which he had mistaken it. When 

 the Astronomer-Royal first examined the spectrum in the 

 beginning of this month, its general appearance was that pre- 

 sented by new stars soon after their first outburst. Since then 

 the spectrum has gradually become more continuous. Only one 

 of the characteristic nebular lines (F) was present. Two other 

 lines nearly coincide with characteristic nebular lines ; but one 

 has too great, the other too small, refrangibility, so that the 

 displacement cannot be due to motion of the star, even if it had 

 not been (as it is) too great a displacement to admit of 

 probable explanation in this way. The brightness of the star 

 increased gradually after its first observation, then decreased 

 more rapidly, and finally became nearly steady. The bright- 

 ness of new stars usually increases rapidly at first, and finally 

 diminishes gradually to zero. The general phenomena pre- 

 sented in the present case resemble those of a variable star, 

 such as R Andromedse or R Cygni, rather than those of 

 a new star which rapidly burns out.— Sir W. Turner read a 

 paper on the lesser rorqual {Balanoptera rostrata) in the 

 Scottish seas. After giving a brief account of the occurrence of 

 this whale in Scottish seas. Sir W. Turner proceeded to discuss 

 the specimen which was captured near Granton, in the Firth of 

 Forth, in 1888. The lesser rorqual is characterized externally 

 by a dorsal fin, by a large white patch on the front aspect of 

 each flipper, and by great apparent distension anteriorly on the 

 ventral aspect, the distension being prolonged to the extreme 

 anterior end. The whalebone is also characteristic, the ex- 

 tremities of the plates being broken up into thin fibres. The 

 author points out a distinction between whales belon>:ring to the 

 dolphin class and other whales, in respect of the stomach. In 

 the former the first compartment of the stomach does not fulfil a 

 digestive function ; in the latter all the compartments have a 

 digestive function. The number of compartments varies from 



