3G8 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[June 22, 1883. 



character of the bats. If, as many naturalists believe, the 

 fruit-ljats are really a separately-developed class by them- 

 selves, then it is not impossible that the galeopithecus may 

 represent one of the intcrincdiate steps in their original 

 development ; for the fruit-bats seem to present strong 

 points of affinity to the lemur.s, whose region they inhabit, 

 and to be, in fact, specialised lemuroid animals, while the 

 other bats appear rather to be liighly advanced and winged 

 insectivores. 



The flying squirrels and even the galeopithecus cannot 

 really llv in the strictest sense of the word ; they can only 

 glide sideways and downward by means of a skin parachute. 

 In the true bats, however, the organ of flight has attained' 

 a far greater development than this ; for they are able to 

 rise and wheel about in the air with the same freedom and 

 facility as birds. To make this possible, the fore-arms and 

 the finger-bones have attained in them an immense develop- 

 ment, the middle finger especially being ordinarily as long 

 as the whole body, without the tail. Between these fingers, 

 and from them to tlu; hind legs, stretches the membrane 

 by means of which the bat flies. It is the great length of 

 the fingers, and the extent of membrane between them, 

 that enal)les the bat to fly in the true sense ; and 

 yet, it is impossible to compare the skeleton of a 

 bat with the skeleton of a shrew, and not to per- 

 ceive' at once that the liat is really in all essentials a 

 flying shrew. The bones of the fore-legs (or arms) are all 

 prodigiously lengthened, out of all proportion to the rest of 

 the body ; but that is all. In ground-plan the two animals 

 resemble one another very closely. With the light thrown 

 upon the subject by the flying squirrels and galeopithecus, 

 it is not difficult to understand how a race of ancestral tree- 

 haunting insectivores may have taken to pursuing their 

 prey in the air as they jumped, and how this habit 

 ■would give an advantage to such animals as possessed 

 very slight extensile patches of skin to buoy them up 

 from falling too rapidly. Thus we would first get a 

 creature like the colugo, and then, as the animals took 

 wider and wider excursions after their insect prey, the 

 possession of longer fingers and webbed hands would begin 

 to tell in favour of any chance divergent individual. In 

 this way, from generation to generation, the most bat-like 

 insectivores of such a type would most frequently survive, 

 until at last the whole group became evolved into true bats 

 by the necessary extinction of its least advanced members. 

 Once fully developed, the race would begin to diverge 

 afresh in different directions, and so to give us all the 

 immense variety of existing bats. Geologically, we know 

 that these flying mammals go back to a comparatively early 

 age, and when we first find them in the eocene deposits 

 they have already acquired the full marks of existing 

 families : hence we may conclude that they must have 

 diverged from the insectivores while that group was still 

 young and plastic, and that their fossil pedigree is now lost 

 for us in the mist of ages. 



The Railiimy Ar/c (Chicago, May 3) says that narrow- 

 gauge trains have been blown off the rails in California on 

 several occasions lately during tornadoes. 



BuRXHAM Beeches. — Mr. F. G. Heath is issuing at the 

 office of Forealr;/ a special " Author's Edition " of his little 

 work, "Burnham Beeches," to which will Vie prefixed a fac- 

 simile of the long and interesting letter of Lord Beacons- 

 field to the author on peasant life, trees and sylvan scenery 

 — a letter particularly referring to Burnham Beeches, and 

 written a short time only before the late Earl's death. 



" SOCIABLE " TRICYCLES. 



By John Browning. 



(Chairnian and Treasurer of the London Tricycle Club.) 



THAT delusions die hard is proverbial, but two in con- 

 nection with "Sociable" tricycles have, I trust, 

 received their death-blow this week. The first is, or was, 

 that " Sociable" tricycles are very much slower than 

 single machines. The second, that these double tricycles 

 must weigh from 1701b. to 180 lb. to be safe. I am aware 

 that many makers now quote the weight of their " Sociables " 

 as between 1 101b. and 1.501b., but in every instance that 

 I have been able to weigh them, save one — Singer's 

 "Apollo" — they have scaled upwards of 1701b. 



To test the qualifications of the " Sociables," I recently 

 proposed to the committee of the London Tricycle Club to 

 give two £3. 3s. prizes to the winners of a twenty -five 

 mile road ride on " Sociables," to be competed for by 

 members of the Club. 



The committee not only accepted my ofTer, but very 

 handsomely supplemented it by subscribing themselves 

 £3. 3s. as a second prize. There were six or seven entries, 

 but, from various causes, only four pairs of riders were 

 able to start at the appointed time. 



The ride was twelve and a half miles out and back to 

 the starting-point, on the same road, the course being 

 from near Caterham Junction, over Merstham Hill and 

 Red Hill, on the road to Crawley, and returning. The 

 effects of hills and wind were, therefore, to a great extent, 

 neutralised. The roads were very rough, inches deep with 

 dust, and plentifully strewn with loose flints, the result of 

 the dry weather which has recently prevailed. The atmo- 

 sphere was heavy and humid, and most unfavourable to 

 exertion. 



Under these circumstances the ride was completed in 

 the following times : — 



It will be seen at once that the distance was covered at 

 the rate of between twelve and thirteen miles an hour, 

 which will compare favourably with the performance of 

 single tricycles, and not badly with that of bicycles. 



But a still more important point to note is this — that 

 the winners, Messrs. Howard and Salmon, rode a specially 

 light machine, made for them by Hurst, of Croydon. 

 This machine must have been at least 40 lb. lighter than 

 that ridden by Messrs. Nixon and Bates, who gained the 

 second prize, and I think it most probable that if the riders 

 were to change the machines and ride such a race again, 

 the second men would be in nine or ten minutes ahead, 

 instead of being between four and five minutes behind the 

 late winners. 



Yet the fact that the light machine stood the test of 

 being driven over rough roads for twenty-five miles at a . 

 racing pace is sufficient proof that it is amply strong for 

 ordinary riding or touring. 



Riders of medium weight should now insist on machines 

 built specially for them being made much lighter, though 

 heavy riders would do well to study strength in preference 

 to lightness. 



Perhaps the greatest advantage of a lighter " Sociable " 

 would be found when it became necessary to push it up an 

 unrideable hill. Where there is one lady riding with a 

 gentleman, the gentleman has, of course, to push the 

 machine up hills by himself. When touring with my wife, 

 I find the lighter " Apollo Sociable," which Singers have 



