September 1, 1897.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



213 



the " eyne " and " treen " of the poets. If Mr. Morley 

 will go into North Staffordshire he will hear " shoon " 

 daily, and " housen " often. If he will get amongst the 

 youngsters he may soon hear of " brids' naysen," i.e., 

 birds' " neesen " or nests. 



"Hisn," "hern," etc., are everyday terms, and suggest 

 formation from " his own," etc. Probably this is a more 

 simple explanation than the possible one that these forms 

 are double genitives, the simple genitive in Anglo-Saxon 

 being " his," but certain words forming that case in " an " 

 (singular) and " ena '' (plural). 



A more curious use of the terminal " n " is met with in 

 the North Staffordshire dialect in the phrases " a thisn " 

 (in this way), " a thatn " (in that way), " an sichu " (and 

 such like). It has occurred to me that these are possibly 

 survivals of the old accusative endings in " n," that case 

 being used adverbially in Anglo-Saxon. 



Mr. Morley may be Interested to know that his word 

 " reckliu'," is used in Staffordshire in the form of " ritlin'," 

 and is always then applied to the weakly pig of the farrow. 



I must admit that I have read Mr. Morley's articles 

 with much interest, but probably a wider acquaintance 

 with other dialects would make him a little more modest 

 in his claims for his Warwickshire greenwood. 



Edward Snelgrove. 



Heeley, Sheffield, July 20th, 1897. 



To the Editors of Knowledge. 



Sirs, — Mr. George Morley may be interested to know 

 that the following peculiarities mentioned in " The 

 Language of Shakespeare's Greenwood' are in vogue 

 in the rural districts of Shropshire : — 



Country folk always di'op their " g's " in words 

 ending with " ing." "Wench" is very commonly used, 

 especially when speaking of a mare. "Urchin" is 

 frequently used to imply a hedgehog. A mug or drink 

 of beer is known as a " tot o' beer." "On" is almost 

 invariably used instead of " of." A farmer will speak of 

 his"wuts" (oats). A countryman always uses " hisn," 

 :' ourn," and " theirn," instead of his, ours, theirs, but 

 never (that I have heard) adds an " n " to any substantive 

 such as " housen." One commonly hears the remark, 

 "lie favours his father" — or mother. 



These expressions are not peculiar to any one part, but 

 are heard throughout the county. 



Ashley House, Shrewsbury, W. Lyon Browne, Jan. 

 August 13th, 1897. 



The editors have decided to add a new and permanent 

 feature to Knowxedge, in the form of a column or so in 

 each number to be specially devoted to notes relating to 

 the habits and migrations of British birds — and, indeed, to 

 any observations which are of value and interest to 

 ornithologists. This department will be commenced in 

 the next issue of Knowledge, and full particulars will 

 then be given. ^^^ 



A distinguished company assembled in Shrewsbury on 

 the 10th of August to witness the unveiling of the new 

 statue of Darwin, presented to his native iilace by the 

 Shropshire Horticultural Society. The ceremony was 

 performed m charming weather by Lord Kenyon, who was 

 supported by the Bishop of Shrewsbury, Mr. Lawson 

 Tait, Mr. Stanley Leighton, M.P., Sir J. D. Hooker and 

 Lady Hooker, the Head Master of Shrewsbury School, the 

 sculptor (Mr. Horace Montford), Prof. George H. Darwin, 

 Mr. W. E. Darwin, and many others. Shrewsbury was 

 en fete for the occasion, and all classes of the people com- 



bined to do honour to the memory of their famous 

 townsman. Sir .Joseph Hooker contributed some interesting 

 reminiscences of his forty years' association with Darwin, 

 and referred to his indomitable perseverance under bodily 

 suffering ; his command of all the available sources of 

 knowledge in any given subject of research ; his strong 

 and vivid grasp of the most difficult subjects ; and his power 

 of turning to account the waste observations of his pre- 

 decessors and contemporaries. " It is dogged that does 

 it" was a maxim of Darwin's, and Sir Joseph Hooker 

 instanced his congratulating himself that his very illness 

 had allowed him to read off on sleepless nights his 

 continuous observations on the movements of his plants. 



A new scientific series will make its appearance during 

 the course of the autumn, the first volume of which 

 may be expected early in October. Mr. Beddard, F.R.S., 

 is the editor, and I51iss, Sands, & Co. are the pub- 

 lishers. It will be entitled, " The Progressive Science 

 Series," a title which is intended to be indicative of the 

 character and scope of the volumes as opposed to a series 

 whose objects were merely historical or expository. In 

 other words, the volumes, although not in any way 

 neglecting history or exposition, will endeavour to point 

 towards the line of future discoveries in each particular 

 branch, and save investigators trouble by going over ground 

 that has recently been trodden without result. 



Prof. Ladislas Weinek, Director of the Prague Observa- 

 tory, is about to publish a great photographic atlas of the 

 moon, containing two hundred maps, twenty-six centimetres 

 by thirty-one, and showing the principal lunar formations 

 viewed under the most varied conditions of illumination. 

 The originals from which these enlargements are made are 

 one hundred in number — ninety-four from the Lick Obser- 

 vatory, four from that of Paris, two from that of Arequipa. 

 The Lick negatives have been enlarged to twenty-four 

 times the original scale, bringing the resulting enlarge- 

 ments to a scale of ten feet for the mean diameter of the 

 moon. These maps will be executed by a phototypic 

 method direct from the glass enlargements by the well- 

 known photographic institute of Carl Bellmann, Prague, 

 and will be issued in sets of twenty, to appear at intervals 

 of two or three months until the first series of two hundred 

 maps is completed. Should sufficient subscribers be obtained 

 — as we most sincerely trust wiU be the case, for it wiU be 

 a distinct loss to science if the fullest advantage of Dr. 

 Weinek's most skilful and patient work be not secured by 

 the astronomical public — a second issue of two hundred 

 other maps will follow the first, the two together giving 

 a very complete view of the lunar surface under a wide 

 range of conditions of illumination. The subscription for 

 the first series of two hundred maps is ten pounds. The 

 specimen plate, " Maginus, " from a negative taken on 1895, 

 October 9th, affords an excellent guarantee for the beauty 

 of execution and minuteness of detail of the whole. 



The fact that the vast basin of the Yukon River, in 

 Alaska and British Columbia, is extremely rich in auri- 

 ferous deposits, has lately been brought to the attention of 

 the general public by the discovery of gold in large 

 quantities in the bed of the Klondyke River and neigh- 

 bouring streams. It must not be supposed, however, 

 that the district has only lately been found to be a gold- 

 bearing one. A few miners entered the region by the 

 Chilkoot Pass in 1880, and since then a yearly increasing 

 number have gone there by the same route. In 1893 

 there were about three hundred miners in the district, but 

 the reports of their successful operations attracted over 



