March 2S, 1895] 



NA rURE 



3^/ 



Geological Society, March 6.— Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 F.K.S., President, in ihe chair. — .A. new ossiferous fissure in 

 Creswell Crags, by W. L. H. Duckworth and F. E. Swainson. 

 The fissure explored by the authors is about 30 feet above the 

 level of the artificial lalce at Creswell Crags. .\t the top occurred 

 a white ear'h (with human and other remains) passing down 

 into a red sand with remains of fox, badger, roe-deer, and other 

 mammals. Beneath the latter deposit, and separated from it 

 by a fairly sharp line of demarcation, came the cave-eirlh 

 proper with palieohthic implements and bones of Rhinoceros 

 Ikhorhiniis, Bison prisciis, C/ysiis spehciis, //y,c>i,i, crociita var. 

 spe!<ea, and Ccrviis laranJus. The authors suppose that this 

 cave-earth was derived from an older deposit, and had been 

 transported to its present place by water, though there is evi- 

 dence that the transport had been from no great distance. Con- 

 sequently they followed the fissure inwards, until brought to a 

 stop by a mass of travertine, which they penetrated with a 

 small hole. They hope to explore the fissure beyond this tra- 

 vertine on a future occasion. — Notes on the chemical compo- 

 sition of some oceanic deposits, by Prof. J. B. Harrison and 

 A. J. Jukes-Browne. The authors formerly experienced great 

 difficulty in comparing their analyses of the oceanic deposits of 

 Barbados with those of modern oozes made by Dr. Brazier. 

 .Since then Dr. Murray ha> placed samples of recent red clay 

 and Ghbigerina-ooze at their disposal, and these were analysed 

 by Prof. Harrison and Mr. John Williams. The results of 

 analysis of the red clay were arranged as follows : — -Vrgillaceous 

 constituent 67S5 per cent., pumiceous matter 23'26 per cent., 

 organic constituents 5'SS, and adherent sea-salts 3'6l per cent. 

 The authors found that the argillaceous constituent was not a 

 mixture of an orthosilicate of alumina and hydrated peroxide 

 of iron, having the proportion of silica to alumina as 14 to 12, 

 but a more highly silicated compound in which the proportions 

 were as 33 to 12. It was in fact a ferruginous earth, such as 

 would result from the decomposition of palagonite and of a 

 basic volcanic glass, fragments of which were frequent in the 

 Pacific red clays. The pumiceous matter was the debris of an 

 acid pumice containing 7 per cent, of soda, and apparently 

 therefore the pumice of a sodi-fclsite. Comparing the analyses 

 uf the recent red clay with those of Biroadian red clays, they 

 find the differences to be such as would result from mixtures of 

 the pala^oniiic earth with various acid and basic pum ices. A 

 mixture of the palagonitic earth with the pumiceous dust which 

 fell on Barbados in 1S12 would have a composition closely cor- 

 responding to that of the oceanic clay of Barbados. The recent 

 calcareous ooze closely resembled the more calcireous " chalks" 

 of the Barbadian oceanic series, but the latter contained much 

 colloid silica and fine clay. The differences between the analyses 

 of the recent ooze and of English chalk, when certain allow- 

 ances are made, were found to be but small. The recent 

 calcareous ooze contained many more G/oii^c-rim-iesis than 

 tertiary or mesozoic chalks, but it is suggested that this is due 

 to our possessing only the surface-layers of the Globigerina- 

 ooze. In one important respect all the different kinds ol deposit 

 which were examined resembled one another, namely, in the 

 infinitesiiiially small quantity of quartz which they contained. 

 The authors' examination of the recent oceanic dep isits, and a 

 -omparison of them with the raised Barbadian deposits, only 

 increased their conviction that the latter were of truly oceanic 

 origin. 



Linnean Society, March 7.— Mr. C. B. Clarke, F. R.S. , 

 President, in the chair.— Mr. A. Henry was admitted a Fellow . 

 —On behalf of Sir Joseph Hooker, the Secretary exhibited a 

 ironze medal struck in honour of the late Alphonse deCan- 

 lolle. — -Mr. J. E. Harting exhiiiited a remirkable head and 

 lorns of Cupra irgagnis recently obtained by Mr. F. C. 

 Selous in Asia Minor, and made remarks on the geographical 

 lisiribution of this and other allied species. — Mr. G. F. Scott 

 lliot, who had been absent from England since Sepiem bcr 

 S93, on a botanical exploration of Mount Ruwenzori an 1 the 

 :ountry to the north of the Albert Edward Nyanza, gave an 

 iccount of his journey and 'if the results, geographical, 

 lotanical, zoological, and p litical, obtained by him. The 

 :ountiy lying north-east of the Vicioria Nianza was described 

 IS a large, rolling, grassy plain, some 6000 feel above sea-level, 

 ind well adapted for colonisation. He went .we-t from the 

 Victoria N\anza to Mount Ruwenzori, which is said to have an 

 iltitudeof iS, 000 feet, and spent four months in exploring ihnt 

 listrict undir the great disadvantage of a dense cloud hanging 

 iver the mountain the greater part of the day, which often pre- 



NO. 1326, VOL. 51] 



vented the party from seeing more than fifty feet ahead. The 

 sides of the mountain were clothed at the base with a thick 

 growth of trees resembling the laurel of the Canary Islands; 

 above that, bamboos to the 10,000-feet level ; and above that 

 again what Ihe explorer could only liken to a Scotch peat moss 

 in which the traveller sank at every step a foot or more. Large 

 trunks like those of /snViz arborea of the Canary Islands, but 

 indicaling trees 80 feet high, were noticed. Amongst other 

 plants found were a Viola, a Cardamine, a gigantic Lobelia, at- 

 taining a height of five or six feet, an! a species of Hypcrietim 

 resembling that found in the Canaries ; indeed, the similarity of 

 the flora to that of the Canary Islands was remarkable. Mr. 

 Scott Elliot ascended Mount Ruwenzori to the height of 13,000 

 feet, finding evidence of animal life and numerous insects to a 

 height of 7000 feet. Above 10,000 feet his Swahili porters 

 could not sleep without injury to their health, and it was only 

 with a reduced number of men that he was able to ascend 

 another 3000 feet. Amongst the animals specially mentioned 

 was a species of water buck {Cobm), a new chameleon, a new- 

 snake, and several new insects. — The Secretary then read an 

 abstract of a paper by Dr. .Maxwell T. Misters, on the genus 

 Cupiasus, illustrated by a number of plants and cuttings which 

 had been forwarded by Messrs. Veitch, Mr. Moore, of Glas- 

 nevin, and Dr. Acton, of Kilmacurragh. — Dealing with the 

 zoological collections made during the recent expedition of Mr. 

 Theodore Bent to Southern Arabia, Messrs. Kirby, Gahan, and 

 Pocock presented papers on the inserts and arachnida which 

 had been obtained, som2 of which were des;ribed as new. 



Royal Meteorological Society, March 20. — Mr. VV. X. 

 Shaw, F.R.S., delivered a lec'.ure on "The Mjtion of Cloud? 

 considered with reference to their mode of formation," which 

 was illustrated by experiments. The qaestioa proposed for 

 consideration was how far the apparent motion of clDud was a 

 satisfactory indication of the motion of the air in which the 

 cloud is formed. The mountain cloud cap was cited as an 

 instance of a stationary cl >ud formed in air moving sometimes 

 with great rapidity; ground fog, thunderclouls, and cumulus 

 clouds were also referred to in this connection. The two 

 causes of formation of cloud were next considered, viz. (i) the 

 mixing of masses of air at different temperatures, and (2) the 

 dynamical cooling of air by the reduction of iis pressure with- 

 out supplying heat fron the outside. The two methols of 

 formation were illustrated by experiments. A sketch of the 

 supposed motion of air near the centre of a cyclone showed the 

 probability of the clouds formed by the mixing of air being 

 carried along with the air after they were formed, while when 

 cloud is being formed by expansion circumstances connected 

 with the formation of drops of water on the nuclei to be found 

 in the air, and the maintenance of the particles in a state of 

 suspension, make it probable that the apparent motion of such 

 a cloud is a bad indicator of the motion of the air. After 

 describing some special cases, Mr. Shaw referred to the 

 meteorological effects of the thermal disturbance which must be 

 introduced by the condensation of water vapour, and he 

 attributed the violent atmospheric disturbances accompanying 

 tropical rains to this cause. The difference in the character of 

 nuclei for the deposit of water drops was also pointed out and 

 illustrated by the exhibition of coloured halos formed under 

 special conditions when the drops were sufficiently uniform in 

 size. 



Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, March iS. — M. Marey in the 

 chair, — .-Yttcmpts to produce chemical combinations with 

 argon, by M. Berthclot. Argon has been submitted to the 

 action of the silent discharge under the conditions described in 

 Ihe author's " Essai de Mecanique chimique," t. ii., pp. 

 362-363. The app.aratus used was that described in the 

 " Annales de Chimie et de Physique" [5], x., pp. 79, 76, and 

 77. With benzene vapour, argon is absorbed though more 

 slowly than nitrogen. 87 per cent, of the volume of argon 

 employed in the experiment entered into combination. As the 

 total volume of argon at disposal was but 37 c.c, the products 

 were too small in quantity to allow of any extenried investiga- 

 tion into their nature. They appear to be similar in character 

 to the products obtained with nitrogen and benzene. A yellow, 

 resinous, odorous substance condensed on the surface of the 

 two glass tuhes ; this substance decomposed on heating, yielding 

 an abundant carbonaceous resi lue and volatile products which 

 reddened litmus paper. — On the iacunse in the zone of small 

 planets, by M. O. Callandreau. — Transformations of fibrin by 



