May 1 8, 19 16] 



NATURE 



247 



the prescription of a standard -method of testing the 

 permanence of colours, all of which are of consider- 

 able interest in relation to the dyeing and colouring 

 trades. The list includes thirty distinct sections, and 

 it is evident that the study of all these subjects would 

 provide work for many years to come. 



Flint implements of the Neolithic type are fairly 

 -common in the Gold Coast Colony, but up to the 

 present examples of the Palaeolithic age have been 

 wanting. In 1914 some rough quartzite stones of 

 Palaeolithic character were picked up on the coast 

 at Accra. Mr. F. W. Migeod, in Man for April, 

 announces the discovery of a rude implement in North 

 Ashanti. It was found in a road cutting not far from 

 the surface. The material seems to be a kind of 

 chert, and Mr. Migeod is not disposed to attribute any 

 great antiquity to It. He suggests that it was chipped 

 •experimentally, and was used for some temporary pur- 

 pose. This supposition is confirmed by the character 

 of the material, which is of a soft nature, and the 

 implement would scarcely stand much rough use with- 

 out losing its edge. Even if this specimen proves 

 to be comparatively modern, it is still interesting as 

 marking the survival of the Palaeolithic type of imple- 

 ment in the Neolithic period. 



Dr. J. H. AsHWORTH contributes a brief note on the 

 hibernation of flies to the Scottish Naturalist for 

 April, describing the results of an inspection of a 

 house in Edinburgh during February last, certain 

 rooms of which, facing south, were harbouring 

 swarms of flies. These had evidently been hibernat- 

 ing behind pictures and furniture during the winter, 

 and had been roused into activity with the return of 

 sustained sunshine. Though still lethargic, they had 

 crawled from their hiding-places, where many were 

 still found, to bask in the sun streaming through the 

 windows. In all, five species were found, mostly 

 females; but neither house-flies nor bluebottles were 

 met with among them. An examination of the 

 spermathecae revealed living spermatozoa, showing 

 that impregnation must have taken place during the 

 autumn, when apparently the males for the most part 

 die. 



Mr. C. Tate Regan, in his memoir on " Larval and 

 Post-larval Fishes," published by the trustees of the 

 British Museum as part of the official " Report on 

 the Results of the British Antarctic {Terra Nova) Ex- 

 pedition, 19 10," has accomplished a peculiarly difficult 

 task with conspicuous success. A wide knowledge of 

 ichthyology, and a capacity for laborious work, are 

 apparent everywhere. But these pages owe their 

 value not so much to the number of species which 

 have been determined as to the insight displayed into 

 puzzling ontogenetic changes, and the lucid interpre- 

 tation he has given in regard to problems of geograph- 

 ical distribution, migration, and the evolution of 

 curious structural peculiarities which disappear with 

 larval life. Among the latter, perhaps the most extra- 

 ordinary is that furnished by the post-larval stage of 

 a Stylophthalmid, of which a figure is given. Herein 

 the terminal portion of the gut hangs down from the 

 body after the fashion of the rope trailed from a 

 balloon. A special cartilaginous support is developed 

 at the base of this trailing portion. The function of 

 this remarkable development seems to be that of a 

 balancer. This, however, is but one of many struc- 

 tural adaptations peculiar to larval life discussed by 

 Mr. Regan in the course of his "Notes and Conclu- 

 sions," wherein he summarises' the results of his in- 

 vestigations. 



A NEW part of the Palaeontologia Indica (new 

 series, vol. vi.. No. i) is devoted to a description of 



NO. 2429, VOL. 97] 



additional Ordovician and Silurian fossils from the 

 northern Shan States of Burma, by Dr. F. R. 

 Cowper Reed, with twelve plates of beautiful draw- 

 ings by Mr. T. A. Brock. Although many of the 

 Ordovician species are new, they are clearly more 

 closely related to the northern European than to the 

 American forms. They are also sufficient to show 

 that the rocks from which they were obtained may 

 be assigned to the lower part of the Ordovician 

 series. Among the Silurian fossils are many inter- 

 esting Graptolites, which Miss G. L. Elles refers to 

 well-known species of the European Llandovery 

 horizon. A few Graptolites from one locality also 

 seem to agree with those from the base of tBe 

 Wenlock Shales. Various fossils prove that the 

 Upper Silurian is represented in at least two stages 

 corresponding with the European Wenlock and Lower 

 Ludlow. There also seem to be some marine forma- 

 tions transitional to the Devonian, but more evidence 

 is needed to determine their exact relationships. 



A PAPER was read on April 18 before the Institution 

 of Petroleum Technologists, by Mr. E. H. Cunning- 

 ham Craig, upon the Kerogen-shales, or Scottish oil- 

 shales, in which the author advances some novel 

 theories upon the origin of these oil-shales. He 

 points out that a marked characteristic of strata 

 yielding oil by distillation is to be found in the small 

 irregular yellow masses, which have been discovered 

 in most of these deposits by microscopic examination. 

 These were first held to be gelatinous algae, and were 

 afterwards described by Prof. E. C. Jeffery as spores 

 of vascular cryptogams. The author has come to the 

 conclusion that they are not vegetable fossils at all, 

 but are small masses of inspissated petroleum. 

 According to this view, the rocks that are now oil- 

 shales were originally argillaceous beds sufficiently 

 colloidal to be able to absorb the necessary quantity 

 of inspissated petroleum from the porous petroliferous 

 sandstones with which they were associated. Such 

 action is only possible in anticlinal areas where the 

 petroliferous rocks come to the surface and are sub- 

 ject to the influence of weathering. Thus the decrease 

 in the yield of oil down the flanks of anticlines is 

 successfully accounted for. The author suggests that 

 his theory affords valuable information in selecting a 

 site for boring for oil-shales. 



We have received from Dr. N. O. Hoist a reprint 

 of his articles on the Ice age in England from the 

 Geological Magazine, September-November, 1915. It 

 is an interesting summary of the conclusions of one 

 who has had long and varied experience of the Glacial 

 deposits of Scandinavia and other parts of northern 

 Europe, besides those of the British Isles, and empha- 

 sises the differences of opinion that still exist among 

 geologists who have deeply studied the evidence of 

 Pleistocene glaciation in this part of the world. Dr. 

 Hoist agrees with those who maintain that there was 

 only one continuous Glacial period, and thinks there 

 is still no proof in northern Europe of the alternation 

 of cold and warm episodes which have been recog- 

 nised and named by Penck in the Alps. He regards 

 the high-level gravels in the valley of the Thames 

 at Swanscombe, Grays, Ilford, Erith, and Crayford as 

 pre-Glacial, and points out "how one warmth-loving 

 mollusc after the other disappears from the Thames 

 valley in proportion as the inland ice approaches." 

 The associated flint implements at Crayford are de- 

 scribed as oldest Mousterian. The Arctic bed at 

 Ponder's End follows, and the well-knowrj Thames 

 brick-earth is truly Glacial, "belonging to the period 

 of the melting of the inland ice." .\fter much dis- 

 cussion. Dr. Hoist concludes that the Ice age persisted 

 continuously from Mousterian times, though not from 

 their first beginning, to the close of the Magdalenian 



