August 3, 1916] 



NATURE 



473 



' tunnellings. Mr. Fuller describes his observations 

 upon the behaviour of the winged sexual forms be- 

 longing to six different species. He shows that the 

 belief that the aerial migration has for its object the 

 prevention of interbreeding is not necessarily true, 

 since the flights frequently comprise individuals of 

 both sexes which readily pair. This same feature has 

 also been observed by the reviewer in the case of a 

 Himalayan Termite. Intercrossing occurs at times 

 among individuals of different nests, but Mr. Fuller 

 concludes that the real object of the production of 

 sexual forms in such vast numbers is in order to 

 perpetuate the species, which suffers immense mor- 

 tality during the annual exodus. Some sixtj'-four 

 pages are devoted to observations on the nest-building 

 habits and general economy of thirteen species of 

 Termites, and details of the various types of nests 

 are well illustrated on the accompanying plates. The 

 remainder of the paper comprises a systematic account 

 of species, chiefly belonging to the genera Hodotermes, 

 Termes, and Eutermes. The characters of the soldiers 

 and workers are well described, but unfortunately no 

 accounts of the winged forms are included, and it is 

 to be hoped that the author will make these the 

 subject of a further memoir. 



Mr. J. Hewitt contributes a paper on South African 

 Arachnida, mostly based on specimens in the Albany 

 Museum. Altogether three genera, eleven species, and 

 one variety are recorded as new, and the most in- 

 teresting feature brought to light is the discovery of 

 two new genera of marine spiders taken near Cape 

 Town. The remainder of the journal is occupied bv 

 two short papers by Dr. Warren, one dealing with the 

 tendency of the Saturniid moth, Melanocera menippe, 

 Westw., to exhibit parthenogenesis, and the other 

 with an extension of his previous observations upon 

 hybrid cockatoos. A. D. Imms. 



THE CROYDON NATURAL HISTORY 

 SOCIETY. 



HE Transactions of the Croydon Natural History 

 and Scientific Society for 1915, a copy of which 

 has just reached us, contain a particularly good paper 

 by Mr. G. M. Davies on the rocks and minerals of the 

 Croydon regional survey area. The paper runs to 

 44 pages, and includes a careful series of analyses 

 of rock-specimens from the Weald Clay and all the 

 more recent formations. Reference is made to the 

 discovery of the Marsupltes-zone of the chalk at 

 Russell Hill, Purley, and to the decomposition of 

 marcasite, which gives rise to the soft masses of 

 hydrated iron oxide ("red ochre") so frequent in the 

 chalk. A few sarsens are noted as occurring in the 

 neighbourhood. Granules and grains of zinc-blende 

 and galena are noted as occurring in fuUer's-earth at 

 Redhill and Nutfield. The number of minerals found 

 in residues is somewhat surprising, and a complete 

 list is given. The regional survey, under the direction 

 of Mr. C. C. Fagg, shows satisfactory progress, and 

 in connection with it Baldwin Latham has prepared 

 a map showing the site of the five Bournes which 

 flow in the area. 



Mr. William Whitaker describes an extraordinary 

 outlier of Blackheath pebble-beds at Tandridge 

 Hill. With the pebbles are patches of fairly 

 large unworn flints, resembling in shape flints as 

 found in chalk-pits. .Flints in any intermediate 

 stage of weathering are not found, and the two 

 cannot have been produced by the same agency. It 

 is thought that, during or after the deposition of the 

 rounded Blackheath beds, the unworn flints have been 

 quietly removed from the chalk during the dissolution 

 of the latter, and left near to their original position. 



NO. 2440, VOL. 97] 



T' 



The extension of the outlier so far south is of interest, 

 but especially is it so in that though the uppermost 

 outlier is nearly 800 ft. O.D., the lowest extension 

 is 200 ft, lower, on the face of the escarpment of 

 the chalk. Hence we here find Eocene beds resting 

 on lower chalk, an occurrence unknown elsewhere. 

 The conclusion come to is that long-continued solu- 

 tion of pebble-covered chalk took place on a large 

 scale, and the pebble-beds were very gradually let 

 down. There was no evidence of faulting. It is 

 fairly certain they could not have been originally 

 deposited on the middle and lower chalk as now- 

 found. 



The usual valuable meteorological statistics for 

 1915, compiled by Mr. F. Campbell-Bayard, with 

 rainfall day by day from 104 stations, is of value to 

 water-economists. In a paper summarising the fossil 

 records of Ginkgo hiloba and its ancestors, Mr. E. A- 

 Martin remarks that there has been of late a con- 

 siderable increase of small specimens of this tree in 

 this country. Hitherto this " living fossil," as Seward 

 calls it, has been represented chiefly by male trees, 

 and it is hoped a balance may be restored now that 

 it is included in florists' catalogues. 



THE LAKE VILLAGERS OF 

 GLASTONBURY,^ 



THE Lake Village of Glastonbury consisted of be- 

 tween eighty and ninety round huts surrounded 

 by a stockade, and planted for security at the edge 

 of the sheet of water, that is now represented by the 

 peat in the marshes, extending from Glastonbury west- 

 ward to the sea. The inhabitants smelted iron and made 

 various edged tools and weapons — axes, adzes, gouges, 

 saws, sickles, bill-hooks, daggers, swords, spears, etc. 

 They also smelted lead ore from the Mendip Hills, 

 and made net-sinkers and spindle-whorls. They prob- 

 ably carried on the manufacture of glass beads and 

 rings and other personal ornaments. They were also 

 workers in tin and bronze. It is likely that, the beau- 

 tiful Glastonbury bowl was made in the settlement, 

 since unused rivets of the same type as those of the 

 bowl have been commonly met with. They were ex- 

 pert spinners and weavers, carpenters and potters, 

 using the lathe in both industries. The dis- 

 coverj" of a wooden wheel, with beautifully turned 

 spokes, proves that they possessed wheeled vehicles, 

 while the snaffle-bits of iron imply the use of the 

 horse. Their commerce was carried on partly by land, 

 and the possession of canoes gave them the use of the 

 waterways. They were linked with other settlements 

 by the road running due east from Glastonbury, that 

 formed a part of the network of roads traversing the 

 country in the prehistoric Iron age, more especially 

 with the lead mines and the fortified oppida, or camps, 

 of Mendip and of the rest of the county. They were 

 also linked with the Bristol Channel by a waterway 

 along the line of the river Brue, and along this was 

 free communication with the oppidum of Worlebury, 

 then inhabited by men of their race. 



The lake villagers were undoubtedly in touch with 

 their neighbours by sea and by land. Their jet prob- 

 ably came from Yorkshire; their Kimmeridge shale 

 from Dorset ; the amber from the eastern counties, or 

 from the amber coast south of the Baltic. The cocks 

 for fighting were probably obtained from Gaul, and 

 the oblong dice are identical with those used in Italy 

 in Roman times. Some of the designs on their pot- 

 tery are from the south, and the bronze mirrors are 

 probably of Italo-Greek origin. The technique of the 



1 Abridged from a paper read before the Literary and Philosophical Society 

 of Manche^ter on April i8 by Hon. Prof. W. Boyd Dawklns, F.R.S. 



