November 24, 1904J 



NA TURE 



91 



of 9000/., an income which is derived from a variety of 

 sources : — Treasury grant, 4000^. ; Gassiot Fund, nflal. 

 (about) ; from Meteorological Committee, 400!. ; fees, &c., 

 4200/. (about). In addition to this there has been 1200J. 

 in donations. 



Whether the laboratory can become self-supporting is a 

 matter of doubt to my mind. Even if it should be so, that 

 is no reason for taking it away from State control, which 

 always gives an impress to decisions, and it is a pledge that 

 gain is not its only object. Certainly it would never arrive 

 at the proportions that the huge, more than self-supporting 

 department, the Post Office, has arrived at. The example 

 of Germany, where the State takes the fees, and supports 

 the institution, is worth following. 



THE BEN BULBEN DISTRICT. 



'T'HE region lying north of Sligo, which was visited by 

 a large party of naturalists last July on the occasion 

 of the fourth triennial conference of the Naturalists' Field 

 Clubs of Ireland, is one of much beauty and interest. In 

 its general aspect it recalls the best features of the York- 

 shire Carboniferous Limestone area. Its setting, with the 

 great limestone plain of Ireland stretching away on one 

 hand, and the .Atlantic Ocean on another, adds a dignity 

 and impressiveness to this group of clifT-rimmed, flat-topped 

 hills which might not be bestowed by their height alone, 

 tliough they are of no mean elevation (Truskmore, the 

 highest point, rises to 2 113 feet). The Ben Bulben range. 



[ted. and any balance left after paying salaries I believe was available for apparatus. 

 3 For the first year. ■• includes the Obser\atory Department. 



I might refer to researches in solar physics also, which 

 are carried out in the iron shanties at South Kensington, 

 •nder the control of the Board of Education. The sum of 

 700/. is allotted as a grant in aid for the work that is carried 

 out there, and some of the staff are borne on the estimates ; 

 but if, as is to be believed, some of the tremendous problems 

 of the causes of famine and plenty are dependent on the 

 solar phenomena, then this work should be enlarged and 

 encouraged. The e.xpenditure of ten times the sum in one 

 year may enable millions of pounds and lives to be saved 

 which may be lost from the scant supply of needful means. 

 It is true that the Solar Physics Observatory is under the 

 Board of Education, but if its history were written, I doubt 

 not that it would be found that from its very first inception 

 (due to the repeated recommendation of a host of scientific 

 men who foresaw something of what might be expected 

 from it) the State wanted none of it. It may be said that 

 if the Meteorological Office and the National Physical 

 Laboratory were attached to a Government department, 

 they might be starved in the same way. I do not believe it 

 possible that such would be the case, for these two are of 

 ostensible use to the ordinary public, and appeal to that 

 most sagacious and popular person the man in the street, 

 in a way that solar physics does not. The last deals with 

 problems which are for future use, but it is intimately, most 

 intimately, connected with meteorology. If the Meteor- 

 ological Office becomes attached, as it eventually must be, 

 to a Government department, the Solar Physics Observatory 

 and staff should be attached to the same department. 



If the Government will recognise the two institutions as 

 doing essentially public service, and ask for the necessary 

 funds, I believe Parliament would vote the supplies in the 

 same ungrudging manner that Congress has done, as they 

 would look upon them as a paying investment. Parliament 

 realises most frequently before Government does the im- 

 portance of any public work. The most happy solution of 

 the problem would be (i) to have some department of State 

 to which these and other kindred scientific institutions should 

 be attached ; (2) to have a scientific advisory board ; (3) to 

 distinguish clearly between grants for research, equipment, 

 and material, and those for staff. 



NO. 1830, VOL. 71] 



which derives its name from that of one of its spurs which 

 projects boldly towards the Atlantic, represents the wreck 

 of the Upper Limestone of this district. The fertile un- 

 dulating low grounds all around are occupied by a lower 

 and more argillaceous series, through which one of the old 

 Caledonian folds of Ireland projects as a knobby ridge, its 

 rugged outlines forming a charming contrast with the green 

 and grey tabular forms of the limestone. The Upper 

 Limestone, 700 feet or 800 feet thick, massive and strongly 

 jointed vertically, rests on the lower series as a cliff-bound 

 plateau, intersected by several grand glens, which are cut 

 through the limestone deep into the less resisting rocks 

 underneath. The mural precipices are the result of the 

 characteristic weathering of the massive limestones. Below 

 them, where not obscured by talus, the Middle Limestones 

 and shales fall away in steep concave slopes into the plain. 

 The exquisite valleys of Glencar and Glenade cut right 

 through the plateau, the first in an east and west direction, 

 the other north and south. Each is from one to two miles 

 wide from cliff-top to cliff-top, and about a thousand feet 

 deep (Fig. i). The floors of these valleys are undulating, 

 and the scenery is much enhanced by the fact that each 

 embosoms a lake at the point where the cliff scenery reaches 

 its best. 



On some parts of the plateau-edge denudation has been 

 more severe, as in the beautiful wedge of Ben Whiskin 

 (1666 feet), the western side of which displays a character- 

 istic precipitous front, while the eastern side has been worn 

 down to a uniform steep slope which drops into Gleniff. 



The uniformity of the post-Carboniferous uplift is shown 

 bv the almost absolute horizontality of the beds of lime- 

 stone throughout the region. The surface of the plateau, 

 while retaining in a general way this horizontality, is seen 

 on a nearer approach to be undulating, a feature chiefly 

 due to the fact that patches of the Yoredale sandstone still 

 remain here and there isolated on the surface of the lime- 

 stone. The whole plateau, limestone as well as sandstone, 

 has in general a thick covering of peat. 



To the botanist the Ben Bulben range is well known as 

 the only British habitat of Arenaria ciliata, a species with 

 a high northern and alpine distribution, which is locally 



