May 22, 1884 



NA TURE 



95 



Geological Society, April 23. — Prof. T. G. Bonney, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The following communications 

 were read : — On the geology of the country traversed by the 

 Canada Pacific Railway, from Lake Superior lo the Rocky 

 Mountains, by Principal J. W. Dawson, C.M.G., F.R.S. This 

 paper recorded observations made by the author with reference 

 lo the geology of the North- West Territories of Canada, in an 

 excursion in the summer of 1883, along the line of the Canada 

 Pacific Railway as far as Calgary, at the eastern base of the 

 Rocky Mountains. After referring to the labours of the Canadian 

 Geological Survey, and more especially of Dr. G. M. Dawson, 

 in this region, the author proceeded to notice the Laurentian, 

 Huronian, and other pre-Silurian rocks of the west of Lake 

 Superior and the country between that lake and the Red River. 

 Good exposures of many of these rocks have been made in the 

 railway-cuttings, and important gold-veins have been opened up. 

 The Laurentian rocks present a remarkable uniformity of struc- 

 ture overall the vast territory extending from Labrador to the 

 Winnipeg River, and where they reappear in the mountains of 

 British Columbia. They are also similar to those of South 

 America and of Europe ; and there was on the table a collection 

 of Laurentian rocks from Assouan, in Upper Egypt, made by 

 the author in the past winter, which showed the reappearance of 

 the same mineral characters there. In Egypt there is also an 

 1 rverlying crystalline series, corresponding in some respects with 

 the Huronian. The Huronian rocks west of Lake Superior are, 

 however, more crystalline than those of Lake Huron, and may 

 be of greater age. The Palaeozoic rocks are exposed in places 

 on the western side of the old crystalline rocks near the Red 

 River, and show a remarkable union and intermixture of Lower 

 and Upper Silurian forms, or rather, perhaps, a transition from 

 the one fauna to the other in a very limited thickness of beds. 

 The collections of Mr. Panton, of Winnipeg, were referred to in 

 this connection. The Cretaceous and Eocene beds of the plains 

 were then noticed, and certain sections showing the coal-bearing 

 series described ; and comparisons were instituted between the 

 Cretaceous and Eocene succession in Canada and that in the 

 United States and elsewhere. The Pleistocene drift deposits 

 constitute a conspicuous feature on the western prairies. Along 

 the railway, Laurentian, Huronian, and Palaeozoic boulders from 

 the east may be seen all the way to the Rocky Mountains, near 

 which they become mixed with stones from these mountains 

 themselves. The vast amount of this drift from the east and 

 north-east, and the great distance to which it has been carried, 

 as well as the elevation above the sea, are very striking. The 

 great belt of drift known as the Missouri Coteau is one of the 

 most remarkable features of the region. It was described in 

 some detail where crossed by the railway, and it was shown that 

 it must represent the margin of an ice-laden sea, and not a land- 

 moraine, and that its study has furnished a key to the explanation 

 of the drift deposits of the plains, and of the so-called "Terminal 

 Moraine," which has been traced by the geologists of the United 

 States from the Coteau round the basin of the Great Lakes to 

 the Atlantic. — On the Dyas (Permian) and Trias of Central 

 Europe and the true divisional line of these two formations, by 

 the Rev. A. Irving, B.Sc. 



Zoological Society, May 6. —Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Prof. Bell exhibited some specimens of 

 F.stherm melitensis sent from Malta by Capt. Becher, R. A., and 

 stated that, in answer to his inquiries, that gentleman had confirmed 

 the fact of the males appearing to equal in number the females, 

 as had been stated by previous observers of the members of the 

 genus. — Mr. G. A. Boulenger read a paper on the reptiles and 

 Batrachians of the Solomon Islands, principally based upon two 

 collections forwarded to the British Museum from that locality 

 by Mr. H. B. Guppy, R.N. — Lieut. -Col. Godwin-Austen, 

 F. R.S., exhibited an old Indian drawing representing a tiger- 

 hunt ; and called attention to the colour of one of the elephants 

 engaged, which was of a creamy white. — Prof. Flower, F.R. S., 

 described the state of dentition of a young Capybara (Hydro- 

 '/urrus capybara) born in the Society's Gardens, which had died 

 when eight days old. AH the teeth of the permanent series were 

 present and in use. — Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell read a paper on 

 Amphicyclus, a new genus of Dendroclinotous Holothurians, and 

 on its bearing on the classification of the suborder. — A commu- 

 nication was read from Mr. Edgar A. Smith, containing a report 

 on the land and freshwater Mollusca which had been collected 

 ■ luiing the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger from December 1872 

 to May 1876. The collection contained examplesof 152 species, 

 some of which were of interest and several new to science. — A 



communication was read from Count* Berlepsch and M. Taczan- 

 owski. containing an account of a second collection of birds 

 made in Western Ecuador by Messrs. Stolzmann and Siemir- 

 adzki. There were stated to be examples of 177 species in this 

 collection, which had been made at various localities on the 

 western slope of the Cordilleras above Guayaquil. The follow- 

 ing species were described as new : — Henicorhina lula, is, Chloro- 

 spni^ns ochraceas, and Sphermophila paupe>\ A new genus, 

 /\r ilotriccus, was proposed for Todirostrum ruficeps of Kaup. 

 — A paper by Messrs. Godman and Salvin was read, which con- 

 tained a list of the Rhopalocera obtained by Mr. G. French 

 Angas during a recent visit to the Island of Dominica. The 

 number of species in this collection was twenty-seven, among 

 them being a species of Nymphalinse apparently new ; this the 

 authors proposed to describe as Cymatogramm* dom-nicana. — ' 

 Mr. Herbert Druce read a paper describing the Heterocera 

 collected by Mr. Angas on the same island. 



Victoria Institute, May 6. — Vice-Chancellor Dawson, 

 C.M.G., of McGill University, Montreal, read a paper on 

 prehistoric man in Egypt and Syria, and described the investi- 

 gations which he had carried on during the winter in Egypt and 

 Syria. Dr. Dawson illustrated his paper by diagrams and speci- 

 mens, among which were several of the bones of animals, in the 

 classification of which Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F. R.S., had taken 

 part ; in dealing with his subject Dr. Dawson remarked that 

 great interest attaches to any remains which, in countries his- 

 torically so old, may indicate the residence of man before the 

 dawn of history. In Egypt, nodules of flint are very abundant 

 in the Eocene limestones, and, where these have been wasted 

 away, remain on the surface. In many places there is good 

 evidence that the flint thus to be found everywhere has been 

 used for the manufacture of flakes, knives, and other imple- 

 ments. These, as is well known, were used for many purposes 

 by the ancient Egyptians, and in modern times gun-flints and 

 strike-lights still continue to be made. The debris of worked 

 flints found on the surface is thus of little value as an indica- 

 tion of any any flint-folk preceding the old Egyptians. It would 

 be otherwise if flint implements could be found in the older 

 gravels of the country. Some of these are of Pleistocene age, 

 and belong to a period of partial submergence of the Nile 

 Valley. Flint implements had been alleged to be found 

 in these gravels, but there seemed to be no good evidence to 

 prove that they are other than the chips broken by mechanical 

 violence in the removal of the gravel by torrential action. In 

 the Lebanon, numerous caverns exist. These were divided into 

 two classes, with reference to their origin, some being water- 

 caves or tunnels of subterranean rivers, others sea-caves, ex- 

 cavated by the waves when the country was at a lower level than 

 at present. Both kinds have been occupied by man, and some 

 of them undoubtedly at a time anterior to the Phoenician occupa- 

 tion of the country, and even at a time when the animal 

 inhabitants and geographical features of the region were different 

 from those of the present day. They were thus of various ages, 

 ranging from the post-Glacial or Antediluvian period to the 

 time of the Phoenician occupation. In illustration of this, the 

 caverns at the Pass of Nahr-el-Kelb and at Ant Elias were 

 described in some detail, and also, in connection with these, the 

 occurrence of flint implements on 'the surface of modern sand- 

 stones at the Cape . or Ras near Beyrout. These last were 

 probably of much less antiquity than those of the more ancient 

 cavenv-. 



Sydney 



Linnean Society of New South Wales, March 26. — 

 C. S. Wilkinson, F.G.S., F.L.S., president, in the chair. — The 

 following papers were read : — On plants which have become 

 naturalised in New South Wales, by the Rev. W. Woolls, 

 Ph.D., F. L. S. In this paper the author not only deals with 

 the various importations, whether intentional or otherwise, of 

 new and often injurious weeds, but also with the general and 

 deliberate destruction of the native flora, especially in timber. 

 He also points out that many of our most valuable trees, as for 

 instance the Myall {Acacia pendula), are dying out in conse- 

 quence of the want of any kind of protection for the young 

 plants. They are produced in abundance, but eaten down as 

 fast as they grow. The paper contains a complete account of 

 all the exotic Mono- and Di-colylcdons known in the colony. — 

 Thi Australian Hydro-:,- his,,-, part i., by R. von Lendenfeld, 

 Ph.D. It is proposed in this paper to describe a series of 

 new species of Hydromedusce of our shores. A new classification 

 of the Hydromedusa' is proposed. The present paper forms a 



