July 26, 1877] 



NA TURE 



249 



THE VISIT OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 

 TO PLYMOUTH 



THERE are very good reasons for anticipating that 

 the Plymouth meeting of the British Association 

 irill be at least up to the average in interest and success. 

 Indeed, in some respects it is anticipated that it will be 

 unusually attractive ; and the attendance is likely to be 

 much larger than from the distance west was at first thought 

 probable. And as the details of the local arrangements 

 approach completion so do the outside attractions,rendered 

 available for the pleasure or information of the visitors, 

 increase and multiply. The Government authorities have 

 kindly consented to render every facility in their power 

 for the inspection of the great establishments which con- 

 stitute Plymouth and Devonport one of the chief arsenals 

 in the world. The dockyard and Keyham yards will be 

 freely open ; those who desire to inspect the famous 

 biscuit machinery at the Royal William Victualling Yard 

 will be enabled to do so ; there will be gunnery practice 

 and probably torpedo practice also to be witnessed on 

 board the Cambridge. The Breakwater of course can be 

 seen at any time from Plymouth Hoe, and visited when- 

 ever weather will permit, which unless a gale is blowing 

 it always does. The Breakwater Fort, reared on an 

 artificial island of stone in the Sound immediately within 

 the Breakwater, granite-capped and iron-plated, is by far 

 the most interesting of the great chain of forts wherewith 

 the Three Towns are girdled, and this too, it is hoped, will 

 be open to inspection. The Eddystone will be visited on 

 the Saturday, as already stated ; but it must be under- 

 stood that it is by no means certain that a landing can be 

 efl'ected. In fair weather, even, there is at times such a 

 swell there as to render landing difficult, and even 

 dangerous, while in rough weather it is impossible. 



The excursion arrangements have been somewhat 

 extended since our previous notice. On the Saturday, in 

 addition to the excursions to the Eddystone, Lee Moor, 

 and Iskeard for the Caradon Mines, it is now proposed 

 by the citizens of Exeter to invite a large party of the 

 members to this famous city, which abounds in objects 

 of antiquarian interest, and which is noted for the hospi- 

 tality with which it receives its guests. Iskeard too, is 

 moving in the same direction ; and the proprietors of Lee 

 Moor Clay Works, Messrs. INIartin, intend to make 

 provision also for their visitors. After the clay works 

 have been seen and justice done to the luncheon, there 

 will be ample opportunity for a delightful ramble on 

 Dartmoor. Shell Top and Pen Beacon, with their 

 magnificent views and prehistoric remains, are within 

 very easy distance, and good walkers will have the 

 opportunity of enjoying some of the most romantic 

 scenery in Devon, in the valleys of the Plym, and other 

 moorland rivers. 



The excursion arrangements for the Thursday remain 

 unchanged ; but there has been a considerable addition 

 to the list of available attraction?. The engineers of the 

 party, through the kindness of Mr. Margary, engineer of 

 the Great Western Railway for the district, will be 

 enabled to inspect the Royal Albert Bridge to their heart's 

 content — even to a scramble through the tubes. The 

 great granite works and granite quarries of Messrs. 

 Freeman at Penryn ; the mines of Dohvath, Tincroft, 

 and Carn Brea (by the kindness of Capt. Josiah Thomas 

 and Capt. Teague) ; the pneumatic stamps of Mr. Hus- 

 bai.d, at the Hayle Foundry ; the tin smelting works of 

 Messrs. Bolitho, at Penzance, will all, by the courtesy of 

 their proprietors, be available to be visited by members of 

 the Association. And as the Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe 

 has kindly opened his magnificent park and his romantic 

 mansion of Cotehelc, so Sir John St. Aubyn permits his 

 famous and historic residence, St. Michael's Alount, to be 

 visited by those members of the Association who may 

 find their way so far west. 



The public museums of the two counties will, we believe, 



be all open to the members. The chief are that at Exeter, 

 that of the Royal Cornwall Institution at Truro, and that 

 of the Royal Cornwall Geological Society at Penzance. 

 Mr. C. C. Ross, of the latter town, has one of the best 

 private collections of minerals in the West of England, 

 and will gladly show it to all who feel interested in mine- 

 ralogy. Then there are the museums of the Torquay 

 Natural History Society, the specialty of which is its 

 Kent's Cavern collection, which will form one of the 

 attractions of the Torquay excursion, and the Museum of 

 the Plymouth Institution, in which will be found a magni- 

 ficent collection of flmt implements and weapons lent and 

 arranged for the occasion by ?vlr. Brent. 



There will be several local papers contributed to the 

 various sections, but the list is hardly likely to be so long 

 as at the meeting of 1841, when the local contributions 

 were unusually numerous. 



The Pharmiceutical Society will, as usual, hold their 

 meeting immediately prior to the meeting of the British 

 Association at Plymouth, and the Mineralogical Society 

 and the Society of Public Analysts, will also meet at 

 Plymouth during the Association week. 



THE GORILLA 



SINCE Monday last the young gorilla from the Berlin 

 Aquarium has been exhibited, during most hours of the 

 day, at the Westminster Aquarium, in comaany with a 

 chimpanzee. This is the first occasion on which a living 

 gorilla has been publicly exhibited in this country as 

 such, an earlier specimen some years ago, in a travelling 

 menagerie, having passed for a chimpanzee during its 

 life- time. 



The gorilla, which is about three years old, appears in 

 excellent health, and differs mist strikingly from its com- 

 panion in the blackness of its face and extremities, the 

 smallness of its ears, the shortness of its muzzle, the 

 great development and breadth of the alae of its nose, the 

 shortness and softness of its thick-set body-hair, the 

 presence of a frontal hair-tuft, the breadth and flatness of 

 its back, which is also capable of greater backward bend- 

 ing, the smallness of the four outer toes, which are free 

 for but a short distance, the breadth of its hands, and the 

 massiveness of the liape of the neck. The conjunctiva is 

 black, and the eye intelligent. We think that no one 

 interested in natural history should lose the opportunity 

 of seeing this particularly interesting Anthropoid ape. 



BRISINGA 



NEARLY a quarter of a century ago the celebrated 

 Norwegian poet and naturalist, P. Chr. Asbjornsen, 

 was dredging in the interior of the picturesque Hard- 

 angerfjord, when, at a depth of about 200 fathoms, the 

 dredge brought up a wonderful new star-like Echinoderm, 

 quite unlike any form that had been up to that moment 

 described. From a little circular disc of about an inch in 

 diameter there issued eleven spreading arms or rays up- 

 wards of a foot each in length. These were armed along 

 the edges with several rows of long spines ; these arms, 

 while standing near together at their base, generally taper 

 away gradually to their tips. The colour, though variable, 

 was, on the upper or dorsal surface, of a more or less red 

 hue and paler, often to whiteness, on the under surface. 

 On the lower surface of the disc, and occupying the 

 central space, is seen the mouth-like aperture of the ali- 

 mentary system, and spreading away from it along the 

 centre of each ray-like arm, are the deep ambulacral fur- 

 rows, so called because from these furrows issue the 

 ambulacra or water-feet. These form two uninterrupted 

 rows, and are flanked by several palisades of strongly-deve- 

 loped spines, the outer ones being the longest. All these 

 spines are enveloped in an integument which is covered 

 with strange- looking Pedicellariae. 



