mpound, which was discovered by the late Prof. Graham, 
er of the Ruyal Mint, and supposed by him to be an alloy 
of palladium and hydrogen, is obtained on making metallic 
alladium, the negative pole in the electrolysis of water aciduated 
with sulphuric acid. he authors find, however, that the 
charged metal cannot be regarded as a true alloy of the two 
elements. 
_tAnthropological Institute, Dec. 3.--Sir John Lubbock, Bart., 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Col. A. Lane Fox exhibited 
“seven celts presented to him by Col. Pearce, R.A., who procured 
them from the grove and hill-top Temples of the Malayalis or 
hill-tribes of the Shevavoy hills, Salem, Madras Presidency. 
Col. Fox also read a report on Anthropology, at the meeting of 
-the British Association at Brighton.—Professor T. Rupert 
_ Jones, F.R.S., read a paper ‘‘ On Implements from the Caves of 
Périgord, France, bearing marks referable to ownership, tallying, 
g bling, &c.” Among the implements of bone, deer-horn, and 
ivory found by MM. Christy and Lartet in the caves of the 
- Dordogne district in France, are many bearing more or less 
definitely designed marks, such as scorings and notches, parallel, 
crossing, or otherwise arranged, and fittings in a roughly quin- 
cuncial order. One specimen in particular exhibited several of 
“these kinds of markings, whether made for a purpose, for or- 
nament, or by trivial whittling. Prof. Jones described several 
implements from the caves exhibiting one or more of these types 
of marks, and indicated their applicability to ownership, 
‘reckoning by tally, gambling, or mere fancy-work; he also 
suggested that therein we might have some of the earliest 
examples of magic signs and lucky charms, such as the old 
_ Norsemen and some Archaic people are said to have used and 
_ feared. Lieut. C. Cooper King, R.M.A., read a paper ‘‘On a 
Flint Implement Station at Wishmoor Bottom, Bagshot Heath.” 
_ The interest of the discovery of flint chips and implements 
between Bagshot and Sandhurst lay chiefly in the peculiar nature 
of the locality in which these ancient traces of early human life 
_ were found. Apparently from the topography of the ground they 
_ had occupied the bed ofa swampy valley which it was suggested 
_had been, at the time of the deposition of the relics, a small lake 
area, near one of the great Western routes. It was further 
jointed out by the author that the flints themselves appeared not 
_ to be of local origin. and that the work performed at the place of 
discovery had probably been that of re-fashioning existing imple- 
-ments, rather than the construction of new ones from local flints. 
4 MANCHESTER 
_ Literary and Philosophical Society, Oct. 29.—Edward 
Schunck, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair, Dr. R. Angus 
Smith, F.R.S., described a remarkable fog which he saw in 
Iceland. It appeared to rise from a small lake and from the 
sea at about the same time, when it rolled from both places and 
‘the two streams met in the town of Reykjavik. It had the 
appearance of dust, and was called dust by some persons there 
at first sight. This arose from the great size of the particles of 
which it was composed. ‘They were believed to be from ,jyth 
to zi;th of aninch in diameter. They did not show any signs 
ot being vesicular, but through a small magnifier looked like 
_ transparent concrete globules of water. They were continually 
_ tending downwards, and their place was supplied by others that 
_ rolled over. 
___ Nov.12.—J. P. Joule, F.R.S., president, in the chair. Addi- 
tional Notes on the Drift Deposits near Manchester, by E. W. 
‘Binney. F.R.S. An Account of some Experiments on the 
‘Melting Point of Paraffin, by Balfour Stewart, F.R.S. 
Nov. 26.—J. P. Joule, F.R.S., president, in the chair. Dr. 
_ R. Angus Smith, F.R.S., saidthathe, likeothers, had observed that 
the particles of stonemost liableto be in long contact with rain from 
town atmospheres, in England at least, were most subject to decay. 
Believing the acid to be the cause, he supposed that the endur- 
ance of a siliceous stone might be somewhat measured by 
measuring its resistance to acids. He proposed therefore to use 
_ stronger solutions, and thus to approach to the action of long 
P periods of time. He tried a few specimens in this way, and 
_ with most promising results. Pieces of about an inch cube were 
broken by the fall of a hammer, and the number of blows 
counted. Similar pieces were steeped in weak acid; both 
sulphuric and muriatic were tried, and the latter preferred. The 
number of blows now necessary was counted. Some sandstones 
gave way at once and crumbled into sand, some resisted long. 
Some very dense siliceous stone was little affected ; it had stood 
_ ona bridge unaltered for centuries, in a country place however. 
ofr OSes TS peda 
eat, OE Tees 
erie 
a4 \ 
NATURE 135 
| These trials were mere beginnings; he arranged for a very 
extensive set of experiments to be made soas to fix on a standard 
of comparison, but has not found time.—‘ On some points in 
the Chemistry of Acid Manufacture,” by H. A. Smith, F.C.S. 
NEw ZEALAND 
Wellington Philosophical Society, July to September.— 
Weekly meetings have been held during the session, which 
was commenced by an address of the President, Dr. Hector, 
concerning certain matters that have been under discussion. 
Relative to the extinction of the Moa, he considers that there 
is evidence that they existedin Otago in considerable numbers 
within 200 years, and that a few may have survived to within 
seventy years. Keferring to the first period in which Moas first 
appeared, he points out the absence of any evidence of there 
having been a Glacial period in the New Zealand area, there 
being no dispersed drifts. Nor is there any evidence of 
submergence since the last great extension of the glaciers which 
were coincident with a much greater elevation of the central 
ranges of the South Island than at present. Important contri- 
butions have also been made to the natural history of lizards, 
birds, and fishes of the colony by Dr. Butler, Captain 
Hutton, Mr. Travers, and others.—A series of papers is in 
progress by W. T. L. Travers, describing the changes 
effected in the Maories at the time they first acquired fire-arms 
and European implements, and when there was a sudden stride 
of a powerful race from the age of stone to that of iron.—An 
important paper by Captain Hutton on the geographical relations 
of the New Zealand fauna, in which he argues ;—(1) A continental 
period in which South America, New Zealand, Australia, and 
South Africa were joined, which he places about the close of the 
Mesozoic. New Zealand was then separated, prior to the 
spread of mammals, and has since then never been completely 
submerged, (2) Subsidence followed, and a second continent 
connected, New Zealand, Lord Howe's Islands, New Caledonia, 
and Polynesia. (3) Subsidence then reduced New Zealand to a 
group of Ifands, upon which the Moa lived, so that many 
species arose (4);Re-elevation joined the small Islands and mixed 
the different species of Moa which inhabited a large Island 
disconnected from Polynesia. (5) This was followed by sub- 
sidence, when New Zealand acquired its present form, and the 
Moas continued till they were destroyed by the Maories. 
Sept. 17.—Captain Hutton read an elaborate paper on the 
date of the last great glacier period in New Zealand: and the 
formation of the Wakatipu Lake. The author, in Opposition to 
the views expressed by Dr. Hector and to those held also by Dr. 
Haast, attributes the for mation of the terraces that are so common 
in the valleys in the South Island to marine action, advancing 
the view that New Zealand has been submerged beneath the 
sea, since the valleys were eroded by glaciers the former exten- 
sion of which he attributes solely to extreme elevation of the 
land during a preceding period, considering the view expressed 
by Dr. Hector that there has been a reduction of the area of 
land above the snow line by the erosive action of the glaciers as 
unnecessary and exaggerated. Speaking of the Canterbury 
plains, the author stated that Dr. Haast’s sections show that they 
are nearly level in a line parallel with the coast between the 
Rangitata and the Waimakiriri, and that the gravel formation 
wraps round the spurs of the hills at the same level that it has at 
the river gorges, and considers that these facts and also the oc- 
currence of vegetable deposits below the gravel of the plains, are 
readily explained by supposing these to Le of marine formation, 
and quite inexplicable on the river formation theory. Another 
proof of recent elevation is the fact that the glaciers are now ad- 
vancing and overriding their terminal moraines. The absence of 
strize on the rock surfaces the author considers to be a strong 
proof that the glacicrs were exteuded during the Pliocene, and 
not a more recent period. ‘The origin of deep lakes, taking 
Wakitipu as a type, and the sounds on the West Coast were next 
described with the view uf proving that their formation is not 
due to subsidence or unequal depression, but only to the scooping 
out of the rock by glaciers. Dr. Hector could not agree with 
the conclusions arrived at further than attributing the erosion of 
the Alpine valleys and the rock-boun 1 lake basins to the SCOOp- 
ing of ice. On the whole, he thought, no proof had been ad- 
yanced of any Pleistocene submergence beneath the sea of the 
Alpine district since the excavation of the great valleys by the 
glaciers. After quoting Sir Charles Lyell, who points out that 
the tine required for similar excavations is so extensive that it 
covers a period during which we know that great oscillations 
have taken place, Dr, Hector drew attention to the irregularity 
