vt) 7 / “et. 
NATURE 
[oz. 9, 1882 
tested by an appeal to facts, and it will be our duty in the course 
of our investigations to examine all the data which have been 
adduced in their support. I have referred to them on this occa- 
sion merely to show you that above and beyond the more or le<s 
obvious interpretation of geological phenomena, larger questions 
arise, the consideration of which demands not only laborious 
and far-extended observation, but must call into exercise all the 
varied powers of the human mind. 
In the initial stages of our geological investigations we are 
occupied in detecting the more apparent resemblances and 
correspondences between the present and the past. We readily 
discover in sedimentary strata the evidence of their accumula- 
tion by the action of water, nor do we experience much difii- 
culty in discovering the igneous origin of many rock-masses in 
regions now far removed from scenes of volcanic activity. But 
each observation we make and every well-founded correspond- 
ence we establish between the present end the past leads on to 
larger and larger deductions, until, as in the case of our granitic 
dykes and veins, we eventual'y find that geological investigations | 
frequently increase our acquaintance with forces now in action | 
and give us some insight into the hidden operations of nature. 
It is not indeed too much to say that in many cases our know- 
ledge of such operations is derived in large measure from a study 
of the effects produced by the work of nature in past ages. The 
examination, for example, of the fragmentary relics of ancient 
volcanoes, in this and other countries where volcanic action has 
long been extinct, has enabled us to picture to ourselves many 
details of the structure of those interior and basement parts of a 
voleanic mountain, which otherwi:e must ever have remained 
unknown. The long-continued action of the agents of denuda- 
tion has often removed those superficial rock-masses which 
gather around volcanic orifices, so as to lay bare, as in a dissec- 
tion, the interior and basal portions—showing us the fractured 
and baked strata through which the heated gases, molten matter, 
and loose ejectamenta were erupted, and the dykes and veins of 
crystalline rock which were injected into the cracks and fissures 
of the shattered strata. Nay, a study of those vast masses and 
sheets of granitic, gneissose, and schistose rocks, of which large 
portions of the Scottish Highlands, Scandinavia, and other 
countries are composed, induces the belief that these rocks ori- 
ginally existed as ordinary sedimentary strata, and that their 
present crystalline condition has been assumed at a time when 
they were deeply buried underneath other and of course younger 
strata. And thus we have hints given us as to what may be 
taking place now throughout extensive areas underneath the sur- 
face of the earth, where other sandstones and shales may be 
undergoing a gradual metamorphism and conversion into crys- 
talline rocks, 
(Zo be continued.) 
THE SENSES OF BEES 
At the meeting of the Linnean Society on Thursday last, Sir 
John Lubbock read an account of his further observations 
on the habits of insects, made during the past year. The two 
queen ants which have lived with him since 1874, and which 
are now, therefore, no less than eight years old, are still alive, 
and laid eggs last summer as usual. His oldest workers are 
seven years old. Dr. Miiller, in a recent review, had courteously 
criticised his experiments on the colour sense of bees, but Sir 
John I.utybock pointed out that he had anticipated the objections 
suggesied by Dr. Miiller, and had guarded against the supposed 
source of error. The difference was, moreover, not one of 
principle, nor does Dr. Miiller question the main conclusions 
arrived at, or doubt the preference of bees for blue, which 
indeed is strongly indicated by his own observations on flowers. 
Sir John also recorded some further experiments with a reference 
to the power of hearing. Some bees were trainel to come to 
honey which was placed on a musical box on the lawn close to a 
window. The musical box was kept going for several hours a 
day for a fortnight. It was then brought into the house and 
placed out of sight, but at the open window and only about 
seven yards from where it had been before. The bees, however, 
did not find the honey, though when it was once shown them, 
they came to it readily enough. Other experiments with a 
microphone were without results. Every one knows that bees 
when swarming are popularly, and have been ever since the time 
of Aristotle, supposed to be influenced by clanging kettles, &c. 
Experienced apiarists are now disposed to doubt whether the 
noise has really any effect, but Sir John suggests that even if it 
has, with reference to which he expressed no opinion, it is 
possible that what the bees hear are not the loud low sounds, but 
the higher overtones at the verge of, or beyond our range of 
hearing. As regards the industry of wasps, he timed a bee and 
a wasp, for each of which he provided a store of honey, and he 
found that the wasp began earlier in the morning (at 4 a.m.), 
worked on later in the day. He did not, however, quote this as 
proving greater industry on the part of the wasp, as it might be 
that they are Jess sensitive to cold.. Moreover, though the bee’s 
proboscis is admirably adapted to extract honey from tubular 
flowers, when the honey is exposed, as in this case, the wasp 
appears able to swallow it more rapidly, This particular wasp 
began work at four in the morning, and went on without any rest 
or intermission till a quarter to eight in the evening, during 
which time she paid Sir John 116 visits. 
INVERTEBRATE CASTS VERSUS ALG IN 
PAL#ZOZOIC STRATA 
HE distinguished Swedish geologist, Dr. A. Nathorst, 
having made numerous experiments, has come to the con- 
clusion that invertebrate animals, when creeping over a soft sea- 
bottom, will leave imprints which are identical with the markings 
which have hitherto been considered those of fossil Alge. If 
these Algee are examined, it will be found, he states, that the 
appearance of a great many of them indicate that they have not 
been organisms at all, but formed in some mechanical way, and 
that analogous forms may even be found in existing species. 
Dr, Nathorst considers that with the exception of three 
groups, the greatest number of Algz enumerated in Mr. 
Schimper-Zittel’s work on Palzontology as ‘ undefined,” are 
merely imprints of invertebrate animals. 
Some time ago Prof. Martens of Berlin demonstrated that 
ichthyological members of the genus eriophialmus which he 
had watched on the coast of Borneo when creeping over a clay 
bottom, left regular and defined impressions from their body 
and fins on the surface which would, if preserved, easily be mis- 
taken for cryptogamic fossils, and in a paper on casts of Medusz 
in the Cambrian strata of Sweden, Dr. Nathorst further shows 
that the so-called Zophyton spatangopsis, &c., which have been 
considered imprints of certain zoophytes and mollusks, are traces 
of Meduse. These ‘‘ fossils” are, according to his theory, 
either traces which Medusz leave when carried by the motion ot 
the water over a soft bottom (Zof/y/on), or imprints of their 
belly and adjacent organs when at rest. He further shows, that 
a more solid kind of Medusze than the common have left traces 
in the calcareous slate of Central Germany, which makes it 
possible, in some measure, to define their relation to existing 
species. 
Hitherto, Medusz have only been traced back to the Jurassic 
period, but Dr, Nathorst shows that these organisms have existed 
from at least Cambrian times. The imprints which the lower 
organisms leave on mud or sand vary in appearance with the 
creeping or swimming habits of the animals, as well as with the 
nature of the bottom, whilst it is particularly interesting to note 
that certain worms produce imprints and vermiculated holes, 
which are exactly like the radiant Algz, and which would not 
be supposed to be the work of invertebrata, if their formation 
had not been clearly demonstrated. 
In connection herewith it should be mentioned, that imprints 
may also be made in a soft sea-bottom by stones, which are 
carried along with the tide by floating sea-weeds, regarding 
which observations have recently been made by the Scottish 
naturalist, Mr. Symington Grieve. Cc. S. 
RIOLOGY IN ITALY 
[NX welcoming the appearance of this new journal under the 
editorship of Prof. Emery, of Bologna, and Prof, Mosso of 
Turin, it may not be amiss to mention briefly the programme of 
its originators, They will endeavour each year to give a classi- 
fied list of all works published in Italy on biology, in its widest 
sense, The list for 1881, with an index of the names of authors, 
appears in volume I, They will try and bring together and illus- 
trate original memoirs on subjects which treat of life in every 
form. In addition to these there will from time to time appear 
résumés and notices of memoirs appearing in other Italian 
journals ; and as far as practicable the résumés will be drawn up 
by the authors of the papers abstracted. The archives will be 
1 “Archives Italiennes de Biologie.” tome i., 1882. Tome ii. fase. i., 
October x5, 1882. (Rome, Florence, Turin: H. Loescher.) 
