; . Fune 22, 1871 | 
~president, in the chair. 
NATURE 
155 

relation to literary culture or the culture of the educated classes, 
and that by extending education to other classes of the population, 
the intellectual capacity of the community will be extended and 
propagated within certain limits. 
MANCHESTER 
Literary and Philosophical Society, April 4.—‘‘ Notes 
on drift of the eastern parts of the counties of Chester and 
Lancaster.” By E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., president. 
Having in a previous paper given a short description of the 
higher drift found in these counties, the author now pro- 
ceeds to consider the thick surface covering of the general 
drift, which nearly hides from our view the underlying strata, 
except where they are exposed in river courses or in canal 
or railway cuttings. 
about 700 feet above the sea, and does not alter much in 
its appearance, whether it is seen at Blackpool, Ormskirk, or 
Liverpool, or at Burnley, Rochdale, Glossop, or Macclesfield, 
except being usually more divided as it is found in!and, and 
approaches the sides of the Pennine chain. It consists of beds 
of till, clay, sand, and gravel. It has beentreated on by various 
authors, a list of whose works are given. 
Annual Meeting, April 18. —Mr. E. W.'Binney, F.R.S.,'F.G.S., 
The report of the Council was read by one 
of the secretaries. The Council have the satisfaction to report 
that the past year has been one of steady progress for the Society. 
- The following gentlemen were elected officers of the Society and 
members of the Council for the ensuing year :—President : Mr. 
Edward William Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S. Vice-presidents : 
Mr, James Prescott Joule, D.C.L., F.R.S., F.C.S., Mr. Edward 
Schunck, F.R.S., F.C.S., Mr. Robert Angus Smith, F.R.S., 
IP.C.S., Rey. William Gaskell. Secretaries: Mr. Henry 
Enfield Roscoe, F.R.S., F.C.S., Mr. Joseph Baxendale, 
F,R.A.S. Treasurer: Mr. Thomas Carrick. Librarian: My, 
Charles Bailey. Other Members of the Council: Mr. Peter 
Spence, F.C.S., Mr. William Leeson Dickinson, Mr. Henry 
Wilde, Mr. Robert Dukinfield Darbishire, F.G.S., Prof. 
Osborne Reynolds, and Mr. William Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S. 
Dr. Joule, F.R.S., drew attention to the remarkable atmo- 
spheric phenomenon which had been seen by several persons in 
Derbyshire and elsewhere, on the evening of Good Friday, 
April 7, and stated that he had witnessed a similar appearance 
near Glasgow on the day before it was observed in this neigh- 
bourhoed. ‘The perpendicular ray extended upwards from the 
sun to an allitude of 30°, and was very clearly defined. It was 
observed from half an hour hefore, until after the sun had set. 
The phenomenon was also witnessed, at the same time, by Prof. 
J. Thomson, who was sailing on the Firth of Clyde. 
CAMBRIDGE 
Philosophical Society, May 15.— ‘On Dr. Wiener’s model 
of a cubic surface with twenty-seven real lines,” Prof. Cayley, 
F.R.S.—‘ On the tides in a rotating globe covered by a Sea of 
depth constant at all points in the same latitude, attracted by a 
moon always in the plane of the equator; considered with 
reference to the tidal retardation of the earth’s angular motion 
about its axis,” Mr, Rohrs. ‘* On the motion of imperfect fiuid 
in a hollow sphere, rotating about its centre under the action 
of impressed external periodic forces, considered with reference 
to the phenomena of precession and nutation,”’ Mr. Rohrs. 
May 29.—‘‘On an illustraticn of the empirical theory of 
vision,” Mr, Coutts Trotter. “On a table of the logarithms of 
the first 250 Bernoullis Numbers,” Mr. Glaisher. 
Nrw York 
Lyceum of Natural History, Oct. 24, 1870.—‘‘The Geo- 
logical Position of the Remains of Elephant and Mastodon in North 
America,” by Dr. J.S. Newberry. The genera Zvephas and Afas- 
fodon existed on the globe during the Miocene Tertiary Epoch 
and were represented by various species from that time to the 
advent of man. The question is, when the two species Z/e- 
fhas primigenius and Alastedon giganteus are first met with in | 
ascending the geological scale. In Europe it is claimed that re- 
mains of these species are found in the true Boulder Drift, and 
in California in the Pliocene Tertiary deposits. Whether either 
of these statements is strictly true remains to be decided hy 
future investigations. In central and eastern North America the 
remains of elephant and mastodon are found abundantly in peat 
bogs and other superficial and recent deposits, also in some strata 
of unconsolidated material which are considered as belonging to 
This generally reaches to an elevation of | 

the drift, although there has been much difference of opinion 
whether these beds form part of the true undisturbed drift, or 
whether they consist of re-arranged drift-materials or what is 
called ‘‘Modified Drift. The facts now offered seem to prove 
conclusively that the remains of elephant and mastodon are found 
in the true and unchanged drift, but only in the more recent of 
the drift deposits. The presence of these great mammals must 
therefore be considered as one of the incidenis in the history of 
the drift, but as incidents belonging only to the last chapters in 
this long and somewhat eventful history. In order that the ad- 
vent of the elephant and mastodon may be properly placed in 
the sequence of phenomena embraced in the Drift period, it will 
be necessary to make a brief review of these phenomena so far 
as they are known tous. The geological periods immediately 
antecedent to the Drift are the Cretaceous, which was a period of 
marked continental submergence, when the ocean covered most 
of the western half of the continent and reached several hundred 
feet higher than now over the basis of the eastern h'ghlands ; 
and the Tertiary with its three subdivisions Eocene, Miccene, and 
Pliocene. The Eocene was a period of continental progressive 
emergence—land area gradually expanding, climate subtropical. 
In the Miocene and Pliocene epochs the topography was ina 
general way what it is now, but in detail the surface was con- 
siderably more diversified, especially by the presence of great 
fresh-water lakes which occupied much of the surface on both 
sides of the Rocky Mountains. At this time there was probably 
a land connection between the noithern part of North America 
and Europe on the one hand and Asia on the other. The 
climates of Alaska and Greenland were then as mild as that of 
Virginia now ; the flora was luxuriant and varied, and was com- 
mon to Europe, Iceland, Spitzbergen, Green!and, our continent, 
and North-eastern Asia; palms grew farther north than the 
Canadian line. The fauna was much richer than now, including 
elephant, rhinoceros, and many other animals not now living in 
either of the Americas, and indeed as large a number of the 
great mammals as are now found in Africa. The superficial 
boulders and gravels of the Drift are clearly the result of 
iceberg action. It is proved by the undisturbed condition 
of the clays below, that they must have been /oated to their 
present resting places, just as boulders, sand, and gravel are floated 
from Greenland to the banks of Newfoundland, and there spread 
broadcast over the sea bottom. In the Drift deposits above the 
blue clay, remains cf Flephant and Mastodon have been re- 
peatedly found, still more frequently in the Peat-bogs of the pre- 
sent surface, and the much-discussed question has been, whether 
these mammalian remains were deposited with the upper layers 
of the Drift or were buried in them by subsequent shifting, as 
in the valleys of streams. The facts to which attention is now 
specially directed would seem to decide that question. It has 
long been known that in many parts of the valley of the M'ssis- 
sippi, wells penetrating twenty, thirty, or more feet, the super- 
ficial accumulations of dvi/ted materials—clays and sands, with 
gravels and boulders brought from the far north—encounter 
sticks, logs, stumps, and sometimes a distinct carbonaceous soil. 
Combining facts of this character, of which records have been 
accumulating from year to year, with those brought to light by 
recent investigations directed specifically to this object, it is 
proved that over a great area at the West a sheet of buried tim- 
ber, a vegetable soil, beds of peat covered with sphagrous moss, 
erect stumps, and in some cases standing trees, form a distinct 
line of demarcation between the older and newer drift deposits. 
In or above the horizon of this ancient soil have been found 
numerous animal remains : Lvephas, Mastodon, Castoroides (the 
great extinct beaver) and some others. 
PARIS 
Academy of Sciences, June 5.—M. Faye inthe chair. M. 
Delaunay gave some supplementary infcrmation relative to the 
attempts made by the Communists to set fire to the National 
Observatory. The director of the establishment says that M. 
Yvon Villarceau was scmewhat incorrect in the description of the 
damage done to the instruments belonging to the gecdesic service, 
of which he is the chief and superintendent. The National 
Observatory, which was built more than two centuries ago under 
the reign of Louis XIV., is a very strong building, with thick 
walls, and the garden itself is at an elevation of roft. from the 
level of the surrounding land. The extent of the garden is about 
half an acre. The Communist forces had garrisoned it, and i: 
was only when obliged to retreat that they tried to burnit down, 
which attempt was defeated only by the personal exertions of 
the staff, their families, and well-disposed persons in the vicinity, 
