
254 
NATURE 

Siberia. The cross between the yak and common ox has the 
advantage of thriving in a milder climate than that of the moun- 
tainous region of the yak. Dr. Hartmann also continues (No. 
2) his summary of the available information as to ‘“* Lake 
Dwellings,” here discussing their cultivation and preparation of 
grain and other vegetables. He reaffirms the usual conclusion 
that the cultivated plants of the lake dwellers of Central Europe 
indicate connection with the Mediterranean and even Africa. 
Perhaps the most remarkable point in the paper is the compari- 
son of their large earthen jars for store corn, and their stone 
grain rubbers for meating it, with similar jars and grain rubbers 
in modern Africa.—Prof. Meinicke’s *‘ Remarks on Wallace’s | 
Views as to the Population of the Indian Islands” are written | 
in strong opposition to the English naturalist’s theory as to the | 
ethnologi-al relations of Malays, Polynesians, and Papuons. 
With regard to Mr. Wallace’s argument from contrast of the 
Malay character with the Papuan as proving difference of race, 
Prof. Meinicke argues that the Malay’s couriesy and reserve may 
not be a race-character at all, but an effeet of conversion to 
Mohammedanism ; while revenge and bioodthirstiness belong to 
some Pasuans as much as to Malays. In opposition to Mr. 
Wallace’s view of Malays and Papuans being two distinct races, 
and of the Moluccas being largely populated by their inter- 
mixture, Prof. Meinicke claims the natives of the Moluccas as 
intermediare varieties forming a link of connection between the 
extreme Malay and Papuan types. As to the relation between 
Malays and Polynesians, Prof. Meinicke maintains the old and 
generally received view of an ethnological connection between 
them. —It is good evidence of the activity with which the science 
of man is now being pursued that Dr. W. Koner’s useful biblio- 
graphy of Anthropoiogy, Ethnology, and Prehistoric Archeology 
for 1869-70 extends to twenty pages of the journal.—Dr. 
Bastian’s review of Darwin’s “Descent of Man,” expressing 
high admiration for irs hypothetically-arranged evidence as a 
contribution to science, protests against the exaggeration of 
Darwinism, or rather, the return to Lamarckism prevalent among 
too impetuous followers of the development theory. 
In the July number of the Geological Magazine (No. 85) the 
editor, Mr. Woodward, publishes a most interesting suaimary 
of the evidence extant as to the existence of limbs in the 
Trilobites, with a discussion of the significance of a remarkable 
specimen of Asuphus, lately described by Mr. Billings in the 
Quarterly Fournal of the Geological Society. From a personal 
examination of the specimen, Prof. Dana was led to declare 
that the objects described by Mr. Billings as legs were merely 
calcified portions of the ventral integument destined to support 
branchial appendages. Mr. Woodward shows, and we think 
satisfactorily, that Prof. Dana is in error here. This valuable 
paper is illustrated with a plate contrasting the lower surface of 
Mr. Billings’s Trilobite with that of the Norway lobster.—Mr. 
Hall contributes some observations on the general relations of 
the drift deposits of Ireland to those of Great Britain, in which 
the author confirms and extends the vicws adopted by Prof. 
Harkness as to the correlation of the Irish drift deposits with 
those of Britain, and the accordance of the whole with the prin- 
ciples laid down by Mr. Searles V- Wood, jun. A tabular 
statement of the phenomena of the three stages of the drift 
period in Britain concludes this paper.—From Mr. G. A. 
Lebour we have a note on the submergence of Is in western 
Brittany, in which, after referring toa breton tradition that a 
town named Is was submerged in the Bay of Douarneney some 
fifteen hundred years ago, he adduces certain evidence to show 
that a gradual depression is taking place along this coast. He 
notices a submerwed forest in the small Bay de la Forét.—Mr. 
Mackintosh continues his paper on the drifts of the west and 
south borders of the Lake district; Mr. A. G. Cameron 
describes the recently-discovered caverns at Stainton in Furness ; 
and Mr. J. E. Taylor discusses the relation of the Red to the 
Norwich Crags. 
Tue first part of the fourteenth volume of the Adé della 
Societd Italiana di Scienze Naturali, published in April of the 
present year, contains only three papers, moie than one-third of 
its pages being occupied by the annual report, list of members, 
&c. The papers are a description of a new species of Dalmatian 
shell, by MM. A. and G, B, Villa, to which the authors give 
the name of Clausilza dz Cattanie ; a long memoir on rennet and 
caseification, by M. C. Besana, and a short notice by Dr. C. 
Marinoni, of some new prehistoric remains collected in Lom- 
bardy, 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LoNDON 
Geologists’ Association, July 7.—Prof. Morris, vice- 
president, in the chair. 
the Upper Limits of the Devonian System.” The author did 
not wish to reopen the controversy which had taken place be- 
tween the late Prof. Jukes and the supporters of the classification 
of the older gelogists. but simply to lay before the Association 
a few facts as a prelude to a more complete paper which he 
hoped to bring forward during the next session. Mr, Pattison 
referred at some length to the fauna of the continental Devonian 
rocks, and strongly opposed the view recently put forward, that 
the Petherwin se‘ies is Lower Devonian and not Upper as 
generally supposed. He quite agreed with the older geologists 
in their classification, and concluied by recommending the sec- 
tions exposed in North Devon to the attention of young geolo- — 
gists.— After some remarks by Prof. Tennant, Mr. Henry 
Woodward, and Mr Lobley, Prof. Morris described the distri- 
bution of the Devonian rocks throughout Europe, and remarked 
on the absence of vertebrare remains in the Devonian rocks of 
the South of England, in which corals and brachiopods abound, 
and the abundance of vertebrate remains in the Devonians or 
Old Red sandstunes of Scouland, in which neither corals nor 
brachiopods have been detected. In the province of Oranburg, 
in Russia, however, the Devonian rocks contain both a vertebrate 
and a molluscan fauna.—A note “On a New Section of the 
Upper Bed of the London Clay,” by Mr. Caleb Evans, drew” 
the attention of the Assocja‘ion to an interesting exposure of a 
very fossiliferous bed of the London clay at Child’s Hill, Hamp- 
stead. From an inconsiderable excavation at this place, Mr. 
Evans had collected in a short time twenty-three species, chiefly 
gasteropoda, in a fine state of preservation. This bed Mr. 
Evans considers to be the uppermost bed of the London clay, 
and immediately underlying the Bagshot sands, which form the 
summit of Hampstead Heath. 
MaAuRITIus 
Metecrological Society, April 28.— The Honorable 
Colville Barclay, vice-president, in the chair.—The follow- 
ing leite s and publications were Jaid upon the table:—1. A 
letter from Mr. James Duncan, Government Surveyor, for- 
warding a copy of observations taken at the Survey Camp, 
Vacoas, during the month of March Jast, at about 1,850 feet above 
the sea-level. 2. A letter from Mr. G. Jenner, Rodrigues, for- 
warding observations taken there in December, January, Feb- 
ruary, and March last. 3. From Mr. F. Timperley, Pample- 
mousses, giving a description of a meteor seen by him on the 
22nd March. 4. Queensland Observations for October, 
November, and December 1870, by Mr. Edmund MacDonnell. 
5. Singapore Observa ions for January 1871, by Dr. H. L. 
Randell —‘‘On the Converging of the Wind in Cyclones.” 
The Secretary read the following letter addressed to him on the 
above subject by Captain Douglas Wales, Harbour Master :— 
**Some remarks of yours respecting the uncertainty of the real 
position of the centre of a cyclone set me thnking, and I send 
you a few ideas on the subject, which, as a sailor, I think worthy 
the serious attention of seamen, and the correctness of which they 
may put to the test of experience, whenever they have opportu- 
nities of doing so. Allow me to premise that I have no intention 
of dogmatising. I believe our knowledge of the cause of these 
feartul tempests, of their origin, their progress in this or that 
direction, their rate of progression, their recurving, the reasons 
of those recurvings, and their ultimate dispersion, to be still in 
its infancy. No doubt, the knowledge already acquired has 
saved many a good ship from becoming entangled in these storms, 
especially ships approaching them on their equatorial sides ; but 
at the same time it must be admitted that more than one intelli- 
gent seaman, who thought himself well up in the subject, has 
actually run into the very centre of a cyclone, when, by all known 
rules, he ought to have been certain of avoiding it. There must 
be some reason for such an error, and it is that reason that I 
have been seeking for, and which, I trust, I have to some extent 
discovered. I send you a diagram on a large scale, whicn will 
explain my views more cleariy than any written description. I 
assume that within a diameter of 40, 50, 60, 70, or 80 miles, a 
true circular storm of terrific violence must be found in every so 
called hurricane, and that to a considerable distance outside and 
around this central and circular storm winds are to be found 
gradually decreasing in force from 11, near the outer edge of the 
Mr. J. R. Pattison read a paper ‘On 

