386 NATURE 

dows, bells were rung violently, windows were thrown up, and 
cries of ‘ [nieves’ and ‘ Police’ were shouted. But there was 
no earthquake, there were no thieves, although there were the 
police, by whom the sounds were dis iactly heard. It wassome 
time before all was again quiet, and not even then in many a 
househo'd until processions in curious girb, armed with sticks, 
pokers, shovels, and fire-irons, in place of fire-arms, had paraded 
from kitchen to garret in search of the supposed nocturnal 
marauders. And now the cause of all this has been discovered. 
It was the coastguard squadron, a few miles out at sea, having 
what is termed their nignt quarter exercise—a turn-out drill in 
the middle of the night, so as to fit the men for action in an 
emergency.” E. A. PANKHUKST 
Chuich Hill, Brighton, September 11 
A Fossiliferous Boulder 
DurinG a visit I made in July last to a respected friend at 
Dinnington, Northumberland, [ observed a travelled b ulder in 
the corner of his field, aud, on closer inspection, found that it 
contained a number of ammonites, encrinites, and the detached 
portions of the stems of the stone lily, usually found in the Lias 
in the vicinity of Whitby. The composition of the boulder, 
which was about two feet in length, and of proportionate breadth 
and depth, was basaltic or trap, and had cvidently taken up the 
fossils when ina state of fusion ; some of the ammonites being 
compressed or disturbed. Upon inquiry, it appeared that my 
friend had suok for a well, and came at the depth of about twelve 
feet upon the native freestone rock, upon which this bouljer was 
found. Ot course it must have been transported to its place of 
deposit by ice during the glacial period of our world’s history, 
and then covered over by the subsequent boulder-clay ; but from 
whence was it transported? From Yorkshire or the Hebrides ? 
I also visited in the immediate vicinity what was formerly the 
site of an ancient Jake of about 1,200 acres, Prestwick Car. This 
sheet of water was drained a few years ago into the Pont rivulet, 
and the bed of the old Jake is now, through the enterprise and 
skilful industry of the farmer, covered by luxuriant crops of oa s 
with magnificent heads, apprvaching six feet in height, and im- 
mense thickne-s of siem. The land, ay might be expecied, is a 
decp bog earth; the surface, however, is remarkably light, ap 
parently a leat soil, and easily disturbed, or blown away by the 
winds, The remarkable pount here was, that after the drainage had 
been completed, the earth svlidified and put under culture, the 
roos and a portion of the stems of trees broken off near the 
roots, appeared as il rising from the earth, the privr existence of 
which was unseen and unknown, indicating the remains of a 
primzeval forest : no branches appeared. ‘The wood is that of 
the alder. Was not the Jake ori inally formed by the destruction 
of this ancicnt forest by the agency of wind? 
Barbourne, Worcester, Sept. 9 J. BroucH Pow 
A Vital Question 
Pray do not mind if I am alone in my venturesomeness, but 
in the name of Science, not that which is falsely so cailed, but 
that which depends upon evidence, let me prutest against the 
doctr ne contained in the concluding portion of Sir W. Thom- 
son’s address. Scholastic theology has for me nothiig worse 
than the declaration, made on the strengih of a mere dogma, 
that our dear mother earth is no mother at all, but absuluiely 
incapable of filling any function in the production of her own 
children. The dogma that life can only proceed trom _iife, 
appears, when anal sd, \ike too many another dogma, but a 
Meaningicss jinzle o worls. 
Here are thre counter propositions, which I advance in all 
confidence of their sound ness :— 
1. We know nothing whatever of the nature of life to justify 
us in asserting its absolute difference in kind from many other 
phenomena, as of magnetism, chemis ry, or Nature in general. 
2. If, as as rono ners hold, all the b dies compo-ing the solar 
system are derivei fron the sun, they must contun identical 
elements. Uhat their elements are actualiy ident cal is, more- 
over, iidicated by the spec rossope. 5o that if those elements 
be inciptble o’ producing life o1 this planet, they must be in- 
capable ot producing iteisewnere. However much reason there 
may be to suppo-e they have nut produe d iife m any particular 
instance as yet, as, e.g., in our satellite, that is no reasou against 

[ Sept. 14, 1871 
their doing so in the furure. If Sir William’s object had been Zo 
vain timetor existing evolutions, I could have forgiven him, but 
there was no hint of this. 
3. To speak of life as necessary to the production of life, is 
to ignore all that Science has ascertained respecting the trans- 
ference and convertibility of force, and to fill back upontheanthro- 
pomorphism of the theologians, only with the difference, in this 
case, that ic is not Jupiter, but “the sone that fell down from 
Jupiter,” whom we are to hail as our father and mother. More- 
over, to sp-ak of life as necessary to the production of life, is to 
as-ume that we already know the limits ot Nature’s productive 
power ; and to assert that life 1s not a natural product at a |, is 
to restrict our detinition of Nature by some arbitrary limit which 
exc udes the most important functions of Nature. 
Doubtless 1t would be a very pretty idea to regard the planets 
as so many orchids in the flower-yardea of the Universe, and 
the meteorites as their fertilising bees ; but Su W. Thomson 
entertaias no such pleasing sentiment respecting the earth. 
He degrades this unhappy p.a set far below the meteorite. 
Once upon a time wien astray with a companion in a far 
Western wilderness, we were reduced to eating anything that we 
coud find. On the question arising whether ratilesiakes were 
fit to eat, I propounded the dictum that whatever could itself 
live ought to be able to support lie in another, and our expe- 
rience, so far as it went, confirmed the saying. I venture to vary 
it for Sir W. Tnomson’s benefit, and to suggest that whate ver can 
support life, as this earth does, can in all probability produce it. 
Loving, as I do, bo h the world aud the things which are in 
the world, I hope you will not refuse mea corner for this sorrow- 
ing dissent from a doctrine so depre.iatory of the world, and 
whose enunciation cannot fail to give occasion to the many 
enemies of Science to bla-pheme is sacred name on account of 
the eccentricities of its professors, EpwarkD MaltLaND 
Oxford and Cambridge Club 
Draining a Cause of Excessive Droughts 
WILL you kindly allow me through the medium of NATURE 
to ask whether any of my feilow readers can give me any actually 
observed facts, to show that draining is jusily considered an item 
in the sum of causes which have piven rise 1o the lengthened 
periods of drought that we have experienced in these islands for 
the last few years. As a matter o: reasoning I believe it is 
generally admitted that such is the case, tor ample evidence has 
been pioduced by actual experiment to show that diaimimg raises 
the temperature of the land and the air above it ; and 1! so, it 
would lessen the chance of the vapour suspended in the atmo- 
sphere being condensed. Such observed iacts are on record as 
regards the cutting of forests, eg, NaiUuRE, vol. iv. p. 51, 
**Buchan’s Meteuroligy,” p. 88, and if my memory dues not 
fau me, some informauon was given on both these pomts in a 
previous yvoume of NATURE, but Iam at present unable to lay 
my hands upon it, though I have glanced over the pages as well 
as the index. 
If any one will kindly furnish me with the information, which 
may also Le of interest to ovhers, or iefer me to a work not 
difficult of access, I shall be extremely obliged. 
THomAs Fawcett? 
Rainbow 
On Friday, the 8th July, about four p.M., as I was driving 
acro-s the bog of Allen, about eight miles from kdenderry, L 
observed the most biithant ralubow I have ever beheld either in 
Europe or India. It appeared in the North, and was low down 
on the flat horizon, being an arc of 60° with the horizon as its 
chord. The ends of the bow were nearly due E, and W, The spec- 
trum was intensely vivid. A second bow, iumperiect towards the 
centre, shortly afterwards appeared above ic; in perhaps five 
minutes, the EK. end of this upper bow faded, and immediately 
I perceived tor a corresponding length of the true rainbow, bor- 
dering the violet, a well defined rim of sea green, this bounded 
by a band of almost mauve-coloured vivlet, which shaded off 
into the indigo sky. 
The under-side of the opposite end of the bow (above which 
the poruon of the upper bow was stili visible) presen ed no such 
appearance. 
Next day J learnt that, about the same hour, a thunderstorm 


