NATURE 



[Dec. 31,1885 



timbers such as oak, elm, ash, maple, &c., but these have 

 to be supplemented by foreign woods of a more orna- 

 mental character, and of these mahogany, rosewood, 

 ebony, satinwood, and such like are the best known. 

 From amongst Indian timber trees a long list might be 

 made of woods which are now almost unknown out of 

 their native country — such, for instance, as the East 

 Indian cedar {Cednla toona), which is a reddish-coloured 

 wood with a splendid wavy or feathery figure ; the 

 tree is also found in Australia, where the wood is 

 highly valued ; the padouk {Pierocarpiis iiidicus), the 

 deep-red-coloured wood of which attracted so much atten- 

 tion at the Edinburgh Exhibition last year ; the Malabar 

 Kino tree {Ptcrocarpus marsKpiiiin), also a finely-marked 

 deep-red wood, several species of Tcnninalia, durable 

 woods of a brown colour with darker brown markings. 

 Many others might be mentioned, but the most beautiful 

 of all the Indian woods for its ornamental character is 

 the Chittagong wood {Chickrassia tahuhvis). This 

 is of a brown colour, with transverse lighter silvery-brown 

 wavy markings, which impart to it a varying depth of 

 light and shade, which, when polished, imparts a pecu- 

 liar and charming lustre. All these woods take a 

 high polish, and would be invaluable for cabinet-work. 

 Fine specimens of these and many others are in the col- 

 lection of Indian timbers exhibited in the No. 3 Museum 

 at Kew. 



On the question as to the durability of the Scotch fir 

 {Piniis sylvestris) Col. Pearson gave an opinion which is 

 worth quoting. He says:— "I think myself that as the 

 value of the foreign imported timber increases, as it must 

 do as the quantity dimmishes, people will come to appre- 

 ciate more the Scotch fir, because I know many barns 

 which have been boarded with Scotch fir for twenty years, 

 and which are standing perfectly well : but it is conve- 

 nient to get the imported boards ready sawn out, and 

 where the people can get them cheap they do not pay 

 attention to the Scotch and home-grown timber. But, 

 speaking for myself, 1 should say that Scotch fir is a per- 

 fectly good wood as long as it is sufficiently mature, and 

 I think, as foreign wood becomes dearer, as it will in a 

 few years, English timber and Scotch timber will become 

 of a value which it has not now." 



On the general subject of the proposed Forest School 

 Col. Pearson expressed himself in favour of a Chair of 

 Forestry at the Edinburgh University, but he further 

 stated that he had no actual faith in lectures in the school 

 unless illustrated by practical instruction. " If," he savs, 

 " you tell a man in the lecture room that such and such 

 consequences will take place, and do not show him the 

 consequences on the spot, he does not believe anything 

 about it ; it goes in at one ear and out at the other ; he 

 will think it all nonsense ; but if you want to impress 

 your teaching upon him, you must take him out into the 

 forests and show him the operations of Nature." Re- 

 garding the extent or scope of the School, Mr. Thiselton 

 Dyer, in reply to Sir Edmund Lechmere whether he 

 would not make the School of Forestry applicable to 

 India and the Colonies as well as to our own countrv, 

 said, " I should like to get all the fish possible into the 

 net, and if we had such a school, to make it as useful as 

 possible. I think it is surprising, considering how large 

 is the interest of the English race in forestry, that except 

 in India we have taken no kind of active interest in the 

 subject : although we own more forests in the world than 

 any other race, w-e are at present, except in the most 

 piecemeal fashion, absolutely washing our hands of the 

 whole business." Mr. Dyer, in his evidence, further 

 pointed out by way of illustration a few of w-hat are 

 usually called the minor industries of forest produce, 

 which in the aggregate become of considerable national 

 importance. 



It is to be regretted that the Committee was not nomi- 

 nated at an earlier period of the session. The first 



sitting was on July 14, and at the two subsequent sittings 

 on July 21 and 24, witnesses only were examined. The 

 report of the Committee refers to the impossibility of 

 concluding their investigations during the Session, and 

 " recommends that a Committee on the same subject 

 should be appointed in the next Session of Parliament." 

 John R. Jackson 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE RECENT CAL- 

 CAREOUS FORMATIONS OF THE SOLOMON 

 GROUP, MADE DURING 1882-84 1 



ON account of the treacherous character of the natives 

 of the Solomon Group, no extensive geological 

 observations have ever been made in these islands from 

 the period of their discovery by the Spaniards three cen- 

 turies ago. For this reason my excursions in these regions 

 were not free from personal risk ; in many places they 

 were considerably curtailed, and in some islands they had 

 to be abandoned altogether. 



This archipelago includes seven or eight large islands, 

 some of which are from seventy to eighty miles in length, 

 and the highest from Sooo to 10,000 feet in height. Besides 

 these, there are a great number of smaller islands and 

 islets, some of volcanic and others of recent calcareous 

 formations. Restricting my remarks to those islands 

 which are wholly or in part composed of these calcareous 

 rocks, I may observe that, although only able to become 

 acquainted with a small portion of the Solomon Group, 

 the islands which I examined represent the different types 

 of islands that there exist. 



In this, the largest of the Pacific groups, I not only 

 found existing fringing-reefs, barrier-reefs, and atolls, but 

 I discovered pre-existing reefs of these three chief classes 

 which have been recently elevated to a height often of 

 several hundred feet above the sea. My observations on 

 these recently-elevated reefs and their foundations have 

 enabled me to approach the problem of the formation of 

 coral reefs by the inductive rather than by the a priori 

 method : for it is evident that in passing from the con- 

 sideration of a probable cause of the formation of existing 

 reefs to the examination of ancient reefs that have been 

 raised with their foundations above the sea, we enter a 

 domain of greater certainty. I purpose in this abstract 

 to state concisely the principal characters of the islands 

 which are wholly or in part of calcareous formations ; 

 then to draw four limited inferences from these facts of 

 observation without reference to any particular views 

 that may be held on the subject of the origin of coral 

 reefs ; and finally to compare such conclusions with the 

 prevailing views on that subject. 



In the first place there are numerous small islands and 

 islets less than a hundred feet in height, which are com- 

 posed in mass of coral limestone. Of this class Stirling 

 Island may be taken as an example. In the bold cliffs, 

 which form the weather coast of this small island, there 

 are numerous imbedded masses of the reef-building 

 corals, many of them measuring four feet across, the 

 majority of them in the position of growth, but some of 

 them inverted. 



The island of Ugi, which is six miles in length and 

 about 500 feet in height, may be taken as a type of the 

 next class. Its geological structure may be briefly described 

 as composed in bulk of a soft earthy bedded deposit, 

 possessing the characters of the "volcanic muds "of the 

 Cliallenger soundings, containing numerous Foraminifera, 

 and encrusted near the coast by coral limestone, which 

 almost disappears in the higher regions. The greatest 

 thickness of the coral limestone that I found in this island 

 was between 50 and 100 feet. As one ascends the higher 

 slopes of the island the coral limestone thins away, and 



' By H. B. Guppy, M.B., F.G.S., late Surgeon of H.M.S. Lark. 

 [.■Vbstract of a paper read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, on June 

 151b, 1885, being communicated by Mr. John Murray.] 



