8 
= 21 
NATLTURE 
[uly 8, 1886 
attempted during the whole of the proceedings, which lasted 
about a quarter of an hour, to bite the frog. The frog was 
removed quite uninjured, but apparently exhausted either by 
fear or by muscular exertion. T. Martyr 
St. Joseph’s College, Clapham, S.W. 
Hybrids between the Black Grouse and the Pheasant 
In Yarrell’s ‘‘ British Birds,” 4th ed. vol. iii. p. 69 Seg., a 
number of hybrids between the cock pheasant and the gray hen 
are enumerated as having occurred in England. Being desirous 
to give a life-sized and coloured figure of such a hybrid in my 
forthcoming work on the black grouse, the capercailzie, and 
their allies, I wish to borrow a specimen for a short time, and, 
as my endeavours to procure one have so far been unsuccess- 
ful, I beg to make this known through your widely read 
journal, hoping that some fortunate possessor may be kind 
enough to communicate with me concerning his willingness to 
lend me a specimen for the said purpose. A. B. MEYER 
Royal Zoological Museum, Dresden, July 5 
THE FINSBURY TECHNICAL COLLEGE 
CONVERSAZIONE 
“HE annual conversasicne given by the students of 
the above College as the closing event of the session 
came off on Friday evening, July 2, and proved in every 
way a success. The larze number of interesting objects 
brought together for exhibition certainly speaks well for 
the activity of the various committees which were in- 
trusted with the work of organisation, and at the same 
time indicates how widely spread is the interest shown in 
the welfare of the College by the different firms of manu- 
facturers who contributed to the exhibition. The elec- 
trical department exhibited in action most of the appa- 
ratus used for educational purposes in the College. In 
this department also were exhibits of apparatus and 
models by Messrs. Woodhouse and Rawson, the Electric 
Apparatus Company, Messrs. Mayfield’s vacuum-tubes, 
and ovher electrical and physical apparatus made by this 
firm. The exhibits in the chemical department were 
especially numerous ana representative of chemical tech- 
nology in most of its branches. . In the way of apparatus 
Messrs. Cetti, of Brooke Street, exhibited barometers, 
thermometers, vacuum-tubes, &c. ; Messrs. Townson and 
Mercer showed a new carbonic acid generator, Schutzen- 
berger’s gas apparatus, filter pumps, nickel crucibles and 
basins, Pasteur flasks, inland revenue stills, Abel’s petro- 
Jeum testing apparatus, &c.; and Mr. B. Redwood lent a 
set of viscometers. Fine chemicals were exhibited by 
Messrs. Hopkin and Williams, and a splendid set of 
alkaloids and other products by Messrs. Howard of 
Stratford. Messrs. Pontifex and Wood exhibited sets of 
pigments and the materials used in their manufacture, 
Mr, C. Richardson a set of specimens illustrating the 
manufacture of cements, Mr. Ashley samples of English 
and foreign lubricating oils, and Messrs. J. and L. Cripps 
the materials and finished products representing the 
manufacture of size, glue, and gelatine. Glass manu- 
facture was represented by a set of tools and specimens 
from the Whitefriars glass-works (Messrs. Powell). 
Messrs. Field showed a fine series of waxes and other 
materials used in candle-making, and a good exhibition 
was made also by Price’s Patent Candle Company. The 
manufacture of soap was illustrated by a very complete 
set of specimens contributed from Messrs. E. Rider Cook’s 
works at Bow and by Messrs. Knight, &c. Cotton seed 
and its products were shown by Messrs. W. and W. H. 
Stead of Blackwall and Liverpool. The specimens and 
diagrams sent by Gaskell, Deacon, and Co., of Widnes, 
gave an excellent idea of the alkali manufacture in this 
country. 
The collection of coal-tar products was especially rich, 
specimens having been sent by the Badische Company, 
the Hoechst Colour Works, Messrs. Brooke, Simpson, 
and Spiller, the British Alizarine Company, and Messrs. 
Burt, Boulton, and Haywood. The latter firm exhibited 
a splendid. model of their timber creosoting plant. 
Amongst other tar products was a set of preparations of 
the new sweetening substance, saccharine, sent by Dr. 
Fahlberg. The Broadburn Oil Company showed a very 
complete set of shale products. The sugar industry was 
represented by a set of polarimeters, models and speci- 
mens, exhibited by Mr. Newiands of the Clyde Wharf 
Sugar Refinery, and by the Beetroot Sugar Association. 
In the course of the evening Prof. S. P. Thompson gave 
a lecture on waves of light, and Mr. John Castell-Evans 
discoursed on explosives. The entertainment was on the 
whole highly creditable to the College, and many of the 
firms who sent objects for exhibition have signified their 
approval by presenting their exhibits to the establishment 
as lecture specimens. 
THE RECENT DISCOVERIES AT TIRYNS*® 
hs excavations made during the last two years at 
Tiryns, by Dr. Schliemann and Dr. Dérpfeld, have’ 
thrown new light on what has been hitherto an almost 
unknown period of Greek history—that far-off time, more 
remote even than the age of the Homeric poems, when 
Hellenic civilisation had not yet emerged from its Orien- 
tal cradle, nor developed its highly cultured systems of 
social and political government out of the splendid but 
semi-barbarous tyrannies of Western Asia Minor. 1 
The literature of Greece has made us familiar with the 
later times, when the individual was for the most part 
merged in the State, and when the wealth and _ artistic 
skill of each city was devoted to public uses, such as the 
Council-chamber, the Agora, or the stately temples of the 
gods, rather than to the luxury of any one person. 
But at Tiryns a very different picture is presented to 
us: we see a single autocratic chieftain, ruling in a sort 
of feudal state, and occupying a magnificent palace, 
surrounded by the humbler dwellings of his circle of re- 
tainers ; while, instead of the utmost resources of the 
architect, the sculptor, and the painter being lavished on 
the shrine of the presiding deity, a mere open-air altar a 
dedicated to the god, and it is the chieftain’s house which’ 
is decked out with the splendours of gilt bronze, marble 
sculpture, and painted walls. 
The rock in the marshy plains of Argolis, on which 
stands the citadel of Tiryns, is about three miles distant 
from the Gulf of Nauplia, and commands an extensive 
view reaching from Argos, with its rich olive-groves, to 
Mycenze on its lofty crags, and, between the two, the 
once prosperous sea-port of Nauplia, by the blue waters 
of its sheltered bay. 
The massive fortification wall which surrounds the 
Tirynthian Rock was an object of wonder and admiration 
in the earliest historic times of Greece: its enormous 
stones keenly aroused the Greek imagination, and created 
legends which attributed them to mysterious Cyclopean 
builders, and peopled the walls with the demi-gods of the 
heroic age, such as Perseus and Heracles, whose early 
youth was fabled to have been spent in the Tirynthian 
city—the Tipuvs tecyioeraa of Homer's “Iliad.” This won-- 
derful wall, some stones of which are no less than ri feet 
long and 4 feet thick, was originally nearly 50 feet high” 
at its loftiest part, measuring from its base outside: 
inside the city the height was very much less, as its 
lower part acted as a retaining wall, which kept up the 
loose earth which formed a level interior surface above 
the irregular contour of the rock. a. 
The southern part of the Acropolis wall, where it in- _ 
closes the great palace, is a very complicated structure, 
* “The Prehistoric Palace of the Kings of Tiryns.” The results of 
the latest excavations, by Dr. Henry Schliemann. The preface by Prof. 
F. Adler, and contributions by Dr. Wm. Dérpfeld. With 188 woodcuts, 24 
plates in chromolithography, 1 map, and 4 Plans. (London: John Murray, 
1886). . 
