September 21, igi i] 



NATURE 



?8i 



plant ; those of the birches, especially of the silver 

 birch and of the Burnham beeches, are instructive, 

 but the best are the illustrations of two groups of 

 Scotch firs at Kincraig that betoken group as well as 

 individual habit. Many of the sprays, notably of the 

 blossoming myrtle and hawthorn, and of the fruiting 

 broom, are attractive, but it is not apparent that any 

 useful purpose is served by these or the general col- 

 lection, since it is not difficult and more advisable to 

 obtain natural specimens in season. Miss Lorrain 

 Smith has carried out satisfactorily the task of supply- 

 ing appropriate brief notes, and doubtless appreciated 

 the Peziza and Usnea that appear at the end. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 .Xo notice is taken of anonymous communications. J 



The Ooze of the Thames. 



Some time ago I directed attention to the part played 

 by annelids in making the ooze of rivers, such as the 

 Nil", fertile. Aided by a Government grant, research has 

 been continued during the year, and in August a special 

 visit was paid to Kew Gardens and the Thames. The 

 3 very low, and I was able to collect specimens 

 which are not always available, and bring away a sample 

 of the ooze for careful examination. 1 found the mud 

 teeming with Helodrilus oculatus, Hoffm., a new record 

 l.ii the south of England; Paranais naidina, Bretscher, 

 few tn Britain; Monopylephorus elegans t Friend, new to 

 Hbnce ; and other things, showing how much work still 

 remains to be done by London naturalists. There were 

 also many living nematodes, all apparently belonging to 

 one species, half an inch or more in length. I have not 

 yet been able to work out its history or discover its host, 

 but the thing which seems to me to be of special interest 

 relates to this parasitic creature. In examining the ooze 

 from time to time the thing that struck one was the 

 Absence of numberless white threads of considerable 

 length and great tenuity. These proved to be the integu- 

 vast numbers of dead nematodes. In the case of 

 Boelids, the process of decay is so rapid that dead worms 

 v found, and onlv by means of the most careful 

 microscopic examination or chemical analysis can one dis- 

 cover how numerous they have been. But the evidence 

 goes to show that the ooze of rivers is immensely enriched 

 in nitrogenous matter year by year through the death of 

 annelid;, as well as oxygenated by their tireless move- 

 ments. 



While much has been done in the analysis of soils. little 

 if anything seems to have been undertaken in relation to 

 ooze. My own researches are at present largely restricted 

 to the sj stematic study of the living species of annelids : 

 but it would be of immense advantage to science, and 

 to agriculture, if some expert like Dr. Russell 

 Ejuld give us careful analyses of river oozes. I have 

 many times for samples of ooze from estuaries and 

 rivers in order that something might be done, but hitherto 

 wise has been very heartless, and there has been 

 no alternative but to make special journeys to interesting 

 localities, at great cost of time and money. The import- 

 ance ,,f the subject, however, is such that I venture again 

 to bring it to the notice of students and investigators in 

 the hope that it may receive the attention it deserves. 



Swadlincote, September 16. Hilderic Frienp. 



Ancient Forests in Scotland. 



Referring to your correspondent's letters which appeared 

 in Nature of June i and August 24 last in regard to the 

 eont. mplated cutting down of the fir trees at Auchna- 

 carry. in south Inverness-shire, permit me to state that, 

 Enough very old (say two to three hundred years), these 

 cannot properly be said to have formed part of the ancient 

 n Forest. The fir was very probablv found in 



XO. 2l86, VOL. 87] 



the latter, and in certain places it may have been the 

 prevailing description; unquestionably it is the most 

 prominent survivor, and during the last few centuries has 

 been one of the most important economical products of the 

 Highlands of Scotland. 



The cause of the disappearance of the Caledonian Forest 

 has hitherto seemed obscure, if not inexplicable. Some 

 light, however, is perhaps afforded by the fact that over 

 the entire area which it covered, say all the counties north 

 of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, except perhaps the Isle 

 of Bute, Fife, Caithness, and the Orkney and Shetland 

 Islands, the surface is frequently bestrewn with iron slags. 

 So numerous are these latter in some districts that a 

 hundred heaps of slag may be found almost within the 

 confines of a single parish. From an examination of the 

 pieces of charcoal found amongst these slags it has been 

 ascertained that when these were formed the principal 

 trees in the neighbourhood were birch and oak, but in 

 some instances traces have been found of beech, ash, elm, 

 fir, and holly. 



Evidently in the more ancient times, namely, before the 

 use of water-power was introduced in Scotland for the 

 extraction of iron from the ore, two processes were 

 successively employed for the purpose. In the earliest, the 

 natural wind was taken advantage of, and the seat of 

 operations was determined by the favourable physical con- 

 figuration of the land to guide and concentrate the blast on 

 the materials of combustion. From one document, at 

 least, we learn that this method seems to have been 

 employed down to 900 years ago. The sites associated 

 with the later or succeeding process, and at which, pre- 

 sumably, bellows were used, are all in sheltered positions 

 where the remaining forests were located; a few of the 

 very last of these in operation can be dated as belonging 

 to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There is reason 

 to believe that the bellows were in use in this connection 

 as early as, if not earlier than, the Roman occupation. 



When water-power for iron-making was introduced into 

 Scotland at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the 

 sites chosen were not only in protected situations also, but 

 on low ground, on the banks of rivers, and preferably with 

 suitable wood for fuel in the vicinity; but some of the latter 

 seems to have been rolled down from the heights above, or 

 floated by water from considerable distances. This class 

 of works continued in operation generally until about 1760, 

 and in the case of those near Inverary and Buname until 

 much more recent years. Charcoal made from pine wood 

 was very largely used at all of this series of works. 



From the foregoing it may be gathered that as the iron 

 slag heaps of Scotland form the memorials of her ancient 

 fori sts, our knowledge of the latter may be much restricted 

 by a neglect of the study of the metallurgical industries 

 there in former times. George Turner. 



300 Langside Road, Glasgow, .September 4. 



" The Polynesian Wanderings." 

 Your review of my book, " The Polynesian Wander- 

 ings " (August 10), is warmly appreciated as performing 

 the service of an introduction to scholars interested in the 

 philology of the Pacific. In order to prevent a miscon- 

 ception of the work, I ask leave to note an exception to 

 one or two statements in the review which might produce 

 a wrong impression. 



Mr. Ray comments upon the incommensurability of the 

 several languages of Polynesia and Melanesia. What he 

 puts in a few lines I had discussed in pages, and had 

 announced that it was impracticable, in our present know- 

 ledge of Melanesian speech, to essay a quantitative com- 

 parison. On pp. 142 and 143 of the volume I have been 

 at pains to establish my method of comparison by com- 

 puting a coefficient of recognisabilitv of the Proto-Samoan 

 borrowed element in some ninety Melanesian languages. 

 This is a figure which may be reached independently of 

 the quantity of the loan material ; it rests upon each 

 borrowed word bv itself in comparison with the same 

 word as found in the present speech of Nuclear Polynesia ; 

 it expresses the extent of the deviation from the norm. 

 The determination of quantity lying beyond our reach at 

 present, I have utilised the only element of comparison 

 which in vears of research I have been able to discover, 



