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paper he had read before this society in 1866 upon the Auriferous 
Rocks and Drifts of Victoria, in which he stated that it was 
possible there might yet be found in Scotland fields where, with 
modern appliances, gold might be profitably worked. This con- 
jecture has since been realised as a fact. He exhibited a rough- 
sketch map, showing the geographical position and geological 
structure of the gold-bearing districts of Scotland, also several 
interesting sections of the rocks and drifts in the vicinity of Kil- 
donan, describing the prominent geological features of the 
country as lower Silurian, consisting of mica schist, gneiss, 
granite, chloritic schist, &c., with occasional quartz veins. No 
discovery of gold x site had yet been made, and the question as 
to the true matrix of the Sutherland gold had yet to be decided. 
In regard to this question, it was pointed out that the materials 
associated with gold in the drifts are the same as those of the 
surrounding rocks. Moreover, the gold of each stream varies in 
character, apparently pointing to some local peculiarity rather 
than to a glacial origin. The chairman said he could not detect 
glacial striz in the drift, which resembled usual river gravel. 
Dr. Boyce agreed with Mr. Cameron as to the probable local 
origin of the gold. 
NORFOLK 
Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society, January 
25.—The president, the Rey. J. Crompton, in the chair. Two 
Richards pipits, two shore larks, an immature goshawk, and a 
fulmar petrel were exhibited by Mr. Gunn, all procured on the 
Norfolk coast during the present winter. The Rev. J. A. Law- 
rence, of Bergh Apton, exhibited some remarkable fasciated 
stems of the holly (//ex aguifolium), one specimen resuming its 
ordinary growth at the summit, the branches into which it sepa- 
rated being clothed with leaves in the usual manner.—Mr. 
Stevenson read a paper on the rare birds which have visited us 
during the past autumn and winter, in which he stated that no 
less than thirteen shore larks had been killed on the Norfolk 
coast between the 7th of November and the 12th of January. 
Of this species, at one time considered a very great rarity, thirty- 
two specimens have been procured in Norfolk since 1830. Of 
those recently obtained, it was remarkable that only four out of 
thirteen proved to be males, whereas out of eleven examples 
killed between 1830 and 1862, all were males but two ; but in 
the winter of 1866-7, four pairs were males and females. Six 
specimens of Richards pipits had been procured in Norfolk ; 
and the present season was remarkable for the number which 
had been obtained in other and more southern counties, amounting 
to eleven examples in the neighbourhood of Brighton alone. This 
species was apparentlya bird of passage, but out ofits ordinary line 
of migration, when thus accidentally met with upon our Eastern 
coast. The goshawk may now be ranked amongst the rarest of 
our raptorial visitants. He knew of only ten examples procure d 
in Norfolk during the last forty years, of which all but two were 
young birds. Mr, Stevenson alluded to the unusual number of 
woodcocks killed during the past autumn, including a strange 
melanoid variety killed near Cromer. He mentioned the follow- 
ing birds as having been killed on the coast in October and 
November:—the pomarine skua, Buffon’s skua, purple sand- 
piper, little gull (immature), and a considerable number of storm 
petrels, some of which had been found far inland. Mr. South- 
well stated that the food of one of the Richards pipits, which he 
examined, consisted of a small species of lady-bird, and that two 
of the shore larks (which were very fat) had been feeding entirely 
on seeds of Arenaria peploides.—Mr. Crowfoot, of Beccles, read 
a paper on rare European birds, their nests and eggs, and ex- 
hibited eggs of the wall creeper ( Zichodroma muraria), taken in 
Switzerland; Baillon’s crake, from Potter Heigham, Norfolk, in 
1866; the little crake, and little gull, the latter eggs taken on 
gist of May, on Lake Ladoga. 
PARIS 
Academy of Sciences, February 7.—M. C. Sainte-Claire 
Deville communicated a note by M. C. Naudin, describing an 
extraordinary fall of snow at Collioure, in the Eastern Pyrenees. 
This fall commenced on the 21st January, about 5 A.M., and 
lasted until the morning of the 23rd, or for at least forty-four 
hours. M. Naudin estimates the average thickness of snow 
which fell during this period at 0°80 metre (about thirty-two 
inches) ; the thermometer during the fall departed very little 
from the freezing point (0° C), Great damage was done to the 
olive-trees, which were broken by the weight of the snow, but 
the author stated that palms, although pressed flat by the snow 
and afterwards encased in ice for ten or twelve days, received no 
injury.—M. de Saint-Venant presented a report on a memoir by 
M. Maurice Levy, entitled “An essay ona rational theory of the 
equilibrium of recently moved soils, and its applications to the 
calculation of the stability of supporting walls,”’ supplementing 
it by a memoir of his own on the approximate determination of the 
thrust exerted by soils without cohesion, against a wall of a certain 
inclination.—M. E. J. Maumené presented 2 memoir on the 
general theory of chemical action, embodying a fresh proof of 
the breaking down of the chemical type in the so-called actions 
of substitution.—M. Delaurier forwarded some. investigations 
on thermo-electricity, M. de Plagniol a further note on the silk- 
worm disease (Aors-flats), and M. Gaudin a letter relating to 
his mode of manufacture of artificial gems.—M. Bontemps 
offered for the acceptance of the Academy some manuscript 
works of M. Charles, who first employed hydrogen gas in balloons. 
—M. Faye communicated a note by M. Laussedat on the appli- 
cation of the graphic method to the prediction of eclipses of the 
sun; and also two notes by M. Heis on observations of the 
zodiacal light and of the aurora borealis at Miinster in 
Westphalia.—A note was received from M. H. de Kericuff 
on the determination of the parallax of Venus.—The fourth 
and concluding portion of the paper by M. Piarron de 
Mondesir, ‘‘On a new method for the solution of mechanical 
problems,” was presented by M. Sainte-Claire Deville, who also 
communicated a paper by MM. L. Troost and P. Hautefeuille 
“On the heat of combination of silicium with chlorine and 
oxygen,” to which he appended some remarks.—Other chemical 
papers communicated were:—‘‘On a new method for the 
synthesis of the organic acids,” by M. Berthelot, and “On the 
simultaneous formation of isomers in definite proportions,” by 
M. A. Rosenstiehl.—M. E. Becquerel communicated a note by 
M. E. Bouchotte on a simplification of Holtz’s electrical machine, 
and ona process for the estimation of the relation existing between 
the dynamical work expended and the electricity produced.— 
MM. A. Béchamp and A. Estot presented a note ‘‘On the 
nature and origin of the blood-corpuscles,” in which they maintain 
that these globules are ‘‘aggregations of microzymata,” which 
may become developed into Bacteria, Bacteridia, &c. — M. 
Lacaze-Duthiers communicated a valuable paper ‘‘ On the organi- 
sation of the Aspergil/um javanum.—A note by M. G. Cotteau 
on the genus Asterostoma, a group of fossil sea-urchins, probably 
of cretaceous date, was communicated by M. de Verneuil. The 
author described two new species from Cuba, viz., 4. jimenoi 
and A. cubensis ;_ only a single species was previously known,— 
A note by M. Gorseix on the present state of the volcano of 
Santorin was also read, and M. F. Lenormant presented a note 
on the antiquity of the ass and horse among the Aryan peoples. 
BERLIN 
Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, November 8, 1869. 
—M. Hagen reada paper on the movement of water in tubes 
directed vertically downwards.—Prof, Ehrenberg communicated 
an extract from a letter received from Dr, Julius Haast, of Can- 
terbury, New Zealand, describing his discovery of an old 
dwelling of moa-hunters, with its cooking-places and other objects 
of interest. The stone implements found in this place were 
made of flint, and not polished ; they resembled those found at 
Amiens. Dr. Haast considers that his researches confirm the 
opinion that the moa-hunters belonged to a different race from 
the Maories, who, he added, have no tradition concerning the 
former existence of the extinct gigantic birds. 
November 25.—Prof. Poggendorff read a long and elaborate 
paper on Holtz’s rotation electricity and the force manifested 
by it, which he regards as the most powerful yet produced by 
frictional electricity.—Prof. W. Peters communicated descriptions 
of some new species of Saurian reptiles and Batrachia, namely: 
Polychrus (Chaunolemus, subg. n.) multicarinatus, from Costa 
Rica ; Zropidolepisma Richardt, from North Australia ; Gymno- 
dactylus Steudneri, from Sennaar ; Cyclorhamphus fasciatus, from 
Chili; and /7y/a gracilenta,from North-east Australia, —Professor 
Hoffmann read a memoir on the sulphuretted urea-compounds, 
and another upon the action of iodine upon thiobenzamide.—A 
supplement to the November A/onatsbericht contains M. du Bois- 
Reymond’s memoir on the movement of magnets under the influ- 
ence of moisture. 
VIENNA 
Imperial Geological Institution, January 4.—A note by 
M. von Lipold relating to M. Krezci’s views on the ‘‘ colonies ” 
of the Silurian basin of Bohemia was communicated by Mr. 
J. Barrande, who also presented his reply to M, Lipold’s remarks. 
