Jan. 24, 1884] 



NA TURE 



30: 



Secretaries : George James Symons, F.R.S., John William 

 Tripe, M.D. ; Foreign Secretary: George Mathews Whipple, 

 F.R.A.S. ; Council: William Morris Beaufort, F.k.A.S.; 

 George Chattcrton, John Sanford Dyason, F.R.G.S., William 

 Ellis, F.R.A.S., Charles Harding, Richard Inwards, F.R.A.S., 

 Baldwin Latham, F.G.S., Robert John LecUy, F.R.A.S., 

 Edward Mawley, F.R.H.S., Cuthbirt E. Peek, F.R.G.S., 

 Capt. Henry Toynbee, F.R.A.S., Charles Theodore Williams, 

 M.D. 



Anthropological Institute, January 8. — Prof. Flower, 

 I'". R. S., pre-ident, iu the chair. — The election of the following 

 new members was announced : — Rev. E. S. Dewick, M.A., 

 F.G.S., Prof. A. Macalister, M.D., F.R.S., and Mr. Oldfield 

 Thomas as ordinary members. Dr. E. T. Hamy and Dr. 

 Hermann Welcker as honorary members, and Mr. Lucien Carr 

 and Dr. A. B. Meyer as corresponding members. — The Pre- 

 sident stated that Mr. Francis Galton had offered 500/. in prizes 

 to those who should before May i, 1884, furnish him with the 

 best extracts from their family records accordin'^ to the form 

 prescribed in his " Record of Family Faculties," published by 

 Macmillan and Co., and he urged all members of the Anthropo- 

 logical Institute to give Mr. Giilton every assistance in their 

 power. — Mr. H. H. Johnston read a paper on the races of the 

 Congo and the Portuguese colonies in Western Africa. The 

 author stated that Western Tropical Africa, between Senegambia 

 to the north and the River Cunene, offered a vast studying 

 ground to the anthropologist, wherein types of nearly every well- 

 marked African race might be observed. After detailing many 

 of the various races, he proceeded to describe tlie Bushmen 

 north of Cunene, which he characterised as about the lowest 

 type of men, but, of the five or six specimens which came more 

 particularly under his notice, he remarked that their mental 

 ability was strangely at variance with their low physical 

 characteristics. The Hottentots were much finer men than 

 the Bushmen as regarded height and build, but ihey ex- 

 ceeded the latter in baboon-like licentiousness. The western 

 slopes of the Sheila Mountains were peopled by a tribe 

 called the A-ndombe, a sturdy race of carriers, which extended 

 a-; far north as Benguela. Referring to the races of the lower 

 Congo, Mr. Johnston observed that they depended almost 

 entirely upon vegetable diet, whilst they were remarkable for 

 their initiation ceremonies. Traces of phallic worship were 

 noticed, especially in the interior, and more particularly in 

 the neighbourhood of Stanley Pool. A Congo market was 

 exceedingly interesting, and was held for about four or eight 

 days. The natives would often go 100 miles to attend one of 

 these markets, the woaien generally being the keenest traders. 

 Between Stauley Pool and the coast there is only one great 

 leading tongue spoken, though this has several dialects. This is 

 the Congo language, one known to and studied by Europeans 

 probably before any other Bantu tongue. It bears many signs 

 of Portuguese influence. 



Geological Society, January 9. — ^J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Patrick Doyle, Alfred Harker, Rev. 

 Frederick Hastings, Rev. John Milne-Curran, and William 

 Ford Stanley, were elected Fellows ; Prof. G. Capelliiii, of 

 B jlogna, a Foreign Member, and M. Alphonse Briart, of Mons, 

 a Foreign Correspondent of the Society.— The following com- 

 munications were read : — On the volcanic group of St. David's, 

 by the Rev. Prof. J. F. Blake, F.G.S. The result of the 

 author's examination of the rocks in the district of St. David's 

 which have been designated Dimetian, Arvonian, and Pebidian, 

 is that they belong to one volcanic series, whose members are 

 tliose usually recognised in eruptive areas, and whose age is 

 anterior to and independent of the true Cambrian epoch. The 

 independence of this series and the Cambrian is shown by the 

 nature of the junction at all points of the circuit that have b en 

 seen. The supposed i-ocline west of the granitic mass cannot 

 \>'. verified on an examination of the coast-section, there being 

 great irregularity and gentle synclinals not far from where fhe 

 apex of the isocline should be. With regard to the nature of 

 the rocks which thus antedate the Cambrian, the author was 

 unable to recognise any true alternations in the materials of the 

 granitic axis, though the rock is a pecul ar one in the arrange- 

 ment of its constituents. The felsitic rocks arc not independent 

 of the granite, as they surround -it on all sides, the line along 

 the north and south being specially traced. They are also often 

 intrusive into the ashes, and hence can have no definite strike. 

 Attention was drawn to the highly acid character of the whole 



series, and to the small size of the centres of eruption, and it 

 was suggested that such centres have ontinually decreased iu 



number and increased in magnitude during geological time. 



On further discoveries of vertebrate remiins iu the Triassic 

 strata of the south coast of Devonshire, between Budleigh 

 Salterton and Sidmouth, by A. T. Metcalfe, F.G.S. The 

 author gave a brief strati^raphical account of the Triassic rocks 

 of the coast. He then described some vertebrate remains, con- 

 sisting chiefly of portions of jaw-hones with teeth in line, 

 probably of Labyrinthodonts, found in the upper sandstones 

 ( U>sher's classification) at High Peake Hill, near Sidmouth, by 

 H. J. Carter, F. R.S. At numerous places between Budleigh 

 Salterton and Sidmouth, Mr. Carter and the author had found 

 a large number of isolated bone fragments. Such fragments had 

 been submitted to a microscopical examination by Mr. Carter. In 

 some specimens the bone structure was visible throughout ; in 

 some the bony portion had been partially removed and replaced 

 by an infiltration of mineral matter ; in others the removal of 

 the bony portion was complete. From these facts the author 

 drew the conclusion that a comparative abundance of vertebrate 

 life was maintained during the Triassic period ; and that the 

 rareaess of Triassic fossils was due not so much to the paucity 

 of animal life during that period as to the fact that Triassic 

 strata afforded no suitable conditions for the preservation of 

 organic remains. 



Edinburgh 

 Royal Physical Society, January 16. — J. A. Harvie- 

 Brown, F.R.S.E., president, in the chair. — The following com- 

 munications were read : — On intra-epithelial capillaries in Oli- 

 gochteta, by F. E. Beddard, F.R.S. E. — On the geognosy of 

 the Harz Mountains, part I, by H. M. Cadell, B.Sc., of the 

 Scottish Geological Survey. 'The writer stated that there was 

 still some room for original investigation in that quarter, not- 

 withstanding the great attention the German geologists had 

 bestowed on the region. The Germans had not yet learned the 

 art of detailed structural geological mapping and section-drawing 

 as carried out in the British geological surveys, and many of 

 their so-called geological maps were nothing more than mere 

 petrographical pictures. The writer then went over the various 

 formations of the Harz, and noticed the fact that graptolites 

 were found at the top only of the lowest or Hercynian rocks, 

 which he suggested might be cited as an example of one of 

 Banaudes' "colonies." The older or "core rocks" of the 

 Harz tenninating in the Kulm were overlaid in violent uncon- 

 formability by the border rocks, beginning at the coal measures 

 and extending upwards to the Trias and Cretaceous systems. He 

 agreed with those who consider the loess an "ieolian " deposit 

 swept as dust into sheltered valleys and nooks by the vrind, and 

 thought that water had had nothing directly to do with its 

 origin. The paper was illustrated by the exhibition of rocks 

 and metallic minerals from the region described. — Prof. Cossar 

 Ewart, F.R.S. E., exhibited, with remarks, a large torpedo 

 recently caught in a trawl off" Wick, and believed to be the only 

 specimen of the kind ever found north of the English Channel. 

 The specimen exhibited was 28 inches in length and rgj inches 

 across the pectoral fins, and belonged to the species hebetans. 



Sydney 

 Linnean Society of New South "Wales, November 28, 

 1883. — C. S. Wilkinson, F.G.S., F.L.S., president, in the 

 chair. — The following papers were read : — Some fishes of New 

 Britain and the adjoining islands, by Charles W. De Vis, B.A. 

 The names of the new specimens described are — Serranus 

 perguttaiiis and cruenttis, Mtsoprion JIavirosea, Tetraroge vestita^ 

 Acanthurus zebra, Ryjukichtkys novi^-britannuz, Harpage 

 rosea (a new genus of the Berycida;), Salarias aquipinnis, 

 AmphiprioK arion, Poniacentrus onyx and notattis, Nesiotes 

 ptirpurascens (a new genus of the Labrida;), Exoastus longibarba, 

 Arius armiger, Hirpetichthys cobra, (a new genus of the 

 Murienidae), Tetrodon insulariitm and Itruis. — Some results of 

 trawl fishing outside Port Jackson, by William Macleay, F.L.S. 

 In this paper are given — (l) An account of two trials of a large 

 beam trawl in forty to fifty fathoms water, by the order of the 

 Commissioner of Fisheries ; (2) a list of the fishes captured ; and 

 (3) descriptions of two new species — a skate, Raia australis, and 

 a gurnard, Lepidotrigla mulhalli. Mr. Macleay eonsiders the result 

 promising on the whole. — Baron Maclay read a note on the 

 " Barometro Araucano" from the Chiloe Islands. He stated 

 that this remarkable instrument had been shown to him among 

 a number of other curiosities by Capt. C. de Amezaga, of the 



