
Yan. 19, 187 1] 
NATURE 
239 

phenomena similar to those described by the privileged few who 
have witnessed this extraordinary natural phenomenon. The 
following experiment shows that, prior to the passage of the 
electric spark, a channel is prepared for this spark to pass. The 
positive and negative balls of the machine were separated to a 
distance of 6 or 7 inches, and a common candle-flame was placed 
midway between them. On rotating the machine, the flame 
was drawn out on each side just prior to the passage of the spark. 
Sometimes itextended to a width of 5 or 6 inches ; this took 
place every time the spark passed. It is well known that the 
duration of this spark is less than the ,>,/5oa part of a second ; 
the flame occupied the 3 or +4, part of a second in flying out to 
make the conducting channel through which the discharge went. 
The author has been informed more than once by captains of 
vessels, that when men have beenstruck by lightning a burn has 
been left upon the skin of the same shape as the object from which 
the discharge flew. In one instance he was informed that some 
brass numbers, attached to the rigging from which the discharge 
passed to the sailor, were imprinted upon his skin. It is now 
seen that this is perfectly possible if the discharge be a negative 
one, that is, if the man be + to the brass number. 
Ethnological Society, January 10.—Prof. Huxley, Presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Mr. Francis Hewitt was announced as a new 
member.—A collection of stone implements from Queen Char- 
lotte and Vancouver Islands was exhibited by Dr. Hooker, C.B., 
and some artificially distorted skulls from Vancouver Island were 
exhibited by Col. A. Lane Fox.—A paper was read, ‘‘ On the 
Prehistoric Monuments in Brittany,” by Lieut. S. P. Oliver, 
R.A., illustrated by a large collection of drawings and plans. 
The author first describec the alignments at Carnac, which are 
arranged in three distinct groups—those of Menec, Kervario, 
and Kerlescant. At Menec there are eleven lines of stones with 
a circle at the south-west ; at Kervario there are ten convergent 
lines ;. and at Kerlescant thirteen lines, with an enclosure of 
horse-shoe form. The stone avenues of Erdeven, St. Barbe, 
St. Pierre, and Plouhinec, were also noticed among the 
antiquities of the Morbihan ; and attention was then directed to 
the alignment of Crozon, in the neighbouring Department of 
Finisterre. From the rude character of the stones in all these 
avenues and circles as compared with those in the neighbouring 
dolmens and menhirs, the author believes. that the megalithic 
remains are of two distinct classes, differing considerably in date, 
the alignments and circles of amorpholiths being referable to a 
much earlier race than the dolmen-builders. Many of the tumuli 
of Brittany were then described, and attention directed to the 
archaic sculpturing upon some of the stones, and to the celts 
which have been found within the tumuli. Of these celts a large 
proportion are formed of the rare mineral fidyolite. The dis- 
cussion upon this paper was sustained by Sir H. Dryden, Capt. 
Godwin-Austen, the Rev. H. Winwood, and Messrs. A. W. 
Franks, Hyde Clark, and Edgar Layard.—Some notes were 
read on a Cairn near Cefn, St. Asaph, by the Rev. D. R. 
Thomas, M.A., and T. McK. Hughes, M.A. The authors 
described two chambered tombs within the area of a large cairn 
which had long been removed. One of these cists was brought 
to light by excavations, which were undertaken in consequence 
of a visit to the spot by a party from the British Association 
after the Liverpool meeting. 
NorwicH 
Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society, December 
20.,—-A box of very beautiful and rare fen moths, presented 
by the Hon. T. de Grey to the Museum, was exhibited.— 
Mr. Stevenson read a paper on ‘‘The Abundance of Little 
Gulls on the Norfolk Coast in the Winter of 1869-70.” This 
bird has hitherto been considered an occasional straggler 
on the Norfolk coast, but during the month of February last 
an unprecedented number appeared. It is probable that 
over sixty specimens were killed in this county; of these the 
great majority were adult males. These birds have recently 
been discovered to breed in considerable numbers in Lake 
Ladoga, further to the north and west of which it is not 
at present known to breed. Mr. Stevenson presumes that the 
stragglers, mostly young birds, which in autumn and winter 
appear on the coast of Great Britain, form part of that colony, 
which, migrating in awesterly rather than in a southerly direction, 
pass from the Baltic into the North Sea. The adult birds rarely 
approach the shore, but, from the sudden and irresistible force of 
the gale which visited us in February last, they were, doubtless, 
compelled to seek the shelter of our bays and estuaries,—Mr. 

Barrett stated that, since he read his paper on ‘‘ The Coast In- 
sects found near Brandon,” at the last meeting, he had received 
some valuable evidence confirmatory of the views he then ex- 
pressed. The Hon. T. de Grey informed him that he had taken 
Agrestes cinerea and Gelechia vitella, both of them rare sandhill 
insects, at Brandon, and Gelechia marmorea as far away as Tot- 
tington, on the Merton estate. Other species had been taken by 
the Rey. H. S. Mariott, of Wickham Market, and the Rev. H. 
Williams, of Croxton.—Mr. Geldart stated that Phleum arena- 
rium, an essentially sea-side grass, was to be found growing on 
the sandy warrens about Brandon. 
DUBLIN 
Royal Geological Society, January 11.—‘On the Geo- 
logical age of the Ballycastle Coal-field, and its relation to the 
carboniferous rocks of the West of Scotland, by Mr. E. Hull, 
F.R.S.” The object of the paper was to prove that the coal- 
field of Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, was referable to the type of the 
lower coal-field of Scotland, and consequently of the age of the 
Lower Carboniferous series ; in other words, of the mountain lime- 
stone. The Carboniferous series of Ballycastle which had been 
described in 1829 by Sir R. Griffith, F.R.S.,* was shown to 
consist of three divisions in descending order. 1. Zhe Upper, 
consisting of massive sandstones, and shales with beds of coal, 
black band and clay band ironstones, &c. (Zingula sguamiformis). 
2. The Middle, consisting of a thin bed of limestone lying between 
shales with carboniferous limestone genera and species of shells, 
crinoids, and corals, 3. Ze Lower, consisting of massive reddish 
grits, and conglomerate with thin beds of shale. The author 
showed that the carboniferous limestone of Ireland undergoes, in its 
extension northward, changes similar to those of the same 
formation in Britain, when traced from Derbyshire into 
Northumberland and Scotland. The calcareous element thins 
away, and is replaced by sedimentary strata of sandstone, shale, 
&c., with approximately terrestrial conditions, productive of 
coal and ironstone. It was thus that in the case of the Glasgow 
coal-field, the limestone of Derbyshire, several thousand feet in 
thickness, was represented by only thin bands of earthy limestone, 
interstratified with a thick series of grits, shales, &c., with ironstone 
and coal. In a similar manner the Ballycastle coal-field, with 
only a few feet of limestone, shown in the cliffs of the bay, was 
the representative of the carboniferous limestone of the centre of 
Ireland, nearly 3,000 feet in thickness. Mr. Hull regarded the 
lower division (No. 3) of the Ballycastle beds (as above described) 
as undoubtedly the representative of the ‘‘calciferous sandstone 
series ” of the Geological Survey, which lies at the base of the 
carboniferous rock of the West of Scotland, and that the middle 
and upper division (Nos. 2 and 1) corresponds to the carboniferous 
limestone series, or lower coal-field of that country. As regards 
the palzeontological evidence, it was in favour of this view, as far 
as it had been studied. Out of thirty-three species observed in 
the limestone band of Ballycastle Bay, 50 per cent. had been 
described in the Lower Carboniferous rocks of the West of 
Scotland, and one of the uppermost seams of coal, lying above 
the limestone, had yielded Lingula squamiformus, a form 
characteristic of the limestone series in the North of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland. Mr. W. H. Baily, F.G.S., concurred 
in the view of the age of these beds on palzontological grounds, 
The author concluded by pointing out several features of simi- 
larity between the Ballycastle beds and the lower coal series 
of the West of Scotland, such as the occurrence of several beds 
of ‘‘ black band” ironstone ; the hydraulic and earthy character 
of the limestone of Ballycastle Bay, exactly resembling the 
“* Arden” and ‘‘ Cowglen” bands of Glasgow. Some uncertainty 
still remained whether there were any beds in the Ballycastle 
district as high in the Geological Series as the millstone grit, 
a true coal measure, but until more light could be brought to 
bear on this question by further exploration, and a comp ete 
investigation by Government surveyors, the author meanwhile 
regarded the whole series as Lower Carboniferous. 
MONTREAL 
Natural History Society, Nov. 28.—Dr. Dawson, president, 
in the chair. A paper was read upon the Canadian phosphates 
of lime in their application to agriculture, by Mr. Gordon 
Broome, F.G.S., calling special attention to the valuable apatite 
deposits of the Rideau district. The author gave a large amount 
of yaluable information upon the manufacture of ‘‘ superphos- 
* Report on the Coal Districts of Tyrone and Antrim, addressed to the 
Royal Dublin Society, 1829 
+ Trans. Geol. Soc., Glasgow. 
