April 20, 1871] 
NATURE 
491 

bars, south of Weldon, the sea-bottom is totally distinct 
in character, being purely submarine, and formed by the 
action of the sea. He points out the existence of a rise 
and fall of the coast at different portions of its extent ; 
this, in the most recent geological period, amounting at 
Charleston, South Carolina, to from 50 to 60 feet, in 
Maine to 200 feet, and to a still greater extent on the 
coast of Labrador. As a general rule, he thought there 
was evidence to prove that, taking a line from the centre 
of the continent to the centre of the sea, the sea-floor was 
coming up and the high elevations were coming down.— 
Mr. Hyatt states that observations made by the Coast 
Survey showed that the coast of Long Island Sound, and 
southward to New Jersey, has been sinking, while the 
Florida Keys are rising; and Mr. Niles remarked that, 
from the earliest.times, in the Adirondacks and different 
points southerly, there had been peninsulas corresponding 
in position to Florida, and that this is simply the most 
southern and latest of a succession from north to south.— 
At a meeting of the New York Lyceum of Natural 
History, held during last autumn, Prof. Newberry, the 
President, exhibited the anterior portion of the cranium 
of a walrus which had been found during the summer at 
Long Branch by a gentleman whose foot struck against it 
while bathing. It was strongly silicified, but exhibited no 
appreciable difference from modern specimens. The pre- 
cise age of this fossil could not, of course, be ascertained, 
although it is well known that its range was formerly 
much south of its present habitat. It is not unfrequently 
brought down on floating ice off the coast of Newfound- 
land ; and although Labrador is at present the southern 
limit of its residence, it was once very abundant in the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and its remains have been found 
in the shell heaps of the Bay of Fundy. It is probable 
that the specimen exhibited by Prof. Newberry is a relic 
of the glacial period, although it was suggested that it 
might have been of the tertiary- age, which probably 
cannot be verified. Other specimens of similar character 
are recorded as having been found on Martha’s Vineyard ; 
in Monmouth Co., New Jersey; and in Accomac Co., 
Virginia —We have already referred to the detection of 
an ancient bone cave near Pheenixville, Pennsylvania, and 
about twenty-five miles north-west of Philadelphia, and 
to the interest which has attached to this discovery. 
Since our last account Prof. Cope has been actively 
engaged in the investigation of the collection, andalready 
reports the existence of about thirty species of vertebrates, 
together with numerous plants and insects. All of these, 
so far as known, are probably of extinct species, although 
their precise relationships have not yet been fully worked 
out. Among the reptiles were tortoises and serpents, and 
of birds there was a turkey and a snipe. The mammals, 
as Prof. Cope anticipated, were most numerous, these in- 
cluding two carnivorous animals of large size, one of them 
a cat, and the other a bear, previously described by Dr. 
Leidy, of a remarkable type, and totally distinct from the 
cave bear, or any living species of either Europe or 
America. At least three species of sloths were dis- 
covered, mostly of gigantic size, one of them a species 
of Megalonyx, and two of Mylodon. Besides these, 
there were some ruminating animals, tapirs, and a small 
horse. With the other remains were the teeth and tusks 
of the mastodon. The fissure in which the bones were 
found was forty feet deep and fifteen feet wide ; the length 
as yet has not been determined. Above the deposit of 
bones the cave was filled with washings of the Triassic age 
from the neighbouring hills. 

SCIENCE AT OXFORD 
HE following courses of lectures in Science are 
ay announced for the ensuing term :—The Regius 
Professor of Medicine (Dr. Acland) will continue his 
clinical instruction at the Infirmary, on Tuesdays 


and Saturdays, beginning on Tuesday, May 2, at 
Ir AM. The Linacre Professor of Anatomy and 
Physiology (Dr. Rolleston) proposes to form Classes 
for practical instruction in anatomy and physiology, 
as in former terms. Persons are invited to come to the 
anatomical department in the New Museum on two 
mornings of the week for study and demonstration, and to 
lectures on Saturdays at 1 P.M., and at such other times 
as may be hereafter arranged. The Sedleian Professor 
of Natural Philosophy (the Rev. Bartholomew Price) will 
give a course of lectures on the Solution of Problems in 
Applied Mathematics. The course will begin at r P.M. 
on Thursday, April 20, in the lecture-room, upper corridor 
south, Museum. The Savilian Professor of Astronomy 
(the Rev. C. Pritchard) will give a lecture early in the pre- 
sent term on the recent solar eclipse. He will also be 
ready to assist members of the University in their astro- 
nomical studies, “séwe ula solennitate.” The Savilian 
Professor of Geometry (Mr. Henry Smith) will continue 
his lectures on the Anharmonic Properties of Figures. 
He will also give a course of lectures on Geometry of 
Three Dimensions. The Professor of Geology (Mr. J. 
Phillips) will begin a course of lectures on Monday, April 
24, at 12 o’clock, and continue them at the same hour on 
succeeding Wednesdays and Mondays, in the New 
Museum. The lectures are arranged to present a syste- 
matic view of the more remarkable groups of organic 
remains, especially in the extinct groups. The Professor 
of Experimental Philosophy (Mr. R. B. Clifton) has given 
notice that the Physical Laboratory of the University will 
be open daily for instruction in practical physics, from 
IO A.M. to 4 P.M., on and after Wednesday, April19. The 
fee for working three days a week during the term is 3/. 
The Professor of Chemistry (Sir B. Brodie) has given 
notice that the Demonstrator in Chemistry will deliver a 
course of lectures on Chemistry on Tuesdays and Satur- 
days, at 11 A.M., commencing Tuesday, April 25. These 
lectures will be in continuation of the course of the Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry last term, and will commence with the 
element phosphorus and its combinations. The Professor 
of Botany (Mr. Lawson) will give a course of lectures on 
Structural and Physiological Botany. The Hope Professor 
of Zoology (Mr. Westwood) proposes to give a short 
course of lectures on the Articulated Animals. 

SETTLE CAVE EXPLORATION 
At the last meeting of the Settle Cave Exploration 
Committee, the report of the excavation of the 
Victoria Cave, up to December 31st, 1870, by Mr. Boyd 
Dawkins, was read. 
The results of the exploration are full of interest, and 
bid fair to throw light on the social condition of the Ro- 
mano-Celtic habitants of Ribblesdale after the with- 
drawal of the Roman legions. The committee placed the 
superintendence of their exploration in the charge of Mr. 
Jackson, the discoverer of the cave, and began work with 
the kind permission of the owner (Mr. Stackhouse), by 
clearing away a mass of debris, which very nearly blocked 
up the lower entrance and formed a horizontal plateau 
extending some thirty feet from the solid rock. On the 
surface there was a stratum of angular stones which had 
fallen from the weathered face of the rock above, and 
passed into the cave at the bottom of the Attermire 
ravine. Below was the layer which furnished traces of 
man. Mixed with charcoal there were large quantities 
of the bones and teeth of the Celtic short-horn (os 
longifrons), goat, and horse, and a few remains of red 
deer and roe deer, which were evidently the refuse of 
human food. There were also fragments of pottery, bone 
pins, and various nondescript articles in antler and bone, 
stone pot-boilers, and two perforated discs of stone which 
had been used as spindle-whorls. As this layer passed 
into the cave, it rose to the surface and continued to 
