i6 



NATURE 



\May 6, 1880 



crannog. The other, the position of which was not 

 determined, has two circular grooves or rings round the 

 cup, the outer of which is 9 inches in diameter (Fig. 3). 



Fig. 3. — Cup Stone (Scale \). 



Other Stone Relics. — Amongst a variety of other stone 

 relics there is one peculiar implement manufactured out 

 ofabitof hard trap-rock. It presents two flat surfaces 

 3 inches in diameter, with a round periphery, and is if 

 inch thick. 



Flint implements.— OvAy three flint implements were 

 found on the crannog— a large knife flake 3 inches long 

 and \\ inch broad ; the posterior portion of another flake ; 

 and a beautifully-chipped horseshoe-shaped scraper here 

 figured (Fig. 4). 



Spindle whorls. — Three small circular objects, sup- 

 posed to be spindle whorls, are here classed together. 

 Two are made of clay, and were found in the relic bed 

 near the fireplaces. The smaller of the two (Fig. 5) is 



Fig. 4.— Flint Scraper (Scale }). Fig. 5.— Clay Spindle Whorl (Scale !). 



\\ inch in diameter, and has a small round hole in the 

 centre; the other has a diameter of ij inch, and is only 

 partially perforated, just sufficiently to indicate that the 

 act of perforation had been commenced, but not com- 

 pleted. The third object is a smooth, flat, circular bit of 

 stone, \\ inch in diameter and i inch thick, and is 

 perforated in the centre like a largc^bjad. 

 {J'o be continued.) 



NOTES 

 The Royal Society of Edinburgh has awarded the Keith 

 Medal for the biennial period 1877-79 to Prof. Fleeming Jenkin 

 for his paper on the application of graphic methods to the 

 determination of the efficiency of machinery. 



Prof. Henry J. S. Smith, F.R.S., Savilian Professor of 

 Geometry in the University of Oxford, has been made a Corre- 

 sponding Member of the Academy of Science of Beriin. 



On the i6th inst. the International Congress of Meteorology 

 will meet at Vienna. 



The honorary degree of LL.D. has been conferred by the 

 University of Glasgow on Mr. Edward John Routh, M.A., 

 F.R.S., and Dr. Michael Foster, F.R.S. 



Prof. W. H. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S. , will give a discourse 

 at the Royal In.>;titution, on Fashion in Deformity, at the evening 

 meeting on Friday, May 7. 



Prof. Hu.xley will deliver the inaugural addre5s at the 

 opening of the Science College at Birmingham on October i. 



Sir William Thomson will preside at the meetmg of the 

 Physical Society on Saturday afternoon, and will make some 

 brief communications to the Society. 



Prof. Henry Tanner, F.C.S., Senior Member of the 

 Royal Agricultural College, and Examiner in the Principles of 

 Agriculture under the Government Department of Science, has 

 been appointed Professor of the Principles of Agriculture in the 

 Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. 



The fifty-fir.st anniversary meeting of the Zoological Society 

 was Iield last week. The report of the council was read by Mr. 

 Sclater, F.R.S., thesecretary. Itstated that the number of Fellows 

 on December 31, 1S79, was 3,364 against 3,415 at the same date 

 of the previous year, 145 new Fellows having been elected, and 

 189 removed by death or other causes during the year. In 

 consequence of the b.ad weather, vhich had seriously affected the 

 garden receipts, and of the general depression in business which 

 had prevailed in 1S79, the income of the society showed a falling 

 off as compared with that of 1S7S, but not to any serious amount ; 

 the total receipts having been 26,463/. in place of 27,944 in 1S78. 

 The total assets of the society on December 31 last were estimated 

 at 28,051/., and the liabilities at 9,960/. The number of 

 visitors to the gardens in 1879 had been 643,000, against 706,713 

 in 1 878. 



The general meeting of the German Geometrical Society will 

 be held at Cassel on July 4-7 next. 



In the last week of April an extraordinaiy fact was obsen-ed 

 at Montsouris. We have stated already that the electrical 

 observations are |^taken eight times daily with a Thomson 

 electrometer and recorded ; out of the eight readings registered 

 on April 28 not less than six were negative, and on the following 

 day seven were of the same sign. The occurrence is so extra- 

 ordinary that it has been referred to in the papers as a fair 

 characteristic of the season. 



A LARGE and influential committee of shipbuilders and marine 

 engineers has been formed in Glasgow for the purpose of pro- 

 moting an exhibition of naval and marine engineering models in 

 Glasgow. It is proposed that the exhibition shall be opened in 

 the Corporation Galleries in November and remain open for six 

 months. Mr. James Paton, the Superintendent of the Glasgow 

 Museum and Galleries, -^has been appointed Secretary to the 

 Committee. 



At the next meeting of the Society of Telegraph Engineers 

 Dr. Siemens is going to bring forward his latest development of 

 his dynamo machine, and of the influence of the electric light on 

 vegetation. 



The Whit-Monday excursion of the Geologists' Association 

 will be to Oxford, under the direction of Prof. Prestwich and 

 and Mr. James Parker. It will last over two days. The long 

 excursion of the Association will be to Bristol on August 2 and 

 following days. 



From the Report of the New York Central Park Menagerie 

 we learn that that establishment has now 423 ma^nmals, repre 

 senting 56 genera and 98 species ; 753 birds, of 102 genera, 134 

 species; 30 reptile.=, of 8 g;nera and 10 species; or 1, 206 

 animals in all. The additions in 1879 numbered 668. 



Heywood of Manchester has issued, for the small price of 

 sixpence, the eleventh series of the Manchester Science Lectures 

 for the People, containing lectures on "Islands," by Mr. A. R. 

 Wallace; "The Age of Dragons," by Mr. B. W. Hawkins; 

 "Palestine in its Physical Aspects," by Canon Tristram; and 



