?4 



NATURE 



\_Atcgtist 5, iSb'o 



around the coal-pebbles, which, from their greater haid- 

 ness, have left their impress in the plants; but Ihe 

 crystallisation of the former has a uniform parallelism 

 with the faces of its cleavage, while the cleavage of the 

 older coal is parallel with the sides of pebbles, which 

 occur in all positions, sometimes in the form of a rhom- 

 boid, with its edges and corners rounded by attrition. 

 To the east of Swansea, near Southern Down and 

 Dunraven Castle, there are remarkably fine exposures 

 of Lower Lias full of Gryplua iiiairva, with large 

 ammonites and belemnites. Last year an enormous 

 slab was dug out of the Trias rocks at Shortlands, 

 which bears five trifid impressions in a clear series. 

 The length of each footprint is 9j inches, and it ap- 

 pears to have been made by " some solidly-built short- 

 legged creature." A little further east the Rhalic 

 Passage Beds are laid open for a distance of more 

 than twenty miles to Penarth Headland, where Carditiim 

 rhu/iiinn and numerous other characteristic fossils are 

 found. Through these strata there are many railway 

 cuttings and no less than six passenger stations, so that 

 this district is perhaps the best in the whole country for 

 the study of Rha5tic strata in the fields. The peninsula of 

 Gower, west of Swansea, besides offering such scientific 

 attractions as bone-caves, underground water-courses, 

 raised beaches, cScc, is remarkable for the great beauty 

 and variety of its scenery. Bold highlands and beetling 

 cliffs alternate with heathery downs and commons, well 

 wooded valleys through which trout streams flow, and 

 rocky gorges, half hidden by luxuriant growths of fern. 

 Tumuli, Druidic stones, Roman and Danish earthworks, 

 and a round dozen Norman castles, dating for the mo^t 

 part from the days of William Rufus, lend additional 

 charm to the district, which is peopled by the descendants 

 of a colony of Flemings, who still retain many charac- 

 teristic words, idioms, and customs, which the ethnologist 

 may profitably study. The lonely granitic rocky island 

 at the entrance to the Bristol Channel is associated with 

 the geology of the Barnstaple district ; but it has a history 

 all its own, and a peculiar species of rat. Ilfracombe, on 

 the Devonshire coast, is only two hours from Swansea 

 Pier by a fast-going steam-boat. At Pembroke Dock, on 

 the occasion of the visit, there will be a considerable 

 number of notable ships and corvettes of war, and the 

 Great Eastern. Minor excursions will run through the 

 magnificent haven of Milford, and to Tenby, while 

 arrangements are made to take fifty persons by road to St. 

 David's City and Cathedral, with the ruined palace and 

 colleges of the see of Menevia, in the utmost limits of 

 Pembrokeshire. 



All these excursions are fixed for Saturday, the 28th, 

 and the Local Committee exact that all applications be sent 

 in before i p.m. of the previous Thursday. 



On the succeeding Thursday, September 2, the excur- 

 sions, which are very numerous, will be for the most part 

 to collieries and works. Perhaps the chief interest 

 attaching to Swansea is its metallic industries, of which 

 the district is a chief centre. The copper trade has 

 flourished here for a century and a half to two centuries, 

 but though various new processes have been tried from 

 time to time, practically the oldest dry process, called the 

 Welsh method, is still in use. It is affirmed that ninc- 

 tenths of the copper-smelting of the kingdom is done 

 here. The sulphurous and arsenious fumes from these 

 works have entirely denuded the hill-sides of verdure, 

 but it cannot be shown that they injure human health. 

 Among the many inventions for the consumption of 

 this smoke, are washing it with water, collecting the 

 sulphurous acid and converting it into sulphuric acid, 

 and the use of deposit chambers and high chimney?. 

 These processes may be seen at Hafod, the works of 

 Mr. H. H. Vivian, M.P. The other excursions on the 

 same day include various large tin works, where the 

 whole of the processes of making the iron sheets and 



tinning them may be seen, and the visitors will be 

 entertained at luncheon by the Worshipful Mayor at his 

 Cwmbwrla Tin-plate Works ; to the Landore Siemens 

 Steel Works, where steel is made in gas regenerative 

 furnaces by the Siemens-Martin process, and hammered 

 and rolled and tested for rails, armour-plates, ship and 

 boiler plates, knives, needles, wire, and all other com- 

 mercial purposes, and visitors will be entertained at 

 lunch by Dr. Siemens ; to the Dyftwyn Collieries at 

 Neath, the Navigation Colliery at Quaker's Yard, the 

 Penrhiwceiber Colliery, Mountain Ash, &c., the most 

 important coal winnings in the district, at each of which 

 places visitors will be entertained. Visitors to Neath 

 Abbey and district will t dee luncheon in the ruined 

 refectory, and those to the Vale of Neath Waterfalls in 

 the caves. At their Melyn Decorative Tin Works 

 Messrs. Leach, Flower and Co. will show their extremely 

 interesting processes and give a luncheon ; Mr. J. T. D. 

 Llewelyn, of Penllergare, will receive 100 visitors at his 

 ancient and beautifully-situated residence five miles from 

 Swansea ; and Mrs. Crawshay will entertain on this day 

 fifty visitors at Langorse Pool, Brecon. The oyster-dredg- 

 ing expedition in the Bay will start from Swansea Piers, 

 and visit the Lighthouse Rock and Battery, luncheon being 

 served on board. The neighbouring works, which 

 may be easily reached from the town, include the manu- 

 facture of patent fuel in the old and in a perfectly new 

 perforated form ; sulphuric acid, phosphate manures, 

 cobalt, silver, nickel, lead, spelter, sulphate of ammonia, 

 oxalic acid, distillation of wood, alkalies, &c., &c. 



Applications for tickets for these excursions on Thurs- 

 day, September 2, must be made not later than the 

 forenoon of the previous Monday. 



Among the special attractions which will take place 

 concurrently in Swansea are an agricultural show, a 

 flower show, and especially an exhibition of local pro- 

 ductions and processes. The exhibition of machinery 

 will be on an extensive scale, and the greater part will be 

 in motion. The more interesting portions of the machinery 

 in motion and the loan exhibition of scientific instru- 

 ments will be retained as an additional attraction to the 

 second soiree. 



The accommodation in the town and in the picturesque 

 suburban watering-place of OystermouthorThe Mumbles 

 is in every way ample, and the hospitality will be gene- 

 rous, but it would much facilitate the w^ork of the Local 

 Committee and add greatly to the satisfaction of visitors 

 themselves if they would give timely and sufficient notice 

 of their intention to be present on the occasion. 



THE HIGH PLATEAUX OF UTAH^ 



UNTIL a few years ago the geography of the high 

 grounds of the western part of North America was 

 depicted, even on the best maps, in a manner which now 

 appears almost like a caricature of nature. So much had 

 been said and written about the Rocky Mountains that 

 the popular imagination was wont to picture them as a 

 colossal, rugged, and almost impassable range, extending 

 continuously down the backbone of the continent, arid 

 serving generally as the watershed between the Atlantic 

 and Pacific Oceans. The progress of research, however, 

 disdpated this delusion by showing that, mstead of one 

 continuous chain of mountains, a vast area of country, 

 extending from the British possessions far down into the 

 Southern States, has been upraised into elevated plams or 

 table-lands, and that these at various distances have been 

 ridged up by lenticular mountain- chains, sometimes 

 parallel, sometimes en c'chdon, and trending generally in 

 a meridional direction. The term " Rocky Mountains 

 is now commonly restricted to the most easterly hne of 



■ '■ Report on the Geology of the High Plateaux o£ Ut.ah." With Atl«. 

 By Capt. C. E. Button, U S.A. Geographical and Geological Survey of the 

 Territories. J. W. Powell in charge. (Washington, i8So.) 



