14 



NA TURE 



l^Nov. 6, 187^ 



the Post-office tried to crush the box to the thickness of 

 silver-paper. The bit contains no spicules, nothing but 

 a mass of contorted tubes filled with small nuclei like ova. 

 " The nuclei are about i -600th of an inch in diameter, 

 and I suppose they are in tubes. The part you sent was 

 boiled in Liquor potasscE ; that is how the structure alone 

 came out, but there were no spicules in it, examined in 

 this way or in water alone, but many fat globules, and a 

 few sheaf-shaped calcareous concretions, common in all 

 preparations of animal matter." — September 5, 1S73. 



The habits of Pciinatiilida: are very imperfectly known 

 and not at all understood. Dr. Johnston observes in the 

 " British Zoophytes," vol. i. p. 160, that the fishermen 

 believe that the common Sea Pens, which they call 

 Coxcombs, " are fixed to the bottom with their ends im- 

 mersed in the mud." The Virgnlaria mirabilis are believed 

 by the fishermen to have one end erect in the mud, and 

 Pavoiictria quadrangitlaris, according to Profesor Forbes, 

 " lives erect, its lower extremity, as it were, rooted in the 

 slimy mud at a depth of from twelve to fifteen fathoms." 

 Mr. Darwin, who observed a species on the coast of 

 Patagonia, which he called Virgnlaria patai^oiiica, says : 

 " At low water hundreds of these zoophytes may be seen 

 projecting like stubble, with the truncate end upwards a 

 few inches above the surface of the muddy sand. When 

 touched or pulled they suddenly drew themselves in with 

 force so as nearly or quite to disappear. By this action 

 the highly elastic axis must be bent at the lower extremity, 

 where it is naturally slightly curved, and I imagine it is 

 by this elasticity alone that the zoophyte is enabled to rise 

 again through the mud." 



Bohadsch, as quoted by Johnston, says that the Peiina- 

 iiila: swim by means of their piniKV, which they use in the 

 same manner that fishes do their fins. Ellis says : " It is 

 an animal that swims freely about in the sea, many of 

 them having a muscular motion as they swim along." 

 And in another place he tells us, that " these motions are 

 effected by means of the pinnules or feather-like fins, these 

 are evidently designed by nature to move the animal back- 

 wards and forwards in the sea, consequently to do the office 

 of fins." Mr. Clifton describes the Australian species as swim- 

 mingrapidly inshallowwater ; and the American naturalists 

 all seem to agree that the Stick Fish, Os/i-ocr/ia scptciitri- 

 oiialis of Burrard Inlet, which has only a slight crest of 

 polyps, and xvaV pinna, or fins, as Ellis calls them, swims 

 about like a fish, and is eaten by the dog-fish. 



There seems to be no doubt that the Sea-Pens and Sea- 

 Rushes do live in groups together, erect, and sunk in the 

 mud, and that they are sometimes found swimming free 

 in the sea, but the question is, are the free specimens those 

 that have been disturbed by the waves and currents, and 

 do they afterwards affix themselves in the mud, or are 

 they vagrant specimens that live for a time and then die 

 or are eaten by fish, their struggling being mistaken for 

 swimming ? Dr. Johnston observes, that when the Sea- 

 Pens are placed in a basin or plate of water, he never 

 observed a change of position, but they remain in the 

 same place and lie with the same side up or down just as 

 they have been put in. That is my own experience even 

 when they are placed in a deeper vessel, but this may 

 arise from the animal having lost part of its vitality before 

 it was taken. 



It may be useful to give the synonyma of these animals. 



Osteocclla, Gray, Cat. Pennatulida;, 1870, p. 40. Ann. 

 and Mag. Nat Hist. 1872, ix. p. 405. 



Pavonaria, sp. Stearns, Minini^ and Scientific Press. 

 San Francisco, Aug. 9, 1873. 



Vcrillia, Stearns, Californian Acad. Sci., Aug. 18, 1873. 



1. Osteocclla cli/loni, Gray, Cat. Pennatulidas, 1870, p. 

 40; Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1872, ix. p. 406. 



Hab., Western Australia (G. Clifton, Esq.), B.M. 



2. Osteocclla septentrionalis, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. 1873, ix. p. 406 (style only). 



" New Marine Animal," Sclater, Brit. Assoc, Aug. 20 



THE RELATION OF MAN TO THE ICE- 

 SHEET IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND 



IN the interesting review of Sir Charles Lyell's "An- 

 tiquity of Man," communicated to Nature of Oct. 

 2, Mr. A. R. Wallace mentions the fact that '■ there is as 

 yet no clear evidence that man lived in Europe before 

 the Glacial Epoch, and even if he did so, the action of 

 the ice-sheet would probably have obliterated all records 

 of his existence." The fact was true when it appeared, 

 but both the fact and the remark which follows it, may 

 now have to undergo considerable modification. The 

 Committee for the Exploration of the \'ictoria Cave, near 

 Settle, Yorkshire, assisted by a grant from the British 

 Association, have just made a discovery which may prove 

 to be of the greatest importance not only to the geolo- 

 gists of Europe, but to all those who take an interest in 

 the origin and early history of man. 



In May 1872 the Committee were exploring a bone 

 bed in the cave, which occurred at a considerable depth 

 beneath other deposits. It was fuU of hya:na-dung, 

 broken bones, and teeth. A quantity of these were sent 

 to Mr. Busk for determination, and he kindly returned 

 the following list : — 



Elephas primigcnius Rhinoceros tic/wrinus 



Ursns spelcms Bison 



Ursns pristus Cerviis elaplms 



Hycena spelcra 

 These are well known to represent the fauna of the 

 river gravels in the south of England. Among them was 

 a bone which puzzled even Mr. Busk, and he has only 

 now given his mature and definite opinion on the subject. 

 He writes : " The bone is, I have now no doubt, human ; 

 a portion of an unusually clumsy fibula, and in that 

 respect not unlike the same bone in the Mentune skele- 

 ton." When Mr. Busk has taken some time to consider 

 the question there are few scientific men who will dispute 

 his verdict. The occurrence of the bones of man with 

 this group of animals is a new fact for this part of the 

 kingdom, but one that might be expected from a similar 

 co-existence in the south of England, in Kent's Cavern, 

 Wookey Hole, and elsewhere. 



But at Settle this discovery possesses a far greater 



1872; Nature, vol. vi. p. 436 (with figure offish, of 

 which it is said to be the notochord). 



"Axis of Pennatulid,"!H. N. Moseley, Nature, Sept. 

 26, 1872, vol. vi. p. 432. 



" Pennatulid," Dawson, Nature, Oct. 24, 1872, vol. vi. 

 p. 516; Whiteaves, Nat. Hist. Soc. Montreal, 1872. 



" New Aicyonoid," Steams, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., Feb. 

 1873, V. part I, p. 7. 



Pavonaria blakei, Stearns, Mining and Scieniijic Press, 

 San Francisco, Aug. 9, 1873. 



Verrillia blakei, Stearns, Proc. Acad. Cal. Acad. Sci., 

 Aug. 18, 1873. 



Hab., Gulf of Georgia, Barraud's Creek, near New 

 Westminster, Washington Territory : Herd, Claudet, 

 Doane, Stearns, Chambers. Eraser's River : Dick and 

 Nelson. B.M. 



Mr. Stearns's paper in the Proceedings of the Califor- 

 nian Academy of Sciences is a reprint of the paper in the 

 San Francisco Mining and Scientific Press, with a few 

 additions, and the addition of a new sub-genus, Verrillia, 

 although he quotes Osteocclla. 



Since I have seen the proof of this paper, the 

 Hon. Justice Crease has informed me that he has for- 

 warded to me a scries of the animals of Osteocclla, and 

 also an account of the animal from an examination of 

 fresh examples by Dr. Moss ; the latter has arrived, and 

 I communicated it on September 25 to the Zoological 

 Society ; it is illustrated by figures. J. E. Gray 



