354 



NA TURE 



[Mar. 5, 1874 



me to the comfiletion of a PioJromus or Thesaurus Liassicus, the 

 materials for which have been accumulated during several years j 

 but from the great labour demanded to bring into harmony the 

 nomenclature of the fossils, without which the compilation can 

 have no real value, some time must elapse before the results can 

 be submitted to you. — Faithfully yours, Ralph Tate." 



The President then presented to Mr. Alfred liell the other half 

 of the balance of the proceeds of the Murchison Geological Fund, 

 and stated that this was awarded to him in recognition of his 

 valuable researches upon the fossils of the newer Tertiary beds 

 of this country, and to assist him in the completion of his work 

 upon the Crag deposits of the eastern counties. Mr. Bell, in 

 reply, said that he was most grateful for this token of the 

 Society's appreciation of the value of his labours, and stated tliat 

 up to the present time he had been enabled to distinguish about 

 3,000 fossil species from the newer Tertiaries of Britain, and that 

 he hoped yet to add very largely to their number. 



The President then proceeded to read his Anniversary Address, 

 in which he stated that the pressure of his official duties during 

 the period of his presidency had prevented his keeping himself 

 thoroughly acquainted with the recent progress of geological 

 research, and he therefore proposed in his present address to 

 advert rather to those questions in geology which seemed to him 

 still to require an answer. He referred to the relations between 

 geology and connogony, to the effects and causes of volcanic 

 and earthquake action, and finally to the great questions which 

 are still unsettled as to the origin of life and the sequence of 

 organic beings on the face of the earth. The address was pre- 

 faced by some obituary notices of Fellows and Foreign Members 

 and Correspondents deceased during the past year, including 

 Mr. J. Wickham Flower, Mr. J. Garth Marshall, Prof Agassiz, 

 and it. de Verneuil. 



The Ballot for the Council and Ofilicers was taken, and the 

 following were duly elected for the ensuing year : — President — 

 John Evans, F.R. S. Vice-Presidents — Robert Etheridge, 

 F.R..S. ; R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, F.R. S. ; Sir Charles Lyell, 

 Bart., F.R.S. ; Joseph Prestwich, E. R.S. Secretaries — David 

 Forbes, F.R.S. ; Rev. T. Wiltshire, M, A. Foreign Secretary 

 — -Warington W. Smyth, F.R.S. Treasurer — f. Gwyn Jeffreys, 

 F.R.S. Council— The Duke of Argyll, K.t., F.R.S.; H. 

 Bauerman ; Prof. G. Busk, F. I\. S. ; J. F. Campbell ; Frederic 

 Drew; Sir P. ce M. G. Egerton, Bart., F.R.S.; R. Etheridge, 

 F.R.S. ; John Evans, F.R.S. ; David Forbes, F.R.S. ; Capt. 

 Douglas Galton, F.R.S. ; R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S. ; 

 J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S.; Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., F.R.S. ; 

 C. T- A. iSleyer ; J. Carrick Moore, F.R.S. ; Joseph Prestwich, 

 F.R.S. ; Prof. A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S. ; Samuel Sharp, F.S.A. ; 

 Warington W. Smyth, F.R.S. ; Prof. J. Tennant, F.C.S. ; 

 W. Whitaker, B.A. ; Rev. T. Wiltshire, F.L.S. ; Henry 

 Woodward, F.R.S. 



Anthropological Institute, Feb. 24. — Sir Duncan Gibb, 

 Bart., M.D., in the chair.— Mr. Biddle Lloyd, C.E., F.G.S., 

 read a paper on the Beo hues, a tribe of Red Indians, supposed 

 to be extinct, which formerly inhabited Newfoundland. The 

 author, after reviewing the various accounts related of the 

 aborigines of the island from the time of .Sebastian Cabot down- 

 wards, gave the results of the information he picked up from 

 various sources during an exploratory cruise he made last 

 summer round the coast of Newfoinidland, respecting the strange 

 tribe of Indians which inhabited the island up to a period which 

 terminated about forty years ago, when, by reason of the cruelties 

 practised on them by the English fishermen, and the warfare 

 carried on against them by the Mic-mac Indians, they were re- 

 duced in number, and finally the few of them that were left, it is 

 supposed, crossed over the straits of Eelleisle, or at all events 

 disappeared. Several singular circumstances in connection with 

 the Beothucs, as they styled themselves, were noticed : namely, 

 the curious shape of their birch-batk canoes, the fact that the 

 dog was not domesticated by them, and their manner of hunting 

 the Caribou by means of long lines of fencing put up to keep the 

 herds of deer along certain tracks. — Mr. Lloyd also read notes 

 on Indian remains lound on the coast of Labrador. The Indian 

 remains found on the coast of Labrador consisted of rudely-con- 

 structed buildings, of stone slabs, which were discovered on the 

 sea-shore at the western entrance of the straits of Belleisle. 

 They were described to the author as Indian graves, but there 

 ivas no evidence to show that such was the use to which they 

 had been applieil. I )n the contrary, it seemed probable they were 

 stone wigwams built by some Indian families for a summer resi- 

 dence. The author was fortunate enough to discover at L'Anse 



du Diable, which is a cave situated about 20 miles east of the 

 locality where the so-called Indian graves were found, a few 

 arrow-heads of quartzite and hyaline quartz on a sairdy "barren" 

 which stretched inland from the head of the cave. From cir- 

 cumstances connected with the cave, the author concluded that 

 the locality had been chosen by some unknown tribe of Indians 

 for the manufacture of their arrow-heads during an occupancy of 

 some considerable time on the spot.— A paper was read by Dr. 

 Sinclair Holden on a peculiar Neolithic implement from 

 Antrim. 



Royal Horticultural Society, Feb. 10. — Annual General 

 Meeting. — Viscount Bury, president, in the chair. — The Report 

 of the Council having been taken as read, it was moved by Mr. 

 Haughton as an amendment to the motion for its adoption, and 

 seconded by the Rev. C. P. Peach, that the meeting be adjourned 

 to enable the opinion of the Court of Chancery to be taken as to 

 the legal position of the Society. (The commissioners of the 

 Annual International Exhibitions dispute the validity of the elec- 

 tion of the Council chosen last year. ) The amendment being 

 put to the vote was lost by a majority of six, the numbers (in- 

 cluding ladies' proxies) being, for, 225; against, 231. The 

 report was then put and carried. The following vacancies 

 were filled for the ensuing year : — President — Viscount Bury, 

 K.C.M.G. Treasurer — Mr. Bonamy Dobree. Secretary — Mr. 

 W. A. Lindsay. Members of Council (extraordinary vacancies) 

 — Lieut.-Gen. Hon. Sir A. H. Gordon, K.C.B. ; Mr. Joseph 

 Robert Tritton ; Mr. Burnley Hume ; Mr. Henry Webb. 



General Meeting, Feb. iS. — Henry Little in the chair. — The 

 Rev. M. J. Berkeley commented on a plant shown by Mr. Bull, 

 under the name >:){ Rapatca pandanoides. It is a species of .S'izxt;- 

 friderkia. He also gave some account of Dr. Cunningham's 

 microscopic examinations of air in Calcutta. 



Scientific Committee, — A. Smee, F.R.S., in the chair. — A 

 large number cf subjects were brought before the Committee. 

 Among the more important were — Mr. Grote : The Tea-bug of 

 Assam, supposed by Prof Westwood, from the figures, to belong 

 to the Cimicideous family, Capsidas, and nearly allied to a species 

 which injures chry-^anthemum-buds. Mr. A. Miiller thought it 

 much more likely to be some aphis, though it might be imma- 

 ture. — A communication was sent through Dr. Hooker on a new 

 disease of the coffee plantations in India (Tellicherry). The 

 leaves turn yellow, and the back is found to be covered with a 

 rust-coloured dust. I'^urther information was requested. — Prof. 

 Thisselton Dyer exhibited specimens of the Balaniform gabsy 

 gall of the oak with specimens of the Cynips which had been 

 bred from them. These had been identified by the Rev. T. A. 

 Marshall as C. radicis. Fab. He also read a note from Mr. Fenn, 

 of Woodstock, as to the practical impossibility of making keeping 

 wine from out-door ripened grapes without the addition of sugar 

 — a point of interest in connection with the supposed deteriora- 

 tion of the English climate ; also a note on the condition of an 

 armour-plated ship which was being rapidly destroyed by dry-rot, 

 and a photograph of the tree of the orange or Pearmain apple, 

 with a drawing of the branch which had produced the russet 

 sport exhibited to the Committee last November. 



Entomological Society, Feb. 16. — Sir Sidney Smith 

 Saunders, C. M.G., president, in the chair. — Mr. Weir exhi- 

 bited a sample of wheat from Australia infested with a weevil, 

 Silophilus oryzic ; the cargo was so much damaged that about 

 two tons were utterly useless. The weevil was accompanied by 

 Licinophlccus ferrugincus. Somewheat from Japan was alsoinfested 

 with SitophUus granaria and Rhizoficrtha pusiha. — Mr. Higgins 

 exhibited a number of Cdouiidtc from the Philippine Islands, 

 which had been described by Dr. Mohnike. — Mr. F. .Smith read 

 extracts from a letter from Mr. J. T. Moggridge of Mentone, on 

 a small beetle, CoUioccra attic, Kraatz, found in the granaries of 

 ApJiieno'^astcr[Attd)structof : and stating that Platycrthms was 

 also very common in the nests. He was much struck by the 

 frequent occurrence of the nests of trap-door spiders in the very 

 soil ol the ants' nests ; the spiders' tubes often running quite close 

 to, and in the midst of, the galleries of the ants. As ants form a 

 large portion of the food of trap-door spiders, this helped him to 

 understand how it was that the spiders got a living without 

 leaving their nests. — Some conversation took place on the 

 ravages of the Colorado potato beetle {Doiyplwra deceniUncala) 

 in North America; a writer in the 7;W-t recommending the 

 encouragement of small birds as the best security against the 

 pest ; but it was much doubted whether the small birds would 



