Mar. 12, 1874] 



NATURE 



375 



the Society and to Science rendered by the President during his 

 long tenure of the chair, which was carried unanimously by 

 acclamation ; and the meeting closed with a vote of thanks to 

 the chairman. 



Zoological Society, March 3. — Dr. E. Hamilton, vice-pre- 

 .sident, in the chair. —The Secretary read .1 report on the addi- 

 tions that had been made to the Society's Menagerie during the 

 month of Febru,iry, 1874, and called especial attention to a 

 Malayan Hornbill (Biueros malayanus) new to the Society's 

 collection, acquired by purchase ; a Python, presented by Mr. C. 

 J. Noble, of Hong Kong, having been captured in his garden 

 \ on the Chinese mainland ; and a young male of an undescribed 

 I species of Deer from Northern China. — A letter was read from 

 ■ Sir Henry Barkly, K.C.B., Governor of the Cape Colony, 

 ' announcing that he had obtained a pair of young Eared Seals 

 I" (Olij'ia ptisilla) for the Society's collection. — A communication 

 \ was read from Mr. W. II. Hudson, of Buenos Ayres, describing 

 k, the parasitical habits of the three species of MolotJirus Tound in 

 Buenos Ayres, namely, M. bonaricnsis, M. badiits, and M. riifo- 

 axillaris. — Mr. Sclater read an account of a small collection of 

 Birds obtained by Sir Graham Bnggs in the island of Barbados, 

 West Indies. — A second paper by Mr. Sclater contained the 

 description of an apparently new form of the family Iclerida:^ 

 which he proposed to call Ccntropsar mines,— A communication 

 was read from Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., containing some remarks 

 on Crocodilui jolirtsonii Krefft, from Northern Australia, of 

 which he proposed to form a new genus, Pliylas. — Mr. W. Saville 

 Kent, F.L.S., read a paper on a huge Cephalopod or Cuttle 

 Fish, announced by the Kev. M. Harvey as lately encountered 

 in Conception Bay, Newfoundland, and of which a tentacle 16 

 feet long has been secured for the St. John's Museum (Nature, 

 vol. ix. p. 332I. Mr. Saville Kent contributed the additional 

 evidence of an arm 9 feet long preserved in the British Museum, 

 in proof of the gigantic dimensions occasionally attained by cer- 

 tain members of this order of the Mollusca, and proposed to 

 institute the new generic title of lMei:alotiiithis for their especial 

 reception ; he further sut'gested distinguishing the Newfoundland 

 example as AL-^aloUut/iis /laiz'cyi, in recognition of the service 

 to science rendered by Mr. Harvey, in his record of and steps 

 taken to preserve so valuable a trophy. 



Geological Society, Feb. 25. — John Evans, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. The following communications were 

 read : — Geological Notes on a Journey from Algiers to the 

 Sahara, by George Maw. The author commences by de- 

 scribing the details observed on his journey from Algiers to 

 L'Aghouat, on the borders of the Sahara. The distance tra- 

 versed was 285 miles, or about 210 miles in a straight line, and 

 in a direction nearly north and south. No eruptive rocks were 

 observed. The oldest rock is a boss of mica-schist and gneiss 

 behind the city of Algiers ; it forms a low anticlinal, with a north 

 and south strike. The pass through the gorge of the Chiffa in the 

 Lesser Atlas shows hard slaty rocks dipping south at a high angle ; 

 they are repeated as an anticlinal on the south side of the higher 

 part of the Tell plateau, and are probably Mesozoic. In the 

 plain separating the Tell from the Hauls Plateaux, and on the 

 south side of the latter, red and yellow sandstones form anti- 

 clinals ; these rocks resemble the Bunter in mineral characters, 

 and are overlain by red marls resembling the Keuper. In the 

 northern escarpment of the Hants Plateaux saliferous marls are 

 exposed, interstraiified \ etween the sandstones and below the red 

 and grey marls. Crystals of salt and gypsum are intimately 

 mixed with the grey marls, and the so-called " Rochers de Sel " 

 are capped with great blocks of rock tumbled about in confusion, 

 the position of which the author ascribes to the failure of support 

 * due to the solution of the salt in the underlying salt-marls. A 

 thin series of bright red and green marls is seen to overlie the 

 red sandstones in several places ; and above this is an immense 

 series of dark grey marls, interstratified with argillaceo-calcareous 

 bands, forming a great synclinal of the Hants Plateaux, and a 

 contorted mass on the Tell plateau. These are probably 

 cretaceous. At L'Aghouat they are overlain by fossiliferous 

 beds, probably of Miocene age. Other Tertiary beds observed 

 are soft ) ellow calcareous freestones on the Hanks of the promon- 

 tory of Algiers and of the Lesser Atlas, and some red and grey 

 marls and ferruginous freestone capping the Tell plateau, the 

 former at a height of lOO-goo Uet, ami the hiwe- of 2,500-4,000 

 feet above the sea-level. Tl^e | lain ol tl e Mitidja, between ihe 

 Lesser Atlas and Algurs, consists ol grey loam with si.inj,le- 

 beds, of post-ieitiaiy age. A similar loam covers the great 

 plain of the northern Sahara, and rises to a height of 2,700 feet. 



Raised beaches occur on the coast up to an elevation of 600 feet 

 above the sea-level ; and similar beaches are found inland, south 

 of the Tell plateau, at a height of 2,000 feel. The oldest land 

 in the line ol section is the anticlinal of mica-schist near Algiers, 

 the strike of which is nearly at right angles to that of the 

 other rocks. The upheaval of the Mesozoic rocks was contem- 

 poraneous with the first upheaval of the Lesser Atlas ; it was fol- 

 lowed by a long period of denudation, and this by a subsidence 

 of at least 3,000 feet in Tertiary times, during which the Miocene 

 deposits were formed. The Tell plateau was thus elevated at 

 least 4,000 feet, and the district north of the Lesser Atlas at 

 least 1,000 feet, the north face of those mountains probably mark- 

 ing a post-tertiary line of fault of 3,000 feet. This operation was 

 followed bya long period of denudation, and this by a post-tertiary 

 depression, which the author terms the " Sahara SuKniergence," 

 after which the land was re-elevated at least 3 000 feet, but perhaps 

 considerably more. Agradual subsidence appears to be still taking 

 place. — On the Trimerellidje, a Pala;ozoic family of the Pallio- 

 branchsor Brachiopoda, by Thomas Davidson, F. R. S., and Prof. 

 William King. In this memoir the authors describe in detail 

 certain Brachiopoda, for which they propose to establish a dis- 

 tinct family, discuss the characters and affinities of the family, 

 and indicate certain geological consideraiions which arise from 

 their study of its numbers. — Note on the occurrence of sapphires 

 and rubies in situ with Corundum, at the Culsagee Corundum 

 Mines, Macon Co., North Carolina, by Col. C. W. Jenks. 

 Communicated by David Forbes, F.R.S. 



Chemical Society, March 5. — G. C. Foster in the chair. — 

 A paper on the spontaneous combustion of charcoal, by -Ir. 

 A. F. Hargreaves, in which he pointed out the best wood .or 

 charcoal for the manufacture of gunpowder, and also the best 

 method of charring it. It appears that if it is ground too sojn 

 after being burnt the charcoal is liable to take fire spontaneously. 

 — The other communications were — Researches on the action of 

 the copper-zinc couple on organic bodies : Part V. On the bro- 

 mides of the olefines : Part VI. On ethyl bromide, by Dr. J. f I. 

 Gladstone and Mr. A. Tribe. — Researches on the preparation of 

 organo-metallic bodies of the C„H„,, series of hydrocarbons, by 

 Dr. D. Tommasi. — Note on the action of trichloracetyl chl^ade 

 on urea, by Messrs. R. Meldola and D. Tommasi ; and the 

 agglomeration of finely-divided metals by hydrogen, by Mr. A. 

 Tribe. 



Royal Microscopical Society, March 4. — Chas. Brooke, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — A paper was read by Mr. 

 Alfred Sanders, entitled " A Contribution towards a Knowledge 

 of the Appendicularia," in which he minutely described speci- 

 mens found at Torquay and Weymouth, and dlustrated the sub- 

 ject by diagrams. A short discussion ensued as to the best 

 methods of observing and preserving these delicate organisms.— 

 Two papers by Dr. Royston Pigott were afterwards read bv the 

 secretary, the first " On the Verification of Structure by means 

 of Compressed Fluid," the second being entitled "A Note on 

 the President's remarks on Dr. Pigott's Aplanatic Searcher." — 

 Dr. Pigoit subsequently gave an extended explanation of the 

 contents of his papers, and also detailed a new method of de- 

 termining the refractive index of covering glass. 



Entomclogical Society, March 2. — Sir Sidney S. Saunters, 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. M'Lachlan exhibited two nia^e 

 examples of an Orthopterous insect belonging to the fauiily 

 Locustidic. They were said to be sold in ;ltie s reets of Shang- 

 hai, confined in ornamental wicker cages, and bought for tne 

 sound they produced. The si ecies ajipearerl to be undtsciibed, 

 and to pertain to anew genus al ieU XoiXiphidnim. ^i(. M'Lachlan 

 also exhibited a sines of examples i lustrating the natural Idsto.y 

 of Onisci^aster waktficldi, from New Zealand, described and 

 figured by him from the female imago in the EntomoiO'^isfs / ' r .'a- 

 ziiie for October 1873. The series now exhibited coniprisea ttie 

 male imago, female sub-imago, adult nymph, and larva. The 

 lateral wing-like horny expansions of the terminal segments of 

 the abdomen in the imago and snb-imago are co tiiiued in the 

 aquatic conditions on each se^u'Cnt ol the abdomen, rnd in ad- 

 dition there are similar foimations along the back o. the abdo- 

 men, placed longitudinally and vertically. The aduit n^nph 

 appears to possess no external gills or laminae, but they are 

 conspicuous in the less mature larva on each side of tt e ventral 

 surface of the abdonun. — T he Kev. A h . Ea on exhibittJ some 

 Arctic ill. sects which he had 1 rought from Spitzbeigen ; ano ajso 

 some excellent photographs illustratmg the scenery of the coun- 

 try. — A further communication was received from Mr. Gooch 



