228 Notes and Comments. 



THE NEWCASTLE MAP. 



As an example of the author's methods, he states : ' Suppose, 

 for example, that the factors contributing to the growth and 

 importance of Newcastle are required, the sketch-map shows 

 the city at the head of an eight-mile estuary, in the midst of 

 a sea-board coal-field, at the mouth of a gap through the 

 Pennines, at a point between the Pennine Spurs and the tidal 

 waters where the main route to the North must necessarily 

 cross the Tyne. Arrows indicate the export of coal, and the 

 import of iron from Tees-mouth not thirty miles away, while 

 a line of latitude with a brief note relates the port to the 

 opposite shore of Europe.' 



W. M. WEBB AND THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



In his report as delegate from the Selborne Society to the 

 Cardiff Conference of Delegates held in connexion with the 

 meeting of the British Association {Selborne Magazine, No. 

 346), W. M. Webb states : ' As a delegate who has been present 

 at the conferences for many years, the writer cannot help 

 feeling that the results are by no means commensurate with 

 the trouble that all concerned take in the matter. The seed 

 is certainly scattered, but there is no attempt made to prepare 

 the ground or to secure any crop. The Association could 

 fulfil much of its objects through the local societies, but 

 nothing will be done satisfactorily until it is in personal touch 

 with them all.' 



DEER ANTLERS.* 



By the aid of a remarkable series of micro -photographs and 

 illustrations of normal and abnormal antlers, the author 

 helps to elucidate the manner of the extraordinary annual 

 growths and sheddings of the bone-like structures on the 

 heads of the deer family. His work is on new lines, and 

 demands the attention of the student, field naturalist and 

 sportsman alike. An abnormal antler, more extraordinary 

 than any shown by Mr. Macewen, was figured in The Natura- 

 list for 1917, p. 231. 



DERBYSHIRE CHERTS. 



In the Geological Magazine for June, H. C. Sargent has 

 a paper on ' Carboniferous Cherts in Derbyshire,' in which he 

 concludes that ' the cherts of Derbyshire are mainly of direct 

 inorganic origin and contemporaneous with the associated 

 limestone and clays. It is, however, possible that siliceous 

 organisms have furnished a subsidiary source of supply, 

 since dredgings show that organic silica is not absolutely 



* ' The Growth and Shedding of the Antler of the Deer : the 

 histological phenomena and their relation to the growth of bone,' by 

 William Macewen, Glasgow. Maclehose, Jackson & Co., 109 pp., 10/6 net. 



Naturalist 



