288 Notes and Comments. 



to hear that a sea-serpent has been caught on the Brig.* It is 

 not so long ago that ' one of the oldest Roman coins ever found in 

 England ' was picked upon the beach at Filey, and was elaborate- 

 ly described in the press. On examination the coin proved to 

 be part of a modern dress button. This fact was not published 

 abroad. A little while ago a mammoth tooth was found in the 

 cliff. Five pounds were said to have been offered for it ; it was 

 to go to the British Museum ; and strict secrecy was made of the 

 locality, in order that the rest of the animal might be found. 

 The tooth is still at Filey, and likely to be. The latest discovery 

 is a round glacial boulder ' which in the remote ages had rotated 

 in some glacier pot.' According to the report, the boulder has 

 been submitted to Dr. Tempest Anderson, of York (who, by 

 the way, is the authority on volcanoes !), and that gentleman 

 intended exhibiting it at the recent conference of curators. 

 vSomehow, he did not. The paragraph concludes with the 

 following drivel : ' a close scientific inspection of the spot and 

 surroundings from which the boulder was taken is to be made, 

 as its height above present sea level will help approximately 

 to define the height of the glacier at this point.' Perhaps they 

 will find the glacier. 



The Twenty-third General Report of the Free Library and Museum 

 Committee of Bootle shews that in the re-arrangement of the collections, 

 particularly the birds and Egyptian antiquities, much has been accom- 

 plished during the year. The additions to the museum, however, are a 



little disappointing. 



The Report of the Colchester Museum of Local Antiquities for the year 

 ending ]\larch 31st, 1910, is, as usual with the reports of that institution, 

 surprisingly full of additions of a local and valuable nature. This is largely 

 due to the energy of the Curator, Mr. A. G. Wright, who knows exactly 

 what a local museum should contain. The report is illustrated by photo- 

 graphs of Roman, etc., antiquities. It contains thirty-eight pages, and is 

 sold at the museum at twopence. 



Amongst the Museum Reports recently to hand we notice the Eighth. 

 Annual Report of the Horniman Museum^ Forest Hill, S.E. (29 pp., price 

 id.). This contains two plates, lists of additions, etc. Mr. Horniman has 

 offered to defray the cost of a lecture hall, at a cost of ;^4500. The list of 

 additions to the Library has the items classified according to whether the 

 volumes are bound or not, and there seems to be no rule as to which shall 

 be bound and which not. For instance, ' Nature,' ' The Museums Journal,' 

 and the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' are amongst the ' un- 

 bounds,' whilst ' Nature Notes,' ' The Museum Journal ' (an earlier volume), 

 and ' The Irish Naturalist ' are amongst the bound volumes. It would 

 surely simplify matters to have all in one list, those bound being marked 

 with an asterisk. 



* Since the above was penned, a shark of extraordinary dimensions 

 has been caught here ! 



Naturalist, 



