31 



NORTHERN NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Manchester Scientific Societies are considering- the advisabiUty of 

 having; a central building in which their meetingfs may be held. 



The report of the Botanical Exchange Club for 1901 includes several new 

 records for Lancashire, notably Hellebonts vin'dis, H. fwtldus, Scirpus 

 caricis, and Carex teretiiiscula. 



The Annual Report of the Liverpool Geological Association just 

 received consists of a 16 pp. pamplilet, containing a list of the 41 

 members, abstract of proceeding's, etc. 



' Blackpool and the Subsoil ' is the title of a paper recently read to the 

 Manchester Geological Society by Mr. Joseph Dickinson, F.G.S. The 

 subsoil, however, is but briefly referred to. 



At a recent meeting of the Manchester Geological Society Mr. Gerrard 

 exhibited several fragments of insect wings from the Barnsley coal seam at 

 Monckton Main Colliery. The specimens were thought to be 'fragments 

 of a Borrea, one of the Platypterids. ' 



The Hull School Board Head Teachers' Association has issued a svUabus 

 of twenty lectures, to be delivered to scholars visiting- the Hull Museum 

 during- school hours. The lectures are delivered by the curator, Mr. T. 

 Sheppard, F.G.S., and are illustrated by specimens in the Museum. 



Mr. Geo. Sills has an interesting note on ' The Parentage of Sir Lsaac 

 Newton ' in Lincolnshire Xotes and Queries for October. He shows that the 

 ' History of Lincolnshire ' (1836) is in error on the point, and that Sir Isaac 

 was born at Woolsthorpe, and received his early education at Shillington, 

 three miles distant. 



An appreciative notice of the late Thomas Comber, of Neston, Cheshire, 

 accompanied by a portrait, appears in the November yo/c^;;(7/ of Botany. 

 It will be remembered that so long ago as 1858 he published a list of the 

 Diatomacecp in the neighbourhood of Liverpool, which served as a model 

 for similar lists which subsequently appeared. 



In the same journal Mr. G. C. Druce gives particulars of some new 

 botanical records in Cumberland, made whilst spending- a week at Keswick 

 last August. These occur in a short note headed ' Cumberland Plants.' 



Mr. E. A. Newell Arber, M.A., F.G. S. , gave the results of his recent 

 researches on the fossil flora of the Cumberland Coalfield to the Geological 

 Society of London on 5th November last. From the evidence obtained by 

 a careful examination of the plant remains he has been enabled to give 

 a more detailed classification of the rocks of the area than was previoush' 

 possible. 



During September ' tons upon tons ' of fresh small fish have been taken 

 to the destructor at Hull, having no detriment but small size. The same 

 thing has occurred in previous years. It seems a g-reat pity that fish of so 

 small a size should be brought into the market. The skippers surely know 

 by now that it is useless to bring them to port. In view of the future of the 

 fishing industry in the North Sea, something- should certainly be done to 

 prevent this wholesale capture and waste of undersized fish. 



The Rev. J. H. Mackie, M.A., who so ably assisted the members of the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Lhiion on their excursion at Sedbergh in August, has 

 left Sedbergh after twenty years' residence there, for Filton Rectory, near 

 Bristol. It was noticed that the inhabitants of Sedbergh were subscribing 

 to a testimonial to the reverend gentleman, and the members of the Union 

 unanimously decided to follow suit. The result was that Mr. Mackie has 

 been presented with a set of the g-eological maps and memoirs, etc., of the 

 district around Filton. 



1903 January 3. 



