94 Correspondence — Rev. Dr. Irving ; Miscellaneous. 



DYNAMIC METAMOEPHISM. 



Sir, — All that is contained in the letters of Mr. Fisher and Mr. 

 Harker in the January Number of the Geological Magazine can 

 be, I think, fully and completely answered, though not within the 

 space of a short letter. All that Mr. Fisher's high " authority " has 

 put forward is very well known to students of chemistry, and was 

 before my own mind, when I wrote my previous letter. I will only 

 here repeat my former statement (attaching now to the phrase the 

 meaning I did then) that "chemical combination must generate heat." 



Wellington College, Berks, A. iuviNG. 



2bth Jan. 1890. 



Dvnisc:E:xjXj-A.iiT:E]OTJS . 



Professor Sir Warington Smyth's Successor. — The Lord Pre- 

 sident of the Council has appointed Dr. C. Le Neve Foster, F.G-.S., 

 Inspector of Mines under the Home Oflfice, and formerly of the 

 Geological Survey of England and Wales, Professor of Mining in 

 the Eoyal College of Science, London, with which the Eoyal School 

 of Mines is incorporated. 



The Saiga Antelope in Britain. — An interesting addition to the 

 known British Pleistocene Fauna has recently been made by the . 

 discovery of a portion of the skull of the Saiga Antelope (Saiga 

 tartarica, Linn, sp.) in the Thames Gravels at Twickenham, near 

 Richmond. The specimen consists of the well-preserved calvarium 

 ■with both horn-cores, and was obtained from an excavation in 

 Orleans Road, Twickenham, by Dr. J. R. Leeson, F.G.S. It was 

 forwarded to the British Museum for determination, and the interest 

 of the discovery was recognized by Mr. Smith Woodward, who 

 exhibited and described the fossil at the meeting of the Zoological 

 Society on November 4th, 1890. A good figure accompanies the 

 description in the forthcoming part of the Proceedings of this Society. 

 The occurrence of the Saiga Antelope in the British Pleistocene 

 Fauna has long been anticipated, characteristic remains of the 

 animal being well known from the caverns of France aud Belgium ; 

 but Dr. Leeson's fine specimen affords the first proof of its range so 

 far to the North-west of Europe as the present Thames Valley. 

 This unique fossil, we understand, will be placed in the Twickenham 

 Free Library. 



Cav. Abate Antonio Stoppant. — It is with deep regret we have 

 to record the death on January 1st, 1891, of Professor A. Stoppani, 

 who held the chair of Geology in the Royal Superior Technical 

 Institute in Milan, at the age of 66 years. Professor Stoppani was 

 earnestly occupied in promoting, to the best of his ability, the publi- 

 cation of a fine series of Memoirs on Palaeontology, especially on 

 the Mammalian fauna of the Italian Tertiaries. It is to be hoped 

 that his successor will take an equal interest in carrying on these 

 important labours in the cause of science. 



