lii 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Morton said at the British Associa- 

 tion that met last year on September 8, 

 Professor Tylor discussed the survival of 

 paloeolithic conditions in Tasmania and 

 Australia with especial refex'ence to the 

 modern use of unftTound stone implements 

 in West Australia, pointing out that the 

 stone implements from Tasmania, the 

 making and use of which bv the natives 

 came under the observation of the colonists 

 during the first half of the century, have 

 a chciracter which may be called quasi 

 paloeolithic. They were fragments or 

 flakes of stone, in no case ground, but 

 edged by chipping on one face only, and 

 trimmed so as to afford a grasp to the 

 hand, no haft of any kind being used. 

 These instruments. Professor Tylor says, 

 correspond to some extent with scrapers 

 etc., belonging to the Drift and Cave 

 periods in Europe, but their general rude- 

 ness, and the absence among them of 

 symmetrical double-edged and pointed 

 implements like the flint picks of Old 

 World Paleolithic times, places (says Pro- 

 fessor Tylor) the modern Tasmanians at a 

 distinctly lower stage than the European 

 of the Mammoth period. The stone im- 

 plements found in Tasmania, indicate 

 (says Tylor) a state of tiie Stone Age in 

 past times, not essentially different from 

 that found in actual existence before the 

 disappearance of the native population. 

 Professor Tylor is of opinion that these 

 quasi-Paleolithic implements not having 

 yet been dispossessed in the West Aus- 

 tralian district by the ground stone 

 hatchets, which were apparently intro- 

 duced from the Torrens Straits region, 

 would go to pi'ove that the Neolithic Age 

 was of no remote date, and that the vast 

 area, including Australia as well as Tas- 

 mania, may have been till then peopled by 

 tribes surviving at a level of the Stone 

 Age, which had not yet risen to that of the 

 remotely ancient European tribes of the 

 drift gravels and limestone caves. 



PHOTOGRAHS OF LIGHTNING FLASHES 



Through the kindness of Mr. Aikenhead, 

 M.H.A.. of Devonport, an enthusiastic 

 photographer and a member of the society, 

 Mv. Morton said he had been enabled to 

 show live lantern slides of some lightn- 



ing flashes taken by Mr. Aikenhead 

 at his residence on Friday, the 19th 

 November 1897. At the June meeting a 

 short interesting letter from Mi\ Aiken- 

 head was read, giving a description of how 

 he succeeded in taking photographs of the 

 flashes. The subject of triple lightning 

 flashes appears to be creating some in- 

 terest in England. In the October number 

 of Nature, 1898, page 579, Mr. C. E. 

 Stromeyer, of Lancefield, West Didsbury, 

 in writing to the editor of Nature, say? :— 

 " At the suggestion of Lord Kelvin, I 

 send you the enclosed photograph of a 

 triplet lightning flash which was taken 

 during a recent thunderstorm at 

 Whitby, and under the following condi- 

 tions. The flash must have been about 

 two miles distant (out at sea). The focus 

 of the camerti lens was 8in.; the aperture, 

 f,64 ; the plate, Ilford Empress. The 

 camera was not stationary, but was pur- 

 posely oscillated by the hand. It was in- 

 tended that its axis should describe a 

 circular cone, but from the photograph the 

 path appears to have been rather elliptical. 

 Each revolution occupied about l/80min. 

 Mr. Stromeyer then gives a description of 

 the three flashes, which is also figured in 

 this number of Nature, and suggests that 

 in view of the importance of obtaining 

 more definite information about lightning 

 he would suggest that in the presence of 

 a thunderstorm photographs should be 

 taken, and concludes an interesting letter 

 with a description of the camera to be 

 used. Mr. Morton said the letter by Mr. 

 Aikenhead, read at the June meeting, 

 accompanied with photographs, he had 

 forwarded to the editor of Nature, 'who he 

 hoped might consider them of suflicient 

 scientific importance to reproduce in that 

 journal. 



BURMESE NATIVES. 



Some interesting lantern slides, kindly 

 loaned by Mr. Aikenhead, illustrating the 

 natives of Burmah, houses, etc., were 

 exhibited. 



VOTE OF THANKS. 



His Excellency, at the conclusion, 

 moved a hearty vote of thanks to the 

 authors of the various papers. Mr. Nat 

 Oldham officiated at the lantern, the views 

 being greatly appreciated. 



