404 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[April 27, 188S. 



before the deposition of the glacial deposits, which were 

 subsequently laid down against the limestone bank so as 

 to conceal this entrance to the cavern. 



In conclusion, he referred to the presence of reindeer 

 remains in these caves, in conjunction with those of the 

 so-called older Pleistocene mammalia, proving that these 

 had reached the area long before the period of sub- 

 mergence, and evidently at an early stage in the glacial 

 period. It was important to remember that reindeer 

 remains had been found in the oldest river-gravels in 

 which implements had been discovered. Man, as proved 

 by the implements discovered, was also present at the 

 same time with the reindeer, and it was therefore natural 

 to suppose that he migrated into this area in company 

 with that animal from some northern source, though this 

 did not preclude the idea that he might also have reached 

 this country from some eastern or southern source, 

 perhaps even at an earlier period. 



Mr. De Ranee, in an appendix, confirmed Dr. Hicks's 

 observations as to the identity of the deposits outside the 

 cavern with those in its interior, and noted the occur- 

 rence of limestone blocks in the lower deposits, not 

 mertly at the spot where the supposed broken wall was 

 situated, but also throughout the whole tunnel. He 

 stated that the sand bed forming the uppermost cave- 

 deposit resembled the sand associated with gravels in a 

 pit 400 yards east of the cave at a slightly higher level. 

 The drift exposed in this gravel-pit he believed to be of 

 the same age as that of the Mostj'n and Bagillt pits to the 

 north, which were undoubtedly overlain by Upper 

 Boulder-clay. The westerly termination of the bone- 

 earth outside the cave had not been determined, which 

 he regretted ; but traces of bone had been found at a 

 point five feet from the overhanging ridge of the cave. 



VICTORIA INSTITUTE. 

 Admiral Selwyn, R.N,, in a paper read before the Victoria 

 Institute, on April 9th, described the movements of 

 elevation and depression which had taken place on the 

 North American Continent. Some of these movements 

 he described as evidently sudden, as described by 

 Darwin, others were more slow ; but both caused waves 

 of denudation whose effects were still to be seen, and 

 their results, in the physical features of the country. 



LIVERPOOL GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 At the meeting on April loth Mr. C. Potter described a 

 very interesting section of a boring at Burscough Bridge 

 Railway Station, by Mr. E. Timmins, of Runcorn, which 

 passed through no less than 260 feet of boulder clay 

 iDefore reaching the sandstone beneath. This is the 

 deepest section of boulder clay recorded in the district. 



Mr. P. Holland and Mr. E. Dickson then read a joint 

 paper on the " Examination of Quartzites from Nills 

 Hill, Pontesbury," showing the presence of a notable 

 quantity of diffused carbonaceous matter in the rock. 

 The authors regarded this matter as of organic origin, 

 probably the remains of fucoids. 



A paper by Mr. A. Norman Tate, F.I.C., followed, 

 entitled " Some Notes on the Colouring Matter of the 

 Mineral 'Blue John,'" in which the author discussed 

 the results of some experiments made in his own labora- 

 tory with this beautiful Derbyshire mineral. The results 

 seemed to show that the colouring substance, which is 

 destroyed by heat, is of organic origin, and the author 

 promised further investigations on the subject. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND 

 DAIRY INSTRUCTION. -I. 



Abridgement of Paper read at the Society of Arts 

 By Mr. John Wrightson, M.R.A.C, F.C.S. 



THERE are very many who consider that the best 

 preparation for farming is a good general educa- 

 tion conducted upon the lines usually followed in good 

 schools. Whether classics and mathematics, or modern 

 languages and science are to predominate may be a matter 

 of further divergence, but the basis of business success is 

 a sound general education. Thus Mr. Morton at once 

 expressed himself in favour of "Schooling before Farm- 

 ing." As he himself put it, "the whole business of the 

 hour, so far as he was concerned, would be to insist upon 

 it that the preliminary schoohng was by far the most 

 important part of an agricultural or of any other educa- 

 tion." I do not for a moment believe that Mr. Morton is 

 antagonistic to a scientific basis for practice. Such a 

 conclusion would be little less than an aspersion, and 

 would be contradicted by his whole life. Still Mr. 

 Morton thought he joined issue with me when he wrote 

 as follows : — " Professor Wrightson says — ' A perfect 

 agricultural education should include geology, biology, 

 engineering, drawing and architecture, chemistry, rural 

 economy, commercial knowledge and book-keeping, law, 

 and meteorology.' Plowever desirable all this may be for 

 a future professor, the young farmer certainly does not 

 need it at all. I do not think, indeed, it would be a good 

 thing to take him out of his father's guidance." I entirely 

 agree with Mr. Morton, but must tell him that I was 

 describing a perfect agricultural education, and not the 

 education of a young farmer, which is quite a different 

 matter. I cannot leave so respected an authority with- 

 out quoting his real heartfelt opinion as expressed in this 

 room last spring. " And I give it," says he, "for my 

 opinion on a review ofall these two-and-forty years — in the 

 interest not of one class, but, as I firmly believe, in the in- 

 terest of all — that the best possible preliminary education 

 is needed, not merely to make the boy stronger and more 

 capable as a future farmer, but to fit him for something 

 else as well — if that should fail him." Mr. S. B. L. 

 Druce, Secretary of the Farmers' Club, expressed him- 

 self similarly at the Conference on Education at the 

 Health Exhibition. Mr. Hunter Pringle also " admires 

 the full education given in Scotland, not exclusively with 

 a view to agricultural pursuits. A complete classical 

 and mathematical education, followed with two years in 

 a commercial office." These expressions of opinion 

 appear to me to be both wise and practical ; for surely 

 education is in the truest sense the leading out of the 

 man, or of the mind, from its own narrow surroundings 

 and interests. An educated man is a free man, and not 

 a drudge, nor yet possessed with a soul-absorbing con- 

 centration on his " bread-study." With certain slight 

 modifications, we may agree in the general proposition 

 that school-boy days should be devoted to the acquire- 

 ment of sound general education, and that the technicali- 

 ties ought to be postponed to a later period. 



And yet, self-evident as are many of the above con- 

 clusions, there is another view of the case upheld by 

 many who endeavour to combine technical instruction 

 with the ordinary educational course. It is the principle 

 of the school farm advocated by Mr. Jenkins, and 

 borrowed from the French system of Ecoles pratiques 

 d" Agriculture, and in a less degree from the German 



