SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



in 



Philosophical Society of Great Britain. — 

 At the meeting held on May 6th, at the Victoria 

 Institute, 8, Adelphi Terrace, London, Dr. Chaplin 

 in the chair, a paper on the so-called Pithecanthropos 

 of Dr. E. Dubois was read by Professor E. Hull, 

 LL.D., F.R.S., after which a paper by Sir J. W. 

 Dawson, C.M.S., F.R.S., "On the Physical Char- 

 acter and Affinities of the Gaunches, or Extinct 

 People of the Canary Islands," illustrated by 

 photographs, was read. In it the author reviewed 

 the historical facts as to the Canary Islands and 

 their inhabitants, the characters of the crania 

 found, and the weapons, ornaments, etc., and 

 described the conclusions he had arrived at with 

 reference to the relationship of the Gaunches to 

 ancient peoples of Western Europe and Africa, 

 and their possible connection with the colonization 

 of Eastern America. 



The Sodth London Entomological and 

 Natural History Society. — May gth ; T. W. 

 Hall, Esq., President, in the chair. Mr. Williams 

 exhibited a curious cluster of cocoons fastened on 

 a twig in a caterpillar-like group. Mr. T. W. Hall 

 a var. of Sphinx ocellatus, having a considerable 

 obscuration of the ocelli. Mr. Carrington, a 

 number of richly-banded specimens of Helix 

 pomatia, and some showing the winter epiphragm. 

 He said that he had found the young of this species 

 crawling up the stems of grass as is usual with 

 other members of this genus. Mr. Step sent for 

 exhibition flowering specimens of Scilla verna, from 

 Portscatho, and contributed notes on this local 

 plant. Mr. Enoch, specimens of the exceedingly 

 rare fly, Polynema natans, Lub. Mr. Mansbridge 

 read an interesting paper on "Prairie Insects," 

 giving an account of the insect inhabitants of 

 prairies in the Indian territory, U.S.A., other than 

 lepidoptera. In the discussion which ensued, 

 Messrs. Pearce, Carrington and Warne gave their 

 experiences in similar regions. At the meeting held 

 May 23rd, the President in the chair, Mr. C. G. 

 Barrett exhibited a gynandromorphic specimen of 

 Saturnia pavonia, which showed the male and female 

 characters on opposite sides of the body and wings. 

 The antenna; were simple on one side and pectenated 

 on the other. Mr. Mansbridge drew attention to a 

 case where several gynandromorhpic specimens of 

 the same species had emerged from one brood, the 

 pupa; of which had lain over a second winter before 

 producing perfect insects. The sexual differences 

 on the wings in those specimens were demonstrated 

 in a curious diagonal manner, though divided 

 evenly down the middle of the body, the antennae 

 being as in the example exhibited by Mr. Barrett. 

 Mr. Alfred W. Dennis showed, with the aid of a 

 microscope, ova and living larvae of Lycceha argiohis, 

 also ova of Leucophasia sinapis. — Hy. J '. Turner (Hon. 

 Report Sec.) 



North Staffordshire Naturalists' Field 

 Club,— With Mr. C. E. de Ranee, F.G.S., of 

 her Majesty's Geological Survey, for leader, 

 some eighty members of this field club visited 



Marston mine, on May 4th. From Stoke to 

 Hartford the party travelled by railway, and 

 thence in carriages to Great Budworth. Objects 

 of interest were pointed out on the way, and 

 it was explained on arrival at Budworth Mere 

 and Pickmere that the space covered by these lakes 

 had probably subsided owing to the natural dis 

 lution of rock salt beneath. The upper bed of rock 

 salt was stated to have been discovered in 1G70, 

 and the lower bed a century later, to which mining 

 has since been confined, the rock being of better 

 quality. At Marston the beds are eighty-four and 

 ninety-six feet thick respectively, and separated by 

 thirty feet of marl. At Marston the mines are dry, 

 and still worked for rock salt. By the courtesy of 

 the Salt Union, Limited, a descent of the Adelaide 

 mine was made, the visitors being greatly interested. 

 Mr. de Ranee addressed the large company on 

 their emergence from the mine. He pointed out 

 that the salt districts of Northwich, Winsford, 

 Wheelock, Middlewich and Nantwich are wholly 

 in the basin of the Weaver. Brine is pumped for 

 commercial purposes in all these districts except 

 the last, in which it is only pumped for use in brine 

 baths, and moreover rises in natural springs, 

 flowing to waste at various points as far south as 

 Hankelow, near Audlem, at 134 feet above the sea. 

 Following the course of the Weaver to Shrewbridge 

 Hall, a boring has proved the glacial drift overly- 

 ing the saliferous marls to be no less than 113 feet. 

 He stated that if the glacial drift were absent the 

 old Weaver valley at this point would admit several 

 feet of tidal water, at a point now twenty-four 

 miles above Runcorn, where the Weaver falls into 

 the Mersey, and forty-four miles from the mouth of 

 the latter, near Liverpool. The pre-glacial valley 

 of the Weaver can be traced at various points from 

 the numerous borings for brine exploration and for 

 water supply. At Nantwich the valley has been 

 proved to be three feet only above the Ordnance 

 datum line. At Newbridge, near Winsford, it is no 

 less than 150 feet below that level, and at Leftwich, 

 near Northwich, 196 feet below it, so, that were it 

 not for the drift, an arm of the sea would extend 

 into Cheshire up this ancient valley, which possibly 

 passed eastward of Northwich instead of west as 

 now, a boring at Rostherne Mark having only 

 reached the rock at eighty feet below Ordnance 

 datum. These facts do not stand alone, as both 

 the Dee and Mersey, both in Cheshire and Flint- 

 shire, flow over old buried valleys of great depth. 

 The buried valley of the former Weaver entirely 

 separates the Northwich and Winsford salt districts, 

 the rock-salt beds tapering off to nothing towards 

 the ancient valleys. It is possible that the 

 southerly thinning out of the Northwich salt beds, 

 which was noticed by Ormerod in 1847, was due 

 to original deposition of maximum quantities in 

 particular areas, and comparison of the sections of 

 the different portions of the district point to 

 separate basins of deposition. The brine pumped 

 at Winsford is natural brine from the "rock-head " 

 or upper surface of the upper bed of rock salt. 

 That obtained at Northwich is chiefly derived 

 from the artificial or " excavation brine," resulting 

 from the access of fresh water from cracks on the 

 surface to drow ned workings in the lower bed of 

 rock salt. The drowned mines are largely under 

 very old workings in a top bed of rock salt, which 

 was given up on the discovery of the lower bed of 

 better quality. The surface over these is now 

 covered, which at intervals enters, and replaces the 

 brine pumped out by the extension pumps of the 

 Salt Union, Limited, and Messrs. Brunner, Mond 



