SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



263 



utensils, and from desultory throwing of stones at 

 wild animals, would conceive the idea of chipping 

 them to a certain shape, and other implements 

 would inevitably follow. Discoveries made in the 

 river gravels of England and France furnish the 

 oldest remains of man we yet possess, as it has yet 

 to be definitely proved that man was pre-glacial. 

 Reference was then made to the discoveries of lake- 

 dwellings in the meres of West Wretham, and to 

 the discovery of oyster-shells with charcoal at 

 Thetford. Excavations for flint first took place in 

 the Neolithic age, and the methods of working at 

 Grime's graves were described, and also the process 

 of manufacturing implements after the flint had 

 been raised. The varieties of implements embrace 

 arrowheads, axes, adzes, chisels, awls, fabricators, 

 daggers, hammers, sling-stones, scrapers, knives, 

 saws and borers, the word " celt " having been dis- 

 carded by scientific men. The varieties of each 

 class were then enumerated, also the specimens of 

 Neolithic surface-implements, about 160 in number, 

 to illustrate the paper. The Brandon forgeries and 

 the specimens present were mentioned in detail. 

 In the discussion that ensued much interest was 

 manifested in a double-edged saw, not two inches in 

 length, and yet with over thirty teeth on each 

 edge, a double hollow scraper, a small awl, 

 fabricator, and a slingstone made of ivory, presum- 

 ably from a mammoth's tusk. Mr. H. D. Geldart, 

 on behalf of Col. Feilden, read " Notes on the Flora 

 of Spitsbergen," in which Col. Feilden described 

 the aspect of the country about Advent Bay, which 

 opens on the south side of Ice Fiord, at the foot of 

 a valley at present free from glaciers and not 

 occupied by permanent snow or ice, well watered, 

 and sheltered to the north and east by precipices. 

 This situation, and the influence of the warm 

 Atlantic current, which sets into Ice Fiord, render 

 the neighbourhood of Advent Bay one of the most 

 fertile spots in the whole of the Polar area, and it 

 abounds in various yellow Ranunculus ; white and 

 yellow Drabas ; purple, white and yellow Saxifrages, 

 Silene acaulis, Dryas octnpetala, Pedicularis Iiirsnta, and 

 Cassiope tetragona ; while close to the sea the shore 

 is fringed with Mertensia maritima, the only blue 

 flower of the Arctic flora. Col. Feilden had only 

 the opportunity of collecting plants for a few hours 

 during the first week in July in three localities, 

 viz., Advent Bay and Green Harbour in Ice Fiord, 

 lat. 7S , N., and at Danes Island, lat. 8o°, N., but he 

 succeeded in obtaining between forty and fifty out 

 of the 116 flowering plants known to be found in 

 Spitsbergen. The exact number he got being un- 

 certain, on account of the difficulty of identifying 

 the species of Draba, most of these plants, including 

 all mentioned by him in his notes, were exhibited, 

 and remarks made as to their distribution, by Mr. 

 Geldart, who also alluded to the sad and sudden 

 death of Capt. Townely-Parker, with whom, in his 

 yacht, the Saide, Col. Feilden sailed this year. Dr. 

 Plowright exhibited a specimen of the black variety 

 of the water-vole, killed at Walsingham in June 

 last. Mr. J. B. Bridgman, F.L.S., exhibited a fine 

 specimen of a female ichneumon (Pezomachus 

 corruptor), bred from the larva oiQionus scropkularia, 

 a beetle Mr. Thouless took at Horsford in August, 

 1894. This was interesting, as it was the first instance 

 Mr. Bridgman had met with of any member of the 

 genus Pezomachus having been bred from Coleoptera. 



Hertfordshire Natural History Society. — 

 The annual Fungus Foray was held on Saturday, 

 October 13th, 1S94, in the neighbourhood of 

 Aldbury. The members, who numbered more 



than at any previous fungus foray of the Society, 

 assembled at Tring Station at half-past ten, and 

 walked through the village of Aldbury and up the 

 slopes of Monebury Hill to the Bridgewater 

 Monument, being busily at work all the way. 

 Some then walked to Little Gaddesden for lunch, 

 while the most enthusiastic fungologists prosecuted 

 their investigations. The meeting was under the 

 direction of Mr. Hopkinson, and the fungi which 

 were collected were determined by Mr. George 

 Massee, of Kew, Mr. Saunders, of Luton, recording 

 the Mycetozoa. About 180 species were found, 

 being the largest number hitherto met with at a 

 fungus foray, and including many new to the 

 county. 



Aston Natural Histor and Photographic 

 Society. — The distribution of medals and certifi- 

 cates awarded at the recent exhibition of the above 

 society, was made at Burlington Hall, on Thursday, 

 November 22nd, by Mr. A. W. Wills, J. P., Dr. 

 Richard Norris presiding. At the close of this 

 part of the programme, Mr. Wills gave a lecture 

 on " Burmah and the Burmese," profusely illus- 

 trated with photographs, taken during a recent 

 visit to that country. The views were of a most 

 interesting description and comprised pictures of 

 bamboo forest, jungle and temples. The people 

 were described as advanced, industrious and chaste. 

 The remaining part of the evening was taken up 

 with an exhibition of members' work, some mag- 

 nificent pictures being thrown on the screen. 



Greenock Natural History Society. — The 

 first ordinary meeting of the seventeenth session 

 was held on October 22nd. Mr. John Ballantyne, 

 of Rothesay, gave a demonstration in mounting 

 microscopic slides, in the course of which he 

 showed how to prepare and mount various animal 

 and vegetable tissues. A large mumber of beauti- 

 fully-mounted slides, which had been prepared 

 by Mr. Ballantyne, were shown under numerous 

 microscopes. Mr. Ballantyne also exhibited a 

 specimen of Claudium mariscus, which he had found 

 last August in the Bull Loch, Bute, and which has 

 not been previously reported from that neighbour- 

 hood. Mr. M. F. Dunlop exhibited under the 

 microscope a living specimen of Cristatella mucedo, 

 which he had found in a neighbouring pond for 

 the first time. The Secretary exhibited, on behalf 

 of Mr. William Horn, samples of raw beet sugar 

 and beet molasses extracted from beetroots 

 cultivated in Greenock. The beets had an average 

 weight of 1-35 pounds, and showed on analysis 

 128 per cent of crystallisable sugar. The beets 

 were uprooted on October 13th, and subjected to 

 the process adopted in Germany, by Dr. Baumann 

 and Mr. Wm. Horn, of the Roxburg Street Sugar 

 Refinery, Greenock, the result being the very 

 excellent samples submitted to the meeting. The 

 experiment is important from the fact that this is 

 probably the first instance in Scotland, of the 

 actual production of sugar from beetroots by 

 the process indicated. — On 26th November, the 

 President, Mr. Andrew Kerr, read a paper on 

 the " Structure of Seeds," illustrated by the 

 microscope. Mr. T. L. Patterson, F.I.C., F.C.S., 

 exhibited a number of plants of sorghum sugar- 

 cane, which had been grown at Gartcosh by 

 Mr. John McGlasham, who contributed some 

 interesting notes regarding his experiments. 

 The seeds were planted in May, some in the 

 open air in a protected position and a southern 

 exposure, and others in a box of earth in a 

 greenhouse, and after the plants had attained 



