SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



285 



The Entomological Society of Ontario. — 

 The twenty-fifth Annual Report of this society, 

 being for the year 1894, is issued by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture of the Province of Ontario as 

 a " Blue Book," and is illustrated with portraits of 

 Professor William Saunders and Mr. Augustus 

 Radcliffe Grote, A.M., besides containing many 

 smaller illustrations in the text. This important 

 society has been established upwards of thirty-two 

 years. The annual address, by the retiring 

 president, Mr. W. Hague Harrington, F.R.S.C., 

 is an interesting resume of entomological work in 

 the Dominion for the past twenty-five years and 

 the different directions in which it might be with 

 advantage continued in the future. This meeting 

 was held at London, Ontario, on November 7th 

 last, there being both day and evening sessions. 

 This report contains several very interesting papers, 

 one being on the use of English names for Canadian 

 lepidoptera, which is advocated, as tending to 

 popularise a taste for natural-history. Another is 

 an illustrated paper on Eastern Canadian butterflies. 



Photograph of Gale's Comet, taken at 

 the Lick Observatory, California. — A repro- 

 duction of one of several successful photographs 

 of Gale's comet, taken by Professor Barnard 

 with a six-inch portrait lens, and two and a 

 quarter hours' exposure, was given recently in 

 "Astronomy and Astro-physics." Professor Bar- 

 nard remarks, " The peculiar characteristic of this 

 comet is its slender tail and round head. 

 There was no apparent development of the head as 

 usual in comets possessed of a tail — that is, there 

 was no apparent diffusion of the material of the 

 head to form the tail." The tail could be traced 

 for fully io°, as a slender, nearly straight, ray. On 

 a plate taken on May 3rd it shows a tendency to 

 split up into strands. On May 4th it is as long 

 and slender as on May 3rd, but, singularly enough, 

 it tapers down to a point and vanishes nearly one 

 degree before reaching the head. There are, how- 

 ever, two short tails that spring out from the head 

 on each side of where the main tail should join. 

 On May 5th a fine photograph was obtained, which 

 shows a rather complicated tail leaving the head 

 as a thin streak, and then gradually widening out. 



A Mild December. — All over the South of 

 England the month of December, 1894, was charac- 

 teristic of mildness and absence of frost. On 

 Christmas Day thrushes and blackbirds were com- 

 monly singing in shrubberies and copses between 

 Finchley and Hendon, in Middlesex. Mr. D. J. 

 Rice gathered on that day a fine bunch of primroses 

 in the woods on the southern side of Leith Hill, in 

 Surrey, where they had been in bloom for more 

 than three weeks previously. Violets and bramble 

 flowers were found in the same locality, but the 

 rain and damp had bleached the latter. Wallflowers 

 were plentiful in cottage gardens. Elder bushes 

 were in some places green with young expanded 

 leaves. At Beckenham, in Kent, ripe blackberries 

 were gathered on Christmas Day. Mr. A. Henwood 

 Teague writes on December 27th: " The following 

 are in a collection of wild flowers picked to-day 

 during my afternoon walk in the suburbs of 

 Penzance. Taraxacum densleonis, Lychnis diurna 

 (staminate and pistillate flowers), Hypoclueris glabra, 

 Bellis perennis, Ulex europaus, Rubus fruticosus, 

 Anagallis arvensis, Veronica serpyllifolia, Senecio vul- 

 garis, Heracleum sphondylium, Geranium robcrtianum, 

 Hedera helix, Jasione montana, Potentilla rcptans, and 

 Capsella bursa-pastoris." 



" Geological Magazine." — We understand that 

 M. Horace B. Woodward has been appointed one 

 of the assistant editors of this excellent magazine. 

 His connection with the survey, and extensive 

 knowledge of geology generally, should make him 

 a welcome addition to the editorial staff. 



Pithecanthropus erectus. — Some little time 

 since the scientific world was startled by the state- 

 ment that remains of an extinct animal had been 

 found in Java, which would supply the place of 

 what the world at large chooses to call the missing 

 link. Much as such a discovery is desired it has 

 yet to be made, for there appears to be a serious 

 mistake about the very imperfect remains described 

 and illustrated in a monograph by Mons. E. Dubois, 

 of a supposed erect anthropoid animal connecting 

 man with the present larger apes. 



Geologists' Association. — At the meeting of 

 this society which took place on the 4th January, 

 Mr. G. F. Harris, F.G.S., read a paper " On the 

 analysis of Oolitic Structure." He gave a detailed 

 acount of the microscopic structure and peculiarities 

 of oolitic grains of various ages, from many different 

 parts of the world, and showed that the horizon 

 and locality of a piece of oolitic rock could be 

 determined from an examination of the internal 

 structure of its component grains. Instances 

 were also mentioned where the grain had been 

 dissolved by percolating water, so that a vacant 

 space remained in the body of the rock, the nucleus, 

 of course, if insoluble, remaining behind. The 

 paper was illustrated by a beautiful series of 

 lantern slides, prepared from the micro-photographs 

 of Messrs. Harris and Chapman, and was followed 

 by an interesting discussion. In the absence of 

 Lieut. -Gen. McMahon, the chair was taken by 

 Professor Blake. At the next meeting of the society 

 Lieut. -Gen. McMahon will deliver the annual 

 presidential address on the "Geology of the 

 Himalayas " 



Section of Chalk at Croydon. — A somewhat 

 curious section of the chalk, showing its junction 

 with the Thanet (?) sand, is to be seen on the road 

 from South Croydon to Sanderstead. The chalk 

 appears to be broken and tilted, and presents an 

 extremely uneven surface, the clefts or fissures being 

 filled in with buff-reddish, iron-stained sands. The 

 dip of the chalk seems to be very great, although 

 from the smallness of the section one might be 

 easily deceived on this point, while another small 

 section, recently opened a few hundred yards away, 

 showed but a very slight inclination. The only 

 explanation I have been able to think of, after 

 examination of the ground in the neighbourhood, is 

 that the road here crosses a fault. But on showing 

 the section to a friend he was inclined to think that 

 the curious appearance of the section was due to the 

 washing down of the sand over the face of the 

 chalk, although he could not demonstrate it on the 

 spot. Perhaps some of the readers of Science- 

 Gossip can offer an explanation of the section. — 

 A. Abseil, jun., 245, Selhurst Road, South Norwood, 

 January, 1895. 



