28 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



covered in 1750 by Liachof. In 1821 one trader 

 from Yakutsk alone brought from New Siberia 

 20,000 lbs. of ivory, each tusk averaging 120 lbs. 

 The whole northern sea-board, from the Ural 

 Mountains to the Behring Straits, is rich in these 

 fossil remains, but the most famous deposits are 

 those in the archipelago, which is known by the 

 name of the merchant Liachof. When the bones 

 contain still a quantity of fat, they are used for 

 fuel. The occurrence of flesh and hair on the 

 bones is a very familiar fact, and it is an interesting 

 point, as urged by Brandt, that the mammoths 

 have frequently been found standing upright in the 

 ground, as if they had sunk in the soft soil, and 

 were afterwards frozen in. Associated with them 

 have been found Helices, and other landshells of 

 a more southern aspect. 



The Lenham Beds.— In 1857 the late Sir 

 Joseph Prestwich announced the discovery of a 

 curious ironstone deposit at Lenham, on the North 

 Downs, in which occurred shells of Pliocene age. 

 Their age was disputed at the time by some 

 geologists, but the Lenham beds have since come 

 to be regarded as undoubtedly of Pliocene age. 

 The beds occur at a height of over 600 feet above 

 sea level, to the south-east of Maidstone. They 

 were examined at various times by Mr. Clement 

 Reid, on behalf of the Geological Survey, and in 

 1886 some blocks of fossiliferous ironstone were 

 obtained from pipes in the chalk, this being the 

 mode of occurrence of the original specimens. 

 Impressions were taken from the moulds of the 

 fossils, and by this means a series of casts were 

 obtained, which on examination showed a complete 

 corroboration of Prestwich's view, that the deposit 

 was of Pliocene age. Amongst the better known 

 Pliocene fossils that occurred were : Pyrula reticu- 

 lata, Nassa prismatica, Trophon muricatus, Turritella, 

 incvassata, Trochus millegranus, Cevithium, Natica, 

 Pectunculus glycimeris, Area, Leda, N mulct, Cardium, 

 Cardita senilis, Tellina, Mactra, and Balanus. Mr. 

 Reid referred the beds to the older Pliocene 

 period, correlating them with our Coralline Crag, 

 and the Lower Crag, or Diestian, of Belgium, and 

 possibly also with the St. Erth beds in Cornwall. 

 The shells appeared to be in an undisturbed 

 position, unworn, and generally with their valves 

 united. If we allow that the deposit was formed 

 with only twenty or thirty fathoms of water over 

 the highest parts of the South Downs, then it 

 would follow that almost the whole of the south 

 and east of England must have been submerged 

 during this period. The position of the Lenham 

 beds shows that the Thames and Wealden Valleys 

 have been to a large extent excavated since 

 Pliocene times. 



A paper by Miss G. L. Elles on " The Grapto- 

 lite-Fauna of the Skiddaw Slates," was read at the 

 meeting of the Geological Society on May 4th. The 

 complete list of graptolites comprised twenty-two 

 genera and fifty-nine species. Miss Elles explained 

 the remarkable resemblance between the species of 

 various genera by supposing that the forms in 

 question are the results of development along 

 certain lines. In dealing with the phylogeny, she 

 divided these graptolites into two groups (1) those 

 derived from a Bryograptus form (2) those derived 

 from a Clonograptus form. To the first group 

 belong fifteen named graptolites from the Skiddaw 

 Slates and four species from other localities ; and 

 to the second group twelve Skiddaw species and 

 two others. 



C. H. Hurst. — The death is announced of 

 Dr. C. H. Hurst, formerly engaged in the Zoo- 

 logical Department of Owens College, Manchester, 

 and latterly Lecturer in Zoology at the Royal 

 College of Science, Dublin. 



J. S. Hyland. — Among the recent victims to the 

 climate of West Africa is Dr. J. S. Hyland. He 

 was only thirty-two years old and an accomplished 

 geologist. He was educated at Crosby, near Liver- 

 pool, and took his degree of Ph.D. in mineralogy 

 and science with honours at Leipsic. Dr. Hyland 

 was connected for a couple of years with the 

 Geological Survey of Ireland. He has worked 

 also in Alabama and Tennessee. At the time of 

 his death he was engaged in similar occupation in 

 Ashanti, where he went in March last. This 

 was not his first visit to that continent, where 

 he had served as geologist to an exploring ex- 

 pedition, but was invalided home. He was a 

 F.G.S., and since his death, we believe, though the 

 fact was not known at the time, Dr. Hyland has 

 been elected a Fellow of the Chemical Society. 



Edward Wilson. — The city of Bristol has lost 

 a faithful servant by the death of the late Edward 

 Wilson, F.G.S., who was for fourteen years Cura- 

 tor of the Bristol Museum. He died on May 21st 

 at the age of forty-nine years, after three weeks' ill- 

 ness, through renal complications. Mr. Wilson was 

 unsparing in the trouble he took to improve the 

 museum, and it was largely through his influence 

 that the geological section has been much enriched 

 in latter years. Only at the beginning of this year 

 was commenced the entire re-arrangement, under 

 his supervision, of the zoological collections. As 

 a practical geologist Edward Wilson was well known 

 in the West of England, and even up to the last 

 month of his life he was engaged in investigating 

 the Uphill Cave deposits near Weston-super- 

 Mare. From that site a large collection of 

 mammalian remains and some worked flints have 

 been acquired by the Bristol Museum through 

 his exertions. Mr. Edward Wilson was born 

 at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and was the eldest 

 son of a well-known medical practitioner, Thomas 

 Wilson, of Nottingham. He was educated at the 

 High School of the latter town, and at the age of 

 fifteen won the Mayor's prize at his school with 

 an essay on the " Coalfields of Derbyshire." He 

 matriculated at the London University, and for 

 fourteen years was engaged with the Government 

 classes at Nottingham Mechanics' Institute as a 

 teacher in Biology, Geology and Palaeontology. 

 He has published numerous papers in the " Quar- 

 terly Journal of the Geological Society," the "Geo- 

 logical Magazine," "Proceedings" of the Bristol 

 Naturalists' Society, and of the British Association ; 

 the Council of the latter Society having once awarded 

 him a grant to assist in his investigations. At the 

 time of his death Edward Wilson was preparing a 

 Monograph of the British Liassic Gasteropoda for 

 the Palseontographical Society of London. He 

 was local Honorary Secretary for the Geological 

 Section for the British Association Meeting to be 

 held at Bristol next September. 



