322 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



bring them a revenue of ^1,000 per annum, so 

 that if they insist on asking that the remaining 

 land shall be valued at building prices in the 

 event of the Corporation desiring to purchase the 

 rest, there is a possible expenditure of .£20,000 to 

 ^30,000, and it is improbable the people of Croydon 

 ^viR consent to place this amount on the rates. 

 It is to be hoped that the Governors ^^oLl 

 remember they are themselves the guardians 

 of public money in this respect. When Arch- 

 bishop Whitgift endowed his hospital -with the 

 various lands of which Croham Huj-st is but a 

 portion, of course he little thought that the 

 " betterment '' accruing to the endowments woiild 

 amount to such value as now attaches to it 'three 

 hundred years after his gift. He would have been 

 one of the first to acknowledge the indebtedness 

 of his hospital to the people of the borough for 

 the increased value which had accrued. Had 

 Croydon been so carelessly served by her Council- 

 lors that she now enjoyed any other position in 

 the Eegistrar-General's list of healthy to-svns 

 than that of head, thousands would never have 

 been attracted to her boundaries, and the to"\vn 

 would have ceased to grow. The people of Croydon 

 have, by sending to represent them in the Council 

 Chamber leading men of honesty and probity, 

 actually placed in the hands of the Whitgift 

 Trust the unearned increment which is now theirs. 

 Is it too much to expect that this will be acknow- 



ledged when the matter of naming a price is 

 being considered by the Governors ? 



In the meantime, all interested in the Open 

 Space Movement in general, and in the preserva- 

 tion of Croham Hurst in particular, can assist by 

 letting their "wishes be known to those who now 

 threaten the Htu'st, and, personally, I shall be 

 glad to have all the support possible, in striving 

 to procure the dedication of Croham Hurst for 

 ever to the people, not only of Croydon, but of 

 the great metropolis of Britain. 



On the 10th of March, an enthusiastic public 

 meeting was held in Croydon, at which the follow- 

 ing resolutions were unanimously adopted and 

 forwarded to the Whitgift Trustees. (1) "That 

 this meeting is strongly in favour of the acquisi- 

 tion of the whole of Croham Hurst for the people 

 for ever, and pledges itself to use every endeavour 

 to attain that object." (2.) "That this meeting 

 hopes, that, if it is not within the power of the 

 Whitgift Governors to present the Hurst as a free 

 gift to the town, they will name such a moderate 

 price for it as will enable the Croydon County 

 Council to acquire it." 



After such an expression of public opinion, it is 

 to be hoped the Trustees will see their way to 

 presenting the Hurst to the Borough of Croydon. 



69, Bensham Manor Road, 



Thornton Heath.. 



MOLLUSCS IN ASIA MINOK. 

 By J. Bliss. 



EAELY one January morning, a friend and I 

 set off from our resting place at the foot of 

 Mycale, for a day^s wandering about the ruins of 

 Magnesia ad Maeandrvim, recently excavated by 

 Dr. Htmiann on behali of the Imperial Museum 

 at Berlin. Our small but hardy Tiu-kish horses 

 carried us briskly along the level swampy plain 

 of the Maeandre, the road foUo'sving the foot of a 

 southern branch of the Messogis mountains, over 

 the steep cliffs of which we noticed flocks of two 

 kinds of vultures, the one a large, the other a 

 small species, and numerous -svild pigeons. Traces 

 of wild boar were plentiful, and close to the village 

 of Kemmer we saw the body of a large hyaena 

 (Hyaena striata), shot by some shepherds during 

 the night whilst prowling roimd their sheepfold. 

 Many years previously I shot a wolf near the 

 same spot, but Avith the extension of roads and 

 railways making the country easier of access to 

 western sportsmen these carnivorae have at the 

 present time generally to be sought deeper in the 

 mountain ranges. 



Tekke, the village now occupying part of the 

 site of the ancient town of Magnesia, is a collec- 



tion of hovels, most of the walls being composed 

 of wickerwork plastered inside with mud, the 

 roofs thatched with reeds and the liquorice plant 

 (Glycyrrhiza glabra), which grows abundantly in 

 the neighbourhood. The inhabitants are Tiu'ks, 

 Negroes (the descendants of slaves brought in years 

 gone by from the Soudan), and Circassians who 

 emigrated from Eoumelia after the Eusso-Turkish 

 war in 1878. They settled there after being driven 

 from their original homes in the Kuban valley a 

 quarter of a century earlier. 



Arriving there we wandered over the remains 

 of the once beautiful temple of Artemis 

 Leucophryene, round the Agora, ' now some feet 

 below the level of the svirrounding ground, thence 

 to the Stadiiim, and on to the Theatre. An exten- 

 sive view is there obtained of the valley of the 

 Lethaeus, bounded by Thorax and the main range 

 of the Messogis mountains. At their foot, and 

 only some two miles away, may be noticed the 

 entrance to the large cave designated by M. Texier 

 the cave of Apollo, and near are some hot springs. 

 Over a low range of hills to the east, we can see 

 the lovely plateau of Tralles ; beyond is the site 



