sciriNcn-GOss//\ 



89 



0^ 



SCIENCE GOSSIR 



I'ATIIKK CoKlIK is lliL' nmvlyapijuinted {llrcclur 

 of ihe Solar Section of the Uritish Astronomical 

 Association in succession to die tale Miss Brown. 



A Sturceon of rather unusual size was recently 

 taken in the Kivcr Dee, in Clieshire. It measured 

 8ft. lin. in lent;tli, and vveighe<l no less than toSlli. 

 A second lisli of the .same species was caught in the 

 estuarj' of the Uee on 7th July, which weighed 

 upwards of three hundred pounds. 



I'ROiT.ssOK Kl.l.NDERS I'ETRIK has again arranged 

 the annual exhihition of objects found during the 

 excavations of the Egypt ICxploralion Fund. This 

 year the collection is on view for a month or so, at 

 University College, London. .\dmis.sion is by sign- 

 ing the visitor's name in a book at the entrance. 



At Mr. .Stevens' Covoni Garden Auction Rooms the 

 collection of shells formed by the late .\. W. Langdon, 

 M.A. , was sold on Jmie 13th. No very high prices 

 were realised. A fine specimen of Helix gialei 

 together with a good example of //. /ara/aii,«a were 

 knocked down to Mes.srs. Sowerby and Fulton, for 

 three shillings. 



There .seems to be a pos.sibility of the beautiful 

 Muckro.sse.state at Ivillarney becoming a public reserve. 

 The Council of the National Trust is making efl'orls to 

 come to an understanding with the present owners. 

 We hope the members of that atlmirable boily may 

 .succeed in so excellent an object. There appears to 

 be a chance, after all, of its becoming the demesne of 

 a rich tobacco merchant. 



Visitors to London with a taste for botany should 

 try to obtain admission to the gardens of the Royal 

 Botanic Society, Regent's Park. There is always 

 something of interest to be seen, and often new and 

 rare forms of plants well worth going a distance to 

 view. The fellowship has latterly considerably 

 increa.sed, and many functions of social importance 

 now take place in thi^ beautiful corner of London. 



The London .'Xniateur Naturali.sts havelatterly been 

 taking advantage of the long days for their summer 

 excursions. The South London Society has lately 

 visited the old canal banks at Byfleet, in Surrey, for 

 neuroptera: the Chalfort Road region of Buckingham- 

 shire, where the beech woods are rich in lepi- 

 doptera and iiiollusca: also Wi.sley, in Surrey, 

 where there are large ponds of many acres in extent 

 and much heather, with fir woods and abundance of 

 fungi. 



The North London Society visited the Hon. 

 Walter Rothschild's museum at Tring Park on July 

 15th. After a charming walk in the neighbourhood, 

 the museum was inspected, as were the marsupials and 

 other animals, that are colonized in the Park. 



The Western .Sli'ire of Shetland was visited for the 

 first time for forty-four years by a shoal of bottle-nose 

 whales. The fishermen and natives captured no less 

 than seventy-one of the whales. There appears to 

 have been a custom for the landowner to claim one- 

 third the value of whales taken on the coast bounding 

 the manor. This was successfully disputed some time 

 ago, and curiously, though such visits b\- whales u.scd 



to be of frequent occurrence they ceased after 1S5S, 

 when the estate changed hands, until last month. 



The considerable heat of July up to the 21st of the 

 month this year, has not been very exceptional. 

 Many people and \arious animals, es|x;cially horses, 

 have sufi'ered much discomfort with the thermometer 

 registering 126 deg. Fah. in the sun, in London, 

 and Ho cleg, in the shade. .Mr. G. J. Symons, 

 F. 1\..S., reports an exceptionally hot night of I2lh 

 July. The following, he states, are highest recent 

 mininiiMii night temperatures : July 23, 1868, (>$'y 

 deg. : July 26, 1872, 66 deg. : Aug. 18, 1S76, 

 66-8 deg. : July 12, 1S99, 66 deg. Fah. 



In an alcove devoted to recent acquisitions, at the 

 Natural History Department of the British Museum, 

 Cromwell Road, is now being displayed a curious 

 but interesting collection of mummied birds and 

 mammals, obtained in the catacombs of the sacred 

 animals at Denderah, Kgypl. The date of embalming 

 these relicts of a past civilization was between 

 1200 !!.!■. and 200 \.\>. Some of the examples are 

 admirably preserved, showing feathers and fur 

 sufficient for identification, at least of genera. The 

 objects were presented by the council of the Egypt 

 Exploration Fund. 



Of the fifty-one great-auk eggs that are known, 

 perhaps the largest specimen was sold at Mr. 

 Steven's Rooms, King Street, Covent Gaiden, on 

 July 19th. It was one of three examples formerly in 

 the collection of Count Racail de Berace, who is said 

 to have obtained it from a fisherman of St. Malo. A 

 figure of this egg appears in the Sociele de Zooligcge 

 de France Memoirs, for 1S91. The purchaser is Mr. 

 Middlebrook, who has added it to his museum at the 

 Edinburgh Castle, .Morninglon Road, Regent's Park, 

 London. The price reached was three hundred 

 guineas, although the specimen is slightly cracked. 



It is pleasing to find that the demand for scientific 

 instruments becomes greater year by year. We 

 recentlj' heard of one firm supplying a couple of 

 .Xmateur Micro.scopists with some j^2,ooo worth of 

 microscopical apparatus, in a comparativel)' few 

 months. Now it is announced that Messrs. Newton 

 and Co., of 3, Fleet Street, have found it necessary to- 

 occupy a new factory in Little James Street, London. 

 There they propose to give special attention to the 

 .\pps-Newlon Induction Coils, and multiple-plate- 

 Wimshurst Electrical Machines for X-Ray work. 

 Wireless Telegraphy and other new forms of scientific 

 and philosophical apparatus, can in con-sequence of 

 this enlargement receive Messrs. Newton's closer 

 attention. The factory is entirely worked by electric 

 motive power of the most recent design. 



The event of the month amongst botanists in 

 London, has been the Internaticmal Conference on 

 Hybridization, held on the nth and 12th of July. 

 The first day the meeting was at the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society's Gardens at Chiswick, the second 

 assembly being at the Westminster Tow n Hall. The 

 attendance wa.s large on each occasion, there 

 being good response to the invitations issued 

 by the Royal Horticultural Society, which 

 organized the aflair. Many papers of im- 

 portance were read, and a really magnificent show 

 of hybrids and the results of cross-breeding was given 

 in the large conservatory at Chiswick. Atnong the 

 more remarkable were hybrids between gooseberry 

 and black currant with a delicious seedless fruit, for 

 it is infertile. Curiously there is no smell of the 

 latter shrub about the plant, which is devoid of 

 scent-producing glands. Another interesting cross 

 was between raspberry and blackberry. Still more 

 wonderful was that between a clematis and columbine. 



i 



