NATURAL HISTORY IN CHESHIRE. 
em | of _ 3 joe Society of Natural Science | and Litera- 
e. | — | No. IV. | —| — | Five Shillings. | — | Chester: | Printed and 
scale for si oe by G. R. Griffith, {| Grosvenor Street. | — | 1894. 
[8vo., pp. iv. and 139 to 351, with plates and a map]. 
THAT natural science flourishes at Chester, thanks to the well-timed 
initiative of the brilliant author of ‘Town Geology,’ as well as of 
‘Westward Ho’ and the ‘ Water-Babies,’ needs not the additional 
evidence of the bulky part of Proceedings now before us to prove, 
as it is well known that in few districts is natural science cultivated 
with more vigour and well-directed energy than it is in the ancient 
city which borders so closely upon Wales as to make it necessary to 
include two Welsh counties in its sphere of operations. 
Eight writers have contributed to the part now before us, and in 
no single instance is a paper inserted which is unsuitable by reason 
either of its travelling beyond the Society’s recognised area or of its 
dealing with topics which refer to general as distinguished from local 
Science. The first paper, which is by the late John Price, M.A., 
deals with ‘ Vegetable Phosphorescence’ based upon observations 
made in Denbighshire so long ago as 1824. It is followed by two 
Papers by Prof. T. McKenny Hughes, M.A., F.R.S., in the first of 
which he gives at length a series of ‘Observations on the Silurian 
Rocks of North Wales,’ illustrated by two plates of sections. The 
second deals with ‘Caves and Cave Deposits,’ mostly concerned with 
the Vale of Clwyd, but including detailed auxiliary notes on the 
Ingleborough Caves. Plans and Sections of the Cae Gwyn Cave are 
given in the text. The literary side of the Society is represented 
by a most interesting article by Mrs. Henry Sandford, upon ‘ The 
Chester Mysteries, and their connection with English Literature and 
the English Drama.’ A series of miscellaneous ‘ Notes on the Natural 
History of the seen from 1879 to 1893,’ edited by Mr. Alfred O. 
Walker, F.L.S., follows. Meteorology next has its share of attention, 
Mr. Walker eg a couple of articles, one upon ‘ The Climate of 
Chester,’ and the other upon ‘The Climate of the North Coast of 
Wales,’ both giving phenological notes and statistical tables of rain - 
_ fall and temperature. Mr. R. Newstead, to whom the Chester 
Museum is so much indebted for its distinctively local character and 
value, has a valuable paper on ‘The Heron and Heronries of 
Cheshire and North Wales,’ in which the subject is discussed with 
remarkable wealth of detail and with numerous historical facts, and 
illustrated by a rough lithographed plate. Mr. Newstead has also a 
useful paper which he modestly calls ‘A Preliminary List of the 
Mammals of Cheshire and North Wales,’ in which he enumerates 
August 1894, - 
