4 6 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



structure of the Oceanic earths and limestones, and of 

 the Foraminiferal muds and detrital earths ; and this 

 is supplemented by a Report from Miss Raisin on 

 the inorganic material of certain Barbados rocks. 

 In the discussion which followed, the Chairman said 

 that since the late Mr. Brady wrote on the " so-called 

 Soapstone of Fiji," there had been no communication 

 on the subject of oceanic deposits of such importance 

 as Mr. Jukes-Browne and Professor Harrison's paper, 

 which dealt with them ;from a physical, chemical, 

 and biological point of view. In both cases the 

 deposits were held to be of late Tertiary age, and 

 this conclusion made the excessive depths > at which 

 the Barbados earths were supposed to have been 

 deposited all the more startling. Possibly the species 

 of Archaopncustes described by Mr. Gregory might 

 point to shallower waters. Dr. Blanford asked for 

 further evidence as to the red clay being a deep-sea 

 deposit. The mammalian fauna of South America, 

 as he had pointed out on a previous occasion, could 

 not be explained unless North and South America 

 had been united at times during the Tertiary era. If 

 it was urged that Barbados was on the edge of the 

 oceanic era, the same remark would assuredly not 

 apply to Jamaica. The discovery in Barbados of 

 both Globigerina- and Radiolarian ooze, intercalated 

 between shallow-water deposits, was clear evidence 

 that portions of the continental area might be depressed 

 to oceanic depths and re-elevated. Professor Sollas 

 said it could no longer be put forward as an assured 

 fact that deep-sea deposits never enter into the con- 

 stitution of land-masses. Still, the evidence of the 

 excessive depths claimed by the Authors did not 

 amount to demonstration ; it was of the nature of 

 analogy, which was sometimes misleading. It was 

 to be hoped that additional fossils of the Metazoa 

 would be discovered in the chalky beds. A vastly 

 larger number of observations are required to define 

 the bathymetrical limits of a species or group 

 than in many cases we at present possess. Striking 

 examples to general rules are numerous enough to 

 give us pause ; even so characteristically a deep- 

 water group as the Hexactinellida has afforded one 

 instance of a comparatively shallow-water species, 

 Cystispongia svpersfes, having been dredged from 

 eighteen fathoms off Yucatan. Professor Harrison 

 pointed out that the evidence upon which the red 

 and mottled argillaceous earths of the oceanic series 

 were considered by Mr. Jukes-Browne and himself 

 to be deep-sea deposits were the close resemblance 

 in physical properties and chemical composition 

 which they present to certain of the modern deep- 

 sea oozes which have been termed "red clays," and 

 that the only organisms found in them were purely 

 siliceous, being principally the remains of radiolaria 

 with a few sponge-spicules. The " clay " occurring 

 in the pure radiolarian marls was also separated, 

 and upon comparison was found to be similar to the 

 argillaceous earths. The term "red clay" appears 



to have been used in the " Challenger Expedition 

 Reports" in a very comprehensive manner, as under 

 it are included not only argillaceous deposits con- 

 taining but few organisms, but also deposits consisting 

 in some cases of radiolarian and in others of ffora- 

 miniferal organisms. Mr. J. W. Gregory remarked 

 that as the new echinoid occurred in a limestone at 

 the extreme top of the oceanic series, it in no way 

 disproved the deep-sea origin of the radiolarian 

 marls. He fully agreed with Dr. Blanford in. 

 doubting any considerable submergence of the Isth- 

 mus of Panama in Upper Cainozoic times ; Dr. 

 Maack's collection proved only, an eocene or miocene 

 submergence, and the surveys of Lieutenant Wyse 

 and the French engineers of the canal had not 

 revealed any considerable elevation of the recent 

 marine deposits. He exhibited specimens of radio- 

 larian marls from Cuba, which were identical in 

 characters, variation, and mode of occurrence with 

 those of Barbados, and he maintained that this 

 completed the authors' case, and disproved the 

 objection that had been advanced that these deep- 

 sea deposits only occurred on the margin of a volcanic 

 area. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



The Solar Year. — Your correspondent T. R. 

 Jones should consult "Weights and Measures" in 

 Weale's Series, where he will find the Calendar fully 

 explained. He has, however, created his own diffi- 

 culty by confusing between the Sidereal and the Solar 

 Year. The Solar Year contains 365-24222 days, or 

 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 47 '808 seconds. Accord- 

 ing to the present method the mean length of the 

 year is 365 '2425 days, which is slightly in excess of 

 the Solar day. As this excess amounts to one day 

 in about 3600 years, it may clearly be disregarded for 

 the present. — Clijford E. F. Nash. 



Gold Fish. — A few weeks since, I had two gold 

 fish in a small glass globe. Late one night I noticed 

 one of them vainly trying to lift up a shell ; I thought 

 nothing more about it at the time. A few days 

 afterwards I noticed it again trying to lift the shell 

 up ; putting my hand into the water, and lifting the 

 shell up, one of them came slowly to the top — dead. 

 A few days after, the remaining one died ; whether 

 from grief or not, I cannot say. — W. R. Riley. 



The Solar Year. — Your correspondent T. R. 

 Jones has perhaps been misled by some inaccurate 

 astronomical treatise, or perhaps by his own too- 

 hasty reading. The year of 365 days 6 hours 9 min. 

 9/ 6 sec. is called the Sidereal Year, and denotes the 

 period in which the sun completes his apparent 

 course through the Zodiac, measuring his position 

 with respect to the stars. It does not correspond to 

 the Solar Year, or period elapsing between two 

 vernal equinoxes, because owing to the sun's own 

 motion through space, the position of the vernal 

 equinoctial point is continually changing. The 

 length of the true Solar Year is, I believe, 365 days 

 5 hrs. 48 min. 49-7 sec. Leap-year, therefore, is so 

 far from failing to cover the whole deficiency in the 

 length of the calendar year that it covers too much ; 



