2()4 3[EETlN(i.S. 



bird, but its structure is difi'ercnt, for it is really the fingers of 

 the hand that are webbed. Feathers do not grow uniforndy 

 all over a bird's body, but only along certain well-marked 

 areas, and they are not all oF the same kind, for they have 

 different functions to perform. The structure of feathers, 

 and their cohesion by means of ])arbs was fully ex])lained, 

 and the lecture concluded with a series of photos showing the 

 habits of certain nesting birds, and an earnest plea for the 

 greater use of the camera rather than the catapult and the 

 gun. 



The second Lecture was by Mr. W. Sharp, on " A Lump 

 of Chalk." First describing the great geological formations 

 of Europe, and their extent, the lecturer Avent on to considei* 

 the chalk cliffs of England, the buhvarks of Albion, a thousand 

 feet in thickness. Chalk is the consolidated ooze slowly laid 

 down on the ancient sea-bottom, and then raised up by gradual 

 upheaval. It consists chiefly of Foraminifera, or tiny micros- 

 copic shells of infinite design and exquisite beauty, thousands 

 of which are found in every cubic inch of chalk. But besides 

 these there are masses of flint, and a vast assemblage of fossil 

 remains, the relics of animals that lived in our seas ages ago, 

 and these include echinoderms, molluscs, fishes and reptiles, 

 and those huge prehistoric monsters which roamed about 

 before man appeared upon the scene, and of whose very 

 existence perhaps we should have known nothing, had not 

 their skeletons been lastingly preserved for us in beds of 

 chalk. 



The third Lecture by Miss Slade, entitled " A Prehistoric 

 Code," consisted of a description of some Assyrian inscriptions 

 belonging to a very early period of the world's history. The 

 particular code more especially referred to was draAvn up by 

 Hammu)-ah, King of Babylon, about the year 2200 B.C., and 

 the tablets on which it is recorded were discovered by French 

 explorers at Susa in 190L Extracts from this code were 

 read to show^ how closely it resembled the Levitical law, 

 which was so much later in point of time. Slides were thrown 

 on the screen showing certain columns of the code, inscribed 

 in curious characters, and also figures of Hammurah the 

 King, Shamash the Sim (lod, Ashunbanipal, the founder of 

 the great libi'ary at Nineveh, Darius the Great, and other 

 personages whose names figure in Assyrian history during 

 the period from 4000 B.C. dow^n to 485 B.C. 



The fourth Lecture by Mr. F. L. Tanner was entitled 

 " Flowers of the Sea." After referring to the many forms of 

 animal and plant life which might fairly lay claim to this 



