38 



The Naturalist. 



occasions ' the practice long held of meeting on Sunday evenings, and 

 at a public-house, will now be done away with entirely. This is a step in 

 the right direction, and we can see no reason why it should not succeed, 

 as we hope it will, and would also commend the example to our own and 

 other local societies. — Eds. Nat. 



§l^port^ jof S^tu&s* 



Barnsley Naturalists' Society. — Meeting 4th September, Mr. A. E. 

 Kell, C.E., in the chair. — 26 beautiful varieties of the egg of the common 

 guillemot were shown by the chairman. Three larvae of the death's head 

 moth {Acherontia Atropos) were reported to have been taken. After other 

 business had been conducted, the members discussed the various plans for 

 holding an exhibition of natural history objects ; the proposition was, 

 however, withdrawn for the present, and, as a substitute, it was unani- 

 mously agreed that a course of five or six popular lectures be held during 

 the winter months, the arrangements to be left in the hands of a committee. 



John Harrison, Hon. Sec. 



BRADfORD Scientific Association. — On Saturday, July 29th, upwards 

 of sixty members and friends of the Bradford Scientific Association made 

 an excursion to the celebrated Victoria Cave, Settle. Quitting the Settle 

 station the party wended their way through the beautiful scenery on the 

 banks of the river to the Giggleswick Grammar School, for the purpose of 

 inspecting the various objects of interest that have been disentombed from 

 the Cave, and are now preserved in the school. Attention was first 

 directed to the various finds of historic interest, including Samian and 

 Roman pottery, after which the objects found in the neolithic layer were 

 next exhibited. These included rude flint flakes, polished celt, bone 

 head, barbed bone harpoon, for spearing fish in Attermere or Malham 

 Tarn. The contents of the hyaena's den were next inspected ; the teeth 

 of extinct elephant, the part of the rhinoceros' skull which supports the 

 horns, bones of the bison, urus, hippopotamus, gnawed by the hyaena, 

 with his teeth-marks distinct, and a massive skull of the grizzly bear. 

 But the interest of this group centred in the small human bone found 

 associated with these extinct pleistocene animals. This interesting 

 relic, probably one of the oldest human bones that has ever been 

 disentombed, was shown along with the cast of a similar recent leg 

 bone from the College of Surgeons, and which had been forwarded for 

 comparison by Prof. Busk, F.R.S., by whom most of the mammalian 

 remains found in the Cave have been identified. The party then 

 adjourned to the Mechanics' Hall, Settle, and after partaking of an 

 excellent breakfast, proceeded to visit the chief attraction of the day. 

 The Victoria Cave — so called from having been discovered on the corona- 

 tion day of Her Majesty — is excavated in the face of Kingscar, a vertical 



