26 



The Naturalist. 



Taking advantage of this year being the centenary of the death of Linneus, 

 he gave a general review of the progress of zoological knowledge since 

 that epoch, and then taking Linneus's arrangement of the mammalia 

 from the Systema NatnA^m, of which he had a large diagram on the 

 screen, he compared it with the various genera and species as at present 

 understood, concluding with these words: — '^Our knowledge of the 

 living inhabitants of the earth has indeed changed since that time. Our 

 views of their relations to the universe, to each other, and to ourselves, 

 have undergone great revolutions. The knowledge of Linneus far 

 surpassed that of any of his contemporaries ; but yet of what we know 

 now, he knew but an infinitesimal amount, and much that he thought he 

 knew we now deem to be false." The address was followed by the report 

 of the ''Close Time" Committee, read by Rev. Canon Tristram ; this report 

 dealt chiefly with the statements published by Messrs. Buckland, Spencer 

 Walpole, and Archibald Young, commissioners appointed by Government 

 to report on the Scotch Herring Fisheries. He boldly refuted nearly 

 every statement made in their report, and showed that in numerous 

 clauses the conclusions arrived at by the Commission were exactly the 

 reverse of what their own statements warranted. Instead of eleven 

 hundred millions of herrings being destroyed annually by the gannets on 

 these coasts, the report showed on almost incontestible evidence that the 

 numbers destroyed by them could not exceed 350,350,000 ; and in the 

 discussion which followed, in which Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys and others took 

 part, it was shown that, instead of the herring being the chief or only 

 food of the gannet as stated by the Royal Commission, it fed chiefly, 

 though not entirely, on the coal-fish. Dr. Williamson also read a paper 

 on '' The so-called Radiolarians and Diatoms of the Coal measures," in 

 which he produced evidence to show that these remains so-called by Dr. 

 Carruthers could scarcely be referred to that family, but from their close 

 resemblance in internal structure to certain resting spores and seed-cases 

 of some of the Cryptogamia, were much more likely to belong to the 

 latter class of organisms — indeed some of the diagrams of these forms 

 were so striking that no one could doubt their aflinity. This opinion was 

 concurred in by Sir J. D. Hooker, Dr. Balfour, and Count Castracane. — 

 [It is our intention, if space will allow, to give a further notice of these 

 meetings in our next issue, — Eds. Nat.'] 



Baknsley Naturalists' Society. — An exhibition in connection with 

 this Society was held from the 2nd to the 8th of July, being opened by 

 the Mayor of the town. It was very successful, and left a balance of £11 

 for the Society, which will be spent on books for the library. — T. Lister. 



Bradford Naturalists' Society. — Meeting July 23rd, Mr. B. Spencer 

 in the chair. — Messrs. Carter and Firth exhibited specimens of V. cam- 

 hicaria, from Bingley, new to the district. Mr. Soppit sent Phytometra 

 cenea from Southport ; also the following plants : — Salix repens, var. 



