l82 



Northern News, 



during- the Glacial Epocli. The route taken was up the valley 

 of the Skell from Ripon, near to which place several sections of 

 boulder clay were examined in the river bed, in which boulders, 

 probably from the Wensleydale district, seemed to predominate. 



The next interesting- feature of the valley was the limestone 

 cliff at Whitecliffe, near to w^hich is the 'Hell Wath,' a very 

 strong- spring-, no doubt the reappearance of one of the under- 

 ground rivers so common in limestone districts. The party 

 next directed their attention to a number of ' Overflow Valleys' 

 (now dry), due to the blocking- up of the Skell waters during- 

 Glacial times. Examples of these were noted in the neig-hbour- 

 hood of Sawley. 



On the return journey a steep descent was made into the 

 Skell \"alley at Spa Gill, where the sulphur springs were tested 

 and commented upon. 



-^^-^-^EJ— 



At the next meeting- of the British Associatipn, to be held at Cape Town, 

 the President of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, Mr. G. W. Lamplug-h, 

 F.G.S., will deliver a lecture. At the same meeting- Mr. Harold Wag-er, 

 F.R.S., presides over the Botanical Section. 



In some notes on 'Types of the Genera of the Ag-disted, Alucitid, and 

 Orneodid Plume Moths' ('Entomologists' Record,' February), Mr. J. W. 

 Tutt proposes a new g-enus, Porrittia, tvpe galactodactjda , in honour to 

 ]Mr. G. T. Porritt, author of the 'List of Yorkshire Lepidoptera.' In the 

 same journal Mr. R. S. Bag-nall records an addition to the Hemiptera of the 

 Northumberland and Durham district, viz., Zicrona ccsnilea. 



A useful article dealing with common misconceptions and misstatements 

 in regard to bird-protection law, which should be read by all interested in 

 the subject, appears in ' Bird Notes and News' (issued by the Royal Society 

 for the Protection of Birds) for April. The annual report of this Society, 

 recently to hand, shows a record of g-ood work. During 1904 the Society 

 obtained 130 convictions under the Wild Birds Protection Acts, and 29 

 under the \\'ild Animals in Captivity x\ct as reg-ards birds. 



The Hon. J. Abercromby has, in the Proceedings of the Society of 

 Antiquaries of Scotland, a valuable contribution entitled, 'A proposed 

 Chronological Arrangement of the Drinking- Cup or Beaker Class ot 

 Fictilia in Britain.' In this he deals in detail with the be.aker type of British 

 vases found in tumuli, the making- of which he considers lasted about two 

 hundred years. The paper is illustrated by no fewer than 171 process 

 blocks from photographs of drinking cups from various parts of Britain. 



A recent impression of the 'Eastern Morning- News' (Hull) states that 

 naturalists have cause of complaint ag-ainst the Act which fixes the 

 beg-inning- of the close season for sea birds at ist March. One 'naturalist' 

 (at Filey) ' who probabl\- knows more about the birds of Bempton Cliffs 

 than anyone else, and who is keenly anxious that the terms of the Act 

 should be altered, points out that under the present conditions it is 

 absolutely impossible to secure a bird in the summer plumage ' ! The 

 ' sportsmen ' who shoot from a boat at the lower rock ledg-es are also 

 credited with the 'ruthless slaug-hter ' of the sea-birds. But surely those 

 individuals, well known to the Filey 'naturalist,' who contract with London 

 firms for the supply of thousands of sea-birds, are equall}" to blame, if not 

 more so. 



Naturalist, 



