176 
NORTHERN NEWS. 
' Find of a Celt near Halifax, ’ evidently a rare event, is recorded in 
The Yorkshire Archceological Journal, Part 103. 
Sir Charles John Holmes, Director of the National Gallery, recently 
gave a lecture to the Geological Society of London, on ‘ Leonardo da 
Vinci as a Geologist.’ 
According to the press, Mr. W. E. L. Wattam is retiring from the 
post of Clerk to the Marsden District Council, after twenty -four years’ 
service. Various members of the Council spoke in appreciation of Mr. 
Wattam ’s valuable services. 
We notice in a recent second-hand bookseller’s catalogue, a well- 
known volume is described as ‘Forty Years Residence in British and 
Saxon Burial Grounds of East Yorkshire.’ If the title is correct this 
should be an interesting volume. 
We learn from the Sunday press that ‘ a robin built its nest in a 
hedgerow near York, in spite of the fact that there are two German guns, 
three letter boxes and one water pump not more than 300 yards away.’ 
This is on ‘ good authority ’ — yet we doubt it. 
In a paper recently read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 
Mr. H. H. Thomas describes some new Jurassic Plants from Yorkshire. 
He states that Dictyophyllum rugosum has been known since 1828, and 
that its sporangia has now been found near Scarborough. 
‘ The Annual Report of the Gresham’s School Natural History Society 
for 1921 ’ contains many interesting local notes, including a list of the 
flowering plants in the neighbourhood of Holt, a list of the Hemiptera 
of the country around Holt ; details of the bird migrants, etc. 
We learn from the Press that Saturday, being April 1st, the Zoological 
Garden authorities spent several hours answering inquiries for Mr. Lyon, 
Mr. G. Raffe, and Mr. C. Lion, Mrs. Wolf, Mr. Bear and Mrs. Bird. We 
fancy the note was written on April 1st ; anyway, it doesn’t fool us ! 
Mr. W. Whitaker, in his eighty -sixth year — and yet the ‘ youngest ’ 
geologist we know — -was entertained to dinner on March 25th by the 
Geologists’ Association, the second occasion on which he has been the 
Society’s President. We trust he may long retain his youthful vigour. 
The death is announced of Prof. W. B. Bottomley, at Huddersfield, 
in his fifty-ninth year. He was for twenty-eight years Professor of 
Botany and Vegetable Biology at King’s College, London, and is, perhaps, 
best known for his researches on the fertilising properties of bacterised 
peat. 
The Geological Society of London proposes to sell a certain number 
of surplus copies of the Society’s Quarterly Journal for years previous 
to 1912. These will be sold to Fellows at the rate of is. per part, 12 parts 
for ios., or 25 parts for £1. Only one copy of each part will be supplied 
to any one Fellow. We should have thought these publications were 
worth more. 
J. Hermann, of the Librairie Scientifique, 6 rue Sorbonne, Paris, 
has issued a particularly valuable catalogue of books dealing with Geology 
and Palaeontology, in which the volumes are offered at remarkably cheap 
rates. For instance, a set of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological 
Society of London, from Vols. 1 to 61, is offered at 900 francs, which at 
the present rate of exchange, is very cheap. There is also a set of the 
four volumes of that Society’s Proceedings for 100 francs. 
Under the heading of ‘ A Costly Failure,’ we learn from the press that 
‘ The search for oil in England has now ended in definite failure. The 
Government had set aside a sum of one million over the quest, and con- 
cluded an arrangement with Pearson and Company to undertake the 
boring. Three-quarters of a million have been spent, but the work and 
quantity of oil discovered has been too small to justify its continuation.’ 
This is what we predicted — as would any geologist — when the venture 
first started. It seems a pity that all this public money has been wasted. 
Naturalist 
