26 o 
Northern News. 
at one time the backs of whales were not as defenceless as at 
present, but were protected by bony plates and that their 
winged adversaries were more formidable than at the present 
time . 1 
I conclude by referring to certain mysterious and hitherto 
unexplained wounds found in the skins of Blue and Fin 
whales killed in South African waters . 2 These wounds are 
situated on the dorsal surface towards the tail and look as if 
they had been inflicted one at a time. They also look as if a 
piece of tissue about the size and shape of half a hen’s egg 
had been removed and as if some creature had enjoyed a repast 
at the expense of the whale. In whales killed farther south 
in the neighbourhood of the ice these wounds occur as partially 
healed sores or as scars. Is the culprit a bird? Is the whale 
attacked while asleep at the surface with its head submerged 
and only the hinder part of its body exposed, and are the wounds 
single because when the whale is attacked and roused from its 
slumbers it sinks down or gets under weigh in self-defence 
and the culprit is not given a second chance ? 
NORTHERN NEWS. 
Prof. F. E. Weiss’s presidential address on ‘ Variegated Foliage ’ 
appears in the Society’s Proceedings recently issued. 
Between 4,000 and 5,000 British butterflies and moths collected by 
the late J. T. Wigin have been purchased by the Leeds Museum. 
A boulder of Mountain Limestone has been found in Prince Street, 
Bridlington, and is believed to be a relic of the Ice Age, and ‘ dates 
from 10,000 to 15,000 b.c.’ 
The services of a water diviner at Reighton and Speeton were recently 
declined. At the same meeting ‘ the Shepherd of Israel ’ guaranteed 
rain for ^ioo. This was also refused. 
Mr. W. C. Sprunt, recently appointed to the Art Gallery and Museum 
at Doncaster, formerly at the Batley Museum, has accepted the post 
of Curator of the Museum at Warrington. 
We learn that recently at Acomb, near Hexham, an underground 
spring was discovered by a water diviner, and ‘ the announcement was 
greeted with delighted smiles and cries of relief.’ But have they got it? 
A former President of the Union, the late W. H. St. Qu intin, has 
left property to the gross value of £355,000, and has bequeathed £250 to the 
Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and ^100 to the Royal Society for the 
Protection of Birds. 
We received from Captain T. Dannreuther, of Hastings, a summary 
of the various insect migration records made by members of the South 
Eastern Union of Scientific Societies. This, as was pointed out at the 
meeting of the British Association at Leicester, is a particularly useful 
piece of work, and it is suggested that any records for Yorkshire should 
be sent to Mr. W. D. Hincks, 46 Gipton Wood Avenue, Harehills, Leeds, 
who will summarise them and forward the summary to Captain 
Dannreuther. 
1 See Beddard’s Book of Whales, p. 31. 
2 See Macintosh and Wheeler’s Discovery Report on Blue and Fin 
whales. 
The Naturalist 
