no 
Notes and Comments. 
evolutionary activity correspond very closely with the results 
of the recent close investigation of the land mollusca, con- 
firm the hypothesis that the Central European region is 
the true centre from which has emanated in successive waves 
all the higher types in every group. Geological evidence is 
of course very scanty and fragmentary, and it is so far a 
matter of difficulty to make out in detail how far the range 
in time illustrates that in space. The paper is illustrated 
by maps. 
A CUMBERLAND NATURE RESERVE. 
A Cumberland Nature Reserve Association has been 
recently formed with the Right Hon. J. W. Lowther as 
President, the Mayor of Carlisle as Chairman, and Mr. L. E. 
Hope as Honorary Secretary. The objects of the Association 
are twofold, namely, the promotion of Nature Reserves in 
Cumberland, and the institution of a Watcher’s Fund for 
providing protection to plant and animal life in the county, 
particularly to those of the rarer birds requiring special 
protection during nesting. Already one Nature Reserve has 
been established on Kingmoor Common and adjacent wood, 
near Carlisle, where nesting-boxes have been fixed and 
drinking-ponds prepared. An appeal has been made to all 
interested in the preservation of our native fauna, some of 
which — like the Peregrine Falcon, Buzzard, and Raven— are 
the special objects of the egg-collector’s greed, and it is hoped 
sufficient funds will be raised for this purpose. 
MARSH GAS AT BRADFORD. • 
A little more than a year ago considerable interest was 
excited in Bradford by the announcement that in boring a 
well for a brewery in the city natural gas in considerable 
quantities had been met with. Interest in the discovery has 
been revived in the last two months by a series of explosions, 
which have done a good deal of damage and occasioned much 
alarm. The borehole was sunk in the premises of the North- 
brook Brewery. Manningham, under the supervision of 
Professor Kendall, and shortly after a seam of coal of fair 
thickness had been penetrated, gas appeared. It was proposed 
at first that commercial use might be made of it, but the 
volume was found to be insufficient, and it has been allowed 
to discharge into the atmosphere. During December and 
January complaints were made to the Bradford Gas Office 
that the gas mains were leaking, but weak places could not 
be detected. On the night of 28th January an explosion 
occurred in a house within two hundred yards of the brewery, 
and shortly afterwards similar explosions occurred in several 
houses in different streets in the locality, in one case damage 
Naturalist, 
