THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
67 
increase, of temperature bends tlie lead a little, 
while the contraction caused by decrease of tem- 
perature does not bring it back to its original form. 
Who has not noticed the ridges in a lead-lined 
bath or sink? These are due to the same cause, 
and are the accumulated effect of frequent minute 
changes caused by expansion and contraction. 
But how do these familiar facts bear upon the 
“Origin of Mountain Ranges?'’ It will be my 
object in the next article to show this. 
(To be continued.) 
Preservation of Algae. 
Having been perfectly successful in preserving 
the colour of many of our fresh-water algae, it 
may be that the same method would prove suc- 
cessful with desmids. My plan is simply to have 
a wide mouthed bottle, with a glass stopper, filled 
with distilled water in which X have placed a 
number of pieces of camphor. 
When it is desired to mount the algae I place a 
portion of the same in some of this camphor water, 
to which a few drops of glycerine have been added, 
in a watch glass. 
At first it will become a yellow, lemon colour, 
but after a few hours the original green returns in 
its full vividness, and then I at once mount in the 
cell with a portion of the fluid. 
A specimen of Draparnaldia plumosa mounted 
20 years ago in this way is today as beautifully 
green as at first, and the chlorophyl seems to be 
unchanged. 
W. H. Walmsey. 
Sir Warington, W. Smyth, M.A., F.R.S. 
The death of this celebrated naturalist, the 
brother of His Excellency Sir H. A. Smyth, 
K.C.M.G., R.A., the present governor of these 
islands, has left a gap in the ranks of scientists 
that it will be difficult to fill up. 
His scientific work in Asia Minor, Syria and 
Egypt placed him in the front rank of Mediter- 
ranean Naturalists, and paved the way to those 
posts of honour which he afterwards so worthily 
filled. The estimation in which he was held by 
his brother-labourers may be well guaged by the 
following brief account of his career which was 
given by Dr. A. Geikie LL.D., F.R.S., at a recent 
meeting of the Geological Society of London. 
Wairington W. Smyth was bom in 1817 at 
Naples, where his maternal grandfather, Mr. 
Thomas Warington, was British Consul. His 
father, Admiral W. H. Smyth, F.R.S., spent many 
years in the Admiralty Survey of the Mediterra- 
nean. He wrote papers on astronomical and 
geographical subjects, as well as separate works on 
Sicily and the Mediterranean, which marked him 
out as one of the most scientific naval officers of 
his time. The son was sent home to be educated 
in this country, and was placed at Westminister 
and Bedford Schools, subsequently entering at 
Trinity College, Cambridge. Endowed with a 
constitution of rare vigour, and a passion for active 
exercise, he threw himself with ardour into the 
sports of the University, formed one of the win- 
ning University Crew in 1839, and as “head of the 
river” rowed with such energy as to be nicknamed 
“the steam-engine.” 
Leaving Cambridge with a travelling bachelor- 
ship, he spent more than four years in journeying 
over a large part of Europe, extending his rambles 
into Asia Minor, the borders of Kurdistan, Syria, 
and Egypt. Having already begun to look with 
interest on minerals and rocks, he made it one of 
his main objects in this prolonged tour to visit 
mines and to see for himself how the various ores 
occur in nature. His sojourn fin Germany and 
Austria gave him the opportunity of making the 
acquaintance of such men as Humboldt, Yon Buch, 
Von Dechen, Naumami, Haidinger,and Von Hauer. 
At one time he is found attending lectures 
on Mineralogy; at another time he is to be seen 
exploring coal-fields or descending silver-mines, or 
pushing his way through salt-works, or ransacking 
bone-caves, Again we hear of him among the 
rugged sunburnt rocks of Monte Cristo or encamped 
with Waltershausen near the summit-snows of 
Etna. A winter on the Nile is followed by a more 
adventurous ramble through Palestine and 
Northern Syria to Aleppo and the Upper Tigris. 
This prolonged absence abroad not only gave him 
a wide experience of practical mining-matters, but 
afforded him opportunities of cultivating that 
familiarity with foreign habits and foreign lan- 
guages which made him in the end an ideal Foreign 
Secretary for a Geological Society. 
