REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
51 
marl, showing ripple marks and impressions of salt crystals; also 
specimens of Helix labyrinthica from Michigan. Under the microscope, 
Mr. J. W. Neville showed a section of coal-ball showing a sporangium 
with spores in. situ. —January 3rd. Mr. H. Hawkes showed specimens 
of bramble brand, and remarked on the persistence of the fungus in 
the late severe weather ; also the following fungi: Ayaricus fasiculatus 
and Auricularia mesentencn ; Mr. J. Madison, specimens of Limncca 
palustris, Bulimus hypnorum, Helix vionodon, and II. alternata , from 
America. Under the microscope, Mr. Hawkes showed CEcidium thesii ; 
Mr. J. W. Neville, palate of Zonites draparnaldi. —Jan. 10th. Mr. C. 
Beale, C.E., read a paper on “ The Stones of the Field.” The writer 
referred to the great antiquity of the earth, the origin of language, and 
some of the earliest known references to stones. These references 
were made at a time when little was known concerning them, except 
their universality. Pretty and curious stones doubtless generated a 
desire in man to learn where such things came from. The writer 
described the manufactory of pebbles as the sea shore, and enlarged on 
the process of attrition by which they were brought to their rounded 
form. These forces were at work on every shore excepting those 
perpetually ice-bound. All pebbles were not, however, rounded in this 
way, for some owed their origin to mountain torrents. The writer 
described glacial action, and pointed out the difference in the deposits 
from those made by the agency of water. The wide distribution of 
stones was attributed to many causes—water, ice, and the agency of 
man—but the time necessary for it opened up a wide field for 
speculation, a period too vast for the mind of man to comprehend.— 
January 17th. Mr. J. W. Neville exhibited specimens of Pelopceus 
fistularis, a mason-wasp, from Constantinople; also, mouth organs of 
the same under the microscope; Mr. W. Tylar, a specimen of scorpion 
from Australia. 
PETERBOROUGH NATURAL HISTORY, SCIENTIFIC, AND 
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—January 11th, conversazione at 
Orton Hall, by the kind invitation of the Marchioness Dowager of 
Huntly. The magnificent billiard room was arranged as a concert 
hall, being prettily decorated with rare and interesting plants. A 
good musical programme had been arranged, and was well carried out 
by the various performers ; while the Rev. E. Bradley, better known 
as “ Cuthbert Bede,” the author of “Verdant Green,” &c., gave two 
excellent and highly amusing readings, and during the interval briefly 
alluded to Fotlieringhay and Mary Queen of Scots, and the approach¬ 
ing tercentenary of her death. Refreshments, kindly provided by 
Lady Huntly, were served in the vestibule during the interval and at 
the close of the meeting, her ladyship, with her well-known kindness, 
doing her best to minister to the comfort and enjoyment of her guests. 
A magnificent collection of Roman, Saxon, and Early British vessels 
was exhibited by her ladyship, as also a collection of engravings of 
Mary Queen of Scots, and a part of the hangings, worked with the 
Scotch thistle, from the bed on which the Queen had slept. Mr. 
Bradley exhibited a miniature and contemporaneous painting of Mary 
Stuart; an impression from, and drawings of, the ring given by 
Darnley to the Scottish Queen, which was found at Fotlieringhay a 
few years back, having, it is supposed, dropped from her finger on the 
morning of the murder, and been swept away in the bloody sawdust; 
also, several sketches and water-colour drawings made by himself of 
Fotlieringhay and its neighbourhood, kindly presenting to the Society 
a pen-and-ink sketch of the chair preserved in Connington Church, 
