of course be made for the altitude of the sun and the state of the weather at the various stations.

The dark frames were numbered from 1 to 6, and the plates were exposed in the order in which they had been prepared, and the development proceeded in the same order.

Much of the delicate detail of the negatives is likely to be lost by varnishing. It is therefore preferable to cover them with glass, carefully binding the edges to exclude the air; the glass cover should not touch the film. Instead cf using an ordinary plate-box for the negatives, I prefer that each plate should have a slight frame similar to an crdinary "carrier," and these frames are then placed flat on a box prepared for them.

In counting seconds it is preferable that the assistant should count consecutively throughout the totality. Supposing the eclipse to last 130 seconds, by counting from 1 to 130 the operators know exactly the point arrived at after each exposure; and this is most important towards the end, as the last plate might be spoiled by the least mistake in this respect.

Artificial light of some kind will probably be required during the totality-certainly in the dark-room. We used the ordinary railway reading lamps. Boxes open on one side were provided, and in them the lamps were fixed. These boxes effectually protected the lights-without them the candles would have been extinguished by the wind.

It is better to assume that nothing will be found at the place of observation but water, but as in India there may be some difficulty in obtaining that necessary article sufficiently pure for photographic purposes, it will be better to provide a small still, which will cost about 55. Syracuse we used rain-water, which was sufficiently pure for the purpose.

At

Those accustomed to photographic work in India will be aware of the necessary precautions to be observed to prevent the plates drying. At Syracuse we kept our observatory and dark-room well sprinkled with water; and the glass plates, when they were in the dark frames, were covered on the backs with wet blotting-paper.

Much disappointment will be avoided if proper care be taken in packing the apparatus. All bottles and other glass articles should be placed in separate divisions and packed with cotton wool or paper cuttings. Packing-cases should be made very strong and bound with iron plates. By attention to these matters the whole of the apparatus and chemicals were found on being unpacked at Syracuse to be altogether uninjured-the packing cases bear testimony to the rough usage they have undergone.

A. BROTHERS

CLIFTON COLLEGE SCHOOL OF NATURAL SCIENCE

WE have long insisted in NATURE on the extreme im

portance of science teaching in the higher grade schools in this country, and we are glad to find that at length its importance has begun to be recognised by the head masters themselves; so that, on the whole, the progress now being made in this direction is such that we may confidently expect that at no very distant future science instruction will be provided for in all our superior schools. Foremost, if not positively the first among the schools in which the sciences are thus taught stands Clifton College, under the able direction of the Rev. J. Percival, in which scientific study is introduced to the utmost, and keenly pursued by the boys, with the encouragement of all their masters, the latter a most important consideration, and which, we are sorry to say, we cannot assert in reference to other schools of equal pretensions. There are several points of interest about the method of teaching at Clifton, and we are glad to have the opportunity of laying before our readers a sketch of the way in which

the work there is carried on, together with a sketch of the museum, which, may well become the model of all school museums. Science is much indebted to Mr. Percival for the magnificent example he has set in science education.

Natural Science at this College is not a voluntary subject, but forms a regular part of ordinary school work. The boys in the two highest classes on the classical side are allowed to choose between Science and German; throughout the rest of the school some branch of science is compulsory. In the Junior School Botany is taught, in the Upper School Chemistry and Physics. The boys on the classical side receive one lecture, those on the modern side two lectures a week on each of these latter subjects. The lectures are illustrated by experiments, accurate notes are exacted from the boys, and examinations are held every fortnight or three weeks.

The accompanying is one of these fortnightly papers :

on those adopted at King's College, London. A large workshop fitted up with carpenters' benches, vices, and lathes has been opened this term, and is exceedingly popular. There is also a physiological laboratory, in which a few of the elder boys receive instruction in Practical Zoology and Physiology.

Marks are given for work done in all the above-mentioned classes, except in the workshop. These marks affect a boy's position in his form from week to week, and thus afford a strong incentive to careful work. Five masters are at present engaged in teaching science.

The taste for natural history is developed by means of the Natural History Society, the School Museum, and the Botanic Garden. The society consists of about seventy members. Its meetings are held once a fortnight, they are fully attended, and there is never any lack of papers to be read. The society is subdivided into sections, which hold special meetings and make excursions for the study of different branches of science. The first number of the Transactions has just been published. The sections are engaged in preparing lists of the fauna, flora, and mineralogy of the district. The whole society makes an expe

dition annually in July to some place of interest in the neighbourhood.

A conversazione was given last month to celebrate the opening of the Museum and Botanic Garden. The former shares with the library the new room recently added to the school buildings by the head-master. Space being, of course, limited, it has been decided to make the collections essentially British; the local series to be as far as possible complete, and the general collections typical. Through the liberality of friends, considerable progress has been made already. Thus the museum already contains a fine series of British plants, another fine series of typical

British fossils, nearly 1,000 specimens of minerals, the same number of British Lepidoptera, many British birds and their eggs, and a good typical collection of shells, The completion of the local series is left in the hands of the different sections.

The Botanic Garden is large, and is laid out in long narrow beds with grass walks between. Over 1,000 bardy herbaceous plants are here arranged according to the natural system; and new additions are being constantly made. There are also specimens of all the ornamental trees and shrubs commonly cultivated in England; and a rockery has been built for Alpine plants.

EDINBURGH

SECTION A.

On Temperative Equilibrium of an Enclosure in which there is a Body in Visible Motion, by Prof. Balfour Stewart, F. R.S.It is now several years since Prof. Tait and the author of this paper came jointly to entertain the belief that there is some transmutation of energy, the exact nature of which is unknown, when large bodies approach and recede from one another. It is desirable to vindicate an idea of this nature, both from the theoretical and the practical point of view-that is to say, we ought, if possible, to exhibit it as a possible deduction from those laws of nature with which we are already acquainted; and, on the other hand, it ought to be supported by observations and experi ments of a new kind. In our case the experiments and observations have been of a difficult nature, and are yet in progress, it is therefore premature to bring them before the notice of this section. A theoretical vindication of the idea has been obtained by Prof. Tait, and more recently one has occurred to the author of these remarks, which he now ventures to bring before the section. Men of science are now sufficiently well acquainted with Prevost's theory of exchanges and its recent extension. We know that in an enclosure, the walls of which are kept at a constant temperature, every substance will ultimately attain the very same temperature as these walls, and we also know that this temperatureequilibrium can only be brought about by the absorption of every particle being exactly equal to its radiation, an equality which must separately hold for every individual kind of heat which the enclosure radiates. This theoretical conclusion is supported by numerous experiments, and one of its most important applications has been the analysis of the heavenly bodies by means of the spectroscope. Let us now suppose that in such an enclosure we have a body in visible motion, its temperature, however, being precisely the same as that of the walls of the enclosure. Had the body been at rest, we know from the theory of exchanges that there would have been a perfect equilibrium of temperature between the enclosure and the body; but there is reason to believe that this state of temperature-equilibrium is broken by the motion of the body. For we know both from theory and experiment that if a body, such for instance as a star, be either rapidly approaching the eye of an observer or receding from it. the rays of the body which strike the eye will no longer be precisely the same as would have struck it had the body been at the same temperature and at rest; just as the whistle of a railway engine rapidly approaching an observer will have to him a different note from that which it would have had if the engine had been at rest. The body in motion in the enclosure is not therefore giving the enclosure those precise rays which it would have given it had it been at the same temperature and at rest; on the other hand, the rays which are leaving the enclosure are unaltered. The enclosure is therefore receiving one set of rays and giving out another, the consequence of which will be a want of temperature-equilibrium in the enclosure-in other words, all the various particles of the enclosure will not be of the same temperature. Now, what is the consequence of this? The consequence will be that we can use these particles of different temperature so as to transmute part of their heat into the energy of visible motion, just as we do in a steam engine; and if it is allowable to suppose that during this process the moving body has retained all its energy of motion, the result will be an increase of the amount of visible energy within the enclosure, all the particles of which were originally of the same temperature. But Sir W. Thomson has shown us that this is impossible; in other words, we cannot imagine an increase of the visible energy of such an enclosure unless we acknowledge the possibility of a perpetual motion. It is not, therefore, allowable to suppose that in such an enclosure the moving body continues to retain all its energy of motion, and consequently such a body will have its energy of motion gradually stopped. Evidently in this argument the use of the enclosure has been to enable us to deduce one proof from the known laws of heat and energy, and we may alier the shape of the body without affecting the result; in other words, we should expect some loss of visible energy in the case of cosmical bodies approaching or receding from one another.

Observations on Water in Frost rising against Gravity, rather than Freesing in the Pores of Moist Earth, by Prof. James Taomson, LL. D., of Belfast. In this paper Prof. Thomson, in continuation of a subject which he had brought before the British Association at the Cambridge Meeting in 1862 on the

adduced some remarkable instances which he had since carefully observed. In one of these observed by him in February 1864, he showed that water from a pond in a garden had in time of frost raised itself to heights of from four to six inches above the water surface level of the pond by permeating the earth bank, formed of decomposed granite, which it kept thoroughly wet, and out of the upper surface of which it was made to ascend by the frost, so as to freeze as continuous columns of transparent ice rather than that it would freeze in the earth pores. From day to day during the frost the earth remained unfrozen, while a thick slab of columnar ice formed itself by new water coming up from the pond, and insinuating itself forcibly under the bases of the ice columns so as to freeze there, pushing them up, not by hydraulic pressure, but on principles which, while seeming to have been previously not noticed, appear to involve considerations of scientific interest, and to afford scope for further experimental and theoretical researches.

SECTION B.

A REPORT On the Publication of Abstracts of Chemical Papers was read by the secretary (Dr. Thorpe). The committee, which consisted of Profs. Williamson, Roscoe, and Frankland, having charge of the matter, said they were glad to be able to announce that regular monthly reports of the progress of chemistry have been published since April last by the Chemical Society. These reports have been rendered as far as possible complete, by giving abstracts, more or less full, of all papers of scientific interest, and of the more important papers relating to applied chemistry. The abstracts have been made by chemists, most of whom are members of the Society, whose zeal for science has induced them to undertake the work for the small honorarium which the Council has been able to offer. A numerous Committee of Publication has been formed, whose members gratuitously undertake the revision of proofs, and a comparison of abstracts with the original papers. The committee feel that their thanks are due to those gentlemen engaged in the work for having already so far succeeded in accomplishing a task of such difficulty and importance, and they confidently hope that their continued exertions will still further perfect the details of the scheme, so as gradually to increase the usefulness of the report. It is right to state that the funds of the Chemical Society, available for the purpose of the report, although so opportunely aided by a grant of 100%. from the British Association, were insufficient to defray the necessary expenses, and that voluntary contributions to the amount of upwards of 2001. have been received towards the cost of publication for the first year up to April 1872. There is good reason to believe that the expectations entertained of the usefulness of these reports will be fully realised by their continuance on the present system; and that they will be found largely to conduce to the progress of the science wherever the English language is spoken.

Prof. Williamson said it had long been felt in England that some equivalent was needed for those admirable annual reports which have long been published in Germany, and of which the value was so very great to workers in chemistry. To meet that want was the object the committee had in view.

A vote of thanks was given Prof. Williamson for his exertions in connection with the matter.

Dr. Thorpe read a paper On Phosphorus Chlorides. He said he had attempted to prepare the missing oxichlorides analogous to those obtained from vanadium by Roscoe, but without success. When the phosphoryl trichloride is heated with zinc in a sealed tube, the oxygen is withdrawn and phosphoric chloride is obtained. He had also prepared sulpho-chloride of phosphorus by the action of sulphide of phosphorus on the penta-chloride of phosphorus.

Mr.

Mr. Pattison Muir made a communication On an Antimony Ore from the Thames, New Zealand. The specimen analysed was beautifully crystallised and almost chemically pure antimony sulphide, containing only traces of arsenic and antimony. John Dalzell communicated a paper On Suphur Dichloride. He has repeated Hübner's experiments, and finds that the compound actually exists at low temperatures. Dr. Wright gave a résumé of his researches On the Derivatives from Codeia. An account of these investigations has already appeared in our columns. Mr. Tichborne read a paper On the Dissociation of Molecules by Heat, and showed some very pretty lecture experiments on the subject. Mr. J. G. Buchanan read a paper illustrated by diagrams On the rate of Action of Caustic Soda on a Watery Solution of

Chloracetic Acid. He has determined the rate at which chloracetic acid suffers decomposition, when heated simply with water or with caustic soda in a sealed tube. The following papers were also read :-Prof. Apjohn, Some Remarks on the Froximate Analysis of Saccharine Matters; Dr. Gladstone, On Crystals of Silver; Mr. Braham, On the Crystallisation of Metals by Electricity; Mr. J. S. Holden, On the Aluminous Iron Ores of Co. Antrim; Prof. Maskelyne, On Dafrenite and a New Mineral from Cornwall, and on Localities of Dioptase; Rev. Mr. Highton, On a Method of Preserving Food by Muriatic Acid; Mr. Wanklyn, On the Constitution of Salts; Mr. Harkness, On a Method of Testing Wood Naphtha.

SECTION C.

MR. CARRUTHERS, F.R. S., read a paper by Mr. Grieve On the Position of Organic Remains near Burntisland, and also a paper by himself On the Vegetable Contents of Masses of Limestone occurring in Trappean Rocks in Fifeshire, and the conditions under which they are preserved. Large masses of plants which formed the coal had been enclosed in the trappean asb, and subsequently calcified by the large amount of lime contained in the rocks. Mr. Carruthers considered that these fragments were enclosed in a peaty condition, because the mass was penetra'ed in every direction by roots, showing the existence of vegetation on this soil. The attention of Mr. Grieve was first directed to the specimens by observing on the shore large masses of limestone which had been polished by the drifting sand. The action of this sand was well shown in the neighbourhood, even the hard basaltic rocks having been polished by it. Mr. T. M'K. Hughes said that after what had been brought out in regard to the action of the drifting sand, they must take care not to attribute the polishing of rocks in every instance to glacier action.

The second meeting of Section C. was opened by Mr. Pengelly, who read the Seventh Report on the Kent's Cavern Explorations. His clear and lively lecture drew together a good audience. Commencing with some general remarks on the history and working of the Cavern, in order to make the subject clear, he pointed out the usual section to be, in descending order-1. Black mould, cortaining many objects of recent date, and some of Romano-British times; also remains of animals still living, or which lived in historic times. 2. Granular stalagmite, containing remains of extinct animals, and also a human jaw. 3. Cave earth, yielding a harvest of extinct remains, also flint implements. 4. Crystalline Stalagmitic floor, and Breccia formed of rocks from distant hills; bears only have been obtained from these. He then described the work done during the past twelve months, showing what new passages had been opened, and the number of species which had been obtained. They included hyæna, horse, rhinoceros, Irish elk, ox, deer, badger, elephant, bear, fox, lion, reindeer, rabbit, bat, wolf, dog, &c. Many of the bones were gnawed by hyæna, others were marked by rootlets encircling them. Altogether, about 2,200 teeth and bones and 366 flint implements and flakes had been obtained since the last year's Report was read.

The Contents of a Hyana's Den on the Great Doward, Whitchurch, Ross, Herefordshire, were pointed out by the Rev. W. S. Symonds, F.G.S. He remarked that the section of the deposits was 1. Superficial soil and stalactitic matter with Roman (?) pottery and human bones. 2. Thin band of stalactitic matter. 3. Cave earth, containing flint flakes and chips, stone instruments, teeth and bones of numerous mammals either extinct or not now inhabiting the district, as the cave lion, cave bear, hyæna, mammoth, long-haired rhinoceros, fossil horse, &c. 4. Stratified sand and silt, with rolled pebbles. 5. Thick floor of stalagmite, and cave earth separated every few feet by layers of stalagmite, containing flint flakes.

Mr. Vivian, referring to the length of time during which man had existed on the earth, thought he might have existed for about a million years. Prof. Hull remarked that there was no evidence as yet to bring back man to the Glacial epoch, and therefore opinions about the high antiquity of man should be reserved. Mr. Prestwich concurred with Mr. Hull, but said there was no doubt that man followed very closely upon the Glacial period. Mr. L. C. Miall read a paper On Some Further Experiments and Remarks on the Contortion of Rocks, describing results obtained by subjecting limestone, flagstone, slate, and plaster of Paris to forces of low intensity but of long continuance. Mountain and, magnesian limestone proved to be indefinitely plastic; slate slightly elastic, but almost incapable of permanent

deflection. Remarks on some cases of superficial and mola contortions were appended to the paper.

Prof. Hull and Mr. W. A. Traill, B A., of the Geol Survey of Ireland, read a paper On the Relative Ages ai Grantic, Plutonic, and Volcanic Rocks of the Mourne M tains, Down, Ireland. They first pointed out the presence two varieties of grauite, differing, as Prof. Haughton had show both in composition and origin; the soda granite of SA Croob (consisting of quartz, orthoclave, alhite, and mica) beg of metamorphic origin, and the potash granite of Mourne icesisting of quartz, orthoclase, albite, and mica) being eruptive The relative, and as far as possible, the actual ages of the granites, remained to be determined, which the authors o sidered might be determined by a consideration of the basalt: and felstone-porphyry dykes, by which the district had on severa occasions been invaded. The conclusions thus derived were th the granite of Mourne was newer than that of Slieve Croob by: long interval, and that while the former was probably Mesto the latter was of Paleozoic age.

The third meeting of the Geological Section was held a Saturday August 5. The first paper read was by the Rev. It Hume On the Coal Beds of Panama, in reference mainly to ther economic importance. The author drew attention to the :covery of a series of seants in the Isthmus of Panama. Analyse proved the coal to contain about 75 per cent. of carbonacens matter, the remaining portion being water and asli ; it had a te heating and a large illuminating power. There are four porta where the coal reaches the surface of the thickness of ght, 12ft., and with intervening streaks of shale and clay 25ft.; 6 however, improves in value at greater depths. He pointed the great importance of this coal, in the event of a canal beg made through the Isthmus.

The relation of health to certain geological formations was treated of by Dr. Moffatt. He remarked that the district in which he lived consisted geologically of the Carboniferous and of the New Red Sandstone system; that the inhabitants of the former were engaged in mining and agriculture, and those of the latter in agriculture chiefly. Anemia, with goitre, was very prevalent among those persons living on the Carboniferous sys tem, while it was almost unknown among those on the New Red Sandstone; and phthisis was also more prevalent among the former than the latter. He then gave some statistics as to the diseases prevalent among the counties of Chester, Flint, ar! Denbigh, and stated that the practical deductions to be drawn from the inquiry were, that all young persons living on a Car boniferous formation having symptoms of incipient goitre and anæmia, ought to be moved to a soil upon red sandstone, and persons of strumous habit ought to reside upon sandstone at L elevation of at least 8co or 1,000 feet above the sea. In the d cussion which followed the reading of this paper Mr. G. A. Labour mentioned a Carboniferous district in Northumberland containing a thin bed of limestone where the people suffered III goitre. Sir Richard Griffith remarked that goitre was unkn in Ireland, although they had plenty of Carboniferous rocks Professor Hall agreed with Dr. Moffat respecting the healthiel character of the New Red Sandstone.

A paper was then read by the Rev. J. F. Blake On the Yorkshire Lias and the Distribution of its Ammonites.

Some relics of the Carboniferous and other old land surfaces were described by Mr. Henry Woodward.

SECTION D.

THE Committee for the Close Time for Birds, reported by the Rev. Canon Tristram, LL. D., that it had gone on year after year endeavouring, as well as it could, to influence public opinion on the question of the preservation of indigenous life in this country. At the time of its appointment there was no protection whatever for any creature not coming under the Game-laws. Anything not game was treated by law as vermin. A curious case had arisen in regard to Pallas's sand grouse. That bird made its appearance on the east coast of England, and if it had been allowed to breed on the sand-pits of Durham, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire, no doubt it might have become an indigenous bird. He (Dr. Tristram) summoned some people for shooting it out of season in the spring of the year; but it was decided that, being sand grouse and not Scotch grouse, it was beyond the benefit of the laws. The committee had to congratulate the Association two years ago on having succeeded with very

little difficulty in steering a Bill safely through all the perils of Select Committees of both Houses of Parliament. That Bill, however, was shorn of its fair proportions; and although it went into the House a Bill for the Protection of Indigenous Animals, it came out an Act for the Preservation of Sea-Fowl. The seafowl had borne their testimony to the success of the Act so far, and it was something to have to say that within the last year the numbers of sea-fowl that had bred on the Yorkshire coast were, at least, three times as many as they were two years ago, That success was a great benefit, at the same time, to those who made their living by sea-fowl, because purveyors of feathers and eggs had found that the Sea-Fowl Act had actually very largely in. creased not only their profits, but their supply, in the same way as the improvement of the Salmon Acts had restored the salmon to rivers from which it had been almost extirpated. The com. mittee, therefore, finding there was a unanimous verdict in favour of the Act regarding sea-fowl, strongly recommended the Association to endeavour to extend the Act in two ways. This they proposed to do next session by introducing amending clauses. One object to be aimed at was to extend the Act to all wading birds and all web-footed birds good for human food. was desirable to protect the sandpipers, the plovers, the lap wings, and the whole of the duck tribe, which were being rapidly exterminated. Having succeeded in that, the committee should next endeavour to have British law on the subject assimilated to the sternly restrictive laws of every other civilised country, except Holland, Greece, and Turkey-those three being the only countries in the world professing to be civilised which had not a close-time for all creatures.

not

It

ORNITHOLOGY.-Prof. Duns, D.D., New College, Edinburgh, read a paper On the Rarer Raptorial Birds of Scotland; the four following propositions were stated:-1. That species occur in pairs, often at long intervals, in localities where they have long since ceased to breed, but where they have been at one time uncommon. 2. The geographical range of stragglers seems to widen with the lapse of time. 3. Certain species have greatly increased in recent times over wide districts where they were comparatively rare. 4. Year by year the raptorial birds of Scotland are becoming fewer. These positions were all treated of in the paper, which, not giving specific characteristics or descriptive details, yet pointed out all the chief sources of information and enumerated all the localities. R. Sibbald's list in "Scotia Illustrata,” 1684, and the many that intervene 1 between it and the author's own lists collected during the last thirty years, were all referred to, and the conclusion come to was that most of the larger raptorial birds were rapidly disappearing from Scotland, and that even the smaller forms which were very common in the southern and central districts were yearly becoming rarer. The author also expressed his belief that both the farmer and the game preserver would lose much when between them they succeeded in destroying all the hawks and owls.

ICTHYOLOGY. —A paper was communicated by Colonel Playfair, H. B. M. Consul-General at Algiers, On the Hydrographical System and the Fresh Water Fish of Algeria. After describing certain interesting features in the physical configuration of the country, the paper went on to state that in the rivers flowing to the Mediterranean there were sixteen species of fish, only three of which were common to the whole region, one being the common eel. There were eleven species peculiar to the littoral of Algeria, among which was a small trout. The common gold fish, which was very common, was not a native of Algeria, but was supposed to have been introduced by the caprice of a certain Sultan many centuries ago. It was now, however, universal in the streams. The plateau had only afforded seven species, one of them being the same as a South African species. In the Sahara there were some peculiar species. The upper part afforded two species, one being the common eel, and in the lower region two species were found in the salt lakes, and had been frequently ejected by the Artesian wells. It had been concluded that these latter species inhabited a vast subterranean sea Occupying the bottom of the Sahara depression. The question had been asked why they were not destitute of eyes, but it was to be remembered that their underground life was simply an episode in the voyages they made between one well and another. When they reached a well they were either forced up or by instinct came to the surface. Owing to the shortness of the rivers and their being extremely rapid in their upper portion, the physical conditions were not such as would admit of the intro

duction into them of the true salmon with any prospect of

success.

Mr. C. W. Peach exhibited some apparently tailless trout which had been sent to him by Mr. Colin Hay, distiller, of Ardbeg, Islay. They were taken in Lochmaorichen, in Islay. That loch was about 1,000 feet above the level of the sea, ani not above one acre in extent. It was so shallow that a man could wade through it, and had a stony bottom, with a few weeds. Although it was surrounded by other lochs, these tailless trout were found only in it. The whole of them were "docked," and Mr. Mackay, a keen sportsman, who has fished it often for thirty years, never caught one with a perfect tail. They are in excellent condition, being fed on the small crustaceans which are abundant in the loch. Mr. Peach further stated that Mr. Hay was about to add to his kindness by procuring a further supply of fish, if possible, from the fry to the adult state. He also intended to transport some of the " docked trout to a loch at a short distance, in which trout had never been taken, and try to rear a stock from them, and see whether they would all remain "tailless.

Dr. Grierson said that, at the mines of Wanloch-Herd, Dumfriesshire, and Leadhills, Lanarkshire, there were streams coming from the shafts in which trout without tails were frequently got, as also trout with deficient fins. The fish referred to were, moreover, frequently blind. Specimens of these fish were to be forwarded to Professors Turner, Traquair, and Dr. Günther for examination.

Mr. A. G. More exhibited some brown trout taken in salt water. It was not, he thought, generally known that the common or brown trout of fresh-water streams was an occasional visitant to the salt water. The salmon and the sea-trout, and the sewin or Welsh sea-trout, descended regularly to the sea after brown trout had seldom been observed under the same circumthey had finished breeding in fresh water; but the common stances. In Scotland Mr. Peach, who had an extensive experience and knowledge of marine zoology, assured him that no instance of the kind had come under his notice, save once, when he found a river-trout in the stomach of a cod-fish. Possibly that trout was captured in salt water, but it might have been dropped by a cormorant, or have been swept down the river in a flood either weak or possibly already dead. In the west of Ireland-in the counties of Donegal, Sligo, Limerick, and Kerry, Mr. More had ascertained, partly through others and partly from his the salt water at the mouths of the rivers. The brown trout own observation, that the river-trout spontaneously frequented captured in salt water differed from their usual condition in having brighter and more silvery scales, something like those of the young salmon in the smolt condition. Mr. More would like it to be ascertained if these trout were brown trout "pure and simple," or hybrids.

Prof. Duns exhibited a specimen of the spiny shark, Echinorhinus spinosus, Blain, which had been taken at Earlsferry, near Elie, Fifeshire, in the February of this year. He also mentioned that a specimen had also been taken in January 1867 near Boness, Linlithgowshire.

Dr. C. Lütken described a new genus of fish belonging to the family of the sea-devils, allied to, and, in fact, almost interme. diate between the curious genus Melanocetus discovered some years since by Mr. Johnson at Madeira and the monstrous Ceratias, which, until the discovery of Mr. Johnson, was the best known example of the Apodal Lophioids. Of the third genus of the almost blind apodal deep sea Lophioids, it was strange that the Greenland seas should have already possessed a species, O. himantolophius, described many years ago by the senior Reinhardt from a mutilated specimen, but which description had been almost forgotten by recent icthyologists. Among the characters distinguishing this genus Oneirodes, there is one both peculiar and suggestive, viz., the curious development of the head of the first dorsal fin-ray, which, with its tentacles, pigmental spots, &c., gave the impression of, as it were, a mimicry of the head, say, of a Nereis. It would not be very wonderful if it were really intended to allure other rapacious fishes, and if the old stories of the angling propensities of the "fishing frog" were found to contain more truth than is generally believed. The new species

O. eschrichtii was taken at Greenland.

ENTOMOLOGY.-Mr. Roland Trimen, F. L.S., F.Z. S., read a note on a curious South African grasshopper,* Trachypetra bufo, *Methuen's "Wanderings in the Wilderness," 2nd edition, 1848, App. P. 372, pl. 11., fig 3.