the New Magazine of Natural Science 25′ (?). 11. 60′, 80'. 12. 60', 70'. 13. From the statement of Herr Heiberg, Civil Engineer, who sent specimens. 14. Conjectured by Professor Sars. Those marked * are not described by Professor Sars. To make the relation clear between the older and more recent and differently situated links as laid down in fig. 4, several altitudes are added, up to which I have found marine deposits in the strata of clay and sand of different plains and valleys. III. Highest altitudes up to which Fossils have been found in older *Drammen, at the granite boundary on the Konerud 460 13. Moen, near Asper Sound 400 ? 385 375 350 14. Björndalen, in Aremark 15. Kile, in Aremark 16. Samböl Skjældalen, in Aremark.. 1. Taken from road-level, Lundeby bridge. 2. According to roadlevel. 3. Surface 137' above Kile lake. 4. According to road-level. 5. Supposed about the height of Skydsjordet. 6. According to roadlevel. 7. Surface 10' higher than rock containing Balanus, which measured (Keilhau and Boeck) 114' above Kile lake. 8. Taken from level of railway. 9. Supposed to be on same level as Killebo. 10. Conjectured 60' to 70' above Skullerud lake. 11. Surface 102' above Odemark lake; (b) a small bank 30' to 40′ higher. 12. (a) Bank close to sea; (b) a rather higher bank; (c) one still higher. 13. Conjectured from road-levels not far off. 14. Conjectured 30' to 70' above Kile lake. 15. Slightly higher than Kile lake. 16. Slightly above Kile lake. The lake levels are taken from the map of the canals. Those places marked * are not described by Professor Sars in the University Programme (Christiania, 1865), "On the Fossil Remains of the Quaternary Period," in which essay he treats exhaustively of the fossils. Where the honoured author strays into the field of geology I cannot always agree with him. I must here also take the opportunity of rebutting the complaints which Professor Sars, in this work of his in 1865, makes concerning my remarks on concretions of marl, written in 1860. In 1863 I revoked my earlier and incorrect opinion, and, instead of that, gave an explanation approaching very nearly (see Transactions of the Scientific Society of Christiania, 1863, pp. 101-107) to Professor Sars' later opinion. More could not have been demanded. But I certainly did expect that the Secretary to the Scientific Society would, even two years later, remember the somewhat long-winded discussions on this subject. II. Localities of more recent Shell-banks containing Post-Glacial Remains. From these tables it will appear that the coast-level marks the glacial epoch of one or more high-level steps at between 520' and 350′ above the present sea-level. Furthermore, that during the post-glacial period the coast showed one or more steps at the lower level, between 150′ and 50' above present sealevel. Still further, that fossils were deposited during the first period in strata from a maximum altitude of 460' downwards, while during the latter period the maximum limit was nearly 100′ lower, and thence downwards. It is also plain from the figures in the first two tables that the change of level had already begun during the glacial, and been continued during the post-glacial period. So far one is justified in attempting an estimate of time at this stage, but that the rising was not uniform may be concluded from the circumstance that the first two tables do not give an unbroken series of altitudes from the greatest down to the sea-level, but we may collect from the figures sundry average levels, as 530', 400′, and 150′, 120', 50'. If we now-after having convinced ourselves that the shellbanks tell us of several steps referrible to the old sea-levelagain turn to our valley terraces, we shall with greater facility trace steps. Further on I shall enumerate some steps observed in the Norwegian valleys. They are not all marine; if, calling them "stratified drifts," as consisting of strata of sand, clay, and gravel, we consider them all as affording satisfactory marks of an ancient sea-level, we shall act in contradiction to every geological practice. I hope that I may be able to continue these investigations, and I have, since the conclusion of our meeting of naturalists, completed the list from observations taken during the summer of 1868. The heights given are partly found by surveys with an aneroid barometer, partly calculated from sights with Wrede's levelling mirror, and from the best local maps of the responding road-levellings or proposed railway lines, on the Survey department; they are also partly taken from the corauthority of the Department in question. [The author here describes 30 different valleys of the south, west, and north of Norway, pointing out in each of 1. That open terraces, formed by the joint labour of river and sea, are, as a rule, to be found in our valleys,3 and that the steps afford evidences of cessations in the rising of the land. 2. That the change of level, or the rising, began during the glacial period with the highest discovered ancient level, which, both north and south of the mountains in Norway, can be put at somewhat over 600 ft. above the present sea-level.* 3. That the comparatively glacial state of things which prevailed with the 600-ft. level existed contemporaneously with that level which is now indicated at heights varying from 530' to 400. During this period the glacial coast shell-banks were deposited (List I.), and all the older strata in which we find shells at the maximum height of boundaries of every locality hitherto discovered. (List III.) 4. That this period was succeeded under the above-mentioned levels by a comparatively mild climatic condition, during which the mollusk-bearing clays especially began to be deposited at the altitudes indicated in List IV. If coast shell-banks of a mixed nature really should be discovered they would belong to this level. 5. That the melting down of inland ice must have begun with the highest found level-600', as we find large masses transported by floods down the valleys, and deposited in the most bulky terraces of all we are acquainted with, just at this highest level. Further, that also at several following times, under the milder climate, a large transportation took place down the same valleys, where, perhaps, in a comparatively short time, materials were stored up in steps corresponding to the existing sea-level. Further still, that changes of sealevel during a given period might perhaps take place in rapid succession, for instance, thos eindicated by many of the steps of the lower terraces, without corresponding coast shell-banks having opportunity to form during the lapse of this period. 6. That there are found in many watercourses unmistakable traces of basins, which once have been more completely filled, and the several floods mentioned (5) very probably were produced by disruptions of the dams of the basins at different times. 7. That rest or slow change began at the level of 150'-120', or perhaps at that of 50', since we here again find shell-banks at heights corresponding. 8. That the observations here collected, added to those which we owe to investigators who have previously bestowed special attention and independent observation upon the phenomenon of the terraces (Keilbau and Bravais), contain a protest against the unlimited computation of time which has been based upon a continuous rise, which "continuous rise" cannot be proved to have taken place in a succession of time without a break. -Translated from the Norsk. * Amid the terraces on open flats the author points out some having much resemblance to the Asar of Sweden. Such Asar-like ridges of stratified sand, gravel, and clay, are not the work of the sea, but the remains left by denudations of the terraces, which are themselves the compound work of the watercourses and the sea. 3 They have been pointed out above in more than thirty different valleys throughout the country. In the western part of Norway nothing at present can be said concerning this with certainty. ON RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN MICROSCOPE OBJECT-GLASSES. BY THE REV. J. B. READE, M.A., F.R.S. ITH respect to the attempts brought before us to improve the microscope itself as an instrument of scientific research, I must refer to Dr. RoystonPigott's paper "On High Power Definition," and to my own paper "On the Equilateral Prism." Considering a perfect microscope as consisting of two parts, a magnifying apparatus and an illuminating apparatus, Dr. Pigott proposes to weed out, as it were, an effective portion of the small residuary spherical aberration of the best objectives, and I have ventured to propose a principle of illumination which has not hitherto been avowedly advocated. When Dr. Wollaston recommended for an illuminating lens one of three-fourths of an inch in focal length, in which the microscopic object was placed in a vortex of foci, where the rays crossed in a thousand points both before and after they fell upon the object, he failed to realize the true method of illumination. Spherical and chromatic aberration are equally injurious in either of the essential parts of a microscope. The equilateral prism, used as a condenser, and the hemispherical lens, used as a prism, are free from both these errors. They supply, the one a condensed, the other a simple, single beam of parallel light; and a microscopic object, under such illumination, has virtually the advantage of being illuminated as by the sun. Natural light and shade are secured, and objects, like the valves of the Diatomacea, which hitherto have been shrouded in a haze of interpretations, are truthfully presented to the observer. I therefore look upon the prism as a kind of "Zaphnath-paaneah "—a revealer of secrets. Dr. Pigott's work is more arduous, and it certainly met in the first instance with an encouraging amount of oppositionencouraging, I mean, to one who knew-and was prepared to defend the right. For my own part, I must honestly say, and I am not alone in my opinion, that I did not believe a word of it. In point of fact, I was sure that Dr. Pigott's "beaded scale" was not the true test scale. True, we were all taken by surprise and uttered our criticisms freely; yet, in my own defence, I must be allowed to say that I do not concur in the personal comments reported in our Proceedings, and now willingly cancelled. I felt, however, that I had sat too long at the feet of my old friend, Andrew Ross, to admit the possibility of his good work being vitiated by this newly-announced error, and what I did not look for I did not find-but only because I did not look for it, not because it did not exist. There is undoubtedly in our best objectives a residuary spherical aberration-small, I admit—but it is unnecessary to say to a microscopist that its injurious effect upon the magnified image of an object varies directly as the square of the power of the eyepiece. It would be beyond the scope of a President's address to point out how this small but injurious amount of error may be detected and diminished. This must remain as a fundamental problem in the optician's Euclid. It is enough to record the fact of improvement as one of the salient points of the year. I will therefore only add that those who, like myself, have seen Dr. Pigott's exhibition of the beaded scales of Lepidocyrtus curvicollis and Degeeria domestica, can only sincerely thank him for taking the trouble to compel us to believe that a successful raid upon the existing trace of spherical aberration is not a myth. its use. present, to admit that considerable advantages are gained by The light is more abundant, the colouring of natural objects more brilliant, the definition keener: inferior glasses are frequently improved by its application: illumination can be more effectively employed with a less complex machinery of stops, diaphragms, and condensers; above all, facility of construction seems to be indicated by the offer of the highest powers at the lowest prices. This intimation comes from the Continent-Ath for fifty shillings! Is such work possible at home? Still we have yet to learn, notwithstanding these acknowledged advantages, whether there are any considerable drawbacks looming in the microscopic future which may in some measure counterbalance the employment of water refractions. Of one thing we may be sure, that absolute perfection is unattainable. The ghost of aberration will never be entirely exorcised even by cold water. It is there-do our best-and after all our compensations for figure, as for colour, there ever must be a little ghost of an error in all probability. At the same time, I believe it to be reduced to the minimum visible when the colour test, so strongly advocated by Dr. Pigott, is fairly exhibited on the stage. Thus the natural colours, for instance, of the upper and lower rows of beads on the scale of Degeeria plumbea seem, for the first time, to be brought out by Dr. Pigott's more accurate balance of positive and negative aberrations. But this part of the subject is extensive, and must be left for further research and observations. It is proper to remark that Colonel Woodward has resolved the 19th band of Nobert's lines with a Powell and Lealand's th immersion. He is the only observer who has succeeded in resolving 112688 lines to the inch, with a power of 1000 linear. But these lines present the same appearance as lines drawn about 112 to the inch would afford at a distance of 10 inches, to the ordinary sight,-which are evidently exceedingly close for numeration. No other powers in Colonel Woodward's possession could resolve this 19th band, and this is a strong fact in favour of the immersion system. But even here diffraction lines are multiplied, and the divisibility of the lines is a function of the breadth of the groove ploughed in the glass-the depth to which it is cut-the sectional shape of the groove itself-and the direction and character of the illumination employed. All these variable conditions in some measure detract from the fixed value of this test. It ought to depend upon the uniformity of standard conditions. The Acus, as shown by Mr. Powell, is a sharper and safer test.-Anniversary Address to the Royal Microscopical Society, in Monthly Microscopical Journal for March. AMBROSINE, A NEW ORGANIC MINERAL SUBSTANCE. BY CHARLES U. SHEPARD, SEN., OF CHARLESTON, U.S. N irregular oval-shaped mass of a mineral, closely resembling amber, has been brought to my notice by Major Edward Willis, of this city, and is here noticed in the hope that an additional supply of the same curious substance may be obtained by our phosphatic explorers. The present mass was originally of the size of a man's fist. It is of a yellowish brown colour externally, but within is clove-brown. It breaks with about the same facility as amber; has a conchoidal fracture, and a resinous lustre. It is feebly translucent. Its specific gravity is but slightly above that of water. Indeed, small fragments of it when thrown into water float for a short time, until they part with adhering air, when they slowly descend through the liquid. It is strongly electric by friction. It melts into a clear, yellowish liquid at about 460° Fahr., though it softens at a much lower temperature. It gives off considerable succinic acid long before it melts. On fusion a dense yellow oil is volatilized, attended with an agreeable balsamic odour, wholly unlike that from the resins of our pines. A dark brown, non-volatile fluid remains behind so long as the melting heat is kept up. As it differs from any of the oxygenated hydrocarbons known, I have called it Ambrosine-a term compounded from the two words amber and resin; to both of which substances it bears a resemblance. It is very combustible, burning with a bright, yellowish white light, a pleasant odour, and without leaving any carbon, or even the slightest ash behind. It is largely soluble in oil of turpentine, alcohol, ether, and chloroform, as well as in a solution of potash, and is feebly taken up by the strong acids without suffering decomposition. It probably originated in some of the coniferous trees that existed during the pleiocene epoch in geology, when our phosphatic formation was in progress of deposition.-Rural Carolinian. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MR. B. D. WALSH, THE ENTOMOLOGIST. ENJAMIN DANN WALSH was born in Frome, Worcestershire, England, on the 21st of September, 1808, and was therefore in his sixty-second year. He graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and his parents intended that he should enter the ministry; but he was not theologically disposed, and naturally had such a strong hatred of hypocrisy and of everything that had the semblance of wrong, that judging from what he has told us-the inconsistent conduct of some of the collegiates who were studying for the ministry, in all probability prejudiced him against the Church. At all events his tastes and inclinations were of an entirely different character from those which are necessary to make a minister of the gospel. We can learn but little, even from his wife, of his career in England, but we know that he there published a bulky pamphlet on university reforms, almost all the suggestions in which he lived to see practically carried out. He also wrote for Blackwood and other English periodicals, besides newspaper articles without end, and in 1837 published a large octavo volume in London, entitled Walsh's Comedies of Aristophanes. This volume is in many respects remarkable, embracing as it does the "Acharians," the "Knights," and the "Clouds," translated into corresponding English metres. There are many passages in this work illustrative of that same forcible style and utilitarian logic which so characterized his entomological writings. This work was to have been completed in three volumes, but, owing to some difficulty with the publishers, we believe none but this one volume was ever issued. Mr. Walsh married in England, and came to America in 1838. All his relatives are in England, and he has yet living five sisters and three brothers. Of the latter, Thomas Wm. Walsh, M.D., still resides at Worcester; J. H. Walsh ("Stonehenge ") is the present editor of the London Field, and the well-known author of one of the best works on the horse in the English language; while the third brother, F. W. Walsh, is a clergyman and schoolmaster. Upon arriving in this country he went into Henry county, in Illinois, and purchased a farm of three hundred acres, near Cambridge, the county seat, where he determined to retire in great part from the world, and lead the life of a philosopher. He soon became thoroughly devoted to this country, and never once returned to England or expressed any desire to do so. He remained on the farm for upwards of thirteen years, leading a very secluded life, and associating but little with his neighbours, from the fact that there were few, if any of them, who were his equal in intellect, or could appreciate his learning. Yet he was thoroughly Democratic in his ideas, and had no false pride whatever: he did, as far as possible, all his own work, even to making his own shoes and mending his own harness. Finally, a colony of Swedes settled in his neighbourhood, and, by damming up the water at Bishop Hill, produced so much miasma in the vicinity, that very much sickness pre vailed there. His own health in time became impaired, and at the suggestion of M. B. Osborn, of Rock Island, he removed to that city in 1851, and entered into the lumber business. He carried on this business about seven years, during which he found time to publish much fugitive matter in newspapers, principally on political topics, always affixing his signature, and scorning even the appearance of deceit. In politics he was a Radical Republican, hating all forms of slavery and oppression. As late as Grant's campaign he was a member of the Tanner's Club of Rock Island; and we shall never forget the enjoyable hours we spent with him at some of the meetings of the Club, where one forgot his real age in contemplating his unusual good spirits, activity, and vigour. In 1858 he suspected that the City Council was cheating the city, and though no politician, he ran for alderman for the express purpose of getting at the books, and of thus being enabled to investigate the matter and publish the facts. Such a course naturally made him many enemies, and he was waylaid and his life threatened; but he succeeded in getting elected, and after exposing the frauds, and thus accomplishing his purpose, he resigned. In the same year he retired from the lumber business with something of a competency, and built a row of buildings on Orleans and Exchange-streets, known as "Walsh's-row." Up to this time, though he had formerly made a small collection of insects in England, he had paid no attention to entomology in this country. But as soon as the buildings were erected, he devoted himself entirely to this, his favourite science. Thus his entomological career dates back scarcely a dozen years, but how faithfully and perseveringly he laboured, the record of those years abundantly testifies. The first published account that we can find of Mr. Walsh as an entomologist is in the report of a lecture which he delivered before the Illinois State Horticultural Society at the Bloomington Convention, in January, 1860. He there spoke extempore for two hours, displaying that rare faculty which he possessed of communicating his ideas in such a manner as to please and hold the popular ear. The reporter of this lecture, whom we take to be Mr. C. D. Bragdon, at the present time one of the editors of Moore's Rural New Yorker, states that he became so intensely interested, that his hand refused to move his pencil. After this time he became a regular contributor to the Prairie Farmer, of Chicago, Ills., and also wrote for a few other agricultural journals, such as the Illinois Farmer of Springfield, Ills., the Valley Farmer of St. Louis, Mo., &c., his aim throughout being to rouse the agriculturists to a sense of the immense losses they sustain from the depredations of injurious insects, and to impress upon them the necessity of a more general knowledge of the habits of these little foes. From 1862 to 1866 we find about a dozen scientific papers from his prolific pen, scattered through the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, and through those of the Philadelphia Entomological Society. These papers are all characterized by great freshness, originality, and accuracy, and they will for ever redound to his honour, and in our minds will be more and more appreciated as the true workings of Nature are better understood. Mr. Walsh was a school-mate with Darwin, and, though he took up the latter's work on the Origin of Species with great prejudices against the development hypothesis, yet he became a thorough convert to Darwinism after he had once studied it. Throughout these papers he consequently brings forward a great number of facts in support of this theory, and his remarks on Phytophagic Varieties and Phytophagic Species bear directly on this subject and have done much to help us to a clear understanding of the term "species." In October, 1865, the Entomological Society of Philadelphia commenced the publication of a monthly bulletin entitled the Practical Entomologist. This little journal was edited by the publication committee of the society, consisting of E. T. Cresson, Aug. R. Grote, and J. W. McAllister. Very soon, however, Mr. Walsh was added to the list, as associate editor from the West, and he finally became sole editor of the second volume, the publication being discontinued in September, 1867. So well had he succeeded in opening the eyes of the people of his own State to the vast importance of economic entomology that the State Horticultural Society at last petitioned the Legislature to appoint a State entomologist, and accordingly at the biennial session of 1866-7 a Bill was passed authorizing the appointment of such an officer with a salary of $2,000 per annum, the appointment being vested in the Governor, by and with the consent of the Senate. At the special session held in June, 1867, the Governor sent in, on the 11th of that month, the name of Mr. Walsh for confirmation, but the Senate postponed all action upon it till the next regular biennial session in the winter of 1868-9. Mr. Walsh, however, at the earnest solicitation of many of the leading agriculturists and horticulturists of the State, went on and discharged the duties of the office, and trusted to the future liberality of the Legislature to reimburse him for his work. As Acting State Entomologist he issued his First Annual Report for 1867, which was published as an appendix to the State Horticultural Transactions for that year. In September, 1868, in conjunction with the writer, he started the American Entomologist.-American Entomologist. 乐 INSECT EMBRYOGENY. HREE years ago the entomological world was much interested in the discovery of the phenomenon of parthenogenesis in the larva of a gnat (Cecidomyia). The particulars are given in Dr. Fripps's paper in the Popular Science Review for April, 1867. They are very curious. It has not hitherto been surmised that the larva of Aphrophora spumaria, the Cuckoo-spit, affords another instance. The Baron De Geer, the great Swedish naturalist, noticed that the female Frog-hoppers (so the perfect insects are called) become so gravid in September that they can scarcely fly. The eggs could not well cause this inconvenient gravity, because they are deposited at a much later season-in England certainly, and probably in Sweden also. The eggs do not seem to encumber the insect, according to my observation, even in December, immediately before their deposition. We may, therefore, suppose De Geer's observation to have applied to females about to become viviparous; though he does not seem to have suspected it. That it might have been so, is rendered certain by the occurrence of an embryo within the abdomen of a larva taken in my garden, and now in my cabinet. The claws, eyes, proboscis, and antennæ are to be clearly distinguished, and even the lenses of the eyes when considerably magnified. The antennæ appear of an unusual size; but they comprise only the normal parts, and are obviously immature. The mother larva in this example is about three parts grown to maturity; the wing-cases being still incomplete beneath the outer skin. This discovery-for such it is presumed to be-may, it is hoped, in some degree condone for any mistakes in my first paper on this insect, Science-Gossip, 1868, p. 168. Doubtless the larva does change its skin repeatedly, like other larvæ, though I have argued on the contrary supposition. The changes, however, may take place at such long intervals that my inference may not be wholly damaged. It may now be left to entomologists and physiologists to pursue this new fact, unexpectedly started upon a well-beaten field.-Science-Gossip. Spontaneous Combustion.-L'Union Médicale of February 15 contains an article from the pen of Dr. Bertholle, wherein full details are given of a case of spontaneous combustion. The subject of it was a woman, thirty-seven years old, who was addicted to alcoholic drinks. She was found in her room with the viscera and some of the limbs consumed, the hair and clothes having escaped. The very minute description of the state in which the deceased was found shows that ignition could not have been communicated from without, and, to all appearance, this is an additional case to those already upon record.-Lancet. THE CAVE OF BRUNIQUEL. E have certain proof that primitive races during this period lived exclusively in natural caverns, though they knew how to form more convenient abodes under large rocks. There have been discovered in various parts of France, and particularly in Périgord, numerous unroofed human habitations. These are simple abodes, situated under great escarpments and protected from the inclemency of the weather by more or less considerable projections of rocks, forming a sort of roof. They have given to these abodes of primitive man the name of abris sous roches. It is generally at the bottom of valleys, in the proximity of watercourses, that these rustic retreats are to be met. They contain, like the caverns, deposits very rich in bones of mammals, birds, and fishes, and also axes and utensils of flint, bone, and horn. Traces of fires are also to be found there. The most remarkable of these abodes peculiar to the reindeer period has been discovered at Bruniquel, in the department of Tarn-et-Garonne, not far from Montauban. On the left bank of the Aveyron, under the shelter of the slope of one of the highest rocks of Bruniquel, in the proximity of a castle whose picturesque rains are still situated on those steep crests, a fire of prehistoric times was discovered in 1866, which gives the most complete |