Scale of Feet.

This lake derives its water from the western slope of the same Laurentian range which feeds Lake Superior.

The correspondence between the periods of maxima and minima in solar-spot cycles and in the fluctuation of the great lakes, though by no means absolute, seems to be sufficiently close to open a very interesting field of inquiry, and to show the extension of the meteorological cycle already deduced by Messrs. Meldrum and Lockyer for oceanic areas in the southern hemisphere, to continental ones in the northern.

The great lakes in their changes of mean yearly level probably show a very correct average of the rainfall over a large area, and thus indicate the relative amount of evaporation taking place in different seasons. It is to be observed, however, that the actual mean annual outflow of the lakes would be a better criterion, and that from the form of the river valleys giving exit to the waters, this must necessarily increase in a much greater ratio than the measured change of level in the lake itself. It is much to be desired that such observations should be systematically made. The occurrence of seasons of great activity of evaporation and precipitation, as indicated by the lakes synchronously with those of maximum in solar-spot production, would tend to confirm the opinions previously formed as to the coincidence of the latter with periods of greater solar activity. Wolf, as quoted by Chambers, states from an examination of the Chronicles

of Zurich, "that years rich in solar spots are in general drier and more fruitful than those of an opposite character, while the latter are wetter and stormier than the former." Gautier, from a more extended series of observations, including both Europe and America, has deduced an exactly opposite conclusion, which, from the evidence of the great lakes, would appear to be the correct one.

It is quite possible, however, that both may be true (see "Solar Physics," p. 430). The great lakes lying at the base of the Laurentides, where moisture-bearing winds from the southward and westward are interrupted in their course, and meet with cold currents journeying over these hills from the north, are essentially in an area of precipitation, and greater precipitation would here be the natural result of greater solar energy. In other regions excessive evaporation may result from the same cause, and this may account for the gradual desiccation which on the authority of many observers is going on at present over great areas of the inland plains of the west.

The observations here given cannot be accepted as conclusive, but derive additional importance from the large area which they represent, and may suggest more systematic investigation of the subject, and the accumulation of accurate observations, which in the course of years may lead to results of greater value.

G. M. DAWSON

number of observations which have come down to us, that any variations of importance have escaped notice.

In the upper part of the diagram, the unbroken line represents Carrington's curve founded on the number of sun-spots. The broken line is a reduction of a mean curve based on the area of the spots given by De la Rue, Stewart, and Loewy in the Philosophical Transactions for 1870; and is introduced as showing the solar periods to a later date.

3. General Remarks.-The first four maxima of sunspots represented in the table being separated by long intervals of years with few spots, and not being very intense, would appear to have been closely followed by L. Erie. More especially 1837, the year of greatest known intensity according to both spot curves (333 new groups of spots according to Schwabe), was marked in its effects on the lakes, giving rise in 1838 to the highest recorded level of the waters in Erie and Ontario, and probably also in Superior, though here the data are not so certain. The high-water mark of 1838 has since been employed as the datum to which all the measurements of the Lake Survey are reduced.

The three last periods of maxima of sun-spots are

extreme, and the intervals characterised by their deficiency so short that the lakes seem to have been unable to follow them as closely as before. One period of high water being to a great extent merged in the next, and resulting in a general high state of the lakes for the last thirty years, which may be connected with the Wolfian Cycle of fiftysix years in the development of sun-spots. The lakes do not seem to have responded to the maximum of 1848, but by a reference to the curve of area of sun-spots, it will be seen that the intensity of this period was not so great as of those on either side of it, and the period of maximum was maintained for a very short time only. The important sun-spot maximum of 1859-60 was evident in its effect on the lakes even at their present general high level. With regard to the Lake of the Woods the data are slight, but it may be mentioned that this lake is known to have been very low in 1823, and in 1859 to have attained a point which it has never touched since, and which is about 3 feet higher than the present level. The lake is also known to have been for a good many years higher than usual, and at least one well-marked high water took place between 1823 and 1859, which may very probably have been synchronous with that of 1838 on the great lakes.

POLARISATION OF LIGHT*

VIII.

A QUARTZ plate cut parallel to the axis, when examined with convergent light, gives curves in the form of hyperbolas. These curves are wider in proportion to the thinness of the plate, but if the plate be thick enough to render the curves moderately fine, the colour becomes very faint. They may, however, be rendered distinct by using homogeneous light. The dark and light parts exchange positions when the analyser is turned through 90°. Two such plates with their axes at right angles to one another give coloured hyperbolas perfectly visible with the white light. Plates of Iceland spar exhibit similar phenomena, but the lines and curves are far more closely packed.

If the plate be cut in a direction inclined at 45° (or at any angle differing considerably from o° or 90°) to the axis, the curves are approximately straight lines perpendicular to the principal section of the plate. Two such plates placed with their principal planes at right angles to one another give straight lines bisecting the angle between the principal planes. On this principle Savart constructed the polariscope which bears his name. It consists of two such plates and an analyser, and forms a very delicate test of the presence of polarisation. The lines are, of course, always in the direction described

of vibration of the two rays will be those of the bisectors of the angles made by the two lines. If, therefore, the crystal be so placed that the line joining the extremities of the two axes coincides with the plane of vibration of either polariser or analyser, it is not difficult to see that there will be a black cross passing through the centre of the field, with one pair of arms in the line joining the extremities of the axes and the other pair at right angles to it. But if the plate be turned in its own plane round the central point, the points, for which the vibrations are parallel or perpendicular to those of the polariser or analyser, will no longer lie in straight lines passing through the centre, but will form two branches of a hyperbolic curve, passing respectively through the extremities of the optic axes.

If the analyser be turned round, the dark hyperbolic brushes, or the black cross, will undergo the changes analogous to those shown in the cross in the case of uniaxal crystals; but the most interesting effects are those seen when the polariser and analyser are crossed, and the crystal is turned in its own plane.

The angle between the optic axes in different kinds of crystals varies very much; in those where the angle is small it is easy to exhibit both at once in the field of view, but in others where the angle is large it is necessary to tilt the crystal so as to bring the two successively into view. In the latter case the crystal is sometimes cut in a direction perpendicular to one of the axes. The rings are then nearly circular, especially towards the centre, and in that respect they resemble those of a uni-axal crystal;

above, and the delicacy of the test increases in proportion as their direction becomes more and more nearly perpendicular to the original plane of vibration.

Bi-axal crystals exhibit a more complicated system of rings and crosses, or brushes as they may in this case be better termed. If such a crystal be cut in a direction perpendicular to the line which bisects the angle between the two optic axes (or the middle line, as it is called), the extremity of each of the axes will be surrounded with rings similar to those described in the case of the uni-axal crystals. The larger rings, however, are not strictly circles, but are distorted and drawn out towards one another; those which are larger still meet at a point midway between the centres, and form a figure of 8, or lemniscata; beyond this they form curves less and less compressed towards the crossing point, and approximate more and more nearly to an oval (see Fig. 26).

The vibrations of the two rays emerging from any point of a bi-axal crystal are as follows:-Of the two rays produced by the double refraction of a bi-axal crystal neither follows the ordinary law of refraction; but one does so more nearly than the other, and is on that account called for convenience the ordinary ray. And if through any point of the field of view we draw two lines to the points where the optic axes emerge, the directions * Continaed from p. 466.

FIG 27.

but the character of the specimen can never be mistaken because the rings are intersected by a black bar, or two right angles to one another, as would have been the case arms in the same straight line, instead of by four arms at if the crystal had been uni-axal. The following are the angles made by the optic waves in a few crystals:

placed that the line joining the centres of the two systems of rings is vertical, and the crystal is first turned so as to bring one centre into the centre of the field of view (usually marked by cross wires); the index is then read, and the crystal turned so as to bring the centre of the second system of rings to the centre of the field. The index is again read, and the difference of the two readings noted. This, however, gives not the true angle of the optic axes, but the apparent angle in air, that is, the angle between the rays as affected by refraction on emerging from the crystal. (See Fig. 27.)

In some crystals the optic axes have different angles of inclination for the different rays of the spectrum. Of this titanite or sphene is an example. All rays have a common middle line, and lie in the same plane, but the optic axes for the red rays are more widely separated than those for the blue, and consequently the part of the field which would exhibit a dark brush if red light were used is deprived of the red rays but not of the blue. The brushes, therefore, appear broader than with ordinary crystals, and are tinged with blue on the edges farthest from the middle point, and with red on the edges nearest to it. It is said that a similar distribution of the optic axes, or its opposite in which the red rays are least separated and the blue most, is found in all crystals belonging to the rhombic system.

In other crystals, the axes all lie in one plane, but all have not the same middle line, so that the two ring systems are unsymmetrical. This is the case with borax. In others the optic axes for different colours lie in different planes, all of which pass through the middle line.

Lastly, we may mention the crystals brookite and tartrate of ammonia soda and potash, in which the optic axes for the two extremities of the spectrum lie in planes at right angles to one another, both passing through the same middle line. If the systems of rings be examined with light which has been so widely dispersed that the portion illuminating the field in any given position is practically monochromatic, and the position of the instrument shifted through the different parts of the spectrum (or what is more convenient, if the different parts of the spectrum be successively thrown on the polariscope by means of a totally reflecting prism), the optic axes will be seen to draw gradually together until the figure closely resembles that of a uni-axal crystal; after which the axes open out in a direction at right angles to the former, until they have attained their greatest expansion. This experiment requires a strong light, butfit is instructive, as showing the exact distribution of the optic axes for different rays.

In some bi-axal crystals, notably in gypsum, the distribution of the optic axes varies with the temperature. When the crystal is heated the angle between the optic axes diminishes until the crystal appears uni-axal; with a further increase of temperature the axes again open out, but in a direction at right angles to the former. When the crystal is cooled the axes generally resume their original directions. Sometimes, however, when the heating has been carried to a great degree, or has been continued for a long time, the axes never completely return to their normal condition; and in such a case the crystal may appear permanently uni-axal. Such an appearance, when permanent, has been considered a test of former heating; and this phenomenon, when presented by crystals found in a state of nature, may be taken as evidence that the rocks in which they have been formed have been subject to high temperatures.

In the production and examination of the rings hitherto described, we have used light which has been plane-polarised and plane-analysed; but there is nothing to prevent our polarising the light or analysing it circularly, or indeed doing both.

If a quarter-undulation plate be placed between the polariser and the crystal to be examined, with its axis in

clined at 45° to the plane of original vibration, the light will fall upon the plate in a state of circular polarisation ; and as the polarisation will then have no reference to any particular plane of vibration, the black cross will disappear. A system of rings will be produced, but they will be discontinuous. At each quadrant, depending upon the position of the analyser, the rings will be broken, the portions in opposite quadrants being contracted or expanded, so that in passing from one quadrant to the next the colours pass into their complementaries. If either the direction of the axis of the quarter-undulation plate be changed from 45° on one side to 45° on the other side of the plane of vibration of the polariser; or if the crystal be changed for another of an opposite character (i.e. negative for positive, or vice versa), the quadrants which were first contracted will be expanded, and those which were first expanded will be contracted. Hence for a given position of the quarter-undulation plate the appearance of the rings will furnish a means of determining the character of the crystal under examination.

Similar effects are produced if the quarter-undulation plate be placed between the crystal and the analyser; that is, if the light be analysed circularly.

In the case of bi-axal crystals under the action of light polarised or analysed circularly, the black brushes are wanting, but they are replaced by lines of the same form marking where the segments of the lemniscatas pass from given colours into their complementaries.

If the light be both polarised and analysed circularly, all trace of direction will have disappeared. In uni-axal crystals the rings will take the form of perfect circles without break of any kind; and in bi-axal they will exhibit complete lemniscatas.

To pursue this matter one step farther. Suppose that, the arrangements remaining otherwise as before (viz., first, the polariser; secondly, a quarter-undulation plate with its axis at 45° to the principal plane of the polariser; thirdly, a uni-axal crystal; fourthly, a quarter-undulation plate with its axis parallel or perpendicular to the first; and, lastly, the analyser), the analyser be turned round; then in any position intermediate to o° and 90° the rings will be contracted and extended in opposite quadrants until at 45° they are divided by two diagonals, on each side of which the colours are complementary. Beyond 45° the rings begin to coalesce, until at 90° the four quadrants coincide again. During this movement the centre has changed from bright to dark. If the motion of the analyser be reversed the quadrants which before contracted now expand, and vice versa. Again, if the crystal be replaced by another of an opposite character, say positive for negative, the effect on the quadrants of the rings will be reversed. This method of examination, therefore, affords a test of the character of a crystal.

A similar process applies to bi-axal crystals; but in this case the diagonals interrupting the rings are replaced by a pair of rectangular hyperbolas, on either side of which the rings expand or contract, and the effect is reversed by reversing the motion of the analyser, or by replacing a positive by a negative crystal. The test experiment may then be made by turning the analyser slightly to the right or left, and observing whether the rings appear to advance to, or recede from, one another in the centre of the field. In particular if, the polariser and analyser being parallel, the first plate have its axis in a N.E. direction to a person looking through the analyser, the second plate with its axis at right angles to the former, and the crystal be so placed that the line joining the optic axes by N.S., then on turning the analyser to the right, the rings will advance towards one another if the crystal be negative, and recede if it be positive.

W. SPOTTISWOODE

(To be continued.)

BY BIRDS

WE E have received a number of answers to Mr. Darwin's letter on this subject in NATURE, vol. ix., p. 482; these we have thought it advisable to bring together here. On the general question of the destruction of flowers by birds, Prof. Thiselton Dyer writes as follows:

MR. DARWIN remarks that he has never heard of any bird in Europe feeding on nectar. There is perhaps one well-authenticated instance in Gilbert White's "Selborne" (illustrated edition, p. 186): "The pettichaps runs up the stems of the crown imperials, and putting its head into the bells of those flowers, sips the liquor which stands in the nectarine of each petal. This is the more curious, because, according to Kirby and Spence ("Entomology," 7th edition, p. 384), this plant "tempts in vain the passing bee probably aware of some noxious quality that it possesses." I do not know how far this is true, but it has a peculiar odour which makes it rather unpopular as a garden plant.

I have, in my note book, another instance, also from the Liliacea, of a plant visited for nectar in an extra-tropical country. Mrs. Barber relates that in South Africa "the long tubular flowers of the aloe are well supplied with nectar, and this provision affords during the winter season a continued store of food for our beautiful sun-birds," the numerous species of the genus Nectarinia (Journ. R. Hort. Soc., n.s., ii. 80).

to me. crocus

Two other cases of the destruction of flowers by birds occur I was assured this year that the flowers of the common are persistently destroyed by sparrows, at least in the neighbourhood of Hammersmith. The base of the perianth tube, which is the usual seat of any secretion of nectar, is here beneath the surface of the ground; perhaps, however, the style and stigma are attractive to the birds. I did not investigate the matter at all closely, but my informant was an observant person, who I think would be likely to have satisfied himself that the sparrows really did the mischief, the effects of which were obvious enough. If so, we have a clear instance in crocuseating of an acquired habit on their part.

The other case, that of the destruction of flower-buds of fruit-trees by bullfinches, is probably well known. The mischief is said to be out of all proportion to any benefit the birds can derive from it, as regards food. Such a visitation would obviously tell heavily against the plants in any country where they formed part of the indigenous flora, and had to take their chance with the rest.

Dr. J. H. Gladstone writes, that in his garden the flowers of the primroses have been similarly bitten off, and the crocuses also. He says

ONE morning some weeks ago I especially remember seeing the beds and the gravel walks strewn with the yellow petals of the latter flower, which were severed from their stalks, and bore abundant marks of the sharp beaks which had torn them asunder. I cannot learn that anyone saw these London birds at their destructive work, which was probably done before any of us were stirring.

Mr. T. R. Archer Briggs, of Plymouth, writes

I HAVE been familiar with the fact to which Mr. Darwin directs attention for as long a period as that during which he says it has engaged his own, without, however, my being able to point out the author of the mischief. In the neigh-❘ bourhood of Plymouth it is no uncommon thing to find the flowers both of the primrose and polyanthus bitten off and lying around the plants exactly as Mr. Darwin has described; indeed, so often does this occur here, that I have known it a source of annoyance to cultivators of the latter plant. When residing some years ago at a house in the parish of Egg Buckland, about four miles from Plymouth, I remember to have repeatedly seen the polyanthus flowers in the grounds so destroyed, and to have heard it asserted that the redbreast was the culprit ; but of this no proof was brought forward. The locality is a land of springs and streams, and it could not have been a want of water that led the destroyer to do the work there.

The tubular portion of the primrose is much infested by small insects (thrips?), and I have sometimes thought that a bird, for the sake of feeding on these, might be led to bite the flowers;

think they would attract its notice.

I would say, in reply to Mr. Darwin's queries, that primroses are in profusion about Plymouth (at least beyond the immediate neighbourhood of the town, whence they have been rooted out by wretched fern- and wild flower-grubbers), but I have never seen the flowers bitten off to such an extent as in the small Kentish wood he refers to, or in a sufficiently large quantity to materially affect the numbers of the species here.

The Rev. H. C. Key, of Stretton Rectory, Hertford, says that primroses being in great abundance in his neighbourhood, he was led by Mr. Darwin's letter to make a careful search for flowers bittten off in the way he describes, but he failed to find even one.

IT is obvious that the abundance of other food for which birds have a preference-such as apple, pear, plum, and cherry blossoms afford-may possibly have saved our primrose flowers from destruction; but, taking into consideration the fact that animal food must necessarily be supplied to the young birds at this season, I should be disposed to suggest that the primroses Mr. Darwin speaks of have been mutilated by birds rather for the sake of procuring thrips and other beetles, which are attracted by the nectar, than for the nectar itself.

I find the untouched primrose flowers here swarm with beetles and acari; but the great profusion of apple, and pear-blossom, &c., close at hand, may prove more attractive to the birds from the flowers being more open, and therefore more easily accessible. Mr. G. M. Seabroke writes

I HAVE cbserved the same thing as he relates in my small garden in this town. Nearly all the early buds from some twenty primrose plants were bitten off, and birds of some sort were undoubtedly the perpetrators of the mischief. I laid the blame on the sparrows, but did not see them in the act. This is the first year that I have noticed this form of depredation.

Mr. T. R. Stebbing, of Torquay, writes as follows:A FORTNIGHT ago the bank on either side of the road from Kingsbridge Road Station to Salcombe were covered, for many miles, with a brilliant profusion of primroses in boom. In all this long range of country, eighteen miles in all, there was no appearance anywhere of that destruction of blossoms as to which Mr. Darwin makes inquiry. The attention of my companion and myself was especially directed to the primroses throughout our route, not merely by the lavish and unexpected beauty of the display, but by the look-out which we were keeping up for white or red varieties. Among the myriads of plants with the ordinary yellow blossom we noted five with white and two with pinkish flowers. On returning over a portion of the same road ten days later, we detected as many as seven plants with the pale-red or pink flowers, but none of these were blooming freely like the white and the yellow flowering-plants in the same district.

It may be worth noticing that this great stream of primroses flowed down from the rather bleak upland near the railway right into the fertile and sheltered valley of Salcombe, so that in one district or the other the birds might have been expected to seek the nectar, had they been to the manner born, in this part of the country.

A correspondent, E. T. S., says that—

IN the north-west corner of Hampshire the birds have the same taste as in Kent for the nectar of primroses and polyanthuses. A few weeks ago a correspondent wrote thence that this spring the blackbirds "were as bad as peacocks," whose well-known habit of cutting off the blossoms of polyanthuses, carnations, lilies, and any particularly choice tropical plant that they can get hold of, makes them a gardener's despair. A peacock who resided for a short time in the neighbourhood referred to, might possibly have taught the native birds the trick, but this is hardly probable, as he died three winters ago, and the present year, when all spring flowers have bloomed earlier and more abundantly than usual, is the first in which his example has been extensively followed. I should doubt the practice being limited to a single species. Sparrows certainly gather flowers very carefully; I have seen them almost strip a bed of the variegated arabis, though in this case the flower-stalks were carried away and used, not for food, but in nest-building. Does any other bird use fresh flowers for that purpose?

THE

JOHN PHILLIPS

BORN DECEMBER 25, 1800: DIED APRIL 24, 1874 HE daily press has already spread the sad tidings from Oxford that Prof. Phillip met with an accident which suddenly cut short his life while in good health and such full vigour that we still expected work from him. A few days ago he was here amongst us in London, bearing himself with form as erect and step as elastic as if the last ten years had but further mellowed though in no way lessened his energy. Now we learn that a stumble over a door-mat, on leaving a friend's rooms in All Souls, followed by a heavy fall, has deprived Oxford of one of her brightest ornaments, and men of science of a genial friend.

Another bond is broken which linked together by a living presence the geologists of to-day with those who watched the infancy of the science which, in place of wild phantasies of the imagination as to the origin of our planet, substituted a patient and careful investigation of its structure, as far as observation was possible. From the time when William Smith in 1792-3 surveyed the ground between High Littleton and Bath for the Somersetshire Coal Canal, and proved an unvarying sequence in the strata of England, and their identification by their fossil contents, every "cosmogomy" and "theory of the earth" was doomed. Fact henceforth took the place of fancy. Among the earliest of those trained in the new school was young John Phillips. Born at Marden, in Wiltshire, on Christmas-day (N.Š.) 1800, he lost his father when he was but seven years old, and his mother dying soon after, his training fell into the hands of his mother's brother, the renowned William Smith, "Father of English Geology."

We have never heard that there was anything to be recorded of his father beyond that he was the youngest son in a Welsh family, settled for many generations on their own property at Blaen-y-ddol, in Caermarthenshire, who was destined for the Church, but became an officer of the Excise, and that he married the sister of William Smith. Mr. F. Galton, a few weeks ago, read a paper at the Royal Institution, in which he gave statistics about eminent scientific men, showing the number of cases in which the greatness was due to the father, and the number of cases in which it was due to the mother. Whether Prof. Phillips was included we do not know, but he most certainly was an instance in which the influence of the mother preponderated. The mould of the features were distinctly those of the Smith family, and the likeness between Prof. Phillips and the busts and pictures of William Smith has often been remarked. His habit of thought was so much due to the direct training of his uncle that we cannot trace how much of it was hereditary. No particular school could have much influenced him, for he passed through four schools before he was ten, and then for a short time went to the excelent old school at Holt Spa, in Wiltshire. It is said that Latin, French, and Mathematics were his favourite studies, and the enjoyment of Latin authors seems to have grown on him, for in the writings of no other geologist will be found so many quotations from the Latin classics. The Rev. Benjamin Richardson, Rector of Farley Hungerford, near Bath, was one of his earliest instructors in natural history. Very little, indeed, is known of Mr. Richardson; he had the reputation of being in his time the best naturalist in the west of England, and the obituary notices at the time of his death mention that he was a member of Christ Church, Oxford. One fact about him which has an historical interest is certain, and that is that it was his hand which, from the dictation of William Smith, "first reduced to writing at the house of the Rev. Joseph Townsend, Pultenay Street, Bath, 1799" the table of the order of

the strata and their imbedded organic remains in the vicinity of Bath." The original document is in the keeping of the Geological Society, and is regarded as a memorial of the first step towards the examination of strata on a definite plan, the first step in the science of geology as contrasted with cosmogony. During the year that young Phillips spent at the pleasant rectory of Farley, he heard continually of the importance attached to the discoveries of his uncle and of the results which, in the estimation of Richardson and Townsend, were to flow from it. Under Mr. Richardson's direction he spent a large portion of his time in searching for fossils through the valleys around Farley, and in making drawings of the fossils he found and of the recent forms that were most nearly allied to them in Mr. Richardson's extensive collections. Prof. Phillips always spoke with pleasure of his recollections of Mr. Richardson, and attributed to him both his early taste for natural history and the ready use of his pencil, which so often not only reproduced faithfully a geological section but artistically included the foliage and background recording the pleasant accompaniments of the work which principally engaged his attention. Mr. Richardson though a kind was not a flattering guide to the young man, for a frequent remark on being shown the drawing of a fossil was, "Very good John, now put that in the fire and try and do even better." At the end of the happy year at Farley, young Phillips went to live with his uncle in London, to share with him his labour, his hopes, and his disappointments. William Smith had then just removed to Buckingham Street, after the fire in Craven Street, which had so disarranged his work. Here, however, he rearranged his collection of fossils, the first collection in which fossils were placed in their stratigraphical sequence. Made first at Cottage Crescent, Bath, removed to Trim Street, then to Craven Street, and Buckingham Street, this historical collection finally found a resting-place in the British Museum. Each separate stratum recognised by Smith had one or more shelves sloping to represent the dip as he knew them in the typical ground of the Dunkeiton Valley, near Bath, where he first studied them. This was the collection from which young Phillips first derived his ideas of a geological museum for teaching purposes, and which he saw so often referred to by his uncle in explaining to his many visitors his new ideas, when urging upon them the national importance of his iscovery as regarded agriculture and mining. William Smith was then working at his map of England, and to this his best energies were given and all his money devoted. In the "Memoirs" of his uncle, published in 1844, Prof. Phillips has described all the delays and trials that attended the production of this, the first geological map of England ever produced. The indomitable courage shown by Mr. Smith in the face of every discouragement could not fail to impress young Phillips with the importance of his uncle's work, and to win respect for him. How he was attached to him, and how he valued his teaching, is apparent in many places in his writings. In the preface to the "Memoirs" he speaks of himself as an orphan who benefited by his goodness, a pupil who was trained up under his care." The map was issued in 1815, and Mr. Smith's professional engagements rapidly increased, requiring him to visit all parts of the county. He conceived the plan of producing county geological maps on a scale considerably larger than that of the map of England, and on almost every journey his nephew was his glad companion," haud passibus æquis ;" and according to an established custom on all such tours, was employed in sketching parts of the road and recording on maps the geological features of the country. In 1821, the map of Yorkshire, in four sheets, was published, which were prepared and coloured by his own hands. Throughout the Memoirs" we have indications of the way in which he worked under his uncle's direction. Here is one which