Coracci for Annibale Carracci. There are other misprints in quotations and titles, we fancy, but we are not sure, as we have not the original documents before us; pretty well this on one page of large type. We wrote a polite little note to the reverend F.R.S., but he was quite indignant, and replied that he had not heard any other complaints, and the author of the paper was not annoyed, he believed.

Mr. H. Cecil Moore has so long been recognised as a leading authority on the County of Hereford, and his local information is so vast and curious that it is a great pleasure to find that many of the best articles, included in the present handsome volume, bear his signature, and one may be sure that anything from his pen is accurate and carefully put together, while he has means of getting information and clearing up obscure matters, which few other people possess. Among the best papers from Mr. Moore's pen are one on the "Homend Oak," and another on the "Few Traces found in Great Britain of Saxon Architecture." We believe, too, that all the reports of the Field Club meetings and excursions are from his pen, and these show most conscientious writing and constant reference to original authorities.

We are glad to see a capital report of the Annual Meeting on April 12th, 1894, when a testimonial was presented to Mr. H. Cecil Moore as some sort of recognition of many years' faithful, unpaid, service to the best interests of the club. Never was testimonial better earned, and seldom indeed could the subscribers to this modern form of acknowledgment have been better pleased to show their appreciation of one of the best Honorary Secretaries a Field Club has ever had.

The engravings are very numerous; they are well done, and reach the highest standard of the best class of such work of the present day. The sketches accompanying the paper on the "Abutments of a bridge, supposed to be Roman, at the New Weir, Kenchester," are from photographs by Mr. Robert Clarke. The neat sketch of the ancient font, at Castle Frome Church, is from the pencil of Miss Piper, and the very clear maps of the geological strata, dipping westward from the end of the Malvern Chain, were separately painted by Miss Gertrude Moore. It would be unpardonable not to compliment her on the great patience she has displayed in doing them.

Mr. Ley deserves great credit for his "Additions to the Flora of Herefordshire." His name is a guarantee of accurate and original research, and we cannot do him too much honour. At the best, long records of observations and lists of names seem to represent little time and less trouble, but anyone who has tried to do such work accurately soon learns that the labour involved is enormous, and only a trained observer can fully appreciate the enthusiasm and devotion implied. Dr. T. A. Chapman contributes an article of enormous length on "The Genus Acronycta and its Allies," he has illustrated it with nine pages of exquisite plates. The author must have devoted an immense amount of time to this paper, which reaches 40,000 words-equivalent to 90 or 100 pages of a quarterly. The Rev. J. O. Bevan, formerly vicar of Vowchurch, has a charming and popular paper on Cardiff, Mr. Bevan, who has now left the Golden Valley, is a most able and incisive writer and this paper of his is no exception to the rule.

We are glad that the editor has given full and detailed descriptions of the excursions forming so important a part of the work of the Society. It is often a complaint that Field Clubs degenerate too much into mere picnic parties, and that little real work is done. This is severe criticism. It should never be forgotten that even the hardest workers and most laborious students have their zeal quickened by the opportunities these excursions give for meeting with kindred spirits and talking over their discoveries and observations. Again, even when apparently merely chatting together on indifferent topics, the conversation will suddenly turn to scientific subjects, and the expert has opportunities, which he is not slow to seize, of enlarging upon the matters dear to his heart. The present writer is glad to put on record that he has learnt from Mr. James Pilley, of Hereford, and Mr. William Blake, of Ross, a great deal relating to the bird life of Herefordshire and Breconshire. He does not hesitate to say that his knowledge, such as it is, of archæology and natural history in large measure dates from a visit he once paid to Coventry, when little more than a lad. There he met with a laborious and enthusiastic antiquary, who fired him with zeal. He has picked up, at the many Field Club meetings he has attended in different counties, a mass of information, which he could never have got in any other way. Moreover, it not seldom happens that clubs are entertained by hosts, who do not often throw their parks and mansions open. He once visited, on such an occasion, one of the most magnificent collections of Spanish paintings in the world. He has since then passed close to the great entrance steps of that mansion scores of times, but though he knows the owner's sister and his stewards he has never again been permitted to enter the mansion to feast his eyes on treasures, which would be the glory of any museum or collection, private or public. The owner would not even permit the writer's sister-in-law, a Spanish lady of exalted rank, the daughter of a gentleınan who had three times been Prime Minister and three times an Ambassador to the Court of St. James', to enter his house. He simply sent a curt refusal excusing himself on the ground that his was a private house, not a public museum or gallery. Rightly or wrongly, he boasts that there is not such another collection in Great Britain, and only two other such collections in the world—the one at the Escurial being one of them, we presume. Among other treasures there is a superb Italian ceiling-a noble work of art, said to be by Paolo Veronese, which few people have ever heard of, still fewer seen. Our strictures are not, of course, of universal application. For example, the late Lord Bath was most generous in throwing open the treasures of Longleat to the public. He himself took the present writer round and pointed out many objects of interest; while even casual visitors have before now been courteously escorted round that glorious mansion by the family, who have actually left their luncheon to do such generous kindness. Many picture galleries, gardens, and mansions would hardly ever be seen by outsiders were it not for the excursions of Field Clubs.

We must add a word more to the subject. The excursions of the Woolhope are almost invariably a success. When they are not, the weather is solely to blame. The places chosen are always interesting, the charges for trains and carriages are low, and the luncheons or early dinners are a marvel of cheapness

and good management. The Secretary generally arranges for a luncheon, which might be better called a sumptuous cold dinner, at a charge lower than that often made for a far inferior meal, while the opportunities offered for social intercourse are such that these excursions thoroughly justify their existence. We have got to know most delightful kindred spirits-Mr. Barker, of Eardisland, and Mr. H. J. Marshall, of Gayton Hall, Ross, among them. We much regret that the Autumn gathering at Hereford has been given up, not, we hope, permanently. Should it ever be revived we trust it will take place in the last week of September, that being a better time for the railway service than the first week of October.

By the way, even when field club outings take place, as they sometimes do, in towns and districts always open to the general public, it should not be forgotten that were it not for the excursions few of the members would ever find their way to the place. What people can do any day they rarely do at all. As it is, they feel that if they do not seize the opportunity offered them they may not soon have another. All the necessary arrangements are made for them-the carriages, route, meals are all ready in the nick of time. This is no small consideration, and it fully justifies Field Clubs.

The volume contains two excellent papers by Mr. Henry Southall, of Ross, so well and favourably known as an able meteorologist. The first is on the weather of March, 1893, a month remarkable for its warmth and dryness. That spring was singularly pleasant and dry (for England that is.) In the extreme south of the island, where March, April, and May are often brilliant months (indeed the writer has several times seen far more splendid weather in March and May than later in the year), the weather was finer than that of a Midland summer. April was compared by Sir Talbot Baker, of Ranston, no mean authority, to an Italian April. May was quite a summer month. The hawthorn was nearly over in some places long before May came in, and in East Dorget, on the 28th of April, the hedges were past their glory, while the rhododendrons, even in the woods, where they flower later than in the open, had done flowering some time before June began. Mr. Southall mentions that on 13 days in March the maximum reading at Ross exceeded 60°, that the mean maximum of the month was 58.5, while the range of temperature on the ground, as given by a black bulb thermometer we presume, exceeded 80°. There were twenty-two ground frosts in the month, and

on twelve nights the reading of the shade thermometer was below 32°.

These facts and figures, sufficiently significant to the trained observer, convey no meaning to the casual reader. There are few subjects on which the educated equally with the uneducated are more ignorant than thermometrical observations. We once read in a scientific (?) publication a statement that in Canada the shaded thermometer all the time, whatever that may mean, reached 140° in summer, and fell to-13° in winter. Canada is a large expression, but in 1875 at Montreal the thermometer seldom reached 75° or fell to zero; the absolute highest and lowest being 87° and-221; at Port Stanley, the highest, in the same year, was 81°, and the following year 90°, while there the lowest reading fell only six times below zero. At Saugeen the highest and lowest were respectively 86° and—8·1, and at Toronto the reading only once reached 88°, but

this was unusual, and it rarely exceeded 80°. A Wiltshire rector once told us that he had often known the thermometer in his parish, a few miles from Salisbury, in the summer exceed 120°, and fall in winter to zero, and he was not much pleased when his absurd statement was courteously criticised.

Mr. Southall's second paper, dealing with 1893 as a whole, is even more interesting. He mentions that at Ross the mean maximum from February to October, both inclusive, was 65 4. This was even higher than the 653 of 1868, while in 1879 and 1888 it was only 574 and 578 respectively. July, 1868, he gives as having a mean maximum at Ross of 80'5, and at Greenwich 820, with an absolute maximum of 96°. It is suggestive to compare these readings with those at Rome in an ordinary year. In the Eternal City the July mean maximum is 89°9; Modena rejoices in 87°3; and Avignon, in France, in 92°1; while Madrid figures for 93°, and sometimes goes far above, even to 105° or 106°. But what are these maxima compared with those of Nubia, the Sahara, and Central Australia? Even at Armidale, in New South Wales, the mean maxima of the hottest month in 1869 were 106°, and at Wentworth, in the same colony, in 1873, they reached 100°, and at Deniliquin they reached 103° 1. What a contrast to an abnormal mean maximum of 82° or the normal one of 75° or 76°. We cannot do better than give in extenso some valuable figures just sent us by Mr. Southall :

"The mean day maximum temperature quoted is for the nine monthsFebruary and October inclusive, for 1893. I think it would be more correct to call it 65°4. I append the average maximum corrected at The Graig, Ross, as observed by myself for the period named in 1868 and 1893, together with the mean of the same months in 1880-9 (10 years) by which you will see in which months the greatest departures occur. I am now preparing and have nearly finished my observations for the late drought (for the Woolhope Club).

It will be seen that March and April were much warmer by day in 1893 than in 1868, and, on the contrary, that May, June, and July were much warmer in 1868 than in 1893. July, 1868, being almost rainless with brilliant skies, and July, 1893, having nearly three inches of rain. The total of nine months, however, corresponds very closely, 1893 having had a mean excess over 1880-9 of +5.22 and 1868 of + 5·14."

These admirable tables are very valuable, but what, we repeat, are even the highest monthly returns of a hot, dry, English summer? The mean temperature of many places in the Southern States of North America reaches, in July, 85° or 86°, and some get to 97°, while May at Massowah has a mean of 101° or 102°. We begin, in England, to complain when the reading for a few minutes a day, for a week or so, spproaches 80, or slightly exceeds it.

Mr. Southall gives the deficiency in seven years in the rainfall compared with the preceding seven years, as upwards of 48 inches, or 4,930 tons to the acre. This in Herefordshire alone, with an area of 550,400 acres, means a deficiency of 2,713 million tons, or 608 thousand million gallons. This would need a train one and a half million miles long, or 60 times the earth's circumference, to carry it. Apropos of drought and heat, there is an interesting note on the great fire in Radnor Forest in 1800, which extended 10 miles and did much damage. In the South of England, however, extensive fires are of yearly occurrence. In most springs vast heath fires occur in Dorset, and in March the sky is often lighted up for hours, even days, with terrible conflagrations sweeping over thousands of acres at a time, and sometimes destroying great numbers of trees. The little paper by the Rev. T. Williamson on the destruction of an ash tree by lightning calls for special notice.

Mr. Thomas Hutchinson contributes a very good paper on the wolf in Britain. He mentions that the wolf survived in Scotland until 1680, in Ireland till 1710, and in England on Dartmoor and in the Forest of Dean, as late as the days of Queen Elizabeth. As natural history was not much cultivated till quite recently, and local traditions were soon forgotten, it is possible that wolves lingered long in out-of-the-way places. Mr. Harting, in his "Extinct British Animals", sums up all that is certainly known in these words :-"So far as can now be ascertained, the wolf became extinct in England during the reign of Henry VII., it survived in Scotland till 1743, and the last was killed in Ireland, according to Richardson, in 1770, or according to Sir James Emerson Tennant, subsequently to 1766." There is nothing surprising in this, for wolves are still sufficiently abundant in France, and some estimates, necessarily very conjectural, give the numbers still existing in that country as 2,000. They are said to have increased very much of late years, and rewards are now paid for 1764 heads every year.

The bear, we believe, is still found in France in very small numbers, though it probably became extinct in Britain before the end of the 10th century. The wild boar abounds in France, not merely in wild countries, like the district of the Vosges, but even in Normandy, where its ravages, were they not well authenticated, would read like travellers' tales. In October, 1876, a band of a dozen charged down the streets of Bernay, a town of 7,000, or nearly double as large as Ross or Tewkesbury, while at the same moment another band crossed the open country from one forest to another. In that year they visited some of the villages of Perigord in troops.

Mr. E. A. Swainson gives a bright little note on the Ornithology of the Brecon Beacons. It is to the effect that "the raven is to be found in the