been caused by an unusually heavy fall of rain during the three previous days. There fell, as registered by the Rev. J. F. Chanter, at Parracombe, five miles off

"At the nearest village, Challacombe, the streams rose higher on October 18th than had been known for thirty years. With such a downpour of rain the large accumulation of peat at the commencement of the slide had naturally absorbed more than its usual quantity and weight of water, and so caused it to float off the rocks and break away. (WILLIAM PENHALE.)"

IV. DEATHS BY LIGHTNING.

George Crocker was killed on the 28th April, 1897, at Marshford Farm, Hatherleigh. It was proved that the deceased was aged fifty-four, and it would appear that a very heavy storm swept over the district. About three o'clock in the afternoon the deceased went into a field to fetch his bullocks, and as he did not return his friends went to look for him. They found him lying on his face quite dead, with his right hand in his pocket. He was in the open, away from any hedges or trees. The fluid would seem to have struck the hard round hat which he wore, and which was torn, to have passed to his head and down the body and through one foot, the boot of which had burst. Dr. C. F. Glinn, of Hatherleigh, examined the body, and his report was that he found a small wound on the left side of the temple about the size of a penny, with the skin broken and contusions. The hair was burnt, and a strong smell of burnt hair pervaded the body. From the wound a red line passed down the neck, which divided into two at the shoulder. One ran down the back and the other the front of the body. There was a small wound underneath the sole of the left foot, where the fluid apparently passed into the ground.

"A second case is that of John William Hutchings, which occurred on the 18th August, 1898, at Forder Farm, Chagford. (See p. 73.) The deceased was aged twenty, and was a blacksmith. A heavy storm of rain, with one very vivid flash of lightning, occurred about three o'clock in the afternoon. It would appear that Hutchings took shelter

under an elm tree in a hedge adjoining the road-leaning up against the tree with his back. The electric fluid struck the tree-a very large elm-stripping the leaves off a section of the branches all the way down, and splitting the bark of the trunk to about six feet from the ground, where it apparently struck the deceased's head. He was found lying on his face and hands about three feet from the tree. His clothes at the back were torn into rags; he had one boot on, and the other was found twenty-four feet off. A piece of leather from the boot was found forty-five feet from the tree. A portion of the trousers was over forty feet from the tree, and his face, nose, and mouth were covered with congealed blood. Dr. Hunt, of Chagford, examined the body, and found the hair on the crown of his head about the size of a five-shilling piece was singed, and that the singeing of the hair continued to the nape of the neck, where the current divided, one part going down the back, and the other the front. On the chest was a large space of about a foot in diameter burnt. There were no other wounds on the body. The blood on the face, according to the medical evidence, was probably caused by the blow he received on falling to the ground. The electric fluid, after having left his body, went along the ground some distance to a stream which passed underneath the road, where it knocked a hole about five inches in diameter and about six or seven inches deep.

"The points of similarity in the two cases are :—

“(1) That both the bodies of the deceased were found on their faces; and

“(2) That the electric fluid would appear to have in both cases divided into two currents.

"The effect of the fluid seems to have been greater and more violent in the latter case. It was suggested at the inquest that the clothes of the deceased being wet were a greater attraction. (J. D. PRICKMAN.)"

V. ANTHROPOLOGY.

DARTMOOR STONE IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS.

"I have found and collected a large number of flint chips, flakes, and spalls during the past twelve months, and among these a few good scrapers, knives, and arrow-heads have occurred. Two of the arrow-heads are remarkably fine specimens one from Willanhead of the barbed and tanged variety is especially perfect, and another from Stannon Hill, Post Bridge, leaf-shaped, found by Mrs. R. Burnard last

May, is both unusual and excellent, being a well-preserved specimen.

"These are illustrated full size, as well as a well-worked knife or lance-head, which has been broken across the flaking, which was found this spring at Ring Hill, Post Bridge.

'Several large nodules of flint have also turned up, nuclei from which flakes have been struck.

"The greatest number of specimens have come, as usual, from Post Bridge, Huccaby, and Brownberry.

"(ROBERT BURNARD.)"

VI. PALEONTOLOGY.

ANIMAL BONES FOUND AT CATTEDOWN, NEAR PLYMOUTH.

During the spring of this year a small deposit of bones and teeth were discovered in a cavity in the limestone of Messrs. Sparrow's Carpenter Rock Quarry, Cattedown, Plymouth.

"The cavity was disclosed by blasting operations, and as soon as the bones were observed I was communicated with and had the hollow cleared out and collected the animal remains, which were embedded in clay. These were forwarded to Professor Stewart, F.R.S. of the Royal College of Surgeons, who kindly identified and enumerated them as follows:

10 teeth Hyana spelca.

Rhinoceros antiquitatus.
Bos primigenius.

Cervus elaphus Red Deer.
Mandible of Hyæna spelaa.

4 bones E. caballus (Horse).
8 fragments of bones of ditto.
3 bones Bos primigenius.
Maxilla of Hyæna spelaa (2).

21 teeth of E. caballus.

"In addition to the above there were seven or eight pounds' weight of bones which were too fragmentary to be recognised.

"The cavity in which the find was made was small, three to four feet square, and it lay fifty to sixty feet below the grass surface and five to six feet above high-water mark.

"Communicating with the cavity from the surface was a distinct fault or cleft in the rock, through which these relics of a far distant past must have been washed. "(ROBERT BURNARD.)"

VII. MINERALOGY.

GARNETS IN DARTMOOR GRANITE.

"A few months ago in passing a building then in its early stages, I picked up a piece of broken granite, in which I had noticed a rusty spot of unusual appearance. On examining it I believed it to be garnet, and the late Dr. Oxland, to whom I showed it, confirmed my surmise. The offer of a small reward brought me, as the building progressed, several more specimens of varying size and colour, all embedded in the mass of the granite itself, and a careful scrutiny showed that the general form of the broken surface approached either a pentagon or a hexagon, but a good deal distorted, partly from breaking with the granite in most cases, partly from intrusion of a black substance, and partly from original pressure. Under a magnifying-glass the garnet appears coated with a black substance, which has been fused and which is interspersed with black mica, known as biotite. Where the broken surface of the garnet is exposed it is in some specimens of a rich, transparent, ruby colour, in others of a reddish brown, and in a few of a rusty colour.

"In the cases where the crystalline form is most distinct the angles are clearly defined by the black edging, but in many this coating overlies and obscures the form. All appear to belong to the more or less impure variety of 'almandite,' or precious garnet, which is a silicate of alumina and iron, and varies with the proportions in which iron and alumina are represented.

"The recorded occurrences of garnet in Devon are almost

entirely limited to points at or near the junction of the granite with other rocks. Collins mentions Callington, Lustleigh, Hey Tor, and Brent Tor, not stating in what rocks; and adds, without giving any particulars as to kind, or form, or situation in which found, or any data whatever, the words 'Dartmoor in granite.' He also mentions three

or four mines near Okehampton.

"The late Mr. R. N. Worth described the development of garnets at Belstone Consols and Meldon, half a mile from the granite, as a notable feature of contact metamorphism : he mentions them also in slate at Ugborough and in greenstone at South Brent; and Mr. Hansford Worth tells me garnet was once discovered in a patch of inferior and altered rock in granite at Merivale Bridge; he regarded it as an instance of segregation and metamorphism.

"During a residence of nearly forty years at Plymouth, though carefully observing every variety of Dartmoor granite, I have never before seen any appearance of garnet; and the source from which my specimens come enhances the interest their discovery claims.

"1. They are only found in what is technically termed 'blue granite,' the attributes of which are its extreme hardness, the smallness of all its constituents, giving it a fine-grained, well-mixed, and uniform texture and colour; the mica principally black, and felspar crystals and larger granules of quartz, few and very sparingly dispersed. It is only reached at a depth of fifty to one hundred feet beneath the surface.

"2. The garnets never appear in the seams or beds, but in the interior of the solid masses.

"3. They vary in hardness, appearing to break evenly with the granite in some specimens, but to remain unbroken and protruding in others; and in one instance in a thin narrow specimen the garnet broke in preference to the granite. A specimen has been examined by a specialist, who at once remarked on the association of biotite with the garnet as tending to throw light on the origin of granite, and therefore worthy of further research. Two known points suggest themselves as important in prosecuting this: the one, that garnet may be produced by fusing together its constituents; the other, that garnet under the blowpipe fuses black. I exhibit some specimens, and hope to make a further contribution on the subject for next year's meeting. "(H. M. EVANS.)"