Contrary to our expectations, we found a large percentage of the finely powdered soil in all our samples, ranging from 15.7 in No. 3 to 55.94 in No. 4. We have found also, as this would lead us to believe, that the capillarity of the soil is excellent, provided that due consolidation is obtained. The absence of this, owing to the loose texture of the soil, has in our opinion very much to do with the sparsity of vegetation growing on the plains. If this is remedied and nitrogen furnished there should be no reason, other than a climatic one, why the plains should not produce a large quantity of valuable feed. The mere ploughing, harrowing, and sowing will certainly not attain this object; and, although rolling with heavy rollers will give a certain amount of compression, the absence of clay and humus will not allow of consolidation without frequent rolling. This will prove costly, and not yield nearly as satisfactory results as that secured by the tramping of sheep or cattle.

Now, the folding of sheep in small paddocks treated as we have advised would be by far the most effectual method, but the absence of more than the most meagre fare would entail a very heavy mortality at first. It is possible, however, to choose a more hardy animal in the goat, and by this means to achieve results which we think will prove successful in several ways. In the United States Year-book of the Department of Agriculture for 1898 is a very carefully written paper on the Angora goat, by A. Barnes, where it is shown that in almost every State, with the exception of Alaska, the Angora goat can be raised, and, in many given instances, with considerable profit. The greatest success has been attained with them where the altitude is about 500 ft. and the climate fairly dry. Their ability to live and thrive on herbage which other animals reject is shown, whilst the habit of travelling much further than sheep in feeding make the feasibility of herding them unquestioned. As the writer says, "There is the additional incidental benefit that whatever foul land is regularly pastured by these animals for a few years becomes clean, weedless, and bushless, and, usually being evenly fertilised by them also, runs into nutritious grasses."

The following statements from the same paper will give a better idea of the value this animal has proved under circumstances not much different from those we are considering:

"The ease with which they can be kept, living as they do on weeds, briers, browse, and other coarse herbage, fits them. for many portions of our country where sheep cannot be sustained to advantage, while their ability and disposition to defend themselves against dogs evidence a value peculiar to

the race. They are free from all diseases to which sheep are liable, hardy, and prolific, and experience has proven that they readily adapt themselves to all portions of the United States. The bucks breed readily with the common goat, the second cross yielding a fleece of practical utility, while the fourth is but little inferior to that of the pure breed. A flock of valuable wool-bearing goats can be raised in a few years by using grade bucks. The animals are hardy, good rangers, and long lived when compared with sheep, and do well on land. where other animals find it hard to live. Their value as brushwood - cleaners can hardly be estimated; but Mr. Stanley, of Iowa, writes as follows: To a person who has never seen the results of the application of Angoras to brush land a ride through my blue-grass pastures is a revelation. Where three years ago the ground was densely covered with undergrowth of hazel, crab-tree, oak, buckberry, and other brush, it is now growing the finest bluegrass. At the present time I have over 600 acres which have been reclaimed, and a conservative estimate would be that the value of the land has thereby been enhanced at least $10 per acre.'"

The benefits arising from the systematic rearing of these animals will not be solely for the enrichment and consolidation of the land, for the hair and hides are of commercial value, which will materially reduce the cost of the work. Mr. Barnes quotes the number of goats in the United States at half a million, of which one-half are Angora, and yet into that country are imported annually goat-skins to the invoice value of over £3,000,000.

We would strongly urge that this experiment should be undertaken at an early date, and, as Mr. Barnes has shown that the fourth generation of a cross between the Angora and the ordinary goat will yield an animal almost equal to the first progenitor, it would be well to take ordinary does with pure-bred Angora rams, and, by herding them during the day and folding on one of several small paddocks at night, the minimum of cost and maximum of benefit would be obtained. Some paddocks should be prepared, the ground ploughed, harrowed, and rolled, and good seed of various grasses and clovers sown, or, if available, turfs of the Microlena and Danthonia. It would be well also in one or more of these paddocks to sow lupins as suggested, to be turned under before sowing the grasses. These paddocks would be utilised for the weaning and care of the kids, and subsequently for folding the older animals at night, they being herded in the day. The gradual clearing, consolidation, and grassing of the plains would thus start from a nucleus to be extended as it was found to succeed. The cultivation of the cow-pea in the

summer-time, to produce a rough hay for winter feeding, would add materially to the nitrogen reserve by giving available nitrogenous food, and thus further enriching the land with this most necessary constituent.

We have by no means exhausted the subject, for much remains to be done in the chemical and meteorological portions of the subject; but we have endeavoured to show how important the matter is, and that, in our opinion, it is capable of successful demonstration. How much further these experiments towards the production of a grazing country could extend we would hardly like to hazard a guess, but that much is capable of being done we are convinced. So earnestly do we feel in this matter that we are quite prepared to devote a large portion of our time and energy to bring this experiment to a successful issue if so desired. Money is often expended by our Government on schemes of far less value than the one we have in view; in this case, however, the cost to the colony would be very small, whilst the beneficial results accruing may be incalculable.

ART. XXVIII.-On the Percentage of Chlorine in Lake Takapuna.

By J. A. POND, F.C.S.

[Read before the Auckland Institute, 25th September, 1899.] ON account of the proximity of Lake Takapuna to the sea, and its being considerably deeper than Rangitoto Channel, the question has been raised as to whether there may not be a substratum of sea-water in the lake at depths below the channel in question. To decide this matter I have made tests of the water taken from the lake at various depths.

Lake Takapuna, or Pupuki, is stated by Hochstetter to be a volcanic crater having a depth of 28 fathoms, or 168 ft. It has a superficial area of 268 acres, and its eastern edge is not more than 200 ft. from high tide in Rangitoto Channel, while the tidal waters of the Waitemata Harbour in Shoal Bay approach within 400 yards of its western edge.

The deepest part of Rangitoto Channel is given on the charts as 8 fathoms, or 48 ft., at low water: therefore the bottom of the lake is, according to Hochstetter's measurement, 100 ft. below the deepest part of the channel, estimating the surface of the lake at 10 ft. above high-tide mark, and the rise of tide at 10 ft.

From analyses we have made at various times the chlorine

at the surface is found to be fairly constant, and the same remark applies to the total solids. As an instance of this, three samples were taken on the 2nd December, 1897, the first being from about 100 yards from the edge and from 14 ft. below the surface of the lake, the second being from the pump-well at the pumping-station, and the third from the Council Chambers at Devonport. These samples vielded chlorine 2.87 gr. per gallon in each instance, while the total solids at 105° C. were 8.68 gr. per gallon from the lake and Devonport samples, the pump-well giving 8.96 gr. per gallon.

To obtain the water from the bottom of the lake I used the apparatus advised by Fresenius, the results being satisfactory. The first sample was taken at 50 ft. below the surface, the water being clear and without sediment. The second sample was taken at a depth of 100 ft., the water being also clear and free from precipitable matter. The third sample was taken from the bottom of the lake, at a depth of 157 ft., the water containing a small amount of sediment. These samples were taken from midway between the pumping-station and the wooded shore opposite, this being stated as the deepest part. A fourth sample was then obtained about 100 yards nearer the wooded shore, the depth being 160 ft. This sample was very turbid, and contained a considerable amount of ooze from the bottom, which precipitated completely after twenty-four hours. A fifth cast was made at a depth of 163 ft., no water being obtained on this occasion, this being made as a test of the apparatus, which was found to work satisfactorily.

The results of analysis gave chlorine 2.87 gr. per gallon, equal to chloride of sodium 4.73 gr. in each sample, while the total solids gave 8.68 gr. per gallon in each instance, the water from the bottom of the lake being decanted from the precipitated matter. There is therefore not the slightest difference in these two factors of the water's purity at varying depths, and these agree with our analyses of samples taken at various periods.

The deposit from the lake-bottom was composed chiefly of vegetable débris and ferruginous clay, together with a large number and variety of diatoms, some amongst them being very beautiful objects.

The fact that Lake Takapuna is a water-supply of great purity, and that its present utilisation must be very largely increased in the not distant future, is, I think, more than sufficient apology for my bringing this subject before you.

V. MISCELLANEOUS.

ART. XXIX.-The Animal Mind as a Factor in Organic

Evolution.

By CHARLES W. PURNELL.

[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 6th September, 1899.]

IN the manifold discussions which have taken place upon the subject of evolution, and the consideration of the factors concerned in the development of the animal from a simple to a complex being, but little importance has been attributed to the action of the animal mind upon the development of the animal body. Those who accept Darwin's views of the operation of natural selection, and those who consider that natural selection plays a comparatively insignificant part in the development of the animal kingdom, alike seem to regard the animal as the unconscious sport of outward circumstances, and conclude that an animal such as the elephant has been evolved from a simpler type by surrounding conditions acting upon its physical structure, which has thus become moulded to suit its altered environment. The mind of the animal, even in the case of animals gifted with a high order of intelligence, is not assigned any part in the drama of evolution, with one exception-viz., that sexual desires have produced sexual decorations, and particularly the decorative plumage of birds, although this is not undisputed.

The foregoing is the view of evolution held by British naturalists, at all events; and I ascribe it to the fact that, when Darwin published his "Origin of Species," which really first awakened the world to the importance of the doctrine of evolution, it was not conceded, as it is now, that animals—at any rate, those of the higher orders-possess true minds, and the "instincts of animals" were regarded as something fundamentally different from human intelligence.

The only scientific writer of note who has claimed for animal intelligence any direct share in the moulding of the animal frame is the late Professor Cope, of the United States, who, in his work on "The Origin of the Fittest," writes,