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AMERICAN NATURALIST 


AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE 


OF 


NATURAL HISTORY 


EDITED 
By A. S. PACKARD, JR. 


ASSOCIATE EDITORS 
Pror. G. L. GOODALE, DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY 
Dr. R. H. WARD, DEPARTMENT OF MICROSCOPY 


VOLUME X 


BOSTON 
H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY 
CORNER BEACON AND SOMERSET STREETS 
NEW YORK: HURD AND HOUGHTON 
Che Riversite Press, Cambridge 
76 


MISSOURI FlOoTANICAL’ 
GARDEN LIBRARY 


CONTENTS. 


—@~—— 
PAGE 
peice votes A or pha! POUR CBOs T J. D. Caton 193 
ees ry’s e | APEE AR A. S. Packard, Jr 591 
Ancient Ruins in 81 
Ancient Sceptre, An C. C. Abbott 673 
Anim ot Hania Samuel Lockwood 257 
Apiay of the Indians of North esis Indications 
f the, derived from a Study of their Rel C. 
ican: their Past, Presént, and Future Wit Aer i 611 
Are Potato Bugs Poisonous ? R. foe Hers: Kayser. ... 205 
Are we dr u J. 7. D. lejip 513 
Autochthon, Traces of a C. Abbott 829 
opomayy Names in Saa The Availability es 
in J. A. All ia 
uaa and Paste t us G ti Henry r Slack 730 
Bees and ay idiot Ok i 148 
Black e `. W.G. Farlow 841 
Botany, Univer Instruction in W O. Pais ao et es >. 27 
Burs in orage Fa amily.. Asa Gray 1 
Califo: oi Garden Birds J. G. Cooper 90 
Carnivorous Plants W. J. Beal ` 588 
Cave Beetles of Kentucky, The As By Packard, Jeu ssiye eviivesccan N 
Chirp of the te? Cricket, The Samuel’ H. Scudder 97 
Colony of Butte Aug. R. Grote 129 
oe ae in, under Professor Hayden in 
161 
17 R Canl A 529 
Cosmopolitan Butterfly, A ++... Samuel H. Scudder 892, 602 
Californian D. Caton 464 
crane of Birds by Telegraph Wire, .. Elliott Coues 734 
Evolution, The Progress of peewee? of e laws of, siU. D. Cope.: 218 
Exploration of a eeni E. Palmer 410 
Flori eleon, The Lockw 
Flounders, The Development of. s... sossen e seei sisa rs uus Alexander Agassiz 705 
of some New Tiginnd Daraan Mam- 
mals, The J. A, Allen 708 
Game Falcons of New England, The: The Goshawk pte W. Wood 132 
Germs, Professor Tyndall on 347 
Gooseberries, Our Wild ANE AAG oe i6 No ons hk Sob es ce ee OE 270 
Guadalupe p ad bana cider. The Flora of......... Sereno Watson 
Hancke s mesae Alexander Agassiz vi a ae 
naga Aas of Geology, Tho. .:......:: vo... N. S. Shaler 29 ee 
A. S. Packard, - T E ae ae 
: House Plants, T BIOS Of is E E E aoe H. Perkin 667 
Jame. 821 
Johany 1 Darters D s Jordan anà H. E. Copeland.... 835 
a Act C. V. Riley 216 
Keene Island, The ma History of. 
Lake Wakatipu, New Zea H. C. Russell 
Little Missouri “ae mF J. A, Allen 207 
Lobster, The: Its Structure and History. . oer Aes Kingstey, 396 
Microscopes at the Loan So si ra of Scientific Àppirs- 
tus of the South Kensi g John Nichols 582 


iv Contents. 


Microscopy at the International Exhibition.............. R. H. Ward 725 
- Mimicry = deca ea ed by Natural Selection F. Müller 584 
Missing Link betw the Vertebrates and the Inverte- : 
brates, G. T. Brettany 598 
gonds in Faa Cockroaches and Earwigs fold their Wings, 
Samuel H. Scudder 521 
jan by Fission in Stentor Miiller ren 275 
Museums, The History of the oe and Husain of.. i A 80, 185 
Naturalist, A Neglected....... H. E. Copeland 469 
New Zealand Flax J. C. Russell 18 
m ao in the United States during the Last Cen- 
tury, Progress of. J. A. Allen 536 
Phyllotaxis, A Popular Explanation ell be ag un- 
derstand Botan: ) of tk Chauncy Wrig: 326 
Polar Regions, On the Former Climate at E. Nordenskidld 852 
sips “iia Ancient, of Colorado, ou: cua. peti 
New Edwin A. Barber 449 
Plain, “ae and Forest J. D. Whitney 577, 656 
Primiti ive Man T. Wyman 278 
Remarkable oe History and its Meaning, A............. Ky Brooks iai “Fy A deca. 641 
ply to den d Ai perata y “ Availability of certain Bar- 
tram: ames in Ornith Elliott Coues 98 
Rock famaotpteols of eee “Anco a ” of Colo- 
rado, Utah, New Mexico, and Ari f .. Edwin A. Barber 716 
Song $ e Proper Specific Nan of thas: ves. David min 17 
Spontaneous ‘Geheration, Professor Eann Experi 
ments on, and Dr. Bastian’s Positio . <... W. H. Dallinger 415 
Summer Birds of the White Weniaiir Region, The. RN H. D. Minot 75 
—e Ants, The Probable Danger from...............00- . Hagen 401 
White Egrets, The Occurrence of, at pidaia, New Jersey ..C. E Abbott 478 
Recent Li 
A fe vy cients ns on Tree-Planting, 295 ; Anderson’s nem! to Momien, 861; Anderson’s 
Norse Mythology, 229 ; Appalachia, 622 ; Archives of the National Museum of Brasil, 623 ; Baird’s 
nnual Record of Science for 1875 9 rong peasant 296 ; Brinton’s Myths of mn 
New ; 2 er in N Cook’s Manual of the , 621; Cope 


orway, 39; 
Check-List of North American Batrachians oa Reptiles, ao Porina Movements and hats 
739 ; Dichog- 


of Climbing Plants, 171; Davies’ Preparation and Mou nting 


amy in Plants, (Di Pflanzenwelt Pr egens, 295; Bawa mi Butterflies ‘of North Anaoa, 

108; Fritsch’s Birds of Europe, 485 ; Hassard’s Flora 1 Decorations, 298 ; Hayden’s Report on the 

Béblogy of Solorado, £ 428;  Hentz’s Siders of the United fisia 170; Huxley and Martin’s Biol- 
739 ; 


ogy, 228, y 362; Jordan’s Manual of 
United States, 739 ; Kidder’s N l History of Kerguelen Island, 105; Kneeland’s American in 
celand, 296 ; Manton’s oath 623; hall's a aes tae PAPER 169; Morse’s First 


Natural History of Selborne, 229 ; Wilson’s Prehistorie n, 682; Wyman’s pasihan 
Mounds of the St. John’s River, Hei, 165. 
L Nores. 


Doto iia of the Fuchsia, 110; Alfred W. = = on the Growth of the Flower- 


Stalk of the ple evra 683; Alpine Plants of the tains, 745; Anthers in Tril 


White lium 
Fai $ Apie tran with Coral-li ke Root, 870; Arbeiten des a Institut in Würzburg, 301: 
; As tan- 


al Paper In event Pasi 40, 113, 174, 235, 300, 971,428,492, 555 = beet phd dk et 

I, 024; vulgaris, the Ling or Heather, re- 

discovered in Massachusetts, 489 ; mas eed Ala thera 445 Dichogamy in Epi lobium um angus- 
44; E 


ical Prizes, 174; Botany of California, V: 


tifolium, 43; em g in Cl 
lants 


Denir a ni id 


aytonia, 
n Francisco Bay, 110 ; Fungi heaped up in Pines by PAP e. ‘ 
f Light and Heat orf T ion in Plants, 623; — 


Contents. v 


nfluence of Temperature on the Germination of Pine-Seeds, 624; Insectivorous Plants, 111; 
4 489; Classification of Cryptogams, 173; Notes on Acnida, 487 ; Notes on ‘Alpine 
and Subalpine Plants in Vermont, 731; On the Hygrose: a Mec! certain 


hanism by which 
te of Song cage of shapes in ase 
, 110 


j ; Daia te Groots: 370; Rhyne hospors epic 
var. leviseta, 370 ; Spagna Torr. , 426; Sehnnlison, Appendix, 552; Sets of Nam 
174; Sedum reflexum L., 558; deqadia » empervirens, 110; Spores of Blo dgettia contre, 8; 
The Holly hock Pestals: 44; The Influence of Light on the Color of Flowers, 299 ; 
History of Moulds, 112; Th he Nutrition of Plants, 7 s 
orado, 230; The Potato-Blight, 172; The Primordial Utricle, 45; The Relative Fertility of Cross- 
Fertilization peur gorge: zation, sing The Teeth of Green Leaves as s for reti 
ectar, ; Bitter-Swee , 748: The Wild Flowers of North America, 113; Tolmiæa 
Menziesii, ; eet Trees nae he Dry Season, 231; ‘‘ Twines with the Sun,” 174; Vallis- 


Zotlogy. —A Gorilla in England 627; A fusk Dating Snake, 178; A Spider pens. 688 ; 


A True ‘‘ Snake rele a ‘Another Case of Animal Commensalism, 429; A tato Beetles 
Poisonous ? 303; n Names again, An ijinan, 176; Bears and Paes on the 
Pacific Goki, Iii; prere Wren, 47 ; ding Range of the Snow-Bird, 114; Corals and 
Coral Is , by James D. 73; Early Nesting of the Anna Humming-Bird, 48 ; 
Chionis, 628 ; Eggs of Boa-Constrictor, 239 ; Eyes and es, 178; Flowers of the Golden Cur- 
by Humblebees, 2388; Geo al Variation among North American Mamma! 
especially in respect t stern 625; Habits of the White-Footed Mouse, 555; Habits of Wi 
Birds, 238 ; Homologies of Mammalian th, 115; Intelligence in the Hawk Moth, 50; Mayer 
Gaos and Phylogeny of “Ins 688; New Shells from Colorado, 745; Notable Change of 


Habit of the Bank Swallow, 372; Note on the Blue Goose, 374; Occurrence as meee’, in a Boy, 


374; Pelicans in ie y, 177; Perforation of Orange press by s, 50; Protective 
Resemblance in z Yellow-Bird, 115; Range of the Bay Ibis, 48 ; iaig Habits of a Tree- 
Frog, 178; Remarkable Structure of Young ; Senisi tive to d in thi 
430; Shells of Kerguelen land, 116; Small Birds caught by the Bonda, 239; Swedish Podu- 
rans, 375; “T llow” again, 493; The Bluebird feed lopsis, 556; The 
Chappa ; The Cotton Worm, ; The Crossbill breeding at Riverdale, N. Y., - 
The Extinction of the Great Auk at the Funk Islands, 48; ropean r in the 
uropean Woode t in Virginia, 872; The Green Snake in New 


olorado, 430 ; The Nature of 
687; The Sea-Lions, 177 ; nt “ Sisco of Lake Tippecanoe,” 873; 

Un usual Nesting S yee of the Night Hawk and Towhee Buntin 

Anthropol boriginal (? ) Gun-Flints, 691 ; American iene. 181 ; An African Potter 
at her Work, 629 ; ae Indian eat tae rin PETTA r County, Dik bayivaiia, 241; An Interest- 
ss An spa » of Indian Relics, 375 ; Anthropological TA y , 488, 496, 556, 692, 748; Anthropo- 

logica s, 179, 240, 304; eer è "hon: 51; Indian Graves in New Jersey, 52; Jasper 
War-lab pnd 116; Notes o on the Sto ne Implements re m Arkansas, at the Philadelphia Ex- 
94; Occu: 


Tasmanians, 242; Were the Gider t Jeee People Eskimos? 432; Western-worked Flakes, and 
New Jersey Rude Implements, 481. 

Geol and Paleontology. — A Carnivorous rapt eat a Size of a Lion, 560; A Fossil 
Sirenian Animal in Jamaica, 117; A Fossil Skunk fro e Caves of Pennsylvania, 499; 
Comstock’s Geology of Wyoming, 52; Cope’s aaa ir ee s,53; Cretaceous Vertebrates 
of the Upper Missouri, 750; Explorations by Wheeler's Survey, 498 ; ‘bint Coral Reef at B 

si brates of New Mexico, 54; Goole gical Surv vey 0 of Can a, 560; Geology ot New 

le i the Rock , 305; Ho nse and Geysers, 242; 

‘s Fossil Ammonites, 53; Icebergs off the Coast of Newfoundland , 559; Ice-Marks in New- 
foundland, 694; Kerr’s Geology of North Carolina, 53; Meek’s bisictabrate Fossils of the Upper 
Missouri, 499; Mo re Fossil Birds, 561; fou untain. seals’ į; Palgeontology and the Doctrine of 
Descent, 694; Powell’s Geology of the the oe epg tains, 751; Recent ta veries of Extinct Ani- 

mals by Professor Marsh, 486; in Geology , 559; Scud fsbo Butterflies, 53; 
_ The Brain of the Disoosees, 182; pay eerie Bente, 117; The ma Plants of Ame: ee : 

: echanism of Stromboli, 245; The Mountains of New Zeala nd, 247; The Tæniodonta sie 
The Walrus soba in South Carolina, 561; Winchell’s Geol- 


of Eocene mega 879; 
ogy of the spes Hills, 


Geography i eau — African 55; Ancient Geographers, 306; Arc tations, 
56; Poan n aitia p ‘Africa gr Cameron's Explorations in Tropical ste, 247; Cir- 
cumnavigation of o Albert Nyanza, 5 Exploration in New Guinea, palis Exploration of the 


Upper Madeira P adar Roos got ng sn a in Greenland, 629; ep Stanley’s 
Last Letters fi frica, 695; Inundation of the Sahara, 307; ay: Son possible to unite the 


SCIENTIFIC 
PROCEEDINGS or Societes, 60, 125 188, 255, 315, 882, 445, 507, 570, 682, 703, 757. 
Screntiric 8 


Contents. 


oe Mount St. Elias, pro Ker from Stanley, 561; Nordenskidld’s rolls a 55; Pe 
a A “a a R 


vian Geography, 379; Pictures of Yünnan, 119; t e Peruvia t e- 
sources of the Black Hills Return of the British Arctic Expediti 5l; Siberian Expl 
ion, he Aleutian Islands, 184; The Himal eir Glaciers, 55; The Isthmus pe 
Tehuantepec, 500; The Kybal a 119; The New e to China, 752; The Coas 


America, 55; The Swedish Expedition to Novaya Zemlya, 119; The Tundras of Siberia, ue 
United States Coast and Éa Surveys, 118; Wheeler’s Reconnaissance of Southern Ne- 
vada, 55. 
os ge py.— A Compact Collecting Case, 503; A d Ani- 

line, 56; A New Fungus, 6831; a pke Object, 123; A Remarkable Forage for s, 122; 
Aetion oy Poison on Blood, r Microscopes, 120; ape ie foriti 

; American Postal Miceo-Oabinet, ra 185; An Easy pioua 566; smg and ‘Vegetable 
Cellulose and Starch, 565; Aperture of an Objective, 442; Aperture of neers 
Pollens, 565; Arranging Diatoms, 502; Bliven’s Photographs , 442; Blood Globales in ' Typha 

er, 122; Boston Microscopical Society, 38] ; Collecting Daras 567; Coniparative Photo- 
graphs of Blood, 318; Cryptogamic Parasites, 122; Diatoms as Fertilizers, eA: Double-Stained 
Muscular Fibres, 680 ; Eccentric ss of Climbing Plants, 58; Effect of Aperture on Definition, 
565; Exchanges, 253, 308, 448, 754 ; James W. Queen & o.. 12; Kinne’s Turn-Table, 308 ; Micro- 
Photographs in Histology, 753; ages -Photography, 567 ; Microscopy, 503; Microscopy at the 
American Association, 630; Miaran of the American Association, 184 ; Microscopical Exami- 
d n of Crude D t roscopical I » 25) 


hla at. 


ized Gold, 754; Water Analy 567; Wythe’s pei ers, 503; Wythe’s Illuminator, 
News, 58, 123, 186, moe ig, 881, 444, 504, 568, 631, 699, 754. 


ERIALS, 63, 128, 192, 256, 819, 384, 448, 512, 576, 640, 703, 758. 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL: x. — JANUARY, 1876. — No. 1. 


BURS IN THE BORAGE FAMILY. 
BY PROFESSOR ASA GRAY. 


BUR in the light of morphological botany may be seen to be 

a seed, a fruit or a portion of one, a calyx, an involucre, or 
what not. Under the teleological aspect, which was once thought 
to be expelled from natural history, but which has come back in 
full force, a bur is one adaptation for the dissemination of seeds 
by cattle or other animals. 

One of the most familiar burs is that of the common hound’s- 
tongue (Cynoglossum), of the Borage family ; and those of one or 
two species of stickseed (of the nearly related genus Echinosper- 
mum) are equally troublesome, clinging as they do to the fleece 
or hairy coat of domestic animals and to clothing. These burs, 
morphologically, are not seeds, but quarter portions of seed-like 
fruits. They adhere for transport by means of prickles or pro- 
jecting points, which are either barbed or hooked at the tip; the 
grappling organs in some cases occupying the whole surface of 
the pericarp, in others particular portions of it. 

It is rather interesting to notice how in the same family, that 
is, among plants all constructed on the same particular plan, this 
same purpose is effected or attempted in different ways, and, as 
we may say, more or less successfully. The occasion of these re- 
marks came to me with a new plant of this order in which the bur 
proved to be formed of different materials from the ordinary burs 
of the family. 

It is worth noticing, moreover, that in what botanists must con- 
sider one and the same genus, and, so to speak, of one blood, the 
grappling organs may be either more or less developed, or rudi- 

mentary, or even wanting altogether, or when wanting to the 
seed-like fruits, may be developed on some neighboring part. - 


Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, Jr. 1875. 


2 Burs in the Borage Family. (January, 


The genus Eritrichium here offers instructive illustrations. It 
is very nearly Yelated to the stickseeds. One end of its series of 
thirty or forty species is very near to Myosotis, or forget-me-not ; 
the other, in all its characters other than that of the grappling 
fruit, comes very near to Echinospermum, or stickseed. Now, 
among species at both ends of the series—in some and not in 
others —a tendency to bur-like fruit is manifested. The four 
seed-like nutlets, either smooth or moderately and variously 
roughened, fall out of the calyx at maturity, and take their 
chance. But in a few of them, in one especially which is found 
upon our higher Rocky Mountains, a wing-like circle of prickly 
teeth is developed around the back, which calls to mind the sim- 
ilar grappling border of a common western stickseed, except that 
its rays are not barbed. Yet in a recent monograph of the 
American species it is said that “ they bear a few rigid, bristly 
points; which only need to turn backward to be glochidiate,” 
that is, to become grappling barbs. In another species, Æ. Cali- 
fornicum, the little nutlets usually have a merely wrinkled or 
roughened surface ; but we have lately observed, in what we 
must regard as a form or state of it (var. subglochidiatum), that 
the crest of the rugosities rises here and there into short, bristly 
points, and the tips of some of these, under a lens, show minute 
but distinct backwardly turned barbs. Then, quite at the other 
end of the genus there is a species, Æ. pterocaryum, which has three 
of its four nutlets wing-margined, the wing essentially resembling 
that which, in the commoner stickseed of the same western re- 
gion, often connects the rayed circle of barbs; and this wing is 
now and then found to be broken up into narrow lobes or teeth, 
which only need barbs to convert this outlying Lritrichium into 
an Hchinospermum. The bearing of such facts upon the ques- 
tion of the origin of the efficient burs of stickseeds and the like is 
obvious. 

But this same genus, Hritrichium, in some cases secures disper- 
sion by cattle in another way. It is a common character of the 
Borage family to have the herbage and the calyx beset with stiff 
and sharp bristles, in some even pungent or stinging. In one set 
of species, nearly confined to our western plains and thence to 
California (the section Krymitzkya), the fruit-bearing calyx in- 
clines to close loosely over the four small and smooth or unap- 
pendaged seed-like nutlets, at maturity a joint forms underneath, 
and the whole falls off together. In most of these the bristly 
hairs that clothe the calyx are particularly strong and sharp; and, 


1876.] Burs in the Borage Family. 3 


as they spread in all directions, the whole, if caught in the hairy 
coat of passing animals, is likely to act as å sort of four-seeded 
bur; the bur here being a fruiting calyx instead of a quarter- 
section of pericarp. The bristles being straight and smooth, their 
hold is precarious. We know of no species in which they become 
hooked. But just that occurs, on a small scale, in nearly half the 
species of the related genus Myosotis, mouse-ear or forget-me-not ; 
that is, the stronger bristles on the calyx are neatly hooked at the 
tip, and so a sort of bur is formed. It would be more effective if 
the fruit-bearing calyx disarticulated more readily from its pedicel. 

This brings us to the new genus already referred to. It is an 

insignificant little plant in appearance, recently found by Dr. Ed- 
ward Palmer upon Guadalupe Island, off Lower California. The 
specimens were mixed with those of a Pectocarya (native to Cali- 
fornia and Chili), which in aspect they much resemble. But in 
Pectocarya the four-lobed and four-rayed fruit is itself a bur, 
‘grappling by a fringe of marginal bristles or slender teeth with 
hooked tips. But in our new plant, which I have named Harpa- 
gonella, the nutlets or seeming seeds are perfectly smooth. There 
is in the flower the ordinary provision for four of them ; but two 
of the lobes on one side seem to be abortive from the first, while 
the other two grow to an unusual size, compared to that of the 
blossom. As they enlarge, so does the calyx on that side of the 
flower, but not on the other. The two conjoined calyx-leaves of 
that side, united by their contiguous edges almost to the tip, as 
- they increase in size soon begin to fold around one or the other 
of the growing nutlets, — it seems indifferent which, — leaving 
the other one “ out in the cold,” forming a sort of husk which 
incloses it completely, and then develops from the outside five or 
six long and narrow finger-like processes, and along the length of 
these forms a set of -hook-tipped bristles, thus producing a most 
effective bur. 

As to the other seed, it apparently starts as fairas its preferred 
twin-companion, and sometimes it grows to almost the same size 
and matures its embryo, but more commonly it fails to mature. 

This is a curious case of * natural selection,” and a sacrificing 
of three for the greater advantage of one. For an advantage we 
must presume it to be, or to have been, to be thus protected and 
provided with means of transport; else, under any view, it would 
not have come to pass. Moreover, this is a sort of case which is 
comparatively intelligible under the supposition that it has come 
to pass in the course of time and the course of nature ; while the 


N 


4 The Florida Chameleon. [January, 


supposition of its specific creation in this way at the first, on the 
plan of destroying two of the four at the birth, and giving one of 
the remainder a diminished chance for existence, is an utterly be- 
wildering conception. 

I know not what quadrupeds or other animals: there may be 
upon Guadalupe Island, of which this bur may have taken advan- 
tage for dissemination. I presume there are, or have been, such 
animals upon the island. But even if there are none, the hypoth- 
esis of the development of this bur under natural selection will 
not thereby be negatived. For although we know of this plant 
only there, we are not bound to suppose that it originated on this 
small island. The island is now used as a breeding-place for An- 
gora goats. As they come to be distributed upon the adjacent 
main-land, we may expect that the little Harpagonella will take 
advantage of the offered means of transport, and compete with its 
relatives already established there. 


THE FLORIDA CHAMELEON. 
BY REV. 8. LOCKWOOD, PH. D. 


Wits the opening of summer, the teaching naturalist is some- 

times delighted at. finding on his lecture table a curious or 
attractive specimen from the local fauna or flora. Perhaps the 
_ object is the more interesting as being the contribution of some 
enthusiastic pupil. Sometimes it happens that the object has been, 
at some cost of trouble, obtained from a distance. In this way, 
early last June, a pleasant surprise was sprung upon the writer, 
who found on his table a box containing four small lizards from 
Florida. Poor little things, there were eight of them when they 
left the sunny South; for alas, four had perished from the rough- 
ness of “the middle passage.” They had been unskillfully 
packed, or rather not packed at all; and the shaking they had 
experienced had been too much for them. That day another 
died, leaving but three. To get them home [had a ride of thirty 
miles by rail. Having put my little box safely in a corner of the 
car, between the coal-bin and the stove, I took a forward seat, and 
from the effects of late work the night before soon fell into a 
doze of a few minutes. I was awaked by the noise of the passen- 
gers. Happening to look on the floor of the car, I beheld, to my 
dismay, the youngest of my lizards under the seat immediately 
before me. It had got out of the box, and had crept under the 


1876.] The Florida Chameleon. 5 


seats. With a singular aspect of quizzical timidity it was peer- 
ing innocently at me out of its pretty, beaming eyes. Now these 
little things, so purely innocent, are in their movements as quick 
as light. Something must be done, and very soon, or I and my 
pet were both undone. If seen by one of these garrulous women, 
the resulting commotion will be of a sort to defy all sober imag- 
inings, for the little innocent will loom up into the presence of a 
rattlesnake with four legs, seeking whom he may destroy.. I 
stooped slowly and cautiously. How fortunate! I covered its 
escape with the first movement of my hand. How the tiny thing 
did squirm! I took it quietly back to the box, put its nose at the 
hole whence it had escaped, and so had it once more secure. All 
these tactics were gone through without attracting the notice of 
any one; and so, greatly relieved, I resumed my seat as if noth- 
ing had happened. 

Soon a small fern case was improvised. The sides were glass, 
and for the sake of giving air, the top was covered with a piece 
of lace. The bottom was spread with Sphagnum, moderately 
moist. Into this were set some very small ferns, two species of 
Drosera or sundew, and in one corner a small specimen of Sar- 
racenia, or pitcher-plant; this was so elegantly marked that it 
seemed like those antique carnelian cups which one reads about. 
Gracefully trailing over this mossy bed was the dark, bright- 
leaved Mitchella. To imitate a contiguous lake or pond, at one 
corner a shallow vessel of water was sunken in the moss.. In 
this pretty garden our three pets were placed. The design was a 
mimicry of their own sub-tropical surroundings, with the hope 
of getting them to feel sufficiently at home to exhibit some of 
their peculiar traits. ; 

As our little strangers are now snugly domiciled in their new 
home, some account may be attempted of their family relation 
and individual habits. 

This little reptile is found as far north as South Carolina, 
hence it is known in the books as the green Carolina lizard. 
Visitors to Florida seem by almost common consent to have 
named it the Florida chameleon. While structurally there is in 
the reptile thus indicated a very wide difference from its name- 
sale, yet there are relationships between them, one of which is 
notably suggested in the faculty of changing the color of the 
skin. Indeed, naturalists have regarded this little thing as the 
representative or analogue in the New World of the chameleon in 
the Old, Our Florida lizard is a member of the Anolis group, 


6 The Florida Chameleon. [January, 


which contains the prettiest specimens of the lizard tribe. The 
specific name of our subject is Anolis principalis. I have not 
seen one picture of this exquisite little creature in the popular 
books but is a shameful caricature. So graceful is it that one 
cannot look at it long without forgetting its reptilian rank. The 
head is quite flat, and may be likened to a pyramid, with two of 
its opposite sides much wider than the other two. The teeth are 
very small and quite pretty, much like the teeth of the very 
finest jeweler’s saw. They are flattish, and pointed, triangular, 
and the back ones have on each side of the tooth a little spur, 
also the shape of the central part of the tooth. When first seen 
the feet present a striking appearance, owing to the very wide and 
sprawling divergence of the toes, each of which, except the fifth, 
which is almost rudimentary, is flattened out into a leaf-like 
spread at the last joint, or the joint next to the delicate, bird-like 
claw. The scales of the back and sides are so delicate as to give 
the appearance of a very fine shagreen. Altogether the animal 
has the aspect of grace and frailty. The one on my table meas- 
ures seven and a quarter inches from front of lip to tip of tail, 
which at its base is the one eighth of an inch in diameter, whence 
it tapers gradually until it ends in the thickness of a mere thread. 
Indeed, of the seven and a quarter inches total length, four and a 
quarter are taken up by the tail, so that the actual body is but 
three inches long. And this airy little body has hind limbs 
an inch and a half long, giving it great jumping power. In my 
specimens, contrary to the descriptions in the books, the normal 
color is a bronze-brown for the back and sides, with a central — 
stripe along the vertebral column of a steel-gray. This warm 
bronze is made deeper by the presence of innumerable minute 
markings of lines, zigzags, and chevrons, of a very dark brown. 
The entire under side is of an ashy or greenish white. 

Soon my pets made themselves at home. Two of them, how- 
ever, were evidently ailing. In fact, only one of them quite got 
over the rough experience already mentioned. The principal food 

furnished them was flies, of which they were very fond. We 
would put them into the fernery unhurt, so as to see the Anoles 
eatch them. The two ailing ones showed little energy in the 
matter, and, in truth, took their food daintily. The conduct of 
the other was very different. He would set himself up so pertly, 
and would cock his bright eyes so knowingly at us, and at a fly at 
the same time, that we came to regard him with special partial- 
ity. His movements were so quick and graceful, and withal he 


1876.] The Florida. Chameleon. z 


was so watchful, while the others were so stupid, that he won for 
himself the pet term Nolie. Indeed, Nolie became, despite his 
timidity, quite entertaining. For one with so little in his head his 
ways were often smart, and sometimes there was just enough of 
selfishness to make things spicy. If he saw a fly walking in the 
moss, there was first that quick twitch of the head which brought 
one eye squarely upon his prey. This was to reconnoitre the sit- 
uation. Then followed the quickest little poke of that nose like 
ashot,and the fly was taken in and most legitimately “ done for.” 
The captor would slightly elevate his muzzle, give two or three 
champs of the serrate jaws, at least two real efforts at degluti- 
tion, and the prey would disappear. Now in this little act of 
picking out the fly from its entanglement in the leaves of the 
Sphagnum, it is worthy of note that the whole process had all 
the precision of an engineer’s formula, it was so direct and so 
neatly done. One of my children put two small toads in with 
the lizards. As all know, the toad has a projectile tongue with 
a glutinous tip. This is darted at an insect, which is inevitably 
captured, and disposed of in the twinkling of an eye. How often, 
even with so perfect an apparatus, have I seen the toad bring 
into its mouth, besides the prey, some extraneous object, such as 
a bit of leaf or straw. Anolius does its work better than that, 
though its tongue gives it no aid whatever. 

I have just been watching Nolie eying a fly which was walking 
on one of the glass panes of his house. He made a noiseless ad- 
vance of about three or four inches; then followed a spring, when 
he was seen cleaving to the glass by his feet, and champing the 
captured fly. I saw him once intently watch the movements of a 
fly which was walking on the glass. As seemed evident to me 
by an ominous twitch of that little head, his mind was made up 
for a spring; but lo, there was a simultaneous make-up of mind 
on the part of the fly, which at this juncture flew towards the 
other side of the case. Then came — and how promptly — men- 
tal act number two of Anolis, for he sprang as the after-thought 
directed, and caught the insect on the fly, midway between the 
two sides of the fern case. There was surely very fine reckon- 
ing here. And what definite decision and prompt execution! 
At one time one of the feeble ones, as it hung in a corner of the 
case by its adhering feet, to my joy caught a fly which happened 
to walk right before its nose. Nolie had been eying this fly, 
and probably he was only waiting for the insect to be still a mo- 
ment on the glass. He had waited too long. So, at any rate, » 


8 The Florida Chameleon. [ January, 


he seemed to think; for with one leap he nipped the protruding 
end of the insect, and snatched it from the mouth of its proper 
captor. “ Ah, Nolie; that is very naughty of you, but quite 
funny; there is so much of human sharp practice in it.’ n 

In August the dreaded potato beetles, Doryphora decemline- 
ata, were with us in great numbers. It occurred to me to put 
some into the fern-case. The little toads saw them at once, and 
their big goggle eyes gleamed with ogreish satisfaction. Quicker 
than the feat can be recorded one of the Bufos swallowed three of 
those dreadful spearmen, and his comrade did the same by two. 
The Doryphoras were thus literally taken in, and the Bufos 
metaphorically likewise. It was specially observable of the one 
which had swallowed the three spearmen, despite the grotesque 
gravity of his demeanor, that there was a certain dolorous air 
about him, as of one suffering from an overdose of Doryphora. 
Though kept some two weeks with no other food, neither Bufo 
would touch a spearman again. And as to Anolis? Ah, he was 
not the fellow to be caught thus. Was our Nolie more knowing 
than they? He assuredly was more circumspect, and did not “go 
it blind.” It was plain that he could not stomach these offensive 
strangers. I noticed that Anolis did not fancy beetles, any way. 
It was fond of the diptera or flies, while an occasional spider was 
taken with a keen relish. Speaking of spiders in this connection, 
I am reminded of a kindly humorist who sent from Florida, to a 
friend, a box of mourning moss, Tillandsia usneoides. He had 
put into the moss, for mischief, one of these inoffensive lizards. 
The box reached its destination, and when opened, out popped 
the little prisoner. “Oh, the dreadful thing! Don’t touch it! 
You'll get poisoned, just as sure as you do!” There was quite 
a consternation, and the unconscious disturber of the peace was 
summarily consigned to a young lady friend of ours, “ who de- 
lights in. bugs and such horrid things.” It was a lucky transfer 
for poor little Anolis. That gentle girl carried her new pet 
safely through the winter not without care and good judgment. 
She fed it chiefly on spiders, then almost the only procurable food. 
To obtain them the outhouses and barn lofts were made to yield 
to her scrutinizing search: And so well was all this done that 
when spring came, and insect food abounded, her little chameleon, 
as she called it, was in prime condition. They are very fond of 
spiders. Bell tells of a pet Anolis principalis catching the large 
garden spider, Epeira diadema, by one leg. The spider bit- the 
- little fellow on the lip, and death soon ensued. 


1876. ] The Florida Chameleon. 9 


When the first sharp days of October set in, the lizard sur- 
prised me by a specimen of adaptation to circumstances. It 
had seemed hitherto incompetent for anything of that sort. It 
selected a hummock of dry Sphagnum, and with its nose worked a 
hole something after the manner of a toad while making its hole. 
Letting it do all it could alone, I then deepened the little burrow 
with my finger. This was to be its sleeping-place, and the little 
troglodyte has occupied it steadily, and has slept in it every night 
now for five weeks. 

This 6th of November is delightfully bland, following as it 
does a raw, bleak day. The sun is now full upon the fern case 
in the window, and Nolie puts its head out of his sphagnum cave. 
After many twitchings right and left, for about ten minutes, it re- 
solves to go out for an airing. There is something interesting in 
the seeming contradictions of these little beings. One while you 
would think from their movements that they were all impulse 
and flash, so rapid and jerky, and in such unexpected directions, 
are their movements. There is so much circumspection in those 
eyes —a literal looking around things from which one might in- 
fer deliberation in every act. Whatever may be the preliminary 
thinking, the execution is all impulse, flash, and dash. Still, there 
is one notable exception to all this. It is in the matter of un- 
dressing himself, an operation which comes off several times in 
the season. Nothing can possibly be more deliberate. Previous 
to the undertaking it looks much as did Patrick’s parrot when 
thinking intently on nothing, although with Anolis there is real 
head-work going on. In fact, its head is actually turning gray, 
yes, almost white. There is a serious corrugation of the scalp, then 
a splitting of the cuticle. It now rubs the head against one of the 
posts at the corners, thus pushing the skin back on to the neck, on 
both sides of which the loosened cuticle stands out like a flange, 
or stiff collar of extravagant proportions. As the sunlight shines 
through, it has a decided hue, namely, the pale blue of tempered 
steel, which by a trick of the trade is so exaggeratingly imitated 
by painting on certain steel implements, as axes and scythe 
blades. So the creature sits,in the sunlight, forcing upon us 
the most ludicrous associations by its great stand-up collar. We 
are reminded of the vain servant on his Sunday parole, with 
collar broad and reaching to the ears, stiffly starched and over- 
blued. « Massy on us, Julius!” said -his fellow-servant, “ if 
you should fall down atween dose new scy’ blades, you permit 
suicide, most sartin!”’ In the sunlight this ragged cuticle is ex- 


10 The Florida Chameleon. ` (January, 


tremely pretty: a delicate pale translucent blue; and the scale 
markings so minute as to suggest a lace work that is too fine 
for the execution of any loom. But to Anolis all this is “ gauzy 
frippery ” now, and its presence irksome. A few more rubs and 
pushes, and in a ragged condition it is got back to the thighs. 
The persistent creature now succeeds in so flexing its head as to 
get it flat sidewise on its neck, when it seizes the ragged edge of 
the old garment with its teeth. There is some tugging, followed 
by one or two tumbles over, when off comes a large piece of the 
vestment. What then? It is swallowed! Then the head and 
neck and one front limb are denuded. It turns now to the other 
front limb, on the upper part of which is a piece of loose skin 
flaring most prominently. Just then a fly approaches provokingly 
near. With one boot on and one boot off, Anolis makes for that 
dipteran disturber of his private labors. The fly serves as a 
luncheon, which disposed of, the lizard resumes its. work, and the 
sharp nose dips into the old clothes again. Anolis is not long in 
getting off the skin. It is all done piecemeal as just described, 
and every particle is eaten ; even the bits that fall between the 
plants are carefully picked up. There are several sheddings in 
one summer. This lizard, I think, has gone through it four or five 
times this season. Under the microscope a bit of the old cuticle 
is a beautiful object. This exuvia is the exact mold or impres- 
sion of the scaly skin which it has left behind. Of course, then, 
one side of this cast consists of depressions, the other side of ele- 
vations, which correspond precisely. Under a quarter-inch ob- 
jective lens the elevated side is surprisingly like a lot of white 
peaches spread uniformly on a table. Not truly convex, but gib- 
bous is each elevation, being a little longer than broad. Each 
has a dark curved line extending nearly its entire length. This 
line is curiously suggestive of the depression which separates at 
one side the two cheeks of a peach. Each line begins at the base 
end of the scale, which corresponds to the stem end of the fruit. 
Here the line is the widest, when it narrows gently, until it dis- 
appears a little before reaching the opposite end of the cast, or, to 
continue the simile, the flower end of the fruit. At this point 
the peach similitude stops; for the entire gibbous surface is 
closely dotted with polygons or several-sided spots. Although 
not at all regular, yet the sides of these markings are very dis- 
tinct, and quite easily counted, each having four, five, or six 
bounding lines ; or, since M. Martinet insists on the hard words, 
these figures are composed of irregular rectangles or parallelo- 


1876.] The Florida Chameleon. 11 


grams, pentagons, and hexagons. No two of these round promi- 
nences, or peach-shaped scale-casts, touch each other. Them- 
selves of a silvery hue, they are separated from one another by a 
thicker cuticle, of a much darker color, thus throwing out the 
rounded casts in bold relief. 

And what is the philosophy of their swallowing this cast-off 
skin? Ihave seen that pretty newt, the Triton millepunctata, 
exuviate beneath the water. Except the rent made at the head, 
which is the starting-point of exuviation, the divested skin was 
entire, even to the very toes, and appeared in the water a gos- 
samer likeness of the animal itself. As soon as it moulted, 
the little thing would turn round and swallow its cast-off gar- 
ment, tucking it in entire and untorn. The toad does the very 
same thing. There must be, | think, some vital economy which 
is subserved by this singular habit of putting up the old clothes, 
or, as our juvenile wag suggests, turning the stomach into a 
clothes-chest. Motive in this matter can hardly be attributed to 
things so lowly. We are reminded of a somewhat similar habit, 
and quite as strange, of the educabilia, or higher animals. Dogs, 
cats, cows, ete., devour their own placenta. The mother dog and 
cat keep the bed of their litter clean by swallowing the excreta, 
Our little “ Lady,” a high-bred diminutive hound, had lately two 
pups. One died in the night. Her mistress was shocked next 
morning at finding Lady devouring her dead baby. All had dis- 
appeared but the head, when her strange work was arrested. 
And so cleanly was the whole business, not a stain was on her 
blanket. Now these animals have no cannibal propensities. Re- 
cently a cheetah, the Persian hunting leopard (Leoparda jubata), 
having died suddenly, came into our possession. The animal was 
in such excellent condition, its flesh so fat and tender, that we 
offered some choice cuts to a number of dogs, Lady being among 
them. It was really curious to observe their conduct. They 
stretched their necks, bringing their noses near enough to smell, 
but not to touch the strange meat ; which done, each turned 
away in solid disgust. Here gleamed the true nobleness of these 
educabilia, a proper sense of the fitness of things. Nature hath 
her mysterious sanctities, and even in the animal reckoning, such 
matters should be promptly put out of sight. 

Anolis can cleave to the glass. The phenomena is precisely, as 
I understand it, the same as with the sucking disk of the shark- 
sucker, Echeneis remora. With a hand-lens I have watched its 
toes while adhering to the glass. The flattened pads are as dry 


12 The Florida Chameleon. [January, 


as a bone. But the scales are transverse, each one as long as the 
pad is wide. They are erectile, too. Now when the animal 
leaps at an object, intending to adhere to it, these scales are shut 
down tight, and the ridges all closed. At the precise instant of 
the impact on the glass which terminates the leap, these trans- 
verse scales are raised, or set on edge; thus there are as many 
ridges as scales, that is, so many transverse pits ; and every one 
of these pits is, by the mechanism just described, of necessity a 
vacuum. Only four of the five toes on each foot are serviceable in 
this direction. As the pads of the toes vary much in size, so 
does the number of the transverse scales. They run from about 
twenty to thirty. Striking an average of twenty-five for each 
toe, and multiplying by sixteen, there would be not less than four 
hundred of these sucking pits, or air-exhausted depressions. 

In the popular estimate, the chief interest in this little so-called 
Florida chameleon attaches to its faculty of changing its color at 
will. Its two extremes of color are a deep, warm, bronzy brown, 
and a pale but bright pea-green. Throughout the summer, espe- 
cially at night, the favorite position of our Anolis was to hang 
suspended, with head up, from the posts at the corners of the 
fern case. In this way they invariably spent the night. It was 
their chosen position for sleep. How often have I taken the 
lamp and approached their case at different hours of the night, 
and found them with eyes tightly closed and fast asleep, and their 
color a bright green. But the posts to which they thus adhered 
by their feet was of a deep brown color, hence the two colors 
were set in striking contrast. Throughout the day, although oc- 
casionally playing with diverse colors, they were for the most 
part brown, and this too although walking or nestling among the 
green leaves. The belief that the color of the contiguous ob- 
ject is mimicked for the sake of protection is, I think, not con- 
firmed by the observed facts. The truth is that in this matter of 
animals enjoying life there is a higher law than that of mere in- 
tention. I shall call it the law of spontaneous expression, which 
has its base in another law, to wit, that a joy unuttered is a 
sense repressed. Why should green be the favorite night-gown 
of our sleeping Anolis? I timidly venture the suggestion that 
it is because the animal is disposing itself for the luxury of sleep, 
its color changes being the utterances of its emotions. In these 
little creatures are united a remarkable agility with an equally 
marked fragility. They delight in sleep, and they delight in 

exereise, and take a great deal of both. But they are very 


1876.] The Florida Chameleon. 13 


easily tired, and are often seen panting from excessive exercise. 
Whether it be the expression of enjoyment of repose, comfort, 
or emotional joy, the highest manifestation is its display of green. 
Just listen -to what I have this day witnessed. Yesterday was 
quite cold. ‘The fern case was in the window, and a fire was in 
the room. Still the air was keen and raw. But to-day the at- 
mosphere is mild, and the sun, full upon the window, pours his 
mellow warmth directly into the fern case. After putting his 
head forth to inspect the weather, he comes out of his troglo- 
dyte chamber, and stretches his brown body in the full blaze 
of the sun. What a blessed basking this is. To him, in con- 
trast with his cave, it is the luxtry of bliss. Nolie soon be- 
gins to doze, sleepily opening and shutting his eyes, but keeping 
both auricles open wide. Now begins that wonderful play of 
colors. It appears first in the normal bronze brown of the back. 
Literally they are lively,colors, such are the moving changes, as 
the folds of the skin, especially those on the neck, eatch and 
glance the sunlight. That deep umber is now mellowing into a 
yellowish brown. A minute more and it has a bronze, coppery 
tint. Now it runs into an olive-green; anon, a leek-green; at 
last a pale but bright pea-green. Through all this color trans- 
formation on the back there is a medial line extending from the 
head to the tail, which is always of a hue paler than all the rest. 
As to the under parts, the customary ashiness is all gone. It is 
white; but such a white; not glaring, but soft. In fact, I think 
the tiny scales are now set a little on edge, thus giving the white 
the aspect of frosted silver. The back, as was said, is green; but 
I now observe what I have very seldom seen, that, so to speak, 
over this green is a bloom, so that it looks like a frosted green. 
It is observable that the top of the flat head doggedly retains its 
dark normal brown. As to the eyelids, in this matter of color, I 
think they are the most to be admired. Each of these little brill- 
iant orbs in constant motion is a perpetual twinkle. In ordinary 
repose the eyelids are a pretty, pale brown. But these organs are 
especially susceptible of color-change. Not only will they run 
rapidly through the whole scale, but the positive colors will be 
spread in such decided and rapid contrast that it seems as if the 
order were set to the key-note of a humor which “ is alone high 
fantastical.” These winking lids emulate the gems. Now, a 
palish brown, they are smoky topazes. Instantly they become 
green emeralds, and quicker than one can write flash into 
the peculiar blue of the turquoise. I have seen the New York 


14 The Florida Chameleon. (January, 


stickleback (Gasterosteus Noveboracenis), in its love season, go 
through changes as bright and rapid; yes, even the gray, cold 
pupil of its eye would flash into the true blue of heaven. The 
eye of our Anolis cannot do this. Its colors are fixed: But what 
a pretty eye it has. The pupil is as the most sparkling jet, and 
the iris is a ring of limpid amber. But as to these color-changes, 
it should be borne in mind that they are excited by causes the 
very opposite in character, love and hate, for they can woo 
and fight too; also by fear and joy. In the changes just de- 
scribed, I see the manifestation of animal enjoyment. It is No- 
lie’s way of telling it, — his conventional, “ I feel good.” So 
dumb is he that this is his ‘only way of getting it out. Only 
once have I heard any semblance to sound escape him. I had 
thrown a half-crippled fly at him, which struck on his nose. He 
let off just the tiniest “ umph!” then caught the fly and disposed : 
of it. 

The sun has gone down behind yonder house, Nolie knows it. 
His bright colors have left, and he betakes himself to his little 


ve. 

I had forgotten to say that Nolie’s two weakly comrades died 
within some three weeks of each other. One of them had lain 
for two days on the mossy bed, and was a beautiful bright green. 
How we did admire it for those two days, not knowing that its 
little life had fled. It was somewhat consoling to us all to reflect 
that doubtless its time had come, and it had died in a green old 
age. It was put into alcohol, where in a few days the green dis- 
appeared, and the normal brown returned. This surprised me, 
as I had expected a result similar to my experience with the 
green snake ( Chlorosoma vernalis), which in alcohol turns blue. 
Respecting its comrade, it should be added that it also departed 
this life in a suit of green. 

I once possessed a very large Anolis from Cuba. Its body was 
about ten inches long, and it was quite thick in proportion. 
That which entertained us greatly was its expansile throat, or 
dewlap, which it would inflate to an enormous size. This char- 
acteristic is to some extent true of our little Anolis principalis, 
and is dwelt upon largely in the books. In this regard I have 
been disappointed, having witnessed the phenomenon only twice 
in an entire summer. The spectacle, though strange, is very 
pretty. The skin under the throat expands immensely, giving 
to the animal a comical but rather formidable aspect. The col- 
ors of the inflated dewlap are very fine, usually ending in a per- 
fect flame of intense scarlet. 


1876.] The Florida Chameleon. 15 


A word more must be said of those delicate markings of very 
dark brown, sprinkled so thickly on the back and sides, As 
already mentioned, they are made up of little straight lines, 
zigzags, and chevrons. They are as constant and perhaps as in- 
explicable as those queer markings on certain minerals, known as 
“ Widmannstattian figures.” These tiny markings on the back 
and sides of Anolis principalis are always there, and they never 
change their color. Even when Anolis has changed from a ruddy 
brown to a bright green, a hand-lens will show that these figures 
are all there, and that they have retained their brown color too. 
And in some way, upon close inspection, it will be seen that 
whatever the hue may be that is assumed, these singular figures 
impart to it character and tone. 

I think our observations show that the highest effort in color- 
change is in the green. ‘There were two instances in which it is 
my belief that this same color was produced involuntarily. It is 
observable that the Anolis delights in tints. From a deep olive 
it will run through the entire gamut of that color by insensible 
hues into a leek green. It does not like harsh color lines. Now 
on one occasion Nolie had a queer spot break out on his right 
flank, just behind the fore limb. It was a bright green patch, 
‘nearly half an inch in length. The outline was sharp and angu- 
lar. It was on a cold day, when the room was uncomfortable, 
just the time when there is no disposition to change color. It is 
notable, also, that this patch of green upon that dark ground of 
brown held its brightness for two days, a very long period in- 
deed. At another time, under like circumstances, a smaller 
patch of the same color appeared on the left flank, near the hind 
leg. It had the same patchiness as the former spot, and also 
continued bright for an unusually long time. 

Perhaps a hundred times have we been asked the question, 
“ How are these changes of color produced? ” The physiology 
of this matter is not well understood ; but there is a hypothesis 
upon it which is probably in the main correct. To state this in 
rigid accuracy would likely for some of our readers require too 
many technical terms. At the risk, then, of appearing to be 
didactic, we will use very different speech. Supposing through a 
sheet of block tin many thousands of little pipes were made just 
to enter. Let them, if you will, be regarded as infinitely small. 
Call this series A. Now suppose another series in all respects 
similar and fixed inlike manner. Call this series B. It must be 
understood that the pipes of one series alternate with those of 


16 = The Florida Chameleon. (January, | 


the other series, so that it shall be first a pipe of A, then a pipe 
of B, and so on in regular order for both series. Suppose again 
that the A pipes contain green pigment, and the B pipes contain 
yellow. We will further imagine that each pipe series has a 
series of muscles which can act upon them. Now laid over the 
mouths of all these pigment tubes let us suppose a translucent 
film. Our perforated block tin and its translucent spread, with 
the mouths of the color tubes opening between them, shall repre- 
sent the rete mucosum, or colored layer of the skin. Suppose 
now the appropriate muscles squeeze the lower ends of the A 
series of pigment tubes, the pigment at once comes up against the 
almost transparent skin, the color of which is now blue. Let the 
muscles relax and the pigment descends into the tubes again. 
Let the same process occur with the B series of tubes, and the 
result will be that the skin shows a yellow color. Not waiting 
for the yellow pigment to return into the tubes, let the A series 
be again squeezed, and up comes the blue pigment against the 
translucent spread. Now everybody knows that a green color is 
easily made by a mixture of yellow and blue. Suppose the little 
spots where the blue touches under the translucent film to be so 
small as to be called molecules,-and suppose the same of the spots 
where the yellow pigment touches, and you have all the condi- 
tions necessary for begetting green. It is also easily imagined 
how by regulating the amount of muscular pressure the propor- 
tions of the separate pigments is regulated, and so the most deli- 
cate tints are produced. 

At the dining table of a hotel in Florida a lady appeared with 
her four pet Anoles. They were fastened to her head-gear by 
silken threads, and ran over her neck and head, or nestled in the 
tresses of her hair, as they saw fit. In this particular we think 
the lady did violence to the rights of others. But duly regarding 
the proprieties of time and place, the lady did well in her delight 
with her “ little chameleons.” ` As a pet, the Anolis principalis 
is everything that is commendable: clean, inoffensive, pretty, 
and wonderfully entertaining; provoking harmless mirth, and 
stirring up in the thinker the profoundest depths of his philos- 
ophy. 


1876.) Proper Specific Name of the Song Sparrow. | 17 
THE PROPER SPECIFIC NAME OF THE SONG 
SPARROW.! 


BY DAVID SCOTT. 
r appears that this common little bird has been known for 
over a half century by a specific name which, if the just rule 
of priority is considered, cannot be applied to it longer. 

The observation of a specimen which presented a rather unique 
appearance — the tail being veined by transverse dark brown 
bars, quite sharply defined — discovered the fact to me. 

Recent examination of numerous specimens shows that this 
feature is more or less apparent in nearly all examples. It seems, 
however, to have been unnoticed since Pennant wrote until thè 
obtaining of my specimen, which was some two years ago, for no 
author in his description of the bird has shown an acquaintance 
with the peculiarity; but quite the reverse, as Professor Baird 
distinctly affirms? that the tail of the song sparrow displays no 
such appearance as the following descriptions would imply. 

Pennant’s descrip.ion is: With the crown, hind part of neck, 
and back rust colored, spotted with black; the spots on the back 
large; coverts of the wing plain ferruginous; primaries dusky, 
edged with dirty-white ; whole under side' white, with black 
streaks pointing downwards; tail brown, crossed by numerous 
dusky bars. Inhabits New York. (Arctic Zodlogy, ii. 375.) 

Gmelin writes: F ringilla ferruginea nigro-maculata, subtus 
alba nigro-striata, alis ferrugineis, cauda fusca aitrolineata. Habi- 
tat in Noveboraco. (Systema Nature, i, 922.) 

Who can doubt but that these descriptions refer to the song- 
Sparrow, if they do differ in a few minor respects ? 

We think it follows from the above citation from Pennant 

* MELOSPIZA FASCIATA. 
Fasciated Finch Pennant, Arct. Zoöl., ii. 375. 

ringilla fasciata Gmelin, Syst. Nat., i. 1788, 922. — Latham, Index Orn., i. 1790, 
445. — Nuttall, Man. Orn., i. 2d ed. 1840, 562. 

Fringilla melodia Wilson, Am. Orn., ii. 1810, 125. — Licht., Verz., 1823, No. 249. 
—Aud ., Orn. Biog., i. 1832, 126 ; v. 507. — Ib., Syn., 1839, 120. — Ib., Birds Am., iii 
1841, 147. — Max., Cab. Jour., vi. 1858, 275 


Brewer and Ridgway, Hist. N. Am. Birds, ii. 1874, 19. 
: on elospiza Sasciata Scott. ae ; ‘ j 
“The fasciated sparrow of Pennant, Arctic Zoöl,, ii. 375, upon which Gmelin’s 
name is based, answers pretty well for our species, but the tail is said to be crossed 
by numerous dusky bars, which is not the case with melodia.” — Foot-note, Pacific 
l Road Reports, ix. 1858, p. 477. 
VOL, X. — No. 1. 2 


18 New Zealand Flax. (January, 


that our song sparrow was the bird he had in hand when he 
penned his portrayal and suggested the name “ fasciated spar- 
row ” (upon which Gmelin’s name is founded) ; moreover, as the 
latter author’s name antedates the one assigned by Wilson, it fol- 
lows, therefore, that fasciata should take precedence, to the elim- 
ination of “ melodia.” 

It may be urged, however, that fasciata is not entirely appro- 
priate, and melodia having been recognized as the correct name 
so long, a change is unnecessary; and that if this work of res- 
toration begins there will have to be many other changes in orni- 
thological nomenclature. But we say, Let it begin; let all the 
old names that can lay claim to restoration, and be recognized as 
applying to present species, be brought to light and receive due 
consideration. 

The Chamea fasciata Gambel furnishes a parallel case with 
the song sparrow in the possession of a barred tail; and the bars 
are no more appreciable, in fact less so, than in some individuals 
of the Melospiza. 

Now, if this name is currently recognized as applicable to the 
Chameea, with its distinctive feature less marked than in Melospiza, 
why should it not hold good with the latter ? 

In the Smithsonian collection are specimens of the western 
varieties — fallax, rufina, guttata, Gouldt, and Heermanni— which 
possess quite visibly barred tails. 


NEW ZEALAND FLAX. 
BY J. C. RUSSELL. 


HE attention of the traveler who stands for the first time on 

the shores of New Zealand is especially attracted by two 

characteristics of its flora, one or the other of which will be pres- 
ent in every scene that impresses itself on his memory. 

The first is the profusion everywhere of ferns of many differ- 
ent forms and colors, which present every gradation, from the 
strange and graceful tree-ferns, which raise their spreading 
crowns of feathery fronds thirty or forty feet from the ground, 
down to the little bright green ferns, with fronds scarcely half an 
inch long, which ¢ling to the rocks far below in the dark ravines, 
where they are constantly wet with spray. | 

The other plant which especially calls for his examination, and 


1876.] New Zealand Flac. 19 


which is the subject of our sketch, is a flag-like, liliaceous plant, 
growing in large spreading clusters of sword-shaped leaves, which 
are often eight or ten feet in length, and of a bright, shining 
green color. Many of these bunches support an upright flower- 
stalk, with purple blossoms, which resembles, somewhat, the in- 
florescence of the banana, held in an upright position. This plant 
is known to the colonists as New Zealand flax, and to the bot- 
anist as Phormium tenax, of which several varieties have been 
described. 

It is very characteristic of New Zealand, being found nowhere 
else, except on the Norfolk and Chatham Islands. À 

During our stay in New Zealand we found it growing wherever 
we went, from the low shores of the southern part of the South 
Island, where it covers immense fields, up to an elevation of four 
and five thousand feet among the southern Alps. 

The spreading masses of Phormium growing among thick 
groves of the palm-like grass-tree (Cordyline australis) give to 
many retired nooks and valleys a soft tropical beauty, that forms 
a pleasing contrast with the usual rugged and Alpine grandeur of 
New Zealand scenery. 

The New Zealand flax covers thousands of acres, both in the 
North and South Island ; this amount, although vast, could be 
increased many fold by cultivation. Seemingly, it likes best the 
low, wet land near the coast, but also grows with great luxuri- 
ance along the banks of rivers and lakes, where it can obtain 
plenty of moisture. 

To the natives of New Zealand, before the blessings of civiliza- 
tion (?) were thrust upon them, the Phormium was what the 
cocoa-nut palm is to the inhabitants of the tropics, or the bamboo 
to the Hindoo and Malay. The Maori woman, sitting on the 
earthen floor of her hut, makes an incision across a leaf of Phor- 
mium with the sharp edge of a mussel-shell ; then placing the 
leaf on the edge of the shell, with the cut side up, rapidly draws 
it between her thumb and the shell, thus stripping off the green 
pulp, and leaving the tough fibre ready for use. 

Of this the Maoris weave their mats and rugs, which are very 
soft and warm, and often wrought in an elegant pattern by means 
of colored Phormium. 

These mats, together with garments made of the dried, un- 
dressed leaves, formed the scanty clothing of the natives before 
the coming of the Europeans. 

The dried leaves, when split into narrow strips, are used to 


20 New Zealand Flaz. (January, 


make coarse matting for the floor, and baskets to contain fruit 
and serve as dishes. 

The long, tough fibre is made into strong nets and fishing- 
` lines, and is also of great use in building houses, canoes, etc. 

The stone adzes with which the Maoris dug out and orna- 
mented their canoes were lashed to wooden handles by bands of 
Phormium, which also furnished the canoe with sails. 

The clear white gum that exudes from the base of the leaves 
is used as glue and also for chewing ; with the colonists it forms 
an excellent substitute for mucilage and sealing- wax. 

The bright-eyed Maori boy makes his toy canoe of the green 
leaves, and gathers the sweet honey from the blossoms of the 
Phormium. 

At the present day the more enlightened natives use it instead 
of writing- paper, and “with a sharp-edged shell engrave their 
thoughts upon it.” 

One night while spearing the monstrous eels that inhabit the 
New Zealand lakes, we became acquainted with another of the 
uses of this interesting plant; the old dead leaves, when bound 
into small bundles, made excellent torches, which answered our 
purpose nearly as well as pine knots, with the use of which most — 
of us are familiar. 

These are a few of the purposes for which Phormium is used 
by the simple New Zealander. 

To civilized man it would become a bitideed-told more useful, 
could he but invent a cheap and satisfactory method of cleaning 
the fibre. : 

This fibre has been found by experiment to be the strongest 
known, with the exception of silk, being twice as tenacious as 
common hemp. 

Numerous machines have been invented to meet this want, but 
as yet none have been a success. 

Could such a method be devised, this strong and beautiful 
fibre would compete favorably with the manilla of the Philippine 
Islands, or the flax and hemp of Europe and America. 

Such a discovery would bring to New Zealand greater wealth 
than she has derived from her gold mines, and, together with the 
immense amount of wool that is annually shipped from her shores, 
make those rich islands eminently a fibre-producing country. 

With the imperfect means at their command the colonists have 
already produced considerable quantities of dressed Phormium. 
This, in former years, was small in quantity, but of an excellent 


1876.] Bartramian Names in Ornithology. 21 


quality, being prepared by the Maoris. In 1870, there was sold 
in the London market four thousand tons of Phormium fibre ; 
this, however, was of an inferior quality, having been imperfectly 
prepared by machines. Its principal use is, at present, in the 
manufacture of ropes, for which purpose it is usually mixed with 
manilla. Numerous chemical means have been resorted to for 
obtaining the fibre, but without satisfactory results. Thus far 
civilized man, with all his array of machines and engines, has 
been unable to do the simple work of cleaning the Phormium 
fibre as well as the tattooed cannibal did with a sea-shell. 


THE AVAILABILITY OF CERTAIN BARTRAMIAN 
NAMES IN ORNITHOLOGY. 


BY J. A. ALLEN. 


a DER the caption “ Fasti Ornithologie Redivivi.—No. I. 

Bartram’s Travel’s,” Dr. Elliott Coues has recently ! attempt- 
ed to revive sundry of Bartram’s names of the birds of the United 
States, on the ground of their priority. Dr. Coues assumes 
that Bartram was “on principle binomial, occasionally laps- 
ing ;” and that “if his occasional slips are to count against him, 
then not a few great modern ornithologists must also be ruled 
out ; among whom may be instanced Schlegel, Bonaparte, Sunde- 
vall, and others, in whose writings are found trinomial names,” 
etc. “ But the count against him [Bartram] for nearly a cent- 
ury,” says Dr. Coues, “is not a true bill; the verdict must be, 
if not reversed, radically modified.” Since a few of Bartram’s 
binomial names have come into current use, whilst others are 
commonly cited in synonymical lists, Dr. Coues claims that if 
Bartram is entitled to anything, he has not received what is 
rightfully his due, and if not entitled to anything we have given 
him tribute to which he has no claim. Dr. Coues adopts the 
former alternative, and on the ground of consistency advocates the 
adoption of all of Bartram’s binomial names that can be identi- 
fied, in cases where they happen to have priority, whether they 
are accompanied by descriptions or not. 

Before accepting fully the results that follow such premises, 
let us examine a little into the nature of Bartram’s work. The 
ornithological matter contained in Bartram’s Travels is not- 
ably of two kinds. In the general narrative he has at sundry 


* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1875, pp. 338-358, September, 1875. 


22 Bartramian Names in Ornithology. (January, 


places described not only the habits and distribution of some of 
the birds he met with in his travels, but has given more or less 
careful descriptions of the birds themselves, designating them 
also by binomial names. In addition to this he has given, at 
pages 288-296, a nominal list of two hundred and fifteen spe- 
cies, in which he has usually mentioned the species under Latin 
binomial names, to which he has added an English name ; occa- 
sionally to the Latin names he has appended a few words of de- 
scription, also in Latin; while certain typographical signs are 
prefixed to denote the places of residence of the different species 
and their migrations. These signs, with the simple names, con- 
stitute in most cases all that approaches to a description of the 
species that Bartram has given; yet the attempt is now made 
to establish priority for these names, on the ground that the 
species thus designated were sufficiently described to substantiate 
the claim, and to set them up in place of names backed by good 
description and thoroughly familiar through long use. 

In this list of two hundred and fifteen species, quite a number 
of names prove to be synonymous with others; thirty-six are 
given by Dr. Coues as “undetermined,” and ten or a dozen more 
are only guessed at; leaving fully one fifth of the whole number 
almost hopelessly in doubt. In addition to this there are thirty- 
five or more polynomial names. Of the one hundred and eighty 
species of the names of which Dr. Coues attempts to give the 
present equivalents, nearly all had been previously described in 
the Systema Nature of Linneus, a work that must have been 
accessible to Bartram if any European book on natural history 
could be; and that it was so is evident from his references to it 
in the botanical portions of his work. Bartram has, in fact, in 
some groups employed a large proportion of Linnean names, 
while in others he has either altogether ignored them or was ig- 
norant of them. Of his twenty-two species of rapacious birds, 
all but three of the recognizable species were already in the 
Systema Nature, yet only five of them appear under the Lin- 
næan names; of his seventeen remaining names only one, Vul- 
tur atratus, is strictly entitled to recognition. Of the rest of 
the land birds, numbering one hundred and seven species, a 
dozen of the names are either polynomial, synonyms, or undeter- 
minable, while of the remaining ninety-five, eighty of the species 
had been previously named and described in the Systema Na- 
ture, or by other writers preceding Bartram; yet less than 
half of these names were used by Bartram, who instead gave 


1876.] Bartramian Names in Ornithology. 23 


new names of his own. In the rest of the list, embracing the 
wading and swimming birds, the case is even still worse. Of 
these, numbering eighty-five species, nineteen are given by Dr. 
Coues as “ undetermined ;” fifteen others are guessed at only, 
three are synonyms, and fifteen of the names are polynomial! 
Of the thirty-three binomially named species determined by Dr. 
Coues, twenty-eight had been described in the Systema Na- 
ture; of the remaining five, Dr. Coues regards three as avail- 
able. Finally it appears that after excluding from Bartram’s list 
of two hundred and fifteen species the synonyms, the polynomial 
names, and the undeterminable ones, we have left but one hun- 
dred and forty-six, or about two thirds of the whole; and that 
of these one hundred and thirty, or thereabouts, had been named 
and described several years prior to the publication of Bartram’s 
work, mainly, too, in the Systema Nature, a book that to Bar- 
tram must have been one of the most accessible works on natural 
history. 

Dr. Coues, however, has indicated twenty Bartramian specific 
names and one generic name which he claims must be adopted, in 
order that Bartram may have his due as one of the fathers of 
American ornithology. We are, of course, not to judge the sci- 
_ entific works of a century ago by our present standards, but mak- 
ing due allowance for the two periods, it would seem that in the 
recognition ‘Bartram has already had, he has been most fairly — 
dealt with, and that further claims for him will only call forth a 
more rigid criticism of his merits as an ornithological writer than 
his work will well bear. Ten of these twenty-one Bartramian 
names, however, Dr. Coues claims, have been for a long time cur- 
rently in use, six of them having been “ erroneously ” attributed 
to Wilson and one to Audubon. The remaining ten Dr. Coues 
proceeds to newly “set up.” 

But let us examine Bartram’s work still further. First, re- 
specting Bartram as a binomialist: we find that out of two hun- 
dred and fifteen names in his list thirty-six are not binomial, or 
more than one in seven, — pretty frequent lapses for a ‘ bino- 
mialist on principle.” Secondly, we find that the Bartramian 
names already in current use or quoted as synonyms belong 
to species that he not only binomially named, but to species 
which he more or less fully described in his narrative, though 
some, it is true, are taken from among those of his list. Thirdly, 
it seems that the species for which Bartramian names have been 
currently employed, but “ incorrectly ” attributed to Wilson or 


24 Bartramian Names in Ornithology. (January, 


Audubon, were never described, in any true sense, by Bartram, 
and would be undeterminable if their recognition depended on 
anything in Bartram’s work. We have in nearly every case only 
the name, which, being a characteristic one, is presumably refer- 
able to the species to which it was subsequently applied by Wil- 
son or Audubon, who were the first to give anything which, by 
any reasonable license, can be construed as a “description ” of the 
species in question. In most cases Wilson may have obtained the 
names directly from Bartram, since, as is well-known, William 
Bartram was not only the friend of Wilson, but his associate and 
instructor in natural history; and it is hardly presumable that 
Wilson did not know, through personal intercourse with Bartram, 
the birds the latter had named in his Travels. Besides this, the 
natural applicability of the names to the species in question may 
have rendered the names in a measure traditionally current. 
Other names which have not that happy suggestiveness, but 
which are in all other respects wholly parallel, figure promi- 
nently in the long list of Bartram’s species that Dr. Coues, with 
all his ability as an ornithological expert, has had to give as 
“ undetermined.” The specific name palustris, when applied to 
a Sparrow or a wren, may be distinctive when it happens that 
only one species of the group to which the species belongs affects 
marshy situations, but as soon asa second is found, the name of — 
course has then no distinctive value. Coincidences of this kind 
are all that make many of Bartram’s names determinable; and 
this merely chanced to be so, happening otherwise, however, in 
numerous instances, as witness the in other respects parallel cases 
of “ Falco pullarius, the chicken hawk,” “ F, gallinarius, the 
hen hawk,” “ Fringilla eanabina, the hemp bird,” “ Calandra 
pratensis, the May bird,” ete. Fourthly, the remarks above 
given under “ thirdly ” are also strictly applicable to nearly all 
of the Bartramian names newly set up by Dr. Coues, these 
being determinable only by negative evidence and not by any- 
thing inherent in Bartram’s work, — simply through a process 
of exclusion by virtue of a full knowledge of the avi-fauna of 
the region in question ; by knowing that they cannot well refer 
to anything else. For nearly or quite half a century after Bar- 
tram wrote, such a thing would have been impossible, simply 
from lack of this necessary knowledge of the fauna of the region 
to which Bartram’s work refers. 


1 In the case of Audubon, the single instance of the use of the same name may per 
haps be properly regarded as a coincidence. 


1876.] Bartramian Names in Ornithology. 25 


Lists like Bartram’s are not of rare occurrence, where the au- 
thors, not having the means of readily determining the species, or 
not caring to take the trouble to ‘do so, give the correct names 
when they happen to know them, and prefer coining names for 
the others as the easiest way out of a difficult 

Finally, let me ask students of zodlogy— for the principle in- 
volved is not, of course, limited to ornithology —if searching for 
old names, which, like those of Bartram’s, can only be determined 
by the process of exclusion, with which to supplant long-estab- 
lished ones, intelligently proposed and backed by adequate descrip- 
tions, tends to the best interest of science? If the example Dr. 
Coues is here setting is to be followed, there will be no stability 
to our nomenclature for a long time, but only, except perhaps to 
a few experts, the most perplexing confusion. The advocacy of 
such revolutions on the score of justice is, it seems to me, calling 
things by wrong names, robbing, as it does, intelligent workers of 
the recognition justly their due, whenever circumstance may favor 
the deciphering of the hieroglyphics of earlier slovenly or ignorant 
writers, of which their own works would never afford an interpre- 
tation. Such researches may be of interest from an antiquarian 
point of view, but they should end with their legitimate results, 
and not be pushed with a view of overturning long-settled names 
in zodlogical nomenclature. I herewith append a list of the Bar- 
tramian names (given in quotation marks) which Dr. Coues 
wishes to see set up, with the nomenclature resulting from his 
determinations, together with their usual equivalents, and with a 
few critical remarks on special points. 

1. ©“ VULTUR ATRATUS, black vulture or carrion crow 
Carthartes atratus (Bartr.). Elsewhere well described. 

“ FALCO GLAUCUS, the sharp-winged hawk, of a pale sky- 
blue color, the tip of the wings black ” = Elanus glaucus (Bartr.) 
Coues = Æ. leucurus auct. Otherwise further described. 

3. “ FALCO SUBCERULIUS, the sharp-winged hawk, of a dusky 
blue color” = Jetinia subcwruleus (Bartr.) Coues = I. Missis- 
sippiensis auct. Otherwise further qeitibed; 

4. “ CORVUS CARNIVORUS, ;the raven” = Corvus corax, var. 
carnivorus (Bartr.) B. B. and R. Adopted in 1858 by Baird, 

ut Bartram’s whole description consists of the names here given 
in quotation marks, with a mark prefixed denoting that it is one 
of the species that ‘arrive in Pennsylvania in the spring sea- 
son, from the South, which, after building nests and rearing 
their young, return again southerly in the autumn.” At page 


26 Bartramian Names in Ornithology. [ January, 


179 Bartram speaks of seeing “the vultures and ravens crouched 
on the crooked limbs of the lofty pines,” ete., in East Florida. 
Is Dr. Coues willing to extend the former range of the raven 
over East Florida, and admit it as a summer migrant from the 
South to Pennsylvania, accepting Bartram as authority, and 
amend his ornithological writings to correspond? Consistency 
certainly calls for this if we adopt Bartram’s name, and “ con- 
sistency is a jewel,” says our author. 

. “© CORVUS MARITIMUS, the great sea-side crow or rook ” = 
Corvus maritimus Bartr. = C. ossifragus Wils. Based on the 
name and the indication of its habitat, though “ great,” as com- 
pared with the others, is erroneous. The ambiguity that over- 
shadows C. carnivorus throws additional doubt upon the identity 
of C. maritimus with C. ossifragus. 

6. ‘ CORVUS FRUGIVORUS, the common crow ” = C. frugivo- 
rus Bartr. =C. Americanus Aud. Based on the name alone and 
“ exactly parallel,” says Dr. Coues, with the case of the raven. 

7. “Corvus FLORIDANUS, pica glandaria minor, the little jay 
of Florida ” =Cyanocitta Floridana (Bartr.) Bon. = Aphelocoma 
Floridana (Bartr.) Cab. At page 212 distinguished from Cya- 
nura cristata. 

8. ““GRACULA PURPUREA, the lesser purple jackdaw, or crow 
blackbird ” = Quiscalus purpureus (Bartr.) Cass. This render- 
ing is evidently not tenable, since the Gracula quiscula of Lin- 
næus (1758), as shown by his description in the Systema Na- 
turæ, refers to this species and not to Q. major, though possibly 
some of the references may. Hence if quiscula is to be used for 
either of the Quiscali, it must be used for purpureus and not for 
major, although Bartram employed it for Q. major, and on this 
ground Dr. Coues suggests its adoption for that species.1 

9. “ CERTHIA RUFA, little brown variegated creeper ” — C. 
Jamiliaris, var. rufa (Bartr.) Coues, ‘with those who separate 
the bird from the European ” — O. Americana auct. 

10. “CERTHIA PINUS, the pine creeper ” — Dendreca pinus 
(Bartr.) Bd. “The name,” says Coues, “ is universally attrib- 
uted to Wilson, but we see here its original source.” Are we quite 


1“ GRACULA QUISCULA, the purple jackdaw of the sea-coast ” Bartram. Dr. Coues 
says, “ The expression ‘purple jackdaw of the sea-coast’ is perfectly diagnostic, the 
sp being thoroughly maritime and always called jackdaw in the countries it 
inhabits.” It, however, shares the name “ purple jackdaw ” with Q. purpureus, see 
Catesby and subsequent early writers. “To those to whom,” Dr. Coues continues, 
“such alliterative names as Sialia sialis, Cupidonia cupido, etc., are unobjectionable, 
I suggest the propriety of calling this species Quiscalus quiscula.” eee 


1876. ] Bartramian Names in Ornithology. 27 


sure? Is it not more likely to be the Helminthophaga pinus, 
which is the ‘“ pine creeper ” of Catesby, and the Certhia pinus of 
Linnzus, since Bartram often quotes Catesby, even in his list, 
and many of his trinomials and English names are the same as 
those of Catesby, and evidently adopted from Catesby. 

11. “ Lucar Livipus, apice nigra, the cat bird or chicken 
bird ” = Lucar Carolinensis (Bartr.) Coues == Mimus Carolinen- 
sis auct. Dr. Coues, presuming “apice nigra” was intended to 
read “ vertice nigra,” which of courseis probable, adopts the name 
Lucar, though “ probably meaningless” and looking “like a mis- 
print,” for the generic name of the cat bird, as being coequal with 
Felivox of Bonaparte and Galeoscoptis of Cabanis, and as equiva- 
lent to Mimus in case the cat bird and mocking birds are to be 
placed in the same genus. 

12. “ MELEAGRIS AMERICANUS, the wild turkey ” — Melea- 
gris gallopavo, var. Americana (Bartr.) Coues. As it is fully de- 
scribed at pages 14 and 83, and binomially named on page 83 
as Meleagris occidentalis, this, if either of Bartram’s names is 
to be adoped, is the one which, according to the rule of priority, 
must be adopted, M. occidentalis having the precedence of 
over two hundred pages in Bartram’s work. Hence we have 
Meleagris gallopavo var. occidentalis (Bartr.)! The name occi- 
dentalis was evidently given in allusion to its being an inhabitant 
of the western world, as he compares it with the Meleagris (Nu- 
mida meleagris) of Africa. 

13. “ CARDUELUS PINUS, the lesser goldfinch” = Chrysomitris 
pinus (Bartr.) Bon. First described by Wilson under the 
same specific name, which name, as Dr. Coues observes, has been 
usually attributed to the latter author. Bartram’s right to pri- 
ority rests solely on the Latin and English names above given, 
which may be presumed to apply to Chrysomitris pinus auct. 

14. “ PASSER pomEsticus, the little house sparrow or chip- 
ping bird ” — Spizella domestica (Barir.) Coues = Spizella soci- 
alis auct. This is another of the lucky cases where the name 
alone seems to determine the species with probable certainty. 

15. “Passer PALUSTRIS, the reed sparrow ” = Melospiza pa- 
lustris (Bartr.) Bd. First described by Wilson under the same 
specific name, to whom the name has heretofore been attributed, 
but is now transferred by Dr. Coues to Bartram, because he pre- 
sumably used the name for a swamp sparrow, and because we 
chance to have but one! 

16. “ PASSER AGRESTIS, the little field sparrow” = Spizella 


28 Bartramian Names in Ornithology. (January, 


agrestis (Bartr.) Coues = S. pusilla auct. First described by 
Wilson under the specific name pusilla, unless it be Gmelin’s Mo- 
tacilla yuncorum, as some have supposed possible. Several of our 
sparrows would better bear the epithet “ little field sparrow ” than 
this; as, for example, Povecetes gramineus and Coturniculus 
passerinus, and also Passerculus savanna, unless the latter should 
be considered too northern for the asterisk in Bartram’s list. 
Spizella pusilla, though now known as “ field sparrow,” is only 
found in fields bordered with thickets or partly overgrown with 
bushes. 

17. “ MOTACILLA DOMESTICA (regulus rufus), the house 
wren ” = Troglodytes domestica (Bartr.) Coues = T. aédon 
auct. Without the English name “house wren,” “ Motacilla 
domestica” would be wholly undeterminable. 

18. “ MOTACILLA PALUSTRIS (reg. minor) the marsh wren” 
= Cistothorus palustris (Bartr.) Bd. First described as palus- 
tris by Wilson, to whom, as Dr. Coues says, this Bartramian name 
has usually been attributed; but why is not Bartram’s palustris 
as likely to be Cistothorus stellaris as anything else ? 

19. © ARDEA MUGITANS, the marsh bittern, or Indian hen ” 
= Botaurus mugitans (Bartr.) Coues = Botaurus lentiginosus 
auct. Can the above names be allowed as a basis for priority, 
“the marsh bittern ” being the only really descriptive part ? 

20. ‘“« TANTALUS PICTUS (Ephouskyka Indian), the erying 
bird, beautifully speckled ” = Aramus pictus (Bartr.) Coues = 
A. giganteus auct. Elsewhere fully described. 

21. “ COLYMBUS FLORIDANUS, the great black cormorant of 
Florida, having a red beak’*= Graculus Floridanus (Bartr.). 
First described by Audubon under the same specific name, proba- 
bly merely by a coincidence. The “red beak” Dr, Coues ex- 
plains as a lapse of memory for “ red gular pouch and lores.” 

From the foregoing it will be seen how very slight are the 
claims Bartram’s names have to priority over those in current 
use. Of the twenty-one given above, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 7, 11 (the 
generic name only), 12 (occidentalis, not Americana), and 20, — 
six or seven in all, — are the only ones that, in justice to all 
parties, can rightfully stand. One (No. 10) has been shown to . 
be almost unquestionably Linnæan, not Bartramian. 

In conclusion, I would suggest to the author of the article under 
review, who seems so zealous in the vindication of a truly saga- 
cious naturalist, the propriety of also claiming for him priority in 
the discovery of the geographical law of variation in size in North 


1876. } The Harvard Summer School of Geology. 29 


American mammals, —a law it took naturalists fifty years longer 
to develop and formulate, — since Bartram repeatedly alludes to 
the smaller size of animals of the same species in Georgia and 
Florida than in Pennsylvania, especially the wolves, deer, foxes, 
“and other animals.” At page 216 of his Travels, for instance, 
after referring to the small size of the horses of Florida, he says, 
“It is a matter of conjecture and inquiry, whether or not the dif- 
ferent soil and situation of the country may have contributed in 
some measure in forming and establishing the difference in size 
and other qualities betwixt them. I have observed the horses 
and other znimals in the high hilly country of Carolina, Georgia, 
Virginia, and all along our shores, are much larger and stronger 
than those bred in the flat country next the sea-coast ; a buck- 
skin of the Upper Creeks and Cherokees will weigh twice as 
heavy as those of the Siminoles or Lower Creeks, and those bred 
in the low flat country of Carolina.” 


THE HARVARD SUMMER SCHOOL OF GEOLOGY. 
BY PROFESSOR N. S. SHALER. 


[RE first session of this, the last to be established of the sev- 
eral schools for summer teaching which have been originated by 
the officers of Harvard University, held its first session at Cum- 
berland Gap, Kentucky, during the past summer. The design 
was to give practical field instruction in geology to teachers and 
others of some training in science and general culture, who might 
desire to acquire the methods of such work. ‘The Governor of 
Kentucky having given an invitation to the President of Harvard 
College to place the school in Kentucky, and having offered the 
 Coöperation of the Kentucky Geological Survey, the school was 
established at Cumberland Gap, within the State of Kentucky but 
near to the state lines of Tennessee and Virginia. Though re- 
mote from the routes of travel, this point offered peculiar advan- 
tages for the study of stratigraphic, topographical, and dynamic 
geology. The structure of the Appalachian mountain system is- 
exceedingly well shown at this point; the section extends from 
the lower Potsdam sandstone to the middle coal measures, giving 
about twelve thousand feet of beds within forty miles of distance ; 
a wonderful system of faults of different ages bring these beds to 
view at many different points and enable the student to observe 
them under varied conditions; a short distance away, within plain 


30 The Harvard Summer School of Geology. [January, 


view, lies the great Unaka chain, where are found the highest 
points in eastern North America. The rocks are generally rich 
in fossils, the section, taking it altogether, giving a peculiarly good 
illustration of the life of the American palæozoic rocks. The 
subcarboniferous and Upper Cambrian limestones being very 
massive, afford a remarkable series of caverns, some of great ex- 
tent and many abounding in human remains. 

Despite a season of great and unprecedented rain-fall, nearly 
thirty inches im two months, there was no serious illness in the 
camp. 

Restrictions were put on the number of students, more applica- 
tions having been rejected than accepted. The class in attend- 
ance numbered thirty-one persons, more than half of whom were 
teachers engaged in science-instruction in various academies, nor- 
mal schools and colleges in different parts of the country. 

The instruction consisted of lectures and practical work in the 
field, the latter occupying by far the larger part of the time. The 
routine of work was about as follows: at six A. M. a lecture and 
discussion on the last field work ; another lecture in the evening, 
generally on some zodlogical subject. The daylight was used in 
field-work near camp, except by those who were out on larger ex- 
cursions; two or three of the excursions, each occupying from 
two to four days, were made each week; parties of from four to 
twelve, with one or more instructors, made a foot journey together 
over a section of the neighboring field. Each party had a wagon 
or pack mule, according to the country, and an outfit of provis- 
ions and camp utensils for rough camping. On its return the 
party was expected to report the results öf its work at one of the 
evening meetings. Most of the students made great progress in 
the field-work, some of them being brought to the point of making 
extended journeys, from which they would bring back well- 
digested reports, without the guidance of an instructor. 

The following gentlemen were engaged in the administration 
and instruction of the school: Mr. N. S. Shaler, Professor of Pa- 
leontology of Harvard University, and Director of the Kentucky 
Geological Survey; Mr. Walter Faxon, Instructor in Zodlogy of 
Harvard University ; Messrs. Lucian Carr, A. R. Crandall, F. N. 
Moore, W. B. Page, C. J. Norwood, John H. Talbutt, and John 
R. Proctor, Assistants in the Kentucky Geological Survey. Pro- 
fessors Safford and Kerr, State Geologists of North Carolina and 
Tennessee respectively, assisted in the instruction either in the 
camp or in the field. Professor Jordan, of Northwestern Univer- 


1876.] Ancient Ruins in Southwestern Colorado. 31 


sity, Indianapolis, Indiana, gave some instruction in ichthyology. 
Near the close of the work, in the latter part of August, several 
parties were organized to afford the students the opportunity of 
making extended journeys in the direction of their homes. One 
or these parties made a journey of two weeks and another of four 
weeks through the mountains of eastern Kentucky and Virginia. 
Professor Kerr accompanied a party through a part of the mount- 
ains of North Carolina. 

The instruction of the camp began July 1st and closed August 
30th. It is proposed to hold the next session of the school at or 
near the same point, in 1876. The number of students admit- 
ted will probably be increased to fifty, and the other conditions 
will remain the same. The eminent success of the experiment 
was in the main due to the coöperation of the Kentucky Geolog- 
ical Survey. This survey furnished six skilled persons, who had 
been trained in the study of the rocks of the State, to the list of 
teachers. It is satisfactory to note that this assistance was given 
without any detriment to the researches of the survey, it being 
found that the students were a help rather than a hindrance to 
the work of the assistants. 

It should be noted that the class was limited to persons who 
Were graduates, or who were actually engaged in teaching or in 
fitting themselves for the work of professional geologists. 


— 
ANCIENT RUINS IN SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO. 


ME W.-H. JACKSON, the photographer to Professor Hay- 
den’s United States Geological Survey of the Territories, 
describes and figures in the Bulletin (second series, No. 1) of the 
Survey certain ancient ruins of Indian structures discovered in 
the valleys and gorges of the extreme southern corner of Colorado 
Territory. o 
One of the most perfect houses seen was discovered in the 
‘crevices of the escarpment of the Mancos Cañon, eight hundred 
feet vertically above the stream at its bottom. This house (Plate 
I., Fig. 12; this and plates I. and II. were kindly loaned by 
Professor Hayden) is two storied, and remarkable, not only on 
account of its elevated and almost inaccessible position, but from 
the pains with which it was built, the walls having been con- 
structed of carefully dressed stone, plastered within and painted 
m two colors. 


ay 
Ei TETP. | 
H i 
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is 
ANARON oF 
à ASN | : 
NANIA i | | 
; MEGLELIS pep 4 


Emini DA 


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ee 


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nite 

W N a ETEEN 
fa a AA i = 
‘ eee Seo 


A 


j P 
es, Shii 
: TR fff i 

Mp ant LU ge 
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e. i 3 ee BEE, Me | S x 
<N) a) DOD S 


ANCIENT RUINS IN COLORADO, 


1876.] Ancient Ruins in Southwestern Colorado. 33 


“ The house itself, perched up in its little crevice like a swal- 
low’s nest, consisted of two stories, with a total height of about 
twelve feet, leaving a space of two or three feet between the top 
of the walls and the overhanging rock. We could not determine 
satisfactorily whether any other roof had ever existed or whether 
the walls ran up higher and joined the rock, but we incline to 
the first supposition. The ground plan showed a front room 
about six by nine féet in dimensions, and back of it two smaller 
ones, the face of the rock forming their back walls. These were 
each about five by seven feet square. The left hand of the two 
back rooms projected beyond the front room in an L. The cedar 
beams, which had divided the house into two floors, were gone, 
with the exception of a few splintered pieces and ends remaining ` 
in the wall, just enough to show what they were made of. We 
had some little doubt as to whether the back rooms were divided 
in the same way, nothing remaining to prove the fact excepting 
holes in the walls, at the same- height as the beams in the other 
portion. In the lower front room were two apertures, one serv- 
ing as a door and opening out upon the esplanade, about twenty 
by thirty inches in size, the lower sill twenty-four inches from | 
the floor, and the other a small outlook, about twelve inches 
Square, up near the ceiling, and looking over the whole cañon 
beneath. In the upper story, a window corresponded in size, 
shape, and position to the larger one below, both commanding 
an extended view down the cañon. The upper lintel of this 
window was of small, straight sticks of cedar, of about the size of 
one’s finger, laid close together, the small stones of the masonry 
resting upon them. Directly opposite this window was a similar 
one, as shown in the figure, but opening into a large reservoir, or 
cistern, the upper walls of which came nearly to the top of the 
window. It was semicircular, inclosing the angle formed by the 
wall against the rock, with an approximate capacity of about two 
and a half hogsheads. From the window and extending down 
to the bottom of the reservoir was a series of cedar pegs, about a 
foot apart, enabling the occupants to easily reach the bottom. 

“ The entire construction of this little human eyrie displayed 
wonderful perseverance, ingenuity, and some taste. Perpendic- 
ulars were well regarded, and the angles carefully squared. The 
Stones of the outer rooms or front were all squared and smoothly 
faced, but were not laid in regular courses, as they are not uni- 
form in size, ranging from fifteen inches in length and eight in 
thickness down to very small ones. About the corners and the 

VOL. X. — No, 1. 3 


MANE 


ss: 
Be ee 
CHG oe 


ANCIENT RUINS IN COLORADO. 


1876. ] Ancient Ruins in Southwestern Colorado. 35 


windows, considerable care and judgment were evident in the 
overlapping of the joints, so that all was held firmly together. 
The only sign ‘of weakness was in the bulging outward of the 
front wall, produced by the giving way or removal of the floor 
beams. The back portions were built of rough stone, firmly 
cemented together. The mortar was compact and hard, of a 
_ grayish-white, resembling lime mortar, but cracking all over, like 
some of the adobe mortars. All the interstices between the 
larger stones were carefully chinked in with small chips of the 
same material. The partitions were of the same character as the 
smooth wall outside, both presenting somewhat the appearance 
of having been rubbed down smooth after they were laid. The 
apertures from one room to another were small, corresponding 
in size and position to those outside., Most peculiar, however, 
was the dressing of the walls of the upper and lower front rooms. 
Both were plastered with a thin layer of some firm cement, of 
about an eighth of an inch in thickness, and colored a deep 
maroon-red, with a dingy white band eight inches in breadth 
running around the floor, sides, and ceiling. In some places it 
had peeled away, exposing a smoothly dressed surface of rock. 
No signs of ornamentation, other than the band alluded to, were 
visible.” 

Of some of the other ruins observed in this cañon and photo- 
graphed, Fig. 1 represents the ground-plan of around tower, con- 
sisting of two circular walls, with the intervening space divided 
Into separate apartments. A tower somewhat larger than usual, 
adjoining a rectangular structure, is represented by Figs. 2 and 
8. The tower was twelve feet in diameter, and at the present 
time about twenty in height, the wall being some sixteen inches 
In thickness. Fig. 4 represents a portion of a doorway and one 
corner of a carefully built house, while Fig. 5 depicts a cliff-house, 
one hundred feet above the level of the bottom of the cañon, Fig. 

ing a copy of some inscriptions upon the walls of the cañon 
near by. Another cliff-house, eight hundred feet above the cañon, 
!S represented by Fig. 7, while Fig. 8 indicates the tenacity of the 
cement, the isolated portion still remaining firmly attached to its 
foundation. A general view of the cañon of the Rio Mancos near 
its outlet from the Mesa Verde is given at Fig. 13. The table- 
lands upon either hand vary from five hundred to one thousand 
feet in height, and it is in the darkly shaded lines in the upper 
half of the high bluff on the right that the little houses are found, 
48 shown in Figs. 5, 7, and 12. 


i - — , 


Ea eee 


te zy 
paan ee 


A 


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Og 
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een j gt 
a AN 
j ri g \ y 
Wi KAAN 
RAM 


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A 


i 


ANCIENT RUINS IN COLORADO. 


1876.] Recent Literature. 37 


Passing into Utah, Mr. Jackson came upon the ruins of an 
Indian village (Fig. 14) situated in the bluffs of the valley of 
the Hovenweep, of which Fig. 11, Plate II., is a ground plan; 
the area extended a hundred yards. 

In the valley of the McElmo, Utah, was found a square tower 
(Fig. 9) on the summit of an elevated rock. Fig. 10 represents 
an isolated rock in the same valley, covered with ruined houses 
and walls. A Moquis tradition states, according to Mr. Ernest 
Ingersoll, who accompanied Mr. Jackson’s party, that at this 
spot, in ages past, their ancestors made their last stand against 
the northern tribes before retreating to their present villages. 

Over New Mexico and Arizona are scattered similar ruins 
which have been described since the sixteenth century, when 
Vaca saw them occupied. The present Moquis Indians inhabit 
such structures, and it seems probable that their ancestors, an 
agricultural people, were driven up the cafions by the incursions 
of hostile tribes from the north. 


pease ater caesarean 
RECENT LITERATURE. 


Sacus’s Text-Boox or Botany.!— The present translation is based 
on the third edition of Sachs’s Lehrbuch, a work which has been ex- 
traordinarily successful in Germany, a fourth edition having made its ap- 
pearance during the progress of the English translation. It has also 
been translated into French by Van Tieghem. The difficult task of ren- 
dering technical German words and phrases into clear and forcible En- 
glish has been very well performed by the translators, and it seems to us 
that they have shown good taste in making but few annotations, and 
those explanatory rather than controversial. The text and illustrations 
are excellent, quite as good as those of the German edition, which is cer- 
tainly Saying a great deal. ‘ 

The mere fact that the present translation has already been favorably 
received in England and this country shows that it supplies a want which 
the ordinary English text-books, excellent as they are in some respects, 

0 not satisfy. This want isa book which shall give something more 
than a description of the organs of flowering plants, and a detailed ac- 
fount of the orders into which they are divided. It cannot be denied that 
m this country the tendency has been to consider the chief, if not the 
only aim of botany to be the classification of phanerogams and the de- 
scription of new species. The excellent translation of Sachs will, it is to 

1 Text-Book of Botany, Morphological and Physiological. By Jutius Sacus. 
Translated and annotated by ALrrep W. Bennett and W. T. THIsSELTON DYER. 
Oxford: At the Clarendon Press. London: Macmillan & Co, 1875. $12.50. 


38 Recent Literature. (January, 


be hoped, do much towards correcting this misconception of the true spirit 
of botany. In the text-book before us only 160 pages are devoted to 
phanerogams, while the part relating to cryptogams fills 213 pages, and 
that to physiology a still greater number of pages; so that the reader 
cannot fail to draw the conclusion that what many botanical students in 
this country have been in the habit of regarding as the most important 
thing, is only one branch of the science, and by no means more impor- 
tant than others. Even in that part of the text-book relating to phane- 
rogams there are many ways of looking at familiar subjects which will be 
new to American botanists, as, for example, the theory of the carpel, and 
we cannot fail to see that, after all, some things which we have come to 
regard as facts are nothing but plausible theories, and that other people 
may have different but equally good theories. 

In the fourth edition of the Lehrbuch is a classification of Thallophytes 
which is given as an appendix to the translation. Sachs rejects the old 
division into algæ, fungi, and lichens, and, instead, gives a series of paral- 
lel groups, those, on one hand, containing chlorophyll and those, on the 
other, free from chlorophyll. The existence of parallel groups in alge 
and fungi has long been known, but we believe this is the first general 
text-book in which the division into alge and fungi has been abandoned. 
Although in a general way correct, the details of Sachs’s classification 
cannot be accepted. Although Sachs is preéminently a physiologist, it 
seems to us that he has been quite as successful in his presentation of the 
researches of others in anatomy and cryptogamy, as of his own researches 
in physiology. We are not made very much wiser by being told that 
many motions arise from the tension of tissues, and it seems as though the 
term reiz, which may mean either irritation or some inherent attractive 
force, were only a learned way of concealing ignorance. Throughout the 
book we are impressed with the fact that advance in botany during later 
times has been dependent on the use of the compound microscope. Here- 
after it will be as impossible for a botanist to keep up with the times 
without doing microscopic work as for an astronomer to succeed without 
a telescope. 

It is to be regretted that the price of the translation is so high, but the 
number and quality of the illustrations probably render it necessary. 
It would be at least a consolation to American purchasers to know ex- 
actly what the price is, or ought to be, in this country. We imported the 
book directly by mail and were obliged to pay $8.60; others have been 
charged as high as $12, and one, more fortunate, procured a copy at a 
book store for $8. It has been suggested that the work be divided 
into parts to be sold separately, and, although students should not 
read one part to the exclusion of others, many would be able to purchase 
the separate parts at different times who could not afford to buy the 
whole at once. An abstract of the translation corresponding to Prantl’s 
abridgment of the German would hardly be advisable, but a translation 
of Thomé’s Lehrbuch der Botanik, would be preferable. 


1876.] Recent Literature. 39 


Caton’s SUMMER IN Norway.!— From a careful reading of this 
attractive and unpretending book, and from similar experiences in the 
southern and middle portions of Norway, we feel entitled to say that 
Judge Caton has given American readers a thoroughly reliable account 
of Norway, particularly the extreme north. English books about Nor- 
way are not so scarce as the author states, but the present volume gives 
the most complete and accessible general account of this interesting 
country we have seen. The author lays no claim to a knowledge of 
geology; the raised beaches and glaciers, on which he does not dwell, 


if X 


Wo 
"i 4) 


(Fig. 1.) pe DEER OR STAG OF „EUROPE. 
have =~ fully described by Forbes in his elaborate work, Norway 
and i Ah aa and by Chambers, while the wonderful valleys of 


1A S Norway. With Notes on the Industries, Habits, Customs, and 
Peculiatities of of the People, the History and Institutions of the Country, its Climate, 

Opography, and Productions. Also an Account of the Red Deer, Reindeer, and 
Elk. With ek and Wood-Cuts. By Jonn Dean Caton, LL. D. Chicago: 
Jansen, McClurg, & Co. 1875. 8vo, pp. 401. 


(Fie.2.) WILD EUROPEAN REINDEER — MALE. 


(Fig. 8.) 


Recent Literature. 


[ January, 


i F 
MANZ-CHIC 


WILD EUROPEAN REINDEER — FEMALE, 


187 6.] . Recent Literature. 41 


Norway, more like the cafions of the West than any mountain gorges 
we have seen elsewhere, are not mentioned. 

But of the reindeer and Scandinavian elk our author speaks with the 
interest and decision of an expert, and his opinion on the specific rela- 
tions of these animals with our caribou and moose should receive due 
consideration. 


ely 
j A, 
wi 73 


The red deer (Fig. 1), now confined in Norway to the two islands of 
Hatterroen and Smien, and which in Bohemia has successfully interbred 
with the American Wapati deer, the author suggests is conspecific with the 
Wapati or American elk (Cervus Canadensis). So also the reindeer (Fig. 
2, male, Fig. 3, female) is, we believe, correctly regarded as the same species 
4s our caribou. Judge Caton, in his visit to the Lapps, went among a herd 
of these timid animals, and had a good opportunity of studying them. He 
remarks that in size “this deer is less than our woodland caribou, with 
which it is identical in species, but in Eastern Asia the domesticated rein- 
deer is a much larger and finer animal than in Lapland, and closely re- 
sembles in form and development our woodland caribou. There they are 
used for the saddle by the Tunguses, and highly prized for that purpose, 


42 Recent Literature. [January, 


as we are informed by Erman.” Again, on page 238, he says, “ During- 
that examination, with the animal so close before me, and made still more 

critical by handling it, I became entirely convinced of the specific iden- 
tity of the reindeer of Lapland and the woodland caribou of America, 

and in this opinion I was only confirmed by a subsequent examination of 

the wild reindeer of Norway.” 

The Scandinavian elk was also at one time domesticated, and success- 
fully broken to draw loads, but the experiment was abandoned, while 
trials made in America, our author tells us, proved that it can be do- 
mesticated. 

On the southern edge of the Dovre Fjeld he passed by the present 
habitat in Norway of the elk (Fig. 4), “ which is specifically identical with 
the American moose, though it is a little less in size and not quite so 
dark in color, but in all essential particulars they are precisely alike, and 
if one from either side of the Atlantic were transferred to the other, no 
one would suspect that he was an emigrant.” 

Of the quality of the illustrations, our readers, through the liberality 
of the author and his publishers, have an opportunity to judge. They 
were drawn by an excellent German artist, from animals preserved in 
captivity, and while standing quietly. In the case of the elk, however 
we doubt whether the engraver has done justice to the drawing of the 
artist. ; 

Some unfortunate typographical errors occur, as “ Dover-fjeld” for 
Dovre-fjeld, “ Felle Fjeld” for Fille Fjeld, “ Romsdel Fjord” for Roms- 
dal Fjord, while in most, if not every case, Christiania is spelled “ Chris- 
tiana.” 


DicnoGamy IN Prants.1— Our readers will recall with pleasure a 
translation of some of Professor Delpino’s notes on this subject printed 
in this journal, July, 1871. 

The present work is far more comprehensive than its modest title in- 
dicates. It classifies the insect-visited flowers upon a new basis, namely, 
with regard to the attractions which they offer insects, and birds as well ; 
it presents, however, an exhaustive statement of the peculiarities of 
structure which render close-fertilization unlikely. As a mere hint of 
the method, we will allude to the group of odoriferous blossoms. These 
flowers are divided into two classes, sympathic and idiopathic. The 
former is subdivided into those flowers which are (1) sweet-smelling, 
(2) aromatic, (3) fruity in odor, like Calycanthus. ‘The second class, 
comprises (4) those with heavy odor (e. g., Papaver), and (5) those which 
are nauseous, as some of the stapelias. But it must be further stated 


1 Ulteriori Osservazioni sulla Dicogamia nel Regno vegetale, per FEDERICO DELPINO: 
parte seconda, pascicolo ii. Milano, 1875. : 

er Observations and Considerations respecting Dichogamy in the Vegetable King- 
dom Detrrno. (This volume of 350 pages is an extract from the Proceed- 
ings of the Italian Society of Natural Sciences in Milan, vols. xvi., xvii.) 


1876.] Botany. 48 


that these five classes are broken up again into forty-five smells, and 
each smell has a name! The author has, here and there, made a little 
blunder of an amusing, but not serious character. For instance, our old 
friend of the bogs, skunk cabbage, figures as Pothos fætida, under the 
head odore alliaceo, and again with the name Simplocarpus (sic) fætidus 
in the monotypic class odore mefitico ; which is not so båd, after all. 
The volume is as attractive to entomologists as to botanists ; both wil 

find it full of suggestions in regard to examinations of flowers and their 
visitants ; both will complain that a work so full of details should have 
no fiijex. The table of contents is analytical and full, but does not re- 
place the index which we have the right to expect. 


Recent Booxs anp Pamputets. — The Structure and Development of the Sting 
and Ovipositor of Certain Hymenoptera and the Green Grasshopper, . H. 
Dewitz. 8vo, pp. 26. (From Siebold and Kölliker’s Zeitschrift.) 

List of the Fishes, Tunicata, Polyzoa, Crustacea, Annulata, Entozoa, Echinoder- 
mata, Anthozoa, Hydrozoa, and Sponges known from Greenland. Compiled for 
the use of the British North-Polar Expedition. By Dr. Chr. F. Lütken. 1875. 
8vo, pp. 115 to 197. London. 

The Vertebrata of the Cretaceous Formations of the habe By E. D. Cope. 
United States Geological Survey of the Territories. Washington, D. C., 1875. 4to, 
8 803, With 57 lithographic plates. (For sale,by the faslacitieee Agency, Salem, 

ass.) 

Recherches sur les Phénomènes de la Digestion chez les Insectes. By F. Plateau. 
Bruxelles. 1874. 4to, pp. 124, 3 plates. 

Check List of the Noctuide of America North of Mexico. By A. R. Grote. 
Bombyciæ and Noctuelite. Buffalo, N. Y. 1875. 8vo, pp. 28, with a plate. fect 
sale by the Naturalist’s Agency, Salem, Mass. 

e American Journal of Microscopy. New York Industrial Publication Co. 
Vol. I. No.1. December, 1875, 8vo, pp. 12. Fifty cents a year, single number 
six cents. 

The Illustrated ete pire of Rural Affairs for 1876. Albany, New York: 
Luther Tucker and No. A 

Synopsis of the Odoniia of aaah By Dr. H. A. Hagen. (From the Proceedings 
of the Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. xviii , 1875.) Boston, 1875. 8vo, pp. 76. 

Bulletin of the United States National Museum. No. 1. Check List of North 
American Batrachia and Reptilia. By Edward D. Cope. Se: stoner of the Interior, 

-S. National Museum.) Washington, D. C. 1875. 8vo, pp. 

Die Gastrula und die Eifurchung der Thiere. og Brit Hiii. (From the 
Jenaische Zeitschrift, 1875.) With 7 plates. 8vo, pp- 106. 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY.' 

DıcHocamy 1x EPILOBIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM. — That the anthers 
shed their pollen before the stigmas of that flower are in condition to 
receive it, is one of the observations of Sprengel, at the very beginning 
of our knowledge of this subject. But he seems not to have called at- 
tention to the additional security against close-fertilizing, caused by the 
recurving of the style during the early anthesis, while the pollen is shed- 

1 Conducted by Pror. G. L. GOODALE. 


44 General Notes. [January 


ding, and its erection afterwards so as to bring the now expanded stig- 
mas into the line of the axis of the blossom. Nor-does Lubbock allude 
to anything of the kind. This I shall elsewhere illustrate. The present 
object is to call attention to a point which I had not observed, but which 
is mentioned in a letter from a former pupil, Mr. W. M, Courtis ; namely; 
that only seven of the stamens shed their pollen before the stigmas 
expand, the eighth anther opening afterwards; or in some flowers two 
anthers are thus late ; “as if it might be nature’s plan to insure cross- 
fertilization if possible, but if not, self-fertilization would be possible.” 
This should be looked after next summer. — A. Gray. 

DIMORPHISM IN CLAXTONIA. — The number of hermaphrodite flowers 
in which either dichogamy or dimorphism is known to occur, already 
large, increases with attentive observation. Mr. E. L. Hankenson, of 
Newark, New York, finds two forms of Claytonia Virginica, and sends 
copious specimens ; one form has an elongated style and short filaments ; 
the other long filaments which equal or overtop the style, the latter, how- 
ever, not absolutely shorter than in the counterpart form. It would be 
interesting to know if this holds true generally. — A. Gray. 

CHEILANTHES ALABAMENSIS. — As ferns are now much sought, it is 
worth recording that Mr. Walter Faxon last summer discovered this 
southern species within the limits of Gray’s Manual, on Indian Creek 
at the boundary between Lee County, Virginia, and Claiborne County, 
Tennessee. — A. Gray 

Tae Hortrsock Puccrnta.— A note in the October NATURALIST, 
by Mr. Meehan, in which he states that Puccinia malvesarum has 
probably existed in this country for many years, leads me to say that 
ever since notices in foreign journals, regarding the sudden and wide- 
spread appearance of this fungus in Europe, have appeared, I have 
taken more notice than usual of all hollyhocks that I have met with (and 
the plants are abundant in this country, not only in cultivation but as 
garden weeds and scapes to roadsides), but have failed to find the Puc- 
cinia. On several occasions I have found at roadsides hollyhock plants 
whose leaves were densely covered with brownish spots, and having the 
same appearance as leaves infested with the Puccinia (of which I have 
many specimens from England and Germany) ; on examination, however, 
no fungus was found, but it appeared to me that the spots were of insect 
origin. If not the work of insects it may be possible that they were 
due to a species of Phyllorticta (P. destruens Derm. ?) whose perithecia 
would have appeared later in the season. — W. R. GERARD. 


he does not treat at all critically, the author describes experiments with 
löss, a diluvial earth found in the valley of the Rhine. When the rail- 
road station Monsheim (at Worms) was built, the earth was dug away 


1876.] Botany. 45 


to a depth of twelve feet. Some of the löss was taken with necessary 
precautions, and securely sealed until the Kta spring (1865). In 
May, twenty-four flower pots were half-fille manure which had 
been heated in order to destroy any seeds aai and on this substra- 
tum some of the löss was placed, leaving an air space above, of two 
inches, and each pot was covered by a glass disk which had a bit of 
wood under one edge to allow access of air. The surface of the löss” 
soon had plenty of ferns and mosses, just like those which are so 
abundant in all greenhouses. A few phenogamic plants came up; four 
which could not be determined accurately were suppdsed to be Vaccinium 
myrtillus, a second, a Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum ; afterwards a third 
came up, a Galium, and finally an Equisetum. A second series of exper- 
iments, conducted with greater care fo exclude all waifs, gave wholly 
negative results. Some molds, a coat of moss, and a single grass, Festuca 
pratensis, were the only plants within the bell-jars. R 
THE PRIMORDIAL UTRICLE. — Professor Pfeffer has lately studied 
the so-called primordial utricle, with the following results, which are given 
in the Botanische Zeitung, October 1st, from Kölnische Zeitung, 1875, 
248. Protoplasm placed in contact with aqueous solutions becomes 
clothed on all sides with a delicate membrane caused by precipitation. 
This is the so-called primordial utricle. In protoplasm, certain albumi- 
noids are dissolved, which separate out in water because their solvent 
is withdrawn. But this is limited to the surface of contact, because 
the membrane formed by precipitation does not allow the solvent to 
pass through. What this solvent is, has not been ascertained positively, 
but it is believed to be something beside the inorganic salts which, in 
egg-albumin, hold a protein substance in solution. 
RIGIN OF HIGH HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE IN VEGETABLE CELLS. 
— In the Botanische Zeitung, November 5th, there is an abstract of a 
communication made by Professor Pfeffer to the botanical section of the 
Association of German Naturalists and Physicians, at Graz, 1875, on the 
subject of the origin of high hydrostatic pressure in vegetable cells. 
This pressure, amounting sometimes to seve atmospheres, even where 
there is only slight concentration of the fluid contents of the cells, led 
him, on theoretical grounds, to refer it to the molecular condition of the 
Primordial utricle. ‘Chis conclusion was confirmed by experiment. With 
contraction of the molecular interspaces, resistance to filtration increases, 
and likewise the pressure which is brought about endosmotically. Thus 
in the case of the precipitated membrane of ferrocyanide of copper (see 
Sachs’s Text-Book, p. 597) a pressure of two atmospheres can be ob- 
tained, provided the film finds a suitable support, in a two per cent. solu- 
tion of cane sugar. In the brief account given, there are no details as 
to the method of determining the amount of pressure. The resistance 
of the membrane to filtration is a complex force dependent on several 
Variables, but with changes in this resistance, hydrostatic pressure is 


46 General Notes. [January, 


changed; for instance, by heating, since thus the molecular interspaces 
are increased. This theory was then ingeniously applied to the expla- 
nation of periodic movements in plants. 

Boranicat Papers IN Recent Perropicas.— It is intended to give 
under this head the titles of the principal papers relating to botany and 
vegetable physiology, contained in the scientific journals and proceedings 
of societies, The enumeration will not always be exhaustive, nor will short 
notes or memoranda be mentioned unless of particular interest. _ A few 
of the following titles are at second-hand from Sklarek’s Repertorium der 
Naturwissenschaften, October, 1875. 3 

American Journal of Science and Arts, November, 1875. Æstivation 
and its terminology, by Prof. Asa Gray (gives the history, and discusses 
the question, of the proper term to be applied to the mode variously 
called obvolute, contorted, or convolute). 

Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Olub, New York, October and No- 
vember, 1875. Lichens of Kerguelen’s Land, by Professor Edward 
Tuckerman. (Among the species collected by Dr. Kidder in the U. S. 
Transit Expedition is a new genus, Urceolina.) Notes. upon Anychia 
dichotoma, by John H. Redfield (suggests the reëstablishment of two 
species). Dimorphism or'trimorphism in Pontederia cordata, by W. H. 
Leggett. 

The Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, November, 1875. De- 


scriptions of new plants from the Nicobar Islands, etc., by S. Kurz (giv- 


ing also a short account of the principal features of the vegetation of this 
group in the Indian Ocean). New lichens from Kerguelen’s Land, by 
the Rev. J. M. Crombie: Professor Tuckerman’s paper in the October 
number of the Bulletin of the Torrey Club has a month’s priority. 

Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, October, 1875, has two 
photographs of microscopic preparations of the resting spores of the 
potato fungus. Mr. W. G. Smith observes that the organisms now pho- 
tographed are identical with the bodies found thirty years ago by Dr. 
Rayer, of Paris, and afterwards placed in the hands of Rev. Mr. Berkeley. 
These specimens are still in existence and have been photographed to 
the same scale as the recently found bodies. In the same journal Pro- 
fessor McNab gives a condensed translation of Dr. Oscar Brefeld’s 
memoir on the life-history of Penicillium, a gmn of low fungi to which 
the common pale blue mold belongs. 

Journal of the Linnean Society, October 11th. Notes on the Gamo- 
petalous orders belonging to the Campanulaceous and Oleaceous groups, 
by George Bentham (dealing with the development of the former group 
and the geographical distribution of both). Notes on the occurrence of- 
“fairy-rings,” by J. H. Gilbert. ‘The highly nitrogenous fungi flour- 
ished strikingly, and appeared in ‘ fairy-rings’ on two plots only,” in 
Mr. Gilbert’s experiments. “On neither of these was nitrogen or potass 
applied as manure.” On the characteristic coloring-matters of the red 


1876. ] Botany. 47 


groups of Alge, by H. C. Sorby. Six different characteristic coloring- 
matters, soluble in water, have been detected and are here described. 

e six are referred to two typical coloring-matters, Phycocyan and 
Phycoerythrin. 

The Gardeners’ Chronicle, November 20, 1875. Rue, a popular ac- 
count of its historical and legendary associations. Autumn tints of trees, 
by J. McNab. Garcinia mangostana, by Mr. Prestoe, of Trinidad (an 
interesting description, with plates, of the fruit of the mangosteen). 

Comptes rendus des Séances de V Académie des Sciences, September 20, 
1875. On the rôle of the protective sheath of the vascular bundles in 
herbaceous dicotyledons, by J. Vesque. On the development and struct- 
ure of glands within the leaf, by J. Chatin. September 27th. Abnormal 
variation of hybrid plants, by Ch. Naudin. 

Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Botanique, 1875-1-1. New researches 
respecting the Mucorinee, by Ph. Van Tieghem. To be hereafter no- 


iced. 

Jahrbucher fiir Wissenchaftl. Botanik, Bd. X., heft 2. On the anat- 
omy of leaves, by Reinke (with special reference to certain glands oc- 
curring on them). On the fertilization of Basidiomycetes, by Max Reess. 
Germination of the spores of Cyathus (a gastromycetous fungus), by R. 
Hesse. On the development of certain leaves, by A. B. Frank (treat- 
ing chiefly of the theory of interposition). 

Flora, 1875, No. 22. On growth, and the formation of chlorophyll, 
by C. Kraus. (The formation of chlorophyll does not retard growth.) 
No. 23. Abnormal fir-cones, by Döbner. On the action of vegetable 
acids on chlorophyll within the plant, by C. Kraus. (No effect pro- 
duced unless the protoplasma and the contained chlorophyll are en- 
feebled.) No. 26, On abnormal cones, by A. Braun. 

Botanische Zeitung, October 1st to November 5th, inclusive. Fertili- 
zation of species of Agaricus, by Dr. E. Eidam. In reports of societies : 
Gottingen, H. Conwentz shows that the microscopic anatomy of the vascu- 
lar bundles may be sometimes used as a diagnosti¢ character in ferns. 
Bonn: On the formation of the primordial utricle, by Professor Pfeffer 
(elsewhere noticed). Leipsic: An examination of certain lichens with 
respect to the Schwendener theory, by G. Winter (favorable to the 
theory). New Peronosporee, by Schenk. On certain fungi, by G. Win- 
ter. On intercellular thickening in the cellular tissue of ferns, by 
Luerssen. On flesh-eating plants, by Reess and Will. (Investigations 
made before the appearance of Mr. Darwin’s treatise, and generally con- 
firming his results, by more technical methods of research.) On the 
origin of high hydrostatic pressure in vegetable cells, by Dr. Pfeffer 
(elsewhere noticed). On the morphology of vascular cryptogams, by 
Dr. Frank (comparing them with the lower grades). On the lower 
limits of sexuality in plants, by Dodel-Port. On fertilization, by Stras- 
burger. On the plants of Ætna, by Professor Strobl. Brandenburg: 


48 General Notes. [ January, 


On the arrangement of the leaflets in ferns and cycads, by A. Braun. 
(The leaflets in the former have the posterior edge of the one leaf cover- 
ing the anterior edge of the one behind it; the leaflets in cycads are the 
reverse of this. There are said to be a few exceptions in ferns.) Halle: 
On the anatomical structure of the roots of certain Convolvulacee, by 
Schmitz. (This paper is of pharmaceutical interest, being devoted to the 
detection of adulterations in drugs of the order, such as jalap.) A con- 
tribution to the subject of the vitality of seeds, by H. Hoffmann (else- 
where noticed). Some other notices are unavoidably deferred. 


ZOOLOGY. 


Tue EXTINCTION or THE Great AUK AT THE FUNK IsLanpDs. — 
Mr. Michael Carroll, of Bonavista, Newfoundland, has recently given 
me the following very interesting facts respecting the extermination of 
the great auk (Alea impennis) at the Funk Islands. In early life he 
was often a visitor to these islands, and a witness of what he here de- 
scribes. He says these birds were formerly very numerous on the Funk 
Islands, and forty-five to fifty years ago were hunted for their feathers, 
soon after which time they were wholly exterminated. As the auks 
could not fly, the fishermen would surround them in small boats and 
drive them ashore into pounds previously constructed of stones. The 
birds were then easily killed, and their feathers removed by immersing 
the birds in scalding water, which was ready at hand in large kettles set 
for this purpose. The bodies were used as fuel for boiling the water. 
This wholesale slaughter, as may well be supposed, soon exterminated 
these helpless birds, none having been seen there, according to Mr. Car- 
roll, for more than thirty years, and he expresses great doubt in respect 
to the existence of the species now anywhere about the islands of New- 
foundland or Labrador. — J. A. ALLEN. 

Bewrck’s Wren, Thyothorus Bewicki, is something of a rarity, I be- 
lieve, in the Atlantic States, where its movements, and especially its 
breeding resorts, are not very well made out. It may, therefore, be 
worth while to here record the fact that it breeds in considerable num- 
bers in these-same mountains. Isaw two or three individuals during my 
ride up and down the mountains; and, though I found no nests, the 


actions of the birds satisfied me that they were at home for the sum- oe 


mer. — ELLIOTT Cours. 
Ranes or THe Bay Isis. — A letter from Captain C. Bendire, U. 


S. A. to E. Dickinson, Esq., dated Camp Harney, Oregon, says, “I — 
have lately discovered that Ibis Ordi breeds near here. An officer has 
sent me portions of a skin, sufficient for identification, and writes me ; 
that he saw the young birds, besides some forty old ones.” — ELLIOTT : 


Coues. 
EARLY Nesting or tHe ANNA Humminc-Birp.— In the Ornithol- 
ogy of California, i. 359, I stated that the young of Calypte Anna 


aioi iaa acii ai a 


1876.] - Loblogy. 49 


are sometimes hatched as early as March 15th, but never having met 
with eggs, I was not aware until this year that such is their usual habit 
near San Francisco. The extensive cultivation of Australian trees may, 
perhaps, have helped to make this early nesting more general, as in this 
climate such trees, as well as other subtropical garden plants, are covered 
with flowers, supplying winter fdod for these humming-birds more plen- 
tifully than the native plants formerly did. But whether a “new de- 
parture ” or not, my boy (eight!years old) found three nests of this 
species within a stone’s throw of the house, between February 15th and 


_ 20th, all on low branches of the Eucalyptus (or Australian blue gum), 


between ten and twenty feet above the ground. These trees are cov- 
ered most of the winter with large flowers, in which there is much 
honey, and the acacias of several species, also blooming at this season 
(like most antipodal trees), have been very attractive to the hummers, as 
well as to minute insects on which they feed. They have likewise utilized 
the long, silky stamens of some acacias in building their nests, though 
still using chiefly the down from various native herbs, the platanus, wil- 
low, etc., besides going a long distance to find lichens to adorn the nests 
outside, although there are none of these parasites on their favorite gum- 
trees. , 


I have since seen another nest built on a densely-leaved twig of a 
Monterey cypress, adding to the variety of locations before described, 
and this was a few yards only from a noisy hotel on the main road. To 
add to the completeness of their history I watched one nest to note time 
of incubation, and found it sixteen or eighteen days at least [while the 
Eastern species needs but thirteen. — Brewer]. One brood was hatched 
before March Ist, another on the 5th. This is while only two truly 
summer visitors have arrived, the Hirundo bicolor (January 30th) and 
Selasphorus rufus, the latter (Nootka hummer) first seen February 16th, 
but does not build until April or May. 

In the nest observed, one young died, but the other was fledged and 
left it on March 30th, quite able to make short excursions for food in fif- 
teen days. I had seen fledged young ones about the Eucalyptus trees 
several days earlier, so that they must hatch in many nests as early as 
March Ist. Three cold rains occurred during the development of the one 
I watched. During all the time of development both of eggs and young 
there have been white frosts at night and fresh, piercing cold winds dur- 
ing the day. As withthe Nootka Hummers the females perform the task 
of hatehing and feeding the young entirely by themselves, the males dis- 
appearing from the lowlands and gardens after the eggs are laid, and re- 
tiring among the richer flowers of the mountain cafions. 

My correction of Nuttall’s account of the nest of this species is con- 
firmed by these specimens, which are much larger than that he describes, 
being 1.75 inch, instead of 1.25 wide, etc. But as he caught the female 
on the nest, with the eggs in it, and describes the bird (as Zrochilus icte- 

0. 1. 4 


50 General Notes. (January, 


rocephalus), at the same time stating that it is the one mentioned by 
Awdubon as the female of the Anna, he must have made an error in 
measuring it, especially as he gives the height correctly. His specimen, 
by the way, is mentioned by Baird and others as a “male with forehead 
covered with yellow pollen.” This mistake may arise from its having a 
red metallic patch on the throat, not mentioned in their descriptions of 
the female, but I can state from seeing hundreds of females in spring, 
that they Aave this patch as well as young males in fall. The female 
Nootka hummer has it also, as late authors state, though Nuttall was 
doubtful about it. 

I may add that the only other small bird yet building here is the blue- 
bird (Sialia Mexicana), and this only inside of buildings or hollow trees. 
— J. G. Coorrer, Haywood, Alameda County, Cal. - 

INTELLIGENCE IN THE Hawk Mors. — While watching the sudden 
unfolding of the flowers of the Gnothera Lamarkiana, we observed that 
the hawk moths never visited the same flowers twice, even when fright- 
ened away by some motion made by us. On returning, they would go 
only to those flowers that had opened during their absence, or that had 
not been visited before their flight. — J. M. MILLIGAN. 

Perroration or Orance Sxins By Motus. — The proboscis of 
Australian moths of the genus Ophideres is said to be so stiff, and even 
barbed, that it is capable of perforating the most resisting envelopes. 
The moths thus perforate oranges in order to feed upon their juices. M. 
Kiinckel has examined the specimens forwarded to him by M. Thozet, 
a French botanist, and says, “ It is incorrect to call the proboscis rigid, 
as it curls up in the usual way; but instead of a soft terminal portion, 
it has a hard one. The two adpressed maxillæ terminate in a sharp tri- 
angular point, furnished with two barbs. They then swell out and pre- 
sent on the lower surface three parts of the thread of a screw, while their 
sides on the upper surface are covered with short spines springing from a 
depression with sharp, hard sides.- These spines are to tear the cells and 
the pulp of the oranges, as a rasp opens.those of beet root, to extract the 
sugar. The upper portion of the proboscis is covered from below and 
on the sides with fine serrated strie disposed in a half helix, which give 
it the qualities of a file. These striæ are from time to time interrupted 
by small non-resisting spines, which serve as tactile organs. The orifice 
of the canal by which the liquids ascend is situated on the lower face, be- 
low the first thread of the screw. 

“Not content with examining Ophideres Fullonica, I studied 0. 
salaminia, O. materna, and O. imperator, which all had auger-like pro- 

s. The structure of these maxilla affords a generic character of 
great value; it moreover establishes a closer relation between the lepi- 
dopters, the hemipters, and certain dipters which have maxille adap 
to pierce tissues.” — Monthly Microscopical Journal, London. 


Tae EUROPEAN TREE SPARROW IN THE Unrrep States. — It will 


1876.] Anthropology. ol 


interest ornithologists to know that the tree sparrow of Europe (Pyr- 
gita montana) has lately been discovered to be a resident of the United 
States 


The resemblance of this species to the English house sparrow has 
led me to be on the watch for it since the introduction of the latter, but 
without success until I found it in St. Louis, Mo., last spring. Here I 
found the new species abundant, but was unwilling to take any until the 
breeding season was over. Four skins sent to Mr. G. N. Lawrence, of 
New York, are pronounced by him to “ agree accurately with the plate 
and description of this species.’ He also informs me that about five 
years ago Mr. Eugene Schieffelin noticed fifty or sixty of these birds in 
the store of a bird importer in New York, where they were unrecognized ; 
and these were probably afterwards sold as or with P. domestica. This 
is undoubtedly the explanation of their occurrence here, and further 
search will very likely show their presence in other localities. 

With a general resemblance to the common house sparrow, Pyrgita 
montana is readily distinguished by its chestnut crown and the similarity 
of both sexes and the young. In St. Louis it considerably outnumbers 
P. domestica, and, as is the case in Europe, it prefers the outskirts of the 
city and the country. In other respects these two species closely re- 
semble each other. — Dr. James C. Merritt, U. S. Army. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Antiquity or Man. — Mr. Southall, in his late work on the Recent 

igin of Man, founds an argument against the antiquity of man’s origin 
in the fact that what are unquestionably paleolithic implements are oc- 
casionally found on the surface of the ground, either alone or associated 
with neolithic or polished stone implements. There are two reasons 
why such a commingling of the two forms does not militate against this 
division of an unquestioned stone age. It should be remembered, in the 
first place, that paleolithic implements, after being long buried in strata 
of sand or gravel, may become exposed by floods, landslides, or through 
ice-action, as when an ice-gorge causes a river to cut for itself a new 
channel, thereby sweeping away the soil over a considerable belt of coun- 
7 Subsequently, the river resumes its older channel, and the newer 
implements in time are dropped and so mingled with the exposed older 
forms. From what I have seen of the action of the Delaware River 
along its valley, especially between the cities of Trenton and Borden- 
town, in New Jersey, I have satisfied myself that such may have occa- 
sionally been the case during the occupancy of this neighborhood by 
the Indians, Secondly, if the Indians were the first and only inhabitants 
of the Atlantic coast of America, prior to the arrival of the Europeans, 
it is quite certain that they were a paleolithic people when they reached 
ese shores, and whatever may have been the geological changes subse- 
quently, they maintained their ground, and very gradually learned to 


52 General Notes. (January, 


utilize the more difficultly wrought minerals in fabricating stone imple- 
ments, and thereby reached the polished stone period. In this way, the 
two forms would be necessarily mingled; but it must be remembered 
that as a rule the two forms are not associated. Where one paleo-. 
lithic implement is found upon the surface, a hundred are quite deeply 
imbedded in the soil, and in the underlying gravels. — CHARLES C. AB- 
Bott, M. D 

InpiaAn Graves IN New Jersey.— The graves of Indians found 
here in central New Jersey vary to a considerable degree, and suggest 
the probability that tribes having different burial customs successively 
occupied this territory. On the terrace that faces the east side of the 
Delaware River, below Trenton; where I have gathered thousands of 
stone implements, the graves are to be detected by the discoloration of 
the soil and the little series of relics that were deposited in each grave. 
These graves, now a foot or more deep, were in all probability “ surface 
burials,” i. e., the body, encased in skins and covered with bark, was 
placed on, not in, the ground. In time the grave would become covered 
with leaves and sand, and so gradually be covered with a thin layer of 
vegetable mold and earth. The gradual increase in the depth of the soil, 
which is ever in progress in wooded countries, would result in making 
the surface burial really an inhumation, and as such we now find it. 
This shallow grave, with every vestige of the skeleton long since gone, 
‘and simply indicated by a few arrow-points, an ax, and possibly a pipe, 
bears every indication of antiquity, and yet doubtless is simply the grave 
ofan Indian. ‘There is one feature connected with these graves and the 
scattered relics, as we find them, that deserves attention. The rude 
‘implements, never polished, and made of the river rock, which we have 
maintained were strictly paleolithic implements, are never found in these 
graves, or in any graves that we have examined. Had these ruder 
implements been used as a general thing, at the same time that the pol- 
ished celt and jasper arrowheads were made, then they would likewise 
have been deposited in the graves; for the contents of an Indian grave 
are the implements and ornaments the occupant used and wore during 
his life-time. Like the implements themselves, these graves are proofs 
of the great antiquity of man’s origin along the Atlantic coast of 
America. — CHARLES C. Apsortt, M. D. 


GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY. 


Comstock’s GeoLoey or Wyomine. — This report is to be found 
in Captain Jones’s Report upon the Reconnaissance of Northwestern 
Wyoming including Yellowstone National Park, made in the Summer 
of 1873. The portion by Prof. Theo. B. Comstock relates to the 
structural geology of the country passed over, and contains new matter 
regarding the celebrated hot springs and geyser®of the Yellowstone 
Park, with archæological and philological notes relating to` the Indian 


eet g a i ai a ki 


1876.] Geology and Palæontology. : 53 


tribes, particularly the Shoshones. The report is accompanied by a 
large colored geological map. We hope hereafter to print some extracts 
concerning the geysers and Indian inscriptions. 

OPE’S CRETACEOUS VERTEBRATES. — This elaborate and lavishly 
illustrated quarto volume, issued as one of the final reports of Hayden’s 
Survey, forms a worthy successor to the paleontological monographs of 
Leidy and Lesquereux, also published by Hayden’s United States Geo- 
logical Survey of the Territories. 

Scupper’s Foss. BUTTERFLIES is another exquisitely printed and 
illustrated monograph of a high order of merit, on a subject quite novel 
and as interesting to European students as to home observers. We 
shall return to these works in subsequent numbers. 

Hyarr’s Fossit Ammonites, with the works previously cited, wit- 
ness the activity now shown by American palzontologists. Several 
papers by Professor Hyatt have been issued during the past year, giving 
the results in brief of the studies of many years on the supposed genetic 
relations and classification of different groups of Ammonites. Of much 
interest in connection with the hypothesis of evolution are the papers 
entitled Biological Relations of the Jurassic Ammonites, and Genetic 
Relations of the Angulatide. An elaborate monograph by Professor 
Hyatt of certain groups of Ammonites, particularly the Arietide, to be 
illustrated by a number of plates, is to be soon published by the Museum 
of Comparative Zoölogy. ‘ 

Wincnety’s Groroay or tHe Brack Hirrs forms the geological 
report appended to Captain Ludlow’s (U. S. Engineers) Reconnaissance 
of the Black Hills of Dakota, 1874, but only lately published. 
report fills fifty-five quarto pages, embracing also a list of trees and 
shrubs, and is accompanied by a colored geological map of the route 
surveyed. 

Kerr’s Grotogy or Nortu Carorina.— Last of all is laid upon 
our table Prof. W. C. Kerr’s Report of the Geological Survey of North 
Carolina, Vol. I., Raleigh, 1875, containing Physical Geography and 
Economical Geolog , with maps and lithographic plates of fossils, de- 
scribed by Messrs. Conrad and Cope. : 

Tae Fossit PLANTS OF America. — Already the study of the 
North American fossil plants has supplied, in regard to the distribution 
of the Species at different periods, some important information, which 
modifies a few of the conclusions derived from European vegetable 
paleontology, Though the isothermal zones have been evidently of a 
vidth proportionate to the age of the geological periods, producing in 
the Carboniferous times, for example, uniformity of vegetation over the 
whole northern hemisphere, if not over the whole surface of the earth, 
it appears that there was already at this period a continental or local 
facies marked in the groups of vegetation. The North American charac- 
ter is recognized in the coal flora of this continent by Schimper, in his 


54 General Notes. (January, 


Vegetable Palxontology, as it has been for a long time exposed by the 
works and descriptions of American authors,’and this facies becomes more 
and more distinct in the more recent periods. The precedence of vegeta- 
ble types in the geological flora of this continent is distinctly recognized, - 
and therefore the hypothesis of the derivation of the North American 
flora from Miocene European types is necessarily set aside. On this 
last question, former remarks in this paper prove the unity of the pres- 
ent flora, derived by constant succession of related vegetable forms from 
the Cretaceous, at least. On the question of precedence of vegetable 
types, it has been remarked that the appearance of land-plants is posi- 
tively recognized in the Silurian of Michigan, while no land-plants have 
as yet been described from formations lower than the Middle Devonian 
of Europe; that also we find already in the Devonian of the United 
States trunks of conifers recognized as prototypes of the Araucaria, 
which are only found later, in the Subcarboniferous of Europe. Our 
Carboniferous flora has a number of its forms appearing later in the 
Permian of Europe. The Triassic flora of Virginia and North Carolina 
is half Jurassic. A number of Cretaceous genera of the Dakota group 
are reproduced in the Miocene of Europe, as they are, too, in some of 
the North American Tertiary vegetable groups, and also in the flora of 
this epoch. Therefore the vegetation of the European Miocene seems 
partly referable to the American Cretaceous. Andin following the 
comparison upward, we find, in what is considered the Eocene of the 
Lignitic of the Rocky Mountains, a larger number of forms identical or 
closely allied to European Miocene species, while the Miocene group of 
Carbon represents the youngest type of the Tertiary flora of Europe 
and Greenland, with species of Platanus, Acer, etc., scarcely distinguish- 
able from indigenous species of our present flora. — Lesquereux’s Review 
of the Fossil Flora of North America. (Bulletin of Hayden’s Survey of 
the Territories, second series, No. 5, November, 1875.) 

OSSIL VERTEBRATES OF New Mexico. — Professor Cope, in a 
preliminary report to Lieutenant Wheeler, in charge of the United 
States Geographical Survey west of the one hundredth meridian, enu- 
merates eighty-three species of vertebrate animals as having been dis- 
covered by him in the deposits of the Eocene lake that once covered the 
northern and western parts of New Mexico. Of these, eight are fishes, 

twenty-four reptiles, and fifty-one mammals. Of the whole number, fifty- 

_ four species were introduced for the first time to the notice of scientists. 
This fauna is nearly related to that of the Eocene of Wyoming in many 
respects, but differs in the different distribution of many of the genera. 
Thus, Paleosyops, a genus abundant in Wyoming, is not found in New 
Mexico, while Bathmodon, which does not occur in the Bridger beds of 
Wyoming, is the most abundant type in New Mexico, parts of over one 
hundred and fifty individuals belonging to seven species having been 
found by Professor Cope. Small tapiroid animals of the genus Ovohip- 


] 
| 
| 


1876.] Geography and Exploration. 55 


pus are abundant, and at least eleven species of lemufine monkeys were 
found. The carnivorous animals discovered numbered eleven species, 
some of which were as large as the jaguar, or larger. They are all 
quite distinct from living genera excepting one genus, which is related 
to the Asiatic civets. Some very small insectivora were also found, one 
of which is not larger than a small shrew. The waters of the lake 
abounded in turtles, crocodiles, and gar-fishes. 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 


WHEELER’S RECONNAISSANCE OF SOUTHERN NEVADA. — This expe- 
dition spent six months in exploring southern and southwestern Nevada 
in 1869; the results, however, were not published until 1875. The re- 
port contains much new information regarding the Indian tribes and 
southern Mormon settlements. The chief geographical point of interest 
is the erasing of Preuss Lake from the maps, which was in 1872 found 
by Lieútenant Wheeler to be the southern shore of Sevier Lake. 

Arrican TRAVEL. — An expedition to Central Africa up the Congo 
River, under Dr. Giissfeldt, failed to accomplish its object owing to the 
fact that the natives are poor carriers, and were in dread of meeting can- 
nibals in the interior, as well as from the ill-health of Dr. Gussfeldt. 
Valuable collections were made, however. 

HE Paciric Coast or America.—Mr. A. L. Pinart, so well 
known for his researches in Alaska, partly in connection with Dr. W. H. 
Dall, has received a commission from the French government authoriz- 
ing him to study the ethnology and languages of the southern races of 
the west coast of both North and South America. He is at present 
on a visit to the Indian reservations of Maine and Nova Scotia. Re- 
turning thence to San Francisco, he intends to sail for Valparaiso, with 
a view of determining if possible, besides other things, the source and 
direction of migration of the native American tribes of both hemispheres. 

HE HIMALAYAS AND THEIR GLACIERS.—In Drew’s late book, 
The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories, which is highly spoken of by 
Nature, much is said about the glaciers of the Himalayas; glaciers on a 
scale, as he says, not to be met with except in the Arctic regions. A 
glacier which he examined at Basha, in Baltistan, was upwards of twenty 
miles long, and others are to be met with of much greater extent ; indeed 
to judge from the map, this northwest Himalayan region is one huge 
net-work of glaciers. The largest of all is the Baltoro glacier, thirty- 
five miles long, which comes down between two lofty ridges; the north- 
ern ridges rise in one spot to the height of 28,265 feet, the peak of that 
height being the second highest mountain known in the world. And 
yet, adds Nature, these glaciers are a mere remnant, the evidence seems 
to show, of the glacial covering which at one time spread over the Him- 
alayan region. 

NORDENSKIÖLD’S Arctic ExreEDITION intends in part to sail up the 


56 General Notes. (January, 


Jenesej River with the view of returning to Europe across Siberia, while 
the other party returns to Norway by sea in the Proven. The results 
are exceedingly rich, geographically, geologically, and in a zodlogical 
way. The Sea of Kara was found to be completely free of ice, and was 
thus crossed and dredged for the first time by a scientific expedition: 
The water at the surface of the Kara was so fresh as to kill the animals 
brought up from the bottom. The investigations on the ocean currents 
are of much interest. If, says the account in Nature, in the north- 
ern part of the Sea of Kara, where the water on the surface is almost 
completely free of salt,and at this time of the year very warm, a flask 
with water from the surface is sunk to a depth of ten fathoms, the 
water freezes to ice. There are thus no warm ocean currents here at 
any considerable depth below the surface. On the 8th of August the 
party landed on the peninsula of Jalmal, which separates the Sea of 
Kara from the Bay of Obi. Here traces of men, some of whom had 
gone barefoot, and of Samoyede sledges, were visible on the beach. 
Close to the shore was found a sacrificial altar, consisting of about fifty 
skulls of the white bear and walrus, with reindeer bones, ete., laid in a 
eap. In the middle of the heap of bones there stood, raised up, two 
idols, roughly hewn from driftwood roots, newly besmeared in the eyes 
and mouth with blood, also two poles provided with hooks, from which 
hung bones of the reindeer and bear. Close by was a fire-place and a 
heap of reindeer bones, the latter clearly a remnant of a sacrificial meal. 

Arctic STATIONS. — Lieutenant Weyprecht has surprised geogra- 
phers by his common-sense suggestion that hereafter Arctic explorers 
should aim to erect stations at different points in the Arctic regions 
where observers should make simultaneous observations, extending over 
the period of a whole year, with identical instruments and according to 
identical rules, giving their first attention to physics, meteorology, biol- 
ogy, and geology, and the second place to geographical discoveries. Ac- 
cordingly, the German Commission on Arctic Explorations has recom- 
mended that a principal station be established on the east coast of — 
Greenland, with secondary stations on Jan Meyer Island and the west 
coast of Spitzbergen. 

MICROSCOPY.! 

A Dovste STAINING WITH HÆMATOXYLIN AND ANILINE. — When 
engaged last autumn in the Anatomical Department of the Oxford Uni- 
versity Museum in making microscopic preparations of brain, my atten- 
tion was especially directed to the staining of the sections. 

My first attempts were made with hematoxylin andcarmine. Of these 
the latter proved useful for detecting nuclei, but, the protoplasm of the 
cells remaining almost uncolored, it was impossible to distinguish the shape 
of the different cells, a matter of the greatest importance where, as in the 

1 This depart is conducted by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


1876.] : Microscopy. 57 


brain, cells are met with of such various shapes and sizes. Another 
great deficiency in the carmine-stained sections was the indistinctness of 
the fibres. In all cases along time was required for the carmine to take 
any effect, sixty to seventy hours being insufficient to stain deeply. 
Hematoxylin produced much more successful results. In the first 
place, the fibres were almost always brought out distinctly ; and secondly, 
the cells with their processes were in many cases clearly defined. But 


still the cortical substance was frequently insufficiently stained, even after 


twenty-four hours’ immersion in the staining fluid, which, owing to the 
use of alum, is sufficient to render the preparations too brittle to be easily 
mounted. The special value of hematoxylin consists in the clearness with 


which it brings out the nuclei of the medullary substance, and the fibres 


and cell-processes of the cortical substance ; its fault is a want of depth 
in the color of the cortical substance. 

Having found aniline blue useful for staining some hardened tissues, I 
was led to try it in this case. The only virtue that it had was that it 
stained the protoplasm of the medullary cells very darkly, and always 
attacked them first; that is to say, its strongest point exactly agreed with 
the weakest point in hematoxylin. 

This led me to double staining, and the results were fully up to my 
expectations. The following is the method of staining which I finally 
adopted. After from twenty to twenty-four hours’ immersion in hema- 
toxylin I washed the preparation in weak spirit, and then in distilled 
water till all the spirit was driven out.. I then immersed it in aniline for 
from half to three quarters of a minute, again washed it in spirit, and 
after the usual treatment mounted it in Dammar. 

The preparation of hematoxylin used was that recommended by Frey, 
te, a few drops of an alcoholic solution of the pure crystals added to a 
solution of alum in water. The latter I have used in the proportion of 
from two to four grains of alum to an ounce of water. The more alum 
there is in the solution the more rapid is the staining, but there is great 

anger of making a thin section too brittle by the use of muchalum. The 
aniline I diluted sufficiently to be able to see through it pretty easily. 

The results obtained by this method are most satisfactory. The nuclei 
already stained by the hematoxylin are made of a richer color, while the 
protoplasm surrounding them is much bluer than the nuclei themselves- 
Tn the cerebellum the effect is particularly good, the medullary substance 
being of a rich purple and the cortical substance of a pale blue, but show- 
ing the cells with remarkable clearness. — W. H. Poore, in Quart. 
Journ. Mic, Science. 

. Use or Carpotic Acb In Mountine.— Mr. T. Barnard, of Kew, 
Melbourne, communicates to Science Gossip a reassertion of the suc- 
cessful use of carbolic acid as a substitute for turpentine in mounting 
Mséct dissections. A portion of the insect, fresh, is washed, soaked for a 
ew hours in pure carbolic acid, and then mounted in Canada balsam with 


| Scientific News. (January, 


better effect than from turpentine. By the aid of heat the mounting can 
be accomplished almost immediately. Zodphytes, after boiling in water 
to remove the air, can be successfully mounted in the same manner, being 
transparent and flexible, instead of brittle as by the ordinary turpentine 
process. 

Eccentric Prra or Crimping Prants. — Mr. J. B. Hyatt of Mor- 
risania, exhibited at a meeting of the Torrey Botanical Club a microscopic 
specimen consisting of a section of the stem of poison ivy, Rhus Toxico- 
dendron L., and having the pith near one side “like a hole bored near the 
edge of a coin.” A similar structure is seen in some other climbing 
stems, as of Ampelopsis, though {not in all such; and the editor of the 
Bulletin suggests, as a mere conjecture, that the extraordinary one- 
sided thickening may indicate that the plant is nourished by the root- 
lets imbedded in the bark of the tree. 


a 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— The Department of the Interior has issued a circular, prepared by 
Professor Otis T. Mason, designed to direct the attention of the agents 
of the Indian Bureau and others to the collection of objects and infor- 
mation for the purpose of representing at the Centennial Exposition the 
history of culture among the aborigines of America, including the tribes 
now in existence and those which are nearly or quite extinct. 

— We regret exceedingly to hear of the untimely death of Dr. Wil- 
lemées Siihm, the amiable and accomplished naturalist of the Challenger 
party. He was a student and assistant of Professor Siebold, of Munich, 
when invited to accompany Professor Wyville Thompson. American 
naturalists may remember his cordial and hospitable spirit. He was a 
special student of the lower worms and the crustacea. 

— At the opening meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, Novem- 
ber 15th, Sir H. Rawlinson refetred with great satisfaction to Stanley’s 
exploration of the Nyanza, and exhibited a complete chart of the lake, 
drawn by Stanley. 

— Dr. Francisco Todaro from his studies on the tunicate, Salpa, de- 
clares that it has an amnion, and is ‘developed in a true uterus. 

— A suggestive article entitled Consciousness in Evolution, by Pro- 
fessor Cope, has been reprinted from the Penn Monthly for August. 


that it can be taught with as much ease and profit as even botany. 
— In American Geological Surveys, by Professor Geikie, in Nature 


l 
: 


1876.] Scientific News. . B9 


— Apropos of surveys, we trust that the friends of science and higher 
education in Massachusetts will vigorously urge the importance of a re- 
survey of the geology and biology of that State. The vote in the legis- 
lature last year was so decidedly in its favor that it would seem as if a 
second hearing and renewed effort on the part of men of culture might 
bring about the accomplishment of the plan urged last winter upon the 
attention of the legislature, and which came so near to definite and favor- 
able action. 

— Dr. Burmeister, of Buenos Ayres, is preparing for the Centennial 
Exposition at Philadelphia a work on the fossil horse of the Argentine 
Republic, to be published in large folio with eight plates. He is also 
just sending to press the first volume of his Physical Description of the 
Argentine Republic. 

— The Boston Society of Natural History proposes to send to the 
Centennial Exhibition an epitome of its museum, including plans of the 
building and cases. For this purpose fifteen cases, occupying one hun- 
dred and five feet of linear measure, will be needed. Besides this, a 
selected portion of the New England collection, now an attractive 
feature of the museum, will be placed on exhibition. It is estimated 
that this portion could be completely illustrated with selections occupy- 
ing twelve cases, extending eighty-four feet. Work has already begun 
under the direction of Professor Hyatt, the custodian. 

— The Monthly Weather Review of the Weather Signal Bureau at 
Washington, with its maps and quite full record of biological phenomena, 
will interest students and prove after a series of years of very consid- 
erable scientific value. With little effort more contributors might per- 

ps be enlisted, so that the connection of meteorological phenomena and 
the sudden appearan¢ée of swarms of grasshoppers, for example, could be 
traced, and possibly insect years be predicted, and thus farmers warned 
4 year in advance of devastations by insects. : 
_ — An excellent article on the wild grasses of Nebraska, by Professor — 
Samuel Aughey, appears in the New York Tribune for November 26th. 

— An elaborate quarto work on the amphipod crustacea (Gammaride) 
of the Sea of Baikal, by Dr. Dybowsky, illustrated by fourteen plates 
(in part colored), has lately been published by the Entomological Society 
of St. Petersburg. 

~e retriever dog, says Nature, whose owner was working in the 
garden of the Bath Institution, lately killed a favorite cat, a frequenter 
of the same grounds. Having committed this unprovoked murder, the 
dog deliberately took the cat in his mouth, carried it some distance, dug 
a deep hole behind some bushes, and, after depositing the cat therein, 
carefully replaced the earth; and had he not been observed there would 
have been no evidence of the crime. Shortly after, the dog lost his life 
by Poison, probably agpenalty for the offense. 

ad the dog lived, would he not, more canino, have exhumed the cat 
for dietetic purposes ?— Ep. NATURALIST. 


60 Proceedings of Societies, [ January, 


PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 


PHILOSOPHICAL Society or Wasuineron, November 20, 1875. 
— Dr. Woodward, of the Army Medical Museum, gave an account, illus- 
trated by photographs and illuminated photographic pictures thrown 
upon a screen, of spurious lines, noted by Dippel, and more lately in a 
British periodical, as genuine, seen on certain diatoms. The species 
Frustularia Saxonica has transverse lines of extreme fineness, and lon- 
gitudinal lines had been described by Dippel and others, some assert- 
ing that the latter were coarser and others that they were finer than 
the transverse ones. Dr. Woodward showed very clearly by his illumi- 
nated slides, enlarged on the screen forty-five thousand diameters, that 
the longitudinal lines appeared not only on the diatom but also on the 
Space external to it, and similar lines appeared about specks of dirt on 
the plate. These could be varied in coarseness by different illumina- 
tions of the object. Hence he concluded that they were spurious, and 
caused by diffraction of light from the midriff, or the edge of the diatom, 


lines could be determined by the fact that they did not vary in number 
under varying illuminations or focusing; they were either seen uni- 
formly, or not seen at all. 

December 4, 1875. Professor Henry read a short account of some 
peculiarities of partial loss of vision in circumscribéd portions of the 
retina, which Dr. Woodward explained by a congestion of one, or a 
part of one, of the tubercule quadrigemine of the optic nerves. 


formation was always the result of motion, either of air or water. Major 
Powell contended for the formation of ripple marks at the bottom of 


at motion capable of producing ripple marks might be propagated even 
to the depth of over one hundred fathoms. 


AMERICAN ACADEMY or ARTS AND SCIENCES, Boston, November 9: 


— Mr. Sereno Watson presented a paper on a collection of plants re- 


cently made by Dr. E. Palmer, in Guadalupe Island, off Lower Cali- 
fornia. It was found to contain one hundred and nineteen species, in- 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 61 


cluding twenty-one belonging to the higher cryptogamic orders, besides 
a dozen of probably recent introduction. The number of new species is 
twenty-two, with two new genera, almost all nearly allied to Californian 
species and genera. Of those before known, all are Californian, and 
most have a wide range through that State. The flora of Mexico is 
scarcely represented, but on the other hand some fresh indications are 
found of a connection between our western flora and that of South 
America. 

‘Boston Society or Natura, History. — November 17th. Mr. 
W. K. Brooks read a paper on the egg and bud development of Salpa spi- 
nosa (Otto). The life-history of Salpa may be stated in outline as fol- 
lows : the solitary Salpa is the female, which produces a chain of males by 
budding, discharging an egg into each before birth. These eggs are im- 
pregnated while the zodids of the chain are small and sexually imma- 
ture, and develop into females, which give rise to other males by budding. 
After the embryo has been discharged from the body of the male, the 
latter grows up, becomes sexually mature, and discharges its seminal 
fluid into the water, by means of which it is carried to the eggs within 
the bodies of younger chains. 

December Ist. Mr. S. H. Scudder gave an account of the geographical 
distribution of Vanessa cardui and V. Atalanta, two butterflies of wider 
range than any others known. He attempted to show by the facts at 
command, and by the distribution of the other species of the genus, that 
V. cardui originated in North America and V. Atalanta in Europe. 
Both the species are now found over either hemisphere, and V. cardui 
over nearly the entire globe. ‘The communication will be given in full 
in a future number of the NATURALIST. 

Professor James D. Dana made a communication on metamorphism 
and pseudo-morphism in minerals, in reply to Dr. Hunt's strictures on 
the author’s views regarding these phenomena. A Prodome of the Ta- 
banidæ of the United States. Part II. The Genus Tabanus, by C. R. 
Osten Sacken, was read by title. 

Narorar History Soctery at MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COL- 
LEGE. Notes of Remarks made at late Meetings. — Two roots of the 
asparagus were found of equal size, about one eighth of an inch in diam- 
eter, of which one had grown right through the centre of the other, 
or the one had grown about the other. They were not fastened to each 
Other, ¢. e., one was loose in the cavity where it had grown. Roots of 
basswood and beech were found grown firmly together like a net-work, 
united in many places. Some of these were over an inch in diameter. 

_ The leaf-cutting bee is very common about Lansing, Mich. It is 

quite destructive to leaves and petals of roses, the petals of Petunia, 
Pelargonium, and many others. The beauty of some beds of flowers is 
often much injured by them. Their cells are frequently found made of 
bits of leaves and petals. Quite a number were found in a woolen stock- 


62 Proceedings of Societies. _ (January, 


ing, where they were placed during a few days. In one case there were 
twenty-seven pieces of leaves to make a cell, and thirteen round pieces 
at the ends. 

A plant of Portulaca olerarca (common purslane) weighed one 
pound and thirteen ounces, and by careful estimate produced about 
1,250,000 seeds. 

A student brought in a horn about six inches long, and over two 
inches in diameter, slightly curved and blunt at the apex. The horn 
was suspended on the abdomen of a sheep, a little to one side. It 
could be easily slipped around. It was there a year or so before the 
sheep was killed. 

A student had noticed that the dandelion opened and closed four times 
before the flowers were withered and seed began to appear. On fair 
days it closed earlier than on cloudy, varying from noon till four o’clock. 

BurraLo Society or NATURAL Sciences. — November 5, 1875. 
The following paper was read: A List of the North American Syrphide, 
by C. R. Osten Sacken. Mr. Grote announced that his Check List of 
North American Noctuide was in the printer’s hands, and would be is- 


was synonymous with the var. A. of periculosa Guen. 

December 3d. Dr. Rohlff, the African traveler, was the guest of the 
evening. The following paper was read: An Illustration of North 
American Agrotis, by Dr. Leon F. Harvey. 

CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB. — November 12, 15/5: :Ðr: 
Hagen exhibited queens of white ants (Termes flavipes) found by Mr. H. 
G. Hubbard in Florida. No queens of this species have ever been found 
before in this country, and but one anywhere. The females are unde- 
veloped, being wingless, but sexually mature. Dr. Hagen dwelt upon 
the extreme importance of a popular knowledge of the danger to which 
all wooden buildings are subjected by the presence of these insects, which 
occur not uncommonly over the country. 

Mr. S. H. Scudder spoke of the supposed relation of thë“ osmateria ” 
of certain butterflies (Equites) with the transverse fissure and prehensile 


NATIONAL ACADEMY or SCIENCES. — Meeting held at Philadelphia, 
November 3d and 4th. Professor Pumpelly read a paper on the influ- 


reef-building corals, Professor R. E. Rogers accounted for the action 
of the steam seysers of California by chemical processes at the surface. 
The heat is caused by the action of air and water upon’ iron pyrites» 


: 
f 
l 
| 
i 
À 
$ 
3 


1876.] Scientific Serials. 63 


generating oxide of iron and sulphuric acid, which readily form sulphate 
of iron. 
_ Natura, History Socrery or MONTREAL. — November. <A 
paper by Mr. H. G. Vennor, on the galena and plumbago deposits of 
Eastern Ontario, was read. Mr. Vennor believes that all the so-called 
Laurentian rocks which contain Eozoön and many metalliferous deposits 
(galena, apatite, etc.) are of Silurian or Cambrian age. These rocks 
are always associated with crystalline limestones. The Huronian group 
he believes to be next oldest, and lastly there is a great tract of Azoic 
gneisses, etc., which are truly Laurentian. The true Azoic Laurentian 

„in this view, do not contain metalliferous deposits, nor crystalline 
limestones. 

PEET ERER 


. SCIENTIFIC SERIALS? x 


PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, xix. 7. — 
Summary of recent Observations on Ocean Temperature, made in the 
Challenger and Tuscarora, in relation to the Doctrine of a general Oce- 
anic Circulation sustained by Difference of Temperature. 

PETERMANN’s MITTHEILUNGEN, xxi. 10. — The Russian Amu- 
Darja Expedition. A Natural History Journey to Patagonia, by Dr. K. 
Berg. Chinese Travelers of the Middle Ages to West Asia, by Dr. E. 
Bretschneider. Journey to Araguaya by Dr. Couto de Magalhaes in 
January, 1865. Notes on the Oasis El-Chargeh, by Dr. Schweinfurth. 
C. Weyprecht’s Survey of the Northern Coast of Nowaja Semlja in Sep- 
tember and October, 1872. October 18. Paul Solcillet’s and Largean’s 
Travels in the Sahara and to Soudan, by Gerhard Rohlfs. Pictures from 
the Far North, by Karl Weyprecht. The latest Travels in Australia, by 
E. Behm. The Spread of the Egyptian Power in the Upper Nile and 
its Geographical Rësults. Supplementary number, 34. Journey through 
North Africa from Kuka to Lagos, by G. Rohlfs. 35. The Population 
of the Earth, by Behm and Wagner. 36. Four Addresses on the 
Caucasus, by G. Radde. 387. Carl Mauch’s Journey in the Interior of 
South Africa, 1865-72. 

THE GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE. — November, 1875. The Arctic Ex- 
pedition, iii.,iv. A Glance at the Results of the Expedition to Hassar 
by H. P. Lerch, by H. Yule. The Voyage of the Challenger, by J. E. 
Davis. Recent Journeys in Paraguay, by Keith Johnston. 

BULLETIN pe LA Socréré: pe GÉOGRAPHIE. — September, 1875. 
Rise and Fall of the Coast of France, by Jules Girard (records the dis- 
covery, between Vannes and Nantes, of Druidical monuments, under the 
water). Geography of the Athabaskaw-Mackenzie, by Abbé Petitot. 


1 The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part selected, so 
that the entire contents of the journals are rarely given. 


64 | Scientific Serials. [ January. 


AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTs. — December. On 
Southern New England during the Melting of the Great Glaciers, by 
James D. Dana. Notice of new and interesting Coal Plants, by E. B» 
Andrews. 

ARCHIV FÜR MIKROSKOPISCHE ANATOMIE. — October. The Genus 
Loxosoma, by Oscar Schmidt. On some Rhizopoda and allied Organ- 
isms, by L. Cienkowski. The Locomotive Apparatus of Infusoria, by H. 
Simroth. On a new Microtome, by P. Schiefferdecker. The Organs of 
Hearing of the Heteropoda, by C. Claus. 

NATURE. — October 28. Notes from the Challenger (describing a 
colossal hydroid Polyp), by G. J. Allman. November 4. © Ameri- 
can Geological Surveys, by A. Geikie. Müller on Bees and Flowers, 
by J. Lubbock. November 11. Evidences of Ancient Glaciers in 
Central France, by J. D. Hooker: 

JENA JOURNAL OF SCIENCE (JENAISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT, ETC.). — May. 
The Ontogeny of Fresh-Water Pulmonates, by Carl Rabl. Contribu- 
tion to the Knowledge of Termites, by F. Müller. Heckelina gigan- 
tea, a Protist of the Group of Monothalamia, by E. Bessels. July. 
On the Developmental History of Helix, by H. von Jhering. The 
Gastrula and the Segmentation of the Eggs of Animals, by E. Haeckel. 

ARCHIV FÜR ANTHROPOLOGIE. — August. Notes on the Innuit of 
Smith’s Sound, etc., by E. Bessels. Traces of Men in the Interglacial 
Deposits of Switzerland, by L. Riitimeyer. : 

JOURNAL or ZobLoey (Siebold and Kölliker, editors). — July. New 
Contributions to a Knowledge of Parasitic Copepods, by C. Claus. On 
the Results of Studies on the Conjugation of Infusoria and Cell Division, 
by O. Bütschli. Egg-Segmentation and Larval Development of Phas- 
colosoma, by E. Selenka. On the Structure and Budding of Loxosoma, 
by H. Nitsche. 


with reference to Dr. Dawson’s Dawn of Life, by H. J. Carter. Con- 
tributions to the Study of the Chief Generic Types of the Palæozoic 
Corals. By James Thompson and H. A. Nicholson. 

ANNALES DES SCIENCES NATURELLES. — Paris, October, 1875. 
Study of the Annelides of the Gulf of Marseilles, by A. F. Marion 
and N. Bobretzky. 

THe GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. — London, December, 1875. The Cause 
of the Glacial Period in Britain, by Charles Ricketts. Did the Cold of 
the Glacial Epoch extend over the S. Hemisphere ? by F. W. Hutton. 
A Chapter in the History of Meteorites (part xii. ): The Conclusion, by 
W. Flight. 


THE 


“AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. x.— FEBRUARY, 1876. — No. 2. 


INDICATIONS OF THE ANTIQUITY OF THE INDIANS 
OF NORTH AMERICA, DERIVED FROM A STUDY OF 
THEIR RELICS. 

BY DR. C. C. ABBOTT. 
‘THE stone implements of the Indian long since lost in the 
chase, broken in the conflict, or discarded when metals were 
introduced, as we now gather them up singly or by the score, 
seem to give us no clew to those most interesting of all.questions 
connected with them, When were the first of these stone imple- 
ments shaped? How many centuries have passed since the 

Indian first reached our shores, and armed himself with these 

tude weapons? 

That isolated specimens of relies, however occurring, should be 
valueless in this respect is quite natural, considering the many 
“rcumstances which might arise to place single implements in 
the most unlooked-for places ; but on the other hand, when an 
opportunity is had of securing nearly the entire series of relics 


left by a departed race in a single locality, and of examining 


them, not simply on the shelves of a cabinet, but as they lie upon 
and in the ground, then there is an opportunity afforded of gath- 
ering facts concerning them other than the extent of their varia- 
tion in shapes and uses ; and particularly may we learn something 
of the relationship they bear to each other with reference to the 
vexed question of their antiquity. 

In previous articles in this journal (vol. vi.) I have briefly 
called attention to the vast numbers of relics found in Central 

ew Jersey, and drawn a distinction between the ruder and the 


More elaborate forms, considering the former strictly paleolithic 


implements ; but that from this stage of culture to that of the 
Polished stone age there had been an unchecked development, a 
stadual merging of the one into the other condition. Subsequent 
2 eager neem 


Copyright, A. 8. PACKARD, Jr. 1876, 


66 Antiquity of the Indians of North America, [February, 


studies have led to a’modification of this view, and a separation 
of the two classes of relics as traces of distinct peoples. This 
subject I propose to dwell upon at some length in a subsequent 
article, and desire to: call attention now to what I believe to be 
positive indications of the very great length of time during which 
the Indian oceupied New Jersey, as derived from the study of 
thousands of stone implements gathered by myself. 

Unless some very marked geological change occurred, obliter- 
ating every vestige of the former surface of the country, lost 
paleolithic implements would naturally occur, scattered about, 
and what more probable than that men of a later period should 
occasionally pick up, preserve, and utilize them? The difference 
between a paleolithic and a neolithic flint hatchet is not as great 
as that between an ancient stone and a modern metal hammer ; 
and Nilsson’ refers to a stone hammer of undoubted antiquity 
being long used by a carpenter, who had put it to uses similar to 
those of its prehistoric owner. When, therefore, among true In- 
dian relics that occasionally are found lying together as the series 
described by the writer in this journal,? that marked the site of 
a “ homestead of the stone age,” there happens to be “ rudely 
chipped implements ” associated “ with some of the very finest 
wrought stone weapons and arrow-heads,” it is not necessary 
to conclude that the latter were made at the same time as the 
others, for we are not sufficiently familiar with the every-day life 
of the stone-age Indian to assert that he could have found no 
use for these rude productions of his predecessors, on the one 
hand, or that he did not gather them up for use, or work them 


over into better forms, when they happened to be met with. In- 


asmuch as these rude relics that are intimately associated with 
newer relics invariably exhibit a greater degree of. weathering and 
decay than accompanying implements of the same mineral, it is 
not difficult to separate them ; and whatever the use to which 
they may have been put, it appears certain that they were occa- 
sionally gathered — veritable relies of a departed people then — 
by the Indians for some practical purpose. | 
As arrow-heads are the best known form of Indian relies, and 

as they certainly outnumber all other forms, and are abundant 
frequently where no other pattern is found, they afford by reason 
of their numbers excellent opportunities for determining various 
questions concerning the condition and degree of culture of the 

1 Stone Age in Scandinavia, 2d ed , p. 69. 

2 Vol. vii, p.271. 


1876.] Antiquity of the Indians of North America. 67 


people using and making them. I will therefore first refer to 
them, in endeavoring to point out the indications of the antiquity 
of the Indian. 

On examining a complete series of arrow-heads from one locality, 
we find that whatever mineral was available was utilized in their 
manufacture, and on the sites of arrow-makers’ workshops not 
only is there a vast accumulation of chips of the more popular 
minerals for arrow-heads, but quantities of water-worn pebbles 
from the river and brook beds, which have been split in two, or 
otherwise tested, to see if by the first fracture they gave promise 
of being available. Again, certain minerals seemed specially 
adapted for a given pattern of arrow-points, and were used almost 
exclusively for it. We have here certainly an unquestionable 
indication that the art of arrow-making had been progressive, 
whether the progress was made while the Indians were in this 
country, or acquired previously. In either case, the progress had 
been made; and when we find rude arrow-heads in consider- 
able numbers, of plain patterns, scattered singly about fields and 
forests, it is quite conclusive that these are the forerunners of the 
former, — the elaborate jasper specimens, — and that the progress 
in the art of arrow-making was acquired during the Indian’s occu- 

pancy of this territory. As this was very slow, the date of his 
arrival reaches back into strictly prehistoric times. 

Having seen that different minerals were used by the Indians 
in arrow-making, let us consider in detail what evidence there 
is of great improvement in the production of these implements. 
The poor specimens of themselves do not simply indicate, as might 
be claimed, that they are the work of beginners in the flint-chip- 
Ping art, for they are found in such localities and under such con- 
ditions far too often for one not to see that they are the weapons 
of an earlier time than are the more elaborately wrought forms 
found hear them. In a country overgrown with forests, where 
there is annually a vast deposit of dead leaves, there necessarily 
isa steady increase in the depth of the soil by the deposition of 
a thin layer of vegetable mold. This increase I believe to be 
about one one hundred and twenty-eighth (,},) of an inch per 
annum, in beech, oak, and chestnut woods. If on examination of 
the undisturbed soil of such forest tracts we find jasper and 
quartz arrow-heads at a depth of ten inches which are large, not 
Xeutely pointed or symmetrical, and of the simplest patterns, as 
the leaf-shaped or triangular ; and smaller, symmetrical, stemmed, 
barbed, acutely pointed specimens two or three inches deep, as a 


” 


68 Antiquity of the Indians of North America. [February, 


rule; then I submit it is quite certain that the former are about 
thirteen centuries old, and the latter ranging from two and a half 
to four centuries. This is what really occurs in New Jersey, and 
in part I rest the claims of the Indian’s antiquity thereupon. 

Again, in the river flats that are yearly and semi-yearly over- 
flowed, this same condition obtains; and the deeper in the depos- 
its — which are constantly increasing in depth, and have been 
since the river assumed its present dimensions — that we find these 
arrow-heads, while mineralogically the same with the very finest, 
they show less skill in the workmanship. This applies, as we shall 
see, to all other forms and varieties of weapons, domestic imple- 
ments, and ornaments; and gives us evidence of an improvi 
savage, who subsequently reached a somewhat higher stage, be- 
yond which he has no capability of going. 

The grooved stone ax is a form of Indian relic that is a marked 
feature of the stone weapons of the Indians. They are mod- 
erately abundant everywhere, and tens of thousands are probably 
still lying in the soil. I have knowledge of one field of twelve 
acres from which have been already gathered one hundred and 
thirty specimens, and every plowing brings others to the surface. 
These axes give us the same evidence of gradual improvement 
I have pointed out as existing in the case of arrow-heads. Weap- 
ons of this pattern are strictly a neolithic form, the groove 
making it a polished or ground stone implement. They are 
never made of “ flaking” material, but are pecked or hammered 
into shape, then smoothed or polished. In the apparently more 
ancient graves, these axes are pebbles from the river bed, that 
have acquired something of an ax shape. The edge was first 
hammered and then smoothed by rubbing, and a roughened circle 
made about it, at or near the middle of the stone. Derived | 
from such a rude relic we have, in later times, very carefully 
grooved specimens, many with the groove faced with high ridges, 
that give the depression a double depth. The edge is a mar- 
vel: of accuracy in tool making, being as correctly formed as 
in the most elaborate steel ax of the present time, although of 
course not as thin in the blade, and as sharp. These perfect stone 
axes occasionally are turned up in plowing, but most frequently 
are found in graves, associated with finely wrought jasper spears 
and other weapons; but never in the oldest graves, or the deep, 
undisturbed soil. Examination of the mud of the river flats, and 

1 Stone tools, as hammers, whetstones, ete., indicative of the method pursued in 
making these and other weapons, are very abundant in some localities. 


1876.] Antiquity of the Indians of North America. 69 


other localities where analogous changes are in operation, yields 
precisely the same results, as to the degree of excellence of work- 
manship in comparison with the depth at which they occur, as 
in the case of arrow-points, and I draw the same conclusions in 
the one instance as in the other. 

Before referring to pottery and its bearings on this question, I 
desire very briefly to call attention to an interesting point con- 
nected with every large series of stone implements from a given 
locality ; that is, that there are very many forms of such relics 
that are never found except of advanced workmanship. In pro- 
portion as the implements of the Indian were of primitive make, 
they were few in forms, one form answering for a variety of pur- 
poses; but advance in the art suggested variations in shape to 
meet particular uses; and so, in proportion as we find a speci- 
men of a specialized shape, we find it elaborately wrought and 
of fine material. A rudely nicked flint flake was never yet met 
with that there is a shadow of reason for believing answered as 
a saw, and was thus used. The wavy, saw-like edges of many 
spear-heads doubtless suggested that tool ; and carefully toothed, 
thin flakes of jasper are frequently found, that unquestionably 
were made for sawing, and for this use only. The large *“ scrap- 
ers,” especially those occurring in fresh-water and marine shell- 

eaps, are not generally very carefully shaped, and the major- 
ity are made of easily worked material. Like arrow-heads, they 
give evidence of gradual improvement. With the ruder shapes 
of this implement, just referred to, there are never found associ- 
ated the delicately chipped, diminutive “scrapers,” as they 
are usually called, which were certainly intended for other uses 
than cleansing skins. These miniature “ skin-dressers” were 
doubtless suggested by the typical scraper, and so are of later 
origin. They are met with upon the surface of the ground, 
and, whatever their use, are simply another instance of what I 
stated concerning atrow-heads and axes. If correct in my con- 
clusions with reference to Indian relics as a whole, the bearing of 
the above remarks regarding specialized forms, such as described, 
on the question of the antiquity of the Indian, is obvious. 

There is no one class of relics by which the general advance in 
art can be estimated better than that of pottery. This, in a 
more or less fragmentary condition, occurs associated with neo- 

1 In a fresh-water shell-heap of limited dimensions, situated on the bank of a small 
“reek, has found a jasper saw seven inches in length, and near it several tibiæ 
of deer that had evidently been cut in sections with this implement. 


70 Antiquity of the Indians of North America. [February, 


lithic stone implements wherever found, either on the surface, in 
the soil, or buried in graves. This association is a reliable guide 
to the age of accompanying relics, especially when met with in 
graves, for superior ware would be chosen to contain the food 
buried with the body. I have invariably found in the graves 
which from indications irrespective of their contents gave evi- 
dence of considerable antiquity, that the contained relics agreed 
with the external evidences ; and: especially is this true of the 
pottery. It is very coarse and free from all attempts at orna- 
mentation when associated with coarse, unskillfully chipped 
weapons ; and elaborate, highly decorated, — by figures of varied 
patterns, not colored, — and fine in its composition when found 
in graves containing carefully wrought, artistic jasper spears and 
arrow-points, and highly polished, symmetrical celts and axes. 
The same obtains with pottery that has been long lost, and 
deeply buried by the accumulating soil of periodically submerged 
lands, when compared with that found nearer and upon the sur- 
ace. 

The rude pottery, and evidently the older, is simply clayey 
earth with no admixture of foreign matter other than what has 
been accidentally incorporated, such as small pebbles and frag- 
ments of wood. It is easily broken, free from ornament, and, I 
judge, sun-burnt only.! Always thick, and usually uneven, ves- 
sels of such rude make could have been of but limited use, and, 
judging from the fragments, were always small round or oval 
bowls, never contracted at the opening as the majority of cups, 
vases, and urns of later times are. The finer and later pottery 
is made of carefully selected clay, is mixed with finely pulverized 
mussel shells, is comparatively thin, of uniform thickness, and 
often very elaborately decorated with curved lines, dots, zig-zags, 
and parallel lines, singly or combined. Some fragments that I 
have gathered give grounds for believing that by varying the 
proportions of the ingredients of the mixture the maker could de- 
termine the color, as some of these fragments are of a bright brick- 
red color, others of a delicate pearl tint, and a third variety of a 
deep, dark purple. A careful comparison of a large series of 
specimens gathered from a single neighborhood, made in connec- 

! From circumstances to which I cannot more than allude now, I am led to 
believe that the first pottery was baked by being plastered over one half of a large 
oval stone previously heated. The heat from the stone and exposure to the sun re- 


sulted in an unequal burhing, the inside of the vessel being harder than the exterior 
surface. ne 


1876.] Antiquity of the Indians of North America. Tl 


tion with laborious examination of the surroundings and circum- 
stances of the finding of nearly every fragment, — thousands in 
number, — makes it evident that a very gradual improvement 
was acquired in this art by the Indians during their occupancy of 
this territory. 

It is unnecessary to give additional facts indicating that the 
duration of the occupancy of this country by the Indian was 
marked by a considerable improvement in his condition, as 
shown by the vast superiority in workmanship of much of the 
stone-implement work over the rest (exclusive of paleolithic im- 
plements), and therefore of necessity that that occupancy was of 
long duration. 

The question now naturally arises, How old are the oldest In- 
dian relics? Only comparative antiquity can be determined. 
There is no starting-point from which to begin a positive calcula- 
tion, and I purpose only to show that the antiquity is real and 
great, without endeavoring to’ determine its limits by an array 
of figures. I have already done this in reference to the arrow- 
heads and axes. There are, however, one or two considerations 
which have some bearing on this question. 

There occasionally are brought to light traces of human habita- 
tions which, judging from their contracted limits, were sites of 
dwelling-places of a single family, or at most a small group of 
people. The hearth, readily recognized by the charcoal and 
ashes, the fact of subsistence on animal food by the bones of 
` mammals, birds, and fishes, and the occupation, if an arrow- 
maker, by abundance of flakes and chips, — all are there. There 
is nothing wanting to tell the story of the lives of the former 
occupants of the place. Such habitation-traces, if I may call 
them thus, differ among themselves in two ways: by the greater 
or less depth beneath the existing surface of the soil, and by the 
character of the finish of the contained relics. There is in this 
case, too, a repetition of what has been thrice stated already, nearer 
the surface, finer the finish ; but the depth of soil above these 
ancient hearths can, I think, be measured so as to give an approx. 
imation to the age of the inhumed relics, whether in the case of 
deposition from the muddy waters of the semi-annual freshets, or 
of the slow decomposition of forest leaves. The freshets of the 
Delaware River, occurring usually twice a year, deposit about 
one two hundred and fifty-sixth (tz) of an inch per annum, and 
hearths and shell-heaps occur as deep as two feet below the present 
Meadow surface. Such traces of human habitations, if there have 


27 Antiquity of the Indians of North America. [Febu 


been no other causes in operation to bury them, are about sixty 
centuries old. If we double the deposit from the water in a 
given time, even then twenty-six hundred years had passed by 
since the abandonment of these little shell-heaps and “ home- 
steads ” when Columbus discovered the western world ; but I be- 
lieve the former estimate to be much nearer the truth. 

I have already referred to arrow-heads which I considered to 
be about thirteen centuries old. They were far from being rude 
in workmanship, although not of the most elaborate finish. If 
we grade a series of a thousand specimens from one locality into 
three or four, say four, degrees of excellence, such specimens as 
I have estimated as probably thirteen centuries old will stand 
as number three jn the series. If the acquirement of excellence in 
flint chipping was uniform, the first and rudest of the arrow-heads 
assignable to the neolithic Indian dates back twenty-six centuries 
previous to the specimens graded as number three. All things 
considered, from thirty-five to forty centuries ago, at least, I 
believe to be the point in the past when the. Indian appeared in 
what is now New Jersey ; but it is by no means improbable that 


the paleolithic implements belonged to the same people as the 
neolithic forms, or they are the production of a distinct people. 


by them according to numerous authors, the relics now found 
Seem corroborative of such a tradition, and these paleolithic 
implements, so different from the others in many respects, re- 
main as the only trace of that still older people, the autochthonous 
race of these shores who were in sole possession when driven away 
by the incoming Indians, whose own stone implements at the time 
were but little more elaborate than those of the expelled or subju- 
gated people, but which, as century after century rolled by, became 
the beautiful specimens of the flint-chipping art which we now 
find scattered over our hills, along our valleys, and mingled with 
the pebbles of our forest brooks. 


1876.] Haeckel’s Gastrea Theory. “3 


HAECKEL’S GASTRAZA THEORY. 
BY ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. 


a ai HAECKEL has just published in the Jenaische 

Zeitschrift} a second paper on the gastræa theory, devoted to 
answering the many attacks to which it has been subjected. It 
is fortunately free from the personalities which disfigure so many 
of Haeckel’s productions, and consists mainly of new theories and 
new interpretations of well-known embryological facts. Haeckel 
now endeavors by a most ingenious theory to explain the phe- 
nomena of segmentation, which (according to him) conceal the 
original unity of the gastræa in the different classes of the animal 
kingdom. As Haeckel now presents the gastræa theory it would 
be difficult to recognize it as he and his followers formerly under- 
stood it. 

It is unfortunate that Haeckel should feel obliged to coin so 
many new terms, for unless the reader can throw himself, heart 
and soul, into Haeckel’s position, he will-hardly feel inclined 
to master the delicate shades of meaning which a difference in 
prefix or termination involves. They undoubtedly contribute to 
the terseness of the text, but are so numerous that the reader can 
scarcely be expected to carry in his mind the necessary vocabu- 
lary, much of it dating back to the Generelle Morphologie. 

Haeckel has made an important admission in going back for 
his starting-point to the egg (as the opponents of his theory 
urged), and attempting to trace how far segmentation can be 
influenced by natural selection; he has of course seen the diffi- 
culty, of which all embryologists are aware, of accounting through 
such a cause for the vital divergence observed in the segmentation 
of closely allied groups, leading eventually to the same result. It 


_ 18 difficult even in the wildest flight of imagination to frame a 
theory to account not only for these radical differences of devel- 


opment in the ancestral eggs, living in the same medium, sub- 
ject to identical influences, but also for their transmission by in- 
heritance. Haeckel’s explanation of the causes which have led 
to the concealment of the descent of the gastrula is that only 
those embryonic processes which can be traced directly to a 
former independent ancestral form, and can be inherited, are of 
primary importance for the recognition of genetic connection, 
while those embryonic phenomena which are due to adaptation 
of the embryo or larval condition can claim only a very secondary 
1 Die Gastrula und die Eifurchung der Thiere. 


$ 


74 Haeckel’s Gastrea Theory. [ February, 


importance. It is by palingenesis and cenogenesis, the terms he 
applies to primary and secondary embryonic phenomena, that he 
accounts for the divergence observed in the earlier embryonic 
stages. Whether we agree with Haeckel or not, his paper can- 
not fail to be most suggestive, as this is the first attempt to tabu- 
late the early embryonic stages of the egg in the different classes 
of the animal kingdom, with a view to account for their differ- 
ence on the theory of natural selection ; the more interesting, com- 
ing as it does from the investigator who first tested the theory of 
descent by the monographie study of a great group. It is not 
our purpose to describe the many subordinate phenomena, either 
of palingenesis or of cenogenesis, quoted by Haeckel ; we merely 
wish to call attention to the dangerous path he treads when he 
explains anomalies as falsifications of the record in either time or 
space. When we have to resort to such devices, no explanation 
at all is fully as satisfactory. 

Armed with this new instrument of investigation, Haeckel 
carefully compares the different modes of segmentation resulting 
in the gastrula, to which he had already alluded in his Anthro- 
pogenie. He then takes up the same subject for the several 
classes of the animal kingdom, and treats it with his usual inge- 
nuity, and closes with the phylogenetic interpretation to be as- 
signed to the early stages of embryonic development. Of these 
he recognizes five as of primary importance: the ““monerula,”’ or 
the first stage of metazoan development ; the second stage, repre- 
senting the egg as commonly understood, which he calls the « cy- 
tula;” the third, the « morula,” or mulberry stage; the fourth, 
the “planæa ” (formerly known as “ planula,” though very dif- 
ferent stages were often spoken of under that name); and the 
fifth, the “ gastrula.” 

This paper is accompanied by two plates of diagrammatic 
sketches copied from various authors, representing the segmenta- 
tion and gastrula of various invertebrates and vertebrates. 
Haeckel gives in addition original figures of the same stages in a 
crustacean, an annelid, a mollusk, and a bony fish, It is a great 
pity that such a skillful draughtsman should give such untrust- 
worthy figures to illustrate so fundamental a theory, and quietly 
fall back upon the righteousness of his cause. His figure of a 
fish embryo has no value as a copy of nature; it is a diagram 
simply. Such an embryo may exist, but the distrust naturally 
felt of such fictitious illustrations, by all who are familiar with a 
portion of his subject, naturally extends in the first place to all 
his figures and lastly to his whole theory. 


1876.] Summer Birds of the White Mountain Region. T5 


The plate devoted to the segmentation of the bony fish is par- 
ticularly important, as it gives us a totally different interpretation 
of the formation of the embryo from the one usually accepted. 
Haeckel’s observations were made on the pelagic eggs of what he 
ealls a Gadoid. Judging from closely allied eggs we have had the 
opportunity to study on our coast, we should say they were more 
probably Cottoid eggs. 

It may not be out of place to call attention to the great abun- 
dance of pelagic fish eggs readily obtained, in all stages of devel- 
opment, during the breeding season of a number of our common 
marine fishes. With the exception of the very earliest stages of 
segmentation, only to be obtained, owing to the rapidity of the 
process, by means of artificial fecundation, I know of no method 
so readily accessible for studying the embryology of fishes as 
that of collecting pelagic fish eggs. I have myself studied more 
or less completely the embryology of our sea-perch, tautog, two 
species of sculpins, two species of flounders, a Motella (young 
Phycis ?), our blue-fish, menhaden, butter-fish, goose-fish, and 
several other species of uncertain origin. These pelagic eggs are 
by no means as delicate as eggs usually laid on the ground and 
obtained by ordinary artificial fecundation, and the young em- 
bryos can generally after hatching be retained alive for a consid- 
erable period. 


THE SUMMER BIRDS OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN 
REGION, 
BY H. D. MINOT. 

Sin this article I mean to speak of the birds found in summer 
*~™ in the region of the White Mountains, I may state that my 
information in regard to them has been drawn from observations 
made at Conway and Bethlehem. At North Conway, where I 
spent several weeks in the year 1872, I observed, through what- 
ever part of the neighboring country I went, an almost entire 
absence of birds. That township, owing to its situation in a val- 
ley to the south of the White Mountains, and other causes perhaps, 
contained, to my knowledge, few birds beside the ruffed grouse, 
afew ducks in the rivers, sandpipers, one pair of hawks, one pair 
of kingfishers, a few robins, and the proverbial village swallows. 
But Bethlehem, the highest village of New England, sixteen hun- 
dred feet above the level of the sea, blessed with a cool, invigor- 
ating climate, situated to the westward of Mount Washington, 


76 Summer Birds of the White Mountain Region. [ February, 


yet practically among the hills, in many places covered with large 
tracts of genuine old New Hampshire forests, and overrun with 
brooks, contains thousands of birds in summer, and these birds be- 
long partly to the Canadian fauna. Therefore this article has 
been written partly to illustrate the distribution of that fauna, 
but partly, however, for other purposes. When I first came to 
Bethlehem, two years ago, I found but one pair of robins in the 
township, but Iam glad to see that there are now several pairs, 
one of which, I have been told, built their nest a little while ago 
on the top of a long pole, which stood without support in an 
open hen-yard. Several robins have retired from the village and 
built their nests in the woods and haunts which seem more ap- 
propriate to the other thrushes, of which the Swainson’s thrushes 
are by far the most common, and correspond to the familiar wood 
thrushes of Massachusetts. The olive-backed thrush sings very 
sweetly, very much like the wood thrush, but not so finely nor 
quite so exquisitely ; picks up insects of various kinds, as food, 
among the branches of the trees in the thick woods, particularly 
woods drained by Swamps or streams, and builds its nest in young 
spruces, from six to ten feet above the ground, laying in these 
three or four eggs, which are much like those of the scarlet tan- 
ager. As with many other birds, it often rears, when undis- 
turbed, two broods of young in the course of the summer. Her- 
mit and Wilson’s thrushes are. not at all common, and I have 
met with but a very few in Bethlehem, especially of the former. 
I do not think that I have ever seen any brown thrushes. 

I have seen one or two cat-birds, but these latter, as is the 
case with the blue-birds familiar to me at home, are to be ranked 
among strangers in this place. I have been greatly pleased to 
meet a pair of golden-crowned wrens here, which inhabit a large 
tract of white birches (the home of chickadees). I found them 
with a family of young in August, last year, as well as without 
young in July, this year, though I have not yet been able to find 
their nest. Chickadees, brown creepers, and both kinds of nut- 
hatches are summer residents, as house wrens also are occasion- 


these latter, and I have found a great many in the valleys here, 
though I inferred from a remark of Dr. Brewer’s, before coming 
to Bethlehem, that they inhabited only the sides of Mount Wash- 
ington, and like altitudes. These birds are ever busy about the 
fallen trees and brushwood of the forests, and from the top of 
some dead limb often pour out a shrill, hurried song of wonder- 


1876.) Summer Birds of the White Mountain Region. TT 


ful power and great liveliness. The woods frequented by these 
wrens, as well as many other forests, abound with warblers, only 
a few of which regularly pass the summer in Massachusetts, 
whereas most of them can no doubt in summer be found in Canada. 
The black and white creepers are not common ; but the little blue 
yellow-backed warblers are quite common, usually busily engaged 
among the tree-tops, their habits and their song being the same 
during their migrations through the neighborhood of Boston in 
the spring. They build their nests chiefly in the drier woods of 
maples, chestnuts, hemlocks (and oaks), as they do in Massachu- 
setts, when they occasionally pass the summer there. In such 
woods, and the damper spruce swamps, I often see the black- 
throated green, or hear his familiar notes, which are sometimes 
blended with the less musical ‘ zwee-zwee zwee-zwee” of the 
black-throated blue, which refrain is repeated in a peculiar tone, 
with a rising inflection. The two kinds of warblers, however, 
which I have been most surprised to meet here are the yellow- 
rumps and the prairie warblers. I saw a pair of the former 
among some spruces, my attention having been called to their 
song, which, by the way, I have heard again and again in the 
spring migrations of these birds, and which resembles more or 
less a weak imitation of the purple finch’s song. The prairie 
warblers I have twice met in different woods, and I found in a 
low spruce, in a dark wood, one of their nests, which, as well as 
the eggs in it, differed very much from all other specimens in my 
cabinet. I was rather amazed to find the former species so far to 
the south of what I supposed to be their range in summer, and 
the latter species in dark forests, a hundred miles northward of 
certain sunny pasture-lands in Massachusetts which have usually 
been considered the northern limit of their distribution. 

The Blackburnian warblers are also summer residents here ; 
and though the brilliant coloration of the male is an ornament 
to the place in which he lives, yet his simple notes, ‘ wee-seé- 
wee-seé-wee-seé” (to which a terminal “ wee-seé-ick”’ is occa- 
sionally added), are hardly an addition to the various musical 
charms of the place. I now and then meet black and yellow 
warblers in the woods, and hear or see chestnut-sided and Nash- 
ville warblers in more open lands; but these latter are rare. 
* Black-polls ” belong, I think, to Northern Maine rather than to 
Northern New Hampshire, and I have met but two here, though 
I have found several old nests in spruces and hemlocks, which I 
have attributed to these birds. The Canada fly-catchers, on the 


78 Summer Birds of the White Mountain Region. [ February, 


contrary, quite commonly inhabit the cooler woods, where I have 
often watched the male catching insects and caterpillars with 
great dexterity, sometimes collecting a dozen or more in his bill, 
doubtless to feed his mate or young with. The Maryland yellow- 
throat, however, is by far the most common warbler at Bethle- 
hem, frequenting woods and roadsides alike, never shy but always 
watchful ; whilst the equally familiar “+ red starts ” are also toler- 
ably common, and I often hear them singing in company with 
others of their family in the depths of the forests. Though I 
have seen no water thrushes here, yet in the deep woods, since 
there are no dry groves near the houses, I occasionally hear the 
familiar chatter of the wagtail (S. awrocapillus), generally near 
some water-course, however, rather than in dry woods. 
Whenever I return from a long walk through the haunts of 
these various warblers which I have just enumerated, I invaria- 
bly see many cedar-birds on the roadsides and in the orchards, 
and when I get to the village I can always see there about 
me all the swallows, including the so-called chimney swallows 
(which cannot, however, by modern classification claim any near 
relationship to the true Hirundinide). Of these swallows the 
sand martins have established themselves at a sandbank near 


a friend reports having seen) have but just made their appearance 
in the township (for the first time, so far as I know, though per- 
haps one or two pairs may have spent the last season here, un- 
noticed by me). About the village both red-eyed and warbling 
vireos pass the summer (of the latter only one pair) ; and in the 
woods I often hear the cheerful warble of the red-eyed and soli- 
tary vireo, the latter of which is very rare, whereas the former is 
quite as common as about Boston, and constantly reminds me of a — 
more familiar neighborhood. Grateful for the society of these 
vireos, Iam thankful that this place is not pestered with their 
cruel and destructive relatives, the murderous shrikes, of which 
I have seen no bloody traces as yet. 

The finches are well represented at Bethlehem, both by species 
familiar to us near Boston in summer, and by others. Perhaps 
the most common representatives are the goldfinches, which fre- 
juent pastures, roadsides, and gardens, sometimes, by the way, 
not laying their eggs until the second or third week of August, 
since in Massachusetts they habitually build their nest very late in 
the season, and here all bird sgenerally breed two, three, or four 


Re ES nE ES in Ih i tole Sat i a) 0 Sl daa ag a 


1876.] Summer Birds of the White Mountain Region. 79 


weeks later than they do two degrees further south (within thirty 
miles of the shore). The purple finches are rare ; but five kinds 
of sparrows are common, and make up this deficiency ; of these 
the song sparrows, bay-winged buntings, and savannah sparrows 
frequent the fields, from which I constantly hear their songs— the 
more familiar music of the two former, and the quaint, drawling 
“ chip-chirr” or“ chip-chip-chee-chee-chirr”’ of the savannah spar- 
rows. ‘ Chippers ” are quite common in the village, and all day 
long the clear, exquisite whistle of the Peabody-birds (or white- 
throated sparrows) is heard from the woodland which they in- 
habit. ‘The snow-birds frequent the woods and hill-sides in many 
places, and there gain a livelihood by finding food on the ground 
or about fallen logs and standing stumps, over which they are 
constantly running ; and the indigo-birds are common in pasture- 
land, whence I often hear their familiar song, sometimes joined 
with that of the chestnut-sided warbler, or some other denizen of 
their haunts. 

The Icteride and Corvide are represented each by two species, 
the former by the bobolinks and a stray pair of golden robins, the 
latter by crows (in no great abundance) and a very few blue jays, 
whose screams I hear but occasionally from the woods. (Thus the 
number of oscine birds which I remember to have seen at Beth- 
lehem is fifty, of which sixteen are not regular summer-residents 
in Massachusetts. The number of Clamatores is six, and the 
total number of Passeres fifty-six, of which forty are also regular 
summer residents in the neighborhood of Boston.) The repre- 
sentatives of the Clamatores are the following fly-catchers: the 
kingbirds, the great crested fly-catchers, the pewees, which are 
not at all abundant, the olive-sided fly-catchers, the wood pewees, 
and the Traill’s fly-catchers, which inhabit much the same places 
as do the wood pewees, preferring, however, rather drier woods, 


Where, from the upper branches, on which they have taken their 


post, they utter their characteristic ‘* pu-ee.” ; 
Belted kingfishers live near the streams and mill-ponds; and in 
the forests which border upon these, live the humming-birds, which 


Yarely come to the gardens in the village, preferring the woods to 


open grounds, as I believe that they often do in more cultivated 
and more thickly populated districts. Occasionally, whip-poor- 
wills enliven the night with their cries, and night-hawks very 
often fly about at dusk, sometimes in company with the few chim- 
ney swallows which live in the village. I have once or twice 
heard the notes of the (yellow-billed ?) cuckoo from the shrubbery 


80 The Origin and Development of Museums. [ February, 


which borders upon the woods, where live the hairy woodpeckers, 
— whose relations, the downy woodpeckers, I do not remember to 
have often seen here,—and also the three-toed woodpeckers ( Pi- 
cus arcticus), of which I have seen but one pair; the yellow-bel- 
lied woodpeckers, regarding which I may make the same remark; 
the great log-cocks (H. pileatus), which particularly affect old 
forests and backwoods ; and the common flickers (Colaptes au- 
ratus). (These birds are the seventeen representatives of the 
Picarian group, and five of these do not regularly breed in Massa- 
chusetts.) I have seen no birds of prey, except occasionally four 
hawks: red-tail, sparrow-hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, and marsh 
hawk; a golden eagle; and as to the game-birds, there are wild 
pigeons, ruffed grouse, one pair of woodcock, no snipe, but a few 
ignominious sandpipers (T. macularius ; also R. solitarius ?) in 
their stead. With these five latter birds and one accidental heron 
(once seen flying over the valley) I close this perhaps imperfect 


Bethlehem, twenty - one of which are not summer residents in 
Massachusetts, unless irregularly so. M any of these birds repre- 
sent a Canadian fauna; some belong to that and the Alleghanian 
fauna too, whereas a few belong entirely to the latter. These facts 
show that Bethlehem is situated on the line between these two 
faunæ, and contains an interesting admixture of birds which be- 


long to different areas of distribution. 


THE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT 
OF MUSEUMS. 


BY DR. H. A. HAGEN. 


(POLLECTION S of objects of natural history are indispensable 

nowadays to the naturalist in his studies, The advantage of 
such collections to the student is indeed very obvious, as the study 
of natural history consists chiefly in comparison. Every deserip- 
tion, every observation, is more or less a comparative one, even if 
the object compared is not mentioned ; and it is easily understood’ 
that richer and more complete collections help to a more com- 
plete study, a more perfect work. The history of the origin and 
development of collections of natural history is not devoid of in- 
terest, perhaps even profitable for science and for the important 
question as to which would be the most convenient arrangement of 
a collection. The materials for such a history are scanty, for those 


| 
l 


1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 81 


of ancient times are nearly wanting. But the impossibility of be- 
lieving that knowledge in natural history would be attained and 
furthered without collections induced Professor Beckmann to 
express the opinion in a short but interesting paper on this sub- 
ject, some ninety years ago, that the origin of such collections 
was to be found in the old custom of keeping curious and remark- 
able objects in temples. This opinion gains some ground, as the 
medical sciences are considered to have originated in the written 
reports of convalescents about their sickness, and the ‘remedies 
used, which were posted in the temple of Æsculapius for every- 
body’s instruction. There are some interesting facts quoted by 
the classic authors. The skins of the hairy men from the Gor- 
gades Islands, brought home by Hanno’s expedition, were still 
preserved in the temple of Juno, three hundred years after Car- 
thage was destroyed. The late Professor J. Wyman ingeniously 
suggested that they might be the skins of the gorilla. The 
horns of the Scythie bulls, exceedingly rare, and alone capable of 
preserving the water of the Styx, were given by Alexander the 
Great to the temple of Delphi. The horns of the renowned 
obnoxious steer from Macedon were presented by King Philip to 
the temple of Hercules ; the abnormal omoplate of Pelops was 
in the temple at Elis; the horns of the so-called Indian ants, in 
the temple of Hercules at Erythris ; the crocodile brought home 
by the expedition to the sources of the Nile, in the temple of Isis 
at Cæsarea. A large number of similar cases are quoted in Pro- 
fessor Beckman’s above-mentioned paper. The choice of places 
devoted to religious service, for such deposits, was very appropri- 
ate, every spoliation of them being considered sacrilege. So it 
happened that such curiosities were preserved many centuries, 
and the not infrequent additions in such a space of time formed at 
last a somewhat considerable collection, open at any time and to 
everybody. The variety of prominent objects was certainly in- 
structive to the observers. 

Apollonius saw with wonder in India the trees bearing the 
different kinds of nuts he had seen before preserved in the tem- 
ples in Greece. After all, things brought together in such con- 
fusion were the origin of collections; and in fact this custom was 
continued through the Middle Ages, changed only by the exclu- 
sion of objects not agreeing with the sanctity of the place. In 
a votive temple on the battle-field of Feuchtwangen hung the 
omoplate said to be that of the commander of the Teutonic 
Order who had fallen in battle four hundred years ago ; it is now 

6 


VOL. X. — no. 2. 


82 The Origin and Development of Museums. [February, 


“in the museum in Koenigsberg, Prussia, and belongs to a whale. 
Even now this custom is not entirely obsolete. 

It seems certain that prominent naturalists, such as Aristotle 
and Apuleius, must have had collections, though there is no di- 
rect testimony to that effect given in any of their works still ex- 
tant. The order of Alexander the Great for hunters, trappers, 
and fishermen to bring all kinds of natural objects to Aristotle, 
is well known ; Theophrast and Apuleius are also known to have 
studied and dissected many different kinds of animals, chiefly 
fishes. Apuleius is the first naturalist known to have found it 
profitable and necessary to make voyages for the purpose of study- 
ing foreign animals, and collecting palzontological objects in the 
Getulic Alps, but unfortunately all his works on zodlogy are 
lost. The Emperor Augustus is considered the first prince pos- 
sessing collections of a scientific nature. ; 

I presume that the certain knowledge of the collections of the 
great naturalists above quoted was lost, as the collections them- 
selves were quickly destroyed, for lack of means for sufficient 
preservation. The truth of this explanation is made more appar- 
ent since the successive discovery of more convenient and easier 
means of preservation of objects has made these collections more 
lasting and permanent through later generations. In a really 
interesting and obvious way, every new discovery, every improve- 
ment in the manner of preservation, has given a newer and 
stronger impulse to the enlargement of the collections, to the 
perfection of science. 

Some methods of preserving objects were of course known to 
the ancients, but these methods were the same as those used for 
the preservation of food or of corpses, and generally not at all 
adapted or sufficient to preserve objects in a manner to make 
them fit for scientific purposes. The principal of these methods 
consisted in the exclusion or the prevention of the obnoxious 
action of oxygen. So the objects were preserved or dried, 
pickled with salt or spices, or entirely covered with salt water, 
honey, or wax. 

The sow which was said to have borne thirty young pigs to 
Æneas was pickled by the priests, and was still to be seen at 
Lavinium in Varro’s time, some ten centuries later. Large Af- 
rican animals pickled with salt, two hippocentauri and a large 
monkey, sent to Rome, were seen many years later by Pliny. 
Other large animals preserved in the same way were sent to the 
emperors in Constantinople, and even much later the hippopota- 
mus described by Cohunna arrived, pickled with salt. 


1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 83 


It was the custom among the Assyrian people to preserve ` 
corpses in honey, and this did very well also for delicate objects, 
When Alexander the Great conquered Suza, he found a very 
large and expensive quantity of purple dye two hundred years 
old, preserved in an excellent condition by an external layer of 
honey. Covering the objects with wax preserved them well, but 
for scientific purposes not better than the mummies of animals 
found to this day in the Egyptian pyramids. The celebrated 
book of Numa Pompilius, found in his grave, was entirely covered | 
with wax, and, though five hundred years old, in perfect condition. 

The long space of time after Christ’s death, nearly twelve cent- 
uries, is entirely devoid of interest concerning natural history. 
Curious enough, and perhaps explaining this lack of interest, is 
the fact that in the earlier centuries of the Christian era the 
study of natural history was believed to be in some way a proof 
of religious infidelity. The reason of this will probably be found 
in the lack of education and study of the disciples and nearly all 
the apostles. Discussion would have been impossible, difficult, 
or of doubtful result. Simple faith covered all. So it happened 
that the prominent works of Aristotle were nearly lost in Europe. 
Translations of these into the Arabian language, introduced in 
the tenth century through Spain, and again translated into Latin, 
were used, and the original text was perhaps not known until 
the fifteenth century in the west of Europe. Except a few 
scanty pages in the works of Saint Isidorus, there was nothing 
Written about natural history before the time of Albert the 
Great, and of course no collections existed. We are told by 
Begin, in his work on the natural history of the Middle Ages, 
that rich abbeys and cloisters possessed indeed some collections 
of medicinal or poisonous plants, of fossils, minerals, and shells. 
Even in the time of the Crusaders, such collections were aug- 
mented by frequent voyages in foreign countries. Some of these 
curiosities are still preserved: for instance, in the treasury of 
St. Denis, in France, the feet of a griffin, sent to Charles the 
Great by the Persian Shah; some teeth of the hippopotamus, and 
similar objects. 

The vast erudition of the celebrated Albertus Magnus, a Cath- 
olie priest born in Bollstadt, in Germany, extended even to 
natural history. His works are in every way admirable. The 
manifold voyages of this savant, his long residence in very differ- 
ent places, Cologne, Paris, Rome, and Regensburg, facilitated 
the observation of different animals. The works of Aristotle 


84 The Origin and Development of Museums. (February, 


were known to him only in the Arabian translation, and he ap- 
parently possessed no collection; at least, in going through his 
works, it is evident that the animals were described after living 
or fresh specimens. 

Science, during the next three centuries, did not advance ina 
remarkable way; we find nothing but repetition of the state- 
ments of Albertus and his disciples, Cantipratanus, Bartholomæus 
Anglicus, Roger Bacon, Vincentius from Beauvais, and others. 

The middle of the fifteenth century, and the time immediately 
following, is one of the most striking periods in history. The 
invention of printing, the discovery of America and of the way 
around Africa to the East Indies, the overwhelming amount of 
gold and silver gained by trade or war in those new countries 
and suddenly inundating ali Europe, followed by the momentous 
times of the Reformation, made a change in fashion, in study, and 
in knowledge, never seen before, and perhaps never to be seen 
again. Art and science advanced in the same rapid manner, the 
latter prepared in some way by the large immigration of learned 
Greeks, after the destruction of the Greek empire by the Otto- 
mans. 

The same great time produced some discoveries of the highest 
importance to the existence and preservation of collections; the 
most important, now considered by millions as the greatest calam- 
ity, being that of alcohol. This fluid was known to alchymists 
long before, but the use of it as medicine, as drink, and for the 
preservation of animal substance, certainly not much before 1483. 
A poem printed in that year, in Augsburg, set forth the excellent 
qualities of the fluid, and stated decidedly that it had been 
proved that all meat, fish, and fowl put up in alcohol would be 
well preserved, and would never decay. But ten years later we 
find the same use and abuse of alcohol as at the present time. 
The use of alcohol for the preservation of objects offered the 
additional advantage of their being easily seen and studied. 


Something else was needed, however, namely, good transparent - l 


glass jars or bottles, and the means of closing them as well as 
possible. I have not been able to ascertain the time of the first 
manufacture of transparent glass bottles; I suspect, however, 
that it may belong to some earlier time. The use of cork to 
close bottles dates surely after the middle of the sixteenth cent- 
ury, as in 1550, at least in France, it was known to be used only 
for soles. Before this time, and even a century later, wax or 
resinous stoppers were used. ‘ 


Pee OM EE TT AES A ee ee 


1876.] The Origin and Development of Museuns. 85 


Paper, a very important object for collections, has been known 
since the beginning of culture in the East, but the use of it be- 
came gradually less and less, on account of heavy taxes upon it, 
from the beginning of the Christian era to the sixth century, and 
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the use of it was nearly 
forgotten. Cotton paper was carried by Arabs to North Africa 
in the tenth century, and two centuries later to Spain. Curi- 
ously enough the manufacture of linen paper was discovered 
through an intentional fraud. People first tried to make cheaper 
cotton paper by the introduction of linen rags, and very soon ob- 
served that the paper was greatly improved by this addition. Of 
course the manufacture with linen rags alone gave a more perfect 
paper, and was retained. This was probably first manufactured in 
Germany, as there exist old deeds in Bavaria on linen paper from 
the year 1318. Paper mills existed in 1341 in France, and later 
in Nurnberg, Holland, Basle, and Switzerland. Some mills existed 
in England, but produced only packing-paper ; till 1690 all writing 
and printing paper was imported from Holland. It is sure that 
at the end of the fifteenth century linen paper was everywhere 
used, and cheap enough to displace the costly parchment. It is 
obvious that the common use of paper was a great advantage to 
every student. Botanical collections were only possible when the 
preservation of dried plants could be afforded. Just at this time 
the name herbarium, with its present meaning, seems to have 
originated, : 

Before this time, objects of natural history accompanied only 
by chance the more valuable objects of trade. Now science 
seemed suddenly to be awakened, or rather new-born. Every 
one was in haste to study the new objects, never seen before, and 
arriving in great numbers from newly-discovered countries. It 
was a natural consequence that those of the old country should 
be compared with the new ones, and every student was surprised 
to find so much around him that he had never known before. 

Conrad Gesner, a naturalist from Switzerland, a student of 
vast erudition and clear judgment, may be considered the reno- 
vator of natural science. History begins a new volume with his 
name, and his works are for the next centuries of the same im- 
portance as those of Albertus Magnus for earlier times. Gesner 
began in a right and sensible way to study thoroughly the com- 
mon objects nearest him, and by this means was enabled to 
understand more easily those from foreign lands with different 
features, | 


86 The Origin and Development of Museums. [ February, 


Switzerland, Genoa, Venice, Augsburg, Nurnberg, were at 
this time in a most favorable position for students. The largest 
trade of the world, from the East Indies, passing through these 
cities made them the most important centres of trade. The cel- 
ebrated house of the Fuggers, in Augsburg, possessed the whole 
north of South America, a country larger than Europe; and it 
was therefore easy for them to collect in their princely mansions 
the wealth and curiosities of the world. 

The desire to possess the largest collections increased in a wa 
easily to be understood, especially as the invention of the printing- 
press had now afforded facilities for making the facts known to 
the world in a very short space of time. As the trade was in 
the hands of merchants, of course the collections were in their 
hands also, or in those of private students more or less widely - 
known, as, for instance, Agrippa, Monardus, Paracelsus, Valerius 
Cordus, Hieronymus Cardanus, Matthiolus, Conrad Gesner, 
Agricola, Belon, Rondelet, Aldrovand, Thurneisser, Ortelius, 
from Italy, France, Switzerland, and Germany. England, too, 
was not behindhand, and Hackluyt gives an index of private col- 
lections in that country. The arrangement and contents of these 
collections are given in printed lists, the first known of which is 
that by Samuel Quickelberg, a learned physician of Amsterdam, 
published in 1565, in Munich. Shortly after, Conrad Gesner 
published the catalogue of the collection of Johann Kenntmann, 
a prominent physician in Torgau, Saxony. The whole collection — 
contained in a cabinet with thirteen drawers, each with two par- 
titions, about sixteen hundred objects: minerals, shells, and marine 
animals ; and yet it was thought to be so rich that students made 
long journeys to see it, and Kenntmann stated that the objects 
were collected at such an expense as few persons would be able 
or willing to afford. Similar catalogues are published by Mer- 
cati, from Rome, Imperati, from N aples, Palissy, from Paris, 

-and Thurneisser, from Berlin. 

I cannot omit here to mention that nearly all interest shown 
in science was manifested by Protestants, the few honorable ex- 
ceptions being mostly priests, who understood the times, and the 
necessity of being always among the foremost, in order not to lose 


their ascendency. The followers of Loyola were, soon after the 


institution of the order, eager enough to gain distinction even 
here. Following the history of our subject, our attention is called 
to the very striking fact that all departments of science before the 
Reformation fell gradually into the power of the predominant 


1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 87 


church, which hurled an anathema against all further investiga- 
tions. The noble and brave inhabitants of Spain, the valiant and 
intelligent people of Italy, the nervous and quick-minded French, 
the accurate and slow Germans, all were in the same way subdued, 
and prepared to recognize nothing but the ideas approved by the 
church. Curiously enough, there never existed a stricter censor- 
ship of published books, the censors being at first Catholic priests 
and afterwards principally Jesuits, and their opinions are printed 
on the first page of many old works on natural history. It 
should never be forgotten that while those countries which ac- 
cepted the Reformation grew stronger and stronger, fostered in- 
telligence, and furthered science, all others, even the noblest, de- 
generated, and never again reached their former prominence, 
though they struggled bravely and nobly. Everybody will re- 
member poor Galilei, a giant sacrificed to the glory of the church. 
Every kind of free thought seemed then, as at the present time, 
most pernicious to this infallible institution. 

It now becaine the fashion for princes to possess collections. 
They contained celebrated medicines paid for by their weight in 
gold. Bezoar, the horn of the unicorn, the Maledivian nut, the 
Alraun, were perhaps placed side by side with such rarities as the 
pistol with which Berthold Schwarz tested gunpowder when he 
had discovered it, with Chinese or Egyptian relics, and what would 
now be considered bric-à-brac of every kind. The German Em- 
peror Rudolf II., otherwise known for his avaricious and indecent 
behavior, spent large sums of money for his collections, and paid 
a thousand gold florins, a very large sum for those times, to his 
artist Hoefnagel, for drawing the specimens contained in them. 
The magnificent miniatures on parchment, in four volumes, are 
still extant. The Princes of Gottorf brought together an admi- 
rable collection, called, after the fashion of those times, Kunst- 
kammer (cabinet of art), the remnants of which are still promi- 
nent treasures of the collections of Copenhagen and St. Petersburg. 

A competition now arose between travelers in search of inter- 
esting objects. I will mention only those of the Baron von Her- 
berstein to Moscow, of the Ambassador Busbeq to Constantinople, 
who imported the first tulip, of Olearius to the East Indies, and of 
Kaempfer to Japan. Eventually nearly every prince felt obliged 
to have a well-arranged cabinet. 

A prominent physician in Nurnberg, Besler, published a de- 
scription of his collection, or rather figures of some objects, in 
1642; the first edition of which is very rare, printed on blue-tinted 


88 The Origin and Development of Museums. [ February, 


paper. The collection contains dried plants, Indian nuts arranged 
on a string (a horrid poison), a branch of a plum-tree with one 
hundred and twenty plums, weighing thirteen and one quarter 
pounds, horns of the unicorn, monstrous horns of other animals, 
a stuffed lynx, whose open mouth and red tongue made him look 
very ferocious, the cranium of a wolf, the bone of his tongue and 
wind-pipe, a rodent animal from Moscow, some birds, the cranium 
of a swan, a nautilus with carved shell, monstrous heads formed 
by shells, minerals, money, medals, crystals, the sword of Ziska, 
a Turkish pipe, vases of terra sigillata, fire-proof cloth of asbes- 
tos, jewels, guns, old stone hatchets, corals, Indian ink, fucus 
growing on a stone, and _petrefactions. | 

I have enumerated purposely the contents of one collection of 
this time, and have chosen this particularly because it seemed to 
be the most interesting, as the description of it was reprinted four 
times in the years immediately following. A rich and partially 
classified catalogue of John Tradescant’s collections was published 
in England by his son; but one will not be surprised to find such 
a heading: “Some kinds of birds and their eggs,” and among 
them “ Easter-eggs of the Patriarch of J erusalem,” and * the claw 
of the roc bird, which, ‘as authors report, is able to truss an ele- 
phant.” ; 

As numerous other collections of this period were arranged in 
a similar manner, I prefer to mention only one more, that of 


the Jesuits in the Collegium Romanum at Rome, because the cat- 


alogue printed in 1678 shows the interior rooms in which the col- 
lection was arranged. As Italy was at this time still the leading 
country of the world in fashion and culture, and the order of the 
Jesuits influential and powerful, the arrangement of their collec- 
tion may be considered as.a fair example for others in that cent- 
ury, which certainly more or less imitated it, but never surpassed 
it. We find large, vaulted galleries, connected with vaulted rooms, 
the floor covered with inlaid marbles, the ceiling with allegorical 
pictures. The arrangement of the exhibited objects shows a kind 
of refined taste, and is agreeable to the eye ; the taller and more 
prominent objects being arranged by themselves in the middle, 
as, for instance,a number of Egyptian obelisks, on the top of each 
of which were placed emblems of Christianity. Busts and other 
objects were placed on columns along the wall, the spaces between 
them being provided with shelves bearing smaller objects. Pict- 
ures and astronomical maps fill the upper part of the wall, and 
heavier things, such as a crocodile, are suspended from the ceil- 


1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 89 


ing. Not the least prominent object of the museum is an obelisk, 
made in the Egyptian fashion, to celebrate the memory of the 
conversion of the Swedish Queen Christina, the daughter of the 
most prominent king in the Thirty Years’ War, Gustavus Adol- 
phus, the fact of the conversion being expressed on the obelisk in 
thirty-three different languages. 

Just at this time a curious historical essay on the origin and 
development of museums, and the best arrangement of them, 
was published, the author of which was probably a certain Ma- 
jor, and this very rare pamphlet, first published in 1674, has 
been reprinted later in Valentyn’s Museum Museorum. - Accord- 
ing to the fashion of the time the author begins with the enu- 
meration of the different names for such exhibitions, and out of 
forty of these, seventeen are Greek. I think it would be rather 
hard to remember them all, and even tedious to hear them re- 
peated. The number of collections from the time of King Sol- 
omon to the author's time is computed to be one hundred and 
forty, twenty-two of which belonged to prominent princes; many 
of them are’ spoken of more in detail, but mixed with fabulous 
stories. The author believes it very probable that King Solomon 
possessed a collection, and is sure about King Hizkiah of Jerusa- 
lem, and Ptolomeeus Philadelphus of Alexandria. He speaks 
about the museum of the Greek emperor in Constantinople, said 
to have contained the whole poetry of Homer written on the 

skin of a dragon, a fact which ‘he concludes to be somewhat 
doubtful, as according to his calculation this skin must have been 
one hundred and twenty yards long. 

At some length are given details about the collections of the 
Great Mogul in Agra, of the Inca in Peru, and of Montezuma in 
Mexico, the last two being real marvels of richness and value. 
All the animals, trees, and plants of the country were manufactured 
in pure gold or silver, in life size, and smaller ones in jewels, and 
placed in the gardens of the court. Montezuma is said to have 
possessed a zodlogical garden with all the living animals of the 
country, the ditches for marine animals being filled with salt 
water. Most of the facts given in this essay are partly exagger- 
ated, partly erroneous; nevertheless some of the chapters, sug- 
gesting the best rules for arranging a museum, are quite inter- 
esting, 

i (To be concluded.) 


90 Californian Garden Birds. [ February, 


CALIFORNIAN GARDEN BIRDS. 

BY J. G. COOPER, M. D. 
pe sociable and confiding disposition of the birds of the west- 
ern United States as compared with the same species eastward 
has been noticed by several late writers, but the reasons have so 
far been scarcely mentioned. Among them perhaps the strongest 
is that bird-collectors and idle boys are less numerous, while 
sportsmen find larger game so plenty that they do not waste 
ammunition on birds so small that no one but a foreigner would 

take the trouble to pick them for the table. 

Besides this, the prevalence of prairies over most of the western 
regions makes any garden full of trees and shrubs a rare nursery 
for the woodland species, where they find more protection from 
hawks and weasels than in their native groves, while they may 
also levy a small contribution on the fruits in return for the 
insects they destroy, and their lively songs. In California the 
poison intended for ground-squirrels has also destroyed millions 
of birds about the fields, and left them unhurt in gardens. 

It is interesting to notice that most of the early travelers in 
California mention the comparative scarcity and silence of small 
birds about the first settlements. 

_In the garden at Haywood, eighteen miles southeast of San 
Francisco, in which I have before noted the nesting of the Anna 
humming-birds, so great a variety have built this spring that 
some notes on the others may be of general interest. The ex- 
tent of ground is only half an acre around the house in which I 
live, and most of the nests mentioned are within it. The hum- 
ming-bird referred to (Calypte Anna) is the only species that 
has built here, though swarms of the Nootka hummer frequented 
the eucalyptus-trees during April, on their way north. Another 
nest was built, and the eggs, laid April 28d and 24th, hatched 


one Trochilus Alexandri May 4th, and one Calypte costæ May 


the street adjoining the garden, but too high to examine. A 
black pewee (Sayornis nigricans) had built under the eaves of 
an adjoining barn as early as F ebruary, but also too high for close 
observation. A pair of western bluebirds (Stalia Mexicana) had 


r 
) 
; 
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1876.] Californian Garden Birds. 91 


raised a brood of young under the roof of the adjoining house, 
and all of them have frequented the garden much after May 4th. 
The well-known summer yellow-bird (Dendreca æœstiva) arrived 
April 20th, and a pair have a nest in the garden, though its site 
has not yet been discovered. 

The barn swallow (Hirundo horreorum) builds, as elsewhere, in 
the barns, against rafters, etc., arriving March 19th. The cliff 
swallow (Hirundo lunifrons) builds under eaves of barns and 
houses much more abundantly than the last. I saw two instances 
in town where bluebirds took possession of nests of this bird 
about the 15th of March, and successfully held them against the 
owners, which returned from the south on the 24th. A pair of 
white-bellied swallows (Hirundo bicolor var. vespertina Cooper) 
took possession of a little bird- house which I put upon a post 
twelve feet high, near the house, and have built and laid eggs in 
it since April 30th. (Some others were building in town after 
their arrival three months earlier.) They had to drive off a 
saucy wren which had a nest near by, but had tried to hold two 
houses by building a sham nest in this one, and often endeavored 
to tear. down the swallows’ nest in their absence. 

This western variety of the H. bicolor is larger and bluer than 
the eastern, though so far without a distinctive name. I found 
it breeding in 1873 as far south as latitude 35°, in Ventura County, 
Cal., near the coast. A house wren (Troglodytes edon var. Park- 
manni), as just remarked, built in a bird-house placed on the end 
of the porch. This species arrived March 30th, though a few win- 
ter within a hundred miles southward. The male of the pair men- 
tioned came to the garden about the 10th of April, and very m- 
dustriously worked at building a nest for two weeks before it per- 
suaded a female bird to remain. It sung constantly, but less 
finely than the eastern birds, from which its longer tail, never 
held vertically, further distinguishes it. i 

Two pairs of the house linnet ( Carpodacus frontalis var. rho- 
docolpus) have nests in a Monterey pine (P. insignis), another 
in a cypress, one under a plank placed in the forks of two trees 
for a swing to hang on, and one pair in a rose-bush covering the 
end of the porch, where children can look freely into it. This 
last had the first egg laid April. 22d; incubation began on 
the 25th, and the young hatched May 6th and 7th, requiring 


about eleven days. Although thousands are shot in the fruit sea- 


son on account of their destructiveness, neither the numbers nor 
the familiarity of this characteristic western bird seem to be dimin- 


92 Californian Garden Birds. [ February, 


ished. They swarm also in the groves and kill vast numbers of 
the yet more destructive caterpillars during the spring months, 
being thus quite as useful as the imported English sparrows. : 
The Arkansas goldfinch (Chrysomitris psaltria), commonly 
called here “ wild canary,” abounds in gardens. A pair built in a 
rose-bush close to the path, and not over three feet from the 
ground, commencing to set on four eggs April 20th and hatching 
in ten days. They only raised one young, which left the nest 
May 16th. Others were fledged when this hatched, and still other 
pairs were just laying, in nests usually from six to twenty feet up 
in fruit-trees, one however in a pine. The eggs here are pale 
greenish or almost white, and 0.45 by 0.60 inch. The Lawrence’s 
goldfinch ( Chrysomitris Lawrencii), not yet distinguished by 
any popular name, is also abundant in oak groves, and has varied 
its habits so far as to begin to frequent gardens where coniferous 
trees grow, building in pines and cypresses, as the nearest ap- 
proach in density of shade to the favorite live-oaks, though I have 
never seen these birds at Monterey, where the former trees are 
native. Dr. Brewer was evidently led into error by Dr. Can- 
field’s identification of their eggs from Monterey, as given in 
North American Birds, i. 479, where he -says they are “ ex- 
actly similar to those of C. psaltria,” ete. Those I got near San 
Diego in 1862 were, as described in the Ornithology of Califor- 
nia, i. 171, « pure white, measuring 0.46 by 0.60 inch” (mis- 
printed 0.80), and many found here are merely a little larger, 
0.48 by 0.65 inch. A pair of chipping sparrows (Spizella soci- 
alis) built in a cypress about eight feet above the ground, and 
others have nests about the garden. They arrived March 31st, 


described in the Ornithology of California. The brown finch 
(Pipilo fuscus var. crissalis), though often called “ cañon finch,” 
isnot more common in secluded valleys than in gardens where 


tamest of native species, coming to the door for food and building 
as near the house as it can find a location. Like other resident 
birds #& shows much variation in time of nesting, as it laid the 
first egg here as early as April 1st, in a pine-tree, twenty-five feet 
from the ground, and I Suspect some were even fledged by that 
time, as was said to have occurred in a neighboring garden. 


1876.] Californian Garden Birds. 93 


The western oriole (Icterus Bullockii) arrived here March 
31st. My statement in the Ornithology of California that they 
arrive at San Diego as early as March 1st applies only to a very 
few avant-courriers, as most of them reach there after the 15th. 
They reached Ventura County in 1873 about the 20th; but as I 
saw one in the November previous, a few may winter in Califor- 
nia, that being two months later than they usually leave. 

A pair built in a hanging branch of a gum-tree (Hucalyptus) 
in the garden, about thirty-five feet from the ground. The male 
was in the immature plumage (like the female), and another 
male skinned by me April 24th was similar, so that, like Icterus 
spurius, some of the males, if not all, require more than one year 
to obtain perfection, a fact not before recorded. Like the Icterus 
Baltimore and the other species as far as known, it probably re- 
quires three years, though the stages are not so very different as 
to have been called species, as with Icterus spurius and many 
tropical American forms. 

The following birds also built in other gardens in town, but I 
could not watch them so carefully. The western yellow-bellied 
fly-catcher (Hmpidonaz difficilis) arrived March 30th. One pair 
built early in May on a beam under a wagon-shed, in the man- 
ner of the pewees, but, pertinaciously retaining their woodland 
habits, tried to conceal the nest by a wall of green moss partly 
hanging over the edge of the beam and making it still more con- 
` spicuous by the contrast of color. Three other nests found along 
the neighboring creeks were built on slight projections among 
roots and stumps overhanging the water, from four to twenty 
feet above it, and all with the same green mossy parapets. I 
have identified the birds by shooting several. The differences in 
both young and adult birds between this and the eastern Æ. flavi- 
ventris pointed out in the North American Birds, iii. 363, as well 
as the entire difference in nesting and eggs described on page 
380, with which mine agree perfectly, seem to require a specific 
separation of the western birds, none being found intermediate. 
In the Ornithology of California, i. 328, I could not distinguish 
the western adult bird from the incomplete descriptions of the 
eastern, the young only having then been critically compared. 

The Empidonax pusillus of Northern California seems, how- 
ever, to graduate southward into the eastern var. Traillii as given 
by me, though I should have used the prior specific name. The 
nests and eggs described by me in the Ornithology of California, 
1, 330, probably belonged to pusillus, which I have not seen in 
this more open region. E. Hammondii is a more eastern form. 


94 Californian Garden Birds. [ February, 


Swainson’s greenlets (Vireosylvia gilvus var. Swainsonit) ar- 
rive about March 30th, and some keep about gardens, where I 
have found their old nests. None of the characters distinguish- 
ing the western and eastern races seem to be invariable, while 
their songs and habits do not serve to distinguish them specific- 
ally. Their arrival at San Diego, April 10, 1862, as published 
by me, must have been two weeks later than usual. 

The western mocking-wren (Thryothorus Bewickii var. spilu- 
rus) is a constant resident, but commonest in winter. A pair 
built in a small box in a stable, and had young when discovered 
in April. The open nest in a bush described by me in the Or- 
nithology of California, i. 69, is evidence of an unusual depart- 
ure from their common habits, and was very probably an old nest 
built by some other bird, this species generally building in dark 
cavities of trees, brush-heaps, ete., but now apparently growing 
more familiar. It shows variations in building similar to 7. Lu- 
dovicianus. 

The American goldfinch ( Chrysomitris tristis) is less common 
here in summer than the western species, immense numbers go- 
ing north of this State in April, while the others are not known 
to occur in Oregon, and most of C. Lawrencii go south of this 
latitude in winter, being then replaced in numbers by this species. 
On this coast they seem to breed earlier than eastward, as I found 
several undoubted nests in Ventura County about April 18th, in 
willows where none of the other species ever appeared. The 
eggs described by me from Santa Cruz may, however, have been 
those of C. Lawrencii, as they were smaller than usual, perhaps, 
however, from belonging to a second brood. 

I may note here, in connection with this genus of birds, that I 
killed one of C. pinus as late as April 15th, and that they built 
in the tall pines near Monterey, where I saw them in J une, 1874. 
This most southern locality recorded is accounted for by the 
cool winds, fogs, and pines of the place. 

The California song sparrow (Melospiza melodia vars. Samu- 
elis, Heermanni), like all species of birds which run into many 
local varieties, is little if at all migratory. Where cats are not 
too troublesome it becomes the most familiar of birds. The great 
variations in the size of these birds in California, from which the 
varieties above named and also M. Gouldii have been de- 
scribed (and even placed in other genera), are not confined to 
any latitude, unless the last (and smallest) was from the penin- 
sula, the middle-sized (Samuelis) being found about San Fran- 


1876.] Californian Garden Birds. 95 


cisco Bay, though more rare than larger ones. In Ventura 
County I found them to vary in full from 5.65 to 6.25 long, wing 
2.40 to 1.80. The eggs also vary exceedingly in size and pattern 
between the extremes given in Birds of North America, iii. 25 
and 27. 

I might extend this catalogue of garden birds considerably by 
mentioning additional species found building in other places in 
gardens, but less commonly. The following are common here 
along creeks on the borders of the town, but not yet found build- 
ing within garden fences. 

The Oregon thrush ( Turdus ustulatus), now known to build as 
far south as latitude 35° and probably 34° in California, arrived 
here April 20th, when 7. nanus had gone north. I have been 
informed that the robin (7. migratorius), never before known to 
remain in the valleys in this latitude in summer, has begun to 
breed in cherry orchards three miles from here. 

The black-capped warbler (Myiodioctes pusillus var. pileola- 
tus) arrived March 30, and in Ventura County March 18, 1873. 
This isa month earlier than I saw them nearer the coast, as 
noted in the Ornithology of California, i., and accounts for their 
early appearance in Oregon. It is a month earlier than the sum- 
mer yellow-bird, for which I mistook it in 1854 at Puget’s Sound, 
arriving April 10th. (Natural History of Washington Territory, 
ii. 181. These dates also need correction in later books. ) 

The bank swallows (Cotyle serripennis) have holes in the 
steep banks of the creek, one of which I opened May 17th, and 
found seven fresh eggs in it at a depth of two feet, and five feet 
from the top of the bank. The ground wren (Chamea fasciata) 
is a resident in bushy places along creeks or on dry hills, and 
often frequents fences about clearings where shrubs or brush are 
abundant. It is very artful in concealing its nest in dense thick- 
ets. The plain titmouse (Lophophanes inornatus) is a very socia- 
ble bird where its favorite live-oaks are left standing near houses, 
building in March in any suitable hole it finds. The least tit- 
mouse (Psaltriparus minimus) is another sylvan bird which re- 
mains about houses among oaks and other trees, even in the city 
of San Francisco. I obtained a nest with seven fresh eggs on 
May 15th. The western purple finch (Carpodacus purpureus 
var, Californicus), though not before seen in summer in the | 
valleys, sometimes remains near the cool bay of San Francisco, 
and, if not building in gardens, joins the house linnets in their 
depredations on fruit. 


96 Californian Garden Birds. [ February, 


The black-headed grosbeak (Hedymeles melanocephalus), a 
delightful summer songster often called here “bullfinch,” is in- 
clined to be very sociable, though its nests are so often robbed by 
boys for cage-birds that it builds mostly in places more retired 
than gardens. 

The redwing blackbird (Agelaius pheniceus, and var. guber- 
nator), though preferring marshes, often builds here in small trees 
on the borders of boggy streams within cultivated grounds, if un- 
molested. I saw a fine male this spring with the shoulders en- 
tirely orange, the opposite extreme from var. gubernator. Brew- 
er’s blackbird (Scolecophagus cyanocephalus) is numerous about 
houses, and builds in companies in low trees where unmolested. 
It has recently taken to roosting in winter in the evergreens of 
the “ Plaza ” in the noisiest centre of San Francisco, with English 
sparrows. The California jay ( Cyanocitta Californica), if not so 
much persecuted, would be abundant and very bold around houses 
where oak-trees grow, but the boys drive them to wilder build- 
ing-resorts. Its thievish habits and practice of destroying other 
birds’ eggs make it a bad tenant. The size of eggs I gave in the 
Ornithology of California was misprinted 1.80 by 1.04 instead of 
0.80 by 1.04; these San Diego eggs being, as usual, smaller than 
others from northward. 

Gairdner’s woodpecker (Picus pubescens var. Gairdneri) is 
a common visitor to the gardens, and, like its eastern relative, 
will doubtless burrow for nests in old fruit-trees, The allied 
Picus Nuttallii seems to avoid this region. 

The rufous humming-bird (Selasphorus rufus), though very 
familiar in other places at least as far south as latitude 35°, I 
have not seen here building near houses, though a few do build 
along creeks, preferring moist locations. On the other hand, the 
barn owl (Strix flammea var. pratincola) is very common, and, 
where protected for the purpose of destroying vermin, becomes 
familiar. One pair has a nest in a windmill, and another built 
in a hole in a steep, high bluff at the edge of a garden, where I 
got fresh eggs April 10th. The nest and eggs mentioned as from 
me in North American Birds, iii. 522, prove to belong to the 
Geococcyz. ; 

Finally, the California quail (Lophortyx Californicus), though 

coming rare so near San Francisco, is very tame about houses 
be it is protected, feeding and laying eggs near the barn- 
yards, 


— 


i a I ae 


1876.] The Chirp of the Mole-Cricket. 97 


THE CHIRP OF THE MOLE-CRICKET. 
BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 

TEF common mole-cricket of the United States ( Gryllotalpa 
borealis Burm.) usually commences its daily chirp at about 
four o’clock in the afternoon, but stridulates most actively at 
about dusk. On a cloudy day, however, it may be heard as 
early as two or three o’clock ; this recognition of the weather is 
rather remarkable in a burrowing insect, and the more so since 
it does not appear to come to the surface to stridulate, but re- 
mains in its burrow usually an inch below the surface of the 
ground. The European mole-cricket is said to chirp both within 
its burrow and at its mouth (plerumque sub terrd, Fischer says), 
and it may be that our species sometimes seeks the air in chant- 
ing; but the chirp, as far as I have heard it, always has a uni- 
formly subdued tone, as if produced in some hidden recess. 
Fischer says that the European species, which is twice as large as 
ours, cannot be heard more than from one hundred to one hun- 
dred and fifty feet (ultra spatium 20-30 passuum). Ours, when 
certainly beneath the surface, is easily distinguished at a distance 
of five rods; and one would presume that it could be heard, if 

above ground, nearly twice as far away. 
Its chirp is a guttural sort of sound, like grü or grééu, re- 
peated in a trill indefinitely, but seldom for more than two or 


Ree 


ea Se ge ere get ert ee ite. us 
TOSTOEDIT ET Ceriperperciercertesits 
three minutes, and often for a less time. -It is pitched at two oc- 
taves above middle C, and the notes are usually repeated at the 
tate of about one hundred and thirty or one hundred and thirty- 
five per minute ; sometimes, when many are singing, even as 
rapidly as one hundred and fifty per minute. Often, when it 
rst commences to chirp, it gives a single prolonged trill of 
more slowly repeated notes, when the composite character of. the 
chirp is much more readily detected ; and afterward is quiet for a 
long while. When most actively chirping, however, the com- 
mencement of a strain is less vigorous than its full swell, and the 
notes are then repeated at the rate of about one hundred and 
twenty per minute; it speedily gains its normal velocity. The 
hote sounds exceedingly like the distant croak of toads (Bufo) 
at spawning season, but is somewhat feebler. Zetterstedt com- 
VOL. x. — No, 2. 7 


98 Bartramian Names in Ornithology. [ February, 


pares the chirp of the European species to the note of Hyla ar- 
borea. 

Although belonging to the saltatorial Orthoptera, this insect, 
like the other species of its genus, is a poor leaper; inepte salit, 
says Fischer of its European congener. But on the other hand, 
it can run backward quite as easily as forward, — a fortunate 
gift, as the greater part of its burrow is too narrow for it to turn 


in. — Psyche, Cambridge, Mass. 


REPLY TO MR. J. A. ALLEN’S “AVAILABILITY OF 
CERTAIN BARTRAMIAN NAMES IN ORNITHOLOGY.”! 
BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S. A. 

M* reply to Mr. Allen must not be considered controversial, for 
4"4 two reasons. In the first place, my original article stated 
the whole case, from my point of view, so carefully, so completely, 
and so explicitly, that I am left without ground for further argu- 
ment. Secondly, nothing that Mr. Allen adduces in his critique 
invalidates the principle I established, most of his criticism being 
irrelevant to the main point at issue, namely, that if any of Bar- 
train’s identifiable, described, and binomially named species were 
entitled to recognition, then all such of his were equally so en- 
titled. Mr. Allen himself admits this, the whole point and pur- 
pose of my article, his protest being simply against the painful 


necessity of so doing ; out of ten Bartramian species which “ Dr. 


Coues proceeds to newly ‘set up,’” he acknowledges the right- 
ful claim of “ six or seven ” to be so dealt with, thereby yield- 
ing the-very point he wished to refute. In short, the only actual 
disagreement between Mr. Allen and myself is that he is able 
to identify satisfactorily rather fewer of Bartram’s species than 


I succeeded in doing. But this last is a matter to which I gently © 


alluded in my article when I said in substance that ornitholog- 
ical experts would of course identify Bartram’s species accord- 
ing to their respective ability. 

But Mr. Allen’s article is so courteous, so temperate, and writ- 
ten with such evident intention and desire to be perfectly just to 
all concerned, and yet misses the mark so widely, that I feel called 


upon to examine it further; in doing which, I trust I may not fall - 
behind my critic in the amenities; surely I hope not to. No seri- 


E An article in The American Naturalist for January, 1876, x. 21-29, criticising MY 
article “ Fasti Ornithologie redivivi, No. 1,” in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 
September, 1875, pp. 338-358 


. 


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i 
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; 


1876.] | Bartramian Names in Ornithology. 99 


ous disagreement can long subsist when each feels and shows the 
respect due to the other, and when neither is contending for him- 
self, but for the truth and the general good. 

Before proceeding further, I will dispose of the only point on 
which Mr. Allen has misrepresented me ; let me hasten to add 
that I am sure he did so unintentionally. For he says that I 
advocate the adoption of certain names ‘“ whether they are ac- 
companied by descriptions or not.” But he did not really con- 
sider me guilty of such folly ; what he meant was, whether ac- 
companied by sufficient, formal descriptions, according to the 
usual interpretation of what constitutes a description. For rea- 
sons set forth at length in my paper, I hold that all of Bartram’s 
species were in effect described. How inadequate many of his 
descriptions were is seen in the large number of unidentifiable 
species. Of course I admit this; but the quality of Bartram’s 
descriptions is not a point at issue. 

Next, I wish to bring prominently forward a strong and good 
point Mr. Allen makes, namely, that species, to be tenable, must 
be identifiable by something in the work itself in which they are 
named ; it not being allowable to use knowledge subsequently 
gained to identify them upon a principle of exclusion, or any 
other process of cumulative circumstantial evidence. This is the 
gist of the sound count that my friend makes against me; for I 
certainly applied some of the knowledge which is the common 
Property of ornithologists of 1875 to the identification of species 
proposed in 1791 ; and if this kind of reasoning, and the sort of 
“ moral” certainty reached by its means, be ruled out as evidence, 
I should not wonder if, of the ten species I newly set up, no 
more than the six or seven Mr. Allen admits would be allowed to 
stand. I willingly concede the point, but, in paying my respects 
to Mr. Allen on this score, would simply .ask him, What has this 
to do with the proposition of mine, that if any of Bartram’s 
Species are tenable, then all his fully identified, described, and 
binomially named ones are too ? 

The rest of Mr. Allen’s critique may be summed under several 
heads, as follows : — 

(1.) The general statement that Bartram was a pretty poor sort 
of an ornithologist after all. As an expression of his opinion, 
Mr. Allen has a perfect right to say so, and I should be the last 
to restrict the freedom of his judgment ; but it is irrelevant to 
the’ case at issue. I think rather more highly of our author than 
Mr. Allen seems to, and in fact I wish we had no worse ornithol- 


100 Bartramian Names in Ornithology. © [February, 


ogists to deal with, though there have been such before and since 
Bartram’s time ; but I never made his general standing as an or- 
nithologist an argument in favor of adopting certain of his names. 
Yet this wholly uncalled-for attempt to depreciate Bartram’s 
general ability as an ornithologist occupies much of Mr. Allen’s 
paper. 

(2.) Respecting our author as a binomialist: Those who are 
sufficiently interested may compare Mr. Allen’s paper with mine 
on this point, to find that we agree exactly, though Mr. Allen 
has had recourse to the arithmetic of the case, which I did not 
consider necessary. If the figures should show that Bartram 
lapsed from binomial propriety every other time, instead of about 
once in every seven times, the circumstance would absolve no 
one who uses Corvus carnivorus, for instance, from using Corvus 
frugivorus too. This is, in substance, all I ever claimed. 

C8.) Mr. Allen accuses Bartram, by implication, of giving cor- 
rect names “ when he happened to know them,” otherwise of pre- 
ferring to coin names as the easiest way out of. a difficulty, not 
having the means of ready identification, or not caring to take the 
trouble required for determination. Now, in the first place, this 
is a gratuitous assumption that Bartram did not do the best he 
knew how, and, as such, surely indefensible from any standpoint. 
Secondly, supposing Bartram was a fraud, and did ‘ gobble ” all 
the species he could, what has that to do with the question? 
The fact that he did coin names simply imposes upon us the 
necessity of recognizing such of them as are binomial, are identi- 
fiable by description accompanying, and possess priority. His 
motives are not proper subjects of public inquiry. If all the 
species which early and late ornithologists have “ borrowed ” and 
printed as their own were canceled, what a relief it would be to 
the synonymical lists! 

(4.) Mr. Allen inquires, with some warmth, whether this sort of 
thing “ tends to the best interest of science.” It may or may 
not, I reply, but I believe it does, and that time will show it 
does. At any rate, the reason Mr. Allen adduces for his belief 
that it does not is not a sound one. He says, “If the example 
Dr. Coues is here setting be followed, there will be no stability 
to our nomenclature for a long time, but only, except perhaps to 
a few experts, the most perplexing confusion.” But I contend 
that the only possible road to stable nomenclature is that which 
leads to the very bottom of the matter. In the nature of the 
case, the process of striking “ bed-rock” is desultory, uncertain, 


1876.] Bartramian Names in Ornithology. 101 


and confusing ; I admit, as I deplore, the inconvenience and the 
difficulty. But a fact is no less a fact because it is a disagreeable 
one; and whether we like it or not, the fact remains that names 
` of species will continue to shift until the oldest one that is ten- 
able according to rule is recognized. Therefore the sooner a 
species is “ hunted down,” the better; and this is just what I 
undertook to do in the cases of afew of Bartram’s. I did it 
partly on the score of ‘ justice ” to that author, but this was not 
my main object. I am no sentimentalist in such matters, and if 
I thought it would be to the best interest of science to ignore 
Bartram, I should quietly do so. It is simply because I believe 
it best, in spite of transient inconvenience, to bring him to light, 
that I have done so, in an attempt to secure that very stability 
which Mr. Allen accuses me of disturbing. To speak my mind 
freely, I may add that I should have been disappointed, consider- 
ing that I had signally failed, had not my paper made some dis- 


turbance ; exactly that, effect was anticipated and fully intended, ` 


otherwise the paper would not have shown raison d’étre. And 
I am encouraged further to believe that the paper took its own 
step, however short, in the right direction, by the recollection that 
certain Fasti of my honored predecessor in this particular line of 
work, whose title I have had the presumption to revive, were re- 
ceived with wry faces and shrugs— and received, nevertheless. 
Tam perfectly satisfied to let my own be tested in the crucible of 
time, 


(5.) The remainder of Mr: Allen’s paper is chiefly devoted to 
the examination, seriatim, of the individual cases in which I claim 
Priority for Bartram. This portion of his paper is a fair and 
strong counter-argument to mine. It requires, however, no com- 
ment from me, since all this part of the subject, in which the gen- 
eral principle is not involved, is only left where I put it, in the 

ands of the experts, each of whom will determine for himself 
Which particular ones of Bartram’s names he can identify to his 
Satisfaction, and which he cannot. Without here scrutinizing 
the cases in which I believe Mr. Allen to be wrong, I wish to 
acknowledge one instance in which he shows that I am probably 
wrong — the case of Certhia pinus, No. 10, which I now see is 
Probably, as Mr. Allen says, Helminthophaga pinus, not Den- 

ræca pinus, as I too hastily assumed. ’ 

Finally, let me say a word respecting Mr. Allen’s suggestion 
taht I ought to have gone further, and attributed to Bartram the 
priority of discovery of the great law of geographical variation in 


102 Recent Literature. [ February, 


size, which recent naturalists have developed and formulated. I 
suspect that Mr. Allen allowed himself to become slightly quiz- 
zical at the close of his critique ; but I shall take him at his word, 
and reply seriously. I do not find that Bartram presents anything ` 
but a statement of fact of the smaller size of Floridan animals as 
compared with those from Pennsylvania; to do which, nothing 
but a tape-line, or, failing that useful article, a good pair of eyes 
and fair memory, were requisite. Whereas, in treating of the 
same important subject himself, Mr. Allen has been prominent 
among those who have generalized from the facts to broad con- 
clusions; and in so doing has displayed inherent powers of mind 
which, coupled with extensive and varied acquirements, have won 
for him the high position he now holds among American natural- 
ists. . 


RECENT LITERATURE. 


POWELL’S EXPLORATION or THE CoLorapo.!— The first part of 
this volume contains the personal narrative by Major Powell of his peril- 
ous and successful exploration of the most wonderful river-gorge in the 
world. The second part, containing his observations on the physical 
features of the Valley of the Colorado, will be noticed in a fature number 
of this journal. 

The narrative is one of the most thrilling records of personal advent- 
ure we have ever read; the interest of the reader is intense from the 
first to the last page, the story being told in a modest, unpretending way, 
so that the dangers do not seem exaggerated, and the impression pro- 
duced by the rare exhibition of courage and endurance is not lessened by 
any straining for effect in the words of the narrator. 

The cañon of the Colorado is over a thousand miles long, and at one 
point over a mile (6200 feet) in depth. This deep cut is broken at inter- 
vals by lateral cafions, where branches, such as the Grand, Yampa, Vir- 
gin, Kanab, and others, enter the main stream. An idea of the grand- 
eur of these dark, solitary gorges, with vertical sides often nearly a mile 
high, and with pinnacles and towers overhanging the river winding like 
a silvery thread below, may be gained by a glance at the figures of Mu- 
koon-tu-weap Cañon, of a cañon in Escalante Basin (Fig. 5.), but espe- 
cially of the Grand Cañon.. The bird’s-eye view of the Terrace Cañons 
(Fig. 6) represents the relations of these cafions to the surrounding 
country. 


1 Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and its Tributaries. Explored in 
1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the Direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution. By J. W, Power. Washington, D. C. 4to, pp. 291. With Maps and 
Illustrations, 


1876.] Recent Literature. 103 


On the 24th of May, 1869, the expedition, in three boats, left Green 
River Station on the Union Pacific Railroad, and after floating down the 
river, shooting rapids, letting their boats down over falls, often upsetting, 
losing one boat and many provisions and instruments, haunted day after 
day with the sense of worse dangers ahead than those already overcome, 


and near the close, just as they had escaped the greatest peril of all, left 
apparently to their fate by three of the party, who escaped the dangers 
ot the cañon only to be murdered by the Indians, they emerged on the 
29th of August from the Grand Cafion of the Colorado, and the next 
day reached the Mormon settlements at the mouth of the Virgin River. 


104 Reeent Literature. [ February, 


Near the Grand Cañon Mr. Powell met some of the Shi-vwits, a tribe 
of Ute Indians, more primitive than any other Indians seen on this conti- 
nent by our author. They subsist on wild fruits, nuts, and native grains. 


aaa 


(Fic. 6.) BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE TERRACE CANONS. 
The oose, or fruit of the yucca or Spanish bayonet, which is rich, not 
unlike the paw-paw, they eat raw and roasted. “ They gather the fruits 


of a cactus plant, which is rich and luscious, and eat them as grapes, or 


a Oe a Ne EEEN a 


1876.] Recent Literature. . 105 


from them express the juice, making the dry pulp into cakes, and saving 
them for winter; the wine they drink about their camp-fires, until the 
midnight is merry with their revelries. 

“They gather the seeds of many plants, as sunflowers, golden-rods, 
and grasses. For this purpose they have large conical baskets which 
hold two or more bushels. The women carry them on their backs, sus- 
pended from their foreheads by broad straps, and with a smaller one in 
the left hand, and a willow-woven fan in the right, they walk among the 
grasses and sweep the seed into the smaller basket, which is emptied, 
now and then, into the larger, until it is full of seeds and chaff; then 
they winnow out the chaff, and roast the seeds. They roast these curi- 
ously: they put the seeds with a quantity of red-hot coals into a willow 
tray, and, by rapidly and dexterously shaking and tossing them, keep the 
coals aglow, and the seed tray from burning. As if by magic, so skilled 
are the crones in this work, they roll the seeds to one side of the tray 
as they are roasted, and the coals to the other. Then they grind the 
seeds into a fine flour, and make it into cakes and mush.” 

A chapter follows containing A Report on a Trip to the Mouth of the 
Dirty Devil River, by A. H. Thompson, which is succeeded by the 
second part, On the Physical Features of the Valley of the Colorado, 
while the third part is zoélogical in its nature, containing treatises by Dr. 
Coues and Mr. Goode 

Corr’s Cueck-List or NORTH AMERICAN BATRACHIANS AND REP- 
TILES.! — This is the first of a new series of works published by the 
Department of the Interior for the United States National Museum, under 
the direction of the Smithsonian Institution. Besides the check-list 
which Will prove useful to students, Professor Cope enters into an elab- 
orate discussion of the geographical distribution of the vertebrates, par- 
ticularly the batrachians and reptiles, of the northern hemisphere. The 
author divides the earth’s fauna into six realms, those of the northern 
hemisphere being the realm of the new world (Nearctic) and that of the 


< old world (Palearctic). However well these terms (first proposed, we 


believe, by Dr. Sclater) may apply to the vertebrates, when we come to 
the insects and marine invertebrates the terms “ Nearctic”’ and “ Pale- 
arctic,” as applied to the circumpolar region, seem to us to be somewhat 
artificial, though applying well to the north temperate hemisphere. The 
essay, however, will be found exceedingly useful and timely. 

IDDER’s NATURAL History OF KERGUELEN Istanp.? — The sec- 
ond Bulletin of the United States National Museum contains the notes on 


the birds of Kerguelen Island made by Dr. Kidder while attached as natu- 


* Check: List of North American Batrachia and Reptilia. By Epwarp D. Core. 
Bulletin of the United States National Museum. I. Washington, D. C. 1875. 
8v0, pp. 104. 

* Contributions to the Natural History of Kerguelen Island. By J. H. Kipper, 

ulletin of the United States National Museum. II. Washington, D. C. 
1875. 8vo, pp. 51, 


106 Recent Literature. [ February, 


ralist to the American Transit of Venus Expedition in 1874-75. The 
results are of much interest, as the climatic features of the island are pecul- 
iar, while there are no land birds or mammals, strictly speaking, indige- 
nous to it, and but a single shore-bird (Chionts minor), though the island 
is about ninety miles long and fifty broad, with snow-covered mountains, 
the highest of which (Mount Ross) rises to an elevation of about 5000 
feet. The birds observed were pelagic forms, such as gulls, albatross, 
penguins, ete. ‘The species have been determined by Dr. Coues, whose 
synonymical and other notes give additional value to the essay. 

Tue ZobLoaicat Recorv.1 — Though it is nearly time for the ap- 
pearance of the volume for 1874, it is perhaps not entirely too late for us 
to call the attention of our readers to the value of these yearly indexes to 
the literature of systematic zodlogy. They deserve an extended circu- 
lation in this country, where access to zodlogical works is limited, and 
students away from large libraries are obliged to use such a record. 
Possessing such a manual of recent zoological literature, and ascertaining 
what has been published in his special department, the isolated student 
can borrow from central libraries works of which he otherwise would be 
totally ignorant. 

We notice that the last four volumes are much thinner than the early 
ones. Is this a sign of the zodlogical millenium when all the new species 
and genera shall have been described, and students will be forced to study 
the anatomy, physiology, and development of animals ? 

ScuppeEr’s Fossi BUTTERFLIES.? — This beautifully printed and 
illustrated memoir is the result of a critical and extensive examination 


of the specimens of fossil butterflies existing in European museums, ° 


none having yet occurred in this country. After describing the fos- 
sils with minuteness, and elaborately comparing them with related forms 
now living, the author discusses the comparative age of fossil butterflies, 
the probable food-plants of tertiary caterpillars, and the present distri- 
bution of butterflies most nearly allied to the fossil species, besides notic- 
ing such insects as have been erroneously referred in recent times to 
butterflies. 

It appears that nine well-authenticated species of butterflies are now 
known, all from the European Eocene and Miocene tertiary formations, 
and that they represent all the families of butterflies except the Rurales, 
represented by the Lycene. Of the allies of the nine fossils forms, four 
now live in the East Indies, three in America, on the confines of the 
tropical and north temperate zones, one in the north temperate zone of 
Europe, Asia, and America, and one on the shores of the Mediterranean. 

The Zoölogical Record for 1872. Edited by Arren Newton. 8vo, pp. 495- 
big, for 1873. Edited by E. C. Rye. London : John Van Voorst. 1875. 8v0. 


_* Fossil Butterflies. By Samvet H. Scupper. Memoirs of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science. I. Salem, Mass. 1875. 4to, with 3 steel 
plates; pp. 99. $1.00. For sale by the Naturalist’s Agency, Salem, Mass. 


’ 


1876.] : Recent Literature. 107 


Three out of the four species whose living allies occur in the East Indies 
come from the older deposits of Aix, and only one of the two remaining 
Aix species shows special affinities to American types. “ We thus find 
here,” the author remarks, “ as among other insects and among the plants, 
a growing likeness to American types as we pass upward through the 
European tertiaries.” 

This handsome memoir appears in print through the generosity of 
Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, of New York city, who generously gave the 
sum of one thousand dollars for the promotion and publication of original 
investigations by members of the association. The results in every way 
prove the wisdom of the donation, and we express the hope that similar 
benefactions may follow from other sources. 

acus’s History or Borany.!— Under the patronage of the King 
of Bavaria, the Royal Academy of Sciences is publishing a History of 
Modern Science in Germany. The treatment of the individual sciences 
has been entrusted, by a special commission, to men eminent in their 
respective departments. This volume is one of the earliest of the series. 
Professor Sachs, of Wiirzburg, well known as a high authority in vege- 
table physiology, and more widely as the author of A Text-Book of 
Botany, was selected to write the history of botany. The history is given 
in three books. The first treats of morphology and systematic botany, 
and covers the period from Otto Brunfels (1530) and Fuchs (1542), 
down to 1860. The most interesting chapters are those devoted to mor- 
phology as influenced (1) by the theory of metamorphosis and the spiral 
distribution of leaves (1790-1850), and (2) by a fuller knowledge of the 
cell and the lower grades of plants, and (3) by the theory of develop- 
ment (1840-1860). Professor Sachs looks upon the work done during 
the twenty years just mentioned, as having freed morphology and sys- 
tematic botany from their old prejudices ; sight has become clearer, the 
methods of investigation safer, and the manner of putting questions 
sharper. 

The second book sketches the progréss of vegetable anatomy from 
Malpighi and Grew (1671-1682) down to the time of Nägeli. The au- 
thor justly regards Von Mohl and Nägeli as having together placed this 
division of botany on a secure foundation. The molecular theory of the 
latter is considered the basis of modern vegetable physiology- 

To this subject the third book is devoted. The conflicting views which 
have been held respecting reproduction, nutrition, and the dynamics of 
plants are fully presented and with great fairness. It is hardly possible 
to detect any partiality in this remarkable section. It remains to be no- 
ticed that this history is not confined to botany in Germany; Germans 
may, however, well be proud of the large and honorable share which their 
countrymen are here shown to have taken in the advancement of the 

! Geschichte der Botanik vom 16 Jahrhundert bis 1860. Von Dr. Jurus Sacus. 
Miinchen. 1875, (A History of Botany from the 16th Century to 1860. By Dr. 
Junius Sacus, Munich. 1875.) 


108 Recent Literature. [ February, 


science, and they may congratulate themselves upon the selection of an 
historian who has not ignored the claims of other nations. 

Tue Ocrorus.! — This is a pleasant account of the Octopus or poulpe, 
adapted to the mind of the average visitor at the immense aquarial es- 
tablishments of the sea-ports of England, and perhaps worth reading on 
this side of the water, where poulpes — “ these blasphemies of creation 
against itself,” as Victor Hugo styles them — are common enough south- 
ward, but fashionable colossal aquaria are as yet lacking. 

Epwarps’s BUTTERFLIES or Norru America.2— The fourth part 
of the current series of this magnificent work, issued from the Riverside 
Press at the end of December last (but dated November), contains 
fewer subjects than usual, two whole plates being given to illustrate the 
history of Melitea Phaeton and Papilio brevicauda. The former plate 
is perfect as far as the colored figures are concerned, and cannot be sur- 
passed, if it can be equaled, by the best of foreign work ; but the plain 
lithograph of the web is not so satisfactory, showing in but few places 
any indication of the web-like structure. The other plates contain three 
species of Argynnis (A. Eurynome, Bischoffi, and Opis), and two of 
Grapta (G. Hylas and Marsyas). The text accompanying the three 
plates given to these insects is mainly descriptive, but contains some 
strictures on Mr. Scudder’s classification of these species of Grapta. 

he accounts of Phaeton and brevicauda, on the other hand, are very full, 
and are welcome additions to the history of our butterflies. That of 
the former is very nearly complete, but contains a few errors ; for in- 


t has long since been pointed out (Canadian Entomologist, March, 
1872) that this is not the case, the position of few or none of the spine- 
bearing eminences of the mature caterpillar corresponding with those of 
the previous hair-supporting tubercles. These are points of structure to 
which the author pays little attention, but which are very important in 
their bearing upon the affinities of butterflies. 

In writing that “ Phaeton alone, out of a hundred species of butterflies 
that frequent our fields,” protects itself in the larval stage “in a web 
woven by the community,” Mr. Edwards seems to be unaware that this 
is the case with every one of the tribe to which Phaeton belongs, as far 


! The Octopus, or the Devil Fish of Fiction and of Fact. By Henry Lee. With 
Papas London. 1875. 12mo, pp- 114; For sale by the Naturalist’s Agency, 
em. 


2 The Butterflies of North America. With Colored Drawings and Descriptions. 
By Wa. H. Epwarps. Boston: H. O. Houghton & Co. 4to. $2.50. 


ae a ee en 
a lt te 


1876.] Recent Literature. 109 


The food-plant, Viburnum dentatum, given on the authority of Mr. 
Glover (doubtless borrowed from Dr. Packard) is probably a mistake. 
The caterpillar of Phaeton has been found upon a great variety of plants, 
such as Aster, Corylus, Berberis, Solidago, Vernonia, Clematis, and 
Rubus, and even upon ferns, grasses, and flags; but this is to be ac- 
counted for simply by the roving disposition of the caterpillar. 

It is strange that Mr. Edwards makes no allusion whatever to the 
very careful account of the history of this insect given three or four 
years ago by Mr. Lintner. 


Recent Books AND PAMPHLETS.— The Native Races of the Pacific States of 
North America. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vol. V. Primitive History. New 
York: D. Appleton & Co. 1876. 

Birds of Western and Northwestern Mexico, based upon Collections made by 
Colonel A. J. Grayson, Captain J. Xanthus, and Frederick Bischoff. By are orge N. 


Zodlogical Results of the Hassler Expedition, II. Ophiuridæ and fai in 
including those dredged by the late Dr. William Stimpson. By Theodore Lyman. 
With five Plates and five Figures printed in the Text. (Illustrated Catalogue of the 
Museum of Comparative Zodlogy, No. 8.) 4to, 

Neomenia, a new Genus of Invertebrate sAtiealie described by Tycho Tullberg. 
With two Plates. Persetigen of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, May 
12, 1875.) 8vo 

On the Osteolozy ia Peculiarities of the Tasmanians, a Race of Man recently 
become extinct. By J. B. Davis. (From the Transactions of the Dutch Society of 
Sciences, of Haarlem.) 1874. 4to, pp. 20. Two Plates. 

Geological pete i. On me Newport nen II. On the Gavel an nd 


(From the aie! of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences. ) 
8vo, pp. 15. St. Louis. November 
Notes on the Natural History of i Gees Phylloxera (P. vastatrix Planchon). 
By ce V. Riley. Svo, pp. 
Ueber d ie Umwandlung des Menicanischen Axolobr in ein Amblystoma. (Siebold 
und fee 8 Zeitschrift, xxv.) 8 
Rectitication of the Geological Map of Michigan; iamini Observations on the 
Drift of the State. By Alexander our Salem. 8vo, pp. 
Botanical Bulletin. Vol. I., No. 1.. November, 1875. John M. Coulter, editor, 
Hanover, Ind. $1.00 a year. Mont 
An Illustration of North haiekin Jai and Oncocnemis. By Leon F. Har- 
vey. With a photographic plate. 8vo, pp. 4. Buffalo, N. Y. 1876 
On Noctuidæ from the Pacific Coast of North America. By A. R. Grote. With 
: 4 photographic plate. 8vo, pp. 10. Buffalo, N. Y. 1876, 
The Spiders of the United States. By N. M. Hentz. (Occasional Papers of the 
Boston Society of Natural History, it) With 21 plates. 8vo, pp. 171. Boston. 
1875. Paper, $3.00; cloth, $3.50. 
Pisciculture, An Address on the Artificial Breeding of Fish, their Habits, etc., 
agia before the Detroit Sciemttic Association. By N. W: Clark. Detroit. 1875. 


eer Lee Ser eae eT ee ee 

Q 

a 

5 

a 

a 

< 

= 

© 
< 


"ha of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Terri- 
wang No. 5, second series. 8vo, pp- 233-414. Washington, D. C. January 8, 
6, 


i_ General Notes. [ February, 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY.! 


Exotic Pants arounp San Francisco Bay. — Many of the 
species of the Australian eucalypti and acacias mature their seeds in the 
climate of the shores and neighborhood of San Francisco Bay; many 
of the foreign geraniums and fuchsias also seed and fruit in the open 
air, though exposed more or less to the trade-winds; this is notably the 
case at the university grounds at Berkeley, which are in a line due east 
from the Golden Gate. — R. E. C. STEARNS. 

PREISSIA COMMUTATA. — In a communication to the editor, Mr. 
Henry Gillman: reports Preissia commutata (liverwort) at Laughing 
Fish River, and Eagle River, Michigan, at White-Fish Bay, Wisconsin, 
and several other localities on the Lakes. The plant occurs chiefly on 
sandstone. 

SEQUOIA SEMPERVIRENS. — The statement on page 571 of the NAT- 
URALIsT for 1875, of the discovery of a grove of colossal redwood 
trees, Sequoia sempervirens, proves to have been a hoax. 

Very large specimens of this species are occasionally met with in the 
forests of the Coast Range. Six miles east of Stewart’s Point and twenty- 
three miles west of Healdsburg, in Sonoma County, a fine specimen may 
be seen on the farm of James McCappin ; it is not far from three hun- 
dred feet in height, and reaches up about one hundred feet to the first 
limb ; it is quite straight and symmetrical, and measures seventy-one feet 
four inches in circumference at one foot from the ground ; seven feet 
higher the circumference is forty-six feet. — R. E. C. STEARNS. 

ÆSTIVATION OF THE Fucusia. — “In the books,” the petals of the 
fuchsia are described as convolute. At my request, one of my students 
examined one hundred and fifty-nine flowers of various species, hybrids, 
and varieties. The petals exhibited sixteen different modes of arrange- 
ment with reference to each other. Only twenty-eight, about one sixth, 
were regularly convolute; of these, twenty-one twisted to the right, and 
seven to the left. Seventy-five flowers, nearly half of all examined, had 
one petal outside at each edge, the others in regular order. In thirty- 
Seven cases, one petal was entirely outside, the one opposite to it had 
both edges covered by those next to it. 

The foregoing remarks are kindred to those on Phyllotaxis of Cones, 
in the NaTuRAtist, vii. 449, and on Imbricative ¥stivation, viii. 705.— 
W. J. Bear. ; 

VALLISNERIA SPIRALIS. — This plant, growing in moderately deep 
water in the south of Europe, has long been a favorite object of cultivation 
in aquaria, from the clearness with which the rotation of the protoplasm 


1 Conducted by Pror. G. L. GOODALE. 


: 
: 
, 
; 
3 
4 
i 
: 
; 


1876.] Botany. -* En 


can be made out in the cells of the leaves, and the remarkable phenom- 
ena connected with its mode of fertilization, though the latter is less 
often witnessed, owing to the comparative rarity of the male plant. At 
a recent meeting of the Linnæan Society, of London, Mr. A. W. Bennett 
read a paper on the phenomena connected with the development of the 
peduncle of the female flower. This attains a final length of from three 
to four feet, and the rapidity of its growth is perhaps unequaled in the 
vegetable kingdom, being at its most rapid period at the rate of twelve 
inches in twenty-four hours. By marking off and measuring from time 
to time equal portions of the peduncle as they developed above the sur- 
face of the water, Mr. Bennett determined that the greatest activity of 
growth is displayed by the terminal portion of the flower-bud. A 
marked length of 2 inches from the flower-bud increased to 6.5 inches 
during the time that the remainder of the peduncle increased from 8.7 
to 21.25 inches, showing a greater energy in the former case in the pro- 
portion of three to two. This presents a greater analogy to what is 
known to be the ratio of development of different parts in the case of 
roots than in the case of aerial stems, in which the zone of greatest ac- 
tivity of growth is generally at some considerable distance from the 
apex. Very few observations have, however, been made on the relative 
rate of growth of different portions of the same internode. When unfer- 
tilized, the peduncle of the female flower does not coil up and withdraw 
the flower below the surface, as is the case when pollen from a male 
flower has had access to it, but floats in a wavy manner on the surface ; 
and under these circumstances the female flowers remain open for days 
and even weeks, as if waiting for the male flowers. — A. W. BENNETT. 
Insectivorous Prants.— An interesting series of experiments con 

firmatory of the power stated by Darwin to be possessed by the leaves of 
Drosera, of absorbing nourishment through their glands, has been made 
by Dr. Lawson Tait, of Birmingham, England. He placed side by side 
plants of the common D. rotundifolia, some in the normal state, others 
with the roots pinched off close. to the rosette of leaves, and with the 
leaves all buried, only the budding flower-stalk appearing above the 
sand ; others with the roots and flower-stalk left on, but all the leaves 
Pinched off, the roots being buried in the sand; and others again with 
the roots left on but appearing above the sand, some of the leaves buried 
and others exposed. These plants were all carefully washed with dis- 
tilled water before being planted in silver sand which had been deprived 
of all organic matter, and carefully watched to prevent flies being caught; 
they were then fed, some with pure distilled water, others with a strong 
decoction of beef, and others with a very dilute solution of phosphate of 
ammonia. The conclusions arrived at from the series of experiments 
Were that the plant can not only absorb nutriment by its leaves, but 
that it can actually live by their aid alone, and that it thrives better when 
supplied with nitrogenous material in small quantity. The nitrogenous 


112 General Notes. [February, — 


matter is more readily absorbed by the leaves than by the roots, over- 
feeding killing the plant sooner through the leaves than through the 
roots alone, although the roots also certainly absorb nitrogenous matter. 
Dr. Tait had announced, independently of Mr. Darwin, the separation of 
a substance closely resembling pepsin from the viscid secretion of the 
glands of Drosera dichotoma. 

In the September number of the (London) Journal of Botany, Mr. 
J. W. Clark details another important independent series of experiments 
with a similar result. He obtained Jarge quantities of plants of Drosera 
rotundifolia, and a smaller quantity of Pinguicula lusitanica, and fed 
the leaves with the bodies of freshly-killed flies soaked in a solution of 
citrate of lithium. The needful precautions being taken to prevent the 
solution from being carried mechanically to other parts of the plant, 
after an interval of forty-five or fifty hours various portions of the plant 
were incinerated, and the ashes tested for lithium by the spectroscope. 
The result proved conclusively that the products of digestion, after 
absorption by the leaves, do enter the leaf-stalk, and are thence dis- 
tributed to other parts of the plant. — A. W. BENNETT. 

Tae Lire-History or Moutps.— A most important contribution to 
our knowledge of the lower forms of life is contained in Dr. Oscar Brefeld’s 
Botanische Untersuchungen über Schimmelpilze (translated by Dr. W. 
R. McNab in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science for Octo- 
ber), containing an account of a series of very close observations on the 
life-history of Penicillium glaucum and others of the commonest moulds 
belonging to the same genus. Besides the well-known non-sexual mode 
of reproduction by conidia, Dr. Brefeld detected also on the mycelium 
bodies which he terms “sclerotia,” the products of a sexual process. 
These contain the germ of a second generation produced from the fer- 
tilized carpogonium. There are therefore in Penicillium two stages or 
alternations of generations. The first or sexual generation is large, and 
capable of producing non-sexual spores. The second or non-sexual gen- 
eration is small, and lives as a parasite on the nutrient tissue which sur- 
rounds it in the form of a sclerotium or sporocarp, which after a time 
develops asci and ascospores, these latter again producing the first 
sexual generation. This formation of ascospores seems to show that 
Penicillium must be placed in the group of Ascomycetes; and Brefeld 
considers that, from the striking resemblance of the minute structure of 
the sclerotia of Penicillium to that of the common truffle, this genus of 
moulds must be placed close to the Tuberacew. — A. W. BENNETT. 

FUNGI HEAPED UP IN PINES BY SQUIRRELS. — Mr. J. S. Fa 
sent us specimens of a fungus which he finds heaped up in considerable 
buantities in the crotches of young pine-trees not more than ten or 
twelve feet high, at Wood’s Hole, Mass. - Mr. Fay at first supposed that 
these heaps were accidental, but is now convinced that they were made 
either by squirrels or blue jays. ‘The fungi are Boleti, and, as far as can 


E Re aaa aes enact 


1876.] : Botany. 113 


be determined from their present condition, all of one species. There 
are several species of Boletus found at Wood’s Hole, but they all grow on 
the ground. The most probable supposition is that the heaps were made 
by squirrels, and it would be interesting to know whether they actually 
eat the fungi. Perhaps some reader of the NatTuRALIsT may be able to 
settle this point. — W. G. Fartow. ' 

Messrs. H. O. HOUGHTON & Co., of the Riverside Press; design 
publishing shortly a series of sketches of the wild flowers of North 
America, from studies by the well-known botanical artist, Mr. Isaac 
Sprague. Those who are familiar with the accurate work of this skillful 
artist, particularly with his recent illustrations in Mr. Emerson’s Trees 
and Shrubs of Massachusetts, will welcome the promised plates. Each 
portfolio of four colored plates is to be accompanied by descriptive 
letter-press, in which the more interesting details of structure and the 
habits of the plants will be explained. 

Borayican PAPERS IN Recent PERIODICALS. — Bulletin of the 
Torrey Botanical Club, New York, December, 1875. Epiphegus Vir- 
giniana yar. Rauana. (A description, by Mr. Austin, of an unusual 
form of beech-drops, The variation is believed by the editor to be due 
to feeble development.) Omphalaria pulvinata Nyl., a lichen new to 
North America, has been found at Poughkeepsie by Mr. W. R. Gerard. 

Botanical Bulletin, December, 1875. Professor Porter gives a short 
list of double wild flowers. Several notes of local interest. 

Comptes rendus des Séances de l Académie des Sciences, lxxxi. 19. 
On exhaustion of the soil by apple-trees, by Is. Pierre. 20. On the 
theory of carpels, by Trécul. (A study of the pistil in one of the 
Amaryllis family.) 21. On fibres of remarkable length and tenacity, 
by Is. Pierre (from Lavatera, of the Mallow family). On fixation of 


‘atmospheric nitrogen in soils, by Truchot. On the formation, structure, 


and breaking-down of the swellings in the grape-vine produced by 
Phylloxera, by Cornu. On production of sugar in the beet-root, as 
ected by loss of foliage, by Cl. Bernard. Villiane, Duchartre, Bous- 
Singault, and Pasteur have notes on the same subject. On hydrated 
cellulose, by Girard. 24. On the destruction of vegetable substances 
mixed with wood, by Barral and Salvesat. 

Flora, 1875, No. 27. Dr. Luerssen continues his description of the 
Vascular Cryptogamia collected by Dr. Wawra in the Sandwich Islands. 
No. 28. Description of some lichens new to Europe, by W. Nylander. 

Botanische Zeitung, November 12, 1875. Reports of societies: 

© association at Graz: Kirchner gave some accountof the botanical 
works of Theophrastus, especially the volume on Vegetable Physiology, 

Was described as being marked by fullness of detail, and indicating 

‘cuteness in investigation. An annotated German translation. is now 

Promised. Von Ettingshausen gave reasons for believing that Castanea 
OL. X.— No, 9, 8 ; Liai 


114 General Notes. [ February, 


vesca is descended from Castanea atavia. No. 47. On the marine 
Phanerogams of the Indian Ocean and Archipelago, by Naumann. (An 

account of the flowering plants found in salt water during the cruise of the 
Gazelle.) Nos. 48, 49. Contributions to the history of the development 
of the Sporogonium in liverworts, by Kienitz-Gerloff. In reports of 
societies: Berlin: Ascheron on the distribution of the sexes of Stratiotes, 
a plant allied to Sagittaria. (The pistillate and staminate plants are 
for the most part widely separated.) Nos. 50, 51. On the development 
of cambium, by Dr. Velten. (Examining N. J. C. Miiller’s views.) 

In reports of societies: Brandenburg: Braun on the morphological 

nature of the tendrils in the gourd family (regarding them as leaves, 

and in divided tendrils each division as one leaf). Berlin: Brefeld on 

conjugating fungi. 

Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, lxx. i. 
Contributions to the morphology and biology of .yeast, by Emil Schu- 
macher, of Lucerne (detailing.experiments to determine the influence of 
low temperature, etc., upon the life of the yeast plant). Lxx. ii. Investi- 
gations respecting the occurrence of lignin in the tissues of plants, by 
A. Burgerstein. (Experiments with aniline sulphate, by which he deter- 
miped the absence of lignin in funge and alge. It is found in a very 
few plant-hairs, in all wood-cells, but never in cambium. Many bast-cells 
have considerable lignin, but the sieve-cells hardly any. The most curi- 
ous observation was that the walls of pith-cells in many plants are ligni- 
fied, and the medullary rays also. 


ZOOLOGY. 


BreepinG Rance or tHe SNow-Birp.— During a flying visit paid 
to the mountains of Southwestern Virginia, the latter part of June, I 
found Junco hyemalis very common on the summits, at an altitude of 
forty-five hundred feet. A nest containing three eggs, about to hatch, 
was discovered within a stone’s throw of the house. It was built on the 
ground, in a hole in a slight embankment. The mother-bird fluttered in 
sight within a few feet of me, of course rendering the identification ab- 
solute ; besides, the birds were plentiful in the vicinity, and well known 
to the most obtuse of the aborigines of this primeval region. 
southern extension of the species during the breeding season has only 
lately become known. Professor Cope mentions it in a former paper in 
the Naruratist, and I have no doubt that he is right in crediting the 
species with a breeding range to the mountains of Georgia. This cir- 
cumstance of its distribution explains the sudden appearances and disap- 
pearances of the species, according to the weather, during the colder por- 
tions of the year, at low levels. It can readily change its summer for its 
winter ubode, and conversely, by a few hours’ flight. 

While on this subject, let me allude to the slip of the pen, or mo- 
mentary aberration of mind, I don’t know which, that led me to give the 


a te ie i eal fo a 


1876.] Zoölogy. 115 


“Graylock range” as an instance of the southward dispersion of this 
bird in the breeding season, at page 141 of the Birds of the Northwest. 
The proper allusion is to some mountains in North Carolina. — E. C. 
HOMOLOGIES or MAMMALIAN TEETH. — Professor Cope has recently 
investigated the homologies of the different types of mammalian teeth. 
He refers all of them to four types, the haplodont, ptychodont, bunodont, 
and lophodont. The first is a simple cone or truncate cylinder in form, 
and from it all the others are derived by folding vertically (ptychodont) 


cle, and that this is connected with the outer front one of the four by a 
low ledge. Successively the two hinder tubercles disappear, and the 
front or fifth grows larger. The ridge connecting the latter with the 
outer grows longer and higher, and the inner front then disappears. 
Finally the hinder part of the tooth disappears also, leaving but two 
apices connected by a cutting edge, which is characteristic of the flesh- 
tooth of the lion and tiger. 

The human molar tooth is one of the simpler forms of the bunodont 
division, 

Protective RESEMBLANCE IN THE YeELLow-Birp. — On passing 
an embankment of the Grand ‘Trunk Railway at Fort Gratiot, Michigan, 
one warm day in August, 1872, we noticed that numbers of the yellow- 
bird ( Chrysomitris tristis Bon.) had collected where an extensive growth 
of the common mullein ( Verbascum thapsus L.) lined the slope. Each 
bird had perched on the apex of a spike of the blossoms, the color of 
Which was almost the identical shade of yellow in the plumage of the 

ird. The mulleins were ranged in stiff files, like soldiers in yellow uni- 
forms, and each bird, as we passed, remained motionless, looking like a 
continuation of the spike, of which one might be easily deceived into 
thinking it part and parcel. As soon as we had passed by, the birds 
Were again busy, flitting from plant to plant, feeding on the seeds, and 
enjoying themselves. 


116 General Notes. [ February. 


’ We could not avoid thinking that there was a meaning in the action 
here described, significant of an established protective habit, especially 
considering the decided changes of plumage assumed by this species at 
different seasons of the year. — HENRY GILLMAN. 

SHELLS OF KERGUELEN Istanp. — The naturalists connected with 
the Transit of Venus Expedition have begun to make their reports. 
“ In the report of Dr. J. H. Kidder, of the Kerguelen station, now in 
press, Mr. W. H. Dall contributes a list of the mollusca collected, de- 
scribing three new genera, One of these was described in a late num- 
ber of the Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist. by Mr. E. A. Smith, of the Brit- 
ish Museum, under the name Eatonia, long since preoccupied by Hall 
for a genus of brachiopoda. For this Mr. Dall substitutes Hatoniella. 
Mr. Dall also describes a genus allied to Ceropsis of the Carditide, but 
smooth and without lateral teeth, and with a semi-internal ligament, 
giving it the name Kidderia, in honor of the naturalist of the expedition. 
Dr. P. P. Carpenter also describes a new genus of chitons, with the 
anterior and posterior valves marginate, but not slit, and the other 
valves without a margin. This genus, intermediate between Hanleia 
and the articulate chitons, he calls Hemiarthrum. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


` Jasper WAR-CLUB TEETH. — In the sixth volume of the NATURALIST, 
page 157, fig. 24, I described a large flint implement as a hatchet. Such 
specimens I have since been led to consider as teeth, if I may so call 
them, of war-clubs ; the handles of which were frequently the femora of 
the elk and bison. This form may be briefly described as obtusely 
pointed, short, and broad jasper implements; evenly chipped to a well- 
defined edge. Average-sized specimens measure about three to four 
inches in length, by two and a half to three in breadth. While the 
chipping is not as fine as in arrow and spear points, it is certain that the 
majority, at least, are finished implements, as suggested by the author of 
Flint Chips (p. 439), and not merely “blocked out” masses of jasper; 
to be subsequently worked into spear-heads and similar forms (see Rau 
on Agricultural Implements, Smithsonian Annual Report, 1868, p. 401). 
Besides these finished specimens, I have found that the larger flint im- 
plements, which I have considered to be either “lance - heads” (Prot 
Acad. Nat. Sci. of Philadelphia, 1860, p. 278) or agricultural imple- 
ments when blunt and broad, and weapons when narrower and pointed, 
in vol. vi. of this journal, page 155, fig. 22, — that these, when broken 
in half, were subsequently utilized as I have suggested, just as broken 
arrow-heads were occasionally made available, by conversion into scrap 
ers (see this journal, vii. 500), except that in the latter instance 
the base of the broken implement was used, and in the former, the 
pointed or upper half. My reason for considering them as the teeth 
of war-clubs is that the point, although blunt, is well defined, and the 


1876,] Geology and Paleontology. 117 


edges equally so, and that the implement as made was intended for pene- 
tration rather than cutting, but necessarily by the aid of a handle, inas- 
much as the base has a roughly chipped edge, which would prevent its 
being used effectively if simply held in the hand. Certainly as a simple 
cutting implement or hatchet it would not have been pointed. This sup- 
posed use of these specimens, as described, is confirmed by the discovery 
lately of three specimens of such implements in Indian graves. Each o 
these chipped flints had evidently been inserted into long bones (femora) 
ofsome large mammal. The bones themselves had so nearly decayed 
that only minute fragments could be gathered, but the outline was dis- 
tinguishable as the relic lay in the ground. Two of these specimens of 
flint teeth had evidently been wrought de novd from the mineral ; the 
other was as evidently the pointed half of a lance-head, or hoe, the 
base being a single surface, showing that the specimen had there been 
broken directly in two. Somewhat confirmatory also of this view of the 
use of such relies is the fact that of the broken specimens of “ lance- 
heads ’’ found lying on the surface of the ground, the vast majority are 
the bases; the points having been gathered and utilized, I believe, in the 
manner suggested. War-clubs of wood, armed with a metal tooth, are 
how seen among the Indians. Catlin, in his North American Indians, 
vol. ii, plate 150, figures such an one, and frequently refers to them 
throughout that work. Prior to the introduction of metals, war-clubs 
were of course common, but armed with stone instead of iron. The 
Jasper implements above described, I doubt not, were the forerunners 
of the metal teeth of the modern club. — Cuarues C. Assort, M. D. 
OreninG or a RoyaL BURIAL Mounp IN DENMARK. — The Royal 
Society of Northern Antiquaries at Copenhagen has recently published 
a beautifully illustrated folio volume containing a.description of a royal. 
urial mound or barrow, with translations of the Runic inseriptions on 
stones, at Jellinge, of the time of the royal pair, Gorm and Thyra. 


GEOLOGY AND PALHONTOLOGY. 


Tae EARLIEST EDENTATES (Storus). — The éarliest sloths hitherto 
known have occurred in the Miocene Tertiary. Professor Gaudry 
recently announced to the French Academy traces of the existence of 
edentate mammals at the beginning of the Miocene epoch. The remains 
consist of a first phalanx and an ungueal phalanx, which seem to come 
from the same finger. He places this new animal in the genus Ancylo- 
therium, With the specific name of priscus. The fossils have been found 
In the same bed, suggesting that the edentate in question has lived at the 
time of the lower Miocene as well as at the last phase of the Eocene. 

_ A FossiL Srrentan Anmar IN Jamatca. — The former existence, 
m Jamaica of an animal of this group, rather smaller than the manatee 
18 Indicated by the skull and atlas vertebra, described by Professor Owen 


118 s General Notes. [February, 


under the name of Prorastomus sirenoides in the Quarterly Journal of 
the Geological Society of London. 

Grotocy or New CALEDONIA. — In an article on -the metallic 
mines of New Caledonia, by Rev. W. B. Clarke, besides a notice of the 
mines of chromic iron and nickel, there is given, in La Revue Scientifique, 
a résumé of the geology of these islands. 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 


Unitep States Coast AND Interoceantc Surveys. — The late 
annual report of Commodore Ammen, Chief of Bureau of Navigation, 
states that the work of' geographically determining as many points as 
are supposed necessary, in Central America and in the West Indies, was 
prosecuted last year by the United States steamer Fortune, and this 
year by the Gettysburg. The longitude of Panama, Aspinwall, Santiago 
de Cuba, and Havana have been determined by means of the telegraph. 
The work now in course of completion will include points on the Wind- 
ward Islands and the northern coast of South America. The survey of 
the outer coast of the Peninsula of Lower California, and that of the 
Gulf of California, had been concluded by Commander George Dewey, 
commanding the Narragansett. The gulf was previously unsurveyed, 
but has now been sufficiently examined and determined for the safety of 
navigation. Commander A. J. Mahan, commanding the Wasp, has made 
much-needed surveys at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. 

It is recommended that when a vessel can be spared for the purpose 
from those employed on the North Pacific Station, a running survey be 
made of the coast of Gautemala. This would render the surveys (of dif- 
ferent values) continuous from Behring’s Straits to Cape Horn. Since 
completing the lines of deep-sea soundings in the Pacific Ocean for cable 
purposes, another line has been run by the United States steamer Tus- 
carora, under the command of Commander Herber, from San Francisco 
to the Sandwich Islands, and some soundings were also made on the re- 
turn of the said vessel from the Navigator Islands to Honolulu. 

In regard to interoceanic surveys, this work, which has been carefully 
prosecuted for five seasons by two or more parties from the Isthmus of 
Tehuantepec to twenty or more miles south of the mouth of the Napipi, 
on the River Atrato, is at length satisfactorily accomplished. Since the 
last report a careful survey of the Isthmus of Panama has been made, 
the computations completed, and the whole placed before the Interoceanic 
Canal Commission. ` 

Tue Tounpras or Sreerta.— The prevalent idea that the plains of 
Siberia are frozen the year around is dispelled by Nordenskiöld in his ac- 
count of his Siberian journey, to be found in Nature. “We were yet far 
north of the Arctic Circle, and as many imagine that the region we had 
now passed through, the so little known tundra of Siberia, is a desert waste, 


eM See E ee: fa, Rg Oe Se eee ae ee TOMES eee ans ene ene ne ere ae a i 


1876.] Geography and Exploration. 119 


either covered by ice and snow or by an exceedingly scanty moss veg- 
etation, it is perhaps the place here to declare that this by no means is 
the case. On the contrary, we saw, during our passage up the Jenisei, 
snow only at one place, a deep valley cleft of some fathoms’ extent, and 
the vegetation, especially on the islands which are overflowed during the 
spring floods, was remarkable for a luxuriance to which I had seldom 
before seen anything corresponding. 

“The fertility of the soil and the immeasurable extent of the meadow 
land, and the richness of the grass upon it, had already called forth 
from one of our hunters, a middle-aged man, who is owner of a little 
patch of land between the fells in Northern Norway, acry of envy of the 
splendid land our Lord had given ‘the Russian, and of astonishment 
that no creature pastured, no scythe mowed the grass. Daily and hourly 
we heard the same cry repeated, though in yet louder tone, when we 
some weeks later came to the lofty old forests between Jeniseisk and 
Turuchansk, or to the nearly uninhabited plains on the other side of 
Krasnojarsk, covered with deep tschornosem (black earth), in fertility 
certainly comparable to the best parts of Scania, in extent exceeding the 
whole of the Scandinavian peninsula. This direct expression of opinion `- 
by a veritable if unlearned agriculturist may perhaps not be without 
interest in judging of the future of Siberia.” 

Tue Swepisn Exrepition to Novaya Zemiya. — In our last 
number we gave some account of Nordenskiéld’s expedition. His ship, 
the Préven, which he placed under the command of Dr. Kjellman, has 
returned to Norway. Nature reports that the party found an abundance 
of marine vegetation in the Kara Sea, which has been hitherto thought 
to be remarkably destitute of vegetable life. “ We have,’ the letter to 
the Stockholm daily paper concludes, “ during this summer sailed over 
known and unknown seas more than six thousand (English) miles; we 
have visited regions whither expeditions for more than three hundred 
years have attempted in vain to come; we have made rich collections in 
all departments of natural science.” Nordenskiöld, who is the distin- 
guished professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Stockholm, reached 
St. Petersburg on the 17th of November, having journeyed overland 
from the mouth of the Jenisei River. An account of his journey appears 
in Nature for December 2d. 

Tae Kysare Race. — An exhaustive monograph of this people (La 
Kybalie et les Coutumes Kabyles), in three large octavo volumes, by 

: A. Hanoteau and A. Letourneau, has been noticed in successive 
humbers of the Revue Scientifique. These Kybales are the descendants 
of the ancient Numidians, and their country forms a part of Algeria, 

Pictures or YUNNAN. — Under this title F. Garnier has published 
a work on this inland province of China, abstracts of which, with fine 
views of the striking scenery of the country and the people, are appear- 
ing in Globus, a weekly German journal of travel. 


120 ` General Notes. [February, 


Mextcan MIGRATIONS. — At the Exposition International de Géo- 
graphie held at Paris last year, Professor Quatrefages exhibited an un- 
published map illustrating the migrations of the Mexicans. 


MICROSCOPY.! 


AMATEUR Microscorrs. — The notorious success of Mr. Wenham, 
the late Mr. John Williams, and some other microscopists, in preparing 
their own apparatus, is exceptional only by reason of the degree of excel- 
lence attained. It is especially true of microscopists that they love the 
instruments they work with, and from this love follows not only the par- 
tially unfortunate “ test-object fever,” but also the eminently useful habit 
of studying, adapting, altering, and finally manufacturing accessories, if 
not instruments, suited to their needs and fancies. Such amateur work 
not only is the best possible drill in the science of the microscope, but 
also has added very largely to the development of the microscope of to-day. 
The European journals are full of interesting and profitable results from 
such work; while the readers of the NATURALIST have long been 
familiar with the contrivances and original constructions of a considerable 
number of American workers. Most microscopists, however, have con- 
fined their attempts to the production of accessories, believing, very judi- 
ciously, that the microscope as a whole could be more successfully made 

y more experienced hands. Of the comparatively few home-made 
microscopes, two recently published forms may serve as examples of the 
two extremes of ultra simplicity on the one hand and the best attained 
success on the other. In the form contrived by Mr. John Phin and-de- 
scribed in his Practical Hints, the body consists of a tube of stiff writ- 
ing-paper rolled several times around itself, pasted at the outer edge, 
and blackened on the inside. This tube slides, for focal adjustment, 
through another paper tube. A piece of looking-glass serves as mirror, 


of two-inch focus constitutes the ocular or eyepiece. The lenses are held 
in place in the tube by means of the bottoms of pill boxes perforated to 
allow the passage of light, while similarly perforated pill boxes are placed 
in the tube in proper position to act as diaphragms to reduce aberration 
by cutting off stray light. Such a microscope, at a cost of fifty cents, is 
conceded to be too imperfect to use for scientific study or even for instruct- 
ive amusement, its utility being not in the using but in the making of it. 
It is believed that a student by actually constructing such an instrument 
would gain a yery clear idea of the essential parts of the microscope, as 
well as a good understanding of the faults of simple work and uncorrected 
lenses. 

The more elaborate instrument. referred to is described by Mr, John 

1 This department is conducted by Dr. R: H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


1876] | Microscopy. 121 


Michels in the last November number of the Popular Science Monthly. 
The essential parts of a microscope-stand are simplified and combined 
with great ingenuity and judgment. The form of stand is essentially 
that of the pocket microscopes of Swift and some other London makers, 
in which a single inclined bar, resting on the table at its lower end and 
supported by two legs near its upper end, carries firmly and conveniently 
the mirror, stage, and compound body. The blackened paper tube which 
serves as body is large enough to receive a good ocular or eyepiece at 
the top, and contains at the bottom a society-screw adapted to hold any 
objectives that may be chosen. It slides through a wooden tube lined 
with cloth, giving a good coarse adjustment. This wooden tube is glued, 
by means of an intervening piece of wood, to the main inclined bar of 
the stand. The stage is of wood, or gutta-percha modeled into shape 
while warm, also attached by means of a block of wood, and the object 
slide is held in position by elastic india-rubber bands. The mirror and 
its immediate mounting is that of a common student’s stand. This 
instrument stands nearly fifteen inches high when in use, weighs one 
pound, and can be packed within a space fourteen by three and a half by 
three inches. It is perhaps the best amateur microscope that can be 
made at the present time by a student of average mechanical skill. One 
reason why it is the best is because it contemplates the use for all its 
optical parts of first-class professional work ; for we cannot quite agree 
With its author that there is no reason why the student should not make 
his own lenses, Objectives have reached a degree of excellence which 
has quite outgrown the skill of an ordinary amateur. True, Mr. Wenham 
can make lenses of surpassing excellence, and so could Mr. Spencer, while 
still unlearned in the science and unpracticed in the art of microscopy, 
but such instances are so rare as not to compromise the accuracy of the 
Statement that amateurs cannot make as good lenses as they can buy. 
Nor do we think that the author does full justice to the recent progress 
achieved (though still too little) by the regular makers in the way of 
furnishing good and useful work at an available price. What is called 
first-class apparatus is still prohibitively costly, and much of the cheap 
Work is more than correspondingly poor ; yet instruments can now be 
bought at a reasonable cost that would not be fairly described as charac- 
terized by “ diminutive size, smallness of field, poor light, shortness of 
tube; absence of society’s screw, and other evils” which “ will soon cause ” 
: “to be cast aside.’ Nor do we share the author’s difficulty in find- 
mg lenses in this country which he can specially recommend. Most of 
our distinguished makers now prepare not only lenses of excessively high 
angle and price, but also lenses of exquisite workmanship, moderate 
angle, simple mounting, and available price ; lenses which we recommend 
with double pleasure because of our strong faith in the utility of mod- 
erate angles for general use, and our firm belief that the perhaps neces- 


122 General Notes. [ February, 


sarily high cost of the high-angle lenses has materially retarded the 
growing popularity and usefulness of the microscope itself. 

REMARKABLE ForaGe ror Bees. — Rev. J. L. Zabriskie, whose 
interesting papers on bee-bread, in the Bee Keepers’ Magazine, have 
given readers unfamiliar with the sciences concerned a reliable under- 
standing of the structure of pollen, and the curious development, upon 
the hind legs of the bees, of the pollen brushes and pollen baskets with 
which the pollen is gathered, loaded up, and carried to the hives, observed, 
during the last summer, bees coming to his hives loaded with an unusually 
large quantity of a pollen-like powder having a bright vermilion color, 
not before noticed. The pollen baskets were filled to overflowing with 
this novel food, which the bees were carrying to their hives and storing 
away in the usual manner. Microscopically examined the grains were 
unlike any known pollen, but corresponded exactly in their peculiar color, | 
size, shape, granular contents, and character and delicate markings of 
the epispore, with the raspberry rust, which was abundant at the time on 
leaves in the garden and adjoining fields; this rust being a leaf fungus 
( Uredo luminata) whose delicate mycelial cells force themselves among 
and draw nourishment from the cells which form the tissue of the leaf, 
and which at the time of fruiting rupture the skin in little spots on the 
under surface of the leaf, and develop crowded clusters of bright red 
spores surrounded by the upturned edge of the ruptured leaf skin, which 
looks, when magnified, not unlike a little dish filled with miniature 
strawberries. The bees were not seen to gather spores from these clus- 
ters, but the grains carried to the hives were positively identified by com- 
parison with fresh specimens from the leaves. This presumably un- 
wholesome food seemed to have no unfavorable effect on the health of 
the infant families of bees. Whether some such strange choice of food 
is related to the occasional occurrence of poisonous honey, may be sug- 
gested. 

Cryerocamic Parasites.— The report of M. Maxime Cornu, in 
the Bulletin Entomologique, on a larva of Chelonia Hebe which had been- 
killed by a parasitic fungus, refers the fungus to the genus Entomoph- 
thora, and possibly to the species which preys upon flies in the autumn. 
The presence of this parasite in a larva he thinks has not been previously 
recorded. M. Cornu concludes that fungi cannot perforate healthy ani- 
mal tissues, but must enter through some wound or other opening, since 
he has observed an Aphis of the elder infested even to the antenna with 
an abundance of corpuscles of a species of Entomophthora, while the fifty- 
two young in different stages of development contained within the af 
fected insect were all perfectly free and healthy. 

- Broop GrosuLes ın Treo Fever. — M. Cornil has found, in 
the blood of the spleen of patients who have died in the third week of 
typhoid fever, large numbers of white globules, inclosing red globules to 
the number of five, six, or even more in a single cell. Other cells in- 


yp REI jacob i ee aie eM talent eT il Slt Aili ee 


1876.] Scientific News. 123 


closed granules of hæmatosine. Although the existence in the blood of 
these large cells containing red globules is nothing new, nevertheless 
Cornil is the first to insist upon their multiplication in typhoid fever. 
The mesenteric glands, according to Cornil, are always inflamed in 
typhoid fever, in a manner analogous to the acute or subacute inflamma- 
tion due to suppurative lymphangitis. — The Medical Record, from Lyon 
Médicale. : 

James W. Queen & Co.— This well-known firm has been once 
more dissolved, Mr. Cheyney carrying the department of philosophical 
apparatus with him to Bond Street, New York city. The remaining 
partners, S. L. Fox and W. H. Walmsley, retain the microscopical branch 
of the business at the old stand and under the old name. Microscopists 
will find G. S. Woolman in charge of their department at the New York 
store. 

RAPHIDES IN ENcHANTER’s N IGHTSHADE. — The Bulletin of the 
Torrey Botanical Club suggests sections of the enchanter’s nightshade 
(Circea Lutetiana L.) as an interesting microscopical study, the leaves, 
stem, and root being crowded with raphides, and the cells of the pith being 
filled with small transparent ball-like bodies. 

A POLARISCOPE OBJECT. — Hairs of common gromwell (Lithosper- 
mum officinale L.) are said to polarize beautifully under the microscope. 


eee an 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— The following remarks by the editor of Nature, though referring 
to science in England, are not perhaps out of place in an American 
Journal ; — 

“ By looking to general science, again, the government avoids the 
difficulties which must necessarily accompany, with all the fluctuations 
of trade, any attempt to teach applied science except in some very gen- 
eral forms. The fact is that the practical applications of science bring 
their own reward, and need no extraneous encouragement ; instruction 
and invention in them may very well, and without the least hardship, be 
left to those whose pockets they fill. Art receives ample encouragement, 
and is well rewarded by the nation ; let but an artist in any department 
show himself capable of producing good work, and he will soon find 
that both the government and private individuals have plenty of rewards 
es bestow upon him. Science, on the other hand, receives not a penny 
in the way of assistance or reward, and yet the scientific investigator is 
the nation’s servant and greatest benefactor. Pure scientific research is 
at present, like virtue, its own reward; the man who devotes himself to 
such research, unless he has some other means of gaining a livelihood, 
is likely enough to starve, for all the help he will get from his country ; 
and yet, as it has been shown over and over again, our country’s pros- 


124 Setentifie News. [ February, 


perity, the progress of nearly all our industries, and even the very ex- ` 


istence of many of them, are dependent on the discoveries of the scien- 
tific investigator who pursues his research on purely scientific principles, 
and with no practical end whatever in view. Our country has got at 
least as much glory, and we venture to think more practical benefit, 
from achievements in the region of pure science, as from all that has 
been accomplished in the domain of art; and yet no helping hand is held 
out to those who are able and willing to do their country the highest 
service, but cannot, because they must drudge for a living. The domain 
of science is every day becoming more and more extended, her methods 
are becoming more and more complicated, and her instruments more and 
more expensive ; in almost every department paths are being opened 
up which, if pursued to their end,‘would certainly lead. to discoveries of 
vital importance to the best welfare and prosperity of the nation. Our 
public men are continually telling us that we are being outstripped by 
continental nations in fields which, used to be peculiarly our own, and 
that simply because abroad every encouragement is given to scientific 
research, while here its existence is either ignored or it is regarded as. a 
mere pastime.” 
‘Dr. Oscar Grimm has. published in Siebold and Killiker’s Zeit- 
schrift a summary of the results of his investigation of the fauna of the 
Caspian Sea. The character of this assemblage of life has interest, 
says Nature, for the evolutionist as well as the geologist. It will afford 
evidence not only of modification of animal life, but also of successive 
changes in the physical geography of that region. Dredgings were car- 
ried on, by means of a steamer, down to one hundred and fifty fathoms, 
and an enormous quantity of specimens were obtained, including six new 
fishes, twenty species of mollusca, thirty-five species of crustacea, prin- 
cipally colossal forms of Gammaride, and twenty species of worms. 
The western part of the sea gives depths of five hundred and seventeen 
fathoms, and has a very abundant fauna; at one haul of the dredge in one 
hundred and eight fathoms, there were taken three hundred and fifty 
specimens of Gammaride, one hundred and fifty Idothea entomon, fifty 
colossal Mysis, etc. Eighty species in all are new to science. 

— Professor Ernst Haeckel’s work on The History of Creation, as 
translated by Mr. Van Rhyn, of New York, will be published early in: 
the year by D. Appleton & Co. An English translation of Haeckel’s 
Anthropogenie is soon to appear in London. Macmillan & Co. ad- 
vertise a new edition of that choice work, White’s Natural History of 
Selborne, They have also published A Course of Practical Instruc- 
tion in Elementary Biology, by Professor Huxley and H. N. Martin 


(crown 8vo; 6s.) ; and Historia Filicum, by J. Smith, with thirty litho- 
ic plates... 


graphic plates 
— A second meeting of those proposing to form a mountain explora- 


tion club, similar in many respects to the Alpine clubs of England and 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 125 


Switzerland, was held January 12th at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology in Boston. Professor Pickering presided. Mr. S. H. Scud- 
der, of the committee on organization, made a partial report, suggesting 
several names for the society or club, and defining its object to be the 
study of comparative geography and the scientific and «esthetic explora- 
tion of the highlands of New England and the adjacent regions. 

—In Arctic Notes sent to Land and Water by an officer of the 
Pandora, the British Arctic exploring vessel, he says, “I would sooner 
eat seal’s meat than mutton or beef.” This is a little exaggerated, per- 
haps, but we can aver that seal’s flesh has a relish to it after a day’s dredg- 
ing on the coast of Labrador, and a meal of boiled whale’s flesh is good 
for a very hungry man. A well-seasoned mince pie made of whale’s 
flesh would scarcely be distinguishable from beef pie. 

— Professor Carl J. Sundevall, the venerable and distinguished orni- 
thologist of Stockholm, has lately died. He left works on the morphol- 
ogy of arthropods and other subjects...'The botanist, Professor F. G. 
Bartling, of Gottingen, died in November. 

— The medal of the first class, with the diploma, awarded to Professor 
‘Hayden, in charge of the Geological Survey of the Territories, by the 
International Congress of Geographical Sciences which met in Paris in 
August, has been received through the state department. Professor 
Hayden has also recently received letters informing him of his election 
as honorary member of the Italian Geographical Society of Turin, 
Italy, and foreign corresponding member of the Geographical Society 
of Paris, France. ; 

aneas ananas 


PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 

ACADEMY oF Scrences, St. Louis. — November 15, 1875. Professor 
Riley remarked that among the changes that took place in those portions 
of the State so thoroughly devastated by locusts last spring, none were 
more interesting than the wide-spread appearance of a grass. ( Vilfa 
vagineflora) unnoticed in ordinary seasons. The locusts eat down the 
blue grass so closely that in most instances it died out, and this annual 
grass takes its place and grows up rapidly just at the time when most 
needed by stock, so that it is considered a godsend by the farmers, who 
generally believe that it was brought by the locusts. The seed was 
Scattered over the land the autumn before, and the conditions were all 
favorable for its starting. In ordinary seasons, on the contrary, it is 
smothered and choked down by other plants. i 

December 6th. Prof: C. V. Riley made a communication on jumping 
Seeds from California, motion being imparted to the seeds by inclosed 
caterpillars of a small moth (Carpocapsa saltitans). 

December 13th. A paper entitled The Grasshoppers and the Sea- 
Son of 1875 was received from ‘Prof. G. C. Broadhead. ( ‘ 


126 Proceedings of Societies. [ February, 


Professor Riley read a paper on the use of Paris green as an insecti- 
cide, reciting several important experiments, from which he drew the fol- 
lowing conclusions : — 

(1.) Paris green that has been four months in the soil no longer re- 
mains as such, but passes into some less soluble state, and is unaffected 
by the ordinary solvents of the soil. 

(2.) When applied in small quantities, such as alone are necessary in 
destroying injurious insects, it does not affect the health of the plant. 

(3.) The power of the soil to hold arsenious acid and arsenites in insol- 
uble form will prevent water from becoming poisoned, unless the green 
be used in excess of any requirement as an insecticide. 

He alluded to some of the potato-bug poisons, one of which, made up 
of salt and arsenic, was more dangerous than others, because it was liable 
to be mistaken for common salt. 

January 4th, annual meeting. Prof. C. V. Riley was elected pres- 
ident. He remarked on a new use of the wood of the American agave, 
as a lining for insect-boxes, instead of cork. He exhibited strips of the 
wood, twelve by four inches, and one half inch thick, which answer this 
purpose admirably, the wood being remarkably light and porous, and pins 
being pushed into it with great ease and held firmly. It is much cheaper 
than cork. The celebrated traveler, Mr. A. R. Wallace, preserved all 
his valuable entomological collections in the East Indies in boxes. made 
of pieces of this wood pinned together with thorns, and it is now coming 
into very general use. ! 

ACADEMY OF NATURAL Sciences, Philadelphia. — December 28th, 
annual meeting. The curators announced that the new building erected 
for the academy was so far completed as to be ready for the reception 
of its collections. The removal of the museum from the building now 
occupied was commenced on the 2d of November and was completed last 
week. It is proposed shortly to commence the removal of the library, 
and the curators anticipate having the new hall ready for the future 
meetings of the academy early in January, 1876. 

~ The concluding thirty pages of the Proceedings for 1874, and four hun- 
dred and twenty-seven pages of the Transactions, have been published, 
the latter being illustrated by twenty-four lithographic plates and ninety 


the sale of the premises at present occupied by the society, the removal 
of the collections to the new building at the southwest corner of Nine- 
teenth and Race streets, and the junction of the American Entomological 
Society with the academy as a section thereof. 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 127 


The librarian reports that there were nineteen hundred and forty 
additions to the library from January 1 to November 30, 1875, being an 
excess of two hundred and eighty for the eleven months named over the 
number received during the twelve months of the preceding year. Re- 
ferring to the income at the disposal of the academy for the support of 
the library, the report continues, “ At the annual meeting, held Feb- 
ruary 16th, the treasurer announced the munificent donation by Isaiah V. 
Williamson, Esq., to the academy, of ground rents to the amount of twen- 
ty-five thousand dollars as a permanent fund for the use of the library, 
It is confidently hoped that the interest on this sum, together with the por- 
tion of the interest derived from the legacy of the late Dr. Thomas B. Wil- 
son devoted to the same use, and amounting together to eighteen hundred 
dollars per annum, will be sufficient, not only to keep the library sup- 
plied with the current scientific literature, but also to enable the library 
committee to secure, from time to time, the many very desirable books 
of an earlier date which are still wanting in most of the depart- 
ments,” 

Boston Society or NATURAL HISTORY. — January 5, 1876. Prof. ` 
W. H. Niles read a paper on the evidence of a widely spread geological 
force, exhibited by certain rock-movements. Referring to the phenomena 
of spontaneous fracture and expansion of rock in a north and south di- 
rection in quarries at Monson, Mass., Groton, Conn., Berea, O., and, 
Lemont, Ill., he inferred that they could not be due to. local causes, 
but explained them by a north and south compression of the strata, due 
to the contraction of the earth, and showed the important bearing of the 
subject on the question of mountain-building. Mr. L. S. Burbank noticed 
some rare trees of the Merrimack Valley. 

AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SocreTy. — December 6th. Judge Daly 
spoke on the progress in geographical research in Africa, with special 
reference to Stanley’s recent explorations. He was followed by remarks 
from Mr. Bayard Taylor, who claimed that “ Stanley’s journey from Zan- 
zibar to the N yanza, and his exploration of the eastern shore of the lake, 
have never been surpassed for boldness, rapidity, and success by anything 
in the records of African travel.” se 

Acapemy or Sciences, San Francisco. — December 20, 1875. Dar- 
lingtonia Californica, the pitcher-plant of the Pacific coast, formed the 
subject of a paper by Mr. Henry Edwards, who gave an account of its 
appearance, of its functions as a fly-trap, — though its digestive powers 
Were questioned, — of the different insects entrapped by it, and of its dis- 
tribution and habitat. 

ACADEMY or Sciences, New York. — December 13, 1875. Papers 
on A New Phosphide of Silver, and a Method of estimating Silver by 
Phosphorus, by Prof. W. Falke, and on a Direct Process in the Manu- 
facture of Iron in Japan, by H. Newton, were read. 

CamBrinex ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB. — December 10, 1875. Dr. 


128 Scientific Serials. [ February. 


Swartz gave some-account of the results arrived at in the Monograph 
of the Rhynchophora of the United States, soon to be published by Drs, 
LeConte and Horn. 

BUFFALO SOCIETY or Sciences. — December 17, 1875.. A paper 
by Mr. Grote on Noctuidæ from the Pacific Coast of North America 
was read, and he remarked on a noctuid moth, Polenta Tepperi, from 

exas, 

Essex INSTITUTE, Salem, Mass. — December 6, 1875. -Rev. Mr. 
Wright gave an account of the structure of Indian Ridge, in Andover, 
Mass., which he regarded as an ancient moraine. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS? . 
THE GEOGRAPHICAL Macazine. — December, 1875. The Arctic 
Expedition, V. From Ritenbink to Upernavik. The Voyage of the Chal- 
lenger, by Capt. J. E. Davis. N. P. Barbot de Marny’s Geological Ex- 
ploration in the Region of the Amu Darye. The Basin of the Macken- 
zie River. The United States Geological Survey in the San Juan Coun- 
try. Stanley’s Exploration of the Victoria Nyanza, by E. G. Raven- 
stein. 


ward. The Slit as an Aid in measuring Angular Aperture, by R. Keith. 

ARCHIV FÜR NATURGESCHICHTE. — On the Genital Apparatus of - 
Spiders, by Dr. Bertkau. Natural History of the Hydrachnide, by P. 
Kramer. On the Budding of Cunine in the Stomach of the Geryonide, 
by B. Uljanin. Description of a Fin Whale, by G. Zaddach. 

ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR WISSEN. ZOÖLOGIF. (Siebold arfd Kölliker, edit- 
ors). — November, 20, 1875. The Development. of Sponges, by Oscar 
Schmidt. Researches on the Hexactinellide (Sponges), by W. Mar- 
shall. 

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND Arts. — January.. Descrip- 
tion of some Remains of an Extinct Species of Wolf and Deer from the 
Lead Region of the Upper Mississippi, by J. A. Allen. 

BULLETIN DE LA Société De GÉOGRAPHIE. — November, 1875. 
The Madeira and its Basin, by L’Abbé Durand. Terra del Fuego, by 
G. Marguin. 

JOURNAL DE ZO6LOGIE. — No. 5. The Unarmed Gephyrea, by H- 
Théel. The Reindeer of Prehistoric Times, by P. Gervais (the editor). 

Revur SCIENTIFIQUE. — November 27. The Genital Organs of Dec- 
apod Crustacea, by P. Brocchi. 

GLoBUs. — No. 23. Antiquities from Utah and California. 

NaTURE. — December 9, Eskimo Tales and Traditions. 

1 The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part selected. 


ci a i 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. x.— MARCH, 1876. — No. $, 


A COLONY OF BUTTERFLIES. 
BY AUG. R. GROTE. 

ABOUT one hundred thousand years ago, during the decline 

of the ice period, a colony of butterflies settled in New En- 
gland. They chose for their territory Mount Washington, in 
New Hampshire, and their descendants occupy the rocky summit 
of that mountain to this day. Mount Washington is 6293 feet 
high, and the White Mountain butterflies are not found below 
an elevation of about 5600 feet. Between this height and the 
cloud-capped summit, the butterflies disport during the month of 
July of every year. The bare and inhospitable summit affords lit- 
tle vegetation, but the White Mountain butterflies find there food 
upon which they thrive. Both Mr. Sanborn and Mr. Scudder 
have found the caterpillar feeding upon the sedges which grow, 
as best they may, in hollows and between the rocks. The brown 
butterfly which succeeds the caterpillar measures about one and 
eight tenths inches from tip to tip of the extended fore wings. 
Above, the Wings are feebly marked ; beneath, the hind wings are 
crossed by a dark median band with its outer edges deeper brown 
and irregular, while beyond the band the wings are marbled, 
brown and white. Naturalists know the White Mountain bnt- 
terfly by the name of Oeneis semidea, and its first biographer 


„was Thomas Say, who described it in the year 1828. Previously, 


Mr. Thomas Nuttall, the botanist, had collected specimens of the 
butterfly » while Say’s original figure of the species was drawn 
from an individual presented to him by Mr. Charles Pickering, 
of Salem. ` 

It is 1800 miles west from Mount Washington to Long’s Peak, 
Colorado, In this direction, over all the level stretch of country, 
no butterflies like our White Mountain butterfly are to be met 
With, But in Colorado, species similar to the White Mountain 
butterfly, if not exactly like it, are found again occupying ele- 
“Pen nae all eR ee 


Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, JR. 1876. 


130 A Colony of Butterflies. [ March, 


vated lands. To the northward it is 1000 miles to Hopedale, 
Labrador, and here again very similar butterflies are found living 
in that northern region. 

This is a strange distribution for a butterfly, and so the question 
comes up as to the manner in which it was brought about. By 
comparing what has been found out with regard to past condi- 
tions of the earth andthe present state of things, a solution of the 
question has been offered. This solution gives us the ice period in 
North America as the agent which has induced the present dis- 
tribution of the genus to which the White Mountain butterfly 
belongs. And the colonization of the butterfly on our New 
England mountains would have been effected in this wise. 

Before the ice period commenced in New England, it had gath- 
ered in the extreme north of the continent. ‘The ice gradually 
and very slowly advanced year by year to the southward. Al- 
ways more snow fell than was melted, and this snow stayed sum- 
mer and winter, and accumulated more and more. It consoli- 
dated into nevé and glacial ice. Forming on the highest lands, 
the ice-rivers filled the ravines and joined upon the plains the 
main body of ice which was pressing southward from the pole. 
Summer and winter still alternated, but, as is the case now at the 
extreme north, the summers were short and the winters long. 
The advancing ice destroyed. or drove before it the insects and 
animals of the warmer climates, which it chilled by its approach. 
But it was kind to its own children, It brought down with it its 
Oenets butterflies and its reindeer. Before its feet it spread food 
for both of these, year by year, always pushing food and animals 
to the south. At the probable rate of less than a mile in a hun- 
dred years, it brought them at last into Virginia, from the far- 
thest north; not the Virginia of to-day, but Virginia changed 
into an Arctic scene. 

At length the climate changed. The point of farthest advance 
reached, the ice began to retrace its steps. And it called its own 
back with it, alluring them by their food, scattered ever farther 
and farther to the north. At some time the lengthening summers 
and shortening winters brought the main ice sheet back into 
New England. From Southern New York to Connecticut, to 
Massachusetts, to Vermont, to New Hampshire, it retreated all 
the way. It was as the retreat of an army with all its baggage 
and equipments, and in perfect order. Year by year it ¢ 
upon its plants, its butterflies, its animals, and they followed in 
its royal train. It had overridden all obstacles, all lives and 


| 
| 
! 


1876.] A Colony of Butterflies. 131 


constitutions, and in its retreat it shed, over the lands which again 
saw the sun, floods of water, the source of fresh life and civiliza- 
tions. But it was careful of its own plants and animals ; they 
were to go back with the ice, nor be seduced by the lakes and 
streams its retreat unveiled, and so become companions to the 
mammoth. And it succeeded, for the most part, until it reached 
the White Mountains. Though year by year the individual 
butterflies perished, they planted their successors ; the longer- 
lived reindeers laid their bones by the way, and in the Connecti- 
cut Valley itself, but fresh herds still were ready to follow the 
northward march of the great glacier. i 

Out of the valley of the White Mountains the main ice mass 
gradually retreated ; and here it lost some of its followers. At 
that time the White Mountains must have presented an appear- 
ance not unlike the Alps of to-day, an aspect which, owing to 
their inferior elevation, they have since lost under a climate 
growing in warmth. The local glaciers, which then filled the 
ravines, attracted some of the wayward, flitting Oeneis butterflies 
by a display of the food plants which they had harbored and 
detained from the main glacier. Year after year the great glacier 
retreated farther and farther north, followed by the main body of its 
train, — plants, butterflies, and animals, — the while some of these 
foolish butterflies were beguiled by the shallow ice-rivers which 
then filled the ravines of Mount Washington. Return became at 
length impossible. They advanced behind the deceiving local gla- 
ciers step by step up the mountain-side, pushed up from below by 
the warm climate, which to them was uncongenial, until they 
reached the mountain peak, now bare of snow in the short summer. 
Here, blown sidewise by the wind, they patiently cling to the 
rocks. Or, in clear weather, on weak and careful wing, they fly 
from flower of ‘stemless mountain-pink to blue-berry, swaying 
from their narrow tenure of the land. Drawn into the currents 
of air that sweep the mountain’s side, they are forced down- 
wards, to be parched in the hot valleys below. Yet they main- 
tain themselves, They are fighting it out on that line. They 
are entrapped, and must die out there by natural causes unless 
certain entomologists sooner extirpate them by pinning them 
Up in collections of insects. What time, in Tuckerman’s Ravine, 
I see the ill-advised collector, net in hand, swooping down on 
this devoted colony of ancient lineage and more than Puritan 
affiliation, I wonder if, before it is too late, there will not be a 
law passed to protect the butterflies from the cupidity of their 
pursuers, 


132 Game Falcons of New England: The Goshawk. [March, 


This is the story of a colony of New England butterflies. I 
commend this colony to the protection of all good citizens of the 
State of New Hampshire. 


E ET 
THE GAME FALCONS OF NEW ENGLAND: THE GOS- 
HAWK. 


BY W. WOOD, M. D. i 

T a hen, this bird (Astur atricapillus) has not the char- 

acteristic markings of the true falcon, yet it can be trained 
to capture game. It was considered by Audubon, Sabine, and 
others to be the same as the European goshawk, which was so 
highly prized for sporting. Says Wilson, “If this be not the 
celebrated goshawk formerly so much esteemed in falconry, it is 
very closely allied to it.” The poet Chaucer in alluding to it 
says, — 

“ Riding on hawking by the river, 
With grey goshawk in hand.” 

Falconry and hawking, as defined by our lexicographers, are 
synonymous, but formerly birds of sport were divided into two 
classes, those of falconry and those of hawking. This bird came 
under the latter class. Mr. Pennant informs us that “ the gos- 
hawk is used by the Emperor of China in his sporting excursions, 
and is considered the best of all hawks for falconry.” The same 
writer further says that he “examined a specimen from America 
which was superior in size to the European.” Whether the 
American and the European are identical I am unable to say ; but 
many of our ornithologists at the present time consider them 
specifically distinct. Until quite recently, the tendency of or- 
nithologists has been to make as many new species out of one 
bird as possible. Every change of locality necessitating a differ- 
ent construction of nest, and every slight change in color, arising 
from climacteric causes, has been seized upon to create new spe- 
cies. Happily for science there is now a reaction taking place 
among our best ornithologists. Says Professor Baird, “I take 
more pains now to subordinate forms once considered specific, 
than I do to establish them as such.” It is not impossible or 
even improbable that our goshawk may yet be considered identi- 
cal with the European species, and our perigrine falcon with its 
European congener. The goshawk is the handsomest of all our 
rapacious birds, and is so beautifully marked as to be easily distin- 
guished from all our hawks. It is not very common in any part 


1876.] Game Falcons of New England: The Goshawk. 183 


of the United States, but Cassin informs us that “it is appar- 
ently more abundant in Northwestern America than in any other 
portion of the United States.” His opinion was based upon the 
fact of six specimens being captured by the Pacific Railroad sur- 
vey parties in Washington Territory and Shoal Water Bay. It 
may have been abundant that season and not seen there again 
for many years. Professor Verrill says that “it is common in 
Maine, and breeds there.” Mr. G. A. Boardman, of Maine, says, 
“It is the boldest and most common of our winter hawks.” 

Some winters it is abundant in Connecticut, and the most com- 
mon of our hawks, and then for years not a single specimen is 
seen, The first specimen which I obtained in East Windsor was 
in the winter of 1849-50. He was caught in a trap and brought 
to me alive. I gave him his liberty in a room eight feet by 
twelve feet, with a good supply of food, which he utterly refused 
to touch until.the thirteenth day, when he devoured an entire 
hen, and died the next day, a victim to his voraciousness. The 
next that I received were two specimens in the winter of 1859- 
60. Nuttall speaks of its being very rare in Massachusetts ; yet 
in 1859-60 Hon. C. L. F lint, of that State, received twenty 
specimens. It did not visit us again until the winter of 1867- 
68. That season I mounted five specimens and sent away 
quite a number for exchanges. I probably received some twelve 
or fifteen during the winter. In the winter of 1868-69 I re- 
ceived nine, and in 1869-70 two specimens. Since 1870 none 
have been taken or seen in this section, and it may not visit us 
again for another decade. 

The goshawk does not usually soar high, like the longer-winged 
hawks, nor dart upon its prey by a direct descent, as do the true 
faleons, but by a side glance. It is restless, seldom alighting 

ut for a moment, except to devour its quarry, and then it stands 
almost erect.. Its flight is so rapid that it can easily overtake the 
Swift pigeon on the wing. Audubon relates the following fact 
that he was an eye-witness to: “ While traveling along the 
Ohio I observed a goshawk give chase to a large flock of crow- 
blackbirds then crossing the river. The hawk approached them 
with the swiftness of an arrow, when the blackbirds rushed to- 
gether so closely that the flock looked like a dusky ball passing 
through the air. On reaching the mass, he with the greatest 
“ase seized one, then another, and another, giving each a squeeze 
with his talons and suffering it to drop upon the water. In this 
Manner he had procured four or five before the poor birds reached 


134 Game Falcons of New England: The Goshawk. [March, 


the woods, into which they instantly plunged, when he gave up 
the chase, swept over the water in graceful curves, and picked up 
the fruits of his industry, carrying each bird singly to the shore.” 

The goshawk is the most daring and venturesome of any of our 
diurnal birds of prey. A farmer who resides a few miles from 
my office, wishing to perpetuate the old New England custom 
of having a chicken pie for Thanksgiving dinner, caught some 
fowls, took them to a log, severed the neck of one, and threw it 
down beside him. In an instant a goshawk seized the struggling 
fowl, and, flying off some ten rods, alighted and commenced de- 
vouring his prey. The boldness of the attack so astonished the 
farmer that he looked on with blank amazement. Recovering 
from his surprise, he hastened into the house and brought out his 
gun, which secured him both the hawk and the fowl. Another in- 
stance of still greater daring occurred near East Windsor Hill, 
Conn. A goshawk flew after a fowl near a dwelling-house ; the 
door being open, the hen flew inside ; the hawk followed, and seized 
her in the room occupied by an old gentleman and his daughter. 
The old man hastened to the rescue, and struck the hawk with 
a cane before it released its grasp. The daughter caught the 
hawk as it attempted to fly out of the door, and killed it. 

When looking for prey it skims along near the surface of the 
ground with great velocity, and catches its game so quickly and 
easily as scarcely to be seen by the looker-on. The female is 
nearly one third larger than the male, and the young measures 
considerably more than the adult bird. I have specimens of the 
goshawk of all ages from the young to the adult, but am not 
aware that it is known when this bird arrives at adult plumage. 
I have kept the young in confinement until one year old without 
its showing the least tinge of gray or slate-color. No one but an 
ornithologist would ever suspect that the young and the adult be- 
longed to the same species. . 

With regard to the nest of this bird, says Audubon, “ The 
goshawk is of rare occurrence in most parts of the United States, 
and the districts of North America to which it usually resorts to 
breed are as yet unknown. Some nest within the Union, others 
in the British Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but 
the greater part seem to proceed farther north.” ‘The nest is 
said to be quite large and flat, and placed on the high branches 
of a tree, near the trunk, and is composed of dead twigs and coarse 
grass, lined with fibrous strips of plants, and sometimes with a 
few feathers. The goshawk lays from three to four eggs, usually 


1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 135 


of a dull bluish-white color, and slightly spotted with faint brown 


blotches. One of the eggs in my collection is of a dusky white 


color, slightly tinged with dull blue, with oblong blotches of 


greenish-blue, and quite granulated. The measurements of two 
taken from different localities are as follows: long diameter 2,3, 
inches, short diameter 14°; the second one, 24 inches by 14 
inches. These measurements are somewhat less, and the egg was 
less spherical, than the one described by Dr. Brewer in his North 
American Odlogy. After thirty years’ observation and experience 
in ornithological and odlogical researches, I am satisfied that it is 
not wise to place too much reliance upon the measurements or 
number of eggs found in anest. This is particularly the case with 
our rapacious birds. Take for instance the great horned owl. 
Audubon says that it lays from three to six eggs; another collector 
says it always lays two eggs. While this may seem inexplicable 
to some, it admits of a very easy solution. A pair of these birds 
will occupy the same piece of woods for years if not molested, 
and the collector who finds their nest will invariably find two 
eggs. Ihave found two, three, four, and five eggs in a nest of 
this bird in different localities. The old bird lays two eggs, 
while the younger bird lays the larger number and the smallest 
eggs. I have never seen these facts in print, and am not aware 
that. they are known to odlogists, but they are based upon my 
Observations and that of my collectors. They explain many 
seeming discrepancies, and for this reason I have digressed some- 
what from my subject in order to give what I consider impor- 
tant facts to the odlogist, as this closes my series of articles on the 
game falcons of New England. 


THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MUSEUMS.’ 
BY DR. H. A. HAGEN. 


[THE second part of the seventeenth century is remarkable for 

the formation of academies in nearly every great city, and 
Some, principally in Italy, were founded even a century before. 
The first one, the Academia Secretorum Nature, founded in 1560 
in Rome, was soon suppressed by the popes as being dangerous. 
Of those founded in the seventeenth century, some were more 
Successful, and the most prominent are still vigorous, as, for in- 
stance, the Royal Society in London, the Leopoldine Academy in 

; 1 Concluded from page 89. 


186 The Origin and Development of Museums. [March, 


Germany, and the Academy of Sciences in Paris. These three, 
founded nearly at the same time, between 1660 and 1670, have 


published their valuable transactions during two centuries, con- 


taining an immense number of facts and speculations which prove 
clearly that union is power. The facility of publishing isolated 
facts, otherwise lost, advanced science and her tools, the collec- 
tions, in a remarkable degree. Naturally, from this time forth, 
new societies were founded year by year, all doing more or less 
valuable service. 

In the mean time a very important discovery was made, that 
of the microscope. Formerly, natural history consisted only. of 
observations made with the naked eye, but now the field of obser- 
vation was enlarged in a manner not dreamed of. before. Of 
course collections, becoming by degrees living archives of science, 
were allowed to be established on a larger scale. 

It is well known that magnifying-glasses have been found 
among the Assyrian relics and the ruins of Pompeii, but the use 
of their magnifying power is nowhere recorded, though it is 
probable that some of the admirable gems of the ancients were 
cut with the help of lenses, Spectacles, perhaps in some way 
known in Rome, and even used by Nero, are said to have been 
invented at the end of the thirteenth century in Italy. Mag- 
nifying-glasses were manufactured by Arabians, and later by 
Roger Bacon, but certainly not used for the purposes of natural 
history before the beginning of the seventeenth century. Italy 
and Holland dispute the honor of the invention, which was per- 
haps simultaneous in the two countries. The great advantages 
of lenses for observation were directly acknowledged, and even 
augmented, by the invention of the compound microscope. Fon- 
tana in Rome and Drebbel in Holland are the rival inventors. 

The old fame of Italy was now declining, and religious fanati- 
cism hindered more and more the development of science. Un- 
fortunately, also, the famous wealth of the Italian merchants was 
_ destroyed bythe refusal of a number of prominent princes to pay 
their debts, enormous sums of money advanced by Italian bank- 
ers. These circumstances, together with the general change of 
the old routes of trade, gave an important advantage to the Dutch 
Protestants. The easily amassed fortune was largely used to 
advance culture and science, and the small Dutch country be- 
came for more than a century the leading nation in fashion, 
taste, and science, till her French and English neighbors put 
themselves somewhat roughly in her place. The particular taste 


1876. ] The Origin and Development of Museums. 137 


of the Dutch people for accurate and correct work in its exagger- 
ated and pedantic character was well adapted for forming and ar- 
ranging collections so rapidly acquired by a trade with the whole 
world. 

Naturalists seldom equaled, never surpassed, belong to this 
interesting time, as Swammerdam, Leuwenhoek, Ruysch, Rum- 
phius, Seba, and others. The observations and collections of 
microscopical objects by Leuwenhoek and Ruysch have till to-day 
a world-wide or rather a traditional fame, and are still preserved, 
partly in London, partly in St. Petersburg. Swammerdam him- 
self gives an interesting account of his way of arranging and 
preserving the collections which were the pride and marvel of the 
country, seen and admired by prominent princes, who disputed 
among themselves the honor of acquiring them. This distin- 
guished naturalist invented the mode of preservation of the most 
difficult objects by inflation, by drying, by injection, and by dif- 
ferent chemicals. 

The fame of the Dutch cabinets, as the most prominent of the 
time, induced Peter the Great to visit and study them carefully. 
A number of the most renowned, bought by him for enormous 
prices, were transferred to St. Petersburg to arouse an interest 
in such studies in his country. There are also a large number of 
more or less similar and expensive collections in France, Den- 
mark, Germany, and England. The celebrated collection of Sir 
Hans Sloane was later the nucleus of the gigantic one of the 
British Museum. 

Some details of the celebrated collections of Ruysch and Vin- 
cent in Amsterdam would perhaps be of interest as standard 
examples of the arrangement of collections at this time. The 
principal room is an immense hall, the high walls of which are 
furnished with columns, large windows in the upper part, with a 
gallery supported by caryatides, and the ceiling covered with 
rich frescoes. Shelves in the wall, or semicircular alcoves, were 
used for the exhibition of the objects. Large tables extending 
through the halls allowed of a far more detailed examination of 
the jars and’ boxes with which they were covered. Rooms con- 
nected with the halls were used for the cabinets, filled with 
drawers or glass jars symmetrically arranged. The latter con- 
tained birds, fishes, reptiles, the egg of a turtle with the embryo 
_ Supported by the hand of a child, and a crocodile embryo in sea- 

weed. The cover of the jar is of rich silk damask, fastened with 
elegant silk cords, the color of which is always reported in the 


. 


' 
138 The Origin and Development of Museums. [ March, 


description of the collection, and on the top of the cover are 
groups of objects arranged in the most extraordinary way ; the 
young of the obstetrical toad dancing on the nose of their mother 
in extravagant attitudes, butterflies and other insects flying about 
bouquets of dried flowers, shells grotesquely arranged in clusters 


and supported by pyramids of corals, and curious dried sea-fishes 


or sea-urchins are fastened on the top. 

The whole arrangement was such as to please the eye of the 
visitor, often curious, even tasteless, but according with the fash- 
ion of the time, though scarcely ever scientific except that gen- 
erally animals belonging to the same classes were brought to- 
gether, if the size of the animals or glass jars in which they were 
placed allowed of it; but this was not often the case. 

Printed descriptions with the most costly engravings of the 
contents of the collections were published, the repeated editions 
of which show the interest of the public. Some of them, for 
instance, the plates of the cabinet of Seba, in Amsterdam, were 
for a long time a principal authority in natural history, and the 
source from which naturalists obtained their knowledge. Indeed, 
this time is to be considered a forerunner of Linnzeus in bringing 
together materials which he was to classify, and thus begin a new 
era in the study of natural history. Considerable progress is 
now to be noticed in the development of collections of natural 
history, as well as the attempt to arrange and preserve objects 
in a manner to secure them against a speedy destruction. 

The objects preserved in alcohol are secured by large corks, 
covered again by different materials to prevent the evaporation 
of the preserving fluid. Delicate objects, such as shells and fine 
corals, were placed in drawers, fixed in the bottom in artistical 
figures, and the insects were mostly preserved in the same way. 
Tnsect-pins did not exist till a century later, and in their stead 
were used needles, and formerly thorns of plants, as we find them 
even now in the boxes arranged in China and imported from 
that country. The entire boxes were protected against dust or 
museum pests by glass covers; or else small boxes, each contain- 
ing a few insects, or only one, were arranged in larger boxes, & 
custom prevailing as late as the beginning of this century. 

The well-known naturalist, Petiver, pressed the insects as flat 
as possible, and fastened them between two plates of mica pasted 


together by slips of paper and fastened on a leaf folded on one — 


side of a large book. This curious collection is still preserved in 
the British Museum. 


1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 139 


The observation of the biology, and the study of the anatomy, 
of the objects now progressed rapidly with the help of the micro- 
scope, and the works of some prominent naturalists of those 
times are a source of information not yet exhausted. The names 
of Buffon, Réaumur, Degeer, Roesel, and many others are even 
now the pride of science in nearly every country. The middle 
of the last century begins the science of the present time with the 
immortal works of Linnæus; immense progress was made in the 
century after, which he foresaw, ahd it would be almost super- 
fluous to dwell uponthe merits of Linnzeus. 

But it seems to me that one of his innovations in science has a 
striking value for the advancement of collections, which has been, 
I believe, somewhat underrated. The invention and use of his 
binomial nomenclature allowed a scientific labeling of objects. 
Formerly all names of objects were designated by the so-called 
nomen specificum (now called a diagnosis), consisting of a dozen 
words. Linnæus use of one name (he calls it a trivial one) 
for the species and one for the genus facilitated the labeling 
formerly so tedious and wordy. The advantage is obvious. The 
clear and logical mind of Linneus not only purified the system, 
but also enabled him to purge the collections of a considerable 
number of fabulous and fictitious objects, sometimes a dangerous 
task. He was obliged to leave Hamburg suddenly, and by night, 
because he declared and proved the most expensive and rare ob- 
ject of the collection of the mayor of that city to be a fraudulent 
Manufacture. It was a so-called hydra with many heads, the 
cranium having been made of weasels covered with snakes’ skins. 
The mighty owner of this exceedingly costly object grew furious 
and threatened to imprison Linnzeus as an impostor. 

The “ printed instructions ” for the arrangement of a museum 
published by Linnzeus in 1753 is the first really scientific essay, 
and has been followed by most naturalists. Indeed, even to-day 
We find the principles and rules of Linnzus more or less uncon- 
sciously followed in many museums. : 

Linneus himself built at his country-seat, Hammerby, his mu- 
‘eum, a small, square, brick building, on the top of a hill, with 
à beautiful view from his garden. I was fortunate enough, 
thirty-six years ago, to visit the place, just after the death of his 
youngest daughter. Everything was nearly in the same order as 
left by Linnaeus. The collection and library, as is well known, 
Were transferred to England. I saw them afterwards, one small 
cabinet containing the herbarium, and a similar one the insects 


140 The Origin and Development of Museums. (March, — 


and shells. This souvenir of the great man fills the heart with 
awe, when one considers the small number of objects forming the 
basis of his studies and voluminous works. 

Among the numerous museums which were arranged accord- 
ing to his system, and described by himself and his disciples, 
none gratified his pride more than the collection in the Jardin du 
Roi, in Paris, by order of the king, and against the wishes of 
Linnzus’ celebrated antagonist, Buffon, the director of this insti- 


tution. It will not, perhaps, be out of place to quote here an ac- 


count of it given in 1780 by a prominent American, in the letters 
of President John Adams : — 

“ Yesterday we went to see the garden of the king, Jardin du 
Roi, and his cabinet of natural history, a great collection of met- 
als, minerals, shells, insects, birds, beasts, fishes, and precious 
stones. They are arranged in good order and preserved in good 
condition, with the name of everything beautifully written ona 
piece of paper annexed to it. There is also a collection of wood 
and marbles. ‘The garden is large and airy, affording fine walks 
between rows of trees. There is a collection from all parts of 
the world, of all the plants, roots, and vegetables that are used in 
medicines, and indeed of all the plants and trees in the world. 
A fine scene for the studious youth in physic and philosophy. 
It was a public day. There was a great deal of company, and I 
had the opportunity only to take a cursory view. The whole is 
very curious. When shall we have in America such collections? 
I am convinced that our country affords as ample materials for 
collections of this nature as any part of the world.” 

The preéminent value of collections was first recognized when 
Sweden did not shrink from sending a man-of-war to recover the 
collections which had been sold in a legal manner to another 
country. The great advance made by Linnzeus was followed by 
unusual exertions and struggles in nearly every part of the civilized 
world. Every country had disciples of Linnzus as leading nat- 
uralists. Everywhere collections suddenly arose, and only a score 
of years was needed to recognize that, with the excessive vigor of 
this time, science had bequeathed a new law of the highest’ im- 
portance for collections: the most careful preservation of de- 
scribed objects, nowadays called types. This new law, seemingly 
of very small importance, soon gained the most powerful influ- 
ence over all museums, changing even their interior management 
and leading in a natural way to more appropriate arrangements. 

It became necessary to give to one person the power to govern 


1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 141 


and direct the whole ; the old custom of having a board of patrons 
to decide matters concerning the internal management proved to 
be an impediment, sometimes even a nuisance. It must not be for- 
gotten that, in a regular meeting, the Board of the Ashmolean 
Museum decided that the bird No. 31 should be thrown away as 
a rotten object. It was the last Dodo existing. Except in En- 
gland, and its present and former colonies, such boards of trustees 
have been abolished. 

The aim to preserve everything contained in collections soon 
demanded a new and most important officer, called conservator. 
His duty is manifold and burdensome, especially in a rapidly 
growing museum; the most varied kinds of work belong to him, 
but all centring in the effort to preserve the treasures of science. 
In fact, the business of this officer is an art in which there are 
various degrees of excellence, but in which, as in other arts, no 
degree of excellence is to be attained without training. 

There are a number of scientific matters in which nearly 
everybody feels himself able to have and to express an opinion, 
as, for instance, scientific education, local geology, primeval his- 
tory, management of libraries, and evolution. The arrangement 
of a museum belongs to the same category, to the detriment of 
science, which has lost often and heavily by such volunteer efforts. 
The importance of thorough training for this business is shown 
by a large and abundant literature. The development of the art 
of managing collections in the manner above stated was followed, 
curiously enough, in a natural way by the exclusion of the non- 
scientific public from them. The inevitable and perhaps irrepa- 
rable loss of important specimens by persons not accustomed to 
handle such objects and ignorant of their value, together with 
the impossibility of securing all objects without impeding their 
exhibition, was the reason for excluding everybody except natu- 
talists. If we consider that every kind of exhibition necessitates 
large expenses for large rooms, and for arrangements conven- 
lent if not showy, and that just this time of progress demanded 
Immense sums of money, the expedient resorted to will be easily 
understood. 

With few exceptions, perhaps, for a quarter of a century most 
Museums became so exclusive that public admission was consid- 
ered a hindrance or a nuisance. Even after attempts were made . 
to give up this exclusiveness, something of it remained, and a 
natural consequence of this tendency was a sort of exclusiveness 
in the naturalists themselves, who stood aloof with their works 


142 The Origin and Development of Museums.  [March, 


and collections for some time, till both were ready for the study 


and use of the public, just as an artist is not accessible till his 
work is accomplished. : 

The great impulse given to science by Cuyier was felt through 
the whole world, and every naturalist realized the necessity of a 
renewed and earnest study to enable him to follow the rapid 
progress of the master. The new way led directly to a compar- 
ative anatomy as basis for a comparative zoölogy. The admi- 
rable collections for this kind of study made and established in 
the Jardin des Plantes by Cuvier and his faithful associate, Lau- 
rillard, were at the time unrivaled, and show the immense 
amount of labor performed before the results could be published. 

The aim of Cuvier was so expansive that even his masterpiece, 
the Règne Animal, was considered by him only as a tool neces- 
sary to be manufactured before he could work out the principles 
of natural history according to his ideas. 

The result of this kind of revolution soon manifested itself in 
every museum, and the French ones under the eye of the master 
were far in advance. The new era developing the rights of man 
led directly to the necessity that everybody should be enabled to 
have his share in this advance of science. Museums were again 
thrown open to the public, and the peculiar taste for exhibition 
and show made the French museum, for more than a quarter of 
a century, the leading and most refined in the world ; the other 
countries followed more or less slowly but steadily in their own 
way. It is a remarkable fact that even in the Jardin des Plantes, 
where the low, old-fashioned rooms were very soon overcrowded 
with objects, it was apparent that such a multitude of facts could 
be neither agreeable nor useful for public instruction. It was 
deemed advisable to prepare a separate collection, selected and 
arranged in a manner to be interesting to the public, which, being 
prepared according to French taste, was superior to all former 
ones. It is proper to mention here that just at this time, when 


Paris was the centre of science for the world, one of the most 


prominent of the army of ardent disciples of Cuvier was a young 
student from Neufchatel, Switzerland, — Louis Agassiz. The 
time of Cuvier is the date of the beginning of most of the large 
museums now in existence; some of them, indeed, were started 
before, but in a different and far inferior manner, so that few of 
the contents could be retained when the new start began which 
influenced so powerfully those of London, Vienna, Berlin, C0- 
penhagen, Stockholm, Munich, and St. Petersburg. 


le aan a 


1876.])} The Origin and Development of Museums. 148 | 


It now became impossible for private collections to compete with 
the larger and steadily advancing museums, and the old custom 
which rich merchants had kept up for several centuries of accu- 
mulating collections began to disappear, and, to the detriment of 
science, was rarely renewed. Nevertheless, some of the old col- 
lections of this kind have lasted even to our times. Of private 
collections the museum of Sir Ashton Lever, afterwards, if I am 
not mistaken, united with the British Museum, was one of the 
most prominent, and some others known now only through 
printed catalogues were important. | 

he Ashmolean Museum, in Oxford, before it was transferred 
to the new rooms in 1861 was perhaps one of the most curious 
examples of the old style. Even in America, the East India 
museum in Salem, before the foundation of the Peabody Academy 
of Science, was a fair specimen of such collections of various 
objects of natural history, ethnological materials, and curiosities. 

Private collections were now devoted to special classes or 
orders, according to the taste of the owner, and even often sur- 
passed in their speciality larger museums. The impossibility of 
private students advancing natural history by means of large 
collections led quite naturally to associations and societies for this 
purpose, a considerable number of which were founded in nearly 
every country, so that science gained a large amount of facts, 
very prominent publications, and even more or less excellent 
collections. But soon most of them saw that their means 
Were not adequate to their exertions. The collections suffered 
first, as it was not possible to maintain and preserve, them in a 
scientific way. Later they grew to be a burden, and had to be 
given up more or less reluctantly, and the societies confined 
themselves to scientific work and publishing the results. There 
are a few exceptions where large means have been provided 
by patrons, and of these the Society of Natural History in Bos- 
ton is the most prominent, and is unrivaled in its collection 
` and manner of exhibition. Of course such societies have a task 
to accomplish which grows heavier every year. At any rate, 
Science is much indebted to them for providing means for the 
Publication of valuable matter which often would have been left 
unpublished without their generous help. ; 

The public itself looked upon the ardent exertions of the nat- 
walists with more curiosity than admiration, as the exclusive- 
ness of science was the cause of a very moderate standard of gen- 
eral knowledge, till some of the most prominent workers found it 


144 The Origin and Development of Museums. [March, 


advisable to put the results of their investigations into a shape 
which could. be understood by people not scientifically trained. 
The pride of the century, Alexander von Humboldt, led the 
long series of such publications, and the interest of the public, 
once awakened, exceeded all expectations, so that in later times 
the so-called popular literature of natural history equaled or even 
superseded. the scientific publications. Of course every museum 
deemed it a duty to keep pace with this interest, and opened its 
doors to the public. At first, things went on to the satisfac- 
tion of both parties ; but by and by a natural change took place, 
The aim to exhibit the collections in a way pleasing and satis- 
factory to the public taste necessitated work often beyond the 
power of the officers, and to the scientific detriment of the collec- 
tions. The buildings proved to be mostly too small, or at least 
not fit to exhibit the objects in a suitable way, and in the new 
ones the principal claim on the architect was often to satisfy the 
taste of the public by giving a beautiful view of the specimens, 
the interests of science being secondary. An imposing hall, with 
splendid galleries, staircases, and large, high rooms, was the basis 
of a plan for a museum. The specimens themselves were to be 
arranged more or less artistically : birds and butterflies first, fishes 
and crabs being condemned to the corners. 

The three principal conditions of a building intended for a 
museum, convenient rooms, light, and the exhibition of the ob- 
jects, had to be balanced in another way ; the exhibition, as well 
as the light, took the heaviest share; and the latter being the 
greatest and most injurious enemy to the preservation of objects 
of natural history, the disadvantage for science increased in such 
museums beyond all measure. The necessity of securing speci 
mens against injury augmented the expenses considerably, espe- 
cially when all objects should be exhibited. Nevertheless the 
aim of public instruction could not often be attained in a way t0 
match the exertions. The larger the collection, the smaller its 
value for the instruction of the public. The reason is obvious- 
Anybody obliged to pass about a quarter of a mile before cases 
with only water-fowls or sparrows, or to look at twenty thousand 
species of beetles of the same family, becomes bewildered and 
loses the connection between the different forms, the very thing 
for which he wished to see the museum. 

Such large collections, which would be the pride and the aim 
of the scientific naturalist, are like a complete dictionary to the 
linguist ; but nobody, I believe, will undertake to read a dictionary 


1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 145 


for pleasure or for general instruction. This somewhat hybrid 
tendency to satisfy at the same time science and the public proved 
to be detrimental to both these and the naturalist himself. Every 
country complained’ of the gradual conversion of scientific asso- 
ciations into popular audiences, with no scientific knowledge to 
speak of, and this had the usual effect even upon scientists. 

The conclusion is very simple ; the desire of advancing science 
is very different from that of advancing the knowledge of the non- 
scientific public, and both cannot be attended to at the same time 
and with the same means, without hindrance and injury to one or 
the other. The importance of the separation of these two has, 
during the last score of years, been more and more fully acknowl- 
edged. The plans of several museums recently built were appro- 
priate to different purposes, either scientific ones or those adapted 
to public instruction, and beautiful specimens of both these pat- 
terns are in existence. 

It was certainly strange and. unfitting to ask a naturalist to 
study in the same‘room an elephant and a small worm, so that 
rooms suitable for the best observation of both seemed to be a ne- 
cessity. The plan of scientific museums provides for the com- 
paratively small number of large animals large rooms or halls, 
and a series of small connected rooms, so that the different 
classes and orders may be kept separate, thus allowing a thor- 
oughly scientific arrangement of the objects, not to be altered 
for merely showy purposes. The creation of a scientific museum 
requires long and hard labor of generations of naturalists, and 
unless scientifically separated, the largest accumulation of objects 
of natural history forms only a sort of store-house. A museum 
cannot be bought at once with money, but must be developed by 
Steady work. The largest and most advanced museums in the 
- World have been arranged by three or even four succeeding gen- 
erations of naturalists, and are still more or less remote from the 
achievement of their intended perfection. ‘The only way to 

ten the work is to buy scientifically prepared collections, but 
the chance to do this is rare, and the difference between the ob- 
jects bought and those not yet worked up often creates an un- 
Pleasant discrepancy. ; 

he expedient of sending out persons to collect the natural 
objects of a number of countries for museums seems quite natural, 
and indeed has been resorted to in many cases. The financial 
result was generally unsuccessful, and the objects more expensive 
than the highest market price. No doubt such expeditions fur- 
* 0. 3. 10 


0) X. — yy 


` 


146 The Origin and Development of Museums. [ March, 


ther and advance science to a degree not to be attained in any 
other way, and should therefore not be done away with. But a 
museum dependent for its subsistence upon certain and regular 
funds would be able to undertake them only rarely, and with the 
generous help of patrons, as is done so successfully in this country. 
On the whole, a well-managed museum hardly needs these ex- 
traordinary and irregular exertions, which always retard the 
progress of the institution. It should not be forgotten that a 
museum has a great advantage over a private collection, as it is 
generally of no great consequence if it waits years for a favorable 
chance to obtain certain objects, whilst a private collection can 
wait only during the life-time of its possessor, or rather during 
his working years. 
Indeed, the overwhelming number of objects obtained during 
the last thirty years by the steadily increasing trade with the 
whole world has filled every museum to overflowing, and thus re- 
tarded its progress. The scientific work is still entirely unable 
to keep pace with the collector. The conscientious worker in a 
museum suffers every day the torments of Tantalus, having be- 
fore him innumerable and most interesting objects for the further- 
ance of science, and for excellent publications. He must there- 
fore content himself with only putting them in the right places 
and on the right shelves, and has no time for scientific work if he 
would fulfill his duty. He is surely pardonable if he occasionally 
revolts, although he finds his recompense in the conviction that 
he is working not only for himself but for others, for the advance- 
ment of science and of culture. 
. The sudden and unlooked-for' enlargement of the collections 
has another equally unexpected consequence, which has not yet 
been accounted for. In former times most of the specimens were 
dried, and natural science came to be merely a knowledge of 
dried skins and dried animals, and the last great zodlogist who 
knew nothing but the skins of animals died only thirty years 
ago. The enormous expense of preserving objects in alcohol be- 
came more and more embarrassing, and a large part of the income 
of every museum had to be expended every year for this purpose. 
It is easy to calculate the time when a museum will be obli 
to stop its work, and even be unable to preserve the objects al- 
ready in hand. Various other liquids have been tried with more 
or less success, and finally the fact that objects preserved in 4 
different way were generally unfit for comparison 
collectors to return to the use of alcohol. 


1876.] The Origin and Development of Museums. 147 


Natural history still consists principally in the knowledge of 
dead and preserved animals as seen in the museums. Eventually 
zodlogy became a museum zodlogy. Every worker knows the 
difficulty of using scientific works in comparing living or fresh 
specimens, though he has no difficulty at all with such as have 
undergone the regular museum process. r 

It would be unfair not to acknowledge the steps now taken by ° 
naturalists to overcome this still enormous difficulty, and the real 
progress already made; but nevertheless it is certainly a great 
advantage to science that in every museum the objects are pre- 
served in the same way. It is therefore clearly necessary to find 
the easiest means of reducing the evaporation of this expensive 
fluid, and this attempt has been made in all European museums 
during the last ten years. | 

We have now traced the development of collections of natural 
history to the present time. The separation of collections to ad- 
vance science from those designed to advance general knowl- 
edge will be doubtless a permanent one, and is to be considered 
as a sign of real progress, as a benefit to mankind. The collec- 
tions designed to advance science will be archives of all that has 

een done in science. The better the facts of science are pre- 
served, the better the archives will be. These collections will 
have only an indirect advantage for the public, just as a book is 
of no use before one is able to read. 

The noblest aim to be fulfilled by these scientific collections is 
to prepare the way and show how museums intended to advance 
knowledge, namely, collections for public instruction, can be 
made and arranged so as to be best fitted for their purpose. I 
believe that this way will not be difficult to discover, if the 
Purpose and the aim are clearly defined. As text-books must be 
adapted to the degree of knowledge of the student who is to pe- 
ruse them, so must museums correspond to the average standard 
of knowledge in the public which visits them; and as in text- 

ks this standard may be placed somewhat above the average 
knowledge, so collections should be formed which would necessi- 
tate the public to adapt itself to a higher standard — a thing 
mankind is always inclined to do. 

It will be found impossible to arrange museums exactly fitted 
for every kind of knowledge. As a certain limit must be given 
to them, it may be best to have at least one so-called epitome- 
collection, in which every beginner should find, as in arithmetic, 

© easiest means for acquiring further knowledge. The adoption 


148 Lubbock’s Observations on Bees and Ants. [ March, 


of such a principle in the arrangement of museums would be equal 
to the different grades of text-books for different classes of students. 
Only the great amount of money needed to make so many differ- 
ent collections, and the still greater expense of maintaining them 
at the proper scientific standard, will prevent the arrangement of 
such manifold collections, though it would be the best way to ed- 


ucate the public. As science is to become simpler at every step . 


in advance, and to lift higher and higher the mystical veil now 
so impenetrable to those without scientific knowledge, we have a 
right to hope that hereafter the way indicated above will be made 
less expensive and rendered possible of attainment. Hence every- 
body is called upon to hasten the progress of science, as the most 
effective means for the advance of general knowledge. 


LUBBOCK’S OBSERVATIONS ON BEES AND ANTS. 


THE second of Sir John Lubbock’s series of Observations on 
Bees, Wasps, and Ants has recently been published in the Jour- 
nal of the Linnean Society, and the following extracts may give 
our readers some idea of the interesting nature of his observa- 
tions, which simply require a little time and patience, and could 
be tested and extended by one not an expert in systematic ento- 
mology or the anatomy of insects. It is surprising that there 
are not more observers of the habits of animals in this country, 
among young people. The last thing taught in our public schools 
is the habit of observation, the only path to reflection as well as 
independence in thinking. 

Lubbock’s earlier papers tended to show that while bees do not 
communicate information to one another, ants certainly have this 
power. Now our author publishes a series of facts, diaries of 
the doings of bees, which show, in his opinion, “ that some bees, 
at any rate, do not communicate with their sisters, even if they 
find an untenanted comb full of honey, which to them would be 
a perfect Eldorado. This is the more remarkable because these 
bees began to work in the morning before the rest, and continued 
to do so even in weather which drove all the others into the shel- 
ter of the hive. That the strange bees which I have re 
should have found the honey is natural enough, because there 
were a good many bees about in the room.” 


The following fact is mentioned by F. Müller as seeming also 


to show a limited power of communicating facts on the part of 


1876.] Lubbock’s Observations on Bees and Ants. 149 


bees: “* Once,” he says,! “ I assisted at a curious contest which 
took place between the queen and the worker bees in one of m 
hives, and which throws some light on the intellectual faculties 
of these animals. A set of forty-seven cells had been filled, eight 
on a nearly completed comb, thirty-five on the following, and 
four around the first cell of a new comb. When the queen had 
laid eggs in all the cells of the two older combs, she went several 
times round their circumference (as she always does, in order to 
ascertain whether she has not forgotten any cell), and then pre- 
pared to retreat into the lower part of the breeding-room. But 
as she had overlooked the four cells of the new comb, the work- 
ers ran impatiently from this part to the queen, pushing her, in 
an odd manner, with their heads, as they did also other work- 
ers they met with. In consequence, the queen began again to go 
around on the two older combs ; but as she did not find any cell 
wanting an egg, she tried to descend, but everywhere she was 
pushed back by the workers. This contest lasted for a rather 
long while, till the queen escaped without having completed her 
. work. Thus the workers knew how to advise the queen that . 
something was as yet to be done, but they knew not how to show 
her where it had to be done.” 

I have already mentioned, with reference to the attachment 
which bees have been said to show for one another, that though 
I have repeatedly seen them lick a bee which had smeared herself- 
in honey, I never observed them show the slightest attention to 
any of their comrades who had been drowned in water. Far, 
indeed, from having been able to discover any evidence of affec- 
tion among them, they appear to be thoroughly callous and ut- 
terly indifferent to one another. As already mentioned, it was 
necessary for me occasionally to kill a bee; but I never found 
that the others took the slightest notice, Thus on the 11th of 
October I crushed a bee close to one which was feeding, — in fact, 
80 close that their wings touched ; yet the survivor took no notice 
Whatever of the death of her sister, but went on feeding with 
every appearance of composure and enjoyment, just as if nothing 
had happened. When the pressure was removed, she remained 
by the side of the corpse without the slightest appearance of ap- 
prehension, sorrow, or recognition. It was, ‘of course, impossible 
or her to understand my reason for killing her companion; yet 
neither did she feel the slightest emotion at her sister’s death, 
nor. did she show any alarm lest the same fate should befall her 

In a second case exactly thesame occurred. Again, I have 


1 Nature, June 11, 1874. 


150 Lubbock’s Observations on Bees and Ants. [ March, 


several times, while a bee has been feeding, held a second bee by 
the leg close to her; the prisoner, of course, struggled to escape, 
and buzzed as loudly as she could; yet the selfish (?) eater took 
no gotice whatever. So far, therefore, from being at all affec- 
tionate, I doubt whether bees are in the least fond of one an- 
other. 

Their devotion to their queen is generally quoted as a most 
characteristic trait ; yet it is of the most limited character. For 
instance, I was anxious to change my black queen for a Ligurian ; 
and accordingly, on the 26th of October, Mr. Hunter was good 
enough to bring me a Ligurian queen. We removed the old 
queen, and we placed her with some workers in a box containing 
some comb. I was obliged to leave home on the following day ; 
but when I returned on the 30th, I found that all the bees had 
deserted the poor queen, who seemed weak, helpless, and miser- 
able. On the 31st the bees were coming to some honey at one of 
my windows, and I placed this poor queen close to them. In 
alighting, several of them even touched her; yet not one of her 
subjects took the slightest notice of her. The same queen, when 
afterwards placed in the hive, immediately attracted a number of 
bees. 

That a bee can distinguish scents is certain. On the 5th of 
October I put a few drops of eau de Cologne in the entrance, 
and immediately a number (about fifteen) of bees came out to 
see what was the matter. Rose-water also had the same effect ; 
and, as will be mentioned presently, in this manner I called the 
bees out several times; but after a few days they took hardly 
any notice of the scent. For instance, on the 17th of October I- 
tried them with twenty drops of eau de Cologne, the same quan- 
tity of essence of violet, of lavender-water, of essence of musk, 
of essence of patchouli, and of spirits of wine ; but they took no 
apparent notice of any of them. 

I have also made some observations with the view of ascertain- 
ing whether the same bees act as sentinels. With this object, on 
the 5th of October I called out the bees by placing some eau de 
Cologne in the entrance, and marked the first three bees 
came out. At five P. M. I called them out again ; about twenty 
came, including the three marked ones. I marked three more. 

October 6th. Called them out again. Out of the first twelve, 
five were marked ones, I marked three more. 

October Tth. Called them out at 7.30 A. M., as before. Out of 
the first nine, seven were marked ones. 


1876.) Lubbock’s Observations on Bees and Ants. 151 


At 5.80 P. M., called them out again. Out of six, five were 
marked ones. 

October 8th. Called them out at 7.15. Six came out, all marked 
ones. 

October 9th. Called them out at 6.40. Out of the firs@ten, 
eight were marked ones. . 

Called them out at 11.30 A.M. Out of six, three were marked. 
I marked the other three. 

Called them out at 1.30 P. M. Out of ten, six were marked. 

Called them out at 4.30. Out of ten, seven were marked. 

October 10th. Called them out at 6.05 A. M. Out of six, five 
were marked. 

Shortly afterwards I did the same again, when out of eleven, 
seven were marked ones. 

At 5.30 P. M., called them out again. Out of seven, five 
were marked. 

October 11th. At 6.30 A. M., called them out again, Out of 
nine, seven were marked. 

At five P. M., called them out again. Out of seven, five were 
marked, 

After this day they took hardly any notice of the scents. 

Thus in these nine experiments, out of the ninety-seven bees 
which came out first, no less than seventy-one were marked ones, 
though out of the whole number of bees in the hive there were 
only twelve marked for this purpose, and, indeed, even fewer in 
the earlier experiments. I ought, however, to add that I gener- 
ally fed the bees when I called them out. 

It is sometimes said that the bees of one hive all know one 
another, and immediately recognize and attack any ina om 
another hive. At first sight this certainly implies a great dea ti 
intelligence. It is, however, possible that the bees of „particu A 

ives have a particular smell. Thus Langstroth, in his nerza 
ing treatise on the Honey Bee, says, ‘‘ Members of iets co 
onies appear to recognize their hive companions by tk e sense 
smell ;”” and I believe that if colonies are sprinkled with =i 
syrup, they may generally be safely mixed. Moreover, z ; ar X 
turning to its own hive with a load of treasure is a very di ni k 
creature from a hungry marauder ; and it is said that a bee, i 
laden with honey, is allowed to enter any hive with impunity. 
Mr. Langstroth continues, “ There is an air of roguery about a 
thieving bee which, to the expert, is as characteristic as are the 
motions of a pickpocket to a skillful policeman. Its sneaking 


152 Iubback’s Observations on Bees and Ants. [ March, 


look and nervous, guilty agitation, once seen, can never be mis- 
taken.” It is at any rate natural that a bee which enters a wrong 
hive by accident should be much surprised and alarmed, and 
would thus probably betray herself. 

Off the whole, then, I do not attach much importance to their 
recognition of one another as an indication of intelligence. 

I had made some observations also with the view of ascertaining 
whether the bees which collect honey also work in the hive and 
attend to the brood, or whether they devote themselves exclu- 
sively to one or other of these duties.. My observations, how- 
ever, were not conclusive; but some light has been thrown on the 
subject by Dzierzon, from which it would appear that for the first 
fortnight of a bee’s life she attends exclusively to in-door duties, 
and only afterwards takes to the collection of honey and pollen. 
Dzierzon’s statements have been confirmed by Dr. Dönhoff. On 
‘the 18th of April he introduced a Ligurian queen into a hive of 
black bees. The first Ligurian workers emerged on the 10th of 
May, and made their first appearance outside the hive on the 
17th ; but not until the 25th did any of the Ligurian workers 
appear on his feeding-troughs, which were constantly crowded 
with common bees, nor were any seen to visit the flowers. Re- 
peated observations, says Dr. Dönhoff, ‘force me to conclude 


that during the first two weeks of the worker-bee’s life the im- 


pulse for gathering honey and pollen does not exist, or at least is 
not developed, and that the development of this impulse pro- 
ceeds slowly and gradually. At first the young bee will not even 
touch the honey presented to her; some days later she will sim- 
ply taste it; and only after a lapse of time will she consume it 
eagerly. Two weeks elapse before she readily eats honey ; ; and 
nearly three weeks pass before the gathering impulse is suffi- 
ciently developed to impel her to fly abroad and seek for honey 
and pollen among the flowers.” 1 

In my first memoir I alluded to the difficulty which bees expe- 
rience in finding their way about. In this respect they certainly 
differ considerably. Some of the bees which came out through 
the little postern door (already described) were able to find their 
way back after it had been shown to them a few times. Others 
were much more stupid; thus, one bee came out on the 9th, 
lith, 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th, and came to 
the honey ; but though I repeatedly put her back through the 
postern, she was never able to find her way for herself. 


1 Hive and Honey Bee, Langstroth, p. 195. 


1876.] Lubbock’s Observations on Bees and Ants. 153 


I often found that if bees which were brought to honey did 
not return at once, still they would do so a day or two afterwards. 
_For instance, on July 11, 1874, a hot, thundery day, and when 
the bees were much out of humor, I brought twelve bees to some 
honey ; only one came back, and that one only once; but on the 
following day several of them returned. 

My bees sometimes ceased work at times when I could not 
account for their doing so. October 19th was a beautiful, sun- 
shiny, warm day. All the morning the bees were fully active. 
At 11.25 I brought one to the honey-comb, and she returned at 
the usual intervals for a couple of hours; but after that she came 
no more, nor were there any other bees at work. Yet the weather 
was loyely, and the hive is so placed as to catch the afternoon 
sun 


I have made a few observations to ascertain, if possible, whether 
the bees generally go to the same part of the hive. Thus, — 

October 5th. I took a bee out of the hive, fed her, and marked 
her. She went back to the same part. 

October 9th. At 7.15 I took out two bees, fed and marked 
them. They returned; but I could not see them in the same 
part of the hive. One, however, I found not far off. 

At 9.30, brought out four bees, fed and marked them. One 
returned to the same part of the hive. I lost sight of the others. 

Since their extreme eagerness for honey may be attributed 
rather to their anxiety for the common weal than to their desire 
for personal gratification, it cannot fairly be imputed as greedi- 
ness; still the following scene, one which most of us have wit- 
hessed, is incompatible surely with much intelligence. ‘ The sad 
fate of their unfortunate companions does not in the least deter 
others who approach the tempting lure from madly alighting on 
the bodies of the dying and the dead, to share the same miserable 
end. No one can understand the extent of their infatuation until 
he has seen a confectioner’s shop assailed by myriads of hungry 

I have seen thousands strained out from the syrup in 
which they had perished ; thousands more alighting even upon 
_ the boiling sweets ; the floor covered and windows darkened with 
, Some crawling, others flying, and others still so completely 
besmeared as to be able neither to crawl nor fly — not one in ten 
able to carry home its ill-gotten spoils, and yet the air filled with 

new hosts of thoughtless comers.” 1 i 
If, however, bees are to be credited with any moral feelings at 

1 Hive and Honey Bee, Langstroth, p. 277. 


154 Inmbbock’s Observations on Bees and Anis. [ March, 


all, I fear the experience of all bee-keepers shows that they have 
no conscientious scruples about robbing their weaker brethren. 
“ If the bees of a strong stock,” says Langstroth, “ once get a 
taste of forbidden sweets, they will seldom stop until they have 
tested the strength of every hive.” And again, ‘Some bee- 
keepers question whether a bee that once learns to steal ever re- 
turns to honest courses.” Siebold has mentioned similar facts in 
the case of wasps (Polistes). 

M. Forel, in his excellent work, Les Fourmis de la Suisse, 
asserts that ants, when they first quit the pupal state, like the 
bees, devote themselves to household duties and the care of the 
young, not taking any part in the defense of the nest until a 
later period of life. He has repeated many of Huber’s experi- 
ments. As regards the memory of ants, he convinced himself 
that they recognized their companions after a separation of four 
months ; but he believes they would not do so for more than one 
season. In my previous memoir I have described the behavior 
of ants to companions from whom they had been separated for 
several months, and mentioned that I could not satisfy myself as 
to the lively manifestations of joy and satisfaction described by 
Huber as being shown under such circumstances. M. Forel, in 
the above-mentioned work, expresses his opinion that the signs 
which Huber regarded as marks of affection were in reality 
signs of distrust and fear, which, however, were soon removed. 

Ants of different nests are generally enemies; but M. Forel 
assures us (page 262) that when they first quit the pupa-stage, 
ants do not distinguish friends from foes, though three or four days 
are sufficient to enable them to do so. It is to be regretted that 
he does not give the facts on which this interesting statement is 
based. 

The behavior of ants to one another differs very much accord- 
ing as they are alone or supported by numerous com panions. An 
ant which would run away in the first case will fight bravely in 
the second (page 249). q 

MM. Forel and Ebrard both assert that if an ant is a little ill, 
or slightly wounded, she is carefully tended by her companions; 
while, on the other hand, those which are dangerously ill or 
wounded are carried out of the nest todie. I have not met with 
any cases of this kind. 

Again, some days I found no ants about on my window-sill as 
a although there seemed nothing in the weather to account 

or it. 


1876.]  Lubbock’s Observations on Bees and Ants. 155 


I quote the following in order to show the steadiness with 
which ants work. 

July 13th. At 6.20 a. m. I put an ant to some honey; at 6.40 
she went, at 7.02 she returned, and at 7.08 went away again, but 
not to the nest ; at 7.11 she returned, and at 7.15 went away again. 


At 7.27 she came back. 7.40 went. At 1.30 she came back; at 1.41 went. 
7.49 X 8.05 “ 1:51 “ 2. 
8.14 A 8.19 “ after which I was unable to go on watch- 
8.31 i 639 °“ ing, 
8.43 . éi = Another ant the same morning came to 
8.55 " 9 “> honey at 6.55 A. M., at 7.04 went away. 
9.08 4i 910E Returned 7.10 E 24 a 
9.17 . 9.26 “ ie FS w 7.36 ' 
9.34 = 9.40 “7 nie 7.45 Ae a 
9,49 s 10 “ “ 8.02 “ g07 T 
10.11 r 10.20 “ fano glT “822 iy 
10.27 s 10.36 “ “831 “ “8.36 3 
10.44 “ 10.52 “ “ 8.44 « 8.58 “ 
12.52 ‘ 12.54 “ « 859 “g c 
1.03 7 1.20 “ 


after which she came back no more. During this time fifteen 
others had come to the honey. 

That ants have a certain power of communication has been 
proved by Huber and other observers. Several striking cases are 
mentioned by M. Forel. For instance (op. cit., page 297), an 
army of Amazon ants, on an expedition in search of slaves, at- 
tacked a nest of Formica rufibarbis. In a few seconds (quelques 
secondes) the dome of the nest was covered with F. rufibarbis, 
which rushed out to defend their house. 

On another occasion he placed a number of Tetramorium cces- 
Pitum about four inches from a colony of Pheidole pallidula. 
“En un clin d’wil,” he says (page 384), “ l’alarme fut répandue, 
et des centaines de Pheidole se jetérent au devant de lennemi.” 

Again, he (page 349) placed some earth containing a number 
of Tetramorium about four inches from a nest of Strongylogna- 
thus Hubert, Several combats took place; but after the lapse of 
à few minutes (quelques minutes) a whole army of S. Hubert 
merged and attacked the intruders. 

another occasion, some Amazon ants (page 301) were 
Searching in vain for a nest of Formica rufibarbis. After a while 
ome of them found thenest. * Immediately ” (aussitôt), he says, 

à signal was given, the Amazons rushed in the right direction, 
and pillaged the nest in spite of its inhabitants.” This is a sur- 
Prising statement. If itis to be taken literally, the communi- 
“ation cannot have been made by the antenna ; the signal can 


156 Lubbock’s Observations on Bees and Ants. [ March, 


hardly have been a visible one; are we then to imagine a sound 
or smell to have been made use of which our auditory and olfae- 
tory nerves are incapable of perceiving ? or have ants some sense 
which we do not possess ? 

It would even appear, from M. Forel’s statements, that in 
some cases one species comprehends the signs of another. This 
is, of course, the case when different species live in association; 
but I am now speaking of hostile species. Formica sanguinea, 
he assures us, understand the signals of F. pratensis. “ Elles 
savent,” he says (page 359), “ toujours saisir l’instant où les pra- 
tensis se communiquent le signal de la déroute, et elles savent 
s’apprendre cette découverte les unes aux autres avec une rapi- 
dité incroyable. Au moment même où Pon voit les pratensis se 
jeter les unes contre les autres en se frappant de quelques coups 
rapides, puis cesser toute résistance et s’enfuir en masse, on voit 
aussi les sanguinea se jeter tout-à-coup au milieu d’elles sans la 
plus petite retenue, mordant à droite et à gauche comme des 
Polyergus, et arrachant les cocons de toutes les pratensis qui en 
portent.” 

He is of opinion (page 364) that the different species differ much 
in their power of communicating with one another. Thus, though 
Polyergus rufescens is smaller than F. sanguinea, it is generally 
victorious, because the ants of this species understand one an- 
other more quickly than those of F. sanguinea. 

It appeared to me that the following experiment might throw 
some light on the power of communication possessed by ants, 
namely, to place several small quantities of honey in similar sit- 
uations, then to bring an ant to one of them, and subsequently to 
register the number of ants visiting each of the parcels of honey, 
of course imprisoning for the time every ant which found her way 
to the honey except the first. If, then, many more came to the 
honey which had been shown to the first ant than to the other 
parcels, this would be in favor of their possessing the power of 
communicating facts to one another, though it might be said they 
came by scent. Accordingly, on the 13th of July, at three P. M., 1 
took a piece of cork about eight inches long and four inches wide, 
and stuck into it seventeen pins, on three of which I put pieces 
of card with a little honey. Up to 5.15 no ant had been up any 
of these pins. I then put an ant to the honey on one of the bits 
of card. She seemed to enjoy it, and fed for about five minutes, 
when she went away. At 5.30 she returned, but went up six 
pins which had no honey on them. I then put her on to the card. 


1876.}  Lubbock’s Observations on Bees and Ants. 157 


In the mean time twelve other ants had been up wrong pins 
and two up to the honey ; these I imprisoned for the afternoon. 
At 5.46 my ant went away. From that time to six o'clock, seven 
ants came, but not the first. One of the seven went up a 
wrong pin, but seemed surprised, came down, and immediately 
went up the right one. The other six went straight up the 
right pin to the honey. Up to seven o’clock twelve more ants 
went up pins — eight right, and four wrong. At seven, two more 
went wrong. Then my first ant returned, bringing three friends 
with her ; and they all went straight to the honey. At 7.11 she 
went; on her way to the nest she met and spoke to two ants, 
both of which then came straight to the right pin and up it to the 
honey. Up to 7.20 seven more ants came and climbed up pins — 
six right, and one wrong. At 7.22 my first ant came back with 
five friends ; at 7.30 she went away again, returning at 7.45 with 
no less than twenty companions. During this experiment I im- 
prisoned every ant that found her way up to the honey. Thus, 
while there were seventeen pins, and consequently sixteen chances 
to one, yet between 5.45 and 7.45 twenty-seven ants came, not 
counting those which were brought by the original ant; and out 
of these twenty-seven, nineteen went up the right pin. Again, 
on the 15th of J uly, at 2.30, I put out the same piece of cork with 
ten pins, each with a piece of card and one with honey. At 4.40 
a ant to the honey ; she fed comfortably, and went away 
at 4.44 


At 4.45 she returned, at 5.05 went away. At 6.13 she returned; again at 6.25 and 
ny et 5.55 «6,59, 


There were a good many other ants about, which, up to this time, 
went up the pins indiscriminately. 

At 7.15 an ant came and went up the right pin, and another 
at 7.18. At 7.26 the first ant came back with a friend, and both 
‘ee up the right pin. At 7.28 another came straight to the 

ney, 


fey one went up a wrong pin. At 7.48 one came to the Anit pin. 
31 one came to the right pin. « « the first ant came back. 

PE bg one came to the right pin with “ 7.49 another came to the right r 
rst ant, ‘e “ " wrong 
~ ipe one came to the right pin. u TALA 3 right i 
. (23 “ ok three ng 
“TAL “ “ “ 7,52 one 7 right “ 
“ 7.43 “ ki “7.55 “ “ wrong “ 
Aid 7.45 A ia ow u“ “ é right “ 
a» 46 i i “ 7 57 “ Lid wrong Lid 
“ “ R “ 

“ * “ 58“ se ht 
=" a J hres, pin. i irm “ “ mal “ 


f 


158 Lubbock’s Observations on Bees and Ants. [ March, 
Thus after seven o’clock twenty-nine ants came; and though 


there were ten pins, seventeen of them went straight to the right 


pin. 
On the 16th of July I did the same again. At 6.25 I put an 
ant to the honey ; at 6.47 she went. 


At 6.49 an ant came m the right pin. At 7.05 the first ant came ‘dis and re- 
“ 6.50 npt aber mained at the honey till 7.1 
© 6.55 m 7 At 7.05 another came to a right pin; 
“ 6.56 “ came to the wrong pin, but she was with the fi 
and then to the right At 7.06 another ani came e ba right pin. 
At f 58 Sporer came to the a pis, 2 LUS 
t & 7,12 “ “ 
“c T 13 “ce LL 


These two ants were met by the first one, which crossed an- 
tennæ with them, when they came straight to the honey. 
At 7.14 another ant came straight to the At 7.42 an ant went to a wrong pin. 
“ce 7.47 “ “ “ 


ney. 
At 7.21 the first ant returned ; at 7.26 “ 7.48 “4 4 s 
she left. F TAŬ» “ “ í 
At 7.24 another ant came, but went to el 2 a“ “ the right ier 


a wrong pin, and then went on to the right “ 7.55 the first ant sesiltsas at 
‘one. 7.56 went away again. 


At 7. yi an ent ca n mae: pin. S r = an aut went to wrong pp, 
TID right 
“ “ “ “ i “ 8 e wrong e 
7.34 4“ éc “ “g “ right ce 
“+735. OM « i “ 8.01 wrong “ 


“ 7.38 the first came back, at 7.45 
went away again. 

After this, for an hour, no more ants came. On this occasion, 
therefore, while there were ten pins, out of thirty ants, sixteen 
came to the ei one, while fourteen went to one or other of the 
nine wrong 0 

July 18th. ‘T en out the boards as before at four o’clock. oh 
to 4.25 no ant came. I then put one (No. 1) to the honey ; 
fed for a few minutes, and went away at 4.31. 

At 4.35 she came back with four friends, and went nearly 
straight to the honey. At 4.42 she went away, but came back 
almost directly, fed, and went away again. 

At 4.57 she returned, and at 5.08 went At 5.06 an ant came to the right pin. 


away again. "SH wrong pin. 
At 4.45 an ant came to wrong pin. * BAe “ right pin. 
E, 47 : an I changed the pin 
5 4.49 i = At 5.16 an ant came to the pin which I 
j 4.50 “ night pin, had put in the same place 
5 4.52 " At 5.16 an, aut “ee to the righ! pin. 
4.55 “ wrong pin * 5.19 

“ 4.56 3 ht d This “ 5.20 two ants with 


rig 
ant (No. 2) I allowed to return to the nest, No. 2 
which she did at 5,23, 


1876.] Lubbock’s Observations on Bees and Ants. 159 


went at 5.25. 


At5.20ant No. 1 came to right pinand At 5.51 ant No. 1 came back, and at 5.54 
went. 
At 5.25 anant came to right pin; this At 5.58 two ants came to the right pin. 
ce cas 


ant had been spoken to by No. 2. “ 5.59 another ant . 
At 5.26 another ant came to right pin. ffir? È “wrong pin. 
ee. i I changed the pin again. 
oao s ” t 6.49 an ant came to the pin which I 
—_— 2 had put in the same place. 
“5.41 ant No. 1 p and At 7.01 another ant came to the right pin. 
went at 5.49. e, DRO 1 " 
At 5.45 another ant ye «doo s “S 
50 in “cc 


: “ 7.46 ant No. 1 returned, 7.55 went. 
Thus during this time, from 4.50 until 7.50, twenty-nine ants 
came, twenty-six went to the right pin, while only three went up 
any of the nine wrong ones. Moreover, out of these twenty-six, 
only four were distinctly brought by the two ants which I had 
shown the honey. 

On the 19th I tried a similar experiment. The marked ants 
frequently brought friends with them; but, without counting 
these, from 3.20 to eight o'clock, out of forty-five ants, twenty- 


nine went up the right pin, while sixteen went up the nine wrong 
ones, 


Thus on 


July 13th, of 27, 19 went right, 8 wrong. July 18th, of 26, 23 went right, 3 wrong. 

Fedor its oeg wi 19th, “48, '2 mae yal 

5 eth a0 16.) ioe gee 
Or, adding them all together, while there were ten pins at least, 
out of one hundred and fifty-six ants one hundred and three came 
up the right pin, and only fifty-three up the others. 

It certainly appeared to me that some of the ants were much 
cleverer in finding their way to the honey than others ; several 
ants which I put on honey came back to nearly the same place, 
and yet did not seem able to find the exact spot. 

Again, some appeared to communicate more freely with their 
friends than others; and I have met with cases which show that 
Some ants certainly do not, under such circumstances, summon 
others to their assistance. From this point of view the following 
observations may be compared with those already recorded. On 
the Ist of August an ant came to the honey at 4.20 and went 
‘Way a few minutes afterwards. 

rg 4.36 returned, at 4.41 went away. At 6,21 returned, at 6.31 went away. 

452° ou 4:58 & “63 “ üg lih 

n 4 
5.30 “ 
6.05 


5.15 of “ 6.55 j e O 
5.35 % “7,30 5 EE Y 
“ 7.49 - 7.54 28 


Yet during all this TE she brought no friend with her. 


160 


Lubbock’s Observations on Bees and Ants. 


[ March, 


The following additional observations were made after the read- 
ing of the paper, at the dates severally mentioned below. 


Thus on January 3d I placed 


some larvæ in three small porce- 


lain saucers in a box seven inches square attached to one of my 


frame nests. 


The saucers were in a row, six inches from the en- 


trance to the frame and one and a half inch apart from one an- 


other. 

At 1.10 an ant came to the larvæ in the 
cup which I will call No. 1, took a larva, 
and returned to the nest. 

At 1.24 she returned and took another. 

“ 1.45 j oe “c 


to 
At 2.24 she returned to cup No. 3. As’ 


there were only two larvæ in this cup, I 
left her alone. She took nd returned. 

At 2.31 she returned to cup No. 3 and 
took the last larva. 

At 2.40 she came back to cup No, 3 and 
searched diligently, went away and wan- 
dered about for two minutes, then returned 
for another look, and at length at 2.50 
went to cup No. 1 and took a larva. 
came to cup 1 and took a larva. 

ae “ 


3.07 
“ 3.15 cc ee 
first, however, going and examining cup 
3 again. 
At 3.18 came to cup 3, then went to 
cup 2 and took a larva. 


At 3.30 came to cup 3, then went to cup 

2 and took a larva. 
t 3.43 came to cup 3, then went to cup 

2 and took a larva. 
At 3.53 came to cup 3, but did not climb 


cup, and the cup 2, where she took 
the last larva, so that two cups are now 
empty. ; 
At 4.03 she came to cup 3, then to cup 
2, and lastly to cup 1, when she took @ 
rva. 


At 4.15 came to cup 1 and took a larva. 
“4.99 «“ s“ 


438 “ “ 
came to cup 3, then to cup 2, 
and lastly to cup 1, when she took a l 
At 5,19 came to cup 1 and took a larva. 
“ 5.50 came to cup 2 and then to cup 
1 and took a larva. i 
At 6.20 came to cup 1 and took the last 
larva. 


I now put about-eighty larvæ in cup 3. 


It is remarkable that during 


all this time she did not come 


straight to the cups, but took a roundabout and apparently irres- 


olute course. 


At 7.04 she came to cup 1 and then to cup 3, and then home. 

There were at least a dozen ants exploring in the box; but 
she did not send any of them to the larvæ. 

At 7.30 she returned to cup 3 and took a larva. 

I now left off watching for an hour. On my return 


At 8.30 she was just carrying off a 
larva. 
At 8.40 she came back to cup 3 and 
took a larva. 
At 8.55 she came to cup 
3 and took a Jarva, 
At 9712 she came to cup 1, then to cup 
3 and took a larva. 


1, then to cup 


At 9.30 she came to cup 3, then to cup 3 
and took a larva. 

At 9.52 she came to cup 3, then to cup 3 
and took a larva. 

At 10.14 she came to cup 1, then to cup 
3 and took a larva. 

At 10,26 she went and examined cup 
2, then to cup 3 and took a larva. 


“ 
S 
3 
ts 
: 
: 
: 


1876.] Explorations in Colorado. 161 


At 10.45 she came to cup 3, and I went to bed. At seven 
o'clock the next morning the larve were all removed. In watch- 
ing this ant I was much struck by the difficulty she seemed to 
experience in finding her way. She wandered about at times 
most irresolutely, and, instead of coming straight across from the 
door of the frame to the cups, kept along the side of the box; 
so that in coming to cup 3 she went twice as far as she need have 
done. Again, it is remarkable that she should have kept on vis- 
iting the empty cups time after time. I watched for this ant 
carefully on the following day ; but she did not come out at all. 

During the time she was under observation, from 1 till 10.45, 
though there were always ants roaming about, few climbed up 
the walls of the cups. Five found their way into the (empty) 
cup 1 and one only to cup 3. It is clear, therefore, that the ant 
under observation did not communicate her discovery of larvæ to 
her friends, 


EXPLORATIONS IN COLORADO UNDER PROFESSOR 
HAYDEN IN 1875. 


THE United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the 
Territories, under the direction of Professor Hayden, during 
the season of 1875, continued the work of the two previous sea- 


‘Sons in Colorado, completing the southern and southwestern por- 


tions, including a belt fifteen miles in width of Northern New 
Mexico and Eastern Utah. 
The entire force was divided into seven parties. The district 


_ Strveyed by the first party, under A. D. Wilson, embraced an 


area of 12,400 square miles. It contains the foot-hills sloping 
eastward from the Front Range, the southern continuation of 
the Saugre de Christo Range, the southern end of the San Luis 

ey, the extension of the La Plata Mountains, and the lower 
country of the Rio San Juan and its tributaries. A small por- 
tion of the sedimentary eastern foot-hills was first surveyed, and 
the work was then carried westward to the mountainous vicinity 
of the upper Rio Grande. Instead of forming a well-defined, 

ly-limited range, the mountains south of the Rio Grande are 
formed by a high plateau with numerous isolated peaks. Both the 
Plateau and the peaks mentioned are volcanic, showing the char- 
acteristic regularity of flows prevalent there. From the position 
*t volcanic beds composing the higher peaks it may be inferred 


tat one time the summit of the plateau extended to a consid- 
OL, X. — xo. 3, 11 


162 . Explorations in Colorado. [Mareh, 


erably higher altitude than at present. Towards the southwest it 
drops off suddenly into the lower country containing Rios Piedra 
and Pinos. Where the plateau ends, volcanic and sedimentary 
beds of Cretaceous age appear, extending from the Rio Animas — 
eastward to the border of the district. Above the Cretaceous 
beds Nos. 2 and 3 is a series of shales and sandstones about 
three thousand feet in thickness, and containing coal at a num- 
ber of points, of unknown geological age, though the series were 
thought to be possibly parallel with the Trinidad coal-bearing 
strata, and not of Cretaceous age. 

The work was continued to the extension of the La Plata 
Mountains, among which evidences of former glaciers were found. 
In this region also there are evidences of the former existence of 
two very large lakes at the close of the volcanic activity there. 
The work was then connected ‘to the north and northeast with 
that of 1874, and therewith finished. 

The southwestern division, under the direction of W. H. Holmes 
as geologist, worked over an area of about sixty-five hundred 
square miles. The section of stratified rocks exposed extends 
from the lignitic series to the Carboniferous, including about two 
thousand feet of the former, and slight exposures merely of the 
latter. The heaviest seam of coal examined in the lignitic beds is 
twenty-one feet in thickness. In the Cretaceous beds fossils oc- 
curred in ten distinct horizons, which Mr. Holmes expects to be 
able to identify with corresponding ones on the Atlantic slope. 
The section obtained is the most complete and satisfactory made 
in Colorado up to this time. 

The prehistoric remains in the cafions and lowlands of the 
southwest are of great interest. Many cliff houses built in ex- 
traordinary situations, and still in a fine state of preservation, 
were examined. A good collection of pottery, stone implements, 
—the latter including arrow-heads, axes, and ear-ornaments, — 
some pieces of ropes, fragments of matting, water-jars, corn and 
beans, and other articles were exhumed from the débris of a house. 
Many graves were found, and a number of skulls and skeletons 
that may fairly be attributed to the prehistoric inhabitants were 
added to the collection. 4 

The western or Grand River division was under the charge A 
of Henry Gannett, topographer, with A. C. Peale as geologist. 
The region surveyed embraces the country drained by the Un- 
compahgre and Dolores- rivers and their branches, and the work 
extended about thirty miles into Utah, the total area surveyed 


Explorations in Colorado. 163 


being about six thousand square miles. The geology of this dis- 
triét is comparatively simple, there being no great uplifts, nor 
_ many local disturbances. The sedimentary beds are all included 
under the Carboniferous, Red beds (Triassic ?), Jurassic, and 
= Cretaceous series. On August 15th, the work was brought sud- 
denly to a close by the Indians. 

The work of the fourth division, directed by G. R. Bechler, 
_ extended over a large area, situated from the foot-hills of the 
Rocky Mountains to the Upper Arkansas and Eagle rivers, and 
from a point six miles south of Pike’s Peak to within fifteen miles 
of Long’s Peak, including the great mining industries of Col- 
orado. 
The party under Mr. Gardner had made but little progress 
when it was prevented from doing further work by the Indians. 
One of the stations occupied was very important, namely, the 
Sierra la Sal Mountain, which enabled Mr. Gardner to secure an 
excellent set of observations, thus extending the triangulation far 
into Utah, and connecting the eastern work of the survey with 
the great Colorado River of the West. i 
= The trip of Mr. Jackson, the photographer of the expedition, 
to the southwestern portion of Colorado renewed the work of 
1874 on the ancient ruins north of the present Moquis Pueblos. 
Interesting archæological discoveries in the upper San Juan Mesa 
Verd@find La Plate regions were made by Mr. W. H. Holmes, 
m addition to his geological work. The ruins occurred only in 
_ “ese cations which had alluvial bottoms. A strip of bottom 
j land only fifty yards in width at the bottom of the deep cañons 
Would yield maize enough to subsist quite a town. The supposi- 
4 tion that they belonged to an agricultural people is strengthened by 
the fact that in the vicinity of any group of ruins there are also a 
_ humber of little « cubby-holes,” too small for habitations, but very 
| evidently intended for “caches ” or granaries, and the large towns 
q Contain small apartments that must have been designed for the 
_ SMeuse. In one place where grass, cedar, and artemisia flour- 
Ash, and there is most excellent grazing land, these people must 
have had herds of sheep or goats which they brought up here to 
: graze during the winter, just as the Ute and Navajos do at the 
Rant: time ; and the towers 80 frequent in this region were 
_ Probably built as places of refuge or residence for the herders. 
Pon the faces of rock near one of these ruins is an inscription 
— “Mpped in with a sharp-pointed instrument, and covering some 
‘IXty square feet of surface. Figures of goats, lizards, and hu- 


164 Explorations in Colorado.  [Mareh, 


man forms abound, with many hieroglyphical signs. At other 
points adobe houses of great extent were discovered. One town, 
running along the face of a perpendicular bluff for three hundred 
yards, contained seventy-five rooms, with granaries and cisterns. 
In the centre of the mass was a well-preserved circular apartment, 
a little below the general level of the others, which was probably 
an estrefa. ‘The goat corrals were inside, between the houses 
and the bluff. In another ruined town, consisting of houses 
scattered up and down the De Chelly and Bonito rivers, were 
great reservoirs in which was found abundant and excellent 
water. 

A week was spent by Mr. Jackson at the Moquis towns, where 
he obtained photographs of the houses and the inhabitants. The 
comparison between the work of the prehistoric town-builders 
and the Moquis was very much in favor of the former, the high- 
est degree of perfection being exhibited in the cliff houses of 
the Rio Mancos (described in the January NATURALIST), where 
some of the houses were marvels of finish and durability, while in 
traveling to the present homes of the Moquis there was found 
to be a gradual merging of the ancient into the modern style, 
from the neatly-cut rock and correct angles of the prehistoric 
race to the comparatively crude buildings now made by the 
Moquis. Other ruins in different cañons were visited, the most 
extensive of which were in the cañon and valley of the Monte- 
zuma. Here the bottom of the cafions once supported a very 
thickly settled community. There is in one lateral cañon an 
aimost continuous series of ruins for a distance of twenty-five 
miles. Throughout the lateral cajions every available defensive 
point has been utilized, and is now covered with the remains of 
heavy walls and large blocks of houses. 

Another singular feature was the number of holes cut into the 
perpendicular lower wall of the cation for the purpose of ascend- 
ing the rock, holes just large enough to give a hand and foot hold, 
and leading.either to some walled-up cave or to a building erected 
above. Some of these steps ascended the nearly perpendicular 
face of the rock for one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet. 

The results of this trip were the collection of a large number of 
ora both modern and ancient, stone arrow and spear points, 

ives and axes, with photographs especially illustrative of the 
most important ruins, and numerous sketches of everything of 
note, which will .be.brought out in detail in the e publica- 
tions of the survey. 


w —— Recent Literature. 165 


During the summer, Mr. P. R. Uhler and Dr. A. S. Packard, 
Jr., were temporarily attached to the survey, and made collec- 
tions of insects in Colorado. Dr. Packard investigated the rav- 
ages of the destructive grasshopper and other injurious insects of 
Colorado and Utah, with a view to the preparation of a report on 
the injurious insects of the Territories. He also discovered a new 
cave-fauna on the shores of Great Salt Lake, and investigated 
the Alpine insects of the Rocky Mountains. 


RECENT LITERATURE. 


Wrman’s Fresu-Warer Sueit-Mounps or THe St. Jouy’s River, 
Froriwa.!— This very valuable contribution to our knowledge of the 
archeology of North America is modestly asserted by its Jamented au- 

or to be “a record of what he has observed and a contribution to the 
knowledge of these ancient relics of a race which has long since passed 
away.” It certainly is all this and more, although “still very incom- 
plete,” — a fact which goes far to show how wide a field for exploration 
and study is open to those devoted to archeological pursuits.- The 
memoir opens with an admirably clear sketch of the characteristic feat- 
ures of the St. John’s River, followed by a general description of the 
mounds, forty-eight in number, the majority of which are found between 


mussel shells (Unios), as elsewhere these heaps are entirely formed of 
Unios, the other shells being either very scantily represented or alto- 
gether absent. Those here described “are in almost every case built on 
the banks of the river, resting either on one of the ridges of sand and 
e Mads.) 2 Sr on land slightly raised.” The accompanying plate 
(I), forming the frontispiece to the memoir, illustrates the shell-mound 
at Old Enterprise, “From the presence of fire-places, ashes, calcined 
Shells, charcoal, and implements, together with the bones of edible ani- 
Mals and occasionally those of man, found at various depths from top to 
bottom, and the absence of everything which might have been made by 
A white man, it seems certain that these mounds were the accumula- 
tions by and the dwelling-places of the earliest . . . . inhabitants, dur- 
mg the successive stages of their formation.” As bearing upon the 
question of the antiquity of these mounds and their various contents of 
nman origin, Professor Wyman remarks “that the building of the 


4 Fresh- Water Shell-Mounds of the St. John’s River, Florida. By JEFFRIES WYMAN. 
goin of the Peabody Academy of. Science. Volume I. Number 4. Salem, 
pg Published by the Academy. December, 1875. Royal 8vo, pp. 94. With a map’ 
and nine plates. 


MEMOIRS PEABODY ACAD. SCIENCE. 4th Memoir. Plate I. 


4th Memoir. Plate ll. ig 


< 


IMPLEMENTS OF STONE. 
WYMAN’s Memoir on the Fresh Water Shell Mounds of Florida. 


MEMOIRS PEABODY ACAD. SCIENCE. 


WYXMAN’s Memoir on the Fresh Water Shell Mounds of Florida. 


Pe ASAE Sats PO oe OA a RUE ee SI SOLE fie cL SO eR net ee TR TSE Mar ek, SSRN Pe el OLE eee eae ne ae 


1876.] — Recent Literature. 169 


mounds extended through very long periods of time and were the result 
of very slow accumulation, or that the shells existed formerly in much 
greater quantities than now.” Granting the probability of the latter 
supposition, the former seems much the more reasonable, and every fact 
discovered with reference to these mounds strengthens the probability, if 
we must so limit it, of the great age of these traces of a perished race. 
It is a curious fact that stone implements “were seldom met with in 
making excavations in the shell-mounds,” inasmuch as we associate them 
with all early traces of human occupancy of any locality; but some few 
specimens were met with, and we recognize them to be such paleolithic 
forms as characterize the French bone caves (see Reliquie Aquitanice) 
and even those of an earlier date, since some are mentioned by the author 
as “resembling somewhat the celts of the St. Acheul pattern.” The 
figures on Plate II., especially 1, 2, and 7, are also identical in form with 
the rude implements from the river gravels of the Delaware Valley 
(New Jersey), as comparison with specimens in the Cambridge museum 
will show. Here again we have an undoubted indication of the antiq- 
uity of the shell-mounds, and of their pre-Indian origin. Of the pot- 


. tery it is remarked that fragments “exist in the later but not in the old- 


est mounds.” This would indicate an acquirement of the knowledge of 
utilizing clay for making cooking-vessels while the mounds were in course 
of construction, or accumulation, and certainly the specimens from the 
mounds figured Plate V., figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6, are of the very rudest de- 
scription, and less elaborate in ornamentation than much of the ware 
made by the Indians of the more northern and western States. Pro- 
fessor Wyman remarks that “a comparison of the pottery from the shell- 
heaps of the St. John’s with that from other parts of Florida shows the 
‘mportant fact that they have but little similarity.” 

esides descriptions of stone implements and those of bone and of 
shell, admirable chapters on pottery, human remains, traces of cannibalism, 
flattened tibiæ, and allied subjects, go to make up the contents of this 
mportant memoir. We have not space to allude to these in detail. 
Certainly no student of American archeology can do without the work, 
if he wishes to be well informed in this branch of the science. 

ARSCHALL’s NomENcLATOR ZobLoercus.’ — The Zodlogical and 
Botanical Society of Vienna published in 1873 a Nomenclator Zoölog- 


icus, pr epared by Count Marschall, and intended to serve as a supplement 


the well-known work of Agassiz. Not having been issued by a reg- 


ular publishing house, the volume is less known than it would otherwise 


= t purports to include all names of genera proposed for animals be- 
tween 1846 and 1868, besides a few which were overlooked in the work 


170 Recent Literature. [ March, 


of Agassiz. It is not, however, based upon the comprehensive plan 
which renders the earlier work so valuable, and is far inferior to it, not 
only in plan but in execution. As far as we have noticed, all names of 
groups higher than genera have been omitted ; the value gained by their 
introduction would have far more than compensated for the slight addi- 
tional labor required. To have added the derivations, as Agassiz did, 
would have so greatly augmented the labor of the compiler, besides in- 
creasing the cost of the work, that we can scarcely blame the omission, 
valuable as they would have been. What we deem, however, one of the 
prime defects of the work is that the names are not grouped in a single 
series, but are scattered under twenty-one distinct headings (representing 
as many groups of the animal kingdom), and no general index is fur- 
nished ; one of the most frequent uses to which works of this nature are 
put is in searching whether a name which it is proposed to adopt is already 
in use in zodlogy ; but for this, one must now look through twenty-one 
different lists. When we add that the work is full of misprints, has many 
names out of the intended alphabetical order, and is certainly by no 
means complete,’ we are obliged to confess that a most useful intention 
has been spoiled in the accomplishment. 

Hentz’s SPIDERS or tue Unirep Srares.2 — Besides its regular 
publications of Memoirs and Proceedings, the Boston Society of Natural 
History publish a series of Occasional Papers. The first of these was a 
collection and reprint in elegant style of the miscellaneous papers of the 
late Dr. T. W. Harris. A more useful work is the present reprint of 
the papers on our spiders, by Mr. Hentz. In its present form it will be 
the starting-point for future studies on this subject, and prove exceed- 
ingly useful from the large number of excellent figures, which represent 
however, species chiefly from the Southern States. The work has passed 
through careful editorial hands, and the drawings and notes by Mr. 
Emerton add not a little to the usefulness and value of the work. A 
biographical sketch is given by Mr. Burgess. ; 

_ Morsr’s First BooK or Zoé.ocy.® — The fact that a second edition 

of this attractive little book has so soon appeared is good evidence of its 
entire fitness as an elementary book of zodlogy. The few typographical 
errors which occurred in the first edition have been corrected ; otherwise 
the book is the same, and to our mind in its present form unexception- 

1 As a single instance we may cite the entire absence of the numerous genera pro- 
posed by Fieber in Lotos, during 1854. This is the more remarkable as Fieber’s 
papers were noticed at the time in a literary review published in Count Marschall’s 
own country, the Bericht d. Oesterreich. Literatur. 

* The Spiders of the United States. A Collection of the Arachnological Writings 
of NichoLas MARCELLUS Hentz, M. D. Edited by Epwarp Burcess, with Notes 
and Descriptions by James H. Emerton. Occasional Papers of the Boston Society 
of Natural History. II. Boston. 1875. 8vo, pp. 117. With 21 plates. Cloth, 


. 00. 
* First Book of Zoölogy. By Epwarp S. Morse, Pu. D., etc. New York: D. AP 
pleton & Co. Second Edition. 12mo, pp. 190. 1876. With many wood-cuts. $1.25. 


Ca etn ans EEES nR- TA at Sed aie hoary page Cae or E gees chee 2 (ie ee ee ee Pps ET eae Ee Ee age Wea a ae 


Recent Literature. 171 


1876.) 
able as a text-book for boys and girls. We hope to see it introduced 
into every school in the country, for sooner or later zodlogy will have 
to be taught in all our common schools, at least so much of it as to 
cause children to collect and observe the common animals they meet 
with in their daily walks. An excellent feature of this book is that the 
child is led to examine the object and compare it with others, and is then 
stimulated to see how it acts, thus unconsciously getting some glimpses 
at least of the principles of morphology and physiology. The objects 
are called by their common names. The author has had the good sense 
to omit the scientific names, thus rendering the book vastly more attract- 
ive and useful. Many readers are anxious to first learn the Latin names, 
and are too often content to stop here. The scientific name is the 
thing of least importance. The author well illustrates, in the preface, 
the difficulty and mental confusion resulting from, the present state of 
zoölogical nomenclature, the bane or necessary evil of the study of 
biology. 

Tur Movements anp Hasits or Cimpine Piants.1— We wish 
to refer our readers to a review of this book, and of Mr. Darwin’s treatise 
on Insectivorous Plants, in recent numbers of the Nation. Our readers 
will recognize in the review the thorough analysis and clear statement 
which characterize Professor Gray’s criticisms. It may be well to add 
to the review a single statement which is based on the opening sentences 
of Climbing Plants ; namely, that Mr. Darwin had his attention first 
called to the subject several years ago, by a short paper by Professor 
Gray on the movement of certain tendrils. 

Recent Books AND Pampntets. — Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. 
By Gilbert White. With Notes, by Frank Buckland ; a Chapter on jE se 
Lord Selborne ; and pen Letters. Illustrated by P. H. Delamote. Londor : Mac 
millan & Co. 1875. p. 591. 00 

Norse My thology ; or ts Religion of our Forefathers. Containing all the Myths of 
nas Eddas, systematized and interpreted. With an Introduction, Vocabulary, and 
ing: By R. B. Anderson. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co, 1875. 12mo, pp. 473. 


Principal Characters of the Dinocerata. Part I. By Prof. O. C. Marsh. With 
A plates. (From the American Journal of Science and Arts, February, 1876.) 
PP. 6. 


The ae Loews of Crude Drugs and other Vegetable Products. 
F rof. M. W. ington. Ann Arbor, Mich. 8vo, pp. 3 

4 resh- Water Shell. Wadia of St. John’s River, Florida. By Jeffries Wyman. 
( tabody Academy of Science, Fourth Memoir.) Salem, Mass. 1875. Royal 8vo, 


e nine plates, pp. 94. $2.00. For sale by the Naturalist’s Agenc 
i arbors of Alaska, and the Tides and Currents in their Vicinity ‘By W. H. Dall, 
Gasca, Coast Survey Report. Washington, D. C. No. 10. 4to, pp. 36. With 


an of Seomiphical and Hydrographical Explorations on the Coast of see 
W. H. D he S. Coast Survey. Appendix No. 11. Washington, D. C. 


ia. E Th po and aoe Climbing Plants. By CHARLES Darwin. Lon- 
John Murray. 1875 


172 General Notes. [ March, 


Report on Mt. St. Elias. By W. H. Dall. (From the U. S. Coast Survey Report 
for 1875.) With a map and sketches. Washington, D. C. July, 1875. 4to, pp. 32. 

Notes on the Yucca Borer (Megathymus yucca). By C. V. Riley. (Trans. Acad. 
Sciences, St. Louis, January, 1876.) St Louis. 1876. 8vo, pp. 2 

Note sur les Mollusques de la Formation Post-Pliocéne de l’Acadie. Par G. F. 
Matthew. Bruxelles. 1875: 8vo, pp. 19. 5 

On the Surface Geology of New Brunswick. By G. F. Matthew. (Canadian 
Naturalist, vii., No. 8. 

Remarks on the Variation in Form of the Family Strepomatidæ. With Descrip- 
tions of New Species. By A. G. Wetherby. Cincinnati. 1875. 8vo, pp. 12. With 
a plate. 

escriptive Catalogues of the Photographs of the United States Geological Survey 
of the Territories for the Years 1869 to 1875 inclusive. Second Edition. W. H. Jack- 
son, photographer. Washington, D. C. 1875. 8vo, pp. 81. 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY.! 


AsTRAGALUS Rospinsit GRAY. — As some botanists seem to sup- 
pose this plant extinct, it may be of interest to them to know that the 
station has never been lost, and that at any time since Oakes used to col- 
lect it until, now, fine specimens have been easily obtained. It is abun- 
dant over the very limited area where it grows, and has never been found 
anywhere else, I believe. Few plants are so exceedingly restricted in 
their range, for its habitat consists only of a space about five hundr 
feet long and from fifty to one hundred feet wide. This is on one bank 
of the Winooski River, near Burlington, where the limestone ledges are 
overflowed by every freshet. This limestone is very hard and compact, 
and full of crevices which are filled with sand mixed with a little mold. 
In these crevices, or less often in hollows that have been filled with earth, 
the astragalus grows, sending its roots from six inches to a foot or even 
more down into the crevice. It does not, so far as I have noticed, ever 
grow higher on the bank of the river than the spring floods reach, nor 
away from the exposed limestone rock. Potentilla fruticosa is found 
abundantly in the same location, and less abundantly Anemone multifida 
and Campanula rotundifolia, and also several less numerous species of 
Composite, Salix, etc. —G. H. PERKINS. 

Tue Poraro-BLIGHT.— A very important step has recently been 
made in our knowledge of the history of this disease. It is about thirty 
years since it was first clearly traced by M. Montagne in France, 
the Rev. M. J. Berkeley in England, to a parasitic fungus, Botrytis or 
Peronospora infestans, which first attacks the haulms and leaves, and 
eventually causes the decay of the tubers. Two modès of asexual re- 
production, by means of “ simple spores” or conidia, and actively moving 
Swarmspores or zodspores which penetrate the s:omata of the host, have 


1 Conducted by Pror. G. L. GOODALE. 


1876.] Botany. 173 


long been familiar to botanists; but it has been reserved for the well- 
known mycologist, Mr. Worthington G. Smith, of London, to discover 
quite recently the sexual mode of reproduction, which is quite analogous 
to that already known in other species of the same genus. On the 
mycelium, within the decaying tissues of the potato-plant, are produced 
the true sexual organs, the antheridia and odgonia, each of the latter 
containing a germinal cell or odsphere which is fertilized by a fecundat- 
ing tube put out by the antheridium, which discharges its contents into 
the protoplasm of the odsphere, thus converting the latter into an odspore 
or “resting spore.” The germination of this latter body has not yet 
been observed. The chief point of practical importance in this discovery 
is that it disposes of the theory which had been started of an “ alternation 
of generations,” namely, that the spores of the potato-fungus germinate on 
some other plant than the potato, producing a fungus which had not been 
recognized as identical with the Peronospora, the spores of this again 
producing the potato-fungus. The ground which has to be worked over 
for the destruction of the disease is thus considerably limited. — A. W. B. 

New Crassirication or Cryprocams.—In the last edition of 
his Lehrbuch der Botanik, Prof. J. Sachs proposes a new classifica- 
tion of the lowest section of cryptogams, which he distinguishes as 
Thallophytes, including the classes, hitherto considered distinct, of Alge, 
Fungi, Lichens, and Characew. He divides the section into four classes, 
each consisting of two parallel series, the one containing chlorophyll and 
commonly known as Algæ (including Characee) ; the other destitute of 
chlorophyll and commonly known as Fungi (including Lichens). The 
classes are as follows: Class 1. Proropuyta. This class comprises 
the simplest known forms of vegetable life, unicellular, or the cells con- 
hected into filaments, rarely into more complicated tissues; no mode of 
sexual reproduction is known. To the chlorophyll-containing series be- 
long the Chroococcacee, Nostocacea, Oscillatoriee, Rivulariee, Scyton- 
“mee, and the Palmellacee (in part) ; to that destitute of chlorophyll the - 
Schigomycetes (bacteria) and Saccharomyces (yeast). Class 2. Tyeo- 
SPORE Asexual propagation various; sexual propagation by means 
of 8Ysgospores, the result of a process of conjugation. This is divided 
into two sections. In the first the conjugating cells are locomotive, as in 
the Volwocinee an d Hydrodictyee (containing chlorophyll), and the 
Myomycetes (destitute of chlorophyll) ; the second section includes the forms 
m which the conjugating cells ate stationary, namely, in the first series 
> Conjugate (comprising the Mesocarpee, Tyguernee, Desundiee, and 

‘atomacee) ; in the second series the 7% ‘ygomycetes (comprising the Mu- 
corim and Piptocephalide). Class 3. OdsrorE®. Reproduction by 
oogonia, containing an oösphere or embryonic cell, becoming an oöspore 
o resting-spore by the act of impregnation. In the series containing 
chlorophyll are Spheroplea, Vaucheria, the Oedogonee, and Fucacee ; 
' the series destitute of chlorophyll the Saproleginee and Peronosporee. 


174 General Notes. [ March, 


Class 4. Carpospore®. A distinct organ, or “sporocarp,” results from 
the process of the fertilization of the female organ, or carpogonium. 
In the first series are the Coleochete, Floridee, and Characee ; in the 
second the Ascomycetes (including Lichens), Aecidiomycetes, and Pasidi- 
omycetes. This classification of the lower Cryptogams appears to be 
founded on sounder principles and a more thorough knowledge of their 
structure, and especially their mode of reproduction, than any hitherto 
proposed. — A. W. B. 

“Twines WITH THE Sun.”—A correspondent writes to inquire 
whether this expression, frequently applied to certain twining plants, is 
correct. He suggests that it might not apply to plants growing in the 
southern hemisphere. ‘The expression “with the hands of a watch” 
is conveniently employed in place of the above, and seems to remove all 
possible ambiguity. If one wishes to guard more completely against 
captious quibbling, he may amplify the expression thus: “in the direction 
taken by the hands of a watch held face upwards, in front of the ob- 
server.” — L. 

Sets or Namep Funai.— We are glad to be able to state to the 
readers of the Naruratist that Mr. Byron D. Halsted, Assistant in - 
Botany at the pti Institution, Jamaica Plain, can furnish to any who 
desire, at $5.00 each, sets of fungi numbering fifty well-determined 
specimens in see. set. 

BoranicaL Prizes.—The following prizes were awarded in 1875, 
by the French Academy, 

The Desmazitres prize in cryptogamic botany was divided between 
M. Emile Bescherelle for his Mosses of Mexico and New Caledonia, 
and M. Eugène Fournier for his Ferns of the same countries. From 
the report we learn that three hundred and fifty-nine species of Mexican 
mosses have been identified by Schimper and Bescherelle. In New 
Caledonia there have been found one hundred and thirty species. Four- 
nier gives five hundred and ninety-five species of Mexican ferns, one 
hundred and seventy-eight of which are peculiar to Mexico. He reports 
two hundred and fifty-nine species of ferns in New Caledonia. 

The Barbier prizes for discoveries in medicine aud botany were given 
to Albert Robin and M. Hardy for their investigation of the new drug; 
jaborandi, the leaves of Pilocarpus pinnatus, a plant of the rue family. 

BoranicaL Papers IN Recent PERIODICALS. — American Jo 
of Science and Arts, February, 1876. Dr. Gray criticises at some 
length a recent paper by Naudin, On the Nature of Heredity and Varia- 
bility in Plants. 

Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, New York, January, 1876. 
The question of the nativity in North America of some members of the 
gourd family is treated of at length by J. Hammond Trumbull, and 
on purely philological grounds the conclusion is reached that at least 

species bearing Indian names were not known until they were 


1876.] 


SG PE te | TERA We a See BT Peo een am RT eye e AAE 
ree See Sige Se eran 


Botany. ° 175 


found and described in North America. Professor Eaton describes Ophio- 
glossum palmatum Plumier, a rare fern detected by Dr. Chapman in 
Florida. Cyperus Wolfii is described by A. Wood. 

American Agriculturist, February, 1876. How Flowers are Ferti- 
lized, by Prof. Asa Gray (devoted to compound flowers, with cuts of 
Leptosyne, a plant from the sea-shore in the southern part of California). 

Nature, January 13, 1876. Fertilization of Flowers by Insects, xii. 
Further Observations on Alpine Flowers, by Herman Müller (with cuts 
of the corolla of Rhinanthus alectorolophus). 

Canadian Journal of Science, Literature. and History, Toronto, 
December, 1875. Plants of the Eastern Coast of Lake Huron, by John 
Gibson, B. A., F. G. S., and John Macoun, M. A. (A list comprehend- 
ing the Phænogams, vascular Cryptogams, and the Mosses of the east- 
ern coast of Lake Huron, and their distribution through the northern 
and western portions of British North America.) 
` The Monthly Microscopical Journal, January, 1876. Reproduction in 
the Mushroom Tribe, by W. G. Smith, F. L. S. (an account of repro- 
duction in Coprinus radiatus). 

Comptes rendus, December 20, 1875. Remarks on the Theories of the 
Formation of Saccharine Matters in Plants, and especially in the Beet, 
by Cl. Bernard. (“In the leaves of plants there exist sometimes starch, 
or dextrine, or glucose, or cane sugar, or inverted sugar. What has 
been said relative to the transfer and transformation of these saccharoid 
principles from the leaves to other parts of the plant has been based on 
hypothetical views, and not on experiments.”) Boussingault remarked 
that the sugar of Agave is chiefly saccharose, formed and treasured up in 
the leaves, 

Bulletin de la Société chimique de Paris, December 20, 1875. On 
the Presence of a Crystallizable Sugar in Germinating Gereals, by G. 
Kuhnemann. (The author isolated a small amount of sugar identical with 
saccharose, from sprouted barley.) Researches on Sugar and Dextrin in 
Barley, by G. Kuhnemann. (The author found no dextrine or glucose, 
but a crystallizable sugar and a substance to which he gives the name 
sinistrine.) 

Bulletin mensuel de la Société d’ Acclimatation, September, 1875. Use- 
fal Plants of Japan, by Dr. Vidal. (This paper enumerates the plants of 
Japan which yield food, drugs, and useful products.) 

Atti della Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali, Vol. XVII. Fase. IIL, 
1875. Later Observations and Considerations respecting Dichogamy in 
the Vegetable Kingdom, by F. Delpino. The third and fourth parts of 

work noticed in the Natunaxist for January, 1876, page 42. 

Ofversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps Akad. Förhandlingar, Stockholm, 1874. 

*scriptions of Mosses collected by N. J. Anderson during the Voyage 
of the Frigate Eugenie, 1851-53, by John Angstrom, (Includes Hepat- 
lce as well as true Musci.) 


176 . General Notes. [ March, 


Flora, 1875, No. 29. Dr. J. Müller gives, in the form of an analytical 
key, some account of new Brazilian Rubiacee. (This is continued in 
No. 30.) Dr. Leopold Dippel replies, with great asperity, to a recent 
communication by Dr. Sanio respecting the nature of the cell-wall in 
cambium. No. 31. Dr. Lad. Celakovsky, On the Intercalated Epipetal- 
ous Circle of Stamens (continued in No. 32, not yet finished). On the 
Genesis of Coloring Matters in Plants, by Dr. Carl Kraus, of Triesdorff 
(treating of the relations of chromogen to the colors of flowers, ete.). 
No. 33. Lindberg’s new classification of the fifty-nine genera of Eu- 
ropean Hepatice is reprinted from a memoir in Acta Societatis Scientiarum 
Fenniæ X. President’s Clark’s lecture On the Circulation of Sap in 
Plants, 1874, is criticised at some length. The reviewer is discriminating, 
and points out some possible errors of interpretation, but appears to have 
thoroughly appreciated the wide range of experiments, and the energy 
with which the work was done. 

Botanische Zeitung, No. 52. On the Development of Cambium, by 
Dr. W. Velten (examining Prof. N. J. C. Miiller’s views in regard to 
the development of Cambium). Reports of Societies: Berlin: Brefeld 
on Development of Certain Fungi. This number contains an interesting 
obituary notice of Dr. Bartling, author of Ordines Naturales Planta- 
rum (1830), and professor at Göttingen. Dr. Bartling was born at 
Hanover, December 9, 1798, and died November 19, 1875. Ne d 
(January 7, 1876). On the Influence of Light on the Color of Flowers, 
by E. Askenasy. (This account of experiments is not yet finished.) A 
few notices of plants. by Ascheron. Professor Pfeffer criticises with the 
greatest severity, in a book-notice, the recent paper on vegetable move- 
ments, by E. Heckel, of Montpellier. He insists that Heckel has not 
observed ordinary caution in his work, and his results are wholly un- 
trustworthy. , A notice of the paper and the review will be soon given 
in a general note. 


ZOOLOGY. 


Bartramian Names AGAIN: An Expranation.—In Dr. Coues’s 
reply to my critique upon his article on Bartram’s ornithological names 
he seems to have misunderstood my admissions, inasmuch as he says 1 
have yielded the very point I wished to refute. The point at issue is 
not whether “ Bartram’s identifiable, described, and binomially nam 
species” are entitled to recognition, for no one would be foolish enough 
to deny that. The few names of this character in Bartram’s long list, 
or the “five or six” among the twenty (not ten) Dr. Coues claims as 
Bartramian in origin, I have of course freely admitted. But I do not 
see how excluding about three fourths of the names claimed by Dr: 
Coues as properly originating with Bartram is admitting the main point 
at issue, which is the recognition of species not identifiably described. - 
The real difference between us is as to what constitutes a description. 
While Dr. Coues considers that such vague references to species 45 


1876.] Zodlogy. 3 177 


“ Falco pullarius, the chicken hawk,” “* Calandra pratensis, the May 
bird,” “* Passer agrestis, the little field sparrow,” etc., are to be regarded 
as descriptions, especially if the coincidence of favorable circumstances 
renders it possible to guess with tolerable certainty what birds were 
meant, I do not. Neither do I consent that names such as these, whose 
application is mainly determinable by a process of exclusion based on 
the subsequent accumulation of knowledge for three fourths of a century, 
shall be taken to supplant others which have become familiar through 
long use, and which were originally accompanied by carefully and intel- 


. 


ligently prepared descriptions, and in many cases also by admirable 
figures. 


If Dr. Coues had insisted on the recognition of only those Bartramian 
names really identifiable by Bartram’s descriptions, I should have ac- 
cepted them without a word of protest; but when he coupled with them 
three times as many more which can be determined only on some other 
basis, and then rarely with any degree of certainty, I deemed it an inno- 
vation not to be quietly endured. I am very glad to see that even Dr. 
Coues himself has abandoned this extreme ground in his reply to my 
critique. 


In conclusion I may say that I do not feel that Dr. Coues gave the 
reference to Bartram’s recognition of the variation in size in animals of 
same species from different localities quite the consideration it merits, 
for Bartram not only observed the facts, but correlated them into a gen- 
eral statement, and even raised the inquiry whether these differences be 
hot the result of conditions of environment, — whether “the different 


n forming and establishing the difference in size and other qualities be- 
J. A. ALLEN. 
PELICANS IN San Franoisco Bay. — Pelicans (P. fuscus) are un- 
usually numerous in San Francisco Bay this season, especially on the 
astern side, along the Oakland shore. Recently, during a dense fog, a 
white pelican (P, erythrorhyncus) measuring ten feet from tip to tip of 
wings flew into the arms of a man in San Francisco. — R. E. C. STEARNS. 
Bears AND PantHers on THE Pacrerc Coast.— Nine cinnamon 
TS were recently caught with steel traps on a ranch on the coast near 
i Corners, Sonoma County, California; and William Bonness, a 
Settler on the Little Chico, in Butte County, killed last month a family 
of California lions consisting of the parent pair and two cubs. Robert 
Ford also killed three in Oregon last month, and one was recently killed 
near Seattle, W, T., which measured nine feet four inches in length. 
eer are plentiful in San Bernardino County, and robins and larks 
~e unusually abundant in the orchards of Santa Cruz, California. — R. 
7 E. Ç, STEARNS. 
os i HE Sea-Lrons and other seals which frequent the rocky islets near 
: eaan to San Francisco Bay, at Point Lobos, have heretofore been 
“Ro, 8, 12 


178 General Notes. [ March, 


protected by law, having been regarded as objects of interest and curios- 
ity to the San Franciscans and strangers visiting the neighborhood. 
The Cliff House at the point is a famous resort, and the road leading to 
it from the city a favorite drive ; these animals, which are quite numerous, 
are a conspicuous feature in the attractions of the locality. The state 
fish commissioners, who are diligently working to stock the waters of the 
State with food fishes, find that the results of their labors are impai 
through the voracity of the seals, which occupy a station especially favor- 
able for preying upon the finny tribe. Recently a bill has been intro- 
duced in the legislature to repeal the protective act and to encourage 
their extermination. 

_ It may well be questioned, however, whether more harm is not done 
by the Chinese fishermen who drag the waters inside of the bay and 
sweep them of everything that has life, whether fish or crustaceans, with- 
out regard to “age or condition,” and who dry their “ catch ” for export 
either to the interior or to their native land. The amount of fish-food and 
of young fish thus caught and dried is undeniably very great, and should 
in some manner be regulated or controlled by legislation. The papers 
have recently contained an account of an attack on a boat made bya 
sea-lion. “As a Mexican Indian named Sacramentus was crossing 
Tomales Bay at Marshall, the boat was attacked by a large sea-lion. 


renewed fury. It was finally killed and afterward towed. ashore. The 
fishermen estimated its weight at twelve hundred pounds.” — R. E. C. 
STEARNS. | 

Eyes anD NO Eyes. — In the chetopod worms of the cold deep water 
of the Atlantic “ we miss neither the colors nor the eyes which are met 
with in coast regions” high north. Ehlers believes that these colors 
and eyes are preserved in the lightless depths in consequence of “new 
animals ever migrating down from the brighter layers of water, and 50 
preventing the disappearance of these parts.” As the surface animals 
go southward and into water warmed superficially by the Gulf Stream; 
they retire into the depths. To this Ranke, in the same volume (xXV-) of 
the Zeitschrift für wissenschaftlich Zoölogie, adds another pregnant sug- — 
gestion as to the persistence of eyes where they seem to be useless; namely; 
that in leeches their very simple eyes have also sensations of touch 
taste; indeed, that they are not simply eyes which may upon occasion servé : 
other ends, but rather neutral organs of sense which can act in various 
directions, as needs in the long run may require. Some confirmation a 
this “ appears partly from the fact that organs quite similar to these 50- 
called eyes on the head of the leech occur also in the whole of the rest 
of the body.” We take these statements from a German correspon® 
ent of Nature, November 25th. 

REMARKABLE Hanis or a Trer-Frog.— Professor Peters hast 


1876.] Anthropology. 179 


cently described the mode of deposit of its eggs employed by a species 
of tree-frog (Polypedates) from tropical Western Africa. This species 
deposits its eggs, as is usual among batrachians, in a mass of albuminous 
jelly ; but instead of placing this in the water, it attaches it to the leaves 
of trees which border the shore and overhang a water-hole or pond. 
Here the albumen speedily dries, forming a horny or glazed coating of 
the leaf, inclosing the unimpregnated eggs in a strong envelope. Upon 
the advent of the rainy season, the albumen is softened, and with the 
eggs is washed into the pool below, now filled with water. Here the 
male frog finds the masses, and occupies himself with their impregna- 
tion. 

A Swake-Eatine Snake.— Some years ago Professor Cope de- 
scribed the snake-eating habits of the Oxyrrhopus plumbeus Wied, a 
tather large species of snake which is abundant in the intertropical parts 
of America. A specimen of it from Martinique was observed to have 
swallowed the greater part of a large fer-de-lance, the largest venomous 
snake in the West Indies. The Oxyrrhopus had seized the fer-de-lance 
by the snout, thus preventing it from inflicting fatal wounds, and had 
swallowed a great part of its length, when caught and preserved by the 
collector. More recently a specimen was brought by Mr. Gabb from 


projected from the mouth of the Oxyrrhopus in a sound condition. The 
Oxyrrhopus is entirely harmless, although spirited and pugnacious in its 
manners. Professor Cope suggests that its introduction into regions 
infested with venomous snakes, like the island of Martinique, would be 
followed by beneficial results. ‘The East Indian snake-eater, Naja elaps, 
18 unavailable for this purpose, as it is itself one of the most dangerous 
venomous snakes. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


articulate sounds, with five tables of classification. This paper merited 
Sufficient attention to justify the appointment of a committee consisting 
* M. Chauvée, Picot, Hovelacque, Coudereau, De Caix St. Aymour, 
Millescamps, De Charencey, Andre Lefevre, Krishaber, Parrot, Proust, 

, “8se, and Onimus to examine into its merits. The same subject was 
discussed at subsequent meetings. In the same number, M. de Mortillet 
Teported the reception of a letter from M. Babert de Juillé, announcing 
the discovery of a trepanned skull in the dolmen of Bougon in Deux 


“Sevres, M Broca stated that this was the fifth locality wherein this 


“nstom had been traced ; 
Part xvii, of Reliquiæ Aquitanice has been received, containing the 


180 General Notes. [ March, 


conclusion of the paper on the Fossil Man from La Madelaine and 
Laugerie Basse; Notes on the Caribou of Newfoundland, by T. G. B. 
Lloyd; Notes on Ovibos moschatus, by E. Lartet ; supplemental notes, 
and a series of indexes to the whole work. 

In the third part of Revue d’ Anthropologie, Dr. Berenger Feraud 
has a long and deeply interesting article upon the Oulofs of the Coast of 
Senegambia, embracing descriptions of their physical characters, man- 
ners, customs, intellectual characters, childrén, habitations, nourishment, 
language, the family and social organization. 

Before the British Anthropological Institute, November 9th, Mr. Fran- 
cis Galton read two papers: one on Heredity in Twins, the other on 
A Theory of Heredity. It appears that twin-bearing is hereditary, 
and that it descends through males and females about equally. In the 
latter paper it is argued that the germs which were selected for develop- 
ment into the bodily structure had a very small influence from a heredi- 
tary point of view, while it was those germs which were never developed 
but which remained latent, that were the real origin of the sexual ele- 
ment. This accounts for much that Mr. Darwin’s theory of pangenesis 
over-accounted for, and is free from objections raised against the latter. 

Dr. Robert Brown has translated Dr. Rink’s celebrated work entitled 
Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, with a Sketch of their Habits, Re- 
ligion, Language, and other Peculiarities. Blackwood and Sons, of 
Edinburgh, are the publishers. , 

At the session of the Anthropological Section of the French Associ- 
ation, August 25th, M. de Mortillet advanced a new theory of the ori- 
gin of bronze. After reviewing the countries where copper and tin are 
found, he concludes that bronze implements and weapons took their 
origin in India. He bases his conclusions mainly upon the following 
facts: Mysorine, the most reducible ore of copper, is found principally in 
India. In the peninsula of Malacca, and notably in the Isle of Banca. 
are found the richest deposits of tin in the world. ‘The shortness of the 
handles of bronze weapons is paralleled by those of India at the pres- 
ent time. Finally, in the lacustrian deposits of the bronze age of Switz: 
erland and Savoy, strange-shaped objects are found which have their 
analogues only in India. As an indication of the origin of the white- 
skinned races of Northern Africa, we find many of the same forms pre- 
vailing amongst them. 

Among the exceedingly interesting objects brought from the Rio San 
Juan by Professor Hayden’s party is a Peruvian double bottle or jah, — 
similar in every respect to many of the whistling bottles of the last- — 
named country. Whether this is an accidental resemblance or an arti 
of commerce I am unable to say. o 

The Rev. M. Eells has sent to the Smithsonian Institution a mant- — 
script of one hundred and sixty pages, containing a full account of the 
Twamish Indians of Hood’s Canal, Puget’s Sound. Nothing in conne™ — 


1876.] Anthropology. 181 


tion with American ethnology is more desirable than that every Indian 
agent in the country would furnish us with a manuscript of the tone and 
tenor of this splendid work. — O. T. Mason. 

American ARCHÆOLOGY. — Two very interesting pamphlets have 
been published recently in Rio Janeiro, from the pen of Professor Ch. 
Fred Hartt: one entitled Amazonian Tortoise Myths, the other, Notes 
on the Manufacture of Pottery among Savage Races. In the former we 
have from the Lingua Geral, or modern Tupi language, spoken at Ereré, 
Santarem, and on the Tapajos River, the fables founded on the exploits 
of the Jabuti or tortoise, and other mythical animals, — monkeys, tapirs, 
buzzards, ete. In the latter is an account of the process of pottery- 
making and ornamentation, embracing the materials, the tools, the proc- 
esses, and the products, together with a copious bibliographical refer- 
ence, 


M. Roban, in the second number of Le Musée Archéologique, speaks 
of the handles used for flint hatchets by the ancient Mexicans. Amon 
others he draws attention to weapons formed by inserting bits of obsidian 
in a grooved wooden handle, resembling the Polynesian shark’s-teeth 
spears and swords. These obsidian weapons are described and figured 
in Schoolcraft, v. 290, and in the Smithsonian Contributions, vol. xi., art. 
1x., p. 180. 

Mr. Hyde Clarke has published in pamphlet form, through Trübner 
& Co., an article from the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 
entitled Researches in Prehistoric and Protohistoric Comparative Phi- 
lology, Mythology, and Archæology, in connection with the Origin of 
Culture in America and the Accad or Sumerian Families. The design 
of the author is, in his own words, “ to bring archaic philology into 
reunion with those nascent studies of anthropology, archeology, and my- 
thology, which have met with acceptance and popularity.” He has else- 
Where spoken of the similarity between the Agaw of the Nile and the 
Abkhass of the Caucasus with the Omagua and Guarani of Brazil. He 
first draws attention to the Pygmean and other so-called prehistoric 
rosy of North and South America, of Africa, and of the islands of the 
Pacific Ocean, and then by parallels of culture he reviews the tribes of 
the two hemispheres, somewhat similarly to the plan pursued by E. B. 
Tylor in tracing the growth of culture, and by Colonel Lane Fox in 
: following the evolution of implements and weapons. He regards, for 
Philologica] purposes, Egyptian, Sumero-Peruvian, Chinese, Tibetan, 
= ad Dravidian languages as protohistoric. In addition to resemblances 
of language between the continents, the author enforces his opinions by 
Parallels of racial characters, by similar customs of head-shaping, def- 
mations of teeth, ears, and other members, circumcision, monumental 


aari. S, Monolithic and megalithic monuments, statues, towers, and os- 
ri 
ike 


es; by their metallurgy, masonry, pottery, and weaving; by their 
myths and beliefs ; by their calendars, and by their social and 


182 General Notes. [ March, 


domestic customs. The author favors the view of Mr. Park Harrison — 
and Professor Owen that migrations to America proceeded by the Sand- 
wich and Easter Islands as well as by Behring Strait. He concludes 
by affirming that “the whole of the phenomena of man in America 
represent an arrested development of civilization, cut short, as compared 
with Europe and Asia, at-a time so remote that in the Old World the 
great religions of the globe, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, had time 
to cover the Eastern hemisphere, while until the Spanish conquest the 
Americas had in the flux of centuries never heard their revelations.” — 
O. T. Mason. 


GEOLOGY AND PALHONTOLOGY. 


Tue BRAIN or tHE Dinoceras. — This extinct animal, discovered 
by Professor. Marsh in the Eocene beds of Wyoming, nearly equaled the 
elephant in size, but the limbs were shorter. The head could reach the 
ground, and there is no evidence that it carried a proboscis. Professor 
Marsh figures the skull in his second memoir, entitled Principal Charae- 
ters of the Dinocerata (American Journal of Science, February, 1876). 


(Fic. 9.) SKULL OF DINOCERAS, SHOWING RELATIVE SIZE OF THE BRAIN. 


The accompanying cut (Fig. 9) gives an outline of the skull (seen from 
above, one eighth the natural size) of Dinoceras mirabile. The central 
figure near the base of the skull illustrates the remarkably small brain. 
Says Professor Marsh, “The brain-cavity in Dinoceras is perhaps the 
most remarkable feature in this remarkable genus. It proves conclusively 
that the brain was proportionately smaller than in any other known mam- — 
mal, recent or fossil, and even less than in some reptiles. It was, in fact, 
the most reptilian brain in any known mammal. In D. mirabile the et- 
tire brain was actually so diminutive that it could apparently have been 
drawn through the neural canal of all the presacral vertebre, certainly a 
through the cervicals and lumbars.” : 
Movunrtain-Makina. — An abstract of Professor Suess’s memoir — 
the Origin of the Alps has been furnished the American Journal of See 
ence by Mr. E. S. Dana, which we further condense, often using the e* — 
act language of the abstract. According to the views of the early geol- 


1876.] Geography and Exploration. 183 


ogists, still widely accepted, the origin of mountains is to be ascribed to 
the elevation of a molten or semi-molten mass which threw up the rocks 
along its axis, and crowded the upper strata to the right and left, forming 
in this way a mountain-chain. But this view is not sustained by observed 
facts, and Suess adopts the modern view of a general horizontal move- 
ment of the mountain system as a whole. The conclusions of Suess 
agree to a very considerable extent with those of Professor Dana in his 
discussion of mountain-making in general. 

In the Alps the exertion of this horizontal force was essentially in- 
fluenced by resistance from four different sources: (1) from the presence 
of foreign masses of older rocks; (2) from the folding mass itself; (3) 
from the occasional introduction of older volcanic rocks, as granite and 
porphyry, in the moving mass ; (4) finally, it appears that single mount- 
ain masses, like the Adamello or the red porphyry, near Botzen, have 
exerted an essential influence on the development of the surrounding 
mountain region. 

If we look at the subject more broadly, however, and pass out of 
Europe to America, and then further study the great mountain-chains of 
Asia, we arrive at this grand conclusion: throughout, mountain-masses 
and mountain-movements are one-sided, and the direction of the move- 
ment isin general northwest, north, or northeast, in North America and 
Europe, but southerly or southeasterly in Central Asia. There is no 
regular geometrical arrangement in mountain-chains. 

In conclusion, it may be remarked that mountain-making as a whole 
can be regarded as a stiffening of the earth’s surface, which process has 
been determined by the distribution of certain older rigid masses. These 
may be made up of mountain lines pushed up together and crossing each 
other, as in Bohemia, or they may consist of widely extended su s 
Whose strata, even the oldest, have retained their horizontal position, as 
n the great Russian plain. These primitive masses conform to no geo- 
metrical law, either in outline or in distribution, though they have deter- 
mined the form and course of the folds which contraction has produced 
in the more pliant portions of the earth’s surface between them. 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 

EXPLORATION oF THE Upper Mapema Pirate. — Professor James 
n, of Vassar College, is preparing for a third expedition to South 
America, He purposes to explore the unknown parts of the Upper 
Madeira P late, the Rio Beni in particular. This magnificent river, 
the largest tributary to the Madeira, has never been explored ; its course 
= as much a geographical problem as the source of the Nile. The mys- 
terious Madre de Dios is supposed to be an afluent, but it remains to be 
proved. Lieutenant Gibbon was charged by our government to settle 
the question, but he failed in the attempt. Professor Orton intends to 
examine this river mainly in the interest of geographical science ; but 


184 General Notes. [ March, 


its natural history and commercial resources will receive all possible at- 
tention. To archeologists this must be an intensely interesting field, as 
the Beni region was the treasure-land of the Incas; while to zodlogists 
it is a paradise of new forms. Said Dr. Sclater in his address before the 
British Association, “There is no part of South America which I would 
Sooner suggest as a promising locality for the zoblogical collector.” 

Tae ALEUTIAN IsLANDS. — We have received copies of a Report 

of Geographical and Hydrographical Explorations on the Coast of 

a, by W. H. Dall, assistant in the Coast Survey. It is accom- 
panied by a map of these islands on an extended scale, and contains 
many corrections of previous maps. 

Mounr Sr. Ex1as.—In an elaborate account of Mount St. Elias 
printed in the forthcoming report of the Coast Survey, Mr. Dall publishes 
a map of the neighboring Alaskan coast, with sketches of Mount St. Elias 
and Mount Fairweather. The former he estimates to be 19,500 feet in 
height, while Mount Cook, which is sometimes mistaken for it, is 16,000 
feet high. Mr. Dall thinks that Mount St. Elias is not an extinct volcano, 
through the great amphitheatre on the southeast flank may possibly be 
the crater of an extinct volcano ; still this is doubtful. “ Preéminent in 
grandeur,” says Mr. Dall, “is the southern face of this mountain. With 
few and but insignificant foot-hills, it rises abruptly from the valley; 
and at about five thousand feet above its base, the entire side of the 


inference that it is precipitous on the invisible northern side.” There 
are no glaciers on the flanks of this mountain, but, owing to the topo- 
graphical features of the peak, great snowfields; while there are four 
glaciers on Mount Fairweather, and at the head of the Bay of Yakutat, 
which lies between the two mountains, “ glaciers come down to the sea, 
and send their floating fragments, laden with earth and stones, out into 
the sea.” These glaciers have apparently always been local, as “ the 
character of the topography is such that it is inconceivable that a contin- 
uous glacier, moving in any direction, could have ever covered the west- 
ern slope of these mountains.” The statement of a Russian sailor that 
Mount St. Elias sent forth flames and ashes is regarded as untrustworthy- 
MICROSCOPY.: 

MICROSCOPY AT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. — At the Detroit 
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
last August, the microscopists who were in attendance decided to organ- 
ize permanently a subsection or club, connected with the association. 

1 This department is conducted by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


1876.] Microscopy. 185 


To allow ample time for preparation, and to facilitate the coöperation of 
all interested parties, it was decided to adjourn for one year, and to pro- 
with the organization at the Buffalo meeting of the association, 
which commences on the third Wednesday of August next and continues 
about one week. All persons interested in the microscope, and desirous 
of joining such an organization as is now proposed, are invited to be 
present and cobperate, whether at present members of the association or 
not, and are requested to bring to the meeting original papers of scien- 
tific interest upon subjects connected with the microscope and its work, 
and also to bring instruments, accessories, and objects, especially those 
illustrating new or unfamiliar inventions, contrivances, and discoveries. _ 

It is hoped that the participation of microscopists in this movement 
will be prompt and cordial. The general desire for a national organiza- 
tion has become a positive necessity, and it is believed that success could 
be in no other way be so fully obtained as by meeting in connection with 
the American Association, whose character and influence could not fail to 
be an advantage, whose meetings are necessarily held only at the most 
available times and places, and whose elaborate arrangements for the 
convenience and economy of members attending are designed for the 

efit of scientists in every department. The recent accession of the 
chemists, the ethnolovists, and the entomologists marks the tendency of 
the association to become a general congress of American scientists. 
In meeting with the American Association the microscopists will enjoy a 
More than double advantage, but separated from it they would lose from 
their number those who desire to attend the meetings of the association 
and whose business or other convenience might interfere with the addi- 
tional journey and absence demanded by a second meeting. 

AMERICAN POSTAL Micro-Casinet Cius.— A year’s experience in 
the working of this organization has already given it the position of a 
Useful and well-sustained institution. The first announcement of the 
formation of the club was so favorably received that an unex ly 

ge number of members was enrolled, since which time its member- 
ship has steadily increased until it now numbers twelve circuits of mem- 
bers, distributed over the whole country east of the Rocky Mountains. 

ith the exception of a remarkably small number of accidents to objects 
While in transit by the mails, which it is believed will be still fewer in 
the future, the club has met with no practical difficulties or disappoint- 
ments. The general excellence as well as the variety of objects con- 
tributed has been conspicuous; and those members, if there are any, 
Who can learn but little from the work of others in various departments 
of the science must at least feel that they have contributed widely to 
the advantage of others at very little trouble to themselves. In addi- 
tion to the circulation and study of mounted objects, critical notes upon 
Same, questions and answers, and announcement of duplicates for 
exchange, it is proposed to add during the present year the exchange of 


186 Scientific News. [ March, 


microscopic objects and material, whether mounted or unmounted, not 
necessarily connected with the slide contributed; any member adding at 
the bottom of his note a statement of offers or wants, and other members 
addressing him directly by mail, in regard to the same. 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— The fifth Bulletin, second series, of the United States Geological 
and Geographical Survey of the Territories contains the following pa- 
pers: A Review of the Fossil Flora of North America, by Leo Lesque- 
reux; Notes on the Geology of some Localities near Cañon City, by S. 
G. Williams; Some Account, Critical, Descriptive, and Historical, of 
Zapus Hudsonius, by Dr. Elliott Coues; On the Breeding-Habits, Nest, 
and Eggs of the White-Tailed Ptarmigan (Lagopus leucurus), by Dr. 
Elliott Coues ; List of Hemiptera of the Region west of the Mississippi 
River, including those collected during the Hayden Explorations of 1873, 
by P. R. Uhler; On some New Species of Fossil Plants of the Lignitic 
Formations, by Leo Lesquereux ; New Species of Fossil Plants from the 
Cretaceous Formation of the Dakota Group, by Leo Lesquereux ; Notes 
on the Lignitiec Group of Eastern Colorado and Wyoming, by F. V. 
Hayden ; On the Supposed Ancient Outlet of Great Salt Lake, by A. 
S. Packard, Jr. The paper by Mr. Uhler occupies about a hundred 
pages, and contains numerous descriptions of new forms and is illustrated 
by three excellent plates. 

— On the 13th of October, 1875, The Cincinnati Geological Society 
was organized with the following officers: President, Harold B. Wilson; 
Treasurer, Chas. Schuchert; and Recording Secretary, Chas. B. Morrell. 

— A Summer School of Biology will be opened in the Museum of 
the Peabody Academy of Science, Salem, Mass., beginning July 7th 
and continuing six weeks. Especial attention will be given to marine 
botany and zodlogy, as the advantages for dredging and shore collecting 
are most excellent. The museum of the academy is situated within 
less than five minutes’ walk of the wharves, while the cars and omnibuses 
run often to the beaches and good collecting-grounds. The number of 
students will be limited to fifteen, and while the school is designed pri- 
marily for the teachers of Essex County, Mass., a few others can be ad- 
mitted. Board can be obtained for $5 a week and upwards. 

Instruction in botany will be given by Mr, John Robinson, with the 


assistance of Mr. C. H. Higbee ; and in zodlogy by A. S. Packard, Jr 


with the assistance of Messrs. J. S. Kingsley and S. E. Cassino. Mr. ©: 
Cooke will have charge of the dredging parties. Special instruction will 
be given in microscopy by Rev. E. C. Bolles. Prof. E. S. Morse and 
several other naturalists of distinction will probably give an occasional 
lecture. An admission fee of $10.00 will be charged. For further par- 
ticulars apply to A. S. Packard, Jr, Peabody Academy of Science, 
Salem, Mass. 


3 
i 
; 
3 
4 


1876.] Scientific News. 187 


— A careful examination of the papers left at the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion by the late Dr. Stimpson has revealed the existence of the complete 
MSS. of his final report on the Crustacea of the North Pacific Exploring 
Expedition as far as the end of the Anomoura, with beautiful figures of 
one hundred and thirty-seven of the new species. It was supposed that 
these had perished with Dr. Stimpson’s other MSS., and with the collec- 
tions they described, in the great Chicago fire. We trust they will soon 
be published. i 
_ — Among the Swedish contributions to the Centennial Exhibition will 
be a number of articles of a fine red granite, that takes as high a polish 
as the well-known Scotch granite, and among the manufactures of the 
beautiful porphyry found in Elfdal, in the province of Dalarne, will be a 

le belonging to the king, which cost ten thousand dollars. A me- 
teorite, weighing ten thousand pounds, sent by the discoverer, Professor 
Nordenskiöld, will attract notice. From the Hawaiian Islands will be 
sent to the exhibition a model of the islands, made to a scale, showing 
their physical geography and topography, and the mountains, valleys, 
woods, forests, rivers, volcanoes, ete. 

— Major Powell has gone West among the Indians for the purpose of 
obtaining casts of the features of the Indian tribes. He has given much 
attention to collecting linguistic and historical documents concerning the 
Pueblos of New Mexico. 

— Mr. J. Matthew Jones, of Halifax, proposes to publish shortly in 
Psyche a list of the few insects known to inhabit the Bermudas. They 
are mostly of a Floridan or West Indian type. 

— Nordenskiöld reports that at Cape Schaitanskoj, the most northerly 
point on the Jenesei River, Dr. Stuxberg discovered a species of fresh- 
Water snail (Physa). This is the most northerly locality for land and 

esh-water mollusks. 

— Mr. J. T. Humphreys, of Atlanta, Georgia, has been appointed 
State Entomologist of Georgia. 

— Nelumbium luteum, according to a popular writer in one of the 
monthlies, is “ the sacred lily of the East,” is “a beautiful blossom,” and 
“is said to have been introduced into this country from Europe by a 
member of the Gadsden family.” The latter statement is rather dis- 
credited by the writer, who adds that “it grows wild in Florida,” and 
was probably brought to South Carolina by Michaux. All this may be 
put about right by a slight correction: The plant is not the sacred lily 
of the East — meaning the Indian Lotus ; though a large blossom, it is 
hot beautiful ; it belongs only to this continent, and grows wild from 
Florida to Wisconsin and Connecticut. 
hee The sixth Bulletin, second series, of Hayden’s United States Geolog- 
teal and Geographical Survey of the Territories, finishes volume i. for 
1874 and 1875. It contains the following papers : An Account of the Vari- 
us Publications relating to the Travels of Lewis and Clarke, with a Com- 


188 Proceedings of Societies. [ March, 


mentary on the Zodlogical Results of their Expedition, by Dr. Elliott 
Coues; Notice of a very large Goniatite from Eastern Kansas, by F. B. 
Meek ; Fossil Orthoptera from the Rocky Mountain Territories, by S. 
H. Scudder; Studies of the American Falconide, Monograph of the 
Polybori, by Robert Ridgway. 

— At the second meeting, held in Boston, of those interested in mount- 
ain exploration, the name “ Appalachian Mountain Club” was adopted. 
Prof. C. H. Hitchcock exhibited a model of the White Mountains, and 
Mr. Sweetser presented the report of the committee on the nomenclature 
of the White Mountains, and the club voted to adopt a number of names 
which the committee recommended. 

i stipe lasts 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 

ACADEMY oF Sciences, San Francisco, Cal. — December 20, 1875: 
A memorial to the legislature, praying that the Geological Survey be re- 
sumed, was adopted. It was stated in the memorial that there have 
been published four Volumes of the geological reports, namely, one of 
geology, two of paleontology, and one of ornithology, besides smaller 
pamphlets and several topographical maps, the beauty, accuracy, and 
value of which are appreciated and acknowledged by all who have care- 
fully examined them. Of the unpublished matter already accumulated, 
there is the material for a second volume of geology, for a volume of botany 
nearly ready to be issued, and the greater portion of the material for a 
second volume of ornithology, devoted to the aquatic birds. The map 
of Central California is so nearly finished that the active field-work of 
one more season would complete it. This map embraces nearly one 
half the area of the State, extending from Lassen’s Peak on the north 
to Visalia on the south, and includes all the more important mining 
districts within the limits of California. The work so far done upon it 
is unexceptionable, and when completed it will possess the highest prac- 
tical value, will meet with a ready sale, and will be the most important 
contribution to the geography of this coast that has ever been made. 
general geological map of the whole State has been partially drawn and 
colored, and could be finished and published in such a way as to show 


the extent of the present knowledge of the geology of the State (subject, © 


of course, to such improvements in detail as may hereafter be developed 
by future works), at no great expense. The United States Coast Sur- 
vey map of the peninsula of San Francisco has been geologically colored 
in great detail, and only waits the means for its publication. 

PHILosopaicaL Society oF WASHINGTON. — January 15, 1876. 
Major J. W. Powell addressed the society on types of mountain-building, 
describing the characteristics of the mountains in the regions covered by 
his explorations. 


January 29th. Mr. W. H. Dall read a paper on the succession in the 


pee, Sa ae ee 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 189 


shell-heaps of the Aleutian Islands. He showed that they were sep- 
arated into three successive periods, indicated by the remains of food 
contained in the shell-heaps, namely, lower or Echinus layer (Littoral 
Period), composed of the remains of Echini and mollusk-shells; middle 
or fish-bone layer (Fishing Period), composed principally of the remains 
of fish; and lastly, the mammalian layer (Hunting Period), composed 
principally of bones of sea animals and birds. Above all this came the 
remains of the more modern village sites. 

The first period might have extended over a thousand years ; the length 
of the others there is no means of approximating. The first layer con- 
tained few and very rude implements, and a gradual progression was 
observed in the variety and finish of the implements and weapons of the 
succeeding layers. Only toward the last were there any signs of the use 
of houses, fire, or ornamentation of tools or other articles, The charac- 
ter of the latter showed that the early inhabitants formed their tools and 
weapons after’ the Eskimo patterns, but these gradually became differ- 
entiated into a type peculiar to the islands. Mr. Dall considered it 
probable that the first inhabitants were Eskimo of*a low type, who took 
to the islands for protection, coming from America, and in their re- 
stricted surroundings in the course of ages developed into a special type, 
without entirely effacing the links which connect them with the Eskimo 
in language, physique, and fabrications. 

Dr. Bessels read a paper on the hygrometric properties of the atmos- 
phere in the Arctic regions. 

Boston Socrery or NATURAL History.— January 19th. Mr. T.T. 
Bouvé read a paper on the origin of porphyry, in which it was claimed 
that the rock was an altered conglomerate. Professor Hyatt exhibited 
4 geological map of Marblehead Neck. The conglomeritic character of 
the porphyries of this locality were particularly dwelt upon, and a large 
series of specimens exhibited. A paper by Mr. L. S. Burbank on the 
conglomerates of Harvard, Mass., and their relations to the crystalline 
rocks, followed. 

February 2d. Dr. W. K. Brooks read a paper on the development of 
Astyris (Columbella) /unata. This is the first siphonated gasteropod 
whose embryological history has been followed. Some general views on 
the molluscan pedigree were added. Mr. S. H. Scudder read a paper 
on the way in which cockroaches and earwigs fold their wings. 

ACADEMY or NATURAL Sciences, Philadelphia. — February 4th. 
The collections of the academy are being arranged as rapidly as possible 
m the new building, and it is hoped that the museum will be thrown 
*pen for the inspection of the public early in the coming spring. — 

Professor Cope exhibited a fragment of a leg-bone of a fossil bird dis- 
covered by him during the explorations in New Mexico conducted by 
Lieutenant Wheeler. It resembles in many points those of the ostrich 
and the extinct Dinornis of New Zealand, and its sizé indicates a species 


190 Proceedings of Societies. [ March, 


twice the bulk of the former. The discovery introduces this group of 
birds to the known faune of North America, recent and extinct, and 
demonstrates the fact that this continent has not been destitute of the 
‘gigantic forms of birds now confined to the fauna of the southern hemi- 
sphere. A description of the fragment was given, the peculiarities which 
distinguish it from the corresponding part of its nearest allies were dwelt 
upon, and the name Diatryma gigantea was proposed for the form indi- 
cated by it. 

Professor Frazer exhibited eight geological maps of Yesso, lately re- j 
ceived from Benjamin Smith Lyman, Geologist-in-Chief of Japan. : 

Mr. Henry Carvill Lewis remarked that it might be of interest to 
mention the occurrence of strontianite in Pennsylvania — a mineral 
which he believed had not been heretofore recorded as occurring in our i 
State. He had found it quite abundantly in Mifflin County, on the 
Juniata, opposite Mount Union. It exists as white tufts of rhombic l 
crystals lining pockets in limestones, or, when in shale, disseminated l 

throughout the rock-mass. 

paper entitled Description of a New Generic Type, Bassaricyon 
Gabbii, of the Procyonide, from Costa Rica, by J. A. Allen, was pre- 
sented for publication. 

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF Sciences. — At the late annual election, 
Prof. George Davidson was elected president. At the meeting of Jan- 
uary 17th, Henry Edwards read descriptions of new species of Lepi- 
doptera, and a resolution was adopted, the object of which was to section- 
ize the academy. 

ACADEMY OF Sctence, St. Louis. —January 17th. Dr. Richardson 
exhibited a skull and some specimens of pottery obtained from a mound 
“near the stock-yards” at East St. Louis. The mound was about ten 
feet high, and forty feet in diameter at its base. At a depth of six or 
seven feet, eighteen skulls were found. The bodies had been laid ina 
circle, with the heads outward. Many of the skulls were fractured on 
the temporal bone. He had also found eighteen graves in the bluffs on 
the Belleville or “rock” road. These bones were found under slabs of 
stone, with some article of pottery near the head. 

Mr. Theo. Allen exhibited some pottery and skulls found in mounds 
in Southeast Missouri. The mounds were near a swamp, and inclosed 
in an earth-work about a quarter of a mile square. Three mounds were 
opened. In only one were human remains found. Here were discovered 
the skulls, arms, and legs of many skeletons. No vertebre or ribs were 
found. The bodies had been placed in a circle, with the heads inward. 
The skulls were nearly all flattened on the left side, and pressed out oD 
the right side, but lay with the face upward. Many articles of pottery 
were found with the skulls. Mr. Allen stated that many of these adult 
skulls possess rudimentary teeth. Within the inclosure were also found 
many sink-holes, laid out in regular order, which had once served aS 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 191 


human habitations. Specimens of dried brick which had been used to 
plaster over these rude habitations were also found. Mr. A. J. Conant 
also exhibited some skulls, and implements of bone and stone, found by 
him in caves in Pulaski County, Mo., on the Gasconade River. one 

ACADEMY OF Sciences, New York. — January 24th. The president, 
Dr. J. S. Newberry, made a communication on Fossil Fishes and Foot- 
Prints from the Trias of New Jersey, in which he announced his re- 
discovery of an old and important locality, which had been for many 
years forgotten or lost. Boonton, New Jersey, lies at the junction of the 
Trias with the gneiss range of the Highlands ; and close to the village 
occur two adjacent beds of shale, in the Triassic sandstone. These layers 
are literally crowded with fishes, for the most part in a very perfect 
condition, showing no traces of slow decay, but rather of sudden destruc- 
tion and burial, Many fine specimens were procured, but only one 
species had been definitely recognized, Catopterus gracilis. 

He also exhibited very fine and large tracks from the Triassic sand- 
stones at Pompton, a few miles from the fish locality. They have the 
same characters as the three-toed reptilian foot-prints (the so-called 
‘ bird-tracks ”) of the Connecticut Valley. ‘The evidence is ample that 
this great tribe of bird-like reptiles had a very considerable development 
in our American Mesozoic, reaching on well into the Cretaceous in the 
forms of Hadrosaurus and Leelaps. : 

Prof. D. S. Martin presented an account of the Occurrence of Silurian 
Fossils in the Drift of Long Island. The fossils are characteristic Bra- 
chiopods of the Delthyris shaly limestone (especially Strophodonta Becki 
and S. Headleyana) from a large bowlder in the heavy drift of Long Isl- 
and, at Willett’s Point. A like circumstance has lately been noted in the 
Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy, — the finding of Oneida and 
Medina bowlders at West Philadelphia. The questions arising are the 
same in the two cases, namely, as to whether the transporting agent was 
glacier-ice or bergs. If the former, the distance over which the ice- 
sheet actually moved (in the present case nearly one hundred miles) is 
quite beyond our usual estimate, at least in this region, and would also 
require that the glacier should have overridden the range of the Blue 
Ridge Highlands entirely. On the other hand, if icebergs were the 
agents, they must needs have passed through the narrow gaps in that 
range now occupied by the Hudson, in this instance, and by the Dela- 
ware, Lehigh, or Schuylkill, in the other. The finding of some oysters 
(apparently O. borealis) with the Long Island bowlder would indicate 
clearly that floating ice was the agency of transportation. 

r. Henry Newton, of the United States Black Hills Expedition, 
exhibited a large series of rocks and of Cretaceous and Jurassic fossils, 
collected by the party last summer, and described their occurrence some- 
what in detail. The rocks included Potsdam sandstone, Huronian slates, 
and granites of two very distinct types; one of these Mr. Newton re- 


192 Scientific Serials. [ March. 


gards as Laurentian, and the other as eruptive, and subsequent to the 
deposition of the Potsdam, at least, as that rock contains no fragments of 
it, though full of pebbles from the Huronian. 


E. Hagen vice-presidents. Dr. Ward delivered an address on the Pet- 
rified Forest of California. He considered the peculiar fracture of the 
fallen petrified trunks their most suggestive and important peculiarity 
since they are broken up somewhat symmetrically in a manner that 


might happen to wood rendered brittle by charring or perhaps by partial 


petrifaction, but could hardly be conceived as occurring to ordinary wood 
or stone. 
T 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.! .- 


QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF MICROSCOPICAL Scrence.— January. On 
the Structure of Hyaline Cartilage, by G. Thin. Further Observations 
on a Peach or Red Colored Bacterium, by E. R. Lankester. On the 
Development of Teeth, by C. S. Tomes. An Account of Professor 
Haeckel’s Recent Additions to the Gastrea Theory, by E. R. Lankester. 
On the Evolution of Hemoglobin, by H. C. Sorby. 

THe Montaty Microscoricat JOURNAL. — January. Improved 
Method of Applying the Micro-Spectroscopic Test for Blood-Stains, by 
J. G. Richardson. 

THe POPULAR SCIENCE: Review. — January. In the Wake of the 
Challenger, by J. G. Galton. The Cretaceous Flora, by J. Morris. 

THE GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. — January. Contributions to the 
Study of Volcanoes, by J. W. Judd. Geology of Ice and Bell Sounds, 
Spitzbergen, by A. E. Nordenskiöld. 

ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTLICH ZoöLOGIE. — December 8, 
1875. Natural History of the Marine Bryozoa, by W. Repiachoff. 
Anatomy of Chetoderma nitidulum, by L. Graff. On the Order Gastro- 
tricha, by H. Ludwig. 

ARCHIV FÜR MIKROSKOPISCHE ANATOMIE.— November 20, 1875. 


On the Tegument of Amphibia, by F. Leydig. On the Anatomy of 


Amphioxus lanceolatus, by P, Langerhans. 

ARCHIVES DE ZOÖLOGIE EXPÉRIMENTALE ET GÉNÉRALE. — No. 3, 
1875. Researches on the Free Helminths of the Coast of Brittany, by 
A. Villot. Contributions to a History of the Gregarine of Invertebrates 
of Paris and Roscoff, by A. Schneider. On the Development of Podur®, 
by Oulganin (notice by the editor). 

PETERMANN’S GEOGRAPHISCHER MīTTHEILUNGEN. — November 10, 
1875. Stanley’s Exploration of Victoria Nyanza, by E. Behm. Nor- 
denskiöld’s New Route by Sea from Europe to Siberia. | 

1 The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part selected. 


THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vor. x.— APRIL, 1876. — No. $. 


THE AMERICAN ANTELOPE, OR PRONG BUCK. 
BY HON. J. D. CATON. 


p is not possible to give more than a synopsis of the natural 

history of the American antelope in the space which may be 
properly allowed in this journal. It was first made known to the 
scientific world through Lewis and Clark, who found it in 1804 
on the Upper Missouri, and who at times made it an important 
object of the chase.. On their return they brought with them a 
specimen, which was placed in Peale’s Museum, at Philadelphia, 
and first described by Mr. Ord, and named Antelope Americana. 
Three years later, in Journal de Physique, he gave it a generic 
distinction under the name of Antilocapra Americana. 

This animal is not a native of the Old World, and is confined 
toa very limited portion of the New; that is to say, the western 
Part of the continent, mostly’ within the temperate zone; and 
“ince, a8 we shall hereafter seg, it avoids forests and high mount- 
ans, it may not be looked for in many portions of this region. 
It was never found east of the Mississippi River, nor did it even 
reach the Missouri River except on its upper part, where it crossed 
that river in the more arid regions. 

The habits of our antelope explain why it is so confined in its 
range. Its aliment is strictly herbaceous. It not only rejects 
arboreous food, but it has such an aversion to forests that it 
rarely enters them voluntarily, refusing to be driven into them 
at the greatest peril. True, it will eross thin skirts of timber in 
Passing from one prairie to another, and the old bucks at certain 
Seasons, when they seem inclined to avoid the society of their 
kind, have been known to seclude themselves in the open, park- 
: like glades of some districts. 

a on are exceptionally gregarious in their habits, although 
'mmense bands of thousands in which they formerly assem- 


1 
l 


Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, JR. 1876. 


194 The American Antelope, or Prong Buck. [April 


(Fig. 10.) PRONG BUCK. 


Adult Male, with a longitudinal section of the right horn, showing the core of the horn. 
` 


j 
: 


(Fig. 11) KID OF THE PRONG BUCK, FOUR MONTHS OLD. 


ee 


1876.] The American Antelope, or Prong Buck. 195 


bled are now broken up by the advancement of civilization, 
which has absolutely expelled them from those regions where 
they were met with in great numbers a quarter of a century 
since. Then they were most abundant in California, where they 
sometimes almost literally covered the’ plains and the foot-hills 
west of the Sierras, and where now a solitary wanderer is rarely 
heard of. The parks and plains in the mountains and east of 
them, and the great table-lands separating the distant ranges, 
are now most affected by our antelope, for there it finds that dry, 
gravelly soil, covered by a scanty but nutritious vegetation, which 
its tastes seem to crave and its nature seems to require; there 
too, only the shepherd and the herder are induced to intrude upon 
its seclusion and disturb its quiet. 

Although Richardson objects to the appellation Americana, 
because there may be two species of the genus, it is now settled 
beyond dispute that this animal stands alone, a solitary species 
of a distinct genus among ruminants, ds we shall presently see, 
differing so widely in many important particulars that zodlog- 
ical laws which have hitherto been considered well settled have 
to be abandoned and new ones recognized. Capra Americana, 
which was once supposed by some to be a species of the same 
genus, is now well established to be a true goat, and no more 
related to the animal under consideration than is Ovis montana, 
our Rocky Mountain sheep, and in coat and coloring the latter 

Sa much stronger resemblance to our animal than the for- 
mer, } 

In size, the prong buck (Bartlett) is considerably smaller 
than the ordinary Virginia deer, and less variation among indi- 
viduals is observed than occurs in any of the deer family. A 
fully adult male rarely exceeds four feet in length from tip to 
tip, and three feet in height to the top of the shoulder, while the 
adult female is considerably smaller. The hunter never has 
difficulty in throwing the largest upon his horse or upon his 
shoulder, and walking to camp with him, though if the distance 
be great he gets heavy, no doubt. 

the form is best understood by reference to the illustration, 
Which is taken from life, of a fully adult male standing at perfect 
AN. The body is short and round, the tail is very short, the 
neck is rather short, and is carried very erect. The head is 
rather broad and short, and carried well up. The ears are small 

erect, 


The hairs of this animal differ from those found on most of 


196 The American Antelope, or Prong Buck. — [April, 


the hollow-horned ruminants, and possess the extreme charac- 
teristics generally observed in those of the deer. They are hol- 
low except near the roots and extreme points, and are filled with 
a sort of light pith something like that found in the quill of the 
turkey or the chicken. These hairs are quite -non-elastic and 
fragile, in this respect resembling more those of the caribou than 
of any other quadruped. The points of the hairs are solid, and 
hence firm and tenacious, while the lower parts are moistened 
by an oily secretion from the skin which makes them the more 
flexible and less liable to be broken. Hence they are found to 
be most fragile one quarter or one third of the way down from 
their points. There is present an under coat of fur during the 
winter, but this is less abundant than on most of the deer. 

On the belly the hairs are more solid and tenacious, and on 
the legs and face they are quite so. On the top of the neck is 
a distinct mane, more pronounced on the male, consisting of long, 
erect, and firm red hairs; which are less abundant towards the 
bod 

The illustration of the young kid will show that it is of the 
same color as the adult, only the shades become deeper on the 
older animals. The face is generally black to yellowish-brown, 
with white cheeks. Below each ear is a dark brown or dull 
black patch. The neck and upper part of the body are of a yellow- 
ish-tawny color, often deepening to a brownish shade. On the 
lower part of the sides the belly and the inguinal regions are white, 
which color extends up between the hind legs, uniting with the 
white patch on the rump. This white area extends up under 
the neck, where it is broken into transverse bands by the yellow- 
ish-tawny of the neck. On many specimens a tawny line ex- 
tends down the back to and along the upper side of the tail, 
dividing the whole patch on the rump, while in others this is 
entirely wanting. The white color on all the parts where it is 
present is entirely immaculate. 

The entire absence of the hind or accessory hoofs found in 
most other ruminants early attracted attention, and distinguishes 
the prong buck from both the deer and the antelope, between 
which it seems to stand. Externally, then, the foot is short and 
broad, without distinct curvatures, and resembles the foot of the 
true antelope much more than that of the deer. 

A very important feature of this animal is the glandular system 
which it is found to possess. Until quite recently these gl 
have not been made a subject of special study. They are per- 


f 


1876.] The American Antelope, or Prong Buck. 197 


haps best described and located by Dr. Murie. All are dermal 
glands. Two are sub-auricular, and covered by the dark patches 
already mentioned. There are two ischiatic glands at the points 
of the hips below the tail, and another pair is found at the hocks, 
and there is an interdigital gland on each foot. Besides the ten 
glands which may be said to be in pairs, there is a single gland 
on the top of the back at the anterior border of the white patch. 
There is no lachrymal sinus. 

From these glands is emitted an odor more pungent at some 
seasons than at others, and more observable from the old males 
than from the females or the young males; still, it is observable 
in all at all times. : 

The eye is exceptionally large for the size of the animal. It 
is much larger than that of any of the deer, the ox, or the horse. 
The entire exposed part of the orb is intensely black, so that I 
have never been able by the closest. scrutiny to distinguish the 
pupil from the iris on the living subject. While it is brilliant, it 
is mild, soft, and gentle. It is the eye of the antelope gazelle, 
only larger and blacker, as I have often compared them when 
standing side by side. This animal has been often called the 
American gazelle. A female gazelle from Asia, in my grounds, 
showed a disposition to associate and play with a young prong 
buck, but with no other animal in the grounds. I have seen our 
antelope weep copious tears, when in deep affliction. 

n domestication this animal loses its wild timidity sooner and 
more completely than any other animal fere nature whose do- 
mestication I have attempted. When taken young it soon ac- 
quires the attachment of a child for the human species, and when 
captured adult in a short time becomes so tame that it will take 
food from the hand and follow one by the hour, walking through 
the grounds. It soon perceives that it has nothing to fear, and 
then readily bestows its confidence. It is not generally healthy 
m domestication, probably from the humidity of our climate and 

© want of some alimentary element which it finds in its native 
Plains, Many are afflicted with scrofula, and some linger and 
die without any well-defined disease. I have never yet been able 
to keep one in my grounds for a single year, but am still contin- 
ung my experiments. 

I have never yet heard of an instance where they have bred in 
domestication, although the males especially are excessively sala- 
“ous in their inclinations; but I have yet to learn of a case of 
actual fertility, 


x 
198 The American Antelope, or Prong Buck. [ April, 


They show a degree of intelligence scarcely surpassed by that 
of the dog, which would, no doubt, be greatly improved by suc- 
ceeding generations under the influence of domestication, should 
that be proved possible. One that was in the constant habit of 
following me soon became disgusted with the elk which chased 
him, so that whenever he saw me going towards the gate which 
opened into the elk park, he would place himself in front of me 
and try to push me back, and then look up imploringly, and if 
I turned away in another direction would gambol about in the 
greatest delight. In the wild state, at least, this animal is pos- 
sessed of inordinate curiosity, by which it is often beguiled within 
reach of the hunter. In this it resembles the barren-ground cari- 
bou, or our small Arctic reindeer. 

It is the swiftest of foot of all known quadrupeds, but it cannot 
continue the race at high speed for a great length of time, al- 
though for a few miles or a few minutes its escape seems like the 
flight of a bird. While it can make astonishing horizontal leaps, 
even from a standing position, it cannot or will not make high 
vertical leaps.’ I do not think that one under any circumstances 
could be driven over an obstruction a yard in height. 


Like that of all the deer tribe, its sight is defectjve, since it is 


unable to readily identify objects without the aid of motion. Its 
senses of smell and hearing are very acute, and on these it largely 
depends to warn it of the approach of enemies. 

The most interesting of all the characteristics of the goat ante- 
lope, that which most distinguishes it from all other ruminants, 
is its horns. These appendages are given to both male and fe- 
male, but on the latter they are scarcely more than rudimentary 
_ till they are fully adult, and even then they are quite insignifi- 

cant, varying from one to three inches in length at the uttermost. 
The horn of Antilocapra is hollow, like the horn of the goat and 
the ox, and it is deciduous, like the antler of the deer. When 
this peculiarity was announced, it was received with entire in- 
credulity by naturalists, and the world of science accepted the 
truth only after overwhelming evidence had been accumulated. 

The first allusion I find to the deciduous character of the horns 
of this antelope is in Audubon and Bachman’s Quadrupeds of 
North America, ii. 198, where we learn that the hunters at F 


Union told Mr. Audubon that the antelopes shed their horns, 


but the naturalist « managed to prove the contrary.” Again, on 


page 204, he returns to the subject, but says he was never able 


to ascertain that they do shed their horns. 


| 
| 


š 
1876.] The American Antelope, or Prong Buck. 199 


_ Dr. Canfield, of Monterey, California, who lived in the midst 
of vast flocks of antelope, and had domesticated many of them 
and intelligently studied them, in 1848, in a communication to 
Professor Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, announced the 
deciduous character of their horns quite circumstantially, and gave 
many interesting facts connected with the animal, but the pro- 
fessor considered the announcement so extraordinary that he did 
hot feel justified in publishing the communication. Five years 
later Mr. Bartlett, superintendent of the gardens of the Zoölog- 
ical Society of London, himself observed the casting of the horns 
of an adult male then in the society’s gardens, and announced the 
fact to the society in a paper which was published in its Trans- 
actions. Since then it has been admitted by naturalists as an 
established fact. 

From the number of these interesting animals which I have 
had and still have in a state of domestication, my opportunities 
for observing them have been good, and I have found it the very 
luxury of study to observe the progress of the growth and the 
casting of these horns, and to investigate the mode of growth ; 
and I am sure the reader will bear with me while I give a brief 
description of the process. 

The horn of the antelope grows on a permanent process of the 
skull which rises upon the supra-orbital arch, so that not an inch 
of space intervenes on the adult between the base of the horn 
and the orb itself. When the male kid is born, a protuberance 
may be felt where the horn is to grow. This grows with the 
kid, and by the time it is six months old, the little horn breaks 
through the skin, presenting asharp, hard point.. This horn per- 
fects its growth from the first to the last of January, when it has. 
attained a length of an inch or less, and is then cast off. The 
next horn is perfected and cast earlier, and so on till full ma-' 
turity is attained, when the horn is thrown off in October, though 
In this strict uniformity must not be expected. j 

On the adult male the horn is about twelve inches long, and 
the core in the specimen now before me is little more than five 
inches long. The horn is laterally compressed. The lower half 
18 about two and one half inches wide and one inch thick, the: 
anterior edge becoming sharper towards the prong. Above the: 
Prong it is much less compressed, assuming more a cylindrical 
form ; still it is somewhat flattened to the end. The prong, which:: 
'S anterior and occurs about midway the length of the horn, is: 
Scarcely more than an abrupt termination of the anterior part of : 


200 The American Antelope, or Prong Buck. (April, 


the flattened section, where its width is increased to about three 
and a half inches, terminating in a sharp point ; so we may sa 
the prong is one inch in length. But in this different specimens 
vary considerably. 

The horn appears as if constructed of a mass of longitudinal 
fibres, even presenting a striated appearance, especially the lower 
part, and is roughened by a great number of small tubercles be- 
low the prong to near the base. Many hairs occur on the lower 
portion of the horn, some of which often remain till the latter is 
shed. In color the horn is a deep black, except the extreme tip, 
which is generally a translucent yellowish-white, sometimes for 
half an inch or more. 

If we now confine ourselves to the horn on the adult, we shall 
the better’ understand it. Soon after the rut-time is passed, we ob- 
serve the horn, the shell which envelops the persistent core, lifted 
from its seat and each day carried up higher and higher, and be- 
coming more and more loose till presently it is thrown off. Then 
it is revealed to us how this has been done. We look inside the 
cast-off horn and see that the cavity does not extend above the 
prong, which is scarcely half-way up the horn. We see that 
the core was laterally compressed, broad and thin, presenting an- 
teriorly its sharpest edge. The illustration shows the form and 
extent of this core better than I can describe it in words; and so 
of the horn itself, I represent the side of the horn cut away s0 
as to show the entire core. As we proceed in our examination 
we see that when the old horn was thrown off the new horn 
had already made considerable progress in its growth above the 
end of the core, and that it was this new growth of horn which 
had dislocated the old one, completely detached it from the core, 
and so permitted it to drop off. From the hardenetl point down 
to the core, the new horn is warm and slightly elastic and flexible, 
least so towards the hardened point. To watch the growth of 
the horn henceforward is exceedingly interesting. It extends in 
length pretty rapidly, and towards the upper end assumes the 
posterior curvature as the hardening process, which converts it 
into true horn, progresses downward. Meanwhile the skin which 
covered the core, and which was rather sparsely set with long, 
coarse, lightish - colored hairs, shows no unusual activity. But 
when the perfected horn reached the top of the core, the upper 
section of this skin, for an inch perhaps, showed unusual activity, 
and became thicker, its upper part becoming hard and insensible 
and finally assuming the consistence of true horn, conforming in 


1876.] The American Antelope, or Prong Buck. 201 


shape to the thin, flat core, only that the new horn projects its 
anterior edge far beyond the core, thus forming the prong; and so 
the growth proceeds downward, involving but-a limited portion 
of the skin which covers the core, below which it appears to be 
in a normal condition and above which is the perfected horn, till 
finally it reaches the base of the horn, when the growth may be 
considered perfected. This occurs about the last of July or early 
in August. The progress of the growth is much slower on the 
lower part of the horn than it was on the upper part. The 
lower part of the horn, which envelops the core, is covered more 
or less with hairs which penetrate it from the skin beneath. 
These we find more abundant as we pass down the horn in our 
examination. These at last, however, nearly disappear fromthe 
surface, probably by abrasion. As soon as or before the commence 
ment of the rutting season, the horn has completed its growth 
and has become a perfect weapon, and so continues during that 
season, which so excites the males to belligerency. As this 
Passes by, the growth of the new horn commences at the top of 
the core and proceeds as before described, lifting the old horn 
from its seat and finally throwing it off. 

, < May not occupy the space requisite to describe the pecul- 
larities of the growth of the successive horns and of the cores, 
while they are growing from the kid to the fully adult, although 
they show some interesting phenomena. Suffice it to repeat that 
the first horn of the kid is shed in January; the next year it com 
pletes its growth earlier and is shed in December, and so on each 
year, the horn being shed a few weeks earlier than was its prede- 
fessor, till when the animal becomes fully adult the horn is cast 
soon after the rutting season is past. ; 

T have never had in domestication an adult female, with horns 
developed, and cannot say whether they mature and are thrown 
om at the same times as those of the males. 

; Apparently the skin covering the core of the horn is converted 
into horn. The microscope alone can reveal the truth of this, 
and by its aid the whole is made plain. The core of the horn is 
arst covered by the periosteum. Next, and without any interven- 
mg tissues, comes the skin, with its proper epidermis. The horns 
Previously described have their roots in the cellular tissue, or 
Wer stratum of the skin, as we will call it. When sufficiently 
magnified, the upper or outer part of the skin shows the uneven 
*ppearance occasioned by elevations and depressions called papille, 
“818 observed on other portions of the skin. Upon this uneven 


202 The American Antelope, or Prong Buck. [ April, 


surface rests the epidermis, if we may use that term, where con- 
stant activity is ever present. As this epidermis or outer coating 
of the skin on the human subject, for instance, is constantly wear- 
ing away, so must it be constantly renewed by new growths. For 
this purpose minute cells are constantly being formed upon or next 
to the papilla. The new cells, being at the very bottom, neces- 
sarily force up their predecessors, which become more and more 
flattened out in the form of scales. Of these flattened scales the 
epidermis is formed ; as they approach the surface, they become 
dryer and harder and of a horny nature, ‘even on the most deli- 
cate skin, and in that condition these horny scales or flattened 
cells are worn off by friction. It is these flattened cells which 
constitute all horns, hoofs, nails, and claws; and so we are not 
disappointed when we find that the horns of our antelope are 
composed of these same flattened and dried-up cells. As these 
cells are forced up and flattened out, they cohere in a mass large 
enough to form the horn, and in obedience to some law of nature 
are molded into the proper form. When enough of these flat- 
tened and hardened cells have been accumulated and consolidated 
to constitute the horn at a given place, it cleaves off from the 
softer inner portion of the cuticle within, leaving a stratum of 
epidermis covering the corium. 

While the mode of growth of this horn so exactly corresponds 
with that of other and persistent horns, its progress is necessarily 
widely different. The growth of other horns is very slow and 
uniform, proceeding from the epidermis at their bases, while this 
horn, instead of taking a life-time to complete its growth, must 
be finished in a few months. It is not pushed up and enlarged a 
little each year by a slow accumulation of these flattened and 
hardened cells at its base, but it first shoots up with astonishing 
rapidity from the very top of the core, till the old horn is pushed 
off and the new one above is far advanced, while over all the 
rest of the core the cuticle has manifested no unusual activity, 
but simply a moderate state of vitality is exhibited. When 
growth of the horn above the end of the core is completed, the 
time has arrived for the formation of the new horn below. That 
part of the epidermis which had been so active and performed 
such extraordinary work in so short a time relapses into a state 
of quiet, and a section below has suddenly become aroused to * 
state of great activity, till it has done its work and completed its 
horny crust, when in a few days, or weeks at most, it in tum 
relapses into quiet ; and so, as the growth progresses downward, 


1876.] The American Antelope, or Prong Buck. 203 


successive sections become stimulated to great activity, do their 
work, and subside to quiet, till finally the base is reached and the 
horn is complete; and now the epidermis has a rest during the 
rutting season and until the time arrives for the commencement 
of a new growth, which proceeds as before ; and so is it annually 
repeated. 

We can partially understand how it is that the lately active 
part becomes quiet so soon as the horn over it is perfected, if we 
will remember that a partial separation takes place between the 
horn and a sensitive stratum of the epidermis, but I cannot so 
readily explain how it is that successive sections below are awak- 
ened from their state of quietude to an activity nowhere else in 
nature equaled or even approached for the same purpose. I can 
only say that the exigencies of the case demand it, and nature sup- 
plies the means. 

Altogether this is a most interesting animal, requiring peculiar 
conditions of life for its well-being, which confine it to a very 
limited area on the face of the earth. The discovery of this 
animal has opened a new chapter to the naturalist, in which 
some of his preconceived notions must be rudely swept away, and 
new possibilities in the animal kingdom recognized. It stands 
solitary and alone in the middle space where a void was thought 
to exist, which supposed zodlogical laws had declared could never 
be filled. It supplies a link in the animal kingdom which we 
thought could not exist, and which we were slow to recognize 
when found. It occupies an intermediate place, if it does not 
entirely fill up the gap, between those ruminants which have hol- 
ow and persistent cornuous horns and those which have solid and 
deciduous ones. It has eight incisors in the lower jaw, and no 
canine teeth, but twenty-four molars. We find examples of 
this dental formula in both the above groups. In its skin and 
Coat it is like the deer. Its eye is most like that of some of the 
antelopes. Its glandular system is most like that of the goat. It 
is the most delicate and particular feeder of all ruminants, while 
the goat is the most promiscuous consumer. In its salacious dis- 
Position it resembles and even excels the goat, but is the farthest 
of all from it in its ability to climb rocks and precipices. It has 
Many characteristics hitherto supposed to be confined to one or 
the other of the families of ruminants above referred to, while it 
exhibits others peculiar to itself. 

ince writing this article I have examined the illustrations here 
reproduced (see Figures 12 and 13), with the late Mr. Hays’s 


(Fia. 13.) THE PRONG BUCK. (After Hays.) he baini 
Fig. 12.— a. The horn just shed. b. A longitudinal section, showing the apes in eda 
pass g pSr the horn. c. The appearance of the horn in January. d. Its appearance 


1876.] Are Potato Bugs Poisonous ? 205 


article on the. growth of the horns of the prong buck, in the 
NATURALIST, volume ii., page 131, and find some differences be- 
tween his observations and mine, from which we may infer the 
want of exact uniformity not only in the structure but in the 
progress of the growth of the horn. The section of the horn 
shown in Figure 12 shows a core differing in both form and ex- 
tent from any I have seen. I have never met one where the 
core extended above the prong. 


ARE POTATO BUGS POISONOUS?! 
BY AUG. R. GROTE AND ADOLPH KAYSER. 


A STATEMENT of the poisoning qualities of the Doryphora 
AA decemlineata, or potato bug, has repeatedly been made in pub- 
lic prints, and notably in the Seventh Report on the Insects of 
Missouri by Professor C. V. Riley. Itis claimed that after coming 
m contact with the bugs, or inhaling the steam or smoke produced 
by boiling or burning them, persons have exhibited various symp- 
toms of cutaneous or nervous disease. 

To investigate the matter, a quantity of the bugs collected from 
fields near Buffalo, where no arsenic had been used, was submit- 
ted to distillation with salt water, so as to allow of an increased 
temperature. Under this process, about four ounces of liquid were 
procured from one quart measure of the insects. This liquid was 
perfectly clear, and emitted a highly offensive smell ; it proved 
of alkaline reaction on account of the presence of a certain quan- 
tity of free ammonia and carbonate of ammonia. 

_ Again, an equal quantity of the bugs was used to prepare a 
tincture made as follows: Absolute and chemically pure alcohol 
was condensed upon the live bugs; after a digestion of twenty- 
four hours the alcohol was evaporated at a gentle heat. The 
tincture so obtained had a decidedly acid reaction, was brown in 
color, and was not disagreeable in smell. 

To ascertain the effect on the animal system of the liquid and 
the tincture above described, a number of frogs were procured for 
the experiment. About one half cubic centimetre of the liquid 
and the tincture each was introduced separately into the stomach. 
Neither the liquid nor the tincture produced any apparent effects. 

he vivacity of the frogs so treated continued unimpaired, not- 
withstanding the complete retention of the doses. Again, two 


1 We 
Read at the Detroit Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement 
t Science, 1875, 


206 Are Potato Bugs Poisonous ? [ April, 


fresh frogs were submitted to a hypodermic injection of the liquid 
and the tincture, in the hind legs, by means of an ordinary hy- 
podermic syringe. The injection of the distilled liquid was unat- 
tended by injurious results. A slight disinclination, at first, to 
use the hind limbs was shown also in the case of another frog, 
which was treated hypodermically with pure water to check the 
results obtained. 

The injection of the tmeture, however, proved fatal to the sub- 
ject. A few moments after the injection the leg operated upon 
seemed to become paralyzed, and the heart stopped beating 
within thirty minutes afterwards, by which time the other two 
hypodermically treated seemed to have completely overcome the 
effects of the operation. 10 

The tincture, although highly concentrated, contained but a 
small quantity of animal acids, which, when saturated with bases 
of potassa and soda, formed deliquescent hexagonal crystals, visi- 
ble under the microscope, but insufficient in quantity to analyze. 
It is known that such acids are very active in their effects upon 
the animal system. The bite of a flea or of a bedbug is attended 
by an introduction of acids which produce a swelling by the coag- 
ulation of the albuminous fluids of the body. The rapid coagula- 
tion of milk was shown by the experiment of introducing a few 
drops of the tincture above described, during the present experi- 
ments. In the case of the insects above mentioned, especial or- 
gans are occupied with the secretion of the acids which serve the 
insect economy by coagulating those parts of the blood of the 
victim which may not be useful for food. No such organs have 
been noticed in the potato bug. The presence of the acid leads 
us to conjecture as to the origin of such organs, while they have 
apparently not become developed in the potato bug. The acids 
being found to be present in such small quantity, the conclusion 
is unavoidable, in the light of the present experiments, that the 
bugs are not poisonous. 

Rather does it seem likely that the published statements to the 
contrary were based on erroneous observations, while it is eX 
tremely probable that certain of the more aggravated and circum- 
stantially detailed cases of poisoning are due to the effects of ar- 
senic (Paris green and arsenious acid), which is now profusely 
used for the extermination of the bugs. Many metallic salts will 
produce cutaneous irritation ; when arsenic is sublimed by heats 
the inhaled fumes will produce nervous disorder ; the effects of 
Paris green may have been mistaken’ for those of the potato 


E 


a 


i 
i 
$ 
< 
: 
a 


1876.] The Little Missouri * Bad Lands.” 207 


bugs. It is credible, moreover, that when larger amounts of the 
_ bugs are thrown into a fire to destroy them, even when not con- 
taining any arsenic, an incomplete combustion might take place, 
in which case carbonous oxide (CO) would be produced, which 
would certainly bring about the evil effects complained of. It 
may also be remarked that previous to the advent of the potato 
bug the potato plant itself had not been so freely handled as 
lately ; an inquiry as to the effects of the entrance of the minute 
hairs from the leaf into the skin, and also into the properties of 
the juice of the plant, might show cause for some symptoms com- 
plained of. Le 

At this time, when the use of arsenious acid is forbidden in 
Germany in the manufacture of aniline colors, on account of its 
evil effects on. animal organisms, it may not be thought im- 
proper to call the attention of the people of our country to the 
present use of arsenic in the culture of so universal a food plant 
as the potato. 


THE LIITEE MISSOURI “ BAD LANDS.” 
BY J. A: ALLEN. 


P Western Dakota are what are termed the Little Missouri 
“Bad Lands,” a region as picturesque and strange as the 
agination can well conceive. As we leave the Missouri River at 
Fort Abraham Lincoln, the present western terminus of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad, the journey to these ‘ Bad Lands ” 
18 mainly by the so-called Sully’s Trail, which runs nearly due 
Westward between the 46th and 47th parallels. The three hun- 
dred miles of treeless prairies that lie between the Missouri and 
Little Missouri rivers present us with nothing of remarkable 
lnterest. Gradually, as we advance westward, the grass becomes 
Scantier and the cacti and sage bushes more abundant, evincing 
the increasing aridity of the climate. Isolated, conical mounds 
or ** buttes,” occasionally of considerable height, are seen at long 
intervals, and serve as important landmarks. ‘The streams are 
few and small, the most of them dwindling towards the end of 
summer to a series of detached, brackish pools. Along the larger 
of them we meet here and there with little clumps of trees, or, 
more rarely, with continuous narrow belts of timber, consisting 
mainly of box-elder and eotton-wood, with a sprinkling of elm ; 
oF occasionally they are made up almost entirely of oak. These 
ttle Stoves, sometimes a day’s journey apart, constitute the 


im 


— 208 The Little Missouri “ Bad Lands.” [ April, 


only trees met with, — little wooded oases in a vast expanse of 
rolling, grassy prairie. In crossing these prairies we miss, even in 
June, when the vegetation is in its greatest freshness, the variety 
and profusion of flowers that give to the more southern prairies 
the aspect of a vast flower-garden, — the patches of pink, orange, 
yellow, and other bright tints produced by the social grouping of 
the prevailing species, which impart their own hues to broad areas 
of the landscape, as do often the buttercups and daisies to New 
England hill-sides. Most conspicuous on the Dakota prairies, 
west of the Missouri, are the little prairie roses (Rosa blanda — 
Ait.), which fill the air with their delicate perfume, and seem 
often to almost cover the ground in their abundance. These 
gems of the prairie in a measure atone for the absence of a 
greater variety of showy flowering plants. 

Bird life is abundant over these prairies, they being everywhere 
enlivened by the few peculiar kinds, such as larks, buntings, and 
sparrows, that so eminently characterize the Plains. Among 
them, however, the ornithologist detects with delight both the 
Missouri skylark (Neocorys Spraguei Sel.) and Baird’s bunting 
(Centronyx Bairdit Bd.), species which until a few years since 
were among the least known of the birds of the continent. Few 
mammals attract our attention, the prong horn, or so-called 
“antelope ” (Antilocapra Americana Ord), being the chief, 
which, while notable for its grace and beauty, is also the principal 
game animal of this portion of the Plains; the American bison, 
or “buffalo,” which existed here but a few years since, and 
whose trails still remain, having now wholly disappeared from 
the region east. of the Yellowstone. The « prairie-dog towns” 
are somewhat frequent, their little occupants being ever objects 
of interest ; occasionally the prairie hare (Lepus campestris 
Bach.), or jackass rabbit, as more commonly called, surprised 
by our approach, scampers away in all possible haste, his im- 
mense ears and very long legs giving him the appearance of 
being much larger than he really is, io 

After days of pleasant journeying amid such scenes as these, 
we find ourselves upon the border of the “ Bad Lands,” to the 
exploration of which we have long looked forward with m 
much interest. Though they are but a few miles distant, there is 
nothing as yet to indicate their proximity; we see before us 
only the same low ridge that in prairie landscapes seems ever t0 
bound the horizon. Reaching the crest of this low ridge, how- 
ever, we have before us, instead of another. similar swell, one of oe 


1876.] The Little Missouri “ Bad Lands.” 209 


the strangest vistas the continent affords. We look down upon 
a broad valley studded with detached, nearly bare, conical, pyram- 
idal, and rectangular mounds, one hundred to several hundred 
feet in height, and a few yards to many hundred yards in length. 
All are similarly capped with a stratum of bright red, indurated 
clay, which on closer examination proves to have been metamor- 
Phosed by heat, and to be mixed with cinders and other mineral 
substances that seem to have had a volcanic origin. The mounds 
themselves are made up of variegated shales, horizontally dis- 
posed, which, seen in section in the nearly vertical sides of the 
mounds, appear as parallel bands of yellow, brown, green, gray, 
black, and other tints, surmounted with red. This strange pan- 
orama extends for many miles, and as we gaze upon it for the 
first time we soon cease to wonder that General Sully, in his 
march through this region in 1864, should have likened it to “ hell 
with the fires out,” as he is currently reported to have done. 

The trail we have chosen fortunately leads us through the 
very heart of this interesting country, so that the experiences of 
a single day even would be sufficient to give us considerable 
familiarity with the varied phenomena of a locality that may be 
taken as a fair illustration of the remarkable topography of an 
extensive region. By a difficult and winding descent we reach 
the valley of Davis Creek, through which we are to find our way 
to the Little Missouri. Our interest in our surroundings .con- 
stantly increases, as at every step some new feature, noticeable 
for its picturesque effect or as illustrative of some geological 
force, attracts our attention. The mounds and ridges increase in 
height, their rounded summits still capped with bright pink 
shale, and almost verdureless. Red bands are also seen at inter- 
vals in the sides of these mounds, these bands being composed of 
the Same baked, reddened clay as that covering the summits, 
with senerally a thin layer of scoriaceous-material at the bottom 
each red band. Although traces of fire are so evident, the 
force that has given the country its present broken character 
as been the gentle action of water. The strata everywhere pre- 
Serve their almost perfectly horizontal position, these buttes and 
sharp, narrow ridges being but the remains of strata that once 
filled the country to a higher level. than even the tops of the 
highest buttes now standing. By the slow process of aqueous 
*rosion have the soft strata of sands and clays been removed, 
and the country scored to the depth of hundreds of feet. 

But other forces have been at work. Heat of great intensity, 

“== RO, 4, 4 


210 The Little Missouri “* Bad Lands.” [ April, 


and from an unusual source, has also acted here on a grand scale, 
but as a preserving rather than as a destroying agent. Beds of 
lignite, a few inches to several feet in thickness, occur interstrat- 
ified with the deposits of sand and clay. The deep, sharp gullies 
formed by the action of water have exposed these beds of lignite 
for long distances. This exposure to atmospheric influences 
seems to have in some way produced spontaneous combustion of 
the lignite, for there is abundant evidence that some of the igneous 
action about to be described occurred before the close of the 
terrace epoch. Whatever may have caused the coal beds to take 
fire, the fact remains that for long ages their destruction has 
been going on, and even still continues, producing geological re- 
sults of a most interesting and important character. When once 
well ignited they seem to burn for long periods, the fires pene- 
trating far into the interior of the hills, extending at times till 
all the coal seams over very large areas are consumed, At the 
present time these fires are known to sometimes originate from 
the prairie fires, which occasionally sweep over these lignite ex- 
posures and ignite the coal. But a large proportion of the beds 
that have been destroyed appear to have been so situated that 
prairie fires could not have reached them, the exposures being 
about midway up the bare, nearly vertical faces of very hi 
bluffs. Wherever the lignite beds have been burned, their 
former position can be easily detected by the bright red bands of 
the hardened overlying clays and sands which have been meta 
morphosed by their combustion, these red bands being often 
traceable by their color for long distances, occurring at the same 
level in butte after butte. 

The burning of such large masses of lignite must of course, €s- 
pecially when the beds have considerable thickness, produce an 
intense heat ; yet the metamorphism here seen seems sometimes 
to be on too grand a scale to be the result of so limited a cause 
The thickness of the strata more or less changed in texture and 
color by the heat varies, of course, with the thickness of the seam 
of lignite the burning of which was the source of the metamor- 
phic action, and hence ranges from a few feet to twenty or thirty, 
and occasionally to upwards of fifty! In many cases the heat 


was sufficient to partly or wholly fuse the shales immediately in 


contact with the burning lignite, giving them a semi-vitreous 0 
porcelaneous texture. At the bottom of the series of metamor- 
phosed beds we have usually a layer of cinders and clinker, 


which occupies the position of the former lignite bed itself. The 


SEN SI ort 
E SBAA E G Aa Pe 


1876.] The Little Missouri “ Bad Lands.” 211 


layer is generally of a whitish or grayish color, and is made up 
largely of hard, semi-vitreous, vesicular material, the larger inter- 
stices of which are filled with ashy or earthy matter, while occa- 
sionally portions are so soft as to be easily crumbled in the hand, 
or crushed under the foot. Indeed, it is not much unlike the re- 
siduum left in our grates from the burning of common coal. 

The material next above this often shows signs of having been 
in a semi-molten or at least plastic condition, and generally pre- 
sents a great variety of tints, as olive, drab, yellow, gray, white, 
brown of various shades, purple, and even black. The purple 
and olive tints are quite frequent; the other colors often occur in 
harrow zones or mere lines, producing a very beautiful effect. 
The texture varies from a dense, compact, jaspery character to 
that so porous and vesicular that the mass will float upon water, 
with every degree of porosity between these extremes. This 
variegated layer is usually but a few inches in thickness, and is 
of rather local occurrence, as is also the scoriaceous or vesicular 
matter, neither appearing except where the heat has been very 
Intense. The scoriaceous material also varies greatly in color, 
being usually black, but sometimes grayish, while it also occurs 
of every shade of red, from dark reddish-brown’ to bright car- 
mine. These materials always pass gradually into the overlying 
reddened, baked clays, which, as previously stated, may vary in 
thickness from a few feet to twenty or more, and which, from 
their great thickness, bright color, and wide distribution, form 
one of the characteristic features of the region we are considering. 
The color of these beds is that of bright red bricks, and where 
the material has been thinly scattered about by the gradual dem- 
olition of buttes once covered by it, as sometimes happens, the 
resemblance of the locality to an old, long-abandoned brickyard is 
very striking. These hardened clays still retain the abundant 
impressions of plant-remains, but they are generally too frag- 
mentary to be of much value as specimens. A few quite well- 
Preserved casts of the leaves of exogenous plants occur, but the 
vegetable relics consist mainly of the imprints of broad-leaved 
Stasses and sedges, which seem to have in places nearly filled the 
clays, Heavy clay deposits almost always immediately overlie 
the beds of lignite, and when they are very heavy, or the seam 
of lignite is very thin, the metamorphism scarcely extends be- 
yond the stratum of clay ; usually, however, it affects the stratum 
of sand that rests upon the clay, sometimes converting it into a 
red, coarse-grained, rather soft sandstone, hand-specimens of 


212 The Little Missouri “ Bad Lands.” (April, 


which are scarcely, if at all, distinguishable from the red sand- 
stone of the Connecticut Valley. The metamorphism gradually 
ceases in passing upward, as respects both color and hardness, 
till the influence of the heat wholly disappears. The color of 
these metamorphosed shales thus fades from intense red, or even 
black, through light brick-red to pale red and pale reddish-yellow; 
whilst the texture varies from crumbling scoria and slag, through 
rock of a trappean texture and conchoidal fracture, to finely fis- 
sured baked clay and sandstone, and finally to shales but slightly 
hardened and almost unchanged in color. 

The beds thus altered often present interesting features of 
structure, the indurated clays being extremely fissile, breaking 
up into thin, small, irregularly shaped splinters and fragments, 
which possess a clear, metallic resonance ; the sandstones occa- 
sionally present a prismatic structure, with the planes of cleavage 
oblique to those of stratification, the mass breaking into five or 
six sided prisms, half an inch to an inch or two in diameter, and 
one or two to even two and a half feet in length, almost slender 
enough and long enough for walking-sticks ! 

As already intimated, the beds of lignite vary greatly in thick- 
ness, from a few inches to five or six feet, and even more,! with 
corresponding variations in the amount of metamorphism produced 
by their combustion. In the burning of the heavier of these b 
not only is an immense amount of heat generated, but vapors are 
formed which, in escaping, have also left their interesting records. 
These consist of jagged, chimney-like mounds of breccia that still 
crown many of the buttes and ridges, the softer materials that 
surrounded them having been worn away by denuding agencies, 
leaving them as striking and picturesque features of the land- 
scape. These mounds have sometimes the form of short, thick 
columns, being circular, a foot or two in diameter and a few feet 
high ; at other times they are ten or twelve feet in diameter and 
of about the same height, while they not unfrequently assume 
the form of low, narrow, ragged walls of highly altered rock, the 
material of all these erupted mounds presenting the features of 
a true volcanic breccia. The matter composing these chimneys 
was mostly forced up through small orifices or narrow fissures, 


1876.] The Little Missouri “ Bad Lands.” 213 


while in a plastic or half-molten condition. At these points the 
heat was so great that the sands and clays through which the 
fissures extended became thoroughly melted, leaving the walls 
of these fissures with glazed surfaces, vitrifying them to depths 
varying from half an inch to several inches. In some instances 
the melted matter ran down while in a viscous state, solidifying 
in pendant, rounded masses; in other cases it was squeezed out 
through lateral cracks in the walls of the main fissures, congeal- 
ing in similar botryoidal forms. Again, masses are seen in these 
chimney-like mounds that seem to have been twisted and folded 
when in a viscous state, the surface still retaining its waxy lustre. 
In connection with the formation of these fissures and mounds 
there were slight disturbances of the adjoining strata, affecting 
sometimes an area of only a few feet in diameter, and rarely ex- 
tending over many yards. Occasionally, however, the fissures 
extended for considerable distances, accompanied by the usual 
phenomena of intense igneous action already noticed, with a dis- 
turbance of the strata for several yards on either side of the fis- 
sure, where many feet in thickness were lifted and still remain 
highly inclined. We have here, in fact, a series of volcanic 
puffs, or volcanoes in miniature, having their seats of action in the 
burning coal-seam, ten, fifteen, or perhaps fifty feet below. In- 
deed, some of thése disturbed areas present a very broken and 
volcanic aspect, and a geologist suddenly transported to one of 
these localities would feel at first that he must be in the midst of 
a truly voleanic district. He would find that from the tops of 
these apparently volcanic ridges blocks of scoriaceous material, 
ifering in no respect from real volcanic products, have rolled 
down into the adjoining valleys, and lie scattered in masses vary- 
ing from a foot in diameter to those of several tons’ weight. The 
ragged masses of rock crowning the higher points of the ridges, 
like ruined battlements, with the adjoining chasm-like ravines, 
faced. with highly metamorphosed rock, do combine, in fact, to 
Present quite a disturbed and chaotic scene; yet a careful ex- 
amination of even these localities shows that the strata are 
everywhere horizontal, save at such few limited’ areas as those 
already noticed. We find here, as usual, the horizontal beds of 
cinders underlying the metamorphosed strata, differing from 
“hose of other localities only in their greater thickness, and point- 
mg out most conclusively the origin and cause of these local dis- 
Tuptions and former intense igneous action. That the burning 
of the lignite beds is really competent to produce all these effects 


214 The Little Missouri “ Bad Lands.” [ April, 


we have the abundant stratigraphical proof afforded by this whole 
region, and the further testimony of trustworthy eye-witnesses, 
who have seen the beds of ligniteon fire with the same phenomena 
resulting as those above described. 

The effect of this metamorphic action, when we consider its ` 
cause, upon the general topographical and geological features of 
the region under consideration, is wonderful almost beyond con- 
ception. Wherever the country is deeply scored by ravines usu- 
ally several of these red bands of metamorphosed shales occur, 
separated by fifty to one hundred and fifty or more feet of un- 
altered clays and sands, and, running horizontally and parallel to 
each other, are seen for many miles, passing at the same eleva- 
tion through butte after butte and ridge after ridge. The high- 
est points are invariably capped with this hardened material, and 
hence all rise to about the same level over an area of many square 
miles. Generally there are several sets of these elevations, dif- 
fering only in size and height, the hardened bands that cap the 
smaller and lower appearing at the same elevation in the sides of 
the larger and higher, which are capped with portions of higher 
beds that have nearly disappeared. The indurated beds thus in 
a great measure determine the height and form of these remnants 
of strata which once filled the valleys to a height considerably 
above the tops of the highest points now left, and serve as a great 
check upon the surprisingly rapid erosion now going on, and 
which is every year removing vast quantities of the easily yield- 
ing strata. 

The extent of the influence of this igneous action upon the 
general aspect and character of the country is perhaps most im- 
pressively seen from elevations that overlook considerable areas of 
these strange “ Bad Lands ;” the scene of course varying greatly 
in its topographical details with every change in the position 
from which it is viewed. From a high point on the western 
bank of the Little Missouri, nearly opposite the mouth of Davis 
Creek, the view is that of a vast expanse of verdureless mounds 
and walls of naked rock, interspersed here and there with little 
grassy plateaux, and crossed by the green valley of Davis Creek, 
with its scanty fringe of low trees. Bright red is the prevail- 
ing color of the landscape, but in the nearer ridges the bands eo | 
yellowish-brown, dark-brown, and grayish shades are also i | 
tinguishable. The surface of the country is everywhere deeply 
scored, some of the higher points being two hundred and fifty to 
three hundred feet above the bed of the Little Missouri, and the 


1876.] The Little Missouri * Bad Lands.” 215 


eye catches little else than the bare, more or less metamorphosed 
shales. Each hardened band forming a considerable check to 
the eroding forces, the country presents a series of narrow ter- 
races; these, being covered with a scanty growth of vegetation, 
form little plats and strips of green that pleasantly relieve the 
otherwise unbroken expanse of barrenness. Such ascene of wild- 
ness and desolation seems like a glimpse, as it were, of a half- 
formed world, unfit as yet for the habitation of man or for his 
uses, 

A more extensive view of the Little Missouri ‘‘ Bad Lands ” is 
obtainable from the: Sentinel Buttes, two high points situated 
on the western border of this remarkable region, and reaching an 
elevation of about six hundred feet above the Little Missouri. 
The horizontal position of the strata composing these elevations 
shows what a vast amount of material has been removed from the 
surrounding region by the slow action of denuding forces. The 
country presents, as we look eastward from these buttes, an al- 
most continuous expanse of low, red-capped ridges and buttes, the 
prevailing red color being relieved only by bands of yellowish- 
brown and gray tints formed by the unaltered shales exposed in 
the deeply cut ravines. In this direction the view consists almost 
wholly of bad lands, —a vast stretch of undulating, verdureless 
red surface, extending as far as the eye can reach, only the naked 
crests of the distant, red-capped buttes and ridges being visi- 

le. Itis a scene not easily forgotten, so utterly barren, and yet 
so wild and picturesque. Its desolateness is doubtless greatly 
heightened by the contrast of green, rolling prairie which meets 

e eye when turned in the opposite direction. In looking north- 
Ward or southward we have on the one hand a beautiful prairie 
landscape, broken only here and there by a low, red-capped 

utte or sharp ridge, while on the other is a boundless expanse 
of naked red mounds and ridges, — billows, as it were, of a fiery 
sea, — the transition from the one to the other being abrupt and 
strongly marked. ; 

e have here before us but a portion of one of the numerous 
belts of these peculiar bad lands that occupy vast areas of East- 
ern Dakota and Western Montana. The Little Missouri “ Bad 
Lands,” with a breadth varying from twenty to thirty miles, ex- 
tend for hundreds of miles along the stream from which they de- 
"ve their name. Other equally remarkable areas appear at in- 
tervals along the Missouri, from the vicinity of Fort Berthold 
nearly to the Judith River, or for a distance of fully five hundred 


4 


216 Jumping Seeds and Galls. [ April, 


miles. Another immense area occurs along the Yellowstone, ex- 
tending from its mouth nearly up to the Big Horn River, or for 
several hundred miles, as well as for long distances up its lower 
tributaries. The valleys of the Rosebud, Tongue, and Powder 
rivers are, indeed, among the most noteworthy localities of these 
metamorphic phenomena, the hills being sometimes reddened as 
far as the eye can reach by the burning out of the lignite beds. 
This metamorphism is, in short, almost coextensive with the 
lignitic tertiary formation of the Upper Missouri, which occupies 
an area some five hundred miles in length by about three hun- 
dred and fifty in breadth, extending from near the 100th to 
about the 108th meridian, and from the vicinity of the 43d to 
far beyond the 49th parallel. Within this region, however, are 
occasional districts where this metamorphism occurs only in the 
higher, scattered buttes, the great areas of this disturbance and 
change being the borders of the principal water-courses, as the 
Missouri and its southern tributaries between the above-named 
points, including the Yellowstone and its eastern affluents. 


ens Sena 
JUMPING SEEDS AND GALLS. 


A a late meeting of the Academy of Sciences of St. Louis, 

Mr. C. V. Riley exhibited certain seeds which possessed & 
hidden power of jumping and moving about on the table. He 
stated that he had recently received them from Mr. G. W. 
Barnes, of San Diego, Cal., and that they were generally known 
by the name of “ Mexican jumping seeds.” They are probably 
derived from a tricoccous euphorbiaceous plant. Each of the 
seeds measures about one third of an ineh in length, and has two 

pat sides, meeting at an obtuse angle, and a third broader, con- 4 
vex side, with a medial carina. If cut open, each is found to 
contain a single fat, whitish worm, which has eaten all the eon- : 
tents of the seed and lined the shell with a delicate carpet of silk. : 
The worm very closely resembles the common apple worm ( Car- 
pocapsa pomonella), and indeed is very closely related, the in- 4 
sect being known to science as Carpocapsa saltitans. It was 
first recorded by Westwood in the Proceedings of the Ashmo- 
lean Society of Oxford, in 1857 (iii. 187, 138), and repeatedly 
referred to under the name of Carpocapsa Dehaisiana in the ‘ 
Annales of the French Entomological Society for 1859. 
The egg of the moth is doubtless laid on the young pod, which 
contains the three angular seeds, and the worm gnaws into the suc- 


- 


1876.) Jumping Seeds and Galls. 217 


culent seed, which, in after growth, closes up the minute hole of 
entrance, just as in the case of the common pea weevil (Bruchus 
pisi). Toward the month of February the larva eats a circular 
hole through the hard shell of its habitation, and then closes it 
again with a little plug of silk so admirably adjusted that the 
future moth, which will have no jaws to cut with, may escape 
from its prison. A slight cocoon is then spun within the seed, 
with a passage-way leading to the circular door; and the hith- 
erto restless larva assumes the quiescent pupa state. Shortly 
afterwards the pupa works to the door, pushes it open, and the 
little moth escapes. When ripe, the shell is very light, and, as 
the worm occupies but about one sixth the inclosed space, the 
slightest motion will cause the seed to rock from one of the flat 


Sides to the other. But the seed is often made to jerk and jump, 


and, though this has been denied by many authors, Mr. Riley 
had had abundant proof of the fact, and had seen the seed jerked 
several lines forward at a bound, and raised a line or more from 
the surface on which it rested. If the seed be cut, the worm 
will'soon cover up the hole with a transparent membrane of silk ; 
and if two of the opposite angles be cut, the movements of the 
worm can then be seen, if the seed be held against the light. It 
thus becomes evident that the jerking motion is conveyed by the 
worm holding fast to the silken lining by its anal and four hind 
abdominal prolegs, which have very strong hooks, and then draw- 
Ing back the head and fore-body and tapping the wall of its cell 
with the head, sometimes thrown from side to side, but more 
often brought directly down, as in the motion of a woodpecker’s 
head when tapping for insects. In drawing back the fore-body 
the thoracic part swells, and the horny thoracic legs are with- 

rawn, so as to assist the jaws in receiving the shock of the tap, 
which is very vigorous, and often given at the rate of two a sec- 
ond and for twenty or more times without interruption. It is 
remarkable that this; of all the numerous seed-inhabiting Lepi- 
dopterous larvæ, ‘should possess so curious a habit. The seed 
will move for several months, because, as with most Tortricid- 
~~ larvæ, this one remains a long time in the larva state after 
coming to its growth and before pupating. 

t. Barnes gives the following account of the plant, received 
through Captain ‘Polhamus, of Yuma, A. T. It seems to 
called both Yerba de flecha and Colliguaja by the Mexicans : 
“ Atrow-weed (Yerba de flecha). This is the name the shrub 

that produces the triangular seeds that during six or eight 


218 Discovery of the Laws of Evolution. [April, 


months have a continual jumping movement. The shrub is 
small, from four to six feet in height, branchy, and in the months 
of June and July yields the seeds, a pod containing from three 
to five seeds. These seeds have each a little worm inside. The 
leaf of the plant is very similar to that of the ‘garambullo,’ tlie 
only difference being in the size, this being a little larger. It 
is half an inch in length and a quarter of an inch in width, a 
little more or less. The bark of the shrub is ash-colored, and 
the leaf is perfectly green during all the seasons. By merely 
stirring coffee or any drink with a small branch of it, it acts as 


an active cathartic. Taken in large doses it is an active poison, — 


speedily causing death unless counteracted by an antidote.” 

Mr. Riley stated that the seed of Tamariscus was known to 
be moved by a Coleopterous larva (Nanodes tamarisci) that fed 
within it ; and he concluded by describing and exhibiting a still 
more wonderful jumping property in a seed-like body which may 
be observed in our own woods. It is a little spherical, seed-like 
gall produced in large numbers on the under side of the post and 
other oaks of the white-oak group. This gall drops in large 
quantities to the ground, and the insect within can make it 
bound twenty times its own length, the ground under an infested 
tree being sometimes fairly alive with the mysterious moving 
bodies. The noise made often resembles the pattering of rain. 
The motion is imparted by the insect in the pupa and not in the 
larva state. Mr. Riley presented a description of the gall, which 
may be known by the name of Quercus saltatorius, the black fly 
which issues from it having been described as Cynips saltatorius 
by Mr. H. Edwards, of San Francisco. 


THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY OF THE LAWS OF 
EVOLUTION. 


Pe a recent meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

Philadelphia, Professor Cope made some remarks on the 
progress of discovery of the laws of evolution, of which the fol- 
lowing is a synopsis : — 

He remarked that while Darwin has been its prominent advo- 
cate within the last few years, it was first presented to the scien- 
tifie world in a rational form by Lamarck, of Paris, at the com- 
mencement of the present century. Owing to the adverse in- 
fluence of Cuvier, the doctrine remained dormant for half a cent- 


ury, and Darwin resuscitated it, making important additions at 


SR, BT ee ie Sis bar SUNT aa eee a ae ee 


9 a 20 RN ecm Bal iain aban AA Met liana 


1876.] Discovery of the Laws of Evolution. 219 


the same time. Thus Lamarck found the variations of species 
to be primary evidence of evolution by descent. Darwin enun- 
ciated the law of “ natural selection ” as a result of the struggle 
for existence, in accordance with which “ the fittest only survive.” 
This law, now generally accepted, is Darwin’s principal contri- 
bution to the doctrine. It, however, has a secondary position in 
relation to the origin of variation, which Lamarck saw, but did 
not account for, and which Darwin has to assume in order to 
have materials from which a “ natural selection ” can be made. 
The relations exhibited by fully grown animals and plants 
with transitional or embryonic stages of other animals and plants 
had attracted the attention of anatomists at the time of Lamarck. 
Some naturalists deduced from this now universally observed 
phenomenon that the lower types of animals were merely re- 
pressed conditions of the higher, or, in other words, were embry- 
onic stages become permanent. But the resemblance does not 
usually extend to the entire organism, and the parallels are so 
incomplete that this view of the matter was clearly defective, and 
did not constitute an explanation. Some embryologists, as Lere- 
boullet and Agassiz, asserted that no argument for a doctrine of 
descent could be drawn from such facts. 
; The speaker, not adopting either view, made a full investigation 
into the later embryonic stages, chiefly of the skeleton of the batra- 
chia, in 1865, and Professor Hyatt, of Salem, Mass., at the same 
time made similar studies in the development of the ammonites 
and nautili. The results, as bearing on the doctrine of evolu- 
tion, were published in 1869 in a paper entitled The Origin of 
Genera. (Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 
Sciences.) The relation usually observed between adult types 
and transitional stages was there termed inexact parallelism. 
It was then pointed out that the most nearly related forms of 
animals do present a relation of repression and advance, or of 
Permanent embryonic and adult type, leaving no doubt that the 
one descended from the other. This relation was termed exact 
Parallelism. Tt was also shown that if the embryonic form were 
the parent, the advanced descendant was produced by an in- 
creased rate of growth, which phenomenon was called accelera- 
tion s but that if the embryonic type were the offspring, then its 
failure to attain to the condition of the parent is due to the super- 
vention of a slower rate of growth. To this phenomenon the 
term retardation was applied. It was then shown that the inexact 
_ Parallelism is the result of unequal acceleration or retardation ; 


220 Discovery of the Laws of Evolution.’ [ April, 


that is, acceleration affecting one organ or part more than another, 
thus disturbing the combination of characters which is necessary 
for the state of exact parallelism between the perfect stage of one 
animal and the transitional stages of another. Moreover, acceler- 
ation implies constant addition to the parts of an animal, while 
retardation implies continual subtraction from its characters, or 
atrophy. The speaker had also shown (Method of Creation, 
1871) that the additions appeared either as exact repetitions of 
preéxistent parts, or as modified repetitions, the former resulting 
in simple, the latter in complex organisms. 

Professor Haeckel, of Jena, has added the key-stone to the doc- 
trine of evolution in his gastræa theory. Prior to this generali- 
zation, it had been impossible to determine the true relation ex- 
isting between the four types of embryonic growth, or to speak 
otherwise than to the effect that they are inherently distinct from 


each other. But Haeckel has happily determined the existence - 


of identical stages of growth or segmentation in all the types of 


eggs, the last of which is the gastrula, and beyond which the, 


identity ceases. Not that the four types of gastrula are without 
difference, but this difference may be accounted for on plain prin- 
ciples. In 1874, Haeckel, in his Anthropogenie, recognized the 
importance of the irregularity of time of appearance of the differ- 
ent characters of animals during the period of growth, as affect- 
ing their permanent structure. While maintaining the view that 
the low forms represent the transitional stages of the higher, he 
proceeds to account for the want of exact correspondence ex- 
hibited by them at the present time by reference to this princi- 
ple. He believes that the relation of parent and descendant has 
been concealed and changed by subsequent modification of the 
order of appearance of characters in growth. To the original, 
simple descent, he applies the term palingenesis ; to the modified 
or later growth, ccenogenesis. The causes of the change from 
palingenesis to coenogenesis he regards as three, namely, accel- 
eration, retardation, and heterotopy. 

It is clear that the two types of growth distinguished by Pro- 
fessor Haeckel are those which had been pointed out by the 
speaker, in The Origin of Genera, as producing the relations 
of exact and inexact parallelism, and that his explanation of 


the origin of the latter relation by acceleration or retardation is 


speaker, as it was a similar impression that led to the publication 
of The Origin of Genera in 1869, 


Fe RUNS | pen OLNEY EO Cee fen ear eR a 


1876.] The Flora of Guadalupe Island. 221 


It remains to observe that the phenomena of exact parallelism, 
or palingenesis, are quite as necessarily accounted for on the prin- 
ciple of acceleration or retardation as are those of inexact par- 
allelism, or coenogenesis. Were all parts of the organism accel- 
erated or retarded at a like rate, the relation of exact parallelism 
would never be disturbed, while the inexactitude of the par- 
allelism will depend on the number of variations in the rate of 
growth of different organs of the individual, with additions in- 
troduced from time to time. Hence it may be laid down that 
synchronous acceleration or retardation produces exact parallel- — 
ism, and heterochronous acceleration or retardation produces in- 
exact parallelism. 

In conclusion, it may be added that acceleration of the segmen- 
tation of the protoplasma or animal portion of the primordial 
egg, or retardation of segmentation of the deutoplasma or vege- 

' tative half of the egg, or both, or the same relation between the 

growth of the circumference and centre of the egg, has given rise 
ato the four types which the segmentation now presents. This 
analysis of the laws of evolution was tabulated as follows : — 


"E a T 
PEF ried 
38 2 3 S28 6 
pi ge TTTS 
E ae TS E 
Cr Se The 3S 
SETE guan 
Pree EFFE 
Ro 8.) Aal 
iti * * 
acceleration, Exact repetition. ri 
which proceeds by pein repetition. 5 : 
eterotopy. K ja 
` _.. Tetardation, § Exact atrophy. S 
Which proceeds by } Modified atrophy. * 
_— 
THE FLORA OF GUADALUPE ISLAND, LOWER CALI- 
FORNIA. ? 


BY SERENO WATSON. 

THe island of Guadalupe is in latitude twenty-nine degrees 

north, about one hundred miles from the coast of Lower 
California, and two hundred and thirty west of south from the 
town of San Diego, which is near the southern line of California. 
It is twenty-six miles in length in a north and south direction, 
with an average breadth of ten miles, and is traversed by a 
Mountain ridge, the central peak (Mount Augusta) having an 


tet from the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
xi, 7 


222 | The Flora of Guadalupe Island. (April, 


elevation of 3900 feet above the level of the sea. From this point 
the nearest main-land is visible. The sides of the ridge are ex- 
ceedingly rough and broken, cut up by numerous deep and rocky 
cafions, and even the more level surfaces are described as usually 
covered by rocks of every size and form. The rocks are volcanic, 
and several extinct craters still exist. j 
The island lies within the great ocean current which flows 
from the peninsula of Alaska down our western coast, the con- 
tinuation of what is known as the Japanese Gulf-Stream, and in 
the zone of the northwest trade-winds. Fogs are very prevalent, 
especially in the winter months (from November to February), 
when they are driven by the winds over the crest of the island, 
covering all the northern end and filling the upper portions of the 
caiions, while the lower cajions and the southern extremity of the 
island remain clear and warm. These winter winds from the 
northwest are described as strong and cold, sometimes extremely 
so, an instance of which occurred during December, 1874, when 
ice an inch in thickness was formed in the middle of the island, 
accompanied by two inches of snow, which was followed by hail® 
and five days of cold rain. In summer these winds have less 
force, though still brisk and chilly for much of the time; and the 
fogs, instead of being carried over the central ridge, are driven 
around the northern end, and by eddy-winds are borne into the 
lower cafions of the eastern side, which are thus made cooler 
than the region above them. Otherwise the summer months are 
intensely hot, especially in the southern portion of the island, and 
the soil becomes soon everywhere so dry that the effect of the 
temporary summer fogs upon the vegetation is slight. The differ- 
ence in the seasons, however, at the two extremities of the island 
is remarkable, as vegetation at the southern end and in the east- 
ern cañons is at least two months earlier than in the northern and 
western portions, and has for the most part reached its maturity 
by the close of May, under the then established heats of summer: 
The annual amount of actual rain-fall is very variable, there be- 
ing an abundance in some years, and in others little or none. 
Guadalupe was early known to the navigators of these seas; 
but it was never permanently occupied. There are evidences of 
its temporary occupation by shipwrecked sailors, and it was also 
long ago stocked with goats 1 for the purpose of supplying fresh 
meat to vessels short of provisions or suffering from scurvy; and, 


1 It is said that this was done by Captain Cook, who, however, was never upon this 
part of the coast. Vancouver passed near the island in 1793, but without stopping: 


pe A AMERS 
Nog ENILE E A EE ESN SE TIRE Pees ED S N 


Lo A A ae 


1876.] The Flora of Guadalupe Island. 223 


though out of the general course of travel, it has been occasion- 
ally visited on this account. Twelve years ago an expelled gov- 
ernor of Lower California took refuge here with his family, and 
remained for two years. Soon afterward a party of men from the 
same state lived for some months upon the island, engaged in 
killing the goats. During the last ten years it has been oc- 
eupied by a California company, by whom it was purchased for 
the purpose of raising the Angora goat, and the island is now 
overrun by these animals. Several men are kept in continual 
charge of them, and regular visits are made by the vessels of the 
company. _ 

With thus much of preliminary remark upon those conditions 
which must affect the vegetation of the island, we may pass to 
the flora itself. As respects the probable sources from which this 
flora may have been derived, it is evident that there has been 
abundant opportunity for the introduction of some species by hu- 
man agency. ‘These should be especially expected near the usual 
landing-place upon the eastern side, excepting such as would be 
probably distributed through the island by means of the goats. 
Those of most recent introduction in this way would doubtless be 
Californian ; the older might be from the nearer peninsula or 
from other localities. Of other recognized agencies for the dis- 
tribution of plants, — the winds, ocean currents, and birds, — the 


- prevalent direction of the first from the northwest is adverse to 


the supposition that any species of phaznogamous plants, at least, 
would be so introduced. The ocean currents might be considered 
as more favorable, and as likely to bring accessions from the Cali- 
fornian main-land, contributed from the interior by the Sacra- 
mento and other smaller streams. But the winds here again 
would prove an interposing agency, and by creating a surface- 
drift toward the coast would prevent floating seeds from attaining 
any great distance from it. Such as did succeed in reaching the 
Island, and «in obtaining and maintaining a foothold upon it, 
would probably be wholly Californian. Less certain conclusions 
Might be expected in regard to the agency of birds, but it ap- 
Pears, from the collection of the birds of the island made by Dr. 
P almer, that they are all in some measure peculiar to the island 
tself, « consisting almost entirely of familiar forms of the birds 
of the Western United States, but showing marked peculiarities, 
entitling them to recognition as geographical varieties. Nothing 
Mexican about them in the slightest degree.” 1 So that, though 


1 Prof. Spencer F. Baird, in letter. 


224 The Flora of Guadalupe Island. [ April, 


they demonstrate a connection between the island and California, 
yet they also indicate that that connection has been only at a re- 
mote period, and that their participation in the introduction of 
plants must have been slight. 

It might therefore be conjectured, if the island were of com- 
paratively recent formation and always disconnected from the 
main-land, that its flora would show a meagre list of species almost 
wholly Californian. Or if, on the other hand, it had at some 
time been connected with the continent, that then its vegetation 
would be similar to that of the adjacent peninsula, unless some 
counteracting influence should have been at work, as -would seem 
to be true of the birds. 

To show to what extent the flora of Lower California differs 
from that of California proper, reference may be made to the list 
of plants collected by Xantus at the lower extremity of the pe- 
ninsula,! as given by Dr. Gray in the sixth volume of the Pro- 
ceedings of this Academy. Of the one hundred and eighteen phe- 
nogamic species there enumerated, only six are probably found 
even in extreme Southern California, while thirty others range 
northward only as far as Sonora, or eastward through Mexico to 
New Mexico or Texas, the remainder being peculiar to the pe- 
ninsula or exclusively Mexican. The peninsula shares in this 
difference with Mexico itself, the type of whose whole flora ac- 
cords rather with that of the eastern portion of the continent 
northward, except so far as it would necessarily be affected by 
the more tropical character of the climate. Of this a good and 
sufficient illustration is seen in the fact that of the Phascolew, a 
tribe which is well represented in all the Atlantic States, Texas, 
Southern New Mexico, Eastern Arizona, Sonora, Lower Califor- 
nia, and all of Mexico southward, not one species is found within 
the limits of California, nor in the interior basin west of the 
Rocky Mountains. 

The only collection that we have of the plants of Guadalupe is 
that made by Dr. Edward Palmer during the last season, from 
February to May, which is probably as complete as was possible, 
though attended with much labor and difficulty. He visited all 
parts of the island, often finding it necessary to reach places which 
the goats had found inaccessible, in order by means of ropes an 
poles to secure rare specimens of species which appeared to have 

1 The island of Guadalupe is equally distant from San Francisco and Cape San 
Lucas, but three degrees of latitude nearer to the latter point; and the difference of 
latitude between the cape and San Diego is little greater than that between Guada- 
lupe and San Francisco, 


3 
| 
| 
| 


1876.] The Flora of Guadalupe Island. 225 


been elsewhere completely extirpated. The entire number of 
species is one hundred and thirty-one, including one hundred and 
two exogenous and eight endogenous, the remaining twenty-one 
belonging to the higher cryptogamic orders, — ferns, mosses, and 
liverworts. Omitting a single phænogamous species (a Heu- 
chera), of which the material is insufficient for a satisfactory de- 
termination, the remaining one hundred and nine may be divided 
into five groups : (1) Introduced species, of which there are 
twelve; (2) those that range from the Pacific to the Atlantic 
States, of which there are nine ; (8) those that are found 
throughout California, or at least as far north as San Francisco, 
numbering forty-nine ; (4) those found only in Southern Cali- 


twenty-one. 

The twelve species! of whose comparatively recent introduc- 
tion there can be little doubt are all of European origin, and 
chiefly from Southern Europe, and are all also found more or less 
widely naturalized in California. The original introduction of 
most is probably due to the Spaniards, at least upon the main- 
land, where the extent to which several have become distributed 
'ssomething marvelous. The most remarkable is the Alfilaria 
(Erodium cicutarium), which, unlike the wild oat (Avena fatua), 
has not been limited in its range to the western side of the Sierra 
Nevada, but is fowid through much of the interior, from New 
Mexico to Washington Territory. On Guadalupe it is found 
‘verywhere, and is more abundant than any other plant. An- 
other species of the same genus (E. moschatum), provided with 
the Same contrivances for securing the dissemination and plant- 
Ing of its numerous seeds, occurs less frequently both here and in 
California ; probably because, requiring more moisture, it is un- 
able to maintain itself where the other will flourish. Another 
Instance is the Oligomeris subulata of India, Egypt, and the Ca- 
nary Islands, found also in Southern California, and common east- : 
ward through the valleys of the Lower Colorado and of the Gila © 

the Rio Grande, and in Northern Mexico. It is difficult to ac- 
count for the wide-spread distribution of this plant, if of recent 
ntroduction, through a region so desert and sparsely inhabited. 

esides these twelve species placed in the first group, there are 
Wo others, also found in California, which are considered identi- 


1 i : ‘ 
arsin mgra; Oligomeris subulata ; Silene Galiica ; Malva borealis ý Erodium 


Chen, mum and Æ, moschatum ; Sonchus oleraceus; Anagallis arvensis ; Solanum nigrum; 
ate P 
k Podium album ; Avena fatua ; Bromus sterilis. ` 
u X, — No. 4 15 


226 The Flora of Guadalupe Island. [ April, 


eal with South American forms (Specularia biflora and Amblyo- 
pappus pusillus), possibly introduced from Chili or Peru, perhaps 
indigenous to both regions. Their presence on Guadalupe would 
perhaps rather favor the belief that they are native to our western 


coast, especially as five other South American species, or forms of — 


them, occur in the Guadalupe flora (Jillea minima, Cilia pusilla, 
Plantago Patagonica, Parietaria debilis, and Muhlenbergia debi- 
lis), which are more or less frequent in California and eastward 
in the centre of the continent, and are generally admitted to be 
native. There are, therefore, ninety-seven phænogamous plants 
which may be considered as indigenous. 

It is evident, therefore, that, as regards the species common to 
the island and the main-land, the flora may be said to be exclu- 
sively Californian in its character. Not a single species is found 
that is peculiar to Lower California or Mexico. The same alli- 
ance is nearly as prominent if we look at the twenty-one new 
phznogamous species of the island. Fifteen of these (a Thysan- 
ocarpus, a Spheralcea, a Lupinus, a Trifolium, an Œnothera, a 
Megarrhiza, a Galium, a Hemizonia, a Perityle,a Beria, a Mim- 
ulus, a Pogogyne, a Calamintha, a Phacelia, and an Atriplex) 
belong to genera largely or exclusively represented in California 
and the region east of it, and are mostly closely allied to the 
species of that region. The remaining six species include 4 
Lavatera, a composite, a borraginaceous plant, a species allied 
to the olive, and finally a palm. The Lavatera is interesting as 
representing a widely scattered genus, not otherwise found in 
America, except as a second species occurs on the more northern 
island of Anacapa. The genus belongs chiefly to the. region 
of the Mediterranean, where fourteen species are native; tw? 
others are confined to the Canary Islands ; another has been dis- 
covered in Central Asia, and still another in Australia. The 
new composite is referred by Dr. Gray to a South American 
genus (Diplostephium), not otherwise represented in our flora, 
_but of which there are eighteen species in the Andes from the 
equator southward. Of the borraginaceous and oleineous species 
Dr. Gray forms new genera; the one (Harpagonella) allied to 
the small genus Pectocarya, of which there is one Chilian species 
and two Californian, one of these also in the Guadalupe floras 
the other (Hesperelea) bearing no close resemblance to any 
other member of the olive family. On the other hand, the palm 
(Brahea (2) edulis), conspicuous on the island as the only rep- 


resentative of a tropical flora, is probably less nearly related to 


Be 


1876.] The Flora of Guadalupe Island. 227 


the Central Mexican genus to which it is provisionally referred, 
than to the genus Livistona of Australia. A congener of the 
Guadalupe species has recently been detected by Dr. Palmer in 
the cañons of the Tantillas Mountains, near San Diego. . . . 

As respects the cryptogamic vegetation, of the half a dozen 
ferns, all are frequent in California, one peculiar to the southern 
part of the State, another found throughout North America and 
Europe. Of the eleven mosses, two are strictly Californian 
species, seven are common everywhere in the United States and 
Europe, and two are European species which had not previously 
been detected in America. Of the four Hepaticc, three are Cali- 
fornian and one is considered new. 

Reference should be made to the plants which by their abun- 
dance and prominence give character to the vegetation. Among 
these the « sage-brush ” and “ grease-woods ” of the valleys of 
the basin are duly represented by an Artemisia and an Atriplex, 
which share with a Franseria in covering large tracts, and in pro- 
tecting the soil and the smaller annuals from the winds and sun. 
Trees are numerous over much of the island, chiefly coniferous : 
a pine, belonging to a Southern Californian species, but peculiar 
n some of its characters ; a juniper, common in California ; a 
cypress, similar to and perhaps identical with a Mexican species 
which extends into California ; and a small oak, which is common 
throughout the State. To these is to be added the palm, which 
ìs frequent in the southern cajions, growing to a height of forty 
feet, and bearing large clusters of edible fruit. 
To conclude, it is apparent, from all that has been said, that this 
little flora as a whole is to be considered a part of that of Cali- 
fornia, as distinct from the flora of Mexico. It may be inferred 
also that it has not been to any great extent derived from Cali- 
fornia by any existing process of conveyance and selection, but 
that it is rather indigenous to its present locality. Moreover, 
while it would indicate a connection at some period between the 
island and the main-land to the north, yet the number and char- 
acter of the peculiar species favor the opinion that they are rather 
à remnant of a flora similar to that of California, which once ex- 
tended in this direction considerably to the southward of what is 
now the limit of that flora upon the main-land. And, finally, the 
Presence of so many South American types suggests the conject- 
are that this, and the similar element which characterizes the 
flora of California, may be due to some other connection between 
these distant regions than any which now exists, and even that 


228 Recent Literature. [ April, 


all the peculiarities of the western floras of both continents had a 
common origin in an ancient flora which prevailed over a wide, 
now submerged area, and of whose character they are the partial 
exponents. 


RECENT LITERATURE. 


Huxtey anD Martin’s Biotocy.!— The problem which has so fre- 
quently puzzled teachers in biology, namely, to know where to com- 
mence their instruction, has been most happily solved by Professor Hux- 
ley in his Elementary Biology. He has prepared a series of practical 
lessons which should be mastered by all who wish to lay a solid founda- 
tion upon which to build special knowledge in either zodlogy or botany. 

The plan followed by Huxley has been to take a small number of 
plants and animals readily obtainable under ordinary circumstances. Of 
these a short description is given, followed by detailed laboratory instruc- 
tions; these should enable every student to know from his own knowl- 
edge the facts mentioned in the accompanying description. He will thus 
gradually learn biological terms, and obtain “a comprehensive and yet 
not vague conception of the phenomena of life.” The plan of thus pav- 
ing the way to special study by careful, practical work on a few forms is 
not a new one. The elder De Candolle used to say he could teach all 
he knew of botany from a few plants, while zodlogists until recently 
gained their first insight into the phenomena of life mainly from the 
study of vertebrates, and especially of man. It is only within a more 
recent period that the great development given to the study of inverte- 
brates has trained a school of zodlogists who have begun at the lower 
end, so to speak, and who have always retained their predilection for 
invertebrates in opposition to those who, having studied human anatomy 
and physiology, have mainly devoted themselves to the vertebrates. The 
latter have always worked with the immense advantage of attacking their 
subject with knowledge gained in a field where the constants of the 
science, contrasted with those known from among invertebrates, were 
numerous, and where the beginner never stumbled at the outset of his 
investigations across structural features and phenomena most imperfectly 
understoo 

It is greatly to be hoped that the introduction of such an admirable 
text-book as that of Huxley and Martin will not only break down the 
distinction existing between the two sections of zodlogists, but will also 
lead zodlogists and botanists hereafter to become biologists, while follow- 
ing the special department to which they may from inclination devote 
themselves as original observers. 

1 A Course of Practical Instruction in Elementary Biology. By Proressor HUXLEY 
ae N. Martie. Crown 8vo. 6s. London and New York : Macmillan & Co. 

Da 


= 


1876.] Recent Literature. 229 


This book is’ quite unique for a text-book on biology ; it has not a 
single figure. The student is called upon from the instructions to see 
first for himself what there is to be observed, then to make his own draw- 
ings, a process which will surely and clearly show him, or his teacher, 
what he has omitted. The student has no possible chance, in giving an 
account of what he has done, to repeat anything by rote, for should he 
follow the usual practice of reciting the very words of the description, he 
ean hardly hope to give an intelligent reply to the questions of his 
teacher, if the latter is properly fitted to guide him in his laboratory 
work. The amount of solid information to be obtained by faithfully fol- 
lowing the instructions given for the study of the frog shows the masterly 
hand which has prepared the questions. 

e total absence of discussion of any sort is as remarkable a feature 
in this volume as the omission of all figures. 

Wnitr’s NATURAL History or SELBORNE.’ — Reading again this 

delightful record of quiet, shrewd observations of the habits of birds and 
crickets, trees and plants, sticklebacks and hedgehogs, — in fact, the com- 
mon things of the wayside and hedgerow, — by an English country curate, 
we have renewed the delights of our boyhood, when White’s Selborne, 
Sandford and Merton, and the Swiss Family Robinson were the stand- 
ard books. But what a contrast this gorgeous edition to the little buff 
Paper-covered reprint in Harper’s Family Library! 
To the letters of White to Thomas Pennant, Esq., whose name is so 
indelibly connected with American zodlogy, and to the “ Honourable 
Daines Barrington,” are added some hitherto unpublished, a memoir 
of the author, and over a hundred pages filled with a strange medley of 
notes by Frank Buckland, the editor of the volume, illustrated by cuts 
of man-traps, a baby hedgehog, a mummied monkey, and other objects, 
as a rule more grotesque than useful, while Lord Selborne contributes 
Some notes to the Antiquities. 

The illustrations by Delamotte are exquisite and abundant, and the 
Work is published in a style of elegance and luxury that will, we feel 
sure, lead many a country gentleman in America as well as England to 
Sve it a conspicuous place on his drawing-room table. 

Anperson’s Norse MytnHoiocy.2 — So much has been said in praise 
— book by scholars that we can add nothing by way of commenda- 

^ OF criticism that will be of any importance. But aside from its lit- 
erary merits, and the interest that so fresh, enthusiastic, and apparently 


1 ; i 
by pera History and Antiquities of Selborne. By GiıLeert Warre. With Notes 
= ~ BANK BUCKLAND. a Chapter on Antiquities by Lorp SELBORNE, and new Let- 


S Ilustrated by P. H. Detamorre. London: Macmillan & Co. 1875. 8vo, 
591. $12.00 


ee Mythology ; or, The Religion of our Forefathers, Containing all the Myths 
Index Eddas, SyStematized and interpreted. With an Introduction, Vocabulary, and 
a, By R. B. ANDERSON, Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co.; London: Triibner & 
» 1875, 12mo, pp. 473. $2.50. 


280 General Notes. [ April, 


reliable a study of Norse mythology possesses, the book, it seems to us, 
will prove of lasting value to the student of comparative mythology. If 
the Norsemen originally came from Asia, we have in this recent folk lore 
a descendant of a fossil mythology, and a means of comparison with the 
mythology of our American aborigines. When the time comes for a 
Er study of our Indian traditions and legends, we may be able 

discover some connection with the archaic myths of the Indians of the 
Old World which will throw some light on the origin of human life on 
our continent. 


CENT booxs AND PAMPHLETS. — A Romance of Perfume Lands, or the Search 
for Cart Jacob Cole. With Interesting Facts about Perfumes and Articles used 
in the Toilet. By F. S. Clifford. Boston: Clifford. 1875. 12mo, pp. 295. 

On the Superficial Geology of the Central Region of North America. By G. M 
eigen (From the Gavareerty Journal of the Geological Society, London, Novem- 
ber, 1875.) 8vo, pp. 603 

La Maturation de P’ Œnuf, la Fécondation, et les premières Phases du ep 
embryonnaire des Mammiferes, d’aprés des Rechgrches faites chez le Lapin. 
munication préliminaire. Par “fidouard Van Beneden. Bruxelles. 1875. aii jk 
53. 


The Present Condition of the Earth’s Interior. By Geo. F. Kittredge. Buffalo. 
1876. 8vo, pp. 

First Annual Report of the Chicago Botanical Garden, December 1, 1875. 
Chicago. 1876. 8vo, pp. 4 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 


Tae PLANTAIN INDIGENOUS IN SouTHERN CoLoRADo. — While 
with Holmes’s division of Hayden’s survey last summer, in Southwestern 
Colorado, I found the common dooryard plantain under such circum- 
stances as to render it probable that it is indigenous there. With the 
exception of a few plants growing in a grass-plot where it was no doubt 
sown with eastern grass seed, I have never met with it in Eastern Col- 
orado. Near the corner of the four Territories, on the sand-bars of the 
Rio Dolores and Rio de los Mancos, a part of Colorado inhabited only 
by Navajoes and Utes, it is quite common. This almost unknown region 
has rarely been visited by the white man, and the plant could not have 
been introduced by him. — T. S. BRaNDEGEE. 

ViraLity or SeeDs. — Professor Ernst, of Caracas, contributes the 
following facts to this vexed subject. The Plaza Bolivar in Caracas was 
formerly a market-place, and until the year 1867 formed a square plain 
inclined from north to south, When the government decided to remove 
the market and use the grounds as a park, the place was leveled by dig- 
ging away about six feet of the soil at the northern end. Of course 4 
fresh surface was thus exposed to the air. A large number of rubbish 


1 Conducted by Pror. G. L. GOODALE. 


eee ae See 3 = 
TA T Sie eneL Se awa iinet bela tr ah Po Eke 


y 
3 
i 


1876.] Botany. 231 


plants or very coarse weeds soon clothed the earth from which the six 
feet of soil had been taken. But among the many plants which came 
up at the northern end of the plaza was a vast quantity of Broteroa 
trinervata, a species which is very restricted in its range near the city. 
The only locality from which the fruits of this plant could have been 
brought by the wind was south of the plaza; but on account of the sur- 
roundings of the city, south and north winds are unknown. It seems 
likely to Professor Ernst that the seeds had remained under the cement 
of the old market-place for more than thirty years, and had been there 
preserved unharmed. When the cement was broken up and the ground 
graded for the plaza, the buried seeds, or rather fruits, were exposed to 
atmospheric influences, to moisture, warmth, and air, and after the lapse 
of so long a time germinated. 

The second case relates to a very common weed, shepherd’s-purse, 
which, strange to say, is so rare at Caracas that it had not been met 
with in botanical excursions covering a period of twelve years. Two 
years ago, in the southern part: of the garden of the monastery a place 
was graded for the erection of a building. A great deal of soil was re- 
moved and a wholly fresh surface was thus uncovered. Upon this spot 
many weeds sprang up, and among them thousands of specimens of 
Capsella bursa-pastoris, or shepherd’s-purse. Professor Ernst concludes 
that in this case, as in the other, the seeds had remained dormant in 
the soil for an unknown period. These cases belong to the same class 
as those mentioned by Hoffmann, and given in the January number of 
the NATURALIST. 

TROPICAL Trees DURING THE Dry SEAson. — Professor Ernst, of 
Caracas, states that many woody plants of the Venezuela flora lose all 
their leaves during the dry season, even when the ground is copiously 
watered for the purpose of preventing their fall. Several large-leaved 
plants, such as Cassia, mahogany, and many others, exhibit this phenom- 
enon. The new foliage starts usually when the rainy season sets in, but 
if the rains come very late, as they did in 1875, many of these trees un- 
fold their buds and develop the leaves at a period when the ground is 
dry and hard, the tropical heat very intense, and the air extraordina- 
nly dry. This curious periodicity has been casually noticed by several 
Writers, but no explanation has been hitherto offered. Professor Ernst 
has given this subject careful study, and now states that in general, those 
trees which cast their foliage in the dry season have compound leaves of 
rather delicate texture: From such leaves transpiration is exceedingly 
rapid, and early carries away all the available water. When there is no 
more moisture within reach of the plant, the leaves separate from the 
stem. In this wholly or partially leafless condition the trees remain 
Until the end of April or the beginning of May, when the moist winds 
from the northwest, as precursors of the tropical rains, awake the slum- 

& vegetation. Of course the trees cannot absorb by their parts 


232 General Notes. [April, 


above ground any great amount of moisture, if they do any at all, but 
the slight transpiration which had been going on from stems and young 
shoots is now checked. The small amount of moisture which thè roots 
can take from the parched soil is not without speedy effect upon the 
branches and buds to which it is carried. The buds soon open. Butin 
the spring of 1875, when there was not a cloud to be seen in May, and 
the west wind at evening brought little relief from the scorching drought 
of the day, and the baked crust of the soil everywhere showed no trace 
of moisture, the trees put forth their leaves as usual! Now the first case 
is easily explained; how about this one, which seems so different ? 

At the outset, Professor Ernst admits that the individual nature of the 
plant, the age, the condition as regards health, etc., must be carefully 
investigated. This he has not yet done. He goes on, however, to say 
that it is generally understood that the only external excitant to growth 
is the warmth of the air. Since in the dry season there is, as he states, a 
difference between the temperature in the sunlight and at night of about 
twenty-seven degrees Fahr., this must cause very great changes in the 
volume of the gases held in the spongy tissues of the tropical trees. The 
pressure is very variable, and he assumes that the fluctuations must cause 
motions of nutrient liquid. He further assumes that when these juices 
are brought to the terminal cells of a bud, growth must result, and the 
leaves must unfold.’ It must be confessed that Professor Ernst has 
made a fair use of Krutzsch’s observations in regard to the temperature 
of stems and twigs as affected by the surrounding temperature, and he 
appears to have skillfully applied the mechanical theory to this case, but 
he has not as yet done much to solve the riddle of periodicity of vege- 
table rest. 

ECCENTRICITY oF THE Pirra or Raus TOXICODENDRON. — My at- 
tention was drawn to this subject by the January NaruraLIst. As is well 
known, this handsome but much-dreaded climber, so common in all our 
woodlands, has the habit of adhering tightly to the trees which it ascends 
by a multitude of aerial rootlets, which often cover its stem and give it 
the appearance of being embedded in a cushion of moss. 

The results of my investigations on the stems of this plant are some- 
what curious. The fact itself that the pith, wherever the vine is found 
adhering closely to living trees, lies very near the outer side, leaving 4 
largely disproportionate amount of the woody tissue on the side next the 
tree, is, so far as I have observed, universal. The following observations 
will give an idea of this disproportion : — 

In a vine 5} lines in diameter the distance from the centre of the pith 
to the inner margin was 43", and to the outer only 3. This propor- 
tion held uniformly for various heights from the ground. The measure- 
ments included the bark, which, as well as the annual rings, partook of 

the general tendency, and was much thinner on the outer side. 

A larger vine, upwards of an inch in diameter at the base, had climbed 


4 


ped ee ne eee ee 


Ñ: 


EA E y ORNES aa ATES 


E 
si 
E 


1876.] Botany. 233 


a cedar-tree (Juniperus Virginiana L.) to the top, and, no longer finding 
anything to adhere to, sent out free fruiting branches nearly half an inch 
thick. Of this I took several measurements. Two and a half feet from 
the ground, where the diameter was 104”, the distance from centre of 
pith to inner edge was 8}/’, and to outer 2". A foot lower the propor- 
tion had decreased to that of 9’ to 2)’ ina diameter of 11}. Ten 
inches lower still it had further decreased, so that the pith was still 9!’ 
from the inner, but 44} from the outer margin. The ratios between the 
two distances in descending the stem were therefore, respectively, 43, 
33, and 2. Above the first-mentioned point the position of the pith re- 
mained nearly unchanged. 

A very large vine, nearly four inches in diameter, gave less marked 
results. Sections not being exactly circular, linear measurements could 
not be relied upon, but a line drawn through the heart, parallel to a tan- 


ever, exhibited the extreme of the phenomenon, the cellular dot ap- 
Proaching to within a fourth of a line of the membranous bark. Indeed, 
so anxious did it seem to remove itself to the greatest possible distance 
from the tree that for the greater part of the way there was a manifest 
ridge running along the back of the stem, in which the pith was situated. 

These facts, however, uniform and singular as they are, could not in 
themselves be regarded as sufficient to demonstrate the absorption of sap 
from the supporting trees by the rootlets. To satisfy such an assump- 
Hon certain tests must be applied. The first that, suggested itself to me 
Was that of making similar observations at points where, for any reason, 
the vines had swung loose from their support, so that no connection ` 
should exist by means of the rootlets. Many such cases were found and 
examined. The larger vine first referred to, which at a distance of two 
feet and a half from the ground, where the attachment was firm, meas- 
ured 84" to the inner and 2" to the outer margin, giving a ratio of 4} 

= the measurements, had the pith located 54” from the inner and 
32!" from the outer margin, a ratio of 13, at a point some six feet higher, 
Where it had become detached. In this example it was evident that 
there had formerly existed some degree of attachment. At other points 


© same vine, bearing the berries and showing no tendency to cling, 
ere was no appreciable eccentricity. Another small vine, which ad- 


t 


. 


234 General Notes. [ April, 


hered for four feet and then swung away for two feet, reattaching above, 
had the pith decidedly more central at the detached part than at points 
either above or below. The extreme case to which I referred, where the 
pith actually ran through a tube slightly raised above the outer surface, 
showed a transition from this state of extreme eccentricity to one of 
centrality in the space of one foot where the vine suddenly abandoned 
its support. 

The function assigned to the rootlets by the hypothesis is one of para- d 
sitism. They are assumed to penetrate the bark as far as the cambium l 
layer, and remove the sap of the tree, appropriating it directly to the i 

ine. This nutrition, being ready-made, would naturally be deposited at 
the nearest point of contact, and thus account for the great preponder- 
ance of woody tissue found on the side next the tree. It would there- : 
fore follow that this eccentricity of pith should not exist where the sup- 
port is not a living tree. To test this question, I sought out a small 

vine of the same species which climbed and closely adhered with a prom 
fusion of rootlets to a perfectly dry stone wall ten feet in height. This 

I examined most carefully, and accurately measured at various points, 
finding the position of the pith uniform at all distances from the ground. 

The following measurement will therefore answer for all: ‘Three feet 
from the base, where the diameter was 43", the pith was 23” from the 
inner and 2" from the outer edge, or within three fourths of a line of 
the centre. 

One other class of instances seemed to bear directly on this point, and 
to these I gave special attention. I refer to vines found climbing fences 
and posts under varying circumstances. The results obtained from these . 
were perhaps the most surprising of all. One 51 in diameter tightly 
hugged a decayed fence post, insinuating its rootlets deeply into the soft 
surface. Of this the pith was 4" from the inner and 14” from the outer 
margin, giving the astonishingly large ratio of 3}. A section of a larger 
stem (11”) similarly situated, and whose rootlets tore away considerable 
of the decayed wood in detaching it, showed the centre of the pith to be 
7"! from the inner and 4! from the outer margin. Considering the size 
of this vine the eccentricity was large. 

Where the wood to which the vines adhered was not decayed or soft, 
a marked diminution in the eccentricity was perceptible. In one m- 
stance where the rootlets clung very tightly to a dry surface, which had 
moreover been charred and where penetration was impossible, the meme 
urements were respectively 34” and 24, or an eccentricity of half a line 
in a diameter of half an inch. 

So far as my observations, which were numerous, extended, it seemed 
to be the law that, ceter’s paribus, the softer the wood to which the 
rootlets adhered, the greater the eccentricity of the pith. 

Without going further into details, therefore, the whole subject may 
be thus briefly summed up :— 


Sag asset a X 
A a 


1876.] Botany. 235 


(1.) The pith of the poison ivy, wherever the vine is of moderate size, 
and is found adhering closely either to the bark of a living tree or to any 
soft, decaying substance, is located from three to ten times nearer the 
outer than the inner side of the stem, and sometimes still more eccen- 
trically ; the annual layers of wood as well as the bark becoming corre- 
spondingly thickened on the side next the support. 

(2.) This eccentricity diminishes and frequently disappears altogether 
at points where there is no attachment by the rootlets. 

(3.) It is greatly reduced in vines which cling to hard substances 
which the rootlets are unable to penetrate, as a stone wall or a dry post. 

That all these facts are in harmony with the theory of the absorption 
of nourishment from the support, in so far as any form of parasitism is 
implied, cannot of course be maintained. The last élass of observations 
described may be regarded as directly negativing such an assumption. 
Besides, I have seen nothing to render it probable that the rootlets ever 
pierce the outer bark. But, on the other hand, these facts do all unite 
in pointing to a physical connection of some kind between the penetra- 
tion of the rootlets and the eccentricity of the pith. The notion thus far 
entertained, and which has found its way into our standard text-books, 
that these rootlets are “ not for absorbing nourishment, ‘put for climb- 
ing,”* may in future require some modification. Yet, admitting this 
physical connection, there remain puzzling physiological questions. If 
these rootlets perform the function of true roots, and find congenial soil 
In the corky layer of bark, in the soft mass of decomposed wood, and 
even to some extent in the minute cryptogamic vegetation that always 
exists among them even when clinging to walls of brick or stone, how 
does this explain the singular behavior of the pith and the strange 
eccentricity of the annual rings ? — Lester F. Warp 

Sers of Dr. Edward Palmer’s recent collection of plants of San Diego 
Co., California, and of the Tantillas Mountains in Lower California, near 
the boundary, will shortly be ready for distribution. They will probably 
number about three hundred species, and will be sold at ten dollars per 
hundred. Address Sereno Watson, Cambridge, Mass. 

Rosinta nisripa.— Can an of our readers procure specimens of 
the fruit of this plant for Professor Gray, of Harvard University, Cam- 
bridge? The pods are almost unknown. 

BOTANICAL PAPERS in Recent PERIODICALS. — The Journal of Bot- 
_ “ny (Trimen), February. S. Kurz, On the Species of Glycosmis (plants 
of the orange tribe). A. E. Eaton, Plants of Spitzbergen. H. F. Hance, 
New Orchids from Hong Kong. Reichenbach fils, Descriptions of three 

ts. W. B. Helmsley, Notes on the Flora of Sussex. R. A. Prior, 
On Rumex hydrolapathum and R. maximus. G. Dickie, On Marine 
Alge from Kerguelen Island. M. J. Berkeley, On a New Agaricus 
from Kerguelen Island. Dr. Gray’s paper on Æstivation and its Termi- 
nology is reprinted in this number. a" 


1 Gray’s Lessons, page 34. 


236 General Notes. [April 


Comptes rendus, January 3d. Duchartre, Conclusions respecting the 
Production of Saccharine Matters in Plants. E. Heckel, Floral Glands 
of Parnassia palustri. January 10th. R. Corenwinder, On the Dimi- 
ution in the Amount of Sugar in Beets, during the Second Period 
of their Growth. 

Annales des Sciences naturelles, December, 1875. P. Duchartre, On 
the Bulbs of Lilium. 

Flora, No. 33. Dr. Lad. Celakovsky, On Intercalated Epipetalous 
Stamens. F. Arnold, On the Lichens of the French Jura. Nos. 34 and 
35. C. Müller, New Grenada Mosses. Dr. K. Prantl, Morphological 
Studies. No. 36. O. Böckeler, On certain Carices. This number con- 
tains a very long and interesting review of Darwin’s Insectivorous Plants. 
No. 1. Hugo de Vries, On the Wood formed during Repair of Wounds 
in Trees. 

Botanische Zeitung, No. 2. On the Palmella State of Stygloclonium, 
by L. Cienkowski. On the Influence of Light on the Color of Flow- 
ers, by E. Askenasy (elsewhere noticed). No. 3. Botanical Miscellany, 
by Dr. A. Ernst (abstracts of these notes are given above). On the 
Behavior of Yeast in Liquids free from Oxygen Gas, by M. Traube 
(controverting the views of Brefeld). No. 4. The Development of 
Basidiomycetes, by Oscar Brefeld. (A review of some recent publica- 
tions, especially those of Reess and Van Tieghem.) No. 5. Investiga- 
tions respecting Growth, by J. Reinke (not finished). On the Rate of 
Movement of Water in Plants, by Dr. Pfitzer (to be hereafter noticed). 
In the report of the Bonn society, Professor Pfeffer’s papers on the 


Formation of the Primordial Utricle, and the Production of High Hydro- 


static Pressure by Osmosis, previously noticed in this journal, are given 
with considerable fullness. No. 6. On the Morphology of the Aracex, 
by Dr. A. Engler (not finished). 

ARBEITEN DES BOTANISCHEN INSTITUTS IN WÜRZBURG, heraus- 
gegeben von Professor Dr. Sachs. Erster Band. This volume of con- 
tributions from the Botanical Institute at Würzburg comprises four 
parts, which have appeared at nearly regular intervals since 1871. ° 
work can therefore be ranked among periodicals. In the present notice 
we shall give very briefly a sketch of the memoirs, hoping to present 
fuller outlines of several of them in subsequent numbers of the NAT- 
URALIST. 1. Dr. W. Pfeffer, On the Action of Colored Light on the De- 
composition of Carbonic Acid in Plants. (By an improved method of re- 
search the following results were reached: Only the visible rays of the 
spectrum can decompose carbonic acid ; in fact, those which seem bright- 
est, namely, the yellow rays, are alone as efficient in this work as all the 
others combined. ‘The most highly refrangible rays of the visible spec- 
trum, and those which act most energetically on chloride of silver, ete 
play a subordinate part in assimilation. Each color in the spectrum has 
a definite quantitative effect on the activity of assimilation.) 2. Dr. W. 


Spd a ER epee a a ee EST TE E eee yo Ma ag Cee eae ee 


OA ee eee aes ee 


1876.] Zoölogy. 237 


Pfeffer, Studies respecting Symmetry and Specific Causes of Growth. 
(An examination of the influence of surroundings upon the growth of a 
liverwort.) 3. J. Sachs, On the Influence of the Temperature of the Air 
and the Effect of Daylight on the Periodical Changes in the Rate of 
Growth of Internodes in Length. (See abstract in Sachs’ Text-Book, page 
735 et seg. In the memoir, Professor Sachs has given a very full résumé 
of the literature of the subject.) 4. J. Sachs, On Negative Geotropism. 
(Observations respecting the curving upwards of shoots from a stem 
placed horizontally.) 5. J. Sachs, On the Deflection of Roots from their 
Normal Direction of Growth by Contact with Moist Surfaces. (See 
abstract in Sachs’ Text-Book, page 764.) 6. Hugo de Vries, On some 
Causes of the Direction taken by Parts or Plants which possess Bilat- 
eral Symmetry. (The effects of gravitation, light, defoliation, etc., are 
examined, The views of Frank are contested. See Text-Book, page 
705.) 7. J. Sachs, The Plant and the Eye as Different Tests for Light. 
(Sachs had early insisted upon a distinction between objective intensity 
of light and its brightness to the eye. Prillieux in a paper on the sub- 
ject is thought to have overlooked these distinctions, as well as that be- 
tween refrangibility (objective) and color (subjective). In the present 
memoir Professor Sachs reviews the literature of the subject, defends 
his former position, and further explains the relation between the inten- 
sity of light and the activity of assimilation.) 


ZOOLOGY. 


Tae Crosspitt BREEDING At Riverpatr, N. Y.— This bird 
(Loxia curvirostra var. Americana) made its appearance here last au- 
tumn, November 3d. Small flocks were occasionally seen all winter, 
and through March and April, feeding on seeds of cones of the Norway 
spruce and larch. On April 22d I noticed a pair building near the top 
of a red cedar, about eighteen feet from the ground. The nest, April 
30th, contained three eggs, and was composed of strips of cedar bark, dried 
grass, and stems of the Norway spruce, and was lined with horse-hair, 
feathers, dried grass, and fibrous roots. The eggs were about the size of 
those of Junco hyemalis, in color very light blue, slightly sprinkled and 
blotched at the large end with dark purple. I saw a small flock of six 
of these birds May 10th, which were the last seen here. Riverdale is on 
the Hudson River, sixteen miles north of New York Bay. — E. A. 
Bicknext, 

Bewicr’s Wren (Thryothorus Bewicki), although not a well-known 
rd to those not ornithologists, is not “ something of ararity” in the 
middle Atlantic States, as stated by Dr. Coues in the January number of 
the Naturatist. I have not failed to find considerable numbers of 
them for several years past. They appear to have a strong attachment 
for certain localities, and, if undisturbed, will return year after year to 


238 Girat Dotai. CA | 


the same spot to breed. An interesting feature in the habits of this species 
is the marked variation of their vocal powers. While some are remark- 
ably fine singers, others are very commonplace, or else too lazy to exer- 
cise their capabilities. — CHARLES C. Assott, M. D., Trenton, N. J. 

FLOWERS OF THE GOLDEN CURRANT PERFORATED BY HUMBLE- 
BEES. — In Part 7 of Half-Hours with Insects, page 202, it is stated 
that the first and only instance known in this country of the curious trait 
of the humblebees of perforating the corollas of flowers to get the honey 
is given by Mr. W. W. Bailey in THE American NATURALIST, 1873. 

Last spring a cluster of Ribes aureum growing in my dooryard was 
visited by humblebees, and I noticed that they always extracted the 
honey through perforations in the bases of the calyces made by their 
mandibles. When atleast three fourths of the flowers had been despoiled 
in this way, so great was their dexterity that seven flowers per minute 
were found bitten open and robbed of their honey. The same was no- 
ticed by Mr. Struthers, of Fort Atkinson, on the flowers of Robinia pseu- 
dacacia, in 1863. — W. F. Bunpy. 

Hasits or Western Birps.— As we encamped on Antelope Creek, 
Nevada, May 28th, I at once proceeded to procure specimens, and in fol- 
lowing up the stream a short distance I came upon a thicket of willows, 
in which I found a large nest, occupied by one of the parent birds. 
After securing the bird, which proved to be the female of Buteo Swain- 
soni, and crawling up to the nest for the eggs, I noticed a slight commo- 
tion amongst the leaves but a short distance away, which upon exam- 
ination proved to have been caused by a pair of Bullock’s orioles (Jeterus 
Bullockii), which were also breeding. Both of these nests were about 
twelve feet from the ground, only eight feet apart, and unprotected from 
above, by the absence of any branches or leaves. The orioles had cer- 
tainly built in a dangerous locality, and must have been entirely unmo- 
lested by the hawks, as the eggs in both nests were far advanced in in- 
cubation. ; 

Later in the season (August) we camped at Big Pines, Owens Valley, 
Cal., where we saw great numbers of humming-birds flying around the 
tops of the pine-trees. Towards evening some were seen near the 
ground, and after watching them very closely for a while I saw one _ 
alight close by, which soon after flew to its nest. The nest was built 
upon a small cottonwood branch, exactly over and but about two feet 
above a perfect torrent of water rising in the glacial summit of the 
Sierra Nevadas. The species (as Professor Baird has since informed 
me) was Stellula Caliope. The nest, eggs, and skins, with those above 
referred to, are now at the Smithsonian Institution, together with the 
general collections. 

In the December number of the Naturatist for 1873, Mr. Allen 
answers Dr. Barrett (?) in reference to the supposed geographical “ dis- 
tribution,” or rather range, of the crow and raven. As he says, they are 


1876.] Zoblogy. 239 


gregarious throughout the region over which we passed in 1873, Yel- 
lowstone River, etc., and I can say the same of Nevada, in the valley of 
the Payhee and Humboldt rivers. Frequently, while working our way 
slowly up the Grand Cafion of the Colorado River, where the plateau 
was over six thousand feet above us, with walls at an angle (from 
base to summit) of nearly eighty degrees, we found numbers of crows 
and ravens flying over our heads, or perched upon the projecting ledges 
of sandstone or basalt. Rather dismal to hear the croaking in such a 
locality, — the bottom of a gorge, one and a quarter miles below the sur- 
face. — W. J. Horrman, M. D. 

REMARKABLE Structure or Youne Fisues.— Dr. Günther, of 
London, has recently discovered that the young of the sword-fishes and 
Chetodus possess structures exceedingly different from that of the adult. 
In the young Chetodus the front of the body is shielded with large bony 
plates, which in one species are produced into three long, equidistant 
horns, which diverge ray-like from the body. In the sword-fishes the 
scapular arch is prolonged into a horn at the lower part, and the belly 
fins are wanting. There is no sword, but the jaws are long, of equal 
length, and both are furnished with teeth. As the fish grows, the scap- 
ular horn disappears, the ventral fins grow, and the uppér jaw is de- 
Veloped in excess of the lower. The long teeth disappear, and the 
upper jaw grows into the toothless, sword-like weapon which gives the 
fish its peculiar character. 

Uxusuan Nesting Sires or tae Nient Hawk AND TOWHEE 
Bunting. — A letter from Mr. William Couper, of Montreal, speaks of 
his having found the eggs of Chordeiles popetue on the flat roofs of build- 
ings in that city, and the nest of Pipilo erythrophthalmus in a small tree 
about three feet from the ground. In each of these cases the departure 
from the usual habit of the species is decided. — ELLIOTT Cougs. 

GGs or Boa-Constrictor. — My friend, Dr. Kunzé, has shown 
me an infertile egg of a boa which he lately obtained at the Central Park 
menagerie. The boa laid twenty-one eggs, each about the size of a 
hen's egg. The animal made the deposit in sight of her keeper and 
others. She laid two fertile eggs, and then a sterile one, in regular 
Succession ; each third egg was sterile. The fertile eggs had each a 
young boa within. One came out of its shell immediately after being 
laid, but soon died. All the others died within their shells. The sterile 
©8388 were albuminous throughout, and cut like cheese and smelled like 


< Perm oil. Could this be the balance of an impregnation received the 


year before? — S. Lock woop. 

SMALL Birps CAUGHT BY THE BurpocK.— At Lake George, a gen- 
tleman presented me with a skeleton of a humming-bird, firmly fastened 
to some burs, which he found on a burdock; and at the same time he 
found a live one on a plant near by. I was walking along one of our 
country roads, when I saw a yellow-bird (Chrysomitris tristis) fluttering 


fecal 


240 General Notes. [ April, 


on a burdock, and when I stooped to catch it, it tore itself away, leaving 
a number of its feathers on the burs. A few days after, I caught a 
yellow-rumped warbler (Dendroica coronata) fastened to the same kind 
‘of plant. — A. K. FISHER. 


i ANTH OLOGY. 

ANTHROPOLOGICAL Nores.— Those who attempt to institute a com- 
parison respecting the elaboration of culture in the Old World and in 
the New, and to sum up the contributions of nature in the two hemi- 
spheres, must not forget that in the western men wrought only with 
their hands, that they had the service of not a single tractive animal, of 
no beast of burden excepting the llama, that they had no cows for milk, 
no domestic animals for slaughter; and but for the faithful wolf-dog, the 
aborigines of North America would have been absolutely cut off from 
the advantages of those friends of man which in the eastern hemisphere 
are indissolubly‘linked with progress. 

The railway companies of Western Germany having taken steps to 


secure and preserve all historical and prehistorical relics found in their 


gradings, some fich discoveries have been their reward. At Durkheim 
a highly ornamented Roman tripod inlaid with gold and other metals 
was found. Near Eisenberg, a Roman grave with rich deposits was 
opened. 7 

Prof. George Rolleston’s paper in the Journal of the Anthropological 
Institute (v. ii. 120), On the People of the Long Barrow Period, is a 
very interesting treatment of the subject. We can extract only a few 
sentences. As to the physical characteristics of the people, the male 
skeletons were very generally about 5.5 feet, the female 4.8 feet. The 
average difference between the statures of males and females in civilized 
races is about half this amount, while a precisely similar disproportion is 
observable at the present day in the stature of individuals of the two 
sexes among savages. In studying the skulls we are to take into ac- 
count what the author, quoting Professor Cleland, calls “ ill-filledness,” 
or the presence of ridges and depressions occasioned by scanty feeding 
and lack of comfort. Speaking of the age of the barrows, there is 10 
doubt that they are the first sepulchral evidences of the existence of man 
in Britain. Pristine or priscan man, like the modern savage, grudged 
no labor less than that which was spent in piling up a huge mound. 
Mr. H. W. Mosely, naturalist to the Challenger, in recording his obser- 
vations on the Kudang tribe of Australia, living near Cape York, says 
that though they are destitute of almost everything in the way of prop- 
erty, having neither perforated stones to hel p them dig roots, as have the 
Bushmen, nor boomerangs, nor tomahawks, nor canoes ; living not on the 
available wallabies and phalanges, but on fish, reptiles, invertebrates, and 
vegetables; having the scantiest clothing ; being, finally, below savagery; 
as understood by, a good judge of it, Professor Nillson, in having no 


Se a RTE Betas GR ee ee ee rien a nee ee a a 


Th 


187 6] Anthropology.) 241 


chiefs, — they nevertheless take great pains with the burial of their dead, 
marking out and adorning the graves with posts, and decorating them 
with the bones of the dugong. None of them have any metal imple- 
ments; tanged and barbed arrowheads are wanting in them. When 
containing any burnt bones, the latter never occur in urns, and a large pro- 
portion of the bones present the manganic oxide discoloration. The im- 
mense majority of long barrows in the south of England were erected for 
inhumation, whereas exactly the reverse has been the rule in the north 
counties. 

On the whole, indications are not wanting which suggest that inhuma- 
tion will ultimately be shown to have been the earliest mode of burial 
practiced in theseas yet the earliest known sepulchres, and that inhumation 
in galleried chambers was probably the earliest variety practiced, at least 
where the necessary slabs of such chambers and passages were available, 
but that burial withbut burning, and also without any cist or chamber 
whatever, may in other districts not so conditioned have been contem- 
poraneous with burial in chambers; and, finally, that inhumation in cists 
without passages leading down to them, and cremation, mark later epochs 
in the Long Barrow Period. The plan of cremation was that of pack- 
ing the bodies in all states of decomposition along the central axis, to- 
gether with wood and stones; the combustible and transpirable mass 
reached half the. length of the barrow. Whatever was done in a crema- 
tion barrow was done at one time, once and for all. 

Macmillan & Co. have published during the last year a work en- 

titled Angola and the River Congo, by Joachim John Monteiro. The 
author speaks very disparagingly of the prospects of civilizing the na- 
tives. The same gentleman has a paper on a kindred subject in vol. v., 
part ii., of the Journal of the Anthropological Institute. 
: M. Clermont Ganneau reviews the ancient inhabitants of Palestine in 
the August number of Macmillan’s Magazine. The London Atheneum 
of December 11, 1875, contains a letter from the Rey. Selah Merrill, 
archzologist of the American Palestine Exploration Society, in which 
he reports a visit to Um El Jemal, the Beth Gamul of Jeremiah, in the 
neighborhood of Bozrah and Salchad. 

Professor Fischer, director of the Mineralogical and Geological Mu- 
seum of Freiburg, Baden, has sought to organize a new branch of anti- 
quarian study, namely, mineralogical archwology. His object is to as- 
Certain, by a microscopical and chemical examination of nephrite, jade- 
ite, and other substances of which stone implements are made, the ex- 
act source of these materials, and also the migrations of the people who 
used them. 

AN Ixptan ROCK-SHELTER IN LANCASTER County, PENNSYLVA- 
NIA. — Professor Haldeman has lately discovered an interesting series of 
dian relics in a small cave, or more properly rock-shelter, at the west- 


ern side of Chickis Rock, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This rock 
OL, X. — No. 4, 16 


242 General Notes. [ April, 


or cliff, he informs me, is of quartzite (Potsdam sandstone), which has 
the curve of an anticlinal axis, the base of which may be called a cave. 
This is arched, high enough for a man to stand at the entrance, with the 
roof declining backwards and on each side to the ground; the width and 
depth about twelve feet. The “find” of specimens consists of one hun- 
dred and thirty arrowheads, of quartz, jasper, limestone, and chalcedony ; 
one banner-stone or sceptre, a perforated implement resembling a toma- 
hawk ; eight chisels, mostly of quartz; two pipe-stems, three net-sinkers, 
and about one hundred fragments of pottery. As the characteristic 
specimens of this find, with full details of their discovery, will shortly be 
illustrated and described, we will not refer more particularly to them. 
The specimens here briefly referred to were found beneath a deposit of 
rich black mold, varying from two and one half to three feet in depth. 
If this deposit is solely due to the decomposition of vegetable matter, the 
contained relics indicate that very far back in the past the red man had 
arrived at an advanced stage of neolithic culture ; for the specimens as a 
class are of excellent workmanship. — Cuaries C. Apsort, M. D. 

Tue Tasmanians. — In a recent memoir on the osteology and pecul- 
iarities of the ‘Tasmanians, who have recently become extinct, Dr. J. 
B. Davis records his belief that they represent a type distinct from the 
Australians. Besides presenting osteological differences, the Tasmanians 
never used the boomerang or shield, although they had a larger brain, 
and were intellectually superior to the Australians. Like the Australians, 
however, the Tasmanians never made pottery. Although Tasmania is 
situated but a little more than three hundred miles from Australia, Davis 
thinks there was never any communication between the two peoples. In 
confirmation of this view he states that the Tasmanians neither had 
native dogs nor practiced circumcision, a custom very general among the 
Australians. “All that can be said with truth is that the Tasmanians 
are not Australians, they are not Papuans, and they are not Polynesians. 
Although they may present resemblances to some of these, they differ 
from them all substantially and essentially. From all this we are justi- 
fied in asserting that the Tasmanians were one of the most isolated races 
of mankind which ever existed; that they were a peculiar and distinct 
race of people, dwelling in their own island, and different from all others. 
And they have been one of the earliest races to perish totally by coming 
into contact with European people.” The population of Tasmania at 
the time when first visited by Europeans was between four thousand 
and seven thousand. The last native died three years since. 


GEOLOGY AND PALHONTOLOGY. 


Hort Springs ann GEYSERS. — We extract from Prof. T. B. Com- 
ae: Report on the Geology of Wyoming the following remarks 0? 
the difference between hot springs and geysers: “In the ordinary hot 


1876.] Geology and Paleontology. 243 


‘spring the spurting of the liquid, when it occurs, is owing to a resist- 
ance offered to the direct escape of the expansive force from below, and 
this resistance may be found in the tenacity of the liquid contents of the 
bowl, in the untoward shape of the bowl or its connected passages, or in 
the sudden restriction of the orifice near the surface of the liquid. In 
either case the uprising force is condensed, as it were, near one point, 
and the spurt or eruption is caused by the sudden overcoming of the ten- 
sion when the force has become sufficiently concentrated to free itself 
from its confinement. Thus we may meet with a great variety of spout- 
ing thermal springs, resulting from two or more of these causes com- 
_ bined, and the force may be produced by heat alone or by the evolution 

of carbonic acid or other chemical change in addition. (See F igure 14.) 


he channel is con- 


The arrows Tepresent the direction of the action of the subterranean force. 
stricted at o o, the entrance of the surface bowl; 1, 2,3 represent the variable position of the suc- 
cessive jets, 


“The phenomena observed in connection with the typical geyser, how- 
ever, do not admit of such a simple explanation; and there is much 
doubt whether existing theories are sufficient to account for all the com- 
mon manifestations of such agitated bowls. Almost without Sereno, 
in the true geyser, the action, whether frequent or the Peyvetee, 16 miter: 
mittent, although the successive periods in each case may be quite irreg- 
ular, Usually, as the first indications of an approaching eraption, there 
Will be noticed an escape of vapor, soon followed by a sudden rising of a 
mass of water sufficient to fill the surface-chamber of the geyser. The 
Phenomena which follow are very largely the result of structural features 
0f varying nature, no doubt, but it will invariably be found that the 
eruption takes place near the centre of the bowl, and that the elevation 
of the column of water is accomplished by continuous or successive 
throes from one Spot, while in the ordinary eruptive springs the column 
' seldom shot upward from the same point twice in succession. We 


244 General Notes. [ April, 


must, therefore, believe that the propelling power in the geyser acts 
temporarily and suddenly, while in the common hot spring, quiet, boiling, 
or eruptive, constant or periodical, the force is evolved with considerable 
regularity. The idea which the writer desires to convey will be rendered 
more evident by the comparison of Figures 14and 15. Figure 14 shows 
the supposed section of a common eruptive spring ; and it will readily be 
seen that jets may even occur in cold springs of this structure, provided 
a quantity of carbonic acid or other gas is struggling to free itself from 
beneath the ledge at o. In Figure 15, which is intended to represent the 


X x SS À 
wr N \ fe 
M1 
\\ edit å ; 


WRAY 
\\\ 


q 
a 


(Fie. 15.) IDEAL SECTION OF AN INTERMITTENT GEYSER. 
Laermer the phenomena of eruption during the escape of vapor, prior to the ejection of hot 


grees the water in the bent passage ¢ becomes heated, and evolves vapor 

also, as in o. After a time, the expansion of the vapor in b is able to 
overcome the combined pressure of the water and vapor in ¢ and o, when 
the latter is forced out, followed by a portion of the water in the reset 


1876.] Geology and Paleontology. 245 


voir a. The force thus expended, a vacuum is produced in b by the re- 
ceding of the column of water in a, and the foregoing operations are 
indefinitely repeated. This theory seems capable of explaining the facts 
so far as they are known, and the variations observed in special cases, or 
_ even in different eruptions of the same geyser, appear to the writer to 
require but slight modifications of the section, and none that are of great 
importance. The passage c may be kept filled with water by means of 
the surplus which falls back into the bowl. 

“ Bunsen’s theory of geyser action, which has not yet been proven inade- 
quate to explain the more prominent features of eruptions, does not seem 
sufficient (to the writer) to account for all the differences between the 
geyser and the mere hot spring, but it must not be inferred that such ex- 
cellent authority is disregarded. On the contrary, the author proposes 
the structural hypothesis simply as a supplement to the superheating 
theory of Dr. Bunsen, in order to explain surface phenomena common in 
the Fire-Nob basins, which appear to require an extension of his views. 
At the same time it must be confessed that there are objections to his the- 
ory, based upon these observations, which are difficult to reconcile. It 
will be impossible to present these here, but an outline of the theories 
in question is appended. Bunsen has shown that an eruption may be 
artificially produced by introducing steam near the base of a long, nar- 
row column of water, which causes the water, as it rises under pressure, 
to become super-heated, the surplus heat being used for the production 
of more steam, which adds to the elevating force. This admirable the- 
ory, of which the above experiment is an illustration, is based upon a 
series of ingenious observations among the hot springs of Iceland. 
Bischof adopts an opinion almost identical with the structural hypothesis 
here proposed, and the present author, it will be remarked, combines the 
two theories, believing both necessary to explain all the facts observed.” 

Tar MECHANISM or STROMBOLI. — As apropos to the subject of gey- 
sers we would direct the reader’s attention to an able article on Stromboli 
by the late- G. Poulett Scrope, published in the Geological Magazine for 
December, 1874, and illustrated by a view of Stromboli, which is here 
reproduced (Plate I.) through the courtesy of the publishers, the Messrs. 

riibner & Co. Mr. Scrope attacks Mallet’s suggestion that the mech- 
anism of Stromboli has not merely some similarity with that of a geyser, 
but that the volcano actually contains a geyser in its inside. In this con- 
nection he quotes Lyell’s Principles, in which it is stated that the phe- 
nomena of geysers “have no small interest as bearing on the probable 
mechanism of ordinary volcanic eruptions, namely, that the tube itself is 
the main seat or focus of mechanical force.” Scrope then refers to his 
wn theory, which corresponds to the views of Lyell and Dana. The 
ae of the latter he quotes as that “of an impartial and unquestionable 
authority ” , . Mr. Scrope shows that 
“ there is bipes ee mig aid wi g Str mbli any mech- 

: ground whatever for attributing to Stro y 
‘nism different from that of ordinary volcanoes.” 


PLATE I. 


STROMBOLI VIEWED FROM THE NORTH. (After ABica.) 


1876.] . Geography and Exploration. 247 


Tae Mountains or New ZEALAND. — In the coast scenery of 
New Zealand, with its deep fiords and mountains, none of which, however, 
rise above an elevation of nine or ten thousand feet, we find some in- 
teresting similarities to the scenic features of the Pacific coast of Oregon 
and Alaska. An interesting account of the physical geography of New 
Zealand, particularly the province of Otago, is given by Messrs. Hutton 
and Ulrich in their Report on the Geology and Gold Fields of Otago. 
The sounds or fiords were in one case found to be 1728 feet in depth. 
Mr. Hutton notices the points of difference between the Alps of Switzer- 
land and those of New Zealand. “No one,” he says, “after visiting 
the Alps of New Zealand, could fail to notice two remarkable points of 
difference between these mountain regions. The one is that mountains 
with sharp, serrated summits, which are the exception in Switzerland, 
are the rule in New Zealand, and the other is that the numerous large 
waterfalls which the traveler in Switzerland sees at almost every turn 
are quite exceptional in New Zealand. A few waterfalls, but they are 
very few in comparison with Switzerland, are found in the deep fiords 
on the west coast, and a few smaller ones towards the heads of the valleys 
in the heart of the mountains, and these are nearly all. And yet the 
mountains in New Zealand are quite as rough and rugged as the Alps of 
Europe, and indeed the gorges are more numerous and deeper. There 
are also other minor points of difference.” 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 


CAMERON’S EXPLORATIONS IN TROPICAL AFRICA. — Cameron’s 
achievement stands quite alone. For the first time in the history of 
the world a European traveler has walked across tropical Africa from 
east to west. But Cameron has done more. This wonderful march of 
three thousand miles is but a portion of his work. He has taken such a 
series of scientific observations as will place him in the foremost rank of 
practical geographers; he has surveyed the southern half of the great 
Lake Tanganyika, has solved the problem of the course of the Congo, 
and has fixed the position of the water parting between the Congo and 
the Zambesi. 

Born in 1844, and having entered the navy in August, 1857, Lieu- 
tenant Cameron was only twenty-eight when he received his instructions 
from Sir Bartle Frere at Zanzibar, and took command of the Living- 
stone East Coast Expedition. His previous services, which qualified him 
for this important charge, are recorded at page 274 of Ocean Highways 
for December, 1872. His instructions, dated February 14, 1873, were 
to take up supplies to Dr. Livingstone, and to carry out such explora- 
tion as he might direct or advise, it being specially pointed out that the 
Completion of the survey of Lake Tanganyika was work of great im- 
portance, Accompanied by his friend and old messmate, Dr. Dillon, 


248 General Notes. [ April, 


R. N., and by Lieutenant Murphy, R. A., Cameron made a final start 
from the east coast for the interior on the 18th of March, 1873. 

The young lieutenant showed his admirable fitness for the work from 
the first. There were special and peculiar obstacles which entailed very 
heavy expenditure, and Dr. Kirk was of opinion that no expedition, 
starting from Zanzibar, ever had so many difficulties to encounter. 
Cameron gallantly faced and overcame them, and, in spite of them all, 
he reached Unyanyembe on the 4th of August, 1873. 

At this place all the members of the expedition suffered terribly from 
illness. Out of forty-five days Cameron himself was down with fever 
during twenty-nine, and was afterwards prostrated by a still more serious 
fever, of a remittent type, and inflammation of the eyes. It was here 
that the faithful servants of Livingstone, bringing with them the remains 
of the great traveler, and his journals and other effects, joined the relief 


expedition and received that aid which enabled them to reach the coast. ` 


Lieutenant Cameron sent down the Livingstone caravan to the coast, in 
charge of Lieutenant Murphy, with ample supplies for the journey; and 
the continued illness of Dr. Dillon obliged him also to return. The 
party left Unyanyembe on the 9th of November, 1873, and on the 17th, 
Cameron’s friend, Dillon, “a skillful and zealous officer, and a highly ac- 
complished scholar and firm and steadfast friend,” succumbed to the 
effects of overwork and a pestiferous climate. 

Cameron was now alone; but his work was not yet done. Living- 
stone’s servants had reported that a most important map belonging to 
the doctor had been left at Ujiji, without which the record of the great 
traveler’s discoveries would be very incomplete. It seemed to the 
young explorer that its recovery was a sacred duty, and he also consid- 
ered himself bound to do his utmost, with the means at his disposal, to 
further the cause of geographical discovery. With these objects, but 
still suffering acutely from the effects of fever and ophthalmia, Cameron 
set out from Unyanyembe for the west on the 11th of November, 1873. 
He kept on steadily working “ westward ho!” with dauntless persever- 
ance, until he reached the shores of the Atlantic. 

Traveling through a difficult and entirely new country, he discovered 
several of the southern tributaries of the Malagarazi and the interesting 
region they water, and on the 21st of February, 1874, he reached the 
shores of Lake Tanganyika. 

Cameron’s first great geographical exploit after reaching Ujiji was the 
survey of Lake Tanganyika, which he ascertained to be 2754 feet above 
the level of the sea. He launched his boats in March, 1874, closely ex- 
amined and surveyed the whole southern half of the lake, discovered 
the great stream called Lukuga, flowing out of it, and returned to Ujiji 
on the 9th of May. His invaluable map of the lake will be found facing 
page 72 of the Geographical Magazine for March, 1875, and was also 
published in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. Cam- 


1876.] Geography and Exploration. 249 


eron has since been informed that Lukuga, the outlet of Lake Tan- 
ganyika, falls into the Lualaba above the junction of the Lurwa and 
the Kamorondo. 

The gallant explorer started from Ujiji on his lonely and chivalrous 
expedition on the 20th of May, 1874, and, after traversing the Manyuema 
country, arrived at Nyangwé on the Lualaba, the farthest point reached 
by Livingstone, in the following August. He found that Livingstone 
had placed this station ninety miles too far to the west. It proved to be 
only fourteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, which at once puts 
an end to any notion of the Lualaba being connected with the Nile sys- 
tem. Instead of flowing north, the Lualaba here turns to the west, and 
then west-southwest, eventually entering and flowing through a great 
lake called Sankowa. The river receives many tributaries from the 
south, and one very large stream from north of the equator, called the 
Lowa. Thus the drainage from both north and south of the equator 
accounts for the two rises in the Congo. For Cameron has now fully 
established the identity of the Lualaba and the Congo. 

e advance from Nyangwé, Livingstone’s farthest point, was the 
most momentous crisis in Cameron’s undertaking. ‘The difficulties were 
great. It was impossible to obtain canoes. The chief beyond the Lo- 
mané, which here falls into the Lualaba, declared his resolution of mak- 
ing war if the explorer attempted to cross his country. He was thus 
diverted from his intended route down the course of the Congo. But 
he was not to be stopped. The route he actually did take was of equal 
™mportance, and led to equally valuable geographical discoveries. It led 
south from Nyangwé, up the eastern side of the valley of the Lomané, 
to Kilemby, the capital of a great chief named Kasongo, who ruled over 
all the country of Urua. 

_+he Urua country was first made known to us by Captain Burton, in 
is Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa, who calls it Uruwwa, 

a central district west of Tanganyika,” with a ruler named Kiyombo, 
who was friendly to the Arabs, and traded in ivory, staves, and copper 
from Katanga. Dr. Livingstone also heard of the same country, which 
he called Rua; but Cameron was the first to discover it and fix its 
Position, 

Cameron remained at the capital of Urua from October, 1874, to Feb- 
Tuary, 1875. It is a most important central point, for here the traders 
from the east and west meet. Cameron found an Arab merchant named 
Jumah ibn Salim, from Zanzibar, and also two mulatto traders named 
Alriz and Coimbra, from Bihé in Benguela. His long detention in 
Kasongo’s country enabled the explorer to collect much valuable geo- 
graphical information respecting the whole of this part of tropical Africa, 
Including a complete and detailed account of the rivers and lakes which 
“ the Congo from the south. He discovered a new lake called Kas- 
sali, through which the Lualaba flows; and another, with no outlet, 


250 General Notes. [ April, 


called Méhoya, which is specially interesting from having regular lake 


villages on its waters. He discovered also that the Lomané is a dis- 
tinct river from the Kassabé, receiving a large stream called Luwembi 
from the west, coming from a lake called Iki, probably the Lake Lincoln 
of Livingstone. Katanga, the famous copper-yielding district, within the 
territory of Urua, is situated between the rivers Lualaba and Lufira, 
which unite, and the combined stream, after flowing through a chain of 
small lakes, receives the Lualaba of Livingstone, which is really the 
Lurwa. The united rivers then flow through Lake Lanji (the Ulengé 
of Livingstone), and past Nyangwé to Lake Sankowa, and thence, as 
the Congo, to the sea. Cameron ascertained the names and positions of 
all the different tributaries of these rivers, and will be able to give a 
complete account of the hydrography of this newly-discovered region of 
the Upper Congo. 

After many vexatious delays, Cameron, accompanied by the mulatto 
Alriz, set out from Kasongo’s country for Benguela. His course led 
him past the sources of the Lomané and the Luwembi, and close to the 
sources of the Lulua he came upon water flowing to the Zambesi. He 
traveled over a rich table-land, with numerous streams, to Sha-Kilembe’s 
town, which he reached in September. The nights were cool on this 
elevated plateau, and on two occasions there was actually frost, when 
Cameron enjoyed the feeling of the crisp soil crunching under his feet. 
Sha-Kilembe is the Ya-Quilem of Ladislaus Magyar. It is on the river 
Luméji, a tributary of the Liambeje, in latitude 11° 31! south and lon- 
gitude 20° 24! east. 

As the travel-worn party approached the goal, all nearly spent, and with 
supplies at the lowest ebb, their leader performed an additional journey 
of a hundred and twenty geographical miles, in order to bring assistance 
to his native followers. The route led from Sha-Kilembe to Bihé, and 
thence to the Portuguese town of Benguela, on the shores of the Atlan- 
tic, where Cameron arrived last October, and whence he proceeded to 
Loanda to recruit his health. Thanks to the forethought of the Vis- 
count Duprat, the great traveler received every attention and much 
kindness from the Portuguese officials. As soon as he has found means 
of sending his other followers to Zanzibar, he will return home with old 
Bombay, the veteran servant of former travelers, and a small boy nam 
Jacko, who accompanied him from Unyanyembe. 

When Cameron arrives in this country, and fills in the details of the 
mere skeleton route which is now before us, we shall have a story of 
unsurpassed interest, whether we consider the great geographical dis- 
coveries he has made, the new regions he will describe, or the personal 
narrative of the intrepid sailor himself. 

But Cameron’s extraordinary merit rests mainly on the number and 
value of his scientific observations, The total distance over which he 
has marched from Zanzibar to Benguela is 2953 miles. Along this 


' 
: 
: 
: 


1876.] Geography and Exploration. 251 


route he has fixed 85 positions and taken 706 observations, consisting 
of 137 for latitude by stars north and south of the zenith, 196 for time, 
368 lunar observations, one for the sun’s eclipse of April 6, 1875, and 
four amplitudes for compass variation. His method of observing lunars 
for longitude is of the first order, namely, by stars east and west of the 
moon’s enlightened limb ; and by computing his observations, he has not 
only laid down his route accurately, but has also projected a remarkable 
section of the country over which he traveled, from the Indian Ocean : 
to the Atlantic. The heights of places above the sea are determined by 
four Casella’s aneroids, including 3718 observations, and by 70 observations 
of five boiling-point thermometers. The itinerary gives the approximate 
latitude and longitude of all the places visited, and their distances from 
each other ; and by this itinerary, with the observations for height, the 
section sheets have been projected. Cameron also collected a vocabulary 
of the language of interior Africa, comprising fourteen hundred words. 
The vast importance of Cameron’s discoveries, which establish on a 
firm basis the geography of south tropical Africa, cannot be fully appre- 
ciated and understood without a carefully prepared map accompanied 
by a critical commentary, which will be published in our number for 
tch. Meanwhile we may look for the return to this country of the 
great traveler himself, where he will receive a hearty and cordial wel- 
come. 
But Cameron himself has abstained from laying any claim to theoret- 
ical or hypothetical discoveries, and has merely stated facts that have 
come under his observation, and the reports he has collected from Arabs 
and natives. He has never claimed the discovery of the outlet to Lake 
Tanganyika. He has simply described a stream, called the Lukuga, 
which he found to be flowing out of the lake, arid the course of which 
he followed for four miles. He leaves deductions to geographers at 
oma, while he furnishes them with accurate data for forming their con- 
ip It is Burton who has generously called his young successor 
e second discoverer of Tanganyika.” Cameron’s observations are 
more complete than those of any previous traveler, but he speaks with 
characteristic modesty of his discoveries. ‘ As for geographical work,” 
SO dy at have cleared up a lot of mistiness, if not positive darkness ; 
a e work is immense, and ought to be taken in hand thoroughly, and 
ot by desultory expeditions which make their way to one point, and then 
ve to come away with their work unfinished. Fresh men should take 
— work of their predecessors, instead of, as at present, every man 
Re * hunt for his own needle in his own .bundle of hay.” If all 
hints a worked. and observed as Cameron has done, there would be 
Felp to desire. — Extracted from The Geographical Magazine for 
wary. 


252 General Notes. [ April, 


; MICROSCOPY.! 

Mope or Propuction or MicroscoricaL Imaces. — Professor 
Abbe, of Jena, has lately’ established a conception of the manner by 
which images are produced in the microscope, which is entirely dif- 
ferent from those usually adopted. The microscopical image of the 
object is formed by the superposition of two images, which have an en- 
tirely different origin, and can in fact be conceived to be separated one 
from the other. One image is a negative one, by which all parts are 
represented as a geometrical likeness by the unequal emersion of the 
rays of light passing through the object. This image is called by Abbe 
“absorption image.” It represents the definition of the microscope. 

The other image (formed by as many partial images as there are 
bundles of rays which have been isolated from the cone of light, and pass 
into the object) is positive. It is an image produced by refraction, and 
represents the penetration, that is, the finer structure of the object. 

erever the structural elements of the object are small enough and 
approximated enough, phenomena of diffraction appear. The conse- 
quence is that structural images, produced by a coöperation of the frac- 
tion of the rays of light, are not in a constant connection with the real 
structure of the object which produced it, but in constant connection with 
the phenomenon of diffraction which brought about the image. 3 

Microscopical images, therefore, showing systems of fine lines, as in 
diatoms, do not allow us to infer with safety the morphological existence 
of such structures, but only the existence of structures necessary to bring 
about such images. Consequently, the smaller the linear dimensions of 
a structure, the more unsafe are the conclusions respecting the real struct- 
ure as indicated by the image. It can therefore never be decided with 
certainty by what sort of structure the systems of lines (as for instance 
those of Pleurosigma angulatum) are produced, nor will the image of 
the finer transverse lines of muscular fibres give certain conclusions 
about the arrangement of the finer details of structure. This want of 
certainty may also apply to differences in the degree of transparence of 
objects, their color and polarization. 

bbe’s researches allow us to limit with certainty the powers of the 
microscope. “ Never can parts be seen which are so nearly approxi- 
mated that even the first bundles of rays of light produced by fraction 
are not able to enter the objective at the same time as the unbroken cone 
of light.” Every aperture of the objective has a fixed limit for the 
smallest distance of objects by which it is possible to see the object- 

Any new perfection of the microscope cannot go much further than 
to show for central illumination the whole length of. one wave of blue 
light, and for the greatest possible oblique illumination half the length 
of a wave. 

t This department is conducted by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 
2 Archiv fiir mikroskopische Anatomie, 1873, ix. 413-468. 


ee iad Seas Oo am ee Se a eae | a ion 


| 


1876.] Microscopy. 258 


It may therefore be observed that no microscope will show any more 
of the structure of an object than it is possible to see by an immersion- 
objective of a power of two hundred diameters. Helmholtz t'arrives at 
the same results by another mode, giving the smallest perceptible dis- 
tances for the middle greenish yellow light, 0.000275 mill. = 55, mill. 
—H. Hacen. - 

[We print this abstract of Professor Abbe’s curious researches, though 
not without mental reservations in regard to some of its conclusions. — 
Ep.] 

TYNDALL ASSOCIATION. — The second annual “ Science Exposition ” 
of this active society was given at the City Hall, Columbus, on the 
evenings of December 7, 8, 9, and 10, 1875. A prominent part of the 
exhibition was the microscopy, in charge of the president of the micro- 
scopical ‘section of the society, Rev. I. F. Stidham. Objects calculated 
to prove attractive to a popular assemblage were displayed upon micro- 
scopes furnished mostly by the members of the society, and an explana- 
tory lecture was delivered on the first evening by Prof. A. H. Tuttle. 
The instruments, over thirty in number, were by nearly all the familiar 
makers, the following maufacturers being those that were represented by 
more than one each: Beck, Queen, Hartnack, Grunow, Ross, Zent- 
mayer, Crouch, and Fields. 

Sonorovs SAND. — The “ musical beaches ” which occur at some points 
on the New England coast and in Georgia, as well as at the more 
famous localities in Arabia, Switzerland, the Hebrides, and the Sand- 
siig Islands, have lately been attracting much attention from micro- 

‘pists. When handfuls or larger quantities of the sand are rubbed 
together, a musical sound is produced which seems to be due to the nu- 
merous microscopic pits or cavities which abound in the grains of sand. 
These pits are especially conspicuous and interesting in the Sandwich 
Islands sand. Moisture, which would temporarily obliterate the cavities, 
prevents the sound. 

Excnances., — A photograph of any specially interesting microscopic 
object will be furnished in exchange for the use of the object from 
ee to obtain a negative. The object itself will be returned uninjured 
within one week. Address proposals to R. H. Bliven, Elmore, Ohio. — 
a nned vegetable sections in exchange for good mounted objects 

= & C108 Warren Avenue, Boston. — Slides of sonorous sand 
rp Sandwich Islands in exchange for any good mounted objects. W. 

`Y 103 Warren Avenue, Boston. 
> ag tera C. A. Baldwin has tranaierted ps coat 
N.Y. ¢ g these objects to Prof. H. A. Ward’s museum, Rochester, 
» trom which they can be obtained in future. 

- W. Queen & Co.— The changes recently noticed in this firm re- 

only to the New York house. 

“Shaped die Grenzen der Leistungsfihigkeit der Mikroskop, Monatsberichte der 
ademie, 1873, page 625. 


254 Scientific News. [ April, 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— The annual report of the trustees of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoölogy contains plans of the museum building, with a view of the wing, 
now partly built, together with its proposed addition and the corner- 
piece joining it to the main building. The curator, Mr. Alexander 
Agassiz, seems to discourage the accumulation of great stores of alcoholic 
specimens, suggesting that they should be restricted to a minimum, and 
limited, as far as possible, to those classes where no other mode of pres- 
ervation is practicable; and he thinks “the time has come when large 
collections must naturally be supplemented by zodlogical stations. 
These, when once established at properly selected localities, will enable 
museums to dispense with much that is now exceedingly costly.” By 
the success of the Agassiz Memorial Fund, the authorities will be en- 
abled, as soon as the contemplated additions to the museum are erected, 
to carry out the principal ideas of Professor Agassiz for the arrangement 
ofa museum, This fund is stated to amount to $310,673.99. 

— A new marine Fucoid from the Water Lime Group, at Buffalo. 
N. Y., has been noticed by Messrs. Grote and Pitt, under the name of 
Buthotrephis Lesquereuxit. The specimen is one of the best preserved 
of the kind yet discovered. No remains of sea-weeds appear to have 
been known hitherto from the Water Lime Group of the Silurian for- 
mation. 

— The third volume of the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, 
just published, contains articles on the Atlantic and Baltic, by Dr. W. 
B. Carpenter, and on Biology, by Professor Huxley and W. T. F. Dyer. 

— The Progress of Darwinism is an annual issued in Germany, giv- 
ing the annual record of evolution literature, as part of a series of other 
reports on the progress of geology, meteorology, ete. 

— Among the recent books of travel published by E. H. Mayer, 
Cologne and Leipzig, are the three following, by Robert von Schlagin- 
tweit: Die Prairien des amerikanischen Westens (The Prairies of 
Western America) ; Die Pacific-Eisenbahn in Nordamerika (The Pacific 
Railroad of North America) ; and Die Mormonen, oder die Heiligen vom 
jüngsten Tage (The Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints). 

— A summer school of science and physical culture on a rather novel 
plan is projected by Prof. D. S. Jordan, who proposes to take a class of 
twenty on a march from Indianapolis to the upper waters of the Tennes- 
see, thence by boats down the French Broad and Tennessee, to Chat 
tanooga, where the school will be closed. 

— A memoir of the late I. A. Lapham, LL. D., who suggested the U. 
S. Weather Signal System, has been prepared by Mr. S. S. Sherman. 

— Élisée Reclus is editing Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la Terre 
et les Hommes, of which six livraisons had appeared in Paris up t° 
November last. 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 255 


PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 


Acapemy or Narurat Sciences, Philadelphia. — February 24th. 
Professor Cope gave a history of the progress of the doctrine of evolu- 
tion of animal and vegetable types. (This is printed elsewhere in this 
number of the NATURALIST.) Dr. Allen called attention to a remark- 
ably prognathous human skull, from Australia, belonging to the academy, 
in which the monkey-like characters were unusually apparent. Other 
peculiarities observable only by anatomical experts were pointed out. 
A paper by Dr. Charles A. White, entitled Descriptions of Fossils from 
Paleozoic Rocks of Iowa was presented for publication. 

Acapemy or Science, St. Louis. — February 7th. Prof. C. V. Riley 
remarked on insectivorous plants, stating that while Drosera, Dionea, 
etc, actually digest animal matter, the only benefit Sarracenia received 
from captured insects was from the liquid manure resulting from their 
putrescent bodies. 

Sociery or NATURAL History, Boston. — February 16th. Prof. 


William B. Rogers presented some geological notes on the thickness of _ 


the Virginia Tertiaries as indicated by the artesian borings at Fortress 
onroe; on the Upper Secondary Sandstone of Virginia as including 
an ancient drift, and its relation to the post-tertiary cobble-stone deposit ; 
with suggestions in explanation of the course assumed by all the great 
rivers of the Middle States on entering the region of tide-water. 
Professor W. G. Farlow remarked on the nature and mode of growth 
of the “black knot ” of plum and cherry trees. This is an American 
fungus, and has spread from our wild plums and cherries to the cultivated 
trees. Professor Farlow recommended the wholesale destruction of our 
wild species, especially Prunus Virginiana, as breeders of the disease, 
Which, if followed up by careful pruning of trees in cultivation, could not 
finally to eradicate the black knot. 
- CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL Crus. — January 14th. It was voted 
a a publication fund should be established, amounting to at least two 
5 a dollars, the interest of which should be expended in publishing 
ia. e, as in no other way would it be possible to maintain the publi- 
wid: of the Bibliographical Record of North American Entomology, 
ch is already recognized as more complete than any other similar 
eds. or any department of science. A committee was appointed to 
this fund. ' 
I Scudder pointed out the presence of some hitherto unparalleled 
ar m the thorax of Anisomorpha buprestoides, and presented a paper 
n the subject for publication in Psyche. 
Papilio 7 - Stebbins, Jr., mentioned the capture, near London, of a 
She achaon which had five wings. The specimen is now in the 
Ra Museum. 
ebruary 11th. Mr. Scudder said that he considered that Mr. Riley 


256 Secientifie Serials. [ April. 


had proved by his recent investigations that Fagen ce pet yucce is a but- 
terfly, and forms a new group of Urbicolz ; 

Mr. Scudder exhibited a dissection of perra pallidicornis, to show 
the interior glands corresponding to the prothoracic excretory openings 
to which he had called attention at the previous meeting, when speaking 
of the function of these organs in Anisomorpha buprestoides (Spectrum 
bivittatum) and in Phasmide generally 

Mr. Fewkes exhibited drawings to show the structure and position of 
these glands. Mr. Dimmock exhibited wings of Microlepidoptera which 


had been bleached and mounted as microscopic objects; some of these — 


had been colored after bleaching, so as to show that the scales still re- 
mained 

Troy Screntiric Assocration. — February 21st. - Wm. E. Hagen 
read a paper on the curiosities of gold and gold mining, giving prom- 
inence to those facts that might have given plausibility to the theory of 
the derivative character of this metal. An abstract of this paper will be 
published in another number of this journal. 


an EEA 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.: 


Tae ANNALS AND Magazine or Naturat History. — January. 
On the Classification of Scorpions, by T. Thorell. First Report of the 
Naturalist accompanying the Transit of Venus Expedition to Ker- 
guelen’s Island in 1874 (conclusion), by A. E. Eaton. 

Monty Microscoricat JOURNAL. — February. Remarks on the 
Foraminifera, with especial Reference to their Variability of Form, illus- 
trated by the Cristellarians, by T. Rupert Jones. 

Tae GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE. — January. The Swedish Arctic 
Expedition. The Malayan Peninsula, by H. St. John, On former 
Physical Aspects of the Caspian, by H. Wood. Is it Possible to Unite 
the Black Sea and the Caspian? by. D. Ker. The Western Sahara, 
by E. G. Ravenstein (with a map). February. Dr. Beccari’s Recent 
Visit to New Guinea, by H. H. Giglioli. 

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ScreNcE.— March. Structure of Obolella 
chromatica, by E. Billings. On the Damming of Streams by Drift Ice 
during the Melting of the great Glacier, by J. D. Dana. On Flint 
Implements from the Stratified Drift of Richmond, Va., by C. M. Wal- 
lace. Principal Characters of the Tillodontia, by O. C. ‘Marsh. 

Tue GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. — February. Sketch of the Geology 
of Ice and Bell Sounds, Spitzbergen, by A. E, Nordenskiöld. Remarks 
on the New Hebrides Group, by H. Hosken. 

Nature. — January 27th, and February 3d. Professor Tyndall y 

erms. Professor Nordenskiöld on the Jenisei. 


1 The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part selected. 


~ 


a ae ae 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vou. x.— MAY, 1876. — No. 5. 


ANIMAL HUMOR. 
BY REV. SAMUEL LOCKWOOD, PH. D. 
“The heart is hard . . . that is not pleased 
With sight of animals enjoying life, 
Nor feels their happiness augment his own.” 
War deep philosophy might be evolved from an honest con- 
templation of animal sports! Just here a child may turn 
catechist, to the confusion of the wise man. Whether well or 
otherwise, Cowper’s words have been allowed to push us into the 
vein. He gave us our first draught of literary humor. It was 
long ago, but it comes up to-day as a delicious vision. The first 
poem that made our almost baby cheeks to dimple with ringing 
laughter was John Gilpin; and when told that its author kept 
three pet hares, Puss, Tiney, and Bess, in our boyish estimate 
ce a right proper man. And the later judgment 
confirms the youthful verdict. It has seemed to me that it is 
with animals much as it is with other folks; the jocose and the 
Pathetic, the gleesome and the sad, are very often from the same 
k born. There is a rough-and-tumble mirth, enjoyed alike 


PY dogs and boys, yea, and those semi-barbarous ones denomi- 


hated -s Troughs.” It is observable of this kind of play, with both 


dogs and the urchins, that, however high their glee, a small 

is ta put out all the fun. A decayed apple rightly thrown 

ie n sufficient for this purpose: the whole effervescence is over, 
the fun is flat as stagnant water. 

, the departed days when one chair in college took several 

. ogies,” our good old “ Prof.” was a very funny man. He was 


amg Practical. His jokes, even, were kept in stock and cal- 
«ed; each had its own time and purpose. There was his 
Star Joke » 


» always pronounced “huge and capital.” This bit 
Fla stately introduction, was regularly aired in sopho- 
Ben. A Wicked junior informed us just when to expect it. 


no longer fresh and green, it was resolved in class 


Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, JR. 1876, 


258 Animal Humor. [ May, 


caucus that we would conduct ourselves as behooved philosophers, 
when this laughter-provoker should make its annual round. At 
the expected time it came, and was really excellent. The pro- 
fessor let it off in good style; then he laughed heartily at his own 
wit. And why not? He had done so annually for a generation 
of years. But, alack! nobody joined in the chorus! Such a re- 
frain! It was unanimous. The class were as demure as a pack 
of wearied mules. Every face was stolidly, starkly blank. As 
a humorist, that rotten apple had “ put a head”’ on that learned 
man. Whether this cruel shock had caused the lesion of some 
nervous centre was not known, but we never heard the professor 
joke or laugh in class again. Ever after, the humanities were 
dispensed very dry, and ethics, his forte, were especially served 
up quite plain. Sorry for our naughtiness, we came to regard 
our action as a second-class joke. 

Within hailing distance of our former home at Keyport was 
the shop of a basket-maker. A pet monkey was the occasion of 
many an uproarious scene in the shop. In fact, all hands some- 
times played monkey, the quadrumanal leading off, hunted by 
the bimanal ones, over and through the sinuosities of great heaps 
of oyster baskets. Unaware of our seeming pedantry, we vent- 
ured to say that the specimen belonged to the family Cebidæ ; 
this was promptly corrected by an apprentice, who told us that 
it belonged to the “bosss family.” Happily, we were both - 
right. It was one of the spider monkeys, and known as Ateles 
Belzebuth. “ The devil it is,” said the apprentice. ‘ You bet, 
there ’s deviltry enough in that monkey.” To this we conde- 
scended no reply, regarding it as a little profane, and a good deal 
libelous. We continued by saying that the monkey came from 
South America, where they called it the “ marimonda.” Agam 
came an interruption from the facetious apprentice, who said, 
“There 7s a heap of mountebank in the little cuss.” The wee 
thing was a slim-bodied, long-limbed, and grotesque-looking creat- 
ure, and withal gentle, and confiding, and brimming over with 
fun. It was quite fond of a good-natured romp with the men 
and boys, when it would jump from one to the other, and cast 
around their necks that marvelous fifth hand, its prehensile 
tail. In tit-for-tat, tag -and - run, its agility and tactics were 
splendid. All this was very fine for a few days. But this 
good-natured romping soon became ill-tempered and vicious 0P 
the part of the shop hands. In truth, erelong that sense of feel- 
ing tired set in which so soon comes upon many an owner of 


1876.] Animal Humor. 259 


pets. Then came heartless practical jokes, harsh treatment, and 
general neglect. The poor creature had now evidently lost all 
heart. Something worse than the throwing of the rotten apple 
had happened. Marimonda was clever at catching sticks. A hot 
poker was thrown to it, — the burning shame! Poor thing! It 
now broke down completely, and made up its mind to drop all 
fun forever. Not at all vicious, still gentle, but joyless, it be- 
came chronically sad. Prematurely grave, for it was very young, 
the merry Marimonda was mirthful no more. I told its tor- 
mentors that the little fellow’s days were numbered ; in fact, that 
they were killing it. Already it had lost confidence in every 
one of them; but the first time that Ateles heard my voice, it 
approached me with a trustingness which was quite affecting. It 
attracted the attention of the workmen, one of whom said, “ Just 
look at that! The beast won't come nigh any of us, and always 
fears a stranger; but see how it takes to the minister from the 


first time that it puts eyes on him. It fairly whimpers when it 


hears him coming.” All this was true. And for that whimper — 
1t was a plaintive coo, soft and flute-like. True it was, whenever 
I called at the basket-maker’s shop I was sure to be met with 
the love - greeting of little Ateles, a soft, cooing utterance of 
trustful joy. But there was much plaintful, tender melancholy 
in it, for the wonted merry mood of Marimonda was forever gone. 
That there was real affection in that little heart, I entertain no 
doubt. Its gentle eyes told all this plainly whenever they saw 
ve Coming. Such manifestations could not be other than touch- 
ing, they spoke so unmistakably of an implicit faith in me; and 
1t is evident that it yielded the fruits of peace to the trusting 
One. I think with animals, as with men, humor and gentleness 
8° together; and if either survive the other, it is this goodness 
that gleams when the other light is put out. : 

I would not have it implied that this glinting towards, or even 
assimilating, the higher attributes of man makes our monkey less 
“mian, but I would insist that such qualities should not be reck- 
ned brutish. Tt is these touches of nature that make the whole 
world kit: I never dared interpret the words of that apostolic 
man, words so weighty with significance, whatever that may be, 
to “very thoughtful mind: “ For we know that the whole crea- 
tion groaneth, waiting for the adoption.” Yes, trust is needed at 
the dark end of the journey. I have had a mouse creep into my 

and to be covered, and to die. 

Poor Marimonda soon came to grief. A pot of green paint 


~ 


260 Animal Humor. [ May, 


unintentionally set in the way proved too much for simian curi- 
osity. She ate of the pigment, and in pitiful agony perished. 
This was dolorous tidings to us, and our temper rose to a spurt 
of indignation. Ah well, our soul contains no green-room secrets, 
so it may as well be confessed: it did make our placid spirits 
rily to see our pet comique go off like a contemptible Doryphora, 
dosed with Paris green. 

Shall not proper names be respected? And were not James 
and John apostles? How then could our learned friend ever 
again speak in meeting after that irreverent pun of calling his 
two monkeys, Jack and Jim, “ the sons of Cebidæ”? But there 
are some things that common folks cannot cope with. Once 
happening in upon our savant friend, we made the acquaintance 
of Jack, who now was alone. As his master said, Jack was 4 
Cebus, and his proper name was Cebus, capucinus; hence he was 
a cousin, so to speak, of our Ateles, as they both belonged to the 
same family, Cebide. I suppose that capucinus would indicate 
' that this Cebus had a monkish head on his shoulders.. Though 
very much more demonstrative, Jack had not the winning ways 
of Marimonda. His accomplishments were in another line. 
While the voice of Ateles was soft and musical, and in general 
her actions were gentle, Jack abounded in guttural gibberings 
and genuine monkey grimace. I had never before seen Jack, nor 
indeed, except the one fact of his remarkable sonship, had I even 
heard of him. When I entered the house he was chattering 1m 
his cage. I approached and said, ‘* Poor Jack!” at the same 


time extending to him both my hands. He took a finger of each 


hand of mine into each of his tiny hands, and as he held me 
thus, he gazed into my eyes as a discerner of spirits might who 
is divining from the tone of voice and the light of the soul-win- 
dows. The query in Jack’s mind was, “ What sort of stuff is this 
new fellow made of?” Mental movements are sometimes mirac- 
ulously quick, and that monkey’s mind was made up like a flash. 
The savant lookéd on in surprise. ‘“* You are the only DBs 
said he, “that Jack has taken a liking to at the first glance. 

Of a sudden my host set up a terrible to-do, as if he would have 
me torn to pieces, crying, “ Go for him, Jack! Go for him l 

But Jack looked perplexed, as he evidently liked me. He still 
held me by a finger of each hand; and it was plain that he 
would rather go for me, than go for me. Again, however, the 
master shouted excitedly, Go for him, Jack! go for him! 

And Jack, in obedience to command, went for me, shaking ™Y 


4 
a 
: 


1876.] Animal Humor. 261 


hands by the one finger of each as if he would impress me with 
the fearfulness of simian anger. And how wide open he kept 
his mouth, and how the white teeth shone, as from between 
tushed a torrent of gibbering rage! Now this perfunctory tem- 
pest was exceedingly well gotten up, considering the shortness of 
the notice. The part was well acted; the best make-believe 
anger I ever beheld. Of course it was the sheerest sham. The 
creature would not hurt a hair of my head. His owner’s com- 
mands obeyed, he turned his attention to me from a friendly 
point of view, and began making a minute inspection of my hands, 
especially the lines in the palms, as if he might be practicing” 
palmistry, he looked so grotesquely grave. 

Jack could catch, with either hand, a nut when thrown to him, 
and crack it with a stone as deftly as any one. He had his 
patience once sorely tried with an obdurate black walnut. His 
mistress put a large stone in his reach. It was so heavy that 
Jack had to walk nearly upright in order to keep his balance 
when he sought to carry it; but he succeeded, and down, with 
the nicest aim, came the stone upon the nut, which was fairly 
smashed. But if you would evoke the animal’s genius, it was 
only necessary to tantalize him a little by putting nuts on the 

oor at an inconvenient distance from his cage. With a doubled 
string he would throw the loop, and lasso in the prize. We have 
seen him attain his object by the most persistent and ingenious 
movements of an awkward angular bit of pine wood. 

On one occasion a gentleman called who was bald. Our Cebus 
regarded the visitor with unfriendly wonder. Why should he be 
less like him than other folks were? Had not other men, like 
monkeys, hair upon their heads? Was not this making an in- 
Vidious distinction, perhaps to the disadvantage of capucinus ? 
Of course, no son of Cebidæ could say, “ Go up, thou bald head!” 
Still Cebus was in no reverent mood, albeit he did show off his 
accomplishments in the line of getting the nuts off the floor. He 
Was next ordered to go for the gentleman, which order he exe- 
cuted with alacrity and spirit. As Cebus was securely confined, 
this paroxysm of obedience hurt no one. “ But,” said the gen- 
tleman, as he turned his back upon the cage to address his host, 
Fhe think his dexterity with that stick is wonderful, and shows 
him capable of even stranger developments.” The gentleman 
was correct ; and whether the droll beast was affected by the com- 
Pliment or not, we cannot say. It was an inexplicable incident, 

Wever, that at that especial moment the angular wand was 


262 Animal Humor. [ May, 


brought down with intense simian anger upon that glistening pate. 
It did look as if Cebus thought, ‘ Let me ‘put a head on’ that flat- 
tery!” The gentleman’s feelings may be judged from his ac- 
tions. Up rose a livid spot, on which, like a soothing poultice, 
one hand was tenderly placed, as old Uncle Ned would say, — 
“ In de place whar de wool ought to grow.” 

Now in all this we find incongruousness and surprise, and, to 

the spectator, sparkling, rollicking fun. In words, it would have 


the startle and unexpectedness of wit; in pantomime, that scene _ 


would bring down the house like a hurricane. Is it supposable 
that Jack was unconscious of the fun? I do not think that he 
was altogether funnier than he knew. 

Is it not noteworthy that the fun of animals is chiefly got at 
in sham battles, amid the roar of mock anger? Boys too often 
love to tease and worry animals, and not less one another. It is 
with the same impulse one ties a tin utensil to a cur’s tail, or 
pins some annoyance on a playmate’s back; and from the same 
source come tripping, and sparring, and knocking the hat down 
over its owner’s eyes. If motive be the gauge, how fine the line 
between much of boyish roguery and monkey mischief generally. 
Ateles played tag, and Cebus attacked our humble self in fun 
and the bald man in earnest. On the doctrine of identity, our 
illiterate neighbor spoke more astutely than he supposed when he 
bade a teasing wag not to cut up any more monkey-didos with him. 

Have we not seen in some men a humor of an inhuman sort, 
the delight in torment and destruction? “Some one has called it 
“ pure cussedness.” Mixed with better traits, Cebus had this 
malady in streaks. He got loose once, and found his way to the 
closet of confections. A few minutes sufficed him to eat to sati- 
ety ; then the “ pure cussedness ” began to play. He took the 
precious sweets from the jars and threw them on the papered 
walls of the drawing-room. Oh, was not this the very delecta- 
tion of fun? “A melancholy scene,” did you say? It was Mil- 
tonian: “ Delectable both to behold and taste.” Then came the 
smashing of glass and china, a most exciting perfomance. The 
scene of operations was now changed to the museum and study of 
the naturalist. Here he discovered a rich and novel field for the 
exercise of his peculiar talents. An aquarium contained a num- 
ber of living salamanders. Cebus began an investigation. He 
is quite curious about live things. If in the present instance 
vivisection was intended, it was very bunglingly done. Each 
one was taken out of the water, separately examined, its head 


SEA Selamat ete gE ge a cate o s yale a Oe see 


E , 
= 
A 
A 
: 
4 


1876.) 


We sometimes found 


Animal Humor. . 263 


taken off, and head and body laid on the floor. Jack had now 
had a tearing time. The mischief done seemed to be to his 
heart’s content, so he slunk back to the shelf in his cage, on 
which he sat, and looked: the very image of demure and passive 
harmlessness. We find here a humor of a grim and brutal sort, 
senseless and wanton, — as when the vicious boy who had badly 
burned a cat was asked his reason, and said, ‘ Oh, I don’t know. 
Only just for fun. I didn’t mean anything.” Human conduct 
abounds in this meaningless deviltry. Maybe this ogreish humor 
is a phase of that total depravity belonging alike to beasts and 
men, 

But for striking contrasts of fun and gravity, commend us to 
our young dog, Dick. On his mother’s side he came from a 
high-bred stirps ; of his father we know nothing. When Dick 
set about a frolic, all his powers were enlisted for the occa- 
sion. In the truest sense he gave his whole mind to it. At 
make-believe anger no canine actor could excel, and I have not 
witnessed his equal. I have seen him fly at his mistress, whom 
he loved with all the ardor of a devotee, as if the very furies 
impelled him. He would take her bare arm into his mouth and 
growl with the seeming ferocity of a Cerberus. Indeed, the sav- 
agery of that growl was one of the high colors in the picture. 
Had Dick been homo instead of canis, his histrionic rôle would 


Surely have been a buccaneer, bandit, or some such marauding 


man of blood. No stage-strutting hero could roll his gutturals 


more fearfully, A stranger entering during one of Dick’s tragedy 
fits would have thought his mistress a doomed woman. Make 
believe mad? 


Why, Dick would simulate “the very torrent, 
tempest, and whirlwind of passion,” 


simply a doggish joke, 
least mark 


| Some merry jets of doggish humor. When 
encouraged to do so, he would laugh, and so droll were these 
Canine cachinnations, that they would set the household in a 
roar. He would also stand up at the table, and, when told, 
“a make a feint at a baby cry for a morsel of meat, which 
an ig ludicrous. And, what was very strange, he could off- 
© wildest frolic with the staidest sedateness of conduct. 

© could turn on the instant from the comical to the grave. As 

» this very gravity was to us decidedly annoy- 


264 . Animal Humor. [May, 


ing and inconvenient. If permitted to accompany me on a vil- 
lage stroll, he would walk behind with the deportment of a 
footman of the olden time ; but let a dog come along and look 
askance at his master, especially let his tail come in contact with 
him, however accidental it might be; it made no matter about 
the size of the offender ; if Dick was small he was spry and wiry, 
and generally the chastisement he administered was short, sharp, 
and decisive. If it were a large dog, Dick would attack him 
scientifically. He was agile as a deer. If the subject for correc- 
tion was one of the heavy weights, Dick would spring into the 
air, and, descending upon him, inflict a bite in some unexpected 
place, his complicated tactics and rapid evolutions begetting in 
the mind of the burlier beast a perplexity like that of the Iron 
Duke when he beheld the strategy of the little Corsican: “ Hang 
the fellow! he fights contrary to rule!” Dick’s solicitous atten- 
tion to his master’s personal welfare, though in spirit admirable, 
through his way of doing it had become to a degree oppressive, 
as the minister’s good name was now associated with some 
notable canine contests. What would you think of the town 
Chronicle’s going out of its way to wind up a dissertation on 
Village Dog-Fights thus: “ As regards this well-fought contest 
between the expressman’s big dog, Whitey, and the little Dom- 
inie in black, all must admire the dogged valor which gave 
victory to the latter, and sent the former from the field witha 
sad curtailment of his high prestige; and we cannot but compli- 
ment the professional gentleman on his being possessed of so 
large an amount of fighting capital, as the outcome of so small 
an investment in dog-flesh. The next time the little Dominie in 
black goes in, in the language of Lord Macaulay’s old Roman, 
‘ may we be there to see.’”’ Of course such ethical whisperings 
from so immaculate a source as the public press must be heeded. 
Having occasion to go to the railroad depot, we took the precau- 
tion to shut Dick up. But love laughs at locksmiths. Dick was 
at the depot as soon as his master, and occupying his usual place 
behind him. On came the train. A village mongrel, notorious 
for its habit of following horses and barking at them, came yelp- 
ing defiantly at the iron horse. We stood waiting for the tram 
to stop; this done, the bully dog retraced his steps to the plat- 
form, his tail wagging, expressive of approbation of his treat- 
ment of the great fire-fiend. It was evident that Dick, who had 
kept close to my side, viewed the whole performance with honest 
but intense disgust. Generally, dogs take to us instinctively; 


Antwan Humor. 265 


1876.] 


they seem to know that we like them; I have almost wondered 
if the genius of their race has not heard us quoting, “ I am the 
friend of dogs, for they are honest creatures.” However that 
may be, the bully dog approached us and looked as if claiming 
our approval of his conduct. To Dick this seemed sheer impu- 
dence, and an imposition on his master’s good nature which on 
his part should not be allowed to go unpunished. The bully dog 
was the larger, and stood his ground well for a few moments, 
but the punishment Dick administered was very severe, and Sir 
Lofty withdrew in a very humble mood. Our efforts to take 
Dick off were of no avail. He would never leave a job unfin- 
ished. To our astonishment and disgust we heard the compli- 
ment from the crowd, “ Good for the little Dominie in black ! ” 
Now, as the words dominie and clergyman are in these parts con- 
vertible terms, the minister naturally felt this to be a slur of an 
unpleasant personal character. 

With all his accomplishments, Dick is quite a young dog, but 
at an early age he gave us a manifestation of a very touching 
nature ; if it had been in a child it would have been called filial ; 
such as know the least about it will, as is the wont, probably call 
it instinct. The dog had been engaged in a very hearty, rough- 
and-tumble game with our youngest boy, on the kitchen floor ; 
this gave Dick a decided advantage, and he made the best of it. 
At this juncture, old Maje, blind and decrepit with age, began 
whining at the door to go out for his daily airing. The day was 
very cold, and the ground white with the first decisive snow of 
winter, All this Dick knew, as he had been out that day, but 
old Maje, who was stone-blind and nearly deaf, was ignorant of 
the situation. Dick at once stopped his fun and went out with 
the old dog. The poor old beast was on a call of nature; Dick 
understood it all, and by certain pushes and other little canny 
devices got the old fellow to a proper place. Returning, he con- 
tinued the same kind offices, taking care to get so beside the 
blind dog as to prevent his passing the door. Now just think 
of all this. The new snow had put the blind dog at a disad- 
vantage by rendering the faculty of scent of small avail. All 
this the young dog comprehended; and then he did not wait 
for the old dog to make known his wants by a cry or otherwise, 

ut actually and promptly anticipated them. Allowing the dog- 
min to have worked as would the man-mind, — and what other 
Way in this case is supposable ?— then are there not some fine 
Ponts in this benevolence of the young dog? We may men- 


266 Animal Humor. [May, 


tion, too, that this self-imposed charity of the young dog was 
regularly repeated under similar conditions. An instance may 
be stated, as it excited in us who watched from the window 
both amusement and admiration. Though there was no snow, 
the day was extremely cold. The old dog wanted to go out, 
and Dick, of his own accord, took charge of him. I verily be- 
lieve that the conception of the young dog was that the old 
dog stood in danger of getting frozen from inability to find his 
way back to the house. But the old fellow, who does nothing 
but eat and sleep, is as fat as a bear about hibernation time. 
He fairly waddles with his environment of adipose tissue. Not 
so his youthful guide, who is wiry and lean from incessant activ- 
ity. Now old Maje, feeling no discomfort, was in no haste to 
return ; but poor Dick stood shivering with the severity of the 
weather, and actually whined in his impatience to get the old 
dog home again. Still, notwithstanding the provoking insensi- 
bility of the old dog, his young benefactor did not leave hima 
moment until he had him safely housed once more. 

On this twenty-ninth day of February I went to see a seal on 
exhibition in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It had just been 
captured in the Raritan River, but a little below the city. The 
animal had fallen victim to a habit well understood by fishermen in 
other parts of the world, that of visiting a seine for the purpose 
of stealing fish. The difference was that this was a young seal, 
— it weighed but one hundred pounds, —and was not up to the 
tricks of the old ones, who knew the ins and the outs, and could 
elude the fishermen. This baby seal was rather pretty. Its 
sides were’ mottled with quasi-leopard spots on a brown ground. 
The species was Phoca vitulina, the calf-seal, so called because of 
a calf-like cry which the species can make. There was nothing 
calvish in the conduct of the captive, however. Its captors were 
attentive to its wants, and really very kind to it. One of them 
undertook to pat it on the head, and got an ugly bite for his 
goodness. And what a head, so like that of a highly intelligent 
dog; well might Cuvier call the group Callocephalus, the beau- 
tiful-headed beasts, so pretty are they, and so knowing, with their 
large, black, lustrous eyes. Now, among the quadrupedal mam- 
mals, the seals almost seem to lead off the Fducabilia, or intet- 
ligent animals, in cranial excellence, owing to their high, thin- 
boned skulls and their large and finely convoluted brains. 

It must then be that the seal is not without a faculty for fun. 
How great its capacity for instruction is, we know. I was greatly 


EEE AENA OAIR TEN AEE ME E ooo a E NEE ENTE acl te a E 


1876.] Animal Humor. : 267 


interested in observing its skill in disposing of an unsizable fish. 
Unfortunately, the seal to thrive in confinement must be well 
fed; hence in its best condition it becomes lethargic, and there is 
too great a discount on its natural playfulness. They romp and 
tumble with one another, and have sham contests. But I once 
saw a seal that had dined to its satisfaction, and had one fish to 
spare, which was a menhaden. Feeling well after a good meal, 
it was in excellent disposition. It actually began to play with 
that remaining fish. It would seize the fish in its mouth, and, 
by means of that singularly springy neck, would with a jerk send 
it six or seven feet high in the air, and would utter a bark of 
delight, not unlike a pup, when the prey would fall splashing 
into the water. Then in bubbling glee our sea-dog would toss it 
into the air again. Then there were certain divings, and splash- 
ings, and bodily contortions, and shakings of the insensate fish as 
if it were alive, — actions all indicative of high animal enjoy- 
ment. I should think that this sport continued not less than ten 
minutes, when the animal probably was somewhat tired. 

The question arises as to the kind of fun, that is, its mental 
character. Was it like that of a boy tossing and catching his 
ball, a simple exercise of skill? Or was it like the gambol of a 
lamb or a kid, mere animal gush? I think it was like neither. 
It had in it a tinge of malicious exultation, the strong making 
game of the weak. How a cat will purr while it tosses the poor 
mouse, still alive, and perhaps even unhurt. There is in this a 
grim complacency, what seems to me a sort of vicious enjoyment, 
if not of devilish delight. The boys had their fun, though it was 
death to the frogs. I think, too, that all this is germane to the 
experience of certain natures sodden with chronic irony. There 
can be no doubt that carnivorous animals enjoy the excitement 
of pursuit, and preéminently the success of capture. As a rule, 
too, it is probably true that while hunger is unallayed no time is 
lost in sporting with the captive prey ; also generally no captures 
are attempted except when necessity prompts. But some ani- 
mals will capture and destroy sometimes for no other reason than 
that there is opportunity to do it, and they find fun in so doing. 
Alas, that, in this regard, in most unmanly preéminence stands 
man himself ! 

here is an animal also of thin skull and large brain capacity, 
noted for its puffing and blowing as it gambols in the sea. This 
8 the porpoise, Phoceena communis. Twenty years ago it was 
often seen in Raritan Bay. To us the sight was full of interest. 


268 Animal Humor. | May, 


With what a rhythmical movement these monsters would gam- 
bol along in line, one huge fellow taking the lead, and every one 
behind duplicating his movements, pretty much like the play of 
boys, “ follow your leader.” These porcine mammals of the sea 
follow the migrations of the Olupide, the family of fishes in 
which the shad, menhaden or moss-bunker, herring, and others 
are found. Thus we see it especially in the spring and fall. 
As food is his object, the porpoise keeps in their wake, and that 
of the fierce and active blue-fish, Temnodon saltator. Not more 
terrified would a herd of gazelles be before a band of tigers, than 
is the moss-bunker, Alosa menhaden, when pursued by the blue- 
fish. The poor things crowd like a moving bank, compacted by 
the devouring pursuer, and the pursuer, so intent upon his vic- 
tims, is in turn pursued ; for the porpoise is pressing behind. 

Though I implicitly believe it myself, yet I did not see what I 

am about to relate. I have heard it more than once from the 
eye-witness, an intelligent and much-respected man. He had 
been commander of a coasting vessel. Said he, “ It was early 
fall, and I was running with garden stuff from Keyport to New 
York. I saw several porpoises. They were going in a line, 
much as you always see them, but the two head ones had each 
a blue-fish, with which it played as a cat does with a mouse. 
They were some distance off, and I might be mistaken about the 
height ; but each porpoise would throw up its fish high into the 
air, maybe ten or twelve feet, as nigh as I could judge. Just 
after each toss-up of the blue-fish, each porpoise would duck its 
nose, by a forward pitch of its body.” ; 

“ That was indeed surprising. Let me ask, Did each porpoise 
catch the fish when it fell ? ” 

“ That I could n’t say, but should think most like not. I think 
it picked the fish up each time. One of them I know tossed its 
fish up at least seven times in close succession, before it stopped. 
I am satisfied, too, that it was one and the same blue-fish all the 
time.” 


“ Well, well,” we thought. “Then this queer, ogreish fun is 
found among porpoises, seals, and cats! And is not this, the 
grimmest, whether among animals or men, also the lowest be 
mor ? 

In regard to Jack’s lassoing the chestnuts on the floor, I do 
not see, with an able thinker, the necessity of his inheriting the 
trick, as an achievement by some arboreal ancestor who used a 
vine or pliant twig to loop in some coveted fruit on the tree. 


1876.] Animal Humor. 269 


That Jack might have had a grandfather smart enough for that, 
one may not dispute; but that he ever had an ancestor similarly 
held in limbo, and tried as he had been, is far from probable. 
Necessity is the mother of invention; and to me it seems that 
Jack, with no thanks to any ancestor, had to exercise his own 
wits in an original way. We had a coati-mundi, Nasua fusca, 
which we often tantalized with an egg, a dainty that it loved too 
well. Having tied the animal by the neck to the table leg, the 
egg was put at an unreasonable distance on the floor. The ani- 
mal would tug at the string, and make most earnest efforts to ob- 
tain the prize, first by the use of the forefeet, and then, failing, 
by the use of the hinder. This being also of no avail, it would 
change its tactics completely, pulling by its neck at the string, so 
as to extend its body hindward as much as possible, then stretch- 
ing its tail towards the egg, at the same time bending it to a lit- 
tle curve at the end; then steadying and stiffening the tail by the 
use of one hand, with which hand a gentle pushing movement 
was secured, and the egg was rolled in a curve, which was short- 
ened by the shortening or increased bending of the tail, and so 
the prize was brought within reach. To my mind there seems to 
have been but one view of the case possible to both animals. 
When the exigency first arose, it was to each one a new prob- 
lem, and had to receive from each an original solution. The 
monkey got at it by looping a string, and Nasua by curving the 
caudal extremity ; and, let it be noticed, each one used the im- 
Provised implement, so to speak, in his hand. In this way the 
one got the chestnuts, and the other got the egg. The point is 
that, whatever of intellectual force each might have inherited, 
each had to meet the exigency for himself, and in his own way. 
Coati and Cebus had each to rebus the riddle for himself. How- 
yg easy it might be afterwards to each, it was at first an inven- 
ion. 


And now, what of it all? It was not designed to inflict upon 
our friends a weary homily. We felt like stealing, as through a 
chink, a glance at the knowingness of the lower animal life. Surely 
there ig among them, as related to a psychology of their own, a 
true humor, if one could but get at it; and is it not worth the 
delving? This unfeeling humor of the cats and porpoises and 
seals; that dogged gravity, rollicking mirth, and filial bearing of 
the canine Dick ; the chattering sport, the grotesque fun, the utili- 

"an genius, and the discerning spirit of that “son of Cebide ; ” 
the flute-like cooing, harmless play, social disposition, and pa- 


270 Our Wild Gooseberries. regs 


thetic trustfulness of the poor monkey, Marimonda, — what of it 
all? “Ah!” said our friend with the orthopterous ‘ doxy,” but 
who is afraid of crickets, and despises bugs generally, ‘* Don’t you 
mind ; is it not all simply instinct? ” “ No,” we answer, “ buta 
part of a grand something, more complex and less blind; a fabric 
which God has been building since before the world.” Our friend, 
who looked astonished, was one who always made full tithes of the 
anise and the cummin, even if he did overlook the weightier mat- 
ters of the law. Hence he was so particular about his yowels, 
too. “ Fay-brick, fay-brick,” he reiterated; “what do you 
mean?” “ Ay, bricks; ay, bricks, indeed,” we said, simulat- 
ing the sound, “ bits of the divine temple, you know. That is 
all.” 


OUR WILD GOOSEBERRIES. 
BY PROFESSOR ASA GRAY. 


(PRE AMERICAN NATURALIST may be of much use as a medium 

of communication with every part of the country, and our 
scattered botanists may turn it to greater account than they have 
yet done. There are many queries to ask, and bits of informa- 
tion wanted, which the local botanist or zodlogist may answer or 
supply with little trouble and essential advantage to the science. 
The only difficulty is to bring the demand into connection with 
the source of supply. For that I know no. better way, in the 
present instance, than to use the columns of this widely circu- 
lated journal, if I may be permitted to do so. Let me say, then, 
to the botanists, that the wild gooseberries of the United States 
are not in a satisfactory condition as they stand in the books, 
and that information and specimens are needed from very various 
parts of the country. A response to this appeal made by a few 
persons happily situated, in this and that part of the country, 
may perhaps clear up the principal difficulties in the course 0 
the current season. 

A cursory sketch of our species as I now understand them 
may show what is most wanting to'a better understanding of 
them. 

I. Let us begin with the species which a gardener might say 
was a cross between a gooseberry and a currant, namely, — 

Ribes lacustre Poir., well marked by having racemes of numer- 
ous small flowers, in the manner of a common currant, the blos- 
som as small and as open, and the very small reddish berries 


: 
i 
| 
q 
Ns 
| 
| 


1876.] Our Wild Cooseberries. 271 


beset with some scattered bristles. This abounds through the 
north, in cold wet woods from Newfoundland to the Pacific. 
There is a dwarf variety of this in the higher Rocky Mountains 
and northwestward, smaller in all its parts, and with fewer- 
flowered racemes. In some publications I have called it R. se- 
tosum, a species said to have been raised by the Loddiges from 
seed sent by Douglas. This very one was received from the 
Messrs. Loddiges under that name thirty years ago, and cultivated 
in the Cambridge Botanic Garden. Yet it is not the plant pub- 
lished and figured by Lindley, as will be presently seen. I pass 
a 


II. The true gooseberries, with peduncles bearing only one or 
two or at most four flowers, and calyx-cup bell-shaped or tubu- 
lar. These may be roughly arranged in three sets by the color 
of the flower. 

C1.) Yellow-flowered. The only one of this subdivision is the 

R. leptanthum Gray. It belongs to the Rocky Mountains of 
Colorado and New Mexico, and to the drier parts of the Sierra 
Nevada. It was first collected by Dr. Edwin James in Long’s 
expedition, but was named and described long afterwards, from 
Fendler’s New Mexican collection. It is an insignificant, small- 
leaved, and slender-flowered species. The dried flowers do not 
seem to have been really yellow, but they are said to be so by 
the collectors in the Sierra Nevada, where, however, the flower is 
generally shorter, broader, and more downy. We would ask 
those who have met or may meet with it in the Rocky Mountain 
region if the flowers are really yellow or yellowish there. 

(2.) White or greenish flowered, sometimes with a dull pur- 
Plish tinge. To this division belong all our edible gooseberries, 
and here lie the main difficulties in the way of distinguishing 
the species, 

Two of these may be known from the rest by having the lobes 
of the calyx decidedly shorter than the tube, and their berries 
are apt to be prickly. They are 
R. setosum Lindl., a white-flowered species with a narrow cy- 
lindrical calyx-tube. It takes its name from the slender scat- 
tered prickles on the branches ; but these are sometimes wanting, 

being an inconstant character in all the species. The young 
berries are either perfectly smooth and naked, or beset with a 
few bristly prickles. This is the R. oryacanthoides of Hooker's 
ra, but certainly not of Linneus. It belongs to the Saskatcha- 
wan region, extending into Montana and Wyoming. No. 107 of 


272 Our Wild Grooseberries. [May, 


Dr. Parry’s Wyoming collection is a small-leaved form of it, 
which was mistaken for R. leptanthum ; but the flower, is per- 
fectly smooth, evidently white, and the style deeply cleft and 
hairy towards the base. I suspect that this species inhabits the 
northwestern shore of Lake Superior. Botanists visiting that 
district should look for a species with pure white flowers, a half- 
inch or less in length, with cylindrical tube, and stamens decid- 
edly shorter than the lobes. 

ER. cynosbati L. This dogberry, as the name denotes, is well 
marked by the usually strong prickles on the fruit, weak prickles 
on the stems (the thorns sometimes wanting altogether, but occa- 
sionally well developed), slender peduncles, and especially by the 
broadly bell-shaped tube of the greenish flower. It is common 
from Lower Canada to Illinois, and in the Alleghanies to Virginia. 
It is found occasionally with the berries as well as the stems wholly 
unarmed, 

In the rest of this section the calyx-lobes are decidedly longer 
than the short, bell-shaped tube ; and the berries are smooth and 
naked, purple, sweet and pleasant-tasted. 

R. gracile Michx. is the most distinct of them. It is well 
named on account of the slender peduncles, long and narrow ca- 
lyx-lobes, and almost capillary filaments. The latter are half an 
inch long, generally connivent or closely parallel, and soon con- 
spicuously longer than the oblong-linear calyx-lobes, which, 
being reflexed in anthesis, as in all these species, then expose 
the whole length of the stamens to view. The flower is whiter 
than in the rest of these species, having barely a slight tinge of 
green. The berry is pretty large, and is prized in cultivation, 
under the name of Missouri gooseberry. It is the R. Missouri- 
ense of Nuttall in Torrey and Gray’s Flora. It is also, as the 
figure shows, the R. niveum of Lindley in the Botanical Regis- 
ter; and from the character, it is probably the R. triflorum of 
Hooker’s Flora. It ranges from Tennessee and Illinois to the 
northern borders of Texas, and northwestward into the Rocky 
Mountains. In Michaux’s Flora the habitat is the mountains of 
Tennessee ; but I suppose it will not be found in the Alleghanies. 
A note with the specimens in his herbarium at the Jardin des 
Plantes records that they were collected “ in itinere Nashville.” 

R. rotundifolium Michx. is a species of the Alleghany Mount- 
ains, ranging northward and eastward into New York and the 
western borders of Massachusetts. Professor Dewey long 28° 
collected it near Williamstown, and Professor Tuckerman’s Am- 


ww Our Wild Gooseberries. 278 


herst catalogue gives West River Mountain, on the authority 
of Hitchcock. I wish to obtain flowering specimens of it from 
all parts of its range ; for the limits between it and the following 
are obscure. Its range is more southern and comparatively re- 
stricted ; the flower is narrower, and the stamens longer, becom- 
ing a quarter of an inch in length and nearly double that of the 
calyx-lobes ; the peduncles also are longer ; but this character 
does not hold out well. Although it belongs to a district most 
of all familiar to botanists, I have seen few flowering specimens. 
The New York catalogue in the Bulletin of the Torrey Club 
cites “ Fort Lee, W. H. L., and foot of 60th Street, North River, 
LeRoy.” A specimen of the latter is preserved in the Torrey 
herbarium, and is the European gooseberry. R. triflorum Willd 
is, I think, rightly referred to R. rotundifolium, an earlier name. 

R. oxyacanthoides L. We must bring this name into use in 
place of R. hirtellum Michx. (which is generally inappropriate), 
for no reasonable doubt remains that it is the Hudson’s Bay 
gooseberry, figured by Dillenius, upon which Linnæus founded 
the species. It is the common smooth-fruited gooseberry of 
New England and the whole region northward, and it extends 
westward to and beyond the Rocky Mountains, and even into 
the Sierra Nevada of California. It has shorter peduncles than 
the preceding, but this distinction is by no means absolute; the 
flower is broader, and the stamens merely equal or only slightly 
exceed the calyx-lobes. It is the R. sazoswm of Hooker, whose 
R. oxyacanthoides is R. setosum, while that of Michaux is R. 
lacustre. 

R. divaricatum Douglas. This takes the place of all the pre- 
ceding on the Pacific side, and ranges from the lower part of 
California (in a downy form, R. villosum of Nuttall) to British 
Columbia, meeting R. oryacanthoides in the interior. There is a 
form (var. irriguum, the R. trriguum of Douglas), of which we 
know too little, which comes near to R. rotundifolium. The 
Species is pretty well marked by its slender peduncle and pedi- 
cels, mostly 3—4-flowered, oblong and livid-purple calyx-lobes, 
and short and broad tube ; the stamens about a quarter of an 
Meh long, and thrice the length of the broadly wedge-shaped 
and nearly white petals. The flower, ovary included, is from a 
third to half an inch long. The berries are said to be excellent. 

(3.) Red-flowered species. These all belong to the Pacific side 
— continent, are large-flowered, and their berries are unfit to 
eat. 


VOL, x, — xo, 5. 18 


274 Our Wild Cooseberries. [May, 


R. Lobbii Gray. Iam under the necessity of giving a name to 
this little known but apparently very distinct species. It is fig- 
ured by Hooker in the Botanical Magazine, tab. 4931, as R. 
subvestitum Hook. and Arn., from a Californian plant sent by 
the late Mr. Lobb (whether seeds or young plants is not men- 
tioned, probably seeds) to his employers, Messrs. Veitch and Son. 
But the only specimens I have seen are one, exactly agreeing with 
the plate, from Kew, ticketed “ Vancouver’s Island, Wood,” and 
another, from the Willamette, in the same region, collected by 
Mr. Howell. It should be particularly looked for.in California, 
north of San Francisco Bay, and along the coast to British Colum- 
bia. Perhaps the Californian habitat is an error. The species 
may be distinguished by its dark, purplish-red calyx of half an 
inch in length, not counting the ovary, nearly white petals half 
the length of the stamens, very glandular but unarmed ovary, 
and especially by the short, oval, and very blunt anthers, which 
are dotted with a few warty glands on the back. These short 
and blunt anthers are shared with all the preceding species, but 
not with the following. 

R. Menziesii Pursh, well marked by its sagittate anthers, 
with a mucronate tip. The flowers are as large as in the preced- 
ing, or considerably larger, but variable in this respect, and of a 
similar purplish-red color; and the berry is large and prickly, 
usually densely, sometimes sparsely so; the prickles sometimes 
strong and spiny, sometimes shorter, bristle-like, and when young 
gland-tipped. It extends from the southern part of Oregon 
through the whole length of California, and varies exceedingly. 
R. subvestitum Hook. and Arn., as to all the specimens of 
Douglas, on which it was founded, is a form of the species not 
far removed from the typical. R. Californicum and R. occiden- 
tale Hook. and Arn. seem different enough in the original and 
in many other specimens, being very small-leaved and mainly 
glabrous. I had formerly (in the fourth volume of the Pacific 
Railroad Explorations) united these two with R. subvestitum. 
I am now of opinion that all are forms of R. Menziesii. ) y 
are, however, commended to the notice of native Califorman 
botanists, : 

R. speciosum Pursh. The scarlet-flowered gooseberry of Cali- 
fornia is so distinct that a separate section has been provided for 
it. Besides the bright color and ample size of the flowers, its 
calyx-lobes do not turn back, and are often only four ; the stamens 
protrude for an inch or more, and the rather dry berry is few- 


* 


1876.] Multiplication by Fission in Stentor Mülleri. 275 


seeded. Its synonymous names are characteristic: R. stamineum 

Smith, for the remarkably long stamens ; R. fuchsioides Berlan- 

dier, for the resemblance to a fuchsia-blossom. In En land, 

where it is hardy, it is prized in cultivation for its brilliant red 

flowers garnished by the shining and almost evergreen leaves. 

Trained to the wall of a house, it may be carried to the height 

of fifteen or twenty feet, 

A synoptical view of the species will be convenient : — 

Flowers several in a raceme, small and flattish, greenish............. R. LACUSTRE. 

Flowers 1 to 4 on the peduncle (calyx-tube at least as high as broad) : 
i R. LEPTANTHUM. 


R. CYNOSBATI. 

White or whitish, narrow, with lobes longer than the tube and shorter than the 

half-inch stamens.................. R. GRACILE. 
Greenish or dull purplish lobes ; longer than the tube: 

Nearly Squaling the stamens: 065060. 84 o UGEL R. OXYACANTHOIDES. 

At length shorter than the stamens 
Calyx-tube and lobes rather narrow.................-.. R. ROTUNDIFOLIUM. 
Calyx-tube and petals broad........ R. DIVARICATUM. 


LES AOS e G80 A E Nee bp ET we ee E E 


pes Bo 
MULTIPLICATION BY FISSION IN STENTOR MULLERI 
BY HON. J. D: COX, 
I HAD the good fortune, one evening lately, to observe the 
Whole process of the division of a large Stentor Miilleri into 
two complete individuals, by fission. The circumstances were 
favorable for pretty carefully noting the phenomena exhibited. as 
the change went on, and there were some of them which I have 
not Seen narrated, and which have a direct bearing upon the 
question of the organization of this group of infusoria. 

e water was from the Maumee River at Toledo, Ohio, on 
Lake Erie, and contained a good variety of infusoria and of roti- 
fers, which had propagated quite rapidly in the glass jar, among 
Some aquatic plants carelessly thrown into it. The specimen of 
Stentor under consideration attracted my attention by its size, 
as it was about four hundredths (.04) of an inch in length, the 
stalk being stretched till it appeared about one half longer than 
the Proportions shown in the engraving of Stentor Mülleri in the 

rographic Dictionary. 
Whilst examining other forms in the compressor, I returned to 
this from time to time to enjoy its beauties, and soon noticed 


276 Multiplication by Fission in Stentor Mülleri. [May, i 


that the ciliary motion was extending from the disk, at the point 
of depression in its horseshoe shape, down along the body about 
one quarter of its whole length, and this gradually became more 
marked until the Stentor presented the appearance shown in out- 
line in Figure 16 a. The 
portion of the body immedi- 
* ately under the disk swelled 
slightly, and the general 
form somewhat resembled 
>=" the flower of the calla lily. 

The next change noticed 
was that at the bottom of 
the slit in the side the open- 
ing took a rounded form, so 
that the chain-like motion of the cilia looked (as a member of my 
family expressed it) as if a chain were running over a little pulley, 
and the cilia made a continuous fringe around the disk, down the 
body, and around the circular end of the slit, as shown in Figure 
160. j 


The body now began to show a protuberant swelling immedi- 
ately under the small circular opening at the lower end of the cil- 
iated slit, and in a few minutes this enlargement equaled in diam- 
eter the previous thickness of the body of the Stentor at this point, 
thus doubling its size at the point of greatest expansion. The 
protuberance was distinctly on one side of the body, and appeared 
as an excrescence, the ciliated line running out to its apex, and 
the Stentor now showing the appearance outlined in Figure 16. 

The swelling continued to increase, involving gradually the 
whole circumference of the body of the animalcule, the upp 
side of the protuberance assumed a sharper angle to the longitu- 
dinal line of the body, becoming more disk-like, while the line 
of the cilia enlarged so as to show an approach to the general 
form of the original head of the Stentor, the new oral openmg 
gradually enlarging and deepening. Figure 16d shows the ap- 
pearance about a quarter of an hour later than that represent 
by Figure 16 c. 

The slit line between the two disks now disappeared, and at 
the end of another quarter of an hour the upper portion of the 
body was attached to the lower by a connection no thicker than 
the tail of the original had been, though in each the disk was 
about one third smaller than the original disk, and the slope 
from it to the smaller part of the body below was much lest 


1876.] Multiplication by Fission in Stentor Mülleri. 277 


abrupt than in the usual stretched form of the animal when its 
disk is expanded. Figure 16 e represents its appearance at this 
time. The oral opening of the lower disk was now plainly seen to 
connect with the general internal canal by a circular orifice which 
varied in size, sometimes disappearing as if closed by a sphincter. 

Up to this period of development the Stentor had kept its 
place, attached by its tail to the upper glass of the Wenham 
compressor, its body stretched at great length, its cilia in rapid 
and vigorous motion, the whole animal waving slowly or par- 
tially rotating on its longitudinal axis. Now, however, it quickly 
retracted with a spring like the recoil of a bit of stretched India- 
rubber, in the manner common to it and the smaller Vorticellz 
which have long pedicels. The two parts of the body, or more 
properly the twin bodies, enlarged in diameter while shortening 
in length, and it was apparent that the mass of each was about 
equal to the other, although the lower part had been more than 
twice as long as the upper when the whole had been stretched at 
full length. The form of the parts was now almost exactly alike 
in each, and resembled the common bell-shaped Vorticelle, such | 
as Vorticella campanula, etc. In the retraction the internal canal, 
which now became plainly visible, also enlarged in diameter when _ 
relieved from the stretch, and appeared slightly convoluted. It 
passed out from the lower body just below the margin of the 
disk, and entered the upper body at its caudal extremity, appar- 
ently having only an .extremely thin membranous wall at the 
point of junction of the two bodies. These bodies now began a 
Sort of swaying and gyratory motion, the lower one still fast to 
the glass by its tail, and the upper one swinging slowly around, 
the umbilicus between the two becoming smaller and smaller as if 
twisted up. Figure 16 f is a sketch of the appearance at this time. 

Suddenly the connection parted, and the two Stentors swam 
Separately away, both assuming the common form of the animal- 
cule when free-swimming, and differing from the original indi- 
vidual only in being of smaller size. 

The complete transformation through all the stages I have 
noted occupied about two hours. I did not observe any internal 
difference of structure at the point where the swelling first began. 

1° distinctly marked internal canal or sack could be seen when 
the body was stretched to its full length, but the manner in 
which it became unmistakably visible on the sudden retraction 
before the final separation of the parts looked strongly as if it 
had been there, but was drawn out to such tenuity as to be no 
longer apparent through the semi-translucent body. 


278 Primitive Man. [May, 
Again, there was no doubt in regard to the fact that the cili- 
ated line or slit extending from the disk down the body of the 


animaleule became apparent only after it had been some time 


under observation, and that the length and activity of the cilia 
along it increased rapidly within a very few minutes, so as to be- 
come a striking and marked feature of its appearance. This 
raises the question whether the fringe of* cilia down the body, as 
described, is a specific characteristic of the Stentor Mülleri, or is 
not rather a mark of the beginning of fission in all Stentors, —a 
question which an amateur naturalist may state, but will not 
presume to express an opinion upon. 

In the instance above reported it is noteworthy that, except in 
the first appearance of the ciliated line down the body, there was 
nothing resembling a division by cutting or splitting. The body 
was of larger diameter than before, both above and below the 
new disk, when it first assumed the form of a protuberance with 
a ciliated circle on its anterior side ; and the subsequent diminu- 
tion of the diameter of the body and tail of the upper individual 
was gradual throughout its length, through the stages shown by 
the drawings. — 

The observations were made with a quarter-inch objective of 
low angle, but excellent definition and penetration, with the B 
eyepiece, and the situation of the Stentor in the compressor was 
very favorable for an unobstructed view of the phenomena at all 
stages. 


— 


PRIMITIVE MAN. 
T Rake steady progress of discovery justifies the inference that 
man, in the earliest periods of his existence of which we 
have any knowledge, was at the best a savage, enjoying the ad- 
vantage of a few rude inventions. According to the theory of 
evolution, which has the merit of being based on and not being 
inconsistent with observed analogies and processes of nature, he 
must have gone through a period when he was passing out of the 
animal into the human state, when he was not yet provided with 
tools of any sort, and when he lived simply the life of a brute. 
No proofs, however, of man in this earliest stage have as yet 
been found, and the term “ primitive man,” if intended to be 
strictly applied, is at present a misnomer. The earliest traces 
thus far discovered do not reveal to us his beginning. This ' 
still hidden in that mysterious past out of which he has emerged 
and into which neither science nor exploration has as yet pene 
1 From the late Professor Wyman’s Shell-Mounds of Florida. 


1876.] Primitive Man. ` 279 


trated. The ancient remains found in California, brought to the 
notice of the scientific world by Professor J. D. Whitney, and 
_ teferred by him to the tertiary period, exhibit man as a maker of 
instruments for grinding grain, and other implements of stone, 
and, as far as an imperfect skull goes, essentially the same in his 
anatomical features as now. Or should those instances be set 
aside, as some geologists, waiting for further discoveries, are in- 
clined to do, we still have remains from the gravels of the 
Somme in France, as well as the Ouse and other localities in 
England. Some of these last, Mr. Evans believes, date back to 
the time when the Needles of the Isle of Wight were connected 
with the mainland, the sea of Solent was the mouth of a river, 
and Britain was probably still a peninsula. ` The time since these 
conditions existed may not, he says, be estimated by years, but 
unquestionably. extends back an immense period beyond that 
covered by history. The abundance of flint implements belong- 
ing to the gravels above referred to shows that man was then and 
there far from being primitive. 

If the theory of evolution be true, and man was ever in a tran- 
sitional or strictly primitive state, without tools or implements, it 
will be obvious that all the knowledge we can expect ever to 
have of him in this condition must come through the remains of 
his own body, older than his inventions, which will carry us back 
still further towards, if not to, his starting-point, as the geologist 
is carried back in time to the early period of the existence of 
animals. Even with regard to these, geology fails to reveal to 
us their actual beginning. Possibly the early remains of man 
may never be known, for during the revolutions which have 
taken place on the surface of the earth and the inroads which 
the sea has made upon the land, if a suggestion of Cuvier may 
be accepted, “ the places where he [man] dwelt may have been 
utterly destroyed and his bones buried at the bottom of the ex- 
isting seas.” 

It is almost certain that his bones, if simply left on the sur- 
face, would, like those of land animals generally, be soon entirely 
destroy ed, either by the effects of the weather or by their consump- 
tion for food by wild animals. Nothing can be more striking 
than the complete destruction of the bones of the birds and rep- 
tiles, some of gigantic size, which once thronged the shores in 
the valley of the Connecticut River. Were it not for the pres- 
ervation of their seemingly more perishable footprints, the mere 
knowledge that they once lived would not now exist. The same 


280 Primitive Man. [May, 


is doubtless true of other kinds whose habitat was inland, and 
whole races of mammals and birds may have once existed of 
which no traces whatever remain, and this too within compara- 
tively recent times. Keeping these considerations in view, it * 
seems not at all improbable that the same fate may have be- 
fallen the remains of the earliest man. 

As the ease with which food can be procured determines the 
habitat of animals, so also it determines that of man, and this 
naturally brings him to the shores of seas, lakes, and rivers, where 
it can be had with the greatest ease. It is hardly conceivable 
that he could, under any circumstances, at once have entered 
upon an agricultural or hunter life, since these both require expe- 
dients and inventions which long experience and education alone 
can give. Without tools or inventions of any sort, life in the 
forest, it would seem, would be for him almost impossible. Be 
this as it may, the wide geographical distribution of shell-heaps 
shows how generally man has been attracted by the kinds of 
food the shores yield, including not only shell-fish but fish and 
game, and the extent to which they have supplied his wants in 
his early periods. They are found at intervals along the whole 
Atlantic coast of the United States from the Bay of Fundy to 
the Gulf of Mexico, on the shores of California and northward to 
Behring’s Sea, in Central America, the Gulf of Guayaquil, on 
the coast of Brazil, Patagonia, and Terra del Fuego, on the shores 
of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and Denmark, in the 
Malay Peninsula, in Australia and Tasmania, and will doubtless 
be discovered in still other parts of the world. 

Besides those just mentioned, other shell-heaps haye been found 
on the interior rivers of the continent, especially the Mississipp! 
and its tributaries. Atwater, who was the pioneer in inquiries 
relating to them, described the mounds of mussel shells on the 
banks of the Muskingum, containing various articles of human 
make, and LeSueur and Say explored a mound at New Harmony; 
Indiana, as early as 1826. Since then Dr. D. G. Brinton, Dr- 
Cox, Generals Humphreys and Abbott, and Professor ©. A: 
White have described many other localities in the great Mis- 
sissippi Valley where they exist in large numbers, and show how 
generally the habit of eating shell-fish prevailed in that region. 
In addition to the fresh-water shell-heaps of the St. John’s, 
Florida, we have examined a well-defined shell-heap on the 
shores of the Concord, in Massachusetts, consisting of Ui me 
complanatus, living specimens of which can be had from the river 


1876.] Primitive Man. 281 


near by. This shell-heap contains charcoal and pieces of worked 
bone and stone. It had been previously visited by the late H. 
D. Thoreau, who regarded it as an ancient Indian dwelling-place, 
though he published no account of it. Quite recently Professor 
Hartt, of Cornell University, has explored some of the interior 
fresh-water shell-mounds of Brazil, which are very extensive, 
selections from which are preserved in the Peabody Museum at 
Cambridge. 

The study of the works of man from the oldest shell-heaps, 
the only records left of the progress their builders had made, 
tends to show that he was as far advanced at least as are the 
miserable creatures the traveler meets with now in the Straits 
of Magellan, or as are the Dyacks of Borneo, the Australians, or 
` the Andaman Islanders. In other words, we have the life of 
man manifested now in a condition as primitive and no more ad- 
vaneed towards civilization than in the earliest prehistoric periods 
which have thus far been studied. 

The only records we have of the earliest inhabitants of the St. 
John’s River are the shell-mounds and the comparatively few im- 
plements they contain. J udging from these of the progress the 
natives had made, it is clear that they too had passed out of the 
primitive stage, had become hunters, had made some progress in 
the useful arts ; and, however rude their implements, they were 
such as could only have been the result of long-continued efforts. 
They have left no signs of having learned the art of agriculture, 
but their tools, if they had any, may have been of a perishable 
nature. In the oldest mounds no pottery has been discovered, the 
builders of them no doubt having been ignorant of it. Though 
implements of wrought shell, bone, and stone are met with, they 
are not numerous, and those of stone from the interior of the 
mounds are quite rare. 

The bones of animals obtained by hunting on land are in com- 
paratively small numbers, so that, far as indications go, the older 
natives subsisted chiefly on fish and shell-fish. This is strikingly 
the case at the mound on Huntoon Creek, Osceola Mound, the 
mound next above Blue Spring, and at Horse Landing. Whether 
the inhabitants who built and dwelt upon the older shell-heaps, 
°F even upon the later ones, were the same people the first ex- 
Plorers found occupying the shores of the St. John’s is uncertain. 

e Indians who lived in Florida later had no traditions with 
regard to those who preceded them in remote times, nor is it to 
be expected that they should have, for they were not the descend- 


282 The Cave Beetles of Kentucky. [May, 


ants of the original inhabitants, but were comparatively recent 
immigrants themselves. ‘The early explorers make no reference 
whatsoever to the shell-mounds on the river, though they could 
hardly have failed to do so if these had continued to be occupied 
as dwelling-places, and the fresh-water shells were still to be 
used to any considerable extent as articles of food. They dis- 
tinctly state that the natives lived by hunting and agriculture, 
describe the details of carrying on these operations, the prepara- 
tion of dried meat, and mention the different articles, animal and 
vegetable, used, their mode of collecting food in granaries, and 
of preparing them; but nothing is said of the shell-fish. The 
inference is that the shell-mounds had already ceased to be occu- 


pied as dwelling-places, and that the natives had outlived the — 


mode of life which gave rise to them, or had been replaced by 
others of different habits. 

This conclusion is consistent with the fact that trees are now 
growing on some of the mounds, which are older than the dis- 
covery of America. 

Unfortunately, we have no satisfactory means of making @ 


comparison between the older and the later inhabitants, derived — 


from parts of the human skeleton. There is an abundance of 
crania and bones taken from the burial-mounds, but it is hardly 
safe to assume that these represent the earliest dwellers on 
the St. John’s. The bones from Osceola Mound and those from 
Rock Island, in Lake Munroe, are the only ones we have met 
with which can be claimed to be unequivocally contemporaneous 
with the earliest shell-heaps. The skull from the first of these 
places has anatomical peculiarities which differ from those of the 
skulls of the burial-mounds, but as there is but one, it may be 
exceptional. 

The relation of the older to the later inhabitants, that is, of 
those dwelling on the St. John’s centuries before and at the timè 
of the first explorations, must remain for the present a matter 
of doubt. We need more complete explorations. of the burial 
mounds than have as yet been made, and more complete anatom- 
ical comparisons of the crania and bones. 

THE CAVE BEETLES OF KENTUCKY. 
BY A. 8. PACKARD, JR. 
(THOSE who have gone the rounds of Mammoth Cave, crossed 
the river Styx, with its muddy banks, passed through Bi? 
Man’s Misery, through the damp passages of the Labyrinth, 


Fe ie nt a ee 


a 
es 
4 


1876.] The Cave Beetles of Kentucky. 283 


and lunched by Richardson’s Spring, know that not 4 little dis- 
comfort is experienced in the course of the journey. But for 
the insect-hunter, who must spend hours on his knees in search- 
ing for the less common forms, or lie prone on his face on damp 
sand- banks, — the bed of the ancient stream which tunneled 
out these underground passages, — wearied vertebræ and knee- 
joints, the smoke and drippings of the oil lamps or candles, are 
the drawbacks which must be endured if he would be successful 
in his search for cave life. By two or three weeks’ research in a 
few of the caves of Kentucky, in company with Professor Shaler, 
in charge of the Geological Survey of Kentucky, and with the aid 
of Mr. F. G. Sanborn, we were enabled to more than double the 
number of species of insects known to inhabit Mammoth and ad- 
joining caves, and to discover a new and rich cave-fauna in the 
Carter caves in the eastern part of the State; while in examining 
Weyer’s Cave, in Virginia, not known before to be tenanted by 
insects, some twenty species were discovered by the writer. The 
results of our researches on the spiders of these caves have already 
been given in the NATURALIST (ix. 274, 278), by Mr. J. H. 
Emerton and myself. In the present brief essay I propose to draw 
attention to the amount of variation in the cave beetles, and to 
the early stages of a few species, referring the reader for more 
details to ‘papers hereafter to appear in the memoirs of the Geo- 
logical Survey of Kentucky. It may here be said that the flies 
have been examined by Baron Osten Sacken, the beetles have 
been identified by Dr. J. L. LeConte, while the Amphipod 
crustacea have been identified by Prof. S. I. Smith, and papers 
on the Phalangids and other low arachnids and the mites are in 
Course of preparation by the writer. 

Of the two genera of blind beetles (Anophthalmus and Ade- 
lops) which occur in caves in Kentucky and Southern Europe, 
the smaller form is Adelops. Its appearance and habits are very 
different from those of Anophthalmus. It belongs to the family 

burying beetles, or Silphide, the larger species of which are 

Own to deposit their eggs in dead birds, mice, ete., previously 
burying them beneath the surface of the soil. The Adelops, 
however, is allied to a diminutive member of the family, Catops, 

© species of which live in fungi, carrion, or in ants’ nests. The 
Adelops (Plate IT., Figure 4, enlarged), named Adelops hirtus by 

Bs Tellkampf, its original discoverer, is most abundant under 
loose stones at Richardson’s Spring, where parties have for many 
years taken their lunch, the remains of which form a perennial 


284 The Cave Beetles of Kentucky. [May, 


pasturage for these beetles. It is probable also that the dead 
bodies of bats, crickets, and smaller insects sustain them in other 
caverns and in different portions of Mammoth Cave. 

The other blind beetles, various species of Anophthalmus, prey 
` without doubt chiefly on living objects, perhaps the young of 
their own kind or of the Adelops, as they belong to the family 
of carnivorous beetles, the Carabide. They are found running 
over damp sand-banks, sometimes hiding in little pits under 
stones. i 

Six species of Anophthalmus are known, of which A. Tell- 
kampfii is the largest and most abundant, 
occurring in Mammoth and the neighboring 
caves. Next to this, Anophthalmus Mene- 
triesi of Motschultzy is most common. In 
the grottoes near Mammoth Cave, Cave City 
Cave, and Walnut Hill Spring Cave, near 
Glasgow Junction, Mr. Sanborn found An- 
ophthalmus pubescens Horn. In Wyan- 
dotte Cave A. tenuis Horn and A. eremita 
Horn are the only blind beetles found, and 
the former has been found in Bradford Cave, 
) Indiana, by Dr. John Sloan and myself. 
The larger number of species occur in the 
Mammoth Cave region, while in the Carter 

caves of Eastern Kentucky only one species 
(Fıs 17.) ANOPHTHALMUS. (A, pusio Horn) occurred, which was orig- 
inally discovered by Professor Cope in Erharts Cave, Montgom- 
ery Co., Virginia. No Adelops has occurred away from the 
Mammoth Cave region. a 

The subject of the degree of variation in these cave beetles is 
an interesting one. So uniform are their physical surroundings: 
the perpetual darkness, even annual temperature, varying bat 
very slightly winter or summer, unless in the smaller caverns; 
the dryness of the air, though after the spring freshets the cav® 
are doubtless damper than at other seasons of the year (this 
may not be the case with Wyandotte Cave, which is remarkably 
dry compared with Mammoth Cave) ; all these conditions must 
certainly tend to produce much persistence of form and size mM 
these beetles. 

I will give a few notes regarding differences in size, tO show 
how much variation does occur. In twenty-two specimens of 
Anophthalmus Tellkampfii (0.30 inch in length) from Salt Cave 


ET E SARS So SAR eae AN Mes Bad Rn en hs a Ne S OSEA 


1876.] The Cave Beetles of Kentucky. a 


there was absolutely no difference from a number of examples of 
the same species from Mammoth Cave. Eleven A. Tellkampfit 
from White’s Cave, a small cavern near the surface, did not 
differ in any respect from a number of Mammoth Cave specimens, 
both sets measuring 0.30 inch. Fourteen A. Tellkampfii col- 
lected by Mr. Sanborn in Sugar Bowl Cave, three miles north- 
west of Glasgow Junction, were the same as those from Mammoth 
Cave, but among them was some variation in size ; the longest 
individual was 0.30.inch, the shortest 0.25 inch. Out of sixty- 
five A. Tellkamp fii collected by Mr. Sanborn in Long Cave, 
nearly one mile from daylight, the longest was 0.30 and the 
shortest was 0.25 inch. Out of twenty-seven specimens of A. 
Telikampfii from one locality in Mammoth Cave, the Labyrinth, 
the amount of variation was exceedingly slight, none being over 
0.30 inch and the smallest 0.27 inch in length. 

The smaller species of Anophthalmus seem to vary more than 
Lelikamp fii, probably owing to the fact that the caves they occur 
in are in most cases smaller, nearer the surface, and therefore with 
a less equitable temperature and more sudden alternations of 
dampness and dryness. For example, of eighteen specimens of 
A. tenuis, the largest measured 0.20 and the smallest 0.16 inch, 
but there was less uniformity in size among these than in A. 
Telikamp fii from Mammoth Cave, for nearly a third were smaller 
than the others, while out of about eighteen A. Tellkampfii only 
one or two were dwarfed. Individuals of Anophthalmus Mene- 
triesi (also a smaller species than Tellkampfii) from different 
caves, varied somewhat in size. The Adelops hirtus varies more in 
Proportion than the species of Anophthalmus ; thus of twenty- 
two examples all taken from the Labyrinth, the largest were 0.12 
inch long, and the smallest 0.09 inch. Of this species two thirds - 
were males. It appears, then, that there is a slight variation in 
‘ize, and the main factor in bringing it about seems rather to be 
the want of sufficient food than any other cause. The tendency 
of variation is to a diminution of size, and this is generally among 
macta, where the climate is not extreme, owing to lack of suffi- 
pen lood.. And-to the wanderer: in- Aboot great grottoes the 
- thought constantly presents itself to the mind, How do these in- 

Sects, few and scattered as they are, get enough to live on? The 
Perpetual hunger they must undergo was well illustrated in 
Wyandotte Cave, where, on kneeling in the path, one could see 
numbers of the common myriopod of that cave (Scoterpes cav- 
ernarum Cope) gathered around the hardened drops of tallow 


286 The Cave Beetles of Kentucky. [May, 


which strew the pathways of that wonderful cave. One could 
almost hear them, in the stillness of the Titanic corridors and 
domes of that magnificent cavern, exclaim over a newly fallen 
drop of tallow from our candles, ‘‘ Here’s richness!” 

A few beetles were found in these caves which had evidently 
found their way in from out-of-doors, as they had eyes and did 
not differ from normal specimens. They are figured on the ac- 
companying plate. Figure 1 represents Batrisus spretus LeC. 
(much enlarged), one of the family Pselaphide ; two females 
were found at the end of Dixon’s Cave. It is a common beetle, 
and ranges from Vermont to Georgia, according to Dr. LeConte. 
Figure 12 represents Quedius fulgidus (much enlarged). It oc- 
curred in Dixon’s Cave and also in Weyer’s; it is a common 
species in the Middle and Western States. This and two other 
Staphylinide or rove beetles, represented by Figures 6 and 7, 
and a larva of this family (Figure 9) occurred in different caves 
and all had eyes, being evidently fresh arrivals in these subter- 
ranean retreats. 

It was a matter of much importance to discover the larve, or 
young, of the blind beetles, the true autochthones of these caverns, 
in order to ascertain whether the young are born blind, particu- 
larly as the larve of these genera, so far as we know, had not 
yet been discovered in Europe. Systematic research in different 
caves soon revealed several larvæ, both of Anophthalmus and of 
Adelops. The young Anophthalmus occurred in several caves; 
particularly in Salt Cave, on damp sand-banks, under stones. 
Figure 3 represents what is without much doubt the larva of A. 
Tellkampfii. This larva is more closely allied to that of the Eu- 
ropean Pterostichus nigrita, figured by Schiddte, than any other 
oe with which I have been able to compare it, but the body 18 
rather slenderer, the head much longer and narrower, and .the 
mouth-parts longer, while the caudal appendages are shorter. 
The end of the body is like those of Harpalus and Stenolophus, 
as figured by Schiddte, but the mandibles resemble those of Har- 


larva from Bat Cave, one of the Carter caves. igure 9, larva of a Staph; 
beetle. Figure 11, blastodermic cells of the cave spider, Anthrobia mammouthia aj 
NarturaLisrT, ix. 276). Figure 12, Quedius fulgidus. All the figures are magnified 
drawings. 


IMayaklo tith 


KENTUCKY 


OF 


CAVE COLEOPTERA 


1876.] University Instruction in Botany. 287 


rather soft, not chitinous as in most Carabid larve. There is no 
sculpturing on the head, and but a single claw on the egs. 

At the same time and in the same sand-banks occurred the 
pupa (Figure 2, enlarged) of the same species. It rested in 
little pits or cells three quarters of an inch long under flat stones, 
and was eyeless and white, with the harder parts of the mouth 
honey-yellow in color. 

Though the pupa of the Adelops was not found, two larve 
occurred, one in the Labyrinth of Mammoth Cave. Figure 5 
represents this interesting form, and 4a one of the antenne mag- 
nified. It bears some resemblance to the larva of Agathidium (1 
know of no figure of a young Catops with which to compare it), 
but the head is very much larger and nearly as wide as the pro- 
thoracic segments. The body tapers rapidly from the prothorax 
to the end, and is provided with long hairs; it is dull white. 
There are no traces of eyes. 


UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTION IN BOTANY. 
BY PROFESSOR W. G. FARLOW. 

ITHIN the last few years the interest of the public in bo- 
tanical questions has very much increased, and not only is 

there a greater demand for popular lectures, but the introduc- 
tion of the study of botany into the common schools is beginning 
to be seriously agitated. But who is to teach the subject? If 
the public desire to have botany taught in the schools, it is not, 
as some botanists seem to suppose, because they regard botanical 
facts as more important than other facts, — historical, philological, 
etc., — but because, of all the natural sciences, botany is the most 
easily and cheaply adapted to the school-room, and it is to naday. 
ral history in some form or other that the public look for a rem- 
edy for the evil of book-cramming and memorizing which prevails 
n our schools. But although botany may serve to counteract 
the evil, it will not accomplish that object unless in the hands of 
good teachers, and the very first requisite of a good teacher is a 
familiarity with the subject he is to teach. If the introduction 
of botany into the schools is ‘precipitated, the instructors will 
necessarily be those who are already overburdened with other 
branches which they are obliged to teach, and which furthermore 
they teach in exactly the way in which botany or any other 
natural science should neyer be taught. The school-teachers 
themselves must be taught, and that will not be an easy task, 


288 University Instruction in Botany. [ May, 


considering how little time they have for study, and how many 
of them have reached an age when entering upon new habits of 
thought is not easy. Evidently, if there is to be any instruction 
in botany in the schools which shall amount to anything, it must 
come from those who have studied the subject at college, for it is 
in the universities that botanical experts are found as instructors, 
and it is only there that any systematic and continued study of 
the subject can be attempted. Let us see what sort of botany is 
taught in the universities, and whether any improvement is 
needed or to be desired. 

In many of our universities, and we are not now speaking of 
agricultural colleges, which must be classed with technical schools 
rather than with universities, the study of botany is elective, and 
it would not be far from correct to say that it is chosen by a mod- 
erately large per cent. of students for a single year, and contin- 
ued by a much smaller number, perhaps a third or a quarter, 
during a second year. In all our colleges, whether botany is 
compulsory or elective, the students are not required or supposed 
to have any previous acquaintance with the subject, and in all, 
the first step is to recognize the organs of flowering plants and 
to learn their names. As soon as possible, the student is re- 
quested to provide himself with a manual; a number of flowers, 
from the field or the hot house, as the season serves, is then placed 
in his hands, and he is required, if we may be allowed the expres- 
sion, to “ go through ” them. This last process varies somewhat 
with the fancy of the instructor and the laboratory facilities of 
the college. Where the botanical chair is combined with those 
of zodlogy, chemistry, and the modern languages, the “ going 
through” consists in tracking a flower, just as though it were aà 
thief or a woodchuck, to its hiding-place in the manual by means 
of a key. A neat pencil mark against the specific name serves 
to indicate one step onward in the mental development of the 
student. In those colleges where there is a greater division of 
labor, and one man is obliged to teach only botany and zoology: 
there is generally provided a printed schedule in which the stu- 
dent as he proceeds records the number of stamens and pistils, 
the interesting fact whether the ovary is superior or inferior, and 
other similar details, until, having filled his schedule, he is at lib- 
erty to turn to the key and follow the course we have previously 
described. ; 

In a few colleges, during the first year, students of botany; in 
addition to the analysis of flowering plants, hear a few lectures 


En AA A agra dhe A Reames acai EE E E E N T E 


1876.] University Instruction in Botany. 289 


on eryptogams or vegetable physiology, but the great fact is 
never lost sight of that the aim and end of all botanical instruction 
is, at the end of a year’s study, to be able to take one’s manual, 
and, with a certain degree of facility, find the names of common 
flowering plants. That is the first task to be accomplished, and 
not until it is accomplished is any student to be allowed to take 
upanything else. As a matter of fact; comparatively few students 
pursue the subject for a second year, if by the university regula- 
tions they are allowed to give it up; and the question suggests 
itself, What is the result of a botanical course of one year? The 
good students who have, under the circumstances, made the best 
possible use of their time, are able to analyze simple flowering 
plants with tolerable ease, and know the characters of some of 
the orders of pheenogams; and those who have not studied so 
faithfully are perhaps able to explain to a cruelly skeptical father 
that a rose-bush is very much like an apple-tree, or to compare 
notes with Emily, who has just returned from Miss Smith’s Insti- 
tution for Young Ladies, and, after some months’ study, is not 
quite sure whether the calyx is inside or outside the petals. 

We must confess that it seems to us a mistaken notion to teach 
botany as though the naming of phzenogams, or even the general 
morphology of phenogams, was any more important than other 
topics. We know from experience that but a very small per 
cent. of the students who study botany in college ever do learn 
enough to enable them to analyze flowers with any ease, and that 
even the few who can, rarely continue the study after leaving 
college, from want of either time or opportunity for herboriz- 
ing. The botanical students in any university may be divided 
into three classes: those who have a passion, a natural aptitude, 
for the Subject, whose number is always very small, and includes 
those who are to become the experts and higher teachers of 
botany ; those of good ability and industry, who elect botany 
because they hope to find it an aid afterwards when they shall 
study a profession or become school-teachers; and those who 
select the study as part of a plan of general culture and im- 
provement. . There is a fourth class, but we never mention that, 
Composed of young gentlemen whose principal aim in coming to 
college seems to be to get as little good out of it as possible. We 
should like to know which of these three classes is benefited by 
the almost exclusive study of phanogams for the first and, in the 
Case of many of them, the only year of their botanical studies. 

ose who wish for general culture get a smattering of the tech- 

NO. 5. 19 


nie Pe 


- 


290 University Instruction in Botany. [May, 


nicalities of one branch of the vegetable kingdom, and are in 
absolute ignorance of all the rest. Those who think a one year’s — 
course, as at present arranged, will help them as teachers, will 
find themselves without a general notion of the vegetable king- 
dom, without which it will not be easy to instruct others. The 
medical man will find that he would be able to recognize several 
useful plants were it not for the fact that they do not grow 
within several hundred miles of his home, and, on the other hand, 
that he has no knowledge either of vegetable histology, which 
would be a great assistance in his pathological studies, or of 
fungi, which are interesting in connection with the origin of sev- 
eral diseases. : 

If we look at the effect of the usual training on- the first class 
we have mentioned, those who really wish to become botanists, 
the conclusion we must draw is not flattering. Why is it that 
so few botanical workers are found in this country ? Where are 
the young men of ability and enthusiasm who ought to be work- 
ing up some of the interesting botanical questions? They are 
all — studying zodlogy. As botanists, we cannot of course ad- 
mit that botany is in itself any less interesting than zodlogy, and 
if we turn to Germany, for example, we find that the proportion 
of young men who enter on a botanical career there is as large as 
that of those devoting themselves to zodlogy. If at the present 
day we are feeling the want of young botanists to investigate or 
instruct, we must not forget that at the door of every botanical 
lecture-room the would-be enthusiast has encountered a manua 
of flowering plants, through which he must make his way if he 
would see any light beyond. What wonder that many were at- 
tracted to the other house, where manuals were not so much in 
vogue, and the study of development encouraged. It must be 
said with shame that not a single work on the development oF 
minute histology of any plant or group of plants has ever been 
written by an American, if we except some of Sullivant’s bry- 
ological works. It has finally become the prevailing belief that 
if one would do anything for botany he must find or make new 
species. It is certainly of the greatest importance that event: 
ually all species of plants should be described, but it is very ™J"" 


` rious to have one who has not a large library and herbarium at- 


tempt to decide what is new and what is not. 

We would by no means disparage the systematic study of 
phænogams, but by conveying the idea that such a study un 
derlies and is the key to the whole science of botany, numbers 


1876.] University Instruction in Botany. 291 


of young men whose talents and services could ill be spared 
have been driven to other branches of natural history. The 
great mistake seems to us to have been that it has been at- 
tempted to educate all who study botany as though they intended 
to become botanical specialists in the department of descriptive 
phenogamy, whereas not one in a thousand has such an inten- 
tion or desire. 

We would see the instruction in botany for the first year 
rather directed to give a good general view of the whole vege- 
table kingdom, than to enable the student to follow out specific 
analysis in any one department. We would not forget that 
botany is one of the divisions of biology ; we would, as far as pos- 
sible, examine plants in action, and would let the student devote 
his time for the first year to the examination of a few illustrations 
of the different types of vegetable life, from the highest to the 
lowest, without any attempt at teaching particular genera and 
Species. We would teach the student how to investigate for 
himself, and avoid imparting any encyclopedic knowledge. At 
the close of one year’s study the student would be in a condi- 
tion to know in which direction he prefers to work, and in his 
second and later years of study he could pursue more and more in 
detail the department which his own taste may dictate, not, how- 
ever, entirely neglecting others. We think it absolutely neces- 
sary that in the first year of study a general course should be 
pursued, in which the student should be obliged to think for him- 
self, and should not be allowed to depend on books. 

To enter into particulars, we should prefer something of this 

d: We suppose the college term to begin about the first of 
October and end the first of the following July, and that the 
student spends three hours a day for three days in the week in 


OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER. — One lecture a week. (A.) Il- 
lustrations of Palmella, Nostoc, Oseillaria, Desmids, Spirogyra, 
ete., to show the structure of the cell, and acquire facility in the 
use of the compound microscope ‘and in making preparations.: 

(B.) Myxomycetes, to examine the plasmodium. Nitella, to 
show the movements of protoplasm. 

(C.) Mucor Syzygites, to illustrate conjugation. 

(D.) Peronospora viticola, to show odspores and zoOspores, 

DECEMBER, JANUARY, AND FEBRUARY. — (A.) Basidiomy- 


292 University Instruction in Botany. [May, 


cetes, illustrated by Agaricus, Lactarius, Corticium, ete., alco- 
holic material, to show structure of mycelium and hymenium. 

(B.) Ascomycetes, showing ascospores, conidia, pycnidia, ete., 
illustrated by Eurotium, Phyllactinia, Microspheria, Peziza, 
Morchella, Spheria morbosa, Spheria herbarum, Hypomyces, 
etc. 
(C.) Lichens of different kinds. 

(D.) Fucus, Laminaria, Ectocarpus, Polysiphonia, Callith- 
amnion. (These last can be obtained alive in winter by those 
living near the sea-coast, and all except Fucus can be kept per- 
fectly well in alcohol.) 

The subjects just mentioned for December, January, and Feb- 
ruary should occupy two days out of the three, part of the time 
being spent in attending lectures and part in laboratory work. 
The third day, the organography of flowering plants should be 
studied. 

Marcu.—(A.) Ferns and mosses, structure of prothallu 
and fruit, one day in the week. 

(B.) Vegetable physiology, one day. 

(C.) Organography of flowering plants, one day. 

APRIL, MAY, AND JUNE. — One day a week to histology of 
higher plants. Two days to analysis of flowering plants. With 
a certain number of lectures on vegetable physiology, and in 
early summer a glance at the Uredinet, illustrated by acidial 
and uredo forms and dried material of teleutospores. 

Such would be the course which we should advise for a person 
old enough, and with sufficient previous training to be admitted tọ 
college. For persons in their first and second childhood, kinder- 
garten methods will do very well, but for young men we prefer 
work. The course we have laid down requires work with the 
compound microscope from the very beginning. There is no de- 
nying that the microscope has caused a revolution in botany, and 
no botanist of the present day, no matter what department he 
may take up, can afford to be ignorant of the practical working 
of that instrument. Vegetable histology is the very A BC of 
botany, and no botanical work can be solid unless it rests on that 


foundation. To be sure, the shicroscopical societies have done — : 


their best to bring the microscope into disrepute, by encouraging 
the notion that there is a department of microscopy apart from 
botany, zodlogy, and pathology, and by striving to recommend t0 
the public large and expensive instruments, which, however pr 


fect they may be optically, are ill adapted for steady work and 


1876.) University Instruction in Botany. 998 


for the slender means of most young people. The microscope as 
an optical instrument comes under the province of physics, and 
microscopy is no more a science apart from biology and pathol- 
ogy than is cutlery. We might just as well have a department 
of cutlery in which we could include those animals and plants 
which are usually studied by sections made with razors and 
knives. Every college where botany is taught should be pro- 
vided with a number of compound microscopes. Microscopes 
sufficiently good for ordinary purposes can be purchased in Eu- 
rope for thirty dollars gold, or even somewhat less, and can be 
imported free of duty for college use. Even with duty paid, 
fifty dollars ought to secure a very fair French or German mi- 
croscope. 

Our proposed course implies a tolerably large proportion of 
laboratory work, and we may be allowed here to say a few 
words on what seems to be a growing evil in this country, the 
abuse of laboratories. A few years ago, when it was seen that 
instruction in natural history could not be imparted successfully - 
from books alone, laboratories were introduced to remedy the 
evil. It was said, In the laboratory the student will see the ob- 
ject itself ; he will learn to compare, to reason, and, instead of 
merely committing a number of pages to memory, he will have 
a practical knowledge of the subject. But the laboratory system 
has worked in a curious way, although in a way which might 
have been anticipated, and it has not proved such a complete 
Panacea as had been expected. If, on the one hand, to those 
who are anxious to learn and are fond of investigation, laboratory 
exercises are of incalculable value, it must be said, on the other 
hand, that the average American student is thoroughly impressed 
with the idea that, if he does not understand a thing at once, it 
1s the business of the instructor to explain it to him. It never | 
occurs to him that it may be for his advantage to work the thing 
“iad himself. From childhood up, having been taught that edu- 
cation consists in the acquisition of facts, he cannot see that the 
Mere process of acquiring a fact may be of more importance than 
the fact itself, But the case is even worse. The fourth class of 
students which we described, those who wish to have as easy a 
time as possible, regard the laboratories as especially created for 
‘he purpose of escaping study, and to the laboratories they flock 
m crowds, They seriously interfere with the work of the good 
Students, by compelling the instructor to spend a great part of 

1s time in explaining things which they ought to work out for 


294 University Instruction in Botany. [May, 


themselves. If a shirk is a nuisance in the lecture-room, he is 
tenfold a nuisance in the laboratory, where he wastes not only 
time, but room and working materials. 

Were the courses in our colleges elective, in the true sense of 
the word, this difficulty of the crowding of laboratories by stu- 
dents who are not in earnest would not arise. But even where 
the botanical course is nominally elective, there is a certain com- 
pulsion employed in the form of check-lists or compulsory recita- 
tions. As it is, we see no other way out of the difficulty than to 
divide a botanical class of any size into two sections ; one includ- 
ing those who are willing to work, who should have laboratory 
privileges ; the other including the shirks, who should be re- 
quired only to attend lectures and recitations, and who should, of 
course, be marked on a lower scale. There is no good reason 
why a college should provide laboratory room and equipments 
for those whose principal object in going to the laboratory is to 
try to worm out of the instructor the questions of the next ex- 
amination paper. There is another class of well-meaning but 
exasperating students, birds of passage we must call them, who 
have usually not more than fifteen or twenty minutes to spend 
at any one time in the laboratory. We see no reason why, if a 
student actually has no time at his disposal, he should be allowed 
to throw a laboratory into confusion by a series of abrupt en- 
trances and as abrupt departures. 

We have purposely omitted any lectures on economic botany 
from our proposed course. However useful a study it may be 
for apothecaries, it is entirely unadapted to college students. 
They might just as well try to learn so many pages out of the 
dictionary. It would be very desirable to remember the names 
and orders of a large number of useful and injurious plants. 
But no one ever does who is not obliged to lecture twice a year 
on the subject, and even then he is compelled to refresh his mem- 
` ory by frequent perusal of certain books whose titles we will not 
mention, for fear that it may be said that we are betraying Pt 
fessional secrets. ‘ 

In Germany the botanical professors generally give a princi- 
pal course of lectures, which is attended by those who are pay- 
ing particular attention to the science, and a shorter accessory 
course, on some limited subject, which is attended by those 
who simply wish to know what is going on in the botanical 
world, without making any detailed study. It seems to us that 
something similar would be advisable in this country. There 18 


1876.] Recent Literature. ' 295 


always a number of students who would like to hear a few lect- 
ures on some of the most interesting topics relating to botany, 
students intending to become clergymen, lawyers, business men, 
whose time is so occupied with historical or philosophical courses 
that they could not take a regular botanical course. The few 
minutes which they could spend in a laboratory would be time 
thrown away. They want a few plain lectures on some limited 
topic, and the topic should be changed from year to year. On 
one year there might be, for instance, six lectures on fertilization 
of higher plants. The next year a course on the lower limit of 
the vegetable kingdom. Or there might be two or three courses 
of six lectures during the same year. , 
yes ate 
RECENT LITERATURE. 

A Few Sueerstions on Tren-PLantine.! — The increased inter- 
est awakened of late in arboriculture may be attributed in part to a 
realizing sense that we have been forest-spendthrifts, and that it is about 
time for us to begin economizing, and if possible repair our wasted pat- 
rimony. There is a vague fear that certain dangers are impending over 
us as a penalty for recklessly clearing the timber lands, and there seems 
to be a very general wish that our neighbors should do something at once. 
Now, what to do and how to do it are not so clear. 

In a course of lectures last winter at the Lowell Institute, Dr. Hough 
gave a frank statement of the difficulties. In the Eastern States the tra- 
ditions of two hundred years are against tree-planting ; there is no con- 
cert of action in any community; there are many contingencies which 
may render the scheme in any one case a very hazardous one, and there 
18s, at all events, a long time to wait for any pecuniary profit. 

Besides these difficulties we may state another, namely, that in few 
towns are the assessors of taxes in a right frame of mind. And so each 
man would gladly see his neighbor do something at once. This little 
pamphlet by Mr. Sargent gives many sensible hints as to what to do, 
and we call attention to the aper because it is a practical one, advo- 
cating practicable methods. Meanwhile, as our communities are acting 
on Professor Northrop’s suggestion to plant centennial trees in the towns 
this year, can they not try a few centennial forests ? 

IE PFLANZENWELT Norwecens.? — This work is in two parts. 
The first, published in 187 3, is a general account of the physical features 
of Norway and Sweden, with particular reference to the distribution of 


C. S. Sareent, A. B., Director of the 


A Few Suggestions on Tree-Pianting. M : husetts State 
assachuse a 


1 

Amold Arboretum of Harvard University. From Report of 

Board of Agriculture, 1875, 

ens. Von Dr. F. C. ScHÜBELER. (The Vegetation of 
) 


2 Die Pfa 
Norway » by Professor Schiibeler, of the University in Christiania. 


296 Recent Literature. [ May, 


wild plants and the cultivation of the useful ones. The second part bears 
the date 1875 and is more special in its nature, being in fact a popular 
flora of Scandinavia. The volumes are interesting throughout. We 
shall hope to transfer to our General Notes some of Professor Schiibeler’s 
statements respecting the remarkable climate of Norway, and the occur- 
rence of Southern plants near the Arctic circle. 

BOTANISCHER JAHRESBERICHT.! — Annual Report on Botany, by Dr. 
Just, of Carlsruhe. The second year of this valuable compendium is an 
improvement on the first. The several departments of botany are con- 
ducted by different men, chiefly specialists, and in a careful manner. The 
` articles which have appeared in the journals, and proceedings of societies, 
are given in abstract. Besides these there are very good critiques of the 
botanical books for the year (1874). The Year-Book is of great value 
to all botanists who wish to keep up with the published researches, and 
who have not time to study all the journals. It must be said, moreover, 
that the range of periodicals from which Dr. Just and his associates have 
selected their notes is very wide, comprising many chemical and agricult- 
ural journals, which are not likely ordinarily to fall in a botanist’s way- 
Technologists and chemists have had their annuals for several years, and 
it is high time that botanists should fare as well. Botanists ought to con- 
gratulate themselves that the task has fallen into such good hands, and 
they should see to it that the enterprise is sustained. 

KNEELAND’s AMERICAN IN IcELAND.?— This little book, issued about 
the same time as Judge Caton’s Summer in Norway, affords fresh evi- 
dence that American tourists are taking more interest than formerly in 
Northern Europe, particularly the Scandinavian peninsula and the isl- 
ands to the westward, the homes of the Northmen. Dr. Kneeland’s 
book is an intelligent and by no means dull account of Iceland, preceded 
by pleasant sketches of the Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe Islands, as 
seen during a voyage of a few weeks in 1874, the year of the thousandth 
anniversary of the settlement of Iceland by the Northmen. 

Our readers will examine with much interest the chapter on me 
Physical Characters of Iceland, in which the author adopts the view 
that Iceland was uplifted towards the end of the glacial epoch, and that 
this explains the traces of a milder climate in Greenland before the ad- 
vent of man. At present the geographical position of Iceland is there- 
fore very important, as “with Jan Meyen and Spitzbergen it forms a 
natural barrier against the desolation of Northern Europe by the 10è 
from Arctic regions; should Iceland disappear beneath the waters, Nor- 


1 Berlin: Gebrüder Bornträger, 1875, 1876. With 

2 An American in Iceland. An Account of its Scenery, People, and History. "7 
a Description of its Millennial Celebration in August, 1874; with Notes pak 
Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe Islands, and the Great Eruption of 1874. By Sa™ & 
Kweetanp. With Map and Nineteen Illustrations. Boston: Lockwood, Brooks, 
Co. 1876. 12mo, pp. 326. 


1876.) Recent Literature. 297 


y 


way would have the cold of Greenland, the north of England would 
become frozen, and Greenland would be green again.” 

Now that we have in Montana the Yellowstone Park, with its hun- 
dreds of geysers, some throwing loftier streams than the Great Geyser 
of Iceland, which sends a shower not over one hundred feet high, the 
Haukadaly Valley of Iceland must hereafter assume a more modest 
place in our geographies. But for many years more travelers will see 


ERUPTION OF STROKR, AUG. 5; 1874. 


(Fie. 18.) 
oe geyser of Iceland than those of Montana. Our figure (18), kindly 
oaned by the publishers, illustrates the Strokr or “churn” geyser, after 
it has been irritated ¢ ‘by pouring a cart-load of sods down its capacious 


298 Recent Literature. [ May, , 


throat.” The column of water is about one hundred feet high, and while 
the geyser is recovering from the effects of this novel emetic we leave 
the subject of Iceland and its sensitive i: 

Hassarp’s FLORAL Decorarions.1— This little manual seems to 
us to be quite novel in some of its he and certainly very attractive, 
It will afford many a new suggestion, and the hints are in good taste. 
We select the titles of a few chapters to give some idea of the scope of 
the work: Preparing Flowers, Wiring Flowers, Gumming Flowers, 
Keeping Prepared Flowers Fresh; Plants through the Table, Decora- 
tions for Buffets; Table Decorations for Christmas Day; Arrangement 
of Fruit for Dessert; Vases for the Breakfast-Table ; Vases for the 
Drawing-Room ; Button-Hole Bouquets and Coat Flowers; Pot Plants 
in Rooms; Window Gardening, Hanging-Baskets, Fern-Cases, Stands 
of Plants; Plant-Stands for Halls; The Grouping of Plants in Rooms. 


Recent Books AND PAMPHLETS. — Myths of the New World. By D. G. Brin- 
ton. Second Edition, revised, from New Plates. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 
8vo. $2.50. 

Angola and pe River Congo. By Joachim John Monteiro. With Map and Illus- 
trations. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1876. 12mo, pp. 354. $2.50 

Contributions à irem de la Vésicule germinative et du premier Noyau embry- 
onnaire. Par Edouard van Beneden. Bruxelles. 1876. 8vo, pp. 50. With a Plate. 

Beobachtungen iiber die Arten der Blatt und os ties C. G. A. Bri 
und Dr. G. Zaddach. 4to, pp. 23-89. 1875. With Three 

ae par the Encyclopædia Britannica, ninth idea iii. 198-178. ) By Alfred 
Newt 

Ader Buvi of Alabama. Report of Progress for 1875. By E. A. Smith. 
Montgomery, Alabama. 1876. 8vo, 220. 

Geological Survey of New Jersey. Atal Report of the State soe for the 
T 1875. By Geo, H. Cooke. Trenton. 1875. 8vo, pp. 41. ith a Map. 

e Affinity of the Mollusca and Molluscoida. By W. K. man (From the 
ei of the Boston Society ‘of panei History, xviii. 225-235, 1876.) 

Botanical Articles. By pia W. G. Farlow. Extracted sg = Bale of the 
Bussey Institution, March, 18 8vo, E 404-454. With Six 

Bulletin of the kay ‘ats nadie and’ Geographical Sarver of the ka 
tories. Vol. ii., No. 2, . Studies of the American Falconidæ. By Robe 
Ridgway. Art. 2. Graio of Guadaloupe Island. By Robert ’ Ridgway. Wash 

„ington, D. C. April 1, 1876. 8vo, pp. 91-195. With Two Plates. 
ee on the Locust levaslor of 1874, in Manitoba and the Northwest erie 
y G. M. Dawson. Montreal. 1876. 8vo, PP- 16. (From the Canadian Natural 


is t) 
Bulletin of epf Museum of enamigi Zoölogy. Vol. iii., Nos. 11-14. Cam- 
bridge. March 27, 1876. 8vo, pp. 2 


Transactions ir the Kansas Academy t Science. Vol. iv. Topeka. 1875. svo, 
p. 63. 


1 Floral Decorations for the Dwelling-House. A Practical Guide to the Home ei 
rangements of Plants and Flowers. By ANNIE Hassarp, American egy pe 


With ag oe London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 
pp- 166. $1. 


a) 


1876.] Botany. 299 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY.! 


On tue Rate or Movement or WATER IN Prants. — This subject 
has been frequently investigated since the time of Hales and Bonnet. 
Professor Sachs, of Wiirzburg, gave, as the result of his observations, 
the rate of 23 centimetres an hour. McNab, in 1871, made use of a 
solution of a salt of. lithium, and traced it in-its course through the 
plant, coming to the conclusion that the rate was 46 centimetres an hour. 
These values are regarded by Sachs himself and others as too low. The 
methods are regarded by Professor Pfitzer, of Heidelberg, as unsatisfac- 
tory, and he suggested in 1873° another which yielded very remarkable 
results. He allowed the soil in some flower-pots containing plants to 
dry so far as to cause drooping of the leaves. Then he noted the posi- 
tion of the leaves by means of needle points, and watered the soil freely. 
The leaves recovered their former positions rapidly, and the times were 
observed. The rate of 5 metres an hour was the highest noted. In 
Justicia Adhatoda leaves 254 centimetres above the ground moved in 
three minutes after the soil was watered. In 1874 McNab repeated the 
lithium experiments and obtained a higher rate than before, nearly 40 
inches in the hour. Looking upon this as too low, Pfitzer has again ex- 
perimented, this time with lithium nitrate. The water employed con- 
tained one half of one per cent. of the salt. The plants used were cut 
under the solution, and the cut end immersed therein for a while. Upon 
removal the plant was cut in lateral halves from above downward, and 
the parts were tested spectroscopically. Twigs of Philadelphus gave 
4}, Amarantus 6, and Helianthus 10 metres in the hour. The highest 
rate observed was in the case of a sunflower with leaves in bright sun- 
light ; here it was 22 metres in the hour.: The results of later observa- 
tions are promised. 

Tue Inrivence or Ligut on tHe Conor or Frowers.— It was 
shown by Sachs a dozen years ago that the blossoms of many plants can 
develop normally in perfect darkness, Plants which have a good supply 
of elaborated material stored up in bulbs or tubers were observed to 
have flowers of normal shape and color, even when all the leaves had 
grown and the flower-buds opened in a dark room. If the buds are 
inclosed in Opaque cases, but the leaves exposed to sunlight so that 
assimilation is unhindered, the color and shape of the flowers remain 
normal. There were noticed by Sachs a few slight exceptions. Com- 
mon nasturtium blooming in the dark had flowers more yellow than usual ; 
wall-flower had smaller and brighter yellow blossoms than those which 
Opened in the light; scarlet-runner, brilliant flesh-red flowers; large 
snapdragon, usually having flowers of deepest red, had, when blooming 
m the dark, corollas which were white blotched with rose, and on the 

1 Conducted by Pror. G. L, GOODALE. 


300 General Notes. [May, 


lower lip had a sulphur-yellow spot. Sorby, in 1873, showed by the spec- 
troscope that diminution in the amount of light prevents the formation 
of red coloring matter in the corolla of wall-flower, and changes the 
character of the yellow coloring matter. Askenasy was familiar with 
these facts last summer when he commenced a series of experiments, the 
results of which have just been published. He concludes that many 
flowers need the light in order to acquire their normal color, but others 
are quite independent of it. This difference may be referred in some 
cases to defective nourishment of the plant kept in darkness, but this 
cannot explain all. The observations can be so easily made that we 
suggest to our readers a repetition of some of the experiments. The 
plants which gave the most striking results were Prunella, Silene, An- 
tirrhinum, Pulmonaria, Hyacinthus, and Tulipa. = 

Totmrza MENzresu, of Oregon (a curious rather than handsome 
saxifrageous plant, related to Tiarella), propagates naturally and freely 
by adventitious buds, produced at the junction of the leaf-stalk with the 
blade, in the manner of Begonia. We have five live plants that show 
this, sent by Elihu Hall, of Illinois, who calls our attention to the pecul- 
iarity. He states that any of the leaves may be taken off and used suc- 
cessfully for propagation. — A. Gray. 

Mr. W. F. Fuint sends good specimens of Astragalus Robbinsii Gray, 
from the limestone region about Queechy, N. H. 

Rate or GROWTH or Agave Scares. — July 10, 1870. I measured 
a scape of Agave sisalensis to-day, and made two transverse slits with 
the point of my knife, six inches apart, one above the other, and not far 
from tip of scape. 

July 17th. The tip of scape is to-day 41} inches higher than it was 
on the 10th, and the upper incision is 3} inches and the lower one gof 
an inch higher than they were on same day. 

July 22d. Three other plants measured to-day, whose scapes are re- 
spectively 30, 20, and 16 inches high, ' i 

July 25th. In the last seventy-two hours the scapes have grown M 
height 177, 124, and 10} inches, respectively. 

Two transverse incisions were made, one 184 inches from the ape* 
of scape, the other 18 inches below this; the upper one has ascended 
34 inches, and the lower one but ï% of an inch, : 


July 29th. Scape of No. 1 has ascended (its tip) in the last six ay 


39 inches, and No. 2, 24 inches. (No. 3 was not measur 


ed.) he 
August 5th. Tip of scape of No. 1 has ascended in fourteen days 


71 inches, and No. 2, 70 inches, 


August 22d. No, 1 has, in thirty-one days, ascended 12 feet and anki 
inches, and No, 2, 12 feet and two inches. —N. B. Moore, Manatee: 
Fla 


A "JON 
Tae TEETH or GREEN LEAVES as ORGANS FOR THE SECRETION 
OF NECTAR. — The fact that green leaves secrete a saccharine matter 


1876.] Botany. 301 


has been known since the announcement by Conrad Sprengel, in the 
last century, that on the stipules of certain Vicias there are secreting spots. 
Schlechtendal, in 1844, described the secretion of “ sugar” by the leaves 
of Clerodendron and Viburnum Tinus. Unger noticed “ sugar-glands” on 
these and on Acacia longifolia. Caspary found similar glands on many 
plants, but it appears to have been Haustein who first thoroughly inves- 
tigated their structure. He thought the glands were in most cases mod- 
ified trichomes or plant-hairs. Reinke has lately reviewed the whole 
subject, and finds that in addition to the sugar-spots and sugar-hairs 
there are also modified serrations of the leaf-blade in many plants, 
which serve as organs for secreting matters; in some cases the exuda- 
tion is of a saccharine character, but often of a mucilaginous nature. 
Prunus Avium and some other species of Prunus, Kerria Japonica, 
Rosa centifolia, Cydonia Japonica, Betula alba, and many other plants 
are spoken of in his memoir as possessing leaf-teeth which secrete freely. 
A few plates accompany Reinke’s paper. 

BOTANICAL PAPERS IN RECENT PERIODICALS. — The Journal of 

Botany, British and Foreign, March, 1876. On New and Rare Fungi, 

9G. Smith, F- S.iTwo:Nor Amaryllidacee from Natal, by J. 
G. Baker, F. L. S. On the Genus Syringodea (in Order Jridacee), by 
J. G. Baker, F. L. S. The Apetalous Fuchsias of South America, by 
W.-B. Helmsley. Some Contributions to Plant-Chemistry, by A. H. 
Church. (Analyses of lettuce, Irish moss, water-cress, beech-scales, elm- 
flowers, outer layers of wheat-grain.) A list of new species of flowering 
plants in periodicals published in Great Britain during 1875. 

Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, January, 1875. On Heat as 
a Factor in Vital Action (so-called), by Geo. Sigerson, M. D. (Con- 
cerning the effect of heat on cyclosis, etc., and on the motion of latex.) 
April, 1875. On the Apothecia of certain Algæ, by William Archer. 

n a new Fresh-Water Sarcodic Organism, by William Archer. List 
of Seychelles Myrtaceæ, by J. G. Baker, July, 1875. On the Structure 
of the Leaves of certain Coniferæ, by Prof. W. R. McNab. (A reëx- 
amination of the microscopic anatomy of the section Tsuga of the E 

inus. With plate giving cross sections of the leaves of the six species.) 

Botanical Bulletin (Hanover, Indiana), March, 1876. Chia, by Dr. 
Rothrock. (“ Chia” is a mealy preparation made from the roasted seeds 
of Salvia Columbarie. The meal mixed with water is used as food and 
as a demulcent drink. Quantities of this seed have been found buried 
in graves several hundred years old, a fact which indicates that its use is 
of great antiquity.) Notes on Graminex, by A. H. Young. 

Comptes rendus, No. 3. A. Miintz, On certain Changes in the Cane- 
Sugar of Cane-Juice. No. 5. Heckel, On the Spontaneous Periodic 
Movement in the Stamens of Saxifraga sarmentosa, umbrosa, Geum 
acanthifolia, and in Parnassia palustris. The relations of this phenom- 
enon to the arrangement of the floral organs. 


302 General Notes. 


Diy, 

Flora, No.-2. Hugo de Vries, On Wood-Tissue which repairs Wounds 
(not finished). A. Geheeb, On certain Mosses. No. 3. A. de Krem- 
belhuber, Brazilian Lichens. Hugo de Vries, On Wood which repairs 
Wounds (not finished). Stephan Schulzer, Notes on Fungi. No. 4. 
Continuations of the foregoing. 

Botanische Zeitung. Reinke’s paper on Investigation of Growth is 
continued in the numbers since our last notice, and down to No. 10, 
March 10th. The paper is of great interest, and will be noticed at 
some length in the June NATURALIST. 

ARBEITEN DES BOTANISCHEN INSTITUTS IN WÜRZBURG, herausgege- 
ben von Professor Dr. Julius Sachs. We resume our notice of this volume 
of Botanical Contributions from the Würzburg Laboratory with the third 
part, which begins with a paper by Dr. Hugo de Vries, On the Wilting 
of Cut Shoots. (De Vries has clearly pointed out the marked difference 
in effect between cutting shoots under water and severing them with 
exposure of the cut surface to the air. The former shoots wither far less 
than the latter.) IX. Hugo de Vries, On Growth in Length of Tendrils 
which curve on the Upper or the Lower Side. (The effect of irritation 
to change the rapidity of growth is not local, but is felt in certain cases 
throughout the tendril. The effect is often continued after the removal 
of the irritant or the body in contact.) X. Hugo de Vries, On the 
Mechanics of Living Plants. (Abstract given in Sachs’ Text-Book, page 
777.) Dr. Emil Godlewski, Dependence of the Elimination of À 


777 
Oxygen from Leaves on the Amount of Carbonic Acid in the Air. (l 
Increase in the amount of CO, in the air up to a certain limit favors the 
evolution of oxygen; above this limit it is more or less injurious. 2. This 
limit varies for different plants: for Glyceria spectabilis on clear days, 
between eight and ten per cent.; for Typha latifolia, between five and 
seven per cent.; for oleander a little lower. . . . 5. Increase in intensity 
of the light increases the evolution of oxygen.) XII. Dr. K. Prantl, 
On the Influence of Light on the Growth of Leaves. (Attributing the 
difference between growth in light and growth in darkness to the patho- 
logical condition induced by absence of light.) XIII. and XIX. Pro» 
fessor Sachs, On the Growth of Tap and Side Roots. (An interesting 
and elaborate memoir, to be hereafter given in abstract in our General 
Notes.) XIV. Dr. Hermann Müller (Thurgau), On the Protonema and 
Rhizoids (root-hairs) of Mosses. XV. Dr. Oscar Brefeld, On Alcoholic 
Fermentation. XVI. Dr. Hugo de Vries, On the Extensibility of Grow- 
ing Shoots. XVII. Dr. K. Prantl, On the Renewal of the Growing P oint 
in the Roots of Angiosperms. XVIII. Dr. R. Pedersen, Have 1 
tions in Temperature, as such, an Unfavorable Influence on Growth! 
(Answered in the negative. i 
In closing this sketch of the first volume of Contributions from the’ : 
Wiirzburg Laboratory, we must be allowed to call attention to an 1m- 
portant and excellent feature of the publication, namely, the summary 3t 


Ee AAEE E Pe ie se eA aie SEL ree EPA he Sy RR SC cee Bg | ey ANE Pe aint a 


fees 


1876.) Zoölogy. 303 


the end of each article. This has long been the practice of French 
writers. Its adoption in a work like this gives an increased value which 
we are all quite ready to appreciate. F urthermore, we must refer to the 
generally impartial historical outlines which are prefixed to the separate 
memoirs. Even a busy reader can see what has been done before, and 
what the upshot of each paper is, 


ZOOLOGY. 


Are Porato BEETLES Porsonovs ?— Although I have made no in- 
vestigations regarding the poisonous nature of the Colorado potato bug, 
and am prejudiced neither pro nor con, the experiments of Messrs. 
Grote and Keyser as stated in the April NATURALIST do not seem con- 
clusive to me. I should not consider the innoxious nature of the Dory- 
phora proven. Since heat changes many organic substances, it is not im- 
possible that the “liquid ” of their experiments may differ entirely from 
the juices of the living beetle. Their hypodermic injections would seem 
to prove the idea (if I understand their account correctly) that the beetles 
do possess some toxical properties. The heart of a frog separated from 
the body often beats for a longer period than that recorded in their ar- 
ticle. Another possible source of error lies in the animal employed in 
their investigations. All animals are not equally susceptible to the action 
of poisons. Man is more so than the lower vertebrates, and they even 
ditfer among themselves in this respect. Thus it may be that the beetles 
have qualities injurious to man, while they have no effect on frogs and 
toads. 

e above remarks I have not endeavored to prove the poisonous 
qualities of the beetles, but to express my reasons for denying the co- 
gency of the reasoning employed in the article referred to, and to turn 
the attention of other investigators to the subject. — J. S. KINGSLEY. 

Tue LABRADOR Ducx.— H. E. Dresser, Esq., the well-known orni- 
thologist, author of the Birds of Europe, is desirous of obtaining informa- 
tion respecting this bird (Camptolemus Labradorius), such as its geo- 
graphical distribution (past and present), anything tending to elucidate 
its habits, and, in particular, a list of the specimens known to be pre- 
served in United States collections. In this last matter, will the custo- 
dians of collections in which the bird is represented kindly interest them- 
‘elves? Mr. Dresser farthermore authorizes me to offer £40 ($200, 
gold), for a pair, male and female, in good order. Communications may 
be addressed to him, No. 6 Tenterden Street, Hanover Square, London, 
W., or to the undersigned. — ELLIOTT Coues, Smithsonian Institution, 
Washington, D. C, 

Tue Corton Worm. — Mr. Grote, in the last Alabama Geological 
Report, states his belief that the cotton worm is an imported insect and 
not indigenous to the Southern States. In Alabama it does not appear 
on the plants before June or July. 


304 General Notes. [ May, 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 

ANTHROPOLOGICAL Nores. — Under the editorial supervision of Mr. 
Edward Arber, of London, a volume of great interest will appear during 
the coming season. It will be a reprint of the first three English books 
on America, The first was printed at Antwerp by John of Doesborowe, 
about 1511, a book “of the new Landes, and of the People founde by 
the Messengers of the Kynge of Portyngale, named Emanuel.” The 
second is a translated extract from the Cosmographia (1540) of Se- 
bastian Muenster,.professor of Hebrew at the University of Basle, en- 
titled A Treatese of the Newe India, with other new founde Landes and 
Islandes as well Eastwarde as Westwarde, as they are known and founde 
in these our days, etc. The third is a collection of the first English 
Voyages, Traffics, and Discoveries, containing Peter Martyr's Decades, 
and other interesting articles. 

The attention of anthropologists is most earnestly directed to the eir- 
cular letter of the anthropological subsection of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, inviting them to attend the meet- 
ing to be held in Buffalo the present year, prepared to read papers on 
interesting subjects. 

Messrs. Macmillan have in press a volume by Mr. E. G. Squier, 
being “ Incidents of Travel and Explorations in the Land of the Incas.” 

Correspondenz-Blatt of January lst has a supplement containing à 
catalogue of all the public and private collections of ethnological, anthro- 
pological, and prehistorical collections in Germany. The Smithsonian 
Institution commenced such a catalogue for all branches of scientific 
study within the United States, some time ago, and many hundreds have 
responded to their circular. 

The fourth number of Revue d’ Anthropologie comes to us with an un- 
usually interesting collection of articles. The principal ones are Re- 
cherches sur Indice Orbetaire, by Paul Broca; Ethnogénie des Popula- 
tions du Nord-Ouest de la France, by Gustave Lagneau ; Origine du 
Bronze, by G. de Mortillet; Le Feu chez les Peuplades primitives, by 
Mme. Clemence Royer. i i 

The contents of the twelfth number of Matériaux pour I’Histoire 
primitive et naturelle de VHomme are of a more special character. 


much interest. 

_ A very interesting paper was read before the British Scandin 
Society, January 18th, on some recent discoveries of tumuli belonging 
to the viking age. Among other objects a boat eighty feet long 
eighteen wide, with high prow, is like some now used in certain parts 
the Norwegian coast. : 

Lieutenant-Colonel Playfair reports the discovery at Aurès, in Algiers, 
of Roman ruins of the most magnificent character. The inhabitants bear 

‘unmistakable testimony to the classic origin of their features, languag® 


avian 


and 
of 


f 


The drawing of the royal tomb of Koaloba, in the Crimea, possesses i 


| 1876.] Geography and Exploration. 305 


and customs. Many remains of Roman edifices, some of them crowned 
with Byzantine structures, were found. The full account is in a Blue 
Book, just issued, of consular reports to the Foreign Office, London. 

Dr. Hooker is in receipt of a private letter describing the warlike 
habits of the Papuans. No man leaves his dwelling for his bit of culti- 
vated land, even, without his powerful bamboo bow and a few deadly poi- 
soned arrows. These are pointed and barbed with human bone, brought 
to almost needle-like sharpness, and most carefully and neatly finished. 
They are rindi by being plunged in a human corpse for several days. 
+O. T. Mas 


GEOLOGY AND PALMONTOLOGY. 
Gigantic Mammars or tHe Rocky Mounrarns. — We have al- 
ee (page 182) called attention to Professor Marsh’s discovery of the 
remarkably small brain of the Dinocerata, a group of large tertiary 


sga eS OF ARONNE ee 
e view; one twelfth natural 
mammals of the West. In the American Journal of Science and Arts 
for April, he discusses the principal characters of the Brontotheride, 


(Fig. 20.) OUTLINE OF SKULL AND BRAIN egth OF BRONTOTHERIUM INGENS. 
natural size 


VOL. x. — No, 5, 


306 General Notes. [May, | 


which were mammals nearly equaling the elephant in size, but with 
shorter limbs, and with a flexible nose as in the tapir, but no true pro- 
boscis. They lived in the lake basins of Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, 
and Colorado in the early Miocene Tertiary period. Figure 19 repre- 
sents a side view of the skull of Brontotherium ingens Marsh, one 
twelfth of the natural size, and Figure 20 is an outline of the skull and 
brain cavity of the same animal, one tenth of its natural size, showing 
the remarkably small size of the brain. On the plates are views of 
different parts of the skeleton and of casts of the brain cavity. 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 


Is rr POSSIBLE TO UNITE THE BLACK SEA AND THE CASPIAN? — 
Major Wood answers this question in the affirmative in the Geographical 
Magazine for February. He says that though the present level of the 
Caspian Sea is about eighty-four feet below the ocean level, it must be 
remembered that the highest point in the Manytch Channel, connecting 
the Euxine and Caspian basins, is but twenty-four feet above ocean 
level. “ Manifestly, therefore, if these twenty-four feet were cut through, 
the waters of the Sea of Azof would pass into the Caspian basin and fill 
it up. Nor would such an enterprise present the shadow of a difficulty 
to the engineering genius which has already brought into being the great 
excavators that were used on the Suez Canal. 

“The result of the filling up of the Caspian basin would be the de- 
struction of Astrakhan and of all other buildings situated below ocean 
level on the Caspian littoral, and the project therefore would not appesa" 
at first sight to be a desirable one.” Its execution would increase the 
water-spread of the Caspian from an area of 140,000 square miles to one 
of 250,000 square miles, and provide an ocean route to the eastern shore 
of the Caspian, and thus aid in developing the civilization of Central 
Asia. 

Ancient GEOGRAPHERS. — It is not too much to assert, says a writer 
in the Geographical Magazine, that all the geographical achievements 
of the age, stupendous as they are, have been virtually nothing more 
than a grand and successful filling-in of the vague outlines bequeathed 
to us by the past. The Suez Canal was the idea of Pharaoh-Necho; the 
establishing of a beaten track across the Isthmus of Panama, that a 
. Cortez and Nuñez de Balboa; the Mont Cenis passage, that of Hanni 
bal; the commercial highway across Central Asia, that of Alexander the 
Great; the diverting of the Oxus into another channel (which, however, 
is scarcely possible now), that of Octai Khan; the voyage eastwa 
round the cape, that of Xerxes; the search for the source of the Nile, 
that of half a dozen Egyptian kings, as well as of their conqueror, Cam- 
byses, centuries before the Christian era; the existence of great ™ th 
seas in South Africa, that of the Portuguese explorers of the sixteen 


1876.] Microscopy. 307 
century, some of whom, if we are not mistaken, have got more than one 
of these new “ discoveries ” of ours marked on their maps! In short, 
we may say with the Irish school-master, when he found one of his own 
similes in Homer, “ Curse thim ancients, they ’ve stolen all our best 
` ! ” 


INUNDATION OF THE SAHARA. — The idea of converting the Western 
Sahara into an inland sea is discountenanced by Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, 
who thinks that the plan is premature. He claims that the natural out- 
lets of the Sahara are Tripoli, Algiers, Morocco on the north, the Atlan- 
tic seaboard on the west, and the Senegal and Niger on the south. “It 
is by these roads the necessities of the inhabitants of the Sahara are 
supplied, and their surplus produce is exported, and they will suffice for 
a long time to come.” 

Mar or Prenistoric Ruins 1N Cororapo. — A Preliminary Map 
of Southwestern Colorado and Parts of the Adjacent Territories, show- 
ing the Location of Ancient Ruins, issued by the United States Geolog- 
ical and Geographical Survey of the Territories, F. V. Hayden in charge, 
will be found of much use by archeologists and travelers, as it gives the 
localities of the ancient rock ruins and cliff-houses discovered by the sur- 
vey. 

MICROSCOPY.! 


San Francisco MicroscoricaL Society.— This working society 
now numbers about forty active members, and its annual receptions and 
semi-monthly meetings are well sustained. During the past year it has 
commenced the formation, by purchase and donation of books and sub- 
scriptions to magazines, of a suitable library, and has added to its supply 
of apparatus a Nachet microscope whose one-eighth objective, which has 
ho collar adjustment, with Nachet's oblique condenser, resolved promptly 
and easily into beads No. 19 of Méller’s test-plate. Among the nota- 
ble additions to the cabinet of slides are a series of slides of the wall 
tocks of the gold-bearing veins of California; a series of sections of 
the woods of California ; a slide of the curious diatom, Schizonema 
Grevillii, remarkable for its great external resemblance to some forms of 
alge, the frustules of which were contained in a regular tubular frond, 
m which they were living when found, and up and down the canal of 
Which they were seen to move; a slide of crystals of salt obtained by 
slow evaporation from the tear of a child; and a fragment of photo- 
8raphic paper mounted in balsam to exhibit the minute specks which are 
$0 annoying to the photographer, and which appeared as white spots con- 
taining a dark nucleus of an arborescent crystalline formation, black 
Oxide of manganese being believed to be the cause of the spots, and 
hydrochloric acid being suggested as a possible means of removing them. 
+e Work of the society seems to be mainly directed to the legitimate 
natural history applications of the microscope, though not without some 

! This department is conducted by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


308 General Notes. [May, 


such diversions as public exhibitions and a moderate amount of “ micro- 
scopic gymnastics” in the way of “ test-object” resolution. Mr. Kinne’s 
paper on the method by which a fly walks in an inverted position was ' 
brought so strongly before the attention of the publishers of a school- 
book in which the familiar facts of the case were misrepresented, that 
they promised to suppress the erroneous article in future editions. The 
excellent annual address of the president, Prof. Wm. Ashburner, recom- 
mends that, in addition to the advantages furnished to members, the 
privileges of the rooms be extended to investigators who might not be 
able to ineur the expense of regular membership. 

Kinne’s TurN-TABLE. — This is a self-centring table in which the 
object is held diagonally between rectangular clutches, as in the “ Cox 
table.” This was contrived independently, though published subse- 
quently to Mr. Cox’s invention, from which it differs in moving the 
clutches by a lever and spiral instead of a screw. 

Comparative Puorocrarus or Bioop. — Dr. J. G. Richardson, 
for the sake of illustrating in criminal cases the distinguishable appear- 
ances of different kinds of blood, has flowed drops of blood from differ- 
ent animals so nearly in contact on the glass slide that portions of the 
two drops appear in the same field and can be photographed together. 
Dr. C. Leo Mees has modified this method and obtained exquisite results 
in specimens presented to the microscopical section of the Tyndall Asso- 
ciation. He spreads the blood by Dr. Christopher Johnson’s method, 
which is to touch a drop of blood to the accurately ground edge of a 
slide, and then draw it gently across the face of another slide, leaving a 
beautifully spread film. In this way one kind of blood is spread upon 
the slide and another on the cover. When dry, one half of each is care- 
fully scraped off with a smoothly sharpened knife, and the cover inverted 
upon the slide in such position as to bring the remaining portions of the 
film into apposition. Under the microscope and in the photograph the 
two kinds of blood appear in remarkably fine contrast, even those bl th 
that are too nearly alike for safe discrimination in criminal cases being 
easily distinguished when thus prepared from fresh material. 

“Rusty Goup.” — Mr. Melville Attwood, in his paper on thi 
before the San Francisco Microscopical Society, discredits the 
the miners that a thin film of oxide of iron forms on gold and prevents 
a successful separation of the gold by means of amalgamation. He be- 
lieves the failure of the miners to obtain good results to be due far 
more to an unexpected poverty of the quartz than to any difficulty 12 
causing the quicksilver to combine with the gold that is really present Ț 

Excuances. — (Notices, not exceeding four lines in length, of mi- 
croscopical objects or apparatus wanted or offered in exchange, not sale, 
will be inserted in this column without expense.) 

Diatoms, prepared or unprepared, in exchange for others. Corre: 
spondence desired with amateurs interested in mounting arranged dia- 


s subject 
belief of 


1876.] Microscopy. 309 


toms. — Galloway C. Morris, Tulpehocken Street, Germantown, Phila- 
delphia, Penn. 
Magic-lantern transparencies or cabinet-size photographs of micro- 
scopic objects in exchange for suitable slides. — R. H. Bliven, Elmore, 
0. 


POLARIZING CRYSTALLIZATIONS. — Mr. C. C. Merriman, of Roches- 
ter, gives the following useful hints in regard to the preparation of the 
exquisite polarizing objects contributed by him to the Postal Micro-Cabi- 
net Club: “ All solutions must be in distilled water, and carefully fil- 
tered. Solution of gum arabic must be added to the crystalline solution 
until the drops will dry on the slide without crystallizing. Then the 
drop on the slide is to be held over steam until one or more points of 
crystallization appear; then at once dried over an alcohol lamp; then 
held over the steam again until the crystals have grown a trifle larger, 
and so on until the specimen is satisfactory. The specimens are to be 
first varnished over with a film of collodion, such as photographers use, 
and then mounted in old Canada balsam.” Specimens thus prepared 
have been perfectly preserved for many years, though some of them are 
spoiled by re-crystallization after mounting. é 

 ÅMERICAN Mrcroscoricat Societies. — The following list ot 
microscopical organizations is corrected to date, with the exception of a 
few instances, where further information could not be obtained. Secre- 
=e and others interested are specially requested to furnish such cor- 
rections and additions as may become necessary from time to time. 

Agassiz Institute, Sacramento, Cal. Organized 1872. Meets second 
Tuesday evening of month. President, ; Vice-President, 
Rev. ~ E. Dwinell, D. D.; Secretary, A. P. Andrews ; Cor. Secretary, 


ay July and August, in the hall of the Academy, cor. 19th 
| Race 


Seis ; Cor. Secretary, J. H. McQuillen, M. D. ; Treasurer, Isaac 
hae - D.; Conservator, J. Gibbons Hunt, M. D. 

Sat Se Association for the Advancement of Science ; Microscopical 

sessions Fo, as met occasionally in connection with the migratory 

Buf the association. It is intended to organize permanently at 

Miia meoling next August. 

1865, gg Microscopical Society of the City of New York. Organized 

Bast 10th Se second and fourth Tuesday evenings of the month, at 35 

iam H, ki ‘* resident, John B. Rich, M. D.; Vice-President, Will 

mson, M. D, ; Secretary, C. F. Cox, 13 William St.; Treas 

émieulx ; Curator, O. G. Mason. 

ostal Micro-Cabinet Club. Organized 1875. Business 


310 General Notes. [May, 


conducted exclusively by mail. President, Prof. John Peirce, Provi- 
dence, R. I.; Secretary, Rev. A. B. Hervey, 10 North Second St., Troy, 
N. ‘Y.; Managers, R. H. Ward, M. D., Troy, N. Y., and C. M. Vorce, 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

Bailey Club, New York city. A small club of working microscopists. 
Meetings informal, every second Tuesday, at residences of members. 

Boston Microscopical Society. Organized 1873. Meets first and 
third Thursdays of month, at residences of members. President, David 
Hunt, Jr., M. D.; Vice-Presidents, Stephen P. Sharples, S. B., and Al- 
fred F. Holt, M. D. ; Secretary and Treasurer, R. R. Andrews, D. D. $, 
Brattle Square, Cambridge, Mass. ; Council, S. W. Creech, Jr., J. Frank 
Brown, and Edward Moulton; Custodian, C. H. Osgood, D. D. 8. 

Boston Society of Natural History; Microscopical Section. Organ- 
ized 1864. Meets second Wednesday evening of month. Committee, 
Edwin Bicknell, R. C. Greenleaf, and B. Joy Jeffries, M. D. 

Buffalo Microscopical Club, Buffalo, N. Y. Organized 1876. Presi- 
dent, Prof. George Hadley, M. D.; Secretary, James W. Ward; Advi- 
sory Council, H. R. Hopkins, M. D., Henry Mills, and Prof. D. R. Kel- 
licott. 

Dartmouth Microscopical Club, Hanover, N. H. Organized 1870. 
President, Prof. E. Phelps; Vice-President, Prof. L. B. Hall; Cor. 
Secretary, Hiram A. Cutting, M. D., Lunenburgh, Vt. i 

Denver Microscopical Society. 

Dunkirk Microscopical Society, Dunkirk, N. Y. Organized 1874. 
Meets second Friday evening of month. President, George E. Black- 


Fairmount Microscopical Society, Philadelphia. Organized 1871. 
Meets third Thursday evening of month. President, S. H. Griffith, 
M. D.; Secretary and Treasurer, William C. Stevenson, Jr., 24 South 
4th St.; Managers, Jno. Gordon Gray, E. O. Shakespeare, M. D., an 
B. F. Quimby. 

Indiana Microscopical Society, Indianapolis, Ind. Organized 1874 
Meets first Friday evening of month, at residences of members. onal 
dent, William B. Fletcher, M. D.; Secretary and Treasurer, E. Hadley, 
M. D., 191 Va. Ave. 

Jamestown Microscopical Society. ; 

Kirtland Society of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio; Microscopical 
Branch. Secretary, John Bowers. ‘i 

Louisville Microscopical Society, Louisville, Ky. Or anized we 
Meets first and third Thursday evenings of month. President, Prof v: 
Lawrence Smith; Vice-Presidents, Noble Butler and C. F. Carp 


M. D.; Treasurer, C. J. F. Allen; Secretary, John Williamson ; Cor. 
Secretary, E. S. Crosier, M. D. x 
Maryland Academy of Sciences, Baltimore, Md.; Section of Biology 


and Microscopy. Organized 1874. Meets first and third Wednesday 


1876.] Microscopy. 311 


evenings of month, at Academy Buildings, Mulberry St. Chairman, B. 
W. Barton, M. D.; Secretary, W. G. Harrison, M. D., 69 Centre St. 

Memphis Microscopical Society, Memphis, Tenn. Organized 1874. 
Meets first and third Thursday evenings of month, at 218 Main St. 
President, S. P. Cutler, M. D.; Secretary and Treasurer, A. F. Dod, 
257 Main St. 

New Jersey Microscopical Society, New Brunswick, N. J. Organized 
1871. Meets second Monday evening of month at Rutgers College. 
President, Prof. F. C. Van Dyck; Rec. Secretary, Rev. Samuel Lock- 
wood, Ph. D., Freehold, Monmouth Co., N. J 

Providence Franklin Society, Providence, R. I.; Microscopical De- 
partment. Organized 1874. Meets every second Wednesday evening 
at rooms in North Main St. President, Prof. Eli. W. Blake, Jr.; Vice- 
President, A. O. Tilden; Secretary, Prof. John Peirce; Treasurer, C. B. 
Johnson, M. D. ; Librarian, N. N. Mason. 

San Francisco Microscopical Society, San Francisco, Cal. Organized 
1872. Meets first and third Thursdays of month at 531 Cal. St.; Presi- 
dent, Prof. William Ashburner ; Vice-President, Henry C. Hyde; Rec. 
Secretary, C. Mason Kinne, 422 Cal. St.; Cor. Secretary, Charles W. 
Banks ; Treasurer, Charles G. Ewing. 

Society of Natural Sciences, Buffalo, N. Y.; Microscopical Section. 
Organized 1872. Curator, Henry Mills, 162 Fargo Ave. 

State Microscopical Society of Illinois, Chicago, Ill. Organized 1869. 
Meets second and fourth Fridays of month, at the Academy of Sciences. 
President, Henry W. Fuller; Secretary, B. W. Thomas; Cor. Secre- 
tary, Charles Adams ; Treasurer, Geo. M. Higginson. : 

tate Microscopical Society of Michigan, Kalamazoo, Mich. Presi- 
dent, Rev. Dr. Foster. 

Troy Scientific Association, Troy, N. Y.; Microscopical Section. Or- 
ganized 1870. Meets first Monday evening of month, except July and 
August, at residences of members. President, R. H. Ward, M. D.; 
Vice-President, Rev. A. B. Hervey ; Secretary, Prof. Arthur W. Bower. 

Tyndall Association, Columbus, Ohio; Microscopical Section. Or- 
ganized 1874. Meets first and third Saturday evenings of month. Pres- 
ident, Rey. I. F, Stidham ; Secretary, C. Howard; Curator, M. Hensel. 

Tue Lesuwennorx Mepat.—The first award under the provision 
made at the two hundredth anniversary of the discovery of infusoria by 
Leeuwenhoek, for bestowing a medal in his honor upon distinguished 
mictoscopists, has been received by the oldest European candidate, Pro- 
essor Ehrenberg, of Berlin. 

NEw ADJUSTMENT ror Cox’s Turn-Tasie.— A slide may be, by 
this turn-table, centred for width only, by laying it on the table at right 
angles to the line of the spindle and placing triangles of brass, or even 
cardboard, between it and the clutches which are designed to hold the 
Corners of the slide. When thus arranged the slide may be slipped so 


312 Scientific News. [May, 


as to bring different parts of its median line successively to the centre of 
the apparatus, and thus a series of cells may be made upon the same 
slide, or any desired group of cells may be made by using a variety of 
unequal triangles. For common use the two triangles should be exactly 
alike, should be right-angled, and should have the sides adjoining the 
right angle one inch in length. Such pieces may be cut from sheet brass 
about the thickness of anordinary glass object slide. These triangles 
may also be used, with the addition of a few cardboard blocks, for the 
purpose of decentring, in refinishing old slides that have not been ac- 
curately centred. 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— In the Seventh Annual Report of the American Museum of Natu- 
ral History it is stated that the trustees have purchased Professor Hall’s 
paleontological collection for $65,000, and Mr. Squier’s rare collection 
of antiquities from South and Central America-; $200,000 have been 
appropriated by the New York legislature for furnishing the magnificent 
new museum building on Manhattan Square. The number of visitors to 
the museum, still remaining in the old arsenal, averages 13,577 a week, 
the weekly average of visitors to the entire British Museum, embracing 
all the exhibition halls, being 11,574 in 1874. 

— The Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Sur- 
vey of the Territories, vol. ii. No. 1, contains A Notice of the Ancient 
Remains of Southwestern Colorado, examined during the Summer of 
1875, by W. H. Holmes; A Notice of the Ancient Ruins in Arizona 
and Utah lying about the Rio San Juan, by W. H. Jackson ; The Hu- 
man Remains found near the Ancient Ruins of Southwestern Colorado 
and New Mexico, by Dr. Emil Bessels. 

— Mr. Grote’s Check-List of the Owlet Moths or Noctuide of Atao: 
ica, Part I, Bombyciæ and Noctuelite (Buffalo, N. Y., pp- 28), ag 
very useful catalogue. It is accompanied by a photograph illustrating 
several new species, : 

— From The Round Table and Beloit Monthly we learn that a bill 
has been passed by the legislature of Wisconsin appropriating $25,000 
for printing the geological reports made during the past three years by 
he late Dr. Lapham and others, as well as those that shall be prepar ed 
by Professor Chamberlain, who has been appointed to complete the work. 
The New York Nation states that $10,000 has been appropriated by 8 
same legislature for the purchase for the university of Dr. Lap T 
collections and library. - It also is to print for the Wisconsin Academy 
of Sciences a volume of transactions in alternate years. 3 

— Professor Angelin, a Swedish geologist and palæontologist, disa 
Stockholm on the 13th of February, aged seventy. ' 

— Prof. F. V. Hayden has been elected a member of the Imperial 
Society of Naturalists of Moscow. ; 


at 


1876.] Scientific News. 813 


— A course of summer instruction will be given at Bowdoin College, 
Brunswick, Maine, in chemistry and mineralogy by Professor Car- 
michael and Mr. Robinson, while botany will be taught by Mr. F. L. 
Scribner. The Normal School of Natural History will hold a second 
session at Normal, Illinois, Professors Gastman and Forbes are the 
directors. 

— The government of India is making arrangements for an archzo- 
logical survey of the whole country. 

— Dr. A. B. Hoyt writes us from Grafton, N. H., that he saw a bull- 
frog nearly swallow a common striped snake about one foot long. At 
one time not more than five inches of the snake was out of the frog’s 
mouth. > 

— Baron von Nolken, of Riga, Russia, has gone with an assistant to 
Bogota for the purpose of collecting and observing insects. The micro- 
lepidoptera that he collected there on. his previous journey have been 
described. by Professor Zeller, and the work will be published by the 
Entomological Society of Russia. 

— Professor Alpheus Hyatt is now engaged in monographing dis- 
eine forms of fresh-water shells from the famous Tertiary locality of 
Steinheim, and desires to make comparisons with living or fossil shells 
trom other localities. He has already obtained shells in which the nor- 
saia Was more or less distorted or unwound, from two other locali- 
# » Dut wishes to obtain more extensive information, and offers in ex- 

ange suits of Steinheim shells, Valvata or Planorbis multiformis, with 
oo g sixteen distinct varieties. Distorted forms have been here- 
En ERR ‘ found in perfectly still, inclosed basins of limited extent 
aadi a, Information with regard to similar localities is also 
ara dress Society of Natural History, corner of Berkeley and 

streets, Boston, Mass 
S 


William, — e the old Hudson Bay Company’s Post, Fort 
Prof Wing se meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
referring agg verett read a paragraph from Æschylus’ Prometheus 
Greeks of e thought, to the river Zambesi, and showing that the 
5 Period before that of Herodotus had a more intimate 

raara x nterior of Africa than they have had the credit for. 
as studied the development of the annelid worm, Fabricia, 


¢ 


314 Scientific News. [May, 


one of the family Sabellide, and finds that it passes through a true “ gas- 
trula” condition. This is the first time that this stage of development 
has been traced in the higher worms. In studying these embryos he 
used carmine and hematoxylin as staining agents, the embryo being 
rendered transparent by glycerine. - 

— Prof. E. Ray Lankester, in his abstract of Haeckel’s article on the 
Gastrea theory, actually includes the Ascidians in the Vertebrates, adding 
in a foot-note that “ Professor Haeckel is not responsible for the classifi- 
cation here adopted of the Tunicata under the great group of Verte- 
brata.” 

— To elicit facts as to the migration of birds, Forest and Stream pro- 
poses to each one of its readers the plan of noting down, in reference to 
the birds of his district, observations upon some or all of the following 


ints : — 

(1.) Whether each species is resident throughout the year, is a sum- 
mer or winter visitor, or only passes through in spring and fall. 

(2.) With reference to each species in his locality, whether it is 
“abundant,” “ somewhat common,” or “ rare.” 

(3.) What species breed, and whether more than once in a season. 

(4.) Dates of arrival, greatest abundance, nest-building, laying €88% 
hatching of young, and beginning of departure of each species, and when 
it is last seen in the fall. 

(5.) What effect, if any, upon the relative} abundance of particular 
birds, in retarding their arrival or hastening their departure, sudden 
changes of the weather, storms, and “ late” and “early ” seasons appear 
to have. ; 

(6.) Similar notes upon the appearance and movements of the quad- 
rupeds, reptiles, and fishes of the region; and upon the times of flower- 
ing of trees and plants. 

(7.) Other occurrences considered noteworthy. 

Among the birds most likely to be reported upon, and which are the 


best exponents of the laws of migration, are the following, and to them 


especial attention is asked: cat-bird, blue-bird, summer yellow-bird pr 
yellow warbler, golden-crowned thrush, redstart, barn swallow, goldfinch 
or thistle-bird, song sparrow, chewink or towhee-finch, bobolink, red- 
winged blackbird, meadow lark, Baltimore oriole or hang-nest, phæbe- 
bird or bridge pewee, chimney swift or swallow, kingfisher, red-headed 
woodpecker, woodcock, killdeer plover, Wilson’s snipe, white 
wood duck, wild geese. ao 

If every naturalist or beginner in science would commence this spring 
to record such facts as these, it would induce him to observe much more 
closely and systematically than he might otherwise. 

— It may interest our botanical readers to learn that Mr. A. w. 
nett, of London, has been for some time engaged on a tran 
Thomé’s Lehrbuch der Botanik. It will be published in the course 
present year by Messrs. Longmans, with all the original illustrations: 


. 


Sen f ERN uii TAES 
LO a A in Ane pee ar E NANE a e CaA Po IE ELEN, 


BE e 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 315 


PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 


Naturat History Soctery, Montreal. — February 28th. A paper 
on the Nipigon or copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior, with notes on 
copper mining in that region, was read by Mr. J. W. Spencer. 

Principal Dawson called the attention of the members present to an 
interesting collection of ferns and other fossil plants which had been re- 
cently obtained by Mr. Albert J. Hill from near Sydney, Cape Breton, 
some of which were exhibited. He said that they were of interest as show- 
ing the occurrence of forms hitherto known only in the middle and upper 
coal formations, in beds assigned, on stratigraphical evidence, to the upper 
part of the Millstone-Grit. ey were also of interest from the pres- 
ence of at least four species of ferns showing fructification, which would 
shortly be described. They were further of interest as occurring in the 
same beds with the remains of a fossil larva of a dragon-fly, which will 
be described by Mr. Scudder in the next number of the Canadian Nat- 
uralist, and which is the first insect of that family found in the Carbon- 
iferous rocks. 

ACADEMY OF Sciences, St. Louis. — March 6th. Professor Conant, 
who had lately visited Southwest Missouri and examined certain curious 
mounds there, situated some miles from New Madrid, gave a brief ac- 
count of his trip. One curious discovery made was that while the skulls 
taken from the centre of these mounds were the true mound-builder 
skulls, two were found in the edge of one of the mounds that belonged 
to a very different race. The exceedingly low, retreating forehead indi- 
cated a much lower grade of organism, yet the remains had been buried 
after the mound-builder fashion, with a jug on each side of the head. 

March 20th. Professor Potter reported that Dr. G. I. Engelmann and 
himself had visited the New Madrid mound region, and opened four 
mounds, securing ten or twelve skulls and about one hundred specimens 
of potter 

G. C. Broadhead read a paper on the Porphyritic Rocks of Southeast- 
ern Missouri, presenting evidence that these rocks are Huronian. 

- J. Conant read a paper on the Mounds of New Madrid. The 
burial-mound examined by him was found within an inclosure of about 
fifty acres, which is surrounded by earthen walls. Probably a thousand 
skeletons have been already found. Three pieces of pottery are usually 
found with each skeleton. Some vessel were more than a foot in 
diameter, with walls so thin that they could not have been safely moved 
. When filled with water. It was observed that some skeletons were in a 
much better state of preservation than others. In some cases the out- 
line of the skull was shown only by a thin white line; in others the 
usual pieces of pottery were found, but all traces of the skeleton had 
disappeared. Mr. Conant thought this an evidence that the mounds had 
long been a place of burial, 


316 Proceedings of Societies. . [May. 


Dr. Engelmann remarked that the preservation of bones depends 
upon humidity and the character of the soil. Many bones undoubtedly 
older than the bones of these mound-builders are found ina state of 
good preservation. 

Dr. Engelmann made a communication on North American Oaks. 
The genus Quercus is more extensively developed in America than 
in any other part of the world. In the Carolinas, oaks grow as small 
shrubs. The leaves of different oaks show great variation, some re- 
sembling the leaves of the willow, others those of the holly, etc., but 
the fruit is very much the same in all. The typical and probably the 
primitive oak of the tertiary had an acorn and a lobed leaf. An oa 
found in California has flower and leaves like a chestnut, but bears 
acorns like an oak. The cup of the acorn, however, is spiny like the 
burr of the chestnut. Dr. Engelmann remarked that this oak may bea 
hybrid produced between the chestnut and the oak in bygone times when 
these genera were less differentiated, as it is well known that even now 
hybrid oaks will propagate when removed from the “ struggle for exist- 
euce” against more hardy rivals. 

ACADEMY OF Sciences, New York. — March 13th. The following 
papers were read: Further Researches on Phosphide of Silver, by Wm. 
Falke; A new Test for Boracic Acid, and other Qualitative Reactions, 
by M. W. Iles; Comparison of the Milk of the African Race with that 
of the Caucasian, by Henry A. Mott, Jr.; Milk and the Lactometer, by 
Elwyn Waller. 

Geological Section. March 20th. Mr. S. W. Ford presented an pa 
count of the discovery of additional species of fossils in the primordial 
rocks of Lansingburgh, N. Y., and of plant-remains in the primordial 
slates at Troy, and described a new species of Microdiscus from the 
latter locality, for which he has proposed the name, M. Meeki. He also 
exhibited specimens of the hitherto imperfectly known pygidium of 
Conocephalites (Atops) trilineatus, from Lansingburgh. In conclusion 
he made some remarks upon the probable stratigraphical horizon of the 
Troy beds among primordial rocks, stating that the fauna of these beds, 
while entirely distinct in its species from that of the Acadian or Mene- 
vian group on the one hand, and from that of the ordinary Potsdam on 
the other, yet shows a decided leaning, in its genera, toward the former 
of these groups. 

The president, Prof. J. S. Newberry, gave a résumé of his observa- 
tions on the geology of the oil regions of the United States, — all 0 
which he had visited, —and the results of his study of the facts which 
seem to illustrate the genesis of petroleum. ae 

Very briefly stated, his theory of the origin of petroleum is that it » 
one of the evolved products of a spontaneous decomposition of organie 
tissue, chiefly vegetable, which begins as soon as life ceases, and ends 
only with the oxidation of all the contained carbon and hydrogen. When 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 317 


exposed in moist air vegetable tissue rapidly oxidizes in decay; when 
buried under water or in earth the process is retarded, and the constitu- 
ents react on each other, forming carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, water, 
carburetted hydrogen, petroleum, etc., which escape, leaving peat, lignite, 
coal, anthracite, and graphite as residues in different stages of this pro- 
gressive change. Petroleum and marsh gas are constantly escaping from 
all considerable carbonaceous strata, and especially from bituminous shale, 
beds of which underlie all our productive oil regions, and are the sources 
of the oil and of the gas with which it is always associated. 

The carbonaceous shales of the Lower Silurian system supply the 
petroleum of Burkesville, Kentucky, and Collingwood and probably En- 
niskillen, Canada. The petroleum of Western Pennsylvania is derived 
from the Devonian black shales (“ Cadent” of Pennsylvania, “ Huron ” 
of Ohio), which have a thickness of several hundred feet, and underlie 
all the oil region. When escaping from them the oil and gas rise into a 
series of overlying sandstones and conglomerates, which serve as reser- 
voirs, and are confined there by sheets of nearly impervious clay shale 

The oil wells of West Virginia are bored in the coal measures, but in 
a much disturbed region, and the oil probably comes from the Huron 
shale. The oil of Mecca and Grafton, Ohio, is Lower Carboniferous. It 
is found in the Berea grit, but originates in a black shale (Cleveland 
shale) which underlies it. 

PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY or Wasuineton. — March 11th. Dr. 
Woodward continued his observations on Frustularia Saxonica, showing, 
by means of illustrations thrown upon a screen, the misapprehensions into 
which some continental microscopists had been led by mistaking for this 
Species another diatom, Navicula rhomboides. 

March 25th. Mr. Gilbert gave an aceount of lake formations, showing 
the various means by which lakes are produced, and, among others, one 
which had frequently been in his opinion mistaken for, glacial action. 

In cliffs of which the upper portion is subject to easy vertical cleavage, 
large masses are frequently detached, falling into adjacent valleys, dam- 
Ming up streams and forming lakes in this way with a mass of detritus 
Which had been, or was liable to be, mistaken for the material deposited 
by a terminal moraine. These views were corroborated by Major Pow- 
ell, who mentioned several instances of such lake formations. 

Professor Mason then addressed the society on an international sys- 
tem of archzological symbols. . 

Acapemy or NATURAL Scrences, Philadelphia. — March 14th. 

r. Meehan spoke of the mode of propagation of the Florida moss or 
Tillaudsia, Since he had before spoken on the subject he had had oppor- 
tunities of observing that where the seeds germinate they do so on the 
under side of the branches, and where the bark is smooth rather than 
rough, thus indicating the presence of some adhesive matter on the seed. 

Professor Cope called attention to a cetacean which he had observed 


318 Proceedings of Societies. 


and described ten years ago. He had recently had an opportunity of 
examining an entire skeleton. It belongs to the black fish, but differs 
specifically from its nearest ally, and seems to be almost intermediate be- 
tween the genera Globiocephalus and Grampus. The anatomical charac- 
ters separating these were given, and the name Globiocephalus brachyp- 
terus was proposed for the species. 


Professor Frazer spoke of a peculiar trap from York County. Dr.. 


Koenig, having been engaged upon the investigation of the minerals oc- 
curring at Magnet Cove, Arkansas, gave a preliminary notice of some of 
his results. 

Mr. B. Waterhouse Hawkins, having stated that he was at present em- 
ployed in rebuilding the skeleton of Hadrosaurus in the museum, Te- 
viewed the subject of the position of the so-called clavicles, referring 
specially to the opinions of Professors Leidy, Huxley, and Cope. He 
reminded the members that in 1868, when studying the remains con- 
tained in the museum, he had adopted the opinion first advanced by 
Dr. Leidy, and assigned the bones in question to the pelvic arch. Pro- 
fessor Cope, in 1867, had published his opinion that they were pubes, 
but had afterwards assigned them to the position of ischia, thus indors- 
ing the view advanced by Professor Huxley. Mr. Hawkins had already 
on at least one occasion demonstrated before the Academy that this opin- 
ion of Cope and Huxley was not supported by the necessities of the 
creature’s organization, and had advanced the opinion in 1879, and pre- 
viously, that the bones in question were really pubes, having the long 
section so placed as to support the abdominal walls, as in the crocodile 
and marsupials. Attention was called to the fact that corresponding 
bones had recently been placed by Owen in his description of Omosaurus 
as pubes, thus establishing the correctness of the position taken by Mr. 
Hawkins, with regard to them in Hadrosaurus, as far back as 1868, and 
steadily adhered to by him in spite of the authority of the eminent natu- 
ralists who up to the present time held a contrary opinion. Professor 
Cope complimented Mr. Hawkins on the results established by One 
description of Omosaurus, and further referred to the position of the bones 
under consideration. 

A paper was presented for publication entitled On Pachnolite and 
Thomsenolite, by George Augustus Koenig, M. D. 

Troy SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. — March 6th. Microscopical se 
tion. The fructification of Alge was discussed, and illustrated by 
slides contributed by the members. Dr. J. J. Woodward’s photographs 
of the spurious lines of Frustulia Saxonica were presented by Dr. R. at 


ard. 
March 20th. General meeting. Rev. A. B. Hervey delivered an ad- 
dress on the classification of sea-weeds. 
Boston Society or Naturat History. — March Ist. Mr. Alex- 
ander Agassiz remarked on the affinities of starfishes, and Dr. Hage? 
read a paper on The Danger from White Ants to New England. 


r aa OE Sm Baste DS Ao 


1876.] Seientifie Serials. 319 


APPALACHIAN Mountain Crus, Boston. — March 8th. Papers 
were read on the following subjects: The Atlantic System of Mountains, 
hy Prof. C. H. Hitchcock. Illustrated by a new Model of the White 
Mountains. A Day on Tripyramid, by Prof. Charles E. Fay. Two 
New Forms of Mountain Barometer, by Mr. A. B. Emmons. Exhibi- 
tion of Mountain Profiles, by Mr. G. F. Morse. - 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.! 


ANNALS AND MAGAZINE or NATURAL History. — February. On 
Mr. Carter’s Objections to Eozoon, by J. W. Dawson. Dr. R. Willemoes- 
Suhm on the Development of Lepas fascicularis and the “ Archizoéa” of 
Cirripedia, and on the Development of some Pelagic Decapods. March. 
On the Polytremata (Foraminifera), especially with Reference to their 
Mythical Hybrid Nature, by H. J. Carter. On the Budding of the 
Cuninz in the Stomach of the Geryonide, by B. Uljanin. Evidence of 
a Carnivorous Reptile about the Size of a Lion, by R. Owen. On the 
Relations of Artemia salina and Artemia Mihlhausenii,and on the genus 
Branchipus by M. W. J. Schmankewitsch. 

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR WISSENSCHAFTLICH ZOOLOGIE. — December 22, 
1875. On the Structure and Development of Sycandra raphanus, by 
F. E. Schultze. On the Sexual Organs of Branchipus Grubii, by H. 
Nitsche. On the Transformation of the Mexican Axolotl into an Ambly- 
stoma, by A. Weismann. On the Systematic Position of Vortex Lemani, 
by L. Graff. Contribution to the Knowledge of the Bryozoa, by H. 
Nitsche, January 17,1876. The Developmental History of Proteus an- 
guineus, by F, E. Schultze. Notes on the Developmental History of the 

ajadæ, by W. Flemming. On the Anatomy of Crinoids, by H. Ludwig. 

PrTERMANN’s GEOGRAPHISCHER MITTHEILUNGEN. — December 15, 
1875, The Mongols and the Land of the Tanguts. Steamer-Commu- 
nication between Brazil and Columbia, by R. Reyes. On the History of 
Discovery of the Western Coast of Australia. Stanley’s Researches on 
the Victoria N yanza (continuation). f 

SYCHE. — February. Odoriferous Glands in Phasmidæ, by S. H. 
Scudder. 

GLosus. — Nos, 6-9 contain Rebatel and Tirant’s Journey in Tunis 
(with excellent illustrations). 

Tue GEOGRAPHICAL MaGazine. — March. Cameron’s Route from 
Lake Tanganyika to the West Coast of Africa, by E. G. Ravenstein. 
The Irrigation of Firozpur, by C. R. Markham. The World’s Future 

| Depot, by D. Ker. The Voyage of the Challenger, by J. G. Davis. 
April. The Russian Campaign in Khokand, by A. Vambery. Peru, 


1 The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part selected. 


320 Scientific Serials. 
by C. R. Markham. The Island of Palawan, by C. Pascoe. Easter 
Island Tablets. 

Tur GEOLOGICAL MaGazine.— March. Subaerial Denudation ver- 
sus Glacial Erosion, by W. Gunn. On the Classification and Nomen- 
clature of Rocks, by G. H. Kinahan. Sketch of the Geology of Ice and 
Bell Sounds, Spitzbergen, by A. E. Nordenskiöld. (Part iii.) April. 
A Comparison between the Oldest Fossiliferous Rocks of North Eu- 
rope, by G. Linnarsson. The Probable Conditions under which the 
De sa Rocks were deposited in the Northern Hemisphere, by H. 

icks. 


QUARTERLY JOURNAL or MICROSCOPICAL Science. — April. Obser- 
vations on the Early Development of the Common Trout, by E. Klein. 
Recent Researches on the Nuclei of Animal and Vegetable Cells, and 
especially of Ova, by J. Priestley. Contributions to the History of the 
Germinal Vesicle, and of the first Embryonic Nucleus, by E. van Bene- 
den. new Process for examining the Structure of the Brain, by H. 
R. O. Sankey. On the Development of the Ova and Structure of the 
Ovary in Man and other Mammalia, by J. Foulis. On the genus As- 
trorhiza of Sandahl, lately described as Heæckelina by Dr. Bessels, by 
W. B. Carpenter. 

MontHLY MICROSCOPICAL JouRrNaL. — March. Mr. Sorby’s Ad- 
dress as President of the Royal Microscopical Society. Further Notes 
on Frustulia Saxonica, by W. J. Hickie. On Staining and Mounting 
Wood Sections, by M. H. Stiles. On the Characters of Spherical and 
Chromatic Aberration arising from Excentrical Refraction, and their 
Relations tò Chromatic Dispersion, by Dr. Royston-Pigott. 

AMERICAN JOURNAL of Scrence anp Arts. — April. Review of 
Croll’s Climate and Time, with especial Reference to the Physical Theo- 
ries of Climate maintained therein, by Simon Newcomb. Principal 
Characters of the Brontotheride, by O. C. Marsh. 


ANNALES DES SCIENCES NATURELLES. — December 31, 1875. Re- E 


cherches sur les Organes génitaux mâles des Crustacés décapodes; pe 
M. Brocchi. Nouveaux Documents sur PÉpoque de Disposition de la 
Faune ancienne de PIsle Rodrigue, par Alph. Milne-Edwards. esse 
quelques Applications de Embryologie à la Classification méthodique 
des Animaux, par G. Moquin-Tandon. 


[May. 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. x.— JUNE, 1876. — No. ¢. 


IO AND ITS HABITS. 
BY DR. JAMES LEWIS. 


R a mountainous region comprising adjoining portions of the 

States of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky 
arise numerous small streams which unite to form the principal 
rivers which are the head-waters of the Tennessee River. All 
these streams, not excepting the upper portions of the Tennessee 
River itself, have in a greater or less degree the characters of 
mountain torrents, which in reality they seem to be on a very 
grand scale. The streams have very usually a rapid descent, and 
are in many places broken by shoals and rapids, the beds of the 
Streams being usually coarse gravel or rock ; there are seldom to be 
found stretches of placid water, and accordingly, as might well be 
conjectured, the fauna of the region, so far at least as relates to 
tesh-water mollusks, is somewhat peculiar. In the gravelly por- 
tions of some of the streams abound numerous species of Unio; on 

ts and shoals are found immense numbers of operculate univalve 
mollusks, and in the rapids, especially in rocky portions of the 
Principal rivers, are found the beautiful and interesting shells of 
Species of Io, which are the largest and most attractive univalves 
of the family to which they belong. The earliest account we have 
of this group of shells may be found in the Journal of the Academy 
of Natural Sciences, November, 1825, in which Mr. Say described 
* Species: found in the North Fork of the Holston River in Vir- 
ginia, calling it Fusus Jluvialis. From that time until quite re- 
cently, additional species have from time to time been published, 
all of them being referred to the Holston River or more vaguely 
to “ Tennessee,” Even so late as 1873, there was only a single 
record Showing that Io had been found in any stream other than 
the Holston River. The record here alluded to occurs in the 
merican Journal of Conchology, vi. 223, and bears date October 


gg 


Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, JR. 1876. 


322 Io and its Habits. [June, 


24,1870. If there were any persons aware of the occurrence of 
Io in streams other than the Holston River prior to that date, 
they probably had reasons for not publishing the fact. Since the 
date quoted, however, it has been ascertained that the distribution 
of Io extends to several streams in East Tennessee, rendering it 
quite probable that future explorations may lead to its detection 
in the southern part of Eastern Kentucky, and in the northern 
part of Western North Carolina. At the present time Io is known 
to occur in the following streams: North Fork of the Holston in 
Western Virginia; in the Holston River in East Tennessee; in 
the Tennessee River as far south as Bridgeport, Alabama; in the 
Nolachucky and French Broad rivers in Jefferson County, Tenn. 3 
in the Clinch River at Black’s Ford, Anderson County, Tenn., 
and at Williams’ Ford in Roane County, Tenn.; and in Powell’s 
River at Kraushorn’s Ferry, near the State of Kentucky. 

Observers who have made any records of the habits of To agree 
in stating that the shells are found only in swift water, though 
there appear to be discrepancies as to the abundance of speci- 
mens, which may indicate that some localities are more favorable 
for them than others. It must be inferred that Io, living in 
streams the currents of which are very rapid, is specially organized, 
and adapted to the situations in which it is found. Such, indeed, 
seems really to be the case ; for a lady who collected specimens 
in some of the rivers of Tennessee wrote of them as follows: 
** The muscular power of Jo is astonishing. I frequently find one 
adhering to a rock half as large as"my head, and when I take up 
the shell it brings the rock with it, and requires much force to 
` separate it.” 

It is somewhat strange that shells of so much beauty as Aom 
of the species.of Io display are scarcely known to the inhabitants 
dwelling in the neighborhood of the streams in which they occu; 

et it seems, from records made of the contents of ancient buri: 
places, that they were known to the people who inhabited the 
country prior to the advent of European races. Mr. Lea, writing 
upon this subject,2 makes the following suggestive remark, which © 
conveys a great deal in a few words: “ Professor Troost informs 
me they [Ios] are rare in the river [Holston]; that they had 
been observed in the graves of the aborigines; and as it was 8°” 
erally believed that these were ‘conch shells,’ consequently co 
ing from the sea, it was urged that the inhabitants who poss? 


1 American Journal of Conchology, vi. 223. 
2 Observations, ete., i, 224. 


1876.] To and its Habits. 323 


them must have come over the sea. It does not appear that 
they [Ios] had been observed in their native element, though liv- 
ing at the very doors of the persons who had remarked them in 
the tumuli.” The impression that Io is a “ sea-shell ” is one that 
strikes most ordinary observers at first sight, as every collector 
who has them can testify. 

Quite a considerable number of species of Io may be found 
described and figured in various works treating on the shells of 
North America, and there is considerable diversity exhibited in 
their forms, sizes, colors, and markings. There seems to be con- 
siderable difference of opinion among persons who have studied 
these shells, as regards the number of species. There are some 
individuals who with apparent good reason believe that there is 
really only one species of typical Io, to which all the forms are 
subordinate as varieties; while on the other hand we shall find 
others who for reasons quite as good insist that there are five or 
more “ good species.” The shells, taken by themselves, without 
regard to any facts relating to their habits, do not afford conelu- 
sive testimony as to species, as it is exceedingly difficult to isolate 
forms that cannot be made part of a continuous series when large 
numbers of shells are placed together. There are, however, some 
facts connected with geographical distribution and the association 
of varied forms, which seem to indicate conclusively that there 
are certainly two species; and, this being admitted, the logical 
inference might be, under all the circumstances which remain un- 
Considered, that there are more than two species. This, however, 
18 a question which remains to be investigated. The facts upon 
Which two Species are inferred are the following. At Black’s 
Ford, Clinch River, Anderson County, Tenn., two forms of Io con- 
stitute very nearly all that are found at that particular locality, 
and these two forms occur there in about equal numbers, and 
there are not associated with them any intermediate forms uniting 
the extremes. Thirty or forty miles down the river (following 
its winding course), at Williams’ Ford in Roane County, these 
Same two forms reappear, but their relative numbers have changed. 
At this point the form which seems to be identical with a shell 
figured by Reeve as Jo turrita (not Mr. Anthony’s species of that 
name, by any means) is the shell occurring in fewest numbers, 
while the prevailing form is a graceful, slender variety of the shell 
that Mr. Lea calls spinosa. The change in the relative abundance 
= two forms by a change of station seems to afford evidence rela- 

e to species. In following out the train of ideas which this 


324 Io and its Habits. [June, 


suggests, it is perhaps appropriate in this connection to glance at 
the subject of geographical distribution as it relates to other 
forms, and suggest some of the conditions that seem to be corre- 
lated to the diverse forms. A little reflection will satisfy the 
most casual observer that the conditions under which Io is found 
are subject to variations of no small magnitude. First to be con- 
sidered is the climatic condition, affected by the combined influ- 
ences of latitude and elevation, conspiring in the northern limit of 
the region inhabited by Io to produce a lower mean annual tem- | 
perature than may be inferred at the southern limit. There may 
be in all a difference of four or five degrees of latitude, and possi- 
bly from two hundred to four hundred feet difference in eleva- 
tion. In the northern portion of the area inhabited by Io are 
found those forms destitute of spines, associated with others in 
which the spines are only rudimentary or reduced to mere tuber- 
cles. To the southward, the smooth forms diminish in numbers, 
and disappear entirely before the central latitude of Tennessee 
is reached, and as a warmer climate is approached the develop- 
ment of the spines becomes more and more luxuriant. This is 
true of the Holston River in Virginia and Tennessee, and recent 
observations have detected a similar state of facts in the Clinch 
River and its tributary, Powell’s River. Besides the influences 
of climate dependent on latitude and elevation, it may be con- 
jectured that there are other influences affecting Io, some of them 
in a considerable degree depending on the mineral properties of 
the water due to the variable qualities of rock and soil among the 
mountains of that region. In evidence of this may be suggested 
the differences in size and appearance of shells from different 
streams. 


. 


whole surface, occur in French Broad River. The most slender 
and graceful forms are found in Clinch River. The smallest adult 
forms occur in Powell’s River, where there are also other pecut- 
iarities observable that contrast curiously with what is know? of 
Io elsewhere. The tubercular and spinous forms of Powell’s River 
exhibit their characteristics (spines and tubercles) in a more mi 
. dimentary form than those found else where, and on averaging sir 4 
specimens it will be observed that they appear to have one se 3 
less, and more spines or tubercles on each whorl, than is observa of 
in the more luxuriant forms of other localities. How mu", 
all the differences in forms here suggested is ascribable to species: 


1876] 


To and its Habits. 325 


is not at this time a subject of inquiry. In color, the shells of 
French Broad River are remarkable for green tints in the epi- 


dermis. In the Holston River the tints are somewhat ferruginous, 


but not to the same extent observable in the shells of Powell’s 
River ; while in Clinch River the epidermis is often of a bright 
yellow or orange, varied by livid tints which are partaken of by 
many other univalve mollusks inhabiting that stream. 

The reader may possibly have felt, in reading a portion of this 
paper, some curiosity to know why Io occurs only in the upper 
waters of the Tennessee system of drainage. In the introductory 
paragraph of this paper it was stated that “ all these streams, not 
excepting the upper portions of the Tennessee River itself, have 
in a greater or less degree the characters of mountain torrents, 
which in reality they seem to be on a very grand scale.” m 
what we now know of Io we may infer that it cannot exist in 
placid rivers, and the limit of its distribution south in the Tennes- 
see River depends on the character of the river. At the point 
where the Tennessee begins to be a majestic, placid stream, there 
To ceases to extend its domain. This very simple inference is a 
key to the solution of other problems relating to the geographical 
distribution of allied forms in the same great family of mollusks. 
Very many of the univalve mollusks of the Tennessee drainage 
abound in swift shoal water, among rocks over which the water 
flows in broken torrents, and nowhere among still waters. The 
Tennessee River at Mussel Shoals is very prolific in various 
forms of mollusk life which delight in a rapid current ; but below 
that point, in the navigable portions of the stream, very many of 
these interesting species disappear, because the conditions are no 
longer favorable to their existence. i 

Thus far, in the main, only the typical To has been considered. 
There is another group of shells very nearly allied to Io, known 
by the generic designation Angitrema. Mr. Reeve regarded these 
shells as properly belonging in the genus Io; but his views do not 
Seem to have met with much favor by writers on American 
conchology on this side of the Atlantic. Notwithstanding this 
evident difference in opinion, there is much reason for believing 
that Mr. Reeve’s position is a good one, for some of the species of 
Angitrema are apparently related to Elk River, the Cumberland 
River, and some of its tributaries, as Io is to the head-waters of 
the Tennessee River. Indeed, it appears to be true that near the 
Point where To begins to disappear in the Tennessee River in 
Alabama, some of the forms of Angitrema replace it. The ques- 


326 Mathematical Nature of Phyllotazis. [June, 


tion of the relative geographical distribution of Io and Angitrema, 
taken in connection with obvious resemblances in the shells de- 
tected by Mr. Reeve, seem to, favor the-suggestion that Angi- 
trema is but a minor phase of Io. In habits the animals, so far 
as is known, are somewhat similar to each other, with this differ- 
ence, that Angitrema is fitted to dwell in more quiet waters than 
the necessities of Io require. 

Taken in another aspect, the inquiry why Io should be confined 
apparently to the head-waters of the Tennessee River can be an- 
` swered (in the proverbial Yankee style) by offsetting the inquiry 
why a curious group of shells with a fissured lip should be found 
only in the Coosa River in Alabama. This, like much more that 
might be made the subject of inquiry, is a part of the unwritten 
history of Io that remains to be investigated. 

The reader who may desire to refer to a summary of what has 
been written on species of Io will find such information as is 
available for the purposes of a naturalist in a work entitled Strep- 
omatide, by G. W. Tryon, Jr., Smithsonian Miscellaneous Col- 
lections, No. 253, 


ee 


A POPULAR EXPLANATION (FOR THOSE WHO UNDER- 
STAND BOTANY) OF THE MATHEMATICAL NATURE 
OF PHYLLOTAXIS. 


BY THE LATE CHAUNCY WRIGHT.? 


TAKS, by the finger and thumb of your right hand, hold of a 
spike of Plantago major, Lepidium Virginicum, or other 
flower-cluster with symmetrically crowded flowers, and with the 
finger and thumb of the left hand grasp it a little higher up, 8° 
as to include between the two hands a dozen or twenty buds on 
a piece of stem about equally tough from end to end. Twist the 
stem, and if it twists equally in all parts you will bring your 
buds into a small number of ranks, let us say 8. By twisting 4 
little in the opposite direction you will get them into 5 ranks. 
Twist harder, and if your stem is tough enough to stand the 
twist you will bring them into two ranks. Turn back to 8 rows, 
and twist harder in that direction ; you will fetch your buds into 
3 rows. Then twist still harder in that direction, and if you have 
an old, tough, plaintain spike, you may get the seed-vessels all 
into one row before your stalk is twisted off. 

1 This article was prepared by Mr. Wright several years ago, at Professor Gray's 
suggestion, In its manuscript form it has been found of much interest and value to 


the botanical students in Harvard College. It is here reprinted without change from 
Mr. Wright’s notes. 


1876.] Mathematical Nature of Phyllotazis. 327 


Thus by mechanical twisting, if the twist is equal in all parts 
of the stem, we get on one side of the natural position the num- 
ber of rows 5 and 2, and on the other side 8, 3,and 1. Hence if 
we begin with the most twisted position and come toward the 
natural position, we get the numbers 

On one side . : Here 2 5 i 
On the other : : ` i g: ng: 

Now these series of numbers indicate the approach towards the 
untwisted position. What would be the number of ranks in that 
theoretically perfect untwisted state? As both these series of 
numbers are increasing, that is, the number of ranks decreases as 
you twist either way, you may infer that in the untwisted state 
the number of ranks is prodigious or innumerable. Carrying on 
the series by adding zigzag as the lines are dotted, we should 


1 2 5 13 34 89 288 
ea 8 ae ee 
_ Hence we say that the slightest conceivable twist in one direc- 
tion makes the number of ranks 377, a little more in that direc- 
hon gives 144, 55, 21, 8, 3, 1, while the slightest twist in the op- 
posite direction gives us 233, a little more 89, 34, 13, 5, 2, 1. 
There is, however, a mystery in the space between 233 and 
377, between twisting one way and twisting the other. Let us 
not seek to solve it by running the number of ranks up higher, to 
610, 987, 1597, ete., but approach it in another way. : 
In the stem twisted one way, the angle between the leaves is 
+ the whole circumference, or 2, or +55, or 43, ete. ; with the stem 
twisted the other way the angle is }, or 2, or sy, Or 35 etc., the 
‘ireumference. Let us set these in double rows : — 
Twisted one way i ee Fe a 
Twisted the other way . ‘ 4 & dr B tee mH 
Or putting them in decimals we shall see how they converge 
towards the same value: — 
Twisted one way . . 5 4 «88 882 -.38202 
Twisted the other way. 83 .875 .8809 .38818 .38194 
: Take the high fraction 1427 in the upper series and turn it 
into decimals, we get .88196603. If the leaves were at this angle 
they would form 4181 rows or ranks, and the least twist would 
Produce the lower numbers. Let us now attempt to find some 


328 Mathematical Nature of Phyllotazis. [ June, 
simpler mode of representing these fractions .88196603 or 458, 
which are the same. 

Dividing both numerator and denominator of 4437 by 1597 
will give }+-987,; dividing each term of the last fraction by 
987 gives us 2 

LES W 


and continuing the process gives us 
bey 
bag 


equal to 


i 
pe 
} 
“Tage 


equal to 
$+ 
Hh, 


ty 
itys 
equal to 


b+ 
T+ Bha 
t+ bea, 


Now calling the fraction 


Hz, 
continued indefinitely by the name of z, it is plain that the 
phyllotactic fractions beginning with }, 4, 2, 3, %, continually ap- 
proach nearer and nearer to the value },.,, or 


- 


LAS ae 


+2 

and these values are alike. Putting the first two equal gives 
Fan oe a 

whence 


x? e—=1, r=—}+1 4/5, and }-5=} (8—V 5). 4 


This expression, } (83 — 4/5), is equal to .88196+, and ale 
presses the exact ratio of the leaves in a theoretically untwist 
stem when the number of rows is infinite. Other arrangements 


k; 
a 
3 
i 
: 
: 
i 
i i: 
a 


1876.] Traces of an American Autochthon. 329 


are simply approximations to this (as though they aimed at this 
but got the stem twisted in growing), such as 


T= Hy Sy 


La ne Bey 
{=3 Hisi 


TRACES OF AN AMERICAN AUTOCHTHON. 
BY DR. C. C. ABBOTT. 


HEN in our rambles over the fields, in search of relics, we 
chance to find lying side by side some rough, rude imple- 
ment and a delicate, artistically-wrought arrow-point, we are apt 
to merely glance at the former, and perhaps smile at so poor an 
effort at flint-chipping, while admiring the beauty of finish and 
excellence of workmanship displayed by the latter. But the 
unshapely implement has a history that, if not as eloquent as the 
legends of the red man, is far older, and calls up a shadowy vis- 
ion of a still more distant time, when another people dwelt in 
this goodly land, and fashioned for its use these rude stone weap- 
ons that now alone are left to tell its story, and recall the time 
when this “great continent was occupied by a wide-spread 
though sparse population.” 

During the summer of 1872, having heard of the occurrence 
of Indian relics in a gravel bank then being removed, I carefully 
examined the face of the bluff, and succeeded in finding a single 
stone implement, and subsequently two others. These three 
Specimens were described and figured soon after, and I then ex- 
Pressed the opinion that, “ had but a single specimen been found, 
we might reasonably, perhaps, have applied to it the doctrine of 
chances, and maintained that it was merely a freak of nature ; 
but the occurrence of three specimens so near each other effect- 
ually disposes of the justice of such an opinion, and we must 
admit the antiquity of American man to be greater than the 
advent of the so-called Indian.” =e 

I have lately succeeded in finding a few specimens of relics, in 

Tata of river drift, similar to those figured in the NATURALIST, 
but higher up in the series; thus apparently connecting them 
with the rude forms found near and occasionally on the surface, 
which I formerly believed to be the forerunners of the later 


1 The American Naturalist, vii. 204. 


330 Traces of an American Autochthon. [June, 


relics. The intermediate specimens above referred to, seven in 
number, are rudely wrought lance-heads (?) and those ridge- 
backed, flat-bottomed implements, known locally as “ turtle- 
backs.” The supposed lance-heads are very similar to the 
European palæolithic forms, and in all respects identical with 
those found nearer the surface, of which the late Professor J. 
Wyman said,! in a notice of a series sent him, “ There are sev- 
eral implements which very closely resemble the celts of the drift 
period of Europe, especially those found at St. Acheul, two or 
three of which, except for their material, could hardly be distin- 
guished from them.” 

My studies of these palæolithic specimens, and of their position 
in the gravel beds and overlying soil, has led me to conclude that 
not long after the close of the last glacial epoch man appeared 
in the valley of the Delaware, and that during his occupancy 
there was a steady but not violent physical change of the gen- 
eral surface of the country, caused by the greatly increased 
volume of the river then nearly filling the present valley ; and 
that at a point in time when the river (Delaware), diminished 
to its present size, occupied its present channel, these palzolithic 
people were driven off by the Indians, who at that time were 
themselves not advanced to the neolithic or polished-stone age 
condition. On examining a series of stone implements gathered 
from some one spot, we find one characteristic, common to all, 
which at once attracts the attention. This is the uniformity of 
the workmanship. As remarked by Professor Geikie, “ The 
weapons and implements belonging to the older or paleolithic 
period are altogether of ruder form and finish. They are merely 
chipped into the requisite shape of adze, hatchet, scraper, or what- 
ever the implement may chance to be. Although considerable 
dexterity is shown in the fashioning of these rude implements, 
yet they certainly evince much less skill on the part of the tool- 
maker than the relics of the newer or neolithic period. It 1s 
somewhat noteworthy also that while the implements of the 
neolithic period are made of various kinds of stones, those of the 
paleolithic period consist almost exclusively of flint ; and so char- 
acteristic are the shape and fashion of the latter that an Pape 
rienced archæologist has no difficulty in recognizing and distm- 
guishing them at once from relics of the neolithic age.” ? 

With the exception of the use of the word “ flint,” the above 


1 Fifth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum of Archeology, page 27- Con 
bridge. 187 


* Great Ice Age, American Edition, page 404. 


Sue eye ee ae eRe pean rs 


1876.) Traces of an American Autochthon. 331 


isin every way applicable to the rude implements here consid- 
ered to be the production of an older people than the Indians. 
Again, on examination of a large series of these relics, consid- 
ered with reference to the circumstances under which they were 
gathered, it is found that the mineral of which they are almost 
exclusively made is not really a soft stone, easily worked ; nor on 
the other hand as dense as jasper or quartz. A freshly fractured 
surface will readily scratch glass. Their surfaces are, however, 
quite soft, from long exposure since their detachment from the 
parent rock. In fragments of a rock buried in ordinary soil, and 
not exposed to unusual chemical action, any decomposition, if it 
took place at all, must have been very gradual; indeed, inconceiv- 


al 
(Fie.21.) “ TURTLE-BACK” CELT. 

ably slow; and it seems more probable that these implements 
Were long exposed to the weather on or near the surface of the 
ground, before the slowly increasing deposit of soil or stratum of 
sand or gravel, as the case may be, concealed them from view. 
This “weathering ” of the surface of rude implements varies con- 
siderably in depth, but is not more noticeable on any one pattern 
of the few forms common to these older relics. It occurs on all, 
and the variation, ranging from „y to +}s of an inch, indicates, I 
lieve, a greater antiquity of the more deeply corroded speci- 
mens. A peculiarity which also tends to separate these rude 
2m from the more common or true Indian relics is the preva- 
n 


Ce of certain forms of a marked character, which do not occur 


332 Traces of an American Autochthon. [June, 


of jasper, quartz, or other minerals used by the Indians. The 
most marked of these forms is that here figured, which I call, 
adopting the local name, a “‘turtle-back.” The name quite ac- 
curately describes this peculiar form of stone implement. It is 
only necessary to say that they are flat upon the under side, 
usually presenting but one surface ; and where two or three, the 
lines of separation are scarcely definable, and the specimen, when 
placed upon a level surface, appears to be perfectly smooth under- 
neath. They vary but little in size, the one here figured (Fig- 
ure 21) being an excellent example of an average specimen of 
this form of stone implement. 

Considering this turtle-back as the primitive form of these 
paleolithic implements, we find that they vary from it, in three 
directions: towards the common grooved ax, but never with a 
groove; into spear-heads and large arrow-points; and into scrap- 
ers, such as the Indians later used. But while we meet with 
palolithic axes, spears, and scrapers which are quite similar to 
the neolithic forms, they can never be confounded with them; 
the workmanship is quite distinct, and, however unusual its 
shape, there is that about it that marks it as not an ordinary 
Indian relic. 

It is well here to refer to the fact that the occurrence of rude 
implements such as are here described takes place not only in this 
neighborhood, but Mr. C. C. Jones, in his work on Indian antiq- 
uities,’ alludes to “some rudely-chipped, triangular-shaped im- 
plements found in Nacoochee Valley under circumstances which 
seemingly assign to them a very remote antiquity. In material, 
manner of construction, and general appearance, so nearly do 
they resemble some of the rough so-called flint hatchets belong- 
ing to the drift type, as described by M. Boucher de Perthes, 
that they might very readily be mistaken the one for the other. 
- ++. At a depth of nine feet below the surface, intermm- 
gled with the gravel and bowlders of the drift and just above the 
rocky substratum upon which the deposit rested, were found 
three flint implements. ... . That the implements in ques 
tion were brought down with and deposited in the drift when as 
yet there was little or no vegetable life in the valley, seems 
highly probable. How many centuries have looked down upon 
the gradual accumulation of the soil which now overlies the drift, 
none can answer; but of one thing we may rest satisfied, that 


these specimens of the rude labor of prehistoric man may well 


1 Antiquities of Southern Indians, page 294. 


7 
a 
- 
z 

$ 

F 
E 
4 

a 
on 
d 


Wises es AA DS Care gt eee EEEN ee on! 2 E 


1876. | Traces of an American Autochthon. 338 


claim high antiquity. . . .. Thus, in Nacoochee, while the 
neolithic age is richly represented, the palæolithic period is not 
entirely wanting in its characteristic types.’ 

The above well describes what obtains in the valley of the 
Delaware, except that the palolithic period is quite well repre- 
sented, and without so abrupt a break between that and the neo- 
lithic age. 

Having, I trust, made the reader sufficiently familiar with the- 
more prominent characteristics of these rude implements, as 
compared with the common forms of Indian relics, I propose 
now to determine, if possible, something concerning their origin ; 
and to suggest to what race these paleolithic folk belonged. 

If it is true that the relics of preoceupying races, now scattered 
over the State, are traces of two distinct peoples, it is obvious 
that either the older occupants of the territory passed away be- 
fore the advent of the Indian, or they were driven from the 
country by the latter race. Had the paleolithic folk disappeared 
from the valley of the Delaware at some time long prior to the 
advent of the Indian, there would have been a break in the - 
series of stone implements now found, and no commingling what- 
ever, for a people once established would totally disappear only 
in consequence of geological changes occurring; and such would 
sufficiently alter the surface of the country to embed the relics 
in strata at some distance beneath the soil. Marked changes in 
the contour of the territory here considered have certainly taken 
Place since the first appearance of man in eastern North America, 

ut these changes have been so gentle as not to destroy the habit- 
ability of the country, and we therefore find the traces of that 
earlier people not only in the underlying gravels, but in the soil 
above, proving, I think, that paleolithic man did not disappear at 
à point in time anterior to the Indian’s first appearance. It 
must be remembered, too, that the Indians claim to have been a 
usurping people ; to have found, on their arrival, a preoccupy- | 
mg people, whom they dispossessed of their lands. If such is 

€ case, — and do not the deeply buried rude relics here described 
authenticate their statements ? — then two questions naturally 
arise in one’s mind: Who were these ancient people? Where 
are they now ? 
It is scarcely probable that a race driven from their homes in 
the valley of the Delaware should have entirely left the country. 
They could not have crossed the ocean; and we look at the 
neighboring peoples to find the descendants of this displaced 


334 Traces of an American Autochthon. [June, 
people, if indeed they have not perished from off the face of the 
earth. 


Have we near at hand any people that even in some respects 
meet the requirements of our supposition? I believe we have, 
in the Eskimo.! 

The similarity of the Delaware Valley implements to those of 
Europe, as already referred to, is even more marked when the 
former are compared with the relics from French caves. The 
stone implements figured by Lartet and Christy,? illustrative of 
the weapons, domestic utensils, and ornaments of the reindeer 
people of Southern France, are, in part, so exactly reproduced 
in the palæolithic relics of New Jersey, that a close relationship 
of the two peoples suggests itself ; although no caves such as are 
found in France, or engravings of extinct mammalia, have been 
discovered here. 

In the brief space allotted to a magazine article, it is not prac- 
ticable to enter minutely into detail with reference to the many 
facts having direct bearing on the question of the gravel-bed im- 
plements, their antiquity and origin. I have but briefly referred 
to the marked resemblance between New Jersey and French cave 
specimens of stone relics, and will here only add that “it would 
be easy to cite many circumstances illustrative of the resemblance 
between the condition and habits of the modern Eskimo and 
these cave dwellers of France at the reindeer period.” 3 If, there- 
fore, the rude implements of the Delaware Valley gravels re- 
semble those of the caves of France, and the French troglodytes 
were identical (?) with the Eskimo, it is fair to presume that 
the first human beings that dwelt along the shores of the Dela- 
ware were really the same people as the present inhabitants of 
Arctic America. 

It has been demonstrated, I believe, conclusively, that some 
eighty thousand years ago the last glacial epoch came to a close.* 
There was, however, no sudden change in the climate. The 


1 Since the above was written, I have received Nature for December 9, 1875, and 

find the statement there made, in a review of Dr. Rinks’s Tales and Traditions of 
indigenous 

tribes.” 
This opinion of Dr. Rinks’s, it will be noticed, if correct, is confirmatory of that ta 
in this paper, and in the February number of this journal, as to the traces 
pers occupation of this country by two peoples, as indicated by the relics now 

ere, 

? Reliquie Aquitanice, London. 1865-74. Edited by T. Rupert Jones. 

3 Reliquiæ Aquitanice, page 26. 

* Climate and Time, by Croll; Great Ice Age, by J. Geikie. 


found 


$ 


a A Se TAE ee 


4 
3 
: 


1876.] Johnny Darters. — 335 


winters were more severe than now, the summers shorter, and 
the reindeer still abundant. At this time, the river, now oceupy- 
ing a comparatively small and shallow channel, flowed at an ele- 
vation of nearly fifty feet above its present level; and it was 
when such a mighty stream as this, that man first gazed upon its 
waters and lost those rude weapons in its swift current that now, 

in the beds of gravel which its floods have deposited, are alike the 
puzzle and delight of the archeologist. Had these first comers,’ 
like the troglodytes of France, had convenient caves to shelter 

them, doubtless we would have their better wrought implements 

of bone to tell more surely the story of their ancient sojourn 

here; but, wanting them, their history is not altogether lost, and 

in the rude weapons, now deep down beneath the grassy sod and 

flower-decked river bank, we learn at least the fact of the pres- 

ence, in the distant past, of an earlier people than the Indian, 

and have a veritable trace of the American autochthon. 


JOHNNY DARTERS. 
BY D. S. JORDAN AND H. E. COPELAND. 


NY one who has ever been a boy, and can remember the days 
of green meadows, tag alders, and an angleworm on a pin 
hook, surely has not forgotten the little dusky fish which lay 
Perfectly motionless on the pebbly bottom of the shallow stream, 
untempted by fly or worm, while over his head the silly little 
minnows strained their toothless mouths in a vain endeavor to 
Swallow the bait meant for the nobler sun-fish. You will remem- 
ber, too, that when, after watching him a while, you put down 
your hand to catch the little philosopher, just as you had cov- 
ered him and were sure you had him he was resting as com- 
Posedly as ever a few feet farther up the stream. That little 
fish was a J ohnny Darter. 
It is an ancient and venerable family, that to which he be- 
longs, the family of Darters. It is exclusively American, but 
pone the less ancient and venerable on that account, for its mem- 
bers in every pond and brook of our Eastern United States trace 
back their lineage through a dozen lines of descent to a primitive 
tter, which lived and loved a million of years before the time 
of David Bruce or William the Conqueror. 
‘The naturalists know them as Etheostomoids, from Etheostoma, 
the name given by Rafinesque to the first ones described, for 


336 Johnny Darters. [June, 


until 1820, no writer on such matters supposed the Johnnies to 
be fully developed fishes, but thought them the young of some 
perch or bass. Even for twenty-five years later, the wise men of 
the East who study nature in books and bottles, and do not know 
her when they meet her out-of-doors, spoke of Etheostoma as a 
mere “ myth,” having “ no existence save in the fertile brain of 
men of versatile but disordered intellect,” as they were pleased to 
style Rafinesque and others who saw things not described by 
Cuvier or dreamed of by Valenciennes. 

The books call these fishes * Darters,” from Boleosoma (dart 
body, in Greek), the name of the common eastern species ; the 
realistic dwellers of the Ohio Valley call some of them hog-fishes; 
the boys call them Johnnies, and, as the boy instinct is the truest, 
Johnny Darters they shall be. 

All the darters are very small fishes; the largest barely reaches 
the minimum of size on the urchin’s string when he comes back 
from the mill-pond, while the smallest is with one or two excep- 
tions the least of all fishes. They have only the rudiment of an 
air bladder, and are therefore unable to float freely in the water 
or even to swim at all without severe manual — not caudal— 
labor. They rest quietly on the bottom for the most part, curled 
up under a stone or standing on their front and tail fins; now 
and then throwing themselves forward for a short distance by a 
broad and sudden sweep of the pectorals, to snap at some water- 
bug or to dodge the claws of some crawfish or the grasp of some 
small boy. This movement made, they come to rest, either per- 
manently or until they can bring their arms forward again. 
When a darter wishes to swim for any distance his course 15 
peculiar: at every impulse forward he rises in the water; at 
every rest he begins to fall, his face meanwhile wearing an ex- 
pression of contented helplessness. The whole movement is much 
like that of a boy learning to swim, whose nose goes under when 
he brings his arms forward after each stroke. ‘ 

The mouth of the darter bristles with teeth, which indicate its 
carnivorous habits, and its great voracity makes it in a sma 
way the terror of the aquarium, for it carries death and dismay 
to timid water-snails and the smaller crustaceans. It pounces 
upon a piece of meat with all the ferocity of a wild-cat, having 
none of the timid eagerness characterizing the minnows, aM 
little of the graceful dash of the perch and bass. 

Rafinesque says of the Johnnies of his acquaintance, “ They 
are good to eat, fried.” This is doubtless true, but I should as 


 1876.] Johnny Darters. 337 
_ Soon think of filling my pan with wood-warblers. The good man 

goes a-fishing not for “ pot-luck,” but to let escape “the Indian 
within him.” 

Their small size, brilliant coloration, quaintness, and hardiness 
render the darters very desirable aquarium fishes, much more- 
attractive in every respect than the cheap and vulgar gold-fish. 
: They are little known even to naturalists; few of them have 
‘ ever been figured, and the biography of none ever written, so we 
= hope tHat this attempt to tell the story of some that we know may 
: not be unattractive to those who can see something more in a 
| little fish than a possible dinner to themselves or to a king-fisher. 


(Fig. 22.) PERCINA. 


The barred darter or log perch (Percina caprodes; Figure 22 
represents a species of Percina) is the largest of the Etheosto- 
moids. It may be most readily known by its superior size and 
by its peculiar pattern of coloration. The ground color is pale 
olive, darker above, silvery beneath; on this are about fifteen 
black vertical bars or incomplete rings, alternating more or less 
Petlectly with as many shorter ones, which reach only half-way 

own or to the lateral line ; the hindmost bar is reduced to a 
mere spot at the base of the caudal, and there are many black 
specks and mottlings on the fins. The body is long and slender, 
nearly cylindrical, and firm and wiry to the touch ; the dorsal 
ns are large, and the first consists of about thirteen spines ; the 
head is flat on top and tapers into a flat, pointed snout, which 
s abruptly Squared off at the end, much overlapping the small 
mouth, after the fashion of the pig. The lateral line, as in all 
the species mentioned in this article, is perfectly distinct from the 

li. 


Rit SA er ean Fo > Soe E eA ead 


head to the tail 


Percina reaches a length of six or eight inches, and it may be 
teadily caught with a hook baited with a worm. I often meet 
urchin with one or two of them strung through the gills on a 
forked stick, along with “red eyes,” “stone toters,” and other 


“ boys’ fish.” At such times, I generally buy the log perch for 
à cent, cut it open to look at the air bladder which the books 
VOL. x. — No, 6, 29 


388 Johnny Darters. [June, 


say it does not have, and then lay it away with the rest of my 
treasures in the bottle of alcohol. 3 

We find Percina usually in rapid and rather deep water, as 
deep as we dare wade in when seining in hip boots. We rarely 
find them small enough for ordinary aquarium purposes, and the 
living specimen before me, though wonderfully quick and grace- 
ful, has shown little that is noteworthy, save his courage, love of 
angleworms, and a possible disposition to bury himself, in the 
sand. ‘There is something in the expression of his face, as he 
rests on his “ hands and feet” on a stone, remarkably lizard-like, 
reminding me of the blue-tailed skink (Eumeces fasciatus). 

We next come to the fine gentleman of the family, the black- 
sided darter (Etheostoma blennioides). This species may be 
known best by its coloration. The ground hue is a salmon yel- 
low ; the back is regularly and beautifully marbled with black, 
forming a peculiar and handsome pattern. On the sides, from 
the head to the tail runs a jet-black band which is widened at ir- 
regular intervals into round spots, which contrast sharply with 
the silvery color of the belly. Or we might say that on each 
side is a chain of confluent, round, black blotches. At times 
these spots are quite pale and do not seem to meet, but in an in- 
stant they regain their original form and shade. These changes 
are when the fish is excited by the presence of things eatable. 
A male in our aquarium underwent almost in an instant an en- 
tire change of pattern upon the introduction of a female fish of 
the same species, whom he recognized as his.true affinity. Al- 
though the two have been together for some weeks, the novelty 
has not yet worn off, and though his colors vary much from one 
hour to another, he has never quite reverted to his original dress. 

The form of the black-sided darter is more graceful than that, — 
of any other, and his movements have less of the angular jerki- 
ness which distinguishes his relatives. 

The dorsal fins, as in Percina, are long and large, the number 
of spines being about fourteen. Etheostoma delights in clear 
running water, and he may be found in most streams south 
west of New York. A notable peculiarity is the presence of a 
row of shields or enlarged scales along the middle line of the 
belly. These may serve to protect that part from the friction of 
the stony bottom. They seem to be shed at some seasons, 
when and why is unknown. o 

Etheostoma is especially desirable for aquaria. He is hardier 
than any other fish as pretty, and prettier than any other a 2 


 1876.] Johnny Darters. 339 
hardy, and withal he “ has a way of his own,” as Barney Mullins 
said of Thoreau. 

The most simply beautiful of all fresh-water fishes is the green- 
sided darter (Diplesium blennioides ; Figure 23 represents a 


MMi MY, 


(Fre. 22.) atok. 
species of this genus). He is not, like the Pæcilichthys, an ani- 
mated rainbow, but has the beauty of green grass, wild violets, or 
a log covered with green moss. As we watch him in the water, 
with his bright, blended colors and gentle ways, once more, with 
Izaak Walton’s Angler, “We sit on cowslip banks, hear the 
birds sing, and possess ourselves in as much quietness as the si- 
lent, silver streams which we see glide so quietly by us.” 

During the ordinary business of the year the Diplesium, like 
Most sensible fishes and men, dresses plainly. It is a serious 
matter to get any time for contemplation when the streams are 
low and food scarce, and a plain coat may ward off danger as 
well as facilitate attack. Atall times, however, he may be known 
by these marks: the fins are all large, and the first dorsal has 
thirteen spines ; the back is covered with zigzag markings down 
to the lateral line,. which is complete and continuous, while be- 
low it extend eight or nine arrow-shaped, olive spots, which are 
More or less connected above, sometimes as if forming a wavy 
line ; these are on a nearly white ground, which blends with the 
uniform coloration of the belly. The eyes are quite large and 
Prominent, the snout is short and rounded, giving a decidedly 
frog-like profile, while on a front view the little, inferior mouth 
Seems puckered with « prunes and prisms.” The roof of the 
mouth is toothless, though all the other Johnnies have small 
teeth on the front part of the roof behind the jaws, the region 
technically known as the vomer. 

But when the first bluebirds give warning by their shivering 
and bodiless notes that spring is coming, then the Diplesium 
puts on his wedding clothes and becomes in fact the green-sided 
r. The dorsal fins become bright grass-green, with a scarlet 
band at the base ; the broad anal has a tinge of the deepest em- 

» while every spot and line upon the side has turned from 


340 Johnny Darters. : Jane, 


an undefined olive to a deep, rich green, scarcely found elsewhere 
in the animal world except on the backs of frogs. 

The same tint flashes out on the branching rays of the caudal 
fin, and may be faintly seen struggling through the white on the 
belly. The blotches nearest the middle of the back become jet- 
black, and thickly sprinkled everywhere are little shiny spots of 
a clear, bronze orange. In the aquarium, Diplesium seems more 
shy and retiring, too much of a fine lady to scramble for angle- 
worms or to snap at the “ bass-feed.” She is usually hidden 
among the plants, or curled up under an arch of stones or ina 
geode. Specimens may be caught most abundantly in rapid, 
gravelly streams, but we often find stray individuals lying on 
sandy bottoms, the proper home of the Pleurolepis. 

Boleosoma effulgens! is the darter of darters. Although our 
earliest aquarium friend, for the very first specimen placed there 
showed us by a rapid ascent of the river-weed how “a Johnny 
could climb trees,” he has still many resources which we have 
never learned. Whenever we try to catch one with the hand we 
begin with all the uncertainty which characterized our first at- 
tempt, even if we have him in a two-quart pail. 

He may be known from his cousins by his short first dorsal fin 
of nine spines, and by the absence of all color save soft brown on 
white that has the faintest tinge of yellow, but not a dirty white 
at all. The other nine-spined darters, Peecilichthys, ete. (Fig- 
ure 24 represents a species of this genus), have a different 

MIT DRR mouth, a projecting 
lower jaw, the body 
deeper, and the lateral 
line vanishing on the 
back of the body. 
The brown on the 

(Fig. 24.) PORCILICHTHYS. sides of Boleosoma 15 
arranged in seven or eight W-shaped marks, below which are @ 
few flecks of the same color. Covering the sides above the lat- 
eral line are wavy markings, — gathered into blotches on the 

a Boleosoma effulgens is the common species in the neighborhood of Indianapolis, t0 
which latitude all the accounts here given must be referred. Eastward occurs 
soma olmstedi, which is somewhat larger and has the cheeks thickly scaly. We are not 
quite sure that the change of color in Diplesium depends on the season, but out obser 
vations thus far indicate it. 

2 Not as represented in the figure, in which the body is also represented 
The cuts accompanying this article are outlines only and erroneous in many 
details. While of much value as giving a general idea of the Etheostomoids, 
theless the authors disclaim any responsibility for them. A, 


A 


too deep. 
of the 
never- 


FLATE- IN; 


T. Sinclair & San, lith. Phila. 


' 1876.] The Black Knot. 341 


median line,—that have given him the name of tesselated 
darter, said by the books to be “common.” But Boleosoma is a 
_ braver name, and we even prefer “ Boly,” for short. The head 
resembles that of Diplesium, but the habit of leaning forward over 
a stone, resting on the front fins, gives a physiognomy even more 
frog-like ; his actions however, are, rather bird-like, for he will 
strike attitudes like a tufted titmouse, and he flies rather than 
swims through the water. He will with much perseverance push 
his body between a plant and the side of the aquarium, and bal- 
ance himself on the slender stem. Crouching cat-like before a 
snail-shell, he will snap off the horns which the unlucky owner 
pushes timidly out. But he is often less dainty, and, seizing the 
animal by the head, dashes the shell against the glass or a stone 
until he pulls the body out or breaks the shell. “ Boly,” alas ! 
is the “ Quaker of our aquarium ” only in appearance. 


pai an eee 
THE BLACK KNOT. 


TEE following article is an abstract, by Mr. B. D. Halsted, 

of a paper by Prof. W. G. Farlow published in the Bulletin of 
the Bussey Institution of March, 1876. It will be the endeavor 
to give, with the aid of two of the three original plates,! a brief 
notice of the most important points concerning this destructive 
ungus, 


sightly, black, wart - like excrescences, with which every one is 
familiar, on plum-trees and different kinds of wild and cultivated 
“ierries. It is found in all parts of our country east of the 
Rocky Mountains, and is so common and destructive that in some 


ma be formed of the small crop of plums now raised in New 
i ae from the fact that two dollars and a half were given in 
oston last autumn for a peck of damsons for preserving. In 
k parts of New England, particularly in Maine and along 
° Sea-coast, the raising of cherries has also been almost aban- 

1 : 
The Sum of $500 was voted by the Trustees of the Massachusetts Society for 
ap seta Agriculture to aid Professor Farlow in his researches, and from this liberal 
p Priation the expense of the plates was defrayed. Professor Farlow is himself 
Sole for the Microscopic details of the plates, but whatever of beauty they may 


ZoBon ‘5 entirely due to the skill of Mr, J. H. Blake, of the Museum of Comparative 
ogy, Cambridge. 


342 The Black Knot. [June, 


doned, in consequence of the ravages of the black knot. The 
disease is peculiar to America, and has been the bane of fruit- 
growers from early times; but although much has been written 
in agricultural papers about its injury to the fruit crop, the sub- 
ject has been almost entirely neglected: by botanists. In the 
present paper we shall consider the cause and prevention of the 
knot, and the question whether the disease is the same on plums 
and cherries. Asa preliminary step, it will be well to trace the 
development of the knot as it occurs on a single species, and for 
this purpose the choke-cherry, Prunus Virginiana L., may be 
selected. 

The size of the knots varies greatly, being found on the 
species of Prunus under consideration all the way from a few 
lines to several inches in length, with an average of two inches 
in circumference. The knot does not usually entirely surround 
the branch, but growing from one side, often causes the branch 
to bend or twist into an irregular shape. In the winter, when 
the branches are leafless, the knots are much more noticeable, 
and at this season they are often cracked and broken, worm-eaten 
and hollow. - À 

In the swollen portions of the branch above and below the 
knot, sections under the microscope show the vegetative portion 
of the fungus in the form of minute threads, .0007 mm. in 
diameter, twisted together and extending from the cambium 
towards the outer portion of the stem, where they become sep- 
arated as shown in Plate IV., Figure 1. The fungus first reaches 
the cambium either by the germination of spores on the surface 
of the branch, or by the mycelium proceeding from a neighboring 
knot. The part of the cambium free from these bundles of 
mycelial threads grows in the usual manner, and in an old branch 
a cross section shows at the end of the season one more “ rmg 
or layer of wood on the sound than on the diseased side. From 
this it is to be concluded that the growing layer of tissue of the 
plum or cherry branch is the place from which the fungus begins 
its destructive work. : 

In the spring the swollen portion of the branch, whether it be 
on either side of an old knot or at the beginning of a new OM" 
increases in size, and the mycelium soon reaches and bursts through 
the bark, so that by the time the choke-cherry is in flower fi 
knot has reached nearly its full size, though differing from an © 
one in being still greenish in color and solid or pulpy ™ eet 
sistency. 


PLATE Iv... 


cuí 


S 


(2) 


yy. 


oc 
Gg 


ae ae 


Th” Sinclair & Son, lith, Phila 


U} 


Se a 
D 


ys 


= ae 


m 


£ 


1876.] The Black Knot. 343 


“ With a hand-lens one can see small hemispherical protuber- 
ances, which are the beginnings of the ‘ perithecia.’ The whole 
surface of the protuberances is covered with filaments (Plate III., 
Figure 2) about .04 mm. to .06 mm. in height and .004 mm. in 
breadth, which are somewhat flexuous and frequently divided by 
cross-partitions. The filaments are more frequently simple, but 
sometimes branch. At the tip of the terminal joint, or more fre- 
quently a little to one side, is borne a spore .006 mm. in length, 
ovate and rather sharply pointed at the lower end. Not unfre- 
quently two or three spores are borne on the upper joint, and 
others may also be produced on some of the lower joints. We 
have never seen any cross divisions in the conidial spores, which 
fall very early from their attachments. The conidia which we 
have just described spring directly from the surface of the peri- 
thecia, They continue to bear their spores until the latter part 
of summer, when they begin to dry up, and as winter sets in 
one finds only their shriveled remains.” As autumn approaches, 
the knots assume their black color, the inner portions being 
either destroyed by insects or reduced to a powdery mass, with 
only the hard outer shell, which contains the perithecia, left in 
place. These perithecia are small pits or sacs which are scat- 
tered through the hard crust and contain the sexual spores, borne, 
always to the number of eight, in asci or cells. In Plate IV., 
- Figure 4, is shown a highly magnified cross section through a 
perithecium, with the spore sacs attached to the wall. Figure 3 
of the same plate gives a still more magnified view of two of the 
asci, with the spores somewhat regularly disposed ; while spring- 
ing from the wall of the perithecium and extending above the 
asci are the long and slender sterile threads called “ paraphyses.” 
“ The asci grow slowly during the winter, and about the middle 
of January the spores begin to ripen. In the month of February 
they are found in perfection; but late in spring they are not so 
abundant or in such good condition. We first found a few ripe 
Spores on the 17th of J anuary ; and in the second week of Feb- 
ruary, most of the knots examined contained ripe spores. .... 
The spores measure from .016 mm. to .02 mm. in length and 
from .008 mm. to .01 mm. in breadth. They are two-parted, as 
Shown in Plate IV., Figures 5 and 6; one division being uni- 
formly much smaller than the other, and not more than one 
quarter or one third as long. The spores are transparent and 
slightly granular. As they lie in the ascus, the small end almost 
‘variably points downwards. Spores which ripen in February 


344 The Black Knot. [J ahs, 


germinate in the course of from three to five days, when suffi- 
ciently moist.” - | 

Besides the conidial spores formed from the outside, and the 
ascospores from the inside, of the wall of the perithecia, there 
are still other forms of fruit, which are called stylospores. These 
spores are produced in cavities between the perithecia; a cross 
section of such a cavity is represented in Plate III., Figure 4, 
with a small portion more magnified in Figure 5, showing these 
bodies to be borne on long stalks and divided by partitions into 
four parts. 

“ Plate IV., Figure 2, represents a Section through a cavity 
hardly distinguishable externally from the perithecia, which, in- 
stead of being filled withe asci, is lined with slender filaments 
whose tips are somewhat incurved, and easily broken off, the 
central part of the sac being filled with them. We call these 
“ spermogonia,” from their resemblance to the bodies of the same 
name in lichens, They are much less common than the conidia or 
stylospores. Interspersed amongst the ascus-bearing perithecia, 
one finds tolerably frequently still other cavities which are much 
more flattened than the perithecia, which often, instead of appear- 
ing oval, on section seem almost triangular. They are lined with 
short, delicate filaments which end in a minute oval hyaline body. 
These small oval bodies are produced in immense numbers, and 
are discharged not singly, but in masses. They are more or less 
closely held together by a sort of jelly, and ooze out from the 
cavity in which they are produced in the form of tendrils remind- 
ing one of the toy called “ Pharaoh’s serpent.” This last form 
is called the “ pyenidia.” It seems that this fungus does not 
lack for methods of propagating itself and continuing its species. 

The knot on the choke-cherry, when compared with those on 
the plum and cultivated varieties of cherry, is seen to be slightly 
different in general appearance; but when viewed with the 
microscope they all prove to be identical, the difference notice- 
able to the naked eye being due to more favorable circumstances 
for its growth afforded by one species of Prunus than by another. 
On the plum it does not thrive as well as on the choke-cherry- 


The curculio deposits its eggs in the young pulpy knot, and from 


the punctures a gum soon exudes and on this coating a mold, 
Trichothecium roseum Lk., quickly develops, giving a peculiar 
pinkish color to the knot. “It is probably owing to the fact that 
the curculio stings the knots that so many persons have been led 
to believe that the knots themselves are of insect origin.” 


- Species of 


os cked by the knot. “ Prunus serotina Ehr., the rum-cherry, 


At i oe le i yi RTS Ba raat pe ree! he eg Oe RG nee eee a k ee ee i, 

ar nad Mee ga pes TATED, eel See SaaS ne Pe ee er 
a a = ile RESTET r AEE 
Ae i a a Sr a E EEEE oa E A uart eer i z r ote ae! a : i : ; 


1876.) The Black Knot. 345 
Schweinitz was the first to describe, under the name of Spheria 
morbosa, the fungus causing the black knot. At that time noth- 
ing was known of the secondary forms of fruit of this group of 
fungi. Mr. ©: H. Peck was the first to describe the conidia. 

From a short discussion as to the position this species should 
take in classification and the name it ought to bear, it is con- 
cluded that until its related species are better known its old place 
and name had best be retained. 

The black knot is far from being of recent origin, and has 
furnished a subject about which vastly more has been written 
than was known. Many, especially the early writers, held it to 
be of insect origin, while, later, others have looked upon it as a 
vegetable growth, and still others included in its production the 
actions of both these forms of life. During the last thirty years 
the insect theory has been gradually given up by the entomolo- 
gists; but it still remains for many fruit-growers to accept the 
knot as being of fungus origin. The proof given in the paper is 
very conclusive on this long-disputed point. ‘ First, the knots 
do not resemble the galls made by any known insect. Secondly, 
although insects, or remains of insects, are generally found in old 
knots, in most cases no insects at all are found in them when 
young. Thirdly, the insects that have been found by entomol- 
ogists in the knots are not all of one species, but of several dif- 
ferent Species, which are also found on trees which are never 
affected by the knot. On the other hand, we never have the 
black knot without the. Spheria morbosa, as was admitted by 
Harris; and the mycelium of that fungus is found in the slightly 
Swollen stem long before anything which could be called a knot 
has made its appearance. Furthermore, the Spheria morbosa is 
hot known to occur anywhere except in connection with the 
knots,” 

Those who believe that there are two distinct species of the 
knot have arrived at this conclusion from a too hasty generaliza- 
tion upon incomplete observations. “ Having seen some cherries 
free from the knot, although growing near diseased plum-trees, 
and others, perhaps not near any plum-trees, covered with knots, 
they have jumped at the conclusion that there must be two dif- 
ferent fungi producing the knot: one on the cherry, derived from 
the wild cherry ; another on the plum, derived from the wild 
plum,” This false inference comes from the fact that some 
wild cherry, and also some cultivated varieties, are not 

k 


346 The Black Ka [June, 


and Prunus Virginiana L., the choke-cherry, are about equally 
common near Boston. The latter is very frequently attacked by 
the knot; the former never, as far as our experience goes, and 
we have examined hundreds of trees.” In and around Boston 
the cultivated plum has been nearly destroyed by the knot, while 
over the same territory the wild plum is of rare occurrence, if 
found at all, showing that the disease must come from some 
` species of cherry. 

In all this long discussion of the black knot much confusion 
has grown out of the loose use of popular names. The choke- 
cherry of one person may not be the choke-cherry of another; 
and the bird or rum cherry in one section may bear other names 
in another part of the country. : 

With a knowledge of the nature of this contagious disease 
the remedy at once suggests itself: namely, to cut off the knots, 
together with the swollen portions of the branches, wherever and 
whenever they are found. In autumn, as soon as the leaves fall, 
the knots can be most easily seen, and all branches bearing them 
should be taken off and burned at once. Though the ascospores 
are not formed until late in the following winter, it was carefully 
observed that, were the knots left undestroyed, they would ripen 
after the branch was cut from the tree. The choke-cherry, bird- 
cherry, and wild plum furnish means for rapid propagation of the 
knot, and they should be gladly sacrificed for the good of their 
more worthy allies. Of the choke-cherry the writer says, 
“ However opinions may differ as to its beauty, there can be only 
one as to its injurious influence on cherry and plum orchards ; 
and it cannot be too strongly impressed upon fruit-growers that 
the choke-cherry is a most dangerous enemy, and should be de- 
_ stroyed.” 

Knowing the cause, nature, and means of propagation of the 
black knot, it remains for the fruit-growers to profit by their 
valuable instruction and use their best endeavors to destroy this 

st. The article closes with a statement of the importance 0 
keeping the disease within its present bounds. It is now peculiar 
to America, and any means of introducing it into other countries 
should be strenuously avoided. 


EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 


. mn 
Plate III. Figure 1. Sphæria morbosa on the cultivated plum, as seen in autumn, — 


natural size. i ‘x hundred 
Figure 2. Section of knot on the choke-cherry in May, magnified six 
diameters ; a, mycelium ; b, conidia. , 


. Professor Tyndall on Germs. 347 


Figure 3. Conidia more highly magnified. 

Figure 4. Section through one side of a cavity containing stylospores. From 
mazzard cherry. 

Figure 5. Stylospores more highly magnified. 

Plate IV. Fignre 1. Section of choke-cherry stem, showing the mycelium before it 
has come to the surface, magnified six hundred diameters. 

Figure 2. Spermogonia. 

Figure 3. Asci and spores of Spheria morbosa from the choke-cherry. 

Figure 4. Perithecium with asci. 


1876.] 


Figures 5, 6. Ripe ascospores. 
Figures 7, 8. Ascospores germinating. 


2 PROFESSOR TYNDALL ON GERMS. 


NDER this head, Nature gives an abstract of a paper read 
. by Professor Tyndall before the Royal Society, January 
3 13th, entitled On the Optical Deportment of the Atmosphere 
: in Reference to the Phenomena of Putrefaction and Infection. 
: Among other things, he wished to free his mind, and if possible 
the minds of others, from the uncertainty and confusion which 
i now beset the doctrine of “spontaneous generation.” Pasteur 
has pronounced it “a chimera,” and expressed the undoubting 
conviction that, this being the case, it is possible to remove para- 
sitic diseases from the earth. We make a few extracts from this 
interesting article: — 

“ To the medical profession, therefore, and through them to 
: humanity at large, this question is one of the last importance. 

But the state of medical opinion regarding it is not satisfactory. 

In a recent number of the British Medical Journal, and in an- 

Swer to the question, ‘In what way is contagium generated and 
communicated ?’ Messrs. Braidwood and Vacher reply that not- 
; withstanding ‘an almost incalculable amount of patient labor, 
the actual results obtained, especially as regards the manner of 
generation of contagium, have been most disappointing. Ob- 
Servers are even yet at variance whether these minute particles, 
whose discovery we have just noticed, and other disease germs, 
ate always produced from like bodies previously existing, or 
whether they do not, under certain favorable conditions, spring 
Into existence de novo.’ . . . 

“ The result of the experiments showed that infusions of vari- 
ous substances exposed to the common air of the Royal Institu- 
tion laboratory, maintained at a temperature of from 60° to 70° 
Fahr., all fell’ into putrefaction in the course of from two to four 


348 Professor Tyndall on Germs. Fiat 


days. No matter where the infusions were placed, they were 
infallibly smitten. The number of the tubes containing the in- 
fusions was multiplied till it reached six hundred, but not one of 
them escaped infection. 

“ In no single instance, on the other hand, did the air, which 
had been proved moteless by the searching beam, show itself to 
possess the least power of producing bacterial life or the associ- 
ated phenomena of putrefaction. The power of developing such 
life in atmospheric air, and the power of scattering light, are 
thus proved to be indissolubly united. 

“ The sole condition necessary to cause these Jong-dormant 
infusions to swarm with active life is the access of the floating 
matter of the air. After having remained for four months as 
pellucid as distilled water, the opening of the back door of the 
protecting case, and the consequent admission of the mote-laden 
air, suffice in three days to render the infusions putrid and full 
of Bie.. $ 

“ From the irregular manner in which the tubes are attacked, 
we may infer that, as regards quantity, the distribution of the 
germs in the air is not uniform. The singling out, moreover, 
of one tube of the hundred by the particular bacteria that develop 
a green pigment, shows that, as regards quality, the distribution 
is not uniform. The same absence of uniformity was manifested 
in the struggle for existence between the bacteria and the peni- 
cillium. In some tubes the former were triumphant ; in other 
tubes of the same infusion the latter was triumphant. It would 
seem also as if a want of uniformity as regards vital vigor pre- 
vailed. With the self-same infusion the motions of the bacteria 
in some tubes were exceedingly languid, while in other tubes the 
motions resembled a rain of projectiles, being so rapid and vio- 
lent as to be followed with difficulty by the eye. Reflecting on 
the whole of this, the author concludes that the germs float 
through the atmosphere in groups or clouds, with spaces more 
sparsely filled between them. The touching of a nutritive fluid 
by a bacterial cloud would naturally have a different effect from 
the touching of it by the interspace between two clouds. But as, 
in the case of a mottled sky, the various portions of the land- 
Scape are successively visited by shade, so, in the long run, are 
the various tubes of our tray touched by the bacterial clouds, 
the final fertilization or infection of them all being the conse- 
quence. The author connects these results with the experiments 


e EB A E A tee Miers O aa TS 


PaE t i Rar an oc A em fee th EA 


E 


1876.] Professor Tyndall on Germs. 349 


of Pasteur on the non-continuity of the cause of so-called sponta- 
neous generation, and with other experiments of his own. 

“ On the 9th of November, a second tray, containing one hun- 
dred tubes filled with an infusion of mutton, was exposed to the 
air. On the morning of the 11th, six of the ten nearest the stove 
had given way to putrefaction. Three of the rows most distant 
from the stove had yielded, while here and there over the tray 
particular tubes were singled out and smitten by the infection. 
Of the whole tray of one hundred tubes, twenty-seven were 
either muddy or cloudy on the 11th. Thus, doubtless, in a 
contagious atmosphere are individuals successively struck down. 
On the 12th, all the tubes had given way, but the differences in 
their contents were extraordinary. All of them contained bac- 
teria, some few, others in swarms. In some tubes they were 
slow and sickly in their motions, in some apparently dead, while 
in others they darted about with rampant vigor. These differ- 
ences are to be referred to changes in the germinal matter, for 
the same infusion was presented everywhere to the air. Here 
also we have a picture of what occurs during an epidemic, the 
difference in number and energy of the bacterial swarms resem- 

ling the varying intensity of the disease. It becomes obvious 

from these experiments that of two individuals of the same pop- 
ulation, exposed to a contagious atmosphere, the one may be 
severely, the other lightly attacked, though the two individuals 
may be as identical, as regards susceptibility, as two samples of 
one and the same mutton infusion. 

“ The author traces still further the parallelism of these actions 
with the progress of infectious disease. The Times of January 
17th contained a remarkable letter on Typhoid Fever, signed 
‘M. D.,’ in which occurs the following remarkable statement : 
‘In one part of it (Edinburgh), congregated together and in- 
habited by the lowest of the population, there are, according to 
the corporation return for 1874, no less than 14,319 houses or 
dwellings — many under one roof, on the “flat” system —in 
ky hospital practice, the opening of a wound during the passage_of a bacterial 

d would have an effect very different from the opening of it in the interspace be- 

u 
% accounted for in this way. Under the heading Nothing new under the Sun, 
essor Huxley has just sent me the following remarkable extract: “ Uebrigens 
kann man sich die in der Atmosphäre schwimmenden Thierchen wie Wolken den- 
ken, mit denen ganz leere Luftmassen, ja ganze Tage völlig reinen Luftverhältnisse 


ae.” (Ehrenberg, Infusions Thierchen, 1838, p. 525.) The coincidence of 
wey 18 surprising, for I knew nothing of Ehrenberg’s conception. My 
Ouds,” however, are but small miniatures of his. 


350 Professor Tyndall on Germs. [June, 


which there are no house connections whatever with the street 
sewers, and consequently no water-closets. To this day, there- 
fore, all the excrementitious and other refuse of the inhabitants 
is collected in pails or pans, and remains in their midst generally 
in a partitioned-off corner of the living-room until the next day, 
when it is taken down to the streets and emptied into the cor- 
poration carts. Drunken and vicious though the population be, 
herded together like sheep, and with the filth collected and kept 
for twenty-four hours in their very midst, it is a remarkable fact 
that typhoid fever and diphtheria are simply unknown in these 
wretched hovels.’ 

« This case has its analogue in the following experiment, which 
is representative of a class. On November 30th a quantity of 
animal refuse, embracing beef, fish, rabbit, hare, was placed in 
two large test-tubes opening into a protecting chamber contain- 
ing six tubes. On December 13th, when the refuse was in a 
state of noisome putrefaction, infusions of whiting, turnip, beef, 
and mutton were placed in the other four tubes. They were 
boiled and abandoned to the action of the foul “sewer gas” 
emitted by their two putrid companions. On Christmas Day the 
four infusions were limpid. The end of the pipette was then — 
dipped into one of the putrid tubes, and a quantity of matter 
comparable in smallness to the pock-lymph held on the point of 
a lancet was transferred to the turnip. Its clearness was not 
sensibly affected at the time; but on the 26th it was turbid 
throughout. On the 27th, a speck from the infected turnip was 
transferred to the whiting; on the 28th, disease had taken entire 
possession of the whiting. To the present hour the beef and 
mutton tubes remain as limpid as distilled water. Just as in the 
case of the living men and women in Edinburgh, no amount of 
fetid gas had the power of propagating the plague as long as the 
organisms which constitute the true contagium did not gain ac- 
cess to the infusions. : 

“The universal prevalence of the germinal matter of bacteria m 
water has been demonstrated with the utmost evidence by the 
experiments of Dr. Burdon Sanderson. But the germs in water 
are in a very different condition, as regards readiness for devel- 
opment, from those in air. In water they are thoroughly wet 
and ready, under the proper conditions, to pass rapidly into the 
finished organism. In air they are more or less desiccated, and 
require a period of preparation more or less long to bring them 
up to the starting-point of the water-germs. The rapidity of 


+1876.) 


Professor Tyndall on Germs. 351 


development in an infusion, infected by either a speck of liquid 
containing bacteria or a drop of water, is extraordinary. On 
January 4th a thread of glass almost as fine as a hair was 
dipped into a cloudy turnip infusion, and the tip only of the 
glass fibre was introduced into a large test-tube containing an in- 
fusion of red mullet. Twelve hours subsequently, the perfectly 
pellucid liquid was cloudy throughout. A second test-tube con- 
taining the same infusion was infected with a single drop of the 
distilled water furnished by Messrs. Hopkin and Williams; 
twelve hours also sufficed to cloud the infusion thus treated. 
Precisely the same experiments were made with herring, with 
the same result. At this season of the year, several days’ expos- 
ure to the air are needed to produce so great an effect. On De- 
cember 31st a strong turnip-infusion was prepared by digesting 
thin slices in distilled water at a temperature of 120° Fahr. The 
infusion was divided between four large test-tubes, in one of 
which it was left unboiled, in another boiled for five minutes, in 
the two remaining ones boiled and, after cooling, infected with 
one drop of beef-infusion containing bacteria. In twenty-four 
hours the unboiled tube and the two infected ones were cloudy, 
the unboiled tube being the most turbid of the three. The infu- 
sion here was peculiarly limpid after digestion ; for turnip it was 
quite exceptional, and no amount of searching with the micro- 
“cope could reveal in it at first the trace of a living bacterium ; 
still germs were there which, suitably nourished, passed in a 
single day into bacterial swarms without number. Five days 
have not sufficed to produce an effect approximately equal to 
this in the boiled tube, which was uninfected, but exposed to the 
common laboratory air. 

“ There cannot, moreover, be a doubt that the germs in the air 
differ widely among themselves as regards preparedness for de- 
velopment. Some are fresh, others old; some are dry, others 
moist, Infected by such germs, the same infusion would require 
different lengths of time to develop bacterial life. This remark 
applies to and explains the different degrees of rapidity with 
which epidemic disease acts upon different people. In somé, the 
hatching period, if it may be called such, is long, in some short, 
the differences depending upon the different degrees of prepared- 
ness of the contagium.” 


352 The Former Climate of the Polar Regions. [June, 


ON THE FORMER CLIMATE OF THE POLAR REGIONS! 
BY PROFESSOR A. E. NORDENSKIÖLD. 


A Ae a few years ago it was looked upon as an article of faith 
among geologists that the whole globe was once in a melted, 
incandescent state, and that the conditions of temperature now 
prevailing on the surface of the earth have been in process of 
time produced by the slow, gradual cooling of the once fused and 

lowing mass. It then appeared so natural that, in consequence 
of the earth’s internal heat, a tropical climate should extend from 
pole to pole, that no special weight was attached to the evidences 
of this fact which geology was at that time able to produce. 
The Dane Giesecke’s and the English Scoresby’s specimens of 
fossil plants from the east and west coasts of Greenland, evi- 
dencing a warm climate there, attracted so little attention that 
neither they, nor the fossil remains of Saurians found by the 
famous Arctic traveler, Sir Edward Belcher, in the American 
Polar Archipelago, could be found in the museums to which they 
had been confided. 

It was not till geologists had become fully convinced that the 
gradual transition from the time when a warm climate was sup- 
posed to have prevailed over the whole earth and the present 
time has at least once been interrupted by a period during which 
the greater part of the European and American continents were 
covered by mighty glaciers, that the geological theory of climates 
was taken up with real interest. People began gradually to per 
ceive that, even supposing the earth really to have once been in 
a state of glowing fusion, the cooling must already at the Cam- 
brian and Silurian epochs have proceeded so far that the quantity 
of heat which the earth lost by radiation was fully compensated 
by that which it received from the other heavenly bodies. It 
has also been supposed that the cause of the glacial period — 
when vast ice mountains scattered bowlders from Scandinavia 
over the plains of Northern Germany, and when the Swiss Alps 
formed the centre of an icy desert similar to-the present Green- 
land — is to be sought for in some trifling changes in the form 
of the earth’s orbit and the inclination of the equator, which 
have taken place and continue to take place periodically after the 
lapse of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years. The same 
causes which have once produced the glacial period have thus 
happened, not only during this last period nearer to our own 

1 A lecture delivered at the anniversary meeting of the Royal Swedish Academy 
of Science, March 31, 1875, and translated for The Geological Magazine. 


-` Scientific 


FEST E SOAR RMP ART AS Pee Pap 0! Serie RN) pened ee tA Ree Ay tee me yi 


S Na aas iy ela 


Let Naf AE a aa Le ie ian R EAT ge AT, 


Sei are 
K 


fore 
tology from 
neighborhood 


supply us wit 


ot different 
these present 


. Vegetation, wh 


7 certainly 
_ "Pecies of Lepi 
eno, 9. 


time, but also many times before 
that they were also then followed by somewhat similar results, 


Immediately 
xtensive contin 
north of Europ 
bergen Vast str 
_ Period, in whic 


n examined and described by Professor Heer, of Ziirich. We 


1876.] The Former Climate of the Polar Regions. 353 


; and there is reason to suppose 


different geological periods as possible. . When in our days a 

question is seriously propounded, it is seldom long be- 
it is answered ; and even in the instance before us we have 
of late years received numerous contributions to geological clima- 


lands the geographical situation of which, in the 
of the pole, renders them best fitted to yield in- 


formation of this kind. 


The geology of the polar tracts can in two different ways 


h information concerning the former climate, partly 


y a comparison of the fossil animals and plants there found with 
» partly by an accurate examination of the various strata 


glacial formations, 


© now possess fossil remains from the polar regions belong- 
all the periods into which the geologist has divided 


the earth. The Silurian fossils which McClintock 


hg to forms too far removed from those now living, to furnish 
“Seg Sure information relative to the climate in which they have 
Ived, 


after the termination of the Devonian age, an 
ent seems to have been formed in the polar basin 
e, and we still find in Beeren Island and Spitz- 
ata of slate, sandstone, and coal, belonging to that 
h are imbedded abundant remains of a luxuriant 
ich, as well as several of the fossil plant-remains 
polar regions by the Swedish expeditions, have 


meet with forms, vast Sigillaria, Calamites, and 
dodendron, ete., which have no exactly correspond- 
23 


854 The Former Climate of the Polar Regions. [June, 


ing representatives in the plants now existing. Colossal and 
luxuriant forms of vegetation, however, indicate a climate highly 
favorable to vegetable development. A careful examination of 
the petrifactions taken from these strata shows also so accurate 
an agreement with the fossil plants of the same period found in 
many parts of the continent of Central Europe, that we are 
obliged to conclude that at that time no appreciable difference of 
climate existed on the face of the earth, but that a uniform 
climate extremely favorable for vegetation — but not on that 
account necessarily tropical — prevailed from the equator to the 
poles. 

The sand and slate beds here mentioned do not contain any 
marine petrifactions, whence we may conclude that they have 
been formed in lakes or other hollows in an extensive polar con- 
tinent. In Beeren Island and Spitzbergen they are, however, 
covered by beds of limestone and siliceous rock, which form the 
chief material in Beeren Island, and of several considerable 
mountains on the southern side of Hinloopen Strait, and the 
innermost bays of Ice-fjord in Spitzbergen. The manner in 
which these mountains rise several thousand feet above the sur- 
rounding snow desert, their regular form, crowned with vast 
masses of dark volcanic rock divided into vertical columns, the 
siliceous strata forming perpendicularly-scarped terraces, and the 
tendency of the calcareous beds to fall away and form natural 
arches, give to these mountains the appearance of ruins of colossal 
ancient fortifications and temples, unequaled in sublime and des- 
olate magnificence. Here, indeed, we meet with the monumental 
gravestones of a long-past age. The rock is in fact formed almost 
entirely of shells of marine mollusca, fragments of corals, and 
bryozoa of the age of the mountain-limestone. We have then, 
here, not only a proof that the ancient polar continent sank 
down again and gave place to a deep polar ocean, but also, 12 
the correspondence of the corals, shells, and other associated 
organic remains with those met with in more southerly tracts, 
an indication that the warm polar climate remained unchanged. 

The mountain-limestone period was followed by an era durmg 
which the richest coal-beds of England, Belgium, and Ameria 
were formed, and which has accordingly received the name of : 
the coal period. A new distribution of land and water had now : 
taken place, continents had again arisen in the polar tracts, M 
the sandstones and argillaceous strata of which we aga | 
Bell Sound, on the western coast of Spitzbergen, fossil plants : 


in find, at 


En ese E OA a ane Ee oh ee SEC a oe 


1876.] The Former Climate of the Polar Regions. 855 


that bear witness to a rich polar vegetation developed under a 
warm climate. Among these, however, we miss the species of 
large-leaved fern so abundant in the coal-beds of more southerly 
lands, a cireumstance which may possibly indicate a certain dif- 
ference of climate as existing at that epoch, unless, as is more 


_ probable, the circumstance is merely the result of the insuffi- 


ciency of the materials brought from but one single arctic local- 
ity. 

The only relics from the polar regions belonging to the suc- 
ceeding era, the Triassic, are those of marine animals, amongst 
which a considerable portion consists of large, shell-clad Cepha- 
lopoda related to Ammonites, Nautilus, ete., which, judging from 
the habits of the forms still existing in our time, could assuredly 
have only lived in a warm ocean. More certain information rela- 
tive to the nature of the polar climate at that time is afforded by 
portions of skeletons of colossal Sauria, — one form, Ichthyosaurus 
polaris, seems to have reached a length of twenty or thirty feet, 
— which, together with vast coprolite beds, are found in great 
abundance inclosed in the Triassic strata of Ice-fjord, and which 
among the now existing fauna have their nearest representatives 
in the crocodiles on the sunny banks of the Nile, or perhaps 
rather in the marine lizard, Amblyrhynchus, met with in the 
Galapagos Isles. That multitudes of these cold-blooded animals 
lived at that time in the vicinity of the eightieth degree of lati- 
tude attests beyond all doubt climatal conditions very different 
tom those of the present day. 

At the entrance of Ice-fjord and at Mount Agardh, in Stor- 
fjord, the Triassic strata are covered with marine formations be- 
longing to the immediately subsequent geological era, the J — 
Period, and, as far as we can judge from the few fossil remains 
hitherto discovered in these strata, no diminution had as yet 
taken place in the warmth of the polar climate. But great 
changes now came to pass in the portion of the polar basin north 
of Europe, the ocean being again transformed into a continent, 
which, though shattered and reduced, still exists up to the pres- 

nt time. The upper portion, therefore, of the Jura formation 

of Spitzbergen does not contain any marine organisms, but in 
the Place of them beds of sandstone and slate, with coal-seams 

impressions of plants. From the strata belonging to that 
age met with at Cape Boheman, in Ice-fjord, situated between 


the Seventy-eighth and seventy-ninth degrees of latitude, the 
edish 


Sw. 


expeditions have brought home numerous impressions of 


356 The Former Climate of the Polar Regions. [June, 


palm-like cycadeæ and conifer, the representative species of 
which now flourish in the neighborhood of the tropics. This 
already leads to the supposition of a warm climate, which sup- 
position is further confirmed by a comparison with the European 
fossil flora of the same date, which indicates that the climate of 
Spitzbergen did not then materially differ from that of Central 
Europe. 

The Swedish expeditions have also succeeded in obtaining, 
partly from Greenland and partly from Spitzbergen, from two 
separate epochs of the Cretaceous era, extensive collections of 
fossil plants, lately described by Professor Heer in the Trans- 
actions of the Royal Swedish Academy. By this we have been 
enabled not only to determine the epoch when differences of 
climate first began to show themselves on the surface of the earth, 
but also pretty closely to follow an extremely remarkable change 
in the appearance of the vegetable world which took place dur- 
ing the course of that period. 

Within the polar basin we meet with the lowest division of 
the Cretaceous age on the north side of the Noursoak peninsula, 
in Northwestern Greenland. The crown of the hills is here 
composed of black, ancient lava-streams and immense beds © 
volcanic tuff, hardened in process of time into solid rock. 

Over these volcanic formations now rests a covering of per- 
petual ice, and beneath them on the sea-shore vast strata of sand 
are discovered, containing inconsiderable coal-beds, interstratified 
with clay-beds and a fine-grained argillaceous shale singularly 
fitted for preserving the ‘impressions of fossils that have been 
imbedded in it. These plants belong to the lowest portion of 
the Cretaceous age, and among the collections brought from this 
spot, Heer has succeeded in distinguishing seventy-five different 
species, among which are thirty ferns, nine cycadex, and seven- 
teen conifere. i 

The third part of the ferns belongs to one genus, Gleichema, 
which still flourishes in the neigborhood of the tropics and 
warmer parts of the temperate zone, and the same remark holds 
good of the cycadez, most of which are referable to the genus 
Zamia, species of which we meet with within the tropics, as also 
of the conifers, some of which are nearly related to forms still ex- 
isting in Florida, Japan, and California. From this Heer draws — 
the conclusion, that in the early part of the Cretaceous period ee 
the climate of the now ice-covered Greenland was somewhat like 
that which now prevails in Egypt and the Canary Isles. 


: 
4 
4 
q 


- 


1876.] The Former Climate of the Polar Regions. 357 


Among the ferns, cycadeæ, and conifers of Noursoak peninsula, 
were found a few impressions of a species of the poplar, Populus 
primeva, which formed the only and at the same time the old- 
est known representative of the forest vegetation now prevailing 
in the temperate zone. Nevertheless the vegetation of the arctic 
tracts was already during the Cretaceous period undergoing a 
complete transformation. Evidence of this has been obtained 
from the same locality, Atanekerdluk, on the south side of the 
Noursoak peninsula, from which such magnificent remains of 
arctic vegetation of the Tertiary period had previously been ob- 
tained, from strata at a somewhat higher level. Here, out of 
the talus that has fallen from the lofty fells, some black and 
tolerably easily crumbling strata of shale protrude, among which, 
on careful inspection, impressions of plants may be discovered 
belonging to the Cretaceous formation, not to the lower, but 
the upper portion of it. The vegetation is here quite differ- 
ent. The ferns and cycadez have disappeared, and in their place 
we find deciduous trees and other dicotyledons in astonishing 
variety and forms, among which a species of fig may be men- 
tioned, of which not only the leaves, but also the fruit, have been 
obtained in a fossil state ; two species of magnolia, etc. The 
climate that then prevailed over the whole globe was therefore 
still warm and luxuriant, even if, at least in the arctic regions, 
considerably modified from what it formerly had been, inasmuch 
ae that the flowerless vegetation (which was now beginning to 
die out), as far as we can judge from its present representatives, 
the ferns, required a warm, humid climate, whereas the new 
forms with their luxuriant flowers, which now began to charac- 
terize the vegetable world, required, in order to develop all the 
grandeur of their colors, a clear and sunny sky. The disappear- 
ance of sundry tropical and sub-tropical forms that are met with 
in the older Cretaceous strata has led Heer to the conclusion 
that difference of climate at different latitudes was now begin- 
mng to show itself, and he calls attention to the circumstance 
that this takes place synchronously with the development of the 
dicotyledonous plants in greater variety. ` 

Unhappily, in the arctic regions no fossil remains belonging 
to the Eocene age, which immediately succeeded the Cretaceous 
Period, have hitherto been met with, and we are therefore desti- 
tute of the actual data necessary for ascertaining its climatic 
character, But the next following, or Miocene, age places at 
Sur disposal abundant materials in the magnificent remains of 


358 The Former Climate of the Polar Regions. [June, 


plants obtained, we may say, from all parts of the polar basin 
and its vicinity: from West Greenland by Inglefield, McClintock, 
Rink, Torell, Whymper, and the Swedish expeditions; from 
East Greenland by Payer; from Alaska by Mr. Furnhjelm; 
from Sagalin by Admiral Furnhjelm; and from different local- 
ities of Spitzbergen by the Swedish expeditions! The spots 
where remains of this period are found are frequently distin- 
guished by their astonishing abundance of fossil plant-remains. 

For example, at a place in Spitzbergen which we have called 
Cape Lyell, after the lately-deceased great English geologist, the 
rocks on the shore for a distance of several hundred feet form a 
continuous herbarium, where every stroke of the hammer brings 
to light an image of the vegetation of a long-past age, when 
the forest vegetation of these tracts consisted of the swamp- 
cypress of Texas (Taxodium distichum), of gigantic sequoias, 
relations or ancestors of California’s mammoth tree, of large- 
leaved birches, limes, oaks, beeches, planes, and even magnolias. 
The place is situated in about 77° 35’ N. lat., on the south side of 
the entrance to Bell Sound, on the western coast of Spitzbergen. 
At the foot of the cliff, on one or two barren heaps of gravel, 
one may discover shoots an inch long of the polar willow, sole 
representative of the present vegetation of the locality. Just off 
the shore the ocean currents drive icebergs, which have fallen 
from the neighboring glatiers, backwards and forwards, and the 
crown of the rock itself forms the limit of a mighty glacier, 
which threatens within a few years to bury, under an icy cover- 
ing of several hundred feet thickness, not only the little vegeta- 
tion that exists here, and which in the summer weeks is some- 
times adorned with charming colors, but also the memorials of 
the ancient glorious age now preserved within its rocks. ; 

By a careful examination of the rich materials here accessible, 
and by a comparison of the petrifactions with those of the same 
period found in more southerly localities, Heer has shown that 
already in the Miocene era considerable variety of climate - 
isted on the face of the earth, though even the pole at that time 
enjoyed a climate fully comparable with that of Central Europe 
now. The then flora of Europe had almost entirely an Ameri- 
can character, and there are many reasons for supposing that the 
continents of Europe and America were at that time united, re 

We may also mention the evidence of an arctic Miocene flora obtained by ye l 
John Richardson from fine indurated clay-beds, associated with coal-seams, on i : 
Mackenzie River, near Great Bear Lake, from which seventeen species of font oe 
plants have been identified by Heer. — Epit. Grou. Maa. 


1876.] The Former Climate of the Polar Regions. 359 


bounded on the south by an ocean extending from the Atlantic 
over the present deserts of Sahara and Central Asia to the 
Pacific. 

Between the Miocene and the present era are two important 
periods, the Pliocene and the Glacial, which to us are particu- . 
larly deserving of attention, inasmuch as that during them man, 
the lord of creation, seems first to have made his appearance. 
That during the latter of these periods vast masses of ice covered 
at least all the northern part of Europe is a well-known fact ; 
but concerning the nature of the transition from the glorious 
climate of the Miocene age to the Glacial period we possess no 
knowledge whatever founded on actual observation. Probably 
at some future time contributions towards the solution of this 
important question may be found amongst the mountain masses 
that occupy the peninsula between Ice-fjord and Bell Sound in 
Spitzbergen, or in some parts of the basalt region of Northwest- 
ern Greenland. In the interior of Ice-fjord and at several other 
places on the coast of Spitzbergen, one meets with indications 
either that the polar tracts were less completely covered with ice 
during the Glacial era than is usually supposed, or that, in con- 
formity with what has been observed in Switzerland, inter-glacial 
periods have also occurred in the polar regions. In some sand- 

s not very much raised above the level of the sea, one may i 
fact find the large shells of a mussel (Mytilus edulis) still living 
in the waters encircling the Scandinavian coast. It is now no 
longer found in the sea around Spitzbergen, having been prob- 
ably rooted out by the ice-masses constantly driven by the ocean 
currents along the coasts. 

rom what has been already stated, it appears that the animal 
and vegetable relics found in the polar regions imbedded in 
Strata deposited in widely separated geological eras uniformly 
testify that a warm climate has in former times prevailed over 
the whole globe. From paleontological science no support can 
be obtained for the assumption of a periodical alternation of 
warm and cold climates on the surface of the earth. 

A careful investigation of the structure of the different sedi- 
mentary strata leads to the same result. We are now very well 
acquainted with the origin and nature of the various strata, the 
substance of which has been supplied by the destructive opera- 
tion of glaciers on the surrounding and subjacent mountain 
Masses, and we can point out certain marks by which these 
strata may be distinguished from other non-glacial deposits. In 


360 The Former Climate of the Polar Regions. [June, 


these last, one very rarely meets with any large stone bowlders, 


which have fallen from some neighboring cliff and been imbed- 


ded in sand or clay, either directly, and, if so, close to the place 
where originally found, or else after having in the spring been 
moved a greater or less distance by river ice. In glacial forma- 
tions, on the contrary, as one may gather from the study of the 
strata in Scandinavia that belong to the glacial period, erratic 
blocks transported on icebergs to far-distant regions play an im- 
portant part. If a climate similar to that which now prevails in 
the arctic regions has several times during various geological 
eras existed in the neighborhood of the pole, one has reason to 
expect that sandstones inclosing large bowlders should often be 
met with in these tracts. 

But this is by no means the case, though such formations, if 
they exist on a large scale, could hardly escape observation. 

The character of the coasts in the arctic regions is especially 
favorable to geological investigations. While the valleys are for 
the most part filled with ice, the sides of the mountains in sum- 
mer, even in the eightieth degree of latitude, and to a height of 
one thousand or fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, 
are almost wholly free from snow. Nor are the rocks covered 
with any amount of vegetation worth mentioning, and, more- 
over, the sides of the mountains on the shore itself frequently 
present perpendicular sections, which everywhere expose their 
bare surfaces to the investigator. The knowledge of a mount- 
ain’s geognostic character, at which one in more southerly coun- 
tries can only arrive after long and laborious researches, removal 
of soil, and the like, is here gained almost at the first glance; and 
as we have never seen in Spitzbergen nor in Greenland, in these 
sections, often many miles in length, and including, one may say; 
all formations from the Silurian to the Tertiary, any bowlders 
even as large as a child’s head, there is not the smallest prob- 
ability that strata of any considerable extent, containing boulders, 
are to be found in the polar tracts previously to the middle of 
the Tertiary period. : 

Since, then, both an examination of the geognostic condition 
and an investigation of the fossil flora and fauna of the polar 
lands show no signs of a Glacial era having existed in those 
parts before the termination of the Miocene period, we are fully 
justified in rejecting, on the evidence of actual observation, the 
hypotheses founded on purely theoretical speculations, whic 
assume the many times repeated alternation of warm and glacial 
climates between the present time and the earliest geological ages. 


+ 


pe ee eee rape R RRE 
S a ETE SE Er eN o aa a 


a 
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F 


ila EEES TE Se S 
iena eee PSE a A 


Fete Re er Ee ee ape eds kite pt ese cote” oh 


Recent Literature. 361 


1876.] 


RECENT LITERATURE. 


Anperson’s MANDALAY To Momren.!— Mandalay is the capital of 
Burma, and Momien an important town in the province of Yunnan, 


Western China. The two British expeditions of which Dr. Anderson 


gives a narrative was for the purpose of establishing commercial relations 
between the British in Burma and the rich provinces of Western China. 
Both missions were repulsed and entirely unsuccessful, but much informa- 
tion concerning these remote regions was collected by Dr. Anderson, and 
has been given to the public in this handsome volume. The population 
is a motley one, the Burmese intermingling with the Chinese, though 
both live in different quarters of the same towns, and both are confined 
closely to their walls and fortifications by the fierce hill tribes on the 
border, 


Few notes on the natural history of the country have been recorded, 
though “a full and illustrated report is in active preparation.” The 
famous tame fish of “ the little rocky island of Theehadaw, which boasts 
the only stone pagoda in Burma, and is resorted to by numbers of pil- 


_ grims at the great Buddhist festival in March,” are briefly mentioned in 


the following words : “ Having supplied ourselves with rice and plantains, 
the boatmen called ‘ Tit-tit-tit’ Soon the fish appeared, about fifty yards 
off, and after repeated cries they were alongside, greedily devouring the 
offering of food. In their eagerness they showed their uncouth heads 
and great part of their backs, to which patches of gold leaf, laid on by 
recent devotees, still adhered. So tame were they that they suffered 
themselves to be stroked, and seemed to relish having their long feelers 
pulled. One fellow, to whom a plantain skin was thrown, indignantly 
rejected it, and dived in disgust.” 

ile Burma is rich in ruined temples and towns, the prehistoric 
remains are also abundant. Stone celts are often turned up by the 
plow in Yunnan as with us. “A large number of those purchased 
are small, beautifully cut forms, with few or no signs of use, and made 
of some variety of jade; but there is no reason to doubt the authenticity 
of the larger forms which were brought to us. Bronze celts are also 
found, but are valued at their weight in gold; we managed, however, to 
Purchase one at Manwyne on the return journey. It belongs to the 
socketed type of celts without wings. The composition of the bronze is 
oe as that of the celts found in northern Europe: tin, 10; copper, 


The narrative has been prepared with evident care, and will be useful 
" comparison with the relations of the recent French expedition to 
i : Mandalay to Momien. A Narrative of the Two Expeditions to Western China of 
868 and 1875, under Col. E. B. Sladen and Col. Horace Browne. By Joun Ax- 
oN M, D., etc. With Maps and Illustrations. London. 1876. 8vo, pp. 479. 
7.50. 
. 


fo 


Macmillan & Co. 


362 - Recent Literature. [June, 


Cochin China, of which finely illustrated accounts are appearing in 
Globus, the early numbers of which for the present year also contain 
some fine views of Yunnan. 

THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD FOR 1874.!— This useful work is appar- 
ently a complete bibliography of all works, papers, and notes, on geology, 
mineralogy, and paleontology, published during the year 1874. It will 
be of course indispensable to American laborers in these fields, espe- 
cially to those who do not have access to large libraries. The work 
seems to have been prepared with thoroughness, as there are twenty- 
seven contributors besides the editor, and it is accompanied by an index. 
The Record is divided into eight sections, namely, Stratigraph a and 
Descriptive Geology, Physical Geology, Applied and Economic Geol- 
ogy, Petrology, Mineralogy, Paleontology, Maps and Sections, " Miscella- 
neous and General. Brief summaries of the most important works and 
essays’ give it a great value to the working geologist. There are more 
than two thousand entries. 

Jounson’s CycLoræpra.? — With Professors F. A. P. Barnard and 
A. Guyot as editors-in-chief of this compact and useful cyclopedia, the 
reader may be assured that the articles upon scientific topics are reliable, 
accurate, and fresh. The associate editors are twenty-seven in number, 
embracing several of our leading scientists, and there are five assistant 
editors, whose names are well known in scientific and literary circles. 
The editors claim that of the articles “not fewer than two or t ree 
hundred, at the smallest estimate, are articles upon topics of interest mm 
science, letters, and constructive art, of which the titles do not appear 
in any contemporary work of the kind; many of them having been, in 


research.” We notice, in looking hastily through the second volume, 
articles by the following scientists: Barnard, Chandler, Cooke, Dawson, 

De Gubernatis, Gill, Goodale, Gray, Carat Hitchcock, Hunt, Packard, 
Riley, Verrill, Willey, Woodward, and Yule. 

Recent CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALOGY.— Dur- 
ing the last few months several important papers have appeared es 
to the mammals of North America, chiefly by Dr. Elliott Coues and 
Theodore Gill. It is now several years since Dr. Coues began to pe 


his labors between the North American mammals and birds his atten- _ 


tion having formerly been given almoxt exclusively to the latter. The 
first general results of his work upon the mammals appeared in the a 
of a Synopsis of the Muridæ of North America.’ This brochure © 


1 The Geological Record for 1874. An Account of Works on Geology, Mea 
and Paleontology, published during the Year. oo by WILLIAM Waitt 
London: Taylor and Francis. 1875. 8vo, pp. 

5 a's Now Universal Cyclopedia. A Badii and Popular Te 
Useful Knowledge. Illustrated with Maps, Plans, and Engravings. nd 
egy 1876. L—Lichens. Royal 8vo, pp. 1767. New York: A. J. Johnson ? 


of 
vols- 


= 


3 Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; 1874. 


á 


TER 


eee 


i 


1876.] Recent Literature. : 363 


twenty-four pages is based on the material (“several thousand speci- 
mens”) in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, and is stated to 
be an abstract of a memoir! in which the characters of the varieties, 
species, and higher groups are to be given, with synonymy, bibliography, 
etc. In this paper the family Muride is taken in its usual acceptation, 
with the exclusion of the genus Jaculus (= Zapus), formerly included 
among the Muride. The four introduced species, namely, the common 
house rats and mice, are mentioned merely by name, but the principal 
synonomy in the cases of the indigenous species, generic and subgeneric 


diagnosis, and the geographical distribution of the species and varieties 


are also added. Of the genus Neotoma four species are given, including 
one (N. magister) fossil from the caves of Pennsylvania. The others 
are N. Floridana, under which are placed N. Mexicana and N. micropus 
of Baird’s General Report on the Mammals of North America; N. 
fuscipes, and N. cinerea, the latter embracing also N. occidentalis of 
Baird’s General Report. The species of Sigmodon are reduced to one, 
S. Berlandieri Baird and Hesperomys Tolticus De Saussure being re- 
ferred to S. hispidus. The species of Hesperomys are also greatly re- 
duced in number, and are placed in three subgenera: Vesperimus, here 
first characterized, and Onychomys and Oryzomys of Baird. Of the 
subgenus Vesperimus six species are recognized, including two from 
Mexico, one of which is described as new. ‘The other four are H. leuco- 
pus, with four varieties (leucopus, gossypinus, Sonoriensis, eremicus, and 
aureolus), Michiganensis, and Californicus. Under variety leucopus are 
included no Jess than fourteen nominal species of previous authors, while 
two others appear under variety aureolus. The subgenus Onychomys 
includes two species, one of which (torridus) is described as new from 

rizona; the other (leucogaster) includes also the Mus Missouriensis 
of Audubon and Bachman. The subgenus Oryzomys embraces the 
single species palustris ; making altogether nine North American species 
of Hesper omys. Ochetodon is described as a new genus, with three species 
given as well-established and two that are doubtful. In a foot-note, under 
Ochetodon, the genus Ruthrodon is characterized, and diagnosis given of 
its two subgenera, one of which (Euneomys) is new. 

In the arvicoline group (subfamily Arvicoline) Evotomys is diagnosed 
a a new genus, with one species, the netelies of Pallas, which is re- 
garded as circumpolar in its distribution, and as shading southward in 
North America into variety Gappari (= Arvicola Gappari auct.). The 
old genus Arvicola is divided into four subgenera, namely, Myonomes 
Raf, Chilotus and Pedomys Baird, and Pitymys McMurtrie, and em- 

s six species. To the old A. riparius Ord, or the common meadow 


364 Recent Literature. [June, 


mouse of North America, are referred no less than eighteen specific 
names of former authors, while two other species ( Townsendii and xan- 
thognathus) are only provisionally regarded as distinct from this. The 
other three species of the old genus Arvicola have each also several 
synonyms, the A. curlatus of Cope (from California) being regarded as 
a variety of austerus, and a new variety of pinetorum is added, from 
Southeastern Mexico, a region where the genus was long supposed to be 
eiS The subgenus Synaptomys Baird is raised to generic 

embraces the single species Cooperi, formerly referred to 
Myod es. 

The lemmings of America are reduced to two species, which are re- 
ferred to two genera — Myodes as restricted and Coniculus Wagler. 
The one (M. obensis) is confined to the western portions of arctic 
America, while the other (0. huelsonius) is found throughout the Arctic 
regions generally, and includes several nominal species. The muskrat 
(Fiber zibthicus) closes the list of the North American Muride. 

In no group of North American mammals have such extensive 
changes been as yet made as Dr. Coues has here found it necessary to 
adopt; few groups, too, have so much needed careful revision, or present 
a more difficult field of inquiry. The vast amount of material Dr. 
Coues has had as a basis for his work, and the evident care he has ex- 
ercised in its elaboration, lead us to look forward with great interest to 
the appearance of the promised fuller exposition of the grou 

Almost simultaneously with the appearance of this synopsis in its 
original place of publication, it was also reissued, with additions, as one 
of the publications of the Northern Boundary Commission, as the “ first 
of a series of preliminary zodlogical reports which may appear from time 
to time, during the elaboration of the material secured by the Boundary 
Commission.”? The additions appear to consist mainly of a list of ten 
species collected during the survey, with notes on their distribution. 

As previously noticed, Dr. Coues, in his definition of the amily 
Muride, excluded from it the genus Jaculus. This genus he has since 
raised to the rank of a distinct family,? to which he has given the name 
Zapodide. The results of his investigation of this species he sum- 
marizes as follows: (1.) That there is at a e one known 


_ 
oS 
i=} 
mR 
Qu 
. 8 


Major 
Engineers, Chief Astronomer. Natural History. 
Exviorr Coues, United States Army, Surgeon and Naturalist of the Commission. 
Reissued, with additions, from the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences 
of Philadelphia, 1874. Philadelphia. Collins, printer. 1874. 


ome Account, Critical, Descriptive, and Historical, of Zapus Huds J p 
ErLrorr Coves, United Sta rmy. tin of the United States Geological a 
Geographical Survey of the Territories. Second Series, No. 5, pp. 253-262, January 


8, 1875. Itwas also reissued separately by ia dathiod: the separate copies bearing date 
75: 


1876.) Recent Literature. 365 


species of Zapus. (2.) That this species, usually referred to the Muride, 
differs from the Muride to a degree warranting its recognition as a dis- 
tinct family, as was done by Dr. Gill in 1872. Its principal characters 
_ are the presence of an upper premolar not found in Muride proper, the 
different and peculiar construction of the ante-orbital foramen, and the 
saltatorial development of the hind limbs. (3.) That none of the various 
generic names that had been applied to this species were tenable, accord- 
ing to recognized rules of nomenclature. He then proceeds to show 
why the former generic appellations of Meriones, Jaculus, Dipus, and 
Gerbillus are inapplicable, and proposes the new one of Zapus, in allu- 
sion to its large hind feet. The adoption of this name for the genus he 
considers as necessitating the changing of the family name from Jaculide 
to Zapodide. Then follows the generic and specific synonomy, amounting 
. to one and a half pages, the latter embracing more than a dozen specific 
names, four of which have had, at different times, considerable prominence. 
Detailed descriptions are also given of the cranial, dental, and external 
characters of the genus, with a notice of its geographical distribution, and 
remarks on its synonymy. 

Brinton’s Myrus or tur New WortpvJ— “ Picking painfully 
amid the ruins of a race gone to wreck centuries ago, rejecting much 
foreign rubbish and scrutinizing each stone that lies around, if we still 
are unable to rebuild the edifice in its pristine symmetry, yet we can at 
least discern and trace the ground plan and outlines of the fane.” This is 
what the author has most successfully done, and the results of his studies 
are attractively embodied in the handsome volume before us. Free 
from the fulse interpretations so frequently placed upon them, we have 
here given us what certainly can be accepted as a very correct idea of 
the mental condition and peculiarity of those strange tribes of men, the 
So-called Indians of North and South America. Chapters II. to X. in- 
clusive cover the fascinating field of study suggested by the ideas of God 
among the Red race; Sacred Numbers, The Symbol of the Bird and 
Serpent, Myths of Water, Fire, Thunder, and the Religion of Sex; also 
the subject of their Supreme Gods, The Myths of Creation, the Deluge, 

ature’s Epochs and the Last Day. Chapters VIII. and IX. are devoted 
to the Subject of the origin of man and the soul and its destiny, as these 
vexed questions of our day were looked upon by the Red men, and to 
"8 are the most entertaining chapters of the work. The author traces 
back the myths of the Red men generally back to the one solar myth, 
ag disposes of the personality of their god-like heroes, as Quetzalcoatl, 
= vacocha, and Michabo. 
ae Ya € opening chapter, a general consideration of the Red race, is not, 
7 i quite so satisfactory as the body of the work. While a most ex- 
ent résumé of the proofs of the antiquity of American man is given, 
i fas Ms of the New World. A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of 
revised. “is of America. By D. G. Brixton, A. M., M. D. Second Edition, 

w York; Henry Holt & Co. 1876. $2.50. 


366 General Notes. [June, 


such as his isolation, being “ cut off time out of mind from the rest of 
the world,” and the fact that “the remains of primeval art and the im- 
press he made upon nature bespeak for man a residence in the New 
World coeval with the most distant events of history,” the author, if 
we understand him aright, adopts the theory of the unity of. the human 
race. If by unity is meant a common origin from one creative centre, 
and that a creation de novo, rather than derivative, then we dissent. In- 
deed, reasons are given in every chapter of the work, for believing that 
the Red race of America never had any intercourse, or bore any relation- 
ship to other peoples of any portion of the globe, unless we trace man 
back so far into time past that we see him the occupant of continents 
not now existing as such. A word, and we have done. On page 39, 
Dr. Brinton states that “not a tittle of evidence is on record to carry 
the age of man in America beyond the present geological epoch.” In 
this convection we would call attention to the remark of the late Pro- 
fessor Wyman, on page 45 of Fresh-Water Shell-Mounds of Florida, 
as follows: “ The ancient remains found in California . . . by Professor 


pl 
lected by Professor Whitney, but not yet published, substantiates the 
opinion given above with regard to age.” We have, therefore, some- 
thing more than a tittle of such evidence, and we are carried back to @ 
time when man in America was even too primitive to originate those 
curious myths which afterwards became so marked a feature of their 
lives, and which Dr. Brinton has most successfully interpreted. 


Recent Booxs ann Pampuiers. — Prehistoric Man. Researches into the Origin 
of Civilization in the Old and New Worlds. By Daniel Wilson. Third edition, 
revised and enlarged, with illustrations. 2 vols. London: Macmillan & Co. 1876. 
8vo, pp. 399, 401. i 

List of Skeletons and Crania in the Section of Comparative Anatomy of the United 
States Army Medical Museum, for Use during the International Exhibition of 1876, 
in Connection with the Representatives of the Medical Department, United States 
Army. Washington, D.C. 1876. 8vo, pp. 52. 

Al count of the Worcester Lyceum and Natural History Association. By 
Nathaniel Paine. Prepared for the International Exhibition, 1876. Worcester. 1876. 
8vo, pp. 13. 

On some Characters of the Genus Coryphodon Owen. By Professor O. C. Marsh. 
8vo, pp. 4. (From the American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xi., May, 1876.) 


GENERAL NOTES. 


BOTANY. 

ARRESTED GROWTH AND PERSISTENCE OF BARBULA RURALIS: — 
During a visit made to Ile Royale, Michigan (Lake Superior), in the 
summer of 1874, my attention was called to a curious example of the 

1 Conducted by Pror. G. L. GOODALE. 


1876.] Botany. 367 


preservation of such a fragile organism as a moss, while what we regard 
as more enduring objects perish and disappear. At Scovill’s Point, a 
sharp, high tongue of rock, of trap formation, running out into the lake 
for several hundred feet, the almost level summit presents a large space 
thickly carpeted with the moss Barbula ruralis Hedw.- In this were in- 
scribed a number of names and dates, made by simply cutting away the 
moss and letting the underlying rock appear. The inscriptions, most] 
in bold characters of several inches in length, were in general distinctly 
legible, the dark green (almost black) moss preserving the outlines, and 
appearing, with few exceptions, to have remained at a stand-still — 
neither decaying nor growing — since the writings were made. 

ne of the most prominent names was that of the gentleman after 
whom the point is called. This has the date ’46 attached to it; and a 
friend, a mutual acquaintance, who accompanied me and pointed _out the 
place, informed me that in the year denoted (twenty-eight years before), 
the gentleman, visiting Ile Royale, to his surprise, found inscriptions in 
the moss here, and added his name with the date. His son was with 
him at the time, and, revisiting the island in 1872, climbed up here to see 
whether any trace of his father’s writing remained, and to his astonish- 
ment finding it as well as the other inscriptions undisturbed, cut his own 
name with the date — all in the Barbula. The isolated locality, and the 
steep (mostly perpendicular or overhanging) sides of the cliff, render it 
probable that few persons would find their way to the spot without some 
such object in view. The inscriptions, as seen by me in 1874, were as 
follows: “June — 1825.” «— 43.” “P. A. Scovill, 746.” 
1847. — “ O. ©. Scovill — 1872.” 

The first of these inscriptions I have thought may have been made 
by the party of Captain Bayfield, R. N., who about the date given made 
his survey of Lake Superior, undoubtedly visiting this island. That it 
and the other older ones should be preserved for such a length of time in 
80 fragile a substance, is surely remarkable. From the time at which I 
saw them to the earliest date would cover a period of forty-nine years. 
And most interesting is the evidence here conveyed of the persistence of 
the Moss, coupled with its arrested growth. The plants were so dry and 
brittle as to be easily rubbed to powder between the hands, and could 
with difficulty be removed without breaking them. Yet on placing some 
m water they revived so as to apparently present full vitality. 

This is not the first time I'have had my attention called to this plant 
and its semi-torpid habit. It must be of exceedingly slow growth; and 
I believe it is but rarely found in fruit. Though it is abundant on Lake 
I have never met a fertile specimen. — HENRY GILLMAN, 
3 Michigan. ; 

THE HYGROSCOPIC MECHANISM BY WHICH CERTAIN SEEDS ARE 
ENABLED TO Bury THEMSELVES IN THE GrouND.— Mr. Francis 
Darwin read an interesting paper on this subject at a recent meeting of 


368 General Notes. [June, 


the Linnean Society of London. The plant on which his observations 
were made was chiefly the feather-grass, Stipa pennata, but the same 
phenomena exist in many grasses, in Anemone montana, and in some of 
the Geraniacew. The essential points of structure common to all these 
self-burying seeds are: (1) a sharp point more or less covered with re- 
flexed hairs ; (2) a strong woody awn sharply bent at one point so as to 
be divided into a lower vertical and an upper more or less horizontal 
part, the vertical part being strongly twisted on its own axis (or form- 
ing a helix as in the Geraniacew). The hygroscopic phenomena exhib- 
ited by all the seeds are, (1.) On being wetted the vertical part of the 
awn untwists, and causes the straight horizontal part to revolve and 
describe a circle in a horizontal plane; the angle between the vertical 
and horizontal parts also gradually disappears, and the awn becomes 
straight. (2.) As the awn becomes dry again, the movements just de- 
scribed are reversed, the angular bend and the torsion of the lower part 
of the awn appearing. The process by which the seed of Stipa buries 
itself is as follows: the long feathery horizontal part of the awn is 
easily entangled in low vegetation, and the seed is thus held in a more 
or less vertical position, its point resting on the ground. When the 
awn becomes wet it tends to untwist, but the horizontal part being un- 
able to revolve, the rotation is transferred to the seed; the tendency of 
the seed to straighten itself is also converted into pressure of the point 
of the seed against the soil. As the awn dries again, the seed is not 
pulled out of the ground, as would be the natural result of the reversal 
of the movements by which it was buried. On the contrary, it is act- 
ually thrust deeper into the soil during the process of drying. By the 
combination of these two alternate actions the seed is completely buried. 
What special advantage it may be to a plant that its seeds should be 
buried is uncertain; in the case of Stipa, at least, it seems to have no 
connection with germination; it is conjectured that it may serve as à 
protection against graminivorous birds, etc. The explanations given by 
Hildebrand of the twist in the awn of the wild oat, and by Hanstein of 
the torsion of the awn of Erodium, appear to be inadequate to explain 
the phenomena. The hygroscopic torsion of the awn appears really to 
depend on the power of torsion residing in the individual cells of which 
the awn is composed. Thus when an isolated cell is dried it twists on 
its own axis in precisely the same manner and direction as the awn it- 
self; and just as the latter untwists in moisture, so do the individual 
cells in like condition. It is demonstrable that the torsion of the sepa- 
rate cells must cause the awn to twist as a whole. This remarkable 
power appears to depend on the molecular structure (stratification and 
striation) of the walls of the twisting cells. Although it was previously 

nown from the researches of Nägeli and others, that certain cells be- 
come twisted in drying, yet their combination so as to produce torsion 
in a considerable mass of tissue has not before been observed. Neither 


: 
; 


fe 


1876.] Botany. 369 


has the power of torsion in drying, possessed by the cells, been hitherto 
shown to be of use in the economy of any plant. — A. W. BENNETT. 
Tur Poraro Disease. — The supposed discovery of the sexual re- 
productive organs of Peronospora infestans, the fungus which causes the 
potato-blight, by Mr. W. G. Smith, continues to attract much atten- 
tion in England and on the Continent of Europe. The eminent my- 
cologist, Professor De Bary, of Strasburg, does not altogether accept 
Mr. Smith’s conclusions, believing that what he considers the resting- 
spores of Peronospora must belong to some other fungus accidentally 
present in the decaying tissue; and his views were recently explained 
at the Linnean Society of London by Mr. Carruthers, F. R. S$. Pro- 
fessor De Bary proposes to divide the group Peronosporee into three 
genera. In Cystopus the conidiophores grow in large bunches, the conidia 
being developed in single rows in basipetal order. In Peronospora, from 
a tree-like mycelium, conidiophores arise singly or in small bunches at 
the ends of the branches, and have no successors in the direct line. The 
hew genus, Phytophthora, to which the old Peronospora infestans be- 
longs, differs in its multiple and successive conidia, which, when shed, 
leave swellings on the branches. In all three genera the ripe conidia, 
when placed in water, produce ciliated zodspores, which penetrate the 
tissue of the host and develop threads or mycelium. By another and 
sexual mode of propagation the odgonia, bladder-shaped female cells, 
after being fertilized by the small male cells or antheridia, produce from 
their protoplasm a thick-walled odspore, from which mycelial threads 
Sprout, and the process is then repeated. A considerable period of in- 
activity may, however, precede the germination of the odspore, which 
în this case hibernates during the winter, while its host decays. The 
conidia propagate and spread the fungus during the summer season only, 
and do not live through the winter. Professor De Bary has found in 
decaying potato-tubers bodies exactly corresponding to odgonia. On 
experimenting with the odspores of these and planting them in potato- 
Plants he obtained minute bodies’ which conducted themselves precisely 
like z00spores, and in most respects resembled those of Pythium. Other 
*xperiments with them, on the moistened legs of dead flies and bodies of 
mites, resulted in their complete phases of development which were 
watched step by step, the zodspores producing a plentiful crop of myce- 
Hum, ete. - As'this new fungus differs in many ways from Phytophthora 
mfestans, De Bary proposes to call it Pythium vexans, and he regards it 
m belonging to the Saprolegnieæ. The fungus named by Montagne 
Artotrogus, and the warty bodies found associated with it he believes to 
H two forms not connected genetically, and only imperfectly known. 
€ has likewise investigated the question of the perennial mycelium of 
ophthora occasionally hibernating where the oöspores are not found in 


sa dia trict, and believes that he has proved that there are two methods 
Which the conidia may pass from the tuber to the foliage. — A. W. B. 
VoL, x. 20. 6. 24 


370 General Notes. [June, 


ApLecTRUM WITH CoRAL-LIKE Root.— Early in April, 1876, in 
transplanting some Aplectrum hyemale Nutt., from the woods northwest 
of Detroit, I found two adjoining plants of this species having branched 
and toothed coral-like roots, similar to those of Corallorhiza, immedi- 
ately beneath the usual bulb or corm, which was also provided with the 
ordinary rootlets. Each plant had the green leaf which the species sends 
upin autumn. A close examination of forty-three additional plants from 
the same woods failed to discover another instance of this interesting and 
significant peculiarity. I have transplanted from this place, at various 
seasons, during eleven years over one hundred specimens of this plant ; 
but never before found a case like the above-described. The coral-like 
roots seemed parasitic on the partly decayed bark of a tree-root, and the 
whole was imbedded in ice, the frost still being in the ground. The ab- 
sence of the coral-like root has been made a generic distinction separating 
Aplectrum from Corallorhiza. 

I have sent the specimens to Professor Gray, who previously had 
never seen nor heard of this “unexpected fact.” I request of botanists 
throughout the parts of the country where this plant is found, to search 
for the peculiarity, that we may learn whether it exists elsewhere, and 
to what extent; though, from my own experience, I think it likely to 
prove most exceptional. — Henry GILLMAN, Detroit, Michigan. 

RESEARCHES IN REGARD TO Growru. — The method pursued by 
Reinke appears to be a modification of that employed in the laboratory 
at Wiirzburg, and for which he does not give the credit due. The im- 
provement in the apparatus seems to be a real one. A balanced and 
therefore tight thread goes from the growing plant over a wheel, which 
by index and multiplier enables the observer to watch and record the 
growth. A microscope of long focus is used to read the vernier. A 
notice of the results obtained by the use of this apparatus must be de- 
ferred. ; 

RuYNCHOSPORA CAPILLACEA VAR. LEVISETA. — This is named and 
was discovered by the Rev. E. G. Hill, and is characterized by having 
the perianth bristles perfectly smooth, while in the ordinary form they are 
downwardly denticulate-roughened. Except in this remarkable partic- 
ular the plant appears to be undistinguishable from R. capillacea. Mr. 
Hill found the plant in wet pine barrens, around the head of Lake 
Michigan, at Pine Station, Indiana. There is another ‘variety, 
needing a name (at least until it is confirmed by finding it constant, 
in other stations), discovered in Herkimer County, New York, in 1864, 
by Professor J. A. Paine, which has twelve bristles (instea 
nary six), and the remarkable stipe to the akene is rather 
usual, — A. Gray 


shorter than 


An HERBARIUM ror SALE. — An herbarium containing specimens 4 
Full par- 
illiams Cok 

ad 


illustrating six thousand species of plants is offered for sale. 
ticulars can be obtained from President Chadbourne, of W 
lege, Williamstown, Mass. 


sais rea cae gn A T 2 OS SR NS EA 


hardly 


SS St eae 


d of the ordi- 


1876.] Botany. 871 


BOTANICAL PAPERS IN Recent PERIODICALS. — Comptes rendus, 
No. 9. . Boussingault, On the Influence exerted by Vegetable Mold on 
the Nitrification of Nitrogenized Substances used as Manures. S. 
Cloéz, On Elæococca Oil, and its Modification by Light. Ed. Heckel, 
On the Movements of the Hairs and Glands of the Leaves of Drosera 
rotundifolia, and in the Leaves of Pinguicula vulgaris. No. 10. A. 
Barthélemy, On the Absorption by Plants of Bicarbonates in Natural 
Waters 

Flora, No. 5 and continued in No. 6. Dr. H. Müller, On Heliotrop- 
ism. (The following conclusions are reached: (1.) In a growing organ 
of a plant only those zones which have not yet finished growing, exhibit 
curvatures dependent on light. (2.) The heliotropic curvature is pro- 
duced by al the sensitive zones during extension. (3-) The parts which 
grow most rapidly are most sensitive to light. (4.) Even negative 
heliotropism (curvatures away from the light) as in roots is most mark 
when growth is most vigorous. (5.) Heliotropic curvatures do not cease 
at once when the light is removed. (6.) The rate of the curving is slow 
at first, then is accelerated, reaches a maximum, after which it dimin- 
ishes. (7.) The curvature is not always at the same place ; it recedes 
gradually towards the lower end of the growing stem. (8.) The 
smaller the angle which the incident rays of light make with the axis 
of the stem, the slighter will be the effect produced. (9.) Heliotropism 
continues until growth ceases or until light has been brought to act upon 
two sides of the plant, or until the curvature from light is overpowered 
by curvature from gravitation (geotropism). (10.) Heliotropic curva- 
ture, under similar circumstances, increased with intensity of light. (11.) 
Stems which have been previously kept in the dark are more sensitive 
to light coming from one side, than are those which have been previously 
illuminated on all sides. (12.) The concave side, which is the one most 
highly illuminated, grows less rapidly than the other. (13.) Negative 
curvatures are not accompanied by uniform growth throughout all zones 
but are characterized by growth only in the lower zone. (14.) Helio- 
tropic curvatures are more rapid when geotropism is excluded. (15.) 
Geotropism counteracts heliotropism, to differing degrees in different 
Plants, (16.) Certain parts or stems are sensitive to light, and others 
are highly geotropic. (17.) Some negatively heliotropic roots are hin- 
dered in growth when they are illuminated on all sides.) X. Landerer, 
of Athens, Botanical Notes from Greece. No. 7 and 8. Hugo de Vries, 
On Wood Repairing Wounds (continued). J. Sachs, On Reinke’s In- 
Vestigations respecting Growth. (Alleging that what Reinke has lately 
published in regard to a new instrument for measuring rate of growth 
Suppresses the fact that the method used is substantially that employed 
Y Sachs.) A. Geheeb (noticing mosses from near the Rhone). 

Botanische Zeitung, No. 11. Ph. Van Tieghem, New Observations 
respecting the Development of the Fruit and the supposed Sexuality 


372 General Notes. [June, 


of Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes. (Noticing Brefeld’s paper, and claim- 
ing that Brefeld has substantially confirmed the results of Van Tieghem’s 
early researches.) Max Reess, A Correction (of an alleged error in 
Brefeld’s memoir). Reinke, Investigations Respecting Growth. No. 
12. Dodel-Port, Concerning the Swarm-spores of Ulothrix zonata. Re 
ports of Societies: Amsterdam, Jonkman, On the Prothallium of Marat- 
tiacee. No. 13. Th. Irmisch, A Contribution to the Natural History of 
Cactacee. (Considering the seedlings of Rhipsalis.) No. 14. In Re- 
ports of Societies: Gottingen. Holle, On the Organs of Vegetation in 
Marattiacee. Holle, On a New Camera (using a double mirror). 


ZOOLOGY. 


Tue EUROPEAN WOODCOCK SHOT IN VIRGINIA. — A few days ago 
I received from Dr. M. G. Ellzey, of Blacksburg, Va., the information 
that “a European woodcock was shot in Loudon County, in November, 
1873,” by his brother, with a number of the common species these gen- 
tlemen secured together. The alleged occurrence being one of much in- 
terest, I wrote, asking for further particulars, in order to secure the “in- 
ternal” evidence necessary to place the matter beyond question. Dr. 
Ellzey appears to be perfectly competent in the case, from the particu- 
larity of the reply with which he has favored me. “ The flight of the 
bird was slower, heavier, and nearer the ground than that of the familiar 
bird. When compared with twelve or fifteen of the latter, it appeared 
at least twice as large as the largest of them ; the wing was longer, more 
pointed, and possessed but one falcate primary. The bird was found to 
weigh fourteen and one half ounces; it seems to me that this weight 
alone is sufficient to determine the species, the heaviest American wood- 
cock ever weighed by me being only seven and one half ounces, while 
the average is about five and one half. Moreover, the character of the 
wing settles the matter beyond dispute. I was at the time aware of the 
peculiarities of the European bird as compared with ours in this respect, 
and made the comparison with such care as to preclude possi 
mistake. I had not at the time, nor have I since had, the smallest doubt 
of the correctness of my diagnosis. The bird was not preserved, as I 
wished, to be sent to a taxidermist for mounting, but was cooked and 
eaten with the rest.” 

We have several authentic records of the casual presence of Scolopax 
rusticola in America, besides some less explicit references to the same 
fact in the works of leading sporting writers; but so far as 
member, there has hitherto been no recorded instance of the oce 
of the species south of New Jersey. — ELLIOTT COUES. 

Norasie Cuance or Hasrr or tHe BANK SwarLow. — In pes” 
ing of this bird (Cotyle riparia, Birds of the Northwest, p. T) 
state, “It becomes an interesting question whether the bank swallow 
will ever abandon its burrows, and so far modify its fossorial nature 3$ to 


bility of 


I now re- 


ee map NER ee 


urrence © 


1876.] Zodlogy. 73 
build in chinks and crannies, or affix a nest anywhere about a building.” 
The matter is already decided, and the surmise verified, as I learn from 
a correspondent, Dr. Rufus Haymond, well known by his contributions 
to the ornithology of Indiana. He writes as follows: “ The depot of the 
White Water Valley Railway, in Brookville, Indiana, is built upon 
stone piers, and spans the hydraulic canal, some five or six feet above the 
water. While at the depot during the past summer I saw a bank swal- 
low fly under the building with several blades of grass in her bill; and 
being curious to see what she would do with them, I watched her, and 
saw her carry them through a two-inch auger hole which had been bored 
through a pine board. The spot was inaccessible, owing to the water ; 
but I know from the droppings about the hole that this was her nest.” 
Ihave never seen or heard of any previous record of such habit, and 
consider Dr. Haymond’s statements very interesting. — ELLIOTT COVES. 

Tae CHAPPARAL Cock. — Can any of your ornithological readers 
give us any information as to the food of the chapparal cock, or road 
runner, as it is usually called in this region ( Geococeyx Oalifornianus). 
It is found, though it is not abundant, along the foot-hills in this vicinity. 
A friend gave me a specimen killed here a few days ago, but I believe it 
is not found north of the “ Divide.” On mounting the bird I found in its 
gizzard no recognizable matter except débris of grasshoppers, and as no 
one has seen a grasshopper alive here for two months, the question is, 
Where did the bird get them? Does it provide its food in the season, 
laying it up for winter? One of the grasshoppers was in perfect condi- 
tion, except that it had lost some of its legs. Under a lens the mass of 
the comminuted material was seen to consist of minute pieces of legs and 
Sema of grasshoppers. — V. T. CHAMBERS, Colorado Springs, 

al. 


Tue “Sisco or LAKE TIPPECANOE.” — I am informed by Mr. Je A. 
Henshall of Oconomowoc, Wis., that the fish described by me under the 
above name (Argyrosomus sisco, AMERICAN NATURALIST, March, 1875, 
P- 135) occurs in abundance in Nemahbin Lake, Waukesha County, 
_ Wis., which empties into Rock River, through Bark River, and in Okau- 
chee, Oconomowoc, and La Belle lakes, in the same county, which send 
their waters also to Rock River by way of the Oconomowoc. 

A notice of this species occurs in Rafinesque’s Ichthyologia Ohiensis, 
P. 44, as follows: — 

“The white fish of Lake Erie, Coregonus albus of Le Sueur (or 
Salmo clupeiformis of Dr. Mitchell), a fish which differs from the trouts 
i being toothless, is said to be found in some streams of Indiana at the 
head of the Wabash and Miami; but I have no certain proof of this.” — 
D. S. Jorvan. 

Corats AND Corax Istanps; By James D. Dana. — We are not 
going to review the book, as it is one whith we suppose a large part of 
Cur readers are familiar with already.: We only propose that they shall 


374 General Notes. [June, 


share with us the amusement we had in reading a review of it in the 


British Quarterly for October last. Here is a sentence: “ Professor — 


Dana, who is another Hugh Miller, made his mark as a writer many 
years ago by his Two Years before the Mast. The man who could 
write that was clearly marked out for something better than the life of 
an able-bodied seaman ; but few who have risen in life as he has have 
been able to turn to such use the lessons of sea-faring life learned in 
earlier years.” 

“The man who could write that” precious sentence in a quarterly 
review, confuse two men of such mark, and educe either of them from 
an illiterate sailor, has earned thereby a word of notice. 

on THE BLur Goose. — A few years ago I came upon a flock 
of four Anser c@rulescens, about two miles west of this place, in April. 
They were feeding upon a grass-plot upon the bank of the west fork of 
White Water River. As I approached them, and before I discovered 
them, they rose up from the ground very much in the manner of the 
mallard. I shot one some days later, breaking its wing, and brought it 
home with the hope of saving it, but it died in a few hours. One of the 
three left was afterwards shot by one of my neighbors, Mr. Halstead, 
with a rifle. The wing was shot off at the wrist joint. He secured the 
goose, took it home, fed it, and it became as tame as a’ domestic goose. 
He lived near the bank of the river, but, notwithstanding he had tame 
geese with which it associated, it would never approach the water, but 
would stand upon an elevation and watch those in the river. He kept 
it a year, from April to April, bat a hurricane which occurred in the last 
April blew a fence down upon it and killed it. I saw it in the fall after 
he caught it. It ate corn very greedily, but, unlike the common goose, 
did not swallow the corn whole, but picked up every grain, placed it 
between the outer edges of the bill and bit it in two, the bill snapping 
like a steel-trap. This, to me, was a curious fact, but the fact that for a 
whole year it never entered the water was still more astonishing. — 
Rurus Hayrmonp, Brookeville, Indiana. 

Occurrence oF Maaeaors In A Boy. — Dr. G. W. Martin, a homao- 
pathic physician, and a very intelligent, well-informed gentleman, was 
recently (June 5th) called to see a patient, a lad of about fourteen years 
who had been seized with violent spasms. The doctor gave as an assist- 
ant remedy a purgative, whereupon the lad passed at one stool about 
fifty little insects or bugs, as he called them. ‘The doctor brought them 
to me and I told him that they were dipterous larve. I requested him 
to put some in a box of moist earth covered with glass, and the Aiga 
appeared on the 17th of June. Now can you tell what the fly is? — 
_ Girzerr S. Jupp, Maysville, Ky., June 22, 1875. 

[On submitting the flies to Baron Osten Sacken, he wrote us 4s fol- 
lows: “ The fly you gave me is Anthomyia (Homalomyia) scalaris, one 
of those mentioned in the American Entomologist, ii. 139, and of 


| 
| 
5 

f 

i 
3 
E 


1876.] Zodlogy. 375 


which similar experience is recorded in Europe.” The article referred 


to is entitled Larvæ in the Human Bowels. It is by the late Mr. 


Walsh, and gives a good summary of what is known of the subject in 
this country. See also Guide to the Study of Insects, pp. 366, 367. 
— Ep. NATURALIST. | : 

SwepisHh Popurans. — The Podurida, or “spring-tails” of Sweden, 
have been monographed in an elaborate way by T. Tullberg. The mem- 
oir is accompanied by twelve plates, and enters quite fully into the 
anatomy of these little creatures of so much interest to microscopists. 
The work appears in the Transactions of the Royal Swedish Academy 
for 1871, and has just reached this country. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Aw Inrerestine “ Finp” or Inpran Rexics.— A very interesting 
“find” of Indian relics has been obtained by the writer, from a locality 
not previously examined, although within a short distance of the site of 
his collecting labors of the past three years. By the uprooting of a large 
tree during the tornado of Tuesday night, February 1st, and a consequent 
landslide on the south bank of Crosswick’s Creek, near Yardville, Mer- 
cer County, New Jersey, the traces of the site of a former “ homestead ” 
were brought to light, consisting of corn-mills, pestles, axes, hammers, 
spears, and arrow-points, associated with innumerable fragments of 
bones, mussel-shells, and charcoal. No fragments of the bones were suf- 
ficiently large to determine the animals to which they belonged, beyond 
the fact that while some undoubtedly were fragments of mammal bones, 
the vast majority were those of birds and large fishes. The main feature 
of interest connected with the stone implements is the uniform character 


of the workmanship displayed in their manufacture. There was not 
The 


found nearer the surface. They were lying, when exposed to view, about 


accumulation is wholly due, I believe, to the gradual decomposition of 
vegetable matter, commingled with fine sand, such as gentle winds will 


* 


376 General Notes. [June, 


carry as “dust.” If, as was suggested in the February number of this 
journal, one inch of soil will accumulate in one hundred and twenty-eight 
years, these specimens are fully thirty centuries old, and certainly their 
general appearance is suggestive of as considerable an antiquity. 

The large specimens that were taken from the mingled dust and ashes 
of this ancient dwelling-place comprise two corn-mills, as they are usu- 
ally called. They are both large, quadrangular, sandstone bowlders, 
one with the depression only on one side, the other with a shallow cup 
on each side. With them was one globular pebble three and one half 
inches in diameter, that evidently had been used as the crusher, in reduc- 
ing the corn or nuts to a powder. The grooved stone axes were thir- 
teen in number, varying somewhat in pattern, but particularly noticeable 
in that but two were of that form in which the groove does not extend 
entirely around the head of the ax, but leaves a smooth surface on the 
upper edge.’ This pattern may be of later date than those with the 
groove extending entirely around the specimen. I have found, on com- 
paring many hundreds of these relics, that as a rule those with the 
groove not encircling the implement are more accurately finished, and 
with a greater extent of polished surface. Pebbles of a very regular out- 
line were chosen, and the variation among them was in size only. On 
the other hand, pebbles not at all symmetrical were frequently chosen for 
axes, grooved and ground to an edge at one end; but such non-sym- 
metrical specimens, I believe, always have the groove extending entirely 
about them. The thirteen specimens here mentioned vary from eight to 
four inches in length. The workmanship displayed in their production 
quite accords with the rude arrow and spear points with which they 
were associated. Not one can be called a first-class ax, although some 
certainly are better finished than others. ‘There occurred two specimens 
of chipped clay-slate implements, that approach the ax in form, and 
which were evidently designed as cutting implements. One is quadran- 
gular, six inches in length by four in width, and about one inch in thick- 


ness. The chipping is easily traced over the entire surface. There 18 — 


no trace of a polished edge or groove. A slight depression on the upper 
and lower margins indicate that a handle was once attached to the speci- 
men, as ordinary grooved axes were hafted. The accompanying speck 
men is still ruder in finish, but has a better-wrought edge. It is ob- 
tusely triangular in outline, and a little shorter and narrower than the 
preceding. The pestles are eight in number and vary from one foot to 
four inches in length. None are polished and worked into an accurately 
cylindrical shape, and the larger ones all have the heads so battered as 1 
show that they were used as we use modern pestles in mortars, and not 
as “rollers,” or war-clubs, as some have suggested. The other spec 
mens, eight in number, consist of two net-sinkers, two hammer-stones, & 
Scraper, and three cobble-stones, two of which have been somewhat 

1 The American Naturalist, vi. 145, Figure 10. 


* 


- 


1876.] Anthropology. 377 


chipped, as though intended one for an ax, the other for a chisel or 

ouge. The other is a curiously shaped stone, that has been utilized as 
a hammer or nut-cracker. The shape may be designed and not acci- 
dental. It is quite certain that the aborigines made use of stones of con- 
venient shapes, for many of the simpler household purposes; but it does 
not follow because no trace of chipping or polishing is to be detected 
upon these stones, that the stone has been accidentally so shaped, for the 
long-continued use of a broken stone would tend to wear it down and so 
obliterate the trace of the fracture. A survey of the fifty-four specimens 
constituting this “find,” together with the circumstances under which 
they were discovered, afford, I think, valuable additional evidence of the 
facts, as I believe them to be, with reference to the stone implements 
found in North America generally, which are that those found most 
deeply embedded are the older, and that there is abundant reason for 
considering that during the occupancy of the Atlantic coast of North 
America, the Indians advanced from a lower to a higher stage of stone- 
age culture. — CHARLES C. Apsort, M. D. 

ANTHROPOLOGICAL News. — Colonel Charles Whittlesey contrib- 
utes to the Scientific Monthly of Toledo, for November, 1875, articles on 
the Rock Inscriptions in Amherst, Lorain County, Ohio, and on The 
Comparison of the Indians and Mound Builders. 

A story has been going the rounds of the papers to the effect that 
pygmy graves exist in Tennessee and Kentucky. It is not new, Hay- 
wood in his Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee haying at- 
tempted to substantiate the notion. The following evidence that no 
pygmy race left their remains in this part of our country must be conclu- 
sive. Mr. S. E. Haskin, writing from Pine Falls, Tennessee, after hav- 
ing opened twenty small slab-graves in White County, says that the 
graves vary in length from fifteen inches to two feet, and in width from 
seven to fourteen inches. He sends with his letter a package of bones 
and teeth. Some of the latter are milk teeth, and in one fragment of a 
jaw-bone the second teeth are pushing out behind the milk teeth. Mr. 
W. M. Clark, employed during the last year by the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, to investigate the same subject, and who sent the relics mentioned 
by Bessels in his paper in the Bulletin of Hayden’s Geological Survey, 
(Vol. II., No. 1), has written for the Smithsonian Report for 1875 a long 
account of his labors, in which he distinctly proves that the little slab- 
staves are either those of children or are ossuaries. But the most ex- 
haustive refutation of the whole matter is contained in Chapter ‘II. of a 
Paper, accepted for publication in a forthcoming volume of the Smith- 
sonian Contributions to Knowledge, by Dr. Joseph Jones, of New Orleans. 
The entire subject is reviewed, from Haywood’s work down, and the 
Most convincing proof brought forward from the examination of hundreds 
of graves, that the small cists are either children’s graves or ossuaries. 
In the former case the fragile jaw exhibits two sets of teeth ; in the latter 


378 General Notes. [June, 


case parts of more than one skeleton are found. Furthermore, in the 
same mound with the so-called pygmy graves are found long graves in 
which the skeletons of unusually tall men and women lie at full length. 

The International Congress of Americanists will hold its next session 
at Luxemburg, from the 10th to the 13th of September, 1877. They 
have already issued their circular of invitation. 

Mr. Charles M. Wallace contributes to the American Journal of 
Science for March an article in which he claims to have found in the beds of 
brick, clay, and stratified gravels, near Richmond, Va., various hatchet-like, 
disk-like, and spear-shaped palzolithic implements, from four to eight feet 
below the surface. “One of them is somewhat like an implement from 
the Reculver Pits” (Evans, p. 534, N. Y., 1872). The name of Professor 
Baird is used in the article as encouraging the author (he encourages 
every diligent seeker for truth); but I am sure Mr. Wallace does not 
mean to say that Professor Baird endorsed his conclusions as to the nat- 
ure of his finds. Two things are necessary to be done in the case. 
The most scrupulous care is to be exercised in determining exactly all the 
conditions of the find, and the implements must be compared with simi- 
lar ones from other localities by skilled archxologists before any safe 
conclusion can be reached. 

The Paris Anthropological Society has issued separately the cranio- 
logical and craniometrical instructions, prepared by a committee of that 
body. 
Both the January and the February numbers of Matériaux pour l His- 
toire primitive et naturelle de PHomme are full of interesting matter. 
All lovers of archeology should encourage this periodical, whose editors, 
at great personal sacrifice, conduct it solely in the interest of science. 

The Rey. William Houghton read a paper before the Society of Bibli- 
cal Archeology, March 7th, on the Mammalia of the Assyrian Monu- 
ments; Part I., Domestic Mammals. ‘There are three forms of repre- 
sentation: (1) by pictorial or sculptural representations; (2) by de- 
scription ; (3) by picture and description combined. The domestic ani- 
mals known were the ox, sheep, goat, camel, ass, horse, mule, and dog- 
The author promised a subsequent paper on the Wild Animals. 

George Smith writes to the Atheneum of February 12th, “I have 
discovered a Babylonian text giving a remarkable account of the temple 
of Belus at Babylon. It is the first time any detailed description of a 
temple has been found in the cuneiform texts.” 

Mr. E. B. Tylor read before the London Institution, March 23, 1876, 
a paper on the Races of Mankind and Their Civilization. The follow- 
ing works on anthropology have appeared: Hellwald, Culturgeschichte ; 
reviewed by Tylor in Academy, February 26th. Wilson, Prehistorie 
Man, 2 vols., Macmillan. Gill, Myths and Songs of the South Pacific, 
King & Co., London. Koner, Bibliography of Anthropology: Gar- 
land, Atlas der Ethnographie, Leipzig, Brockhaus. 


Lt ee ean ee ae ee re ee re 


l 
i 
: 


1876.] Geography and Exploration. 379 


GEOLOGY AND PALMONTOLOGY. 


Tue TÆNIODONTA, A New Group or Eocene Mammars.— Ata 
recent meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Pro- 
fessor Cope described the character of some mammalia from the Eocene 
deposits of New Mexico, obtained by him during the Wheeler Expedition 
of 1874, which he regarded as allied to the Jnsectivora. The feet are 
armed with compressed claws. The dental characters are seen first in 
the supposed superior incisors. Unfortunately they have not yet been 
found in place in the cranium, but their association with a rodent type of 
inferior incisors, which have been found in place in the mandible, con- 
fines us to the alternative choice between superior incisors and canines. 
From the small size or absence of inferior canines a similar character 
may be inferred for the superior canines. . 

The superior incisors present two bands of enamel, an anterior and 
a posterior. They are compressed in form, the sides presenting a sur- 
face of dentine or cementum. Attrition produces a truncate or slightly 
concave extremity. The inferior incisors are rodent-like. 

Two families represented this suborder in the Eocene period in New 
Mexico. The first, or Ectoganide, possessed molar teeth with several 
roots ; in the Calamodontida, each molar has a simple conic fang. But 
one genus of each family is known. In both the enamel of the molars 
1s principally a band on the outer side of the crown; the deficiency is 
supplied in Calamodon by a deposit of cementum which invests the 
molar and superior incisor teeth, covering the crowns excepting where 
the enamel bands are present. The latter investment is so much thinner 
that the cementum forms a raised border all round at the point of junc- 
tion of the two substances. The general structure of Calamodon affords 
some points of approximation to the Edentata, which indicate that the 
Teniodonta partially fill the interval between that order and the Eden- 
tata presented by the existing fauna. 

Professor Cope also pointed out the close resemblance between the 
mandibular dentition of the contemporary Eocene genus Esthonyx and 
the existing Erinaceus, and stated that Anchippodus and allies chiefly 
differ from Esthonyz in the persistent growth of the incisor teeth. 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 

Peruvian Grocrarny.— The publication of the preliminary volume 
of Don Antonio Raimondi’s great work, El Peru, will be, says a writer In 
the Geographical Magazine, an epoch in the history of Peruvian geo- 
graphical research. ‘This accomplished and indefatigable geographer 
and naturalist had traveled over every part of the republic, on a fixed 
Plan, during a space of nineteen years, diligently collecting materials be- 
i See On the Su posed Carnivora of the Eocene of the Rocky Mountains, Proceed- 
"BS of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, December, 1875. 


380 General Notes. 


fore he sat down to prepare his great scientific work on Peru for pub- 
lication. This first volume is the key to the whole work, for it describes 
the methods and instruments used in the various branches of science, and 
contains a most interesting personal narrative of the author’s numerous 
journeys, during nineteen years, over the length and breadth of the land. 
The work itself will consist of six parts. The first will be devoted to 
geography and meteorology, the second to geology, the third to mineral- 
ogy, the fourth and fifth parts to botany and zodlogy, and the sixth and 
last to ethnology, including descriptions of the architectural remains, pot- 
tery, arms, etc., of the different Peruvian tribes. 

RECENT Rine OF THE Peruvian Coast. — Interesting illustrations 
of the comparatively recent change in the coast level of Peru and 
the geographical changes resulting, are afforded by Mr. A. a in 
the last Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy. A number 
of corals were found by him at the height of from 2900 to 3000 feet 
above the level of the sea, at a distance in a straight line from the Pacific 
Ocean of twenty miles. From the general features of the country along 
the coast of Peru, it requires but little imagination to reconstruct the 
former internal sea formed: by the Coast ‘Range; which must have, 
within comparatively recent geological times, covered the whole of the 
great nitrate basin of Peru, and which has gradually been elevated to 
its present position. This inland sea then became a salt lake, after- 
wards a lagoon, and finally was entirely drained. While Darwin showed 
that beyond doubt the coast of South America has been recently ele- 
vated 800 feet, Mr. Agassiz believes that the elevation reached an alti- 
tude of at least 2900 feet, and in earlier times, judging by the marine 
nature of the fauna of Lake Titicaca, to an elevation of 12,500 feet. 


[ June, 


MICROSCOPY.! 

Tae Limits or Microscopic Vision. — In his recent annual ad- 
dress to the Microscopical Society of London, the president, Mr.’ H. C. 
Sorby, F. R. S., discusses the relation between the limits of the powers 
of the microscope and the size of the ultimate molecules of matter. As 
the combined result of observation and theory, he concludes that the 
normal limit of distinct visibility with the most perfect microscope is 
one half of the wave-length of the light. If so, even with the very best 
lenses (except under special conditions) light itself is of too coarse & 
nature to even enable us to define objects less than gyda tO 100000 
an inch apart. It would appear, therefore, that as far as this question is 
concerned, our microscopes have a ready reached their ultimate limit. 
Adopting the results as to the size of the ultimate molecules of matter 
arrived at by Mr. Stanley, Sir W. Thomson, and Professor Clerk-Max- 
well, Mr. Sorby calculates that in the smallest interval which could be 
distinctly seen by the best possible microscope, there would be about 


1 This department is conducted by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


1876.] - Seientifie News. 381 


two thousand molecules of liquid water or about five hundred and twenty 
of albumen lying end to end; and that in order to see the ultimate con- 
stitution of organic bodies, we should requre a magnifying power from 
five hundred to two thousand times greater than those we now possess. 
He calculates that with our highest powers we are as far from seeing 
the ultimate molecules of organic substances as we should be from see- 
. ing the contents of a newspaper with the naked eye at the distance of a 
third of a mile. A spherical particle one tenth the diameter of the 
smallest speck that could be already defined with our best and highest 


molecules. Mr. Sorby makes a very interesting application of his re- 
sults to Mr. Darwin’s theory of pangenesis, his general conclusion being 
that no serious objection can be raised against the theory when exam- 
ined from a purely physical point of view, as far as relates to the inheri- 
tance of a very complex variety of characters by the first generation. 
— A. W. BENNETT. 

Boston Microscoricat Sociery. — This society held a public re- 
ception at Fraternity Hall, on the evening of April 27th, for the pur- 
pose of making better known its organization and aims. A short exhi- 
bition with the oxy-hydrogen microscope was given, in addition to the 
use of more than fifty table microscopes, with their accessory apparatus. 

EXCHANGES. — [ Notices, not exceeding four lines in length, of micro- 
scopical objects or apparatus wanted or offered in exchange, not sale, 
will be inserted in this column without expense. | 

Arranged diatoms in exchange for good objects. Address offers to 
Christian Febiger, Wilmington, Del. 

Extract of hop, mounted, showing lupulin crystals; in exchange for 
any mounted objects. Address Richard Allen, 146 North Fourth Street, 

roy, N. Y, : 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


_ — Physicians will be interested in a work entitled Micro-Photographs 
in Histology, Normal and Pathological, by Carl Seiler, in conjunction 
with J. Gibbons Hunt, M. D., and J. G. Richardson, M. D., to be pub- 
lished in twelve number by J. H. Coates, of Philadelphia. 

— Ata late meeting of the Paris Geographical Society, Dr. Haney 
stated that a cavern containing numerous Caraib remains had been dis- 
Covered at the western extremity of Cuba, and that these proved that the 
whole of the island was at one time inhabited by that race. 

— Professor Marsh publishes in the American Journal of Science, for 
June, a Notice of a New Suborder of Pterosauria. The group is distin- 
Suished by the want of teeth. 

a Mr. A. R. Marvine, a geologist of much promise, has recently died. 

l He was at the time of his death attached to Professor Hayden’s Survey. 


382 Proceedings of Societies. [Jure, 


— The Smithsonian collections for the International Exhibition have 
been forwarded to Philadelphia from Washington. They are designed 
to illustrate the resources of sea and shore, of the chase and fisheries, in 
the United States. Specimens of all the animals in this country will be 
exhibited, and all the machinery of hunting and trapping will receive the 
amplest illustration. It is stated that there are forty-five hundred casts 
of food fishes now at the Smithsonian ready to be sent. The casts - 
are made of plaster and papier mache, modeled from frozen specimens 
and from photographs. Among the other objécts there will be a run- 
ning screen of the size of eighteen hundred square feet, filled with pho- 
tographs of American food fishes. The dresses of the fishermen in vari- 
ous climates, the varieties of flies used in catching trout, the fishing rod, 
the harpoon, and the lance, will all be shown. ‘The chase of the whale 
will be fully explained by the plainest object lessons, and among the 
treasures is a cast showing the capture of a whale. The exhibition of 
furs will be one of the most remarkable ever seen on the continent. 
The useful products of our inland and foreign waters (other than verte- 
brates), have been arranged by Dr. Dall. Among these will be shell- 
fish, crabs, shrimps, corals, star-fish, sponges, and marine products not of 
an animal nature. Specimens of rare American animals and reptiles, 
and a group of lay figures intended to convey an idea of the character 
and habits of the North American Indians, will complete a very excel- 
lent collection. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 


NATIONAL Acapemy or Scrences, Washington. — April 18-20. 
Professor Henry opened the public session by delivering the annual re- 
port which serves as a review of the year. It was confined to the official 
affairs of the Academy. The report of this year contains a touching 
allusion to the loss the Academy has sustained in the death of Prof. 
Joseph Winlock, the astronomer of Cambridge, Mass. Among the most 


by death during the past year was Vice-President Henr 
although not a member, was one of the founders. 
in the preparation of the bill under which the Academ 
and urged its passage through Congress. Reviewing the presen i 
tion of the Academy, Professor Henry remarked that the plan by 
its headquarters were fixed at Washington presented some inconvenience 
as a centre in comparison with larger cities ; but there is no other place 
in the Union which contains so large a proportion of scientific men to its 
inhabitants, and the local society devoted to science is among the ss 
prominent in the land. ‘The establishment of the Johns Hopkins vers 
versity at Baltimore, is now certain also to concentrate at no great distance 
from Washington a considerable band of prominent men of science: 


i 
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1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 383 
There is also good reason to hope that means will be found to defray the 
expenses of non-resident members in traveling to and from the meetings, 

The Academy, Professor Henry said, is becoming in a certain sense a 
leader of public opinion in respect to the expression of calm judgment 
and weight of scientific authority. This was its appropriate position, 
The recent instances in which the government has sought its aid were 
then briefly mentioned : its judgment had been required in respect to 
microscopic determination (with reference to collecting duties) of the 
proportions of wool imported in invoices of calves hair; and it was 
estimated that a million of dollars would be saved to the revenue in con- 
sequence. Still more recently investigations had been ordered to ascer- 
tain the value of certain applications to the paper used in preparing 
fractional currency ; and as to the crystallization of different grades of 
sugar, as a means for classifying them. The direction of the scientific 
part of the Polaris expedition was intrusted to the Academy. Dr. Emi 
Bessels has been engaged in preparing the material obtained for publica- 
tion. Three volumes are nearly complete. They will contain the re- 
sults in the departments of hydrography, meteorology, and astronomy. 
A fourth volume is in preparation, of which Admiral Davis has charge ; 
this will contain the narrative of the expedition and much biographical 
information ; its expense is borne by the Navy Department. The legac 
left by Alexander Dallas Bache to the Academy has been applied, (1) to 
the preparation of a magnetic survey of the United States; (2) to ob- 
servations on sun-spots, conducted at Cambridge, Mass. ; (3) to certain 
researches on light and heat. The first of these undertakings is in a 
condition to report considerable progress. The map when completed 
will prove of important service for surveying purposes and topography 
generally, as it will determine the dip and direction of the needle for all 
localities, By the record of these data now, the students of the earth’s 
magnetism will have a means in future years to ascertain the rate and laws 
of the great secular variations, as yet only imperfectly understood. The 
observations on the sun were conducted by the late Professor Winlock ; 
Since his death some arrangements have been projected for collating his 
Work and continuing it. The researches on light and heat are carried 
on by Charles Peirce, a son of Prof. Benjamin Peirce. Part of the 
regular work of the Academy consists in having memoirs prepared of its 
deceased members, and the results of this work were stated. 

The following papers were read : The Character of the Eocene Fauna 
of New Mexico, by E. D. Cope ; A Conjectural Restoration of a Pueblo 
of the Mound Builders, by Lewis H. Morgan (in which he took the 
Sround that the Mound Builders were village Indians who had migrated 

m the tropics, and that the mounds were the building-sites of their 
tenement-houses) ; The Geology of Petroleum, by J. S. Newberry; The 
Geological Evidence on the Question of the Cause of the Cold of the 
Teg Period, J. S. ewberry ; The Geological Structure and Topographi- 


: cal Aspects of the Catskill Mountains, by James Hall; The Geological 


384 Scientifie Serials. [June. 


and Physical Structure of the Black Hills, by Henry Newton; The Age 
of Mountains as determined by Degradation, by J. W. Powell. 

Five members were elected, namely, Professors Langley, Peters, and 
Haldeman, General Warren, and Mr. Clarence King. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 


Tue ANNALS AND MAGAZINE or NATURAL History.— April. Is 
there such a Thing as Hozodn Canadense? a Micro-Geological Investi- 
gation, by Otto Hahn. Descriptions of some New Species of Annelida 
from Kerguelen’s Island, by W. C. McIntosh. Extinct Lemurina, by 
W. H. Flower. Note on the Embryogeny of Salmacina Dysteri, by A. 
Giard. : 

ARCHIVES DE ZOÖLOGIE EXPÉRIMENTALE ET GÉNÉRALE. — No. 
4, 1875. Contributions à l'Histoire des Grégarines des Invertébres 
de Paris et de Roscoff, par A. Schneider. Recherches sur l Appareil 
Circulatoire des Oursins [ Echinus], par E. Perrier. 

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR WISSENSCHAFTLICHE ZodLoGIE (Siebold und 
Kölliker). — March 6. Researches on Free-Living Nematodes, and the 
Genus Chetonotus, by O. Bütschli. On the Ontogony of Cyclas, and 
the Homology of the Germ-Layers in the Mollusks, by H. von Ohering.- 
On the Silk-Glands of Lepidoptera, by F. E. Helm. On the Formation 
of the Blastoderm in the Spiders, by H. Ludwig. On the Challenger 
Expedition. Letter to Professor Siebold, by R. V. Willemoes-Suhm. 

PererMann’s MITTHEILUNGEN. — January 21st. The Ground 
Work of the Map of the Loango Coast, by P. Giissfeldt. The Geo- 
graphical Convention in Paris, July 15 till September 16, 1875. The 
Southern Batta-Land of Sumatra, by A. Schreiber. Geographical Ne- 
crology of the year 1875. Journey to Araguay, by Dr. Couto de Magal- 
hăes, in January, 1865. March Ist. The Distribution of Sedimentary 
Rocks in Europe, by H. Habenicht. River Navigation in Southern New 
Guinea. Views from the High North, by Karl Weyprecht. The Mon- 
gols and the Land of the Tanguts. Przewalsky’s Journey. 

MONTHLY MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. — April. On a New Arrange- 
ment for Illuminating and Centring with High Powers, by W. H. Dal- 
linger. The Identification of Liquid Carbonic Acid in Mineral Cavities, 
by W. N. Hartley. On some Structures in Obsidian, Perlite, and 
Leucite, by F. Rutley. On the Aperture of Object-Glasses, by Fin. 
Wenham. On Zeiss’ „4 Immersion, by W. J. Hickie. 

BULLETIN or THE Museum or Comparative ZoöLoGY.— Hl., Nos. 
11-14. Exploration of Lake Titicaca, by A. Agassiz and S. W. Garman. 

. Fishes and Reptiles, by S. W. Garman. Notice of the Paleozoic 
Fossils, by O. A. Derby, with Notes by A. Agassiz. Recent Co 
from Tilibiche, Peru, by A. Agassiz and L. F. Pourtales. ‘The Devel- 
opment of Salpa, by W. K. Brooks. 
1 The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part selected. 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. x. — JULY, 1876. — No. 7. 


LAKE WAKATIPU, NEW ZEALAND. 
BY I. C. RUSSELL. i 


J AKE Wakatipu is remarkable not only for the grandeur of 

its scenery, which some travelers assert is equal to that of 
Switzerland, but also for the many interesting features in its 
physical geology. 

ake Wakatipu is situated about a hundred miles from the 
southern end of the South Island of New Zealand, among the 
Picturesque mountains of the Southern Alps. Its esthetic feat- 
ures we will not attempt to describe ; a conception of its varying 
Scenes, some of which are as wild and grand as others are soft 
and beautiful, can be conveyed only by the brush of the artist ; 
We endeavor merely to tell the story of their origin. 
The lake is of a sigmoidal shape, about seventy miles long, and 
from one to three broad. Its waters, which are very clear and 
cold, have been sounded to the extraordinary depth of fourteen 
hundred feet. The surface of the lake being about one thousand 
feet above the sea, its bottom, therefore, is four hundred feet 
lower than the surface of the ocean. On either side of the lake, 
and thoughout its whole extent, the mountains rise in a contin- 
uous series of very rugged peaks to a height of from five thou- 
sand to seven thousand five hundred feet, while Mt. Earnslaw, 
which forms the head of the valley, attains an elevation of 9165 
feet, lts top white with perpetual snow, and its sides scored by 
descending glaciers, 

The valley of Lake Wakatipu extends southward beyond the 


ob of the lake for a distance’of fifty or sixty ae 


ally Spreads out. into the low, level country which forms the 
Province of Southland. As the physical features of the lower 
“sa of the valley are not essentially different from those of 
$ Immediate shores of the lake, we are forced to consider them 


Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, JR. 1876. 


386 Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand. (July, 


as having a common origin, and being but portions of the same 
valley, the upper part of which is filled with fourteen hundred 
feet of water, and the lower portion by an unknown depth of 
worn and rounded shingle. The rocks in which the valley is 
formed are, for the most part, clay slates and gold-bearing mica 
schists, which are very much curved and twisted, and in many 
places green with chlorite. 

When we look for the causes, the working power that has pro- 
duced these grand results, the mind becomes awestruck by the 
magnitude of the forces which have formed not only the grand 
valley, but the very mountains in which it exists. 

What pictures pass before us when we follow in rapid review 
the great changes that have resulted in the formation of these 
rugged mountains, gray and scored as they are by time. We see 
the sediments which for ages have slowly accumulated at the 
bottom of the sea, and formed the mud and ooze of ancient 
oceans, by the action of heat and great pressure hardenéd and 
crystallized into rock, and then slowly upheaved by the mysteri- 
ous volcanic forces into lofty mountain chains whose snowy peaks . 
gleam above the clouds, only to be slowly removed, to have great 
valleys opened in their sides, and their most solid rocks wom 
away and carried down particle by particle to be spread out 
once more at the bottom of the sea. If we consider these changes, 
grand as they are, as but a single circle in the great cycle of 
geological time, we can appreciate to some extent the wonders 
of the history that is written on the rocks. Itis only to the last 
chapter in this history — the formation of the valley — that we 
would ask your attention. . 

Valleys may be considered as owing their origin, primarily, to 
one of three causes: (1.) They are formed by a folding of the 
rocks, thus forming depressions, the sides of which slope inwards 
towards the axis, hence designated as synclinal valleys. Er 
amples of valleys formed in this way are to be met with wherever 
stratified rocks have been upheaved, as in the Sierra Nevada, 
Rocky, and Alleghany Mountains. (2.) Valleys are sometimes 
formed by the fracturing of the earth’s crust by volcanic forces. 
Valleys of this kind are seldom seen, being confined to regions 
of great volcanic disturbance. (3.) The kinds of valleys above 
noticed are usually greatly modified by denudation, which 18 80- 
other great agent in their formation. By denudation we under- 
stand the wearing away of rocks not only by wind 
rain, but also by the more powerful action of ice and running 
water, the operation of which we can see every where about us. 


1876.] . Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand. 387 


As the evidence of a synclinal axis is nowhere apparent in the 
valley of Lake Wakatipu, we are unable to account for its exist- 
ence by the upheaval of the mountains on either side of it. We 


are likewise at a loss to find any indication of the rocks having 


been rent asunder by volcanic forces. The formation of the val- 
ley can be referred only to the third cause, that of denudation, 
or the slow removal by ice and water of the rock that once filled 
it to a height greater than that of the mountains which now 
tower above it. 

It may seem strange at first sight that such an immense 
amount of rock — measured by hundreds of cubic miles in the 
valley of Lake Wakatipu alone — could have been worn down 
and transported to distant places by the slow action of ice and 
water. This difficulty would be removed, could our readers stand 
with us on one of the many lofty mountains which overlook the 
lake, and see far up at its head, amid many mountains less grand, 
the snowy summit of Mt. Earnslaw, on whose sides are blue 
regions of ice; these are the descending glaciers in which lies the 
secret of the valley’s formation. In those streams of ice that 
flow down from the snow-fields of Mt. Earnslaw, vast and irre- 
sistible as they are, we see but the puny remains of a mighty 
Tiver of ice that once flowed through the whole valley of Lake 
Wakatipu, the extent of which was limited only by the ocean, 
which undermined and floated away its extremity in the form of 
icebergs, in the same manner that they are formed at the present 
day on the coast of Greenland. It takes but a glance to con- , 
vince us that this great ice-river was the engraving tool that, 
aided by storm and frost, cut in the living rock the picture of 
Wonderful grandeur and beauty that is spread out before us. 

he glaciers around Mt. Earnslaw are still at work, as they 
have been for ages, in extending the valley. The streams that 
are formed by the melting of the ice are all the year turbid with 
silt, which is the rock that has been ground fine by the glacier, 
the flour from the mill, which they deposit in the upper end of 
elake. In this manner some six or eight miles of the valley 
has been filled up toa height of a few feet above the usual level 
of the lake. We have but to extend the forces now in operation 
on Mt. Earnslaw to the whole valley of Lake Wakatipu, to have 
an accurate and satisfactory explanation of its formation. 

There is another feature of great interest in the history of this 
Valley, first made known by Captain F. W. Hutton, of Dunedin. 

the shore of the lake, about twelve miles above Queenstown, 


388 Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand. [July, 


is a limited deposit of tertiary limestone, containing as fossils, 


Ostrea Wullerstorfii, Cucullea alta, C. Worthington, Panopea 
plicata, and many others. The junction of the limestone with 
the crystalline rocks beneath can be seen but a few feet below 
the surface of the lake. The limestone being at the present level 
of the water, the valley must have been eroded to that depth 
before the limestone was formed. As its deposition took place 
beneath the waters of the ocean, the valley was at one time an 
arm of the sea, and was afterwards upheaved to its present eleva- 
tion or higher, and the wearing down of the valley continued. 
We have, therefore, as the sequence of events that resulted in 
the formation of Lake Wakatipu, the following : — 

(1.) The Southern Alps forming a sloping table-land, the 
highest remaining point of which is Mt. Cook, 13,200 feet above 
the sea; on this high table-land were deposited immense amounts 
of ice and snow, brought by the warm, moist winds from the 
ocean, which formed the glaciers that flowed off in various direc- 
tions towards the sea. One of these ancient rivers of ice had its 
source in the region about Mt. Earnslaw, — which, however, was 
then greatly different from its present form — and flowed over 
what is now the valley of Lake Wakatipu. This old-time glacier 
continued its slow motion towards the sea for unknown ages, 
until it had ground out the solid rock to a depth of five or six 
thousand feet in vertical thickness, and for over a hundred miles 
in length. 

(2.) The work of this mighty glacier was finally terminated 
by a sinking of the land, which caused the valley to become an 
arm of the sea, similar in every respect to the deep, narrow 
fiords that form such a characteristic feature of the west coast of 
New Zealand at the present day. What before was an alpine 
valley filled with hundreds of feet of ice then became the home 
of huge oysters, and many other forms of marine life, whose re- 
mains we now find in the limestone. We know that the sea 
filled the valley for a long time, since the compact gray lime- 
stone that it left behind it was not formed rapidly, as sandstone 
and conglomerate may be, but the material was first gathered 
from the waters to form the shells of mollusks and foraminifera, 
or the hard parts of corals, crinoids, etc., and then these worn 
down to a fine detritus by the waves and spread out as à calca- 
reous sediment, before the hardening process of rock-making Can 
commence. Together with the limestone are beds of fine shale 
and masses of conglomerate, composed of both rounded and angt- 


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2 
; 


1876.] Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand. 389 


lar pebbles and containing fossil shells (Crassatella ampla) 
These deposits speak of other although minor changes during the 
time that the waters of the ocean occupied the valley. 

(3.) In the third stage the land is again upheaved to the dig- 
nity of a mountain chain, whose lofty summits become covered 
with vast fields of snow and ice, which, seeking an equilibrium, 
again flow as a glacier down the valley of Lake Wakatipu. 
This second extension of the ice-stream down the old valley re- 
sulted in the removal not only of most of the limestone that had 
been deposited, but also of fourteen hundred feet of the crystal- 
line rocks beneath. The limestone on the shore of the lake is 
thus shown to be an inter-glacial deposit, not by being inter- 
stratified with beds of till, but by the existence above and be- 
low it of distinct glacier-worn valleys. ; 

These great glaciers of New Zealand, together with the occur- 
rence of erratics and moraines in Natal, South Africa, as de- 
scribed by G. W. Snow,! indicate a time of extreme cold in the 
southern hemisphere, corresponding to the glacial epoch that left 
its records — in the form of striated rocks, bowlders, and moraines 
— over the northern hemisphere as far south as the fortieth par- 
allel. The limestone of Lake Wakatipu is similar in position to 
the inter-glacial lignite beds of Switzerland, as described by 
Professor Heer, and to the inter-glacial forest-beds of Scctland 
and America. Geologists will notice, however, the greater age 
of the limestone of Lake Wakatipu, which, as indicated by its fos- 
sils, is Upper Eocene, but whether synchronal with the Eocene of 

trope has yet to be determined. 

The great extension of these ancient glaciers may also be 
Owing, in part at least, to a greater elevation of the land. 

Either condition returning to those rich and promising islands, 
they would again become wrapped in ice and snow, which would 
swell the ice-streams from Mt. Earnslaw to their ancient dimen- 
“ons and re-create those giant glaciers. 

The second glacier, like the first, had its period of great ex- 
tension and then slowly passed away. As its terminus retreated 
Up the valley it left behind it the material it had gathered from 
the overhanging cliffs along its course, or had torn from the sides 
of the valley, together with the finer products ground by the 

ttom of the glacier from the rocks over which it passed. This 
material now forms the filling of the valley below the lake, and 

n worked over, perhaps many times, by streams of water 


z Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, xxvii. 540. 


390 Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand. [July, 


that have left it in many regular lines of terraces along the sides 
of the valley, which form a striking contrast with the angular 
crags and rocks that tower above them. 

At Kingston, which is situated at the southern extremity of 
the lake, a huge terminal moraine, composed of cyclopean masses 
of angular rock, has been thrown by the glacier directly across 
the valley, and now forms the shore of the lake. In this con- 
fused mass of rocks we have indisputable evidence that here for 
a long time stood the terminal face of the glacier, which ended 
abruptly, as is common with glaciers at the present day, and 
formed a wall of ice from cliff to cliff. The reason why glaciers 
end so suddenly, and are thus enabled to form terminal moraines, 
lies in the fact that they are flowing from higher to lower and 
consequently warmer regions, and must eventually reach a point 
where the warmth is sufficient to melt the ice of which they are 
composed, although in many instances this limit is not attained 
until the glacier enters the sea. The rocks which form the ter- 
minal moraine at Kingston were once the lateral moraines on the 
surface of the glacier, which, as the stream moved on and was 
melted away, were carried over its terminal face — just as trees 
and blocks of ice are carried over Niagara —and were left in 
the confused mass that we find them. 

Some idea of the time required for this truly hereulean task 
of valley-making may be gathered from the fact that the average 
motion of the Swiss glaciers can be taken at about twelve inches 
a day, or one mile in fourteen and one half years. At this rate a 
block of stone falling upon the surface of the glacier of Lake 
Wakatipu near its source at Mt. Earnslaw, would require more 
than a thousand years to reach its final resting-place in the ter- 
minal moraine at Kingston, which is only midway down the 
valley. This mighty mill, therefore, were it now in existence, 
could have made but a single turn since Christ was born at 
Bethlehem. 

As the warmth increased, the glaciers retreated to their present 
position around the summit of Mt. Earnslaw, leaving the var 
ley dammed up by the moraine at Kingston, and filled by the 
water formed by the melting of the ice. On the sides of the 
valley, in many places, huge blocks of stone were scattered, siml- 
lar to those in the moraine at Kingston. They also confe 
the rounded form of roches moutonnées on the low hills and knolls 
along the shores of the lake. Rye 

We have, therefore, in the valley of Lake Wakatipu a striking 


ER Gi in pt 


1876.] Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand. 391 


example of the manner in which glaciers are enabled to form 
lake basins, not only by the blocking up of narrow valleys by the 
masses of dirt and stones carried down on the surface of the ice, 
but also through the wearing down of the rocks throughout the 
upper and middle course of the glacier at the same time that 
they are protected from waste at the lower end by the formation 
of a terminal moraine. Such we conceive to be the simplest, 
although imperfect reading, of the grand history of Lake Waka- 
tipu. Other great changes probably took place, however, the 
records of which have been erased. 

Nearly the same words may be written of many other lakes 
which fill rock-basins, or are confined by ancient moraines, like 
many of the “ lochs ” of Scotland, and the long, beautiful sheets 
of water in the State of New York, of which Lakes Otsego and 
Seneca are examples. The glaciers to which these lakes owe 
their origin belonged to the glacial epoch of geologists, and were 
far mightier than the one whose footsteps we have traced. The 
excavation of the great lake basins between the United States 
and Canada has been traced back to the same great ice age. 

Not only are we allowed to read the past history of this inter- 
esting lake, but we may also look beyond the veil that obscures 
its future. As the combined action of ice and water have been 
the instruments for its formation, so are they also working its de- 
struction. After the formation of the moraine at Kingston the 
waters sought a new outlet from the valley over the falls of the 
Kawarau, which are constantly being worn away by the action 
of the water, thus tending to drain the lake to a lower level, as 
we see by the terraces along its shores that it has been already 
lowered. While the outlet is every moment becoming deeper, 
the streams that flow from the foot of the glaciers, together with 
every little rill and rivulet that is born among the mountains, is 
continually bringing down its burden of sediment, however small, 
Which is deposited in the lake, and does its share towards filling 
the valley. If this process seems very slow, or inadequate to 
accomplish so great a work, we must remember that the opera- 
tions of nature, unlike those of man, are not crowded into a brief 
life-time, but continue on through ages. The very glacier that 
cut this magnificent valley to the depth of a mile and a half in 

Solid rock, was formed of the little vesicles of mist that were 
Wafted by the wind against the cold mountain-tops, which caused 
sa to crystallize and accumulate on the summits as snow and 


392 A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. I. Its Birthplace. (July, 


The present conditions continuing, where now the deep sea- 
blue waters of the lake are flushed with the tints of sunset, a rich 
valley will one day become the home of industry, and its green 
fields will be animated with the flocks of the husbandman. 


A COSMOPOLITAN BUTTERFLY. I. ITS BIRTHPLACE. 
BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 


PP AERE is but one butterfly whose range is so extended as to 

merit the name of cosmopolitan ; it is the Painted Lady or 
Vanessa cardui. With the exception of the arctic regions and 
South America, it is distributed over the entire extent of every 
continent. Australia and New Zealand produce a race peculiar 
to themselves, while the other large islands south of Asia pos- 
sess the normal type, which is also found upon small islands lying 
off the western borders of the Old World, the Azores, Canaries, 
Madeira, and St. Helena. On the other hand, it has not been 
discovered upon the small islands off the American coast, such as 
Guadalupe, the Revillagegidos, and Galapagos on the western 
side, or the Bahamas and Bermudas on the eastern ; neither does 
it occur in any of the Antilles, excepting Cuba, and there but 
rarely. It is reported, however, from islands lying in the mid- 
dle of the Pacific Ocean, such as the Hawaiian group and Tahiti, 
but its actual occurrence there is at least doubtful.? 


(Nouv. Ann. Mus. Nat. Hist., ii. 191) that he possessed specimens from Tahiti, 


geographical statements; moreover, Mr. A. G. Butler does not mention it in his List 
of the Diurnal Lepidoptera of the South Sea Islands (Proc. Zodl. Soc. Lon 
274 seq.), and Dr. C. Pickering, the naturalist of Wilkes’ Exploring Expedition, 
me that it was unknown on Tahiti in 1839. 

The single citation of the Hawaiian Islands will be found in the first list of the 
British Museum Butterflies, where (p. 79) Mr. Doubleday credits four specimens tO 
those islands, two brought by Captain Byron and two by Captain Beechey. łam 
informed by Mr. Butler that there is now only one specimen in the museum from aa 
“Sandwich Islands,” and the reference upon the ticket is to the oldest manuscript 
register, not now to be found. Byron and Beechey were at the islands in 1825-87: 

T. Brigham informs me that V. cardui was not found by Mr. Mann and him- 
self during a twelvemonth’s residence at the islands ten years ago, and I can find no 
authority for its present existence. Dr. Pickering writes: that it was unknown when 
Wilkes’s expedition visited the islands in 1840-41. The Vincennes, to which Pr 
Pickering was attached, was at the islands from the end of September to the begim- 
ning of April. Byron and Beechey’s visits were between the latter part of January 


tells 


FE 


Stk ORC Ae ie gees Bakes Fan ar 


1876.) A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. I. Its Birthplace. 393 


On the American continent, its southern boundaries will prob- 
ably be found in Venezuela, New Grenada, and Ecuador,! but it 
is abundant even as far south as the highlands of Guatemala, and 
thence stretches northward over the entire breadth of the conti- 
nent to the arctic regions; on the eastern coast it has been 
found as far as Labrador, and on the west to the eastern shores 
of Behring’s Straits.? In the heart of the continent I have taken 
it upon the Saskatchewan, and Doubleday reports it from Mar- 
tin’s Falls; but Mr. W. H. Edwards does not recollect seeing it 
in the few collections he has examined from points farther north. 

As we see it flourishing in the colder regions of Europe and 
North America, so also is it found on all mountain heights ; and 
Mr. H. W. Bates, writing of the whole genus, distinctly says it 
is “found only in elevated places in the neighborhood of the 
equator.” The stations in Southern Asia from which V. cardui 
has been reported, — Cashmere, Nepaul, Bootan, and Sikkim, — 
all lie on the flanks of the Himalayas, and the Nilgherry Hills are 
the highest elevations of the Indian peninsula. In the Alps of 

rope this insect flies to the snow level ; but in North America, 
although it may be regarded as one of the commonest butter- 
flies in the elevated central district, it is most abundant at a level 
of seven or eight thousand feet. Lieut. W. L. Carpenter and 
others have never found it above the timber line; but Dr. A. 
8. Packard, Jr., has taken it on Arapahoe Peak, between eleven 
and twelve thousand feet, and on Pike’s Peak from eight thousand 
feet to within five hundred or a thousand feet from the summit. 

Ye naturally inquire, Where did this cosmopolitan creature 
onginate? J udging from its present distribution alone, we should 
Probably answer: In the temperate parts of the Old World; 
because in the New World it has penetrated but a short distance 
into South America, and has established no colonies upon the 
neighboring islands, excepting on Cuba; while in the Old World 


i traits that separate the islands. East of Unalashka he knows of but two but- 
» à Pieris and a Polygonia. 


394 A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. I. Its Birthplace. (July, 


it has not only crossed the equator, and colonized many of the 
islands of the Indian Ocean, but has founded a race beyond in 
Australia and New Zealand, and has reached many of the small 
islands lying off the coast of Spain and Africa, not to mention 
the questionable report of its presence on the Hawaiian islands 
and Tahiti, the affinities of whose populations are with the Old 
rather than with the New World. But this reply is not wholly 
satisfactory, although most writers in discussing its distribution — 
have assumed an Old World origin. 

To answer this query fairly, we must examine the distribution 
of the other species of the genus. At first we seem to gain little 
aid from this source, for we are perplexed by finding that another 
species, V. Atalanta, is also an inhabitant of two worlds, although 
confined almost exclusively to the north temperate regions of 
both, which seems a new complication; and, again, that the other 
species of the genus share between them nearly the entire globe. 
Thus in the Old World V. Indica is found in the region that 
bears its name; V. Dejeanii in the Malayan Archipelago ; y. 
Jtea in Australia and New Zealand (into which latter island it 
has probably spread from the former); V. Gonerilla in New 
Zealand ; V. Tammeamea in the Hawaiian Islands; V. Abyssinica 
in Northeastern Africa; and V. Hippomene in Southeastern 
Africa and Madagascar. While in the New World, V. Huntera 
is found in North America, east (and to a slight extent west) of 
the Rocky Mountains; V. Carye west of the Cordilleras from 
California to Chili; V. Myrinna in the tropics of South Amer- 
ica, east of the great mountain chain; and V. Terpsichore at the 
southern extremity of the continent. 

But the species of the genus Vanessa (and all the recognized 
forms are here enumerated) fall into two natural groups: one 
these contains such species as have upon the dark upper surface 
of the wings a conspicuous, bright-colored bow, crossing the mid- 
dle of the fore wings and skirting, somewhat narrowly, the border 
of the hind wings; while the other comprises forms on whose 
upper surface the bright colors (usually some shades of red) 
nearly or quite predominate, but are broken by the darker parts 
into irregular blotches on the fore-wings, and form the ground 
color of the entire outer half of the hind wings, so that all effect 
of the somewhat regular bow of the other group is lost. There 
are further differences between them; the species of the former 
group have the paronychia distinctly bilaciniate, as pointed out 
by Doubleday ; they have also the upper abdominal appendage 


dis 


/ 
1876.| A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. J. Its Birthplace. 395 


bifid at tip, and their caterpillars live in a nest formed by draw- 
ing together the edges of a single leaf; while those of the latter 
have the inner lobe of the paronychia rudimentary, the upper 
abdominal appendage simple, and their caterpillars live in nests 
formed of many leaves. 

Now V. Atalanta falls into the former section, and V. cardui 
into the latter ; and if we put out of consideration for the mo- 
ment the distribution of these two butterflies, since they occur 
alike in both worlds, we find that all the species of the first group 
are Old World species (including V. Kammeamea), and all the 
species of the second group are New World species. It is diffi- 
cult to avoid the conclusion, therefore, that these two insects 
originated, each where its nearest congeners are exclusively 
found, namely, V. Atalanta in the Old World and V. cardui in 
the New ; or, using the facts of distribution still further, V. Ata- 
lanta in Europe and V. cardui in North America. 

That V. cardui should be found upon many of the outlying isl- 
ands of the Old World, and upon almost none of those which 
surround its birthplace, is not a matter of much surprise. The 
butterfly-fauna of islands which have little or no indigenous pop- 
ulation is almost altogether made up of a few species of great en- 
durance and which hibernate as butterflies (that is, are longer 
lived than others in the imago state), and it seems pretty certain 
that their presence there: at all is an accidental circumstance. 
Mr. J. M. Jones has recently given! a very interesting account 
of the sudden appearance in Bermuda of large numbers of Terias 
Lisa, a delicate-winged butterfly, common enough in the south- 
em United States, but hitherto unknown to Bermuda, where he 
has detected only Anosia Berenice, Danaida Archippus, and 
Junonia Conia ; and he very reasonably accounts for the sudden 
appearance of these little butterflies by supposing them to have 
n caught up by the winds in a period of great atmospheric 
$ urbance, and whirled over the sea to this island. Another 
os a of the visit, during a cyclone, of numerous birds ag 
$ a ship six hundred miles from the African coast an 
wo hundred from the Cape Verde Islands ; among these were 
at | butterflies, Diadema Bolina and Vanessa cardui, the latter 
— not yet recorded from the Cape Verde Islands. Other 
bl ces might be given, but from these alone we may reasona- 

Y Suppose that of the myriads of insects which perish from such 
“aes a few now and then reach and people some hospitable 


1 Psyche for November, 1875. 


396 The Lobster ; Its Structure and History. (July, 


Considering the wide and even tropical distribution of V. cardui 
in the Old World, its absence from South America seems not a 
little remarkable. But the species of cosmopolitan genera not 
very rich in species (like Vanessa) are generally conterraneous, 
or they occupy adjoining zodlogical provinces as equivalent species, 
species of replacement, or, as the Germans sometimes call them, 
vicarious species. But we have already seen that, if we leave out 
of account our cosmopolitan species, and restrict V. Atalanta to 
the Old World, where it actually belongs, each of the species of 
Vanessa occupies a separate zodlogical region, one adjoining an- 
other, over nearly the entire extent of either world. The cosmo- 
politan species, similarly restricted to the New World as its 
proper habitat, occupies nearly the same region as V. Huntera, 
extending no doubt farther north, and becoming less abundant 
toward the southern extremity of the common limits of the two, 
phenomena which are repeated in the distribution of our two 
common and wide-spread eastern species of Argynnis, A. Cybele, 
and A. Aphrodite. The absence of Vanessa cardui from South 
America is therefore rather an argument in favor of its Ameri- 
can origin. The presence of the insect on the shores of Behring’s 
Straits, as testified by Wagner, is an indication of its route from 
America to Asia; and this passage must have taken place in 
times so far distant that it has had opportunity to push its way 
even to Australia and New Zealand, and there to become so mod- 
ified as to establish a peculiar race, once dignified by a specific 
name. If its presence in the Hawaiian Islands can be prove 
such a fact would be more difficult to understand ; but we can 
hardly doubt that V. Tammeamea and the other Old World 
species of Vanessa sprang from: one original stock ; and if the 
progenitors of the Hawaiian Islands species found a track from 
the Asiatic continent, so, plainly, could Vanessa cardui. 


THE LOBSTER; ITS STRUCTURE AND HISTORY. 
BY J. 8. KINGSLEY. 

AS the season of summer schools is approaching, it has e 
thought advisable to give a short account of the anatomy o 

the lobster. This animal has been chosen not only on account of 
its size and the ease with which either it or its fresh-water cousin, 
the crayfish, can be obtained, but also from the intermediate 
position it occupies in the articulata, forming an important SYP 
of this branch of the animal kingdom. A few technical terms 


1876] 
have been employed, since there is a lack of common names, to 
aid in explaining the homologies of the various parts. 

At the first glance the lobster is seen to consist of a large an- 
terior portion, bearing the pincers and various other appendages ; 
a and a posterior jointed portion, the abdomen. Taking the third 
l segment (somite) of the abdomen as a starting-point, it is seen to 
= Consist of an upper (tergal) and an under (sternal) portion. The 
4 
: 
: 


The Lobster ; Its Structure and History. 397 


portion of the segment between these, two is called the pleurum. 
On the under side, inserted between the sternum and pleurum, is 
seen a pair of appendages, the swimmerets (pleopoda). Each 
consists of a basal portion (protopodite) and two oval fringed 
paddles, of which the inner is the endopodite and the outer the 
exopodite. This we will consider as our typical segment, that is, 
we will try to show that all the other somites are formed on the 
same plan, with more or less variation of detail. In the sixth 
abdominal segment these swimmerets will be seen to be greatly 
enlarged, and the exopodite has a transverse joint. The seventh 
or last segment (telson) has no appendages. Together with the 
Pleopoda of the sixth it forms a paddle by which the animal is 
enabled to propel itself backward in the manner familiar to all 
who have ever observed these animals when alive. The pleopoda 
of the first abdominal somite are also modified ; in the female 
they are small, slender, and soft; in the male each consists of a 
hard protopodite and endopodite, the exopodite being absent. 
The endopodite of the second segment in the male lobster bears 
an additional joint on the inner side. 
e now come to the anterior portion of the body, in which 
the Segments are not so distinctly marked. It is covered with a 
large dorsal shield, the carapace. In front it is produced, be- 
tween the eyes, into a long spine, the rostrum. In the middle — 
is à gtoove which indicates the position of the heart in the in- 
terior, It certainly does not indicate the line of separation of 
the head and thorax. 
We are enabled to separate the anterior portion into somites 
m the fact that for every pair of jointed appendages there is 
: corresponding segment. Proceeding forward from the abdo- 
com with our homologies, we first find the fifth or last thoracic 
a 4 b, Which differs greatly at first sight from the swimmerets. 
<a of a protopodite and a jointed endopodite ; in its 
3 m stages it had also an exopodite. With the thoracic limbs 
of x feature appears; to the limb or the sternum at the base 
e limb are attached one or more conical appendages consist- 


R 
my 


398 The Lobster ; Its Structure and History. [July; 


ing of little lamellæ fastened together, forming a gill. These gills 
are packed away under the carapace. There are twenty on each 
side. The fifth limb bears one. In the fourth we find still an- 
other organ, a thin leathery structure with scattered hairs, the 
epipodite, the function of which is to keep the gills apart. This 
limb bears four gills, as do the third and second. In the second 
and third limbs the inner distal angle of the next to the last joint 
is greatly elongated, forming with the last joint a pincer or 
chela; limbs thus formed are said to be chelate. The first pair 
of thoracic limbs are greatly enlarged, and it is the outer instead 
of the inner angle of the joint next to the last which is elongated 
to form the pincer. It bears three gills. 

We now come to the appendages of the head, and among 
them we again find the exopodite. The six posterior pairs are 


commonly called the “mouth parts.” We first find, in going 


forward, three pairs of mavzillipeds, each composed of a protopo- 
dite, exopodite, and endopodite. The outer pair are larger than 
the others, the basal joints are hard and toothed like a saw; they 
bear each three gills. The second pair bear one small gill and 
the third are gilless. In front of the. maxillipeds are the two 
pairs of maxilla. They are delicate, almost membranous. The 
epipodite of the posterior one, called scaphognathite, is in life in 
constant motion, baling out water from the gill cavity, thus 
creating a current over the gills and aiding in respiration. W® 
next come to the mandibles, a pair of hard protopodites with 
cutting edges, and a delicate three-jointed endopodite termed a 
palpus. Between the mandibles is the mouth. It is pounded 
behind by a bifurcated process, the metastoma, and in front by a 
simple enlargement, the labrum. In front of the mouth the 
sternal surface bends abruptly upward. Above this flexure we 
find the larger antennæ, which consist of a protopodite and en- 
dopodite, the exopodite being represented by a small spine. Still 
farther in advance are the smaller antennæ, called the anten- 
nulæ. This finishes the number of segments. Reviewing, we 8° 
that we have eight cephalic, five thoracic, and seven abdominal. 
It will be seen that the writer does not recognize any segment 
corresponding to the eyes, and that he believes the telson to bee 
somite. The reasons for the former are chiefly embryological 
for the latter, the fact that the intestine passes through it, eg 
gether with certain reasons derived from the development of the 
young lobster. The mere absence of appendages has no great 
weight 


f 
4 
4 


1876.] The Lobster ; Its Structure and History. 399 


The internal anatomy is best studied by removing part of the 
carapace and tergal portions of the abdominal segments, as 
shown in the plate, taking care not to injure the underlying or- 
gans. Beneath the shell will be found a reddish membrane, 
which must also be carefully removed. The heart will be seen 
to be an irregular hexagonal body, lying just behind the suture 
noticed in speaking of the carapace. It consists of a single ven- 
tricle contained in a sac improperly called the pericardium. It 
gives off in front an artery to the eyes and anterior part of the 
body. Close to this on each side is the hepatic artery. On the 
under side is the sternal artery, while from the posterior angle 
arises the artery which supplies the abdomen. The sternal 
artery connects with one which runs the length of the body on 
the under side. Respiration is carried on in the gills. The 
heart forces out through these various arteries the blood, which 
collects in a venous sinus, passes to the gills, and then back to 
the heart. 

In front of and surrounding the heart is a delicate, convoluted 
mass, the liver, which occupies a large proportion of the thoracic 
cavity. In it are imbedded two elongated bodies, ovaries or 
testes, according to the sex, which pass under the heart. They 
are connected in front of the heart. Behind this connection are 
the oviducts of the female or vasa deferentia of the male. 

The mouth, the position of which has been noticed, is con- 
nected with the cesophagus, which in turn empties into the stom- 
ach. This latter is a large sac in the anterior part of the body, 
and consists of anterior and posterior (cardiace and pyloric) 
portions. In the cardiac is a complex calcareous organization 
Operated by powerful muscles, the office of which is to finish the 
mastication of the food. In the pyloric portion is a ciliated 
strainer. The intestine is a straight tube extending beneath the 
heart from the pylorus to the anus, which is situated on the un- 
der side of the telson. At the base of each antenna is the “ green 
gland,” supposed to be a kidney ; it communicates with the ex- 
terior by an opening in the protopodite. 

The “ brain ” is found at the base of the rostrum, between the 
eyes. It gives off nerves to the eyes, the antennulz and the an- 
tennæ. From the posterior portion are given off two commis- 
sures, which pass around on either side of the cesophagus and unite 
Ma ganglion behind. To examine this and the succeeding tho- 
racic ganglia, it will be found necessary to carefully break down 
Part of the sternum. From each of the esophageal commissures 


400 The Lobster; Its Structure and History. [July, 


arises a nerve, the two uniting in front of the stomach and giving 
rise to the sympathetic nerve. From the infra-cesophageal gan- 
glion arise the nerves which go to the mouth parts. The thoracic 
ganglia are connected by two commissures, the abdominal by a 
single cord. The sternal artery passes between the commissures, 
uniting the third and fourth thoracic. ganglia. There is no gan- 
glion for the telson. 

The only senses which are localized in the lobster are sight 
and hearing. The position of the eyes has been noticed ; the ear 
is found as a small sac in the base of the antennule. 

Space will allow but a slight account of the development ; for 
details the reader is referred to the papers of Mr. S. I. Smith, 
in Verrill and Smith’s Report on the Invertebrata of Vineyard 
Sound, and in the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of 
Science. (See also the NATURALIST, July, 1874.) The eggs 
are of a dark green color, and are found from April to November 
on the coast of New England. The embryo in the egg has its 
eyes sessile, its antenne are simple sacs, and its abdominal feet 
are wanting. In the first stage after leaving the egg the thoracic 
feet are furnished with an endopodite fringed with hairs. The 
animals then swim on the surface. In the second stage some of 
the abdominal appendages appear. In the third it loses its ex- 
opodites, and begins to resemble the adult. Specimens three 
inches long have been found with nearly all the characters of the 
adult. During the first year the molts are quite frequent, but 
afterwards they are believed to occur but once a year. The car- 
apace splits down the back, and through the opening the animal 
withdraws itself, leaving its cesophagus and stomach within the 
cast-off skin, and in a few days the new skin becomes hardened. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATES V. AND VI. 


Plate V. Fig. 1, carapace; 2-8, abdominal segments ; 2’, side view of the first ab- 
dominal somite of male; 9, antennule; 10, antennx; 11, mandibles; 12, 15, mar 
illæ; 14-16, maxillipeds ; 17, big pincer; 18-21, remaining thoracic feet; 22, front 
view of third abdominal segment ; 23, transverse section through the carapace. 

Plate VI. Fig. 1, dorsal view, part of the carapace removed, giving & pny 

ee | 

nervous system; 3, diagramatic figure of the circulation (from Gegenbauer) ; he, er 

bryo in the egg (from Smith) ; 5, first stage of young (from Smith). g gills 
s : i 


n, nerve; p, protopodite; p. a, posterior artery; p. c, pericardium ; r, T a 
8, stomach ; t, ovary or testes ; v. a, ventral artery ; s. a, sternal artery: Y. 5 Y 
` Sinus; x, extensor muscles. ‘ 


Bs FS PN als ea ieee er | 
By aa 


aeaa a 


1876.] 


The Probable Danger from White Ants. 401 


THE PROBABLE DANGER FROM WHITE ANTS. 
BY DR. H. A. HAGEN. 


| INVITE the reader to imagine himself in a forest in the 

interior of Brazil. There is a clearing in the forest. A small 
valley covered with underbrush, and containing a fresh water 
pool, opens before our eyes. Here and there are scattered little 
hills several feet high, more or less covered with grass. Thick 
clouds rise slowly and make the close air still more oppressive ; 
the rainy season, the disagreeable summer of the tropics, is ap- 
proaching. All seems quiet, but suddenly one’s attention is 
ie by a strange activity beginning in one of the little 
ills, 


As if by witchcraft, a cleft opens in the middle of the hill. A 
little brown insect comes out with folded wings, followed by two, 
three, four, and more, in one row, as many as the quickly widen- 
ing cleft will allow to passat once. Like a silver ribbon the train 
winds down the hill, for the membrane of the wings glimmers like 
mother-of-pearl. These insects take a course just opposite to the 
wind, as this is the only way in which their delicate wings can 
resist the pressure of the air. More and more, without interrup- 
tion, appear hastily, as if driven out of the hill. Other similar 
clefts have been opened, from which similar trains throng out. 
The little hill Seems to discharge its living lava like a volcano. 

ut the most curious spectacle is seen near the cleft. There 
appear little wingless creatures with enormous heads and hooked 
Jaws, which they move threateningly, to defend the entrance to 
their subterranean chambers, and to accelerate the march of their 

~~ el who have been turned out. At last the rows grow 
smaller and thinner and the clefts begin to close as if walled up by 
visible hands. Tn the mean time the swarm has tried its wings, 
and rises steadily into the air, keeping close together near the 
tops of the trees and then gradually falling to the earth. Pretty 
“on the number of the falling insects increases, and we notice 
that they are always in couples, male and female, running quickly 
Mout and trying to get rid of their loosely attached wings. 


: : Continuing to observe the strange kind of emigration of these 


a commonly called white ants, we find that only a few of 
ese myriads live till the next morning. All those that have 


not been eaten by the large numbers of mammals, birds, and 
aa “ager to swallow. them have been caught by the busy 
E RO, T, 26 


402 The Probable Danger from White Ants. (July, 


workers of the white ants, and elected as heads of a future 
family. A clay cell, shaped like a watch-glass, serves for the 
royal pair, first as a dwelling and later as their grave. They are 
never allowed to leave it. The entrance is carefully walled up, 
and at first only one small hole is left for the workers to go in 
and out. Food is brought in and consumed. The queen grows 
visibly, and begins soon to lay the eggs of the coming brood. 
The number of eggs is immense ; the statements vary between 
eighty in every minute and eighty thousand in twenty-four hours. 
As the same queen continues to lay eggs for two years, at least 
in some species, some forty millions of eggs will have been laid 
during this time. This large number is not exaggerated ; indeed, 
the fecundity of some common insects goes much beyond this. 
The common blue-bottle fly has in one summer five hundred 
millions of descendants, and the plant-louse has in one year, in 
the fifth generation, six thousand millions, and still continues to 
lay eggs when the ninth generation is already fit for propagation. 
_ Among the vertebrates some fishes have a comparatively numer- 
ous progeny. 

` The growth of the queen increases in proportion to the num- 
ber of eggs forming in her body. When full-grown she is sev- 
eral thousand times as large as before ; that is, her abdomen 
only has grown from one half an inch to six and even eight 
inches in length. The whole body resembles a thick worm, cOv- 
ered at regular distances with brown spots, the former segments 
of the abdomen. The delicate feet are completely unable to 
move the body, out of which the eggs are forced by an incessant 
peristaltic motion. 

Meanwhile the cell of the so-called queen has been widened 
according to necessity. A gang of workers, forming a cham, 
moves about the floor and carries the eggs into the nurserles 
near by. To shorten the way they make little holes in the wa 
of the cell at regular distances. Soon we find a motley crowd 
crawling about in the nest ; very young larvae, workers and 80% 
diers, two aborted forms of both sexes, nymph, and later, min- 
gled with them, the full-grown winged imago. o 

But the nest has become too small, and we now see similar hills 
rising near by; then the partition walls are broken to conp? 
the new dwellings with the old ones ; and additions to the family 
force the brood to repeat the operation. Larger species m y 
tropics raise hills to twelve feet and more in height, strong 
enough to resist the influence of the tropical rains, and to ren 
difficult their destruction by men or animals. 


1876.) The Probable Danger from White Ants. 403 


The whole is built up by the blind workers in the dark, for it 
isa peculiarity of the white ants that they shun the daylight. 
No matter how far they intend to go, they build a pipe of clay 
of about a quill’s diameter, forming a viaduct, the inside of 
which is quite smooth, whilst the outside is more or less rough. 

It is wonderful how quickly the work progresses. In a file each 
_ worker carries to the right place a small particle of loam, mixed 
with its saliva. Without interruption the little troop is busily 
engaged, and such pipes have been observed to progress two 
inches in a single hour, and six feet during one night. 

When the work is damaged, the workers retire, frightened, 

and in the breach appear the thick-headed soldiers ; first one, 
then more, in such a hurry that often the foremost are thrown 
down by the eagerly pressing crowds. Opening their jaws wide, 
they move their heads threateningly to reach the enemy, and at 
the same time make a peculiar hissing sound. Furiously they 
beat at everything in their way, and not infrequently put to 
flight barefooted intruders, The soldiers do not help at the - 
work ; protection is their only duty. They are blind, like the 
workers, 
_ There are some very curious facts observed concerning the 
instinct of these little animals. As the whole nest would die 
with the premature death of the queen, sometimes two equally 
well-developed queens are found in the same cell, but the rather 
impolite workers have built between them a partition, begin- 
ning at the ceiling but not quite reaching the floor. Therefore 
only conversation is possible ; perhaps they think that two queens 
would. not live peaceably so near together. Every society pro- 
Vides carefully for a substitute in case of the queen’s death, and 
m a small cell, shaped like that of the queen, two or three indi- 
viduals are found, prepared, if wanted, to take her place. 

All the species of the white ants which build hills belong to 
the tropics. But besides these, there exist numerous species 
Which build curious nests in the tops of trees, or beneath the sur- 

ce of the earth, or which live in decayed trees and in every 
‘Kind of decayed wood. Two of the-latter kind, very similar to 
ach other, live in Europe and North America; and about these 
4 Particular, and their dangerous habits, I propose to make some 

ations, 
nate ettoPean species ( Termes lucifugus) has been observed by 
g 8s for nearly a century. The little dark-brown inseet, 
living under stones or in old decayed trees, had until recently never 


404 The Probable Danger from White Ants. (July, 


been injurious. Even its appearance in myriads after the falling 
of an old uninhabited house in Rochefort, in France, did not draw 
the attention of the people tothe danger. Some time afterwards 
more accidents happened. In a boarding-house a whole dinner 
party fell suddenly from the third story down into the cellar, and 
some other buildings threatened similar mishaps. The danger was 
increased, as each owner carefully denied having these fearful — 
guests, for fear of depreciating the value of his house. The anvil 
of an industrious blacksmith yielded under his hammer, and the 
block supporting it broke to pieces, entirely destroyed by white 
ants. The attention of the government was drawn finally to the 
danger by the destruction of the costly timber stored in the navy 
yard for the building of men-of-war, and the destruction of the 
naval archives. Several times scientific commissions were sent 
to investigate the new pest and to propose remedies ; and scien- 
tific societies in vain offered prizes for the fortunate destroyer of 
these animals. Nevertheless every remedy proved useless, as 
refuse and manure spread the obnoxious insects further. Con- 
stant attention and the destruction of the pipes, and use princi- 
pally of only metal and stone for the construction of new build- 
ings, were considered the only remedies against the white ants. 
Some years later they did less damage, and disappeared, as insect 
pests commonly do, without any known reason. For the last 
twenty years they have existed everywhere in the formerly in- 
fected departments, but without being obnoxious. 

The North American species (Termes flavipes) in form and 
color is very much like the European, but differs in the more 
yellowish legs. The species has been known to science since the 
end of the last century. Their obnoxious power was first shown 
in Europe, in the beautiful hot-houses at Schoenbrunn, belong- 
ing to the Emperor of Austria. The insect was believed, prob- 
ably by mistake, to have been imported with plants from South 
America, for till now this species has not been observed south of 
the North American continent. It was not possible to get rid 
of them in Schoenbrunn, in spite of great expense and carefu 
labor. One of the largest. hot-houses was so nearly destroyed 
by them that it had to be torn down to prevent its falling to 
ruin. Besides the beams, they had destroyed the tubs in which 
the plants were set. The new hot-houses were built of iron, but 
the white ants are still living in them. 

The whole region of the United States east of the Rocky 
Mountains possesses only one species, the above-mentioned T. 


T tive, 


1876.] The Probable Danger from White Ants. 405 


flavipes, spreading from the Gulf to the Lakes, and from the At- 
lantic to the westward beyond the Mississippi. This white ant 
seems to be common everywhere; it is very abundant in New 
England, and from my personal observation is to be found 
everywhere around Boston, in its suburbs and in the surrounding 


country, within a radius of ten miles. It lives in old stumps, in - 


dead trees, and in fences, logs, and every kind of rotten wood. 
So far as is known, living trees are not attacked. 

The full-grown insect swarms in June more or less numer- 
ously, and nearly every year local newspapers give some account 
`of an irruption. Curiously enough, and although many observers 
were eager to follow the insects to their nest, till recently none 
had been discovered. Only a few months ago, in the southern 


part of Florida one was found by chance in an old rotten log, — 


and the queen sent to the Cambridge Museum. I have tried to 
discover the nest here since I was invited to come to Cambridge 
by the late Professor Agassiz, and I have repeatedly given serious 
attention to this subject. .But I never succeeded. I beg to 
Mention only one of my experiments. A board which lay about 
twenty steps from the corner of the museum when I arrived, 
eight years ago, was left in the same spot five years for the pur- 
pose of covering wet places in the spring and in the fall. Sud- 
- denly in June, 1872, it proved to be infested and covered with 
thousands of white ants. Of course they must have come through 
the ground, and I tried carefully to discover the passages and 
holes, in order to find a clew to the nest. The whole ground be- 
neath the board and its ‘neighborhood was examined, and the loam 
_. earefully displaced. But no trace was found. I have no doubt 
that Some old stumps in the surrounding estates will be the 
right place, but they are too numerous to enable us to find the 
night one. The only scientific conclusion to be made is that the 
white ants Spread commonly very far around their nest under- 
neath the ground, and appear above as far as possible from the 
Rest. It is very obvious that by this habit the danger is aggra- 
vated, and the remedy, that is, the destruction of the nest, 
ult to apply. i 

My inquiries as to whether there had been observed any mis- 
chief done by white ants here were always answered in the nega- 
ia Only one fact was known. About ten years ago, in a hot- 
T at Salem, the grape-vine was destroyed by them, and 
paly enough in the same way as in Europe, and I am in- 
5. ‘tmed that the sills of houses and decaying trees in that city are 


/ 


406 The Probable Danger from White Ants. _ [July, 


tenanted by them. ‘Two years later I was presented by the late 
B. Walsh, in Rock Island, with a copy of the state papers of 
Illinois, which were destroyed by white ants. All the spare — 
copies were stored in a closed room, and not looked after for 
some time; when the room was opened all were found in the 
' same condition. I can never look upon the volume without being 
puzzled by the remarkable fact that the queer little rogues 
failed to attack the name of Vandalia on the top of the pages. 
Several years later a Boston lady, a teacher in one of the freed- 
men’s schools in South Carolina, who had gone away for a vaca- 
tion of six weeks, found, on returning, the whole library destroyed, 
Bibles and prayer-books. The copies kindly forwarded to me 
were less damaged, and therefore retained. 
Here, around Boston, old fences are the favorite dwelling of 
the white ants. The old fence around the Observatory in Cam- 
bridge was the easiest place to collect them. The fence was 
replaced last fall by a new one. In the report the expense was 
marked down as a large one. If we consider the danger to the 
library and the records of the Observatory, which, once destroyed, 
never could be replaced, we shall agree that the expense is a real 
benefit. In the Botanical Garden, white ants are equally numer- 
ous. A few years ago I had the opportunity of seeing white 
ants swarm in clouds in the Botanical Garden. A whole army 
ascended the steps to the herbarium. I was frightened by the 
possible danger to this treasure. But the answer that all the 
plants in the herbarium were poisoned tarned directly my com- 
passion to the side of the little strolling wanderers. Neverthe- 
less, the costly library of the Botanical Garden is certainly not 
poisoned, and doubtless somewhat in danger. I tried to find the 
centre for the large distribution of white ants around the Observ- 
atory and the Botanical Garden; and I believe I am right m Te 
garding it as existing in a very old estate just opposite to the 
Botanical Garden. Near Spy Pond I had for several years 4 g 
collecting place for white ants in a venerable giant of pine, dead 
perhaps for many years, but removed the last winter; 1 the 
many old stumps around it, however, the nest was not discovered. 
Near Winchester, on Mystic Pond, the fish commission has 
built a remarkable fishway for alewives, near a sluice. a 
years ago I examined the posts and stumps around it, and foun 
them infested with white ants. Till now they have done n° 
damage. Ihave no positive information that mill-dams are dam- 
aged by white ants, but I cannot help believing that at | 


1876.) The Probable Danger from White Ants. 407 


in some cases of ruptures of dams, so frequent of late years, 
white ants may have had some part at least in helping the de- 
struction. The same remark applies to wooden bridges. I can 
only give one fact which I believe belongs here. Near Porter’s 
Station, in Cambridge, was a wooden bridge for cattle driving, 
which gave way, as it was stated, by a large number of cattle 
running across it. Trains stop forty times or more daily at Por- 
ter’s Station, and the bridge was so situated just above the engine 
that it was moistened by the hot steam, the best accommodation 
which white ants would choose. I am told that the broken wood 
had been sound, but I can state that white ants swarmed last 
year on both ends of the broken bridge. Even now the out- 
side of the old bridge remains near the newly-built one, and the 
wood is thoroughly rotten and eaten by insects. I have always 
wondered that houses were never attacked. Now it is done. 
Some years ago, Mr. Alvan Clark, the world-wide known maker 
of astronomical instruments, visited the Museum of Comparative 
Zoölogy. When I showed hir the biological collection of white 
ants, he told me that he knew them very well, because they 
swarmed every year in January in his workshop. Afterwards, 
while I was on a visit there, he showed me that the timber around 
the furnace in his shop was entirely infested by them. This year, 
suddenly the ceiling above the furnace, where the wood is con- 
stantly moistened by hot steam, gave way for about an inch, and 
he was obliged to support the whole by posts and jack-screws. 
A gentleman from Roxbury, when I showed him wood damaged 
by white ants, told me that an old shanty on his estate came 
down, and the wood looked just like the piece I showed him. 
From some lumbermen I heard that such wood was known by 
the name of powder-dust, and I found beautiful pieces of it 
among large piles of lumber near Lake Winnipiseogee. I am 
happy to state that I know of no other damage done here by 
white ants. But their habit of working without injuring the 
Suter surface of the eaten wood, and the immense damage done 
bya nearly-related species, makes it a duty, I believe, for every- 

y to be on his guard. White ants are every year swarming 
around the Museum of Comparative Zoélogy, the Botanical Gar- 
den, and the Observatory. Collections and large libraries are in 
e neighborhood, and it should not be forgotten that A. von 
Humboldt stated half a century ago that the rarity of old books 
i New Spain was the consequence of the depredations of white 
ants. I have no proof that white ants are living in the city of 


408 The Probable Danger from White Ants. (July, 


Boston itself, but there can be no doubt of it. Old posts, plank- 
ways, fences, stumps, are everywhere their favorite dwelling, and 
there is no lack of this sort of rubbish in many places. In East 
Boston their appearance was recorded several years ago by news- 
papers. 

The question, What can be done to prevent as much as possi- 
ble the danger? is a natural one. I have thought much about 
what should be recommended, and I will try to give some hints 
which may perhaps be accepted. The remedies (the large num- 
ber of which shows their insufficiency) recommended for the de- 
struction of white ants in the tropics fill a whole literature. I will 
not forget to mention that as every calamity is used by rogues 
to cover their bad doings; even the destruction by white ants 
was used in such a way. When a very large property, stored 
by the government in Isle de France, was reported as destroyed 
by white ants, the ministers sent to the officers a box containing 
files, with the strict order to file off the teeth of each ant or to 
resign the place. Since then the white ants have been harm- 
less, at least comparatively SO. 

The substance of the propositions recommended by me would 
be as follows: — _ 

(1.) We must know that we live surrounded by such enemies, 
and that great destruction can be done. If we look straight in 
the face of an enemy and know the power he can develop, the 
battle is half won. N othing is more dangerous than underrating 
or overlooking the power of even the feeblest enemy. 

(2.) We must not try to find a remedy to exterminate them 
entirely and at once. Such exertions are fruitless. We must 
try to diminish the danger to the smallest possible degree. The 
life of man is a continuous struggle with a host of enemies which 
he cannot exterminate. They must be avoided or conquered. 

(3.) The remedy must be a reasonable one. For instance, 
it would be absurd to recommend not to build houses of wood in 
a country where certainly wooden buildings are the most healthy, 
considering the great changes of temperature, the great humidity 
of the air, and above all the convenience of such houses. 

The diminishing of the progeny of animals is done in the sım- 
plest way by depriving them of food. Now the food of white 
ants is principally old rotten wood, and I think the first step 
should be to take away all that is possible of such stuff. Old 
stumps are the principal dwellings for white ants, preserving 
them through the winter. Therefore every old stump should be 


. 


WR] Tro Probable Danger from White Ants. 409 


removed, at least near cities and towns. For old fences, I believe 
this will be more difficult, but I see no other help, at least near 
cities and towns. It should not be overlooked that a sudden 
temoval of a large quantity of such infested wood might bring 
about a sudden calamity by a larger spreading of the disturbed 
and starved animals. But it should also be considered that in 
deferring this necessary remedy the evil would be greater, and 
only postponed; the ants would spread more and more, and a 


` later generation would deplore the lack of attention given by 


. their forefathers. I think if the removal was effected in winter 
time, when the ants are weaker, and a large part would die in the 
cold weather by exposure, or by simple chemicals put in the hole, 
the danger would not be so great that it could not be overcome. 
Of course I would condemn also all useless pieces of wood lying 
around, also old forgotten shanties and similar structures. 

very important point would be not to have well-manured 
flower-beds just around and near to the wall of wooden dwelling- 
houses. The soil in such beds is always less compact and warmer, _ 
and Thave observed in such beds in the early spring swarming 
white ants. I think it would be best to have around the houses 
for a certain distance clay or gravel, as the white ants do not 
seem to like them. 

It should be remembered that in railway depots and stations 
the engines should not stop daily on a spot where bridges or 
"epa wooden structures are moistened by the steam. Of course 

* same precaution would be commendable in manufactories. 

` se seemingly not very significant measures, if followed 
: strictly, would, I think, prevent the greatest part of the danger. 

Continued attention would be the principal, and this would be 
ie » as the Swarming of the white ants in the summer indicates 

every one their presence, 

I should be sorry if the lugubrious picture of the possible 
reer which may seriously endanger a flourishing country, 
This h thought too darkly shaded or perhaps sensational. 
= as of course not been my intention. I have only tried to 
a attention to an enemy with which we have lived until 
peaceably, without knowing its dangerous power, a power 
h can be developed at any time, if precautions are not taken 

EE o 


2 oe i ants are only the police of nature. If mankind takes 
. In his hands, nature steps behind. White ants retreat 
~ °Y step before the advancing culture. In Africa and India, 


410 Exploration of a Mound in Utah. [July, 


where a century ago immense ant-hills were to be found near the 
shore, now some days’ journeys inland have to be made to find 
them. We are justified in hoping for this retreat of white ants 
here, in front of a rapidly advancing culture. 


EXPLORATION OF A MOUND IN UTAH. 


NFORMATION having been received that a mound existed on + 
Santa Clara River, a few miles from the village of St. George, 
in Southern Utah, which from its position promised to yield in- 
teresting results, it was deemed of sufficient importance to have 
it explored. Dr. E. Palmer, being in that neighborhood last fall, 
was requested to direct the operations in the interest of the Na- 
tional Museum. The report which he submitted gives interest- 
ing details of what he observed during the progress of the work, 
and his impressions explanatory of the same. 
ith the necessary workmen and tools he proceeded to the 
mound in question, on the east side of the Santa Clara River, 
about three miles from St. George, Utah, and camped at its 
base. A general view of the situation showed an isolated eleva- 
tion which had originally covered about half an acre of ground 
with a varying height of ten or twelve feet, which had been cut 
away nearly one half on the side of the river by the action of its 
waters during a freshet in 1861 or 1862. The outline it presen 
on the ground was quite irregular. The rise in the river had 
changed the position of the channel, and deepened it and also 
made it wider. At this time, however, the stream is reduced to 4 
very small width, say from twelve to fifteen feet. What remained 
of the mound was quite a conspicuous object in the landscapes 
about forty feet from the river-bed, with a vertical escarpment on 
that side, but evidently it had been a circular work before 1t8 
partial demolition by the river. The lines of stratification see? 
on the river front were conclusive as to its having been piled up 
by human agency, showing various horizons from the base ay on 
which dwellings had been erected and occupied by the residents 
of the spot until some member of the household, probably the 
head, should die, when it was burned down with all its appurte- 
nances, the dead body included ; leaving a deposit of ashes W! 
incombustible stone implements to designate the location. 3 
The construction of the dwellings was studied out on the spot : 
and was found to.be for the most part of upright sticks or staves 


1876.] Exploration of a Mound in Utah. 411 


probably wattled, supporting a roof made of slender poles, which 
sustained a grass thatch covered with mud for the outer layer. 
Others had a stone wall or foundation, laid up with elay mortar. 
The included space was square, shown by a well-defined line of 
ashes where the walls had been burned down, with bits of charcoal 
seattered over the surface which were derived from the poles of the 
roof, while over all was an almost continuous layer of clay, burned 
to the hardness of soft brick, which had covered the roof. These 
brick-like masses still preserved the impress of the wood upon 
which the clay had been plastered. The amount of ashes in each 
little inclosure differed somewhat, in proportion to the thickness 
of the roof, and the quantity of household implements or provisions 
which it may have contained at the time of the conflagration. 
The location of the domestic hearth seemed to be distinctly shown 
by the accumulation of a mass of ashes, semicircular in form, and 
ten or twelve inches deep. In several instances large flat stones 
were found neatly arranged around these fire-places, as if to retain 
the fire in its proper limits. Other inclosures or pens of slabs of 
rock were noticed, and were interpreted to be storing places for 
Provisions. All the rock material used in and about the build- 
mgs was brought from a distance, probably by water-carriage 
on the river, there being no stone quarry near the place. There 
could not be discovered any regular disposition of the buildings 
1n rows, circles, or around a square, but their location seemed to 
have been determined by some such event as the burning down 
of one dwelling, and the necessity of erecting another in some 
quarter at a distance, for the occupancy of the survivors. 

ome portion of the skeleton of the cremated Indian was 
always found within the inclosure marked out by the lines of 
ashes. The effect of the fire had been to destroy the body, and 
What remained of the bones crumbled on exposure to the air; 
* portion of one or two crania being all that could be brought 
away. Many other objects were also found, such for instance as 
stone mortars, metates, pestles, grinding-stones, flint arrow and 
“pear heads, earthenware jars, and such other Indian implements 
i property as could not be destroyed by the fire. 

Adjacent to the skeletons was found what was judged to be 
r atended provision of water and food, arranged in appropriate 
"a those for water being generally of the same globular 
be. The vessels were of hard-burnt earthenware, for the most 
of a grayish color and ornamented inside with parallel black 

> With occasional triangular or quadrangular black spots. 


412 Exploration of a Mound in Utah, © (July, 


These pots or jars or bowls, to the number of three, five, seven, and 
ten respectively, were discovered in connection with remains of 
the dead, as the several house floors were dug up and cleared 
away. In a few instances no earthenware was discovered ; small 
deposits, however, of substances which were charred or otherwise 
decomposed pointed out where provisions had been left for the 
sustenance of the departed spirits. Throughout the whole mound 
refuse borfes from food-animals of many species were discovered, 
and all exhibited signs of being split for marrow, or otherwise 
worked or handled. 

Before any of the tribe to which the deceased belonged could 
be induced to erect another dwelling on the old site, much time, 
probably a generation or two, would have to elapse. In obedi- 
ence to a powerful superstition and fear of the dead no one would 
be likely to reoceupy the ground until the name and character 
of the former occupant had been forgotten. In the mean time 
the old foundation would have to be filled up to the general level, 
and for this purpose earth would have to be brought from another 
quarter. That the descendants should cling to the old mound of 
their forefathers is in accordance with all aboriginal tradition, 
and a home on such a mound, surrounded by neighbors, might 
well be regarded as‘a place of security and defense from attack. 
This latter idea probably determined all such cases of the selec- 
tion of mounds for permanent residence in those times. The peo- 
ple of this particular locality were of the usual stature, and from 
all their properties and surroundings are judged to most resemble 
the Moquis and Pimos ; certainly they must be classed with Pue- 
blo tribes, and the quality of the pottery and its ornamentation 
point directly to the Indians just named as their descendants. 
Thus, with the unchanging pertinacity of the race, the same pi 
if not the same spot was built upon, destroyed by fire, and rebuilt 
upon, the same mode of life, customs, manufactures, being contin- 
ued for ages, until the want of food or water, some overwhelming 
epidemic or murderous raid of enemies, brought extinction to the 
little colony. ; 

The posture observed in placing the deceased before burning 
the dwelling and contents is that noticed all along the westert 
coast of North and South America: the knees were drawn up 
the chin rested upon them; and no rule seems to have been ob- 
served in facing the individual, no one of the cardinal points being 
regarded more than another. Some of the specimens of food ae 
covered near the skeletons are charred or decomposed, but stil 


Bo Rig EARS MR ee cae 3 Ue eek ID a el ee ee a oe coe TR Cal ar 


One skelet 
-a flat stone 


1876.] Exploration of a Mound in Utah. 415 


bear distinctive marks by which they can be certainly determined, 
such as corn and pine nuts: and the traces of slowly evaporating 
water clearly indicate its former presence in the appropriate ves- 
sels, which were generally globular in shape with a narrow neck or 


contracted orifice. Household utensils for grinding corn or seeds, 


stone knives and implements for skinning and dressing animals 
for food and for use in converting the skin into leather, stone tips 
for arrows and heads for spears, stone awls or drills for making per- 
forations, stone hammers, celts, axes, grooved stones for smooth- 


ing arrow shafts, stone disks, probably for gambling purposes, 


several flat stones such as are now used by kindred tribes for 
baking, a stone pipe for smoking tobacco or its substitute, and 
avery large number of sharp-pointed bone awls were obtained, 
such as are now in use by many tribes for puncturing holes in 
buckskin for sewing. They are remarkably well preserved and 
did not cramble on exposure ; a result due probably to the previous 
elimination from the bone, by cooking, of all animal matter which 
might promote decomposition. No ornament or other object was 
found which could be referred to a European or other foreign 
ongin. Some rough beads made of shell or bone were all, except 
that in one place a few small flat stone pendants of a greenish-blue 
color, perforated for stringing and made of. the celebrated and 
Tare turquoise or chalchiuitl, were found in connection with a 
skeleton probably of a chief, judging from the more than usual 
“gns of opulence which surrounded him. These trinkets are ob- 
re ble only, so far as is now known, in one locality, namely, the 
Cerillos Mountains in New Mexico. Connected with these were 
Pendants made of the iridescent pearly shell Haliotis, the nearest 
place for obtaining which is the shore of the Pacific Ocean. 

In one stratum of ashes there were discovered some fragments of 
charred textile fabric, very coarse, but unmistakably twisted and 
P ited ; hence we may infer that some other clothing was in use 
besides the buckskin garment. The fibres of which these are 
. could easily be obtained from an agave or a yucca, fibre- 

rng plants, which abound in Utah and Arizona. 

a Series of objects obtained which forces itself most upon the 
pe EN was the collection of earthenware vessels, nearly fifty in 

r. The choicest lot was of seven pieces in connection with 
on, associated with some very neatly made arrowheads, 
Reed + with serrated edge, the turquoise pendants above 
> Pe ornaments, stone drills, bone awls, red paint (for the 
: ); and an exceedingly sharp knife of obsidian. Some of the 


414 Exploration of a Mound in Utah. [July, 


better forms and finer kinds of pottery were near children’s skele- 
tons. The form, color, and ornamentation of the ware is very 
various, and the latter is often elaborate. Some pieces were 
glazed, that is, if we are to understand by this term that the ves- 
sel has been coated over, after it is shaped in ordinary clay, with 
a finer earthy mixture, which fuses into a kind of glass, making a 
smooth reflecting surface. The addition of an outer coating of 
finer material upon which to impress some kind of ornament can 
be shown also in other instances from Utah and Arizona to be 
very ancient. 

The pottery vessels when extricated from near the interior of 
the dwelling were entire and undefaced, but where they had 
been exposed near the edge or margin to moisture or influence of 
saline efflorescence they were cracked and the glazing had scaled 
off. i | 

The quantity of broken pottery strewn around the environs is 
only a repetition of what may be found in wonderful profusion all 
over the adjoining Territories of Arizona and New Mexico. The 
quality of the ware, the shape, and the uniformly characteristic 
ornamentation declare unmistakably that the tribes which manu- 
factured the articles are now represented by their descendants 
the Moquis, Pimos, and Maricopas living north of the Gila River 
and forming the tribes of Pueblos or settled Indians of that coun- 
try. The immense quantity of this pottery may be well ac- 
counted for by remembering that in such an arid country the 
most urgent and never-ceasing demand was for water to allay 
thirst. To provide for this it was customary to arrange TOWS of 
ollas or water jars of large capacity, sinking them up to their 
necks in the sandy soil so as to check evaporation from the surface, 
and, when opportunity served, to fill them and thus keep a store 
of the precious fluid at hand. Something analogous is seen in the 
rows of capacious jars of similar ware which have been found em- 
bedded in the soil near the ruins of Nineveh, in the Isle of Cyprus, 
and on the site of ancient Troy. Oil or wine or water, all or 
either of them, may have been contained in the latter, but the 
fragments of pottery on these sites are also very numerous and 
similarly accounted for. 


: 
4 


| 1876.) - Spontaneous Generation. 415 


~ 


PROFESSOR TYNDALL’S EXPERIMENTS ON SPONTA- 
NEOUS GENERATION, AND DR. BASTIAN’S POSITION: 
BY RÉV. W. H. DALLINGER. 

IPEE largest difficulty surrounding the question of the mode of 

origin of septic organisms is that of discovering their life- 
cycle. By dealing with them in aggregations we run told and 
untold risks. The conflict of results by this means, in the most 
accomplished hands, employing the most refined methods during 
the past eighteen years, is a sufficient witness. Repetitions of 
experiments, and conflicting results, and explanations of the 
reason why, and so the cycle rolls. Of course important lessons 
in biology are learned, but not the lesson. And yet by the 
teachings of this complex and doubtful method alone Dr. Bastian 
is content to accept ‘* abiogenesis ” as a great fact in nature. 

To those who are best acquainted with the experimental his- 
tory of the subject for the last twenty — but certainly for the 
six— years this is the more remarkable. For the weight of 
evidence is certainly not only not in favor of ‘ abiogenesis,” but 
1s in the strongest sense adverse to it. The most refined, deli- 
cate, and continuous researches all point to the existence of what 
are at present ultra-microscopic germs. ‘This, indeed, is directly 
affirmed by the authors. A single and recent instance will suf- 
fi After a remarkable series of experiments detailed before 
the Royal Society, Dr. W. Roberts says: “ The issue of the 
foregoing inquiry has been to confirm in the fullest manner the 
main propositions of the panspermic theory, and to establish the 
conclusion that bacterta and torule, when they do not proceed 
tom visible parents like themselves, originate from invisible 
germs floating in the surrounding aérial and aqueous media.” 

But further, this has been remarkably sustained by analogical 
fvidence. There are putrefactive organisms that closely approx- 
mate to the bacteria in form, structure, and size. These are 
the « monads,” or, as Professor Huxley doubtless more fitly 
wames them, the Heteromita. They live side by side with the 

teria in the same putrescent mass, and certainly in the later 
Stages of the disintegration of dead organic matter are the most 
active and powerful agents. From their greater size they present 
* More promising field for microscopical research than the ‘bac- 
sya themselves ; and the life-history of some of these could be 
fully Mastered. I long since felt that valuable aid might thus 


1 i 
Extracts from an article in Popular Science Review, London, April, 1876. 


* 


416 Spontaneous Generation. [July, 


be rendered to the discovery of the nature of the bacteria. 
Armed with the best and most powerful appliances which the 
modern optician could supply, Dr. J. Drysdale and myself ven- 
tured on the work. The results are fully detailed elsewhere. 
It need only be remarked here that the only hope of success was 
in continuous observation of the same form, in the same drop of 
fluid under the highest powers. The secret, therefore, was to 
find a means of keeping the same drop under examination with- 


out evaporation. This we did. The result was that patient — 


work enabled us to completely unravel the life-history of six of 
these organisms. These life-cycles cannot be here recounted. 
Suffice it now to say that each of them multiplied enormously by 
self-division (fission), but that the life-cycle in each case began 
and ended in a distinct genetic product—call them what we 
choose, spores, germs, or ova. 

We have here, then, important indications of fact concerning 
the nearest allies of the bacteria: they develop from germs. 

We have, besides, the weight of the best experimental evidence 
pointing clearly to the existence of germs in the bacteria them- 
selves.. But the microscope has failed to demonstrate the latter. 
Its finest powers and finest methods failed to reach them. 

Happily at this juncture Professor Tyndall has stepped in, 
and with his accustomed brilliance and precision has opened up 
the path we need. He has presented us with a physical demon- 
stration of the existence of immeasurably minute molecules of 
matter — utterly beyond the reach of the most powerful combina- 
tion of lenses yet constructed — which are the indispensable pre- 
cursors of bacteria in sterilized infusions. In short, he has opened 
up a new and exact method, which must lead to a scientific 
determination of the existence and nature of the bacteria-germs. 
His beautiful experiments on the decomposition of vapors, and 
the formation of actinie clouds by light, led him to experiment 
on the floating matter of the air, and with what results is widely 
known. Confined and undisturbed air, however heavily charged 
with motes, becomes at length, by their deposition, absolutely 
clear, so that the path of the electric beam is invisible across 1t. 
From this, and associated indications, he acutely inferred “ that 
the power of developing life by the air, and its power of scatter- 


ing light would be found to go hand in hand;” so that a bat 


of light sent across the air into which infusions might be pla = 
g 


and examined by the eye, rendered sensitive by darkness, ™ 
1 Nature, January 27, 1876, page 252, and February 3, page 268. 


em PES 


1876] 


be utilized with the best results in determining the existence of 
bacteria-germs. To bring the idea to a practical result a num- 
ber of chambers were constructed with glass fronts. At two 
opposite sides facing each other a couple of panes of glass were 
placed to serve as windows, through which the electric beam 
might pass. A small door was placed behind, and an ingenious 
device was arranged to enable a germ-tight pipette to have free 
lateral, as well as vertical, motion. Connection with the outer 
air was preserved by means of two narrow tubes inserted air- 
tight into the top of the chamber. The tubes were bent several 
times up and down, “ so as to intercept and retain the particles 
carried by such feeble currents as changes of temperature might 
cause to set in between the outer and the inner air.” 

Into the bottom of the boxes were fitted air-tight large test- 
tubes, intended to contain the liquid to be exposed to the action 
of the moteless air. 

“On September 10th the first case of this kind was closed. 
The passage of a concentrated beam across it showed the air 
within it to be laden with floating matter. On the 13th it was 
again examined. Before the beam entered, and after it quitted 
the case, its track was vivid in the air, but within the case it 
Vanished. Three days quite sufficed to cause all the floating 
matter to be deposited on the sides and bottom, where it was 
retained by a coating of glycerine, with which the interior sur- 

of the case had been purposely varnished. ‘The test-tubes 
Were then filled through the pipette, boiled for five minutes in 


: Tos of brine or oil, and abandoned to the action of the mote- 
ess air,” 


Spontaneous Generation. 417 


on this way the air in its normal condition was freely supplied 
=a e Infusions, but of mechanically suspended matter it could 
: demonstrated that there was none. And it was proved, with’ 
' clearness that admits of no quibble, that infusions of every 
| » animal or vegetable, were absolutely free from putrefactiye 
reahisms, «Ty no single instance . . . . did the air which ha 
Proved moteless by the searching beam show itself to pos- 
o ag least Power of producing bacterial life or the associated 
- “nomena of putrefaction.” But portions of the same infusions 
: ay to the common air of the Royal Institution Laboratory 
: ria ntinuous temperature of from 60° to 70° Fahr. fell inva- 
en ey putrefaction ; and when the tubes containing them 
9 d to 600 in number not one of them escaped infection — 
= de all “infallibly smitten.” Here is irresistible evidence 
TRO 7, 27 : 


418 Spontaneous Generation. (July, 


that there is a direct relation between a mote-laden atmosphere 
and bacterial development. The whole series of Dr. Tyndall's 
' exquisite experiments is simply an irrefragable affirmation of this 
truth. The presence ofthe physically demonstrated motes is as 
essential to the production, in a sterilized infusion of septic or- 
ganisms, as light is to actinic action. They cannot be made to 
appear without the precursive motes ; they cannot be prevented 
from appearing if the motes be there, That these are the germs 
of bacteria by themselves, or associated with minute specks of 
matter, approximates to certainty in the proportion of hundreds 
of millions to one. 

A beautiful illustration of the minuteness and multitude of 
the particles is given. Let clean gum mastic be dissolved in 
aleohol, and drop it into water; the mastic is precipitated and 
milkiness is produced. Gradually dilute the alcoholic solution, 
and a point is reached where the milkiness disappears, and by 
reflected light the liquid is of a bright cerulean hue. “ It is in 
point of fact the color of the sky, and is due to a similar cause — 
namely, the scattering of light by particles small in comparison 
to the size of the waves of light.” Saute 

Examine this liquid with the highest microscopical power, and 
it appears as optically clear as distilled water. The mastic pat- 
ticles are almost infinite in number, and must crowd the entire 
field of the microscope ; but they are as absolutely ultra-micro- 
scopic as though they had no existence. I have tested this wl 
an exquisite j, of Powell and Lealand’s, employed with a new 
and delicate mode of illumination for high powers,! and worked 
up to 15,000 diameters; but not the ghostliest semblance of such 
particles was seen. But at right angles to a luminous beam 
passing among these particles in the fluid “ they discharge pet 
fectly polarized light.” “ The optical deportment of the floating 
matter of the air proves it to be composed, in part, of particles 
of a” is excessively minute character,’ and it is among the fines 
of these ultra-microscopical particles that Professor Tyndall fin 
the sources of bacterial life. It is almost impossible to concelvé 
a nearer approach to certainty concerning the nature of mii 
minute particles than this. Their minuteness, their capability 0 
of ther 
presence to the origination of bacteria in sterilized infusions of 
any and every kind, taken in connection with what 
concerning the germs of the Heteromita whose life-histories hav 


1 Monthly Microscopical Journal, April, 1876. 


hid Peet tk See Res i 


Tesia, 


1876.] Spontaneous Generation. 419 


been studied, render it simply inevitable that we have at length 
reached, what we are justified in believing to be, a genetic 
product of the bacteria through which their continuation as or- 
ganisms is preserved. When first I saw the simplicity and beauty 
of this method, it struck me that its applicability as a test in 
reference to germs — known to be such — would have consider- 
able collateral weight; and a method of employing it was sug- 
gested by a fact in past experience.! I had in my possession a 
maceration of cod’s head, which I had kept in use for eleven 


‘months. It had become a pulpy mass, and in the middle of Jan- 


uary last it was comparatively free from bacteria, but swarmed 
with two monads — the fourth and sixth of the series described 
by my colleague and myself. To ascertain their exact condition, 
I watched them on the “ continuous stage” for three consecutive 
days, and found that both forms were to be seen plentifully 
emitting spore. The maceration had become very short of moist- 
ure, which served my purpose. I subjected it to a dryer air 
with a higher temperature, and it was not very long in becoming 
a moist pulpy mass, with sufficient cohesiveness to be removed 
from the vessel ; and in this condition it was placed in a heating 
chamber, which was slowly raised to a temperature of 150° Fahr., 
and kept at this for an hour. This was 10° Fahr. higher than 
Dr. Drysdale and myself had proved necessary to destroy abso- 
lately every adult form. The baked mass now appeared cracked, 
porous, and flaky. In parts it was extremely friable, and with 
little pressure crumbled into almost impalpable powder; while 
by friction a very large proportion was reduced to the finest dust. 
+0 avoid all possibility of error this powder was again exposed 
m the heating chamber, spread over a plate of glass, to a temper- 
ature of 140° Fahr. for ten minutes — thus rendering the plea of 
mere desiccation impossible. 
chamber or box was now prepared precisely like Professor 
yndall’s, except that there were no tubes to communicate with 


the outer air. 
In the Researches on the Life-History of Monads we had proved 


3 they could live, thrive, and multiply almost as well in 
a S “nutritive fluid” as in the normal animal infusion. 


i fluid is composed of phosphate of potash, sulphate of mag- 
triple basic phosphate of lime, tartrate of ammonia, and 
"ea Water. If these ingredients are all mingled the fluid 

mes speedily charged with bacteria, unless hermetically 
? Monthly Microscopical Journal, xii. 262, 263. 


420 Spontaneous Generation. [July, 


sealed, and sometimes even then. We therefore keep the ammo- 
nia in a separate solution, mixing them when required. 

A portion of the fine dust of the maceration was now taken 
and thoroughly scattered through the air of the prepared cham- 

er. The condensed beam from an oxyhydrogen lime-light! 
was then sent through it. Its line of passage was far more 
brilliantly marked inside the chamber than in the outer air. It 
was deemed inexpedient to insert the fluids while such brilliant 
points were visible in the air, and four hours were suffered to 
elapse. The lime-light beam was still visible with perfect dis- 
tinctness, but its path within the chamber was much less brilliant 
and more homogeneous than it was without. The fluids were 
then carefully mixed, and five small glass basins of the mixture 
were inserted. The whole was undisturbed for five days. At 
the expiration of that time the beam of the lime-light sent 
through the chamber was absolutely invisible, although perfectly 
clear in the open air on both sides of it. 

The fluids were now withdrawn. Ten “ dips’? were taken out 
of each basin for microscopical examination. Jn every “ dip” 
— that is, fifty in all— one or other.of the monads appeared, and 
were in a state of active fission; and in twenty-seven of the 
“ dips” both monads were found. Bacteria swarmed the field, 
which of course I fully expected. 

I now took five other glass vessels, and inserted them with 
great care into the now moteless air of the chamber, and poured 
in, as before, fresh Cohn’s fluid. They were exposed for another 
five days. On careful microscopical examination of seventy-five 
“dips” not a single monad of either form appeared; bacteria 
were feebly present, but of course no steps were taken to guard 
against these, and, as before, they were anticipated. 

The air of the chamber was again impregnated with dust, a 
before, suffered for a time to settle, and these same vessels of 
fluid, which had yielded negative results, were again placed 10 
the chamber. At the expiration of five days they were aga? 
examined, and one or other of the monads was found in every 
successive “ dip.” 

Now let it be observed that there can be no possible error a3 
to the forms. They were the identical species of the maceration, 
with which I am as familiar as with a barn-door fowl. What, 
' then, is the logic of these facts? Dr. Tyndall proves that bac- 

1 This was of course very much less capable of “searching” than the electric 
beam ; but it served for the rougher end I had in view. ‘ 


1876.] Spontaneous Generation. 421 


teria only develop in sterilized infusions when the air around 
them is laden with motes of incalculable multitude and exquisite 
minuteness. Given the presence of these, and the development 
of bacteria is inevitable. The inference is that the motes are 
germs. The above experiments show, that in closely allied 
septic organisms, the germs of which have been demonstrated 
and their developments watched, if the dry débris of a mace- 
tation in which these forms are found be scattered in the air 
around a prepared fluid, and demonstrated by similar optical 
means, that the said organisms develop; but if the minute dust 
from the débris be optically proved to be absent, none of the 
monad forms appear. Here we do not hypothecate a germ, but 
we know that it exists ; and its deportment in similar conditions 
ìs identical with that of the assumed bacterial germ. Do we 
need more irresistible evidence that the bacteria develop, not de 
novo, but from genetic products ? 

Now, until Dr. Bastian’s promised “ new results”! have ap- 
peared, I believe I am justified in affirming that the strongest 
cases on which even he relies for “ spontaneous generation ” are 
recorded on pages 175, 180, of his Evolution and the Origin of 
Life. They are thus introduced: “ After this I may, perhaps, 
be deemed fully justified in quoting two very typical experiments 
for the further consideration of those who stave off the belief in 
Spontaneous generation — either by relying on the insufficient 
reasons for doubting the influence of boiling water, or because of 
their following Pasteur, Cohn, and others in supposing that cer- 

m peculiar bacteria germs are not killed except by a brief 
“Xposure to a heat of 227° or 230° F. For even if we could 
stant them these limits, of what avail would the concession be 
"+++ in the face of the following experiments?” The details 
of the €xperiments follow. They are alike in method, and we 
will concern ourselves only with the second. A strong infusion 
oL common cress, with a few of the leaves and stalks of the 
Plants, were inclosed in a flask, which was hermetically sealed 
While the fluid within was boiling. It was then introduced into 
à digester and gradually heated, and afterwards kept at a tem- 
Perature of 270-275° F. for twenty minutes, and was retained 
Sa temperature, if the time of heating and cooling be consid- 
“G 230° F, for one hour. This flask was opened after 

? Weeks, The reaction was acid; the odor was not striking. 
a microscopical examination with a yy inch objective “there 
es Peared more than a dozen very active monads.” 


1 Times, January 29, 1876. 


422 Reeent Literature. [July, 


Now, fortunately, Dr. Bastian has not only carefully measured 
and described these organisms, but he has drawn them, and 
they are reproduced on the frontispiece of the book. He de- 
scribes them as the 45y Of an inch in diameter; they were pro- 
vided with a long, rapidly moving lash (flagellum), by which 
granules were freely moved about. But, besides this, “ there 
were many smaller, motionless, tailless spherules, of different 
sizes, whose body-substances presented a similar appearance to 
that of the monads, and of which they were in all probability 
earlier developmental forms.” 1 
_ Now, by careful comparison, I find that this monad is no other 
‘than the “ uniflagellate monad,” which is the fourth in the series 
whose life-histories were studied by Dr. Drysdale and myself.’ 

(1) Dr. Tyndall has proved, in connection with a host of 
others, but in a more definite and precise manner, that in filtered 
infusions five minutes’ boiling does kill every form of bacteria. 

(2.) He has further shown that they are propagated by de- 
monstrable germs only, in such infusions ; and 

(3.) This fact removes the probability of their spontaneous 
generation to an almost infinite distance. 

As to the development of bacteria in infusions charged with 
solid matter, precise experiment of a sufficiently comprehensive 
character has yet to be made on them, in relation to the demon- 
strated germs. Meantime, shall we accept ** spontaneous gener- 
ation ” on such ground as its strongest advocate has now to offer, 
and ignore the vast chain of facts copiously attested and con- 
trolled, which are in perfect harmony with the known laws of 
the entire organic world? This, and nothing less than this, 18 
what Dr. Bastian inculcates and demands. 


RECENT LITERATURE. 


Proxerine’s ELEMENTS or Puysrcat Manreuation.® — The first 
volume of this useful manual we noticed at the time it was published ; 
the second, now before us, is more extended in its range than originally 
intended by the author, and will be still more valuable for students 
This volume treats of electricity, heat, mechanical engineering; mi 
ology, practical astronomy, and lantern projections. The author sugges 

1 Evolution, page 178. 

2 Monthly Microscopical Journal, xi. 69, et seg. New 
3 Elements of Physical Manipulation. By Pror. E. C. ProxerNo. Part I. 316. 
: Hurd and Houghton; Boston: H. O. Houghton & Co. 1876. 8¥% PP. 


1876.] Recent Literature. — 428 


that the laboratory method may be used to teach astronomy as success- 
fally as chemistry or physics; and accordingly considerable space is given 
to this subject, sufficient instructions being given to enable the civil 
engineer or explorer to be able to determine his latitude, longitude, and 
time, by the sextant or transit. The chapter on lantern projections will 
be found useful to lecturers on scientific topics, who need the lantern as 
a means of illustration, and to know how to produce the best results by 
simple and inexpensive means. 

Haypen’s Report on THE GEOLOGY or CoLorapo.! — This report 
is almost entirely devoted to geology, comprising the observations made 
by Professor Hayden and his assistants in 1874. The volume is mainly 
filled with the reports of Professor Hayden, Dr. A. C. Peale, and Mr. F. 
M. Endlich. Dr. Samuel Aughey contributes a valuable chapter on the 
surface geology of Nebraska, and Mr. L. Lesquereux a report on the 

rtiary flora of the North American Lignitic, considered as evidence 
of the age of the formation, with a review of the cretaceous flora of 
North America; an extended and very fully illustrated report on the 
ancient ruins in Southwestern Colorado, by Mr. W. H. Jackson, is fol- 
lowed by an interesting essay on the molluscs of the Rocky Mountains, 
by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, illustrated by some anatomical drawings. Un- 
der the head of Topography and Geography, are reports by Messrs. 
Henry Gannett, S. B. Ladd, A. D. Wilson, and Franklin Rhoda. The 
Volume is certainly in interest and practical value not behind its prede- 
cessors, 

Barrp’s ANNUAL RECORD or Scrence ror 1875.? — This volume 
will be found indispensable to the general public, and of value to the 
Special student who may want a popular summary of discoveries in all 
departments of science. We think that the present Record is more val- 
uable than its predecessors, from the greater space (272 pages) devoted 
to the General Summary of Progress. Appended is a list of some of 


still mo 


Sving as it does a fair proportion of space to American discoveries, de- 


SNES the Exploration Jor the Year 1874. By F. V. Haypry. Washington. 1876. 
wW : 


Record of Science and Industry for 1875. Edited by S. F. Barr, with 
12mo, pp. ag eminent men of science. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1876. 
of Insectivorous Mammals. By Turopore Girt. Bulletin of the 

ecological and Geographical Survey of the Territories. No. 2 (pp. 
nd Series. Washington: Government Printing Office. May 14, 1875. 


424 Recent Literature. (July, 


Insectivora of North America, as it was undertaken partly in continuation 
of his Arrangement of the Families of Mammals and “ partly for a 
general work on the mammals of North America,” and hence discusses 
the characters and mutual affinities of the insectivorous mammals of the 
whole world. To those who are already familiar with Dr. Gill’s former 
excellent work in this line, it will be sufficient to say that it is a work of 
the same thorough character as his former essay on the Hducabilia, pub- 
lished in 1872." He gives first a general history of the subject, which 
includes a critical notice of the views of the different systematic writers 
who have given these animals special attention, beginning with Cuvier, 
who in 1816 first combined them into a single distinctive group, down to 
the recent mature classification of Professor St. George Mivart, first pub- 
lished in 1867 and revised in 1872. The schemes of classification of 
the leading authorities are quoted in extenso, and the gradual progress 
noted from Gray’s crude and fanciful combinations (1823-1843), and the 
later more natural ones of Gervais (1854) and Wagner (1855), to the 
more highly improved schemes of Peters (1864), Mivart, and Gill 
(1872) ; while the retrograde system proposed by Fitzinger (1867-1869) 
receives the unfavorable criticism it so well deserves. Gill, in 1872 and 
in the present memoir, agrees essentially with Mivart in respect to the 
number and constitution of the families, but differs from him somewhat in 
respect to their order of sequence and combinations. 

Wagner, in 1855, first referred the peculiar genus Galeopithecus to the 
Insectivora, which genus had previously been associated with the lemurs 
by some writers, with the bats by others, and by others regarded as all 
isolated type. This recognition of its affinities was subsequently adopted 
by Peters, and later met with the approval of Mivart and our present 
author. 

The Jnsectivora constitute the sixth order of mammals in Dr. Gill's 
scheme of classification, which order he subdivides into two suborders, 
the Dermoptera, consisting of the Galeopithecid@, or so-called “ fying 
lemurs,” and the Insectivora vera, including all the other families. 
These are the Talpide and Soricide (combined into a “ superfamily 
Soricoidea) ; the Erinaceide (= superfamily Hrinaceoidea ; the Cente- 
tide and Potamogalide (= superfamily Centetoidea) ; the Chrysochloride 
(= superfamily Chrysochloroidea) ; the Macrocelidide and Tupayide ; 
(= superfamily Macrocelidoidea). An extinct family Leptietidea (Ame 
ican), is also recognized. The order, suborders, families, and subfamilies, 
are each elaborately diagnosed. A list of the genera with their sy 
onymy is also appended as well as a list of the monographic essays trent- 
ing of the different groups, with also some remarks on “ Range of Varia : 
1 Arrangement of the Families of Mammals. With Analytical Tables, prepa” ed fr | 
the Smithsonian Institution. By Turopvore GILL, M. D., Ph. D. Wasting ii 
Published by the Smithsonian Institution, November, 1872. 8vo, pp. Vi- gs. (Smite ~ 
sonian Miscellaneous Collections, 230.) 


; 
; 


a Bailey, 


1876] Recent Literature. 425 


tion,” with a “genealogical tree,” and remarks on the “ Geographical 
Relations of the American species.” Finally is added an “ Appendix’ 
respecting the American species, in which is given a table of the con- 
trasted characters of the Soricide and Talpide — the only American 
families — with a synoptical list of the general works and special papers 
that relate to them 

The foregoing fin pettoot synopsis of Dr. Gill’s excellent memoir is 
sufficient to show that it is a paper of very great importance to students 
of American mammalogy. 

QUARTERLY BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
The first number of this new ornithological journal appears with an ex- 
cellent steel engraving of a new species of Helminthophaga, from a draw- 
ing made by Mr. Robert Ridgway. The nine articles are by Messrs. W, 
Brewster, C. J. Maynard, J. Warren, W. Van Fleet, C. M. Jones, H. 
W. Henshaw, and R. Deane. The number is well printed and is credit- 


. able to the club. 


Recent Booxs anp Pampniets.— Elements of Physical Manipulation. By 
Edward C. Pickering. Part II. New York: Hurd and Houghton; Boston: H. O. 
Houghton & Co. 1876, 8vo, pp. 316. 00, 

Eighth Annual Report on the Noxious, Beneficial, and other Insects of the State 
of Missouri. Jefferson City. 1876. 8yo, pp. 185. 

Life of Israel Putnam By Increase N. Tarbox. With maps and illustrations. 
Boston : Lockwood, Iocs, & Co. 1876. 8vo, pp. 389. $2.50. 

Working People and their Employers. By Washington Gladden. Boston : Lock- 
wood, Brooks, & Co. 1876. 12mo, pp. 241. $1.75. 

Words; their Use and Abuse. pi William Mathews, LL. D. Chicago: S. C. 
Griggs & Co. 1876. 12mo, pp. 384. $2.00. For sale by Lee and Shepard, 


Report upon the Invertebrate Fossils Collected in Portions of Nevada, Utah, Col- 
orado, New Mexico, and Arizona, by parties of the Expeditions of 1871, 1872, 1873, 
and 1874, By Chaties A. White, M. D. From vol. iv. Paleontology of Report of 
Wheeler's en el United States Engineer Department. Washington. 1875. 4to, 
pp. 219. 9] plate 

Manual of the koan. By A. J. Cook. Lansing, Mich. 1876. 8vo, p 

Injurious Insects of Michigan. By A. J. Cook. Ga rom Report of a Je of 


Agriculture for 1874.) Lansing, Mich. 8vo, pp. 4 


List of the Z odlogical Works and Memoirs of ‘5 “a Sclater, 1850-75. (Printed 
for Private Distribution.) London. 1876. 8vo, pp. 

A Catalogue of the —— Works of Isaac Lea, Tk D. From 1817-76. Phil- 
adelphia. 1876. 8yo, pp. 2 | 
f — Notes on “ seins » in Gems. By Isaac Lea. Philadelphia. 1876. 
vo, pp. 1 

On Wikis Echini from the Kerguelen Islands. By Alexander Agassiz. (From 
ip roceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.) 1876. 8vo, pp. 5. 

Notes on the North American Ganoids, Amia, — — and Polyo- 

G. Wil (From the Proceedings of the American Association 
fe the Advancem ment of Science.) Salem, Mass. : 3. 
Is Nature Inconsistent? By B. G. Wilder. (From the Galaxy.) New York 
0, pp. 10. 


AR Svo 


1 Published by the Club, at $1.00 a year; single numbers, 30 cents. Address H. 


13 Exchange Place, Boston, Mass. 8vo, pp. 28. 


$ 


426 General Notes. (July, 


The Mollusks of the Rocky Mountains. By E. Ingersoll. (From Popular Science 
Monthly, May, 1876.) 8vo, pp. 7. ; 

Handbook for Young Sportsmen ; a Treatise for the Amateur Devotees of Field 
Sports and Angling. By Will Wildwood. Milwaukee. 1876. 16mo, pp. 94, 25 
cents postpaid. For sale by D. H. Eaton, Peotone, Ill. 

Concerning the Fishes of the Ichthyologia Ohiensis. By D. S. Jordan. (Bulletin 
Buffalo Society of Sciences.) 1876. 8vo, pp. 6. 

Quarterly Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, Cambridge, Mass. Vol. i. 
No. 1. April, 1876. Published by the Club. 8vo, pp. 28. $1.00a year; single 
nambers, 30 cents. Address H, B. Bailey, 13 Exchange Place, Boston, Mass. 

Contributions to the Natural History of Kerguelen Island, made in connection 
with the United States Transit of Venus Expedition, 1874-75. By J. H. Kidder, 

ol. 2. Washington, D. C. 1876. 8vo, pp. 122. 

Catalogue of the Fishes of the Bermudas. By G. Brown Goode, Bulletin 5 of the 
United States National Museum. Washington, D. C. 1876. 8vo, pp. 82. 

Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Terti- 
tories. Vol. ii. No. 3. Washington, D. C. June 5, 1876. 8vo, pp. 197-277. 

Ninth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peabody Museum of American Ar- 
chology and Ethnology. Cambridge. 1876. 8vo, pp. 56. 

Bulletin d’Insectologie Agricole, Journal Mensuel de la Société Centrale d’Agricul- 
et d’ Insectologie, Entomologie appliquée. 1° année. Nos. 1-5. Paris, 1875- ` 

6. 8vo. 

n the Occurrence of Eozoön Canadense at Côte St. Pierre. (From the Quarterly 
tora of the Geological Society for February, 1876.) London. 8vo, pp. 10, with a 
piate. ; i 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY.: 


SCHŒNOLIRION Torr. — This is the name given by Dr. Torrey to an 
Asphodelineous, Liliaceous genus, founded on Phalangium croceum 
Michaux, a native of Georgia. Elliott, having what he supposed to be 
Michaux’s plant, transferred it to Ornithogalum, and described the petals 
as white, with a mark of doubt. Later, Scheele, in Linnea, xxiii 
146, published an Ornithogalum Texanum with white flowers, from Lind- 
heimer’s Texan collection. In the Botany of the Mexican Boundary 
Survey, issued in 1859, Dr. Torrey characterized the present genus and 
a species, S. Michauati, referring to it Michaux’s original plant “ floribus 
croceis,” the plant which Elliott had taken for it, and which was now 
known, from Florida specimens collected by Mr. Buckley and Dr. Chap- 
man, to be white-flowered, and likewise the Texan plant which was 
equally white-flowered. The blossoms of these sometimes turning yet 
lowish in drying, Dr. Torrey too hastily concluded that Richard, t! . 
editor of Michaux’s Flora, had mistaken such originally white flowers a 
for saffron-colored, and so changed the specific name in order to "i 
an error while he honored the discoverer. Dr. Chapman, in his South- 
ern Flora, adopted Dr. Torrey’s view, he knowing of a white-flowered 7 


1 Conducted by Pror. G. L. GOODALE. 


1876.] Botany. 427 


species of his district; but he long ago expressed to us the opinion that 
this could hardly be Michaux’s original species. Dr. Wm. T. Feay, of 
Savannah, several years ago had the good fortune’ to meet with the 
original yellow-flowered species, and the acuteness to mark the distinc- 
tions. But only this spring was he able to procure fresh specimens, and 
to place them in my hands for confirmation. My attention being thus 
called to this genus, it was not difficult to ascertain that my lamented 
associate had brought together, under his name of S. Michauxti, three 
nearly related but distinct species. This does not include still another 
plant, of which a flowering raceme only, collected by Mr. Pratten in 
California, had been submitted to him by Mr. Durand, and which, at his 
suggestion, was published in Durand’s Plante Pratteniane under the 
name of Schenolirion album. 1 know nothing of this Californian species, 
l and it certainly needs confirmation. I can, however, perfectly identify 
the original species. When examining the Michauxian herbarium at 
the Jardin des Plantes, in 1839, I could find no specimen of this rare 
“ Phalangium croceum.” I sought and found it, however, in the herba- 
rium of L. C. Richard, the editor of Michaux; and the possessor, Achille 
Richard, kindly permitted me to take a capsule and a couple of flowers, 
which, with my notes, are still preserved. Now that we know there is 
a yellow-flowered species, I cannot doubt that this is Michaux’s plant, 
and it inhabits a district which he repeatedly traversed. Moreover it is 
also well described by Nuttall (Gen. Pl. i. 220), who distinctly states 
that the flower is “ saffron-yellow,” a statement which Dr. Torrey must 
: have overlooked. The species may be distinguished by the following 
brief diagnosis : — - 

(1.) S. croceum. Flowers saffron-yellow ; divisions of the perianth 
oblong, 3-nerved ; filaments nearly filiform ; leaves (arid, gramineous, 
Nutt.) harrow and tougher than in the following, Phalangium croceum, 

ichx. Fl, i. 196; Nutt. Gen. i. 220. Southwestern part of Georgia, 
Michaux, Feay, ete. 

(2.) S. ELLIOTT Feay. Flowers wbite ; divisions of the perianth 
oval, mostly 5-nerved; filaments subulate. Ornithogalum croceum, Ell. 
Sk. i. 397, excl. syn. Schenolirion croceum, Torr. quoad syn. Ell; 
Chapm. FI. 463. S. Georgia and Florida. 

_(@) S. Texanum. Flowers white; divisions of the perianth oblong, 

3-nerved; filaments subulate. Ornithogalum Texanum, Scheele in Lin- 

_ "@a, xxiii. 146. Schenolirion Michauzxii, Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 220, 

excl. syn. Michx. and Ell. E. Texas, and adjacent borders of Louisiana. 

' B ALBUN. Durand, Pl. Pratt in Jour. Acad. Philad. n. ser. iii. 103, 
m California, needs confirmation. — Asa GRAY. 

ANTHERS ry TRILLIUM. — These are described, and on the whole cor- 
rectly, as introrse Tn Trillium, while they are extrorse in Paris, and in 
the Himalayan Trillidium, which is between the two. The species 
vary some, such as Z, cernuum, having an almost marginal dehiscence. 


j 
: 
; 
q 
a 
i 
: 
l 
4 
i 


428 General Notes. | July, 


And Mr. M. W. Vansdenberg, of Fort Edward Academy, New York, an 
acute correspondent, has pointed out a marked exception in the case of 
Trillium erythrocarpum. This has the most slender filaments of all, and 
my correspondent calls attention to the fact that they are inserted on the — 
divisions of the perianth, well above their base, and the anthers are 
plainly extrorse. — Asa Gray | 

Spores OF BLODGETTIA CONFERVOIDES. — In Har'vey’s Nereis Am. 
Bor. there is a curious figure of a plant which he called Blodgettia con- 
Jervoides, which, if it correctly represents the fructification of the alga 
in question, is entirely unlike that of any other known alga. Bornet is 
of the opinion, from examining dried specimens, that the bodies figured 
as spores are parasites of some kind. Mr. F. W. Hooper, recently re- 
turned from Key West, gives the following as the result of his examina- 
tion of living specimens of Blodgettia :— 

“The figure of Harvey is curious indeed. To begin with the curious 
net-work of fibres bearing his so-called spores is, together with the spores 
entirely colorless. The anastomosing fibres are made up of short cells 
placed end to end. The cells are about three times as long as broad. 
The wall of the cell is distinct and the contentscolorless. It would seem, 
in many cases, that the so-called spores are only thin cellules swollen 
up, since they appear often in the middle of a filament. They are, more 
often borne on a side branch and are often irregularly placed, looking 
like a miniature bunch of grapes. This whole structure is not a part of 
the cell-wall, but ramifies between the layers of the cell-wall. As a 
proof of this we have this peculiar arrangement of fibres and spores (?) 
continuing right through from one cell of the Blodgettia to the next 
T am certain that the filaments and spores (?) have walls distinct from 
the layers of the cell-wall of the Blodgettia. A cross section shows 
distinctly. Generally two or three layers of the cell-wall of Blodgettia 
separate the parasite (?) from the cavity of the cell. I can see but little 
reason for calling it a unicellular alga. Morphologically it suggest 
those Callithamnia which have seirospores.” — W. G. FARLOW. 

BoTaNIcAL Papers ın Recent Perropicats.— Bulletin of the 
Torrey Botanical Club, May. T. L. Brandegee, List of Colorado Musë 
and Hepaticæ. P.J. Berckmans, in answer to a query by Dr. Thurber, 
states that Acanthospermum xanthoides and Clerodendron Siphonanthus 
were observed by him (in 1857 and 1873 respectively) in Georgia. 
Professor Tuckerman states that Willdenow’s description of Phaseolus 
multiflorus was founded upon Cornuti’s plant. : 

Annales des Sciences Naturelles, Botanique, VI. Sér., II. Tome, Nr. 2 
et 3. P. Duchartre, Observations on the Bulbs of Lilies (24 memoir): — 
Ch. Naudin, Irregular Variation in Hybrid Plants. Vesque, Compara- 
tive Anatomy of Bark. ; 

Comptes Rendus, 1876, No. 14. M. Cornu, On the Spermatia of A 
mycetes, their Nature and their Physiological Role. No. 15. Boussingault, 


a 
3 
: 
4 


ee OS ee ee ge 


Ree Ps Sa ie eee 


shinee Sane a ses Sac eae eae e ete oy ati ee a e 


Saget eats eee aa et 


ceeds that of 


1876.] Zovlogy: 429 


The Growth of Maize begun in an Atmosphere free from Carbonic 
Acid. Schnetzler, Action of Sulphide of Carbon on the Insects infesting 
Herbaria. No. 16. A. Trécul, On the Capillary Theory, illustrated by 
Amaryllidacez. 

Flora, No. 10. Georg Winter, On some Ustilaginee. Kraus, On the 
Formation of Hairs on Potato Sprouts. Geheeb, Mosses from the 
Mountains near the Rhone. De Krempelhuber, Brazilian Lichens. 


of the Waxy Deposit on Cuticle. Brefeld, On the Culture of certain 
Fungi. No. 16. Holle, On the Growth of Roots of Angiospermous 
Plants, with Special Reference to the Root-Cap. No. 17. Sadebeck, On 
the Relation of Pythium Equiseti to the Potato Fungus. No. 18. Vel- 
ten, On Electricity in Plants. 


ZOOLOGY. 
_ ANOTHER CASE OF ANIMAL COMMENSALISM. — An interesting in- 
stance of animal commensalism came to my notice recently, during the 
cruise of the United States ship Portsmouth among the islands of the 
Pacific Ocean. I found in the cloacal dilatation of the alimentary canal 
of a holothurian a crab belonging to a class higher in the scale of classi- 
o than any that has yet been discovered possessing parasitical 
adits. 


tis the first instance to my knowledge where a crustacean of the 

84 type Cancroidez has been found living as a “ free messmate ” within 
the body of another animal. It belongs to the family Portunide, or 
swimming crabs; and it is one of those aberrant forms, or connecting 
links, uniting the natatorial and the gressorial species. 

It represents not only a new species, but a new genus; and Dana un- 
consciously possessed the type of the genus in a little individual which 
he found on the coral reef at Ovolan, Feejee Islands. He modified an 
already existing genus (Lissocarcinus White) in order that it might re- 
ceive his species ; yet, in spite ‘of his modification there exists almost as 
Wide a difference between the two as between two common genera of our 
Own coast, Oarcinus and Platyonichus, which are related in the same 
in the description of his species (Lissocarcinus polyboides), 
is a powerful swimmer, with the tarsi of the posterior pair 
y expanded ; while in Dana’s species the tarsi are flattened 
d in about the same proportion as in Carcinus, a littoral ge- 
he lateral expansion of the tarsus of the last pair scarcely ex- 
the three preceding pairs. 
pecies was a male; while the one which I found was a fe- 
It is well known that among crustaceans it is generally the fe- 


of feet broad! 
and expande 
nus, where't 


as s 
male, 


430 General Notes. ‘July, 


males that seek these strange places of abode, while the males live a free 
and roving existence; and as the general shape of the body is somewhat 
different in the two sexes under these circumstances, it is possible that 
Dana’s species is the male form of the one which I discovered. In the 
latter the carapace or shield is less orbicular, and more produced trans- 
versely ; while the shape of the claws and ambulatory feet, as well as 
the peculiar markings on each, are almost identical. 

I propose for this little individual the suggestive generic title Asseela; 
the specific name Aolothuricola will indicate her odd place of abode. The 
habitat is Palmyra Island, one of the Fanning group. Dana’s species 
belongs in the same genus under the name of Assecla orbiculare, unless 
further research should determine it to belong to the same species. — 
Dr. Tuomas H. STREETS, k 

Tae Lirrte Warre EereT IN Cororapo.—In Birds of the 
Northwest, Dr. Coues states that “ the introduction of Ardea candidis- 
sima Gm.” among the birds of the region drained by the Missouri and 
its tributaries “rests on its occurrence in Kansas, as recorded by Pro- 
fessor Snow.” A specimen in fine plumage was killed and presented to 
me last week (May 4th), by Mr. James Sevar, of this place. It was 
taken on the shores of a small “lake,” near the eastern base of the 
mountains, thirty miles northwest of Denver. The bird was a “ lonely 
pilgrim,” and had wandered far from its maritime home. — J. CLARENCE 
Hersey, Boulder, Colorado. 

SENSITIVENESS TO SOUND IN THE SHREW. — In the heavily-timbered 
forest in the neighborhood of Sheboygan, Michigan, on a cold day in 


Bais 


October, 1875, I caught a characteristic full-grown specimen of Thomp-. 


son’s shrew (Sorex Thompsonit Baird). The pretty little creature had 
been busy about an old decayed stump, where it seemed to have its home. 
It uttered no audible cry, though at first it made several hostile demon- 
strations, endeavoring to escape, and, seizing my fingers in its mou 
tried to bite them, but the delicacy of its teeth rendered the attempt futile. 
Having no suitable place in which to deposit it, I carefully wrapped It 
in paper, allowing its head to protrude, and held it in my hand. Some 
sportsmen were out shooting on the bay about a mile off, and the reports 
from their guns came to us from time to time, generally so much mufited 
by the distance as to be barely distinguishable, yet the shrew invariably 
responded to each detonation with a quick, spasmodic movement, or 
dently of alarm. Holding the animal as I did, the movement was inpe 
diately perceptible. Though aware that the acuteness of the auditory 
organs of these animals and their allied genera is most wonderful, I ad 
hardly prepared for so unequivocal a proof of its extreme sensitivenes® 
which, under the circumstances, I was enabled to test repeatedly in sd 
individual Sorex. 

It was my intention to preserve the animal alive, and take it with me 
on my return home for further experiment and a study 0 


La 


f its habits: — 


r 


1876.] Anthropology. . +0. 


but, to my regret, on unfolding the paper while on my way to the houss 
at which I was staying, I found the shrew had died. I have little doubt 
but that its death was caused by fřight,as I handled it most carefully 
so as not to hurt it. 

I found nothing of the unpleasant odor which is said to be secreted by 
certain glands with which this animal is provided, and which, in the 
form of a decided muskiness, is so apparent in the star-nosed mole. The 
shrew had, however. voided a slight quantity of excrement, which act, I 
believe, in articulo mortis, is common to all animals, including man. — 
Henry GILLMAN. 

ANTHROPOLOGY. 

Western Worked Frakes ann New Jersey Rupe IMPLE- 
‘MENTS. — Capt. Wm. A. Jones’s Reconnaissance of Northwestern Wy- 
oming having been received after the proof-sheets of my paper in the 
June NaruraLIst were corrected and returned, I could not avail, myself 
of the very interesting remarks of Professor Comstock on the archeol- 
ogy of that region, which in part refer to specimens such as I have de- 
scribed and figured in the article referred to. The implements described 
by Professor Comstock (Figures 40 and 41, p. 260) are evidently iden- 
tical with that figured on page 331 of the Naruraxist (vol. x.). Of 
these western specimens Professor Comstock remarks, “ It is scarcely to 
be supposed that these rude splinters have ever subserved the purpose of 
Weapons or other implements, although there are many of the flakes of 
more definite shapes which may have been so employed. It seems prob- 
able, however, that a large proportion of those which can be referred to 
no particular form are merely the rejected pieces which have been 
spoiled during the process of manufacturing more perfect implements, or, 
in some cases, perhaps they are pieces from which smaller arrow-heads 
have been chipped.” I cannot think that.these specimens, at least such 
as those figured, are rejected or spoiled implements. ‘The fact that the 
same forms occur in New Jersey, associated with others of scarcely more 
definite shape, and not associated with “smaller arrow-heads,” is evi- 
dence, I claim, of their being finished implements. Again, if “ failures,” 
is it probable that there would be that uniformity in shape and size, 
which obtains among them? Thirdly, their outline suggests no other 
form of implement, such as we know; as “ blocked-out” javelin heads, 
axes, and hatchets are well-known shapes to the collectors. : 

The similarity of the western specimens to fragments of rock, un- 
doubtedly naturally formed, has suggested the possibility of all being of 
natural and not artificial origin. That a fragment of rock, accidentally 
produced, should be nearly or quite identical in outline with certain well- 

wn forms of Indian relies, is quite natural, inasmuch as happily 
shaped pieces of flinty stone were the first tools used by primitive man, 
and suggested, in the course of centuries, the variations in shape which 
9 inereasing number and character of their wants demanded. The 


432 General Notes. [July, 


oldest stone implements would therefore bear most resemblance to 
broken pebbles, and considering the fact, that in New Jersey this west- 
ern form is quite common, and so found as to place its artificial origin 
beyond doubt, it becomes highly probable, if not certain, that the speci- 
mens figured by Professor Comstock are traces of the former occupants 
of Wyoming Territory, and that, just as they are, they subserved some 
purpose as a weapon or domestic implement. 

Of their antiquity I can form no opinion ; but as already stated in this 
journal, those found in New Jersey belong to a far-distant past, and are 
doubtless traces of a people antedating the red man. — CHARLES C. 
Apsortt, M. D. 

WERE THE OLDEST American ProrLe EsKImos ? — In regard to Dr. 
Abbott’s paper in the June NATURALIST, in which the ground is taken that , 
the Eskimos represent an older North American man, whom “ intrusive” 
Indians have driven northward and replaced, the following considera- ` 
tions suggest themselves. This view is doubtless inspired by the ef- 
forts of anthropologists in Europe to identify boreal races like the 
Lapps with the pre-Aryan population of Europe. Virchow concludes 
that no group of older skulls yet found can be said to agree with any of 
the living boreal types of man. The argument rests on the character of 
the stone implements. Dr. Abbott seems to rely for support to the the- 
ory he adopts on the “ similarity of the Delaware Valley implements to 
those of Europe’? But there is likely to be a similarity in implements 
between different races, at the same stage of culture. The view that the 
Lapps have suffered race-degradation is interesting, if it can explain the 
difference existing between the older European skull and that of the 
modern Lapp. But although the Lapps are possibly degraded Finns, 
the explanation is not offered to explain the wider relationship of $ ns 
boreal types existing with the older European man. So far as the im- 
plements are concerned they are then not of themselves sufficient to sus 
tain Dr. Abbott’s theory with regard to the Eskimos. The evidence 
from tradition, appealed to by Dr. Abbott, is hardly to be trusted. Per- 
haps no traditions as a class are more untrustworthy than those of the 
North American Indians. They had not acquired the faculty of recol- 
lecting, one may almost say. Ido not think it is safe to say that it has 
been “demonstrated conclusively that some eighty thousand years ago 
the last glacial epoch came to a close,” but, even so, is it safe to rely 
upon a tradition which refers back to an event which must have hap- 
pened during a remote epoch? The question remains, Where did the 1- 
trusive Indians come from? And in regard to man do we not find atts 
that it is, as a rule, unsafe to speak of “ autochthones,” and that there 
has been replacement everywhere? At whatever point man may have 
originated, he has spread from causes acting on himself from without, 
such as those dependent on climate and food, and then from causes oe 
ing from his advance in intelligence ; these latter movements may be 


1876.] Anthropology. 433 


called culture-migrations. Granting that the Indian replaced the older 
man who lived at the foot of the glacier, and that this older man is rep- 
resented by the existing Eskimo, the consideration I have presented in a 
paper read (August, 1875) before the American Association,! that the 
migration of the Eskimos depended upon the climate of the post-glacial 
epoch, that they followed the ice as naturally as the butterflies and the 
reindeer, does not seem to me to be as yet invalidated. — A. R. GROTE. 

ANTHROPOLOGICAL News.— Among a large collection of Pai-Ute ma- 
terial received from Major J. W. Powell, at the National Museum, em- 
bracing specimens of their food, furniture of the dwelling, vessels and 
utensils, clothing, personal ornaments, implements, weapons, means of 
locomotion, pastimes, art, music, objects connected with social, civil, and 
religious life, some of the forms are new. A knife is of a hard, black 
volcanic stone, polished over its surface ; the edge is beveled on both 
sides, and there are convenient notches for the fingers and thumb. A 
double bottle is similar to Peruvian forms, and there is quite a variety 
of these in the collection. A new method of hafting, which I have 
hot seen figured, occurs in the case of nine axes and hammers. The 
head is the smooth, grooved variety, some of them having the groove 
all around, and others on three sides. In all cases the haft lies along 
one side, like a yoke on the neck of an ox, and the sinew or leather 
thong is belayed back and forward, around both haft and ax. 

Near St. Georges, Southern Utah, on the Santa Clara River, Dr. 
Edward Palmer examined a mound about ten feet high, oval in form, 
and containing about half an acre. The mound seems to have been 
built up as follows : The former inhabitants constructed small dwellings 
of sticks, or sticks and stones, with mud roofs. When one of their num- 
ber died, his remains, together with his apparel, implements, arms, orna- 
ments, and vessels of food and water, were fastened up with him, and the 
Whole consumed by fire. This is proved by the occurrence, irregularly 
throughout the entire mound, of strata of ashes in the exact shape of the 
ground plan of the house, and in the ashes the skeleton and objects de- 
posited with the corpse. The fire-place in all can be located by a deeper 
layer of ashes. Subsequently earth was brought and leveled over the 
“Pot on which a new edifice was to be erected. Thus the process of ac- 
cumulation went on, similar to what is exhibited on a grander scale in 

® city of Jerusalem and other old cities of the East. 

have a continuation of the labors of Abbé Petitot among the 
McKenzies River tribes in Dictionnaire de la Langue Déné Dindjie 
dialectes Montagnais ou Chippewayan, Peaux de Lievre, et Louchaux. 
Bibliotheque de Linguistique et d’Ethnographie Américaines. Publié 

t Alph. L. Pinart. on 
The Smithsonian Institution has received for publication an illustrated 
article upon the prehistoric mounds of Grant County, Wisconsin, by 


1 American Journal of Science and Arts, p. 338. 
VOL. X.— xo, 7, 28 


434 - General Notes. [July, 


Moses Strong, Assistant State Geologist. These investigations cover a 
portion of the State to which very little space is given in the great work 
of Lapham in the Smithsonian Contributions. 

An event of considerable interest to anthropologists was the sale of 
Hon. E. G. Squier’s entire library and collection of archeological speci- 
mens, on the 24th of April last. 

The Archives de la Société Américaine de France, has come to hand, 
a pamphlet of four hundred pages, containing, in addition to the journal, 
etc., of the society, treatises upon the Eskimo, the Indians of the Great 
Interior Basin, the Californians, the Mexicans, the Mayas, the Peruvi- 
ans, the Patagonians, and the Fuegans. 

The Hon. Louis H. Morgan is the author of two very elaborate trea- 
tises on American Archeology. One, entitled Montezuma’s Dinner, in 
the April number of the North American Review, aims to overthrow the 
florid descriptions of Mexican political organizations deduced from Span- 
ish authorities by Prescott, Brasseur de Bourbourg, and latterly by H. 
H. Bancroft. The other is an attempt to reconstruct the ancient com- 
munal dwelling of the mound builders of the Mississippi Valley from 
the data of excavations as compared with the testimony of historians and 
the evidence of the modern Pueblos. 

The following European journals, devoted to anthropological investi- 
gations, can receive a brief mention only. Journal of the Anthropolog- 
teal Institute, No. 15, April, 1876, contains papers on the Bhutas, 
on the International Symbols, on Rhabdomancy and Belomancy, on the 
Maories, and on Kitchen Middens in California. 

Revue d’ Anthropologie, 1876, No. 1, in addition to the usual amount 
of valuable critical matter and bibliography, contains original papers ©? 
the Gorilla, on the Brains of Idiots, on Stature, and on the Avares of 
Daghestan. 

No. 3 of Matériaux pour l Histoire Primitive et Naturelle de t Homme 
is a very interesting number. The following subjects are treated: The 
Ossiferous Cavern of Kesserlock at Thayngen, near Schaffhausen ; Sep- 
ulture of the Lacustrian Populations of Lake Neuchatel. (A short 
critique of this work is accompanied by full lists of tertiary diggmg® 
quaternary diggings, surface finds, and cave finds.) Le Dictionnaire 
Archéologique de la Gaule. Reviews are given upon several recent al- 
thropological treatises. The article on lacustrian sepulture is based upon 
the discovery of a tomb in excavating the foundation of a house near the 
remains of a pile-dwelling on the borders of Lake Neuchatel, between 
Auvernier and Columbier. The dead were inclosed in cists, s¢¥ 
corpses in one grave interred from time to time. This sepulchre scene 
to have been in the transition period between the neolithic and bep 

es, because we have in the same cist rude, bronze burial deposits ond 
uncremated bones. The further exploration of this find is expected to 
yield useful results. 


1876.] Anthropology. 435 


The most interesting communication in No. 3 of Correspondenz Blatt 
is the one by Herr von Seebach, on the hitherto discovered fossil Apes 
and their Relation to Mankind. 

Archivio per P Antropologia, with the exception of an original mem- 
oir upon the Anthropology of Idiots, is devoted entirely to matters of 
special interest to Italian anthropologists. The following special trea- 
tises may be of interest to the readers of the NATURALIST : — 

Zur Kentniss der Wirkung der Skoliopadie des Schiidels, A. Ecker, 
Braunschweig, 1876. The Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Instru- 
ments in the South Kensington Museum, C. Engel. Das Salz. Dr. M. 
J. Schleiden, Leipzig. The Races of Mankind and their Civilization. 
E. B. Tylor, before the London Institution, March 23, 1876. L’An- 
thropologie, P. Topinard, Paris, 1876, 1 vol. 12mo, pp. xiv., 574. Die 

testen Feurzeuge, Dr. O. Brichner, Gæa, iii, 1876. - 

Revue Scientifique of April 1, 1876, gives an extended account of the 
discovery of an ossiferous cave of the polished stone age at Belfort, near 
Cravanche, France. The cave belongs to the Jurassic period. e 
floor is covered with stalagmites, to which no stalactites correspond, and 
they are arranged in a certain definite order, like series of cromlechs. 
The bones are found in the depressions between the stalagmites encased 
in the calcareous matter. This discovery is especially valuable, because 
few sepulchres of the polished-stone age have been found as yet in Eu- 
rope. 

, The Journal of the Anthropological Institute for April, 1876, in addi- 
tion to articles already reported in this magazine, has a complete index 
of all the papers in the following publications: Journal of the Anthropo- 
logical Institute previous to the current number; Journal and Transac- 
tions of the Ethnological Society ; Memoirs of the Anthropological Society 
of London. The Smithsonian Institution is preparing a full index of 
: all its publications, classified by subjects. ` 
' Le Compte Rendu de la Première Session du Congrés International des 
Américanistes, published at Paris under the editorship of Maisonneuve 
ie., comprises two octavo volumes of nearly four hundred pages 
each, In addition to the constitution and rules of the Société Améri- 
Caine de France, the rules of the International Congress, and the list of 
delegates, these volumes contain nearly all the papers read at the meet- 
; mg in Nancy. A wide field of discussion is covered, embracing essays 
"pon the Phænicians, Buddhists, Fou-Sang, the lost Atlantis, the voy- 
ages of the Northmen, and the discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries ; upon the tribal characteristics, manners, and customs, cults, 
migrations, and languages of the various tribes ; and upon the antiquities 
th continents. Although much of the discussion is speculative or 
even fanciful, much of it is very profitable reading, and we do not hesi- 
to affirm that the study of aboriginal American history was really 
Promoted, 


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436 General Notes. [July, 


M. de Mainof, secretary of the ethnographical section of the Russian 
Geographical Society, has announced to the society that he is preparing 
a complete treatise on Russian Ethnography. It will appear in parts, 
each containing a description of one section of the people. 

The April number of Matériaux contains a review of Italian prehis- 
toric bibliography, for 1875 ; Studies on the Megalithic Monuments of 
the Valley of the Ouse; Superposition of the Solutréan upon the Mous- 
tieran at Thorigne (Mayenne); The Lacustrian Tombs of Auvernier, 
and an illustrated article by A. L. Lewis, upon the construction of Meg- 
alithic Monuments in India. Those who have sought for a rational the- 
ory of the manner in which such masses of stone were erected by unciy- 
ilized peoples in Europe, will find a plausible explanation here. 

The Rhind Lectureship in Archwology, in connection with the Society 
of Antiquaries of Scotland, founded by a bequest of the late Alexander 
Henry Rhind, of Sibster, was filled during the last season by Dr. Arthur 
Mitchell, joint secretary of the society, upon the question, “ Do we pos- 
sess the means of determining scientifically the condition of primeval 
man and his age upon the earth?” In consequence of a great many 
coexistences of high and low culture in the same locality, and the im- 
mense changes known to have been wrought within the space of even a 
century, the author comes to the following conclusions : — 

(1.) That the very rudest known form of any art may coexist in a 
nation with the highest. 

(2.) That it would be wrong to conclude from this that the nation 
must be composed part of civilized and part of savage people. 

(3.) That persons capable of receiving the highest culture might 
practice an art which belonged to the most palwolithic people. — O. T. 
Mason. 


GEOLOGY AND PALHONTOLOGY. 

Recent DISCOVERIES or EXTINCT ANIMALS BY PROFESSOR MARSH. 
— In a lecture to the-graduating class of Yale College, delivered in the 
new Peabody Museum, June 3d, Professor O. C. Marsh gave a brief 
résumé of the more important results of his late palæontological researches 
in the Rocky Mountain region. His explorations, which were attended 
with much hardship and danger, have been mainly confined to the Creta- 
ceous and Tertiary formations, and especially to the vertebrate fauna. 
During the past six years, the expeditions under his charge have brought 
to light more than three hundred species of fossil vertebrates new sed 
science, about two hundred of which he has already described. 

Among the extinct animals thus discovered, were many new groups 
representing forms of life hitherto unknown. The most interesting of 
these are the Cretaceous Odontornithes, or birds with teeth, which consti- 
tute a new sub-class, containing two distinct orders, namely, the Od case 
which have the teeth in grooves, and the Odontotorme, with teeth ya 
tinct sockets. The former were swimming birds of gigantic size, 


1876. ] Geology and Paleontology. 437 


rudimentary wings, and the vertebre as in modern birds. The type 
genus is Hesperornis, and three species are known. The second order 
embraces at present only small birds with powerful wings, and biconcave 
vertebre. The type genus is Ichthyornis, and the geological horizon is 
upper Cretaceous. Another discovery of importance from the same for- 
mation was pterodactyls, or flying reptiles, the first detected in this coun- 

7- These are of much interest, on account of their enormous size, — 
some having a spread of wings of more than twenty-five feet, — but es- 
pecially as they were destitute of teeth, and hence resemble recent birds. 
They form a new order Pteranodontia, from the typical genus Pteranodon, 

six species of which are now known. With these fossils were found 
_ large numbers of Mosasauroid reptiles, and remains of more than five 

hundred different individuals were collected. These proved to belong to 

two new families, Tylosauridæ and Edestosauride. Some of the former 

attained a length of sixty feet, while the latter were much shorter, the 

smallest being less than ten feet. These groups included several new 

genera and many species. This large series of specimens enabled Pro- 

fessor Marsh to clear up many doubtful points in the structure of*these 
: reptiles, and to determine that they possessed hind paddles, and were 
covered, in part at least, with bony dermal scutes. Many other birds, 
reptiles, and fishes were found in the same Cretaceous strata. 

The discoveries of Professor Marsh and party in the Tertiary of the 
West were of no less importance. The most interesting are those made 
in the two Eocene lake-basins between the Rocky Mountains and the 
; Wahsatch Range. These basins were explored by Professor Marsh in 
1870, and their Eocene age then first determined. His explorations in 
this region have secured to science over one hundred and fifty species of 
: new vertebrates, most of them widely different from any hitherto known. 
The most remarkable of these are the gigantic mammals of the new order 
Dinocerata, the type genus of which is Dinoceras. These animals nearly 
: equaled the elephant in size, but the limbs were shorter. The skull 
: was armed with two or more pairs of horn-cores, and with enormous 
: canine tusks, similar to those of the walrus. The brain was propor- 
tionally smaller than in any other land mammal. Three genera and 
Several species are known. Remains of more than one hundred dis- 
tinct individuals were obtained, and are now in the Yale Museum. The 
Tillodontia are another new order of mammals discovered in the same 
3 Eocene deposits. They possess many remarkable characters, which indi- 
Cate affinities with the Carnivores, Rodents, and Ungulates. There are 
two well-marked families, the Tillotheride, from the typical genus Tillo- 
: é um, which has rodent-like incisors; and the Stylinodontide, in 
- Which all the teeth grew from persistent pulps. The largest of these 
. Peculiar animals was about the size of a tapir. One of the most inter- 
esting discoveries made by Professor Marsh in the Eocene of Wyoming 
Was the remains of Quadrumana, the first found in the strata of America. 


ae ak eerie isi i ic aa NE ee ae 


438 General Notes. | (July, 


These early Primates appear to be related both to the lemurs of the 
Old World, and to some of the South American monkeys. Two families 
are known, the Lemuravide, from Lemuravus,the principal genus, which 
has forty-four teeth, and the Limnotheride, which have not more than 
forty. The latter group is rich in genera and species. Among the 
other Eocene mammals discovered were marsupials and bats, not before 
known in a fossil state in this country. One of the most important 
Eocene mammals found was a small ungulate, which is the oldest proba- 
ble ancestor of the horse. It was about as large as a fox, and had four 


es 
others from the later tertiary, enabled Professor Marsh tọ trace the line 
of descent which has apparently produced the modern horse. In addi- 
tion to the Eocene mammals, many species of birds, serpents, lizards, and 
other vertebrates were collected. 

The discoveries made by the same expeditions in the Miocene and 
Pliocene lake-basins of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific coast were 
likewise very numerous, and many new forms of animal life were brought 
to light. One group of mammals found in the early Miocene of Oregon 
is allied to the modern Rhinoceros, but differs in having a transverse pair 
of horn-cores on the nasal bones. The genus was called Diceratherium, 
and one of its species is the oldest known member of the Rhinoceros 
family, if not its progenitor. The most remarkable mammals found in 
the Miocene were the huge Brontotheride, which are apparently allied 
both to the above group and to the Eocene Dinocerata. They equ ed 
the latter in size, and also had an elevated pair of horn-cores on the 
maxillary bones. One genus of this family was previously known bya 
few imperfect specimens. Besides Brontotherium, several other new 
genera of this group were found, represented by portions of over two 
hundred individuals. With these remains was discovered a genus y 
small equines, Mesohippus, about as large as a sheep, and having thee 
toes on each foot, with an additional “splint” bone on those in front, 
thus forming an interesting Miocene link in the genealogy of the horse, 
completed by the Pliocene genera. Over thirty species of fossil horses 
were collected in these formations. Among the interesting animals oF 
tained in the Pliocene deposits were two species of large Edentates, the 
first tertiary representatives of this order from America. They belong 
to a new genus, Morotherium. There were also found large numbers 
thinoceroses, camels, Suillines, and other mammals, as well as many 
birds, reptiles, and fishes. . 

A study of the large series of extinct animals thus collected, and now 
in the Yale Museum, promises to throw much light on the development 
of life on this continent, and Professor Marsh has already drawn 1 
them some important principles. One of these relates to the size 
growth of the brain in mammals, from the beginning of the Tertiary 1° 


1876.] Geology and Paleontology. 439 


the present time. The conclusions reached may be briefly stated as 
follows: First, all tertiary mammals had small brains; second, there was 
a ual increase in the size of the brain during this period; third, this 
increase was mainly confined to the cerebral hemispheres, or higher por- 
tion of the brain ; fourth, in some groups, the convolutions of the brain 
have gradually become more complicated ; fifth, in some, the cerebellum 
and olfactory lobes have even diminished in size. There is some evidence 
that the same general law of brain-growth holds good for birds and rep- 
tiles from the Cretaceous to the present time. 

Some additional conclusions in regard to American Tertiary mammals, 
so far as now known, are as follows: First, all the Ungulata from the 
Eocene and Miocene had upper and lower incisors; second, all Eocene 
and Miocene mammals had separate scaphoid and lunar bones; third, all 
mammals from these formations had separate metapodial bones. 

In conclusion, Professor Marsh stated that his work in the field was 
now essentially completed, and that all the fossil remains collected, and 
in part described, were now in the Yale College Museum. In future, he 
‘should devote himself to their study and full description; and hoped at 
no distant day to make public the complete results. 

Extinct Corat Reer ar Banta. — The Geological Commission of 
Brazil has just been examining with a great deal of interest, in the Bay 
of Bahia, an extinct reef, which would need little more than an inter- 
mingling with geological strata to make it resemble some of the lime- 
stone formations of the United States. Opposite the city of Bahia is 
the large and long island of Itaparica, which extends in nearly a north- 
east and southwest direction. It is formed of cretaceous rocks which ` 
appear along a large portion of the shore, and, outcropping underneath 
the water, afford good foundations for coral growth. The reef we have 
just mentioned is a fringing one, extending along the middle part of the 
Southeast side of the island, for a distance of about eight nautical miles, 
and distant from the shore from one eighth to one quarter of a mile. It 
apparently follows a line of outcrop of cretaceous sandstone, and is 

€ up mainly of a few species of corals and of nullipores, the latter 
form seeming to contribute the greatest amount of material to the reef. 
Running along the reef, we find that it varies in width from sixty to 
nearly two hundred feet; at extreme low tide its height above the water 
is about four and one half feet, and this height does not vary much 
throughout its entire length. At high water the reef is covered by the 
sea, which almost constantly breaks upon it, and, as the entire reef faces 
the ocean, in times of storm a heavy line of breakers is formed outside 


Openings, or barras, through which small boats can enter and find a safe 
harbor within, At the southern end it becomes broken up and lies in 
ached portions. The reef has sometimes a single elevation above 


440 General Notes. [July, sis 


low water, at other times two; where there is one, it is broad and quite 
level, with only slight irregularities, often broken into by pools and 
short channels; where there are two, the lower, which has a varying 
height, is broad, resembling the above, and near the outer edge it rises 
into a narrow upper level, very irregular and generally covered with 
barnacles, These two series graduate into one another. The outer 
edge of the reef, after rather a rapid descent from the higher levels, 
descends gradually under the water, but the sea has been so rough the 
past month as to prevent an examination far down. The inner edge is — 
quite abrupt, descending thus to the bottom, and generally has numerous 
outliers. The total height of the reef above the bottom inside, is only 
about seven to ten feet, and often very much less from an accumulation 
of material there. In breaking into the upper part we always find a 
simple nullipore growth, layer upon layer, and so compact and hard as 
to often break the edge of the chisel broadly off in vain endeavors. In 
the lower levels we find huge heads of Acanthastrea Braziliensis, and 
more rarely Heliastrea aperta. Siderastrea stellata is abundant, and 
generally of large size. We also find some immense growths of Mille- 
pora, but even here the Nulliporas are the most common. The outer 
coating of the reef is of a brown color and all looks alike from the dead 
encrusting nullipores. What is the life of the reef? Only a few bor 
ing animals, now and then a specimen of Symphyllia Harttii, Siderastrea 
stellata, or a small Favia in the tide or open pools. Sea-weeds are 
very abundant, and there is generally a rich nullipore growth on the 
outer edge of the reef, for a short distance above low-tide level. We 
know from the raised beaches, that the shores around the bay have all 


raised at the same time. Thus the destruction of the life. a 
seem as though the reef had been a coral one, but coming into the acuon : 
of the waves, only nullipores could grow, and not a single coral exists 
in the upper portion. The bottom inside of the reef has a thick bed of 
fragments of the same corals we mentioned above, and in addition im- 
mense numbers of the fragments of Mussa Harttii, which has not yet 
been found alive in the bay of Bahia. This deposit is more or less Con- 
solidated, and the material composing it must have been broken from the 
reef during the period of its elevation. Then probably all the mee 

ile portions were swept inward by the waves to form this a 
layer, which consists most largely of Millepora and Nullipora. The 
former must have been dead ere it was broken off, as the specimens are : 
generally covered over above with a coating of Nullipora. — R. Rati - 
BUN. . 


1876.] Geography and Exploration. 441 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 


Cameron’s Discoveries IN AFRICA. — Lieutenant Cameron gave 
an account of his walk from Lake Tanganyika to the west coast of the 
continent, at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, held April 
llth. He said, according to the Geographical Magazine for May, that 
most of the country from the Tanganyika to the west coast is one of 
almost unspeakable richness. There are metals, iron, copper, silver, and 
gold; coal also is found; vegetable products, palm-oil, cotton, nutmegs, 
several sorts of pepper and coffee, all growing wild. The people culti- 
vate several other oil-producing plants, such as ground-nuts and seni 
seni. The Arabs, as far as they have come, have introduced rice, wheat, 
onions, and a few fruit-trees, all of which seem to flourish well. The 
countries of Bihé and Bailunda are sufficiently high above the sea to be 
admirably adapted for European occupation, and would produce what- 
ever may be grown in the south of Europe. The oranges which Señor 
Gonsalves had planted at Bihé, where he had been settled for over 
thirty years, were finer than any I had ever seen in Spain or Italy. He 
also had roses and grapes growing in luxuriance. __ 

The main point of the discoveries I made, I believe to be the connec- 
tion of the Tanganyika with the Congo system. The Lukuga runs out 
of the Tanganyika, and there is no place to which it can run but to 
the Luvwa, which it joins at a short distance below Lake Moero. The 
levels I have taken prove most conclusively that it can have nothing 
whatever to do with the Nile; the river at Nyangwé being between 
1400 and 1500 feet above the sea, while Gondokoro is over 1600 feet. 
And also in the dry season the flow of the Lualaba is about 126,000 
cubic feet per second ; that of the Ganges, which is far larger than the 

being not more than 80,000 cubic feet per second in flood-time, and 
that of the Nile at Gondokoro, below where all the streams unite, is be- 
tween 40,000 and 50,000 feet per second. Many large rivers flow into 
the Lualaba below Nyangwé. 
, There is in the centre of Africa a water-system which might be util- 
ized for commerce, which has no equal upon the face of the globe. Be- 
tween the large affluents of the Congo and the head-waters of the Zam- 
besi, a canal of between twenty and thirty miles across a level, sandy 
plain, would join the two systems, and the River Chambezi, which may 
_ “accepted as the head stream of the Congo, ought to be navigable to 
within two hundred miles of the north of Lake Nyassa. To the east- 
Ward of Lovate ivory is marvelously plentiful. 

The blot upon this fair country is the continuance of the slave trade, 
which is carried on to a great extent, to supply those countries which 
have already had their population depleted by the old coast trade. The 
i ngo and Meta Yafa, are utterly and entirely irresponsi- 

ble, and would give a man leave, for the present of two or three guns, to 


442 General Notes. [July, 


go and destroy as many villages, and catch as many people as he could 
for slaves. The Warua, especially, although holders of slaves, would 
rather die than be slaves themselves. I have heard instances of their 
being taken even as far as the Island of Zanzibar, and then making their 
way back, single-handed, to their own country. The only thing that 
will do away with slavery is opening up Africa to legitimate commerce, 
and this can be best done by utilizing the magnificent water-systems of 
the rivers of the interior. 
MICROSCOPY .! 

WYTHE’S ILLUMINATOR. — Dr. J. H. Wythe recommends for oblique 
illumination a right-angled prism with a plano-convex lens, cemented to 
and coyering one of its narrow sides, and an ordinary French triplet 
fastened to the other, close to the farthest angle. Arranged with the 
plano-convex lens directly downward, the axis of the triplet would be 
horizontal, and a horizontal cone of achromatic light would be furnished ; 
while by slightly tilting the apparatus an available and extremely 
oblique illumination is obtained. 

Saw Francisco Socrery. — At the annual reception of this society, 
twenty-two members exhibited a large number of objects from the min- 
eral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. The intelligent classification of 
the views was a notable improvement upon the management of too 
many exhibitions of this kind. 

Biiven’s Pnorocraprns. — Mr. R. H. Bliven, of Elmore, Ohio, is 
now supplying good photographs of a large variety of objects. He also 
makes to order photographs of any suitable slide. Such pictures of 
familiar objects are very interesting. They are doubly important if the 
slides are particularly choice or rare, as a partial protection in case of 
accident to the objects themselves; while for educational purposes they 
are often available under circumstances where a resort to the microscope 
itself would cause too much interruption or delay. 

APERTURE OF AN OBJECTIVE. — [ Mr. Tolles contributes the follow- 
ing note in regard to the aperture of an objective marked 180°, which 
was sent to London some years ago, and has been the object of no little 
discussion ever since, : 

The diameter of the exposed front surface of an immersion objective, 
is given as .043!’, the point of focus as obtained by using only the ray" 
emerging from the front, comparatively near to the axis, = 013", and ® 
clusive against any more than 1 
air-angle in the objective. 
jective was marked 180° 
A year afterwards the author of rs 

Fra. 25. diagram, Mr. Wenham, commie a, 
another item relating to the angular aperture of the same lens. He giv 


1 This department is conducted by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. $ 


1876. ] Microscopy. 443 


the greatest thickness of glass cover which it would work through as 
.018", and I will supply the triangle, 
(Figure 26) to suit the new distance 
in glass, 

Measured by the outside lines, we 
have here a balsam angle of 100°. 
But the whole opening of the front 
face of an objective of quite moderate 
power, even, is seldom used. Accord- 
ingly, nearly a year of interval again ae 
having elapsed, he gives the utilized aperture of the front lens, front sur- 
face, as 083’. The triangle thus be- 
comes as the dotted lines make it in 


as can be practically “considered, and 
the difference between 82° and 88° 
clearly an increase for balsam r Fre. 27. 

mounts over what a dry lens can have. 

The fact is that the ray emerging into air at the extremest distance 
from the axis for the in-air utilized area, hugs the surface of the lens, 
traversing the air parallel to it. — R. B. ToLLEs, Boston, May 5, 1876. 

OXALATE or Asparagine. — Mr. C. C. Merriman’s slides are pre- 
pared from saturated solutions of asparagine and oxalic acid, and solution 
of gum-arabic, about in the proportions of five, four, and three parts of 
each respectively. The solutions are mixed only in small quantities for 
immediate use, and the proportion varied according to the effect pro- 
duced. When dry the specimens are protected by a thin film of collo- 
dion before mounting in old balsam. 

Action or Porson on BLoop. — Dr. Blake found that one grain of 
sulphate of thorium injected into the blood vessels of a rabbit caused 

eath in two minutes, after which the blood-corpuscles, having entirely 
lost their natural form, presented an indented outline with numerous 
highly refracting dots at the circumference. 

Excuancrs, — [Notices not exceeding four lines in length, of micro- 
Scopical objects, or apparatus wanted or offered in exchange, not sale, 
Will be inserted in this column without expense. 

Seeds of Paulownia imperialis, in exchange for other good objects. 
—H. S. Moore, Sixth Avenue, corner 43d Street, New York. 

A large variety of objects, in exchange for any good slides. Lists 
furnished on application. — W. G. CorTHELL, 103 Warren Avenue, 
Boston, Mass. 


Well mounted and named slides wanted in exchange for cabinet-size 
Photographs of the objects. — R. H. Birven, Elmore, Ohio. 


suo Scientific News. [July, 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— Professor Henry took the opportunity at the last meeting of the 
National Academy of Sciences, to say a few words about the Smithsonian 
Institution. Its fund at present, having been increased by donations and 
judicious management, amounts to $717,000, although $600,000 has been 
expended on the building, and the original legacy produced only $541,- 
000. Congress has enacted several liberal measures which have been of 
great service to the Institution and have relieved it of many expenses, 
such as the cost of caring for the grounds and library; and latterly an 
appropriation of $20,000 per year has cleared the expense of the Na- 
tional Museum. This liberality has enabled the Smithsonian to devote a 
larger share of its income toward publishing works of original research, 
and to defray the expense of its system of scientific exchanges, which has 
the whole world for its field. The publications already issued and under 
way were enumerated. Professor Henry said that it was contemplated 
to authorize a series of experiments to determine accurately the rate of 
increase of the earth’s temperature at progressive depths. This was now 
rendered more practicable than before by the number of artesian wells in 
the country. Another project included new and careful experiments on 
the velocity of light; that furnishing one of the means for ascertaining 
the distance of the sun. Some steps had been taken to carry out this 
project, and a gentleman had promised to give a special fund for the pur- 
pose. The work of obtaining accurately the weight of the earth by the 
method devised by Cavendish would also probably be undertaken anew, 
there being at the present day better means for this purpose than those 
of the old experiments. Professor Henry alluded to his own advancing 
years and his anxiety to have the Smithsonian in a position of perma- 
nent security before the close of his life. The accumulations of the mu- 
seum already overstock the building, and when the collections that have 
been sent to Philadelphia are returned, there will be no room for them. 
Conversing on the subject with a prominent member of Congress, he had 
recently stated his firm conviction that the problem could best be solved 
by abandoning the present building to the National Museum and erect- 


ing a new structure, to cost $100,000. The new building could ws 


adapted solely to the needs of the Smithsonian in its proper work, and 


should contain besides accommodations for the system of exchange is 


chemical, a physical, and a biological laboratory with a lecture-room. —~ 
N. Y. Tribune. 


— The Exeter Natural History Society was organized December t 


1874, with the following board of officers, who still hold their positions 
President, Rev. Benjamin F. McDaniel; Vice-Presidents, A. C. m 
kins, Miss H. E. Paine; Secretary, William H. Gorham, M. D. ; Treas- 
urer, Charles Burley. It has a membership of between forty and fifty 
and has a museum and a library, still small, but rapidly growing- Moet- 


TA 


1876.] . Proceedings of Societies. 445 


ings are held once a month, at which essays are read or topics of natural 
science discussed. At the society’s rooms free popular lectures are given 
weekly. The society would be very grateful for any assistance ren- 
dered by individuals or older societies in enlarging its museum and 
library. 

— Dr. Günther exhibited, at a late meeting of the Zoölogical Society 
of London, a male, female, and young specimens of a minute Australian 
animal (Antechinus minutissimus), which may be regarded as a marsu- 
pial shrew mouse ; it is the smallest known Australian mammal. The 
female was remarkable as having seven young in the marsupium and 
only four mamme. 

— A number of undergraduates in the Tennessee Agricultural College 
of East Tennessee University, at Knoxville, have organized a science 
club, which meets fortnightly. The club promises to become a useful 
agent in diffusing an interest in the study of natural history throughout 
the college. At present the most popular subjects with the members of 
the club are entomology and botany,in both of which collections have 
been begun. 

— Mr. Darwin is engaged upon a work on the comparative results of 
the cross-fertilization and self-fertilization of plants. 

— The Harvard College Summer School of Geology, under the direc- 
tion of Prof. N. S. Shaler, director of the Geological Survey of Ken- 
tucky, will afford geological students an opportunity of working over the 
area extending from the Cumberland Mountain to the Black Mountains 
of North Carolina, a region rich in geological, botanical, zodlogical, and 
archeological interest. We have received the final directions for the 
guidance of students of the school, whicn gives full details as to the ex- 
penses of the trip to Cumberland Gap, and the mode of reaching the 
camp. The tickets from Boston and return will be $44, the admission 
fee $50, including wagons, tents, and instruction. Board will be $5 a 
week. This is a favorable opportunity for other than geological stu- 
dents to travel in an inexpensive way through one of the most interesting 
mountain regions in the country. 

— The work of the Geological Survey of Brazil is now being carried 
De by Professor Hartt in the interior; not being in direct communica- 
ton with Rio Janeiro, letters and parcels should be sent to the secretary 
of the survey, Major O. C. James, Caixa no Correlo, No. 126, Rio de 
Janeiro, Brazil. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
NATIONAL ACADEMY or Scrences.— April 18-20. Mr. L. H. 
organ began his paper entitled A Conjectural Restoration of a Pueblo 
of the Mound Builders, with the remark that “a conjecture is some- 
mes worth the time spent upon it.” It is necessary first to consider 


446 Proceedings of Societies. . duly, 


carefully some practices and usages of the aborigines which were general 
among them over wide areas. We find that in all parts of America 
they usually constructed what may be called joint-tenement houses. We 
find these houses occupied by a number of related families. They prac- 
ticed communism in living. The marriage relation was simply pairing. 
They also followed certain customs, which may be designated as the law 
of hospitality. The land was owned in common by families and house- 
holds. Those that had fully reached this method of living have been 
called Village Indians. Mr. Morgan thinks that the Mound Builders 
were probably Village Indians from New Mexico. Their arts as shown 
by their implements, their copper tools, their textile and fictile fabrics, 
were in advance of the Indian tribes found east of the Mississippi. 

We find in Yucatan and Chiapas the highest type of Village Indian 
life. It declines as we advance northward to Mexico and New Mexico. 
It was best adapted to a warm climate. The attempt to transplant this 
mode of life from the Rio Grande or the San Juan, first to the Gulf of 
Mexico and then northward to the Ohio, must have been a doubtful 
experiment from the start. Nevertheless, the structures left by the 
Mound Builders indicate such an attempt; their earthworks may be 
regarded as the dwelling sites of Village Indians. It is certain that if a 
sensible use for these embankments can be discovered, the mystery about 
them will be dispelled. The theory that they were built for religious 
purposes is exceedingly improbable; the magnitude of the works, con- 
sidering their grade in civilization, indicates that these Indians werè 
laboring for themselves, not for their gods. If a tribe of Village Indians, 
with their acquired habits of living, emigrated to the valley of the Ohio, 
they would find it impossible to construct adobe houses. Some moai- 
cation of the plan and character of the house would be necessary, be- 
cause of the difference of climate. They might have used stone, but 
they did not; no stone houses had been built by these tribes. They 
might have made a house of inferior character upon the level ground, 
like the timber-framed houses of the Minnitarees. Lastly, they might 
have raised embankments of earth and built houses on their summits ; 
and this, it is respectfully submitted, is what they did. 

The elevated platform is a feature of the adobe houses of New Mes- 
ico ; it appears also in the Yucatan dwellings. Let us regard the 6 
bank-works on the Scioto River as a pueblo. It is an octagonal 1m 
closure of nine hundred feet square, with an opening at each angle 
in the centre of each side. The embankments are now fifty feet thick at 
the base, and ten or eleven feet high. If reformed with their own matè- — 
rials, they would produce embankments like a railway grade, thirty-seve? 
feet wide at the base, ten feet high, and with summit platforms twenty- 
two feet wide. These, then, were the sites of their houses. There are 
six of these embankments, each four hundred and fifty feet long, and on? 
of nine hundred feet. On the inside, before each opening, there ® . 3 


as Ee eee nF EE ORE Te n a ee OTE TOO States eee e Sei A 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 447 


mound. If the openings were gateways defended by palisades, the whole 
structure became a fortress. We have now to suppose that the buildings 
were of timber, on the summits of the embankments, and uniform with 
the latter in slope. The walls of the buildings were coated with earth, 
and probably rose ten or twelve feet above the embankments, thus mak- 
ing a continuous sloping rampart twenty feet high. This form of house 
would harmonize with the prevailing architecture of the Village Indians; 
but a knowledge of the actual shape of the houses or of their interior 
arrangements, is not necessary to the hypothesis. The Minnitaree and 
Mandan Indians strround their houses with a wall of split timber, coated 
with earth. It may be pointed out that such structures on the edge of 
embankments could not be successfully assailed from without, either by 
Indian weapons or by fire. 

Mr. Morgan exhibited a ground plan for such buildings, showing how 

they might have been readily constructed, and would perhaps contain 
from two to three hundred families, on the communal plan, and serving 
the purposes of their former mode of life. In fact, the mode of life 
necessarily determined the form of architecture. We need not discuss 
the uses or objects of the inclosure formed by the circular embankments. 
It is not improbable that it was the Village garden. But this mode of 
life was after all not adapted to the climate, and these emigrants eventu 
ally succumbed in the struggle for existence. There is evidence of the 
better adaptation of such a life to warmer climates, from the fact of the 
longer continuance of the Village Indians in Mexico, and especi? lly n 
Central America.. 
: Major Powell has long made Indian structures a study. He men- 
honed that several of his observations indicated that where tribes had 
made an advance in civilization, their tendency was toward the com- 
munal or pueblo form of buildings ; this is indicated by the comparative 
age of the ruins, the most ancient not being inclosed at all, while the 
latest were surrounded by cliffs or walls. The age is determined chiefly 
by the thickness of the covering débris. Major Powell is inclined to 
believe that many of the cliff houses were built for refuge during the 
Spanish invasion, and such is the tradition among the Indians. Among 
Some of the Utes the land of existence after death is placed beyond the 
mountains ; but among the Pueblos heaven is an architectural affair ; 
1t is in the second or third story. 

Professor Marsh approved the conclusions of Mr. Morgan, and 
brought fresh evidence to support them from an entirely different source. 
Na long series of comparisons of Indian skulls, Professor Marsh has 
been much struck by the similarity between those of the Pueblo Indians 
and of the Mound Builders. As the shape of the Mound Builder’s skull 
18 Very peculiar, the coincidence is a very striking one. Professor New- 
berry added a few remarks about the buildings on the table lands, which 
he sa were possibly six hundred or seven hundred years old, while 


448 Scientifie Serials. ` July. . 


trees growing over the skeletons of the Mound Builders had been in- 
geniously shown by General Harrison to indicate an antiquity of not less 
than eight hundred years. 
Boston Society or Natura History.— April 5th. Prof. A. 
Hyatt read a paper on The Relations between the Commercial Sponges 
of the Mediterranean and -Caribbean Seas. ; 
April 19th. Dr. B. Joy Jeffries remarked on Muscular Action asso- 
ciated with Vision. 


———— y 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.! 


Montuty MicroscoricaL JOURNAL. — May. Note on the Mark- 
ings of Navicula rhomboides, by J. J. Woodward. Some Results of a 
Microscopical Study of the Belgian Plutonic Rocks, by A. Rénard. A 
New Microscopic Slide, by E. Vanden Broeck. Measurements of Möl- 
ler’s Diatomacean Probe Platten, by E. W. Morley. — June. On the 
Markings of the Body-scales of the English Gnat and the American Mos- 
quito; by J. J. Woodward. Remarks on Frustulia saxonica, Navicula 
rhomboides, and N. crassinervis, by Charles Stodder. On the Measure- 
ment of the Angular Apertures of Object-Glasses, by Jabez Hogg. 

Tue GrocrapetcaL Macazıne. — May. The Arctic Expedition, 
vii. Prospects fo: iue Campaign of 1876. The Island of Sokotra. 
Ferghana. New Maps of Mongolia. 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, LONDON. 
— February 23d. Lieutenant Cameron’s Arrival at the West Coast of 
Africa. Letters detailing the Journey of the Livingstone East Coast 
Expedition from Lake Tanganyika to the West Coast of Africa. Stan- 
ley’s Letters on his Journey to Victoria Nyanza and Circumnavigation 
of the Lake. Note on the Height of the Victoria Nyanza, by C. George. 
April 7th. Captain the Hon. G. Napier’s Journey on the aeons 
Frontier of Persia, by F. Goldzmid. Extracts from Mr. Margary s 

iary. 

CANADIAN NATURALIST, vol. viii., No. 2. On the Nipigon or Cop- 
per-Bearing Rocks of Lake Superior, etc., by J. W. Spencer. Notes 
upon the Superficial Deposits of Ontario, by D. F. H. Wilkins. New 
and Interesting Insects from the Carboniferous of Cape Breton, by S. 
H. Scudder. On the Mollusca of the Post-Pliocene Formation in Aca- 
dia, by G. F. Matthew. 

Tue GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. — June. The Vertical Range of 
Graptolites in Sweden, by G. Linnarsson. Correlation of the Grapto- 
litic Deposits of Sweden with those of Britain, by H. A. Nicholson. 


1 The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part selected. 


Anatomy of the Lobster. 


PLATE VI. 


Anatomy and Development of the Lobster. 


i 3 nit 


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PLATE Vi 


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PLATE VII 


J. Š Kingsley, on Stone 


“Ancient Pottery of Colorado. etc. 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. x. — AUGUST, 1876. — No. 8. 


THE ANCIENT POTTERY OF COLORADO, UTAH, ARI- 
ZONA, AND NEW MEXICO. 


BY EDWIN A. BARBER. 


Por the purpose of exploring a comparatively unknown tract 

of country on the Pacific slope, in the far Southwest, sup- 
posed to abound in architectural remains of the ancient Pueblo 
race, a portion of ‘the United States Geological Survey, in 
charge of Professor F. V. Hayden, was dispatched across the 
Rocky Mountains during the summer of 1875. 

Over this vast extent of territory, covering probably two hun- 
dred thousand square miles, are strewn great quantities of broken 
Pottery, which have lain exposed to the atmosphere for many cent- 
uries, and are still, for the most part, in a state of good preserva- 
tion. So perfect, indeed, are many of the specimens, that they 
appear as though they had been molded and shattered to pieces 
but yesterday. This earthenware occurs most abundantly in the 
vicinity of ruins, where it often lies so thickly as to suggest the 
idea, which some archeologists entertain, that such places had 
once been the sites of huge potteries, where the ware had been 
manufactured on a wholesale plan. Upon a superficial obser- 
vation I at first entertained this opinion, but after more careful 
_ and extensive investigations I discovered this to be erroneous. 
S When we consider the fact that tons of this fragmentary crock- 

ery are scattered over hundreds of miles of this mesa country, it 
Would seem as if some method had been employed for turning, 
™ great numbers of vessels by the agency of machinery ; yet 
We ascertain that this was not the case, but that each piece had 
bi al fashioned by the hands of the work-women, and it seems 
Sy probable that the inmates of each ancient household were 
orui potters. The employment of the plastic art was such 
Teral necessity that every family over this broad land con- 


Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, JR. 1876. 


450 The Ancient Pottery of Colorado, ete. [ August, 


tained one or more skillful artificers. In the seven Moqui Pue- 
blos of Arizona, I was fortunate enough to witness the modern 
operation as performed by the women of the tribe, and I doubt 
not that the method is very similar to the ancient. The vessel 
was first molded out of the plastic yellow clay, and, whether 
painted or not, was placed when dry in a small square aperture 
or oyen, built in the side of the stone wall of the dwelling. 
There it was burnt until done; and I noticed in or near each of 
the Moqui houses several of these baking kilns, which were as 
important a part of the household as the fire-place or the ever- 
present flour-mill. 

Around the bases of the mesas beneath the villages lay great 
quantities of damaged pottery, which had been accumulating for 
many years, perhaps centuries. Each vessel, as it outlived its 
usefulness, was cast over the bluff to swell the heap below. 
Thus among the ruins, we noticed in the walls of many of the 
structures square or cubical apartments in the solid walls, about 
eighteen inches in dimension, which had without doubt served the 
purpose of bake-ovens. It is not unreasonable to suppose, then, 
that every family produced its own utensils, and that in the 
course of a few years a considerable amount of rejected ware 
collected in the vicinity of each occupied building. In the im- 
mediate neighborhood of each house, be it large or small, this 
pottery abounds in greater or lesser quantity, so that were we to 
suppose one ruin or one locality to have once constituted a burn- 
ing kiln, we must class all the structures under the same head. 

As the result of a particular study of a great variety of speci- 
mens which we were unable to bring away, and also a subse- 
quent examination of our own extensive collections, I have 
divided the ancient earthen ware of this region into five classes, 
namely : — 

I. The plain burned clay. s 

II. The laminated or indented. 

III. The embossed or molded. 

IV. The glazed ware. 

1. a. Plain white. 
6. Ornamented in colors. 
2. Red or brick-ware. 

V. The glazed and corrugated. 

I. This includes the most simple and probably the oldest pot- : 
tery, made of common clay, usually coarse and unornamentee 

II. The laminated class comprises all those varieties which arè : 


ae gis Ar hanes ee, Sear: 
peas Aas ek a ptt ie MR ee Bee Wi T SE ae AT Pan SBS Oi 


> $876.) The Ancient Pottery of Colorado, ete. 451 


indented, thatched, ribbed in parallel lines, or possess squamous, 


foliated, wavy, or pointed surfaces. The ware is generally of a 
lead or clay color. 

II. This division embraces all the earthenware on whose sur- 
face have been molded or modeled figures of animals or fanciful 
designs which stand out in relief, the material being the same 
-clay of which the vessel has been constructed. 

Specimens of this class are very rare, and but few have ever 
been discovered among these ruins. I picked up the ends of sev- 
eral handles of utensils which had been molded into representa- 
tions of the heads of animals and birds. The only specimen of 
any importance, however, found by the expedition was one I 
picked up in Montezuma Cañon, Utah. It was a perfect repre- 
VEN of a frog on the neck of a jug. (See Figure 20, Plate 

) 


In the Reports of Explorations and Surveys, vol. iii., Pacific 
Railroad Report, Lieutenant A. W. Whipple (in his Itinerary, 
P- 65) mentions having seen two pieces of pottery with animal 
representations : “ Upon one fragment, indeed, found upon Rio 
Gila, was pictured a turtle, and a piece of pottery picked up near 
the same place was molded into the form of a monkey’s head.1 
a appeared to be ancient, and afforded exceptions to the 
rule,” 


IV. Under this class is comprehended all of the finer ware, 
Which is highly glazed and frequently ornamentally painted in 
geometrical designs with durable colors, which are usually black, 
red, yellow, brown, and white. This variety is by far the most 
common and evidently the most recent, or at least not more 
ancient than the next class (V.), and represents the highest per- 
fection of the art to which the ancient people attained. 

- When the second and fourth varieties are combined, the 
Tesulting vessels represent the most ornamental workmanship of 
the ancients, We occasionally see jars and vases of this descrip- 
tion where one portion, as the neck, is laminated, while the 
Ower parts are smooth and glazed. It is not seldom that a bowl 
* shallow dish is found whose interior surface is carefully painted 
and glazed, and whose exterior is indented. This indentation was 
evidently accomplished by a sharp instrument; after the scales 


other? rude representation of this head may have been intended for that of any 

vr yet it seems that this people was acquainted with the tropical monkey, 

which nd to-day, among their rock inscriptions of upright figures, many with tails 
Could hardly be intended for anything else. — E. A. B. 


452 The Ancient Pottery of Colorado, ete. [ August, 


or lines were marked out, they were pressed down symmetrically 
with the thumb of the maker, as we find much of this species 
of ware which exhibits the impress of the human thumb, the 
very minute lines of the cuticle being distinctly visible. Lieu- 
tenant Whipple advances the suggestion that this has been done 
by the pressure of a small shell, whose delicate lines have been 
retained in impression upon the exterior of the material after it 
has been hardened. But it can be readily seen how much more 
rapidly this ornamentation could be effected by the use of the 
thumb and fingers. In some varieties of this class of pottery, 
the plain surface of the vessel is covered by winding long strips 
of plastice clay around spirally, one edge of each whorl overlap- 
ping the next, and this is ornamented according to the taste of 
the maker. The most common method, however, is marking 
the surface off into pointed scales as described previously. 

Captain Moss, who has lived among the western tribes of 
Indians for a number of years, informs me that some of the Ute 
Indians manufacture pottery at the present time, and as branches 
of the tribe extend into the district which abounds in these 
ancient mural remains, it is not singular that the process they 
still employ should resemble that of the modern Pueblo tribes 
of Arizona and New Mexico, of whom the former have probably 
learned the art. He says that for making their pottery “ they use 
marl, which they grind between two rocks to a very fine powder. 
They then mix this with water and knead it as we would dough. 
Afterwards they roll it out into a rope-like shape about one inch 
in diameter and several yards in length. They then commence at 
the bottom of the jar, or whatever vessel they may be making; 
and coil the clay rope layer on layer, until they have the bottom 
and about three inches of the sides laid up. The tools for smooth- 
ing and joining the layers together ‘are a paddle, made out 0 
wood and perfectly smooth, and an oval-shaped polished stone 
Both of these tools are dipped in the water (salt water is pre- 
ferred), the stone is held in the left hand and on the inside of 
the vessel, and the paddle applied vigorously until the surfaces 
are smooth.” 

It is a very erroneous supposition, entertained by many, that 


the external indentation of Class II. has been effected by molding 


the vessel around the interior of a wicker-work basket, which has 


afterwards been burned away in the process of baking, leaving 


the laminated impression of the woven twigs. At first, this ex 
planation seems plausible, but on careful examination I could fin 


TAY 3 E A een os : % 
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inh: 


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Piars IX. ANCIENT POTTERY OF COLORADO, ETC. 


‘ofc Et) i. 
Rae 


454 The Ancient Pottery of Colorado, ete. [ August, 


not the slightest indication that this method had been followed ; 
some of the vessels, however, may have been molded over gourds, 
which will account for their symmetrical appearance, especially 
on the interior. 

The figures of ornamentation in the glazed ware are usually 
geometrical combinations of straight and curved lines, or fanciful 
designs, which, in some cases, exhibit a great degree of profi- 
ciency in the art. From the first rude attempts of the beginner, 
in which the end of the finger has simply been dipped into the 
pigment and pressed in places on the object, to the finished 
patterns of the “ walls of Troy,” or even more intricate designs, 
we can trace a gradual but steady advancement. It has been 
said that few or no representations of animals are to be found 
through this ancient pottery. In Eastern Utah, however, near a 
stream called Epsom Creek, a northern tributary arroyo of the 
San Juan, one of our party picked up a fragment of ancient 
pottery having on its convex surface a painted representation of 
an animal,! which was most probably intended for an elk. (Fig- 
ure 21, Plate X.) This is reduced to one third of the original. 
Such specimens of ancient production are exceedingly rare, al- 
though the modern ware of the Moquis, Zuñis, and Pueblos is 
profusely decorated with such pictures. One of the most notice- 
able facts in connection with these ancient clay utensils is to be 
observed in the manner of ornamentation ; for in some fragments 
we observe the painted figures on one side only, and in others on 
both. I have observed that in those pieces of vessels which, 
from the general contour or curve, are seen to have originally 
been such as possess a small neck or mouth, as a jug or jal, 
whose exterior surface alone would be exposed to view, the 
painted designs are worked only upon the convex side ; on the 
other hand, those vessels which originally were open and shallow, 
as a bowl or dipper, were ornamented on the concave surface, 
as the under side would not be exposed. Again, it is noticeable 
that those vessels, such as vases and pots, whose sides, 
entire, would have been upright, but whose mout 
been broad and open, exposing equally the interior and exterior 
surfaces, were invariably painted on both sides. 

In many pieces which lie scattered over the desert (perhaps 


when 


hs would have 3 


Beamer i 2 at Rad i tease Se) 


SEER ey Pee re ee Soe 


: 
; 
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m 
E. 
= 
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: 


1876.] The Ancient Pottery of Colorado, ete. 455 
ten per cent. of all the pottery found) there have been drilled 


small circular holes, which have evidently been made for the 
purpose of tying two or more broken fragments together when 
the vessel has been put to further use. Those perforations show- 
ing a funnel-like shape (as in Plate VII., Figure 2), with concen- 
tric rings, have been formed by the stone “ rimmer” or sharp 
“borer.” And we can see that in the majority of such cases the 
small circular orifice has been sunk from the outside or convex 
surface, as the opening there is larger than where it terminates 
on the interior. 

The earthenware utensils, according to their original forms 
and uses, may be classed under three heads: I. Sepulchral urns. 
Il. Water vessels. III. Food receptacles. 

The first division comprises vessels or ollas without handles, 
for cremation, usually being from ten to fifteen inches in height, 
with broad open mouths, and made of coarse clay with a lami- 
nated exterior (partially or entirely ornamented). Frequently 
the indentations extend simply around the neck or rim, the lower 
Portions being plain. The second class includes jars, vases, jugs, 
pots, dippers, ladles, cups, mugs, saucers, and many other forms 
closely resembling our modern china. The third group consists 
of bowls, basins, and variously shaped dishes. 

Sir John Lubbock, quoting Mr. Bateman’s description,’ says 
of European pottery, “ ‘The urns generally accompany inter- 
ments by cremation, and have either contained, or been inverted 
over, burnt human bones. They are generally of large size;’” 
Sir John Lubbock continues, they are “from ten to sixteen 
inches high, with a deep border, more or less decorated by im- 
Pressions of twisted thongs and incised patterns in which the 
chevron or herring-bone constantly recurs in various combina- 
tions, occasionally relieved by circular punctures, or assuming a 
reticulated appearance. They are all made by hand, no trace 
of the potter’s wheel being ever found on them. They almost 
mvariably have an overhanging rim. The material of which 
they are formed is clay mixed with pebbles, and some of them 
have been described as ‘ sun-dried.’ This, however, appears to 
be altogether a mistake, arising from the imperfect manner in 
Which they are burnt. In color they are generally brown or 
burnt umber outside and black inside.” 

This description of the pottery (burial urns) of Europe will 
apply in every respect, with the one exception of ornamentation, 


to that of the West. 


1 Prehistoric Times, page 165. 


456 The Ancient Pottery of Colorado, ete. [ August, 


In many fragments of the mouths of jars a horizontal projection 
around the inner circumference of the lip is noticeable. (Plate 
VIL, Figure 3). This, no doubt, was intended for the resting- 
place of a lid, and indeed we find many of these scattered through 
the débris of the ruins. The most ordinary form of lid is a sim- 
ple flat circle (Plate VII., Figure 4) which fits closely into the 
mouth of the vessel. Plate IX., Figure 4, shows another dis- 
coidal lid. Mr. Holmes found, in an old ruin in the Mancos 
Cañon, two vessels with their lids fitted into them. He remarks, 
“ Roughly-hewn stone lids were fitted carefully over the tops, 
but both were empty. One had been slightly broken about the 
rim, while the other had been pierced on the under side by some 

. Sharp instrument, and had been mended by laying a small frag- 
ment of pottery over the aperture on the inside and cementing 
it down with clay. They are of the ordinary corrugated pottery, 
and have a capacity of about three gallons.” An improvement 
on this is the lid with a central button (Plate VII., Figure 5), by 
which it can be lifted more readily. Advancing in the scale of 
improvement we find the ornamental knob which is suggestive 
of our modern sugar-bowl top. Plate VII., Figures 6 and 7, will 
show two other varieties of ancient lids. 

Nearly every article of household ware was adorned with one 
or more handles, and these, being so very numerous, present the 
greatest possible diversity in shape, design, size, and finish. 
There is the straight, long handle of the dipper, either plain or 
fanciful; there is the semicircular handle of the mug or cup, an 
the circular loops of the water-jug. All these general forms are 
so varied that it is seldom that two are found of like patterns. 
It is very evident that this ancient race was particularly parti 
to handles, and every vessel upon which a handle could be placed 
was supplied with one or more. These usually had been hol- 
lowed out when the clay was still damp, by thrusting sticks oF 
straws through their centres, as may be proved by the impres- 
sions left in the clay. This was done, no doubt, for the purpose 
of making the vessel as light in weight as possible. Occasionally, 


however, we discover a handle which is solid, especially when it 


is slender or curved. The extremities of some of these were, a$ 


previously mentioned, occasionally molded into rep 
the heads and ears of animals or beaks of birds. (Plate VIII., 
Figure 2, representing an owl; see also Plate XI., Figure 10.) 
Often the glazed appendages were painted in various designs. 
A very curious and ingenious contrivance was picked up among 


E. r ae E e E s OAE 


resentations of ` 


Son a Se i a A ine aE A a nr a a aa Te a a S OA a OO a li asad 


ie 


Puare X. ANCIENT POTTERY OF COLORADO, ETC. 


a 
DA r 


458 The Ancient Pottery of Colorado, ete. [August, 


the ruins of Utah, by one of the members of the United States 
Geological Survey. It was a combination of a handle and the 
neck of a jug. (Plate VII., Figure 8.) Across the middle of the 
opening of the vessel extended a hollow clay tube, separating the 
mouth into two divisions. Through this a thong was passed, by 
which the jug was carried or suspended from the walls of the 
house. Plate VIII., Figures 3-8, represents some common forms 
of handles, the straight ones (Figures 6-8) being the most 
numerous, though usually the most fragmentary. Plate VIII., 
Figure 5, represents a handle made of three twisted rolls. 

The material of the pottery of the aborigines consists of an 
infusible mixture of clay, which, after burning, is still opaque. 
There is always a great percentage of silicious earth, which is 
increased as the vessel is designed to be firm or less liable to 
shrink or crack on exposure to heat. Pulverized flint or quartz 
was probably much used in the ancient pottery. Captain John 
Moss states that he was informed by some of the Moquinos of 
Arizona that the older glazed pottery was made from a certain 
species of white rock, pulverized and worked into a paste, but 
the modern people have never been able to discover from whence 
the material was obtained. If such was the case, the process is 
now one of the lost arts of the Moqui, Zuiii, and Pueblo tribes. 
It is probable that this ancient ware was made from pounded 
quartz, but the descendants of these old potters employ only 
what is at hand, that is, ordinary clay. The calcareous covering 
of mollusks could not have been used unless they were more 
abundant in those days than they now are. : 

The painting of the ware was accomplished before burning, and 
then the glaze was administered. The colors were made by pie 
verizing brilliant stones and earths.! Those used in ornament 
ing the glazed crockery were black, white, yellow, brown, and 
red; and I have picked up pieces which presented greenish oF 
purplish tints, although these may be accounted for by the fad- 
ing of the coloring. The pigment was administered to the vessel 
before baking, and frequently the action of heat might hay? 
altered the chemical nature of the original hues. The glazing 


« Professor Cox 
ng the 


Mr. Foster, in his Prehistoric Races of the United States, says, ’ 
was informed that the New Mexican Indians colored their pottery black by us! 
gum of the mezquite, which has much the appearance and properties of gum 
and then baking it. Much of the ancient pottery from the Colorado 


of the Prairies, says that this pottery was also colored with the j 
called guaco. . 


ih ee RP ee RTE ore een ye ae ir aan a 


1876.] * The Ancient Pottery of Colorado, ete. 459 


was not calcareous, as it does not effervesce under acid, or, if at 
all, only slightly and in particular places, so that in all probabil- 
ity salt was used for glaze, as this mineral occurs abundantly 
throughout the country, both in a solid form and in, solution in 
the waters of many of the springs, frequently combined with a 
little lime. Adair, in his History of the American Indians, de- 
scribes a method of glazing employed by some of the southern 
tribes of our country. They place the vessels over a smoky fire 
of pitch-pine, which gives them a smooth, black appearance, as 
of enamel. 

Some of the ancient pottery may have been shaped by the 
operation of casting, for no indications of the potter's wheel or 
lathe can be discovered. Beyond doubt a portion of the ware 
was formed by molding, and in some instances the lower halves 
of small-mouthed vessels were shaped in a matrice or between 
two molds, while the upper portions, including the neck and 
handles, were finished more rudely by hand. This peculiarity 
may be seen in many broken fragments where the interior of 
Jugs is exposed to view. In several dippers which I have before 
me I can readily perceive that the handles were modeled over 
cylindrical sticks, somewhat greater in diameter than an ordi- 
nary lead pencil, and, previous to completing the end, the stick 


_ Was withdrawn, leaving fine parallel lines and ridges around the 


interior of the hollow tube. Then a piece of clay was added to 
the extremity, and rounded and smoothed into shape. 

In fact, though these prehistoric people were considerably ad- 
vanced in some of the useful arts, and were cognizant of the 
general principles by which they were employed, they were sadly 
'gnorant of the use of tools, even of the most simple patterns; 
and yet, to-day, tons of this hand-made pottery may be gathered 
through the cations of the far Southwest. This class of fictile 
fabrics resembles more closely the modern ware of civilized 
Peoples than that of any other aboriginal or ancient tribe, in 
the forms of the vessels, the symmetrical finish, the coloring, glaz- 
mg, the manner in which it has been baked or burnt, and the 
quality of the ware. Tt exhibits a greater advancement in the 
feramic art, and shows that those people who manufactured it 
Were well along in civilization. It is entirely different from any 
of the pottery of other ancient tribes, especially of those Indian 
tribes east of the Rocky Mountains ; and in the quantity which 
Was made, it stands alone in the annals of prehistoric man. 

Plate IX., Figure 5, represents a very perfect specimen of 


460 The Ancient Pottery of Colorado, ete. [ August, 


ancient ware found in the Pueblo de Chelly; it is about three 
and a half inches in diameter, symmetrically shaped, and accu- 
rately painted. It is, indeed, one of ‘the most perfect and best 
finished speeimens which has ever been brought from the West. 
Plate VIII., Figure 9, represents a fragment of a jar of the 
indented ware; Plate VIII., Figure 10, a portion of an ancient 
dipper, and Figure 11 a rare piece of pottery, ornamented in 
white on a smooth, black ground. This ornamentation has been 
accomplished, doubtless, in part or wholly, by stretching twisted 
thongs and straws across the surface and painting over the whole. 
This leaves the lines of white spots and the stripes. The origi- 
nal vessel was a large one (probably a foot and a half in diameter), 
and much labor must have been expended in its ornamentation. 
Occasionally the ancient potters applied the decorative art to 
the entire external surfaces of vessels. Figure 12, Plate VIL, 
shows a portion of the bottom of an urn of the indented variety, 
in which the design consists of impressed lines alternating in series 
of circles and rows of scales. In this specimen the ornamentation 
has been accomplished, the circles by the pressure of a sharp oF 
pointed instrument, and the rest by means of the side of a 
rounded stick at regular intervals, and finished by the thumb of 
the maker. This bottom is generally convex but somewhat flat- 
tened at the centre, so that the original jar would stand on & 
level surface without support. In another specimen of a water 
vessel I observed eight small notches or cuts close together on 
the edge of the rim, which had evidently been filed there with 
a sharp or serrated instrument of stone. These I believe to have 
formed a tally or score, perhaps registering the number of times 
the vessel was filled at the spring on some particular occasion. 
Figure 1 of Plate IX. represents a fragment of a jar, and the 
reconstructed vessel found in the valley of Epsom Creek, Utab. 
It is of the indented ware, and was made by winding narrow 
strips of clay spirally, one edge of each whorl overlapping a 
edge of the next. The scaled appearance was produced as usual 
by indentations of the thumb, and for variety several rows were 
often left untouched. The dimensions of the original were about 
eighteen inches in diameter and height, and half this distance 
_ across the mouth. Figures 2, 8, and 11 show the original forms 
of restored mugs or cups. Figure 3 is a particularly fine exam- 
ple of this style of vessel, having a double handle. These aver- 
age four inches in height. Figuré 6 is a fragment of ea E 
possessing a recurved lip. The entire vessel was probably ten | : 


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462 The Ancient Pottery of Colorado, ete. [ August, 


inches in diameter, the mouth being five inches across. Figure 
8 represents a diminutive jug which I dug up at Aztec Springs. 
In it I found a number of fragments of burnt corn-cobs. It had 
two opposite handles near the neck ; the diameter of the globular 
vessel was about four and a half inches, and an inch and a half 
across the mouth. Figure 9 shows a common utensil shaped like 


‘a dipper ‘or ladle. This particular specimen was picked -up im ji 


Montezuma Cañon, Utah, and measures across the bowl three 
and a half inches, the handle being four inches long. Figure 
12 is an exceedingly interesting vessel exhumed from an ancient 
grave of the Mancos by Captain John Moss. Several similar 
pitchers were taken from the same tomb, together with some 
polished stone implements and a human jaw-bone. Figures 7 
and 10 are modern. In Plate X. the majority of figures repre- 
sent fragments from bowls, similar to Figure 1. This form 0 
vessel seems to have been particularly abundant, varying in size 
from two inches to two feet in diameter. They are highly glazed 
and painted usually on the inner surface, though sometimes they 
are ornamented both internally and externally. This plate is in- 
tended to illustrate some of the more artistic designs which are 
found on much of this ancient pottery. Figure 4 shows a Mal- 
tese cross, a figure which is quite common in the inner centre of 
the bottoms of bowls. Many such designs were picked up, and 
they have been found in ruins a hundred miles apart. Figure 9 
is a fragment of a bowl whose rim was originally thirteen inches 
in diameter. This is the largest specimen of the finer glaz 


ware discovered by the party. Figures 13 and 14 are particularly 


well executed. This ware is firm and hard, and never exceeds a 
half-inch in thickness. Figures 18 and 19 are portions of smaller 
bowls or cups of five inches diameter. 

Mr. W. H. Holmes says of the pottery of the M ; 
study of the fragmentary ware found about the ruins is very inter 
esting, and its immense quantity is a constant matter of wonder. 
On one occasion, while encamped near the foot of Mancos Canon 
I undertook to collect all fragments of vessels of manifestly differ- 
ent designs within a certain space, and by selecting pieces having 
peculiarly marked rims I was able to say with certainty that 
_ Within ten feet square there were fragments of fifty-five different 
vessels. In shape these vessels have been so varied that ci 
forms known to civilized art could not be found.” 

Figure 1 of Plate XI. is a large corrugated jar with 
ity of about three gallons. The vessel was commence 


ancos, “ The 


a capat- 
d at the i 


Pirate XII. ANCIENT POTTERY OF COLORADO, ETO. 


ie ae Cartes ae Jia a Bl SiR eat Ae MRE a Remar Te! tLe da eS a Ai D 


464 A New Californian Deer. [ August, 


centre of the bottom (see Figure 3) and built up by winding a 
strip of clay spirally until the rim was finished. Two orna- 
mental rosettes of clay were placed near the rim in lieu of 
handles. Figures 3 a, 3 b, 3 c, 3 d, and Figures 2 and 2 a are 
other styles of indented ware. Figure 4 is a reconstructed bowl 
painted on both sides, and is an excellent example of careful 
workmanship. Figures 5,5 a, and 5 b are other samples of orna- 
mentation. Figure 6 shows another mug, slightly different from 
Figures 2, 3, and 11 of Plate IX. It has curved sides and a 
differently shaped handle. Figure 7 Mr. Holmes supposed to 
be a pipe, two inches in length. Figure 9 is a small clay ladle, 
and such utensils seem to have been numerous. I picked up one 
whose bowl was about two and a half inches in diameter, but the 
handle was wanting. 

Different, peculiar, and interesting forms of this fragmentary 
ware might be described sufficient to fill a volume, but those 
already given will suffice to convey a general idea of the more 
important features of the ancient plastic art of this section. 

I am indebted to Prof. F. V. Hayden for the use of Plates 
IX., X., XI., from Bulletin Vol. II., No. 1, Geological and Geo- 
graphical Survey of the Territories. The majority of the orig- 
inal specimens here figured are at present in the collection of 
Professor S. S. Haldeman, by whom they will probably be placed 
in the museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- 
phia, at no very distant day. 

EXPLANATION OF PLATES VIL, VIII, AND XII. 


Plate VII. Figure 1. Rude representation of the Rocky Mountain sheep or goat = 
ancient pottery. Figure 2. Pottery showing orifices bored with a rimmer. Figure a 
Horizontal mouth of a jar. Figure 4. Jar-lid. Figure 5. Top of lid. Figure 6. 
Top of lid. Figure 7. Top of lid. Figure 8. Neck and handle combined. : 

Plate VIII. Figure 2. Owl’s-head handle. Figures 3-8. Curved and straight 
handles. Figure 9. Ancient jar reconstructed. Figure 10. Portion of a dipper 
Figure 11. A rare pattern. Figure 12. Bottom of indented vessel. of 

Plate XII. Figures 1,2. Fragmentary ware. Figures 3, 4. From the bottoms 
vessels, Figures 5, 6, 7, and 8. From the rims of vessels. All three fifths natural 
size. 


A NEW CALIFORNIAN DEER. 
BY HON. J. D. CATON. 
j a recent visit to California I met with a new variety of ee 
(Cervus macrotis, var. Californicus), a description of "i 
may be interesting to the naturalist ; I say new because I find } 


nowhere mentioned in print, nor could I learn that hunters es 4 


sportsmen had observed its peculiarities. 


, 


1876.] A New Californian Deer. 465 


Before my arrival at Santa Barbara the fame of Mr. Frost, the 
leading merchant of the place, as a deer-hunter, had reached _ 
me, and soon after my arrival I made his acquaintance and in- 
quired concerning the deer of the vicinity. He showed me many 
interesting specimens of antlers, a few dried skins, and a last 
year’s fawn in domestication, but unfortunately the tail of the 
latter had been bitten off by a mule. 

I sawiat once that we had something I had never met before 
or seen described. I expressed a strong desire for an opportu- 
nity to study it further, when Mr. Frost invited me to join him in 
an excursion to the mountains to procure a specimen, which of 
course I gladly accepted. At six o'clock on Tuesday morning, 
the 21st of March, he drove up to my hotel, accompanied by Mr. 
Miller, another merchant of Santa Barbara, no less fond of the 
chase, the wagon stored with every convenience for camp life. 
We followed up the coast forty miles to Gaviota, where we 
crossed the Coast Range through the Gaviota Pass, the summit 
of which I found to be one thousand and fifty feet above the 
sea, and made camp in a secluded valley, among abrupt hills 
varying in height from one hundred to four hundred feet. Some 
of these were covered with wild oats to their very summits, 
while others were clothed with open, park-like live-oaks, or dense 
chaparral. The afternoon was spent in making camp, observing 
the character of the country, and listening to the love notes of 
the great flocks of quail (Lophortyx Californicus), whose breed- 
ing season was about to commence. 

Next morning by daylight coffee was drank, and the hunters 
Were off to the hills. As the excursion was strictly for scientific 
Purposes, it was understood that only bucks were to be shot at. 
By noon three specimens were brought into camp, which were 
all I desired, and afforded me every opportunity for a critical 
study, 

I found them to be a very pronounced variety of Cervus ma- 
crotis. Of the species there could be no mistake. There was 
R large ear, the very large metatarsal gland, more than four 
times as large as on the black-tailed deer (Cervus Columbianus), 
and.more than ten times as large as on the common deer ( Cervus 
Virginianus), but above all the under side of the tail was naked to 

ut the same extent as on the tail of the horse. Now this is a 
Peculiarity not found on any other of the American deer, and I do 
not know that it is observed on any foreign species ; and as it is 


48 constant on this deer as on the horse, it becomes an impor- 
VoL. x. — No. 8. 


466 A New Californian Deer. [ August, 


tant specific character, and, had other important similitudes been 
wanting, would have gone far to identify the species. I will not 
stop to point out other features peculiar to O. macrotis, but will 
rather describe the differences between this variety and that found 
east of the Sierra Nevadas. 

Those found in the low altitudes where we made our camp are 
hardly as large as those found on the high table-lands east of the 
Sierras and in the Rocky Mountains, but I learned that those 
found in the higher mountains, say five thousand feet or upwards 
above the sea, are very large. Mr. Frost once killed one in the 
high mountains which was believed to weigh four hundred pounds. 
This deer frequents higher altitudes than any other deer, being 
frequently found above the timber line. I have not the means of 
comparing those found at San Julian (that was the name of the 
ranch on which we made our camp) with any living on so low 
an altitude elsewhere. In color these deer had a decidedly more 
reddish shade than those east of the Sierras, much more ap- 
proaching the color of C. Colwmbianus. Those, however, found 
in high altitudes were described as of the dull gray color of the 
eastern variety. n the mule deer (Cervus macrotis), there is 
a snow-white section which commences just>above the root of 
the tail and extends down the buttock for several inches on each 
side to nearly the length of that member. This white section cn 
the specimens of the California variety which I examined was 
not quite so extensive as on the eastern variety, though in all 
other respects they were identical. But the most marked dis- 
tinction of this new variety was in the markings of the tail, On 
all the specimens I have examined or heard of east of the Sierras, 
the tail of C. macrotis is entirely white except a tuft of long 
hairs at the extremity, which is black. On all that I examined 
_ west of the Sierras a dark line extends down the upper side of 
the tail, and unites with the black tuft at the end. This line 
varied in depth of color on different specimens, but was always 
very distinctly present, never of a lighter color than on the back 
above, but frequently considerably darker as it approached of 
black tuft, always showing many tawny hairs, which in severa 
specimens invaded the tuft at the extremity ; this on the easter 
variety is always entirely black, except in summer, when it some" 
times fades to.a reddish shade. It was this dark line down jhe 
upper- side of the tail which first attracted my attention yet 
dried skins examined, and excited the suspicion that this mig 
be a new species of deer, which, however, was at once dispe# 


ees See eT ee ES 


1876.] A New Californian Deer. 467 


when I had opportunity for more careful examination. This 
mark, I learned from Mr. Frost and many others, is as constant 
on the large specimens found in the higher altitudes as on the 
smaller ones found at less elevations near the coast. It is uniform 
and constant, so far as I could learn, on all found west of the 
Sierras. 

At first I suspected a relative of C. Columbianus rather than 
of C. macrotis, but when I observed that the dark line on top of 
the tail did not embrace more than one third of its circumference, 
while on the black-tailed deer all is colored except one quarter or 
one third on the under side, which is white, — in fact, that this is - 
a white tail with a colored line on top, and the other is a black 
tail with a white line along the under side, — but above all, when 
I found the under side of the tail naked, while the tail of C. Co- 
lumbianus is covered with a dense coat of hairs on the under side 
to the base, I saw at once it was no relative of the true black- 
tailed deer, 

This was confirmed by observations made a few weeks later, 
when enjoying the hospitality of Mr. A. E. Kent, near San Ra- 
fael, north of San Francisco. Mr. Kent has a deer park inclosed 
in an admirable locality, and has in it four does and a buck, and 
felt sadly disappointed that the does had never bred. The first 
glance disclosed the cause of this sterility. The does were all of 
the true black-tailed deer, while the buck was of this new variety 
of the mule deer. When I pointed out the difference, he readily 
recognized it. The larger ears, the longer and coarser legs, the 
larger gland on the hind legs, and the difference in the form and 
color of the tail, were all very plain when pointed out, though he 

not noticed them before, albeit there are but few if any 
more persistent deer-hunters in Califórnia, and none who have 
more carefully studied the habits of the deer in everything essen- 
tial to the successful chase. Had the colored stripe on the upper 


Side of the tail been wanting, as on the eastern variety, he would 


sda doubt have observed the difference at once. The does were 
natives of the country north of him; the buck was presented to 
him by a friend, but he did not know whence he was procured ; 
I expressed. the opinion that he would on inquiry find that he 
ame from the south, which he has since informed me was the 
fase. I examined thirty or forty dried skins, the fruits of the 


chase by Mr. Kent, all procured north of San Francisco, along the 


; Range, within the distance of one hundred and fifty miles. 


‘ot one froma mule deer was found. All were from the black- 
r. 


tailed dee 


468 - A New Californian Deer. [ Argust, 


I lack the necessary information to enable me to determine the 
extent of the habitat of this variety of the mule deer. I think 
it safe to say that it predominates in the Coast Range south of 
Montera, and probably south of San Francisco, while it is rarely 
if ever met with in the Coast Range in California north of San 
Francisco. Good observers report C. macrotis in the Coast Range 
in Oregon, though of rather a small size, and I have most satis- 
factory evidence that it occurs abundantly in the Sierras in 
Northern California ; but whether these are of the variety I have 
described I have no means of determining. I hope this article 
will induce naturalists and observers on the west coast to exam- 
ine with critical care specimens from the various localities and let 
us have the result of their observations, so that this question may 
be determined. I expect that we shall find that the Sierras are 
the dividing line between the two varieties of C. macrotis. 

I am informed by Professor Baird that the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution some years since received several skins from Cape St. 
Lucas, of a very small variety of C. macrotis inhabiting the pen- 
insula of California, with spike antlers, which were said to be 
fully adult, and not yearlings with dag antlers. Those skins 
were unfortunately destroyed, so that I could not examine them. 
I have thus far failed in my efforts to procure specimens from 
that locality. Mr. Burton, of Santa Barbara, who forty years 
ago hunted the sea otter along that coast, informed me that he 
found a very small variety of deer quite abundant on the island 
of Santa Margarita, off the coast of Southern California ; but he 
could not describe it except that it was of diminutive size and 
quite abundant. 

As soon as the deer reached camp I selected a fair specimen, 
buck, which I judged to be four years old, and prepared the skin 
and necessary parts of the skeleton for mounting. This I subse- 
quently sent to the Smithsonian Institution. Professor Baird has 
expressed much interest about it, and assured me that it would 
be mounted and added to the collection of American quadru 
at the Centennial, where those who take an interest in these 
studies may examine and compare it with others. 

After our work was done we enjoyed a most leisurely feast of 
venison prepared in all the different modes most approved m 
camp, sweetened by long absence and hard toil. After a late 
breakfast the next morning, in which venison was again most 
prominent, we leisurely broke camp and I bade farewell to one 
of the sweetest nooks for such a purpose I have ever seen. 


ee 
$ 


1876.] A Neglected Naturalist. 469 


rank wild oats which formed our beds, the bowers of flowering 
shrubs which loaded the air with a rich perfume, the music of the 
mountain brook which went dancing down near by on its way to 
the great Pacific, soothed to sleep at night and bade a pleasant 


welcome in the morning. 
— 


A NEGLECTED NATURALIST. 


BY HERBERT E. COPELAND, M. S. 


O many of the untiring naturalists who fifty years ago ac- 

' cepted the perils and privations of the far West, to collect 
and describe its animals and plants, we have given the only re- 
ward they sought — a grateful remembrance of their work. Au- 
dubon died full of riches and honor, with the knowledge that his 
memory would be cherished so long as- birds should sing. Wil- 
son is “ the Father of American Ornithology,” and his mistakes 
and faults are forgotten in our admiration of his great achieve- 
ments. Le Sueur is remembered as “the first to explore the 
ichthyology of the Great American Lakes.” Laboring with 
them, and greatest of them all in respect to the extent and range 
of his accomplishments, was one whose name has nearly been 
forgotten, and is oftenest mentioned, in the field of his best labors, 
with pity or contempt. 

The early field-naturalists (had very imperfect conceptions of 
the relationship existing between closely allied forms, — for the 
hecessary comparison can be made only after the accumulation of 
more specimens than are ever collected by one man, — and they 
therefore described as “ species ” forms due to geographical in- 

nences or individual peculiarities. Who among them erred 
most in this direction cannot yet be determined, for our own 
knowledge is too imperfect, a fact readily appreciated by those 
who have followed scientific thought at all closely for the last 
ew years. We may, therefore, now pass judgment only on the 
honesty and truthfulness of these investigators, and for this we 
Aave two sources of evidence: first, the testimony of contempora- 
ries; second, the testimony of their work. On the first head we 

ve in regard to the subject of this sketch, the most emphatic 
statements from his friénds and ¢o-laborers, Swainson and Audu- 
on. If there be anything recorded against the integrity of his 
Intentions, diligent research has failed to reveal it to me. It is 
pe Present purpose to present an outline of his work, for the con- 

“ration of the candid reader. 


470 3 A Neglected Naturalist. [August, 


C. S. Rafinesque was one of the geniuses that occasionally ap- 
pear, to puzzle people oť steady habits. His early life was full 
of the vicissitudes which may be told of nearly every pioneer in 
American science, and he was thrown on our shores for the 
second time from a shipwreck in which he had lost every tangi- 
_ble result of his labors in science ; the sea had taken everything 
but hope and energy. Similar misfortunes have since broken the 
spirit of more than one student of science, but whatever cloud 
these may have cast over the mind of Rafinesque, it did not affect 
his zeal and capacity for work, and the result was so prodigious 
that I confine myself to a consideration of his labors in ichthyol- 
ogy, since here he has received most blame from recent followers, 
and pass by his work in the other branches of science with only 
a statement of the result. 

He proposed a natural system of classification in botany at atime 
when the Linnzean system was as universally recognized in this 
country as is the binomial nomenclature now. Thirteen genera, 
eight subgenera, and sixteen species of the plants referred to in 
Gray’s Manualare his. His writings on conchology have been con- 
sidered worth editing by Binney and Tryon. Of our reptiles and 
batrachians, four genera and six species bear his name. He de- 
scribed four genera and four species that are retained in the cur- 
rent literature treating of our mammals. The genus Helm- 
therus of birds was proposed by him. There is implied in this 
brief outline an amount of labor to be appreciated only by those 
who themselves are laborers, so 

In 1820, the year in which Maine was admitted to the Union, 
when the population of the United States was about nine mill- 
ion, and the population of Cincinnati was nine thousand, there 
was published at Lexington, Ky., “ for the author,” ©. S. Rafi- 
nesque, a little octavo book of ninety pages, with the following 
title : “ Ichthyologia Ohiensis, or Natural History of the Fishes 
inhabiting the River Ohio and its Tributary Streams. Preceded 
by a Physical Description of the Ohio and its Branches,” and with 
the following motto: — i SR 

“The art of seeing well, or of noticing and distinguishing 
with accuracy the objects which we perceive, is a high faculty 
the mind, unfolded in few individuals, and despised by thos? 
who can neither acquire it nor appreciate its results.” aji 

The book is now very rare, the borrowed copy before me i 
though worn and faded, being valued at fifty dollars, s0 that 2 j 
very difficult to verify a reference to it or to consult the origin: 


1876. ] A Neglected Naturalist. 471 


descriptions. This may have led European writers, intrenched 
in the conviction that no traveling naturalist could invalidate 
or even anticipate the labors of a Cuvier or a Valenciennes, and 
even frankly stating that “the natural history of North Ameri- 
can fresh-water fishes is in its infancy, and only a small propor- 
tion of the literature pertaining to it has been critically exam- 
ined,” to believe that they could afford to reject all of Rafi- 
nesque’s work, and then coin such contemptuous expressions as 
“Rafinesquian genera ” for groups rejected without examination. 
I may say here, however, that the term is not a reproach to 
those acquainted with the value of the work, for Rafinesque was 
the first writer on American fishes who distinguished with even 
tolerable accuracy those groups now called genera, and for thirty- 
five years after him there was no writer on our fishes of whom 
Professor Agassiz’s words are not true, that “ most of their 
generic descriptions are only vague specific descriptions, and their 
specific descriptions refer chiefly to individual peculiarities of the- 
specimens before them. 

American writers who have neglected Rafinesque may plead 
the same difficulties in extenuation, but have in some cases, I am 
willing to believe, been influenced more by the habit of neglect 
toward him. As a fisher in the streams. tributary to the Ohio I 
have become profoundly impressed by the accuracy of the work 
he did when laboring under so many disadvantages. He was surely 
Indefatigable in collecting, and more accurate than the custom and 
habit of his time demanded. The general confusion characteriz- 
ing so much of the literature on the fresh-water fishes of the Unit- 

d States may afford some reason why no one has made a dis- 
tinction, in the case of Rafinesque, between the descriptions from 
Specimens he had seen and. those based on the report of others. 

e failure so to distinguish, added to the unfortunate results of 
the well-intended attempt at identification by one or two western 
ichthyologists, and the consequent lack of confidence when the 

screpancies were proved, has led to the rejection of nearly all 
IS work and to the addition of many useless synonyms to our 
Nomenclature. 
tafinesque referred a few fishes conjecturally to genera on the 
testimony of others, when he had never seen a specimen. These 
my be dropped without remark or prejudice, in accordance with 
the universal custom. 
_ He gave descriptions of some very singular fishes from draw- 
mgs by John James Audubon. Whatever blame there may be 


472 A Neglected Naturalist. [ August, 


belongs to the artist. It is scarcely necessary to say that Audu- 
bon’s paintings of birds are wonderfully accurate, and that his 
skill and truthfulness as a field-naturalist were such that one of 
his descriptions is considered to be worth respect, even if contra- 
dicted by his best successors. Rafinesque had particular reason 
to trust him, for on his denying the existence of a flower Audubon 
had painted, he was led to discover a new genus. Such proof was 
not always possible, and why should he doubt the existence of a 
fish painted in its life colors by the same gifted hand? Valen- 
ciennes and Richardson have described species of fishes that yet 
hold a place in so celebrated systematic literature as the Cata- 
logue of the Fishes of the British Museum, from Chinese draw- 
ings. We may be pardoned for retaining the descriptions of 
Rafinesque from the paintings of Audubon; we may surely drop 
them without reproach to the author. 

His descriptions of the fishes he collected cannot, in many par- 
ticular cases, be surpassed, and are generally recognizable even 
among the cyprinoids or minnows, where, on account of their 
close resemblance to each other, there has always been the most 
confusion. The first good word was spoken for him by Kirtland, 
but the value of his work was not fully recognized until 1856, 
when Professor Agassiz was receiving collections from the tribu- 
taries of the Ohio. In his Fishes of the Tennessee he restored 
many of Rafinesque’s names, and defended his memory against 
the harsh treatment it had received from the few writers who 
had noticed his work, expressing much regret “ that his contem- 
poraries did not follow in his steps, or at least preserve the tra- 
dition ‘of his doings, instead of decrying him and appealing to 
foreign authority against him.” After that time, however, Pro- 
fessor Agassiz made but few contributions to American ichthy- 
ology, and the general neglect continued to such an extent that 
a writer in the employ of the government took the trouble to 
describe badly many of the fishes that Rafinesque had describ 
well, and in our own day authors have made new genera with 
descriptions no better than Rafinesque’s for the same fishes. 

Occasionally, however, as the fishes of the Ohio are hoda 
better known, one of his descriptions has been recognized, n 
recently Prof. David S. Jordan has published a thorough ee 
of Rafinesque’s work, based on collections of a large number 0t 
specimens from the streams in which he fished, and has sentir 
many of his names. The result at last fully justifies all I say ° 
this gifted ichthyologist, for of seventy-nine genera and one hun 


e en eee Ba Pg 


1876.] White Egrets at Trenton, New Jersey. 473 


dred and fifteen species of fishes known as inhabiting the Ohio 
and its tributaries, twenty-nine genera and thirty-seven species 
were first described by him, and the eliminating of seasonal and 
sexual forms from the rank of species, and the identifying of 
more of his genera on a better acquaintance with the fishes of © 
the Ohio, will constantly make the ratio greater. 

I have not been actuated in the writing of this sketch wholly 
by a desire to see justice done. Professor Agassiz —and I quote 
him so often because he spoke so well before me in this matter — 
said, Both in Europe and in America he has anticipated most 
of his contemporaries in the discovery of new genera and species 
in those. departments of science he cultivated most perseveringly, 
and it is but justice to restore them to him whenever it can be 
done.” 

But if we hold our duty lightly in regard to our treatment of 
these old naturalists, we are driven by our necessities to attempt 
the establishment of the oldest names that were accompanied by 
à recognizable description, for the nomenclature of our animals 

as become a matter so fearfully intricate that it has retarded in 
no slight degree the advancement of science, by repelling those 
naturally fitted for the work. 
aceon 
THE OCCURRENCE OF WHITE EGRETS AT TRENTON, 
NEW JERSEY. 
BY CHARLES C. ABBOTT, M. D. i 
(2 Monday, August 2d, 1875, it commenced raining early in 
the morning and continued day after day, with the exception 
of one day, until Friday, the 20th. The wind varied only from 
Southeast to south. About ten and one tenth inches of rain fell, 
and in consequence the meadows bordering on the Delaware River 
Were overflowed to a depth varying from two to six feet. 

On the 14th of August a flock of thirty snowy herons ( Gar- 
zetta candidissima) made their appearance, keeping much to- 
gether, avoiding the clumps of tall trees, and at times associating 
very familiarly with a flock of domestic geese. Occasionally the 
Sreat blue herons (Ardea herodias) were seen in scanty numbers, 
either alone or associated with the white herons, and every day 


- there were numbers of the small blue herons (Florida coerulea), 


; nt these excited no comment from those familiar with the local- 
sa as they are quite abundant every year, as are also the night 
eron (Nyctiardea gardeni), the bittern ( Botaurus lentiginosus), 


474 White Egrets at Trenton, New Jersey. [ August, 


the green heron (Butorides virescens), and the least bittern (Ar- 
dea exilis). 

August 17th a small flock of white egrets ( Herodias egretta) 
made their appearance, and associated familiarly with the white 
herons that had preceded them by three days. A tract of level 
meadows, of some seventy acres in extent, seemed particularly 
attractive to these birds, and I had excellent opportunities for 
watching their habits during their brief stay. 

It is proper here to state that thirty years ago both of these 
species of white herons were quite common along the Delaware 
River from May to September, but they have now almost entirely 
disappeared, especially during the past six years, during which | 
time I have failed to note their presence, except single specimens 
flying over. 

My studies of the habits of birds during the past and preced- 
ing summers have frequently suggested to me that when any 
bird or flock of birds deliberately chose to frequent a very 
limited locality for a comparatively long time, notwithstanding 
the danger of the presence of man, their habits would indi- 
eate exercise of faculties that could not be considered simply 
instinctive; that the exercise of unusual care, forethought, and 
deliberation would be noticeable in their endeavors to avoid real 
or supposed dangers from the proximity of man. To what ex- 
tent this is true is, I think, partly shown in the notes I have 
taken down in the field from August 14th to September 9th 
inclusive. How these movements should be interpreted the reader 
must judge for himself, but I think the explanation here given 
nearest in accordance with the facts, which I regret being un- 
able to describe as clearly as I wish. Valuable as they undoubt- 
edly are, written descriptions give but a faint idea of the vari 
movements and daily habits of our birds, which to be really ap- 
preciated must be seen. — 

It is very evident that these white egrets know that their 
color renders them quite conspicuous. I noticed every day the 
same movements on their part, which demonstrated their py 
ciation of this fact. They carefully kept in the centre of jea 
tract of meadow, except when feeding, and then never e 
nearer than one hundred yards to the wooded margins of a 
meadow or near outstanding trees. This shyness, as it would 
called, was not of itself at all remarkable, but as it was satis 
panied with another habit having direct relation to it, 1t "e 
very curious, and indicative of thought. This second habit wa 


UO i ee eC a ee ee AT 


1876.] White Egrets at Trenton, New Jersey. 475 


that of rising to a very great height always when passing over 
woods, as was necessary on coming in from the river, along the 
banks of which they appeared to roost. While the less timid 
blue herons would pass leisurely along the tree-tops, not a dozen 
yards above them, the white herons on being disturbed would 
rise rapidly to an unusual height, and, apparently keeping directly 
over the spot where they had been standing, would not com- 
mence an onward flight until the upward one was sufficiently 
prolonged to assure them that they were wholly out of harm’s 
way. So when returning to the meadow they would, as it were, 
drop from the clouds, while the blue species would quietly wing 
their way along at a height of from ten to forty yards. 

Now, inasmuch as no white egrets have, in any numbers, vis- 
ited this locality for several years, and as in the Southern States 
they are little, if at all, more wary than the blue herons, it seems 
to me to follow necessarily that their peculiarity of flight, as 
instanced in avoiding supposed dangers, could not be hereditary, 
and was really an exercise of unusual care, forethought, on the 
part of these birds; a mental operation akin to thought in man, 
ra having nothing whatever to do with instinct as understood 

y us. P 

Why, indeed, a flock of these egrets, for nearly four weeks, 
should frequent daily a tract of meadow so small as this of seventy 
acres, it would be very difficult if not impossible to determine ; 
but such being the case, I naturally endeavored to mark their 
feeding habits carefully, and this, with the aid of a good field- 

ass, I was able to do. Their food consisted exclusively, while 
on the meadows, of frogs and grasshoppers, and especially of the 
latter, which were very abundant, and, having been caught by 
the freshet while in the long grass, were so wet and draggled 
that they could not escape by flight. The smaller herons seemed 
always occupied in gathering up the grasshoppers, and never 

Pped to plume themselves or take a quiet nap on one leg as 
the blue herons are so fond of doing. The egrets (Herodias 
greta) on the contrary, seemed to weary of gathering grass- 

Ppers and frogs, and would spend much time in dressing their 

hers ; but while really undisturbed they never ceased to be 
“'spicious, and the little flocks seemed to have a mutual under- 

“ading for their common safety, as every fifteen or twenty 
Minutes one of their number would rise well up into the air and 
“rele slowly about as if to see if the coast was clear. If at sucha 

any person was noticed approaching, or I purposely showed 


476 The House Fly. [ August, 


myself too near them, the flying egret would give a loud, shrill call, 
and they would all rise up immediately and be gone for perhaps 
an hour. I frequently disturbed them, and so uniform was their 
action at such a time that I could exactly describe in advance to 
a friend what would be their movements when I alarmed them. 
So unvarying was their method of leaving and returning to the 
meadow that it seemed only explicable by considering it the pre- 
determined routine, resulting from a consultation had among them 
when circumstances first led them to the spot in question. 

As an instance, also, of these birds apparently ‘studying the 
situation,” I daily noticed a change in their habits as the waters 
began to subside and restricted their range of submerged land. 
They seemed to know full well that an open meadow, six or 
eight inches under water, afforded no “ cover ” for their arch- 
enemy, man, but that he might crawl dangerously near in the 
long, tangled grass, now again exposed. The indication of this 
supposed train of thought on the part of the herons consisted 
in their increased suspicion, and the steadily increasing number 
of circular flights on the part of some of their number to see if 
any danger was near by. 

It were useless to endeavor to give a detailed account of their 
many interesting movements, all of which were so indicative of 
genuine thought ; but the whole series of observations, as I now 
recall them, and the perusal of my field-notes, more than ever 
fully convince me that these egrets, like all birds, depend upon, 
and are successful in life, I may say, more from their reasoning 
powers and their quality than they trust to or are dependent upon 
the operations of instinct. d 


THE HOUSE FLY. 
BY A. S. PACKARD, JR. 
A BRIEF history of the common house fly, which abounds to 
such an annoying extent in August, may not be out 0 none” 
especially as until within two or three years we were quite ın Ke 4 
dark as to its mode of life and transformations. The Mémoires 
of the Swedish count, DeGeer, published just one hundred year 
ago, contain the first notice of the house fly, while a fuller ae 
count is given in an obscure book by Bouché, a German st ee 
ogist; published in 1834. Two years ago the writer m 
special study of the mode of growth and life-history of the BY: 
the leading points of which are here reproduced. 
1 On the Transformations of the Common House Fly. (Proceedings of the Bosto 
Society of Natural History, xvi., 1874.) 8vo, pp. 14. 


‘ 


1876.] The House Fly. 477 


In the first place, is the common house fly of America the same 
as that of Europe? After a careful comparison of a number of 
individuals from Switzerland with many native examples, no 
difference could be found. How long it has been living in this 
country there are no data to show, and it may have been a pas- 
senger on the Mayflower, or buzzed in the cabin of Captain John 
Smith’s vessel, or even performed its measured flight near the 
ceilings in the ancient town of Pemaquid. 

During the month of August the house fly is particularly 
abundant, and especially so in the neighborhood of stables. On 
placing a fly in a glass bottle, she laid, between six P. M., August 
12th, and eight the next morning, one hundred and twenty eggs. 
They were deposited irregularly in stacks, lying loose in two 
piles at the bottom of the bottle. At eight in the morning of 
August 14th several were found hatched out and crawling about 
the bottom of the bottle. Buta greater number of young were 
desired for purposes of study, and an abundance of food in which 
to rear them. A mass of freshly-dropped horse manure, still 
warm, was placed at an open window in the sun. This, with 
fresh masses added from time to time, attracted numbers of flies 
for three or four weeks succeeding, which laid eggs during that 
Period, so that thousands of young in different stages of develop- 
ment were obtained. 

Immediately after exposing the manure on the morning of 
August 12th, the flies appeared, and, penetrating down, often out 
of sight, deposited bunches of eggs in convenient crevices. The 
egg of the house fly is long, slender, cylindrical, and a little 
Smaller at the anterior end than at the other. It is .04-.05 of an 
Inch long and about one quarter as thick. The shell is so dense 
that the early embryonic phases could not be watched, but enough 
Was seen to enable us to determine that the mode of growth in 
the egg is nearly the same as that of the flesh fly, as observed by 

r. Weismann. 

he eggs thus laid were found to hatch twenty-four hours 
later, In confinement they required from five to ten hours more, 
and the maggots hatched in confinement were smaller than those 
"sared from eggs deposited in warm manure. Certain worms 
reared also in too dry manure were nearly one half smaller than 
those bred in more favorable circumstances. For several days 
di Worms living in this dry manure did not grow sensibly. Too 
tect warmth, but more especially the want of sufficient moist- 
and consequently of available semi-liquid food, seemed to 


478 The House Fly. [ August, 


cause them to become dwarfed. It is evident that heat and 
moisture are required for the normal development of the fly, as 
they are for nearly all insects. ; 

The maggot molts twice, consequently there are three stages 
of development, and it becomes sensibly larger at each stage. 
After remaining in the first stage for one day it molts, and dif- 
fers from the preceding stage only in being a little larger, and in 
the addition of the spiracle near the head (Figure 28, B, sp. C, 
the same enlarged.) After reniaining in this stage from twenty- 
four to thirty-six hours it sheds its skin and enters upon the 
third stage, which lasts three or four days. Figure 28, A, B, 
represent the maggot; the body is long and slender, somewhat 
conical, the head and mouth-parts being rudimentary. The end 
of the body is truncated, and bears two short tubercles or spiracles. 
Figure 28, E, represents one of these circular breathing holes much 
enlarged, with three sinuous openings, the edges of which are 

i 2 A 


(Fic. 28.) EARLY STAGES OF THE HOUSE FLY. i 

armed with fine projections forming a rude sieve for the t A 
sion of dust and dirt. With these spiracles connect the da 
main tracheæ, communicating by two cross branches 0) fers 
sending off numerous twigs. The young of the Hotay i; 
chiefly from that of the flesh fly in being only one half as nae 
while the form of the openings in the spiracles at the end of ™ 
body is entirely different. state the 

When about to transform into the pupa or chrysalis sta ite : 
1 A, larva of Musca domestica, just hatched, showing the distribution oe P, 
main tracheæ, and the anterior and ior commissures (4, 4), dor of the sme 
the larya in the second stage; sp, spiracle. C, spiracle enlarged. Tibet E 
larva, enlarged ; bl, labrum (?); md, mandibles ; mx, maxillæ ; ft, prear 
minal spiracle much enlarged. D, puparium; sp, spiracle, All the "gna 
large. 


1876.] The House Fly. 479 


| body contracts into a barrel-shaped form, as seen in Figure 28, 
| D, turns brown and hard, forming a case (puparium) within 
which the body of the larva transforms into that of the pupa. 
| Weismann has made the discovery that in the larval flesh fly when 
about to transform into the pupa state, the head and thoracic 
‘segments die, and that the head and thorax of the pupa arise 
from minute disks attached to the smaller nerves or traches in 
the body of the worm. This is paralleled by the metamorphosis 
: of the “ pluteus ” into the adult starfish, and is a much more com- 
| plete metamorphosis than even that of the caterpillar into the 
chrysalis of the butterfly. 

Our house fly having as a maggot lived a life of squalor, im- 
mersed in its revolting food, with its new change of form, involv- 
ing the death of one half its body and the origin of a new head 
and thorax, with legs and wings, eyes, feelers, and mouth-parts; 
after a short pupal sleep of from five to seven days pushes off 
one end of its pupa case, and appears winged, with legs where 
before there were no traces of feet, and is animated by new in- 
stincts and mental traits. It is difficult to realize how striking 
are the changes, physical and psychological, which the house fly 
undergoes in the transition from the maggot to the volant, curso- 
rial being which puts a girdle, like Puck, around its little world, 
— the dining-room or parlor, — and like its mischievous proto- 
type plays all sorts of antics, tasting the sugar, lapping the 
molasses, now tickling the nose of the sleeping housewife resting 
from her pre-prandial toils, or adjourning to the library and scrap- 
mg with its spiny tongue the rich binding of the bookworm’s 
treasures, 

If in its Winged condition it is one of the most disagreeable 
features of dog-days, and people wonder why flies were ever 
made at all, it should be remembered that flies have an infancy 
a maggots, and the loathsome life they then lead as scavengers 
cleanses and purifies the August air, and lowers the death-rate 

of our cities and towns. Thus, while stables and piggeries and 
filth are tolerated by city and town authorities, the young of the 
house fly and the flesh and blow fly, with their thousand allies, are 
doing Something towards purifying the pestilential air, and avert- 
mg the summer brood of cholera, dysentery, diphtheria, typhus 
and typhoid fever, which descend like harpies upon the devoted 

wns and cities, It may be regarded as an axiom that where 
flies most abound there filth, death-dealing and baneful, is most 
abundant, and filth-diseases such as we have named most do con- 
Sregate, 


480 The House Fly. [ August, 


As we have said, when the fly leaves its pupa-case it pushes 
away the front end of the case, which opens like a lid, by means 
of the distention of the membranous front of the head, which 
may be seen pushing out and in as the fly walks rapidly about. 
This bladder-like expansion is evidently distended with air and 
in connection with the air-tubes within the body, so that it may 
serve the temporary purpose of enabling the fly to disengage 
itself from its pupa-case. When free from its prison the fly 
walks or rather runs nervously about, as if laboring under a good 
deal of mental excitement, and quite dazed by the new world of 
light and life about it, for as a maggot it was blind, deaf, and 
dumb. Now its wings are soft, small, baggy, and half their final 
size. The fluid that fills them soon, however, dries up, the skin 
of the fly attains the colors of maturity and it soon flies off with 
a buzz suggestive of contentment and light-heartedness born of its 
mercurial temperament. ‘That the fly not only throws off in its 
buzz songs of the affections, love ditties, but also may vary its 
notes accordingly as it is elevated or depressed in spirits concern- 
ing more trivial and less absorbing matters, we are assured by 
Sir John Lubbock, who says that the sounds of insects do not 
merely serve to bring the sexes together; they are not merely 
“ love songs,” but also serve, like any true language, to express 
the feelings. 

The life of the house fly may, then, be summed up as follows: 
It lives one day in the egg state, from five days to a week as a 
maggot, from five to seven days in the pupa state, —in all, 
from ten to fourteen days in the month of August, — before so 
winged adult period. It is often asked how long-lived a fly 18- 
Most of the flies which are born in August live for a mon ig 
six weeks, and die at the coming of frost, either of cold or pe 
the attacks of fungoid plants. A few probably winter over ane 
survive until midsummer, and thus maintain the. existence 
this useful species, to which civilized man owes more than he can 
readily estimate, and with which he can dispense only when the 
health of. onr cities and towns: is. looked. after wit Si greater 
vigilance and intelligence than is perhaps likely to be the oa 


for several centuries to come. 
a 


tf ee Se ee PET ea a ee ety 


1876.) The Natural History of Kerguelen Island. 481 


THE NATURAL HISTORY OF KERGUELEN ISLAND. 


THE reports of Dr. J. H. Kidder, naturalist of the Transit-of- 
Venus Expedition, on the natural history of Desolation or Ker- 
guelen Island are of interest from two reasons ; first, the extreme 
paucity of life upon this barren rock; and second, the large 
number of naturalists who have been called upon to report upon 
the few specimens collected; as many as eight specialists in 
zodlogy and four in botany, as well as a mineralogist, contributing 
their aid, while the naturalists of the English Transit-of-Venus 
Expedition, particularly Rey. A. E. Eaton, assisted by several 
English and a German entomologist, have also published papers 
on the entomology of the island. 

It will be remembered that the United States ship Swatara, 
with Dr. J. H. Kidder as naturalist, sailed from New York on 
the 8th of June, 1874, and landed, September 10th, two astron- 
omers and Dr. Kidder, of the navy, with photographers and two 
of the crew. Some of the more interesting results we shall pre- 
sent to our readers, often using the language of the reporters. 
This island is situated southeast of Madagascar, in latitude 50°, 
longitude 65°, approximately. It is about niyety miles long 
by fifty in width, and is composed, as to its southern part at 
least, wholly of volcanic rock, showing no signs of stratification. 
The northern portion contains stratified rocks, deposits of coal of 
little value, and very ancient remains of silicified wood, indicat- 
Ing the former existence of trees of considerable size, and the 
submergence and subsequent upheaval of the land upon which 
they grew. The whalers say that a large glacier runs across the 
island, in a generally east and west direction, at about its centre. 
In the interior the land is mountainous, peaks with sharp vol- 
canic outlines alternating with table-topped hills. Mount Ross, 
the highes j peak (about five thousand feet), is always snow- 
Covered and quite inaccessible. Near the sea, in December, the 
‘now-line was found on Mount Crozier at about two thousand 
Six hundred feet above the sea-level. 

Kerguelen Island is a region of almost constant precipitation, 
only twenty-seven days out of four months being recorded as 
Without snow or rain, and a still smaller number of nights. 

le thermometer ranged not far from the freezing-point, the 
3 ily average being a little below it in September and October, 
and a little above it in November and December. Whalers say 


that in midwinter there is no marked increase in the severity of 
™ X — xo, 8. 31 


Vou, 


482 The Natural History of Kerguelen Island. [August 


the weather. The lowest temperature recorded was 18° F., and 
the highest 64°. The island is also deservedly notorious for the 
violence of the gales which almost constantly prevail, and which 
often arise with a suddenness that makes it very dangerous to go 
about in small boats. 

These climatic conditions have their natural effect upon the 
flora and fauna of the island, there being neither tree nor shrub, _ 
no plant, indeed, larger than the Kerguelen cabbage, while the 
very few species of phenogamous plants which do survive are 
such only as can thrive exposed to sudden and violent alterna- 
tions of dryness and moisture, and to fierce gales of wind. As 
a natural consequence of these facts, there are no land-birds or 
mammals, strictly speaking, indigenous to Kerguelen Island, and 
but a single shore-bird ( Chionis minor). 

As might be expected, the insects were few in number, and 
some curious wingless forms were discovered, it being a charac- 
teristic of certain island species that they lose the power of flight 
and the wings themselves, wholly or in part. Several weevils 


showing considerable activity of movement, lookin; 
large ants. The wings are represented by small scale- 

A third genus (Amalopteryx maritima) represents a further sige 
in the progress of development, possessing both wi 
ancers, but still unable to fly. Besides these forms, Mr. es 
mentions a crane fly (a Tipulid) with imperfect or abortive wing: 
A small gnat was the only flying insect, except a curculio, sf 
served on the island. Even the common house fly had not Y° 
been naturalized. 

_ Among other invertebrates is a species of sea-urchin 
aster) which has been found by Mr. A. Agassiz to be viv 
there being but one other genus (Anochanus) known to 


(Hemi- 
jparous, 
produce 


| 
| 


1876.] The Natural History of Kerguelen Island. — 483 


young developing directly into the adult form without the marked 
metamorphosis usual in echinoderms. 

In his able discussion of the structure and affinities of Chionis 
minor, the lesser sheath-bill, or “ white paddy ” of whalers, Dr. 
Coues has treated us to one of the most interesting ornithological 
essays that has appeared during the past few years. This bird 
is another instan ce, among the aberrant forms found in this island, 
of animals “ whose structure gives no clew whatever to their 
habits, so aberrant has been the progress of their variation in the 
peculiar conditions under which they live.” Thus the great south- 
ern skua has here adopted the habits of a land-hawk, and the 
lesser sheath-bill is “a connecting link, closing the narrow gap 
between the plovers and gulls of the present day. In our opinion, 
this group represents the survivors of an ancestral type from: 
which both gulls and plovers have descended. And this opinion 
is strongly supported by the geographical isolation of its habitat, 
affording but few conditions favorable to variation.’ 

In the practical matter of classification, it is evident that 
Chionis is not exactly referablé to either of the two groups be- 
tween which it stands. A consideration of its external charac- 
teristics, its digestive system, or its osteology, solely, would lead 
to very widely diverse conclusions. For we have presented in 
this bird a genus with the general appearance, gait, and flight of 
4 pigeon; with the beak and voice of a crow ; with the habits of 
a wader, yet dreading the water; and with the pugnacity and 
familiarity with man of a rasorial bird. With the last group its 
digestive system would certainly place it, to say nothing of the 
long after-shafts of the feathers ; and osteological comparison es- 


iy its position definitely between the gulls and the plovers, 


ut rather nearer to the former. 
The only land mammal found on the island is the common 
mouse (Mus n usculus), which abounds everywhere, and was 
doubtless MD ted by one of the early sealers. It builds its nest 
in holes in sand-banks, lining it with dried grass-stems or bits of 
» and appears to feed mostly on grass-seed. 

The sea-elephant is the most interesting marine mammal. It 
ins to “ haul up ” on the beaches of its breeding-places about 
October 10th, and remains ashore until well into the month of 
January, The old bulls, which alone are provided with a pro- 
9oscis, take charge, each, of a large number of females, guarding 
them from the approach of other bulls, and (so the sealers assert) 
Prevent them from returning to the sea before the young are old 


e 


484 The Natural History of Kerguelen Island.  [ August, 


enough to do so with safety. During the breeding season the 
bulls are very pugnacious, fighting fiercely with each other, and 
even attacking the sealers themselves. Although seemingly so 
unwieldy, they are described as getting over the beaches with 
surprising speed, advancing both flippers at a time and using 
them like crutches. The beaches of Royal Sound are fringed by 
innumerable wallows — cradle-shaped pits — in which the animals 
lie during the breeding-season, recalling the buffalo-wallows of 
our western prairies. 

The increasing scarcity of the sea-elephant and the consequent 
uncertainty in hunting it, together with the diminished demand 
for the oil since the introduction of coal-oil into general use, 
have caused a great falling-off in the business of elephant-hunt- 
ing. The Crozet Islands, for example, have not been “ worked” 
for five years, and at Kerguelen there was only one small schooner 
engaged in this pursuit, two others making Three Island Harbor 
their head-quarters, but spending the “ season ” at Heard’s Island, 
three hundred miles to the southward. It may, therefore, be 
reasonably hoped that these singular animals, but lately far on 
their way toward extinction, will have an opportunity to ‘increase 
again in numbers, and that the sealers may learn from past ex- 
perience to carry on their hunting operations with more judg- 
ment, sparing breeding females and very young cubs. When 
the Monongahela visited the Crozet Islands on December Ist, 
they found the sea-elephants very numerous, although left undis- 
turbed for only five seasons. 

Besides the sea-elephant, the sea-leopard ( Ogmorhinus lep- 
tonyx) often visits the island, as do several species of seal. The 
sea-leopard is also. sought for its oil, but is less valuable, being & 
much more active animal, and therefore less heavily loaded with 
blubber. The king-penguin is said to be its favorite food, “4 
statement which speaks well for the sea-leopard’s activity 10 the 
water, the penguin swimming rapidly enough of course to ca 
the fish upon which it feeds. The leopard is described as pa 
ing and overtaking the penguin under water, rising to the surface 
and tossing it into the air, so as to catch it more securely, Cross- 
wise in its jaws. : 


| 
| 


1876.] Recent Literature. 485 


RECENT LITERATURE. 


Fritscn’s Brrps or Evroprs.! — This work is by an accomplished 
zodlogist, the author of an elaborate memoir on the cephalopods of the 
cretaceous formation of Bohemia, and more recently of a work on the 
laws of migrations of the birds of Europe, containing “an immense 
amount of data, which have been worked up most satisfactorily,” as 
stated by Mr. R. B. Sharpe in the Zodlogical Record for 1874. The 
present work briefly describes the orders, families, genera, and species 
of European birds, with their most important synonyms and diagnoses, 
and notes on breeding habits and distribution. These descriptions, con- 
joined with the chromo-lithograph of each species, — executed in most 
cases nearly as well as the figures in the United States government 
reports, but nearly all reduced below the natural size, — will enable one 
to readily identify any European bird. The classification is perhaps 
antiquated, beginning with the birds of prey, but the treatment of the 
subject is that of a skilled ornithologist. It is evidently inferior to Dr. 
Coues’s admirable Key to North American Birds, though we are not sure 
but that a compact work of this nature, accompanied by an atlas of 
chromo-lithographic plates and published for fifty dollars, would not be 
welcomed by amateur ornithologists, though Coues’s Key on the one hand, 
and Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway’s magnificent work on the other, leave 
almost nothing to be desired by the American student who lives in a 
town or city having in its library Audubon’s Birds of America and the 
government and state reports containing the ornithology of the Western 
and Pacific States. 

Dr. Fritsch’s work is highly spoken of by Dr. Hartlaub, Von Homeyer, , 
anda reviewer in Cabanis’ Journal fiir Ornithologie, and would form 
à valuable work of reference in any library. 

Rivey’s Ercuru Report on tHe Noxious Insects or Missourt.? 
— The Colorado potato beetle, the canker worm, the army worm, the 
Rocky Mountain locust, and the grape Phylloxera receive much attention 
îm this report, and fresh information is given regarding their habits, dev- 
astations, and the means of combating them. It is shown by the experi- 
ments of Professor Kedzie that Paris green does not poison the soil or 
become absorbed by the plants, and the reporter insists that, used with 
Caution, it is the best remedy for the ravages of the Doryphora. He 
Opts and extends Walsh’s view that this beetle gradually spread to the 
Atlantic from the “mountain region of Colorado,” and in another place 
(page 10) that “the native home of the species is the more fertile coun- 
Tenn rons chte der Végels Europa’s. Von Dr. ANTON FRITSCH. Prag. ; 1853-70. 
Salen, ar PP. 506, with atlas of 61 plates, folio. S. E. Cassino, Naturalists’ Agency, 

En an 0. 

, Eighth Annual Report on the Noxious, Beneficial, and other Insects of the State of 

mari. By C, V, Riley. 8vo. 1876. 


486 Recent Literature. [ August, 


try east of the [Rocky] mountains, extending from the Black Hills to 
Mexico, where it becomes scarce, and is represented by Doryphora unde- 
cimlineata and D. melanothorax.” With this latter view we entirely coin- 
cide, but Walsh’s idea of its being a mountain-insect is erroneous, as it 
does not injure the potato fields in Colorado above an altitude of about 
seven thousand feet, is confined mostly to the plains, and is a subtropical 
insect, with its allies living on the plains of Mexico, Central America, 
and New Grenada. He opposes the view, and we think with good 
reason, that the beetle is poisonous. The reporter shows that the two 
species of canker worm differ so much in the egg, larva, pupa, and 
adult state as to belong to different genera. While we should hardly 
be inclined to separate the two species generically, entomologists are 
greatly indebted to Dr. Riley for the mass of new facts regarding their 
specific distinctions which he has presented with pen, and pencil. 

The chapter on the locust affords interesting reading, and contains 
valuable suggestions as to the best means of withstanding its attacks, 
for which government aid is invoked. New facts regarding the grape 
Phylloxera and army worm, and an essay on the yucca borer, also 
aid in rendering the report one of the most interesting and practically 
valuable that has yet been issued. 

Tue ZooLocicaL Record ror 1874.1— On opening this volume, 
which has just been received, our attention is drawn to the increasing 
amount of work done by American zoodlogists, which bears a fair propor- 
tion to the amount of labor performed by other nations. The recorder 
of literature on mammalia says that, “as in 1873, special notice is due to 
the labors of Leidy, Marsh, and Cope, among the remains of the mam- 
mals of the American tertiary periods.” In the portion on birds the 
recorders state that “the striking discoveries for the year 1874 are 
limited in number ; but some remarkable books have nevertheless been 
produced during its course, the chief of which must be reckoned the 
great works on North American birds by Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and 
Ridgway, and Coues.” The researches of Professor Morse on the Brachi- 
opods, and of Mr. A. Agassiz on the Echini and the embryology of the 
Ctenophora, are noticed at greater or less length. We repeat what we 


. a 
mals act, think, and are mutually related may be presented m en 
record of zoölogical discovery as the present. Systematic zoölogy 
largely dictionary-work, and preparatory to true biological studies. 


of Zoolog- 


Zoölogical Record Sor 1874; being Volume Eleventh of the pert 8v0, 


1 The 
ical Literature. Edited by E. C. Rre. London: John Van Voorst. 
pp. 557. 


NETES EEEE Ea Se ee F VPA 


ES OPE SS ree 


Se e T ee Sa COR ees oP ee phe I aches ee 


EY ao Sa e goat Bom EEN fp oN 


: 
: 
: 
a 


1876.] Botany. 487 


Recent Books anp PAMPHLETS. — A Report on the Invertebrate Cretaceous and 
Tertiary Fossils of the Upper Missouri Country. By F. B. Meek. (U. S. Geological 
Survey of the Territories, F. V. Hayden in charge.) Washington, D. C. 1876. 
4to, pp. 629. 45 plates. 

A Monograph of the Geometrid Moths or Phalenide of the United States. By 
A. S. Packard, Jr. (U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories, F. V. Hayden in 
charge.) Washington, D.C. 1876. 8vo, pp. 607. With 13 plates. 

On the Geology of Portions of our Western Territory visited in the Years 1871, 
1872, and 1873. By G. K. Gilbert. (Extracted from vol. iii. of the U. S. Engineers’ 

ports of Explorations and Surveys west of the 100th Meridian, Lieut. G. M. 
Wheeler in charge.) Washington. 1876. 4to, pp. 20-187, 506-681. 

n the Geology of Portions of our Western Territory visited in the Years 
1872 and 1873. By Edwin E. Howell. (Extracted from vol. iii. of the U. S. En- 
gineers’ Reports, etc.) Washington. 1876. 4to, pp. 231-3 

Birds of Southwestern Mexico, collected by F. E. Sumichrast. Prepared by G.N. 
Lawrence. (Bulletin of the U. S. National Museum, No. 4.) Washington, D. C. 
1876. 8vo, pp. 56. 

Classification of the Collection to illustrate the Animal Resources of the United 
States, etc. By G. Brown Goode. (Bulletin of the U. S. National Museum, No. 6.) 
Washington, D. C. 8vo, pp. 126 e 

Zur Naturgeschichte der Daphniden. Von Dr. A. Weismann. I. Ueber die Bil- 
dung von wintereiern bei Leptodora hyalina. Leipzig. 1876. 8vo, pp- 64. 3 plates. 

Report on the Geology and Gold Fields of Otago. By F. W. Hutton and G. H. 
F. Ulrich, ete. Dunedin. 1875. 8vo, pp. 244. 

On a New Crinoid from the Cretaceous Formation of the West. By George B. 
Grinnell. (From the American Journal of Science and Arts, xii, July, 1876.) 8vo, 

3 


Contributions to the Flora of Iowa; a Catalogue of the Phenogamous Plants. By 
J.C. Arthur. Charles City. 1876. 8vo, pp. 43. : 
Taxidermy without a Teacher. By Walter P. Manton. Illustrated. South 
Framingham, Mass, 1876. 12mo, pp. 41. 50 cents. . 
nnual Report of the Entomological Society of Ontario, ete. Toronto. 1876. 
8vo, pp. 54. 
The Mineral Wealth, Climate and Rainfall, and Natural Resources of the Black 
Hills of Dakota. By W. P. Jenney. Washington, D. C. 1876. 8vo, pp. 71. 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY:! 

Nores on Acnrpa.—Dr. John Mitchell, one of the very earliest 
of our botanists, in a zodlogical and botanical memoir which he sent 
fom Virginia in 1741 to Sir Hans Sloane, in London, and which 
Sloane had published soon after in Acta Acad. Nat. Cur., at Nuremberg, 
characterized the genus Acnide. Linneus, in adopting it, changed the 
orthography to Acnida, for no reason which would now be thought 
suficient; but the difference is unimportant. Acnida cannabina was the 

Linnean species. 

th Michaux’s Flora a second species was characterized, A, rusocarpa, 
with obtuse-angled rugose fruit. This specific name was somewhat puz- 
aling, Willdenow took it for a misprint of ruscocarpa ; but Sprengel 


1 Conducted by Pror. G. L. GOODALE. 


488 General Notes. [ August, 


saw that it was meant to refer to the rugose fruit, and therefore should 
have been written rhyssocarpa. 

The essential characters of the genus are: flowers dicecious ; the fe- 
male achlamydeous. 

The true Aenide are submaritime and have a pretty large and inde- 
hiscent utricle, which is somewhat fleshy when fresh. Our botanists on 
the whole have failed to make out more than one species. 

Moquin-Tandon, in De Candolle’s Prodromus, in 1849, added a sec- 
tion, Montelia, with a more membranaceous, utriculate, and smaller fruit, 
under which he placed two species, A. tuberculata, a new one, and A. 
ruscocarpa, which he took for Michaux’s of that name ; but the plant he 
describes is not the one figured in Michaux’s Flora, and I suppose is not 
distinct from Moquin’s own A. tuberculata. This belongs mainly to the 
banks of rivers and lakes. 

When I published the second edition of my Manual of the Botany of 
the Northern United States, I had in cultivation, from Fendler’s seeds, 
the Amarantus tamariscinus of Nuttall, which I saw had the characters _ 
of Acnida, sect. Montelia of Moquin-Tandon, except that the utricle was 
circumscissile in the manner of a true Amarantus. Whereupon, having 
adopted Huzolus, I followed up Moquin’s hint, and set up Montelia as a 
genus, upon what I took to be one polymorphous species; having, by a 
sad oversight, confounded Mogquin’s Montelia, which has a small and in- 
dehiscent utricle, with my M. tamariscina, the utricle of which dehisces 
transversely, and which likewise has far more slender fertile inflorescence. 

While correcting this gross mistake, I wish also to direct the attention 
of our botanists this summer to the coast species of Acnida, and to request 
that specimens be prepared, and also critically examined when fresh, with 
the view of soon determining whether I am justified in my belief that 
we have three genuine species on the Atlantic coast, or within reach of 
tidal water. If my present opinion is well founded as to the species, 
and as to the extent of the genus, the arrangement should be somewhat 
_ as follows :— 

Acnipa (Aenide Mitchell) Linn. 

(1.) Evacyipe. Utricle somewhat fleshy, indehiscent, large, t ¢ O° 
and a half to two lines long. 

A. RHYSSOCARPA, alias RUsOcARPA Michx. Fertile inflorescence 


the 


_ A. CANNABINA L. Fertile inflorescence slender or sometimes gome 
ate; utricle thinner and smaller, with acute and smooth angles, much 
exceeding the bracts ; stigmas very long and filiform, almost plumosely 
hairy. Salt marshes and river-banks even beyond brackish water, New 
England to Georgia, West Indies (?), ete. 


1876.] Botany. : 489 


/A, AUSTRALIS, n. sp. (A. cannabina Chapman, S. Flora.) Panicled 
spikes of the fertile inflorescence dense, linear-cylindrical ; utricle smooth, 
thin, hardly at all fleshy, acute-angled, little if at all exceeding the im- 
bricated bracts; stigmas setaceous, rather short. Florida, at Apalachi- 
cola, Dr. Chapman ; Biscayan Bay, Dr. Palmer, coll. no. 462. 

(2.) Monret1a Moquin-Tandon. Utricle thin and small (half to 
two thirds of a line long), punctate-rugose or roughish, indehiscent), 
equaled or exceeded by the cuspidate-tipped bracts; stigmas slender, 
filiform, almost plumosely hairy. 

A. TUBERCULATA Moquin-Tandon, in DC. Prodr. A. rusocarpa 
Moquin-Tandon, 1. c, not of Michx. A. cannabina var. concatenata 
Moquin-Tandon, 1. c. Amarantus Miamensis Riddell, synopsis. Mon- 

telia tamariscina Gray, Man., Bot. ed. 2, 370, and ed. 5, 413, partly, 
especially the var. concatenata. River-banks, shores, etc., in the interior. 
Lake Champlain to Iowa and Texas. Sometimes erect, and from one to 
four feet high, sometimes spreading or prostrate in sandy or gravelly soil. 
(3.) Pyxipi-Monrexta. Utricle thin and small, shorter than the 
cuspidate-tipped bracts, circumscissile in the manner of true Amarantus ; 
fertile inflorescence in slender virgate paniculate spikes, less glomerate 
than in the preceding; stigmas similar or shorter. 

A. TAMARISCINA. Amarantus tamariscina Nutt. in Trans. Am, 
Phil. Soc., n. ser., v. 165. Montelia tamariseina Gray, L c., in part. 
Arkansas to Texas and New Mexico. 

Our botanists along and near the seaboard are particularly requested 
to examine the species they meet with, and to send good fruiting speci- 
mens to the writer. The distinctions between A. cannabina and A. rhys- 
scarpa should be especially looked after. The fruit of the former is 
hardly to be found in any of our larger herbaria. Florida specimens of 
any Aenida are much desired. So also are fertile specimens of any 
from Arkansas and Texas, especially of A. tamariscina. Nuttall’s speci- 
mens of this are not even in flower, so that he was unaware that the 
Plant was diœcious and the fertile flowers achlamydeous. Although 
the plant is common in Texas, ripe fruit is little known. — Asa GRAY. 

Lance Erw. — In the second and admirably illustrated edition of Mr. 
Emerson’s classical report on the trees and shrubs of Massachusetts, 
Most of the notable elms in the State are enumerated, and measurements 
given. But one of the noblest, though by no means the largest, of them, 
to which the writer was recently introduced, is not upon the record. It 
‘Sn Boxford, Essex County, not far from the eastern border of Ando- 
Ver, a Stately tree, with a girth of nineteen feet at the smallest part of 
ne trunk below the limbs, and a full top in good condition, except that 
4 few of the uppermost limbs are perishing in the manner of the species. 
Asa Gray, 
asi VULGARIS, THE LING OR HEATHER, REDISCOVERED mn Mas- 
USETTS. — The now.well-known patch of Calluna in Tewksbury, 


f 
; 


E a Se ee ei ee A V 


zs Orta as eels SS ce a a E OENE E ATI TAE E tps at op 


. 


490 General Notes. [ August, 


which was discovered by Mr. Jackson Dawson nine or ten years ago, was 
then the only one known in the United States or, indeed, on the continent. 
Up to this time the only contradiction to the current aphorism, “There 
are no heaths in America,” came ‘from Newfoundland, where Calluna 
was known to occur, although few botanists had ever seen specimens. 
It required some hardihood, as well as a clear conception of the causes 
which have ruled over the actual distribution of our species in former 
times, to pronounce that this Tewksbury patch of heath was indigenous. 
The discoveries, soon afterwards, in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton still 
left a wide hiatus. This was partially bridged over by the detection by 
Mr. Pickard, a Scotch gardener, of a similar very restricted station in 
Maine, on Cape Elizabeth, near Portland. We have now the satisfaction 
of recording a second station in Massachusetts, not far from the former 
one. Mr. James Mitchell, of Andover, is the present discoverer, aud 


. the station is in the western part of Andover, half a mile northeast of 


Haggett’s Pond, and five miles north of the Tewksbury station. Mr. 
Mitchell accidentally met with this patch last summer, when berrying, 
and, being a Scotchman, recognized it, took home a sprig of it, and at a 
subsequent visit grubbed up one or two small plants, which a neighbor 
still has in cultivation. A fresh branch taken by him from the wild 
plants this summer is now before me. It proves to be of the green and 
smoothish variety of Calluna, precisely like the Tewksbury plant. Small 
as the new patch is said .to be, “ it will serve” to confirm the opinion 
long ago expressed; for a second station greatly diminishes the very small 
chance of its having been casually or in any way introduced through alt 
man agency. It should also be noted that this station, as I am inform 
by the Rev. Mr. Wright, is near by an extensive glacial moraine which 
traverses that district, and which he has traced for a great distance 
northward. — Asa Gray. 

HETEROMORPHISM IN Epig.®a.— The May-flower, being more largely 
gathered and brought under our notice than any other wild blossom ~- 
at least in the Atlantic States — should be well known in all the details 
of structure. But it hardly is so. The structure of its stigma a 
first well described in the fifth edition of my Manual of the Botany © 
the Northern United States, and the likeness to Pyrola sugge aon f 
suppose that this likeness is really one of relationship, but not of a a 
degree, as most other points of similarity are wanting. F rom the di si 
ence in the stigmas of different flowers, I was disposed to think that , 
five lobes lengthened and protruded with age, in the manner of EY 
but this does not prove to be the case. In all cases, however; t re pare 
of the style is as it were hollowed out or extended into a ring, with sal 
crenate border, to the inner face of which the five stigmas arè adn ‘ 
each before one of the small teeth or lobes, and extending poe 
slightly beyond it, but remaining short and erect, sometimes much 
yond and radiately expanded. i : 


PTR ee oe ir ee A 


1876.) Botany. 491 


In Michaux’s Flora is the note “ Flores omnes in nonnullis individuis 
abortivi,” and botanists are generally aware that fruit is seldom met with. 
The flowers have been said to be unisexual (dicecious) ; but all appear 
to have well formed ovary and ovules, although some individuals were 
known to want the stamens. Professor Goodale, knowing a station in 
Maine in which Æpigæa year after year sets fruit, kindly procured from 
thence a large number of fresh specimens; and these I have now ex- 
amined in regard to stamens and pistil. They show the following hetero- 
morphous condition of things. 

(1.) About ten per cent. of the specimens have a style considerably 
longer than the stamens, raising the stigmas a little out of the throat of 

e corolla, in which the anthers are included: the stigmas are cylin- 
draceous, radiate like the spokes of a wheel, half a line in length, there- 
fore strongly projecting, moist and glutinous, and evidently in good con- 
dition for fertilization. The anthers in these flowers are slender, com- 
monly withering without dehiscence, and containing few, yet perhaps 
well-formed, pollen-grains. The fruiting specimens gathered at the same 
station in former years all evidently belong to this form, as the persistent 
style and long stigmas show. One or two specimens of this form mani- 
fest a disposition to convert their anthers into petals; but this is occa- 
sionally seen in other forms. ; 

_ (2.) A smaller number of specimens show the stigmas of the preced- 
mg on a shorter style, sometimes so short as to place the radiating 
stigmas as low as the middle of the tube of the corolla, sometimes bring- 
ing it nearly up to the throat. In one instance a short-styled flower 


Was detected in a cluster of flowers otherwise of the character of No. 1. 


These short-styled blossoms, instead of having more conspicuous Or 
higher anthers than in the long-styled, bear them either at the same 
proportional height and in the same condition, or bear mere rudiments 
u anthers, or not rarely none at all, and even the filaments are smaller, 
abortive, or occasionally altogether wanting. This sometimes happens 
m No. 1 also. 
: (3.) The larger number of flowers, perhaps three-fourths of the spec- 
mens under examination, have the long style of No. 1, an ovary equally 
well-formed and ovuliferous, but either rather smaller or not going on to 
stow; but the stigmas are short, only slightly projecting beyond the 
lobes of the cup to which they adhere, in all stages erect, and compara- 
tively smooth and dry., Their tips, however, appear somewhat papillose 
T a strong lens, and grains of pollen placed thereon incline slightly 
adhere, yet not so much as upon the surface of the style far below, 
og Sets well covered with pollen from the contiguous anthers. The 
rence between these stigmas and those of the foregoing forms is 


_‘Sttiking and constant, no gradations between them having been detected. 


Ry anthers abound with pollen, and are dehiscent at or a little before 
Opening of the corolla. 


492 General Notes. [Angust, 


(4.) A considerable number of such flowers have a shorter style, so 
that the stigma stands as low as the base of the five longer anthers, in 
one or two even lower than all the anthers; otherwise all is as in No. 3, 
of which this seerhs to be a mere variation. And here also, although 
not very definitely, there is a tendency to having lower instead of higher 
anthers in connection with the short style. $ 

The flowers of Epigea may therefore be classified into two kinds, 
each with two modifications ; the two main kinds characterized by the 
nature and perfection of the stigma, along with more or less abortion of 
the stamens ; their modifications, by the length of the style. The first 
is leading to dioicism, the second points to dimorphism. I am not aware 
that either unisexual or dimorphous flowers are otherwise known in the 
Ericacee. Dimorphism (as exemplified in primroses, Houstonia, and 
Mitchella) may be regarded as the more perfect arrangement on the 
score of economy, as it secures cross-fertilization along with fertility of 
all the flowers. It would seem as if this had been attempted in Epigea, 
but that the stamens did not respond with the requisite correlation to 
the long and short styles; and the same may be said of certain flowers 
in one or two other families. Of dichogamy, the other equally econom- 
ical method, I find no indication in Hpigea blossoms. But they appear 
to be now falling back upon the remaining, less economical mode 0 
securing the end, namely, by unisexual blossoms. 

It would be interesting to know whether the small-stigma forms of 
Epigea are ever fruitful, or fully so. It might not be difficult to ascer- 
tain the kind of flower in any case which has matured fruit; for the 
style and stigmas persist until the capsule is well formed in the fruit 
thus far known. i 

The æstivation of the corolla is that of the tribe, imbricated, but with 
a strong tendency to convolute; more commonly there is only one © 
terior and one interior lobe. 

In reproducing from the American Journal this account in the Nat- 
URALIST, I have a special object, that of having search made this sum” 
mer for fruiting specimens of all sorts. I should be glad to receive the 
fruit from various parts of the country, in order to ascertain, if po 
whether the short-stigma blossoms ever set seed, — as it seems eat 
they may, — and whether the seeds or capsules show any differences.. 5 
collecting and preserving fruiting specimens, care should be taken not t 
detach the style. — Asa Gray. dus, 

BOTANICAL Papers IN Recent PERIODICALS. — Comptes gs E 
April 24th. Boussingault, On the Growth of Plants which have 


eRe ee ee ett 


1876.] Zoblogy. 493 


Botanische Zeitung, No. 19. W. Velten, On Electricity in Plants. 
No.20. Ascheron, Phytographic notices. No. 21. Ascheron, On Ma- 
lagnetta Pepper. No, 22. Areschoug, On certain Rubi. No. 23. De 
Borbás, Conspectus of doubtful species of Dianthus. No. 24. Philipi, On 
Sandal-Wood of Juan Fernandez. On Primula pistiifolia, Gris. No. 
25. Reuther, On the development of the flower. No. 26. Continuation 
ofthe last. In the above numbers there are several interesting reports 
of scientific meetings which will be hereafter noticed. 

ZOOLOGY. 

A TRUE “Snake Srory.”— The article in the March number on 
“A Snake-Eating Snake ”’ recalls to memory an incident which occurred 
to me last year, showing that such reptiles are found nearer home than 
Costa Rica. In walking through a cañon about two miles east of Oak- 
land, Cal., one spring morning, I met with a fine specimen of the Cali- 
fornia milk-snake (Lampropeltis Boylit, figured in Pacific Railroad Re- 
port as Coronella balteata, x. 14, Plate V). Having disabled it by 
a blow across the back, I wrapped it in paper and put it in a bag, in- 
tending, when I sat down to rest, to skin it, and to examine the contents 
of its much-distended stomach. About noon I opened the paper and was 
hot a little startled to find that my milk-snake, so strongly characterized 
by alternating belts of black and white, was apparently transformed into 
4 garter-snake of about the same size, with longitudinal stripes. 

The first impression was that I had got hold of one of the deceiving 
tribes of the “old serpent” himself, but recalling the scientific coolness 
with which Cuvier is said to have confounded him when under the dis- 
guise of horns and hoofs, I ventured to look closer, and found that the 
garter-snake must have been swallowed whole by the milk-snake, which, 
on recovering from the stunning blow I gave, had disgorged its prey; 

then succeeded in crawling through a hole in the bag. All this 
Would not have seeméd so strange if the two snakes had not been so 
nearly of a size that I did not at first notice any difference. As I recol- 
lect, the garter-snake was over two feet long, but being damaged, and a 
common species, I did not preserve it. I had not captured any of the kind 
en” nor any other snake except the milk-snake. — J. G. COOPER, 


oo Bank SWALLOW” AGAIN. — Regarding the instance in which 
Ts 


y Dr. Coues, it may be fairly questioned whether the species was not 
the Tough-winged swallow (Stelyiodpteryx serripennis), which is much 
common in many parts of the country, particularly in the Missis- 


oe Faller, than the other species. The habits and appearance of the 
Wo bi 


are so similar that they are very often confounded, even by good 


and experienced observers ; besides, it is well known that the rough-wing 


494 General Notes. [ August, 


often does build about bridges and in such situations as that described by 
Dr. Haymond. — R. RIDGEWAY. 

THE Green Snake IN New Mexico. — It may be interesting to 
mention an increase of geographical range for the common green snake 
( Cyclophis vernalis). It was found in 1874 at Abiquin, New Mexico, in 
the valley of the Chama, by Dr. O. Liew, and in 1875 by Lieut. W. L. 
Carpenter, U. S. A., in Moreno Valley, Northern New Mexico, and 
again at the head of Ponil Creek, Northern New Mexico. Lieutenant 
Carpenter also states that the species is by no means uncommon in 
Southern Colorado, — H. C. Yarrow. 


ANTH OLOGY. 


NOTES on THE STONE IMPLEMENTS FROM ARKANSAS, AT THE PHIL- 
ADELPHIA EXHIBITION. — In the building erected by the State of Ar- 
kansas for the purpose of exhibiting the various resources of that com- 
monwealth is a small but very beautiful series of stone implements, all 
of which, as I was there informed, were taken from various mounds in 
Garland, Montgomery, and Saline counties. While the various common 
forms of implements are all represented by excellent specimens, there 
is a noticeable preponderance of certain patterns which in other local- 
ities are less abundant than allied forms. For instance, the polished 
celts, of sizes suggesting the ax, rather than a skinning knife, are 
numerously represented, while but few specimens of the more common 
grooved ax are in the collection. Whether this preponderance of large 
celts, as compared with grooved axes, obtains throughout the territory 
from which these specimens were brought, I could not learn. Certainly, 
in the Eastern and Middle States the grooved axes are more abundant 
than celts of the same average size. The spear and arrow points are 
represented by a series which for beauty of material — they are all 
chipped from novaculite— and delicacy of workmanship » far surpass 
any similar forms that I have seen. This perfettion of the art of flint- 
chipping is alike in the spear-heads, six and eight inches in lengt. 
the smallest of the arrow-points, scarcely more than half an inch | 
The pestles are all cylindrical, and not with a flaring end, as is common 
to this form of implement in many localities. Of rade implements but 
few specimens are shown, and none with that weathering of the surface 
and roughness of chipping characteristic of the rude implements fou 
in New Jersey, more especially in the valley of the Delaware. 


h, and 
ong. 


have been used in the cultivation of Indian corn. They certainly sould 
considerable resemblance to an ordinary plowshare, and doubtless 2 
be used, if attached to a wooden handle, as a rude hand-plow, m light 
sandy soils. The specimens bear marks of use upon them, and »v 
found, as I am informed, in mounds, associated with undoubted tt 


must be considered to be such, even though the conjecture as to 


= 


1876.] Anthropology. 495 


being plows be far from the truth. The pottery is represented by several 
fragments of large jugs or vases, which are very elaborately ornamented ; 
more so, I believe, than is usually the case, even with the earthenware 
of the mound-builders. 

There is one roughly fashioned specimen of perforated stone, which 
would at first glance be looked upon as a poorly made chungké stone. I 
call attention particularly to it because in the exhibit from the Cape of 

Hope there is a fac-simile of this Arkansas specimen, which, the 
commissioner from the Cape says, is a root-digger; a wooden handle 
is inserted in the perforation of ‘the stone, and it is then used to drag 
away the earth from long tubers, in order that they may be gathered 
without fracture. May it not be that some of these rude chungké 
stones, especially those that are small and not polished, were used thus, 
and not for playing the game which has given a name to perhaps more 
than two forms of stone implements ? — Cuas. C. Ansorr, M. D. 

Stone IMPLEMENTS FROM OHIO, AT THE PHILADELPHIA EXHIBI- 
tiox.— The collections here brought together, and very conveniently 
arranged, occupy fourteen large cases, and give an excellent idea of 
the proficiency in flint-chipping attained by the aboriginal peoples of 
that State. Of the arrangement of the great number of specimens here 
exhibited, but one word other than of praise need be said. Would it 
not have been better to separate the ‘surface-found or Indian relics from 
such as are referable to the mound-builders; or is this indeed imprac- 
ticable ? 

Without further comment on the exhibit itself, which is so highly 
creditable to those having it in charge, I desire to make some compara- 
tive notes upon it, with reference to the allied and identical forms of 
stone implements found in New Jersey. 

The isplay of arrow and spear heads is very complete. In compari- 
Sou with those from New Jersey, the large number of specimens with 
“trated edges in the Ohio collection is very noticeable. They are not 
at all abundant in New Jersey ; and the same may be remarked of the 
twisted or “rifle” arrow-points, of which there are a number on exhibi- 
tion. Every type, both American and Eurọpean, is well represented, 
and the gradation into spear and javelin heads is well shown. Of these 
larger forms, many are truly magnificent specimens of flint work, and 
Soia well with the best specimens of Danish implements of the same 
attern, 


The exhibit of grooved stone axes, like that of the arrow-heads, is 
very large, They vary but little in pattern, but considerably in size, 
gest specimen weighing sixteen and a half pounds. These axes 
are in all respects identical with those from New Jersey, the one differ- 
ence in the series being a comparative absence of those not haying the 
groove extending entirely around the specimen. The majority of stone 
axes found in New Jersey certainly are of this pattern. 


496 General Notes. [ August, 


The pestles exhibited are mostly short and flaring at the grinding ends, 
a form very rarely occurring in New Jersey.’ Of drills, rimmers, or 
borers, whether for drilling in stone or merely perforating leather, the 
exhibit is very large and the specimens remarkably perfect, considering 
the delicate shape of the implement. While they do not differ from 
those found in New Jersey, they are of greater excellence of workman- 
ship, as compared with those now found here; but it is not improbable 
that the longer time that the eastern specimens have been exposed to 
the rough usage of the plow, and their being found in stony fields usu- 
ally, has caused the destruction of all but the stronger and ruder speci- 
mens in New Jersey. The same remarks are applicable to the scrap- 
ers in the Ohio collection. They do not differ from those found along 
the Atlantic coast. The series of pipes exhibited is a very attractive 
feature of the collection; and here, perhaps more than elsewhere, the 
commingling of Indian and mound-builders’ relics is noticeable. Consid- 
ering all that have the outlines of animals as those of the latter peo- 
ple, the other specimens show a much greater variety of shapes than the 
writer has as yet found in New Jersey ; space will not permit us to give 
further details as to the various forms of stone implements exhibited, 
such as gorgets, charms, and animal-carvings. These differ jn no way 
from similar ones found in New Jersey, if we consider the outlines of 
animals graven on stone as the work of the mound-builders.? Taken as 


if eastern specimens of jasper, chalcedony, and quartz implements only 
are exhibited, we shall find about equal skill in flint-chipping ; 27°’ 
is only implements made from such minerals that are shown in the Ohio 
collection. It must be borne in mind, too, that a proportion, perhaps 


very large, of these beautiful spear and arrow points are the produce 10n 


of mound-builders. It is therefore an unwarrantable conclusion that the 
red Indians lost something of their skill in fabricating stone we 
d-bunaer, 


as: they wandered eastward. Leaving out of mind the moun 
is there anything to show that the Indian was ever more adyan 
culture than he was when first known to the European ? On the nen 
hand, is there not much to indicate that he was at one time far less 50 
— Cunas. C. Assort, M. D. i 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL News. — The Ninth Annual Re is 
ees of the Peabody Museum of American Archaology and Ethnology 
just issued from the Cambridge press. In addition to the usual pan 
e of the cases of the se 


In 


port of the Trust- 


1 A magnificent specimen of this form is exhibited in on 
Island display, which, though small, is very interesting. «nals ave 
' 2 It is very probable that some three or four specimens of well-drawn ani Silurian 
not genuine ; as certainly two or three of the ornamental axes of striped 
slate are very modern. 


1876.] Anthropology. 497 


tion concerning the government and finances of the museum, we have the 
report of the curator, Mr. F. W. Putnam, upon the condition of the 
specimens and the additions. The most valuable gifts are from Mr. 
Alexander Agassiz and Mr. Paul Schumaker. Other contributors of 
objects and books are mentioned. The curator acknowledges the gratu- 
itous services of Messrs. Lucien Carr and Ernest Jackson. The notice- 
able feature of the report is the photographs of Mr. Peabody and Dr. 

effries Wyman, and the index to all the Reports to date. All of them 
are to be bound into a Centennial volume, in conipliance with a call 
made “upon the public institutions and societies in the United States to 
furnish some account of their rise and progress,” ete. ; 

In Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, April, 1876, pages 401-438, 
V. Derrécagaix gives an extended notice of the Basques, which race 
the ethnologists of Europe regard as a connecting link between the pre- 
historic races and the earliest historic tribes of France and Spain. 

In the Comptes rendus de lV Académie des Sciences de U Institut de 
Bologne, J. Capellini publishes an article upon pliocene man in Tus¢any. 
After an extended argument to identify the glacial epoch with the plio- 
cene in Tuscany, the learned author finds the evidence of man’s existence 
in the occurrence of notches and gashes in dorsal apophyses of the 
Balenotus, a species of cetacean, that he supposes to have been made by 

uman agency, and with stone implements. P. Cazalis de Fondouce 
replies, in Matériaux, that while there seems to be evidence of the exist- 
ence of a tertiary man; M. Capellini’s proof is not conclusive, for the in- 
cisions in the Halitherium of Pouance are known to have been made by 
the Carcharodon megalodon, the dents and gashes in the bones found in 
the marl beds of Liognac were made by the Sargus serratus, and those 
iu the bones from Saint-Prest by the Canodontes Boinsvilletti. 

Number 5 of Matériaux comes to us with an interesting array of 
matter. The following are the principal articles: History of Quaternary 
Mammals in France, by J. Gaudry. The Discovery of a Human Sta- 
Hon of the Neolithic Period, near Belfort, by Charles Grad, Flint Ar- 
row-Points from the Gironde in the Collection of M. L. Lalanne, by E. 


mission charged to examine into the proposal to publish in an 
abridged form all the information that has appeared in foreign literature, 


Specially English, on Upper Asia. The committee, while heartily ap- 


Proving of the idea, has suggested that a catalogue of books and articles 


"lating to that region and its inhabitants should be published in the 
VOL, x, — No, 8. 3 


498 General Notes. [ August, 


Proceedings of the society, with an. introductory essay on the geography 
and ethnography of the country, together with accurate map 


S. 
In the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, April, 1876, ` 


there is a review.of Thompson’s Marco Polo’s Six Kingdoms or Cities 
in Java Minor identified in Translations from the Ancient Malay Annals. 

The Museum of Ethnology at Leipzig, founded upon the magnificent 
collections of Dr. Klemm, of Dresden, has published its third annual 
report, containing the reports of the treasurer and of the trustees, and a 
list of the members and of the additions during the year. - 

Friederich von Hellevald, who has just succeeded Dr. Peschel as 
editor of Das Ausland, is engaged in compiling a geography on the 
principles adopted by Elysée Reclus in his Géographie Universelle. 
The work, which is to appear in fitty numbers, is entitled Die Erde 
und ihre Völker, and is to be published at Stuttgard, by W. Spemann 
& Co. 

The American Association for the Advancement of Science will meet 
at Buffalo, August 23d; a subsection of anthropology will then be 
formed. Immediately afterwards, September 4th, the International Con- 
vention of Archeologists will meet in Philadelphia, where the finest 
display of American ‘antiquities ever brought together is on exhibition 
in connection with the Centennial. The British Association will meet 
at Glasgow, September 6th. The International Congress of Anthro- 
pology and Prehistoric Archeology will meet at Buda-Pesth, 4th to 
lith of September. The French Association will meet at Clermont- 
Ferrand, August 19th. The annual meeting of the German Anthropo 
logical Society will be held in Jena from the 9th to the 11th of August. 
— O. T. Mason. 


GEOLOGY AND PALMONTOLOGY. 
ExrLorations br Wauenrr’s Surver.— In Mr. Gilbert's repo" 
we find an interesting chapter on the Colorado Plateau, which lies be 

tween the Rocky Mountain system and the Basin Range sy dari er 

east and west, and stretches northward to the Uintahs. The ~~ 

of its structure, he says, the thoroughness of its drainage, which m 

permits detritus to accumulate in its valleys, its barrenness, and T 

wonderful natural sections exposed in its cañons, conspire to paa f 
indeed “ the paradise of the geologist.” Mr. Gilbert’s studies suppleme? 
those of Newberry, Marcou, and Powell. This mountain system ™ a 
bles the Appalachian in the absence of any great central axis, and ag ther 
general tendency to uniformity throughout, but differs widely in ote 
respects. “In the Appalachians corrugation has been produced 
monly by folding, exceptionally by faulting; in the Basin Ra 
monly by faulting, exceptionally by flexure.” He believes 
palachians the primary phenomena of mountain-building are SUP% i 
and fhat in the Basin Ranges they are deep-seated, the su 


that in the Ap 


perficial being : 


1876.] Geology and Palæontology. 499 


secondary ; that such a force as has crowded together the strata of the 
Appalachians, whatever may have been its source, has acted in the 
` Basin Ranges on some portion ọf the earth’s crust beneath the immedi- 
ate surface ; and the upper strata, by continually adapting themselves, 
under gravity, to the inequalities of the lower, have assumed the forms 
we see. The geology of the Great Salt Lake is discussed at length, and 
in a way to excite fresh interest in the history of this wonderful lake. 
Meex’s INVERTEBRATE Fossits or THE Upper Missovurt. — This 
splendid quarto volume has just been issued as volume ix. of the final 
reports of Hayden’s United States Geological Survey of the Territories. 
It relates chiefly to fossil shells of the cretaceous and tertiary formations 
of the head-waters of the Missouri, which were largely collected by Dr. 
Hayden early in his explorations in the West. The different divisions 
of the cretaceous and tertiary formations of this region were originally 
established by the invertebrate remains herein described, and it therefore 
forms the basis of our knowledge of two of the most important forma- 
tions in the West. As one of the series of volumes issued by the sur- 
vey, and following those of Leidy and Cope on the fossil mammals, and 
of Lesquereux on the fossil plants, it contains a large mass of facts con- 
tributing» toward the solution of one of the most difficult problems in 
western geology, namely, “ the relations of the Lignitic group to the well- 
defined cretaceous formation immediately beneath it.” The discussions 
by Mr. Meek of this vexed question will interest geologists. The work is 
illustrated by forty-five plates, with six hundred and twenty-nine pages 
of text; and from the carefully elaborated introductory essay, the full dis- 
cussion of synonymy, the careful and detailed descriptions of the genera 
as well as species, it is evident that the work will add to the high repu- 
tation of the distinguished author, and be a classical contribution to 
American paleontology. 
Fossiz Skunk rrom tHe Bone Caves or PENNSYLVANIA. — In 
* recent paper on the Dental and Cranial Chafacters ? of Mephitis, 
Dr. Coues has described a supposed new species of fossil Mephitis from 
bone caves of Pennsylvania, and has given detailed descriptions of 
skulls and dentition of the different genera of this group. The 
hitine, embracing the “skunks,” is, as is well known, restricted in 
distribution to the two Americas, and its representatives are also 
own to be among the most variable, both in osteological and exter- 
aa characters, of American mammals. In speaking of the common 
skunk (Mephitis mephitica), Dr. Coues says that he is acquainted with 
no animal that varies more than this, and few that exhibit such remark- 
able differences, independently of age and sex. “Some specimens,” he 
me ‘ are a fourth larger than others, and twice as heavy; and there is 
ig Cranial and Dental Characters of aioe T oper n 
Vogical A n. sp. foss. By Dr. Elliott Coues, ee ae aa ‘ pe 4 
a ae, eographical Survey of the Territories, Second Series, No. 1, pp 
ashington ; Government Printing Office. 1875. 


the 


its 


500 General Notes. [ August, 


a corresponding range in contour. Compared with an ordinary ratio 
of osteological variability, the discrepancies are almost on a par with 
those exhibited by the coloration of the animal when set over against 
the more constant markings of most animals.” These variations are 
described somewhat in detail, in connection with a general description of 
the cranial characters of the species. 

Dr. Coues recognizes among the Mephitine the three genera Mephitis, 
Spilogale, and Conepatus. The two first named differ not at all in their 
dental formule, while Conepatus has usually been considered as lacking 
the minute first premolar present in the others. Dr. Coues, however, 
affirms that it is present as a rule, though always minute, but is often 
either deciduous or abortive, and never functionally developed. Hence 
the main differences appear to relate to the general contour of the 
skull, for while Dr. Coues has described each form with great detail he 
has failed to give a contrasted summary of the differences that severally 
characterize these so-called genera, — an omission that detracts consid- 
erably from the availability of an otherwise excellent paper. While 
Mephitis and Spilogale seem to be hardly generically separable, Conepa- 
tus presents wider differences, especially in respect to the characters of 
the lower jaw. i . " 

No synonymy is formally presented in this connection, but it is men- 
tioned incidentally that the M. occidentalis of authors is inseparable from 
M. mephitica. Of Mephitis proper only the single recént species mephit- 
tea is mentioned ; of Spilogale, a single species only is noticed, putorius 
Linn., based on Catesby (= to the M. Zorilla, bicolor, and interrupta of 
recent authors), and of Conepatus also but a single species (marputto 
Gmel. = mesoleuca Licht.). 

The supposed new fossil species here described seems to present no 
very tangible features. Its size is stated to be intermediate between 
various specimens of the recent M. mephitica, the only ostensible charac 
ters hence being th@excessive tumidity and angulation o 
the skull, and the vertical narrowing of the zygoma anterio 
of the normal tumidity of the frontal region, and especially the tendency; 
so readily seen in any large series of the skulls of the common per 
to a diseased and abnormal enlargement of this part, this alle, 
acter has much less weight than it would otherwise have. 


rly. In view 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 
account 


Tue Istamus or TeEnuanTEPEC. — We extract the pppoe we 


from Sumichrast’s notes on the birds of the isthmus in the fou the 
letin of the United States National Museum. The contraction © i 
American continent between the ninety-fourth and ninety- operly, 
of longitude west from Greenwich forms what is called, quite imp" th of 
perhaps, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, whose width between the mou ik 
the Rio Coatzacoalcos and the Bay of Ventosa is about one banger: 
eighty miles. 


fc 


f the vertex of 


y-fifth degree? 


1876.) Geography and Exploration. 501 


In a physical point of view, the isthmus may be considered as divided 
into three parts : first, an eastern, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to 
the Puerta ; secondly, a central, from the Puerta to the Chivela ; and 
thirdly, a western, from the Chivela to the Pacific. The eastern part, 
formed principally of alluvial land and watered by the Coatzacoalcos and 
its afluents, has its largest portion covered with thick and damp forests, 
whose vegetation rivals the greatest beauties of tropical nature. The 
central region presents an undulating surface, embossed with innumera- 
ble lomas, or hills, which, rising gradually, unite on the western side with 
the mountains of the Sierra de los Mijes, and toward the east with those. 
of the Sierra de Chimalapa. Although watered by numerous streams, it 
presents, nevertheless, but a scanty vegetation, essentially characterized - 
byoaks on the side of Sarabbia, and palm-trees on the plateau of Chivela. 
The western division, or plains of the Pacific, is very dry, and its vegeta- 
ble physiognomy presents a striking contrast to the rich plains on the 
_ Atlantic slope. Of the few rivers which flow through it, the most im- 
portant are the Tehuantepec, Juchitan, Chicapa, and Ostula. These 
are so low during part of the dry season that the inhabitants of the vil- 
lages and ranchos situated on their banks have no drinking-water but 
that which they drawout of holes dug in the sand. 

Resources or toe Brack Hits. —In Mr. Jenney’s Mineral 
Wealth, Climate, etc., of the Black Hills of Dakota, we have an appar- 
ently authentic aétount of the natural resources of this region. Com- 
pared with some of the world-renowned districts in California and Aus- 
tralia, the placers at present discovered are not remarkably rich, yet there 
are claims already opened and worked which are yielding a very good 
return for the labor employed. The reporter adds that the climate of 
the Black Hills is wonderfully healthy and invigorating, and that wood, 
a and grass are everywhere abundant and of the best quality. 

There is gold enough to thoroughly settle and develop the country, 
and, after the placers are exhausted, stock-raising will be the great busi- 
hess of the inhabitants, who have a world of wealth in the splendid 
stazing of this region.” i 
SIBERIAN ExPLoRraTIon. — Drs. Finsch and Brehm and Count Wald- 

Zeil arrived at Ekaterinburg, April 5th, on their way to Siberia. 

Dr. Nordenskiöld’s plan for following up his voyage of last summer from 
ay to Siberia, is to start from Gothenburg July 7th, in a steamer 
capable of taking 10,000 puds weight of cargo. He will go up the 


502 General Notes. [ August, l 


EXPLORATION IN New Guinea.— This great island offers one of 
the most promising fields at present open to the explorer, as its interior 
is still an absolute terra incognita. The ill success of Mr. Macleay’s 
attempt to penetrate the interior by way of Fly River, was due to the 
unfavorable season of the year. Mr. O. C. Stone has been more success- 
ful, as he ascended the Mai-Kassa River, discovered and named by him 
the Baxter River, in the cooler season. The banks are sparsely popu- 
lated, the natives being cannibalistic at times in their tastes. In his ac- 
count of his adventures in the Ellengowan, a steamer of eighty tons, he 
describes the dugong, kangaroos, Megapodius (one of the nests of these 
fowl being ten feet high by ninety in circumference), birds-of-paradise, 
large snakes, and the vegetation of the shores. To the naturalist and 
botanist the shores of the Baxter River present features of rare interest 
when we take into consideration the comparative immunity from danger, 
combined with the ease with which they may be approached, both be- 
ing considerations of no small importance. That the southern part of 
New Guinea is either cut up into a series of islands, or intersected by 
rivers and streams of considerable length, is beyond doubt. 

At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, held May 8th, Mr. 
Stone read a paper on The Country and Natives of Port. Moresby; 
New Guinea, and a paper on The Natives and Products of Fly River, 
New Guinea, by Signor L. M. D’Albertis. Sir Henry Rawlinson hoped 
that a “Cameron” for New Guinea would soon turn up, and that Mr. 
Young would be the coming explorer, and would force himself into the 
large and comparatively unknown regions of New Guinea. < 


MICROSCOPY.! 


PoLarization or Livine Tissurs. —A correspondent of Science - 
Gossip has recently noticed that the tissues of a living shrimp arè 2 
fected by the polariscope, giving most beautiful colors, which cannot if a 
obtained by using the flesh after it has been boiled, and he desires : q 
know whether any one else has observed this. Rev. E. C. Bolles, j ; 
Salem, Mass., has been accustomed for years, in his popular beige : 
the microscope, to demonstrate this by exhibiting upon thé sereen® 


screen-effect can hardly be conceived than the flashes ie 
over the large and well-defined image of the muscular fibres at every 
traction connected with the movements of the living animal. : 

Iphia, arranges 


ArrRanGinG Dratoms. — Dr. G. C. Morris, of Philade i 
1 stage 38 * 


An arm, attached by means of a socket to the stage, carries & 
1 Conducted by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


A et 


ae TS eg ee eit See, rel a ee wee 


; 
3 
X 


AE Soke ae ite lE Pepa 


1876.) Microscopy. 503 


through which is passed a needle, and the bristle is fastened to this 
needle in such a manner as to project about a quarter of an inch beyond 
its point. With this arrangement the objective can be readily focused 
upon the bristle-point, which can then be moved in any horizontal di- 
rection, while the object can be brought up to focus, or depressed below 
it, by means of the rack of the sub-stage. 

A Compact Cotiectine Case. — Mr. Kinne recommends the small 
leather pocket-cases used by physicians, as being convenient collecting 
cases, when only small quantities of microscopic objects are to be ob- 
tained 


WYTHE’S AMPLIFIERS. — Rev. J. H. Wythe, M. D., reported his ex- 
periments with amplifiers, at a recent meeting of the San Francisco Mi- 
croscopical Society. Believing that late improvements in objectives had 
rendered it unreasonable to expect greater perfection in them than their 
present excellence furnishes (a conclusion which we can mention only 
under protest), he was led to look for future progress mainly in the eye- 
piece, or in intermediate arrangements of lenses. Having had no oppor- 
tunity to use or examine the “ amplifiers” mentioned in the journals, or 
the aplanatic searcher of Dr. Pigott, which is often used for a similar 
purpose, he had experimented independently upon the subject during the 
last two or three years. He arranged a strongly-magnifying eye-piece, 
consisting of a deep convex meniscus, in place of the ordinary field lens 
of the Huyghenian eye-piece, with good results. Afterwards he placed 
the amplifying lens below an ordinary negative eye-piece, using first a 
cylindrical lens of conical shape, with the lower and smaller end con- 
‘ave and the upper and larger end convex, and subsequently a double 
concave lens of 14 inches virtual focus. This last arrangement was 


most satisfactory, and seems to correspond somewhat to amplifiers used 
in the Eastern States. It is described, however, as increasing the am- 


Plification from four to eight times with such unqualifiedly good results 


Ín respect to light and definition, as have not been obtained by similar 


contrivances heretofore. 
Microscopy. — Mr. F. Kitton, an accomplished contributor to Sci- 
ence Gossip, objects strenuously to the terms microscopy and microscop- 
: He argues that there is no such science as microscopy, because its 
objects of study belong to zodlogy, botany, ete. Precisely the same 
ment might be made in regard to anatomy, physiology, and to his- 
tology, which he mentions in the same sentence without protest. All of 


than pianist or organist, and microscopy is as good as thermometry. 


504 Scientific News. [ August, 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— Nature for June 1st contains a brief biography, with a steel portrait, 
of Professor Wyville Thompson, the leader of the Challenger Expedi- 
tion, which returned to England May 27th, after a voyage around the 
world of about three years and a half. The expedition, says Nature, al- 
though by no means sensational, has been thoroughly successful. The 
Challenger has steadily traversed a track of sixty-nine thousand miles 
and during her absence of three years and a half from England has 
established three hundred and sixty-two observing stations, at all of 
which the depth has been ascertained with the greatest possible accuracy, 
and at nearly all the bottom temperature has been taken, a sample of the 
bottom water has been brought up for physical’ examination and chem- 
ical analysis, a sufficient specimen of the bottom has been procured, and 
the trawl or dredge has been lowered to ascertain the nature of the 
fauna. At most of these stations serial soundings have been taken with 
specially devised instruments, to ascertain, by the determinations of inter- 
mediate temperatures and by the analysis and physical examination of 
samples of water from intermediate depths, the directions and rate of 
movement of deep-sea currents. The only untoward event was the death 
of Dr. Willemées-Suhm, one of the naturalists of the expedition. An 
illustrated account of the voyage in two volumes is nearly ready for pub- 
lication, and promises to be of unusual interest. 

— Dr. Elliott Coues, U. S. A., lately attached to the Northern Bound- 
ary Survey, has lately been ordered on duty with Professor Hayden’s 
Geological Survey of the Territories, his address being the office of the 


U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories, 509 Seventh Street, Washing- 


ton, D. C. It is a matter of congratulation that Dr. Coues’s time will as 
heretofore be devoted to zoölogical pursuits. s 

— E. Billings, for many years the able palæòntologist of the Canadian 
Geological Survey, has recently died. 

— Rambles of a Naturalist in Egypt and other Countries, by J. H. 
Gurney, Jr., is announced by Jarrold and Sons, London. 

— A botanical section of the Boston Society of Natural History has 
been formed, which meets during the summer every Monday at four P. M. 


— The first wing of the Peabody Museum of Natural History of Yale 


College is now completed, and part of the collections have been placed 
within it. This wing is situated on the southwest corner of Elm 

High streets, It is built of brick, with ornaments of light Nova 
Scotia sandstone. The cost of the building was about $140,000, an 


the cases will increase the expense to $175,000. The museum is - of 
the largest structure yet erected for the college. The exterior is ee 
m 


Philadelphia pressed brick and Nova Scotia stone, with a pes “at 
base of East Haven brown stone. The architecture of the 10 
stories is especially massive, the structure increasing in lightn 


hos ss asta S tr pecue tiny 9 
WET SARE AETS ee ee oe nE TESS 


ami 


1876.] Scientific News. 505 


tises. The construction is fire-proof throughout. There is an immense 
elevator, capable of taking up the largest fossils, which rises one hundred 
feet. 

— The twenty-fifth meeting of the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science will be held at Buffalo, N. Y., beginning at ten 
o'clock A. m., on Wednesday, August 23d. 

The address of Mr. F. W. Putnam, the Permanent Secretary, will be 
Salem, Mass., until Saturday morning, August 19th ; after that time, and 
until the meeting has adjourned, Buffalo, N. Y. 

The officers of the Buffalo meeting are the following: President, 
William B. Rogers, of Boston; Vice President, Section A, Charles A. 
Young, of Hanover; Vice President, Section B, Edward S. Morse, of 
Salem; Chairman of Permanent Subsection of Chemistry, G. F. Bar- 
ker, of Philadelphia; Chairman of Permanent Subsection of Anthropol- 
ogy, L. H. Morgan, of Rochester; Permanent Secretary, F. W. Put- 
ham, of Salem; General Secretary, T. C. Mendenhall, of Columbus ; 
Secretary of Section A, Arthur W. Wright, of New Haven ; Secretary 
of Section B, Albert H. Tuttle, of Columbus; Treasurer, Thomas T. 
Bouvé, of Boston. 

The attention of chemists is specially directed to the fact that the 
Chemical Subsection, formed at the Hartford meeting, has been made a 
permanent organization. ‘The attention of entomologists is directed to 
the action taken by the entomologists at the last two meetings, and to 
the annual meeting of the Entomological Club of the Association which 
will be held at Buffalo, on Tuesday, August 22d (the day preceding the 
meeting of the Association), at which all interested are invited to be 
present, 

A Permanent Subsection of Anthropology was organized at Detroit, 
and à committee was appointed for the purpose of developing the subsec- 
tion at the Buffalo meeting. Members interested in this department are 
Specially requested to make known the formation of the subsection. A 
“teular issued by the special committee will be sent by the Permanent 

‘retary on request. It is expected that special arrangements will be 
made for the Subsection to attend the Archeological Convention to be 
held in Philadelphia, on September 4th. 

It Was suggested at the last meeting that special efforts be made to 
bring the microscopists together at Buffalo in order to form a permanent 
organization, either as a subsection or as a club on the plan of the Ento- 
mological Club. From the interest already evinced by a number of lead- 
ing Microscopists definite action will, undoubtedly, be taken on the sub- 
Ject at the coming meeting. - For special information on this subject, 
* Meroscopists may address Dr. R. H. Ward, 53 Fourth St., Troy, N. Y. 

_—Itis proposed to hold an International Convention of Archwolo- 
ists, at Philadelphia during the Centennial, and in connection with the 
Centennial Exhibition, for the purpose of promoting acquaintance and 


506 Scientifie News. [ August, 


increasing the means of information in American Archeology and Eth- 
nology. The“ State Archeological Society of Ohio” will provide rooms 
for the Convention, and the first meeting will be held in the Ohio Build- 
ing, at two o’clock, P. M., September 4, 1876. Those proposing to attend 
are requested to notify the Chairman of the Ohio Committee, Rev. S. D. 
Peet, Ashtabula, Ohio. At the meeting of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, at Buffalo, N. Y., August 23d, a Subsection 
of Anthropology will be formed. The Convention has been appointed 
near the close of the sessions of the “ Association ” in order that those 
who desire may conveniently attend both meetings. 

— Messrs Longmans, Green, & Co., have recently published An In- 
troduction to Animal Morphology and Systematic Zodlogy. Part I. 
Invertebrata. By Prof. Alexander Macalister. Macmillan & Co. 
have published The Geographical Distribution of Animals, by Alfred R. 
Wallace. 2 volumes, 8vo. 

— The Third Bulletin (vol. ii.) of the United States Geological and 
Geographical Survey of the Territories has the following table of con- 
tents: Notes descriptive of some Geological Sections of the Country, 
about the Head-Waters of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, by F. 
V. Hayden; Notes on the Tertiary and Cretaceous Periods of Kansas, 
by B. F. Mudge; Notes concerning a Contour Map of the United 
States, by Henry Gannett; The Flora of Southwestern Colorado, by 
T. S. Brandegee; Brief Synopsis of North American Earwigs, with an 
Appendix on the Fossil Species, List of the Orthoptera collected by 
Dr. A. S. Packard in Colorado and the Neighboring Territories during 
the Summer of 1875; Notice of a Small Collection of Butterflies made 
by Dr. A. S. Packard in Colorado and Utah in 1875, by S. H. Scudder; 
Notes on the Grammatical Structure of the Nez Percés Language, by 
George Ainslie. ; 

— The Appalachian Club of Boston issued the first number of its 
journal under the title of Appalachia, about the middle of July. It 
contains a sketch map ‘of the White Mountains, profile of T rapyramid, 
with other papers, and the proceedings of the club. n 

— Dr. Kidder’s contributions to the Natural History of Kerguelen Isl- 
and, made in connection with the United States Transit-of-Venus Expe- 
dition, in 1874-75, contains articles on the eggs of birds, by Drs. J. 
Kidder and E. Coues; on the botany, by Dr. Asa Gray; geology: 


by 
Drs. F. M. Endlich and Kidder; on the mollusks, by W. H. Dall; the 


. ta- fie 
insects, by Baron R. Ostensacken and Dr. H. A. Hagen; the crus” 


ceans, by Prof. S. I. Smith ; the annelids and echinoderms, by oat 
A. E. Verrill... The number concludes witha study of Chionis sa 
with reference to its structure and systematic position, by J. H. BY 
and Elliott Coues. the 
— We have received a folio pamphlet of twenty-four page® eer 
invertebrate animals of Trayemiinder Bay, by H. Lenz, being sid 


1876.] _ Proceedings of Societies. 507 


Ito the Annual Report for 1874-75 of the Commission for the Scien- 
tific Investigation of the German Sea at Kiel. These reports are of 
much scientific and practical value, and it would be very desirable if the 
United States Government could have similar work done in connection 
with the Coast Survey. ~ 

— Mr. Julius Stoerzer, of the National Museum at Washington, died 
on the 13th of May, aged thirty-four years, leaving a wife and child. 
Mr. Stoerzer, at the time of his death, was unquestionably the most 
thoroughly trained and really scientific taxidermist in the country. A 
pupil of the celebrated Martin, a good comparative anatomist, an enthu- 
siast in his profession ; his very skeleton frames of boards and hoop-iron 
had more life and action in them than the completed inflations we are 
generally asked to call stuffed animals. The magnificent group of fur 
seals, now at the Centennial Exhibition, is one of his masterpieces, and 
is unequaled in any part of the world so far as those animals are con- 
cerned. Mr. Stoerzer’s death is regretted by all who knew him, and it 
is felt that with him an artist as well as a preparator has passed away, 
who can hardly be replaced. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 


PuiLosornicat Society or WasHineTon.— April 22. Major J. 
W. Powell read a paper on monoclinal folds in orographic geology, tend- 
ing to show that the higher the strata were elevated above the general 
surface, the greater the proportional rapidity of their denudation or 
erosion. He also showed how by unequal elevation on two sides of a 
fault and general erosion, beds of unequal age might be brought into 
such close proximity as to lead to errors in identification. This was 
illustrated. by the case of the Green River beds, referred by Cope, 
Lesquereux, and Hayden to different horizons as a whole, from specimens 
gathered from apparently identical strata within a few hundred yards of 
each other. While each investigator had rightly referred the organic 
remains submitted to his examination to their proper horizon, the error, 
according to the speaker, had arisen from supposing that the adjoining 
and apparently identical beds were really continuous ; when, actually, 
faulting had taken place on three cross lines of fracture, with differing 
elevation and uniform erosion, thus bringing into almost exact paral- 
lelism, beds of different age. 

A discussion followed in which the question of the thickness of the 
€arth’s crust was debated. Mr: Taylor, Major Powell and others, find- 
ing it difficult to reconcile the multifarious changes of level of small 
areas with a crust of great thickness, while Captain Dutton regarded a 
Solid nucleus with a hydrothermal plastic layer between it and the outer 
Crust as ineeting the requirements of the case. - 

Camspripar EnxtomoLoeicaL CLus.— March 10. Mr. Burgess de- 


508 Proceedings of Societies. [ August, 


scribed some appearances in the pupe of Hudamus Tityrus, by which 
he thought it might be possible to know the sex of the pupz. 

Mr. Mann described some great variations in the appearance of larve 
which afterwards produced female imagos of Anisopteryx pometaria. 

Mr. Scudder referred to the presence of Gryllus domesticus in several 
parts of the country, into which it had been introduced from various 
parts of Europe. He had not succeeded in an attempt to naturalize the 
species in Cambridge, the specimens which he had, that had come to 
Boston from some undetermined source, in an East India merchant-ves- 
sel, having been destroyed by accident. 

Upon the table lay an Entomologists’ Bulletin in manuscript, which 
had been prepared by Mr. Mann, and contained the addresses of about 
three hundred North American entomologists, with a notice of the 
special pursuits of each, when known, and such other information of a 
similar kind as would be of interest to entomologists. This Bulletin 
was open to the inspection of all who wished to see it, and all were re- 
quested to communicate to Mr. Mann such information as would enlarge 
and freshen this record. 

April 14, 1876. Dr. Hagen gave a very interesting account of the 
mode of gathering, and of some of the properties of amber. 

Mr. Scudder exhibited specimens of Oyaniris lucia, Q, violacea, 0. 
neglecta, and C. pseudargiolus to illustrate a paper which he read, showing 
that these so-called species are probably only forms of one species, which 
must retain the name of Cyaniris pseudargiolus. ; 

Dr. Hagen gave some information about an insect allied to Mantispa 
(but possessing an ovipositor), which he had lately received from Lieu- 
tenant Wheeler’s Expedition, as having been caughtat Fort Tejon, South- 
ern California. This is the more interesting, as no Hemerobina, except 
its congeners and the species of the genus Dila, possess an ovipositor. 
The insect lives in wasps’ nests. 

Mr. Scudder said that in working up the Forficularians of North 
America, he had detected thirty-eight species; there are undoubtedly 
m more, especially in Mexico. Only fourteen species are found in 
the United States and only nine of these are indigenous. Mr. Scudder 
has prepared a synoptical table of the United States species for publica- 
tion in Psyche. 

Mr. Austin said that on the 26th of March he obtained at least twenty- 
eight species of Dytiscidæ in a small clay pit which had become filled 
with water. Some of the species occurred in immense numbers. De 
- Hagen suggested that the absence of fishes would account for the great 
abundance of these beetles. . 

ACADEMY or Sciences, St. Louis. — May 1. Mr. Riley made a com- 
munication on the oviposition of Leucania unipuncta, or the gi 

h i 


A A EREN oo PA AILS S ARNE A EN E DAE 


Worm Moth. : 
In his eighth Annual Report, the last forms of which were going 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 509 


through the press, he had remarked -that “at first view it seems singular 
that the eggs of an insect that appears in such countless myriads from 
Maine to Georgia, and from Virginia to Kansas, should have remained 
undiscovered either by farmers or entomologists. One of the obstacles 
that have stood in the way is, that, as soon as the worms have increased 
so prodigiously as to attract attention, their natural: enemies become so 
multiplied that a very small per cent. of the worms entering the 
ground issue again as moths. A second reason is that during the season 
when the insect is not numerous, and attracts no attention, no one thinks 
of searching for the eggs. A third reason is that'the moths that are 
reared indoors do not oviposit in confinement. I venture to suggest a 
fourth possible reason that has hitherto occurred to! nobody: it is that 
the eggs are for the most part secreted where they are not easily seen.” 

Structure is a trustworthy guide to habit, and Mr. Riley had been led 
to this last conclusion by a study of the structure of the ovipositor of the 
moth in question. The time, place, and manner of oviposition in this 
Species is quite important from the economic point of view, as the insect 
may readily be destroyed in the egg state by fire, if the conclusions 
drawn were correct. 

Mr. Riley had recently been able to verify the correctness of his con- 
clusions by direct observation, having witnessed the mode of oviposition 
on blue grass. The eggs are, as he surmised, secreted, being either 
glued in rows of from five to twenty in the groove which is formed by 
the folding of the terminal grass-blade, or in between the sheath and the 
stalk. More rarely they are pushed into crevices in the ground, espe- 
cially at the base of the grass-stalk. The eggs are white, slightly irides- 
cent, spherical, and only +25 of an inch in diameter. They are fastened 
toeach other and to the leaf, and covered along the exposed portion 
by a white, glistening, viscid substance. As they mature the color be- 
comes more sordid or yellowish, and'by the seventh day after deposition 
the brown head of the embryon shows distinctly through the shell. e 
larva hatches from the eighth to the tenth day, measures 1.7 mm. in 
length, is dull, translucent-white in color, with a large brown-black 

ead, and is a looper, the two front pair of abdominal prolegs being 
atrophied. On account of its extremely small size and of the color 
resembling the pale bases of the grass-stalks near the ground, it is almost 
™possible to find them even where there are dozens to the square foot. 

ACADEMY or NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. — March 21. 
Dr. Leidy.called attention to a fragment of the lower jaw of a mastodon 
found on the Amazon by Dr. Isaac S. Coates, of Chester. The species 
Was determined to be Mastodon andium. 

Ar. Meehan spoke of the phenomenon of natural inarching among 
He described and explained such an occurrence in the case of a 


hemlock growing in the neighborhood of Germantown. 


Professor Cope placed on record a new type of insectivorous mam- 
mals. It is allied to the extinct rodent-like forms from the Bridger beds, 


510 Proceedings of Societies. [Angust, 


which are characterized by a prolonged growth of the incisors, having 
enamel only on one side. The incisors in the form under consideration 
have enamel on the front and back, but not on the side. The characters 
of the other teeth were given as they exist in the genera Calamodon 
and Ectogamus, in each of which two species are known. The relation- 
ship established by these genera between the Edentata and the other 
mammalia was alluded to. These forms are both from the Wasatch beds 
of New Mexico. The name Tzniodonta was proposed for the group 
indicated. 

Dr. Koenig called attention to a mineral, probably tantolite, from 


North Carolina. he distinction between columbite and tantolite is 


difficult to determine. The peculiarities discovered by analysis were 
described at length and the distinctive characters indicated. Its specific 
gravity is 5.8. 

April 4th. Prof. Burt G. Wilder, of Cornell University, made a com- 
munication upon the anatomy and development of the brain in fish-like 
vertebrates. After considering the taxonomic value of the brain, he 
spoke of the investigations of Huxley, Owen, and the continental natu- 
ralists, dwelling particularly upon the causes of the great inaccuracy M 
the figures of fishes’ brains contained in the text-books. He had en- 
deavored to ascertain how far the brains of fishes might be homologized 
with the typical brain described and figured in diagram by Huxley. 
The differentiation of the three typical cerebral vesicles was described, 
and the fact stated that while the typical description applies to all the 
higher vertebrate brains, neither the lateral ventricles nor the foramen 
of Munroe had been observed in the brains of fishes until recently found 
by Professor Wilder in the gar-pike. He had since found them in the 
lamprey and the hag-fish, in several sharks and skates, in sturgeons, m 
the spoon-bill sturgeon, in the mud-fish or Amia, and in several typical 
bony fishes. He showed in what way the nearly solid front mass of the 
adult shark’s brain is formed from a thin-walled vesicle in the embryo. 
The structure of the brain in ganoids and teleosts was described, and 
the distinction indicated that in the latter, although the lateral ventricles 
and the foramen of Munroe are present, they are so small as to be = 
most invisible. We are forced back, therefore, in searching for the dis- 
tinctive character of the ganoid brain, upon the chiasma of the optic 
nerves of Miiller. In considering the taxonomic value of these pert 
ters, the belief was expressed that the structure of brains will be foun 
to be less dependent upon external modifying circumstances than are 
other parts of the animal organization. val 

In conclusion, Professor Wilder exhibited and described the bram 3 
Chimæra, and indicated its relations to the other groups spoken of. ý 
regarded the brain as presenting characters intermediate betwee? : 
sharks and skates, the ganoids and the batracbians with Lepidosteu® 

Professor Cope called attention to the entire novelty of cert . 
observations made by Professor Wilder, and suggested the direction 


rtain of the 


1876. | Proceedings of Societies. 511 


further investigation of the subject, expressing the belief that the chi- 


asma of the optic nerves would yet be found in the lowest of the typical 
bony fishes. 

Professor Koenig placed on record an analysis of garnet from Yancey 
County, North Carolina. Mr. Roberts announced the finding of uranite 
at Wayne Station, Germantown. 

Mr, Mather, Superintendent of the Centennial Aquaria, submitted for 
the inspection of the members living specimens of the grayling and a 
species of Campostoma, upon which explanatory remarks were made by 
Professor Cope. ; 

Mr. Mather called attention to a fungus growing upon the Campos- 
toma, which, he stated, would sooner or later prove fatal. Dr. Leidy 
explained that the growth mentioned was the Achyla prolifera of bota- 
nists, and described its development. Dr. Koenig suggested the applica- 
tion of salicylic acid for the destruction of the fungous growth. The 


president and Professor Frazer further spoke of the properties of sali- 


cylic acid. 

Mr. A. H. Smith and Mr. Thaddeus Norris described the habits of a 
species of game fish inhabiting the Saginaw River. 

ACADEMY OF Sctence, St. Louis. — April 3d. Professor Potter, 
Chairman of the Committee on Mound Exploration, made a partial re- 
port, as follows: The committee have examined and made a survey of 
five groups of mounds. Two hundred specimens of pottery have been 
obtained, of which one hundred and twenty-six are quite perfect, the 
remaining specimens being in a fair condition, and may be wholly or in 
part restored. The collection also embraces the skulls of twenty indi- 
Viduals, of which number one is complete, seven nearly so, the remain- 
ing twelve being in fragments of sufficient size to be of value. They 
have also obtained the leg and arm bones, and in some cases the verte- 
bre and other small bones, representing twelve individuals. 
Mr. Theo. P. Gillespie, a gentleman recently arrived from Peru, was 
introduced to the members by Dr. Briggs, and exhibited a beautiful 
collection of pottery taken from the burial grounds of an ancient tribe of 

eruvians, The graves from which the specimens were taken were in 


‘Very dry drift sand near the sea-beach. The graves are supposed to 


belong to a tribe that was conquered by the Incas fifty or sixty years 
before the advent of Pizarro in Peru. Many bones were found, being 
Preserved by the perfect dryness of the sand in which they were buried. 
The greater portion of these relics were found along the line of the 
Chimbote and Huaraz Railroad, latitude 7° S., and with few exceptions 

Yy represent what are supposed to have been drinking-vessels. In 
several of the specimens the handle, which is hollow, arches over the 
top of the vessel, the two branches of the tube uniting in a single ver- 
tical tube of several inches in length. The ornamentation, both in form 
and color, was in many cases very striking and expressive. A small 


512 Seientifie Serials. [ August. 


mold of strongly-baked clay, — the negative of a human face, — con- 
taining within it the figure which it was designed to reproduce, was 
shown. ‘The collection contains twenty-seven specimens. ‘Three speci- 
mens of copper were. also exhibited, namely, a finger-ring, a long needle 
with an eye, and a chisel with a smooth edge and battered head. 

Tue APPALACHIAN Mountain CLuB, Boston. — April 12th. Mr. 
S. H. Scudder read a paper on The Correct Name of the Mountain 
called Pequawket or Kiarsarge, which was followed by considerable 
discussion, in which Mr. Emery, of Exeter, N. H., quoted from a jour- 
nal of Samuel Willard, an old scout, written in 1725, to prove that the 
country round about was formerly called Pequawket, and that should be 
the proper name of the mountain. Mr. George Fox argued that while 
this was a name of the territory, it should not be applied to the mount- 
ain at all. Mr. J. B. Henck, Jr., who has made a partial map of the 
mountain region, read a paper on The Construction of a New Map 
of the White Mountains. Mr. Warren Upham read a paper on The East 
Branch of the Pemigewassett, which he had visited the past summers 
and Prof. E. C. Pickering made a communication on Professor Bond’s 
Manuscripts relating to the White Mountains. | 

The first field meeting of the club will be held at North Conway, 
N. H., on the fourth Wednesday in July. 

es 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 


ARCHIV FUR MIKROSKOPISCHE ANATOMIE. — On the Pulsating Ven- 
tral Sinus of Insects, by V. Graber. Comparative Developmental His- 
tory of Comatula mediterraniensis, by Alex. Goette. 

PETERMANN’S GEOGRAPHISCHER Mrrrnei.tncEen. — March hae 
Cernik’s Expedition through the Region of the Euphrates and Tigris. 
April 5th. Cameron's Journey across Africa, by E. Behm. Journey ng : 
New Zealand. Swedish, Russian. and Dutch Journeys to West Siberia. — 

ANNALS AND MaGazine or NaruraL History. — June. me 
on Otto Hahn’s Micro-Geological Investigation of Hozoon ema 
by W. B. Carpenter. On the Identity in Type of the Annelids a 
Vertebrates, by C. Semper. 

MERICAN JOURNAL OF ScrENCE AND Arts. — June. The Geolog- 
ical Survey of Brazil. by C. F. Hartt. On a New Sub-Order of Ptero- : 
sauria, by O. C. Marsh. Notice of New Odontornithe=, by 0. C. M j a 
— July. The Colorado Plateau Province as a Field for Geological Stuc r 
by G. K. Gilbert. Ona Disease of Olive and Orange Trees sient? 
in California in the Spring and Summer of 1875, by W- G. Farlow. 
art selected. 


1 The articles enumerated under this! ..2 will be for the most p 


m 
Pee 


1 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


. VoL. Xx. — SEPTEMBER, 1876. — No. 9. 


ARE WE DRYING UP? 
BY PROF. J. D. WHITNEY. 

FE object of the present communication is to bring together 

some of the more striking facts in regard to the desiccation 
of the earth’s surface, —or at least of a considerable portion of 
it, — which has taken place in the most recent geological period, 
and to suggest the inquiry, whether we have any proof that this 
desiccation has been and is continued into the historical period ; 
in short, Are we drying up ? 

All questions relating to changes, or supposed changes, of cli- 
mate during the historical period are of the greatest possible 
interest. Much has been written on this subject, and yet but 
little has been definitely established. There is a prevailing pop- 
war impression that the countries around the Mediterranean are 
drier than they were two or three thousand years ago, and that 
this change is due in part, if not wholly, to the cutting down 
of the forests which are assumed to have once existed there. 
Yet, when this matter comes to be investigated, it would appear 
that there is little if any evidence either that there has been any 
such wholesale stripping of the wooded lands, or that there has 
been any considerable change in the climate of that region. The 
question of the influences of forests on the amount of the rain- 
fall has been ably and carefully examined by Mr. G. P. Marsh, 
and his results are thus summed up: ‘ The scientific reputa- 

on of many writers who have maintained that precipitation 

been diminished in particular localities by the destruction 
of the forests or augmented by planting them, has led the publie 
to suppose that these assertions rested on sufficient proof. We 
“not affirm that in none of these cases did such proof exist, 
but I am not aware that it has ever been produced.” 1 It ap- 

* The Earth as Modified by Human Action. New York, 1874. Page 196. 

OF ree ee a OREO 


Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, JR. 1876. 


oe 


514 Are We Drying Up? [September, 
pears to be true, at all events, that exact observations with the 
rain-gauge have not yet anywhere been kept up for a sufficient 
time to enable us to speak with certainty with regard to the 
existence of any secular change in the amount of rain falling at 
any one place. The length of time during which such observa- 
tions have been made is but trifling compared with the dura- 
tion of the historical period, and infinitesimally small when con- 
sidered with reference to even the most recent of the geological 
epochs. 

We have, however, as will be seen; abundant evidence of a 
great change over at least a considerable part of the earth’s sur- 
face, in the amount of water distributed in the lakes or running 
in the rivers, and it can be shown, beyond a doubt, that this 
change has been taking place within a very recent period, speak- 
ing geologically. Some important evidence can also be adduced 
to the effect that this change has been continued in the historical 
epoch, although not yet capable of demonstration by the recorded 
observations of the rain-gauge. . 

ere are two regions especially where the facts already col- 
lected show most clearly, not only a diminution in the amount of 
water existing on the surface, but a most striking one. In Cen- 
tral Asia and in Western North America, the observations of 
numerous observers all point unmistakably in this direction. 
The observations of the Schlagintweits in Thibet and Turkistan 
may first be mentioned. One or two extracts may be given 
from H. von Schlagintweit’s article entitled, “ Investigations om 


Eea T 


SEINE $ 


the Salt Lakes in Western Thibet and Turkistan.” 1 He writes 
as follows: “In all portions of High Asia, south and pe of 
ame 


the main water-shed, there are numerous places where t 
mer existence of mountain lakes may be recognized.” + + + Kp 
Thibet, throughout the entire longitudinal depression between 
the chain of the Himalaya and the main water-shed of the Iara- : 
korum, of the once numerous lakes, but comparatively 
still in existence.” . . . “ So extreme is the dryness in "€ 
Thibet that, in the case of nearly all the lakes still rema 
the evaporation exceeds the supply of water, 
ing condition is at the present time one of gra 
the area covered by water.” There seems to be here, © oa 
bining all the results of the Messrs. Schlagintweits’ observations 


abundant evidence of a marked change of climate in the B 
Cl, II. Band ** 


EEE er ey! Di 


ning, 


` From the Proceedings of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, 
th. 1. - 


1876.] Are We Drying Up? 515 


recent geological period, — resulting in the almost entire disap- 
pearance of extensive lakes,——and also that this desiccation is 
still going on. 
7 The observations of Mr. Drew, the author of an elaborate 
work on the Jummoo and Kashmir territories,! fully corroborates 
~ the often previously expressed opinion, that the Valley of Kash- 
= mir was, in later geological times, completely occupied by a lake. 
_ But no evidence has, as yet, been discovered to prove that this 
desiccation took place during the historical period, although the 
= traditions of the natives point in that direction. There is, how- 
ever, abundant proof of diminution in the area covered by water 
_ inthe basin of the Aral and Caspian seas, not only during the 
latest geological epoch, but also within a comparatively recent 
_ period. Those who wish to investigate the matter will find the 
=~ Material in a paper by Major Wood, published in the journal of 
the Royal Geographical Society for 1875. There is no doubt of 
the former vastly greater extension of the Caspian and Aral seas. 
While there has been much discussion with regard to the shift- 
ing of the channels of the rivers entering these seas, and their 
Variations of height at various times during the historic period, 
it seems beyond dispute that a gradual desiccation of the region 
has been in progress, and that it is still going on. That there 
once existed here a vast Asiatic Mediterranean which connected 
y navigable waters with the Northern Ocean is very generally 
admitted. With reference to the diminution in the water of 
Lake Aral at present going on, Major Wood says: 2 « The sand- 
rives and tracts of hard clay occurring on the low shores of Lake 
Aral point to the conclusion that extensive areas of country 
which are now dry land were formerly covered by the water- 
Spread of the lake. It has been remarked that the mouth of 
the Syr-Daria has become in recent years fordable, and that the 
depth of water between the island of Tokmak Atta and the 
south shore of Lake Aral has diminished. It is also an estab- 
lished fact that a minaret, which gray-beards of the Kirghiz state 
Was formerly situated on the edge of the eastern shore, is now at 
Some hours’ walk distant from it; and finally, since 1848, when 
It was a marshy swamp, Gulf Abougir, at the southwest corner 
of the Lake, has been entirely dried up, and its bed is now under 
_ cultivation. ‘There is no doubt that the cause of this continuous 


Per mtr, ake a eee ee 


a eee Ree, a ema ae eat ope re 


Peete St ates we At ir ag Aa i a on 


* The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories. A Geographical Account. By Frederic 
TTE. R. G. S., F. G; S. . 1875. 
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xlv. page 403. 


516 Are We Drying Up? [September, 1 


shrinking in the area of Lake Aral is that the evaporation from 
its surface is in excess of the supply received by it from the 
Amu and from the Syr.” 

: Similar facts in regard to the diminished quantity of water in 
Arabia are cited by various travelers in that country. Some of 
them are given in Mr. Marsh’s volume, to which reference has 
already been made. 

In Africa the existence of extensive ruins in the Great Libyan 
Desert, in a region quite destitute of water, and which is now 
entirely uninhabited, may be taken as a strong indication of 
great changes since the historic period. Dr. Livingstone, in his 
travels in southern Central Africa, was again and again much 
impressed with the proofs presented to him of a rapid and exten- 
sive diminution within recent times of the amount of water in 
the lakes and rivers of that region.! 

But it is not only in the Old World but also within our own 
territory that a former much greater extension of the water sys- 
tem can be easily demonstrated. ‘The terraced character of the 
rivers of our northeastern States afford ample proof that these 
once conveyed a much larger quantity of water than they now 
do. The facts have been set forth in detail by various geological 
writers, and especially in President Hitchcock’s Surface Geology: 
It is true that geologists have only lately generally admitted the 
apparently self-evident fact that the origin of these terraces 18 
due to a diminution in the quantity of water which the streams 
have conveyed, and not to any sinking or rising of the land. 


It is, however, in the region west of the Rocky Mountains, €$- 


pecially in the “ Great Basin,” that we find a condition of things 


most strikingly resembling that already noticed as existing a 
rea occupied by — 


Central Asia. Everywhere, throughout the a — 
Utah and Nevada and portions at least of the adjacent territories 
the evidences of desiccation within the most recent geolog! 


iki ht 
period are very striking. These facts were first brought | 
volume i. (1865), 


notice in part in the Geology of California, 
which the terraces surrounding Mono Lake were 
the former greater extension of this and the adjacent l — 
to be beyond doubt. The same thing was also noticed and n 
mented on in the Yosemite Book (1869). The terraces a 
rounding Great Salt Lake are so conspicuous that no trav - 

1 See Livingstone’s Missionary Travels in South Africa. London. 1857. Page St 
He says: “All the African lakes hitherto discovered are} shallow 1m consequeh” 


: : $ ia 
their being the mere residua of very much larger ancient bodies of water. 


described, 


akes show? 


eee sue: Ls) Seba eos E AAE Karp, een es Re St ea 


1876] Are We Drying Up? 517 


passing through that region on the railroad could fail to notice 
them. The publication of the detailed maps of this region by 
the Fortieth Paralleél Survey will, no doubt, furnish data for 
estimating with considerable precision how large an area was 
formerly covered with water, and how numerous and extensive 
the different bodies of water were. 
It is not to be expected that in our western territories there 
should be any proof obtained of a diminution in the quantity of 
_ water having taken place during the historic period. The char- 
acter of the aboriginal inhabitants and the perishable character 
of their dwellings forbid this. Yet there are traditions pointing 
in this direction, as noticed in the Geology of California, volume 
1, the mountaineers insisting on the former connection of Mono 
and Walker’s Lakes. However this may be, it is certain that 
the sharp and well-defined character of the terraces in this region 
indicates very clearly that the diminution of the volume of the 
Water must have been an extremely recent phenomenon. 

It is not possible at this time to enter upon a discussion of the 
question of the connection of this desiccation with the so-called 
glacial phenomena. It has seemed natural, of course, for geolo- 
gists to connect the terraced condition of the rivers in the north- 
fastern States with the melting of the ice of the glacial period. 
. As far as the problem at present under discussion is concerned, 
_ tt makes no difference whether we do or do not consider the 
desiccation in question as one of the sequence of events to which 
the glaciation of a portion of the northern hemisphere belongs. 
"hat we are specially interested in is, whether the desiccation 
5S still going on. If, as seems highly probable from what has 

been advanced in the previous pages, the quantity of water on 

the surface, over large areas, has considerably diminished, cer- 
tainly in the very latest geological times, and also in part within 
a the historic period, then it is not likely that the former glacia- 
tion and the present desiccation can be considered as so inti- 
mately connected in their general cause that the latter cannot 
fake place except as a sequence of the former. The absence of 
-Y very distinct proof of a much greater extension at any time 
of the ice masses over the ranges of Central Asia must be taken 
mo consideration in connection with the extensive and rapid 
“tying up of what has been and is now going on in that region. 
the same may be said in reference to the Great Basin and our 
Own Western territory. At the time of the greatest extension 
of the glacial masses in that region, but an insignificant propor- 


tion of the surface was thus covered. . Only the very summits 
of the highest ranges had glaciers upon them, and the amount of 
snow and ice thus stored away would seem to have been far too 
small to produce by their melting a general filling of all the 
valleys with water unless we assume — which is certainly not 
probable — that the change was almost instantaneous. 

It is certain that both in Asia and North America the phenom- 
ena of desiccation are on too grand a scale by far to be supposed 
to have anything to do with cutting down of forests. The dry- 
ing up has been commenced before man interfered with nature, 
and has been continued without reference to his puny operations. 

If, as has been suggested, the records of rain-gauge and ther- 
mometer are too incomplete and unsatisfactory to throw any light 

on the question of climatic changes of importance in modern times, 
the question arises whether there are not other sources of in- 
formation to which recourse can be had. For instance, records 
have, in parts of Europe, been kept for many years of the flow 
of water in some of the principal rivers. Can any results be 
obtained from a comparison of these records with a view to the 
settlement of the question, whether the amount of water passing 
from year to year at certain points has diminished, increased, or 
remained constant? The eminent geographer, Berghaus, was 
one of the first to take up this investigation. He worked up the 
observations of the Rhine made at Emmerich, those of the Elbe 
at Magdeburg, and those of the Oder at Kiistrin, and came to 
the conclusion that each of these rivers had decreased in volume 
during the past hundred years, and that there was reason to fear 
that they would eventually have to disappear from the list of the 
navigable streams of Germany. Later than this, an eminent 
hydraulic engineer, Gustav Wex, chief director of the important 
“ Donauregulirung,”! and a high government official, undertook 


the same investigation, but with much more detail. His p : 
however, are similar in character to those of Berghaus, and a e 
ncipal 


to demonstrate beyond the possibility of doubt that the pri 


streams of Middle Europe, namely, the Danube, the Rhine, thè 


Elbe, the Vistula, and the Oder, together draining an area © 


570,000 square miles, have for many years been carry! 
stantly diminishing quantity of water. The longest seri 
servations used in coming to this conclusion is that of 
at Magdeburg, where the records go back for one hund 
1 A great work undertaken with a view to the regulation and improvement of e 
channel of the Danube at and near Vienna. i 


518 Are We Drying Upi [September 


E at ORE a TE T E, ASe E A 


ing AAE 
es of | oe | 
the Elbe 
red and 


vat ee eth ofl tte ean Do ee eee etre an ein a 


i 
J 
: 
: 


e EAEE r I 


ee 
$ 


1 
: Vereins for 1873 


1876.] Are We Drying Up? 519 


forty-two years ; but the observations for shorter periods of from 
fifty to seventy years, which in the case of the other streams are 
all that are available, seem to leave no doubt as to the character 
of the result. : 

The probable causes of this diminution in the quantity of water 
in the Middle European streams are discussed at some length by 
Mr. Wex,! as also by a committee of the Vienna Academy of 
Sciences, appointed to report on his communication, and among 
whom were several eminent meteorologists. The general im- 
pression, both of Mr. Wex and the committee, seems to be that 
the cutting down of the forests is the essential cause of the desic- 
cation. But the number of facts which can be given in support 
of this hypothesis is quite small. It is, as Mr. Marsh has stated, 
not so much facts as the general opinion on which reliance is 
placed in citing the destruction of the forests as the probable 
principal cause of the difficulty. It is easy to see that stripping 
the woods from the surface increases the rapidity of the evapora- 
tion, and that in consequence of this less water must flow in the 
streams unless the deficiency is made up by a larger precipitation. 
It is extremely difficult to prove anything in this connection in 
a region where so many small patches of forest are mixed up 
with the cleared land, as is the case in Germany. But it is fair 
to presume that the moisture taken up in one part of a great 
river basin must be let fall again in the form of rain somewhere 
within the limits of the same basin. Hence we should have no 
difficulty in understanding that stripping the surface of its trees 
Would cause increased and irregular precipitation, which would 
have injurious and even disastrous effects in mountain regions, 
where the soil was thus laid bare to be washed away by torrential 


flows of the streams following on sudden and heavy falls of rain. 


That this is really the case is well known from experience in the 
Swiss and French Alps, and elsewhere. But that a positive 
diminution in the average quantity of water carried down in the 
streams would necessarily ensue on removing a portion of the 
forests in any region, we do not consider to have been proved as 


yet. The commission, in reporting on Mr. Wex’s paper, are 
this subject, 


This paper was published in the Zeitschrift des Ost. Ingenieur and Architekten 


520 - Are We Drying Up? [September, 


may not. as suggested first by Saemann and afterwards by De- 
lesse, have something to do with the proven desiccation. 

In regard to one question this commission of the Vienna Acad- 
emy is quite unanimous, and this is that great pains should be 
taken by the different governments of the enlightened states 
throughout the world to obtain more light and additional data 
bearing on this subject. If desirable for Europe it is still more 
so in this country. We need much more numerous and more 
accurate observations of rain-fall. One cannot but be struck, in 
examining Mr. Schott’s working over of the Smithsonian rain- 
tables, with the poverty and incompleteness of the data. We 
need also careful and long-continued measurements of the amount 
of water flowing in some of our principal rivers. For instance, 
New York should establish a systematic investigation of the 
Hudson River, and Massachusetts or Connecticut, or both, should 
take in hand the river which flows through those two States, and 
which is of so much importance to their manufacturing and other 
interests. For California, especially, these investigations are of 
the greatest importance. If it can be shown that the removal 
of the forests seriously diminishes the quantity of water running 
in the streams, then there is yet time to stay the hand of the 
wood-cutter ere the mischief be consummated. That the strip- 
ping of the Sierra Nevada of its timber would be essentially 
injurious to the State in increasing the already alarming irreg- 
ularity of the seasons there can be little doubt, even if the aver- 
age precipitation were to remain the same. 

That there has been a very marked decrease in the amount 
of water on the earth within the most recent geological period 18 
beyond a doubt ; and that there is considerable reason to believe 
that the desiccation is still going on has, we think, been made 
evident in the above pages, although it has been necessary 10. 
handle with extreme brevity the various points advanced. Much 
might be said with reference to the connection of the so-called 
“ glacial epoch” with the present one of desiccation, but this part 
of the discussion must be reserved for another occasion. 


1876. ] How Cockroaches and Earwigs fold their Wings. 521 


THE MODE IN WHICH COCKROACHES AND EARWIGS 
FOLD THEIR WINGS. 
BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 
QEVERAL years ago, Dr. Henri de Saussure, of Geneva, pub- 
lished, under the title of Etudes sur l’Aile des Orthopteres,} 

some interesting observations on the structure of the wings of 
cockroaches. | He treated particularly of the folding of the 
wings in those groups of Blattarians where the wing is very 
ample and some contrivance necessary to insure its complete 
protection by the smaller wing-covers. The necessity of some 
peculiar arrangement in the winged genera of earwigs, where the 
extended wing is often ten times larger than the wing-covers 
(tegmina) is even more evident ; and to understand the nature 
of the structural modifications of a normal wing-type (which are 
here universal), it will be convenient and instructive to examine 
the cockroach’s wing on the basis of Saussure’s memoir, for in 
different genera of this group we have every stage of change 
from simple unreversed wings scarcely larger than the tegmina, 
to those of great size, curious complication, and unique mode of 
duplicature, 
In the hind wings of all Orthoptera, the anal area, or the area 
traversed by the nervules of the posterior part of the wing, is 
unusually ample; the branches of the anal vein are numerous 
and straight, and originate not far apart nor far from the base of 
the wing; when the wing is fully expanded they diverge like 
the rays of a fan; and like a fan they fold themselves against 
the sides of the body, the membrane of the wing folding along 
an edge midway between each pair of rays ; this admits of a 
large expansion of the anal field, and provided the wings are not 
quite so long as the tegmina, any breadth, folded close, may be 
= vered by this coriaceous appendage. This, however, would not 
= Necessarily be true, if the anterior part of the wing, provided 
with stiff interlacing veins, were itself as broad as the tegmina ; 
2 for then, if the front edges of the wings and tegmina were brought 
2 together, the entire folded anal area would extend beyond the 
_ *Pposite margin of the wing, quite unprotected ‘by the tegmina ; 
to obviate this, the line of separation between the anal area and 
© anterior part of the wing is itself an axis of duplicature, and 

e folded anal area always lies beneath the stiff anterior parts 
of the wing. 


1 Annales Se. Nat. [5] Zool. x. 161-200, plate 11. 


\ 


522 How Cochroaches and Earwigs fold their Wings. [September, 7 


This is a mode of duplicature common to all groups of Or- 
thoptera. But we have in cockroaches and earwigs something 
superadded, where the wing is large, and folded not only longi- 
tudinally but transversely, and is ingeniously packed away be- 
neath the shorter tegmina. We will follow Saussure in tracing 
among the cockroaches the various steps from the simple to the 
complex form. 

As usual among insects, the anal field of the hind wing in 
cockroaches (Figure 29, r 1) does not generally extend much more 
than half way toward the tip 
of the wing; and, as in most 
insects, especially those of low 
organization, the upper limit of 
this area (that separating it 
from the principal part of the 
ne wing, Figure 29, p) is marked at 
the edge of the wing by a slight emargination. The first step 
toward the result to be attained is the lengthening of the anal 
field so that it equals the anterior parts, bringing the indentation 
to the apex of the wing. This is seen in Thorax porcellana of 
the East Indies. There is, however, a little triangular bit of 
membrane left between this indentation and the lowermost 
nervule of the next vein above. It is to this little triangle that 
we must direct our attention. For in the next stage, such as 18 
seen in a common European cockroach, Hetobia lapponica, this 
triangle has greatly enlarged ; the principal longitudinal fold of 
the wing, that separating the anal area from the parts a ve, 18 4 
obliged to run directly through the middle of this triangle, 50 a 
that we may fairly consider one half as belonging to the oy 3 
and the other half to the median field of the wing. Since, how- 
ever, it contains in itself no nervures and has become also da G 
more or less coriaceous texture, its posterior portion cannot oT = 
part in the plications of the anal field ; moreover, it has expand a 
apically and now forms the entire tip of the wing, producing 3 
its upper limit a slight excision of the edge similar to the norm : 
emargination at its lower limit. When the anal fel 
closed and lies at rest beneath the anterior part of the wing, t a 
triangle, reduced to half its size by a single fold, lies bey ond ae 
edge of the wing, and either folds back again upon the uppe 
surface of the wing or curls up in the same position and 18 Wi 
Dr, de Saussure for tbe DR 


Seay. hres 


1 Figures 29-40 have been generously forwarded by 
tration of this paper. 


1876.] How Cockroaches and Earwigs fold their Wings. 523 


wholly concealed by the tegmina. When this triangle has en- 
larged still more, as in the East Indian Prosoplecta coccinella 
(Figure 30), the nervules on either side of it have been forced, 


Fie. 80. 
as it were, to curve upward or downward to give it room ; those 
below the triangle have undergone a still more remarkable mod- 
ification to which we shall again allude. In further steps this 
triangle expands still more (Figure 31, Plectoptera porcellana of 


Fie. 31. 

Cuba), throwing the veins on either side of it farther and farther 
back, until they fall into a single straight line at right angles to 
their former direction, one being turned upward, the other down- 
ward ; and as this line marks the crease where in Hetobia lap- 
_ Ponica the triangle was folded back upon the top of tHe wing, so 
_ how the wing, having first been folded longitudinally throughout 
Its entire length (the hinder portion lying beneath the upper), 
has its tip folded over, not far beyond the middle, upon the upper 
Surface of the wing. 


524 How Cockroaches and Earwigs fold their Wings. [ September, 


It may here be worth while, by the aid of diagrams, to explain 

a little more carefully the mode in which the wings are folded. 
Figure 32 may represent a fully expanded wing, such as that last 
a described ; ab, a'b' (p of Figure 

29) may be called the principal 
part of the wing, and r the di- 
verging field ; the bent longitu- 
dinal line, separating the ante- 
rior zone (aa!) from the reversi- 
Fia. 82, ee ble zone (66') is the principal 
longitudinal fold of the wing, to which we have constantly re- 
ferred ; the straight line separating the basal (veined) portion of 
the wing (ad) from the apical (coriaceous) reflectible portion 
(a'b') is the transverse fold, which in the simpler wings is repre- 
sented by the upper and lower margins of the apical triangle. 
The diverging field (7) first folds like a fan, so that 6 and r 
together are no broader than a ; the wing then folds longitudi- 
nally, bb! bending downward beneath aa’, and presents the ap- 
pearance seen in Figure 33, where a and a! are alone visible; a' 
now bends upward and folds back 


upon a,as in Figure 34, and the 
E] F wing is reduced to a little pad» 
-— which scarcely surpasses the basal 
portion of the anterior zone 4. 
7 Fie. 33. Figures 35 to 37, which represent 
a theoretical section of the wing along the line xg (Figure 33), will 
explain still further this mode of duplicature. @ z s 
In Figure 35 the wing is fully expanded, and e¢ ; 
represents the costal, z the posterior border of Fra. 34. 
the wing; a, b and r represent the same part as in Figure 32, p 
Inman G4 p_e > the longitudinal fold or plication 
Fig. 35. separating the anterior from the re- 
versible zone, and g the point of division between the reversible 
zone and the diverging field. In Figure 36 the first step ear 


SAMI, the result of the plication along the lon- 2an 1 
gitudinal fold p ; Figure 37 (in which the letters ro 
bearing primes represent the same parts in the Fic. 


a30 
reflectible portion as the equivalent letters in the basal portion 
of the wing) carries the process to its completion. Figure 88 
represents a horizontal section of the completely folded wing a 
18 the anterior, o! the posterior articulation of the wing; 0! % T° 
Presents the diverging field, o’ #' the basal portion and # é the 


i. 


1876.] How Cockroaches and Earwigs fold their Wings. 525 


reflexible portion of the reversible zone ; and ot, te the corre- 
sponding portions of the anterior zone. 

There are further modifications of this duplicature; thus in 
some types, the anal field being ample, a sim- p oo 
ple fan-like closure of the anal area is not ra oa 
sufficient, and its whole mass is again folded aena 
longitudinally and lies not only beneath the me e 
under surface of the anterior part of the wing, en wee 

on 


but beneath the reversible zone or anterior rs 
part of the anal area. This may readily be Fig. 37. 
seen on examining Figures 39 and 40 (cf. figures 36 and 37) in 
f which the diverging field r or qz is bent 
o > g Upon pq and lies beneath all the other folds 
of the wing. Add to this the reversal of 
peter the tip of the wing, and by a single stroke 
f v of the knife, one may cut through five lay- 
vee og ers of membrane, not counting the fan- 
like plications of the anal area which might be Pp c 
severed. g 


FA 

There is another curious fact; namely, that na 
; ? when the apical triangle has reached or near- 
— ly reached its maximum development, as in 
Prosoplecta coccinella (Figure 80) and Plectop- 
R tera porcellana (Figure 31), that portion of the 
n anal field which lies within the transverse fold, 
Baao T and above a line drawn from the socket of the 
PE, 1. wing to a point near the anal emargination (7, 
ey the basal portion of the reversible zone, b, b), assumes a vena- 
tion precisely analogous to that of the upper half of the wing with 
all its distinct cross-veins and odd reticulations; this becomes 
Possible because it is no longer folded with the rest of the anal 
field, and does not require simple longitudinal veins. When situ- 
ated above the anal emargination its relation to the anal area is 
almost entirely disguised. Even further than this : in some types, 
as in the Australian Diploptera silpha, the terminal reversed 
area, a simple development of the apical triangle, is filled with a 
het-work of secondary veins, wholly similar to those of the parts 
toward the base, and in some instances (but for the transverse 
fold) direct continuations of them; were the steps unknown by 
which Such a mode of wing-duplicature had been produced, and 
Ploptera silpha the sole living example of such duplicature, 
e structure of its wings would be utterly incomprehensible on 


526 How Cockroaches and Earwigs fold their Wings. [ September, 7 


the hypothesis of any unity of type in the wing structure of 
insects, 

But these later developments in the modification of the veins 
themselves have no bearing upon the structure of the wings of 
earwigs, and have only been introduced for their own interest and 
to complete the account we have given of duplicature in the 
wings of cockroaches. We may, however, keep the last state- 
ment before us when we recall the fact that the wings of all ear- 
wigs (so far as I have been able to determine after an examina- 
tion of many types otherwise diverse) are identical in their gen- 
eral structure and wholly different from those of any other 
insects, having been extraordinarily modified to serve a special 
purpose. 

In these insects the fore wings (tegmina) are always small 
and generally but little longer than broad, although earwigs are 
invariably slender, and the tegmina, to cover the abdomen, would 
need be very long. The wings, when folded, generally extend 
a little beyond the tegmina, and the parts which protrude are 
coriaceous and wholly devoid of veins ; being moreover frequently 
ornamented with a colored spot or stripe, and thus further re- 
sembling the tegmina, they might be taken for a second pair of 
tegmina precisely like the first, or differing only in a slightly 
increased length ; even if the tegmina are removed the deception 
remains, for the parts of the wings then exposed are coriaceous 
to the base. These wings, however, are quite as ample as those 
of other Orthoptera of equal size ; but, by a complicated system 
of duplicature, accomplished by the mere elasticity of the parts, 
they are in a few seconds packed snugly beneath the pad-like 
tegmina, out of danger of abrasion or rupture, as the insect seeks 
the hidden recesses and crevices where it passes the larger part 
of its existence. : , 

The most extraordinary thing about the structure of the wings 
is the immense extent of the anal area; not only does this reach 
from base to apex of the wing, as in the extreme type of cock- 
roaches, but the entire wing, excepting only a portion about 
equalling the area of the tegmina, is made up of this field ; the 
portion which does not belong to it is almost entirely coriaceous, 
so that nearly all the nervules of the wing belong to the ani 
vein. In the hind wings of Orthoptera in general, this anal vem 
may be roughly described as consisting of a basal are to WY” 
the bases of the various rays are attached one beneath another ; 
or, rather, the enlarged bases of these rays, lying one be 


1876.] How Cockroaches and Earwigs fold their Wings. 527 


another, constitute the arc. This basal arc is closely attached to 
the lower articulation of the wing with the body in the other 
families of Orthoptera; but in the earwigs one of these veins, 
the second from the attachment (see Figure 41,! which represents 


Fie. 41. 


the wing of Labidura riparia, common in Europe and America) 
extends out nearly to the middle of the wing, emitting on the 
way one or two inferior branches; and, curving upward to the 
front border just beyond the coriaceous part of the wing (from 
which it is separated anteriorly by an incision), forms at this 
point, about the middle of the front border of the wing, the base 
for the attachment of the diverging rays, which sweep around 
_ the entire extent of the wing. The wing may then be said to 
have two bases; one the point of attachment of the whole struc- 
ture to the body ; the other, the pivot in mid-wing, around which 
the extensible major part of the wing plays. The radiating 
veins as well as the independent veins which arise between them, 
show a further peculiarity in having near the middle a consider- 
able expansion, generally accompanied by an equivalent tenuity, 
50 as to make the wing appear delicately coriaceous in a narrow 
““rcuit parallel to the outer border and about midway between 
“and the hinge or pivot in mid-wing. As to the other veins of 
the Wing, their importance is too slight to be worthy of consider- 
ation in this connection ; they occupy but a narrow area border- 
Ing the coriaceous base of the wing and are present only to an 
*xtent ‘sufficient to indicate with certainty that it is the anal 
vein, to which the mass of nervules must be referred. The anom- 
alous Structure of the wing is at once seen on comparing it 


1 Which we owe to the kindness of Mr. Edward Burgess. 


528 How Cockroaches and Earwigs fold their Wings. [September, 


with the wing of a cockroach, its nearest ally, and the purport of 
the anomaly will appear when we examine carefully the closure 
of the wing. 

Suppose this wing expanded. to its utmost. It is retained in 
its place by muscles which act upon two sets of veins ; an anterior — 
set which supports the coriaceous base of the front part of the 
wing, giving a certain strength and solidity to the whole; and a 
posterior set which holds at arm’s length, as it were, and there- 
fore at great disadvantage, the body of the wing, hinging upon 
the extremity of the second anal branch which runs from base to 
mid-wing. Let the latter support be relaxed and the fan closes 
at once ; the pivoting point is seen to be the very bottom of the 
incision of the wing next the apex of the coriaceous portion, an 
incision in the middle of the front border of the wing, corre- 
sponding to the anal emargination of the apex of the wings of 
certain cockroaches and to that of the middle of the hind border 
of most insects. When this fan of the anal field is closed, the 
plications are brought beneath that portion of the wing which 
lies between the extended vein which supports the rays and the 
lower edge of the coriaceous base of the wing. Since the coria- 
ceous base does not extend quite to the middle of the expanded 
wing, the wing by this process is at once reduced to less than 
half its length ; and the former apex for the same reason now 
overlaps the base and rests beside it against the body ; the width 
of the wing being also reduced, the entire area is now less than 
one sixth its former extent. As the wing continues to close, the 
lower half, with its tightly plicated membrane, folds longitudi- 
nally beneath the coriaceous basal portion, so that the plications 
are completely encased, like leaves in a book, between a coria- 
ceous upper layer and the thinner membrane of an equal portion 
of the wing lying, when the wing is expanded, directly behind 
it; the apex of the wing, however, now lies in even @ worse 
position than before, directly beneath the root of the wing; ° 
would do so, but having by this last movement been turned up- 
side down, its elasticity allows another movement which its 7 
position before prevented ; and we now perceive the meaning ° 
the expansion and tenuity of the radiating veins in points E 
ranged in a circuit parallel to the outer border ; on the sae 
of the wing these are brought together, and it is just here tha 
the apex of the wing, which is apparently so much in the af 
now bends transversely downward beneath the remainder of z . 
wing, and the whole is reduced to less than a tenth, probably 


1876.] Cooper's Helix in Colorado. 529° 


less than a fifteenth, of its former extent. The anterior supports 
are now relaxed, the wing assumes its natural position, the wing- 
cover closes down upon it, and all is snugly packed away. 
Although I have never experimented upon a living earwig, it 
will be apparent to any one who has attempted to expand a wing 
rendered flexible by artificial means, that the closure of the wing 
is produced by the mere elasticity of the parts. It is also alto- 
gether analogous to the process of duplicature in the cockroach, 
as carefully explained by Saussure, and it is difficult to ex- 
plain the process in any other way. The mode in which they 
are opened would be much more difficult to understand if it had 
not been observed by Charpentier and described nearly forty 
yearsago. The contraction of the extensor muscles attached to 
the hinder set of veins would undoubtedly cause the fan to ex- 
pand when once the double folding, transverse and longitudinal, 
had been overcome ; but it does not seem possible that they 
could cope with this difficulty. How then is it done? Accord- 
mg to Charpentier, simply by means of the forceps with which 
the extremity of the abdomen is always provided in both sexes ; 
the tip of the body is bent upward and the forceps used with 
steat rapidity and ease, first on one side and then on the other, 
asa sort of fingers, to bring the wings into the position which 
would allow the action of the thoracic muscles upon the base of 
the Principal veins. Nevertheless, it is difficult to conceive how 
is operation can be performed by those species whose forceps 
are as long as their body. 


COOPER’S HELIX IN COLORADO. 
BY E. A. BARBER. 

MONG the Helices, there is perhaps no species which pre- 

Sents greater diversity in form, size, and markings, than 
Heli Cooperi. Until recently, our knowledge has been some- 
What limited in regard to this beautiful and interesting western 
_ ‘Pecies ; but our information has been materially increased of late, 
by the results of the researches of the United States Geological 
Survey, During the summers of 1874-75, I found great quanti- 
"es of these shells throughout Colorado, in a variety of locations, 
Mad under variable conditions. I first discovered them in Middle 
w »a few miles from the Hot Sulphur Springs, or the settle- 
co known as Grand City, on the head-waters of the Grand or 
Gunnison River. As we were riding along through a severe hail- 
; Ol x, == NO. 9. 34 


530 ‘ Cooper’s Helix in Colorado. [ September, 


storm, we crossed over a hill which was literally covered with 
white objects, which I at first supposed to be hail-stones, but 
which I soon perceived were weather-worn shells of this species. 
Hastily dismounting, I scooped together, from a space scarcely 
two feet square, over a pint of them, which I carried back to 
camp for examination. They were so numerous that half a 
bushel could have been raked together without difficulty in a very 
short time, but they seemed to be confined to this particular ele- 
vated mound. All were dead, being in a dry, exposed sit- 
uation, and but few of them were worth preserving. This was 
at an altitude of about 8500 feet, although I have found numbers 
of these shells just below the timber-line on the summits of 
mountains, 11,000 feet above tide water. Such specimens were 
usually more fully developed, although I never found them in a 
living state above 9500 feet. And here I may add that I have 
never discovered a single specimen on the eastern or Atlantic 
slope, and I have yet to see the first sample which was discovered 
there, although I do not assert that H. Cooperi does not occur on 
this side of the Range. 

Along the banks of small streams and springs, in the damp 
sedge and grass, and in shaded spots, I found many, but rarely 
more than a dozen together. All of these latter were in a living 
state, and on extracting the animals from the shells, I found that 
they were viviparous, nearly every one containing about twenty- 
five minute, well-formed shells. In the cañons cleft in the moun- 
tain sides, among the dank underbrush, the most brilliantly col- 
ored specimens were obtained, each being marked with longitudi- 
nal or spiral bands of dark red or brown, varying in number from 
one to five, but usually two. In some instances the entire shells 
were dark, with the exception of a narrow, bright-colored band. 

Through North Park they are abundant, and farther west, 
along the Bear (or Yampa), White, Grand, and Eagle (Piney 


Creek) Rivers. Near the South Branch of White River I discov-. 


ered a locality, on the summit of a high hill, abounding in quar 


tities of a larger variety of this species. The individuals por 
some of them, as large as an average Helix albolabris; but all i 
these were empty, and bleached perfectly white. The nes 
were depressed, and thick and heavy. In the same neighborh 

(as in fact, throughout the most of northwestern Colorado), 
bleached shells are scattered over the surface of the ground 1n 
such quantities that the traveler may pick up, almost any W on 
quarts of them. In particular places the soil is strewn 5° geod 


SSE ree ly Ney ge i Re ee 


1876.] Cooper’s Helix in Colorado. 531 


with them that one can scarcely walk without crushing several at 
every step. Where they occur so numerously the shells are in- 
variably empty and bleached, and in all probability they have 
been lying in this condition for years. Through burned forests 
where every tree has been charred, and the underbrush entirely 
destroyed, they are to be seen, lying on the blackened ground, in 
even greater quantities than under any other condition. And 
this I accounted for in the following manner: At certain times 
of the year the animals bury themselves in the moist earth, and 
when the forests are fired by the Indians, the heat causes them 
to come to the surface, where they are destroyed, and their cal- 
careous coverings rendered so brittle that they can be crumbled 
into an impalpable dust between the thumb and fingers. 

Different specimens of H. Cooperi often present such a great 
variety of forms that the collector may frequently become con- 
fused in seeking to determine them. Sometimes the spire is ex- 
ceedingly depressed, when the specimen may be mistaken for 
Helix strigosa, while many others are highly elevated and re- 
semble closely large specimens of Helix Idahoensis. Near the 
Grand River, just above its confluence with Piney Creek, I 

MEA picked up a reversed specimen, which, 
among this species, is extremely rare. 
It must be considered as nothing less 
as than a montrosity, yet is exceedingly 

(Fis. 42.) REVERSED specr- interesting in showing to what extreme 

MIN OP HELIX COOPER variation the H. Cooperi is subject. 

As we advanced southward we found the representatives of 
this species decreasing in number and size, until, in the south- 
West portion of Colorado, they are found only occasionally in the 
defiles of the Sierra La Plata. The higher elevations seem to 
be more favorable for the full development of mollusks, being a 
| limestone country, while among the lower sandstones land shells 

Ate almost unknown. We find, then, that there are certain con- 
ditions of climate, elevation, and locality, which are favorable to 
the Satisfactory growth of the hardy and prolific H. Cooperi. It 

ms to thrive better in a temperate than in a torrid climate. 
It Increases more rapidly in numbers, and even in size, in the 
Medium or higher altitudes. It prefers cool, damp, shaded spots, 

_ itm or dry locations. It appears to be confined to the Pa- 
cific slope of the Rocky Mountains; for, if it exists at all on the 

rn side, it is only met with in reduced numbers. 


532 Mwroscopes at the South Kensington Museum. (September, 


MICROSCOPES AT THE LOAN COLLECTION OF SCI- 
ENTIFIC APPARATUS OF THE SOUTH KENSINGTON 
MUSEUM. 


BY JOHN NICHOLS. 


MONG the relics of early microscopy, the compound micro- 
scope, invented and constructed about 1590, by Zacharias 
Janssen, of Holland, is certainly a very primitive affair. As 
this, and in fact all the other instruments are inclosed in a glass 
case, a critical examination is impossible. The outward form 
presents the simple appearance of an iron or tin tube about ten 
inches long and about an inch and one half in diameter; the 
magnifying power is very moderate. 

In the same case is a silver microscope, by Anthony van Leeu- 
wenhoeck (born 1632, died 1723), the noted Dutch philosopher 
and microscopist. It may be remembered that he made a micro- 
scope for almost every object, which must have consumed much 
of his valuable time. This microscope of Leeuwenhoeck’s is sim- 
ple in form, being a silver plate, perforated with a single minute 
hole, in which is fixed a tiny lens, in front of which, and in focus, 
is placed a silver needle upon which the object was fixed. 

It was with such an instrument that Leeuwenhoeck carried on 
his wonderful discoveries, and laid the first steps in histological 
science. What glorious results might have followed had he pos- 
sessed a modern instrument and objectives ! 

The great microscope made by Benjamin Martin (1770), for 
George the Third, is probably the largest and most elaborate 10- 
strument ever manufactured. It stands nearly three feet high, 
and is decorated with much scroll-work, while in all directions 
are lying the most complicated pieces of accessory appa 
which must have sorely bewildered the royal scientist. Looking 
at this piece of scientific magnificence, some comfort is suggested, 
that if we have not yet reached perfection in designing. ™ 
scopes, we have at least attained a good degree of simplicity of 
construction. : 

There are many other instruments made by the early micro- 
scopists, illustrating the progress of the instrument. That made 
for or by Galileo is of special historical interest. The glasses 
have been lost ; the tube alone remains. The body is an upright, 
supported on a tripod. 

The: modern instruments offer no field, for: commen ga 
looks in vain for anything novel in construction. There are te 


g. micro- 


E R P el 2 i 
SET Re eae Ae SONS ag |v beeen ad 


: 


1876.] Microscopes at the South Kensington Museum. 533 


well-known forms of the different makers enclosed in glass cases. 
Probably the London shop-windows present as great a variety in 
microscopes as this section of the collection. The instruments are 
all muddled together without any order or attempted arrange- 


ment. 

Powell and Lealand do not exhibit. Messrs. Ross & Company 
exhibit a large instrument on the Jackson slide principle, de- 
signed by Mr. F. H. Wenham. The great point in this form is, 
that the fine adjustment is placed under the instrument, and can- 
be reached without taking the hand from the coarse adjustment. 
Thus the old objection to this model has been removed. Messrs. 
R. & J. Beck also have one of their best microscopes, showing 
great perfection of work; also a cheap form called “ The Eco- 
nomic,” It is monocular, highly finished, and is altogether a 
charming instrument and furnished for five and six guineas, with 
objectives and case. 

Mr. Stephenson exhibits his erecting binocular microscope, for 
which he claims many decided advantages, which should make it 
extremely useful. The instrument of the future, the comfort of 
looking through inclined tubes and still having the stage horizon- 
tal, and the image in its natural position, certainly marks a great 
advance in construction. 

Mr. J. Browning shows a microscope upon the same model, but 
with what is claimed to be an improvement, In this instrument, 
for the first time, the planes introduced by Mr. Stephenson for 
altering the direction of the rays, so that the microscope can be 
used with the stage in a horizontal position, have been introduced 
near the eye-piece in the separate bodies. This arrangement 
will, it is believed, be found to possess considerable advantage. 
Such is the official description, which must be taken for granted, 
as the exterior presents no novel feature. : 

wift, who is turning out some of the best moderate-priced opti- 


_ Cal instruments in London, shows a microscope very similar to 


Hessrs. Beck’s “ Economic,” called the “ New College Microscope.” 
a new crane arm-binocular. This is an excellent full-sized 


| strument, and for a good, working microscope, appears all that 


“an be desired, and sold with good objectives at a price within the 
Teach of the student microscopist. ; 
The German manufacturers have sent a few instruments, and 
are chiefly represented by Messrs. Tiebert and Krafft, and E. 
tz, both of Wetzlar. Respecting these microscopes I noticed 


as Special, except that they appeared inferior in workman- 
"lp to those exhibited by the London makers. 


534 Mimicry in Butterflies. [September, 


Among accessory-apparatus will be found that used by Messrs. 
W. H. Dallenger, and J. J. Drysdale, M. D., for the continuous 
observation of minute organisms. Those who read the Monthly 
Microscopical Journal, know what valuable results were obtained 
by its use. Would that the faculty to make use of instruments 
could be sold to the many purchasers. 

Microtomes, for cutting sections, are here in great variety and 
of all sizes. One with a marble basin larger than an ordinary 

-washing-basin. In some of the microtomes the knife is fixed and 
worked by a piece of mechanism like a lathe rest, such as that 
made by W. Apel, mechanician to the University of Göttingen. 
In another microtome the preparation is pressed forward by a 
micrometer screw, against a circular knife, set in motion by a 
lathe. This instrument is from the University of Prague. 

United States opticians and manufactures are totally unrepre- 
sented, which is much to be regretted, as in this ‘section they 
could have made an excellent show, — perhaps have carried off 
the palm. 


MIMICRY IN BUTTERFLIES EXPLAINED BY NATURAL 
SELECTION. 
RITZ MULLER, whose contributions to science are always 
worthy of special attention, endeavors in a recent German pe- 
riodical ! to show how the phenomena of mimicry in butterflies may 
be explained by the theory of Natural Selection. He bases his in- 
quiries upon the species of Leptalis found in southern Brazil, and 
although, as will appear below, he adduces reasons for believing 
the primitive stock to have been banded, and not like most of 
the family to which this genus belongs, simple white butterflies, 
he commences by showing how even such an extreme change 
could be wrought out by the survival of the fittest in the struggle 
for existence. 

“ Should,” he remarks, ‘the first unimportant variations from 
the original white color (of the Pierids) be useful only in attired 
ing to their possessors, at a little shorter distance, the attention 
of enemies flying carelessly overhead, they would become more 
and more useful, and cause their possessors to become continually 
more abundant in proportion to the type; they could eres 
serve as the basis for the gradual formation of a resemblance i 
to deceive even the sharp eyes of birds scanning the swarms $, 
Ithomias (the butterflies imitated by some Leptalids) for booty: 


1 Jenaische Zeitschrift fiir Naturwissenschaft, x. i., February, 1876. 


1876. ] Mimicry in Butterflies. 585 


Farther on he asserts that “ the acceptation, as the starting- 
point in the origin of mimicry by natural selection, of a resem- 
blance having its beginning at such a distance can scarcely be 
shaken by a single known case. It should, moreover, not escape 
attention that the sharp-sightedness of enemies is itself also a 
quality at first gradually acquired in the struggle for existence, 
and one which must increase, from the very fact that by protect- 
ive coloring, mimicry, etc., the persecuted species escapes the less 
sharp-sighted pursuer. This ever-increasing sensitiveness and 
Sharp-sightedness of the pursuer on the one hand explains the 
wonderful completeness of many natural imitations, and on the 
other makes the acceptation of an originally very slight resem- 
blance the less hazardous.” 

Fritz Müller insists, as all writers on the subject have done, 
upon the similar geographical distribution of the imitating and 
the imitated species as a necessary concomitant of mimicry; but 
instead of believing with other authors that the Leptalids have 
become poor flyers in their imitation of the feeble-winged 
lthomia, he holds that the wretched powers of flight possessed 
by the species of Leptalis have been the very cause of mimicry ; 
the insects needed mimicry the more the poorer flyers they were. 

Mimicking species of course stand between their original type 
and the mimicked species; and since mimicry is often confined to 
the female, we should expect in such cases to find the following 
Series: original form, male of mimetic species, female of same, 
species mimicked. 

In his vicinity, Miiller has found five species of Leptalis, of 
Which only four are common, and are discussed by him. Of these 
four, Lept. Melia mimics nothing ; all the other three are imita- 
tive species and mimic distinct groups of butterflies; Lept. Asty- 
nome resembling a Heliconian-like Danaid, Mechanitis Lysimma ; 
another, which he calls Lept. Thalia, mimicking an Acræan, 
Acrea Thalia so closely, that Müller at first supposed it to be an 
Acræan ; and the last, Lept. Melite, bearing a close resemblance 
to the female of one of its own family, Daptonoura Lysimnia. 

A comparison of the form of the wings of these different in- 
shear shows the following series : — o , 

MD Pieris or Daptonoura, Mechanitis Lysimnia, Leptalis 
“ynome 9, Leptalis Astynome 4, Leptalis Melia. _ 

2.) Pieris or Daptonoura, Acræa Thalia, Leptalis Melia. 
l B.) Pieris or Daptonoura, Leptalis Melite ¢, Leptalis Me- 


_ we 3, Leptalis Melia. 


536 Progress of Ornithology in the United States. (September, 


In all these series, Pieris (or Daptonoura) stands at one end 
and Leptalis Melia, a banded species, but one which, as already 
remarked, does not imitate any other butterfly, at the other. 
The mimicking species always stand between the species they 
imitate and Leptalis Melia, and where there is a difference in the 
sexes, the females resemble most the imitated species, the males 
Leptalis Melia. From this Müller reasonably urges that the 
original Leptalis stock, from which the mimicking species were 
derived, was allied to Leptalis Melia rather than to a Pieris, or 


Daptonoura, and that therefore, at the very start, natural selec- . 


tion had the advantage of finding a pliable stock already resem- 
bling not a little the bird-shunned Ithomias. 

From this he proceeds to a comparison of other relations be- 
tween the mimicked species, the mimicker, and the non-mimicking 
Leptalis, and discovers that in every instance, and in each partic- 
ular, the mimicking Leptalis stands between Leptalis Melia and 
the mimicked Danaid, Acrean, or Pierid ; even in one instance the 
neuration of the mimicking species is decidedly altered, showing 
how seriously the structure may be affected by mimicry. Miiller 
studies separately the form of both fore and hind wings, the 
pattern and coloration of all, entering into many very interesting 
details, and elucidating the different points by the aid of simple 
but sufficient illustrations, which our readers will find well worth 
examining. 


PROGRESS OF ORNITHOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES 
DURING THE LAST CENTURY. 
BY J. A. ALLEN. 

EARLY PAPERS. 
RIOR to the year 1808, when the first volume of Alexander 
Wilson’s great work was published, little had been written on 
American birds by Americans. A few lists of the birds of lim- 
ited portions of the United States that appeared during the last 
d our whole 
ornithological literature at that date. The first of these was 4 
list of about one hundred and twenty species, i i 
Thomas Jefferson in 1787, in his celebrated Notes on Viger 
This is a catalogue of the species described by Catesby, with the 
addition, in parallel columns, of the Linnzean and common names, 
and of the popular names of a few species not described by 
Catesby, — merely a nominal list of no special importance. 


be Ral eit EN ie cen ei ara Mo AA | in ONE a ko EE Re A > oe 


SPREE Ay gale yee E a PL OE eg 7, Se, Ce heey 


OLR arg th a, va RS wy Fl 


Boe eter AT 


- 


a 1876.] Progress of Ornithology in the United States. 587 


was followed, in 1791, by William Bartram’s enumeration of the 
birds known to this excellent naturalist as inhabitants of the 
eastern portion of the United States, published in his Travels 
in North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, 
ete, ; this list embraced about two hundred and fifteen species, and, 
though mainly a nominal one, was accompanied by typographical 
signs indicating the range of the species at the different seasons of 
the year, while a few were described at some length in other parts 
of the same work. In many cases Linnwan names were used for 
the designation of the species; but to the larger number he gave 
new names, which, being generally unaccompanied by descrip- 


‘tions, are now to a very large extent undeterminable. ‘This pa- 


per is especially noteworthy as forming the first important con- 
tribution by an American to American ornithology. 

The next paper in order of time was by Jeremy Belknap, who 
in his History of New Hampshire (vol. iii.), published in 1792, 
devoted ten pages to birds, giving a list of about one hundred 
and sixty species. The current Linnean names were used, to 
which a few new names were added. Although no descriptions 
are given, the names generally clearly indicate the species meant. 
Though not commonly referred to by scientific writers, it forms 
a highly important paper and one worthy of attention. Samuel 
Williams, in his Natural and Civil History of Vermont (pub- 
lished in 1794), devoted also about the same number of pages to 
the birds of Vermont. Scientific names of about fifty species are 


given in full, and the generic names of a dozen others. The pa- 


Per also embraces a number of pages of valuable notes. These 
two last-named articles show that several species were then com- 
mon in New Hampshire and Vermont that long since became ex- 
tinct there, and are hence papers of considerable historic interest. 
In 1799, Benjamin S. Barton published his Fragments of the 
Natural History of Pennsylvania; this rare folio contains a list 
of the birds of Pennsylvania, with notes on their migrations. 
Although John Clayton published a valuable paper on the 
ids of Virginia as early as 1693 (Philosophical Transactions, 
Vol. xviii.), and although many enumerations of a few of the birds 
of many portions of the Atlantic States, from Florida to Maine, 
Were made by different writers during the seventeenth and eight- 
eenth centuries, some of which possess especial value in a historic 
Point of view, the four papers already mentioned constitute the 
bulk of the ornithological literature written by Americans prior 


to the time of Alexander Wilson. 


538 Progress of Ornithology in the United States. [September, 
GENERAL WORKS. 

Alexander Wilson, a Scotchman by birth, came to America in 
1794, and some ten years later conceived the idea of writing a 
history of the birds of his adopted country. Receiving hearty 
encouragement from his kind friend, Mr. William Bartram, he 
entered seriously upon his great work in 1805, to which he de- 
voted almost his whole time and energy till his untimely death 
in 1813. The first volume appeared in 1808, followed by eight 
others, the last two of which were published after his death, un- 
der the editorship of Mr. George Ord. Of these nine folio vol- 
umes, accompanied by colored plates, Bonaparte wrote in 1825 
as follows: “ We may add, without hesitation, that such a work 
as he [Wilson] ‘has published in a new country is still a deside- 
ratum in any part of Europe.” His earlier figures were some- 
times stiff and awkward, but they were generally of a high grade 
of excellence for that time, and his descriptions were concise and 
exact. His accounts of the habits of many of the species have 
rarely been surpassed in point of truthfulness or felicity of ex- 
pression. Never extended by irrelevant matter, some of them 
are models of descriptive writing, evincing a poet’s love and ap- 
preciation of nature. Although adopting Pennant’s system of 
classification, by far the best then extant, the species were not 
systematically grouped, but taken in the order in which they 
most conveniently came to his hand. Had he lived to complete 
his work, many others would doubtless have been added, and the 
whole rearranged in accordance with his own ideas of their affini- 
ties. 

The work so well begun by Wilson was continued by Bona- 
parte, whose American Ornithology, or the Natural History of 
the Birds inhabiting the United States, not given by Wilson, 
was extended to four volumes, similar in style to those of Wilson. 
The first appeared in 1825, the second and third in 1828, and the 
fourth in 1833. 

Several editions of Wilson’s work were subsequently issued, 
either separately or combined with Bonaparte’s continuation. 
The first American edition was that published by George Ord, 
in 1828-29, in three octavo volumes of text and a folio volume 
of plates. In this work the species are arranged systematically, 
but the editor adhered to the original text, correcting merely 
a few erroneous references and verbal inaccuracies. In 1881, 
Jameson published in Edinburgh an 18mo edition of Wilson 5 
and Bonaparte’s works. The succeeding year this was followed 


Peete paris th del take A Nba oy 


1876.] Progress of Ornithology in the United States. 589 


by Jardine’s edition (London and Edinburgh, 1832), in three 
octavo volumes, of the same authors. This last was reissued in 
this country in 1840, in one volume, with the addition of a Syn- 
opsis of the Birds of North America, by Dr. T. M. Brewer. 
Of this there were subsequently several reprints from the same 
stereotyped plates. 

In 1827, John James Audubon began the publication of his 
celebrated work on North American birds, which was not com- 
pleted till 1839. The whole work forms five octavo volumes of 
text, with an elephant folio atlas in four volumes of four hundred 
and thirty-five plates. The text was published in Edinburgh, 
with the title of Ornithological Biography; the plates in Lon- 
don,as Birds of America. This magnificent work remains as 
yet unequaled in respect to its illustrations, which are unrivaled 
in point of accuracy and life-like character, the birds being all 
represented of the size of life. In his animated descriptions 
there is at times a tendency to exaggeration and redundancy of 
personal incidents. The species are arranged according to the 
convenience of the author, a systematic arrangement being in 
such a work obviously impracticable. In 1839, however, on 
lts completion, the author published his Synopsis of the Birds 
of North America. In this work the nomenclature is revised 
and greatly changed, principally through the adoption of many 
of the then recently introduced generic designations. This Syn- 
opsis (one volume, octavo, Edinburgh) was a methodical catalogue 
of all the species at that time known to inhabit North America 
north of Mexico, and was intended to serve as a systematic index 
to his Ornithological Biography, and Birds of America. The 
work, however, is much more than this, giving, as it does, the 
characters of the families, genera, and species, the range of each 
Species, and numerous bibliographical references. It includes also 
a few species not given in his larger works. 

Subsequently Audubon republished his Ornithological Biogra- 
Phy, and Birds of America in a single work, under the title 
of Birds of America. This is simply a reissue of the text of 
the former, with the species systematically arranged under the 
names employed in the Synopsis, and the addition of the plates 
of the large folio work, reduced by the camera lucida. This 


Work was published at Philadelphia (1840 to 1844), in seven 


A"Perial octavo volumes. It has also been since republished in 
aw York, with chromo-lithographic illustrations of a character 
Inferior to those of the original work. The appendix to the 


540 Progress of Ornithology in the United States. [September, 


seventh volume includes a few species previously unpublished by 
this author. 

In 1832 appeared the first volume of Thomas Nuttall’s Man- 
ual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada, 
embracing the land-birds. This was followed in 1834 by the 
second volume, devoted to the water-birds. A new edition of 


the land-birds was published in 1840, including all the species — 


discovered in the mean time by Townsend and Audubon. These 
two volumes (12mo, Boston), illustrated with numerous small 
wood-cuts, contain a succinct history of the birds of North Amer- 
ica known at the time of their publication, and, being written in 
a pleasing style, form a work that has been deservedly popular, 
despite many inaccuracies, and has recently been republished. 
The next general work on the birds of North America was 
John Cassin’s Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, 
Oregon, British and Russian America. This was published in 
parts (Philadelphia, 1853-55), and was intended to contain de- 
scriptions and figures of all North American birds unfigured by 
previous authors, and a general synopsis of North American or- 
nithology. It was issued in ten parts, with fifty plates. The 
author’s plan of continuing the work was probably superseded 
by the preparation soon after of a far more important work, 1n 
the labor of which Mr. Cassin shared. a 
Dr. T. M. Brewer’s North American Odlogy (Smithsonian 
Contributions, vol. xi.), published in 1857, is the only American 
work devoted exclusively to the eggs and breeding habits of 
North American birds. It is, however, as yet uncompleted, Partl. 
(quarto, pp. 140) embracing the Raptores and Fissirostres, being 
the only portion yet published. The five colored plates give 
figures of the eggs of all the species of these groups at ho 
accessible, while the text contains a very full account of the dis 
tribution and breeding habits of the species embraced. 
In 1858 appeared the well-known General Report on ue 
Birds of North America, forming volume viii. of the Pacific ae 
road Reports of Explorations and Surveys. This was the joint 
work of Spencer F. Baird, John Cassin, and George N ee 
rence, the parts devoted to the Raptores, Gralla, and a 
being by Mr. Cassin, while Mr. Lawrence wrote that relating to 
the Longipennes, Totipalmes, and Colymbide, the remainder be- 
ing by Professor Baird, the whole work making a quarto "e 
of over one thousand pages. The abundant material at the com 
mand of these eminent authors, and the elaborate and criticà 


5 


EIE teak) apa O 


; 

4 
3 
$ 
y 
; 


1876.] Progress of Ornithology in the United States. 541 


manner in which it was treated, render this work by far the 
most complete and important, in a scientific point of view, that 
had at that time appeared relating to North American ornithol- 
ogy, or, in fact, to any similar area anywhere. It is, however, a 
strictly technical treatment of the subject. The special reports 
on the ornithology of the different routes explored, contained in 


_ other volumes of this series of reports, supplemented this general 


work with much biographical matter, in connection with which 
appeared thirty-eight finely executed colored plates of species de- 
scribed in the general and special reports, but previously unfig- 
ured by American authors. This was followed in 1859 by Pro- 
fessor Baird’s report on the Birds of the United States and Mexi- 
can Boundary Survey, with twenty-five admirable plates of 
previously unfigured species. In 1870, the text of the General 

eport was re-issued, with some additional matter, under the 
title of Birds of North America, with an accompanying vol- 
ume of one hundred plates, including those above-mentioned as 
accompanying the special reports of the Pacific Railroad and 
Mexican Boundary Surveys. 

In 1864 Professor Baird began the publication of his Review 
of American Birds (Part I. North and Middle America, Smith- 
sonian Miscellaneous Publications, No. 181). Installments of the 
Work were published at intervals during the next two years, 
the last signature bearing the date of “June 9, 1866.” The 
Work, so far as published, forms an octavo volume of 450 pages, 
taking the Oscines as far as the genus Collurio. The very 
thorough character of this much-needed work renders it a source 
of sincere vegret that its busy author has not found time to carry 
it forward to completion. 

In 1869 appeared D. G. Elliot’s work (two volumes in one, 
folio, New York), entitled New and Unfigured Species of the 
Birds of North America, containing sixty-four colored plates, 


and short critical notices of one hundred and fourteen species. 


This was followed in 1870 by Cooper's Birds of California, edited 
rofessor Baird “from the manuscript and notes or. d. G- 
Soper.” We have as yet of this important work only the first 


ohm ? (forming volume i. of the Zoölogical Reports of the Ge- 
“logical Survey of California, Professor J. D. Whitney, director), 


embracing the land-birds. This is a quarto of six hundred pages 
with life-size colored figures of the heads of each species and 
smal] full-length figures of some species of each genus, inserted 


‘M the text. This method of illustration was novel and advan- 


542 Progress of Ornithology in the United States. (September, 


tageous to the student, the work being intended as a manual of 
~ the ornithology of the whole region west of the Rocky Mountains 
north of Mexico. 

The next general work on North American birds is Dr. Elliott 
Coues’s Key to North American Birds (one volume, quarto, with 
upwards of 250 wood-cuts and six steel plates), published in 
October, 1872. This highly useful and deservedly popular work 
is unique in ornithological literature, being a manual of the 
birds of North America, designed especially for the use of stu- 
dents, in which are introduced analytical tables for the deter- 
mination of the species, similar in character to those so success- 
fully adopted in botanical text-books. This was followed, in 
1874, by the same author's Field Ornithology and Check-List of 
North American Birds, intended as a supplement to the Key, 
the first part being a “ manual of instruction for procuring, pre- 
paring, and preserving birds,” and the latter, as its title implies, 
a * check-list ” of the species. 

By far the most important recent work on North American 
ornithology, however, is the joint work of Prof. S: E. Baird, 
Dr. T. M. Brewer, and Mr. Robert Ridgway, published under 
the title of Birds of North America. The first three volumes 
of this indispensable work, embracing the land-birds, appeared in 
1874, the portion relating to the water-birds being still in course 
of preparation. The more technical portion is the joint work of 
Professor Baird and Mr. Ridgway, while the biographical por- 
tion is written by Dr. Brewer. This work, it is needless to say; 
represents the most advanced views of our best authors, and 
must long remain the leading authority on the subject of North 
American ornithology. It is illustrated with five hundred and 
ninety-three wood-cuts, devoted largely to the external anatomy, 
and sixty-four colored plates giving life-size figures of the heads 
of the greater part of the species and varieties. Later works 
possessing a general character are Dr. Elliott Coues’s Birds 0 
the Northwest (1874), and Mr. H. W. Henshaw’s recent Report 
(1875) upon the ornithological work of the Survey of the Terri- 
tories West of the One Hundredth Meridian. The first of these 
is an octavo of nearly eight hundred pages, forming No. 2 of we 
Miscellaneous Publications of Dr. F. V. Hayden’s Geolog! 
Survey of the Territories. The work is intended a : 
of the region drained by the Missouri River and its tributaries, 
and hence embraces a wide field. Giving as it does & summ 
of the ornithology of this extensive region, combinin 


g much new : 


i 
; 


$ 


T ORAE 


1876.] Progress of Ornithology in the United States. 543 


matter with much previously published in scattered papers, and 
the fullest tables of bibliographical references for the larger part 
of the birds of North America that has yet appeared, it is a 
work of the highest value to students of American ornithology. 

Mr. Henshaw’s work (Chapter III. of vol. v. of the Reports 
of the Geological and Geographical Surveys West of the One 
Hundredth Meridian, under Lieut. G. M. Wheeler) is limited to 
the actual work of the Wheeler Survey, of which it presents a 
general systematic summary, based on the collections and field- 
hotes made chiefly by the author and Drs. Yarrow and Rothrock, 
and Messrs. Bischoff and Aiken, and is hence made up wholly of 
original matter, adding largely to our knowledge of the orni- 
thology of this previously little-known region. It is accompanied 
by fifteen chromo-lithographie plates of previously unfigured spe- 
cies and varieties, and embraces about five hundred quarto pages 
of text, 


WORKS AND PAPERS OF A SPECIAL OR LOCAL CHARACTER. 


; The long list of general works by no means comprises all the 
important contributions made by Americans to North American 
ornithology, The special papers, many of them of a high scien- 
tific value, are too numerous to be mentioned even by name 
within the limits of the present paper. These number several 
hundred, varying in length from a few pages to hundreds each. 

hile a considerable proportion are limited to the descriptions 
of a few new or little-known species, or to the enumeration of 
the species found at particular localities, others are exhaustive 
monographs of genera or families, or are devoted to a discussion 
n general questions of nomenclature, of the geographical distri- 
bution of the species, or of laws of geographical variation. 

Of papers of a strictly local character may be mentioned 
the Rey, W.B. O. Peabody’s Report on the Birds of Massachu- 
setts (Fishes, Reptiles, and Birds of Massachusetts, 1839) ; 
«dock Thompson’s chapter on the Birds of Vermont (Natural, 
Civil, and Statistical History of Vermont, 1842); J. P. Giraud’s 
Birds of Long Island (8vo, 1844) ; Dr. J. E. Dekay’s Report on 
the Birds of New York (New York Zodlogy, Part II., one vol. 

to, with colored plates, 1844); E. A. Samuels’ Birds of New 
ngland (8yo, pp. 600, 1867); C. J. Maynard’s Birds of 
Florida (now publishing in parts); and T. G. Gentry’s Life- 
t of the Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania (vol. i., 1876), 
è two latter still in course of publication. Linsley’s Catalogue 


544 Progress of Ornithology in the United States. [ September, 


of the Birds of Connecticut (American Journal of Science and 
Arts, first series, vol. xliv., 1848), and Wm. M. and S. E. 
Baird’s List of the Birds of Carlisle, Pennsylvania (ibid., vol. 
xlvi., 1844), are noteworthy, as being the first of a long series 
of papers of a strictly faunal character that have contributed so 
much to our knowledge of the distribution of our birds, their 
periods of migration, and their seasonal ranges throughout the 
eastern half of North America from Labrador to Florida. For 
notes on the avifauna of Labrador and Anticosti, we are indebted 
to Coues, Verrill, and Packard ; Drs. Brewer and Bryant have 
written on the birds of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ; Cabot, 
Holmes, Boardman, Verrill, and Hamlin on those of Maine, and 
Maynard and Brewster on those of Maine and New Hampshire ; 


‘ Emmons, Brewer, Putnam, Samuels, Allen, and Maynard on | 


those of Massachusetts ; Linsley and Wood, and others, on those 
of Connecticut ; Coues and Brewer on those of New England 
in general ; Lawrence and Fowler on those of New York; Ab- 
bott and Turnbull on those of New Jersey ; Taylor, the Bairds, 
and Barnard on those of Pennsylvania; Coues and Webster 
and Jouy on those of the District of Columbia ; Scott and Brew- 
ster on those of West Virginia ; Burnett, Gibbs, Cope, and Coues 
on those of North and South Carolina ; Bryant and Allen on 
those of Florida ; Kirtland, Read, Kirkpatrick, and Wheaton on 
those of Ohio; Haymond and Allen on those of Indiana; Ken- 
nicott, Pratten, Allen, Ridgway, and Nelson on those of Illinois; 
Kneeland, Hughs, and Covert on those of Michigan ; Head, 
Trippe, and Hatch on those of Minnesota ; Hoy and Barry on 
those of Wisconsin ; Allen, Parker, and Trippe on those of Iowa; 
Hoy on those of Missouri; Roemer, McCall, and Butcher on 
those of Texas; Coues, Allen, Snow, and others on those 0 
Kansas; Allen, Aiken, Holden, Trippe, and Henshaw on those 
of Colorado and Wyoming ; Hayden, Cooper, Allen, and Coues 
on those of the Upper Missouri country ; Townsend, Coope"s 
Suckley and Bendire on those of Oregon ; Baird, Allen, Ridg- 
way, and Henshaw on those of Utah ; Henry, Baird, and Hen- 
shaw on those of New Mexico; Coues, Henshaw, and Yarrow 
on those of Arizona; Ridgway, Henshaw, and Yarrow on those 
of Nevada; Xantus, Feilner, Brewer, Gambel, Heerman, peg 
Ridgway, Nelson, and Henshaw on those of California; a. 
Dall, Bannister, H. W. Elliott, and Coues on those of Alaska. 
Other writers on the birds òf the far West are Say, Woodhouse 
Kennerly, Newberry, Suckley, Stevenson, and Merriam. 


1876.] Progress of Ornithology in the United States. 545 


Among the numerous papers of a critical or monographic 
character may be mentioned Bonaparte’s Observations on the 
Nomenclature of Wilson’s Ornithology, published in 1824-26 
(Journal of the Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia, vols. 
üi iv., v.), in which were first introduced into the annals of 
North American ornithology a large proportion of the generic 
names now in current use, a few only of which were first pro- 
posed in this essay. It created, however, a revolution in the Wil- 
sonian nomenclature. Audubon’s Synopsis (1839) again brought 
down the nomenclature to the date of its publication, through 
the adoption of the changes made necessary by the further 
increase of knowledge. The Audubonian nomenclature was gen- 
erally in use in this country till the appearance of Baird, Cassin, 

. and Lawrence’s great work in 1858, when a number of new 
generic and subgeneric names were proposed, and the nomencla- 
ture again modernized. Comparatively few generic names have 
since been introduced, but revisionary work of a somewhat differ- 
ent character (to be noticed later) has already greatly modified 
the nomenclature of 1858. 

mong revisionary papers of a minor but more general char- 
acter are numerous critical essays by Cassin, especially on the 
leteride and Picide, the Raptores, the Cerebide, Caprimul- 
gidæ, ete. ; by Baird, in his Review of American Birds; by 
Coues among the Laridæ, Procellariide, Grallæ, Colymbide, 
Spheniscide, ete. ; by Ridgway among the Raptores and by Ban- 
nister among the Anseres, ete. Of separate monographic papers 

: sai be mentioned those of Coues on the genus Ægiothus, the 

Tringa, Alcide, etc., Bryant on the genus Cattaractes, and Ridg- 

Q Way on various groups of the Raptores and Oscines, the genus 

| Leucosticte, ete. 
The anatomy and embryology of our birds have not received 
the attention these subjects deserve, but a number of papers 
ave appeared treating more or less in detail of particular points. 

a” Coues has published an account of the myology of Colymbus 

—— rquatus-and various notes on the structure of the Spheniscide ; 

Streets has written on the characters of the skull in birds, and 

Mr. Ridgway has called attention to various points in the osteol- 

By of the Raptores. Agassiz and Wyman have noticed a few 

Points in the development of birds, while Prof. E. S. Morse has 

“trefully Studied the development of the tarsus and carpus with 

Py confirmatory of the previously suspected affinities existing 
mk en ie and reptiles. 


xX. —_ No, 


546 Progress of Ornithology in the United States. [September 


Not only has the geographical distribution of North American 
birds been studied in connection with the general history of each 
species, but attempts have been made to discover and limit the 
different faunal areas of the continent, special attention having 
been given to this department of the subject by Baird, Verrill, 
Allen, and Ridgway, and incidentally to a less extent by others. 
The subject of geographical variation has also been thoroughly 
investigated, with results of high importance, which will later be 
referred to more fully. Among the prominent workers in this 
field are Baird, Allen, Coues, Ridgway, and Henshaw, while the 
subject has received much attention from others. 

Within the last ten years also a field previously wholly un- 
explored has been opened up, that of paleontological ornithol- 


ogy, mainly through the labors of Professors O. C. Marsh and E. , 


D. Cope, the former of whom has alone made known, mostly in 
preliminary papers, the remains of upwards of thirty species, 
found in the Cretaceous green-sands of New Jersey, and the Cre- 
taceous and Tertiary formations of Kansas, Colorado, and Wyo- 
ming. ‘Those described by Professor Cope are likewise mainly 
from the same localities. 

Much has also been written by American ornithologists on 
exotic birds, especially on those of Central and South America. 
In 1838, J. P. Giraud described “sixteen new species ” of Mex- 
ican birds, and Dr. S. Cabot published (1842 to 1844), several 
papers on the birds of Yucatan, describing a number of new Spe 
cies. Mr. George N. Lawrence has published numerous papers 
on the birds of Mexico, the West Indies, and Central and South 
America, and Dr. Bryant on the birds of some of the Lesser 
Antilles. Cassin published not only on the birds of Central and 
South America, but also on those of Africa and other distant 
countries, including reports on the collections made by the United 
States Exploring Expeditions under Commodores Rogers and 
Wilkes. Buaird’s Review of American Birds treats largely of 
the birds of tropical Ameriéa, and some of the monographie a” 
revisionary papers of Coues and Ridgway have taken a wide 
range. D. G. Elliot has published elegantly illustra s 
graphs of the Pittidæ, the Phasianidæ, and the Tarer 
and many papers on different genera of the humming-birds a 
other exotic groups, mostly, however, prepared and publis h 
abroad. Professor Alpheus Hyatt has published a moie 
of the Spheniscidæ, and Drs. Kidder and Coues reports ont 
birds of Kerguelen Island; the present writer reports on ¢ 


ted mono- 


ollee- 


h 
: 
a 


1876.] Progress of Ornithology in the United States. 547 


tions of birds made at Lake Titicaca, and at Santarem, on the 
River Amazons. Prof. James Orton has also published on the 
birds of Ecuador, and the Rev. J. H. Bruce on those of India. 
Among the many aidsto a better knowledge of American 
birds should be mentioned the explorations of Kennicott, Dall, 
H. W. Elliott, Bannister, and Bischoff, in British North Amer- 
ica and Alaska, conducted under the auspices of the Smithsonian 
Institution, several of whom have forwarded to Washington im- 
mense collections of the birds of the Northwest. The surveys of 
our western Territories made under the direction of the War 
Department should be especially mentioned as among the aux- 
iliaries of ornithological science in this country, the various gov- 
ernment expeditions having been usually accompanied by compe- 
tent naturalists. The recent surveys (still fortunately in prog- 
ress) under the Department of the Interior have likewise been 
productive of important results. The numerous correspondents 
of the Smithsonian Institution, both in the boreal and in the 
tropical portions of the continent, though not always citizens of 
the United States, have added greatly to our store of ornitholog- 
ical material and knowledge. The several naval exploring expe- 
ditions have also contributed, from distant foreign shores, rich 
stores of Specimens and facts. Among more private enterprises 
should not be forgotten the Thayer and Hassler expeditions from 
the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy to South America, both of 
Which returned with rich ornithological collections, numbering 
m the aggregate thousands of specimens. ‘The expeditions of 
Professor Orton, .Mr. Alexander Agassiz, and Mr. Linden have 
: also been fruitful in ornithological results. Of the explorations 
Dr Bryant in the West Indies, and of numerous other orni- 
rial explorers elsewhere, the want of space forbids a further 
Otice, 


SUMMARY OF PROGRESS. 
When Alexander Wilson, the “ Father of American Ornithol- 
: ey,” began his great work, less than three fourths of a century 
a Probably not a dozen species of American birds had been 
. ‘entifically described by American writers, and almost nothing 
i eg been published relating to their distribution or habits. On 
40, °Mpletion of Bonaparte’s continuation of Wilson’s work in 
T  » Sbout four hundred species had been described by these 
| ri authors, of which colored figures had also been published, 
-i a more or less full account of the habits and range of each 
'Pecies, Tn 1833, Bonaparte (in his Geographical and Compar- 


548 Progress of Ornithology in the United States. [September, 


ative List) gave the number of North American species as four 
hundred and seventy-one, while in 1839 the number described by 


Audubon (in his Synopsis) was four hundred and ninety-one. | 


Nearly all of these had been re-figured by Audubon, the figures 
being all of life size, and as yet unsurpassed in fidelity or artistic 
effect. Audubon had likewise largely increased our knowledge 
of their distribution and habits, while the greater part had, more- 
over, found a valuable biographer in Thomas Nuttall. The pub- 
lication of numerous minor papers had also contributed largely 
to a better knowledge of many of the species. 

In 1844 the number of species had increased to five hundred and 
six, the number given by Audubon in his Birds of North America. 
In 1858 the number had risen to seven hundred and sixteen, all 
of which had been ably elaborated by the authors of the General 
Report, their affinities thoroughly. discussed, and their nomenclat- 
ure carefully revised. In the mean time numerous special papers 
had appeared relating to their habits and distribution. Yet the 
nests and eggs, and even the winter and summer resorts, of many 
of the species still remained unknown. ie 

From this time onward information respecting our birds in- 
creased more rapidly than before; new workers came promi 
nently into the field, and a rapid advance marked every yeal: 
At the present time the number of generally accepted species 
entitled to recognition as birds of that portion of North Americ 
north of Mexico is not less than six hundred and fifty, with, m 
addition, about one hundred and fifty commonly recognized sub- 
species, or about eight hundred recognized forms. The nests, 
eggs, and general habits of nearly all are now well known, pat- 
ticularly of those which occur east 0 

mong the recently discovered extinct species hav 
entirely new types representing what is believed to be a BE” 
sub-class, they having true teeth and other characters u 
lating them to reptiles, between which and true birds they un 
doubtedly form connecting links. 

Another phase of progress that should not pa 
this connection is the attention that has been paid to the ge” 
graphical distribution of the species, with especial reference a 
the determination of the different faunal areas in North Amer 
many of which are already known with a tolerable degree 
definiteness ; also the tendency to study 
and specific forms from a geographical an 
point. Formerly the study of our birds w 


new 


d evolutionary 
as pursued w. 


ss unnoticed W 


: ife 
the various sub-spe™” 
. stand- 


eS a ea 


REE EEEE NES bs la 


holly 


1876.) Progress of Ornithology in the United States. 549 


_ analytically, and forms from distant, little-known localities which 
differed slightly from their near affines of neighboring regions 
were looked upon as distinct “ species.” Later, as the material 
for a better knowledge of the subject accumulated, specimens of 
an intermediate character came to light, which, so long as they 
were few, were naturally looked upon as probably hybrids be- 
tween the forms whose characters they seemed to combine. 
Still later, however, it was found that certain strains of deviation 
from pronounced types occurred in a large number of species 
belonging to widely different families inhabiting the same areas. 
This led to the discovery of laws of geographical variation, con- 
necting particular phases of local differentiation with the topo- 
graphical and climatic peculiarities of the regions where they so 
uniformly occur. Many of the isolated facts bearing on this 
subject had been observed and placed on record prior even to 
1860, but their full import was not realized till after the lapse of 
another decade, during which our stores of material had become 
Vastly increased. In 1871 the “new departure” was for the 
first time fairly entered upon, which in three years revolution- 
wed the nomenclature of North American ornithology, adding an 
important chapter to philosophical zodlogy, and exerting great 
Influence in many other departments of North American zodlogy. 
Naturally, a view that threatened either to assign fully one sixth 
of the previously recognized species to the limbos of synonomy 
r to lower them to the grade of geographical races was not 

; rashly espoused by those to whom belonged the credit of the 

recognition and description of these previously supposed speci- 

fic forms; but so overwhelming were the facts in its favor found 
lobe, that one after another of our leading writers soon gave it 


ng indorsement, so that probably a greater degree of unanim- 
i 


s 
a 
i i 
n 
l 
: 
Í 
: 
i 


of opinion respecting any problems in ornithology never 
. obtained, than now exists among our ornithologists respecting 
the subject of geographical variation among our birds and the 
sub-specific relationship of many forms which when first made 
. own seemed unquestionably of specific rank. ; 
The next step, and apparently a wholly logical one in the 
tevolution, will doubtless be the general adoption of a trinomial 
; m of nomenclature for the more convenient expression of 
as relationship of what are conventionally termed “ sub-species,” 
D that we may write, for instance, Falco communis anatum in 
Place of the more cumbersome Falco communis subsp. anatum. 
‘ystem is already, in fact, to some extent in use here, 


Cie a a ABD oa 2 epi ON NEN REE 


550 Recent Literature. [September, 


though looked upon with strong disfavor by our transatlantic 
fellow-workers, who seem as yet not fully to understand the 
nature of the recent rapid advance ornithology has made in 
this country, or to appreciate the thoroughly substantial nature 
of the evidence on which it is based. The constant. and energetic 
exploration of the great North and Northwest, of the vast trans- 
Mississippian region, and of our sub-tropical borders, during the 
last two decades, by scores of indefatigable collectors and observ- 
ers, has certainly not been in vain, as witness the hundreds and 
often thousands of specimens of single species, representing the 
gradually varying phases presented at hundreds of localities, that 
have passed through the hands of our specialists. 

While the field of North American ornithology is far from an 
exhausted one, the progress made during little more than a half 
century is certainly creditable to American enterprise and to 
American students, though to Americans alone, of course, be- 
longs only a share of the credit of the marked advancement. 

In a short article like the present, devoted exclusively to what 
Americans have accomplished, justice can hardly be done to all, 
nor is there room to more than allude to the fact that much has 
been done in aid of the general advance by numerous foreign 
writers. By no means have all the names of even Americans 
that are deserving of recognition here, been mentioned in the 
present article, nor have all articles been cited that are entitled 
to a high degree of prominence; the omissions, however, arè 
those of limitation and not of choice. Neither is there space to 
notice the several important ornithological collections that have 
been gathered, to which alone many pages might be profitably 

evoted. 
ices 
RECENT LITERATURE. 

Orton’s Comparative ZoéLocy. — The plan of this book is excel- 
lent, and the distribution of the various subjects well carried out. The 
first half of the book is devoted to comparative anatomy and physiology: 
containing chapters with titles such as these: Plants and Animals oe 


then, but not often, we notice a slip of the pen, as 


1 Comparative Zodlogy, Structural and Systematic. For Use in Schoo s oo 
leges. By James Orton, A. M. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1876. 


pp. 396. 


Js and Col- 


Ç 


> Andes an > 
James d the Amazon; or 


1876.] Recent Literature. 551 


sponge,” whereas the sponge is a many-celled animal, with ciliated epi- 
thelium, and producing eggs and spermatic particles. On page 164 the 
figure of the nervous system of a starfish will scarcely do, as in nature 
but a single nerve is sent to each tay, and the ganglia are not at all as 
represented by the artist. In the section on instinct and intelligence, 
which in the main is excellent, the author remarks of the bee, “ We do 
not find one clever and another stupid.” We had supposed that observers 
had noticed a marked individuality among bees and other social insects. 
As regards the beaver (see page 184), Mr. Morgan has well shown that 
it acts by reason as well as instinctively. “The egg” of the Ameba is 
spoken of on page 191, though no rhizopods are known to reproduce by 


' eggs; for this reason the statement on page 188, that “all animals, with- 


out exception, arise from eggs,” should be modified, as there are whole 
orders of Protozoa which do not produce eggs. On page 201 it is said 
that the “grand characteristic” of the vertebrate embryo is the primi- 
tive stripe, “ which does not exist in the egg of any invertebrate.’ It is 
nown to exist in the eggs of the leech, earthworm, and allied forms, and 
with very rare exceptions in the eggs of all insects yet observed. Still 
this portion of the work is well written, in a clear, lively, and attract- 
lve style, and the book is certainly nowhere dull reading. 
n some respects we are disposed to find fault with the portion on 
classification, though on these points naturalists are of many minds. 
ttainly the many-celled sponges do not belong with the Protozoa, 
nor are they compound Amæœbæ. The Gregarine are not “ the simplest 
animal forms of which we have any knowledge,” though the author re- 
Jects the Monera of Haeckel. The Polyzoa, Brachiopods, and Tunicata 
are retained among the Mollusca, and in fact the classification is not to 
our mind so advanced in its treatment as other parts of the work. The 
old division of Entomostraca is retained, though Limulus represents quite 
a different division of Crustacea. On page 276 the lobster, represented 
by a time-honored English cut, is called Astacus marinus. The Arachnida 
are by the author provided with “ antennæ,” though they do not exist in 
nature. Much space is devoted to the vertebrates, as seems necessary in 
such a book as this, which has many useful features about it adapting 
It for use in schools. The three hundred and fifty wood-cuts are in al- 
Most every case, we should judge, borrowed from other works, and a 
larger number represent European animals than is suitable in a book de- 


- 'gned for use by American youth. 


Fy SENT Books Anp Pamputets. — Practical Botany, Structural and Systematic, 
stag Portion being an Analytical Key to the Wild Flowering Plants, Trees, 
bs, Ordinary Herbs, Sedges, and Grasses of the Northern and Middle United 
es east of the Mississippi. By August Keehler. Copiously Illustrated. New 
Henry Holt & Co, 1876. 12mo, pp. 400. $3.00. 
_ Across the Continent of South America. By 
fea A. M. Third edition, revised and enlarged, containing Notes of a 
‘Journey across the Continent from Para to Lima and Lake Titicaca. With 


552 “General Notes. [September, 


two Maps and numerous Illustrations. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1876. 
12mo, pp- 645. 

Sexual, Individual, and Geographical Variation in Leucosticte tephrocotis. Geo- 
graphical Variation among North American Mammals, especially in Respect to Size. 
By J. A. Allen. (Extracted from Bulletin of the Geological and Geographical Sur- 
vey of the Territories, vol. ii., No.4.) Washington, July 1, 1876. 8vo, pp. 30. 

Notes on the Geology of Northeastern New Mexico. By O. St. John. (Extracted 
from the Bulletin of the Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, vol. 
ii, No. 4.) Washington, July 1, 1876. 8vo, pp. 280-308. 

Archivos do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro. Vol. i.,1 Trimestre. Rio de 
Janeiro. 1876. 4to, pp. 30 

The Oaks of the United States. By Dr. G. Engelmann. (From the Transactions 
of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, vol. iii.) St. Louis, Mo. 1876. 8vo, pp- 20 


Notes on Agave. By Geo. Engelmann, M. D. (From the Transactions of the , 


Academy of Science, of St Louis, vol. iii.) St. Louis, Mo. 1875. 8vo, pp. 35. 
J. 
Beal. Lansing, Mich. 8vo, pp. 16. 

Micro-Photographs in Histology, Normal and Pathological. By Carl Seiler, M. D., 
in conjunction with J. Gibbons Hunt, M. D., and J. G. Richardson, M. D. Vol. 
Nos. 1, 2. Philadelphia: J. H. Coates & Co. 4to, 8 Plates. 

: —— 

GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY.! 

Scuanouirion; APPENDIX. — About the time when my little ar 
ticle on Schenolirion, for our July number, was issued, a valued Califor- 
nian correspondent, Mrs. R. M. Austin, rediscovered the doubtful species 
referred to, namely, S. album of Durand, and sent me specimens which 


have just come to hand. Pratten’s specimen, the only one before known, 
T have not seen 
Plantes, 


and the specimens (now complete, except as to the fruit 
erence of the plant to his genus Schanolirion. Neverthe 
somewhat from the Atlantic species in the particulars mentioned by E 
Torrey, and especially in the texture of the dried perianth, which x 
scarious, in the manner of Allium. Moreover, only its outer diviso 
answer to the description as to the three “almost confluent nerves, zi 
three inner divisions being strictly one-nerved. Besides, the ore n 
short-stipitate. The ovules in this and the original species of Miche? 
are geminate and ascending, not “horizontal.” The diagnosis of 
fourth species may accordingly be expressed as follows : — 


S. atBum Durand. Leaves rather flaccid; flowers very ™¥ 
e bracts or 


merous 
the 


perianth: the latter bright, white, scarious when dry ; the divisions 
less, except the midrib, which is triple in the three outer, 
the inner: filaments subulate, decidedly perigynous: ovary § 
California, in Nevada County, Mr. Pratten ; Plumas County, 
M. Austin. 

1 Conducted by Pror. G. L. GOODALE. 


1876.] Botany. ` 553 


It may now be added that the character “ rhizomate bulboso-tuber- 
osa,” by Dr. Torrey, is by no means correct, and the “root a tuberous 
thizoma,” of Dr. Chapman, is still less applicable to any species except 
S. Elliott’, and not perhaps properly to that. S. eroceum and S. Texa- 
num have a small but distinct tunicated bulb, the coats fleshy and not 
numerous, and from the base of this apparently a fusiform root proceeds. 
S. album shows a similar bulb, from the corner of which beneath springs 
a cluster of rootlets. Our specimens of S. Elliotti?, all from Dr. Chap- 
man, are indeed destitute of bulb, and show something like a rhizoma. 
Good specimens showing the underground growth of all these plants are 
how much wanted. 

S. Elliottii not rarely branches its raceme into a panicle. This genus, 
therefore, presents two difficulties in the way of Mr. Baker’s new ar- 
rangement of the Liliaceous tribes. It seems to me not remotely re- 
lated to Nolina ; but the pedicels are always solitary. — A. GRAY. 

SEDUM REFLEXUM L.— This Old World Sedum, which is occasion- 
ally met with in old-fashioned gardens, has established itself at Pigeon 
Cove, Essex County, Mass., as we learn from Mrs. Alonzo Wheeler, who 
has sent living specimens. It occupies an old stone-heap, in a patch a 


` yard or two in diameter, where “ Mrs. Sarah Ann Colburn says she no- 


ticed it when she was a very little girl, at least sixty years ago,” and 
whence she transplanted some of it to the cemetery at Folly Cove, thir- 
teen years ago. As the station of the plant is only a few rods distant 
from the ancient dwelling known as “the Garrison House” (a view of 
Which in a wood-cut adorns the twenty-first page of Mr. Leonard’s Pig- 
ton Cove and Vicinity), we cannot doubt that it is an escape from gar- 
dens, although the species is not handsome enough to reward cultivation, 

e plants still carry some marks of former cultivation : first, in the 
augmentation of the normal number of parts in the blossom. Instead of 
five in the calyx and corolla, or even six, which is not rare in the wild 
Plant in Europe, there are mostly from seven to nine or ten, so that the 
Plant assumes the technical character of Sempervivum. Secondly, these 
flowers are apt to run together into a sort of crest, and to make a some- 
What fasciated inflorescence, or a dense cluster, from which, later, pedicels 
Spring in a proliferous manner. We do not wonder that Mrs. Wheeler 
Was puzzled with it. Still she divined that it was some vagarious Sedum, 
hot in the ordinary books. — A. Gray. 

A New Fir or THE Rocky Mountains. — While collecting in the 
Wasatch Mountains, in Eastern Utah, last summer, for Major Powell's 
Survey of the Colorado, I obtained five species of fir, two of which pos- 
ad à Special interest, growing out of the confusion which has heretofore 
existed respecting the group to which they belong, and the fact that one 
of them bids fair to be established as a new species. The other turns 
E O be Abies concolor Eng., and not A. grandis Lindl., as was sup- 
Posed, and under which name this tree has been several times reported. 


554 General Notes. [September, 


The leaves of my specimens are not glaucous above, but underneath only. 


or not at all, this character not being a constant one. This tree is there 
known to the Mormon lumbermen as “ black balsam” and makes an 
excellent quality of lumber. It is rarely found above 8500 feet altitude, 
or below 7000 feet. 

But there was another tree there, very much resembling this in its 
botanical characters, though differing widely in other respects, which I 
well knew to be a different thing, and as it answered to no description I 
could find, I became deeply interested in it. In altitudé it commences 
just where the other leaves off, and continues on up nearly to the timber 
line, or over 11,000 feet altitude. I found it both in the basin of the 
Sevier River, above Gunnison, and also far to the eastward across the 
divide on the Colorado side, high up on the slopes‘of Aquarius Plateau 
and Thousand Lake Mountain. This tree is distinguished by the lum- 
bermen of that region as “ white balsam.” It is also known as “ pump- 
kin pine,” the wood being rather spongy and poor for lumber. But 
otherwise it is a much finer tree than A. concolor, being very tall and 
straight, with few limbs from its lower trunk. Of both species I brought 
back specimens, not only of the leaves, cones, etc., but also sections of 
the trunk for exhibition at the Centennial, where they may now be seen 
in Dr. Vasey’s excellent collection sent from the Department of Agri- 
culture. I also sent specimens to Dr. Engelmann for identification, from 
whose report, as follows, it appears that both the species above mentioned 
have been heretofore confounded under the name of A. grandis Lindl., 
inapplicable to either. 

“ Abies subalpina is the provisional name Dr. Engelmann gives to that 
fir which occupies the highest wooded regions up to the limits of vegeta- 
tion in the Rocky Mountains, from Colorado northward and westward to 
Oregon. In lower altitudes it is replaced in Colorado and Utah by 4. 
concolor, and in Oregon by A. grandis. All the specimens sent from 
Colorado by Parry, Hall, and others belong here ; but in Oregon collec- 
tions it is mixed with A. grandis, and in both regions has been designated 
by this latter name. Its nearest affinity is not to any western Abies, 
but to the eastern A. balsamea, of which it may prove a geographical 
variety. Its leaves are shorter than those of A. grandis, those of tie 
lower sterile branches are slightly emarginate, on the upper side grooved 
and without stomata. The leaves of vigorous shoots and of cone-bearing 
branchlets are acute, above convex and provided with stomata. 
cones are purplish brown, the scales scarcely wider than long; the pale 
are variable in this as in most other species, and not of much oe : 
value. Mr. A. Murray has, in an Oregon specimen collected by pr 
Lyall, noticed this difference of leaves of sterile and fertile branches, nae 
therefore named it A. bifolia; this, however, is a misnomer, 10 ting 
something very different from what he intended, and cannot stand. 


“In a paper shortly to be published in the Transactions of the St. Louis 


oF 


eee Se OM ee Vir EP EER eR ae T ee ae ee ame Pee Ese) OEN CPi eke 


et See ee a eee ee PRS) SS eed aS 


1876.] Botany. 555 
Academy of Science, Dr. Engelmann has gone more extensively into 
the different questions relating to the North American species of Abies.” 

Until this very needful revision appears, the following characters, 
drawn from my own specimens, may serve to designate more particularly 
our welcome newcomer from the mountains. 

Abies subalpina Eng., n. sp. Tall and slim, 80 to 100 feet high, 
often 50 feet without branches; bark smooth, white, and covered with 
vesicles to near the base ; leaves 6 to 12 lines long, less than a line broad, 
hot twisted near the base, bisulcate and somewhat glaucous on the lower 
(outer) side, short-pointed, obtuse or slightly emarginate, those on the 
lower branches 2-ranked and spreading, those on the upper scattered, 
crowded, and more or less appressed, shorter on fertile than on sterile 
branchlets ; cones 21 to 3 inches long, 1} to 2 inches thick, solitary, 
erect, ovate or oblong, obtuse, greenish ; scales 6 to 10 lines long and 
about as broad, horizontal and close-pressed, broad-cuneate, unguiculate, 
the rounded upper margin somewhat reflexed and resinous, pubescent ; 
bracts short, white with a dark base, erose-dentate all round, their 
slightly elevated summits furnished with a strong mucro; seeds large, 
the wing covering nearly the whole surface of the scale; sterile aments 
2 inches long, 3 lines in diameter, marked longitudinally and somewhat 


_Spirally by the dark centres of the otherwise light brown mucronate 


Scales. — Lester F. Warp, 

BOTANICAL Parers IN Recent PERIODICALS. — Flora, Nos. 16 and 
1, J. Sachs, On Emulsion Figures, and Clustering of Swarm Spores 
m Water (continued in No. 17, and not yet finished). A. de Krempel- 
huber, Brazilian Lichens. Worthington Smith, The Resting Spores of 
peters infestans. No other journals have come to hand at this 


ZOOLOGY. 

Hasits or rae Wurre-Foorep Mouse. — The white footed mouse 
(Mus leucopus) sometimes takes up its abode in deserted bird’s-nests 
Audubon, in his work on the Quadrupeds of North America, speaks of 
this peculiar habit. He says it has been known to take possession of 
deserted bird’s-nests, such as those of the cat-bird, red-winged starling, 
Song-thrush, and red-eyed flycatcher. One day toward the end of Au- 
gust, 1875, I found one of these mice in the deserted nest of a red-eyed 
flycatcher (Vireo olivaceus) ; it was on the border of a thick forest in the 
Blueridge Mountains, Monroe County, Pa. The nest was situated near 
the extremity of one of the limbs of a sapling or young tree, a few feet 

em the ground. The mouse had completely stopped up the inside of 

hest with dried grass, leaving just enough room to squeeze itself 


556 General Notes. [September, 


It moved off, after getting out of the nest, in a rather sluggish manner, 
as this species is nocturnal and sleeps during the day. — SPENCER 
TROTTER. 

Tae BLUEBIRD FEEDING ON AMPELOPSIS. — On the 2d of April, 
1876, this city was visited by remarkably large. numbers of the 
bluebird (Sialia sialis Baird). This was its first appearance in abun- 
dance this season, only a few stray individuals having previously paid us 
a “ flying visit,” during the wonderful installment of warm weather with 
which we were favored in January. The day was cold, and the frozen 
ground was partially covered with snow, the remains of the heavy fall of 
a few days before. Awakened before six o’clock in the morning by the 
loud twitterings of the birds, I found my visitors busily devouring the 
berries of the Virginian creeper (Ampelopsis quinquefolia Michx.), the 
vines of which extend over the whole of the easterly side of my house. 
They having been uncommonly prolific the past season, the branches 
were thickly covered with clusters of the purple fruit, which adhered to 
the stems all through the winter. From morning till night the blue- 
birds, continuing to arrive, crowded the vines, voraciously eating the ber- 
ries, of which, in their eagerness, they broke off nearly as many as 
‘they swallowed. The next day the weather suddenly became milder, 
and the birds disappeared. — Henry Gitiman, Detroit, Mich. 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL News. — In the third volume of the Transac- 
tions of the Academy of Sciences of St. Louis, Mr. A. J. Conant has 
published an article upon the archeology of Missouri, especially oa 
caves of the Ozark Mountains and the mounds and earthworks on the 
banks of Bayou St. John, in the southeastern portion of the State. 

The New York Tribune of July 7th records the tragic death of L. H. 
Cheney, a member of the Harvard Summer School of Geology, at Cum- 
berland Gap. While excavating a mound with three others, he was 
buried by the falling earth. . His companions were saved. 

The State Archxological Association of Indiana will hold its first 
annual meeting in the rooms of the state geologist at Indianapolis, on 
the 17th and 18th of October. In addition to the regular sessions, €x- 
cursions will be made to interesting localities. Provisions are — 
foot to establish a museum and library. We heartily commend this 
scheme, and believe that exhaustive special collections are necessary t0 
supplement the National and the Peabody Museums. 

The North American Review for July contains M 


r. Lewis H. Mor 


gan’s paper, read before the last meeting of the National Academy Hil 
uthor believes - 


the Houses of the Mound Builders. The distinguished a rings 
that the mural mounds were the foundations of the communal eae of 
of village Indians, and that they can be understood by the stu i 


similar structures now existing or known to have existed since the : 


mencement of American exploration. 


1876.] Anthropology. 557 


The Proceedings of the American Association for 1875 has appeared, 
and contains full reports or extended abstracts of C. V. Riley’s paper 
on Locusts as Food for Man, Whittlesey’s paper on Ancient Rock In- 
scriptions in Ohio, Morgan’s paper on Ethnical Periods and on Arts of 
Subsistence, Sternberg’s paper on Indian Burial Mounds and Shell-Heaps 
near Pensacola, Comstock’s Archeological Notes from Wyoming, Cof- 
finberry and Strong’s paper on the Explorations of Ancient Mounds in 
the Vicinity of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Farquharson’s paper on Re- 
cent Exploration of Mounds near Davenport, lowa, and Gilman’s paper 
on the Ancient Men of the Great Lakes. Several other papers are 
mentioned by title, but no abstracts are given. 

The Society of Anthropology of Paris has offered a prize this year to 
be presented to the author of the best paper upon the subject, The 
Slavonic Races, and Maps of the Countries inhabited by the Slavonians. 

The Atheneum for July 8th contains the remainder of the questions 
to be discussed at the International Congress of Orientalists at St. Peters- 
burg. They relate to Turanian, Japanese, Indian, Arabian, Persian, 
and Hebrew investigations. 

Professor Busk exhibited to the London Anthropological Institute, 
June 13th, a collection of skulls from the New Hebrides. Some of those 
from Mallicolo showed flattening of the forehead. 

The first seven articles of the Transactions of the New Zealand Insti- 
tute for 1875 relate to the Maori race, Moas and Moa-Hunters, and the 
relation between the Maoris and the Moa-Hunters. The tendency seems 
to be to discard the notions of Haast and others that the Moa became 
extinct many centuries ago, and that the Moa-Hunters were a prehistoric 
people, now quite extinct, and not at all related to the Maoris, 

A paper. by Mr. Rankin on The South Sea Islanders was read by 
Mr. Brabrook before the Anthropological Institute, June 13th, in which 
the title Mahori is proposed for the light-colored races of the Pacific 
Isles, and Papuan for the blacks. The author believes that the latter 
first peopled the greater part of the islands, and that the lighter race, 
coming later from the west, settled first in Samoa, and spread thence in 
all directions, mingling often with the Papuans. He showed several 
differences between the Maoris and the Malays, who seem to be a sepa- 
Tate race, 

In Nature for June 29th, the Rev. J. S. Whitmee makes some very 
Sound observations upon the errors which have been propagated with 
Teference to the supposed rapid decrease of the Polynesians, and the 
‘aie may apply to aborigines in general. The first source of error is 
the excessively high éstimates put upon these countries by early visitors, 
who assumed the thickly settled strips of coast which they explored as a 
‘ample of the whole country. In many islands, the author believes, the 
Population is actually increasing, owing to the beneficial influence of 


1 missionaries, the cessation of human sacrifice, cannibalism, and in- 


558 General Notes. [September, 


fanticide, the fewer wars, the better treatment of women, the care of. 
children, the sick, and the aged, and a more steady supply of food. Upon 
these topics the author has collected a great many statistics. 

The second number of Broca’s Revue d’ Anthropologie for 1876 is at 
hand, and contains the following matter: Upon Cranio-Cerebral Topog- 
raphy, Broca; Banton or Abanton, Hovelacque ; Vanikoro and its In- 
habitants, Lesson ; The Tumulus of Eshoj, Denmark, Engelhardt; Revue 
critique, Revue préhistorique, Revue des Livres, Revue des Journaux, 
Extraits et Analyses, Miscellanea, Nécrologie, Bulletin bibliographique. 
Nearly one half the number is taken up with the treatment of cranio- 
cerebral topography by M. Broca, and the review of the most eminent 
works which have been published upon the subject by Gratiolet, Arnold, 
Broca, Bischoff, Heftler, Turner, Féré, Ecker, and Landzert. 

Das Ausland, under the editorship of F. von Hellwald, always con- 
tains some interesting anthropological description or discussion. In the 
number for May 29th is a review of Rutimeyer’s Variation of the Fauna 
of Switzerland since the Existence of Man there, also a résumé of the 
Indian Tribes of the United States made from Authentic Sources, by 
Adolph Hunnius; in the number for June 5th, Dr. Bela Weisz discusses 
(Economics; in that for June 12th, the Earliest Use of Potstone (Lapis 
ollaris), and in that for June 19th, the Origin of Alphabetic Writings 
the Numerical Relations of the Sexes, and Manners and Customs 10 
Servia are discussed. — O. T. Mason. 

OCCURRENCE OF THE Patoo-PaToo IN NORTH AMERICA. — An in- 
teresting example of the independent production of a well-known foreign 
form of weapons may be seen in the Michigan exhibit of stone and cop- 
per implements at the Philadelphia Exposition, where there is a single 
specimen of steatite patoo-patoo, such as is common in New Zealand. 
These weapons are described by Tylor (Early History of Mankind, p- 
204, London, 1870) as“ an edged club of bone or stone, which has 
been compared to a beaver’s tail, or is still more like a soda-water bottle 
with the bulb flattened, and it is a very effective weapon in a hand-to- 
hand fight, being so sharp that a man’s skull may be split at one biar 
with it.” This description will strictly apply to the Michigan specimen, 
with the one exception of not being drilled at the smaller end, for 8 
wrist cord. This weapon measures sixteen and one fourth inches 2 
length. It is two and five eighths inches wide for eleven inches, when 
it tapers to one and one half inches, but again widens to two inches ~ 
the end, thus forming a terminal knob or button, about which a wrist 
cord could be securely fastened. The edges are beautifully wrought and 
are as sharp now as the general find of polished stone axes aP -e 
E. B. Tylor, whom we have already quoted, mentions the occurrence 0 
such a specimen, “ of dark brown jasper,” from Peru, and also one, “of # 
greenish amphibolic stone,” from Cuzco, which is figured by Rivero 
Tschudi. Of the vast numbers of relics of American aborigines 


sph 


aad hi 


rie 


a Sd eas 5 Leal a La a 


Pe ep ee Oe a te 


: 
q 
: 
d 
i 
; 


1876.] Geology and Palæontology. 559 


adelphia there is no other specimen of the form above described, and it 


is presumable that this weapon was one seldom fashioned in North 
America, and its occurrence seems better explained by considering it 
rather as an independent invention of its original owner, than a copy of 
the favorite arm of another people. —- C. C. Assort, M. D. 


GEOLOGY AND PALZONTOLOGY. 


ICEBERGS OFF THE Coast OF NEWFOUNDLAND. — On the coast of 
Newfoundland, icebergs generally make their appearance about the Ist 
of January. Their approach is heralded by a number of smaller pieces. 
When we reflect upon the origin of these bergs, it would appear that the 
greater number of them ought to be disengaged from their parent mass, 
the glacier, in summer-time. The semi-fluid mass of which the glacier 
is made up, creeping slowly, like a frozen river, down the valley, by the 
aid of heat, gravity, etc., has in summer-time its pace augmented by the 
Increment it receives at this season of the year. It then pushes itself 
rapidly forward into the ocean, and there, by the buoyancy of the water, 
the projecting ice-mass is detached and floated off. Why, therefore, is it 

t the bergs are not seen off the coast of Newfoundland at the close 
of the summer, or at latest in the “fall” of the year? The answer to 
this may be obtained from the inference of Sir Edward Belcher and 
other arctic navigators, who téll us that in very high latitudes the ice 
appears to be in motion much earlier than it is farther to the south. 
On the 20th of May the western side of Smith’s Sound has been found 
to be quite open for navigators in a boat, whilst Barron Strait is not 
navigable till late in August. The consequence of this would appear to 
be that whatever ice may be set free far north early in the year is de- 
tained in more southern latitudes until the fall. Another cause also op- 
rating in keeping the ice off the coast until the spring of the year may 
be the wind. Although icebergs, with regard to their motion and the 
direction of the wind, often present curious anomalies, yet these must to a 
‘light degree be influential on their wanderings. In the fall of the 
year the prevalent winds on the North American side of the Atlantic are, 
Senerally speaking, from the west, which tend to keep all bergs out at 
Sea, and thus to observers on the land they would be lost sight of; but 
n the spring of the year the winds are more or less northerly. which 
Would only aid the current in bringing the ice along shore. The most 
apparent suggestion for the detention of the ice before reaching the 
shores of Labrador and Newfoundland is of course the distance it has to 
travel ; but considering the steady rate at which this is carried on in the 
stream which bears it, the effects of wind and the delay in the breaking 
UP of the southern arctic barrier must have the precedence. — J. Milne 
m the Geological Magazine, July. 

ECENT Views IN Grotoay. — Mr. John Evans, in his late address 


: 48 president of the Geological Society of London, after giving obituary 


560 General Notes. [ September, 


notices of Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. Scrope, Deshayes, and others, discusses 
recent phases of geological thought, and after speaking of the bearings of 
solar physics on the early history of our planet, refers to the glacial 
epoch, for the production of which he insists on a change in the geograph- 
ical position of the earth’s axis, and claims that it is premature to invoke 
intense glacial periods to account for all the glacial phenomena which 
may be observed. “Much as we must esteem the labors of M. Ahémar 
and Mr. Croll, and others who have gone so deeply into the question of 
glaciation, — enormous as have been the effects of ice in this and other 
countries, — there are many who cannot but feel that the ice-caps invoked 
almost transcend our powers of belief, and who will be grateful to any 
astronomer or mathematician who will bring the pole round which they 
were generated somewhat nearer to our doors.” 

e prophesies that “the great work of future paleontologists will 
rather lie in still further developing the affinities of genera, than in 
merely recording the minute distinctions of species. The discoveries 
which have of late been made have a tendency to fill in the missing links 
in the chain of organic nature, and to lead to the adoption of some form 
of that great doctrine of evolution which has received so large an amount 
of support from a former occupant of this chair, to whom we have this 
day presented the Wollaston Medal, Professor Huxley. It is highly 
probable that much more will be done in the same direction. In addi- 
tion to what has been effected by Mons. Albert Gaudry in his researches 
on the fossils of Pikermi and Mont Léberon, and by Dr. W. Kowalevsky 
in his investigations of the osteology of the Hyopotamide, the discov- 
eries of Professors Marsh and Leidy in America are doing much toward 
illustrating the line of descent of many of the higher mammalia.” 

ARNIVOROUS REPTILE ABOUT THE SIZE OF A LION. — Professor 

Owen describes and figures in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological 
Society, the remains of a carnivorous reptile from the Karoo Lake deposits 
of South Africa. It is called Cynodraco major, and for this type, with a 
number of other extinct carnivorous saurians, he forms a distinct order of 
reptiles under the name Theriodontia. In concluding his paper, Pro- 
fessor Owen inquires whether the transference of structures from t 
reptilian to the mammalian type has been “a seeming one, delusive, 
to accidental coincidence in animal species independently (thaumato- 
genously) created, or was the transference real, consequent on nomogeny 
or the incoming of species by secondary law, the mode of operati 
which we have still to learn? Certain it is that the lost reptilian struct- 
ures dealt with in the present paper are now manifested by quadrupeds 
with a higher condition of cerebral, circulatory, respiratory and Ey 
mentary systems, the acquisition of which is not intelligible to the me 
on either the Lamarckian or the Darwinian hypothesis.” fo i 

GEOLOGICAL Survey or Canapa.— The Report of Progress 
1874-75, besides the introductory report by Mr. Selwyn, the directot 


4 1876.] Geography and Exploration. 561 
of the survey, contains reports on the country west of lakes Manitoba and 
Winnipegosis, with notes on the geology of Lake Winnepeg, by Mr. 
Robert Bell; a report on the country between the Upper Assineboine 
River and lakes Winnipegosis and Manitoba, by Mr. J. W. Spencer; a 
report of much general interest on explorations in British Columbia, by 
Mr. James Richardson ; and a report on geological observations in New 
Brunswick in 1874, by Prof. L. W. Bailey and Mr. G. F. Matthew. 
Other reports of economic interest follow. The staff of the director con- 
sists of ten geological explorers, and the total annual appropriation for 
this important survey is only $45,000, “a sum not greater than is 
granted for similar purposes by many single States in the neighboring 
Union.” 
` Tae WALRUS FORMERLY IN SOUTH CAROLINA. — In a collection of 
fossil bones from the Ashley phosphate beds near Charleston, S. C., Dr. 
Leidy identifies a complete tusk of the walrus, indicating a still farther 
point south for the extension of this animal than had been previously 
known, Virginia (at least Martha’s Vineyard) having been, we believe, 
the farthest point southward where it had previously been found. As- 
, sociated with this tusk were the skull of a manatee, a tooth of the Mega- 
, therium, and the bones of a number of new species of-cetaceans, among 
thema huge tooth of a form allied to the sperm whale, and probably the 
“ame as those from the Crag formation of Antwerp, ascribed to Dino- 
-  nphius. 

More Fossıt Brrps. — The bones of two species of a bird like the 
diver, and also with affinities to Professor Marsh’s cretaceous genus 
Hesperornis, have been discovered by Professor Seeley in the chalk 
formation of England. 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 
i News rrom Sraniry. — This enterprising explorer, after a long 
silence, during which much anxiety had been felt about him, writes from 
the district of Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. The letters received and 
Published in the New York Herald, are five in number, and contain a 
narrative of Stanley’s voyages, land journeys, and adventures from June, 
1875, when he was last heard from, to April 26, 1876, when he was 
Within fifteen days’ march of Ujiji. The first, written July 29, 1875, 
Stves an account of his voyage from M’tesa’s capital to his camp at the 
Southern end of Victoria Lake, near the Shimeeyu River. He not only 
“countered violent and dangerous storms, but he and his party nar- 
oy escaped massacre at the hands of the savage natives of Bumbireh, 
‘large island on the western side of the lake. The second letter, written 
seventeen days later, describes his return, with his whole party, to, 
Sanda (M’tesa’s kingdom), and the punishment inflicted on the savages 
*f Bumbireh by the way. An interval of five months elapsed before his 
third letter was written. During this period, by the friendly aid of 
VOL. x. — xo, 9. 36 


562 General Notes. [September, 


M’tesa, who furnished him with a large escort of Uganda spearmen, he 
crossed the country to the Albert Lake, traversing the lofty, mountain- 
ous region of Gambaragara, which was only seen by Speke in the dis- 
tance. The latter estimated the altitude of the highest peak at ten thou- 
sand feet above the sea; but Stanley scaled the highlands dividing the 
two great lakes, and there discovered a new tribe of natives, of whom we 
only learn as yet that they are “ pale-faced.” This expression must not 
be taken too literally, yet the discovery is of very great interest in an 
ethnological point of view. i 
No dates are given of this journey, but Stanley appears to have 
reached the Albert Lake in December last. He encamped on a large 
bay or inlet, to which he gave the name of the Princess Beatrice, and 
after a short stay returned to Uganda without having made any naviga- 
tion of the lake. This fact probably explains why M. Gessi, in April of 
this year, failed to obtain any news of Stanley’s visit. The letter de- 
scribing the journey was dated from Kawanga, near M’tesa’s capital, on 
the 18th of January last. The next news is from Kanfurra, a point not 
yet located on the maps, March 26th. It is probably somewhere in the 
dominions of King Rumanika, who showed such favor to Speke and 
Grant, for Stanley speaks of having explored the Kageera River, à 
western tributary of the Victoria, the lake called Windermere by Speke, 
and the hot springs of Karagwe. The fifth and last letter was written 
on the 24th of April, in the now familiar region of Unyamwezi, and 
within easy reach of the little port of Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, where 
Stanley met Livingstone. His intention was to reach the northern eX 
tremity of the lake, and then cross to the southern end of the Albert 
Nyanza, thereby definitely settling another important geographical ques- 
tion. He was in good health, and still amply provided with men and 
supplies. — New York Tribune. : 
CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF LAKE ALBERT NYANZA.— At alate meeting 
of the Royal Geographical Society, a letter from General Stone, on 
The Circumnavigation of the Lake Albert Nyanza, by M. Gessi, Was 
read. The points of importance in M. Gessi’s paper we 
Albert Nyanza is one hundred and forty miles long and fift 
that in the east there is a river flowing into the lake which is 
fidently believed to be one of the sources of the Nile. This, 
Alcock said, was a most important result of M. Gessi’s expediti 
made it quite clear that the White Nile issued from the Lake A 
Nyanza. Sir Samuel Baker had written to him (Sir. R. Alcock) indors- 
ing the importance of M. Gessi’s discoveries, which had established ie 
that for eighteen centuries had baffled all the geographers of the wor 


Be ed wi S 


on) ra al ita aces rane ST Ey a oes ee 


1876.] Microscopy. 563 


MICROSCOPY.! 

Recoeyition or Woor in Mixep Fasrics. — Any child at all fa- 
miliar with the instrument can instantly distinguish wool from cotton, 
linen, and silk, as figured in the common books on the microscope ; but 
the exigencies of modern commerce have developed new and difficult 
questions in regard to the diagnosis of wool. The Treasury Depart- 
ment of the United States, after having from June, 1870, down to Feb- 
tuary, 1875, admitted certain fabrics, known as “calf-hair goods,” free 
ftom those duties which would be levied upon goods composed in part of 
woolen fibres, on certificate from the manufacturers of such articles that 
they were made entirely of cow-hair, calf-hair, and vegetable fibres, and 
contained no wool or worsted in any form, became possessed of strong 
evidence that these fabrics were not made, and could not be made, wholly 
Without wool, and submitted the question to the National Academy of 
Sciences for investigation, furnishing more than ninety samples of these 
goods as materials for study. Drs. J. J. Woodward and J. L. Leconte 
Were appointed a commission to investigate the subject, and at their re- 
quest Drs. J. G. Hunt and E. M. Schaeffer made a careful microscop- 
ical examination of the samples furnished, and also, for comparison, of dif- 
ferent varieties of commercial wool and of hair from different animals, 
and prepared mounted samples of each for further study and comparison. 

e fibres, having been rendered opaque by the dyestuffs previously em- 
ployed, were bleached in dilute mineral acids, mounted in glycerine, and 
examined mostly with powers of from } to 4 inch, except for estimating 
percentages, for which lower powers were employed. In a few of the 
‘amples submitted no wool was found, or only doubtful hairs, or a few 
fibres, not certainly indicating an intentional admixture. In a larger 
Proportion of cases there was not much wool, while in a very large num- 
ber of Samples there was from five and ten per cent. to a much larger 
Proportion ; in one case it being difficult to find five per cent. of genu- 
ine cow-hair. 

As a result of these observations, and of a subsequent verification of 

m, the commission submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury a re- 
Port which contributes largely to the clearness of our knowledge of the 
relations of wool to other kinds of hair, and which is published, with ex- 
cellent heliotype illustrations, in the Bulletin of the National Associa- 

n of Wool Manufacturers, December, 1875. 

x While it is remembered that some microscopists deny the possibility of 
distinguishing the hair of the cow and calf from that of the sheep, and 
others differ among themselves as to the result of observations on 

© same Samples, and while it is admitted that both kinds of hair are of 
*Yery similar structure in respect to the arrangement and details of their 
Medullary, cortical, and cuticular portions, it is still confidently asserted 


1 Conducted by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


564 General Notes. [September, 


that true wool can be reliably detected by the microscope in mixtures 
where it occurs. The kinds of hairs observed and described by the com- 
mission, may be conveniently arranged in three groups. First, wooly 
hairs. These mostly extend “from half an inch to several inches in 
length, without any medulla, and without perceptible taper. They pre- 
sent (especially in the wool of the sheep), at frequent but irregular in- 
tervals, well-marked, one-sided, more or less spirally arranged thicken- 
ings of the cortical substance, which gives to the wool its curly charac- 
ter. The mean diameter of each hair varies from 5}, to the oyy of am 
inch, or even less; and the scales of the cuticle are so arranged that their 
free edges project somewhat, forming well-marked imbrications, of which 
usually from fifteen to thirty can be counted in the +}, of an inch.” 
Such hairs constitute the wool of commerce, originally limited to the 
sheep but now applied to the goat, camel, and llama, and similar hairs 
have long been known to be mixed with the straight hair of various ani- 
mals, such as the “deer, hare, rabbit, beaver, otter, seal, lion, tiger, cer- 
tain varieties of dog, and some foreign breeds of oxen.” | these hairs 
are so much alike, structurally, that it is believed they should all be des- 
ignated as wool, and it is not claimed that the animal from which they 
were derived can be uniformly and reliably determined by the micro- 
scope. Obviously some of these varieties not now recognized as W00 
might in the future become of sufficient commercial importance to require 
either the legalization of them all as “ wool,” or the discovery of more 
complete methods of discrimination. Second, straight hairs. These are 
often shorter, “ much thicker at their base, and taper rapidly towards the 
point. The medulla occupies a large proportional part of the whole 
hair, and the free edges of the scales of the cuticle, which are so disposed 
as to form from twenty to forty imbrications to the ria of an inch, lie 
quite smoothly upon the surface of the hairs, so that their contours, 4 
seen under the microscope, closely approximate continuous lines. These 
characters are so well marked that the coarser hairs of the cow and calf 
can readily be distinguished from the woolly hairs of any of the wool- 
bearing animals.” Naturally mixed with the wool of the sheep, how 
ever, especially with the inferior grades, and with that of the goat, form- 
ing the “outer coat” of the goat, are coarse, straight hairs, 50 close 

resembling some of the hairs of the cow or calf that their discriminatio? 
presents great difficulties; and such hairs, even when derived from the 
wool-bearing animals, cannot be recognized as wool by the microscop® 
The percentage of “wool,” therefore, as determined in mixed fabrics; by 
a microscopical count of hairs, would probably be underrated in & certain 
proportion of cases. In case all woolly hairs which are “more ue 
crispy, curled, or frizzled ” should be legalized as wool, it would aon 
be convenient to make an exception, admitting as genuine wool sue" 

percentage of straight hairs as is found to be present ina specified sit 
of the sheep’s coat. Third, doubtful hairs. Among the imbricated ha! 


1876. ] Microsvopy. 565 


of the wool of the sheep some are occasionally found which so closely re- 
semble the softer hairs of the cow or calf that the investigators confess 
themselves unable to discriminate between them in all instances. Hairs 
of this description are therefore more properly classed as doubtful, than 
included in either of the other groups. 

ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE CELLULOSE AND STarcu.— Mr. Thomas 
Taylor has contributed to a late Monthly Report of the Department of 
Agriculture some interesting experiments by which starch-like bodies 
are artificially produced. On a fibre of cotton is placed a drop of a 
strong, amber-colored tincture of iodine, followed by a drop of commer- 
cial muriatic acid, and immediately afterwards by a drop of concentrated 
sulphuric acid. The combination of the sulphuric acid with the water of 
the muriatic causes the liquid to boil for two or three seconds, and the 
cellulose or cotton fibre is changed, as shown under a power of about one 
hundred diameters, into the form of disks or beads of a well-defined blue 
color. A similar change can likewise be produced in flax, and in a vari- 
ety of vegetable tissues. Fresh animal tissues yield a somewhat similar 
result, brain, heart, liver, muscles, etc., having been successfully experi- 
mented upon. Fibrine of blood, both human and bird’s, dissolved in 
caustic potash and precipitated by acetic acid, gives well-characterized 
granules, a result which is confirmed by hundreds of experiments. 

ARRANGED PorLens.— Mr. J. A. Langstroth has presented to the 
San Francisco Microscopical Society slides having pollen from different 
species of flowers, arranged on the same slide for convenience of com- 
parative study. 

Errrcr or APERTURE ON DEFINITION. — Mr. J. Zentmayer, in a 
very clear lecture on the elementary properties of lenses, published in 
the Journal of the Franklin Institute, May and June, 1876, calls atten- 
tion prominently tò the confusion of images necessarily attendant upon 

8° apertures, except when viewing absolutely flat objects, from the 
“ereoscopic character of the images formed by different portions of the 
Surface of the lens, the image formed by pencils transmitted by one side | 
of the lens being unavoidably different from corresponding images formed 

7 the opposite side of the lens. 

Microscoprcar EXAMINATION oF Crupe Druas. — Prof. M. W. 
Harrington, whose well-known success in this branch of study gives in- 
terest to any production for which he is responsible, being not yet ready 
© Publish his work on the Identification of Vegetable Drugs, Foods, and 

Tres, has caused the publication in pamphlet form (by John Moore, 
Publisher, Ann Arbor, Mich.) of the Introduction and Analytical Tables 
4 mth which the book will be furnished. The brief introductory part con- 
: “8 a few excellent general suggestions in regard to this kind of work, 
While the analytical tables are a novel and able application of the meth- 
ods of the artificial keys of modern works on botany to this field of mi- 
cToscopica] research, The tables are published. now, and in this form, 


566 General Notes. [ September, 


partly for convenience in class use in teaching, and partly that they may, 
by the test of practical use, receive any necessary corrections or additions 
before the publication of the full work. 
Aperture or OBJECTIVES. — Mr. F. H. Wenham’s experiments with 

[ 


the slit as a means of cutting off the lateral rays of an objective have led 

him to announce the belief, in the Monthly Microscopical Journal, that an 
excessive or false aperture is attributed to all objectives by the lateral pen- 
cis which direct light far beyond the axial one, and thus greatly enlarge 
the diameter of the proper light disk. An aperture mapped out ona 
screen shows the false aperture faintly portrayed as an outer circle of 
light, while the true aperture, as obtained by the slit, gives a bright, oval 

disk within the other. As an example of the effect of the slit in reduc- 

ing to what he regards as the true aperture, he mentions the following 
reduction of the nominal angles of three lenses made nearly twenty years 

ago: a} of 100° to 56°, a } of 130° to 92°, and a yy of 170° to 100°. 

He invites discussion upon this novel and very interesting question, 
which ought to excite the greatest attention until settled beyond 
dispute. 

Mr. Wenham now uses a slit of fixed width, cut through an opaque 
film upon a glass slip 3x1, being substantially the method contrived by 
Mr. Tolles, and published in the Naturavist for March, 1875. He 
also adopts without credit Mr. Tolles’ plan of covering the slit with @ 
balsam-mounted thin cover-glass, so that the objective can be adjusted 
and tested under natural conditions. 

PHOTOGRAPHING THE NINETEENTH Banp.— Count Castracane has 
photographed, apparently successfully, Nobert’s nineteenth band, with an 
amplification of eight hundred diameters obtained by means of a Gund- 
lach dry lens of 4, German inch focus. The object was illuminated by 
an achromatic condenser of large angle, and with a large central stop. 

The resolution of this band of lines of qr}37y inch by a dry lens, has not 

been generally deemed possible heretofore. The genuineness 
photographic lines was established by micrometric measurement. : 
success, if reliable, seems an invasion of Helmholtz’s theory On the ulti- 
mate limits of microscopic power ; but such theories seldom live long: 

Porvutar Microscopy. — The increasing use of the microscope 
among persons of previously unscientific habits and educati 


treating the subject in books and journals. Mr. John Phin’s litt in 
on the Selection and Use of the Microscope, intended for beg 


and under the same management. 


ed 
Aw Easy Nrrzscura.— The No. 19 of Möller's test plate, resol 


1876.] Microscopy. 567 


into beads by the Nachet No. 5 objective of the San Francisco Micro- 
scopical Society, proves to be an anomalously easy shell. The objective 
fails on No. 19 of other slides by the same maker. Mr. Hyde is of the 
opinion that the resolved shellis a true Mitzschia curvula, although so ex- 
ceptionally easy that it is resolved by any good 4. 

Cot.ectine Diatoms. — Much of the difficulty of making reasona- 

bly clean collections of diatoms may be obviated by using Mr. John 
mayne’s method, which is described in Science-Gossip. A wide- 
mouthed bottle is attached to a cane in the usual manner, but instead of 
being open it is closed by a tightly fitting cork, through which are passed 
two glass tubes, terminating near the bottom of the vial. Externally 
one of these tubes is slightly bent sideways, so that its outer end can be 
easily approximated to a deposit of diatoms at the bottom of the water, 
while the other tube is bent at right angles immediately above the cork, 
and joined to a flexible rubber tube, which extends up to the handle of 
the cane. By compressing the rubber tube against the cane with the 
thumb of one hand, the bottle can be readily brought empty into position, 
when the calibre of the tube is restored by removing the thumb, and the 
pressure of water forces air out and water in, carrying the desired ob- 
jects with it. Should the water be too shallow to afford enough pressure, 
suction at the upper end of the flexible tube may be employed to exhaust 
the air, and thus secure a rush of water into the bottle, a glass tube or 
ball pipette serving as a mouthpiece. 

If too muddy, the gathering may be further cleaned by placing itina 
long bottle, the bottom of which is covered with black paper. Thus ar- 
ranged, and placed in the sunlight, the diatoms will soon free themselves 

m the mud and rise to the surface of the water. 

Micro-Puorocrapuy. — Dr. Edward J. Gayers, of Calcutta, in his 
Work at mitro-photography takes his position near the microscope 
Where it and the illuminating reflector can be manipulated with the 
steatest ease, while the image on the focusing screen is examined with 
‘small telescope consisting of a large opera-glass objective and a micro- 
Scopical ocular. 

: WATER Anatysis. — While there is still great doubt as to the exact 
influence or significance of forms perceptible by the microscope in drink- 
Ng-Water, there is no doubt a very general interest in studying and recog- 
nizing these forms. In such study good use may be made of Dr. J. D. 

onald’s work on Water Analysis, in which a large number of the 
more common forms of mineral and organic constituents are figured in 
rather crude but very suggestive and natural-looking pen-sketches, 
which are better as a means of recognition than the elaborate and flat- 
tering steel-engravings often used. Accompanying the drawings is a 
good Synopsis of the subject in a few pages of priut, which will be con- 
a even to those who have access to libraries of more elaborate 

orks, 


568 Scientific News. [ September, 


PRACTICAL HISTOLOGY. — A good hand-book for students in the his- 
tological laboratory is the little publication of Outlines, by Dr. Ruther- 
ford, first issued in a journal some years ago, and lately enlarged and 
improved in an interleaved edition for laboratory use. 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— Near Gilroy, California, is a rose-tree of the cloth-of-gold variety 
twelve years old, the stock of which is seventeen inches in circumference, 
and, though closely pruned, the branches spread five feet on every side of 
the trunk. 

— In the museum of the California Academy of Sciences is a trans- 
verse section of a lemon verbena six inches in diameter. The wood is 
fine-grained, of a greenish-yellow color, and takes a good polish. 

— Our readers may remember a statement by Professor Snow in the 
NATURALIST, ix. 665, to the effect that the female of the white pelican 
has a horny crest on the mandible as well as the male. Mr. George B. 
Sennett, of Erie, Pa., writes us that in two females shot in Grant Co., 
Minn., the crest was as perfect in proportion to the size of the bill as in 
the males. 

— Mr. James T. Gardner, at present Secretary of the American Geo- 
graphical Society, has been appointed director of a proposed Geograph- 
ical Survey of the State of New York. 

— A Monograph of the Phalænidæ or Geometrid Moths of the United 
States, by A. S. Packard, Jr., forms vol. x. of the final reports of the 
United States Geological Survey of the Territories, F. V. Hayden m 
charge. Although a formal notice of this work would for obvious rea- 
sons not be in place in this journal, the author would beg leave to call 
the attention of naturalists to matter contained in the introductory por 
tion, especially to the chapters entitled Comparative Anatomy of the 

ead, Comparative Anatomy of the Thorax, Development of the Tho- 
rax of the Imago, Secondary Sexual Characters of the Imago, and to the 
essay on Geographical Distribution. The imagines of about four hun- 
dred species and the early stages of some are described and figured. 

— Professor Huxley, who is now on a short visit to this country, 
deliver three lectures in New York September 18th, 20th, and 22d, on 
the “ Direct Evidence of Evolution,” and also give an address at the 
opening of the Johns Hopkins University. j 

— It is well to signalize the close of a great work which has been 10 
progress for twenty-five years,—the Genera des Coléopteres of a 
cordaire and Chapuis. The work was first assigned to Lacordaire , 
Belgium and Carreño of Spain ; Carreño, however, died before the plan 
of the project was definitely settled, and Lacordaire undertook it a 
The first volume was published in 1854. At the death of Lacordaire, 1” 
1870, Chapuis took his place, and has now completed the work, which 


will 


1876.] Scientific News. 569 


consists of twelve volumes, two of them double, illustrated by one hun- 
dred and thirty-four plates. It treats of about six thousand genera; in 
the nine volumes by Lacordaire the species of each genus are enumer- 
` ated; but Chapuis has considered this unnecessary since the appearance 
of Gemminger and Harold’s Catalogue. Each volume has an index of 
its own, and the final volume (published in April), a systematic and al- 
phabetical index to the whole, occupying over one hundred and fifty 
species. 

—The Annals, published by the late Lyceum of Natural History for 
over half a century, will be continued under the name of Annals of the 
New York Academy of Sciences, by that Society. Contributions to its 
pages, and subscriptions, are respectfully solicited. The yearly subscrip- 
tion is two dollars, payable in advance. Communications may be ad- 
dressed to Prof. D. S. Martin. 

— We have from time to time drawn the attention of our readers to 
the zodlogical station founded by Dr. Dohrn at Naples. How useful 
this aquarium and laboratory combined has proved to zodlogists in Eu 
rope is shown by the very satisfactory first annual report, just issued. 
The large building is situated on the Villa Reale or royal park of Na- 
ples, a yard and a half below the level of the sea, on the sand-beach of the 
shore of the Bay of Naples. The lower story or basement is divided 
into two sections, containing a cistern room of seven hundred and four 
square yards, with conduit, engine, and pump rooms. Four four-inch 
pumps maintain a constant circulation in the large aquarium, and there are 
pumps for filling the smaller aquaria and for pumping in the sea water. 
The larger basin contains one hundred and twelve cubie yards (metres) 
of water. The room for the public is two hundred and sixty square 
yards in extent, and there is a large and thoroughly equipped laboratory, 
a library, rooms, with a large corps of assistants, including four fisher- 
men, who are constantly collecting material. The station cost about 
$75,000, and the annual running expenses appear to be about $10,000. 

e report closes with an extended list of apparatus for laboratory work 
and a table showing the time of appearance of the different species of 
animals and their reproductive season, of much use to naturalists who 
may desire to know the particular date for the appearance of certain ani- 
mals they want to study. The catalogue of those’who have worked at 
the station includes forty-six names of European naturalists, no Amort- 
‘an among them. ‘There is also a list, of museums and universities to 
Which choice collections have been sent. 

— The geology and physical geography of O 
Zealand, is discussed in a report to the Provincial Council of Otago, by | 
Messrs, Hutton and Ulrich. The volume is illustrated by a colored 
geological map and lithographic plates, and conveys a good idea of the 
Scenic and geologic features of New Zealand. 


tago, a portion of New 


570 Proceedings of Societies. [ September, 


PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 


ACADEMY or NATURAL Scrences, Philadelphia. — May 9th. Dr, 
Leidy observed that the so-called phosphate beds of Ashley River, South 
Carolina, were remarkable for the irregular admixture of multitudes of 
fossils of different ages, from the early tertiary period inclusive down to the 
present epoch. The phosphatic nodules, for which the beds are explored, 
appear to have had their origin from the eocene rocks beneath. These 
have also contributed numerous remains of marine vertebrates, especially 
of Zeuglodonts, reptiles and fishes. Mingled in the sand and clay with 
the phosphatic nodules and bones of eocene animals are innumerable 
remains of cetaceans, sharks, and other marine animals of perhaps the 
middle and later tertiary ages. Added to these are multitudes of re- 
mains of both marine and terrestrial animals of the quaternary period. 
Mingled pell-mell are found bones of the eocene Zeuglodonts — animals 
related to the whales and seals; hosts of teeth of the great eocene shark, 
Carcharodon angustidens ; myriads of the teeth of the giant sharks of 
the later tertiary periods, the Carcharodon megalodon ; bones and teeth 
of whales and porpoises ; abundance of remains of elephants, mastodons, 
Megatherium, horse, etc., and occasionally the rude implements of our 
own immediate ancestors. : 

From among a collection of fossils from the Ashley phosphate beds, 
recently submitted to his inspection by Mr. J. M. Gliddon, of the Pacific 
Guano Company, the specimens were selected which were presented for 
the examination of the meeting. One of them isa well-preserved tooth 
of a Megatherium ; another, a characteristic portion of the skull of a 
manatee; a third,a complete tusk of the walrus, indicating a still further 
point south for the extension of this animal than had been previously 
known ; a fourth, a huge tooth of a cetacean allied to the sperm whale, 


probably the same as those from the crag of Antwerp, ascribed to Di- - 


nozipbius. Besides these there are the beaks of three cetaceans of the 
little known family of the Ziphioids. These are porpoise-like animals, 
without teeth in the upper jaw, and usually with but a single pair of 
teeth in the lower jaw. The beaks composed of the codsified bones of 
the face are remarkable for their ivory-like density, which probably ren- 
dered them available as weapons of defense. 

A fourth beak from the same locality, but from another source, sel 
longs to a different species of the same family. These beaks and some 
associated fossils will form the subject of a paper shortly to be presented 
to the Academy. The species indicated by the specimens exhibited wer? 
described under the names Choneziphius trachops, Choneziphius cops 
Hboroziphius cælops, and Belemnoziphius prorops. 

Professor Leidy, in continuation, remarked that the remai 
of any kind, were exceedingly rare in the mesozoic red sha 
cross our State about fifteen miles north of us. Hence any fossils 


ns of life, 
les which 
what 


PAS Oar pea tak el cette Eo Eig thf 


l 
l 
f 
i 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. oT1 


ever from these rocks were of interest. The three cycloid fish scales, 
and a few detached caudal rays, in the fragments of red shale presented 
by him this evening, he found on the Perkiomen Railroad, near Yerkes 
Station, Montgomery County. One of the scales resembles those de- 
scribed by the late Professor E. Emmons, under the name of Rabdiolepis 
elegans, from the mesozoic coal shales of Chatham County, N. C. 

Mr. Redfield called the attention of the members to the volume of 
letters of Zaccheus Collins, belonging to the Academy, which had been 
recently arranged and bound by him. The volume contains an unbroken 
series of sixty letters, from Rev. Henry Muhlenberg, of Lancaster, to 
whom American botany has been so much indebted ; also, a correspond- 
ence with his son, Fred. Aug. Muhlenberg, in which we find the history 
of the transfer of the Muhlenberg Herbarium to the American Philo- 
sophical Society. 

There are also numerous letters from Stephen Elliot, Dr. Jacob 
Bigelow, Dr. William P. C. Barton, Dr. William Baldwin, Nuttall, 
Torrey, Leconte, Sr., and many others well known to the scientific 
world. It cannot be expected that these letters of sixty years ago can 
add any new botanical facts to our stock, but they have great interest as 
illustrating the early history of botanical science in our land, and as re- 
vealing to us the obstacles which the student of that day encountered in 
the searcity of books and in the difficulty of communication. 

Professor Frazer spoke of thinness or minuteness of objects under 
the microscopic and suggested method of studying, by means of the 
fluorescent ray, objects at present invisible to the highest powers. 

r. Hunt stated in reply that microscopists were not willing to be 
limited in their observations by the calculations of mathematicians, and 
that the comparative darkness of the fluorescent ray would not be favor- 

= able to investigations of the kind. 
In continuation Dr. Hunt spoke of the destruction of potato-starch 
by the fungus causing the potato-rot, and stated that he had observed, 
under the microscope, the absence of starch in the cells attacked by the 
Peronospora, although the fact of such invasion being productive of the 
result described had been denied. 

Mr. Thomas Taylor, of the Department of Agriculture, spoke of the 
effect of frost upon potatoes, and stated that he had found starch at the 
end of twelve months in frozen tubers. He also observed that the 
Potato fungus would grow in cells devoid of starch, but he had not ob- 
Served the destruction of granules by the cause referred to. 

May 16th. Mr. Thomas Meehan said that what was popularly known 
as the “sleep of plants,” the closing of some kinds at night-fall, though a 
Matter within common observation, had not, so far as he was aware, 

n made a subject of physiological investigation, with the view to 
‘seertaining the value, if any, of this kind of motion in the economy of 
Plant life. He had recently discovered that by means of this peculiar 


Sat ACH ao 


572 Proceedings of Societies. [ September, 


motion the common Claytonia Virginica and some buttercups were fer- 
tilized by their own pollen. The fertilization of these plants had been 
somewhat of a mystery to him, as in view of some prevailing theories 
of cross fertilization by insect agency, these plants ought not to be self 
fertilized, but from repeated observations he was satisfied that no insects 
had visited plants that had yet seeded abundantly. The process of fer- 
tilization in Claytonia and Ranunculus, independent of insect agency, was 
described minutely. 

ants of course had peculiar functions to perform, and there were 
pre-ordained plans and special arrangements through which these func- 
tions are exercised. But the workings of plant life are so complicated 
that though we see certain results follow certain movements, we are not 
always sure that we perceive the great and deeper object arrived at in 
the order of nature. Hence arose the differences of opinion prevailing 
in regard to the object of cross fertilization. Some plants had arrange- 
ments which seemed to preclude the possibility of self-fertilization, and 
the assumption followed that nature abhorred close breeding in plants 
and specially designed such structures to secure the plant against it. 
He believed that nature had a deeper purpose, as yet unknown, and 
chiefly because of such instances as he had given this evening, where 
nature could not abhor close breeding, when the result of the “sleep 
of plants” was most perfect in securing self-fertilization. 

May 23d. Dr. Leidy observed, in continuation of his remarks of the 
previous meeting, on the extinct animals of the Ashley phosphate beds 
of South Carolina, that they are remarkable for the multitude of remains 
of fishes which they contain, especially of sharks and rays. Among the 
former were the giants of their kind, the Carcharodon megalodon and 
C. angustidens. A tooth exhibited of the megalodon shark is five and a 
half inches long and four and a quarter inches broad at the base. The 
living white shark, pertaining to the same genus, reaches upward of 
thirty-five feet in length, and has teeth two inches in length. Supposing 
the megalodon shark to have reached the same proportions in relation 
with the size of the fossil teeth, it must have exceeded seventy feet m 
length, and must have proved the most formidable monster of the 
ancient ocean. 

Another specimen presented for the inspection of the members is @ 
knob of bone, such as is found at the root of the tail of the devil-fish, 
the largest of the existing rays. In the latter the bone is the only one 
of the body, and it supports a minute spine, a mere rudiment of the 
barbed weapon of the sting-ray. Our devil-fish, of which a pee 
was once exhibited in Peale’s Museum, of this city, reaches a breadth 
eighteen feet, with a length of about fifteen feet. The fossil bon 
though the only thing left to tell the tale of its former possessor, 18 nit 
? characteristic specimen. It is of more robust proportions than t 
its living representative, and probably indicates an extinct species, for 
which the name Ceratiptera unios was proposed. 


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1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 573 


Specimens exhibited of the dental armature of the roof and floor of 
the mouth of eagle rays were referred to extinct species under the names 
Myliobates majester and M. mordax, the former having been one of the 
largest of its kind. Similar specimens from the eocene marl beds of 
Monmouth and Burlington counties, N. J., were referred to species with 
the names of Mylidbates fastigiatus and M. jugosus. 

Professor Leidy further directed attention to a specimen of the snout 
of an extinct cetacean, which he had recently observed among some 
fossils from the Ashley beds in the Smithsonian collection of the gov- 
ernment department of the Centennial Exposition, and which had been 
obligingly loaned to him for description by Mr. W. P. Blake. The 
specimen, two and a half feet in length, had the density of ivory, and 
indicated one of the largest of the little-known family of the ziphioid 
whales. It was referred to a new genus and species, with the name of 
Proroziphius macrops. 

The other fossils are of the giant sloth, the Megatherium, presented 
by Mr. George T. Lewis, of this city. ‘These were also found in the 
Ashley deposits, and are probably the remains of animals which became 
mixed in marshes after the elevation of the Ashley deposits above the 
ocean level. 

June 6th. Professor Cope spoke of the structure of the foot in cer- 
tain eocene unguiculate mammals. The name Creodonta was proposed 
for the group. The peculiarities of eocene forms, allied to the lemurs, 
Were described, and other groups were defined under the names Meso- 
donta, Insectivora, Tillodonta, and Tæniodonta. These were collectively 

aced under the head of Bunotheria. 

Mr. Meehan remarked on the subject of cross fertilization of plants 
and fertilization by insect agency. 

June 13th. At the recent meeting of the Academy, Professor Cope 
called attention to certain fossil remains from: the Rocky Mountains. 
The physical peculiarities of the region in which they were found were 
described, mong the specimens were fragments of limb bones indicat- 
ing an animal of considerable size, which was probably allied to Laby- 
Minthodon or some other huge batrachian. The name Dystropheus 
"emale was proposed for the form indicated, which is particularly in- 
teresting as being the first vertebrate found in the trias of the Rocky 
Mountains, 


_ June 25th. The members of the Botanical Section reported the hold- 
Zoa meeting for organization and the election of the following 
h 
Director, Dr. W. S. W. Ruschenberger ; vice-director, Thos. Meehan ; 
conservator, C. F. Parker; recorder, Isaac Burk; treasurer, Jose O. 
himmel ; secretary, Dr. Leffman. ; 
Dr. Leidy again called attention to the remains of fossil whales from 
the Ashley River deposits and exhibited another specimen from the Cen- 


574 Proceedings of Societies. [ September, 


tennial Exposition, for which the name Proroziphius conops was pro- 1 
posed. A fragment of a skull of Squalodon from the same collection í 
was also exhibited. The remarkable admixture of fossils of different 
geological ages in these deposits was again alluded to. 

A tooth of a Megalodon shark, measuring six and seven tenths 
inches long, was described, and the opinion advanced*that, comparing it . 
with teeth of existing sharks, it probably had belonged to an individual 
upwards of one hundred feet in length. ` ; 

Professor Cope recorded having seen remains of a cretaceous verte- : 
brate from the deposit spoken of by Dr. Leidy. It belonged to the : 
sixth genus of the order Pythonomorpha and was described under the 
name of Cyclotomodon vagrans. 

Professor Cope also exhibited and described a fossil fish from the cre- 
taceous formation of Nebraska. The structure of the mouth was that 
of the soft-rayed fishes, and the other characters ally it to the group to 
which belong the mullets. The dentition and the structure of the caudal 
fin were described and the name Anogmius aratus was proposed for the 
form. : 

CALIFORNIA Acapemy of Sciences, San Francisco.— April 34, 
Professor Davidson read the first of his series of papers on irrigation, 
harbors, and engineering in Europe and Asia, giving the results of per 
sonal observation. The paper was devoted to Indian irrigation, and was 
rich in interesting details, and in the value of its conclusions applied to 
the necessities of artificial water-courses in California. The lecturer 
said that the Indian canals had not paid private capital, and the expense 
had been assumed by the government, which is projecting and building 
a magnificent system of irrigating works. 

Dr. Hale, a visitor, related an instance of “ mimicry » which he ob- | 
served in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was a milk-white spider, : 
shape, size, and color the exact counterpart of the flower Medrono; E 

April 18th. Captain Bryant, United States Treasury Agent, who 8 
stationed on the Aleutian Fur Seal Islands, was present, and gave # 
brief history of the habits of the seals and the manner in which they #9 
caught. Notwithstanding the slaughter of one hundred thousand annually 
by the Alaska Commercial Company, the legal limit under the company § 
lease from the hational government, a careful calculation 5 
seals are increasing, as compared between the year 1869 and the past 
season, five per cent. in number. The revenue of the government from 
this source is $325,000 per annum, being nearly five per cent. on the : 
amount paid for the territory of Alaska. : 

Boston Society or NaruraL History. — June 7th. Commune 
tions were read by Dr. W. K. Brooks on The Separation of the Sexes 
Salpa by means of Natural Selection; by Professor A. Hyatt on iy 8 
among the Ammonites of the Oölitic Formations; and by Mr. Wi V 
Crosby on the Geology of Eastern Massachusetts. 


1876. ] i Proceedings of Societies. 575 


New York Acapemy or Sciences.— April 17th. Mr. George F. 
Kunz read a note on the Phosphorescence of Pectolite, as distinguishing 
it from the Zeolites. One of the members exhibited a series of Grap- 
tolites from the shales of Norman’s Kill. 

In a paper on the Causes of the Cold of the Ice Period, Dr. New- 
berry reviewed, from a geologist’s standpoint, the theories proposed to 
account for the cold of the ice period. He said these theories formed 
two categories : one, the cosmical ; the other, the terrestrial. 

In the first, the Glacial Period is attributed to astronomical causes, 
such as variation in the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, in the angle of 
the axis of the earth with the ecliptic, or in the quantity of heat received 
from the sun, the passage of the earth through cold spaces in the 
universe, etc. The discussion of these theories he left to the astron- 
omer and mathematician. 

The terrestrial theories considered were those of Lyell and Dana, in 
which the cold of the Glacial Period is ascribed to a peculiar distribu- 
tion of land and water, the land being supposed to be high, broad, and 
continuous in the arctic regions, forming great condensers of atmospheric 
moisture, and barriers excluding the tropical currents from the arctic 
sea; and the theory of Professor Henry, which ascribes the great ex- 
tension of glaciers in the polar regions to a large amount of moisture 
thrown into the air in the tropics by volcanic agency. Both these theo- 
ties, however plausible, are based on conjecture only, and are not sup- 

‘ ported but are opposed by known facts. — 

For example, in the Tertiary Period the climate over the arctic regions 
was as mild as that of our Middle and Southern States. A luxuriant 
forest covered arctic America, — Greenland, Iceland, etc., — in which 
Were the tulip-tree, magnolias, deciduous cypress, and other plants now 
towing in the United States. At this time the land was broad, for 

re are almost no marine Tertiary deposits in the arctic regions, and 
there was land connection between America and Asia, and between 
America and Europe, forming barriers which must have excluded trop- 

l ocean currents from the polar sea. On the other hand, the land of 
“e tropical regions in Tertiary times was low, for we find marine Ter- 
tiaries bordering or covering the continents and islands. i 

ere is no evidence that the arctic lands were high and broad in the 
kce Period, but during at least a portion of this period, Greenland, En- 
gland, and Scandinavia were much lower than now. At the same time 


_. the tropical lands were apparently near their present level. 


The objections to the volcanic theory are that we have no evidence 
of unusual volcanic action in the tropics during the Quaternary age, 
and it is not certain that the production of a great amount of vapor 
there would produce glaciers in the arctic regions, as, when ascending 
to the height of a few thousand feet, the vapor would be locally precip- 
: The transfer of heat and moisture from the tropics to the poles 
88 chiefly through oceanic and not through atmospheric currents. 


576 Scientifie Serials. [ September. 


For the reasons given, the terrestrial theories were regarded as inad- 
equate, and the conviction was expressed that we must look to some as- 
tronomical cause for an explanation of the phenomena of the Ice Period. 

May 15th. Mr. I. C. Russell read a paper on the Ancient Glaciers 
of New Zealand, and Mr. A. A. Julien remarked on the Search for 
Flint Implements in the Valley of the Saone. 

May 29th. The following papers were read: On Determinations of 
Specific Gravity by the Arabians of the Twelfth Century, by Dr. H. 
Bolton; Notice of Recent Investigations as to a Change of the Earth’s 
Axis at the Close of the Tertiary, by Professor B. N. Martin. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS." 


American JOURNAL oF SCIENCE AND Arts. — August. Note on 
the Development and Homologies of the Anterior Brain-Mass_ with 
Sharks and Skates, by B. G. Wilder. The Greenstones of New Hamp- 
shire and their Organic Remains, by G. W. Hawes. 

Tur GEOLOGICAL Macazing.— July. The Carrara Marbles, by G. 
A. Lebour. Distant Transport of Volcanic Dust, by A. E. Nordenski- 
öld. On the Mechanics of Glaciers, by D. Burns. Ice and Ice-work in 
Newfoundland, by J. Milne. 

Tue GroGrapuicaL Magazine. — July. Statistics of Da 
Greenland. The Voyage of the Challenger, by J. E. Davis. The 

Andaman Islands, by F. A. de Roepstorff. A Journey into the Ara- 
bian Desert of Egypt, by Drs. Schweinfurth and Giissfeldt. Verraz- 
zano, by R. H. Major. 

JENAISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR NATURWISSENSCHAFT. — April 15th, 
Ueber Ontogenie und Phylogenie der Insekten, von Paul Mayer. 

ANNALS AND Magazine or Naturat History. — July- On the 
Affinities of the Anthozoa Tabulata, by G. Lindstroom. Eozoin Cana- 
dense according to Hahn, by J. W. Dawson. . 

MONTHLY MicroscorrcaL JOURNAL. — July. On the Rotifer Con: 
ochilus volvox, by Henry Davis. On the Abbé Count Castracane 8 
Photographs of Nobert’s Nineteenth Band, by H. C. Sorby- ae 
Aperture of Object Glasses, by F. H. Wenham. On the Limits of the 
Optical Capacity of the Microscope, by Professor Helmholtz, with à 
Preface by Dr. H. Tripp. 


1 The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part selected. 


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AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. x.— OCTOBER, 1876. — No. 10. 


PLAIN, PRAIRIE, AND FOREST. 
BY PROF. J, D. WHITNEY. 
PART I. 

P spite of all that has been written in regard to the distri- 

bution of forests on the North American continent, and the 
origin of those treeless plains to which the name of prairie is 
given, the subject is one possessing a great deal of interest, since 
there is far from being any unanimity of opinion about the va- 
tious points which are involved in it. The publication of Pro- 
fessor Brewer’s map, showing in five degrees of density the dis- 
tribution of woodland within the territory of the United States, 
and which is one of the series of charts included in General Walk- 
ers Statistical Atlas, seems to offer a convenient occasion and 
excuse for reverting to the subject of the physical conditions in- 
fluencing the growth of forests. This has long been a favorite 
theme with the writer of the present article, and during the 
twenty years which have elapsed since he has published any- 
thing in regard to it, he has had many opportunities of making 
observations on the distribution of plain, prairie, and forest within 
the borders of the United States, having crossed the continent 
Several times by various routes lying between Wisconsin and 
Missouri, In these journeyings he has availed himself of the 
excellent sections afforded by the various railroad lines crossing 
the States of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, accumulating 
observations which, taken in connection with those previously 
made during several years of detailed geological work in the 
heart of the prairie region, enable him to speak from personal 


knowledge of a wide extent of country, embracing, indeed, a 


8° portion of that area of mingled forests and prairies to a 
discussion of which this article is to be chiefly devoted. 

The use of the word “ prairie,” which corresponds very nearly 
“| our “meadow,” meaning a grassy, treeless, nearly level 


Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, JR. 1876. 


578 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [October, — : 


area, dates back to the days of the very earliest explorers of the 
Mississippi Valley. Father Hennepin describes the prairies along 
the Illinois River exactly as any other observer would now 
do. He says, “ Elle [the river] est bordée de côteaux [bluffs] 
dont la pente est couverte de bois et de grands arbres. Quand 
on est sur ces côteaux, on découvre de belles préries a perte de 
vûë, garnies d’espace en espace de petits bois, qui semblent avoir 
été plantez exprés.” The distinction between prairie and plain 
is one which has come gradually into existence as the routes of 
the emigrant and the explorer have extended themselves farther 
and farther to the west. Every one knows that the “ Prairie 
States” are those lying contiguous to the Mississippi, on both 
sides, from Minnesota and Wisconsin down to Arkansas, and 
that Illinois and Iowa are typical prairie regions. All under- 
stand what the phrases ‘crossing the plains,” and “ out on the 
plains,” mean; and no Western man would confound the terms 
prairie and plain. When we reach the Rocky Mountains, and 
find grassy areas distributed among the ranges, we learn that 
they are there called ‘ parks ”» ond “holes.” This is true, at 
least, for the central portion of the country, in Colorado and 
Utah ; farther north, in Dakota and Montana, the term prairie 1s 
also in use. 

For our present purpose it is unnecessary to trace the gradual 


disappearance of the forests as we proceed west from the well- . 


wooded region of the Appalachian ranges and the Great Lakes. 
That the distribution of woodland within our territory is in gen- 
eral more influenced by the amount of moisture or the quantity 
of rain which falls than by any other cause is admitted as & fact 
beyond dispute. A comparison of the Smithsonian rain-charts 
with Professor Brewer’s map shows this at once. An interest- 
ing article might be written on the distribution of the forests 
over the vast region west of the Rocky Mountains, but with that 
we have not now to do. It is to the prairie region proper that 
we propose to devote the present article. 

The prairies lie between the forest-covered portion of the 
country and the plains; hence the idea which seems 5° 
fixed in the minds of many, that prairie and plain are the a 
thing ; or, rather, that one is simply passage into the other, ? 
prairie being, so to speak, the incipient plain. It will be ne? : 
sary, therefore, at first, to show that there is an essential ane 
ence between the two kinds of surface, and that their panes 2 
tion is quite accidental, or certainly depending On other ca" 
than those to which it is commonly attributed. 


- 1876.] Plain, Prairie, and Forest. 579 


f; 


The prairie is a heavily-grassed area, destitute of forest growth, 
but existing in the midst of a wooded region, where the clima- 
tological conditions are favorable to the growth of timber, but 
where some other cause than the want of sufficient moisture has 
operated to prevent this growth. To illustrate how character 
and distribution of forest and prairie are independent of climato- 
logical conditions, let us take the State of Wisconsin, which has 
an area of about fifty-four thousand square miles, the ninetieth 
meridian passing nearly through its centre. The northern por- 
tion of the State belongs among the most densely wooded regions 
in the country. This heavily-timbered belt extends from Lake 
Superior south to the forty-fifth parallel. The sugar-maple is the 
predominating tree. South of this is a region of pines, not as 
thickly crowded together as are the trees in the region to the 
north, but constituting fine forests ; still farther south, and occu- 
pying the whole area south of the Wisconsin River, is a region of 
mingled forest and prairie, the trees being chiefly oaks. The 
cause of this peculiar distribution of the timber in Wisconsin will 
be noticed farther on; at present it is only desired that the atten- 
tion of the reader should be called to the entire want of harmony 
of this arrangement of forest and prairie with the climatolog- 
ical conditions. The Smithsonian charts show a greater amount 
of precipitation over the prairie area than anywhere else in the 

ta y no amount of ingenuity can the peculiarities of the 
isothermal or isohyetal lines be made to play in with the marked 
differences of the vegetation. 

Equally striking are the changes which are met with as one 
Passes from the State of Indiana into the adjacent one of Illinois. 

e former of these is forest-covered, woodlands extending over 
probably as much as seven eighths of its area; Illinois, on the 
Other hand, is par excellence the prairie State, not more than a 
quarter or at the most a third of its surface being covered with 
timber, Here, again, there is nothing to coincide with the dis- 
tribution either of rain or of temperature; the division seems a 
Purely arbitrary one until looked at in the light of geology. 

hese are only two instances, out of many which might be cited, 
going to show the absence in certain regions of any essential 
®onnection between climate and distribution of forests, and these 
are sufficient at any rate to indicate the desirability of inquiring 
What other causes may exist, determining, at least to a considera- 
ble extent, the curious intermixture of grassed and timbered 
‘teas which we find in the prairie region proper. 


580 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [ October, 


The writer has no theory to put forward on the subject ; he 
has simply gone on for years observing the facts, and it is a very | 
brief résumé of these facts which it is here proposed to give. | 
But he will first endeavor to dispose of some of the theories of 
others, declaring that he believes himself to have had better op- 


portunities for observing in the prairie region than any of the 
writers who of late years have taken up this subject. ; 
There seem to be two prominent theories before the public 


for their choice in accounting for the existence of the prairies. 
One of these may be very shortly disposed of, since it is so at 
variance with all the facts that, as Mr. Foster observes,’ it is 
“ worthy only of a passing notice.” It is to the effect that the 
prairies exist because the trees have been burned off by the In- 
dians! To use the words of Mr. St. John, formerly State Geolo- 
gist of Iowa, and one of the most zealous upholders of this 
theory, “ The real cause of the present existence of the prairies 
is the prevalence of the annual fires. If these had been prevented 
fifty years ago, Iowa would now be a timbered instead of a 
prairie State.” There seem to be some Western men who are 
not content unless they can make their country ‘out to be not 
only the garden but the arboretum of the world. The trees are 
wanting at present over extensive areas; but they must once 
have existed, otherwise the Mississippi Valley would be or have 
been deficient in one of those attributes by which an ideally per- 
fect country is characterized. As the trees do not now exist, 
they must have been destroyed, and, no other agent being at 
hand so destructive as fire, that is had recourse to. The prairie 
grass frequently gets on fire; these fires have burned up the 
trees! Why the same conditions do not hold good on the pres 
ent forest-covered States has never been explained. Why the 
fires have spread themselves only on comparatively level ground, 
and spared the mounds and the bluffy sides of the rivers, is a180 
a mystery; equally so why they have avoided certain tre 
quite surrounded by prairie, like the “ groves” of Wisconsin; 
and, furthermore, why they have paid such respect to the differ- 
ences of soils and other geological conditions. We have see? 
large areas of forest burned over, both in New England and on 
Lake Superior, as well as in the Rocky Mountains, but have no 
recollection of any of these areas having become prairies mo 
sequence. Once a forest, always a forest, so far as our experienc? 

puerile.” 


1 The Mississippi Valley, page 76. Dr. Newberry says the idea is “ simply 
(Geology of Ohio, i,.30.) 


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1876 ] Plain, Prairie, and Forest. 581 


goes, unless the hand of man comes in to interfere with nature. 
Mr. N. H. Winchell, although an advocate of the prairie fire 
theory, seems much impressed with one of the difficulties which 
it presents, namely, the irregularity with which prairie and for- 
est are intermingled. Speaking of the “ Big Woods” of Min- 
nesota, a belt of timber some forty-five miles wide, running 
from the centre of the State to the northern boundary of Iowa, 


he says, “ The existence of this great spur of timber, shooting so 


far south from the northern forests, and its successful resistance 
against the fires that formerly must have raged annually on both 
sides, is a phenomenon in the natural history of the State that 
challenges the scrutiny of all observers.” We wonder that it 
had not led him to scrutinize his own theoretical ideas. Of the 
real cause of the existence of these “ Big Woods” we will speak 
farther on. 

By some writers on the theory of the prairies it is held that, 
as trees can be artificially made to grow upon them, therefore 
they must originally have been covered by a forest vegetation. 
This is as if one should argue that because the western part of 
the State of New York is covered with flourishing wheat fields, 
and because grain can be raised there with ease, therefore that 
region must have been always a treeless one ! 

Let us turn now to the other and by far the most prominent 
theory advanced to account for the existence of the prairies. It 
is this: that these treeless plains are in some way a product. of 
the climatological conditions of the country. The only causes 
connected with climate which we can conceive of as likely to 
influence the growth of forests are temperature, force of the 
winds, and moisture; if the latter be the effective agent in de- 
termining the position of the wooded regions, then it may 
be through either excess, deficiency, or irregular distribution of 
the moisture that the result is attained. In regard to the first 
ot these causes, namely, temperature, we are not aware that this 
has ever been suggested as having anything to do with the phe- 
nomenon in question. ‘There seems to be nothing in the distri- 
bution of the isothermal lines in the Mississippi Valley which 
could be in any way connected with the presence or absence of 
forests, and certainly nothing connected with the details of the 
distribution of woodland and prairie could be at all explained 

y reference to temperature. In regard to the winds, it will be 
admitted that these do sweep pretty severely over the prairie 
egion, for the reason that it is mostly flat, and therefore unshel- 


582 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [ October, 


tered. That the winds on the Pacific coast are, in places, inimi- 
cal to the growth of forests seems very clear, but this does not 
seem to be the case in the Mississippi Valley, for we often find 
the most abundant growth of trees on the very spots which are 
most exposed to the force of the blast. It is on the rising ground, 
the knobs, knolls, and mounds which are scattered over the sur- 
face of the prairie, that those isolated clumps of timber, called 
groves, are most likely to be found. If the force of the wind 
were essentially inimical to the growth of trees, we should find 
them thriving, if anywhere, in the sheltered nooks, and to the 
leeward of the northwesters, that being the quarter from which 
the heaviest blasts come. This is not the case, nor is there any- 
thing, so far as we have observed, which would lead to the con- 
clusion that the force or direction of the wind has any sensible 
effect on the growth or distribution of the timber in the prairie 
region. 

The only climatological cause for the existence of the prairies 
which is worthy of serious consideration in this connection is the 
distribution of moisture, and by far the larger number of those 
who have written on this question have unhesitatingly asserted 
that in something connected with the rain-fall was to be found 
the really efficient agent by which the distribution of woodland 
and prairie has been effected. Exactly what this something 18 
seems, however, not easily to be made out. It must, as it would 
appear, be one of four things: either the annual rain-fall is on 
the whole deficient, or it is not favorably distributed through the 
seasons, or the climate is subject to cycles of drought, or there 
must be an excess of moisture. In one or other of these cat- 
egories the influence of the rain-fall must be found, or if not m 
one single condition of these here enumerated, then in some 
combination of them. : 

Let us first examine whether the average annual rain-fall 1s 
really deficient, so that the absence of trees over a considerable 
portion of the Mississippi Valley may be referred to this as 4 
cause. And to settle this question we have no better method 


These charts are, of course, for many districts only rough ap- 
proximations ; for it is, over a large part of the country, 
within a few years that statistics have begun to be collecte 
The data seem, however, to be sufficient for our purpose. If se 
we examine these charts, we find that for the typical prairie regions 


1876.] Plain, Prairie, and Forest. 583 


namely, Southern Wisconsin, Illinois, Eastern Iowa, Missouri, 
and Arkansas, there is no deficiency of rain-fall indicated. Be- 
ginning in the densely-wooded region of Northeastern Maine, 
and following along through the forest-covered districts of North- 
ern New Hampshire and Vermont, New York, the southern 
part of Upper Canada, the southern part of Michigan, Ohio, 
Indiana, and so on as far as the Des Moines River, we find 
spread upon the chart a uniform tint of color, designating an 
annual rain-fall, over the whole area indicated, of from thirty-two 
to forty-four inches. This same shade of color extends down 
and covers almost the whole of the densely-wooded Appalachian 
ranges in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North and South Caro- 
lina. Looking at the curves which imperfectly divide the region 
in question, giving a greater amount of detail, we see that not 
only is the annual precipitation in general quite as great in the 
prairie region as in most of the ordinarily well-wooded parts of 
the country, but that when local causes have within certain areas 
given rise to an excess or deficiency, as compared with the gen- 
eral range of from thirty-two to forty-four inches, there is no 
corresponding difference in the relative abundance or scarcity of 
the forests. Thus the upper heavily-timbered part of Michigan 
shows a decided deficiency of rain-fall, while the only region in 
that State in which prairies occur over any considerable amount 
of surface, namely, the southwestern corner, is precisely that 
where the amount of rain is exceptionally large. Wisconsin, 
again, shows the same kind of anomaly, for here the prairie 
region is seen to have the largest amount of precipitation of any 
portion of the State. Once more: in Iowa, there is a district 
which is almost entirely covered with forests, namely, the north- 
eastern corner ; here, by a curious coincidence, the Smithsonian 
charts indicate a decided deficiency of rain; while farther west, 
in a line extending northwest from Iowa City, there is a large 
area of considerable extent marked as receiving from forty-four 
to fifty-six inches, and over which, as repeated explorations have 
convinced us, there is no corresponding increase in the amount 
of timber. Still more striking facts of the same kind may be 
had in abundance in Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas, 
a region of abundant prairies and of precipitation as great as 
that of the wettest part of the Atlantic coast. Further state- 
ments of this kind do not seem to be necessary to justify the 
Conclusion that in the prairie region there is no deficiency in the 
annual amount of rain, and that some other cause for the absence 


584 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [ October, 


of forests over a considerable portion of the Mississippi Valley 
must be sought for. 

Let us next inquire whether there is anything in the distribu- 
tion of the rain-fall throughout the year or from season to season 
which may possibly have a peculiar influence on the vegetation. 
That this is the case, and that this is, in fact, the predominant 
cause determining the existence of the prairie, is the theory ad- 
vocated by Mr. J. W. Foster, at some length, in his work en- 
titled The Mississippi Valley. Mr. Foster thus states his views: 
“ Wherever the moisture is equable and abundant we have the 
densely-clothed forest, wherever it is unequally distributed we 
have the grassy‘plain, and where it is mostly withheld we have 
the inhospitable desert.” That the last of these three dicta is 
true may be at once admitted. No one will deny that some 
moisture is necessary to the growth of vegetation, whether it 
consist of trees, shrubs, or grasses. The other parts of this state- 
ment, as we contend, are entirely erroneous. And no better in- 
stance can be given of the fact that an equable and abundant 
distribution of moisture does not always clothe the country with 

dense forests than that of the vicinity of Chicago itself, where 

Mr. Foster’s book was written. Here we have one of the finest 
prairie regions in the world, absolutely destitute of trees, and 
yet in the full enjoyment of an abundant precipitation, and in 
the immediate vicinity of an immense sheet of water. For 
Chicago itself, indeed, the statistics of rain-fall are very defect- 
ive, but such as they are, they are entirely unfavorable to Mr. 
Foster’s hypothesis, Points in the immediate vicinity of that 
city, where observations have been taken for a series of years, 
show an annual average rain-fall of from thirty-six to fifty inches, 
pretty uniformly distributed through the year, as will be seen 
farther on. An excellent instance, on the other hand, of a dense 
growth of trees combined with the most unequally distributed 
rain-fall which is possible is furnished by the western slope ° 
the Sierra Nevada of California, whose magnificent forests arè 
well known, as also is the fact that there is no precipitation 
there at all for six months of the year, nearly the whole of the 
rain-fail being limited to three months. And, lest it may be 
thought that melting snow keeps the ground moist during the 
summer, it may be added that the heaviest forest belt of the 
Sierra is quite below the line above which snow rests for any 
considerable time, and that the soil in that belt is usually pe” 
fectly dry at the surface, and even dusty, for six months of the 
year, and often much more. 


j; 
2 


Sees 


1876.] Plain, Prairie, and Forest. 585 


From other parts of Mr. Foster’s chapters on the origin of 
prairies, in his work already cited, it would appear, however, 
that he considers the deficiency of rain in the winter months to 
be the essential cause of the absence of forests. He remarks as 
follows:1 “ A region where the annual precipitation is slightly 
in excess of twenty inches, I infer from observation, is unfavora- 
ble to the growth of trees, even were this moisture equally dis- 
tributed, but where three fourths of it is precipitated during the 
spring and summer, the grasses flourish and mature to the exclu- 
sion of arborescent forms.” This seems also to be the theory 
advocated by Dr. Newberry, from whom we quote as follows : ? 
“Those who know anything of the climate of the prairie belt 
know that it is characterized by a deficiency of winter rain and 
snow, and by occasional though rare seasons of excessive dry- 
ness. The want of winter rains to deeply saturate the ground 
gives to the superficial hibernating grasses, which may be said to 
live upon the almost copious summer rains, an advantage over 
trees equal to a victory.” 

Let us now examine this question in the light of the Smithso- 
nian rain-tables and Mr. Schott’s discussion of them. This very 
point is taken up, under the head of Annual Fluctuation in the 
Rain-Fall, annual fluctuation, as Mr. Schott explains it, mean- 
ing the “ changes from month to month.” He gives the typical 
curve for the “ region embraced in the Hudson River Valley, 
Vermont, and Northern and Western New York,” as derived 
from an ageregate of five hundred and sixty-four years of ob- 
servation. He also gives from the records of one hundred and 
fourteen years the curve for “the Upper Mississippi from Fort 
Madison, Southern Iowa, to Fort Ripley, Central Minnesota, 
and including part of Wisconsin.” One of these regions, as will 
be readily seen, is a region of forests, the other of prairies. It 
would be difficult to select two districts in this country of equal 
area more characteristically situated for showing the difference 
between the rain-fall of a wooded and of a prairie country. Yet 
we find Mr. Schott declaring that the two curves thus obtained, 
and representing typically the distribution of the rain-fall through- 
out the year, “do not materially differ.” In each case there are 

maxima, one about the beginning of the summer and the 
other at its end, and also a principal minimum about the begin- 
mng of February. The only difference between the two types 
1 Mississippi Valley, page 101. 
2 Geology of Ohio, i. 30. 


586 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [ October, 


is that in the one case one of the maxima falls in September 
and in the other in October, and that the range is a little larger 
in the more westerly region. We find, on examination of the 
tables, that from about forty to forty-five per cent. of the total 
precipitation of the prairie region comes in the autumn and win- 
ter months, and that these conditions do not materially differ 
from those prevailing in some of the most densely-wooded por- 
tions of the country. To illustrate these points we append a 
table showing the amount of precipitation at some of those places 
in the prairie region where observations have been longest kept 
up, with additional figures from some portions of the densely- 
. timbered country. 


PRECIPITATION, IN INCHES. 

Total, 

Spring. Summer. Autumn, Winter. in Inches. 
10.00 10.34 8.46 7.03 35.83 
Caa BE erie es 9.89 11.25 8.68 7.87 37.19 
Manchester, Ill......... 11.49 8.71 8.76 8.83 37.79 
O E eo tee a esas 11.55 12.04 8.55 7,48 39.62 
10.44 2,50 9.45 8.86 41.25 
innebago, Ill......... 72 2.31 9.66 6.14 37.83 
Platteville, Wis......... 9.88 3.63 9.32 6.48 39.31 
s OWE e.. 7.10 0.53 9.38 5.23 32.24 
Muscatine, Iowa....... 11.92 3.79 10.35 6.82 42.88 
Iowa City, Iowa....... | 11.27 3.04 13.11 5.70 43.12 
Citiiton, lowa... ss secs 11.40 3.94 10.40 7.98 43.72 
Davenport, Iowa....... 10.70 13.71 8.56 6.49 39.46 
St he” Seated 12.42 3.04 9.07 7.65 42.18 
to w Michie) ss. 5.4 7.44 6.48 6.44 25.79 
Marquette, Mich........ 6.49 9.02 8.11 6.39 30.01 
Fort Brady, Mich....... 5.06 9.59 10.68 4.99 30.32 
Detroit, Mich...........:| 8.51 9.29 7.41 4.82 30.03 

Ba 


The last four places are situated in thickly wooded regions, 
the others are on or near the prairies, and they include nearly all 
the localities in Ilinois and Iowa where observations have been 
kept up for as much as ten years. Attention is called to the sma” 
annual amount of rain in the densely-timbered districts border- 
ing on Lake Superior and Lake Huron, and also to the fact that 
there the statistics of its distribution through the seasons are 
much more unfavorable to the growth of forests, according t0 
Mr. Foster’s theory, than anywhere on the prairies. ps 

In view of the above figures it may be unhesitatingly affir , 
that there is no basis for the theory that an unequal distributio? 
of rain throughout the year brings about a treeless condition 
the surface. It is surprising that those who maintain that : 
deficiency of winter rain prevents the growth of trees should n° 


; 
i 
] 


1876.] Plain, Prairie, and Forest. 587 


ch 
ii 
e 
g 
; 


have recollected that over a large part of the forest region of the 
north and northeast there is, practically speaking, no precipita- 
tion at all in the winter, since the snow which then falls, to the 
exclusion of rain, accumulates on the frozen surface and does not 
begin to wet the ground until spring, when it, to all intents and 
purposes, by its melting Adds so much to the spring precipita- 
tion, thus bringing the total effect exactly to a par with that 
which is claimed by Dr. Newberry as being fatal to the exist- 
ence of forests. 

When we come to examine into the conditions of the climate 
in Southern Missouri and Arkansas, which are also regions of 
extensive prairies, we find that there is still less reason for advo- 
eating a deficiency of moisture as the cause of the treeless con- 
dition of the surface than there is farther north in the States for 
which statistics have been given. The tables of the rain-fall are 
very deficient for the region west of the Mississippi and south of 
the Missouri. Arkansas,. however, is put down on the Smithso- 
nian charts as lying chiefly within the belt of forty-four to fifty- 
six inches of precipitation. There are only two stations where 
observations have been kept up for any length of time; these 
are Washington, in longitude 93° 41’ and latitude 33° 44’, and 
Fort Smith, on the extreme western border of the State. At 
these places a precipitation of 54.50 and 40.36 inches is indi- 
cated. Short series at Helena and in Union County give re- 
spectively 81.08 and 74.63 inches. Helena, with this enormous 
precipitation, is the nearest station to Prairie County, of which 
the surface is “ mostly open prairie.”! An- examination of the 
Smithsonian charts will show that Southern Missouri is also a 
region of large precipitation. Here there is considerable prairie, 
some of it in the river bottoms.’ The region is a rough and 
broken one, and the conditions of soil and surface quite compli- 
cated with respect to distribution and character of timber. There 
is a considerable area covered with a scattered growth of oaks, 
locally known as “ oak barrens.” These, however, do not de- 
pend for their existence on any scarcity of moisture. 

As there is no proof whatever that an occasional year of 
drought in the prairie region would be a sufficient cause for the 
absence of timber, and as there is, furthermore, no proof that 
this region is peculiarly liable to droughts, it is hardly necessary 
to take this matter into serious consideration. It would be easy 
to point out regions on the Pacific coast and elsewhere in which 

1 D. D. Owen, First Arkansas Report, page 242. 


588 Carnivorous Plants. [ October, 


the distribution of the rain from year to year is very capricious, 
but where, none the less, the forests are well maintained. Mr. 
Schott’s investigations give us no authority for saying that the. 
prairie region is more liable to droughts than the region of forest 
immediately adjacent to it. 

That an excess of moisture is in géneral prejudicial to tree- 
growth must of necessity be admitted. This fact seems to form 
the basis of the views of Mr. Lesquereux in regard to the origin 
of prairies. And to a considerable extent there is a harmony of 
opinion between us; indeed, the writer finds that this gentle- 
man is the only one of those who have written on the prairies 
who has carefully observed the leading facts. Before, however, 
noticing his views, it will be well that the author of this article 
should state exactly to what results his own observations have 
led him, and what seems to him the all-important consideration 
influencing the character of the vegetation in the prairie regions 

(To be concluded in the next pumber. 


CARNIVOROUS PLANTS. 
BY PROF. W. J. BEAL. 


PBIS is a new term which has lately been applied to plants 
that catch insects by various contrivances. 

In 1768, over one hundred years ago, Mr. Ellis discovered that 
the Venus fly-trap, of North Carolina, catches insects by a pecul- 
iar construction of the tips of its leaves, like a steel-trap. Nu- 
merous experiments have satisfied botanists that flies are not only 
caught, but digested by a fluid poured out by the plant, and the 
materials absorbed into the tissues of the plant. In 1780, nme- 
ty-five years ago, the sun-dew (Drosera) was found to catch 
insects by its sensitive hairs with a sticky gland at the end of 
each. 

Drosera rotundifolia, a common little plant of our marshes, has 
a round leaf, about the size of a cent, sometimes containmg 


1 See page 158 of Mr. Schott’s paper. He says, “ The observed succession of p 
nual amounts of rain-fall on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Virginia, and in 


about 1836, as well as the less conspicuous or relative one of 1855, are common 


E se [Type I., State of New York, and Type IV., region of Uppe" MississipP 
owaļ.’ 


i 
f 


1876.] Carnivorous Plants. 589 


eighteen small flies. The glandular hairs move toward the fly 
when irritated. 

Drosera longifolia has a very long, slender leaf, also covered 
with glandular hairs. It rapidly coils up from the tip, catching 
flies, which it devours and absorbs. 

North America has eight species of pitcher plants (Sarraceni- 
acew) the leaves of which catch insects. They have stiff hairs 
inside, pointing downward, which prevent the escape of most in- 
sects. Some have a sweet secretion below the opening at the top 
on the outside. This grows sweeter and sweeter and more abun- 
dant, till it comes to the opening, to entice foolish flies to the 
fatal pit whence no fly ever returns. 

Catesby, some years ago, thought these pitchers were an asy- 
lum for insects to escape from frogs and other animals. I have 
here some fresh specimens of Sarracenia purpurea, the only 
pitcher plant found in Michigan. Pouchet, in his popular book, 
The Universe, speaking of this plant, says, “ The leaves rise 
from spot to spot at the feet of the traveler, and are filled with 
pure and delicious water, for the benefit of which he is all the 
more grateful that he is encircled by nothing but marshes.” The 
truth is, the water abounds in rotten bugs and worms. 

Of Nepenthes there are some thirty species, most of which 
secrete honey on some parts of their pitchers, to entice insects, 
which they catch and devour. 

The spathe of Alocasia, it is said, catches slugs and destroys 
them in a strong secretion. For a full account of the above in- 
teresting plants, see Dr. Hooker’s Inaugural Address, last year, 
at the British Association, printed in Nature, x. 366. 

Pinguicula catches insects. ; 

According to Mrs. Treat, bladderworts ( Utricularia) catch in- 
fusoria and other small animals. These are taken by strange 
devices in the little bladders, which work like some miniature eel 

ap. The animals are dissolved and contents absorbed by the 
plant. In addition to the above, we have quite a large number 
of other plants belonging to divers natural orders, which catch 
Insects. The young leaves and stems of Rhododendron is one of 
them. A species of Plumbago in the green-house, sent from the 
Agricultural Department at Washington, has viscid hairs about 
the flowers, large enough to eatch and hold a common house-fly, 
even if caught by one or two legs. Several species of Polanisia, 

“pea viscosa, some species of Physalis, and Solanum, catch 
Small insects by sticky hairs on the younger portions of the plant. 


590 Carnivorous Plants. [ October, 


Many species of Silene attract, catch, and hold insects to such an 
extent that the genus goes by the popular name of “ catch-fly.” 

Lychnis vespertina, a kind of cockle sometimes in our wheat 
fields, also takes small insects. It seems to digest them by the 
small glands at the end of the hairs. We need not necessarily 
suppose that they are digested because they are captured by 
sticky plants. 

The large bud scales of the horse-chestnut and balsam poplar, 
in the spring of the year, are often found holding insects by the 
sticky varnish with which the buds are very copiously covered. 
We see that the varnish may be of use to protect the inner deli- 
cate parts of the bud from the inclement weather, but I am una- 
ble to see that insects are of any advantage to the plant when so 
caught. The dry bud scales are sticky for a purpose which we 
can readily understand. The flies are most likely ‘accidentally 
caught. Possibly this is the case with some other plants which 
catch insects by a sticky secretion or other contrivance. I have 
lately given some attention to the Martynia on account of the 
great numbers of small insects which it catches by glandular 
hairs. On August 3d I counted seventy-six small Diptera and 
some other insects on the upper side of a young leaf of about 
four inches average diameter, and two hundred on the under side. 
The insects are caught on all parts of the plant which are eX- 
posed, on the stems, on the calyx and corolla, including even the 
throat of the corolla. Among a lot of others was one plant 
about three feet high, spreading three feet in diameter, which 
according to estimate had seven thousand two hundred sm 
flies on it at one time. The hairs are very numerous all over 
the surface. None of them are sensitive, as I can find. They 
vary exceedingly in length, from three sixteenths of an inch to 
one one-hundredth or even shorter. Some of them have as many 
as ten cross partitions. The contents of these cells appear quite 
clear, except one near the top, next to the top cell. This is larger 
than several of those below, and contains chlorophyll. It seems to 
be something like a gland. Above this is a larger cell, with per- 
pendicular striæa along its sides. When fresh and und 
the top is nearly spherical and resembles a small drop of dew. 
The secretion is quite copious and exceedingly viscid, with an OF 
pleasant odor. I placed some small fragments of raw beef on 
the glands one morning, but the sun seemed to dry them UP» 
much as it did those left on blades of grass which had no eer 
I placed some very minute portions on the glands in a spot she 


isturbed | 


È 


1876.] A Century’s Progress in American Zoölogy. 591 


tered from the direct rays of the sun. In some cases the whole 
of the piece of beef disappeared. 

The small insects seem to live but a short time, although they 
are touched by only two to four hairs. The substance seems to 
be soon taken out of the insects. In my opinion, it is a true in- — 


sectivorous plant. (Proceedings Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sc., 1875.) 


A CENTURY’S PROGRESS IN AMERICAN ZOOLOGY. 
BY A. S. PACKARD, JR. 


HE title of this article is almost a misnomer, since American 

zodlogical science dates only from 1796, when Barton pub- 
lished his Memoir on the Fascination attributed to the Rattle- 
snake, while his Facts, Observations, and Conjectures on the 
Generation of the Opossum appeared in 1801. These were sim- 
ply memoirs, but still talented productions and not unworthy to 
begin the century. Previous to this, John Bartram published a 
few zodlogical tracts in the Philosophical Transactions of the 
Royal Society of London, the first appearing in 1744, while his 
Description of East Florida, etc., was published in London in 
1769. 


John Bartram was born in this country, and so was Barton ; 
but the latter was, perhaps, the more genuine biologist, and his 
work was so well appreciated in England that he was called by 
Swainson the “ father of natural history in America.” The first 
century of American zodlogy should, then, date from 1796, and 
it had a worthy beginning. 

American systematic zovlogy may be said to date from the 
years 1808-14, when the successive volumes of Wilson’s Orni- 
thology were published, though it should be remembered that 
Wilson was born and bred in Scotland. Thus, with the excep- 
tion of Bartram’s and Barton’s works, what we have to say of 
American zodlogy (including animal physiology and psychology 
and embryology) covers only a little over half a century. 

The next work was by Prince Bonaparte, on birds, a volume 
Complementary to Wilson’s great work, and published in. this 
Country in 1825-33. 

But the first general work by a native-born American was Dr. 
Richard Harlan’s Fauna Americana, published in 1825. This 
Was succeeded by Dr. John D. Godman’s work on North Ameri- 
can Mammals, published in three volumes in 1826-28. Bartram,’ 


1 John Bartram was born at Darby, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. 


592 A Century's Progress in American Zodlogy. (October, 


Barton, and Harlan were born in Philadelphia and taught anatomy 

there. Godman was born in Annapolis, and lectured on anatomy 
in three medical colleges, but not in Philadelphia. On the whole, 
American zodlogy took its rise and was fostered chiefly in Phil- 
adelphia by the professors in the medical schools ; and zodlogy 
the world over may be said to have sprung from the study of 
human anatomy, as taught at the anatomical centres of Italy, 
France, England, and Germany. 

The last half-century of progress in zodlogy in America may 
be divided into three epochs : — 

(1.) The epoch of Systematic Zodlogy, during which a few 
physiological essays appeared. To this department of zodlogy a 
most decided impulse was given by the Smithsonian Institution, 
which went into active operation in 1847, while the study of the 
fossil forms (paleontology) was greatly accelerated by the influ- 
ence of national and especially state surveys. 

(2.) The epoch of Morphological and Embryological Zoölogy. 
This period is due to the arrival of Louis Agassiz in this country, 
in 1846, resulting in his lectures on comparative embryology 
and the foundation of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 
where American students, who were attracted by the fame of 
Agassiz, were instructed in the methods of Cuvier, Von Baer, 
Déllinger, and Agassiz himself, and zodlogy was studied from 
the side of histology and embryology, while paleontology was 
wedded to the study of living animals. i 

(8.) The epoch of Evolution, or the study of the genetic re- 
lationship of animals, based on their mutual relations and their 
physical environment. This period dates from the publication of 
Darwin’s Origin of Species, in 1859. ; 

Turning, now, to the first epoch, — that in which American 
systematic zoölogy took its rise, — we find that work was done 
which must necessarily precede more important studies on the 
embryology, geographical distribution, mutual relations, and psy- 
chology of animals, and which exerts a marked influence On the 
classification of animals, which nowadays is equivalent to pi 
their genetic relationships; for the time is past when the ani 
world should be regarded as comprised within separate sub-king- 
doms, between which there is no morphological or genetic s 
nection. 

The systematic works are so well known and our space a 
limited that we shall merely enumerate the names of our pe 
zoological authors. In the study of mammals the works of pes 
dubon and his predecessors, already named, and of Thomas 


1876.] A Century’s Progress in American Zoélogy. 593 


ferson, T. Say, J. Bachmann, G. Ord, S. F. Baird, T. Gill, 
Harrison Allen, J. A. Allen, E. D. Cope, Elliott Coues, J. Y. 
Scammon, B. G. Wilder, and W. S. Barnard, should be mentioned, 
with the paleontological essays of R. Harlan, J. C. Warren, J. 
Leidy, Cope, and O. C. Marsh, together with Godman’s Rambles 
of a Naturalist and L. H. Morgan’s work on the beaver, and 
physiological essays by J. Wyman, S. Weir Mitchell, J. C. Dal- 
ton, and others. 

The ornithological works of Wilson, Bonaparte, Audubon, 
Nuttall, Baird, Cassin, and Coues, the more recent great work of 
Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Coues’s Birds of the Northwest, 
and the many descriptive and biological papers of other au- 
thors, such as T. M. Brewer, Ord, J. P. Giraud, J. K. Town- 
send, A. L. Heerman, G. N. Lawrence, H. W. Gambel, J. Xan- 
thus, H. W. Henshaw, H. Bryant, S. Cabot, T. M. Trippe, C. J. 
Maynard, and others, with the papers on distribution by Baird, 
A. E. Verrill, Allen, and R. Ridgway, together with those on 
fossil birds by Marsh and Cope, are all worthy of comparison 
with the best European works and papers. 

The reptiles and amphibians have been described by Harlan 
J. E. Holbrook, T. Say, J. Green, Baird, C. Girard, E. Hallow- 
ell, L. R. Gibbes, C. A. Lesueur, J. E. LeConte, L. Agassiz, 
and Cope, and an entire assemblage of forms in the western 
Cretaceous and Tertiary formations has been discovered by 
Leidy, Marsh, and Cope. The anatomy of the neryous system 
t kana pipiens, by Jeffries Wyman, is a classic, as are the 
researches of S. Weir Mitchell upon the Venom of the Rattle- 
Snake and the Researches on the Anatomy and Physiology of 
Respiration in the Chelonia by S. Weir Mitchell and G. R. 
Morehouse, , 

The fishes of North America have been worked up by S. L. 
Mitchell, Lesueur, C. S. Rafinesque, D. H. Storer, J. E. Dekay, 
Holbrook, Agassiz, Girard, J. P. Kirtland, J. C. Brevoort, Wy- 
man, Baird, Gill, Cope, W. O. Ayres, F. W. Putnam, T. G. 
Tellkampf, D. S. Jordan, H. C. Yarrow, C. C. Abbott, G. B. 
Goode, R. Bliss, S. W. Garman, and others; while the fossil 
forms have been described by J. H. and W. C. Redfield, Leidy, 
R. W. Gibbes, J. S. Newberry, Cope, and O. St. John. 

In entomology the writings of Say, the two LeContes, F. E. 
Melsheimer, - N. Hentz, T. W. Harris, S. S. Haldeman, R. von 

ten Sacken, B. Clemens, J. D. Dana, G. Horn, S. H. Scud- 
P. R. Uhler, H. Hagen, B. D. Walsh, A. S. Packard, Jr., 

. 10. 38 


VOL. x.— No, 


594 A Century's Progress in American Zoölogy. (October, 


A. R. Grote, W. H. Edwards, Henry Edwards, Sumichrast, H. 
C. Wood, A. Fitch, C. V. Riley, E. Norton, J. H. Emerton, C. 
Thomas, B. P. Mann, and others, are in most cases quite volu- 
minous, though mostly descriptive, while the fossil forms have 
been described by Dana, Scudder, Meek and Worthen, §. I. 
Smith, and O. Harger. Their anatomy has been studied by Leidy, 
Scudder, and Packard. 

The great work of Dana on the Crustacea of the United States 
Exploring Expedition placed him next to Milne-Edwards at the 
head of living authors in this department, and his essay on their 
geographical distribution is the starting-point for all such in- 
quiries. In this connection should be noticed the essays of Dana 
on cephalization in animals, suggested in the first place by his 
studies on the Crustacea. The North American species have been 
described by Say, W. Stimpson, J. W. Randall, L. R. Gibbes, 
S. I. Smith, Hagen, Packard, and O. Harger, and the fossil 
forms by Green, Hall, Billings, Stimpson, and others. 

The intestinal and higher worms have been worked up by D. 
Weinland, Girard, Leidy, Wyman, Stimpson, and Verrill; and 
of the aberrant classes, the Polyzoa have been carefully studied 
anatomically by A. Hyatt, the Brachiopoda by E. S. Morse and 
W. H: Dall, and several species of Tunicata described by C. A. 
Lesueur, Tellkampf, Louis and A. Agassiz, Verrill, and Packard ; 
while their development has been studied by Morse. 

The Molluses of North America have been elaborated by Say, 
Gould, Lesueur, Rafinesque, Haldeman, I. Lea, T. A. Conrad, 
C. B. Adams, Stimpson, the two Binneys, J. W., Mighels, J. 
P. Couthouy, E. Ingersoll, A. Agassiz, T. Bland, T. Prime, 


O. A. White, F. S. Holmes, O. St. John, C. F: Hartt, R. Batt: 


bun, O. A. Derby, Whitfield, N. S. Shaler, Whiteaves (of Canada) : 
and other palzontologists, and the quaternary species studied by 
Holmes, Dawson, Stimpson, Packard, Verrill, Matthews A 
others. Their anatomy has been studied by Leidy; Wym™ 
Morse, Dall, and W. K. Brooks. 

The Radiates (including the Ccelenterates and Echinoderms) 
have been carefully elaborated by Louis and A. Agassi 3 
by Say, Stimpson, E. Desor, Ayres, Macrady, H. ¢: a 
T. Lyman, and Verrill; while Dana’s elaborate report oP io 
Zoöphytes of the United States Exploring Expedition took 


epee Rea ose ead ian FF 


Sse eae eke yee 


1876.] A Century's Progress in American Zodlogy. 595 


nighest rank among systematic works. Numerous fossil forms 
have been brought to light by Hall, Billings, Meek, Shumard, 
White, Whitfield, W. H. Niles, O. A. Derby, and other palæon- 
tologists, and the distribution of the recent forms on bot: sides 
of the continent has been studied by Verrill and A. Agassiz. 

The Sponges have been chiefly studied by Clark and Hyatt ; 
and the Protozoa by J. W. Bailey, Clark, Leidy, and Tuttle. 

We may congratulate ourselves on the high position of our 
palzontologists in the scientific world. The labors of James 
Hall, Meek, Billings, Dawson (of Montreal; we have included 
Canadian students in this article), and others have revealed 
whole platforms of life in the Paleozoic rocks; while the re- 
searches of Leidy, Marsh, and Cope in the Tertiary and Creta- 
ceous beds of New Jersey and the West, and of Deane, Hitch- 
cock, Leidy, Wyman, Newberry, Emmons, and Cope in Triassic 
and Carboniferous strata, have been productive of valuable re- 
sults. 

The discovery of the fossil bird-like reptiles of New Jersey, 
by Leidy and Cope; of birds with teeth and pterodactyls with- 
out teeth ; of lemur-like monkeys, by Marsh; and the discovery 
by Leidy, Marsh, and Cope of connecting links between living 
ruminants and hog-like forms, and between elephants and tapirs ; 
together with the genealogy of the horse, and the increase in the 
size of the brain of living forms over their Tertiary ancestors, as 
elaborated by Marsh, all present a mass of new facts bearing on 
the evolution of life on the American continent and the general 
doctrine of evolution. 

In philosophical zodlogy Dana’s papers on Cephalization, and 

yman’s views on the Vertebrate Theory of the Skull, in his 
Memoir on Rana pipiens, and his studies on antero-posterior 
symmetry in vertebrates ; those of James Hall on the succession 
of molluscan life in palzozoie rocks; and those of Agassiz on 
Ptophetic and synthetic types, and laws of embryological growth 
àS correlated with the succession of extinct forms, with other views 
n his Essay on Classification, should be here cited. The deep- 
Sea researches of L. F. de Pourtales on the coast of Florida enabled 
him to state that “ animal life exists at great depths in as great a 
diversity and as great an abundance as in shallow water.” This 
Was in 1867, before the cruise of the English steamer Porcu- 
Pine and the researches of Carpenter, Thompson, and Jeffreys. 

The epoch of embryology or the developmental study of 
ammals was inaugurated by Agassiz in 1846. In the publica- 


596 A Century's Progress in American Zodlogy. (October, 


tion of his Contributions to the Natural History of the United 
States, mainly devoted to the developmental history of the radi- 
ates and turtles, Agassiz was assisted by H. J. Clark, who, under 
his training, became the best histologist our country has yet pro- 
duced. W. J. Burnett, another histologist, was only inferior to 
Clark. Macrady, another of Agassiz’s students, published some 
papers of importance on the Acalephs and their mode of devel- 
opment. Desor and Girard wrote on the embryology of worms. 
Memoirs of a high order of merit followed, from the pen and pen- 
cil of Mr. Alexander Agassiz. His embryology of the Echino- 
derms appeared between 1864 and 1874 ; the memoir on the Alter- 
nation of Generations of the worm, Autolycus, appeared in 1862; 
his paper on the early stages of Annelids in 1866; his remark- 
able memoir on the transformation of Tornaria into Balanoglossus 
was published in 1873; and his elaborate embryology of the 
Ctenophores in 1874. In 1864, Jeffries Wyman, at the time of 
his death our leading American comparative anatomist and phys- 
iologist, published a memoir on the development of the skate. 
The beautiful memoir of Hyatt on the embryology of Ammon- 
ites was a difficult research, while the brilliant papers of Morse 
on the early stages of the Brachiopod, Terebratulina, published 
in 1869-73, enabled him, by embryological as well as anatomical 
evidence, to transfer the Brachiopods from the Mollusca to the 
vicinity of the Annelidan worms. His studies on the carpus and 
tarsus of embryo birds should also be mentioned. In 1872 Pack- 
ard published a memoir on the development of Limulus, and 
pointed out the affinities of its young to certain young Trilobites ; 
and he also published papers on the embryology of the Thysa- 
nourous, Neuropterous, Coleopterous, and Hymenopterous insects. 
S. I. Smith traced the metamorphoses of certain crabs an 
shrimps. Several entomologists, as Harris, L. Agassiz, Fiteb, 
Riley, Scudder, Packard, LeBaron, Hagen, Cabot, Walsh, Saun- 
ders, Edwards, and others, have studied the metamorphoses : 
insects, while the drawings in illustration of Abbot and Smith’s 
Natural History of the Rarer Insects of Georgia were made by 
Abbot, who lived several years in Georgia. In 18 4 i 
described the embryology of the spider, Pholcus, and durmg t 
present year an important memoir by W. K. Brooks on the anom- 
alous mode of development of Salpa, a Tunicate, has appear is 
We may, then, take an honest pride in the embryological in 
done by American students; for in this department great atl 
ity was shown when scarcely anything was being done in 


1876.] A Century's Progress in American Zodlogy. 597 


gland or France, and the United States have been for twenty- 
five years past only second in embryological studies to Germany, 
the mother of developmental zoölogy. 

Of anthropological authors, we have room only to speak of 
Morton, Davis, E. G. Squier, Pickering, L. H. Morgan, Agassiz, 
Nott and Gliddon, Wyman, J. D. Whitney, Foster, Jones, 
Abbott, Berendt, Leidy, Baird, Dall, Putnam, ©. A. White, - 
Rau, Gillman, Meigs, Jackson, Barber, and a number of men 
now in the field, chiefly of aboriginal archæology. 

The third or evolutional epoch produced an original and dis- 
tinctively American school of evolutionists. Hyatt’s memoir On 
the Parallelism between the Different Stages of Life in the Indi- 
vidual and those in the Entire Group of the Molluscous Order, 
Tetrabranchiata, was published in 1867, and several papers 
extending his views to other groups of Ammonites and Mollusks 
have appeared since then. Cope’s Origin of Genera was pub- 
lished in 1868, and his paper On the Method of Creation of 
Organic Types, in 1871. Hyatt’s views essentially agreed with 
those published by Cope, but were less general in their appli- 
cation. The theories of both authors are based mainly on the 
embryological and post-embryoni¢ changes of animals, and on 
the idea that the different degrees of acceleration and retarda- 
tion of the growth of the individual are paralleled by those of 
genera, families, orders, and classes. This hypothesis attempts 
to account for the origin of the different groups of animals, and, 
We believe, will lead to a more general and fundamental doctrine 
than natural selection. As Cope observes, the law of natural 
selection “ has been epitomized by Spencer as the ‘ survival of the 
fittest.’ This neat expression, no doubt, covers the case ; but it 
leaves the origin of the fittest entirely untouched,” and he ac- 
cordingly seeks for the causes of the origin of the fittest. Here 

© should be mentioned the writings of Baird, Allen, and Ridg- 
way on the laws of geographical distribution and climatic varia- 
tion in mammals and birds, which have revolutionized our nomen- 
cature in these classes, and bear directly on the evolution 
hypothesis, Special attempts to ascertain the probable ancestry 
of living American mammals have been made by Gill, Cope, and 
Marsh ; of cephalopod mollusks, by Hyatt; of insects, by Pack- 
ard; and of brachiopod worms, by Morse. 

Contributions to the doctrine of natural selection have been 
made by Dr, W, C. Wells, Rafinesque, Haldeman, Walsh, Riley, 
Morse, Brooks, and others. 


598 = The Vertebrates and Invertebrates. [ October, 


Such has been the progress of zodlogy in the United States 
within less than a century. Its future progress will in part de- 
pend on the attention paid to it by medical students, to whom 
we may look for treatises on histology and embryology. At 
present there are no histologists in the United States who have 
published special monographs. When professorships of zoölogy 
alone are established in our colleges (at present mineralogy, 
botany, zoölogy, and geology are often taught by a single per- 
son) competent science-teachers will arise for our higher schools, 
and the science, we may hope, will be cultivated with something 
of the thoroughness of the German methods. At present we are 
not so greatly behind France and England as we were twenty 
years ago. There is, however, danger that Russia will outstrip 
us, and we are about on a level with the Scandinavians and the 
Dutch. 

With our energy and native ability, and the aid of well- 
endowed colleges and museums, we may hope hereafter to com- 
pete even with Germany. The development of any branch of 
science is largely dependent on individual students, and every 0p- 
portunity should be afforded young men of promise of devoting 
their time to original research. Specialists are sadly wanted m 
a country like ours, where the tendency is, perhaps, rather to the 
production of mediocrity than of genius. 


THE MISSING LINK BETWEEN THE VERTEBRATES 
AND INVERTEBRATES. 


Pa views which Dr. Dohrn has recently put forth, as to the 
details of the steps by which the vertebrate stock arose out 
of an ancestry not very much unlike the existing Annelids, are 
of such interest that, notwithstanding previous reference to the 
subject, no apology is needed for presenting the readers of 
Nature with a condensation of the main argument contained m 
The Origin of Vertebrata. 

Dr. Dohrn first draws attention to the correspondences be- 
tween vertebrate and insect embryos, which have been too little 
regarded in consequence of our designating the nervous side 1m 
the one as dorsal, in the other as ventral. Yet the facts that, 1 
both, the nervous system is developed on the convex side of y 
embryo and acquires a strong convex flexure anteriorly, and t 

. Der Ursprung der Wirbelthiere und das Princip des Functionwechsels : Ber 
logische Skizzen. Von Anton Dohrn. (Leipzig: Engelmann.) 


ERSTE E 


: s 
: 


1876. ] The Vertebrates and Invertebrates. 599 
the body-cavity is finally closed up on the side of the body oppo- 


site to the nervous system, point to a common origin at a com- 
paratively high level. The surface of the animal which is called 
ventral is determined by the presence of the mouth on that sur- 
ace; and if any vertebrates had a mouth-opening between the 
brain and the spinal cord on the dorsal surface, that dorsal sur- 
face would necessarily become ventral. Since, moreover, the 
ancestors of the vertebrata must have had a nervous ring sur- 
rounding their gullet, it would appear more reasonable to sup- 
pose that the mouth-opening had been changed in the course of 
development than that the situation of the nervous centres had 
been altered. We are thus led to look for traces of an old 
mouth-opening on that surface of the early vertebrates which 
corresponded to our dorsal surface, and to seek reasons for re- 
garding our present mouth as a comparatively modern develop- 
ment. 


Dr. Dohrn believes that the old mouth passed through the 
nervous centres between the crura cerebelli, or, more accurately, 
in the fossa rhomboidea, or fourth ventricle, which is remarkable 
for being of greater proportionate size early in development, and 
afterwards undergoing retrogression. At an early stage we only 
need to conceive a slit to be made in the nerve tube at the bot- 
tom of the fossa rhomboidea, in: order to furnish a suitable pas- 
sage into the alimentary canal. His first reason for regarding 
the vertebrate mouth as a modern structure is that it arises so 
extraordinarily late in development. The embryonic body is 
almost completely framed, all the great systems are established, 
the circulation is in active operation, while as yet there is no 
mouth. Again, the mouth does not arise in the position in 
which it permanently remains in the great majority. It under- 
goes considerable shifting forwards. Only in the Selachians and 
Ganoids does it retain its primitive situation. Moreover, the 
study of development is steadily tending to establish the idea 
that the mouth of vertebrates is homodynamous with the gill- 
clefts. It is limited, like them, by a pair of arches, lies just in 
front of the first pair of gill-clefts, arises simultaneously with 
them in the embryo, and opens into the alimentary canal. A 
glance at the ventral surface of a Ray shows the likeness of the 
mouth to a pair of coalesced gill-clefts. Consequently, it becomes 
Probable that the present mouth-opening once existed and func- 
tioned as a gill-cleft ; that at a certain period in the ascending 
development, both the old and the new mouths supplied nourish- 


600 The Vertebrates and Invertebrates. [ October, 


ment, that the latter gained the predominance, and that finally 
the old mouth became aborted. 

The next problem attacked is the origin of the gill-clefts. A 
very elaborate account is given of the supposed process by which 
the external gills and segmental organs of Annelids were meta- 
morphosed into the gills and gill-clefts of vertebrates and the 


skeletal elements connected with them. The great difficulty — 


which Dr. Dohrn confesses in this matter is the connection of 
the inner extremities of the segmental organs with the wall of 
_the alimentary canal. But if this be granted it is comparatively 
easy to understand how the shortening and widening of the seg- 
mental organs might give rise to gill-cavities such as those of the 
Selachians. The process by which Dr. Dohrn conceives that the 
limbs of vertebrata might have been developed from two pairs of 
gills in Annelids is a greater evidence of ingenuity, though it is 
to be expected that it will be viewed rather incredulously. 

It follows from the view of the origin of vertebrates thus ex- 
pounded that Amphioxus loses much of its interest, for there is 
no place for Amphioxus among Annelids, nor among the primor- 
dial vertebrates; it lacks almost all that they possess. Yet 
nothing can be gained by excluding Amphioxus from the verte- 
brates ; for it is so connected with the cyclostome fishes that 1t 
cannot be placed at any great distance from them ; while on the 
other hand it is so related to Ascidians that the latter must be 
included among the vertebrata. 

Dr. Dohrn then proceeds with a long argument to show that 
the cyclostome fishes are degenerate from a higher type of fishes, 
and that Amphioxus is a result of still further degeneration. He 
shows how their mode of life necessitates many of the modifica- 
tions they have undergone, and that the diversities of the details 
of structure in eyclostomes are inconsistent with, their being 
viewed as representing stages in upward development. Finally, 
the larva of Ascidians is represented as a degenerate fish — a de- 
generate cyclostome, possibly — which carries to the extreme all 
the departures of the latter from the fish-type. The most 1M- 
portant element in this degeneration results from the fact that 
Ascidians, instead of being attached to fishes or to any object 
from which they can derive nutriment, are fixed to stones, acer 
ete., or to such parts of animals (cephalo-thorax of crabs, tubes 
tubicolous annelids) as do not afford them nourishment. Conse- 
quently they have lost the old mouth in the organ of attachment 
homologous with that of all vertebrates, and have developed @ 


: 


1876.] The Vertebrates and Invertebrates. 601 


new one, homologous with the nasal passage of Myzine. Thus 
wecan explain the astonishing fact that the mouth-opening of 
the Ascidian larva has a communication with the fore-wall of the 
so-called cerebral vesicle. It is the last vestige of the openings 
in the nasal sacs by which the olfactory nerves entered. 

The most patent objection to Dr. Dohrn’s view about Amphi- 
oxus is that it fails to account for the development of a many- 
segmented respiratory apparatus as a degeneration from a higher 
animal with a small number of gill-arches. It would appear far 
more reasonable to suppose Amphioxus to be a degeneration from 
amuch lower elevation than the cyclostome type, namely, from 
some stage where the respiratory apparatus retained the multi- 
serial character derived from its Annelid forefathers. 

The key-note of the author’s reasonings is to be found in the 
principle of transformation of function (Functionswechsel), on 
which he lays great stress. He states it as follows: The trans- 
formation of an organ happens through a succession of functions 
being discharged by one and the same organ. Each function is 
à resultant of several components, of which one constitutes the 
chief or primary function, while the others are lower or secondary 
functions, Diminution of the importance of the chief function 
with increase of the importance of a secondary function alters 
the entire resultant function ; the secondary gradually rises to 

the chief function, the resultant function becomes different, 
and the consequence of the whole process is the transformation 
of the organ. This principle is considered to be a complete an- 
Swer to the difficulty so strongly insisted on by Mr. Mivart, the 
neompetency of natural selection to account for the incipient 
Stages of subsequently useful structures. Dr. Dohrn’s statement 
of his principle does not strike us as very different from Mr. 
ttwin’s (Origin of Species, fifth edition, page 251), though a 

Tittle more definitely stated. Mr. Darwin says, ‘The sume 
“gan having performed simultaneously very different functions, 
- and then having been in part or in whole specialized for one 
= 0n; and two distinct organs having performed at the same 
es e the same function, the one having been perfected whilst 
Q sont the other, must often have largely facilitated eae 
is The illustrations given by Dr. Dohrn of the steps y 
: z the anterior extremities of crustacea became applied to 
mastication, how the mouth of vertebrates originated from a pair 
£? gill-clefts, how the respiratory apparatus of tunicates ea a 
~~ ‘tom that of vertebrates, etc., are, however, exceedingly 
‘esting, 


602 A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. II. Its History. (October, 


An English translation of Dr. Dohrn’s pamphlet could not fail 
to be serviceable to the large number of students who take an 
interest in the genealogical problems of morphology. — G. T. 
BETTANY, in Nature. 


A COSMOPOLITAN BUTTERFLY. IJ. ITS HISTORY. 
BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 
De ee TARDE the ubiquity and general abundance 
of Vanessa cardui, its natural history is imperfectly known. 
Of its life in the tropics there is no published statement beyond 
the brief account given by the indefatigable Horsfield ; he simply 
mentions that in Java the caterpillar feeds on a species of Arte- 
misia, the native name of which is Godomollo, and that the but- 
terfly appears in December. Just beyond the tropics, at the 
Cape of Good Hope, Trimen reports it as found in the imago 
state throughout the year, but most abundant from September to 
March. At about an equal distance north of the tropics, on the | 
same continent, in Egypt, this butterfly flies through the winter, l 
and from November to March caterpillars in almost every stage 
may be found upon a species of Malva, called by the Arabs Mu- 
kheh, while the thistles growing abundantly by the railway lines 
are untouched. These fragments comprise the account of this 
butterfly outside of Europe and North America, and the follow- 
ing remarks are confined to this insect as it exists in north tem- | 
perate regions. | 


In New England this butterfly is double-brooded and hiber- 
nates in the imago state.! The hibernating butterflies do not 
usually begin to emerge from their winter quarters until the mid- 
dle of May, and badly worn specimens continue to fly until after 
the middle of June. They lay their eggs during the latter half | 
of May and early in June ; these hatch in from six to eight days; A 
and the caterpillars therefrom become fully grown between the , 
middle of June and the middle of July ; the chrysalids hang from : 
eight to fourteen days, and disclose the first fresh butterflies about 
the 10th of July. These usually become abundant by the mid; d 
dle of the month, and at the end of the third week innumerable; 
they continue to emerge from the chrysalis until the early days ° 
August, and fly until the next brood appear ; these lay their egg 
during the last of July and first of August, and the caterpillars | | 
often | 

t ao 

| 


1 At least so far as is known. In Europe, according to some bien poin 
passes the winter in the chrysalis state; but authorities do not agree upon thi 


T aan EG? gl au rE ee Pah ait ie eee 


Pres eau § 


- North Cape to the Mediterranean ; our congeneric A. Milberti is 
Sy found south of the northernmost parts of the United 


1876.) A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. II. Its History. 603 


undergo their final transformations in the latter half of August 
and early in September, the autumn brood of butterflies first ap- 
pearing late in August and continuing on the wing until the end 
of October, when they hibernate. 

This account does not correspond with the history of the same 
insect in Europe. Meyer-Diir states that in Switzerland the 
butterfly may be seen on the wing from April to the end of June 
(wintered specimens), and from the middle of August until late 
in October ; that is, it is single-brooded. Many authors speak of 
it as double-brooded, without mentioning the specific times at 
which it may be found ; while others give the same seasons as 
Meyer-Diir and call it double-brooded, mistaking the double ap- 
parition of the same brood (winter intervening) for distinet 
broods. My own observations in the neighborhood of Geneva 
and Paris lead also to the conclusion that the insect is single- 
brooded ; and no entomologist, to my recollection, has given the 
best proof of digoneutism, namely, two distinctly separated dates 
for the apparition of the caterpillar. Nevertheless, from the time 
of Ochsenheimer, who repeatedly says, “ Ich habe zwei Genera- 
tionen bemerkt,” different authors have claimed for this insect a 
double brood ; and until direct observation shall have determined 
the point, it should be considered, at least for some parts of Eu- 
Tope, an open question. In Switzerland and in England all ob- 
Servers seem to agree that it is single-brooded ; and this is in 
direct contrast to the digoneutism of the same insect in New 


; If this were a solitary fact, it would possess comparatively 
little interest, But if we compare the annual histories of the 


dozen or two butterflies either actually occurring both in Europe 


and in Eastern North America, or represented on either continent 
by intimately allied forms, —if we compare their histories, we 
find several other species which present similar peculiarities, 


and be led to believe that the case of V. cardui is only one illus- 


tration of a somewhat general law. ; 
-The European Aglais urticæ, for example, 18 generally double- 


. 


brooded ; occasionally a triple brood is mentioned ; it is one of 


the commonest of European butterflies, and reaches from the 


tates, and yet is triple-brooded in all parts of Canada. Everes 


2 Sane again, occurs throughout Europe, with the exception 
_ “certain northern and northwestern portions, and is double- 


604 A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. II. Its History. (October, 


brooded; our E. Comyntas, named for the resemblance to its 
European congener, and by some careless authors considered 
identical with it, is also a wide-spread insect ; but even in New 
England, which is toward the northern limit of its’ range, it is 
triple-brooded. The wide-spread European blues, Argus and 
Aegon, are usually placed among monogoneutic insects, and the 
latter certainly has but a single brood in England (where it is 
the only one of the two found) ; Meyer-Diir is in fact almost the 
only author who claims these species as digoneutic ; both of them 
occur in Southern Europe; the American Scudderit, closely allied 
to these and an insect hardly known south of the Canadian bor- 
der, is double-brooded. Our Pontia Protodice is triple-brooded, 
and the European P. Daplidice only double-brooded, while our 
common species of Eurymus, E. Philodice and E. Eurytheme, 
are triple-brooded in the north (perhaps polygoneutic farther 
south), and the closely allied European species only single or 
double brooded. 

But the most striking example of all will be found in the spe- 
cies of the genus Iphiclides. The European J. Podalirius is con- 
fined to the Mediterranean region, while our J. Ajax belongs to 
the southern half of the United States; the regions are therefore 
fairly comparable ; yet we can find no mention of more than two 
broods of 7. Podalirius, while Mr. Edwards has shown that, even 
as far north as the Appalachian valleys of West Virginia, I. Ajax 
has four and sometimes five generations during the year ; more- 
over, the first of these generations is dimorphic, and the dimor- 
phism has in it the semblance of a seasonal character, the earlier 
individuals being of one type and the later of another. Hs 

These cases might perhaps be multiplied, but further positive 
evidence is not at hand; it should be remarked, however, that 
there is no reversal of this rule; among all the butterflies prop- 
erly comparable on the two continents, there is no single instance 
where the European butterfly has more broods than the Ameri- 
can. 

This result of a comparison of the annual histo 
European and American butterflies furnishes but another instance 
of that intensity which seems to characterize all life in America. 
The expenditure of nervous and vital energy, against which phy- 
sicians vainly inveigh, which superannuates our merchants, ge 
yers, clergymen, and other professional men, is not induced 4 
the simple passion for gain, place, power, or knowledge, ae 
by an uncontrollable restlessness, a constant dissatisfaction W! 


ries of similar 


1876.] A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. II. Its History. 605 


present attainments, which marks us as a hurrying, energetic, 
enterprising people. My own experience has been that studies of 
precisely the same nature and undertaken under similar external 
conditions are accompanied by a very different mental state on the 
two continents. In Europe we are content to plod industriously 
on, unconscious of the need of relaxation; in America we bend 
with nervous intensity to our work, and carry the same excite- 
ment into the relaxation which such a life inevitably demands. 
After a long absence in Europe, a keen observer may even be 
directly conscious of this quickened life. ` 

Now to what shall we ascribe such peculiarities in animal life ? 
Naturally we look to climatic influences, and our attention is first 
attracted by the well-known fact that, if we compare two places 
in Europe and America having the same mean annual tempera- 
ture, the extremes of variation will prove much greater on this 
side of the Atlantic. For example, while the mean annual tem- 
perature of New York is about the same as that of Frankfort, 
the summer temperature of the former is that of Rome, and its 
winter that of St. Petersburgh. Moreover, the changes from 
summer to winter and from winter to summer are more immedi- 
ate in America, or, in other words, the summers and winters are 
longer (by about three weeks). Such long and hot summers are 
of course favorable to the multiplication of broods in butterflies 
Whose history allows a repetition of the same eycle more than 
once a year ; the length of the winter is of slight consequence, as 
ong as the insects can survive it; and it can have no influence 
upon the number of broods, unless there be species (of which we 
know nothing) able to resist a cold winter only in certain stages 
of existence, and a multiplication of whose broods might require 
Some pliability in this respect. Not only, too, are our summers 
longer and hotter, but they enjoy a marked preponderance of 
Sunshine, as compared with European summers ; and this alone 
Would almost seem capable of producing the variation we have 
noticed in the number of broods. 

Differences will be found in all other climatic phenomena of 
the two continents. * From Europe as a standard,” says Blod- 
sett, “the American climate is singularly extreme both in tem- 
Perature, humidity, quantity of rain, winds, and cloudiness or sen- 
ae humidity. The oscillations of the conditions are greater, 
“gg they vibrate through long measures above and below the 
Average. All the irregular as well as regular changes are of this 

1 Climatology of the United States, page 221. 


606 A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. TI. Its History. (October, 


sort, and the European observer defines the climate as directly 
antagonistic to that he has left.” These differences, however, as 
Humboldt and others long ago pointed out, have a broader bear- 
ing than the above statements alone would imply ; for they are 
characteristic of the eastern shores of both worlds as opposed to 
the western, the meteorological phenomena of the eastern United 
States being almost precisely paralleled by those of Northern 
China, where great excesses of temperature occur, with wide 
variability, long summers and winters, and rapid transitions. 
Perhaps on these grounds we can most simply account for the 
difference in the number of broods in certain butterflies on the 
two continents ; but, if so, then it follows that we ought to antici- 
pate similar differences between the broods of some of the species 
found both in Europe and in Eastern Asia; a point of which we 
can assert absolutely nothing, for want of data. These grounds, 
however, will certainly be insufficient to account for the differ- 
ences to which we have alluded in man; for what contrast could 
well be greater than that existing between the national character 
of the Chinese and that of the Americans! We are rather forced 
to believe that the causes of the distinctions between the Euro- 
pean and the American, if these are at all due to physical agen- 
cies, must chiefly be sought elsewhere. From my slight knowl 
edge of the climatic features of Eastern Asia, it is impossible to 
contrast Eastern North America with the north temperate Te 
gions of the Old World, taken as a whole ; certainly the greater 
frequency and intensity of electrical phenomena on our shores 
may have some influence. 
But to return to the history of our cosmopolitan butterfly. 
We have traced the sequence of events in its life ; let us now 
look more closely at some of the habits peculiar to it in either the 
earlier or the later stages of its existence. The ovipositing female 
alights upon a plant and moves about with trembling wings, an 
body generally on a line with the midrib, until it finds a spot t 
its taste ; the wings, elevated at an angle of about forty degrees 
with each other, now become quiet, the tip of the abdomen 18 
bent down upon the leaf, and the egg is instantly laid. I ob- 
served one butterfly alight many consecutive times on unopened 
thistle-heads, thrusting her abdomen between the spines to ss 
very sepals, as if in act of ovipositing ; but no egg was laid unti 
she alighted on a leaf. The same butterfly appears never to lay 
more than a single egg upon one leaf, although she frequently 
deposits eggs on different leaves of the same plant, and in © 


Sia oh a ae gt Sema) Bee Rt 


1876.] A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. II. Its History. 607 


particular instance laid them upon cut leaves lying on the ground ; 
in this case she laid them upon the uppermost surface, whichever 
way the leaf was turned; on the plant they are always laid upon 
the upper surface ; and I once found an egg on a spinous hair of a 
thistle leaf. Several eggs may sometimes be found on the same 
leaf, but they will always hatch at different times, showing that 
they were laid on different occasions, if not by different individ- 
uals. The egos themselves vary considerably, their vertical ribs 
ranging from fourteen to nineteen, and averaging fifteen and a 
half or sixteen in number; judging from the examination of forty 
or fifty specimens, it would seem as if the average were slightly 
greater in America than in Europe. 

The caterpillar feeds principally on Composite and especially 
upon the tribe of Cynarec, or thistles. In our country it has 
been found on Cnicus benedictus, Cirsium lanceolatum (the com- 
mon thistle), C. arvense, Carduus nutans, Silybum Marianum, 

nopordum acanthium, and Lappa major (burdock), — all plants 
introduced from Europe ; also on Senecio cineraria, belonging to 
another tribe of Compositæ ; on another of the Compositæ, one of 
the sunflowers, Helianthus sp. ; on Althæa rosea (garden holly- 
hock), — again an introduced plant, and one of the Malvacee ; 
and it is reported (perhaps by mistake for its congener, V. Ata- 
lanta) to have been found on the nettle. Möschler remarks that 


he has received neither thistles nor nettles from Labrador, and 


wonders upon what the caterpillar may feed in that inhospitable 
region. In Europe it has been taken upon various species of 
Carduus, Cirsium, and Onopordum, and other Cynaree, such as 
Centaurea benedicta and Cynara Seolymas ; some Senecionide, 
such as Achillea millefolium and Gnaphalium arvense; 1 on 
Echium, one of the Borraginacee, and on Malva rotundifolia. It 
Seems to prefer the Malwa in Egypt, being found abundantly on 
the species cultivated by the Arabs for medicinal purposes ; and 
since this is cut at various times during the winter, myriads of 
the caterpillar are doubtless annually exterminated. 

e young caterpillar makes its escape from the egg, as usual 
among lepidopterous larve, by biting a slit almost around the 
crown of the egg, and pushing up this improvised lid ; it does 
not appear to devour the egg-shell, as caterpillars usually do, 

t, after biting a few little holes partly through the upper sur- 
of the leaf, makes its way to the opposite side and takes 
up a position, each one apart from its fellow, either between the 


1 Horsfield, as we have seen, raised it in Java on Artemisia. 


608 A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. II. Its History. | October, 


midrib and curled-up rim if near the tip of the thistle leaf, or 
next the midrib or a lateral rib, if farther back; here it bites 
away the silken film and makes a nest, covering itself with a 
slight open web, into which it weaves the bitten particles of the 
film. From this retreat it sallies forth to eat irregular patches 
in the parenchyma, which it often partially covers with an exten- 
sion of the web. ; 

Each caterpillar, when it has outgrown this confined abode, 
builds for itself a separate nest, generally near the summit of a 
stalk ; it spins a thin web on the surface of the leaf, near the 
edge, if it be a broad-leaved plant, and then draws over a portion 
of the leaf by means of threads, completing the covering with a 
. silken tent ; when half grown it forsakes this and forms a more 
perfect nest, drawing together leaves, buds, and bitten fragments 
by the same process, so as to form an oval cavity, about thirty- 
five millimetres long vertically, and a little more than half as 
broad. ‘The narrow, irregular, crisped, and rather distant leaves 
of the thistle, on which it is most frequently found, cannot, how- 
ever, be made to cover even a single caterpillar, and the spaces are 
closed by a thin open web, through which the inmate can readily 
be seen, but which is sufficiently close to retain all the rejecta- 
menta of the caterpillar. The nest is usually covered, at least m 
the upper half, with spines of the plant, evidently bitten off for 
the purpose ; there is an opening in the nest, near or at the sum- 
mit, just large enough to allow the larva to emerge, apparently 
made by eating away the web. The leaves which penetrate the 
nest are not lined with silk, but the web is frequently stretched 
across the inequalities of the leaf. Within this habitation the 
larva rests with its head downward, like its congener, V. Ata- 
lanta ; but, unlike it, when its earlier stages are passed, it feeds 
upon the upper surface and parenchyma of the. leaf, without 
touching the under cuticle, and when these are consumed, it 
crawls out to seek its fortune and weave a more commodious 
mansion ; when, however, it has reached its final stage, it devours 
the entire leaf. 

When about to undergo its transformation, the caterpillar does 
not wander far, and frequently remains upon the plant which 
has nourished it. A specimen bred in confinement, but which 
had abundance of room, formed of partially dried leaves, oe 
nected by open, angular, irregular, silken meshes, averaging 
about four millimetres long, a sort of cocoon, of no definite shapes 
but larger than its previous nest, and which it attached to the top 
of the cage. 


1876.] A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. II. Its History. 609 


The butterfly is particularly fond of fields, gardens, highways, 
open ground, and waste places; it frequently alights on stone 
walls heated by the sun, and is greatly attracted by flowers, par- 
ticularly by thistles and the other plants upon which the cater- 
pillar feeds ; here it may readily be taken ; not so in other spots, 
for although very fearless, and even impudent, it is exceedingly 
wary, dashing off headlong at the slightest alarm. In Florida, 
Dr. Chapman once found three or four entangled in the leaves of 
a Sarracenia. 

Its flight is rapid, dashing, and discontinuous, it doubles fre- 
quently and abruptly, usually to the right or left rather than up 
or down, although it has no predilection for a particular elevation 
above the ground, as some other butterflies have ; in these frequent 
changes it makes a series of spasmodic efforts, the movements of 
the wings being more vigorous during the initial half of each 
start, or perhaps confined to that period. It loves to return to 
the spot from which it has been driven, or to the immediate vi- 
cinity, often circling about first, as if selecting the best spot. On 
a windy day its flight is not a little remarkable ; it rises high in- 
the air, then suddenly darts down until it has approached within 
five or ten metres of the ground, when it starts upward again to 
repeat the process. On a warm, sunny day, it frequently flies 
until within half an hour of sunset, and it may be seen laying 
*ggs at almost any hour between ten and four. 

“Tts wildly timorous behavior,” says Meyer-Dür, “is quite 
. striking 3 it is uncommonly audacious ; swift and savage, it dashes 
_ Megularly about; scarcely observing the pursuer, heedless of 
the net, it returns directly to the place it has left, and sits with 
horizontally opened wings on the dry earth or spots of sand. It 
18 a nimble, lively, youthful, untamed, petulant insect, which 
shows in its behavior no resemblance to its proud but circum- 
Spect neighbor, Atalanta.” ‘ 

alighting, it partially or wholly expands the wings ; when 
l fully Spread, they are brought well forward, and are often even 
Slightly depressed ; the straight antennz are then spread at ar 
| angle of ninety degrees and lie in the plane of the body, or per- 

PS slightly elevated. ; : 

___ Although its habit is to alight freqently, its flight is strong and 

Well sustained. Trimen relates that a specimen flew on board 

 ® vessel in which he was sailing, when about ninety miles from 

Teneriffe. Reference has already been made to one of these but- 

_ terflies Visiting a vessel six hundred miles from the main land dur- 
YOU. x. — No. 10. 39 


610 A Cosmopolitan Butterfly. II. Its History. (October, 


ing a cyclone, and other similar though not so striking instances 
might be added. Several accounts have also been given of the 
migration or simultaneous movement of this insect in swarms. 
Dr. Hagen records two instances ;! on October 26, 1827, Prevost 
saw such a moving swarm, composed of a stream of butterflies 
from ten to fifteen feet broad, passing from south to north for . 
two hours. On April 26, 1851, Ghiliani saw, near Turin, a great 
` flight of these insects ; according to Bouquet,? the day was fine, 
after continued rain, and a strong breeze blew from the west ; 
commencing at eleven A. M., the swarm came from the south- 
southeast and continued with a precipitate flight for five hours 
towards the north-northwest. 

“ In England and on the continent of Europe,” says Trimen,’ 
“ cardui sometimes appears in great abundance, and then, perhaps 
for several seasons, will be uncertain in appearance and restricted 
to particular localities. I have not heard of this irregularity of 
appearance being noticed in other parts of the world.” This is, 
however, the universal testimony- of observers in America, and is 
probably due to the action of parasites. It was one of the first 
phenomena that drew my especial attention to butterflies. This 
butterfly, indeed, is one of the best subjects of study for those 


who wish to investigate the causes of irregular apparition ; and 


only such as spend much time in the field can hope to solve the 
problem. A close observation of the comparative abundance of 


the butterfly for several consecutive years in the same locality; 


(selecting only those which are nearly full grown, and recor ing 
the proportion of healthy and infested ones), will probably show 
whether the attack of parasites is a vera causa. 

As regards the parasites, Prof. A. E. Verrill has reared from 
caterpillars of this insect a species of Microgaster called M. fi ruct- 
uosus by Cresson. Mr. Riley has also bred a dipterous parasite ; 
its larva usually issues from the victim while the latter is m the 
caterpillar state, though sometimes not until it has transformed 
to chrysalis ; and in one instance the Vanessa completed its meta- 
morphoses with the parasitic fly yet in its abdomen ; it did not, 
however, properly expand its wings. Mr. Riley has also bred 
Ichneumon rufiventris Brullé from this insect ; this hymenopteron 
issues from the anterior extremity of the chrysalis, infested spec 

1 Stett. Entom. Zeit., xxii. 


80. 
2 Annales Soc. Ent. Fr. [2] ix. Bull., 56- 
8 Rhop. Afr. Austr., 121. 


1876.] Aquaria: Their Past, Present, and Future. 611 


imens of which may always be recognized by their pale color. 
In Europe, the caterpillar is infested by the larve of a Microgas- 
ter ; parasites reared by me perforated the skin of the caterpillar 
August 19th and made their cocoon on its body. September 4th 
the box containing the cocoons was opened, disclosing both dead 


_. and living imagines ; they belonged to two distinct species, those - 


of the smaller being dead and dry, while those of the larger were 
either living or recently dead; on the succeeding day the re- 
mainder of the larger ones appeared, and proved to be, as iden- 
tified by my friend Mr. Drewsen, of Copenhagen, Microgaster sub- 
completus var.? von Esenb., and the smaller an undetermined 
species of the same genus, probably undescribed. Of the former 
3¢ and 15? emerged ; of the latter 8¢ 3? ; besides these, four 
larve had been taken from their cocoons and preserved in that 
state ; all of these came from the body of a single caterpillar. 
The larger species is probably the actual parasite of V. cardui ; 
the latter, a parasite of the parasite. 


AQUARIA: THEIR PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. 
BY WILLIAM ALFORD LLOYD. 


[ilGuty-srx years ago — in the year 1790 — there might 
have been seen trudging along the streets of Edinburgh an 
“old blue-coated serving-man,” carrying an earthenware pitcher 
or jar, of three or four gallons’ capacity That pitcher contained 
sea-water for the marine aquarium of Sir John Graham Dalyell, 
Bart., who thus employed a man, or probably a succession of 
men, from the time he began aquarium-keeping till he finished 
at his death in 1851, a period of sixty-one years. The jar was 
sent to the sea to be filled twice or thrice weekly ; but averaging 
itat five times a fortnight, and allowing four miles for each double 
journey from Great King Street to the sea and back, that 
‘mounted to 39,650 miles from the year 1790 to the year 1850, 
which was an enormous and perfectly needless expenditure of 
force, expressed in time and money, even although the results of 
ir John’s investigations were given to the world in five such im- 
Portant quarto volumes as his Rare and Remarkable Animals 
of Scotland, 1847-48 ; and his Powers of the Creator displayed 
ìn the Creation, 1851-58. 
Dalyell’s mode of operation, as told to me by his sister Eliza- 
h, in two letters dated 1860, and printed in the Zoölogist of 


612 Aquaria: Their Past, Present, and Future. [ October, 


November, 1873, vol. viii., second series, pp. 2757, 2758, was as 
follows: He kept his living marine animals, consisting of the 
lower kinds below fishes, in a number of glass cylindrical jars, 
of various sizes and proportions, and with usually one animal in 
each. The water in these jars he changed every morning, 
“often twice a day, if he perceived the smallest fragment : 
amongst it, wiping and washing the glasses very clean.” He 
then drew away the water so used, and replenished it from the 
earthenware jar with the water got from the sea. At one time 
I should not have termed this aquarium-keeping at all, because 
of the change of water.. (See Crystal Palace Aquarium Hand- 
book, 1875, p. 7.) But now, having got to think more broadly, 
I recognize this, not as a change of water in the sense of its 
being lost, but merely as a change of position from a house in 
Edinburgh to the sea, and back again. That is to say, the 
water he dismissed from his jars went into a gutter in a street, 
or into a sewer below it, and found its way by gravitation into 
the ocean again. Or, if it were poured on the ground, into which 
it soaked, it found its way back to the sea by an infinitely more 
circuitous route. But had Dalyell been more of a general phil- 
osophical thinker as well as a naturalist, be would have saved 
himself this very great amount of cost and trouble. Had he 
but reflected on that which was then known, namely, that water 
— both sea-water and fresh water — is practically indestructible, 
and that any decaying organic matter, animal or vegetable, or 
both mixed, can be got rid of, and the water be left pure, then 
he would have saved his servants their weary walks of more than 
as far, in their aggregation, as twice round the world, nearly. 

In the ocean, of course, various animals and plants are inces- 
santly dying in large numbers, and their decomposing remains 
are prevented from permanently poisoning the water, in which 
other animals live and breathe, by the incessant motion to which 
the sea is subjected, and this: motion brings the water into puri- 
fying contact with the atmospheric air which every where exists. 
It is this air, or rather the oxygen in it, which the water takes 
up in greater quantity than the nitrogen, which is another and 
larger component of the atmosphere, which is the source of pe 
fication alluded to, the water being merely a medium or a vehicle 
for the exhibition of the oxygen. In addition to this, vegeta” 
grows by the action of light, and decomposes the poisonous 
carbonic acid gas evolved by the breathing of animals, the sor 
being used to form the woody substance of the plants, and the 


1876.] Aquaria: Their Past, Present, and Future. 613 


residual oxygen being liberated for the use and benefit of the 
animals. Thus the ocean, and rivers, and lakes, and all other 
waters in nature, of varying degrees of freshness and saltness, 
by motion and vegetation, both originating from the sun, are 
maintained sufficiently pure and respirable. l 

These operations were going on almost at Dalyell’s door, yet 
he did not learn to apply them to practice, as he migh} have 
done. What he did was this: He fed the animals in his jars on 
mussel flesh, which is easily diffusible in water, and which 
quickly makes it milky; and this, with the absence of growing 
Vegetation, and the breathing and other emanations of the 
animals, soon caused the water to become offensive in appear- 
ance and in smell. So he threw it away. But the very act of 
pouring it, and the motion of it as it trickled onward to the sea, 
purified it, because such an act was an unconscious imitation 
of what nature does. Had Sir John but thought of the merely 
Vehicle character of water, and of its incapability of being de- 
composed save by a very slow and expensive process, he would 
at once have seen that the minutely disseminated mussel flesh 
and its juices in the water made that water unfit to support life, 
only temporarily. : It was not the water itself that was not fit ; 
it was only something in the water that was wrong, and if that 
Something were removed the water would be left as good as ever. 
If, therefore, instead of sending it back into the sea by a long 
toad, and then going to the immense pains to dip it back again, 
he had poured it into a large receptacle in his own house, such 
Teceptacle or reservoir being many times larger than the aggre- 
gate contents of all his glass jars, he would have found that in a 
short time he would have possessed a source of supply for the 
Jats quite as good as the ocean provided. Had he, in addition, 
Placed his reservoir in a cool cellar, and had a pipe connecting it 
with the study to which Miss Dalyell has incidentally alluded, 
with a funnel at the upper end of the pipe, in which was placed 
à piece of straining-cloth or a small hair-sieve, to arrest the 
“arser pieces of decaying organisms, and if he had poured the 
| Water he had usedʻinto this funnel, the arrangement would have 
been still better. Yet better would it have been had he pos- 
%ssed another pipe. leading upward from the reservoir, through 
Which he could pump up the sea-water as he wanted it. Best of 
* Would have been some form of incessantly-working machinery, 
by means of which the water would be always coming up, day 
F 8 night, from this large and cool reservoir into the experi- 


614 Aquaria: Their Past, Present, and Future. [ October, 


mental glasses, for then they would have been constantly kept at 
an even temperature and in a state of constant aeration. This 
would have done away with the necessity of the everlasting wip- 
ing and washing of the glasses; and, they being thus left alone, 
and in a certain amount of daylight, vegetation would soon have 
appeared in them, stimulated by the action of that light, without 
having, been visibly introduced, but present everywhere in the 
seeds or spores of plants, merely waiting to be developed. Such 
an arrangement, indeed, would have been precisely that of the 
best modern aquaria as now-made, in which the water is so con- 
tinually and abundantly aerated by ceaselessly moving machinery 
that impurities have no.time to accumulate, but are oxygenated 
and dissipated as quickly as they form. In the Brighton and 
Havre public aquaria, the old and intermittent system used by 
Dalyell has been reverted to, and of course with ill results, as 
the water freshly obtained from the sea is turbid when seen in 
large masses, and is unhealthy for the animals, only a small 
number of which therefore can be kept in great bulks of fluid, 
because it is insufficiently aerated. This will be the case also 
at the Scarborough aquarium, now being built on the same erro- 
neous principle. 

Dalyell, however, was no mechanician or physicist, and he 
knew nothing of marine botany; so he just did as his neighbors 
did with their fresh-water gold-fish globes; he changed the 
sea-water and threw it away as quickly as it became sullied, and 
this water he obtained at no great cost, he living close to the sea- 
Or if the cost of time in getting it was considerable in proportion 
to the work done, i. e., the quantity obtained, it mattered not 
much to him, as he was a rich man. Yet, had he but known 1t, 
the sea-water he thus obtained was less good for the animals he 
kept than it should have been, inasmuch as it was from the 
adjoining Firth of Forth, and of the density of but 1.024, at a 
temperature of 60° F.; whereas had he kept it for some months, 
it would have evaporated to the more proper density of 1.027 at 
60° F., taking distilled water as being 1.000 at 60° F. : 

I have given this narration as showing the state of things 
aquarially at the end of the last century, and during the first 
half of the present one, and also as being the mode of operation 
which the general public, and even the great mass of the higher 
and better educated classes of society, still believe to be the sy8- 
tem necessary to be followed in the maintenance of aquaria. 

In the year 1842, the late Dr. N. B. Ward published the first 


1876.] Aquaria: Their Past, Present, and Future. 615 - 


edition of his book, in 8vo, on the growth of plants in closely 
glazed cases, and this in 1854 was followed by the second edition, 
in 12mo.. In 1853, Dr. N, B. Ward’s son, the present Dr. 
Stephen H. Ward, gave a lecture on this subject at the Royal 
Institution, which was published as a 12mo pamphlet in the 
same year. All three of these are now and have been long out 
of print, and they bear testimony, indubitably, that N. B. Ward 
experimented with. aquaria about the year 1840, though he did 
not use the word “aquarium,” which was employed for the 
first time in print, as far as I know, twice by Mr. P. H. Gosse, 
in his Devonshire Coast, post 8vo, 1853, at pages 234 and 
441. That is to say, N. B. Ward is the earliest recorded person 
who intentionally arranged together certain animals and plants 
in water, so that these two sets of organisms should mutually 
and partly support each other, the plants giving off oxygen and 
taking up carbon, and the animals taking up oxygen and giving 
off carbon, thus decomposing and rendering harmless the car- 
bonic acid gas as continually as it was evolved by the animals, 
and maintaining the water pure. In Dr. S. H. Ward’s pam- . 
phlet, just named, is a long, circumstantial, and most interesting 
harrative of how Mrs. Anne Thynne did the same thing precisely 
with sea-water and marine animals and plants. This lady being 
in London in the year 1846, and having some living corals and 
sponges, used to send occasionally to the -coast for supplies of 
water for her creatures. But finding that if a quantity of this 
water were taken up in a jug and let fall again from its spout in 
a slender stream, it lost whatever impurity it contained from 
contact with air in this much comminuted state, she ceased to 
get more from the sea, and instead got from thence some living 
Sea-weed and placed it in the water, which derived additional 
benefit from ‘this vegetation, just as Dr. N. B. Ward found his 
fresh water had benefited by the plants he introduced. It is more 
than probable, however, that in both these instances the really 
beneficial vegetation was not that which was thus visibly intro- 
duced, but was the minute kind which grew parasitically on the 
plants and upon the inside of the vessels. Yet it must be ad- 
mitted that this gentleman and this lady are the two first known 
Persons who, keeping a chemical law in view, deliberately and 
purposely set about attaining means for its fulfillment in an 


In 1849, the late Mr. Robert Warington, chemist to the Com- 
pany of Apothecaries, set up in his rooms, in the hall of that 


616 Aquaria: Their Past, Present, and Future. [ October, 


company, in London, his first aquarium, a fresh-water one, fol- 
lowed, in 1851-52, by his first marine aquarium. These he 
described in the periodicals of the day, and also in a lecture 
which he gave at the Royal Institution, in an interesting manner, 
and naturally from a chemist’s point of view. At about the 
same period Mr. P. H. Gosse commenced his earliest marine 
aquarium, as did Dr. J. S. Bowerbank, Dr. Cotton, and the late 
Dr. E. Lankester, and the successes attained by these experi- 
menters induced the Zodlogical Society of London to determine 
to have a public aquarium in its gardens in Regent’s Park. 
The building for this purpose was erected in the spring and sum- 
mer of the year 1852. The marine and fresh-water animals 
were begun to be introduced in the late autumn; the following 
winter and spring were wisely spent in experimenting on the 
best modes of operating, and the exhibition was opened on May 
21, 1853. After having been noticed in print by the Athe- 
næum of some months earlier, it was again commented upon 
by that journal of May 28th, and by the Illustrated London 
News of the same day and year, the latter publication giving 
views of two tanks. One of the earliest services which this 
institution conferred on biological literature may be seen in 
portions of the natural history division of the English Cyclo- 
pedia (an adaptation of the earlier Penny Cyclopedia), as 
the former publication appeared fortnightly, commencing in the 
spring of 1853; and as it was edited by Dr. E. Lankester, who 
always took much interest in aquaria, he mentions in the boo 

from time to time that such and such animals named had been 
kept in this Regent’s Park aquarium, to which he gave the need- 
lessly long name of “ aquavivarium.” This place was my ons 
much loved and earliest place of natural history studies, and in 
August, 1853, I too arranged a little domestic aquarium of my 
own — a fresh-water one. Later in the same year I set up * 
small marine one, or rather a series of little aquaria in glass jars, 
holding from half a pint to a pint each. Seldom has a student 
begun with such very small means as I then possessed, for my 
sea-water was compounded of salts purchased at a London chem- 
ist’s shop, and my animals were such little sea-anemones aS 

could find uninjured on oyster shells thrown into London streets. 
I was in earnest, however, and the difficulties I was 80 closely 
beset with, and they alone, enabled me to gain subsequent s¥@ 
cess. In the earlier books on aquaria — notably in Mr. Grosse 


two volumes, his Devonshire Coast and his Aquarium ( the 


Sa anes Soa Jil A Soe eee ea ig aE Iai ae eae | 


Se eee ee a ar ees 


1876.] ; Aquaria: Their Past, Present, and Future. 617 


latter having gone through two editions, 1853 and 1856, besides 
a recent reprint without the plates, which have been accidentally 
destroyed) — aquaria are associated in idea with conservatories, 
especially as to the growth of plants in each. This notion was 
very natural. Accordingly the Regent’s Park Aquarium was 


made virtually as a conservatory. But it was a diametrically 


wrong notion, as the first sammer proved; and the second sum- 
mer (1854) showed this still more conclusively; and the third 
(1855) yet more so, the evil being an accumulating one. It was 
then remembered, when too late, that marine and fresh-water 
plants and animals live in seas and rivers, where the temperature 
is much more restricted in range than that which obtains in the 
atmosphere. 

It was seen that success was to be obtained by representing 
these conditions of nature just named, and that to place such 
organisms in a glass house, where the rays of a summer's sun 
heated a mass of imprisoned air, was to kill the animals and to 
stimulate the plants to unnatural growth, or rather to cause them 
and some of the animals to be covered with a parasitic growth 
of the lower green alge, which obscured them. The errors of 
this earliest aquarium were strikingly shown by its solitary merit, 
the latter being its fresh-water division, occupying one side of 
the building, where the water coursed through the tanks in a 
constant stream, it being clear and cool, and peopled with an 
adequate number of healthy animals; while on the other side of 
the building, and in its centre, were the marine tanks, in which 

e water was, and still is, turbid and warm, and sparsely in- 
habited by not healthy creatures. 

These good results were, however, obtained by accident and . 
hot design. The society possessed already a steam-engine, which 
Pumped up water for the general use of its gardens, and it was 
à mere matter of course to connect the aquarium with this: 
engine, and allow the water (which chanced to be drawn from a 
pure source) to run through the fish tanks, and then be applied 
to ordinary purposes, drinking or other, for which its passage 


a through the tanks in no way unfitted it. I reasoned with the 
_ Society that if the sea-water tanks were similarly treated on 


Some such system as the fresh-water series, a correspondingly 


1 good result would be attained; and I pointed out that the same 


W governed both, because in the centre of the building were 


; Some isolated fresh-water tanks having no stream in them, sad 


were in a similarly ill condition as the marine tanks by 


618 Aquaria: Their Past, Present, and Future. [ October, 


their side. In reply, the society answered that a circulatory 
system did exist in a part of the sea-water series, but that it was 
almost useless; and I then pointed out that that was because 
the reservoir into which the sea-water entered after it had run 
through the show-tanks was too small in relation to the dimen- 
sions of the latter, and that the reservoir should be several times 
greater than the show-tanks. My reasoning was all in vain, 
however, for the society went on throwing away the sea-water 
when it was only temporarily unfitted for use, and getting at a — 
cost of several hundreds of pounds yearly a weekly supply from 
the sea, especially when soon afterwards another evil made its 
appearance, consisting of a greenish-brown dense opacity, per- 
meating the water and quite hiding from view all it contained. 
This was caused by excess of light, for I found that darkness 
removed it and made the water clear again; and this led to Mr. 
E. Edward’s invention of the dark-chambered tank, a modifica- 
tion of which is now, or should be, employed in all public 
aquaria where adequate results are aimed at and attained. So, 
at this early period, 1853-62, though in theory the Zodlogical 
Society of London, and every one else who maintained aquaria, 
used the same unchanged water, especially sea-water, yet most 
persons sent to the sea, or to dealers, of which I was then one, 
for occasional new supplies. However, from 1853 to 1859, when 
I could not possibly get new sea-water for my little jars, I 
merely increased the quantity of water to about eight or ten 
times as much as those jars cdllectively held. Thus the aggre 
gate contents of my jars were about six or eight pints ; and in à 
now historical earthenware foot-pan, kept dark in a cool corner 
at hand, I had five or six gallons more water, containing neither 
animals nor plants, and when aught occurred to disturb the equ 
librium of life in these jars, either from excess of light or heat 
by standing on a light window-sill, or from excess of food, oF 
from there being too many animals in a small space, instead of 
throwing away the water thus temporarily rendered unfit to sus 
tain life, I merely restored it to a right condition by poutms the 
contents of these jars into the foot-pan, which was 80 large be 
relation to the dimension of the jars that I could immediately 
dip them up full from it (the foot-pan) without the water being 
perceptibly the worse for it, especially when I so contrived mat- 
ters that these transfers were made, not in one day, but on wish 
cessive days. Thus, in London, far from the sea, which I h 
never seen, I was so far, aquarially speaking, as well off as 


| 


eee haa il) TEE ER cies intel Me Oe D E EN EAE O 


1876.] Aquaria: Their Past, Present, and Future. 619 


wealthy Sir John Graham Dalyell, with the ocean almost at his 
door. Later on, in 1857-58, I set up another marine aqua- 
rium, in which the show-tank held twenty gallons, and the reser- 
voir five hundred gallons of water, in which that water, instead 
of being intermittently circulating, as in my jar and foot-pan 
arrangement, circulated constantly, day and night, by means of a 
pump and pipes, in a cool underground London cellar or kitchen, 
with a uniform temperature of about 60° F. This answered ex- 
cellently, especially when I increased the water in the reservoir 
to one thousand gallons. 

As the more air there is in the water the better it is, hence 
the value of large and therefore cool reservoirs. Independently 
of all this, however, the larger the bulk of water, and the more 
constant and vigorous the circulation and aeration, the less it 
will be sullied by the animals which live in it. In the Crystal 
Palace Aquarium we have in the show-tanks twenty thousand 
gallons of sea-water, and in the reservoir one hundred thousand 
gallons, total one hundred and twenty thousand gallons, supplied 
by Mr. W. Hudson in 1870. Yet in this comparatively small 
quantity of unchanged fluid we have, from September, 1871 to 
March 31, 1876 (four and a half years), given to the animals in 
it the following enormous quantity of food without the water 
being otherwise than always sparklingly clear : — 


1. Sandhoppers (Talitrus), in pounds weight 12 
2. Shrimps (Crangon), in quarts 4735 
3. Crabs (Carcinus), in gallons 137 
“ (Cancer), large, “ numbers 1450 
4. Scallops (Pecten) large, in numbers 32 
5. Oysters (Ostrea) a : 2195 
6. Cockles ( Cardium), in gallons 18 
7. Mussels (Mytilus) A ee 
: in gallons 
8. Whelks (Buccinum) i i Aon me 
9. Fish, chiefly Whiting (Gadus), in pounds weight 3159 
10. Smelts’ roe ( Osmerus s 14 


“ 


— 
— 


- Green sea-weed (Ulva), purchased fate 
‘see nferva), grown in tanks, quantity unknown. 


And, in addition, we obtain occasional and unrecorded supplies 
from neighboring fishmongers when the regular supply runs 

ort. Of this animal food, all but the denominations nine and 
ten are kept alive in a series of reserve tanks till the moment of 
being eaten. Scarcely any uneaten food, and never any excre- 
Ment, is manually removed ; but all which is not consumed by 
the animals ig chemically dissipated, without filtering, by the 


normous volumes of air constantly being injected into every 


620 Aquaria: Their Past, Present, and Future. [ October, 


tank by Leete Edwards and Norman’s machinery, the speed of 
which is accelerated (Çi. e., the oxygenation is quickened) when 
the water is slightly turbid from an excess of organic matter. 
All this I have explained more at length in the Official Hand- 
book to the Crystal Palace Aquarium, and in Observations on 
Public Aquaria, both published at the Crystal Palace. It is this 
power of oxygenating, or consuming, or burning, at a low tem- 
perature, termed by Baron Liebig “ eremacausis,” + which ex- 
presses the real work done in an aquarium, and the force neces- 
sary to do that work. Even our thick beds of sand and shingle 
at the bottom of each tank are so fully charged with air that 
one thrust of a stick will release a pint of it in bubbles. This is 
a source of purification and health quite unknown till recently. 
Consequently the floors of our tanks (excepting the sea anemone 
tanks) are as speckless and as free from the blackness caused by 
sulphureted and carbureted hydrogen gas, as on the day they 
were laid down in 1870. . If we have an excessive growth of 
sea-weeds anywhere, we turn in a shoal of gray mullet (Mugil 
capito), which nibble it down close, like sheep in a field of grass. 
This leads me to say that at present we do not know how to 
grow the higher marine algee, the red, the brown, or even the 
green kinds, at will. Sometimes I succeed, but always by chance, 
not knowing why. : 

Of the general influence of aquaria on zodlogy we have oe 
ous evidence in Mr. Gosse’s most excellent Manual of Marie 
Zoölogy for the British Isles,” published in two volumes, m 


1855-56, in which the author enumerates 1785 species, from 


sponges to fishes, and of which he figures 779 genera, always 
preferring to draw from living animals whenever possible, Now, 
as at that period a larger number of aquarium animals had 
passed through his hands than through those of any other person, 
he may be presumed to have, up to then, seen more of them 
alive than any one else. Yet he enumerates only 201 as having 
been drawn from life, as he avowedly preferred doing, and of 
these but a dozen were fishes, others being, for the most part, 
small creatures, or those which are easily maintained and do not 
need large tanks and elaborate machinery. But during the 
twenty years which have elapsed since 1856 I have seen 
handled and had under my care, in England, France, and we 
many, about 433 species of British marine animals, of which 1 
were fishes. 

1 From the Greek “ to remove by burning, or by fire.” The words « caustic” and 
“ cautery ” have the same derivation. ; 


pie S a a a 


d 
: 


BEJ.. Recent Literature. 621 


There are few things more trying to that great virtue, pa- 
tience, than a large public aquarium, especially in its prep- 
aration, before it is ready for the reception of animals. It is 
to this lack of patience on the part of the directors of the 
Royal Westminster Aquarium, and to their absolute refusal to 
allow me to have proper engineering assistance during its con- 
struction, and to general mismanagement, that its present con- 
fused state, and its unsatisfactory condition in every way, is due. 
On this account I resigned my post of adviser to the sociéty, as 
I found it useless to advise when advice was recklessly disre- 
garded. Aquarium work, being hydraulic engineering on a 
small scale, is essentially the work of an engineer, and not that 
of an architect, unless he is also an engineer and a mathemati- 
cian. There is for aquaria a great and important future, both 
as regards their influence on science and as pecuniary specula- 
tions, if indeed, as I much doubt, there can be any real severing 
of these two interests. Success, however, must always be the 
result of a careful study and representation of what nature does, 
and of a strict avoidance of the recent heresies to which I have 
in this communication adverted. — Popular Science Review. 


RECENT LITERATURE. 

Two Years mw CALIFORNIA. — This book contains apparently a 
reliable and useful account of California, its scenic and climatic features, 
its people, with hints for tourists and settlers, and a candid chapter on the 
Chinese in California. The authoress gives these people credit for a 
business sagacity, fidelity, industry, and economy which render them a 
desirable class of immigrants. By their aid, it is claimed, the natural 
Wealth of California has been advanced beyond what it would otherwise 
have been by a quarter of a century. The literary execution of the 

k is not rarely capable of improvement, but the work is the result 
of an honest attempt to impart the fruits of close observation during 
à two years’ residence in California. 

00K’s MAnuaL or THE APIARY.?— A cheap and reliable manual 
+ bee-keeping has been needed by amateurs and beginners in the art, 
here we have in print Professor Cook’s lectures on the subject, 


delivered annually to his students, forming a guide which we can unhesi- 


gly commend as sufficiently scientific and practical. The Italian 
Variety is recommended as greatly superior to the German. As regards 
the treatment of foul brood, we would inquire whether carbolic acid or 
-* Two. Years in California, By Mary Cone. With Illustrations. Chicago: S. 


"Griggs & Co, 1876. 12mo, pp. 238. $1.75. 
. ‘ , pp. 238. : i 
* Manual ofthe Apiary. By A. J. Coox. Lansing, Mich. 1876. 8vo, pp. 59. 


622 Recent Literature. [ October, 


other disinfectants would not prevent the spread of this contagious disease. 
The description of the queen bee is excellent. Though she has a sting, she 
can seldom be induced to make use of it. Says our author, “ I have often 
tried to provoke a queen’s anger, but never with any evidence of success.” 
Professor Cook adopts the prevalent opinion that the queen’s develop- 
ment is conditioned by the richer quality and greater quantity of her food, 
“ perhaps aided by a more ample habitation.” We would here inquire 
whether the temperature of the queen’s cell differs from that of the drone 
or worker cells, in fact, whether temperature as well as richer and more 
abundant food is not a factor in the production of queens; and, on the 
other hand, what brings about the production of workers, of which, we 
are told in this manual, there are from twenty thousand to forty thousand 
in every good colony. If some one would offer a prize for the best essay 
on the causes of retardation in the worker bee, and of acceleration in 
the queen, and another prize for the best essay on parthenogenesis in the 
honey bee, since the matter is by no means exhausted, he would confer 
a favor on the. public and aid in the advance of physiology. Meanwhile 
we look to our agricultural stations and colleges for original work in 
this direction. 

WHEELER’S GEOLOGY or THE UNITED STATES WEST OF THE ONE 
Hunprepta Meripr1an.!— This bulky volume gives the results of 
several years’ work by the survey in portions of our western Territories. 
It embraces reports by Mr. G. K. Gilbert on portions of Nevada, Utah, 
California, and Arizona explored in 1871 and 1872, already noticed in 
this journal, with a second on portions of New Mexico and Arizona 
explored in 1873. The late Mr. A. R. Marvine contributes a chapter 
on the geology of the route from Saint George, Utah, to Gila River, 
Arizona; and there are reports on the geology of certain parts of Utah, 
Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico, by Mr. E. G. Howell; on a portion 
of Colorado surveyed in 1873, by Mr. J. J. Stevenson, and a mineralog- 
ical and agricultural report, by Dr. O. Loew. The heliotype plates add 
much to the general interest of the work. 

APPALACHIA.? — This is the organ of the Appalachian Mountain Club, 
devoted to the exploration of the mountains of the Eastern States, pat „e 
ularly the White Mountains of New Hampshire, which gives evidence of 
vigor by the publication of the first number of its journal within a few 
weeks after its fifth meeting. It contains, besides other matter, @ oer 
of papers of interest to tourists and geographical students, under the i 
lowing titles: Atlantic System of Mountains, by Prof. C. H. Hitchcock ; 
A Day on Tripyramid, by Prof. C. E. Fay ; Two New Forms of Mount- 
ain Barometer, by S. W. Holman ; New Map of the White Mountains, 
by J. B. Henck, Jr.; East Branch of the Pemigewasset, by wW. Cee 

1 Report upon Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys west g T 
Hundredth Meridian, in charge of Lieutenant G. M. Wheeelr, U. S. Engineers. 
Geology. Washington. 1875. 4to, pp. 681. With 13 plates and cuts. a 

7 7 rol. i., No. 1. June, 1876. Boston: A. Williams & Co. 
lished for the Appalachian Mountain Club. 8vo, pp. 62. 50 cents. 


CE N I A I Ne eae e LE a FE EE A ENEAN EN ERN Oe ee A EE NE 


NEE E S ee T 


a s FaR 
EE EEA eS NT 


1876.] Botany. 623 


ARCHIVES OF THE Nationat Museum or Brazit.1— The first 
number of this new journal, established by the national museum recently 
founded at Rio Janeiro, contains several memoirs, among them one on 
the aboriginal remains in the shell-heaps of Southern Brazil, locally 

ed “sambaquis,” by Professor Wiener, and illustrated by two plates. 
Professor Hartt, in charge of the Geological Survey of Brazil, and 
director of the department of physical science and geology in the national 
museum, contributes an illustrated article of much interest on Brazilian 

tte ‘ 


Manton’s Taxipermy.?— Though fifty cents is a large price for 
this little book, and the illustrations consist of three rude diagrams, it is 
yet sufficiently explicit to enable one to learn how to stuff a bird or 
mammal if he is unable to take a few lessons from a teacher. 


T Booxs AnD Pampnyets. — The Preparation and Mounting of Micro- 
scopic Objects. By Thomas Davis. Second edition, greatly enlarged. Edited by 
John Matthews. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1876. 12mo, pp. 214. $1.25, 

Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical oui of the Territo 
ties. Vol. ii., No. 4. Washington, D. C. August 4, 18 

Force of Ciliary Motion. By H. P. Bowditch, M. D. (Reprinted from the Boston 
Medical and Surgical Journal.) Cambridge. 1876. 8vo, pp. 

Check-List of the Noctuidæ of America, North of V A pha z By A. R. Grote. 
Buffalo. 1876. 8vo, pp. 20. 75 cents. 
Bad nopsis epee Von J. E. von Bergenstamm und P, Löw. Wien. 

6. 8yo 

Beiträge nia TUANA und Histologie der r insbesondere der Cocci- 
den. Von E. L. Mark. Bonn. 1876. i 

On the Growth of the Flower-Stalk of the adak: By A. W. Bennett. Pre- 
liminary Note on the Rate.of Growth of the Female Flower-Stalk of Vallisneria 
R” (Extracted from the Transactions of the Linnæan Society of London.) 


Mian in ee Normal and aguas sr 4to. By C. Seiler, 
M. D., in conjunction h J. Gibbons Hunt, M. D., and J. G. Richardson, M. D. 
Philadelphia : J. H. Cisie & Co. 

An- Kikuu on Some of the oe Public Health ‘Questions, etc. By J. M. 
Toner, M, D. mbridge, Mass. 8vo, pp. 40 

Ueber die Biain der Mardari hanisti Yucca-Arten. Von J. Boll. 8vo, 
Pp. 4 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY.’ 
INFLUENCE or Lignt AND HEAT ON TRANSPIRATION IN PLANTS 
— Professor Wiesner has recently examined this interesting subject and 
added a few facts to those already known. He shows that both light 


2 4nd radiant heat favor transpiration, or active evaporation from the sur- 


K cared do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro. Vol.i., No.1. 1876. 4to, pp. 
. 5 late 


pot asiderm y without a Teacher. By Warrer P. Manton. Illustrated. South 
famingham, ? Mass, 1876. 12mo, pp.4l. 5 i 
nducted by Pror. G. L. GOODALE 


624 General Notes. [ October, 


face of plants, but he thinks that the ultra-violet rays have little effect. 
The well-known fact that green plants transpire more rapidly in the 
light is explained on the ground of their absorbing the light by means 
of their chlorophyll, and thereby increasing the tension of the aqueous 
vapor in the cavities of the plant, and thus favoring its escape. This 
was studied experimentally by comparison of transpiration of green and 
of etiolated plants in the light, by researches in the spectrum itself, and 
by interposing a chlorophyll-solution. The opening of stomata in the 
light plays only a subordinate part in the increase of transpiration caused 
by light. 


INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE ON THE GERMINATION OF PINE SEEDS. » 


— Dr. W. Velten states that heating the seeds can exercise upon: their 
germination an effect which is favorable or unfavorable according to their 
physiological condition ; and, further, that the time during which they 
are heated is an important element, since he finds that a lower tem- 
perature for a long time has the same influence as a higher tempera 
ture for a proportionally short period. 

BOTANY or CALIFORNIA, VoL. I. — This work gives a systematic ac- 
count of the Polypetalous and Gamopetalous Exogens of California, of 
the whole eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada and of the ranges adja- 


cent to it on the east, from Arizona to Northern Nevada, and of South- 


ern Oregon. The Polypetalous orders have been elaborated mainly by 
Professor Brewer and Mr. Sereno Watson ; the Gamopetalæ by Pro- 
fessor Gray. Of the high character of a systematic treatise by the au- 
thors just mentioned it is quite unnecessary to speak, but we may be per- 
mitted to call attention to a fewof the special merits of the present 
volume. There are two keys, one analytical, the other synoptical, by 
which the determination of the order of a plant and its place in the 
system is rendered very easy. In these days when there can be no : a 
tendency in some quarters to go back to a false indexical method, which 
secures by hook or by crook merely the name of a plant, somewhat after 
the fashion of a pick-lock, it is pleasant to observe so effective a protest 
in the form of a sound, scientific, and yet most helpful brace of keys- 
The selection of the type has been made with great skill. The catch- 
words of the printed page stand out boldly, so that the eye can hardly 
fail to detect the object of search. And, lastly, there is a good sprinkling 
of interesting notes of a popular character throughout the work, and much 
prominence has been given to an account of the geographical range of 
the plants. With Gray’s Manual, Watson’s Botany of the Fortieth 
Parallel, and this work (soon, we hope, to be completed), the study of the 
plants with which one meets in his journey across the continent is now 
an easy task. It should be said that we are indebted to 


Pea co te AE Se Smt A eee "et aw ae ae Oe ee 


. 


1876.] Zoölogy. 625 


of the State perhaps excepted) never do things by halves, we shall hope- 

fully expect to see the other half of this, namely, volume second. 
BOTANICAL PAPERS IN RECENT PERIODICALS. — Comptes rendus, 

82, No. 20. Corenwinder, Chemical Researches respecting Vegetation. 


_ (The office of leaves. Fixation of carbon.) No. 21. L. Chailletet, On 


the Nature of the Mineral Substances assimilated by Fungi. No. 23. 
Pasteur, On the Origin of Organized Ferments. A. de Candolle, In- 
fluence of the Age of a Tree on the Mean Time of Leaf-Bud Expan- 
sion. Boiteau, On the Galls occurring on the Leaves of French Grape- 
Vines. No. 25. Maupas, On Contractile Vacuoles in the Vegetable 
Kingdom. No. 26. Hartsen, Researches respecting Oupressus pyrami- 
dalis. Bontin, Note on the Origin of the Nitrates in Amarantus Blitum. 
83, No. 1. Trécul, The Carpellary Theory illustrated by Amarylli- 
dace. Nylander, The Lichens of Campbell Island. No. 2. Trécul’s 
Paper on the carpellary theory continued. Durin, On Cellulosic Fer- 


in Egypt. Dr. Suerssen, Notices of Vascular Cryptogams collected by 
Wawza. No. 19. Dr. B. Frank, The Biological Relations of the Thallus 
of some Crustaceous Lichens. No. 20. N ylander, Additions to European 
Lichenography. Dr. Prantl, Morphological Studies. De Krempelhuber, 
Brazilian Lichens. No. 21. J. E. Weiss, Relations of Growth and the 
Course of Fibrovascular Bundles of Piperacex. J. Reinke, Note respect- 
ing Recent Account of Apparatus for Demonstrating Growth. 
Botanische Zeitung, Nos. 25, 26, 27, 28. Dr. Ernst Reuther, Contribu- 
tions to the History of the Development of Flowers. No. 29. Solms- 
Laubach, The Development of the Flowers of Brugmansia Zippelii and 
Aristolochia Clematitis L. (continued in the four succeeding numbers 
of the journal), No. 33. A. W. Eichler, Reply to Reuther’s paper men- 
tioned above. No. 34. Professor Schenk, On the Fruit of Fossil Equise- 
Professor Famintzin, On the Formation of Cotyledons. 


ZOOLOGY. 


GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION AMONG NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS, 
ESPECIALLY IN Respect To Size. — Having recently had an opportu- 
"y (through the kindness of Professor Baird) of studying with some 
“ae magnificent series of skulls of the North American Mammalia 
belonging to the National Museum (amounting often to eighty or a hun- 

~a Specimens of a single species), I have been strongly impressed with 


* different degrees of variability exhibited by the representatives of the 
_ sles and genera of even the same family. The variation in size, for 
stance, with latitude, in the wolves and foxes is surprisingly great, 


4 “Mounting in some species (as will be shown later) to twenty-five per 
Ant of 
oy 


the average size of the species, while in other species of the Fere 
X. — No, 10, 40 


626 General Notes. [ October, 


it is almost nil. Contrary to the general supposition, the variation in 
size among representatives of the same species is not always a decrease 
with the decrease of the latitude of the locality, but is in some cases ex- 
actly the reverse, in some species there being a very considerable and in- 
disputable increase southward. This, for instance, is very markedly true 
of some species of Felis and in Procyon lotor. Consequently, the very 
generally received impression that in North America the species of Mam- 
malia diminish in size southward, or with the decrease in the latitude 
(and altitude) of the locality, requires modification. While such is gen- 
erally the case, the reverse of this too often occurs, with occasional in- 
stances also of a total absence of variation in size with locality, to be 
considered as forming “the exceptions” necessary to “ prove the rule.” 

That there are such exceptions, among both birds and mammals, I 
have been long aware, and long since noticed that where there is an act- 
ual increase in size to the southward it occurs in species that belong to 
families or genera that are mainly developed within the tropics, there 
reaching their maximum development, both in respect to the number 0 
their specific representatives and in respect to the size to which some of 
the species attain. This fact seems also to have been observed by 
others : 

Most of the mammals of North America belong to families, subfam- 
ilies, or genera which have their greatest development in the temperate 
or colder portions of the northern hemisphere, as the Cervide, the Can- 
ide, the Mustelide, the Sciuride (especially the subfamily Arctomyin@); 
the Leporide, the Oastoride, the Arvicoline among the Muride, the 
Saccomyide, Geomyide, etc. These rarely present an exception to the 
riation is less 
(in fact, occasionally almost nil) in some species than in the others. 
The more marked exceptions, or those in which there is an actual in- 
crease in size southward, occur in those families that reach their highest 
development within the tropics, as the Felide and Procyonide. 

In some species (as I have elsewhere noticed) there probably oxtail 3 
double decadence in size, the individual reaching its maximum dimen- 
sions where the conditions of environment are most favorable for the ex- 
istence of the species, and diminishing in size toward t 
scarcity of food and severity of climate) as well as toward the southern 
(in consequence of the enervating influence of tropical or semitropic4 
conditions) limit of its distribution. | 

1 I find that Mr. Robert Ridgway, some two years since, thus referred to this pont 
In alluding to the smaller size of Mexican specimens of Catherpes Mexicanus ner 
pared with specimens from Colorado (O. Mezxicanus var. conspersus), he 539%, 
we find this peculiarity exactly paralleled in the 7) hryothorus ludovicianus of 
lantic States, may not these facts point out a law to the effect i -n ofthe 

‘ ‘tude is toward the region of ah 
highest development of the group?” ( Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway’s Birds of No 
America, vol. iii., App., p. 503, 1874.) 


he northern (through 


: 
F 
4 
: 
; 


1876.] Zoblogy. 627 


Tu a general way, the correlation of size with geographical distribution 
may be formulated in the following propositions : — 

(L) The maximum physical development of the individual is attained 
where the conditions of environment are most favorable to the life of the 
species. Species being primarily limited in their distribution by climatic 
conditions, their representatives living at or near either of their respect- 
ive latitudinal boundaries are more or less unfavorably affected by the 
influences that finally limit the range of the species. These influences 
may be the direct effects of too high or too low a temperature, too little 
or too much humidity, or their indirect effects acting upon the plants or 
other sources of food. Hence the size of the individual generally corre- 
lates with the abundance or scarcity of food. Different species being 
constitutionally fitted for different climatic conditions, surroundings favor- 

€ to one may be very unfavorable to others, even of the same family 
or genus. Hence ei: 

(2) The largest species of a group (genus, subfamily, or family, as the 
case may be) are found where the group to which they.severally belong 
reaches its highest development, or where tt has what may be termed its 
centre of distribution. In other words, species of a given group attain 
their maximum size where the conditions of existence for the group in 
question are the most favorable, just as the largest representatives of a 
species are found where the conditions are most favorable for the exist- 
ence of the species. 

(3.) The most « typical” or most generalized representatives of a group 
are found also near its centre of distribution, outlying forms being gener- 

more or less “ aberrant” or specialized. —J. A. ALLEN, Bulletin 
U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories. 

A GORILLA 1N ENGLAND. — Mr. Moore, Curator of the Free Public 
Museum at Liverpool, sends the following letter to Zhe London Times of 

ne 23d: — 

“Sir, — A veritable young living gorilla was yesterday brought into 
Liverpool by the German African Society’s Expedition, which arrived 


~ Steamship Loanda, from the West Coast. The animal is a young 


‘ all ears, and thick fingers, cleft only to the second joint, distinguish it 
oe kably from the chimpanzee. Only one other specimen has been 
a ht alive to England. In the winter of 1855-56 a young female 

2% of much smaller size, was exhibited by the late Mrs. Wombwell 


w Waterton, of Walton Hall, who preserved the skin for his own col- 
ama sent the skeleton to the Leeds Museum. This specimen I 
e ng in Liverpool and dead at Walton Hall. All subsequent at- 
: Brite, to import the gorilla alive have failed; and, unfortunately, the 
=, Public will have no opportunity of profiting by the present suc- 


628 General Notes. [ October, 


cess, as the members of the expedition, with commendable patriotism, 
are taking the animal, on Saturday, via Hull to Berlin. Could it have 
graced our own Zodlogical Gardens it would have been the lion of the 
day; for, in addition to the great scientific interest of the species, the 
abounding life, energy, and joyous spirits of this example would have 
made it a universal favorite. Courteously received at Eberle’s Alexan- 
dra Hotel by the members of the expedition, I found the creature romp- 
ing and rolling in full liberty about the private drawing-room, now look- 
ing out of the window with all becoming gravity and sedateness as though 
interested, but not disconcerted, by the busy multitude and novelty with- 
out; then bounding rapidly along on knuckles and feet to examine and 
poke fun at some new-comer ; playfully mumbling at his calves, pulling 
at his beard (a special delight), clinging to his arms, examining his hat 
(not at all to its improvement), curiously inquisitive as to his umbrella, 
and so on with visitor after visitor. If he becomes overexcited by the 
fun, a gentle box on the ear will bring him to order like a child, — 
like a child, only to be on the romp again immediately. He points with 
the index finger, claps with his hands, pouts out his tongue, feeds on a 
mixed diet, decidedly prefers roast meats to boiled, eats strawberries, as 
I saw, with delicate appreciativeness, is exquisitely clean and mannerly- 
The palms of his hands and feet are beautifully plump, soft, and black as 
jet. He has been eight months and a half in the possession of the expe- 
dition, has grown some six inches in that time, and is supposed to be be- 
tween two and three years of age.” 

Ece or Cutonis, — In the final article of Bulletin No. 3 of the 
National Museum, upon Chionis minor, by Dr. Coues and myself, ap- 
pears (page 89) the following paragraph : — 

“ An egg of C. minor was received by the Zoölogical Society, January 
17, 1871, concerning which Prof. Alfred Newton said, ‘No egg 
either species of this genus had before been known, and this confirms, by 
its appearance, the systematic position of the form shown by © 
its affinity, namely, to the plovers.’” ; 

Since on the preceding page there is cited from the Ibis a mention of 
a leiter from Mr. Layard, dated at Cape Town in 1867, wherein an egg 
of this bird had been described, the impression is naturally conveyed 
that Professor Newton had overlooked this previous description. uch 
an impression was held by us at the time of writing, and a passing sa 
tion thereof was furthermore made by me in an article upon the same 
subject, which appeared in the Popular Science Monthly for March last. 

I have since learned that Mr. Layard was misinformed with reg% 
to the authenticity of his specimen, brought him by a whali 
and that it proved not to belong to Chionis at all. 

A considerable injustice has therefore been unwittingly v 
Newton, which I beg that you will allow me the opportunity for eo" 
Sa by giving publicity to this note. — J. H. KIDDER, Surgeon © 

avy. 


steology: 


done Professor 


1876] Geography and Exploration. 629 
) ANTHROPOLOGY. 

AN AFRICAN POTTER AT HER Work. — I was much interested in 
one village (Kisunge) by watching a potter at her work. First she 
pounded enough earth and water for one pot, with a pestle such as they 
use in beating corn, till it formed a perfectly homogeneous mass. She 
then put it either on a flat stone or on the bottom of another, and giv- 
ing it a dab with her fist in the middle to form a hollow, worked it into 
ashape roughly with her hands, keeping them constantly wet, and then 
smoothed out the finger-marks with a corncob, and finally polished it 
over with one or two bits of gourd and a bit of flat wood, the bit of 
gourd giving it the proper curves, and finally ornamenting it with a 
sharp-pointed stick. I went to look at it, wondering how it was to be 
taken off the stone and the bottom shaped, when lo and behold, it had 
no bottom! I waited to see what would be done, and after it had been 
drying four or five hours in a shady place it was stiff enough to be han- 
dled carefully, and a bottom worked in of another piece of clay. I timed 
one from beginning to pound the clay till it was put aside to dry, and it 
took thirty-five minutes ; putting in the bottom might take ten more. 
This pot would hold from two and a half to three gallons. The shapes 

of many are very graceful, and all are wonderfully truly formed (like | 
the amphora in Villa Diomed at Pompeii) ; they are used for palm oil. 
— Cameron’s Diary, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 

EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS IN GREENLAND. — In the summer of 1875, 

Mr, Helland, a Norwegian geologist, visited Greenland and made some 
exact and consequently very important observations on the rate of move- 
Ment of the interior ice. His measurements were made at the great 
- Jacobshavn glacier and also at the Itifdliarsuk glacier, at the opening of 
7 the Tossukuset Fiord, whence the great harvest of icebergs sweeps down 

aigat. 

In April, 1876, Mr. Steenstrup, the eminent geologist, and Lieutenant 
om, a young and enterprising officer of the Royal Danish Navy, 
‘tiled for Greenland, according to the Geographical Magazine, with the 

| sation of penetrating into the interior. The first attempt will prob- 
OY be made from the Tunnudliarbik Fiord, near Julianehaab, in the 
„Pe of being able to reach a mountain-peak which has been observed 
: ' the far distance to pierce the surface of the glacier, and is known one 
: the « Jomfruerne” or « Niviarsit.” But this will only be preliminary, 
: ~m the gallant explorers intend to renew their attempts for three or four 
Saja until they succeed. The Danish government has granted the 
: Meessary funds for this noble enterprise. 
° interested in arctic research will be glad to hear that Dr. 
: Rinks famous work on Greenland is to be translated into English. 


: This is the most authoritative work on that country, Dr. Rink having 


630 General Notes. [ October, 


been for years Director of Greenland. It will be in one volume, and, 
besides giving à general history of Greenland and its people, will contain 
an appendix relating to the natural history and meteorology of the 
country, and will be illustrated by a series of plates (fac-similes of draw- 
ings by the Greenland Eskimo, some of which have already found their 
way into the United States) and a new map. 

It appears that the great harvest of white bear-skins is obtained in 
Greenland from the extreme south, when the bears come on the ice 
drifted around Cape Farewell in the current from the east coast; that 
some are taken on the ice round Upernavik in the far north, but that 
bears are very scarce between Julianehaab and Upernavik. The cod- 
fish are mainly taken on the Torske Bank, off Sukkertoppen, and the 
narwhal horns are entirely from North.Greenland. 


MICROSCOPY.’ 


Microscopy at THRE American Association, — The subsection of 
microscopy of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
which has hitherto been a transient organization, temporarily formed 
whenever necessary, was established as a permanent body at the Buffalo 
meeting in August last. In addition to business connected with the de- 
tails of organization, nine papers were read, and many interesting dis- 
cussions were héld. Two evenings were occupied, one by an informal 
soirée at the rooms of the subsection, and the other by a very successful 
reception tendered by the Buffalo Microscopical Club. The members 
present were cordially and unanimously in favor of the permanent oF 
ganization. Dr. R. H. Ward, of Troy, was elected chairman for the 
first year, ending with the Nashville meeting next August. It is ear- 
nestly desired and hoped that the microscopists of the country will take 
such an active interest in the organization as to secure for themselves 
and others the really great advantages which it offers. 

Dovsie-Stainep Muscurar Fieres. — Dr. Geo. D. Beatty calls 
attention to the Lissotriton punctatus (the smooth-skin newt) and the 
Amphiuma tridactylum as microscopical treasures, the muscular fibres, 
especially of the tongue, being particularly beautiful, the transverse 
striæ being very well marked, and the nuclei very large in both spectes, 
with a one-fifth objective and A ocular. The tissues should be 
stained for the nuclei with carmine and with pieric acid, to, bring ii 
the transyerse strie. ‘The tissue is hardened by ninety-five per cente 
alcohol, followed by absolute alcohol, and sections cut in a sec 
chine or fibres teased out carefully with needles. The sections or th 
are placed for one minute in twenty-five per cent. alcohol, 50 
five minutes in Dr. J. J. Woodward’s borax-carmine solution, soak 
about ten minutes in alcohol acidulated with twenty per cent of hya" 

1 Conducted by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


2 a. gical Survey of the Territories, state t oe 
| Mu and with orders to finish the work in Colorado and return by No- 


Seientifie News. 631 


chloric acid until the carmine is nearly removed from all parts except 
the nuclei, washed in alcohol for a few minutes, the solution being changed 
until free from acid ; then placed for one half to one minute in an alco- 
holic solution, one twelfth grain to one ounce of picric acid, washed in 
alcohol, and transferred through absolute alcohol and oil of cloves to 
balsam for mounting. 

Puoro-Microcrapuy. — Dr. Charles Jewett, of Brooklyn, N. Y., 
has produced extremely perfect photographs of Amphipleura pellucida 
with Tolles’s one-fifth immersion objective, B ocular, and Zentmayer’s 
amplifier. 

A New Funeus. — Mr. J. P. Moore has presented to the San Fran- 
cisco Microscopical Society a specimen and description of a remarkable fun- 
gus found growing from a beam in an abandoned drift, four hundred feet 
below the surface, in the Yellow Jacket Mine, Gold Hill, Nevada. The 
growth commences as a pure white mycelium bursting out of the wood. 
The specimen described was three feet four inches long, of a light buff 
color, and consisted mainly of a three-parted stem, two or three ‘inches 
in diameter, attached by means of a disk eight or ten inches wide. To- 
wards the other end the stem divided into short branches greatly resem- 
bling in shape and arrangement the young antlers of a stag, the three 
terminal ones being much the most vigorous and conspicuous, forming a 
Perfect trident. The gills are distant, decurrent, notched, and sinuate, 
and of a pale straw color ; the spores ovate or round, exceedingly minute, 
and borne on true basidia. The plant is called by the miners the lily 
of the mines ; by Mr. Moore, Agaricus tridens. 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 

—The Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical 
Survey of the Territories, Vol. ii., No. 4, issued August 4, 1876, contains 
the following papers: Notes on the Geology of Northeastern New Mex- 
0; by O. St. John. Sexual, Individual, and Geographical Variation in 
Leucosticte tephrocotis, by J. A. Allen. Geographical Variation among 
North American Mammals, especially in Respect to Size, by J. A. Allen. 

“*scriptions and Illustrations of Fossils from Vancouver's and Sucia 

i and other Northwestern Localities, by F. B. Meek. Note on 
the new Genus Mintacrinus, by F. B. Meek. 

`T Advices from Professor Hayden, in charge of the United States 
hat his parties are all in the 


Yember 1st.. Professor Hayden has been with one of the parties making 


“examination of Raton Mountains and San Luis Park so as to perfect 


Me coloring of the geological map. 


632 Proceedings of Societies. [ October, 


PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 


Acapemy or Naturat Scrences, Philadelphia. — June 27th. The 
meeting was attended by Dom Pedro II., Emperor of Brazil, and his 
minister plenipotentiary, Senhor A. P. Carvalho de Borges. 

Dr. Leidy made a communication upon the structure and life of the 
Rhizopods. The formation of the shells of the Difflugians was described, 
and a number of forms were figured. , 

Professor Cope called attention to certain mammalian remains from 
the neighborhood of Santa Fé. The specimens exhibited belonged to 
the Mastodon productus, which must have been very abundant in that 
region. The speaker dwelt upon the peculiarities which distinguished 
it from Mastodon Ohioticus, and gave at length the characters of the 
dentition. } 

The three prominent types of mammals from the Eocene, Miocene, and 
Upper Miocene formations of the West weredescribed and illustrated by 
fine specimens of skulls of Loxolophodon cornutus, Symborodon acer, and 
S. altirostris. 

Professor Frazer described a collection of microscopic sections of 
igneous rocks, the peculiarities of which were exhibited by means of the 
screen and lantern. Certain Brazilian Dolerites were contrasted with 
others from York County, Pa. 

Dr. Horn placed on record a method of distinguishing sexes in the 
genus Amblycheila, depending upon the shape of the trochanters. 

July 11th. Mr. Gabb called attention to the use of borax as a sub- 
stitute for alcohol in the preservation of animal tissues. 


of fertilization of Campanula, which he believed to be entirely inde- 
pendent of insect agency. The mode of fertilization of the dandelion 
and chiccory was also described and illustrated. Both of these plants 
were considered self-fertilizers. 

Professor Cope spoke of the species of fossil dogs found in the Santa 
Fé marl. The vertebrates found in that formation now number thirty- 


two, including eleven species of Canis. ‘These are all extinct, with the 
exception of one species of wolf, the Canis cævis of Leiðy. This "a 
sidered to be 


believed to be identical with the living wolf, which was con 
specifically identical with the common dog. The specie 
originated in the Upper Miocene and persists to the present day: 
new form was described under the name of Oanis Wheelerianus. = 
relative size and other characters of the species heretofore 4 
were given. 

The number of species of fossil deer found in the forma 
of was increased from four to six, the two new forms being 


S mentioned 


tion spoken 


_ 20 room would seem to be left for any oth 


1876) Proceedings of Societies. 633 


Dicrocerus trilateralis and Dicrocerus tehuanus. In answer to Dr. Mc- 
Quillen, Professor Cope stated that he had at one time supposed 
that the burrs on certain of the antlers of the fossil deer indicated the 
seat of fractures, but he had not in all cases been able to find evidence 
supporting this view. The fact was also pointed out that these antlers 
had a superficial coating or epidermis which would be sufficient to hold 
the fractured pieces in place. 

Acapemy or Sciences, St. Louis.— May 15th. Judge Holmes re- 
marked as follows upon man and the elephant in Nebraska. In Dr. 
Hayden’s Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey for the 
year 1874, recently published, appears the report of Dr. Samuel Aughey 
on the Loess deposits of Nebraska. It is stated that the Loess covers 
three fourths of the surface of that State, ranging in thickness from forty 
to one hundred and fifty feet, and extending westward from the Mis- 
souri River to a limit beyond Kearney and the Republican Fork. 

The more important fact which he desired to notice was that Dr. 
Aughey, after some years of careful searching, had succeeded in finding 
imbedded in this deposit two distinctly-shaped and well-worked arrow- 
heads, which are figured in his report (page 255). One of them, a small 
arrow-head, was found at a depth of fifteen feet, at a place three miles 
east of Sioux City; the other, nearly four times larger, might very 
well have been a spear-head, and it was found at a place two and a half 
miles southeast of Omaha, and at a depth of twenty feet, and ‘‘ thirteen 
inches above the point where it was found, and within three inches of 

ing on a line with it, in undisturbed Loess, there was a lumbar verte- 
bra of an elephant (Elephus Americanus).” The material is not named 
hor are measurements given. Flint chips are mentioned as found “in 

the bluffs” in Dakota County, but as not certainly of human origin. 

The discovery is important as going to show the contemporaneity of 
man and the elephant on this continent during the period of the Loess. 
They must have inhabited together the shores of the great inland seas 
or expansions of the rivers, in which the Loess formation was depos- 
ited. It furnished the first distinct and incontrovertible proof of this 
fact that he was aware of. Bones of mastodon, ele 


Illinois Geological Sur- 
found together with 
ered by Loess near 
seemed to admit 


of some doubt on the question of their cotemporaneousness. But here 


the arrow-head and the vertebra must have bee 


634 Proceedings of Societies. [ October, 


got there if it had belonged to a more recent period. But it is still 
possible that the vertebra may have been washed out of some older 
deposit by the action of rivers, and been swept down into the lake; or 
it may have been frozen into a mass of ice and been carried down by 
the river, and dropped to the bottom on the melting of the ice. The 
presence of mastodon bones with the arrow-head, in the Benton County 
case, has been accounted for in this way: The presence of the arrow- 
head proved the existence of man in the alluvial period only; but in 
this instance the arrow-head must have been contemporary with the 
older Loess deposit, and the bones of mastodon, elephant, and other ex- 
tinct species of mammalia are so abundant in this deposit, not only in 
Nebraska but throughout the Mississippi Valley, that no doubt can re- 
main that these animals were also contemporary with the Loess. 

In the instances reported by the late Dr. Koch (Tranactions of the 
- St. Louis Academy of Science, i. 61 and 117), of arrow-heads found to- 
gether with the bones of mastodon, one in the alluvial bottom of the 
Pomme des Terres River in Benton County, Mo., and the other in the 
bottom land of the Bourbeuse River, in Gasconade County, Mo., it was 
possible to explain the facts stated by him as being the result of more 
recent changes in the local alluvial drift of the river channel. Dr. Wiz- 
lizenus (Ibid., page 168) endeavored to account for all the phenomena in 
this way, and in the latter case by supposing that Indian fires had been 
built over the spot at a time long subsequent to the deposit of the bones, 
and the whole afterwards covered by alluvial overflows. He was well 
acquainted with Dr. Koch, and did not question the veracity of his 
statements. Judge Holmes had himself assisted Dr. Koch in putting 
his article into shape for publication in the Transactions, and questioned 
him minutely as to the particulars stated, and could certify that the cir- 
cumstances mentioned were positively asserted by him to be true. Nor 
had he any reason for doubting the truthfulness of Dr. Koch. As lately 
suggested by Professor J. D. Dana, it is true that Dr. Koch was not a 
thoroughly scientific and practical geologist, and perhaps he gave some 
seope to his imagination in the matter of theorizing upon his facts ; 
but he had some experience in such things, and might be allowed to be 
capable of observing the facts which he stated, however incompetent to 
apply the requisite tests for a certain conclusion. But the facts observed 
and reported were not absolutely conclusive of the matter, though carry- 
ing much weight of probability. 

In this new discovery in Nebraska we have facts well ascertained by s 
competent observer ; they are not open to the same kind of explanation ; 
and they seem to afford the necessary confirmation of the supposed con- 
temporaneity of man and the mastodon and elephant in this valley. 

Dr. George Engelmann gave ‘some results of his observations OR the 
venation of American oaks. He has observed great differences in the 
venation of different species, some having folded or conduplicate, 


eRe ae te 


. , 1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 635 


others revolute foldings, and still others are concave and imbricated. 
But the venation does not seem to furnish characters distinguishing be- 
tween the two principal sections, the white and black oaks. 

June 5th. Dr. George Engelmann read a communication on certain 
fungi of the grape and oak. 

Professor Riley exhibited specimens of ‘the periodical Cicada, in the 
pupa and perfect states, recently received from Mr. Charles McCorkle, 
of Lexington, Va. Eight years ago Professor Riley had shown that 
there were thirteen as well as seventeen year races of. this periodical 
Cicada, and in a chronological history of the species he had at that time 
predicted that “in the year 1876, and at intervals of seventeen years 
thereafter, they will in all probability appear from Raleigh, North Car- 
olina, to near Petersburg, Virginia ; in Rowan, Davie, Cabarras, and 
Iredell counties in North Carolina; in the valley of Virginia as far as the 
Blue Ridge on the east, the Potomac River on the north, the Tennessee 
and North Carolina lines on the south, and for several counties west; in 
the south part of St. Mary’s County, Maryland, dividing the county 
about midway east and west ; in Illinois about Alton; and in Sullivan 
and Knox counties, Indiana.” 

The specimens from Mr. McCorkle were proof of the correctness of 
the prediction in regard to Virginia. While this insect requires thirteen or 
seventeen years, according to the race, for its underground development, 
the actual development has never been watched from the egg to the mature 
Sr In 1868 he had collected together in a particular spot near this 
Y a large number of the hatching eggs of a thirteen-year brood which 
will appear here again in 1881, and he had been able to obtain and note 
the development of the larve every year since. They are now about 


berry silk-worm (Sericaria mori) reared on Osage orange. The worms 


reared them for five years on Osage orange wit 

My'or quality of silk, and great increase of vigor and healthfulness. 
re is no reason why our ladies might not be dressed with silk from 

our own native hedges. 

_ June 19th. Professor Riley exhibited specimens of a worm that was 
Jst at this time devastating the wheat fields of parts of Kansas, and 
Particularly of Dickinson County. It does not eat the blades but attacks 
the h ; ined the species to be Leucania 


allied to the common army 
As it 


636 _ Proceedings of Societies: [ October, 


Professor Riley also exhibited a specimen of Doryphora decemlineata, 
that was so completely covered with a mite parasite belonging to the Ga- 
maside, and apparently the Gamasus coleopteratorum L., that the point 
of a needle could not be placed on any part of the beetle’s body without 
touching one of the parasites. He estimated that there were over eight 
hundred of the mites, and they had killed their victim. Aside from the 
toad and other reptiles, the crow, rose-breasted grosbeak, and domestic 
fowls among birds, which prey on the potato pest, he had, in his reports, 
figured or described no less than twenty-three insect enemies that atta 
and kill it.. Only one of these is a true parasite, and the mite exhibited 
made the second, or just two dozen insect enemies in all. 

He mentioned the fact in this connection that the Doryphora had 
reached New Hampshire, and was doing great injury along the Atlantic 
coast. 

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 
held its twenty-fifth meeting at Buffalo, commencing August 23d and 
closing August 30th. In point of numbers, the variety and quality of 
papers read, and the harmony of its sessions, it was quite equal to any 
of its predecessors ; while the warm hospitality with which the associa- 
tion was greeted by the citizens of Buffalo added a social charm pecul- 
iarly its own. The success of the meeting was largely due to the un- 
tiring endeavors of the local committee, and especially of Mr. Grote and 
Captain Dorr, and it is to be hoped that the Society of Natural Sciences, 
the initiator of the movement which brought the association to Buffalo, 
and the leader in its entertainment, may reap the reward that is its due 
in the higher esteem in which it will be held at home — the esteem it 
already has among kindred associations in the country. 

The president, Prof. Wm. B. Rogers, guided the deliberations of the 
general session with marked grace and dignity, and, in his responses to 
the hospitalities proffered the association, his welcome to the foreign 
guests, and his parting words, showed that the wonderful felicity of dic- 
tion, not to say eloquence, for which he was noted has not been dimm 
by his long illness. This being “ Centennial year,” no less than sixteen 
foreign scientists of greater or less distinction were present, a number 
far exceeding that of any former meeting of the association ; most of 
them were chemists and physicists, but among those in whom the readers 
of the NATURALIST are more generally interested were Professor Hux- 
ley, of England, and Drs. Torell, Lindahl, and Nordström, of Sweden. 
Drs. Torell and Lindahl indeed read papers before the Natural History 
Section, the former on the sources of the ancient glaciers of North 

rica, the latter on the structure of the tongue in Picus vires. 
Professor Huxley also spoke in general session of his impressions of 
America, in response to his welcome by President Rogers, and in Sec- 
tion B briefly discussed one of Dr. Wilder’s papers on the brains of the 
lower vertebrates. A few papers were also read in the physical , 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 637 


by others of the foreign guests. All this gave a certain interest to the 
meeting which is not likely to be surpassed in kind for many a year. 

Two of the permanent committees offered extended reports: one on 

weights, measures, and coinage, the outcome of which was a series of 
resolutions passed unanimously, deprecating any revival of the double 
standard of value in this country; the other on zodlogical nomenclature, 
where the committee reported an irreconcilable difference of view on 
certain points and propounded a series of inquiries for discussion at a 
future meeting. This report was referred to Section B, which appointed 
a special committee to print and distribute the report, with a view of ob- 
taining the written opinion of naturalists at large upon the questions 
involved. 
The association took the initiative in proposing an international con- 
gress of geologists at Paris in 1878, “ for the purpose of getting together 
comparative collections, maps, and sections, and for the settling of many 
obscure points relating to geological classification and nomenclature.” 
The committee appointed to attend to the matter consists of Professors 
Rogers, Hall, Hitchcock, and Pumpelly, and Drs. Dawson, Newberry, 
and Hunt; and Drs. Torell and von Baumhauer and Professor Huxley 
were added to represent the purpose of the association in Europe. 

Two hundred and five members and fellows entered their names upon 
the register, and one hundred and forty-two new members were elected ; 
seventeen fellows were added, among them Dr. E. B. Andrews, Mr. L. 
S. Burbank, Dr. E. Coues, Dr. C. Rau, and Prof. Daniel Wilson, of the 
Natural History Section. 

All of the addresses were able and were listened to with marked at- 
tention. Ex-President Hilgard spoke of the History and Progress of 
Geodetic Science ; Vice-President Young of Section A treated of his own 
department of Solar Physics; Chairman Barker of the chemical sub- 
Section explained the modern scientific ideas concerning the atom and . 
the molecule. Mr. Morgan disappointed those of the anthropological 
Subsection who had looked to their chairman for an address, but he cer- 
tainly made up for the omission by the number and value of papers on 
the Iroquois with which he afterwards favored them ; indeed, the new 


evolution, the only fault to be found with which was that it needed a 
_  Pplementary notice by another to sh 
done. It would almost seem as if this address had given the key-note 
: " the sessions of the section, for comparatively few papers were pre- 

sented which did not at least show with how powerful an influence the 
Setrine of evolution had possessed the thoughts of the speaker ; and, 
a remarked by Professor Morse on closing the sessions, so far were 
_ “volutionary views from eliciting a storm of dispute, as would have been 


638 Proceedings of Societies. [ October, 


the case ten years ago, that exception had been taken to scarcely a sin- 
gle point. Unquestionably the most remarkable paper presented before 
this section was that by Dr. W. K. Brooks, of Boston, on proposed mod- 
ifications in Darwin’s theory of pangenesis, but space will not here per- 
mit a fair abstract; simpler even than that proposed by Darwin, it ex- 
plained many points which were not met by the latter. One hundred 
and seventy-four papers were presented to the standing committee, of 
which all but about a dozen were read in full or by title; and these 
were almost equally divided between the physical and natural history 
sections. 

The association was invited to meet at Nashville, Atlanta, and St. 
Louis; the first place was chosen, and August 29, 1877, selected as the 
opening day ; the following are the officers elect: President, Professor 
Simon Newcomb, of Washington ; Vice-Presidents: Section A, Professor 
E. C. Pickering, of Boston; Section B, Professor O. C. Marsh, of New 
Haven ; Permanent Secretary, F. W. Putnam, of Salem; General Sec- 
retary, A. R. Grote, of Buffalo ; Secretary Section A, Dr. H. C. Bolton, 
of New York; Section B, Lieutenant W. H. Dall, of Washington ; 
Treasurer, W. S. Vaux, of Philadelphia ; Chairman Subsection of Chem- 
istry, Professor N. T. Lupton, of Nashville ; Subsection of Microscopy, 
Dr. R. H. Ward, of Troy; Subsection of Anthropology, Professor 
Daniel Wilson, of Toronto. . 

The following papers were read in the order here given, under their 
respective subsections. 


GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 


W. H. Dall, On the Mode of Extrusion of the Ova in the Limpets- 
Burt G. Wilder, Notes on the North American Ganoids : (a) the Supposed 
Transformation of the Tail of Amia; (b) the Serrated Appendages of 
the Hyoid Isthmus of Amia. Warren Upham, On the Origin of Kames 
or Eskers in New Hampshire. Joshua Lindahl, Some new Points re- 
garding the Tongue of Picus viridis. T. Sterry Hunt, On the Geology 
of Eastern Pennsylvania. James Hall, Note upon the Geological Post 
tion of the Serpentine Limestone of Northern New York, and an si 
quiry regardingthe Relations of this Limestone to the Eozoon Lime- 
stone of Canada. L. Elsberg, On the Plastidule Hypothesis- T. 
Meehan, On Self-Fertilization and Cross-Fertilization in Flowers. 

R. Grote and W. H. Pitt, The Water Lime Group of Buffalo. T. 
Meehan, On Graft Hybrids. W. K. Brooks, On the Provisional Hy- 
pothesis of Pangenesis. Albert H. Tuttle, On a new Species of Argul 
Burt G. Wilder, Notes on the Brains of the Fish- Like Vertebrates: 
Myxinoids ; (b) Sharks and Skates; (c) Chimera; (d) Teleosts- 
Gooch, A Note upon the Pitchstones of Arran. Fred. W. Simonds, 
Sycotypus (Busycon) canaliculatus Linn. J. S. Newberry, 

tions of the Rocks of Ohio to those of Pennsylvania and New Y 


1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 639 


J.S. Newberry, The Origin and Mode of Formation of the Great Lakes. 
0. C. Marsh, Principal Characters of American Peterodactyles. S. W. 
Garman, On a Variation in the Colors of Animals. Samuel H. Scudder, 
A Brief Comparison of the Butterfly Faunas of Europe and Eastern North 
America, with Hints concerning the Derivation of the Latter. W. H. 
Dall, On the Reciprocal Relations of certain Genera of Articulated 
Brachiopods. J. W. Dawson, New Facts relating to Eozoin Canadense. 
A. Winchell, On the Siphon of Endoceras, a Genus of Chambered Shells. 
J. Muir, On the Post-Glacial History of Sequoia gigantea. Burt G. 
Wilder, The Slight Morphological Value of Natural Attitude and Nu- 
merical Composition. Albert H. Tuttle, Notes on the Myriapods of 

hioo Wm. H. Seaman, Description of new Fungus on the Leaves of 
the Pear-Tree. P. R. Uhler, The Edible Crab of Maryland, Callinec- 
tes hastatus (Ordway). W. J. Beal, Phyllotaxis of Cones. W. J. Beal, 
Can the Unios see? W. J. Beal, Cross-Fertilization of Apple Blossoms 
W.J. Beal, Sensitive Stigmas as an Aid to Cross-Fertilization of Flow- 
ers. C. V. Riley, Biological Notes on the Army Worm (Leucania uni- 
puncta Haw.). A. R. Grote, A Preliminary Note on Menopoma Alle- 
ghaniensis of Harlan. 

ANTHROPOLOGY. 

H. Gillman, Peculiarities of the Femora from Tumuli in Michigan. 
OT. Mason, The Scope of Anthropology, and the Classification of its 
Materials. L. H. Morgan, The Iroquois Gens. H. Gillman, Some Ob- 
servations on the Orbits of the Crania from Mounds. O. T. Mason, 
Archæological Collections from Porto Rico. Alessandro Castellani, 
Etruscan and Greek Art in Jewelry, and its Revival. Daniel Wilson, 
Hybridity and Absorption among the Races of the New World. J. W. 
Powell, On the Mythology of the North American Indians. L. H. 

organ, The Iroquois Phratry. D. Wilson, Brain-Weight and Size in 
Relation to the Relative Capacity of Races. G. H. Perkins, On some 
Fragments of Pottery from Vermont. O. T. Mason, The International 
Symbols for Charts of Prehistoric Archæology. L. H. Morgan, The 
Iroquois Confederacy. H. Gillman, Investigation of the Burial Mound 
at Fort Wayne on the Detroit River, Michigan. E. A. Barber, On the 
Ancient and Modern Pueblo Tribes of the Pacific Slope of the United 
States. Isaac B. Choate, The Mood of the Verb in Conditional Clauses. 
Heinrich Frauberger, The Museums of Industrial Art in Austria. S. 
D. Peet, The Archæology of Europe and America compared. S. D. 
Peet, On the State of Society in the Primitive Age. 

; MICROSCOPY. 

= Ww. Morley, Results of Measurements of Eleven of Möllers Dia- 
tomaceen Probe-Platten. E. W. Morley, Micrometric Measurements of 
| ings on Glass by Mr. Rogers. E. W. Morley, Micrometric Measure- 
ments of Rulings on Glass by Mr. Rutherfurd. W. H. Bullock, Simple 


640 Scientific Serials. [ October. 


Means of adapting the Binocuiar Microscope to Defects in the Eye. 

H. Ward, Remarks on some American Contributions to the Develop- 
ment of the Modern {Microscope. P. H. Van der Weyde, On a new 
System of Finder for the Microscope. P. H. Van der Weyde, On a few 
Simplifications of the Polarizing and of the Spectroscopic Microscope. 
P. H. Van der Weyde, On some Modifications and Special Attachments 
to the Microscope for Chemical Research. George Beatty, Results ob- 
tained by Double Staining of Muscular Tissue of Amphiuma with Picric 
Acid and Carmine. 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS." 

Tur GEoLoGIcAL Macazinr.— August. Contributions to the Study 
of Volcanoes, by J. W. Judd. Pebble Ridges, by T. M. Reade. Re- 
marks on Mr. Burns's Paper on the Mechanics of Glaciers, by James 

roll. 

MONTHLY Microscopical JOURNAL. — August. Observations upon 
Spermatozoa of Amphiuma tridactylum, by C. Johnston. On the Ossifica- 
tion Process in Birds, and the New Formation of Red Blood-Corpuscles 
during the Ossification Process, by Dr. L. Schoney. On a Possible 
Explanation of the Method employed by Nobert in ruling his Test- 
Plates, by W. A. Rogers. 

THE GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE. — August. Sketches of Life in 
Greenland. The Basin of the Ob and Yenisei Rivers. The Seat of War. 
Dr. Beccari’s Third Visit to New Guinea, by H. H. Griglioni. The 
Sea-Level, by H. P. Malet. 

ANNALES DES Sciences NATURELLES. — June 30th. Mémoire sur 
les Mceurs et l’ Accouchement de l’ Alytes obstetricans, par A. De D'Isle. 
Mémoire sur Embryologie de quelques Eponges de la Manche, par Ch. 
Barrois. 

Loea 
ERRATA. 

Is the article on Progress of Ornithology in the United States, 
the September number, the following corrections should be made :— 

Page 540, 13th line from top, dele “and has recently been republished.’ ; 

Page 541, add to the last line of the first paragraph, “ and fifty prepared especially 

for this edition.” 

Page 544, 17th line from top, for “ Lawrence and Fowler 

and Fowler.” 

Page 544, 16th line from bottom, for “ Hoy and Barry ” read 

Barry.” 

Page 545, 15th line from bottom, for “ Tringaw ” read “ Tringee.” 
Page 545, 9th line from bottom, for “ myology ” read “ osteology-” and 
Page 546, llth line from bottom, for “ Rogers and Wilkes” read “ Perry 

Wilkes, and Lieutenant Gilliss.” 

Also, in the article entitled Microscopes at the Loan Collection of Sci 
ratus at the South Kensington Museum, the author’s name should be “ John 
instead of “ John Nichols.” 

1 The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part selected. 


ete., published in 


, 


» read “Lawrence, Gregg; 


« Pratten, Hoy, and 


entific Appi 
Michels, 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


VoL. x.— NOVEMBER, 1876. — No. 11. 


A REMARKABLE LIFE HISTORY AND ITS MEANING." 
BY W. K. BROOKS. 


AVIGATORS in tropical seas often speak of sailing for days 
through regions where the water of the ocean, to a depth of 
many feet, is filled with small transparent animals, which are 
attached to each other in such a way as to form chains or trains 
like trains of cars. Although these animals are perfectly transpar- 
‘nt and jelly-like in appearance, the fact that their bodies are of 
sufficient consistency to admit of their being somewhat roughly 
handled, or even removed from the water, without essentially 
changing their shape, at once distinguishes them from such ani- 
mals as jelly-fishes ; and a very superficial examination is enough 
to show that they are quite different from these in organization. 
ey belong to the group Tunicata, animals which have been 
with the Mollusca, although we now know that the re- 
semblances which formerly led naturalists to this idea of their 
affinity are merely superficial, and without scientific value. 

Most of the Tunicata are, in their adult state, attached to 
heavy bodies which rest upon the bottom of the ocean; stones 
ind shells, for instance. .A few, however, are locomotive and are 

met with swimming at the surface ; most of the latter be- 

7 long to the genus Salpa, and to these we will at present confine 
ur attention, Although the Salpæ are most often met with in 

_ © Warmer parts of the ocean, they are by no means confined to 
: » tropics, but have been found south of the most southern 
a point of Australia, and north of Seotland and Norway. They 
: ‘re abundant only after the water has been for some time undis- 
2 by winds, and as calms are more frequent within the 
2 ; A paper read before the Kirtland Society of Natural History of Cleveland, Ohio. 
tee upon the development of Salpa, in the Bulletin of the 


F { a $ é 
Gg Pian of Comparative Zodlogy, and were kindly Joaned for this article by Mr. 


Copyright, A. 8. PACKARD, Jr. 1876. 


642 A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. [November, 


tropics than in more northerly or southerly latitudes, the former 


seas are more 


favorable than the latter to the development of 


these animals, which multiply with astonishing rapidity when 
furnished with abundant food. As they feed upon the microscopic 


Fig. 43. 
a, test; b, outer tunic; d, wall of atrial chamber ; e, branchial aperture 
girdles ; g, atrial aperture ; A, breathing chamber ; 7, 


geal fold ; 


w, languette 


il ` 


= 
z3 
I 
E7 a 


aiaa 
\ 


EA 


Taar, 


. . m i ‘3 e above : 
Side view of an adult solitary Salpa, with the hæmal snr soe 
ture r: i, atrial chamber ; l, arth 
m, endostyle; n, gill; o, mouth; r, heart; u, chain of males; Y, gang’ 


(= Soe aera ee aia eer a 


1876.) A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. 643 


thizopods which swarm at the surface of the ocean after a long- 
continued calm, they are then met with in numbers which defy 
description, and cannot be conceived by those who have not act- 
ually seen them. 
Although single animals of our species are from one half to 
two thirds of an inch long, they are often so abundant that a 
bucket of water dipped at random from the surface of some 
| sheltered bay will be found to contain many hundreds or even - 
thousands. At such times collecting with the surface net be- 
comes impracticable ; for almost as soon as the net is placed in 
| the water it becomes choked with a solid mass of Salpx, so that 
| nothing more can enter it, and unless Salpx are what are wanted 
_ work must be abandoned until fresh winds again clear the water. 
| A drop from an organic infusion swarming with Paramecia, seen 
under a low power of the microscope will give some conception 
of the appearance of the ocean when Salpz are abundant, ex- 
cept that the water is not turbid like that of an infusion, but is 
perfectly fresh and clear; and no one who has not seen these 
animals under favorable conditions can form any conception of 
the amount of animal life which pure sea-water is able to sup- 
port. The various species of Salpa vary in size, from those less 
than half an inch to those which are nearly a foot long, our 
species, as already stated, being about two thirds of an inch in 
length. 
The animal (Figures 43 and 44) may be roughly described as 
4 barrel or hollow cylinder, b, with a valvular opening at each 
end. The valves which guard the anterior opening (Figures 43, 
45, and 55, e) are so arranged that while they allow the water to 
pass between them into the hollow chamber, A, they prevent it 
from passing out through the same opening ; while those at the 
Posterior opening (Figures 43, and 45, g) permit it to pass out but 
Prevent itsentrance. Around the barrel are a number of muscular 
belts like the hoops around a barrel (Figures 43, and 44, f ), the 
contraction of which diminishes the capacity of the hollow cham- 
ber, A, and thus drives the water out through the posterior open- 
i e animal forward. Upon 


a contraction. As this pumping action is constantly going on, 
w animal is continually moving forward in a nearly straight 
me, 


Wherever Salpa is found, two forms are met with, agreeing 


644 A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. (November, 


pretty closely in size and organization, but differing in outline 


and in some other slight details. 


than 
=i 


VOIR UUR 
C EAL nae 
i 


1 ‘ a 
| ii 


KE 


44. Adult solitary Salpa, 


ndo 
style ; n, gill; nu, “ nucleus ” or di- 
gestive organs ; r, heart; u, chain of 
males. 


(Compare Figures 43 and 45.) 
One of these forms, that shown in 
Figures 43 and 44, is called the 
“ solitary Salpa,” since each animal 
is entirely independent of all the 
others; while those of the other 
form (Figure 45) are called “ chain- 
salpæ,” since they are usually found 
united in a chain. Twenty-five 
or more of the barrel-shaped bodies 
are placed in a row, end to end, 
and each one is fastened to its 
neighbors before and behind it; 
this row is placed beside another 
similar to it, and each animal is 
fastened to two of its neighbors in 
the other row, so that the whole 
group of fifty or more forms @ 
chain something like two trains of 
cars side by side on parallel tracks; 
only, to make the comparison 
more perfect, we must imagine 
each car chained to two cars mM 
the other train, as well as coupled 
to those before and behind it. 
Since the animals are fastened in 
such a way that the posterior 
openings of all point in the same 
direction, all the streams of dis- 
charged water are driven in the 
same way and the whole cham 
moves forward with a uniform, 


steady motion. Figure 47 shows a few of the Salpz from a chain, 


at a very early period of development, but as 


the animals are, 


unfortunately, not sufficiently far advanced at this time, the 
figure fails to give a very clear idea of the way in which they 


are united. 


Salpa is very remarkable for the number of examples it pre- 
sents of deviation from laws which are almost uniformly ¢on- 


formed to throughout the animal kingdom. 


One of the mos 


striking of these anomalies is the periodical reversal of the actio? 


cea E 


1876.] A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. 645 


ee eee EY 
cae 


of the heart. This was discovered in 1824 by Van Hasselt, and 
although it is not peculiar to Salpa, but is shared by all the Tuni- 


Ti 


ve 
is 
A 
(usri O f 
l K 


Me, 45. Side view of adult chain-salpa, figured ith, Ge eee niet 
: ‘Most: a, test; b, outer tunic ; d, atrial tunic; 2, branchial aperture ; T , muse ne 
branchial aperture; f/’, muscles of atrial aperture; 9, ee ty. r v ob 
— i l, epipharyngeal fold; m, endostyle ; n, gill; r, heart; s, embryo; t, € 
i ` w, languette. , 


“tacan be best studied in this genus, owing to its ARES 
= 7. The body of the animal is 50 perfectly transparent that 


646 A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. [November, 


the pulsations of the heart may be seen without difficulty, and 
with a microscope the circulation of the blood may be traced to 
all parts of the body. After beating regularly for some time 
the heart suddenly stops, and for an instant the blood of the 
whole body comes to rest ; this stoppage does not last for more 
than a second, and the pulsation and circulation then recommence 
as vigorously as before, but in the opposite direction, so that the 
blood-channels which before served as arteries and carried blood 
from the heart now perform the function of veins. 

More careful examination will show what is possibly the rea- 
son of these changes. The blood does not circulate in true ves- 
sels with distinct walls, but in the spaces between the various 
organs of the body ; thus it often happens that a space or si- 
nus may have a large passage leading to it on one side and a 
very small one on the other, and the blood which enters the 
chamber through the large passage, being unable to escape with 
equal rapidity through the small one, soon accumulates and 
forms a dam or obstruction. As soon as the current is reversed, 
this obstruction is, of course, driven away from the small opening 
and gradually discharged again through the large one. Another 
peculiarity which Salpa shares with the other tunicates is the 
presence of an outer shell or test containing “ cellulose.” Cel- 
lulose is the substance which forms most of the tissues of plants 5 
and although it is almost universally present in vegetables, it 18 
found in only a very few animals, and is often stated to be one 
of the features which distinguish the vegetable from the animal 
kingdom. Salpa, however, together with a few other animals, 18 
partially composed of true cellulose. In Figures 43, 44, and 45 
the cellulose test, a, is shown as a thick transparent shell or 
outer tube, covering the remaining organs of the body. . 

By far the most interesting peculiarity of our animals is that 
the two forms, which are always found in the same locality, are 
of the same species. Nearly fifty years ago Chamisso ascertain 
that the solitary Salpa gives birth to a chain, and that each of 
the chain-salpe in turn gives birth to a single solitary Salpa ; 
and to this phenomenon he gave the name of “alternation of 
generations.” At about the same time he published his famous 
story of Peter Schlemihl, who, for an inexhaustible purses sol 
his shadow to the devil, and, through lack of this important 2% 
pendage to his body, became involved in numerous entertaining 
misfortunes and vexations which his money was powerless “f 
prevent. At this time nothing was known in regard to the won 


1876.] A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. 647 


derful changes which so many of the invertebrates undergo in 
passing from the egg to the perfect form ; and the existence of an- 
imals whose children resemble their grandparents, while they are 
a sa their parents, was So opposed to all that was known 
a amisso s discovery at first met with nearly universal ridi- 

eand discredit. In fact, one of the greatest of naturalists is 


-stated to have said that he could much more easily credit Chamis- 


so's romance of Peter Schlemihl than his observations upon Salpa. 


eee ees 


ON G 
aO 


Fig. 

eel het young bud-tube, from a solitary Salpa: b, outer tunic; c, wall of 
tube; yy, id Nagas 1, blood-channel; 2, cavity of tube; 4, constrictions upon the 
the lower invertebrates was 


At this time our acquaintance with 
and it was soon found that 


o with wonderful rapidity, 
i. animals, especially the intestinal worms, g0 through an 
ation substantially like that described by Chamisso as tak- 
A i Salpa ; the second generation being very different in 
fi ai torm, and, in many cases, in structure also, from the 
i. Within a few years from the time of publication of Cha- 

; on Alternation of Genera- 

al information was given 
t was shown to be not 


Moire ars; and the able me- 
i of Sars, Krohn, Huxley, Vogt, and Leuckart have given 
"S@ nearly complete account of its life history. All these natu- 

agree in holding the opinion that Salpa presents a real 


648 A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. (November, 


alternation of generations, as stated by Chamisso, and the history 
of its development, as given in their papers, is as follows :— 
Each egg hatches into a single embryo of the solitary form 
(Figures 48 and 44). After this solitary Salpa has acquired most 
of the adult characteristics, but while it is still very small, part of 
the wall of its body becomes prolonged into a hollow tube, which 
is shown, very much magnified, in Figure 46. The cavity of this 
tube is in free communication with one of the blood-channels 
(1) of the mother, so that the blood can pass into and out of the 
tube and thus supply the material for its growth and develop- 
ment. The tube lengthens very rapidly, and as it grows it bends 
so as to pass round the digestive organs of the mother (Figure 44, 


Fic. 47. Seven animals from a fully developed chain immediately before its dis- 
charge from the body of the solitary Salpa : s, egg ; t, testicle. 

nu) in a spiral (u) which lies between these organs and the outer 
wall of cellulose. Meanwhile a series of constrictions makes its 
appearance upon the surface of the tube (Figure 46), and in à 
short time the spaces marked off by these constrictions assume 
the shape and acquire the organs of young chain-salpx, as shown 
in Figure 44, u. The chain-salpz then are produced by a process 
of budding from the body of the solitary Salpa. 

There are many hundred chain-salpe thus marked off at one 
time upon the surface of the tube, but the forty or fifty nearest 
its free end develop much more rapidly than the rest, though 
uniformly as compared with each other. After their organs are 
perfectly formed, but while they are still very small, they becom? 


1876.) A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. 649 


detached from the tube and escape into the water as a chain, 
the animals of which are now able to provide for themselves and 
| ew very rapidly. Meanwhile another set is developed upon 
the tube of the solitary form, to be cast off in turn, so that the 


(Fie. 48.) 


(Fie. 49.) 


tunic of nurse ; c, wall of 
1,blood-channel of nurse ; 
tozoa ; 


(Fie. 55.) 
wall of breathing chamber of 
‘ood yolk; 9, germ yolk; 10, 


i (Fie. 54.) 
“8. 51-55. Successive stages of segmentation: c, 
Orifice Cavity of same; 1, blood channel; 4, yolk ; 8, ose 
~ © of blood sac; 11, invagination orifice; Å, breathing cavity of nurse. 


650 A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. { November, 


latter continues to set free chains from time to time, as they be- 
come matured. 

The solitary Salpas themselves are produced in quite a differ- 
ent way. At the time the chain is set free each of its compo- 
nent animals contains a single egg (Figure 47, s) as well as a 
testicle (¢), which is at this time immature and is composed of a 
mass of undifferentiated cells, as shown in the figure. 

The eggs, on the contrary, are fully developed and ready for 
impregnation, which soon takes place, and is accomplished ina 
very remarkable manner. The egg (Figure '48) lies in one of 
the blood-channels (1) of the chain-salpa, which we shall here- 
after callthe “ nurse.” It is bathed freely by the blood, but is not 
_ itself free within the channel, being mounted upon a long stalk (3), 
like a cherry upon its stem, and the end of this stem is attached 
to the large chamber (Figure 45, A), which we have already de- 
scribed as filled with sea-water, and which we shall hereafter 
designate as the breathing chamber. 

In Figure 48, ¢ represents the wall of this breathing chamber, 
and h its cavity, which is open externally and is filled with water 
at each contraction of the muscular bands. As Salpa when 
found at all is very abundant, the water always contains plenty 
of full-grown chains, as well as the young and immature egg- 
bearing ones. The testicle in the full-grown chain-salpa is fully 
formed, and this discharges its spermatic fluid into the water, 
which accordingly contains great numbers of fresh and actively 
moving spermatozoa. Some of these are drawn, with the re- 
spired water, into the breathing chambers of the young nurses, 
and these may be seen to congregate at the point where the egg- 
stem is attached, as shown in Figures 48, 49, and 50. Some 
of these may be seen to penetrate the stem, and work their way 
up towards the egg, which is thus fertilized. After a 

7 


and draws the egg down into a “ brood-chamber,” or pouch, which 


cavity is a diverticulum, so that the egg is still bathed and nour- 
ished on all sides by the blood, and increases in size very rapidly 
during segmentation, some of the stages of which process are 
shown in Figures 51, 52, 58, and 54. After the formation of 
gastrula the blood not only bathes the outside of the embryo bu 
also passes into and out of the gastrula mouth (Figure 55, 11). 

A constriction now makes its appearance and divides the e™ 


1876.) A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. 651 


bryo into two portions, of which the one nearest the blood chan- 
nel of the nurse becomes developed into a true placenta (Figure 
56, 12), similar, in function as well as in structure, to that of a 


Fic. 56. Embryo of solitary Salpa. 
fetal mammal, while that portion which is directed towards the 
breathing chamber becomes developed into the embryo proper. 
This is nourished with the blood of the nurse by means of the 


Fie. 57. Embryo more advanced, and ready to be discharged. 
Placenta, and grows very rapidly and soon assumes the par 
teristics of the solitary form. In Figure 57 an embryo is figu 


_ ® it appears when development is very much advanced. It is 


652 A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. [| November, 


seen to be attached by a narrow neck to the wall (e) of the breath- 
ing chamber (h) of the nurse. In this figure, 1 represents the 
blood-channel of the chain-salpa, and the arrows show the direc- 
tion of the currents into and out of the placenta. The presence 
of a true placenta in an animal so simple in structure and so far 
removed from the mammalia is such a remarkable and interest- 
ing instance of the independent appearance of similar structures 
that a short description of it will not be out of place. It is com- 
posed of two parts: an inner chamber in direct communication 
with the blood system of the chain-salpa, and an outer chamber 
surrounding the inner but entirely shut off from it, and in free 
communication with the blood system of the foetus. 

The blood globules of the foetus are much smaller than those of 
the nurse, and may therefore be distinguished from them without 
difficulty, and after the heart of the foetus begins to beat, it is easy 
to see that there is no direct mingling of the blood of the nurse 
with that of the foetus, but simply a very close contact, exactly 
as is the case in the mammals. The large globules of the nurse 
can be seen to enter the inner chamber of the placenta, course 
around it through the intricate channels into which it is divided, 
and then leave it to return to the general circulation ; while the 
smaller globules of the foetus may be seen to make their way 
into and around the outer chamber, and then to return into the 
general circulation of the foetus. Since the reversal of the action 
of the heart of the foetus does not generally take place at the 
same time with that of the chain-salpa, the complete independ- 
ence of the two circulations is very clearly shown when either 
of them is reversed. oe 

After the embryo has acquired all the organs of the solitary 
form and has increased many hundred times in size, its attach- 
ment by the placenta to the wall of the breathing chamber of the 
nurse is broken, and the young animal falls into this chamber 
and lives there for some time, but finally escapes through the 
posterior opening into the water, and at once begins to form 
chains by budding, as already described. Figure 45 shows @ 
nearly full-grown chain-salpa, which contains a solitary embryo» 
(s). This is free within the breathing chamber, and is ready to 
be discharged. ; : 

Figures 44 and 45 are drawn to nearly the same scale, Figur 
45 being only a little more magnified than Figure 44. Figure? 
represents a solitary Salpa, which contains a chain, u, which 1$ 
ready to be discharged into the water, while Figure 45 represents 


1876.) A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. 653 


a chain-salpa, containing an embryo of the solitary form, s, which 
is also ready to be discharged. It will at once be seen, by a com- 
parison of these figures, that although the two forms differ little 
in size when full grown, the solitary form is many hundred times 
larger than the chain-salpa at birth. After the embryo escapes 
from the body of the chain-salpa, the testicle of the latter be- 
comes fully developed, and its spermatic fluid is discharged into 
the water to gain access to the breathing chambers of younger 


l the animals of the chains, while these are produced asexually as 
able to 


654 A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. (November, 


parent not of the males alone but of the eggs which they carry 
as well, and therefore of the embryos which these eggs produce. 
Although the chain-salpa gives birth to the solitary form, it is not 
its mother, but simply a nurse. It is not even the father of the 
egg which is fertilized within its body ; although, after it has dis- 
charged its own embryo it may become the father of the embryos 
carried by other chain-salpz. In order to explain this utterly 
anomalous and apparently contradictory manner of development, 
it will be necessary to trace a little more minutely the early 
stages in the formation of the animals which compose the chain. 
It will be well to call attention, in the first place, to the fact that 
no female animal or plant we know of has the power to form 
only a single egg or seed, and it is plain that if there were 
such an organism, it would gradually become extinct, since each 


Ss 
(Fia. 58.) (Fia. 59.) 
Fig. 58. Five Salpæ from a tube, at a very early stage of development. 
Fig. 59. The same, still earlier : 4, the constrictions which mark out the animals ; 
5, ganglia ; 6, digestive organs ; s, ovum. 


generation could be as numerous as the one before it only when 


every embryo survived all accidents and reached maturity. 

The fact that the chain-salpa contains only one egg is in itself 
enough to excite a suspicion that it is not the true female; but 
in answer to this argument it might be said, fairly enough, that 
the whole history of Salpa is a series of anomalies, and that, 
since one more or less would not make much difference, there 13 
no great difficulty in believing that it differs from all other ani- 
mals in producing only one egg. It might be urged that indatt 
nite multiplication is provided for by the power of the solitary 
form to produce large numbers of chains. As we trace "a 
the development of the chain-salpa we soon find much mee 
reasons for doubting that this is the parent of the egg which it 
contains. The sexual products are not usually matured un 
the animal has reached its adult form, and very few animals 
reproduce during their embryonic or larval stages; hut ee 
immediately after the chain-salpa is born, and when it is les 


1876.] A Remarkable Life History and its Meaning. 655 


than a fiftieth of its adult size, its egg is fertilized. Going back 
to a still earlier period we find that when the organs of the 
chain-salpa first begin to make their appearance upon the walls 
of the tube, each one contains a full-grown egg, as shown at s in 

i 58. At a still earlier period, when the only indication of 
the future chain-salpa is the constriction upon the surface of the 
tube, each space thus marked off contains a single, full-grown 
egg, which appears to be as fully ripe as at the time of impreg- 
nation. Figure 59 shows five of these constrictions at this time, 
and their eggs (s). 

Ata still earlier stage, before the constrictions appear upon 
the wall of the tube, this is seen to contain two large club-shaped 
bodies (Figure 47, yy), which under careful examination with 
high powers are found to contain germinative vesicles ; and by 
patient examination of large numbers of solitary Salpz at about 
this period, a few may be found which show that these bodies are 
made up of rows of eggs and are therefore ovaries, and the soli- 
tary Salpa must be regarded as the female, since the chain-salpa 
cannot be the parent of an egg which exists before the chain- 
salpa itself is formed. 

We must therefore conclude that, instead of an instance of 
“alternation of generations,” we here have simply a remarkable 
difference in the form and mode of origin of the two sexes, for 
We must regard the solitary Salpa as the female and the chain- 
salpa as the male. The life-history of Salpa may then be briefly 
stated in outline as follows: The solitary Salpa is the female, 
and produces a chain of males by budding, and discharges a sin- 
gle egg into the body of each of these before birth. These eggs 
are impregnated while the chain-salpe are very small and sexu- 

y immature, and develop into females which give rise to males 
by budding. After the foetus has been discharged from the body 
_ of the male the latter attains its full size, becomes sexually ma 
. tare, and discharges its spermatic fluid into the water to gain ac- 
ess to the eggs carried by other immature chains. | 

It is worthy of notice that although Chamisso 8$ announcement 
of the occurrence of alternation of generations among animals is 

thus seen to have been drawn from the study of animals which 
do not present an instance of it, this mistake has been of the 
_ SFeatest usefulness, since it has led to our knowledge of the nu- 
= Merous instances of true alternation which now form such a large 
= “Md important chapter of zodlogical science. The relation in 
_ Which Salpa stands to the other tunicates shows also that no 


656 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [November, 


abrupt line can be drawn between alternation and ordinary sex- 
ual reproduction, þut that they are different forms of the same 
process. In a future paper I hope to say a few words upon 
this subject, and to show how all the strange peculiarities of Sal- 
pa receive a simple explanation upon the theory that it is the 
descendant of an ordinary tunicate which has been modified by 
natural selection. 


PLAIN, PRAIRIE, AND FOREST. 
BY PROF. J. D. WHITNEY. 
PART I 


i more the prairies are studied, the less will one feel dis- 
posed to adopt any theory for their origin dependent on cli- 
mate, and the more will the attention be turned to the question 
of the character of the soil, the distribution of the geological for- 
mations from which this soil has been derived, and the cycle of 
recent geological events by which it has been distributed and ac- 
cumulated in its present position. It is evident, however, that in 
the discussion of a question of this kind full details of the obser- 
vations made cannot be given; they would occupy volumes. — It 
is for the observer himself, on carefully analyzing and classifying 
the results of his examinations, to state the conclusions at which 
he has arrived ; a catalogue of the localities visited would be of 
little service to any one else in enabling him to form an inde- 
pendent opinion. 3 

As the result of a great number of observations made over all 
the prairie States, we find, almost without exception, that absence 
of forests is connected with extreme fineness of soil, and that 
this fine material usually occurs in heavy deposits. It seems 
hardly necessary to enlarge on the characteristics of the so-called 
“prairie soil.” To look at a plow with which the prairie has 
been broken up ought to be a sufficient indication of this fine- 
ness. How often has the writer admired the beautiful polish put 
upon this common utensil used on the western prairies, and "E 
trasted its appearance with that of the scratched and battere 
article with which the hills of New England had been belabored. 
Let us, however, quote a few paragraphs illustrative of the nature 
of the prairie soil from some of the Geological Survey Reports, 
beginning with that of Illinois. f the 

“ All the part of the county [Boone, Illinois] south 0 s 
Kishwaukee may be called a treeless prairie, characterized PY 


1876.] Plain, Prairie, and Forest. 637 


long, low, undulating rolls and low ranges of hills and ridges. 
In some places it is flat, with swales and sloughs of limited extent, 
between moist marshes and black, fat meadow lands. A few trees 
skirt along Coon Creek, and scattered patches of timber in one 
or two other places relieve the level landscape. A broad, rich, 
comparatively level Illinois prairie, these hundred noble sections 
preserve yet some of that primitive beauty which gave two town- 
ships [Spring and Flora] their names. Before the busy teeming 
millions of the sons of toil swarmed over the fertile West, prairie 
flowers, in spring-like beauty and autumnal glory, bloomed where 
now the glancing plow-share turns the spring furrow, and the 
golden-ripened wheat-fields dally with the fugitive winds. The 
purple and golden clouds of flowers that used to lay on these 
Prairies are now no more; but in their place the tasseled Indian 
corn waves its head, and men are growing rich from the cultiva- 
tion in useful crops of these old flower-beds of nature.” 1 

Again, from the Missouri Reports: “ Timber is not very abun- 
dant in Saline Cénnty: c a Throughout almost its entire area, 
there is a deep, rich, black soil, of unsurpassed fertility. The 
ĉase with which these beautiful, rich, mellow prairie lands can 
be cultivated almost makes the toil of the husbandman a pleasure, 
while their freedom from rocks, roots, stumps, and other impedi- 
ments enables him to use the various modern labor-saving agri- 
cultural implements with astonishing effect.” ? Next, from the 
lowa Report : “ The scarcity of timber has, doubtless, had much 
to do in retarding the settlement of this fine region [Ida 
E The soil throughout the county is mainly of 
bhg origin. It consists of a buff-colored, exceedingly finely com- 
minuted silicious earth. The bluff formation overspreads the 
| tire county, enveloping the uplands in a deep mantle of the 
Peculiar silicious deposit of which it is composed. In the south- 
ern portion of the county it probably attains its greatest thick- 
pes, where it cannot be less than one hundred feet.” è Tt seems 
: wdly necessary to multiply quotations of this kind, as might 
be done to any extent. No person can have traveled through 
uthern Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, or Missouri, without having 
everywhere occasion to notice the prairie soil and to find out 
7 ey its characters are, and that, as a general rule, 18 parent 
Sly fine and deep. There are whole counties In towa where 


1 . 

p Vorthen’s Illinois Report, v. 95. id 
a a Ports of the Geological Survey of Missouri, 1855-1871, pp- ; 
lm, A. White in Geology of Iowa, ii. 163. 
xo. 11. 42 


— 


658 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [ November, 


not a single pebble can be found ; children are born and grow up 
without ever having seen a fragment of stone, a bowlder, or 
even a pebble large enough to throw at a dog. 

If, then, this extreme fineness of the soil is the cause of the 
absence of forest growth, we ought. to be able to explain, when 
looking at the facts from this point of view, that which from any 
other theoretical stand-point has seemed entirely inexplicable. 
The apparently eccentric distribution of the timbered tracts 
within the prairie, and of forest-covered patches in the midst of 
great treeless regions, — these conditions, which are evidently so 
little connected with absence or presence of moisture, and which 
seem so obscure, how clear they become when we examine the 
soil itself, instead of interrogating the skies and the rain-tables ! 

ow, then, are the wooded tracts distributed in the prairie 
region? An examination of the maps before us, on which the 
prairies of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota are desig- 
nated, from materials collected at the General Land Office, shows 
clearly that, as a general rule, it is the higher portion of the 
country which is destitute of timber. All are probably some- 
what familiar with the terms commonly in use at the West, 
“ riyer-bottom,” “ bluff,” and “ prairie upland.” * All are aware 
that the prairie country has, in general, a moderately undulating 
surface, and that the streams, which are very numerous, have sun 
their beds to a depth of from a few feet up to two hundred or 
three hundred below the general level; that these valleys are 
often very wide in comparison with the size of the streams whic! 
meander through them, and that the ascent on to the uplands 1s 
not a gradual one, but usually rather steep, such steep ascents 
being universally known as “ bluffs.” These bluffs often, €s- 
pecially in Wisconsin, Northern Iowa, and Northern Illinois, €x- 
hibit outcropping edges of rocks, forming low, nearly perpendicu- 
lar ledges, the geological formations lying almost everywhere in 
the prairie region in a nearly horizontal position, and consisting 
of nearly, if not quite, unaltered limestones, shales, and argilla- 
ceous sandstones. 

As a general rule, the timbered tracts are found in one of two 
positions: either they stretch along the bluffs which border the 
river valleys, or they occupy patches, called groves, high up P 
the uplands, at a level of a few feet — rarely as muc 
dred — above the surrounding prairies. The river bottoms them- 

1 For a careful description of the surface in the prairie region, by the present 
writer, see Hall and Whitney’s Geology of Iowa, 1858, vol. i., chapter l. 


1876.) Plain, Prairie, and Forest. 659 


selves are sometimes quite heavily timbered, but frequently 
treeless and covered with grass, and then known as “ bottom 
prairies.” In Illinois, of which State perhaps three quarters to 
two thirds are prairie, the wooded tracts are almost entirely in 
the river valleys or along the edges of the bluffs; the uplands, 
or rolling and nearly flat plains between the streams, are, to a 
large extent, destitute of timber. Very much the same condition 
of things exists in Iowa. Here, however, a considerable portion 
of the surface east of a line drawn in a northwesterly direction 
from the mouth of the Makoqueta River to the state line is 
pretty well timbered, while west of this there is a gradually in- 
creasing deficiency as we go towards the Missouri. All through 
the State, however, except in the northwest corner, there are 
isolated patches of timber on the upland, often forming beautiful 
and extensive areas of woodland. In Wisconsin the prairie re- 
gion lies mostly to the north of the river of that name. Just 
along the river is a narrow belt of prairie, in interrupted patches. 
Then, twelve or fifteen miles farther south, comes an extensive 
and continuous prairie, stretching along from east to west and oc- 
cupying the divide between the waters flowing into the Wisconsin 
and those tributary to Rock River. It was on this line of prairie 
that the famous “ military road” was built by the government 
to connect Lake Michigan with the Mississippi, and which was 
once of so much importance. South from this east and west 
line of prairie run several broad patches of the same, gradually 
Widening southwards, and occupying more than half the surface 
when we reach the Illinois state line. In the midst of these 
areas of prairie are fine groves of timber, quite dense, sometimes 
near a creek and sometimes far away from water. In the bend 
between the Wisconsin and the Mississippi, as the latter curves 
to the east just before passing Cassville, there is a beautiful, 


isolated prairie, about fourteen miles long and twelve wide in 


lts widest part, having one large grove near its southeastern 
i : Space is wanting to enable us to indicate all the peculiar- 
ities of the distribution and intermingling of prairie and timber 
3 from Minnesota to Arkansas; but the reader must surely have 
beome convinced that inequality in the distribution of moisture 
_ SHers no solution of the problem before us. — 

_ Let us turn, at present, to the geological side of the investiga- 
_ tion. The whole of New England and New York, and a large 
Part of Ohio and Indiana, together with the whole of Michigan 
and of Northern Wisconsin, constitute a region over which the 


660 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [ November, 


northern drift phenomena have been displayed on a grand scale. 
Consequently, almost the whole of this area is covered with heavy 
deposits of coarse gravel and bowldery materials. ‘These deposits, 
if not at the surface, are near it, and the finer materials deposited 
on them, by alluvial and other agencies, generally form only a 
thin covering for the coarse deposits beneath. But as we go 
south and west from the region-indicated above, we find the un- 
derlying rock — the “ bed-rock,” as the Californian miners would 
call it — deeply covered with loose materials, it is true, but we 
observe also that these are quite different in character from what 
they are to the north and east. We come to a region where the 
drift agencies have been very limited in their action. The bulk of 
the superficial detritus has been formed from the decomposition of 
the underlying rock, and this detritus has been but little disturbed 
or moved from its original position. If erratic deposits exist, they 
are usually deeply covered with finer materials derived from close 
at hand. A great area exists in Wisconsin and Minnesota over 
which not a single drift pebble has ever been found, either at the 
surface or at any depth beneath it. The strata have become 
chemically disaggregated and dissolved by the percolation of the 
rain through them, the calcareous matter has been carried off in 
solution, and there is left behind as a residuum the insoluble 
matter which the rock originally contained, and which, consisting 
largely of silica and silicate of alumina, forms by its aggrega- 
tion a silicious and clayey deposit of almost impalpable fineness. 
It is this fine material which makes up the bulk of the prame 
soil; and, as the writer conceives, it is this fineness which is es- 
pecially inimical to the growth of trees. Exactly as we see the 
desiccated lakes in the midst of the forests gradually filling up 
with finely-comminuted materials and becoming covered with a 
growth of grasses or sedges, which is not afterwards encroached 
on by trees, no matter whether the ground becomes completely 
dry or whether it remains more or less swampy, so we have the 
prairies, which have certainly never at any time been overspread 
with forests, and which would always remain as they are, pro 
vided the climate underwent no radical change and they ver 
not interfered with by man. It is for the vegetable physiologist 
to say why this fineness of the soil is unfavorable to the gro 
of trees; it is for the geologist and physical geographer to set 
forth the facts which they may observe within the line of their 
own professional work. ; 
From the point of view here established it is easy to expla 


E SERE 


EA AEE E E non A NE ANA EES 


1876.] Plain, Prairie, and Forest. 661 


phenomena which, if any other theory be adopted, seem to be 
entirely inexplicable. 

The first question which occurs is this: Why are the prairies, 
or grassy plains in general, almost exclusively limited to areas 
which are comparatively level? No theories of climatic influ- 
ence or unequal distribution of moisture seem to have any bear- 
ing on the solution of this question. But if we consider that 
in order to carry off the finest particles produced by the disag- 
gregation of the rocks there must be currents of water having 
considerable velocity, we see that it is only in hilly regions that 
the soil will be washed out enough by the rapid flow of the 
streams to give rise to a soil sufficiently coarse to favor the 
growth of forests. Thus it happens that in the prairie region 
the growth of trees is so frequently limited to the blufis which 
border the streams; it is because the inclination is sufficiently 
rapid to cause the water, as it finds its way down to the bottom 
of the valley, to take with it the finer particles which on the up- 
lands remain undisturbed. When heavy rains fall, the water 
stands upon the surface in sheets and pools, and gradually soaks 
into the ground. For this reason the divides between the streams, 
where there is hardly any perceptible inclination of the surface, 
are occupied in preference by prairie lands. If the height of the 
bluffs be considerable and the eroding power of the stream suffi- 
cient to cut the country up into a succession of ravines with but 
little level ground between them, then the whole region will be 
more or less covered with timber, as is the case in Northeastern 
Iowa, although the conditions with regard to moisture are less 
favorable than in some other parts of the State. The groves of 
timber which stand isolated upon the prairie, in so many places, 
are found on examination to have grown upon coarser soil than 
that which surrounds them; in some cases, the deposits of coarse 
drift have escaped being covered by the prairie soil because a 
little more elevated in these spots, or the increased height pea 

vored the washing away of the finer particles. The railroa s 
Which run through Northern Illinois, where prairie soil and drift 
Soil are constantly alternating with each other, furnish excellent 
= "ections from which one can see at a glance, as he crosses the 

— Suntry, how dependent the growth of the forests is on the char- 
ter of the soil. One, even if blindfolded, could tell without 
: difficulty, in the great majority of cases, by feeling the soil, 

Whether he was in a timbered or a grassy region. Tros vA T 
* Winchell, in his description of the “ Big Woods” of Minne- 


662 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [ November, 


sota, admitting that the soil is coarser and more gravelly than it 
is on the adjacent prairies, although he sees no connection be- 
tween this peculiar character of the soil and the exceptional ex- 
istence of an extensive forest upon it, while at the same time rec- 
ognizing the dilemma in which he is placed by his adoption of 
the prairie-fire theory. The writer has often noticed, during his 
explorations just on the western edge of the Lead Region, that 
the vicinity of old, abandoned shafts was becoming overgrown 
with trees, the fact being that in the sinking coarser materials 
underlying the prairie soil had been reached and thrown out in 
abundance on the surface, and that it was on this gravelly detri- 
tus that the trees were growing, the adjacent, undisturbed prairie 
remaining in its natural, grassed condition. 

The distribution of the timbered and prairie tracts in Wiscon- 
sin, as already suggested, illustrates beautifully the dependence 
of the forest growth on geological conditions rather than on those 
having to do with climate. In the northern part of the State, 
as we see indicated on Professor Brewer's map, is a region of 
dense forest, although, as the table of rain-fall statistics given 
on a preceding page ! shows, this is not a region of large precipita- 
tion. It is, however, heavily covered with coarse detrital mate- 
rials, plentifully distributed from the “ head-quarters of the drift,” 
on Lake Superior. The rocks underlying the drift deposits are 
crystalline, belonging to the Azoic series, and the surface is rough 
and broken, being intersected with low ridges, and knobs of 
granite and trap. South of this is a large area occupying the 
central portion of the State and extending down as far as the 
Wisconsin River, almost exclusively occupied by a very pure 
silicious sandstone, which is wrapped about the Azoic region, eX 
tending in a northeasterly direction to the Menomonee River, and 
northwest to the Falls of the St. Croix. This great sandstone 
covered area is the pine district of the State, while south of the 
Wisconsin is the region of oak openings and prairies. And 
when we reach these treeless tracts, the range and extent of 
which have already been indicated, we find that we have got en- 
tirely beyond the drift-covered area, and that we are upon a 501 
made up of the insoluble residuum left from the disintegration “ 
several hundreds of feet in thickness of limestone and dolomites, 
which have been dissolved out and carried away by the rail» 
there being abundant evidence that this region has never bae 
covered by water since it was first raised above the Silurian 

ł See NATURALIST, X. 586. 


1876.] Plain, Prairie, and Forest. 663 


ocean. Thus we find the distribution of forest and prairie in 
Wisconsin to be most intimately connected with the nature of 
the soil and the geological conditions under which this has been 
formed, while it has been clearly shown that climatic conditions 
were either absolutely null in their action or else entirely second- 
ary to those other more potent ones which have been designated. 
Were there space enough, it would be possible to show, with 
abundant detail of description, how, all over the prairie region, 
the characters of the soil and the surface harmoniously combine 
to favor or repress the growth of forests, regardless of the amount 
or distribution of the atmospheric precipitation. A thorough 
working out of the surface geology of Missouri or Arkansas 
would especially well illustrate the correctness of the statements 
which have been here advanced, and the inferences which have 
been drawn from them. 

It remains to say a few words in regard to the views of Mr. 
Lesquereux. He, if we have correctly apprehended his theory, 
ascribes the existence of the prairies almost exclusively to the 
character of the soil. But he conceives this unfittedness for 
tree-growth to be, in some way not clearly apprehended by i 
Writer, due to the “ agency and growth of a peculiar vegetation. 

we are not mistaken, the essential points of the theory of Mr. 
Lesquereux’ are —and, as far as possible, we will use his own 
Words in setting it forth — “ that all the prairies of the Missis- 
sippi Valley have been formed by the slow recess of sheets of 
water of various extent, first transformed into swamps and by 
and by drained and: dried ;” the soil thus formed “is neither 
“Peat nor humus, but a black, soft mold, impregnated with a 
large proportion of ulmie acid, produced by the slow decomposi- 
tion, mostly under water, of aquatic plants, and thus partaking 
as much of the nature of the peat as of that of the true humus ; 
these plants “ contain in their tissue a great proportion of lime, 
alumina, silica, and even of oxide of iron, the elements of clay. 
Moreover, this vegetation of the low, stagnated waters ape 
Prodigious quantity of small mollusks and infusoria, whose she 
and detritus greatly add to the deposits. The final result of 
‘the decomposition of the whole matter is that fine clay of the 
subsoil of the prairies, which is indeed truly impalpable, when 
dried and pulverized and unmixed with sand.” 
1Mr. Ga i ournal of Science (3), ii. 127) that in 
Santo tg ths iias Merrit sie sharply defined, and correspond in the 
main with certain geological features.” 


664 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [ November, 


The writer has taken the liberty of italicizing a few words in 
the last sentence quoted from Mr. Lesquereux,! in order that the 
reader may not fail to notice that there is an essential agreement 
between us on the main point, which is that of the fineness of 
the prairie soil. That is to say, the main point in the opinion of 
the writer, but apparently not in that of Mr. Lesquereux, for 
he says, in speaking of the absence of trees as being caused by 
the fineness of the soil, “ This explanation, I think, cannot satisfy 
the mind.” When, however, we seek in his chapter on the 
prairies for the essential thing which does bring the desired men- 
tal satisfaction, we do not find it clearly stated, unless it be in 
the following sentences: “It is easy to see why trees cannot 
grow on such kind of soil [namely, the prairie soil, as described 
above]. The germination of seeds of arborescent plants needs the 
free access of oxygen for its development; and the trees, espe- 
cially in their youth, absorb by the roots a great amount of air, 
and demand a solid point of attachment to fix themselves. 
Moreover, the acid of this kind of soil, by its particularly anti- 
septic property, promotes the vegetation of a peculiar group of 
plants, mostly herbaceous.” That is to say, the soil formed by 
the decomposition of aquatic plants is unfavorable to the growth 
of forests, not only on account of its fineness, which must cer- 
tainly at least assist in preventing “ the free access of oxygen,” 
but also because its chemical qualities are such as especially 
favor herbaceous vegetation. 

That some portions of the prairie soil may have been formed 
by the decomposition of aquatic plants in the manner suggested 
by Mr. Lesquereux we are not disposed to deny, although not 
aware that it has yet been proved by chemical investigation that 
such a soil is chemically unfitted to support the growth of forest 
trees. We are, however, still disposed to adhere to the state- 
ment made in the Wisconsin report (1862), that “ the great mass 
of superficial clay, loam, and other loose materials lying on the 
solid rock in this region [the Lead Region of the Upper Missis- 
sippi,,a prairie country] is simply the residuum left after the 
more or less complete solution and removal of the soluble por- 
tion of the rock.”? That the prairie soil proper is not, as ; 
general rule, or necessarily, a soil containing a large amount 0 

1 Geology of Illinois (1866) vol. i, chap. vii., Onthe Origin and Formation of the 
Prairies, 

? See Wisconsin Report, chapter iii., on the Physical Geography and Surface Ge 
ology of the Upper Mississippi Lead Region, by the author of the present article, 


1876.] Plain, Prairie, and Forest. 665 


organic matter, seems to us clear. A large quantity of such mate- 
tial does collect, it is true, in the swampy places and low swales 
between the ridges or swells of the prairies; but it must be 
remembered that the higher grounds— the divides between the 
streams — are par excellence the regions of prairie. And it would 
be extremely difficult to prove that these higher grounds have 
ever been occupied by an aquatic vegetation. The extensive dis- 
trict in Wisconsin and Minnesota which has never since almost 
the earliest period of geological time been covered by water,! and 
which is as far as possible from being of a swampy nature, is 
thoroughly a prairie region, as has already been described. 

The series of events in the course of which the detrital mate- 
tials covering the greater part of the States bordering on the 
Mississippi have been distributed and arranged in their present 
position must have been a long and complicated one. We know 
that the ocean has had nothing to do with it, for not a trace of 
anything marine has ever been found in these deposits, while 
bones of land animals and fresh-water shells and plants are not 
unfrequently met with. When we consider that in going west 

m the Mississippi we rise to an elevation of more than a thou- 
sand feet above the river, while all the time the prairie soil main- 
tains its character, it becomes evident that we cannot admit that 
deposition of this detrital matter took place in the same manner 
and at the same time from one vast area of fresh water. No 
Possible barrier for this water could be found in any direction 
except to the west, for to have covered the whole prairie region 
its surface must have been nearly 2000 feet above the sea-level. 
| Everything in the prairie region indicates the slow and, as a 
_ Seneral rule, tranquil accumulation of detrital materials during 

à vast period of time, and as the result of agencies rather local 

n general, having more of a fluviatile than of a lacustrine 
character, and which must have been in operation for a long time 
before the glacial epoch commenced. The discussion, however, 
of the phenomena here alluded to would extend this paper far 
beyond any reasonable limits. ere E 
Those who are familiar with the geology of the Mississipp! 
Valley will not need to be told that the prairie region 18 one un- 
Berkain by undisturbed and nearly horizontally stratified rocka. 
_ “ey will remember that these rocks are chiefly limestones, dol- 
mites, and shales, easily acted on by water, the bulk of the ma- 
terial being bodily removed in solution, and not left as a disin- 


1 See Wisconsin Report, page 118, et seq- 


666 Plain, Prairie, and Forest. [ November, 


tegrated mass on the surface, as is the case with the harder met- 
amorphic rocks. These are the conditions specially favorable to 
the development of prairies; and it is under these conditions that 
prairies, in the Western sense of the word, are usually met with. 
A few words may be added for the benefit of those who are 
disposed to put confidence in the stories told by persons having 
land for sale at the West, in regard to the ease with which forest 
trees may be raised on the prairies, some even going so far as to 
maintain that building a fence and keeping out the prairie fires 
is sufficient to insure the speedy covering of the land thus pro- 
tected with a growth of timber. The best answer that can be 
made in a few words to these assertions is to quote from a 
pamphlet published by a practical man, Mr. Leonard B. Hodges, 
Superintendent of Tree Planting of the Saint Paul and Pacific 
Railroad Company. His object is to urge the importance to the 
West of raising forest trees; and does he say, “ Fence in your 
land, gentlemen farmers, and your forests will develop them- 
selves”? Quite the contrary ; he especially dwells on the point 
that even setting out “the trees will not answer, unless the land 
has been properly prepared. To use his own words, ‘ without 
this thorough preparation, failure and disappointment are inevi- 
table.” So arduous a task is it to raise forest trees on the prairies 
that the State of Minnesota passed a law in 1871 granting & 
bounty of two dollars a year per acre for ten years and for every 
acre planted with ‘ any kind of forest trees except black locust ; 
and Congress has gone further by actually giving to any settler 
the land, to the extent of forty acres, on which he will maintain 
a growth of forest trees for ten years. ‘These provisions will, we 
think, convince any one that raising timber on the prairies 18 not 
so very easy a matter, but rather something “ going against the 
grain ” of nature. é 
There are persons to whom the position of the plains = 
reference to the prairies will be a decided stumbling-block in the 
way of their acceptance of the views above advanced. They 
will say, “Do not the plains begin where the prairies leave ip 
and are not the latter simply the incipient stage of the former ‘ 
Do we not find the amount of precipitation growing gradually 
less as we approach the Rocky Mountains in going from the At- 
lantic coast, and are not the prairies simply the result of this de- 
ficiency, manifesting itself in only a partial covering of the nse 
face of the forests?” This does indeed seem very plausible - 
long as one has not examined carefully into the facts ; let us con 


1876. ] Hygiene of House Plants. 667 


ceive that what was set forth in the first portion of this article 
will have been abundantly sufficient to disprove the existence of 
this assumed want of moisture in the Mississippi Valley. If the 
drift agencies had covered the whole of the prairie States with 
coarse detritus, as they have the region to the north and northeast ; 
then, in the opinion of the writer, forests would have clothed the 
whole country, as far west, perhaps, as the western border of 
Towa; but from there on, no matter what the condition of the 
surface, they would not have extended themselves, because of the 
deficiency of moisture, the decrease being a very rapid one from 
the 94th meridian towards the west. On the other hand, there 
is nothing in the geological conditions of the surface in the region 
of the plains to prevent a forest growth, provided the climatolog- 
ical conditions were favorable, a complete change taking place in 
the character of the formations soon after we enter Nebraska and 
Kansas, the Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks covering up entirely all 
the older strata; and as they consist almost exclusively of coarse 
arenaceous materials, they furnish by their decomposition a soil 
very different from that of the prairies. If, again, the topogra- 
phy of the country was such that the warm and moist winds 
eould not blow from the Gulf of Mexico up the valley of the 
Mississippi, causing as they go an abundant precipitation, then 
that region would be a sterile one, instead of being, as it now is, 
one of the most favored agricultural areas of the world, albeit 
not everywhere clothed with forests. 


HYGIENE OF HOUSE PLANTS. 
BY GEORGE H. PERKINS, PH. D- i 
ARE plants growing in occupied rooms injurious or beneficial 
to the health of the occupants ? This is a question often 
‘ asked and often answered in a very general manner ; but it does 
‘Rot seem to be always easy to give specific reasons for a belief 
> the value or worthlessness of the influence of cultivated plants 
1 Upon the air immediately about them. As full and satisfactory 
= *Teply to the question we have asked as can be given 18 of con- 
eo siderable importance, now that plants are found growing in a 
= “tge majority of homes all over the country, and to furnish a 
| ply is the object of this article: Although the writer 1s con- 
_ Sous that it is not by any means all that could be desired, he yet 
: hopes that it may not be wholly useless to many lovers an 
_ (Altivators of plants. 


668 Hygiene of House Plants. [ November, 


A group of plants is so attractive and so interesting in its form 
and development, that we would gladly be sure that its presence 
contributes as much to the health of a room as to its beauty. An 
entirely satisfactory investigation of this matter is scarcely possi- 
ble, for analyses of air, careful experiments, and observations re- 
lating to the influence of plants growing in occupied rooms, are 
for the most part wholly wanting. The general effect of vege- 
tation in the economy of nature is too wel known to be dwelt 
upon here. Most are familiar with the fact that animals are de- 
pendent upon plants for food, and that after growth, reproduc- 
tion, and death, the materials of animal structure return to the 
vegetable, and thus everywhere, in ever-recurring cycles, the 
dead animal returns to life in the plant ; everywhere, for vegeta- 
ble life is everywhere, rooted in earth, floating in water, buoyed 
in air, and everywhere attractive, varied, and interesting. What 
is said in regard to plant life and growth in this article refers 
only to the higher and flowering plants. Such plants often remove 
much from both the earth and the air in which they grow, and 
in return they give much to the air; but while living they return 
almost nothing to the earth, only now and then a stray leaf or 
bit of bratich. Hence, growing plants tend to change the nature 
of both soil and air. The chief processes of plant life, absorb- 
ing, assimilating, exhaling, are carried on with immense energy: 
How great these forces are we do not yet know, but exper- 
ments, such as those of President Clark, of Amherst, have lately 
been made, which have given us glimpses of the power exerted in 
vegetable growth. Without direct proof of the fact few would 
be ready to believe that the outward pressure of sap in a hegre 
could ever equal that of a column of water over eighty feet high ; 
that even in a bit of root wholly severed from the tree, though 
of course only recently cut off, the force of the sap-pressure c° ld 
be as great, or that in a squash-vine it could equal that of a col- 
umn of water nearly fifty feet high. No one, I think, would 
have supposed that a growing squash in its efforts to increase, 
would, when confined, lift a weight which was gradually 1 
creased to one ton, then to two tons, and finally to two tons and 
a half. These experiments are so well known that an account 0 
them is unnecessary here, but they tell us very much of i 
forces acting in vegetation, which are so silent and impereeptib le 
that we too often fail to notice them. In every field of growing 
grain chemical changes are taking place such as no chemist can 
produce ; forces are in action which, if so directed, could heave — 


1876.] Hygiene of House Plants. 669 


and overturn the soil as by an earthquake. We are learning to 
look for power in its fullest development, not so much in the 
more noisy phenomena that all observe, as in those unobtrusive, 
noiseless processes, unseen save by the eye of science, that go on 
all about us. In raindrop and snowflake, in forming leaf and 
opening bud, we are taught to look for force greater than we can 
know. In the rush of a landslide, as it crushes and overturns 
everything in its way, all recognize vast power; but all do not 
know that in the growth of every tree that lies crushed in the 
pathway of those rock-masses more force was expended than 
would be needed to hurl them whence they came. It is well 
known that the leaves of plants exhale moisture, but it is not 
so well known how much various plants give to the air. The 
amount varies almost constantly, being affected by temperature, 
dryness of air, amount of light, and condition of the plant. But 
the amount of water given to the air during a season by plants, 
ìs very considerable. A French botanist found that an oak ex- 
haled in one season eight and a half times as much water as fell 
in rain over an area equal to that of the leaves. And other simi- 
lar experiments give similar results. 

The well-known process of taking carbonic acid from the air 
and returning oxygen to it, fixing the carbon in the tissues of the 
Plant, has been shown by Bernard and others to be a true digest- 
We and assimilative process, while all the time a true respiratory 
process is carried on by which oxygen is taken and carbonic acid 
Siven out. During the day, when the leaves are subject to the 
action of light, both these processes go on, but the assimilative 
| Process is vastly the more energetic and conceals the other proc- 

8 wholly, When light is withdrawn the respiratory process 

comes into prominence, because of the almost or entire cessation 
| ‘the other, so that the action of plants by night a 

the reverse of that by day, and so it is practically ; but itis to be 
i ‘Temembered that the most vigorous and important action of the 
a Plant, that which alone exerts any very marked influence upon 

— Ve surrounding air, is that by which carbonic acid is taken from 
arand oxygen given back. The re 
: wo processes Ois at different times of the year, as ar T 

Winder has shown that when the leaves expand they contain a 
ee Proportion of nitrogenous matter, which decreases gradu- 
I J until autumn, while as the leaves become 

e oa naceous matter increases, at first rapidly ’ 
; uo after a time it remains fixed until towards autumn, 


is said to be 


lative activity of these 


fully developed the 
then more slowly, 
when it 


670 Hygiene of House Plants. [ November, 


decreases. So long as nitrogenous matter is in excess carbonic 
acid may be given off, but when the carbonaceous matter is in 
excess, whatever carbonic acid is set free is at once taken up by 
the chlorophyl and the carbon fixed, the oxygen being set free ; 
and this latter is the great work of plants. So great are its ef- 
fects that it is believed that they wholly counteract the vitiating 


influence of the billion pounds of carbonic acid which are, as is - 


estimated, annually sent into the atmosphere ; and throughout 
all the geological ages, since the development of plant life in its 
higher forms, it has been taking carbonic acid from the air, fix- 
ing the carbon and restoring the oxygen. Every pound of coal 
in all the two hundred thousand square miles of coal area in 
North America, represents three and two thirds pounds of car- 
bonic acid taken from the air. 

It can make but little difference where plants grow; those 
conditions which are essential to their growth must be met. If 
forests purify the air about them, it is reasonable to suppose 
that smaller groups of vegetation in our houses will purify that 
about them. There are indeed some plants that revel in filth 
and noisome vapors, but they are not such as will. be found in 
our houses. Modern plants are many of them unable to endure 
even a slight increase in the amount of carbonic acid in the sur- 
rounding air, and we are forced to suppose that the plants of the 
coal period were peculiarly fitted for the atmosphere in which 
they grew. It has been found that many gaseous and other sub- 
stances affect animals and plants in a similar manner, and m 
many cases an atmosphere in which one will not thrive is hurtful 
to the other. Many injurious gases that are too often found in 
our dwellings affect plants even more readily than they do me 
so that to a certain extent plants become tests of the air we 
breathe ; and when it is found that plants will not grow m s 
room because of gas from chandelier or furnace, it is surely true 
that such rooms are unfit for man’s occupation, and that they can- 
not be used without certain injury to the health. In greenhouses, 
where a large number of plants are shut up in a small amount of 
air, it is true that the amount of carbonic acid is, even at night, 


less than outside. Florists, who spend much of their time 1P 
- greenhouses, are as a class unusually healthy, and sometimes 
with not the 


Rag eet Ras ROM rR Nee Le ie Oe” aah aie rane ee 


1876.] Hygiene of House Plants. 671 


find great relief as they enter a greenhouse and breathe its air; 
even those whose complaint prevents comfortable rest elsewhere 
find little or no trouble in sleeping in a greenhouse. Thus all 
the facts at our command tend to prove that the air of green- 
houses, despite its exceeding dampness, is not unhealthy, but 
rather the reverse. Luxuriant vegetation growing in very moist 
air is not necessarily so unwholesome as is usually supposed. 
Mr. Bates, in The Naturalist on the Amazon, speaks of certain 
localities in which he spent some time, where the air was as if 
filled with steam at times, and always very full of aqueous vapor, 
and where the vegetation was wonderfully rank; and yet he 
found these places unusually healthy, free from many complaints 
common in drier regions near by. This is perhaps an exception, 
rather than an example illustrating a general rule, but it is worth 
some notice. 

If house plants are to thrive, they must have abundance of 
fresh air and sunshine. And now that fine window plants are so 
generally desired, there is doubtless often a severe struggle in the 
mind of many a housekeeper, to decide whether the plants shall 
suffer and perhaps die, or upholstery and carpets be allowed to 
fade. The plants seem usually victorious, the windows are 
Opened for more pure air, the shutters for more light, and the 
home becomes more cheery, attractive, and healthful. The air 
heated by stove, furnace, or worse, by steam-pipes, is almost 
sure to be very dry, so much so as to be irritating and hurtful to 
the Tespiratory organs. As has been noticed, the leaves of plants 
exhale moisture, often to a considerable amount, and a dry air, 
if brought into contact with growing plants, is furnished with 
Some of the lacking aqueous vapor. This process 18, to a certain 
extent, self-regulating, for the drier the air the more rapid is the 
exhalation from the leaves, while this decreases as the moisture 
of the air increases. Another effect which might have considera- 
‘ > influence upon greenhouse air, but would not amount to much 
_ M occupied rooms, where but few plants are kept, is their tend- 
_ “Y to equalize the temperature. In most cases plants do not 
Nse in temperature as quickly as does the air about them, and 
While the air grows warmer during the day, and is at T T 
_ Mum seyeral hours before sunset, plants go on increasing in tem- 
_ Perature for some hours after the air has begun to grow cooler, 
and thus as the air cools the radiation from plants warms it, while 
_ firing the day the exhalation of moisture tends to cool the air. 
: far we have considered vegetation only in its ordinary 


672 Hygiene of House Plants. [ November, 


growth, but after this has continued until the plant has sufficient 
vigor, it produces flowers and fruit, unless it belong to one of 
the lower orders. Now the usual conditions may be somewhat 
changed ; the temperature of the plant rises ten or more degrees 
above that of the surrounding air, and as flowers expand, car- 
bonic acid passes off and oxygen is taken up, but in most cases 
this is not of such extent as to be important. 

A greater effect is that of the odors which some flowers possess. 
We have very little positive knowledge of the nature of the per- 
fumes of flowers. We know that powerful odors affect some per- 
sons unfavorably, at least at the time they are inhaled, causing 
nausea and faintness. We know that hydrocyanic acid and other 
deleterious substances exist in some odors, but I believe that all 
odors from plants which are known to contain injurious substances 
are disagreeable and repulsive. It seems possible at least that 
intense odors, such as that of the tuberose or many lilies, if in- 
haled for a long time would prove harmful, while the more mild 
odors are not so. There is very good authority for the assertion 
that many plants, such as the lemon, mint, hyacinth, heliotrope, 
mignonette, etc., when in bloom, in some way increase the quan- 
tity of ozone in the surrounding air, and are in this way benefi- 
cial. The common sunflower is said to be very useful in this 
way, and to do very much to counteract the effect of miasmatic 
vapors in its neighborhood. ‘Those resinous odors which come 
from coniferous trees are agreeable to every one, and are gen 
erally believed to be wholesome and remedial. The blue-gum 
(Eucalyptus) of Australia emits camphorated and antiseptic 
vapors which have been found of great value in malarial regions. 
On the whole ‘it seems probable that the perfumes of most of 
our house plants are not very powerful for either good or evil, 
but that they are quite as likely to be beneficial as the reverse 
If decaying leaves or other such débris are allowed to remain on 
the surface of the pots, they may vitiate the air; but aside from 
this it is not probable that injurious gases can come from decom- 
posing material in the earth of the pots, for the plant and the 
earth together act vigorously to prevent any such thing. 

We conclude, then, that house plants are injurious only as they 
increase the carbonic acid in the air, and as they give out jati 
ous perfumes. We have found that the first of these effects 15 
certainly far more than counterbalanced by the taking up of pad 
bonic acid and the throwing out of oxygen, and the second 1s yee 
probably fully neutralized. House plants are positively — 


SE pe ee Ree Pe oF IE ee EEES 


| 1876.] An Ancient Sceptre. 673 


as they pour aqueous vapor into dry air, as they demand plenty 

of light and air, and on this account many a room, otherwise dark 

and unwholesome, is well lighted and aired. One of the most 

powerful and important influences of cultivated plants yet re- 

tans to be noticed. Thrifty plants are always beautiful, and 

their growth and development always instructive and interest- 
ak and the constant presence of such objects in our homes is 
obviously of very great value. We learn to love a favorite plant, 
| and its influence makes our lives gentler and less gross and ma- 
terial ; we may not always appreciate this effect, but it is ever 
acting and ever powerful. Hence, were there no appreciable phys- 
ical good to come from the groups of plants that are so com- 
monly seen in our windows, this moral benefit should make us 
encourage in every way their cultivation, and rejoice that it is 
already so general. 


AN ANCIENT SCEPTRE. 
| BY C. C. ABBOTT M. D. 


HILE the Indians were in undisturbed possession not only 
of the Atlantic coast of North America, but of a great part, 
if not the whole, of the interior, they were not politically one 
people, but divided into many tribes, some of these again being 
in league, as the Iroquois “nation.” These political divisions 

_ ind subdivisions indicate necessarily the prevalence of rank, an 
i the authority of certain individuals over large and small commu- 
nities; this again leads to the necessity of badges, or insignia of 
; | Now among the many relics of the red man that we 
: ASA from our fields there occur some spec 
=% veritable puzzles, were it not that we do know 
the past history of the Indians. Among these peculiar forms is 
that called here a sceptre (Figure 60). These vary much in out- 
®, yet preserve sufficient uniformity to warrant our classifying 
™ as one form. 
Sa many archeological works, and shorter essays On the relics 
_ *Creumscribed locality, this exclusively North American pat- 
? rm which for many reasons I 
for there has yet to be dis- 
adapted to cutting any sub- 
], it is a knife for skinning 
stone implements 
be knives, hatchets, 


imens which would 
something of 


Miere to be entirely inapplicable ; 
a single specimen that is 
ĉe as hard as wood. If any too 


674 An Ancient Sceptre. [ November, 


adzes, and axes, it is beyond question that these perforated spec- 
imens of stone work are either simply ornaments or badges of 
office. My reasons for believing them to be the latter are, as 
already stated, their comparative rarity, the absence of all indi- 
cation of their having been put to any use whereby portions of the 
surface are worn or chipped off, and thirdly, that when found in 
graves they are associated with other elaborate relics, that of 
themselves give evidence of the rank of the person buried. 


(Fia 60.) ANCIENT INDIAN SCEPTRE. 

The variation of form, too, may be mentioned as indicative of 
the ornamental or badge-like character of the implement, the 
shape of the “ wings ” never approaching a tool-like appearance, 
but varying in the direction of the fantastic,! so that many = 
miniature pickaxes, or double picks. On the other hand, the 
central tube may be quite long, and the broad ‘ wings ” give the 
specimen a heart-shaped outline. Such specimens, however, 
may really not be sceptres, but winged medicine tubes, that the 
Indian physician used in sucking or blowing away the disease 
afflicting his patient. 7 

The specimen here figured is doubly interesting, from the fact 
that one portion is scored with a series of notches about its mat- 
gin, which add, I consider, great weight to the suggestion that 
these implements are banner-stones, or badges. I prefer the 
term “sceptre.” Marginal notches such as here shown 1n F Ig 
ure 60 are records of some one event, frequently repeated ; M 


this case, possibly of successful wars with a hostile tribe, ae 
the personal prowess of the owner of the badge. The addition 
may have 


ornamentation, simulating the veining of a leaf, too, 
some such meaning. 
1 Stevens’s Flint Chips, American edition, page 506. 


1876.] The Great Salt Lake in Former Times. 675 


= Aninteresting fact in relation to this form of Indian relic is . 
_ that it is quite as characteristic of the Mound-Builders as of the 
Atlantic coast natives. As it is a peculiar form of stone imple- 
ment, and not one that is likely to occur with two widely sepa- 
rated and very different races, it argues a nearer relationship of 
the Mound-Builder and the Indian than is supposed by many to 
_ have existed. 

In the specimen here figured! we see a highly polished and 
nearly symmetrical worked stone, suggestive of no domestic use, 
and valueless as a weapon or hunting implement. Its whole ap- 
pearance indicates that a vast amount of labor has been expended 
upon it ; furthermore, it is quite elaborately ornamented. Again, 
the perforation shows that it was mounted upon a slender handle, 
and thus wielded it becomes intelligible as an indication of the 
superior rank of its possessor — possibly a veritable sceptre in 
the hands of a prehistoric American king. 


THE GREAT SALT LAKE IN FORMER TIMES. 

HE Great Salt Lake of Utah was discovered in 1833 by 
Captain Bonneville, although his account of it was not pub- 
lished until ten years later by Washington Irving in The Ad- 
ventures of Captain Bonneville, U. S. A., in the Rocky Moun- 
_ tains and the Far West. It was more fully described afterwards 
by Frémont and Stansbury, though but little light has been 
thrown upon the early history of the lake, until within a few 
a years. ` In his report on the geology of Wyoming and contiguous 
Territories, for 1870, Dr. F. V. Hayden thus describes the lake 
ds and appearance of Great Salt Lake in the Quaternary 
Period ; — 

“If now we pass to what may be called for 
_ Waternary period, or the one that gradually merges into the 
P resent, we shall find that it presents geological features of no 
7 ordinary interest. In descending the Weber Vall 
emerge from the cañon of the Wahsatch range into the open val- 
ley of Salt Lake, we observe on either side thick beds of sand 
~. arenaceous clays, which must have been deposited in the 
Wet waters of a lake. In the valley of Salt Lake, and espe- 


tially in that of the Weber River, these drift deposits possess a 


EE ey Re ae eS. Soe 


convenience the 


ey, after we 


S. Haldeman, in an island in the Susque- 


1 Thi 
4 S speci 
pecimen was found by Prof. S ion of a pen-sketch, in a 


aea River, Pennsylvania. The illustration is a reproduct ' 
Y to the author, referring to Indian relics found in Pennsylvania. 


676 ‘The Great Salt Lake in Former Times. (November, | 


thickness of several hundred feet, and of these materials the 
terraces are formed. Near Salt Lake City, in digging a well, 
fresh-water shells were found in these deposits, forty feet below 
the surface; and on the north side of the lake, where these de- 
posits are very largely exhibited, the cuts in the railroad, through 
the gravel and sands, reveal the greatest abundance of fresh- 
water shells, showing that at this time the physical conditions 
were unusually favorable for the existence of fresh-water mollus- 
cous life. So far as I could ascertain, these conditions do not 
exist at the present time, or if they do, it must be only to a 
limited extent. From these observations I infer that a vast 
fresh-water lake once occupied all this immense basin ; that the 
smaller ranges of mountains were scattered over it as isolated 
islands, their summits projecting above the surface; that the 
waters have gradually and slowly passed away by evaporation, 
and the terraces are left to reveal certain oscillations of level and 
the steps of progress toward the present order of things ; and 
that the briny waters have concentrated in those lake basins, 
which have no outlet. The entire country seems to be full of 
salt springs, which have, in all probability, contributed a great 
share to the saline character of the waters.” 

Additional information concerning the geology of the lake has 
recently appeared in the report of Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of Wheeler's 
Survey of the Territories West of the One Hundredth Meridian. 
We shall attempt, with the aid of liberal extracts from this 
interesting report, to give some account of the ancient history 
of this great briny lake, which in past ages extended over such 
a large area and formed one of a series of vast inland lakes 
rivaling in size the present great lakes of the northern border 
of the United States. These ancient lakes lay in the depres- 
sions of the Great Basin, as it was called by F rémont, situated 
between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. 

The Great Salt Lake occupies the eastern portion of the Great 
Salt Lake Desert, which is divided from the Sevier Desert by a 
series of low ranges. These hills or insular buttes appear 
have been, as it were, submerged beneath a sea of detritus. “ If 
these hidden mountains rise as high above their bases as do their 
neighbors on the rim of the basin, we may, by comparing sum- 
mits with summits, learn something of the relative depression of 
the rocky bottom of the basin below its margin ; and it would 
appear, judged in this manner, to be not less than four thousand 
feet. And, on the same supposition, the desert sediments, which, 


be 


ee ow E aa 
Me fhe Sao te pe ye ae tS rare soar ar iit PR OER AS fat ht ead RES SME Ee ar oie 


| 


sho 


1876.] The Great Salt Lake in Former Times. 677 


before burying the mountain ridges, have filled the intermediate 
valleys, may have a maximum thickness of five thousand or six 
thousand feet. Their upper surface, water-laid and smooth, is 
the broad floor of the desert, from which arms stretch north and 
south between the fringing mountains. In longitude the plain 
measures a little over a hundred miles, and in latitude a little 

Its general level is about 4200 feet above the ocean, and 
Great Salt Lake probably occupies its greatest depression, 
though lying close to its eastern border. Its surface material is 
a fine adhesive, absolutely sterile clay, charged with chloride of 
sodium and other soluble salts, the deposit from the last expan- 
sion of the waters of the lake, an expansion so recent that the 
beach-lines formed at its culmination and during its slow subsi- 
dence are perfectly preserved on the shores of the desert. 

“ The eccentric position of the lake is evidence of the novelty 
of the present relation of altitudes of different portions of the 
plain, which is far from an equilibrium. Nearly the whole pres- 
ent increment to the desert floor comes from beyond the Wah- 
satch Mountains, and is deposited in the deltas of the Jordan, 
Weber, and Bear rivers, on the eastern margin of the lake. 
Since the lake has no outlet, but parts with its surplus by evap- 
oration, its area rather than its level tends to constancy ; and, as 
the eastern shore increases, the water will rise, pari passu, and 
encroach on the western. The continuation of this process, if 
there is no counter influence, such as a secular depression of the 
lake basin, will push the water, in a few thousand years, to the 
Western side of the desert.” ; 

aving considered the lake as it is at present, let us look at its 
Past history as elucidated by Mr. Gilbert. He considers, from a 
study of the sediments and ancient beaches, that the Great Salt 
Lake formerly included the valleys now occupied by Sevier and 
Utah lakes, and be calls.the hypothetical ancient body of water 
Lake Bonneville. “ The most conspicuous traces of Lake Bonne- 
ville are its shore-lines. At their greatest expanse the waters rose 
nearly one thousand feet above the present level of Great Salt 


“ake, and at this and numerous other stages marked their lin- 


& rings by elaborate beaches and terraces. These are very con- 


Spicuously displayed on the slopes of the Wahsatch range near 
yed on the slop 
t Salt Lake, and on the rocky islands of the lake, and have 


Attracted the attention of every observant traveler from the 


time of the explorations of Frémont and Beckwith. All the 
varied products of wave-work, as we know them on modern 


res, are represented and beautifully preserved.” 


678 The Great Salt Lake in Former Times. (November, 


The ancient beaches, or “ benches” as the inhabitants call 
them, which indicate the former levels of the lake, at once attract 
the attention of the traveler soon after he leaves Ogden for Salt 
Lake City. “ While some of the benches are better marked 
than others, no number can be assigned to the successive shore- 
lines from the highest to the modern. Upon gentle slopes many 
more can be detected than on steep, and they are of all grades 
of distinctness. It is doubtless true that some, which are at cer- 
tain stations conspicuous, as compared to others, are elsewhere, 
from local causes, inconspicuous ; but there are two lines that can, 
at nearly every point, be recognized as far more strongly traced 
than any others. One of these is the highest of all, the Bonne- 
ville beach. The other occurs about three hundred feet lower, 
and this we have found it convenient to entitle the Provo beach, 
drawing the name from the town of Provo, on the shores of Utah 
Lake, near which it is especially well exhibited. These tell us 
that, during the progressive subsidence recorded by the entire 
series, there have been two marked epochs, perhaps many thou- 
sands of years in duration, through each of which a constant 
water level was maintained. The level of Great Salt Lake, like 
that of other lakes without overflow, is notoriously inconstant, 
for the obvious reason that it depends on the ratio between pre- 
cipitation and evaporation over a limited area, factors which di- 
verge, and change their conditions of equilibrium, with every 
fluctuation of annual mean temperature or humidity. It is diffi- 
cult to imagine that so unstable a climatal equilibrium was main- 
tained for the time that was consumed in the production of either 
the Bonneville or the Provo beach, and, before we accept such 
explanation of their origin, we are led to inquire whether at 
these levels the stage of water was not regulated by an overflow. 
The coincidence of one of the constant levels with the highest 
water stage of all renders the presumption of an outflow at that 
stage especially strong. With these considerations in view, We 
endeavored, in tracing the outline of the lake, to discover its 
point of discharge, but without success. Our examination was 
almost exclusively confined to the southern half of the lake, and 
points to the conclusion that no outlet existed toward the Colo- 
rado River. At one low point of the southern rim, near Hebron, 
Utah, the observation was not so complete as was t 
and the question may be considered as not definitely settled. 
Prof. O. C. Marsh informs me that he has discovered, OD the 
northern shore of the lake, an outlet leading to the Snake River, 


: 


. floods ; nor can we tell how low was the stage 
: Water rose toits last maximum. 
a basin was filled by the melting of glaciers. 
= of Lake Bonneville, Mr. Gilbert seems to 

twas fresh or salt, the evidence derived from 
7 the beds themselves being vague. The $ 


ASS dt, ie Es Deana Oe Py hac SEG eR Ne 5 a OE ne RS id De dee Sa ee 


-Jip aaia 


1876.] The Great Salt Lake in Former Times. 679 


but Iam not aware at what point, nor at what altitude. The 
northern portion of the lake area falls within the fields of study 
of the corps of Mr. King and Dr. Hayden, and when their ob- 
servations and those of Professor Marsh shall have been pub- 
lished, the relation of the beaches to the outlet or outlets will 
doubtless be known. Meantime I anticipate that the Provo 
beach, as well as the Bonneville, will be found to have been de- 
termined by an overflow. 

“ The largest open body lay over the Great Salt Lake Desert, 
and had a depth of about nine hundred feet. The average 
depth of the whole was not far from four hundred feet, and the 
extreme depth one thousand feet. Its area was not far from 
eighteen thousand square miles, being a trifle less than that of 
Lake Huron, and eight times as great as Great Salt, Utah, and 
Sevier lakes combined. Its extreme length, from north to south, 
was about three hundred and fifty miles, and its width one hun- 
dred and twenty-five miles.” 

Mr. Gilbert then describes the beds containing shells deposited 
by this ancient lake, and discusses the question whether the lake 
was originally fresh or brackish. The deposits formed by the 
lake “are largely composed of fine, friable, white calcareous 
marl, and this passes, on the one hand, into a cream-colored, 
partly odlitic sand, of calcareous and silicious grains, feebly ce- 
mented by calcite, and, on the other, into an impalpable clay 
charged with chloride of sodium and other soluble salts. All of 
these beds, excepting the most saline of the clays, are fossilifer- 
a affording, in great abundance, a few species of lacustrine 
gasteropoda.” The area covered by these beds is completely cir- 
cumscribed by the Bonneville beach. “Of the history of the 

h, or, what is the same thing, of the history of the lake, we 
now only the last few pages. We know that the present low 
tide has been preceded by a high tide, the duration of which, 
though extended, was not unlimited, and we know that for a 
comparatively long antecedent period there had been no similar 


; but we do not know that there were or were not earlier 
| from which the 


» The author thinks that the lake 
As regards the water 
be in doubt whether 
both the fossils and 
hells contained in the 


he thinks, may have been borne into the lake by streams, 


680 The Great Salt Lake in Former Times. [ November, 


and there is an absence of any fresh-water mussels (Unio, etc.). 
“ The salt,” however, which is so prominent a characteristic of 
the present Sevier and Great Salt lakes, and abounds in all the 
later sediments. of the shrunken ancient lake, is nearly absent 
from the beds most clearly associated with the upper beach; and 
its distribution indicates that Lake Bonneville, if not perfectly 


fresh, was at least far less saline than either Great Salt or Sevier. 
La 


ke.” Again, farther on, Mr. Gilbert inquires whether “ the 
basin contains the amount of salt which would have sufficed to 
render the great lake briny. The ancient volume was no less 
than three hundred times greater than that of Great Salt Lake 
(when surveyed by Captain Stansbury), and the brine of the 
latter, so greatly diluted, would give only one thirteenth of one 
per cent. of salt. But if weʻadd to the salt of Great Salt Lake 
that of Sevier Lake, and the far greater but indeterminate quan- 
tity accumulated in the sediments. of the lower parts of the two 
deserts, we shall probably have enough to give Lake Bonneville, 
if it were undrained, the salinity of the ocean. In fine, we are 
led to. believe that, while Lake Bonneville certainly held less salt 
than do its modern representatives, its recorded phenomena com- 
prise no fact that places it definitely among either fresh or salt 
lakes.” As bearing on the question whether the ancient Bonne- 
ville Lake was. salt, brackish, or fresh, and whether the shells in 
the Bonneville beds. lived in the waters of the lake itself and not 
alone in the tributary streams, we may cite the case of Lake 
Tanganyika, whose outlet has been discovered by Lieutenant 
Cameron. This explorer in his diary ! in one place says, “ Such 
an amount of water comes into the lake, and there are no signs 
of change of level, so that it seems impossible to dispose of all 
the surplus water by evaporation; besides which, so many 
streams run through salt soil that, if it were disposed of in that 
way, the lake would be as salt as brine.” Again he says, af The 
whole country was at one time an enormous lake; . - + - of this 
sea, most probably a fresh-water one, Tanganyika, the Nyanzas, 


and the Livingstone lakes are probably the remains. It may 
have been salt, witness salt soil of Uvinza and Ugaga, and fresh- 
Farther 


ened by the continual rain-fall of thousands of years.” 

on he says, “The Lukuga is the outlet if any ; it tastes the 

same as the Tanganyika, slightly salt (not salt, but peculiar), 
and not fresh, like the other rivers.” . 

Have we not here a parallel between the present Lake 

1 Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1875, pp. 202, 210, 227. 


Tan- 


EEUE IEEE RAEN a A IEE E ee 


ae 


Se A ee ae TET eee E E a Ne EE T 


KAA 
peni 


er 


gaa SU SRA SG ese Re Theis E ead oe 


Row : shai” 
contains a strong brine, and is without outlet, but 


1876.] The Great Salt Lake in Former Times. 681 


od on the African plateau, with its outlet the Congo, and 
e ancient Lake Bonneville, with its former outlet flowing either 
i or le or in both directions? Judging by the fossil 
fi D 2 ani in the Bonneville beds they must, it seems to 
D tee in the lake itself, for it is well known that brackish 
Siok = ets support fresh-water molluscs and fish. Is it not 
i <h bs at the ancient Great Salt Lake was once simply brack- 
4 o 8 eng ge to er desiccation of the continent, its 
attr catine ? ed up and the lake contracted, it became 
| aaa the supposed former outlet of Great Salt Lake, Mr. 
a eae the views of Professor Marsh and Bradley that 
es. Py towards the north, into the Snake River Valley. 
il m %4 ake was, Mr. Gilbert adds, but one of a group, as 
w # tie lave filled the valleys of the Great Basin. “ In the 
y Eo which overflowed may probably be included all of 
poe i tier, bordering on the present drainage system of 
Eoo M River, and those which, lying at the feet of the 
2... range and. the Sierra Nevada, received the streams 
a sera mountains. What we know of the Death Valley 
R southwesterly basins tends to show that they were 

Oe ely filled. 
a a interesting group of lakes t 
e. evada survive the general desice 
ek nis that the most southerly. Owen’s Lake lies in a 
Oval ween the Sierra Nevada at the west, and the Inyo and 
ies eS at the east, and receives its water from Owen’s 
sa ‘ ich, rising seventy miles at the north, follows the trough 

d accumulates the streams from the adjacent mountains. It 
it is sur- 


hat along the base of the 
ation, our route touched 


in the sands of the most ele- 
of Anodonta, testifying 
did not exceed its mod- 
d the channel through 

d A:S: PACE- 


rou n 

% ge by ancient beaches, and 
lisse ng these are abundant specimens 
i ormer freshness. Its ancient area 
la than one or two times, an 
as 5 Magee discharged is distinctly marke 


682 Recent Literature. [ November, 


RECENT LITERATURE. 

ORTON’S ANDES AND THE AMAZON. — This is the work of a natu- 
ralist as well as a traveler, and presents a lively and, so far as we are 
aware, an entirely truthful account of the wonderful regions on each side 
of the Andes of Peru. Though the scientific results of the two expedi- 
tions across the Andes and down the Amazons have been published else- 
where, those of more popular interest are introduced into the narrative: 
The third edition contains much new matter, with a new map of the 
Marañon region, “a vast and interesting country, most rudely laid down 
on existing maps.” The author also presents “ facts illustrating the 
commercial resources and possibilities of the Valley of the Amazons, a 
subject which is destined to arrest the attention of enterprising men and 
nations.” The present edition has been prepared by adding to the nar- 
rative of the expedition of 1867 a description of a more southerly route: 
The book is copiously and well illustrated, and describes a course of 
travel which will prove very attractive to tourists. 

Witson’s Prenistortc Man2— This standard book has passed into 
a third edition, in which “much of the original work has been rewritten. 
Several chapters have been replaced by new matter. Others have been 
condensed or recast, with considerable modifications and a new arrange- 
ment of the whole.” The illustrations are abundant and excellent, a 
number of new ones haying been engraved for this edition. 

Commendation of such a work, so long and favorably known to ihe 
public, is scarcely necessary. A few points seem to us open to correction. 
For example, on page 34 (vol. i.) the author allows the following state- 
ment to appear: “ Fossil human remains have also been recovered from 
a calcareous conglomerate of the coral reefs of Florida, estimated by 
Professor Agassiz to be not less than ten thousand years 0 ” This 
estimate is worthless, as may be seen by a note in the NATURALIST 
(ii. 443) by Count Pourtales, the original discoverer of the bones. He 
says, “ The human jaw and other bones found in Florida by myself 
in 1848 were not in a coral formation, but in a fresh-water sandstone 
on the shore of Lake Monroe, associated with fresh-water shells of 
species still living in the lake (Paludina, Ampullaria, etc.). No date can 
be assigned to the formation of that deposit, at least from present ob- 
servation.” : 

Professor Wilson is cautious in accepting the evidence of the high 
antiquity of man, rather more so than the majority of leading anthropol- 
ogists. 

1 The Andes and the Amazon; or, Across the Continent of South America. By J 
Orron. Third Edition, revised and enlarged, containing Notes of a Second spun 
across the Continent from Para to Lima and Lake Titicaca. With two Maps &™ 
numerous Illustrations. New York: Harper and Brothers’ 1876. 12mo, pp. O*"" 

2 Prehistoric Man. Researches into the Origin of Civilization in the Old and New 
World. By Daxter Witsox. Third Edition, revised and enlarged. With Ilust® 
tions. In two volumes. London: Macmillan & Co. 1876. 8vo. 


AMES 


1876.] Botany. 683 


Recent BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. — A Course of Practical Instruction in Element- 
ary Biology. By T. H. Huxley, assisted by H. N. Martin. Second edition, revised. 
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1876. 12mo, pp. 279. $2.00. 

Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States, including the District 
east of the Mississippi River and North of North Carolina and Tennessee, exclusive 
of Marine Species. By David Starr Jordan. Chicago: Jansen, McClurg, & Co. 


_ 1876. 12mo, pp. 342. 


0 

Report on the Geology of the Eastern Portion of the Uinta Mountains and a Re- 
gion of Country adjacent thereto, With Atlas. By J. W. Powell. Washington. 
1876. 4to, pp. 218. 

Recherches sur les Phénomènes de la Digestion et sur la Structure de l’Appareil 
digestif chez les Myriapodes de Belgique. Par Félix Plateau. Bruxelles. 1876. 
4to, pp. 94. 

Note sur une Sécrétion propre aux Coléopteres 
Bruxelles. 1876. 8vo, pp. 10. 

Note sur les Phénomènes de la Digestion chez la Blatte américaine (Periplaneta 
Americana L.). Par Félix Plateau. Bruxelles. 1876. 8vo, pp. 30. 

Sciences. Vol. i. 1867-1876. 
Davenport, Iowa. 8vo, pp. 294. With 36 Plates. $2. 
e Explorations of Mounds near Davenport, Iowa. By R. J. Farquharson, 
$ a (From the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of 
cence, 1875. 
a of Orthoptera collected by J. Duncan Putnam during the 
Thom and 5, chiefly in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming Territories. By Dr. | yrus 
i as. (From the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, 
ia Davenport, Iowa. June, 1876. 8vo, pp- 20. : 
e amd Kalender für Deutschland, Oesterreich und die Schweiz auf das 

0. 76. Herausgegeben von Dr. F. Katter. Putbus. 1876. 12mo, pp- 107. 

Tran the Anatomy and Habits of Nereis virens. By F. M. Turnbull. (From the 
ansactions of the Connecticut Academy, vol. iii. August, 1876.) 8vo, PP- 15. 

With three Plates. 
“aaa of a Naturalist in Egypt and other Countries. By J. H. Gurney. Lon- 
: Jarrold and Sons.  12mo, pp. 307. ; 


Dytiscides. Par Félix Plateau. 


Summers of 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 


ALFRED W. BENNETT ON THE GROWTH OF THE FLOWER-STALK 


Society, Tondon, March, 1876.) In a pape coh 

Meeting on November 4, 1875, Mr. Bennett gave some details in re- 

Spect of the remarkably rapid growth of the flower-stalk of the mire 
e that 


-i of Vallisneria spiralis. The gener 
of ad vark” energy of growth” was displayed by th 
5 le peduncle or that immediately beneath th 
pey decreasing regularly towards the bas 

this appeared to be opposed to the law stated by : 
ia the rate of growth of the different successive M ; 
“nial stem, he was anxious to ascertain how far it was in accord with 
the relative rapidity of growth of different portions of a single elongated 


1 Conducted by Pror. G. L. GOODALE. 


684 General Notes. [ November, 


aerial internode. For this purpose he measured the growth of the 
common peduncle of the inflorescence of the hyacinth, with the following 
results in two specimens, one grown in a hyacinth-glass, the other in 
soil in a pot. 

Specimen A, grown in a hyacinth-glass. This was first measured at 
noon on February 23d, when the peduncle, with a total length of 1.25 
in., was divided into two equal portions of 0.625 in. At 10 a. m. on the 
26th, when it had increased to 1.55 in., each of the two sections was 
again divided, the length of the four portions, proceeding from above 
downwards, being 0.35, 0.4, 0.4, and 0.4 in. Measurements were made 
twice and sometimes three times a day ; and it was soon evident that the 
energy of growth of these different portions was very unequal. By ten 
P. M. on February 29th each of the three uppermost portions was still 
only 0.5 in. long, whilst the lowest had increased to 1.0 in. From t is 
time the increased rapidity of growth of the lowest portion was still 
more marked. By ten P. m. on March Sth the lengths were respectively 
0.9, 0.9, 0.85, and 2.35 in., and at ten P. mM. on March 11th, when the 
growth had finally ceased, the measurements were 1.15, 1.0, 1.0, and 
3.45 in., making a total of 6.6 in. The following is a complete table of 
the measurements : — 


A. B. Grex D. Total. Increase. 
Feb. 26th, 10 a.m... 2. i.. 35 4 4 4 5 i. 
12 noon .35 4 4 45 6 05 
DEP. Mics coches .35 A 4 5 1.65 05 
Sth: We, tes. oe Cae ce A 4 4 55 1.75 1 
IE E R EA 4 4 4 55 1.75 0 
3th, 10 A ke 45 4 A 65 1.9 15 
SP MS re 45 A 4 7 1.95 05 
WS. Be AB 45 A 15 2.05 A 
900i, 10 haa 5 45 45 8 2.2 15 
8PM sie 5 5 45 95 2.4 2 
WP. Be 5 5 5 1.0 2.5 P| 
l March Ist, 10 4. weve... sca: 55 55 5 1.2 2.8 3 
BOP Macc, 6 55 5 1.25 2.9 l 
mm, Wa ce 65 6 55 1.3 1 2 
GR sets, 20. iT 65 .55 1.35 3.25 .15 
Ih OA er Se .75 65 6 1.5 3.5 25 
sea age HE 75 Be 6 77 3.75 2 
ees cals 8 Si 6 1.9 4.0 -25 
P Wares A 8 .15 275 2.2 4.5 5 
hae se Ge .85 8 8 2.3 4.75 .25 
NE A ee 85 8 8 2.3 4.75 0 
Mw Re; 9 9 a tar BO 25 
OOK WU Rites eS 95 9 9 2.5 5.25 25 
Oe ace eee ee 1.0 9 9 2.7 5.5 -25 
Tth, 10 a. m 1.0 9 9 2.75 5.55 05 
IE BRA g E digs 1.0 9 .95 2.9 5.75 2 
8th, 10 A. m... i 1.05 9 1.0 0 se 
MR Bc civass +4 1.0 1.0 3.15 6.25 25 
oe eS ees 11 1.0 1.0 3.2 6.3 -05 
a ae Bact 1.15 1.0 1.0 3.25 6.4 oe 
Wi Ae oi: 16 10 1.0 3.4 6.55 pe 
TORR ve R BIS 1.0 1.0 3.45 6.6 3 
With, 104 Mi cas 3, 38 1.0 1.0 3.45 6.6 3 


1876.] Botany. 685 


“It will be seen from the above table that by far the greatest total 
energy of growth was displayed by the lowest of the four segments, 
which increased during the twelve days between February 26th and 
March 10th from 0.4 to 3.45 in., or 762.5 per cent. of its original length. 
The next greatest energy, but at a great interval, was exhibited by the 
apical section, which increased from 0.35 to 1.15, or 228 per cent., while 
the two central portions exhibited the least activity, increasing only from 
0.4 to 1.0, or 150 per cent. of their original length. 
` Specimen B, grown in a pot. In the second example, the evidence 
was still more conclusive that the growth of the peduncle is mainly bas- 
ilar. On February 26th, the flower-stalk, then an inch in length, was 
divided into two equal portions of 0.5 in. On the next day, when it had 
increased to 1.1 in., the lowest zone of 0.1 in. was marked off separately. 
By ten P. m. on February 29th this lowest zone (C+D) had increased to 
0.7 in., or by 600 per cent. of its original length, while the two upper- 
most zones were still respectively only 0.55 and 0.5 in. long. The lowest 
zone was then again divided into two portions, the upper one being 0.5 
and the lower 0.2 in. long. By ten P. m. on March 3d the lengths of 
the four zones, commencing from the top, were 0.8, 0.8, 0.75, and 0.75 
in., giving a total of 3.1 in. At ten P. M. on the 7th, the total length 
of 6.5 in. was distributed thus: 1.6, 1.5, 1.25, and 2.15 in.; and at 
ten A. m. on the 13th, when the final length of 8.2 inches had been at- 
tained, the measurements were respectively 2.2, 1.75, 1.5, and 2.75 in. 
The following is the complete table : — j 


A. B. C. D. Total. Increase. 
Wee MO, 8 AL 5 5 1.0 bs 
ae ae Oe Seen 5 5 ; 1.0 0 
M IPn 5 „55 a 1.06 05 
70 PS cca 5 5 3 1.1 05 
ih, 0 A eS 5 5 2 aeons 
Cats ics 5 5 2 1.2 0 
E 5 5 2 1.2 0 
me Vie a BB 5 45 i 1.5 : 
oe a A AN .55 5 5 2 1.75 pr 
MNS aes $05 a. ta cls. cick Sh ae ae sumoa 
oE Mas oc bane 6 .55 „55 3 2.0 L 
U DA 6 6 55 T i ’ 
OP. T 65 6 BB 5 23 x 
R Mei hee 65 65 65 6 2.55 . 
$2. th i A 75 75 65 65 p s 
E A A n cat 8 a % 1 $. ; 
We DLE 9 9 8 A E : 
oO 8 MS CG eee 9 9 85 1.25 oe = 
Oe TO kei ch ences 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.25 - , 
sE E T 1.05 11 11 1.25 oA : 
6th, 10 A. m 12 1.25 44 1.55 : 
UE AS 1.35 1.3 1.2 1.75 56 
OA e aii 1.5 1.5 1.25 1.85 6.1 3 
20 9. E 5 ieee 1.6 1.5 sa a gt e 
8th 1.5 iS it 
, 5 = Misia E = 1.65 pe ‘is Ei áT @ 


686 General Notes. [ November, 


A: B. C. D. Total. Increase. 
Oth, 10 Acei esos 1.85 1.6 1.4 2.15 7.0 20 
TE Pies es ck 2.0 1.65 1.4 2.35 7.4 A 
10th, 10 A. M.........66- 2. 1.65 1.4 2.45 7.5 1 
BO Be Med Bo te cong ae 1.65 1.4 2.45 7.5 0 
11th, 10 A. M...... +. eee 2.0 1.65 1.45 2.55 7.65 5 
12th, 10 A. M..... 1.2.0 2.15 E 1.5 2.75 8.1 45 
dar MARS OERE 2.15 Er 1.5 2.75 8.1 0 
Path IO Acie? iso vee 28 1.75 1.5 2.75 8.2 Be 
IUP e eee 1.75 1.5 2.75 8.2 0 


Starting from the measurement at ten P. M. on February 27th, the 
lowest of the three zones, which then measured 0.1 in., had increased 
by March 13th so as to make up the two zones C and D together 4.25 
in., or 4150 per cent. of. its original length, while the remainder had 
only increased from 1.0 to 3.95, or at the rate of 295 per cent. Again, 
starting from ten P. M. on March 29th, when the four zones were first 
marked off, the ultimate increase of the lowest was from 0.2 to 2.75 
in., or 1275 per cent.; the next greatest energy was displayed by the 
uppermost, which increased from 0.55 to 2.2, or just 300 per cent. ; next 
came the second zone from the top, which showed an increase from 0.5 
to 1.75, or 250 per cent.; and finally the third from the top, showing an 
increase from 0.5 to 1.5 in., or exactly 200 per cent. The rate of 
growth was again subject to great irregularities, which were no doubt 
attributable mainly to changes in temperature. Making the division be- 
tween day and night as before at ten A. M. and ten P. M., the total 
amount of growth was again not very different in the two; but instead 
of being, as in the previous case, slightly in favor of the day, was rather 
more decidedly in favor of the night ; of the 6.5 in. growth from Febru- 
ary 29th to March 13th, 3 inches was by day, and 3.5 inches by night. 

It will therefore be seen that, as far as these observations on the rela- 
tive growth of different portions of the same internode go, they are 
entirely in accord with the statement of Professor Sachs, in regard to 
that of different int des on the same branch, that the maximum energy 
of growth is exhibited at a period considerably below the punctum vege- 
tationis, though it is here much nearer the base than in the cases meas- 
ured by Sachs. This brings out into still stronger relief the opposite 
phenomenon displayed by the elongated submerged flower-stalk of Val 
lisneria, the energy of growth of which is manifested mainly in the apical 
portion. The elongation of the peduncle of the hyacint 
siderably after the complete expansion of the flowers, 
in the raceme begin to fade. 

These observations differ in several points fro 
stalk of the hyacinth recorded by Miinter in the Botanise 
February 24, 1843. He describes its growth as not centri 
that of most flower-stalks, but centripetal; that is, it ceases to 
first near the flower and finally at the base. It will be seen that Mr. 
Bennett’s two experiments agree in this, that while the energy of growth 


until the lowest 
m those on the flower- 


fugal, like 
g row 


he Zeitung for 


1876. ] Zoë logy. . 687 


is greatest in the basal portion, the apical portion continues to grow for 
very nearly or quite as long. The growth of the flower-stalk of Pelar- 
gonium he describes, on the other hand, as centrifugal, the growth of 
each zone ceasing before the one next above it. 

With regard to the relative amount of growth by day and by night, 
Miinter also gives no measurements, but states that in the daytime the 
plant grows at first five times, then four times, and then three times 
stronger than by night. This differs materially from the general law as 
stated by Sachs (Text-Book, English edition, page 749), that “ the plant 
will, according to circumstances, sometimes grow more quickly by day, 
sometimes by night, without exhibiting any exactly recurrent period- 
icity,” the difference, however, being never so great as that stated by 

inter. Mr. Bennett’s observations are more in accordance with this. 

Borantcan Papers 1x Recent Pertoprcars.— Comptes rendus, 

o 4. Trécul, Theory of Metamorphosis of Branches for Diverse 
Functions. Decaisne, Note on Cedrela Sinensis. Henneguy, On Re- 
production in Volvox. No. 5. Trécul, On Mentzelia. J. Joubert and 
Chamberland, On Fermentation in Fruits kept in Carbonic Acid. Durin, 
On Cellulosic Fermentation. Béchamp, On the Microzymas of Ger- 
minating Barley and of Sweet Almonds, as producing Diastase and 
Synaptase. No. 6. Renault, On Neuropteris. 

Flora, No. 22. Weiss, On the Relations of Growth, and the Course 
of Fibro-Vascular Bundles in Piperacee. (Continued also, in Nos. 23 

and 25.) No. 23. De Thiimen, Fungi of South Africa. Nylander, On 
Certain Lichens in Mr. Wright’s Cuban Collection (40 new species). 
No. 24. Dr. Christ, of Basel, Varieties of Rosa. Geheeb, Notes on 
Mosses, 

Botanische Zeitung, No. 35. H. Hoffmann, Experiments in the Cul- 
tivation of Varieties. (Continued in No. 86.) V. Vesque-Piittlingen, 
On the Periodicity of the Currents in Protoplasma. 


ZOOLOGY. 


Tue Prror Fisn.— Eleven years ago, while on a voyage from India 
ms while crossing the “ line. 


to this country, we were beset by many cal à 
one of these occasions, while some of the passengers were amusing 
themselyes looking over the stern of the vessel, two beautiful pilot fishes 
(Naucrates ?) were seen, and soon after a portion of an unusually large 
Rk, Immediately a hook baited with salt pork was thrown over- 


„oard. When it touched the water these pilot fishes were seen to ap- 
Soon a very large 


safely secured the 


aes him, these two pilot fishes were seen a 
t what particular portion they attached themselves I am unable to 
“ae. ‘They were removed and placed in a bucket of salt water, where 


swam about as if nothing had happened.— A. H. Burnett. 


688 General Notes. [ November, 


A Sprper FISHERMAN. — Just before the late war I was at Col. Oak- 
ley Bynum’s spring, in Lawrence County, Ala., near the town of Court- 
land, where I saw a school of minnows playing in the sunshine near the 
edge of the water. All at once a spider as large as the end of my finger 
dropped down among them from a tree hanging over the spring. The 
spider seized one of the minnows near the head. The fish thus seized 
was about three inches long. As soon as it was seized by its captor it 
swam round swiftly in the water, and frequently dived to the bottom, 
yet the spider held on to it. Finally it came to the top, turned upon 
its back and died. It seemed to have been bitten or wounded on the 
back of the neck near where the head joins. When the fish was dead 
the spider moved off with it to the shore. The limb of the tree from 
which the spider must have fallen was between ten and fifteen feet above 
the water. Its success shows that it had the judgment of a practical 
engineer. — T. M. PETERS. (Communicated by the Smithsonian Insti- 


organisms are on the border land of the plant world, and in some cases 
form protoplasmic nets (plasmodia) like the plant Myxomycetes. These 
plasmodia have the function of falling apart into ameeba-like forms, 
which have hitherto been regarded as independent animal organisms} 
hence he thinks that many Amæbæ do not represent independent forms, 
but belong to the developmental cycle of other and plant-like organisms. 
Among the monads, Cienkowski, according to a German correspondent 
of Nature, has observed forms in various stages of encystment, self- 
division, and formation of colonies. But the most remarkable series Of 
changes were observed in Diplophrys stercorea, an extremely small cell- 
like organism with a yellow spot and pseudopodia at two opposite ends 
of the body. These little bodies, observed in moist horse-dung, multiply 
by division, and form by union of the pseudopodia long strings in which 
" separate individuals can glide to and fro. “Thus the boundary lines which 
it has so long been usual to draw between plant and animal organisms, 
and between the individual groups of those lowest forms of life, appeat 
more and more illusory, and the supposition is recommended of a com- 
mon lowest kingdom of organisms, that of Protista (Haeckel), out of 
which animals and plants have by degrees been differentiate P: j 
MAYERS ONTOGENY AND PHYLOGENY or Insects.’ — “ Ontogeny 
is a term devised by Haeckel, and means the develop 
and post-embryonic changes of the individual; “ phylog 
to its English equivalent, “ ancestry,” while the present essay is an at- 
tempt to explain the origin and ancestry of the six-footed insects (Hexa- 
poda) from embryological and anatomical data. No new facts, 80 far as 


1 Ueber Ontogenie und Phylogenie der Insekten. Eine akademische Preissebrife 
Von Dr. Paul Mayer, in.Jena. Jenaische Zeitschrift far Naturwissenschaft. X- 


2. Jena. 1876. With four plates, pp. 125-221. 


1876.] Zoölogy. 689 


we are aware, are presented by the author, whose essay has, apparently, 
contrary to usage in German universities, been crowned not for the 

original work it contains but for the ideas suggested by the labors of pre- 
ceding authors. . 

In trying to reconstruct the form of the primitive insect, Mayer in- 
sists that it should be done from a study of the winged adult or imago, 
“since a priori we cannot know how far the form of the larva is original 
or secondary.” Other authors have with better reasons derived the an- 
cestral form from the larva. 

Mayer’s ancestral insect, then, which he calls Protentomon, had a body 
divided into a head, thorax, and abdomen, the latter consisting of 
eleven segments, while there were six thoracic feet with five-jointed tarsi, 
and two pairs of wings, nine (and perhaps eleven) pairs of stigmata, a pair 
of salivary glands, and four excretory organs or Malpighian vessels, be- 
sides a well-developed nervous system, heart, and an aaorta, as usual 
m existing insects. 

This hypothetical Protentomon is derived by Mayer from the worms,’ 
in opposition to the suggestions of Fritz Miiller and Brauer that the 
insects originated from the Crustacea. This worm (1), the parent of 
the half a million species of insects which have peopled the globe 
during the present and past ages, was “an unjointed worm, a common 
st.rting-point for the Tracheata and higher worms, and also a near 
relation of the ancestral form of the Crustacea.” This worm then (2) 
transformed into a higher organism, with eighteen joints to its body 
and at least fourteen pairs of segmental organs, with perhaps also a masti- 
catory apparatus in the form of jaws; and was perhaps nearly related to 
the existing Annelids. (3.) A third step towards the insects was a form 
similar to the second, but with ventral and perhaps also dorsal append- 
ages on all the segments ; it was still aquatic. It transformed (4) mio 

 Aworm with tracheæ and with dissimilar segments (the appendages ra 
_ Part beginning to disappear). It lived in fresh water. and is cal i 
our author Prototracheas. (5.) This Prototracheas became an Arc w 
tomon, still aquatic, with six feet, and clearly defined head, thorax, an 
‘ abdomen, Finally this fifth form acquired two pairs of wings, was terres- 
_ Malin its habits, and became (6) a Protentomon. f 
~ The author then discusses the ancestry of the different orders o 
iee It is noticeable that in treating of them he begins with the 
Hymenoptera and ends with the Neuroptera, following 1m fact, uncon- 
Slow y, the reviewer’s classification proposed in 1863. The aaa? 
: Neuroptera are, howev er, broken up into several orders, the aut or a 
_ ‘wing the usual German system; but Mayer is the first German a 4 
_ ™ far as we are aware, who places the Hymenoptera Mp: amaa 
hough Mayer does not mention it) in 
- ie Common Insects, chapter xiii., entitled Ancestry of Insects (1873). This 8 
: inexcusable since Dr. Mayer quotes from the essay. 
Yor. AiR 11. d 44 


a... 
his view was advocated by the writer (t 


690 General Notes. [ November, 


the insects, and the Coleoptera in the neighborhood of the Hemiptera 
and Orthoptera, where they unquestionably belong. 

Mayer adopts the suggestions of Biitschli and Semper that the air-tubes 
of insects originated from the segmental organs of worms, and, discard- 
ing Gegenbaur’s view that the air-tubes were at first internal, closed air- 
sacs, he believes that the stigmata or breathing holes were the first to 
be formed. It may be objected that as insects are already provided 
with renal vessels, it is not necessary to suppose that segmental organs 
(also in part excretory) survived in them, and the inquiry arises whether 
the air-tubes of insects may not have arisen from the water-vascular 
system of the lower worms, which communicates with two or more ex- 
ternal openings. In framing hypotheses like these, one guess may be 
as good as another. 

The author, in a foot-note, combats with considerable unction our 
suggestion, made in 1867, that the head of insects consisted of seven 
segments. It may be observed that at that time we were influenced by 
the prevailing views of Agassiz, Dana, and others, who regarded the 
ocelli and eyes as homologues of the limbs. This view was corrected 
in the Memoirs of the Peabody Academy of Science, ii. 21, 1871 (a 
work from which our author quotes), and also in several other places, 
including the Guide to the Study of Insects, third edition, 1872; and the 
view that the normal number of cephalic segments is four was at the 
same time and in the same places insisted upon. 

Dr. Mayer also quotes us as believing that the parts of the ovipositor 
are not homologous with the legs, a view we suggested in 1866, but 
after fresh embryological studies retracted in the above-mentioned Mem- 
oir in 1871 (which the author seems to have read), and also in other 
places, notably the essay on the Ancestry of Insects, quoted by Mayer, 
where the view that the ovipositor of the Hymenoptera, Hemiptera 
(Cicada), and Orthoptera, as well as the spring of the Thysanura and the 
spinnerets of spiders, are homologues of the legs is emphasiz 

As regards the position of the primitive band of insects, Mayer ignores 
the remarks of Dr. Dohrn on its significance in classification, and con- 
siders that the circumstance whether the primitive band is external sf 
floats within the yolk, is of much importance, laying down the law that 
“insects with an external primitive streak are in gene : 
those with an inner.” We have previously * objected to Dohrn’s classifi- 
cation of insects into “ ectoblasts ” and “ entoblasts,” and woul 
similar objection to Mayer’s views, since in weevils ( Attelabus), abun- 
dantly proved by Dr. Le Conte to be the oldest of Coleoptera (a fact 
ignored by Dr. Mayer, whose genealogical tree of Coleoptera represen" 
the antiquated classification of this order), we demonstrated that the 
primitive band is external, while in Telephorus it is internal, though ou" 

1 Embryological Studies on Hexapodous Insects. Memoirs of the P eabody 
Academy of Science, 1872, p. 15. 


Fae a a ee es 


OPCS a amigas ine S a a baseless Gr PS EP tata tists E E E gle teem Mr vei Se cs 
EN bai cc en act ae ira eo Cn) 


Sa a a a E TET TEE aT 


J wf eh 


PE wee nate RAS aan ee 


_ blotches of red moss, Both of these varieties of stone are found thro 
: "ginal and prehistoric race is somewhat surprising, 
_ ‘BMiseded by the percussion cap. ‘This fact, however, 


frang although we know that no official expeditions have pas 


T Juan) 
ka doubt whether it has been inhabited since 


1876.] Anthropology. 691 


observations are called in question by Dr. Mayer, who, however, so far 


as we know, has never published any observations on the embryology 
of this or any other animal, the entire essay being based on facts ob- 
served by previous writers. 

While the essay is interesting and suggestive, the leading idea that 
hexapodous insects first appeared as winged organisms and not as larval 
forms, will, we think, be found to have no valid foundation. We 
should with as much reason derive the acalephs from an ancestral free- 
swimming medusa, and not from a hydra-like form, or the Amphibia 
ftom the tailless rather than the tailed forms, views with which we 
imagine few zodlogists would agree. — A. S. PACKARD, JR. 

ANTHROPOLOGY. 

ABORIGINAL (?) Gun-Fiints, — Among the ancient ruined buildings 
of Utah and Arizona I picked up two curious objects of stone, the use of 
which I for some time was unable to determine. At first I supposed them 
to have been arrow-points or scrapers which had been broken at the points, 
leaving the square buts, but on careful examination I found that they had 
each been laboriously chipped on the four edges, and from their general 
appearance had undoubtedly been used as gun-flints. In order to satisfy 
myself on this point, I procured a large number of modern flints made by 
the whites, and on comparison I found that the two from the West resem- 
bled them closely in size and shape, only differing in material and in the 
manner in which they had been flaked. They are from one eighth to one 
fourth of an inch in thickness, number one being thickest at the lower or 


_ Sitiking edge and number two at the upper. The material of number one 


(by far the finer specimen) isa light gray flint with white and pink water 
markings. That of number two is a pink agate sprinkled with specks y 
ugh- 

out the West, and objects manufactured from them are numerous amongst 
7 ruins. They are not to be found, except in rare cases, if at all, in the 
fastern portion of the United States, and we may therefore reasonably 
“uppose that the flints were made on the Pacific slope. That such objects 
s z civilized people should occur among the rude implements of an abo- 
especially when it has 


'eretofore been supposed that this particular section has not been trav- 


ersed by whites until the past few years, when the 
sed over this 


Ty, it is possible that hunters or wandering scouts may have visited 
‘~ ruins of the San Juan Valley. The district in which I found the 
à nd has not been occupied by tribes of Indians for many years, as it 1s 
g ren, dry desert, devoid of water (with the exception of the warm 
and almost destitute of grass and wood. It is, indeed, a mat- 
the disappearance of the 
© race which built and occupied the old houses which have been 


692 General Notes. [ November, 


lying in ruins for centuries. `The fact that these objects were discovered 
among arrow-heads, pottery, and implements of undoubted antiquity, as- 
sociated with no objects of modern date, would point to an ancient origin. 
The flint-lock, however, did not come into use until the middle of the 
seventeenth century, having originated in France about the year 1635. 
They could not, therefore, have been dropped by the Spaniards, who 
traveled through Arizona and New Mexico in the early part of the 
sixteenth century. The match-lock was employed by’them in their con- 
quests through Mexico and the north, even after the wheel-lock had been 
invented in Italy. 

The two specimens possess all the appearance of having been fashioned 
by the aborigines in their peculiar manner. It is not impossible that 
they may have been made by Indians under the direction of European 
hunters or explorers, and, on the other hand, they may have been manu- 
factured by whites. The nomadic tribes of the Southwest must have 
procured arms from the adventurous pioneers as early as the middle of 
the eighteenth century, and flints must necessarily have been made by 
the savages as the first ones were lost or broken. Since the flint-lock 
has been out of use for many years, it is highly probable that the two 
objects herein described were dropped where they were found, as early 
as the latter part of the last century or during the first few years of this. 
They are particularly interesting, however, as showing that the valley of 
the San Juan River has in all probability been traversed by whites, pos- 
sibly a century or more ago. It is also possible that the flints may have 
been brought to that section by Indians from a distant locality ; but the 
first supposition seems to me the most reasonable. — EDWIN A. BARBER. 

ANTHROPOLOGICAL News. -— Twenty-eight pages of Nos. 1 and 2 
of the Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien are 
taken up with a discussion by Ferd. Freiherrn von ‘Adrian upon the 
influence of vertical position on the earth’s surface upon human settle- 
ments. The article is rendered exceedingly valuable by abundant bibli- 
ographical references. In Kevue Scientifique for July 15th, M. Paul 
Bert handles a kindred topic in a contribution entitled “ La Pression de 
l’Air et les Étres vivants. In the same number of the review, h 
manners in 1650 are discussed by a “ traveler from Algeria.” 

Some light is thrown upon prehistoric batons, 80 called, by a pat 
phlet published in Lyons by M. F. Chabas, and entitled Sur V' Usage des 
Batons de Main chez les Hébreux et dans l’ancienne Egypte. One of 
the best features in the treatise is the collation of authorities. 7 

M. Émile Guimet has edited in the same form from the Lyons pron 
a tract by M. Chabas upon the time of the Exodus. From numerous — 
parallelisms between the-Jewish Scriptures and the papyri. the: learn®? 
author concludes to place the Exodus in the reign of Menephta I, ie : 
successor of Rameses II., of the XIXth dynasty. The paper WS" 
read before the Academy of Science, Belles-Lettres, and Art of sien” 
April 27, 1875. a 


1876.) Anthropology. 693 


The contents of Nos. 6 and 7 of Matériaux are very nicely distrib- 
uted over the countries ‘of Europe in which archæological investigations 
aein progress. Vladimir de Mainoff contributes an article upon the 
Kourganes (tumuli) of Little Russia. ‘These structures are the burial- 
mounds of the Severianes, in the transition period between the bronze 
and the iron age. Some of them contain burials by inhumation, others 
by incineration. In each of the two kinds of Kourganes there is a 
gradation of the form of interment. 

Scandinavia has an unusual share of space devoted to the following 


themes: the State Museum of History, the history of Swedish archæ- 


ological researches ; the age of bronze in Northern Sweden; the antiq- 
uties of Bohnslaen, and, finally, three very instructive sketches upon 
Finnish antiquities and history. 

With reference to France, we have a continuation of the discussion 
between Abbé Maillard and M. Mortillet upon the stratigraphical rela- 
tion between the Solutrian and the Moustierian Age, an account oO 
Prehistoric monuments in different districts of France, and a very valu- 
able table of the number of stations, grottoes, and dolmens in each of 
the departments. 

The review of Italy embraces papers relative to archzological matters 
purely. The only article relative to extra-European matters is an ac- 
count of a prehistoric atelier at Hassi-el M’ Kaddem, eight kilometres 
ftom the oases of Ouargla. Among the articles discovered were arrow- 
heads, beads, and pottery. 

Richard Andree contributes to the Austrian Mittheilungen for Febru- 
ay, 1876, an article upon lucky days, lucky meetings, and augury in the 


; history of culture. 


‘the usual array of valuable matter. Dr. S 
_ Paper upon the leveling of the skull. 


eee gt eae typ a 


the opening of the ear in a line with the lower 


EE Te be ap lis ae oe | 
San gue Si a Ais Rien Rad i ei) Ae T gimp aca oe okra Ee te ae Oa Ses Agee eee ae 
ar i F 


We have in the first quarterly part of the Archiv für Anthropologie 

chmidt, of Essen, gives us a 
After examining the various 
devised, the author concludes 
the zygomatic arches over 
edge of the orbital cavity, 
society, is the best hori- 
orizontal, and 


an and instruments which have been 
tthe level which brings the beginning of 


olume, position, and shape of the brain and of its separate parts. 
is work authoritative upon 


a hu 
use are given. Shorter 
alley of the Donau, 
upon the natives of 


694 General Notes. [ November, 


New Guinea and the neighboring islands, upon the Wetzikon sticks, and 
upon recent anthropological works which have appeared. 

Professor Paolo Mantegazza contributes to Archivio a sixteen-page 
article upon the expressions of grief. 

The subsection of anthropology was organized by the American As- 
sociation at Buffalo, with Lewis H. Morgan as chairman and Otis T. 
Mason as secretary. Professor Morse, in his address before Section B, 
alluded to the eminent labors of Morton, Wyman, and others in special 
fields, and the list might be multiplied by adding the names of many liv- 
ing and dead, who, in America, have added materially to the progress of 
anthropology. The aim of the subsection of the American Association 
is to bring the authors of these researches together, and to make them 
better acquainted. It is earnestly hoped that the meeting to be held next 
year at Nashville will be crowded with anthropologists, specialists in the 
various fields of descriptive and deductive anthropology of extinct and 
extant races, in every part of its three divisions, of man,.environment, and 
culture. — O. T. Mason. 


GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY. 


PALÆONTOLOGY AND THE DoctRINE OF Descent. — In an essay 
on the Pliocene fresh-water shells of Southern Austria, by Dr. Neumayr 
and Herr Paul, the authors describe numerous modifications of the genus 
Vivipara or Paludina, which occur in prodigious abundance through- 
out the whole series of fresh-water strata. Of this genus there are forty 
distinct forms (Dr. Neumayr very properly hesitates to call them all 
species) which are named and described in this monograph, and between 
which, as the authors show, so many connecting links, clearly illustrating 
the mode of derivation of the newer from the older types, have been 
detected. The authors, remarks Mr. J. W. Judd in Nature, have dem- 
onstrated that the species with highly complicated ornamentation were 
variously derived by descent — the lines of which are in most cases per- 
fectly clear and obvious — from the simple and unornamented Vivipara 
achatinoides of the Congerien-schichten, which underlies the Paludina 
beds. Some of these forms have been regarded as types of a distinct 
genus (Tulotoma) by Sanberger. “And hence we are led to the con- 


clusion that a vast number of forms, certainly exhibiting specific distint- 


to be 


tions, and, according to some naturalists, differences even entitled 
regarded as of generic value, have all a common ancestry.” 
Ice-MARKS IN NEWFOUNDLAND. — In the second part of his a 
on Ice and Ice Work in Newfoundland, in the Geological Magazin’, 
Professor J. Milne says that “the island itself, its principal bays, ™ 
mountains, its lakes and rivers, its lines of igneous protrusions, 11S sti 
grooves and scratches, and the general strike of the rocks, which, as Was 
shown by Jukes, may in part account for the tendencies of the om” 
features, have all been shown to trend from about 27° east of north to 


rticle 


r tones e amet x 
AAE SARN OE TREE ANE SENEE EPALE V crak Nara ei ANE A EOE EE AE 


Eaa ee 


1876.] Geography and Exploration. 695 


27° west of south.” He believes that the ice-marks were made b 
glaciers rather than by floating ice (though there are still a few linger- 
ing supporters of the iceberg theory), thus substantiating, by the results 
of two summers’ travels in Newfoundland, the observations made by the 
undersigned during two summers’ travels along the coast of Labrador. — 
A. S. PACKARD, Jr. 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 


EXTRACTS FROM STANLEY’S Last LETTERS FROM CENTRAL ÅFRICA. 
—From one of the many spurs of Kabuga we obtained a passing 
glimpse of the king of mountains, Gambaragara, which attains an alti- 
tude of between thirteen thousand and fifteen thousand feet above the 
ocean, Snow is frequently seen, though not perpetual. On its summits. 
dwell the chief medicine men of Kabba Rega,a people of European 
complexion. i 
Some half-dozen of these people I have seen, and at sight of them I 
was reminded of what Mukamba, king of Uzige, told Livingstone and 
myself respecting white people who live far north of his country. They 
area handsome race, and some of the women are singularly beautiful. 
Their hair is kinky, but inclined to brown in color. Their features are 
regular, lips thin, but their noses, though well-shaped, are somewhat 
thick at the point. Several of their descendants. are scattered through- 
out Unyoro, Ankori, and Ruanda, and the royal family of the latter 
powerful country are distinguished, I am told, by their pale complexions. 
: The queen of Sasua Islands, in the Victoria Nyanza, is a descendant of 
1s tribe. 
Whence came this singular people I have had no means of ascertain- 
ing except from the Waganda, who say that the first king of Unyoro 
Bave them the land around the base of Gambaragara Mountain, wherein 
oigh many vicissitudes they have continued to reside for ou 
On the approach of an invading host they retreat to the summit of the 
‘Mountain, the intense cold of which defies the most determined of their 
E elles, 
: The geographical knowledge we have been able to 
_ forcible push to the Albert Nyanza is considerable. ny 
7 sn au Separating the great reservoirs of the Nile, the Victoria and 
` Albert Nyanzas, the structure of the mountains and ridges, and the 
a "ourse of the water-sheds, and the course of the rivers Katonga and 
its n have been revealed. The great mountain a 
: pee people have been discovered, besides a porti ce 
ag which I have taken the liberty to call, in honor of her 
- Highness Princess Beatrice, Beatrice Gulf. i 
This gulf, almost a lake by itself, is formed by the promontory 0 
” ‘ongora, which runs southwest some thirty miles from a point ten g0- 
 Saphical miles north of Unyampaka. The eastern coast of the gulf is 


acquire by our 
The lay of the 


696 General Notes. [ November, 


formed by the countries of Irangara, Unyampaka, Buhuju, and Mpo- 
oro, which coast line runs a nearly south-southwest course. Between 
Mpororo and Usongora extend the islands of the maritime state of 
Utumbi. West of Usongora is Ukonju, on the western coast of Lake 
Albert, reputed to be peopled by cannibals. North of Ukonju is the 
great country of Ulegga. 

Coming to the eastern coast of Lake Albert we have Ruanda running 
from Mpororo on the east to Ukonju on the west, occupying the whole 
of the south and southeast coast of Lake Albert. North of Unyam- 
paka, on the east side, is Irangara, and north of Irangara the district of 
Toro. Unyoro occupies the whole of the east side from the Murchison 
Falls of the Victoria Nile to Mpororo, for Unyampaka, Toro; Buhuja, 
and Irangara are merely districts of Unyoro. The great promontory 
of Usongora, which half shuts in Beatrice Gulf, is tributary to Kabba 
Rega, though governed. by Nyika, king of Gambaragara. 

Usongora is the great salt field whence all the surrounding countries 

obtain their salt. It is, from all accounts, a very land of wonders, but 
the traveler desirous of exploring it should have a thousand Sniders to 
protect him, for the natives, like those of Ankori, care for nothing but 
milk and goatskins. Among the wonders credited to it are a mountain 
emitting “fire and stones,” a salt lake of considerable extent, several 
hills of rock salt, a large plain encrusted thickly with salt and alkali, a 
breed of very large dogs of extraordinary ferocity, and a race of such 
long-legged natives that ordinary mortals regard them with surprise and 
awe. 
After circumnavigating Lake Windermere we entered the Kagera 
River, and almost immediately it flashed on my mind that I had made 
another grand discovery, — that I had discovered, in fact, the true par 
ent of the Victoria Nile. ‘ 

If you glance at Speke’s map you will perceive that he calls this river 
the Kitangule River, and that he has two tributaries running to 1t 
respectively the Luchuro and the Ingezi. Speke, so wonderfully corrects 
with a mind which grasped geographical knowledge with great acutench 
and arranged the details with clever precision and accuracy, is seriously 
in error in calling this noble river Kitangule. Neither Waganda nor 
Wanyamba know it by that name, but they all know the Kagera Rivers 
which flows near Kitangule. From its mouth to Urundi it is know? by 
the natives on both banks as the Kagera River. The Luchuro, ye 
rather Lukaro, means “higher up,” but is no name of any river. 
the Ingezi I shall have occasion to speak further on. : 

While exploring the Victoria Lake T ascended a few miles up the cee 
era, and was then struck with its great volume and depth, so much in 
as to rank it as the principal affluent of the Victoria Lake. gm 
coming south, and crossing it at Kitangule, I sounded it and found 10 
teen fathoms of water, or eighty-four feet deep, and one hun 


ye We aed ot oes Se 


1876.] Geography and Exploration. 697 


twenty yards wide. This fact, added to the determined opinion of the 
natives that the Kagera was an arm of the Albert Nyanza, caused me 
tothink the river worth exploring. I knew, as all know who know any- 
thing of African geography, that the Kagera could not be an effluent of 
Lake Albert, but their repeated statements to that effect caused me to 
suspect that such a great body of water could not be created by the 
drainage of Ruanda and Karagwe; that it ought to have its source 
much farther, or from some lake situate between lakes Albert and Tan- 
ganyika. 

When I explored Lake Windermere I discovered, by sounding, that it 
had an average depth of forty feet, and that it was fed and drained by 
the Kagera. On entering the Kagera I stated that it flashed on my 
mind that the Kagera was the real parent of the Victoria Nile; by 
sounding I found fifty-two feet of water in a river fifty yards wide. I 
proceeded on my voyage three days up the river, and came to another 
lake about nine miles long and a mile in width, situate on the right hand 
of the stream. At the southern end of the lake, and after working our 
way through two miles of papyrus, we came to the island of Unyamubi, 
a mile and a half in length. ee 
Ascending the highest point on the island the secret of the Ingezi or 
Kagera was revealed. Standing in the middle of the island I perceived 
it was about three miles from the coast of Karagwe and three miles 
from the coast of Kishakka, west, so that the width of the Ingezi at this 
point was about six miles, and north it stretched away broader, and be- 
yond the horizon green papyri mixed with broad gray g 
I discovered, after further exploration, 
floated over a depth of from nine to fourteen : 
papyri, in fact, covered a large portion of a long, shallow lake; that the 
mver, though apparently a mere swift-flowing body of water, oiue 
apparently within proper banks by dense, tall fields of papyri, was. a 
mere current, and that underneath the papyri it supplied a lake, varying 
from five to fourteen miles in width and about eighty geographical miles 
in length, 

Descending the Kagera again, some five miles from Unyamubi the 
boat entered a large lake on the left side, which, when explored, proved 
to be thirteen geographical miles in length by eight in breadth. 

From its extreme western side to the mainland of Karagwe east was 
fourteen miles, eight of which was clear, open water ; the other six were 
covered by floating fields of papyri, large masses or 
drift to and fro daily. By following this lake to its sou 
I penetrated between Ruanda and Kishakka. © à 
sgn but was driven back to the boat by war _— 

nded shrill and loud. ee 

Thronphout the entire length” (eighty miles) the’ Kage men 

most the same volume and almost the same width, discharging its sur- 


698 General Notes. [November, 


plus waters to the right and to the left as it flows on, feeding, by means 
of the underground channels, what might be called by an observer on 
land seventeen separate lakes, but which are in reality one lake, con- 
nected together underneath the fields of papyri, and by lagoon-like chan- 
nels meandering tortuously enough between detached fields of the most 
prolific reed. The open expanses of water are called by the natives so 
many “rwerus” or lakes; the lagoons connecting them and the reed- 
covered water are known by the name of “Ingezi.” What Speke has 
styled Lake Windermere is one of these rwerus, and is nine miles in 
extreme length and from one to three miles in width. By boiling point 
I ascertained it to be at an altitude of 3760 feet above the ocean and 
about 320 feet above Lake Victoria. The extreme north point of this 
singular lake is north by east from Uhimba south, its extreme southern 
point. Karagwe occupies the whole of its eastern side. Southwest it 
is bounded by Kishakka, west by Muvari, in Ruanda, northwest by 
Mpororo, and northeast by Ankori. At the point where Ankori faces 
Karagwe, the lake contracts, becomes a tumultuous, noisy river, creates 
whirlpools, and dashes itself madly into foam and spray against opposing 
rocks, and finally rolls over a wall of rock ten or twelve feet deep with 
a tremendous uproar, for which the natives call it Morongo, or the’ 
Noisy Falls. , 

Since I left Zanzibar I have traveled 720 miles by land and 1004 
miles (by computation) by water. This in six months is good work. 
Over one hundred positions settled by astronomical observations, for 
you must know that from the very day I got my commission Į strenu- 
ously prepared to fit myself for geographical work, in order that I might 

able to complete Speke, Burton, Baker, and Livingstone’s labors, 
which they left undone. Now Speke’s work is done. What he com- 
menced I have finished. I do not know whether you comprehend the 
drift of this expedition, but I will explain. 

You must know that Speke, in 1858, came to the southwest end of 
Lake Victoria, and from a hill near the lake he discovered the vast body 
of fresh water. Having gazed his fill he returned to England and was 
commissioned to find its outlet. In 1861 and 1862 he marched from 
Zanzibar to Ugawa, when he saw the lake again. At the Ripon Falls 
he saw the lake discharge itself into the Victoria Nile, and went home 
again, imagining that he had done his work. If his work was merely to 
find the outlet of Lake Victoria he completed his task, but if his task 
was to discover the sources of the Nile he had but begun his work. He 
went away without discovering the feeders of Lake Victoria, which 1n 
reality are the Nile’s sources; extreme southern sources, I mean: 

en Baker came to Central Africa and discovered Lake Albert. He 
voyaged sixty miles on the lake, and he ran home also without knowing 
anything of the lake’s sources. Burton went to Taraganika, saw 1t, and 
returned home without knowing its extent, outlet, or affluents. Living- 


1876.] Scientific News. 699 


stone came next to the chain of lakes west of Taraganika, and died 
nobly in harness. Well, we are sent to complete what these several 
travelers have begun. While they are content with having discovered 
lakes, I must be content with exploring these lakes and discovering their 
sources, and unraveling the complications of geographers at home. It 
isa mighty work, but a fourth of that work is already done. 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— The Eucalyptus or Australian gum-tree continues to be largely 
planted in California not only for ornamental but also for economic pur- 
“aig A large forest of these trees has been planted by a company and 
is situated on the line of railroad between Los Angeles and Anaheim. 
A recent statement of the company’s affairs shows that it owns two hun- 
dred acres of fine land, on which are houses and other improvements. 
About one hundred and forty acres have been set out in Eucalyptus, con- 
taining about eighty thousand trees. Of these some thirty thousand are 
from nine to fifteen feet high. The total cost up to January Ist, includ- 
ing purchase of land, houses, teams, etc., is $12,523. The estimated ex- 
pense for the first year, prior to incorporating the company, was 
$12,750, the actual expense being less than the estimate. The present 
value of the property is from $40,000 to $60,000, and this at a total cost 
of $12,523. The remaining sixty acres will be set out by the 5th of 
May, after which time the expenses will be but little. At the start the 
estimated total cost for four years was $1,000 to $20,000 or 20 per cent. 
of the capital, which will be reduced, according to later estimates, to 
$16,000 or $18,000, and it is believed that at the end of four years the 
Property will be worth not less than $100,000. Only a few shares have 
changed hands during the year, and these at an advance equal to three 
Per cent. The plantation is owned by seventeen persons. The young 
trees (Eucalyptus) have been produced in greater numbers in California 
the past season than ever before, and are sold by the nurserymen at 
much lower prices than previously, with an increasing demand. 
ae An essay by Dr. C. F. Liitken on the fresh-water fishes of Brazil, 
including some interesting new genera and species, and illustrated with a 
number of exquisite plate and numerous fine wood-cuts, appears in the 
memoirs of the Royal Academy of Copenhagen. The work is based on 
collections made some years ago by Professor J- Reinhardt. The mem- 
oir will prove of a good deal of interest to American ichthyologists. 

— The veteran microscopist and naturalist, C. G. Ehrenberg, died m 
daly last, aged eighty-two. His intellectual activity remained et al 
shed almost to the last, and though he failed to interpret aright the 
Structure of the Infusoria, his zodlogical and micro-geological works 
Were still valuable and original. i 

— Messrs. Macmillan & Os. announce as to be published in October 


700 Setentific News. [ November, 


“The Atlantic. An Account of the General Results of the Exploring 
Expedition of H. M. S. Challenger.” By Sir Wyville Thompson, F. R. 
S., LL. D., Director of the Scientific Staff of the Expedition. Two 
other volumes containing the Voyages of the Challenger in the Pacific 
and South seas will follow. 

— Prof. C. F. Hartt, chief of the Imperial Geological Survey of Bra- 
zil, was at last accounts about sending a party to make a thorough ex- 
ploration of the Amazonian region in order to connect the work with his 
more southerly investigations. Mr. O. A. Derby will be a prominent 
member of this northern division of the survey. At last accounts Pro- 
fessor Hartt was engaged in a careful study of the interior of Brazil. 

— In the course of a pleasant speech by Professor Huxley on being 
introduced to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
he said, “It is popularly said abroad that you have no antiquities in 
America. If you talk about the trumpery of three or four thousand 
years of history, it is true. But, in the large sense, as referring to times 
before man made his momentary appearance, America is the place to 
study the antiquities of the globe. The reality of the enormous amount 
of material here has far surpassed my anticipation. I have studied the 
collection gathered by Professor Marsh, at New Haven. There is none 
like it in Europe, not only in extent of time covered, but by reason of 
its bearing on the problem of evolution. Whereas, before this collection 
was made, evolution was a matter of speculative reasoning, it is now a 
matter of fact and history, as much as the monuments of Egypt. In 
that collection are the facts of the succession of forms and the history of 
their evolution. All that now remains to be asked is how ; and that is & 
subordinate question.” 

— Mr. A. H. Curtiss, who was employed by the Agricultural Depart- 
ment to collect specimens of the trees of the Southern States for the 
Centennial Exposition, proposes to commence a systematic distribution of 
Southern plants, and hopes to receive sufficient aid from herbalists to 
enable him to travel for a number of years for the purpose of making 
the sets as complete as possible. Commencing with large collections 
made in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and other States, he intends 
to issue three hundred species each winter, keeping an exact record of 
all specimens sent out, so that those lacking fruit, flowers, etc., may be 
completed in future years (without extra charge). ‘The price per is 
of three hundred species will be $25, charges for transportation prepaid 
by mail or by express to New York. Address A. H. Curtiss, Jackson- 
ville, Florida. 

— Mr. Edward Newman, of London, the well-known entomologist 
died June 12th at the age of seventy-five. He was editor, at the ume 
of his death, of the Zodlogist and Entomologist, and the author of several 
popular works on British butterflies and moths. 

— A resolution has been introduced into Congress, according to Hor- 


1876.] Scientific News. 701 


per’s Weekly, directing the Secretary of State to cause to be published 
a brief history of the several surveys and expeditions ordered and pros- 
ecuted by the United States during the century just closed, including 
those under the direction of the War, Navy, and Interior Departments, 
and other bureaus. An appropriation of $10,000 is suggested for the 
purpose of carrying this into effect. 

— Baron von Nolcken has just returned to Germany from Columbia 
with ten thousand macrolepidoptera collected by him in that country, 
besides many of the smaller moths. 
` — Ata meeting of the Paris Geographical Society held August 2d, 
Lieutenant Wyse announced to the society that the government of Co- 
lumbia had granted to a company, represented by General Türr, the priv- 
ilege of constructing a ship-canal through the Isthmus of Darien. A 
body of surveyors would leave in November, in order to make the final 
surveys, and he trusted the enterprise would meet with the support of the 
international committee recently formed under the presidency of M. de 
Lesseps. M. Leon Drouillet announced that he was about to proceed 
to America, and would use his best efforts to establish there a sub-com- 
mittee for the scientific exploration of the American isthmus. Their 
committee intended to study this question without prejudice, for, in spite 
of this new concession, our information was as yet very far from being 
complete. ; 

M. Hayaux du Tilly read a paper on the ivory trade. England 
alone imported annually 1,200,000 pounds of ivory, and to obtain this 
quantity it was necessary to kill annually 30,000 elephants, and the 
ivory supply of the whole world probably caused the destruction of 
females and males were killed indis- 
criminately, this animal would soon become extinct. my 

— During the meetings of the American Public Health Association 
held in Boston, October 2d—6th, Mr. James T. Gardner read a paper on 
the relations of Topographical Surveys and Maps to 
Some relations of general climatic conditions to the health of man have 
long been recognized; modern investigations have shown that local 


> . :. > ub- 
causes are as active and effective producing disease, though more s 


tle and obscure in their o i 

peration. : , 
Those natural local conditions most seriously affecting health are the 
conformation of the earth’s surface and its underlying — yet, 
though this is supported by ample evidence, the exact effects produ 


are little understood, from lack of facts upon which to base conclusions. 
rface structure upon health, 


geology over large areas, 


The former class of facts must be ascertaine 
and geological surveys, and registered in maps, 


lowed by an equally accurate sanitary survey, based upon these maps 


702 Scientific News. [ November, 


and constantly referred to them. In this manner only the laws of the 


earth’s surface-influence and action upon health will be derived from the 


philosophical and practical study of facts. 

_ The paper was discussed by Professor Pickering, who referred partic- 
ularly to the hay fever, and the immunity therefrom of several villages 
in New Hampshire. The income brought to the state from this very 
fact, he believed, would pay the cost of a state survey. 

Dr. T. Sterry Hunt also spoke on the same subject. He alluded to 
the advantages of surveys by boring to such a depth as to ascertain the 
exact character of the underlying soil, and thus to learn the conditions 
of underground drainage. In many cases where this had been done it 
had been found that there were often, where it was to be least expected, 
large basins in the underlying floor of the soil, in which stagnant waters 
collected. 

President Runkle thought that the greatest objection made by legis- 
latures was apt to be the expense of making them ; yet he believed that 
the expenses of the best topographical surveys would all be paid by en- 
tirely new industries, which they would create. 

The subject was further discussed by Dr. J. S. Billings, U. S. A., and 
Professor J. D. Whitney, of Cambridge. 

Dr. Harris, in behalf of the committee on the proposed sanitary survey 
of the United States, reported the following resolution : — 

Resolved, That it is the opinion of the American Public Health Asso- 
ciation that in every State, especially the more populous ones, a thor- 
oughly accurate topographical survey is so essentially necessary as 4 
basis of sanitary surveys and systematic drainage, and also the most de- 
sirable hygienic researches and works for prevention of disease, that the 
execution of such state surveys is a duty which should be undertaken 
by the States as a duty to the life and welfare of the people. 

The resolution was adopted. 

— The Zoölogical and Botanical Society of Vienna not only com- 
memorated its twenty-fifth anniversary by a festival, but erected an in- 
tellectual monument of the event in the form of a fine quarto volume of 
monographs on various zodlogical and botanical subjects, contributed by 
its leading members. The volume is well printed and illustrated with 
twenty plates. Of the more noticeable zodlogical memoirs is one on 
the morphology of the segments of the body of Orthoptera, by © 
Brunner von Wattenwyl. A. von Pelzeln contributes an essay, illus- 
_ trated by a map, on the geographical distribution of the mammals of the 
Malay Peninsula, while the lizards and snakes of the Galapagos Islands 
are described by Dr. Steindachner, the seven plates having been drawn 
by Konopicki, whose exquisite work is well known to American zoölo- 
gists. The large Iguana-like lizards (Amblyrhynchus cristatus and Con- 
olophus suberistatus) characterizing these islands are beautifully figured. 


x ia rk aries X s; S see pS a ie 
SOND ae Rae EE SRM aera B a eS a Eee EASE aE Te e i eS 


USE | 5 ia Oe T E E EERE, AAA E EERE E ah A T E E T SS ht 


1876.] Seientijie Serials. 703 


PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 

APPALACHIAN Mountain CLUB. — July 26th. At a field-meeting 
held in North Conway, Prof. Charles E. Fay, of Tufts College, in behalf 
of Professor E. T. Quimby, of the Coast Survey, and a member of the 

Mountain Club, spoke of recent coast survey work among the mountains. 

Mr. Wm. G. Nowell, of the English High School, Boston, interested 
the meeting with an account of explorations on Mount Adams and the 
opening of a new path, displaying the club stamp (A) adopted for mak- 
ing blazes on trees, end the club stencil (A. M. C.) for identifying 
signals on rocky summits. 

Mr. J. Rayner Edmands, engineer, Boston, exhibited profile views of 
the mountains obtained with the help of a camera he had ingeniously 
devised. He also showed an improved form of knapsack for Appala- 
chian travel. 

| Mr. G. C. Mann, of Cambridge, showed a contour map of the United 

States that he had colored with much skill, and thereby illustrated the 

height of mountains, improving on the usual style of such illustration. 

He enlarged on his theme with much minuteness and patience of detail. 

Professor Hitchcock, of Dartmouth College, and State Geologist of 

= New Hampshire, unrolled various geological charts and explained the 
geological structure of the New Hampshire mountains. 

Professor Pickering, the president, gave an account of his own work 

: in determining the height of various mountain points, and then pleasantly 

referred to the controversy prevailing with regard to the name of the 

, Mountain near at hand, whether Pequawket, Kiarsarge, or Kearsarge. 

| He said that the club greatly desired to ascertain and recognize the true 


name of the mountain, but not to invent a new one and affix it on their 
own responsibility, and Rev. Mr. Worcester submitted resolutions cov- 
ering this point, to allay any misapprehension. In these resolutions, 
which were adopted, a desire was also expressed to pay proper regard 
to the local preferences in any community as to the names of mountains. 


panan 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS- 

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND Arts. — October. On Ceph- 
alization, by J. D. Dana. Part V. Cephalization a serat ben 
tiple in the Development of the System of Animal Life, cere Be 
Chart of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and of Canada 

F. H. Bradley. 

ANNALES DES SCIENCES NATURELLES. — July 
b Réseaux vasculaires de la Chambre postérieure 

rates, par H. gard. 

ace. aee JOURNAL. — September. A New ra 

* The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part —_ . 


15th. Recherches ser 
de Œil des Verte- 


704 Scientific Serials. [November. — 


of Preparing and Staining Fresh Brain for Microscopic Examination, 
by B. Lewis. The Potato Fungus; Germination of the Resting Spores, 
by W. G. Smith. The Application of Photography to Micrometry, with 
Special Reference to the Micrometry of Blood in Criminal Cases, by J. 
J. Woodward. 

Tar GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. — September. The Climate Contro- 
versy, by S. V. Wood, Jr. On a New [Cretaceous] Hexactinellid 
Sponge, by W. J. Sollas. Ice and Ice-Work in Newfoundland, by J. 
Milne. On Fossil Fish in North Devon, by T. M. Hall. 

‘Tue GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE. — September. Census of the Brit- 
ish Isles, 1871. Birthplaces and Migration, by E. G. Ravenstein. 
Sketches of Life in Greenland, by S. N. R. Along the Turkish Border, 
by D. Ker. The Statistical Survey of India. Stanley’s Proceedings in 
the Lake Region of Central Africa. The Sea Level, by H. P. Malet. 

PETERMANN’S GEOGRAPHISCHER MuITTHEILUNGEN. — June 30th. 
Die Wirkungen der Winde auf die Gestaltung der Erde, von F. Czerny, 
July 18th. Die Vorgänge in der Türkei in ihrer ethnographischen und 
geschichtlichen Begründung, von F. V. Stein. Die geographische 
Festlegung des Mündungsgebietes der Ob und Jenessei durch Nordens- 
kjölď’s Expedition, 1875; mit Karte. Largeau’s zweite Expedition nach 
Rhadames und einige Worte iiber Algerien, von G. Rohlfs. Reise von 
Dr. Giissfeldt und Dr. Schweinfurth durch die arabische Wiiste vom 
Nil zum Rothen Meere, 1876, von G. Schweinfurth. Prof. Dr. 
Ascherson’s Reise nach der kleinen Oase, 1876, von G. Schweinfurth. 
Der Abschluss der Nilquellen-Frage, von E. Behm. August 15th. Ba- 
rometrische Héhenbestimmungen in Columbien, von E. Steinheil. Re- 
sultate der meteorol. Beobachtungen auf Spitzbergen und in Ost-Gron- 
land. Nach Wijkander und Koldervey. Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Wind- 
verhältnisse in den Spitzbergen umgebenden Theilen des Eismeeres, 
von Dr. A. Wijkander. 

: ARCHIVES DE ZOOLOGIE EXPÉRIMENTALE ET GÉNÉRALE 1876. — 
No. 1. Etudes sur le Développement des Mollusques, par H. Fol. 

ANNALS AND MAGAZINE or Natura History. — August. Notes 
on the Paleozoic Corals of the State of Ohio, by H. A. Nicholson. 
September. The Development of the Ova of Chthonius in the Body of 
the Mother, and the Formation of the Blastoderm, by A. Stecker.: De- 
scriptions and Figures of Deep-Sea Sponges and their Spicules, from 
the Atlantic Ocean, dredged up on Board H. M. S. Porcupine, chiefiy 
in 1869, by H. J. Carter. On some New and Remarkable North-Atlan- 
tic Brachiopoda, by J. G. Jeffreys. On the Structure of the Mouth m 
Sucking Crustacea, by J. C. Schiödte. 


a 
4 
: 
; 
; 
3 
3 
3 
i 


E A E Sth ich Pae E E VAE E 


ra : Bap a 
distance in advance of its primitive position. 


4 > other, the dorsal fin gradually exten 
_ Nor edge of the orbit of this eye. This young 


3 Presented a stage in which the eye from 


THE 


AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vou. x — DECEMBER, 1876. — NO. 12. 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF FLOUNDERS. 
BY ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. 

a manner in which the eyes of a flounder become placed on 

one side of the body has formed a fertile subject for theories. 
Ido not at present propose to discuss the explanations given to 
account for the facts, but merely to state the results of observa- 
ons made while studying the development of a number of spe- 
ead of flounders common to our coasts. In the case of five spe- 
cies the passage of the eye from one side to the other is not, as 
wged by Malm, a simple tendency of the eye of the “ blind side” 
(the side upon which the flounder lies) to turn towards the light 
and thus carry the surrounding parts of the head with it. The 
eye placed on the blind side actually travels from its original 
place (symmetrical with the eye of the opposite side) frontwards 
and upwards on the blind side, resorbing the tissues in its way, 
sodad tissues forming behind ; there follows this movement of trans- 
lation a certain amount of torsion of the whole of the frontal part 
of the head, which commences only after the eye of the blind 


side has nearly reached the upper edge of that side, quite a 
: This torsion of 


course takes place most readily, occurring as it does during a 
ill cartilagi- 


stage when the whole bony fabric of the skull is sti 
nous, and it is the torsion which ends in bringing the eye to the 
°Pposite side. In four of these species of flounders the dorsal 
fin did not at that young stage extend to the posterior edge of the 


orbit of the eye coming from the blind side. 


had thus by the same process 
ht from the one side to 
ded beyond the ante- 
flounder thus soon 
the blind side appeared 


another species, after the eye 
L translation and of torsion been broug 


Copyright, A. S. PACKARD, Jn. 1876. 


706 The Development of Flounders. [ December, 


to have passed through the head between the frontal bone and 
the base of the anterior rays of the dorsal fin. As I had, however, 
followed the whole development in living specimens, I knew from 
actual observation that the mode of transfer of the right eye had 
been identical with that of the preceding species. These obser- 
vations thus far confirm in the main Malm’s explanation of the 
development of young symmetrical flounders into the well-known 
older stages. To my great astonishment, therefore, I captured 
one day a number of flounders (about an inch in length) closely 
allied to the Plagusie of Steenstrup, the so-called Bascania of 
Schiddte ; they were so perfectly transparent that they seemed 
the merest film on the bottom of the glass vessel in which they 
were kept. They were still entirely symmetrical, the eyes well 
removed from the snout, with a dorsal fin extending almost | 
to the nostril, far in advance of the anterior edge of the orbits | 
of the eyes. They were of course at once set down (from their 
size) as belonging to a species of flounder in which the eyes 
probably remained always symmetrical, and I prepared to watch 
its future development. It was therefore with considerable in- 
terest that I noticed, after a few days, that one eye, the right, 
moved its place somewhat towards the upper part of the body, 
- so that when the young fish was laid on its side, the upper half 
of the right eye could be plainly seen, through the perfectly trans- 
parent body, to project above the left eye. The right eye (as 18 
the case with the eyes of all flounders), being capable of very eX 
tensive vertical movements, through an are of nearly 180°, could 
thus readily turn to look through the body, above the left eye, 
- see what was passing on the left side, the right eye being of course . 
useless on its own side as long as the fish lay on its side. I may 
mention here that this young flounder, until long after the right eye 
came out on the left side, continued frequently to swim vertically, 
and that for a considerable length of time. This slight upward 
tendency of the right eye was continued in connection with a 
motion of translation towards the anterior part of the head till 
the eye, when seen through the body from the left side, was en- 
tirely clear of the left eye, and was thus placed somewhat in ad- 
vance and above it, but still entirely in the rear of the base of the 
dorsal fin extending to the end of the snout. What was mY - 
tonishment on the following day, on turning over the young 
flounder on its left side, to find that the right eye had actually 
sunk into the tissues of the head, penetrating into the space be- 
tween the base of the dorsal fin and the frontal bone, to such a" 


and 


RTE EAT. T aT Ne Ome OR AE Roemer tps 


1876. ] The Development of Flounders. TOT 


extent that the tissues adjoining the orbit had slowly closed over 
a part of the eye, leaving only a small elliptical opening, smaller 
than the pupil, through which the right eye could look when the 
‘fish was swimming vertically. While the young flounder lay on 
its side, the right eye was constantly used in looking through the 
body, and could evidently see extremely well all that took place 
on the left side. On the following day the eye had pushed its 
way still farther through, so that a small opening now appeared 
opposite it, on the left side, through which the right eye could 
now see directly, the original opening on the right side being 
almost entirely closed. Soon after, this new opening on the left 
increased gradually in size, the right eye pushing its way more 
and more to the surface and finally looking outward on the left 
side with as much freedom as the eye originally on the left ; the 
opening of the right side having permanently closed. Ihave thus 
in one and the same specimen been able to follow the passage of 
the eye from the right side to the left through the integuments 
of the head, between the base of the dorsal fin and the frontal 
bone. 

This observation leads to somewhat different conclusions from 
those of Steenstrup, who thought he could prove (from an examina- 
tion of alcoholic specimens) that the eye from the right side passed 
under the frontal bone. This is evidently not the case here, the 
eye passing round it, there being only a very slight torsion of the 
frontal in this young stage. Although at first glance this appears 

~ Soradically a different method of transfer of the eye from the ar 
described above, yet if the dorsal fin had not extended beyon 
_ the posterior edge of the right orbit the process would have me 
the same, as is readily seen. I hope soon to give full details, wi 
3 illustrations, of the process of transfer of the eye in its different 
Stages, in a paper I am preparing on the young stages of a few 
of our bony marine fishes. = ie 
But while I have thus been able to trace step by step m sa 
Specimens the transfer of the eye from one side to the 3 ir 
fan give no explanation of the cause which compels foun 
lie on their side. The explanations usually given are a “ is- 
factory - For the great depth of the body, the position of tao oom 
“land of the ventral fins, the undulating mode of miie 
all these are so many causes specially adapted to enable t et? 
Swim in a vertical position. In fact, they cig cap icant cept 
M young stages, when their capacity for vertical mp is 
finitely less than when they commence to lie pu one side. 


708 Former Range of New England Mammals. [| December, 


The rapidity with which the young flounders adapt themselves 
to the color of the ground upon which they are placed is marvel- 
ous. In one of the species the red, yellow, and black pigment 
cells were brought into the proper combination and prominence 
with such rapidity that it seemed hardly credible that the same 
` fish could assume such different hues in so short a time. The size 
and number of. these pigment cells, however, readily account for 
all this. 

The young of this transparent flounder do not invariably lie 
down on the right side; it seems almost a matter of chance which 
side they choose. Out of fifteen specimens eight lay down on 
the left and all died without being able to accomplish any part of 
the transfer of the left eye to the right side, although they lived 
quite long enough for the other seven, which turned down on the 
right side, to accomplish the transfer, or nearly so. This in- 
capacity may account for the rarity of sinistral forms of floun- 
ders, and vice versa. In the other species mentioned above, all 
the young I have had occasion to keep alive turned down on 
the proper side for a successful transfer of the eye. I may also 
mention here that at a certain stage of growth of our Ctenolabrus 
the young show a very decided tendency to lean on the right side. 
This is even seen in fully grown specimens, in the peculiar slant- 
ing position often taken by individuals when they approach an 
obstacle. : 


THE FORMER RANGE OF SOME NEW ENGLAND 
CARNIVOROUS MAMMALS. 


BY J. A. ALLEN. 


Pee geographical range of the larger mammals of New En- 
gland is well known to have been much more extended 
formerly than it is at present. Not only have most of the larger 
species greatly decreased in numbers throughout the more thickly 
settled portions of the Eastern States, but not a few have be- 
come, extirpated over regions where they were formerly abundant. 
This restriction of range and numerical decrease are obviously 
due to man’s agency. Most of the carnivorous species existed 1n 
such numbers at the time of the first settlement of the country 
by Europeans that their presence was a great check upon t . 
rearing of stock, and even a source of danger to human life. 
Hence, naturally, an exterminating warfare was speedily 


begun 
upon them, which was stimulated by the offer of rewards by the 


i Ap a A cra E E al Aa aa PEE ea aa lala 


ee ee ee ee a a 


spa SS TUPI a eb tee eRe = 


1876.] Former Range of New England Mammals. 709 


Fh i .;’ 


local for their destruction. As I have elsewhere shown,! 
the money paid for the destruction of noxious animals often 
amounted to a very large draft upon the treasuries of the differ- 
ent towns, in some instances nearly equaling the amount expended 
forall other purposes. The offer of rewards for their capture 
proved, as was intended, a great incentive to their destruction, 
but since many of the carnivorous species yielded also products 
of a high commercial value, they were likewise eagerly pursued 
for their furs. In the case of the beaver, the fisher, the sable, 
and the musk-rat, the demands of the fur trade alone tended to 
the rapid decrease of a few species not among the legally pro- 
scribed. The different species of the deer family were hunted 
both for their flesh and for their skins. Add to these incentives 
the pleasures of the chase, which toa large class of sportsmen are 
a more satisfactory reward than its more tangible products, and 
the almost incredibly rapid decrease of many species need be no 
longer a subject of surprise. 
he early accounts of the exploration and settlement of New 
England abound with references to the abundance of the game 
animals of the country, and furnish reliable evidence of the for- 
_ Mer more extended range of many of the species and the much 
= greater abundance of all. The woods are often spoken of as 
- filled with wild animals,.among which the most numerous were 
beavers, foxes, wolves, bears, moose, deer, raccoons, and martens ; 
| lynxes were common, as was also that ‘“ most insidious and deadly 
. foe of human kind, the catamount.” The range of the cata- 
mount or panther (Felis concolor) extends, as is well known, from 
Northern New England southward not only to the Gulf of Mex- 
aa but throughout the greater part of South America. It long 
since, however, disappeared from the southern half of New En- 
~ gand, as well as from most of the more settled parts of the 
United States everywhere ; the capture during the last ten years 


of an occasional individual in the Green Mountains and in the 
forest region of Northern New Hampshire and Maine shows that 
; a still lingers in Northern New England, where it is slowly but 
: Surely becoming extirpated. The lynxes (Lynx Canadensis and 
: i rufus ?), doubtless always far more numerous 
; — Monthly, October, 187 
ve recently pointed 


than the pan- 


ee (Bulletin United States Geological and Geo- 
5, July, 1876), these so-called species, 
ight differences of coloration, consist- 
L. “ Canadensis” as com- 
f the transverse 


naa Survey of the Territories, ii. 222-22 
ing iy en i be distinguished by merely sl ‘ 
abe | in the grayer tints and less distinct markings of 
with L. “rufus,” especially in the tendency to obsoleteness © 


710 Former Range of New England Mammals. { December, 


ther, are still taken at long intervals throughout most of South- 
ern New England, where they are, however, nearly exterminated ; 
in the forests of the more northerly parts they are still more or 
less frequent. 

In early days the gray wolf (Canis lupus) was abundant 
everywhere, and as early as 1630 became an outlaw in the Plym- 
outh Colony. In that year the court ordered that any English- 
man who killed a wolf should have one penny for each horse and 
cow, and one farthing for “ each sheep and swine,” owned in the 
colony! In 1698 the town of Lynn voted to allow a premium 
of twenty shillings for every wolf destroyed in the town.2 Many 
writers refer to its great destructiveness to sheep and calves, 
and to its roaming at night in large packs. They also describe 
it as presenting a great variety of colors, showing that the 
same diversity of color occurred among the wolves of Southern 
New England that has been noticed among those of other sec- 
tions of the country. Thomas Morton, in a work published in 
1637,8 says, “ The wolfes are of divers coloures: some sandy 
coloured : some griselled, and some black. . . . . The skinnes are 
used by the Salvages, especially the skinne of the black wolfe, 
which is esteemed a present for a prince there.” 

It is now many years since the last wolf was seen in New En- 
gland east of the Connecticut and south of New Hampshire, but 
as late as the beginning of the present century it was abundant 
in Southern Maine as well as in Southern Vermont and New 
Hampshire, and was of rather frequent occurrence in the mount- 
ainous portions of Western Massachusetts. None are now found 
south of Northern Maine and the White Mountains. 

The gray fox (Urocyon Virginianus) is well known to have 
formerly ranged much farther northward than it does now. 
Even within the last thirty to fifty years it has disappeared over 
considerable areas along the northern border of its habitat. ; 
Extending northward formerly to the Great Lakes, it seems now 
to have nearly disappeared north of the Ohio River. It is a 
markings on the inside of the fore legs. ZL. “ Canadensis” being a more northern form 
than L. “rufus,” it generally has longer, softer, and fuller pelage, and the pads © 
the feet are more fully covered ; it has consequently the appearance 


length and fullness of the pelage. Hunters and trappers, however, recognize certain 
characteristic differences of habit, and call the two forms by different names. 
Lewis’s History of Lynn (edition of 1829), page 37. 
2 Ibid., page 144, 
8 New English Caanan, page 79. 


1876.] Former Range of New England Mammais. Til 


well known to have once inhabited the Atlantic States eastward 
to Southern New England. Dr. Emmons recorded it as “ rare H 
in Massachusetts in 1840; Audubon and Bachman speak of it 
as not uncommon in the vicinity of Albany, N. Y., but as rare 
inNew England. Itis explicitly described as an animal of Massa- 
chusetts by some of the early writers, but I have heard of only 
one or two instances of its recent capture in this State. 

At the southward, particularly in Pennsylvania and Virginia, 
the gray fox seems to have been the prevailing species at the time 
of the arrival of Europeans, there being, among the numerous early 
enumerations of the animals of this region, frequent and explicit 
allusions to this species, while the red fox is rarely mentioned. 
Kalm, in speaking of Pennsylvania, says, “ The red foxes are 
very scarce here ; they are entirely the same with the European 
sort. Mr. Bartram and several others assured me that according 
to the unanimous testimony of the Indians this kind of foxes 
never was in this country before the Europeans settled it. But 
of the manner of their coming I have two different accounts. 
Mr. Bartram and several other people were told by the Indians 
that these foxes came into America soon after the arrival of the 
= Europeans, after an extraordinary cold winter, when all the sea 
7 to the northward was frozen; from thence they would infer 


_ Evans and some others assured me t 
, = Was still known by the people. A gentle 
England, who had a great inclination for 
= agreat number of foxes from Europe, an 
territories, that he might be able to in 
unting. This is said to have happened almost at the very be- 
ginning of New England’s being peopled with European inhab- 
itants. These foxes are believed to have 80 multiplied that all 
the red foxes in the country were their offspring. At present 
they are reckoned among the noxious creatures of these gs 
`+. . In Pennsylvania, therefore, there is a reward of ape shil- 
lings for killing an old fox, and of one shilling for kil ing a 
Young one.” 1 Forster, however, in @ foot-note to Kalm’s wo | 
(loc. cit., pages 283, 284) dissents from this theory and pene 
that they reached America from Asia, and cites the ae E 
Modore Behring’s meeting with them when he lande e : 
West coast of America. Professor Baird calls attention to the tac 
anslation, i. 283, 284. 


1 Kalm’s Travels, Forster’s Tr 


T12 Former Range of New England Mammals. [December, 


that no remains of the red fox have been found in the Carlisle 
- and other bone caves of Pennsylvania, while those of the gray 
fox are abundantly represented there. ‘* This,” he adds, ** would 
almost give color to the impression somewhat prevalent that the 
red fox of Eastern America is the descendant of individuals of 
the European fox imported many years ago and allowed to run 
wild and overspread the country. The fact of their present 
abundance and extent. of distribution is no barrier to the recep- 
tion of this idea, as the same has been the case with horses, 
brought over by the Spaniards after the discovery of America, 
and set at liberty.”! Ina recent number of Forest and Stream 
(October 5, 1876), Mr. Alexander Hunter quotes Colonel T. B. 
Thorpe as saying, “ The red fox is supposed to have been im- 
ported from England to the eastern shore of Maryland, and to 
have emigrated to Virginia on the ice in the severe winter of 
1779, at which time the Chesapeake was frozen over. In 1789 
the first red fox that we have any record of was killed in Mary- 


land. In that year there had been a few red foxes turned loose ` 


on Long Island.” 

That the red fox was an abundant species from New York north- 
ward, however, as early as the sixteenth century is a fact as well 
substantiated as that of the existence there of the wolf or beaver. 
The red fox was seen by Jacques Cartier on the Saguenay River 
in 1535 and 1536. Its occurrence in great numbers in N; found- 
land as early as 1590 to 1620 is repeatedly mentioned by Rich- 
ard Whitboune and other contemporary explorers. In 1603 Mar- 
tin Pring found foxes so abundant on an island in latitude 43° 
that he named it Fox Island. He also speaks of meeting with 
great numbers on the main-land in latitude 43° 30’. Morton like- 
wise refers to their abundance in Massachusetts prior to 1637. 


The first settlers of the town of Lynn found them to be annoy- 


ingly numerous, and in 1698 voted to pay a reward of two shil- 
lings a head for their destruction. Lewis states, in his history of 
the town, that the town records show that between this date and 
1722 the destruction of four hundred and twenty-eight foxes was 
paid for by the town, all of which were killed in the “ Lyon 
woods and on Nahant.” 2 In the enumeration of the peltries = 
ported from Quebec during the single year 1786, 6215 fox skins 
are mentioned.’ It is also stated that the records of the Pynchon 
1 Mammals of North America, page 130. 


2 Lewis’s History of Lynn, edition of 1829, page 144. 
8 Mass. Hist. Coll., vi. 57. Ps 


| 
a 
| 
3 
A 
| 
4 


: a k i a, x 2 
a ae srt a He 
wach eps CN ecole iy Ss acer ls has N ae Ea a cD ME ATES ASU acy a EE Eo T 


1876. ] Former Range of New England Mammals. 713 


family show that between the years 1654 and 1674 the Pynchons 
packed and exported to England from the Connecticut Valley, 
among other peltries, “ large quantities of fox skins.” 1 The first 
settlers of Maine and New Hampshire also found the fox there 
ingreat abundance. ‘These various references to the fox in New 
England also show that its several varieties, as the ‘ black,” ? 
“gray,” and “ cross” foxes, were of frequent occurrence as far 
south as Massachusetts and New York. 
This shows conclusively that while English foxes may have 
been taken to America and turned loose by the early colonists, 
the more northerly portions of the Atlantic coast region abounded 
with this animal long before its reported importation from En- 
gland, and hence that the theory that the red fox of North Amer- 
ica is of recent European origin is wholly unfounded. Were there 
not direct evidence to the contrary, it is highly improbable that 
the millions of foxes existing throughout the northern half of the 
continent, where this animal was found in great abundance wher- 
ever the first explorers penetrated, could have originated from 
_ the few imported to New England and Maryland in the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries, and thence spread throughout 
the vast interior, westward to the Pacific and northward to the 
arctic circle. 

The apparent absence of its bones, k 
of Pennsylvania, where have been found the semi-fossil remains 
of nearly all the other existing mammals of that region, together 
with its known absence or at least great scarcity there when Euro- 
Peans first settled that State, seems to show conclusively that 1t 
aas spread considerably southward along the Atlantic coast dur- 
ing the last two hundred years, and that the gray fox has re- 
ceded before it. 


however, in the bone caves 


gree Din oss, mae dy aai ee aA a 


Notwithstanding the constant persecution to which this animal 
or less frequent occurrence 


been subjected, it is still of more 
throughout New England, and through its consummate cunning 
%8 even been able to extend its range over considerable areas 
Since the first settlement of the country- 
The early records show that both the fisher í 
nanti) and the marten (Mustela Americana) were common ~ 
habitants of not only the whole of New England, but also of the 
i States generally, as far southward as Virginia (except- 


page 49, foot-note. 
is also usually called the 


(Mustela Pen- 


1 

4 pimple and Sheldon’s History of Northfield, Mass., 
up, > the early records the fisher (Mustela Pennant) 
í black fox.” . 


T14 Former Range of New England Mammals. [ December, 


ing possibly a narrow belt along the seaboard), and even farther 
southward along the Alleghanies. None, however, now exist 
in the United States east of the Mississippi River, south of 
Northern New England and Northern New York, except at a 
few points in the Alleghanies. They were occasionally found 
in Western Massachusetts a generation since, but they probably 
rarely if ever occur there now. Being eagerly hunted for their 
furs they soon disappeared before the advancing settlements, and 
linger only in such wooded regions as are least frequented by 
man. The mink (Putorius vison) and the weasels (P. ermin- 
eus and P. vulgaris) are still generally distributed, but in all 
the more thickly-settled parts of New England they long since 
became comparatively infrequent, though still numerous in the 
northern forests. The otter (Lutra Canadensis) and the raccoon 
(Procyon lotor), both formerly abundant, are now everywhere 
rare in Southern New England, over large portions of which 
they have become quite extirpated. The wolverine (@ulo lus- 
cus), now rarely recognized as an animal that was eyer found in 
New England, seems to have been formerly of frequent occur- 
rence in the northern parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, and 
Maine, and probably once inhabited the highlands of Western 
Massachusetts. Samuel Williams, writing in 1794, cites it as 
an inhabitant of the “northern and uncultivated parts” of Ver- 
mont,! and Hanson says it was formerly found in Maine, while 


their accompanying descriptions of the animal leave no doubt of | 


the correctness of their identifications. 

The black bear (Ursus Americanus?) is well known to have 
been of very frequent occurrence throughout not only New En- 
gland, but the whole of Eastern North America. Still occasion- 
ally taken in the Green Mountains even as far south as Northern 
Connecticut, it is probably wholly extinct east of the Connecti- 
cut River south of the White Mountains. Though comparatively 
frequent in some portions of Northern New England, it is eve? 
there much more rare than formerly. : 

The polar bear ( Ursus maritimus) seems never to have quite 

1 Natural and Civil History of Vermont, page 87. 

-A recent reéxamination of the specific relationship of the North American bears, 


__ based on the large collection of skulls contained in the National Museum (see B alie 


tin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, ii 


seems 


ee 


Nova Scotia, and on the Magdalen a 


1876.) Former Range of New England Mammals. 715 


| reached the New England coast, though its range southward 
extended much farther than has been generally heretofore rec- 


ognized, as is unquestionably proven by the following extract 


- from the account of Jacques Cartier’s voyage to Newfoundland 


in 1534. In his account of the “ Island of Birds,” situated off 
the coast of Newfoundland, it is stated, “ And albeit the sayd 
island be fourteen leagues from the maine land, notwithstanding 
beares come swimming thither to eat of the sayd birds, and our 
men found one there as great as any COW, and as white as any 
swan, who in their presence leapt into the sea ; and upon Whit- 
sunmunday (following our voyage toward the land) we met 


her by the way, swimming toward land as swiftly as we could 


saile. So soone as we saw her we pursued her with our boats, 
and by main strength tooke her, whose flesh was as good to be 
eaten as the flesh of a calf of two yeares old.”! Though formerly 
occurring in considerable numbers along the coast of Labrador, 
it was probably never common as far south as Newfoundland. 
According to Dr. Packard? the polar bear was occasionally ob- 
tained off the coast of Labrador as late as 1864, whither it had 
apparently drifted on floating ice brought down from the north 


_ by the polar current. 


The walrus, though its remains are found in a fossil state as 
far south as South Carolina, probably did. not quite reach the 
New England coast at the time it was first explored by Euro- 
Peans, though found in large numbers during the middle of the 
sixteenth century as far south as Sable Island, off Cape Breton, 
nd other islands 1m the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence. The common harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) 18 
still more or less common at suitable localities along the New 
England coast, but its numbers are far less than formerly. Some 
of the larger seals are also still found along the coast of Maine, 
but their present southern limits and former range I have been 
as yet unable satisfactorily to determine. 

1 Hakluyt, Voyages, iii. 250, 251 


i i x. 370. 
2 Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, 


716 Rock-Inseriptions of ** Ancient Pueblos.” [December, 


ROCK-INSCRIPTIONS OF THE “ANCIENT PUEBLOS” OF 

COLORADO, UTAH, NEW MEXICO, AND ARIZONA. 

BY EDWIN A. BARBER. 

b Ges picture-writings or hieroglyphics of this ancient architect- 

ural and agricultural race consisted of ¢deographs, or symbols 
representing ideas, the object pictured standing for the word to 
be expressed. So we can see that the method employed for re- 
cording events was very imperfect and limited, reaching scarcely 
beyond the nouns, although in some cases they represented action, 
or verbs, as in the sketching of men dancing or running. By a 
careful study of these pictographs and rock-etchings, much rel- 
ative to these people can be obtained, although many of the sym- 
bols are not decipherable. Indeed, it has not been proved that 
there was any regularity or method in thus recording events; 
we know not whether each historian used a peculiar mode of his 
own for the transmission of ideas, or whether there was a recog- 
nized plan which'the most educated of the tribe adopted. 

I noticed that throughout those ancient inscriptions which are 
undoubtedly coeval with the ruined buildings and which appear 
in their vicinity, a common representation was that of an animal 
closely resembling the domestic goat. This may have been in- 
tended for the Rocky Mountain sheep or big-horn, as this animal 
was plentiful throughout the country four centuries ago, although 
now it does not occur along the valley of the San Juan River. 
The horns are represented as long, heavy, and curved backwards. 
As the goat is not indigenous to America, the flocks or herds of 
the ancients consisted probably of some of the domesticated wild 
animals which abounded in that country. The Rocky Mountain 
goat is in reality an antelope; the big-horn once roamed through 
Arizona and the mountains of New Mexico. We discover from 
the accounts of the early Spaniards, who penetrated through this 
country, that many tribes of Indians which peopled it possessed 
flocks and herds, though of what nature, we are not informed. 
Many of the natives clothed themselves in garments made of the 
hair of the wild sheep, while other tribes wore cotton clothing. 
Coronado in 1540 wrote of the country of Cibola or Zuñi, “ Here 
are also wild goats, whose heads likewise I have seen.” These 
were probably the Rocky Mountain goats or sheep. Gomara 
(another Spaniard) remarks in his history relative to this coun- 
try, about the same time, “ There are also great dogs which will 

fight with a bull, and will carry fifty pounds’ weight in sacks 


1876.] Rock-Inseriptions of “* Ancient Pueblos.” TIT 


when they go on hunting or when they remove from place to 
place with their flocks and herds.” 
he horse was not known to the natives of America at the 
time of the conquest, although remains of it occur in a fossil state. 
Therefore we find no representation of this animal in the ancient 
inscriptions. 
Throughout this entire country the Navajo Indians and the 
Utes and Pah-utes have covered the walls of bowlders with rep- 
resentations of more recent date, in which the horse figures con- 
spicuously ; but these inscriptions can be readily distinguished, 
by an experienced eye, from those possessing on their very faces 
the impress of centuries. Indeed, some of them have become 
entirely effaced, and others are so nearly obliterated that it is 
only after the most careful study and the most attentive observa- 
tion that they can be at all distinguished. We do not find in 
this section many painted or colored representations ; the major- 
ity of them are etched or engraved in the rock by the agency of 
stone implements, such as chisels, awls, etc. In the vicinity of 
nearly every important congregation of structures these are com- 
mon on the cliffs and vertical rock-faces. Often they are found 
in the most inaccessible places and in the neighborhood of the 
More dangerously located cliff-dwellings. Sometimes they can 
be descried on a perpendicular wall at a height of hundreds of 
2 feet, between the valley below and the summit of the mesa above, 
_ but how they could have been cut there we are at a loss to con- 
= jecture. They must have been engraved in such cases either . 
_ from the top of a very long ladder, or by the operator bin e 
pended from above by a long rope of rawhide or sinew; OT ; ne 
_ May have been, long ago, ledges in the now smooth re of e 
_ Teck, and steps may have led up to the summit. Suc 5 os s 
= “essible inscription I noticed on a high wall on the north ba 
the San Juan River, above the Rio de Chelly. The -L 
resented three immense centipedes, being several feet each m 
length, and situated at least two hundred feet above the L 
The snake, turtle, and frog are common objects in wi me 
: glyphics, and these animals were probably held in veneration : y 
the ancients, just as they are now by their descendants 1n j 
i i ; he lesser divinities 0 
exico and Arizona, being looked upon as t Cois ea 
_ Water. Rude human figures and hands, and feet 0 dea 
Animals, such as the eagle or bear, are numerous, but -e 
T Monest and most suggestive likeness is that of the aunn Nee 
A many of the ruins and frequently sae the walls abov 


718 Rock-Inseriptions of “ Ancient Pueblos.” (December, 


houses are these representations to be seen in great numbers. 
They have been formed by placing the outspread palms against 
the rock and spattering mud or paint around them, leaving an 
accurate and natural-sized outline of the original. These we 
noticed of all sizes, frequently in pairs, with the thumbs touching. 
It is impossible to say whether they were intended to convey 
any particular idea, or whether they were daubed on the walls 
in idle moments. However, they are the most instructive ob- 
jects of the ancient picture-writing, and give the ethnologist an 
important clew to the original people, in the shape, size, and ap- 
pearance of the hands. We can see that some of them (prob- 
ably those of children and females) were symmetrical, delicately 
molded, and beautiful, while many more (undoubtedly those of 
the adult laborers) were large, rough, and powerful. These oc- 
cur more particularly in the Casa del Eco (a cave-house on the 
San Juan) and above a collection of cliff ruins near Epsom 
Creek, in Utah. The illustration (Figure 61) will convey a better 
idea of them. 

Just to the west of Ute Mountain, on 
a bowlder of rock near the old Indian 
trail leading down the McElmo arroyo, 
in Southwest Colorado, is an ancient 
inscription representing a man, two deer 
or elk, and several characters intended 


' (Fig. 61.) ANCIENT HAND- : j 
PRINTS ON THE ROCKS, NEAR for either the feet or the foot-prints of 


er ee TIS a human being, or of a bear (Figure 62). 


Now as there are deer and bear on the neighboring mountain, 
this may be the record of an event, and may possibly be translated 
thus: A hunter, observing the tracks of a bear, trailed him some 
distance, and instead of discovering the bear overtook two deer 
or elk, which he slew. The figures may be intended for either, 
probably the latter, one full-grown and the other smaller. 

There have been no written accounts discovered among the 
remains of the “ Ancient Pueblos,” 1 nothing but these hiero- 
glyphics, and by the employment of the latter symbols the In- 
n in New Mexico, 
“They formerly had the art of writing, but appear to have lost it in their many me 
tations. They preserve one book, but the last man who could read it pee! 


covered with characters and drawings in red, blue, green —squares, 
cles, serpents, eagles, plants, flying monsters, and hideous human heads. asi 
their Caciques says it is the history of their race, and shows that they have 
fourteen times, this being their fifteenth place of settlement.” 


1876.)  Rock-Inseriptions of “ Ancient Pueblos.” 719 


dian i i 
; i : ` -s transmit accounts of their principal events 
pea n attles and unusual incidents of great cere- 
OAA nRT as, for instance, on the interior of the 
SA O -e-up, at the White River Agency, in North- 
; ade z observed the elaborate representation of a 
A ne ve tribe had been engaged against the 
isa e a mee were seven horses which had been captured, 
e ei quiver of arrows, an elegant red pipe made 
E rom the Coteau des Prairies and bound with 
s, and some furs and blankets, while the captors 


N 
: N 
ANES ANSY SS 
ZZ 
N 
A, S 


SASS 


INSCRIPTION NEAR UTE MOUNTAIN, $,W.COLORADO. 
Fie. 62. 


(Fra. 62.) 


calps and other trophies dan- 

This was explained to me by 
and the foremost in 
place I noticed the 


in: ia riding behind with s 
l N ay their lances or spears. 
$ st, one of the head men of his tribe, 


d most interesting of ancient in- 
| of a rock situated beneath 
Hovenweep, where it 
Sheltered by an 


a a. the best preserved an 
“tome ek copied from the wal 
Gu nsive ruins in the valley of the 

e McElmo in Southwestern Colorado. 


- i o i o o i 4 mw 0- 0 . o 1 ‘ pees ) 
SB SHEEP SASBPSESP LF SESPsesst esses S22 B > BEES HES 2°75 
RD EMP o es aa Se eA ee ke aoe 60 2 See SS 
Ss 5 ; - 
PPegees F #HsGgtGStsys i Sund Shbdga Gee, eect = 
2 8S = Seed mart gpSbsa seo” ere ER o£. tee a. cae eS D es 
Se 2 C'S Som A 2 So ~S = a s A ES 3 adeg © = 
TER H a e a S346 Oro S Sree ee 
Ha o.ad Dig mY oo a 52 po ace SS Hg g 5 k zZ 5 o 
8 ee a a a e Ww a ee n g =] OH a eE 2 
a ‘Se g +2 Oe te gagga gzo WM aG mS Ct 3 8 is) = 
S +a o a = & o 2 — Sry = 5 Q o 3 o Q © So a O Boat 
a £ g 5 SS we ao oo sao O vo 2 aes ALD ao eS & = 
A e Q o Da oS 4 4 r N m oO B m o 
S PSPS e SH EE Ree tA E SETS r esses 
Reese eS eB ose ees a gs gogig Seese Bera Ces she 
E Sone wu Poe 8-3 6g PS Seas a eae oO oO: Oo SB a 
e mH SoHo SSCEGSE oo ESD g $2 3S SH ed Sous oa. 5 S 
N 5 em D $ 0 oe n © = Q 
EERE etc he S a ese N e E 
S De a a a we e a e a-o So Oo 7 4 » & Ba op P rtd eo 225 
SESE SHS eS gp FSET ST ow BS S2n3 Enney ee aie 
oy om ooo eS g o pe = © 2 Sek ‘Sn et oh a ia ow. O 
- pi k p oe e e e a 4s A a e a 6-5 2,5 ao 2aw ge a bo em — 
SCO ST SHYBPROKRHaZFOTSHS a S ear a6 & Bp =| oo ws & ~ 
pas g ‘cH Da g S = z D a2 D : : p ‘ g p 
> BSRSPESPSPSASSEAESRASREHROS PSSka SS: FRESH 
N “OGYYO100'M'S ‘d33MN3AOH ANY OW7T3 OW IHL JO NOILONNT IHL LY GHOO3Y LNIIONV 
. Uy i, oe. 
5 L mg z UUO ZZ, A KG, Lp 7> =f 
f R Ladf AA Y 
| ep 4 K GY ý 
S s Q 7 YA : Re smi 
RS We Qld pe 


f 
Q y 


tz 


3 IRVA 
Le A 
g a A 


SN INS 


UR 


720 


= 1876.] Rock-Inscriptions of “ Ancient Pueblos.” 721 


Sit pis ota in aoe 


_ May represent monkeys, although from their 
. they resemble more a pair of tailed human 
. ‘ Occur two animals resembling huge lizards ; 
: intended for disproportioned sand-lizards, & 


- Figure 10 is comparatively ancient, somewha 
— Prevalent patterns to be seen on the ancient po 


_ ` more modern, as may be seen from the presen 
; 46 


a mastodon, a horse, a dog, anda man. Their heads are turned 
to the east, and this may commemorate the passage of the abo- 
tigines of the Gila on their way south.” Tt is evident, however, 
that these etchings were of comparatively recent date, from the 
presence of the horse, unless the figure was designed for some 
other animal, which seems probable. The presence of the mas- 
todon is also extremely doubtful, and we must indeed stretch our 
imaginations in order to believe that this ancient animal was 
known to these people and pictured in their hieroglyphs, for 
although their antiquity may be great, they certainly do not 
date back to the quaternary period. 

Mr. W. H. Holmes, in charge of one of the branches of the 
United States Geological Survey of the Territories, discovered a 
number of singular inscriptions, some of them evidently of mod- 
em workmanship, but many of them of almost undoubted antiq- 
uity. Figures 1, 2, and 3, Plate XIII., were copied from the rocks 
near the Mancos in the vicinity of some of the cliff-houses. The 
majority of these figures were intended to portray the human 
form, though in grotesque shapes and attitudes. In Figure 2 
may be seen one or two representations of animals, though what 
they may have been designed for it is impossible to determine. 
Figures 4, 5, and 6 occur near the others, painted in red and 
white clay. Mr. Holmes thinks that ‘these were certainly done 
by the cliff-builders, and probably while the houses: were 1n 
Process of construction, since the material used is identical with 
the plaster of the houses. The reproduction is approximately 
one twelfth the size of the original.” The remainder of the 

gures on this plate and those given on Plate XIV. were seen 
ten miles below the mouth of the Rio la Plata, on the San Juan 
River, All of them have been etched in the rocks, and m 
bodies of the figures have been generally chipped out, ie oe 
to a depth of a quarter or a half of an inch. In — g 
Plate XIII. we can distinguish several objects, as a bird, a deer, 


uh tal atter 
several fanci i men with tails. These lat 
anciful designs, and two oo ur ppiiin 


beings. In Figure 
they are probably 
nd not alligators. 
o drawing of a horse. 
t resembling the — 
ttery. Figure 9 
ce of the horse. 


re 11 is without doubt a recent Navaj 


YOL, X.— No. 12 


1876] Rock-Inscriptions of “* Ancient Pueblos.” r+ 
In Plate XIV., Figure 1 isa procession of animals, the majority 
representing deer and elk. The inscription is possibly intended 
to chronicle a great migration of an ancient tribe with their 
flocks and herds. At ¢ is what appears to be a reindeer draw- 
ing a sledge which contains two human figures. Might not 
this be the record of a traditionary migration from the north? 
Through the procession are scattered men and birds, and two 
winged figures at b b seem to be hovering in the air. Ata are | 
two long-tailed animals resembling the American panther; they 
seem to be entering a trap. The whole picture is about one 
twelfth of the original in size. i 
Figures 2 and 3 are copies of portions of considerable inscrip- 
tions, these being the least obscure. They are evidently very 
old, and in many places almost obliterated. In Figure 2 can be 
distinguished several birds at a a a, the lower two in all like- 

lihood representing eagles; b is an unknown animal, possibly a 

bear; cis a geometrical design for ornamentation ; d may be a 

representative of the family of marsupials, and e a man. The 

figures of the etching are so complicated that it is difficult to 

distinguish many of them. In Figure 3 is a representation of a 

Rocky Mountain sheep at a ; b resembles either a llama or a female 

deer; ¢ and d are distorted images of the human form. There 

we also prints of birds’ feet, and the upper figure appears more 
= like a comet than anything else. ; ; 

__ From the preceding remarks we see that the ancients possibly 
i Tepresented several animate objects, which do not occur within 
the limits of the United States. It would seem, then, that they 

eld communication with other tribes in widely separated sec- 

_ tions. The presence of the reindeer makes it appear highly 
Probable either that the people had reached their southern homes 
from the far north, or that they had at least held intercourse at 

_ She time with northern tribes. If we can identify the te 

their inscriptions, we establish the fact that they pre 

_ With the people of South America. This, HoE ES sie 

Of doubt, and we can arrive at no satisfactory conclusion from a 


Careful Rae ures. , 
examination of such rude fig EA etrable obscurity, 
re and doubt. 


| 1876.] Microscopy at the International Exhibition. 725 


of the ruins, are entirely obliterated by the ravages of centuries. 
We can simply go back a few hundreds of years and infer that 
these inscriptions may have been copied from still older ones, 
which have long since disappeared. 

These discoveries are the results of the explorations of several 
parties of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey 
= of the Territories, in charge of Prof. F. V. Hayden, and Plates 
_ XIll.and XIV. have been kindly furnished to me by him for this 
paper, 


MICROSCOPY AT THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 
BY R. H. WARD, M. D. 


P briefly reviewing the microscopes exhibited at the Ameri- 
can Centennial Exhibition, just closing at Philadelphia, it 
will be convenient to classify them in three more or less natura 
groups: the Continental, English, and American. All these 
classes are largely and characteristically represented by the most 
interesting and in many cases by the most distinguished exam- 
ples of their kind, affording to microscopical students the best 
_ portunity yet furnished in this country to study and compare 
the various types and qualities of tools available for their mon 
It will be expedient to mention first, however, a few isolate 
and unclassifiable exhibits which are still of sufficient interest to 
F mand a passing notice, such as a very small upright papo 
_ tional microscope of no well-marked character, from Switzerlan ; 
- 4 small instrument from Tokio, Japan, which is evidently m 
early if not a first attempt, and a not unsuccessful nne; yap 
: of unpretending form and crude workmanship, to imitate = 
| struments in vogue in this country a score of years ago : ” : * 
' — Couple of large, clumsy instruments one 0 
. “i Montreal and the other in the a S ap 
oronto, of which it can only be hoped taa 3 
_ Rpresent the sion” te on our Canadian friends, since si 
_ te wholly devoid of any evidence of the spirit of gia 
Which has so fully and so fortunately changed the ees po 
from a Piece of furniture to a tool for scientific work, an nye a 
act excellent illustrations of what a microscope ought no% 1 
“œ educational purposes. 5 
: The oraa AA are chiefly negepoenied by 1 ee 
- hibit of Nachet, of Paris, whose compact, ingenious, ela pe ie 


a 
< roughly built instruments are present 1m large nu 


726 Microscopy at the International Exhibition. [December, 


great variety, constituting, with one exception perhaps, the most 
exhaustive exhibit in our department. Besides the familiar Na- 
chet stands, large and small, monocular and binocular, for one 
observer and for more than one, and of course the inverted mi- 
croscope of Prof. J. L. Smith, which the manufacturer never 
_ should have allowed to pass as his own, there are dainty pocket 
microscopes in cases of wood or nickel-plated metal, clinical, 
tank, and dissecting microscopes, and a few accessories, which, 
though not absolute novelties, are at least not usually seen on 
sale in this country. The most conspicuous and possibly the most 
worthless article in this exhibit is a huge inverted microscope, as 
big as a small stovepipe, in which great amplification is gained by 
means of the great distance between the ocular and the objective. 

Bardou and Son of Paris also exhibit, in connection with a 
large display of telescopes and other optical goods, one large in- 
strument of the French style, having no important characteris- 
tics, and a few inferior instruments. 

Austria is represented by S. Plossl & Co., of Vienna, whose 
little case contains a compact histological microscope of excellent 
design and attractive appearance. In place of a rack, a pair o 
arms attaches the body to the milled heads near their circumfer- 
ence, changing the rotary to a plunging motion, as if the driving 
wheel of a steam-engine moved the piston rod, and giving a very 
delicate adjustment just as the body approaches a state of rest. 
Accompanying this instrument is a clinical one, of the German 
style and far simpler than the French, English, or American 
forms. 

The handsomest case of instruments in the English depart- 
ment, and indeed in the whole exhibition, is that contributed by 
the Ross house, of London. Less than this could hardly be true of 
a finely finished show-case well filled with their almost unequaled 
workmanship. With the exception of the new Wenham adap- 
tation of the Jackson form of stand, and the series of new Wen- 
ham objectives which are understood to have been entered for 
competition and then permanently removed from the exhibition 
and the country, there is but little in the exhibit that would 
called novel, most of the forms seen being the familiar and 
standard styles of several years past. No better commenda 
tion of the new stands, whose beauty is universally conceded, 
could be desired than is furnished by the old style Ross stands 
exhibited by their side. Notwithstanding the solid workman- 


ship of the latter, and the care with which they were doubtless 


e N a A ae a A ae 


Pet ea EREA NST i 


- 1876.] Microscopy at the International Exhibition. T27 


packed for transportation, the transverse bar which joins the 
body to the rack has in nearly every case given way under some 
unfortunate jar and become hopelessly though not conspicuously 
deformed. The untimely removal of -the set of comparatively 
unfamiliar objectives from the exhibition could not have been an 
intentional breach of courtesy or propriety, but was certainly an 
unfortunate mistake on the part of both the proprietors who 
desired and the officials who permitted it. | 
l R. and J. Beck’s exhibit is perhaps the most complete in the 
exhibition, but is so badly displayed as to present a scarcely 
| attractive appearance. The large number of standard forms 
_ and the numerous and convenient accessories made by this firm 
| have been so extensively exhibited and sold in this country that 
their peculiarities are well known. The chief novelties are a 
much-needed addition of centring and rotating adjustments to 
the substage, and a showy introduction of aluminium mountings 
in some of the stands. 
Henry Crouch, of London, also exhibits a full series of instru- 
ments characterized by a greatly improved quality of moderate- 
priced work, a class of work for which there is an increasing ap- 
Preciation and a growing demand. His best stands of medium 
size lack scarcely any advantage as compared with far more 
clumsy and costly first-class stands. His variety of accessories 18 
large and well selected, showing an earnest endeavor to adopt 
the best novelties from every source. His manufacture of a small 
histological instrument, with short body, low stage, and horse- 
shoe base, after the Continental method, is one more evidence of 
ments are regarded in 
t is sold at a price greatly 


. 
: 
i 
l 
i 
; 
; 
7 
; 
l 


aE 


be said that along = 

- ispl: ‘i f microscopes, of whi 
er goods they display a small variety 0 - aa 

and so does its 


ge case of accessories. Precisely the same ya 
plied, except as to numbers, to the two huge 10$ 
4 nepal the smaller of which 1s, 
arge for e. isti 
rae ot PA pam though not 35 pee 
Soup as the other two, is mentioned separately spe tt pee 
4 well as on account of some peculiarities wn a hibit of 
have in common. Certainly first among aheso isthe STT 


728 Microscopy at the International Exhibition. [ December, 


Joseph Zentmayer, of Philadelphia, who offers the most elaborate 
and elegant instruments as well as the largest variety of different 
forms. His ingenious contrivances and excellent brass-work are 
too familiar to need description. He shows the large American, 
intermediate, hospital, and clinical stands, and the new student’s, 
introduced a few years ago to meet the demand for histological 
instruments ; also a material modification of the American, in- 
troduced this summer and known as the model, having the three 
new features of a fine adjustment by a long slide close behind 
the rack and moved by a screw and lever nearly in the Ross 
position, an interchangeable stage which can be almost instantly 
removed and replaced by an extremely thin diatom stage, and a 
bar, which carries the substage and mirror, hinged at the level 
of the plane of the stage so as to enable the illuminating appara- 
tus to revolve with facility and in an easily measured position — 
around the object as a centre. He also exhibits a new pocket 
microscope of neat and apparently serviceable construction. 

T. H. McAllister’s case, in the photographic building, exhibits 
his two or three grades of instruments, with chain movements, 
thin stages, and often iron bases, built with a view to both econ- 
omy and excellence; and also a new-model physician’s micro- 
scope, which is literally a charming little instrument, very porta- 
ble and handsome, and combining with most of the excellencies 
of the maker’s former work the Zentmayer glass sliding stage 
and the diaphragm in the stage close to the object. The object- 
ives furnished with it vary from fair to the best, according to 
the pecuniary views of the purchaser. The accessories are of the 
usual forms. 

Bausch and Lomb, of Rochester, who have lately added to the 
province of the Vuleanite Optical Instrument Company, of that 
city, a microscopical department, under charge of E. Gundlach, 
formerly of Germany and late of Hackensack, N. J., exhibit a 
large series of entirely new designs. These are all of excellent 
workmanship, though of low or medium grade as to size, com- 
plexity, and cost. By simplifying the designs, introducing vul- 
canite into the mountings where it can be done to advantage, and 
introducing the business principle of attempting to create a large : 
demand by production at a very low cost, the experiment of of- - 
fering good instruments at a very low rate is being tried on & 
scale and with facilities unprecedented in this country. The 
special peculiarities of these stands, aside from the n 
mountings, are the hinging of the substage bar at the level 


EE ET EE aa i A E T 


1876.] Microscopy at the International Exhibition. 729 


the object, contesting in this respect the priority with Zent- 
mayer’s new stand; a new object carrier, which with some im- 
provements may be convenient ; a new fine adjustment, by means 
of a screw acting on the body, which is supported at the end of 
two parallel horizontal springs, which allow a peculiarly smooth 
motion practically incapable of deterioration from wear or any 
other probable cause; and a coarse adjustment, consisting of a 
slide at the upper part of its course, and, below, a rapid screw 
which prevents pushing the body suddenly through the slide, 
and, without interfering with a prompt adjustment of low powers 
by sliding, gives a delicate adjustment for higher powers by 
screwing. This method is evidently a modification of Wales’ 
oblique slot. 

George Wales’ new student's microscope is exhibited by the 
Stevens Institute of Technology. This is indeed an educational 
microscope and not a burlesque on the claim of the instrument to 
educational value. It is a small and compact stand, of the con- 
tinental style, with horse-shoe base and low stage, of most sub- 
stantial workmanship, adopting the Zentmayer glass stage, and 
Introducing an original coarse adjustment by means of a sliding 
tube with the addition of a pin moving in an oblique slot and giv- 
ing a rapid and very steady and safe adjustment by means of a 
screwing movement, and an iris diaphragm capable of being used 
alter the continental plan close to the object slide, consisting of 
a thin split tube whose blades are overlapped ae 
Closed by being screwed up into a dome-shaped cavity 1m the bot- 


tom of the stage plate. The instrument is furnished with Wales’ 


excellent lenses. 
James W. Queen & Co. exhibit their instruments, which are 
of the English type, reduced and adapted to the student's micro- 
Scope grade, and aim rather to combine well-known scien 
mto a good and popular instrument, than to introduce novelties 
of construction. . 
The instruments by W. Y. McAllister, in the mere 
State Educational Exhibit, do not seem to suggest any of the 
_ Progress of recent years. ae 
A set of William Wales’ exquisite lenses was genes på 
Mr. Zentmayer, but was unfortunately allowed to be prematurely 


removed from the case isitor 
oe . . to 

| Several makers are conspicuous by their picesee® pr 
to this department would have been glad to see e as omni 
Powell, and Lealand, and the German makers, well repr ; 


ie aa NE y 


730 Spontaneous Generation. [ December, 


and many felt disappointed at the absence of Spencer, of Tolles, 
and of Grunow, having very reasonably expected that such promi- 
nent American makers would from motives of fitness and courtesy, 
if not of interest, contribute their share to the completeness of the 
International Exhibition. It would have been peculiarly appro- 
priate, in view of their undisputed excellence and their high 
claims, that the new duplex front objectives of Tolles should 
have been placed in comparison with the world’s other lenses, 
while the unhandsome insinuation which is being extensively 
printed in advertisements, that they are not at the exhibition be- 
cause they would not be properly examined there, must have 
been authorized without serious thought by the persons responsi- 
ble for it. It is well known that President F. A. P. Barnard, 
who was associated with such judges in this group as Profs. 
Joseph Henry, J. E. Hilgard, and others scarcely less distin- 
guished, gave his personal attention to the examination of the ex- 
hibits in this department. 

Among the objects, other than microscopes, of special interest 
to microscopists, may be classed the double-stained vegetable 
preparations by Dr. Beatty, the large series of fine mounted ob- 
jects by W. H. Walmsley, and the far from equal set of im- 
ported objects, both exhibited by James W. Queen & Co., and 
the more limited series of pathological specimens, by Dr. H. N. 
Krasinski, in the Russian department; the already famous ma- 
chine for micro-ruling on glass, by Professor Rogers ; the hitherto 
unequaled photo-micrographs, by Dr. J. J. Woodward, exhibited 
by the Army Medical Museum, and the good though less pretend- 
ing attempts in the same direction, by Dr. Carl Seiler, in the pho- 
tographic building ; and the large, interesting, and carefully pre- 
pared series of minute fungi, with tinted drawings of the same, 
» contributed by Mr. Thomas Taylor to the exhibit of tle de- 
partment of agriculture in that most creditable portion of the 
whole exhibition, the United States Government Building. 


BASTIAN AND PASTEUR ON SPONTANEOUS GENERA- 
TION. 


BY HENRY J. SLACK. 

N the number of Comptes rendus for July 10, 1876, is a paper 
by Dr. Bastian, On the Influence of Physico-Chemical Forces 
in the Phenomenon of Fermentation, intended to demonstrate, 
in opposition to the theory of atmospheric germs, that certain 


1876. | Spontaneous Generation. 731 


organic liquids contain complex chemical bodies which are capa- 
ble of organization, and form different kinds of bacteria. 

In support of these notions he recites experiments on urine 
caused to boil and screened from the influence of atmospheric 

ms. To determine the production of bacteria in this urine he 
introduced potash and oxygen, and subjected it to 122° F. He 
states that in numerous trials, urine previously rendered sterile 
and heated as just stated gave rise to bacteria. He found that 
a temperature of 122° F., though not generally considered favor- 
able to fermentation, was so to the development of bacteria in 
urine and some other organic liquids. 

In the autumn of 1875, he says, he found that urine, normal 
and acid, rendered sterile by ebullition, became fertile in two or 
three days when exactly saturated by potash, without other con- 
tamination, and after being exposed to an elevated temperature. 
He further states that he took the most minute precautions to 
avoid the influence of germs that might have been in the potash 
or on the walls of the vessels employed, as well as those which 
the air might carry. 

He also states, with regard to the influence of oxygen, that 
urine rendered sterile, neutralized by potash, and subjected to 
electric action through platinum wires, gave remarkable results, 
fermenting rapidly at 122°, and becoming filled with bacteria 1m 
| from seven to twelve hours. He considers that these aparina 

overthrow the atmospheric-germ theory, and cites Tyndall to t ; 
effect that bacteria germs are destroyed by a temperature © 
212° maintained for a minute or two, as was the case with the 


fluids he used. 

In Comptes rendus for July 17th, M. Pasteur makes a yeu 
Polite reply, tinged with a little irony, in the remark that the 
heterogenists are more fortunate than the inv 
motion, in the lengthy attention they have ae 
tific bodies. In the domain of mathematical sciences it is, 
Says, possible to demonstrate that certain propos! 
xue, but natural sciences are less Oe aa ee: 


Mathematician may disdain to cast his eye upo pen 
or perpetual motion ; 


excites public opinion, be- 
tate of science to prove 4 
f life can take place by a jump, 
Without the i i f a similar life. | 

previous existence 0 : ae 
When any observer announces that he has discovered the 


732 Spontaneous Generation. [ December, 


ditions capable of causing the spontaneous origin of life, he is 
sure of the prompt adhesion of the systematic supporters. of his 
doctrine, and of raising a doubt in the minds of others, who have 
acquired only a superficial knowledge of the subject. This is the 
more the case when an author, like Dr. Bastian, occupies an im- 
portant position, has literary and dialectic talent, and brings for- 
ward conscientious researches. l 

During the twenty years he has worked at this question, M. Pas 
teur says he has not been able to discover any life not preceded 
by a similar life. The consequences of such a discovery would 
be incalculable. Natural sciences in general, medicine and phi- 
losophy in particular, would receive an impulse of which no one 
could foresee the consequences, and if any one succeedsin reaching 
such a result, he would welcome the happy investigator on his 
operations being proved. At present his attitude is one of defi- 
ance, as he has so often shown how readily able men make mis- 
takes in this difficult art of experimentation, and what danger 1s 
connected with the interpretation of facts. 

Let us see, he exclaims, whether Dr. Bastian has known how 
to escape these two rocks. He then cites the title of Dr. Bas- 
tian’s paper and his chief remarks, and adds that he hastens to 
declare that the experiments described would usually give the 
results that are stated, and that he need not have operated ata 
temperature of 50° C., as at 25° or 30°, and even lower, boiled 
urine rendered alkaline by potash in a pure atmosphere becomes 
filled with bacteria and other organisms.” If Tyndall, as Dr. 
Bastian says, thought this was not so, it must have been through 
forgetfulness. Dr. Bastian cannot be unaware that the experi- 
ments he has just communicated to the academy, or at least ex- 
periments of the same kind, were made by me, and published be 
a memoir in 1862, entitled On Organic Corpuscles which exist 
in the Atmosphere: an Examination of the Doctrine of Sponta- 
neous Generation. I demonstrated in this paper (pages 58, 66) 
that acid liquids which always become sterile by a few minutes 
exposure to 100° C. are made fecund if we communicate to them 
a slight alkalinity. The novelty introduced by Dr. Bastian ™ 
having recourse to a temperature of 50° C. is only apparent, since 
this condition is superfluous. There is, then, between us only a 
difference in the interpretation of facts common to both. Dr. 
Bastian says these facts prove spontaneous generation, and I sis 
ply, Not at all ; they only demonstrate that certain germs of 3m- 
ferior organisms resist a temperature of 100° C. in neutral an 


Sree 1 einige 


es beads 
iss art pil Sie ee ed ee 


Sterile if a certain quantity 


1876. ] Spontaneous Generation. : 783 


slightly alkaline solutions, doubtless because under such conditions 
their envelopes are not penetrated by the water, and that they 
are so if the medium in which they are heated is slightly acid. 
In reference to this I will recall that the workmen of Rouen, as 
M. Pouchet informed us, noticed that certain seeds attached to 
wool coming from Brazil germinated after four hours’ exposure 
to boiling water, and M. Pouchet proved that when the germi- 
nation occurred after such treatment the grains had preserved 
their natural size, their hard, horny eùvelope not having been 
penetrated by water or steam ; when the contrary was the case, 
germination was impossible. With regard to germs disseminated 
in atmospheric dust, I proved that they perished in an acid me- 
dium at 100° C., but they remain fertile if the medium is alka- 
line. (See page 65 of my paper.) 

“Tf Dr. Bastian wishes to assure himself of his errors of inter- 
pretation, he can easily do it. He obtains bacteria by saturating 
boiled urine with potash. I simply suggest that instead of em- 
ploying an aqueous solution of potash, he should drop into the 
urine solid potash after making it red-hot, or even only to 110° C. 
His experiment will then never succeed ; that is, he will obtain 
no formation of bacteria in urine exposed to 30°, 40°, or 50° C. 
The conclusion he has drawn from our common experiments 15 
thus inadmissible, for it would be absurd to pretend that the 
primum movens of life is in melted caustic potash. Such is the 
way of obtaining a decisive result. In one word, I only ask Dr. 
Bastian to eliminate the bacteria germs which were contained in 
the aqueous solution of potash he employs. If Dr. Bastian finds 
it difficult from the apparatus he uses, and does not describe, to 
bring the potash to a red heat previous to cooling it and drop- 
ping it as a solid into the urine, let him, instead of heating 1t to 
100° C., heat it to 110° C., and he will then find sterility if he 
Operates with vigorous accuracy. If he still preserves jars doubts, 
let him suppress the preliminary condition of causing the sane 
to boil; for it is a remarkable fact that urine in its absolutely 
normal state as it leaves the bladder of a healthy man remains 
of potash is dropped into it, with the 
d in chapter jii. of my recent work 
atmospheric germs. Dr. aso 
possible. I entertain the firm hope that he w mes 
i tinncts generation and in the proofs he supposes ° 


uced.’ ? 


precautions I have describe 
on beer, to avoid contact with 


734 Destruction of Birds by Telegraph Wire. [December, 


M. Pasteur at the close of his paper stated verbally that, al- 
though the urine of a healthy man contains no extraneous germs 
of organic bodies, in most cases it comes into contact with such 
germs at the moment of its emission at the extremity of the ure- 
thral canal, or in the surrounding air. He also described the very 
simple apparatus he employed to repeat Dr. Bastian’s experi- 
ments with decisive results. It is a pity that no details of this 
are given in Comptes rendus. , 

Dr. Bastian’s reply to Pasteur’s criticism, and the latter’s re- 
joinder, will be found in Comptes rendus for July 31st and 
August 7th ; they add nothing to the preceding. — Monthly Mi- 
eroscopical Journal, October. 


THE DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS BY TELEGRAPH WIRE. 
BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S. A. 
TR is a subject which has already attracted deserved atten- 
tion in Europe, and I believe that much has been said about 
it, particularly by German writers. But in this country the 
facts in the case seem to have been to a great degree overlooked, 
or at any rate insufficiently set forth in the random notices which, 
like the accounts of the mortality caused by light-houses, have 
occasionally appeared. Yet the matter is one of much interest, 
as I shall here take opportunity to note. Few persons, probably, 
even among ornithologists, realize what an enormous number of 
birds are killed by flying against these wires, which now form a 
murderous net-work over the greater part of the country. Until 
` recently, I had myself no adequate idea of the destruction that 1s 
so quietly, insidiously, and uninterruptedly accomplished. My 
observations do not enable me to form even an approximate esti- 
mate of the annual mortality, and I suppose we shall never pos- 
sess accurate data; but I am satisfied that many hundred thou- 
sand birds are yearly killed by the telegraph. The evidence I 
shall present may be considered sufficient to bear out a seemingly 
extravagant statement. 

I recently had occasion to travel on horseback from Denver, 
Colorado, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, a distance of one hundred and 
ten miles, by the road which, for a considerable part of the way» 
coincided with the line of the telegraph. It was over rolling 
prairie, crossed by a few affluents of the South Platte, along the 
eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. The most abundant birds 
of this stretch of country, at the time (October), were horned 


187 6.] Destruction of Birds by Telegraph Wire. 735 


larks (Eremophila), flocks of which were almost continually in 
sight; and the next most characteristic species was Maccown’s 
bunting (Plectrophanes Maccownii). Almost immediately upon 
riding by the telegraph wire, I noticed a dead lark; and as I 
passed several more in quick succession, my attention was aroused. 
The position of the dead birds enabled me to trace cause and ef- 
` fect, before I actually witnessed a case of the killing. The bodies 
lay in every instance nearly or directly beneath the wire. A 
crippled bird was occasionally seen fluttering along the road. 
Becoming interested in the matter, I began to count, and de- 
sisted only after actually counting a hundred in the course of 
one hour’s leisurely riding — representing perhaps a distance of 
three miles. Nor was it long before I saw birds strike the wire, 
and fall stunned to the ground ; three such cases were witnessed 
during the hour. One bird had its wing broken ; another was 
picked up dying in convulsions from the force of the blow. 
The eyeballs of sevéral dead ones I examined were started from 
their sockets, and the feathers of the forehead were torn off, in- 
dicating a violent blow upon the head ; but in most cases there 
was left no outward mark of the fatal internal, injury. Along 
some particular stretches of wire where, for whatever reason, 
birds had congregated, the dead ones averaged at least one to 
every interval between the poles; sometimes two or three lay 
together, showing where a flock had passed by, and been deci- 
mated. The great majority of the birds destroyed consisted of . 
larks; I noticed perhaps half a dozen buntings, one nee 
starling (Sturnella magna neglecta), and oas green-winged ani 
(Querquedula Carolinensis). The proportion of larks a me : 
‘ably due in the main simply to their greater abundance ; bu 
presume that their singularly wayward, impulsive flight may 
have increased the risk of striking the wires. They were the 
only birds I saw knocked down; and I noticed, or fancied I 
noticed, some hesitation and confusion in their flight when the 
flocks crossed the line of wire. 
From ae facts, which I simply narrate, one may attempt to 
estimate, if he wishes, the extent of the destruction which, ae 
have already said, goes on incessantly. Given, one se 
dead birds to three miles of wire, all killed, perhaps, sses a 7 
week ; or, given three birds seen to strike and fall in an pe 
how many are annually killed by the telegraph seag i pw 
Uhited States? I should be'sorry to suppose, however, that *he 
rate of destruction I witnessed ig not at or near the maximum ; 


736 Recent Literature. [ December, 


for I have seldom seen more birds to the acre than during the 
day to which I particularly refer, and never under circumstances 
more likely to result in the disaster of which I speak. 

Usually, a remedy has been or may be provided for any unnec- 
essary or undesirable destruction of birds; but there seems to be 
none in this instance. Since we cannot conveniently abolish the 
telegraph, we must be content with fewer birds. The only moral 
I can discern is that larks must not fly against telegraph wires. 


RECENT LITERATURE. 


POWELL’S EXPLORATION or THE COLORADO River.’ SECOND 
Norice. — Our notice of the second part of this admirable report has 
been long deferred, but the portion on the structural geology of the re- 
gion possesses additional interest on account of the publication of Ma- 
jor Powell’s report on the geology of the Uinta Mountains, among 
which one branch of the Colorado, the Green River, takes its rise. As 
a contribution to the theory of formation of mountains the report is one 
of special interest. The Rocky Mountains, our author shows, have been 
carved out by rains and running water from a great block of sediment 
ary rocks which suffered erosion from the time of its first appearance 
above the sea. The peculiar form of the mountains is due largely to the 
soft nature of the rocks and the dryness of the climate. “Though little 
rain falls, that which does is employed in erosion to an extent difficult to 
appreciate by one who has only studied the action of water in degrading 
the land in a region where grasses, shrubs, and trees bear the brunt of 
the storm. A little shower falls, and the water gathers rapidly into 
streams and plunges headlong down the steep slopes, bearing with it loads 
of sand, and for a few minutes, or a few hours, the district is traversed by 
brooks, and creeks, and rivers of mud..... When a great fold emerges 
from the sea, or rises above its base level of erosion, the axis appears 
above the water (or base level) first, and is immediately attacked by the 
rains, and its sands are borne off to form new deposits.” Thus the 
mountains have never perhaps been higher above the level of the sea 
than at present ; for example. the “ Uinta Mountains were not thrust up 
as peaks, but were carved from a vast, rounded block left by a retiring 
sea, or uplifted from the depths of the ocean, and their present forms a 
due to erosion ! ” 

As to the drainage of this plateau Mr. Powell concludes 
present drainage was established in rocks now carried away from °° i- 
higher regions, but [with remnants] still seen to be turned up agams 
the flanks of most of the ranges.” Thus the present river valleys m 

Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and its Tributaries, Explored. 
1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872, under the Direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution, Washington. 1875. 4to, pp. 291. With Map and Plates. 


“that. the 


1876.] `- Recent Literature. TƏT 


some cases are of great geological antiquity. The relation of the present 
river valleys to folds and faults is discussed at length. The author finds 
that the relation of the direction of the streams to the dip of the rocks 


seine 


= _ in 


(Fie. 64.) A DIACLINAL VALLEY. 


(Fie. 65.) A CATACLINAL VALLEY. 


i | ivi i orders, transverse and 
is very complex. He divides the valleys into two ademas 
varieties are noticed: diachnal 


longitudinal, Of the first order three : £ 
(Figure 64), those which pass through a fold; cataclinal (Figure 65), 
VOL. X.— No. 12. 47 


738 Recent Literature. - 


Me Shae 


pie Teoma: << SS 3 


(Fig. 67.) A SYNCLINAL VALLEY. 


1876.) Recent Laterature. 739 


valleys that run in the direction of the dip; anaclinal, valleys that run 
against the dip of- the beds. Of the second order there are anticlinal 
| valleys (Figure 66), which follow anticlinal axes; synelinal valleys 
2 (Figure 67), which follow synclinal axes ; and monoclinaf valleys, which 
en the direction of the strike between the axes of the fold — one 
: side of the valley formed of the summits of the beds, the other composed 
of the cut edges of the formation. This classification rests solely, the 
oN adds, on typical examples, one form often running into another. 
n ne who is quite ignorant of geology will find the report exceedingly 
| eresting, while the professional geologist, in whose hands the volume 
has now been for over a year, has doubtless profited by its perusal. 
3 Davies PREPARATION AND MOUNTING OF MICROSCOPIC OBJECTS. 
po ‘se compact manual of the art of preparing and mounting 
oily the és : sui we always supposed that the present one was prob- 
S A st. he second edition is a still more useful book, and has 
en specially adapted by the editor for the use of medical students and 
young practitioners. For general use, however, we can recommend it 
as a cheap and reliable book. 
a — ARD Martin's Brotoey.” — A notice, by; a most compe: 
Apri a - the first edition of this excellent manual appeared in the 
K.. mber of the NATURALIST. This second edition 1s issued at a 
price, and contains a number of corrections and alterations, the 
Pages having been entirely reset. 
oo ANUAL OF THE VERTEBRATES 
is. TATES. — To those desirous of a cheap m 
, ; ation of our land and fresh-water vertebrates, 
— EW recommend this book as well compiled and convenient, while. 
price makes it generally accessible. The characters of the classes 


OF THE NORTHERN 
anual for the ready 
we should unhesi- 


and orders are much abbreviated, and the generic char 
only such points have been gen- 
The classifica- 
t innovations 


aa . while for specific characters, e 
poaa as are distinctive as well as descriptive. 
oa i a on that of recent authors, and no importan 
I ave been suggested by the author. : $ 
pooier to test the part related to reptiles and batrachians we’ have 
- ponlified several species, before unknown to us, with ease and cer- 


~ Hy. The objection to such books as this is that the brief and con- 

Q den sed descriptions are apt to be unsatisfactory in critical cases, but as 

it 

ond a P reparation and Mounting of Microscopic Objects. By Tuomas Davies. Sec- 

Pat on greatly enlarged. Edited by J. MATHEWS, M.D. New York: G. P., 
i ons. 18 


Sse 


. mo, pp. 214. $1.25. i 
ae se of Practical PPAR Ae in Elementary Biology. By er pA ae 
Macmil] To. N ARTIN. d E vised. London an ew ; 
sM, an & Co. 1876. $2.00. : i oe 
pe of the Vertebrates of the Northern United States. Including the District 
the Mississippi River, and north of North Carolina and Tennessee, exclusive 
Tine Species. By Davip STARR JORDAN, © S. M. D. Chicago: Jansen, 
»& Co. 1876. 12mo, pp. 342. . 


east, 


740 Recent Literature. [ December, 


the author distinctly states that the manual is designed for “ collectors 
and students who are not specialists,” we do not see -but that the object 
has been gained, and the plan very well carried out. ; 


Recent Books anp PAamPuLETS. — Manuscript Notes from my Journal; or, Illus- 
trations of Insects, Native and Foreign. Order Hemiptera, Suborder Heteroptera, or 
Plant-Bugs. By Townsend Glover. Washington. 1876. 4to, 10 Plates, pp. 132. 

Report of Explorations across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utah for a 
Direct Wagon-Route from Camp Floyd to Genoa, in Carson Valley, in 1859. By 
Capt. J. H. Simpson, Corps of Topographical Engineers, U. S. A. Washington. 
1876. 4to, pp. 518. With Map and Plates. 

Report of the Exploring Expedition from Santa Fé, New Mexico, to the Junction 
of the Grand and Green Rivers of the Great Colorado of the West, in 1859, under 
the Command of Capt. J. N. Macomb. With Geological Report, by Prof. J. S. 
Newberry. U.S. Engineer Department. Washington, D. C. 1876. Ato, pp. 148. 
With Maps and Plates. 

Geological Survey of Michigan, Lower Peninsula. Palxontology. Fossil Corals. 
By Dr. C. Rominger, State Geologist. (Advance Copy, unrevised by the Author.) 
New York: Julius Bien. 1876. 4to, pp. 132. With 10 Plates. 

Le Helicopsyche in Italia. Lettera agli Entomologi Italiani di Carlo de Siebold. 
8vo, pp. 10. 

Report on the Geological Map of Massachusetts, prepared by W. O. Crosby, Prof. 
Alpheus Hyatt in Charge. Under the Direction of the Massachusetts Commission 
to the Centennial Exposition. Boston. 1876. Svo, pp. 52. 

Insects Injurious to the Potato and Apple. By Prof. G. H. Perkins, Ph. D. 
(From Third Report of State Board of Agriculture.) Rutland, Vt. 1876. 8v0, pP- 


46. 

Concerning the Fishes of the Ichthyologia Ohiensis. By David S. Jordan, M. S., 
M. (From the Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences.) Buffalo. 
1876. 8vo, pp. 7. 

Hydrographic Sketch of Lake Titicaca. By Alexander Agassiz. (Reprinted from 
the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, xi, 1876.) 8v0, 


Exploration of Lake Titicaca. By Alexander Agassiz and S. W. Garman. MI. 
List of Mammals and Birds. By J. A. Allen, with Field Notes by Mr. Garman. 
IV. Crustacea. By Walter Faxon. (Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology, iii. nos. 15 and 16.) July, 1876. 8vo, pp. 26. 

On the Development of the Crustacean Embryo, and the Variations of Form T 
hibited in the Larve of Thirty-Eight Genera of Podophthalmia. By C. Spen® 
Bate, F. R. S. (From the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.) 8v0, PP 

Die Aussern Lebensverhaltnisse der Seethiere. Von Prof. Carl Moebius. 
pp. 4- 

Check-List of Preparations and Objects in the Section of Human Anatomy a 
the United States Army Medical Museum. For use during the International Exhi- 
bition of 1876, in connection with the representation of the Medical Department 
United States Army. No. 8. By George A. Otis, M. D., U.S. A. Washingi™ 

D.C. 1876. 8vo, pp. 135. 

Hat Man in den interglaciiiren Ablagerungen in der Schweiz wirkliche § 
Menschen gefunden oder nur Spuren von Bibern. Von J. Steenstrup. (From Ar- 
` chiv fiir Anthropologie.) 1876. 4to, pp. 4. ue 
-The Prehistoric Remains which were Found on the Site of the City of Ginisa 
Ohio, with a Vindication of the “ Cincinnati Tablet.” By Robert Clarke. Cincin” 
nati, 1876. 8vo, pp. 34 


puren von A 


aaa ce 


__ Sxeept to gather supplies of the fern, which grows à 


N i 
€y are not continuous, but wherever stream 


a Aa E ME N PO iR 
AE ania pa T hope Suerte aa ee e Si tig Eads r a eam GD i a A a 
AOR Er rei le Raabe AAi t a E ly a tiny pe CE E 


and upward beyond their summits. 


-mits 


1876.] Geography and Exploration. 741 


GENERAL NOTES. 
BOTANY. 


Notes oN ALPINE AND SUBALPINE PLANTS IN Vermont. — Now 
that the frosts have seared vegetation here, and our mountains are white 
mth snow, I can make a full report to you of my summer’s work in bot- 
anizing. I have occupied myself chiefly with a careful examination of 
the higher mountains of Vermont, and find their plants much more Alpine 
v6 character than they have heretofore been credited with being, so that 
= the next edition of your manual you need not, in giving the distribu- 
tion of several species at least, skip over the Green Mountains in passing 
from the White Mountains to the Adirondacks. 

On the summit of Mount Mansfield I have found Diapensia Lapponica, 
Vaccinium cespitosum, and Asplenium viride, and on the summits of both 
Mansfield and Camel’s Hump, Polygonum viviparum, Salix Outleri, Naba- 
lus Bootii, and Aspidium fragrans. | 


plants than Willoughby itself. It is a narrow and deep gorge separating 
the bases of Mansfield and Sterling mountains. Through this “ pass 
runs a trail from Stowe Valley on the south to 
moille Valley on the north. It has long porne the name of “ 
Notch,” and will be remembered as thé place where Pursh first discovered 
Aspidium aculeatum var. Braunit. Several botanists, since Pursh’s 
day, have visited the station of this fern, — Tuckerman and Macrae and 


Frost, certainly, —- but like Pursh they seem not to have left the trail 
11 over the bottom of 


the valley. The floor of the defile is strewn with masses of sharply 


= 2 eet high on either side. Buta few rods fr 
€ right or left, we come to the foot of steep 


finer débris from the cliffs, and covered like the 
d other northern trees. It is 


the top of these 
. rise the perpendicular cliffs. These precipices 
of the pass for half a mile or more, being some 
more extensive on the western or Mansfield side than 
s 0 water fr 
ain-sides extending hi h 
g high above fall over them, 
l, they are b i fts and chutes receding far back- 
y are broken into by deep clefts aa ie Geis shest 
Precipices like rounded towers rise hundreds of feet, and their dry sum- 
are capped with a stunted growth of Abies ala. 
1 Conducted by ProF. G- L. GOODALE. 


742 General Notes. [ December, 


So, what with these dry and. exposed rocks, with recesses always 
moist and shaded, a great diversity of situation is offered to plants. In 
one or two places, where the shade is deepest and the supply of moisture 
most abundant and constant, grows Aspidium fragrans. (This I have 
several times met with this season, under two of the precipices of the sum- 
mit of Mansfield, at the base of the cliff of Camel’s Hump near Woodsia 
glabella, and about Indian Falls on the Winooski River, in a line be- 
tween these two mountains.) Asplenium viride, scarce under the south 
cliff of the summit of Mansfield, grows abundantly in thick tufts and mats 
all along the shaded bases of both the eastern and western cliffs, and 
in the deeper woods near by, and follows far up the mountain a stream 
which comes down from the “ Lake of the Clouds,” just below the sum- 
mit of the north peak of Mansfield. Saxifraga Aizoon, seen only at 
Willoughby in some score of specimens, in this region carpets the open 
slopes and shelves all over these cliffs, just as Antennaria plantaginifolia 
covers the soil of old sterile fields. S. aizoides clings to all the moist 
rocks wherever it can get a foothold, and S. oppositifolia is only a little 
less common. 

Of Woodsia glabella there is ten times as much here as Mr. Croydon 
and I found at Willoughby the past season, upon a close examination of 
the mountains on both sides of the lake, and it has planted itself in so 
many places impossible of access except to the birds that there is no 
danger of its ever being exterminated here. 

The following plants are scattered freely over the cliffs : Conioselinum 
Canadense, Artemisia Canadensis, Aster graminifolius, Hedysarum bore- 
ale, Astragalus alpinus, Carex scirpoidea, and Calamagrostis stricta. 

These three Willoughby. plants I did not observe: Arabis petræed, 
Draba incana, and Primula Mistassinica, though it is quite possible that 
a visit made earlier than August, when I first entered the valley, might 
be rewarded by the discovery of the latter. As an offset to these, how- 
ever, in the comparison of this Mansfield region with the Willoughby 
region we have, besides the two or three ferns already mentioned, Pin- 
guicula vulgaris almost as abundant as the Saxifrages. i 

When the fearful drought of the past summer was at its height I spent 
most® pleasantly several days in this cool and fresh mountain valley. 
Though I climbed to nearly every accessible place among the cliffs, I do 
not suppose I found every good thing the region holds. 

A Woodsia which I found on one of the cliffs of Mansfield, proves to 
be W. hyperborea. 

I also inclose a panicle of a Calamagrostis from Smuggler’s Notch, 
which, if it be not Langsdorffii, seems to me to be near that species: 
[It appears to be C. Langsdorffii. — A. G. 

The range of the following plants may be extended. I have picked up 
on the shore of Lake Champlain, Hierochloa borealis; on the shore 


of the lake in Shelburn, Vt., as well as about the Lake of the Clouds, 


1876.] Botany. 743 


= on Mansfield, Carex lenticularis, and on the banks of the Winooski 
River, a few miles above the station of Astragalus Robbinsii, that rare 
grass, Graphephorum melicuides. Also, in this vicinity, Vilfa vagine- 
fora, and northward, on the gandy plains near the lake, Eragrostis per- 
tinacea ; also on the lake shore, Physostegia Virginiana. — Communi- 
cated in a letter to Prof. A. Gray by C. G. PRINGLE. 

[Among Mr. Pringle’s interesting discoveries should also be enumer- 
ated the rare Habenaria rotundifolia, found by him at Monkton, Ver- 
mont. A. G.] 

Tar Two Brrrer-Sweets. — One of the greatest difficulties that per- 
sons ignorant of botany have to contend with is the confusion of English | 
names. Two plants, say, of very remote relationship or none at all, 
have come by some accident to be spoken of by the same title. An 
emigrant from the old country, finding a plant in the new that reminds 
him of home, calls it by the suggested name. Poss 
next county applies the same title to an entirely 
here, in the United States, one cannot depend upon 
differ according to the tastes and fancies of the giver. 
difficulty, science has established a fixed nomenclature 
civilized peoples. When a name is given in this technica 
understood in Russia or Switzerland as well as in America. : 

Our attention is at present attracted to this subject by the question 
_ which is put to us, “ What is the difference between the two plants 
called bitter-sweet?” The bitter-sweet (Solanum dulcamara) is a plant 
= of the nightshade family, with clusters of lilac or purple-colored, po- 
tato-like blossoms opening all summer. Generally one will find on the 
_ Same specimen both flowers and fruit, and the last in varying 

: of maturity. Green and bright translucent red 
: “ the same stem. Now, this climber or 
everywhere about dwellings or trailing over walls, e e P 
utely known to be poisonous, is still of doubtful relationship. z 
berries should be kept out of the hands of children. The plant is ad- 
Yentive from Europe, but is well established. ; a 
: The shrubby or climbing bitter-sweet Or staff-tree 15 per : 
“lous, the small greenish flowers appearing in June. The ape is s $ = 
t twiner, and often grows to a great heig 2 It is foun + sd 
Streams and lakes, and we have generally seen it fruiting best sig? pe: 
Water, It is the Celastrus scandens of botani id ae 
. Dlatraces. It sometimes has tho DON Tem of Roxbury wax 
son es en of SCRE ie peer ails of the seeds. 
* in late autumn open and reveal the sca cor sdesarations dis- 
vlusters of these fruits are very beautiful in winter er 
5 ped over pictures or mirrors. The well-known dail is 
mus) belongs to the same family. So far as We PWR er of the plants 
Rigg but the Euonymus is reputed dangerous. sap BAILET. 8 
< Own as bitter sweet is poisonous to the pad a t. T? 


] language it is 


744 General Notes. [ December, 


Tue Nutrition or Prants. — Sig. Cugini has recently contributed 
to the Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano a very elaborate paper on the 
alimentation of cellular plants. In his Text-Book of Botany, Sachs 
arranges the elements which are necessary to the nutrition of plants in 
three series, in the order of their importance, thus : — 

Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Sulphur. 

Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron. 

Phosphorus, Chlorine. 

Cugini would arrange them thus, in five series instead of three : — 
Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen. 
Sulphur. 
” Potassium, Phosphorus. 
Iron, Magnesium, 
on. 


Silic 
The modes in which these elements are combined before they can 
serve for the nutrition of the plant are expressed in the following table 
of the proximate food-materials of plants, — 
Organic carbon-compounds, 
Water, 
An ammoniacal] salt, 


N : r 
ecessaryY 4 Sulphates of potassium and iron, 
fails 


Phosphate of magnesiu 
An alkaline silicate. 
| Chloride é : 
odide pof sodium or potassium, 
Occasional 4 Bromid 
Phosphate, nitrate, or sulphate of calcium, 
Salts of zinc, manganese, and aluminium. 

Potassium the author considers to have an altogether different pae 
tion from that of any other element, and to bear a somewhat similar 
relationship to the carbohydrates to that which phosphorus bears to the 
albuminoids. Calcium he does not regard as an indispensable element. 
Iron must be considered so from its peculiar relationship to the coloring 
matter of chlorophyll. He is unable to assign any special function to 
magnesium, although it appears to be essential. — A. W. BENNETT. 

Tue Revative FERTILITY or Cross-FERTILIZATION AND SELF- 
FERTILIZATION. — It is generally known that Mr. Darwin has in hand 
a special work on this subject, to which he has devoted so much atten- 
tion. In the mean time the botanist who has probably, next to Darwin, 
contributed most to our knowledge of the relation of fertility to the 
mode of fertilization in plants, Professor Delpino, of Italy, has pub- 
lished the results of his own observations. He divides the mode of ferti- 
lization in different plants into the following kinds: (1-) The anthers 
pollinate and fecundate the stigma of.the same hermaphrodite ee 
homoclinic homogamy. (2.) The anthers pollinate and fecundate’ the 
stigma in another flower of the same inflorescence, whether the asian ) 
are hermaphrodite, unisexual, or polygamous: homocephalic homp 
(8.) The anthers of one flower pollinate and fecundate the sogen od 
flower belonging to a different inflorescence on the same individual, 
whether hermaphrodite, unisexual, or polygamous; mon@cvous han 


1876.] Zoölogy. 745 
amy. (4.) The anthers of a flower on any individual plant pollinate 
and fecundate only the flowers on a different individual, whether the 
flowers be hermaphrodite, polygamous, moneecious, or dicecious : dichog- 
artificial fecundation of plants 
in the four different modes indicate 
their relative fertility is in the inverse order to that in which they have 
been mentioned. Professor Delpino promises an additional paper on 
cleistogamous or closed self-fertilized flowers. — A. W. BENNETT. 
ALPINE PLANTS OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. — We are glad to call 
attention to the following announcement : — 
Collections of the Alpine and sub-Alpine plants of the White Mount- 
ains, N. H., containing more than fifty species, have been made during 
the past season, by William F. Flint and J. H. Huntington. 
The number of sets is limited to fifty. ‘They have been carefully 
arranged and ticketed, and will be sent by mail upon the receipt of five 
dollars ($5.00). Address William F. Flint, Hanover, N.H. (Box 348.) 
Botanica, Papers IN Recent PERIODICALS: — Comptes rendus, 
No. 8. Saintpierre and Magnieu, Researches on the Gas contained in 
the Fruits of Colutea arborescens. No. 9. De Luca, On the Alcoholic 
and Acetic Fermentation in the Fruits, Flowers, and Leaves of certain 
Plants. L. Fautrat, On the Influence exerted by Pine Forests on the 
. of Rainfall. No. 10. Renault, On the Silicified Plants of 
utun. 


; Flora, No. 26. Nylander, New Cuban Lichens (Species of Rama- 
lina) from Mr. Charles Wright's Collections. De Krempelhuber, New 

Brazilian Lichens. No. 27. De Thiimen, Fungi from South Africa. 
Botanische Zeitung, No. 37. Philippi, Notes 0n Fuchsia macro- 
stemma and its Near Relatives. Philippi, Note respectin s 
tion of Wood after Injury in Acacia decipiens. N® 88. - Reports © 
9. Salomonsen, On 


s; e pa E n L api a a a a a cea Pe 


Societies. Sorokin, On Morchella bispora. No. 3 
me Isolation of Different Forms of Bacteria. No. 40. Schen On Fos- 
sil Equisetacez. 
ZOOLOGY. : 
M. A. Maxwell, of Boulder, 


New SHELLS FROM Cotorapo.— M 


rs. 
f 
Colorado, exhibited at the Centennial Ex ia pa - 


hibition 4 la 
of a 


: er 
animals and birds which attracted a great d ape ; cee 
brought with her a box of miscellaneous land and fresh-water 80 

i ome at Boulder, which is @ 


w miles northeast of Denver; inati 
5535 feet ‘dy entrusted to me for examination, 
. These shells she kindly €® they add materially to the 

rt u 


and they seem to me worthy of notice, a8 e 
Previously known molluscan fauna of the State- In ae ples 
the Mollusks of Colorado, published by Dr. F. V. Hayden i A 

. H vey, y 
oo Report of the United States Geological and oscar Si with ae 
Yol ; 385-410. The Mollusks of the Rocky Mountains : opul : : 

ol. ix., May, 1876. 
vo 


746 General Notes. [ December, 


endeavored to give the entire list of mollusks then known to inhabit 
Colorado, and also all within the Great Plains on the east and the crests 
of the Sierra Nevada range on the west, these being the limits assigned 
by Mr. W. G. Binney to his “ Central Province.” “Tabulating the 
sum of the information open to me, and including my own summer's 
work, I found that one hundred and thirty-eight nominal: species had 
been recorded as occurring in this inter-montanic region. Of these 
forty-nine were also Californian species ; fifteen occurred also in the 
Eastern United States; eight hailed from the Colorado Desert; seven 
were found all over the continent, eight all over the world, and three 
belonged in the Eastern Province west of the Alleghanies only. This 
left forty-seven nominal species whose range, so far as yet known, is 
confined to the Central Province.” To this list I am now able to add 
six new names, as follows: ? Limnea lepida Gld. ? Physa inflata Lea. 
Planorbis bicarinatus Say. Goniobasis pulchella Anth. Goniobasis li- 
vescens Menke. Anodonta ? 

All of these are new not only to Colorado, but to the whole province, 
so far as I can ascertain, except Planorbis bicarinatus, which has been 
reported from the Yellowstone. It will be observed that all of these 
are Eastern forms, except the Anodon, which may turn out’ to be new, or 
related to Californian species. We very much need further collections 
from these mountainous territories, the least of which will cast some light 
upon the geographical distribution of our mollusks over the extensive 
and greatly diversified areas which they inhabit, the conditions which 
determine their being wide-spread or restricted in their range, and the 
variations which may manifest themselves in form or habit. 

Following is given a list of Mrs. Maxwell’s collection, with remarks : 

Zonites arboreus Say. Many specimens. Common in the State. 

Zonites fulvus Drap. Several specimens of this very common shell. 

Patula Cooperi W. G. B. Said to be abundant about Boulder, which 
is the first mention of its occurrence on the eastern slope of the range 
Among the large number of specimens several are marked very distinctly 
from all the rest with “ broader longitudinal and spiral patches of red- 
dish brown,” or burnt umber, as is mentioned in Binney’s original de- 
scription. They are difficult to distinguish from P. solitaria. As usual 
nearly all of the shells were found dead. The species seems to be dying 
out. : 

Patula striatella Anth. Four specimens. 

Helix pulchella Müll. Abundant. 

 Cionella subcylindrica L. A few. 

An exceedingly minute Vertigo with toothed aperture is represented 
by three specimens, but I cannot yet determine it. 

Succinea lineata W. G. B. Several specimens. 

Succinea Nuttalliana Lea, Two examples of a variety differing from 
the type mainly in having a smoother external surface. 


E EE NEE E K A EA S EE e EEEE 


1876.] Zoölogy. 74T 
? Limnea lepida Gld. Some young specimens, probably referable to : 
this species. 

Limnophysa desidiosa Say. Several specimens; not uncom 
that region. i 

Limnophysa humilis Say. Some examples of this shell, which is prob- 
ably numerous throughout the Territories. 

? Physa inflata Lea. Dr. James Lewis, who examined the fluviatiles 
of this collection, queries this identification, but admits that the type 
extends from Virginia to Colorado. Mr. Binney regards it as a syn- 
ha of P. heterostropha. There seem to be two specimens, of different 

Physa heterostropha Say. Many specimens 

near New York shells as well can be. It is har 

: Anakon here. Some of the specimens are thickly coated with rust 

d the iron-waters in which they have lived, and others with a white 
deposition accumulated from the water. They occur in great abundance 
everywhere among the mountains. 

There is a Bulinus which looks as if it might be a variety of B. 
hypnorum, but is scarcely identifiable with that species. 

a oon bis (Helisoma) plexata Ing. Three examples of this species, 
a escribed from my specimens, are among this lot, the largest and 

est one showing the twisted appearance very y. 

Planorbis bicarinatus Say. This well-known shell is now first re- 
ported from Colorado, but has been found on the Yellowstone. These 
examples are of average size. The common P. trivolvis is not included 
in this collection. 

_— parvus Say. Quantities of this shell, 


mon in 


pee ns KEAREN 


bP, oy a ma yao (eR aS 


of various sizes, but as 
d to draw the boundary 


a Ne SD E bere: ee AS Ree? Claas eet 


plain! 


eee, eet S a NN ees eel 
Tes eet eae maga i Be og 


very common in Col- 


diminutive Ancylus which it is 
sembles A. diaphana. 
haracteristic examples. 


i imperfect specimens represent a 
Go t to name, but which somewhat re 
ontobasis pulchella Anth. Several € 
Goniobasis livescens Menke. A number of specimens: 
agape There is a single W ed example of an 
ea to which Dr. Lewis says he know 
rown ones (not named) from California. I 
a eg smooth without, somewhat decort ep 
sta s, and lustrous blue within, changing 208 gos 
a al much smaller ones of similar shape; but lighter-color “a 
ipa may be the young of the former. J Dr. Lewis sugges 
ku ould prove to be an undescribed species, it OU; 
~tileated to the energetic naturalist i e and care We- 
f Colorado mollusks. 
e condition, of 


are i . . b 
indebted for this interesting collection O 
Two specimens 


opaa size, but varying somewhat from the w 
an itidium abditum Hald. A largo quantity of these shel 
_ Yastly abundant in places all through the West. — ERNEST INGERSOLL. 


748 General Notes. [ December, 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL News.— The Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Davenport, Iowa, has issued its first volume of proceedings, covering 
the time from 1867 to 1876. The volume is well illustrated by plates, 
chiefly archeological, and is certainly a praiseworthy effort by an infant 
society. There are a large number of archzxological papers reported, re- 
lating principally to mound explorations in the State and in Whiteside 
County, Illinois. The papers by Dr. Farquharson are of extraordinary 
merit, especially in those portions which relate to the copper axes and to 
the cloth wrappings found on many of them. 

The third number of the Revue d’ Anthropologie has appeared, rich in 
original matter and in reviews of progress. The first article is by M. 
Tissot, upon the megalithic monuments and the blonde populations of 
Morocco. The monuments are precisely similar in nature to those found 
in Western Europe and in Algiers, consisting of dolmens, tumuli, menhirs, 
and cromlechs. The inhabitants of Morocco consist of: (1) two races 
of European physiognomy, the one blonde, the other brown, correspond- 
ing to the two races, blonde and brown, found in France (Libyans par 
excellence) ; (2) a brown race with southern characteristics, but still 
European (Getules ?); (3) a brown race of Oriental origin (Numid- 
ians?) ; (4) a brown race, probably Berber, but crossed with the black 
race (Melano-Getules). 

M. Broca, the editor, follows up the paper of M. Tissot with a 
learned discussion of the relation of these megalithic remains to those 
of Algiers, particularly as settling the mooted questica of a migration 
into Africa through Sicily and Sardinia rather thar across the Straits of 
Gibraltar. M. Broca in referring to the blonde Berbers combats the 
theory of Shaw that they are the descendants of the Vandals of Gen- 
seric. From allusions in classic authors we are led to infer the presence 
of this blonde element for at least fifteen centuries B. c. The works of 
M. de Löher are referred to, and an address of congratulation to Lan 
quoted as an example of the slight evidence which will suffice a philol- 
ogist when his national preferences overrule his judgment. 

The second article is an account of an elaborate study upon Nether- 
land crania, by Dr. Sasse. The next article is by Mme. Clemence Roye / 
a very diligent student but not always a safe guide, upon the origin of 
funeral rites and their manifestations in prehistoric times. It is an at- 
tempt to apply the evolution hypothesis to the subject of sepulture. 
The instinctive veneration for the dead is traced primarily to the nam 
ral abhorrence of dead bodies inspired in most animals by their poise? 
their infection, and the abundance of stinging flies, etc., which gat g 
around them. This has led some apes to cover their dead with boughs 
and sticks. From these the modes of burial naturally follow. The first 
great class is where the corpse is not touched, including absolute aban- 


A Sp ea narena naa a a REN A a a a Caen AT AA aaa OT Rep a ne a i 


_ president. Nine sections were formed and a chair 


the Congress to the question of the discove 


: 

, 

l 

; 

: 
‘ 
aS 


2 lence commenced September 6th. 


1876.) Anthropology. 749 


donment, slight coverings, heaps of stones, tumuli, cave and hut aban- 
donment, etc. The first occurrence of touching the corpse was where 
the instinct of preservation, induced by crowding, overcame the fear of 
the dead, and thus by the transporting of the dead of one cave to the 
side of a dead relative in another, an act of devotion saves the cave 
dwelling to the occupants and originates the whole series of interments 
in which the corpse is moved. The most ingenious application is made 
of these theories to inhumation, abandonment to beasts and birds, throw- 
ing into rivers and into the sea, desiccation and embalming, exposure on 
scaffolds, incineration, etc. An attempt is made in the last chapters to 


The reviews upon anthropological publi 


and craniometric instructions of the Anthropological Socie 


occupying nearly thirty pages of finely printed matter and illustrated 
alone render this 


M. L. Reoult de Neuville. The remainder of the numbe 
with matters purely French. 

rhe Rede Lecture for 1876, The Monumen 
delivered May 26th by Samuel Birch. It is pu 
by Samuel Bagster. 

The third session of the International Congress 
opened at St. Petersburg, Friday, September Ist, wi 


tal History of Egypt, was 
plished in pamphlet form 


of Orientalists was 


The subjects to which the sections were devote 
East and West Siberia. (2.) Middle Asia within Russian boundaries, 
as well as the independent principalities of Western Turkestan. (3.) 
ee as well as the Crimea and other parts of seu Russia 
inhabited by Asiatic peoples. (4 Transcaucasus, 1n¢ sents 
Georgia Sb PRC E.) eR Turkestan, Thibet, ngolia, with Be 
Mantchooria and the Corea, China, and Japan- (6.) India, gener 
Persia, and the Indo-Chinese Archipelago. (7.) Turkey, inclu ee 
Ara bia and Egypt. (8.) Archæology and Numismatics. (9.) The I 
ligious and Philosophical Systems of the Eas 


E ai ‘ f Sectio 
n.de- Romy, tho Pe O E 


b a 
n 5, called the attention of 
e Chinese 


before the time of Columbus. the Advancement of 
: ; 


Se ee: Ass ciation fo . 
eeting of the British 4 The president of the bio 


750 | General Notes. [ December, 


section also opened the subsection of anthropology. In_ his address, 
after giving a brief and general sketch of the modern doctrine of 
the antiquity and origin of man, Mr. Alfred R. Wallace devoted the 
remainder of his remarks to the far more momentous and exciting prob- 
lem of the development of man from some lower animal form. He 
observed that in the last sixteen years scientific men have passed from 
one extreme of belief to the other, — from a profession of total ignorance 
as to the mode of origin of all living beings to a claim of almost 
complete knowledge of the whole progress of the universe from the first ` 
speck of protoplasm up to the highest development of the human intel- 
lect. Mr. Wallace, believing that the facts which oppose this theory 
receive hardly their due attention, that opposition is the best incentive to 
progress, and that it is not well even for the best theories to have it all 
their own way, directed the attention of his hearers to some of the facts, 
and to the conclusions fairly deducible from them. 

Papers were read by Lieutenant Cameron, Mr. Pengelly, M. Tidde- 
mann, and Professor Barrett. 

The French Association for the Advancement of Science met August 
16th at Clermont. M. Gabriel de Mortillet was chosen president of the 
Section of Anthropology. The stibject of his opening address was the 
Origin of Superstitions. Papers were read by MM. Broca, Tubino, 
Ollier de Marchand, Vacher, Roujon, and Hovelacque. 

The American Archeological Convention met in Philadelphia, in the 
Centennial Judges’ Hall, on the 6th of September. A permanent organ- 
ization was formed, called the American Anthropological Association, 
with Dr. C. C. Jones as president and Rev. H. D. Peet as secretary. — 
O. T. Mason. 


GEOLOGY AND PALÆONTOLOGY. 


CRETACEOUS VERTEBRATES OF THE Upper Missouri. — Professor 


Cope has recently returned from an exploration of the Fort Union beds 
of the Upper Missouri, especially those discovered by Dr. Hayden m 
1855 at the mouth of the Judith River. Attention was given to the 
relation of this formation to the underlying marine cretaceous beds, and 
to the respective faunæ of the two.as compared with that of the early 
eocene period. The fauna was found to be terrestrial and lacustrine, 
including great numbers of Unionidæ, Lepidosteus, Ceratodus, and z 
form probably of rays; of crocodiles, fresh-water turtles, Sauroptery gian 
and Dinosaurian reptiles. e Dinosauria constitute the most abundant 
and characteristic form of life, eighteen species having been found, of 
which eight were of the carnivorous ( Goniopodous) and ten of the her- 
bivorous (Orthopodous) type. The predominant genus of the former 18 
Lelaps, of the latter, Dysganus, of both of which several species wer? 
found. 
The facies of this fauna is thus plainly mesozoic and cretaceous, adding 


Pat 
ations described have au aggregate thickn 


5 A eat ae eh ly pele Sasa as peg a RS A es PEST soos e a Ca ie i eas eee ae 
ARS aoe te aba 
Pease TE A = Senge cee pot ae are Senet Ee eee a ae WU eae 


porate a 


portance. 


2 freezing point. A detachment with sledges 


ao 
Bea i 


1876] Geology and Palæontology. 751 


weight to the arguments already adduced to this effect. But the change 
from the fauna of the- underlying cretaceous numbers four and five is 


_ very striking, the genera and often higher groups being quite different. 


The types of the marine beds were found to be Pythonomorpha, Elas- 
mosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Enchodus, chimerids and sharks, with marine 
Cephalopoda, etc. Nevertheless the physical transition between the 
marine and lacustrine formations appears to be complete, as indicated by 
Professor Hayden. 

POWELL’S GEOLOGY or THE UINTA Mountains. The field work 
reported on by this important volume was done between the years 1868 
and 1875, among the Uinta Mountains and adjacent regions, covering 
saga of Wyoming south of the Pacific Railroad and of Utah. This 
pets of great general geological interest, and its geology has been 
discussed by Major Powell in an able and original way. Particular at- 
tention has been paid to facts relating to mountain-building, the amount 
of denudation and displacement of strata in these mountains being fully 
Ricisted and. graphically represented The Bick skye View orama 
of the Uinta Uplift, in the atlas, well illustrates the author’s manner 
of representing the orography of an extensive plateau area. The for- 
ess of fifty thousand feet, and 
and cenozoic age. The palæon- 

The geological maps 
of much practical im- 


_” groups of palzozoic, mesozoic, 
“ud has been elaborated by Dr. C. A. White. 
and sections are of a high degree of interest and 


GEOGRAPHY AND EXPLORATION. 

Rerory or THE British ARCTIC Exprepition. — The following 
note is condensed from the newspaper reports. The British Arctic 
tition under Captain Nares returned to England, October 27th. 
Ee and Discovery left Fort Foulke on July 29, 1875, and entered 

e ice off Cape Sable. After a severe and continuous struggle they 
reached the north side of Lady Franklin Bay, where the Discovery was 
left Mm winter quarters. The Alert pushed on and reached the limit of 
Navigation on the shore of the Polar Sea. The ice varied in thickness, 
a ing in some places one hundred and fifty feet thick. President Land 

oes not exist. ; 
_ The Alert wintered in latitude 82° 27. At this point the san wat 
invisible one hundred and forty-two days, and a temperature the lowest 
ever recorded was experienced, being fifty-nine degrees, below zero for 
a fortnight, and falling once to one hundred and four degrees below the 


Tt was absent seventy days, and reached latitude by 
Party rounded Cape Columbia, the northwest point © a 
ig two hundred and twenty miles westward from Greenland, and 
explored far to the eastward. ; ae 
a" on the Geology of the Eastern Portion of S Uinta Monan Ta 
1876 i f Country adjacent thereto. With Atlas. By J. W. Powell. 
p> pp. 218 


752 General Notes. [December, 


During the sledge journeys the ice was so ragged that it was only 
possible to advance a mile a day. 

During the winter rich collections in natural history were made and 
many valuable scientific observations were taken. Excellent coal was 
found near the place where the Discovery wintered. 

A member of the expedition telegraphs to the Daily News that the 
northernmost land reached was in latitude 83° 07’. After that there 
was ice. The point farthest west reached was in longitude 85°. Lady 


Franklin’s Straits are really a bay. Petermann Fiord was closed by a - 


glacier. The northernmost point of Greenland seen was in latitude 
82° 57’. 


Tur New Route to Cursa. — The following details are given in 
the daily papers of the remarkable discovery of Professor N ordenskiold, 
the Swedish explorer, already reported by telegraph : — 

« He reports having encountered no obstacles, and considers the way 


‘now quite open from Europe to China via the northern passage and the 


valley of the Yenisei River, by which steam communication is obtained 
across Siberia and almost to the frontiers of China. An immense un- 
measured area of extremely fertile and valuable soil was found in this 
region, all of which is accessible for immediate cultivation. 

“The commercial value and the important results to flow from this 
demonstration of the feasibility of a northeastern passage to Siberia and 
China can hardly be foreseen or overestimated. Nordenskiold, whose 
letter is unfortunately brief, writes that he has also obtained results of 
great interest to science. Dredging and scientific observations were 
constantly carried on during the entire voyage- Large accessions have 
been made to the previously obtained collections from this heretofore 
unknown region. One of the unexpectedly favorable phenomena of the 
passage, the professor reports, was that the water was unifo 
to be surprisingly warm.” 


MICROSCOPY.' 


VAN DER WEYDE’S OBLIQUE ILLUMINATOR. — At the Indianapolis 
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 


trivance, believed to be new, for oblique illumination of transparent 
objects. It was designed chiefly to facilitate the resolution of lined or 
dotted objects, and consisted of a plane mirror lying beneath the object- 
slide and parallel to it, from which mirror light, condensed upon it from 


above by means of a bull’s-eye condenser would be reflected back at the - 
same angle through the object and into the objective. These illumina- 


tors were shown in successful operation at the meeting, working best 

with moderately high powers, and were freely distributed among the 

members present. ‘They were briefly described in the Naturatist for 
1 Conducted by Dr. R. H. Warp, Troy, N. Y. 


rmly found : 


1876.] Microscopy. 758 


September, 1871, being there estimated as “a little expedient of great 
practical convenience.” Ever since that time the present writer, among 
others, has used them habitually, shown them freely, and not unfrequently 

iven them away. ‘The mirror may be either of silvered glass or of pol- 
ished metal. In some cases the object-slide may lie directly upon it while 
it rests upon the stage; but frequently the object-slide is best elevated 
slightly above it.. The mirror is most conveniently made of the size of a 
slide (3x1) and furnished with glass strips at the ends to support the slide 
at any required height ; but it may be made smaller, say one inch square 
or round, and sunken in a brass or wooden stage-plate, or for stands hav- 
ing a sub-stage of any kind it may be made of suitable size and supported 
from the sub-stage and adjusted for height in the same manner as the 
achromatic condenser. It has the advantage of great ease of manipula- 
tion and applicability to any stand, and the drawback of being liable to 
be interfered with by the presence on the slide of such obstructions as 
paper covers or opaque cells or rings of varnish. Within a few months 
past it has been brought forward by Rev. John Bramhall, of Lynn, 
England; its previous use and publication having either escaped the 
notice or slipped from the memory of himself as well as of the distin- 
guished microscopist who has indorsed it and proposed to name it after 
him. 

Ture Ricumonp Fossil EARTH: -~ The recent excavation of a tun- 
nel by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company, through. that part 
of the city of Richmond, Va., known as Church Hill, has intersected this 
famous deposit for a distance of three fourths of a mile, and afforded 


rare facilities for study and the collection of material. C. L. Peticolas 
ttention to the work of obtaining 
describes the stratum 


above tide water. Before exposure to the air it is tough and = 
having the color and solidity of bituminous coal and requiring to bed 
removed from the tunnel by means of blasting ; but after exposure 
some time it crumbles to a fine powder of almost snowy — A 
sisting in general of about one half fine pure clay, one fourt gre = 
sand, and one fourth fossil diatoms interspersed with tbe h wa 
ules and a few Polycystina. The abundance and ye e e A 
forms vary greatly in different parts of the stratum, 


being the richer. : ; 
: sane monthly series of illus- 
Micro-PHotToGRAPHS IN HisToLoGy.- The “a ne Be cok 


; : istology, b 
trations of normal and petbologicsl A Aali an kai advanced suffi- 


i i i of tissues, 


T54 Seientifie News. [ December, 


appearances under the lens with the rigid candor of ordinary photography. 
Of the selection of objects it is impossible to judge from a few numbers. 
The text is a slightly amplified description of the plates. The work 


will be a luxury to those who are not practiced in the use of the micro- 


scope, and a convenience, as an excellent memorandum, to those who 


VOLATILIZED GoLD. — Mr. John Hewston, Jr., of San Francisco, 
Cal., has prepared beautiful mounts of gold obtained from the condens- 
ing chambers connected with the smelting furnaces. The gold is in the 
state of brilliant globules of pure metal, and suggests the loss that must 
be continually taking place during the smelting process. 

DraToms as FERTILIZERS. — The miserable attempt to establish the 
presence of diatoms in the tissues of plants and their consequent (?) im- 
portance to the plants as food, which inadvertently was printed in the 
American Journal of Science and Arts for June, 1876, seems not to have 
been intended as a hoax, after all. It looked like such a capital bur- 
lesque upon the follies of scientific puffing of commercial articles that it 
was almost impossible to consider it as intended for anything else. It 
has been exposed sufficiently long, however, notably in the American 
Journal of Microscopy, to give ample time for its real design to come 
out, and in absence of proof to the contrary it must be regarded as one 

of the most preposterous advertising tricks of the day. In the face & 
its absurdities it is hardly worth while seriously to discuss the still doubê- 
ful value of infusorial earths as fertilizers, or their probably injurious 

effects upon some kinds of soil. 

Excuances.—Julien Deby, C. E., of Brussels, is engaged in 
studying the fossil diatoms of Belgium, and would be glad to exchange 
‘Belgian material of this class for specimens from American deposits. 
Also, correspondence desired in regard to exchange of microscopical spec- 
imens and publications. Mr. Deby may be addressed, care of the editor 
of this department, 53 Fourth Street, Troy, NY. 

Slides of gold-bearing quartz from California, for good mounted ob- 
jects; polarizing preferred. S. R. Hatch, Milford, Mass. 


SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 


— So alarming and wide-spread have been the ravages of the locusts in 
the trans-Mississippi States and Territories, during the last few years, 
that there isa general demand by the people for united state and na- 
tional action in investigating the habits and devising means for staying 
the ravages of the migratory locust of the West. To this end, and in 
accordance with a call issued a few weeks ago by Governor Pillsbury, of 
Minnesota, a meeting of the governors of the Western States and Terri- 
tories took place in Omaha, Nebraska, October 25th, to devise means to 
rid the country of the grasshopper pests. The States were represented 


a 


of the chairman, Messrs. Riley, 


1876.] — Scientific News. 755 


as follows: Nebraska, Governor Silas Garber, ex-Governor Furnas, 
Professor Wilbur, and Prof. A. D. Williams; Dakota, Governor John 
L. Pennington; Minnesota, Governor Pillsbury, Professor Whitman, 
and Mr. Pennock Pusey ; Iowa, Governor Kirkwood; Illinois, Prof. C. 
W. Thomas of Carbondale, Governor Beveridge being ill; Missouri, 
Governor Hardin and Prof. €. V. Riley. 

The meeting was organized by the election of Governor Pillsbury as 
chairman, and Professor Riley and Mr. Pusey as secretaries. 

The Governor of Minnesota made a brief address on the objects of the 
meeting, and suggested that steps be taken to memorialize Congress to 
appoint a commission of scientific men to visit the districts suffering from 
the grasshopper pest, and investigate the subject. 

This brought out a discussion which was participated in by nearly all 
the gentlemen present, the most important speeches being made by Gov- 
ernor Pennington of Dakota, Professor Riley of Missouri, Governor 
Kirkwood of Iowa, Professor Thomas of Illinois, and ex-Governor Fur- 
nas of Nebraska. 

Prof. C. V. Riley briefly narrated the habits and history of the pest, 
and gave sound practical advice. He considered that there were two 
main questions before the conference: first, the consideration of how best 
to deal with the young insects that threaten to hatch out over a vast ex- 
tent of the country next spring, and second, the investigation of the in- 

ect in its native home, with a view of preventing its migrations into the 
country to the southeast. For the first, he advised some well-digested 


_ plan of action that would give confidence to the people and insure con- 


cert of action; mentioning, among other things, the offering of rewards 
by the several States and counties for the eggs and newly hatched hop- 
pers, as recommended in his last report, and systematic burning and 
ditching. For the second, he urged an appeal to Congress to add a spe- 
cial appropriation to the sundry civil service bill, to defray the expenses of 
a commission of three experts, to be appointed by and to work under 
Prof. F. V. Hayden, in charge of the United States Geological Survey 
of the Territories, who, with his experience and skill in organization, 
could materially assist such a commission. In the evening the conference 
met again and, after deliberating, appointed a committee of six, compos 
Osborn, Wilbur, Thomas, and Williams, 
suggestions for the farmers of the 
discussion and adoption. 
French botanical palæ- 
fessorship in the Jardin 


to present a series of resolutions and 
country, and a memorial to Congress for dis 

— Count Gaston de Saporta, the distinguished 
ontologist, has recently been appointed to a pro 


' des Plantes in Brongniart’s place. 


— Mr. S. E. Cassino, Naturalists’ Agency, Salem, Mass., announces 
the publication in December of The Land-Birdsand Game-Birds of New 
England, by H. D. Minot, 8vo, 400 pages ; and in e a Nen 
ist Directory, which we are sure will prove very services © E ae y: 

— Under date of September 29th, Prof. O. A. Derby, of the Brazihan 


756 Scientific News. [ December, ` 


Geological Commission under Prof. Ch. Fred. Hartt, writes that he 
(Derby), H. H. Smith, and Senhor Freitas have discovered one thou- 
sand feet of Devonian beds below the Ereré beds discovered in 1870 by 
Smith and himself. Of this, several hundred feet are Oriskany sandstone, 
rich in fossils of Devonian aspect, including North American character- 
istic species. Carboniferous beds occur in ‘the same region, and they now 
have a complete section from the base of the Devonian to recent forma- 
tions, in the lower Amazonian valley. 

— At the meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, held in Phil- 
adelphia, October 17-19, 1876, the following gentlemen were elected 
members: G. F. Barker, J. A. Allen, W. M. Gabb, E. S. Morse, and 
John Newton. The following papers on natural science were read : 
The Results of an Investigation upon the Transformations of Planorbis 
multiformis, by Alpheus Hyatt; On the Geological Structure and Topo- 
graphical Aspects of the Catskill Mountains, by James Hall; On the 
Physical Structure and Altitudes of the Southern Groups of the Cats- 
kill Mountains, by Arnold Guyot. 

— The forty-sixth annual session of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science was opened September 6th at Glasgow, by the 
address of the president, Professor Andrews. Prof. J. Young delivered 
the opening address before the geological section, Alfred R. Wallace 
that in the section of biology, Prof. Alfred Newton that in the depart- 
ment of zodlogy and botany of the section of biology, and Capt. F. J. 
Evans that in the section of geography. Section A, mathematical and 
physical science, was presided over by Sir William Thompson, who 
made some flattering allusions to the present condition of American 
physical science. : 

—The French Association for the Advancement of Science held its 
meeting in August, under the presidency of M. Dumas. 

—On September 12th the geographical congress convened. by the 
King of Belgium met at Brussels, under the presidency of his majesty. 

— As regards Bathybius, which is now again attracting notice, more 
however in clerical than in scientific circles, it may be said that while 
Professors Wyville Thompson and Huxley have been inclined to doubt 
whether this is an organism, Dr. Bessels, of the Polaris expedition, dis- 
covered in Smith’s Sound a form almost exactly like Bathybius, which, 
however, he judged to be still simpler than Bathybius and accordingly 
named Protobathybius. A description and a figure of it are given from 

drawings and notes furnished by the author in Packard’s Life Histories 
of Animals. Even if Bathybius should prove to be inorganic, we have 
Protobathybius Robesonii left, and several allied forms of simple Monera, — 
such as Protameba protogenes, and others, which are simple drop-like — 
masses of protoplasm, even without a nucleus. All these animals or 
plants, it matters not which, but most probably the former, are placed by 
Haeckel in his Monera, a division of organisms adopted by Huxley ina 
recent paper. ; 


~ 1876.] Proceedings of Societies. T5T 


PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 


© ACADEMY or NATURAL Scrences, Philadelphia. — July 25th. Dr. 
Allen called attention to a photograph of a Brahmin bull, exhibiting the 
growth from the back of the animal of a supernumerary anterior extrem- 
ity. The peculiarities of the limb were described, and its importance 
from an embryological point of view was alluded to. Mr. Martindale 
stated that the bull spoken of by Dr. Allen had been removed to New- 
ark, but that there was still on exhibition a heifer having two anterior 
limbs growing from the shoulders. 

Mr. Meehan called attention to a peculiar diurnal motion he had ob- 
served in Liatris pyenostachya when throwing up its flower stems: the 
top was always curved over towards the east in early morning, nearly 
erect at midday, and towards the west at sundown. For commercial 
purposes he had thousands of plants growing, and the habit was uniform 
in all. The motion was evidently vertical and not in a horizontal direc- 
tion, and this still left it open to ascertain how the point turned towards 
the east for its early morning start. As soon as the flower spike ap- 
proached its full growth the motion ceased. 

Professor Cope spoke of the development of the upper incisors in a 
species of fossil camel. The species had been called Procamelus hetero- 
dontus, but it had recently been found that the true Procamelus does not 
present a complete series of upper incisors. The stages of growth of the 
teeth of Procamelus were described, and the genus having the perfect 
series of incisors was named Protolabis. The name Protolabis heterodon- 
tus was proposed for the type. A new species of Procamelus was indi- 
cated under the name /issidens. 

A letter from Joseph Menges, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, applying for 
assistance to enable him to explore the region of the Red Sea, was, on 
motion, referred to the council. 

Professor Kerr called attention to a peculiar feature of surface geology 
of North Carolina. No well-characterized evidence of the glacial age 
had been found as far south as South Carolina, but in the foot-hills east 
of the Blue Ridge occurred peculiar superficial deposits, the nature of which 
had been for some time uncertain. The gold of North Carolina occurs 
in gravel beds as in California, at the upper surface of the rock upon 
which such sandy deposits lie. The beds alluded to were evidently not 
moved by water, and the material of which they are composed shows a 
peculiar succession of forms of deposits, proving them to be not moraines 
or the result of glacial action. Angular pebbles exhibiting no evidence 
of attrition are found some distance below the surface, towards the upper 
part of the hills. Lower down these pebbles are more rounded and are 
nearer the underlying rock. It was believed that the earth of the de- 
posits had been frozen and had moved as if it were a glacier. The same 
characteristic deposit had been observed in the neighborhood of West 
Market Street, exhibiting features tending to strengthen the theory ad- 


758 . Seientifie Serials. Ì [December, 


vanced. The subject was further considered by Messrs. Le Conte, 
Koenig, Kerr, and Gabb. 

The following papers were presented for publication : Report on the 
Hydroids collected on the Coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Isles by - 
W. H. Dall, United States Coast Survey, and party, from 1871 to 1874 
inclusive, by S. F. Clarke, with an introduction by W. H. Dall. De- 
scription of a Collection of Fossils made by Dr. Raimondi in Peru, by 
Wm. Gabb. The Rocks known as Mexican Onyx, by Mariano 
Barcena. 

The Academy has created thirteen professorships of the various 
branches of natural history, and has enacted that the council shall elect 
thirteen professors as soon as suitably qualified candidates shall offer. 
Applications for positions to be addressed to the president of the coun- 
cil or to the section of the academy to which the subject selected by the 
applicant has been confided, accompanied by such testimonials as he may 
be pleased to submit. No professor to be elected prior to the stated 
meeting of the council in October, 1876. It is the duty of each pro- 
fessor to preserve, classify, and increase the collections in his department, 
and report annually their condition and needs to the council, to give 
special or objective instruction to the beneficiaries of scholarships in the 
Academy, and to deliver courses of lectures under such regulations as 
the council may establish. No rate of compensation or source of com- 
“pensation has yet been provided. 


— 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS." 

Montuty Microscoricat JourNaL. — October. Bastian and Pas- 
teur on Spontaneous Generation, by H. J. Slack. The Markings of 
Frustulia saxonica, by S. Wells. On the Present Limits of Vision, by 
R. Pigott. On the Structure and Development of Connective Sub- 
stances, by T. E. Satterthwaite. 

QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF MICROSCOPICAL Screncer. — October. 

Résumé of Recent Contributions to our Knowledge of Fresh- Water Rhi- 

zopoda. Part I. Heliozoa, by W. Archer. On the Coincidence of the 
Blastopore and Anus in Paludina vivipara, by E. R. Lankester. The 
Termination of the Nerves in the Vestibule and Semicircular Canals of 
Mammals, by U. Pritchard. 
‘Tur Grocrapnicat Macazine.— October. Servia, Bosnia, and 
Bulgaria. The Distribution of the Population in the Part of Europe 
overrun by Turks, by E. G. Ravenstein. The Fisheries of Denmark, 
the Faero Islands, and Iceland. Wrangell Land. Sketches of Life ın 
Greenland. A Peep into Kokan, by D. Ker. The Geographical Con- 
ference at Brussels. ; : 

AMERICAN JourNAL OF Science AND Arts. — November. Notice 
of New Tertiary Mammals, by O. C. Marsh. 

1 The articles enumerated under this head will be for the most part selected. 


Fe ke eee N] 


ies 


ia ooh ta i Moor et ee TS OP ok ate, 
X VAN RENE Scrat ie 


INDEX. 


ent "sanan 


Abbott, C. C., articles by, 52, 65, 116, 287, 242, 
329, 375, 432, 473, 494, 558, "673. 

Abies, 555. 

Academy, National, 444. 

PTE st 


Beatin, of plants, 46, 110. 
AlE 44l, 695. 


yen shell-heaps of, 189. 
— doug 
Allen 


humor, 257 
Anna humming-bird, 48. 
— , 574, 
Anolis, 5. 
Anopthalmus, 283. 
t, 148. . 


e, 62. 
Aperture of objectives, 565, 566. 
‘Aquarium, 569, 611. 
Arctic exploration, 55. 
Arizona, pottery of, 449. 
Arm: rm, 508. 


Auk, 
Autochthon, American, 329. 


Bahia, extinct coral reef of, 439. 
Barber, E. A. —— by, 440, 529, 692, 716. 
Barbula ruralis 
Bartramian names, 2 59, 98, 176. 
us 


pi a carnivorous, 110. 


175. 
asen ri W., articles by, 110, 111. 
Bewick’s wre n, 237. 
Bicknell, E. me note on the crossbill, 237, 257. 
Biology, 228. 
Birds, 17, 21, 75, 90 
destruction of, 734. 


84. 
ere: Fa by, 21, 48, 176, 207, 586, 708. 


Black Hills, geology of, 58, 191, 501. 
Black knot, 1. ; 


Biod ettia, 498. 
Blood globules, 122. 


y 
Brachiopoda, 116. 
Brain of fishes, 510. 
enn z 7 article by, 230. 
B wig 


Bunting tow! 
Burnell, A. H, on =n 687. 


Rabo Swainsoni 
Butterflies, 108, i», 9, S34, 002 
fossil, 1 
Butterfly, pornos ra 392. 
Caledonia, New, a of, 118. 
California, oar 
f, 624. 

poaren a survey of, 188. 
vulgaris, 489. 
Calypte Anna, 48. 
Camel, fossil, 757. 
0 pus 710 


fauna of, 124. 
Caton, J. D articles by, 193, 464. 


Cheetodus , 239. 
Chambers, V. T., note on bank swallow, 872. 
Cheilanthes Alabamensis, 44. 


roach, 5 t e 
Coleoptera, genera of, 560. 
Colorado, geology of, 161, 423, 498. 

tg of, 449. 
ve 


ism 
Cooper, J. G., articles by, 50, 90, 493. 
Copeland; HL. E., article by, 335. 

oral reef, ex ef, extingt 439. 


Parras 


760 Index. 


Cotyle, 95. Gillman, H., articles by, 116, 430. 
` Coues, E., articles by , 48, 98, 114, 239, 363, 372, 734. | Glacial period, 575. 
Cox, J. D., on Sten tor, 275. | Go ldfish, 92, 94. 
Creodonta, ' B78. Gooseberry, 270. 
Cricket, European, 508. Goose, blue, 874. 
Crossbill, 237. Gorilla, 627. 
J Sona THe. 132 
Crustacea of U. S. Exploring Expedition, 187 ourd 
ryptogams, 122, 173. r 7 = Gray, A., articles by 1, 43, 172, 270, 299, 426 487, 
489, 490, 552, 553.” 
Dallinger, W. H., article by, 415. Greenla nd, 629. 
Darter, “8 former climate of, 352. 
Deer, ; Grote, A. R. ——— by, 9° 205, 432. 
sil, 632. ' Gryllus domesticu 
New "balifornis n, 464. Guadaloupe Toland, flora of, 60, 221. 
Denmark, burial Domi in, 117. ; 
iy cation of earth’s su rface, 513. Hadrosaurus, 318. 
: 8, B67. Hagen, H. = articles by, 135, 401, 480 
Diateymà gigantea, 190. Harpagonell a; 38. 
Dimorphism, 44, 46. Hawk moth, “30. 
Dienas. 182. Haymond, È., on blue goose, 374. 
Diplesium, 339 Heather, 4 
Dogs, fossil, 632. ‘| Helix Cooperi, 529. 
stinet of, 59. Hersey, J. C., on white egret, 480. 
Dohm on origin “of vertebrates, 598. Heteromita, 415 
Doryphora, 205, 636. Heteromorphism, 490 
Dragon fly, fossil, 315. Himala agg? 
Drosera, 111, 588. Hoffman, W. J. note by, 289. 
Drugs, crude, 565. Homalomyin, 97 4. 
Duck, Labrador, 803. Homaru 


| Hot sees 242. 


Earwig, 521. Humb ble-bee, 238. 
Eatoniella, 116. | Humming-bird, 48, 90, 96, 288. 
hinospermum $1,2. Hyacinth, growth of, 683. 
Eirne, ii 
white, 430, 473. This, 48. 
= aint 701. Icebergs, 559. 
1, 633. Iceland, 296. 
rg "483, ce-marks, 694 
Elk, Scandinavian, 4l. ce period, 575 è 
Empidonax, 93. - cterus, 98. 
Eozoöi n, 63. ry 442. 
ze tifoli dich qos aa 
obium angustifolium, dichogamy in, 43. eee paige age í 7 
nt cs, 829, 375, 877, 481, 438. i 
soey Insects, gon of. 


Eucalyptus, 699. Ingersoll, E., shells of Colorado, 745. 
Evolution, 218, 694. Io, 821. 
Eyes, 178. 


Jaculus, 364. 
Fairy rings, 46 prera fossil Sirenia of, 117. 
Farlow, W. G, articles by, 112, 287, 341, 421. Jordan, D. S., articles by, 385 835, 373. 
- Felis concolo 709. | Junco hyema lis, 114. 
Ferns, fossil, 
i, . Kayser, A on potato beetle, 205. 
Te 18. | Kerguelen | Tsland, 105, 118, "isi. 
et Tey Kingsley, J. 8., articles by, 303, 396. 
Fis! ishes, brain of, 510. i | Kybales 109, 
Fish, fossil, 1 
- Fish ronal ed mek Labrador mag 803. 
‘Flax, New pis ne ard, sea, 484. 
i Flints, p aboriginal Ogan, 691. Leuc: 
a Flint implemen ts J..on To, 321. 
Flora of crore oer Island, 221. ines of diatoms, 60. 
Florida chameleon, 4. ing, a. 
: shell mounds of, 165. innet, 9 
Flounder, 705. ro sea, ‘at T. 
Fly ook , color of, 299. gedh on aquaria, 611. 
-~ Fly, house. "476. praa S., articles by, 4, 289, 257. 
; - Forests, 577, 656. ong Island drift, 191 
e Tot, 710. ne ubbock, J., on ants, 148. 
_ Frog-tree, 178. L; 709. 
Freiin ria, 6). ynx, 709 
Fuchsia, 110. Madeira Plate, 183. 
Fungus, new, 631. aoe a boy, 374. 
Gastræa theory, 7 es ae Mammals, = bees oy 708. 
Secret survey s, 702. ial Mam cih a a 
Y. =: 1 summer mil of 29. Man, Ene a 
on Puccinia, Man, tive 
Germs, 847. Marsh O. C. ca western fossils, 496 


ae ima 
Geysen, 2 or ag Marten, 718.” 


ON A AE OS ee ee ee ge ae aE PRS alee h nee Ws ree 


FE rate ae 
paren os Nee ‘sa 


Sete, oS ey 


Index. 


a, 94. 
s Uo oy uropean song sparrow, 51. 
Michel F. aele by, 582. 
Microdiscus, 316. 
Micro-photographs, 758. 
Microscope, 120, 532, 725. 


on hawk moth, 50. 
Fengs, 

t, H. D., , article by, 75. 
Missouri, little, bad lands, 207. 
Mole cricket t, 96. 

oose, 41. 
Moths perforating orange skins, 50. 
Moulds, 112. 


Mo unds, ‘oilan, 190, 815, 410, 511. 
anish burial, 117. 
693. 


shel 
Mountain-making, 
Mounting microscopic specimens, 57. 
Mouse, 4338, 555. 
Miiller, F. „on mimicry, 534. 
us ride, 362. 


s, 555. 
Musa ran 476. 
Museums, 80, 138. 


oe 
um luteum, 187. 

B geology of, 55. 
Newfoundland, ice-marks in, 559, 694 
New Guinea, 
New Jersey, Indian implements of, 65. 

Triassic fishes of, 191. 
New Mexico, 449. 

fossil vertebrates of, 54. 
New Zealand flax, 18. 
Night hawk, 289.” 
Nordenskiöld, A. E., on former climate of polar 


region 
n> Cacollas, ‘geology of, 53. 
Norway, So 


f, 295. 
Novaya * a “ho. 
Nyanza, Lake, 562. 


6, 634. 
Seine. aperture of, 442. 
Odontornithes, 436. 
Πiden 


rio ` 
Ornithology , 536. 
Oulofs, 180. 
, barn, 96. 
kard, i , articles by, 282, 476, 591, 688. 
Panther tint 
eh get Oo 6B. 5 


Peni ium, 46, 112. 


rras . G. H. highs house plants, 667. 
Peronospora , 172, 369. 
Peru 


pereg 
carnivoro s, 588. 
climbing, 38, 171, 174. 


761 


Plants, dichogamy in, = on 
a in, 44 
fertilization of, 744. 
po h of, 302, 370, 371. 

ts 
inse livoroW, lil. 
moy remen of water in, 299. 
n of, 744. 
physiology af, 623, 683. 
sleep of, 571. 
wild, ti 


Podura, 375. 
Poeciliehth ys, 340. 
Polarization of living tissues, 502. 
Portulaca 
ostal e aia club, 185. 


S 


| Potato beetle 
bli ight 


dise 
Potter, ee 629. 
Pottery, ad isi, 449. 
vian, p 
Prairies, Pa 1, 
Preissia, 110. 
Primordial utricle, 45, 
Pringle, C. G., plants of Vermont, 741. 
Prong buck, eit 


| Prorastomus 


Puccinia, 44. 


Quedius, 286. 
Quercus, 316. 


Rafinesque, C. S., 469. 


Rhyne Ay) 

Ribes, 

Ripple iak s, 60, 
Reck-sisene. p Indian, 241. 
Rocky Mounta 


736. 
Russell, I. O., arholi by, 18, 385. 


pacers ager oS: 
Scott, D., a 
Scudder, mer varies ‘by, 97 97, 392, 521, 602. 
Sedum re 
Seeds, 
number of in purslane, 62. 
vitality of, 44, 230. 
Sequoia, 110. 
Shaler, N. S., article by, 
Sharks, fossi wer 572. 
ell-hea 
Siberis a 
Siberi A 
zis undras of, 118. 
Silk-worm, 635. 
Sirenia, 117 
Sisco, 373. 
Skull, leveling of, 693. 
Skunk, fossil, , 499. 


Slack, H. J., on spontaneous generation, 730. 
Slides, microscople, , 443. 


Spier, n 170, 688. 
Spontaneous generation, 730. 


762 


Squirrel, 112. 

Staining tiss ues, 56, 630. 

Stanley, ita explorations, 561, 695. 
Starch, 585. 
Stearns, , articles by, 110, 177. 
Steinh “or ing Ea 'of, 813. 


Stone inact 65. 
, article. by, 480. 
Sum ot ba, ib” 175. 
gar in plan 
Swallow , D1, 96 
ae 372, 493. 


Frie ts rn, 308, 311. 
Henican, 379, 610. 


Teeth of of m ammals, 115 
ace te. isthmus of, 500. 


Trotter, - 
Tundra, 118. 
Turdus, 95. 
Tyndall, J., on germs, 347. 


on gerar p oa mouse, 556. 


United States, coast survey of, 118. 
Utah, geology , 498. 


Indez. 


Utah, Saan i 410. 
of, 449. 


Va lleys, varieties of, 736. 

Vallisneria, 110. 

Van der Weyde’s oblique naiiinatot 752. 

Vanessa cardui, 2. 

Vertebrates, bie sa or: oe 
retaceous 


750. 
Vilfa, 125. 


Wakatipu, Lake, 385. 

Eston “te 715. 

Wand, xh A., article by, 232, 
R. i, 120, 725. 

tson, 8., , article by, 221. 


te Mo untains, birds o; 
Faites J D, articles K Ai, 577, 656. 
Wisconsin, geological survey of, 312: 


Woodcoe c, European, 872. 
d, W., on gosha wk, 132. 


Wren, Be wick’s , 48. 
Wright, 0., on phyllotaxis, 826. 
Wyoming, geology of, 52. 


hoe he” C., article by, 493. 
Yellow mT 92, 115, 289. 


11$. 


Zapodidæ, ak 
Zoology, progress of, 591.