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axes of least expansion are parallel to the direction of pressure will grow at the expense of the neighboring crystals, whose axes of greatest expansion are most nearly parallel to the pressure. Hence only certain crystals grow; the others decrease and disappear: as a result, all the former should have their axes parallel to one another, and to the average greatest pressure when they arrive at the lower end of the glacier. The author found thirteen out of fourteen samples taken from the grotto at the foot of the Rhone glacier to have their axes vertical; others have noticed the same predominance of vertical crystals at the lower end of the Grindelwald and the Aletsch glaciers. It is possible that both these modes of growth occur together. To determine this and other long-lasting mysteries of glacial phenomena, many more observations are needed on the internal temperature and constitution of glacial ice. —(Verh. naturf. gesellsch. Basel, 1882, vii. 192; Arch. sc. phys. nat., 1882, viii. 343.) W. M. D. [658

GEOGRAPHY. (South America.)

Eastern Patagonia. The records have lately been found of an expedition into eastern Patagonia, between lats. 43° and 47°, made in 1877 by the late H. Durnford, an English ornithologist, who died in South America in 1878. Durnford was accompanied by Messrs. Griffiths and Jones from the Welsh colony near the mouth of the river Chupat (Chubut of Moreno), and made a distance of about three hundred miles to the south-west before turning back. Important observations were made on the position and size of several rivers Sengel, Sengellen, and Chupat- and lakes, Colguape (Coluhuape) and another equally large (later named Lake Musters by Moreno), besides many smaller salt lagoons, all shallow, and apparently much decreased from their former extent. The country was very monotonous, showing nearly everywhere the same barren sterility, occasionally relieved by a lagoon or gully containing water. Bare hills and slopes of sandy marl, and volcanic rocks of varied shape and color, from pale brick-red to black, formed the general surface. Sometimes the traveller's way led across deposits of soft, yielding dust, and again over hard, unbroken rock. The animal and plant life, wherever found, was stunted and dwarfed. Evidence of former marine submergence was found on the tableland in well-rounded pebbles, gigantic oyster-shells, and numerous fragments of smaller shells. rivers are now sunk in many places several hundred feet below the plain, and flow between steep banks. Numerous cairns containing Indian skeletons were found on hilltops. They are carefully built of stone, the blocks often being of a considerable size. route followed by Durnford's party was like that taken by Moyano in 1880.- (Proc. roy, geogr. soc., 1883, 84.) w. M. D. [659

The

The

Rio Pilcomayo. - A brief note furnished by Marguin, a member of Fontana's expedition in search of Crevaux, shows the Pilcomayo to be one of those newly established rivers on a very flat surface, with but little descent to its base-level of drainage. The exploration reached lat. 24° 40′ about one hundred miles from Asuncion, on the Paraguay; and, especially in the upper half of this distance, the river meandered very irregularly through a low forest-covered country, often interrupted by lagoons. Its banks were naturally raised about twelve feet by deposits of sand in five-inch strata, separated by thin layers of vegetable origin; and at time of flood the waters were thus divided into three parallel courses. As the water of

the main channel subsided, the overflow drained back through breaches in the banks, having temporarily the appearance of affluents. The channel was often interrupted with snags, and bore signs of frequently changing its position to avoid the bars formed about them. The several neighboring streams (Rio del Fuego, Aguaray-Guazu, mboicae, Confuso del Sur), by which part of the Pilcomayo may have once been discharged into the Paraguay, are regarded as its former channels abandoned by these changes. Marguin recalls Padre Patiño, who attempted to ascend the river in 1721, but was forced back by the Indians on approaching lat. 23°; Van Nivel and Acha's attempt from Bolivia in 1844, which failed to pass a great lagoon at some point farther up stream than Patiño's goal; and, finally, Crevaux' party, which more nearly attained success than any of the others. (Comptes rendus soc. géogr. Paris, 1883, 60.) W. M. D. [660 Antioquia. The narrative of a journey through this north-western province of Colombia, by Fr. v. Schenck, gives an entertaining account of its inhabitants and their condition. On the way inland from the northern seacoast, Schenck found the navigation of the Magdalena a difficult undertaking, from its numerous sandbars, and shifting, entangled channels. Below Magangué its valley is fairly cultivated; but farther up stream the forest wilderness is hardly broken for a long distance, and the towns named on the maps are represented by a few huts occupied by negroes and chinos, who supply the river-steamers with wood. This region is very warm and unhealthy. The ruins of a few chapels remain from the early times of Spanish occupation, but they have been long abandoned by the priests. Farther south, where the river forms the eastern boundary of Antioquia, which Schenck regards as the best province of the country, there is more clearing; the people are industrious, and of a much better morality than those of Spanish descent generally are, so that the traveller calls them Puritans. The road from Nare (about 150 met. elev.), on the Magdalena, westward to Medellin (1,480 met.), crosses two ranges that rise to 2,220 and 2,530 metres. An interesting description is given of Medellin, where the author found a curious mixture of civilized comforts with the makeshifts of an isolated region. An excursion was made northward, over a plateau, to the gold district of Santa Rosa de Oros, and beyond to the falls of the Guadalupe (lat. 6° 46′ N.), the highest (250 met.) in Colombia, surpassing those of Tequendama (139 met.), near Bogotá, in the surrounding scenery as well as in height. The falls of the Guadalupe have also the advantage of being well seen from a neighboring point of view, where the stream is in sight from its upper placid flow, past the rapids to the cataract, which glides over a sloping, rocky surface to the gorge below. The climate of Antioquia is considered healthy, except in the low, warm valleys. In January and February the air is cool, and the sky clear. There are two rainy seasons, - in the north, from March to June, and from August to November; and in the south, from March to May, and from September to November. The rainfall thus seems to depend on the solar culmination; and the dry season, on the occupation of the country by the tradewinds. (Peterm. mitth., 1883.) W. M. D.

BOTANY. Cryptogams.

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The insect produces larger swellings in the roots, which Millardet calls nodosities, and smaller swellings, which he calls tuberosities. The nodosities appear at any time from April to September, whilst the tuberosities are not found before August. The rotting of the roots is caused by the invasion of a fungus which enters through the cracks in the nodosities and tuberosities. According to Millardet, the fungus is what is known as Rhizomorpha subterranea when it occurs in the ground, and R. subcorticalis when it grows in the roots and stems. Hartig and others consider the fully developed form of the Rhizomorpha to be the toadstool (Agaricus melleus), which is common near Bordeaux, especially on oaks. The mycelium of this fungus makes its way into the soil of the vineyards from neighboring groves, and enters the roots of the vines which have been attacked by the Phylloxera, and produces a white rot, commonly known as pourridié. The writer concludes as follows: "It is beyond doubt, that the disease caused by Phylloxera predisposes to that of the rot. Should one say in these cases that the vine succumbs to the rot and not to the Phylloxera? Evidently not; since, without the Phylloxera, the rot would not have made its appearance.'

W. G. F.

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Two curious fungi of the United States. The two genera Testicularia and Cycloderma were described by Klotzsch in 1832; but since that date botanists have been unable to recognize the two genera with certainty. Cooke now describes a new Cycloderma Ohiensis, and shows that the Milleria herbatica of Peck is the long-lost Testicularia cyperi of Klotzsch. (Grevillea, March, 1883.) w. G. F. [663

Bangiaceae of Naples. The eighth monograph of the fauna and flora of the Bay of Naples comprises the Bangiaceae, by Dr. G. Berthold, and is of interest, since he now gives the details of the formation of the spores; these are formed by the action of antherozoids on the cells of the thallus, which can hardly be said to produce trichogynes, as is the case in all other Florideae, to which, however, the Bangiaceae apparently belong.-W. G. F.

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Functional differentiation in stamens. - Fritz Müller adds Mollia, Sagerstroemia, and Heteranthera to the list of plants having two sets of stamens in each flower, one of which attracts insects, and supplies them with food, while the other serves for pollination by their aid. Experiments show that the crape-myrtle (Sagerstroemia), though self-sterile, is readily fertilized by pollen from either set of stamens of another variety grown in other gardens. The dull color of the longer stamens in the cases mentioned, and of the long stamens in short and mid-styled flowers of the trimorphic Lythrum, is explained as beneficial, as their lack of conspicuousness renders these unprotected stamens less liable to the depredations of pollen-eating insects than would otherwise be the case. As examples of plants whose stamens are differentiated into sets having different forms and offices, but without the color-contrasts found in most instances, a species of Cassia and Solanum rostratum are mentioned. (Nature, Feb. 15.) [666 Capture of prey in Sarracenia. - In a compilation on pitcher-plants, Mr. James makes the curious

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W. T.

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suggestion that the insects which are found so abundantly in the pitchers of Sarracenia purpurea are first intoxicated by feeding on the pollen or nectar in its flowers, whence they fall into the leaves. -(Amer. nat., March.) w. T. [667 Bee-flowers. In his 'signs and seasons,' John Burroughs states that hepaticas are sometimes fragrant, sometimes scentless, the same being true of the arrow-leaved violet. Humblebees perforate flowers of the locust for their nectar, and hive-bees afterward make use of the openings. Rarely the honey-bee works upon the blossoms of trailing arbutus. In midsummer it reaps a harvest from the smooth sumach. It has also been observed on the white oak and skunk cabbage. (Century mag., March.) w. T. [668

Origin of anemophilous flowers. - Adaptation to fertilization in the wind-swept, treeless areas over which they prevail, is believed by Grant Allen to be the reason for the inconspicuous wind-fertilized flowers of grasses, which are considered degenerate descendants of conspicuous-flowered plants related to the Liliaceae. Passing notice is given to the pollination of rushes, sedges, and related plants. (Macmillan's mag.; Pop. sc. monthly, March.) W. T. [669

New Passifloreae. The collection of Passifloreae made by M. André in Ecuador and New Granada in 1875 and 1876 has been worked up by Dr. Masters. It comprised nine species of Tacsonia and over thirty of Passiflora, half of which are new. The list is accompanied with numerous critical notes and with revised synonymy, as supplementary to Masters's monograph of the order in the Flora Brasiliensis,' and to Triana and Planchon's of the New Granada species, -all the more valuable for the unusual excellence of André's specimens, and his descriptive notes and careful analytical drawings from the living plants. (Journ. Linn. soc. Lond., Feb., 1883.) S. W. [670 ZOOLOGY.

Mollusks.

Disease in oysters. A new disease has recently appeared in the Rappahannock oysters, called, locally, 'the black spot.' A small black spot, imperceptible to a careless observer, appears upon the oyster, and shortly afterward death ensues. All around the spot the meat is good; but this, when bitten into, It is considered the proves bitter and nauseous. most serious of the afflictions to which the mollusk is subject. (Hopson's Sea world, March 15.) W. H. D. [671

Venus mercenaria in Britain. It appears from

a note by Mr. F. P. Marrat, that Venus mercenaria L., our round clam or quahaug, has become naturalized in British waters. In 1869, Capt. I. H. Mortimer introduced this shell-fish into England, where specimens were put into the sea at Southport, at the mouth of the Mersey, and at Crosby, on the Lancashire coast. It is believed that an American, Mr. H. D. Brandeth, doing business at Liverpool, and residing at Hilbre Island, near the mouth of the Dee, deposited both this species and the American oyster in the waters adjacent to the island, four or five years ago. At all events, large numbers of the shells of the Venus have recently been found by collectors, cast up on the shores near Hilbre Island in such a manner as to indicate that this species has become fully acclimatized there. [672

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W. H. D. Insects.

Innervation of the respiratory mechanism in insects. Dr. O. Langendorff denies Dönhoff's state

ment that respiratory movements in insects cease after decapitation. Experiments on humble-bees, wasps, cock-chafers, and dragon-flies, show that these movements continue in the abdomen after removal of the head, and even of the thorax. Indeed, in some cases, sections of the abdomen of a dragon-fly, as small as one ring and a half, continued the rhythmical respiration. It is therefore evident that the nervecentre for respiration is not in the head. A decapitated cock-chafer breathed for an hour. found to increase the activity of respiration in mutilated, as in healthy individuals. Graphic illustrations are given of normal respiration, and compared with those obtained from decapitated specimens. (Archiv anat. phys., 1883, 80.) E. B.

(Economic entomology.)

Heat was

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Food of Carabidae and Coccinellidae. - The view of the habits of the two principal predaceous families of Coleoptera, which is common among entomologists, is largely due to hasty generalization, based upon insufficient data. Observations of the food of these beetles have hitherto been left almost wholly to chance. Two years ago Prof. S. A. Forbes and Mr. F. M. Webster published the results of a series of careful investigations of this subject. This work has been continued by Prof. Forbes, who now gives the result of an examination of the contents of the stomachs of 175 specimens (representing 38 species and 28 genera) of Carabidae, and 38 specimens (7 species and 4 genera) of Coccinellidae. A great diversity of habits of the different genera appears. Thus no trace of vegetable food was found in Calosoma; in Galerita, from 6% to 12% of the food was vegetable; in Pterostichus, 20% to 25%; and in Harpalus, 87%. In the Carabidae as a whole, 57% of the food was vegetable, and 36 % insects. In the Coccinellidae, 45% was spores of fungi, 14% pollen of grasses and Compositae, and 35% insects. (Bull. Ill. state lab. nat. hist., No. 6, Jan., 1883.) J. H. C. [674 Food of Wisconsin birds. Under the title 'Economic relations of Wisconsin birds,' Prof. F. H. King publishes notes on nearly three hundred species which occur in that state. This work is of especial interest to economic entomologists, as it contains the results of an examination, by a very careful worker, of the contents of the stomachs of over eighteen hundred birds. To the original observations are added notes from the publications of various ornithologists; so that a fairly complete résumé of what is known respecting the food of each of the species is given. (Wisc. geol. surv., i.) J. H. C.

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VERTEBRATES.

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Motor-nerve endings.-W. Kühne has published two articles on this subject, having extended his observations to a considerable number of vertebrates. He gives descriptions of the manifold forms of the terminal ramifications of the axis-cylinder in various species. As the best method of bringing this axialbaum into a visible state while preserving its natural form, he recommends giving a minimum dose of curare, and then sending tetanic electric irritation through the nerve. After this treatment, the motorplates can be seen with surprising ease and distinctness. Particularly important is his new method of isolating the end-plates. Gold preparations are softened in slightly acidified glycerine until the muscular fibres can be pressed apart, which, being done, isolated terminal plates are found, showing the real arborization, which is quite different from the apparent arborization before isolation. The ramifications are composed of the axis-cylinder, and a sheath of

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Nerve-endings in muscles. The terminal ramifications in Rana are formed, according to Trinchese, of little disks, placed at more or less regular distances from one another, being separated by a homogeneous intermediate substance. From these (Kühne's) ramifications, on the side towards the muscles, run out numerous very fine filaments. The 'longitudinal striae' (fibrillae ?) of the muscle have a similar structure to that of the axis-cylinder, being formed of disks united by clear intermediate substance; and the disks are united by lateral filaments with one another. In the intercostal muscles of the boaconstrictor the motorplates are often subdivided into five or six parts, lying asunder, though connected by filaments. -(Att. accad. lincei, 1882, 83.) C. S. M. [677

Motor-centres in the cerebral cortex. As an appendix to an article on the irritability of the spinal cord, Schiff enters into a long discussion on the nature of the so-called motor centres' in the gray matter of certain convolutions of the cerebral hemispheres. The article is too long and too polemical to be briefly abstracted, but is well worth reading. Schiff points out, that, with the exception of Ferrier, all experimenters (even including Fritsch and Hitzig) have given up the belief that the irritable areas are the motor centres for voluntary movements, and account for the phenomena following stimulation in other ways. Schiff's own belief is, that the so-called motor areas are but reflex centres, in which, during the normal functioning of the body, tactile nervous impulses are reflected to the true and deeper-lying motor centres. —(Pflüg. archiv, xxx. 212.)

Mammals.

H. N. M.

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The domestic animals of Camargue. Col. Basserie gives some interesting facts regarding the domestic animals of this large, low-lying, and marshy island, which is situated at the mouth of the Rhone. The sheep, of the Rambouillet breed, are small and rough, but of peaceful disposition, and very vigorous. They furnish good meat and wool, which has long been esteemed in France for its length and fineness. The cattle are black, small, nervous, and very energetic. They live in the wild state in the great marshes of the island, and are absolutely of no value to the husbandmen; nor do they furnish a means of entertainment, as they did in the days when bull-fights were not prohibited. The horses, which, like the cattle, receive almost no care, and are constrained to feed upon the coarse vegetation of the marshes, and to endure great and sudden changes of temperature and thirst, are small and ill-appearing, having massive jaws, and large and prominent joints and ligaments. They are, nevetherless, hardy, energetic, and subject to few diseases. In color they are light gray. - (Bull. soc. agric., etc., de la Sarthe, xxviii. 521.) [679

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ANTHROPOLOGY.

American archeology in Europe. - Dr. Daniel G. Brinton called the attention of the Numismatic and antiquarian society of Philadelphia, on March 1, to the following facts, with reference to the studies of American prehistoric antiquity. The stone sculptures, first discovered by Dr. Habel and described in the Smithsonian contributions to knowledge, have been removed from Santa Lucia Cozumelhualpa, near Guatemala, to the Royal museum of Berlin. Prof. Adolph Bastian, director of the museum, has published a description of them in a quarto of thirty pages, with three full-page lithographic plates. Within the last year or two, Prof. Leon de Rosny has visited Madrid, Dresden, Basle, and other cities, to study the relics of American civilization. In Madrid he identified the continuation of the Manuscript Troano,' which he is now preparing for the press. Count Hyacinthe de Charencey has collected into an octavo volume of a hundred and ninety-five pages his essays on American philology and paleography. Dr. Hamy discusses the cross of Teotihuacau. The Marquis of Nadaillac has brought out a volume on prehistoric America; and Dr. Max Steffen gives us a monograph on the agriculture of the ancient American civilized peoples, the Aztecs, Mayas, Chibchas, and the Quichuas. The full titles of these works are given in the paper cited.-J. W. P.

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The Mexican national museum.-It may not be known to all the readers of SCIENCE that the land of the Aztecs is no longer open to the indiscriminate plunder of relic-hunters. There is at the national capital a museum, rich especially in relics of ancient Mexican history. A quarterly report is issued, called Anales del museo nacional de Mexico, now in its third year, which is liberally circulated to libraries throughout the United States. Much of the space in this publication is devoted to archeology and decipherment of ancient inscriptions. The principal contributors are J. Sanchez, Gumesindo Mendoza, Orozco y Berra, and Sr. d. Jcazbalceta and Alfredo Chavero. Señor Chavero has for a long time been prosecuting his studies upon the ancient Mexican calendar; and Señor Mendoza has collected a large number of Nahua myths, which he is giving to the world. The anales is printed by Ignacio Escalante, No. 1, Bajos de San Agustin, Mexico. -J. W. P. [682

Anthropology of France. - The study of the natural history of man is very similar to the science of geology. It is possible to select a certain epoch, say, the glacial, and trace over all the earth the evidences of its extent. We may seek to comprehend the succession of all the epochs throughout our planet; or, selecting a particular locality, the specialist may study minutely the exact order in which the various strata have manifested themselves there. The anthropologist now traces up the wanderings of the Celtic stock, now seeks to unravel the mystery of races, and finally, circumscribing his search to his own land, inquires how various stocks of men have succeeded one another in its borders. Such a work has M. Gustave Lagneau done for France. Various tentative efforts were made, and their results published in current French scientific journals. Finally his perfected labors found permanent utterance in the Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences médicales, under the title Anthropologie de la France; and this has been separately printed by G. Masson, Paris. The subject is treated under two forms: 1. Ethnologie analytique, ou Étude spéciale de chacune des races ayant concouru à la formation de la population de la France; 2. Ethnologie synthétique, ou Étude générale

de l'ensemble de la population de la France considérée dans sa complexité ethnique. -J. W. P.

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The Indian-office report. - In addition to the mere detail of annuities and reservations, the report of the commissioner of Indian affairs is becoming more and more useful to the anthropologist. The volume for 1882 is, in this respect, the most valuable that has appeared. The report proper, filling eightytwo pages, covers the whole ground of administration, draws attention to abuses, and suggests important reforms. This is followed by a hundred and ninety pages of finely printed digests of correspondence with agents. By carefully running over these letters, one gets here and there some precious bits of information gathered by witnesses on the spot. Indian legislation, government liabilities, directory of agencies, the disbursement of funds, executive orders, catalogues of tribes and reservations, · - are all minutely and intelligibly set forth. The report on education includes school population, number and accommodations of boarding and day schools, attendance, cost, native and white teachers, results in the number who can read, and in the acres ploughed, produce raised, and stock owned. The industries taught in each boardingschool are given in each case.

Whole number of Indians
School population of uncivilized.
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Day-schools

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Boarding-school accommodations of uncivilized Day-school

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Cost of Carlisle, Hampton, and Forest Grove
Number who can read.
Bushels of corn raised

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School population of five civilized tribes Boarding-schools

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discharged his duties, and served his king Osorkon II., of the twenty-second dynasty, whose monuments are very rare." "Several fragments, with portions of the cartouche of Osorkon II." were also found, and "a hawk in red granite more than a metre high, bearing between his claws one of the cartouches of Ramses II., the presumed builder of Pithom.' (Academy, March 10.)

One ruin in Egypt has been fully explored. M. Naville, with sufficient funds at hand, has, in less than two months, completed the examination of Pithom.' The result has been the identification of the site, and the determination of some geographical and historical problems. Inscriptions in Greek and Latin prove Pithom to have been Hero, the storehouse,' and Heroöpolis, 'the store-city.' M. Na

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ville says, It was Ramses II. who was the founder of the city. He built the storehouse and the temple, but did not finish what he had begun. In the line of the Dromos we find great blocks of granite and of a hard calcareous stone, which had evidently been brought there to make some large tablets or statues, which have been left with marks of the sculptor only. The temple was small, and (the city being chiefly a storehouse and a fortress) had no reason to have many works of art." The Egyptian exploration fund, through the liberality of Sir Erasmus Wilson, has reaped the reward of employing a coolheaded Egyptologist of the first rank, and placing sufficient funds at his command to do his work quickly and thoroughly. (Academy, March 17.) [687

H. O.

INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS.

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS.

Harvard university, Cambridge, Mass.

The chemical laboratory. During his journey in Europe last year, the director added very materially to the means both of instruction and of research at the laboratory. A dynamo-electrical machine, with an adequate motor, has been placed in the basement of the building. The apparatus required for investigations in the new branch of the science, called thermo-chemistry, has been procured. Several hundred valuable specimens have been added to the mineral cabinet, and placed on exhibition in the cases; and a favorable opportunity enabled the director to procure, at small cost, several thousand characteristic mineral specimens for the use of students. It has been very difficult, hitherto, to procure suitable specimens in sufficient number and variety for the large class in mineralogy; and this want having been thus supplied, the laboratory teaching in this subject will be made more effective.

Museum of comparative zoology, Cambridge, Mass.

The Schary collection of fossils. - The most valuable accession received during the past year is the collection of Silurian fossils of Bohemia, brought together by the late J. M. von Schary, which has been purchased from his heirs. This collection is of the greatest value to American paleontologists, as it will give them the means of comparing the types of the great collections which have formed the basis of the works of Barrande and of Hall. Some idea of the magnitude of this collection may be formed from the fact that it contains over a hundred thousand specimens. Of these, probably two-thirds of the collection - no less than 1,231 species, representing 157 genera -are identified.

The Schary collection, taken in connection with those brought together from American localities, now makes the museum collection of paleozoic fossil invertebrates one of the finest in existence.

Peabody museum of American archeology, Cambridge, Mass.

Shellheaps on the coast of Maine. The material obtained during last summer's explorations of shellheaps on the Damariscotta River and Muscongus Sound, is of special interest. At the heap on Keene's Point, considerable pottery was found, and an unusual number of stone implements. In addition to the ordinary implements made of bone, a harpoon-point

was obtained, having two barbs and a perforation, showing that it was attached to a shaft by a string. In another heap, on Hodgdon's Island, Mr. Gamage found a similar perforated point with a single barb. These are believed to be the first specimens of this character from the Atlantic shellheaps; and they are of special interest, from their close resemblance to points from the North-western Coast. Most of the stone implements were rudely chipped forms; but one polished stone celt was found at some depth in the heap at Keene's Point. This deposit consists principally of clam-shells; although the valves of oysters, quahaugs, and scallops, were found, as well as the shells of Buccinum and Natica. Many broken bones of animals were abundant. The most common were those of the deer, moose, and bear; but those of the fox, otter, skunk, beaver, seal, and several other species of mammals, are noted; also the bones of several species of large birds, those of a turtle, and several species of fishes, as the codfish, flounder, devil-fish, and sturgeon. Human bones were obtained from a shellheap on Fort Island; and portions of a human skeleton dug out of the great oyster-heap at Newcastle were secured. A spear-point of bone was found by Mr. Phelps, about one foot below the surface, in the Keene's Point heap; and above it, just under the sod, he found an iron point of nearly the same size and shape, which was probably made out of a piece of hoop iron in imitation of the earlier bone implements. An iron spear and an iron axe of very old form were also found in the shells near the surface of the deposit, which, with a small clay pipe of a kind made in England about the middle of the seventeenth century, found also by Mr. Phelps ten inches deep in the shells, show that this particular deposit was added to by the Indians after contact with the whites, though there can be no doubt that it was commenced long before that time.

State university of Kansas, Lawrence.

Weather report for March. The temperature, rainfall, cloudiness, and wind-velocity were below the March averages. An occurrence unprecedented in Kansas was the continuous cloudiness of the last eight days of the month, during seven of which the wind did not change from a north-east direction.

Mean temperature, 40.90°, which is 0.90° below the average March temperature of the fifteen preceding years. The highest temperature was 69°, on the 17th and 22d; the lowest was 16°, on the 19th; monthly range, 53°: mean temperature at 7 A.M., 34.84°; at

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