1905 | Ganong,— On Balls of Vegetable Matter 45 
can thus cling together, but still more remarkable that they should 
become interlocked in this way in the first place; and one sus- 
pects that some cement of micro-organisms must be present to 
account for their cohesion, something of which the dried specimens 
show no evidence. 
Desiring information as to other localities, or as to other published 
references to the subject, I published in Science for April 8th (1904), 
a letter asking for such information. It was this letter which brought 
me the welcome information above given from Mr. Allen and Mr. 
Riddle; and, in addition, Mr. F. V. Coville of Washington referred 
me to similar balls from lakes in Idaho, and gave me the name of a 
botanist, Mr. John B. Leiberg of Athol, Idaho, who was acquainted 
with them. On application to Mr. Leiberg he kindly wrote me (May 
5, 1904) as follows: — 
Balls and solid cylinders composed, in the main, of decaying pine 
needles, bits of comminuted bark and wood, Ceratophyllum demersum, 
leaves and stems of Potamogeta, Charas and Nitellas are of common 
occurrence in Lake Pend Oreille, in Idaho, and doubtless in Priest 
and Coeur d'Alene lakes also, in the same State. The balls are small 
affairs — 4 to 7 centimeters in diameter — while the cylinders vary 
from 30 to 4o centimeters in length, with diameters from 3 to 5 centi- 
meters, Owing to the great depth of the lakes the balls and cylinders 
are formed near the shores in water less than 1 meter in depth, and 
mostly in late summer and fall; the strong gales and heavy wave 
motion of early winter soon destroy them. The nucleus both of balls 
and cylinders consists of broken and tangled bits of Ceratophyllum, 
Charas and Nitellas, occasionally mixed with strands of Zannichellia 
and /Vaias. ‘The wave motion rolls the mixture along the bottom and 
in its progress shoreward pine-needles, decaying splinters of wood 
bark and similar debris are taken up and become intimately mixed 
with the primary mass. Infusorial slimes — Amoebas, Vorticellas, 
etc.— develop and assist in holding the mass together. It is finally 
cast up on shore where wind and wave soon bring about its disin- 
tegration. The balls and cylinders have no local designation. 
Mr. Leiberg's account, it will be observed, apparently leaves little 
to be said as to the mode of origin of the balls in the lakes of his 
region. 
All of the balls so far described occur in fresh-water lakes. I have 
however seen a specimen, of apparently a similar general nature, from 
a sea-beach. It was sent me by Mr. Francis H. Allen, and is from 
Ipswich Beach. As compared with the lake balls I have seen, it is 
much smaller, far less regular, and of much coarser and more hetero- 
