G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 303 



anatomical elements found in the cephalopoda and some 

 acephala. The diameter of these iridescent bodies varies from 

 two to four or five thousandths of a millimeter. In the Cal- 

 lionymus they are larger than elsewhere, and each is seen to 

 be formed of a pile of extremely delicate lamellae applied one 

 upon the other, but readily separable under the field of the 

 microsco]3e. This blue color, complementary of the yellow, 

 Pouchet considered to be due to a kind of fluorescence. 3D, 

 June 6, 1872, 228. 



REMAINS OF THE MAMMOTH IN CANADA. 



Dr. Alexander M.Ross, of Toronto, calls attention to the re- 

 cent discovery near the village of Millbrook, Durham County, 

 Canada, of the fossil remains of the mammoth {Elephas ame- 

 riccmus), and remarks that this is the first instance of its dis- 

 covery within Canadian territory. Various portions of the 

 skeleton were exhumed, among them three molars in excel- 

 lent preservation. The tusk w T as very much decomposed, but 

 there was reason to infer that it had originally possessed a 

 length of ten and a half feet and a diameter in the largest 

 part often inches. Circular of Dr. Ross. 



SUPPOSED RELATION OF MEDUSAE TO POTATO BLIGHT. 







A writer in Land and lYater thinks he observes a relation 

 between the presence of jelly-fish, or medusae, on the British 

 coast and the potato blight. According to his account, the 

 jelly-fish has been excessively abundant on the coasts of 

 Scotland and Ireland during the past season ; so much so, in- 

 deed, as to carry away or to clog up the salmon and herring 

 nets so as to render them unfit for use. For a time they 

 were closely packed along the entire coast, extending sea- 

 ward forty miles, or even more, and the air was affected by 

 the odor emitted by their decomposition. 



They are considered so excessively poisonous to man and 

 animals that the touch of their streamers on the hand or on 

 the face produces a most intolerable itching and inflamma- 

 tion. The writer of the article referred to thinks that either 

 the solid particles from the dried-up jelly-fish, or the emana- 

 tions from their decomposing bodies, being carried inland 

 from the sea, strike the potato vines and produce the dis- 

 ease ! 2 A, October 5, 1872, 259. 



