G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 305 



MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY. 



A meeting of the American Oriental Society was held in 

 New Haven on the 9th of October, and counted among those 

 in attendance many gentlemen interested in the objects of 

 the society from various parts of the country. The whole 

 number of persons present was about thirty, and several pa- 

 pers of much interest were presented. Professor Stengle, of 

 Columbia College, read a paper upon the connection of the 

 Semitic language with the Spanish ; and another was given 

 by Professor Whitney on the religions of India. President 

 Woolsey made a communication upon the god Cronos, and 

 Mr. Van Namee made some verbal remarks upon the relation 

 between the Japanese language and that of China, and es- 

 pecially on the schools and literature of Japan. JVeio York 

 Herald. 



PROPOSED "CLOSE TIME" FOR LOBSTERS. 



The question has arisen as to whether it is desirable to es- 

 tablish a " close time" for lobsters, during which the female 

 at least should be protected from capture. It is alleged that 

 on the coast of England, and on various parts of the sea-board 

 of the United States, lobsters are diminishing appreciably 

 both in size and number, and that, unless something be done 

 to save them, they will ultimately run out altogether. Mr. 

 Spence Bate, of England, suggests that for that country the 

 capture of lobsters should be forbidden from February until 

 May, and that of the female crab altogether. IbA^Proc. 

 Brit. Assoc, August 24, 1872, 242. 



NEW AMERICAN FOSSIL VERTEBRATES. 



Professor O. C. Marsh, of New Haven, was diligently oc- 

 cupied during the summer of 1872 in elaborating the rich 

 mass of fossil vertebrates collected by him the previous year 

 and the year before in various parts of the West, and has pub- 

 lished brief accounts of the new species, from time to time, 

 in the pages of Sittimarts Journal. The following are among 

 his more important announcements: 



Two large pachyderms allied to Palceosyops^ gigantic fossil 



tapir called Ilyr achy us princeps, two carnivora allied to the 



Viverridce, and, most important of all, two species of bats 



