ZOOLOGY. 433 



water spontaneously and neatly amputating the region of 

 their own mouth. 



In the Atti della JReale del Lincei, at Rome, some interest- 

 ing investigations are described, which were made by Messrs. 

 A. and G. De Negri, at the Chemical Laboratory of the Genoa 

 University, on the purple dyes of antiquity. The authors have 

 thoroughly investigated the subject. After an elaborate 

 account and an enumeration of the various historical data 

 with regard to the mollusks from which the ancients obtained 

 their purple colors, they enter into a discussion of the chem- 

 ical and optical properties of these substances, the methods 

 of dyeing with them, the adulterations found in them, and 

 various other details concerning them. We must refer our 

 readers to the original treatise for further particulars, as our 

 space will not permit us to enter into them. The paper is 

 accompanied by a number of plates, giving the spectra of 

 the colors obtained from species of the genera Aplysia and 

 Murex. 



It is well known that there is a gigantic species of Octopus 

 {O.punctatus Gabb) living on or about the Pacific coast, with 

 arms five feet in length. The Weekly Oregonian of September, 

 1877, records the fact that " an Indian woman, while bathing, 

 was pulled beneath the surface of the water by an Octopus 

 and drowned. The body was discovered the following day 

 in the bottom of the bay, in the embrace of the monster. 

 Indians dived down, and with their knives severed the tenta- 

 cles of the Octopus and rescued the body. This is the first 

 recorded instance of death from such a cause in this locality ; 

 but there have been several narrow escapes." 



In the supplement to the second edition of his "Acadian 

 Geology," Principal Dawson speaks of the molluscan fauna of 

 what he terms the great Acadian Bay, comprising the eastern 

 portion of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, between Nova Scotia and 

 the Bay of Chaleurs. "This Acadian Bay is a sort of gigan- 

 tic warm-water aquarium, sheltered, except in a few isolated 

 banks which have been pointed out by Mr. Whiteaves, from 

 the cold waters of the Gulf, and which the bather feels quite 

 warm in comparison with the frigid and often not very limpid 

 liquid with which w T e are fain to be content in the Lower St. 

 Lawrence. It also affords to the more delicate marine an- 

 imals a more congenial habitat than they can find in the Bay 



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