MISCELLANY. 



765 



veil which we are enabled to lift, a glimpse 

 is revealed to us of the harmonious plan of 

 the universe. As for primary causes, they 

 remain beyond the ken of man's mind ; they 

 lie within another domain which man's in- 

 tellect will ever strive to enter and search. 

 So is man constituted, and such he will for- 

 ever continue. In vain does science reveal 

 to him the physical structure of the uni- 

 verse and the order of its phenomena : he 

 will Strive onward and upward in his innate 

 instinctive conviction that things have not 

 within themselves their sufficient cause, 

 their foundation and origin ; he is gradual- 

 ly led to subordinate them to a primary 

 cause, a unique and universal God." 



Reported Discovery of Living Moas. 



A report is published in an Auckland news- 

 paper, of October 3d, of the finding of two 

 live moas at Browning Pass, New Zealand. 

 The story runs that one R. K. M. Smyth, on 

 September 26th, while hunting, saw his dog 

 set off suddenly at a great pace, barking fu- 

 riously. He followed, and soon saw two 

 large birds, one of gigantic height, the other 

 smaller. Seeing the dog getting the worst of 

 the fight, Smyth ran back and called his mate 

 to assist him. They got a leather rope, and, 

 under shelter of a small patch of bush, got 

 behind the larger bird and roped it at the 

 first cast. He then took a turn round a 

 birch tree with the rope. The large bird did 

 not show fight to any great extent, and the 

 smaller one remained quietly by it. After 

 this they had very little trouble to secure 

 the legs of the large bird, and they left it 

 fastened to the tree two days, the young 

 one making no effort to leave its mother. 

 With the assistance of some shepherds the 

 old bird was taken to the camp, the young 

 one following. The old bird is eight feet 

 high, and the young one five feet. The 

 story needs confirmation: it is almost too 

 good to be true. 



Dow Migration changes Man. We are 



indebted to Rev. I. T. Beman for a copy 

 of an address delivered by him on the 

 " Moulding Influences of Migration upon 

 the Human Family," particularly as ex- 

 hibited in certain Yankee settlements in 

 Southern New Jersey. The author points 

 out the physical differences existing be- 



tween these Jerseymen and New-England- 

 ers, as follows : " The complexion ot the 

 Yankee is blond, thit of the Jerseyman 

 dark. The Jerseyman's face is more re- 

 poseful than the Yankee's, less variable in 

 expression, and presents a heavier physiog- 

 nomy. His hair is more abundant, darker, 

 and coarser. The Yankee has smaller 

 jaws, more slender neck, rounder chest 

 and limbs, more arching instep, etc. As 

 regards mental traits, the Jerseyman is 

 slow of thought, the Yankee quick, inven- 

 tive. Yet these two populations are sprung 

 from one original stock ; circumstances 

 have made them unlike. And the same 

 results will be produced again in the de- 

 scendaats of the Vineland immigrants." 

 " Within three generations," says the au- 

 thor, " the essentially Yankee character of 

 Vinelanders will disappear, and many pe- 

 culiarities of our New-Jersey neighbors, 

 somewhat remodeled, will be grafted upon 

 our descendants." 



Prof. Marsh on the Lake-Basins of the 

 West. In a memoir by Prof. 0. C. Marsh, 

 on "The Ancient Lake-Basins of the Rocky 

 Mountain Region," published in the Ameri- 

 can Journal of Science, the formation of 

 these basins is traced back to different 

 epochs of Tertiary time on the evidence 

 afforded by the fauna peculiar to each. 

 The oldest of these Tertiary lake-basins are 

 of Eocene age. The first discovered and 

 best known of these Eocene lake-beds is 

 the Green River basin, lying between the 

 Rocky Mountains and the Wasatch range, 

 in the depression now drained by the Green 

 River. The fauna entombed in this Eocene 

 lake indicates a tropical climate tapiroid 

 mammals, monkeys, crocodiles, lizards, ser- 

 pents. The author cites, as an example of 

 the Miocene basins, an ancient lake-bed 

 lying north of the Black Hills. The fauna 

 here discovered indicates a climate much 

 less tropical than that of the Eocene lakes, 

 as is seen in the absence of monkeys, and 

 scarcity of reptilian life. At the close of 

 the Miocene a subsidence took place east 

 of the Rocky Mountains. A great Pliocene 

 lake was thus formed directly over the Mio- 

 cene basin just mentioned, having nearly 

 the same boundaries on the north and west 

 (Black Hills and Rocky Mountains), but ex- 



