264 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



add seven per cent, to the deciduous trees of New England, 

 and remove an equal number of conifers. The latter appear 

 to be the relics of an old time, and not suited to a successful 

 warfare with the younger and more elastic trees, such as the 

 oaks, beeches, etc. If the shock of the last season had been 

 sufficient to kill off the whole of our pines, a complete change 

 would have taken place in our forests, the vacant places be- 

 ing occupied by deciduous species. This would affect the 

 character of the undergrowth very materially, as well as that 

 of the insect life, and, consequently, that of the birds, and 

 mammals. Furthermore, the climate might have been influ- 

 enced in some measure, for a pine forest retains the snow bet- 

 ter than one which loses its leaves in winter, and thus tends 

 to secure a more equable temperature in its neighborhood. 



Thus, according to the authoi', an accidental drouth might 

 brins: about a chansce in the vital conditions on the surface 

 of the land as great as those which, when recorded in strata, 

 we accept as indicating distinct geological formations. 5 Z>, 

 November, 1^12, %1d. 



THE OLDEST ZOOLOGICAL MUSEUM IIT AMEEICA. 



It may not be generally known that perhaps the oldest 

 collection of specimens of natural history now extant in the 

 United States constitutes a portion of the present cabinet of 

 Princeton College, New Jersey. It was first brought togeth- 

 er by Monsieur Delacoste, a French collector and naturalist, 

 who flourished in New York at the beginning of the present 

 century, and who published in 1804 a catalogue of his curi- 

 osities (chiefly collected in Guiana), filling a pamphlet of 

 about ninety pages. 



The plan of Delacoste for keeping up his museum^was to 

 secure a certain number of annual subscribers, who were to 

 constitute a society for the promotion of the science of natu- 

 ral history. The enterprise w^as supported by names then 

 very prominent in New York, such as De Witt Clinton, Aar- 

 on' Burr, Thomas Cooper, Dr. David Hosack, Charles Wilkes, 

 Wright Post, and other parties. The collection embraced 

 about 260 species of birds, 63 of quadrupeds (which included 

 both mammals and turtles), over 50 of fishes, and other ob- 

 jects in proportion. We learn that this collection is still 

 preserved, for the greater part in good condition, at Princeton. 



