MISCELLANY 



127 



lowed a servant out on the street, and then 

 for the first time saw a butcher's shop. The 

 animal threw himself down, and could not 

 be induced to pass the place. The dog is 

 now nearly three years old, and the antipa- 

 thy has diminished somewhat, but not dis- 

 appeared. Mr. Huggins lately found that 

 " Kepler's " ancestor, " Turk," manifested 

 the same antipathy, and his former owner 

 was asked for information on the subject. 

 It now appears that this curious dislike for 

 butchers' shops and butchers was shown 

 equally by " Turk's " sire, " King " (in 

 whom it probably originated), and by 

 "Punch" and "Paris," sons of "Turk." 

 The antipathy is most marked in " Paris," 

 who will hardly enter a street containing a 

 butcher's shop, and runs away after he has 

 passed it. If a butcher's cart comes to the 

 place where the dogs are kept, they are 

 filled with fright even though they do not 

 see the object of their fears. " Turk's " 

 owner, Mr. Nichols, then tells of two in- 

 stances where " Paris " gave evidence of 

 the most extraordinary sagacity in recog- 

 nizing a butcher under any circumstances. 

 One evening a boss-butcher, in ordinary 

 clothes, called to see " Paris," but had 

 scarcely entered the house when the dog 

 became unmanageable, and the visitor had 

 to leave without seeing him. On another 

 occasion tl Paris " sprang at a gentleman, 

 and, as it was the first exhibition he ever 

 had made of such viciousness, his owner 

 apologized, and said that the dog had never 

 before attacked any but butchers. The gen- 

 tleman was a butcher ! 



Since the publication of Mr. Huggins's 

 letter, several other communications have 

 appeared in Nature, showing that all the 

 dogs of this line inherit this instinctive 

 antipathy. Mr. H. G. Brooke writes of a 

 grandson of " Turk : " " Ever since he was 

 a pup he has evinced " this antipathy. A 

 brother of this dog of Mr. Brooke's shows 

 the same feeling, according to Mr. Arthur 

 Ransom, his owner. 



Mr. Russel Wallace is inclined to think 

 that these dogs distinguish butchers from 

 other men by the sense of smell, which is 

 very acute in all dogs. He also thinks that 

 it it this sense which enables a dog to find 

 his way back from a distance, though on 

 first making the journey he had been blind- 



folded, and so prevented from seeing his 

 way. Another correspondent of Nature, 

 writing in confirmation of Mr. Wallace's 

 view, tells of a cat's antipathy to dogs. 

 This animal would " swear," if only stroked 

 by a hand which had directly before touched 

 a dog. Mr. Darwin's purpose in calling at- 

 tention to the present case of heredity is, 

 to illustrate his theory of instinct as an ac- 

 quired and transmitted habit. 



Changes in River-Bcds. In a report on 

 the subject of a water-supply for the village 

 of Tonkers, New York, published in the Jan- 

 uary number of the American Chemist, Prof. 

 J. S. Newberry furnishes some interesting 

 facts on the geology of river-beds, that will 

 be of general interest. He says : " It is prob- 

 ably known to you that most of the drain- 

 ing streams of all the region between the 

 Mississippi and the Atlantic are now ruu- 

 ning far above their ancient beds. This 

 fact was first revealed to me by the borings 

 made for oil in the valleys of the tributaries 

 of the Ohio. All these streams were found 

 to be flowing in valleys, once deeply exca- 

 vated but now partially filled, and, in some 

 instances, almost obliterated. Further in- 

 vestigation showed that the same was true 

 of the draining streams of New York and 

 the Atlantic slope. For example, the val- 

 ley of the Mohawk, for a large part of its 

 course, is filled with sand and gravel, to the 

 depth of over two hundred feet. In the 

 Hudson the water surface stands now prob- 

 ably five hundred feet above its ancient 

 level the old mouth of the Hudson and 

 the channel which leads to it being distinct- 

 ly traceable on the bottom nearly eighty 

 miles south and east of New York The 

 excavation of these deep channels could 

 only have been effected when the continent 

 was much higher than now. Subsequently 

 it was depressed so far that the ocean- 

 waters stood on the Atlantic coast from one 

 hundred to five hundred feet higher than 

 they now do. During this period of sub- 

 mergence the blue clays in the valley of the 

 Hudson the ' Champlain clays ' were de- 

 posited, and the valleys of all the streams 

 were more or less filled." 



Dimensions of IVcw-England Glaciers. 



The Glacial and Champlain Epochs in New 



