Miscellaneous. 357 



time the entire body is elongated in the same direction and becomes 

 perfectly pyriform. The digestive canal when it has reached four- 

 fifths of its length curves back, the teguments of this side are slightly 

 depressed, and an aperture is formed there which is the anus. At 

 this period a small body formed of three branches, united at one ex- 

 tremity, begins to appear beneath the teguments on each side of the 

 mouth ; each branch of these organs, which may be called spurs, sub- 

 sequently elongates and divides on the surface of the teguments into 

 two or three small spines. The body however of the larva of the 

 Echinus does not long remain pyriform, it soon assumes the appear- 

 ance of a thimble, the aperture being replaced by a simple depres- 

 sion. The digestive canal becomes more and more regular, and then 

 exhibits three portions well defined by restrictions : the first opens 

 into the mouth, and may be called the oesophagus ; the second, which 

 is of considerable size, must be regarded as the stomach ; the third, 

 which is short and comparatively very narrow, is the intestine. — 

 Comptes Rendus, Aug. 23, 1847. 



On the Range of the Beaver in the United States. By S. B. Buckley. 

 In DeKay's ' Zoology of the State of New York * it is erroneously 

 stated that the most southern limit of the beaver within the United 

 States is the northern part of the State of New York. There were 

 beavers living among the mountains of North Carolina in the year 

 1842, where I saw trees newly cut down by them, and I was in- 

 formed by my guide that he had seen the beaver. This was in Hay- 

 wood County, a few miles from Waynesville, on the Big Pigeon 

 River, — a wild, rough region, abounding in grand scenery and rarely 

 visited by man, being little known even to the hunters. — Silliman's 

 Journal for May 1847. 



ENEMIES TO SCIENCE AMONG THE NOBLES. 



A great sensation has everywhere been excited by the fact, that 

 men of science in the pursuit of knowledge have been obstructed in 

 their peaceful investigations by certain peers and landed proprietors. 

 The public press has indignantly protested against the right of these 

 noblemen to shut up the highways and byways, and to depopulate 

 whole districts of the country for the purpose of converting them 

 into wild deer forests. With these, and many other grievous sub- 

 jects of complaint, however, it is out of our province to speak. It is 

 not as hunters and deer-stalkers we have to do with them. Neither 

 can we dwell on the mortifications and hardships which the tourist 

 in search of pleasure or health has experienced. What we are desi- 

 rous of alluding to is the circumstance, that certain sporting lords 

 and gentlemen, by obstructing the observations of naturalists, and 

 by discourteously treating learned men in their botanical, geological, 

 and mineralogical investigations as common trespassers on their 

 estates, have earned for themselves the unenviable title of the Ene- 

 mies of Science. 



" It is monstrous to suppose that the Braemar mountains, the Gram- 

 pians, and Glen Tilt, are to be shut out from scientific investigation 



