458 Natural Histoty in foreign Countries: — 



began to pass to the N.W., March 7. Wild swans appeared, 

 March 27. First mosquito, Feb. 28. Orioles came in 

 flights, March 7. First swallow, and first toad, April 13. 

 Many snipes arrived, April 1. The hepatica, the trailing 

 arbutus, and the white, the yellow, and the blue violets, first 

 observed in blossom, April 22. Indications of the existence 

 of beavers in an adjoining stream, in the fresh cut stakes, 

 barked by those animals, and floating down the stream. 

 Traces of the musk rat in the Moshannon creek, at the foot 

 of my garden. Very large spiders and centipedes come out 

 of their hiding-places May 1., as do the beetles. Caught 

 twenty-four trout with the artificial fly. May 3. Many land 

 lizards in the woods, May 21. Two rattlesnakes killed 

 May 28. ; several other species of snake previously seen : a 

 rattlesnake, 3 ft. 7i in. long, and 6 in. round, killed here, 

 June 3. Fire flies appeared. May 28. A land tortoise in my 

 garden. Snapping turtles and terapins caught in July. The 

 tulip trees in flower, June 8. : these trees are 140 ft. high. 

 Took a young spotted fawn in the woods (Cervus virginianus) 

 July 20., now so tame as to run at large, and follow the 

 children. — R. C, Taylor. Philipshurg^ Pennsylvania, Aug. 

 7. 1831. 



The Esqtiimaux Lake. — This lake is said to extend from 

 north to south more than 150 miles, and about the same 

 from east to west. It is reported to be full of islands, to be 

 every where brackish, and to receive two large rivers be- 

 sides the eastern branch of the Mackenzie. It may be 

 plausibly conjectured that the alluvial materials brought 

 down by the Mackenzie and other rivers have gradually 

 formed a barrier of islands and shoals, which, by preventing 

 the free access of the tide, enables the fresh water to maintain 

 the predominance behind it. The action of the waves of the 

 sea has a tendency to increase the height of the barrier, while 

 the currents of the rivers and the ebb tide preserve the depth 

 of the lake. A great formation of wood coal will, no doubt, 

 be ultimately formed by the immense quantities of drift 

 timber deposited on the borders of this lake. — J. R. Lee, Kent, 

 SOUTH AMERICA. 



Second Species of South American Tapir, making the third 

 Species of the Genus. — M. Roulin, in the form of a memoir 

 professing to furnish an abstract of the history of the tapir 

 generally, and a description of a new species appertaining to 

 the high regions of the Cordilleras of the Andes, some time 

 ago presented to the scientific public a most interesting and 

 amusing dissertation ; in which he not only identifies the 

 newly discovered quadruped with the subject of a legendary 



