374 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



Dr. Behr thought that the California)! lepidoptera more nearly 

 conformed to European and Mexican types than to those of the 

 Eastern States. 



Regular Meeting, November 18th, 1867. 

 President in the chair. 



Twenty-six members present; 



Messrs. R. H. Stretch and Gustav Holland, M.D., were elected 

 Resident Members, and Mr. L. C. Schmidt of Eureka, Humboldt 

 County, a Corresponding Member. 



Donations to the Cabinet : A specimen of Coral from Mr. Eck- 

 ley. 



Donation to the Library: Mining Claims and Water Rights, 

 8vo, San Francisco, 1867, by Gregory Yale. 



Professor Whitney read the following communication, supple- 

 mentary to the one presented at the previous meeting. 



The subject of the relation of the accidental minerals occurring on the 

 Pacific coast was brought forward by me at the last meeting, and I wish now 

 to add a few words in regard to the elementary substances occurring in Califor- 

 nia, an inquiry which will also afford us some interesting data for comparing 

 the geological and chemical conditions prevailing through the great chain of the 

 Cordilleras of North and South America. 



I find on carefully tabulating the facts observed by the Geological Survey, 

 in regard to the mineral combinations existing on the coast, that of the sixty- 

 four elementary substances existing in nature, so far as yet known to chemists, 

 there are ouly thirty-six which have been proven to occur in California, in min- 

 eral combinations. 



Those which are wanting here are the following : bromine, glucinum, cad- 

 mium, caesium, cerium, didymium, erbium, fluoriue, iodine, indium, lanthanum, 

 lithium, niobium, norium, palladium, ruthenium, rubidium, strontium, tantalum, 

 terbium, thallium, thorium, uranium, vanadium, bismuth, tungsten, yttrium, 

 zirconium (28.) 



Of elementary substances occurring in the adjacent States, and not yet 

 detected in California, there are, so far as I know, only three, namely : bismuth, 

 fluorine and tungsten. This would make twenty-three elements wanting on the 

 Pacific Coast of North America. Of these a few are extremely rare, in gen- 

 eral, and would hardly be expected to occur here. Among these are didym- 

 ium, erbium, indium, lanthanum, norium, thorium. But there are others, the 

 absence of which is indeed quite surprising. Fluorine, for instance, is au ele- 

 ment of extremely wide distribution, and one which occurs in great quantity in 



