ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 325 



Yale, James Howden, George H. Fillmore, Marshall Hastings, 

 John L. Eckley and Lee J. Ransom were electsd Resident Mem- 

 bers, and J. G. Cooper, M.D., a Life Member. 



Donation to the Cabinet : A skull of a California Indian, taken 

 from a burial place in Alameda County, near Centreville, by Mr. 

 L. G. Yates. 



Donation to the Library : The Pacific Medical and Surgical 

 Journal for 1865 and I860, by Dr. H. Gibbons. 



Prof. W. P. Blake read the following communication : 

 Notice of Fossil Elephants' Teeth from the Northwest Coast. 



BY W. P. BLAKE. 



The two molar teeth of the extinct elephant which I exhibit this evening 

 were presented to me by Col. Bulkley, Superintendent of the American and 

 Russian Telegraph. One is from the mouth of the Yukon River, and the other 

 from St. Paul's Island, near the middle of Behring's Sea. The remains of 

 elephants are abundant in both places. Tusks are sometimes found, and one 

 has been sent by Col. Bulkley to the Smithsonian Institution. These new 

 localities may be regarded as forming a connecting link between those of Sibe- 

 ria and America, and indicate the former continuous distribution of the ancient 

 elephant upon the two continents. 



The following list of localities, known to me, of similar fossils in California, 

 will show that the elephant must have been frecpiently seen here in very early 

 times : At Mare Island ; in Placer County, near Forest Hill ; in Tuolumne 

 County, at Columbia, Shaw's Flat, Texas Flat and near Sonora ; in Calaveras 

 County, at Knight's Ferry ; in Los Angeles County, at San Pedro. The last 

 is, I believe, the most southern point at which such remains have been found in 

 this State. 



Mr. Falkenau read a paper on Peat, in which he gave an account 

 of the origin, distribution and uses of this material. In the discus- 

 sion which followed the reading of this communication, it was stated 

 by Mr. Bolander that no valuable beds of peat had yet been dis- 

 covered on this coast. Messrs. Keyes and Behr also commented 

 on supposed discoveries of this material in California. The pecu- 

 liar climate of this region was noticed as unfavorable to the devel- 

 opment of this material. 



Dr. H. Gibbon made some remarks on the simultaneity of storms 

 on both sides of this continent. 



Prof. Whitney made some remarks supplementary to his commu- 

 nication to the Academy in 1862, on the question — " Which is the 



