ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 61 



Dr. Blake called attention to the singular phenomenon, which 

 was generally observed throughout the State a few weeks ago, of a 

 peculiar light in the heavens soon after sunset. The Doctor said 

 he could explain it only by supposing it to have been caused through 

 the agency of a vapor or smoky medium, which, at a high altitude, 

 would reflect the sun's rays in such a manner as to present just 

 such a phenomenon as was then noticed. 



Dr. Cooper presented the following paper : 



The Fauna of California and its Geographical Distribution. 



BY J. G. COOPER, M.D. 



Comparison with other CorNTRiES. 



California inclades ii much greater variety of natural regions and peculiar 

 zoological districts than any other State or Territory of the Union. Lying 

 between Lat. 32° 30' and 42°, it has a seaboard over 600 miles long, while it 

 extends back about 200 miles from the coast, thus comprising au area estimated 

 at 155,500* square miles. To equal this in the Atlantic States we find will 

 require all the land between the same parallels of latitude, of which the waters 

 run directly into the ocean, or the entire States of New Jersey, Delaware, 

 Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, part of New York, half of Penn- 

 sylvania and of Virginia, with a seacoast extending from Newport to Charles-  

 ton. We thus get a region somewhat similarly situated, but with mountains 

 averaging less in height than our coast ranges, and not more than half that of 

 the Sierra Nevada. Besides the much greater variety in_ regions due to its 

 lofty mountains, California also has in its southeast corner au arid region un- 

 paralleled on the Atlantic slope, and including nearly a quarter of its area. 



Compared with single States, it is four times as large as New York, and over 

 twentj'-four times as large as Massachusetts, the on'y States of which the zool- 

 ogy has been thoroughly investigated, while its extent in latitude is twice that 

 of New York, thus giving it a far greater range of climate and a correspond- 

 ingly varied fauna. The bordering ocean is also probably as rich, if not richer, 

 in animal life than the Atlantic, though less is known of the latter within the 

 'same parallels. The Californian coast, rock-bound and with a comparatively 

 small influx of rivers, is inhabited by beings suited to entirely different condi- 

 tions from those of the sandy beaches and brackish bays of the Atlantic coast. 

 Though withou* the warming influence of the Gulf Stream, the Pacific Ocean 

 along our shores maintains such a uniform temperature throughout the year 

 that we find about as many subtropical forms among its animals as there are ou 

 that side. 



The same rule applies to the land animals, for while some of the summer 

 visitors in the Atlantic States, especially among birds and insects, have a more 



* According to tlie Census of 1860. 



