academy of sciences. 55 



Regular Meeting, June 21st, 1869. 

 President in the Chair. 



Edward Cohn, Hugo Eloesser, Arthur Eloesser, Fred. ReichUng, 

 , Geo. A. Elliott, and Dr. John Vansant, were elected resident 

 members. 



Henry P. Carlton was elected Recording Secretary. 



Donations to the Cabinet : A specimen of the large lizard, Helo- 

 derma horridurn, said to be venomous, from Guaymas ; presented 

 by Dr. Hubbard through Dr. Ayres. A sandstone concretion found 

 in Pescadero Creek, Santa Cruz County, split open and containing 

 fraiiments of shells that looked like the skeleton of a lizard ; an 

 ancient Indian stone mortar, weighing 35 lbs., from a mound at Rac- 

 coon Straits. A specimen of Ostrea Titan^ said to be from Tele- 

 graph Hill, 50 feet below the surface. Imperfect peat from a salt 

 marsh near S. F. Bay. A fossil from White Pine, said to be devo- 

 nian, and from 9,000 feet elevation ; all presented by Mr. Yale. 

 A collection of fossil corals and encrinites from Treasure Hill, Nev., 

 by Guy F. Seeley through Dr. Blake. A fossil impression of a 

 leaf in sandstone, by Gen. J. F. Miller. 



Dr. Gibbons presented a bottle of little black crustacean insects 

 looking like fine black sand, which were found crawling out in im- 

 mense numbers from under a plank sidewalk. A cubic mch would 

 contain a million of them. 



Dr. Gibbons read a letter from Dr. E. P. Taylor of Sacramento 

 concerning an appearance resembling a cross lately observed on 

 the face of the moon ; or, as he expressed it, the moon " looked as 

 if crucified." 



The Asiatic traveler, Robert Schlagintweit, being present, was 

 invited to address the Society, and described many interesting 

 incidents of his- journeys in the Himalaya, where sheep are raised 

 at an elevation of 40,000 feet. He also spoke of his discovery of 

 nephrite in Turkistan, where it is quarried in a soft state and cut 

 into pipe-bowls, idols, handles of swords, etc., but afterwards be- 

 comes so hard that it will cut glass. 



