ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 123 



of vegetable growth which springs up while the drifts are but half 

 melted — flowers blooming at their very edge. He also noticed ant- 

 hills half buried in snow, the tops of which were covered with the 

 active insects, and small quadrupeds coming out of their winter 

 burrows as soon as the sun's rays strike the bare soil. Many small 

 birds were also winter residents of the summit of the mountains. 



Prof. Whitney exhibited an impression of a fan-palm leaf in 

 volcanic "cement" or sedimentary mud, found near Placerville — 

 the first of the kind yet found in California, and showing a sub- 

 tropical climate in the tertiary era. Many animal remains of the 

 tertiary age have been found in other parts of the Sierra Nevada, 

 and those of diiferent subdivisions of that age do not show yet any 

 identical species between the supposed miocene and pliocene. 



Regular Meeting, May 16th, 1870. 

 President in the Chair. 



Twenty-five members present. 



Donations to the Cabinet : Dr. Blake read a letter from A. 

 Garrett, of Papeete, Tahiti, accompanying and describing two boxes 

 of valuable and curious objects of natural history, collected for and 

 presented to the Academy. The writer said that after being for 

 four years cut off from the civiHzed world, engaged the whole time 

 in collecting specimens of Natural History, he had had the mis- 

 fortune to lose, by shipwreck, his manuscripts, drawings, collection 

 of dried plants and insects, portraits of native tribes, native curiosi- 

 ties, and fifty volumes of scientific works. The boxes that he had sent 

 contained 327 specimens of shells ; also, lizards, snakes, Crustacea, 

 bats, frogs, etc. The skull of a Yitian native, who had been eaten 

 by cannibals, was also in the collection. 



A peculiarly marked section of meteoric stone, sliced from one of 

 several found near together at Milwaukie, Wisconsin, was received 

 from Dr. I. A. Lapham of that place. 



Donations to the Library : 



