academy of sciences. 145 



Regular Meeting, November 21st, 1870. 

 President in the Chair. 



Thirty members present. 



Dr. J. Morrill, of Colima, Mex., was elected a corresponding 

 member. 



Donations to the Cabinet : A dried specimen and drawing of the 

 " Skooma," or " Elephant Fish," (^Chimcera Colliei) from Puget's 

 Sound, by A. W. Chase, through Prof. Davidson. Another speci- 

 men of the same species taken near this city was exhibited. 



Mr. Turrill presented some shells and pieces of rock from old 

 Indian " Kokkenmoddings," near Black Point, remarking that their 

 occurrence on top of hills of pure sand showed that they had not 

 been carried up by water. 



Donations to the Library : Proceedings of the Lyceum of Nat. 

 History of New York, vol, I., sigs. 1-3. The California Horticul- 

 turist and Floral Magazine, No. I, 1870, 8vo. 



Prof. Davidson, of the U. S. Coast Survey, gave an account of 

 his observation of meteors on the nis-hts of the 13th and 14th in- 

 stants. The moon was shining brightly during the six hours the 

 count was kept — recorded by the telegraph method on the chrono- 

 graph. During the first two hours and a half, from twelve o'clock 

 midnight, only six meteors were seen. Prof. Davidson thought at 

 the time the observation was made, the earth had passed out of the 

 meteoric belt, or was possibly just in its edge. He said that in the 

 observation made last year at Santa Barbara, five hundred and 

 sixty-six meteors were counted in six hours. He mentioned a brill- 

 iant one with a train that lasted eight and a half minutes, in which 

 time it changed to two-thirds of an ellipse. 



Mr. Hanks read a carefully prepared report upon the subject of 

 the remains of a ship alleged to have been seen in the Colorado 

 Desert, forty miles north of Fort Yuma, near the San Bernardino 

 Road. He gave the new^spaper history of the subject, and the re- 

 sult of his correspondence with various parties at San Bernardino, 

 Los Angeles and San Diego. His enquiries had elicited nothing 

 but hearsay evidence. There is positive testimony that numerous 

 persons have seen at the distance of a few miles, an object that they 



