ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 161 



Professor Bolander said that he had seen in a newspaper a state- 

 ment that parties were making arrangements to cut peat in the San 

 Joaquin valley, and inquired if any real peat was known to exist in 

 California. He expressed the opinion that the geological and cli- 

 matic conditions of the State were not favorable to the formation of 

 peat. This substance is formed by the decay of vegetable matter 

 constantly under water. Where the vegetable matter was subject 

 to overflows, as was the case along the San Joaquin river, earthy 

 matter must be deposited which would prevent the formation of 

 real peat. 



Dr. Blake stated, in regard to the shell mounds near Lafayette, 

 that he had learned from an old Californian that the Indians were' 

 formerly in the habit of gathering shell fish on the coast, and car- 

 rying them ten or fifteen miles inland for food. 



Dr. Gibbons stated some observations he had made regarding the 

 rain in this State. He said that in the Eastern States the rain be- 

 gins in the quarter from which the cloud comes, while upon this 

 coast the rain begins to fall first in the quarter toward which the 

 cloud is being blown. 



Regular Meeting, March 6th, 1871. 

 President in the Chair. 



An old coin was presented, with a communication from W. C. 

 Brown, of Marysville. The coin was found in a Chinaman's camp 

 on Wolf Creek, below Grass Valley. It is dated 1717, during the 

 reign of King Charles the Twelfth, while he was King of Norway, 

 Sweden and Denmark. It is a copper coin, in size smaller than a 

 ten cent silver piece. 



Professor Davidson called attention to an article in the Atlantic 

 Monthly for March, in which Clarence King claims for himself and 

 party the first discovery of glaciers in the United States. Mr. 

 King had made valuable observations, but he had been preceded 

 by other parties in the discovery of active glaciers. Lieutenant 

 (now General) August V. Kautz, U. S. A., attempted to ascend 

 Mount Rainier in 1856 or 1857, but found his way barred by great 



