640 



THE POPULAR SCIEXGE MONTHLY. 



NOTES. 



The Smithsonian Institution is making 

 a collection to illustrate, at the Centennial 

 Exhibition, the resources of the United 

 States as derived from the animal kingdom. 

 This collection will embrace specimens of 

 the animals of the United States which are 

 hunted or collected for economical pur- 

 poses; the products derived from the va- 

 rious species ; also the apparatus or devices 

 employed by hunters, trappers, sportsmen, 

 and others. 



The artesian well at the Collier White- 

 Lead Works, St. Louis, Missouri, has attained 

 a depth of over VOO feet, nearly all of which 

 depth has been through limestone. The 

 drift is but slightly above the encrinitic 

 limestone, and has passed through but little 

 of either sandstone or chert. The boring 

 commenced in the lower Archimedean lime- 

 stone. Scientific American. 



A PROFITABLE industry in the vicinity 

 of Cape May, New Jersey, is the mining of 

 ancient cedar-logs in the mire of the swamps. 

 In these swamps, says the Monmouth Dem- 

 ocrat, are buried enormous trees at a depth 

 of from three to ten feet. The logs lie one 

 across another, and there is abundant evi- 

 dence that they are the growth of succes- 

 sive forests. The mode of searching for the 

 logs is as follows : An iron rod is thrust 

 into the soft mud, over which, often, the 

 water lies. After several soundings the 

 workman is able to tell how the tree lies, 

 which is its root-end, and how thick it is. 

 He then contrives to get a chip from the 

 tree, and so determines at once whether it 

 is worth the labor of mining. A pit is now 

 dug, into which the water soon flows, filling 

 it up. The tree is then cut across with a 

 saw at regular intervals, each section float- 

 ing to the surface. A layer of such trees 

 is found covered by another layer and these 

 again by another, and even a third, while 

 living trees may still be growing over all. 



A MARBLE scroll has been set up in 

 Westminster Abbey, bearing an inscription 

 in honor of Jeremiah Horrocks. Among 

 the labors of his short life the inscription 

 signalizes the following: Discovery of the 

 long inequality in the mean motion of Ju- 

 piter and Saturn ; demonstration of the el- 

 liptical form of the moon's orbit ; determi- 

 nation of the motion of the lunar apse ; 

 prediction, from his own observations, of 

 the transit of Venus in 1639. 



Fifty years ago the great auk was found 

 in large numbers on the Funk Islands, ofi" 

 the coast of Newfoundland, but soon after 

 became extinct. The story of its extermi- 

 nation is briefly told as follows in the Amer- 

 ican Naturalist: The birds were hunted 



for their feathers by the Newfoundland fish- 

 ertpen, who would row round them in small 

 boats and drive them ashore (the auks being 

 unable to fly) into pounds. The birds were 

 immersed in scalding water to remove the 

 feathers, and their bodies were used as fuel 

 for boiling the water. It is doubtful if the 

 species Alca impennis now exists anywhere 

 about the islands of Newfoundland or Lab- 

 rador. 



In the year ending November 30, 1875, 

 the Royal Society of London lost 29 Fel- 

 lows by death. Uf these, fourteen were be- 

 tween 70 and 80 years of age, six between 

 80 and 90, and three between 90 and 95. 

 Of all the Fellows now living. Sir Edward 

 Sabine has been for the longest time a 

 member of the Society ; he was elected in 

 1818. 



In a paper by John Willis Clarke, pub- 

 lished in the Contemporarii lieview, it is 

 stated that the Confederate cruisers Ala- 

 bama and Shenandoah, by interfering with 

 the American seal-fishery, preserved the 

 breed of the fur-seal in the Southern Ocean 

 from complete extinction. 



At a recent meeting of the Buffalo So- 

 ciety of Natural Science, Profs. Grote and 

 Pitt announced the discovery of a marine 

 fucoid in the water-line group. The speci- 

 men is one of the best preserved of the 

 kind yet discovered. It shows no close 

 affinity to any known fucoidal remains. 



Lieutenant Cameron reached Loanda in 

 November, having made the journey from 

 Zanzibar, including a two months' survey 

 of Lake Tanganyika, in two years and eight 

 mouths. 



The California Academy of Sciences is 

 now absolute owner of the property given 

 to it by Mr. Lick. Its present income, in 

 the shape of rents, is about $4,000, and this 

 sum is destined to increase rapidly. Its 

 members number five hundred, including 

 seventy-five life members. The donations 

 to the museum during the year 1875 were 

 numerous and valuable. At the last annual 

 meeting the vice-president, Mr. Edwards, 

 suggested the adoption of some plan of 

 distributing the members in sections of Ge- 

 ology, Botany, Entomology, etc., each sec- 

 tion to assemble weekly and pass upon pa- 

 pers which, if approved, would be presented 

 at the fortnightly meetings of the Acad- 

 emy. 



The remains of a mastodon have been 

 discovered at Lisle, Broome County, New 

 York. The portions so far found are a 

 piece of tusk 7 feet 3 inches long, and an- 

 other piece 2 feet long ; a humerus 38 inch- 

 es long ; one rib 49 inches long, and 21 

 shorter ribs ; the atlas, 10 by 17 inches, 

 and several of the caudal vertebra. 



