Jufliper, Cypress and Manzam'ta in the region of the Brea 

 beds — a practically sea level altitude. 



How it was possible for a tree to attain the growth 

 this Cypress did with its roots apparently submerged in solid 

 asphalt it is difficult to imagine. After further explorations 

 we may return to a consideration of this puzzling circum- 

 stance. 



JAMES JOHN RIVERS 



James John Rivers, a Fellow of this Academy, died at his 

 home in Santa Alonica, Calif., on the morning of December 

 16, 1913, at the age of nearly ninetv vears. He was born in 

 Winchester, England, January 6, 1824. Not much is known 

 of his early life, his parents and brothers all died when he 

 was young, and he was left in charge of an aunt, from whom 

 he inherited considerable wealth ; he was a cousin of Sir John 

 Rivers. J. J. Rivers studied medicine at the Universitv of 

 London, coming under the influence of Thomas Henrv Hux- 

 ley, whom he greatly admired ; he attended Faraday's lectures 

 and became acquainted with Charles Darwin, so it is not to 

 be wondered at that the young man became an enthusiastic 

 naturalist. He graduated from London about 1850 and en- 

 tered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a student in zoologv : 

 his favorite sport at this time was cricket, playing on his 

 aunt's meadow. At Dorking he was apprenticed to a pharma- 

 cist ; and later went to London, entering the office of a Dr. 

 Powers, who was a coleopterist. Rivers attended the meet- 

 ings of the Entomological Society of London and met at 

 these gatherings, Stainton, Douglas and Robert McLachlan, 

 at whose home he lived for a time. He knew Francis Walker 

 of the British Museum, and T. Vernon Wollaston, the student 

 of the natural history of the Madeiran Islands. These and 

 other noted naturalists he knew and associated with, and in 

 later years could relate many interesting anecdotes to his 

 young naturalist friends. He became acquainted with G. R. 

 Crotch, who was in California in the '70's ; and Janson of 

 London was his ideal as a preparator of Coleoptera. 



He lived and collected in Devonshire for a number of 

 years after leaving London, where Crotch visited him in the 

 '50's. He also collected in Cornwall, North Devon and other 

 places. He left England about 1867 for the United States, 

 settling first in Junction City, Kansas ; was associated with 

 the late Dr. Snow at the University of Kansas ; he was in 

 Denver for a short time and about the middle of the seventies 

 moved to Berkeley, and became a Californian naturalist for 

 the remainder of his life. He became acquainted with all the 

 scientists of the state and played leading parts in all the vari- 



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