LIBRARY 

 NEW YORK 





Editorial 



CD 



ex 



en 



With this number we commence Volume eight of the Bulle- 

 tin, and it has been decided by the Directors of the Academy 

 thai future publications shall be regularly issued in July and 

 January. 



Six years ago this month the first number of Volume I was 

 sent to members. That number was a small pamphlel of only 

 twelve pages, less than six of which were devoted to scientific 

 matters. It was tentative only, as then' were grave doubts 

 thai the time was ripe for such a venture in this new city. 

 Happily all fears as to the success of the projed proved 

 groundless, for the Bulletins me1 with an immediate welcome 

 by the members, and from the Mist number they were very 

 favorably received by the foreign scientific Bodies to which 

 they were sent. 



California presents a very rich, and in some features an 

 unique held for scientific investigation-. The great canons, or 

 gashes in her lofty mountain chains; the fossil trees, so closelv 

 related to our gigantic conifers, washed out of the tufa which 

 was discharged from Ml. St. Helena before its extinction as a 

 volcano, and now forming the petrified foresl of Napa county; 

 the wealth of minerals and the newly discovered gem-studded 

 Colorado Desert of San Diego county, exhibit for investigation 

 a held of geological wonders more diversified in its character 

 than is found in any other pari id' our country, and probably 

 in the known world, and nowhere has the biologisl found SO 

 wonderful an assemblage of aquatic life as in the semi-tropic 

 waters of the Pacific which lave her shores. Our equable cli- 

 mate affords exceptional advantages for astronomical observa- 

 tions, and a study of our flora has revealed curious, rare and 

 valuable plants found in no other land, while the excavations 

 on the Channel Islands and in the localities which were Hi • 

 habilat <d' the extinct tribes of this Coast, have revealed new 

 and curious matter for study by the ethnologist. 



All of these subjects have been discussed, accompanied by 

 numerous and excellenl illustrations, in our Bulletins, and these 

 papers have attracted Hie attention of learned specialist. 



