1803.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES '1\\) 



May 8, 1893. ' 

 Stated Meeting. 



President Bolton in the chair, and thirty-two persons 

 present. 



The President called attention to the circular rccenll}' 

 issued by the Smithsonian Institution relative to the Hodgkins 

 Fund Prizes for treatises and essays on atmospheric air. 



BIOLOGICAL SECTION. 



The following papers were read : 



"On a Kecent Prej)aration of the Kidney of the Elephant," 

 by Prof. G. S. Huntington. 



ON RECENTLY DISCOVERED DEPOSITS OF DIATOM- 

 ACEOUS EARTH IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 



BY CHARLES F. COX. 



The construction of the new railroad (The Mohawk and 

 Malone) in the Adirondack Mountains during the j^ast year has 

 led to the recognition, and, in some cases, the actual discovery, 

 of extensive deposits of diatomaceous earth previously unknoAvn 

 to science. The deposits referred to, occur principally upon the 

 bottoms of four small lakes, one of which is in the extreme 

 southern part of Herkimer county, near the town of Hinckley, 

 and the other three in the extreme northern part of the same 

 county in Township No. 48. There are evidences of smaller 

 deposits in the intervening country, particularly in certain lail- 

 road cuttings, and, perhaps, in bogs and sink-holes which have 

 been the cause of trouble in the construction of the road. The 

 deposit near Hincklej' has been known to the inhabitants of 

 this region for a long time, and the pond in which it occurs has 

 been called by them White Lead Lake. But si)ecimens of this 

 earth do not seem to have reached naturalists until very lately. 

 The deposits in Township No. 43 appear to have been entirely 

 unknown until the jMohawk and Malone Railroad was con- 

 structed. They occur in Clear Lake, Roilly Pond, and in an 

 apparentl)' unnamed body of water near iiig Crooked Lid^e. 

 The deposits in sight at Hinckley has been estimated at 1()(),0()U 

 cubic yards ; that at Clear Lake at about the same amount ; 



