cli 



No additional facts were elicited from the members. 



Mr. Jno. C. Ellis presented some bitumen taken from the under 

 surface of a large rock in the shaft of a mine, 86 feet deep, at 

 Joplin, Mo. 



Mr. R. Hayes presented a paper enumerating earthquakes of 

 1S72-73. Referred to Committee on Publication. 



November 16, 1874. 

 W. T. Harris, President, in the chair. 



Fifteen members present. 



Mr. J. R. Gage, from the Committee to Investigate Mounds, 

 reported having opened some recently near Mascoutah, Ills., in 

 which, among other things found, was a complete skeleton, which 

 he had managed to preserve intact, and hoped to present at a 

 future meeting. 



Publications received, laid upon the table. 



Dr. McPheeters exhibited a curious piece of ancient pottery, 

 supposed to have been buried for 300 years in the grave of one 

 of the Inca kings in Peru, it having been dug up near Valparaiso. 

 The vessel represented the head of some ruminant, and probably 

 the llama ; it was probably rilled with some native liquid made 

 from the grape, as was the custom of the Incas. 



Dr. Richardson spoke of finding lately a number of solid balls 

 of hair in the first stomach of cattle. The explanation given was 

 that the hair was licked and swallowed in sufficient quantities as 

 to become felted together and impassable into the smaller intes- 

 tines ; and that the only way such balls were voided was bv 

 vomiting. 



Mr. Edwin Harrison had taken as much as seven pounds of 

 specular ore, in different sized lumps, from the stomach of an ox 

 which had worked around iron mines. 



In answer to a question from Dr. Galney, Dr. Engelmann stated 

 that several species of Cacti had tuberous roots, and that such 

 roots were characteristic of many plants, especially such as grow 

 on the arid plains of the west. 



Speaking of tuberous plants, Mr. Harrison said that he had 

 found the wild potato growing in New Mexico, though our culti- 



