Dr. Engelmann presented sioecimens of copper from the Lake 

 Superior mines, making some remarks on the occurrence of cop- 

 per in that region, and on the occurrence of copper ornaments 

 and implements in Indian graves. Dr. Engelmann remarked 

 that very few graves were found near the mines, or along the 

 lakes, while they abound in the well known Wisconsin region. 



Dr. Engelmann also gave some account of the vegetation along 

 the lakes. 



The country is partly flat, partly rolling, and is covered in many places 

 with dense woods, mostly of coniferous or of deciduous soft wood trees. 

 Among them the "Gray-oak of Canada" occurs, described by Michaux as 

 ^lercus borealis or ^. ambigua, our most northern oak, found from Lake 

 Superior to Lower Canada and to Nova Scotia. Its acorns and leaves 

 cannot be distinguished from those of our Red-oak, ^. rubra (Linn.), of 

 which it is without doubt a northern variety with paler bark and tougher 

 wood. It grows to be a large tree of over two feet in diameter, and its 

 wood is highly esteemed in those regions. — I cannot make much of the 

 figure of the acorn of ^. aitibigua in Michaux's Sylva ; it does not resem- 

 ble any form of Gray-oak acorns I have seen. Can it belong to the fol- 

 lowing? 



The other oak of the shores of Lake Superior is a kind of Black-oak, a 

 smaller and, up there, much rarer tree, but which becomes much more 

 common farther south, on dry land in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and 

 seems to extend eastwardly to the New England States. Farther south it 

 gives way to the ordinary Black-oak (c^. tinctorial ^. coccinea?), which, 

 though very variable in foliage, is alwaj-s characterized by the large, thin', 

 somewhat squarrose-tipped cup-scales : the Black-oak of the middle States. 

 In Northern Illinois both are found. The northern Black-oak has a very 

 rough, black bark ; leaves coarsely or, often, very finely lobed (as to resem- 

 ble the foliage of ^. palustris); a turbi'nate cup with small, appressed and 

 more or less tumid scales, so that the cup appears tuberculated almost like 

 that of a White-oak. The most common White-oak of Minnesota is ^. 

 macrocarpa, popularly known under the name of Burr-oak. 



A few plants otherwise peculiar to the Atlantic shores, also occur along 

 the northern lakes, which is explained on the hypothesis that these shores 

 were once sea-coasts. 



Mr. Nipher presented a rain-map of Missouri, showing the dis- 

 tribution of rain during the summer months, as determined by 

 the observers of the Missouri Weather Service. 



