POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



421 



Forests of tie Pacific Region. — Accord- 

 in"- to our census report, the forests of the 

 Pacific region owe tlieir density and position 

 to the character of the rainfall, which is 

 heavier on the northern part of that coast 

 than anywhere else in the United States ; 

 and their general distribution and density 

 follow the distribution and amount of the 

 rainfall, diminishing as we go southward 

 into drier climates. The forests of this re- 

 gion are: the Xorthern forest, from the 

 seventieth to the fifty-eighth degree of lati- 

 tude, composed principally of white spruce 

 and species allied to but not identical with 

 the canoe-birch and balsam-fir of the At- 

 lantic coast ; the Coast forest, extending in 

 a narrow strip from the sixtieth to the fifti- 

 eth parallel, and thence along the summit 

 of the Sierra Nevada, almost to the Mexican 

 line, composed of a few coniferous species, 

 among which are the Alaska cedar, the tide- 

 land-spruce, the hemlock, and the red fir. 

 Its important feature is the red-wood belt, 

 whose heaviest growth is found north of the 

 Bay of San Francisco, and which contains 

 more wood than any other forest of similar 

 extent. The forest of the western slope of 

 the Sierra Nevada, extending from the base 

 of Mount Shasta to the thirty-fifth parallel, 

 is next in density, is from four thousand to 

 eight thousand feet above the sea, and is 

 characterized by the great sugar-pine. The 

 forest of the Valleys is composed of scat- 

 tered oaks; and the Interior forest, from 

 the Sierra to the Rocky Mountains, is of in- 

 ferior importance. 



How Milk is tainted. — According to the 

 "Live-Stock Journal," milk is most liable 

 to be hurt by the absorption of odors when 

 it is colder than the surrounding air. For 

 when it is warmer, the air, warmed by the 

 contact with it, expands, with an increased 

 capacity for absorbing gases and moisture, 

 and rises, carrying such odors as it may 

 have collected along with it. Thus, cold 

 air, though it be not wholly pure, does not 

 contaminate milk, but tends to purify it. 

 Milk will not become contaminated, even in 

 the stable, so long as it is warmer than the 

 fiuri'ounding air. The question how stable- 

 odors get into milk is answered by the 

 statement that they are acquired from the 

 breath of the cow. The animal can not 



avoid taking in these odors, and upon en- 

 tering the lungs they are forced at once into 

 the circulation. The blood becomes charged 

 with them, and the milk, which serves as a 

 means of unloading the blood of its impuri- 

 ties as well as of its nutriment, also becomes 

 loaded with them intensified. 



Individnal Enterprise in Scientific Re- 

 search. — While different governments have 

 equipped large expeditions and spent con- 

 siderable sums of money to assist deep-sea 

 dredging expeditions, a similar work has 

 been going on in Switzerland, which has no 

 marine and not a very plethoric treasury, 

 by individual effort, in the study of life in 

 the depths of the lakes. The brunt of the 

 labor has been performed by Dr. F. A. Forcl, 

 of Morgues, Professor of Comparative Anat- 

 omy in the Academy of Lausanne, who is at 

 home in nearly all the sciences, a man in the 

 vigor of his age, very active and very enter- 

 prising, and acquainted with Lake Leman 

 to its very bottom and in all its moods. He 

 has published a considerable number of 

 memoirs respecting his explorations, and the 

 lessons in biology and the theory of de- 

 velopment which they suggest, of which he 

 takes the broadest views, and to which he 

 has given thorough examination. His prin- 

 cipal collaborator in the zoological field is 

 Dr. Du Plessis, Professor of Zoology in the 

 Academy, who has been for twelve years 

 engaged in the determination of genera 

 and species, and has prepared a critical 

 table of the species constituting the deep- 

 zone fauna. Dr. Forel has personally made 

 soundings and examinations, besides Lake 

 Leman, in the Lakes of Anneey, Morat, 

 Neufch^tel, Ziirich, and Constance. Profess- 

 or Pavcsi, of the University of Pavia, has 

 explored the lakes of the canton of Tessin 

 and Northern Italy. Dr. Aspcr, of the Uni- 

 versity of Ziirich, has dredged in the lakes 

 of Zurich, Wallenstadt, Egeri, Zug, the 

 Lake of the Four Cantons, Lugano, Como, 

 Klonthal, Silse, and Silvaplana. Some of 

 these lakes are situated high upon the Alps, 

 and are consequently of interest in the 

 study of the vertical distribution of species. 

 Dr. Imhof, of Zurich, has also examined 

 several lakes, and contemplates extending 

 his studies over a considerable geographical 

 area. August Weissman, of Fribourr^-in- 



