Natural History Notes /ro>ii North Carolina. 89 



think, needs revision. This whole region is a primitive forest, 

 except for the small and scattered mountain farms and the 

 cleared lands of the valley, and every foot of it teems with 

 features of interest to the geologist, botanist, ornithologist 

 and student of natural history generally. There are many 

 evidences, conclusive to my mind, of local glaciation. It 

 may be that this suggestion will be read with a smile by other 

 geological students of this region ; but they should carefully 

 examine my evidences before arriving at conclusions. This 

 region has proven to be as rich in archaeological treasures as 

 in those of nature herself, and we have made here a collection 

 of implements, embracing several thousand specimens, a large 

 number of which are undoubtedly palaeoltithic. This state- 

 ment, like the previous one, may seem to be so bold as to 

 destroy the merit of its originality, but we have the testi- 

 mony in the implements themselves. It is a fact well known 

 to the students of American malacology, that this region has, 

 within the last few years, furnished a very large number of 

 new forms of land shells, which have been erected into species 

 by the book-makers. To this series we have recently con- 

 tributed three others, one of which has been described by 

 Pilsbry in the A'aiitilus for May, 1893, ^s Triodopsis subpalliata, 

 and two of which, Zoniies, will be published later. We have 

 given some attention to the entomolog}' of this locality, and 

 find it of surpassing interest. The specimens collected have, 

 however, mostly been sent to Mr. Charles Dury, the eminent 

 entomologist of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History, 

 and whatever may be of special interest concerning them is 

 left in his hands. 



We have recently been making some collections of the 

 mammals of this region, and have found them very interest- 

 ing, not only from the standpoint of geographical distribu- 

 tion, but because of the species themselves. We became 

 interested in them as the result of a visit to Dr. C. Hart 

 Merriam, Chief of the Bureau of Ornithology and Mammalogy 

 of the Department of Agriculture. This eminent student of 

 the North American Mammalia has the rare faculty of inter- 

 esting all who come in contact with him, by virtue of his 

 industry, his enthusiasm, his kind and gentle manner, and 

 more especially by his profound knowledge of the subject. 



