30 



IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Park, a few miles north of Pinkhampton, thence along the west side of North 

 Park to Rabbit Ear Peak, thence through Babbit Ear Pass over the Park Range to 

 the Bear river, at a point near Steamboat Springs, down the Bear river to Craig 

 on Foitification creek, across Williams' River mountains, and the Danforth Hills 

 to Meeker on the White river. I was on a sight-seeing and collecting tour, and 

 among other things I expected a rich harvest of ferns. From the beginning to 

 the end of the journey, over three hundred miles, entirely across the Rockies, 1 

 kept a close watch for ferns and orchids. The first ferns observed were along the 

 foot of heavy sandstone and igneous rocks in the hills about fifty miles from Col- 

 lins. These ferns were not in a flourishing condition, were small and scarce. The 

 specimens I collected were lost, but I think they were a Woodsia or Cystopteris. 

 No ferns were seen from this point till in a gulch near the foot of Park Range 

 mountains, within two or three miles of the Bear river. Here the ferns were very 

 abundant and very large. But one species Pteris (aqiiilina ?), was noticed. Many 

 plants were almost my own height. These two, and at the places named, only, 

 make the list of ferns seen on this road across the Great Divide. One orchid, the 

 species not yet determined, was abundant on the summit near Rabbit Ear Peak. 

 Nothing further was observed in this family. 



There must be some general cause operating to produce such marked absence of 

 ferns along this line of travel. But one such cause suggests itself to me. Could 

 it be the Alpine or sub- Alpine climate? The ferns observed were near the ends 

 of my journey. Woodsia ( V) was apparently struggling for an existence, but Pteris 

 was well favored in a gulch on the south side, at the foot of a lofty mountain range. 

 I have the general impression that ferns, other things being equal, become larger 

 and more abundant in individuals and species as we approach the warmer regions 

 of the globe. I could scarcely be mistaken as to the paucity of ferns as men- 

 tioned above. This may have been noticed long ago and perfectly satisfactory 

 reasons set forth, but mention of any such observations have escaped my atten- 

 tion. 



NOTICE OF A STONE IMPLEMENT FROM MERCER COUNTY, ILLINOIS, 

 AND ONE FROM LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA. 



BY P. M. WITTER, MUSCATINE. 



The Mississippi river separates Mercer county Illinois, from Muscatine county, 

 and Louisa county, Iowa, borders Muscatine county on the south. Both of these 

 counties have yielded many valuable relics of the prehistoric people who once filled 

 and owned these lands. The Davenport Academy of National Sciences has care- 

 fully worked these fields and Muscatine antiquarians have done likewise. But it 

 is not of the numerous, conspicuous, fertile mounds of these regions I wish now to 

 speak. Mr. Jas. Wier, of Muscatine, for the past few years has become a zealous 

 collector of a great variety of curious things. Chief among these are stone imple- 

 ments which have bean made or are supposed to have been made by some prehis- 

 toric or savage race. An implement was brought to him by a farmer in Mercer 

 county, Illinois, which it seems tome bears the internal evidence of being genuine. 

 The stone seems to be a kind of porphyry. It is quite systematically wrought in 

 the shape of a double ax. At the common eye it is 1% inches thick and 1^ inches 



