Ninth Annual Meeting. 



also found in Utah by Prof. Marsh's party. It is the more worthy of note, as until quite 

 recently, neither in Europe nor America had crinoids been discovered in the Cretaceous. 

 We have learned, too, of the pterodactyls of America, that all thus far discovei-ed are 

 without teeth : a fact in strong contrast with those in other parts of the world. The jaws 

 or beaks of the American species are longer and more slender than those hitherto known, 

 and in the opinion of Prof. Marsh, showing indications of having been enca.sed in a 

 horny sheath. These features were made known in an article in the American Journal 

 of Science, vol. XI, p. 507. We also procured more perfect specimens of the smaller 

 bones of the order from the hands and feet. A few solitary bones have been placed in 

 this cabinet. Our collections of saurians have also given us more correct knowledge of 

 their structure. The same may be said of turtles. Fossil fish, also, are quite numerous 

 in the territory under examination. One fact of interest in this family was the finding 

 of the teeth, cartilaginous jaw and vertebrae of a shark, Galeocerdo falcatus, three portions 

 of which, I think, have never hitherto been found together. The flat porous vertebrae 

 had occasionally been collected, but the genus to which they belonged was unknown. 

 Several were found some years ago and placed in our cabinet, but not classified. The 

 teeth have long been known and described. 



Fossil birds were rare and valuable findings. These were generally of the order 

 Odontonadae, or birds with teeth. They were of two genera ; in one, the teeth being 

 placed in sockets, like mammalia, and in the other, in grooves, like many genera of fish 

 and reptiles. Several new species were added to science, and more perfect specimens of 

 Hesperornis were collected the past summer than ever before. Perhaps it may not be 

 amiss to add that birds with teeth have been found only in the United States, and one 

 genus, the Icthyornis, only in Kansas. Thus, our fossil pterodactyls have no teeth, and 

 our birds have, in direct contrast with those found in other parts of the world. 



We confess, in closing, that the great pleasure of our employment in thus unfolding 

 the geological wealth of Kansas, is mingled with regret that these valuable specimens, 

 amounting to some six or eight tons, have gone out of the State to enrich an institution 

 already possessing one of the best collections in the world, while our own cabinets, pri- 

 vate and institutional, are yet meager in these vertebrate remains, and perfect specimens 

 of which no future explorer can hope to procure by going over the same grounds. 



CLIMATE AND BRAINS. 



BY M. V. B. KNOX. 



"The general aspects of nature, the climate, and the scenery," says B. F. Cocker^ 

 "exert an appreciable and acknowledged influence on the mental characteristics of a 

 people." Mitchell says: "A hot climate and a bounteous soil, where but little labor is 

 needed to procure the necessaries of life, tend to enervate the body and mind ; but a 

 temperate clime, where the hand and head must be constantly at work, is favorable at 

 once to physical, intellectual and moral development." "With the tropical man," says 

 Guyot, "the life of the body overmasters that of the soul; the physical instincts of our 

 natures those of the higher faculties ; passion, sentiment, imagination predominate over 

 intellect and reason ; the physical faculties over the active fiiculties. In the temperate 

 climates, all is activity, movement. Here physical nature is not a tyrant, but a useful 

 helper ; the active faculties, the understanding and reason, rule over the instincts and 

 the passive faculties ; the soul over the body. In the frozen regions, man contends with 



