127 



Erzroom in Asia Minor b}^ Rev. Jonah Peabody to Rev. 

 O. A. Taylor. Mr. Peabody, a native of Topstield, 

 Essex County, Mass., was then living at Erzroom, as a 

 missionary of the American Boai-d. 



In Mr. Taylor's Journal (See Memoir of Rev. O. A. 

 Taylor, p. 402) he mentions the receipt of the present, 

 thus : — "To my wife was sent a bottle of water from the 

 Euphrates ; to me lava one thousand years old from near 

 Khoy ; marble from the Chifteh minaret; lava from Has- 

 san Kulaah, or, as is supposed, the ancient Theodosi- 

 opolis ; lava from near the base of Mt. Ararat." 



Rev. E. C. BoLLES, of Salem, said that in dredging in 

 Humphrey's Pond he had found only four species of 

 shells. This pond is very free from animals, and it con- 

 tains less parasitic life than usual. The dredge brought 

 up only one form of vegetable life in profusion — that 

 being one of the green globular algtB, each specimen of 

 the size of a buckshot. He then alluded to certain forms 

 of sponges found in the pond, and of the different vari- 

 eties, the horny, flinty and limy sponges. Sponges are 

 animals, and he explained how they lived, the system of 

 circulation by which they are sustained, and the progress 

 of their growth. The examples from this pond were all 

 of the common Sxiongilla Jhiviatilis, and exhibited not 

 only the green porous structure of the sponge, but the 

 embedded gemmules, which in time would float out upon 

 the water, and each one would attach itself to some object 

 and develop into the characteristic green mat of the 

 spongilla. The fresh-water sponges have been made a 

 special subject of study by Mr. Carter, an Englishman 

 living in India. Great masses of spongilla; of various 

 species are to be found in the fresh-water tanks in Bom- 

 bay and other East Indian cities. 



