287 



and satisfactory manner in which they have discharged their 

 respective offices. 



Mr. Bouve introduced to the Society M. Vattemare, who made 

 some statements with regard to the proposed interchange of 

 specimens of Natural History, Books, &c. between the various 

 Municipal Corporations, Scientific Societies, &c. of France and 

 the Boston Society of Natural History. On behalf of the Museum 

 of Natural History of Paris, he acknowledged the receipt of the 

 Journal of the Society, and made liberal offers of donations in 

 return. He proposed a similar reciprocity of gifts in behalf of 

 the cities of Nantes and Bordeaux. He presented to the Society 

 the printed Report of the New Hampshire Legislature on the 

 subject of his visit to that State, containing directions for the 

 preparation and preservation of objects of Natural History. He 

 suggested that similar directions be prepared by the members of 

 this Society, in the various departments, to be appended to a sim- 

 ilar Report, which he thought would be published by the Legis- 

 lature of Massachusetts at the next session, for general distribu- 

 tion. In this way very important knowledge would be dissem- 

 inated, and very extensive collections of objects might be made. 

 The thanks of the Society were voted to M. Vattemare for his 

 donation. 



Mr. Teschemacher said that it had been a question, how long 

 the existence of gold in California had been known. It had 

 been said that it had been known to the Spanish priests for a 

 long time. He held in his hand a book, Phillips's Lectures on 

 Mineralogy, printed in London in 1818, in which it was stated, 

 that gold was found in large lumps deposited in the soil, a few 

 inches from the surface, throughout an extensive district in 

 California bordering on the sea. Thirty years ago, Mr. Ellis 

 obtained from this region a mass of native gold mixed with 

 quartz. In 1839, Mr. Alfred Robinson had sent to Boston from 

 California, 810,000 worth of gold in large lumps. 



Mr. Desor said that he had recently seen the vibrations of the 

 water falling over the dam at Hadley, which had been of late 

 the subject of discussion in another Society. The falling sheet 

 was three or four feet thick, and the vibrations, to the number 

 of one hundred and forty in a minute, were strongest in the 



