294 



He had not found the connection of the duct and the poison 

 gland to correspond with the descriptions usually given. The 

 duct proper does not reach the opening at the base of the tooth, 

 but ends at a short distance from it. The communication beyond 

 this is made by means of the sheath of the tooth, which is too 

 loose to prevent the poison from escaping around the exterior of 

 the tooth instead of entering its canal, were it not for the circum- 

 stance that, as the tooth is protruded, the sheath is crowded back, 

 and thus made to fit tightly the circumference. 



He had seen a rattlesnake, when held in such a manner as to 

 prevent its striking, discharge the poison in a simple jet to the 

 distance of several inches. He also mentioned the habit which 

 the rattlesnake is known to have of living in company with other 

 animals. While recently in Florida, he had found two large rat- 

 tlesnakes and an opossum living in the same nest with the wood 

 rat. 



Prof. Rogers presented a specimen of shale with ad- 

 hering coal from the Albert Mine, New Brunswick, 

 obtained from the depth of 460 feet, as illustrating the 

 geological position of the material. 



The coal is seen to be attached to the edges of the layers of 

 rock, and not parallel to them. Throughout the greater part of 

 the mine the direction of the bedding of the slates makes a con- 

 siderable angle, and is sometimes nearly perpendicular to the 

 course of the coal. This and the jagged form, and other irregu- 

 larities of the walls, satisfied him that this dej^osit is not a true 

 bed or seam, but is material which has been accumulated in a 

 Jissure or fracture of a date subsequent to the formation of the 

 bituminous shales and other carboniferous rocks of the rejiion. 

 The neighboring strata are heavily charged with bituminous or 

 asphaltic matter, and may easily be conceived to have furnished, 

 by some process of distillation or mechanical conveyance through 

 the influence of gentle heat, the pure combustible material which 

 fills this and other local fissures of the neighborhood. 



In the very substance of the coal are sometimes found imbed- 

 ded fragments of rock like the sides of the vein, evidently having 

 fallen down during its deposition. 



