280 



The Curator of Ichthyology presented a Fish from the 

 North Atlantic, a new species, and probably belonging 

 to a genus new to North America. 



Dr. S. Kneeland presented about fifty specimens of 

 Mammalia, Birds, and Reptiles from Lake Superior. 



Dr Kneeland remarked that, as yet, there wei'e no rats and 

 common mice at Portage Lake, the place of these animals being 

 filled by the Flying Sqnirrels which breed in the walls of the 

 houses, and by the Field Mice. 



The reptile, described by him at a former meeting (Proceed- 

 ings, Vol. VI. p. 152) as a Siredon, is a Menobranchus, but prob- 

 ably a new species, as it does not answer to the descriptions of 

 either M. maculatus or M. lateralis. If it is new, the specific 

 name of M. hyemalis would hold good. The salamanders, trout, 

 and tortoises vary somewhat from described species. 



Mr. F. H. Storer exhibited some proof-sheets of a work 

 upon the Plants of Austria, by Ettingshausen and Pokor- 

 ny, recently published at the Imperial Printing- Office in 

 Vienna. The impressions, from which these prints were 

 struck off, are obtained by the process known as " Na- 

 ture's own Engraving," in which the dried plant to be 

 copied is placed between a sheet of steel and another of 

 very pure soft lead, and all together subjected to great 

 pressure by passage between rollers. An impression of 

 the plant, even in microscopic details of the most delicate 

 Algae, is thus transferred to the soft lead — the plant 

 being forced into it, — from which any number of copies 

 may be taken by electrotyping. 



Examples of the application of this process in the 

 delineation of other objects, such as small animals, 

 agates, fossil impressions, sections of wood, lace, &c., 

 were also exhibited. 



Dr. D. H. Storer stated that he had lately received a 

 fine specimen of the Sting Ray from Dr. E. W. Carpen- 

 ter, of Chatham. It proves to be the Paslinaca hastata 



