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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



One of these is a full-grown skeleton found 

 by Mr. Harold J. Cook last winter in the 

 Pliocene of western Nebraska; the other is a 

 young skeleton of the same species found a 

 year ago by Mr, E. L. Troxell in the pliocene 

 of western South Dakota. The pliohippus 

 belongs to a genus intermediate between the 

 latest stage of the three-toed horses, and the 

 modern horses, in which the side toes are 

 reduced to rather short splints. These 

 particular skeletons are therefore interesting 

 as filling a gap between the three-toed and 

 modern types, because, while clearly belong- 

 ing to the three-toed group of horses, they 

 are intermediate in size and construction of 

 teeth, and the side toes are reduced to 

 splints — • but very long splints, especially 

 on the fore feet. The teeth, skull, and other 

 characters are like the three-toed group but 

 in every detail they show more or less progress 

 toward the modern horse construction. 



The city of Philadelphia holds in trust 

 under the legacy of John Scott of Edinburgh, 

 (made a hundred years ago), a sum of money 

 the interest of which is awarded each year, in 

 the shape of a medal and premium, to "in- 

 genious men and women who make useful 

 inventions." This honor has recently been 

 conferred on Mr. Carl E. Akeley, of the 

 American Museum, for his invention of the 

 cement gun. The invention dates from 1907 

 when the director of the Field Museum, 

 Chicago, consulted Mr. Akeley as to the best 

 method of recoating the old Field Museum 

 building — previously stucco. Experiments 

 then made resulted in the cement gun which 

 is now finding application for varied purposes. 

 The principle of the gun consists in forcing 

 into a hose by means of compressed air, a 

 mixture of dry cement and sand contained 

 in a sealed hopper. This mixture is carried 

 in .su.spension through the hose by the com- 

 pressed air and is met at the nozzle by a 

 stream of water, also under pressure, supplied 

 by another hose. Thus, hydration takes 

 place at the moment the stream of material 

 is directed to its permanent position, and the 

 resulting product is infinitely stronger than 

 any other form of concrete because there is no 

 loss of the initial ".set," which always begins 

 the moment hydration takes place. Also, 

 being sprayed on under pressure, each grain 

 is tamped firmly on the one ahead. The 

 gun is being extensively used, not only to 

 coat buildings, })ut also to make tanks and 



reservoirs water-tight; to line the workings 

 of coal and other mines where falling in of the 

 roof or walls is feared; for coating steel 

 structures to prevent corrosion; and for 

 railroad tunnels. A wooden pile seventy-five 

 feet long can be coated and then driven with- 

 out breaking the cement, and such piles are 

 now being used where the boring mollusk 

 Teredo is liable to effect destruction of wood. 



A MauNTED specimen of the rare and 

 valuable Pere David's deer {Elaphurus 

 davidianus) has been purchased by the 

 Museum from Rowland Ward of London, 

 and is now exhibited on the second floor. 

 This, the rarest as well as one of the most 

 interesting species of deer in existence, was 

 first discovered to Europeans in 1860 by the 

 French missionary and explorer Pere Armand 

 David, who found it inhabiting the great 

 hunting park attached to the imperial palace 

 at Pekin, China. This park, surrounded by 

 a brick wall forty-five miles in circuit, and 

 formerly strictly guarded, is said to have 

 been the home of large herds of deer of 

 various kinds. Pere David's deer, known 

 to the Chinese as the mi-lou, has never been 

 found wild in any part of Asia by Europeans 

 and the date of its introduction into the 

 imperial park is probably very remote; it 

 is not known to have been living in any other 

 place. Unfortunately, the Hun-ho River, 

 flowing through the park at Pekin, became 

 flooded and made several breaches in the 

 walls, through which all the mi-lou deer es- 

 caped. They were killed and eaten by the 

 peasantry who were then suffering from fam- 

 ine. A few pairs had previously been sent to 

 Europe, including a pair to the great park of 

 the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, Eng- 

 land, and the descendants of this pair — a 

 small herd only — are probably the sole living 

 representatives of the mi-lou deer today. 

 This species has no near relative of its kind. 

 It differs from all the Old World deer, except 

 the moose and roe, in having forked antlers 

 and no brow tine, and from the American 

 species of deer with forked antlers in that the 

 hind prong of the main fork forms an un- 

 divided tine of great length directed back- 

 ward. In the Virginia deer and its relatives 

 the front tine remains simple and the back 

 fork is again divided into two or more prongs. 

 The long donkey-like tail and slouching car- 

 riage of the mi-lou are also characteristic. 

 Lydekker considers that the rni-lou and 



