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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



during most of the Tertiary, certainly during 

 its early part. Did this animal come from 

 South America or did the South American 

 animals originally come from North America? 

 For this fossil is probably older than any of 

 its known South American relatives. And 

 how, or when did it cross? The other fossil 

 is believed to be a relative of the "flying 

 lemur" (Galeopithems) an oriental animal 

 which has no near living relatives and is 

 placed in an order and family by itself. 

 Nothing was known of its geological history. 

 The discovery of a fossil relative so far 

 back as the Lower Eocene indicates the group 

 really of very ancient lineage. 



These animals along with many other new 

 or little known species of the Lower Eocene, 

 will be described in forthcoming articles in 

 the American Museum Bulletin. 



A CAVE which was broken into by the 

 Copper Queen Consohdated Mining Com- 

 pany at Bisbee, Arizona, has been attrac- 

 tively reproduced in the department of 

 geology and has recently been opened to the 

 public. The cave is typical of those formed 

 in semi-arid regions of Arizona, where the 

 rainfall each year amounts to about ten 

 inches. The cavern was the work of under- 

 ground water during a period of greater 

 rainfall than at present. The incrustation 

 of the walls occurred later and is due to lime- 

 bearing water seeping slowly through the 

 walls of the chamber and there evaporating 

 at a rate favoring the growth of crystals and 

 crystalline globules. Where the supply of 

 water has been greater or has been concen- 

 trated along a crevice or an intersection of 

 crevices, stalactites have formed from the 

 ceiling and corresponding stalagmites have 

 grown upward from the floor. The material 

 for the reproduction was collected by Dr. 

 E. O. Hovey and the cave was made under 

 his direction by Mr. W. B. Peters. 



The Philadelphia Academy of Sciences 

 recently sent to the American Museum for 

 identification the skeleton of a beaked whale 

 which was taken at Corson's Inlet on the 

 New Jersey coast by Mr. Henry W. Fowler. 

 The whale proved to be a full-grown speci- 

 men of Mesoplodon densirostris Blainville. 

 In 1898 the skeleton of a whale taken at 

 Annisquam, Massachusetts, was secured 

 for the Boston Society of Natural History 

 and identified as Sowerby's beaked whale 

 (Mesoplodon bidens). Dr F. W. True later 



studied this specimen and came to the con- 

 clusion that it probably represented Meso- 

 plodon densirostris but could not be certain 

 because of the somewhat injured skull. This 

 species had only been found hitherto in the 

 Indian Ocean and about Australia but so 

 little is known about the distribution of the 

 beaked whales that Dr. True did not consider 

 this circumstance of great weight. The spec- 

 imen sent by the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Sciences has shown that the identification of 

 the Massachusetts specimen as Mesoplodon 

 densirostris was undoubtedly correct and not 

 only definitely introduces into the North 

 American fauna this interesting species but 

 also gives important evidence as to the cos- 

 mopolitan wanderings of the whales of this 

 rare genus. 



When the articles on museum groups were 

 written the Laysan group at the University 

 of Iowa was not completed. Since that date 

 the last touches have been added to the back- 

 ground and a few figures will give an idea 

 of the extent of this remarkable habitat group. 

 [The cut in the February Journal naturally 

 shows but a small portion as the group is 

 cycloramic in its nature.] The painted back- 

 ground is 138 feet long and twelve feet high; 

 the foreground covers four hundred feet and 

 not less than twenty-three species of birds 

 are shown. As Mr. Homer R. Dill says, 

 there are not many places where animal life 

 is so abundant that a faithful reproduction 

 of so many species of birds could be exhibited 

 in so comparatively small a space. 



The department of anthropology has just 

 purchased from Mr. J. B. Heffernan of 

 Colorado Springs a collection of pottery 

 from southern Utah. The collection consists 

 of eighty pieces almost all of which are in 

 black and white and in perfect condition. 



Dr. p. J. Oettinger has' recently pre- 

 sented to the Museum a verv complete col- 

 lection of Mexican woods from the state of 

 Oaxaca. These woods were exhibited at the 

 Paris exposition in 1899 and represent eighty- 

 seven species. They are in an excellent state 

 of preservation. 



Dr. C.-E. a. Winslow% curator of the 

 department of public health, has been ap- 

 pointed chairman of the subcommittee on 

 sanitation, of the Advisory Council of the 

 New York City Department of Health. 



