1882. 175 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Sez. 
ing, these cylindrical masses break into irregular lumps, in which condi- 
tion the sulphur is delivered to the refinery at San Francisco. 
DISCUSSION, 
The PRESIDENT remarked at some length upon Mr. RussELt’s 
paper, giving extended observations of his own in the volcanic 
rocks of that region. 
Remarks were made byseveral members, and by the PRESIDENT, 
upon the recent “ Forestry Congress,” and the great importance 
of the subjects discussed by that body. 
May 29, 1882. 
SECTION OF PHysICcs. 
The Vice-President, Dr. B. N. Martin, in the Chair. 
Fifty-seven persons present. 
The Secretary exhibited a fresh specimen of the common squid 
(Ommastrephes, sp.), and remarked on the habits, affinities, and 
geological relations of these animals, and also on the accounts, 
given by Prof. A. E. VERRILL, of the recent capture of a gigantic 
specimen on the coast of Newfoundland. Prof. VERRILL reports 
the length of this individual as nine feet for the body and thirty- 
five feet for the entire extent, to the ends of the long “arms.” 
He also referred in the same connection toa story told in a work 
called *‘ Ocean Wonders” (Appleton & Co., N. Y., 1879), wherein 
it is asserted that the author, while at Bermuda, had seen an Octo- 
pus leave the water and climb a cliff 200 feet high, in pursuit of a 
red crab (!). This absurd story, so impossible in view of the habits, 
organization and locomotive apparatus of the cephalopods, is most 
fully disposed of by a Bermuda naturalist, Mr. J. MATTHEW JONES, 
as follows: 
1. There is no cliff of any kind in Bermuda that is 200 feet high. 
2. There is no crab on the Bermuda shores, having a red cara- 
pace, during life. 
3. The only species of Octopus known at Bermuda never leaves 
the water. 
A paper, by Mr. Gro. N. LAWRENCE, was read by title as 
follows : 
