JJanJom Motes on laturol listonj. 



Vol. III. 



PROVIDENCE, NOVEMBER 1, 1886. 



No. 11. 



Entered at the Providence Post-Office as Second-Class Matter. 



'^nitboui Ijoks on Tfatnnil '^i$lciri|. 



A Monthly Devoted to the Distkibution of Ust- 

 FCL Knowledge Concerning the Various De- 

 partments of Zoology, Mineralogy, and 

 Botany. 50 Cents a Year. 



Address all communications to 



JAMES M. SOUTHWICK, 



258 Westminster St., Providence, R. T., U.S. A. 



Karnes in Rhode Island. 



I HAD the pleasure of examining, last 

 summer, two interesting examples of this 

 rather common form of glacial deposit. Thej' 

 both lie in the town of Burrillville, one 

 being on the farm of Job Ballou and the 

 other about a mile northeast, on the farm 

 of Isaac Steere. 



The former is about half a mile in length, 

 extending in nearh' a north and south line | 

 with only slight curves. At the north end 

 it is perhaps fifteen feet above the level of 

 the pasture-land around, but graduall}' be- 

 comes higher southward until it ends 

 abruptly with an altitude of fully fifty feet. 

 The summit of the kame is gently rounded 

 and just about wide enough for a railroad 

 track. In fact the whole ridge has almost 

 exactly the appearance of a railroad em- 

 bankment. 



At the north end an excavation has been 

 made sufficient to show the character of the 

 materials. It seemed to be of mixed sand 

 and gravel similar to most of our modified 

 drift, an.i having in places the oblique 

 lamination often seen in banks of such 

 material. 



This kame is on the side of a gently 

 sloping tract of countiT, and has a little 

 stream a few hundred yards to the west- 

 ward. The greater part of it lies in open 

 pasture-land, and on this account its extent 

 and regular shape arrest the eye from quite 

 a distance. 



The other is very similar in general ex- 

 tent and conformation, but lies mostl}' in 

 in tlie woods, and is less easilv examined. 



At its northern extremity it seems to 

 widen out and enclose a largo and vimv 

 regular sink- hole. This is perhaps forty 

 feet in depth and as regularh*^ oval in 

 shape as if it had been formed artificially. 

 The origin of these kames and sink-holes 

 does not seem to be very well understood, 

 although several theories have been offered 

 to account for them. They were probably 

 formed bj' some peculiar conformation of 

 the great glacial ice sheet that once covered 

 all New England, b^- which sub-glacial 

 streams resulting from the melting ice, 

 piled up and arranged the eroded drift 

 material within or beneath the slowly 

 raovins mass. x. .t. b. 



Autumnal Suggestions. 



Already there are symptoms of the ap- 

 proaching autumn. The red maple in the 

 swamps is coloring on one side ; tlie sumacs 

 here and there hang out their scarlet banners. 

 Everywhere the golden rods begin to assert 

 supremac}', and the blue and white asters 

 show their stars in the copse. Long wreaths 

 of blossoming clematis clamber over the 

 bushes — things of exquisite beauty. There 

 is an abandon and reckless grace about the 

 clematis, or Virginia tower, which commends 

 it to the artist. What is there, we wonder, 

 about the leaves which to us suggests a 

 storm-beaten flock of birds? This notion, 

 which we deem original, in a week's time 

 we will find has long ago occurred to some 

 other writer. Trul^' there is nothing new 

 under the sun. 



Among other intimations of autumn is, we 

 are told, the gathering of swallows on the 

 telegraph wires. Do they in this manner 

 communicate a message of departure to 

 comrades farther north? There are more 

 things in heaven and earth than we or Ho- 

 ratio wot of. Scollops will soon begin to 

 drift up Coweselt Bay. followed bv the 

 white-winged fleet of fishing-boats. Even 

 at noon-tide we hear the rattle of the cicada, 

 that policeman of August, who is perpetually 



