Miscellaneous. 71 



in the midst of the severest drought we had had for many years, 

 water soon flowed into it. An eight-foot well on the place has con- 

 tained a constant supply of water. An excavation made for a fish- 

 pond, within ten rods of the steep rocks, filled up with water to the 

 depth of two or three feet, without receiving a gill from rains or from 

 the surface. Wells, springs, and brooks along the western slope and 

 in the vallej^ have gone dry in great numbers, while here and else- 

 where along the top of the Palisades there has been an abundant 

 supply. The beavers must have had permanent water. The size of 

 the meadow is not more than four or five acres; the depth of the 

 peat variable and uncertain ; the bottom of the basin, where ex- 

 posed, consists of a fine sandy hard-pan, with some small boulders 

 and masses of trap ; and the trap-rock in place is occasionally denuded. 

 To appearance there is an abundance of water along this whole 

 range, which cannot be accounted for by the rainfall ; and yet it is iso- 

 lated by miles of intervening hills and valleys from equally high land. 

 Permanent springs, little influenced by the season or by abundance 

 or dearth of rain, are not rare on the western slope of the Palisades, 

 and they are found on some of the highest points ; one quite noted 

 one is near Crum's Rock, the highest point. — SilUman's American 

 Joiirmd, November 1869. 



Note on the Respiration of the Nymphce of the LibellulEe. 



By M. OUSTALET. 



The author gives a very detailed description of all the parts of the 

 tracheal system of these animals, and indicates the mode of termina- 

 tion of the aeriferous tubes in the branchial lamellae with which 

 the walls of the rectum are furnished. In these respiratory appen- 

 dages the trachete form a midtitude of capillary tubes arranged in 

 loops, a mode of termination which has not previously been no- 

 ticed. — Comptes Rendus, November 15, 18G9, tome Ixix. p. 1016. 



The late Professor Michael Sars, of Christiania. 



This eminent zoologist died on the 22nd of October last; and his 

 loss will be much felt by all naturalists who have benefited, as I 

 have done, by his long, laborious, and conscientious investigation of 

 the invertebrate fauna of the Norwegian seas. 



He was born on the 30th of August 1805, at Bergen, where his 

 father was a shipowner. After finishing his academical studies at 

 Christiania, and evincing at an early age his predilection for 

 natural science, he entered into priest's orders, and in 1830 be- 

 came pastor at Kinn, in the diocese of Bergen. Ten years after- 

 wards he had charge of the parish of Manger in the same diocese. 

 As both these parishes were on the sea-coast, Sars had constant 

 opportunities of pursuing his zoological researches. In 1829 he 

 published his first essay, entitled ' Bidrag til Sciedyrenes Natur- 

 historie,' and in 1846 the first part of his celebrated work ' Fauna 

 littoralis Norvegia?.' In 1854 he was appointed Professor Extra- 

 ordinarius of Zoology at the University of Christiania, a position 



