354 



NATURE 



\Augusi 7, 1879 



Horn Head ; the fronds were fertile at the time notwithstanding 

 that the plant has been usually quoted as flowering in January. 

 Mr. Hart further points out that the claims of this fern to a 

 place in the British flora have hitherto rested upon its known 

 habitat in Guernsey. 



In the June number of The California Horticulturist, amongst 

 other articles of horticultural and local interest, is one on the 

 Sierra Forests, pointing out the great risk there is of these 

 magnificent forests becoming denuded as] they "are now and for 

 many years have been, at the mercy of private greed and public 

 theft." The writer says it is true no changes are yet manifest, 

 there are miles of forest left, and ravines wherein no chopper's 

 axe has yet resounded. It is not the axe that is feared but the 

 sheep and cattle owned by private individuals that have for 

 years been pastured on the Government lands of the Sierras. The 

 common practice, it is said, has been for a man having perhaps 

 five or ten thousand head of sheep to purchase one single quarter 

 section from the Government to build his house on, and perhaps 

 to hold the best springs of water. From that central point his 

 flocks and herds roam for miles, under the spicy pines and 

 cedars, trampling the soft rich ground until it is like iron, 

 destroying every seed, killing all the young trees, and causing 

 the State a yearly loss in the value of her forests, which is fiar 

 more than the worth of the whole band of sheep. The article 

 concludes with a reference to the matter having occupied the 

 attention of some of " our best thinkers." " Prof. Sargent, of 

 Harvard," we are told, " points out in the Nation the disastrous 

 effects of such a policy ; Prof. Hooker, of Kew Gardens, follows 

 in the same line of thought ; and John Muir mourns over the 

 desiccated forest-shrines, and the rarer flowers and ferns, now 

 rapidly passing out of existence." 



Messrs. Longmans and Co. have just issued a little book 

 on " Town and Window Gardening," being the substance of a 

 course of lectures ' ' given out of school hours to pupil teachers 

 and children attending the Leeds Board Schools." These lee. 

 tures were given by Mrs. C. M. Buckton, a member of the 

 Leeds School Board, and author of two recently published 

 books called respectively " Health in the House," and " Food 

 and Home Cookery." These endeavours of Mrs. Buckton to 

 raise the moral and intellectual welfare . of the working classes 

 are highly praiseworthy, and though the book before us may 

 not claim a position amongst standard scientific works, yet there 

 is much that is good scattered through it which cannot fail to 

 raise the tastes of many a child fortunate enough to come under 

 the influence of teachers like the authoress who have a real 

 admiration for nature in all its branches and a heartfelt desire to 

 impart as much knowledge as possible to the children of our 

 crowded alleys. 



The Tasmanian gold-fields are reported to be very successful, 

 and some rich finds have occurred on the Pieman River. The 

 locality is about seventy miles across country from the tin 

 deposits at Mount BischofT. Numbers of people are flocking to 

 the diggings from all quarters. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Weeper Capuchin {Ceius capuciims) from 

 Guiana, presented by Capt. Bond ; a Brown Bear {Ursus arctos) 

 from Russia, presented by Mr. J. R. Boyce ; a Tawny Eagle 

 (Aquila ncevioides) from Southern Spain, presented by the 

 Marquis de la Granja ; a Bateleur Eagle (Helotarsus ecaudatus) 

 from the Isle de ilas. Sierra Leone, presented by Mr. Alex. 

 Sinclair ; tn o common Crossbills (Loxia curviroslris) European, 

 presented by Mr. H. A. Macpherson ; a Common Cuckoo (Cucu- 

 Ins canorus), British, presented by Miss C. Bealey ; a Central 

 American Agouti (Dasyprocta isthmica) itom. Central America; 

 two White-faced Tree Ducks (Dendrocygna viduata), a Red- 

 billed Tree Duck (Deiidrocygna autumnalis) from Rio Magda- 

 lena, purchased. 



SOUTH CAROLINA FOSSILS 



TN a paper on "Vertebrate Remains, chiefly from the Phos- 

 ■'• phate Beds of South Carolina," published in the Journal <A 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (vol. yiii. 

 part iii. ), Prof. Joseph Leidy prefaces his careful description of 

 the many separate remains by a few general remarks on the 

 snbject, some extracts from which may interest our readers. 

 The fossils are mainly from the so-called Ashley phosphate 

 beds of South Carolina, which "are composed of sands and 

 clays, intermingled with irregular porous masses of more 

 coherent rock rich in calcium phosphate, together with many 

 organic remains. These beds, the economical importance of 

 which was fully made known in 1S68 by Prof. Francis S. Holmes 

 and Dr. N. A. Pratt, of Charleston, occupy a large extent of 

 country in the southern part of South Carolina, on the Wando, 

 Cooper, Ashley, Stono, Edisto, Coosaw, Asheepo, and other 

 rivers. According to Prof. Holmes, from 'fifteen to eighteen 

 inches may be considered the average thickness of the stratum of 

 the phosphate rocks.'' 



" The exact stratigraphical relations of the beds and the 

 relative age of these and contiguous strata have not been as 

 thoroughly investigated as is desirable, and in many cases the 

 particular horizon to which belong the fossils that have been 

 discovered has not been positively determined. According to 

 Prof. Holmes, the phosphate beds are of the post-pliocene 

 period and overlie strata pertaining to the pliocene period and 

 these are again succeeded by a soft marl rock of eocene age, 

 the whole being covered by modern alluvium. 



" The phosphatic rocks or nodular masses of the phosphate 

 beds, said to contain as high as sixty, or even more, per centum 

 of calcium phosphate, are of irregular shape, and range in size 

 from small pieces up to masses ot a thousand pounds or more.^ 

 They contain many casks of molluscous shells, which appear to be 

 of the same forms as those which occur in the eocene or miocene 

 marl rock beneath. They also frequently contain imbedded 

 bones and teeth, mainly those of marine fishes and cetaceans. 



" The phosphatic nodules are supposed to have been derived 

 from the tertiary marl bed beneath, and are considered to be 

 detached and altered fragments from the surface of that bed. 

 The irregular, eroded, and porous masses have the appearance 

 of being detached and water-rolled fragments of the tertiary marl 

 rock after it had been tunnelled by various boring molluscs. It 

 is, indeed, not improbable, as has been suggested, that in the 

 later part of the eocene or miocene period and subsequently the 

 easily penetrated rock was bored and rendered spongy by the 

 incessant labours of multitudes of Gastrochana, Petricola, Pholas, 

 &c. At the time or later, neighbom-ing and superficial islets, the 

 resorts of myriads of sea-fowl, may have furnished the material 

 which, when washed with the ocean and mingled together with 

 the decomposing remains of marine animals, supplied the 

 element for the conversion of the porous marl rock into the more 

 valuable phosphatic compound. 



"Besides the phosphatic nodules, the Ashley beds present a 

 remarkable intermixture of the remains of marine and terrestrial 

 animals, consisting of bones, teeth, coprolites, shells, &'c., 

 derived from the contiguous formations of various ages from the 

 early tertiary to those of a comparatively recent period. 



" Of remains of vertebrates, those of fishes and cetaceatB 

 prevail, especially the teeth of sharks and the vertebra; of whales. 

 Less frequently there occur the vertebr^^ and teeth of large 

 teleost fishes, the dental pavements of rays, fragments of turtle 

 shells, vertebrae of crocodiles, ear-bones and teeth of cetaceans, 

 bones of manatees, &c. With these likewise are found the 

 remains of both extinct and still existing terrestrial mammals, 

 especially teeth and bone fragments of elephant and mastodon, 

 megatherium, horse, tapir, bison, and deer. More rarely there 

 are found remains of hipparion, castoroides, hydrochajrus, and 

 of the smaller and more common genera of species. 



" The fossils mainly consist of the harder parts of the skeleton 

 and of teeth, usually more or less water-worn, indicating shallow 

 seas and an active surf to which they were exposed. JIany of 

 them exhibit the drilling efiects of boring molluscs, especially 

 those which are supposed to have been derived from the tertiary 

 marl rock, the operation of drilUng apparently having been per- 

 formed both before and during the time the fossils were em- 

 bedded in the rock. Only enamel or the enamel-like dentinal 



' '* The Phosphate Rocks of South Carolina." By Francis S. HoIme9,_ 

 A. M, , Charleston, 1870, p. 70. 



2 A nodular mass, on exhibition in the government building, from. 

 Charleston, S. C, weighs 1,150 pounds. 



