Vol. XXV. No. 5.] 
POPULAE SCIEM'OE I^TEWS. 
69 
tos, and the sparkliug crystals that come to us 
from a distance; but we uo longer envy those 
whose homes are among such surroundings, for 
every dull gray quarry is a volume, richly illus- 
trated, on whose pages are recorded the wonder- 
ful story of the life that surged, and beat, and 
throbbed in the restless tides of the old, old sea, 
"before the mountains were brought forth,"' — 
and, albeit slowly and ploddingly, we are learning 
to read the record. A rough stone lies before me 
without form or comeliness to a careless eye — but 
look more closely ! Here is a horn-like projection, 
— a species of zaphrentis, doubtles8,^and — turn 
lie stone — just on the opposite side are three — 
fes, four — more. A colony of cup-corals are en- 
ombed here. An inch from the first observe this 
'tiny ring raised just above the surface. When the 
corals were living, a dainty stone-lily swayed in 
the current and waved its petal-like arms beside 
them. Do you see this delicate lace-like pattern? 
A little space, not more than one-fourth of a 
Square inch in extent, is marked as with pin-holes, 
but — take the lens — arranged in regular parallel 
rows— not straight, but curved. Is it some other 
term of coral y Here is a deep groove several 
■ Inches in length. Looking carefully you may 
trace faint lines crossing it, like the mark of a 
screw. An orthoceros has left this one sign to 
prove to us that he lived. Turning the stone 
again, a curious impression attracts us. Another 
orthoceros? Possibly, yet a second glance sug- 
gests a trilobite. Which is it? It is faint and 
imperfect. A block of stone, roughly cubical and 
three or four inches in dimensions, lay for a long 
time among our unclassified treasures. Occasion- 
ally some one would take it up, look curiously at 
an odd circular opening in one side, and, turning 
It at difl'erent angles, try to see farther and fathom 
the mystery of its structure, but in vain; some- 
thing projected so as nearly to fill the space, and 
only a glimpse of a sedged surface could be ob- 
tained. At length we resolved to imitate .Alexan- 
der—invoking, however, a hammer instead of the 
classical sword. Several stout blows, and then a 
crash ! ITie interior was laid open, and a fossil 
was found which I presume to be an orthoceros, 
but do not know its individual name. In conclu- 
sion, I can only express our appreciation of your 
work for the A. A., and subscribe myself, grate- 
fully your friend, C. M. Winston, Pres. 
26, Phillips, Me., [A].— We have held thirty-six 
meetings since our last report, and we have eight 
members. Our work the past year has been 
varied. We have accomplished the most, per- 
haps, in botany. This year we have noted 3.i6 
plants. They are carefully written out in our 
"Flora of Franklin County." We have found 
twenty-four ferns. These and the club-mosses, of 
which we have five varieties, are included in our 
"Flora." One member has a wild garden, with 
-nearly ninety varieties of ferns and wild flowers 
in it. Tliere are many grasses, mosses, and 
lichens which are old friends, and for which we 
have names of our own. We hope for a formal 
introduction by means of a text-book some day. 
We are interested in all we see. Next to botany 
in our Chapter work comes ornithology. Perhaps 
I should say it ranks with it. The memliers of 
the Chapter found twenty-three species of liirds 
passing the winter in Franklin County. Many 
new species have been found breeding in this 
vicinity this season. Many formerly considered 
^rare have been found to be common. The first 
jirrival was the bluebird, March 1— unusually 
irly. nie birds did not arrive for the summer 
atil about the first of April. The first nest 
found was that of the bluebird, April 29. It con- 
tained one egg. During the winter the Chapter 
work was divided principally into two parts — the 
original %vork and personal observations of the 
members, and the reading of many articles bear- 
ing on our work, viz., Gibson's charming little 
sketches, Maurice Thompson's " By-ways and 
Bird Notes," and other books. An article on 
"Toadstools" interested the Chapter, and at the 
following meeting a variety of these curious 
growths were brought in bj' members. An arti- 
cle of Gibson's on cocoons opened the eyes of 
some of the members, and accordingly cocoons 
were a feature of the next meeting; and during 
the summer, also, we watched for each new fun- 
gus, and were mucli interested in the structure 
and color of those we found. The drumming of 
the partridge, the habits of our little gray rabbit, 
the finding of gold in our locality, oak galls, the 
abnoi-mal growths on some of our common plants, 
microscopy, and even conchology interested the 
members and made them think for themselves. 
"General Conversation" was a part of each meet- 
ing. Astronomy is a school study with all save 
two of the members, and this, of course, was 
more or less a part of the work. So, on the 
whole, as our well-filled report-book would indi- 
cate, this has been the pleasantest and most pros- 
perous year of all since our Chapter's organiza- 
tion. — Daisy M. Dill, Sec. 
27, Pittsburg, Penn., [ A] . — President, Prof. 
Gustave Guttenberg, Central High School. Mem- 
bership, forty-eight — a net gain of four during 
the year. We have held ten regular meetings, 
two of which were in the High' School Chapel. 
For these special programmes were prepared, and 
the whole school was invited. The Chapter is 
divided into three sections — botanical, zoological,, 
and mineralogical. The botanists meet every 
week. They have collected and mounted one 
hundred different species, and have exchanged 
fifty species with Chapter 902, in France. Speci- 
mens of different kinds of wood have been added 
to the collection of the society. The zoologists 
meet twice a month. Tliey have collected, mount- 
ed, and studied the principal insects. One mem- 
ber alone has five cases of butterflies and moths, 
nicely mounted. About one dozen birds have 
been added to our collection. The mineralogists 
study Professor Guttenberg's course, several mem- 
bers having advanced to the third grade. The 
Chapter hopes that a general eft'ort will be made 
to have the A. A. represented at the World's Fair 
in Chicago. In selecting our badge we made a 
little change from the Swiss Cross. It represents 
a cruciferous flower with four silver petals, thus 
preserv'ing the form of the cross. On the petals, 
in bla(!k enamel, are the letters H. N. A. A. (High 
[School] Naturalists Agassiz Association). On 
tlie gold center is the number of our Chapter, 27. 
W'e hope the other Chapters will recognize it. — 
J. S. Scully, Jr., !?ec. 
63, Portland, Me., [A]. — This Chapter was or- 
ganized February 10, 1890, and received its cer- 
tiflcate of admission March 6. The charter mem- 
bers were : D. E. Kerr, A. S. Goody, S. B. Ililborn, 
F. F. Dunham, and W. F. Smitli. The officers are : 
D. E. Korr, President, 28 Emerson street; A. S. 
Goody, Secretary and Treasurer, 18 Howard street. 
During the summer we transformed an old shed 
into a neat little Chapter house by putting on a 
square roof and shingling it all over. The house 
is 6X13 feet, and is large enough to accommodate 
us. There are two small windows, .\long one 
side we have three shelves about half the length 
of the hou.se; we have three small ones at one 
end. We have our certificate of admission framed. 
We have a badge painted on a 10 X 14 inch glass ; 
the letters are white on a red cross, with a yellow 
background. We have a small cabinet for eggs. 
Our specimens number nearly three hundred. 
Our minerals occupy the three small shelves. The 
liirge shelves are devoted to botany and shells. 
The inside of our house is papered — on the roof ■ 
with wall paper and on the sides with heavy car- 
penter's paper. We have an oil stove. Among 
our alcoholic specimens are about a dozen eggs of 
our common green snake. We have a book for 
clippings on natural liistory, and also one for a ' 
record and description of specimens. At our last 
meeting an essay on natural history was read by 
the President. Our Chapter house is situated at 
28 Emerson street, so that is the permanent address 
of our Chapter. The most interesting observa- 
tions made during the year I will quote from 
our notes. 
Obseuvatioxs. — " Clmn- Worm." — This worm is 
common hereabouts. It is easily found on the 
flats in the shallow pools left by the ebbing tide. 
Its color when in the water is a very brilliant 
steel blue, but out of the water it is green, while 
the under side is of a flesh color. The length 
varies; our specimen is seven inches long. The 
sides are thickly set with fin-like projections, a 
pair to every ring of the body. Its motion is a 
beautiful, regular, wavy one. On what appears 
to be the head there are three pairs of antenna; 
and two pairs of horns. One pair can be pushed 
out and drawn in like those of the snail. On the 
under side of the head is what appears to be the 
mouth, which contains an apparatus capable of 
being drawn in and pushed out, in which is set a 
pair of strong black forceps, or jaws, resembling 
those of some of the beetle family. The head and 
sides are very sensitive. Should anything. — a 
chip, for instance — be pressed lightly on the head, 
the worm wriggles and twists, and almost ties 
itself into knots. If merely touched on the head, 
it draws back very quickly. It is capable also of 
lengthening and shortening its body to quite an 
extent. It is apparently sightless. 
The Sea-Flea. — This extremely numerous scav- 
enger of the shore is very common. It has a 
number of legs, a pair of long antenna;, a six- 
pronged horny tail, and an articulated body. In 
the water it is a good swimmer, lying on its side 
and propelled by legs and tail. On the shore it 
may l)e seen springing in short leaps wherever 
the drift stuff' or sea-weed is lifted. Its color is 
generally a dull gray. It disappears in the fall — 
and where does it go to? I one day discovered on 
a sandy beach a large number of small elliptical 
holes, and being curious as to the cause of them, 
I began digging, expecting to find a "razor-shell" 
or some other sliell-fish, but instead I dug up a 
large sea-flea, almost transparent. I dug several 
times, and found another large and several small 
ones of the same color. To make*sure that these 
creatures made the holes, I placed the two large 
ones on a soft spot of sand, and after remaining 
quiet for a second or so they began rapidly to 
burrow into the sand, making holes similar to 
those I had noticed. The process of burrowing is 
as follows : Connneucing with the two front feet 
they dig in and throw- the sand up under them, 
and with their tails thiow it clear out of the hole. 
Some of these holes I found to be three inches 
deep. — Daniel E. Kerr, Pres.; A. S. Goody, Sec. 
29, Boston, Jlass., [B]. — Another year has passed 
away, and Chapter 29 still lives. Our determina- 
