CXXXVllI 



the accepted theory as regards the habits of animals, for bj this means 

 only can we hope to arrive at correct conclusions. 



Mr. Riley, while he agreed with the writer that too much stress 

 could not be laid on the importance of testing accepted views by 

 personal observation, yet thought it was even more important not 

 to make sweeping generalizations from isolated obsei'vations, 

 when the last conflict with long accepted opinions. He had him- 

 self seen the abundant remnants of what were taken' for squirrel 

 winter stores, in holes in felled trees, and could not believe that 

 naturalists like Audubon and Bachman were all astray in this 

 matter. 



Mr. Geo. B. McLellan said he had had much experience in hunt- 

 ting squirrels, especially the Gray Squirrel; and, however true Mr. Saw- 

 yer's story may be in his own locality, it cannot apply to the extreme 

 north; for, i. The depth of snow in winter would prevent access to food 

 thus stored; 2. In New Hampshire, in cutting down trees in which gray 

 squirrels have taken refuge, deposits of nuts have been found in the same 

 holes with the game. It cannot be true of the south ; for, i. The extreme 

 moisture of the winte^r months in the Gulf States would cause decay; 2. 

 This mode of storage would afford no security against the depredations of 

 wild hogs and other animals that abound in the southern swamps. The 

 probable conclusion is that the habits of the same species of animals differ 

 in different localities and varying conditions of season and climate. 



Mr. Hayes said that when a little boy in New Hampshire he 

 had many a time cut down trees and found pints of nuts stowed 

 away, and these had always been considered squirrel stores. 

 Beech nuts were generally shelled. 



Dr. Galney inclined to the views of Mr. Sawyer. 



Dr. McPheeters presented a piece of rock from St. Augustine, 

 Fla., where it is used as a building material. The specimen drew 

 forth some interesting remarks on the peculiar rock-formation 

 and on the shell-mounds. 



Mr. McLellan thought that the existence of natural deposits of 

 comminuted and more or less compacted shells on the St. Johns, 

 and the coast, is the result of the geological growth of the penin- 

 sula, which is gradually rising frorti the sea on a basis of coral ; 

 and that in regard to the large artificial shell-mounds on the Indian 

 and St Johns Rivers in Florida, tradition and recent research 

 unite in the conclusion that they have been heaped up by succes- 

 sive generations of Indians who have resorted to the sea-coast 

 periodically for supplies of shell-fish as food. 



