g6 The West American Scientist. 



the Coronado Railway to National City and thence to the Mexi- 

 can boundary in the Tijuana valley, where the ladies received the 

 official stamp of the Mexican customs on their handkerchiefs. 

 Returning-, a beautiful spread of fruits and flowers, and more 

 substantial edibles, provided by the ladies of National City, was 

 found awaiting us under the olive trees of Mr. Warren Kimball, 

 to which ample justice was done. On the loth an excursion 

 around San Diego bay in the steamer Manuel Dublan was en- 

 joyed through the courtesy ofCapt. Scott. The nth, the asso- 

 ciation visited El Cajon and Lakeside, viewing a section of the 

 famous San Diego flume and the orchards and vineyards of the 

 valley. 



A report of a discovery of a member of the great boa con- 

 strictor family having reached the daily press, our friends rather 

 cruelly hint that we are in the habit of " seeing snakes." Such 

 is fame ! 



Dr. Stephen Bowers, of the California Mineralogical and Geo- 

 logical Survey, was in attendance at the editorial convention, and 

 we had the pleasure of making his personal acquaintance. He 

 recently visited the Colorado Desert at Indio, where a new spec- 

 ies of Helix in a sub-fossil condition was found among the granite 

 boulders of the hills. A still more important discovery was made 

 by the doctor in his ethnological researches on the side of the San 

 Jacinto mountain at the edge of the ancient lake. His Indian 

 guide here pointed out to him numerous stone "fish-traps," made 

 by the ancestors of the present race of Indians. We hope to 

 give our readers soon a more detailed description of this interest- 

 ing discovery. 



The kindly words of the editor of the Standard oi Q}i\\q.2.^o, one 

 of the leading religious weeklies of America,showing an apppeci- 

 ation of our work upon the Scientist, are very gratifying to our 

 vanity. We shall hope and strive to merit all the praises of our 

 contemporaries, but we have not yet been able to present our 

 ideal magazine. We must look to our contributors and corres- 

 pondents for friendly criticism and assistance in making the 

 Scientist all that its friends would desire. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Henrich Gu-tav Reichenbach died at Hamburg, Germany, 

 May 6th, at the age of sixty-five. He was the recognized 

 authority on orchid nomenclature, and was widely known for his 

 extensive knowledge and writings on orchids, to the study of 

 which he devoted a great portion of his life. Reichenbachia, the 

 sumptuous periodical devoted to orchids, was named for him and 

 he was connected with it at the time of his death. 



Charles Fasoldt, the well-known maker of clocks and scientific 



