152 



NATURE 



[Dec. 21, 1871 



In the miildle of the upheaved mass the movement was strongest ; 

 three large clefts and intense light were displayed, while en- 

 gul|.hed stones, which were swallowed up in great masses, were 

 followed by a noise as of violent wind, and by clouds of smoke 

 sometimes blue, sometimes yellow. The temperature of the air 

 in the vicinity was 126° F. The stones in the midst of the 

 heaving mass seemed to be softened, though not melted, and no 

 flow of lava took place. This upheaval had taken place on a 

 small, flat plain upon the north-east side of the mountain, it 

 ascended to the scarp of the cone, and stretched in the direction 

 of the snow peak, which was some aj miles distant. On reach- 

 ing this summit the temperature was found to be 41" F. From 

 here the whole of the new upheaval could be surveyed. In the 

 middle of it the most vehement movement was in progress, at- 

 tended by the constant upheaving and descent of rocky masses, 

 fire, and blue and yellow columns of smoke. The upper ancient 

 crater has a diameter of 492 feet, and from it arose dense sulphur- 

 ous vapour. Later explorers found a fissure from the new up- 

 heaval to the upper peak, I — 3 feet wide and about 3 feet in 

 depth, but neither heat nor vapour issuing from it. Such volumes 

 of fetid gases issued from the fissure that the inhabitants of the 

 district were forced to leave their abodes. Cows and sheep were 

 killed by it, so that it was found necessary to drive away the 

 herds from the neighbourhood of the volcano. 



Prof. Verrill has lately given, in the Aiiu-yicaii Journal 

 of Science, an account of the researches in marine zoology 

 prosecuted by him during the past summer at Wood's Hole, 

 Massachusetts, in connection with investigations of 1 rof. Baird 

 respecting the food fishes of the coast of the United States ; and 

 in this he calls the attention of zoologists to some of the more 

 important features of these examinations, promising a fuller 

 account heveifter. One of these results consisted in ascertaining 

 that, while the shores and shallow waters of the bays and sounds, 

 as far as Cape Cod, are occupied chiefly by southern forms be- 

 longing to the Virginian fauna, the deeper channels and central 

 parts of Long Island Sound, as far as Stonington, Connecticut, 

 are inhabited almost exclusively by northern forms, or an exten- 

 sion of the Acadian fauna. Both the temperature observations 

 at the surface and the deep-sea dredgings prove that there must 

 be an offshoot of the arctic current settling in'o the middle of 

 Vineyard Sound. Quite a number of interesting ascidian=, both 

 simple and compound, were met with by Prof. Verrill, several 

 of them entirely new to science. Several new sponges were col- 

 lected, and also a large number of crustaceans and molluscs 

 previously unrecorded in that region. We would refer our 

 readers to Prof. Verrill's article in the November number of the 

 Aiinricaii Journal of Science for these interesting facts. 



Harper s Weekly furnishes the following additional information 

 of the great exploring expedition upon which Prof. Agassiz has 

 been expecting to engage during the voyage of the Coast Survey 

 steamer Ilassler, from Boston to San Francisco, by way of the 

 Straits of Mjgellan. The expedition was originally to s-tart as 

 early as July or August, and in that event the exploration in 

 question would have commenced off the coast of the United 

 States. Owing, however, to unexpected delays, the vessel has 

 but recently fitted out and reported at Boston, where she has 

 been detained, undergoing alterations of her machinery. We 

 have already noticed the general plan and objects of the ex- 

 pedition. The scientific corps, as will be remembered, consists 

 of Piof and Mrs. Agassiz, Count Pourtales, ex-President Hill, o 

 Cambridge, Dr. White, Mr. James Blake, and Dr. Stcindachner, 

 each gentleman having special charge of a particular department 

 of the work, and interested in its successful accomplishment. 

 The vessel itself is under the command of Captain P. C. Johnson, 

 with Messrs. Kennedy and Day as lieutenants. Owing to the 

 lateness of the season, the original plan of making extended ex- 



plorations in the West Indies and off the eastern coast of South 

 America has necessarily been modified, and the vessel will pro- 

 bably proceed almost directly to the Falkland Islands and the 

 Straits of Magellan, there to commence the comprehensive in- 

 vestigations proposed, as otherwise a sufficient share of the 

 summer season of the Straits could not be secured. The 

 Atlantic Ocean work thus given up will, in all probability, 

 partly at least, be performed by the A. D. Bache, a consort of 

 the Nassler, next year. 



The American Museum of Natural History, established at 

 Central Park, New York, has, we learn from Harper''s Weekly, 

 had a most liberal offer made to it. The collection of shells of 

 Dr. John C. Jay, formerly of New York, but now of Rye, is 

 well known as one of the largest in the world ; indeed, some 

 years ago it was decidedly the finest in the United States ; and 

 although, with the lapse of years, the doctor his been less ener- 

 getic in keeping it up to the present date, yet it forms a cabinet 

 of magnificent extent, embracing, it is said, 14,000 species, 20,000 

 varieties, and 50,000 specimens, and costing many years of 

 labour, and over 25,000 dols. in money. In addition to this, 

 there is a library of 850 bound volumes, almost approaching 

 completeness in its extent upon the subject of conchology. This 

 has cost the doctor 10,000 do's., many of the works having been 

 purchased at a time, too, when they were cheaper than at pre- 

 sent. The doctor now offers to sell this library to the Museum 

 of Natural History for the sum of 10,000 dols., and with it to 

 present the entire collection of shells just referred to, so that the 

 whole may go together, and form a complete section of the 

 museum. 



AnvicES from Portland, Oregon, under da'e of November 17, 

 announce the arrival of Prof O. C. Marsh, with his party of 

 Yale College students, from an extended geological and pala.on- 

 tological exploration in the Blue Mountains and the John Day 

 Valley. As might have been anticipated from the previous dis- 

 coveries of the Rev. Thomas Condon, of Portland, in the same 

 region, under much less favourable auspices, very extensive col- 

 lections of fossil animals were made, which, when placed, as in- 

 tended, in the museum of Yale College with those previously 

 gathered by Prof. Marsh, will make a series of the extinct ver- 

 tebrates of North America unequalled in any other cabinet. 



At the meeting of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' 

 Society, held Nov. 18, Mr. Barrett read some further notes on 

 the coast insects found at Brandon, which he considered con- 

 firmatory of the opinion expressed by him in a former paper, 

 that these species have occupied this district, now far inland, 

 from the time when it was part of the sea-coast. Amongst other 

 coast species mentioned by Mr. Barrett was Agroslis Tritici, and 

 of this species he remarked that, although it occurs sparingly on 

 inland heat-hs, all the specimens are of a dull brown colour, 

 whilst those found on the sea-coast are generally distinctly marked 

 and richly coloured ; all those taken by him at Brandon had 

 precisely the deep style of colour and mar-kings which characterise 

 it on thesea-coas*. Agrostis cursoria, although very abundant on 

 the sea-coast, is not to be found at Brandon ; and this Mr. Barrett 

 considers a very strong proof hat the other strictly littoral 

 species enumerated have not reached their present situation by 

 migrating across the intervening land from the present sea-coast. 

 This species he thinks it not improbable was an immigrant from 

 the eastward at a comparatively recent date, and that it has 

 attained its greatest abundance on the spot where it first obtained 

 a footing. It would not, therefore, have been an inhabitant cf 

 this portion of the post-glacial coast. 



An earthquake shock was felt in New Jersey, Delaware, and 

 Pennsylvania in the United States, on October 9. At Delaware 

 it was noticed at 9.40 A.M , and at Philadelphia at the same time. 



