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NA TURE 



\_July 24, i J 



by the head (Fig. 2) or by the tail (Fig. 3), the result is 

 precisely the same, it can never escape ; and so tenacious 

 is the grip with which it is held, that I have only once 

 observed an insect get away after being caught. Other- 

 wise I cannot conceive how, without some such arrange- 

 ment, if the processes were perfectly smooth, they 

 could retain anything so delicate even as the body of a 

 young fish, much less would they be able to hold the 

 larger creatures. I am the more inclined to this view 

 because, when a fish emerges from the egg it is nothing 

 but a transparent line of light, a substance without a sub- 

 stance, into which the most microscopically minute pro- 

 jection would enter without difficulty ; and when it is 

 borne in mind how easily the hair-like sting of the com- 

 mon nettle can penetrate the human cutis, taking into 

 consideration the relative thicknesses of the two, I am 

 satisfied that my argument, though open to contradiction, 

 has at least the beauty of possessing some slight amount 

 of probability. 



I was hoping that before this I should have been in 

 possession of several more facts concerning the Utricu- 

 laria and its power of killing fish in a state of nature, 

 but, unfortunately, at the time I was preparing for my 

 observations I suffered from a severe attack of illness, 

 which for this season at least has incapacitated me from 

 carrying'out my intentions ; but I hope in the ensuing one 

 to lay bare a few more facts concerning this new and novel 

 enemy of the pisciculturist. G. E. SIMMS, Jun. 



KANSAS 

 THE authorities that govern the individual States and 

 ■*• Territories of America show themselves well-advised 

 when they set to work to investigate the natural history 

 and resources of their respective possessions in a healthy 

 and unbiased spirit, and nothing is more calculated to 

 give confidence in the future of the State than the know- 

 ledge that the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 

 truth has been presented to all who are interested, with 

 the indorsement of well-known scientific experts. The 

 State of Kansas, which not many years back was so exer- 

 cised and torn to pieces with internecine quarels and fili- 

 bustering forays, as to obtain the dolorous name of 

 "bleeding Kansas," now appears before the world in very 

 different guise— no longer bleeding, but with its wounds 

 staunched ; not restless, but peaceful, and bent on carry- 

 ing out to the utmost the programme of wealth and 

 prosperity which a careful examination of its capabilities 

 shows us to be not only possible but assured. 



The Third Biennial Report of the State Board of 

 Agriculture is a portly volume of great value in many 

 ways, although those points that deal with the geology 

 and natural history will of course offer the most interest 

 to the readers of Nature. 



From the geological sketch given by Mr. O. St. John we 

 learn that Kansas, a parallelogram in shape, and containing 

 no less than 80,000 square miles or 52,531,200 acres, lies 

 wholly within the prairie region that intervenes between the 

 Rocky Mountains and the Missouri ; and although, to the 

 ordinary observer, it appears to be an exceedingly flat 

 region (Kansas City has only an elevation of 751 feet 

 above the sea), there is, in reality, a gradual and regular 

 ascent of the surface to the north-west corner, where the 

 land assumes a maximum height of 4000 feet. What con- 

 figurative irregularities there are, are principally due to 

 erosion, as there is a remarkable absence of any geo- 

 logical displacement sufficient to produce mountainous 

 folds, and thus give origin to local drainage systems. 

 The most salient features of the landscape are bluffs 

 (seldom above 500 feet in altitude), though in the larger 

 valleys they are sometimes precipitous and intersected by 

 ravines. The prevailing characteristic, however, is that 

 of grassy uplands in billowy stretches, the drainage being 

 provided for by numberless narrow channels called 



" draws." The general drainage system is easterly, and 

 pretty well divided between the Missouri and Arkansas 

 basins. The northernmost half of the State is watered 

 and drained by the Kansas River, with its tributaries, the 

 Delaware or Grasshopper, Blue, Solomon, Republican, 

 and Saline on the north, and the Smoky Hill on the 

 south ; and these, with a small area drained by the head 

 waters of the Osage River, all form part of the Missouri 

 system. The basin of the Arkansas is met with a little to 

 the south of the Smoky Hill, the river itself having a 

 general south-east course into the Indian territory. The 

 volume of the Arkansas from its distant source in the 

 Rocky Mountains far exceeds that of the Kansas, though 

 its valley is very little deeper, nor has it such important 

 tributaries as the latter river. About the centre of the 

 State, the Arkansas makes a considerable bend, receiving 

 previously the Walnut and Pawnee Rivers, while east of 

 the bend are the upper valleys of the Neosho, Verdigris, 

 White-water, Little Arkansas, and Cimarron, though, as 

 a matter of fact, nearly all these streams effect their junc- 

 tion with the Arkansas outside Kansas, and in the Indian 

 Territory. The Neosho is locally famous for its valuable 

 water power and its rich agricultural valley, and the 

 Cimarron for its deeply eroded bed and the variegated 

 sculptured strata of its canon walls. The two typical 

 rivers of Kansas State are therefore the Kansas, its valley 

 consisting of a wide belt of low-terraced alluvial land, 

 of great fertility, bounded by beautiful slopes termi- 

 nating in frequent rocky bluffs, and the Arkansas with 

 its magnificent reaches of level bottom land, whose 

 depth of soil is composed of travelled sediments brought 

 from the mountains and plains lying to the westward. 

 Here and there the border uplands encroach upon the 

 valley, showing shelly limestone strata, and deep, iron- 

 dyed sandstone ledges. 



The geology of Kansas is of a simple nature, and 

 almost entirely composed of three principal formations, 

 the Carboniferous, Cretaceous, and Tertiary. The Palaeo- 

 zoic rocks, as represented by the Carboniferous, appear at 

 the surface over an area of about one-third of the entire 

 extent of the State, entering it from the south-east, and 

 eventually passing beneath the Dakota sandstone, which 

 is the line of demarcation between the Palaeozoic and 

 Mesozoic series. After the disappearance of the Carboni- 

 ferous rocks underneath this sandstone, they are not seen 

 again until the Rocky Mountains, where their upraised 

 edges have been bared by denudation at the foot of the 

 ranges. The lowest member of the Carboniferous (Lower), 

 as seen in Kansas, is the Keokuk limestone, which occu- 

 pies a small area of about forty square miles in the extreme 

 south-east corner, and consists of bluish-gray siliceous 

 limestone, interbedded with cherty layers above, and often 

 associated with brecciated siliceous matter. Limited as 

 the Keokuk area is, it is of exceeding value to the State, 

 for it includes the ore district of lead and zinc, and has 

 already brought a considerable population to the newly- 

 founded towns of Empire and Galena, on the banks of 

 the Short Creek, a tributary of the Arkansas. Not only 

 has a busy mining district been here established, but, 

 owing to the excellence and accessibility of the Cherokee 

 Coal-measures, a little to the west, the ores are enabled to 

 be speedily and cheaply reduced at the furnaces of Weir 

 and Pittsburgh, a few miles to the north. Galena, the 

 ordinary sulphuret of lead, furnishes almost all the ore of 

 that metal, together with its derivatives, cerussite or car- 

 bonate of lead (the " dry bone " of the miners), and pyro- 

 morphite or phosphate of lead. As is usually the case, 

 the lead carries a small percentage of silver, from one to 

 one and a half ounces to the ton of ore. The zinc ores 

 consist of the common blende or sulphuret, "blackjack," 

 calamine (hydrous silicate), smithsonite (carbonate), and 

 zinc bloom, many of the ores being of great beauty, from 

 their amber and garnet tints. Associated with the ores are 

 chalcopyrite or copper pyrites, green carbonate of copper, 



