29 8 



NA TUBE 



[July 24, 1884 



isolation to 200 feet above the Smoky Hill River, the 

 summit capped by a heavy ledge of light gray, very hard 

 siliceous rock, which has been weathered into miniature 

 grottoes in the higher of the two cones. Underlying the 

 Pliocene beds is a thick deposit of chocolate-coloured 

 shales, with concretionary masses of limestone and sep- 

 taria, and splendid crystals of selenite. Among Post- 

 Tertiary deposits, examples are to be found, in the eastern 

 portion of the State, of the Drift and Loess, the latter being 

 strikingly displayed in the bluffs that bound the Missouri 

 River valley for so many hundreds of miles in the States 

 of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. 



An appendix to the foregoing geological account is 

 added on the botany of Kansas, by Prof. J. H. Carruth, 

 but it is very short, for the reason that the catalogue of 

 Kansas plants was made in 18S0, and the present notice 

 is merely to record certain additions (about 36) to the 

 1430 plants already found, of which only 30 are non- 

 flowering. Considering that New York, with its varied 

 surface and qualities of soil, can only show 1450, it is 

 most interesting to note that Kansas, with its compara- 

 tively uniform soil and surface, produces almost as many. 



A valuable report on the Kansas entomology is given 

 by Prof. Popenoe, who furnishes detailed accounts of 

 certain insects that commit ravages upon the crops. 

 Among these figure prominently the large poplar-borer 

 ( Plectrodt'ra scalator), which is a great tree-destroyer, 

 making innumerable holes in the trunks of the willow and 

 Cottonwood. A singular fact is recorded of the buck 

 moth {Hemileuca maid), viz. that as a larva it po .sesses a 

 peculiar means of defence. The coarse, black prickles 

 with which the body is covered are very sharp, and when 

 they penetrate the skin on the back of the hand or else- 

 where, they produce little pustules and a sharp nettle-like 

 sting, though not of any duration. The red-lined tree- 

 bug (Lygaus trivittatus) is a relative of the well-known 

 squash-bug, and does infinite damage to the elder-tree, 

 besides evincing a strong partiality for the interiors of 

 greenhouses, where it destroys geraniums, ipomeas, abu- 

 tilons, and other horticulturists' pets. The chequered 

 snout-beetle (Aramigus tesselatus) has usually been known 

 to infest leguminous plants, and more especially the silver- 

 leafed prairie pea [Psoralia argophylld). Latterly, how- 

 ever, it has been noticed to pay great attention to the 

 sweet potato, and has inflicted considerable havoc on that 

 crop. The harlequin cabbage-bug \Strachia histrionicd) 

 attacks the Cruciferae, and especially the wild cress 

 {Lt-pitii/rui), mustard, radish, turnip, and cabbage. The 

 abundant little beetle known as the corn-root worm 

 (Diabrotica longicornis)\>z& only recently been discovered 

 to be a corn-pest of the first magnitude, attacking the 

 roots about the period of " earing," and causing a partial 

 development of the grains. 



Though only the points that bear most on Kansas 

 natural history have been noticed here, it should be 

 stated that the volume gives an exhaustive account of 

 the resources and statistics, commercial, social, and edu- 

 cational, of each county in the State, and that the whole 

 is illustrated by an admirable series of maps. 



G. Phillips Bevan 



NOTES 



The death is announced of Ferdinand von Hochstetter, the 

 German mineralogist and geologist, whose name is intimately 

 associated with the geology of New Zealand. Hochstetter was 

 horn in Wiirtemberg in 1S29. In 1857 he joined the Novara 

 expedition, hut quitted it at New Zealand, the geology of which 

 he spent a considerable time in investigating. In 1S60 he was 

 appointed Professor of Mineralogy and Geology in the Poly- 

 technic Institute of Vienna, and in 1867 was made President of 

 the Vienna Geographical Society. Among his published works 

 are: the " Topographico-Geological Atlas of New Zealand " ; 



" Geology of New Zealand " ; " Palaeontology of New Zea- 

 land " ; "The Geology of the Ncroara Expedition"; " Roto- 

 mahana and the Boiling Springs of New Zealand " ; besides 

 works on the geology of Eastern Turkey, the Ural, and various 

 popular publications. 



In the name of fair criticism, in the interests of true science, 

 and in defence of a man who has grown gray in the public 

 service, and who has recently retired full of years and honour to 

 the rest he so well merited, a protest should be made against the 

 language in which the Mining Journal last week permits itself to 

 speak of Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S. We do not choose to dis- 

 cuss the relative merits of the new "Mineral Statistics" and 

 those with which his name is so familiarly conjoined. But by 

 all who know how entirely Mr. Hunt's heart and soul were in 

 his work at the Mining Record Office and how unwearied were 

 his labours on its behalf, an emphatic and indignant repudiation 

 will be made of the charge brought by the anonymous critic that 

 he failed to do his duty and set a bad example to his subordinates. 

 Mr. Hunt needs no defence from such an odious charge. We 

 cannot but express our regret that it should have been made in 

 [he columns of a respectable journal and under cover of an 

 anonymous review. 



We are still a long way from admitting that a little elementary 

 physiological knowledge is a desirable element in general educa- 

 tion. But it is not often that such a glaring example of the want 

 of it is met with as is revealed by the following extract from a 

 despatch of the Acting Consul at Panama recently presented to 

 Parliament. It would not be easy to find its parallel among the 

 worst answers in the May examinations of the Science and Art 

 Department: — "Many essays have been written on this appalling 

 scourge [yellow fever], its origin, and its existence, but nothing 

 seems more probable, more reasonable to me, than comparing 

 the human blood to milk, which under influence of temperature 

 and circumstances becomes curdled. In the like manner, the 

 human blood, the human frame and organism, under certain 

 abnormal, adverse, and unfavourable circumstances, become 

 curdled, and enter into a state of dissolution, more or less rapid ; 

 the blood, owing to its component parts, coagulates, being im- 

 pregnated with bile, phosphate, and albumen, through the stag- 

 nation of the liver and kidneys. This my theory is the one I 

 certainly believe in. Savants assert that the disease is generated 

 by spores of the marine mushroom (Mycenium fungi maris), 

 which multiply in thousands per minute. Others profess it to be 

 animalculae termed 'microbes.' " 



Mi'. Joseph Thomson, the leader of the Geographical 

 Societ y's expedition to East Africa, has arrived in this country. 

 Mr. Thomson has suffered greatly from the hardships which he 

 had to endure, and it will be several weeks before he regains 

 his usual vigour. Mr. Thomson's expedition has been com- 

 pletely successful, and he himself estimates the results as of far 

 greater scientific importance than those of his first expedition. The 

 region traversed by him, from Mombassa to the north of Victoria 

 Nyanza, is entirely volcanic, and his observations therein will 

 be of great geological interest. There is still one volcano, west 

 of Kilimanjaro, which shows signs of activity. Mount Kenia, 

 though covered with trees, stands amidst a desert. The Masai, 

 the leading people of the region explored, are of special interest. 

 Their features, customs, dwellings, religion, language, differ 

 markedly from those of any other African people with whom 

 Mr. Thomson is acquainted. Fortunately besides his copious 

 notes he has brought home many photographs, so that his forth- 

 coming narrative is sure to be of unusual interest and value. 



The Conference on Water Supply by the Society of Arts will 

 be held at the Health Exhibition to-day and to-morrow. The 

 Conference will meet each day at 11 a.m., and will sit till 1.30, 

 then adjourn till 2, and sit again till 5. p.m. The papers and 



