September 28, 1S83.] 



SCIENCE. 



443 



examined, there were a few oysters upon it, 

 but so small that a microscope was necessary 

 to reqognize them. On Aug. 2 it was again 

 examined, and the tile of which a portion is 

 figured was removed from the bundle. There 

 were then from 26 to 348 young o\'sters on a 

 tile ; the total number upon the whole bundle 

 was 1,500. 



The third examination was made Aug. 23, 

 when it was found the o^'sters had increased 

 very much in size and numbers. On the tiles 

 remaining, there were 1,334 o}"sters. A tile 

 of which a portion is represented in fig. 2 

 was then removed. On Oct. 10 the bundle was 

 again examined. The oysters had decreased 

 fifty-five per cent in numbers ; but two-thirds 

 of them were now over three-quarters of an 

 inch, and two specimens over two inches 

 long, thougii the shells were still extremely- 



value of Lieut. Winslow's work, the intel- 

 ligence and assiduity with which it was carried 

 on, and the wide field which awaits further 

 investigation. 



THE PEBBLES OF SCHLESWIG-HOL- 

 STEIN. 



Die sedimentUr-geschiehe des provinz Schleswiy-Hol- 

 slein. Von Dr. C. Gottsche. Als manu.script 

 gedruckt. Yokohama, Levy 5" Salabelle, 1883. 

 6-t-66 p., 2 maps. S°. 



This treatise by Dr. Gottsche, who is at 

 present in Yedo, was an accepted thesis for 

 admission to the position of private teacher 

 at the Kiel university in 1^80, printed pri- 

 vately in German at Yokohama in 1883, and 

 seems to be a ver}- painstaking and prett}' 

 thorough description of the pebbles, whether 



delicate. Part of one of these tiles is repre- 

 sented by fig. 3. 



It was thus determined, that in 1879 the at- 

 tachment of the young oysters began about 

 the middle of July, and continued about a 

 month, as after Aug. 20 there were no signs of 

 fresh attachments ; that fuU^- fifty per cent 

 died from natural causes within six weeks, no 

 traces of predacious mollusks being noticed 

 on the dead shells, though the evidence on 

 this point is imperfect ; that, the attachments 

 being far more profuse on the concave under 

 side of the tiles, the spat just i)reviously must 

 be on or near the bottom, and must rise to 

 attach themselves ; lastly, that the rate of 

 growth is much more rapid than had pre- 

 viously been supposed, and may reach two 

 inches in length in three months. Numerous 

 other points of interest niaj' be gleaned from 

 the report, for which we have not space. 

 Enough has been said, however, to show the 



of rocks, minerals, or fossils (seventy-six 

 kinds in all), found in four quaternary sedi- 

 mentary beds at Kiel, with especial reference 

 to the identification of their source, and is 

 accompanied by two maps, — one showing 

 with straight lines thirt}' directions in which 

 such pebbles of the lowest bed appear to have 

 been transported, and the other giving with 

 similar lines the dissemination of three partic- 

 ular kinds of rock in the same Baltic region. 

 Many of the lines are onh- a couple of hundred 

 miles long, but some arc six hundred or more. 

 The author himself points out that the pebbles 

 have not by any means necessaril}' been car- 

 ried along those straight lines ; and the place 

 of origin may not necessarily have been exactlj' 

 at the points where identical rocks are only 

 found at present. Nevertheless the lines show 

 that the transfer has in general been from the 

 north-east, north, or north-west, and never from 

 the westward or southward of Kiel. Of course, 



