724 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 48. 



language may be iiuUcated, as in chemistry, by a sym- 

 bol; as, C/3 1 II. = Corean, Tibetan, etc. — (Journ. an- 

 throp. inst. , xiii. 32-52. ) o. T. M. [439 



Muskoki strategy. — Tlie following method of 

 Indian stratagem is told for the first time by Mr. 

 H. S. Halbert. When a small party of Muskokis 

 wished to attack a Choctaw village, tbey would ar- 

 range themselves in ambush at convenient intervals 

 to within three hundred yards of the village. The 

 bravest man would now crawl np as near the vil- 

 lage as practicable, dig a pit and place himself in 

 it, where he would wait until daybreak. The first 



Choctaw whom he then saw stirring ahoul near his 

 ambuscade he would shoot down, sprhig forward, and 

 scalp him in the twinkling of an eye. He would then 

 flee toward the second ambuscader. If he was pur- 

 sued, which was generally the case, the pur.«uer re- 

 ceived the fire of this ambuscadei'. The two warriors 

 then fled to the third man in ambush. If the pui-su- 

 ers still followed, they received the fire of this man. 

 The three now ran to the fourth ambushed warrior, 

 where the same scene was enacted; and so on until 

 the place of the last man was reached. — {Amer. an- 

 j;g.,v. 277.) J. w. P. [440 



INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 



GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 

 Geological snryey. 



Paleontolorjy^ — Mr. Lester F. Ward, paleobotanist 

 of the survey, is at work jjreparing a catalogue of 

 fossil plants, with their geological relations, which 

 will probably be published during tlie coming spring. 

 Fifty-one boxes of Fort Union fossil plants, collected 

 by Mr. Ward near Glendive, Montana, last July, have 

 been received at the office of the survey. 



A paleontological I'eport on the paleozoic fossils of 

 the Eureka district of Nevada, by Mr. Charles D. 

 Walcott, is almost ready for the press. The number 

 of paleozoic fossils from this district exceeds four 

 hundred species. 



During the month of October a large number of 

 Potsdam fossils from Saratoga, N.T., and some Tren- 

 ton fossils from Trenton Falls, N.T., were added to 

 the collectioQS in the hands of Mr. Walcott, who has 

 charge of the department of paleozoic paleontology. 



One of the papers in the fourth annual report 

 of the survey is ' A review of the North-American 

 fossil Ostreidae,' by Dr. C. A. White. It will be 

 illustrated' by forty-eight full-page plates of figures, 

 giving figures of all the leading species of fossil 

 forms of oysters, and of the leading varieties of 

 Ostrea virginica, for comparison. For it, also, Pro- 

 fessor Angelo Heilprin furnishes a revised catalogue 

 of the tertiary oysters; and Mr. John A. Ryder adds 

 a concise life-history of the common oyster, illustrat- 

 ing its anatomy, and giving the results of his recent 

 experiments in the artificial propagation of oysters. 



Chemistry. — A laboratory, to be in charge of Prof. 

 F. W. Clarke, is being organized in connection with 

 the survey. Heretofore the chemical work of the 

 survey has been done at various laboratories scattered 

 through the country, and at the field-laboratories at 

 Denver, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. A labo- 

 ratory for physical experiments will probably be es- 

 tablished in connection with the chemical division. 



We»t-Virginia forests. — During September and Oc- 

 tober, Col. George W. Shutt examined the southern 

 and eastern portions of West Virginia with especial 

 reference to the distribution of timber, its economic 

 value, and the facilities of transportation to market 



viA the streams of the region. He travelled over a 

 thousand miles by wagon, and two hundred on horse- 

 back, and expresses the opinion that nearly one-half 

 of the state is covered with a virgin forest, the value 

 of which, if rendered marketable, would amount to 

 billions of dollars. 



Geology. — In making an excavation a few weeks 

 ago for a building on Connecticut Avenue, in the 

 north-western section of Washington, D.C., the 

 interesting discovery was made of the remains of a 

 subterranean forest. The fact was mentioned at the 

 meeting of the Biological society of Washington, Nov. 

 2, by Professor Lester F. Ward; and, from the excel- 

 lent preservation of the wood, the opinion was ex- 

 pressed that it was simply a collection of drift-wood 

 that had been washed into a ravine in comparatively 

 recent time. Mr. W. J. McGee of the Geological 

 survey, who has been working up the geological 

 structure of the District of Columbia for some time, 

 had also examined the locality in question, and was 

 of the opinion that the deposit was of quaternary or 

 prequaternary age. A few days after the meeting of 

 the Biological society, above mentioned, he, with 

 Professor Ward, Mr. G. K. Gilbert, and Mr. J. B. Mar- 

 cou, re-examined the buried forest; and Mr. McGee's 

 opinion was confirmed, — the stratum was found to 

 underlie the quaternary gravels of the district. The 

 occurrence is of interest, since the slightly altered 

 wood undoubtedly represents the end of the long 

 interval extending from the cretaceous to the begin- 

 ning of the quaternary, during which the lignite beds 

 and iron-ore deposits, so common in the region, were 

 formed. 



Publications. — The survey has just issneil a mis- 

 cellaneous work, one of a series of statistical papers, 

 which is distinct from the Monographs and Bulle- 

 tins, but, like them, is for sale at cost price (fifty cents 

 in this case). The title of this work is, ' Mineral 

 resources of the United States," by Albert Williams, 

 jun., chief of division of mining statistics and tech- 

 nology. In its 813 pages it gives the statistics of our 

 mineral production for the year eiuling June, 1883, 

 and also a mass of information in relation to the 

 production of coal, petroleum, iron, copper, lead, and 

 zinc. It also treats of huilding-stone.s, clays, fertili- 



