764 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 4... 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 The reefs, keys, and peninsula of Florida. 



The recent appearance of the admirable memoir of 

 A. Asassiz on the reefs of Florida, ivhicli I have read 

 with 'intense pleasure, furnishes me a proper oecasion 

 for calling attention to my paper, pubM.shed in 1857, 

 ' On tlie ajiency of the Gulf Stream in the formation 

 of the peninsula and keys of Florida,' ^ and especially 

 to the fact that the most important results reached 

 in that paper have been substantially confirmed by 

 subsequent observations. Those results are as fol- 

 lows: — ■ 



1. The reefs of Florida are unique, and therefore 

 were formed under jieculiar conditions, and therefore, 

 also, require a peculiar explanation. 



2. The continuous growth of land by coral agency, 

 in the case of Florida, is also wholly unique, and ob- 

 viously connected with the peculiar conditions under 

 which the leefs were formed. 



3. The main peculiar condition in this case was the 

 formation and southward extension of a submarine 

 bank upon which the corals grew in successive reefs. 



4. This bank was due to the agency of the Gulf 

 Stream. 



In addition, I supposed that the bank was built up 

 by mechanical seiliments brousht by the Gulf ytream 

 mainly fnim the Gulf rivers. In this I may have been 

 mistaken, altljough no other explanation was con- 

 ceivable at that time. The recent examinations of 

 the course of the Gulf Stream, which, it seems, does 

 not sweep about the Gulf, as was formerly supposed, 

 and examination of the nature of the material form- 

 ing the Florida bank, render this view no longer 

 probable. 



A. Agassi?, in his memoir accepts the progressively 

 formed bank, and also that it is due to the agency of 

 the Gulf Stream, but. thinks that it is formed, not by 

 mechanical sediments, but by organic yedlmentx, partly 

 hroufjht by the Gulf Stream from other coral banks 

 (e.g., the Yucatan bank), ftiti mainhj formed in situ 

 by the growth of deep-sea animals; the Gulf Stream 

 bringing, not the materials, but only the conditions of 

 heat and abundant food necessary for rapid growth. 



This is certainly a very Important modificalion of 

 my original view; but the fundamental ideas ex- 

 pressed in the above four propositions still remain. 



I ought to add, that, following L. Agassiz, I had 

 exaggerated the probable amount of land added to 

 Florida by the combined agency of Gnlf Stream and 

 corals. The recent investigations of Smith'-' on the 

 geology of Florida show that the process cannot have 

 commenced farther north than the noi-th shores of 

 the Everglades. Joseph LeConte. 



Berkeley, Cat., Nov. 24. 



Musical saad. 



In the early part of the summer of 18S3, the writer, 

 in company with several others, was sent from Wood's 

 Hull to Monomoy Point, Mass., by Professor Baird, 

 to look after a whale reported to have been stranded 

 there. Wandering around the island, we found an 

 extensive tract of sand, which, when rubbed under 

 the feet, produced that peculiar singing sound so 

 often heard by the writer upon the beach at Jlan- 

 chester, Mass. The singing portion seemed to be 

 confined to a narrow strip several hundred yards 

 long, between the very dry sand above high-water 

 mark and the sand moistened by the tides. Know- 

 ing that the iihenomenon was a rare one, sjiecimens 

 of the sand were obtained; but I am not able to tell 

 where they are at present. Monomoy Point is a 

 > Amer.journ. sc, Jnn., 1857. " Ibid., 1881. 



long, narrow, sandy piece of land projecting out from 

 the south-eastern end of the base of Capc! Cod to- 

 wards Nantucket Island. It is composed oulirely of 

 sand; and the blowing of the particles, as also the 

 force with which they are blown, were well illustrated 

 by the fact that all the windows of the fishermen's 

 huts were ground so pei'fectly that nothing was visi- 

 ble through them. We paiil one fisherman to break 

 a square of glass for us. It had been there sixteen 

 years. Even in cases where new gla^s hail been 

 put in within two years, nothing w.as visible through 

 the panes. At a distance of thirty feet from the 

 house on all sides, sand was piled up nearly as high 

 as the tops of the cabins. The lighthouse-keeper 

 upon the island would undoubtedly obtain specimens 

 of the sand; the strip being fnuud near the place 

 where the whale lay, — in fact, just a few feet inland 

 from it. The writer will be glad to give any further 

 information desired upon the subject. 



R. S. Tauh. 



Smith.sonian institution, Dec. 4, 18S:!. 



Rings of Saturn. 

 Apropos of the .abstract on the 'Kings of .Saturn,' 

 published in Scie.vce for Nov. 10 (p. Ulit)). it appears 

 that Professor Alexander Winchell of the University 

 of Michigan, in his work entitled 'World-life,' assumed 

 and explained the gradual descent of the nuitter of 

 the rings toward the planet, and also denied that the 

 period of the inner satellite of Mars furnishes any 

 objection to the nebular theory. The ultimate result 

 of solar tides on the rotations of the phinets is also 

 referred to in the same ^vork, though this has, I be- 

 lieve, long been an accepted conclusion by leading 

 physical astronomers. W. U. T. 



ARCHEOLOGY IN PORTUGAL. 



lltudes prehisloriques en Portugal. Notice .lur 

 quelques stations et monuments prehistoriques . Me- 

 moire presenle a Pacademie royale des sciences de 

 Lishonne. Par Carlos Kibeiuo, chef de la sec- 

 tion des travaux geologiques, etc. Lisbonne, 

 Imprimerie de I'acadunie des sciences, ISSO. 8Sp., 

 7 pi., and ntnnerous engravings in the text. 4°. 

 [Also in Portuguese.] 



This piiblication, which has only recently 

 been received by us, is the second instalment 

 of a worlv the first of whicli appeared in 1878 

 (72 p., 21 pi.). We will accordingly give a 

 brief account of the contents of both parts. 

 Contraiy to our expectations, wo find in them 

 no discussion of tlie important question of the 

 alleged discovery of traces of the tertiaiy man 

 in the valley of the Tagtis ; neitlier do tiiey 

 deal with quaternary tiniQS. Tliey contain 

 simply' detailed accounts, with ample illustra- 

 tions, of various discoveries, all belonging to 

 the age of polished stone, made by the atitlior 

 in several localities in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood of Lisbon, which are all laid down upon 

 an accompanying map drawn to a large scale. 

 The completed work will comprise six sections, 

 three of which are contained in the two por- 

 tions already published. Of these, the first 

 describes the station of Licea, and the second. 



