312 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX No. 1265 



badly ventilated decks than it was among the 

 others. In all other respects the men were ex- 

 posed to precisely similar conditions; they 

 wore the same clothes, ate the same food, and 

 all of them slept in hammocks slung very close 

 together. Thus the experience has the value 

 of a carefully planned experiment in showing 

 the effect of freely moving air as a preventive 

 of infections of this nature. Another striking 

 instance, recorded by Colonel Adami, F.E.S., 

 in the first volume of his book on the " War 

 Story of the Canadian Army Medical Corps," 

 was noted in the review published in the first 

 number for this year. The winter of 1914^15 

 was very wet, and the troops under canvas on 

 Salisbury Plain suffered extreme discomfort, 

 but nevertheless continued in excellent health. 

 When, after some six weeks, the discomfort of 

 tent life and the increasing cold of winter in- 

 duced the authorities to replace the tents by 

 huts, then influenza and throat troubles began 

 to spread at once and rapidly, and, what was 

 worse still, a series of cases of cerebro-spinal 

 fever occurred. — The British Medical Journal. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Life Zone Investigations in Wyoming. Mer- 



RiTT Caey. !N"orth American Fauna, No. 42. 



October 3, 1917, pp. 1-95; pis. I.-XV.; text 



figs. 1-lY. 



The Biological Survey has for many years 

 been gathering data on the ecological relations 

 of animals and plants in North America vnth 

 particular reference to the transcontinental 

 Mfe zones. Several generalized maps of the 

 entire continent have been published, and a 

 series of detailed studies by states and prov- 

 inces is well under way. The results of some 

 of the latter have already been published, and 

 another is now presented in the present report 

 on Wyoming. This is based on a number of 

 years' field work in the state by the author and 

 other members of the Biological Survey. 



In a brief introduction attention is called 

 to the life zones as " a fairly accurate index to 

 average climatic conditions, and, therefore, 

 . . . useful as marking the limits of agricul- 

 tural possibilities, so far as these are dependent 

 upon climate." They are thus valuable as an 



index to the possibilities of agriculture in un- 

 developed regions. 



With the caption " Physiography and Cli- 

 mate," there is also a description of the varied 

 physiography of Wyoming, which is character- 

 ized particularly by mountains, plains and 

 valley basins. This variety of surface pro- 

 duces likewise a varied climate, though mostly 

 cool by reason of the high base level, and arid 

 excepting on the higher mountains. 



Under the heading " Life Zones of Wy- 

 oming," the transcontinental ecologic belts oc- 

 curring in the state are treated at length, and 

 a careful accourit is given of their divisions, 

 if any, their area, altitudes, the most impor- 

 tant localities covered by each, their physical 

 and faunal characteristics, and their agricul- 

 tural possibilities. For each zone there are 

 added long lists of trees, shrubs, herbaceous 

 plants, of mammals, and of breeding birds; 

 mention is made also of reptiles, but of no 

 other vertebrates and of no invertebrates. 

 Doubtless, however, the mollnsks and insects 

 would, at least in the main, substantiate the 

 results obtained from the plants and the higher 

 vertebrates. The characteristics of these five 

 zones are so carefully worked out that a sum- 

 mary of the author's conclusions may be worth 

 presenting in this connection. 



The Upper Sonoran Zone, which occupies 

 most of the valleys and lower plains, from alti- 

 tudes of 3,100 to 6,500 feet, is the home of the 

 broad-leaved cottonwood, juniper, salt bush 

 and yucca; of such mammals as Eutamias 

 minimus pictus, Citellus iridecemlineatus par- 

 vus, Lepus calif ornicus melanotis; and of such 

 breeding birds as Zenaidura macroura mar- 

 ginella, Tyrannus vociferans, Passerina 

 amoena, and Icteria virens longicauda. 



The Transition Zone, which embraces the 

 high plains, the basal slopes of the mountains, 

 and all the foothills except the highest, and 

 ranges from altitudes of 4,000 to 8,500 feet, is 

 characterized by yellow pine, narrow-leaved 

 cottonwood, and sage brush; mammals like 

 Odocoileus virginianus macrourus, Sciurus 

 hudsonicus dahotensiSj Neotoma cinerea cin- 

 erea, and Lepus townsendi campanius; and 

 sudh breeding birds as Gentrocercus urophasi- 

 anus, Cryptoglaux acadica acadica, Empidonax 



