896 
SECTION OF BIOLOGY. 
THE regular meeting took place on Novem- 
ber 13, 1899, Professor Frederic S. Lee presid- 
ing. The following papers were then presented : 
‘On the Relation of the Centra and Intercen- 
tra in the Cervical Vertebree of Lizards, Mosa- 
saurs and Sphenodon,’ by H. F. Osborn. 
‘The Discovery of a Mastodon’s Tooth and 
Remains of a Boreal Vegetation on Staten Is- 
land,’ by Arthur Hollick. 
“A Report of the New York University Ex- 
pedition to the Bermuda Islands in the Summer 
of 1899,’ by C. L. Bristol. 
Professor Osborn called attention to the con- 
fused statements relating to the cervical verte- 
bree in the Lizards, Mosasaurs and Sphenodon, 
and pointed out that both Gegenbaur and 
Wiedersheim, the principal German authorities 
on the Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrates, 
failed to recognize clearly the important part 
played by intercentra of the neck region. He 
then, commencing with Sphenodon, pointed out 
that we havea series of intercentra or interver- 
tebral ossicles, extending throughout the whole 
length of the backbone, but considerably modi- 
fied by a coalescence with the atlas and axis. 
In Platecarpus, the Cretaceous Mosasaur, on 
the other hand the intercentra of the axis and 
atlas are entirely free and separate, retaining 
their primitive wedge-shaped form, while the 
centrum proper or odontoid process is also free 
from the axis; in the remaining cervicals the 
intercentra are secondarily shifted forward 
upon the hypapophyses. Varanus, the monitor 
lizard, exhibits a still greater extension of these 
hypapophyses with the intercentra placed at 
their tips. In Cyclurus, on the other hand, the 
intercentra are still in their primitive position 
between the vertebree. There is no question, 
therefore, that true intercentra are very impor- 
tant elements in Lizards and Mosasaurs, and 
that they are secondarily modified partly by 
coalescence with the atlas and partly by adhe- 
sion to the hypapophyses, this showing a com- 
plete change of function. 
The leading facts in Professor Hollick’s paper 
are as follows: 
In the Moravian Cemetery at New Dorp, 
Staten Island, immediately in the rear of the 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. X.° No. 259. 
Kunhardt Mausoleum, was a swamp, which 
covered a superficial area of about 3,600 square 
feet. A small pool of water accumulated to- 
wards the center in time of rain and dried out 
during drought. The margin was a quaking 
bog of peat andsedges. It occupied a morainal 
basin, located about 1,200 feet from the southern 
edge of the moraine and about 120 feet above 
tide level. 
Last summer, in the course of certain im- 
provements in the development of the ceme- 
tery, the swamp was drained and the bog muck 
was dug out, so that at the present time the 
morainal basin is entirely free of water and mud. 
During the progress of this work the organic 
remains, animal and vegetable, brought to light 
show that the basin was the site of a Quater- 
nary pond. The surface deposit was of fine 
peat and a coarse peat, composed of various 
kinds of swamp vegetation. Below this was 
a fine organic mud, containing trunks and 
branches of trees, to a depth of about five or 
six feet. Below this was a black, sandy silt, 
distinctly stratified, and containing numerous 
cones and small twigs of white spruce (Picea 
Canadensis (Mill.) B. 8. P.), a tree of northern 
range, which does not now extend further south 
than northern New England and the Adiron- 
dacks. Below the cones, at a depth of about 
23 feet, was found a mastodon’s molar. 
The maximum depth of the entire deposit 
was about 25 feet and bore every indication of 
having been laid down in still water, in a con- 
tinuous and unbroken series of layers; and, 
inasmuch as it was in a morainal basin, it must 
all have been post-morainal in age. 
A considerable amount of charred wood was 
also found ia connection with the cones, pre- 
sumably indicating the presence of man. The 
probabilities are that a pond was formed in the 
morainal depression immediately after the re- 
cession of the ice sheet, and that this pond was 
areceptacle for silt, dust and decaying vegeta- 
tion ever since, the accumulations finally filling 
it up and converting it into a swamp with a 
little pool of casual water in the middle. 
The third New York University Expedition 
to Bermuda left New York on May 27th, via 
the Quebec Steamship Company’s steamer 
Orinoco, and the last members to return arrived 
