582 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 68. 



Connecticut Rive I Hartford. 



Avg. discharge in cu. 

 ft. per sec. for lowest 

 4 weelis period. 



Sept. 9— Oct. 6, 1871 6200 



Feb. 11— Mar. 9, 1872 7330 



Aug. 25— Sept. 21, 1873 6090 



Oct. 24— Nov. 20, 1874 6020 



Jan. 6— Feb. 2, 1875 6330 



Aug. 11— Sept. 7, 1870 5900 



Jan. 1— Jan. 28, 1877 6490 



Sept. 25-Oot. 22, 1878 6280 



Oct. 5— Nov. 1. 1879 6350 



Sept. 30— Oct. 27, 1880 6020 



Sept. 22— Oct. 19, 1881 6270 



Sept. 8— Oct. 5, 1884 5960 



Sept. 17— Oct. 14, 1885 7320 



Connecticut River at Holyoke. 



Avg. discliarge in cu. 

 ft. per sec. for lowest 

 4 weeks period. 



Aug. 22— Sept. 8, 1880 1620 



Sept. 19— Oct. 16,1881 2510 



Aug. 20— Sept. 16, 1882 2470 



Sept. 2— Sept. 29, 1883 1890 



Sept. 7— Oct. 4, 1884 2550 



Feb. 28— Mar. 27, 1885 4690 



Aug. 27— Sept. 24, 1886 2310 



Sept. 23— Oct. 20, 1887 3930 



July 16— Aug. 12, 1888 3290 



Aug. 21— Sept. 17, 1889 3640 



July 26— Aug. 22, 1890 3500 



Sept. 23— Oct. 20, 1891 2740 



Sept. 10— Oct. 7, 1892 4520 



Jan. 12— Feb. 8, 1893 2970 



Aug. 19— Sept. 15, 1894 1800 



In these figures no change for the worse 

 appears in the dry weather flow ; in fact, 

 the Holyoke diagram displays a general 

 improvement from 1880 to 1893. It is 

 true that this improvement may have been 

 due to increased reservoir facilities on the 

 tributaries of the main river, the artificial 

 control thus exercised over the stream 

 tending to modify and disguise all natural 

 changes so as to increase the difliculty of 

 drawing accurate conclusions. 



Even though an unfavorable change were 

 apparent in the lower water volume, it 

 would be necessary, before assigning a 

 cause for it, to study the rainfall of the 

 basin for the period in question and to con- 

 sider what the probable influence of that 

 had been ; but, as it is, such a study seems 

 unnecessary and my general conclusion is, 

 that so far as the flow of the lower river is 

 concerned, no permanent change for the 



worse in the past twenty-five years is ap- 

 parent. In closing I desire to express my 

 indebtedness to Mr. F. H. Newell, Sec- 

 retai-y of this Association, for placing at 

 my disposal valuable data regarding the 

 discharge of the Connecticut river; and to 

 call attention to the importance of the work 

 being done by the United States Geological 

 Survey in attempting to obtain continuous 

 records of the flow of many of the rivers of 

 this country. Dwight Porter. 



Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

 Boston. 



AMERICAN AMBER-PRODUCING TREE. 



The world's supply of amber in all ages 

 appears to have been drawn from the shores 

 of the Baltic, where it is still mined or cast 

 up by the waves in commercial quantities. 

 Amber occurs also in numerous inland 

 localities throughout Europe, as in the 

 vicinity of Basle, Switzerland, and in 

 France and England. It is also found on 

 the coasts of Sicily and the Adriatic. 



Up to the present time amber has not 

 been found in North America in commercial 

 quantities, although it is known from a 

 number of widely scattered localities. It 

 appears to have been first reported by Dr. 

 G. Troost from Cape Sable, Magothey River, 

 Maryland, in 1821. * It has also been 

 found in small quantities near Canon Diablo, 

 Arizona ; near the Black Hills, in South 

 Dakota ; Gay Head, on Martha's Vine- 

 yard ; Trenton and Camden, New Jersey ; 

 Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and a 

 number of more or less doubtful localities. 



The Cape Sable locality has been visited 

 several times recently by Mr. Arthur Bib- 

 bins, instructor in geology in the Woman's 

 College of Baltimore, and a careful search 

 made for the amber. 



This place is somewhat difficiilt of access 

 from Baltimore, and the visits to it were 

 made possible by the courtesy of Dr. W. L. 



* Am. Journ. Sci., Vol. III. 1821. pp. 8-15. 



