950 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 389. 



is well illustrated by a chemical analysis giv- 

 en above (II.), made by H. N. Stokes of a 

 hypersthene-augite andesite of Crater lake. 



J. S. DiLLER, 



George Steiger. 

 U. S. Geological Survey. 



the gray squirrel as a twig-pruner. 



Last year my attention was called to some 

 elm street trees in jSTew Haven, which had 

 been injured by having the twigs eaten off 

 early in June. The twigs were cut off 

 through the hard wood formed the previous 

 season, just below the new growth. Under cer- 

 tain trees the ground was fairly covered with 

 the detached twigs. No borers were found in 

 the severed portions as is the case when in- 

 fested by the oak pruner, Elaphidion villosum 

 Fabr., which attacks several kinds of shade 

 trees. Still, it was supposed that some insect 

 caused the damage, as climbing cut-worms 

 sometimes eat off the new growth — but usually 

 through the soft tissue. 



The present season, similar injury has been 

 reported from Farmington and New Haven. 



On May 23, while cycling through the 

 streets of New Haven, I noticed a small elm 

 tree under which the ground was covered with 

 freshly severed twigs. The same tree was at- 

 tacked last year. Four gray squirrels were seen 

 in the top busily engaged in devouring the 

 nearly ripe seeds. As the seeds of the Ameri- 

 can elm are near the extremity of last season's 

 growth where the twigs are very slender, the 

 squirrels were obliged to perform many note- 

 worthy acrobatic feats in order to obtain the 

 seeds. Some were hanging by the hind feet 

 from slender branches to reach twigs beneath 

 them, and all were munching away at the seeds 

 as if half starved. In some cases they were 

 not able to reach the clusters of seeds, and 

 would bite off the twigs, which dropped to the 

 ground where they could find their food later. 

 Several twigs were dropped in this way in a 

 period of about two minutes, while the writer 

 was watching them. In some cases the squir- 

 rels cut oS twigs from which they had already 

 eaten the seeds. Trees bearing no seeds are 

 not pruned in this manner, and none of the 

 trees will probably be injured very seriously. 



This habit of squirrels may have been recorded 

 by other observers, but I do not remember 

 seeing it in print. 



The best remedy seems to be to provide the 

 squirrels with plenty of other food at this 

 season of the year when their natural food 

 supply has been nearly exhausted. 



W. E. Britton. 



Conn. Agr. Experiment Station. 



W. E. HAMILTON. 



In Chatham, Ontario, there died a short time 

 ago William Edwin Hamilton, the elder son 

 of Sir W. E. Hamilton, the great Irish 

 mathematician. He gave his father some 

 help in reading the proof sheets of the 'Ele- 

 ments of Quaternions,' and his name appears 

 as editor on the title page of the first edition. 

 As the book had been printed off in sheets 

 under the care of his father, his work as editor 

 of the posthumous volume did not amount to 

 much. He had graduated B.A. at Trinity 

 College, Dublin, and had been trained to the' 

 profession of civil engineer. The editing fin- 

 ished, he left for the West Indies, located in 

 various parts of the New World, and finally 

 settled down in Chatham, then the center of 

 immigration to the peninsula of Ontario. He 

 was employed on the newspaper of the town, 

 and through drinking habits fell into very 

 wretched circumstances. When I fitrst saw 

 him, underclothes were conspicuous by their 

 absence, and his sleeping place was said to be 

 the loft of a livery stable. By taking the gold 

 cure he was able to master his alcoholic enemy ; 

 but no ctire could recall or even make up for 

 the years he had wasted. Every Saturday he 

 might be seen distributing a leaflet of a news- 

 paper called the Marhei Guide, which con- 

 tained advertisements, a list of prices of farm 

 produce, a few witticisms, and occasionally 

 some doggerel verses which he called poetry. 

 In his later years he lived poor but respect- 

 able. He loved to talk about the members of 

 that brilliant society in which his father 

 moved, and he had not a few friends who 

 esteemed him, if not for his own, at least for 

 his father's sake. He was about sixty years 

 of age, and his death was very sudden. 



Alex.\nder Macfarlane. 



