514 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 404. 



strongly stated that tlie plant remains at St. 

 John are numerous and are in a marsh 

 and lagoon deposit. The ecological conditions 

 were different, and so are the plants. The 

 Bale Chaleur beds hold very few species for 

 comparison, and it is not surprising that most 

 are different. 



There is no ' isolated Carboniferous mol- 

 luscan fauna ' in the St. John plant beds, and 

 to them therefore Mr. White's argument from 

 this fauna does not apply. 



As regards the Megalopteris argument, it 

 has to my mind as much force now as before 

 Mr. White's statement in this article that the 

 genus is known to be only as old as the Potts- 

 ville. Professor Andrews shows it to have 

 been only twenty or thirty feet above the lower 

 Carboniferous limestone; and it did not 

 spring, like Minerva, ready armed and helmed 

 from the brain of Jove, i. e., it had closely 

 related ancestors of earlier date. And that 

 author described several species, none of which 

 is identical with Hartt's species of the St. 

 John beds. 



But, after all, paleontology must bow to 

 stratigraphy, and until it can be shown that 

 the geological structure at St. John has been 

 wholly misunderstood and misinterpreted, this 

 supposed anomaly of plants, generally con- 

 sidered as Carboniferous, occurring in beds as 

 old at least as the Devonian Age, must remain. 

 G. P. Matthew. 



St. John, N. B., 

 September 11, 1902. 



EVIDENCE OF RECENT ELEVATION OP THE GULF 



COAST ALONG THE WESTWARD EXTENSION 



OF FLORIDA. 



To THE Editor of Science: During the 

 spring of the present year, while doing field 

 work along the Gulf shore south of Tallahas- 

 see, Fla., I obtained some facts which seem 

 to show perceptible elevation of the coast in 

 that vicinity within the memory of man. The 

 data upon which the following remarks are 

 based were furnished by Mr. J. L. Oliver, of 

 Wakulla, Florida. 



At St. Marks, Wakulla Co., Pla., is an old 

 store or warehouse formerly occupied by a 

 Mr. Harrell. This old house is built on piles, 



and in the ' fifties ' there was an old field 

 with a little pond in it just north of the house. 

 During the ' fifties,' except at neap tide, the 

 water at high tide passed under this house and 

 into the pond. Since that time the pond has 

 been drained, so that now rain water never 

 stands in it, and its present connection with 

 the tides is less obstructed than in the ' fifties,' 

 but, notwithstanding this, the water at spring 

 tide no longer comes under the house or 

 reaches the old site of the pond unless a strong 

 southeast or south wind has been blowing for 

 two or more days. 



A neap tide overflows the banks of the St. 

 Marks Eiver only in low places, and an aver- 

 age tide will lack three hundred yards of 

 reaching where the pond was. Brush is tak- 

 ing portions of the marsh, where it had never 

 been known to grow before. 



Mr. Oliver's estimate is that the land has 

 been elevated from one foot to eighteen inches 

 since the ' fifties.' At first I thought that 

 filling in with sediment might cause the change 

 of level, but that does not seem probable. 

 Therefore, if this evidence is trustworthy, the 

 Gulf coast in the vicinity of St. Marks, Fla., 

 is rising at the rate of two to three feet per 

 century. 



These notes seem interesting, and it is hoped 

 that they may incite others to make observa- 

 tions, or even lead to some attempts by estab- 

 lishing bench marks to measure the rate of 

 change of level. 



T. Wayland Vaughan. 



Smithsonian Institution, 

 Washington, D. C, 

 September 11, 1902. 



THE STRENGTH OF ANTS. 



To THE Editor of Science: While walking 

 on the university campus the other day, my 

 attention was arrested by what appeared to be 

 a grasshopper moving along the sidewalk with- 

 out using his hind legs. Upon closer examina- 

 tion, I saw that the grasshopper was dead and 

 was being dragged along by a small ant. 



The difference between the size of the little 

 laborer and his load was so extraordinary that 

 I thought it might be of interest to know the 

 ex^ct weight of each. I accordingly weighed 



