Dbckmbee 19, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



991 



THE ONONDAGA LAKE SQUIDS. 



Since sending my note concerning the 

 alleged discoveries of squids in Onondaga Lake 

 I have learned through Principal Wilson of 

 the Putnam School at Syracuse that a third 

 specimen is said to have been secured at a 

 time, I should infer, before the other tveo were 

 taken. This story, however, has not been 

 traced to its starting point. Much more in- 

 teresting, as apparently corroborative testi- 

 mony of the existence of these creatures in 

 Onondaga Lake, is the circumstantial rela- 

 tion given to me by Professor J. M. Scott, 

 teacher of sloyd in the Syracuse Public 

 Schools, a son of Principal W. 11. Scott of 

 the Porter School. On reading the accounts 

 and seeing the cuts of the squids alleged to 

 have been taken by Mr. Terry, as printed in 

 the Syracuse Herald, he was reminded of a 

 find of his own, in regard to which he writes 

 me as follows : 



" Some twelve or thirteen years ago a 

 number of boys, of whom I was^ one, were 

 fishing just to the left of the outlet and had 

 a small scoop net for catching crabs and 

 minnows. Another lad and myself went 

 ashore, and in fooling around in the mud near 

 the shore looking for crabs I saw something 

 queer and got it in the net. We took it to 

 an old man who claimed to be a sailor and he 

 told us it was a squid. Not knowing it was 

 of any value whatever, we amused ourselves 

 with it awhile and left it in the water after 

 having killed it. I have since thought it was 

 a queer find." John M. Clarke. 



THE FOSSIL TREE BRIDGE IN THE ARIZONA PETRI- 

 FIED FOREST. 



To THE Editor of Science: I have recently 

 learned from a friend who has visited the 

 petrified forest in Arizona that the famous 

 natural bridge is in danger of being washed 

 away. It consists of a log spanning a gully 

 about twenty feet in width and from ten to 

 twelve feet in depth. Each end of the log 

 is embedded in sandstone formed of the 

 original deposit. Spring rains in recent 

 years have widened the gully, and threaten 

 to demolish the natural abutments. I write 



to call the attention of the readers of Science 

 to the matter, hoping that some one may be 

 in a position to influence the authorities in 

 that section of Arizona to take some steps to 

 preserve this remarkable tree. 



Henry F. Osborn. 

 Amekican Museum of Natural History. 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 



MENDEL's principles of heredity and THE 



MATURATION OP THE GERM-CELLS. 



In view of the great interest that has been 

 aroused of late by the revival and extension 

 of Mendel's principles of inlieritance it is 

 remarkable that, as far as I am aware, no one 

 has yet pointed out the clue to these principles, 

 if it be not an explanation of them, that is 

 given by the normal cytological phenomena of 

 maturation ; though Guyer and Juel have sug- 

 gested a possible correlation between the 

 variability or sterility of hybrids and ab- 

 normalities in the maturation-divisions, while 

 Montgomery has recog-nized the essential fact 

 in the normal cytological phenomena, though 

 without bringing it into relation with the 

 phenomena of heredity. Since two investi- 

 gators, both students in this University, have 

 been led in different ways to recognize this 

 clue or explanation, I have, at their sugges- 

 tion and with their approval, prepared this 

 brief note in order to place their independent 

 conclusions in proper relation to each other 

 and call attention to the general interest of 

 the subject. 



Bateson, in his recent admirable little book 

 on Mendel's principles, is led to express the 

 surmise that the symmetrical result in the 

 offspring of cross-bred forms ' must correspond 

 with some symmetrical figure of distribution 

 of gametes in the cell-divisions by which they 

 are produced' (p. 30). It is needless to re- 

 mind cytologists that the study of the matura- 

 tion-mitoses, especially in the case of arthro- 

 pods, has revealed a mechanism by which such 

 a symmetrical distribution may be effected ; for 

 the germ-cells in the great majority of cases 

 arise in groups of fours, formed by two 

 divisions, of which one is in many cases de- 

 scribed as differing in character from the ordi- 



