266 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 685- 



trated. Mr. Ditmars records the reception of 

 a toad, Scaphiopus hammondi, said to have 

 been exhumed from limestone, at a depth of 

 150 feet, at Butte, Montana. As limestone is 

 notable for caves and fissures there is nothing 

 impossible in the specimen having lived out 

 of sight long enough for the color pattern to 

 have faded. It has now lived in a porcelain 

 jar for eight months without feeding. But a 

 rattlesnake has been known to exist seventeen 

 months without eating and snails from three 

 to eleven years. We trust that the future 

 record of this toad will be carefully kept. 



The American Museum Journal for Jan- 

 uary is a paleontological number. W. D. 

 Matthew describes the recently mounted skele- 

 ton of " Allosaurus, a Carnivorous Dinosaur," 

 and " The New Ichthyosaurus," this last one 

 of the rare instances in which the shape of the 

 paddles, tail and dorsal fin of this marine 

 reptile are clearly shown. Walter Granger 

 gives " A Preliminary Notice of the Fayum 

 Collection," which secured some 600 speci- 

 mens of fossil vertebrates, and there are notes 

 on ethnological material from the Congo, and 

 the Bismarck Archipelago. 



The Museum News of the Brooklyn Insti- 

 tute for January has articles on " Zuni 

 Basketry," " Arctic Foxes " and the " Tree 

 Frog and Protective Coloration." 



The Bulletin of the Charleston Museum for 

 December is mainly devoted to the "History 

 of the Museimi " subsequent to 1850, although 

 it notes the preparation of the first loan, or 

 traveling exhibit, devoted to illustrating the^ 

 iron and steel industry. 



, SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 437th meeting was held January 11, 

 1908, President Stejneger in the chair. 



The first paper, by Mr. E. W. Nelson, of 

 the Biological Survey, on the "Distribution 

 of Plant and Animal Life in Lower Cali- 

 fornia," was in the form of a lecture illus- 

 trated by many lantern slides dui'ing which 

 he gave a brief resume of his recent expedi- 

 tion to the Peninsula of Lower California. 



The peninsula, which is about 800 miles long 

 and from 30 to 100 miles wide, was traversed 

 its entire length and crossed eight times from 

 one side to the other. The country proved 

 to be mainly a mountainous desert subject to 

 prolonged periods of drought during which 

 no rain falls for several successive seasons.. 

 As a result surface water is very scarce. 



The most interesting feature of this region 

 is its plant life, as it has probably developed 

 the most remarkable desert flora of the world. 

 On the other hand, the bird and mammal life 

 is very closely related to that of southern 

 California. The birds and mammals in most 

 cases are either the same as, or merely geo- 

 gi'aphic races of, the Californian species. As 

 would be expected, the greatest amount of 

 differentiation has taken place in the moun- 

 tains near the extreme southern end of the 

 peninsula. Only about half a dozen birds 

 and a single mammal, a species of mouse 

 {Oryzomys), are derived from the opposite- 

 mainland of Mexico. These species all live 

 near the southern end of the peninsula. 



The second paper, by Dr. D. T. MacDougal,. 

 was a lantern slide lecture devoted in large 

 part to " Changes in the Delta of the Colorado 

 River." 



During a visit to the lower part of the delta 

 of the Colorado River in March, 1905, a great 

 volume of flood water was seen to be leaving 

 the main channel and making its way south- 

 eastwardly to the gulf through the Santa 

 Clara Slough, and the prediction was hazarded 

 that a shift of the cutting action of the water 

 might send the principal current to the sea 

 in this way {Bull. Amer. Geog. Society, Jan- 

 uary, 1906). 



Shortly after that observation was made, the 

 entire stream was diverted into the Salton- 

 Basin for a time, leaving the bed of the river- 

 bare for more than a hundred miles. With 

 the restoration of recent conditions the Colo- 

 rado resumed its way to the Gulf, but in the 

 meantime, such erosion and formation of bars 

 had taken place in the section afPected by the 

 tides below the " Colony mesa," that the main 

 current flowed through the Santa Clara 

 Slough, if reports from three different sources 

 are to be credited. 



