Febkuaey 14, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



269 



000° C, the value assigned by Professor 

 Schaeberle ; but neither is it demonstrable that 

 the temperatures assigned by Stefan's law 

 are correct; and nothing but the existence of 

 certain coincidences in values given by dif- 

 ferent methods, coincidences which are pos- 

 sibly fallacious, can be said to favor the sup- 

 position that the effective temperature is as 

 low as Y,000°. 



Since about nineteen twentieths of photo- 

 spheric radiations of wave-length 0.3 jtc are 

 absorbed by the sun's atmosphere, and of rays 

 of wave-length 0.4 /x barely a fifth get through, 

 the form of the spectral energy-curve is so 

 much changed near the maximum that the 

 position of this important point in the curve 

 of photospherie radiation, restored by applica- 

 tion of corrections for the absorption by the 

 atmospheres of sun and earth, becomes uncer- 

 tain; but the photosphere can not have a 

 temperaturfe as great as 60,000°, nor even one 

 of 10,000°, without requiring serious changes 

 in the constants of radiation in the formulae 

 accepted to-day, or in the assumptions tacitly 

 made as to the emissive power of the solar 

 substances. The latter may very likely be in 

 error, and it would be interesting to have 

 measures of the relative emissive powers at 

 very high temperatures of all substances 

 which can give continuous spectra at those 

 temperatures. Fra^k W. Very 



\\'estwood, Mass. 



the faujfa of russian river, california, and 

 its relation to that of the sacramento 

 Following an article in a recent number 

 of Science' on certain " Physiographic 

 Changes bearing on the Faunal Eelationships 

 of the Eussian and Sacramento Elvers, Cali- 

 fornia," a note on the fish faunas of these 

 basins may be of interest. The writer of the 

 present paper has seen no account of the fishes 

 of the Eussian Eiver, and therefore must rely 

 entirely on his own observations for the fol- 

 lowing statements. 



The Eussian Eiver has, so far as known, 



twelve species of indigenous fishes. They are : 



Entosphenus iridentaius, Catostomus occi- 



^Holway, Ruliff S., Science, September 20, 1907. 



dentalis, Mylopharodon conocephalus, Ftycho- 

 cheiltis grandis, Rutiliis symmetricus, On- 

 corhynchus ischawyischa, Salmo irideus, Gas- 

 terosteus cataphractus. Coitus asper, Cotiiis 

 gulosus. Coitus aleuticus and Hysterocarpus 

 trasTci. Of these, E. trideniatus, 0. ischa- 

 wyischa and S. irideus are anadromous forms, 

 while O. cataphractus, C. asper, C. gulosus 

 and 0. aleuiicus are able to withstand salt 

 water and are consequently to be ignored in a 

 study of the faunal relationships of rivers. 

 The other species are strictly fluvial. The 

 above-named species also occur in the Sacra- 

 mento Eiver. A large series of specimens 

 from each basin, examined some years ago by 

 the writer, presented no structural differences 

 whatever. They were as near alike as fishes 

 collected from the same stream. 



It may here be noted, for those not familiar 

 with the geography of the region, that the 

 Eussian Eiver occupies a basin lying mostly 

 in the mountainous region to the westward of 

 the great valley drained by the Sacramento. 

 Its general course is southward until it reach- 

 es a point about 35 miles to the north of San 

 Pablo Bay, when it turns abruptly west and, 

 flowing through a deep canyon, reaches the 

 ocean. It is therefore completely isolated 

 from the Sacramento. The headwaters of 

 numerous small tributaries of both rivers rise 

 in close proximity in the high mountains 

 which divide their basins. It is in this moun- 

 tainous divide that Holway has found evi- 

 dence of a transfer of a part of a tributary 

 from the Eussian Eiver to the Sacramento, 

 which probably carried along with it a repre- 

 sentation of the Eussian Eiver fauna. 



That such a movement as Holway records 

 could have any effect on the faunal relation- 

 ships of the two basins seems highly improb- 

 able, as the Sacramento, a vastly larger and 

 probably older system, not only contains all 

 the fluvial species known from the Eussian 

 Eiver, but also others not there represented. 

 The zoological evidence, such as it is, indicates 

 that the Eussian Eiver fauna was derived 

 from the Sacramento, and not that any por- 

 tion of the fauna of the latter was obtained 

 from the Eussian Eiver. 



