April 24, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



669 



level. (5) Tlie deposition of the Cambrian 

 " Tonto sandstone " (which, however, did not 

 cover all of the Proterozoic monadnock), suc- 

 ceeded by the accumulation of the " Tonto 

 shale," "Eed Wall limestone" and later 

 Paleozoic formations. 



It is clear that the present vertical dis- 

 tance between the pre-Tonto and pre-Unl^ar 

 unconformities affords only a minimum meas- 

 ure of the throw of the pre-Cambrian faults. 

 That there has been some slight post-Paleozoic 

 movement along the Bright Angel fault, 

 enough to fissure the " Red Wall " and 

 " Aubrey " formations, is shovsm by the ero- 

 sion of the Bright Angel gorge, the alcove of 

 Indian Garden, and the shallow drainage 

 trench followed by the Grand Canyon Eail- 

 road near the southern rim of the canyon. 

 As may be seen from the Bright Angel topo- 

 graphic sheet of the TJ. S. Geological Survey, 

 the three features mentioned together con- 

 stitute a remarkable rectilinear depression at 

 least 20 miles in length. P. L. Eansome 



Washington, D. C. 



AN EAELT FIGURE OP THE KING-CRAB (lIMULUS 

 POLYPHEMUS) 



There has recently been placed on exhibi- 

 tion in the gallery of arthropoda in the Zoo- 

 logical department of the British Museum a 

 copy of a water-color drawing made about 

 1585 and containing what is believed to be 

 the earliest representation of the American 

 king-crab (Limulus, or Xiphosura, poly- 

 phemus). As the subject is one of special 

 interest to American naturalists, it may be 

 worth while to place on record here some of 

 the facts relating to it. 



The original drawing was made by John 

 White, who was one of the first settlers in, 

 and for some time governor of, Virginia, and 

 acted as lieutenant to Sir Walter Raleigh on 

 several voyages to North America. Three 

 volumes of drawings by him are preserved in 

 the Department of Prints and Drawings in 

 the British Museum, and have recently been 

 described in detail by Mr. Laurence Binyon 

 in the fourth volume of his " Catalogue of 

 Drawings by British Artists ... in the 



British Museum " (1907, pp. 326-337). Many 

 of White's delineations of natural objects are 

 of great beauty and show a fidelity to nature 

 which was very rare at the period when they 

 were executed. 



The drawing in which the figures of the 

 king-crab are introduced is a view of Indians 

 spearing fish, and two specimens of Limulus 

 are roughly but quite unmistakably sketched 

 among shells and other marine objects lying 

 on the beach in the foreground. Like many 

 of White's drawings this one was engraved 

 for de Bry's " America "' in 1590. In the 

 engraving the figures of the king-crabs, like 

 some other portions of the picture, are drawn 

 in somewhat greater detail, suggesting that 

 the engraver was working from some other 

 drawing now lost. As Mr. Binyon suggests, 

 " doubtless White made many repetitions of 

 drawings which would have such lively in- 

 terest for his countrymen." In de Bry's 

 volume the text accompanying these draw- 

 ings is a translation of Thomas Harriot's "A 

 Brief and True Report of the New Found 

 Land of Virginia, &c.," first published in 

 1588 and afterwards reprinted in Hakluyt's 

 " The Principal Navigations, &c." in 1598 

 (the following quotation is from the Hakluyt 

 Society's edition, 1904, Vol. VHI., p. 370). 

 In his list of the natural products of Vir- 

 ginia Harriot mentions " Seekanauk, a kinde 

 of crusty shel-fish, which is good meat, about 

 a foot in bredth, having a crusty taile 

 many legges like a crab, and her eyes in her 

 backe. They are found in shallowes of waters 

 and sometime on the shore." This doubtless 

 refers to the king-crab. It would be interest- 

 ing to know whether any readers of Science 

 can give a reference to any earlier mention of 

 this animal. 



W. T. Calman 



British MtrsEUM (Natural Histobt), 

 London, 



January 7, 1908 



A PLAN FOB INCREASING TBE EFFICIENCY 

 OF MARINE EXPEDITIONS 



Apart from their work in deep-sea sound- 

 ing, and in the accumulation of meteorolog- 



■ Grands "Voyages, Part I., pi. 13. 



