792 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 



tender profuse apologies for my awkwardness 

 in translating Herr Eeymond's verses. Rhyme 

 and rhythm are very much out of my line. 



On page 119 of the first volume in the 

 section " Vom Moner bis zur Gastraea," Moner 

 sings, to the melody of " Ich bin der alte 

 Ahasver ; 



I am an ancient Moneron, 



Derived by chance from carbon; 



Dredged up from darkest of deep seas 



To pose with science' garb on. 



I am an ancient Moneron, 



All organs sadly lacking; 



No eyes or ears nor limber tongue 



To keep forever clacking. 



I am an ancient Moneron 

 Given o'er to multiplying. 

 0, would I had some power beside. 

 E'en were it that of dying! 



And then Amoeba comes forward and sings, 

 to the tune of " 'S ist kein sehoner Leben als 

 Studentenleben." 



O, what a happy family 



Are we minute Amcebse! 



In stagnant pools and slimy wells 



We lay our courses creepy. 



When we divide, we must endure 



A protoplasmic spasm. 



For unlike Moneron we have 



A nucleus; quite a chasm! 



Yet still we lack what we should like, 



Our lowly life to aid in, 



For each a kindly-hearted, fair 



And true Amoeba-maiden! 



And so on for a score more of lines, ending 

 with " Das Amoebenthum, es lebe hoch 1 " 



At the end of the second voliune a picture 

 is given of the old theater Diener sweeping 

 out the broken and used up properties of the 

 play, and soliloquizing thus, as epilogue: 



Completed is the comedy; 

 The actors pass, to no one's sorrow; 

 The old world stands in its same place. 

 And other prophets come to-morrow. 



Vernon L. Kellogq 

 Stantoed Univebsity, Cai. 



A CORAL ISLAND MODEL ' 



It is announced in the Harvard University 



Gazette that a large naturalistic model of 



Bora Bora, one of the Society Islands in the 

 South Pacific Ocean, has recently been added 

 to the exhibits in the coral room of the Mu- 

 seum of Comparative Zoology. The model is 

 the gift of Mr. Alexander Agassiz and the 

 work of Mr. George C. Curtis, whose model 

 of the metropolitan district around Boston, in 

 another room, is already well known to 

 visitors to the museum. Mr. Curtis visited 

 Bora Bora in 1904, at the suggestion of Mr, 

 Agassiz, and spent several months there ma- 

 king surveys, soundings, photographs, and 

 sketches, the results of which are now shovm 

 in the model. It is on a scale of about one 

 and a half feet to a mile, horizontal and 

 vertical alike, and is painted in natural colors. 

 The central island, peopled by about 2,000 

 native Polynesians, is about five by three miles 

 in diameter. It is the dissected upper portion 

 of a great volcanic cone that here rises from 

 the deep sea floor; a steep-walled central knob 

 standing about 2,500 feet over sea level, and 

 surmounting a group of radiating spurs. The 

 foot of the heavily wooded lower slopes is 

 lapped by the quiet waters of the lagoon, 

 where the blue water is some fifty fathoms 

 deep. Communication with the sea is main- 

 tained by a passage through the outlying 

 shoals and the narrow barrier reef which 

 forms the exterior border of the concentric 

 island system. A little farther out the sea 

 bottom deepens rapidly at an angle of nearly 

 45 degrees, and thus soon descends to a depth 

 of 2,000 fathoms or more. The deep ocean 

 floor would, on the scale of the model, be 

 reached near the level of the floor of the coral 

 room. The ocean depths immediately sur- 

 rounding the reef are well suggested by the 

 dark blue color of the outer submarine slope 

 and by the device of placing models of vessels 

 at sea level on flne wire supports which are 

 hardly visible a few feet away. The use of 

 natural colors and true proportions through- 

 out the model makes it highly effective. By 

 placing the eye at sea level a most realistic 

 • view of the island may be gained; the line of 

 breakers on the outer barrier reef; the sails 

 of boats in the lagoon, their hulls hidden by 

 groves of palm trees; the villages at the foot 



