December 2, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



319 



hail-storm was approaching and while the peculiar shelf or cornice 

 which projects from the base of the storm-mass was in the zenith. 

 This shelf has a flatfish and rather smooth surface on its under 

 side and when seen from a distance appears to consist of a mass 

 of cloud having an under-pavement of low domes or flatfish bil- 

 lows, and the broader and more peaceful it looks, the worse is 

 the wrath of the storm above and within it. Lightning seldom 

 comes from it, yet it is In a state of intense electrical excitement. . 

 While it is passing, there is a loud hissing from stretched wires 

 (not connected with the earth), a stream of sparks, and at night a 

 glow like St. Elmo's fire. A herd of cattle can sometioies be seen 

 in the darkest night by their own light. 



The fact is, the physiolgical effects of electric induction are so 

 common in the higher mountains, and are often so ludicrous, that 

 we are in danger of throwiog aside these phenomena as of no spe- 

 cial scientific interest. Yet we here have a complex problem in- 

 volving not only the electrified clouds and the air as dielectric, 

 but also the electrical properties of the ground itself. Now many 

 of the prospectors for metalliferous veins declare that the be- 

 havior of lightning on veins containing certain kinds of ores dif- 

 fers from the ordinary. Some of them profess to be able to know 

 the nature of the minerals in a mountain by observing the buz- 

 zing and other phenomena on the passage of electric clouds, but 

 it is ditticult to get them to talk about it, as they appear to regard 

 the matter as a trade secret. Even experienced prospectors leave 

 a certain peak on the approach of severe thunder storms, they de- 

 claring their sensations of shock to be unendurable, even when 

 the lightning does not strike the mountain. They report that 

 stones are loosened from the cliffs and fall in dangerous fusilades 

 down the mountain side. No doubt these are in part land-slides, 

 but some of them are reported to take place when no rain fell, 

 only snow or hail, or before the rain reached the place. My in- 

 formants used this language : " The mountain split and threw off 

 those rocks." I have been desirous of determining the truth of 

 these matters by personal observation, but thus far have not found 

 the opportunity. It is at least a supposable case that electric at- 

 traction or repulsion dislodges blocks already loosened. Have any 

 of your readers made observations on these matters pertaining to 

 the effects of different kinds of rocks or minerals on electric 

 clouds, or vice versa ? 



Perhaps a nearly related problem is furnished by the causes 

 (electrical or otherwise) of the restlessness and often sleeplessness 

 and oppressed breathing that accompanies the warm westerly or 

 Chinook winds over the mountains. Geo. H. Stone. 



Colorado Springs, Oct. 24. 



The Gi a Monster. 



There has been considerable discussion as to the poisonous char- 

 acter of this lizard, and of late it seems to be accepted that it is 

 not poisonous by the scientific people from the fact that the ani- 

 mal has no poison-sack or fangs, this does not by any means settle 

 the question, for many of us know by personal experience that it 

 is poisonous, and very much so at times. There are several 

 people almost every year in Arizona and elsewhere who either 

 lose their lives by it or suffer intolerable agony from it, and the 

 notion that it is not poisonous does not lessen the number of 

 sufferers. If the animal is in its normal condition and bites a 

 person, no harm usually comes from it. It is a very pugnacious 

 animal and is easily excited to frenzy, and especially so when it 

 is being captured alive; at such times it emits a yeUow and very 

 rank-smelling saliva, which, if it enters the circulation by a wound 

 or otherwise, produces death or great suffering in human beings. 

 One case that came under my observation was that of a young 

 man, in Arizona, who was bitten under those circumstances and 

 who was sick for several months and had the disintegration of 

 the blood and the effusion of serum that so frequently occur 

 in those suffering from a rattlesnake's bite. I have no doubt that 

 this explanation accounts for the poisoning of people by other 

 "non- poisonous" lizards of our arid region. I should not be at 

 all surprised to hear that even the horned toad that the boys so 

 delight to torment is also poisonous under such circumstances. 



Mabcus E. Jones. 



Salt Lake City, Nov. 10. 



Grand-Gulf Formation. 



I A.M cjlad to see that Judge Johnson accepts my determination 

 of the brackish water character of the fauna of his Pascagoula 

 clays, as it is a matter of some importance in the genesis of the 

 tertiary strata of the Gulf border; and I am not disposed to quar- 

 rel with him if he chooses to retain the term "formation" for 

 them provided it is made clear exactly what he understands by 

 that term. His original communication was somewhat obscure 

 on both these points and by placing a species of Venus in the bed 

 (which is a strictly marine genus) I was led to suppose that be re- 

 garded the bed as (not deep sea but) purely of salt water origin. 



In saying that I have permitted " conjecture " " to outrun and 

 forestall positive discovery" in my brochure of January last, 

 Judge Johnson simply indicates that he is not aware of the ma- 

 terial in my possession and which though published (for the mopt 

 part) during the last ten days, has been nearly two years in 

 manuscript awaiting the printer's opportunity. 



My short paper on the Pliocene of the Carolinas gave merely a 

 tabular view of the results to which seven years of field-work and 

 study of the material collected by numerous other workers in the 

 field had led me. This may be found substantiated in Bulletin Hi 

 of the Geological Survey just printed, but the portion relating to 

 Florida had been type-written for the use of Messrs. Eldridge and 

 Jussen before they entered upon their field-work, and it is, there- 

 fore, not exact to state that the differences between the older and 

 the newer Miocene were " established " by those gentlemen, who 

 had the essential solution of this question in their hands to begin 

 with, Mr. Jussen having devoted under my direction some time 

 to the study of the Old Miocene fauna of the Chipola beds before 

 he entered the field at all. 



Hasty generalization and hasty writing of all sorts are ' ' bane- 

 ful " I willingly admit, and an excellent example of what is to be 

 avoided by lack of haste is shown by Judge Johnson himself in 

 the letter alluded to (p. 247). 



I have nowhere asserted that the Pascagoula clays are of Chesa- 

 peake age. As a matter of fact, they have nearly the whole of 

 the Grand Gulf series between them and the Chesapeake forma- 

 tion. Judge Johnson's Waldo formation comprised beds belong- 

 ing to two different epochs, the typical locality at Waldo, from his 

 own specimens, being Chesapeake, and other localities mentioned 

 by him, in his definition of the formation, are Old Miocene. I do 

 not know what he refers to by the expression " overlying clays " 

 at Aspalaga on the Appalachicola River, and certainly have never 

 "shown" them to "be Chesapeake." Aspalaga lies in the region 

 of the oldest Old Miocene, the fossils which I have seen from 

 there are those solely of the Chattahoochee group. On the other 

 hand, the Miocene discovered by Johnson at De Funiak Springs 

 and eastward to Abe's Springs on the Chipola River is not the 

 Older Miocene but the Chesapeake, with a typical Chesapeake 

 fauna so far as yet developed. Still further, the Chattahoochee 

 beds of Langdnn distinctly underlie the Chipola beds, so far as 

 they have yet been identified, and the fauna, while related to that 

 of Chipola proper, is not the same. 



In short, the Miocene limestones of Florida are so closely simi- 

 lar that the only way of identifying them (short of continuously 

 tracing the beds, which is for the most part impracticable in 

 Florida) is by their fossil contents, which can only be adequately 

 studied in what Judge Johnson calls the " closet," that is to say, 

 a museum supplied with the literature and specimens for com- 

 parison. 



As the Grand Gulf lies probably above both the Older and the 

 Chesapeake Miocene. 1 fail to see how the water-bearing sands 

 at its base can serve to discriminate or define the distinction be- 

 tween the two older formations. Some part of the Grand Gulf is 

 very likely contemporaneous with part of the later Miocene, but 

 as yet information is absolutely deficient on this point. What 

 we have called the "upper bed " at Alum Bluff, or the "Ecphora 

 bed " of my Bulletin 84, is typical Chesapeake Miocene, identical 

 with that at Waldo so far as its fossils are concerned. Lithologi- 

 cally, the beds are quite different. As for the Hawthorne and 

 Ocheesee beds, both contain fossils, and we have fossils from the 

 former collected by Judge Johnson himself. For details, the en- 

 quiring reader is referred to Bulletin 84, above mentioned. 



