y8 West Ametican Scientist. 



THE LABOR PERFORMED B Y BEES. 



* How doth the busy bee improve each shining hour, 

 And gather honey all the day from every opening flower.' 



Some idea of the labor performed by bees in obtaining honey 

 from flowers, may be obtained by reviewing the results of Dr. A. 

 V. Planta's investigations. The flowers of the Alpine rose, 

 acacia, and sanifoin are all favorites of the bees, and yet he finds 

 that to obtain i gram of sugar, corresponding to i 3-10 grams of 

 honey, from the first species these insects must exhaust the nectar 

 of 2,129 flowers; to obtain the same amount from the second 

 species, 2,000 flowers must be visited; and to get an equal 

 quantity from the last species, they must despoil not less than 

 5,000 flowers. 



EX TIN C T ANIMALS. 



W. M. Lee, the well-known fruit grower of Tacoma, gives the 

 particulars of a wonderful discovery of bones ol extinct animals 

 i;i Washington Territory which will attract the attention of the 

 students of natural history and archaeology all over the world. 

 In a letter from Spokane Falls, he says: The face of the whole 

 Territory shows unmistakable evidence of great volcanic upheav- 

 als- On my trip through Spokane County I stopped at Latah, 

 and in conversation with Mr. Coplen,- of that place, regarding the 

 volcanic formation of that section, he informed me that he had 

 examined some large bones of great antiquity. Accompanied by 

 Mr. Coplen I went to the spring where the relics were dug out. 

 It is located on a low strip of springy prairie. The excavation 

 around the spring is twelve or fifteen feet deep, and thirty or 

 forty feet across. The bones were covered by several distinct 

 layers. 



The first layer was ancient peat, then gravel, then volcanic ashes, 

 then a layer of coarse peat. From this spring were taken no less 

 than nine mammoths, or elephants, of different sizes, the remains 

 of a cave bear, and hyenas, extinct birds and a sea turtle. Mr. 

 Coplen kindly presented me with some specimens of these relics. 

 The dimensions oi some of the bones of the larger mammoths 

 were wonderful to look at. The horns were a sort of tusk, and 

 protruded from the head. By dropping the head in the act of 

 feeding, the circle of the horns that extended below the jaws 

 rested on the ground, giving support to the head, which is esti- 

 mated to have weighed a ton. 



The horns were worn away several inches deep at the bottom of 

 the turn or half circle, indicating constant use by rubbing on the 

 ground or rocks. One of these horns was ten feet and one inch 



