Miscellaneous Intelligence. 541 



the Annual Report is increased, as usual, by the republication of 

 various recent scientific papers of difficult access to most inter- 

 ested readers besides Reports of Progress in some departments. 

 The latter include Reports on the Progress of Astronomy for 1889, 

 '90, by W. C. Winlock, and on the Progress of Anthropology 

 by O. T. Mason : also papers On the Age of Bronze in Egypt by 

 O. Montelius ; the prehistoric races of Italy by Canon I. Taylor; 

 On the Antiquity of Man by John Evans; On Temperature 

 and life by H. de Varigny ; the researches of Dr. R. Kcenig on 

 the physical Basis of Musical Harmony by Prof. S. P. Thompson ; 

 On the Physical Structure of the Earth by H. Hennessy ; On 

 Color-vision and Color-blindness by R. B. Carter, and others. 

 The Report of the National Museum contains, besides many 

 other papers, a full account by Wm. J. Thompson of the IT. S. 

 Navy, of Easter Island, its people, geology, antiquities, and 

 hieroglyphic tablets with their interpretation, illustrated by 

 many fine plates and occupying over 100 pages; a paper on 

 Aboriginal Skin-dressing, with many illustrations, by O. T. 

 Mason; on Animals recently extinct or threatened with extermi- 

 nation by F. A. Lucas, with many plates, among these a colored 

 plate (facing p. 647) of the " Tile Fish," the most remarkable 

 case of extinction on record, reported upon by Prof. Verrill in 

 1882 in this Journal, xxiv, 366, and in 1884 by J. W. Collins in 

 the Report of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1882, 

 Washington, 1884.* 



The volume closes with a list of the publications of the Museum 

 during the year ending with June 30, 1889. 



2. Boston Society of Natural History. — A Grand Honorary 

 Prize, placed at the disposal of the Boston Society of Natural 

 History by the late Dr. William J. Walker " for such investiga- 

 tions or discovery as may seem to deserve it, provided such inves- 

 tigation or discovery shall have been made known or published in 

 the United States at least one year previous to the time of 

 award," has been unanimously awarded to Professor James D. 

 Dana. This prize, of the maximum sum of one thousand dollars, 

 is given " in recognition of the value of the scientific work of 

 Professor Dana and in testimony of the Society's high apprecia- 

 tion of his services to science." 



For the annual Walker Prizes, a first prize of one hundred dol- 

 lars has been awarded to Baron Gerard de Geer, of Stockholm, 

 for an essay entitled " On Pleistocene changes of level in eastern 

 North America," and a second prize of fifty dollars to Prof. Wil- 

 liam M. Davis of Cambridge, for an essay on " The subglacial 

 origin of certain eskers." 



3. Proceedings of the Colorado Scientific Society, vol. iii, Pt. 

 3, 1890. — This concluding part of the third volume published by 

 the Colorado Scientific Society contains a number of valuable 



* Prof. Verrill, in a paper in 1881 (this Journal, xxii, 295) states that a single 

 "trawl line" in the summer of 1880 brought up 73 of these fishes, weighing 541 

 pounds, and varying in weight from 2^- to 31 pounds. The color which he gives 

 is " brownish gray, more or less covered with bright yellow spots." 



