1876.] Proceedings of Societies. 125 
Switzerland, was held January 12th at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology in Boston. Professor Pickering presided. Mr. S. H. Scud- 
der, of the committee on organization, made a partial report, suggesting 
several names for the society or club, and defining its object to be the 
study of comparative geography and the scientific and «esthetic explora- 
tion of the highlands of New England and the adjacent regions. 
—In Arctic Notes sent to Land and Water by an officer of the 
Pandora, the British Arctic exploring vessel, he says, “I would sooner 
eat seal’s meat than mutton or beef.” This is a little exaggerated, per- 
haps, but we can aver that seal’s flesh has a relish to it after a day’s dredg- 
ing on the coast of Labrador, and a meal of boiled whale’s flesh is good 
for a very hungry man. A well-seasoned mince pie made of whale’s 
flesh would scarcely be distinguishable from beef pie. 
— Professor Carl J. Sundevall, the venerable and distinguished orni- 
thologist of Stockholm, has lately died. He left works on the morphol- 
ogy of arthropods and other subjects...'The botanist, Professor F. G. 
Bartling, of Gottingen, died in November. 
— The medal of the first class, with the diploma, awarded to Professor 
‘Hayden, in charge of the Geological Survey of the Territories, by the 
International Congress of Geographical Sciences which met in Paris in 
August, has been received through the state department. Professor 
Hayden has also recently received letters informing him of his election 
as honorary member of the Italian Geographical Society of Turin, 
Italy, and foreign corresponding member of the Geographical Society 
of Paris, France. ; 
aneas ananas 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
ACADEMY oF Scrences, St. Louis. — November 15, 1875. Professor 
Riley remarked that among the changes that took place in those portions 
of the State so thoroughly devastated by locusts last spring, none were 
more interesting than the wide-spread appearance of a grass. ( Vilfa 
vagineflora) unnoticed in ordinary seasons. The locusts eat down the 
blue grass so closely that in most instances it died out, and this annual 
grass takes its place and grows up rapidly just at the time when most 
needed by stock, so that it is considered a godsend by the farmers, who 
generally believe that it was brought by the locusts. The seed was 
Scattered over the land the autumn before, and the conditions were all 
favorable for its starting. In ordinary seasons, on the contrary, it is 
smothered and choked down by other plants. i 
December 6th. Prof: C. V. Riley made a communication on jumping 
Seeds from California, motion being imparted to the seeds by inclosed 
caterpillars of a small moth (Carpocapsa saltitans). 
December 13th. A paper entitled The Grasshoppers and the Sea- 
Son of 1875 was received from ‘Prof. G. C. Broadhead. ( ‘ 
