316 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
now makes the valley such a fruitful garden.— P. A. CHADBOURNE, 
May 16,1871. From the Salt Lake Tribune. 
Foss Watrus.— At a meeting of the New York Lyceum of 
Natural History, held during last autumn, Prof. Newberry, the 
President, exhibited the anterior portion of the cranium of a wal- 
rus which had been found during the summer at Long Branch by 
a gentleman whose foot struck against it while bathing. It was 
strongly silicified, but exhibited no appreciable difference from 
modern specimens. The precise age of this fossil could not, of 
course, be ascertained, although it is well known that its range 
was formerly much south of its present habitat. It is not unfre- 
quently brought down on floating ice off the coast of Newfound- 
land; and although Labrador is at present the southern limit of 
its residence, it was once very abundant in the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence, and its remains have been found in the shell-heaps of the 
Bay of Fundy. It is probable that the specimen exhibited by Prof. 
Newberry is a relic of the glacial period, although it was suggested 
that it might have been of the tertiary age, which probably cannot 
be verified. Other specimens of similar character are recorded as 
having been found on Martha’s Vineyard ; in Monmouth Co., New 
Jersey ; and in Accomac Co., Virginia. 
Tue Preropacry: IN America.—Prof. Marsh states in the 
American Journal of Science and Arts, that the Yale College party 
obtained in addition to the cretaceous fossils already spoken of, 
several specimens which indicate a huge flying reptile, which he 
names Pterodactylus Owenii. The bones discovered “ indicate an 
expanse of wings not less than twenty feet.” The remains were 
found by Prof. Marsh in the upper cretaceous formation of West- 
ern Kansas. This is the first occurrence of the Pterodactyl in 
America. 
MICROSCOPY. 
MONOCHROMATIC ILLUMINATION. — Whenever I want to make out 
some of the minutest details of any organism, or to get over any 
difficult test, and I see that my microscope, after all due prepara- 
tion, and with the best prospect of light, fails to answer my ex- 
pectation, I refer, as a last resource, to my prism, and get from 
it a colored sunbeam. Blue or green are the colors which I pre- 
fer; they are the most suitable for the purpose. 
