=p Sahat ds AT 
NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 379 
Zathorax, Physopyxis, Otocinclus and Pariolius. A genus (Chara- 
cidium) previously only known by one small species from a Bra- 
zilian coast stream, has its range greatly extended by the discov- 
ery of a species in the Ambyiacu. 
GEOLOGY. 
Avrora IstAnp.— With reference to the alleged disappearance 
of Aurora Island, one of the New Hebrides group, to which we 
alluded some weeks since on the authority of a paper read before 
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, a correspon- 
dent of the “Shipping and Mercantile Gazette” affirms that the 
whole story is a fable. The original statement rested on a notice 
by Captain Plock, of the French ship Adolphe, bound from Iqui- 
que to London, that he passed over the position of the Hes de p 
Aurore, as marked on his French chart of the South Atlantic, and 
saw nothing of them, from which he concluded that they had dis- 
appeared It appears, however, that the Iles de PAurore (Aurora 
Islands) never existed. They were formerly placed between lat. 
52° 38’ and 53° 15’ S., and between long. 47° 43’ and 47° 57’ W., 
of Greenwich. The first reporters of the islands probably saw 
icebergs in the given locality, and mistook their character. Au- 
rora Island, in the New Hebrides group, has been confounded 
with the Aurora Island in the Paumotu, Tuamotu, or Low Archi- 
pelago. Aurora, Makatea, or Metia Island, lat. 15° 50’ S., long. 
148° 13’ W., one of the Low Archipelago, has not been visited for 
some time, but its elevation would lead to the inference that it 
could not disappear suddenly ; it is fertile and inhabited. This is 
the island visited by Wilkes, and on which the unique specimens 
of mollusca were found. It is upwards of 2,500 miles eastward of 
the New Hebrides. — Nature. 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
Suprosep Mexican Ipot.—We have received from Dr. C. U- 
Shepard, jr., a stereoscopic view of an idol made of Mexican lava, 
presented to him by a Mr. Toomer of Charleston, S. C. The 
image is about three and a half inches high, and is at present 
deposited in the collection of Prof. Shepard, sr., at Amherst Col- 
lege, Mass. The image was said to have been found a few inches 
