1g0 Editors’ Table. [ March, 
“Who Patent thy grotesque and uncouth frame 
e sunshine of this golden chamber ? 
Is this the fountain whence the nectar came? 
Or is it star born, this undying flame 
Which men call amber ? 
“ Splay-footed sprawler from the unknown seas, 
wny cousin of the Ichthyosaurus— 
What sportive sister of Hetperi rides, 
In the ambrosia of celestial trees, 
Embalmed thee for us? ” 
So questions the poet, but if we might invoke this “ Ancient 
Mariner” from out his crystal coffin, more serious would be the 
questions we would bid him solve. 
But though speechless, he bears a silent witness, for as one of 
the many hieroglyphics of the language of geology, underneath 
its Rosetta wand, he helps to reveal the history of our earth. 
Thrice happy the gifted mortal, who, wielding .this magic 
wand, can lift the veil and translate these mystic symbols of the 
too long “ dusky past.” 
:0: 
EDITORS’ TABLE. 
EDITORS: A. S. PACKARD, JR., AND E. D. COPE. 
We recommend to the attention of members of the 
National Congress who are interested in the intellectual progress 
of the country, the character of the tariff on specimens, apparatus 
and books necessary for instruction in the sciences. These objects 
are only allowed to enter the country free of duty when “ot 
intended for sale. This practically prohibits any but wealthy 
citizens and institutions from possessing collections of the natural 
products of all parts of the earth excepting the United States, a 
restriction extremely disadvantageous in all directions. The 
majority of American students are not able to visit Europe for 
the purpose of making purchases, nor are they able to pay the 
increased rates which must be demanded by dealers who should 
bring their specimens here. The result is that foreign collections 
from all parts of the world pass by our country to go to the various 
European cities, large and small. This is one of the causes to 
which we can ascribe the ignorance of natural history which is so 
general in American Society as compared with that of Germany 
and some other parts of Europe. The amount of revenue derived 
from such importations must be piety: nothing, while the 
