126 Proceedings of Societies. [ February, 
in prehistoric times were then considered, and their probable destination. 
Lastly, a description was given of the similar, but less extensive, series 
of excavations for steatite in the counties of Clay, Swain, ete. e im- 
portance of a careful topographical survey of this portion of the State 
should be impressed upon its people and their legislators ; but unless it 
speedily takes place the progress of agriculture and the absence of pub- 
lic interest will soon destroy many of these interesting monuments of its 
ancient history. 
The paper of Mr. Julien was discussed with much interest. Dr. 
Newberry and Professor Martin referred particularly to the extensive 
use of mica plates in the tombs of the mound-builders in the Mississippi 
Valley, as described by Dr. Rau in his essay on aboriginal trade in 
North America. It is evident that in these mines we have the source of 
this mica, which had until recently been a problem with archeologists. 
Prof. Thomas Egleston read a paper upon Vein Accidents in the Lake 
Superior Region ; its character was such, however, that it is difficult to 
present it without the diagrams which accompanied it. 
The Biological Section held a special meeting on October 30th, at the 
library of the New York Aquarium. The chairman of the section, 
Prof. E. C. H. Day, gave an opening address entitled Thoughts on Evo- 
lution, in which he opposed a good many objections that are raised 
against the evolution hypothesis, and pointed out their weakness. Pres- 
ident, Newberry followed, in a somewhat different view, holding that 
many of these objections are yet unanswered. Mr. Frederick Mather, of 
the aquarium, then described and illustrated quite fully the operations 
now going on there in the hatching of the California salmon, with which 
it is proposed to stock the Hudson River. 
Section of Geology and Mineralogy, November 20th. Papers on the 
Smelting of Native Copper at Lake Superior, by Prof. T. Egleston ; on 
New American Fossil Fishes, by Prof. J. S. Newberry ; and on the Lower 
Helderberg Rocks at Port Jervis, N. Y., by Dr. S. T. Barrett, were 
read. 
PHILOSOPHICAL Society or WASHINGTON. — November 18, 1876. 
Dr. E. Bessels spoke of the English Polar Expedition, calling attention 
to the fact that the season they experienced was an evidently abnormal 
one, as compared with the experiences of all other observers ; and that 
while it was doubtless true that under the circumstances no great prog- 
ress toward the pole was possible, yet the obstacles encountered by these 
energetic explorers were by no means proved to be permanent, or insu- 
perable in more favorable seasons. 
He called attention to the confirmation by the English of the observa- 
tions made by him during the Polaris expedition, showing that the tides 
in the northern part of the channel come from the north; not (as he 
at one time supposed) from the Pacific, but from the North Atlantic 
around the north coast of Greenland. 
