1877.] Scientific News. | 701 
that of the publication committee, which should carefully pass judg- 
ment upon the communications to be given to the world. e supervis- 
ion of the papers of a society by several members is perhaps the most 
important scientific work that any society can perform. Thirdly, there 
is the necessity of looking well after the funds, and managing them with 
economy and prudence. 
Dr. Gray said it was almost forty years since Sir Joseph and himself 
spent some few hours together in the neighborhood of London, at the table 
of a then very venerable man, long since gone to his rest, Archibald Men- 
zies, who was surgeon and naturalist of Vancouver’s voyage. The in- 
terest in the venerable gentleman arose from the fact that he had been 
round the globe, and particularly had visited this part of it, and he was 
the first English naturalist, and almost the first. naturalist, who set foot 
on this part of the continent. Partly through Professor Davidson’s in- 
vestigations he had been enabled to trace the footsteps of Menzies, whose 
name is merged in so many of our plants, the Madrona for instance. He 
had found that he had been in San Francisco, at the Presidio, and that 
he found his way as far as Santa Clara or San Jose, and it is very well 
known that he visited the point which was then the oldest settlement ; 
that he landed and botanized at Monterey. It was with peculiar pleas- 
ure that they had followed in his footsteps at Monterey, and had been 
able to gather some plants and to see the withered remains of others that 
he first made known to the civilized world. Monterey is also the spot 
that some earlier naturalists visited, where the Spanish naturalists Mo- 
cino and Lesse collected plants, and also the Russian naturalists, Cha- 
misso and Eschscholtz, whose names are familiar in all our gardens — 
household names in plants. The season of their visit to the coast had 
proved unpropitious on account of the great drouth, and what is still 
worse, from the ravages of the great flocks of sheep which have devas- 
tated the herbaceous vegetation of the Sierra, Fortunately the forests 
remain, the most important vegetation in respect to climate, geographical 
distribution, and utility. They had been very busy, and their work had 
not been in vain. They would be enabled to make some interesting com- 
parisons, after visiting the Rocky Mountain region, and to settle, from 
observation in the field, some of the questions they had sought to settle 
in the laboratory and the conservatory. In conclusion, he referred to his 
visit five years ago, and the great pleasure it had given him to have as 
a companion his old friend Joseph Hooker. 
Professor Hayden, in responding to the welcome, indicated the feat- 
ures of the geological survey in progress under his direction, and said 
he had long desired to make some comparison between the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. It had always been his belief, 
although the belief had been corrected by his studies of the eastern slope, 
that there is a general geographical as well as geological unity in all the 
different ranges of mountains that compose our country. Some geolo- 
gists have endeavored to give to the Sierra the name of the Cordilleras, 
