2 The West American Scientist. 



forest trees and shrubs of the present day, prove upon closer 

 study to be entirely different in character, some of them combin- 

 ing in one species, characteristics of several widely separated 

 families of plants. A further study of the fossil plants of our con- 

 tinent will, doubtless, give many valuable facts in relation to the 

 history of the derivation or evolution of forms of plant life. 



The study of vegetable paleontology cr fossil botany is rapidly 

 coming to the front. While formerly it occupied a very subordinate 

 position, if, in fact, it had any position at all, we now find its im- 

 portance as one of the means for unravelling the history of past 

 ages admitted by all geologists. Thirty years ago only about 

 eighteen species of land plants were known to science as having 

 been found in the rocks of North America, whereas now, more 

 than one thousand species have been described. It has proven 

 itself to be one of the essentials of geology, and instead of America 

 being subordinate to Europe in its development of plant life, it is 

 now admitted that America took the lead, and that instead of 

 American vegetation having been derived from the old world, the 

 old is and was indebted to the new world, for its growth of forests 

 and plants. 



The fossil flora of North America has a recognizable and 

 acknowledged character of its own, and has furnished land plants 

 of a period antedating the appearance of their prototypes in the 

 European formations- 



Fossil botany as a science is yet in its infancy, and it is im- 

 possible to predict the importance it may attain in the economy 

 of scientific investigation. It is a documentary history of past 

 ages, which will eventually furnish the student with facts of more 

 than sufficient value and interest to fully recompense him for the 

 time spent in desciphering its pages. Lorenzo G. Yates. 



FISHING ON THE COLORADO DESERT 



In the latter part of June the editor crossed the Colorado 

 Desert, and most unexpectedly had the pleasure of not only fish- 

 ing but of catching fish from several springs found on the route. 

 The Indian or Fish Springs consist of several large pools ten to 

 twenty feet across, situated at the eastern base of the San Jacinto 

 range of mountains, on the Colorado Desert, and about fifteen 

 miles southeast of Salton, a Southern Pacific railway station east 

 of Indio. The pools are only a few feet deep, though one or two 

 are reported to be 'without bottom,' and are surrounded and 

 shaded by ' tules.' A similar spring was found about six miles 

 north of Salton, on the opposite side of the desert at the base of 

 the Chuckawalla or Lizard mountains. An analysis of the water 

 of this, the Dos Palmas spring, gives slight traces of alum, soda 

 and sulphur, an; shows that considerable salt is held in solution, 

 but it is not too salt for use. The taste of the water from the two 

 localities is identical, and the temperature the same — I should 



