

498 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
agree with z general, rather hastily referred the case in question to the 
me categ A second glance would hardly have seen either bravado 
or vilitate in ii capture of a snake of which an alcoholic specimen 
just previously examined, had given incontrovertible proofs of its utter 
harmlessness.— W. H. Darr. 
E BLACK VULTURE IN MANE. —I had sent me (shot in this neigh- 
echa a good aem of the Black Vulture (Cathartes atratus), the 
ton o far east; and also a fine specimen of the Purple 
mif (Galisia arith: —G. A. BOARDMAN, Calais, Me. 

MICROSCOPY. 
METHOD OF PRESERVING ANIMAL SPECIMENS FOR FINE DISSECTION.— 
Mieroscopists will read with interest a very simple method of preserving 
animal The 
closing up, so that the specimen cannot be got at; no fear of losing 4 
valuable dissection from accidental evaporation, as when spirit is us sed; 
served, but no more of it is used than is kom necessary; and e 
time the dissection is completed, the specimen has become imperishable 
from the union of the corrosive sublimate i the tissues, and it may 
then be kept in pure water, either open or mounted, in the usual way.— 
Quarterly Journal of Science, London. 

GEOLOGY. 
Tur EozoüN IN Essex County. The remains of this, the oldest form 
of animallife thus far discovered on our globe, and found in the azoic 
[Laurentian] rocks of Ottawa, Canada, have, it is confidently Mele 
i evil’s De 
spreading out on the bottom of the sea, capable of secreting calcareous 
partitions, and thus forming small chambers or cells, the interior x 
: vhich has become filled by serpentine, which was deposited from 
ind serpentine quarry among geologists, and throw additional light upon 
he character and age of the rocks in this region. 
. Mr.] Edwin Bicknell (Preparator of the d P of gers 
m), has, by a careful microscopic comparison of a specimen 
v 
y 
a I i5 
| Montreal to our neighborhood, will excite new interest in our limestone 
£ 
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