NOTES. 253 
the Wollaston donation fund to Prof. Ramsey, for transmission to 
Mr. James Croll, and addressed him as follows : 
“The Wollaston fund has been awarded to Mr. James Croll, 
of Edinburgh, for his many valuable researches on the Glacial 
phenomena of Scotland, and to aid in the prosecution of the 
same. Mr. Croll is also well known to all of us by his investiga- 
tions of oceanic currents and their bearings on geological ques- 
tions and of many questions of great theoretical interest connected 
with some of the great problems in Geology. Will you, Prof. 
Ramsey, in handing this token of the interest with which we follow 
his researches, inform Mr. Croll of the additional value his labors 
have in our estimation, from the difficulties under which they 
have been pursued, and the limited time and opportunities he has 
had at his command.” — Prof. Ramsey thanked the president and 
council in the name of Mr. Croll for the honor bestowed on him. 
He remarked that “ Mr. Croll’s merits as an original thinker are of 
4 very high kind, and that he is all the more deserving of this 
honor from the circumstance that he has risen to have a well 
recognised place among men of science without any of the advan- 
tages of early scientific training ; and the position he now occupies 
has been won by his own unassisted exertions.— Nature. 
Catirorysta Acapemy or Screxces. March 4th. A Communi- 
cation was received from Prof. George Davidson, at present in the 
East, accepting the Presidency of the Academy. 
_ A translation by Dr. A. B. Stout of an interesting paper by 
G. V. Frauenfeld, K. V. (of Vienna, 1870) on the “ Extinct and 
Perishing Animals of the Earliest Epochs of the World” was read 
by the Secretary. 
Dr. Ellinwood read a digest of a translation of the proceedings 
"e the Society of Natural Sciences of Neuchatel, 1869-1870, 
giving a brief résumé of the principal discussions which occurred 
S the Archeological Congress at Copenhagen in 1869, being an 
interesting narration of the developments of antiquity, arising 
from an investigation of the shell mounds. 
n Mr. Stearns gave the result of his examination and researches 
m some of the numerous shell heaps and mounds at Point 
i Tampa Bay, Florida, near the supposed landing place 
: % the Expedition of De Soto :— 
The latter were composed of alternate thick strata of shells 
and thin strata of ashes; these alternations were owing to the 
A amg Visits of the Indians to the localities where these shell 
oe are found, and during the interim between these visits a 
Sowth of grass and other vegetation had taken place, covering 
