88 General Notes. 
cause is to be found in the elasticity of the plate, making it slightly 
irregular on grinding.— Walter Hough, U. S. National Museum. 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL NEws.—Ensign A. P. Niblack, U. S.N., 
has just returned to Washington from a three years’ voyage 
enthusiastic archeologist and has done good service to that science 
as the records of the Smithsonian Institution will abundantly show. 
He pushes his researches among natives whenever and wherever 
his duties permit. He returns loaded with ethnologic material, 
which he will now have the opportunity to classify and describe. 
He has perfected himself in photography, and returns with full 
series of Indian villages, houses, totems, burial posts and glaciers, 
which, jutting into the sea and breaking off, are caught in the act of 
transforming themselves into icebergs. Lieut. Niblack’s interest 
and studies have been directed to the Totem posts with which that 
country is so prolific. He says that winter is the only season when 
studies can be successfully made in the ethnology of Alaska. 
The natives are then at their homes prepared to give or receive 
pleasure or information. In the summer they are engazed some- 
times far inland on the mountains and inaccessible. 
Mr. E. A. Douglas, of New York, has returned to the United 
States after two years’ absence in Europe. i 
Mr. Douglas possessess one of the finest private Ethnographic 
collections in the United States. It was stored for safe keeping 
during his absence at the New York Museum, Central Park. 
- Mr. Douglas has now gone to Florida, where he will continue 
his studies until his return in May. His address is Saint Augustine. 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
—The Middlesex Institute proposes to publish a Flora of Middle- 
sex County (Mass.), giving a complete list of the Phanerogams and 
VascularCryptogams. In the lower Cryptogams, lists prepared by 
specialists will be given, as complete as the present state of knowl- 
edge permits. The work is based upon botanical researches for 
many years by members of the Institute, with this publication 1m0 
view ; supplemented by a careful examination of all works bearing 
upon the subject, and all public and private collections accessible. 
No plants have been admitted to the list except on evidence of the 
actual specimen or of competent botanists ; and all doubtful questions 
with regard to identification have been referred to eminent s me 
ists. The publication will be an octavo volume of more than 200 
page. 
