Zoology. 46F 
Not far from Guaymas is a small village, celebrated for its. 
gardens. A few years ago this place was devastated by hea 
rains; many houses were carried away, some gardens greatly 
injured and others entirely obliterated. Where once there were 
gardens is now a large area covered with rocks, gravel and sand, 
resembling a dry river bed. The inhabitants point out to you 
many localities once fertile, now barren in consequence of excessive- 
rains. Last summer a waterspout fell in the village of Molage in 
Lower California. The village is built on the brow of a range of 
low rocky hills, in front of which runs a small stream used to 
water the gardens upon either side. So sudden and great was the- 
fall of water that before the inhabitants were aware of it the flood 
was upon them and many houses swept away, the people having: 
barely time to escape with their lives. After the waters had sub- 
sided, the valley which had been filled with gardens and green: 
fields presented a rocky waste, as barren as the adjoining hills upon 
which no rain had this year fallen. While travelling in this part 
of Mexico last autumn my attention was frequently called to spots 
injured by the fall of waterspouts. In a country with so little- 
land suitable for cultivation, the loss of however little is severely 
felt by the inhabitants. 
The period which is considered the rainy season lasts from July- 
to December. In one place the rains may commence in one month,. 
in another place some other month, and no two places, however 
near, are likely to have the same amount. For example, about 
uaymas last season the rainy season commenced in the middle of 
August and ended about the first of October, during which four 
good rains fell, while at Angel’s Bay in Lower California, the first 
rains were a shower in the early part of November and another- 
about the first of December. After this vegetation quickly sprang 
up and into bloom, so that at the time of my visit the place looked 
like spring, while at the same period the vegetation about Guaymas,. 
only two hundred miles distant, had come to maturity. — Dr.. 
Edward Palmer.» 
ZOOLOGY. 
KIDNEY 1N Sra-Urcurns.—The brothers Sarasin (Zool. An- 
zeger, 227) claim that the brown structure which surrounds the stone 
canal of the sea urchins, and to which numberless functions have 
ae n ascribed, is in reality a nephridial apparatus. In Asthenosoma 
cells which resemble those of renal organs, and notably those of the 
