34 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. IV., No. 75. 



white-tawier (the verb ' to taw ' meaning to dress 

 the lighter skins of goats and kids, and then whiten 

 them for the glover's use); Stoddard, the stot-herd, 

 or bullock-herd, or herdsman; Palfrey, the farmer 

 who rides his palfrey to market, — here, in the case 

 of well-known persons, we have instances of wide 

 departure of descendants from the trade of their 

 ancestors. W. S. Kennedy. 



A muskrat -with a round tail. 



It has generally been considered that the com- 

 pressed, rudder-like tail, and large webbed hind-feet 

 and bent toes, of the muskrat, form its essential dis- 

 tinguishing peculiarities : my surprise was therefore 

 great to find among some specimens recently received 

 from Mr. William Wittfeld of Georgiana, Fla., an 

 animal, which, though resembling an ordinary musk- 

 rat in general appearance, possessed neither of these 

 characteristics. It looked, indeed, like an overgrown 

 and dropsical house-rat, and was at first entered in 

 the catalogue by my assistant as a doubtful species 

 of that genus. Its form also suggested that of a 

 pouched rat (Thomomys), but unfortunately there 

 were no pouches. An examination of the skull at 

 once dismissed these erroneous notions, and revealed 

 the true character of the animal. It is, without doubt, 

 a living link binding the muskrat we know so well 

 with the field-mouse. In size it stands between the 

 two. Its eyes, ears, and fore-feet are those of a musk- 

 rat; but its tail and hind-feet are those of a field- 

 mouse. I have not yet received any particulars 

 regarding the habits of this Floridan muskrat; but 

 the slight webbing of its toes, and their unbent con- 

 dition, taken together with the rounded tail, would 

 lead one to prophesy that it is not so thoroughly 

 aquatic as the ordinary muskrat, probably not more 

 so than many of the field-mice. 



The ordinary muskrat has never been found in 

 southern Florida, and it is now apparent that its place 

 is supplied by this little relative. I may go aside to 

 say that Florida probably still holds in its southern 

 interior a number of creatures which the eye of 

 science hath not seen, and which will modify the 

 notions we have regarding those already known. As 

 this is the scientific birth of this interesting little 

 mammal, it is necessary that it should be given a 

 name: I therefore christen it with the name of my 

 friend, Mr. J. A. Allen, whose monographs of the 

 North- American mammals are so well known and so 

 highly esteemed ; and it shall hereafter be known as 

 Neofiber Alleni. I may, perhaps, be permitted to con- 

 clude by summing up briefly the characters of the 

 species, in order that there may be no mistake regard- 

 ing the appearance of the animal. 



Neofiber Alleni. — General form and color, head, 

 eyes, ears, and fore-legs as in F. zibethicus. Hind- 

 feet not exceeding twice the fore-feet in length, with 

 straight, slightly webbed toes, and naked soles. Tail 

 round, scaled, and sparsely covered with dull-brown 

 hairs. Length of head and body, 20.2 centimetres; 

 tail, 12.7 centimetres; hind-foot (without claws), 3.9 

 centimetres. Frederick W. True. 



U. S. national museum, Washington, 

 June 30. 



Fish-remains in the North-American Silurian 

 rocks. 



The English Ludlow Rocks have long been known 

 as the lowest horizon from which undoubted remains 

 of fish have been obtained. The ' bone-bed ' of this 

 group has yielded several species. The earliest 



known American fossil fish occur in the lower Devo- 

 nian beds of Ohio (corniferous) and in the Gaspe 

 sandstones of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



But some fossils have, during the past year, come 

 into my possession, a glance at which is suggestive of 

 near relationship to the peculiar forms of the English 

 Ludlow Rocks. Close examination has confirmed this 

 opinion, and abundantly proved that fish existed on 

 this continent as early as in England. Indeed, should 

 the whole evidence I have obtained be equally valid, 

 it will sustain the conclusion that we have here more 

 ancient ichthyic forms than any yet known elsewhere. 



I have entered a paper on the subject for the ap- 

 proacbing meeting of the British association at Mon- 

 treal, when the facts on which these conclusions rest 

 will be given in detail. E. W. Claypole. 



Buchtel college, Akron, O., July 2. 



Babirussa tusks from an Indian grave in Brit- 

 ish Columbia. 



Many curious and unlooked-for objects are fre- 

 quently found in Indian graves, and not least among 

 these is a pair of the tusks of the Babirussa. They 

 were extracted in August of last year by Mr. James 

 S. Swan from the grave of an old Indian doctor at 

 Kah-te-lay-juk-te-wos Point, near the north-western 

 end of Graham Island, one of the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands, off the coast of British Columbia. The Babi- 

 russa, as every one knows, is an animal of the hog 

 tribe, inhabiting only Celebes and the adjacent 

 islands. The question then arises, How did these 

 teeth come into the possession of the Indian doctor, 

 who died some fifty years since at an advanced age? 



Mr. Swan suggests an ingenious and plausible solu- 

 tion of the problem. In his letter of the 4th of Janu- 

 ary to Professor Baird, he writes as follows: " Lieut. 

 Bolles, of the U. S. surveying schooner Ernest, tells 

 me that the Siamese junks make regular trading- 

 voyages to the coast of Africa, even as far as the Cape 

 of Good Hope, running down with the north-east 

 monsoons, and returning when the favorable mon- 

 soon blows. They bring products of eyery kind, and 

 trade with Japan and China. He thinks that some 

 of these junks may have been wrecked, and carried by 

 the Japanese current to the American side, and per- 

 haps cast ashore on the west coast of the Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, where quantities of drift-stuff of 

 every kind is to be found. 



"Charles Wolcott Brooks, in his able report on 

 Japanese vessels wrecked in the North Pacific Ocean, 

 read before the Californian academy of sciences, 

 March 1, 1876, says, ' Every junk found adrift or 

 stranded on the coast of North America, or on the 

 Hawaiian or adjacent islands, has, on examination, 

 proved to be Japanese, and no single instance of any 

 Chinese vessel has ever been reported.' 



"One of these junks was wrecked on the Queen 

 Charlotte Islands in 1831, and numerous others have 

 been wrecked on other parts of the north-west coast. 

 The tusks of the Babirussa were undoubtedly an 

 article of commerce among a people who would be 

 likely to use them for carving or for manufacturing 

 into fancy articles, and it is not improbable that the 

 tusks in question were procured from some one of 

 these old Japanese wrecks." 



It is difficult to conceive of another origin for these 

 tusks. The commerce of California fifty years ago 

 was of a very limited character, and Babirussa tusks 

 are among the objects least likely to have been sent 

 there through any regular channel. F. W. True. 



U. S. national museum, Washington, D.C., 

 July 3. 



