396 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 116 



This will lead to a modification of some of the 

 views advanced in my census report above referred 

 to, concerning the past geological history of the pe- 

 ninsula, and the origin of the high hummocks; for 

 these hummocks, in part at least, are produced by 

 the action of the miocene phosphatic limestone, and 

 not the oligocene, upon the prevailing sandy soils. 



And, similarly, the much wider distribution of these 

 miocene rocks proves that a much larger proportion 

 of the peninsula was submerged after the oligocene 

 period than I at one time supposed. 



We shall look with the very greatest interest for 

 the results of Mr. Johnson's investigations of the 

 rocks of the western coast of Florida, in Hernando 

 and Hillsborough counties. 



I may add that none of the specimens of the upper 

 oligocene or Vicksburg limestone, either from Florida 

 or Alabama, which I have examined, show more than 

 a slight trace of phosphoric acid. 



Eugene A. Smith. 



University of Alabama, April 20. 



It might have been hasty, without books, and with- 

 out sufficient opportunity for comparison, to have 

 pronounced the phosphatic rocks of Preston's Sink, 

 Fort Harlee, miocene, or not older. I now think it 

 later still ; but always with the reservation that I 

 may be permitted to change my mind upon a more 

 careful study, under circumstances more favorable, 

 and also deferring to the opinion of Dr. White, who 

 already has such favorable opportunities, when he 

 can get time to take up the subject, with all my col- 

 lection before him. 



The location of these phosphates is of more imme- 

 diate import to you and me. But, on the question of 

 the horizon, I ask the consideration of the facts and 

 specimen already sent you. The ' Nigger Sink ' at 

 Downing's, in this vicinity alone, ought to set the 

 question at rest. 1 There you find in situ, and exhibit- 

 ing their due relations, the oligocene limestone at 

 the base, and finally, after various intermediate de- 

 posits, a hundred and fifty feet above, the siliceous 

 phosphatic rock, exactly similar to that sent you from 

 the quarry at Gainesville, from Liveoak, and which 

 is found in this oak and hickory region on the top of 

 every hill. 



There, also, you find two fossils, — theOstrea, found 

 also at Hawthorne and in the Wacahootie region, 

 Marion county, always underlying the phosphates, 

 and above the Orbitoides and Pecten of the lime- 

 stone; and the other, the great coralline, of which I 

 could mail but a fragment. This last is seen in situ, 

 so far as I am now informed, nowhere but on the 

 tops of these hills, overlooking the Natural Bridge 

 of Santa Fe. 



The Fort Harlee marl, near Waldo, is quite differ- 

 ent from the phosphatic rock I have been sending 

 you from so many points. It has all its shells, or casts 

 of shells, intact. The vertebrate fossils, however, 

 seem the same; that is, the sharks' teeth and saurian 

 remains are alike. The phosphatic rock has lost all 

 its fossil shells. That these once existed, is clear from 

 the fact that occasionally a trace may be found. If 

 not the same, then how are they related? The argu- 

 ment must be postponed ; but to me the conclusion is 

 clear that the Waldo bed is newer than the others. 

 All the others, from the texture of the rock, the 

 obscure traces of shells, the chemical constituents, 

 and from the surroundings, may be classed as one. 



1 Three others, heretofore explained, — Simmons at Haw- 

 thorne, Sullivan old field, and the devil's mill-hopper, — sustain 

 the same conclusions, and none contradict. 



The great extent of the formation, and the uniformity 

 of the rock, are still very remarkable. 



Undoubtedly it is the same rock seen near Ocala, 

 where the limestone is not visible, at Hawthorne, 

 at Gainesville, at Newmanville, at two or three knolls 

 in the vicinity of Liveoak, and on innumerable 

 others all over this central region of oligocene sinks. 

 Strangely, too, the knobs are uniformly of a height of 

 about sixty feet above the surrounding flats and de- 

 pressions marked by the cherty limestone. It would 

 be interesting and valuable, if I had the means in my 

 power, to locate and measure the extent of every one 

 of these deposits. Your own census report, giving 

 the extent of hummocks, and oak and hickory soils, 

 east of the great chain of sand-dunes from Apopka 

 northward, and west of the lake region, is the nearest 

 means I can suggest for making an approximate esti- 

 mate. Laurence C. Johnson. 



Newmanville, Fla., March 22. 



Do telegraph-wires foretell storms? 



Probably some thousand Americans have noticed 

 the automatic storm-signalling of wires by sound- 

 vibration. I allowed a telephone-wire to remain for a 

 long time attached to one corner of my (frame) house 

 because of its practical utility as a weather-prophet. 

 When not a leaf was stirring in the neighborhood, 

 and not a breath to be felt, the deep undulations 

 were audible in almost every room, although mufflers 

 had been duly applied. Before that, some hours in 

 advance of every severe storm, the upper story was 

 hardly inhabitable on account of the unearthly up- 

 roar, which would have made a first-rate case for the 

 Society for psychical research. 



The warning that it gave varied from six to twelve 

 hours, rarely exceeding the latter; and I do not 

 think it ever warned in vain. When the storm actu- 

 ally came, the noise nearly always ceased. It never 

 was noticeable in the warmer part of the year; and 

 through the heat of midsummer it was silent. I 

 cannot recall any exception to this. Its climax of 

 clamor was reached some hours before the ' electric 

 storm,' as it was called, of November, 1882. But all 

 through two winters and the proximate parts of 

 autumn and spring I found it a trustworthy and self- 

 announcing storm-signaller, which left me abundant 

 time to prepare. I had it removed, finally, because 

 there was sickness in the house, and its doleful 

 prophecies were not appreciated. 



I explained the phenomenon, partly at least, by 

 the effect of very distant air-impulses transmitted in 

 sound-waves from wire to wire, after the manner of 

 the acoustic or mechanical telephone. Yet this does 

 not seem quite adequate, when one considers how far 

 those vibrations must have travelled to outstrip a 

 storm by hours; and yet how much energy and 

 sonorousness they retained when they reached me! 



Wm. H. Babcock. 



Washington, April 16. 



[We have good authority for saying that the vibra- 

 tions of the telephone and telegraph wires here re- 

 ferred to are certainly not due to electric currents, 

 nor to the minute acoustic waves of the mechanical 

 telephone, but are simple transverse vibrations and 

 longitudinal waves such as occur on every stretched 

 cord that gives out a musical note. These vibrations 

 are ultimately caused by the wind. For any given wire 

 stretched in a permanent location, there will undoubt- 

 edly be a certain direction and character of wind 

 that will call forth its loudest tones. Our correspond- 

 ent's wire may be specially influenced by the south- 



