186 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VL, No. 135. 



dergoiDg tlie test, that has suffered but very little, 

 not having partaken of any food whatever for over 

 a month. 



I had a live Sceloporus consobrinus about my room 

 here nearly two months, but one day it was missed, 

 and ten days afterwards it was found in a dark cor- 

 ner. Nothing remained of it but the skin, enclosing 

 a perfect skeleton and seven eggs. These latter had 

 firm white shells, and were each of an elliptical form. 



R. W. Shufeldt. 



Fort Wingate, N. Mex., Aug. 12. 



Color and other associations. 



In the matter of color association with months, I 

 have a relative who associates June and green, Octo- 

 ber and light crimson, December and blue. 



I have strong color association with certain names; 

 for example, — 



Henry, Henrietta 



= grass-green. 



Sophia, 



== dark green. 



Louise, 



= violet. 



Charlotte, 



= deep purple. 



Alice, 



= black and gold. 



Francis, 



= white and gold. 



Emily, 



= primrose-yellow. 



Susan, 



= pale blue. 



Lucy, 



= clear blue. 



Anna, 



= gold color. 



Caroline, 



= Naples-yellow. 



Agnes, 



= pearl gray. 



Frances, 



= pale fawn. 



Lydia, 



= a gay plaid, pink and 





green predominant. 



Some of these, I suspect, are caused by the vowel 

 in the name of the color and the proper name being 

 the same. Lydia, perhaps, may wear the dress of 

 the first owner of the name I ever saw. The others 

 I cannot account for. 



The months stand in a circle : December, January, 

 and February grouped close together on the upper, or 

 right hand; March and April curve around; May has 

 a little more room; June, July, August, and Septem- 

 ber are wider apart; October and November corre- 

 spond to March and April on the other side. The 

 winter months are in the shade ; the summer ones in 

 a strong light. F. M. Slack. 



THE LICK OBSERVATORY. 



To German parents in Lebanon county, 

 Penn., in the 3'ear 1796, was born a son, who 

 received the name James Lick. As a bo}', he 

 learned the piano-maker's trade in Philadelphia, 

 where, in 3'outh and earl}^ manhood, he led a 

 varied life, engaging in divers occupations, 

 from the making and selling of furniture and 

 pianos, to the managing of a theatre. When 

 about thirt3^-five j'ears old, he went to South 

 America, wliere he resided chiefly at Buenos 

 Aires, acquiring property to the extent of about 

 forty-five thousand dollars, with which sum, 

 in 1847, he emigrated to the site of the present 

 San Francisco, and invested it in real estate. 

 In a quarter of a century he found himself 

 worth a fortune nearly one hundred times as 



great, which, by the execution of a deed of 

 trust, he placed under the control of a board 

 of trustees, of which Mr. Richard S. Floyd is 

 now the president. 



Mr. Lick died at the age of eighty years. 

 His chief scientific bequest was the sum of 

 seven hundred thousand dollars, for the erec- 

 tion of a great observatory at a mountain ele- 

 vation. He was anxious to secure the highest 

 elevation consistent with ready accessibility ; 

 and Lake Tahoe, nearly eight thousand feet 

 above sea-level, was about the first site which 

 came prominently to his notice. The proposed 

 localit}^ was visited, investigated, and rejected ; 

 and the site of Mount Saint Helena, an emi- 

 nence much nearer San Francisco, was visited 

 by Mr. Lick in person. Early in 1875 Mr. 

 Thomas E. Eraser suggested Mount Hamilton, 

 in the county of Santa Clara, as a desirable 

 site ; and, on his recommendation, Mr. Lick 

 decided upon this eminence for the permanent 

 location of the great observatory. Mount 

 Hamilton is situate in the Pacific coast-range, 

 about fifty miles south-east of San Francisco, 

 and thirteen miles in a direct line from San 

 Jose, the nearest cit}^ A telephone-line, and 

 an excellent mountain road, now connect the 

 two. 



Mount Hamilton has a treble-pointed sum- 

 mit, about forty-five hundred feet high ; and 

 no mountain within a radius of one hundred 

 miles approaches this elevation. The two ex- 

 treme peaks of the general summit are nearly 

 a mile distant from each other, in a north- 

 east, south-west direction. The southernmost 

 peak is bare of all woody growth, and its lines 

 converge to form ah angle slightly acute. Al- 

 though about a hundred and twenty-five feet 

 lower than the northern summit, this peak was 

 chosen by the trustees for the location of the 

 observatory, on the advice of Professor New- 

 comb and Mr. Burnham ; as it presented the 

 greater advantage in point of accessibility, 

 configuration, and a minimum of obstruction 

 to the view south, east, and west. The first 

 work was to cut down this apex ; and about 

 forty-five thousand tons of rocks were removed, 

 leaving an irregularly oval plateau, about four 

 hundred and fifty feet in length, and with an 

 extreme breadth of about two hundred and 

 twenty-five feet. The lands about the moun- 

 tain, which are set aside for observatory pur- 

 poses, comprise a government reservation of 

 about fifteen hundred acres, to which the trus- 

 tees have added a hundred and sixty acres by 

 purchase. 



The first astronomer who visited the site of 

 the projected observatory was Mr. Sherburne 



