334 
Jacksonville. He says that within five miles of Jack- 
sonville is a remarkable spring, known as the Mon- 
erief spring, the waters of which seem to be identical 
with those of the excavation at the city water-works 
and of many of the springs of this portion of the 
state. They differ from those of the southern and 
western portions in being more decidedly chalybeate. 
In temperature they are decidedly similar. All those 
near Jacksonville have temperatures of 72° F., and 
are said to be almost invariable, summer and winter. 
The extreme range is two degrees; that is, from 72° 
to 74°. The deep wells, the shallow ones, and also 
several lake-like springs, all register 72° F. Some 
are in superficial strata, reaching a depth of only 
fifteen or twenty feet; others are from thirty to forty 
feet deep in clay and rock; and some artesian wells 
penetrate to two hundred feet. 
Chemical division. — During January and February 
Prof. F. W. Clarke and Dr. T. H. Chatard have been 
busy in the analyses of mineral waters. Among 
them, Professor Clarke has examined water from the 
Helena hot-springs of Helena, Montana Territory, 
which is an alkaline saline water, and water from the 
warm springs of Livingston, Montana, which is a 
calcic sulphur-water. Both are thermal, and these 
are probably the first analyses ever made of them. 
Dr. Thomas Chatard has also finished some analyses 
of Damourite from the well-known topaz locality at 
Stoneham, Me. 
At New Haven, Messrs. Barus and Hallock, during 
January, were engaged in experiments to determine 
the exact boiling-point of zinc. 
The north wind of California. — Mr. Gilbert Thomp- 
son, while engaged in topographical researches in the 
Cascade-range section of California, has been inci- 
dentally collecting information concerning what is 
generally observed as the ‘ north wind of California,’ 
as it was first observed in that state, and supposed to 
SCIENCE. 
[Vou. TI., Noo aay 
be local. The name, however, should not be so re- 
stricted, as it should be extended to the Pacific slope 
of the United States and possibly of North America. 
The characteristics of this wind have been more par- 
ticularly described by Dr. J. H. C. Bonté, of the 
University of California, than by any one else. To 
describe them briefly, they are included under the 
head of excessive drying-qualities. These are marked 
both in summer and in winter. In the former, vege- 
tation sometimes appears as though it were burnt, 
and the effect upon both animals and men is striking. 
Men who have recently arrived in the country, and 
are robust, are not so sensitive to the wind as resi- 
dents; and it has therefore been said that the imagi- 
nation has a great deal to do with it, but this is a 
mistake. It matters not whether the wind is hot or 
cold, it produces a feeling of great depression and 
nervous irritability, lassitude, and restlessness. Some 
call it the ‘poison wind,’ and others the ‘ crazy 
wind.’ The effects produced are similar to those 
of the ‘Puna wind’ of Peru, and the ‘Hammattan’ 
of Africa. It blows at no regular interval, nor for 
any known definite periods. There is some local - 
authority, however, for the opinion that some multi- 
ple of three has been observed by some of its recur- 
rences. ‘The wind is really vicious only once in eight 
or ten years; and it undoubtedly has a powerful 
and favorable effect in drying up the wet soil, and 
neutralizing the effects of the rank vegetation, in 
the Sacramento valley after the rainy seasons. Mr. 
Thompson has, so far, traced its course and width to 
latitude 42°; and such information as he possesses 
to date seems to indicate that the wind moves down 
along the east base of the Cascade range, and thence 
through the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys of 
California. There are numerous theories as to its 
origin, and the reasons why it produces such marked 
and peculiar effects. 
RECENT PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia. 
Feb. 12.— Dr. N. Roe Bradner exhibited an in- 
scribed stone found inside a skull taken from one 
of the ancient mounds at Newark, O., in 1865. An 
exploration of the region had been undertaken in 
consequence of the finding of stones bearing mark- 
ings somewhat resembling Hebrew letters, in the 
hope of finding other specimens of a like character. 
The exploration was supposed to have been entirely 
unproductive of such objects, until Dr. Bradner had 
found the engraved stone now exhibited in a skull 
which had been given to him. The specimen is of 
a dark reddish material, of a rounded wedge shape, 
and bears on its surface a number of characters, the 
significance of which had not been determined, but | 
which resemble the markings on the specimens before 
discovered. —— Rev. H.C. McCook described the nests 
of a new species of spider recently received from Mr. 
W. G. Wright of San Bernardino, Cal., for which he 
proposed the name Segestria canites. The cocoons 
hang in strings from the limbs of trees extending over 
apathway. They are placed one above the other to the 
number of eight, and are united by a netting of white 
silk, covered with the leaves of the neighboring 
plants. They are kept in place over the path by lines 
which extend to either side, sometimes to a distance 
of five feet. Along one side of the suspended nests 
is a tube, which is inhabited by the mature spiders. 
As the weaving of nests over pathways leads to their 
being frequently torn away by passing animals, it had 
been suggested that the case was an illustration of a 
weakening of the instinct of preservation. It may, 
however, be rather a means adopted for the distribu- 
tion of the species; the spiderlings being doubtless car- 
ried to remote points by the animals which tear away 
the nests. Mr. Edward-Potts reported that he had 
examined the fore-bay at Fairmount water-works, from 
