JUNE 20, 1884. | 
the geological survey, the excellence of the 
work of our coast-survey, now justly the high- 
est pride of our nation’s science, would de- 
teriorate. As it stands, it may fearlessly 
challenge comparison with similar work by 
any European nation in precision, elegance, 
and economy. Its work is for all time. 
A RECORD of the opening and closing of navi- 
gation at York Factory, Hudson’s Bay, extend- 
ing from 1828 to 1880, has been communicated 
by W. Woods of the Hudson’s-Bay company. 
The latest date of open water in spring is 
June 1; the earliest closing of navigation, 
Noy. 3. The earliest opening was May 4; 
the latest closing, Dec. 9. The season, then, 
extends over from five to seven months, with an 
average of six months open water. The time 
when navigation would be available is limited, 
however, by the time of open water in Hudson’s 
Straits, by which the bay is reached. This 
comprises only July, August, and September, 
and possibly part of October; but exact ad- 
vices are not yet attainable. The question of 
the navigability of the Hudson’s-Bay route to 
Europe is of vast importance for the settlers 
of Manitoba and the Saskatchewan; since, if 
it be available, they can, by a comparatively 
short railway-transit, reach tidewater with their 
crops, which otherwise cannot possibly com- 
pete with those of the north-western United 
States. It is understood that a trial is to be 
made of the route, and that a reconnoissance 
of Hudson’s Bay, of which there are no good 
charts, will shortly be attempted. 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
x*x Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. 
The writer’s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 
The deep-sea fish, Malacosteus. 
In reading the translation of Mr. Filhol’s article on 
the deep-sea fishes collected by the Talisman (Science, 
May 235), I have been somewhat surprised by recog- 
nizing, in A. Tissandier’s figure of Malacosteus niger, 
an old acquaintance, the source of which may be ob- 
served in Bost. journ. nat. hist., vi. plate v. 
While upon this subject of Malacosteus, it may be 
interesting to note, that, in several specimens of M. 
niger now in the National museum, the slender band 
connecting the tongue with the mandibular symphy- 
sis, which has long been regarded as a tangled hyoid 
SCIENCE. 747 
barbel, is really not free at either end, and may be 
only a muscle concerned in the movement of the 
lower jaw. Ihave not yet been able to find a true 
hyoid barbel. The pectoral contains three rays in- 
stead of five, as counted by Dr. Ayres; and the caudal 
is forked, and not convex. 
TARLETON H. BEAN, 
Curator department of fishes. 
U.S. national museum, May 28. 
[By an oversight on our part, we neglected to state 
that the illustrations of the two articles in No. 68 on 
deep-sea fishes were copied in part from La Nature, 
and in part from Science et nature. ‘Those on p. 621 
came from the latter journal, the others from the 
former, but not all of them in connection with the 
article translated. — ED. | 
A bad habit of the fox-squirrel (Sciurus 
niger, var. ludovicianus). 
Madison people pride themselves not a little on 
the number and tameness of their fox-squirrels, 
which are found by scores in the shade-trees of the 
capitol park and the residence streets of the city. 
Protected by a special ordinance, they have multi- 
plied rapidly, and scarcely know what fear is, run- 
ning along before one, on the sidewalk or fence, and 
occasionally even stopping, and allowing themselves 
to be touched, in the hope of getting a nut. We con- 
sider them decidedly more ornamental and worthy 
of good treatment than the ubiquitous blue-jay or 
sparrow, and never tire of watching their pretty 
ways. But to-day I noticed several engaged in far 
less commendable business than hiding, or opening 
acorns. 
While passing under a row of elms, my attention 
was attracted by a number of short twigs lying on the 
sidewalk. About a hundred were counted under the 
first tree. They were of nearly uniform size, six or 
eight inches long, including the young growth of the 
season and a short piece of last year’s wood, with one 
or two bunches of the nearly ripe fruit. 
After a gale in the early fall, the ground under the 
white elms is sometimes covered with leafy branches 
of about the same size, which separate by a joint at 
the site of a former winter bud, like the so-called 
brittle branches of poplars and willows, which they 
also resemble in being a sort of natural cuttings, 
serving in part for propagation. In the present in- 
stance, however, the ends of the twigs did not show 
the smooth surface of those which fall naturally; and, 
as there was no indication of the work of a pruner, I 
turned my attention to the top of the tree, where it 
was directed by a twig falling just as I looked up. 
Following its course, I saw a squirrel, comfortably 
seated on one of the upper branches, busily at work 
on the fruit of a second twig, which was soon dropped 
for another. No less than five were broken off in 
a single minute; and, while I watched, the falling 
twigs averaged one a minute. They were dexter- 
ously snapped off just below the fruit-cluster, a bite 
or two often helping in the operation. The seed was 
removed from each of the small samaras by a single 
adroit cut on one side; and, long before the rifled 
branch had reached the ground, another was under- 
going the same fate. The dinner of this one squir- 
1 Frank devotes a few pages of his Krankheiten der pflan- 
zen (pp. 384, 35) to this spontaneous pruning, which he considers 
a means of removing weakly twigs, after their vegetative period 
is ended. Its occurrence is mentioned as especially noticeable 
in Taxodium, Quercus, Populus, and Salix, but not by any means 
confined to these genera. 
