JUNE 20, 1884. ] 
scratched pebbles and small bowlders, six to eleven 
feet; fine sand and gravel to the top of a terrace, 
five feet; height of moraine above terrace, forty 
feet. ‘The terrace platform spoken of is about eight 
hundred feet wide. (The accompanying sketch in- 
dicates these features, as seen from the creek.) At 
three stations along the ledge, a large area of the 
platform was uncovered for the purpose of measur- 
ing the angle of direction over as long lines of stria- 
tion as possible. Repeated observations, corrected 
for magnetic variation, gave the following result: at 
the eastern station the direction of the scratches was 
N. 27° 50’ W.; a little over half a mile west, they were 
N. 28°50’ W.; about an eighth of a mile farther west, 
N. 22°30’ W. These differences were very unexpected, 
and hence great care was taken to obtain them accu- 
rately. Such angles would indicate a focal point only 
a few miles to the north-west. In looking over the 
topography of northern Indiana, it is a remarkable 
fact, that a ridge of limestone extends across the 
state, running with the Wabash valley in its eastern 
section, but striking more westerly in the western 
part of the state, leaving the Wabash to the south. 
‘ North of this east and west ridge is a region of 
marshes and deep sand-deposits, extending to the 
northern boundary: south of it are more drift-depos- 
its, but not so deep. It seems very probable that a 
former extension of Lake Michigan found its south- 
ern boundary in the neighborhood of this ridge. As 
the converging lines of our glacial platform seemed 
to find their centre in the neighborhood of this ridge, 
it seemed to suggest some relation between them. 
The first overwhelming flow was parallel with the 
ridge, and so we find the lower scratches in the Wa- 
bash and in Sugar Creek. But afterwards, in the re- 
treat of the great glacier, there seem to have been 
some local centres along this ridge, which sent out 
small fan-shaped glaciers with rapidly diverging lines. 
No other explanation seems to satisfy the angles ob- 
tained in this case. Virtually nothing has been done 
in this state in the way of collecting the facts of the 
drift; and there is every indication that our relation 
to the Great Lakes amd the peninsula of Michigan, 
besides the internal features already indicated, pre- 
sent some very interesting and important problems. 
The legislature of a great educational state cannot 
yet be induced to appropriate a dollar for any survey 
which does not deal with the location and thickness 
of coal-seams and limestone-beds. 
JOHN M. COULTER. 
Wabash college, Crawfordsville, Ind. 
Osteology of Micropterus salmoides. 
I was very sorry to find from reading Mr. McMur- 
rich’s letter in Science, No. 69, that its author had de- 
rived nothing but the most erroneous ideas from my 
description of a pair of free ribs at the base of the 
occiput of Micropterus (Science, No. 65). 
As Mr. MeMurrich remarks, it was unfortunate that 
he was not able to dissect a specimen of the black 
bass, for the very good reason — which applies more 
particularly to anatomy —that one should certainly 
examine, in any case, structures under considera- 
tion, before publishing about them, and advancing 
suggestions as to what they may possibly be. Even 
where an author specifies that he has not seen the 
thing whereof he writes, people are often misled. On 
the other hand, I was glad to see the interest these 
structures awakened, and will look forward with no 
little pleasure to Mr. McMurrich’s observations upon 
them, after he has had an opportunity to make a 
thorough examination. 
As an anatomical description is made far clearer 
SCIENCE. 
T49 
when accompanied by a drawing of the parts dis- 
cussed, I determined, upon seeing Mr. McMurrich’s 
letter, to follow that rule in the present instance, in 
my reply to it. To this end, I selected from my pri- 
vate collection a very fine cranium of Micropterus, 
with a pair of well-developed ribs attached to it. 
From this specimen I made the drawing that illus- 
trates this letter. 
Left lateral view of cranium of Micropterus salmoides, showing 
a pair of ribs at the occiput (from nature, half size, linear). 
S eth, supra-ethmoid; 7, frontal; Sq, squamosal; Pa, pala- 
tine (not well in sight); Zp O, epiotic; SO, super-occipital ; 
Pt O, pterotic; Ocr, occipital ribs; vg, foramen for vagus; 
EO, ex-occipital; BO, basi-occipital; Op O, opisthotic; Pr O, 
pro-otic; tf, post-frontal; As, ali-sphenoid; As, basi- 
sphenoid; Pr S, para-sphenoid; Pr/, pre-frontal; Vo, vomer. 
From this it is very evident that these ribs are not 
‘portions or rudiments of the supraclaviculae,’ but 
really have all the characteristics of the ribs upon 
the atlas and axis. I have never found epipleural ap- 
pendages attached to them, as I believe may occur on 
the first two ribs of the column. Dr. Sagemehl, in 
his valuable paper on the cranium of Amia (Mor- 
phologisches jahrbuch, ix.), is very explicit in what he 
says about the co-ossification of the three vertebrae 
with the basi-occipital of this ganoid; and if this 
author had been aware of such a state of affairs as I 
here figure, in any of the Teleostei, he certainly would 
have brought it forward in connection with the dis- 
cussion of that subject. They are two very signifi- 
cant facts, that these ribs in Micropterus articulate 
beyond the vagus foramen, and that they are appar- 
ently constant. I have since found similar structures 
in a specimen of Orecynus thynnus, and rather sus- 
pect it in the Scombridae, though the specimens at 
my command, illustrating this latter group, were so 
poorly prepared, I could not satisfy myself in regard 
to them. It will be of great interest and impor- 
tance to examine, in this particular, forms more or 
less nearly related to Micropterus, and the young of 
all, at various stages. Of their nature, I think it may 
be said without doubt, that they are a pair of true 
ribs, agreeing in all important particulars with the 
abdominal ribs, as seen in the pairs on the atlas and 
axis; that they belong to the same series, and artic- 
ulate with the occiput, to which they belong; and 
that they are a constant character. 
I should be rather surprised to find that these struc- 
tures had not been noticed before, occurring as they 
do in a form that has received so much attention, 
from an anatomical point of view, as Orecynus. Then, 
too, taking into consideration the morphological sig- 
nificance that attaches to them, one would look for 
at least a mention of such a condition in the text- 
books of Owen, Huxley, Gegenbaur, Parker, or others; 
but such I have failed to find, and the embryologists 
seem also to have overlooked them. Sir Richard 
Owen would certainly have had occasion to mention 
such a pair of ribs in his method of treating the oste- 
ology of the piscine skull. R. W. SHUFELDT. 
Washington, June 2. 
