January 8, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



35 



fifty skeletons deposited from one to five feet below 

 the surface. The usual method of sepulture prac- 

 tised by the Santa Barbara stock of Indians prevailed 

 here ; namely, the knees were drawn up against the 

 breast, and the corpse was buried face downward. 



With the skeletons were found three ollas carved 

 from crystallized talc, which were used for cooking- 

 purposes ; two large sandstone mortars, finely fin- 

 ished, used for triturating grain and acorns ; a sand- 

 stone bowl about one inch deep and six inches in 

 diameter ; two conical pipes and several large beads 

 of serpentine ; several sheets of mica with hole 

 drilled at the side ; a broken tortilla stone ; several 

 balls of paint ; and thousands of shell and glass 

 beads, wampum, ornaments, etc. In a Haliotis shell 

 (H. splendens) I found eight old fashioned flat brass 

 buttons, with numerous specimens of wampum, 

 manufactured from Olivella bipbcata. The remains 

 of a metal knife were discovered, which, with glass 

 beads, buttons, and a portion of an old-fashioned 

 water bottle, shows that this place was inhabited 

 since the advent of the white man, or within the 

 past three hundred and forty-three years. 



Probably the most interesting relic discovered was 

 a metal fish-hook. It has a shank about four and a 



half centimetres in length, with a point about three 

 and a half centimetres long, which, from its shape, 

 I should judge was of Indian manufacture. An 

 Olivella shell vas scalloped or notched, leaving it 

 somewhat in the shape of a crown. The base was 

 perforated, and the shank of the hook pushed through 

 it. This was doubtless intended as an attraction to 

 the fish. The species is Olivella biplicata, some of 

 which are very white, and, at the end of a line, 

 would be nearly or quite equal in brilliancy to the 

 pearl oyster-shell used by the South-Sea Islanders for 

 the same purpose. By the kindness of the publisher 

 of Science, an engraving of the fish-hook is presented. 

 It is in a somewhat restored form, the original being 

 corroded to some extent by rust. 



Stephen Bowers. 



San Buenaventura, Dec. 8. 



New find of fossil diatoms. 



Seeing a reference to diatoms occurring in clay 

 strata in a railroad-cutting near Philadelphia, in two 

 of the recent issues of Science, I wrote to Dr. 

 Koenig, the discoverer, for a sample of the diatom- 

 bearing clay. I received the clay promptly, and am 

 delighted to be able to say, that, after a five-minutes' 

 preparation, I had the pleasure of noting a very rich 

 slide containing at least thirty species of diatoms ; 



the forms corresponding chiefly to the recent fresh- 

 water forms, but characteristically different, as 

 relates to the association of the species, when com- 

 pared with the forms occurring in the sub-peat 

 deposits of the eastern United States. 



My reason for making this communication is, that 

 the value, interest, and importance of this new find 

 of diatomaceous material has not been sufficiently 

 emphasized in the two articles in Science, and might 

 be overlooked by diatomists, and all who are on the 

 constant lookout for new localities of fossil diatoms. 



K. M. Cunningham. 



Amoeboid movement of the cell-nucleus. 



The study of the cell-nucleus has become a subject 

 of such absorbing interest in biology, that we feel 

 justified in asking a little of your space to make 

 known what seems to us a promising field for inves- 

 tigation. During the last year, in studying the blood 

 of Necturus, after its removal from the body and in 

 the blood-vessels, we were struck with the great size 

 and distinctness of the nucleus of the white corpus- 

 cles. But what seems especially interesting and 

 important is the fact that the nucleus of the white 

 blood- corpuscles exhibits a very marked amoeboid 

 movement, both in the vessels of a curarized animal 

 and on the microscopic slide. These movements are 

 as vigorous and easily followed as are those of the 

 cell-body ; and often both the cell-body and nucleus 

 are undergoing amoeboid movement at the same 

 time, the movements of the cell-body and nucleus 

 seeming to be entirely independent of each other. 

 From the ease with which the white corpuscles are 

 obtained and observed, from the size and activity of 

 the nucleus and its distinctness in the living condi- 

 tion, it is confidently expected that the study of the 

 white blood-corpuscle of Necturus will greatly assist 

 in making more definite our knowledge of the nu- 

 cleus, its so-called membrane, and the processes of 

 its division. S. H. and S. P. Gage. 



Anat lab. Cornell univ., Dec. 25. 



English sparrows. 



In Science, Dec. 18, appeared some remarks on 

 the English sparrows that do not at all agree with 

 our experience here. We have many orchards and 

 groves in and around our village. Many of us have 

 provided boxes for wrens, martins, bluebirds, etc. 

 Eobins, cardinals, crimson-breasted grossbeaks, cat- 

 birds, etc., are innumerable around us. A few years 

 ago some of our people, accustomed to watch the 

 many kinds of birds that frequent our court house 

 grove, asked me about ' a little bird that had just 

 newly appeared in the grove.' They said that it was 

 " driving all the other birds away. Not content with 

 merely fighting and mastery, it drove the others 

 clear out of the town." The people had been watch- 

 ing them for some days, and reported that half a 

 dozen birds had actually made themselves the sole 

 possessors of our melodious grove, heretofore so 

 delightfully noisy with the songs of the many native 

 birds. I suspected the cause, and, as soon as I saw 

 the 'strange little birds.' pronounced them to be 

 those ' winged rats,' the English sparrows. For 

 twenty years I had kept several boxes for martins 

 at my own place. About thirty pairs were making 

 their homes at my doors. Suddenly I missed them, 

 but the screech of a pair of English sparrows took 



