376 



against the dark back-ground afforded by the Sierras Sangre de 

 Christo and Belanca. Outside of this range of sandhills along 

 their whole extent stretches a perfect arena (literally), into 

 the eastern end of which a river of considerable size rushes 

 down, and is utterly lost in five hundred yards, rc;i] - 

 again, much diminished, several miles below. This floor of sand 

 and the square sides of the dunes to the very top has been ruffled 

 by the wind into small irregular furrows identically the same as 

 the ripple-marks made by the water on a sandy beach. But 

 while the body of this pure fine sand is hammered as compact 

 as that under the waves, the surface is a little softer, so as to 

 readily receive and preserve in ordinarily still weather such deli- 

 cate marks as the tracks of spiders and small lizards. I noticed 

 also that portions of this ripple-marked floor which had not been 

 recently disturbed, was of a slightly different color from newly 

 exposed sand. It struck me at the time, that sand might easily 

 be blown over this smooth surface without disturbing it, and 

 should it lie there long enough to become rock, this first sur- 

 face would form a natural line of separation between the strata, 

 having every appearance of an old ripple-marked beach perhaps 

 containing impressions and delicate fossils, when in fact no 

 watiT had been near it, and the wind alone was accountable for 

 the whole. — Ehnest Ingersoll. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Double Staining of -wood and other Vegetable Sections. 

 —I have lately discovered that benzole fixes the anilines when 

 they are used in staining vegetable and animal tissues. It not 

 only instantly fixes any aniline color in vegetable tissues, but 

 also renders them as transparent as oil of cloves. 



Finding that benzole possessed this property, led me to try 

 double staining upon sections of leaves and sections of wood. 

 The results have proved highly satisfactory. I have found the 

 following processes successful A section, say of wood, being 

 prepared for dyeing, is put for five or ten minutes in an alcoholic 

 solution of " Roseine Pure" (Magenta), one-eighth or one-quarter 

 of a grain to the ounce. From this it is removed to a solution of 

 "Nicholson's Soluble Blue Pure," one half-grain to the ounce of 

 alcohol, acidulated with one drop of nitric acid. In this it should 



