SCIENTIFIC SUMMAET. 
211 
was carnivorous, and probably aquatic. Tbe bird belongs to tbe new sub- 
class Odontornithes, and to tbe new order loJithyomithes. 
Actual Glaciers in California. — These have been recently discovered by 
Mr. John Muir, and are fully described in the Overland Monthly ” for 
December last. The author having stated his cursory observations, goes on 
to teU of his more scientific experiments. He says that on the 21st of 
August last he planted five stakes in the glacier of Mt. McClure, which is 
situated east of Yosemite Valley, near the summit of the range. Four of 
these stakes were extended across the glacier, in a straight line, from the 
east side to a point near the middle of the glacier. The first stake was planted 
about twenty-five yards from the east bank of the glacier ; the second, 
ninety-four yards ; the third, 152 j and the fourth, 225 yards. The positions 
of these stakes were determined by sighting across from bank to bank, past 
a plumb-line, made of a stone and a black horse-hair. On observing these 
stakes on October 6, or in forty-six days after being planted, he found that 
stake No. 1 had been carried down stream eleven inches ; No. 2 eighteen 
inches ] No. 3 thirty-four, and No. 4 forty-seven inches. As stake No. 4 
was near the middle of the glacier, perhaps it was not far from the point of 
maximum velocity — forty-seven inches in forty-six days, or one inch per day. 
Stake No. 5 was planted about midway between the head of the glacier and 
Stake No. 4. Its motion he found to be, in forty-six days, forty inches. 
Thus these ice-masses are seen to possess the true glacial motion. Their 
surfaces are striped with bent dirt-bands, and are bulged and undulated by 
inequalities in the bottom of their basins, causing an upward and downward 
swedging, corresponding to the horizontal swedging as indicated by the 
curved dirt-bands. The Mt. McClure glacier is about one-half of a mile in 
length, and the same in width at the broadest place. It is crevassed on the 
south-east comer. The crevasse runs about south-west and north-east, and 
is several hundred yards in length. It is nowhere more than one foot in 
width. The Mt. Lyell glacier, separated from that of McClure by a narrow 
crest, is about a mile in length. He has planted stakes in the glaciers of 
Red Mountain ” also, but has not yet observed them. 
Activity of the Volcano of Kilauea. — The Hawaiian Gazette,” quoted by 
an American Journal, states that it learns that the crater is very active. 
The old South Lake is fall, and running over in two broad streams, one to 
the south and the other to the west. A number of beautiful cones were in 
action, and sending up continuous jets of lava. Mr. Jones, the proprietor 
of the Volcano house, describes the scene as finer than any he has seen for 
years. During two weeks a number of slight earthquake shocks have been 
felt at Kapapala, and later on a very heavy one was felt at Hilo — the 
heaviest that has been felt since the great shock of April, 1868. 
The Jaw of a Powerful Lahyrinthodont. — This fossil, which was partly 
described by Professor Huxley in 1862, has been recently very fully treated 
in a paper by Messrs. A. Hancock and T. Atthey in the ‘‘Natural History 
Transactions of Northumberland and Durham ” (vol. iv. part 2). Mr. 
Atthey dealt with it in a paper in the “ Annals of Natural History,” in 
1869 ; but the two authors have treated it at some length in the present 
communication. The piece now described and very excellently figured is 
a portion of the posterior extremity ; but the articular process is wanting. 
