32 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
difficulty. It is possible that some acci- 
dent killed the terminal bud and the 
vital forces of the tree sent an extra 
supply of sap to the spot to remedy the 
trouble. If that were the case the un- 
usual stimulation produced fruit buds 
instead of leaf or branch buds and the 
result was the bunch of cones, nearly a 
hundred in all, that was found and car- 
ried home. 
A Good Fossil Bed. 
BY THEODORE IT. COOPER, BATAVIA, N. Y. 
In a recent number of “Science” it 
was pointed out that the number of in- 
vestigators in pure science must in- 
crease if applied science is to progress 
as rapidly in the future as it has in the 
past. 
Those who pursue science for its own 
sake and who make it their business to 
learn new facts, whether they are of 
any material value to any one or not, 
supply the material upon which the in- 
dustrial sciences depend. 
The geologist looking for fossils is 
the disciple of pure science. The geolo- 
gist who searches for oil or iron is the 
follower of applied science, but the min- 
eralogist is benefited by knowing some- 
thing of the philosophy of the paleon- 
tologist. We who pursue geology as an 
avocation are usually of the pure 
science type. We look for fossils, col- 
lect them and leave economic geology 
to the utilitarian. 
Mr. K. B Mathes and I recently 
visited a remarkably good exposure of 
early strata and added several fine 
specimens to our collections. It was a 
surprise to me to find such an abun- 
dance of good specimens. Most of those 
I had found previously were fragmen- 
tary but there was no need to pick up 
fragments this time. We saw one large 
piece of coral over a foot in diameter. 
The shale in which they are embedded 
is soft and there was one place on the 
bank of a small stream, and at the foot 
of a high and partly disintegrated shale 
bank, where one could go along with a 
chisel and pry up brachiopods, crinoid 
stems, spirifers and perfect specimens 
of coral. We found a few nodules of 
iron pyrites. Trilobites, the most in- 
teresting of the lower forms of fossil 
life, are not so plentiful but we found 
three fairly good specimens. 
A good specimen of trilobite is not 
found every day and any one having a 
good collection of these is to be con- 
gratulated. Mr. Mathes through a long 
period of local collecting has obtained 
such a collection and it was my good 
fortune to be able to look them over. I 
particularly noticed one specimen very 
complete and about eight inches long. 
If those who live in localities unfa- 
vorable for collecting fossil coral will 
write I will send samples of such kinds 
as I have found. 
Wasp’s Boating and Flying. 
There is a black wasp, Priocnemis 
flavicornis, occasionally seen on Fall 
Creek at the Cornell Biological Field 
Station, that combines flying with 
water transportation. Beavers swim 
with boughs for their dam, and water 
striders run across the surface carrying 
their booty, but here is a wasp that flies 
above the surface towing a load too 
heavy to be carried. The freight is the 
body of a huge black spider several 
times as large as the body of the wasp. 
It is captured by the wasp in a water- 
side hunting expedition, paralyzed by 
a sting adroitly placed, and is to be 
used for provisioning her nest. 
It could scarcely be dragged across 
the ground, clothed as that is with the 
dense vegetation of the waterside ; but 
the placid stream is an open highway. 
Out on to the surface the wasp drags 
the huge limp black carcass of the 
spider and, mounting into the air with 
her engines going and her wings stead- 
ily buzzing, she sails cross the water, 
trailing the spider and leaving a wake 
that is a miniature of that of a passing 
steamer. She sails a direct and un- 
erring course to the vicinity of her bur- 
row in the bank and brings her cargo 
ashore at some nearby landing. She 
hauls it up on the bank and then runs 
to her hole to see that all is ready. Then 
she drags the spider up the bank and 
into her burrow, having saved much 
time and energy by making use of the 
open waterway. — Professor J. G. Need- 
ham, Ithaca, New York, in his “Life of 
Inland Waters.” 
The emerald hill this morning' 
Is ’broidered all in white, 
Where dainty ladies’ tresses 
Have blossomed overnight. 
— Emma Peirce. 
