304 
BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
reviews of Mr. Long’s work, reviews mostly quite worthless in this con- 
nection, since they are usually by persons quite without real knowledge 
of whether the works are accurate or not. Several very severe criticisms 
of his work from the scientific standpoint, marred in some cases by im- 
patient and even intemperate language, followed in Science , — by W. M. 
Wheeler, in the number for February 26 (1904), by F. M. Chapman, on 
March 4. by the present writer (this note in somewhat different form) on 
April 15, and by W. H. Davis on April 22. Mr. Long’s reply, notable for 
its dialectical skill, is in the same journal for May 13. The present note, 
in somewhat different form, was published in the St. John Globe for 
March 5 > Mr. Long replied to it in the number for March rq, and I 
answered briefly in the same paper for March 26. 
82. — On Vegetable, or Burr, Balls from Little Kedron. 
Lake. 
React May 3, 1904. 
Two years ago Professor Bailey showed me at Fredericton a 
ball of vegetable matter, almost spherical and some four inches 
in diameter, which had been given him by Mr. P. FI. Gillmor, of. 
St. George, and which was said to have been found in Kedron 
Lake. Applying to Mr. Gillmor for further information, he 
referred me to Mr. Wellington Davis, of Brockway York Co.,, 
who sent me a similar ball, with letters, which read in part as- 
follows : 
I am sending you the best ball I have. It is not a very good one. 
.... I cannot tell you very much about it. It is found in the north 
end of the Little Kedron Lake in a small cove. No wind can strike the 
cove but from the southeast. It is surrounded with fir and. spruce which’ 
hang over the water. The bottom is a clear sand. The spills (i. e. leaves 
or needles) drop from the fir and spruce and lie at the bottom. Then 
the water washing them from side to side forms the ball. There is no 
heavy swell comes in there. These balls can be found in no other place- 
in the Little Kedron Lake, nor in Big Kedron Lake. Sometimes we have 
found them from six to eight inches through There is a small 
underground spring-book running into the lake, just where we find them. 
A photograph of the ball here referred to is given herewith.* 
It is composed chiefly of the leaves of fir and spruce, but with 
some other vegetable matter, such as small twigs, etc., in addi- 
tion, all interlocked together. 
* For the use of the cut I am indebted to the editor of the Educational Review r 
in the August (1904) number of which journal this note first appeared. 
