58 
THE NATURALISTS’ COMPANION. 
N/r BEST FIJYIJS. 
I would like to toll the readers of 
the Compa:nion about oneofnjy col¬ 
lecting trips, as it may interest you. 
Last spring, after a heavy rain, I, 
accompanied hy my cousin, Geo. L. 
Cavines, started on a collecting tour. 
We first visited a rock bar,on Skunk 
river, two and a half miles north of 
La Hoyt, where we found several 
varieties of fossil shells On going 
to the furthest end of the bar, my 
cousin exclaimed. “Oh ! what a fun¬ 
ny fossil.” I examined it and found 
it to he a rare mollusk fossil. On 
leaving the rock bar we counted our 
linds. We had over fifty perfect 
mollusk fossils and five Indian arrow 
heads. We next visited what is 
known as Honey creek (a small 
creek emptying into Skunk river), 
Avhich is one of the best places in 
Iowa for geological specimens. Af¬ 
ter going a short distance, I discov¬ 
ered something imbedded in the sand 
which resembled a tooth. I took it 
out and showed it to my cousin, 
when he exclaimed : “A mastadon 
tooth! Just like the one I saw in 
the Salem museum.” Of course 
you can imagine my surprise and 
delight, for I always wished to pos¬ 
sess a mastadon tooth. We found 
that day many minerals and curiosi¬ 
ties. Before leaving the stream I saw 
a rock which resembled an agate. 
On examining it, it proved to be a 
tine large agate, which weighed 
about five pounds. This is also a 
line stream for agates. I have often 
found from ten to fifteen pounds of 
ligates after a heavy rain. Most of 
the agates are crystalized (the large 
one was not), and most of them are 
very large specimens. My cousin 
liad found seven arrow heads and 
tAvo spear heads. A¥e had also 
about fifty pounds of minerals,which 
made us a heavy load. We had 
found over twenty kinds of minerals; 
among them calcite, chalcedony,epi- 
dote, chalcedonized coral, hematite, 
hypersthene, ircii ore, jaspar, liriKui- 
ite, mica schist, ]>etrified Avood,pink, 
red and green feldspar, serpentine, 
and the following varieties of quartz: 
M^hite, purple, milky, smoky, pink, 
glassy, crystalized and cluster, also 
several large balls of geods of calcite, 
containing fine Avhite crystals, and 
imbedded in the crystals Avere largo 
chunks of pure lead ore. We bent 
our steps homeward with our heavy 
burdens, but Avell satisfied with our 
day's find. James 0. elAY, 
La Hoyt, la. 
THE MOUSE, 
An observant naturalist Avho has 
been investigating the peculiarities 
of the mouse, has discovered that 
that noisy little midnight proAvler 
never Avalks, like other four-footed 
animals, by the alternate movement 
of the limbs, and is physically incap¬ 
able of the deliberate complex group 
of muscular action seen in the co¬ 
ordination of the cat ofdoo^. The 
eye, also, is inferior in its develope- 
ment to the eyes of other land verte¬ 
brates, and eA^en to that of the fish , 
consisting of a mere spherical lens, 
inclosed in a sclerotic sac lined Avith 
black pigment;and the teeth are mere 
prolongations of the tips ottlie jaAv- 
bones, not separate structures. 
A mocking bird that Avhistles 
“Dixie” and the “Last Rose of Sum¬ 
mer”, is one of the curiosities of At¬ 
lanta, Ga. —Kriss Kringle. 
