SEPTEMBER 29, 1877. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT, No. 91. 1449

9 in. of the top is a suction pipe, 3 in. in diameter, referred equine, and some of the species equaled the ass in size. there by the American elephant, which preferred a milder to in the description of chamber 1, and 1s earried out to the There are still three toes on each foot, but only the middle climate. Remains of the latter have been met with in Can­ nearest stream of water to keep up the ignition of chamber 1, one, corresponding to the single toe of the horse, comes to ada, throughout the Uuited States, and in Mexico. The last and thus dispense with the use of a fire ; but the apparatus the ground. The genus resembles most nearly the hipparion of the American. mastodons and elephants became extinct in is provided with a suitable fire-place and ash-pit for use of Europe. In the pliocene, we have the last stage of the the post-tertiary. when no stream of water is near at· hand for feeding this series before reaching the horse, in the genus pliohippus, Perhaps the most remarkable mammals yet found in suction pipe. which has lost the small hooflets, and in other respects is America are the tillodontia ,which are comparatively abun­ very equiue. Only in the upper pliocene does tbe true equ1ts dant in the middle and lower eocene. These animal s seem [Continuedfrom SUPPLEMENT No. 90.] appear, and complete the genealogy of the horse, which in to combine the characters of several different groups, viz. : the post-tertiary roamed over the whole of North and South The carnivores, ungulates and rodents. In the genus Tillo­ ANCIENT LIFE IN AMERICA. America, and soon after became extinct. This occurred long tlterium, the type of the order, and of the family tillotheridro, PROF. ARSH before the discovery of the continent by Europeans, and no the skull resembles that of the bears; the molar teetlrare all By O. C. M . satisfactory reason for the extinction has yet been given. of the ungulate type; while the large incisors are verysimilar SLOTHS THAT WENT TO SOUTH AMERICA. Besides the characters I have mentioned, there are many to those of rodents. The skeleton resembles that of the car­ others, in the skeleton, skull, teeth, and brain of the forty or nivores, It is frequently asserted, and very generally believed, that more intermediate species, which show that the transition edentata THE PRIMATES, INCLUDING MAN. the large number of huge which lived in North from the eocene eohippus to the modern equus has taken place America durin� the post-pliocene, were the results of an ex­ in the order indicated, and I believe the specimens now at tensive migratlOn from South America soon after the eleva­ We come now to the highest group of mammals, the pri· New Haven will demon�trate the fact to any anatomist. mates, which include the lemurs, the apes, and man. This tion of the Isthmus of Panama, near the elose of the tertiary. They certainly carried prompt conviction to the first of anat· No conelusive proof of such migration has been offered. and order has a great antiquity, and even at the base of the omists, who was the honored guest of the Association a year eocene, we findit represented by several genera belongingto the evidence, it seems to me, so far as we now have it, is ago, whose genius had already indicated the later genealogy directly opposed to this view. No undoubted tertiary eden­ the lower formsof the group. In consiooringthese interest­ of the horse in Europe, and whose own researches so weIl ing fossils, it is important to have in mind that the lemurs, tates have yet been discovered in South America, while we qualified him to appreciate the evidence here laid before have at least two species in our miocene, and during the which are usually regarded as primates, although at the bot­ him. Did time permit I might give you at least a probable tom of the scale, are only found at the present day in Mada­ deposition of our lower pliocene large individuals of this explanation of this marvelous change, but justice to the com· group were not uncommon as far north as the forty-third gascar and the adjacent regions of the globe. All the Amer· rades of the horse in his long struggle for existence de­ ican monkeys, moreover, beloug to one group, much above parallel of latitude. on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. mands that some notice of their efforts should be placed on In view of these facts and others which I shall lay before the lemurs, while the Old Worfd apes are higher still, and record. most nearly approach man. you, it seems more natural to conelude from our present THE mSl'ORY OF THE SWINE. knowledge that the migration which no doubt took place In the lower eocene of N ew Mexico, we find a few repre- was from north to south. The edentates finding thus in The artiodactiles, or even-toed ungulates, are the most sentatives of the earliest known primates, and among them lemur limnotherium, South America a congenial home flourished greatly for a abundant of the larger 'mammals now living; and the group are the genera avus and eacn the type time, and, although the larger forms are now. all extinct, dates back at least to the lowest eocene. Iii every vigorous of a distinct family. Thes�enera became very abundant type which to survive many geologic in the middle eocene of the West, and with them are found diminutive representa�ives of the group still inhabit the same primitive was destined le­ region. changes, there seems to have been a tendency to throw off many others, aIl, however, ineluded in the two families, limnotheridro. ORIGIN OF HOOFED ANIMALS. lateral branches, which became highly specialized and soon muravidro and died out, becaURe they are unable to adapt themselves to new In the miocene lake basins of the West, only a single spe· The ungulates are the most abundant mammals in tbc pr m tes conditions. The narrow path of the persistent suilline type, eies of the i a have been idcntificd with eertainty. This tertiary, and the most important, since tbey inelude a great in throughout the whole tertiary, is strewn with the remains was found the oreodon beds of Nebraska, and belongs to variety of types, some of which we can trace through their laop limnotherid(Jj of such ambitious offshoots, while the typical pig, with an the genus ünecus, apparently related both to various changes down to the modified forms that represent obstinacy never lost, hasheldout in spite of catastrophes and and to some existing South American monkeys. In the pli­ them to-day. Of the various divisions in this comprehen­ evolution, and still lives in Ameriea to-day. The enus ocene and post-pliocene of North America, no remains of sive group, the perissodactyle, or odd-toed ungulat es, are g platygonus is re(lresented by several s ecies, one of which was primates have yet been found evidently the oldest, and throughout the eocene are the pre­ p very abundant III the post-tertiary of North America, and is In the post-pliocene deposits of tbe Brazilian caves, remains vailing forms. Although all of tbe perisRodactyles of the apparently the last example of a side branch, before the of monkeys are numerous, and mainly belong to extinct spe· ear lier tertiary are more or less generalized, they are still cebu American suilliues culmlllate in existing peccaries. The eies of callithri!lJ, s and jacchus, all living South Ameri· quite distinct from the artiodactyles, even at the base of the feet in this species are more specialized than in the living ean genera. Only one extinet geuus, protopitheclls, whieh eocene. One family, however, the cor.llphodontid!lJ, which is forms; and approach some of the peculiar features of the embraced animals of large size, has been found in this pe­ weU represented at this horizon, both in America and Eu. ruminants; as, for example, a strong tendency to coalescence culiar fauna, rope, although essentially pel'issodactyle, possesRes some It in the mctapodial bones. The genus platy,qonu8 became ex- is a noteworthy fact, that no traces of any anthropoid characters which point to a primitive ungulate type from tinct in the post-tertiary, and the later and existing species apes, or indeed of any Old World monkeys, have yet been which the present orders have been evolved. Among these are all true peccaries. No authenticated remains of the detected in Ameriea. Man, however, the highest of the pri. characters are the diminutive brain, which in size and form genera BUS,pormts, phacoch!lJrus, or the allied hippopotamus, mates, has left his bones and bis works from the Arctic Cir­ approaches that of the reptil es, and also the five-toed feet . the old world suillines have been found in America although ele to Patagoma. Most of these specimens are c1early post. from which all the various forms of the mammalian foot to several announcement� to that effecthave been ma'de. i tertiarr, although the�e is cons�derable evidence poin�ing have been derived. Of this family, only a single genus, man m In the series of gent,lrie forms between the lower eocene t�e eXlstence or our phocene. All tbe remalllS yet cOl'yphodon (bothmodon), is known, but there were several "omo, eohyus and the existing dicotyles, which I have very briefly dlscovered 1!elong to t!Ie weIl marked genus and appa­ distinct species. They were the largest mammals of the lower discussed, we hav� apparently the ancestral line ending in !ently to a smgle specles, at present represented bythe Amer­ eocene, some exceeding in size the existing tapirs. . the typical American suillines. Although the demonstration lean IndIan. In the middle eocene, west of the Rocky Mountains, a re­ is not yet as complete as in the lineage of the horse, this is markable group of ungulates makes its appearance. These RELATION eF SUCCESSIVE GROUPS. not owing to want of material, but rather to the fact that the animals nearly equaled the elephant in size, but had shorter actual changes which transformed the earlf tertiary pig into limbs.· The skuIl was armed with two or three pairs of horn· In this rapid review of mammalian life in America, from the modern peccary were comparatively shght, so far as they cores, and with enormous canine tusks. The brain was pro­ its first known appearance in the trias down to the present are indicated in the skeletons preserved, while the lateral portionally smaller than in any other land mammal. The time, I have endeavored to state bricfly the introduction and branches were so numerous as to confuse the line. It is clear feet had five toes, and resembled in their general structure , succession of the principal forms in each natural group. If however, that from the elose of the cretaceous to the post I those of cor,/fPhodon, thus indicating some affinity with that - time permitted, might attempt the more diflicult task of tertiary; the bunodont artiodactyles were especia1ly abundant genus. These mammals resemble in some resp�cts the peris­ trying to indicate what relations these various groups may on this continent, and only recently have approached ex· to sodactyles, and in others the proboscidians yet differ so possibly bear each other; what connection the ancient tinction. widel from anyknown ungulates, recent or fossil, that they mammalsof this continent have with the corresponding fauna y The selenodont division of the artiodactyles is a more in- must 1>e regarded as forming a distinct order, the dinocerata. of the Old WorId; and, most important of all, what real teresting group, and, so far as we now know makes its first Besides these peculiar mammals, whieh are extinct, and ; progress mammalian life has here made since the beginning appearance in th� .upper eocene o! the west, although forms, mainly of interest to the biologist. there were others in the of the eocene. As it is, I can only say, in summing up, that �ppare�tly transltlOnal, b�tween lt aud the bunodonts, occur early tertiary which remind us of those at present living the marsupials are clearly the remnants of a very ancient III the dllloc�rasbeds, or mlddle �oeene. The most r.onounced around us. Wben a student in Germany some twelve years p fauna, wh ich occupied this continent millions of years ago, selenodont III the upper eCAMELS, DEER, ELEPHANTS. mggest�ve phases. As we have here the oldest and most science. This remark led me, on my return, to examine the generahzod members of the group, so far as now known, we subject myself, and I.have since unearthed, with my own A most interesting line, that leading to the camcls and lla­ may justly elaim America for the birth-place of the order. hands, not less than thirty distinct species of the horse tribe, mas, separates from the primitive selenodont branch in the That the development did not continue here until it culmi­ in the tertiary deposits of the West alone; and it is now, I eocene, probably through the genus parameryx. In the mio­ nated in man, was due to causes which at present we can think, generally admitted that America is, aft0!' all, the true cene, we find in the p!lJbotherium and somenearlyallied forms onfy surmise, although the genealogy ·of Other surviving home of the horse. unmistakable indications that the cameloid type of ruminant groups gives some data towards a solu�ion. Why the Old I can offer vou no bett er illustration than this of the ad­ had already become partially specialized, although there is a World apes, when differentiated, did not come to the land of vance vertebrate palooontology has made during the last de­ complete series of incisor teeth, and the metapodial bones their earlier ancestry, is readily explained by the then inter­ cade, or of the important contributions to this progress which are distinct. In the pliocene th::J camel tribe was next to the vening oceans, which likewise were a barrierto the return of our Rocky Mountain region has snpplied. horses, the most abundant of the larger mammals. The line the horse and rhinoceros. procamelus, The oldest representative of the horse at present known is continued through the genus and perhaps REMAINS OF MAN ON THIS CONTINENT. isthe diminutive eohyppus from the lower eocene. Several others, and in this formation the incisors first begin to di· species have been found, all about the size of the fox. Like minish, and tlle metapodials to unite. In the post-tertiary Man, however, came ; doubtless first across Behring's most of the early mammals, these ungulates had forty-four we have a true auchenia, represented by several species, and Straits; 'and at his advent became part of our fauna, as a teeth, the molars with short crowns, and quite distinct in others in South America, where the alpacas and llamas still mammal and primate. In these relations aloue it is my pur· form from the premolars. The ulua and the fibula were en­ survive. From the eocene almost to the present time. North pose here to treat him. The evidence, as it stands to-day, tire and distinct, and there were four well·developed toes America has been the home of 'last numbers of the camelidro, although not conc1usive, seems to place the first appearauce and a rudiment of another on the fore feet and three toes and there can be little doubt that they originated here, and of man in this country in the pliocene, and the best proof of behind. In the structure of the feet, and in the teeth, the migrated to the O1d W orId, this has been found on the Pacific coast. During several eohippu8 indicates unmistakably that the direct ancestral line The deer family has rel?resentatives in the upper miocene visits to that region mauy facts were brought to my knowl· to the modern horse has already separated from the other of Europe, which contallls fossils strongly resemblillg the edge which render this more than probable. Man at this perissodactyles. In the next higher division of the eocene, fauna of our lower pliocene, a fact always to be borne in time was a savage, and was doubtless forced by the great another genus (orohipPusl makes its appearance, replacing mind in mind in comparing the horizon of any group in volcanic outbreaks to continue his migration. This w/ts at eohippu8, and showing a greater, although still distant, re­ thc two continents. Several species of cervid!lJ, belongingto first to the south, since mountain chains were barriers on the semblance to the equine type. The rudimentary first digit the genus C08or.IjX, are known from the lower pliocene of the east. As the native horses of American were now all ex­ of the fore foot has disappeared, and the last premolar has West, but all have very small antlers, divided into a single tinct, and as the early m'an did not bring the Old World ani· gone over to the lllolar series. OrohipPu8 was but little larger pair of tines. mal with him, his migrations were slow. I believe, more­ than eohipP'18, and in most other respects very similar. Sev­ The proboscideans, which are now separated from the over, that his slow progress toward civilization was in no eral species have been found in the same horizon with typical ungulat es aB a distinct order, make their first appear­ small degree due to this same cause, the absence of the dinocera,�, and others lived during the upper eoceue with ance in North America in the Jower pliocene, where several horse. dipWwodon, but none later. species of mastodon have been fouud. This genus occurs It i'l far from my intention to add to the many theories ex­ Near the base of the miocene, in the brontotherium beds, also in the upper pliocene, and in the post-tertiary; although tant in regard to tbe early civilization in t,his country, and we find a third elosely allied genus, mesohippus, which is some of the remains attributed to the latter are undoubtedly their connections with the primitive inhabitants or the later about as large aR a sheep, and one stage nearer the horse. older. The pliocene species all have a band of enamel on Indians, but two or three facts have lately come to my There are only three tOBS and a rudimentary spUt bone on the tusks, !lnd some other peculiarities observed in the oldest knowledge which I think worth mentioning in this connec­ the fore feet and three toes behind. Two of the premolar mastodons of Europe, which are from essentially the same tion. On the Columbia River I found evidence of the former teeth are quite like the molars. The ulna is no longer dis­ horizon. Two species of this l5enus have bepn found in existence of inhabitants much superior to the Indians at tinct, or the fibula entire, and other characters show elearIy South America, in connection w!th the remains of extinct present there, and of which no tradition remains. Among that the transition is advancing. In the upper miocene, llamas and horses. The genus elephas is a later form, and many stone carviugs which I saw there were a number of mesohipPU8 is not found, but in its place a fourth form, has not ,.et been identified in this country below the upper heads, which so strongly resemble those of apes that the mioh!pp1t8, continues the line. This genus is near the anchi pliocene, where one gigantic species was abundant. In the likeness at ouce suggests itself. Whence came these sculp­ therium of Europe, but presents several important differ­ post·pliocene remains of this genus are numerous. The tures, an d by whom were they made? Another fact that has ences. The three toes in each foot are more nearly of a size, halry mammoth of the Old World te'eph,s primiqeniü.�) was interested me very much is the strong resemblance between and a rudiment of th� fifth metacarpal bone is retained. All once abundant in Alaska, and great numbers of its bones are the skulls of the typical mound-builders of the MisSlssippi the known species of this genus are larger than those of meso­ now preserved in the frozen cliffs of that region. This spe­ Valler and those of the Pueblo Indians. I had long been hippU8, and none pass above the miocene. cies does not appear to have extended east of the Rocky famihar with the former, and, when I recently saw the lat­ Tbis genus, protohippU8, of the lower pliocene, is yet more Mountains, or south of Columbia River, but was replaced ter, it required the positive assurance of a friend who had

© 1877 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC 1450 SCIEN'l'IFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT, No. 91. SEPTEMBER 29, 1877. himself collected them in New Mexico to convince me that I changes in the environment migrations are enforced, slowly at least, of a premolar to the molar series, and a gradual they were not from the mounds. A third fact, and I leave in some cases, rapidly in others, and with change of locality lengthening of the crown. Hence, it is often easy to decide man to the arcbreologists, on whose province I am even now must come adaptation to new conditions or extinction. The from a fragment, of a jaw to what horizon of a tertiary it trenching. In a large collection of mound-builders' pottery, life history of tertiary mammals illustrates this principle at belonged. The fossil horses of this period, for example, gained over a thousand specimens, which I have recently examined every stage, and no other explanation meets the facts. a grinding tooth for each toe they lost, one in each epoch. with some care, I found many pieces of elaborate workman- The real progress of mammalian life in America, from the In the single-toed existing horses all the premolars are like ship so nearly like the ancient water-jars from Peru that no beginning of tbe tertiary to the present, is weIl illustrated by thc molars, and the process is at an end. Other dental one could fairly doubt that some intercourse had taken place the brain-growth, in which we have the key to many other transformations are of· equal interest, but this illustration between the wldely-separated people that made them. . changes. The earliest known tertiary mammals all had very must suffice. The oldest known remains of man on this continent differ small brains, and in some forms this organ was proportion­ The changes in the limbs and feet of mammals during the in no important characters from the bones of the typical In- ately less than in certain reptiles. There was a gradual in­ same period were quite as marked. The foot of the primltive dian, although in some minor details they indicate a much crease in the size of the brain during this period, and it is in­ mammal was doubtless plantigrade, and certainly five-top-d. more primitive race. These early remains, some of which teresting to findthat this growth was mainly confined to the Many of the early tertiary forms show this feature, which is are true fossils, resemble much more closely the correspond- cerebral hemispheres or high er portion of the brain. In still seen in some existing forms. This generalized foot be­ ing parts of the highest Old World apes than do the latter most groups of mammals the brain has gradually become came morlified by the gradual lass ofthe outer toes, and in­ our tel'tiary primates, or even the recent American monkeys. more converted, and thus increased in, quality as weIl 'as crease in size of the central ones; the reduction proceeding Various living and fossil forms of Old World primates fill quantity. In some, also, the cerebellum and olfactory lobes, according to systematic methods, differing in each ,group. up essentially the latter gap. The lesser gap between the the lower parts of the brain, have even diminished in size. In Corresponding changes took place in the limb bones. One primitive man of America and the anthropoid apes is par- the long struggle for existence during tertiary time the big result was a great inerease in speed, as the power was applied I of tially closed by still lower forms of men, and doubtless also brains won, then as now; and the lllcreasing power thus so as to act only in the plane of motion, The best effect

DESIGN FOR BOOK COVER. FROM THE STUDIO OF THE ART INDUSTRY MUSEUM, LEIPZIG. EXECUTED BY G. FRITZSCHE, BOOKBINDER.-From the Work8hop. by higher apes, now extinct. Analogy, and many facts as gained rendered useless many structures' inherited from this specialization is seen to-day in the horse and antelope, weIl, mdicate that this gap was smaller in the past. It cer­ primitive ancestors, but no longer adapted to the new condi­ each representing a distinct group of ungulates, with five­ tainly is becoming wider now with every generation, for the tions. toed ancestors. lowest races of men will soon become extinct, like the Tas­ Another of the interesting changes in mammals during If the history of American mammals, as I have brietly manians, and the highest apes cannot long survive. Hence tertiary time was in the teeth, which were gradually modified sketched it, seems, as a whole, complete and unsatisfactory, the intermediate forms of the past, if any there were, be­ with other parts of the structure. The primitive form of we must remember that the genealogical tree of this class has come of still greater importance. For such missing links tooth was clearly a cone, and all others are derived from its trunk and larger limbs concealed beneath the debris of we must look to the caves and later tertiary of Africa, which this. All classes of vertebrates below mammals, namely, mesozoic time, while Hs roots doubtless strike so deeply into I regard as now the most promising field for exploration in fishes, amphibians·, reptiles, and birds, have conical teeth, if the palreozoic that for the present they are lost. A decade or the Old World. America, even the tropics, can promise no any, or some simple modification of this form. The eden­ two hence we shall probably know something of the mam­ such inducements to ambitious explorers. We have, how­ tates and cetaceans with teeth retain this type, except the malian fauna of the cretaceous, and the earlier lineage of our ever, an equally important field, if less attractive, in the zeuglodonts, which approach the dentition of aquatic car­ existing mammals can then be traced with more certaintr. cretaceous mammals, which must have left their remains nivores. In the higher mammals the incisors and canines The results I have presented to you are mainly denved somewhere on the continent. In these two directions, as I retain the conical shape, and the premolars have only in part from personal observation; and since a large part of the believe, lie the most important future discoveries in palreon­ been transformed. The latter gradually change to the more higher vertebrate remains found in this country have passed tology. complicated molar pattern, and hence are not reduced molars, through my hands, I am willing to assume full responsibility As a cause for many changes of structure in mammals but transition forms from the cone to more complex types. for my presentation of the subject. during the tertiary and post-tertiary, I regard, as the most Most of the early tertiary mammals had forty-four teeth, For our present knowledge of the extinct mammals, birds, potent, Natural Selection, in the broad sense in which that and in the oldest forms the premolars were all unlike the and reptiles of North America, science is especially indebted term is now used by American evolutionists. Under this molars; while the crowns were short, covered with enamel to Leidy, whose careful, conscientious work had laid a se· head I include not merely a Malthusian struggle for life and without cement. Each stage of progress in differentia­ cure foundation for our vertebrate palreontology. The energy among the animals themselves, but the equally important tion of the animal was, as a rule, marked by a change in the of Cope has brought to notice many strange forms and contest with the elements and all surrounding Dature, By teeth; ODe of the most commOD being the transfer, in form greatly eularged our literature. Agassiz, Oweu, Wymau,

© 1877 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC SEPTEMBER 29, 1877. SOIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT, No. 91. 1451

Baird, Hitchcock, Deane, Emmons, Lea, Allen, Gibbes, Jef- from a jar an octopus is jerked upon the floor of the boat, to have been observed occasionally in great numbers in our ferson, DeKar, and Harlan deserve honorable mention in tbe and with some satisfaction the Japanese watch its tentaeles bays. In April, 1833, they were very abundant and of a history of thIS branch of the science. The South American wriggle all about the planks and eling round their legs. blood-red color; aHer a few days they all disappeared. A extinct vertebrates have been described by Land, Owen, Cbanging its hues, the disgusting cephalopod loses its red­ few individuals were seen in the water off Napatree Point, Burmeister, Gervais, Huxley, Flower, Desmarest, Aymard, der blotches for paler patches, and eventually crawls int'o a R. I., by Professor Verrill and myself in April, 1877. But Pictet, a,nd Nodot. Darwin and Wallace have likewise con- darker corner to coil itself away. Pouring the water more it seems more probable to me that the color was caused by a tributed valuable information on this subject as they have carefully from the inverted pots, the fishermen seCUl'e a few minute seaweed or al�a of the genus T1'ichodesrnium of on·nearly all forms of life. more of these animals, which crawl and twine about with Ebrenberg. Two speCles are known, Tr. erythceum, which In this long history of ancient life I have said nothing of snakelike contortions. The long string of pots took time to Dr. Montague (in Ann. de Science Natu1'elle. December, 1844, what life itself really iso And for the best of reasons, be- overhaul, but the spoils were reckoned reward for ,ne trou­ p. 347) considers the cause of the red color in the waters of cause I know nothing. Here at present our ignorance is ble. When the fishing was completed, and the black floats the Red Sea, and Tr. Hindsii, which has been noticed in the dense, and yet we need not despair. Light, heat, electricity, were again left.to mark the spot, our boat was sculled some­ waters offthe shores of Brazil and near the coast of California. and magnetism, chemical aflinity and motion are now con- what further down the land. Both are exceeding minute plants, consisting of little jointed sidered different forms of the same force; and the opinion is We had time to learn something more of this fishing for blood-red threads about one-twelfth of an inch long and one rapidly gaining ground that life, or vital force, is only an- tako, as the octoPllS is named by thc J apanese fishermen. four hundredths of an inch thick, many threads gathered in otber phase of the same power. Possibly the great mystery Through our friends, we learn that the tako nceds no bait to a little bunch, and involved in jelly. Should the phenome­ of life may thus be solved, but whether it be 'or not, a true entice it into the earthen jars used by the fishermen to en­ non be observed again I should be very glad if the observer faith in science admits no limit to its search for truth. I trap itj bnt crawling about on the bottom, or shooting itself would dip a piece of paper in the reddened water, and after drying it in the air send it to me for examination.-Projessor D. O. Eaton, in the New Haven Palladium.

THE FALL OF A MOUNT AIN IN SAVOY. AN interesting account of the recent falling of a mountain in Tarentaise, Savoy, cl.\using disaster to two flourishing vil­ lages, has been communicated to the Oourrim' des Alpes by M: Berard. The phenomenon has been incorrectly reported as instantaneous and the destructive effect complete, whereas the case is that of a monntain which for twenty days, with­ out cessation, has been dismembering itself and literally fall­ ing, night and day, into the valley below, filling it with piled up blocks of stone, extinguishing all sounds by its in· cessant thunder, and covering the distant horizon with a thick eloud of yellowish dust. The entire mass comprised in the slope forms a mutilated cone 200 met res broad at the top and 600 at the base (the slope being about 50 degrees); thIS is composed of hard schist lying elose together, but no longer united; and it is nnited to the body of the mountain only by a vertical mass of 40 or 50 metres thick, which already is fissured and shaken. Periods of repose occur lasting only a few seconds, or a minnte at most; then the movement recommences, and continues about 500 hours. Blocks of 40 cubic metres become displaced with no appar­ ent cause, traverse the 1,800 metres of descent in thirty seconds, leaping 400 01' 500 metres at a time, and finally get dashed to pieces in the bed of the torrent, 01' launch their shattered fragments into the opposite forest, mowing down gigantic pines as if they were so many thistles. One such block was seen to strike a !;ine fir-treebefure reaching the bridge between the villages; tbe tree was not simply broken or overthrown, but was crushed to dust (volatilise); trunk and branches disappeared in the air like a burning match. Rocks are hurled together and broken into fragments that are thrown across the valley like swallows in a whirlwind; thEin follow showers of small fragments,' and one hears the whistling sound of thousands of pebbles as they pass. M. Berard reached the edge of the rock (2,460 metres high,) on one of the sides of the falling cone, and ventured along it, 'obtaining a good view of the "terrifying" spectacle. He reaflirms his conviction that the phenomenon is unexpliea­ ble by any of the usual I'easons that account fur Alpine dis­ turbances, such as penetration of water, 01' meItin� of snows 01' inferiotstrata in motion; nor does the declivIty of the slope explain it. His hypothesis ia that some geologieal force is at work, of which the eomplex resuItant acts obli. quely to the axis of the mountain and almost parallel to its sides.-Nature•

. THE CREDIT SIDE OF THE INSECT ACCOUNT. WE ha ve referred more than once in this journal to the mis­ chief done by insects, but only on one oeeasion, we believe, to ourindebtedness to them. In an artiele whieh appeared in the medical department'some months ago, the therapeutieal value of cantharides, or "8panish flies," was duly set forfh. It was stated, indeed, that chemical and medical scienee bad not succeeded in finding any vesieating agent that could per­ fectly replace these insects. It may be added, in illustration of12 their extensive use and their commercial' importance, tbat tons of them have been shipPl1.d' "in a single year from the Island of Sicily alone. The cochineal insect is another of no slight industrial value, though the eoal-tar colors in these latter days have largely superseded it as a dyestuff. It still, however, fur­ nishes the pharmacist with the coloring matter for his tinc­ tures. N utgalls afford anotber illustration of the uses of insects in the arts and in medicine, Enormous quantities are con­ sumed in dyeing and the manufacture of inks. Gallic an d pyrogallic acids are indispensable to the photographer. The \ annual yield of galls in Persia alone averages more than 2,000 tons, and that of Turkey is about tbe same. On our de bt to the bee for honey and wax it is unnecessary to enlarge, and what we owe to the silkworm is equaUy familiar. Silk, indeed. is one of those unique products for wbieh no adequate substitute has ever been found. It is also one for which the demand is constant from year to year WROUGHT IR ON BALOONIES FROM VENIOE AND MILAN. DRA WINGS OF and from century to centur)". Silk has been a popular PROF. MYSKOVSZKY.-From the Workshop. fabric from ancient times, and is likely to remain independ­ ent of the caprices and mutations of fashion. The . cast-off shroud of a worm will continue to be, as for ages it has OCTOPUS FISHING IN JAPAN. throngh the sea by the expulsion of water, it finds in the been, the favorite material for the dress of women and for WITH bodies blackened by the sun to the color of the sea­ dark, earthen jar "a comfortable house," and so occupies many purposes of household adornment. weed, the Japanese fishermen are incommoded by neither it until the fisherman finds and captures it. The tako is Even the husbandman can allow something to be credited the rain nor the winds. Like the fishermen of all lands, largely eaten in Japan, where all the products of the sea are to these creatllres which cause him so much labor and loss. their restless eyes were wandering from the sea to the accounted equally wholesome with those of the land ; and Insects have many enemies among their own kindred, and heavens. With no guides but the stars by night and the beneath an ugly skin the flesh of this speckled monster is the muItiplication of some species is kept within proper blue edge of the land by day, there was no need for keen eye­ thou�ht very good, cooked in several ways, and eaten with limits by the hostility of others. The ichneumon flies, the sight and watchfulness. In all the Eastern seas there is no or wIthout soy or vinegar. Nevertheless, as if to vindicate lace-winged flies, and the lady bugs are thus good friends. to more adventurous race than these men. , the dread its constantly changing hues excite, the eating of the farmer and tbe gardener. A wolf in a sheepfold would We could see the floats of burnt wood which buoyed the tbe octopus is not unattended with danger. Through some be comparatively less destructive than a lady-bug 01' the ends of our fishermen's lines. and to the nearest of these we poisonous taint, either occasionally or always present, but larva of a lace-wlDged fly among a colony of aphides 01' plant­ were sculled, A kind of wood, light and buoyant, and with modifiedby the process of cooking, people sometimes die from lice. While such insects are directly beneficial, others tbat some resemblance to cork, is used for such floats. It grows eating this anima!. And yet the knowledge of this interferes at first seem to be Unmitigated pests may nevertheless be in­ in the forests thereabouts, and, after being shaped and but to a triflingextent with the use of food having such a ques­ directly usefu1. Insects make up for their individual insig­ charred to prevent decay, la�ts, without further trouble, tionable reputation-indeed, at certain seasons, it is largely nificance by the aggregate potency of numbers. Countless for a longer time than bladders or skins. With some impati­ used by the Japanese, when the cuttle fish are far more plen­ myriads of gnats, in such elouds as to appal the traveler, ence the black buoy and the line attached are brought on tiful and also more wholesome. Caught by trolling a small and numberless other tribes tbat also annoy us, may be use­ board. Like an inverted bell-shaped flower pot comes the wooden fish barbed with hooks, they make good sport, iul as manure; for, as the researches of John Davy have first earthenware jar, hardly the size of a child's head, at­ chieflyto the older fishermen, who are not active enough to shown insects convert vegetable matters into nitrogenous mb tached to the line. Mouth downward, the jar is pnlled up go offto sea.-Oha ers' Journal. compo'unds, and are thus so many laboratories of guano. from the bottom, and when all the water has been poured Hence the marvelous prodigality of insect life and death in out, the fishermen give a look inside. No occupant tropical forests may be one cause of the luxuriance of vege­ RED WATER IN LONG ISLAND SOUND. being found, the jar is once more lowered into the sea by tation there. Even the worst of our domestic pests have a the attached strings, which is overrun until the next jar IS lT is possible that the red appearance in the water, ob­ meaning as monitors of the necessity of a vi�ilant eleanli­ pulled up, brought on board, and similarly examined. When served near Gull Island recently, was due to the presence in ness and ventilation for out heaIth and eXIstence. One six or seven are examined, and no occupant is found in any vast numbers of the little_'pteropod Olio borealis, for this lit­ writer, indeed, has raised the curious question how far some of these, the fishermen show no impatience. But presently tle animal is said by De Kay in the Mollusca of New Y ol'k great fevers and other plagues, centuries since, mill'.!Jt have

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