in Easter Island truly belonged to an earlier population of the same Polynesian race who now inhabit the island. Sir George Gray also expressed the same opinion, and spoke of the habit of carving images as being a peculiarity of Polynesians, including the Maories, and that in a place where wood (the usual material) was very scarce, as it is in Easter Island, it was natural that stone should be substituted. Mr. Palmer gave some farther details of the amiability and good conduct of the present inhabitants, who had been much improved by the Roman Catholic missionaries. Mr. P. P. Blyth also took part in the discussion, and the president, in summing up, mentioned the soft nature of the volcanic rock of which the images were made as supporting Sir George Gray's explanation. Scientific Opinion. AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. — The meeting of the Association for 1870 will be held at Troy, N. Y., beginning on Wednesday, August 17th, having been postponed by the Standing Committee from the 3d, at the request of the Local Committee. We believe from the general expressions last year at Salem that this next meeting will be largely attended and will prove a most interesting one. The Local Committee is evidently doing all it can to make the meeting a success; and judging from the character of the gentlemen composing the Committee, its large size, and careful division into sub-committees on Receptions, Finance, Lodgings, Excursions, Rooms, Invitations, Printing and Railroads, we feel confident that the Association will be most cordially received and taken care of during the session. We trust that the subsections of Archæology and Ethnology, and of Microscopy, organized at the Salem meeting, will be reorganized with a large attendance in these interesting departments. The following are the Officers of the Meeting: - William Chauvenet, St. Louis, President; T. S. Hunt, Montreal, Vice-President; Joseph Lovering, Cambridge, Permanent Secretary; C. F. Hartt, Ithaca, General Secretary; A. L. Elwyn, Philadelphia, Treasurer. Standing Committee.-William Chauvenet, T. S. Hunt, Joseph Lovering, C. F. Hartt, J. W. Foster, O. N. Rood, O. C. Marsh, A. L. Elwyn. Local Committee. John A. Griswold, Chairman; George C. Burdett, First Vice-Chairman; P. V. Hagner, Second Vice-Chairman; Benjamin H. Hall, General Secretary; H. B. Nason, Corresponding Secretary; Adam R. Smith, Treasurer, and seventy-seven others. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. C. J. C. The plant found in flower June 21, on Mount Monadnok, is the Arenaria Grænlandica. It is abundant on the summit of Mount Washington, and we have found it common at Hopedale, Labrador, where it grows near the shore of the ocean. Descriptions of New Corals. By A. E. Verrill. [From Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts. May, 1870.] Reviews of Report on Invertebrata of Massachusetts, and of Molluscan Fauna of New Haven. By A. E. Verrill. [From Am. Jour. Sei. Arts. May, 1870.] Valedictory Address, Jefferson Medical College. By J. A. Meigs, M. D. Philadelphia, 1870. The Elevation of Mountains. By C. H. Hitchcock. 8vo, pampli. April, 1870. New York State Library. Fifty-second Annual Report of Trustees. American Journal of Medical Sciences. No. 118. April, 1870. [Quarterly, $5.00.] Philad. Monthly Report of Department of Agriculture. March, May, 1870. Annual Report of Sec y Massachusetts Board of Agriculture for 1869. 1 vol, 8vo. Boston, 1870. American Journal of Conchology, Vol. v. Part 4. Philadelphia. [$10 a year.] First Annual Report of the American Museum of Natural History, January, 1870. New York. Notes on Fresh-water Fishes of New Jersey. By C. C. Abbott, M. D. [From American Naturalist. April, 1870.] Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. Nos. 4-6. April, June. Bowdoin Scientific Review. Nos. 7-11, May, July. Brunswick, Maine, [$2 a year.] Address to New York State Agricultural Society, on the Rational and Irrational Treatment of Animals. By Professor James Law. 8vo, pamph. Albany, 1870. Memorial of Benjamin P. Johnson. By M. R. Patrick. N. Y. Agric. Society. 8vo, pamph. 1870. Memorial of Herman Ten Eyck Foster. By A. B. Conger. N. Y. Agric. Soc. 8vo. 1870. Correspondenz-Blatt des Zoologisch-mineralogischen Vereines in Regensburg. 1869. 8vo. Sitzungsberichte der konigl. bayer. Akademie der Wissenchaften zu Munchen. 8vo. Vol. 1. 1869, and parts 1, 2, 3, of Vol. ii, 1869. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 8vo. Vol. vi. 1868 -9. Bulletin de Institut National Generois. Vols. 1-iii, 1853-6; Vol. vi, 1857; Vol. ix, 1861; Vol. xi, 1864; two parts of Vol. xii, 1864-5; Vols. xiii-xv, 1865-69, and Vol. xví, pp. 1-223, 189, 12 vols. 8vo. Geneve. Oversigt over det Kgl. danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger. 1853-69. 8vo. 15 vols. and 5 parts. Kjobenhavn. Memoires de Institut National Genevois. Tome 1-12, 1853-68; 12 vols, 4to. Geneve. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Skrifter, Femte, Række, Naturvidenskabelig og Mathematisk Afdeling. Bind. i-vii, 1849-68: 7 vols, 4to. Kjobenhavn. Experimentale og theoretiske Undersogelser over Legemernes Brydningsforhold. Af L. Lorenz. 4to, pampli. Kjobenhavn. 1869. Om Endringen af irrationale Differentialer til Normalformen for det elliptiske Integral af forste Art. Af Adolph Steen. 4to, pamph. Kjobenhavn. 1869. Thermochemiske Undersøgelser over Affinitetsforholdene imellem Syrer og Baser i vandig Oplosning. Ved Julius Thomsen. 4to, pamph. Kjobenhavn. 1869. Om Integrationen af Differentialligninger der fære til Additionstheoremer for transcendente Funktioner. Af Adolph Steen. 4to, pamph. Kjobenhavn. 1869. Additamenta ad historiam Ophiuridarum Beskrivende og kritiske Bidrag til Kundskab om Slangestjernerne. Af Chr. Fr. Lutken. 4to, pamph. Kjobenhavn, 1869. Denkschrift auf Carl Friedr. Phil. von Martius. von C. F. Meissner. 4to. Munchen, 1869. Ueber die Enticicklung der Agrikulturchemie. Von August Vogel. 4to. Munchen, 1869. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. Vol. xiii. pp. 257 - 272. The Chemical History of the Six Days of Creation. By John Phin. 12mo. Cloth. pp. 95. New York. American News Company. Petites Nouvelles Entomologiques. Nos. 21, 24. May, June, 1870. Paris. The Canadian Entomologist. Vol. 2. Nos. 6 and 7. April and May, 1870. Toronto. Le Naturaliste Canadian. Vol. 2. Nos. 5-7. April, June, 1870. Quebec. The Chemist and Druggist. April, June, 1870. London. (Monthly, 7s. 6d. per annum). Land and Water. March 5 to May 28 [Weekly], London. Nature. April 21 to June 16. London. Science-Gossip. May, June, July. London. • Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale d' Acclimatation. vii. Nos. 2-5. Feb., May. Paris, 1870. Current Numbers of the following Magazines and Papers, in addition to those acknowledged in preceding Numbers:-Bee Keeper's Journal, New York; Engineering and Mining Journal, New York; Good Health, Boston; New England Postal Record, Boston; Home Monthly, Nashville; Herald of Health, New York; Pavilion, Salem; Gardener's Monthly, Philadelphia; Medical Record, New York; California Farmer, San Francisco; Canada Farmer, Toronto; Journal of Education, Toronto; University Journal of Medicine, Philadelphia; New Covenant, Chicago: Canada Health Journal, London, Ontario; Technologist, New York; Trubner's Oriental and Literary Record, London; American Agriculturist, New York: American Farmer, Baitimore: Boston Journal of Chemistry; Ladies Repository, Boston; Missionary Herald, Boston; Amertcan Literary Gazette, Philadelphia; Educator, Williamsport; Ruralist, Cincinnati; Cultivator and Country Gentleman, Albany; Wood's Household Magazine, Newburgh; Michigan University Medical Journal, Ann Arbor; Southern Farmer, Memphis; Horticulturist, New York; Congre gational Review, Chicago and Boston; American Bee Journal, Washington; Bulletin of National Association of Wool Manufacturers, Boston; North-Western Farmer, Indianapolis: Tuten's Journal of Horticulture, Boston; American Bibliopolist, New York: Accountant and Advertiser, Baltimore; Journal of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia; Our Dumb Animals, Boston; The Temperance Watchman, Griffin, Ga.; California Medical Gazette, San Francisco; California Teacher, San Francisco; The Grape Culturist, St. Louis: Little Corporal, Chicago; Arthur's Home Magazine, Philadelphia; Arthur's Children's Hour, Philadelphia MUCH is lost to those who essay to study the habits of fresh-water fishes, first, by ignoring uninviting mud-holes, and secondly, by walking carelessly to the banks of the stream, and seeing nothing at first, think they are themselves unseen by anything inhabiting the water. Never was there a greater mistake! Nine times in ten, if these same streams be approached cautiously, and yourself concealed, you peer carefully into the water, you will find it tenanted by many and larger fishes, than you supposed were there. Following out this plan, we once saw and captured a chub (Semotilus rhotheus) thirteen inches long, in a narrow brook of but six inches in depth. This fish, when the bank was carelessly approached, would withdraw to a deserted muskrat burrow. After standing quietly for a few minutes upon the bank of a stream that has been openly approached, one will notice Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. IV. 49 (385) the gradual appearance of the fishes your sudden presence startled and sent off; but returning under such circumstances they are not the same fish in their movements; for although they may appear to swim about fearlessly, they nevertheless are watching you, and fail to exhibit many of their peculiar habits. An aquarium, even, in which fishes become tame, is best watched at a distance, as more is going on generally, than when you are near by. Fish are like children, fuller of mischief when alone. These remarks, be it understood, apply to some species-not all. What we design considering as mud-loving species are nine in number, all commou to the Delaware and its tributaries, at and near Trenton, * Enneacanthus guttatus. New Jersey. They are the Spotted Sun-fish (Enneacanthus guttatus, the Mud Sun-fish (Acantharcus pomotis), the Mud Minnow (Melanura limi), Mud Pike (Esox porosus), Mullet (Moxostoma oblongum), Black Sucker, Catostomus (Hylomyzon) nigricans, Mud Cat-fish (Amiurus DeKayi), Eel (Anguilla tenuirostris), and the Lamprey (Petromyzon nigricans). (We consider the Ichthyomyzon appendix as the young of the last, or an allied Petromyzon). Spotted Sun-fish (Enneacanthus guttatus). We have very *We trust the nomenclature of our fishes is finally established; and no species will be farther burdened with confusing synonomy. We follow Cope (Journal Acad. Nat. Sci., Phil., Vol. vi, part 3, p. 216, Jan., 1869), in this paper; and if farther changes are proposed, feel now as though we should adopt them with reluctance. carefully searched for a trait characteristic of this fish as compared with E. obesus, and have uniformly failed to do so. The habits of the species are those of the Centrarchidæ generally, modified in so far as being merely more of a mudloving species. So purely a mud-dwelling fish are they that we have frequently found them in water so shallow, that they marked the mud with their pectoral fins in swimming; preferring such shallow water, with the mud, to that which was deeper, to which they had access, because it was over a stony bed. In winter they congregate in deep water, and unless care is taken to dig well into the mud they will not be taken in the ordinary scoop-net. We found, during the past winter, in one instance, that a large number had apparently scooped out a basin in the bottom of a little pond. At any rate, closely huddled together, in a small space, somewhat deeper than the surrounding bed of the pond, was a large number. Examination of several showed they were then taking no food. The stomach of each specimen, and the whole digestive tract, in fact, were empty. The main interest attaching to this species, at least to us, is the fact of its occupying many small, sluggish streams, similar and side by side with others that harbor, though less abundantly, the E. obesus. We never yet have found them associated in small streams, in the tributaries of the river; yet, in the Delaware itself the E. obesus is occasionally, and the guttatus frequently found. North-east of Trenton, in the Spar-kill, a creek emptying into the Hudson, and in the streams along the coast, emptying into the bays, the E. obesus abounds; and the guttatus has not been found. Along the Delaware both are found, the guttatus more abundantly. Professor Cope has found E. guttatus near Richmond, Virginia, and (verbal communication) has not found it about Philadelphia. It is undoubtedly in the Delaware, at Trenton -distance thirty-seven miles. We have been thus particular in stating its habitat, because the fact of its not associating with the E. obesus is a mystery we cannot explain, |