a depth of sixteen feet; and four miles north, charred wood and a bivalve shell from a depth of nineteen feet. It may not be improper here to state that boulders and many rounded pebbles of granite, sienite, greenstone, etc., with accumulations of drift sands, abound along the north line of Missouri, and are even abundant near the line of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad; further south they are more rare, being scarce near the Missouri River. In Sullivan County, Missouri, I have observed a granite boulder twenty-five feet in diameter; in Monroe County, a greenstone boulder, three feet in diameter. Near the Missouri River one is rarely found more than a foot in diameter. In Osage County, Missouri, I have only found one small granite boulder, and found none in the upper river counties on the south. The Missouri River sandbars abound* in small, rounded pebbles of mostly granite, sienite, hornstone, greenstone, lignite and quartz rock, with pebbles from neighboring rocks; all the first named pebbles are borne down from far up in the mountains. The absence of granitoid rocks in the accumulations along the Osage and its tributaries may be sufficient evidence to place the era of these deposits in a more recent period than that of the modified drift of North Missouri. They may belong to the older loess or bluff, and we may conclude the horse, ox, mammoth and mastodon to be coexistent. It is even probable that they may have roamed America during the epoch of the mound builders.-G. C. BROADHEAD, St. Louis, Mo. NEW MOSASAUROID REPTILES. - Professor Marsh has recently published in the "American Journal of Science," a notice of four new reptiles, belonging, or allied, to Mosasaurus, from the Greensand of New Jersey. He remarks that "a striking difference between the reptilian fauna of the Cretaceous of Europe and America is the prevalence, in the former, of remains of Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus, which here appear to be entirely wanting; while the Mosasauroids, a group comparatively rare in the Old World, replace them in this country, and are abundantly represented by several genera and numerous species. SCOLITHUS A SPONGE. - Mr. E. Billings has referred the supposed casts of worm burrows, named Scolithus and Arenicolites, and found in Silurian rocks, to the sponges. He believes that these ancient sponges, at least many of them, lived in the sand or soft ooze of the ocean's bottom, with their sometimes wide and trumpet-shaped mouths, just even with or a little elevated above the surface. SCIENTIFIC OPINION. - ANTHROPOLOGY. RELICS FROM THE GREAT MOUND. -I send in this letter a perforated shell disk and an oblong bead. They were found with many others in Granite and other igneous pebbles are found further to the south than Illinois. removing the "big mound" in this city. The grave was seventy feet long, eighteen feet wide, and twenty-five feet below the surface; the bodies were in a sitting attitude facing the east; the bones are nearly decayed and will crumble when exposed to the air. I have a lock of long black hair which was on one of the skulls; I also obtained from the same head two copper ornaments, shaped alike, which were behind the ears and beneath which were the oblong beads, one of which is enclosed; the copper ornaments are shaped like the bowl of a large tablespoon, from the convex surface of which extends a long, sharp horn. Two large conch shells were also found which are in my possession. -T. T. RICHARDS, St. Louis, Mo. [On page 256, Vol. i, of the Transactions of the Chicago Academy of Science, Colonel Foster mentions the finding of the "disks," "beads,” etc., in the grave on the mound, and figures one of the "disks," which on the authority of Dr. Stimpson he considers as made from the shell of Busycon pervenum, often found in connection with the mounds. Colonel Foster also states that a quantity of small shells Marginella apicina, from the Gulf of Mexico were also found. The ear ornaments of copper mentioned by Mr. Richards, are probably the same as those mentioned by Colonel Foster as "two copper vessels, formed like a spoon-bowl.” We have also received a number of the disks (all with holes through the centre) from Mr. Joseph F. Tucker, of Chicago, who states that they were found as described by Mr. Richards. We would like to publish carefully made figures of the ear ornaments in the NATURALIST. Can any one inform us whether the skulls found in this grave on the "Great Mound" have been compared with those of undoubted mound skulls? For there seems to be much uncertainty relating to this mound. Was it really formed by the mound builders, or even used by them, or were the skeletons found there of the present Indian race? It will be remembered that Professor Smith, of St. Louis, who watched the leveling of the mound, was satisfied that it was a river deposit, and not an artificial mound.-F. W. P.] THE DEATH OF MICHAEL SARS, the distinguished Naturalist and Professor at the Royal University at Christiana, Norway, was noticed in the last number of the NATURALIST. Since that notice was written we have learned with sincere regret that Professor Sars leaves a family of six children in very impoverished circumstances. In view of the fact that American zoologists are deeply indebted to Professor Sars for the light he has thrown upon many of the lower forms of animals in the unrivalled investigations embodied in his publications, we feel it a duty to solicit aid for his family. Any remittance, however small, will be welcome and acknowledged, and will be forwarded to his family through the Norwegian minister. - EDITORS NATURALIST. GEORGE PEABODY. - We have received from Mr. Carl Meinerth, of Newburyport, the finest photograph we have yet seen of Mr. Peabody. It is done by the new form of Mezzo-tint, invented by Mr. Meinerth, and is a copy of the last portrait taken of Mr. Peabody by Mayall of London in 1869. CORRECTION.-A slight correction needs to be made in the article on "Shavings" in the January number. The "large openings" in the figure of the oak-section spoken of on page 566, are not sections of "spiral ducts," of which there is none in the body of such wood, but of the very different dotted ducts. The shaving figured, moreover, must have been taken from an uncommon stick of oak, not to show the great accumu lation of these ducts at the inner margin of each annual zone. The figure shows them only in the second layer and a part of the third. BOOKS RECEIVED. Archiv fur Anthropologie. Vol. 11, Parts 1-2. Braunschweig, 1869. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 4to. Vol. clviii, Parts 1 and 2 1868. Vol. clix, Part 1. 1869. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 8vo. Vol. xvil. (1868-9). Vol. xviii, Pt. 1. 1869. List of Fellows etc. of the Royal Society of London. 4to. 1868. Transatlantic Longitude, as determined by the Coast Survey Expedition of 1866. A Report to the Supt of the U. S. Coast Sur. By Dr. B. A. Gould [Smithsonian Contributions]. 4to. 1869. Quarterly Journal of Science. Jan., 1870. 8vo. London. Memoirs de la Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve. Tome xix, Pt. 2. 1868. Tome xx. Pt. 1. 1869. 4to. The Anatomy of a Mushroom. By M. C. Cooke. [From Popular Science Review, Oct., 1869.] Le Naturaliste Canadien. Quebec. Vol. 11, No. 2. January, Botanical Notes, By D. A. P. Watt. [From the Canadian Naturalist.] American Journal of the Medical Sciences. Jan., 1870. 8vo (quarterly). H. C. Lea. Phila, Half Yearly Abstract of the Medical Sciences. Vol. 50. Jan., 1870. H. C. Lea. Philadelphia. An Address on the occasion of the Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Alexander Von Humboldt. By James P. Luse. Read before the New Albany (Md.) Natural History Society. Petites Norelles Entomologiques. Nos. 13-15. Jan.. 1870. Paris. American Entomologist. Vol. il, No. 2. Dec. and Jan. Studley & Co. St. Louis. Scientific Opinion. January 12-26. London. Canadian Entomologist. Toronto. Vol. ii, No. 4. January. Stanley's Microscopic Catalogue. London." Preliminary Field Report of the United States Geological Survey of Colorado and New Merico, conducted under the authority of Hon. J. D. Cox, Secretary of the Interior. By F. V. Hayden. 8yo. Washington. 1868. Contributions to Zoology, published by the Royal Zoological Society (Natura Artis Magistra), Amsterdam, 1859, 1869, Folio. Notice sur des Debris de Cheloniens faisant partie des Collec tions du Musee royal d'Histoire Naturelle et provenant des Terrains Tertiaires des Environs de Bruxelles; par M. A. Prendhomme de Borre. 8vo, pp. 8. Hardricke's Science Gossip. January, February. London. Also bound volume for 1869. Land and Water (weekly). Nos. 202-207. Dec. 4-Jan. 8. London. News List and Inder. Jan, 1st. London. The Academy. No. 4. January 8. London. The European Mail (weekly). No. 5162. January 13. London. Illustrated Bee Journal. Vol. 1, No. 2. Indianapolis. $200 a year. Transactions of the Chicago Academy of Science. Vol. 1. Part 2. 1869. Royal 8vo. 1869. Third Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries of the State of Maine. 1869. By Charles G. Atkins. 8vo, pp. 48, and lithograph of Black Bass. Augusta, 1870. American Journal of Conchology, Vol. v. No. 3. Philadelphia. (10 per annum.), The Molluscan Fauna of New Haven. By George H. Perkins. 8vo pamphlet. ceedings of Boston Soc Nat. Hist., Oct. and Nov., 1869.] [From Pro Current Numbers of The Atlantic Monthly, Overland Monthly, Putnam's Monthly, Appleton's Journal, Packard's Monthly, Phrenological Journal, Every Saturday, Young Folks, Riverside Magazine, Old and New, Harper's Bazar, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Paper, Practical Farmer, The Nation, The Citizen and Round Table, College Courant, New York Independent, New York Mail, Baltimore Gazette, New Jerusalem Messenger, Christian Union, American Bee Journal, Journal of the New York State Agricultural Society, Moore's Rural New-Yorker, Every Saturday, Boston Cultivator, The United Presbyterian, Newburyport Herald, Salem Gazette, Ilearth and Home, The Fireside Favorite, American Agriculturist, Western Monthly, American Journal of Dental Science, Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, American Journal of Pharmary, Dental Cosmos, Maine Journal of Education, Chicago Medical Examiner, The Rural Carolinian, Southern Farmer, San Francisco Scientific Press, St. Louis Journal of Agriculture, Maine Farmer, Medical Gazette, American Stock Journal, Michigan Teacher, Journal of Materia Medica, Haverhill Gazette, Manufacturer and Builder, Chemical News, Albany Cultivator, Scientific American, Lit tell's Living Age, American Journal of Numismatics, St. Louis Weekly Mail, Journal of the Franklin Institute, York County Independent, Louisville Courier-Journal, Wisconsin State Jour nal, The People, Prairie Farmer, The Horticulturist, Salem Register, New Jersey Enterprise, Medical Gazette, Medical News, Medical Investigator, Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal, California Medical Gazette, American Educational Monthly. THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. Vol. IV.—APRIL, 1870.— No. 2. THE SEA OTTERS.* BY CAPT. C. M. SCAMMON. THE most valuable fur-bearing animals inhabiting the waters of the north-west coast of North America are the sea otters; they are found as far south as twenty-eight degrees of north latitude, and their northern limits include the Aleutian Islands.† Although never migrating to the southern hemisphere, these peculiar amphibious animals are found around the isolated points of southern Kamtschatka and even to the western Kuriles, a chain of islands that separate the Okhotsk Sea from the north-eastern Pacific. The length of the matured animals may average five feet including the tail, which is about ten inches; the head resembles that of the fur seal of the coast, having full, black, sharp eyes, exhibiting much intelligence. The color of the females when in season is quite black, at other periods of a dark brown. The males usually are of the same shade, although in some instances they are of a jet shining black like their mates. The fur is of a much lighter shade inside than upon the surface; and extending over all are long, black, glistening hairs, which add much to the richness and beauty of the pelage. Some individuals, about the nose and eyes, *Furnished for publication by the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. IV 9 (65) are of a light brown or dingy white. The ears are less than an inch in length, quite pointed, standing nearly erect, and are covered with short hair. Its hind flippers, or feet, are long and webbed much like a seal's. Its forelegs are short; the fore paws resemble those of a cat, and are furnished with five sharp claws, each measuring half an inch in length; the hind feet, or flippers, are furnished likewise. Occasionally the young are of a deep brown, with the ends of the longest hairs tipped with white, and about the nose and eyes of a cream color. The mating season of the sea otter is not known, as the young are met with in all months of the year; hence it is reasonable to suppose they differ from most other species of marine mammalia in this respect.* The hunters about Point Granville say that the males are less shy, and run more in shore during May and June, and appear to be in search of the females; while on the other hand, the latter make every effort to avoid them. The time of gestation is supposed to be eight or nine months. The oldest and most observing hunters about Point Granville aver that the sea otter is never seen on shore unless it is wounded. (Nevertheless we have accounts of their coming on shore upon the Aleutian Islands, which will be spoken of hereafter.) It is possessed of much sagacity, has great powers of scent, and is exceedingly imbued with curiosity. Its home is nearly as much in the water as some species of whales; and as whalers have their favorite "cruising grounds, so likewise do the otter hunters have their favorite hunting grounds, or points where the objects of pursuit are found in greater numbers than along the general stretch of the coast. About the seaboard of Upper and Lower California, Cerros St. Gerimmo, Guadalupe, St. Nicholas and *This remark in relation to finding the young at all seasons of the year is based upon observations made at Point Granville. |