was about one hundred and twenty yards long and twenty-five yards broad.

Temperature of water, 77.60; air, 78.600.

A short distance from this was another body of water, very clear, and free from foreign substances. It was nearly round, with an average diameter of nearly one hundred yards.

Temperature of water, 74°; air, 78°.

There were numbers of springs visited which would have been examined en détail but for the lack of necessary vessels for the transportation of samples. As before stated, some that were brought back for thorough analysis contained sufficient organic matter originally so as to be in a worthless condition when opened for any such purpose. In others there was an accumulation of gas, either carbureted hydrogen or sulphureted hydrogen, from the decomposition of foreign matter held in suspension. In only a few instances were the samples fit for a quali tative analysis. There should always be sufficient chemicals and appli ances on hand in the field, so as to obtain some idea of the nature of the constituents present, and to submit duplicates to critical examination, if possible, at the earliest convenient time and place.

APPENDIX C.

NOTE ON THE RARER MINERALS FOUND IN OWENS VALLEY, CALI

FORNIA.

Blind Spring District, located in the upper end of Owens Valley, furnished some beautiful examples of crystallized compounds, until the mines reach a depth of over 200 feet, when water level was reached. Beneath this, the "heavy sulphuret ores" occur, where the volatile compounds, or those containing iodine, bromine, chlorine, antimony, or arsenic, are rarely found. The latter occur above, where, through various physical causes, compounds containing one or more of these elements are formed. Good crystals of most minerals are scarce throughout the extreme West as a rule; but at times fine examples occur, though not in abundance, excepting in a few instances.

1. Angelsite.-Crystals half an inch in length and a quarter of an inch thick have been secured in small quantities.

2. Argentite.-Small specimens of great purity.

3. Azurite.—In fine masses and clusters of crystals.

4. Cerussite.-In small but brilliant crystals.

5. Cuprite. In cubes 0.4 of an inch across. Brilliant and perfect.

6. Malachite.-In small but beautiful masses.

7. Mimetite.-Sparingly, with other compounds of lead.

8. Minium.-Rarer than the last-named.

9. Partzite.—Rather abundant shortly after the opening of the mines.

The ore yielded from $500 to $1,500 silver per ton. Choice specimens yielded even more

Another compound was found associated with partzite, which the miners distinguished under the local name of bismarckite. There was not much that could be secured, and shortly after my return several specimens were sent to Professor Chandler, of Columbia College, N. Y., for determination. No satisfactory results were obtained of the small quantity. The mineral, according to Mr. Partz, acted differently from partzite in the furnace. It was not as hard as the latter, rather granular at times, sometimes of a yellowish color; frequently there were bands of yellow and dark greenish-black. In appearance it looked as if it were a mechanical mixture of embolite and partzite.

10. Pyromorphite.—In small but fiue crystallizations, passing through various shades of green, through pale brown, into dark olive.

11. Siderite. Very fine crystals; perfect.

12. Sphalerite.-Mr. Partz informs me that beautiful crystals of various shades of pale greenish-yellow, light, and dark brown colors have recently been found in the Comanche Mine, Blind Spring District. He has found in massive varieties as much as $2,100 silver per ton.

13. Stetefeldtite.-In small quantities, but making fine cabinet speci

mens.

14. Stromeyerite.-Occasionally, in moderately sized specimens.

15. Strontianite.-This has been recently found in small quantities, well crystallized, at the mines at Cerro Gordo, in the southeastern portion of Owens Valley, near the Nevada State line.

At or near the same place, arsenolite has been found in small quantities, having observed it myself. The presence of this mineral in that range gives some color to the prospectors' tale of a spring of poisonous water further south. I have been told repeatedly, by various parties, that dead jackass-rabbits and other small game have been found near there in all stages of decomposition, or "dried up". Such is possible, as decomposition of the mineral may furnish soluble salts of arsenic, even in small quantities, which in time may become very strong through concentration by the evaporation of the water.

ART. XXXII.-THE FOSSIL INSECTS OF THE GREEN RIVER

SHALES.

BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

The following descriptions are published to afford some notion of the nature and extent of the insect remains found in the immediate vicinity of Green River Station on the Union Pacific Railroad in Wyoming. Illustrations of all of them have been prepared for a general work on the Tertiary insects of North America, to be published by this Survey. With a very few exceptions, the specimens were found in a restricted basin, about six kilometres west of the town, exposed by a railway cutting called the "Petrified Fish Cut", from the vast number of fish remains discovered here in building the road. The insects were obtained in the first instance by Dr. Hayden, who brought home a few specimens only;. next, Mr. F. C. A. Richardson placed in my hands a considerable col. lection; and last summer my untiring friend Mr. F. C. Bowditch and myself spent several days working the shales.

The mass of the specimens from this locality are irrecognizable, and those to the nature of which some clue can be obtained are generally fragmentary; wingless and often legless trunks are very common, and lead to the suggestion that the specimens had undergone long macera tion in somewhat turbulent waters before final deposition. The zoological nature of the fauna will be fully considered at another time, and it need only be remarked now that one cannot avoid noticing the tropical aspect of the recognizable forms. More than eighty species are here enumerated. One or two only can be (doubtfully) referred to species described from the White River beds, † referred by Lesquereux to the same horizon.

I must here express my indebtedness to Mr. G. D. Smith of Cambridge, who, with great liberality, has enabled me at all times to use his rich collections of Coleoptera, which chance to be specially valuable for my purpose from the intercalation of Mexican forms in the North American series.

HYMENOPTERA.

FORMICIDE.

Lasius terreus.-A single specimen (No. 14692) obtained by Dr. Hayden at the "Petrified Fish Cut", Green River (alluded to in his Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery, p. 98), is probably to be referred to this

* See American Naturalist, vi, 665-668; Bulletin of this Survey, ii, No. 1, 77–87. + See Bulletin of this Survey, iii, No. 4, 741-762.

Bull. iv. No. 4—1

747

genus, but is in rather a poor state of preservation. The head is small and rounded, with antennæ shaped as in Lasius, but of which the number and relative length of the joints cannot be determined, from their obscurity; the long basal joint, however, appears to be comparatively short and uniform in size, being not quite so long as the width of the head, while the rest of the antennæ is more than half as long as the basal joint, and thickens very slightly toward the apex. The thorax, preserved so as to show more of a dorsal than a lateral view, is compact, oval, less than twice as long as broad, with no deep separation visible between the meso- and metathorax, tapering a little posteriorly. The peduncle, as preserved, is a minute, circular joint, but from its discoloration appears to have had a regular, rounded, posterior eminence. The abdomen consists of five joints, is very short-oval, very compact and regular, and of about the size of the thorax, although rounder. The legs are long and slender, the femora of equal size throughout, and all the pairs similar. There is no sign of wings, and the specimen is prob ably a neuter.

mm

Length of body 7.5mm, of head 1.4mm, of thorax 3.2 mm, of abdomen 2.9mm; breadth of head 1.1mm, of thorax 1.9m of abdomen 2.2mm; diameter of peduncle 0.55mm; length of first joint of antennæ 1mm, of rest of antennæ 1.65mm (?).

MYRMICIDE.

Myrmica sp.-A species of this family was found by Mr. Richardson (No. 53), but a specific name is withheld in the hope of finding better material on which to base it. The head is rather small, circular; the thorax very regularly ovate and nearly twice as long as broad; the peduncle small, and composed of two adjoining circular masses, the hinder slightly the larger; the abdomen is much broken, but evidently larger than the thorax and pretty plump; no appendages are preserved. Length of body 3.3mm; diameter of head 0.4mm; length of thorax 1.2mm; width of same 0.75mm; length of peduncle 0.25mm; diameter of anterior joint of same 0.1mm; width of abdomen 0.85mm, its probable length 1.8mm

BRACONIDE.

Bracon laminarum.—A single specimen and its reverse (Noș. 4196,4197) show a body without wings or other appendages. The head is quadrate, broader than long, and nearly as broad as the thorax. The thorax is subquadrate, either extremity rounded, about half as long again as broad, the sides nearly parallel, and the surface, like that of the head, minutely granulated; abdomen fusiform, very regular, in the middle as broad as the thorax, as long as the head and thorax together, tapering apically to a point, and composed apparently of six segments.

Length of body 2.8mm, of head 0.6mm, of thorax 0.85mm, of abdomen 1.35mm; breadth of head 1.1mm, of thorax 1.2.