characters, but with peculiarities of dentition of a combined ruminant and suilline character. There was on the outer side of the molars but one crescent, and before this a tubercle. The inner portion of the crown a tedge. Besides the species Bathmodon radians, a second form, Locolophodon semicinctus, was referred to the group. The former animal was large as the rhinoceros, the second equal to the tapir.

Prof. Cope read a paper "On two new species of Ornithosaurians from the Kansas cretaceous." They were described as Ornithochirus umbrosus and O. harpyia. The former was regarded as one of the most gigantic of the Pterodactyles, extending probably 25 feet from tip to tip of the wings. The other was two-thirds the size.

Prof. Cope read a paper "On Protostega," a genus of extinct Testudinata. A detailed account of the osteology of P. gigas from the cretaceous was given, by which it appeared that the genus had separate ribs as in Sphargis, and that the carapace was formed by large radiating plates of bone in the skin. Two other species were described - P. tuberosus and P. neptunus. The latter, the largest known marine turtle, from New Jersey; the former, from the cretaceous of Mississippi, had been referred by Leidy to the Mosasauroids.

A discussion on Mr. Price's paper read at the last meeting took place, in which Prof. Hartshorne, Prof. Lesley, Mr. Price and Prof. Cope took part. Prof. Hartshorne supported the opposition to Abiogenesis expressed in the paper, on the ground of insufficiency of evidence in its favor, but believed in the evolution of species. Prof. Lesley objected to the insufficiency of Mr. Price's reasoning against the labors of experts in biological science, and stated that the more attention he paid to the subject, the better satisfied he became that man was descended from apes. Prof. Cope stated that Mr. Price's paper was in error as to the facts:

(1) That variability of specific type was even more common in nature than under domestication; examples from many so called "protean" genera being cited. (2) That some wild species did produce fertile hybrids. (3) That transitions between species both at the present time and in past geological periods, were common, but were concealed by a universal petitio principii involved in the practice of naturalists. This consisted in uniting distinct forms or species under the head of one species, as soon as the intervening connections were found. (4) That the known cases of

transition were numerous, not few; and that common induction required that we should believe of the unknown, that which we see in the known, when other circumstances were identical.

Ar the annual meeting of the London Geological Society, February 16, Mr. Joseph Prestwich, F.R.S., President, in the chair, the Wollaston Gold Medal was presented to the Secretary, Mr. David Forbes, for transmission to Professor Dana, of Yale College, Connecticut. The President said:

"I have the pleasure to announce that the Wollaston Medal has been conferred on Prof. Dana, of Yale College, New Haven, U. S.; and in handing it to you for transmission to our Foreign Member, I beg to express the great gratification it affords me that the award of the Council has fallen on so distinguished and veteran a geologist. Prot. Dana's works have a world-wide reputation. Few branches of geology but have received his attention. An able naturalist and a skilful mineralogist, he has studied our science with advantages of which few of us can boast. His contributions to our science embrace cosmical questions of primary importance-palæontological questions of special interest recent phenomena in their bearings on geology, and mineralogical investigations, so essential to the right study of rocks, especially of volcanic phenomena. The wide range of knowledge he brought to bear in the production of his excellent treatise on Geology, one of the best of our class books, embracing the elements as well as the principles of geology. His treatise on Mineralogy exhibits a like skill in arrangement and knowledge in selection. In conveying to Prof. Dana this testimonial of the high estimation in which we hold his researches, may I beg also that it may be accompanied by an expression how strongly we feel that the bonds of friendship and brotherhood are connected amongst all civilised nations of the world by the one common, the one universal, and the one kindred pursuit of truth in the various branches of science."-Mr. David Forbes, in reply, said that "it was to him a great pleasure to have, in the name of Prof. Dana, to return thanks to the society for their highest honor, and for this mark of the appreciation in which his labors are held in England. It had rarely if ever occurred in the history of the society that the Wollaston medal had been awarded to any geologist who had made himself so well known in such widely different departments of the science, for not only was Prof. Dana preeminent as a mineralogist, but his numerous memoirs on the Crustaceans, Zoophytes, coral islands, volcanic formations, and other allied subjects, as well as his admirable treatise on general Geology, fully testify to the extensive range and great depth of his scientific researches."

The President then presented the balance of the proceeds of

the Wollaston donation fund to Prof. Ramsey, for transmission to Mr. James Croll, and addressed him as follows:

The Wollaston fund has been awarded to Mr. James Croll, of Edinburgh, for his many valuable researches on the Glacial phenomena of Scotland, and to aid in the prosecution of the same. Mr. Croll is also well known to all of us by his investigations of oceanic currents and their bearings on geological questions and of many questions of great theoretical interest connected with some of the great problems in Geology. Will you, Prof. Ramsey, in handing this token of the interest with which we follow his researches, inform Mr. Croll of the additional value his labors have in our estimation, from the difficulties under which they have been pursued, and the limited time and opportunities he has had at his command.". Prof. Ramsey thanked the president and council in the name of Mr. Croll for the honor bestowed on him. He remarked that Mr. Croll's merits as an original thinker are of a very high kind, and that he is all the more deserving of this honor from the circumstance that he has risen to have a well recognised place among men of science without any of the advantages of early scientific training; and the position he now occupies has been won by his own unassisted exertions.—Nature.

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. March 4th. A Communication was received from Prof. George Davidson, at present in the East, accepting the Presidency of the Academy.

A translation by Dr. A. B. Stout of an interesting paper by G. V. Frauenfeld, K. V. (of Vienna, 1870) on the "Extinct and Perishing Animals of the Earliest Epochs of the World” was read by the Secretary.

Dr. Ellinwood read a digest of a translation of the proceedings of the Society of Natural Sciences of Neuchatel, 1869-1870, giving a brief résumé of the principal discussions which occurred at the Archæological Congress at Copenhagen in 1869, being an interesting narration of the developments of antiquity, arising from an investigation of the shell mounds.

Mr. Stearns gave the result of his examination and researches in some of the numerous shell heaps and mounds at Point Penallis, Tampa Bay, Florida, near the supposed landing place of the Expedition of De Soto:

The latter were composed of alternate thick strata of shells and thin strata of ashes; these alternations were owing to the infrequent visits of the Indians to the localities where these shell heaps are found, and during the interim between these visits a growth of grass and other vegetation had taken place, covering

the heap, which was burnt over at a subsequent visit and a thin layer of ashes was thus made and covered with shells; and this process being repeated, in the course of years, the shell heap when cut through and examined presented the appearance of a regular stratification. The shells found in these heaps are the same as many now found living in the adjacent waters. In the shell heaps and near them, as well as in the burial or earth mounds, fragments of pottery, and arrowheads of chalcedony, and other implements of stone and shell may be found; and near the Point Pinallis mounds a remarkable vase of steatite, shaped somewhat like an ordinary soup tureen, had been discovered. The material of which this vase is made was probably obtained by the Indians at Apalachicola, near which place a deposit of soapstone existed, and the material for the arrowheads was without doubt obtained at the elevated and now fossilized coral reef in Hillsborough Bay, known as Ballast Point, not far from the town of Tampa. Mr. Stearns also briefly referred to the statements of the narrator of the De Soto Expedition relative to the abundance of pearls which were seen in possession of the Indians, and which were said to be obtained by some of the soldiers of De Soto. He was of the opinion that what De Soto's men thought were pearls, were the shells of Marginella conoidalis. A great number of this shell had been found in an ancient mound in the city of St. Louis.

Dr. Gibbons presented a copy of the "Oriental Medical Gazette" of Constantinople, which contained a paper by Dr. Abdullah Bey, descriptive of the contents of the mounds in Europe, Asia and Africa; the writer advancing the theory that the mound works being similar all over the world, they should be attributed in their origin to one race.

Mr. Wetmore referred to some interesting developments made in the shell mounds of South America.

Prof. H. G. Hanks presented remarkably fine specimens of jasper and tourmaline from Calaveras County.

“CENTRAL PARK MUSEUM.-Destruction of Mr. Hawkins' Restorations. A TIMES reporter called yesterday on Mr. B. WATERHOUSE HAWKINS in order to ascertain the truth of the allegations made in a communication which appeared in yesterday's TIMES in reference to the destruction of his restorations in the Central Park Muscum. Mr. HAWKINS stated that all he had done during twenty-one months to restore the skeletons of the extinct animals of America (of the Hadrosaurus, and the other gigantic animal, which was thirty-nine feet long), was destroyed by order of Mr. HENRY HILTON, on the 3d of May last, with sledge-hammer, and carted away to Mount St. Vincent where the remains were buried several feet below the surface. The preparatory sketches of other

animals, including a mammoth and a mastodon and the moulds and sketch models were destroyed. Mr. HILTON did this, said Mr. HAWKINS, out of ignorance, just as he had a coat of white paint put on the skeleton of a whale which Mr. PETER COOPER had presented to the Museum, and just as he had a bronze statue painted white. Mr. HILTON told the celebrated naturalist who had come from England to undertake the work that he should not bother himself with "dead animals," that there was plenty to do among the living. This illustrates the policy of having such men as HILTON at the head of one of the most important Departments of the City Government. When the skeletons were dug up again, by order of Col. STEBBINS, they were found broken in thousands of pieces. Prof. Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution when he heard of this piece of barbarism, would not believe it. "Why," he exclaimed, “I would have paid them a good price for it." Mr. HILTON however, preferred to destroy the work of the naturalist which had cost the City at least twelve thousand dollars."

We copy the above from a slip cut by a friend from the "New York Times." What good will ever come to science from the million of dollars it is proposed to spend on the new building for a Museum of Natural History in the Central Park so long as the citizens of New York allow vandals and ignoramuses to hold the places that should be filled by men of culture and unquestionable scientific standing?

"WE alluded some time since to the threatened destruction of one of the most notable megalithic monuments in this country, the Great Circle at Avebury, in Wiltshire. All archæologists will be glad to hear that Sir John Lubbock has added one more to his eminent services to science by the purchase of the site on which the Circle stands. It is right also that the meed of praise should be awarded to those of the residents in the district whose zeal has been directed towards the attainment of this object, and who have thus shown their sense of the value of the monument which is one of the glories of their county. We refer especially to the Rev. Bryan King, the vicar of the parish, Mr. Kemm, Mr. George Brown, and the Rev. Alfred Charles Smith, Hon. Secretary of the Wiltshire Archæological and Natural History Society. It is to be hoped that their example will stimulate similar zeal for the preservation of monuments in other parts of the country."- Nature.

WHEN Will Sir John Lubbock's example be followed here? Every year our monuments of a former race are being destroyed and no hand has yet been raised to save them.

PROF. Raphael Pumpelly has been appointed State Geologist of Missouri, as we are assured by a correspondent.