Chapter X: Part I: By Philip P. Carpenter, B.a., Ph.d (3)

We may also add, that it stands within the limits of reef
building corals, as deduced by Mr. Dana, from tables of the
temperature of the sea, and consequently is confirmatory of his
opinion.

We might add other facts in support of Mr. Dana’s theory, but
from other parts of the Pacific.

[11] Lieut. Griswold was killed at the head of his regiment,
gallantly leading them into action, at the battle of Antietam.

[12] A narrative of four voyages to the South Seas, &c., by
Capt. Benj. Morrell. N. Y., 1832, page 219.

[13] Narrative of a voyage round the world in H. M. S.
_Sulphur_, by Capt. Sir Edward Belcher. London, 1843. Vol.
II, page 219.

[14] Specimens of the plant referred to by Mr. Pease, were
received by the Academy.

Discussion as to the adaptation of certain semi-tropical plants to the climate of California.

REGULAR MEETING, JULY 3, 1865.

President in the chair.

Eight members present. Prof. John Torrey, R. Kennicott W. H. Dall, Horace Mann, and Capt. Wright, visitors.

Donations to the Cabinet: A collection of Rocky Mountain plants, by Mr. Bolander.

General discussion as to the motions of the Flying-fish.

Remarks by Mr. Kennicott and Dr. Behr upon the relation of the Esquimaux to the North American Indians. Dr. Behr stated that the Esquimaux could be considered only as a kind of Indians, their language being of the same structure, and their different habits were owing to physical influences. He further stated, that the Esquimaux lived formerly farther south. Mr. Kennicott remarked, that from his observations and information derived from Madam Roshkin and from St. Zagoshins’ Report, he believed the natives, for some hundreds of miles up the Kvichpak or Yonkon River, were Esquimaux rather than Indians.

Dr. Torrey stated, that he found on a trip to the Yosemite Valley, a plant that he described twenty years ago, and which he had not since seen in the collections examined by him. He named the plant, finding it to be a new genus _Kelloggia_; the plant is quite common in the valley and vicinity, and belongs to the family of Rubiaceæ; the aspect of the plant is, in regard to its ramification, much like that of a _Galium_, while its leaves and their arrangement resemble an _Epilobium_. It was first discovered by some member of Com. Wilke’s Expedition, somewhere along or near the Sacramento River.

Dr. Torrey also stated that he found _Sarcodes Sanguinea_, (Torrey), the Snow-plant of the Californians, to be apparently indifferent as to what plant it fixes itself or derives its nourishment from; he found its fibre penetrating into the root of a _Rumex_, and not as has been supposed into the roots of _Sequoia gigantea_. He also spoke of the great beauty and fragrance of the California White Lily, (_Lilium Washingtonianum_,) and of its being quite common in the vicinity of the Yosemite Valley. Its habits are much like that of the common white lily, (_Lilium candidum_).

This evening, at 7 o’clock, a magnificent rainbow was observed, the colors of which were unusually vivid.

REGULAR MEETING, JULY 17TH, 1865.

President in the chair.

Ten members present.

REGULAR MEETING, AUGUST 7TH, 1865.

President in the chair.

Nine members present: Dr. C. T. Jackson, visitor.

Donations to the Cabinet: Three boxes of shells; Duplicate fossils of the U. S. Exploring Expedition; Types of Dana’s Geology; Fossils from the Upper Missouri; Miscellaneous fossils of the United States, received from the Smithsonian Institution; Trachytic porphyry from the “Basalt” Cliff, three miles from the Big Tree Grove, Calaveras, presented by Dr. Jackson.

Donations to the Library: Annual Report of the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Cambridge, 1864; Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, for January, February and March, 1865; Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, June-September, 1864; Review of American Birds, by Prof. S. F. Baird; Proceedings of Albany Institute; The Law of Increase and the Structure of Man, by F. A. Liharyik; Oration and Poem delivered at the Commencement of the College of California; Proceedings of the Royal Horticultural Society of London; Meteorological Results, Toronto, 1860-2; Magnetical Abstracts, Toronto, 1854-60, 1856-62.

Dr. Ayres remarked the appearance of a species of Barracouta, (_Sphyrena Argentea_,) on the coast of California, off Point Conception.

Dr. C. T. Jackson read the following paper, relative to the Big Trees of Calaveras County.

MEASUREMENTS OF THE HEIGHT AND CIRCUMFERENCE OF TWENTY-FIVE OF THE “BIG TREES,” (_SEQUOIA GIGANTEA_,) IN CALAVERAS COUNTY, BY DR. CHARLES T. JACKSON AND MR. JOSEPH B. MEADER, AUGUST 2D AND 3D, 1865.

Instruments made use of:—

1. Sir H. Douglass’ Reflecting Semicircle; (Cary).
2. A Reflecting Level; made by J. H. Temple, of Boston.
3. A common Measuring Tape.

The horizontal point was fixed upon each tree, and the angle
measured by the Reflecting Semicircle, and protracted by it.

The circumference of the trees was measured above the swell of
the roots, about six feet, where the stem takes its proper form.

Several measurements, originally made with too high an angle,
were taken over again with a longer base, so as to avoid the
error of refraction in the glasses of the mirrors.

We trust, therefore, that the following measurements will be
found to be correct.

====================================+=========+=========
| HEIGHT. | CIRCUM.
NAME OF TREE. | |
| Feet. | Feet.
------------------------------------+---------+---------
Arbor Vitæ Queen | 258 | 31
Pride of the Forest | 260 | 50
Andrew Johnson | 273 | 32
Bay State | 280 | 48
Edward Everett | 265 | 46
Henry W. Beecher | 291 | 45
William C. Bryant | 305 | 49
Abraham Lincoln | 281 | 44
Mother of the Forest[15] | 305 | 63
Daniel Webster | 270 | 49
General Jackson | 320 | 42
General Scott | 327 | 45
General Washington | 284 | 52
Beauty of the Forest | 258 | —
Two Sentinels | 315 | —
Old Kentucky | 277 | 45
Mother and Son | 269 | 64
T. Starr King | 366 | 50
Trinity | 308 | 48
Salem Witch | 310 | —
Henry Clay | 241 | 44
Empire State | 275 | 50
Vermont | 259 | 44
Granite State | 286 | 50
John Torrey, (Nobis) | — | 50
| |
(All the above-named trees are the _Sequoia Gigantea_.)
| |
A Sugar Pine, (_P. Lambertiana_) | 165 | —
A Yellow Pine, (_P. Engelmann_) | 232 | 27
Another of same species | 220 | 19
====================================+=========+=========

[15] Bark off Mother of the Forest to the height of 121 feet.

The stump of the “Original Big Tree” measured in six diameters,
gives for mean, 23 ft. 1⅓ in., diameter inside of the
bark,—which was two feet thick.

REGULAR MEETING, AUGUST 21ST, 1865.

Mr. Fisk in the chair.

Nine members present.

Donations to the Cabinet: Specimen of Chromic Iron, from Tuolumne County, by Mr. Hanks.

Mr. Bolander submitted a paper on the Grasses of Arizona, with the following remarks:

The following List of Grasses, accompanied by the very
judicious and practical observations of the Corresponding
Member of our Natural History Society, Mr. C. J. Croft, of
the 1st Cavalry California Volunteers, was received by mail
from Fort Goodwin, Arizona Territory, some little time since.
From the same intelligent source, we have, from time to time,
received many valuable specimens, preserved with uncommon care,
and reaching us in a state quite unusual, even from localities
far more favorably situated. We are very hopeful, we shall
shortly be placed in possession of specimens of the seed of
the _White Layia Mexicana_, for ornamental culture, as also
of a species of native Potato, from the same indefatigable
individual, who has also furnished us with a very interesting
account of numerous species of the Cactus family, of that
District.

The Grasses of Arizona.

BY C. J. CROFT, U. S. A.

The grasses of this Territory, principally consist of four
varieties:

No. 1. (_Pleuraphis Jamesii_, Torr.,) is the lowland Grama
which grows in great profusion along the valley of the Gila,
and constitutes the principal feed for our animals, which do
quite well upon it, moderately worked.

No. 2. (_Aristida purpurea_, Nutt.) The highland Grama, growing
upon the sand “mesas,” or highlands, seems to differ but
little, if any, from that found in some portions of California.

No. 3. (_Muhlenbergia pungeus_, Thurb.) Black Grama, or, “Grama
China,” as vulgarly called by the natives, is the most valuable
as feed; upon it animals will fatten. It grows on the highlands
in sandy arid soil. I have never met any of this variety in the
valley of the Colorado, and but very little in the territory of
New Mexico. At this post we have had as many as 700 animals,
and the scarcity of forage required us to herd our stock upon
this grass during the winter. We were often obliged to make
rapid and distant marches in pursuit of Indians, over a country
almost impassable, yet our horses stood it well, fed only upon
this grass. Our cavalry here had no grain during the entire
winter. This Grama, like the other species, grows in bunches
several feet apart, and the lower stalks are green during the
winter season.

No. 4. (_Sporobolus airoides_, Trin.) This grows in the
valleys. A great portion of the Gila Valley is covered with it.
Animals eat it readily when green; it is however a powerful
diuretic. As a winter grass it is of no account.

Besides these four enumerated grasses, the letter contained
three others from the same locality:

1. _Panicum capillare_, L.

2. _Tricuspis pulchella_, Kunth.

3. _A Poa_, much of the habitat of _Poa sudetica_. Vivid
green; leaves plane, rather large; spikelets four-flowered,
oval; lower glume one, and the upper three nerved; lower palea
distinctly three-nerved, scabrous on the Red nerve. The nerves
of the glumes, as well as of the lower palea, are of a vivid
green color, and exceedingly prominent. The whole aspect of the
plant sent, would rather suggest that it is not indigenous to
that section of the country.

REGULAR MEETING, SEPTEMBER 4TH, 1865.

Mr. Minns in the Chair.

Eight members present.

Donations to the Library: A paper on the origin and formation of Prairies, by Leo Lesquereux; Report of the Vancouver Island Exploration, 1864; Review of American Birds, by Prof. S. F. Baird; Silliman’s Journal for July; Proceedings of the Essex Institute, January, February and March, 1865; Illustrated Catalogue of the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Cambridge; The Naturalists’ Directory, Part I.

Dr. Ayres presented the following paper from Prof. W. P. Blake:

Note on the abundance of Iron Ore in Northern Arizona.

BY WM. P. BLAKE.

In 1863 I observed an iron formation of considerable extent
and interest upon and near the William’s Fork of the Colorado,
near its mouth. The ore is chiefly the micaceous variety of
Hematite, or “specular iron,” and occurs in thick beds and in
thin sheets, in a ferruginous limestone or dolomite, evidently
metamorphic, and tilted up at a high angle.

It forms a belt of peculiar appearance, that may be traced
by the eye for miles across the country, in a direction
a few degrees south of west. This rock and iron ore is
inter-stratified with chloritic and talcose slates and granite,
and the series also bears copper ores and gold.

From the collections made by Lieut. Whipple’s party, in 1853,
in the mountains north, it would appear, that similar rocks
exist in the Cerbat and Aquarius Mountains, the extreme
geological antiquity of which, was commented on by me in the
Pacific R. R. Reports, Vol. III, p. 59. It is possible that
this ferriferous formation is connected with the extensive iron
formation of the coast of Mexico, south of Acapulco, described
by Mr. Manross, (Am. Journ. Sci., XXXIX, 358,) and it may be of
pre-Silurian date.

Descriptions of New Marine Shells from the Coast of California.